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How I Grocery Shop

February 19, 2011 by Laura 131 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Remember how I told you about how I grocery shop when I shared our 2011 Grocery Budget? I don’t usually buy much at grocery stores; I buy in bulk from co-ops; I purchase from local farmers. Some months I hardly buy anything, some months I buy a lot. This month, February, would be an example of me buying a LOT…and you get to witness it here today! Everything just sort of hit all at once this month, but that’s okay. There is money in our grocery budget. I just wait to spend it until I need it!

Here are a few pictures and some details about my grocery purchases this month. Some of this will last us one month. Some of this will last six months. Some of this will last for a year. Some of this will be gone before you read this post. ;)

Here is our Azure Standard food co-op order for this month:

This month’s order was a pricey one because I ordered a case of butter. See that box up there with two pounds of butter on top? There are 28 more pounds in that box. It’s a hefty investment all at once, but we go through a lot of butter and it’s nice just to have it in the freezer for when we need it. I can avoid going to the store as often this way, plus, this butter is much higher quality!

What else did I buy from Azure Standard? Well…10 pounds of oranges, three packages of frozen broccoli, 2 big bags of frozen peas, five pounds of peanuts (to make peanut butter!), a case of raw white cheddar cheese, a bottle of red wine vinegar, 10 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes, 20 pounds of Fuji apples, a little bag of avocados, 25 pounds of whole corn (to grind into cornmeal), 6 half-gallon jars for milk and other food storage…and three jars of Hain Safflower Mayo. Yep, that would tell you that I haven’t attempted the Homemade Mayonnaise part of the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge yet. Hey, a girl can’t do everything at once. :)

My co-op order total (with delivery fee included) was $254.00…quite a bit more than I normally spend on an Azure Standard order.  It was the butter.  The cost of butter is rising I’ve noticed. My case of 30 pounds was $108. Ouch.  And yet, I’m paying for high quality butter, and this will last us a while. By “a while”, I mean that I really have no idea how long it will last us. Three months maybe? Maybe not that long. Depends on how much baking I’ll need to do.

Beyond our large Azure Standard order, we also got our year’s supply of wheat last week. Remember how last year I ordered 500 pounds of wheat? It has lasted 12 months and I still have some left over, so this time I held back and only ordered 300 pounds. :)  Total cost for my year’s supply of wheat which will make all of our bread, tortillas, muffins, quick breads, cookies, brownies, cakes, pie crusts, pancakes, waffles, and everything else that needs flour: $144.00. That’s only $12/month for ALL of our high quality, organic, whole grain flour!! Have I proven to you yet that investing in a grain mill WILL save you money? :)

In addition to all of this, I was almost out of chickens and hamburger meat, so I ordered 60 pounds of ground beef and 6 whole chickens from the local farmers we love and trust. That was a hefty (yet reasonable) price tag too:  $362.00. This meat will last us for a few months, depending on the amount of company we feed and how many times I’m in the mood for sloppy joes. :)

 

If you did the math on that, you would have found that I have spent $760 on bulk groceries (so far) this month. This isn’t including what we’ve spent on milk and eggs, or what we will spend on bananas and a few other little things that we do get at the grocery store.

Sound like a lot?! :)  Maybe. But this is how grocery shopping and spending works for us. We buy food when we need it, we don’t buy food when we don’t. We are blessed to have three freezers and plenty of pantry storage for bulk purchases. I am amazed at how much money we save by buying our food this way.

And can I tell you my little secret? I love having a wide variety of all of our staples on hand at all times. Rarely am I out of any basic ingredient, which means that at just about any time, I can cook up any recipe I have a hankering to cook up. This makes meal planning so much easier for me and helps me run my kitchen so much more efficiently.

So, how do YOU buy groceries? Share what works well for you!

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Do You NEED to Cut the Grocery Budget?

January 13, 2011 by Laura 72 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

lettuce

Thank you all for adding suggestions and sharing your various circumstances in my last Real Food Grocery Budget post, Very Limited Income for Real Food Purchases. I think it’s great that we’re all helping each other think of new ideas for saving money on good food.

What I’d like to address now is that while I think it’s great to learn ways to cut down on food costs when you’re going through tough financial situations, I also feel like it is very important to make sure our families are getting the nutrition they need. Again, we are investing in our bodies when we spend money to eat whole, real food. Some foods we can cut back on, but there are some things we really, really need to be eating so that we can stay healthy.

That’s why I had such a hard time sharing what I’d cut back on or cut out of our diets. I have a hard time recommending that many people NEED to cut down their grocery budget. If you’re spending money on processed foods or splurging all the time on specialty items and buying food that isn’t in season or buying stuff to eat that will simply fill a hole but not offer any nourishment…then we need to talk about ways for you to cut your grocery budget.

But if you have $X amount in your grocery budget and you’re carefully spending that amount on real, whole foods that are nourishing your family…I think you should keep doing what you’re doing. Sure, let’s keep trying to find fair prices and good deals and shop wisely so as to be good stewards of what God has given us to take care of our families. But if you have the money for plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables or any of the high quality healthy foods you feel convicted about eating…buy them for your family. Don’t cut out necessary nutrition just so that you can say that you’ve lowered your grocery bill.

In addition – and I’m guessing that I probably don’t really need to be saying this to any of you but I’m going to say it anyway – before you talk about needing to cut your Real Foods Grocery Budget, please make sure you’ve cut every other un-necessary item out of your budget first. My family has always done without cable TV and expensive cell phone plans and frequent eating out and going to movies and expensive clothing and all kinds of other things I can’t think of because we don’t spend money (or rarely spend money) on them so I probably don’t know what I’m missing.  I’m NOT saying that you shouldn’t ever have or do these things. If you have cable TV, I’m fine with that and will probably even enjoy watching the Food Network with you when I come for a visit. I’m just saying that you really shouldn’t complain about not being able to “afford” real, whole food…and then turn around and fill your grocery cart with frozen pizza, soda, twinkies and chips, 24 new pairs of high heeled shoes and a big screen TV for your bathroom. Kapeesh?

My point ultimately is that we all need to be as careful as possible with how we spend our money…but I think that spending money on good, whole food for our families is wise and even necessary. It’s an investment in our health for today and for years down the road. Good food costs money…but I think we need to caution ourselves against feeling like, “ugh, healthy food is SOOOOO expensive.” Is it…really? I don’t look at it that way anymore. I look at healthy food as…healthy. And the price that comes with it?

Well…I’d rather not pay the price of eating cheap, empty food. To me…that is what is costly.
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Off and on all week I’ve said that I would share about some creative ways our family saves, earns and comes up with great sources for food. I’ve sprinkled some of that information throughout these posts, but really and truly I have a whole post devoted to sharing ways to stretch and grow your grocery budget. Other topics keep popping up this week as I’ve written this series, but I promise (probably, mostly for sure, I think) that I’ll post tomorrow about stretching the budget. And sometime soon…I’ll even post about stretching a chicken.
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What are your thoughts about the “cost” of nutrition-void food?

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Five Simple Ways to Live a Natural Lifestyle

January 4, 2011 by Laura 16 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

watersm

What does it look like to live a “Natural Lifestyle”?

There are all kinds of different definitions for the word “natural”. Many foods are labeled “natural” in an attempt to appeal to the conscientious consumer. Corn growers pay for advertisements that say that High Fructose Corn Syrup is “natural”. Well, sure it is…in a loose sense of the word I suppose, but that doesn’t make it good for us. Shucks…arsenic is natural.

My own definition of living a “Natural Lifestyle” I suppose would be “getting back to the basics”. Whether we’re talking about food, family choices, in general taking care of ourselves…doesn’t it just sound refreshing to “get back to the basics”?

Here are five simple ways I’d like to suggest to live a more Natural Lifestyle:

1. Eat Real Food

Yes, you’re so surprised I listed this one aren’t you? Real food is best. Food in it’s natural form. Food that isn’t processed. Food that tastes so stinkin’ good you don’t know what to do with yourself!!! It’s amazing what food without chemicals tastes like!

Need a little help getting started? Here are some links to past series I’ve written about how I feed my family and about why I feel real food is best:

  • How I Feed My Family
  • Getting Real With Food
  • Our Healthy Eating Journey
  • Simple Steps Toward Healthy Eating (I’m still working on this series…stay tuned!)

2. Drink Water

I already wrote about how you should drink more water and told you about some healthy alternatives to soda and other not-so-good-for-you beverages. But really…one of the simplest (and cheapest!) ways for you to adopt a more natural lifestyle is to stop filling your body with icky beverages and just drink water.

3.  Exercise

Yeah, and this advice is coming from me…the girl who doesn’t really like to exercise. Guess what though?! My husband and I have made it a point to exercise together three days a week for the past few weeks and I’m actually starting to like it! I’ve heard people say that once you start exercising regularly, you begin to crave it. I never believed them. Until now.

It’s really not as hard as you think, but exercising is just like anything else you need to be doing…YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO IT. I know, profound. The main idea is this:  Do what you can to not be sedentary.

A side benefit of exercising:  You’ll crave more water and more real foods. Yeah, somehow having a candy bar and soda after exercising feels a little silly. Water and fruit sounds much better.

4. Stay Home More

This may seem like a weird item for our Natural Lifestyle list…but it doesn’t get much simpler or more natural than this. Stay home more. You’ll save money, your vehicles will last longer…and joy of joys…you may not be so worn out all the time! I find that when I’m running from here to there and back again…I am completely exhausted AND behind on all the work I need to do at home. We don’t need THAT much outside “stuff”. When you’re home more…you’ll find you’ll be more rested and more relaxed…naturally.

5. Waste Less

The more natural your lifestyle, the less waste you’ll have. If you make your food from scratch, you’ll have a lot less packaging trash. If you serve smaller portions and make it a point to eat leftovers, you’ll throw away less food. If you don’t buy stuff you don’t need, you’ll waste a LOT less money. If you use cloth napkins and let your kids draw on used scratch paper, you’ll save a lot of trees. None of these things are hard. You just have to be a bit more intentional.

And then of course there are all kinds of other things I’d recommend as you work your way to a more Natural Lifestyle, like planting a garden, buying locally grown produce and other foods, getting good sleep and eating lots of chocolate.

Just kidding. Chocolate may be natural, but eating lots of it would be “The Simplest way to Gain Five Pounds”. That‘s another post for another day.

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Be sure to take the time to read these “Five Simple Ways” posts too! A big thanks to Toni at Happy Housewife for organizing this series!

Carrie from Springs Bargains: Simple Ways to Make Money From Your Blog
Jen from Balancing Beauty and Bedlam: 5 Simple Ways to Dress Fabulously for Less
Myra from The Casabella Project: 5 Simple Ways to Decorate on a Dime
Melissa from A Familiar Path: 5 Simple Ways to Take Better Photos
Jenny from Southern Savers: 5 Simple Ways to Start Using Coupons
Lynn from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures: 5 Simple Ways to Save Time in the Kitchen
Connie from Smockity Frocks: 5 Simple Ways to Have a Successful Homeschool Day
Toni from The Happy Housewife: 5 Simple Ways to Save Money in 2011
Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie 5 Simple Ways to Organize Your Home
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!
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