I've always really loved food. Once in college I started buying my own food and making educated decisions about what was good to buy, for my body and for the earth.
I'm not good at remembering how much I paid for the local, organic strawberries (for example). I just buy them and love them and feel good about my purchase. I've mostly shopped with my stomach and conscious than my wallet.
I've never had sympathy for people who say they can't afford organic or local products. However, moving back to home state where both my husband and I are unemployed is a very humbling experience and I will never again judge people who say they can't afford this or that.
Fortunately we have a few choices of farmers markets to go to and some great local grocery stores. The choices here for organic and sustainable are vast. But sadly shopping now feels like a chore since I have to try and keep a running tally in my head of how much things cost. Hm, we paid $2.99 for local-ish, organic strawberries at the local grocery store but here at the farmers market they are $4 and look smaller. I HATE doing this. I really miss going shopping and just buying what I love.
We also loved to go out to eat and there are so many great restaurants in this town. It's also a fun social event to go grab a cup of coffee or some beer with friends.
I haven't been drinking coffee! We have so much tea, from my husband's obsession, that I've been drinking tea to save money.
I thought this post would be more reflective on my humbling experience of how hard it is on a fixed budget to buy good food but with that coffee statement it sounds more like whining.
Our main goal is to try to stay with very unprocessed foods and I think we should manage to stay within a small budget for two people.
What is really motivating us to find jobs, besides the desire to work, is our $1600 a month rent price!
About Me
- Jennie
- I have a Ph.D. in Geology, which was on groundwater contamination. It took me five years of living on the East Coast and one year in the Midwest. Now I'm back on the West Coast (near the beach!) and have a job with a small consulting firm of around 30 employees. This job is 1 mile from my house. Let's see how I like consulting!
5 comments:
i know what you mean! but on the upside, you can buy one avocado there for like 50 cents, at most, whereas here one avocado is close to two dollars. there is something to be said for living close to where lots of things are grown! i miss my california fruits...
I definitely understand that! We've had a lot of expenses recently. It's not fair that pasta with powdered cheese sauce costs only $0.79, whereas a fresh salad costs more than three times that.
I hear ya!
The first time I went grocery shopping after moving to middle-of-no-where New England, I cried - in the store. There was practically nothing organic, and what organic produce was available was old, rotten, and twice the price of what I had been paying.
There are so many choices of good local food here compared to back in grad school town, it is simply amazing! Yet I find that I have to keep prices in the back of my head as we are trying to put some money in the savings from this internship... Living on a budget is never fun, and having to make choices between fresh produce and processed food is just painful.
Hope you soon are gainfully employed and back to freely eating amazing Californian produce!
WOW GOLD, nice blog. its worth reading. I liked it very much
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