Trouble With Toast

Eat on $60 – Final Thoughts

Because I did the challenge a week earlier than everyone else, it’s actually been over a week since I wrapped up the $60 project.  I’ve had a lot of time to ruminate about what I learned and what I will take with me from the experience, yet somehow it is difficult to wrap everything up in one blog post.

I’m not ashamed to say that I was happy to be finished with the challenge.  My kitchen was BARE when I came back from New York (with the exception of the apples I brought home with me), so I went to Kroger to stock up.  I didn’t spend nearly as much time in the store as I did when I was hard-core budget shopping, but I didn’t blaze on through willy nilly, either.  I shopped specials and sales and used coupons, and even though I had a triple-digit tab, I saved 21% with smarter shopping.  However, I also felt a bit guilty and sad, because I knew that my “saving” represented, to an enormous number of Georgians, a level of excess that could never be contemplated, let alone acted upon.

More than 12% of Georgians live in poverty.  In Fulton County, where I live, that number jumps to 25%.  That is one in every four people.  And those people have to choose between food and a roof over their heads, between food and heat, between food and medical care.  My mom and I were discussing the challenge, and we both verbalized how lucky we felt to have never gone without food and to have always had a safe place to live.  The truth is, while everyone has suffering in their lives, there is little that is more heartbreaking than the thought of a hungry child.  And the other truth is, there are hundreds of thousands of children in our state (and all of the others, I’m certain) who live with hunger each and every day.

The lovely Tami of running with tweezers was the driving force behind Eat on $30, and she hosted a “break the fast” party at her place last weekend.  While we were obviously fortunate to be surrounded by great food (BLT deviled eggs, “rat toes,” rosemary latkes, and gingerbread “chewies” were my faves) and wine, Tami and I chatted for a few moments about the harsh realities brought to light by the challenge.  Sure, money is the primary issue, with many people being unable to obtain healthy food due to budgetary constraints.  But the problem is much bigger than that.  What about time?  The people who were successful with Eat on $30 (and even those of us, ahem, who were somewhat less than successful) had at least a little bit of time to cook, to package leftovers, and to prep and shop based on the limitations.  What about a single mother who works two jobs to support her children?  And don’t think there aren’t people who work multiple jobs and yet still can’t afford good, quality food.  They’re called the “working poor,” and they represent a large and growing group of Americans.

Then there are the issues of knowledge and tools.  Cooking and eating together was always very important in my family, and what I didn’t learn from my parents and grandparents I was able to glean from other fairly common sources (books, magazines, TV, and the like).  And, due to a steady job and some very generous gifts, I have nearly all of the gadgets and gizmos you’d ever need.  Food processor, nice pots and pans, immersion blender, waffle iron, good quality knives, stand mixer, creme brulee torch, you name it, it’s probably available to me.  But what about a family that can barely afford paper plates?  What about a homeless individual who doesn’t have access to a kitchen, let alone kitchen tools?  There is so much more to hunger than just food.

By the end of the party, we had raised a few hundred dollars for Project Open Hand, and we had discussed volunteer opportunities for those who wanted to give of their time.  We may be a small group taking small steps, but we are passionate about food and see no reason why hunger shouldn’t be eradicated in our lifetimes.  In terms of what I took away from the experience, I feel that I am a lot more aware of what I am purchasing and how not to waste it.  I am reorganizing my priorities, in the sense that I am cutting down on junky impulse purchases and focusing more on wholesome, multi-tasking products.  I am clipping coupons and scanning sale fliers with much more regularity.  I am a food fanatic at heart, so there will always be some dinners out and some crazy recipes to test, but it’s not necessary to go that route every day, or even every week.

Yes, I am glad to be finished with Eat on $30, but I am also glad to have started it.  Most importantly of all, I have made some great new friends through the experience, and together we can continue to open eyes…and maybe even a few doors.

Eat on $60 – Days 6 and 7

When I woke up on Friday (Day 6 of the challenge), I knew we were going to go over our $60 budget.  The only question that remained was, by how much?  The fridge was definitely bare, but I was about to head out of town AND there was no money left in the till to buy any additional ingredients.  We just had to hunker down and do the best we could.

For breakfast, I ate the leftover McMuffin that was stashed in my work fridge ($1.25), and Jason scarfed his usual energy bar ($1.08).  For lunch, I really put my cholesterol levels in a tizzy and had two hard-boiled eggs ($0.16), two frozen waffles ($0.38), and yogurt ($0.25).  Jason opted for another portion of the leftover sesame noodles ($2.00).  I had a slice of Nutella cake for a snack ($0.79), and Jason ate an apple ($0.41).  For dinner, I ate the last container of the leftover noodles ($2.00).  As for Jason, he headed out of  town after work for a weekend of free college football fun, so there was no more food to count for him.  At the end of the day, my total was $4.83 and Jason’s was $3.49, which brought our overall Friday number to $8.32.  That was the first time we came in under the $8.57 daily budget, but it still brought our week-to-date total to $63.30.  Any pride regarding the accomplishments of the day was short-lived when the budget crossed that sixty dollar line.

On Saturday, I woke up SUPER early to get to the airport, and I was so tired and cranky that I didn’t eat or drink anything until I got to New York (I was visiting my grandmother on Long Island).  Once I picked my grandmother up from her rehab center, we headed straight for the local pizzeria to grab a slice.  Thankfully, granny decided to treat, so I got a break from the number crunching for one meal.  I did pay for dinner for both of us, which consisted of made-at-home roast beef sandwiches and potato chips.  My total grocery bill for that meal was $5.00.  Again, Jason was out of town, tailgating on someone else’s dime, so the grand total for the Eat on $60 challenge was…

$68.30

I have a lot of thoughts about what we did well, what we could have done better, and what we learned through participating in this endeavor, but I’ll post those ruminations separately, as I think they deserve their own space.  It took a while to process all of the information gleaned from the challenge, but I can tell you, without shame or regret, that I woke up on Sunday, took a brisk jog, and then went to my favorite childhood orchard and bought about ten pounds of fresh, crisp, juicy New York apples to bring back to Atlanta.  There are just times when excess is too delicious and nostalgic to pass up…

Eat on $60 – Day 5

Thursday of the Eat on $60 challenge was a BAD day right from the start.  I wasn’t doing as well with the money as I hoped to, I was REALLY tired of eating leftovers, and I was fresh out of coffee.  That all adds up to one cranky Betty, and I weighed the shame of quitting against the delicious freedom that would come from it.  Largely due to the fact that I am a good Jewish girl, the guilt won out in the end.  But I’m not going to lie–it was a close call.

I wish I could say that I was a good person that day, and that thoughts of all the poverty-stricken people in the United States helped me to realize that my teensy tiny sacrifice would be worth any short-lived pain I was experiencing.  I wish I could say that, but I can’t.  I tried every trick in the book to remind myself of how fortunate I am, and to feel grateful for having never personally dealt with hunger.  Unfortunately, altruism just wasn’t on my mind.  I felt like a miserable failure, but I didn’t particularly care.  Like I said, it was a bad day.

It was also a bad day because I walked right out of the house without breakfast, probably due in large part to my lack of caffeination.  Right as I got onto the interstate, my stomach started grumbling and I knew what I had done.  There was a string of expletives, believe you me.  I racked my brain for options, but I knew in my heart that the fast food breakfast was the only thing that would keep me even CLOSE to on-budget.  So, with many a grumble, I headed to McDonald’s and got two sausage McMuffins with egg for $2.50.  I ate one for breakfast and put the other in the office fridge.

Breakfast

Betty – McMuffin ($1.25).  Total – $1.25

Jason – energy bar ($1.08).  Total – $1.08

For lunch, Jason got leftover soup while I cleared out a few mix-and-match items that were hanging around from earlier in the week.

Lunch

Betty – baked potato ($0.20), broccoli ($0.43), chicken salad ($1.13).  Total – $1.76

Jason – soup ($0.92), Nutella cake ($0.79).  Total – $1.71

For some reason, I wasn’t really snacky.  I was super busy at work, so I guess part of it was that I didn’t have time to think about noshing in the afternoon like I usually do.  Jason had an apple ($0.41) and Fig Newtons ($0.37), for a snack total of $0.78.

By the time dinner came rolling around, I was all kinds of pissy again.  Nothing was appealing to me, and the text that I got from Jason while he was walking the dog didn’t help my motivation (it said something to the effect of “OMFG it smells good at Fritti”).  I thought about bagging the whole challenge, getting in the car, and indulging in a lovely Neopolitan style pizza.  I even had a $25 Fritti gift certificate, as if to coax me into submission and justify my failure.  Just when I was about to give in, I saw some bacon out of the corner of my eye, left over from a pound that I had previously bought on sale.  I took a deep breath, regained my perspective, and opted to make grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches for dinner.  Between the two slices of bread ($0.14), two slices of cheese ($0.50), and three slices of bacon ($0.90), the sandwiches came out to $1.54 each.  We added baked potatoes at $0.20 each, just to make sure we were full so that temptation wouldn’t rear its ugly head in the form of dessert.

So, dinner was $1.74 each, and it was actually quite comforting.  My total for the day was $4.75, and Jason’s was $5.31.  Our final daily number ended up at $10.06, which is the lowest it had been all week.  However, by the end of Day 5, we had spent $54.98 for the week, leaving us with just over $5 for two people for two more days.  It wasn’t looking good, but I was determined to stick with it to see just how far over our $60 budget we would go.