Rules of the Game; or, The Way This Works

1. I'm too busy to make myself crazy over this. I'm going to school full-time, working full-time, and I have People who are important to me. This is a one-credit pass/fail course and it does not have my permission to take over my life and screw up my other grades.
2. I'm too broke to do this perfectly. My grocery budget did not magically grow and I do not receive a stipend for this. On top of that, the last two months of work have been slim and my bank account is looking pretty sad. No running around recreating the KFC Double Down locavore-style, for example. I'm thinking more along the lines of a whole lot of roasted veggies.
3. Did I mention I'm busy? I will need to cook ahead. I have several days where I need to pack both breakfast and lunch, and other days where I'm taking food over to my Man's house to cook dinner there. Preparation is going to be the key here. Luckily I'm good at making the kind of food I like to eat.
4. Money has to come from somewhere. So while I'm working on reducing impact by eating local, fresh foods, I'm also going to make sure I bring it home in my reusable shopping bags. I've got a box full of rags that I have every intention of cutting into nice handy squares and using instead of paper products. I won't be buying any unnecessary new stuff, and even Goodwill purchases will get the hairy eyeball.
5. Isn't there supposed to be food in here somewhere? Because I was just talking about time and money and this is really all about FOOD, right? Right. I'll be going to the local farmer's markets and Local Roots and Mitchell's Orchard and anywhere else I can find for my food.
6. Don't forget the zombies. All this effort disguised as homework is really preparation for the zombie apocalypse. Ladies and gentlemen, when we're spending our lives fighting off zombies, do you really think there will be any long-distance truckers bringing you those California strawberries, much less grapes from Chile? I didn't think so. The more we support our local economy now, the more food options we'll have then, plus we'll already know all the good sources.