An experiment in spending and eating.

Hi, I'm Emily and I have a problem.  I'm a compulsive grocery shopper.  Most days see me packing up my son and visiting the Whole Foods at least once, stopping at the Stop and Shop on the way home, and then heading out on foot to a few local stores for special treats.  Fortunately, little Bar is a happy participant in all this food shopping having nearly as great a love of food as I do.  I spend a frustratingly large amount of money on food each month.  That having been said, I budget carefully for our family and we eat within our means.  We throw almost every dollar of our casual income/fun money into food (ok, and booze).  Our meals are, in essence, our entertainment as well as our nourishment.  Quality is key and with two hungry men, me, and a nearly insatiable man-child to feed, so is quantity. 

The eaters.

On to the experiment.  I wondered aloud a few days ago if I might shed my addiction to big grocery stores and do all my grocery shopping on foot.  And a blog was born.  Within a 5 minute walk of my house is a gourmet chocolate shop, a highest of high end specialty Italian Market, a family owned bakery, a small grocerette that carries a confusing mix of ethnic foods and what I would consider specialty items (organic dairy, 7th generation cleaning products), a family-owned butcher (one of the older business on the main street) which carries cheap and reliably tasty meats but they are all commercially sourced and slaughtered, and a Brazilian butcher and bodega that, near as I can tell, sells meat cut to order, simple shelf-stable groceries, and bikinis.  More on the bikinis later.

The more I thought about it, the more possible it seemed.  And not only did it seem possible, it seemed necessary.  Main Street here, like Main Streets all over the country, is struggling.  There are surges of development and progress next to buildings and businesses crumbling.  My grocery dollar spent here makes a difference to real people.  People I see every day.  People who know my son and welcome him with warm enthusiasm and endless free samples, while boasting to other customers about having known him since he was born.  People who are proud to have me as a customer.

And so, I have committed myself to becoming a Local Spendivore.  For the next month, I will grocery shop only at my local businesses, I'll note the sole exception in my next post, and use my food dollar to fuel the local economy and see if I can maintain our typically high standard of eating.  I'm betting I can.  I'll share with you, readers, my results and recipes, my thoughts on eating in general, and, doubtless, my finds and frustrations.  And maybe, just maybe, there will be a bikini.