For inspiration, I need look no further than Daisy's recent comments in her Survival Sunday post: "Maybe our epic disaster isn't going to be an EMP or a war or a supervolcano. Maybe it's just going to be prices climbing ever upward until normal folks can't afford to eat or have utilities. Maybe that is the major disaster of our lifetime." With double-income families with children now using food banks in my county, folks, we're already there!

Embarrassing as this is, I am going to share my own story in this article of how cutting back and cutting back on my food budget recently caused a major health problem. Y'all know how I love this community, so I am going to share, despite the embarrassment! My hope is that I might help one person avoid what I have just been through.

The Background: How it Happened
Let's face it: meat has gotten to be outrageously expensive. I used to have a budget where I was buying high-quality meat from a local abattoir. Food prices went up, gas prices went up, and suddenly, I was looking for space in my food budget. It didn't happen consciously: I just went to the abbatoir less and less. I filled up on beans and lentils, drawing on some of my pantry preps. I cut back on eating out, where I had always ordered a meat treat.

As I normally eat less meat than the average person, this cutting back meant that I was eating almost NO meat. I would say perhaps I was eating only one or two servings of meat per week or less, which is substantially down from when I could afford to eat out every week.

Then, I made a crucial error. I was already aware that reducing my consumption of red meat was affecting my energy levels. I learned that lesson a few years ago. I had been taking a high-quality supplement a couple of times a week that my sister had recommended. However, it was also expensive.

When the last bottle was getting low, I remember being reluctant to reorder it, remembering the cost of getting the two bottles. Now, I didn't consciously do this: my mind just let it slip to order more, and I fell out of the habit of taking it. At some point, I remember thinking, "Maybe I'll be OK without it." What I did not know at the time was that these choices were setting the stage for a B12 deficiency that would seriously affect my health.