{ The Economics of Local Living }

I'm back from a fabulous trip to North Idaho. Time with my friends, taking naps by the creek, seeing a baby moose and it's mama...all lived up to the expectations. I laughed from deep inside, something I thought I wouldn't be able to do after my mom died. It felt good to find that spot in my heart again.

But it's a conversation I had yesterday that I wish to expand upon here today. I listened as my grandmother worried aloud over the phone about the cost of food and daily items. Not an uncommon worry for an older person on a fixed and small income. Of course, we as her family will never let her do without, if she has a need we will step in to assist her, but as I hung up I pondered my own reality on that front. Yes, everything costs more. Yes, I've had to do some serious adjusting to the budget. But when I look at my pantry, my freezer and my garden, I'm doing alright. Tonight we canned 10 pounds of cherries. Tomorrow we'll dry another 2 or 3. I bought them directly from the grower for half what the grocery store wanted. The same farmer will have peaches, apples and pears for me in the coming weeks. I have organic, free range chicken coming, again directly from the local grower. For what one traditional trip to Costco would have cost me, I'll get enough chicken for the whole winter. It won't be cut up or boneless breasts...it's a whole chicken. Yes, it will take more time to cook and deal with but it's organic, free range and the local farmer I'm buying from will spend her money here, in my community AND be able to grow more chicken for me next year. I'm still saving a little bit of money each month, I'm still contributing to an IRA, and we are still careful. But I am finding that living local and buying local over the coarse of season is leaving me in better financial shape then I thought. It's not the "saving" money that matters, it's the not being held hostage by the wild weekly flucuations that are paying off in the long run. All in all, I think the food budget for the year will come out as previuosly projected in late 2007 but given the upward movement of prices, that's money in the bank if you ask me.