Meager Times

If you've ever played the widely-popular computer game of the early 90's, Oregon Trail, you'd understand me when I say you had to choose the food rations you'd be feeding your cart of people: Filling, Meager, or Bare-Bones.

Chooisng "Filling" would burn through your food supply and money a lot quicker; Bare Bones would make your people frail and weak, but at least your food would last longer. The downside? It could spoil/be stolen easier.

I'm sure many people chose meager, like I did. And whattayaknow, I can now apply it to real life!

Apparently I owe a LOT in taxes from last year; more than I would like to admit. Since coming to that conclusion, I've been trying to be more careful with spending. I haven't stepped foot inside a grocery store in a week, and I am living off of cheddar cheese (I bought a 2 lb block from Costco), pasta (got 15 boxes 1 lb at Costco) and rice- which in retrospect isn't a good diet, (with the carbs and sugar and all). But sadly, we live in a country where the cheapest food is often the unhealthiest, and good food is a luxury. I recently read an article about how a city was trying to limit the amount of fast food places in a certain area which I think is fair. In Brooklyn, I once saw 2 McDonalds on the same block- just around the corner from each other, with a KFC across the street. What happened to good ol fashioned cooking?

Ever since the summer of 2007 when I babysat for this family that ate gluten-free, low-sugar, all organic and healthy, I took on this No-Fast Food, no processed foods diet. It got to be expensive but I actually felt better and I think I ever lost some weight because of it. With a Fairway 3 blocks away, it is really easy to get carried away on the 2nd floor where their Organics are surprisingly reasonably priced (compared to Whole Foods). But I know a huge chunk of my expenditures go towards food and that has to stop.

I admit the other day I was starving and the cheapest thing around was a McDonald's. I ended up getting a big mac meal (which wasnt as big as I remembered it to be) for the first time in about 6 years (the McDonald's across the street from NYU had a 2 for 1 deal that we just couldn't pass up). It's terrible. I can't wait to start building up my savings so I can eat like a normal person again.