I've always shopped at the warehouse clubs, but this time our coordinator told me that the gal who runs the pantry was desperate for peanut butter. The warehouse clubs have the huge jars, and they wanted the smaller jars, so they could give a small quantity to many families. It was recommended to me to go to Walmart, because they have excellent prices on grocery items. I'd never shopped for food there -- and frankly haven't shopped there much at all -- but figured I'd give it a try.
Not only did they have the small jars of peanut butter for around $1.85-2.10 depending on brand, but they had single serve cereal boxes like COSTCO does, and the prices for the store brand really were good. (No idea whether it tastes like the store brand, but if it's the difference between someone getting more food for a hungry family, let's try it.) Going off the list I was given -- very skewed towards school age kids, obviously -- I was able to purchase all of this for $122:
- 22 jars of peanut butter
- 10 jars of pasta sauce
- 18 boxes of various Rice-a-Roni
- 24 boxes of various mac & cheese mixes
- 32 single serve cereal boxes
- 4 trays of single serve snack packs (e.g. peanut butter and cheese)
So I filled a cart with the same amount of money it takes to have a decent (not extravagant) restaurant meal for my family of five. Boy did I feel great walking out of that store, and I'm sure the gal doing the pickup on Wednesday will be pleased.
That was all done with a bunch of coworkers throwing a buck in an envelope. I know the economy is awful, but I've never had to go hungry and am grateful. Ditto on behalf of my kids. Today I clicked on two charity event links my friends had posted (e.g. Alzheimer's Walk) and made small donations. I really can make a difference as a working class schnook. Can you?
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