Buying for 16 is no easy thing

It's the end of the week, and we are down to the bottom of the last jug of milk and box of cereal.  Today, a new cooking team of 4 is beginning their adventure of buying, cooking, and serving meals for 16 people for a whole week!  It's quite an operation, and it is a significant part of our community living experience.  This week our team chose to budget $350 towards food (we are living on $30/week for gas, laundry, food, etc).  Next week, we are going to see how we do with budgeting $250!!!  I am a little nervous about the nutritional value that comes along with spending less, but I know God will show up in some great ways as we choose to live simply and give our money away in other places in the city.

I thought you might enjoy a few highlights from this week's cooking team purchases

• 190 slices of bread, 40 hamburger buns, & 5 dozen bagels - lots of enriched carbs flowing in our lives
• 3 large qts of LOCAL Strawberries!  Yup, it's the best time of the year for going to the Lancaster Farmers Market!  Thank you Bisquik for making a delish shortcake compliment.

• 22 lbs of knock off brand laundry detergent... (We'll see how our clothes turn out this week! yikes... there has got to be some reason why tide costs like 8 times more!)

I am nervous about this detergent!

• 1000 sheets of toilet paper.... for this week!  I always feel slightly embarrassed with this filling up half a shopping cart with this ginormous bag.  Maybe other people think that I never leave the bathroom (thanks Jim Gaffigan for helping me ID this thought)

Nick likes toilet paper

• 20 free paper bags!  A special shout-out to Giant grocery store for donating some paper bags for a little costume fun with kids we are working with in Lancaster. Check out some pics!

All in all it was a great week being on the cooking team, but I am glad to pass the torch!