Ever since I discovered Green And Crunchy, I’ve been envious of Sheri’s bulk food club.  It’s not available in our area though, so I just kept shopping at the health food store.  If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I don’t compromise when it comes to food.  We don’t buy anything with mystery ingredients, we make pretty much everything from scratch, and our diet is mostly vegan.  We try to buy local and organic (both if possible) whenever we can.

Sheri’s recent posts detailing her bulk food purchases inspired me to try again to see if I could find something similar.  I started with hemp seeds.  I had been buying them from our local store in 8 ounce bags.  We would go through a bag every week, and they were about $8 each.  Expensive, plus all of the wasted packaging was a bummer.  So last week I went to the source (I buy Manitoba Harvest hemp seeds) and ordered two 5 pound buckets of seeds.  They came to a total of $100 ($10/lb as opposed to the $16/lb I was paying when I bought them in little packages each week).  Shipping was free, and the buckets arrived today.  My bulk food buying has begun!

Then this morning we went to check out the food co-op in the nearby town.  The health food store where we normally shop is local to our state, but the co-op is even more local.  Right away I liked the bulk bins (mostly organic) that allow customers to reuse their own containers rather than prepackaging stuff in little plastic bags.  The store was small and quaint, but well-stocked.  And the best part is their bulk buying program.  They can order anything that their distributer carries (which is a lot more than what is available in the store), and members get all bulk orders for 20% above wholesale (as opposed to 40% – 50% above wholesale for non-members).  To become members, we had to buy a share in the co-op, which cost $160.  If we ever move or decide we don’t want to be members (both highly unlikely!) we can sell our share back to them.  So we bought a share, and are now proud co-op members.  I love the fact that we’re supporting a local business that is fully focused on healthy living and local, organic food.  I am also SO FREAKIN EXCITED to place my first bulk order!  I’ve been making a list of all the things I use a lot of, and I’ll place my order sometime in the next week or so.

As an added bonus, co-op members get dividends each year, based on the profitability of the store.  Here’s hoping they do well!

We’ve started our seedlings for the garden, and are very excited about all the food we’re hoping to grow here this summer.  It will be great to have our own vegetables straight from the back yard.  We’re going to let a few of the new trees bear fruit this summer, but we’re planning to pluck the buds off most of them so that they can focus on their roots this year.  So this summer our own crops will be mostly veggies… but one of these days, most of our food will (hopefully!) be as local as can be – grown within 50 yards of our back door.

Anybody else having luck with buying food in bulk?  Growing your own?  Tips for storing food that you grow or purchase in bulk?

When I checked the mail late last night, we had an EOB from our health insurance company, saying that we were going to be billed $2600 for my husband’s recent knee surgery.  Holy smokes.  This was his second knee surgery this year, and we had met our $3000 deductible back in January when he had the first one.  Our policy covers 100% after the deductible, and we had pre-certified everything before the second surgery (and had been assured that everything was covered, as our deductible had been met).  The billing people at the hospital also confirmed this before the surgery, so we figured all was well.  So when I saw the EOB, my heart dropped.  What could I have missed?  And how could I have missed something so big?  It was saying that we were still being charged towards a deductible, and I started to wonder if maybe the hospital was no longer in network, and that they were hitting us up for the out of network deductible.  But both the insurance and the hospital had confirmed they were in network, on the day of the surgery.  Oy.  I had to go to bed and try to not think about it until today.

This morning I called our health insurance company, and explained the situation to a very helpful lady.  She put me on hold to try to figure out what was going on, and was gone for a very long time.  But eventually she got back on the line and said that the mistake was theirs, and that we did not owe anything – the whole surgery would be covered by insurance.  So that was a happy ending indeed.  We’re looking into LASIK for my husband right now, and if it had turned out that we actually owed another $2600 for his knee, we would have had to postpone the eye visit for a good long while, to give us time to pad the HSA back up again.  So I’m happy to report that everything turned out ok.  I wish I had waited until this morning to get the mail, so that I didn’t have to worry about it while I was going to sleep last night!

We got home from my husband’s knee surgery adventure on Tuesday evening, and other than several walks with the dog, we haven’t left the house since we got back.  Working from home makes the whole knee recovery process so much easier.  Especially with both of us working from home, since I’m able to take care of things that my husband can’t do on crutches.

The last couple days have just involved work, housework, cooking, taking care of the baby, and physical therapy (which we do at home for the rest of the week – he’ll be going to a therapist near our home once a week starting next week).  Entertainment has mostly revolved around a good library book, going for walks with the dog, and hanging out with our son.  All free, and all rewarding.  So we’ve had a couple of no-spending days, and there will probably be many more over the next few weeks.

Yesterday I noticed that we had accumulated 10,000 points on our credit card, and I cashed them in for a $100 credit to our statement.  I always take the cash reward instead of gift cards to stores.  When I went on the card website to redeem our points, I noticed that they were offering $10 gift cards to various stores, for 1250 points.  Or I could cash in 10,000 points and get $100, to spend any way we like.  So of course I took the cash.  With that little bonus, our no-spending days look even better.

A great new health food store is opening less than a mile from our house tomorrow.  We’re both very excited about this, and have been waiting for months for the grand opening.  I always ride my bike or walk to the regular grocery stores near our house, but having a health food store just around the corner is going to be awesome.  We had planned to bike there tomorrow, but my husband won’t be able to bike for at least three weeks, and crutching a mile each way to the store would be a painful endeavor.  So we’ll be loading up the car and heading over there tomorrow to scout out the store.  I’m especially excited to check out the bulk bins and stock up on organic dry goods.  We’ll be budget conscious though, and limit the pricey stuff to a few splurges.  But for me, going into a health food store is like Carrie Bradshaw going into a Jimmy Choo store.  It’s a good thing that most of my trips there in the future will be on foot or by bike – it will limit the amount I buy to just what I can carry.

We’re back home, after a very successful knee surgery for my husband.  We spent two days in my sister-in-law’s condo in a town about 30 miles from the hospital where the surgery was done, and managed to do so without spending much money.  We packed food to take with us, and I went for walks with the dog and the baby to pass the time while we waited.  All together we spent $24 on a pizza last night before we came home (a splurge, but the leftovers were today’s lunch), $7 on a sandwich from Subway as a treat for my husband when he woke up from surgery, and gas money. 

I had grand ambitions of working on the computer while I waited in the hospital – that’s what I did back in January when my husband had his other knee worked on, and I was able to get a lot done.  But during that surgery, I was pregnant.  This time, I had a five month old baby.  I guess it was a bit naive of me to think that I would get anything done on the computer.  At home, I’m able to set him on his mat on the floor by my feet while I work on the computer, but I didn’t want to put him down on the floor in the hospital.  Plus, I figured that I should keep him close to me since his normal routine was turned upside down.  So I spent the last two days holding him, carrying him around in the sling and showing him the sights.  He was a big hit in the physical therapy room, making everyone smile. 

But now we’re back home and getting back to normal (plus crutches and an ice machine).  I participated in the Carnival of Money Stories this week, hosted by Mrs. Accountability at Out Of Debt Again (one of my favorite blogs).    I really enjoyed Money Ning’s story about cancelling cable TV and cutting back on cell phone minutes and saving $100/month in the process.  There are so many things to do with our time besides watching TV.  Well done!  I also enjoyed the article from Free Money Finance about a family they knew who went through a foreclosure.  It sounds like a complicated situation and makes me glad that we’re planning to stay in our first home with a mortgage that gets relatively lower ever year, thanks to inflation and a fixed interest rate.  Another great post is ay Affiliate Marketing Xpert, discussing the things he’s learned from paying attention to personal finance.  A great refresher for all of us.

My husband is having knee surgery on Monday (the other knee this time), so we’re going to be away from home from tomorrow until Tuesday evening.  It will be the longest we’ve been gone since our son was born in May (I guess we’ve really been homebodies the last few months…)  My husband’s sister owns a vacation condo in a town near the hospital we’re going to, so luckily we have a place to stay.  I made a lasagna and a batch of muffins a couple days ago, and froze them to take with us.  Today I made a batch of granola and harvested some bell peppers to take along.  We’ll only be gone about 48 hours, so I think we have the food situation covered.

I normally wash diapers every other day, but our son spends a few hours each day with no diaper on, just hanging out on the kitchen floor with a baby blanket under him.  Works great in our house, but I don’t think we can get away with that in the swanky condo with fancy new carpets.  The finer points of naked baby time might not be appreciated as much there.  I needed a few more diapers in order to have enough for two full days, so today I made two new diapers and altered the last two small diapers that we made last spring.   That adds four diapers to our stash, so we should be just fine.  And there is a washer and dryer at the condo if I end up needing to do a load of diapers.  The diapers I made today turned out really cute.  I used pajamas that I found at the thrift store for the outside (they were “cat in the hat” pajamas), and yellow fleece for the inside.  I’ve switched to making pocket diapers, with an opening between the two layers where I can stick the absorbent layer.  That way I can take the middle of the diapers out when I wash them, and they’ll dry a lot faster.  I’ll try to make one diaper per week until I get a good stash of larger diapers built up, since he’s outgrowing the his current diapers (I altered all of them this summer, but I knew that would only get us through a few months).

Other stuff…

My blog just got featured on Alltop (All the top frugal news).  Check out their site – lots of good frugal blogs and great for people who don’t use feedreaders and want a good selection of blogs all in one place.

In the Frugal Blog Network, Andy from Tight Fisted Miser writes about refilling your printer ink cartridge.  My husband keeps a pair of latex gloves, some tissue, and a bottle of refill ink in a drawer in his office.  I can’t remember the last time we bought a new ink cartridge.  Although these days, our office is pretty much paperless, so we hardly ever have to refill the ink either.

Kelly From Almost Frugal has a great list of 13 frugal things you can do in just a few minutes.  I’d say they’re not only frugal but also great for eliminating stress and being organized.

Frugal Zeitgeist has a fantastic post about affluenza.  Check it out – it’s well worth the read.  And then turn off your tv and go for a walk.

The Frugal Duchess is going on an online book tour.  I love this idea.  Rather than go into debt paying for a rubber-meets-the-road tour (and risking her job in the process), she’s going to be meeting and greeting people through blogs and websites for the next month, to promote her Frugal Duchess book.

At Not Made Of Money, there are some good ideas for frugal birthday gifts.  With the holidays right around the corner, these ideas work there too.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A patron at our library gave me the idea to mix watermelon and tomatoes in a salad. Sounds odd, but tastes fantastic. I added a few other ingredients, and we loved how it turned out, so I thought I’d share. And if your garden has tomatoes, basil, and watermelon, this will be a very inexpensive salad. It only takes a few minutes to come together. Just mix everything together and enjoy:

• equal parts tomatoes and watermelon, chopped
• fresh basil, chopped (I used 7 leaves for a salad to feed two people – use as much as you like)
• a small amount of goat cheese, feta, or soft mozzarella
• a few drops of balsamic vinegarette

If you’re eating vegan, just leave out the cheese – the other flavors will still be great together. I used basil from our hydroponic garden, and tomatoes from our outdoor garden. This salad is perfect for those end of summer days when the weather is still warm, and the garden is producing all sorts of wonderful things.

I love to cook.  Trying new recipes and putting together interesting and tasty meals is one of my favorite things.  But trying new recipes can get expensive, since it seems like there’s always at least one thing that I don’t have on hand.  So I’ve learned to improvise, and it usually works just fine.

Yesterday, I came across this recipe for raw strawberry cobbler at Kristen’s Raw – a blog that I’m loving.  Yum.  The picture alone was enough to make me want to try it.  I eat a lot of raw food, mostly in the form of veggies and fruits.  I’ve done some experimenting with making more complicated raw things, but I’ve found that the grocery bill that goes along with them can be painful.  Things like organic dates and cashews are not cheap – but they sure are tasty, so I buy them every once in a while as a treat.  Anyway, last night at 10pm I wanted to make this strawberry cobbler.  But I was missing about half the ingredients, didn’t want to make a trip to the store, and didn’t want to spend any money.  So I improvised.  For the cobbler part, I used about a cup of almonds, half a cup of oats, half a cup of raisins, and a tiny scoop of dark chocolate chips.  I put them in my food processor with a few teaspoons of water and processed them until I had a crumbly concoction.  I put that into bowls, and started on the strawberry part.  I had a pint of organic strawberries, and an orange.  I put them in the food processor with a teaspoon of honey, blended until it was smooth, and poured it over the cobbler.  Turned out fantastic.  Probably not quite as good as it would have been with coconut and currants in it, but it was a perfect summer treat anyway, and I was able to make it using just the stuff I had on hand.

I tend to be inspired by recipes.  It’s rare that I have all the ingredients, so I make substitutions and changes all the time.  I’ve rarely had anything turn out bad.  Some things – like baking powder or yeast – are vital to the outcome of a recipe.  But most of the time, you can improvise and it will be just fine.  So if you have a recipe and it’s going to take $40 to buy the ingredients, I challenge you to look around your fridge and pantry and see how you can alter the recipe to make it work with what you have.  And by the way, I’m the last person anybody would have thought would be doing creative cooking.  My mother is a great cook, but I was never all that interested in learning when I lived with my parents.  In college, some of my friends decided to have one night a week where we went to each others houses for a meal, and when it was my turn we always had sandwiches.  This is a relatively recent development – I only learned to cook about ten years ago (when I went to Africa with the Peace Corps and had to learn to feed myself without a microwave or starve), and started getting creative with it about five years ago.  So give it a try – I bet you can turn out some pretty tasty stuff with what you have in your cupboards right now.

We’ve all probably seen hundreds of lists of ways to save money; but most of the tips tend to be repeats.  But I came across this list today, and I liked the unique aspects of some of the tips.  ‘Stop smoking’ is one that we’ve heard before, but what about ’stop tanning’?  I know lots of smart, educated, successful ladies – who would never dream of smoking – who pay for several visits to a tanning salon every spring.  They’re courting cancer just as if they were smoking, and they’re paying for the privilege.  I’ve never been to a tanning bed, and I gave up on the notion of being tan when I was about 12, because my fair skin and freckles don’t lend themselves well to a tanned look.  But I like the idea of skipping the tanning bed as a health tip and a frugal tip.

And I love the tip about wearing sensible shoes.  To me, Carrie from Sex and the City (love the show, can’t wait for the movie to be out on DVD so I can rent it for a dollar from Redbox!!) is the epitome of someone who never chooses sensible shoes.  Was she ever not wearing heels?  She couldn’t afford to buy her apartment but she had $40,000 worth of Manolos and Jimmy Choos in her closet.  Ouch.  My current favorite shoes are a pair of knockoff Keens that came from Payless about two years ago, and cost $25.  They’re fabulously comfy, I wear them almost every day, and they’re still going strong after two years.  I buy a new pair of running shoes about once a year, and usually spend about $75 – $100.  I gave up on heels years ago, and I’m all about comfort when it comes to my feet.  Running is hard enough on them, without trying to squeeze them into pointy toed shoes.

Drinking only water, avoiding the drive thru, and eating slowly are some other great tips – not only do they save money, but they’re a lot better for our health than the alternatives.

We’ve been drinking our green smoothies for more than two months now, and are loving how healthy we feel.  And I love knowing that it doesn’t get much better as far as what I could be feeding our unborn baby.  I’ve started adding a banana and a couple carrots, along with the berries and greens.  When I use kale, I put in a little pomegranate juice to cut the bitterness of the greens – works great.  I think I’ve perfected the art of green smoothie making, and we plan to keep drinking them forever. 

But they aren’t cheap.  I only use organic greens, and they cost about $2.50/bunch at every store I’ve checked.  Costco sells a 16 ounce container of organic spinach for $3.50 (makes two days worth of green smoothie), but I don’t like all the packaging that gets wasted when I buy those.  I prefer to just buy a bundle of greens held together with a twist tie.  (But whenever we’re near Costco, I do buy a container of spinach, because the price is really good).  On average, I’d say we’re spending about $12/week on greens, in addition to what we get in our vegetable delivery service box each week.  I’ve started substituting greens for a couple other things in the delivery each week, so I usually get three bunches of greens delivered every Wednesday.  I don’t want to get more than that, because they lose their flavor and nutrients if they sit in the fridge for more than a few days. 

I have no problem spending the money (it’s for spinach and kale after all – hard to begrudge that sort of spending…) but I sure am looking forward to garden season!  We always plant lots of chard in our garden, and this spring we’re going to plant even more than usual.  It’s very hardy and keeps producing all the way through October, even if it gets frosted.  So starting in about May/June we should be getting our greens for free for a few months.  Very exciting!

We’re sitting in the waiting room at the hospital where my husband has his knee surgery last month, waiting to see the doctor for his follow up appointment.  We’re very optimistic that he’s going to get some additional mobility clearance, and hopefully we’ll be able to do the rest of his treatments at the physical therapy clinic right near our home.

I packed a lunch for us, which we ate in the car before we came in for the appointment.  But we’ve decided that we’re going to go out to eat dinner after the appointment is over, as a little treat.  I swapped shifts with a friend at the library in order to avoid taking any vacation time for today, and we’ve both been working at least six days a week for quite some time now.  So we decided that a dinner out would be a nice bonus.  But knowing us I’m sure we’ll find somewhere where we can keep the bill under $35 or so.

A friend at the library who has finished having babies gave me some stuff yesterday – we got a baby bathtub and a little play mat with criss-cross arches that go over it with toys hanging off them.  It seems that people are more than happy to give away baby stuff that they aren’t using anymore, and we’re thrilled to have it.  I don’t care at all whether our baby stuff is new or used, or whether it matches anything else in our house.  And my list of things we “need” for our baby is a whole lot shorter than Babies R Us would recommend.  But it’s made the financial aspects of getting ready for the baby a whole lot easier than they would have been if we wanted all the latest and greatest stuff.