Lenten Lessons

After testing the limits of our creativity with budgeting, menus, and grocers, what did we learn on $14 a day? Did it change us?

First, we heard a lot about produce being too expensive for a budget, but I disagree. It's a matter of planning and priorities. Even before this year's Lenten experiment, we always wrote a weekly menu, then a shopping list based on the menu, then shopped in the produce aisle first. Using the same technique on a budget causes you to plan for nutritional foods like produce, so we were already ahead of the game.

Second, the exotic, psychoactive stuff like fine wine and high quality coffee is next to impossible on a budget unless you set your expectations low. $2 per bottle table wine and a big bag of Eight O'Clock Arabica Coffee was about the best we could manage, and it perhaps would have been better to leave it alone entirely.

When you're on a budget, convenience foods go by the wayside and you need to spend extra time cutting, trimming, cooking and generally preparing foods. As your dollar budget goes down, your time budget goes up to maintain the same level of nutrition and quality. I suspect this is a huge issue with poor nutrition in underserved neighborhoods - many people are overworked and can't or won't take time to prepare nutritious foods.

Eating in restaurants - fuggetaboudit. One second thought, that's not actually true - eating cheap food in restaurants is possible, maybe even economical in terms of time and money, but it's not the kind of stuff you want to regularly put in your body, so why even consider it?

If you look at the intersection of convenience foods from grocers and poor-quality menus from cheap restaurant chains, you find what might be called the 'industrial food complex,' pumping out sugary, fatty, salty food-like substances ready made for the most vulnerable: those on razor thin budgets, overstressed households with no time, and kids. I think it's hopeful that we largely avoided the pitfalls on $14 a day.

Finally, if you ever want to save a boatload of money for a good cause, for your kid's education, or to pay for those rising gasoline prices, your may find there's a lot of room for belt-tightening in a food budget without going off the deep end, if you're willing to be creative.

"...and, in the end, the love you take is equaled by the love you make..."