Just curious who else is living super frugal

[furbabymum]

We have a gazillion wild cottontails out here. A few months back, we found one in our garden; so I shot it. Planning to raise rabbits for meat, DW and I butchered it to see if we liked the meat, but we noticed its liver had white spots on it; so it never got beyond the butchering stage. I understand you should be careful because of what they call rabbit fever. Is that something we will need to worry about from our domesticated rabbits? Do you need to rest the meat after butchering it?

We shoot and feed our rabbits to our dogs. You are correct that you need to be careful. We DO NOT kill and consume an animal until the first ground freeze. The sick rabbits do not survive the first freeze. Any after that should be ok to eat.
Edited to add: We don't keep rabbits we just have 100's on our property we shoot. I'm not sure how this would apply to kept rabbits. I imagine you'd have to keep them isolated as the wild rabbits would transmit disease quite easily.

 

[furbabymum]

So we are officially DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Except for the house) We paid off 2 cars and a tractor at around 20k in 8 months doing the Dave Ramsey financial plan. It's changed a lot of how I spend money.

Now at the beginning of every month I calendar out our meals. I make sure we have something for lunch and dinner every day. A lot of our meals, like tonight's lasagna, are good for 1 dinner and 3 lunches. We save a lot of money by planning out our lunch at work like this. I also stopped buying miscellaneous groceries. I buy exactly what is needed for each meal at the beginning of the month. I then only have to go to the store for milk and the occasional fresh vegetable.

We use cash only. When we are out of cash we are done spending no matter what. It's taught me to look for bargains and to stop spending so frivolously. Now that I look at my bank account and see money still in it I can't believe I ever spent it all every month.

I have 4 boxes of throw away produce in my car for the poultry today. Since I've started doing that our food budget for them has dropped drastically!

All in all we are doing alright here!

 

[galanie]

So we are officially DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Except for the house) We paid off 2 cars and a tractor at around 20k in 8 months doing the Dave Ramsey financial plan. It's changed a lot of how I spend money.

Now at the beginning of every month I calendar out our meals. I make sure we have something for lunch and dinner every day. A lot of our meals, like tonight's lasagna, are good for 1 dinner and 3 lunches. We save a lot of money by planning out our lunch at work like this. I also stopped buying miscellaneous groceries. I buy exactly what is needed for each meal at the beginning of the month. I then only have to go to the store for milk and the occasional fresh vegetable.

We use cash only. When we are out of cash we are done spending no matter what. It's taught me to look for bargains and to stop spending so frivolously. Now that I look at my bank account and see money still in it I can't believe I ever spent it all every month.

I have 4 boxes of throw away produce in my car for the poultry today. Since I've started doing that our food budget for them has dropped drastically!

All in all we are doing alright here!

e
That's Fantastic!!! Congratulations!!!!

 

[mickey328]

Wow, that's great! Congrats FBM. We only do cash as well...I have a couple small limit credit cards somewhere...I just keep them in case of emergency but haven't used them in years. Not even sure where they are and it's a good bet they're expired, LOL. I don't plan meals like you do...probably should but we have 4 adults in the house and we all work different shifts, so actually planning, cooking and eating is logistically very difficult. I'm doing more canning this year though, so even though it's pretty much every man for himself, anyone can open 3 jars and have a meat/potatoes/veg meal. The only vegetables I bought this year was tomatoes...I've bought the meat and canned or frozen it, but all the fruit and veggies were free, so that's helped a LOT. Planning a MUCH bigger garden next year so hoping not to have to buy anything other than meat...and even less of that since we're about to start with breeding meat rabbits.

 

[HeatherLynn]

So we are officially DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Except for the house) We paid off 2 cars and a tractor at around 20k in 8 months doing the Dave Ramsey financial plan. It's changed a lot of how I spend money.

Now at the beginning of every month I calendar out our meals. I make sure we have something for lunch and dinner every day. A lot of our meals, like tonight's lasagna, are good for 1 dinner and 3 lunches. We save a lot of money by planning out our lunch at work like this. I also stopped buying miscellaneous groceries. I buy exactly what is needed for each meal at the beginning of the month. I then only have to go to the store for milk and the occasional fresh vegetable.

We use cash only. When we are out of cash we are done spending no matter what. It's taught me to look for bargains and to stop spending so frivolously. Now that I look at my bank account and see money still in it I can't believe I ever spent it all every month.

I have 4 boxes of throw away produce in my car for the poultry today. Since I've started doing that our food budget for them has dropped drastically!

All in all we are doing alright here!

Congrats that is a huge accomplishment. We are right behind you. Roughly 6 more months and no debts at all. Rough rough rough to start but something you never regret. Hope you guys had a bit of a celebration.

 

[newfoundland]

Don't know if this tip will be useful to you guys but it works here in UK. Because greengrocery stores do not open on Sundays around where we live, they sell off the weekend leftovers from Saturday, really cheaply on Monday. I only found this out by accident as don't usually go into town on Mondays. When i say cheaply I mean cheaply! I got 2 pounds of tomatoes, 1 pound of mushrooms and a cauliflower for less than £1. My best shopping tip is to do the weekly shopping online. All the big supermarkets deliver for less than the cost of fuel and parking in town. Put my weekly order in this morning and it will be delivered between 2 and 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. The driver even carries it into the kitchen for us. If I were to spend over £100, which I would easily do if I was getting extras or food for more than a week, the delivery would be free! Best of all it's hastle free.

 

[mickey328]

Most stores here are open 7 days a week, so we generally don't see sales like this In smaller towns where a store is family owned, you still see some that close one day a week, but it's not nearly as common as it used to be. There's no fee for parking at most stores on this side of the pond either, and the larger stores generally don't have a delivery program. I used to live where there were a few smaller stores that would deliver but found that I prefer to go and pick up my own things. You can specify sizes and brands with packaged products, but when it comes to produce I'd rather choose mine individually, LOL. For example, when I buy mushrooms, I like to pick through the box and get ones that not only aren't open, but aren't bruised and are all about the same size. A store employee wouldn't have the time to fuss like that, LOL.

We're lucky...our main grocery shopping is less than 3 miles from the house and is open 24 hrs a day. We do need to be more organized, though...and cut our shopping trips to once a month or less, with just odd stops for fresh things like milk. I stopped in last week for a pound of butter and came away with a bill of $224! I don't regret it though...there was an excellent sale on meat so we stocked up and either canned or froze all of it. It wasn't a planned thing, but I do try to take advantage of things like that. In fact, I plan to go back today and get a bit more. I grind my own hamburger, so I'd like to have more...just 7 lbs from the last batch. I also got 8 pints of canned stew meat and would like to put up a few more to last us over the winter. They also have a really good sale on salmon, so I'm going to get enough to can a dozen or so half pints of that. It'll be another big tab but we won't have to buy any more till spring some time.

 

[jbirds2012]

Most stores here are open 7 days a week, so we generally don't see sales like this In smaller towns where a store is family owned, you still see some that close one day a week, but it's not nearly as common as it used to be. There's no fee for parking at most stores on this side of the pond either, and the larger stores generally don't have a delivery program. I used to live where there were a few smaller stores that would deliver but found that I prefer to go and pick up my own things. You can specify sizes and brands with packaged products, but when it comes to produce I'd rather choose mine individually, LOL. For example, when I buy mushrooms, I like to pick through the box and get ones that not only aren't open, but aren't bruised and are all about the same size. A store employee wouldn't have the time to fuss like that, LOL.

We're lucky...our main grocery shopping is less than 3 miles from the house and is open 24 hrs a day. We do need to be more organized, though...and cut our shopping trips to once a month or less, with just odd stops for fresh things like milk. I stopped in last week for a pound of butter and came away with a bill of $224! I don't regret it though...there was an excellent sale on meat so we stocked up and either canned or froze all of it. It wasn't a planned thing, but I do try to take advantage of things like that. In fact, I plan to go back today and get a bit more. I grind my own hamburger, so I'd like to have more...just 7 lbs from the last batch. I also got 8 pints of canned stew meat and would like to put up a few more to last us over the winter. They also have a really good sale on salmon, so I'm going to get enough to can a dozen or so half pints of that. It'll be another big tab but we won't have to buy any more till spring some time.

we love the idea of grinding our own hamburger. I'm keeping my eye out for some, did you say chuck steak you grind up ? we're also getting more into canning. i canned corn and chicken noodle soup and DH and i made up and canned some tomato paste for the first time this year. also we are planning on having a chili canning party. stew meat and salmon, hmmm it sure would be nice to open a jar of roast beast (beef) for a hot beast sandwich when neither of us feels like cooking.

 

[galanie]

I'm always looking for boneless beef that is cheaper per pound than the ground beef is. If I find any, even a Brisket covered with a huge fat slab, I get it. The fat off the brisket I render down into suet. It's not the firm suet since it doesn't all come from around the liver or kidneys but it's still good stuff. I might add that I use the suet or lard rather than Crisco or bottled oil for frying and my cholesterol is much lower than my 35 year old son's is!

 

[mickey328]

I've never heard of that, galanie. How do you do it and what do you use it for and how? Sounds like it might be right up my alley!

jbirds, I rarely find beef that costs less than hamburger, but I can get it fairly close. My preference is for ground chuck and when I grind it myself I can control the amount of fat. I like about 85% lean and it seems the store sells either 73% or 90 and above. Too much fat and it's all lost during cooking, too little and the meat won't stick together and seems dry and kind of tasteless. Plus I've well noted that the stuff I grind myself keeps a LOT longer than the stuff I buy. At home, I know exactly what's been run through the grinder (I use my Kitchen Aid) and when.

What's on sale here through tomorrow is bottom round or chuck roasts, buy one get one free at about $8 a pound. So if I get two that are real close to the same price, I'm paying $4 per lb. They also have sirloin steaks, buy 1 get 2 free. Now, sirloin (IMO) tastes the best, but unless I use a pressure cooker it's too tough for me to chew. Hubby and brother are fine with it though, so I do wrap quite a few and freeze them individually for them. The rest I cut into cubes, browned and canned for stew. The price you pay in the store for stewing beef is ridiculous, I think. Plus I always have to cut it again since the pieces are too big...I prefer them about 3/4 x 3/4 or so...bite sized.

I got 4 of the roasts last time...froze one to use as an actual roast, and ground the other 3 for 7 lbs of good burger. I'm heading back today for at least two more to grind, and another 3 packs of steaks for stew meat. With what we have already in stock, we shouldn't have to buy meat again till at least spring. Maybe even longer since we're going to start breeding meat rabbits fairly soon. In general, for grinding I get roasts since it's usually a bit cheaper than steaks, just because they've had to do less cutting on it. I have to cut it in strips that will fit in the chute for the grinder anyway.

Since we use the stew meat for stews, soups and beef and noodles, I just canned the meat. That way when I want to make anything, the meat is already browned and pressure cooked, so it won't take all day to make something. From an earlier sale, I cut some roasts into strips and canned them in their own juice. I also have potatoes, carrots and green beans all canned separately so we can just open a few jars for a good meal.

Hadn't thought of slicing any for sandwiches...that's a great idea! Might try some of that with this next batch. I'd partially freeze it first so it's easier to slice thin.