June Money Review

As I predicted in my May Money Review,  our grocery expenditures for the month of June did indeed hit rock bottom.

Total money spent on groceries in June? $97.94. That was all food; there were no household expenditures such as dish soap or toilet paper.  That brings our monthly average year to date to $156.85.

Four factors contribute to that stunningly low figure. First, we were in transit or in conferences (or at Mayo) for 12 days of June, and I was out of town an additional day with my brother, sister-in-law, and Dad. So, really, we're looking at food for 18 days, not 30 days. That skews the figure some, but I'm not sweating it.

Second, I have been more aware of eating what we have in our freezer and cupboards instead of buying randomly when I am in a grocery store. Some frugal sites (I belong to a few) call this a "pantry challenge." I call it, borrowing from minimalist Anthony Ongaro, who I also follow, "breaking the twitch" (to mindlessly shop).

Third, although the tomatoes are still a few weeks away from ripening, I have been picking lettuce out of our garden most of the month, which means not buying greens at the store. As the heat and sun come on stronger and stronger (June was wonderfully cool and rainy, right up until the last few days), I know our lettuce days are numbered. I'm hoping for at least another week before the sun blisters it or it bolts.

An aside before I get to the fourth and final reason: homegrown leaf lettuce is so delicious and fresh and different from what I have been buying and eating for years that it will be hard to go back. Barbara Kingsolver makes an excellent point in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which I am hoping to reread in the upcoming month) that if we not only eat locally but also seasonally, we will be blown away by the difference in quality and taste of the food. This is why I do without fresh tomatoes most months out of the year: after eating them out of my garden during tomato season, it is difficult to buy them out of season and often out of taste.  I called my son Sam Friday night to wish him a happy 29th (my baby is 29?) and we talked about the lettuce. Sam and his partner Georgia have a container garden on their small balcony. Sam was incredulous. "Really? Really? It's that much better?" (Sam has worked produce stands in Portland in his past, so he's no novice to local food.) He is intrigued and I suggested they try it.

The fourth reason our food bill is so low is that I have been extra conscientious (more so than usual, which is no small deal) this year to reduce food waste. I also continue to experiment with food quantities given my medical issues. When you are watching what you eat, literally and figuratively, less food hits the garbage can or the next door neighbors' compost pile.

Here are two examples of trying to cut down on food waste. First, when I buy produce such as carrots (a staple of our weekday lunches), I remove then from the plastic bag they come in, rinse them, then wrap them in a thin cotton towel (kind of an all-purpose flour sack towel) and set them in the produce drawer of our refrigerator. They keep for weeks. Store bought lettuce keeps for more than a week while I use it up. (My own lettuce has a much shorter shelf life; I pick fresh every day because it goes limp quickly, even rinsed and wrapped in the towel.) Broccoli, cauliflower. celery: they all keep fresh for days and days and days if I store them that way. I have not thrown away spoiled (limp, slimy, whatever) produce in months. Months.

A second way of reducing food waste (and getting yet one more meal out of a less likely source) happens when I make stock. Yesterday morning I made chicken stock from the three fairly picked over carcasses we had in the freezer (along with the frozen celery tops, broccoli bottoms, and an onion added for flavor). After I strained the stock, I then went through the debris with a pair of food tongs, pulling out enough chicken bits that I filled half of a small container. (I did not comb through it piece by piece, just picked out the chunks while I moved aside bones and stuff.) Is it enough chicken to stand alone for a meal? No. Is it enough chicken to sauté and serve with beans and lettuce and cheese and fixings for burritos next week? You bet.

The flip side of the low grocery bill is the eye-watering eating out total for June. All that travel? All those days away? $333.78, including tips (and I tip 20% or more). That is not counting meals bought for others: Warren's son David while we were in Denver (David now lives in SE Colorado and came up to spend time with his dad), a couple of lunches I treated my dad to, the meals the day I was out of town with family (paying for my family's lunches and dinners was my contribution to the day). It also does not count my share of meals for which I will be reimbursed while on Court business in Denver. Perhaps about $8.00 of that figure is Warren and I just eating locally: a tea (mine) with a friend, a trip to the ice cream store in Prospect. Another $25.50 of it is from the baseball game we took in when we were in Denver: there is no such thing as cheap major league ballpark food. No. Such. Thing. So on the one hand we ate out very, very frugally for just us locally, even adding another $18.00 for the amount I dropped on my share of those lunches with Dad. On the other hand...well, there is no other hand. It is what it is.

We are NOT traveling in July. At least I don't think we are. We will head out to the Pacific Northwest late in the summer to spend time with family, but that is still in the distance. Our eating out costs should spiral down and stay down. It's not that we deprive ourselves, it is more that we often have such packed, I mean full, days, that shoehorning a meal out, even takeout, just adds to the schedule in ways that are not offset by eating a meal prepared by someone else. (Does that make sense? There's simply not enough enjoyment in eating out most of the time to justify the cost and the time; we enjoy it, but not that much.)

Halfway through the year! Holy moly! On to July!