I originally started this blog well over a year ago. When I signed in today, I was surprised to see that my last post was October 2011 (those have all been deleted now)! Wow, how time flies. I was heavy into the foodie thing then and that waned a bit for reasons that don't merit mention here. But now, I'm interested again and so I'm gonna give this a second try with a bit of a different focus than before. And that focus is this: documenting whether it's really possible to eat well affordably.
Why? Well, there are a number of reasons. First, I know all the reasons why it's hard to eat well. Many of them have very little to do with budget and I can attest to all of those. Busy? Check. My average work week is about 50 hours and it can go up from there. I also travel for work, sometimes a lot. If I want to try to get to the gym occasionally, surf the net a bit, and socialize with real people from time to time, it feels like that doesn't leave much time for other things. Especially things that can be time consuming, like cooking. It's way easier to just go to a drive through or pick up something prepared from the market. That's not exactly cost effective or particularly good for my health, though.
Then there's cooking ability. This one doesn't completely apply to me. I'm a reasonably good cook, though not an intuitive one. With a recipe to follow, I do all right. When I'm improvising, sometimes bad things happen. I need to get better at this. But I have some tried and true things that I can do well. I'm surprised, however, at how many people I know that can't boil water and have no desire to do so. I think that for society as a whole, this is a big obstacle. Much easier to nuke something or open a box than to cook from scratch (though rarely tastier, IMHO, and certainly not healthier!). Along the same lines, for some reason, the concept of meal planning for an entire week is totally baffling to me. It should be easy, but it's not. Don't ask me why.
Finally, there's perception. The overwhelming perception, among just about anyone you ask, is that it costs more to eat healthy than it does to eat junk. Even the media loves to parrot this one and it makes me crazy! I just don't believe this. If you know how to shop and how to cook, I think that eating healthier actually costs less, but those are pretty big ifs. And for those in the inner city, there is the whole issue of food deserts, which is another topic all together.
So, the obstacles exist and most are real. But just because something is difficult to do, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. And so, as 2013 starts off, I'm gonna challenge myself to see just what I can do to eat well without breaking the bank. Here's what we know, going in:
I estimate that on average, I spend about $100 per week on groceries (Whole Foods, I love you! But don't call it Whole Paycheck! That's a topic for another day.). On top of that, I probably spend abut $12 per week day on coffee, bagels, and lunch when I'm working, and then let's add another $10 on the weekend for the odd meal out. Of course, these are averages, sometimes it's more, sometimes less. But on average, this adds up to $170 per week that I spend on food. Much of it's healthy, but too much of it isn't. Plus, maybe it's the time of the year, but I always start scrutinizing my budget around the new year and I can't help thinking that I could spend a lot less, eat better, and save the difference for a rainy day. So the plan is to see how much less than $170 I can spend each week while eating healthier, cooking more, and meeting other goals, TBD. Can I do it? How long will stick with it? Will this little challenge go the way of new year's resolutions and be over before January winds down? Well, we'll see....
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