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?

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…

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. 

For those of you who have followed my sourdough saga, I won’t bore others with rehashing a sour story.  In short, once upon a time, I had a wonderful thing going — I had a sourdough starter that I fermented starting with capturing yeast from smashed grapes.  It worked wonderful until I changed my starter’s food to fresh ground whole wheat flour.  It didn’t like it much and I ended up killing my starter and all aspirations of continuing my regular sour dough bread-making career. 

A few attempts later at creating another starter all to fail miserably until the one I created last week!  I finished reading the book, Tightwad Gazette III last week and decided to take a dive at sour dough again after reading the super easy sourdough recipe and how to in the book.  It worked beautifully and so far we have had some pretty wonderful sourdough loaves dance out of the oven.  Most joyous to me was the fact that when you combine this victory with the fact that we just started getting 7 eggs a day from our hens — I end up saving $35 off my grocery bill this week because I am not going to be buying fresh eggs and sourdough from the Amish.  Hopefully, my starter won’t act up and will continue to provide us with lots of jump starting power for making lots of bread. 

I put together a sort of list a little while ago breaking down possible kitchen tasks for young daughters according to age.  Training our daughters in the arts of homemaking from a young age will yield great blessings in her life as well as, at the same time, adding much blessing to the home.

In the younger years (ages 3 to 5) -  When you are cooking and baking, allow your younger children to sit and watch you.  Let them pour and stir.  Verbally talking through the process of what is happening is very important as the child looks on in amazement at the mixing of the wet and dry ingredients swirling in the bowl.  Talking over their heads about cups, teaspoons, half and whole, liquid and dry, sweet and sour is not too advanced for their little minds.  At the ages of 3 to 5 years old, young girls can begin to contribute to the cooking and baking processes through completing tasks such as:

• Mashing bananas for banana bread, mixing ingredients while you prepare the next step, greasing pans for baking and cooking, shelling peas and shucking corn, picking food out of the garden
• Putting child bowls and sippy cups away, learning how to wash dishes by hand, drying dishes and know where things go, retrieving things from the pantry, refrigerator and freezer
• Opens packages for you — tea bags, pasta bags as well as learns how to use clips, twisty ties and zip lock bags. 
• Learns how to put soap in the dishwasher and how to shut it and turn it on when loaded.
• Learns how to put away groceries with your help or with a sibling.

The 6 and 7 year old years are really a transition and rapid growth year for us.  All of the sudden this young girl is doing more and more.  Some ideas might be: 

• Learns how to make tea.
• Learns how to make a fruit salad for breakfast.
• Makes juice from frozen concentrate. 
• Learns how to make a batch of cookies and in general learns how to read a simple recipe and follow its directions.
• Can  wash a sink full of dishes and knows where everything goes even if she still needs help putting some things away.  Operates the dishwasher properly. 
• Can wipe down cabinets and appliances when needed.  As well as can sweep and mop.  Teaching thoroughness and perseverance and what a complete job looks like is very important at this stage when they are learning how to do a lot of things.  Completion of tasks should be an important focus.
• Peel potatoes and carrots as well as cut and slice other fruits and vegetables.
• Makes sandwiches. 
• Makes peanut butter crackers, celery/cream cheese snacks.
• If you use mixes, she can put together mixes and bake them. 
• She knows how to set the timer on the stove and/or microwave. 
• She learns how to set a table. 
• Starts to use the stove more and more:  Can flip pancakes, make grilled cheese sandwiches, make waffles. 
• Responsible for growing a pot of herbs for use in the kitchen and learning how to use them as well as gardening skills and responsibilities.
• Continues to stand by her mother’s side and learn cooking tips, do’s and don’ts. 

A young girl of 8 to 10 years old is able to really cook some food and be a viable asset to the kitchen workplace.  Not only have the early responsibilities matured her, but she is building on those early skills and transferring her knowledge of past kitchen failures into productive learning experiences that have launched her abilities farther than most grown women today.  Here is a taste of what you may be able to expect: 

• Has the knowledge and skills to cook a breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, pancakes and sliced fruit.  She may add tea cups and a teapot of herbal tea to the breakfast table often and finds much enjoyment as she expresses her creativity in how she decorates the table, folds napkins, arranges flower vases and centerpieces.
• She also can make a variety of other breakfast type foods:  cooks sausage patties, makes waffles, toasts bagels, cooks oatmeal (not instant either), cooks grits, cheese omelets, french toast, fruit salads, smoothies, coffee.
• Can cook lunch and some supper dishes:  pasta, a variety of grilled sandwiches, make salads and dressings, bake potatoes,  mashed potatoes, prepares frozen and canned veggies by heating them properly. 
• Other cooking skills like boiling a whole chicken and frying hamburger. 
• She follows more complicated recipes and is learning all sorts of tips and tricks to becoming a good cook. 
• Can thoroughly clean the kitchen.
• Knows how to operate the appliances in the kitchen safely.
• Knows how to write a meal plan and plan a grocery shopping trip around items needed.  Is learning and mastering price comparisons, learning couponing and how to buy certain foods. 
• Learning the art of bread-making mastering several skills in making dough, pie crusts, quick breads like muffins and loafs using items such as bananas, berries, dates, nuts etc in quick breads.  Sour dough bread instruction is a great way to start a girl this age into learning bread skills and regularly making bread for her family.   
• Well versed in creating appetizers for church functions, parties, hospitality:  makes deviled eggs, chip dips and salsas, dressings and veggies, crackers and sliced cheese trays.
• Well versed in making desserts:  follows recipes to make brownies, cookies, bars.
• She is in the kitchen more often by herself as well as still standing by your side being taught how to take her cooking basic skills and advancing those into actually creatively cooking casseroles, soups, meat dishes, gravies and more complicated meals as she grows in the coming years. 
• For those who live on a farm, a girl’s responsibilities are even more.  If she has access to raw milk:  she can take over the milk responsibilities in the kitchen.  She can filter the milk, ready the milk for cold storage and thoroughly clean the milking pans and filters for the next milking.  She can be put to the task of making butter for her family and learns how to use the other byproducts of raw milk — buttermilk, cream and even the sour milk.  She can be responsible for collecting and cleaning eggs from her chickens and growing items in the garden.  She may not be able to milk a cow, but she is old enough to care for and milk dairy goats. 

On New Year’s day, we created this years 2008 cover page for each of our notebooks using old country home type magazines we found at the paper recycling place.  We cut out pictures and words and had a grand time crafting, arranging, and gluing our book covers with meaningful home inspiring pictures and words.  

I have had a household notebook for a while.  Several months back, we created an assistant’s notebook for my 8 1/2 year old daughter.  She helps me with meal planning and, in fact, has completely taken over doing all the meal planning for our breakfast meal.  We created a worksheet in Word and printed out several copies, hole punched them and put them in her “Kitchen” section of her notebook so she can plan breakfast meals. 

Inside her notebook, she is putting things like:

• Most used recipes for quick reference
• Meal plan calendar with grocery lists for breakfast needs
• Schedule of the week
• “To Do”  and “How To” lists
• Her home schooling to do check off list
• Her home business ideas that she writes down as she gets new ideas
• A list of educational homemaking milestones that I would like to have her master by the year end. (For example:  Teach her how to cook a roast using the pressure cooker)

Encouraging and helping our daughters create a household notebook is just one of many ways to start actively training them in the practical “how to’s” of home management.  She is actively engaged in furthering the vision of the home even in small tasks like planning breakfast.  As she grows, her tasks will become greater as she handles more responsibility around the home.

I recently read an article entitled Queen in a Home of Her Own by Shelley Noonan (which I found off a link from Noblewomanhood) which I thought was a great overview of how we mother’s can lead and inspire our daughters in fruitful aspirations of home life.  I especially enjoyed her simple formula for encouraging maturity in our daughters in which she states:

I have discovered a simple formula that will give your daughters godly maturity.  It is very simple.  Responsibility = Maturity.  Early responsibility = increased maturity.  Minimizing responsibility = irresponsibility. 

How true!  Especially in a me-centered culture such as the one in which we live where children are indulged, left to their own vices and regularly ill attended by weak parental authority or oversight, it is vitally important for me as a mother to constantly lift up that standard before my daughters of what exactly a Godly woman looks like.  Early training and early responsibility with purposeful instruction is necessary to raising a daughter that understands the importance of the role God gave her.  I often fall short and am so thankful that God keeps giving me additional opportunities on a daily basis, throughout the day, to be that Godly womanly representative to my little girls.