I'm moving out of my summer sublet this Friday. My roommate for my permanent housing apparently forgot this measly little detail, inconsequential as it is, when he went on vacation to Atlanta, and will not be returning until this weekend or early next week.
Um... 
Being homeless this weekend = one big huge sarcastic YAY.
As a result of this little... mishap, I'll be traveling to Middletown this weekend and staying with my bf. It'll be worth the train fare. 
I asked my bf if I could bring him anything from the Hong Kong grocery store near my house that sells funky junk foods that isn't available elsewhere, so he gave me a list.
(I also needed an excuse to stop procrastinating, and go on my first grocery shopping trip of the month, so I'd have something besides rice, garlic, and oatmeal to eat.)
So, off I went. Here's the final tally.
Total: $16.92
My food: $6.21
His food: $10.71
He's paid for junk food runs to this store in the past (when he was visiting me), so I'm not annoyed or anything, just amused. My purchases consisted of fruits (three bananas and a peach), vegetables (mushrooms, an avocado, scallions, and two green peppers), and a box of tofu. He requested Chinese eggplant (I got him two different varieties, totalling $1.31), and three pieces of junk food.
The moral of the story? Junk food is expensive, and I'm glad I have the discipline to rarely eat it.
I'm very happy about my peach, though. It's the little things that make me happy. 
On homelessness and grocery shopping
August 10th, 2006 at 12:12 am
August 10th, 2006 at 03:31 am 1155180701
Jacquelyn
August 10th, 2006 at 10:16 am 1155204967
Hehe, wow, I'm such a science geek.
Since I don't have data analysis or results from the aforementioned proposed study, I'll venture a different hypothesis based on a behavioral paradigm.
The way I current see it is this. Junk food only costs a few bucks, but you have to buy them in relatively large and pre-determined packaged quantities. And since they're so easy to eat, as the Pringles advertisement says, "Once you pop, you just can't stop," and your junk food is gone within a day or two.
For fruits and vegetables, firstly, you can choose exactly how much you want to buy, so you can exercise self-control, as well as get more of a variety of foods. It's also much easier to ration (a bag of five apples will generally last a week at an apple a day). In the end, my fruits and veg last longer and are cheaper in the long run--a $10 supply will last me a week, sometimes more.
I have a feeling this particular interpretation won't stand up to more rigorous analysis (I, for one, can pop grapes like others pop Pringles), but I'll throw it out there anyway.
I'm more intrigued by the caloric and nutritional comparisons. I might actually do the calculations when I get a chance.
~mimi