The City Life

I suppose you can say that because I lived in the twin cities (Minneapolis & St. Paul) I’ve had a city life experience. Though I have never had an experience quite like this, where public transportation is the easiest way to get around and you tell people where you live based on a metro stop. I’ve always had the luxury of being able to use mapquest to figure out where I’m going instead of an actual map and grocery stores have always been simple: you go in, you get everything, you leave and lug it all home in a car.

            Okay so the whole map business is getting easier. And though I’m sure I’d look like a tool, how many other people can put “competent at figuring out maps” on their resume, especially in this generation? I suppose I should stick with “excellent problem solving skills.” In all seriousness though I enjoy not driving. Granted my awesome roommate for the last few years happened to have a car which made life in the twin cities that much easier and you can’t really get around easily in Jersey without a car but it’s amazing how carefree you can be knowing you don’t have to worry about traffic or parking.

            The grocery shopping is a little different story. Okay… I admit it… I’m a little picky when it comes to food, food preparation and cleanliness. Paris may be the cure to these idiosyncrasies. Once you eliminate pork products you’re limited here and so I have to compromise somewhere. Not to mention the fact that we’re on a very tight budget. John lives right next to Place Leon Blum (metro stop: Voltaire), which has plenty of places to grocery shop. The easiest option, I suppose, would be to go to Picard, the bachelor’s savior. It’s a store that only sells frozen meals. Okay so when I heard that I imagined a store with freezers containing “Healthy Choice,” “Smart Ones,” and “Hungry Man” from floor to ceiling but Picard puts all of that to shame. The next easiest was what we did the first week: one stop at a grocery store. We successfully got everything we needed for a reasonable price but realized that the meat was not so great. This week we mixed it up. After much contemplation on the best way to minimize price but maximize quality we chose to go to various places. We went to a butcher (but found that they were a little too expensive: 16 Euros for two pieces of chicken!), a fruits and vegetable store/stand, a nice grocery store for meat and the cheaper grocery store for the basics. After two hours of grocery shopping, we managed to spend 60Euros (even after going to the expensive butcher) for a week’s worth of food for two. Not too bad…I guess. I’m convinced that we can do better. With that said: if you have any suggestions on how to cut costs or easy/inexpensive recipes let us know!