The Suburban Experience

I think the suburban experience is a unique one, because we who live in the ‘burbs are spread out over a much larger area than our city-dwelling counterparts, which means we usually can’t easily walk to schools or grocery stores or shops.

Biking isn’t practical (no bike lanes on these crazy, winding suburban roads), nor is public transportation widely available. We have to drive everywhere, so we want to make it worth our while.

We also tend to live in bigger homes and have much more space to store stuff, therefore we don’t have to be so choosy with our purchases. How many times have you bought something, only to discover later that you didn’t really want or need it. But instead of taking it back you stuffed it in a closet somewhere, just because you had the room to do it?

Personally, I’m a terrible offender with food. I can’t get out of the grocery store without a minimum of two full bags, even if I go in there with the intention of buying three things. (Though I can say I’ve been religiously using my cloth bags.)

I have a pantry chock full of dusty canned goods and boxed products, some of which have languished there for years. I feel too guilty to throw them away, but they’re out of date and not suitable for donation, either. So I just push them to the back of the cabinet and load up on new stuff.

That will someday be old stuff.

That I will not throw away.

One of my goals during our one hundred days is to plan meals more carefully, and try to buy only the stuff I really, truly need for the week. I’m also going to attempt to use whatever isn’t out of date in the pantry. I have a feeling we’re going to have some interesting dinners.

Tomorrow I’m going to post the set of rules my family and I have come up with for this challenge.