Starting Off -- What about coffee?

Monday, July 7

It's funny that when you start something new, there is excitement about what lies ahead. That's how I feel right now as I officially start my experiment. I am not sure what the financial result will be -- will we save money, spend more money, keep things the same? That will bring about interesting thoughts and ideas, I am sure.

For day one, I see it's going to be easier as long as we have food in the house but I am now very thoughtful about the choices I make. I started a list of common breakfast foods that I need to source out locally. A creature of habit, my breakfast usually includes oatmeal, raisins or fruit, nuts, coffee, sugar and cream. So what about coffee? Very important for many, including yours truly. Okay, one of my rules is looking for organic, fair trade options but already that seems like a cop out.

Because I work in 50 miles away, I plan to stop by Sam's Club on the way home which would be a typical shopping trip. I ask Mike what else we need beside detergent and a few items for our son. Mike says, "Oh yeah, get a bag of the medium tail off shrimp". Just like that! I just stare. He then says, "I guess shrimp really isn't local food, is it?" His enthusiasm is already waining and it's just day one!

One thing about buying local is that you are not as tempted to put something else not on your list into your grocery cart. This worked at Sam's Club as there is not much local anything going on there that I could see. I did read that Walmart plans to start carrying local produce and am interested to see how that will work. I am not sure how I feel about that yet.

Coffee was on my list and I first sought out organic coffee at Sam's and remembered Dark Canyon Coffee on Deadwood Ave. which is right on my way home! Eureka! I stopped by right before they closed and bought a pound of Highlander Grogg for $12.50. Comparing this to the Sam's Member Mark coffee of 2.5 pounds for about the same price, I am thinking we could be spending more. BUT, the coffee shop smelled sooo good, they were very friendly and they put the coffee in a cute yellow bag. It was the experience that I enjoyed. Is that worth more than double the price? We will see.