Things we don't do anymore.

It's funny really, to think of the things we haven't done in a long time and don't plan to do again. Things that seemed so necessary before. This is what happened which got me thinking about the things we've either put aside or changed to be more self sufficient over the past year or so.

Its freezing cold here in Florida. If Florida can get bitterly chilly, we've passed that this week. Its downright arctic here. Emmy doesn't seem to care.

"Mommy, I want...a pop." For some reason Emmy pauses in her two and a half year old speeches, like her brain is processing. We love it.

"I don't have any pops Emmy, it's too cold."

"Mommy, give me...a pop!"

"Emmy, really I don't have any pops."

"Mommy, get...your shoes on....I go shopping." I shake my head and try and redirect her.

This has gone on for a couple days now. Then it dawned on me while I had torn up the kitchen this morning in a futile attempt at organizaiton; I have all the stuff to make juice pops in the cabinet.

This is one of many things we'd started doing without; premade juice bars/pops/sticks, what have you. I picked up the kid sized pop makers at Target for $1 each and they make 6 respectively. 100% juice pops were a staple in my house through this past hotter than heck summer. So, we made pops before nap time. As soon as Emmy awoke they were consumed.

So, here's the running list of things we do ourselves

1. Haircuts, we either don't do them or I do them. Boys get shaved, girls get trims.
2. The above juice pops
3. Ice cream. Gotta love the KitchenAid attachment for that.
4. Breadcrumbs. The heels add up, baby.
5. Dinners out (while this seems to happen infrequently now, we seem to be more and more disappointed in the quality and expense of the meals.)
6. Oil changes (Rob's pretty much always done that)
7. Movie popcorn -shhh, don't tell them I bring our own in the huge diaper bag
8. Regular cooked rice
9. Dehydrated fruits and veggies (read: dried fruit)
10. Alex's flannel pj pants
11. Air Fresheners (ok so this is a strech but I stopped buying the prefilled oil plug in things and now use real incense that you burn. Cheaper and smells better IMHO)
12. Regular popcorn -no more microwave bags

These are necessarily things we're doing without but things we've changed so that our financial and economic impact is lessened. Off the top of my head that's all I can come up with right now. Is it life-altering and world-changing? Not really. But the list is growing, folks. The list is growing.

My love/hate with Rice

Rice is a staple for a lot of cultures and diets. It's got some good stuff in it. I don't know what stuff it is, but it's good. While my grocery list has been evolving into a staples and supply list, I've changed from buying the white 5 minute boil a bag rice to brown loose rice. From my understanding, white rice is a poor substitute for its more colorful and varied bretheren; wild and brown rice. Plus those two hot shots of the grain world have a more varied and unique taste experience which I actually prefer.

Using the insanely simple ratio of 1:2 - that being one part rice to two parts water- I went about cooking my visually stimulating rice mixture that I concocted out of several different types of rice. I learned right away that I suck at cooking regular rice. The first time I burned the rice to the bottom of the pan and we had pizza instead. The rice side I made for last month's tilapia was not unlike oatmeal. At all. The egg fried rice I made last week was crunchy. Yeah, good stuff.

Last night I made rice stuffed peppers. Dinner is usually whatever time the kids look like they're about to gnaw off a limb between five or six. So, since starting the rice at four didn't work last time, yesterday's rice got cooked at two. An hour later I think I have some nice rice this time.

Now you may be thinking "Yeah, but isn't those fancy rices more money?" The answer is yes...and no. If you buy the prepackaged rices you will probably end up paying quite a tidy bit more. I found my rice in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. One pound of rice will last a good long while, remember it expands as it cooks. Also, if you mix the less expensive brown rices with the more flavorful fancy ones you get a good average price that isn't too far off the white rice prices. Remember, that additional packaging of the convinience rices costs money.

But for you economists out there lets take a look, if you were to buy your rice off Amazon for instance:

UB's Boil bag rice = 7.9 ounces x12 = roughly 90 ounces of rice or 5.6lbs. $34.78*/5.6 = $6.21 per lb
*price dosen't include shipping.

Lundberg fancy rice =16 ounces x6=96 ounces of rice or 6lbs. 15.91*/6=$2.65 per lb
*price includes free shipping

That's just a quick estimate. But you get the point. Eating healthier, harder to cook rice won't break the bank. Plus, I feel better about what my family is eating, the rice will last longer sealed in air tight jars than holey bags in a cardboard box and you can proportion how much you make, more or less. It's harder to throw in a handful of rice into a homemade chicken soup simmering on the stove if you have to crack open a specialy designed bag.

While I might not ever get down to Martha perfection on my rice making capabilities, I'm working my rice one meal at a time.

Vegetarian stuffed pepper halves

My dance card is full

It took me two hours, not including the actual shopping. We inventoried all our goods, figured out what days we would or wouldn't be home, checked out cookbooks for recipes, and wrote out the list. We've got a solid plan for food now until February. Man, it feels good.

Going back to the money post, this is part of that plan. Strapping down the budget and using what we have, what's on sale and avoiding impulse spending. Much money goes to impulsively buying food because we didn't have a plan.

We're meat eaters so you see that a few times on the list. I try and keep it down though for cost purposes and because we just don't feel the need to red meat it all the time. Much of our meals are vegetarian. We've been on this new schedule for three days. By the Gods, the freedom! I don't have to pace nervously at 4 p.m. between the fridge, chest freezer and pantry because I'm not sure what's for dinner. So far, I've mostly come up with dinner plans because breakfast is usually just cereal and milk or oatmeal. Both of which we have plenty of and regularly buy.

The grocery list changed to more staples than convienience foods. Flour, sugar, coco powder, eggs, frozen veggies and the like. I took time to peruse the grocery flyers for Super Target and Publix adjusting the list as I found something to substitute for another. Used Excel to make a chart with quantity and estimated prices (if the sales flyer didn't list it). I did good, folks. I could have only done better if I had coupons, which I didn't since I just started this up but I will from now on.

I'm working on the entire month of January plus the remainder of December. Obviously, fresh produce and other perishables won't last that long and there will always be a few things -like milk- that we have to replenish but for the most part Groceries are done. We spent about $350 for the next six weeks. My usual budget per week averaged about $150. I'm thinking maybe another $100-150 for the perishables, buying produce in season plus the milk, to complete us until February. Still, if I can keep it to what I estimated we've shaved approximately $400 off the grocery spending. Not chump change, that's for sure. Another thing that will help is utilizing the cloth diapers we have already on hand and Max getting off formula in the next few weeks.

So far so good. I can alreadysee how we were so terribly loose with our spending. We got a little holiday bonus and our first thoughts were "how are we going to spend it?" We're really trying not to, though. I see buying that little voice's megaphone would be a good idea right about now.

The demise of the grocery list

On our trek to self-sufficiency a major key in development is to stop relying so heavily on going to the store. The wear and tear on the car, the gas consumption, and man hours alone spent each week restocking the coffers won't get us to our farm any faster. Once we're out there, we'll be further from store fronts so travel times longer and competitive shopping harder so weekly trips will cost even more. 

I've been working towards learning how to make the things we need from basic ingredients that will be inexpensive and easy to stock up on. Items like milk, flour, and sugar. And even planning to reduce those down further on the farm when we have a cow and grain mill. Baby steps for now.

It was our first year growing some of our own things too. I've been experimenting with dehydrating as well. I now have a nicely stocked dried basil supply, completely from the garden I planted from seeds. Some jars of dried fruits and veggies bought on sale in season stock up the pantry. So far I've used them on pizzas, in breads and chicken bakes as well as just eating them right out of the jar. Being able to use every last bit of produce purchased reduces waste and the need to buy more and more often. It also gives us an alternative to in-season produce.

The breads are coming along. French toast, dessert breads, scones, muffins, pizza, practically every baked good imaginable is edging closer to being black listed from shopping. I'm pleased with the progress but the next investment will be a better bread book.  Haven't mastered sandwich type breads as mine tend to come out dense but it's happening. Ice cream has been taken off. The investment in the KitchenAid maker was well worth it. I've been making all our dried and frozen fruits and some veggies too. I've gotten away from grabbing Starbucks by pre-brewing my own coffee and chilling it in the fridge. Last night I made cheese. I bought a kit from Urban Cheese Crafters on Etsy. A gallon of milk and 45 minutes later and we had fresh mozzarella for dinner. I'm working on learning how to make jams to utilize inexpensive seasonal fruits.

The list is getting whittled down though there is still an enormous list to tackle; pasta, butter, sauces, yogurt, juice, those pesky sandwich breads, are all on the chopping block. It gives me a good feeling to make food that I've grown or made from scratch. Learning how to make these things now, even if I have to buy the ingredients from the store still, will be a good building block for our homestead when we can either replace or supplement the ingredients for things from our farm. Baby steps.