Experiment: living on 30 bucks a week
That's for all my groceries and shopping, so you can probably see the problem: it's do-able unless something unexpected turns up, like for example a new ink cartridge for your printer which swallows up half a week's budget in one gulp.
However, side-effects are interesting.
No sweets or junk food. Sure, one package of sweets is cheap. It's just that I don't usually buy one, it end's up being three different because I can't make up my mind between chocolate, tortilla chips, candy, potato chips, ... which right now would mess up my body doubly: loads of artificial additives, less money for fresh vegetables and fruit.
fridge and freezer are cleaning up I didn't even know I had 3 small packages of cheese in the freezer and one goat cheese in the fridge! Plus lots of other stuff, and most of it pretty healthy, waiting to be eaten. Okay, or be thrown out. Kiwis don't keep forever. There's lots of stuff I bought because it was on sale, or sensible food, or both, and then forgot about it. I think there are easily enough carbs in my small kitchen for this month at least and possibly the next one.
Of course that means that once I've depleted all that stuff my grocery bill will go up, but right now it's actually helpful to get my freezer to the point where it's drawers aren't overflowing.
Mulligan's cooking! Because I'm using whatever has been hiding on the shelves or whatever vegetables are priced down one hour before closing time, I end up with some pretty weird stuff. As a rule: all vegetables can be fried and then either turned into a soup or casserole. But it really helps if you have some bits of protein to add taste. Which leads to ...
near-vegetarian Meat is a bit pricy, especially if you don't want to buy the cheapest stuff there is. Also, I re-watched this, which brought to mind lots of stuff I already know. So I'll use up what little meat there is in my freezer, and then I'll just have to look around for locally produced, non-cruelty, grass-fed meat.
I could maybe overlook the way animals are hurt - it's awful, but most animals in the wild are eaten by some other animal before they reach adulthood. But that human beings are doing it so callously may be even worse, and the waste of resources is, especially with the state of the environment as it is, insane.
To avoid a misconception: Even though I wish people would eat less meat, and not the cheap-as-you-can produced meat, I know everyone has to make that choice for him/herself. Simply eating less meat is easier than giving it up altogether, and I suspect it means enjoying the meat one _does_ it all the more.
However, side-effects are interesting.
No sweets or junk food. Sure, one package of sweets is cheap. It's just that I don't usually buy one, it end's up being three different because I can't make up my mind between chocolate, tortilla chips, candy, potato chips, ... which right now would mess up my body doubly: loads of artificial additives, less money for fresh vegetables and fruit.
fridge and freezer are cleaning up I didn't even know I had 3 small packages of cheese in the freezer and one goat cheese in the fridge! Plus lots of other stuff, and most of it pretty healthy, waiting to be eaten. Okay, or be thrown out. Kiwis don't keep forever. There's lots of stuff I bought because it was on sale, or sensible food, or both, and then forgot about it. I think there are easily enough carbs in my small kitchen for this month at least and possibly the next one.
Of course that means that once I've depleted all that stuff my grocery bill will go up, but right now it's actually helpful to get my freezer to the point where it's drawers aren't overflowing.
Mulligan's cooking! Because I'm using whatever has been hiding on the shelves or whatever vegetables are priced down one hour before closing time, I end up with some pretty weird stuff. As a rule: all vegetables can be fried and then either turned into a soup or casserole. But it really helps if you have some bits of protein to add taste. Which leads to ...
near-vegetarian Meat is a bit pricy, especially if you don't want to buy the cheapest stuff there is. Also, I re-watched this, which brought to mind lots of stuff I already know. So I'll use up what little meat there is in my freezer, and then I'll just have to look around for locally produced, non-cruelty, grass-fed meat.
I could maybe overlook the way animals are hurt - it's awful, but most animals in the wild are eaten by some other animal before they reach adulthood. But that human beings are doing it so callously may be even worse, and the waste of resources is, especially with the state of the environment as it is, insane.
To avoid a misconception: Even though I wish people would eat less meat, and not the cheap-as-you-can produced meat, I know everyone has to make that choice for him/herself. Simply eating less meat is easier than giving it up altogether, and I suspect it means enjoying the meat one _does_ it all the more.