geekent's Buy Nothing Year

(originally published August 14)

In addition to denying myself some various entertainment pleasures in 2008, I'm instigating a food moratorium now. It's some weird penance thing I'm on.
Kidding.
It's somewhat dietary, but in part just realization that my metabolism is slowing down, and that thanks to a rather unhealthy summer I've lost some of my nice physique (really haven't gotten fat, but I've lost some muscle due to inactivity). To stave off further degradation and ballooning, I'm taking a couple of vices out of the equation for a while until such time that I can appropriately measure my intake:

- Pop aka Soda aka Coke (an easy one... done it before can do it again)
- Booze aka Alcohol (excluded wine, the healthcohol)
- Potato Chips (also includes nachos, tortilla chips and corn chips)
- French fries (mainly forcing me into the salad route)
- Chocolate (it's going to be bad when the cravings hit... mainly referring to chocolate bars here)
- Hamburgers (because I've been having terrible indigestion with them lately)
- Fast food (the bad ones... and, oh, no Wendy's...ach! Pizza and subs and Mediterranean is okay)
- Mayonnaise (as much as possible)
- salad dressing
- candy covered nuts
- anything with trans fat

(added Aug.28)
- donuts
- Cinnabons (but not all cinnamon buns)
- Swiss Chalet
- chicken wings from Pizza Pizza
- onion rings
- packaged cookies

(added Sep.05)
-ice cream
-Yoplait Yoptimal yogurt

So far that's the list, but more may be added.
When I was in San Diego, I realized that because I was so sick and my throat so sore and swollen that I ate incredibly healthy, since if I was going to put something in my body that would cause me great pain to start, it better help me out in the long run. I wish to maintain that thinking without being a Granola Nazi about it like those freaks at Veggie Hut who keep pestering the fine folks at Meat Shake.

or whatever.

I'm thinking that the wife and I should be setting a lunch budget once the two households finish amalgamating mid-to-late October. You see, we work together...well, not side by side but in the same office building (which is only partly responsible for how we met, the local comics shoppe being the other factor) and we tend to eat lunch together practically every day. We don't keep track of how much we spend either, but it likely works out to $10 a day per person, which isn't bad, and in fact, I want to keep that figure in place. That's $100 a week for lunches for us together, which is kind of insane to think we spend about $5000 a year on our lunch, but there you go.

We really need to hardline that budget though, and make sure we're not spending over that. I'm not quite certain how we do that yet. I mean, if we had better security around the office I'd suggest we keep cash in our desk drawers, $50 per person every week and all the change just goes back in... that way if we have a little extra left over sometimes we can do the beer lunch with the boys. If we run out then we have to brown bag it.

I suspect Aden didn't eat out every day until she met me and I was eating in the in-building cafe (around $6 per day) regularly before I met her, so we could actually probably do with cutting back the budget by 20% (or $40/week) or even more... 50% even (that would actually give us a challenge).

It's funny, because as adults I feel like we should be able to do what we want, eat where we want, whatever we want, when we want to, but the harsh reality is money is finite and if we don't watch ourselves we'll spend everything, save nothing, and never be able to afford the things we really want, whether it's a house or a dog or what have you.

This "growing-up" thing is a bitch.

Ah, the trip home, when mom buys all that food she thinks you like and Dad has stashes of snack foods that would make convenience stores look understocked.

Hyperbole.

Anyway, yeah, the trip to Thunder Bay was great, providing my lovely wife with the opportunity to meet most of my extended family as well as some of my friends (the progression of the week ate away our visiting time far too quickly).

Food ate:
Mr. Sub
Turkey dinner (with ham and selection of four Grandma-made pies)
Leftovers + more pie (cherry, peach, pumpkin and raisin)
cheesies (Hawkins, Old Dutch Nacho)
Pogos
Plenty of Chicken wings (at local favourite, On Deck... their Cajun wings are the best wings ever)
A gin and tonic (a moratorium break I couldn't resist)
Old Dutch Potato chips (moratorium break... had to be done for availability of Onion and Garlic in Toronto is nil)
and since I was breaking the moratorium anyway: Bounty chocolate bar
A Tim Horton's donut (yet another moratorium break... I should have had Robin's Donuts, sigh)
Pirogies and pork chops and more pie
Finnish pancakes at the Hoito
A persian in the airport
A cookie on the plane home

I'm certain I gained about three or four pounds on this four-day, four night trip... thankfully the wife and I walked around town a lot (pretty much unheard of around those car-lovin' parts) which hopefully counteracted a lot of the damage.

We had a nice relaxing time. Should have taken the rest of the week off work, oi.

I sat down and crunched the numbers and with BNY in place I should be able to pay off my debt load completely by January 2009. That's about 14 months, or 28 paycheques, worth of budgeting and I don't doubt that it'll be tough, but I look forward to it, and I look forward to being debt free. I've even managed to factor in a healthy amount of spending money for each pay period so I'm not going to be completely skint, but I'm also not going to be able to spend frivolously either... I'm actually going to have to budget out my 15 days between pay each month.

I've already started, and it certainly is a challenge. The temptation to dip into debt (via "credit" cards and line of "credit") is very tempting, but I've resisted so far. With $40 in cash in my wallet to start out last weekend and about $70 in the bank account may seem like a lot, but factoring in public transportation, groceries, and miscellaneous expenses, it disappears rather quickly.

Aden and I have started bringing lunches to work this week (last week we tried bringing sandwiches but we only succeeded twice) and it's all been advance preparation that's allowed us to. Aden made chili on Sunday (some taken to work, the rest frozen), we had leftover lasagna on Wednesday, and I christened our new crock pot yesterday by gettin' myself a stew goin' like Carl Weathers, some take to work today, the rest frozen.

Progress, slow and steady.

Oh, remember how I was on a certain "food boycott", or "moratorium"? Yeah, I'm not sure there's anything on there that I haven't broken in the past months:

- Pop aka Soda aka Coke: compared to some people I know (compared to some people that live in my basement) I don't drink a lot of pop... however... ginger ale has become a staple in my liquid intake... (see immediately below)
- Booze aka Alcohol (excluded wine): well, I've certainly been drinking wine, but I'm also back on the drink again, taking much pleasure in the mixing of libations. Rye and ginger ale is a perennial favourite, as is Cran-Grape and Vodka (I've had my first taste of potato vodka and I loves it), and of course Gin and (apple) juice (especially the good Tropicana fresh-pressed apple juice...yum). Oh, and chocolate martinis (equal parts vodka and creme de cacao on ice), served with a nice herbed havarti or smooth goat cheese. Yum. I don't drink a lot, or often, but I do so like it
- Potato Chips (also includes nachos, tortilla chips and corn chips): there was a period there where I just said "fuck it" and gorged myself silly. I've stopped that (for) now.
- French fries (mainly forcing me into the salad route): I have had french fries maybe 3 times in the past 3 months, but only a few at a time. I still always choose the salad option.
- Chocolate: I dipped into the little guy's Easter chocolates a few times, but each time I find it quite unsatisfying. I did also buy a Bounty bar a while back to curb some cravings but overall, I'm good at staying away (primarily because I quite object to paying over a dollar for a chocolate bar).
- Hamburgers (because I've been having terrible indigestion with them lately): oh... oh, it's been a bad, bad time of late. I had a hamburger a few weeks ago, and I had really strange dreams that night. I've also eaten hamburgers every day this week for the past four days (had a big father's day BBQ at the in-laws and we were sent home with too many leftovers). I'm now officially off burgers for another, let's say, six months.
- Fast food (the bad ones... Pizza and subs and Mediterranean is okay): still avoiding the fast food joints like the plague. The wife pulls me into a Harveys from time to time, and it's not a beautiful thing, let me tell you (I usually choose chicken or veggie burger... money not well spent)
- Mayonnaise: apparently Miracle Whip isn't mayonnaise. I have had a couple of sandwiches at restaurants come with mayo, but I've not personally requested or added Mayo to anything
- salad dressing: I've nipped into some oil and vinegar SD on occasion, and some restaurants serve their salad with house dressing even if you ask for "no dressing". For the most part, salad consumption is way, way up, and generally dressing free.
- candy covered nuts: (a strange item for the list, but yeah, I've avoided them) - anything with trans fat: what? Cheese has trans fat? NoooooooOOOOOOOooo! I still eat cheese. Anything else with trans fat, though, out of the diet as much as humanly possible.
- donuts: I was doing so good, that is until we went to SilverCity Yorkdale, the only movie theater with a Tim Hortons in it that I've been to (and they don't hyper-inflate their prices...crazy!). The craving overtook me and I had some. Then Kevin and Nat brought a couple boxes of donuts over for my birthday (evil) and left them behind (evil). I'm off donuts again. I gained a lot of weight on my birthday week. Yowza.
- Cinnabons (but not all cinnamon buns): we bought some incredibly trashy raspberry filled danishes off the discount cart at the grocery store at the end of May (I told you, I ate like crap then). Not cinnabons, but nasty, tasty stuff.
- chicken wings from Pizza Pizza: actually quite easy to avoid those travesties of cuisine
- onion rings: I've had a few, mostly from Aden/my Harvey's visits.
- packaged cookies: I'm sure I've had one or two, but I've purchased none, and I usually decline any offers (and regret it immediately if I don't decline)
- ice cream: all of it, contains trans fat. bad.
-Yoplait Yoptimal yogurt: actually the only yogurt I buy now is Western Dairy no-fat plain (for putting in the morning smoothie). It's got 2 ingredients, and is awesome.
- Pogos: not a one
- Pre-packaged mac and cheese: we made this recently (Master's Choice white cheddar) and my bowels screamed in protest. You see the amount of sodium in that stuff?
- Frozen waffles: some getting plenty freezer burned in the freezer (duh) right now. They'll stay that way

So I've been very, very awful in staying totally away from the moratorium foods, however... and this is a big, huge, gargantuan however... I'm eating probably 80% healthier than I was last year. I tend to have a fruit smoothie every morning (made with mostly organic fruits from our farmshare... more on that in a second) and the cereal we're eating is, mostly, on the low side of the ingredient count. That is to say plenty of shredded and/or puffed wheat. Things with less than five ingredients... we check labels diligently now.

Ah yes, the farmshare. As noted in the In Defense of Food review, we signed up for the community-shared agriculture via Plan B Organic Farms. Click the link and read all about it... but if you're lazy, here's the gist:

- you pay up front for a "share" of the farm's yield
- you can buy a half-share (10ish pieces) or a full share (18 pieces) and you get 20 weeks (starting 1st week of June) of fresh, as-the-land-provides produce from a local organic farm
- As opposed to "organic baskets" all the veggies are locally sourced, and in most cases coming from one farm (diversified crops)
- A fruit share is also available and contains fair trade, organic fruit (always locally sourced where possible)
- pick up shares weekly at the local community depot drop-off

We bought a 1/2 share of veggies and a fruit share, and today is our third week. We've been loving it, even though we've got more parsnips than we know what to do with (what do you do with parsnip anyway). The difference in quality of spinach or greens or cucumbers is noticeable compared to store-bought. The general price for us with both the half-share veg and the fruit share is about $40/week and is more than worth it. Getting our shares every week, we make a concerted effort to eat the fruits and veg as opposed to thinking about what we want to eat the coming week and buying it at the store and letting it go to waste. In fact we've not spent more than $80 in groceries the past three weeks (when our typical bill was about $120/week). It's a different way of thinking about our food and diet, but it's also a better way, I think. I definitely been eating much better meals than ever before thanks to it.

If you can't get to the local farmer's market (which is the best way to get your fruits/veg/meat, I suggest you go this rout. Supporting local farms and farmers not only provides them with a living but provides you with the best (nutrients-wise) and freshest food possible, equally minimizing the impact of transportation/shipping on the environment and the budget.

If you don't live in Toronto, try doing a search for "community-supported agricuture + [your town]" or consult this list