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.
Exclusion Principle
2 days ago
3 comments:
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....
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.
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....
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