Yes I can go 9 months no shopping!

[trying to be frugal]

I asked this question on someones thread, Can I?
Is it possible in todays life with no farm?
My goal is to show over the next months is to keep you all updated, get your tips and help, and to keep each other motivated to exact change not just do what are cultures tell us and condition us to do ... SHOP
Here were my posts from the other thread...

POST# 1

I'm going to do it!!!

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I am inspired!! Better yet my husband is on board with the idea and execution of the idea. He has the will power to see it through. We have a 9 month bill pay off plan so I thought why not coinside the two. I will give myself all of august to prepare. We need one more freezer and some more totes for dry goods. I already have enough food for about 2-3 months stockpiled so I would need to purchase about six months more worth of food. We have half a cow coming in October so I will not figure that in my money totals. August I will spend making lists and figuring out exactly what we will need and the best places to buy it. By September 3rd I can have 1400.00 for my food, home supplies and make-up/toiletries on my lists. I already make our own bath soap, laundry detergent and cleaning supplies so I would just need 9 mo. of ingredients for it. I have four kids ages 19-14-11 and 6. With what I have already, the cow in october, and an extra frezzer plus 1400.00 I think I can do it. Oh yeah everything will be made from scratch I already do about 70% from scratch I would say, so not a huge ajustment. What do you guys think??? Do you think we can do it? I will allow maybe 10 dollars a week for farmers market, 6 dollars a week for eggs from a friend, and we use powdered milk. I found out I can freeze heavy cream so I will do that also. Am I crazy?


POST #2--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I told you guys about my plan and it is in motion. I have started my list and I add to it anytime I think of something. For instance yesterday 9 months of DOG FOOD ahhhhhhhhhhh! I still think if planned we can do it. I don't have the big hit of 1400.00 to use until the first week of Sept. I have been watching our store adds and every week adding to our stockpile. A few days ago I got buy 12 ears of corn get 12 free and I just blanched, took of the cob and froze those yesterday. It made 7 pretty good size freezer bags for 6 dollars. It will taste a lot better than store bought frozen. Then I boiled a few cobs and some onions and herbs and made a broth that I used as the base for corn chowder last night. It was yummy! It had leftover bbq chk, sausage and potatoes, corn of course. Anyway, side tracked for a minute, I also did inventory on our freezer food and one of my daughters wrote everything in a notebook and we wrote a slash for how many we had of each thing. So we are trying to plan this right and take our time. I still have 3 weeks to buy another freezer, grrrrr. So that is my update. Suggestions are appreciated.

[Ceashels]

very cool. I look forward to hearing how your plans come to fruition.

[jamiet]

I'm so excited to hear how things go.
I would like to do it something similar soon, but right now I'm in major stockpile mode.
Good luck!!

[Maine Girl]

I really enjoy these on going threads and from the sounds of it you are very organized which will keep you motivated. I am excited to see how this thread progresses. Enjoy your day!!

[missyali]

Wow! That is an amazing goal! I can plan for one month at a time right now. I can't wait to hear about your progress!

[brenda67]

I think you have a great plan! I wish you the best and will enjoy reading your updates..Oh and welcome to our family.

[frugalbabe]

I admire your gumption keep us posted often. Hmmmm as far as your stockpiling goes some things that might be useful to have that are easy to overlook might be: powdered drink mixes (Kool-Aid etc) can make the monotony of milk and water easier to bear! Don't forget your oils and butter flavored shortening can be used in place of butter in many baked products, puddings and jellos are nice to have on hand even powdered milk can be added to pudding and made into kind of a shake. Spices and seasoning packets to give you a variety. I'm sure you've thought of all of this just adding my 2 cents! Also I know there are several food storage sites that you can put your family's information in and they will tell you what to have on hand and how much - it's kind of interesting reading. Good luck!!

[alarosalpn]

I will be following this thread. I am interested in doing this myself. I would like to have enough food in the house that the only shopping I had to do is when I saw something on sale that I couldn't pass up! That's kind of what I am doing now but only because I CAN'T grocery shop due to finances. Eventually that stockpile is going to dwindle.

[peanut]

Oooh, I'll be watching this thread. I've decided to go on permanent grocery exile...well, at least till the freezer empties a bit. It's full and I haven't processed vegetables yet. This could be problematic. I'll be looking at your ideas.

Questions: What's your recipe for corn chowder? I never heard of boiling the cobs with spices for a base for chowder. How do you do that (ie. what spices, etc.)?

Jean

[cissylu]

you have a great plan. I`m excited for you .please keep us updated.

[chevy_chick95]

what an inspiration you are! i have been playing around with this idea so i will DEF. be checking on your thread. Please update us a lot!

BTW- you are not crazy! you are SOOO inspiring!!

[trying to be frugal]

Oooh, I'll be watching this thread. I've decided to go on permanent grocery exile...well, at least till the freezer empties a bit. It's full and I haven't processed vegetables yet. This could be problematic. I'll be looking at your ideas.

Questions: What's your recipe for corn chowder? I never heard of boiling the cobs with spices for a base for chowder. How do you do that (ie. what spices, etc.)?

Jean

I had a huge pile of corn cobs after freezing and I hated just to throw them in the compost. I took 4 or 5 of them and put them in water with salt,pepper,onion,garlic,fresh thyme,bay leaf and then I let it simmer for a couple hours. The broth had a really different taste than a normal broth. It was herby? and savory but yet it had a background taste of sweet corn. I put a little bacon grease and butter in the bottom of a soup pan and then added flour then I poured the strained broth in and added some leftover grilled chicken diced up and some kielbasa sausage, celery and diced onion. I let that simmer for awhile and thicken and then added salt and pepper, a couple cups of milk and corn. It was so good. It had layers of flavor because of that broth. Hope that explains it, it wasn't really a recipe but it turned out yummy.

[MomToTwoBoys]

Wow! This is such an inspirational post because you have a way larger family than I do. I know that if you can do it, then we certainly can do it too. This has me wanting to start cooking solely from scratch and to get away from all those fast food conveniences, but we couldn't do it this month. It's a definite possibility in September, though.

Please do keep us updated and post a blog. I bet it would make for some good reading for even those not a member of FV.

[trying to be frugal]

I appreciate all your encouragement and feedback. I will keep you posted on how the plans shape up. I'm on a freezer buying mission this week. We have a chest freezer that is full and I would love to have an upright also so I can actually find things. We are looking for a used one but so far they are all so old that I think the electricity cost would void the original price difference. It kills me to buy new though.

[TheRootedNomad]

Well this will be intresting to follow. I've been contemplating a stint of not shopping for anything but food. I need to be in the right place with our home improvement/repair process though.