Vaughnshire Farm

I am still learning the art of how to put bulk foods to use, store them and how to calculate how much I need.  As I get into buying bulk quantities of staple foods, I wonder why I didn’t figure this out earlier.  Though the prices of things like grain, oats and rice are skyrocketing, it is still much cheaper to buy a bulk 50 lb bag of oats than buy little canisters at the store. 

I am have been reading about the proper way to store different foods.  Currently, I am separating out the bags into 1 gallon ziploc type baggies and storing them on shelves in the pantry, which is not ideal for long term storage.  If I have room in the freezer, I will put grain and oat in there. 

There are a couple of downsides of bulk buying that I can think of to one who is not use to this type of shopping.  One would be the fact that it does take up space.  Another reason would be the fact of cost.  You would need to reorganize your budget to be able to spend a large amount of money at one time, in order to avoid spending more money over time with smaller packages and containers.  Another reason might be the fact that if you do not store your food properly, you could loose it to bugs or moisture.  It takes a bit more research and knowledge “how to” when stocking your kitchen with bulk foods. 

But…there are so many more positives, especially for those who have larger families.  In the long run, bulk food purchases are much cheaper.  You are not having to run to the store every couple of days because you are out of some basic ingredient.  You also have security and peace of mind that you at least have some type of food in the house in the case of an emergency.  You can buy organic or natural foods much cheaper in larger packages and you are not limited to just grain.  You can get dried fruit, cocoa powder or carob powder, flax seed and other non-grain type foods in bulk bags as well.  Over all, bulk food purchases save you time and money.   

I think you must have to live in a cave to not notice that there is something up with the food and gas prices.  

Now that spring time has arrived and growing season is in full swing, food options are a bit more varied than during the winter months.  There are farmer’s markets and home gardening that can help relieve the rise in blood pressure at paying ridiculous prices for items such as a green pepper or head of lettuce.  The fact is — you are not paying for the produce, but for the countless other expenses it takes to get that pepper or head of lettuce to market–like shipping it in all the way from the other side of the country…or world.   

While it is true that some of the household expenditures can be drastically reduced with using coupons and rebates, finding healthy food like produce, meat, eggs, milk and grains, enough for a large family, doesn’t happen on coupons.  I am talking about staple food items. 

I have been shocked at the rise in prices on bulk items that I buy:  

• In December, I paid $21 for a 50 lb bag of grain. 
• Last week, I paid $31 for a 50 lb bag of grain. 
• In December, I paid $20 for a 50 lb bag of oats. 
• Last week, I paid $30 for a 50 lb bag of oats.  
• A couple of months ago, I paid $20 for a 1/2 gallon of maple syrup. 
• Last week, I paid $25 for the same thing. 

Those being good deals right now as I have seen higher prices on the same items elsewhere.

Many of us would do well to consider the old fashion idea of maintaining a stocked pantry and not depend so much on the 24 hour grocery store down the street to be our pantry, especially living in unstable economic times such as where we are living today.  Some will scoff at the old adage of preparedness that generations in times past believed in, especially those of us who have always had everything at our fingertips.  However, considering history, we would do well to be prudent and wise when it comes to thinking about our position and vulnerability in regards to food.   

Do we live month to month or paycheck to paycheck?

Do we neglect to have basics on hand in our pantry?

Do we know how to use basic ingredients to create meals?

Do we know what our food buying options are in the area in which we live?

With spring comes an increase in the amount of things to do around here on the farm as well.  The boys have all kinds of baby, toddler and laying chickens to manage and are scurrying around trying to put together plans for an egg-mobile.  We also just acquired a new pig.  I am not sure how old she is.  And then there is the garden…awaiting…  We have plants ready to be transplanted and seeds to sow.  We are waiting on a nice day without wind gusts and rain.  The guys have been doing their own spring projects like clearing brush, limbs and gathering compost piles. 

Cutting tree limbs

Part of our spring cleaning included me putting an ad on Craig’s list for our massive rooster population.  They were all gone the next day!  Wow…what a difference that makes.  We would have prepared them for the freezer, but circumstances with work and activities did not permit a chicken processing day. 

I still have a huge list of spring cleaning “to do’s” pertaining to the house that I will hopefully get around to doing. 

I attended an exciting health conference in St. Louis this past weekend.  As health and natural medicine are great interests of mine, especially now as a mother, I found this weekend to be highly profitable.

The doctors teaching at the conference focused on the topic, “Natural Medicine for Common Childhood Illnesses” and with a room full of doctors and mothers, it was a great time to learn some valuable information to help in treating my own family.   

Some of the topics covered were first related to disease and that line between wellness and illness, how illness occurs, organ functions and body systems and their importance in maintaining good health.  Other topics were covered like food and nutrition, natural medicine, chiropractic care for infants and children and more.

A very interesting session, indeed, was called, “The 100 Year Lie” in which a very powerful time-line was presented on how food and medicine have been destroying and eroding health here in America over the last 100 years.  Talk about scary!  This was an amazing chronology.  I was shocked at the information and statistics presented on cancer, diabetes and heart disease and the correlation with the types of food we now eat, industrialism, the chemicals and toxins in our environment, and the rise of the pharmaceutical (a drug for everything) industry. 

I was also interested in the section on Autism, ADD and ADHD.  I was very intrigued with the statistics presented.  The US is the highest consumer of Ritalin in the world–the highest percentage being boys being diagnosed and receiving the drug.  The wife of one of the doctor’s presented a session on obesity which was very interesting as well with even more shocking statistics. It not only is this a problem in the adult population, but has rapidly spread to children — Is it any wonder in our convenience based, fast fake food, media centered, sedentary culture?

A chiropractic doctor presented a very interesting session on “Infants, Children and Chiropractic Care”.  He covered some very fascinating information on the intricacies of the spine and nervous system.  He also covered common problems in infancy, like colic and other digestive upsets, and how we can treat these illnesses naturally without the use of medications. 

Probably the most practical was the session on Children’s Health in which a wide variety of health issues were covered:  allergies, asthma, sinus problems, bedwetting, digestion, eczema, dizziness, hyperactivity, infections (bacterial and viral), fever and colds.  It was excellent information enabling mother’s to have resources and information to make informed decisions on their child’s health.  I learned many things not to do and many more things to do. 

I think of Katie Luther, the wife of the great reformer, Martin Luther, who was very skilled in herbal medicine and was in fact known around town for her excellence in this area.  She used her skills to help others as well as primarily serve her children and husband in the area of health.  She has inspired me to continue to gain more knowledge in these areas as I seek to improve my knowledge and skills so that I can better serve my family’s medical needs as they arise (and hopefully avoid a large majority of problems through proactive prevention). 

Along the same line (though not brought up at the conference) a couple of books that I can highly recommend are:  Mommy Diagnostics and The Naturally Healthy Pregnancy by Shonda Parker. I have found them to be excellent resources for treating common illnesses naturally at home. 

We headed out to town on a strict frugal shopping mission and came back very pleased with our ultra-frugal results! 

Our trip to CVS trip cost us a grand total of .44 cents!  I ended up with 2 packages of diapers and two packages of pullups and a toothbrush and a bunch of Hershey’s chocolate (great for baking!).  I earned $17 back in extra bucks. 

Our trip to Kroger was also a huge success ending up with some freebies like baby wipes and our final stop to replace our blender was a huge surprise when we found a $55 blender for $13 and it has a food processor attachment.  Evidently blenders are a seasonal item, or so I was told?  Since I tend to go through a blender a year, until I can find a good commercial grade, stainless steal, non-breakable blender…the $13 blender does the job. 

Here is just a sample of some of the good finds: free soap, free huggies wipes, free Tabasco sauce and cayenne pepper sauce, .40 cent toothbrushes, .80 cent big roll viva paper towels.  We also found a beautiful .50 cent potted plant marked down from $15.  All in all, our grocery / household supplies bill this week was considerably less. 

I am beginning to see great successes in our pantry store and can contribute that to several factors:  1.)  It is amazing how much you can do by just raising your own meat, eggs and milk!   2.)   I also quit buying small bags (3 to 5 lbs) of items from the Amish and started buying the 25lb and 50lb bags from them– grain, flour, oats, sugar etc.  That really makes a difference in the long run if you can plan the extra expense of a $19 or $22 purchase for a large bag into the month.  3.)  Taking advantage of the regular stores as much as possible when I find excellent stock-up deals (using coupons and rebates) on items for our pantry store. 

Frugal Tips when shopping at a regular stores: 

• Always look for a clearance section in the store.  We found a basket full of Recharge juice, the kind I was looking to stock up on for labor and postpartum, marked down to $1 a jug.  We found the clearanced blender on a back shelf away from the other smaller regular priced appliances.
• Scan the store shelves for clearance tags and stickers hidden along side regular priced items.  We found 8 bottles of dish soap, which ended up being free after the coupons, sitting on the shelf next to the regular priced dish soap.  We also found 10 packages of baby wipes clearanced out just because they had Christmas packaging, which ended up being free after coupons. 
• Don’t forget about those little stores.  We have a small town store that ran a sale last week on toilet paper and with coupons we stocked up on some free toilet paper.  Sometimes these smaller IGA type stores run some very good sales.  Everything else may cost triple, but they will occasionally have some great loss leader sales you can take advantage of. 
• Keep a mental tally, or a calculator handy to keep up with what your total cost should be.  I got back over $10 just on yesterday’s trip as well as 3 bags of free dog food after pointing out that several items rang up higher than what the sale tag said. 

While the girls were out doing some much needed pantry stocking, the men were doing some much needed farm work of which another blog post will have to tell…

I enjoy perusing through Tammy’s recipe site.  She has a great amount of cooking tips and inspiration that are realistic to homemakers with little children running around. 

I recently tried the cinnamon roll recipe she posted and was quite pleased with the results.  They were a huge hit around here!  You can adjust the roll filling to your own personal liking.  I added a bit more filling and add some nuts.  I also figured out that you can easily make these cinnamon rolls up ahead of time. 

After the first rising, punch down and roll out your dough and fill.  Roll up in a long roll and slice.  You can either freeze them in a sliced roll or you can lay them out on either on trays, or in disposable pans or in foil covered cardboard can holder boxes…then cover in plastic wrap and place in the freezer.  When ready to use, leave some time for them to thaw and rise in a warm place before baking. 

We made up several trays of these cinnamon rolls for a one time mess that will net us many future easy uses. 

I also found lots of inspiration from her recent posts on meal planning after the baby is born and have been inspired to start planning my freezer meals for late pregnancy and postpartum. 

I’ll post a picture as soon as it gets off my camera….

Although we were not able to find the Cottonelle and the cotton swabs–(all sold out!  I was really looking forward to stocking up! )  — We did find some unexpected deals! 

First, at CVS our totals were $7.38.  We earned $13.00 in extra bucks and saved a total of $76.29.  When I walked in the house and the boys saw the load of peanut butter I bought, my oldest offered to buy them from me.  Of course you know why, don’t you?  They use peanut butter in their traps so it is a very important tool for them to have on hand….and more importantly, it is more important to me that they have their own jar of peanut butter for obvious reasons! 

At Walgreens,  we had some need shopping to do so we spent a total of $8.51 and saved $37.88.  We used the one day only printable coupon for $5 off any order of $20 as well as a lot of other coupons.  The biggest find of the day was all the free Dawn dish soap we found.  They had it marked down to .50 cents a bottle and we used the $1 off 2 Dawn manufacturer coupons to come away with 8 bottles of free dish soap!  (It was the Dawn Botanicals, Uplifting scent, yellow with big yellow .50 cent stickers on them.  They were not in the clearance sections, they were on the shelf next to the other dish soap.  I grabbed all that were left at the store I visited and I am sure they won’t last long if other stores have them!) 

Also, for those who use real butter, they had the boxes of butter (4 sticks) on sale buy one, get one free for $3.99.  If you needed butter that’s a good deal last time I checked on butter prices. 

An amusing addition to the day was hearing an upbeat manager talk to several of his employees on jurisdictions vs. chores using the Dugger family as an example!  He asked them if any of them had seen the shows about the family with 17 children and a 7,000 square foot house.  He went on to share with them about the Duggers and how the parents train the children not to see their work as meaningless chores, but that they give the children ownership of areas of the house which they call jurisdictions.  He went on to say how brilliant that was because the children don’t just see their work as a chore, they see it as a jurisdiction for which they are responsible. 

Nice to hear as I was waiting in line

When my 12 year old submitted me an invoice yesterday, I smiled cautiously and read his bill.  It was a bill for chicken eggs that he had worked up on the computer billing me for the eggs his chickens had laid over the last week.  I think I mentioned before that these boys were business minded.  I mean really business minded! 

5 dozen brown eggs are $2 a dozen for a total of $10.  Not a bad deal for organic farm raised chicken eggs I think.  The funny part is that at the bottom of the invoice it states:

Total due:  $10.00

TERMS:  2 days

Thank You

I have until tomorrow.  Good thing tomorrow is grocery shopping day where I focus on settling my debts and gathering the groceries for this next month. 

EDIT:  I stated before that the deal was good one time, however, CVS customer service told me the limit was 5 deals–meaning you would get $10 in extra bucks back on each purchase of Sambucol.  The Sambucol rebate that you would send into the company is only a one time rebate. 

That is if you can find it!  From several of the comments, the CVS stores they visited didn’t have it.  I would call before you make a trek into town (if it is a trek for you). 

Other items that are limited to 5 are the Cottonelle, the Dial 3-pks of pump hand soap, the Johnson’s packs of cotton swabs and the Johnson’s baby packs of lotion/baby wash.  All are giving back $2 ecb’s for each purchase.  Combining these with coupons and you can come out with some very great deals.  (The Johnson’s baby packs would be free after ECB’s and using the $1 off Johnson’s baby product coupons that came out not too long ago.) 

A scenario for you:

• Buy 1 Sambucol 12.99
• Buy 1 Cottonelle toilet paper 4.99
• Buy 1 Johnsons baby pack 2.99   
• Use $4 off $20 CVS coupon
• Use .50 cent cottonelle manufacturer coupon
• Use $1 off Johnson’s baby manufacturer coupon
• Pay 15.47 plus tax
• Send in $10 rebate
• Brings your total down to $5.47
• Get back $14 in Extra care bucks. 

You can see how this will add up over time.  The next deal that you do you can use your extra bucks to pay for your purchases and if you plan it right, you can continue to roll your extra bucks into more extra bucks. 

This helps pay for higher priced items like baby diapers!  I try to wait for really great deals or incentives like earning extra bucks for buying diapers ……and then I stock up on them. 

Remember my post last year on the really great cheese deal… well, it’s back at Kroger only not as good as last year.  Using the .40 cent off 2 Kraft cheese coupons —Kroger will double to .80 cents off 2 (some have reported finding $1 off 2 coupons at the store on a tear pad where the cheese is located), you can get a decent deal on some cheese.  Buying 9, getting an instant $6 off your order.  Check your area as this promotion may vary. 

That’s a short lesson on the other economy…. Tomorrow, I plan to do my end of the month/beginning of the month grocery shopping in both parallel economies:  The Amish store and CVS…

CVS has been running a great deal on Sambucol black elderberry extract.  It was a January promotion that is also going to be continued to a February promotion.  Here is the promotion:

Buy the 4 oz Sambucol Black Elderberry Extract for $12.99 and get $10 in extra care bucks back.  If you are unfamiliar with CVS, extra care bucks are basically a coupon that prints out attached to the end of your receipt that will be worth $10.  You can use this coupon to buy something else right then or use it on a later date. 

To make the deal even better, if you use the $2 of any $10 worth of non-prescription items purchased CVS coupon and then send in the $10 rebate that Sambucol is offering off the purchase of any of their products… you end up making some money off the deal and getting something that actually works great for fighting colds, runny noses, coughs, fevers and more…

Here is a printable $2 off $10 CVS coupon.  Expires 1-31-08 !!!

Here is the printable Sambucol rebate form. 

Deal breakdown:

• You buy Sambucol for $12.99
• Use the $2 off $10 printable CVS store coupon (expires 1-31-08)
• You pay $10.99 plus tax
• You get a $10 ECB (extra care buck) printed out at the end of your receipt. 
• You send in your original receipt showing item purchased to the Sambucol rebate and they send you a $10 check. 

CVS also has a lot of other great deals this week so check out Money Saving Mom and  I love CVS frugal mom websites for more info on the deals and how to do them.  I plan on taking a trip into town to stock up on some paper products (toliet paper, diapers etc.) for a great price using my $10 extra bucks from the Sambucol deal and some coupons that I have. 

FYI:  My extra care bucks did not print out for the Sambucol deal and when I called customer service about it, they said that there were some issues with the promotion that were causing these ECB’s not to be triggered.  (not in all cases-they were working on it)  She issued my coupon to my account so if this happens to you, just call them.