Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I Need More Allowance

$8.23

That's what I paid for an afternoon snack today. Outrageous!

The truth is, my afternoon snack was supposed to be an apple that I brought with me. But there was a mushy spot on it, which led me to believe the whole apple would be mushy; and I hate mushy apples.

So, I headed down to the Hampden Cafe* for a quick snack. A bag of mixed dried fruit and nuts looked delectable. But there were two problems - I had no cash and this place has a credit card limit of at least $5.00. I hate when places do that. My current total was only $1.99 so I had to frantically find something worth buying to make up the $3.01, emphasis on the worth! The chips, the candy, the fruit snacks, the cookies - no, no, no and no!

Then I notice a refrigerator section and I saw a small fruit salad. Ding, ding, ding! That would surely make up the difference but just in case I grabbed a pack of gum too.

When she rang it up, I was appalled at the amount - $4.95. What? For a few peices of cut up apple, melon and grapes? It's no wonder America is so obese. Why would you pay five dollars for fruit when you could pay one dollar for a candy bar?

So combined with my $1.99 fruit/nut mix and my $1.29 gum (hello, inflation?), there went $8.23.

Oh, what a waste. The fruit/nut mix wasn't quite as delectable as it seemed so I threw it away. I munched on the fruit instead, but wouldn't you know...the apples were mushy. At least you can't go wrong with gum.

* This post is in no way an attempt to turn you off of Hampden Cafe. In fact, I have eaten here numerous times and their sandwiches are some of the best I've had. And sadly, for less than my $8.23, I could have gotten one of those sandwiches. But, if your looking for a healthful snack, please look elsewhere.

3 comments:

Rebecca Banner said...

Good food is not cheap and cheap food is not good! We do a lot of organic with nick's red dye allergy. We don't eat it either since it's petroleum and that's not good for anyone. I just look at it this way: Either i pay more for organic now, or i pay for a needle in me getting chemotherapy from having cancer later from the harmful effects of the FD&C colors. Yeah i choose pay some now! It's tough, i totally feel your pain on this one. I am the same way with bananas; they can't be too green or too mushy, they have to have just enough firmness but be just ripe enough.

klu said...

April, you are soooo funny. I have a gripe about the cost of fruit, too, so I share the thought on obese Amercians.
Love your "list" of favorite things, too.
Love, Aunt Kathy

Amanda Petersen said...

writing. you should be a writer. you CRACK me up! i made mike stop what he was doing so i could read your story-- hilarious (& all the while pathetic), my friend! i couldn't agree more!