A Challenge for the New Year

The word I'd use to describe this past year is "FULL". Full of friends, full of both work and play, full of love and learning. And full of good food. We're learning to be better stewards of everything God has blessed us with. Especially our time, relationships, possessions and bodies.

Us with Tiffany's family in the Tennessee mountains

Last year, Tiff and I went vegetarian for a month and what a life-changing experience that was. We still like our meat, but that month opened up all kinds of delicious and healthy foods. It radically altered our approach to choosing what we eat, and precipitated a big shift towards eating a plant-based diet.

So this January, we're going to try another challenge. So often, I hear eating healthy costs more. This month, we're going to try to eat healthy for under $200 for the month. We typically spend $400-$500 a month on food (can you tell we like to eat and share food?), so this will take some doing. Now we aren't exactly starting from scratch, we have some canned goods, rice, beans, in our freezer are a couple frozen chickens and frozen vegetables, and in our winter garden are peas and salad greens. We have a little money for eating out, so those meals won't come from this budget.

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According to my math, spending $200/month for two people means spending an average of $1.58/meal per person. Unhealthy alternatives such as our old staple Tombstone pizzas cost about $1.50/meal per person (on sale). Ramen with an egg on top is probably less than $1. So the trick will be to eat HEALTHY for about that same amount. So the fun starts today, we'll let you know how it goes and let us know if you have any meal ideas.