Reducing expenses

[freemotion]

The $100 a month feeds my husband and I. Honestly. I am VERY careful with what I spend and because we have most meat from our backyard I don't have to buy much but some veggies and grains.


This doesn't include things like going out to dinner, etc which come out of our splurge budget.

yep! us too.. especially in the summer and the dairy goats are meeting all our dairy needs.

if i only had a cow i could get that down even more! whoooot!

One thing that we often forget, is the chickens, goats or cows are part of the grocery budget in the long run.
Its just where the money is applied in the budget.

Yeah, but if you can sell a bit, you can offset or even cover feed expenses!

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

yep! us too.. especially in the summer and the dairy goats are meeting all our dairy needs.

if i only had a cow i could get that down even more! whoooot!

One thing that we often forget, is the chickens, goats or cows are part of the grocery budget in the long run.
Its just where the money is applied in the budget.

Yeah, but if you can sell a bit, you can offset or even cover feed expenses!

True. We were able to sell 16 meat birds last summer for $20 each. They only cost $12 each to feed to weight.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

One thing that we often forget, is the chickens, goats or cows are part of the grocery budget in the long run.
Its just where the money is applied in the budget.

nah. not really - for us anyway. some of our critters are producers and some we just have cuz we like them so they arent groceries at all. heaven knows that OD doesnt do any darn good but i like him cuz i like him.

and some of the critters pay for themselves - like the goaties. the sale of the babies bought most of the feed and hay for the summer.

we quit trying to split hairs on this. even if we included the feed we'd still be under what other folks spend.

but thats just us

 

[AnnaRaven]

Real food by its very nature is low carb. Meat, butter, cheese, leafy greens, etc... all low carb. Heritage fruits and vegetables, low carb and high in nutrition. Things get tricky when grains and beans are involved. People don't eat handfuls of wheat berries. It has to be processed. How it is processed and to what extent makes all the difference between food and not food. The devil is very much in the details. I think it is safe to say that 90% of the general public who eat grains and legumes think they are eating something nutritious when they are really robbing their body of nutrition and causing long term health issues.

I think it is safe to say that 90% of the general public are idiots who don't think about their food at all.

As for this being an argument, I am not arguing. I present information people apparently are not familiar with. I post my sources so people can see where these ideas are coming from. I suffered through years of being unhealthy. I would like to think people would like to avoid that for themselves. I was prediabetic, had hypertension, I was obese, etc... I'm not anymore. There are very specific reasons. I see nothing wrong with posting them.

I'm fine with you posting it. Post it on a thread and point to it. That way you don't have to make the same argument over and over again (and that's argument in the sense of "course of reasoning" or "assertion" not in the sense of contradiction or disagreement) and you can just point people to it who care enough to see it. The ones who don't want to see it again, or who have already studied it and decided for themselves, don't have to and you don't have to have the same people having the same disagreement in irrelevant threads.

In fact, allow me to help here. I'll post a thread asking about the pros and cons of low-carb. Ya'll can go present your reasoning about it, and then both sides can point to *that* thread when it seems relevant. Fair?

ETA: Here ya go.

 

[Calliopia]

I feed my chickens on grocery store scraps only. Normally I have absolutely no money in them.

The freezer meat is venison, pork, beef, chicken, goat and fish. I'm lucky enough to be near DC and go down for the herring run. And I have a grandmother in NJ and we go up in Oct ish when the bluefish are running and fill a cooler. We also fish locally.

Most of the meat was free to me except for time. Because I do butchering lessons in exchange for part of the product I get a lot of meat. I also get called when someone needs a goat put down for behavior issues. I traded 5 of my chickens for 2 pigs earlier in the year simply because the guy who had them wanted more chickens and was done with keeping pigs. Sausage time!

So for us meat is cheap.

Another low price item for us is apples. We're in orchard country so there are abandoned orchards (eventually to be developments) around where you can get free apples to sauce and can. Applesauce, dried apples and apple leather are free staples at our house. We grow salad greens and spinach year round in the basement under a grow light. If you have a window you can grow greens or herbs. Seriously. There should be an edible plant in EVERY window of your house.

I will also take ANY amount of ANY vegetable from anywhere during the summer and toss it in the dehydrator. (yes tech a small amount of electricity is a grocery expense but I don't budget out that much) These dehydrated items all go into a big bag and are mixed together. Squash, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, celery, onions, etc. Veggie soup w/ free veggies once a week for dinner. Toss in a can of beans and some free meat and I've got a dish that costs under $1.00 to make and will stretch for 2-5 meals depending. A cup or two of grains or such and it will stretch further and is still cheap. I freeze the last cup or so and will toss it in next week's soup or save up a bunch of them, puree it and throw in a large amount of curry powder and put that over chicken and rice. I buy frozen vegetables when they are less than $1 a lb. Meat must also be less than $1 a lb or I won't touch it.

I never cook off of my grocery list I ALWAYS cook out of the pantry/freezer. I find it very difficult to save money buying groceries every week.

For dairy. Right now I freeze every other day's worth of goat milk I get during the week. The weekend's worth of milk is earmarked to make cheese or yogurt.

Check craigslist for deals during the summer and farmers markets. Talk to the people that run the market or have a stall you like. Offer labor in exchange for food and can, freeze or dehydrate it. Yes time is money but if you don't have money then you have to spend your time. Earlier this summer I found someone about 45 min away that had a farmers market order fall through and had 25 or 30 50lb cases of potatoes for 8.00 per case. It was about an 1.5 hrs of driving and we brought home 8 cases and 3 families processed 400lbs of potatoes between canning and dehydrating over about 2 weeks. I certainly can't bank on that happening every year but if you look for deals you'll find them. Just be willing to jump when the crazy adventure appears.

The best advice I can give you is start with small changes. It takes a while to get down to a $50 per person per month food budget. It can be done though.

 

[MsPony]

Awesome thread!! Will have to read through over and over. I am contemplating not working next semester of work and will need all this!!

My est. expenses:
Insurance
Bus money if school doesn't provide the pass for w/e reason
Horse board + farrier + supps as he's old
My rats and hamster are rolled together, like $30/3 months
Rabbit averages $20/month
Chickens I split per head between mom and myself, there are 9 and 5 are mine. We buy seed in bulk and they free range.
Food...well yall are making it about free now!!

...I'm just glad no more gas/oil/check ups on my huge truck!! Ill barely be driving it...

 

[tortoise]

The $100 a month feeds my husband and I. Honestly. I am VERY careful with what I spend and because we have most meat from our backyard I don't have to buy much but some veggies and grains.


This doesn't include things like going out to dinner, etc which come out of our splurge budget.

yep! us too.. especially in the summer and the dairy goats are meeting all our dairy needs.

if i only had a cow i could get that down even more! whoooot!

One thing that we often forget, is the chickens, goats or cows are part of the grocery budget in the long run.
Its just where the money is applied in the budget.

I totally agree. I think hunting licenses should be out of the grocery budget. I'm sure my fiance would disagree!

 

[tortoise]

Awesome thread!! Will have to read through over and over. I am contemplating not working next semester of work and will need all this!!

My est. expenses:
Insurance
Bus money if school doesn't provide the pass for w/e reason
Horse board + farrier + supps as he's old
My rats and hamster are rolled together, like $30/3 months
Rabbit averages $20/month
Chickens I split per head between mom and myself, there are 9 and 5 are mine. We buy seed in bulk and they free range.
Food...well yall are making it about free now!!

...I'm just glad no more gas/oil/check ups on my huge truck!! Ill barely be driving it...

You're gonna disagree, but I think PETS are a luxury. Animals need to earn their keep around here. My fiance has his pet dog. I have a service dog. I'm doing a second round of culling/selling rabbits to get rid of the last ones that aren't producing.

If your rabbit isn't a food production animal, sell it. (Please tell me it's not $20/month for ONE rabbit. I pay less than that for 8 rabbits) Same for the rats, hamster, and horse. Harsh? Yes, but we ARE talking about reducing expenses, right?!

You could get down to
insurance
bus pass?
chickens
food for yourself

That looks nice! You could save a good bit of money towards an SS future with getting rid of pets.

 

[tortoise]

I feed my chickens on grocery store scraps only. Normally I have absolutely no money in them.

I am hoping to do a better job with feeding my rabbits from foraging or scraps. We don't have a lot of veggie/grain/fruit scraps so it's pellets for them as of now.

We grow salad greens and spinach year round in the basement under a grow light. If you have a window you can grow greens or herbs. Seriously. There should be an edible plant in EVERY window of your house.

Where do you live? My fiance tells me there isn't enough light to start seeds.

I will also take ANY amount of ANY vegetable from anywhere during the summer and toss it in the dehydrator. (yes tech a small amount of electricity is a grocery expense but I don't budget out that much) These dehydrated items all go into a big bag and are mixed together. Squash, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, celery, onions, etc. Veggie soup w/ free veggies once a week for dinner. Toss in a can of beans and some free meat and I've got a dish that costs under $1.00 to make and will stretch for 2-5 meals depending. A cup or two of grains or such and it will stretch further and is still cheap. I freeze the last cup or so and will toss it in next week's soup or save up a bunch of them, puree it and throw in a large amount of curry powder and put that over chicken and rice. I buy frozen vegetables when they are less than $1 a lb.

Good idea! Thank you!

I never cook off of my grocery list I ALWAYS cook out of the pantry/freezer. I find it very difficult to save money buying groceries every week.

That sounds hard to do.

The best advice I can give you is start with small changes. It takes a while to get down to a $50 per person per month food budget. It can be done though.

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Calliopia]

I will also clarify by explaining a bit of how I break down my budget. Some of it will seem strange.

His work lunches: This is something he takes care of unless there are leftovers available. He preference, his expense.

House money: We both pay "rent" into a joint house account that we are both on but I manage. This pays the mortgage, utilities, and if things are going well, repairs.

General expenses: Car insurance, medical bills, credit card, etc WERE being paid by the person that accrued them but he's not so good with paying stuff on time so I pay them and he reimburses me for his portion. This started after he hadn't paid his insurance for 6 months and forgot his credit card bill several times.

Animals: Dogs are a "luxury" that I won't give up. The keep us safe and provide the wonderful services of foot warming and room stinking.

I don't count initial start up costs for animals if it is a type of animal I intend to have for a LONG time. ie the goats. I'm going to have a goat pen for YEARS. I may throw a pig or two in there. I'm WAY to lazy to figure out the individual cost. I also just don't care that much.

Goats: The goats provide us with milk and antics. Our arrangement is that as long as I don't have more than 4 then they can fall into the category of semi-useful pets. Above that 1) we need more land and 2) they have to be more self supporting. And this is an average of 4. Babies that are intended for sale or freezer camp don't count. Goat food is supplemented by dehydrated free veggies, grocery store rejects and other random tidbits.

Chickens: First I need to yell at my chickens because they aren't laying right now. #$)SDHH@!& Chickens!! Chickens, similar to goat supplementation are fed via what the veggie guy saves or if he forgets, what I dumpster dive for them. Chickens are free and if they ever lay eggs again.. self replicating. Future hens to be sold and roos to be eaten.


Craigslist: That which happens on craigslist stays on craigslist. Seriously I have a CL jar in my desk. If I buy something off of CL the money comes out, if I sell something on CL the money goes in. It doesn't matter what area of the "budget" that item should fall under. I paid for the potatoes out of CL budget since I found them on CL. The exception to this is: If I am doing a major unload of stuff to save money for a specific thing I will pull those funds aside. Otherwise just general closet emptying goes in the CL mad money jar. It gives me a way to jump on crazy deals w/o feeling like I'm hurting another budget area. And money from selling some $5 and $10 stuff has a chance to build up and be useful.


Groceries: This is budgeted at $100 a month for food purchases at the grocery store or farmers market. During the summer I frequent the second's rack of our local FM where I can get HUGE zucchini for .25 and such. Again, these are grated, sliced, dehydrated, used in pickles, etc. I also try have at least one dish per meal be free items. Applesauce, traded meat, something.

I hope that explains a little more of how I do it. Everybody is different.


Edited to answer questions: I live in the Eastern Panhandle of WV. We are sandwiched between MD and VA. If you have a window with southern exposure you can grow something. It may be just a basil plant or some lettuce but it will eventually grow if the window isn't too drafty.