Saving Money On Food

 Growing salad greens is so easy!

It is so strange the way everyone wants to use coupons and rebates for food in the store. Couponing is big I guess. I used to do it many years ago. It took a lot of time cutting the coupons and saving labels for the rebates. I did pretty good on it back then. I have found the best way to save money though, is not by couponing and rebates. It is by purchasing in bulk, growing a garden and cooking from scratch. Not only is it easier once you get started, it is healthier.

 Maines' truck

I buy in bulk from a local restaurant supply store, Mainsesource. Since their food is restaurant quality, it has to be good. Restaurants would not stay in business very long if their food was of low quality. I can tell by the ground Angus beef I buy there for our hamburger. It does not have much grease and doesn't cook up real small. What a disappointment, to make burgers and take them out of the oven, and they are the size of a small cookie!

 My son holding rolls of Angus ground beef

I bring the meat home and can it. It is easy for me to do and I can store it forever that way. I use it in casseroles that way. You can make the ground beef into patties or what some call "hamburger rocks" to can. It is a matter of it fitting in the jars. However you want to do it. I find it a pretty easy job, even though I brown the beef in the oven before I can it. It can be raw canned. Follow the directions in your canning book.

Canned ground beef and chicken breast chunks. 

Chicken, beef roasts, turkey breast and sausage are all meats that I can on a regular basis. You just have to make sure when you put the lids on your jars that you really wipe that grease off. That is the number one reason why a jar will not seal properly. I find if I make sure there is no grease on the rim or the lid they will seal fine. If you have any leftover liquid from canning, can that for broth. It is great for gravy and soups. Don't forget to make a list of all the meals you can make from each type of food you can. That should give you the incentive to get started! Good luck!

 Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

The Top Five Ways to Be Self-Sufficient and Save Money

Today Kirsten Cavaliere is writing a guest post for Homesteading On The Internet. It is the first time I have had a guest post on my blog. She has some good ideas for living in these tough times. Seems like it keeps getting worse every time I read the news. ~ katlupe

As food, oil, gas, and other resources rise in cost, more and more Americans are taking an interest in learning to become self-sufficient and save much needed money. There are a lot of simple, clever, and creative ways to rely less on others to take care of yourself and your loved ones.

1. Grow Your Own Food

You don’t have to have a large plot of land, a big yard, or experience gardening to grow your own food to feed your family. There is wealth of free information on planting techniques for a small garden in your back yard, or even container garden inside.

Try asking lots of questions to workers in greenhouses or nurseries when you shop for supplies. There are also a variety of forums where thousands of homesteaders are ready to field your questions about maintaining a small garden. Keep trying, and you’ll have fresh, organic produce for you and your family to enjoy! When you harvest, eat all you can, then freeze or can the rest to eat during the winter months.

2. Sew Your Own Clothing

This is a great way to take up a fun, new hobby, save money, and be more self-sufficient all at the same time. Sewing even an article of clothing from scratch can be challenging, especially for beginners. But, even beginners can easily learn to mend or patch clothing to make it last longer, hem up you own clothes, attach new buttons, make curtains to cover windows, oven mitts, pillows, or other fashion accessories.

Sewing is not just a way to save money, but could also be a way to bring in some extra part time income. If you sell some of your sewing handiwork or services you could find some extra breathing room in your finances.

3. Become ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms. Fix It’

Fixing your home or your car can be a huge expense that can take a bundle out of your budget. Why depend on someone else to fix everything for you? Most people have tools just laying around the house that are only rarely used in a pinch. You don’t have to be an expert mechanic or handyman; you just have to be willing to learn the skills to fix whatever is needed.

There are many small tasks that anyone can do to maintain their vehicle and home. There are repair manuals for every type of car available, and there are books about rudimentary home repair at most libraries for free.

4. Learn to Cook From Scratch

Cooking from scratch is not just cheaper and more self-sufficient, but if you use the right materials it is also healthier and free of any harmful preservatives or chemicals. There is joy to be had in producing something delicious and healthy that you and your family can consume and feel good about.

5. Fight For Your Debt Freedom

As the saying goes, “the borrower is slave to the lender,” and until you become debt free you will not truly be self-sufficient. Those who strive to live frugally can use the money they save and channel it towards paying off their debt.

Try calling your creditors and asking for lower interest rates. If you’ve paid on time they are likely to lower them or offer a faster repayment plan so you can get debt free sooner. If you have multiple, high interest debts, then research a debt consolidation or credit counseling service and see if they can help you.

Written by Kirsten Cavaliere of  DebtConsolidation.com.

Situations That Make People Crabby

Source: Clip Art Pal

When a person doesn't feel good or has something wrong with them, they start being first, moody, then a little grumpy and irritable, then as time goes on, downright angry and hard to get along with. I know this first hand. When I was a kid my parents had moved to Florida. My father got sick down there and the doctor said it was prostrate gland trouble. He'd go to the doctors and nothing ever helped. I remember hearing him scream in pain as my bedroom was right across the hall from my parents'. In that time period, he had gone from being a very easy going, father to a very crabby one. He'd get mad so easily. Not at all the way he was prior to his health not being good. I was a kid at the time so I really didn't understand what was going on.

Then my parents moved us back to NY. One of the very first things my mother did was make an appointment with our prior family doctor. He put my father in the hospital for tests. Then he called in a urologist. You know what the problem was the whole time? He had kidney stones! So the doctor in FL could not figure that out? I would think that would have been an easy thing to diagnose. And with the return of his good health, came the father I knew so well before!

The other thing that makes a person be really crabby is not having enough money. I don't mean not having enough money to spend on silly things or luxury living. But just paying bills and buying food. When you don't have any money for much more than paying those bills, then that will cause a marriage to fall apart real fast. If you can weather most storms through out your marriage and then the financial side just gets worse and worse, then your marriage will suffer. Especially if one of you become hard to live with. It makes life horrible for the other person. It can break up a previously good relationship.

My mother knew how to save money and how to live on less than most people. She always worked and her pay check always went into the bank. My parents lived on one paycheck like she wasn't working. She always had a job. Sometimes I didn't like it that she worked, but we never went without. Even when things were tough. She sewed all her own clothes and mine too. How else could I have dressed like Cher so well? Every evening after supper, she'd sit at her sewing machine and sew. My parents never went out or hired babysitters for us. We didn't go out to restaurants. They just didn't live that way. I can see now, that living that way is what gets so many people in a pickle nowadays. Things I have been changing in my own household go back to my youth and growing up with parents who knew how to save money and not waste a penny.

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

Frugal Skills Needed For 2011!

Gardening should be #1 thing for everybody to do in 2011!

One of the things I have been concerned about is that I think food is going up. Every time you go to the store you see the prices rising. Maybe the Social Security Administration doesn't see it, but everything in the store has gone up since 2008. They say it hasn't. Wonder where those people shop? I'd like to go there!

Livestock feed has risen quite a bit and so has the fuel prices including diesel. You know what that means don't you? It means that we will be paying substantially more at the check-out counter. So the time to implement your frugal skills at buying food is right now! Better get a start on it. Here are some ideas I have, of course everyone who reads my blog know that I buy meat in bulk and can it. And that I have a garden and do the same with my harvest. Now is the time to talk about other ways to save.

Everyone keeps telling me about the Angel Food Ministries  and I studied it. I looked at the menus and I am sorry but they just don't offer enough food for the price. Most of it is breaded or processed but I see they are offering more of the meat than they used to. My husband is a big eater, not fat mind you, just a big eater and he does a lot of physical work. No way can a one l.5 lb. roast feed us. Maybe in an emergency. But not for a good meal with more than one helping and giving us some leftovers for the next day.

Same with coupons. Coupons usually are not for the foods I use. Most of the stores in my area have signs up saying they will not accept them if they are printed out on your computer. They need to be the ones you cut out of the papers and magazines. I could use some for condiments and pet foods. But I am working on a good grocery budget that does not use them unless I happen upon one that I really use. Some of the stores of the discount grocery stores do not accept coupons. So making your own condiments, bread and dry mixes, such as baking mix, pudding mix and hot cocoa mixes is another big savings at the store. Of course, we don't use any of the high carb foods or anything with sugar, white flour or processed so that is a big saving right there.

If you go to the store and see meat on sale. That is when you buy it. Buy a quantity. Bring it home and freeze it if you must, I can mine. Try to find things on sale as much as possible. Make a network of friends in your area who shop to save money. Maybe you can go into together on larger quantities of foods. Buy from a  co-op or local farmers. I shop at my local Mennonite market. Nothing is boxed in fancy boxes. Just plain bags of oatmeal, cream of wheat, brown sugar, etc. You can get a lot of stuff in these stores.

I like to shop at a restaurant supply store near me. They have some of the best deals on all sorts of things. What I usually buy is the meat, produce and some of those large cans of tomato products which I can into pint jars. The brand I purchase is one that has no sugar and nothing but tomatoes. I can't find that everywhere. Since two years in a row my tomato crop was hit with the Late Blight, I have to buy them. But they also have great deals on paper items, such as paper towels that go in rest rooms. I like them for a variety of things. Plastic garbage bags, is another thing I found I could buy a box of them that will last almost forever. Our landfill will only allow clear bags and they are getting harder to find lately. Otherwise I would not be purchasing plastic if I can help it.

Tomorrow I am making a spread sheet and keep track of every penny I spend. I just need a picture of where it is going. Easier to track the groceries this way and to see what we can knock off the list. Anything we can make at home cheaper and better tasting will also be a plus, and a significant savings. What about you? Are you trying to save money on food and household supplies this year? What ideas do you have? Gardening will be the number one way people can cut back but many won't. Even people in the country with huge yards. I see them out there mowing the lawn, but no garden. Wonder why?

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Convenience Includes Homemade Foods Too!

Living Secluded Makes Buying Online A Good Option!

Are you the type of person who is loyal to shopping at a certain store? Or do you comparison shop? Some people will drive all over for the best deals. I, on the other hand, like to shop at local stores that I know. I have been trying to get into the routine of ordering online. I know, I know, I should keep my money in my community. But my community does not shop for guitar strings in my online stores. So I like to shop online to help other online sellers. I admit that I like to shop online for convenience. Sometimes the price is higher, sometimes not. And especially not if I have to pay for the gas, and the time it takes me away from my business. Besides I hate to leave home!

For the eleven years that I have lived here, I have bought gas and pizzas and last minute items at the convenience store in our little town of Oxford, NY. There are only two convenience stores in Oxford, a drug store (not a chain, privately owned), a Dollar General and our hardware store which also sells feed for our horses, as well as other animals. There are a sprinkling of other small businesses and a couple of bars and restaurants.

I am one of those people who like to shop at the same store over and over. I don't really pay attention to the prices that often, as many times it is only a few cents in either direction. I have always liked to go into a store and know the clerks, the managers and even recognize some of the other customers when I go in. That friendly town atmosphere that even prevails in our super Walmart.


With the price of things going up and up though, I am changing some of my habits. Our convenience store has also raised their prices. Two bags of ice there last week went to $4.78! Wow, I can buy it at Walmart or Dollar General for only $1.40 a bag! That is an excessive mark up! Their pizza also went way up. And it always depends on who is working as to how much you pay. The last time we bought a chicken wing pizza that consists of only chicken in a wing sauce on the pizza and they charged us $8.98 extra for toppings. So no more pizzas which we used to order at least once a week, ordering three every time so we could have leftovers for breakfast. I used to always make our own and now I am back to that. Going to make our own chicken wing pizzas, and maybe I will post the recipe after I get it worked out.

Convenience to me means buying in bulk so I can make as much food as possible from scratch. When I post on this blog about making bread or anything else from scratch it seems to get more comments. I think more people want to do these things than I knew. You don't have to be a homesteader to make your own foods. You can spend a whole week-end baking bread and making your meals for the whole month from scratch and freeze them if you have that option. There are many websites that have recipes for you to make and freeze, but you can just use your own recipes and do it yourself.

If you already do this, post in the comment section and let me know. I'd like to do this more when I get my solar refrigeration and freezer. But I will always can foods instead of freezing them. I like them better canned and they are more convenient in the long run. And available for a very quick meal. What about you? What do you do for meals? Especially for people working an outside job and have children. That is a tough job. How do you handle all that and make meals too?

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Cash Flow On the Homestead

Adding to your cash flow is the hardest thing to do. But if you find ways to cut your cost of living that should give you a little more cash. Here are some ways I have found to really cut down on cash going out.

One big saving has been having our own energy system. Take your electric bill and add it up for the year. Then multiply it for the amount of years you have lived in your home. I have lived here for almost eleven years now. My electric bill to live here would have been costly. At least $100. a month. This house is old and not insulated so if we were using a furnace that would have been running a lot. Plus, we have two computers and in the past we had the big desktop ones. Now we have three laptops, because my son has been living with us and he has his laptop too.

Our last house was a two bedroom ranch house we rented in 1997-99 and the bill ran approximately $119. a month. So this is not an out of line figure. At $100. a month, the annual amount paid would be $1200. and for 11 years that would come to $13,200. Now it doesn't sound like a lot of money.  But I could have taken that same amount, or got a loan and put in an awesome solar system.  Then pay for it monthly like you do the electric bill. It would be paid for now and from now on our electric would be free. Now that sounds good doesn't it? To eliminate that $100. a month bill. I know! I  know! Most people I know, tell me how cheap their electric bill is and how they just love paying it! That is their choice. Not mine. If it was only $10. a month.............I'd still choose to have my own system. It gives you independence and that is why I chose this lifestyle in the first place! I hate being told what to do...............

Unfortunately this is not our wood pile!

Another way to be independent and add to your cash flow is by providing your own fuel for heating. We use wood and have taken trees down off our small piece of land while we have been clearing it. It was pretty much all woods right up to the house. Firewood is a lot of work and I would never say it wasn't. But if you provide it yourself  then the cost is your hard work and chainsaw costs. I have never figured out what we have saved over the years. There are times when the weather is not cold enough for the wood stove so we use a kerosene heater during those times and try not to use it unless we have to.

One of our raised beds in 2009

A garden saves you so much money! Plus it allows you to eat those vegetables and fruits that are too pricey for your wallet. You can grow whatever you want. Start the seeds early in your house and get a head start on the growing season. Grow as much as you can, and can or freeze it for the winter months. Now this is where you can make a big difference in your cash flow!

By growing your vegetables and fruits you can afford to buy meat from local farmers. Or try to find  a way to buy meat in bulk and it will save more money. You can sometimes make a special deal with a farmer.

Another way I have found to save is by following a low carb diet. I call it a food plan not a diet as it is my way of eating for life. Now most people will say it is an expensive way to eat. But I have found it is exactly the opposite. The reason being that if I live on low carbs, no processed foods and no white flour or sugar or artificial sweeteners.................that saves you A LOT of money right there! Just look in other people's shopping carts and see how much of that stuff is in there. Adds up to a lot of money. I try to buy only some dairy products, fresh meats, some low carb mayonnaise, mustard and ingredients to make my own salad dressings and condiments. Just think how much that saves? It is healthier and makes you feel great as soon as you have been on it the first two weeks. And if you need to lose weight it does that too.

I have been working on buying some of our supplies online. That saves me not only the gas of running around  to stores, but the time. My time is really stretched..............and I work at home! Maybe that is why. I have been finding that ordering supplies from Alice is a good thing! Just fill my cart and order pet foods, personal supplies and household supplies. Free shipping.  I also save money by shopping at Netrition and they only charge $4.95 for whatever size order you have. I buy all my low carb bread mixes, almond meal, etc. there. Very quick shipping for me since they in Albany, NY.  You can find online sites yourself that sell the products you use. In the long run it saves me much money.......puts that savings in my cash flow.

Just search through your budget for things that take your cash and see what you can do to cut those costs. It is very expensive to live now. We are in a major depression and trying to make ends meet is not easy. So I do what I can do. How about you?

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole

Frugal Planning Revisited

I have not stuck to my plan on frugal shopping this summer. When I added up all the money I spent in the grocery store this month I was embarrassed! So as of yesterday I am being very careful. I believe it has to do with the fact that everything is costing so much more. Plus the fact that I follow a low carb diet and that means meat.......not pasta, not potatoes, not bread or biscuits and especially no rice and beans! Those are the foods you eat when you are frugal and they do fill you up. But for me they are not healthy at all. If I eat one of those foods......I am sick and not able to do what I have got to do. I hate that feeling.

So back to my original plan. Can more beef, more turkey, chicken, pork , sausage and of course hamburger. Trouble is that we eat it almost as soon as we have it canned. And it is so good. But if you are trying to stock up food for the winter, then you can't can it and then eat it. You have to have extra money for that. Right! Like everyone has that extra money just laying around these days. You have to find a way to earn some extra or sell something to give you that little bit of extra each week. Then go to the store and buy what you want to can that week.

I try to figure 1 jar per week for each item. So that can add up to a lot of canning! Fifty-two weeks in a year and that is my aim to can at least that many of each item. Though vegetables and some meats such as hamburger and chicken will be double that amount. We do tend to have more than one meal of those each week.

My root cellar will be where I keep my fresh produce stored. I am making wooden boxes with metal screen covering it. That way the produce will have the air circulation but rodents will not be able to chew their way into it. I do seem to have more than my share of them. I have never figured out why they get into my house, cellar and pantry as they never get into our actual food. Only the cat or especially dog food. I will find it hidden in places and I never even realized they were getting into it.

Anyway, this frugal eating business takes work. It is possible to live very well in this economy but you have to be smart about it. Do not give in to the temptations that are around us or that promise that easy life or easy meal. Usually what you make from scratch is much better health wise as well as taste wise too.

Have a great homesteading day!

Copyright © 2009  Kathleen G. Lupole