No blog is complete without the writer's New Years Resolutions. Maybe you disagree. Eh.
The big resolution around our house this year is "SAVE MONEY" Not so much because of the national recession, though its a good idea in general to learn to be more content with less and trim the budget, but mainly because we want to buy a house and need to save up a down payment. So we have resolved to
A) Not buy fast food at all - If we can go a month without buying drive-
thru food, then we will reward the whole family by going out for one meal at a restaurant.
B) Buy only the groceries that we NEED, which means not buying food at the store just because we are having a craving or the item would save 2 minutes with a chore.
These are 2 little things that have already made a HUGE impact on our budget! I have spent less than $200 on groceries this month so far, which is about what I spend in a week normally. I know, its only 2 weeks into the month, but imagine that if I can keep that up, we can potentially save $4
oo just from trimming the grocery bill! And if you add the impulsive drive-
thru purchases to that, it probably comes closer to $600 saved in one month. Pretty impressive.
Yesterday we did a social studies project that required no prep on my part and made my children a more involved part of our goal. I asked each child to tell me the difference between need and want (the 3 year old chose to go play in his room, as he is not required to do all projects yet). I then asked the oldest 2 to go look through all the cupboards and cabinets, refrigerator and freezers to see what we have in the house to eat. They named off all that they could. I then asked them if we "needed" to buy groceries, or do we have enough in the house to eat? It was good for them to see that we really do have an abundance of food in our house and
Im hoping it will help them understand that just because you
want something, does not mean you
need it. Edward made the observation that we have enough food to last a month in our house. And he is right! I could probably go a month without buying food. I would have to get REALLY creative with meals, which is always challenging but doable. For instance, last night for dinner we had pizza, but I
didnt feel like going under the house (where we have shelves) to get tomato sauce, I
didnt have any
mozzarella cheese and there was no pepperoni, so our pizza went something like this:
1 lb
boule dough (recipe here:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx) , or other pizza/bread dough you have on hand.
1 1/2 tbsp butter
minced garlic (out of a jar)
basil (in the winter, I use herbs that come in the tubes, keeps for a long time, no time to chop)
1/2 zucchini
1/2 summer squash
5 sausage links (the kind that is frozen,
pre-cooked. This time it was Banquet, which my husband chose, but normally I buy Johnson Farms frozen breakfast sausages - no
BHA,
BHT or
TBHQ or other preservatives)
3/4 cup shredded cheese - I happened to have used a Southwest mix that was
pre-shredded.
1. Preheat oven to 450 F
2. Roll out dough onto parchment paper that has been sprinkled with cornmeal (or hand toss if you are that good)
3. Mix butter, garlic and basil. Spread evenly onto crust, leaving the edges butter free.
4. Slice zucchini and squash into thin slices. Saute with olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes.
5. Slice frozen sausages, add to squash mix. Continue to cook for 3 or 4 minutes.
6. Scatter squash mixture onto pizza crust. Top with Cheese
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to golden. Serves 4
Not hard, is it? You could totally add any veggie or meat to that and it would work. Kids tried some new stuff, we
didnt spend any money and it was great!
The last thing we did for school was discuss where food comes from. There are 6 ways to get food: Hunting, Fishing, Grow it, Keep animal (chickens, goats, etc), Forage and lastly, the grocery store. We also discussed how the food/money cycle works between us and the farmers that grow the food. The most important part of our discussion was focused on those first 5 ways to get food. Most of them cost us no or very little money. It is these things that will be the focus of our children's education. We live in Alaska and there is very little excuse for not being able to feed yourself. And what's an education if you learn no skills for caring for yourself? I want my kids to be able to provide for themselves if needed and not be burdened with the modern "convenience" of money and wasted food. Providing for yourself also builds confidence. Its just the beginning to becoming a sure-footed adult.
So our kids will hopefully be more willing to help us meet our goal. They all agree we need a little more space and that means a bigger house. They are getting better at eating what is given to them without complaining also. If we can stick with it, we could have the down payment before summer. It does mean that I wont get to take any trips outside this year (major bummer, since I really wanted to go to Ireland this year) but if I have to choose between a new house or a vacation, I choose the house!
I have an ongoing list of the foods in our house. I may occasionally post recipes I come up with and
Im open to recipes you might want to share.
