This article is a continuation of one an ongoing series. The links to the earlier parts are below:
June is over and so is my challenge. There have been a couple of times over the last few years where I’ve tried to put a halt on the amount of money I spend going out to eat or ordering food. This attempt has by-far been the most successful.
Credit for the success goes largely towards the Heavy Herb community. While I know no one would have thought less of me for failing, the idea of letting everyone down got me through some of the tougher moments. As mentioned in one of the earlier parts of this article series, I always find myself more likely to succeed at something if there’s someone to potentially disappoint.
I think the hardest day was Day 28, where I came very very close to caving. At this point there were just under 2 days left of the challenge so the idea of quitting here was a little easier to stomach because I could justify this choice as “I basically did what I set out to do. 28 is still better than 0.”
I had just finished work and there wasn’t really much food in the fridge. I had gone grocery shopping earlier in the week, but there wasn’t much that was super enticing in the fridge. I was feeling really tired and hungry. I knew I’d probably need to walk to the grocery store and the tired feeling was making it difficult to motivate myself to go. The hunger I was experiencing at the same time wasn’t making things easier.
I kept thinking that this is going to be such a dumb ending to this challenge if I quit here so I sucked it up. I made a hot dog to give me some energy to go to the store. While I waited for the hot dog to boil I ate a can of smoked oysters. It was far from a glamorous meal, however it gave me enough energy to contemplate going to the store. I didn’t end up going because after telling my girlfriend that I was tired from work and didn’t truly want to go she offered to go instead. Although, if she didn’t offer I know I would have found a way to make it happen.
I’m really happy I ended up seeing the challenge through. I ended up saving $851.96 when compared to my average monthly food spendings. When I set out on this challenge my goal was to save enough money that I could go visit Jinxz and work on Heavy Herb projects with him in person for a couple of weeks. The amount I saved should be more than enough to cover my flights and I’m going to keep working hard to save more money so I can use it to make that in person meet up even better than it already will be.
Through doing this challenge I realized that life without this particular luxury was just a little bit richer. While you need to use more time and energy to prepare meals, the act of preparing them will usually be a much more interesting experience than sitting around watching TV and waiting for that pizza to finally get here. Even though it’s just a small amount, not participating in these systems helps contribute to less pollution, which is better for our ever struggling environment.
Companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash basically allow anybody to work for them. As a result, you’ll see a lot of immigrants in their employment because it’s easy work to get into if you’re new to the country. While the idea that work is readily available is nice, these companies use a model that makes it so they don’t have to pay minimum wage to these employees. They’re being directly exploited.
The apps literally beg you to tip the drivers so that they don’t have to pay them a fair wage, even though you’re already paying for the food and the delivery fees. My girlfriend, who did not participate in my challenge, was showing me that now you have to tip the delivery people ahead of time because they can refuse to pick up your order if they can see you didn’t.
Excuse me, what?! These companies are worth literally billions of dollars and I can’t get food I’m paying for delivered within a reliable amount of time unless I’m willing to fork over more than I already am? The food is usually already marked up because the restaurants are forced to pay a percentage of their earnings to the app providers. It makes me feel like I got off this train at a good time.
Our society is full of little exploitative systems like this one. They’re designed to keep people from living happier, more fulfilling lives. I hope if you read this series and enjoyed it that I’ve helped show that life without these systems is not only possible, but not as challenging as it may first seem. It’s time we start the process of dismantling them so that we can bring society to a better place than it’s in right now.
Written by CSP and originally published in the June 30, 2024 edition of the Heavy Herb Weekly Newsletter
