I think at some point last year, when I was unhappy and stressed with my old job, I told myself “I’m going to eat. And I’m going to eat what I like when I want it.” Which was cool - except I have expensive taste, I guess. I found ourselves spending a ridiculous amount of money on groceries for two people. More important, I was wasting a lot of food.
I do eat my leftovers for lunch, but I don’t like eating the same thing over and over again. A lot of people can repurpose their meats. But since I don’t eat meat, I usually make a new thing every night.
Well, in efforts to stop being so wasteful, and save a buck or two, I’m scaling back my weekly menu. I’m trying to use ingredients twice, and use what’s left in my fridge.
My grocery bill this week was roughly $32.00 - plus my $30 produce delivery every two weeks. So, $47 a week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Lunches are always left overs with fruit or veggies from the delivery.
And now a rant about changed eating habits — I apologize in advance, this is long. But I’ve thought a lot about it this weekend.
When I was in college, I had a pretty sweet set up for food. I spent $50 a month on groceries. I split my grocery bill in half with my roommate at the time. We were queens at poor eating. Our go-to meals were rice and beans, spaghetti, dal, canned soup, or stir fry. We probably ate healthier than most people, but our diet was still terrible. Our meals lacked vegetables. Most of our vegetable intake came from canned tomatoes, frozen peas in our spaghetti sauce, or frozen asian vegetable mixes.
I worked at a Bread Co, and ate breakfast there daily — always a multigrain bagel and coffee. My mom also put $50 a month on m meal plan for lunch. Since I was a vegan, I mostly ate vegetable or grain sides. I think the cost of my daily lunch was around $3.
Eating out on the weekends was usually a falafel sandwich from around the corner ($6) or thai curry from one of the five thai restaurants on the street ($7).
So, I ate really simple food, for a really simple price, and was really content. However, it wasn’t a healthy diet. I was anemic, with terrible nails and hair, and a poor complexion. I was probably underweight as well. And now I am at a point where my diet is much better. But I’m spending a lot of money to eat like this, and a lot of time.
There has to be a better balance. The biggest part is that I need to suck it up and stop complaining about eating leftovers. The second biggest part is that I need to stick to my beliefs (whole foods, organic foods), but not get carried away.
Also, I’m considering doing a fruit fast seasonally to reset my eating habits. I did the first one, it was hard, and I got over it. I can do another one.
