Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Saving Money and Frustrations
Living on a budget and trying to save your health and the environment can get to be frustrating. Last year we invested in a big bag of soap nuts. The price was reasonable when you considered all it was replacing. For $35 we had laundry soap, bath soap, shampoo, etc. The only problem was we didn't like it. My family hated the feel of the soap on their skin and hair. I hated that it went bad so I had to constantly make fresh batches and keep them in the refrigerator (which meant remembering to take it out and using really cold soap on our bodies). Eventually, it just became laundry soap. Our laundry grew dimmer and dimmer over the months until one day my husband announced he had had it. He does the laundry in our home and he just couldn't do it any more. I was so grateful because I could stand the fact that my clothes looked awful and the static was enough to kill us all. It just didn't work for us. The worst part is I still have half a bag of soap nuts that I have to figure out what to do with (supposedly they make great insect repellent so that's what we'll be using it for).
This is just one example of how hard it is to do the right thing. Last night was grocery night. There were sales we didn't want to miss so mid-week shopping was what we had to do. I can't control when the food stamps arrive or when pay day is - fortunately they are on the same day. That meant late evening shopping which is frustrating enough.
We started at our Co-op. The plan was to buy the hamburger there. The price has been $2.89 and if you buy three packs you get it for $2.59. The meat department was dark by the time we made it there (that in its self is a long terrible story but not all that important except to say I was already tired). The hamburger was $3.39. What!? My mother was there on Sunday and it was $2.89. After a time and me nearly leaving without hamburger. The lovely man that was helping us had finally found someone who knew something about the deal. We got 30 cents off a pound and bought the last four packs (two for us and two for my dad). We ended up paying $3.09 a pound. It's still a better deal but 50 cents in two days is a huge price jump.
I did find a huge container of plain yogurt for just over $5 which was great because I wanted to start adding yogurt back into my lunch. This will get me a months worth and then I can save some to make my own (I forgot to save some from my last batch).
On to store number 2. I had 2 things I wanted to get there - butter for $1.69 a pound and milk. Before we gave up milk we bought it there. The milk was from a local(ish) farm and was amazing, except I can't remember the name of the farm. There were three choices at the store - generic for $2.49, Dairygold for $2.99 and one organic brand for over $6. No local farm milk. I did peek at the milk at the co-op and there was nothing there for less than $6 a gallon. I can't do it. I remember the milk we bought wasn't that pricey, when did organic milk become over twice the price of the non-organic milk. No organic milk for us this month.
I head for the butter. It's a generic brand for $1.99 with a coupon for 30 cents off. Not bad, except I forgot this is Idaho and even if you use food stamps, they tax the coupons. I didn't even think about it. As we were checking out, my son was going on about how he wanted some change and I hadn't even brought in my purse so I had nothing. That's when the girl at the counter asked if we had 12 cents to pay the tax. I understand that 12 cents is not much but it's inconvenient. I think it's horrible and the state's way of preventing those who use food stamps from using coupons. It's nearly a scam - the food is not taxed because of the food stamps but the coupons are. It's the whole reason I refuse to use coupons. I know if I think about this rationally - I saved $1.80 and they only want me to pay 12 cents but I have to tell you - I never have change. Change is what my son always takes. He loves the change, always had and I don't have a problem giving him the pennies and what not I find. But I, also, rarely deal in cash so change is not something I always have.
By this time we had spent most of our food stamps (down to $18) and had 6 different foods to feed my family - hamburger, yogurt, milk, eggs, butter and flour (my wonderful husband had picked up the flour earlier in the day). For those who are keeping track - we started with $92.
I'm fully frustrated. I don't know how I'm going to feed my family. Our cupboards are getting barer and barer each month. I still have a ton of applesauce but that's not any good if I don't have more to go with it. We're working our way through the grains we have in the pantry and the beans but I still haven't got a plan in place for when they are gone. I still have the option of going to the store right now but it makes me think of what will happen if I don't have that option.
What if the world really does end? I worry about the economy and the environment. I've always been a nature lover but over the past few years I have been learning about what nature really provides for us. I get to thinking about the weeds - there's food and nutrition out there but there's also pesticides and herbicides and natural poisons. This winter has opened my eyes. I have to learn more, be vigilant in finding free or inexpensive sources of food, and find ways of preserving that food without coating it in sugar or salt.
I know I'm not alone in this. I'm finding a growing community of people who want the same thing - sustainable sources of healthy food. That I am grateful for.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Grocery Shopping for March
Partway through February we knew we had to do something different so we started looking at healthier ways to eat while still maintaining our budget. It's a tough juggling act because healthier feels so much more expensive.
We started our shopping trip at the Co-op. I don't shop much at the co-op because it just feels too expensive but I had earned a free loaf of bread. My son's birthday was this past weekend and he wanted stroganoff for dinner. My husband thought a nice loaf of french bread would be nice. The co-op offers a punch card for bread and we had been saving our cards for years. While there we looked in their bulk bins. I bought organic popcorn on sale for $1.09, the normal price $1.29 (a pound). Walmart's price - $1.48 a pound and it's not organic.
We picked up some organic couscous which was still cheaper than buying it in the box anywhere else and some hulled barley. The hulled barley is something we haven't been able to find. Pearled barley is everywhere and cheap. The difference is as if pearled barley was white flour and hulled barley was whole wheat. Hulled barley is less processed and has more nutrients.
The last thing I found was whole white wheat flour for $5.09 for a 5 pound bag. That's still significantly more expensive than white flour but it was $.30 lower than the best price we had found (and it wasn't even on sale).
Then on to our favorite discount grocery store. The prices weren't as great as I had hoped. We started in the bulk bins and I have to say that really is where everyone should start. Ironically, we found popcorn there for $.80 a pound but I was still happy with my $1.09 for organic. Next time we'll buy the non-organic if we don't see a difference. We picked up legumes and brown rice. I even found instant potatoes which was perfect because we only needed 1 cup for a particular recipe. That saved me not only the discounted price of buying in bulk but I only had to buy about a cup. I was even able to get a small amount of green split peas so I could make some fun St Pat's cupcakes. I sometimes forget how wonderful bulk bins are.
The only meat we bought was chicken thighs at $1.18 a pound, bacon for $2.49 a pound and one steak for X's special dinner. We bought tofu and lots of beans and legumes. This will be a month of vegetarian dishes or limited meat dishes. We broke the package of chicken into freezer bags of 3 thighs (with one bag having 4). For just over $5 we will have 4 meals of chicken. The bacon was thick cut peppered bacon which was broken into packages of about 4 strips each giving us 7 meals.
Cabbage is on a good sale right now - we picked it up for $.48 a pound and bought 10 pounds. That is a minimum of 4 meals depending on how we prepare it. We could stretch it to 8 meals if necessary. We love bacon, onion and cabbage on rice.
We set aside some "money" to see if corned beef goes on sale this week. The best price we found was $1.99 a pound which just wasn't quite low enough for us to feel it was a deal. We love corned beef and the idea of buying a tiny little one just seems so sad. I might pick up a little one anyway and use it in a hash like dish so we can feel like we got some.
I was just thinking, Sunday we went over to my mom's who gave us some odds and ends meats to clean out her freezer. This helps her reduce waste and gives us some extra meat for the month. Included was a whole chicken and a roast. Both of those will feed us for more than one meal so it helps stretch the budget some.
Our son took his birthday money to the store and bought peanut butter because I had forgotten to pick some up and we try to do a once a month shopping to keep a tight hold on the budget.
Ordering a bountiful basket today so we'll have fresh fruits and veggies this weekend. We'll get another basket in 2 weeks, after payday.
We started our shopping trip at the Co-op. I don't shop much at the co-op because it just feels too expensive but I had earned a free loaf of bread. My son's birthday was this past weekend and he wanted stroganoff for dinner. My husband thought a nice loaf of french bread would be nice. The co-op offers a punch card for bread and we had been saving our cards for years. While there we looked in their bulk bins. I bought organic popcorn on sale for $1.09, the normal price $1.29 (a pound). Walmart's price - $1.48 a pound and it's not organic.
We picked up some organic couscous which was still cheaper than buying it in the box anywhere else and some hulled barley. The hulled barley is something we haven't been able to find. Pearled barley is everywhere and cheap. The difference is as if pearled barley was white flour and hulled barley was whole wheat. Hulled barley is less processed and has more nutrients.
The last thing I found was whole white wheat flour for $5.09 for a 5 pound bag. That's still significantly more expensive than white flour but it was $.30 lower than the best price we had found (and it wasn't even on sale).
Then on to our favorite discount grocery store. The prices weren't as great as I had hoped. We started in the bulk bins and I have to say that really is where everyone should start. Ironically, we found popcorn there for $.80 a pound but I was still happy with my $1.09 for organic. Next time we'll buy the non-organic if we don't see a difference. We picked up legumes and brown rice. I even found instant potatoes which was perfect because we only needed 1 cup for a particular recipe. That saved me not only the discounted price of buying in bulk but I only had to buy about a cup. I was even able to get a small amount of green split peas so I could make some fun St Pat's cupcakes. I sometimes forget how wonderful bulk bins are.
The only meat we bought was chicken thighs at $1.18 a pound, bacon for $2.49 a pound and one steak for X's special dinner. We bought tofu and lots of beans and legumes. This will be a month of vegetarian dishes or limited meat dishes. We broke the package of chicken into freezer bags of 3 thighs (with one bag having 4). For just over $5 we will have 4 meals of chicken. The bacon was thick cut peppered bacon which was broken into packages of about 4 strips each giving us 7 meals.
Cabbage is on a good sale right now - we picked it up for $.48 a pound and bought 10 pounds. That is a minimum of 4 meals depending on how we prepare it. We could stretch it to 8 meals if necessary. We love bacon, onion and cabbage on rice.
We set aside some "money" to see if corned beef goes on sale this week. The best price we found was $1.99 a pound which just wasn't quite low enough for us to feel it was a deal. We love corned beef and the idea of buying a tiny little one just seems so sad. I might pick up a little one anyway and use it in a hash like dish so we can feel like we got some.
I was just thinking, Sunday we went over to my mom's who gave us some odds and ends meats to clean out her freezer. This helps her reduce waste and gives us some extra meat for the month. Included was a whole chicken and a roast. Both of those will feed us for more than one meal so it helps stretch the budget some.
Our son took his birthday money to the store and bought peanut butter because I had forgotten to pick some up and we try to do a once a month shopping to keep a tight hold on the budget.
Ordering a bountiful basket today so we'll have fresh fruits and veggies this weekend. We'll get another basket in 2 weeks, after payday.
Friday, March 9, 2012
End of February Experiment
So we decided to change our diet to meet our budget instead of meeting our budget to fit our diet. The result was that we actually saved a good deal of money but that was really the only positive result.
We had a lot of the same dishes over and over. I can tell you I am glad to be on a pasta hiatus after this month and I love pasta. At the end of the month, the meals got tougher and tougher to prepare because we had planned for quick meals - spaghetti and sauce, creamed soups, lots of soups. We thought we had planned for a month but the food went faster.
Since we are used to once a month shopping it didn't really occur to us to go to the store to buy more food. We did stop in for milk and bread but even that seemed to go faster.
Aside from that, we all felt awful. Come towards the end of the month we were so cranky and exhausted. I can't say that it was 100% related to the diet but it was not a fun month to have to live through.
For March, we have decided to try to return to the diet we ate before moving to the city and going gluten free. We ate nothing made of white flour and sought out whole grain foods instead of just whole wheat foods.
It's a more expensive diet but whole grains keep us full longer. We, also, recently got rid of our cable. As strange as it sounds, we no longer feel the need to snack at night and we're going to bed earlier. March looks to be a warmer, sunnier month (in between the rain). It might mean actually having the chance to spend time outside. It might mean some early foraging. If the weather stays nice we should have mushrooms after all the rain.
The other thing we might start this month is organic milk. That will depend on the cost of the whole grains. We might have to alter our diet one item at a time.
On another note - March is National Nutrition Month. I should have mentioned that earlier to explain my reasoning behind all the website reviews. I have one more site I want to share with you but since it's geared towards kids I want to get my son playing on it before I write the review.
We had a lot of the same dishes over and over. I can tell you I am glad to be on a pasta hiatus after this month and I love pasta. At the end of the month, the meals got tougher and tougher to prepare because we had planned for quick meals - spaghetti and sauce, creamed soups, lots of soups. We thought we had planned for a month but the food went faster.
Since we are used to once a month shopping it didn't really occur to us to go to the store to buy more food. We did stop in for milk and bread but even that seemed to go faster.
Aside from that, we all felt awful. Come towards the end of the month we were so cranky and exhausted. I can't say that it was 100% related to the diet but it was not a fun month to have to live through.
For March, we have decided to try to return to the diet we ate before moving to the city and going gluten free. We ate nothing made of white flour and sought out whole grain foods instead of just whole wheat foods.
It's a more expensive diet but whole grains keep us full longer. We, also, recently got rid of our cable. As strange as it sounds, we no longer feel the need to snack at night and we're going to bed earlier. March looks to be a warmer, sunnier month (in between the rain). It might mean actually having the chance to spend time outside. It might mean some early foraging. If the weather stays nice we should have mushrooms after all the rain.
The other thing we might start this month is organic milk. That will depend on the cost of the whole grains. We might have to alter our diet one item at a time.
On another note - March is National Nutrition Month. I should have mentioned that earlier to explain my reasoning behind all the website reviews. I have one more site I want to share with you but since it's geared towards kids I want to get my son playing on it before I write the review.
Monday, February 13, 2012
A new experiment
Life in the northern states can be rough when it comes to food. For the winter months, much of our food has to be imported from somewhere. There is little here in the way of local fresh foods because of our short growing season and cold winters (that start in October and last until June some years). This makes eating on a budget really difficult. We've watched our limited home stores dwindle over the past 2 months. It's been hard to maintain a healthy diet on a tight budget. We did up our budget from $100 a month to $150 to accomodate 2 Bountiful Baskets every month and some additional bulk fruit/vegetable purchases. Our goal is to still keep the cost as low as possible but January did not come out as well as we hoped as we maintained our normal shopping patterns for our $100 budget (we got 2 bountiful baskets and 1 big box of tangerines with our extra $50).
So we thought we'd try something interesting while waiting for spring. Our new plan is to eat like a "normal" American. Attempt to feed our family on our budget without regards to nutrition.
Normally when I plan a meal, I plan nutrition first and then find a way to find a budget into my plan. This time we are budgeting solely based on cost. I'm not sure how this will work but I get tired of people saying they can do a better budget (no complaints here on this blog but I have seen it elsewhere) because they feed their families bean soup and top ramen. We didn't stoop quite that low even though I did buy some top ramen because my teen begged for it (who can resist eating something that comes out to 22 cents per meal or 44 when he's extra hungry).
We planned for a lot of soups. We swapped out our more expensive wheat bread for the cheaper white bread (with the hope I can find a recipe that makes the perfect loaf of bread). We bought family sized cream soups. We planned for lots of soup this month because it's cheap to make. Tonight we start with Chicken and Dumplings (one of the more expensive meals because I bought the ingredients last month to experiment with the baking mix). We have cheap cereals because we hit a great cereal sale.
The bountiful baskets will provide some variety while we try to stretch our budget further with package soups that were given to us.
We have onions and potatoes for more soups.
I may hate soup come March but we have to come with a better plan to get us through these winter months. I feel like a pioneer. Our harvest was not great last year and we're still learning all about the foraging (which had some good and bad harvests last year). we'll be stocking up on fish and crawdads (hopefully) this summer so the winter will not be so bad but we have to wait and see how the weather goes. Maybe this year my garden will grow like crazy.
So we thought we'd try something interesting while waiting for spring. Our new plan is to eat like a "normal" American. Attempt to feed our family on our budget without regards to nutrition.
Normally when I plan a meal, I plan nutrition first and then find a way to find a budget into my plan. This time we are budgeting solely based on cost. I'm not sure how this will work but I get tired of people saying they can do a better budget (no complaints here on this blog but I have seen it elsewhere) because they feed their families bean soup and top ramen. We didn't stoop quite that low even though I did buy some top ramen because my teen begged for it (who can resist eating something that comes out to 22 cents per meal or 44 when he's extra hungry).
We planned for a lot of soups. We swapped out our more expensive wheat bread for the cheaper white bread (with the hope I can find a recipe that makes the perfect loaf of bread). We bought family sized cream soups. We planned for lots of soup this month because it's cheap to make. Tonight we start with Chicken and Dumplings (one of the more expensive meals because I bought the ingredients last month to experiment with the baking mix). We have cheap cereals because we hit a great cereal sale.
The bountiful baskets will provide some variety while we try to stretch our budget further with package soups that were given to us.
We have onions and potatoes for more soups.
I may hate soup come March but we have to come with a better plan to get us through these winter months. I feel like a pioneer. Our harvest was not great last year and we're still learning all about the foraging (which had some good and bad harvests last year). we'll be stocking up on fish and crawdads (hopefully) this summer so the winter will not be so bad but we have to wait and see how the weather goes. Maybe this year my garden will grow like crazy.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Grocery Shopping - October
I do my shopping on the 10th of each month. So now is the time to start planning my trip. October is the beginning of baking season so that's something I need to remember. It's possible this month we'll have a little extra money. If there is enough I want to stock up on baking supplies and do a SF Herb order. Taking this into account I need to budget accordingly. I understand that planning on having extra money feels like a good time to blow the budget. The problem with that thinking is that plans fall through. Sometimes money doesn't stretch as far as we hope so I need to plan my budget around the potential for not having the extra (however, I will know what extra amount we have before I do my shopping).
I have two plans going on - my grocery shopping under my normal budget and my wishlist with a budget of it's own. There are some things I want to stock up during the baking sales - those are the items I plan for the extra money. If we end up not having extra money then I don't get to stock up but it doesn't hurt my monthly planning.
So onto the plan. It's the 6th, giving me 4 days to plan my shopping trip. That might seem like too much time but actually I am starting late this month. I need to take in account that this month has Halloween. With our son in high school, we no longer have to worry about class parties but we do throw a Halloween dinner party for family and some friends as a before trick or treating meal. I need to take into account my menu for that. (same as next month in planning for Thanksgiving - might want to think about that now since I'll need to plan money and freezer space for a turkey).
The first thing I need to do is go over my kitchen inventory. I've been meaning to do this for two days but off the top of my head I know we are out of several items - canned corn (no freezer space so has to be canned), mustard, tortillas, cheese. I know we'll need eggs even though we still have some. I pull up my kitchen inventory. The one on my computer is not as up to date as the printed one I keep in my kitchen but I can remember what we have run out of - somewhat but it also gets me thinking.
Tonight, I'll sit down with my family and ask them what they want in terms of meals and groceries. I will, also, run through my kitchen inventory to make sure it's up to date. The most important counts will be the items we go through the fasted - canned foods, fridge and freezer. I will need an accurate count of meat in the freezer - this will tell me how much we ate over the past month and how much I'll need for the next. If I started the month with eight bags of chicken (3 chicken thighs a bag) and I still have 4 then I can skip buying chicken. If I have 1 then chicken was something we liked but then my son made a comment the other night when I made chicken that he didn't really like the chicken anymore so maybe we had too much this month.
I start thinking about the items that went fast - tortillas are a big thing in our house. I buy packages that have 30 tortillas but they never make it through the month. I bought more english muffins this month but everyone seems content with homemade bread for toast so maybe I'll skip them this month and focus on buying more tortillas. The cheese still didn't make it to the end of the month but we did have a few meals where cheese was our protein so I think I'll stick with buying two 2 pound bricks. If we do have extra money then I will invest in more cheese and maybe something other than cheddar.
When I have the list somewhat narrowed down, then I start looking at ads. Most often, I don't find the items on my list on sale but we're moving out of fresh foods season and into more staple type food season for sales so I might get lucky. Both of the grocery stores in Pullman have online ads (I usually shop at a store in Moscow which does not) so I can check the ads easily. Because I keep notes about the prices at the other store I can compare but I have to realize that some prices at my favorite store will have gone up. I know I stopped in with my mom on a trip and in a week the eggs had gone up 50 cents so I'm going to budget an extra dollar.
Nothing in the Safeway add made me go ohh and ahh but it did remind me that I should probably look into getting a pumpkin. Here's where some thought needs to come into effect. I can get just any ole pumpkin, we carve it and roast the seeds. Doing that I lose a pumpkin because after we carve it - it's no longer food. If I use my food budget to buy the pumpkin then I have taken food away. Most carving pumpkins are not great eating either. They are edible but not as tasty as smaller pumpkins. So I could look into buying better tasting pumpkins, painting them and then roasting them later. That would do double duty but it would all depend on price. When it comes to squashes - bigger is not better. The smaller squashes are sweeter and have better flavor so I have to keep that in mind. We've been trained to believe that pumpkins need to be huge so they can make great jack o'lanterns.
Another thing to think about is that this weekend is fall festival and pumpkins and apples will be available for picking. They may be less expensive than the stores. Dissmore's has honey crisps for 1.59 but WSU has apples for about .75 a pound.
That's a lot of food for thought. How's your grocery planning coming?
I have two plans going on - my grocery shopping under my normal budget and my wishlist with a budget of it's own. There are some things I want to stock up during the baking sales - those are the items I plan for the extra money. If we end up not having extra money then I don't get to stock up but it doesn't hurt my monthly planning.
So onto the plan. It's the 6th, giving me 4 days to plan my shopping trip. That might seem like too much time but actually I am starting late this month. I need to take in account that this month has Halloween. With our son in high school, we no longer have to worry about class parties but we do throw a Halloween dinner party for family and some friends as a before trick or treating meal. I need to take into account my menu for that. (same as next month in planning for Thanksgiving - might want to think about that now since I'll need to plan money and freezer space for a turkey).
The first thing I need to do is go over my kitchen inventory. I've been meaning to do this for two days but off the top of my head I know we are out of several items - canned corn (no freezer space so has to be canned), mustard, tortillas, cheese. I know we'll need eggs even though we still have some. I pull up my kitchen inventory. The one on my computer is not as up to date as the printed one I keep in my kitchen but I can remember what we have run out of - somewhat but it also gets me thinking.
Tonight, I'll sit down with my family and ask them what they want in terms of meals and groceries. I will, also, run through my kitchen inventory to make sure it's up to date. The most important counts will be the items we go through the fasted - canned foods, fridge and freezer. I will need an accurate count of meat in the freezer - this will tell me how much we ate over the past month and how much I'll need for the next. If I started the month with eight bags of chicken (3 chicken thighs a bag) and I still have 4 then I can skip buying chicken. If I have 1 then chicken was something we liked but then my son made a comment the other night when I made chicken that he didn't really like the chicken anymore so maybe we had too much this month.
I start thinking about the items that went fast - tortillas are a big thing in our house. I buy packages that have 30 tortillas but they never make it through the month. I bought more english muffins this month but everyone seems content with homemade bread for toast so maybe I'll skip them this month and focus on buying more tortillas. The cheese still didn't make it to the end of the month but we did have a few meals where cheese was our protein so I think I'll stick with buying two 2 pound bricks. If we do have extra money then I will invest in more cheese and maybe something other than cheddar.
When I have the list somewhat narrowed down, then I start looking at ads. Most often, I don't find the items on my list on sale but we're moving out of fresh foods season and into more staple type food season for sales so I might get lucky. Both of the grocery stores in Pullman have online ads (I usually shop at a store in Moscow which does not) so I can check the ads easily. Because I keep notes about the prices at the other store I can compare but I have to realize that some prices at my favorite store will have gone up. I know I stopped in with my mom on a trip and in a week the eggs had gone up 50 cents so I'm going to budget an extra dollar.
Nothing in the Safeway add made me go ohh and ahh but it did remind me that I should probably look into getting a pumpkin. Here's where some thought needs to come into effect. I can get just any ole pumpkin, we carve it and roast the seeds. Doing that I lose a pumpkin because after we carve it - it's no longer food. If I use my food budget to buy the pumpkin then I have taken food away. Most carving pumpkins are not great eating either. They are edible but not as tasty as smaller pumpkins. So I could look into buying better tasting pumpkins, painting them and then roasting them later. That would do double duty but it would all depend on price. When it comes to squashes - bigger is not better. The smaller squashes are sweeter and have better flavor so I have to keep that in mind. We've been trained to believe that pumpkins need to be huge so they can make great jack o'lanterns.
Another thing to think about is that this weekend is fall festival and pumpkins and apples will be available for picking. They may be less expensive than the stores. Dissmore's has honey crisps for 1.59 but WSU has apples for about .75 a pound.
That's a lot of food for thought. How's your grocery planning coming?
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Splurge: San Francisco Herb
San Francisco Herb is a great resource for baking ingredients, herbs, teas, spices and other odds and ends. It's a splurge because they require a $30 minimum order and it throws off my budget for the month. However, I take caution to only buy that which we use on a regular basis and take comfort in the fact that I am getting a great deal.
I've been using SF Herb for nearly ten years and have loved everything I have gotten from them.
I started buying from them as a way to get spices at a low cost. There is a disadvantage to ordering your herbs and spices from them - nearly everything comes in a 1 pound bag. A pound of some herbs is a lifetime amount and tough to go through. Sharing helps (both for amount and for cost) but sometimes the deal is so good that it's worth the waste. I try hard not to waste.
Things I buy from them on a regular basis - cocoa powder (*7.40 a pound), Cinnamon (ground and stick - between $2-3 a pound), essential oils - Eucalyptus (2.70 for 1 oz), Peppermint (6.10 for 1 oz), Spearmint (5.60 for 1 oz) and Rosemary (3.10 for 1 oz).
In the past we purchased their pill making kits and made our own herbal supplements. The cost was low but the work was not cost-effective. We found ordering pre-made supplements from Swanson Herbs gave us better quality for a similar price.
I purchase herbs still from SF Herb to make salves, oils and teas. The quality is not the best for everything but I still find quite a few high quality herbs for low cost. Their essential oils are culinary grade so I can use them for salves and cooking which will be nice when I get to making my own sodas.
I'll be putting in an order over the next few months. One thing to remember is that the cost constantly changes as SF Herb gets in shipments. They strive to provide the best cost and if they can lower the price they will but since they depend on harvests the prices fluxuate. Currently Cardamon is high but as the next harvest comes in the price should drop again.
* prices on 10/05/2011
I've been using SF Herb for nearly ten years and have loved everything I have gotten from them.
I started buying from them as a way to get spices at a low cost. There is a disadvantage to ordering your herbs and spices from them - nearly everything comes in a 1 pound bag. A pound of some herbs is a lifetime amount and tough to go through. Sharing helps (both for amount and for cost) but sometimes the deal is so good that it's worth the waste. I try hard not to waste.
Things I buy from them on a regular basis - cocoa powder (*7.40 a pound), Cinnamon (ground and stick - between $2-3 a pound), essential oils - Eucalyptus (2.70 for 1 oz), Peppermint (6.10 for 1 oz), Spearmint (5.60 for 1 oz) and Rosemary (3.10 for 1 oz).
In the past we purchased their pill making kits and made our own herbal supplements. The cost was low but the work was not cost-effective. We found ordering pre-made supplements from Swanson Herbs gave us better quality for a similar price.
I purchase herbs still from SF Herb to make salves, oils and teas. The quality is not the best for everything but I still find quite a few high quality herbs for low cost. Their essential oils are culinary grade so I can use them for salves and cooking which will be nice when I get to making my own sodas.
I'll be putting in an order over the next few months. One thing to remember is that the cost constantly changes as SF Herb gets in shipments. They strive to provide the best cost and if they can lower the price they will but since they depend on harvests the prices fluxuate. Currently Cardamon is high but as the next harvest comes in the price should drop again.
* prices on 10/05/2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Grocery Shopping 3: Heading to the store
It's not uncommon for people to suggest shopping at multiple stores to get the best deals. For me, it's like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Yes, I can go to the four grocery stores in my area, get the best deals for each item and spend $10 on gas doing it. For some of my friends they spend more than that in gas attempting to get better prices. With gas at just under $4 a gallon, does that really make sense? One friend justified it by saying they got food stamps so it wasn't the same budget. I wanted to ask where they could have used the extra money if they hadn't spent so much on gas but I didn't.
Yes, I get food stamps and that makes up the bulk of my budget but after bills and gas, I get to use the leftover money for more groceries. Sometimes there isn't any but I would rather fuel my family than my car.
I pick the best store for my needs for the month. Lately, that has meant a discount grocery store that is the furthest away from my home. Because I only go once a month and I save a great deal, I do my shopping there. However, I don't buy much in the way of produce or meat there (discount groceries often have poor quality produce and horrible meat prices to make up for the discounts in the rest of the store).
I go into the store with my list, my kitchen inventory and a calculator. My kitchen inventory is on a clipboard with a pen so I have a good writing surface. As I pick up items, I write the price on my list next to the name of the item. I do this for two reasons - 1. I like to keep track of the prices on my KI so having the prices on my list makes going through the list easier. and 2. if I find the same item for less somewhere else in the store I have the amount so I can change it in my calculator.
As I shop, I add the prices in my calculator. This keeps me from estimating how much I am spending (which only works part of the time). I can keep a accurate record of the expenses so that I don't get to the checkout and find I have overspent.
I walk into the store with a budget in mind. My goal is often less than what I have available to spend so I can keep some extra for later in the month. It doesn't always happen because I can't always guess how the prices will change from month to month. However, by aiming for lower than my budget I can almost guarantee I won't go over my budget.
For me, it's not enough to just have an overall budget. I, also, give myself budgets for certain items. The store closest to my home has a deal of 5 packages of meat for $20. Because I know that I can get meat for that price, that becomes my meat budget. I can not spend more than $20 on meat. But that's still not enough of a budget for me. If I spent $20 on meat without considering how that would impact meals then I could end up with only a meal or two so I challenge myself more - No more than $2 a meal for meat. That allows me to get higher quality meats if I desire without overly impacting my budget. Now $2 a meal budget doesn't mean I buy hot dogs and canned tuna to keep my budget down (even though we occasionally buy those as well). What it means is that I have to come up with a way of stretching the meat so that I am only spending $2 or less per meal (I like to challenge myself even lower but that doesn't happen easily).
We like bacon, it's something we add to a meal as the meat - it's not the meal its self. Bacon runs about $2.50 for a package. I can take a package and make two meals out of it. Lately, the meat department has offered bacon that runs $2.29 a pound for thick slices that look really nice. In this case, I break up the package into freezer bags with six slices each. This past month, I spent just over $7 for the package and broke it up into 7 bags giving us 7 meals at just over $1 a meal.
I found chicken thighs for .98 a pound. The one thing I don't like about bone in chicken is that it becomes very difficult to stretch it. When I can buy them, I prefer the boneless skinless chicken parts because I can easily cut them up and toss them into whatever dish. Bone-in parts almost always become part of the meal, vegetable, starch menu. However, for the price it wasn't two bad. I spent between $4-5 for each package (bought 2) and broke them into about 8 meals with a two having extra parts for a lunch. With bone-in thighs I give everyone 1 piece. Cooking more than that will guarantee that they eat more than that so I don't cook anything more than 1 extra piece for lunch (I'm the only one who takes a lunch since my son eats at school and hubby eats at home).
I keep things flexible when I shop. I keep my mind open to deals I can't pass up. In August, hotdogs were .68 a package. We don't eat hotdogs often and I feel like they are a good quick fix and they freeze really well. I picked up two even though they weren't on the list. It did mean making sure that I had enough for everything on the list. I, also, don't always walk out with everything on my list. I like crushed ginger in the glass jars but if I'm going to pay $3 I want it to be all ginger not ginger with oil and high fructose corn syrup (I didn't even realize you could buy it that way). Not getting the ginger meant money for the hotdogs.
Be aware that prices change. Something that was a great deal last month may not be as great of a deal this month which is where having the prices on your KI comes in handy. Shopping can easily be stressful and crowded stores open us up to mistakes. Take your time, go when it's not so crowded and don't have it part of a busy day. I, always, make a shopping day when nothing else is planned (atleast for me). I want to be able to take my time through the store and have time at home to put the groceries away and update my KI. I can't do that if I only have a limited amount of time. I've gone grocery shopping in the middle of the night just so I can have enough time (thankfully all our stores are now 24 hours).
Hope that helps. Tomorrow I will talk about developing a food support system and how that can benefit you more than any other technique.
Yes, I get food stamps and that makes up the bulk of my budget but after bills and gas, I get to use the leftover money for more groceries. Sometimes there isn't any but I would rather fuel my family than my car.
I pick the best store for my needs for the month. Lately, that has meant a discount grocery store that is the furthest away from my home. Because I only go once a month and I save a great deal, I do my shopping there. However, I don't buy much in the way of produce or meat there (discount groceries often have poor quality produce and horrible meat prices to make up for the discounts in the rest of the store).
I go into the store with my list, my kitchen inventory and a calculator. My kitchen inventory is on a clipboard with a pen so I have a good writing surface. As I pick up items, I write the price on my list next to the name of the item. I do this for two reasons - 1. I like to keep track of the prices on my KI so having the prices on my list makes going through the list easier. and 2. if I find the same item for less somewhere else in the store I have the amount so I can change it in my calculator.
As I shop, I add the prices in my calculator. This keeps me from estimating how much I am spending (which only works part of the time). I can keep a accurate record of the expenses so that I don't get to the checkout and find I have overspent.
I walk into the store with a budget in mind. My goal is often less than what I have available to spend so I can keep some extra for later in the month. It doesn't always happen because I can't always guess how the prices will change from month to month. However, by aiming for lower than my budget I can almost guarantee I won't go over my budget.
For me, it's not enough to just have an overall budget. I, also, give myself budgets for certain items. The store closest to my home has a deal of 5 packages of meat for $20. Because I know that I can get meat for that price, that becomes my meat budget. I can not spend more than $20 on meat. But that's still not enough of a budget for me. If I spent $20 on meat without considering how that would impact meals then I could end up with only a meal or two so I challenge myself more - No more than $2 a meal for meat. That allows me to get higher quality meats if I desire without overly impacting my budget. Now $2 a meal budget doesn't mean I buy hot dogs and canned tuna to keep my budget down (even though we occasionally buy those as well). What it means is that I have to come up with a way of stretching the meat so that I am only spending $2 or less per meal (I like to challenge myself even lower but that doesn't happen easily).
We like bacon, it's something we add to a meal as the meat - it's not the meal its self. Bacon runs about $2.50 for a package. I can take a package and make two meals out of it. Lately, the meat department has offered bacon that runs $2.29 a pound for thick slices that look really nice. In this case, I break up the package into freezer bags with six slices each. This past month, I spent just over $7 for the package and broke it up into 7 bags giving us 7 meals at just over $1 a meal.
I found chicken thighs for .98 a pound. The one thing I don't like about bone in chicken is that it becomes very difficult to stretch it. When I can buy them, I prefer the boneless skinless chicken parts because I can easily cut them up and toss them into whatever dish. Bone-in parts almost always become part of the meal, vegetable, starch menu. However, for the price it wasn't two bad. I spent between $4-5 for each package (bought 2) and broke them into about 8 meals with a two having extra parts for a lunch. With bone-in thighs I give everyone 1 piece. Cooking more than that will guarantee that they eat more than that so I don't cook anything more than 1 extra piece for lunch (I'm the only one who takes a lunch since my son eats at school and hubby eats at home).
I keep things flexible when I shop. I keep my mind open to deals I can't pass up. In August, hotdogs were .68 a package. We don't eat hotdogs often and I feel like they are a good quick fix and they freeze really well. I picked up two even though they weren't on the list. It did mean making sure that I had enough for everything on the list. I, also, don't always walk out with everything on my list. I like crushed ginger in the glass jars but if I'm going to pay $3 I want it to be all ginger not ginger with oil and high fructose corn syrup (I didn't even realize you could buy it that way). Not getting the ginger meant money for the hotdogs.
Be aware that prices change. Something that was a great deal last month may not be as great of a deal this month which is where having the prices on your KI comes in handy. Shopping can easily be stressful and crowded stores open us up to mistakes. Take your time, go when it's not so crowded and don't have it part of a busy day. I, always, make a shopping day when nothing else is planned (atleast for me). I want to be able to take my time through the store and have time at home to put the groceries away and update my KI. I can't do that if I only have a limited amount of time. I've gone grocery shopping in the middle of the night just so I can have enough time (thankfully all our stores are now 24 hours).
Hope that helps. Tomorrow I will talk about developing a food support system and how that can benefit you more than any other technique.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Grocery Shopping 2: Let the Negotiations Begin
The next step in the preparation for grocery shopping is to negotiate the list. For me, that means asking my family what they want. This is like any business negotiation. I have them bring to the "table" five meals and five items that they want. This gives them a voice in the shopping and a chance to help plan some of the meals. If they give me five meals each - that's ten meals that have been planned with little hassle. I don't mean that they have to plan the entire meal - more just give me entrees. Have they been craving mac and cheese? Do they really miss having stroganoff? Would they kill for the summer's last watermelon?
More importantly, it gives them some feeling of control. When the budget is tight, meals can get boring fast - pots of soups, beans or days of the same meals over and over again because you can make a huge batch for so little cost. That may feel like a solution but it's not a good long term solution. What we are looking for is a long term solution. You don't have to skimp always and I will talk about splurging and when and why I do it at a later date. If you have a good basis then when the money is less tight you can stick to your plan but add to it.
Yesterday I talked about meal planning some. When planning for a month of meals, plan for back-ups. You may envision making amazing time consuming dishes because they are the least expensive and you have the time. Except life happens, these are the times when it's far too easy to order a pizza or slip off to McDonalds because you can't think about what to make for dinner. You have to plan for back-ups. For us, pasta is a back-up plan. When we can't think what to make for dinner we have spaghetti - sometimes marinara and sometimes carbonara. Sometimes I make fried rice or bean burritos. This is easy because we always have the ingredients in our pantry (and I know they are there because they are listed on my Kitchen Inventory).
What happens when what your family wants doesn't meet your budget? I never say "no", I say "what can I make to substitute?". My husband loves soda. It's not in the budget and it's not really healthy so I can't justify buying him soda. Last month was his birthday so he used the Walmart gift card from his family to buy his soda but there's no windfall this month. We talked and decided that Kool-aid would be a good substitute. I made sure to add Kool-aid (.10 each) and extra sugar ($5 and change for 10 pds) to the list. Now the price of the sugar is a little steep but it allows me to make more than just Kool-aid. As we go into winter, we're going to want more baked goods. It cuts a little from my shopping this month but I can make up for it next month.
My son loves milk. Right now we're doing powdered milk but I always by a fresh gallon during my shopping trip. I got to thinking about the previous month and shortfalls. A two pound brick of cheese didn't last the whole month. We were given a brick of cheese from my dad but it's Velvetta-like cheese and my son hates it. I use the cheese in sauces and he doesn't mind but he's commented on more than one occasion that he really wanted real cheese. So I went to him - what would you prefer a gallon of milk or an extra brick of cheese? Now - it's more for the cheese than the milk but the cheese would last longer so I felt it was a good trade off. He thought for a minute and said he would prefer extra cheese to the fresh milk.
After talking with my family, I make my list. It's never a very long list because the goal is to cut down the shopping cost. I look for things that can be stretched over several meals, like the cheese.
Now as I head to the store, I don't keep my list rigid. I allow for other negotiations to occur. I may have hamburger on my list but, at the store, find that it's far more expensive than my budget allows for. At that time, I have to have a back-up plan. Can I alter the menu ideas using less expensive ingredients or is there something else I can drop to make up for the extra expense?
Tomorrow, I'll talk about what to do when you actually make it to the store that will help maintain your budget and your plan.
More importantly, it gives them some feeling of control. When the budget is tight, meals can get boring fast - pots of soups, beans or days of the same meals over and over again because you can make a huge batch for so little cost. That may feel like a solution but it's not a good long term solution. What we are looking for is a long term solution. You don't have to skimp always and I will talk about splurging and when and why I do it at a later date. If you have a good basis then when the money is less tight you can stick to your plan but add to it.
Yesterday I talked about meal planning some. When planning for a month of meals, plan for back-ups. You may envision making amazing time consuming dishes because they are the least expensive and you have the time. Except life happens, these are the times when it's far too easy to order a pizza or slip off to McDonalds because you can't think about what to make for dinner. You have to plan for back-ups. For us, pasta is a back-up plan. When we can't think what to make for dinner we have spaghetti - sometimes marinara and sometimes carbonara. Sometimes I make fried rice or bean burritos. This is easy because we always have the ingredients in our pantry (and I know they are there because they are listed on my Kitchen Inventory).
What happens when what your family wants doesn't meet your budget? I never say "no", I say "what can I make to substitute?". My husband loves soda. It's not in the budget and it's not really healthy so I can't justify buying him soda. Last month was his birthday so he used the Walmart gift card from his family to buy his soda but there's no windfall this month. We talked and decided that Kool-aid would be a good substitute. I made sure to add Kool-aid (.10 each) and extra sugar ($5 and change for 10 pds) to the list. Now the price of the sugar is a little steep but it allows me to make more than just Kool-aid. As we go into winter, we're going to want more baked goods. It cuts a little from my shopping this month but I can make up for it next month.
My son loves milk. Right now we're doing powdered milk but I always by a fresh gallon during my shopping trip. I got to thinking about the previous month and shortfalls. A two pound brick of cheese didn't last the whole month. We were given a brick of cheese from my dad but it's Velvetta-like cheese and my son hates it. I use the cheese in sauces and he doesn't mind but he's commented on more than one occasion that he really wanted real cheese. So I went to him - what would you prefer a gallon of milk or an extra brick of cheese? Now - it's more for the cheese than the milk but the cheese would last longer so I felt it was a good trade off. He thought for a minute and said he would prefer extra cheese to the fresh milk.
After talking with my family, I make my list. It's never a very long list because the goal is to cut down the shopping cost. I look for things that can be stretched over several meals, like the cheese.
Now as I head to the store, I don't keep my list rigid. I allow for other negotiations to occur. I may have hamburger on my list but, at the store, find that it's far more expensive than my budget allows for. At that time, I have to have a back-up plan. Can I alter the menu ideas using less expensive ingredients or is there something else I can drop to make up for the extra expense?
Tomorrow, I'll talk about what to do when you actually make it to the store that will help maintain your budget and your plan.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Grocery Shopping 1: The Plan
Having a grocery shopping plan is not the same as having a list. A list helps but there needs to be more if you are going to keep your shopping with-in your budget.
One tool I have been using is my Kitchen Inventory. Quick recap from the post about that - KI is an excel spreadsheet broken into areas in my kitchen and food groups that gives me a fairly accurate account of what I have or do not have stored, along with the last price I spent. I made a mistake this past month in not printing the KI after I had inputted prices. I had taken the document with me as I shopped but I didn't have the prices to compare (and was shocked at how drastically some changed). That won't happen again since I am finally understanding how best to use this.
What the KI does, aside from price comparison, is tells me what we use and gives me ideas how to combine new items with the old to make a meal. For example, staples - tortillas, cheese; ingredients at home - diced chiles, green salsa. If I buy a can of refried beans, we could have bean burritoes or I can buy some meat and make tacos or different burritoes. There's no second guessing about what we have and what we don't have.
I mentioned that tortillas and cheese are staples. Using the KI, I can determine what foods are necessary in my family and what we don't use as fast as I thought and what we don't really use at all. I make notes on my KI so I know when we didn't like something or a brand. That will save me money because I am not buying something we won't use.
For us - staples are pasta, tortillas, cheese, flour, sugar, eggs, peanut butter, Nucoa, rice, yeast and garlic. With those items in our house, we will always have something to eat. They are also what I replace before I replace anything else.
Then I plan meals - I don't do a hard plan like: 1st Roast chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans; 2nd meatloaf, green salad; etc. I take what I know we like and think of additional meals we might like to have. We love pasta so I plan for spaghetti with marinara, pasta carbonara, mac and cheese. Note: I don't buy processed foods. They may feel like a bargain but in the end they are not. I may be able to purchase a box of mac and cheese for 50 cents but it could take as many as 3 boxes to feed my family without taking in account the milk or the butter. For $1 I can buy a pound of elbow macaroni, use powdered milk (free), 1/2 stick Nucoa (.20), flour and 1/3 pd of cheese (.86) making the whole amount 2.06 vs the cost of the box mac and cheese. That might not feel like a bargain compared to the 1.50 but think of this - the homemade mac and cheese will be more filling and more nutritious. There's less sodium. I can easily alter either mac and cheese to include veggies and meat but with the homemade - I can make extra sauce to use for lunches or dinner the next night. That extra .50 can make a big difference. More importantly, all the ingredients for the mac and cheese are included in my staples so I don't have to really think about what to make.
The last Plan tip I'm gonna share today: traditional American meals of meat, vegetable, starch are expensive and lack nutritional variety. Think past the traditional dinner and start thinking one dish meals. Not everything we eat is one dish but when you start thinking in this manner all sorts of things open up. Meat and fresh produce are some of the most expensive items in the grocery store. Shopping in season and sales will help but I find that creative one dish cooking helps more.
One tool I have been using is my Kitchen Inventory. Quick recap from the post about that - KI is an excel spreadsheet broken into areas in my kitchen and food groups that gives me a fairly accurate account of what I have or do not have stored, along with the last price I spent. I made a mistake this past month in not printing the KI after I had inputted prices. I had taken the document with me as I shopped but I didn't have the prices to compare (and was shocked at how drastically some changed). That won't happen again since I am finally understanding how best to use this.
What the KI does, aside from price comparison, is tells me what we use and gives me ideas how to combine new items with the old to make a meal. For example, staples - tortillas, cheese; ingredients at home - diced chiles, green salsa. If I buy a can of refried beans, we could have bean burritoes or I can buy some meat and make tacos or different burritoes. There's no second guessing about what we have and what we don't have.
I mentioned that tortillas and cheese are staples. Using the KI, I can determine what foods are necessary in my family and what we don't use as fast as I thought and what we don't really use at all. I make notes on my KI so I know when we didn't like something or a brand. That will save me money because I am not buying something we won't use.
For us - staples are pasta, tortillas, cheese, flour, sugar, eggs, peanut butter, Nucoa, rice, yeast and garlic. With those items in our house, we will always have something to eat. They are also what I replace before I replace anything else.
Then I plan meals - I don't do a hard plan like: 1st Roast chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans; 2nd meatloaf, green salad; etc. I take what I know we like and think of additional meals we might like to have. We love pasta so I plan for spaghetti with marinara, pasta carbonara, mac and cheese. Note: I don't buy processed foods. They may feel like a bargain but in the end they are not. I may be able to purchase a box of mac and cheese for 50 cents but it could take as many as 3 boxes to feed my family without taking in account the milk or the butter. For $1 I can buy a pound of elbow macaroni, use powdered milk (free), 1/2 stick Nucoa (.20), flour and 1/3 pd of cheese (.86) making the whole amount 2.06 vs the cost of the box mac and cheese. That might not feel like a bargain compared to the 1.50 but think of this - the homemade mac and cheese will be more filling and more nutritious. There's less sodium. I can easily alter either mac and cheese to include veggies and meat but with the homemade - I can make extra sauce to use for lunches or dinner the next night. That extra .50 can make a big difference. More importantly, all the ingredients for the mac and cheese are included in my staples so I don't have to really think about what to make.
The last Plan tip I'm gonna share today: traditional American meals of meat, vegetable, starch are expensive and lack nutritional variety. Think past the traditional dinner and start thinking one dish meals. Not everything we eat is one dish but when you start thinking in this manner all sorts of things open up. Meat and fresh produce are some of the most expensive items in the grocery store. Shopping in season and sales will help but I find that creative one dish cooking helps more.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Changing Focus (just a little bit)
This blog is a passion of mine and over the last week I took time to really decide what was best for me and the goals I have. With that, I have decided to change the focus of this blog, slightly. I have always favored low cost meals with keeping nutrition and special diets in mind. Over the last six months, my family has learned how to survive on a plan that gives us about $100 a month for groceries. We get $88 in food stamps and then pick up items now and again as we have needs or extra funds (never resulting in that much more being spent). We are a family of three - one being a 14 year old boy.
It's work to keep us well fed but I have learned a lot of tricks over the years and thought it might be a good time to really share how I make it work. So in addition to recipes and the few things I spatter here and there, I will share the techniques I use to keep our budget low.
A few disclaimers:
I have the world's largest stockpile of powdered milk. Because I make bath products and powdered milk is often given in commodities, friends have given me thier supply of powdered milk because they couldn't use it. This has come in handy lately because we no longer are buying milk.
The other thing I use is my family. I often tell my mom I shop at her house. When she moved recently she uncovered a pantry so full (okay multiple pantries) so we inherited a good deal of canned goods and we keep offering to take more off her hands. This has helped get us through some tight spots. In return, I send things to my mom and dad like baked goods, canned goods or bath products so maybe it's more of a barter system than an all out gift.
Some of the things I will be sharing in the following days/weeks: how I meal plan, how I shop, protein choices, foraging, canning, and, of course, recipes. With this, I will potentially have two posts in a day on occasion as I share a tip and a recipe.
It's work to keep us well fed but I have learned a lot of tricks over the years and thought it might be a good time to really share how I make it work. So in addition to recipes and the few things I spatter here and there, I will share the techniques I use to keep our budget low.
A few disclaimers:
I have the world's largest stockpile of powdered milk. Because I make bath products and powdered milk is often given in commodities, friends have given me thier supply of powdered milk because they couldn't use it. This has come in handy lately because we no longer are buying milk.
The other thing I use is my family. I often tell my mom I shop at her house. When she moved recently she uncovered a pantry so full (okay multiple pantries) so we inherited a good deal of canned goods and we keep offering to take more off her hands. This has helped get us through some tight spots. In return, I send things to my mom and dad like baked goods, canned goods or bath products so maybe it's more of a barter system than an all out gift.
Some of the things I will be sharing in the following days/weeks: how I meal plan, how I shop, protein choices, foraging, canning, and, of course, recipes. With this, I will potentially have two posts in a day on occasion as I share a tip and a recipe.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Kitchen Inventory
For many years, I was a stay at home mom who took on work as it came. This worked well for our rural lifestyle but when we moved to the "city" things changed. I worked part-time for a year or so and then was offered a full-time job. At this time, both my husband and I worked full-time so the household division stayed the same. In December 2010,my husband lost his job. He tried working but couldn't get anything permanent. He became a stay at home dad. This was a great opportunity for us but shifting the household duties to my husband wasn't as smooth as I had expected. One big problem we discovered was the kitchen responsibilities. The kitchen has always been my domain and I gladly passed it over to my husband. He's a wonderful cook and has his own plans for kitchen experiments. That wasn't the problem - I hadn't given up the shopping. Within a couple of months neither one of us knew what was in our refrigerator or pantry. During this time, my mom moved from the farmhouse she shared with my aunt to a place near us. The farmhouse has kitchen storage, a pantry off the kitchen, a pantry in the basement and more. She had created a second pantry in the basement (third for the house) and they had a broken freezer she called the dry storage (flour, etc protected from mice). My aunt had been getting a monthly senior food box for the last few years and my mom was a Costco shopper. When she moved, she had several truck loads of food she didn't even know she had. She mentioned doing a database so she could keep track of the food she had, shopping lists and sales/coupons. I'm not as tech-savvy as my mom but she had a point. When we moved to the city, I had written in a notebook everything we had in our kitchen. It was an ineffectual system because there was no real way to change the pages without writing them over and I didn't take the time to put them in the computer. So, I took time to go through all the food in our kitchen and list how much we had and where it was located. It wasn't a perfect list but a good start. Then I took some time to put all the food in an Excel file. I tinkered and came up with a great system. I created several columns - food item, areas they are and where I last purchased the item and for how much. The food items I broke down into several categories - Meat/Proteins, Dairy (and dairy substitutions), Grains/Starches, Vegetables, Fruit, Condiments, Misc and Spices. I put spices at the end because it was a much longer list than everything else. I, also, put a special little section at the end of the spices for my extracts. Then I created the columns - Refrigerator, small freezer, big freezer, left cupboard, right cupboard, pantry and misc (for those things that sit on the counter or the spice shelf). The last column for where I purchased and for how much was an afterthought. I had just done some shopping and in an effort to stay in budget I had written the prices on my list. I shopped with a calculator so I could keep track of how much I was spending - the prices were important because I would find better deals in various parts of the store (for example, I picked up bacon with the breakfast meats to find less expensive and better looking bacon in the meat department). I could subtract the price of the original item and add the new price so that my amount stayed fairly accurate. In the end, I spent less than my budget, missing one item on my list (not available) and picking up a handful of things not on the list that we needed (like bread). Adding those prices to my list helps me when I go to a different store. The prices might not stay the same next month but I have a better idea of what they could be. Now, the last note I would make is that with every item, I listed the number I had and attempted to make notes as to size. I printed the list out and attached it to a clipboard with a pen. It takes less than a minute to make notes about what we used during the day so that our inventory stays current. I have also made notes about foods I canned, foraged or was given, as well as things that I don't want to replace when they run out. This keeps things clear for both me and my husband. He can grab the list and see if we are out of something so I can swing by the store on my way home. There's no confusion about where the item should be. We can see that the new chicken was put in the big freezer not the small one by where we marked it on the list. Shopping days will mean being vigilant but it's not a hard task to prevent future chaos and lost foods.
If you are interested in a pdf example - let me know. I can't figure out how to post one here.
If you are interested in a pdf example - let me know. I can't figure out how to post one here.
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