I am learning how to live in the world, and it's pretty neat.
Like the local Cub grocery store, for example. It has a gas station on-site, and when you get groceries a barcoded fuel coupon is added to the receipt. The more you spend, the more the discount, and you can stack five coupons per transaction for up to 15 gallons. The Insight only has room for 10.6 gallons, which will get me about 530 miles or so. So fuel isn't going to be too big a deal for me, since I definitely need to buy groceries whether or not I get the discount, and Aldi doesn't carry everything.
I bought all the cooking spices I could find in the bulk section, in those little $1.50 plastic envelopes. I'm going to need to find a bunch of small jars to store them in, which will cost more, but at least I've got paprika if I need it. Aw yeah.
I've been eating crappy food lately, stuff like frozen taquitoes and those five dollar take-home pizza from Little Caesar's. It isn't the most delicious thing on the planet, but that's several meals and if I watch No Reservations while I have lunch, it actually tastes better.
This kind of culinary skimping will simply not do for the long-term, and I actually dislike most convenience food, but I have limited facilities and my budget is still recovering from the move, so it's keeping me healthy enough for the time being. Multivitamins are the best thing ever. And Leslie pointed me towards Fare For All last month, so I'll be visiting them soon as well.
There is a bakery factory type place in Fridley that has an outlet store on weekdays. It's just a small office with a few varieties of that morning's bread in cardboard boxes with the tops cut open as needed. You bag your own and pay in cash. Most full-sized artisan breads are a dollar or less, or 3 for $2.50. I got a lovely french loaf with cornmeal for a quarter my second time there. You can buy whole boxes for like $10 or something ridiculous like that, and just freeze the lot and thaw as needed. Awesome deal.
This morning I had almost a full tank of gas and nothing better to do, so I went out and explored my new neighborhood, making note of all the useful places (thrift stores, ethnic groceries and so on). Found one of those quickie labor shops, which I might take advantage of for spending money. On the way home I splurged and bought five date cookies from the Heights Bakery. I then ate five date cookies with a glass of milk and felt very content indeed, if a bit cookied out.
I'm definitely going to need to get some new gear before winter. I broke off the left pedal and its remnants keep stabbing me in the foot when I ride. The Captain needs a proper mushing harness (his old cheap one is falling apart) and I keep forgetting to stock up on his heartworm chewies and frontline. The frontline is probably not so important over the cold season, but it's going to matter a lot come summer. All those high grassy fields to frolic in between the house and the lake. Urgh, I hate parasites.
But I love the Twin Cities, and it's kind of awesome to live here again. Even if I-35 is a detour-infested nightmare this decade.
tightropegirl (Doris Egan)
jmo_daily
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