this is something that has really been on my mind of late. food has always been a central part of my life, and i have realized a few things about myself in that respect.
dw and i spend ridiculous amounts of money (well, ridiculous to me. rich people may not think it is) on food every week. i've never carefully tallied it up, but our groceries are probably around $250 a week, and we get about another $100 to $150 in take out from local places. on top of that is another $50 for the cats. The birds only cost about another $10 per week, because they eat a lot of leftovers, and i get them fruit and veggies from a local ethnic market where everything is cheap, in cost and quality.
still, what bothers me isn't the cost so much, but what and how much is wasted.
i hate to throw things out, and it seems like every 2 weeks i am tossing out packages of meat that went hiding in the fridge, then went bad. or containers of leftovers that got pushed to the back. we can only eat so many leftovers for lunch each week. we could eat some for dinner on following days, but one of the things dw and i deeply share is a love for a good, tasty, and relaxing dinner. also, eating leftovers would take away my only remaining hobby and creative outlet, cooking. so we both eat very late, around 10pm recently, because we can finally sit down after the baby is asleep, and enjoy some good food and each other's company. when there's no time to cook, those are the night's for late take out, about 3 to 4x a week.
when i got my first good job in the city in my early 20's, and started to learn how to cook, i befriended an italian deli owner in town. we used to talk a lot about food and life, and i will always remember him saying that he knew he liked me because i never asked how much something he suggested was, just what was special about it, and if it was good to eat. btw, if you're in north jersey, look up "joe's buon apetito" in river edge. best homemade pork sausages in the world. i guess that has become my m.o.. so long as you can work hard and make money, enjoy the fruits of your labor while you can.
this thinking even extended into the care of my now since passed mil. her last bastion of self care and independence was cooking. she didn't have much left at the end, but she always wanted to cook, so we did everything we could to make it easier for her, and allow her self respect. besides, she was a pretty darn good cook!
i wish i could have had more time with her to learn.
well, i know that i need to reign in these wasteful ways, as dw isn't working and the future is gonna get very expensive.
all in all, if it's just the money that was being wasted, then c'est la vie. but wasting food is a sin imo, so i will be making a conscious effort to reduce that.