What brings us down can truly make us stronger
Posted 11-04-2009 at 04:13 PM by fosterfamily5
Hi all,
first a little background to my story. Things have been rough the last month or so financially, which is easily translated into everything else in your life getting down on you. Everything really does seem to happen at once. The past week I have found myself cooking only when necessary to feed our family and not wanting to eat certain things in the house just in case the kids might be hungry. Don't take that to mean I went hungry, I just meant Instead of having leftovers for lunch I ate a peanut butter sandwich so the kids could have the leftovers for dinner. I had been using all of the great lessons I had learned for making meals stretch. And strategecly planning things to use up what we had. Last week I had bugs in my pantry. YUCK!!!! I had to throw out alot. Some things I just took for granted because I always have them, ie flour, sugar,beans. My dry beans had white worms in them...... I didn't have the money to go shopping until this morning.
I made sure I cut the coupons I'd been putting off doing. About 3 weeks worth. I only planned a couple of meals because I really needed to go food staple shopping. I went to our Winco foods store to do my shopping. I took my time 1 1/2 hours actually. I bought mostly things we had been out of for a while, fresh fruit's and vegetables, and some baking and pantry items, along with some great deals on TP and laundry soap. All said and done I spent $140.00. That's actually easy to do when there is no food in the house. but I got about 17 bags of groceries and I hadn't been shopping for about 3 weeks.
While I was shopping I was passing out coupons to other people for random things I saw in their cart that I would never buy. Yes I stilll cut ALL the coupons. It felt good and most people were very appreciative.
Anyway while I was bagging my groceries the couple behind me had a car not quite as full as mine but I was taking notice of what was in it. They had mostly frozen Pre packaged meals, pizzas, that sort of stuff. They did have alot of cuts of meat, which I won't buy at winco. (it scares me). My eyes almost popped out of my head when I heard their bill was $340.00. I've never seen anyone spend that much at the store. The cashier looked at me and said that was nothing, she had 3 people the other day spend $700. Needless to say I may not have boughten meat but I bought ALOT more food for my mere $140.00
The first thing I thought of was all of the people I have met here on this website. I don't have food storage like some, I don't can, I don't have a garden, or land to raise my own groceries, but I have learned not to be wasteful with grocery money (or lack of). And I thank everyone here for that little lesson.
Life is a journey and everyone has different problems in their life, weather it be financial, emotional, or physical. At first, I was using the things I learned here for fun, kind of as a hobby, It was also an outlet for me. My shopping trip today made me realize just how automatic some of the lessons in frugality I've learned have become. Thank you!!!
first a little background to my story. Things have been rough the last month or so financially, which is easily translated into everything else in your life getting down on you. Everything really does seem to happen at once. The past week I have found myself cooking only when necessary to feed our family and not wanting to eat certain things in the house just in case the kids might be hungry. Don't take that to mean I went hungry, I just meant Instead of having leftovers for lunch I ate a peanut butter sandwich so the kids could have the leftovers for dinner. I had been using all of the great lessons I had learned for making meals stretch. And strategecly planning things to use up what we had. Last week I had bugs in my pantry. YUCK!!!! I had to throw out alot. Some things I just took for granted because I always have them, ie flour, sugar,beans. My dry beans had white worms in them...... I didn't have the money to go shopping until this morning.
I made sure I cut the coupons I'd been putting off doing. About 3 weeks worth. I only planned a couple of meals because I really needed to go food staple shopping. I went to our Winco foods store to do my shopping. I took my time 1 1/2 hours actually. I bought mostly things we had been out of for a while, fresh fruit's and vegetables, and some baking and pantry items, along with some great deals on TP and laundry soap. All said and done I spent $140.00. That's actually easy to do when there is no food in the house. but I got about 17 bags of groceries and I hadn't been shopping for about 3 weeks.
While I was shopping I was passing out coupons to other people for random things I saw in their cart that I would never buy. Yes I stilll cut ALL the coupons. It felt good and most people were very appreciative.
Anyway while I was bagging my groceries the couple behind me had a car not quite as full as mine but I was taking notice of what was in it. They had mostly frozen Pre packaged meals, pizzas, that sort of stuff. They did have alot of cuts of meat, which I won't buy at winco. (it scares me). My eyes almost popped out of my head when I heard their bill was $340.00. I've never seen anyone spend that much at the store. The cashier looked at me and said that was nothing, she had 3 people the other day spend $700. Needless to say I may not have boughten meat but I bought ALOT more food for my mere $140.00
The first thing I thought of was all of the people I have met here on this website. I don't have food storage like some, I don't can, I don't have a garden, or land to raise my own groceries, but I have learned not to be wasteful with grocery money (or lack of). And I thank everyone here for that little lesson.
Life is a journey and everyone has different problems in their life, weather it be financial, emotional, or physical. At first, I was using the things I learned here for fun, kind of as a hobby, It was also an outlet for me. My shopping trip today made me realize just how automatic some of the lessons in frugality I've learned have become. Thank you!!!
Total Comments 3
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I truely agree -I have parents that buy nothing that is not processed -frankly I buy like you is it frugal -somewhat ,but also very smart -why would anyone waste money on pre packaged chemical and usually bi products from what ever animal it has come from. As far as the bugs I have had them even in noodles -I keep all of that in the freezer -flour ,noodles oatmeal -beans and sugar in a ziplock bag or closed container .I to have hit a rough spot trying to pay my bills and buy food IT is tough ,but good budgeting will get both of us through it. And this web-site will give me the knowlege to do it -good luck !!! take care prayers for your family. Bobbi -NE
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Oh my! I live in Missouri and if there is anything open, bugs will crawl, fly or get into anything they can. I store everything in glass or plastic only with screw top lids. Bugs climb into zip lock bags, plastic wear containers with snap on lids, ect. Hope you can make it financially. Getting harder and harder to do so lately! I no longer make regular grocery trips. I'm on the look out for bulk food I can store away. Our meat this year will be deer and turkey and fish hunted and caught right here on our property. Filling my freezer and two of our son's freezers in the next few weeks.
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We pulled our money and I'm canning and drying veggies for the next few weeks. Potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, apples, radishes, onions and cabbages. I dry part of it to make up soup mixes to have on hand. I started making everything from scratch and my kids love it! They were amazed when we got together and we made flour tortilla's from scratch and then made corn tortillas and made taco shells out of them. They cut some of them up and made their own tortilla chips and said they preferred these to store bought kind! We made Cheese Straws a couple nights ago and they said they loved them much more than store bought Cheese crackers! Can't imagine how people survive on fast food and instant frozen food junk! My sister was taking care of her son's mother-in-law who would only eat precessed foods like chicken nuggets, pop, ect and she died a few weeks ago from eating all those precessed foods. I think we were very blessed when I almost died several years ago and doing our own research changed our diet to eliminate all refined sugars and starches. I have kissed doctors and our currently medical climate good bye. I am learning how to survive and thrive using good natural foods and herbs. Best of luck to you! It will take a wise frugal person to make it in today's world!
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