We try to eat healthy. We don't always hit that nail square on the head, but no one is sickly and poor here, so we can't be doing that bad. Organic is one thing I avoid, though. At least from the standpoint of labeling. I don't believe most of what I see labeled as organic is that at all, not from mainstream sources, anyway.
We buy meat from various sources....often Sam's Club, as we buy case loads at a time; but we also buy from a butcher friend and a couple of small Mom & Pop shops who purchase locally. I do like knowing who grew my meat, but sometimes we don't (as in the case loads from Sam's Club). To be truly healthy, we should be dropping the amounts of meats we eat, that's for sure. Red meats are not exactly top on the list of healthy you know. But, Dewey is one of those meat and potatoes kind of guys. Must be a throw-back to his caveman days
Vegetables....we eat lots of them. There are most often 2 or more with each dinner (do I have this right...supper is really lunch and dinner is really that evening meal???? I'm so lacking in the Southern graces of phrasing!!!). Our main meal is dinner...that evening meal...and the next largest would be breakfast. Lunch is usually not much worth noting around here. I know, with so many youngers, perhaps it should be, but it's not, so that's that.
We buy farm market vegetables, and grow what we can, but still, that part of the pantry gets supplemented all too often. I have not produced a decent garden since moving South. There is a trick to it and I simply have not chanced upon it yet
My garden up north was another story. We were truly blessed with an abundance of fresh eating and more than ample remains for putting by for winter. I'm learning how to do it here with our clay-based soil, but so far, there's been nothing worth writing home about. Our goal is, though, to grow everything we need for eating. We think of it as pioneer living...if they didn't grow it themselves, they often did without. We bake our breads and dessert needs from scratch. Truthfully, just about everything we produce for meals here is from scratch. I don't like pre-packaged. It just isn't economical for us at this size family most times. Now for a treat, we do grab a couple of those fresh pizza's at Sam's Club maybe once a month. It's not the best pizza I've ever eaten, but from looking around our area here, I don't think true Italian cooking is known here. We asked about a good Italian restaurant once....everyone sent us to Olive Garden. I have nothing against Olive Garden...love their unending soup, salad and breadsticks...but it's not exactly what we think of as true Italian. It's Americanized Italian.
But I digress (as usual...) My baking revolves around grinding my wheat berries for my flour or buying from a local seller. I make several of our pasta's and am working on getting better at the others (ravioli is still a big time-consumer for me, yet I have friends who can whip them out in no time!). We buy in bulk. We buy nearly everything in bulk....50# of oats, 50# of wheat berries, 45# fructose and natural sugar...even my spices are often in bulk (we go through about 1# of cinnamon every other month). To buy this, even if I could find it, at a local chain store, would be ridiculous in price. I have a hard tine finding anything in bulk at most stores these days simply because my vision of bulk has changed. Once upon a time, a 10# bag of flour was more than bulk enough! LOL....I use about that for a batch of bread nowadays!
Cleaning supplies are another area we do bulk. Vinegar is bought by the case, I have a dozen bars of Fels and at least that many of Kirk's at any given time. My dishsoap is in bulk. Of course, in a family this size, our TP is by the case
I also purchase peppermint oil, tea tree, and lavender oil in the largest bottles I can order through our Mennonite friends just north of us. These are just essentials for us. We are not big on doctor visits here and most often we treat on our own. I'm not saying we don't go, just that many folks run for everything and we avoid that. The last one to have a doctor visit was Miss KatiAnne back when she swallowed that beaded chain....now that was an interesting visit! Well, Miss Emily goes every 3 months, but that is a rather special case there. The others have not had to visit for anything since moving down here. We did have a couple of dentist visits here, but that's a whole 'nuther blog post there....and it won't be repeated again. We will head back north to our dentist there once a year at tax time. Yahoos and Quacks. 'Nuf said.All in all, we average about $350 I'd say, for a month....and this doesn't include milk. Wow, have those prices kept rising! What on earth is going on there?? Those dairy farmers aren't raking in the big bucks, so what's the deal?? This amount also does not include our homestead feed needs...which right now runs about $100 for milk needs for the pony, then grains for him and the other animals making a home here. I haven't really tallied it all up, but I'd say we probably run around another $200 for feed, maybe $300 with the milk for the pony. No more than that, and that includes breaking down the hay for the year, all grains and whole corn, dog food, and those milk pellets and powder.
You know...that's rather a lot for no more than what we have here. Hmmm....I'll have to look into that more and see what's going on.
Just a note, we are getting better at what we spend on food needs here. I still have a long way to go, I think, but we are getting there. I'm around $250 right now, not including buying bulk meats to can up.
We aren't spending this amount on animal feed currently, either. The animals currently on the homestead include 15 hens (a duck and a rooster in the mix), 2 goats and 8 dogs...yes, we are covered up in dogs here.
We bake from scratch, with maybe 1 loaf of store-bought bread every month (when Dewey's home...he prefers it for sandwiches).
Emily and Jacob's medical visits are over now, so our medical costs are nil.
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