Bobby's Consumerism Blog

Today during my lunch break I went with a few coworkers to Chipotle. I didn't want to buy anything since I had packed my own lunch, so I brought my sandwich with me. So I sat at a table with three other people in Chipotle. Only one person at the table had Chipotle. The rest of us had food that we had brought ourselves or bought from other restaurants. I was surprised that no one asked us to leave since we didn't have food from their restaurant. One of the people I was with mentioned that he had been asked to leave before because he wasn't eating there food. I figure if the place isn't crammed full of people trying to find seating, why not let other people eat with their friends, even if they don't want to eat your food. Chances are, if you're a jerk to them they're going to think less of your company and be less willing to buy your food in the future. Better to be nice and let them buy from you tomorrow.
After eating we went to a gas station and bought lottery tickets and quarter candy bars. My ticket failed to win, but I figure it's a donation to the State of Minnesota. I only bought the stupid thing cause the people I was with pressured me into it.

Posted by Bobby at 2:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think I already used that title.
So today was another Tuesday which is my super long day. I packed a huge sack of lunch consumables. One of which was Fruit by the Foot. I never had it as a child so now that I'm older it has a special place in my heart. I'd only get it as a kid when someone else would let me eat their own (which was fairly rare). I also had two sandwiches packed, a banana, and an apple. I snacked throughout the day to make it through my eight hours of classes. By the end of the day I was dog tired, but managed to scarf down a bunch of pizza before going to bed. Sine I was in school all day, I couldn't buy anything. I also got really bitter about school because the day never seemed to end.

Posted by Bobby at 2:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I drove a car to work today. I also read about the gas tax increase which made me angry cause I already can't afford gas. But I guess I'll spend even less on other goods and services than I already do and put less money into the American economy. Yes, we need to fix our roads so our bridges don't fall over anymore. But I like to complain. So I didn't buy anything and I consumed some cereal, lunch supplies and for dinner I BBQ'ed some burgers that were lying about the freezer. I'm digging this warm weather gig we've got going on lately.

Posted by Bobby at 1:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Since I have a decent paying internship, I've been thinking that maybe I should treat myself to some shopping. Granted, I don't really enjoy going out and buying things all that much, but there have been a few things that I've been interested in buying. First, is an electric razor and second is some cargo pants. So my girlfriend and I traveled to Target in Roseville. I don't shop at WalMart cause my Dad is a big union guy and I read a lot of Union booklets as a child which talked about WalMart's treatment of workers who tried to organize. At Target, I started out looking for some cargo pants. I ended up with some cargo pant shorts because it was warm outside and I remembered that summer was soon. I also bought a tight grey tshirt for 5 bucks, just because it was dirt cheap. I figure I can screen print something cool onto it.
The hardest part of the trip was deciding on an electric razor to buy. They all said the same stupid things on the side of the box. "Closest shave Guarantee" "Easy to clean" and other short sentences surrounded the boxes. Prices ranged from 20 dollars to 250 dollars. I ended up buying a 70 dollar one by a company who I've heard of before. But I have no idea if they're good or not. I can't even remember the name anymore . . . The box was shiny though! Oh wait, Norelco. I think my Dad has one of those too. Anyway, I used it tonight and found out that using a manual razor is a lot faster, but doesn't get as smooth and irritates my face more. So I guess they both have their positives and negatives. Maybe in 18 months when I need to spend 20 bucks on a new set of blades for the thing I'll buy one of the 100 dollar models.

Posted by Bobby at 2:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

My poorness got the best of me today as I only consumed things that I already had lying around. I had my same old breakfast of sugar coated cereal and a lunch composed of a homemade salad with some fresh vegetables and prepackaged meat. In the evening I took my girlfriend to Noodles and Company for some food compliments of a gift card I received for doing some computer work for a friend. Oh, the perks of being a nerd. As for now, I'm sitting down to watch a movie courtesy of joox.net and then I'll listen to some music courtesy of myTunes and the University's dorm students. I'm feeling quite pleased with my free day. I mean, I could go to Hulu.com and watch some television, but then I'd have to find something else to do during the 30 second commercial spots. I also enjoy when I watch television with other people and when the commercials come on they just change the channel or mute the tv so we can have our own conversation. Sometimes I wonder if all of these advertising based media services are worth the money media providers charge for airtime.

Posted by Bobby at 1:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another day at work, and even though I packed a lunch, I didn't get to eat it. That's cause Hasbro bought our entire company pizza from Pizza Luce. Luckily, pizza is my favorite food, and "free pizza" is my favorite two words. For dinner I had tuna salad and some baked beans. My girlfriend is Catholic so her and her family don't eat meat on Friday's during Lent, this did mean that I got to eat the bacon out of the pork and beans, which made my day that much sweeter.

Posted by Bobby at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Unlike Tuesday's, my Thursday's are usually pretty short. So after eating my morning cereal breakfast (today I had some Honey Nut Cheerios) and my sandwich lunch I had some Chili for dinner. My girlfriend is starting a Recreational Resource Management Student Group and for their first meeting she made some Chili. It was quite tasty and filled in for my dinner. There was also corn bread. Plus it was free, something I always like!

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Wednesday's are pretty cool in my book because they mean that Friday is halfway here. Plus, I'm starting to really enjoy my internship and I want to do a great job on everything I do. Again, I ate a home made lunch, but at dinner time I got some Wendy's courtesy of my girlfriend's mom. I got a double stack burger, large fry's and a large drink. I always find it interesting when I go to fast food restaurants other than McDonald's that the food at these other places is larger in portions than McDonald's. Yet, McDonald's takes all of the flack for the unhealthy food. At least at McDonald's you get a tiny little unhealthy burger. At Wendy's they have a sandwich called the "Baconator" and it's slathered in greasy meet. The sandwich I got was so salty I thought I was just eating a salt wafer.

Posted by Bobby at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Tuesday's are always hard because I have class from 11:45am until 8:10pm. It makes for a very long day, The really hard part is finding time to eat between my last two classes, so I usually just kind of starve the day out and pack as much crap into my backpack as possible. I can't afford to eat at school either because the only options are subway (which I got really sick of last semester) or really overpriced beef products. So, like every other day. I pack a sandwich and some fruits and drink lots of water. My bin full of my consumption leftovers is getting quite full of ziploc bags and gatorade bottles.

Posted by Bobby at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My electricity bill went through today. $16.47 for my share of a month of having my desktop on the entire time, running a fridge and freezer, lights, and all of the other random stuff we have plugged into our poorly wired apartment. There are four of us, so that actual bill was $65.88. I fixed myself lunch out of a homemade sandwich, apple, banana, granola bar and whatever else I had floating around my backpack at work. This craptacular weather is getting me down.

Posted by Bobby at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I bought some computer ink today for $51.64. Someone is making a killing off of that industry. Nonetheless, I also had to buy groceries, but my Mom was super awesome and bought them for me. (Yes, my mom was with me grocery shopping and I'm 22, she likes to see me, what can I say.) I'm actually not sure how much the groceries were, but I did make a spurchase and bought some fatty spring Oreo cookies. Perhaps spring will come earlier if I eat these. You'll hear more about these in a future post I'm sure. I also ate at Burger King, but again, my Mom paid. I ate some unhealthy Whopper, fries and Vault (who the heck dispenses Vault anymore anyway, it's not 1998).

Posted by Bobby at 5:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I took this day to do some good old fashioned homework. Got a ton done for my GD 4 class and started working on a new website. Midway through the day I stopped to cook up some Ramen noodles and I cut up some brats to get some meat in there.

That's the extent of my cooking skills.

Later in the evening I went to a birthday party which had grilled steak which made me yearn for the summer warmth. But dang, that steak was good.

No money spent.

Posted by Bobby at 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I went out for lunch with some of the other designers today. They wanted to show me the restaurant, "Uncle Frankies." They're known for their hot dogs. So we drive a mile or so to this tiny place on Broadway Ave in Northeast Minneapolis. Inside is about 20 men crammed into this tiny hole in the wall all enjoying greasy, slimy hot dogs. I got a Chicago Dog with some fries and a drink. It was pretty good, I've never had a hot dog with so much crap on it. I wasn't even sure what everything was. All I know is that the place didn't have a heater and it was freezing. Everyone was super bundled up except for the "Chef" who was hollering incoherently.
Meal = $4.75

Posted by Bobby at 4:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My valentine's day was much less expensive than some other people I know. I always feel weird spending a lot of money on this day because I feel like it's too expected. I'd rather randomly buy flowers than do it on the day everyone and their mother is. This evening I ended up heading out to Fridley with my girlfriend and buying some mexican from a restaurant, "Zandigo's". Her family paid for it and we used some gift certificates and it was quite tasty. I had a burrito and taco. We ate it while watching "A River Runs Through It." The movie was free courtesy of the internet.

Posted by Bobby at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I got an email from Noodles and Company the other day with a buy one get one free offer. So today I took my girlfriend out and we got a ton of food for a mere $10.34. Plus it was quite delicious.

Posted by Bobby at 12:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)