Our Budget Diet

While in many respects the food here is less expensive than in America (particularly fresh produce and wonderful loaves of bread), it is still costly enough that we, living on a necessarily fixed income, have looked for ways to cut cost, at least on several meals a week. This was really not hard at all. In fact, it was something of a tradition to have this exact same meal on weekend evenings when we lived in America. It even evolved from a long standing tradition in Laura's family. Basically, we have popcorn and "kool aid" on Saturday and Sunday evenings (and occassionally on other days as well) instead of a larger dinner. The fruity drink mix we buy here isn't quite like the packets in America. The sweetener is already added (they are actually sugar free) but there are some awesome flavors that we haven't seen in the States. Also, our popcorn "popper" is a bit different, a large kettle that we heat oil in and then stir the kernels around (we had a "Stir Crazy" popper at home). But it makes yummy popcorn and we enjoy it. We buy the popcorn in bulk (about a kilo at a time) for anywhere from 1 to 1.40 Euro a kg and we get the drink mix for about .13 Euro a packet.