Cheap Eats and Sprouts

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not making enough to cover my rent. This means I also don't have enough to buy food, although I do get food stamps now that I'm not werkin. When you eat only vegetables, food stamps don't go quite as far as you'd like because for some reason they are more expensive than packaged food filled with fortifications and food coloring.

I don't go out drinking, spend money on a car (although I have used Flexcar for work), buy drugs, pay a health insurance policy, have kids, go shopping, or any other money sucking habits or addictions, so food is pretty much all I spend money on. (Unless you think health falls into that category...)

I feel that my health is top priority and the best way to be healthy is to eat good food, specifically fruits and vegetables. But fruits and vegetables cost a lot more than beans and rice, which I consider to be super cheap eats (unless you don't mind eating Alpo, which is what my mom predicts she'll be living on in old age).

Being all poor and stuff, I thought shopping at the year-round People's Farmers Market on Wednesdays would be a smart thing. So I went. I was wrong. I accidentally spent $15 on a bag of bok choi and some salad greens. This was not an impressive amount of bok choi. It will probably last me a few days.

I am not complaining about the price. I think farmers should get a fair wage and I would of course rather eat local than something trucked in, but I also think it would be nice if buying local was affordable for everyone. While we're at it, I might as well go all the way and say I wish everyone could just eat out of their back yard instead of choosing to mow it.

Some things in our society are really off. Everyone should be able to eat "the best food ever."

After the trip to the farmers market (and scouring my house for things to sell) I decided I needed a new solution to this issue. Clearly I can't continue to buy and consume only local organic produce as I have been.

My goal for this month is to spend just $30 for the rest of the month on food. If you know anything about my food bills in the past, you are laughing at this goal because I have easily spent this much on food meant to last three days or less.

But I have a plan! Sprouts!

I am going to spend my $30 on the following items:

• a bag of sunflower seeds
• seeds for sprouting, such as alfalfa and clover
• lentils and mung beans

The seeds I am going to soak and make milky-type stuff out of, pates, raw breads, and stuff. The beans and seeds I am going to sprout into greens. For fruit I will eat Larabars I have at the house and occasionally indulge in an apple or bananas. For added greens I will eat the rest of the Vitamineral Greens and Greener Grasses I have. I already have some basics like oil and sweetener, plus a fridge full of recently purchased greens ($15 worth of bok choi, in fact). I imagine I will go over the $30 to purchase fresh things occasionally like carrots or onions, but I will aim to keep that at a minimum.

In addition to this I am also going to start a container garden, harvest edible weeds, and will leave my magic plastic money cards at home so I am forced to find new solutions to getting food besides purchasing it in the store.

I am actually rather excited about this new plan. I'll let you know how it goes.