A pint of example is worth a gallon of advice.
One of my sisters once asked me for advice on how I save money on groceries. We compared notes, and she knocked down every one of my ideas. She wasn’t being mean or belligerent. It was more about staying inside the box. There was comfort in what she knew her family (and dog) would eat. She prized convenience more than affordability.
For example she paid an exorbitant amount of money on ‘special’ dog food. The prices she quoted me were obscene. I countered with my own recipe for homemade dog food, but she felt it was too much work.
At the prices she paid, I’d make the time to make dog food. LOL! I’m serious. That was highway robbery.
The same goes for organic products. If you’re struggling to make ends meet, something has to give. No one is going to die if you switch to less expensive commercial foods. It doesn’t have to be forever. You can always add one organic product back on the menu when times are less lean.
I have the advantage that I grow some of my food, so I know that not only is it organic, but safe. (That’s not always the same thing.)
Since I started menu planning (menus post on Sundays) my food bill has dropped dramatically. I’m making better choices, and I’ve learned to stretch a meal.
A regular rib eye steak can serve two meals, dinner and breakfast. Chicken can last at least three meals or more. Greg gets tired of it the second time around so I’ll freeze a part of it to make a quick chicken salad with the leftovers.
Because my grocery bill has gone down, I don’t feel guilty splurging on shrimp and expensive fish.
Legumes, quinoa, and rice are excellent fillers for lean wallets, and beans and quinoa are a great source of protein too.
Have you ever tried quinoa or barley? They are surprisingly good and filling. Not what I expected at all. And these are ancient grains which means the government has not tampered with them as yet.
Do you need more cheap protein sources? Try eggs, peanut butter, tuna, salmon, and Greek yogurt.
I don’t like peanut butter, but I’ll eat tuna or salmon any day of the week. Avocados are another staple in our house. When Greg wants a peanut butter sandwich, I make myself an avocado sandwich. That’s marital bliss.
There are ways to making things work without spending a fortune. I always recommend that people do a test and save every grocery receipt for a month to see where their money goes. I do it for myself even today because it’s good to have a frame of reference.
Sometimes you don’t realize how far you’ve strayed from the path until you see the numbers in front of you. Other times we prefer to stick to what’s familiar instead of trying to find recipes that use less expensive ingredients.
The other side of the coin is not to beat yourself up if you buy a few convenience foods now and again. We buy those big egg rolls from Costco. Greg makes fantastic homemade egg rolls, but it’s something we have to plan ahead. The ready-made ones are quick and cost effective when you consider the time it takes to make them from scratch.
Do you know what you spend on groceries every month? What’s your favorite way to stretch a meal?
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I don’t believe you have to have regular, old children to be a dad. Greg’s a dog dad. Best dog dad ever as his kids will attest with a woof. If you know a dad like this, get him this shirt. It’s perfect!
If your guy is like my guy, he wants big boy TOYS. (Cue my groan here.) I can’t begin to list all the toys Greg has either bought for himself or been given but I’m sure it was more than some countries’ gross national income.
Time again for another update on the State of the Homestead. The weather continues to be pleasantly weird. Last year we had an exceptionally mild winter. This year we’ve had consistent rain. Not that I’m complaining. Most of the rains were brief showers, though we did have a couple of gully washers that flooded roads leading into town. Despite the rains, I’ve got the garden planted and some of it is ready to be harvested.
ns. I’m keeping one of the daughters too. I’ll keep breeding for a larger sized rabbit until I breed his smaller size trait out. I still hope to find a home for him. I won’t rehome him until his son is old enough to take his place.
The dogs: I wasn’t expecting to add animals to the homestead since it impacts our ability to travel, but we can still do day trips. Aside from the surveillance cameras outside, we also keep two cameras inside to watch the dogs while we’re out.
The future: I finally bought the trays and seed I needed to start a fodder system for the animals. I’ll probably only do a test run during the warmer months and do the big trial for the winter months when there are less fresh greens available to feed the animals. I found the perfect shelving system at a garage sale. The trays I bought new because I wanted to make sure there would be no cross contamination from previous plants. You’d be surprised how many diseases your plants can pick up while they’re being shipped or stored.
with bleach before you reuse them. 
I put off meal planning for a long, long time. Looking back, I could kick myself. Not only have I saved money by meal planning but our squabbles over what to eat disappeared almost overnight.
• ChannelLocks: That’s a brand name. I never knew that! I’ve called them ChannelLocks for so long I thought that’s what all these pliers were called. Greg says you need two, but I’ve survived on only one.
handheld is good, but consider getting a headlamp too. I’ve found them to be incredibly useful when my hands are busy.
• A multi-tool: Kind of like a Swiss Army knife but with pliers. Very handy! Greg likes the Leatherman brand. He says Gerber is also a good brand. They’ve come down in price in recent years, so grab one if you need an all-purpose kind of tool. If you can only keep one tool in the car, this one handles a lot of sins.
When we bought our mattress two years ago, I noticed the pillow they had in the showroom was especially comfy. I asked the salesman about it and he showed me several densities and lofts (the height of the pillow).
o use a Japanese buckwheat pillow, which was fine, but I will draw blood on anyone who tries to take my Dough pillow. LOL!
e and bought the Roomba 880. I’ll report back to let you know how it worked. I decided to go ahead and get it when I saw that they were $100 off the regular price. I think the sale’s only for three more days. These things never seem to go on sale so I thought I’d better jump on it.
cloth napkins at garage sales for years without much luck. Most of the time they’re way too expensive, but recently I hit on two yard sales back to back where brand new napkins were going for pennies. I don’t think I spent more than two dollars for over 20 nice cloth napkins–still new in their packages.
s greasy. You guru-cleaners out there won’t mind, but I’m too lazy to spot check every napkin.
uilt miniature furniture, dioramas, and dabbled in clay. Mostly I paint–or I used to. I was looking at my brushes the other day and thought it was time to paint my Tanky’s portrait.
an soup. I had soaked the beans the night before, but I never expected the soup to be finished in under 20 minutes. Greg liked the soup so much he asked me to make it again.
covers over a hundred acres. It’s so vast it spans several locations. You could walk from one to another if you were 20 years old and on a sugar high, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
on a unicycle. I also had a nice chat with a lady about my egg-sucking chickens. She was willing to do a trade with me, but I didn’t want the breed of chickens she had on hand. Had it not been so far to travel, I might’ve traded her for something else since she didn’t seem put off that my chickens ate their eggs.
