The original title for this post was going to be “Localvores for Wal-Mart.” It was inspired by a conversation I had yesterday with two of my dearest friends who gently reminded me that my desire for a Super Wal-Mart to come to my town was a perfect contradiction to my buy local, eat organic, return to basics platform that I have clearly been fairly vocal about. Anyone else NOT my dearest friends would have probably come right out and said, “You loud mouthed hypocrite!! How can you even think such a thing?” Well, here is my defense. We on the eat local/organic front tend to be a tad bit extreme when it comes to our beliefs. That extremism sometimes forces everyone to miss a key point: Every little bit counts. Every time we choose to buy from our local farmers market or sign up for a CSA we are making a difference. Every vegetable we plant, harvest and either eat or put by, makes a difference. I will be the first person to say that food in our nation has become big business right along with oil and electronics and my sincere hope is that more people like me decide to build a relationship with food or those who grow it, or decide to become growers themselves. As it turns out, however, to the best of my knowledge, no one local or otherwise grows toilet paper. If you do know someone who does, by all means, send me their way.s As romantic as using leaves or newspaper sounds, I am just not there yet in my journey back to basics and I am guessing that city sewers and septic systems around the country will appreciate that choice. The same can be said for soaps, make-up, toothpaste, medicine, etc. Let’s be honest, sometimes the only things that will satisfy my child are chicken fries and Spaghettios. As a mom, I do my best to prepare whole and healthy foods for my family. I bulk up on local, in-season produce and freeze or can it. I try to do the cook once, eat all week routine as often as possible. I use homemade or “green” cleaning products whenever possible. I do seem to have an unhealthy addiction to Seventh Generation Toilet Bowl Cleaner and Method Daily Shower Cleaner. The wasteful skeleton in my closet comes in the form of Lysol or Clorox disposable wipes. Since the city might frown on us putting a milking cow in the backyard, I will still need to continue to purchase milk. Until I get a chance to take that glass blowing class, I still need to purchase containers to freeze all of my make ahead meals and jars to put all my jellies and pickles in. The moral of my tale here is that until such a time when ALL of my time can be put into creating a self-sustaining household, I will still need to budget a good chunk of our monthly funds for groceries purchased at a store. I would also like to purchase a whole (butchered) cow for my larder and perhaps a pig that have both been grass-fed and bred locally. As luck would have it, my family is not in a position to have that much budget for food, so it would be nice to get as many of those aforementioned necessities at the cheapest price possible. In my experience, that occurs in places like Wal-Mart. Every dollar I save there is one more dollar that can go towards a significant purchase from a local farmer or merchant in my area. Now, the debate as to whether a Wal-Mart ever REALLLY gets built in this town will rage on for years to come, so in the meantime, I have been inspired by TLC’s Extreme Couponing. While it would be sweet to get $1000 of groceries for $1.98, I don’t know that I will ever be that committed, but I am going to strive to shave 50%-60% off our grocery bills each month. Ideally, this money will be put towards paying off some debt, paying for my, (dare I say it aloud lest it doesn’t come true), my Iphone, and most importantly putting money into purchasing local, grass-fed meat and fresh and local produce. Also, of course, there is the part of me that loves a good challenge and has a really strong desire to build a grocery reserve. As a parent it takes only one sleepless night wondering if you will have enough money for groceries that week to make you want to become more of an ant and less of a grasshopper. So, our new approach to “stockpiling” will be a combination of putting food by, cooking once and eating all week, and of course, extreme couponing. Below is a list of websites that I am using to start my foray into spending less to have more. Also, Google Docs has some amazing templates for coupon tracking and monthly budgeting that I have downloaded and will start using. I plan to Tweet and Blog about my successes and failures in this area and will hopefully inspire others to take a look at how much they are spending and what they are spending it on. If my life were a fantasy camp, I could just make every thing myself, but until someone invents a from scratch that doesn’t scratch TP, I am guessing that I will need to continue this approach. My first official extreme shopping trip will occur later this week and I will certainly share that experience, good, bad or ugly.
The Organic Mother-This is my friend and also the owner of our CSA, Hannah’s Blog. She has some great tips on how to live organically on a budget and an amazing book she is selling for just a $1. Check it out and you will become a fan like I have.
For the Momma’s – I learned about this site over a year ago when I took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Course. It’s a great site with great daily deals (including free Kindle Books) and links to lots of other couponing and money-saving sites.
Couponing 101– A great site that offers a more realistic perspective on how to coupon like a real person and not the border line hoarders on the TV Show. Also loaded with great links to printable coupons and daily deals.
Wicked Cool Deals– A great site, especially if you live in New England, as they give price matches to my favorite store Price Chopper. Which, by the by, if you live near a Price Chopper and have not taken advantage of the gas deal…you are CRAZY.
Common Sense with Money– This site pretty much has everything the above sites do, but also has a free E-book on couponing that you can download for free if you sign up for their newsletter.
Most importantly, if you are looking for a deal on a favorite product (organic or otherwise), you can always visit the companies’ websites. Many of them have printable coupons available. Also, a lot of the links I have on this site have all helped me begin to put food by and make my food dollars stretch.
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Adventures in Farmgirl Chic 