Homesteaders

[Chicken girl 15]

Who is starting seedlings?  Has anyone ordered seeds?  

I'm starting the February 15th.

 

[I Love Layers]

Yeah next year I should be milking my cow, which means I'll have milk products and meat, as well as eggs from my chickens and stuff from my garden. Next year will be a lot easier than this year

What breed?

 

[lazy gardener]

Who is starting seedlings? Has anyone ordered seeds?

My seeds are just waiting... I hear them calling my name. Hope to pick up some seedling flats today, perhaps start some stuff for the green house this weekend. gonna try some culvert planting of peas, and other stuff as posted by Beekissed on an other thread. Start the seedlings in a culvert with proper spacing, then simply slide the long soil plug out into a trench in the garden.

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this or not, but I kind of think it is.
I'm wanting to try something.
When I first moved out I realized that I could pretty easily keep my grocery bill around $100 a month, then I moved back home for a couple weeks because my well quit, and now I'm getting ready to move back to my house.
I want to try and keep my grocery bill at $100 or less a month, not a dollar over, BUT I also want to start eating healthy.
I feel like it'll be a lot easier next year becuase I'll be storing a lot from my garden (which I'm expanding this year) and my cow will be about ready to start milking. But this year it'll be kind of tough.
So does anybody have any good ideas on what I could add to my grocery list?
I'm pretty notoriously picky, I hate rice and beans. And I love smoothies and fruit lol.
So those of you who are good at staying healthy and natural on a budget, would you please share some of your secrets?
It's just me that I'm feeding

Shop with sale fliers. Buy loss leaders at each store. As soon as the frost is out of the ground, you can start growing stuff. You can actually start a month before that by starting seedlings in the house. Baked potato with cheese and veggies on top makes a wonderful meal. Buy all foods from the outer perimeter of the store. Only go into the aisles if you need a specific item. If you open a can of tomatoes, cream soup, tomato paste, or what ever, freeze the unused portion instead of putting it in the fridge to become yet an other science experiment. Make home made oat meal instead of eating processed cereals. Make master mixes of common items you like to have: biscuit, pancakes, etc. Make your own taco shells. Use your crock pot. Do bulk cooking on days off, and freeze up meal sized portions.

Make your own laundry detergent. It also works great as a tub cleaner. Much better than anything I've ever purchased.

 

[rancher hicks]

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this or not, but I kind of think it is.
I'm wanting to try something.
When I first moved out I realized that I could pretty easily keep my grocery bill around $100 a month, then I moved back home for a couple weeks because my well quit, and now I'm getting ready to move back to my house.
I want to try and keep my grocery bill at $100 or less a month, not a dollar over, BUT I also want to start eating healthy.
I feel like it'll be a lot easier next year becuase I'll be storing a lot from my garden (which I'm expanding this year) and my cow will be about ready to start milking. But this year it'll be kind of tough.
So does anybody have any good ideas on what I could add to my grocery list?
I'm pretty notoriously picky, I hate rice and beans. And I love smoothies and fruit lol.
So those of you who are good at staying healthy and natural on a budget, would you please share some of your secrets?
It's just me that I'm feeding

Here's my immediate thought. When I was hungry I was less picky. That said you can start many things inside. Such as greens of many kinds. Many can be grown in flower pots.
Google growing greens in pots.

Bake your own breads. If you don't have chickens you should have some. If you buy bread check to see if there is a place that sells day old bread cheaper. At my store they sell "reduced for quick sale" meats. I have a stocked freezer. Remember the sell by date is set by the manufactures and we throw out perfectly good food.

Learn to cook with the "staples". Flour, milk, eggs, etc. etc. DD just made us a spinach pie with eggs from our chickens.

Oh, oh, Yogurt lasts a long time too. Incorporate this where you can.

Check your local library for "Frugal" type books.

Brood chicks in your green "hoop" house. The heat used to keep the chicks warm will do double duty in keeping your plants warm too. There is a thread on BYC about this very thing. Perhaps if you have a dirt floor you might be able to grow taters there too.

I wish you well.
Rancher

 

[lazy gardener]

Make your own taco shells. So much better than the processed ones from the store. Easy to make, and you can have fresh shells any time you want them, with a little planning ahead.

 

[I Love Layers]

So here's waht we do for our grocery bill
Bread and tortillas we make ourselves
We make 12 grain, 7 grain, 24 grain, white, wheat, cinnamon, garlic, and cheese.
We have all of our own dairy and eggs. We use our deer for everuthing but hamburgers which we use beef.
We make our own detergent and grind out own flour.
We do more but I can't remember

. If my mom did not have a full time job we would do more stuff abd probably not ever go to the store at all.

 

[Kiki]

I can not believe I am just finding/came across this thread.
I am going to spend some time reading back.

Hi all!

(I to have been making my our laundry soap for a few years now.)

 

[Maeschak]

If you aren't already doing so you can take up deer hunting, fishing, shellfishing, frog gigging, crayfish and snake trapping, etc. Believe it or not, some culture considers each of these to be a delicacy! You can also go to your local parks and forage for mushrooms and greens.

 

[I Love Layers]

If you aren't already doing so you can take up deer hunting, fishing, shellfishing, frog gigging, crayfish and snake trapping, etc. Believe it or not, some culture considers each of these to be a delicacy! You can also go to your local parks and forage for mushrooms and greens.

snake is ok. Then again I've only had rattler. Deer carcasses can also fees your hens

 

[rancher hicks]

I can not believe I am just finding/came across this thread.
I am going to spend some time reading back.

Hi all!

(I to have been making my our laundry soap for a few years now.)

HI there.