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!