My Week on the GROW Method: Part 2

By Zoe Johannas, Community Engagement Intern


For this post, the 2nd of my 3 GROW Method blogs, I'll get into how I managed to fit in the cost of GROW on my college kid budget. Check out my previous post to see how I handled reducing my food waste, an integral part of the GROW Method!

Now here we come to my second grocery store struggle. No matter how much I prepare beforehand, whether I try list-making, pre-shopping protein shakes, or careful, strategic stretching, I inevitably crave every single snack food that I lay my eyes on. From chips, to fruit snacks, to wasabi peas my cravings rotate with every passing aisle. Thankfully, I can usually depend on my wobbly will-power to push me past the yogurt covered yummies, but I always falter as I round the corner to the dairy aisle.

I don't know what it is about me and my cheese, but I can never seem to escape the grocery store without three different kinds. I mean, I always have to pick up some basic cheddar. It's just a simple snacking necessity. And then I obviously need some Parmesan for my go-to, throw on all cooked meals type of cheese. But what about salads! I love feta on fresh summer salads! Oh is that Swiss?

The only thing keeping me in check in the sight of all that is Wisconsin-made and wonderful, is my fat brown wallet, filled to capacity with discount cards, yet almost completely void of cash. So as I took on the task of trying to stay seasonal and fair trade on top of already being gluten free, I was concerned that adding the GROW Method would be a precarious weight to balance on my already wobbly grocery bill. 

As it turned out, shopping with the GROW Method took more of a toll on my schedule than my wallet. For this first round of GROW Method shopping, it took some time to check the labels on various items, to hunt down the local produce, and to weed through the cheaper, bigger, shinier jumbo fruits. The result however, was a delicious arrangement of fruits and veggies. Though slightly smaller and mercifully less shiny, they added up to only a few dollars more at the check-out. 

 Those extra dollars weren’t too bad this time around, but in the future I think that I could eliminate this too by cutting back in other areas. After all, I could have probably cut out the feta. Wait, no, not the feta. Maybe the Swiss. 

Have some other ways to shop GROW on a budget? I could certainly use them! Email us at actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org with your tips and strategies, or share as a comment on this blog!