Our Junk-Filled Economy

Walking through the grocery store or department store with produce, it boggles my mind to try to find anything. I went to the grocery store for one item the other day and had to walk around the store twice to find what I needed. It's not my usual grocery store, but shouldn't items be easy to find? It made me aware of how much junk we have in our lives. Cookies, potato chips, salad dressing, canned vegetables. What happened to self-sufficiency? Have we gotten so lazy that we can't make anything anymore? A box of cake mix is $2+ per box. Are you waiting for the bugs to start invading your flour at home? Are the eggs in your fridge for decoration?

Someone said America cannot live without convenience or something to that effect. They are 100% right. Fast food, prepackaged potato salad, bagged salad, the list goes on. Since I've cut back on spending, I found myself couponing and only shopping at grocery stores for awhile. I became burned out trying to find a specific product for a specific amount at a certain location. The coupon mission really didn't make buying food any cheaper. So I stopped and realized coupons are primarily for junk food. There's a few for health foods (still processed), organic, and rarely produce.

People buying whatever is inexpensive because they think that is all they can afford. Whenever there's a new product, there's a coupon for cheap or even free. No wonder people are obese and lazy. People need to change their mindset. Cheap is not good. Cheap is unhealthy. I'm not saying buy only organic and expensive things. I'm saying purchase quality. Don't think the grocery store is the only place to purchase produce.

With all these coupons available, comes trash. The trash bins overflow with boxes, plastic bags, paper, food cans, etc. It is horrifying to trash bins bursting with items we are made to think we need every week. Our pantry was bursting at the seams and yet we went shopping for more every week. That's the mindset we have. The prepackaged food never goes bad and although we only consume so much per week, we continue trek on to the grocery store.

A year later, my family started watching a show called "Clean House" through Netflix. It was mesmerizing to watch families with a mess so big that it often had $1,000+ yard sales. Our house wasn't as bad as most of those, but we knew we needed to change. What did we do? Our family downsized. We got rid of the extra clothes, baby toys, extra camping gear, etc. We freed ourselves of the trash, from our cupboards, our closets, toyboxes, yard, and most importantly, we got the junk out of our bodies. Sounds like a cleansing, doesn't it?

Getting out of the house is the hardest part. You can live your "cleansed" lifestyle at home, but when you drive down one major street in town, you'll find a plethora of drive-thru chains for breakfast, lunch, snacktime, and dinner. Wow. Yes, its nice to have someone else cook or not have any dishes to wash, but you end up filling the landfill and your arteries. Unless you order that iceberg salad, there's not much left on the menu.

Another issue I have when dining out is where does the food come from? 99% of it comes from foreign countries and/or an overcrowded feedlot. That's why its cheap. Inexpensive antibiotic filled meat-that's not counting the soybeans and corn syrup companies add to the meat. Grass-fed animals are expensive, but in my opinion, 100% worth the cost.

Meat is like Wal-Mart and Target. Wal-Mart sells low priced items, based on quantity. Target sells a little more expensive items than Wal-Mart, but they are based on quality. See the difference? I'm not promoting or bashing either company, but I get tired of spending countless hours and hubby's hard earned money to these big corporations that will not benefit me or my family in the long run. I'm not getting my money or health back. Once your money and health leave, it's gone.

The one-stop shopping is convenient, especially when you have kids. Who has time to unbuckle them three or four times and put up with temper tantrums? Why would you take your kids to a sit down dinner when the drive-thru is just as convenient? As a whole, we are lazy and obese Americans. I'm not saying I'm energetic or at a healthy weight. I'm just seeing the big picture of how these corporations and the government operates.

Junk in Pantry

Convenience has pushed us consumers at a cost. It has created a government and corporations to throw junk (and trash) in our homes, our bodies, and minds. We have come dependent on other countries for our food and their hard work in making our products. This makes me wonder what are Americans good for? Yes, we are the leader of the world, but why? What do we, as a people and not government, provide?

Our self-sufficiency mindset has been stripped away. Why do something yourself when you can just pay for it? I challenge you to look at the labels. Buy local, buy organic. Don't buy from the big box store or fast food chain for one week or one month. Before purchasing anything. Ask yourself two questions: 1. Can I grow it? 2. Can I make it myself?

Just because the store might be cheaper, ask yourself who is my money benefiting? My local economy or the billion dollar corporation? No wonder so many are under and unemployed.

Thanks for reading!

Bakersfield. No a/c until 4:30pm. Day 5

Sorry for posting this so late! I Skyped with mom first thing this morning and then headed to the farmer's market for our groceries. It starts at 9am, so its quite nice to have first pick.

The last day of my no a/c until 4:30pm challenge. I would have to say its been a great success. It got a little hot during the day, but to me, it wasn't intolerable.

We sort of cheated today. Our family had run out of milk and since I have the car for the weekend and next week, I might as well go to the grocery store. We went to Sam's Club since the milk there seems to be the cheapest out of anywhere. Plus with my three year old potty training, the family restroom is a huge bonus while shopping (even though I hate using public restrooms). Another advantage is when it is just me shopping with the kids, I can't pick them up to put them in the cart. They're not fat, they just keep growing! There's a lot less people in the store at 9am so the kids can room to run around and help throw things in the cart.

We returned home and unloaded the groceries. Hubby likes a full fridge, I like an empty fridge-that way I can actually see what is in the fridge and use it. When its full, I can't see anything and when I can't see it, I forget all about it.

Frankie, our English cocker, needed a new dog tag, so I loaded the kids and Frankie into the car to get that replaced. It wouldn't be so bad if he would stay with us. As soon as he sees another animal or person, forget about calling his name. Out of sight, out of mind. Kind of like me! Sort of. The kids had a blast checking out the different animals (mice, gerbils, fish). I swear Petco is a mini zoo. If you can take an animal home, they've got it. Why adopt all those animals when you can just visit them at the store?

I didn't get any dog treats at Sam's like I usually do. So I decided to let the kids pick out one bag of treats for Frankie. I don't think Frankie really cares, he just wants treats! So instead of picking up rawhide bones and dehydrated poultry, the kids pick out wheat gluten-free dog treats. Then they picked out vegetarian treats plus some other health-nut dog treats. I even found yams for dog treats. I'll have to try making those myself. $30 for a bag of dehydrated yams is a little expensive. I might as well buy some healthy alternative dog treat that the kids picked out (even though it was the packaging that did the trick for them). In all honesty, I didn't see any of the dehydrated treats that I usually give my dog at Petco. Very strange. I guess I can enjoy the fact that the dog will now be eating healthier too. Going to Petco is a real treat for the kids. I could care less about seeing animals, but we were there for a good hour looking at things -especially the dog toys.

At home, we ate a mixture of baby spring mix and romaine hearts salad with a few things added in there. I am very grateful that my kids love salad. There has to be dressing on it, but that's easy to make myself.

Starting to get warm at lunch in the house, so we all had some ice water before putting the kids to bed for a nap. We were not going to have the meltdown like last night. No way jose!

After the nap, I noticed the house getting really hot, so I checked the temperature. No wonder it was hot- it was 103 degrees outside! The kids and I drank more ice water and kept the lights and electronics off. They played in their rooms with the ceiling fans going. Thank God for legos, trains, books, and toys in general. They didn't want to go outside, which was fine. I made tater tot casserole using the oven for an hour. It got hot, but I made it after the air kicked on at 4:30. The house pretty much remained hot since our house is set at 78 degrees.

When dinner was eaten I watched a Netflix show on my iPad and the kids decided to go play outside. It wasn't much cooler than anytime earlier. The kids still enjoyed swinging on the swingset and riding on their scooter.

Overall, it wasn't that bad with no a/c until 4:30pm. It is definitely a luxury and an experience I will probably forget within time. It's not as horrible as one might think. We used less electricity and got creative. We didn't change our regular schedule much, but we have been drinking a ton more water.

What's the next challenge?