60-day returns • free shipping on USA orders $129+
Stretching the Food Dollar
- This topic has 106 replies, 26 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 3 months ago by
.
- Posts
I don’t use bleached flour for the pizza dough either. I use the white wheat flour which is just made from Hard White wheat berries instead of Red Wheat berries so it is lighter in color but not bleached. I think you could try any flour in the pizza dough recipe.
I vote we get a blog started and get our recipes and “tips” posted. Does anyone second the motion?????
If Lindsey wants to take it and run, woohoo! If not, I can try, or can help her or whatever.
We could have sections for recipes (broken down by meat group, pasta, side dish, breakfast, etc), gardening tips, general tips (like reduce amount of meat in a recipe), resources (like where to buy, books or websites that help). What else????
I think it’s so exciting that a group of women can come together like this and find solutions to help our families, even though we’ve never met! What a blessing you all are in my life…not just homeschooling, but LIFE.
Heather
I second that – when I started this thread, I hoped we could be a blessing to each other because this is such an awesome and diverse group of women who all have something to bring to the table to help us in these times where money is tight and getting tighter. I had no idea though how it would bring forth such great ideas – I like your suggestions Heather, the different sections and links to books and other things that can bless us all. I know there are other sites out there that have many self help ideas. Lindsey, what does it take to do this, I am clueless on that side of it Im afraid – but will help with what I can? Do others want to do this? Let us get an idea of how many would like to, as I would hate to burden someone with work for no reason. You are right about it being exciting. Even just the thought of being able to discuss this is a good thing, it is hard when we feel alone with a problem, sharing that problem eases worries and that is also a blessing which I am sure we can all use. Sometimes when we can’t see the wood for the trees, someone comes along to light the way and lift us up out of our worries – we can do that for each other.
I personally would not like it to become a scary kind of blog, there are already plenty of those out there and we don’t need to fuel the fear of the future, as homeschooling moms we have enough worries already – I would like to see a supportive, non political, non denominational nurturing group of Biblical women advising and lifting each other up with great advice and guidance in frugal living and good stewardship. There is a lot of scary talk out there right now, and fear feeds fear – I don’t wish to go there – I am very aware that my own part of the world Europe is in a terrible mess and that things could get bad there – but worrying and fear mongering will not help us – we just need to live the life that God wants us too- we need to get back to being family, close neighbors, and decent, kind and humble human beings. We need to be honest, and trustworthy and instill that in our children and we need to be uplifting not negative or stress causing. I should like the blog to be encouraging, and take fear away, not add to it. That is my hope, and I don’t know if you all agree or not – but imho when things get tough, the last thing we need is to be afraid – we need to be strong, brave and above all Godly. Sorry about the ramble – but I feel strongly about this – it is easy to become negative and down and we do not need to do that to each other ever. Blessings – Linda
I have not commented on anything because I have nothing to contribute that would help anyone:) But, I will say that I would sooo benefit from a blog set up…I really need the help when it comes to cooking from scratch, gardening (we did have a small garden this year and it was great, but could use some tips:), etc. I would love to supply my family with more wholesome foods and since I trust the homeschooling opinions from you ladies, I would totally trust the recipes, tips, etc. from you all too.
I have read every post from this thread and I am so thankful for all you of you ladies.
I vote for the blog. I haven’t said much in this thread because the things I do where already mentioned and there are many things I need to change. Thanks for starting this thread and I hope we can get the blog going. I don’t know if I will be able to contribute much since I have just started trying to live a more frugal lifestyle. I think I have learned more from all who participate in these posts than I could have from anywhere else. This site is such a blessing. I can at least learn what I can now, and when I am in the time of life to pass on such knowledge, I will be able to happily.
Ruth
I am a novice too, and I just thought there may be a need to help each other out in tough times – I too have learned so much from the threads and it is a blessing. I think all of us have some skill or talent to pass on, we often do not realise that some of the things we know may benefit someone else – and I bet we all have loads to offer.
Yes, a blog sounds wonderful! I’m in! It was funny today I had made bread (GF) and corn muffins (GF) for my boys. They enjoyed both so much… I realized a bit ago that was all they ate for lunch! OOPS! LOL Two hearty slices of bread and a couple of corn muffins completely filled them up. It won’t happen every day, obviously they need more than bread. But it had me thinking about how I need to get back in the habit of baking bread for them. The smiles on their faces…. it was heavenly!
Since I cook primarily gluten free (and I have for almost 4 years now). I need more help in baking from scratch in this area. I heavily rely on Pamela’s baking flours (which are wonderful, but expensive). If anyone has suggestions on that area I would love them!
One other thing I thought of was the the “More with Less Cookbook” is a great resource for getting started with thinking about food more frugally, using less meat, being creative with what you have available/can afford, etc. It was originally published in the 70s, but was still very helpful for me as I was getting started with scratch cooking overseas. It’s pretty popular in the missionary circles that we are in, but I had never heard of it before that, so thought I’d throw it out there. The same publishers also published an international cookbook called Extending the Table and one emphasizing seasonal produce called Simply in Season – this one is great especially if you garden or otherwise have access to lots of fresh produce. These three are my very favorite cookbooks, and this is coming from a bit of a cookbook junkie. =) I also really like Edith Schaeffer’s book “The Hidden Art of Homemaking” – the main premise being using whatever creative talents you have to enhance your home-life – but it always inspires me to be be more creative with what we have rather than always feeling like we need to buy more (or discontent that we can’t buy more – either because of lack of money or lack of availability).
Going back to your comment on the previous page, Linda, I know there are other like-minded people out there, I just get discouraged at times because some of the choices we’ve made for our family are pretty “out of step” with the rest of the expat community where we live. That’s why I feel so blessed to have found this forum – it it lovely to have a place to come when I am feeling too much like the oddball here.
I’m afraid I couldn’t help getting a blog up and running (don’t know anything about blogging and have a major transition looming in the weeks ahead), but once the ball got rolling, I’d love to be able to contribute ideas and recipes that have worked for us where we live in the hopes that it might help out some of you all. =)
Jen
Jen, I feel like an oddball sometimes too – we don’t have many homeschool families in our immediate area and so we don’t fit the normal way of doing things – it is lonely sometimes, but I know what we do is right for us, and that is what matters. The books sound really good and I love Edith Schaeffer’s books, they are a real blessing – I would recommend everyone having a copy of “The Hidden Art of Homemaking” it is a truly wonderful book. Carrie I PMd you a few minutes ago, so look out for it. Linda
Havefaithplease, I don’t have much to offer as far as gluten free cooking since I have’t done it in awhile (my 8 year old used to be allergic to gluten but it was a antibiotic caused yeast overgrowth not a celiac problem so we were able to heal it) but I do remember using the cookbooks “the Gluten Free Gourmet” and finding a decent amount of recipes that tasted good and could be made fairly cheaply. If I remember correctly, there were different flour combinations that you could mix up and then use in the different recipes. You could figure out which flours were the cheapest for you and go from there. I believe there were different bean flours (supposed to be good for the protein content) that you could maybe grind yourself? I’m not sure as we couldn’t use the beans since they were all related to peanuts/soy and he’s allergic to those too. Do you need to avoid all glutens? Can they have rice? I did see that they could have corn. Any other allergies?
I’ll look thru my old recipes and see if I still have some of the ones we liked from back then.
I like the blog idea too. I would be willing to contribute but don’t have the time to be one of the forerunners as we deal with many health issues here that require lots of time/energy (esp my 21 month olds brain cancer/hydrocephaly and needed dr appts and therapies).
-Rebecca
Sonya, that is a great idea – sections for people with allergies would be very helpful as they are more common than we realize sometimes. Rebecca, I understand your family health issues very well – we struggle with that here as well. However, once it is up and going it would be neat if we could all just add our recipes, ideas, and things like that. It would not need to be limited to food either – I use only handmade cleaning products because they are healthier and cheaper and so we could have a section for those as well. This could be really, really good, don’t you think?
A blog sounds fun and you all have such wonderful ideas. It would so helpful to have them in one place. I’d be happy to help contribute.
Missingtheshire, I like the idea of having other money saving ideas also. Homemade cleaning products would be great! I would love to find some that REALLY work-without a ton of elbow grease and time to scrub : ).
I know that Lindsay said she would be interested in doing it. I’ve looked at the blog she already has and it’s very pleasing, both to the eye and as far as writing style/set up. So if she’s willing, that would be great!
Jen – one of the recipes I want to contribute to the blog is from the “More with Less Cookbook” It’s the Savory Rice Loaf. Such a simple meal and my children wolf it down everytime I make it! My 12dd says it’s her favorite meal of all time!
Linda – I have the book “The Hidden Art of Homemaking” it’s such a wonderful book and will be required reading for my 12dd when she gets older.
Everyone else – I’m in for the blog. I have no techy savvy whatsoever
, but I will be happy to contribute.
, but I will be happy to contribute.- The topic ‘Stretching the Food Dollar’ is closed to new replies.