Rice Rockets

The price of food in a family's budget is one of the best areas for improvement.
It's one of the categories over which we have the most control. So as with most topics here at save-your-money blog, the amount which consumers spend on food varies drastically. Just like what car you drive, or the size home you "think" you need, buying food can be a money saving opportunity or it can break the bank.

I'm outraged by people complaining that they can't afford healthy food. We live in such an unusual time in history. People, in the US and Europe at least, COMPLAIN that their food has too much fat and calories. Some go so far as suing restaurants for having "unhealthy" foods. They call it an "epidemic."

The fact is, the West has more food than they know what to do with. We actually pay more for food that has less calories. Not to mention bottled water. We call all of this dieting or being health conscious. Why? Because we have so much wealth that we can afford to eat until we are about to bust at the brim. So instead of someone saying, " I've had enough," they say, " I want it all, supersize it please, and I want to look like the models on the cover of Sports Illustrated!".

Now I will admit that the high fat, cheap meals may not have many essential vitamins. So yes there are health benefits to alternative diets. But as far as being fat, just eat less. Just look at the obesity levels among welfare recipients. Many of them are fat as kings and queens from centuries past. As I said, an unusual time in history.

So those of us with our eyes open have an opportunity. First if you are in debt, the first thing I would do is eliminate all eating out from your life. Yes that's right, there was life before Starbucks or Subway. If you are married and want a date night, take a picnic lunch or dinner somewhere. You men out there can get some big points by cooking dinner.

With packing your meals, it may seem like a lot of extra time in the mornings, but its not much different from taking time out of your day to stop somewhere and eat. All you are doing is displacing your time to a more convenient and controlled part of your day. Who knows, you might even get more work done by not needing to travel far for lunch.

These are behaviours which must first be considered and willfully planned, but like unproductive habits that you have been conditioned to follow, these seemingly difficult life style choices soon become as much a habit as taking a shower.

Now to the title of this article. Rice.....good old rice. One of my first memories is my grandmother making me a sweet desert made only of rice, milk, and sugar. She put it in the refrigerator overnight, and you could have told me it was ice cream. I think we could learn greatly from the generations that lived through the Great Depression.

I think most Americans grow up with either bread or potatoes being their primary starches, but why not rice? 20% of the world's diet consists of rice. Its the number 1 global crop followed by corn and wheat. And best of all.....you got it.....It's CHEAP!!!

By total accident I found rice on sale yesterday at the grocery store. This isn't the cheapest store either. 5 pound bags of rice were only $1.39. That's a ton of food. If your motivated, I think you could replace one meal a day with only rice. Assuming you don't eat a pound of rice per meal, you're looking at $1.39 per person before tax comprising 1/3 of your weekly grocery bill.

Just some food for thought. Pun intended.

Benjamin Dockery

www.fxperspective.com