Here's the short version:
I suck at this challenge and can NOT stop going to the grocery store.
I am having trouble keeping track of how much we spend because my husband has to keep running out for stuff (like milk, bread, emergency pizza, etc..) and we haven't always kept the receipt. I plan to do a monthly total using my credit card bill (don't worry! I pay it off every month).
But is it so bad to go to the grocery store ALL the time? Maybe not. The ExpensiveMart is down the street. Sure, it's expensive, but I don't buy very much there. The occasional gallon of milk or something small. WF is on the way home from work. I tend to drop by there frequently. Need some more gluten flour for the bread maker? WF. Need some lettuce? WF. Milk? WF. Yogurt? WF. The beauty of these stops is that for the things I buy, WF does not really cost that much. About the same and sometimes less than ExpensiveMart. And I get free samples as I walk around :) Because the things I don't need to buy are so expensive at WF, impulse purchases are kept to a minimum. $4 box of granola bars? Nope! $4/lb tomatoes? Nope! 9.99/lb olives? Yumm... nope!
Saturday I did a giant shopping trip and drove myself crazy. First, in a desperate attempt to give the farmer's market another shot, I hopped on my bike and rode downtown. I was there about 10 minutes before it opened. There were plenty of people. Some people were filming one of the stands. It seems like that is happening every time I go. I got some peaches ($5 for a small bag), lettuce ($5), squash, a red onion and supplementary tomatoes ($8 -- ouch!), and a bunch of chard ($2). Peaches were the only fruit available, and they were only being sold by one farmer, and they were selling out quickly. I now understand why I hadn't seen peaches at the farmer's market before.
Supposedly, our farmer's market is "award winning". I don't understand that. I am not really "wowed" by the selection, and certainly not by the prices. With the exception of the chard, the prices are the same at WF, and I do not have to get up early in the morning.
After the farmer's market, I stopped at WF for some bulk oil and gluten flour (love the bulk section). Then I came home, got the car, and went to HEB for a gigantic shopping trip with my daughter. We had to buy food for her birthday party, so we spent a LOT of money. I also felt ridiculous spending $4 for organic strawberries (the cheapest they have been all summer, and they were hard. Grrrr...) and then buying Oreos.
Maybe I'm a food hypocrite. Okay. I am. But I can NOT go on torturing myself in the grocery store. I am just going to buy what I can afford, avoid the dirty dozen when possible, eat very little meat, cook beans, make my own bread, and try to stick with actual food, rather than food products, the majority of the time. Saturday night we went on a picnic. We had homemade bread with tuna salad that I made at home, using green peppers from our garden, the freakin' expensive onion and lettuce from the farmer's market, and Hellmann's mayonnaise. I read the label and found out that Hellmann's has HFCS. What can I do? Am I going to make my own? No way. We had plums, chips and Oreos. It was delicious.
Showing posts with label guilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guilt. Show all posts
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Changes So Far
I really like it when other bloggers list changes that they have made (like No Impact Man recently did), so I thought I'd make my own list.
So far, we:
1. Started recycling.
2. Use only cloth napkins.
3. Use rags instead of paper towels.
4. Switched to cloth diapers & wipes for baby. **
5. Make our own bread.
6. Stopped using artificial sweetener.
7. Traded in one car for a scooter.
8. Ride bike/scoot instead of drive as much as possible.
9. Went camping over spring break instead of road trip.
10. Print on both sides of paper.
11. Use weird-shaped paper and envelopes for grocery lists and notes.
12. Print all work documents on both sides.
13. Stopped buying laundry detergent -- make our own.
14. Stopped buying liquid body soap -- use bar soap.
15. Bring own bags to grocery store.
16. Bring own bags and containers for bulk.
17. Bring own plates to picnics, etc.
18. Got rid of non-stick pans -- use stainless steel or cast iron. **
19. Turn off lights when not in use.
20. Conserve water in bath tub -- shared baths for kids.
21. Wash clothes in cold water.
22. Hang clothes dry.
23. Bring cup to coffee shop.
24. Use non-disposable coffee filter.
25. Buy fair-trade coffee.
26. Buy organic milk. **
27. Buy as much as possible used.
28. Stopped buying greeting cards -- homemade instead.
29. Reuse wrapping paper and gift bags.
30. Don't buy juice boxes for parties; serve juice with cups.
31. Bring basket of silverware to parties instead of disposable.
32. Bring disposable silverware and extra napkins home so they are not thrown in the trash.
33. Garden
34. Go to the library instead of buying books/videos
35. (I can't believe I forgot this one and had to come back) -- compost with WORMS
That's all I can think of for now. Here are the explanations for the starred items.
**4. Cloth diapers are totally awesome. I feel like a chump that I did not use them for my first two kids. They are inexpensive, they work well, and they have great re-sale value. That said, I could not find a good system for the night. My daughter pees A LOT at night. Even disposable diapers did not hold in the flood. Even a cloth diaper with a disposable doubler. Even two cloth diapers (and then she could barely walk because of all the bulk). The only thing that has worked is pull-ups. So, she wears a pull-up every night. :(
**18. I am afraid to get rid of the last pan because of pancakes. I will try them in cast-iron, but I am afraid they'll stick. Cast-iron is supposed to be naturally non-stick if it is properly seasoned, but that doesn't seem to be working so far.
**26. This took a long time. Organic milk is expensive and my children are milkaholics. BUT we finally made the switch (the increased price of regular milk actually helped.. when the difference was only a dollar, it didn't seem that bad.) I also buy organic yogurt, but I don't buy other organic milk products, which makes me feel hypocritical and bad.
Can you tell I'm suffering from environmental guilt? To be honest, today I'm pretty sick of feeling guilty. Now that I've made the list, I can see that I have made a lot of changes...
Do you suffer from environmental guilt? Do you ever just want to say "to heck with it all!"? What do you tell yourself?
So far, we:
1. Started recycling.
2. Use only cloth napkins.
3. Use rags instead of paper towels.
4. Switched to cloth diapers & wipes for baby. **
5. Make our own bread.
6. Stopped using artificial sweetener.
7. Traded in one car for a scooter.
8. Ride bike/scoot instead of drive as much as possible.
9. Went camping over spring break instead of road trip.
10. Print on both sides of paper.
11. Use weird-shaped paper and envelopes for grocery lists and notes.
12. Print all work documents on both sides.
13. Stopped buying laundry detergent -- make our own.
14. Stopped buying liquid body soap -- use bar soap.
15. Bring own bags to grocery store.
16. Bring own bags and containers for bulk.
17. Bring own plates to picnics, etc.
18. Got rid of non-stick pans -- use stainless steel or cast iron. **
19. Turn off lights when not in use.
20. Conserve water in bath tub -- shared baths for kids.
21. Wash clothes in cold water.
22. Hang clothes dry.
23. Bring cup to coffee shop.
24. Use non-disposable coffee filter.
25. Buy fair-trade coffee.
26. Buy organic milk. **
27. Buy as much as possible used.
28. Stopped buying greeting cards -- homemade instead.
29. Reuse wrapping paper and gift bags.
30. Don't buy juice boxes for parties; serve juice with cups.
31. Bring basket of silverware to parties instead of disposable.
32. Bring disposable silverware and extra napkins home so they are not thrown in the trash.
33. Garden
34. Go to the library instead of buying books/videos
35. (I can't believe I forgot this one and had to come back) -- compost with WORMS
That's all I can think of for now. Here are the explanations for the starred items.
**4. Cloth diapers are totally awesome. I feel like a chump that I did not use them for my first two kids. They are inexpensive, they work well, and they have great re-sale value. That said, I could not find a good system for the night. My daughter pees A LOT at night. Even disposable diapers did not hold in the flood. Even a cloth diaper with a disposable doubler. Even two cloth diapers (and then she could barely walk because of all the bulk). The only thing that has worked is pull-ups. So, she wears a pull-up every night. :(
**18. I am afraid to get rid of the last pan because of pancakes. I will try them in cast-iron, but I am afraid they'll stick. Cast-iron is supposed to be naturally non-stick if it is properly seasoned, but that doesn't seem to be working so far.
**26. This took a long time. Organic milk is expensive and my children are milkaholics. BUT we finally made the switch (the increased price of regular milk actually helped.. when the difference was only a dollar, it didn't seem that bad.) I also buy organic yogurt, but I don't buy other organic milk products, which makes me feel hypocritical and bad.
Can you tell I'm suffering from environmental guilt? To be honest, today I'm pretty sick of feeling guilty. Now that I've made the list, I can see that I have made a lot of changes...
Do you suffer from environmental guilt? Do you ever just want to say "to heck with it all!"? What do you tell yourself?
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