Saving Money #4 Food
Greetings sisters!
I hope this finds you all well and standing strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Ephesians 6:10
Today I want to share #4 how we save money. I'm finding that oftentimes videos are harder to do than simply being able to plug away at a post when I get time, such as this one that I've been trying to finish for the last 4 days :-) So here is what we do to save money on food. In #3 I talked about how we save money buying things like food etc but this one will be on 'what we buy' for food.
It's pretty simple... we eliminate a lot of choices.
If you haven't noticed there's not only a huge amount of choices within one product line, there are tons of choices in various products themselves. For example. I grew up eating a lot of potatoes, they either came from the garden or were bought in, 5, 10, 25 and 50 lb bags. We either baked, fried, mashed, scalloped, used in soup or made them into a simple casserole (meat, potato, and a vegetable.)
Today you can buy them already cut up and frozen into fries, curly fries, twice baked, loaded, super stuffed, chunks, wedges, hashbrowns, tater tots, puffs, rounds, cottage, waffle, mashed and then you have to pick the flavor! You can buy boxed mixes either mashed, shredded, sliced etc with an endless variety of seasonings. The same can be said about rice or pasta. What was once a simple staple has become a flesh fest of choices! Please know that I am in no way condemning these choices, I am simply sharing how something simple has been complicated and can become a distraction.
Another complication of food is in the endless variety of recipes for those who cook from scratch. Pinterest, yummly, recipes .com and the like are endless......................... recipes to satisfy the flesh and complicate the life of the cook.
Today a woman could sit for hours a day looking at all the awesome recipes on the internet and cookbooks, wasting time that could better be spent on things that further the kingdom of God. I know, that used to be me at times, swept away in the various fads and nutritional distractions but I repented of that. Today we buy basic foods, I cook simple meals and we move on to what's more important in life.
The biggest thing I did to simply our meals was to stop using recipes for 98% of my cooking and now I have a few base meals for lunches or dinners that we eat a lot especially while on the road. (We don't eat a lot of meat but sometimes I add small amounts to the dishes)
* Vegetables and rice
* Vegetables and pasta
* Vegetables and potatoes
* Vegetables and eggs
* Salad
* Corn Chips and dip (avacado, refried beans, hummus, salsa etc)
* Finger food meal (veggie tray, cheese, turkey lunch meat, grapes, apple slices etc)
* Sandwiches (peanut butter, tuna, egg)
Our breakfast choices are pretty much the same every morning:
* Peanut butter and jam
* Granola / protein bar
And our snacks are simple as well:
* Natural chips (made from corn, veggies, rice, grains etc)
* Nuts
* Dried fruits
* Fruit and yogurt
* When we are at the Missouri homestead in the winter we eat soup cooked on the woodstove and bread almost every single day.
This isn't an all inclusive list but I would say that it covers about 80% of what we eat on a normal basis. It's simple, fast and very economical because I buy what's on sale and that's what we eat.
I do my best to find the healthiest and affordable options (non gmo, organic, natural etc) but I refuse to waste excessive amounts of money avoiding all those because our God can sustain us through this world. I don't lose sleep because the grapes and apples I got on sale have pesticides. I don't feel guilty anymore because I happened to find a loaf of french bread from the deli marked down for .60 cents and buy that instead of the $5 organic loaf. I refuse to stress out that I ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch 4 days in a row. And I don't think twice about eating zucchini and cabbage all week because that's whats been on sale. It's food and I'm thankful for it.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them...
(1 Corinthians 6:13)
Read 1 Corinthians 6:12 and be not brought under the power of anything such as food.
I find that simplifying choices not only saves money but it also:
* Saves Time
I got to the point of being really tired of always trying to find something different. I got tired of cooking for an hour and a half only to have it eaten in about 10 minutes, then cleaning the mound of dishes.
* Eliminates Frustration
Simplifying our food choices has eliminated the need for always trying to find something new and trying to fit in the time to do it.
* Kills Flesh
It can be a flesh killer to eat simple repetitious meals with little variety, but it teaches us to be thankful.
* Allows Flexibility
Our life is not set in a ritual and we need to be very flexible while we're out in the world. There could be days we get up and are just barely having a sip of coffee and someone walks up to talk about the things of God. Or we have just gotten back from witnessing on the street, we're hungry and someone comes to talk about the things of God for a few hours until late into the night and I to have a quick healthy meal...this happens frequently:-) Praise God let the Word go out, who cares about food anyway?
I'll share with you a funny story!
We had just walked over 6 miles one day out in Montana holding signs and witnessing. We were hungry, thirsty and tired when we got back to our Walmart campspot. I told brother Jim I wanted to run inside the store for some ice then would come out and cook dinner. While I was in there I found a package of organic hamburger discounted and grabbed that along with a package of discounted buns thinking I would make my hubby a really nice hamburger dinner as a treat. (I rarely make things like that.) I get back out to Jim and he's all excited about having a hamburger for dinner so I set about cooking it, got it all done and on the plate when some guy comes walking up to us wanting to talk to Jim about the things of God. So there sat the nice, hot hamburger getting cold while he talked with this man for several hours. (He was happy to know that I had enough to make him another one the next night:-)
There are times you don't realize you are in bondage to something until you are set free from it...food is one of those. It can be total bondage in this world, especially in our country where food is available all over in the millions of grocery stores and restaurants to tantilize every aspect of your fleshly temptations.
I hope this helps encourage some of you!
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
I hope this finds you all well and standing strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Ephesians 6:10
Today I want to share #4 how we save money. I'm finding that oftentimes videos are harder to do than simply being able to plug away at a post when I get time, such as this one that I've been trying to finish for the last 4 days :-) So here is what we do to save money on food. In #3 I talked about how we save money buying things like food etc but this one will be on 'what we buy' for food.
It's pretty simple... we eliminate a lot of choices.
If you haven't noticed there's not only a huge amount of choices within one product line, there are tons of choices in various products themselves. For example. I grew up eating a lot of potatoes, they either came from the garden or were bought in, 5, 10, 25 and 50 lb bags. We either baked, fried, mashed, scalloped, used in soup or made them into a simple casserole (meat, potato, and a vegetable.)
Today you can buy them already cut up and frozen into fries, curly fries, twice baked, loaded, super stuffed, chunks, wedges, hashbrowns, tater tots, puffs, rounds, cottage, waffle, mashed and then you have to pick the flavor! You can buy boxed mixes either mashed, shredded, sliced etc with an endless variety of seasonings. The same can be said about rice or pasta. What was once a simple staple has become a flesh fest of choices! Please know that I am in no way condemning these choices, I am simply sharing how something simple has been complicated and can become a distraction.
Another complication of food is in the endless variety of recipes for those who cook from scratch. Pinterest, yummly, recipes .com and the like are endless......................... recipes to satisfy the flesh and complicate the life of the cook.
Today a woman could sit for hours a day looking at all the awesome recipes on the internet and cookbooks, wasting time that could better be spent on things that further the kingdom of God. I know, that used to be me at times, swept away in the various fads and nutritional distractions but I repented of that. Today we buy basic foods, I cook simple meals and we move on to what's more important in life.
The biggest thing I did to simply our meals was to stop using recipes for 98% of my cooking and now I have a few base meals for lunches or dinners that we eat a lot especially while on the road. (We don't eat a lot of meat but sometimes I add small amounts to the dishes)
* Vegetables and rice
* Vegetables and pasta
* Vegetables and potatoes
* Vegetables and eggs
* Salad
* Corn Chips and dip (avacado, refried beans, hummus, salsa etc)
* Finger food meal (veggie tray, cheese, turkey lunch meat, grapes, apple slices etc)
* Sandwiches (peanut butter, tuna, egg)
Our breakfast choices are pretty much the same every morning:
* Peanut butter and jam
* Granola / protein bar
And our snacks are simple as well:
* Natural chips (made from corn, veggies, rice, grains etc)
* Nuts
* Dried fruits
* Fruit and yogurt
* When we are at the Missouri homestead in the winter we eat soup cooked on the woodstove and bread almost every single day.
This isn't an all inclusive list but I would say that it covers about 80% of what we eat on a normal basis. It's simple, fast and very economical because I buy what's on sale and that's what we eat.
I do my best to find the healthiest and affordable options (non gmo, organic, natural etc) but I refuse to waste excessive amounts of money avoiding all those because our God can sustain us through this world. I don't lose sleep because the grapes and apples I got on sale have pesticides. I don't feel guilty anymore because I happened to find a loaf of french bread from the deli marked down for .60 cents and buy that instead of the $5 organic loaf. I refuse to stress out that I ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch 4 days in a row. And I don't think twice about eating zucchini and cabbage all week because that's whats been on sale. It's food and I'm thankful for it.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them...
(1 Corinthians 6:13)
Read 1 Corinthians 6:12 and be not brought under the power of anything such as food.
I find that simplifying choices not only saves money but it also:
* Saves Time
I got to the point of being really tired of always trying to find something different. I got tired of cooking for an hour and a half only to have it eaten in about 10 minutes, then cleaning the mound of dishes.
* Eliminates Frustration
Simplifying our food choices has eliminated the need for always trying to find something new and trying to fit in the time to do it.
* Kills Flesh
It can be a flesh killer to eat simple repetitious meals with little variety, but it teaches us to be thankful.
* Allows Flexibility
Our life is not set in a ritual and we need to be very flexible while we're out in the world. There could be days we get up and are just barely having a sip of coffee and someone walks up to talk about the things of God. Or we have just gotten back from witnessing on the street, we're hungry and someone comes to talk about the things of God for a few hours until late into the night and I to have a quick healthy meal...this happens frequently:-) Praise God let the Word go out, who cares about food anyway?
I'll share with you a funny story!
We had just walked over 6 miles one day out in Montana holding signs and witnessing. We were hungry, thirsty and tired when we got back to our Walmart campspot. I told brother Jim I wanted to run inside the store for some ice then would come out and cook dinner. While I was in there I found a package of organic hamburger discounted and grabbed that along with a package of discounted buns thinking I would make my hubby a really nice hamburger dinner as a treat. (I rarely make things like that.) I get back out to Jim and he's all excited about having a hamburger for dinner so I set about cooking it, got it all done and on the plate when some guy comes walking up to us wanting to talk to Jim about the things of God. So there sat the nice, hot hamburger getting cold while he talked with this man for several hours. (He was happy to know that I had enough to make him another one the next night:-)
There are times you don't realize you are in bondage to something until you are set free from it...food is one of those. It can be total bondage in this world, especially in our country where food is available all over in the millions of grocery stores and restaurants to tantilize every aspect of your fleshly temptations.
I hope this helps encourage some of you!
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
The biblical gospel...