Meal Planning and my shrinking Grocery costs

I have been trying to reduce my grocery costs to $50 a week.

I try to grow many things in my garden and make as much as I can from scratch. I still have to buy dairy products right now because I have not convinced my husband that we really, really need a goat. He says they are escape artists and will destroy my landscape and garden and I should go try to milk someone elses goat first. I am just going to save my own (non existent money- because I don't work) and buy one myself!! So Ha.

I have discovered that it works out much better if I plan my meals. I am a real procrastinator and get bored of things quickly so this will be a challenge but I am determined to be a money saving person from now on. I have been in a rut for some time making the same meals over and over again and have been trying to broaden my horizons with new meals. Cooking is awesome. Ten years ago I could only make a handful of different meals and now I can cook anything and even dream up my own concoctions. Sooo.. If you think you can't cook.. You are wrong! Try it! It's fun.

Anyway.... Meal Planning. Now I am going to different websites and blogs to find great meal ideas. I have made a spread sheet that I plug the names of the meals into. I also write down where I found them in case I need to refer back to them. I have an area beside the calendar of meals that I list all the ingredients needed. I also add anything else I think of during the week to that list. My husband gets paid on Fridays so that is when I go spend all of his money. That is also the day of the week my calendar starts over. I have found that a little planning helps me save more money and I don't have to worry about coming up with something the day I need it and not having the ingredients!

Rendering Tallow

About a month ago we ran out of freezer beef. We got another one slaughtered and had to pick it up at the slaughter house the other day. I have learned since I started FULL ON homesteading that there are cycles and rhythms to everything. For instance we always try to calve in the spring. Spring is also the time to plant the garden and subsequently preserve it all. As you know that takes quite a bit of time. In the fall the animals are slaughtered and the fall garden matures and is preserved. Winter is when I make soap, sew clothes and other household items, bake bread, and get creative making jewelry and hair accessories. Well the beef was done early this year because we ran out. We usually split a beef with my mother and father in law. They get one half and we get one half. Since we are 5 people and they are 2 that always seemed weird. Anyway, with this steer we got 3/4 of it so my freezer is extra full. (In fact, we went and bought a second freezer this past weekend.) Along with the new meat I also got all the fat from the 1300 lb. steer. I did not have the space to freeze it at that time so I had to render it. Imagine rendering tallow in 95 degree Tennessee weather. The humidity has been insane this year and I felt pretty insane rendering the tallow. It took about half the day and I was pouring down sweat the entire time. I had my chacos on until my toes and the hairs on my legs where burnt (Yes, I do shave my legs but my hair grows pretty quick). I then put long pants and boots on for the duration. My husband made me a long paddle out of oak to stir the tallow in and a squeezy thing to squeeze the cracklins! I kept thinking how much fun it would have been to do this in the fall or winter! I now have two 5 gallon buckets of white beef tallow that is perfect for making a nice hard bar of soap! ........ In the winter.
   By they way, the big cast iron pot was my husbands grandmother's.  Our farm has been in the family for over 200 years and it is exciting to know I am stirring the same pot that she did!

BPA Free canning lids--Finally

As many of you know in my quest to run a chemical free household I have had issues at every corner. I started putting up food for the entire year so I would not have to go to the grocery store. I have been heading in this direction for almost a year making my own cleaning products, soaps, cosmetics, etc. Since I am also in the fitness industry, I have mostly tried to eat around the outside aisles of the grocery store. I have had a garden for three years now and have tried to preserve everything I can. My goal, as I said before it to not go to the grocery store. I am most worried about plastics and preservatives. I knew that canning lids had BPA in them but reasoned that it was better to put up my own veggies anyway. Almost all of the canned foods you buy in the store are packed in tin cans which are coated on the inside with BPA so the can won't rust. I have recently found out that Tattler Canning Lids are the only lid you can buy without BPA. They are gauranteed for life, dishwasher safe and most importantly BPA Free. Can you hear the excitement in my voice????? Visit the website and GET YA SOME!! Thanks goes to Homestead Revival for turning me on to Tattler!

sweat and weeds

Ugghh, I overly planted this year... I admit it. I can't keep up. This is my first year gardening with no artificial chemicals. I thought I would be able to keep up with the weeds with my hoe and my hands but it didn't work. I know that I should have put newspaper down and then straw or hay on top but I don't get the paper anymore and I spent so much time planning what I was going to plant that the time came to plant and I hadn't made any arrangements to get papers. Big Mistake.... Our yard is so beautiful. I have been blessed with the most beautiful Bermuda grass ever. I can dig a big hole in the yard and after a few days it is completely covered back up with grass. The down side.... It takes over the garden that quick too. Next year I will spend most of my time planning for the newspaper and possibly do some more manageable raised beds. I tried to get my old greenhouses cleaned out this year to grow my tomatoes in but that didn't get done all the way either because they were full of poison ivy and I got covered from head to toe in the process. I grew up pulling weeds in my dad's wholesale nursery business but I promise you have never seen the weeds like I have in my garden. I have just decided to keep the parts where there are veggies hoed out and let the rest grow up. If you come to visit beware that it isn't beautiful but I am still growing some great veggies.

It is has been like 550 degrees here lately with 125% humidity. I go out to feed the cows and chickens in the morning and then start working in the garden. For days on end I have been completely soaked in sweat when I am done. I will be glad to get started on my fall garden.

Trip to South Pittsburg

I had a wonderful day today. My garden is overwhelming right now, I have a cob playhouse in the works, cabinets to stain and install in my basement and numerous other projects going on so when my husand said he needed to go to South Pittsburg on this beautiful Saturday I wasn't quite sure I wanted to. Then he told me that Lodge Cast Iron is made in South Pittsburg and they have an outlet. Clear my calendar for the day, I am on my way to S. Pittsburg. It is about 1 1/2 hours from my house and we had to stop and pick up tractor parts and the new weed eaters so I was good and ready to shop when we arrived. It is a wonderland in there. I mostly use cast iron but don't have a huge collection. We go camping a lot at the mountain house and we use my dad's huge assortment of gigantic skillets and dutch ovens, but I would like to have my own. I cook on cast iron because I am worried about the coatings that are used on cookware these days, I am kind of a survivalist and I need to be prepared to cook on the fire when I need to, and I love to clean my skillets and keep them nice and seasoned. They retain heat well and are so much easier to cook in. Ohh yeah, and they keep your biceps pumped up!!!! Today I just bought a deep skillet/pot with a lid that doubles as a skillet and a 5 quart Dutch oven (I am planning on making lots of bread to freeze) . I would have bought more but it turns out my husband wanted me to use my money to pay instead of his and since I am soooo cheap I went and put some stuff back. When I returned to the counter to pay he had already payed for my things. How sweet!!!! If only I could have picked out more. I will continue adding to my collection over the years! We also stopped at Hammer's! I love that store. It is mostly work wear and household items that are irregulars or discontinued or something. I got my youngest daughter some new overalls and sweatshirt jackets for school. She starts kindergarten in a few weeks.
I am back home and back to the grind stone for now......

Old blog

I started a blog awhile back called Go Sara. At that time in my life I was totally focused on getting my body back to what it previously was before my third daughter. I am in the process of designing a plus sized clothing line from organic materials and this is still one of my goals, but God is moving me in a new direction that has brought me total PEACE for the first time in my life. Go Sara focused on, Guess Who? ME..... I have taught aerobics, trained women in weight lifting, and taught folks how to lose weight for many years.. I taught them about the power within themselves and how they could do anything. I blogged about writing on my hand everyday the words "Go Sara" with a sharpie so that I would be reminded of my own power to shape my destiny. Well, guess what? I am wrong. Yes, I am a strong woman... Yes, I am can do anything... but NOT alone. I have always been a Christian and am in fact, an elder in my Church. Over the past year God has shown me the way he wants me to live (more about all that later) and great peace has come from that. It is truly amazing. So, now I am starting a new blog. A blog about farming my land, trying to become self sufficient (so I don't have to go to the grocery store), my relationship with my creator, and my family. I am not the best writer, but I am excited to share my experiences and excited to read about yours.