I usually try to run my errands on Friday mornings. The stores are stocked up for the weekend rush, so there is a better selection on the sale items, but they aren’t crowded yet. So, in honor of the shopping I will do in a couple of hours, I bring you The Shoppers Creed from Meta Given’s The Modern Family Cookbook (1953; previously published in 1942). My intention is to spend some time next week examining what she says about meal planning and so forth.
The health of my family is in my care; therefore–
I will base my market list on meals planned according to “THE DIET PATTERN,”
I will choose foods of quality and in quantities that will provide the nutritive elements planned for.
Stretching the food dollar is part of my responsibility; therefore–
I will take advantage of what the seasonal markets offer in variety, quality and price, to the end that I may exchange my dollar for maximum values.
My family’s enjoyment of food is my responsibility; therefore–
I will use the possibilities of the market to provide variety, excellent quality and novelty within the limits of my food budget.
Purchasing food is an important link in the business of feeding my family; therefore–
I will make every effort to weigh possibilities offered by various markets, by various foods, and the forms in which they are offered from season to season, to the end that I may take pride in a job well done.
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In the comments for the Wartime Meal Planning, Part 1, post, Beth remembered reading that Americans throw away as much as 40% of their food, so I did a little digging around the Internet. What I found is that Beth was right–Americans in general throw away as much as 40% of the food supply all along the production line from farms, retailers, restaurants, and households. That is a lot and up from 30% in the 1970′s. Families appear to waste about 12-14% of their food.
Environmentalists are alarmed at the impact of that food being dumped in landfills while charities are trying to divert some of that food to feed the hungry (see The Food Not Eaten and the Wasted Food blog by author Jonathan Bloom for thought-provoking information on this topic). But I want to focus on the impact on the household budget.
For the average American, we could give ourselves a $500 annual raise simply by being more careful in our food planning. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, if we look at it in terms of “life energy” described in Your Money or Your Life, that $500 can take on new meaning. In California, for instance, minimum wage is $8.00 per hour. For someone earning minimum wage, that food waste equals 62.5 hours of work or a week-and-a-half of work. For someone earning $25 per hour, that $500 represents half of a week of work (20 hours).
Although I enjoy being a wise money manager (see How to Manage Money Like Your Grandmother), I’ll admit that My Honey is much better than I am at translating purchases into “life energy” spent. He’ll say, “Is this item worth 5-10-20-30-or-60 minutes of grinding metal?” (the step in the metal/sculpture casting process that he is good at but hates doing). More often than not, it isn’t worth it and it will go back on the shelf.
As the Home Manager, it is my responsibility to eliminate waste wherever possible so that my husband’s life energy isn’t wasted, too. As I make my purchases today, I will keep in mind the Shopper’s Creed.
Reduce – Re-use – Recycle — Our grandmothers did it as a matter of necessity. We throw away too much. Nancy (of Sewing with Nancy) cites appalling statistics on little used clothing being thrown into our garbage dumps and shows projects for textile re-use.
Fifteen years ago, when one of my boys was a teen-ager, he worked at a local steak house. For a few dollars more there, a patron could add the food bar option to his entree. My son told me that the wastage was horrible. People would eat at the food bar and then couldn’t eat the meal they had ordered. He said whole plates of food would come back to the kitchen untouched and had to be tossed. The manager eventually re-organized the whole menu, dropped the food bar altogether, and added a salad bar. That was the first time that I became aware of food wastage.
But — on the other side of the coin, it’s also important not to eat spoiled food. I try to manage the contents of my refrigerator. We eat scraps of left-overs for lunch (and that makes it difficult for me to eat according to a diet plan). But when we slip up, old or spoiled food should be discarded. I’m a believer in keeping food fresh.
I agree that we shouldn’t eat spoiled food. That’s a recipe for disaster (if you’ll pardon the pun).
We’re told by home economists over and over again to plan ahead and only buy what is on the shopping list. Yet stores are set up to seduce us into the impulse purchases! I think it takes mindful shopping to build up our anti-impulse muscles. That’s not to say that if we see a great buy on something we use often and it isn’t on our list that we shouldn’t take advantage of it–I didn’t have evaporated milk on my list, yesterday, and somehow missed it on the sale flyer that it was on sale for 1/2 price. I frequently use it as a substitute for cream in a recipe, so I stocked up on it. But, even though it is canned and won’t spoil for a long time, I only bought enough for about a month’s supply.
I really think it boils down to being mindful of what we do instead of being pinged about like a pinball by people/influences whose business it is to get us to part with our hard-earned money. They WANT us to waste our money and our food because it means more of our money for them. (Note: I don’t think it is some great big conspiracy–I just think that they have become efficient in “helping” us spend our money…even the government encourages us to spend money on credit!)
I don’t think I’m an offender when it comes to impulse buying. I prefer to make desserts and snacks rather than buy them, and it seems to me that’s the area where a lot of impulse buying falls. But — I do occasionally lose something in the refrigerator and have to throw it out. So did my mother.
As my stepson pointed out the other day, the government now refers to us as consumers instead of citizens. We have an economy built on the premise that we will buy, buy, buy. And that’s just not how grandmother lived.
My friend was sharing with me today that she cooked about a months worth of meals in one day and was able to feeze them. Is this taboo? It sounds great to me. I think I am going to try it.
When my husband and i were saving for a down payment, we were disgustingly cheap, to the point of eating left overs for days. it was disgusing. Now I too think it is important to have standards, and to remember that food is a renewable resource, while not wasting it.
Speaking of Grandma’s, my Grandma was born in 1917 and was a homemaker during WWII, I remember her telling me how disgusted she was when she went to a neighbor’s house and her neighbor showed her all the laundry soap she had hoarded in her basement during ration time. It is such a differnt world, i can just go to BJ’s and stock up, and it is more effecient for me to have a lot rather than make more trips. Anyway, differnt world.
Yuck! I’ve never advocated eating spoiled food. What I am interested in is better food management so that food will be used before it becomes spoiled, and foods will be rotated so that one isn’t facing the same dull meal day after day. Freezing meals is an excellent way to accomplish this. Yesterday I made stuffed cabbage. After supper I packed some of the leftovers in small containers for lunch-sized portions and froze the rest for suppers later in the month.
There’s been a lot of press recently about eating locally, organically, lowering your carbon footprint and so on, but it seems to me that wherever you get your food from, however it is grown, it is a shameful waste of resources if that food gets thrown away, rather than nourishing human beings.