Day 1
Spent most of the day hungry. Found a box of granola bars in the work van. Got off work around 5, came home and made dinner. I made a bean salad. It’s cheap, healthy, tasty and filling. I also put a frozen pizza into the oven that I split with my sister.
Day 2
Went out to lunch at Choppers. It’s a burger and fries joint. I got a triple cheeseburger with grilled onions called The Benny Burger ($5.50) and fries ($2). We go here a lot for lunch. I like to go here because it’s cheap and a lot of meat. I can never finish the whole burger. I ate half of the burger and fries. I don’t buy a drink when I go out to eat because I don’t think it’s worth the money, and I prefer to drink water. I ate the other half of the burger and fries when I got home from work
Day 3
Subway for lunch today. I got a $5 foot long. Those things never get old, and I like that they have giardiniera in Chicago, everywhere else they just have jalapeños and sport peppers. For lunch we usually only hit one of three places: Choppers, La Pasadita, a Mexican joint, or Subway. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
I ate the rest of my Subway sub before going out after work. I like that there always seems to be leftovers from a $5 foot long, it’s always a deal.
Day 4
I felt like my instant coffee wasn’t going to do the trick this morning, so I went down to the corner to grab some Caribou Coffee. There is a Starbucks off the same corner, but I’m not a big fan of the whole Starbucks vibe, and I just always assume it’s more expensive than anywhere else, but I really have no idea. I had a triple espresso. They were super friendly and I became super awake.
Day 5
No restaurants today. Toast for breakfast, produce for lunch. Made my usual three bean salad for dinner.
Day 6
11AM: Lunch time! Went to Subway got a $5 foot long Cold Cut Combo. I always order the same sandwich, and have for the last ten years or so.
Day 7
Too busy to spend all day doing construction, so I worked for a couple hours and then moved inside to work on the computer. On weekdays where I work on the computer, my favorite thing is Groupon. It’s such a good deal. I’ve bought 10 or 20 Groupons for food in the three months I’ve been in Chicago; it’s just like free money! Today, I found one for a bagel shop: $5 for $9. I bought it, but the Groupon was only good from noon to 5PM, so I had to wait and eat apples to stave off my growing hunger.
Went out to NYC Bagel Deli for my Groupon and got a pastrami sandwich on an everything bagel. Total came to $9.80, so I had to chip in another .80 on top of the Groupon. I try to get it as low as possible by trying to place the perfect order, but it seems like the businesses are good at picking the total value of the coupon so as to get an extra buck or two in cash at the register.
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