$40 Eating out in a week-- Keeping it Local

For those of you local to Chattanooga, I suggest checking out the only local blog I know of covering specifically Chatty events, local news and politics* in Chattanooga, Chattari.  They hosted a very amusing and interesting challenge inspired by Rachael Ray's $40 days.  They took it one step further and spent $40 in one Monday-Friday period, eating out every meal.  They've self-defined a day's worth of meals as 1 caffeinated beverage, lunch, dinner and a cocktail.  Check it out!  They may have discovered a new favorite location for a cheap meal!

*in the spirit of full disclosure, they're quite bias

Yummy, Cheap Food!

This is going to sound like a marketing piece. I can't help it.

I love Trader Joe's.

Why do they not have places like this in Chattanooga?? Probably because they would put GreenLife out of business ($5 for a bag of rice??). I think my sister-in-law thought I was nuts, but we made a side trip home from Cincinnati to stop at Trader Joe's. We were traveling and didn't bring a cooler-- like I do when we go to Nashville and raid Costco-- so it was snacks and dried food only.

For $50 I picked up:
Organic, homemade spinach linguine
1 ever-so-delicious jar of organic, 4 cheese tomato sauce
1 bag dried tortellini
1 bag shelled pistachio nuts
1 bag dark chocolate covered pretzels
1 bag sweet potato chips (SO good!)
1 bag white popcorn
1 L water
6 bottles of wine.

What?! How did I do that? Their prices are ridiculous. $1.50 for that pasta, $2 for the sauce, etc. I couldn't believe it. Here's what their website says about their low prices:

"We buy direct from the producer whenever possible. We strip away all the fancy stuff and focus on the important things like natural ingredients and inspiring flavors. We run a pretty lean ship, too - you won’t find any corporate jets or fancy offices around here. Heck, our CEO doesn’t even have a secretary!"

Novel idea. Nashville, watch out! I'm bringing a double cooler for Costco and Trader Joe's next time!! I can't wait to try the green chili chicken burritos!