Wartime Preparations

In view of the fact that my debt repayments are about to go through the roof, think it's high time that I took my food spending seriously. I have an enormous perk with my job and that's of free food. I can easily get hold of all the bread, fruit, vegetables and snack foods that I need, and as long as I'm careful to strike while the iron is hot, I can also get enough free protein, which comes in a "feast or famine" pattern (for example, I might get three rump steaks and two boxes of chicken on one day and then there's nothing for another five days).

So why on earth does a card-carrying frugalist do things like buy a meal deal for her lunch at work? It's quite frankly disgusting. (Not the meal, because to be honest the mango smoothie is amazing, but you get my drift.) Every man and his dog knows you can eat cheaper than that, and when the cheaper would be "free" I am just throwing money away.

Self-brownie points.

Anyway. I have just assembled five lunchy-snack-boxes for this week. Each of them has a small carb snack, nuts, some dried fruit, and a couple of little chockies. On my ten-hour shift days they also have a Belvita soft bake, which are awesome and which were also free. My workplace always has free bread and fruit, so there's really no need for anything else. Plus I can certainly do without bacon sarnies and wraps dripping with mayo.

I have also resolved to do better with breakfast. There's plenty of cereal here and even some "on the go" porridge bars. They're almost as awful as the Soreen bars in my snack boxes, but they fill the stomach.

I am much more confident that I'll eat the snack boxes than whether I'll actually stick to a breakfast routine... we shall see.

Behaving: I have run out of coke and not bought any more. I'm waiting until pay day but let's see whether I can wait longer.