The Grocery Bill is Just a Warning Sign

We went to the grocery store tonight and spent $140 -- and we didn't purchase any meat! I didn't even consider this a "big order" it was just sort of stocking up on a few things and filling in. Yowsa! - That’s a lot of money for toiletries, a few canned goods and some produce. We gave up deli meat a month ago because the price of turkey at the deli counter is outrageous. (Oreo (our cat) loves that we have switched to tuna!)

The recent increase in the cost of food and gasoline – two major necessities in our culture are putting some people over the edge. I am thankful that I can’t really imagine what this means to people already living in poverty. I have made the faux sacrifice of cutting out fresh deli meats from my grocery order – what are others cutting? -- milk? fruit? proteins? medicines? What does a family do when they fill their gas tank (so they can get to work), pay for daycare (again so they can go to work), and buy a few groceries, and then the rent is due or the utility bill comes and the well is dry? What are their choices? -- live on credit? miss a rent/house payment? skip the utility bills? How do you set priorities when you can’t even cover the basics?

This is just the beginning. For the population that is already experiencing poverty, even minor increases in cost of necessities will drive them to extremes -- people will suffer from malnutrition, people will die of exposure, people will turn to crime out of desperation to survive and provide for their families. As for the sliding middle class who are losing their jobs and losing their homes, it will lead to depression, mental and physical illness, and domestic violence. So what? -- the middle class sinks in to poverty and the poor go extinct? Is that the society our “great nation” has built?

That’s a bleak and admittedly dramatic prediction, but some part of that is very certain to become reality. We need to look at the big picture and recognize what is really happening. People are starting to get scared, and they are looking at their own situations and how all of this will affect them. But what is desperately needed is for people to look at themselves as part of the whole -- no ONE will be saved from this mess – we are all in it together. We have to take care of ourselves, but we also have to take care of each other. Forget about all the details that might divide us – we are all part of the same society, and if one of us is suffering, we are all suffering, and we are all to blame.

The Bennies of a Simple Life

The nation, and in particular, the state I live in, is in the worst economic condition of my lifetime. I work in an industry that is closely tied to the currently-crises-stricken real estate and lending markets. So it probably seems like a bad time to voluntarily take a 20% cut in pay and tell my boss they can get along fine without me one day a week. But that’s what I did.

The thing is, I want more from my life than a paycheck, and with a full time job, I don’t have the time or energy to do other, more meaningful things with the time left over. It’s one of the great advantages to the “voluntary simplicity” life style – we don’t have a lot of stuff, and we live in an old house that we are renovating slowly, but we don’t have a mortgage, and other than my car payment we have no debt. So I’m in a position where I can look at my life and decide that having time to do things that are meaningful to me is worth a 20% pay cut.

So now for the hard part – how will I put this new-found wealth of time to good use?! I am already resolved to getting involved with my local Neighborhood Association and I am looking at joining a City board – these will be good ways to become more engaged in my local community, but they don’t fulfill that need to get involved in a way that makes a difference. I seem to have a special soft spot for the homeless and poverty-stricken – there are a couple of local organizations who work with that population to help improve their situations, or better, help teach them the skills to help themselves. I’m not sure where I’ll land with that, and it will likely be a process of investigating various opportunities. I can’t wait to dive in!

(Thank you, Emmot, for giving me the courage and support to walk the walk.)