100 DOLLARS A WEEK - PROLOGUE II

As I'm gearing up to post every day for a month straight about how I budget for food, I'm somewhat daunted by the prospect of writing content every day. But I'm also excited about acquiring the discipline it takes to write content every day. It's a thing I've been telling myself to do for a while now, but without a framework within which to do it, I've fallen victim to my tendency for Analysis Paralysis - Is tonight's dinner worth posting about? If it is, how do I segue into the recipe?? What can I pull from life that relates to this dish??? And so on, so on, et cetera, et cetera...

An irrelevant pic of a Granny Smith rose inserted to
insure that it's not my goofy mug that appears
when I link this post to facebook...

I'm hoping that this process will help me push through those moments of AP and ratchet my writing discipline closer to the one I practice for budgeting and cooking . :)

A few givens about my approach:

1) I don't insist on organic, local, free range, grass-fed, wild etc. I'm neither proud nor ashamed of this choice, which is driven by a few factors:

   a. We're living on a single income at the moment. Insistence on those things would easily increase my total grocery bill by at least 30%. That's at least $120 a month that we choose to spend in other ways to improve our quality of life, whether it be taking the kids out to dinner, buying some tequila to make margaritas, going vintage thrifting with the girlchild, rebuilding the boychild's bike, brewing an extra batch of Belgian Tripel...

Do I hate what Monsanto's doing to agriculture? Yes. Do I think most factory farming operations are deplorable? Absolutely. Do I think it's better to buy locally grown produce than stuff trucked from across the country or shipped in from another continent? Of course. 

Do I always spend my dollars accordingly? No. 

I do my best in lots of ways whenever and however I can to leave as small a footprint as reasonably possible and to support a generally more modest way of living, producing and consuming, but I don't want my family's enjoyment of life to be subsumed by my politics. Some people are in the financial position to consistently make those other choices without unduly impacting other aspects of their families' lives. As of today, in my estimation, I'm not.

  b. While I do try to stay away from hormone and antibiotic fed food, I don't believe that non- USDA Certified Organic food is necessarily going to kill me or my family. I do believe that lots of people are made very sick by the overconsumption of processed and refined food that converts to blood sugar and causes diabetes and other comorbid conditions at raging epidemic levels in this country and that even if those refined and processed foods came from organic farming practices, they would still cause that kind of sickness.

  c. Contrary to what a lot of other folks seem to think, it's not been my experience that organically grown food necessarily tastes better. External growing conditions, seed variety and other factors contribute as much as farming practices.  When it's a crap season for avocados in Fallbrook, it's a crap season for all of 'em - the organic and non-organic ones alike.

2. Further to item 1b, other than cheese, butter, a few condiments, canned tomatoes and raw cooking materials like flour and sugar, I don't buy much processed food. 

And by processed food, I mean food that's been broken down to the point that you can't tell by looking at it what it's made from and is then further heated up and pasted together with and by other processed foods to look like something else.

From a cost perspective, the more processing, the more cost added at each step. From a health perspective, the more processing and chemical alteration before it goes in your body means the harder your body has to work to process it. If you don't want to approach it from a scientific perspective, just go a month without processed foods and see if you don't look and feel noticeably lighter.

3. I buy spices in bags, not bottles. 

These are often found in the *Hispanic* aisle of an otherwise *not* Hispanic market. They aren't always less expensive by the ounce (though they often are), but spices are potent stuff. With the exception of daily use seasonings like black pepper, spices take a loooooooong time to get through. And you can spend 6 or 7 dollars for a bottle of chipotle powder that should be thrown out long before you've used half of it, or spend $0.99 on a packet you're much more likely to use up while it's still good.

4. Farmers markets are often not a good place to save money. 

While going to the farmers market is a lovely outing to be sure, what I've noticed over the years is that the glamorization of food seems to have turned farmers markets into more of an attraction than produce outlet. And with that attraction factor comes an upcharge. This isn't true of all farmers markets, but it's a thing to look out for if you're trying to save money.

5. With the exception of a small handful of items, I am not brand loyal.

I'll admit it. I'm not that picky. Yes, some brands taste better to me than others. And in my willingness to try products that are new to me that might be on special, I've encountered some brands that aren't so good. But while a small percentage of the products I've tried seem to strive to be inedible, there are VERY few products that I, considering myself a fairly adaptable, resourceful and good cook, have simply been unable to work with.

6. I shop for roughly a week's worth of groceries at a time.

While sale item stockpiling works for some people, especially those with larger families, it doesn't work for me. I am much more efficient and less likely to waste when I know for the most part exactly what is in my pantry and refrigerator and when I keep an eye to using ingredients before they rot, wilt or freezerburn.

And the truth is there is ALWAYS something on sale. I'd rather buy just the protein I need for the week than to have so much meat in the freezer that I can't keep up. For all my frugality and practicality, maybe this is one of my practices of foodsnobbery. I won't have freezerburned protein in my kitchen if I can help it.

7. It takes a little sacrifice.

What I mean by that is you have to be willing to be satisfied with what you've got. That is, if I made four servings of stew last night, and we only ate two, then lunch the next day for both of us is leftover stew or something made with it. If all I have for breakfast is cereal, and I feel like a croissant, I'm eating cereal instead of going to the patisserie to buy a croissant. And if by Friday, I'm all out of animal protein, then I'm a vegetarian for dinner. 

Sacrifice is probably too strong a word. Making do within our means is something people used to do all the time, and it used to be the norm until credit cards and rampant consumerism creeped their way into our consciousness. Sacrifice makes it sound a little too extraordinary, doesn't it?

I think that pretty much outlines my approach to grocery shopping. Five more meals to use up six eggs, two ribeyes and some odd produce before I start afresh.

Cheers til then,

shinae

P.S. Notwithstanding items 1b and 2 above, our family is not above the occasional trip to McDonald's or a bag of the boychild's favorite - Flaming Hot Cheetos.