My dear and very thrifty friend Crystal came over last week and taught me some of her money-saving grocery shopping tricks. Spending less money on things like groceries has suddenly become an imperative for more reason than one - the main need being simply economic, and the other need being a general desire to consume less. Crystal suggests: -Look at the websites of the stores in your area BEFORE you go shopping. Find out which items are on sale and plan menus around those items. Be willing to go to more than one store to get the best prices. -Keep a notebook with the prices of the items you buy most often. Pay attention to how much those things cost regularly so that when they go "on sale" you can be sure you are really getting a deal and not just falling for a good ad. -When something really does go on sale, buy a lot of it. Bread, butter, meat and other items can be frozen for future use without too much nutrient loss. -Choose organic food wisely. Organics, while better in many ways, are of course more expensive, and many of the benefits of organics are lost in highly processed food. Minimally processed organic fresh fruits and vegetables can be a very good buy. -Set a budget and stick to it. Take cash instead of a checkbook or credit card. Keep track of how much you are spending on your way through the store and when you have hit your budget amount, LEAVE. -Eat less meat. Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. Actually, Crystal didn't say that, it was me. On that note, here's another good reason to eat less meat: It's enormously expensive, both financially and ecologically, to produce meat. Our Western over-consumption of meat and dairy products takes a lot of money out of our pockets that could be spent on other things, and it causes us serious health problems. The life expectancy figures for American women just went down for the first time since 1918. Our consumption of meat and over-consumption of food in general is also potentially affecting the rest of the world. From an MSNBC article regarding the "silent tsunami of world hunger": Many analysts, including Britain's opposition leader David Cameron, claim that people in the West will need to eat less meat — and consume, or waste, less food in general. Some expect the shift in attitudes to herald the end of supermarket giveaways and cost-cutting grocery stores that stack goods to the ceiling and sell in bulk. Citizens in the West, China and India must realize that the meat on their plate and biofuels in their expensive cars carry a cost for those in the developing world, Evans said. Sheeran believes many already understand the impact. "Much of the world is waking up to the fact that food does not spontaneously appear on grocery store shelves," she said.
I was a vegetarian for four years and eventually gave it up because I discovered that while I didn't morally disagree with killing animals for food, I did (and do) have a big problem with the way we humans think it's acceptable to treat our food sources, be they animal, vegetable, or mineral, along with the land and the people involved with producing that food, with total disrespect, our sole purpose being to get the most profit out of them. All take and no give - it just doesn't seem like a good way to be. I admit that not all my reasons for giving up vegetarianism were pure (a street-side vendor selling bratwurst in Berlin had something to do with it) but since then I have tried to maintain healthy responsible food-purchasing habits with more or less success over the years. Sitting here tonight I feel like I'm on some wierd tree-hugging Moebius strip, going from idealistic, self-righteous hippie vegetarianism to...whatever this is now - something to do with Our Risen Lord, and hopefully humility, and love. Here's an article about the effects of reliance upon meat for those who may be interested: http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp and here's a link to some information on NPR if that's more your style http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89676010&sc=emaf. Anyone got any good vegetarian recipes to share? | 
