As my daughter prepares to move out of the house to live off campus for her junior year of college, I have been thinking through adult life advice I'd like to give her (but she's probably not quite ready for). Mom prerogative, I guess. I also have been thinking through all the things I do to keep our home running, especially for those bad pain days when I start thinking I'm not giving enough back to my husband and our family. Food is pretty much entirely on me, and it is a big part of any family's budget. Due to my being on disability, not to mention having to cut back post-divorce and live as a single mom for so many years, I have learned some tricks for keeping the food budget under control. So, let's get right to that!
After doing monthly planning for over a year, I've found a few things really work for us. First of all, I have different themes for each day of the week. Monday is meat/casseroles, Tuesday is Latino (Taco Tuesday with a rather broad definition), Wednesday is meatless or fish, Thursday is leftovers, Friday is Italian, Saturday is leftovers, and Sunday is big dinner or meal prepping. In the last couple of months, I've made Tuesdays into Robert's space for picking what he'd like to make (so he isn't trying to learn some new recipe off Pinterest right as he walks in the door from work), and that's helping a bit. We might keep that. Now, to be honest, we don't tend to stick closely to the themes if we aren't hungry for that particular dish; it just makes it easier to plan. In all reality, I could just create a list of 20-22 meals for the month and then cross them off when I make them, but I use the calendar method because I take the family calendar into account in the planning. Makes things a bit easier. Secondly, I start my planning based on what I already have on hand. If I don't happen to have any hamburger in the freezer, then I don't plan any dishes that need that for at least a week into the month to give us time to stop at the store. When money is tight and hamburger prices are up, I don't plan any dishes that month with it at all. Instead of starting with what we like or feel like, I start with what we have so I can use that up first. Shop your pantry first, then the store, and it really saves money in the long run. Also, quick point: I'm starting a binder of all the recipes from Pinterest, magazines, and books that we like. A family cookbook, if you will. That way, all our favorites will be in one place and make the planning easier. The way I do it now is with a few key cookbooks out as well as Pinterest pulled up on my iPad, but eventually, I will have the complete binder to just pull out and use.
I figured this one out with bread. My kids are a bit picky (spoiled, whatever), and when they were younger, they would only eat the more expensive breads from the store, about $3-4 a loaf. I can make bread here at home for a quarter of that price, and honestly, it isn't that hard or much added to my weekly routines. Once I started making bread, I didn't feel so bad if I had to make a second double loaf in a week because they were eating all the bread in sight. Not like how I felt when they'd eat $8 worth of bread in just a couple of days, that's for sure! Doing all your own cooking, I will admit, takes time. There are some ways to cut down on time in the moment, but you'll have to put the time in somewhere. Canning potatoes, for example, really cuts down on the time they need for cooking in soups, casseroles, breakfast dishes, but that means you have to have the time to peel, cut, and can them. Same with canning your own soups, beans, or anything. The Instant Pot is a serious time saver, though, and I highly recommend that and a good crockpot or two (different sizes). Throwing everything in for a soup in the morning means you don't even have to think about dinner later, just dish up the soup and hand out crackers or bread.
For example, after I read that advice, I sat down that Sunday with all the store flyers and compared prices. We had a grocery store in town with the best cheese counter and many of the specialty items I liked, so I had just started doing most of my shopping there to cut down on trips. I was horrified to find that, on average, I was spending $20 more each trip than I would have been if I'd been shopping at Meijer or Aldi. That ended up being a lot of money every month! So, I made that into a monthly special trip just for the specific items we needed, and I switched to Aldi for almost everything else. I still use Aldi as our main store. Side note on prices: take quality into account. Just because that canned soup is cheaper doesn't mean your kids will eat it. If no one likes it, then it was a waste of money. Just because it was on sale doesn't mean it was a bargain.
Food prices are going up, just as they have been for decades now. In many areas, the food part of the budget can end up being a huge chunk of the family budget. Anything you can do to cut that part of the budget down means you have more wiggle room for other needed items, like shoes for teens or the new sports fees or a new bill that has taken you by surprise. If you keep track of prices and your meal plans, you'd be amazed at how much you can save.
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Having grown up in a small town, one major lesson I learned growing up is that people help each other. We help family as much as we can, but we also help strangers, neighbors, people at church, anyone we can. That's our job, not just as citizens but as human beings.
When it comes to homesteading and prepping, we all have to help each other. If I have too much of something that you need, it's my job to help you out and vice versa. Donne was right: no man is an island. We can feel that way as farmers, doing so much work on our own all the time, but it's okay for us to reach out and ask for help, and it is our job to help others who need it. So, the first tip I want to share in prepping and homesteading is to ask for help. Join groups on Facebook, read blogs, watch YouTube videos and take notes (at least, I have to take notes because I forget so much with the brain fog). Ask people for advice. Show them pictures of your setup and ask what they recommend. Then, follow what seems to be the best advice or what most people agree on. After that, here are some things I've learned over the years that can work. Time
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Money
If you have any advice to add to these lists, please add them in the comments. What has worked for you? Let's help each other out and share our best advice. |
CarinaI'm a 40s something disabled mom living the life on our small urban farm. Archives
April 2022
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