The lesser of... well, a lot of evils.

I've been doing a lot of blog reading lately, mostly blogs about frugal living, or meal planning, or saving money as a family. Today I spent a lot of time reading through 100 Days of Real Food on a Budget. This family of 4 first set out on an experiment to eat only "real food"- no refined grains or sweeteners, no packaged foods with more than 5 ingredients on the label, no deep fried or "fast" foods, only locally raised meats- for 100 days. After that, they decided to re-pledge, but this time doing so on a grocery budget of $125 a week. The idea boggles my mind- that it can really be done that cheaply, and I wonder how far $125 would stretch out here in metro Boston.

Reading her blog got me thinking about the food choices our family has made in the past couple of months, since starting our budgeting journey. When I was growing up, we never had junk food in the house. A bag of chips was a VERY rare treat, and it was usually gone within 12 hours of the grocery shopping trip. My mother made all of our meals from scratch, and if we had a dessert, it was home made too. I was probably in my teens before I opened a box of cake mix- it's just not how Mom does things.

And so for the past 9+ years of my marriage, I have tried to avoid a lot of processed foods. But this whole budgeting thing has forced me to practically do a 180. A lot of the recipes I make include a can or two of condensed cream soups. I've been buying refrigerated Pillsbury type croissants, frozen pizzas... and many more boxed mixes. So while on one hand the four of us are eating more fresh fruits and vegetables than ever before, I wonder if what I'm saving in money, I'm wasting with "unhealthy" menu choices.

I was listening to a piece on NPR recently where they said "if you want a treat, you can have it, as long as you make it yourself." We've certainly driven down THAT road lately. We've made lots of chocolate chip cookies, and banana bread, and we've even started using the bread machine again. No more ice cream! No more donuts or Munchkins! No soda!

I'm on the fence. Are we OK where we're at, or do I need to balance the menu more? Sure, you can always make your meals healthier... but at this point, do I NEED to? Am I happy with how my family has been eating?

So many things to think about today...