When I first started eating a healthier diet I whined and complained about how expensive it was. In fact, my main excuse for not buying organic grass-fed beef was the cost. I knew that it was so much healthier that it was practically a different food altogether, but the fact that I would be paying $4.25 a lb for ground beef was a major sticking point for me. Here’s how we did it (and something I didn’t even consider at the time). By eliminating a TON of other things that we used to purchase!
New clothing (we buy 95% used from a few different thrift stores)
Food at restaurants (we eat out maybe once a month)
Movies at the theater (we watch Netflix movies on the computer or read)
Cable TV (we actually don’t own a television)
Things that we buy in bulk
Herbs & spices (once a year from Mt. Rose Herbs, see link in blogroll)
Makeup $35-40 a year (once a year from Everyday Minerals)
Plain un-scented soap (once a year from a local soap/candle store)
Organic vinegar (Sam’s Club 1-2 times a year)
Rice (once a year)
Baking soda (1-2 times a year from Sam’s Club)
Washing soda (1-2 times a year from Sam’s Club)
Borax (1-2 times a year from Sam’s Club)
Toilet paper (2-3 times a year from Sam’s Club)
Coconut oil, coconut butter, coconut cream and dry coconut (once a year from Mt. Rose Herbs see blogroll)
Beans (once a year)
Organic, sprouted flour (often from a local health food store)
Nuts & dry fruit
Raw honey (twice a year from a local beekeeper)
Maple Syrup (once a year from a farm in Northern MI)
Half of a cow. 100% grass-fed and finished. 320 lbs of meat (from a farmer that we know and trust)
Rob is raising heritage breed hogs for us this year and he is growing 30 chickens and 5 turkeys for the freezer. He also has a laying flock of 25 hens that keep us well stocked in fresh eggs. In the future we plan to raise our own beef cow and I would love to have a dairy cow! Mmmmm cheese…..We would also love to buy bulk wheat and oats and grind them ourselves. Someday soon we will have a large vegetable garden. Always more projects on the way!
My point here is not to sound like I am perfect (because I am SO not), but to let everyone know that for me the cost of properly grown, properly prepared, nutrient-dense, real, whole food is worth it! We have sacrificed a lot of convenience and time and effort to make this happen and guess what? We saved $6,000 in insurance premiums last year because we are never sick. I had 2 teeth cavities remineralize themselves. No more expensive dental visits for me! We don’t spend any money on prescription drugs, over the counter drugs or co-pays for doctor visits. By starting with just one thing at a time we have saved ourselves thousands of dollars. We are now spending that money on the highest quality meat, cheese, milk and vegetables that we can find, from local farmers that we know and trust. By really making our health a priority we have been able to slowly make these changes, and have a lot of fun along the way. (It also helps that we both hate to shop! It takes an act of God to get us into the store 🙂
P.S If you’re wondering how we have time for all of this, see #55
This is almost too easy to post about. I feel like I should have been doing this my entire life, and somehow I got tricked into paying $4 for a spray bottle of orange cleaner. Craziness.
I have a juicer now, and I am really enjoying fresh vegetable & fruit juices. However, I now have citrus peels coming out my ears. This is just one of the many uses for them. I’ll keeping posting more ideas to get rid of them, as I find them. Unfortunately chickens don’t like citrus peels, which is what I do with the rest of the veggie pulp, and I can’t bear to throw them away! (no I’m not a hoarder, just a crazy hippie)
Homemade Orange Cleaner
Vinegar (just plain organic, white vinegar will do)
lots of citrus peels (orange, lemon, lime or a combination)
Place peels in vinegar. I cut mine small and put them right in the original vinegar bottle, because I’m crazy like that. Let this sit around for 6 weeks or so. When you remember to shake it, shake it. This releases oil from the peels and makes it more a more potent grease cutter. I shook mine a lot and vigorously and let it sit around for about 2 months. You’re going to love this and use it like crazy, so I would recommend that you start a new gallon every month or so, so you never run out. Also, writing the date on the jug/jar really helps 🙂
Strain out the citrus when you think it’s “done”. Refill an old spray bottle (because I know you’re saving those right?) I honestly don’t think I will need to make any other cleaners now. This one just takes the cake. I have cleaned my oven, stove top, kitchen counters, sink, added 1/2 cup to the mop water, and sprayed the whole bathroom. It is very excellent for dusting! The only thing it won’t work for is windows/glass or to polish faucets and such. It is also excellent added to your sink full of dishes. If you are soaking some kind of baked on nasty lasagna or something, this does the trick. We all know that vinegar is great for cleaning and is a natural disinfectant, who knew that adding a bit of citrus oil would improve it so much?
I happen to be in love with a handsome mechanic. He comes home with much grease and leaves the shower and sink with nice dark rings and smudges. I need a serious scouring powder to tackle this stuff 🙂 I have used this powder 3 times now, and I find that it works just as well as comet, and rinses off much better. I don’t feel like I’m wasting zillions of gallons of water trying to wash the comet residue down the drain….I have tried plain baking soda before, and a baking soda/vinegar mix and in my opinion this is much better.
Homemade Hippie Scouring Powder
1 cup Baking soda
1 cup Salt (I used kosher for extra grit)
1 cup Borax
Mix all ingredients in a container. I usually just refill the bottle/container of whatever I ran out of. Do you guys have a whole bunch of bottles and tubes that are full of homemade concoctions too? However, you can’t refill a comet container very easily, so I took a small coffee can (see saving those coffee cans isn’t weird! You really will find a use for them. You will!) and poked holes in the plastic lid. You can use a canning jar, or any old container you have been waiting to repurpose. Fill with powder, top with lid. Sprinkle and scrub to your hearts content.
I think next time I will dry some orange or lemon peels and make them into a powder. I think that would smell great and add some extra scrubbing power. Plus I have a juicer now, and I’m dying to come up with a use for all of these citrus peels. I already made orange oil, and I love it! I’ll post that recipe for you tomorrow.
I held out on making this one for ages, because I thought that Lea & Perrins had some magic recipe that only they were allowed to use and I would be banished to culinary hell if I tried to steal it. Well, if this is hell sign me up, cuz this is delicious! 🙂 I have seen many complicated recipes online for worcestershire sauce, and I hate going out to buy a whole bunch of specialty ingredients just to make one recipe. I mean, what the heck is tamarind concentrate anyway? This is a cheaper, simpler version.
Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Thai fish sauce
2 Tbsp raw honey
1 Tbsp molasses
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
Mix and store in an air tight container for 2-3 weeks in the fridge. This is an excellent seasoning to use in a marinade and goes well with any meat.
I may have previously mentioned that Rob is a mechanic and one of his favorite activities it to stand in my shower and drip grease and grime and various oils all over the bathroom. In the course of this activity the man goes through a lot of soap. A LOT of soap! I was buying either Dove plain, unscented or Kirk’s Castile soap. Neither of which is cheap. I’m sure you know by now that I am a big, fat cheapskate right? So, this recipe was invented purely to save money, and is not some girly froo-froo bodywash. It does lather very well, and it does make 1 bar of soap last about as long as 4 bars of soap normally would….so I am now paying 1/4 what I was for soap. Mission accomplished!
Homemade Hippie Bodywash
1 bar of Kirks Castile Soap (I do not recommend any other soap, because I haven’t tried them)
1 quart (4 cups) of water
Grate the soap. I personally fed the whole bar through the food processor, then put the food processor directly in the dishwasher. It came out sparkling clean 🙂
Place water and soap in a sauce pan and heat until soap is thoroughly melted. I let it simmer for 2-3 minutes to make sure the soap was really mixed well.
Refill an old pump style hand soap dispenser. This soap is very runny, and should be squeezed directly onto a sponge/loofa/bodywash thingy.
Ok, thats it. You’re done. Go take a shower.
P.S This may seperate as it sits in the jar. Just shake it up before you refill your dispenser.
P.P.S My local dollar store actually sells Kirks Castile Soap in a 3-pack for $1. Every store I have ever seen it in sells the 3 pack for $2.99, so this is an excellent deal. Go check your dollar store! I bought $40 bucks worth last time. We won’t run out of soap for a very long time 🙂
I make homemade deep dish pizza once in a while, and it is always a big hit. This pizza sauce is our favorite. You can use home-canned, plain, unflavored tomato sauce or whatever organic tomato sauce you can find at the store. I think this fall I am going to try my hand at fire-roasted tomato sauce during canning season. I think it adds amazing flavor.
Place Tuna steaks in a shallow baking dish or cast iron skillet. Mix all remaining ingredients and pour over the tuna. I usually reserve about 2 Tbsp of the sauce, and pour it on right before serving, or save it for dipping.
Bake uncovered at 400 degrees. 10 minutes for rare. 20 minutes for medium. 30 minutes for well done. We usually do about 17 ourselves….
The flavor of the sauce really penetrates the meat, so there is no marinating required. You could marinate it if you like, but I never have felt the need. This goes very well with a fresh green salad or steamed vegetables.
I love marinating fish in teriyaki sauce. It adds such a unique flavor. If you have checked out the stuff in the store, these are the type of ingredients you’re likely to find:
succinic acid (a fermented sugar acid used as a sweetener)
garlic powder
sodium benzoate (an additive that is a known carcinogen and linked to hyperactive disorders in children)
First of all that is way too many GMO ingredients for me thank you very much! Plus I like the challenge of making something myself. Start with buying a high-quality unpasteurized soy sauce. I really love Ohsawa Organic Nama Shoyu Unpasteruized Soy Sauce (wow that was a mouthful). They naturally ferment their soy sauce in cedar kegs for four years! It is delicious! You can find it at Whole Foods, or online at Amazon.com. It contains all of the natural enzymes and beneficial bacteria that you would expect from a traditionally produced, raw food.
Mix all ingredients together in a jar. Cover loosely with a cloth and let sit out at room temperature for 24 hours. This will keep for 2 months in the refrigerator.
It makes an excellent marinate for sea food and chicken. I will post a delicious Oriental Tuna Steak recipe tomorrow. Enjoy!
I have seen this recipe for years on the internet, and I just assumed that there was no possible way it could work. I mean who on earth would think that sugar water would work just as well as my $1.00 can of Suave? I don’t use hairspray very often, but when I do I want to spray it once in the morning and forget about it for the rest of the day. That stuff better hold! I also have very fine, silky hair that doesn’t hold a curl for even 1 second, so if I ever want curls there had better be a strong can of hairspray nearby.
I was really, completely shocked that this worked! Here is your 30 second recipe. Give it a try!
Homemade Hippie Hairspray
1 cup nearly boiled water
4 tsp sugar
Mix and pur into a fine mist spray bottle
spray , wait 30 seconds to dry, spray again.
stronger? add more sugar
Weaker? add less sugar
The above recipe makes a very “max hold” type hairspray. I actually had to add a bit more water and dilute mine, because I don’t need it quite that extreme.
I have been using this for a month now to test it out, and I have no complaints. It actually makes my hair very shiny, it holds all day, and NO it does not attract bugs 🙂
Suggestions:
Use the finest mist bottle you can find. I used an old hairspray bottle and it was perfect
Spray a very tiny amount on and wait for it to completely dry and then re-apply
As weird as this sounds, I spray all of my hair, let it dry, and then brush my hair. It adds just the right amount of texture to my hair, so I have zero static cling. Love it!
You can add any essential oil that you like (if you like to smell like a girl)
Now I have yet another household product that I don’t have to spend money on. I spend $5.98 on a 10 lb bag of organic sugar. So this recipe costs me exactly $1.6 cents! ONE POINT SIX CENTS PEOPLE! Amazing. I love being cheap 🙂
A Real Food Lover 