Something you might not know about me is that I love food almost as much as I love thrifting. I enjoy baking, cooking, reading about cooking, and shopping for food. For years it was a struggle because I tried to be as thrifty with food as I am with furniture. The problem is, most of the time the cheapest food is void of both flavor and nutrition.
Last fall I read Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of Food Life, after which Patrick and I watched Food Inc. together. I highly recommend checking out both, but be prepared for your philosophy on food to do a 180. I won't go into all of the details of what changed our minds, but we both came to the realization that our food budget needed to be near the top of our financial priorities.
We switched to all organic, and as much local food as possible. We started shopping weekly at the farmers' market—something I suggest starting in the summer when the bounty is plentiful. It wasn't long before the freshness and flavor of the food convinced us that buying local and organic was well worth the extra expense and effort. There are other benefits to joining the sustainable food movement, too. Here's an excerpt from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:
"If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That’s not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big differences. Becoming a less energy-dependent nation may just need to start with a good breakfast."
In order to buy better food, we had to increase our grocery budget by about 30%. Like most families, it wasn't an option for us just to increase our spending by that amount, we needed to figure out a way to compensate for the higher food bill. We were committed, though, to figuring out how to make it work. Here are just a few ways that made it possible:
1. Stop wasting food. This was huge for me because I tend to buy something and use a small portion of it, letting the rest go bad in the bottom of my refrigerator's vegetable drawer. It's pretty much the same thing as throwing money directly in the garbage. I still struggle with this, but I'm slowly improving.
2. Determine financial priorities. We don't have cable TV or fancy electronics, and our newest car is ten years old. We don't spend very much on entertainment, but for us going to the thrift store and to the farmers' market are both sources of entertainment. We go to the market as a family every week, and the kids get to go around to all the booths and taste all of the samples. Our favorite market, the University District Farmers' Market, also has a playground attached, so on the dry days the kids get to play while I go back around to make all of my purchases.
3. Eat at home. Our family seldom eats at restaurants, although we have recently added a weekly Sunday lunch out together because Patrick works a fourteen hour day and it's really the only chance we get to spend time together that day. We usually go to chipotle, and the tab for the four of us is $20. The great thing about eating at home is that we save so much money by skipping the restaurants that we get to eat really delicious food, and drink nice wine everyday.
4. Reduce the number of snacks you buy. I've tried to significantly cut back on the pre-made packaged snack foods that I put in my shopping cart. These are obscenely overpriced and wastefully packaged. Instead, we buy things like granola, raisins, popcorn kernels, and nuts from the bulk section at the grocery store. The summer is great because there is more local fruit available for snacking, too.
5. Create a weekly meal plan. By planning meals for the week that share a few ingredients, I can significantly reduce my grocery bill and the amount of food I waste.
Though I'm no expert, there is so much more I could say on this subject, but since this is a thrifting blog, and not a food blog, I'll just leave you with a few links worth checking out:
Local Food Resources:
Edible Communities
Slow Food USA
USDA's Farmers' Market List
Budgeting:
Dave Ramsey
Recipes and Food Blogs:
Epicurious
The Sated Palate
Not Without Salt
Good Things Catered
Jamie Oliver
5. Create a weekly meal plan. By planning meals for the week that share a few ingredients, I can significantly reduce my grocery bill and the amount of food I waste.
Though I'm no expert, there is so much more I could say on this subject, but since this is a thrifting blog, and not a food blog, I'll just leave you with a few links worth checking out:
Local Food Resources:
Edible Communities
Slow Food USA
USDA's Farmers' Market List
Budgeting:
Dave Ramsey
Recipes and Food Blogs:
Epicurious
The Sated Palate
Not Without Salt
Good Things Catered
Jamie Oliver
Don't forget:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thefrugalgirl.com/
http://myyearwithoutspending.blogspot.com/
We feel that same way about food. And the more you eat at home the less you WANT to eat out. It's pretty crappy stuff actually.
I don't normally shoot for organic food, mostly just as local as I can get. A lot of what is around here is organically grown anyway...
I also try to do "Meatless Mondays" (although not necessarily on Monday...) to cut back on our meat consumption.
It's all about where your priorities are - just like you said.
I love both of those blogs, too! The Frugal Girl's Food Waste Friday posts are what first got me thinking about what a bad habit that is. I've been working to reduce my food waste for a little over a year now.
ReplyDeleteI think there are lots of farms who use organic and sustainable methods, but the certification process for "organic" is really expensive and lengthy. When possible, I like to ask the producers about their farm (or better yet, visit it), but when I'm shopping at the grocery store, I am dependent on the label, so I usually play it safe and look for the certified organic symbol.
I like your "meatless mondays" idea! Eating vegetarian is so much less expensive.