Surviving Sustainability on a Budget

A super tight one.

The whole organic movement isn't really all that new. It seems to have a really tight grasp on upper middle class suburban white families. There was a quote in that new show Parenthood on NBC where one of the mom's states that her daughter "just won't eat conventional kiwi's anymore, only the organic ones." The mom is portrayed as a total snob. She really is a total snob. She uses the fact that she can afford ridiculously expensive fruit from another country to rub it in another mom's face.

I know hate is a really strong word... but that particular attitude about food really ticks me off.

I'm not sure why the organic/eco conscious/ sustainable movement took root so strongly in the areas it did. Maybe it's Oprah's fault. Maybe it's just another way to insert drama into stay at home mom's lives.



We have a really tight food budget. Joe does his best to allow for as much room as we can manage- but it's still tight. I've had a really hard time the past couple of weeks with whether or not we can really afford to buy the food we are buying.

I clip coupons, shop at different stores for the best price, buy in bulk, and make just about everything from scratch. We hardly ever eat out except for the whole coffee addiction thing. But that all takes time and energy and I'm still not sure if it is really worth it.

Is it really worth it to buy a $20 chicken from the farm in Wellington, CO when I can buy a $5 chicken from across the country? Is is really worth the extra $.20 an avocado= or an extra $2 a lb for apples? Organic milk is at least 2.5 times more expensive than the conventional milk. Apple juice from apples can be 3-4 times as much money as Minute Maid. Wal-mart had Ham for sale for Easter for $1.50 a lb. I spent... drum roll please... $6 a lb on our Easter Ham.

In order for us to afford it, I buy clothes from the thrift store, wash our own diapers, turn off the heat when it's over 50 degree outside and don't use air conditioning in the summer.

Am I crazy? I have no idea. I feel like it a lot of days. I mean there are only so many nights you can serve beans and rice before you have a mutiny on your hands.

I don't do it for a status symbol. I don't do it to seem make myself feel like a better mom. I don't do it for some sort of self esteem raising crap.

I do it because I really do care about where our food comes from. I think that chickens should be happy- I don't see a reason to avoid eating them- it's still a part of life. Someone will eat them eventually. But they should be respected as God's creatures. So should pigs and cows and ducks.

How do you think Wal-Mart got their ham down to $1.50 a pound? Do you think it was from someone respecting the pig as God's creature or viewing the meat as a dollar sign? Does anyone actually think that cows like eating corn when they were created to eat grass?

For our family, we make such an effort out of respect for what we have been given, for the little we do have. Saying grace before dinner has become increasingly emotional for me as of late. I know the cost of the roasted chicken. The chicken that gave up it's life, for the hands that planted the carrots and potatoes. For the herbs that give so much flavor for so little in return.


I see so much beauty- so much complexity- so much value- in the food that God has provided for us.


I guess in the end what makes all the running around, all the coupons, all the money- worth it is that our food supply is worth it.

In the end it isn't about the Joneses being better off than anybody. It's just us being thankful.

I don't expect anyone to do what I do in terms of food and time and money but I do think that awareness- simple gratitude even- is a small step in a really important direction.