Mom's Blog - He is faithful!!

Recently I was asked to blog about ways our family economizes.  We are presently a family of eight, and have been as large as ten plus extended guests.  I am sure many of you have some excellent ideas as well and I hope you will log in and post those ideas.  Let’s be a help to each other. 

Wow!  I hardly know where to begin.  Some of our ideas will probably not fit your life-style; but here they are.  One.  We hardly ever see a doctor.  If we are ill we consult an herbal cure book and doctor at home.  Our last two children were born at home.  The first of the two was under the care of a midwife.  The second was delivered by my husband and assisted by a friend studying midwifery.  We have rarely had health insurance; but we have an awesome God!  We have seen a doctor for:  the birth of our first five children, back surgery for my husband, some immunizations for our children, and at first we used a few antibiotics, but later switched to herbs.  My husband has a choking problem as a result of acid reflux scarring his esophagus.  He is going to the doctor today because we recently acquired some health insurance.

In the area of food, we have learned to like some foods which are both nutritious and economical.  Dry beans are a great staple.  They contain protein and can replace meat when necessary.  We suggest placing a peeled potato in the the pot of beans to reduce any gassy results of eating beans.  Do not eat the potato.  Home made corn bread is another economical food which goes well with the beans.  We also like to add a relish we call chow chow to our beans after they are on our plate.  We often drink water or tea with our meals.  If you do not like the flavor of your water we suggest running it through a Brita filter.

Another thing we do which we believe contributes to our health and seeing a doctor less frequently is we grind our own wheat and use it immediately to make our own breads.  If you check out the nutritional value of freshly ground wheat we believe you will be amazed.  Within 72 hours the nutritional value of ground wheat is greatly compromised.  Yet it is still an excellent source of fiber, much needed for continued health.  We buy our grains in bulk:  wheat that we store in five gallon buckets and keep well sealed to prevent it from becoming bug infested, and rice and oats we rebag and freeze.

A Korean friend, Tonghui Stanford, taught us to make fried rice.  It is cost effective and tastes great!  After cooking the rice (we replaced her white rice with brown for the sake of nutrition) we place it in a skillet with a little hot oil and fresh or frozen vegetables, onion, garlic or whatever you may have on hand.  We add any leftover meats or veggies we have in the fridge.  Tonghui sometimes adds some egg.  When the vegetables are cooked to your liking add some soy sauce and enjoy!  It’s fun to try eating this with chop stix!

Another economical cooking tip I have learned from other mothers of large families is ”end of the week soup.”  This is a tasty way to use left over meats, vegetables, noodles, rice, and broth.  You just mix together any of the above items that seem like they would go well together in a soup.  These warm soups are especially appreciated in the colder months.  If you need to, add some boullion for flavor.

An inexpensive snack we like is popcorn.  Buying a large box of it at Walmart is a better buy than a small box at a more expensive grocery store.  If we want some chips, we buy Frito-Lay Stix because they seem to be less oily and are less than $1.50 at most places we shop. We used to enjoy Pringles, but… see AFA’s boycott.  We also like large bags of corn chips which you can buy in bulk at Sams or some other bulk shopping store.

For our spices and yeast we have found that your local Mennonite or Amish store will usually have the freshest and most economical buys.  This is also where we buy our bulk grains.  Some of our friends buy these items from their local co-op.  We have also found Sams to be a great place to buy yeast in bulk.

We have found some great buys from salvage grocery stores which carry dented cans and items slightly out of date.  For the items out of date you have to get to know your store and what is good and what isn’t.  You’ll learn quickly! 

My husband does our grocery shopping and he is good at it.  He consults the sale flyers and buys a lot of a meat or other product that is on a really good sale.  That may be the only thing he buys at that store.

Our daughters have learned to make attractive special occasion cakes and candies.  There are some excellent videos or dvds which demonstrate the techniques well.

For birthdays and other special occasions we use Grandma Corbett’s advice, “Keep it simple, make it fun!”  We play games, eat food we prepare ourselves, and invite friends.  We have wonderful memories of great times with those we love and we don’t spend a lot of money doing it.

Several of us have learned to give haircuts, so we never spend on these, other than an occasional pair of clippers.

Our family fun times include inexpensive fun with a few big splurges.  We have acquired a few boats over the years (a sailboat, a flatboat and two inflatables).  Our sailboat and flatboat were gifts from people who were no longer using them.  The inflatables were found at Ross, a local discount store.  We have gone boating, fishing, camping, stayed at State Parks and local camp grounds.  We also like home movie night or game night.  We find a dvd that meets our family’s criteria and plan snacks our family enjoys.  We collect games our family likes.  Your local thrift store can be a great souce.

For clothing we utilize hand-me-downs, yard sales, thrift stores and sale racks.  We also have learned to make clothing for the times when the styles are not to our liking.  Someone near you knows how to sew and would be happy to teach you.  Patterns are expensive but can be used for years.  In the long run they are cost effective if you take care of them and buy items that are classic.  Avoid fads if you are concerned with economizing.

One of the first things we do when shopping is pray that God will direct us to the items that He has planned for us to buy.  He is the best shopper ever!  The most important tip I can give Christians on economy is tithe your income to your local Bible believing church.  God stretches the ninety percent that remains.  You will also find that if you give a tithe willingly God doesn’t take it in other ways.  I challenge nontithing christians to add up your unexpected expenses and see if God doesn’t get the tithe anyway.

We believe it is important that our children receive our values and so we work, play and learn together.  We collect our educational materials from thrift stores, yards sales, friends and yes, we initially invested in some great materials that we have reused with each of the children over the years.  We have been home educating for at least 21 years.  Our eldest is 24.

We do our own yard work and minor auto upkeep.  Since Mom works at home with the family we don’t need prepared foods, daycare, extra clothes, house cleaning services, more gasoline, etc.

We usually buy clothing that can be laundered at home.  At times we have gone without an extra vehicle, a home phone, insurance, you name it.  We believe it is important that Mom be home for the family and we make it a priority.  God is awesome and makes up for the items we have gone without.  If we go without it for what we believe, He becomes it for us in some way or other.  He has been better than insurance and communication tools.

We do not eat out often.  We do for anniversaries, and on each child’s birthday they go out for a date with Dad.  On the rare occasions when we do eat out, such as  when we are traveling, we save a nice chunk of change by ordering water (not bottled) with our meal.  If we need to economize when eating out we often look down the price list, begin with the least expensive meal, and if we like that meal we order it.  If we do not care for the least expensive food we move up the list until we find a meal we do like.  We are not picky eaters so we usually are content with the least or next to least expensive meal on the menu.

We do not keep a lot of catalogues and wish books lying around.  We don’t watch TV and so we don’t see commercials that make us want things we really don’t need.  We pay a flat fee for unlimited long distance calls.  We are looking at a family cell phone plan and have cancelled our home phone.  We limit when the cell phones may be used.  We keep our heat a little low and wear slippers and sweaters.  We try to keep lights out that are not being used.  One of ours sons is learning to tune our piano for us.  We invested in a piano tuning course and tools for him.  Our boys have learned various skills that help at home and are marketable, such as painting, tiling, building, computer, etc.  They are also working on some auto body skills.  Our girls have learned to cook, clean, sew, decorate, bake, and provide child care.  One of the girls is skilled at typing and one hopes to study midwifery.  We have given some music lessons at various times.  If you have a skill that you can teach, this can provide a little extra income for you.

I hope you have found a few things in our list that you can use.  And if you have additional ideas we would love to see them.

God’s blessings to you.