Going to Extremes

I should know better than to read blogs in the morning, before the coffee kicks in. (Not to mention dealing with the winds that are roaring around the house right now. They're icy cold, and my Michigan-born blood keeps insisting that tornadoes are coming. Snow, yes -- tornadoes, no.)

Stacy Makes Cents guest posted on one of my favorite blogs about her new transformation. This is a woman who went so hog-wild on couponing and stockpiling that she was able to feed her family for a solid month on just what she had on the shelves. (And she had a lot. Her place looks like a store.)
     She purchased soap and cleaners the same way. Now that her little girl has had some issues with red and flaky skin (a sensitivity to one of the soaps, right?), she's...

Throwing everything out and starting over.

Now all processed foods of any kind Are Evil And Must Be Destroyed --or in her family's case, consumed first. ( 'After all, I am frugal,' she says.) The biggest villains are foods with soy, which are immediately tossed in the trash. What's so suddenly horrible about soy, I wonder. (Stacy doesn't say.)

Does she embrace this new lifestyle with caution? Naah. She's now just as big into buying and procuring ingredients, books and such for this new extreme as she was into couponing. And since they're all 'natural,' I'm guessing she's generally not paying frugal prices for them, either. This doesn't look like a woman who would dig around in the bins in the bulk foods section. Nothing but the best.

Isn't this hell-bent for leather...just in the opposite direction? 

I am a big fan of natural foods -- that's why I have a garden, and make nearly all of the meals we consume. It's why the Brick is a hunter, and we'll buy pork or beef on the hoof from rancher friends when we can. I buy at farmer's markets when possible, and cook with basic ingredients like flour, oatmeal and even, on occasion, when Daughter #2's hens are producing, free-range eggs. (Haven't talked the Brick into chickens yet. Haven't given up on the idea, either.)
      I use baking soda (in the big bags), vinegar and borax for cleaning. (I haven't made my own laundry detergent yet, but am considering it.) Yes, we have a washing machine -- thank God. (Schlepping to the laundromat, or stomping clothes in the bathtub, wine-making style, are not among my happier memories.)
      As for recycling -- nearly all of my clothes (upper-end labels, mostly) come from thrift shops and secondhand stores. The Brick follows suit. (And I mean that literally in the wardrobe department.) No peasant blouses, tie-dyeds or granny skirts in the lot. (And yes, I wear a bra.)
     Oh, and I can't use Dove soap, because I get a rash from it. 

    I am not a big fan of hyped-up 'natural' products, either. Most are produced on huge commercial farms that have few bits of true Nature going for them. And the FDA's requirements on 'organic' are loose enough that all sorts of iffy things can wander in. Why should I pay a whole lot extra for products that may not be that different from their fellows on the shelf...except the label?

It seems smart to do what you can as basically as you can. But Snickers bars, dishwashing detergent, Dial soap and freezer meals (with soy -- gasp!!!)  have their place, too, in moderation.
     I, for one, would not want to do without them.