Why I Can't Stop Canning

Caution: Seriousness Ahead.

If you know me or follow me on any social media, you know that I am a pretty enthusiastic canner.  I take a lot of kidding and funny looks from people when I say that I canned_______.  You know that half smile "ok crazy lady" look.  I'm sure people wonder what my deal is.  Well, here is my deal. (And no it's not that I'm preparing for the grid to go down.)

Number one, I enjoy canning.  Plain and simple.  I like the ping of jars sealing.  It is one of the most empowering feelings there is.  You might think that's a stretch, but let me explain.  For every jar of applesauce/jam/pickles/meat/beans etc. that seals, that is one less thing I have to buy with my hard earned money.  No, canning isn't free.  No, it isn't always the cheapest way to get a can of peaches.  But, if you compare apples to apples and look for a glass jar of all natural, (mostly) organic produce with no chemicals in it, then it is tons cheaper.

Number two, I am not so sure about all the so-called safe preservatives in commercially processed food.  If I buy a can of peaches for example, I want a container of fruit preserved with a bit of sugar in water.  I do not want High Fructose Corn Syrup or aspartame or any other currently hip sweetener.  I'll take sugar please.  Either from US grown sugarcane or more locally, sugar beets.  I know what that is and where it comes from.  Yes, I know this is a bit OCD and yes sometimes I curse the day I started reading labels and researching ingredients.

Number three, and here's where the real seriousness comes in, knowing that there is a pantry stocked with a full variety of vegetables, fruits and proteins is very comforting to me.  Several years ago, my husband lost his job.  About the time the economy went in the toilet, the company he worked for sold out to a global manufacturer and that meant downsizing (even though they said that everything would continue as before).  I was pregnant with our son.  It was December.  Up until this point, we had never gone through any seriously hard times.  We were not prepared for how much our world would change if we didn't have that paycheck coming in.  It effected us in every possible way.  No, we didn't lose our house or our cars or anything that scary.  But we had to take a long hard look at our life and cut everywhere we possibly could.  This is not an uncommon story.  At that time, we believed that this was a short term setback and in six months everything would be fine.  Well, it has been six years and we are not back to where we were before in financial terms.  We are slowly gaining ground, but we still have a ways to go.  

One thing we discovered during that time is that all the government programs that are supposed to be there as a safety net when one suffers a catastrophic job loss were not available to us.  

There was no funding for him to go to school and learn a new trade, it was the wrong time of year and all the funding had been used up. 

 There was no medical assistance for us because I have a job that offers medical coverage (never mind that it cost 30% of my gross wages to cover all of us).  

There was no food assistance because I was still working and earning more than the state poverty guideline for our family size (by $100 a month, not counting the aforementioned massive deduction for health insurance).  

We got WIC to cover formula for our baby and a small amount of assistance with daycare.  That was it.  Nothing even close to the amount that theoretically would be available to a family in need.  

The government didn't do jack squat for us.  We were on our own.  I felt so defeated and vowed never to be there again.  

After having survived that experience, we know that it could happen again in a minute.  I could go to work today and find out that my job no longer exists.  And with it would go the bulk of our income and our access to medical care.  Am I paranoid? Maybe.  Am I changed because of this life experience?  You bet.  

Ultimately, all we can do is keep chipping away at the debt we took on and work to not need to take on more if history repeats itself.  We fix what we have, make what we can and buy what we have to.  And yes, we occasionally go out for pizza.

So, yes I can.  I'm eternally grateful to the wonderful people who have shared their knowledge with me.  And I'm willing to teach anybody who shows any interest whatsoever.

The Great Spending Freeze

We are twenty-six days into our 31 day spending freeze.  I have been reading about it a lot and wanting to try it.  There is a handy dandy printable guide/worksheet/list (you know how I love a good list) at Living Well Spending Less.

I talked it over with Matt and he agreed to do it.  We went into it knowing that we had to plan for a wedding and a graduation.  We had just been to Sam's Club and stocked up on toilet paper and a few other things and figured we could totally do this. 

We knew that "spending zero" as in no dollars at all outside of bills was not going to happen.  We still have to buy feed for our critters, and a few basics like milk and bread.  I've been keeping every receipt for over 3 weeks to be able to tally up exactly how much we spent in the last month. 

The rules have been pretty straight forward.  No grabbing a pop/snack  at the gas station.  No Starbucks, no rummage sales, no visits to the greenhouse for great end of season deals on annuals.  I did barter for some new perennials this year from a local garden exchange group on Facebook, so that's cool.  We have stuck pretty close with not buying groceries other than perishables.  Funny thing is that we still have several meals worth of meat in our freezer and enough canned peaches to last until the Rapture.  Otherwise, side dishes are requiring more creativity.  I tried a brown rice/quinoa pilaf night before last.  (A friendly tip, brown rice takes far longer to cook than quinoa.  You might want to give the rice a head start.)

We have been pretty careful up until this past weekend. See, what we failed to plan ahead for was the 4th of July.  Independence Day is a pretty big deal in our hometown.  Everybody turns out for the festivities.  We didn't spend a lot (we usually don't anyway) but, we still bought some things.  Like $5 arm bands for the kids to go to the bouncy houses (unlimited jumping for 2 days).  And the kids each got a small item from the flea market.  We also went to a BBQ/birthday party at our friend's house. I don't know why I didn't set aside a little bit for this each week up until now.  It's not like July 4th is this brand new holiday or that I didn't know the kids' birthday party was going to be this weekend.

Some things I have learned from this experience:  I spend way more money than I thought on impulse purchases.  Random crap that I didn't need when I went to the store, but suddenly couldn't leave without.  We actually do make enough to be putting money into savings every month.  I truly didn't realize this before, even though I have always had a basic budget.  It seemed like something always "came up" and we'd just make it through the month.  This challenge comes with budgeting worksheets so you can write everything down and see exactly where your money is going.  Along with seeing that we have money for savings every month, I also regained hope that we'd be able to do some of the things we want to do to our house.  I also learned that I like iced coffee made at home, and it costs way less than buying it anywhere.

One of the other things that is part of this challenge is a full house clean/de-clutter/organize.  I printed the checklists, but did not do all of them.  I did do the bathroom one and threw away a bunch of old stuff out of there.  Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot of homeless stuff floating in our house.  We're both way too particular about keeping things put away and not keeping stuff that has no purpose. 

I did come up with a few things to sell as per the challenge.  Not a lot (see above), but some.  I also came up with some free things to do.  As it happens, our local library has free passes for several area attractions so I picked up some today when we made our weekly visit.

Now that our challenge is almost up, I'm really getting excited to go grocery shopping. I'm also wondering how long until we could feasibly do this again.  How often do people have "no spend" months?  I think I'd like to do this again sometime in the winter.  I wonder if my family would think I had really lost it if we made this a quarterly event.

While we didn't make a month without spending any money, we did do pretty well.  So, I'll call it a success.  Does anybody else out there do a spending freeze from time to time? 

Looking Ahead Update: Getting Started

What do a day planner,  a batch of mini muffins and a vintage bowl have in common?  They are all things related to my goal of being more on top of my family's budget in 2013. 

 In my last post, I wrote about hoping to get back on track with budgeting and clear up some debt.  My husband got a me a spiffy little day planner for Christmas that I absolutely love.  It is the perfect size and has plenty of room to write in work schedules and appointments, plus my dinner menu and my weekly bill pay plan.  So, starting the last week in December, I got my checkbook in order and organized all our bills into the day planner so that each week I can sit down and pay what needs paying.  I also write in a meal plan for each day's evening meal.  This helps with grocery shopping on a budget and is a huge time saver for me.  It saves time in that I don't sit and try to come up with a meal for supper on my way home from work and also then am not tempted to "swing by" the grocery store on my way home, for a "few" things which never fails to turn into a half hour and $30 because I always get sidetracked.

Love this planner!  Isn't it pretty?

Wednesday before work our mission was to fill up our stash of snacks for lunches.  I did not go to the store that day, but Joey and I were home in the morning and he helped me fill up little baggies with mini muffins (from an 89 cent just add water mix) graham crackers and a pan of granola bars.   I have never made granola bars before but thought it looked kind of cool on Pinterest, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. We also did celery sticks and baby carrots. Making lunches should be a breeze for the rest of the week.  I know that using little baggies seems wasteful and not as cost effective as small reusable containers.  Here's the thing.  I bought the little reusable bowls to put snacks in, but they don't fit very well in her Hello Kitty head-shaped lunch box.  So, I went back to snack baggies. I don't reuse them either. Sorry.

Our week's worth of  snacks: Pan of granola (waiting to be cut into bars), celery & baby carrots, mini muffins, mini graham crackers, mozzarella cheese sticks

There you have it.  My big plans to budget and get all our bills paid on time every month and eat too.  It's not overly complicated or scientific, but it gets the job done.  Besides, I like to make lists. ;)

My cute vintage bowl

Still wondering how the vintage bowl figures into this?  Well, its like this.  Everybody needs a little fun money.  I figure a small amount of play money into the budget for the sake of my own sanity.  Not as much as I'd like, but a little bit anyway.  And with that money this week, I went to Goodwill and bought a cute bowl that I probably didn't need, but liked enough to spend 99 cents on it.  Oh and some more jelly jars.  I always need jelly jars for something or other.  Man I love Goodwill.

Looking Ahead

As we get nearer to Christmas, I start looking ahead to what comes next.  I love Christmas and all the cozy things that go with it.  Winter feels warmer in the month of December.  I have no meteorological evidence of this, it just seems that way because everybody is in a good mood and there are smells of yummy food and pine everywhere.

Then comes January.  All the warm coziness of the holidays and their decorations get packed up for another year.  As much as I love decorating for the holidays, I equally enjoy the putting away of all the extra stuff in the house.  Everything feels clean and tidy, especially after all the Christmas presents find homes and get put away.  

In January, my oven gets a break.  There is nothing left to can, no cookies to bake.  I can just enjoy the quiet of winter.  I fully intend to get some reading done and practice knitting some more.  I'd like to actually complete something, even if it is only a dish cloth.

I am not a big "New Year's Resolution" person.  I think one can make a change at any time with no need to wait for the new year to begin.  However, I do have some things to work on starting with January.  More because it is a new month than because it is a new year though.  I am looking forward to getting my household budget back on track.  I have really slacked off on this and it shows.  

I am going to get myself set up with a day planner and keep track of which bills are due when and pay them all on time every single month.  This may lead to some tight(er) weeks, but it will be worth it to have the peace of mind that everything is taken care of.

This year has not been a bad one overall.  Things have mostly gone smoothly in my everyday life.  However, I always get excited for a new year to come and wonder what lies ahead.

Wishing you peace, prosperity and good health in 2013.