Healthy Eating

Here are my kids at a local fruit orchard, Lyman Orchards, in Middlefield, CT. This is one of many different orchards/farms we have been to in the local area to show kids where their food really comes from. My kids not only pick the fruit, but they eat as they go. On a blueberry picking excursion, I think all of my son's blueberries went in his belly instead of his bucket!

I know a lot of people buy organic, and while I would LOVE to, it just is not in our budget to do that. I'm pretty proud of the fact that we rarely have junk food in our house and are really careful about how often our kids have treats, and when they get  treat, how much they get. I've been known to say "you get 5 MnMs because you are 5."  I also once flipped out at my mom in front of my entire family because she was letting my daughter eat cookies one holiday but she hadn't eaten her real food! Anyway, we are big on lots of veggies and fruits and rarely do we have "prepared foods" for our meals. Frozen veggies and instant brown rice, yes, frozen meals, no.

In the interest of health and supporting local business, I have been wanting to join a CSA for awhile, and because of some other things that came up, was unable to do it... until now! I was really excited to find out that a farm stand (Fair Weather Acres)within 5 minutes from my house was offering shares and half-shares. What I'm most excited about (besides the fact that it is really close to my house) is that besides offering veggies from their farm, they are also including fruit from local orchards in their offerings each week.

I always wanted to be able to support local agriculture, but the cost always kept me from buying at farmer's markets. When I look at the cost of the CSA and all that I would get, even in a half-share, it seems way worth it. Between the CSA and our own garden, we are going to have some awesome summer and fall of healthy food at a great price!

Being thrifty

When I went back to work full-time after my daughter was born, I made the decision very quickly that I needed to find someway to work part-time. My husband was working second shift, and basically we were both feeling like single parents. By the time I came home from work, which several days a week was late because of rehearsals and meetings, some days I saw my daughter for only 2 hours before it was bedtime for her, and as you can imagine, most of that time was feeding, bathing, etc instead of real quality time.

My wonderful supervisor and principal at the time found a way to make it work for me and I was very grateful. My husband and I immediately started putting away the money we would "not have" to get used to living that way. We were great--I was always a sale and coupon girl anyway.

Then my son was born, and when he was 3 months old, my hubby was laid off. He got paid his full salary for awhile, so we were okay. But when he got another job that would accommodate 2nd shift work, it paid SIGNIFICANTLY less.

So saving a few bucks anyway we could became extremely important for us to get by.

Here are some ways that we have saved money:

The lowest possible cable plan (could we get rid of cable totally--we'd survive, but since we rarely go anywhere unless it is free or cheap, this is our only entertainment for the most part).

Lowest possible land line --no long distance, no call waiting, no caller id, etc..(all of our long distance is on our cell phones--some people get rid of landlines, but with our children, we feel like we need to have a landline)

Having an energy audit through CL and P. For $75, they came and inspected our home and installed caulk, low flow shower heads, CFLs (although we mostly had those already), and gave us specific ways to better insulate and be more energy efficient in our home. Our water bill is ridiculously low due to this and installing 2 low flow toilets in our house.
 http://www.cl-p.com/home/saveenergy/rebates/homeenergysolutions.aspx

Reducing the amount of money spent on gifts. I feel SO incredibly guilty that we have to cheap out on gifts for family and friends, but I refuse to go into credit card debt because I HAVE to spent the same amount on someone's wedding gift that they did on me. I'm also not going to choose between buying groceries for the week and buying an extravagant gift for someone.

No smartphones in this house. Would a smartphone be awesome? Sure. I already hate paying what we do for our cellphones, and I really don't want to pay $30-$50 more a month so that I can email someone or check my Facebook when I can just wait the 2 hours until I get home. Nothing is that important that I can't wait to find out about it--if it was, people would call me and tell me that way.

No longer coloring my hair. This isn't as bad as it sounds. I just couldn't tell my husband to lay off of Dunkin' Donuts, and then spend $100 every time I go to the salon.

Finding freebies. My current favorite freebie is that JC Penney is giving kids free haircuts on Sundays. On my son only, this is saving me $15-$18 a month alone!

Making my own laundry detergent, cleaning products, and dishwasher detergent. This is partially me wanting to be green without spending big bucks. Here are the sites where I found my recipes.
Laundry detergent--it works well and satisfies my laziness.
Cleaning products--this link is for kitchen cleaners, but you can also search for bathroom cleaners, too.
Dishwasher detergent-I love that when I run low, I have my big containers of everything needed to mix it up and I don't have to take a trip to the store.

Freezer meals. We rarely order take-out. I really try to freeze meals ahead of time if I know it is going to be busy, or even just cook part of the meal ahead and freeze (ex. brown ground beef or turkey ahead of time, freeze, then just add to the recipe at a later date). If I have leftovers and I know we aren't going to use them soon, I freeze them in individual portions. Busy night, or don't have time to make lunch, I can just grab what I need instead of ordering take-out. Healthier food, too! I also do things like bake a batch of brownies or cookies and freeze 2/3 of the batch. This way, we eat what we want that night, and instead of eating the rest of them or throwing them away after they get stale, I'm saving money and thinking about eating in moderation. 

I'm saving money many other ways as well, but this is just a little taste of my thriftiness.