Cucumber is a vegetable

We are about halfway through Tim's first week of handling the family grocery shopping. For those of you who haven't met him, Tim is 16, 6'1" and 160 lbs., and a three sport athlete.This means that in the summer, he runs about 40 miles a week, rollerskis for several hours 4 times a week (training for Nordic skiing, cross-country skis on wheels, kind of scary looking!), does strength and core nearly every day, plays baseball and rides his bike pretty much everywhere he needs to go. As you might imagine, he eats constantly. The speed with which he goes through food is a big reason why I started this project, because I don't think he really gets how annoying it is to keep him fed.

On Monday morning, when he got the $250, I think he was excited about the project. Taking a little sister along, he drove off to Cub Foods to buy his first round of groceries, having decided on loaded baked potatoes for dinner. He came home with the potatoes and broccoli to put on them, along with Gatorade, peanut butter cups, potato chips, Fanta and hotdogs. No one else eats hotdogs or drinks Gatorade. He did not come home with eggs, milk or apples. Having spent $81, he had "lots of money left!" Dinner was delicious, and included the peanut butter cups for dessert. Day 1, a success!

On Tuesday, we had the following conversation:

Tim: "So I guess we need a vegetable or something for dinner."
Me: "That would be nice."
Tim: "Do we have anything?"
Me: "I don't know, did you buy anything?"
Tim: "Sigh."

He went back to the store and bought a cucumber, at which point I asked if that was for salad. "Salad? We aren't having salad! Cucumber is the vegetable!" Oh boy. With the chicken drumsticks and mashed potatoes, I'd say day 2 was a success as well, but I missed the salad.

The best moment on Tuesday came at the dinner table, when Tim was asked about his plans for dinner the next night:

Me: "What are you planning for tomorrow?"
Tim: "Well, we were going to have Alfredo pasta, but I am moving that to Saturday, because I won't be home for dinner tomorrow."
Me: "Okay, so what are we having?"
Tim:" I guess you aren't going to eat."

If you have ever seen Tim grin, you can imagine the look on his face when he looked around the table after that statement!

Happily, I can report that we did eat on Wednesday, but that story deserves a post of its own.