I'm Not Average! Are You?

The economy is on the mend.
Only 383,000 people in the US seeking unemployment.
The lowest level since 2008.
Who would have guessed that things are on the mend?

Management in every area could be a big part of all our problems.

Are we doing any better when it comes to managing our individual households?

The morning news program says that the average American family spends about $182. a week on groceries, and the average American family throws out about $1,300. worth of spoiled foods each year. I have always considered my family as average,but I guess we're not.
I cook for two unless we are expecting company.I don't prepare and freeze meals ahead,as many folks do who are trying to conserve energy,time,and resources,but we do eat for a day or two on whatever I do fix,if there are left overs,usually in those cases where we have soup, chili, a roast, or dried beans.Cornbread is usually a given,most evenings.If we are not having one of those dishes,we may have a giant burger topped with smothered mushrooms,onions,and cheese on whole wheat bread.That's a favorite of mine, so I try to have it at least once every other week.Pop doesn't eat spaghetti, but he will eat hamburger helper.Go figure!I think a lot of the foods he will eat grew out of necessity,when he was raising his two girls.Before I came into the picture, they would have hamburger helper because one girl would eat the meat, and the other ,the noodles.Thus he learned to eat that dish.The same with potato salad sandwiches????His ex did not cook that much, so when they would have big gatherings, he would try to take home a bowl of potato salad, then he would have potato salad sandwiches for a few days,out of necessity. He likes that, even today,on occasion.We froze lots of corn on the cob last year, so some night,we'll have a big plate of that for our evening meal,topped off with a bite or two of hot cornbread with butter or maybe with milk and tomatoes.
Regardless as to what we have for our meals, you can see, there is never much waste. Our two cats rarely eat anything other than cat food, but we have two dogs that would live on house scraps,although the vet doesn't recommend allowing that.So we do feed them dry dog food,too.They are both very healthy.Nevertheless, we have chickens,so I keep a five gallon bucket with a lid,close at hand, at all times.Anything we do not eat, goes into the bucket, for them. They scratch around and eat what they want, then incorporate the rest into the soil.Thus, I have excellent compost dirt for our garden in the Spring.
This is only a glimpse of our practices.Living the way we do, and utilizing every morsel, is the reason why I say,We are Not the Average American Family.When we had the exchange student from France, many years ago, and he would ask me why we did certain things a certain way, I made it a point to explain to him that we are NOT the average American Family.
Is your family average?