The time has come. Time to own up to a reality that is now part of our life. I don’t mean to sound mysterious but perhaps I should start somewhere else before I go any further.
Yesterday I heard a quarrel in the kitchen over the last banana. The voices in the kitchen were trying to determine who was more worthy of this snack, the baby or the 9 year old. I quickly stepped in to find the kids trying to make this decision and scanning the mostly bare pantry (it usually is on the day before I go shopping), pulled out my usual saving grace and offered to pop some popcorn for my hungry children in order to hold them off until dinner. (BTW, all that excessive banana protecting makes for no one eating the bananas the next time you buy them, time to make banana bread.)
I have also found myself of late asking children, “didn’t you already have an apple or is that your second bowl of cereal?” This is our new reality. I was chugging along just perfectly ignoring this situation until it was time to pay the bills last week. I should stop and be thankful that we are able to pay all of our bills but with two houses on the payroll, there is not much left. Add to that the loss of our farm income, leaving our garden and edible plants behind and the fact that food is much more expensive here than in Florida and eating real, nutritious food is becoming a challenge.
Unfortunately, besides turning lights off and limiting my driving, food is becoming the only place I can find to save some money. The farmers markets will not open until Spring and I have the sneaky suspicion that the prices will be somewhat less affordable than Florida. All the small stores I have found that I usually like to give my money to are so much higher in their prices and so I have to limit myself to shopping Whole Foods (mostly the bulk section) and Trader Joes. We have gotten a membership to Costco as I have heard that they have lots of organics now but in the quantities they sell, I will have to start a special budget for it. Of course, we have found eggs from a local farmer and I am continuing my search for local food but for now, I am dealing with what I have.
Why am I sharing this with you? Well, because I know I am not the only one. I know there are so many mommas out there trying to keep bellies full while still feeding them real and nutritious food. I am going back and going through my simplest, belly filling recipes and coming up with a new plan. We don’t eat much out of a box but gone will be the occassional pizza night out or the box of Newman O’s (oh say it isn’t so!). We have gotten a bit comfortable and it sure is easy to open that box of organic cereal early in the morning but that is where my money is being wasted so I need to scale things back, way back.
We have been unable to find raw milk here so far and the low temp is uber expensive but its a place where I can’t find a way to cut out. I am serving less meat and smaller portions of it, lots of soups and homemade bread and or course lots and lots of popcorn. Are you with me here? Is this happening in your kitchen, your pantry, your home too?
I decided the best way to tackle this was not on my own. I am blessed to know so many smart mommas out here in our blogging community and with their help, we will all perhaps find some solutions, new recipes, a new plan on how to do this job of feeding our children and husbands bodies, better and for less money.
In the next coming weeks and months, on Fridays, I will either post a recipe and my progress, budget etc. or I will be sharing a blog post by some pretty amazing guests all of whom are also blogging mommas. You do not want to miss these Friday posts! I am so excited to see what we all come up with. Until then, I wish you are warm bowl of happiness.
*Edit* 2/17/14 This series is now in it’s 3rd week and here is the list of the bloggers that will be guests in the next few weeks. This last week we had Emily of Front Forty Farm and you can see her post and the other 2 weeks postings here.
In no specific order,
Emily – Front Forty Farm
Melanie – Our Ash Grove
Nicole – Frontier Dreams
Tonya – Natural Earth Farm
Taryn – Wooly Moss Roots
Nissa – At Home with the Gadbois Family
Lisa – Hullabaloo Homestead
Adrie – Fields and Fire
Stephanie – Gypsy Forest
