This year in the Langford household, instead of resolutions for the year ahead, we’ve set a single value, notion, idea as our goal . . . The value of thriftiness.
We have a long way to go with this old homestead; rooms yet to paint, furniture to buy, a barn to be restored, draughty windows to address, a HUGE heating bill to manage, fences, animals, seeds, tools . . . not to mention a growing boy and always hungry husband.
Life is expensive.
See, the thing about striving for a self-sufficient life . . . It’s pretty much free of instant gratification.
Eventually our farm will be able to provide most, if not all, of our nutritional needs, our seeds, our entertainment, our exercise, our shelter, our heat, even some of our income.
EVENTUALLY is the operative word.
In the meantime . . .
Enter our aim for 2013. Thrift.
Being thrifty is a skill most of us don’t require anymore.
We are consumers. Pretty much the antithesis of thrift.
The things we buy are meant to be quickly broken and chucked, become outdated nearly the moment we get them home, provide us a momentary distraction from our boring lives and never seem to satisfy.
The things do not satisfy because we are unsatisfiable. We know there will be the next big thing just around the corner and we live in constant anxiety that we will miss out, or be disappointed.
It is this anxiety, this fear of disappointment, this constant need for more that causes us to mortgage our children’s future so we can have this week’s next best shiny thing.
{Now, don’t get me wrong, I like shiny things too. But one thing I’ve learned since being home is that I don’t need them like I thought I did. My old office was on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver. THE shopping street of the city. I was everyday bombarded by advertising and shiny store windows full of things I was convinced I needed.
Removed from that environment, I now spend about the same amount over the course of an entire year on clothes as I used to spend on just one after-work jaunt to the mall. I’m sure not going to win any best-dressed awards, but no one at the farm co-op seems to mind my gumboots and patched jeans . . .}
So, in an effort to live well within our means, both economically and ecologically as much as possible we are taking this as our challenge as a family this year. I hope that we will form some new habits and learn some new skills that will hold us in good stead for the coming years.
We have already learned how to make do with less, much less. When I quit my job we also had to evict our tenant – leaving our family income at 50% of what it was. Combine that with self-employment and you have a recipe for financial disaster, right?
Turns out, no. We’re doing alright.
So far our quest for thriftiness has included
Aforementioned slashing of the cable bill. Save $100 per month.
A lick of paint on the old farmhouse instead of a full-gut reno.
Shrink-wrap on the windows to extend their life and keep our heating bill down (comparatively).
Shopping at the local antique store for used, well-made, durable furniture.
Turning a mound of old sheets into a braided rag rug for the bedroom. (This may not be finished till my grandchildren are born, but it looks good so far! Seriously slow going.)
Slowly phasing out our plastic, cheap cookware with used / antique cast iron and stoneware.
Being good neighbours. Sharing the work, splitting the chick order to save the cost of health papers, trading baby-sitting, batch cooking together.
Choosing a used european walk-behind “tractor” instead of a regular size one. No monthly payments and a MUCH smaller fuel tank. Saved $16,000 plus a ton of interest.
Acquainting ourselves with the FREE section of craigslist.
Being creative with all the junk left behind on our farm by the last owner. We are making furniture, fixing the falling-down garage, turning an old tub into a trough, you name it.
Scrounging for fire-wood wherever we can find it.
Saving to invest in a wood-burning stove that doubles as a cook-stove.
Eating LOTS and LOTS of soup!
Once we get going there will also be plenty home-brew, veggies from the garden, chickens and eggs, a hog to plow the fields and fill the freezer, goats for milk, and hopefully some income from the farm so we can save on our property taxes.
My husband has taken the challenge to heart and we are doing our best to have fun with it, be crafty at it. I will be curious to see what our monthly savings are once the farm is up and running and we’ve addressed our ridiculously high heating costs. The more we save, the faster we’ll be mortgage free (like, before we’re dead, hoo-rah!)
Time for folks south of the border to line up in the freezing cold for hours on end outside big box stores to be trampled in a stampede and have their wigs pulled off. Also, you might be shot or killed. Watch your back when reaching for that new Wii. Just sayin’.
I saw a lot of that on CNN this morning, wig-pulling, that is. CNN also told me quite matter-of-factly this morning that shopper-agression is here to stay, so we might as well get used to it.
What?
What in the world convinces us to toss out our sanity, not to mention our dignity, to get a so-called deal on crap we don’t need?
Don’t get me wrong. My kid will have prezzies under the tree. My Amazon book order is in, and it was big. I struggle to walk that fine line between focusing on the experience, time with family, the meaning of Christmas and wanting my son to feel that same gasp of joy and surprise and excitement I knew as a child.
Surely there is a middle ground between brawling in Wal-Mart and a spartan holiday season.
Anyway . . .
I’ve participated in Buy Nothing Day for as long as I can remember. All that left-wing hippy-dippy liberal education will do that to you at a young age. Go figure.
Some years it was easy (like I was a teenager and broke) other years it was hard (working downtown and forgoing my two daily trips to Starbucks for example.) These days, I don’t need much, so I don’t buy much. It gets easier.
Tomorrow might be Black Friday, but it’s also Buy Nothing Day. I invite you to join me.
Making long-boil old-fashioned blackberry preserves. Three ingredients:
Blackberries, Sugar and Time.
It’s long boil, so I have time to think. Stirring and thinking. Thinking and stirring. Sipping tea.
Thinking about those two ingredients and how each one is intimately linked to a very different food system than the other.
I thought about using honey instead of the white death. Had it in my hand at Famous Foods this morning. But I couldn’t do it. 28 dollars.
My house still hasn’t sold and this in-between-uncomfortableness has made my budget like all my pre-pregancy clothes : So tight it borders on vulgar. Let’s not even talk about my jeans. Let’s just say I wear a lot of yoga pants. Thank god I live in Vancouver where wearing yoga pants outside of yoga classes is socially acceptable.
Maybe if I ate less jam . . .
I got a screaming deal on a huge bag of sugar way back at the beginning of canning season. Pretty much the only thing I use it for anymore, thank goodness.
It is part of the problem of local eating, eating better in general. Yes, I can stretch my food budget, but sometimes, there’s something in me that just doesn’t allow me to justify spending nearly $30 on what will end up being four or five jars of jam. That’s absurd.
(I’m pretty sure the answer is going to be keeping bees, but that is a whole other problem altogether.)
Did I mention this is my first go at a long-boil jam? When they say long, they mean looong. 15 minutes my ass.
We know we shouldn’t eat white sugar. And it seems kind of sacrilege to put white sugar with these gorgeous wild blackberries.
These blackberries grew by the roadside in my son’s favourite park of their own accord. They demanded no attention, no tending, no encouragement of self-esteem. They provide hearth and home for countless song birds and furry animals and hold the soil steadfast on the slopes of our neighbourhood ravine.
They ask for nothing in return, and will take over completely if you let them. There are worse things that could happen.
They have more patience than I have . . . gel stage, where are you?
The sugar on the other hand. . . I have no idea where it is from, or how it was grown or even what crop it was derived from. I think most North American sugar is from sugar beets?? Anyone?
Starting to wonder if this mysterious gel stage even exists. I am doing a good job of making a mess of my stove, that’s for sure. This is one of those recipes where if I called home to Gramma she’d just tell me,
Oh, you know, dear. Just cook it till it’s done.
Right.
This push and pull between blackberries and sugar pretty much sums up my entire food-life.
I want to do better, believe most of us can do better, know for certain many of us (corporations and governments included) can and SHOULD do much, much better.
But there are always limits to our love.
Although I live in a world of momentarily limitless blackberries, I do not live in a world of limitless funds.
How do we balance our ideals, our goals, our dreams with our realities? With the red and black of our bottom line? Our access, or in-access, for a plethora of reasons, to food that is good, clean and fair?
Do we do our best? Say, as much as we can as often as we can? Do we say – here I will compromise, there I won’t?
Does it matter?
This stupid book I’m reading right now says that us zany locovore / slow food / organic / natural / bio-dynamic etc. etc. folks are using arbitrary food rules as a means of filling the vacuum left by religion. That all these self-imposed rules and difficulty and challenges and exclusivity are just the manifestation of some innate yearning for structure and order and really mean nothing in and of themselves.
It would help if I read the instructions properly. I totally skipped a step in my test. My sheet-testing skills need some brushing up. I gave up and jarred my jam. Bugger it. It tastes lovely.
Maybe we are a bunch of religious-zealots in denial. I don’t know if I care anymore.
I’m going to do my best to eat by my heart and my conscience and leave it at that. As my mother says,
It’s good enough for the guys I go out with.
(Please don’t ask me why she says that. I have no idea. She’s always said that for good enough is good enough. And now I say it too. So it goes.)
Here’s the recipe for the blackberry preservesI made, Gramma-style.
Homemade Old-Fashioned Blackberry Preserves
12 cups blackberries
6 cups sugar
Mix sugar and blackberries together in the pot you are going to cook them in.
Let them sit for about 10 minutes while the berries release their juice.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often.
In a CSA you pre-pay at the beginning of the season for a share of the harvest throughout the growing season. By paying ahead you provide the farmer with income at a time when she might have to otherwise borrow money. Any added security we can provide our farmer is good for us and good for the resiliency of our local foodshed.
Some CSA’s only run during the spring through early fall, but it’s increasingly possible to find winter CSA’s as well. Depending on the farm, you might enjoy a variety of fresh veggies and even eggs, cheese, milk, meat, honey and preserves.
There are lots of benefits of CSA’s – you get to support the farmer directly, which usually means more of your dollar ends up in her pocket. Always a good thing. I’ve even heard of farms offering discounts if you volunteer to lend a hand during busy times. You’ll eat great, save a ton of cash and learn some new skills while getting to know your food and your farmer.
Here in Vancouver, we even have a CSAs from urban farms! How cool is that? Urban Digs Farm is one example of creative, industrious folks building food security right here in the city.
If you’re not already eating a ton of veggies, your CSA box will probably reveal some weird and wonderful new veggies. Nourished Kitchen has a great post on what to do with the strange veggies in your CSA box, if you’re ever stumped.
You can also find CSA’s for specific products – meat shares, milk shares, seafood, even wheat!
8. Join an organic grocery buying club
A grocery buying club is kind of like an online farmer’s market. You place your order and pick up your groceries at a neighbour’s, instead of the grocery store. They make it easy to find local, sustainable products from small producers. One stop shop instead of driving all over town to different specialty shops and markets.
Kind of neat, hey?
NOW BC is our local co-operative and features all sorts of yummy goodies. Their subscription programs and bulk buying options are great opportunities to eat well without breaking the bank.
9. Shop farmer-direct
Buying directly from your farmer is one of the loveliest ways to get your groceries.
Our family purchases our organic pastured pork and beef from Big Bear Ranch in Horsefly, BC. They aren’t exactly in our backyard, but I don’t sweat it too much. They have outstanding farming practices and make it super easy to keep the freezer stocked with delicious, quality meat. We place our orders online and they make a number of stops here in the city where we can meet them to pick up our meat.
Big Bear offers specials on “family packs” of meat. You’ll get a selection of pork, for example, that will include a variety of cuts, bacon, sausages etc. You’re not guaranteed to get specific products, but you’ll get a certain percentage roast, chops, specialty items etc. We often split a pack with family – everyone enjoys the discount while still maintaining some spare room in the freezer!
10. Shop seasonally
Shopping seasonally is part of the locovore culture that gets poked fun at a lot. Critics tease that we think we’re saving the world by eating parsnips.
I duno about you, but it seems to me if everyone ate with a focus on seasonality, I think we’d all eat better, save money and walk lighter on the planet . . . That’s a debate for another day.
To talk in terms of economics, seasonality takes advantage of the rules of supply and demand. If you buy when supply is higher than demand, prices will be lower. Not exactly rocket science.
11. Shop in bulk
If you shop in season AND in bulk, you’ll really start to see some savings.
Even though I grow my own, I invariably get nervous that I haven’t put enough food by for the coming winter. There is nothing worse than running out of stewed tomatoes in February. It gives me the shakes just thinking about it!
So I go to my favourite local farm stand and load up. I mean LOAD UP. I once filled an entire shopping cart with local tomatoes. They were 69 cents a pound! I mean, come ON!
Before you go – make sure you’ll be ready to put the food by and that you’ve taken the time to . . .
12. Learn to can
For all you canning virgins out there let me tell you – You CAN can! It is not scary (ok maybe a little, the first time) and it is way easier than you think.
I did not grow up canning. Until I met my hubby, canning food at home was some magical, mysterious process that might kill me with strange bugs whose names I can’t pronounce. My mum didn’t can, neither did my grammas.
Canning has so many benefits and is key if you really want to save money on food. It also addresses the “I don’t have time to cook” whine I hear so often. Canning is hot work, and is much more enjoyable if done in the company of friends at an old school canning bee. If you’re more comfortable, take a class first, but give it a try, for heaven’s sakes!
Once you master water-bath canning, I strongly recommend you try to get your hands on a pressure canner. It will take a larger investment (or you can be like me and ask for one for Christmas) but it is well worth it. With a pressure canner you can put by soups, spaghetti sauce, fish, meat, stocks and more. Pressure Canning 101 has basic instructions and my recipe for canning chicken stock.
13. Explore new foods
Sometimes, things that you wouldn’t think about as normal dinner fare can be both delicious and inexpensive.
Living here on the coast, we have access to lots of gorgeous seafood. Mussels are cheap as chips, quick and easy to cook and crazy tasty.
My hubby recently introduced me to heart. (It took a lot of convincing.) He lightly breaded it and pan fried it in a bit of butter. Oh. My. God. SOOOO good. You don’t always see these sorts of options in the grocery store, but if you’re buying direct from your farmer, you’ll have a lot more opportunity to try new flavours.
What’s cheap in your neck of the woods totally depends on where you are. Get to know your local foodshed and find out!
14. Don’t buy food in boxes
I’ve never understood why people buy boxed mixes for things like biscuits or pancakes. How hard is it to stir some flour? Really.
I duno about you, but I can’t afford $5 heirloom tomatoes at the farmer’s market. Or 3 bucks for a tiny handful of fresh herbs. Or $10 per pound for garlic.
Luckily, I don’t have to.
Growing food is easy and inexpensive and can happen year round. All it takes is a curious spirit and a willingness to get some dirt under your nails. Cold beer always seems to help, too. (See #16)
There are a few important things to remember if you’re just starting out to grow your own.
GROW WHAT YOU LIKE TO EAT: For heaven sakes, if you don’t like brussel sprouts, don’t grow brussel sprouts! (Although, keep in mind everything, even brussel sprouts, taste better when you grow them yourself.)
GROW PLANTS SUITED TO YOUR SPACE: Take the time to get to know your yard / windowsill / community garden. Learn a bit about the needs of the plants you want to grow. Try to get them to match as best as possible. You can always provide encouragement by way of row covers, small greenhouses, and the like, but the best bet is to get it right the first time. (Especially if it’s YOUR first time.)
GROW THINGS THAT COST AN ARM & A LEG AT THE STORE: Garlic is stupid easy to grow. Stupid easy. You can learn how to grow garlic here. Tomatoes, herbs, peppers, berries and salad greens are also easy-peasy. This way, if you only have a tiny space, you’ll get the most bang for your buck. Bonus – most of these things will taste immeasurably better having been homegrown.
16. Brew your own beer and wine
If you like a cold one at the end of a long day, you should try brewing your own. It is ridiculously easy and disgustingly cheap.
We got a full equipment kit at the grocery store for 50 bucks. I’m sure if you looked around you could find use equipment for way cheaper. Our local home brew store sells bulk ingredients so you can make your favourite brew at home.
We made a cream ale our first time and it blew our minds. 45 beer for 25 bucks. Golden.
If you like baking bread you’ll love brewing beer. Same kind of creative process – once you understand the basics, you can go bananas.
Added bonus : no empties to cart back to the liquor store. We bought a bunch of old bottles with resealable caps. We talked to one guy at the beer store who said he’s been using the same bottles for over 20 years. He’s only had to replace the rubber seals once. Talk about reduce and reuse!
And don’t think it’s too much work, either. My hubby did most of the work for our first batch with a five month old on his hip.
17. Bake your own bread
I have no idea why store-bought bread is so expensive these days. Who can afford $3-$5 per loaf?? That’s just crazy. And half the time it’s crap with an ingredient list as long as your arm.
Bread is one of those things that is too easy not to make. You can easily make bread with next to no tools, other than your muscles, but having a bread maker or a mixer with a dough hook will make it easier to fit homemade bread into your daily life.
If you’re at home during the day, the dough hook is a good bet. If you work, get a bread maker. You can fill it at night, set the timer and wake up to the smell of heaven. How easy is that?
Once you get going, you’ll find it addictive. Bread is an incredibly creative process, and its relaxing, to boot. A world of shapes, textures and flavours await you. Mark my words, get started and next thing you know you’ll be growing wild yeast on your countertop.
Homemade bread is also a gateway drug to homemade pasta.
18. Make your own pasta
Another one of those things that takes a bit of effort and equipment, but is well worth the time.
Personally, unless it’s a special occasion, I don’t make my own spaghetti or linguini, stuff like that. Good quality dried whole wheat pasta is easy enough to find for a good price.
Stuffed pasta? That’s a whole other story.
Especially if you have kids, this is worth your time for the sheer convenience factor later on. It takes me a couple of hours, but I love to make ravioli for the freezer.
Bang out a batch of pasta, cook up some filling, freeze it and you have a nutritious, ridiculously quick lunch or dinner waiting at a moment’s notice.
If you’re able, chickens are a wise choice to stretch your food budget. We kept enough hens to keep our own (very hungry) family in eggs and support my baking habit with enough left over to sell to ensure that our chickens and our eggs didn’t cost us a dime.
Unlimited organic, free-range eggs for free? Um, yes please.
20. Splurge smart
Make your splurges count!
We go bonkers from time to time – really good (really expensive) cheese, lobster, steak . . . You have to live a little! When you splurge, splurge on things you can’t do for yourself. Make it special. Savour it.
How do you eat better for less? Share you tips, tricks and recipes!
How well you can eat on the cheap depends a lot on how much you want this to be a lifestyle choice. If you can’t be bothered to cook yourself dinner after a long day, you need to figure out how to batch cook efficiently, or you’re going to waste a lot of money (and eat more crap in the process.)
I believe that meaningful change in our food system begins at the kitchen table. We can’t change the world outside our door if we don’t change our habits at home.
The key is finding the pleasure in the process. If you enjoy your time in the garden and kitchen, it won’t feel like work and the resulting feast will be a bonus.
1. Eat less meat
Most of us eat way too much meat. In our home, we use Meatless Monday to stretch our food budget.
It doesn’t take an economics major to figure out beans and rice are easier on the pocketbook than steak (or even hamburger!)
2. Don’t eat out
Save dinners out for a meal that you wouldn’t be able to cook at home. The hubs and I are both pretty handy around the kitchen, so when we do eat out, we go for broke and it is a memorable, sometimes once-in-a-lifetime experience, not just a get in and get out forgettable meal.
3. Learn to cook
I don’t care if you can’t boil water right now, you can learn to cook. Cooking is not rocket science and it doesn’t have to be fancy, complicated, difficult or time consuming.
I get my panties in a twist when people moan – But I don’t have time cook! Bah. I say you’re full of it.
Get a slow cooker, a bread maker, a rice cooker – do what you gotta do. This week I got up a few minutes early on my “hell day” bunged a couple bottles of beer, an onion, garlic, celery, carrots and seasoning in the slow cooker along with a couple racks of ribs. At the same time, I heated through some molasses, ketchup, garlic, onions, apple cider vinegar and spices.
When I got home later from work the house smelled like heaven and all I had to do was slather that gorgeous homemade BBQ sauce onto meltingly tender ribs. I got the ribs on special for $3.50 a rack. We spent like paupers and ate like kings. Zero time and minimal effort. You’ve just got to plan ahead.
Personally, I’m a big fan of having one afternoon a week to batch cook. This works especially well in winter when I’m craving warm hearty meals like soup, lasagna and shepherd’s pie. All you have to do is bung it in the oven.
Who doesn’t have time for that???
4. Eat inexpensive cuts of meat
In our house, we are able to afford to eat pastured organic meats because we primarily eat the less expensive cuts.
Flank steak, stew meat, hocks, roasts . . . pretty much any cut of meat that starts out tough and cheap can be incredibly flavourful if you know how to prepare them.
It’s might go without saying, but meat on the bone is way less expensive than boneless skinless chicken breast, for example. Really want a good buy? Pick up a whole chicken and learn to cut it up yourself.
Whole grains are inexpensive, filling and good for you. How can you go wrong?
I like to use whole grains in unexpected ways – barley for risotto or as a filler for a greek salad. (Sounds weird, but believe me – delicious.)
6. Buy dried beans and legumes
A tin of organic beans can cost three dollars or more. Using dried beans can be inconvenient. You need to plan ahead, soak them and take time to cook them properly.
I avoid all that trouble by buying dried beans in bulk, cooking them all at once in the slow cooker, and freezing them in recipe portion sizes.
