In the beginning there was excess...

During my 2 years living in a student co-op I never had to spend a cent on food or worry about what I was going to eat at a given meal. Eventually I found myself wandering aimlessly into the kitchen, opening up a fridge, and mindlessly munching on whatever I found there. During those years, I was also making way more money than I needed to pay my rent and my spending patterns beginning to mirror my eating -- I just did it, all the time, without thinking about it.

Then one day, I graduated from college and moved out of the co-op. With no one around to feed me anymore, no job and thus no money, I decided to reintroduce myself to my old friend Scarcity. If I could only reprogram myself to think more carefully about where my money went and what I ate, I might return to my pre-grad-school, super-frugal, super-cook. Heck, I might even begin to chip away at the mountain of student debt I'm suddenly standing face-to-face with

To that end, I decided to begin a 3-month experiment in the creative possibilities of ingredient asceticism, which basically entails eating rice, beans and greens every day for 3 months. Obviously, this won't be a very interesting blog if that's all I eat though. Also, I won't be a very interesting person...unless surly and disgruntled count as interesting. So, there are a couple rules I am going to follow:

1. All rices, beans and legumes, and leafy greens are on.
2. Oils and vinegars are on...like I'm going to live for 3 months without olive oil? C'mon.
3. All spices and condiments I already own are on.
4. $4/day discretionary budget: Limited to seasonal stuff from the "Damaged" bin at the co-op, coffee, or alcohol.
5. Anything anyone else pays for or presents me with is on.

It starts tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe in a week I'll say, "Hey, you know what? I don't really need root veg!" or "Damn, even the cheap fruit is kind of expensive." Or maybe I'll fail spectacularly. Then you can come on here and comment on what a loser I am. Neat!