Eating In

It is easy to figure out how much I spend every month on rent. It is also easy to figure out how much I spend on gas, electricity and the telephone.

The price of a month's worth of food is harder to calculate. It depends on whether or not you make the meals yourself, or if you eat out at restaurants, and it depends on the price of foods you choose to eat. In early 2004, I decided to keep records of the price and time required to eat all of my meals at home, and to compare them to a month of eating all of my meals at restaurants.  

On February 1st, 2004, I started my month of eating in. This meant that I would only eat food and drink from grocery stores, except for water.

February 1 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 25 28
February 1st was Super Bowl Sunday. I made some Coffee and went shopping.

I stopped at Corti Brothers to weigh myself. 

I don't usually buy more than two bags of groceries at the store, but this month was going to be different.

I grabbed a cart and wheeled it around, picking up whatever looked good. There were crowds of people there, shopping for snacks and beer, getting ready to spend the afternoon in front of the television.

 

It was a pleasant shopping experience, 44 minutes shopping at Raley's. After I shot this photo, I realized I had parked outside of an electromagnetic ring which locked up the wheels of my shopping cart.

I had to carry the six shopping bags to my car.

The total price for shopping trip #1 was $59.88

My first real meal was lunch. I made pasta with creamy tuna sauce. That sounds a lot worse than it tastes.

Preparing pasta takes time, to boil the water and to cook the pasta, but it only took a small part of my attention, so I was able to do other things around the house at the same time.

I also had a tangerine.
Later, for dinner, I cooked a frozen Red Baron pizza.

Yes, I remembered to remove the cardboard from under the pizza.

Unfortunately I was watching Amityville Horror 2, the Possession with Stacy, so I took my eyes off of the pizza and ended up burning it.

 

I also drank orange juice and ate a pear.

A little while (2½ hours) later, Mike noticed that I had left the oven on.

February 2, Monday
Monday was the first day back at work. I had coffee and an apple for breakfast.

We have a little fruit basket at work. I encourage anyone that runs a small business to have fruits and vegetables available for their employees. It is a nice perk.

 

I didn't make time to pack lunch, but I live really close to my work, so I went home and had chili with Saltines and Orange Juice.

I cooked the chili in the microwave.

Microwave ovens cut cooking times, but they increase cleaning times. While all the lunch dishes took just 2 minutes to wash, the microwave took almost 5 minutes to clean.
I had some Strawberry Cheerios when I got home from work...
Pasta with tomato sauce and diet cream soda for dinner.
 
February 1 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 25 28 

 Home | Contact Rob | How Much is Inside | Pranks | Incredible Stuff | Science Club

March 29, 2004.  

  • Photographic Height/Weight Chart
  • The Weight of Clothing
  • The Television Commercial Database
  • Terms and Conditions  Copyright 2004 Cockeyed.com