Today I’m re-posting and updating an article I wrote back in December. It’s a topic that’s been on my mind in preparation for this Saturday’s post on the Food & Faith Challenge–the topic is Money! Check back on Saturday for a great guest post and the chance to win Real Food on a Real Budget.
OK, it wasn’t really $10 for the lamb chop. I looked at the “per pound” price on the package instead of the price for the package. I had been seeing a “30% off lamb” flyer at the farm where I have my milk share, and thought now might be a good time to make the lamb recipes in Simply in Season. On my list: 1 leg of lamb, 3 lbs of stew meat, 8 loin lamb chops, and 1 lb ground. I’m ashamed to say that when I saw the price, I had a bit of sticker shock.
Follow up note: I ended up substituting beef for the lamb in many of the recipes. However, I also discovered that there are two lamb chops in each package, so it cost less than I originally thought it would.
See, I normally try not to think too much about how much I spend on food. Since DH and I are DINKs (double income, no kids) cooking from scratch is way less than eating out like we used to do before I started this project, so I figure “hey, it’s for the cause, eating locally, it’s healthy, and supporting ‘my’ farmer.” Except today.
Last December, the economy left me wondering if my husband and/or I were secure in our jobs, or if we, like many Americans, would be facing unemployment or pay cuts. Suddenly the price of food seemed a lot more real. In fact, when I emailed my husband to tell him how I was feeling, his first reaction was to not sign up for the winter CSA. Why is food the first thing to cut? I don’t know. What about the project? What about buying locally? Sure, I can *probably* find turnips and rutabagas at Meijer’s but are they local? Organic? What would I be getting in my $25 per biweekly box, anyway? Thinking about the 99 cent packages of carrots, onions, etc. I thought that better be a pretty damn big box.
As I was standing there looking into the depths of the freezer, calculating 30% off lamb prices, it suddenly hit me. Am I willing to put my money where my mouth is? I’ve been poor before. When my first husband started going off the deep end there were weeks of eating ramen noodles and egg sandwiches, supplemented by the doughnuts at staff meetings at work. Funny, I weighed a lot less then. When money is tight, do I buy the $12 chicken or the $5 one that’s already cooked via rotisserie (and injected with God knows what) at Meijer’s? (not to pick on Meijer’s, it’s just the closest grocery store).
That day, I decided to just pick up the $3 dozen of eggs and a scrawny 3 pound $4.54 stewing chicken. The lamb could wait. Then proceeded to get my weekly 3 gallons of raw milk for which I’m paying $50 a month.
In the end I DID end up doing the winter CSA. I decided that there were other places we could cut our budget. For me, it’s worth paying a little extra now so that we can enjoy health and peace of mind later.
Since beginning this project, I’ve discovered that our overall food budget is lower, despite spending more on quality ingredients. We eat a lot less meat than we used to given the nature of the recipes in Simply in Season, focusing instead on vegetables. Which is kind of backwards from the way we–and I daresay most Americans–eat.
Come back on Saturday to share YOUR money-saving tips, and a look at how we define the true cost of food (you might want to subscribe to my RSS feed or bookmark this site so you remember 🙂
For more frugal ideas and recipes, check out Pennywise Platter Thursday.
Money has become very tight for us, as I lost my job in August and took on a job that pays much less. We also have a toddler, so for us, it’s not an option to buy crap food. Food is the one thing that we try very hard not to scrimp on, and we still try to buy local/organic. It’s hard. It’s really hard. At the very least, we try to make sure that our daughter is eating organic, even if we ourselves can’t afford it.
I find that I cannot go back to eating foods like Ramen or Kraft. It tastes disgusting. MSG and HFCS give me headaches and make me feel awful. I have had to get creative with recipes and stretching our food, but it’s worth it to not feel like crap every single day.
Food is a priority now that we know the evils of mainstream foods. Yes, the price of ethically and organically grown food is a problem in this country, and I wish that it could be magically fixed.
By line item, it costs more to eat locally produced vs. industrially produced foods. Does it cost more or less overall? I think for me, the jury is still out.
I joined our local food co-op in the 70s, was a member throughout the 80s and early 90s, and know a lot about eating frugally. But I still got rectal cancer, and it was stage IV at diagnosis – even though I didn’t really fit the pattern or the health profile. So much for eating right. 😉
I have learned over the last 9 years that I can’t forsake protein, that if anything I need to incorporate MORE protein and fewer carbohydrates (complex or not) into my diet. And I can’t do that at the price of lamb (actually, $10/lb would be reasonable for locally raised lamb in these parts!) I can manage the costs for locally produced eggs and dairy, and for vegetables and fruit in season (most of the time.) But I admit, I still buy most of my meat and all of my fish from the big local grocery stores, because that enables me to keep protein in my diet at the levels I need and at costs I can afford.
When you’re looking at chemo treatments that cost $17K per infusion, and you *did* eat local and as much organic as you could get for decades, it’s hard to say that paying those higher costs for food were worth it overall.
OTOH, I stopped eating packaged ramen noodles in like 1972 – I got homemade whole wheat and buckwheat ramen noodles from the Asian market. They were relatively cheap, although not as cheap and 10 for $1 ramen packages. Still got cancer. Maybe it was the noodles – even though they were from ‘high quality’ ingredients. I dunno.
But at this point, I’m not willing to say that food is either my savior or my poison. I just aim for eating as seasonally as possible, and I try to keep my single-person weekly food budget under $50 while ensuring that I can get 80-100 grams of high-quality protein at each meal. Until things change substantially in local food sources, that means I have to channel my moeny toward protein – and grow my own vegetables. 😉
.-= Pat Steer (Gaelen)´s last blog ..May CanJam: Rhubarb Mango Jam =-.
so sorry to hear that you had cancer. My grandmother passed away last fall from skin cancer, so I agree not all health problems are the result of eating unhealthy. I do get a lot of my meat from my local butcher – cheaper than even the big box places, but not certified organic. One does what one can. Thanks for stopping by – haven’t heard from you in awhile. I must check out your rhubarb mango jam recipe!
Thanks for linking this to the Why Local? post. I go back and forth over the “cost” of food so often, and usually end up on the side of “I am just not going to care about the money” which translates into very high grocery bills. Even when I do “put my money where my mouth is,” if I do it in an uncritical way like that, I still end up feeling bad about it!
My I do work, but hubby works part time and is finishing his Masters, so it really is important that I not go into this mode! We want to make local and sustainable foods a priority, but we also have bills to pay, a move to save up for, and tuition on top of that!
I have never bought lamb (yes, it’s true)…what is a normal price for local lamb??
I never would have bought it had it not been in the cookbook I’m working my way through. It is delicious, though! I have no idea what a normal price for lamb is, I looked at my regular butcher’s website and they don’t have it. I remember someone telling me that’s actually a good price at my farm, though.