Expressions of Perceptions

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We eat a healthy non-gmo diet, mostly organic, so I don’t expect our food to be cheap.  I’d really like to lower my food budget, but I’m not sure how to.  I recently read a food article buy a woman who feeds her family of 6 (5 of whom are boys with double-digit ages!) on $600 a month.  Sadly, that woman puts me to shame, and we’re only a family of 5.  Her family eats mostly organic, and they do have a huge garden and fruit tress that they preserve the harvest from, but they don’t eat much meat, and they do eat alot of noodles.  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t fly at my house.  Not to mention, food in her area of the country is much cheaper than it is here.  (One example, my eggs cost over double the amount that she pays for her eggs.  Don’t even get me started on the price comparison for fruits and meat.)

My kids are still young, but they sure do eat alot.  And they’re not only picky, but one of them also has food allergies.  I have to try to cook food that both tastes good and is safe for my family to eat, and that’s quite a challenge.

My oldest child detests cheese, noodles, anything pickled, and anything spicy.  My middle child refuses meat, but loves her cheese and carbohydrates.  My youngest child is wonderful because he likes most things.  And my husband hates vegetables and will rarely eat fruit, and he’s pretty much opposed to anything that may even be remotely construed as healthy.

I think one of the reasons I spend so much money on food is because in trying to please everyone, every meal turns out to be a feast in which I prepare a main dish with multiple side dishes so that there’s sure to be something that everyone will eat.

Yes, it’s most likely my fault for letting my kids get so picky instead of just telling them to eat what’s on the table (although my mother-in-law bears the responsibility for my husband’s pickiness), but I swear they’d go on a week-long hunger strike, my husband included, if I did that.  Trust me, I’ve tried, but I worried they would starve if I didn’t cave.

Getting back on subject, my goal is to find some healthy, inexpensive, kid-friendly, husband-friendly recipes to make for the month of February.  I know I’ll experience some resistance at first, but I’ve got to try.  I’m hoping that making a meal calendar in advance will help me to plan my meals and shopping list, and perhaps swap out some more expensive meals for less expensive ones.  So, I’ve got my meal calendar made.  Now I’m going to see what I can change on it to make it less expensive yet equally nutritious.  I know I won’t be able to cut my food budget in half in a single month, but by planning ahead with my meal calendar, I’m hoping to whittle it down a little bit every month until it’s at least close to what I want it to be.

You know I’m always touting healthy food, and you probably also know that eating healthy can be expensive sometimes.  Well, here’s your chance to try a free organic product: bouillon!  Technically, it’s “Better Than Bouillon”.

All you have to do is “like” their facebook page (located here), fill out your name and address on the giveaway page, and choose your preferred flavor  (I chose chicken).  Then, your FREE bouillon should arrive in about 12 business days.

Give it a try.  Get your freebie.  Then come back and let me know how you liked it!

Food is our biggest expense.  Maybe we eat a lot.  Maybe we’re food snobs.  Maybe food is just incredibly expensive.  Perhaps, it’s a combination of all of those things and more.  Nonetheless, I’m trying to lower my monthly food budget, and I’m not willing to replace healthy foods with junk food to accomplish it.

I buy a lot of organic foods, mainly so I know they’re not genetically modified, but also to avoid chemical pesticides and other toxins.  It’s not possible for me to buy everything organic, so I buy what I can organic and either skip other things or buy them conventionally grown.  There is a better way to decide what to buy organic though, at least as far as produce is concerned.

Have you ever heard of the “Dirty Dozen” list or the “Clean 15″ list?  The Environmental Working Group has a “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce” that lists the top 12 produce items with the most pesticide residues and the 15 produce items with the least amount of pesticide residues.  You can find it free at www.EWG.org

For example, did you know that apples are ranked #1 on the “Dirty Dozen” list?  Onions are #1 on the “Clean 15″ list.  Using that guide, I know that I need to buy organic apples, but I don’t necessarily need to buy my onions organic.

The EWG’s Shopper’s Guide is only for produce though.  It won’t tell you that non-organic butter is the single most contaminated food overall.  It also won’t tell you that the pesticides on the foods that animals eat like to hang around in their bodies, get stored in their fat, and are excreted in their milk.  Nonetheless, it’s a valuable tool for your organic versus conventional produce choices if you’re concerned about pesticides.

What’s worse than pesticides though is genetically modified (cloned) “foods”.  I use the term “food” loosely here.  Thank God there’s a guide for that, too.  The Non-GMO Shopping Guide is an invaluable little booklet that helps you steer clear of gmo’s.  They’re in practically every packaged food there is that isn’t organic, which is the main reason why I buy organic: to avoid gmo’s.

You can download the non-gmo shopping guide for free at www.NonGMOShoppingGuide.com  The guide also lists brands that are enrolled in the non-gmo project.

With that information, I was able to see that since Kettle brand (not “kettle style”) potato chips are gmo-free, I don’t have to buy organic potato chips when we occasionally splurge on junk food.  Gmo-free is fine by me for an occasional treat.

One more incredibly helpful bit of information for avoiding gmo’s  and/or determining if your produce is organic, conventionally grown, or genetically modified (cloned) is found at http://www.marksdailyapple.com/cracking-the-code/

It lets you know what those little stickers with the PLU code on your produce mean.  For example, a 4-digit code on the sticker means it’s conventionally grown with chemical assistance, a five-digit code that begins with a 9 pertains to organically grown produce, and a five-digit code beginning with the number 8 applies only to genetically engineered (cloned) items.

Of course I will advocate organic as much as possible.  It’s clearly the best for both your body and the environment, but if you can only afford to buy some organics, it’s important to have the information to make an educated decision regarding what to splurge on for organic and what not to fret too much about if you buy it conventional.

A couple of months ago, I ordered a cow.  Yes, that greatly excited two of my children who thought we were getting a real live cow.  My oldest, who is actually only 4 years old, knew differently.  I ordered a cow, but, as she told her siblings, it would be “all cut up to put in the freezer”.

Originally, I was just going to buy half a cow, but I bought a chest freezer for only $40 from a distant relative, so I ordered a whole cow.  Since the farm I ordered from only slaughters once a year, I ordered some chicken from my food co-op to tide us over until our beef was ready.

When my co-op order came in, the chicken didn’t.  I was a bit disappointed at first, but it didn’t take me more than a day or two to completely forget about it.  I made due with the meat that I had.

Then, a woman from the farm called to let me know that my cow would be ready a week early.  Woohoo!  I was practically ecstatic as I loaded 524 pounds of organically raised grass-fed beef into my freezers.  (Yes, I did need 2 freezers, my upright and a small chest freezer.)  When my next co-op order came in though, the chicken that I had previously ordered arrived with it – all 12 packs of organic boneless skinless chicken thighs!

I did my best to arrange the freezers to fit the abundance of meat I now possessed.  It wasn’t easy, but I got it all crammed in with barely an inch of room to spare!

So by now, you’re probably thinking about how incredibly rich I must be to be able to afford to buy an entire cow, and maybe even a small flock of chickens – or at least their thighs.  Well, I’m sorry to say, but I’m not rich.  My secret is this: I budget.

My cow cost $2.75 per pound, for a total cost of $1441.  The chicken came out of my regular monthly food budget, but the cow I had to save up for.  Since the beef is only available once a year, I’ve got 12 months to save up to afford it.  I had figured on it costing about $1200, so that meant saving $100 per month to afford it.  Saving $100 sounds difficult, but I actually have “cow” on the bills section of my monthly budget.  I treat it just like a regular bill and set aside the money in a savings account for non-regular bills (bills due yearly, quarterly, etc.).

Saving up the first year may be difficult.  The first year, I only bought a quarter of a cow.  The second year I planned on buying a half.  Once you’ve got some beef in your freezer, you can begin saving money that you would have spent on groceries to pay for the following year’s cow, or half or quarter.

Once you’ve got a year’s worth of meat in your freezer, you can start deducting the amount you save up to buy it from the food category of your monthly budget.  Not only does it get easier to afford it, especially at the greatly discounted rate you get by buying in bulk from a farm, but it also saves time and energy not having to go grocery shopping as often.  Those are of course beneficial, but you could save in another way, too.  By purchasing and consuming healthy meat instead of grain-fed, hormone-injected, antibiotic-fed, factory farmed meat, you can improve your family’s health and save money on doctor bills.

For information on buying from a farm in your area, ask around, drive around, check your telephone book, or visit www.LocalHarvest.org

Win 6 Pounds of Grass Fed Beef!  That’s right, “grass fed”.  Grass.  What cows were designed to eat.  Not genetically modified grains.  No cloned corn or soy.  Grass.  See why you want to win this?  Your meat won’t get much more natural than this.

Tropical Traditions is generously giving away 6 pounds of grass fed ground beef, shipped frozen with dry ice of course.

The only beef I consume and/or feed to my family is grass fed and organically raised.  I haven’t tried the beef from Tropical Traditions, but I trust the company, and I have purchased (and love) many of their other products (especially their palm shortening and even their soap!). 

If you’ve never heard of Tropical Traditions before, read their amazing story here.

To enter the giveaway, click here.  All you have to do is leave a comment on the post in the window that pops up on your screen.  Commenting on this post will not enter you to win.  You must comment on the post here.

The winner will be chosen on Monday, June 13th.  Good luck!  If you don’t win, I hope I do!

I think almost everyone has, at one time or another, heard their mother say “money doesn’t grow on trees”.  I try to teach my children not to waste things, especially food.  Food is our biggest expense.  Feeding 5 people isn’t cheap, but I have to stop myself every time I feel the urge to tell my kids that “money doesn’t grow on trees”, or even worse – that “food doesn’t grow on trees”!

True, money does not grow on trees, but food does.  We, however, do not own any of those trees that grow free food.  We buy our “tree-grown” food at a store, co-op, or through a farm share program.  Just because we don’t won food-bearing trees doesn’t mean that we can’t pick free food though.  (And no, I’m not talking about stealing!)

Earlier this afternoon, my grandfather dropped off some mushrooms that he had picked.  (A word of caution here:  Do NOT EVER eat mushrooms unless you are absolutely positive that they have been correctly identified.)  The mushrooms, which were oyster mushrooms, did in fact “grow on a tree”.  Now, I can’t tell my kids “Don’t waste that food, mushrooms don’t grow on trees ya know!” because oyster mushrooms actually do grow on trees.

Moving on, when we take our evening walks, we walk by apple trees, strawberry plants, and blackberry and raspberry bushes.  They’re on public land, so they too could be free food.  As a matter of fact, a local park in my area has an entire half acre of blueberry bushes for the public to pick berries from! 

Berry bushes aren’t trees, but food does grow on them.  Berries may not be money, but they could be bought or sold for money, so it’s close to the same thing.  They have a monetary value.

This time of year is a great time to start exploring the food that is growing all around you.  Not only will it save you money, it’ll also provide you with healthy food and quality time picking apples/berries/whatever with your children.  I’m not saying you have to become a back-yard forager eating puff balls and dandelion greens, but if you don’t have room for a garden, picking food from various locations in your community could be a frugal healthy idea.

“Our bodies are not rental cars. What we put into them will impact them at some point. We must nourish for the long haul.” -Robyn O’Brien

In many parts of the country, it’s that time of year again – time to start your seeds indoors before transplanting them to your backyard garden this spring!

I don’t know about you, but I find myself getting so zealous that I want to plant a little of everything.  My list literally contains about a dozen different vegetables, a handful of herbs, and a fruit or two, that I’d like to plant.   The problem with that is that I don’t live on a farm.  Heck, I don’t even live on one acre of land!  If I have 15 different baggies full of of seeds (yes, I’m a “seed-saver“) and 5 packs of store-bought heirloom seeds for my now seemingly small 12′x12′ backyard garden, I’m gonna have alot left over!  I don’t want any seeds to go to waste, so what am I to do?  Give the extras away!  Any takers?

I’m giving away what I call a “Small Garden Seed Collection” that consists of 3 of each of the 18 following varieties of seeds: butternut squash, cantaloupe, cherry tomato, grape tomato, bell pepper, beets, spinach, romaine lettuce, sunflower, chives, pumpkin, acorn squash, watermelon, swiss chard, corn, parsley, sweet basil, and mint. 

I plan to make another batch of lacto-fermented pickles soon, so I may be able to throw in a few saved cucumber seeds, too, and maybe even some seeds from the pint of strawberries I bought today.  And if you plant a few sprouted garlic cloves and some potatoes that have grown “eyes”, you’ll have yourself quite a garden!

Most of the seeds I’m giving away are heirloom varieties!  (I prefer heirloom and organic seeds to avoid gmo’s.  In case you’re not aware of my opinion of genetically modified “foods”, I am 100% opposed to cloned seeds/foods.  Learn more about the dangers and negative health consequences of gmo’s at www.SeedsOfDeception.com )

Enter to win your “small garden seed collection” simply by “liking” Expressions of Perceptions on Facebook (you can use the following link) and commenting on the Facebook page that you’d like to win the seed collection.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Expressions-Of-Perceptions#!/pages/Expressions-Of-Perceptions/169675143043103  Earn an extra entry by commenting on this post, too!

3 winners will be chosen at random on Sunday, March 20th, the first official day of Spring!

Tell your friends, and happy backyard gardening!

*Note: If you already “like” Expressions of Perceptions on Facebook, simply comment on the Facebook page that you’d like to win the seed collection for your chance to win. 

I’m a stickler for healthy food.  You literally couldn’t pay me a million dollars to eat anything genetically modified or feed anything genetically modified to my kids.  With that information, and with the prevalence of genetically modified foods in this country, you can imagine how high my food budget is and how difficult it is to find healthy foods.

I buy as much organic food as I can because organic isn’t allowed to contain any genetically modified ingredients, but there aren’t many organics around here.  I shop online for healthy groceries at Amazon, Vitacost, LuckyVitamin, and other online retailers, but they don’t sell perishables.  I did shop at the AppleGate Farms website for organic meats once, and I tried Organic Prairie and U.S. Wellness meats, too.  They all had good products, but the prices were steep, and they charged shipping.

In an effort to avoid shipping fees, I started driving to a Martin’s store about an hour away (yes, with 3 young kids in tow) once a month for a mega-shopping trip.  Martin’s has a lot of the foods we buy, but they’re not always in stock.  It became tedious, so I contacted the company of the brand of cheese I buy to ask if I could buy in bulk directly from them.  They replied that they don’t sell directly to consumers but that I could try to have a store closer to me order it in for me.

A health food store about forty minutes away agreed to order me a case, but their price was more per block than I paid at Martin’s.  I admit, I gave in once for the sake of convenience, but after that I tried another store. 

I called a health food store about a half hour away and asked about a few products.  After each one, they said “Hold on, let me check the price.”  After the third one, they told me that I could look on their website for products and prices.  I told them that I had looked but that I only found herbal tinctures on their site.  They replied “Not that page, the food co-op page.” 

“Co-op?” I asked almost gleefully.  There was a food co-op that I could order from?  Clearly it had to be too good to be true.  Not so.  There is a food co-op, and the pick-up location is at the store a half an hour north of where I live. 

I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was.  With 3 kids, I usually buy in bulk anyway, and I find it much easier to place orders than to actually go shopping for individual items.  The next issue, and one of the most important, was prices.  They were cheaper than what I had been paying!

I was so excited.  I was amazed that I could be part of a food co-op.  I live in such a small town that I thought we’d never get many of the conveniences that larger areas have.  I had looked online for food co-ops for months but had finally given up.  Then, out of the blue, I stumbled onto the UNFI co-op (thanks, God, for little miracles).

Of course in my excitement I told friends and family, but I’m still excited, so now I’m telling you.  I’m not rubbing it in or bragging or anything like that though – I’m sharing it with you!  It’s United Natural Foods Buying Clubs.  Their website is www.UnitedBuyingClubs.com.  And don’t worry if you’re not into healthy food that much, they sell hot dogs and frozen pizzas, too!

I usually buy a few apples at a time, sometimes a quart, but mostly I just throw about 6 apples in a bag and pay by the pound.  We finished off our last 2 apples at snack time last night, so today we bought more.

I was gonna just grab some apples and pay 98 cents per pound for them like I usually do, but I figured I’d save myself time by just buying a big basket of them now instead of buying a small bag of them 3 more times this month.  So, I bought 1/2 bushel of apples for $10.98.

It seemed like a good deal.  The basket was heavy, so I thought it might have been a bit cheaper than paying the 98 cents per pound.

Well, when my kids napped, my curiosity got the best of me.  I pulled out a scale and weighed the apples.  To my surprise, thy weighed in at over 23 pounds!  So, I did the math, and it came out to a little less than 48 cents per pound.  That’s over a 50% discount.

I don’t know why I usually thought of buying in bulk being only for grains and other pre-packaged items.  Apparently, buying produce in bulk is a big money-saver, too!  AND it’s waaaaay healthier than buying processed, pre-packaged, chemically-preserved food in bulk.

So now, I’ve got 23 pounds of healthy goodness for less than the price of a take-out pizza.  Not to mention, they’re more nutritious and will last alot longer than just 1 meal.  (Oh, and they were delivered free of charge by my friendly neighborhood grocer.  Now they’re really competing with pizza delivery!)

Just another example defying the myth that healthy food has to be more expensive than unhealthy food!