September 2011 Living off your stockpile challenge..WINNER ANNOUNCED!

[jenrose]

The one site online I just found that had that fruit cocktail tree says they can not ship it to my state. That thing looks kinda cool!

[foggierbard9]

I would like to help if I can.
Do you have a meal plan? (I do not)
What is your current household size?
What are the important that you have to make?
and what are the changes that you would like to make?

It definately costs more to eat better though.

I only have the next week planned so far, BUT I bought a calendar to plan it out for the month.

DH, myself, DS(3 turns 4 this month), DD(17mos in 2 weeks), and the cat(fat and ancient)

The important things are: most if not all pastured meats(beef, chicken, pork) or at least no GMO or antibiotics; wild seafood(only); pastured milk and yogurt(get it from farmer), and pastured eggs(again farmer).

My goals are to get us off of as much processed food as possible as soon as possible without totally blowing my budget day one.
I want to know WHAT is in the food I am feeding my family, to include eliminating GMO as much as possible(as quickly as possible with our budget).

I don't have a problem making from scratch(and enjoy it).

The things I KNOW the cost of weekly are:
milk ($6.75/gal)
yogurt ($4/qt)
eggs ($4/doz)

The cost of meats fluctuates based on what exact cut I buy because purchasing the 1/4 cow 1/2 pig didn't happen(house stuff was more important ), so I can't go "all in" and get the big meat purchase now(that will be tax time).

I know eating better costs more now, but in the long run, it will "pay off".

[saving-n-va]

ok wait what is a fruit cocktail tree I have never heard of such a thing

and again wait what you buget yearly? I am so confused

dh and I aggreed on chickens cause we go through 3 ish dozen eggs a week!

Its a tree that has been grafted with more than one fruit to save space. They are semi-dwarf trees.

And yes, we put aside my grocery budget for the year into a separate account. So if I go over one money because of good deals, it usually balances out over the year.

I see Monsanto all over this

No, not that I've seen in my research. And in this case I just don't care to be honest, we don't have the money to clear out all the shade at our new place and we want fruit trees. So...this is the only solution we can find.

But I have ordered organic and/or heirloom seeds already for next year.

The one site online I just found that had that fruit cocktail tree says they can not ship it to my state. That thing looks kinda cool!

Just like you can't order (by mail) many citrus trees when you live in FL. You have to get them local. And yes they are cool especially when you don't want a TON of fruit. For most regular trees you have to have 2 of the same fruit to pollenate each other so 2 trees x each type of fruit you want would produce a LOT of fruit.

I can't wait to get my garden/mini orchard started.

[foggierbard9]

No, not that I've seen in my research. And in this case I just don't care to be honest, we don't have the money to clear out all the shade at our new place and we want fruit trees. So...this is the only solution we can find.

But I have ordered organic and/or heirloom seeds already for next year.

The one site I found said they weren't GMO just grafts, which is pretty neat. That is why it is all stonefruit on one tree and all citrus on another.

Where did you get your organic and heirloom seeds, and how do you store them through the winter?

[saving-n-va]

The one site I found said they weren't GMO just grafts, which is pretty neat. That is why it is all stonefruit on one tree and all citrus on another.

Where did you get your organic and heirloom seeds, and how do you store them through the winter?

I ordered them through Amazon (swagbucks!). Just a few packs to get free shipping..lol. I wanted a specific pepper (mini bells) so that's why I got them. I just put them in the fridge to keep them cool. Honestly the first seed I got were end of season, go them at Wags to be fillers for deals. They did really well considering I'm such a novice and we have very little sun here.

The rest of my seeds will wait until winter to be ordered. First I gotta get into the new house and get that garden measured, put in my 2 raised beds and see what else we might want to do.

[foggierbard9]

I ordered them through Amazon (swagbucks!). Just a few packs to get free shipping..lol. I wanted a specific pepper (mini bells) so that's why I got them. I just put them in the fridge to keep them cool. Honestly the first seed I got were end of season, go them at Wags to be fillers for deals. They did really well considering I'm such a novice and we have very little sun here.

The rest of my seeds will wait until winter to be ordered. First I gotta get into the new house and get that garden measured, put in my 2 raised beds and see what else we might want to do.

Thanks. I didn't even think to put them in the fridge.

[justmama]

Hello everyone :)

I've been MIA for quite a while. I've missed you guys. I got sick in May and have an endoscopy. They found i have an intestinal virus, narrowing esophagus and a hernia. Everything is fine now, but there was a couple days i was off. I had to have my esophagus stretched, and take meds for 21 days. That set off a series of events wrecking my entire weight lose. We also took a couple of vacations that made it impossible to eat right.

All of that to say, now that school has started for us, i'm back on track! I can't post too much during the day, but i'll try to stay on top of the posts! I'll be back later w/ a goal.

[jenrose]

Welcome Back justmama. Hope your health problems are all under control now and you can get back to your routines.

[cody82414]

Glad you are back justmama!!!

[jkeating]

I'm in for September but not sure for how much yet.

When baby Catherine is born I'll be spending 2 weeks in Texas. The plan is that my daughter and I do a lot of cooking/freezing of meals while I'm there. Will also be working on building her a stockpile. Also since I will be buying groceries (always do when I'm there) and there is no stockpile to live off of at my daughters (although my hair will be beautiful with her stockpile of Pantene) house massive amounts of groceries will have to be bought. Right now they get a lot of take out but that will change once she stops working. We're also going to work on a meal plan because she'll also be going to college full time at night starting in November.

Have a few more days to decide but I'm in.