Making Do Without Missing a Thing--Eating like a King on a Shoestring budget (2)

   I am gratified to see that each time I am on here not only are my subscribing numbers going up, but seeing some of the responses on Facebook show me that people are actually taking things away that they have learned from my posts. One of my greatest desires is to help people accomplish what my family has done, and to see them living well within their budget, easing the strain of trying to make ends meet for everyone.
   I was laughing this morning remember how frugal I thought I used to be when I would be able to get Hamburger Helper meals and frozen dinners for cheap. Now, not only does my family eat VERY well, we eat healthier, and I am disgusted at the thought of the many times we ate those things for dinner. I really truly believe the amount of those items we consumed, with all their preservatives and chemicals,  had a direct effect on my health as a young woman, and on my oldest child, who was always struggling with illnesses. But I digress...:)

 I am writing this post for those of you who did not just read my last post on writing a weekly list and following through on it, but actually did it. At risk of offending some of you, you can do one of two things with my information. You can read it, stew on it, and then act on it, and see your savings add up over time, or you can read it, think its interesting, and be in exactly the same boat or worse in the coming months as prices continue to rise, and what used to cover a basic grocery budget won't. I have managed, over time, to make the mistakes for you and learn what makes this system work, so if you just follow what I am sharing, you WILL see a difference in the months ahead for your family.
   I want to go back to the last post where I was talking about brainstorming meals for your family. Did you know the average family eats the same 7-12 meals in rotation over and over? Every family has it's taste preferences, and while there might be a change up as Mom walks through the grocery store and picks up what is on sale once a week, the base line-up of meals stays the same. I am, honestly, one of the only people I know who gets bored with having the same meals week in and week out. That is why I wrote up a 6 week rotation schedule of meals for my family, with alternative meals sitting ready on the shelf or in the freezer. It is also the reason I have a different line-up for the summer months than I do for the cold weather months. It didnt always used to be this way. However, as I found out what the kinks were in my system and how to overcome that boredom, while still cooking out of my pantry most of the time, I was able to be creative and experiment.
 
The first step to getting to that point is pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil. Write four categories down on your paper: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snacks. Even if you do not normally provide more than one or two of those meals to your family except on weekends, still run through this exercise with me. I want you to write down every meal you can think of, simple to expensive (to make at home, mind you) that your family enjoys under those categories. It is also ok to write the same meal for lunch and for dinner if your family likes it, or breakfast foods for dinner.
   After doing this, I want you to consider the basis of your meals. Does your family tend to like pasta? Pizza? Casseroles? an assortment of many different things around a main dish? As you look at that list you are going to begin to see patterns that you might not have seen before. Look for the items that are basic ingredients you turn to time and again to make your meals...items that you might not have noticed previously because you are busy working, parenting, being a taxi, teaching, whatever.
   Those items that crop up again and again, those are the ones that you are going to start buying a few extra at a time to build your pantry up. For example, my family loves many different meals that contain tomatoes. We like spaghetti, personal pizzas, enchiladas, etc. I know I cant go wrong by purchasing tomatoes, canned or pureed for my pantry. We WILL eat them. Same with green beans, or canned fruit. And I make my master mixes all the time, so I know the items that I have included in those, we will always use. Those are the basis of my pantry. We love spinach in meals (all of us--even the two toddlers think spinach was one of the best parts of creation). But we are not so fond of canned spinach from the store. So I make sure to have room in my freezer to stock up on spinach when it goes on sale (or in my pantry for dried spinach--we will be talking about food preservation in a week or so).
   Then, once you have isolated as many of those basic ingredients as you can, those are the things you write on a list, put in your pocket, purse or wallet, and take it with you when you are out during your daily moment-to-moment life. You are not going to purchase those things on that list for regular price unless you are just getting started (because we all have to start somewhere, right?). You will purchase only what you need for that week (or if you shop every two weeks, for every two weeks), until that item goes on sale. THEN you are going to buy however much extra of that item you can afford within your regular grocery budget. Again, for example: let's go back to how we use a lot of tomatoes. I garden, and I can things, and I also dehydrate, all things which have substantially added to our savings and our pantry over the last couple of years. But we still love Rotel tomatoes in quite a few things, as well as diced green chilies. So I will watch the sales, buying what is on my list each week, stocking up on things we need and use, and then, when I see those lovely white and red/green cans pop up on an end-cap in the grocery store with a reasonable sale price--BAM! I am all over it like "stink on poo" (to borrow my 12 year old daughter's favorite phrase). I would consider a reasonable deal for those 10 for $10 or anything less than that. Green chilies I would consider a good deal for less than 75 cents a can.

  What are the benefits of that? Well, building a pantry and ensuring your family is eating well and healthy is just like anything else: it is an investment of your time and your money. I am writing this with the goal of helping you to get to the point that you are able to eat well and feed 5-7 people for under $200 a month. It is absolutely possible, and even LESS is actually possible. Its about being creative, smart, and intentional with every penny that leaves your pocket. It is about getting out of the average mindset of thinking from week to week and beginning to think two to four or even six weeks ahead. I know it seems like a stretch, but you will get there. Another benefit to this way of thinking and shopping is that while everyone else is eating their enchiladas at home after spending 1.29 or 1.39 on a can of Rotel tomatoes, you are serving up the same recipe and already saving 30-40 cents off of that weekly shopping trip just because you were intentional, and smart, and planned ahead for that meal.
   Do you carry health insurance, life insurance, or home insurance? I would like you to read this brilliant quote that a young lady on one of my favorite Face Book pages wrote yesterday. She was trying to explain to someone why she was learning the skill of canning and building up a pantry for her home.

"I wanted to share something with ya'll because I knew you would appreciate it. This week my mom and I were in Vegas together and over dinner one night I was talking about canning this weekend and I couldn't wait. She said to me "why would you can instead of eating items fresh?" I said to her, "Well, I do it in case of an emergency or what happens if I don't have money, I am waiting on a paycheck and I can't go grocery shopping? I can just open a can of chili or soup and we have dinner." She was like "OK". Then I said, "People take out insurance policies for their life, or their home or car just in case something happens. Why wouldn't you can? It is like an insurance policy against something happening." (Anoukin Mooshabad).  "

   Sounds about right, doesn't it? We spend so much money as Americans trying to protect ourselves against what could happen, but when it comes to the practical things, we scoff at those who do the same thing. Why not take 15 minutes of the time you would spend in the grocery store to take a serious look at what your family eats? Or make up a list of the top 10 foods you use the most that are shelf stable? Why not take a little time and write up a meal plan for a single week? Or make up a Master Mix that will save you a good $4 once it is made over it's pre-made equivalent in the grocery store? There is not much more to this part of the system other than discipline and learning a new way of thinking and planning ahead. Oh...and not allowing yourself to make excuses such as that you don't have time, you work, the kids are crazy, you are tired, you don't have room for a pantry....I have heard it all. Frankly, if you are reading this, you want to save some money. And the opportunities to spend it are all around you. Saving money, getting out of debt, buying a house or keeping a house, they all take discipline. This is no different. 

   I did quickly want to address the issue of space for a pantry. Many people I know use a single cupboard for their pantry. And that is ok, if that is where you want to start, or even if that is where you want to end up. I know people who use a small closet, or space under their bed with roll-out storage containers.  That is ok too. I should, however, share with you that my pantry is a room downstairs. A room that my husband built shelves for and that we are adding more shelves to this coming year. You see, I garden extensively every year, up to 70% of what my family consumes in vegetables. And I preserve everything we don't eat during the months it is fresh and growing, by canning or dehydrating. It didn't always used to be that way.

Every time I walk in the grocery store nowadays, I am incredibly thankful that we are now enjoying the fruits of our labor and seeing the results daily.

   But each year, I push myself to just do a little more, or learn another step to being in charge of what my family eats, and what it really contains.  I am not a big environmental goonie who is always on their soap box about global warming or something, and no, my kids do not eat green smoothies (although I do give them green milk on St Patty's day each year), or munch on flax seed crackers as their only allotted snacks during the day. But I do believe that the more I provide what we eat, the less I have to read ingredient lists and worry about adverse reactions in my kids. And seriously, there is nothing as good as opening a jar of homemade salsa in MN on a day like today, with a whiteout outside and the winds howling at the eaves. I love walking into my pantry and seeing all those jars and cans sitting there waiting to be used because I got them on great deals or sales. But one of my MOST favorite things about doing what I do are the times of walking into the grocery store with $100 in my purse, and leaving with $70 still there, because other than a few things we have everything we need for the meals at home. Better yet...that money can go towards another need this time around. It can happen to you too, you just need to start somewhere!

   I want to say one more thing before I close for this time. I want you to close your eyes and imagine how much easier it would be if you were able to stay home and spend time making meals rather than trying to rush through the grocery store, stand in line behind a bunch of other people who are all impatiently waiting, spend more than you really had budgeted, and feel guilty all the way home because you can only pay a part of that bill you really wanted to pay off.  

                                                     We have all been there. 

   I promise you, if you follow those simple steps I have shared in this post and the last, and you learn to take a little time to start making things from ingredients you already have stored on your shelf, you will get to that point of your imagination becoming your reality. And, to stretch you a little more, what if instead of buying 5 lbs of flour at a time to make your master mixes, you purchased 25lbs? That is one less thing you would have to buy for a couple months, right? Sure, it is a little more than what you would pay for the 5 lb bag, but think of the time and the money you are really saving in the end. If you are wondering where you would store it--well, a 25 lb bag of flour fits almost perfectly in a 5 gallon bucket. Those are cheap or free for the asking at most bakeries, delis, or food establishments. Flour has gone up substantially in the last year, and will continue to rise as it is a staple. So while you may pay $12 or a little more for the 25 lb bag of all purpose flour, and it sits in that bucket for a couple months, think of all the boxes of Bisquick, muffin mixes, cookie mixes and whatnot that you are NOT purchasing because it is the basis for all those things! 

**Begin thinking outside the box, **decide what your family eats the most,** break it down to a shopping list, **flag the shelf-stable items that you use most frequently and write them down. **Purchase your stock-ups on sale only and starting seeing how having those things on hand will save you time and money in the end.

  Tomorrow.....we will be talking about switching your mindset to understanding purchasing in bulk and laying out some real meal plans, and discussing how eating less meat and substituting other things can add both to your health and to your pocketbook.

Many blessings to you all,

Heather