The True Cost Of Eating Well - Part 2
May 13th, 2008 by Sylvia
After God began to work in my life to convict me of bad grocery spending habits I began to search out new ways to save and be frugal. My biggest concern was feeding my family healthily and saving money. Was it possible to have a modest budget for my groceries and still eat healthily? The way I had been doing it wasn’t working. I was buying and preparing fad foods and listening to so called experts online about what kinds of foods were healthy.
I don’t know why I was listening to what people who set themselves up as experts tell me about food, I learned everything I needed to know about what is healthy and what is not healthy from my Mother when I was at home as a child and young woman. So I went back to that knowledge and examined it to see if it was still usable. It was definitely usable! And it is serving us very well.
Here is a reminder of the questions I asked myself and what set me on this quest to eat well and spend less…
- Is God in control?
- Does He care about me and my children?
- Is He trying to teach me something?
- Will God take care of me, my family and our health if I simply buy what I can reasonably afford?
- Is it right for me to spend so much money on organic food that I have nothing left to share?
- Is it responsible of me to spend so much on food for my family that we don’t have money for other necessities?
Is God in control?
Well, either He is or He isn’t. I believe He is, but that He allows us to make choices that can alter our lives for good or bad. If He is in control, I have to also ask myself whether or not I can trust Him. My answer is that Yes, I know I can trust Him with my life, my family, my health and finances.
Does God care about me and my children?
As a Christian, I believe He cares about every facet of our lives. Therefore, I believe that He cares about our health, welfare and finances, and how we use the resources He has given us.
Is He trying to teach me something?
Obviously, He was trying to teach me something about faith and reliance upon Him for what we needed in addition to lessons in good stewardship.
Will God take care of me, my family and our health if I simply buy what I can reasonably afford?
This is the gist of my thoughts. If I cease buying expensive whole foods and organic foods, and just buy foods that I can reasonably afford and stay within my budget, will God take care of my health? Can I expect Him to do that, even when I don’t buy the best? I believe He will! I believe He does. I believe He is trustworthy, caring and protective.
Is it right for me to spend so much money on organic food that I have nothing left to share?
I believe that it is NOT right at all to do this. The Christian life is all about giving, caring for others, sharing and taking responsibility for helping those who need help. We are not wealthy. I have a specific amount of money each week and when it is budgeted, it is not available for other things. We budget money for utilities, gasoline, groceries, personal items like medicines and school. When I was spending huge amounts for organic and specialty foods, I was not able to give anything! I rationalized the expense by saying that I was keeping my family healthy. But the problem with what I was doing was this:
I was trying to do something good for my family and at the same time I was violating at least three other principles of God’s Word! I was not walking in faith, I was not giving to others and I was making our healthy eating an idol.
Is it responsible of me to spend so much on food for my family that we don’t have money for other necessities?
No, it was not responsible of me to do so. I was skimping on things that we both needed and wanted. Our wants are not great, but I was not even able to buy occasional treats like popcorn or craft items for the children to work on because I was over-spending at the grocery and thought it was a good thing.
Now, I want to remind you of this: There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying and eating organic and whole foods. Absolutely nothing! My whole point is that we must eat within our means. My family still eats whole foods, I just don’t make the expensive recipes and use exotic ingredients that bump up my grocery bill.
Part three will include some steps that I took to drastically reduce my grocery bill and make it possible for me to serve nutritious foods to my family and to have money in my budget to share with others.
Sylvia thank-you so much for these insights. I was glad to read your thoughts on buying organic. People are going mad buying organic here in the UK now, and I know that I can’t always afford it..certainly not organic meat and dairy! I felt slightly guilty that I was not buying all organic, but reading your post has sorted out the guilt!
Hi Yvonne,
I am so glad it helped you. I was experiencing more than my fair share of guilt over the whole ordeal until I was able, by God’s grace, to sort it out by just looking in His Word.
Love
Sylvia
Wonderful post! It is so easy to get caught up in the hype of buying organic and whole foods all in the name of health and the environment. While those are certainly admirable notions, we often fail to remember that God wants us to be good stewards of our money and resources. If we listen to Him, he will guide us to ways to provide for our families without “putting all our brown, free-range eggs in the organic basket!”
Susan
What is the yeast in the recipe for? Thanks!
Tina
Hi Tina,
Which recipe are you referring to? I have a feeling you may be talking about Nutritional Yeast in one of the recipes. If I am wrong about that, could you let me know? Nutritional Yeast gives a cheese flavor to foods without actually having to add cheese.
Love
Sylvia
Hi, Sylvia! I have enjoyed reading your series on The True Cost of Eating Well. I would like to add another perspective on the issue of whether or not to spend money on organic foods.
I know you’re not arguing that one shouldn’t buy organic if one CAN afford organic; rather you’re saying that one shouldn’t buy organic if one CAN’T afford organic. I agree.
But I would like to clarify that in the matter of buying food, it isn’t a matter only of how much money we spend, but where we spend it. If you consider that most people spend much money on junk and conventional foods, their money is padding the pockets of corporations who don’t care about God, people or the earth. In this, I believe people should stop pushing their money this way instead of toward those who are trying very hard to follow healthy growing practices. I believe it is better to support support sustainable and healthy farming practices, rather than big corporations who could care less.
In many cases, by purchasing in bulk or from out of the mainstream sources, or by purchasing local, seasonal abundances, people could spend the same amount of money as they would in conventional venues — yet their dollars would be better spent and I believe, more God-honoring. It is a matter of who we are supporting with our money. We all certainly spend it on food in some manner. I think we should question more where our money is going.
Thank you for spending time discussing these issues! You’re a gem.
Love, Wardeh
Hi Wardeh,
In the third article I mentioned bulk buying, etc. I believe that spending our money wisely and with producers that are health and God-conscious is a very noble endeavor. We buy a lot of products from companies that don’t meet those criteria. I guess Mark and I are just not at the place right now where that is a priority or conviction. Probably becaue we live in an area where foods like that are not widely available except through expensive stores like Wild Oats. So, buying like you described is not out of the question for us, just not at the top of the list right now.
I guess the main point of my three articles is this: Mark and I were convicted that by spending our money on expensive food (which happened to be organic), however good it might have been, we were not honoring Him in the area of stewardship. We realized that if we eat as well as we can without breaking ourselves on food, God is also honored. Like most things in life, it seems to be an area of conviction.
Love
Sylvia
Sylvia, I believe you have made very good decisions for your family and are honoring God with those decisions. I hope you don’t think I was questioning you on that, because that was not what I intended. I only wanted to suggest that where we spend our food money could also be considered an area of stewardship.
I really did enjoy your three articles and in the main point — honoring God, you really couldn’t be more right! We should do just as you said: eat as well as we can without breaking the bank.
Love, Wardeh
No, no! I didn’t think you were questioning our choices at all. I appreciated all your thoughts and your reminders of the many facets of stewardship! Yes, honoring God is the main point, in everything we do.
Love
Sylvia