More about frugal grocery shopping

I'm still cleaning house and organizing the foods in my kitchen.

I decided to take a break from it yesterday to search the web for ideas and inspiration. I came across this couple who had experimented with eating for $1 a day to bring attention to the plight of hunger around the world.... especially in America.

.
In order to read about their 30 day project you need to go to "older posts" and get to the original starting post then it will let you read in the right order instead of backwards. It was an interesting read.

.

While it was an interesting experimental project and did bring in donations..... I saw many flaws in their way of thinking. For example: the couple attended social functions where food was offered to the attendees. They didn't eat any of it. In my opinion, no one, in any country, who is truly going hungry would ever turn down free food.

.

The couple were offered cookies by some of their students. Again, they didn't eat any. Very often the kids in real poverty situations will offer some of their own food to others who are also in the same situation. Even with the knowledge it means less for them self. Those kids were possibly offering a gesture of friendship/kinship and the couple missed the opportunity. The couple also never visited a soup kitchen nor asked for help from a local food bank. Both places are common food stretchers among the poor. There is also the commodity and wic food programs.

.

People on food stamps or those in the very low income bracket know how to stretch those dollars in many various ways. Not because they are lazy.... but just because they don't have a choice.

Why do I keep coming back to the subject of food in my frugal posts? It's like this....

During economic hard times when the whole world seems to be falling apart; it's important that you have "something good" to look forward to each day. Three really nice things happening every day will cheer up even the gloomiest of circumstances... don't you think?

.

The fact that three nice comforting meals can be done very cheaply is so apparent when you look at the delicious foods cooked by the poorest of people in different areas around the world. The Chinese have their rice, the Italians their pasta and polenta, lentils of the middle east, or even Kedgeree (I hope I spelled that right) of New England, and Hopping John of the Carolinas.

.

There are two main requirements for any honest to goodness frugal recipe for economic hard times. 1) It must fill everyone up. 2) You must give everyone the best nutrition you can with the limited funds you have. This might be discouraging until you think about how many frugal recipes have been around since the beginning of time. There have always been the rich and the poor. The kings and the subjects. Every group of the poor has come up with good recipes to "make do" with what was available..... and the foods became the source of comfort.

.

Just look at all the movies about poor people and you will see that much of their happiness is happening around the dinner table. One that comes to mind is the movie of Scrooge. Tiny Tim's family didn't have much but their Christmas meal was a very happy time.

.

It might sound strange coming from someone like me who has never been "well off"; but, I feel very sorry for the suddenly poor. Those who have never had to "do without" in their lives and are suddenly without income and no idea how to survive. Or, the two income families who have never given much thought to buying groceries..... suddenly having to rethink every penny they spend because one lost their job and the other had their hours cut.

.

My frugal food posts are to help those who are just one paycheck away from poverty and happen to stumble on my blog. Or to help the young mothers who are just learning to survive on limited funds. Or to help those who are worried they might be the next victims of these economic times. It's a subject I know all too well and I'm willing to share with others. I've said it before and I believe it very, very true..... the easiest place to save money is at the grocery. The money saved can be put toward other things.

.

Just to give you a glance inside my cabinets.... This is one area. See the organizer box? It fits nicely don't you think? I'll post instructions for making them as soon as I can.

Here is inside the new cabinet. Only two shelves filled so far. The organizer box fits really well in here too. I'm going to make more when I get some cardboard the right size.

If you will notice.... no convenience foods! No mac & cheese boxes. No pasta roni bags. No chips. No junk food. The Hershey's bags in the first picture is baking chips. I bought those to make some chocolate covered raisins as a Christmas treat. Some of my food is commodity foods. Yes, I did get signed up on their senior program a few months ago. Also, a friend who gets commodities has given me her juice. She doesn't drink juice. I use it for more than just drinking. I cook with it too.

.

I really am a scratch cook. I don't like paying for a personal chef. That's what you are doing when you buy convenience foods. You are paying for some factory machine to "measure and mix" your ingredients together. Measuring and mixing is something that takes very little time to do yourself. The cost of paying for this convenience is very high. The cost of the actual ingredients in convenience foods are very small.

.

Think about it.... a cup of macaroni and a tablespoon of powdered cheese would cost about how much? Maybe 10 cents? But a packaged box of mac & cheese was costing about a $1.19 each at the store the other day. Another example is the generic instant pudding. It costs $.85 cents per box but can be made from scratch with cornstarch for about.... hmmm $.20 cents. I'm not a mathematician so I can't figure the exact costs out in my head. One more example is a few ounces of flavored croutons. These sell for about $2.59 per 5 oz bag if I read the shelf label right. But I make them from stale homemade bread, Mrs. Dash, margarine, and garlic powder for just pennies. By the way, I eat the croutons that I make as a snack instead of potato chips.

.

I tried a bag of those premade frozen meatballs I bought several days ago. I bought them for my nephew and neighbor but kept one bag for myself. Yuck! I didn't like them at all. I'm too used to making my own from scratch. My neighbor loved them though. I tried one and sent the rest over to him. Then I got to thinking; Oh my, I did the wrong thing when I bought all those convenience foods for the goodie boxes! I have no idea where my mind was at the time. I should have made everything myself ready to be heated and eaten.

.

Geeze..... I realized I was type talking one way and doing it another. My lesson is learned. I'll try to do better next time. Ok, in my own defense, my mind was stressed trying to finish the xmas quilts. Hopefully 2009 will be a much better year!

Pondering life and work changes for 2009

On my other blog I showed that I have recently bought a new cabinet. This one.



I also showed how I took this.....

and created these.

As I was creating the rotating can organizers for the cabinet; my thoughts were about the days when my whole house was full of crafts that I had made. I made things because I didn't have the money to buy new from a store. If I needed a rug.... I made one from something. Woven strips of old clothes..... crochet or knitted strips of plastic bags..... or even made from woven onion bags.

.

If my daughter needed a suitcase for an overnight stay.... I created one from cardboard.... complete with latch, handle, and painted a pretty bright blue. When she was still very tiny; I made her pretty dresses from scrap fabric that I bought from a factory for 5 cents a pound.

.

Instead of "real" curtains; I had quilts on all my windows that were made from out grown clothing, factory scrap fabric, and old sheets. Many pieces of my furniture was made from cardboard. Including a loveseat and a couple of chairs. These were so sturdy that they could hold full grown people without any fear of collapsing. I had upholstered them too.

.

I had a full breakfast bar made from cardboard.... complete with cabinets underneath. Doors on the cabinets too. It lasted for about 15 years before I ruined it by leaving it outside when it rained. I had taken it outside so I could paint the kitchen easier. Cardboard can't hold up to a ton of rain. I didn't know it was going to rain.

.

If I needed a basket to hold some fruit... I wove one from cattail leaves. When I needed a clothes basket I wove one from dried vines.

.

Back in those days I wouldn't have ever considered buying a new cabinet for $100 I would have thought myself out of my mind to even think of spending that kind of money for a cabinet! Because I didn't have $100 to spend in the first place. I would have made one from cardboard.

.

Yesterday, I kept asking myself..... why? Why did I get rid of all my crafts and start spending money on store bought items? Why did I feel the need to switch from a very thrifty craft person to a high consumer of goods?

.

Partly because I was rebelling. I wanted to be like everyone else and have real curtains and real furniture. In the days when I made my crafts I had very little (or so I thought) and everyone else had so much.

.

I would see my friends and neighbors go buy new furniture or clothing and I would be absolutely green with envy. I resented the fact that I was struggling so much and they weren't. (or so I thought) I bet if I were to get a glimse of their bills today I would see a lot of credit card debt. It never occurred to me that what I had in my house was more valuable than anything they had bought from a store. Mine was all custom made!

.

As my skills at machine quilting improved and more and more customers signed up for my waiting list; I felt that I could at last buy new like everyone else. Also, it became easier to buy something I needed (rather than make it) when the customer deadlines wouldn't allow me the time necessary to create crafts.

.

My crafty, thrifty nature goes all the way back to my childhood. Even back then, I made things because I couldn't ask my parents for anything. Being moved from orphanage, to foster care, to relative, to back home and repeated moves didn't give me much in the way of toys or friendships. Christmas and birthday toys were non existant in my childhood. If I wanted a doll.... I made one from corn cobs or straw stuffed socks. When I wanted to play house I made the walls from mown grass raked into rows. I made mud pies in toy pots which were really jar lids.

.

I'm absolutely not being sad about my childhood. I'm simply stateing what created me the way I am and how long I've been a craft type person. I'm giving you a mental picture of what my thought processes are and why I think as I do.

.

I'm pondering all of this because a new year is almost upon us. I'm thinking of all the changes I would like to make before the new year starts all over with the rush, rush, rush of machine quilting. The key to being really organized is to examine what's working and what's not working and what really makes a person happy. Once this examination and thought process is achieved; a good plan of action is usually the result.

.

I can honestly say I was much happier when I had the time for creating my crafts. The crafts served two purposes. They gave me a creative outlet while also being useful. The crafts gave me what I needed without cost which meant I was being thrifty too. My quilting does give me a creative outlet.... but it's only one. I need several different outlets to be really happy. Maybe it's the artist inside me wanting to show herself?

.

Whatever the reason for my desire to go back to crafting regularly..... I must find the time for it in my busy schedule. Maybe I should stop thinking of it as doing a craft and start thinking that I'm pursuing my art? The only difference between creating a craft and creating art is the word you use to describe it. Well, along with the mental attitude. If I think of it as art, it gains more value. If I think of it as craft it takes on a useful nature.

.

Ok, enough pondering while type talking on the internet for today. I have this sitting in the floor asking me what it can become instead of filling space in a landfill.

I may create something from that box.... or do something entirely different today. The point is that I have another whole day to do whatever I want without any deadline looming over my head. So why do I feel so lost? Like there is something missing? Duh Anita... what's missing is the stress! Now go have some fun.....

What does a machine quilter do when the rush, rush, rush of the Christmas season has ended and she's not quite ready to hurry into organizing and cleaning? When she's not quite ready to do anything except relax for a day or two?

Well she puts together some of the organizing items and just takes it slow and easy. My thoughts are coming up with a plan of action for when the cleaning and organizing does begin.

I started with this cabinet. It's replacing the white cabinets I used in the kitchen last year. They were much too small for what I wanted them to hold. This one is much larger and is just right for holding canned goods. Well duh Anita.... this one is made for holding groceries and the white cabinets weren't.



Of course it comes in pieces that must be put together.

There are always a zillion little plastic pieces too.

In the end, it all comes together nicely. I still need to put the shelves inside; but, at the moment I'm deciding how far apart they should be placed. I feel the investment of $100 was worth it.

I really like the new size! I think I'm going to maybe get another one if I need the extra space. I'll use this one for awhile before deciding.

After an hour of putting that together and a whole day left; I try to think of something else to fill my lazy day. Lazy because I want it relxed and without any deadline to finish anything.

.

I think to myself..... now how can I do a better job of organizing the can goods within the cabinet? Rotating the oldest cans to the front and the newest ones to the back is always a hassle.

.

I also think to myself.... I don't want to put a lot of money into any cabinet organizing system just yet. I want to see what works and what doesn't before investing any more money. So I take this.....

and create these. TA DA!

These work just like the soda can organizers made for the refrigerator. The newest cans go in the top and the oldest ones come out the bottom. No more hassle of rotating cans when I shop for groceries. I'll paint them after I've made enough to fill the cabinet and see if they are sturdy enough to last a while. If... after I make several of these and find I still need more storage space; I will know I need another cabinet.

.

So what will I do today? I'm still not ready to start cleaning and organizing. I want at least one more day of no deadlines!

Well finally..... the Christmas quilts are finished. One customer brought me another gift of fruit. Isn't it great! Most of it has been eaten already. I enjoyed every bite!!




Here's the first finished quilt.

I did more hands on the hand strips.

And more feet on the feet strips.

A feathery design on the outside strips.

A leafy design on the inside strips.

The feathery design from the back.

The hands and leafy design from the back.

The next finished quilt.

A curling feather design on the outside border.

A leaf vine and a curling design on the inside borders.

Combinations of line dancing and leaf and flower designs on the blocks.

Another block.

Another block.

The next finished quilt.

A feather design on the outside border.

Another feather design on the inside border.

A leafy design on the sashing and corner stones.

Another view of the sashing and corner stones.

One of the blocks.

Another block.

And one more.

And another.

The border from the back.

Now that I'm finished for the year, I can turn my energy to finishing up the weatherization I didn't get finished a few weeks ago. I will put up the rest of the plastic on the windows and possibly make a window quilt or two. Even with the new insulation this house always feels cold. Mostly because I have high ceilings which means the heat is up high and the windows don't have covers on them. Next, I'll sort and file the paper work for this year and start the paperwork for the new year.


One thing is for sure.... I don't want to be this busy again! With so many life happenings this year I've been really stressed for weeks. The money just isn't worth all that stress. I'd rather be broke than go through another year like I've had. My goal for next year is to work less and enjoy life more. Hmmm..... seems like I said something like that last December and the December before that and even the one before that. Maybe my goal should be to find a way (a golden key) to work less and enjoy life more while still making the customers happy and keeping the bills paid?

.

If I find the golden key to ending machine quilter stress.....I will be sure to tell the whole world. Until then I'm going to concentrate on more immediate tasks. I only have a few days when the chain that holds me to my machine is let loose ya' no.

.

Later......

I think I'm having a bad hair day. (Don King style)





To get the full impact you should click on the picture to make it larger.