Thinking about Hunger Action Week on Day 3

Yesterday was an incredibly difficult day for me. F. was sick, LG was whiny, R. was at work. And all my plans went out the window. I was ready to pull my hair out. Because the thing is, this budgeting requires planning in order to work. At least it does for me. And the stress of knowing that I couldn’t get to the market because of a sick child and no one around to help me . . . it was tough.

I went in to this challenge thinking that it would be a breeze. We live on a tight budget every day. No big deal. I jokingly told R. that if we qualified for food stamps we might actually start eating better (or at least more) than we do right now! But last night, when the stress of the day was fading, I started thinking about all the circumstances that allow me to live on such a tight budget – circumstances that make me incredibly fortunate compared to a lot of people. My husband and I both have full-time jobs, but we alternate days at work and days at home. That means I have 4 days “free” every week, and that affords me the time to do the shopping and bake bread and stock the freezer when things are on sale. We have a freezer that we can stock! And we have the means to stock it. Because the fact of the matter is that we chose to live on this tight budget. We have a choice. And while there are very hard days, and I worry a lot about what we are eating and how to make it as nutritious as possible on the least amount of money possible, the stress of those days are fleeting. Most of the time it is easy. Most of the time I bake bread because I want to, not because I have to.

But what about the people for whom that stress is not fleeting? What about the single parents who don’t have someone coming home to rescue them from whiny and sick children? What about the folks for whom it is always difficult to get to the market because they are working all the time and at the end of the day are just too tired to deal with it? Or because they don’t have a car? Have you ever ridden the bus with a bag of groceries? I did when I lived in Brooklyn, and it isn’t fun. One small bag, sure. Enough to feed a family for a week? No way.

So I’m rethinking my predudices a bit. I still maintain that is is very possible to eat very well on this budget. We do it all the time. I’m just going to take back the part about it being easy.