The Secrets of Shopping Vegan at 99 Cents Only Stores
There’s no thrill quite like vastly underpaying for something
When I moved from the Northeast, where I grew up, to Santa Barbara, California for grad school three years ago, the culture shock was intense. I had suddenly landed in a mellow beach town where everyone was unsettlingly laid-back and wearing flip-flops, chatting up strangers in the grocery store simply for the joy of human conversation, and earnestly into things like “stand up paddle board yoga” and “avocado beer.” Prop 65 warnings (the labels required by California law to inform consumers about chemical exposure) graced everything from coffee to potato chips to the aromatherapy candle that I thought would help me zen out — good for consumer transparency, and not so good for those already prone to overthinking their own mortality.
Though I have yet to fully calibrate my New England persona to SoCal standards, dodging brutal winters for warm, sunny weather year-round seems like a fair trade-off. When California isn’t on fire, flooding, landsliding, and/or quaking, it’s a really nice place to live, albeit an expensive one. Farmers markets are abundant and the produce is incredibly fresh and flavorful, but it’s also pricey. I’ve always been into simple, budget-conscious vegan meals, but it became more of a test when I was living…
