"Cheat" Opportunity for $100/Month-ers

It has been a long time since my last post- I hope you’re all doing well.  Our little home has been overwhelmingly busy with travel and baby preparation, and other adoption adventures.  We have been painting, cleaning out, building furniture, registering, childproofing, completing training hours, and much, much more to get ready, and our excitement grows to bring our little girl home.  With the help of a couple of great friends, we turned our second bedroom into something that actually resembles a nursery now, and our downstairs dining room is now a library/office with plenty of play space for our daughter.

Here's a preview of her room...there's still a lot to be done, but the new wall color (it was maroon below the chair rail when we moved in) is much lighter and brighter.

    

I have decided that one of my favorite things to do is clean out the house.  Our friends are well on their way in their adoption journey (PaulAndKirstenAdopt.blogspot.com), and they’ve been collecting items for a fundraiser garage sale.  This has been exactly the motivation I’ve needed to go through everything we own, and really decide what we “need” and what we don’t.  I am so happy to say that we literally got rid of almost half of our belongings, from clothes to furniture, to decorations and kitchen items.  And to be honest- I don’t miss any of the items we got rid of.  

It is so freeing to clean and simplify your home in this way.  I didn’t think we had a lot of belongings until I actually went through everything and saw that we had plenty of items that we were not using on a regular basis. So, as the Robertsons say- “they gone!”  The added benefit is that the next time we move will be so much easier than the last…and with four flights of stairs leading up to our little “tree house,” that is a very good thing.  I’d love to extend the challenge to you of cleaning our your home too, even if it is a room- heck, a drawer- at a time and donate it.  Trust me when I say that it is more therapeutic for you than for the recipient.  Check out Paul and Kirsten’s blog if you’d like to donate items to their garage sale, and they have other great giving opportunities as well.        

For those of you doing the $100/month challenge (or any set amount per month, for that matter), I have found a “cheating” opportunity that I wanted to share with you.  If you are a member at Costco, they are currently doing a promotion where if you spend $100 on any P&G products, you get a rebate offer of a $20 Costco cash card that you can spend as a gift card for whatever you want, including food.  P&G products include Charmin, Crest, Oral-B, Tide, Olay, Febreeze, Swiffer, Vicks, Gillette, Iams, and many more brands.  Many of these brands are also on sale now through 3/30/14.  So if you already buy these household items, you may want to stock up now on products you are going to purchase in the future anyway, and you could use the $20 cash card toward groceries in later months.  You’ll save money on sale P&G items that you already use, and you’ll get a little bonus for your grocery budget- it’s a win-win.  Be sure to read the fine print- only two cash cards per household, and they’re mailed out 6-8 weeks after the promotion ends.

I’d love to hear how you are doing with your grocery budgeting!  So far this year, after March, I have $47 in my “rollover” fund, which is good since I’m sure we will need to be buying more when our little one comes home.  Now go simplify your home and your life ;), and thank you for reading about this mindful home!

Two Tips and Two Announcements

Happy February!  Can you believe January is already over?  I hope, for those of you joining me in the challenge, that your first month went well and that your prep work for February is encouraging also.  First, I’d like to address an issue that many people feel strongly one way or the other about, and it’s this: organic versus non-organic food.  

I decided that this month I would buy only organic food to prove that you can do the $100-a-month budget and still have freedom to eat how you want.  To be fair, I already buy organic whenever I can afford it, which typically means our non-dairy milks, our leafy greens, our tomato products, our eggs, and our quinoa, among other things.  But this month I also added all of the other items on my list including carrots, peppers, onions, and various other veggies.  The results?  I spent nearly double on these typically non-organic items, but I still came in under my $100 budget at $89.  That leaves $11 to roll over into next month, plus the $15 from last month...which brings me to my next point of discussion.  

It may be wise for you to budget a small line of leftover cash each month toward “sale stock-up” items.  What I mean is that you can really cut down your yearly food spending when you buy sale items that you were going to buy at full price anyway.  If you save $5-$10 a month, you’d have a little extra money after a few months that you can use on those sale items that you may not have budgeted for, yet the price today will save you money in future months.  I saw one of our staple items on sale today for nearly 30% off the original price.  I purchased two of them, which saved me $8 (a lot when you’re spending only $100 a month), and I won’t have to buy this item again for nearly six months.  Saving cash for great sales will save you cash in the long run.

I am excited to make two announcements on the bog.  First, a few weeks ago, a sweet friend introduced my husband and me to Working Hands Farm.  It is a local farm and CSA (community supported agriculture) that considers itself “beyond organic.”  What this means it that they don’t use any pesticides, not even if they’re organic.  They use other methods, such as crop rotation, ground covers, and lots of hand care to grow some of the best looking produce I have seen.  After checking out their website (www.workinghandsfarm.com), I just knew I had to become a share holder.  First- I fully support what these two farmers are doing...like, fully.  Second, did you see their produce bins?!  Hello three foot kale, beautiful and colorful produce, and small batch canning!  It was love at first sight.  The difficult part was trying to figure out how I would work this CSA into my budget.  So I invited my sister and her family in on the share, and we are splitting all of the produce.  We will be rotating weeks to pick up the produce, but I have a strong feeling that my little family will be able to survive on very few groceries besides what we get in our bi-weekly bins.  I am thrilled to be a part of this little farm- it is clear that Brian and Jess work very hard and rely on the support of the people in their community, which I am proud to be a part of.  

The last announcement is one that my husband and I have been waiting two years this month to be able to share- we have officially accepted a referral for our adoption!  We have been matched with a little girl in Ghana, and we hope and pray that we will have her home by summer of this year.  We cannot share more details, as she is not yet in our legal custody, but we are overjoyed by the little blessing that she is.    

So some big news for our home- a new mouth to feed, and half of our yearly budget for food has been willingly pre-spent on a local CSA.  My little challenge just got extremely interesting!  I hope you’ll come along with me as we navigate these exciting new adventures.  Thanks for reading!  

Confession

When it comes to living a simple life and having a “mindful home,” I strongly believe that this means we need to get rid of our clutter and the things we don’t need or don’t use.  For me and my husband, this meant going through our entire house a few weeks ago, and getting rid of about half of the “stuff” we own (excluding furniture).  This whole process was made easier by the fact that we have some friends who are adopting, and they are asking for donations to a garage sale from which the proceeds will help bring their kiddos home.  Sweet- the motivation I needed to be a little more cut-throat with what we are keeping.  Thus, the idea for this next post was born... 

Confession: I have too many clothes.  I counted my hangers this past weekend, and including pants, tops, dresses, skirts, and jackets, I had nearly 250.  Seriously?  Granted, most of them were handed down to me, birthday or Christmas gifts, or purchased from my favorite thrift store in Portland.  So my wardrobe, although large, was quite inexpensive.  But I still had so many things that I couldn’t even assemble a single outfit in a reasonable amount of time.  Ever have that problem?  Do you ever have too many choices in the morning, so you just stand there in front of your billions of hangers and complain as you try on item after item until you run out the door (late!) in something that you regret wearing one hour later?  No?  Just me?  

Well having too many choices was definitely the problem for me.  I have several things that I don’t really like, and I only keep them because I think there’s a tiny chance that I MAY put on that five-year-old top one day and it will just look ravishing.  Um, yeah right Katy.

It was time to cut some of the clutter.  I decided on a method that I wanted to share with all of you...ahem...clothing hoarders like me, in hopes that it will work for you and simplify your home, life, and get you out the door on time in the morning.  Here are my three tips:

• Instead of weeding out the items that you could possibly part with, take out the opposite.  Only remove the items that you will NOT get rid of.  Take out your non-negotiables.  Move all of your negotiables to the back of your closet and keep them there for a good length of time.  For me, it will be a month or so.  Whichever items I don’t pull from the back of the closet to wear are getting the boot.  And you will probably be surprised by how many non-negotiables you have, which you may find is plenty of clothing for you.  

• Only keep the nice items: the timeless items, classic items, neutral-so-it-goes-with-everything items, fits-like-it-was-tailored-to-me items, and the items you can’t live without.  Move the stained, doesn’t-fit-right, has-holes-in-it, I-may-wear-it-someday, I’m-saving-it-for-a-specific-occasion items to the back.  Mind you, I didn’t say to only keep expensive items; if it was costly but you still never wear it, give it to someone who will wear it and enjoy it...clothes weren’t made to keep your hangers warm!

• If you have too many of one thing, say jackets for example, narrow it down.  I had several jackets for several types of seasons.  Instead of keeping all of them, I chose two: a waterproof shell and a down jacket.  They can be worn individually for any type of weather, or layered together for the perfect winter coat.  I chose the neutral colors so they go with anything, and I made sure they fit right and don’t make me look like a football player.  Get rid of duplicates if you can simplify.

From now on when I get something new that I want to keep, I am going to really challenge myself to get rid of something in exchange.  If you really want to, you could keep only enough hangers for what you have so you don’t have a choice in the matter.  I better really like it to keep it, and it better be good quality and versatile.  Now, my closet is a little more sparse, with only 120 hangers, and its amazing how freeing it is to get rid of so much.  

These steps work great in other areas of your home as well.  Is your kitchen full of plates, bowls, platters, and other "stuff" that you never use?  Do you have too many toiletries in your bathroom drawers?  And don't forget about the garage.  Get the whole family involved- it's a great thing to teach your kids too.  Try pulling out your non-negotiables and donating the rest.    

Please feel free to share your organizing and cleaning tips and tricks- I’d love to hear from you.  Thanks for reading about this mindful home!  

"31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero" Blog and an All Purpose Cleaner

I found a great blog today called “Living Well Spending Less” and the author lays out a one month challenge for her readers called “31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero.”  She offers great advice, daily blog posts, great perspective and reflection on what she is learning, and a lot of printables and cleaning/organizing goals along the way.  I think there is something for everyone to take from a challenge like this, wether you choose to participate or just read about it.  I am exited to take on the challenge one (at least!) month during 2014.  I hope you’ll check it out or take the challenge, and see what you can live without that you never thought you could.  

In the spirit of the "31 Days of Living Well Spending Zero" challenge and the cleaning that she includes in her challenge, I am adding a long overdue recipe to my “Beyond the Kitchen” series.  This time it’s for an all purpose surface cleaner that can be used to on countertops, sinks, toilets, showers, etc.  It is safe enough to use around your home and family, as all the ingredients are natural. It takes only a couple minutes to make and it costs pennies per bottle.  Here it is:  

Two parts distilled white vinegar

One part water

One teaspoon pure castile soap (lavender and tea tree work well)

10 to 15 drops of your favorite essential oil (lemon, eucalyptus, tea tree, and lavender all have cleansing properties)

Mix in a spray bottle and spray directly on dirty surfaces.  Wipe with clean, dry cloth.

Notes: The castile soap may leave the spray looking cloudy- that’s totally normal and won’t be an issue.  The vinegar smell may seem strong at first, but you’ll get used to it after using the spray for a couple weeks. 

Thanks for reading, and I hope all of you $100-A-Month challengers are having a great first month!   

Three Staple Recipes

I'm so excited that a few people have decided to join me on my challenge.  I would love to hear successes (and failures) along the way.  But for now, I want to share three of my favorite staple recipes with you that can help you cut down cost each month.  

The first recipe is one that I have on hand, in my fridge or freezer, at all times.  It is a vegetable bouillon recipe that can be added to plain water to make amazing vegetable broth.  I even put it in the water when I'm cooking rice, quinoa, beans, and lentils.  Not only is it tasty, but it will completely cut out your cost of stock and/or broth, while saving space in your cupboards and fridge due to its high concentration of flavor.  Plus, the ingredients are inexpensive and it lasts a couple months.  Here is the recipe from HeartlandRenaissance.com:

A note: The quantity of salt in this recipe is essential to preserving the raw vegetables.  Basically you’re making a form of a pickle to store in your fridge until you add it with hot water to make stock.  Don’t even think of skimping it!  Also, unlike my other stock recipes, this one is already, obviously, seasoned so be cautious about any excess salt you add to your finished dish – taste test first!  If you must have a no or low-salt version, see the note at the end of the recipe for a freezer-version.

Vegetable Bouillon

(makes one full quart)

• 4 carrots, peeled, trimmed and cut into one inch pieces
• 3 stalks of celery, trimmed, washed and cut into one inch pieces
• 1 very large shallot (3 average sized ones) or 1 medium-sized mild onion
• 4 green onions, washed and chopped (I would also consider substituting one leek, white part only, next time if I had one in my vegetable bin)
• 1 large handful of flat leaf parsley, stems and leaves, washed and lightly chopped
• About 1/2 cup or so of sun-dried tomato halves (the only ones I could find were stored in oil, but I’d also make it again with those that are simply dried)
• 1-1/2 cups of mushrooms, stems and caps, cleaned and chopped (I used Baby Bellas)
• 3 large cloves of garlic
• 8 ounces salt (measure by weight, if possible – I used kosher salt and it was just under 1 cup but different salts will measure out differently by volume)
• 1 Tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

Layer all the ingredients in a large food processor and blend away, pulsing if necessary to get all the vegetables to the blades, until you have a uniform paste.  I have the largest food processor available to the masses – a 14 cupper – so if you have a smaller one I’d recommend halving the recipe or processing in batches.  Store in a quart size jar in the fridge! To use, measure out 1 measured teaspoon per 1 cup of hot water.

The second recipe was given to me by a co-worker, so I am not sure of it’s origins.  It is a simple and quick (for bread) Honey Wheat bread, and again, the ingredients, especially if purchased in bulk, are very inexpensive:

Honey Wheat Bread

• 1 cup water (plus more if needed)
• 2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 cup wheat flour (plus more if needed)
• 2 tbsp yeast

Set oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Put all wet ingredients into standing mixer with a dough hook attachment.  Then add all dry ingredients and mix for 10 minutes.  Cover dough and let it rise for an hour.  Divide in half and put into two greased loaf pans.  Allow to rise another 20 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top starts to turn golden brown.

The final recipe is for a vegetable soup that is delicious.  You can add and subtract different vegetables for this one depending on what you have on hand and what you prefer.  Plus, you can use your new vegetable bouillon from the above recipe for the stock and serve it with a loaf of freshly baked Honey Wheat Bread as a great meal or two for the family.  This recipe is from the Salu-Salo.com website:

Vegetable Soup with Kale and Edamame

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Yield: 4-5 servings

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 can 213 ml (7.2 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 large potato, peeled and diced
• 1 cup frozen kernel corn
• 1 cup frozen shelled edamame (green soybeans)
• 2 leaves kale, chopped
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and celery and cook for 5 minutes or until onion is translucent.
2. Stir in garlic and cook for 2 minutes or until fragrant.
3. Pour in vegetable broth and tomato sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add carrots and potatoes and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until carrots are tender.
5. Add corn, edamame and kale. Continue to simmer for another 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Serve and enjoy!

Notes: Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Thank you so much for reading and for joining me on this journey!

  

Our $100-A-Month Challenge

Over the past several months, I have written blog posts about what we spend on groceries per month. But I realized that my posting what we buy and when we buy it doesn't really challenge me, and it really does nothing for you either. Instead, I'm going to challenge myself and my readers to set a monthly budget for ourselves and, together, we can see if we can reach our goals throughout the year. Call it a resolution. If you've been doing once-a-month shopping and meal planning, chances are that you already have some food in your pantry. My question is: do you actually use it?  Or do you still buy all of your groceries for the month and save what you have on hand for when you're in a pinch?  Do you even know what you'll find in the dark back corners or your cupboards and pantries?  Are you storing things that have expired?  It might be time to clear out the old stuff and get some inspiration from what we have on hand.  That's what I'm going to do for this $100-a-month challenge in our household.

I hope to be able to share some tips that I have learned with you that you can really use to keep a handle on your grocery budget.  The size of your family will have a lot to do with your budget, but I have read other blogs and learned from two amazing women with large families (one is a family of 9) who do it for $100 a month or less. Check out "The Prudent Homemaker Blog" and "$100 a Month Mom." Here's the kicker for our house- if our daughter comes home from Ghana this year (please, God!), I'm not going to add any money to our grocery budget.  Oh, and I have also started eating eggs again.  Due to my low protein and vitamin B12 levels, my husband and I decided it would be best. I don't like adding new expenses into our monthly groceries, but it will add to the challenge.

So here's where we can start doing together:

Find out what's actually occupying that space in your kitchen and pantry.  Get rid of old or expired items.

Take out cash for your first trip.  This will help keep us on track- when it's gone it's gone!  Remember that you can roll over what you don't use into the next month(s).

Start getting resourceful- look up new recipes that use what you already have, and try hard to cut down on food waste.  Think soup! :)

Don't make yourself crazy.  If you have extra money, treat yourself to something that you'll enjoy for the month.  For us this month, it was smoked salmon, which cost nearly $16.

Research the best deals in your area for the items on your list. It may be helpful to keep a list of which items are cheaper at which stores. But don't drive too far out of your way either and defeat the purpose by wasting your time and gas. Also, keep in mind that there is some inflation in prices going on right now- beef and chocolate are just a couple that I've heard of.

Plan your garden and canning adventures now so you'll be prepared to grow and preserve your own food.

Here's a tougher one: ask around about gleaning and trading opportunities. My husband traded the deer meat he bow-hunted this year for duck and pork. He's now set for meat for the year.

Don't include household goods or toiletries in this challenge- keep a separate line for those items.

And check in- I'd love to hear what you're planning and how it's going. I am already so excited for the end of the year to see how we all do.

Will you join me?

Here's the tally for January- we spent $84.90 this month on food.

November and December

I’m sorry that it has been so long since my last post...my computer and I were having a little disagreement.  But it has been fixed (for free- thank you Apple Care), and we are back in business.  I have been very excited about the last two months of grocery shopping.  In November, after looking through what we have on hand and doing my meal planning accordingly, I was pleased to realize that I only needed a handful of items for the month.  Apples, carrots, spinach, frozen edamame and broccoli, dried basil, coconut milk, and red curry sauce all made the list.  The total was a whopping $38.35 for the month.  To be very transparent, I needed a container of vegan cream cheese later in the month, so add $2.99 to that total.

For the month of December, (which I completely forgot to photograph), I decided just to purchase the few items we needed to restock and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.  I have a lot of food in our pantry and freezer to use up, which will supplement the produce that we bought to create our meals.  Things like bell peppers, spinach, asparagus, brussels sprouts, broccoli, onion, apples and some spices made it into the cart, plus hempseeds, olive oil, and canned stewed tomatoes.  Our total came out just under $114.  

My in-laws were also here this month, and they treated us to a few groceries that we needed such as bulk popcorn kernels, vinegar, coffee, salmon, mahi, and a couple other items that will definitely save us money in the coming months.  Thank you Mom and Dad Peterson!

My goal over the next couple of months is to clear out some of the space in our big freezer that is in our garage.  As a matter of fact, I am headed down now to get out a frozen crockpot meal that we can have for dinner tonight.  Thanks to a day of hard work several months ago, dinner will be mess and stress free tonight...yay!

I am very happy to have had such low food costs these past couple months because the holidays always stretch our budget.  We are not big on gift giving in our house, but there are countless opportunities to give money (and/or time) to charitable causes.  I will, however, be hand-making something small for friends and family, which I will be sure to share more about in my next post.

How do you keep your food costs down during the holidays?  Do you prefer to donate rather than buy gifts in your family?  What are some of your favorite homemade gifts?  Thank you for reading, and happy holidays!