I’ll talk about my way of thinking to make a slow life. I think that more broad comparisons give us a new substitute.
Needs to find more affordable substitutes
In recent years, the prices of groceries have gone up. Perhaps you have also experienced it. Many prices have gone up in many countries. In my area, the prices of eggs and cheese have gone up this year.
And in my situation, I’m trying to reduce my reliance on money to create a slow life. I want to make my life without using money as much as possible because it gives me a stable, quiet life. Earning and using money are both stressful for me now. So I’m reducing my reliance on money as much as possible.
In such situations, we need to find more affordable substitutes because we don’t want to buy expensive things. So today, I’ll explain how to find more affordable substitutes.
My way of thinking about substitutes
My way of thinking about finding a more affordable substitute consists of two things:
- Think principles. Try making it from scratch and find another similar material.
- If that doesn’t work, compare from a broad perspective. There must be places or situations where it’s not necessary.
Perhaps it’s easier to understand if we look at it with an example. So let’s look at it from my experience.
Finding a substitute for cheese
I wanted to find a substitute for cheese because its price went up this year in my area, as I mentioned above.
At that time, I first tried to find simple substitutes by searching the internet. There were several substitutes, such as homemade cheese, almond cheese, cashew cheese, sweet potato, tofu, or nutritional yeast.
But sometimes it is difficult to use them due to cost or a lack of satisfaction. In my case, I tried them. My homemade cottage cheese was delicious. And oiled tofu seemed good because cheese consists of fat and protein. But I was not satisfied with them due to their short shelf life.
The place where they don’t use cheese
At such times, I try comparing from a broad perspective. This world is wide. There must be places or situations where it’s not necessary. It means that they are using substitutes.
In my case, I noticed that East Asia’s traditional cuisines seldom use cheese. But they are satisfied with their food. So some substitutes must be there. Then I found that some areas use coconut milk. And some use hot chili oil with nuts.
As I mentioned above, cheese consists mainly of fat and protein. So using coconut milk or hot chili oil with nuts seems to work as substitutes. They consist of fat and protein.
And in my area, sesame oil and sesame seeds are affordable. So I focused on Sichuan cuisine, one of the old Chinese cuisines. Then I made the original hot oil with sesame oil, sesame seeds, garlic, ginger, chili peppers, and some fermented foods for umami.
It worked great. That was delicious and affordable. It’s not cheese, but it gave me similar satisfaction to cheese. From the point of view of umami, my oil is better than cheese. So I began to use it with pleasure.
Creating our original lifestyles
I think this is the way to create our original lifestyles. We use affordable materials and fill ourselves efficiently. We can make fulfillment by using the things around us. We don’t need to desire something that we can never touch.
We can create many things by combining our basic, affordable things. If I want to eat pizza, I will bake a sourdough crust and put my original hot oil on it with fermented foods. It’s not a pizza, but it will be delicious as a pizza. I will call this “Ayaemon’s Pizza.”
Conclusion
So that’s my way of thinking about finding more affordable substitutes.
This world is wide. There must be places or situations where it’s not necessary. It could be a possibility.
If we can use this way of thinking, we might be able to create our lifestyles and make enough satisfaction.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you at the next one.
