It's Your Decision To Make

Just minutes after I published my post yesterday, I read someone else's post about buying non-feedlot-raised meats and chicken, and buying locally. Whether it was the writer's intention or not, I felt as if she were passing judgment against those who buy food produced outside their local markets or foods that aren't organic.

Ideally, we would buy our food locally from farmers with humane and ecologically sound practices. Unfortunately, we either have trouble finding the locally-raised food (especially meat) or we have trouble affording it when we do find it. The meat we found at the Amish shop was the first affordable and readily available non-feedlot meat we'd been able to find this year. Unfortunately, buying a side of beef was out of our budget, and the shop was unwilling to sell it by the quarter. They would sell individual cuts, but those were MUCH more expensive than the $2.49 per pound sides they were selling.

My point is this: it's never a bad thing to buy locally grown or raised produce and meat. The food is likely of better quality and your money stays in your local economy. BUT...you have to do what you have to do. Sometimes you have to buy what's readily available and sometimes you have to stretch those dollars as far as they will possibly stretch.

If you can afford to eat all organic, all local produce and meat, then buy all means, do so. If you can only afford a few organic or locally grown items each week, then buy those and enjoy them. And if you simply can't work organics into your budget, then don't worry about it and don't feel guilty about it. You can always start working them in later as your situation changes.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to living frugally and/or living simply. Only you can decide what's right for you. I hope my posts never come across as condescending or as sermons. I hope instead their seen simply as suggestions or tips for those who do want to lead a simpler, more frugal lifestyle.