Blast from the (Ghetto) Past!
Today at Sainsburys, two sad things happened:
1) We bought Sainsbury's own brand of baked beans, instead of Heinz's.
2) We bought Sainsbury's own brand of ketchup, instead of Heinz's.
Please bear in mind that these are two things I said that I'd never do, but fuck it, we saved like £1.50. And do you know what £1.50 is? Half of a Starbucks latte. IT'S WORTH IT.
After purchasing these two ghetto items, I started thinking about all of the slightly ghetto things from either my late teens (collecting all the change we could find in the house and driving in a 10-year-old car with the CD player ripped out to the local Wienerschnitzel for dinner) or from my childhood that we did when money was tight.
I suppose this whole not having money thing isn't that surprising or shocking to me, as growing up, we didn't have a lot of money. We always had clothes, we always had a roof over our heads and we never, ever went hungry.
But when you live in a suburban area where you're surrounded by soccer moms who live in gated communities and your neighbor the dentist who drives a Porsche, you kind of notice these things once you're old enough to.
It also didn't help that there was the assumption at my schools that if you're weren't dressed head to toe in Abercrombie & Fitch, it was because you couldn't afford it and were, like, hella poor. (Well, we couldn't, but fuck - $20 for a fucking t-shirt?! I wouldn't pay for that now even if I COULD afford it.)
Back then, certain things were luxuries: going out to eat in a restaurant, going to McDonalds, buying a CD, getting new shoes, going out for ice cream, getting a new shirt at Mervyn's, etc, etc...
Because going out to eat or getting fast food was a luxury - even big "value" meals were out of the question. Do you want to supersize that? No. NO you don't!
At one point I remember when McDonalds did their 29 cent Hamburger Wednesdays and 39 cent Cheeseburger Sundays. My mom and my sister and I would go through the drive through, but only ever on a Wednesday when we would order a bunch of hamburgers, and then go home, slap on a Kraft Single, and put it in the microwave.
We saved 10 cents. IN YO FACE RONALD!
When things were really bad and pizza was out of the question, we would make "Pizza" instead - a fine household delicacy that I sometimes still make.
"Pizza" Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 slices of white bread
Mayo
Ketchup
2 Kraft SinglesDirections:
On each slice of bread, you spread on a little mayo, then a little more ketchup than the mayo, and then lay a Kraft Single on top of it. Pop it in the microwave for 60 seconds and you're set! Pizza!
When (actual) pizza was in the cards, we'd get Papa Murphy's. Do you remember Papa Murphy's? At the time, I remember it pissing off my friends and I that our parents wouldn't just get freakin' Dominos or Round Table. Take and bake? Really?
But, good god, it was good. In fact, it's so good that my pals on Twitter tell me that it's still alive and kickin'. One guy even informed me that they have a Papa Murphy's in their local Wal-Mart. How fucking American is that!?!? Love it.
Reflecting on how delicious an Italian Calzone from Papa Murphy's is, and how unappreciative I was of it at the time, part of me wants to call up my 13-year-old self and be like,
"Bitch, you better appreciate your whole 'take 'n bake" culture because one day, missy, you're going to fucking miss it. And you know what, be thankful that your parents are buying you a Papa Murphy's for you and your stupid little friend for this sleepover party.
Firstly, because that was nice of your mom. Secondly, your stupid little friend is going to stab you in the back in about three years so, I wouldn't put much more effort into this. Also, don't tell her that you like the guy you sit next to in Science. She'll tell him."
So, all in all, buying the Sainsburys beans isn't going to kill me. At least we can have beans.
I believe it's called MAKING DO.
So, you know, buying a 29 cent hamburger and putting on your own cheeese to save 10 cents may be a little ghetto, but hell, you never know when all you need is 10 cents.
(Hi, Mom!)
Comments
I love take and bake (and hated it when I was a kid.. our 13 year old selves were turds. :-) )
I think they also make the catsup.
My mind is blown.
We also, STILL do the Papa Murphy's thing.
When I was in middle school (ages ago), I never thought of us as living in the kind of ghetto area. Now I realize that I went to the most ghetto mid school in the city, and guess what? I loved it. I guess either ignorance is bliss, or I'm easily pleased. Now that my family lives in what my frinds call the "good ghetto" (basically, the nice-ish neighborhood on the edge of the ghetto ones), I realize what a good job my parents did getting my sisters and I through all that, and now I understand that it's necissary, even now that we're well off. I can't imagine paying $20 for a t-shirt. That's probably what started my drive into the arts- we had to be creative!!
This is an excellent piece of writing "I love it" I was looking for something kinda ghetto to read today hence my name "Sassi Lavish" This is number one, i liked your style of writing too its really readable and i read loads.
By the way the sainsburys brand are not that bad I went to Sainsburys and did my whole shopping on a sainsburys budget I had 146 items which costed £75 so just under a pound for each item and that was my shopping for the week, personally i thinkthat was a bargain