Sunday, April 17, 2005
(10:20 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Food Expenses
Each time I go grocery shopping, I hope to spend as little as $20, though I think that $30 would be okay, too. I almost always hit over $50. When I mentioned this to Hayley, she thought that the culprit was all the processed food I eat -- it improperly nourishes me, so that I end up eating more of it in the end, thus increasing my expenses.I have eaten organic foods many times and consistently enjoyed it. In fact, every time I eat actual healthy food, which is increasingly often due to Hayley's recent conversion to veganism, I continue to lose my taste for the crappy food. The problem is my laziness. I don't know off-hand how to prepare healthier meals, so I end up eating Macaroni and Cheese. This problem will only get worse next fall, as I start in on a PhD program and work part-time. I do think, though, that if it really is true that it's cheaper in the short- to medium-run to eat organic foods, that would really help to motivate me to get my act together.
I might not even need that much motivation, because I'm really getting tired of going to the store and buying foods that I don't even really enjoy and that I only eat in order to get by until such time as I learn how to cook. What better time to learn that than this summer, before the academic work really ramps up? And who knows? Perhaps spending more time cooking and paying careful attention to the nutritional content and the broader economic context of the foods I eat will help to produce healthier habits on other levels, such as more time outside rather than hovering around the computer all the time. I doubt it would lead to a serious decrease in posting, just more poorly moderated comment threads, and I don't end up posting very many comments anyway.
