steps towards balance

It seems for the last year or two my work and my thoughts keep coming back to the idea of balance. Lately, I've been particularly focused on figuring out how to balance my needs to be more economical, more healthy and more eco-friendly. Is it possible to spend less, eat better and buy local, organic food all at the same time? Some days are better than others. Today, I went to the local farmers market, which luckily seems to be both popular and growing. I bought kale, carrots, zucchini and cucumbers, all lovely and affordable. I skipped the organic chicken, much to my embarrassment because after asking for one, I realized the chicken was $20, which exceeded my budget of $10 for the whole trip. I was forced to apologize profusely and go home chickenless. I bet that would've been one tasty bird though.
My other quest lately is to revert back to my hippie ways of buying used, and in general being less wasteful. Ken and I recently traded in many unread or overly read books from our full bookshelves and were able to pick up some new reads and movies with credit left over. I am stunned that I haven't taken advantage of buying used books more in the past, what a waste! My other recent step against waste is beginning to compost, which so far is going well, I think. It's too early to tell if I'm producing excellent soil, but I have my fingers crossed and it's wonderful not to through coffee grinds and veggie scraps in the trash. My next step: not wasting my time. This I think will be my biggest uphill battle, my prowess for procrastination is legendary.
Lastly, the step towards balance most revered by Van der Laan women, I decided to make bread today. There is just something so satisfying about kneading and kneading until you have a lovely ball of dough to let sit and do its magic.