Quinoa at 4 bucks a pound! Holy sh*t.

I had a little stress freak-out at work and decided to duck out and do some grocery shopping. Unlike many people, I find grocery stores a calming atmosphere. But damn, if food isn't insanely expensive these days. I realize this isn't news, but since I just started this blog, I am going to write about it anyway.
I understand I shop at the yuppie organic grocery-store chain of Portland, OR, so naturally, I expect everything to be a little pricier than your average national chain. I shop here cause I like to support the "local-ish" quality of the place and they carry loads of organic and NW produce. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am willing to spend my food budget on less of higher quality items.
But fuck! When I shop bulk, I expect to pay bulk prices! someone please tell me why quinoa, an ancient grain (which someone told me is a complete protein, but I just think tastes good) mostly consumed by hippies, vegans (which I am not) and people watching their figures is 4. dollars. a. pound? it is mind-boggling. sure, eat at home. it saves you money. but for the ten dollars i just spent on 2.5 pounds of grain for eating at home, i could have eaten 3 chicken burritos from the local hole-in-the-wall mexican place. big burritos too. probably 700 calorie burritos. I understand that in the long run eating at home is cheaper and more healthy, but with prices like this, it is easy to see why people eat out at low cost restaurants all the time. Even in a recession.
So does a recession mean that Americans will now have to pay the actual cost of thier food? Probably not for loss-leader staple food items (milk, bread, flour, etc.) but maybe those of us who buy exotic grains will have to. Bummer.

So Why Recession Depression?

Like many people who otherwise might not care, I have spent far too much time thinking about economic news lately. I was inspired to create a new blog, after many I have created and then ignored, on account of an npr podcast. A month ago I started listening to the planet money podcast. I heard about the podcast through listening to the most depressing "This American Life" ever (I think it was called the "most depressing episode ever") about the current state of the economy. it isn't good. planet money is a terribly informative little internet show which explains all the current economic nomenclature in kid terms I can actually understand and they allow listeners to send in questions. So I did.
The question I asked was about how the recession would really affect my everyday life as a lower middle class young white employed homeowner. I have no idea because I have never lived through a recession that really mattered to me in an adult way. While I appreciated getting an answer from planet money (I was an npr podcast nerd star for one short afternoon), I was not so satisfied with the answer. It was a little vague, sorta just explaining that finding a new job would be hard if I was looking, businesses will shut down, inflation might be worse, but no real specifics. Maybe specifics are hard to come by in a recession, but the podcast motivated me to look more closely at my own situation and track it a little. so here is my attempt to track my financial life during Recession 08-? When is this going to end... tell me. someone. I am going to hopefully talk about all the little wierd ways I notice the economy effecting my life too.
In the name of full disclousure and contextualizing, here are some personal demographics. I am a single 29 year old white woman with no children living in Portland, OR. I work full time and atttend graduate school, payed for entirely with loans. I work at a non-profit and earn between 30-40k a year. The bank and I have a cozy home-owner relationship, which I have been in for three years. I have a fixed-rate mortgage, but I started with one of those bad loans that would have defaulted if I hadn't (just by coincidence) decided to re-finance my mortgage last year before shit hit the fan in the mortgage market. whew. I have no other financial investments to speak of. Nothing. No retirement funds or savings, my car is old and paid for, I have no mutual funds or a stock portfolio. Basically, I have a house and a savings account, and that is the extent of my financial existence. I am totally boring and totally typical.
This should be interesting for me at least. I bet I will keep much better track of my finances by writing about it regularly.