Monday, February 25, 2008

Food

What is good food worth to you?

With the advent of my further academic pursuits, the family budget has come under greater scrutiny. There isn't much I can do about the rent, car insurance, mortgages, etc. Cut the cable off. Stopped NetFlix, etc. But food? Can't exactly stop eating. Of course, I am then confronted by what do I change? Expensive meats out, not much of a change there. More expensive vegetables, not much of a problem, and I can always buy frozen broccoli, rather than fresh. But .... what am I not willing to reduce?

Peanut butter: have you seen the list of stuff in Jiffy? I'm a chemist and even I don't know what some of that stuff is. If I need an MSDS to assess my food, I ain't eatin' it. I'll stick with the stuff with the following ingredients: Peanuts, salt.

Eggs: we'll stick with vegetarian fed, free range eggs. A modest strike to eliminate horrid living conditions for animals. Even if they don't actually leave the coop, because they're scared or whatever. Besides, I really, really can't afford organic milk.

Bread: After spending 6 or 7 years eating nice bread [at peter's request upon merging households], I just can't go back to the fluffy stuff.

Bananas: carbon footprint? I ride the bus. I'll eat all the bananas I want.

Wine: yup, I married a European and my wine consumption skyrocketed. Lower price wine, yes; eliminate it, no.

Coffee: ditto with the bread. Besides, we don't drink that much of it. Why buy horrible tasting stuff?

Cafe au Lait Thursday nights @ Stammtisch: I stopped getting anything other than plain coffee, if I buy it on campus or wherever. Spending 2 hours chatting with other intelligent adults (in German) is simply nicer with a cup of tea or coffee.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is astonishing how expensive food is getting in general. I've heard it's related to the price of gas, making transportation more expensive.

My vote is for eliminating money entirely. I find it incredible that survival needs like food cost so much. Whether one has money or not then becomes a "survival of the fittest" issue....

Gopher MPH said...

now that's a paradigm I never considered. How delightful! I suppose since good scotch or wine is not *truly* a necessary item, I would still need to pay for it.

Anonymous said...

I have a food allergy to alcohol, but I can imagine the argument that red wine, as has been shown in France, is beneficial to heart health and might be considered a necessity, especially in an outrageously obese society. But Americans tend to have addictive personalities, I think, and could never just drink one glass a day....