Questions, and a bit about me

More from livejournal, written September 23, 2008

I've been stewing over my last post, and I have come to one very noteworthy conclusion: I am a totally detached, nose in the air, not necessarily always grounded in reality, yuppie snob.

A quick word on our "financial situation". Jake has pointed out, highly perplexed, that we are--by a hair--in the upper class, in terms of income. If you looked at our house, our cars, our clothes, our overall lifestyle, you'd probably laugh at that, which I pretty much did when he made this announcement. But it's had me thinking a LOT about image, values, lifestyle, priorities, all that stuff, and how much our money is working for us, against us, and areas we could improve upon, if we realize that we are doing better, in some ways, than a LOT of people in this country and this world. I grew up poor, and it's a bit of a shock to realize that now my perspective is totally skewed by having my physical needs fully met to any extend I want to strive for. I can go to Starbucks multiple times a week if I want to (we each have our own personal accounts with an "allowance"), and I can think about and pursue interests that are by no means necessities. I'm not really used to having disposable income, and the last several years of having it has really messed up the way I measure "normal."

SO. Having made that admission about where I'm coming from, I'll elaborate on the food thing.

Was it that Michael Moore documentary about the healthcare system? I don't remember, I'll have to look it up. Anyway, the idea was that in terms of non-third-world countries, we in the US spend a smaller percentage of our incomes on food and more on healthcare costs. I should look into the figures, but I would assume that's correct. And this is where I most passionately deviate from typical, because Jake and I have had lengthy discussions as to setting a food budget (as in, it's not arbitrary), and the figure we decided on is a direct result of the fact that we believe food is of greater importance to our lives than the other places we might put that money: cable, cell phones, expensive hotels when we travel (okay, we rarely travel), fancier cars, a bigger house, nicer clothes, more toys for the kids, more toys for ourselves, and on and on. I cut tons of corners and don't feel too bad when I do make a decision to "splurge" on something I deem worthwhile.

I've spent the morning reflecting on the vastly different world of having barely enough money to survive. I have absolutely lived that life (pre-Jake, when I was working two jobs and could barely afford to eat and pay bills), and health was extremely low on my list of priorities. I ate ramen, I ate mostly everything prepackaged or on a dollar menu. I get it. I wish I could go back and look at my actual expenses and budget for things and really decide if I could have done better with my current standards. That would be very interesting. I DO know, however, that I generally had money for alcohol (often more than necessary) and I could absolutely have skimped a bit more on clothes (working at a nice place required a certain level of clothing, though I only shopped on sale and had far fewer clothes than I would have liked).

But if I really REALLY was in that boat now, having kids' nourishment to think about, I don't know exactly how things would go. Jake is always a bit confused about this, because it often strikes me that whole foods are so much more satisfying and nutrient-dense than anything prepackaged, and thus a better value overall. You simply NEED less of it. Smaller quantity, greater quality, my mantra for just about everything. In my last post I wrote about some of the modifications I would expect to make if I had a smaller food budget at my disposal. And to be fair, in some respects food is a hobby for me, and I buy cookbooks here and there and get them at the library and always find new recipes to try online. I just think it's fun to experiment with new ingredients and dishes reflecting parts of the world I would like to visit. I think there is a lot to learn about different cultures and ways of thinking by paying attention to different ways of preparing food. It's interesting, and in my life of boredom and small children, anything that holds my interest and is ultimately beneficial to the family can be granted a reasonable amount of funding.

Also, I've had it in my head that since I have the means, and my needs are largely met, that it's not unreasonable to be more liberal in "voting with dollars" as is the catchy new trend. I feel that since I am able, I might as well support local farmers who are doing things I really respect and want to perpetuate. I feel like I make a statement with where I choose to put my money, not just in food buy in all areas. I believe the world would be a better place if more people had relationships with farmers and knew where their food came from and respected that whole process. It really is putting my money where my mouth is, and paying a bit extra to avoid places like Walmart, whose practices I do not necessarily want to promote. I feel like it means more to go and hand a hardworking farmer some cash than to mindlessly swipe my card at a grocery store, and when possible, that's what I do. I realize that in the bigger picture this a luxury, and I appreciate that.

I'm thinking that come Friday (payday), I will challenge myself to a greatly reduced food budget and see how little can spend while maintaing my long-established standards of food quality and healthfulness. The parameters of my challenge will be thus (feel free to add to this if you think I've missed a serious point):

The food we already have here will be out of bounds for one week.

I will keep meticulous itemized accounting of every food purchase of every kind.

I will keep meticulous records of how I prepared every meal, quantities prepared vs consumed vs put in fridge for leftovers.

I will adhere to all my current food standards, choosing organic food over conventional, local over shipped. Whole foods and minimally processed foods (like pasta, for example) over prepackaged, excessively processed, and convenience foods. I don't buy food in cans because of learning recently about BPA in plastic-lined cans. I buy as little plastic as possible, and as little packaging as possible.

We will consume no unnecessary food additives--preservatives, colors, flavors, and any of the array of crap like MSG, corn syrup, trans fats, all that stuff.

I will strive toward zero feelings of deprivation in any of us. As in, I won't be going without things that I deem essential to our overall contentment, unless I make a thoughtful decision to do so, and which I will post about.

I will not let my kid or any of the rest of us go hungry at any point during the week.

We will consistently eat balanced and varied meals prepared at home.

We will not eat out, nor will we accept any invitations to eat with other people.

The garden is not productive anymore this year (my own slacking), so that will not be a factor in this experiment.

Jake currently has a separate budget for lunches at work, despite my repeated attempts to convince him I should be making his lunches. I suppose in the interest of being authentic in this challenge, his lunches should be included in the challenge and will therefore be monitored and recorded exactly as everything else. Food he gets free at work will be mentioned but without judgment, and I will explain to him in advance that he should avoid free food (always crap anyway) so that we can have a more accurate experiment.

Remnants of any food purchased during this experimental week will be recorded and dealt with in the conclusion. I don't anticipate being able to buy only one week's worth of coffee, for example, so that will clearly skew the overall budget and I'll have to deal with that kind of thing as I go. A pound of coffee is somewhere in the neighborhood of $10-15, which is a huge percentage of my overall budget, but to be realistic, I do drink coffee on a daily basis and going without it would also skew the experiment. Something to pay attention to and deal with as I go.

I expect to learn a lot in this little experiment. Undoubtedly I will realize how frivolous I can be in food-gathering and perhaps I'll be stunned into changing some of those habits. Seriously, where does a $5 organic chocolate bar fit into a $50 food budget? We'll find out, I guess. I have some questions that I'll be pondering as well. How does one factor in things like gas and time in food-gathering excursions? Saving money by going to a farm to collect food--an hour away--is that a bargain? If money were really this tight, would I choose to work instead of staying home with the kids? How much would childcare cost and what would my income really provide our family? If staying home really seemed like the most efficient role for me, would I really be able to maintain a productive garden? (Perhaps some of my boredom and stir-crazy-ness would be resolved by spending more time out in the garden being productive, thus saving us gas money and other money that I would be spending going out or shopping online out of boredom?) How important SHOULD food be in any given household? What areas do I find myself wanting to cut so that I might have that special little food indulgence? Do I feel satisfied or deprived working on a tight budget? Will I find that this budget really makes sense, and we'll have a ton leftover in the future to do other things with (like, God forbid, saving)? Will I find myself obsessing (even more) about food? Or will I find myself relaxing about it? Will I find myself questioning my standards? Is this even possible? Will I prove myself wrong?

We shall see!