Irises from my Grandmother's bulb's who passed in 1979
Mothers Day rose bush from 1994Our zero spending for April other than milk and eggs is over!! Total spent at the grocery this month was $18.98. You might think I was up early dressed and ready to rush out the door coupons in hand ready to do some grocery shopping today, Na... we really have no need to. I know when I get back to regular weekly shopping I will be shell shocked by the price increases over the past month but for now I am getting my coupon binder back in order and organizing coupons from today's paper. We have a local store doubling coupons up to $2.00 this week until Wednesday, need to check out the sales and see if I can score any good deals to add to the pantry.
I did this little challenge for a couple of reasons, certainly saving a little extra this month helped defray the costs of our trip to Key West but more importantly I wanted to test out our pantry. Have I planned and bought wisely, did we have everything we needed on hand to make 3 meals a day along with snacks, drinks and whatever goodies struck our fancy with out running to the store. How about paper protects, toiletries, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent and whatever else we use around the house to keep it clean (well sorta clean) and orderly. Yes, yes and double yes!!! Ya me!!!
If we should have and emergency due to job loss, economy, natural disaster or whatever else could be thrown our way I know we can handle the food end of the deal for well over a month and we have not invested a ton of money. We have however invested a TON of time in the garden, clipping coupons, watching sales, preserving food, cooking from scratch and learning to make leftovers not look and taste like leftovers. As an added bonus I tried to keep in the back of my mind could I cook whatever I was doing with an alternative method. The answer is yes! We have the gas grill that has an extra burner for pots, regular charcoal grill, smoker grill, wood burning stove, Sun oven and more cast iron cookware than I care to admit. And there is always the big boy generator that we could run for some period of time to keep our frozen food safe.
This whole experiment hit close to home after the devastating tornado's in Alabama last week, while having a full pantry and a way to cook without modern convinces like electricity wouldn't help any of the families who lost everything, having what you need at home would make life a little more bearable for the folks who were spared the storms full force but are now dealing with close to a week with no power and in some cases they are looking at a lot longer than a week. Having what your family would need on hand also frees up the local government's overwhelming job to provide for the whole community. I don't know about you but I'm not much for the standing in a line waiting for food that may or may not be something that I can even eat.
A full pantry and garden are one of the many insurance policies we have for our family. It helps bridge the gap in the ever increasing inflation at the grocery store and the pump. By paying a little premium each week (grocery budget) we can get a big return in the event of an emergency. Instead of "Your in good hands" we could call it "Your in good cans". Need to get my head out of the pantry and on to the pillow, the babies will be here bright and early!!
I did this little challenge for a couple of reasons, certainly saving a little extra this month helped defray the costs of our trip to Key West but more importantly I wanted to test out our pantry. Have I planned and bought wisely, did we have everything we needed on hand to make 3 meals a day along with snacks, drinks and whatever goodies struck our fancy with out running to the store. How about paper protects, toiletries, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent and whatever else we use around the house to keep it clean (well sorta clean) and orderly. Yes, yes and double yes!!! Ya me!!!
If we should have and emergency due to job loss, economy, natural disaster or whatever else could be thrown our way I know we can handle the food end of the deal for well over a month and we have not invested a ton of money. We have however invested a TON of time in the garden, clipping coupons, watching sales, preserving food, cooking from scratch and learning to make leftovers not look and taste like leftovers. As an added bonus I tried to keep in the back of my mind could I cook whatever I was doing with an alternative method. The answer is yes! We have the gas grill that has an extra burner for pots, regular charcoal grill, smoker grill, wood burning stove, Sun oven and more cast iron cookware than I care to admit. And there is always the big boy generator that we could run for some period of time to keep our frozen food safe.
This whole experiment hit close to home after the devastating tornado's in Alabama last week, while having a full pantry and a way to cook without modern convinces like electricity wouldn't help any of the families who lost everything, having what you need at home would make life a little more bearable for the folks who were spared the storms full force but are now dealing with close to a week with no power and in some cases they are looking at a lot longer than a week. Having what your family would need on hand also frees up the local government's overwhelming job to provide for the whole community. I don't know about you but I'm not much for the standing in a line waiting for food that may or may not be something that I can even eat.
A full pantry and garden are one of the many insurance policies we have for our family. It helps bridge the gap in the ever increasing inflation at the grocery store and the pump. By paying a little premium each week (grocery budget) we can get a big return in the event of an emergency. Instead of "Your in good hands" we could call it "Your in good cans". Need to get my head out of the pantry and on to the pillow, the babies will be here bright and early!!
Great job on the spending! Or lack of it I guess! ;) I agree that having a full pantry is a good goal! I always feel better when I'm stocked up on food! Especially with having 4 kids! :)
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day with your grandchildren! You are such an awesome grandma!! They are SOO blessed to have you!
Thanks you Carla, we are blessed to have all of our children and every growing number of Grands, my own Mother died when I was 3 years old so I know never to take even on day on this side of the dirt for ganted
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