Thursday, February 4, 2010

Menu vs. Money

So, on my quest to be the woman I want to be I find a dilemma. I love to menu plan. I enjoy cooking, I enjoy the grocery list and the coupons, (I know I 'm a freak). I love the thrill of getting a boat load of groceries for under $20. I find myself almost giddy to bring home a freebie even if I don't need it. If there is a sample I sign up for it. IF there is a coupon I print it, clip it, or load it. I do a pretty good job of sticking to my $50/week goal. I feel confident in my budget. I love stockpiling and yada yada yada.

However, I find myself asking if I am eating the best I can on my budget. I used to have some hard fast rules that were never broken that I find myself bending when I can get it for free. No high fructose corn syrup, unless, of course, it is free. Then I'll take ten. Only whole wheat bread, unless the other stuff is on sale and I can bring it home for 1/10 the cost of the whole wheat. So, what is a girl to do? Sacrifice health for budget or vice versa...

I realize that at this stage I'm not sure we can afford to go completely organic cutting out all antibiotic, hormones, and steroids. But is there a middle ground some where between whole food and junk food? Balance has never been my strong point. I get really wound up and I am kind of all or nothing. And unfortunately, if I fall off my bandwagon I fall hard and fast. I go from diet to eating the whole pint of ice cream in one sitting.

So, I am starting on a quest to see if I can eat well within my budget. I'm going to start by going back to some basics. Whole grains (we still do this most of the time anyway.), no high fructose corn syrup (unless it is already in my house.), eat as fresh as possible and organic when affordable. I know this doesn't sound very drastic, and honestly it isn't. I just want to be more aware of the food I am feeding myself and my family. I want to do a better job of just being aware of what I am eating and how it could affect our health. Ok, I'm getting off my soap box. Time to make dinner. :")

2 comments:

Beccy said...

grow some veggies! :o)
it was so good to see you and have a visit. thanks for telling me your opinion on that book - i love hearing the opinion of someone i respect that has read stuff. if you are ever in nebraska you have a place to stay! love you.

Celia Emmons said...

Hey! We have decided to eat organic milk and meat. It is EXPENSIVE! But, I always find organic milk on "Manager's Special" at Kroger. I usually stock up and freeze it. (Just open it and poor a glass before you freeze it! **Lesson learned from experience!) I've always bought organic milk because of a book I read that went into graphic details on milk retrieval. Also, we have found quite a few meatless dishes to make a few times a week to offset the cost of organic meat. Sometimes I find meat on manager's special, too, but really haven't figured a good place to get it. (We've been doing the meat thing for just over a month.) For us, it is the antibiotics and growth hormones in food that bother us, so those are the changes we chose to make. It can be difficult, especially with the freebies. Oh, also, for a while I made my own whole wheat bread. It was easy... maybe I will do it again. I just used a bread machine to mix, knead, etc. then I took it out and baked it in the oven to get the right shape. Let me know if you come up with anything creative to eat healthy and cheap!