When I finished the project, I ended up with a nice fat stack of receipts. You bet I kept track – I’m hopelessly anal, for one, but I also knew I’d be curious, in the end.
Today, I added them all up. I thought you accountant types would be curious.
I spent about $3260, writing a recipe a day for a year. Not counting the farmers’ market.
That’s $9 per day (ish). Maybe$10, with the markets.
On one hand, that’s not awful. I mean, we ate, didn’t we? We ate well. And so did a lot of other people, both directly and indirectly. And anyone who buys lunch out every day spends that, right?
Somehow, though, it’s hard for me to look at it that way, now that I’m done.
Now it just sounds like food for an entire village in Africa, for a year. Half a school in Pakistan. The new exhaust system our car needs, plus brakes, plus whatever breaks next.
Oy. The guilt overfloweth. I had to tell you. As penance.
jessthomson.wordpress.com 
Now it sounds like an entire book of recipes you can publish, lots of friends who discovered your blog and got hooked on the daily posts, and a bunch of other intangibles. In the end, what you’ll get from it is well worth that $3260.
Of course, if you want to do it again, let me give you some tips on making some cash from your hobby site. My hobby sites will pick up a combined $7,000 or so in profit (after expenses) this year. Now, seven grand isn’t enough to live on, but lets me buy a $100 Le Creuset stock pot and feel I earned it instead of feeling like it’s an unwarranted extravagance. Plus it justifies the spare time I put into them.
I don’t keep records like you do but I wonder what the numbers would be if I added up the cost of everything in my refrigerator for a year that I never used and ended up throwing out. I’m sure it would be shocking.
But my expense went to no good; it was caused by poor organization, changes in plans, idiotic fantasies in the grocery store when I thought I could actully cook something a little complex during the week (like I could concentrate on something for 45 minutes!). Your expense, on the other hand, was an investment for a lifetime enterprise. $3260 is pretty modest for an initial outlay. As for the starving people in Africa that money could feed, it could also feed starving people in America, probably even Seattle, and haven’t you given time to a rehabilitation program that trained ex felons to cook and provided meals to the poor? How about voting for a candidate that favors renewable energy so we don’t have to use all our corn to replace oil which drives up food costs? Ridiculous way to make gas anyhow. How about using less gas, less energy which I am sure you do, especially since Tito rides his bike to work every day in Seattle. I think you can probably expand on the list and get my point. One political fundraiser could probably feed a country somewhere. One day of oil profits, one cruise ship carrying 2000 Americans bouffing out for two weeks, one Hummer, etc. etc. And you spent $3260 giving joy to hundreds of people, making us laugh everyday, encouraging us to buy local, giving us a reason to invite people over and celebrate life, bringing “the table” back to life after soccer mom days and the desecration of the American dinner table by kids’ sports. So rest assured, I will donate generously to my local food bank next time around and I am sure others will too, now that you have raised the awareness. Oh, and add that one to your contribution list too. Raising awareness. And remember, the journey of a lifetime begins with a single Oy.
Food for thought. Humbling, actually. How privileged we are. I feel it every day.
Just stopped by to let you know I linked to your Smoky Winter Tomato Soup recipe today on Cookthink; as I posted a Roasted Tomato Soup recipe.
And funny- I used to live on the Cape. Did you live there, or simply write for Cape Cod Life? Curious minds, and all that…
Greg – Don’t worry, I won’t be doing it again anytime soon . . .
Roxanne – Thanks, and thanks again. It’s good to remember that there were other effects.
Karina – Thanks for the link – and yes, I lived in Falmouth! I wrote for Cape Cod Magazine.
Hmm. Well, I feel terrible about how much I probably spend on… all kinds of crap (ice hockey, baked goods, shoes, impractical dresses, books, eating out). And none of the things in the parenthetical list are things that other people benefit from because I’ve done it. Pat yourself on the back, a little. Please?