Paying More

Having readily admitted to my non-essentials shopping problem, and doing a pretty good job so far (just a week!) at healing my shopping addiction, I thought I'd mention some beliefs I have about what we pay for things that we do need.

I grew up on really, really bad food. Almost everything from a can or box, processed cheese, margarine (for a time) and low-quality tasteless produce. I realize that we didn't have much money, and there also weren't a lot of good options in the town where we lived, but also my parents were both raised with some questionable eating habits. 

Now, my dad partly grew up on a traditional farm, so he did prefer real dairy (real butter!), but his Depression-oriented upbringing led him to be totally fine with canned everything. My mom was brought up in the 50's, when suddenly an abundance of processed foods was available and popular. I know from her stories that unless she was eating at her grandmother's house, she was eating a lot of crap.

I have made it my goal to undo as best I can the years of toxic eating. My husband's background is very different than mine, so I can't speak for him. Well, I know that he got a really good start with food for his first five years on a ranch in Mexico, but he too had his share of yucky food in the States. And at some times, his family went completely without. So for the health of both of us, I have been willing to pay the real cost of real food.

I'm doing a kind of experiment for the summer; it is my hope each week to only shop at two places: the farmer's market, and Berkeley Bowl (independent natural foods store with tons of bulk options). I am allowing myself $30-40 per week for the farmer's market, and that really depends on what we're out of. For Berkeley Bowl, it does vary, but my goal is no more than $60 per week, to make a total of $100. 

In the interest of forgoing contributing to the corporate giants, I have opted out of shopping for certain items at Safeway, even though they are cheaper than at Berkeley Bowl. I was getting our organic half and half, organic kefir, and grass-fed butter at Safeway in the interest of saving a few bucks, but truthfully I'd rather give the extra few to an independent local store. It's not super local for me; I do have to spend extra time and money on BART to get there, but I aim to get all that I'll need for the week all at once so there's no "oops I have to go to Safeway anyway." And frankly, I enjoy being in Berkeley much more than I enjoy being in San Leandro. I was assaulted by a mentally deranged man in front of that Safeway last month! Never happened in Berkeley, and I lived there for a year as well as 3 years in nearby North Oakland.

The farmer's market has been a blessing. I enjoy meeting the farmers, and enjoy seeing everything on display in the outdoors instead of under fluorescent lights. At the farmer's market I get produce, honey, eggs and bread. I make up for the extra BART money by taking a free shuttle to and from the farmer's market. The free shuttle is only available during "commuter hours," so if I'm going to Berkeley Bowl, I have to take the regular bus.

I've also made a new rule- if we run out of something during the week, we have to wait until the next week to get it. No dashing off to buy more bread because we were gluttonous and ate it too quickly. The exception I make to this rule is toilet paper, of course, but I've been pretty good at watching our TP usage. Anyway, this will teach us to cook and eat mindfully, and make sure that we eat up all that we have. Less spoilage, less waste. Fewer impulse buys.

Another goal I have is to only buy food in its unprocessed form. Obviously, cheese, kefir, and butter are processed by default, but I'm going to be buying the least processed versions of them. And it also means I am not buying snack foods or premade desserts. Less packaging, hooray! I recently purchased reusable muslin produce bags, which also work well for bulk items such as rice, beans and nuts. I haven't yet done the work to learn how to deal with bone-in or whole-animal meats; but I do only buy my meat at the butcher counter, not pre-packaged. Lately I've been buying applewood-smoked bacon, chicken thighs, and lamb stew meat. I haven't reconciled with beef yet, even if I can get it grass-fed. I have to learn to love it again.

Lastly, I am going to start making smoothies every night for my husband to take with him in the mornings. He works from his car so he can't take anything that will be messy or stinky. But I've been feeling so guilty that I haven't been able to get up with him at 5:30 to feed him, so smoothies it will be. I will put them in mason jars with lids so that he can stash them away and no one would ever guess he'd just had his breakfast. I am going to be using almond milk (no additives), yogurt, berries, bananas, dates, and avocado. I will also be adding some alfalfa leaf powder for extra nutrition. I hope he likes it.

The main point of all this is, I believe that it is worth it to pay top dollar for high-quality food, always looking out for the best prices, but never sacrificing quality or health for a good sale. I believe that cooking from scratch as much as possible is the best way to eat. I believe that using whole foods as much as possible is the best way to eat. I believe that eating grass-fed pastured dairy and meat is the only way to go. I believe in eating lots of butter. I believe in eating only pastured eggs. Seeing as we don't need to pay for much else besides the usual bills, my top spending priority is good, real food.