For the love (and cost) of food...

Guys, I'm doing it. I'm currently making a meal out of my head only using just what we have on hand. I just substituted oil and red wine vinegar with salad dressing. This is a new leaf! I'm shopping my own pantry! (My 9th grade self is so embarrassed that I'm excited about this). What prompted this? I took out the cash amount of what I'd budgeted for the month for groceries. And that money ran out yesterday. As in, there are still 11 days left in the month (a.k.a. 1/3) and the money. is. gone. I even took out the "max" I thought we'd need.

You know how life sometimes just costs more than you'd like and you have to have a "come to Jesus" moment with yourself? This is that moment. Now, this has been a goal of mine for some time that I've done nothing about. Nothing. I haven't learned to coupon like amazing friends of mine, I haven't subscribed to online meal planning that helps to shop the sales, no. I have been stubborn and proud thinking, "I can't do that, I don't have time for that!", or "I do so well at other things, it's okay to not do well in this area." Ha! I would argue that food savings are probably the biggest savings you can find and the most important. If I have enough time to spend the money, then I certainly have enough time to sit down and try to save some. And, let's face it.. it's my job right now to run our household and figure out just how to do this. So, I'm working on it and I'm starting with food. I have this intense desire to feed my family good food. Not intense enough to start a garden of my own or drive an hour away to buy raw milk, but intense enough that I spend a bit too much on good ingredients. Our son is on a high calorie diet and if I can't figure out how to feed him good food on a budget when he's a toddler, then how will I ever feed him when he's a teenager!? News flash: He turns three in two weeks, so "according to my research", he'll be a teenager in just a few years... (does anybody else remember the Magic School Bus?)

Here are a few of the simple things I've started...

1. Organize the food! I know there are some crazy amazing people out there who organize to the point of labeling and container-ing and matching everything in their pantry (like this), but that's not what I'm getting at here. (Although, I sure do love that IHeartOrganizing blog and I've been quite inspired to get my life in order since keeping up with it. See what I did there?). I am just talking about knowing what you have, which is easiest to do when you have everything organized. I used baskets, shelves, and a set of shelves on the inside of the pantry).

This is an improvement, if you can believe it! But I can easily find what I need and find what we have!

I organized our freezer, fridge, and pantry and found things I had no idea we had. I also threw out a lot of old stuff, which leads me to my next point...

2. Calm down. I am infamous around these parts, okay maybe only to my incredibly patient husband, for buying LOTS of the same type of things and then throwing them out because they're rotten or stale. The produce aisle gets me every time. "Purple potatoes!? Let's try them! But wait, I just saw a great recipe for cooked carrots! And I love peaches, and nectarines, and oranges, and I should probably buy some limes to have on hand, but who has limes without lemons? And, I should make kale smoothies to be healthier, but that means I need some apples too..." See how that happens? It's like Twister in there. So, I am going to shop for what's in season and buy one type of produce each week. This week it was plums (last week I got free peaches from a friend's tree!) and next week I'll move onto something else that's a) on sale and b) in season. And, if I decide to pick up my smoothie habit again, I'm going to buy more frozen fruit and substitute out coffee for smoothies, to do a little expense replacement.

3. Get smart about meal planning.  When I meal plan, I scour the internet for new recipes I want to try. I make a list of the ingredients I will need and go to one maybe two stores and buy everything I'll need and spend a crapload of money. Next week, repeat! Instead of shopping my own pantry for ingredients I already have, or *gasp* repeating a meal in a month's time, I try to outdo ... myself??... and make weird and new recipes constantly. So, I'm making a two week meal plan with one day left open for trying new recipes. That means twice a month I get to try something new and buy some weird ingredient. I need a little more routine in the food department, and I think this is a good way to start.

p.s. A dear friend of mine moved here about a year and a half ago, and she and I cook for each other every other Tuesday. Today is my day to cook for her family, then next week she'll cook for mine. It works out really well because our families eat at about the same time and are the same size and we live within walking distance from each other. I highly suggest this, you have no idea how nice it is to not have to worry about cooking for a day every other week. And, when it's our turn to cook, we just make double of what we're having. We've even dropped off dinner a day early and taken care of dinner for husbands when we're out of town, and all sorts of wonderful. It would be a great thing to start with a neighbor, they can even come and get their meal!

I have also just found a blog of a woman who I'm pretty sure would be one of my best friends if she lived near me. Well, maybe I'd just want her to be? Anyway, I've spent the last few days really scouring her blog and she had these great tips about saving money on groceries.

So, wish me luck. And, tell me, what's your secret to spending less on food? Buying in bulk, couponing, shopping sales, or are you like me and in major need of reform?

Great Strides 2013

Our city's Great Strides walk took place on May 18th this year and we had a great time. This was our 3rd year participating in the walk. We had over 130 walkers on our team, Jason's Journey, and our team raised $8,075!! I am still in shock at that total. Our dear friends, Paul and Andrea, set up an INCREDIBLE sweets booth at the walk. So incredible, in fact, that many people have contacted me to ask if they can pay them to help at their parties (Andrea, I think you've found your niche!). We met this sweet couple at birth class, of all places! God certainly knew what He was doing when He put us together. Our husbands needed the comic relief they found in each other and Andrea and I needed each other's nervous laughs to make it through the horrendous 1970's birthing videos we had to watch week after week. Some of my favorite memories from pregnancy are from that class, and look, we got amazing life-long friends out of the deal! Matt and I joke that they are the only friends we had to pay for. Anyway, they drove all the way from California to be a part of GS again this year and we are so thankful to have them as friends family! p.s. I stole the pics from Andrea's blog. :)

 

 The day was wonderful, although heavy clouds loomed overhead. It poured all during set-up, cleared for the walk, then started raining again. You can't imagine how awesome it felt to know that people still came out in the rain to participate. We are so incredibly humbled by the outpouring of support our sweet boy has received throughout his journey.

    

It was fun to design our shirts this year, and of course we continued with our Psalm 139 theme. :) This verse has become so meaningful to me, because it speaks to the fact that God didn't make a mistake. God's plans are higher and greater than my own, and He wasn't out of control when Jason was born. God's purposes remain even through hard things like CF. We are so very thankful for the joyful and loving little boy he is becoming and pray that God would continue the good work He has already begun in Jason. He is a good God in the business of good things. 

Thanks again to everyone who participated in JJ this year! 

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

15 

My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.

Back

Let's skip the part about how long it's been since I've blogged. I agree that it's getting old.
I know I have a lot to blog about... a Great Strides walk, a trip to Guatemala, horse therapy, the greatest (and longest) staycation there ever was, a new room for J, a few great reads, and an upcoming birthday for a THREE year old. How exactly did that happen? I mean the 3 year old, not the 4 absent months from blogging. I think about blogging things at multiple times in my day, but never get around to fingers touching keys. I'd like to at least get things on paper screen just for the sake of memory keeping. So, let's do this.

I'll spare you the marathon post and instead say, to my 3 loyal readers, I am hesitant to say I'm back to blog land, but I will start on the long list of posts tomorrow... until then, a little ditty I'm enjoying lately. Enjoy the cheesy hipster vibes, complete with bow ties, but most of all listen to the words... delightful.