Fighting the High Cost of Food (Part 1)

Newsflash!!!!


My kids are growing!

Yes, I know.  It shouldn't have caught me by surprise.  I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden they want to eat all the time.  All four of them!  My youngest will finish off his entire kid's meal.  The teenagers now eat off of the adult menu. Yet, I still want to shop for my family of six like there's a toddler at home.  So why am I surprised when a bag of Goldfish crackers disappears in an instant?

Part of this denial is due largely in part to rising food costs.  I am determined to not increase our monthly food budget.  I consider myself to be a pretty savvy shopper when it comes to the grocery store.  We don't buy a lot of meat, junk food is minimal, and I shop the ads from the local grocery stores.  I clip coupons for the things we use, and I buy some items in bulk from the warehouse store.  I know when something is at a good price, or if it will usually go cheaper.  It's a gift.  I can still tell you what we paid for sirloin steak when my husband and I first married seventeen years ago.  Those were the days we had steak and baked potatoes every Friday night.

Sigh.

I had just about decided the best way to reduce the cost of food in our home was to put us all on a steady diet of ramen noodles.  Okay, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.  Mostly.  Remember, I am the mom whose children prefer spaghetti and meatballs from a can.

Instead I decided to challenge myself to feed my family for less each month, without sacrificing quality or quantity.  Note:  I don't want to increase the amount of time I spend in the kitchen.

Stay tuned for the next post where I'll detail the first steps of my plan which includes some freezer cooking.  If you have any ideas to help me along, I'd love to hear from you!

A Thank You Post

I've spent a lot of time writing about my experiences as a mother, lessons I've learned from my children, and the legacy I want to leave with my children. What I haven't spent time writing about is where I'm coming from with my background. 

I was a rotten, attitude-ridden, mouthy, difficult teenager. I rolled my eyes, conversed in sarcasm, and was mostly disagreeable around my family.  (I can hear the shout of "Amen!" from my parents now.) 

Now that I have two teenagers of my own, I cringe thinking about how I behaved.  As a child, I inwardly groaned when my mother brought up scripture from the Bible to prove a point.  Now, I search for scripture to use with my children.  My mother is the reason I grew up in a Christian home.  I'm sorry to say it took having children of my own to realize the importance of that background.  Supporting each other's activities in our family was expected.  While I may have been bored sitting at some of my brother's activities, I remember my family attending my basketball games sophomore year where I spent 90% of the season on the bench.  It may be more difficult for me to sit through a band concert or choir program with three children, but I've said what I heard from my mother, "We are a family, and we support each other."

I wish I could go back and change the way I behaved as a child, but it has made me appreciate my mother so much more for still loving me through it.  I know I have apologized to my parents for being so difficult, but I just want to take a moment to say:

Thanks, Mom!  I love you!       

Telling My Secret

Shhhhh.  I  have a secret.  It's a secret I've been hiding from for years.  I can't believe I'm even writing about it now, but I've decided it's time for a confession.  If there are any other moms out there who carry this same secret with shame, do not fear.  It's time to be bold and confident.  It's time to be yourself!

Well, maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit, but I do have a confession.  I'm not Suzy Homemaker, Betty Crocker, or June Cleaver.  Martha Stewart is way out of my league.  I don't sew elaborate costumes or decorate bakery quality cupcakes for my children.  Even though I was taught early on to sew and bake, I don't do well in the kitchen and I've forgotten how to thread my sewing machine.  The year my daughter needed a colonial style dress for school, I called my mom (a very qualified seamstress).  I cringe when my children tell me about upcoming activities that require creativity, competence, and an abundance of time - three things I'm short on.     

Every year, the AWANA program at our church has a drive-in movie night.  This is great fun for the kids, but there's one exception that holds me back.  The kids make a car.  The first year, my smallest child's group was using toy cars.  My other children had a choice of picking a toy car or joining in with someone else.  Fortunately, there are always a few handy folks who make two and three seaters.  Last year, I opted out and we stayed home.  Yes, I know.  Pathetic.

But this year I couldn't stay home.  I didn't know what to do, so I avoided thinking about it.  Then I was made aware of a nice water heater box, and how that would make a nice car for drive-in movie night.  I wielded a can of spray paint and put way too many hours in (with some help from the kids), but there were positive results.  

It may not have been the best car on the block, but there were smiles all around.  Isn't that all that matters anyway?

The Right Tool for the Job

A couple of weeks ago, we had a crisis with our hot water heater.  As always, when something major happens, I learn an important lesson from the experience.  

To condense the story (because, frankly, it is quite lengthy), let me just say that water was flooding our bathroom and my husband was not in town.  I knew I needed to shut off the water to the house.  My oldest son and I searched and searched for a tool that would do the job.  We went through toolboxes and I tried several different ones, but I couldn't get the knob (or whatever it's called) to turn.  When we finally found the pair of pliers that my husband told me to use (via phone), I still couldn't get it turned off.  Meanwhile, my oldest daughter is emptying buckets and soaking towels in the bathroom to keep the water contained to one room.  

Frustrated that I couldn't get to the knob well enough to turn it, I sent my son down the road to our neighbor for help.  He came back with a long handled tool and thirty seconds later the water was off.  I said, "I'm buying one of these tonight," and I did.  What a difference it made to use a tool that was specifically designed for this purpose!  I was amazed at how much easier it was to accomplish my task.

 

I thought about how that relates to scripture memory and how relevant a verse can be to what is going on in my life.  It's having the right tool for the job.

But the lesson didn't stop there.

After the new water heater was installed, I was ready to use my new tool to turn the water back on.  I tried and tried, and I couldn't get the tool around the knob to turn it.  While I was grumbling and trying to get a grip I somehow moved the metal lid and then noticed the concrete moved.  What do you know?  The whole lid comes off, and there's direct access to the knob.  I had been trying to turn it on and off from a 90 degree angle.  Well, no wonder!  Thirty seconds later the water was back on, and I felt ridiculous.

I learned that it is important to have the right tool for the job, but if I'm not using it the way it is intended, my situation is going to be more difficult.  How does this relate to learning Bible verses?  The verses are my tool, but if I don't memorize them to have immediately available in my mind, then I'm not able to use the tools the way they are meant to be used.

I've fallen off track with this goal, and this little crisis helped me see how important it is for me to continue learning those verses and calling them to my mind when I need them.