Items Purchased at Target, Publix and Food World

Time to Prep time Acquire Food Acquisition Preparation (minute Cost (minute s) s) Monday 1/14

Bagel and Items purchased at Travel, cream Target, selection cheese, Publix and , and orange Minimal 3 $1.30 Food World purchas juice, e = and 115 banana

Travel and wait Pad Thai time = Ruan Thai, 30 None 0 $8.90 Tuscaloosa Thai iced tea

Coca-cola Sautee, simmer Travel, chicken, Items purchased at chicken, selection fries, Winn Dixie, deep fry , and 70 $6.05 peas Target and fries, and purchas and Diet Food World steam e = 85 7-Up veggies Travel, Mix, blend, pour $.57 per piece Items purchased at selection into ($4.54 Peanut butter Food World , and crust, 120 for pie and Target purchas and chill whole e = 85 in freezer pie) Tuesday 1/15 Travel, Cereal and Items purchased at selection milk, Target, , and Minimal 3 $2.44 orange Food World, purchas juice, and Publix e = 115 and banana Salmon, Items purchased at None (meal Minimal 5 $2.29 saffron Publix, Wal- was rice, Mart, leftovers broccoli, Target, and ) and Diet Food World Sunkist (leftover s from dinner a couple of days before); peanut butter pie Chicken enchilad as Taqueria El Travel and wait verde, Rincon, time = 1 None 0 $9.00 tortilla Northport hour chips and salsa Travel, selection Purchased at Cranberry juice , and Minimal 5 seconds $.28 Target purchas e = 60 Wednesday 1/16

Bagel and Items purchased at Travel, cream Target, selection cheese, Food World, , and Minimal 2 $1.34 banana, and Wal- purchas coffee Mart e = 145 with milk and sugar Travel, Diet Sunkist Drink purchased at selection and Target, fruit , and None 0 $0 pineappl from Anna purchas e Rich e = 60 Travel, Boil and simmer Pasta-roni and selection pasta Items purchased at cranberr , and with milk 15 $1.84 Target y juice purchas and e = 60 butter Sauteed Items purchased at Travel, Sautee and 60 $4.76 chicken Target, selection simmer with Winn-Dixie, , and chicken tapenad Wal-Mart, purchas and e, corn, and Food e = 160 tapenade and pan- World , sear seared Brussels Brussels sprouts, sprouts, and and Diet steam Sunkist corn $.25 each Travel, Items purchased at ($2.95 selection Publix, Wal- per Cheese muffins , and Mix and bake 60 Mart, and dozen) purchas Target, e = 150

Thursday 1/17 Travel, Oatmeal with Items purchased at selection milk and Bruno’s and , and Boil oats 5 $.95 brown Target purchas sugar, e = 120 cranberr y juice Chicken, corn, Brussels sprouts, Items purchased at Travel, and Diet Target, selection Sunkist Winn-Dixie, , and Minimal 5 $1.83 (leftover Wal-Mart, purchas s from and Food e = 160 dinner World night before) Chocolate truffle ice cream, Peter Brooke Travel and chocolat Chocolatier, purchas None 0 $4.49 e- Northport e = 60 covered strawber ry Beef stroganoff Travel, Items purchased at Cook beef and with egg selection Winn Dixie, simmer, noodles, , and 30 $4.38 Wal-Mart, and boil cranberr purchas and Target noodles y juice e = 135 Travel, Items purchased at selection Publix, Wal- None (already Cheese muffin , and 1 $.25 Mart, and baked) purchas Target, e = 150 Friday, 1/18 Items purchased at Travel, Minimal 1 $.67 Publix, Wal- selection Cheese muffin Mart, and , and and Target, purchas orange e = 150 juice Travel, Pizza rolls and selection Purchased at Diet , and Bake 15 $1.64 Target Sunkist purchas e = 60 Chicken fingers, cole slaw, toast, Travel and wait The Front Porch, onion time = None 0 $9.60 Northport rings, 60 and peanut butter pie Saturday 1/19 Travel, Cereal with selection milk, Items purchased at , and Minimal 3 $2.30 banana, Target purchas and e = 60 orange juice Travel, Tempura selection shrimp Items purchased at , and Bake 20 $3.36 and Diet Target purchas Sunkist e = 60 Roast peppers, sautee vegetabl Roasted red es, pepper Items purchased at Travel, simmer soup, Target, selection tomatoes bagel Winn Dixie, , and , puree, 60 $3.71 with Wal-Mart, purchas add butter, and Publix e = 175 cream and Diet and Sunkist reheat, toast bagel Chex mix and Items purchased at Travel, Minimal 1 $.73 Sierra Target selection Mist , and Free purchas e = 60 Travel, Sunday, 1/20 selection Purchased from , and Minimal 2 seconds $.37 Target Diet Sunkist purchas e = 60 Meat loaf, pasta salad, corn, Travel and Made by my dinner visiting mother-in- None 0 $0 roll, time = law Coke, 300 candy, toasted pecans Spicy casserol e with beef, Sautee beef, Travel, rice, simmer Items purchased at selection corn, with rice, Target and , and 30 $3.33 and and add Winn Dixie purchas cheese, corn and e = 75 and cheese Sierra Mist Free [Highlight and delete the example data in the table before entering your data]

Time to earn What was the meal and who What was discussed or Total time cost did I eat with? thought about during (minutes) (minutes) meal? 13 131 Breakfast, alone I was reading the newspaper Lunch, with Erin Phillips We discussed family, Christmas 91 121 break and clothes shopping Dinner, with my husband We were watching TV 62 217 (Matthew Satcher) 6 126 Dessert, with Matthew We discussed school 25 143 Breakfast, alone Reading e-mail and news online 23 28 Lunch, alone Reading for class Dinner, with Matthew We discussed politics and the 92 152 election 3 minutes and 5 Drink, with Matthew Watched TV 3 seconds 14 161 Breakfast, alone Read newspaper Snack, with Anna Rich and Discussed readings for Culture 0 0 Brian Robbins 19 94 Lunch, alone Read for class 49 269 Dinner, with Matthew Watched TV 3 210 Dessert, with Matthew Discussed news 10 135 Breakfast, alone Read e-mail Lunch, with Andrea Adams, Erin Discussed classes mostly, but Phillips, Krista Garcia, Krista wanted to know 19 24 Daniel LaDu, and where I got my sweater whomever else was in from 23A Snack, with Andrea, Erin, and Discussed school, travel, and 46 106 Anna the Greek system 45 210 Dinner, with Matthew Watched TV 3 151 Dessert, with Matthew Discussed medicine 7 158 Breakfast, alone Read e-mail, news online 17 92 Lunch, with Matthew Discussed buying a house Dinner, with Matthew Discussed science, philosophy, 98 158 and politics 24 84 Breakfast, alone Read newspaper 34 114 Lunch, with Matthew Discussed upcoming travel Dinner, with Matthew Discussed health and diet, 38 273 watched TV 7 68 Snack, with Matthew Watched TV 64 minutes and 2 Drink, with Matthew Discussed family 4 seconds Lunch with Matthew, his mother My three year old niece, Haley, and stepfather and our did most of the talking two nieces, Haley and and my other niece, two Madison year old Madison, is just 0 300 starting to talk. We also discussed Matthew’s stepfather’s blood pressure problems 34 139 Dinner, with Matthew Discussed future baby names

My Foodways

Michelle Azevedo

January 28, 2008

Three pages Most Americans, including myself, pay little attention to what they eat and how they acquire it. Food is so inexpensive and convenient (or at least it can seem that way), that Americans often forget that in other parts of the world and at other times throughout our species’ existence, food has been difficult to obtain. Keeping a record of everything I ate over one week, as well as how long it took for me to acquire and prepare it and the social contexts in which I ate, was quite enlightening.

The first thing that I noticed is that it is much less expensive to eat at home than to go out to a restaurant. I already knew this, but I had real evidence of this fact because I kept a record of my expenses. It may seem like fast food is very cheap, but I was usually able to prepare a much better meal at home for the same or a lower price. By “better” I mean both more nutritious and better tasting. However, I often relied on packaged foods when pressed for time, especially at lunch time.

Also, my husband usually cooked foods that were partially prepared.

However, although it is cheaper to cook at home, it takes more time. To my surprise, the time it took to prepare the food was usually less than the time it took to purchase it. Also, when I calculated the amount of time I would need to work to be able to afford the food I ate, it was obvious that a more expensive meal would cost me more time in terms of wage work. Additionally, I calculated the amount of money that I would make if I were paid for my time spent acquiring and preparing the food. The resulting amount made me realize that some people may be more inclined to spend that time working for wages than working for free, which is essentially the same thing as preparing food without being paid.

Again, the amount of time I spent shopping for food was more than I expected. I noticed two things. The first is that takes a lot more time to shop at more than one store. For example, an average shopping trip to Target or Wal-Mart takes me about an hour. This includes the drive to and from the store, time spent parking the car, selecting items, standing in line, purchasing, putting the groceries into the car, unloading the groceries from the car, and putting them away in my kitchen. If

I prepare a dish with ingredients from both stores, in effect I have spent at least two hours just getting the ingredients. It takes even more time to prepare the dish at home. I would save a lot of time if I did all my shopping at one store.

Additionally, I noticed that it takes longer for me to shop at a store that is further from where I live. This is very obvious, but I usually get most of my food at Target because their prices are lower.

But in terms of time instead of money, shopping at Target is more expensive. This is especially true considering the amount of money I could earn per hour if I were working for wages rather than shopping. Winn Dixie and Food World are closer to my house but their prices are higher, therefore I only occasionally buy items there that I did not buy at Target. From now on, I may consider shopping closer to home to save time.

There is a trade-off between time and money. In a sense, they equal each other. As the saying goes, “time is money”. In the same way, having more money to spend can save time. If I had enough money to eat out every day, I would save time spent shopping and cooking. This may help to explain why many low-income people in the industrialized world do not eat a well-balanced diet and continue to eat fast food, as well as packaged and prepared foods. They often have to work more hours to buy food than others who are better paid. The fact that fast food is cheap and convenient solves the problem of having less money and less time to buy fresh foods and prepare them. The cost, of course, is the damage to one’s health. I have always thought that I could probably have more money in the future, but I can never get back lost time. It is also true that, at some point, one can never regain his good health.

I also noticed that I usually eat with others. The only times I consistently eat alone are early in the morning. This is because I have not yet gone out, so I cannot eat with friends. Also, my husband does not like to eat breakfast early in the morning. The rest of my meals are usually shared with family or friends. This is a pleasant discovery because I moved to Tuscaloosa rather recently, and had not yet had the opportunity to meet new friends. In the last six months, since I have been at the university, I have made several new friends and we enjoy eating together. I have a lot of fun eating with friends because I have always preferred to make meal time a social event. When eating at home with my husband we usually watch television together and chat about all kinds of things. I also enjoy eating with my family, and I like to entertain at home. Preparing a meal for loved ones is one of the best ways that I can show that I care for them and it is a wonderful way to have fun, laughter, and conversation.