Buying meat...

Well, my pork from the local farmer has just about run out. I think I have one ham and a couple of bacon packs left. I called to place a new order, but they won't have any until later in May. So, I placed my name on the list.

I ran out of grass-fed ground beef from our last quarter of a cow long ago. I have been buying the best meat in the grocery store that I could afford. My biggest concern with meat is that animal tissue holds on to the most pesticides. It is far worse than fruits or vegetables. So, I want to get the best that I can.

The last two weeks I have purchased ground beef, but I have also been able to buy some "Buy today and save" meats that need to be frozen or used with in a day or two. I have saved quite a bit of money doing this. So, I have made it my new adventure to search for the clearance meats when I shop.

Grocery shopping revisited...

A few weeks ago I wrote about my grocery budget, and how I was planning to use $20 of my $125 per week to stock up on food and supplies for my pantry. A dear friend of mine asked me a few good questions about how I approach shopping, menu planning, etc. I thought that perhaps I should share a bit of how I have approached grocery shopping in the past and how I do it now.

I am sure I have a larger budget than some and a smaller budget than others. Ultimately, we should all work within our means and be good stewards of what we have been given and the income that comes into our homes. We live on one income. My husband earns that money that comes into our home, and I manage our home and teach our children. That's how we have chosen to live our lives.

Now, back to groceries... I have tried many, many different strategies for grocery shopping. I have shopped every other week. I have shopped once a month. I have shopped weekly. I have shopped with a debit card. I have shopped with cash. Once upon a time, I even used a credit card. I have used coupons. I have skipped using coupons. I have shopped at one store, and I have shopped at several stores. When I had younger children and fewer children my budget was less. I confess that I have really struggled with staying within a budget. I have found a few things that help me stay on budget.

I think the most important shopping strategy that keeps me on budget is spending cash. Cash is scary. Cash means that I have to pay attention to everything I put in my cart even before I enter the store. I have to go in with a plan. I need meal plans and a grocery list and a calculator. I stop at the bank before I go to the store. I take the cash I need. Within one strip I can hit three stores. I don't always need to go to all three. Last week I did. Sometimes I go to Sam's Club, and I need to go a different direction. I do shop weekly now.

I guess that brings me to another point. I do shop at more than one store. I actually shop at about 5 different stores but not all in one week. I do look at the loss leaders in the weekly ads that come in the Sunday paper. If you don't get the paper, you can most likely look on-line and find your store's weekly ad. I also look at MyGroceryDeals.com This helps me look at three of my stores at one time.

I include everything except pet food in my grocery budget. I buy paper towels, napkins, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent and the like plus food items with my grocery budget. I do buy some organic items. One item that is on my list every week is Stonyfield yogurt. It is a must for our family. In the winter I buy most of my produce at the grocery store, but in the spring, summer and fall I buy from the local farmer's market. I use my grocery money to shop at the farmer's market. I will tell you that I do not buy much meat at the store. We buy our beef and pork from a local farmer. So, meat is generally not part of my budget. I do buy chicken at the store because it is hard for me to get local chicken on a regular basis. This local meat is organic and grass-fed. I also buy spices, flour, oats, corn meal, cocoa powder, etc. from a local Mennonite-run bulk food store. I buy my flour, oats, wheat berries, etc. in 50# bags. The cost for these items does not come from my monthly budget. It comes from money we set aside from our tax return and gifts.

For the most part I do not use coupons. However, we just started getting the Sunday paper again, so I have started using some coupons. Of course, I do try to pair them with sale items. I also try to stay flexible on brands, so that I can make use of coupons. I only use coupons on items I buy regularly.

I do make my own bread on a fairly regular basis. I make tortillas at home. Bread items are one of the easiest items to make myself. I don't get totally hung up on this if I am having a crazy week. I will buy the best store bread that I can. I make my own granola most of the time. I really try not to spend a lot on boxed, cold cereals, but we do eat some of them each month. If a box is more than $2.00 I won't buy it. A dollar fifty would be even better. I think making these items from scratch does help the grocery budget. I try not to be a perfectionist about it, and this is sometimes hard for me. I do try to avoid buying a lot of pre-made, boxed or frozen type foods. There are many recipes around the Internet for homemade side dishes and such. The Hillbilly Housewife has a lot of great recipes.

When my children were babies we used cloth diapers and wipes. The only baby I used all disposables with was Natalie. Jonathan was only cloth diapered for about three months, but the twins wore cloth from the age of sixth months until they were potty trained. This really saved my grocery budget especially with twins. I almost always had two in diapers for several years. I think we saw a great savings from using cloth. Of course, I did have some moments in time when I used disposables on the girls. Sometimes life just got crazy. For the most part though they were cloth diapered. On a very personal note, we also make use of cloth personal pads. I am sure I have seen a great savings with this.

I hope this gives you a little glimpse into my grocery shopping strategies. Please ask questions if you have them. May you be blessed...

Grocery Day...

Tuesday is my grocery and errand day. It never was in the past. Actually, I went through a period of time when I didn't have a grocery/errand day. Years ago, when all my kids were under 6, I would go grocery shopping under the cover of darkness after we ate dinner and my husband was home. It was a joy to be alone for a while. Even now I rarely shop with my children.

I have my list partially complete. I generally keep a magnetic pad on the refrigerator, and add to it items we run out of during the week. I do shop weekly. I have tried shopping twice a month, once a month, and in some stores even every three months, and honestly, I did not see any remarkable difference shopping less often. So, now I shop every week. I still shop at more than one store. I am thrilled that they just opened an Aldi store on the opposite corner from the Wegmans that I shop at. This is incredibly convenient. I also shop at Sam's Club about once a month and at a little market in my town. I visit several "merchant ships" as is spoken of in Proverbs 31. I take the list from the refrigerator, and transfer it into a computer program that I found several years ago for free. I don't even know if it exists anymore. This list has prices already entered ( I entered them.) and calculates my total for me as I enter each item to the list. Theoretically, when I leave me house I should know how much my final bill will be.

I have also clipped my coupons. I know some people are very big into couponing (is that a word???). I am not. I do have a few name brand items that I do buy. We just started receiving the Sunday paper again after being a non subscriber for many years. So, I clipped and organized those coupons.

I also am trying to go back to using cash. I am convinced that this is truly the only way I can stay on budget. In order to do this I must take my calculator with me. So, I went over the weekend and took out the money needed for groceries. I am hoping i come home with some leftover because I started this in the middle of the month, and needless to say, I am dangerously close to going over budget. There are still two more shopping days left in the month. Well, one is on the 31st, so I suppose I could count that as April since we will be eating the food and using the products in April. I already spent about $20 of my weekly grocery money on Saturday at the farmer's market. I needed honey, and I also picked up some local apples and brown eggs.

Now all I need are my reusable shopping bags, and I am all set. I guess I will have to go round those up.

Have a blessed day...

Preparing for Lean Times: A Lesson From Joseph

This week the Lord opened my eyes afresh to the lessons that can be learned from Joseph as I read Genesis 41 again. This is the account of Pharaoh's dream, Joseph's interpretation, and the plan for Egypt. After interpreting the dream, Joseph tells Pharaoh that there will be 7 years or plenty and 7 years of a very severe famine in the land of Egypt. Joseph tells Pharaoh that he needs to appoint a man who is discerning and wise to to oversee the land of Egypt. He tells Pharaoh to collect 1/5 or 20% of the produce of the land during the plentiful years. (Genesis 41:34) Pharaoh recognized that there is no one who is as discerning or as wise as Joseph is, so he makes Joseph overseer of the land of Egypt.

I sat and thought about how this applies to my life and the lives of all people. First, I think that this portion of Scripture shows that there will be times of plenty and times of leanness or famine. It also showed me that it is good and right to prepare for lean times while times are plentiful. These Egyptians were asked to sacrifice 20% of what the land produced so that it could be stored in preparation of the famine to come. In our own lives we face famine times. Perhaps there is a job loss or a death that greatly reduces our ability to bring in money to buy our basic needs. Or perhaps there are general down turns in the overall economy such as we are facing now.

My monthly grocery budget is $560. Divided out over a 4.5 week month that means that I have about $125 per week for food. If I took 20% of that amount which is $25. I could be using $25 dollars per week to stock up on food and other grocery items. This takes a bit of planning, wisdom and discernment. Sometimes I don't know what I should spend money on, but the Lord does. It is His money, and if I pray as I shop I can find deals on food and other non-food items.

It is good and right to ask the Lord to show us how to prepare for what may come. Only He knows your future. He desires to prosper us for His own purposes. Proverbs 6:6-11 tells us to look at the ant. She has no overseer, yet she provides food in the summer and gathers in food in the harvest.

I pray the Lord would bless you as you seek Him in your planning and preparing. Ask Him how he would have your family prepare.

May you be blessed...

Eating Healthy in 2009.

I know this is a common New Year's resolution. I don't make resolutions typically, but I have been quite burdened about my family's eating habits lately. We began our journey into healthy eating about six or seven years ago. We changed to whole grains. I started baking our bread. However, from time to time healthy eating can slip, and sometimes it can plummet to great depths. I am feeling as though we are in a HUGE plummet. As I am typing my daughter is begging for M&M's. Does this say anything about what I am dealing with here?

I began my research online by posing the question, "How to feed my family more vegetable?" This seems to be our biggest downfall. I like vegetables, and sometimes I think I am the only one. While browsing around on Almost Vegetarian, I came across the book, What to Eat: An Aisle by Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Eating by Marion Nestle. I decided that this was a must read for me. Thankfully, my library system had a copy of it. I was able to pick it up yesterday.

Anyone who shops for food, and that would be most of us, should take a look at this book. Many of us are probably familiar with the idea of "food miles", but do you know what COOl or VCOOL are? Do you know how a grocery store defines "fresh"? I am learning all this and more.

As I read through this book, I hope to share my thoughts and discoveries with my blog friends and readers.

Back in the Pantry

I have spent the better part of the last day, when not preparing Christmas gifts, reading up on a man named Gerald Celente. Gerald Celente is the CEO of trends research Institute, and he apparently has an amazingly accurate record on predicting economic events. Yesterday, this article came to my attention, Revolution, food roits, in America by 2012. It sounded a bit sensationalist. After reading the article I felt that it was the most doom and gloomy article I have read. However, I think he could be right.

That brings us back to the pantry. A friend sent me a link a few weeks back to a list of 100 Things That Will Disappear. I am not exactly sure where they will disappear from as many of these items would not be purchased at a Wal-Mart Superstore. Interspersed in the article are many suggestions for pantry items. Here is a summary list:

Honey/syrups/sugars
Beans/rice/wheat

Vegetable oil

Vitamins

Milk-powdered and condensed

Tuna fish

Garlic, spices, vinegar, and baking supplies

Flours/yeast/salt

Canned fruits, vegetables, soups and stews

Soysauce/gravies/boullion

Graham crackers/saltines/ pretzels/popcorn

Peanut butter/nuts

Chocolate/cocoa

Tea/coffee

Gum/candy

Where should someone start with a list like this. I started about 5 years ago with one 5 gallon bucket in a double wide mobile home with no basement, no attic, and no garage. I saved food where ever I could. Thankfully my kitchen was good size with ample cupboards which made up in some small part for what it lacked.

We have moved since then and my "pantry" has grown to a good part of my basement. I took some more recent pictures of my stock.

It is important to plan part of your grocery shopping budget for stocking up on something. I bought those cans of tomoto puree over a six week period earlier this fall. I think I bought 4 cans at a time. Now I have about 20 tomato puree and about 10 cans of crushed tomatoes. I also plan to buy one bulk item of plastic forks, knifes, spoons, styrofoam plates, bowls, plastic cups per month. I buy these at Sam's Club. So, I want to encourage you to start small, but plan to buy something extra this week at the grocery store.