Here we go!

I know all you readers (all 4 of you ha!) are dying to know what my new project is that I mentioned the other day! Ok maybe not. I like to pretend.

Well, I've been excited all week to share it! It's a project that has been in the works for a couple months now, and I have kind of already started.

First the backstory. Two years ago I started learning about food and it's health benefits as well as the issues with a lot of processed junk out there. I immediately jumped into feeding myself and my family differently. We learned pretty quickly that our current grocery budget could not handle the mass amounts of produce and organic products that I was purchasing. So we increased it from $300 a month to $500 a month. That's going fine actually, and I still use that amount.

A few months ago I was in the middle of tending my first vegetable garden and I was learning more about growing our own food. Along with that I started reading articles about the cost of food and how to feed your family on less by growing food, shopping farmer's markets, and learning food preservation techniques. I started wondering if I could bring my grocery budget down to half the amount while still eating healthy and natural foods. I'm pretty sure I could do it by feeding my family boxed dinners and such, but that's cheating.

I had to think about this one for a long time. That's a BIG difference. But hey, I love a good challenge!

I'm gonna do it!

Is it possible? I guess we'll find out. How long will it take to get there? I guess we'll find that out too. Why am I doing this if our current budget works fine? I don't know. Maybe I will send it to our student loan every month and help that along.

In the future I may give myself a date as a goal, but for right now I'm busy just figuring all this out.

So far in the last couple weeks we've made jam and applesauce. Both were from fruit from our tree and Kris' mom's tree. So the fruit was free and the only cost was the jars, which we are able to use over and over so that wouldn't come from the grocery budget anyway. I regularly buy applesauce and so that will save me quite a bit. The organic applesauce from Costco costs us like $6 a month. If I can put back enough to last all year that would be amazing. That probably won't happen this year, but it's a process right?

We also got to pick loads of peaches and plums from a friend's house. The plums are in the dehydrator. (Nobody tell my kids that prunes are for old people, they love them!) And we are planning to can peach butter and sliced peaches. Neither of those are things I buy already, but they're delicious so that has to count for something!

This year we grew tons of potatoes and squash so that will help with the winter months. Plus, our house has a great storage room in the basement that will work awesome for keeping them!

I could go on and on...

But I won't. Not yet. One step at a time and we'll see where it takes us!

Adding Up

Remember our money jar I showed you a while back? Well, it got full and we cashed it in. Any guesses as to how much it was?

How does $225 sound? Pretty stinking awesome to me!

We put the cash in the bottom and we're on our way to filling it up again. I think by the time June rolls around we ought to be able to have two days at Lagoon and two nights in a hotel for our entire family. As well as cover our meals and spending money.

This could get addicting.

I think I'll go look under the couch cushions...

Home Sweet Home!

We did it! We found our dream house and everything fell into place perfectly and so now here I blog from my beautiful new living room. And I have a lot to say. And show you!

I don't have good house pictures yet (that's a project for the next week) but I can give you a sneak peak!

View from the back patio. My favorite place to drink my coffee.

On our first morning in the house I sat up in bed and saw this:

Living room.

Upstairs hallway. Those are built-ins at the end of the hall.

I love this laundry room. This is only half of it. Around the corner is the sink and more cupboards and drawers, a bathroom, and a door to the backyard.

We're getting nice and settled, and it's been so great. So much space and places to put everything it is strange! The kids are settled in their new school and loving it. And I've been keeping busy doing this: 

Making banana chips. yum!

Picking potatoes from our garden and apples from our tree.

Kris and I canned plum jam with the plums from his mom's tree! I've always wanted to learn how to can, but it intimidates me. A lot. We finally got brave enough to try and it wasn't bad at all!

And here's our new family member, who likes to keep me extra busy:

Her name is Zoey and she is 16 weeks old. We promised Kristian for over a year now that we would get him a puppy of his own. It was finally time to make good on that promise. She's a lot of work but it's been fun watching Kristian and her be best of friends.

I've got a new project on this blog that I will be working on. I've been planning it for a couple months now, but was unable to really work on it. Well, it's time and I'm so excited! I'll tell you all about it this next week!