Temporary Scarcity and Eating Healthy

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Is it truly possible to eat well and live frugally at the same time? A lot of people don't think so. I myself used to think that it was an either/or. But I've discovered that you CAN eat healthily, even in my area, where groceries are really high. I will say that you can't eat all ORGANIC here and keep it cheap though!

Here are my tips for eating healthily on a very tight budget:

*Buy grains and flour in bulk when possible. If you know someone going to a large city where there are bulk food stores, have them pick you up some stuff. A friend in town has a bulk-food home business and I discovered that I can get brown rice and yeast for a really great price in bulk! I also got some wonderful 9-grain flour from her last year that lasted me half a year!

*Buy reduced produce. Whereas the stores in our town didn't use to have many reductions, if you keep your eyes open you can find them nowadays. Occasionally I even find a great deal on organic lettuce which doesn't go bad for a long time even if it's past the freshness date. Often the reduced bananas look fine and are half the normal price.

*STOCK up! This is the number one way we eat healthily. When blueberries are at the lowest price of the year, we'll get a ton and freeze them for smoothies. When spinach is a loss leader, we buy it, cook it, puree it, and freeze it to sneak into foods. When frozen brocolli goes half price, we fill the freezer!

*Make it yourself. Making your own bread, muffins, granola bars, snacks, etc is much healthier for you and costs less unless you are getting some convenience foods on great coupon deals. Make your own crockpot yogurt and roll your batches. Make your own jams and jellies and add less sugar or use alternative sweeteners.

*Hunt! My hubby doesn't hunt but my dad is AN ADDICT and thankfully he shares a lot of elk with us. Elk and deer tags are relatively cheap. My in-laws often get a free deer from friends in MN since each person can hunt up to 5 deer and some guys and gals just like to hunt for fun but don't need the meat. In my opinion, elk is tastier than beef and is the leanest meat I've ever seen. It's also "organic."

*Grow it! I am excited to start a garden now that we have a spot for it! I want to avoid pesticides and hopefully keep the deer from eating it!

*Shop the loss leaders. I mentioned this in my frugal tips post. Every week there are deals to get people in the store. There are always certain produce items and certain meat items and certain dairy items on sale. If you make your menus from the flyers, you can always be paying the lowest prices for your food and you will have a variety as every week something different is on sale. So, if this week oranges are on sale, oranges will be your child's snack! If whole chickens are on sale, you will be making roasted chicken and chicken noodle soup!

*Try squeezing one healthy item a week into your budget. For example: one week I may buy a jar of flax seeds which will last me a month or two in smoothies and breads. The next week my healthy purchase may be a box of green tea which will last me 2 months. The next week I will buy some honey, or some wheat germ, almond butter, or some olive oil. Trying to buy it all at once can be pricey; buy it just a little bit at a time and you'll never notice. Better still, give up one unhealthy treat you are in the habit of buying and subsitute it with a healthier alternative. (Just as long as I don't substitute anything for my hubby's ice-cream! He considers ice-cream a necessity!)

*Be on the lookout for great deals. I posted last week about an amazon sale I had heard about where you could get groceries at 40% off and free shipping on many items. Sometimes a health food store goes out of business and everything is half off. This is how we got a year's supply of sucanat!

*Research! The fact that you are reading this post is a step in the right direction! The more I study my Sneaky Chef and Whole Grains cookbooks and the more I learn about Foods that Heal and Kitchen Counter Cures, the more I understand about health, nutrition, and the benefits of good eating. I follow blogs that encourage me in my healthier eating pursuits.

*If you're having trouble finding healthy foods you can afford, try starting with potatoes ($4 for a 20# bag), plain oatmeal ($1.50 per large canister), eggs ($1 a dozen), black beans (6 cups for $1 if you buy them dry), brown rice ($1-2 per #), carrots (50 cents to $1 per #), green tea (10 cents or less for a 16 ounce mug), and a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread ($2-$3). We've been fixing lots of potatoes recently because I found out that they are excellent for healing bones and contain lots of Vitamin C. We all love them and they are really cheap too! Potatoes can be baked, boiled, mashed, made into baked fries, or fried in olive oil. Onions (5# for $1 on sale) are wonderful for adding flavor to potato, rice, and bean dishes.

*Look for Pick-It-Yourself farms. They are rare in these parts but nevertheless there are farmer's markets and folks who might be willing to sell their farm produce. I know some of my MN friends enjoy picking berries in the summer and making jam!

*Learn to cook well. Knowing how to season food or experiment with recipes and flavors will help you to enjoy healthier eating. If you always burn the potatoes or make the cooked beans crunchy, you will find yourself gravitating back to Ramen.

*MoneySavingMom often features free samples, sales, or coupons for healthier foods.

What tips do YOU have on eating healthy on a budget?

Sweet Blessings

One neat blessing from the wedding is that we got tons of food leftovers! My mom hosted the Groom's Dinner in their home and they had over 30 people there and Dad made tons of grilled elk, T-bones, and chicken breasts. They had salads, croissants, baked potatoes, baked beans, punch and lemon bars. It was delicious and I'm proud of mom for pulling it off and not getting too stressed. Mom had lots of leftovers in spite of having company for a week straight and we got a big bunch of them.

Then there was lots of food leftover from the reception. We got all kinds of snacky foods, as well as 3-4 LARGE ziplocs of cut-up fruit, 2 jugs of ginger ale, and a whole luscious Cheesecake Factory cheesecake (this is not so good for me trying to lose the remaining baby weight!). Since the fruit was very ripe, I froze it to use in our daily, homemade smoothies.

We even got a lovely floral arrangement to grace our kitchen table for a while too!

What a blessing! The extra groceries this week are just a reminder that God is always taking care of us and He is our provider!

Frugal Habits

The other day I was thinking about how we make it one income (and recently how we are making it on one income that has been reduced). Often people around me will ask how we make it or say that I'm incredibly priviledged (translated: spoiled) to be at home. I am VERY BLESSED to be able to be home with my kids and I know not everyone truly has the option. But it's not because my husband makes lots of money, we inherited thousands, have a clandestine business on the side, or live off credit cards like some folks may think.



For those of you who haven't been reading my blog for very long, these are just some of the ways that immediately come to my mind that we save money so that I am able to be at home.



*We believe in tithing and that God blesses it. He is our provider and He has always taken care of our needs, causing my husband to get better and better jobs (or raises) with each child that has come into the family.



*We believe in living debt free. We recognize that saving to pay cash for a home isn't realistic for all folks in all circumstances and thus we will probably have a mortgage on our first home someday. But, insofar as we can, we avoid debt, and when we have outstanding bills (such as a few thousand that our insurance didn't pay on Jer's birth) we pay it off as quickly as possible.



*We rent an old, 2-bedroom home. We could probably afford to rent a fancier place with lots of rooms but it would leave us no wiggle room in the budget and no extra to save or handle emergencies. We are so happy in our cozy little home!



*We always drive older vehicles and maintain them ourselves. Even if other folks our age are driving flashier vehicles around we have always been pleased with our 10-18 year old vehicles. Our current van the Lord provided when Justus was born is our newest vehicle, being only 6 years old and was a great deal! Honda Accords and Toyota Camry's are our small cars of choice!



*We don't go out to eat very often. When Ali was little we had a habit of stopping at Pizza Hut after church a few times a month. Amazing how quickly that can add up! We both really enjoy eating out and do it now and then for a date night or special occasion but it's rare. Now, during our time of temporary scarcity, we don't eat out at all.



*We coupon. We got over $700 in free (that's 100% free) products last year thanks to couponing. We got countless other good deals with coupons, where the item was mere pocket change or a super-reduced price because of coupons. Half the time I don't even buy the paper and it's not like I spend hours clipping coupons each week. But when a good coupon is featured online (such as this week's Huggies coupon that's $5 off a package and another one is $3 off a package) I take advantage of it! I also use lots of the in-ad coupons from Safeway's flyer to get deals like: butter for 99 cents a pound, cereal for $1 a box, $10 off a $50 purchase, etc.



*We shop the loss leaders (front page specials that stores offer at rock bottom prices to get you in the store) and stockpile. I only buy what is on sale. It is very rare if I pay full price for anything. How can I do this? By stockpiling the things we use. This way we don't have to pay $3 for a roll of foil when we run out because I hit a sale and got 3 rolls when they were $1. I plan my menus for the week around what is on sale at the two stores. We always pay 50% or less of the regular price for any meats we buy. By shopping the really low deals at both stores in town, we probably pay about 50% of what most of our neighbors around us pay out for groceries each year.



*We cook from scratch and make simple foods. Bake our own bread most of the time, eat lots of brown rice, black beans, pasta and potatoes. We only eat meat about every other night. We find that we get plenty of proteins through yogurt, cheese, peanut and almond butter, and combining rice and beans, pasta and cheese, grains and milk to make complete proteins. We don't buy convenience foods unless they are free or close to it!



*We shop the yard sales and thrift stores. We often find outfits that have the tags on them or are name-brand items for a quarter!



*We accept and pass on hand-me-downs.



*We take simple steps to save. Substitute ingredients, rinse out ziplocs and re-use again and again, always check the reduced rack at the grocery store, don't make unnecessary trips to town, watch movies online or borrow from the library or friends instead of renting, I handmake most of the gifts we give or buy things on super sales, we have a gift stash so we're always prepared for birthdays and holidays, etc.

*We don't buy on credit cards. There have been times we have had to use our one credit card because of a torn debit card or having the debit card declined (since we have some mega security measures in place due to an identity theft scam) but we only use it if we can pay it off immediately.

*We cut our own hair, do our own oil changes, wash our cars at home, fix things ourselves, and make things ourselves when we can to avoid buying them.

*We do in-home date nights and avoid paying for a sitter as much as possible. Trading with friends occasionally and having my folks watch them once in a great while is better for our budget right now. Once or twice a year it's worth it to go out with friends though!

*We've used cloth diapers for each of our kids at least for part of their infancy. We only used them for a month with Ali since we had a cistern and had to ration water and had an old washing machine that didn't clean them well and no dryer to dry them in. When Jer was around 8 months old I learned to make the nifty pocket diapers and used them for about a year on him and we were in a rental with free laundry facilities and unlimited hot water. We started using them on Justus about a month ago and it's going well. All of our kids received about 5 months supply of diapers at their baby showers so we really haven't spent that much on diapers over the years.

*We don't have TV. We do watch movies and let our kids watch kids' movies but not having TV is SO HELPFUL for avoiding "the gimmies" and avoiding the American excess promoted all around us. I have noticed that kids who watch a ton of TV seem to be discontent with what they have and are always wanting something new they see on the commercials. For this reason I also don't subscribe to the free women's mags available out there. They can easily cause you to wish you had a nicer home, nicer clothes, or could afford fabulous vacations.

*We don't buy laundry sheets, air freshener sprays, or other things that really aren't essentials. We make our own laundry detergent (super easy: 1 bar of Ivory grated with 1 C. of washing soda and 1 C. borax--Use 2 T. per load) and thus we pay about 1/7th of the cost most people pay for laundry detergent.

*We try to eat healthy. I used to think that all the healthy foods were really expensive and you either paid more for groceries or ate junk, but now I realize that by buying the produce that's on sale each week, avoiding candy, pop, and chips (which are expensive and bad for the waistline) and by buying in bulk and watching for deals, you can truly eat healthy and be frugal at the same time! More on this in a future post!

*Instead of paying for trash pick-up at $17 a month for once-a-week pick-up King Jo takes our garbage to work with him and throws it in the woodshop dumpster there and pays my dad $5 a month towards the dumpster fee.

*This summer we hope to have a productive garden! I've done one garden before, using space at my folk's house, but it was TONS of work and exhausting as I was pregnant with Jer. It takes a LOT of work to grow veggies in our state and gardens need constant watering. Those of you in wet states like MN get to just plant it and watch it grow!

More Wedding Pics

Jeremiah and Nate chase the bubble trail up the aisle.

Here comes the bride!

They saved their first kiss for the altar, just as we did.

Big smile after their first kiss!

We're married!

The littlest ring bearer is tuckered out.

Trying to get a shot with my 3 children. Who knows where Jeremiah has wandered off to?

What a cool rock for taking pictures on behind the church!

The groomsmen are: Grant, Jeremy, and Dan. One of Anna's bridesmaids couldn't come to WY so that is why there are only 2.

It was so neat that my brother asked Jeremy to serve as one of his groomsmen. Jeremy is Tim and Bonnies' son (you see them in a picture further down). He is my age and was adopted from Hong Kong at age 11. He is mentally challenged, but is easily the most servant-hearted fellows you will ever meet and always has a huge grin for everyone. It was so special to have him be a part of the wedding.

Getting all the kids lined up was impossible. Noah and Nate are Anna's Cousin Vinco's kids. They flew in from Texas.

A view from the side; We are so thankful for the nice day! We expected snow on March 7th, but thankfully didn't get it until March 9th!

The couple with their parents.

A family pic of us

The new couple with Tim and Bonnie. These guys have been friends of our family for over 18 years and are like parents to Colter and I. We have both spent many weeks living at their home during our summers working with CEF. They used to be the Northwest Wyoming directors and now they are over a 4-state area. Some of the neatest people on earth!!!

Matching white princesses.

Dan, a long-time friend of ours through Child Evangelism Fellowship, and his new wife decorate the trooper with soap and pop cans.

I made over half of these petal cones out of paper and glue. I recommend buying the cones to anyone out there who wants to use these!!! They are more fun than bubbles; where were all these cool ideas when I got married just five years ago? I had fun helping with these little wedding details since I was doing stuff that stayed done! (Any moms out there understand what I mean?)

Anna B., one of Colter and I's long-time friends from our teen CEF days. She coordinated the wedding and was in charge of all the details, shopping, decorations, etc. since Colter and Anna were planning this wedding in 2 months and were in Honduras, where they are missionaries. Anna B. is so gifted in leadership and though it was a TON of work, she pulled it off and it was beautiful! What a great friend!

(She was also the friend who helped Colter set up a romantic candlelight picnic in the mountains of CO a year and a half ago when he proposed courtship to Anna P.)

Cheryl and Sue, from my church, were in charge of all of the food and cheesecakes

Arriving at the reception after a brief photo session in the canyon outside of our town

Mr. and Mrs. B

Alathia and Reagan (her preschool teacher's 6-year-old-daughter)

At the head table

Jerby was darling! He held a racecar the whole day long even while he was carrying the ring pillow up the aisle.

Coming down Petal Lane!!!

Grant, my goofy little brother.

The wedding was so fun because I got to see so many family members and friends and it was like a big reunion. My only regret is that it was over SO FAST! I wish I had had more time to chat with everyone!

Forsaking All Others--Why Weddings are Bittersweet

The night of the wedding I was pondering to myself why weddings are both joyous and sad. Now that I have kids, I can better understand the look of agony on the face of Anna's parents after the happy couple left and said goodbye. It nearly made me cry. Weddings change things. It's not that change is bad or that it's not a change for the better. It's that little line found in most wedding vows..."forsaking all others."

There was a time when my brothers were the men in my life. And though I was in a love fog and didn't really recognize it five years ago, they and my parents had the same look of sadness after my wedding when I joined myself to King Jo who became the main man in my life. My husband's folks, as well, surely felt the adjustment, especially his dad, who felt like he had lost his best friend. A very hard transfer, even if you adore the person your child/sibling is marrying, and even harder if you don't!

After a lifetime of being Colter's best female friend, now the main girl in Colter's life is Anna. I think she was designed by God for him, she's sweet, and we are grateful that she can be a blessing to Colter in his life overseas, far from family and friends and horses and wide open spaces. We know together they will be able to be used mightily of God in reaching the lost and training the believers in Latin America. Knowing the joy of marriage and the wonder of having little children through marriage I would never want to deny that joy to my brother.

But there's still a tiny piece in each family member that feels "forsaken." Vacation time in the states will be shared between families; each family will lose time with their son or daughter. Family dynamics will change a little bit as everyone gets to know someone new and relate to him/her. Different foods, and preferences and lifestyle details will make their way into families. Colter will have more responsibilities in the home and less time to chat or e-mail. They will have to consult one another on a whole host of issues and forsake "family expectations". Their schedules will not be their own. He will have less in common with single friends. She will have less time for her missionary career and will have to adjust to learning to care for a home and a husband.

Anna will be the one Colter gives his best to and would give his life for and she in turn will give her best to Colter and is no longer under her father's authority. She is the one who will be his ultimate love, his dearest friend, his highest standard of beauty and femininity. He will be responsible for making sure she's safe and treated with love. He will be her leader now. This is all good and necessary and part of the "leaving and cleaving" but nevertheless hard as everyone adjusts to the new roles.

I have a lump in my throat already thinking about the day my babies walk the aisle to make this covenant. It's so important to treasure these years and train them in godliness, and to be praying for their future spouses!

Wedding Pics

Justus got to ride in the wagon. The bubble machine blew bubbles out the back which Jer and Nate chased down the aisle. Three year old Noah, from Texas, pulled the wagon. Jer got to carry the ring pillow and hand it off to Uncle Grant, the best man.


Ali, Jer, and Noah and Nate (Anna's second cousins) hang out in the preschool room and play while they wait for their walk up the aisle.

My parents with little Justus

Abner, Daddy of the Bride, waits for his cue. This man is the "Head Honcho" of Child Evangelism for the ENTIRE continents of South and Central America. He told a sweet story at the reception about how little Anna as a child would sit in the CEF classes and listen to her parents training seminars even though she was too young to be "officially" in them. She became an expert in telling the wordless book. One day he saw her grab their pet beagle by the ears and force him to listen to the wordless book because she wanted the beagle to be saved and go to heaven!

Joanna, a bridesmaid from Oregon, was very nice and fun to meet!

Anna and Colter designed this dress together on paper and then had a tailor in Honduras make it. Colter hadn't seen her in the dress until the "big moment."

A bride needs her fluids!

Grammy helps hold the littlest member of the wedding party.

Anna with her best friend and maid of honor, Leigh from Dallas, TX, who is currently a graduate student at Pensacola Christian College. She was sweet!

Interestingly enough, Leigh is a blog reader, (having been told about my blog through Anna) and so I told her, "Now you don't just get to read it; you get to be ON it!!!"

Mom tries to help Colter and Grant, my brothers, with their flowers.

Anna helps her Mama with her flower.

Alathia is thrilled to see that her and Anna match and are dressed alike!

My new sweet sister! Ironically, my mom pointed out at Christmastime that Anna is the fulfillment of our dreams since she has always wanted to adopt a little girl from Mexico and I had always hoped for that little girl for a sister. In spite of that not happening, God still brought us a Spanish-speaking, cultural diverse young woman to join our family!

The kids all dressed up and ready to go!

I'm going to post some today and some tomorrow lest I overwhelm the blog!