I walked by an A-frame sign about giving blood on Thursday February 12. I thought it would be a great idea to do right around Valentine’s Day! I came home and told my mom, but she said “You can’t give blood! You have cancer!!!!” Except in my head, I like to say it “caaaaaaaaaaaancer.” So I looked it up on the Red Cross’ website, and she’s right. I can’t give blood. Yet. I have to wait one year after my treatments. Which would be late May. Perhaps I can give blood right before I go for my next treatment? That way, I can give blood once, then get more treatment, then I’ll have to wait another year. But hey, even giving once is good! My mom is such a wonderful person, that she gives blood EVERY time she can. It is allowed that people can give blood every 53 days. And she does. It’s amazing. She gives blood all the time. She has O-, which is the universal donor! That’s why she gives so much, because anyone who has negative blood can get her blood. That’s just one of the reasons why my mom is so awesome.
I’ve tried giving blood before (twice, I think), and once they couldn’t get my veins, and the second time, they stopped with the bag half full because I was turning white and didn’t feel so well. But now that I’ve gone to the hospital so many times and given blood for tests, I’m sure I could do it!
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Megan and Mac are doing a challenge where each of them is only allowed to spend 2 pounds on food for the entire day. That is about $2.92 (with the exchange rate of 1.46!). When I was there last, it would have been close to $3.50, with an exchange rate of 1.86 or so. So all of their food all day can’t be over 2 pounds. They just started at the beginning of February… so it’s only been a few days. I decided it’d be interesting to see how much my food costs. Mine is pretty easy because I eat pretty much the same thing every single day. Breakfast is always the same, and then I rotate my lunches. Dinner is the only thing that is different. I haven’t calculated dinner yet, but I did lunch and breakfast. Every morning, my breakfast costs $1.18.
4 oz of milk - 21 cents
1 cup of HBOO - 24 cents
1/2 banana - 14 cents
3/4 cup egg whites - 59 cents
Megan has oatmeal and raisins for the morning for 18p. That’s $.26. My breakfast is more than four times the cost of Megan’s! Even without the egg whites, my breakfast is $.59, more than double Megan’s cost. I realize I eat a big breakfast. But breakfast is my favorite meal, and it’s the most important meal of the day. Plus, I exercise for at least one hour a day. Don’t judge me!
(It’s easier to write 15p over 15 center or $.15, so I’m going to start writing 15c instead.)
Megan can drink tea for 4p, my tea costs me 15c! What’s up with THAT Mr. Charleston Fluffypants? I bet it’s because I drink herbal tea, and Megan drinks English cheap tea. Because everyone in England loves tea.
Here’s the rest of my breakdown of food costs that I’ve figured out:
Apple - 23c
Orange - 33c
Veggie Burger - 75c
can of tuna - $1.00
English muffin - 42c (for good ones, for cheap ones, they go down to 16c)
Red pepper - 44c
Spinach (for one of my salads) - 66c
A typical lunch would be spinach (66), a pepper(44), an English muffin(42) - that’s already $1.52, and then either tuna, a burger, or a mini pizza. I haven’t calculated the pizza, cause measuring the cost of cheese and tomato sauce seems like a pain. But I guess it’s just math. Either way, my lunch comes out to be over $2.50! And that’s not including the dressing, raisins, or seeds for my salad.
I could definitely cut my food costs if I didn’t have egg whites. Breakfast for only 59c is VERY reasonable! I could also cut my food costs without eating any fruit. They seem pretty expensive. But really, if someone said “please pay a quarter for this piece of fresh fruit,” I would most definitely do it. Buy 4 apples for a dollar? Hell yeah. That’s apples for four days! That’s pretty good, too.
This is all very interesting, thinking about everything that I eat in terms of what it costs. Last night, my mom and I almost made a box of Near East pasta, and the box cost $2.59. What a rip off!! And it’s only a side dish! A delicious one, yes, but Megan could make the same thing with 50 cents worth of angel hair pasta and some olive oil and spices.
Tomorrow I’m baking veggie pot pie because Larry is coming over. Saturday we’re going to a Beatles fundraiser for the senior center. We’re getting Fish and Chips in a paper bag! Sunday, the next night we’re all around for dinner, I’m going to try and make a Sausage Minestone Soup. It looks delicious, and we all love sausage! I am really enjoying making new foods, but I am still having a hard time figuring out what recipes look good. I have saved a lot of recipes from cookbooks (that had wonderful delicious looking pictures), but a lot of them are summer only recipes that require fresh tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, or some other summer vegetable. I’m trying to be good and making only those things when the vegetables are in season.
**Wow, I go on crazy rambles. I just re-read this, and deleted three paragraphs because it was all stuff that no one would be interested in reading. Fiber One cereal, and free dinner tonight! I must just LOVE to write. I need to find a way to harness that love, and make money off of it.
