If you have ever tried to eat well, probably you have experienced at least one of these frustrations:
- Organic and other ‘good foods’ are expensive
- Can’t find the right products
- Don’t know what to choose and/or how to cook
- Time consuming to prepare food
- Hard to cook for one
- My family doesn’t support me
- Can’t fit in an potluck and other social event
- Information is so confusing I don’t know what is really right
- It’s been overly advertised and feel sick of it
When you look at these, you see money and environment are the root factors of our challenges.
Money
Do you think ‘good-for-you food’ AKA healthy food is expensive?
I agree. It is definitely not cheap.
But, the value ‘cheap/expensive’ is subjective.
It depends on how you see the picture.
You pay one way or another
The most common argument is like this:
If you don’t eat properly and get sick, the cost of treatment will be more expensive.
It can include:
- the time you (and possibly your family member) lose at work = loss of income
- medication
- hospitalization and/or surgery
- rehabilitation and other treatment
- insurance
Plus if you can’t do housekeeping and other chores , you may have to pay someone else to get the things done.
You may need a specific appliance or mobility aid to compensate for the physical limitation.
Being sick is expensive while staying healthy is not cheap either.
So, be ready to pay in one way or another.
Long-term damage
Damage is not done just physically but also mentally and spiritually.
- lack of motivation
- lack of focus
- loss of self-esteem
These will prevent you from a good performance, which can result the decreasing income and/or losing a job.
Needless to say the increasing chance of an unwanted accident.
Such incidents will lower your self-esteem even further. You get into a vicious circle as a result.
This may be a bit too simplified figure but basically the point is ’cause and effect’.
Not only you
When you get sick, you are not the only one to pay the cost.
It can be the people around you.
I grew up with a sick mother.
Watching someone suffering all the time was depressing.
I was an angry child probably because I felt helpless.
I personally appreciate my own experience after all, but I don’t want my children to have the same experience if I have a choice.
To me, staying healthy is a quite high priority.
But just marketing, isn’t it?
Money is not only your issue but also the suppliers’.
Growing Market
The organic market has been growing rapidly.
Major grocery stores all have the organic section with various items. You see more and more ‘organic this, organic that’.
The more people produce organic foods, the more the products become available.
It’s a positive side of the market growth.
The more the market grows, the more competitive it becomes. It encourages the suppliers to be innovative to lower the production cost. They make profit and likely the products become less expensive.
It’s another positive effect when the market grows.
How To Make Profit
However the production cost can be cut down only so much since they have to be paid just like you and me.
Seeking more profit, some suppliers lower the quality of the product.
Some pay for an expensive professional marketing plan, especially the larger corporations that can afford it.
They spend a good chunk of money for advertisement and promotion to make enough profit, and the cost is reflected into the price a customer is paying. Professionally well marketed products likely have a larger overhead cost, which means you may be paying for their advertising more than the actual quality of the food.
But.
Marketing is not all bad. It is just a mean for a business to meet someone who may need the product and service.
Marketing To Meet Potential Customers
Marketing is somewhat a necessity for a healthy business management.
After all, if you can’t sell enough to make the business sustainable, you won’t be able to offer anything no matter how good products you have.
Marketing is not to suck up customers’ money but, from an honest businesses’ point of view, to introduce the possibly truly valuable items for them.
It is true there are money-driven suppliers.
On the other hand, I believe there are also many honest, hard working, fair suppliers, too.
Choose a right supplier for you.
Keeping it in mind, consider to take a closer look at smaller, local businesses around you.
They unlikely have a full-time tech guy or marketing manager, but many of them are trying hard to improve their service and make the customers happy.
What to do?
Money is a tool to make your life more meaningful and enjoyable.
If you spend money on something, be wise and invest it for the good.
No extra money to invest? Before you conclude so, ask you several questions.
Suggestions are:
- Sometimes take time to view your future. How do you want to spend the rest of your life? What kind of world do you wish the children to live? What is more important in your life? What is less?
- Acknowledge the simple fact that we all need to pay for something.
- Money is limited, so you need to trade something old off with something new.
Isn’t there any habitual spending? - A change means to give something up.
If there is an old, not really important ritual spending, give it up.
E.g. pop, chewing gum, sugary treat, a gossip magazine… even though you can’t completely give it up, cutting it back is a really good start. - It’s okay to entertain yourself.
If you end up concluding you can’t give up a weekly coffee with friends at Timmy, pizza night with cold pop or occasional treats here and there, nothing wrong with it.
The point is to clarify your values and choose your activities intentionally. If you choose to enjoy a party, don’t feel guilty but just enjoy it.
Use your precious money for something important to you. - Read the label, not the catch copy.
Businesses make a lot of efforts for attractive packaging because that does make a huge difference to the sales. It indicates many people buy a thing with the impression.
Your intuition should be greatly respected, though be careful not to confuse it with the manipulated impression.
“Why am I buying this product?” “What made me interest in this item?” are good questions to ask yourself. - Talk with the suppliers. Knowing your food suppliers better often changes your shopping habit.
Chat with your local producers and distributors. Your input/feedback will be greatly appreciated, and you may discover a hidden treasure right in your neighbourhood.
In short, stop spending habitually and start investing consciously.
Money is limited, so be a bit more cautious about how to use them and what the return will be.
It’s just like Monopoly, the matter of your choices and decisions with a bit of luck, and the most importantly, have fun.
