My A-muse-ing Life

Writing Prompt: Use your local Meijer ad (Or other grocery store ad if Meijer isn’t near you) and create a grocery list of items from the ad that your character can buy to last the week for only $30.  Except for water from the sink, and dishes in the cupboard, they have nothing else.  Write a story about that character, and make a list of what they will buy.

Sally flipped through the grocery store ad.  She had exactly $30.00 left in her wallet.  $30 to buy enough food for the week.  Thankfully her daughter was still nursing because trying to feed two mouths on $30 was going to be even harder.  They had drinkable water in their apartment, and cups to drink from, so she wouldn’t have to worry about something to drink at least.  She was thankful she had just enough dish soap left to hold her over until the following week when she got paid.  $30 wasn’t going to buy steaks for the week, but it should be enough to get her buy.

Sally sat down at the kitchen table, pulled out her phone and loaded the Meijer Ad.  Her phone was her only source of internet.  She knew some would disagree with her for owning a smart phone when her budget was tight, but she used it for work too.  It took a moment for the ad to come up.  When it did, she sat down and made a list:

Lucky Charms Cereal- $1.99

Grapes- $1.28

Blueberries 2 for $5

Strawberries 3 for $5

Cheese $1.88 bag

Cheese 1.88 Block

Granola Bars- $1.99 (Six 2 packs)

Bread- $2

Hamburger- $2.99 a pound

Potato Salad – $2

Peppers- $0.89 each

Potatoes- 5 lbs- 1.99

Yoplait Yogurt- 10 for $5

A bag of Spinach- $2.50

Soup- $.069 a can

Lactaid Milk- $2.99

She added up the total.  Even if she only bought one pound of hamburger, which wasn’t likely, it would be over $40.  She went through the list, crossing items off and trying to decide what else she should get.  When she finished, her new list looked like:

Lucky Charms Cereal- $1.99

Grapes- $1.28

Blueberries 2 for $5

Strawberries 3 for $5

Cheese $1.88 bag

Cheese 1.88 Block

Granola Bars- $1.99 (Six 2 packs)

Bread- $2

Hamburger- $2.99 a pound x 4

Potato Salad – $2

Peppers- $0.89 each

Potatoes- 5 lbs- 1.99

Yoplait Yogurt- 10 for $5

A bag of Spinach- $2.50

Soup- $.069 a can

Lactaid Milk- $2.99

She added up the new total; still over $40 with adding in more hamburger.  She decided to make a list of what she could eat when, reworked her list and created a graph:

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When she was finished, she looked over the list.  It wasn’t ideal, and she was going to have to scrimp some days and ration each item, but it would work.  She finalized her list:

Even a few cents to spare for her savings.  Perfect.  It wasn’t ideal, but it would do for now, and things were looking up if she could just get through the week.