Ecological footprint

I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep last night, and so I sat up for a bit with some ecological footprint calculators. I knew going into it that the numbers wouldn't be pretty. In the past six months I've flown to England (for a wonderful summer program and, while I regret the ecological implications, I don't regret the program at all), as well as to British Columbia (ostensibly for a family wedding, but more to see my Nanna, who's been rather ill for the last year - better to fly out for a party than a funeral, I think.) But, they were even less pretty than I hoped, and for the first time I sat down and actively tried to figure out why that is.

Part of the issue is that I live alone. No matter how much I reduce my consumption, use less energy and less water, and change all of the small details about how I live, living alone hurts my footprint, even in a medium-sized apartment. Another part is that I use the bus a lot, not just to get to school, but to go see my boyfriend, who lives over 500 km away. I've pretty much eliminated flying there, which is a good thing, but the travel is still not such a good thing, although I'm hoping that can be remedied soon. The trouble is, at this point in time, these are things that are difficult for me to change, much as I would like to. I'm working on it, but it is slow.

The other thing (although not the biggest by quite a stretch), and the one that's probably easiest for me is food. I'm vegetarian, but I am rather fond of cheese and eggs, which ups my numbers. I also don't live all that close to a farmer's market, and most of my food comes from the supermarket, which isn't always known for its local food options. But, out of all the things to change, this is the one that I can start immediately and most easily, so I took food on as my afternoon project.

Since I was heading out anyway, I first decided to go to the Goodwill bookstore up the street. Happily, I came away with a copy of "Putting Food By". It's an older one, so I'm going to double check the canning standards, but I'm excited about having instructions and recipes for preserving foods now.

I then wandered over to the grocery store. At best, foods are labelled with their province or country of origin, so I decided to stick to those grown in Ontario. It's not a perfect solution, but better than nothing for now. I wound up with a large cabbage, 10 pounds each of potatoes, yellow onions, and carrots, and a bag of empire apples. Other options were squash, rutabega, and turnips, although I left those alone for now. I found it harder to go with local foods when I was working on my food stores. I picked up peanut butter, a large bag of cornmeal, and brown rice, none of which are local. They'll be added to my food stores for future use.

I don't know if this was entirely a success. Some staples - like pasta and peanut butter - seem to be a lot harder to find locally grown. I haven't started looking for eggs or cheese yet, since I have rather a lot of that in the fridge from a past grocery shopping trip. I'm sure it's not impossible, and I'm going to look harder, but I was hoping for better. Fresh stuff, however, seemed to be relatively easy, so long as I was willing to walk past the citrus and less hardy greens at the front of the store. I'm going to keep looking, but in the meantime, I'm going to settle in and make myself a barbeque potato and carrot casserole where at least half the ingredients are local.

Budgeting the budget

Despite the fact that "budget" frequently seems to be a dirtly word, redolant of self-denial, I have a budget that I try to stick to. I'm generally pretty good about it too - I know how much my rent, utilities, and other expenses should be. But sometimes, I don't stick to the budget and, this morning, I'm thinking about why that is, and why that's not necessarily such a bad thing.

First, let me say that I have savings and I live beneath my means (although, admittedly, my means are grad school funding and therefore not very much). Going over budget here or there isn't going to break me, and isn't even going to require dipping into savings. Sure, it means I put a little less away in a month, but I'm not convinced this is always a bad thing.

This morning I woke up really nauseous. I've started taking iron pills at my doctor's request, as well as a large quantity of B12. Iron and B12 are not easy on the stomach, even when take with meals, and feeling icky is a common side effect. I didn't want to take an anti-nausea drug, so I tottered over to the grocery store to pick up ginger and a few things that weren't available at the other store where I went shopping the other day. I got what I needed - skim milk powder, oats, brown sugar, ginger, and orange juice (not a usual purchase, but helps the iron to absorb better - but then I picked up some extra things as well. After many weeks without, they had tahini in stock again, so I picked up a tub of that. They also had cheese on sale for almost half price, so I bought some of that to freeze. I also found one lone bag of red cargo rice, which I've never seen before - because it has way more iron than most other rice, and I like trying new things, that came home with me as well. I finished up with some extra eggs, tortilla wraps, a box of sale clementines, pasta, and super-cheap canned soup.

All told, what should have been a $20 shopping trip came out over $50. My usual food budget is $100 per month, and right now, including my one-day early shopping trip, I'm at $75 this early in the month. Now, none of these things are items that I wouldn't buy anyway. For the most part, they're fairly healthy, and will even last me awhile - there's nothing in that list that will get consumed completely this week, and most of it will last for awhile - the skim milk alone lasts for a good six months at the rate that I use it.

It still unsettles me to go over budget, though. So I was thinking about it this morning as I was walking home (which also helped me to not think about how sore my poor arms were.)

First, I don't mind going over budget a bit in the name of stocking up. Not everything I bought is going to be stockpiled, but the rice will be, as will the tahini, oats, and some of the canned items. My pantry is getting close to maximum capacity, but I feel better having this food around. As an added bonus, when I'm too busy to shop, there's something to eat and I don't have to rely on take-out.

Second, I don't mind paying a bit more a month to stock up on things while they're on sale. I was delighted to find the cheese on sale today, especially since my boyfriend is coming to visit and we like to make pizza. What we don't use (which will still be a lot) will be frozen and, at the rate I use it, will last quite some time. Rather than having to buy cheese at full price when I really want it, having it on hand can save me a bit of money.

Third, I don't generally mind going over budget (so long as I can relatively comfortably afford it) on things that add to my health. I certainly didn't mind spending money on iron and B12 supplements the other day, and I also don't mind buying food that's going to help me stay healthy. I don't normally buy orange juice (when did it get so expensive?!), but if it helps me absorb iron better, then I'm willing to spring for it. I picked up the red rice specifically because of its iron content - it's not as cheap as plain white rice, but for a lot more iron, I can justify the bit of extra cost.

Finally, it's likely that I can compensate for these extra expenses over the course of the month. If I know how much I've spent already, I can avoid grocery trips a bit more, or try to spread them out a bit further. I can eat a bit less while eating more nutrient rich foods, or eat from my stores just a little bit more to balance it. But, for now, I think the most important thing is to maintain my health and build up some stores of food, so this isn't really coming into play as much right now as it used to.

If I didn't have the money, this wouldn't be an option. If I had to do this on credit...well, I probably wouldn't. And I know for people who can't afford it that this just isn't possible, good justifications or not. But, with that said, while I love having a budget to follow, there are also instances where sticking to a budget may be too limiting. I'm pleased with what I got today, and although I like sticking to a budget, I'm rather glad that I didn't in this case. I certainly don't recommend going over all the time, but in some cases it might not be a bad idea to budget just how much I rely on the budget.