The Grocery Store Game

If you read my earlier article, one of the key items that makes my experiment unique is the fact that each week we will be using a different grocery outlet.  This will allow us to help build a road map about surviving in any urban environment.

So to make this a little more interesting I tossed my 14 grocery stores into a random number generator and here is this order in which I will visit each store.  I already have started "scouting" some of these locations to help formulate where each formats strengths are:

Cub Foods:  Most people from Minnesota should be familiar with Cub Foods.  My first stops strategy will be about filling up the pantry with items that will last a long time like Oatmeal and Flour.  I'm hoping I can get a good coupon week were several of my items are discounted by coupon books.

Whole Foods:  I am in the firm belief that Whole foods has spent A LOT of time and effort getting our from under the "Whole Paycheck" mentality.  I want to be able to show that even lower income people can work in the wondrous healthy food that is available here.

Wal-Mart:  My scouting mission of Wal-Mart makes me think I will be eating like a king this week.  One thing that Wal-Mart does is they make smaller packaging available.  I might pay more per ounce, but if I am trying to squeeze flour or sugar into my budget those smaller sizes might be the way to go!

Costco:  I have spent a lot of time trying to think my Costco strategy out.  I can get lentils and rice for the rest of the project in one shot.  Or I can get a couple of weeks of good protein.  I don't forsee me getting more then 5 items in my trip to Costco, but those items will help ease my budget for weeks to come.

Target:  After a week of Costco, I will probably need to stock up on items like pasta, eggs, and other items.  Target is the perfect place to pick up a little bit of everything.

Trader Joes:  Trader Joe's could be my greatest challenge.  They use smaller packaging, which means items I buy this week won't last long in my pantry.  They are more snack oriented, and produce, meat and dairy are a little more expensive here.  Still this stop will add some much needed change to the items already in my pantry.

Aldi:  Aldi is another stop like Wal-Mart that will help me get a lot of variety at a great price.  I will probably stock up on pasta sauce, canned goods, and even some fresh chicken.

Hy-Vee:  Hy-vee is one of the two new kids on the block.  I am pretty familiar with Hy-Vee through my work travels.  They havea  great pricing structure, and a GREAT private label program.  Like Cub I will hopefully be lucky and capture a few sale items as well.

Festival Foods:  Many of you might not be aware that Festival's are scattered throughout the out skirts of the Twin Cities.  I'm not sure about their pricing structure yet, but I find the product selection to be similar to other more traditional grocery formats.

Fresh Thyme:  The other new kid on the block, Fresh Thyme opened it's first store last fall in Bloomington.  This store format is like a cross between Aldi's and Whole Foods.  They specialize in locally made products.  My strategy here will be focused on fresh product, and dry bulk goods.

Lunds/Byerlys:  By the time I get here, I hope to have a good pantry built up from previous weeks.  I should only need to shore up some dry good stables.

Rainbow:  Yes, there are a few Rainbows still in operations, although they are operated by Supervalu (Cub Foods) affiliates.  I will be using a similar strategy to Cub for this one.

Kowalski:  Probably the most affluent store on this list, this week will equal a challenge.  Still, on the right days there are some great deals to be had on local produce, and even some great meat and dry good sales.  I will need to be a little careful though, Kowalski has a smaller footprint store, which means less selection.  It looks like this lead to a lot of "bulky" selections are left off the shelf.

Co-Op: Much like the Whole Food stop I want to show that anyone can get access to adding healthy, local, and organics to their diet.  I will be focusing my last $30 to doing just that.

So that's my Grocery Store strategy in a nut shell.  As with anything, we will see if the high level plan holds up as each week ticks by!

Thanks for stopping by for our latest articles.  Don't forget that this projects goal is to raise $2,500 for the Finnegan's Community Fun.  Please take a moment to help reach this goal by donating, just click on the pic below.  98% of your donation goes to help get nutritious to people in need right here in the Twin Cities area! :

What am I Doing? The Rules of the Game

Okay, so if you read my first post you know that I will be living for about three on about $30 a week for food.  Now many others have tried this experiment before, here are a couple of great examples:

Huffington Post SNAP Challenge Stories

Now my project will have some pretty big differences, so I feel that I need to lay out some groundwork of how the experiment works.  The two biggest changes are that most people who do this undergo it for a couple of weeks to a month.  Table for One will go for three months.  The second is that most other SNAP projects don't limit where you can buy your food.  This project will look at the differences between different grocery formats (think Target vs. Cub vs. Trader Joe's).  We will talk about this a little more in detail in the list below.

So without further delay here are the rules for Table for One:

1. I will have a budget of $30 per week to spend on all my food needs.  I need to try and spend my budget each week, but any money not used will carry over.  This is based on national averages from the USDA.
2. Each week I will shop at a different grocery supplier.  This will range from Whole Foods, to Aldis, to Co-Ops.  My goal here is not to criticize various chains for not being poor friendly.  Instead I want help build a road map for how budget conscious people can eat healthy no matter what types of stores they have in their area.  I want to highlight what these stores are doing right!
3. I work in the grocery industry, and as such I get samples on a semi-regular basis.  Now this brings the most random assortment of items (from gummy bears to dog medicine).  This is going to represent my local food shelf.  The food will be random, code dates might be in question, and it might not be the best food for my diet.  I can add these foods to my pantry, and will try to incorporate them in my weekly menus.  
4. If I am out with people outside of my immediate family, I can accept prepared food, within reason.  So if I am at a social function, I can accept a plate of food, but not a bag of groceries.  No second helpings are allowed.
5. I work on a blog that talks a lot about Minnesota Craft Beer.  I can accept 1 oz. pours to sample beer, but only if offered, and only to taste it to a point of being able to write about it.
6. My family is not participating in this project.  But if either of my kids likes what I am eating for the day, I have to offer them some.  This is going to represent disasters that often plague people in these situations.  Such as pests ruining food, or power outages spoiling leftovers, and what not.  
7. The day before the project begins I can raid the pantry.  I will need to limit what I take to the size of a small grocery basket.  The reason this is put in is due to the length of the project.
8. I must try and eat three meals a day.
9. If my health or work performance starts to drastically change I will need to withdraw from the challenge.

So there you have it.  Feel free to leave a comment in the below section if you have any questions or suggestions.  Thanks!

Why Am I Doing This?

Hello, and welcome to Table For One, a project I am undertaking to help raise awareness about local child starvation and hunger right here in the Twin Cities Area.  I am going to be undertaking a personal journey as well as I go through this project.  During the 14-15 weeks of this project I will be eating on a budget of about only $30 a week...

Say what?!?

Whether you are rolling you eyes right now, or are staring at your monitor in open mouth horror, it's okay.  I have been dealing with these looks face to face as I ran this idea by friends an family.  I'm used to it by now.

I will go into more ofwhat I am doing, and how the project works, today I want to focus on the why of the project.  For the start of the story we have to travel way back to the start, with how I grew up.  I didn't come from the most well to do family.  We lived pay check to pay check, there was no savings for emergencies or retirement funds at the time.  But we had enough to eat three square meals a day, take an annual summer vacation (which usually involved camping),  At the age of twelve I joined the workforce, starting with a paper route.  My savings didn't get to go to a college fund, or toys like a lot of other people.  The money I raised went towards things like new beds, the telephone bill, camping trips with the Boy Scouts, new glasses, and new clothes.  I had some left over money for my card collection, and movies, and eventually even saved up for our first family PC.  Now this PC was VERY important.  It ran off of Windows 3.1 but more importantly it still used DOS.  This lead to me self teaching myself how to use a computer and being comfortable with it.  In turn this led to opportunities in the Grocery field, which was just starting to incorporate computers into a more modern day workforce.  One job lead to an opportunity to learn a new system, which lead to a new job and so on.  Fast forward to today; I am a Customer Advisor, still in the food industry.  I am certified in my field, and working on my four-year degree.  This career track helped set up the opportunity for my wife, Sonja, and I to adopt and support our two sons, Felix (age 4), and Leo (almost 1).

For those of you with kids, you know that the moment they are born, it is a time full of raw and powerful emotions.  Sonja was the first to hold Felix, and I was the first to hold Leo.  Memories and those feelings never leave you, and they linger in the back of your mind.  As a Papa I feel a sense of pride, and a sense that I would provide for them at any cost.  I will do anything to make sure they don't have to go through the same life style that I had to grow up with. But I also want them to see that in order to make change in this world, sometimes you have to do something a little crazy, and out of the realm of ordinary.  

So that is the start of this journey.  One of my other major goals for this project is to help the Finnegans Community Fund raise $2,500 to help get wholesome an nutritious food to people ad communities in need.  If you would like to donate please click here, every dollar counts!

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