I felt rather proud of myself yesterday. You see, Mark and I have been trying to see how long we can go without filling up our car. We’re up to three weeks. This may sound great and all but (a) we have a smaller car that doesn’t drink gas like your run-of-the mill mini-van/SUV, and (b) it’s pretty easy to live where we live without wheels.When someone asks how walkable my neighbourhood is I tell them that everything I need is in Westboro Village: coffee, magazines, chocolate (though not for long, they’re closing! ack!) and when it’s all said and done there’s a funeral home for me too.
Ha ha!
No, seriously, Westboro is very much a walkable neighborhood. Mark has been biking to work. I work from home. We are walking distance from school, parks & rec, the pharmacy, and coffee (as I mentioned). Even a trip to the grocery store is doable, although it takes a bit of planning.
When the girls were smaller we did it with the help of our Chariot. We don’t have it anymore, nor do we have a working wagon anymore. The three of us have done groceries on our bikes. The girls are (finally!) old enough to strap on a backpack and carry groceries home. They manage fine, but sometimes I feel like my brain is going to explode, especially when we’re at the self-checkout and the computer voice keeps telling us that we’re doing everything wrong, which is almost always because one of the girls has her hand on the scale.
As I said, it’s a little more work when we do it this way.
Anyway, I made a little promise to myself yesterday. For the month of June I will do everything I can NOT to use the car for grocery shopping. In fact, my challenge is two-fold. I am going to do my best to avoid the Superstore. I want to do the bulk of our shopping at three places: Sasloves (the butcher), Harvest Loaf (the baker) and the Herb and Spice (produce).
The butcher, the baker… is there candlestickmaker I can add into the mix? Har har.
Oh, and the Parkdale Market, of course.
As I write this I realize I haven’t really left myself with a good source for yogurt, dry cereal and t.p., so I will have to hit the Loeb for those items.
The shops I mentioned, Sasloves et al., are a bit farther out than the Superstore. Until yesterday I’ve been assuming that it would take me 20-25 minutes to get there on my bike. Boy, was I ever wrong. I did a test run yesterday and timed myself. It was a leisurely ride la-di-dah down the Byron parkway. I was even delayed back by a bit of traffic and a stop light. And guess what? It took me exactly ten minutes. TEN MINUTES.
I didn‘t spend a lot of cash because I didn’t want to kill myself carrying it all home.
Our dinner last night was turkey sausage (for the girls), awesome burgers for Mark and I (that’s a whole different post), a green salad and fresh bread. It all came to about $15.00, and it was all fresh fresh fresh and delicious. I felt pretty victorious, like a hunter-gatherer who’d clubbed a sabre-toothed tiger and dragged it back to the cave. I was feeding my family, saving gas, saving the environment AND supporting local business! But the feeling immediately dissipated when I realized we needed milk. Mark went out later – in the car – to pick it up.
See? It takes planning.
I think I WILL challenge myself. And Ill call it the BFG diet – Bike for Groceries. I bought healthy stuff from local merchants AND burned a bunch of extra calories on my bike (that‘s where the diet part comes in.)
Yes, I‘ll have to shop more frequently and get organized. I will make use of the pannier thing that Mark bought for his bike. He only uses half. I can use the other half to lug those bags of milk back home.
So what do you think? Is this something you can do where you live? Anyone want to join me? ;)
