The buzz is everywhere. Food prices are up. Surely, some think, it means the End of the World. What are we all going to do?
Over on Udderings, their opinion is that it is all about population boom, the race for biofuels and more. I am not going to even give a link to show what one particular blog is saying - that food crisis means capitalism doesn’t work.
I don’t see this as a crisis, I see it as an opportunity to get off our rears, shape up our act, and get creative!
Five simple tasks
1) Look at the tag in the store. Not the one on the food, but the one on the shelf. Usually, it gives you a cost per ounce of the product. You may think you are conserving by buying the smallest portion, but you may be actually leaking money. Often, by buying the larger size, it is a much better value. That equals no emergency trip to the store where you will be tempted to buy a few other things.
2) Skip the crap. You don’t NEED potato chips to stay alive. If we all read our labels, and then also cut out the items that are blatantly bad for us, we will have lots of cash to spend on the necessities. Junk food should be a treat, not a staple. But after you cut the junk out for awhile, you won’t crave it. You will also shave money off your doctor’s bill too.
3) Experiment with spices. If you bought the larger package of fish or chicken, or that whole stalk of broccoli, you can get out of the funk of feeling like “I just ate this LAST night” by playing with what you have in your spice rack, spice drawer, or cabinet.
4) Take it with you. If you MUST have a snack that is unhealthy during the day, at least buy a package and portion it out for you to take to work or school or wherever. The small bags and containers for individual use are very expensive. If you bought a small bag of something at the convenience store, you really are paying $10 or more for a full bag of chips or pretzels!
5) Skip the fast food. If you eat out a lot, try to start changing that by eating two meals in per week when you normally have the urge to go out, and go from there. If you are meeting friends for drinks after dinner, make sure you eat before you go so you are less tempted to order a full meal. This may seem contrary to popular wisdom that food soaks up alcohol but I said you were meeting them for “drinks” not for “drunk” 
If meeting them for a late dinner, have something before you go, so you won’t get the urge for a salt laden appetizer.
If everyone followed these steps, we would find it difficult at first, but after awhile we would just be thrilled at the great nutritious foods we didn’t know we could afford!
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