Unspoken Hazard Of Running

It's a little known, and oft unspoken, hazard of running. It's not cheap.

Yes, everyone you talk to says it's basically free — all you need is a pair of shoes, a pair of shorts, and a shirt (and the shirt is technically optional). Occasionally people will mention the money required for energy bars and gels and the energy drinks. What few mention is the increase in the cost of your basic groceries.

My grocery budget used to be $150/month. Over the past 6 months, though, i have watched three things happen: 1) my weekly/monthly running mileage has increased, 2) my weight stabilized at 171 pounds and hasn't budged, and 3) my grocery bill has sky-rocketed.

I was looking at my spending for groceries this morning after paying some bills. What i noticed was:
March: $143
April: $159
May: $162
June: $163
July: $216
August: $244

I have been wondering about this increase all summer. Given my budget, if this is a permanent increase i need to look at the overall budget picture as i add hiking and bicycling back to my life. But, why is it going up? My diet hasn't changed. I haven't "upgraded" to better, more expensive foods. I haven't gone "organic." I only allow myself luxuries like pizza and beer once a month. I buy some of my groceries at Wal-Mart now because some of their prices are less than Jewel's. So why are my expenditures going up so much?

This morning, i was also wondering why, given the mileage that i run and that i ride my bicycle almost every day of the week, using it for all of my errands except when i refill my 3-gallon water bottles, did my weight stabilize at 171 over two months ago and won't drop further?

Then the correlation hit me.
Increased running mileage + Increased bike mileage = Increased appetite
Increased appetite + Eating to the same level of contentment = Increased grocery bills.

If i were to overlay a graph of my monthly running miles on top of a graph of my monthly grocery bill, the two would look exactly the same. I know for you people who are smart this was a no-brainer and obvious, but i'm surprised at the amount of increase.

What got me thinking about it was some reading i've been doing lately. DownTheRoad.org is the web site of a couple that have been bicycling around the world for the past 7 years. They say that as they were making concerted efforts to save money prior to setting out, they were living on 25% of their incomes and saving the rest. The wife was a geologist and the husband a teacher and i don't think either of those occupations are on the high end of the pay scale. They also estimated that they would need $41/day to live on once they started touring.

I'm sure that their 25% was more than my current 100%, but i wonder what they did to cut down on expenses? Where did they save? That led me to once again look at my budget and see where i could cut corners, or at least shave them a little rounder. Because every penny i shave somewhere else can be shifted to letting me go hiking one weekend a month or pay for a trip around the Grand Illinois Trail on my bike.

But first, i need to look at all those groceries i have been buying .....