Friday, October 10, 2014

Saving Money in the Kitchen and on Photos

Since September is over and I was thinking about it I wanted to see how we did with grocery
shopping for the month of September.. I was shocked!
We spent $135 ALL MONTH!! That means total for all groceries and out to eat!! We are a family
of 6. I home school our 4 children so that means we eat at home every single meal!! With my husband bringing leftovers or a frozen homemade runza/hot pocket for lunch.
We did not eat out but 1 time this past month and that was a trip to Sam's Club at the cafe for under $20, spent $100 at Sam's Club, $25 at Freds and $10 at Safeway. All that was for some dairy and fresh veggies and bacon. We did clean out the garden this past month so we have been using up all our garden veggies and I have been canning and freezing for the winter.
We ate well this past month but I have been making a lot more soup and warm comforting meals..since the snow has decided to stay for the winter.
What makes this possible is that we have 2 chest freezers..one if full of garden veggies and fruits. The other is full of meat, fish and chicken. (Fish is salmon we caught or were given, chicken from the old laying birds and meat is a variety of beef and game) We also have a well stocked pantry, we buy
brown rice and beans by the 25# bag, flour and sugar by 50# and whole grain wheat berries by 50# bags. I also buy spices by 1# bags and use powdered milk in our baking and cooking (not drinking).
I only buy a gallon of milk every 2 weeks and cheese/sour cream by the 5# to 10# sizes. That way it lasts me longer and saves me a trip to the grocery store.
DON'T Give UP, keep saving the money and finding how to be more creative in the kitchen.
Yes that means you might be spending a few hours in the kitchen so you can freeze some french bread so you can make that quick lunch or dinner. Involve your kids let them help you and show how much those convenience yogurts or bag of chips really cost! and more importantly what is IN those convenience foods!
I have a picture of my kids to show that they are healthy kids! :)

Another MONEY SAVER: Take your own family photos and School photos. I loaded them onto our local Sam's Club website and printed them for under $20 in a variety of sizes. With cheap $1 frames from Walmart it gives my living room a great update for hardly anything. You can get wallets or 5x7s to send to your family for hardly anything and personally I find these way nicer than standard school photos!