Avoiding the grocery store

Last week I posted about the rising food costs and how we are changing some things to avoid a rising food budget crisis. While not all of us can have huge gardens, a milk cow or goat, chickens, pigs and such, there is always more that we can do to cut costs. Sometimes it takes more time on our parts, more time spent in the kitchen baking, canning produce you buy from a local produce stand or any number of other things.

For me, spending time in the kitchen is something that I love to do. Making bread is not a chore for me, baking cookies, canning peaches or making tortillas. Sure, it's work, but I'm not one that is turned off by a bit of effort to save some money to trim our budget. There are some things that I make that don't even save me much money, but it's worth it just to avoid buying what someone else has made...and the added items that ALWAYS end up in my grocery cart while picking up those items. Doesn't that just drive you nuts? You go to the store for milk and bread and end up spending twice as much on things you "forgot" you needed. In reality, MOST of those "needed" items are not really needed at all. You could easily do without them.

One thing that I thought about in reading comments left on my last blog entry about this subject was that not everyone CAN grow everything. I know I can't. Tomatoes are a favorite here, but something that I have struggled to get to grow well here. This year, I'm going to try a few "tips" I have read about, but I'm not going to count on growing enough to provide us with our needed total for the year. This is something that I watch for at local farms and produce stands. Even canning tomatoes that I've purchased from someone else is better than relying on an unsteady market to always have them on hand. Honestly, if I didn't can them myself, I'd be stocking up on canned organic tomatoes somewhere else...like Costco or where ever I could find the best price. Buying in bulk is what keeps me from having to shop all that often.

Network with local farmers, or others that are able to grow what you can't. Find a neighbor that has chickens, trade with them or buy eggs from them. Raise a few broilers for your freezer, or find someone that does...worst case, buy in bulk when chicken goes on sale. The key is to look at what you CAN do and work with that. For my family, I don't want the GMO food, the poorly raised meat full of hormones and the fillers that they feed the animals. So, we choose to raise most of our own...often at no better price than I could get on sale, but much better product for our time and money. I like knowing where my food comes from and NOT supporting a food industry that likes to play God...or feels that they know best what is "good" food.

I could easily go on and on about what you "could" do, or what we do here. Everyone has to work with what they have, make choices based on preference, limitation and availability in your area. The key is that you CAN do something, even if it's just a few things here and there. Not everyone can be self sufficient in their food needs, but for my family, that is a goal. My encouragement is to do what you can do. Trust in the Lord for what you can't...He's never let us down...we have always been provided for. We just feel that there is always more that we can do to be better stewards of what the Lord has blessed us with!

If you are feeling lost as to where to start, you know you need to cut back on spending, you can't grow a huge garden, can't raise a cow or a pig...start by looking at what you buy now. Can you make your own bread? What about skipping the frozen dinners? Make more of your meals from raw ingredients, not prepackaged mixes and such. I have found that many of the products I thought I needed....BBQ sauce, syrup, pancake mixes, bread, buns, tortillas, even chocolate syrup....can be made at home from things I already had in my pantry! Start by looking at what pre-made foods you buy now and try to find alternatives. It doesn't take a total change in every area of your menu, but most of what you "think" you can't make is easily made from scratch with ingredients you already have on hand. Sure, it may take a bit more time, but planning can help solve much of that problem. I'll be trying to share many of my family's favorite recipes, things that I make all the time that help me avoid the grocery store. If you are looking for something specific...leave me a comment and I'll see what I can find. :)

We are all in this together...and many hands (or minds) can often make light work in a tough situation!

Grocery Shopping and Filling a Pantry

I spent some time this week watching a series of videos on the forecast for the coming year as far as grocery prices go. The videos were found on the Backyard Food Production website. The information in these videos made me even more determined than ever to closely evaluate where my food budget is going, how I stock my pantry and what items I choose to buy.

Here, we have many opportunities to avoid the grocery store, thank the Lord! I, for one, do not enjoy shopping at all. avoiding the grocery store is often difficult with a growing family and especially with growing teenage kids. Our menu is already fairly simple, and our pantry is generally pretty full. My goal, of course, is to get to the point where grocery shopping is a once every few months ordeal, but for now I am limited to one or two big trips a month. That is HUGE, considering I used to shop weekly for our needed items.

This week, after watching these videos, I have spent even more time evaluating what we buy and why. I already make most of our food from scratch, but there is always more I can do. A few areas still could use some improvement...like pasta, crackers and lunch items for my husband. I buy very little ready made items, but still feel like I should be able to do more....always a work in progress.

Some of the things we have moved away from buying are:

• bread
• tortillas
• yogurt
• buttermilk
• kefir
• rolls
• hamburger/hot dog buns
• eggs
• beef
• chicken
• potatoes (this last season we were able to grow enough to last through most of February, this year we'll try to make it through spring)
• pickles
• pickled beets
• green beans
• blueberries
• raspberries
• oregano
• sage
• mint
• milk (part of the year anyway)
• jams
• syrup

So many things I want to add to our list of homegrown/made items. I'd much rather stock the ingredients to make much of what we use, eat and need than purchase these items already made. I've been "playing" with cheese making, having been somewhat successful with both farmhouse cheddar and mozzarella. Each time I make cheese, it gets better. In the months to come, I hope to perfect cream cheese, sour cream and feta. Being able to take these items off of my grocery list would be wonderful!

Another area that I've been looking at are cleaners and shampoo. I've made and used my own shampoo several times over the past year and liked it! As my family runs out of shampoo, I'm slowly transitioning us over to all homemade. I found some great recipes on a friend's blog. You can visit Freedom Acres Farm for recipes. They are so easy to make and have nothing "bad" in them like so many that you can buy in the stores do. As far as cleaners go, I am using more vinegar, baking soda and buying my dish soap in bulk from Azure.

Another area that I've changed is my laundry soap. I have been using Charlie's Laundry Soap since December. Even with our extremely hard water, this soap works wonders! I love it, can't say enough good about it. One 80 load tub has lasted me since the 13th of December. How's that for inexpensive. Best part is there is nothing in this soap that is harmful...it's just that, SOAP! I can't say enough about this product. I saved up and bought 6 tubs of it all at once to save on shipping. Those 6 tubs will last me more than a year...gotta LOVE that!

While this is not even close to EVERYTHING that I am doing, I wanted to share a bit with you. This has been a big part of my thinking this past week. I'm always looking at what I am doing and trying to do more, or at least be more efficient with what I am able to do.

Given the recent forecast for our food costs this year, I am working even harder to do a better job at what I do. My garden planning this year is different, my canning and preserving goals are changing a bit and my focus is on simplicity and efficiency in it all. This was a big part of my thinking even before I saw the videos this week. I've seen the prices in our grocery stores here rise at alarming rates over the past few weeks and months. It's frustrating, at best, when you are trying to feed a growing family with limited resources AND trying to be as health conscious as possible at the same time!

How have your shopping, cooking and budgeting patterns been changing? Is the economy affecting this part of your life or are you to the point where you are providing enough of your own that you don't feel it as much? I can't believe that for a minute to be very true of most people, you are either feeling it at the gas pumps, the feed store or even just in the little you do buy. We are all feeling the pinch. What have you changed?