Meal planning has come to be second nature for our family. There's no longer the question of what's for dinner most nights (sometimes we throw caution to the wind and break out the emergency frozen pizza or ravioli) and it saves time in grocery shopping and cooking. Best of all, it saves our grocery budget, which is usually around $40 a week, although there are weeks we don't grocery shop at all and weeks we go over when we're stocking up. Generally, we probably spend between $100-$150 on groceries per month, and this includes laundry detergent, toilet paper, and paper towels (which we cut down on by using rags--I think we maybe use four rolls in a year unless we have a ton of company). I know, some of you spend that in a week. Take your time, you'll get there. And remember, our family is small compared to some.
So, here's my general plan of attack at the end of the month to prepare for the next month.
1. Assess the stockpile in the pantry, fridge, freezer, and garden when in season.
This month I took a look in the freezer and found lots of meat I'd forgotten about; chicken breasts, kielbasa, filet mignon (leftover from the Valentine's Day sale at EarthFare), ground turkey, and a turkey carcass from Thanksgiving. Then of course there's the veggies: corn, green beans and swiss chard from the summer garden, spinach, cilantro, and okra. I also found black beans, quinoa, barley, brown rice, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, pineapple chunks, mandarin orange slices, salsa verde, and dried mushrooms in the pantry, among other staples for baking, etc. Then, in the fridge, there were sundried tomatoes, carrots, eggs from our friends who have chickens, mozzarella cheese, bacon, a can of crescent rolls, jams and jellies of various sorts, milk, half and half, and the general condiments.
2. After compiling my list of things we have on hand, I then plan the menu. Friday night is almost always pizza night around here... it keeps things easy and it helps us clean out the fridge of leftovers. Half a green pepper, check. A little chicken, great on a pizza. Leftover breakfast sausage or bacon, yum.
This month's menu went like this:
Week 1: chili verde, pizza, carrot and cilantro soup, breakfast casserole
Week 2: ravioli, chicken tacos/fajitas, whole wheat waffles/pancakes and fruit, pizza
Week 3: turkey burgers, 3-bean salad with quinoa, veggie fried rice
Week 4: bean and cheese quesadillas, jambalaya, quiche, pizza
As you can see, there's some flexibility in there for ingredients I find on sale. If mushrooms are on sale, they'll be great in quiche, breakfast casserole, or on a pizza. If fruit is on sale, then it'll be a wonderful side to breakfast casserole, quiche, or waffles. I give myself some wiggle room to move things around if we need to depending on what we find at the farmer's market or on the sale rack in the produce section.
3. Shop. Shopping is the easy part at this point. I find my recipes, check for missing ingredients, and build the list for the week. I also assess my baking stash since I'll be making various breads (breakfast breads, burger buns, waffles, etc.). Then I check for coupon matchups on The Grocery Game. We only purchase items that we will really use with coupons, not just because we have a coupon. So, if corn bread mix is on sale and has a coupon, I'll buy it because it's generally cheaper that way than from scratch. But, if I don't have a mix in my pantry stockpile, then I will make it from scratch, rather than buying a mix at full price. We make a lot of things from scratch (bread, cookies, cakes, stock, cream sauce, mac and cheese, etc.), even with a little one in the house, and because we've done it for so long, it's pretty easy. Plus, making things from scratch is generally better for you than buying ready made because you eliminate lots of extra fat and preservatives.
In order to make the most of things, I have a few go to cookbooks, like More with Less, Cheap. Fast. Good., The Soup Bible, and Joy of Cooking. There are casseroles, salads, stir fries, etc. that I can easily mix and match ingredients depending on what I have on hand. And of course, I use my bread machine like the workhorse that it is to do a lot of the work for me with pizza dough, burger buns, breakfast breads, etc.
So, I hope this helps some of you get started with your meal planning. If a month is overwhelming, start with a week and go from there. I think you'll be amazed at how it simplifies your life and shrinks your grocery budget. Here's to living green and saving green!
Friday, May 3, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Feeding Baby the Green Way
Throughout my pregnancy, we tried to make sure that I was eating healthfully and that meant mostly organic produce, hormone free, local milk from Homestead Creamery, lots of nuts and seeds and whole grains, and minimal but lean meat, including some seafood. Now that Raygan is here, it's just as important for me to continue to eat healthfully, although there are some things that I can branch out on, such as the occasional glass of wine and a little caffeine in the morning cup of BGB coffee.
Why is this so important? Because everything I eat transfers to him in the form of breast milk. So, I really try to make sure that I'm eating well for both of us, which isn't always easy when I've got him in one hand, but we try to plan well in the morning before Benny leaves for work so it's easy for me to heat up soup or grab a sandwich or salad from the fridge. Essentially, the next five months or so of feeding him are free and won't cost us any more than before he was born. Another perk to breastfeeding is that I have to keep my caloric intake up by an additional 500 calories or so compared to during my pregnancy, so that means I get to eat more. So, maybe it does cost us a little extra in groceries since I'm eating more each day.
Breastfeeding is healthier for both of us. For Raygan, it provides immune support, much needed calories and vital nutrients, and its comforting for him. The human body is truly amazing since it adjusts the nutrients and fat and amount of milk based on his needs, so I don't have to worry about whether he's getting the right things at the right stage in his development. I still occasionally pump just to see how much he's getting at a feeding, but also to store it up in the freezer for when I go back to work. We plan to breastfeed for a year, or at least have enough in the freezer so that Raygan can get the benefits of breast milk for that long. Even when he transitions to solid foods, we can mix the milk into his mashed potatoes or squash, and of course he can still drink it.
The health benefits for me of breast feeding are lower risk of certain types of cancer, easier postnatal weight loss, and breast feeding helps the uterus to contract and go back to its original size quicker after delivery than not breast feeding. All of those were a plus for me. Even though breastfeeding was initially really difficult for me and Raygan had a tough time latching on, once we got over that hurdle, things have been great and he's gotten really goo at eating efficiently and not sleeping while nursing.
Once we transition to solid foods, we plan to make our own homemade baby foods, some of which we already have in the freezer. We're using the Start Fresh cookbook by Tyler Florence as a guide to make things easier. We're also using these ice cube trays to make storing the purees easier. It's really easy to make your own baby food from pureed fruits and veggies, and so much cheaper than the store bought stuff at 50 cents or more for a jar.
So, that's how we're feeding our little one and keeping him healthy. We're hoping he'll learn to be an adventuresme eater and learn to love food like we do. Here's to living green and saving green feeding baby! I'd love to hear from you!
Why is this so important? Because everything I eat transfers to him in the form of breast milk. So, I really try to make sure that I'm eating well for both of us, which isn't always easy when I've got him in one hand, but we try to plan well in the morning before Benny leaves for work so it's easy for me to heat up soup or grab a sandwich or salad from the fridge. Essentially, the next five months or so of feeding him are free and won't cost us any more than before he was born. Another perk to breastfeeding is that I have to keep my caloric intake up by an additional 500 calories or so compared to during my pregnancy, so that means I get to eat more. So, maybe it does cost us a little extra in groceries since I'm eating more each day.
Breastfeeding is healthier for both of us. For Raygan, it provides immune support, much needed calories and vital nutrients, and its comforting for him. The human body is truly amazing since it adjusts the nutrients and fat and amount of milk based on his needs, so I don't have to worry about whether he's getting the right things at the right stage in his development. I still occasionally pump just to see how much he's getting at a feeding, but also to store it up in the freezer for when I go back to work. We plan to breastfeed for a year, or at least have enough in the freezer so that Raygan can get the benefits of breast milk for that long. Even when he transitions to solid foods, we can mix the milk into his mashed potatoes or squash, and of course he can still drink it.
The health benefits for me of breast feeding are lower risk of certain types of cancer, easier postnatal weight loss, and breast feeding helps the uterus to contract and go back to its original size quicker after delivery than not breast feeding. All of those were a plus for me. Even though breastfeeding was initially really difficult for me and Raygan had a tough time latching on, once we got over that hurdle, things have been great and he's gotten really goo at eating efficiently and not sleeping while nursing.
Once we transition to solid foods, we plan to make our own homemade baby foods, some of which we already have in the freezer. We're using the Start Fresh cookbook by Tyler Florence as a guide to make things easier. We're also using these ice cube trays to make storing the purees easier. It's really easy to make your own baby food from pureed fruits and veggies, and so much cheaper than the store bought stuff at 50 cents or more for a jar.
So, that's how we're feeding our little one and keeping him healthy. We're hoping he'll learn to be an adventuresme eater and learn to love food like we do. Here's to living green and saving green feeding baby! I'd love to hear from you!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Cloth Wipes
Today's post is a follow up to yesterday's where I mentioned the cloth wipes we use with diapering Raygan. We use the cloth wipes for a number of reasons.
1) They cut down on cost.
2) They cut down on waste.
3) They are more effective than disposables.
Because the cloth wipes (both handmade flannel ones and inexpensive store-bought washcloths) are reusable and can be washed with the cloth diapers, they cut down on the cost of wipes significantly. Even if we purchased disposable wipes with coupons, we'd still be spending more than by using the cloth wipes. We still keep a few disposables around in the diaper bag for babysitters, when we're out, etc. but 95% of the time we use the cloth wipes. We've seen a huge drop in our waste volume since switching to cloth diapers and wipes, which means fewer trips to the dump, which also means less fuel used for the cars. Win win all the way around.
Because the cloth wipes have more texture than disposables, they're more effective at wiping away sticky poop, so we have to use only one instead of two or three or four like we would with disposable wipes. Sometimes, we find that the washcloths are more effective than the flannel ones, but it really depends on the situation.
Below you'll find the recipe I use for the wipe solution. Right now, we're using about a dozen a day, since we've got about that many diaper changes. So, I double the recipe since it makes enough for about six wipes. I mix my solution in a bottle that I can shake, because it distributes the lotion more evenly than just stirring with a whisk. It doesn't store really well (gets musty), so I mix ours up each evening for the next day. I store the wipes in old formula containers someone gave me, but we'll probably start putting them in an old wipe container we just emptied.
Wipe Solution:
1 tablespoon baby shampoo
1 tablespoon baby lotion
1 tablespoon baby oil (this helps to remove sticky poop, but you can omit it)
1 cup warm water
Stir or shake to mix. Then pour half into the bottom of your container, insert wipes, and pour the rest over the top.
Makes enough for six wipes.
An added plus to this system is that you can control the ingredients in the solution, so we use the Berts Bees stuff or other more natural products. We've found this seems to reduce diaper rash, which is minimal anyway since we're using cloth diapers.
Here's to living green and saving green while diapering baby. I'd love to hear from you!
1) They cut down on cost.
2) They cut down on waste.
3) They are more effective than disposables.
Because the cloth wipes (both handmade flannel ones and inexpensive store-bought washcloths) are reusable and can be washed with the cloth diapers, they cut down on the cost of wipes significantly. Even if we purchased disposable wipes with coupons, we'd still be spending more than by using the cloth wipes. We still keep a few disposables around in the diaper bag for babysitters, when we're out, etc. but 95% of the time we use the cloth wipes. We've seen a huge drop in our waste volume since switching to cloth diapers and wipes, which means fewer trips to the dump, which also means less fuel used for the cars. Win win all the way around.
Because the cloth wipes have more texture than disposables, they're more effective at wiping away sticky poop, so we have to use only one instead of two or three or four like we would with disposable wipes. Sometimes, we find that the washcloths are more effective than the flannel ones, but it really depends on the situation.
Below you'll find the recipe I use for the wipe solution. Right now, we're using about a dozen a day, since we've got about that many diaper changes. So, I double the recipe since it makes enough for about six wipes. I mix my solution in a bottle that I can shake, because it distributes the lotion more evenly than just stirring with a whisk. It doesn't store really well (gets musty), so I mix ours up each evening for the next day. I store the wipes in old formula containers someone gave me, but we'll probably start putting them in an old wipe container we just emptied.
Wipe Solution:
1 tablespoon baby shampoo
1 tablespoon baby lotion
1 tablespoon baby oil (this helps to remove sticky poop, but you can omit it)
1 cup warm water
Stir or shake to mix. Then pour half into the bottom of your container, insert wipes, and pour the rest over the top.
Makes enough for six wipes.
An added plus to this system is that you can control the ingredients in the solution, so we use the Berts Bees stuff or other more natural products. We've found this seems to reduce diaper rash, which is minimal anyway since we're using cloth diapers.
Here's to living green and saving green while diapering baby. I'd love to hear from you!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Cloth Diapering with Baby
We brought our little Raygan home from the hospital six weeks ago and my how they've flown by! The first few weeks were definitely an adjustment for everyone, but now we're in a groove as a family and loving our little monkey to pieces. So, hopefully, I can find time to get back to blogging on a regular basis during some of his nap times.
We were committed to cloth diapering and going diaper free (sometimes, when it works for us) well before we even found out we were pregnant. The cost and environmental benefits were huge to us, especially knowing that we hoped to have more than one child and that the cloth diapers could be used with the next baby. The health benefits to him are an added bonus.
Most of the cloth diapers we purchased were Charlie Banana ones, mostly because they were available at Target through our registry. We were given two that are velcro closure style, one from my friend who makes them for her (Etsy store. These are easy to leave in the diaper bag for those times when we need to leave him with someone who's not as comfortable with cloth diapering since they're styled more like the disposable kind in terms of closures. We discovered that people were hesitant to buy cloth diapers, I guess because they either weren't sure we were committed to the idea or because they wanted to buy something cute like clothes or books. So we ended up pooling our gift cards and buying them ourselves, which worked just as well. My school faculty also wanted to throw us a diaper shower, so we ended up getting about 12 cloth diapers that way also. We've found that the 30 cloth diapers we currently have is enough to get us through about two days of cloth diapering, allowing for what's in the laundry. Since Raygan is still so little, he's eating frequently, which means frequent diaper changes.
Washing is a cinch with these. We keep a diaper pail beside his changing station, so we just toss the dirty diapers, liners, and cloth wipes we use in there at each change and wash them when the pail is full and we're down to about six clean diapers. We love the design of the Charlie Banana diapers since the pocket is in the front, it means its less messy to get the liner out, and they're really adjustable with the elastic in the legs and the snaps in the front. We wash them on warm with a phosphate free detergent and either line dry them or toss them in the dryer on low heat. Stuffing them is easy; we can do it while we watch an episode of White Collar on Netflix and it takes no time; it's really easy to do with him in the Moby Wrap too.
'
All told, we figure we "spent" about $300 with gift cards to get the cloth diapers for him and we had a few given to us as shower gifts. Since we're cloth diapering exclusively now (he was a little small for them at first), we're not having to buy any disposables, which is saving us probably $20 a week right now. Rough estimates from various sources figure we'll save between $1000 and $2000 on diapering costs alone with him, and that doesn't include the cloth wipes we're using instead of disposables (they're flannel ones a friend made and thin washcloths). This savings is huge, since it's helping us cut costs so that Benny can stay home with him when I go back to work in August.
And then there's the environmental benefit of not filling the landfill with all those disposable things. Of course, there are folks who would argue that it's a toss up since we're washing with warm water, which uses more energy, but hopefully our new water saving washer will help to offset that somewhat. And we wait to wash until we've got a full load of diapers, which means we're saving some energy there too. Being able to line dry them in the summer will be great, and it'll help sun bleach out the poop stains. By using cloth diapers, we're also able to cut down on our chemical consumption as a family, since there are far fewer chemicals used in these than in the disposables (all those super absorbent polymers, etc.).
Plus there are health benefits for Raygan to using cloth diapers. Since he can feel it more in cloth diapers when he's wet or dirty, we change him more frequently than we might in disposable diapers. This means there's less diaper rash and less of a risk of yeast infections for him. It also means that potty training will be far easier, because he won't have lost that feeling of what it's like when he "goes", which means hopefully we'll be out of diapers sooner than if he were in disposables. Friends who cloth diaper also report that they've seen fewer accidents with their kids who were in cloth diapers exclusively, probably because they're more aware of the signs of needing to go and so they don't wait until it's urgent. And, we're exposing him to fewer chemicals by cloth diapering, which makes us feel better, since many of these chemicals haven't been researched in terms of long term effects.
So, all in all, we're thrilled with our decision to cloth diaper. Some might say it's more work; we just see it as a different kind of work (more laundry vs. more trips to the dump). We love that it allows us to save some significant money, and it allows us to save a huge amount of landfill space. Do you cloth diaper? Thinking about it? I'd love to hear from you! Here's to living green and saving green bringing up baby.
We were committed to cloth diapering and going diaper free (sometimes, when it works for us) well before we even found out we were pregnant. The cost and environmental benefits were huge to us, especially knowing that we hoped to have more than one child and that the cloth diapers could be used with the next baby. The health benefits to him are an added bonus.
Most of the cloth diapers we purchased were Charlie Banana ones, mostly because they were available at Target through our registry. We were given two that are velcro closure style, one from my friend who makes them for her (Etsy store. These are easy to leave in the diaper bag for those times when we need to leave him with someone who's not as comfortable with cloth diapering since they're styled more like the disposable kind in terms of closures. We discovered that people were hesitant to buy cloth diapers, I guess because they either weren't sure we were committed to the idea or because they wanted to buy something cute like clothes or books. So we ended up pooling our gift cards and buying them ourselves, which worked just as well. My school faculty also wanted to throw us a diaper shower, so we ended up getting about 12 cloth diapers that way also. We've found that the 30 cloth diapers we currently have is enough to get us through about two days of cloth diapering, allowing for what's in the laundry. Since Raygan is still so little, he's eating frequently, which means frequent diaper changes.
Washing is a cinch with these. We keep a diaper pail beside his changing station, so we just toss the dirty diapers, liners, and cloth wipes we use in there at each change and wash them when the pail is full and we're down to about six clean diapers. We love the design of the Charlie Banana diapers since the pocket is in the front, it means its less messy to get the liner out, and they're really adjustable with the elastic in the legs and the snaps in the front. We wash them on warm with a phosphate free detergent and either line dry them or toss them in the dryer on low heat. Stuffing them is easy; we can do it while we watch an episode of White Collar on Netflix and it takes no time; it's really easy to do with him in the Moby Wrap too.
'
All told, we figure we "spent" about $300 with gift cards to get the cloth diapers for him and we had a few given to us as shower gifts. Since we're cloth diapering exclusively now (he was a little small for them at first), we're not having to buy any disposables, which is saving us probably $20 a week right now. Rough estimates from various sources figure we'll save between $1000 and $2000 on diapering costs alone with him, and that doesn't include the cloth wipes we're using instead of disposables (they're flannel ones a friend made and thin washcloths). This savings is huge, since it's helping us cut costs so that Benny can stay home with him when I go back to work in August.
And then there's the environmental benefit of not filling the landfill with all those disposable things. Of course, there are folks who would argue that it's a toss up since we're washing with warm water, which uses more energy, but hopefully our new water saving washer will help to offset that somewhat. And we wait to wash until we've got a full load of diapers, which means we're saving some energy there too. Being able to line dry them in the summer will be great, and it'll help sun bleach out the poop stains. By using cloth diapers, we're also able to cut down on our chemical consumption as a family, since there are far fewer chemicals used in these than in the disposables (all those super absorbent polymers, etc.).
Plus there are health benefits for Raygan to using cloth diapers. Since he can feel it more in cloth diapers when he's wet or dirty, we change him more frequently than we might in disposable diapers. This means there's less diaper rash and less of a risk of yeast infections for him. It also means that potty training will be far easier, because he won't have lost that feeling of what it's like when he "goes", which means hopefully we'll be out of diapers sooner than if he were in disposables. Friends who cloth diaper also report that they've seen fewer accidents with their kids who were in cloth diapers exclusively, probably because they're more aware of the signs of needing to go and so they don't wait until it's urgent. And, we're exposing him to fewer chemicals by cloth diapering, which makes us feel better, since many of these chemicals haven't been researched in terms of long term effects.
So, all in all, we're thrilled with our decision to cloth diaper. Some might say it's more work; we just see it as a different kind of work (more laundry vs. more trips to the dump). We love that it allows us to save some significant money, and it allows us to save a huge amount of landfill space. Do you cloth diaper? Thinking about it? I'd love to hear from you! Here's to living green and saving green bringing up baby.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Rock Whatcha Got January
Well, we made it through the holidays with only a few extra pounds and lots of chocolate on hand to show for it. Today is all about taking down the Christmas decorations and trying to get the house back in order from the chaos that is the holidays and moving my mom into her new house. Things are still in transition somewhat upstairs, as we totally convert what was once the office to the nursery and make the guest room an office also. But we're getting there...
On to today's topic. It's January again, which means it's a long month for teachers in NC since we get paid prior to Christmas break but don't get our next paycheck until the end of January. It's even more stretched around here as Benny's on winter hours at the store, but we always make it work, and are totally grateful to have the abundance that we do so that it's not always such a shock.
For the grocery budget, we try to only purchase the things we really need, not the wants this month. This is made easier by the fact that we almost always get some fun pantry items in our stockings at Christmas (nuts, specialty dried fruits, coffee, herbal teas and sometimes a grocery store card or two). I totally get that nuts and dried fruit may not do it for everyone, but for those of us who love to cook and bake, they're the staples of winter breakfast muffins and salad toppings. We also try to make sure the the freezer is already stocked with butter, frozen veggies from the CSA or garden this past summer, and meats. (Butter and meats almost always go on sale around holiday time, so we stock up then.) We always snag the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving or Christmas to make stock and soup (we've discovered most people in our family don't want to mess with this step). And of course, we always have dried beans, lentils, rice, barley, and pasta on hand in the pantry to make meals come together quickly.
So, for this month, here's the rough breakdown of menu items:
Soups: smoked turkey and wild rice soup, potato and veggie chowder, split pea soup, chili verde with sweet potato fries, black bean soup, chili con carne, corn chowder, barley and lenil soup
Mexican meals: smoked turkey and winter squash tacos, sweet potato quesadillas, black bean nachos, chicken tortilla soup
Asian meals: egg and veggie fried rice, spicy Thai noodle dish with linguini
Family go-to meals: pecan crusted chicken with baked potatoes, quiche with bacon, sun dried tomatoes, and onion, beef and cheddar pie, whole wheat waffles with frozen fruit syrup and nuts, jambalaya, pasta with pesto or tomato sauce
Side items: mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, okra corn bread, homemade whole wheat yeast rolls or bread, winter greens salad with dried fruit or citrus, braised cabbage
Breakfasts: muffins/scones with dried fruit and nuts, homemade bread with homemade jam from summer fruits, oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts, cereal
Lunches around here are always leftovers. When we're done with fixing a dinner, we portion out the meal into lunch size containers so they're easy to grab and put in a lunch box for the next day. We never buy specialty lunch items from the frozen section, but do occasionally purchase granola bars or individual yogurt cups to help round out lunches or provide an afternoon snack. (Of course these are always purchased with coupons and on sale to make a buck go further.)
So, for the most the only items we need to purchase this month are the occasional fresh produce (we like to have grapefruit on hand for breakfasts and there are always a few veggies we don't have stockpiled in the freezer), cheese (watch for sales and coupons and freeze it if it's going in a casserole or soup where it'll be melted), milk, flour, and eggs. And we'll go to HT this week to get some other staples (cereal, yogurt, etc.) because it's super doubles with coupons.
We also really try during this month to not buy things that are wants, but just needs in other areas of our lives. For instance, the car registration info and bill just arrived for my car--definite need. But the cute Christmas stuff that's 75% off at Michaels right now, not so much. I know that I have enough Christmas wrapping supplies to get us through next year, so there's no point in stocking up now. This is generally our strategy with lots of stuff throughout the year, but we really try during January to cinch the belt a little tighter to make things stretch.
The quote "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without," has really become our
mantra as we try to live frugally so that we can truly live green and save green. It means finding things in the basement that we can revamp with paint for the nursery rather than buying new (picture frames, lamps, furniture), reupholstering the old chair rather than buying a new one, making do with the cars we have and repairing them rather than purchasing a new one, and on and on it goes. And, in the end, it makes us feel good to know that we're not sending something to the landfill or junkyard (though we always try to donate things first if we really can't use them anymore). It also allows us to be more generous with our charitable giving, which means a great deal to us.
So, how are you living and saving green in the days after the holiday season? I'd love to hear from you!
On to today's topic. It's January again, which means it's a long month for teachers in NC since we get paid prior to Christmas break but don't get our next paycheck until the end of January. It's even more stretched around here as Benny's on winter hours at the store, but we always make it work, and are totally grateful to have the abundance that we do so that it's not always such a shock.
For the grocery budget, we try to only purchase the things we really need, not the wants this month. This is made easier by the fact that we almost always get some fun pantry items in our stockings at Christmas (nuts, specialty dried fruits, coffee, herbal teas and sometimes a grocery store card or two). I totally get that nuts and dried fruit may not do it for everyone, but for those of us who love to cook and bake, they're the staples of winter breakfast muffins and salad toppings. We also try to make sure the the freezer is already stocked with butter, frozen veggies from the CSA or garden this past summer, and meats. (Butter and meats almost always go on sale around holiday time, so we stock up then.) We always snag the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving or Christmas to make stock and soup (we've discovered most people in our family don't want to mess with this step). And of course, we always have dried beans, lentils, rice, barley, and pasta on hand in the pantry to make meals come together quickly.
So, for this month, here's the rough breakdown of menu items:
Soups: smoked turkey and wild rice soup, potato and veggie chowder, split pea soup, chili verde with sweet potato fries, black bean soup, chili con carne, corn chowder, barley and lenil soup
Mexican meals: smoked turkey and winter squash tacos, sweet potato quesadillas, black bean nachos, chicken tortilla soup
Asian meals: egg and veggie fried rice, spicy Thai noodle dish with linguini
Family go-to meals: pecan crusted chicken with baked potatoes, quiche with bacon, sun dried tomatoes, and onion, beef and cheddar pie, whole wheat waffles with frozen fruit syrup and nuts, jambalaya, pasta with pesto or tomato sauce
Side items: mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, okra corn bread, homemade whole wheat yeast rolls or bread, winter greens salad with dried fruit or citrus, braised cabbage
Breakfasts: muffins/scones with dried fruit and nuts, homemade bread with homemade jam from summer fruits, oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts, cereal
Lunches around here are always leftovers. When we're done with fixing a dinner, we portion out the meal into lunch size containers so they're easy to grab and put in a lunch box for the next day. We never buy specialty lunch items from the frozen section, but do occasionally purchase granola bars or individual yogurt cups to help round out lunches or provide an afternoon snack. (Of course these are always purchased with coupons and on sale to make a buck go further.)
So, for the most the only items we need to purchase this month are the occasional fresh produce (we like to have grapefruit on hand for breakfasts and there are always a few veggies we don't have stockpiled in the freezer), cheese (watch for sales and coupons and freeze it if it's going in a casserole or soup where it'll be melted), milk, flour, and eggs. And we'll go to HT this week to get some other staples (cereal, yogurt, etc.) because it's super doubles with coupons.
We also really try during this month to not buy things that are wants, but just needs in other areas of our lives. For instance, the car registration info and bill just arrived for my car--definite need. But the cute Christmas stuff that's 75% off at Michaels right now, not so much. I know that I have enough Christmas wrapping supplies to get us through next year, so there's no point in stocking up now. This is generally our strategy with lots of stuff throughout the year, but we really try during January to cinch the belt a little tighter to make things stretch.
The quote "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without," has really become our
mantra as we try to live frugally so that we can truly live green and save green. It means finding things in the basement that we can revamp with paint for the nursery rather than buying new (picture frames, lamps, furniture), reupholstering the old chair rather than buying a new one, making do with the cars we have and repairing them rather than purchasing a new one, and on and on it goes. And, in the end, it makes us feel good to know that we're not sending something to the landfill or junkyard (though we always try to donate things first if we really can't use them anymore). It also allows us to be more generous with our charitable giving, which means a great deal to us.
So, how are you living and saving green in the days after the holiday season? I'd love to hear from you!
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Progress Builds
Building your dream house isn't easy, even when you design the original. We've lived in our house for over four years now, and even though we thought we'd planned for everything, we have slowly discovered that there are things we either didn't know to plan for or just failed to see.
One of those is storage; we flat out didn't build in enough storage in this house. The upstairs closets are skimpy and were overflowing everywhere, including the landing upstairs. We desperately need an area for coats, scarves, shoes, etc. at the main entry way. Not to mention a basic utility room for all the stuff that needs to live by the main entrance (reusable grocery bags, the drying rack for laundry, my school bag, purse, etc.).
But this past week, we finally fixed some of the storage issues in our home, at least upstairs. After getting a few estimates for built in shelving for our landing(one from a green builder at about $2000 and one from the contractor we went with at $500), we went with the later. If budget had not been an issue, we would have probably gone with the green builder because his work is finished really nicely and he uses almost 100% reclaimed materials. But, as with most of us, budget was a factor.
Perhaps I should back up and say that we thought this unit out long and hard. We knew from how we were already using the space with make-shift shelving left over from apartment days, that it was an ideal spot for our home library of books and movies. It was also where most of our board games landed, as well as some other random junk that really needed a new home. We also wanted it to be a cozy area for someone to curl up with a book or to be able to browse a magazine, be that an adult in an arm chair or a child on a floor pillow. So, after some measuring and tweaking (we had a cold air return that we needed to work with to allow for air flow, as well as two electrical outlets that we weren't interested in moving), we came up with the basic design. Two or three large, long drawers on the bottom and then open, adjustable shelving on the top to allow for air flow and access to the electrical outlet. We also wanted the shelving to be deep enough for photo albums, but shallow enough to allow for a chair to sit comfortably in front on one side without blocking the walkway. This is definitely something we wouldn't have been able to design well from the get-go, since it was something where we really had to live with the space and figure out how the space would best work for us.
So, the contractor, who does other major jobs during the day, built our unit on weekends and down time. Which meant that it wasn't his primary focus, so it took a while for us to see the finished product. But, that's also why the price ended up at being under $500, because we were willing to wait and work with his schedule. He also was willing to paint the unit for us prior to assembly, which meant that there was far less touch up for us to do later. It probably took him about an hour to install the unit, which he built in three sections. There are a few sections that we want to go back and touch up with some more sanding and paint, but those are minor in the grand scheme of things. (I'll be back with pictures when I can snap them in the daylight.)
And the verdict? We LOVE it! It's a fabulous present to ourselves just before the baby arrives and has really helped us organize things. It's also been a great incentive to clean out things some more, like weed through our books and be really honest about which ones we'll actually read again and which ones we need to donate to the public library or to my classroom library. We even figured out that there's space at one end for the printer, which solves the problem of the ever-present glowing electronic lights in the nursery. There is a ton of storage in these too... plenty of room to grow with our growing family. I kept my cook books in the kitchen, but now all my gardening and home repair reference books have a place up there, which means I have more room on my little shelf in the kitchen for cook books. :) Which totally makes me a happy girl... the thought of new books for the bibliophile. And I love the chair up there with the soft light of one of our accent table lamps I hadn't found a good home for yet. Benny's found me up there several days curled up with a book and Lavender lounging on the carpet under the chair.
Have you made any major changes to your space lately that you love? Things you're dreaming about doing once you save up the funds? I'd love to hear about them!
One of those is storage; we flat out didn't build in enough storage in this house. The upstairs closets are skimpy and were overflowing everywhere, including the landing upstairs. We desperately need an area for coats, scarves, shoes, etc. at the main entry way. Not to mention a basic utility room for all the stuff that needs to live by the main entrance (reusable grocery bags, the drying rack for laundry, my school bag, purse, etc.).
But this past week, we finally fixed some of the storage issues in our home, at least upstairs. After getting a few estimates for built in shelving for our landing(one from a green builder at about $2000 and one from the contractor we went with at $500), we went with the later. If budget had not been an issue, we would have probably gone with the green builder because his work is finished really nicely and he uses almost 100% reclaimed materials. But, as with most of us, budget was a factor.
Perhaps I should back up and say that we thought this unit out long and hard. We knew from how we were already using the space with make-shift shelving left over from apartment days, that it was an ideal spot for our home library of books and movies. It was also where most of our board games landed, as well as some other random junk that really needed a new home. We also wanted it to be a cozy area for someone to curl up with a book or to be able to browse a magazine, be that an adult in an arm chair or a child on a floor pillow. So, after some measuring and tweaking (we had a cold air return that we needed to work with to allow for air flow, as well as two electrical outlets that we weren't interested in moving), we came up with the basic design. Two or three large, long drawers on the bottom and then open, adjustable shelving on the top to allow for air flow and access to the electrical outlet. We also wanted the shelving to be deep enough for photo albums, but shallow enough to allow for a chair to sit comfortably in front on one side without blocking the walkway. This is definitely something we wouldn't have been able to design well from the get-go, since it was something where we really had to live with the space and figure out how the space would best work for us.
So, the contractor, who does other major jobs during the day, built our unit on weekends and down time. Which meant that it wasn't his primary focus, so it took a while for us to see the finished product. But, that's also why the price ended up at being under $500, because we were willing to wait and work with his schedule. He also was willing to paint the unit for us prior to assembly, which meant that there was far less touch up for us to do later. It probably took him about an hour to install the unit, which he built in three sections. There are a few sections that we want to go back and touch up with some more sanding and paint, but those are minor in the grand scheme of things. (I'll be back with pictures when I can snap them in the daylight.)
And the verdict? We LOVE it! It's a fabulous present to ourselves just before the baby arrives and has really helped us organize things. It's also been a great incentive to clean out things some more, like weed through our books and be really honest about which ones we'll actually read again and which ones we need to donate to the public library or to my classroom library. We even figured out that there's space at one end for the printer, which solves the problem of the ever-present glowing electronic lights in the nursery. There is a ton of storage in these too... plenty of room to grow with our growing family. I kept my cook books in the kitchen, but now all my gardening and home repair reference books have a place up there, which means I have more room on my little shelf in the kitchen for cook books. :) Which totally makes me a happy girl... the thought of new books for the bibliophile. And I love the chair up there with the soft light of one of our accent table lamps I hadn't found a good home for yet. Benny's found me up there several days curled up with a book and Lavender lounging on the carpet under the chair.
Have you made any major changes to your space lately that you love? Things you're dreaming about doing once you save up the funds? I'd love to hear about them!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Making the Sale
Last week, we were able to finally sell the desk that was in the nursery. This room used to be an "office" that was rarely used as such, but became more of a storage area. Over the summer, it was the room that our intern (and wonderful adopted family member who's home with us for Thanksgiving) used and called home, so the desk was helpful to him for working on sermons, etc. But now, the desk has finally found a new home, and we were able to find that home without the use of Craigslist.
First, let me say that we are not opposed to buying from Craigslist. There are certainly some great deals out there to be had. But we were a little uncomfortable with the idea of having someone we didn't know walking through our entire house to retrieve this desk, if they decided they wanted it at all. If it had been a smaller piece, we could have easily done the delivery through a neutral place, such as Benny's work.
So, I advertised the sale of the desk through my school. I started by writing up a brief description of the piece, including photos, and listing our suggested price. I included the fact that the buyer would need to pick up the piece, since we didn't have a truck that could haul it. I sent this out through our school email, and within a few days had a few potential buyers. One really interested party arranged to come see the desk one evening, and she liked it enough to pay our $50 price. We decided to throw in the desk chair for free, since we wouldn't need it anymore, and that seemed to sweeten the deal for her. We felt good about the whole thing, as she had recently relocated and needed the desk and is a single teacher working on a small budget.
(Thankfully, I work in a place where this is not banned, but you should definitely check company policy before sending out an email or posting flyers.)
Clearing out the desk made room for us to be able to put together the borrowed crib, which really made the room start to feel like the baby's. Once the desk was moved, we were also able to plan better for the artwork on the walls, etc. And we're hoping to put the money from the sale of the desk toward reupholstering a chair from my grandmother's house. It's a cute barrel backed chair with nice arms which should be great for the nursery. We'll have it reupholstered in a fairly neutral fabric so that it can move to a different location later in life, if it needs to, and we can punch it up with a throw pillow or two.
Have you had any success with selling items online or at work? What transformations have you made to your home in the past few months? I'd love to hear from you!
First, let me say that we are not opposed to buying from Craigslist. There are certainly some great deals out there to be had. But we were a little uncomfortable with the idea of having someone we didn't know walking through our entire house to retrieve this desk, if they decided they wanted it at all. If it had been a smaller piece, we could have easily done the delivery through a neutral place, such as Benny's work.
So, I advertised the sale of the desk through my school. I started by writing up a brief description of the piece, including photos, and listing our suggested price. I included the fact that the buyer would need to pick up the piece, since we didn't have a truck that could haul it. I sent this out through our school email, and within a few days had a few potential buyers. One really interested party arranged to come see the desk one evening, and she liked it enough to pay our $50 price. We decided to throw in the desk chair for free, since we wouldn't need it anymore, and that seemed to sweeten the deal for her. We felt good about the whole thing, as she had recently relocated and needed the desk and is a single teacher working on a small budget.
(Thankfully, I work in a place where this is not banned, but you should definitely check company policy before sending out an email or posting flyers.)
Clearing out the desk made room for us to be able to put together the borrowed crib, which really made the room start to feel like the baby's. Once the desk was moved, we were also able to plan better for the artwork on the walls, etc. And we're hoping to put the money from the sale of the desk toward reupholstering a chair from my grandmother's house. It's a cute barrel backed chair with nice arms which should be great for the nursery. We'll have it reupholstered in a fairly neutral fabric so that it can move to a different location later in life, if it needs to, and we can punch it up with a throw pillow or two.
Have you had any success with selling items online or at work? What transformations have you made to your home in the past few months? I'd love to hear from you!
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