They've Got You By The Ovaries!

As if we women need another reason to dread "that time of the month". The cramps, bloating and moodiness was not enough, now we have to spend twice what we used to each month for feminine products.

 

I recall a few years ago I could pick up a decent brand of pads or tampons for $3 or less. Now I am buying for two AND the price has doubled. Mercy me, don't these manufacturers know that I am in a bad enough mood when dear old Aunt Red comes to visit? Forking over $5 for a package of pads leaves little money left in my ever shrinking wallet to buy more necessary things like dark chocolate or brownies! Stay Free, Kotex and Tampax you are walking a dangerous line getting between a menstruating woman and her monthly chocolate fix!

 

 There are alternatives to going broke before you hit menopause.

 

 Couponing is usually a good strategy to score some cheaper product. I stopped couponing when I moved back north because the deals do not seem as good and the distance to stores make multiple shopping trips each week impossible. I guess I am just lazy. But a couple years ago when I was into heavy couponing (I would not say extreme) I would get some rather good deals. For awhile I was quite stocked up because I was getting pads and tampons nearly free. I know you can often get free panty liners with coupons and sales. Although with prices they way they are now they may no longer be free but cost you a few cents.

 

 The other alternatives are not for a squeamish. Approach the following portion of the blog post with caution if you are one of weak constitution!

 

 

 

Homemade reusable pads are an eco-friendly, budget-friendly, and body-friendly alternative to the store bought pads. I have used them before. Material is cheap, you can make them from your old flannel sheets or pajamas with an old crib pad backing. The pads are easy to sew up. Many people who have problems with their period or sensitive skin report less problems after making the switch to this natural alternative.

 

 Homemade pads are great to use at home but can be more of a challenge if you need to go out in public. You would need to find a way to carry home the soiled pad. I guess it is no different than a cloth diaper, I just always chose to use disposable pads when out and about for the ease.

 

Washing them is the other factor that make these not for everyone. You need to keep a bucket with water and some vinegar in it in the bathroom to collect your used pads in until wash time. This can REALLY gross out the men and kids especially. I always warned everyone to get stay away from the ice cream bucket in the bathroom cupboard. When you want to wash them they just go in the wash on cold cycle (warm water sets blood stains) and wash like everything else. It is no big deal but it is a mind thing.

 

Lastly if you have a heavy flow they can be a little less reliable if you do not make them thick. Take it from me thick homemade pads make you feel like you have a pillow between yours legs all day. Maybe not horrible at bedtime but if your trying to weed the garden, ride a bike, take a jog, wear tight pants, or anything terribly active this would probably not be too fun.

 

Oh and just for kicks you can also find homemade reusable tampons. I have never personally tried this. They kind of scare me. But hey there must be someone using them because I see them all over the craft pages. You can also buy sea sponges for the same use. Now that scares me!

 

 

 Last but not least here is an option that might not leave as many people gagging; the reusable menstrual cup.

Look at that amazing rainbow of choices up there. I have not yet tried one of these but a lot of the crunchy types enjoy them. I hear there is a big of trial and error in learning to properly install the cup. But again when people use them they seem pleased. These cups have a little squeamish factor to them too. You do have to empty and wash it a couple times each day but I guess in my mind that is a little less yucky than saving them up for washing later like the pads. Diva Cup is one brand that is pretty mainstream.

 

 If you would like to try the menstrual cup concept before buying there is a lower cost way to do that. The Instead Softcup is the same concept as the menstrual cup but it is not meant to be reused. Since this post has already been full of TMI moments why not share a couple more. These cups can be worn during "marital relations" if you know what I mean. It makes for a lot less mess if you feel the need to get frisky while old Aunt Red is still visiting. These are easy to insert but taking them out is not real nice. You have to find it and hook your finger under the rim and try to pull it out with out making a mess. Doing it on the potty is essential and so is being near a sink! When I use these I usually wash it out before putting it in the trash. These are not eco-friendly but like I said they are a good introduction to menstrual cups and may be an alternative to tampons for someone who wants to swim but can't use tampons for whatever reason.

 

 So there you have it ladies. There are ways to outsmart the system and save some money. You just need to decide your personal squeam level and do some experimenting.

 

 





Milk, Milk, Lemonade...I Feel Pain When the Grocers Paid!

 

Milk is one of those things that good parents are supposed to provide on the table daily. The experts say that children age two to eight should have two servings of dairy per day, older children should have three. Of course these servings do not just need to be milk but for the purpose of this blog we are talking milk.

 

When I was first raising a family a gallon of store bought milk cost around $2.50. Not too bad. With a herd of growing kids and a milk loving husband I could go through several gallons of milk a week but not break the bank.

 

Here we are March, 2013 and this is what I was greeted with in the dairy aisle this weekend

 Nearly $5.00 a gallon for milk that in my opinion is not even the best milk I can buy for my family. Personally I am of the raw organic milk camp. Since we are still building our own goat herd and do not have the place to keep our own milk cow yet I travel out of town to purchase the raw milk. I am very happy to live in a state where I can do this legally and I am thankful for the people who fought to keep that right several years ago.

 

 The reality is I can go buy raw, organic milk straight from the farm for $5.50 per gallon. Not only am I getting what I consider to be a superior product but that money is going directly to my fellow farmer. I highly doubt my farmer friends are seeing a single penny of this milk price increase and that just makes me angry.

 

 But I digress.

 

 My plan right now is that I will once again make my weekly trip to the farm and pay a little more to get a better product and put the money directly in the farmer's hands. I will probably need to still buy one gallon a week from the store. I usually run out on Sunday and can't purchase milk until Monday because my farm is run by Mennonites who do not do business on the Sabbath.

 

 That is my plan to survive higher milk prices. Perhaps it is not helping me save money, but I am sure that 16.50 cash payment will help the farmer's family deal with rising prices and I will have the peace of mind that I am providing the best to my family even in hard times.

 

Raw Milk!

 

 



Pretty Much...



This is What $65 of Groceries Looks Like in March, 2013

 

Please excuse the poor photograph. A professional photographer is not on my list of professions. It is also not on my fourteen year old son who took this photograph's list either. But it will have to do.

 

 The food, toilet paper, and laundry soap above cost me about $65 to purchase this weekend. I think this purchase is a very typical one for an American household. It is really not how I usually would feed my family or shop. Times being what they are I am trying to relearn each day as inflation takes away more of my grocery buying power.

 

So what do I have up there?

Two loaves cheap wheat bread

One box store brand Cheerios

One box store brand granola bars

Two packages snack crackers

Bunch of bananas

Two store brand boxes of pasta (16oz each, I refuse to buy any pasta that does not have 16oz in the box anymore)

Package of soup mix my son likes

One box jello (request of my son)

One can mandarin oranges (to go with the requested jello)

4 pack of 1000 sheet toilet paper

Jar of sale spaghetti sauce

Two cans of generic tomato soup

Two cans of tuna

Two packs of ground beef from the local meat market (cheaper and nicer than grocery store)

One pound store brand real butter

4 dozen organic small eggs (I purchase these for $1 a dozen from a mennonite family)

One pound package of cheap deli ham bought with coupon

Package of cheese meat coating mix from the dairy case (bought with coupon, took half the cheese out for another use)

Two bags of pretzels (bogo)

One gallon milk

Jug of laundry soap (free with electronic coupon)

Two bags of frozen veggies

Bag of baby broccoli (on sale)

One bottle of diet coke for the addict

Bag of apples

 

I think that is all that was there. Sad isn't it. Just a few years ago that amount of money would have almost fed my whole family for the entire week and it certainly would have been better food than this. On top of this purchase I ended up at a bread thrift store later in the weekend, as well as picking up a couple odd items at a liquidation store, and I bought $25 worth of produce, which was not much produce.

 

 Now before I get any haters here. I admit that I could do better than this food wise and spend a lot less money. Like I said I am relearning things. I have moved to a new area and my resources are different. But at the same time this is a great example of how a lot of Americans shop.

 

 I will do better! How I am not sure, but I will.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Grocery Priced Have Doubled!

You read the title correctly. Grocery prices have  doubled in the past decade.

 

 

 Perhaps some foods remain relatively inexpensive, but others have doubled or tripled in price. Has your income doubled in the last decade? No. Mine either. In fact my kids all got older and starting eating more, gas to go fetch the food has gone up, and frankly so has everything else.

 

Frankly thinking about this has made me both angry and depressed, as well as a little frightened. The media tries to make us feel better by telling us things like "Jobless claims point to layoffs at lowest level since 2008" (money.cnn.com) and "Why 2013 should be a good year for the U.S. economy" (Washingtonpost.com). But I am not feeling any better. In fact I am feeling a lot worse. Our economy is in shambles. Our government does nothing but dig the whole deeper. We are a country living on credit. We all know that one day it will be time to pay the piper, and when that day comes what happens? Printing more money is not going to save the day, it is just digging us in EVEN DEEPER. Our dollar is barely worth anything anymore, making more money makes it worth less.

 

 And there is the problem.

 

No buying power.

 

Around 2004 I fed a large growing family a whole foods based diet, much of it local, natural, and some organic for about $100-$125 a week. We ate well. Meat, real butter, Cabot cheese, local produce, real maple syrup on our whole wheat pancakes, good milk, yogurt, fruit, etc. My pantry and freezer were always full.

 

Fast forward to the present early 2013. Last week I spent around $200 for groceries. I added up the receipts I could find and the debits from my checking and ATM card and came to 186.00, this did not include a couple trips to the store next to the library where I work for a drink, snacks at the gas station (bad habit), or the fast food my son and I ate when we had to go out to the orthopedist. I might not mind if we were eating amazing gourmet food or very healthy. I would not mind if everything was local and organic. I would not mind if there was something extra in my pantry when the week came to an end. But there isn't and we are not.

 

 So here I am. A mom with three kids, two of them teens. Wife of a man with a metabolism that runs at the speed of light. A family on a varying and modest income. I sit here and wonder how I can keep this up. I wonder what to change. I think about the book I am reading on the Great Depression and worry a bit more. But I also find hope in those pages. Those people had nothing but each other, hope, a strong will and strangely they had happiness. They survived worse than this, although I am not convinced it will not get as bad as that before it is over. I can survive too.

 

This blog is here to hopefully document how I will make this work. How I bring our budget back under control. How I learn to feed everyone when our dollars are worth so little.