The Goods Are Odd

This is a follow-up to my friend’s dilemma of what to buy in order to eat well on a tight schedule and a tight budget.

She asked me about essential foods I keep on hand and how to deal with the eating at the rushed times during the day at breakfast and lunch.

Here’s something I know about my friend; she is a good cook. The problems she is having are not ultimately about a lack of skill, but a lack of inspiration from what she has on hand and feeling drained with the rest of life to take the time to cook. It seems like she is in a difficult cycle where her lack of time limits her creativity and ability to think through recipes so she goes out for more expensive food which limits her ability to spend a bit more at the store or market to get inspiring and easy foods to cook. I also know that she doesn’t really enjoy her job, so it’s even more frustrating that by giving so much of her energy to joylessly earning money she doesn’t have the time to live how she should like to live.

Given that many of us are in work that is not ultimately fulfilling it is even more important to make sure those hours we have outside of work are used wisely and towards meaningful, uplifting things. It is crucial to look at what those hours at work are paying for and whether or not the fruits are worth the labor, so to speak. Most of us see the majority of our paycheck go to housing. So unless you are living in a place beyond your means, that cost is going to be constant. There are other constants like insurance and debt payments. But much of our spending is up to us. The category of “non-essentials” can really be expanded to most of our living expenses. Particularly when you frame your expenses as hours working. Are the things we own and use worth this time?

Audit your spending, the things you own, what you do with your time and make sure you’re really getting what you want.

Then you can think about your grocery list. Where is your money going in the products that you buy? On a personal level does the food you buy make you feel good? Are you getting a balanced diet? What did you pay for in that food- packaging, processing, sugar, plastic, advertising? How did that purchase help or hinder a just and healthy community. Did your hard earned dollars go to an international corporation, or stay in your area? Did you help a family make a living?

While it’s easy to get overwhelmed by these questions what you are actually doing is narrowing down your choices and ultimately making choosing food much easier. There are only so many products that get positive answers to these questions of how the food makes us feel, are we being good local consumers by buying it? When I walk into a store I no longer feel bombarded with the infinite choices provided, I know that there are limits to what I will spend my scarce dollars on and I decide between only the products that meet those requirements.

Not only are there limits on the products I will buy, but there is also a clear limit on the money I will spend. Often, but not always, the products I will purchase are going to be more expensive than those I prefer not to support.

You are paying for different things with either choice. For conventional vegetables you pay for long distance transport, with packaged and/or processed foods you are paying for the marketing, transportation, labor.
For local and or organic food you support a family’s livelihood and way of life, clean air and water and soil, happy animals, living wages, healthcare.

Where I save with conventional we all pay eventually elsewhere. Where I spend with organic my community reaps the benefits in a cooler planet, healthier body (cheaper to care for), smaller landfills, a more stable and equal economy. Seems like a bargain now doesn’t it?

Additionally, assess your waste and buy less: waste in packaging, uncooked or un eaten food, how much of what you buy gets thrown away? (If you reflect the national average, that would about 14% of what you buy) and also waste in excess eating (how much of what you eat gets wasted trying to burn it off?)

Americans spend a smaller percentage of their income on food than people in any other country. We have seen food prices rise recently but are paying an historically low amount of what we make on food. In personal budgeting advice you will read that most people underestimate the amount of money they will or do spend on food. People end up overspending their budget because they were not realistic about how much they buy. This is only compounded by the recent increases in the price of food.

Here is how it plays out for us:

We have simplified our budgeting process by laying out the set expenses, the food and other shared items, and then the rest is up to us to spend or save. We have “personal cash” that goes to choices like clothing, getting lunch or dinner out or other treats, yoga, etc. Basically it comes down to those priorities and while we set them as a couple, we have a certain amount of free reign with the non-essentials. You can see we have a lot of our monthly income going to debt, and we didn’t stay exactly on target. It’s a learning process every month

While most Americans spend just under 10% of their income on food, we spend closer to 15%. So in many ways, when I discuss eating well on a tight budget it means looking at your overall spending in a new way.

That said, the one thing about a grocery bill is that most people buy much more at the store than food. So some of what you see in our grocery budget includes paper towels, toothpaste, shampoo etc. So our actual food spending is somewhat less.

Here is an illustration of other ways that we save:

Okay, so now I am at the store, with specific products I will and won’t buy, and a set budget to spend. What do I buy? I start with vegetables. In fact I don’t start at the store at all but the farmer’s market. We bring $20 to the market and we get what we can for the week. This means no meat, cheese, or prepared food just fruits and vegetables. The month of September (and October even more so) required less spending at the market due to the produce from the garden.

I start with in season vegetables and base the meals for the week on what I get. This is a great source of inspiration. I try to make sure these meals will provide enough leftovers to two of us to eat lunch after two have eaten dinner. Examples aplenty.

After the foundation of vegetables I shop in terms of meals. Beans, pasta, rice, other grains, eggs, ingredients for baking, oils and fats, some meats and dairy (yogurt, quart of milk, some cheese), spices and some sauces and broth. Then we get a few things that make life easier like snacks- popcorn, a bag of chips, salsa, rice cakes, peanut butter and jam. So its a progression to make sure the healthiest and most useful items for full meals are bought first and in the most abundance and then up from there until you’re at the set budget.

So, that is our process and what I can share. I think it’s wonderful to be inspired by food, prioritize the process and a way to spend time together. Learn new things, making it easier and easier each time. It’s hard to go wrong with simple and fresh ingredients. It seems to me that the economic situation will make the idea of people thinking of cooking a hobby sort of an absurdity, since we all eat we should all learn to manage that need in a way that is fun, engaging, and within our means.

And Delicious!