My Fruit Dollar

Housecleaning and laundry aren't the only topics covered in exhaustive detail by America's Housekeeping Book (1945). The Manual also includes a chapter on the household budget. Sixty years ago, groceries cost much, much more proportionally than they do today. In fact, the authors of The Manual note than sometimes "the entire budget must be built around this item." The housewife was charged with a vital mission, then, in planning menus that could make the best, most efficient use of every article brought home from the market. Shopping for the best price, food preservation, creative use of leftovers --- these were topics of great importance to housewives and their husbands.

It helps also occasionally to keep a detailed food record for a couple of weeks or a month with separate totals for cost of cereal foods; fruits and vegetables; meats, fish and eggs; milk and cheese; and in a final class, fats, sugar and miscellaneous items. On a modest income, in order to get a balanced diet, not far from 1/5 of the food money should go for each of these five groups.

So I undertook an experiment last winter to shed some light on my own "food dollar." Not only for budget reasons, but because this kind of spending reflects the kind of eating you're doing. For one embarrassing month, I tracked my own grocery expenditures. And it was not a pretty picture. At the end of the month, I realized that I had spent $375.67 for groceries - about $100 to $125 more per month than I thought I'd been spending. 66% of my food dollar had gone toward Fats, Sugar and Miscellaneous Items --- the category where I'd lumped in all the processed, packaged non-single-ingredient foods that hadn't even been thought of in 1940. I spent 11% of my food dollar on Fruits and Vegetables, 10% on Cereal Foods, 8% on Milk and Cheese, and 5% on Eggs, Beans, and Soy.

Fast forward six months. In late July, I started tracking my food dollar again. For one month. I've made lots of changes in my diet and should be able to see a difference in my marketing, right? Well, here are the results... My total spending on groceries for the month was $286.25. That's a significant drop - $89.42 per month I can put to a better use. (Like all these new clothes I have to buy to fit my new figure!)

Fruits and Vegetables: $105.55 (37%)

Fats, Sugar, and Miscellaneous Items: $96.03 (33%)

Breads and Cereals: $33.28 (12%)

Eggs, Beans, and Soy: $25.92 (9%)

Milk and Cheese: $25.47 (9%)

I'm not surprised that my spending on Fruits and Vegetables has risen so dramatically. I absolutely spoil myself these days with as much fresh fruit as I can possibly bring home. If I have it handy, I'm much less likely to do any snacking that ends up on my hips. I am surprised, however, that Fruits and Vegetables took the lead. And that my spending on Fats, Sugar, and Miscellaneous Items has been cut in half!!! Maybe I'll celebrate by sharing the recipe for the Rolled Oat Muffins I tried out last week. Though I was a little skeeved by soaking the oats in sour milk, they turned out incredibly. Moist and nutty and super easy to make. I ate two of them that first morning, then popped the rest in the freezer for rationing out from time to time.

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ROLLED OAT MUFFINS

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup white flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 1/2 cups sour milk or buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted shortening

Soak 2 cups rolled oats in sour milk overnight. Sift dry ingredients together. Beat egg; add milk, shortening and sifted ingredients. Mix only enough to dampen flour. Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full and bake in hot oven (400 degrees F.) 25 minutes. Makes 12.

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I wish this lunch packing thing came more naturally to me. I spent a while on Sunday evening prepping Monday's lunch and promptly went to work without the Hard-cooked Egg that was sitting in the fridge. This morning I was feeling antsy about a day-and-a-half-old egg - and realized at the last minute that I'd left all my plastic containers sitting in the dish drainer at work! - so took along one of my leftover frozen lunches instead. I'm determined to grit my teeth, though, and make a success of this second lunch box menu - so I'm going to cook another egg tonight and try it one more time tomorrow. The good news is that the Peanut Butter and Lettuce Sandwich was yummy! I'm looking forward to having that again.

All this talk of food is driving me crazy. I've got a basket full of ironing calling my name. Catch you later!