The $20 dollar project records what that sum of moolah will buy in Metblog cities around the world. What follows is a list of items on an actual sales slip from Saturday’s stocking-up expedition to H-E-B. The H. E. Butt Grocery Company, homegrown in Texas and over a century old, continues to hold its own against the real big guys, with its H-E-B stores and its Central Market stores. Long may it stay that way.

King Arthur unbleached flour, to begin holiday baking now that it’s cooler ($2.34)
El Galindo restaurant chips, unsalted, local brand, our personal favorites, although El Lago and the Whole Foods brands aren’t bad ($2.00)
El Galindo yellow corn tortillas, 10-count, local brand, nothing but yellow corn, water, and lime ($.84)
TV Notas, because I follow the telenovelas and because our favorite Adamari Lopez is on the cover ($2.95)
H-E-B regular eggnog, quart, first of the season ($1.99)
H-E-B fresh sausage, hot ($2.00)
H-E-B frozen baby lima beans; H-E-B Fordhook limas also available ($1.34)
Falfurrias butter, 1 pound, for baking and eating; a Texas brand ($2.44)
spicy Texas slaw, H-E-B made; what used to be called “Spanish cole slaw” and just as good as Luby’s or the Frisco’s ($1.94)
small limes, 8, for margaritas ($1.00)

That’s not quite $20; using pencil and paper, I make it out to be $1.16 short. We do pay sales tax here, though. The list is fairly representative of some of what anybody might head for H-E-B to buy. Also on the sales slip, although not listed above (and taking total purchases well over $20) is a whole lot of H-E-B natural chicken (reported to be Buddy’s Natural in disguise, packaged for H-E-B). The quantity isn’t on the sales slip and it’s unknown, because it’s all been cooked and a lot of it’s been eaten since then and there’s no packaging left. As people who enjoy a classic margarita, straight up, not on the rocks or frozen, we follow the lime index quite closely. At its worst, it has stood at 3 limes for a dollar; at its best, a dollar may be exchanged for a dozen limes.

Fresh vegetables were already in stock, from the South Austin farmers’ market and from Wheatsville. So were eggs from Del Valle, courtesy of the Farm to Market Grocery on South Congress. In looking over the register slip, I was surprised to find how many H-E-B house brands and other local and semi-local items we buy. And those chips? They go with Pace Picante Sauce, Jaime’s Spanish Village Restaurant Hot Tomatillo Jalapeno Garlic Sauce, and homemade pico de gallo. These purchases were made a day before the initial posting about the $20 project and two days before I heard about it and so were not in any way, form, shape, or manner influenced by it. A bonus is that on the back of the register slip is a coupon for Sazon (buy one entree and two drinks, receive the second entree at half price). And that’s why I still have the slip in my possession and therefore was able to recount what became of twenty bucks.

Ignoring the artful stacks of Velveeta and Ro*Tel, traditional Super Bowl ingredients for more Austin households than not, we made straight for the H-E-B snack aisle to complete our “flight” of tortilla chips. In stock already were the Pace Picante Sauce and three kinds of salsa verde (La Sabroza, Herdez, and Austin’s own Jaime’s). The three in contention are El Galindo no salt, Whole Foods 365 no salt, and El Lago tostaditas with no salt. El Galindo chips were preferred, but they, in truth, were not very different from the Whole Foods chips. Both were made of stone-ground white corn and otherwise seemed to be from the same ingredients. The difference lay a bit in the flavor and otherwise chiefly in the texture. The Whole Foods version had tiny brown dots in straight lines on them, and were a bit rougher on the surface and with some air bubbles. El Galindo and Whole Foods 365 chips seemed to be about the same color. El Lago chips are from yellow corn and were a bit toastier in flavor than the other two, seeming to have been “cooked” just a bit longer. The El Lago product is thicker. These chips are all made without preservatives and without trans-fats.

At the Albertsons on Pleasant Valley Road, where we stocked up on party supplies, among other items, there are human billboards stationed at the entrances and the signs all say “selling out to the bare walls.” Wines and beers are discounted 10%; health and beauty aids, 25%; greeting cards, 50%; cosmetics, 25%; deli and frozen foods, 10%; and “general merchandise,” 25%. The fragrances kept in locked cabinets are all but sold out. Cosmetics and baby products are going fast. Many shoppers were lingering long at the wine shelves, pondering and considering. Real maple syrup was gone. We’re going to miss the excellent selection of baking supplies. H-E-B devotes less and less space to this.

At any rate, when El Galindo chips are sold out, we now know that Whole Foods 365 are comparable, and that El Lago chips are still good ones.