Since January 1st of this year, my “shaved down” grocery budget has been significantly reduced and the belt tightening has certainly been felt. Where we used to have a little to buy chips or an extra bag of rice or an extra can of tomatoes is no more. If I was careful we could go to McDonalds once during the month or buy a $5 pizza on a busy Friday Night. That has proved impossible since the second cut of the year. The loss is $100 per month which end result is what I consider to be a challenge to be met and conquered, engaging my mind in creatively searching and thinking in order to feed my family for $2.72 per person per day. I am understanding the correlation between money, resources, priorities and goals better than ever before. Unfortunately the cuts are going to continue for the next couple of years before things even out and hopefully finally get better. It is not that my husband is making less. We’ve been blessed with a very steady, reliable income for 19 years and he’s actually making more! It’s just that more and more continues to be pulled from his pay check to cover medical insurance and the suffering State Teacher Retirement System. The cost of living keeps going up too. We are now living within $200 per year of some level of poverty that I do not clearly understand but I know that it is a percentage of income in relation to the poverty level and that would give our kids a reduced lunch price if they bought it at school. We did not used to be that close… and we did not used to make this much. Once upon a time I dreamed that if we ever made this much money we would be rich but things change. The other night as I was setting out dinner on our deck table, the place we choose to eat at whenever weather permits because of the elbow room it allows us, I was thinking about our budget and finances and decided that I should really be more worried and even depressed perhaps. And yet I felt the exact opposite. I am learning so much as I rise to the challenges placed before me PLUS I had in my hands a fragrant, savory deep dish brimming with a shepherd’s pie, homemade rolls, a bowl of fresh spinach with the garden promising me some tomatoes soon and some jars of simple salad dressings. These delectable smelling items would nourish my family as we joined around the Sunday dinner table to share our meal and our days lessons. The late afternoon sun was shining with pleasant temperatures and gentle breezes. Birds were chirping, butterflies were fluttering past out in our yard and most importantly I felt that we had once again been blessed with “enough”. It was a near perfect evening. No need for depression. “Enough” was all I needed anyway. I will never think of budgeting the same way again. Knowledge is power and that’s the truth.
So here are some ways that I’ve worked to make ends meet, living frugally or as I prefer to state, we live “providently”. Many of these things are from the kitchen aspect of my job because eating is sort of important but as we we near gift giving season and another round of cuts to our paycheck in January as well as a new contract with new terms to sign I hope to have some more ideas coming soon as well.
Haley got a JOB! She is now saving for her mission and college at a much more rapid rate than before. She’s worked several weekends and realized she’s saved over $100 from it already. As a result of this job she is now released from our family’s “allowance” system. This is just in time to utilize the money that would have gone to Haley to pay for Kaitlyn’s monthly classroom fee for the year. There’s always somewhere for the money to go… thankfully we had somewhere other than the grocery budget to pull from. On a side note I caught one of those rare glimpses you get in parenting a child that I MIGHT just be succeeding. Haley returned from her first day on the job and actually thanked me for teaching her how to clean and how to work. She was glad I’d given her chores to do. Yes, I heard that right. Woooo! After all the years of groaning and eye rolling I’LL TAKE IT!!! Haley seems to be proud of having gotten herself a job… many kids at school have given her a bit of a hard time over her job but she is happy that she’s getting experience, is earning her own money and has something to add to her resume. She seems to be balancing this job with school, seminary and volunteering at the library quite well, so far. Busy girl! And getting a job is an education in and of itself.
I decorated for Autumn around the house using items I already have. Spooky helped. I prefer to use fall colors with apples, leaves, pumpkins and pinecones that will make the house festive for September through November rather than skeletons and other creepy things that are really only good for Halloween.
We signed up for “Free Fridays” at our local grocery store and had “coupons” downloaded onto our shopper’s club card for free merchandise each week. A free two liter of 7-up, a free bag of cheetos, a free 1 dozen eggs, Hillshire Farm Tuscan herbed chicken, Orville Redenbacher popcorn and free breakfast trail mix was ours to pick up each week as we stopped in to pick up our milk. We also used a coupon to get a free 20 oz. soda.
Paid just $1.50/lb for Spare Ribs buying it on sale in bulk on the date of expiration. Bought hamburger at $1.70/lb combining its bulk sale price with a coupon.
Bought shampoo and conditioner for .79 each and butter for $1.99/lb. which is a slightly better price than buying it in bulk at Sam’s Club.
We went to Coney Island with free parking and admission on Labor Day for the annual AFL-CIO picnic. The picnic, put on by Cincinnati Federation of Teachers was free but we paid a nominal fee for ride bracelets which we had budgeted for. That is the way to go to an amusement park for us.
We are drinking less milk (but still the recommended amount) and more water.
We bought toothpaste for $1.00 when it went on sale. We also brought home a bag of free toothpaste samples from the dentist.
I haven’t been able to buy liquid hand soap for most of the year just by virtue of the fact that we still have some form of soap for hand cleaning and although it continues to be on my shopping list it ends up getting crossed off when the budget is out of room. I did have quite the supply of liquid soap refill in my long term storage; however, it finally dwindled. Then I remembered that I had a bag full of fancy soaps, the tiny kind with fancy shapes and scents which my MIL had sent over in a box of stuff she didn’t want several years back. It was still sitting in a box with some other things to be gone through. Now we have soap that makes our hands smell like roses and English lavender which is even better and most bars last several weeks instead of the pump we used to empty twice a week in the bathroom alone. We also continued to use soap, shampoo and conditioner from our hotel stay during the summer. I also got two liquid soap pumps for free which I am using one of in my kitchen since I was missing liquid hand soap in there.
We got three free movie rental deals from Redbox. One was a family friendly movie we all watched together. The other two were fabulous movies that Rick and I watched for some free “at home dates” since our date budget has significantly dwindled this year too. “Parental Guidance” with Billy Crystal and Bette Midler was fantastic. “Safe Haven” was the other movie and we loved it.
I got out my sewing machine and mended four sets of cotton sheets we use during the warm months. They all had very neat right angle rips in their fitted sheets and I was able to use a special darning stitch for a nearly unnoticeable repair. The sheets varied in age from four to eight years old and I need them to last a bit longer.
My seedlings from the spring began to give harvest finally with so many green peppers that my plants were nearly falling over and the kids were coming in with 8 at a time to drop into the vegetable drawer. These peppers were fantastic in vegetable soup and most especially on pizza. We harvested some tomatoes from our tomato jungle for snacks and salads as well putting many on the window sill to finish ripening in the sun. The plants, grown from tiny seeds, were taller than Nathan! And look at our carrots! Nathan loved going out to check on the carrots. He loved digging them up and pulling them out even more.
We ate rice instead of potatoes.
Our family was able to go apple picking, a beloved family tradition, arriving at the farm an hour away went it opened at 8 a.m. so Haley could still participate and get to work on time. The apples were ripening 3-4 weeks early here with the weather we’ve had and so for the first time I picked apples on the last day of August. We paid $25 a full bushel and picked four bushels in just 45 minutes. Now I can see some people thinking that $100 is too much to pay for apples. But if you think of the fact that we got nearly 200 pounds of apples for .50 per pound (which is the most I’ve ever paid for u-pick) it is still a bargain when you pay anywhere from .99 to 2.99 per pound at the grocery store, depending on the season and variety. Those same apples would have cost me anywhere from $200 to $600 which makes my farm picked apples, at worst, still quite a savings. We filled shelves and baskets with the freshest apples that will feed our family fresh apples for any number of snacks and meals for a month. The rest of the Cortlands, Jonathans and McIntosh apples were dehydrated into fruit snacks or made into slices, sauces, butters and cooking juices and even my youngest children participated in the production process. We used the peels and cores to get the most sauce possible and in just 5 days of part time work on the project I filled about 7 cases of jars with food. The money spent was carefully carved out of a portion of our regular grocery budget and is a significant part of our fruit supply for the coming year. Not a bad price after all. And the small amount of waste that we did have from the apples went out to the compost for a future garden.
I made caramel apples at home with fresh picked apples and caramels I’d purchased for just $1 several months ago when they were on sale. I also drizzle chocolate on each one because it looks fun and fancy and tastes even better! I purchase chocolate chips in bulk and I don’t use many for this.
I consistently cut my grocery bill at the checkout by 30% to 50% by buying only advertised specials and in some cases combining the special price with another offers.
Using my meat purchasing “rules” I was able to buy 26 pounds of meat for $27.99… more than enough for my family for a whole month.
I did not purchase breakfast cereal. We did have oatmeal a few times along with homemade granola, muffins and eggs.
I made yogurt for a whole month saving a plain starter from each batch to make the next bowl of yogurt from scratch again as needed. I made a simple but very tasty granola to go with the yogurt.
Saltine crackers from scratch! I’ll have to perfect them but they weren’t bad for my first try. I made a cheese spread… 1 lb. of cheese for about $1 spread on homemade crackers and topped with a garden fresh cherry tomato made a delicious snack.
Second try on the crackers was MUCH better. Necessity being the mother of invention with my milk money gone and my little one sick and in need of very plain crackers to go with his gingerale and broth, I rolled the cracker dough paper thin and sprinkled regular salt from a shaker… they tasted just like the store bought version of Saltines but were much fresher. Yum! Ironically these crackers crisp up when you leave them out which makes me wonder what kind of preservatives are in the boxed version on the store shelves. I did store them in a plastic cereal container once they were crisp because we do tend to have quite a bit of humidity here. It cost me pennies to make about 200 crackers.
I made my own french fried onions for a Sunday dinner pork chop casserole instead of buying dried french fried onions. The ingredients cost pennies and the end result tasted terrific. Outstanding, even.
I made a chicken and rice soup mix that tastes like Mrs. Grass and prepares with the same ease. It has 4 dry ingredients that are so easy to throw into a Mason jar for a quick and delicious hot lunch to take out the door or for sick little tummies that are in need of gentle nourishment. For the ease and the cost of this mix I may never buy chicken noodle soup in a can ever again. I also made tomato basil soup from last year’s home canned tomatoes and tossed some pasta into it. This is a delicious and easy recipe that efficiently gets my kids to eat tomatoes as a vegetable and doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup that its canned counterpart does.
Continued to water the garden solely from the back water barrel all month. It was a dry month and the plants needed some water. I’m thinking of getting a second water barrel eventually for the other side of the house.
Upon pricing bulk tomatoes I didn’t stumble upon any that made it worth it for me to can any. I’ll keep hoping that I come upon some in the next month but they were all either too expensive for canning tomatoes or else too far away. I did decide to purchase a #10 can of diced tomatoes which was under $3. It was enough to multiply my spaghetti sauce recipe 7 times. Yes the pot of sauce was HUGE but I have a pot for that! I spice the sauce for next to nothing and used half the meat that the recipe calls for to give protein and flavor in the sauce. The extra sauce is portioned into freezer bags and altogether should feed my family about 7-8 meals.
I served my sauce over pasta I bought for .90 per pound (second best price all year). I purchased 11 more pounds of pasta… it has a shelf life of 10 years if stored properly, which it is.
Clothes drying weather has continued… I’ve been drying clothes on the back yard clothesline my husband made for almost 6 months now and our bill continues to be significantly lower than before. The building materials and rope purchased have more than paid for themselves and it is refreshing to hang laundry with the squirrels and birds first thing in the morning. My kitties come and wind themselves around my ankles and take dust baths at my feet as I hang laundry. My kids come outside and talk to me or swing on the swing. It is lulling to watch laundry fluttering in the breezes. My neighbor and I had a good laugh when she stuck her head out the window as I was hanging laundry one Saturday. She told me she’d just watched a movie from 1999 where one of the characters was hanging her laundry onto a reeled line just like my set-up and it made her think of me. I jokingly said “it’s SO last century” isn’t it?”
We decided to turn the computer off every evening before bed to save on the electric bill.
All of our bread, hamburger buns and rolls were made in our kitchen. Side note here; Many people think they “don’t have time” and I’ve been told this time and time again. The bread costs me about .25 to make and I can tell you that multi-tasking is the name of the game. You don’t need to watch your bread rising. It simply takes a few minutes of your time and attention on three occasions over the period of 2 1/2 to 3 hours… I even rise bread while I’m out of the house picking up kids or bake it while we eat dinner, read, fold laundry, talk on the phone or I take a shower so that it is ready for the next day’s lunches. I buy 25 pound bags of flour at Sam’s Club for $7 and change. Yeast is purchased in bulk there as well as salt. And that’s all bread is made out of other than water. And bread from scratch tastes (and smells) GREAT!
Poptarts! It’s been years since we’ve eaten pop tarts and while your waist line might object to eating homemade pop tarts every day, every so often it would be worth it to have a home made pop tart. They are phenomenal and taste SO much better than the ones pumped with preservatives wrapped in foil and shelved in a cardboard box for your purchase. They were easy, too! The filling in my pop tarts was home canned Strawberry Marmalade I made from the berries we picked on the farm 3 1/2 months ago. The only expensive ingredient was the butter in the warm flakey pastry. These little goodies were pretty large in size, I thought. Next time I think I will make the Pop Tarts half the size buy simply folding the pastry in half instead of trying to roll and cut all over again to match the size for the second layer. We each had one and I froze the rest which are ready in the oven in just 5 minutes… a quick, fun breakfast.
I made “Bean”-burgers out of dried black beans, bread crumbs I saved in the freezer from the “heels” and some onions and spices. They were phenomenal. Move over Morningstar Vegi-burgers… these were so good. I made steak fries to go with it along with homemade hamburger buns. I made “pink sauce” to go with the fries and slathered my burger with it as well. These burgers were simple and quick to make. Beans are a cheap source of protein but canned beans are the most expensive way to purchase them so I always use dry. Around here I cannot find black beans in bulk but can buy them for about $1.25 per pound. Earlier this year I was able to purchase the black beans in Columbus in a huge 25 pound bag for about half that price per pound. Beans are a wonderful food if prepared properly and you can really reduce your food expenses by eating meals featuring this food. And less fat too!
We were given a large bag of clothes for free from a young mom at church. She had lots of shirts, sweaters, dresses and jeans, some with the tags still on, that fit my 14 year old daughter. Lindsay is thrilled. My neighbor brought over 2 1/2 bags of chips, a bag of hot dog buns and a bottle of pickle relish for us leftover from a cookout she hosted at work. I readily agreed to water her side yard that she just paid to have fertilized while she’s on vacation in return.
Last month we got a “new” to us car which is great on one hand. On the other hand, the gas mileage per gallon is nothing less than awful! It’s city miles per gallon are the same as the van’s city miles and that’s almost all we drive. Along with a slight increase in auto insurance there just isn’t any extra money for gas too. So we had to do some thinking. Trips to the store must be made directly on the way home from somewhere or Rick did ride his bike once. Haley is paying a small gas fee for a ride to and from work… less than a bus would cost but fair. We do not collect this from her if we were going out near that direction anyway. Tristan and Lindsay go to school early one day a week and so Rick drops them both off on the way to work. That saves a trip. The older girls and Rick have waited for each other during rehearsals or meetings after school while doing homework or music practice that saves an extra trip. On the day before pay day last week we had just enough gas to get home but not home plus another trip down town. Nathan and I planned on spending most of the day at the Museum Center. We adjusted our schedule just a little so we stayed a little longer than planned and then swung by SCPA to pick up Haley while Rick graded papers, etc. as he waited for Lindsay. Then I picked up the Fairview kids after that and instead of idling the engine we turned it off and rolled down the windows to wait for them. Me staying down town and Rick waiting for Lindsay saved two trips down town and I got home with 3 miles to spare as did Rick, until pay day the next morning. Rick has also left a few minutes early on a few days and picked up the Fairview kids at their dismissal time on his way home which has also saved us gas money. Some things cannot be pared down however. Once we had a child in high school the combination of seminary and yet another school start time created driving that adds up to nearly 500 additional miles per month. That is more than double what it had been. But seminary is important and education goes without saying. Working together we created a budget and I think praying over it is the only thing making it work.
Finally I made a gift to send with my youngest daughter to a birthday party she was invited to. I found instructions on line for FREE to make a wallet purse. I was out of interfacing but found some large patches of coordinating fabrics with interfacing already ironed onto them from a stash my Aunt had given me last year. I was so happy to find that when I cut off the rounded edges the measurements were exactly what was called for in making the wallet. I was pretty thrilled because I really had no time to go out to the store and anything I spend on a gift would need to come out of my grocery money which is already thinly stretched. I used a zipper I already had purchased years ago when they were on clearance at a store closing sale, the end of a red spool of thread, buttons from my button box and an unused red rubber hair band from my daughter’s stash. I did go out and purchase some coordinating ribbon to make a strap because I couldn’t find anything on hand that went well but used a coupon so I got it for .50 and I have leftover ribbon for a future project. For the birthday party gift I stuffed the purse with packages of cute sticky notes, travel size Kleenex, a fancy purple pen, a chapstick purchased on sale a few months ago, a mini mad libs left over from a birthday party we’d given and a $1 bill. Besides the dollar these were all things I had on hand already and so was no cost to me now. What a fun thing to receive a purse stuffed with cute but useable items. My daughters all love the wallet purse so much that I may end up making several of those for Christmas. While at the craft store I also purchased a bulk package of barrettes to make fancy felt barrettes for gifts in the future… they were only $1.50 instead of several dollars more than that for the same package in the grocery store.
I made a gift bag for this purse using a plain brown paper bag, a hole punch and a matching piece of ribbon to the purse. I used a fancy sticker I had leftover from a Christmas project several years ago that matched the ribbon but didn’t really have anything to do with Christmas and this gave the bag a completed look. I found this exact product in a catalog a week later; 12 bags for $12… a real bargain, huh?
