Oh my goodness! It’s the beginning of a new month and I just sat down to do my monthly orders plus place my weekly grocery order and I about fell off the kitchen stool when I saw the totals in my carts!

SERIOUSLY! I moved to the dining table so the fall wouldn’t be as bad and where I could settle in with a fresh cup of coffee and figure out what the ‘essentials’ also were and make sure to cut out the ‘extras’ which have already been pretty slim on my budget.

I honestly just don’t know what people are expected to do with these constantly increasing prices! We are hoping to get our garden started again soon as the chickens decimated my beds last week. The chickens, who were probably a bit terrified of their fate after they consumed a couple months’ worth of fresh veggies, have finally decided to start laying again so that helps a little. The price difference between not buying eggs to now buying a ton of produce is pretty hefty so the fresh eggs help but they don’t make it even.

I will definitely be checking out the local flea market for some deals on produce. I will probably be cutting the grocery order back to the bare bones until I can scout out some other places to purchase veggies and such from… I’d rather support our local farmers anyway so this might not be a bad thing although it will mean that I have to spend a little more time to save some money.

Our menu plans have really helped to cut down on food waste and keep us from having things hanging out in the fridge until they turn into science experiments. I’ve also been trying to buy the produce that is in season and/or on sale. Last week I bought some acorn squash although we’d never had them before. I cooked them similarly to the way I cooked the spaghetti squash in the oven. I then browned up some ground sausage, onions, and mushrooms to add to the scooped-out halves and topped it with some shredded mozzarella. Then I popped them back into the oven for 5-10 minutes until they were browned. They were so good and we learned that we like acorn squash so they will probably be making it into our garden later this year.

In addition to our gardens, we have been trying to stock our freezers with wild game. Mr. Awesome also came across an amazing deal at Christmas and he was able to grab a heavy-duty chicken plucker for us… I dare those birds to eat my garden again… just kidding. We will be raising up some meat birds though and hopefully be adding some new animals to our little ‘farm’. This reminds me of the whole insurance fiasco we had to deal with last year and reminds me that it feels like the government is trying to control everything we do as well.

I really hope to be able to add some more garden beds or ‘grocery row gardens’ to our property this year as well. The fruit trees that we already have are starting to produce a little but not anywhere close to the amount of food that we would need. Every little bit helps though and it feels good to be able to grow and eat your own food. I would love to have a ‘food forest’ but I’m not sure that Mr. Awesome feels the same.

Anyway, this probably wasn’t a very helpful post but more of a grumble so I do apologize but I have to wonder if everyone is experiencing these price increases? If so, how is everyone else dealing with them?

We hope you have a blessed weekend!