As readers of my personal blog already know, the whole food budget thing recently got a bit more complicated over here. Remember when I said I had a very good reason for going over budget the other week? Well…

Okay, so it's super blurry. But who really looks all that closely at other people's ultrasounds, anyway?

Okay, so it's super blurry. But who really looks all that closely at other people's ultrasounds, anyway?

I’m ten weeks pregnant. Starting about week five, I had really bad 24-hour “morning” sickness. I couldn’t even think about food without getting terribly nauseous, so I couldn’t handle meal-planning. Hell–I couldn’t even go into the kitchen or open the fridge. I couldn’t look at the garden at all without gagging. Yep–the height of the growing season, and I couldn’t stand the sight of vegetables. (Especially one in particular, which is now known around our house as The Vegetable of Mordor.* Now you know why my hatred was so very strong. No food aversion is as mighty as a pregnancy food aversion.)

I couldn’t cook, and I couldn’t bake, and I couldn’t stomach food from the garden. Billy was a trooper and took over the cooking whenever he could, but there were plenty of burritos consumed, and he almost never had a lunch to bring to work. Emily and Adam used our hiatus to indulge a bit. We used ours to just get through the first-trimester queasies as best we could.



I’m starting to feel a little better. I still can’t stand the thought of kale and other strong greens–and of course I planned the entire fall and winter garden based on enormous quantities of kale and mustard greens (and luckily Brussels sprouts, which currently DO sound appealing), but I’m not quite as ill as I was, and my appetite is back. Actual hunger! Lots and lots of actual hunger. It’s nice to want to eat again.

Luckily the garden is currently providing an insane bumper crop of green beans, which I still am able to eat, and the guys can and do eat the kale. I’m hoping that I feel up to baking bread again next week, because buying bread has been kind of a bummer, and isn’t so great for the budget. Also not great for the budget? All the ginger ale, candied ginger, and graham crackers consumed in recent weeks. But that was last week. This week, I’m feeling better. Hopefully the packaged crackers and ginger ale are behind us.

The first big hurdle is to get me cooking again on a daily basis. The second will be to try to feed all of us, cravings and all, on our current budget. We want to try to stick to our current budget of $125 a week for the three of us. Will we be able to do it, or will the fetal demands for burritos and tater tots prove too strong?

No idea. Stay tuned.

I will say this, to anyone out there who has not been pregnant, or who has not had a pregnant partner: Yes, I DO need these.

Applesauce AND ketchup. Why choose?

Applesauce AND ketchup. Why choose?

*So named by my darling husband. Our first phone call prior to our blind date went like this:

Billy: I’m kind of a geek.
Me: I like geeks.
Billy: Well, then you’re going to love me!

He was right. And hey, we were introduced by someone he played D&D with. I knew what I was getting.

Share it!
  • Facebook
  • E-mail this story to a friend!
  • TwitThis