Farmer's Market 07/26/2009

The Farmer's market had a million things to buy but I didn't need much of anything. Honestly, I'm not sure what I ate last week because it seems like there is still lots of food left in the refrigerator.

So, I pretty much limited myself to eggs, milks, rhubarb (yep, they still had some), cantaloupe and and adorable eggplant. My total was $14 so I splurged and got an iced coffee for $1.50.

Splurging is a funny thing. For a long time, I spent some money every single day. Even if all I bought was a soda or a cup of coffee or tea; pretty much no day went my without spending something. In the last few weeks the number of says that I haven't spent any money at all has outnumbered the days I did spend significantly. I didn't really even notice. But, I was also getting a bit obsessive about not spending anything at all just so that I wouldn't be spending.

Yesterday, I volunteered at a small local festival. It's a fun day and bring sin a very diverse crowd which always makes me happy. There are always a few vendors and I never know how well they do so I usually try to buy a few little things to support them, but I've gotten into such a frugal state of mind that I couldn't convince myself to buy anything yesterday. Now I'm sorry because they had falafel sandwiches from the best place in the city for $5 and I love a good falafel.

I had a similar ambivalence earlier in the week when I went to a donation only performance. I want to support that kind of endeavor and make it worthwhile for all involved but I also don't want to break my own budget. As it happened, I forgot my wallet (hmm, what would Freud have to say about that?) and couldn't pay anyone anything. I was mortified and will find a way to make it up to them.

These events raise an issue I struggle with frequently: supporting events that I think are useful without sacrificing my budget. Volunteering is one way to do it. But many of the events rely on people who need to make something back on their investment (even if it only means breaking even). I make an effort to find inexpensive things that I can buy to show support. but i also don't want to end up with a bunch of things I don't need and, sometimes, the less expensive food items are things I don't eat (soda or high sugar foods).

I suppose that I will continue to struggle with this and will just have to take it on a case by case basis.

Market haul 18 July

Not the nest picture but it shows how much stuff there was.

Rhubarb is almost done for the year so I bought two pounds so I can put some away for the fall. That was my big expense.

8 tomatoes (seconds) 2.50
2 lb rhubarb 7.00
3 big zucchini 1.00
3 medium cucumbers 1.00
8 small eggplants 3.00
5 apples 3.00
1/2 gallon milk 3.50 (I split this with my housemate so i don't usually count the whole thing in my expenses)

$21.00 for the lot and the milk, rhubarb, and apples are really only half mine.

I feel a ratouille coming on this week. I usually just wing it when I make something like that but I may go and find an actual recipe.

In the end, I couldn't help myself. I just know that someone is going to clear out the refrigerator at work and throw away a ton of the food that is still hanging around. So, last night, I made a nice plate to take to a meeting I had up the street. It's not required to take food but I knew that people would eat it if I took it. So I picked up some cheese and salami and pepperoni and olives. Yes, this goes against my belief that eating just to get rid of food when you don't need to eat is the same as throwing the stuff away. But, I couldn't fight the urge.

It turned out to be a great idea. At least two people hadn't eaten dinner before the meeting and were starving and afraid that all there would be were sweets or junk. They were incredibly happy to see real food. I was happy to put it to good use. One of my meetingmates took the leftovers home to make pizza. I feel much better.

My trash for the week consists of:

teabags (bag in composting tag in recycling)
Tea wrappers- two in recycling, several in the trash
veggie bits into the composting
plastic wrap that was on some containers I found in the cupboard

my big trash is dog poop. I live in a city and I walk the dog in the park so I have to pick up his poop and throw it away. I reuse the plastic bags from the farmer's market and grocery store which means lot of extra plastic for clean up. But, when I've looked up biodegradable dog poop bags, they average over 10 cents each and I'm not sure about the expense vs the plastic. The problem is that I don't have any other way to recycle the plastic bags so I feel better that they are at least being used for something.

Another interesting blog I found

There are lots of frugal living blogs out there these days. I love to browse them when I have time because it's interesting to see all the different circumstances under which people started and are living the "frugal life"

(for the record, I don't see myself as being particularly frugal for frugality's sake. I have financial goals which meant that I needed to re prioritize my spending).

One blog that I like in particular is The Grocery Cart Challenge. Why this one? A few reasons: one is that what she is doing is very different from what I'm doing even though the principle is the same. She is feeding a family of 6 on $60/week. I swear that I would not have thought it possible but she is doing it even with all the challenges of having kids and a husband. The second is that she has really opened her blog up to participation by her readers through a nifty widget that allows people to enter the link to their own blog. The third follows along with that and that is that you can find lots of links to other frugal shoppers there.
Visit her blog and you will find shopping lists and recipes and all sorts of other stuff.

Freebies

Yesterday was "free slurpee day" at Seven Eleven. Apparently, Monday is free mocha day at McDonald's. There is a ton of leftovers in the kitchen here at work so it is not an exaggeration to say that I could have free lunch and snacks for the next few days.

The problem is that I don't really want any of these things. Occasionally, my Sevem Eleven has a sugar free slurpee that is nice but I wouldn't drink the sweetened kind at all, ever. I enjoy a nice mocha but I'm not really interested in one from McDonalds and I'd have to make a special effort to go there to get it anyway. The stuff in the kitchen includes a lot of chips and store bought dips. There is also cheese and pepperoni but how much of that do I want to eat at lunch time?

I'm constantly running into things I could get for free and having to debate whether I want them enough that I would pay for them if they weren't free. I know people who reflexively take anything that is free regardless of whether they want it or not. My old boss would always get the potatoes and toast with her eggs even though she was doing the Atkin's induction, just because they came with the meal (funny thing is that it turns out that if she has just been nicer to the people at the restaurant, they would have discounted the price for her for not taking the extras).

On some of the coupon blogs I've seen people comment that they've gotten so much free stuff they don't even know anymore what they have.

For me, I think that unless I'd be willing to pay for an item or know of someone who would appreciate it, I'm going to pass up on the freebies. In the end, they just raise the price of the item for the regular buyers, they generally have a bunch of packaging that will have to be thrown out, and they are often form food companies I think I'd rather not appear to support.
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Pot luck hangover

Ahh, the pot luck last night was fantastic! The food was all beautiful and a lot of it was local. there was a delicious cole slaw, my quinoa salad, a wheatberry salad. An incredible Trinidadian dish (the hostess is trini) made with vegetables and dried fish was the only non vegetarian thing there. there were amazing roasted vegetables with fresh mozzarella and a dip that I'm not even sure what all was in it apart from a home made pepper jelly and beans and shallots. Many of the vegetables came from the farmer's market or from people's rooftop gardens and backyard planters.
There were lots of leftovers so I managed to come home with almost as much food as I took, including two cucumbers, some of the fish dish, and wheatberry salad.

On a different note: I'm continuing the fight with my neighbor about his annoying tree. He came by yesterday to ask me to open my back gate so that he could cut some more branches. I opened it and told him that I'm happy to have the tree gone but that he MUST be sure not to harm any of my food producing plants. He said that he couldn't guarantee the safety of my herbs and tomatoes. I was pretty mad (because my housemate told me that when they went out last time, the neighbor was cutting branches and letting them fall where ever on the theory that as long as I didn't know, it wasn't a big deal) and told him that if my plants were damaged I would expect him to compensate me for them and that he's had ten years to cut the tree down and there is no reason why he needs to be doing it in the middle of the summer putting my stuff at risk.

He stomped off in a huff.

Another potluck and farmer's market haul

My tabouleh received a lukewarm greeting at the baby shower. Mostly because the party was at 2:30 and people wanted more snacky food. This was good for me because it means I got to bring most of it home.
I have another potluck today, a picnic in the park at a concert. I want to be sure to bring something unusual but also to work with what I have so I've picked a recipe for Tomato Mint Quinoa salad which will be fresh and light and probably not something anyone else is making. Plus, I have all the ingredients except the radishes and I'm just going to leave them out. I don't think I've ever bought a radish in my life. I will FINALLY finish the tomatoes from a couple weeks ago.

My farmer's market haul for the week:

1 lb kale $1
6 yams $2
3 cucumbers $1
3 green peppers $1
1 qt green beans $2
1/4 peck peaches $6 (but it's a ton of peaches!)
1 lb rhubarb $3.50
1 dz eggs 1.75
1/2 gall milk 3.50
6 small onions $2

Total: $23.75

I have chicken, oatmeal, rice and some beans left so I'll probably buy a few loaves of bread and maybe a jar of peanut butter and be done with it.

Two weeks ago the big market explosion was the tomatoes. This week it was the peaches. I can't wait to have peachy oatmeal and since I have so many, I will probably freeze the rhubarb to use in the fall with apples.

Wste Not Want not

I ran across the Confessions of a (Sometimes!) Serendipitous Girl which is a cute (in layout)and smart (in content) blog by a woman who has recently relocated to Oregon. SSG is planning on starting a food budget of $40-50/week and will be posting about her shopping and menus. I have a feeling that she will come up with some new ideas that I can certainly use.

She also posted the first of Food Waste Friday pictures, an idea she got from the Frugal Girl. I was considering a similar idea myself (err, great minds and all that?) but it's hard for me because my housemate adds a lot to the trash!

If I'm going to pursue this, now is the time. My city is switching to a one plus one trash pickup. This will mean once a week for trash and once a week for recycling. I'm beyond excited about the recycling because I have so much more of that than trash anyway.

In fact, my actual trash is usually only a few plastic bags that food comes in, the plastic covers from oatmeal,

Recyclables: cardboard oatmeal container, egg cartons that go back to the farmers, milk bottle that also goes back to the farmer. Bread bags which I can use for cleaning up after the dog (ok, it's a total stretch to call this recycling)

Compostables: tea bags, coffee grounds, vegetable ends.

As far as my food waste goes, I'm pretty careful about it. If I have a sense that something will go off before I can eat it, I figure out how to freeze it or try to find another way to make it last longer. A few years ago I got a dehydrator for my birthday because I needed a way to handle all the figs my tree was producing. Since then, I've used it for all sorts of things, some more successful than others.

I'm fairly happy with the extent to which I've cut down on my waste. I'm still looking to reduce it more, if possible.

On another note: I'm watching King Corn today. I was hoping to buy corn on the cob at the market tomorrow but now I don't know. I know that the film isn't about corn in that way but I've always have strong reactions to films about food. I have to be careful because I'm always dropping foods out of my diet because of it! Anyway, it's a great documentary and I highly recommend it while you wait for Food Inc to come your way.

Rethinking coupons

Yesterday I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to bring something today for an office baby shower. Luckily, at my suggestion, the food theme is sort of middle eastern so I knew it would be easy to find something in my budget that I could do quickly.
Since I STILL have tomatoes and a cucumber, I decided to make Tabouleh using a pretty much standard recipe like the one here. I'm not a big fan of too much parsley so I went out back and picked about half the amount the recipe calls for and some mint. My backyard is fairly sheltered so things like sage, parsley, mint last all year for me. I also have basil, rosemary, and lavender back there. The only ingredients I needed to buy were the bulgar wheat and lemon. The Bulgar seemed expensive at $4.99 for 28 ounces but I have about half of it left for later use so that isn't too bad. For the lemons I had the option of one lemon for .69 or a 2lb bag for 2.99. Since I don't use lemons all that much, I opted for the single lemon.

While I was at the Safeway, the cashier suggested that I go online and look at all the coupon options they have just added. In February, it was really cold and my housemate was stuck inside with pneumonia and broken ribs so I started having groceries delivered. That made me very familiar with the store's website and I use it a lot now when I am checking on prices of things before I buy. In over a month of food delivery, I don't think I ever found a coupon on the site that was useful to me. I also scan many blogs and other money saving sites routinely and almost never find coupons for anything I want to buy.

As a result, I've sort of given up on the whole coupon thing altogether. It seems to me that a lot of people who rely extensively on coupons aren't actually eating all that well and are also teaching their children to have a taste for more processed foods. I just find it easier to buy things that I know I both want and are in my budget than to try to figure out what I have coupons for that haven't expired and how I will combine those foods, etc. it just seems like a lot of work to me.

So, out of curiosity, today I went online to check the "new" coupons that my store was offering. Much to my surprise, there were many that I would consider using. In most cases I'd still have to do some research on the best value for my money and situation. But they had coupons for things like olive oil, fresh salmon, dried cranberries, boneless skinless chicken breasts, a couple different kinds of vegetarian frozen foods, and several kinds of yogurt. There were still a bunch of processed and frozen things but I hadn't expected to find anything much that I would eat.

I doubt that I will ever become one of those people who goes crazy over coupons but it's nice to know that there are some that I can use.

Other people's food

I have a real post in draft form but I wanted to ask people to do two things:

1. Click at the Hunger Site

2. Look into the H.R. 1410: Newborn, Child, and Mother Survival Act of 2009

3/10/2009--Introduced.

Newborn, Child, and Mother Survival Act of 2009 - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize the President to furnish assistance to improve the health of newborns, children, and mothers in developing countries.

Directs the President to develop a comprehensive U.S. government strategy to reduce mortality and improve the health of newborns, children, and mothers in developing countries.

Establishes the Interagency Task Force on Child Survival and Maternal Health in Developing Countries.

I know that there are two sides (or more) to The Hunger Site. Some people feel that it is just a bandaid to make people who spend too much time on the internet feel good about themselves and that the amount of time spent clicking would be better spent elsewhere.

Personally, I waste a lot of time each day so I have no problem wasting it somewhere that might mean food for people living in poverty. I'm also not convinced by the argument that giving people food undermines their ability to produce food. People are not animals, there is no simple "If you feed me I"ll stop hunting" response lime in zoo animals. I believe that most people want to be self-sufficient and will work towards that goal if they see it as attainable. I also think that when you are starving, you don't really have time to worry about the finer politics of food.
Now, I admit that I need to do more research on the relationship between giving people food and food security. I know it isn't simple and that there are a million other variables including public health programs, education, culture, geography, etc.

But, until I have done enough research, I'll probably keep clicking.

In any event, you can still always click on the breast cancer site, child health, literacy, rain forest, and animal rescue.

Weekly Shopping (sort of)

Becaused I overspent a bit last week, I wanted to keep my spending this week to a minimum. I also looked around and realized that I still have lots of food in the house so I'm not in dire need of much. Before i left last week, I put two qurts of tomatoes in the freezer, half of teh peas that I had, rhubarb, and some rice that I'd already cooked. I still have a cucumber, and some squash in the refrigerator and LOTS of beans and rice leftover. Really, the only thing I need is milk because what I had left went bad (I get it from a local farmer at the farmer's market- it's more expensive than the grocery store but the bottle is recylable and I like knowing the guy who feeds the cow who gives me my milk).

So, my plan this week was to stock up on things I might not normally get. I decided to check out the coupons to the local Safeway (I need to write more about coupons sometime, I have a love hate relationship with them). My housemate was going shopping so this is what I sent him out to buy for me:

Item	Price/amnt	Price/serving	#servings
quinoa	4.15/14oz	.46	9
Bacon	3.99/24 oz	.28	14?
Chicken breast	9.99/4lb	.62	16
milk	1.99/half gall	.25	8
	20.12

I don't love quinoa but it's a "superfood" and I like it well enough to have it around for a little variety. The bacon was purely because it was on a 2 for 1 sale and keeps forever and I can use it for flavoring and in salads and omelettes. Chances are that my housemate will end up eating it anyway. The chicken seemed like a really good deal and I haven't had any in a while and the milk was the thing I most needed.

When I was making my list, I noticed that my thought process hasn't really changed over the last few weeks. It sounds strange but I was feeling almost obliged to spend the full $35 that I had budgeted. It was easy to talk myself out of it because of the overspending last week. But in my head there was $35 to spend and spend it I must even though I didn't need that much food.

I guess I'll still have to work on that

Back from the weekend

I'm back from the weekend at my sister's. It was very interesting to b ein her house after having gone through eating my own house down to bare bones. She is a warehouse shopping addict! Her house has 4 jars of peanut butter, five large containers of various kinds of nuts, 8 bags of chips of various sorts, 6 boxes of boca burgers, 5 boxes of vegetarian corn dogs, four kinds of cereals, a refrigerator full of beer and Mike's Har lemonade things. That's all I can remember and that's not the half of it.

On one hand, It was really fun to have access to so much stuff. Most of what she has around is not really bad food if eaten in moderation. But having so much around meant that it was hard to walk through the dining room without wanting to snack on something. i worked hard at being good but had my moments. Others in my family never made it through without eating something.

For the Fourth, one of the dishes that we made was potatoes roasted in the oven with a little olive oil and herbs(one pan was rosmary, one was sage and onion, one was mint). Now, this i sthe easiest possible dish to prepare. In fact, roasting various kinds of vegetables with olive oil is something I do several times a week. So you can imagine how strange I find it that people are always amazed by the dish when I prepare it. It's incredibly cheap and easy and delicious. Really, the only hard part about it is having the patience to let it cook for long enough. Even then, as long as it's brown outside, you can alway microwave it to get the inside done.

I thought this was how everyone cooks!

Visiting Family

I'm leaving tonight for my sister's until Monday. it's about 600miles so we will drive through the night (I sleep and my housemate drives and then when we get there, he gets to sleep).

This presents a dilemma for me because I want to be generous and share in the expense for food but I'd also like to stay within my weekly budget if I can. So my plan is to take actual food with me rather than offering my little $15 dollars. I think this works really well because there are things I can get cheaper here than she can get there and it also helps with her ability to get everything done.

This is the list of what I'm planning to take:

6 loaves of bread (from the outlet 3/$1)
2 sets of hot dog buns 2.50

Two pounds of coffee which I already have in my freezer
that "relish" accident I made the other day- I'm going to stick it in a pretty jar and make it be gourmet

I'm also going to make a couple pounds of Greek style green beans . green bean are running about $1.50/lb right now.

and, since I am developing a surplus of milk and eggs, I'll do a bread pudding to take with me too.

Then I need to get some beer so I'll get a case of the local stuff and that will put me over budget but it will be worth it since it's sort of a gift.

The more I plan, the more excited I'm getting!