I promise this will be the last post about our food challenge. So what did we learn doing the food challenge?
Its been three weeks and we think two things are sticking.
First we are much more conscious of the cost of food. We are still walking out to the A&P for our weekend shopping. Meat is cheaper there and the generics available there are cheaper and not significantly different from name brands. We are tying to save by bringing lunch to work a few days a week and drinking coffee at home most mornings. Coming at the same idea from another angle, we had time to reflect how much we spend on food that we'd didn't especially enjoy (lunches and the like) We'll try to make sure from now that if we are spending extra we'll enjoy it more.
Second we appreciate some aspects of living on a budget more. Its exhausting! Preparing all your food takes a large portion of your time. Not just that but organizing your time to shop at the cheaper market and not to mention the mind space constantly monitoring your budget and food supplies takes. Finally its isolating in many of our social circles to be unable to eat out.
Lastly we had a lot of fun getting pushed to try new recipes and foods. Some worked great, some fizzled, but I'd like to think we'll retain that adventurous spirit with our cooking!
Thanks for reading!
