Empty stomachs, empty pockets

LONDON – If you hate grocery shopping on a weekly basis, you would hate living in London.

I haven’t kept exact count on how many trips I have made so far, but let’s just say that
I’m getting to know Sainsbury’s, a London grocery store, just as well as my apartment.

My first trip there, after I arrived in London on May 10, I felt like I was literally running in circles.

I figured I needed some basic food items, such as bread, cheese, ham and cereal to hold me over when I didn’t go out to eat.

I never found the ham or cheese, but I did find some cereal and peanut butter and jelly.

The peanut butter doesn’t seem to have the same taste as American peanut butter and jelly, but it’s manageable.

I spent a lot of time in the grocery store, but I realized after about a day or two that I needed to get real food that I could eat for dinner.

This time I visited a Sainsbury’s that was closer to where my internship is located, which is bigger and offers more variety than the one close to the apartment.

I managed to find some good things such as frozen dinners that I could eat.

I was especially proud of finding the store’s version of ramen noodles. I figured I was set to go no matter what my wallet was telling me.

The joke was on me when I tried to make the soup and realized boxes of these soups were only 60 pence, about 90 cents, because they only contained about three noodles in each package.

I quickly realized the price might be right, but I shouldn’t always follow it.

Despite all these trips, I still have to go to the grocery store daily. An outsider might suggest making one big trip to avoid all of these visits.

They don’t understand my complications.

You have to shop little by little when you are in my shoes and have five roommates.

Also, I only have two hands and this is a city, which means I rely heavily on public transportation.

Who knew shopping could be so complicated?

Plus, I have to figure out all of these things on top of working out my budget.

I try to avoid converting the pound to the dollar so that I won’t realize how much I am actually spending on food.

Until I figure out an alternative to these daily trips, grocery stores will become my new best friends in London.