"Waterbed" from Play at Home Mom

This is just genious.  I can't wait until my baby is old enough to play on one of these Redneck Waterbeds developed by the Play at Home Mom.  If you haven't checked out her blog yet, she has a million and one ideas for things to do with kids other than watch television.  While some of her ideas are out of our price range, many of them use things you probably have around the house.

My Prices Are Not Too High...

From Shannon Hayes, author of Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture

Every week during the growing season, my husband and I cart our family’s grassfed meats to market. We sell pork chops for $11 a pound; ground beef goes for $7.50.
Every week, we meet someone who tells us the prices are too high.
In fact, at those prices, the average net income for our family members has maxed out at $10 per hour. But part of our job is to hold our chins up and accept weekly admonishment for our inability to produce food as cheaply as it can be found in the grocery store.

Read the rest...

One of the barriers to homemaking, whether supported by cottage industry, substistance farming, or a partner's income, is the cost of necessities.  How do we balance buying food from local farmers, which costs more than meat and produce from the grocery store, with the frugality necessary to live on a single income (or less)?  At the same time I want to support the homemaking efforts of my local farmers, I can't bankrupt my own household in the process.

I don't have a great answer to this one; if anyone stopping by has ideas, please comment below.  We've been trying to buy certain things (eggs, canned goods, some produce) from the farmer's market nearby. We are also considering participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, where you basically buy a "share" of a farm's produce for the year, and get a certain amount each week).  The problem is, the CSA will eat up pretty much our entire produce budget, so if we get a lot of collard greens, we'll have to figure out how to eat it.  On the other hand, it might make for some interesting, outside our comfort zone cooking.

On The Cheap: Getting Started with Meal Planning

One of the biggest ways we save money every month is by having and following a meal plan.  But we’re normal people.  When we tried to do something super-strict or super-frugal we just wound up eating out a lot.  When we tried to plan each meal with a vegetable, a starch, and an entrée, we would up eating out a lot because I got overwhelmed.  So, this post could easily be titled “meal planning for those of us who can’t meal plan.”

I recommend a phased strategy for meal planning.  Don’t try to jump in all at once.  Pick just one meal to plan (probably dinner).  Begin by identifying what leads you to eat out.  Is it when there is nothing in the fridge?  Then make sure you stock your pantry and fridge not only with what you plan on eating, but with a few backup microwave meals for use in a pinch.  When you’ve been eating the same thing for days?  Then be sure to alternate days for leftovers, or freeze them to be broken out again in a couple of weeks when everyone’s forgotten.  When you forgot to thaw whatever it was you were supposed to be cooking?  Then have a backup plan (microwave meals again!) for when that happens.  When the planned meal looked too healthy, too cheap, too… bland (*cough*… rice and beans… *cough*)?  Then STOP TRYING TO EAT HEALTHY FOR A MONTH UNTIL YOU’RE ON A PLAN!!! 

For us, we started meal planning several times before it finally stuck.  So just keep trying.  Once you are meal planning (and your initial meal plan might include multiple days that are microwave meals or soup from a can), you can begin to get more elaborate, whatever that means for you – better/more tasty food, healthier food, cheaper food, etc.

Here’s what works for us now (and has for the last few months):

Breakfast and lunch are fend for yourself meals here.  By that I mean that we keep some stock items on hand, and you can decide what you want.  This week’s breakfast options are homemade bread with homemade apple butter, cereal and soy milk, and coffee or tea or water.  Lunch is sandwiches – your choice of turkey/cheese/mayo or PB&J.  We also have some oranges and apples, cheese and crackers for snacks.

Dinner is more formal, and the planning is more formal.  But I’m still new to homemaking, so simplicity is key to success.  I only make one thing for any given meal.  For example, if I’m making soup, the soup will be a substantial one and will be with some homemade bread baked a different day (or some day old artisan bread from a local bakery).  If I’m making a main dish, the veggies on the side will be from a freezer bag.  You get the idea.  I make most of my main dishes all in one options – skillet shepherd’s pie, skillet greek lasagna, chicken and rice of various flavorings.  This coming week is

Saturday: Baked ziti

Sunday: Black bean chili with homemade bread

Monday: Chicken riggies (a Cook’s Illustrated dish that’s very tasty and easy)

Tuesday: LO Baked ziti

Wed: LO chili and bread

Thursday: LO Riggies

Friday: Beer and pizza (both home made)

Super frugal?  Not really, but lots cheaper than eating out.  Repetative?  Yes, but our family is okay with that.  I know some will have baked chicken early in the week and a cassarole later in the week with the leftovers, but I still haven't figured out what a cassarole is.  Which goes to show, if we can menu plan, you can menu plan.  Don't be afraid to play around a bit and see what works for you.

Some days are better than others

If you, like me, were never taught to meal plan, cook, clean, organize, budget, or care for children, becoming a homemaker is quite the lesson in humility.  You’d figure women have been doing this sort of thing for thousands of years and it would all just come to you as some sort of X chromosome linked birthright.  Not so much.

For example, the first time I baked bread (which was all of two weeks ago), I used a standing mixer as called for in the Cook’s Illustrated recipe.  My husband, who has more experience in the kitchen than I do, warned me about the potential for a suicide attempt on the part of this appliance when used to mix dough.  I was, however, behind in the dishes and needed the loaf pan, which I had used for the prior nights meatloaf.  After establishing that the mixer didn’t appear to be moving all that much on the countertop I turned my back on the standing mixer for all of thirty seconds.  Of course, I had the door to the dishwasher open to receive my soon to be cleaned loaf pan.  BANG!!!  The standing mixer hit the open dishwasher door on the way down, bending it pretty remarkably, as it crashed to the ground.  My husband came running.  Having established no one was hurt, he started laughing and did his best Ricky Ricardo “Luuuuuucccyyyyy!!!  What have you done?” imitation.  Thank God I married a patient man.  Who is able to fix dishwasher doors.  The bread turned out wonderful.

Ooopppsss....  At least I'm not the first to have more misadventures than adventures!

In retrospect, it’s easy to see I was asking for trouble.  Lessons learned?  First, don’t try to multitask when you’re doing something completely new.  Second, if you hear the word “suicide” and “appliance”, don’t turn your back for a second.  Treat it like a baby on a changing table.  Third, there is absolutely no replacement for a good humored, loving husband.

It’s slow going learning how to keep a home.  I read forums and books, talk to friends and, slowly but surely, figure out things along the way.  Even though some days feel like absolute disasters, I look around the house now compared to a few months ago, and it’s amazing what a difference it makes when I apply the time and energy I used to spend making money for my boss to making my home for my family instead.

We now have a meal plan every week, which we pretty much stick to.  No one wants to go out to dinner, because we have really good food here.  Our financial worries are minimal because the money we save by meal planning, line drying laundry, repurposing and reusing adds up.  Our debts are being paid off at a fantastic rate, even though we’re making less money than six months ago.

This post, of course, is inspired by today just being rough.  Rough in no particular, easy to nail down way that might be funny in retrospect like the bread thing.  Fussy baby (tooth number three appears to be on the way), cranky mommy, dismal weather, and a few minor crises.  I’m just trying to offer it all up.