And we are Halloweenies, because we don't celebrate it. Actually, we aren't anti-halloween (yes, I know what all of those mean, but) we are un-halloween. I'm sure, given time we might be anti, but for right now, since we don't know our stance on it, we are un. Mainly because here you have tons of people knocking on your door, opening up their bags for freebies and you can so slyly slip a tract in their bag. It's like the easiest witnessing ever! We've never done it, because by the time we think about it, it's too late to order tracts. Ugh. So anyway, we turned our light off and made for the hills (well there are no hills here) But you know what I mean.
I actually had an old woman talk to my daughter in the store last week. Nadia is still just a baby (ok she's 15 mo's, but she's still a baby to me!) and this lady said to her "So have the witches and ghosts got you yet?" Granted Nadia doesn't even know what those things are, but still, I was appalled! I would never say that to a child. Good grief.
So I thought I would mention that I nearly halved our grocery bill!!! YAY!! It's all since I have gotten the cookbook called More With Less. It has tasty tasty tasty! recipes and oh so healthy too. But very very frugal.
Some things I have been doing to cut our expenses lately:
I bake my own bread from scratch (not even using the breadmaker anymore, I use my kitchenaid instead)
I've made my own sourdough starter to use in place of yeast (although I've found a place where I can buy 2#'s for $2.50, so that's not bad) This will take some getting used to though.
I am using beans for half of the recipes I make. ie-Monday night is some sort of bean recipe with a salad and a bread product, either biscuits or homemade bread, Tuesday would be fish (you can get 9lbs of frozen filleted tilapia, which is a nice light fish for less than $10 and that lasts for a long time!) and then wed would be beans again. Hubby has been very happy with this set up and it's helped us to save money and on calories.
From each meal I freeze a large enough portion to be another whole meal for all of us. And we eat the other leftovers for lunches. Nadia eats from our table now, so I don't have to make baby food anymore. I am planning on utilizing those frozen portions for our future menus.
I save bones and scrap meat for stock, likewise with chicken. It's so much more healthy than the store bought, not as much salt.
When it's time to grocery shop I scour the online ads for local stores (we don't get a newspaper, that saves $$!) make a list of potential items that I would use and then make a menu from those items that are on sale.
I shop at Salvation Army, am a member of freecycle.org and go to consignment shops.
This has really gotten me to think about what we really need and what is a want. If it is a want, we go without. And ya know, it's not that bad. We have a new roof, heat (sometimes, but that's another story) and food (yeah, even with this new system I've still only lost 3#'s.)
So pray for us, our furnace only works intermittenly (is that how you spell it?) right now it's desperately trying to kick on and it won't do it. That's why the baby is sleeping in our room, so that if the furnace decides to go on strike, we only have to heat one room. We are slowly getting used to that.
I am sewing a lot of christmas gifts this year. It's another vest for hubby, a pair of flannel pajama pants for Sara, and a dress for mom. Our families exchanged names this year to minimize expense. Thank you Lord!
I'm going to go get more clothes on, I'm cold!! One blessing about that, it's saving us money!
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