Consumption, the food and money of

After I dropped off K at preschool, I browsed through the local bookstore today and saw this book. I knew of Kate Bingaman-Burt's blog, obsessive consumption, which I thought was brilliant. Every day, she hand draws what she purchased that day with entertaining little comments.

It made me think of what I spend my money on, and how I seem to find myself in the grocery store more times than I'd like to admit. After rent, food is our biggest expenditure, and I am working on ways to minimize it. I'm getting pretty creative with recipes to use up the mega-pack of tuna we got from Costco. And I usually stick pretty close to my weekly menus which I plan out on Sundays.

Wasn't there a contest to feed a family for a week on $25? Have you ever tried that? I won't be entering that contest, since I think it would be impossible to eat well on that kind of budget. More than anything, I hate throwing food away. I'll be revisiting this topic from time to time, I'm sure, since it's becoming a bit of my own obsessive consumption.

By the way, the image above is K with her friends, having a picnic on our front deck.