Thursday, June 2, 2011

Switzerland: My diet of cheese, soup, bread, chocolate and pasta

I am frugal and fairly cheap. Unfortunately for me, Geneva is the 4th most expensive city in the world. Here is an account first trip to the grocery store: $9 a pound for nectarines? Oh hell no. $8.20 for a box of cereal? Never. $8.60 for a frozen meal? Daaang. $9 for a pack of coffee? Not gonna do it.
I searched the grocery store for food that was reasonably priced. Here is the complete list of what I found: $1.50 for a loaf of bread? Sold. $3.00 for pasta? Hell yeah. $3.50 for cheese? Delicious. $2.50 for chocolate? MMmmm.

My second trip to the grocery store went a little bit better. I discovered the “budget” brand always wrapped in a deep green label with white stripes and always located on the bottom shelf. My shopping cart looked like a forest of deep green when I went to check out. I’m proud of the fact that I looked like a true Geneva budget shopper.

Thankfully, at the WHO food is not outrageously expensive. You can get coffee for $2.40. After a week of trial and error I found the perfect lunch. First I tried to get the salad bar and a bowl of soup ($8). This was too expensive for lunch everyday. I then just tried to get the salad bar ($6). I could still do better. Now I just get a bowl of soup ($2.20). The WHO gives you free bread for lunch. (I don’t want to be super tacky, so I often take just 2-3 pieces but then come back to the free bread table for seconds.) They also have free dressing, olive oil, parmesan cheese, spicy sauce and water. I buy some soup, get free water and bread and then use the above ingredients to make a delicious dip for my bread. My complete lunch is filling, satisfying and only $2.20. Oh, hellz yeah. Swiss Liz= Budget Liz.

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