March Of The Hungry

There’s a cafeteria area directly next to my office at work.  There are a couple of soda machines, a sandwich machine, and your standard snack machine.  The sandwich machine can be, at times, an excellent source of cheap food.  A turkey sandwich will run you $1.25.  The only thing that keeps me from eating lunch from it every day is the fact that the quality and quantity of food available is completely unreliable.  One day it will include the aforementioned turkey sandwiches, maybe a tuna salad, crab cake platters, etc.  The very next, it’ll include fifteen liverwurst sandwiches and some milk.

The snack machine, when stocked, can include some decent chips and candy.  The biggest problem is that it is rarely stocked – maybe once a month at the most.  Another problem is that it’s not really cheapskate-friendly.  Candy will run you either $.85 or $1, while the chips cost either $.60 or $.75.

Most of the better candies found in the snack machine are also available in the gift shop, located at the entrance of the building roughly 100-110 feet away from my desk.  It’s maybe a two or three minute walk at most.

What I started doing about a year ago is, on the days that I either forgot to bring in or I’m out of store bought snacks from home, I’ll make the trek down to the gift shop to buy chips or candy.  Why?  Because everything is ten cents cheaper than the snack machine.  The extra exercise is a bonus and usually makes me feel minutely better about buying M&Ms.