The Grocery Budget (What Do You Do All Day?)

from Ben's mom

The several times I have been asked "What do you do all day?" by some well-meaning person who can't imagine that there is much work or challenge to being a homemaker usually leaves me dazed in the moment and unable to give the answer I need to. I hope this commentary comes to me the next time.

When we moved to Washington, we carefully looked at the salary index calculator and were pleasantly surprised that the cost of living was less.* One little category disrupted the scaled down numbers but I paid little attention to it: consumables. Consumables are approximately 28% more in Washington as compared to northern Virginia. No big deal, right? Ugh!

An example: The couch we bought last weekend from IKEA is $100 more at the Seattle and San Francisco locations.

But where it really hits us is groceries. Living within 100 miles of highly agricultural districts seems to mean nothing. The last time I traveled I had to laugh to find Washington grown apples were about .30/lb cheaper in Virginia than they were in my local grocery store. Our grocery spending has tripled since we moved out here for several reasons: a new eater with extensive allergies, the higher cost of groceries, and my growing awareness of the ingredients and health value of food.

Recently, TIME magazine had a section on food with a lot of good information. One article ("Six Rules for Eating Wisely" by Michael Pollan, TIME, June 12, 2006, pp. 97) was great at helping me articulate why we spend more on food. (Americans spend 9.7% of their income on food and we are spending closer to 14%.) The Six Rules are:

Don't eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. ...."Go-gurt,...Twinkies,...Vitamin Water. Those aren't foods...they're food products....Butter (is) better for you....; trans-fatty margarine is killing us."

Avoid foods containing high-fructose corn syrup. "HFCS was not part of the human diet until 1975, each of us now consumes more than 40 lbs. a year, some 200 (empty) calories a day."

Spend more, eat less. We spend less of our income on food than any other nation, but more on health care. "All of this 'cheap food' is making us fat and sick....The higher the quality of the food you eat...the less of it you'll need to feel satisfied."

Pay no heed to nutritional science or the health claims on packages. "Consider that the healthiest foods in the supermarket--the fresh produce--are the ones that don't make any FDA-approved health claims.... When Whole Grain Lucky Charms show up in the cereal aisle, it's time to stop paying attention to health claims."

Shop at the farmer's market. "You'll begin to eat foods in season, when they are at the peak of their nutritional value and flavor, and you'll cook, because you won't find anything processed or microwaveable."

How you eat is as important as what you eat. "The lesson of the 'French paradox' is you can eat all kinds of supposedly toxic substances as long as you follow your culture's rules: eat moderate portions, don't go for seconds or snacks between meals, never eat alone."

We're doing well at most of these rules but still working on eating less and eating smaller portions. Even though the money bothers me, we make choices towards that end. I am not into baking my own bread, and would much rather buy healthy bread and spend more time cooking dinner.

I have recently discovered that often the healthy alternatives are cheaper. We spend $2 or less on chips that are healthy (and don't have dairy, HFCS, etc...) at Whole Foods than we used to on chips in the grocery store. They still taste good (we've weeded out a few brands that didn't) but they are hearty enough that I don't want more than a few and they last longer too. There are exceptions; we pay $1.99 for a small container (8 oz.) of goat's milk yogurt for Ben. He doesn't eat it often, but he needs the calcium and it is worth it to me to pay for him to get it in food form.

And when anyone wonders how I keep from getting bored staying home all day? Well, my job title brings up new challenges everyday. Feeding a family is no small feat, especially if you want to do it well.

*Interestingly, 2 years later, it now costs 20% MORE to live in Olympia, WA than in Leesburg, VA.