Time, Money, Health (Part 2)
If you missed Part 1 of this series, you can catch up on it here.
This is the beginning of the story of our family's journey to healthy living.
Healthy living is just that – a journey. Sometimes the steps taken are very small. Sometimes there are giant leaps. But it's a journey, and the goal is to always be moving forward. There are always new things to learn, new things to try, new steps to take.
The Beginning
The beginning of our journey started when my husband and I got married 6 1/2 years ago. We were now the ones in charge of deciding what to eat (and we were the ones who paid for it!)
We both came from families who mostly ate food that didn't come from packages – meat, vegetables, milk, eggs, etc. I was the kid who got jealous when all the other kids had those cute little packages of chips, packaged brownies, and Hi-C drinks in their lunches, while I munched on a banana and sipped a thermos of water. Mom didn't fix Hamburger Helper or Progresso soup for supper; she fixed spaghetti or meat and potatoes.
I felt like I was coming into my role as a homemaker with a healthier standard of eating than most Americans. I would stay away from those middle aisles where all the packaged food was and mainly shop for meat and vegetables.
I also made a weekly stop by a couple of grocery salvage stores (stores where they sell expired or damaged goods for a deep discount) and pick up canned vegetables and bottled salad dressings to go with those healthy salads I was serving. (If I'd only know then what I know now!)
Things were going smoothly – I had a nice repertoire of healthy meals to cook, and thanks to stores like ALDI and the salvage stores, our budget was staying fairly low.
Then I had a revelation. I discovered a whole new world of saving money. Instead of paying prices for our food that were only reasonable, I figured out how to pay even less money and come home with more food than ever before!
I'll be sharing the next step in our journey in the next post in this series. Be sure to subscribe to email updates or follow me on Facebook so you won't miss it!