It's my blog and I'll post my viewpoint if I want to! (Sing to the old sixties song about crying at her birthday.)
Food for me, is pretty much no fun. All the yummy stuff, I'm not (and you either, for mostly the same reasons) supposed to eat. No soy because of my thyroid condition (curses to my husband for calling out my remaining allowance for soy sauce: I buy no more! Waaaah!). No wheat because it contains phytate (so do beans and seeds and nuts and legumes, if not fermented/soaked/cooked properly. Google Weston Price phytate article) which causes your body to be unable to absorb minerals (kind of a big deal!). No sugar (we all know why...it makes you inflamed which leads to chronic diseases and causes early aging, brittle skin hair and nails).
No canned food because the BPA inhibits the pathway your body uses to process and use B vitamins/folate. I also have MTHFR gene disorder (which there are two variations, and 30-70% of the population has a copy of this defective gene and don't know it! Get blood tested!) which prevents the B vitamins from being absorbed properly, which can result in the body not working right, and predispose it to ALL SORTS of diseases, which we know have been trending upwards in recent history. Google MTHFR for more info. No dairy (ok I cheat here) because casein is not well digested and can cause chronic subclinical (undetected) inflammation which nevertheless is causing your allergy/asthma/auto-immune disorders etc. (Our family struggles with allergies and asthma constantly.) Per my bloodwork, my health, hormones, thyroid, etc has been so out of balance for so long, that I can't even detox the simplest of things. For all I know my kids have this disorder too; I plan to have them tested before they hit puberty, which is when problems start to arise. So I have to be careful what we put in our bodies.
There's probably a thousand reasons to not eat meat (and I've educated myself on all of them) but I have to draw the line somewhere. Healthwise, the human physiology has evolved on meat so as long as its as natural as possible and in moderation I'm ok with that for now. So I try to do a sort of Paleo based diet although its not strict. I also try to buy some of the products more likely to be doused with antibiotics, hormone,s and pesticides (read: meat and dairy and thin-skinned fruits and veggies), and I avoid GMO, because I have many hours during the day to educate myself about the health-destroying properties of said products. I feel bad for those who do not have the time or inclination to also educate themselves, so consider this your affectionate 'kick in the pants' reminder to put it on your to-do list.
Anyways, I hate being hungry, and so do my kids, so I shop. My old M.O. was to wait for payday, kick up my heels with glee, and run to the grocery store, filling my cart with as much as it could hold with whatever looked good to me (within the parameters above) because surely that would last two weeks. On average, grocery trips like that (especially when other non-food items like Cascade and laundry soap needed to be replenished), the bill came to 325 per trip. that's 650/month.
Recently I started getting scolded for spending this much at the store, 'especially when there was still no food left to eat' afterwards. That comment comes from my husband who, God love him, contradicts himself regularly regarding the food situation. I think he is as conflicted about food as me and the rest of the country. He will eat fast food and corner store snacks (read: junk food and drink), then later he will poke his belly and say he wants to start eating healthier, less processed food etc.
But since he has not been living at his mom's house or single for the last 15 years, he has forgotten how to cook for himself and is loathe to even slice up a canteloupe, so to him, (remember this is my genuine heartfelt observation and perception, and I LOVE my husband, so anyone who knows us and happens to be reading this, please be merciful in your interpretations!!) when he sees a pantry with no Hamburger Helper or Lipton Cheesy Cheddar (I don't know if that's what they're really called but we used to buy them all the time), that requires prep/cooking and thus equals 'nothing to eat.' In his defense, he calls me from work and says, "What's for lunch" Which I hear as an affectionate "get in there, kitchen wench, and make me some grub!" which I am all too happy to do.
Anyways, back to getting scolded. I get scolded if I don't buy the food and there's 'nothing to eat.' I get scolded if I buy the food and I spend too much (or the food requires prep). What does this tell me? That it's time to get the management involved! This means documenting everything, making a meal plan sheet that everyone can agree on for each week, and keeping the DH informed. I also decided to split the two week allowance into two parts and do one week's shopping at a time so its easier to not overbuy on quantity and extras we don't need.
Also, I want to CUT the grocery budget from 650 to 400-500. This means $100-125/week on food items. Personal care and household goes in its own budget category. (That will be another post!)
So how did I do today at the grocery store? I combined DS's birthday accessories (cake mixes, balloons, glow sticks, popcorn) and household items (TP, Cascade, glass pyrex food storage containers) with the food bill and spent $141. So items which are budgeted elsewhere don't count towards my $125. Let's look at the receipt and see if I went over: Nope!! I spent $98.34 on FOOD ITEMS which are all ON MY MEALS LIST! Yay! If I keep that average up, I'll only spend $400/month on food, and considering what I've been researching, that's pretty decent, for Real Food, not pansy sugar-and-processed-flour food.
Ahhhhh....sweet success. I'm so happy improvements are being made.
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