Part 1: Cooking from Scratch and Buying in Bulk Part 2: Farmer’s Markets and Buying in Season Part 3: Grow Your Own In this post: Farmer’s Markets and Buying in Season (See part 1: cooking from scratch and buying in bulk) With Shopping Super Centers popping up left and right, the temptation is a one-stop-shop. Pull into a Wal-Mart, and you can do your grocery shopping, pick up a car part, buy a camping tent, pick up a pair of boots for junior, and some socks for the hubby, fill a prescription, get an oil change, and an eye exam…all in one place. To a busy mom (or dad), doesn’t that just sound like heaven? I don’t mean that in a critical way. I totally get it! But these one-stop-shops aren’t always the most economical way to go. Most often, the produce department is filled with produce shipped in from another country. That means it’s already old. And you’ve got a couple of days, max, to eat it before it goes bad. Except then you forget, and those tomatoes from Mexico go bad before you get a chance to use them, and then you haven’t really saved and money OR time afterall! I am blessed to live in an area with an abundance of farmer’s markets and produce stands. We don’t have much in the way of food buying co-ops…but we do have a wealth of small farmers. If you do a little research and figure out what’s coming into harvest during certain months of the year, you can really save a LOT of money by planning your menu around in-season food purchases. For […]
Archives for November 2014
Frugal Fridays #5
I hope you’re all enjoying Thanksgiving this week! We have so much to be thankful for this year. Most of all, I’m thankful for God’s love and mercy in our family…and for our actual family itself, including this little one growing in my belly. We are so excited to meet him! I’m also incredibly thankful to the men and women who serve in our country’s Armed Forces, protecting us, and sacrificing Thanksgiving dinner with their own families so that we can be safe at home. I know many of you are probably out taking advantage of Black Friday deals at the moment. I may take a trip out to Joann’s to pick up some more fabric for the quilts I’m making for my kiddos for Christmas. I normally hibernate on Black Friday, but this year there really are some things that I could use a good deal on … mostly fabric and thread for Christmas projects. Successes: I made a gallon of yogurt in the crockpot. I made a batch of granola in the crockpot. We used our museum membership to attend a free event at our local 18th Century Living History museum. The theme of the event was “Preparing for the Holidays in the 18th Century.” We saw hog butchering, tallow candle making, lard rendering, soap making, baking, and much more. We purchase a museum membership each year and it pays for itself usually within 2-3 visits. We were given a case of family pack Kraft macaroni and cheese. ::Gasp:: I know, right? 😉 Don’t worry. This isn’t a typical item on our menu. My father works for a freight company and when […]
Saving on Groceries Series, Part 1
In this post: Cooking from scratch and buying in bulk. Americans are reported to spend $151 per week on groceries for their families (Depending on your source, the average American family has between 2 and 3 children). I’ve talked to many of my friends and acquantences, most of which have fewer children than I do, who spend upwards of $300 per week…on food! The flip side of that, is when a family is struggling financially. The first thing we try to cut back on is the grocery bill. At least that’s my experience. The grocery bill is one of the few expenses that a family has some control over. You can try to be efficient with your utility usage, but you still have to pay the bill or else the lights get turned off. You have to put gas in the vehicle to get to work. The medical insurance premiums must be paid. The grocery bill is the one expense we have the most control over. I wanted to write a series of posts (because it would be one whopping long post if I did it all in one) to share with you how we save money on groceries. I typically spend, on average, about $400 per month on groceries for our family of (almost) 7. This includes toiletries, household products, and also stocking up my pantry for emergencies. At times it’s less than this, and there are times when I have a little more to work with. You might read that and think, “I make do with much less!” Or you might read it and think, “There’s no way I have the time or […]
Frugal Fridays #4
Successes: Both our coffee maker and toaster oven died recently and we decided not to replace them. (Don’t worry. I have a french press coffee maker, as well as one of these things). I also have our camping percolator. Lots of coffee back-up. 😉 I realized that I can toast things faster and in larger quantities under the broiler, and I prefer the counter space anyway. My grocery budget ran low about the same time we ran out of paper napkins, so I cut cloth napkins out of an old sheet (pictured above). I’ve been meaning to make a switch over to cloth napkins for a while anyway, but didn’t have the opportunity to purchase fabric or pre-made cloth napkins. Being in a situation where I needed to make do with what I had led me to my linen closet. I have a box of misfit sheets that was given to me a couple of years ago….perfect solution and didn’t cost a dime! I just cut them into 9inx9in squares, sewed right sides together, flipped right side out, and then top stitched. I was able to find turkey on sale for .48 cents per pound with no minimum purchase. I bought two for the freezer and hope to go back to buy a couple more depending on the budget situation. Our furnace has been off the last 3 days even though the temps have been in the 20’s. Our new pellet stove keeps us gloriously warm with the pellets we purchased on sale over the summer. We were given 2 gallons of milk. Our church Thanksgiving feast was earlier this week and they had an excess of milk. They offered […]
A New Family Picture
I wanted to share our newest family picture. We haven’t had one taken since we were a family of 4…and since I’m now expecting Baby #5, we decided that it might be time for an updated one. It was cold and getting late, so no one was particularly excited to be there, as you can see (we got this picture with a Groupon deal, and they only had ONE time slot left for the whole year!!). Plus…you know how it goes with trying to get multiple little ones to cooperate with photography. But … good enough. haha! FacebookPinterestE-mail
No Knead Sandwich Bread
When you’re making all of your bread by hand for a larger family, it can become quite a chore. It can be a huge blessing having those curious hands wanting to help, spending time together, playing together, and creating those memories that a mama hopes will last a lifetime. I would say that’s the case quite often. However, there are also times when mama’s tired, kids are cranky and trying to sweep the flour onto the floor every chance they get, and you really just need to not need to knead the bread. Did that make sense? 😀 Sometimes you’ve got a teething infant who wants to nurse nonstop, and a child who needs help with their math lesson, and a toddler scaling the walls, and a dog that just won’t stop barking at every. little. thing., and a child pulling on your shirt asking in the cutest possible voice to be read to. Again. You know the bread needs to get baked, or else there won’t be any for the lunch or dinner you have planned … but actually getting the bread made seems like a monumental task. I feel ya, tired mama. This is what’s working for me, and I hope it’ll work for you, too. A sandwich bread recipe. That doesn’t need to be kneaded. And you can even make the dough the night before if you want. Or even a couple of days in advance. But you don’t have to. Flexibility is what it’s all about here. This recipe makes enough for 1 loaf. I usually double it. Ingredients: 3 1/2 cups of bread flour (although all purpose […]
Frugal Fridays #3
This week was a pretty successful week in the way of frugality. Very busy, lots accomplished. Not many fumbles to speak of. I’m so thankful for all of the other bloggers out there who post about how they live simply and frugally. Without their wisdom, I don’t think I would be able to do the things that I do for my family today to get us by when times are tight (and they usually are). I simply could not have come up with some of this stuff on my own! So, if you’re a fellow blogger and you blog about anything to do with living more simply …. Successes I purchased fabric for a quilt for a Christmas gift for my daughter at 50% off. I made homemade coffee creamer a couple of times. A local thrift store was having a 50% off sale for Veteran’s Day, so we picked up 2 pair of jeans for one of my sons. We picked up another truckload of free mulch from the town. I mulched my strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries with it. We’ll be going back at least 2-3 more times. (I’m just now realizing that mulching with wood chips in the garden is apparently a very controversial subject among gardeners. If you have experience with it, good or bad, I’d love to hear!) I stopped at a farmer’s market and picked up 3 acorn squash and 2 large heads of broccoli for $1 each. That market will be closing down the week of Thanksgiving-ish, so I plan to go back for some other types of winter squash that I didn’t have room to […]
London Fog Recipe (AKA Earl Grey Latte)
Fall is in full swing now. Here in New York, Fall consists of a lot of drizzly, cold days. Many days of the week we get this rain/snow mix thing going on. Hail too. The bane of my husband’s existence (he works outdoors). While those days are no fun to work outside in, they are the perfect day for cuddling up with a cozy drink and a good book…assuming the littles will cooperate with something like that. Most days they do, as I’ve been very territorial over quiet/naptime over the years and they just *know* that mama needs her quiet time. So most days (though certainly not all), I get an hour of uninterrupted peace and coffee. I’m a coffee lover. Everyone knows that. I drink 2-3 cups a day usually. But every once in a while, I want something different. When I’m pregnant or nursing (which is quite often the case), I try to keep the caffeinated drinks to 1x per day. Lately I’ve been making myself a London Fog (aka Earl Grey Latte) with decaffeinated Earl Grey tea. If it’s not something you’ve tried before, I highly recommend it. It’s sweet and creamy and frothy. Everything a comforting naptime drink should be. Even if you *think* you don’t like tea…give this a try. You won’t be disappointed. Ingredients: 1 Earl Grey tea bag 8 oz milk (whole, almond, your choice) 1/4 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp. sugar Directions: Brew your tea in about 6-8 oz of hot water. I usually brew mine for about 5 minutes so that it’s nice and strong. Warm your milk (microwave is fine). Mix the vanilla […]
Frugal Fridays #2
Successes: We finished bedding down the garden for Winter. We fertilized with organic material, and then laid down a few inches of wood chip mulch that we got for free from the town. As you can see, the beets, cabbage, and kale are thriving in these cooler temps. I didn’t get any carrots in the ground in time for a fall harvest, but I’m thankful for what we did manage. I purchased several of the books for our homeschool curriculum from a couple of local used book stores. It took me a long time to scour through their shelves since they aren’t really organized in any particular fashion, but I ended up with some great deals. I made several loaves of bread as well as some homemade coffee creamer. We’ve stuck to the monthly menu plan. I made some homemade shower vapor discs when I got a cold last week using ingredients we already had on hand. Kale was harvested for Zuppa Toscana. We were given a set of drinking glasses, which we sorely needed. We were previously using plastic cups. Plastic cups just so happen to be my dog’s favorite thing to chew, and my 2 year old’s favorite things to throw in the trash when mommy’s not looking. We go through a lot of cups and glasses. My dad made a huge pot of greens and beans for my freezer. He stocked us with 8 or 9 32 oz containers. (He actually gave me these a couple of weeks ago, but I’m including them in this post because my pregnancy brain had temporarily forgotten about them, and I was pleasantly surprised […]
Easy DIY Vapor Shower Discs
A couple of weeks ago I was clicking around on the web and stumbled upon this article over at Duxbury Farm girl for Homemade Shower Discs. I’d never heard of such a thing, and commented that I loved the idea and would give it a try next time we had a cold run through the house. Fast forward about 9 days. I woke up feeling a little stuffy, but nothing major. That night we took the kids out trick-or-treating. And true to New York State tradition…it was cold and rainy. This exacerbated the cold, and I woke up on November 1st with a full on chest cold. So it didn’t take long for me to have the opportunity to try out some shower discs of my own. Ask and you shall receive. 😉 So I made up some of these, and am taking some of the elderberry syrup that I made a few weeks ago when my youngest had a cold. Those things combined with running a humidifier at night have made it so that we haven’t needed any store bought cough syrups or pharmaceutical treatments (so far) this cold season. Our colds aren’t lasting as long, and when we do get sick, the symptoms just aren’t as bad as they usually would be. (happy mama!) The base of these little discs is just water and baking soda. Then you can add whatever essential oils you’d like into it, in whatever strength you prefer. For children, the standard recommendation is to cut the dose of essential oils in half, so I’d probably just break one of these discs in half for them. Recipe: – 3 […]
