Good Morning. Budgets and cutting them

I wonder if it would work well on venison .  Personally , I think deer are a GREAT ( basically free) lean protein resource for people who are meat eaters and live in areas where hunting is legal ( and usually there deer are MORE than plentiful) .

 

If I had your skills Gina , regular hunting is one of the things I would be doing .  You could even use a crossbow if you have a distaste for shooting guns .  Of course you have to learn to butcher also ... and carrying the animal back is GREAT aerobic exercise  :)

It also saves and helps the deer population , incidentally , that will reproduce till they starve ... and see their genetic material significantly degraded after a few generations  unless the weaker and stupider  are culled by predators .. in this case humans.  

Venison is an amazingly delicious lean red meat , very like filet mignon or eye round .  Its WONDERFUL  made into venison sausage when mixed with pork fat  and  in pennsylvania at least I know a company that if you bring them two deer will butcher them free and return the meat of one to you in whatever form you like  ( sausage, briskets, venisonburgers etc ) .  Its an enormous amount  of meat too ... you really need a deep freezer .    I also love to make venison mushroom bourginon , where you tenderize the meat by slow cooking it  it in a clay oven / cast iron covered casserole dish  in the oven  with garlic  , onions , paprika and cooking wine and mushrooms added at the end .  

I would also say .. grow your own garden .  Its both a LOT easier and a lot cheaper than people imagine , although the start up costs for supports and equipment can be considerable if you dont get creative or buy the items at yard sales or at year end sales where they are PLENTIFUL .

Needless to say the veggies etc are  amazingly good for you and so is the work in the beauty and the sunshine .:) 

i'm sure I grow far more than the national average 400 dollars per year of produce/profit  for a home garden ... which is still a considerable amount .  I can't TELL you though how wonderful  and healing it is to eat fresh florets of broccoli , baby leeks and  sweet jerusalem artichokes picked in January and March five minutes before cooking from  your own backyard ... 

If you use  heirloom seeds  you generally get so many volunteers the next year that you really  dont need to buy any more ... or start seedlings to get an earlier crop unless you really feel you need to .  Personally  I LIKE starting seedlings and experimenting with  different heirloom varieties you cant buy in any grocery store .... but last year I just let my Brooklyn garden go " fallow " and I STILL got an amazing crop of self seeded  tomatoes ,peppers ,  broccoli , pumpkins  japanese eggplant and summer squash , onions leeks and  bucketfuls of raspberries and giant strawberries ... oh and potatoes and of course flowers ... 

Once you establish a garden it REALLY  never goes away .. particularly if you use " smart " low maintenance  methods of conserving your soils tilth moisture  and fertility like Ruth Stout's Lazy Gardening  system  ... which  involves planting through a six inch  deep mulch of organic matter ...

Another  big way to save for me is to  buy produce and often fish  from either farm stands and flea markets in the South  or Chinese  supermarkets here in the East .  Chinese supermarkets./ or Chinatown  are also great sources of really low cost fresh meat for me as well as first class reasonably priced produce .. 

 

 

 

 

Buy meat in bulk...

I know grain fed is better but some of us simply can not afford them, Costco has great deals. The mark down meats at the grocery store work too...but you do HAVE to be ready to repackage them and freeze them when you get home. If you cook a roast chicken, use the rest to make your own chicken broth. Then freeze in one cup bags.

Get a Food Saver.

As much as I love veggies, I don't worry about those as much since we really do not eat as much of that.

Re-do your budget, figuring out where you can cut...it's not fun but better than going along and discovering you are way in the hole.

Liz

 

Not the right time of year, but gardening saves me a bunch.  I am still eating greens, brocalli and kale fresh from the garden, tomatoes, peppers, blueberries and green beans from the freezer.  I don't can (be very careful with things other than high acid veggies or fruit) but I do freeze.  I buy when stuff is on sale and freeze it.  I use leftovers instead of throwing them out.  I use beans weekly to stretch meats or to not use meats. 

I get most of my Vits when CVS has them BOGO.  that saves a ton of money, no shipping, and free stuff.

I 'm  also going to feel the crunch.  I won't know for sure how bad it's going to be until tomorrow when the state budget committee gets back to our Director. Originally they were going to have to cut 2 positions but they found enough excess to save my job and then they asked us all to cut back our hours so they could keep the last girl hired. After some negotiating we agreed.

As far as Protein goes I can't sacrifice on that but I've been using level scoops and trying to get my tubs to last longer.  I don't know how my Mint Cookie canister got so low, but I'm going to have to substitute with GN****il my Lemon Tea runs out.

DH and I starting preparing as soon as I heard I might get cut. We redid our home equity to pay off our credit cards (to many new clothes) so that will help with the crunch for short term at least.  I've been freezing all of our left overs for other meals.  A roast can last DH and I at least 3 meals. Once as roast and twice as roast beef sandwiches.  We also started buying Pork Loins at Sams Club and DH cuts them up into boneless chops and roast and then we divide them up and freeze for numerous meals (you get a lot of chops out of a loin).  I also started saving coupons and make my grocery list using what's on sale.

 

I think it is going to get worse before it gets any better.  We just got a $9,000 cut from one of our funding agencies starting this month.  We will probably lose a part time person.  State told us to be ready for another 3% cut starting in July.  Plus the employer portion of our insurance is suppose to go up again starting in July.  We just barely got this year funded from the other agencies.

I need to do coupons, my DD and DIL both save a great deal by using them.  I'm just too lazy.  I went to a class we had at the library for couponing and it sounded good, but I never started it.

We have Winn Dixie grocery stores, you can get a card from the, scan your card, buy your groceries and you get $ off on gas when you scan you card in at certain gas stations.  We usually get to fill up DH's truck at the end of the month with over .20 cents per gallon off.

Linda

 

I don't really go to restaurants hardly, sounds minor but it adds up. I still do Burger King and McDonald's but they shouldn't really break the bank.

DH cooks a big chili on the weekend and that easily can last 7 days in the fridge. We get a lot of meals out of that and one portion takes less than 2 minutes to heat in the microwave.

We may look at cutting down our TV subscription too. He's on Pay As You Go for his mobile and he barely uses it as I call him on my company phone which has unlimited inclusive minutes, so I'm costing my company anything extra.

I don't have a gym membership and am going to do DVDs at home - my saggy butt really needs me to do some serious working out.

When I was out of work for a month earlier this fall we did a full revamp of our budget and found that we could save on cell phone, cut the home phone, cut the cable back and kept Internet only. Cut insurance by taking higher deductibles. Coupons for groceries. Not extreme and I save 15-17% each trip. Make yourself a binder and start clipping!

We are stocked well now. I have enough baking supplies left over -- I guess my numbers were not so great there! Way too many!!!!

Meg

Dh said there is a Microsoft Budget template he uses but an excel spreadsheet works too...

It's a case of finding out where all your money does go and when.

 

Over the holidays, we bought a used small freezer so now I can stock up on the sale foods. I'm also cooking as if we're a larger family since December (just my husband and I) and packing the extra food into the freezer. This has already helped our food budget. Then I have this other thing that happened and that is we were given a electric water dispenser (hot/cold features) but it has a little "cooler" in the lower portion. Although the manual says not to use it for food and only to chill beverages, I discovered it is at the perfect temperature to use for storing potatoes, mushrooms, and veg.'s. I did a test and put a couple of potatoes from the same bag in the bottom bin in the fridge and a couple in the little water dispenser cooler. The ones in the fridge sprouted or spoiled but the ones in the cooler are STILL perfect! It is now my root cellar.