Values
For a period of time yesterday and then again today my brain was consumed with stress over finances. I was mostly fretting over student loans. And while I (and we) are in a stable financial situation, every time I look at those big balances I wince a little. Or really I want to pull a Rip Van Winkle and go to sleep for twenty years and wake up when it’s all over.
But what I did instead was call my sweet, comforting, level-headed father and asked for some sound advice on the best strategy for continuing to chip away at those daunting numbers. He gave me good advice, but best of all he reassured me; he gave me some perspective and he told me he was proud of me.
Throughout the course of our conversation I began to think about things that are important and things that I value. I thought about things that I’m willing to live without and things for which I’m willing to pay extra when I can. I also thought about how fortunate I am that we are in a stable enough financial situation to be able to make the choice to pay extra for some things.
Food is one of those things that is really important to me. I’m often willing to pay extra to get better quality when it comes to food. This doesn’t mean that we lounge around the homestead eating beluga caviar, Wagu beef and gold foiled chocolate confections while swilling it down with vintage Bordeaux. But it does mean that I’m willing to pay the price for locally raised grass-fed beef and pastured pork. It does mean that now and again I’ll shell out some extra bucks for artisan goat cheese. I am also willing to regularly pay extra to stock our kitchen with mostly organic and sustainably produced foods, whether I’m shopping at a conventional grocery store or a farmer’s market.
We offset these extra costs by growing some of our own food, making most of our food from scratch and eating most of our meals at home. But by doing these things we get more back than just the ability to buy more nice food. We make an investment in our health. We support our local economy and local farmers. We hone our cooking skills. We learn about new foods and new flavors. We create an environment for wonderful shared meals with friends and neighbors.
All those things are really important to me. And while I love to go shoe shopping just like the next red-blooded American gal, I’m willing to make the shoes I have last another season if it means I get to eat well.