food in my fridge

For as long as I can remember (...I’ve always wanted to be a gangster), the contents of my fridge consisted only of a box of water crackers, a month-old hummus container, a 3 week old withering asian pear, and a clay jar of chinese pickled cabbage (it lasts forever, seriously). In an attempt to save some cash and eat healthier, I ordered from freshdirect and had produce, fruit, and meat delivered to me on Sunday afternoon. It was exciting opening up all the boxes to see all the brilliant colors (green! red! orange! yellow!) of my fresh food and transfer them onto the shelves of my fridge. What a feeling!! Comparable to moving into your own apt and settling in. I feel ‘settled in’ once again. eating out and ordering delivery in ny is often too easy and too convenient. But when I think about it, I have no control over what ingredients (oils, fats, msg, etc) go into the cooking of the meals I order. Plus I have to shell out additional cash to tip the delivery guys (it’s a pain to walk up those 5 flights if you don’t live there yourself and even then, that’s a pain). Considering I’m in school again, I’m on the starving student budget now and every cent that I can save, I will!! I brought my lunch into work today. I figure if I am consistently bringing my lunch to work everyday, I’ll save at least $40 a week. And if I eat breakfast at home instead of buying that toasted whole wheat bagel scooped out and topped with low fat lox spread, or that sausage, egg, and cheese on whole wheat roll, then I’ll be saving $17.50 a week. So together, I’m saving almost $60 a week on food, that’s $3,120 a year! Quite a bit of money for me. And if I buy my produce from Chinatown instead of freshdirect or Whole Foods, then I’d be saving even MORE $. The key is to my brilliant plan is to be consistent…. It’s tough to turn down lunch and dinner invites on weekends, those are the times I get to see and catch up with my friends. Unless we go eat at $1 Fried Dumpling (5 greasy dumplings (actually potstickers) for a buck!), then I can treat everyone to a meal for less thatn $15. I don’t drink much anymore so I’m already saving $$ at the bars. A good thing.

The downside to having food in my fridge is… I want to eat it all in one sitting!!! Seriously, I can’t control myself. Yesterday, I had breakfast and then lunch 2 hours later… I wasn’t even hungry yet. I just wanted to eat the food sitting in my fridge! I felt like a kid in a candy store, I wanted to take a bite out of everything and put it back. And here I am complaining about my weight…..