Tha Amish Phonebook Guy talkes Double Duty for your Food Budget.

Making your food budget do double duty and saving money without a lot of fuss.
Jeffrey
aka The Amish Phonebook Guy

Part I

Just how did Great-grandma ever manage without all the things we take for granted? How did she get her towels so soft? How is it her house always smelled good? Just how did she make all those pancakes?

Today I will start a series on “Making your food budget do double duty and saving money without a lot of fuss.” Great-grandma did it the same way her mother did it and it worked so why won’t it work for us also? Why not take a step back, look at what we want versus what we need to accomplish?

As a SAHD I smell and see first hand the daily chore of diapers.  On the days I am behind the task I can tell it when I come in the house. We have a very tight diaper pail, that was virtually free, so when I am behind I really am behind.

You might ask what does he mind by virtual free? I did have to drive to pick it up, I need to wash it our and clean it with disinfectant. Other than that it was free! So what does it look like?

5 Gallon Buckets have many, many uses.

That’s it… A five gallon bucket. (NEVER LEAVE A BUCKET FILLED OR OTHERWISE WHEN YOUR CHILD CAN ACCESS IT, read the warnings on the bucket and follow them.) Our local Sam’s Club and several other grocery stores in the area have TONS of these buckets, and most are willing to give them away. Spend 15 minutes with your local phonebook and call the store you shop at most often and see if they give them away.

Yes it will need cleaned with HOT water and a degreaser of some kind. Baking Soda and Lemon juice will help, but the Hot water is the key.  The Baking Soda and Lemon will also help with the baby smells.

The rubber ring on the inside of the lid creates an air tight seal. BUT it does make it hard to open. So we don’t close it all the way and we use a laundry bag inside of it.

Every time we wash diapers, daily now. We place a cup of white vinegar in to the bucket, fill it with warm water and let it set while the diapers run through their first cycle and then dump the water from the bucket back in to the washer. Why? The white vinegar has done it’s trick on the bucket but can still do more, so why waste it? I then add an 1/8 to a 1/4 cup more of white vinegar, the reason to use white vinegar is other types, like apple cider vinegar and red wine vinegar can leave stains. White vinegar actually helps whiten you clothing.  After adding the bucket vinegar/water mix and additional vinegar run it as you normally would, you could add the additional vinegar to the rinse cycle, but by them I’m of to other things and I would forget. No your clothing and diapers will NOT smell like vinegar.

Shopping for natural alternatives, home-made and food based products does not need to cost an arm or a leg.  I’ll be looking at some of those alternatives and comparing prices to commercial products.

I’ll also talk about how shopping online may or may not be the best option.  How a price book is a great idea and how keeping inventory is a must if you want to save money and have more.

Here is the cost brake down on Vinegar and Baking Soda as cleaners/laundry supplies compared to commercial products often used for the same purpose.

Tips

1. Vinegar and baking soda can be used for cleaning, laundry and in food preperation.
   

   1. So can many other items. I’ll talk about some of them as this series continues.
      

2. Re-using items and see if you can find places to get them free. Most grocery stores give away their buckets. Our Sam’s Club has two sizes so check to see what size works well for you.
   

   1. Always remember the 3-R’s Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
      

3. Never let your Gas Tank do what your Fingers can do!  That old telephonebook commercial hit it right on the nose. “Let your fingers do the walking.”
   

   1. Call to see if the stores has that must have item in stock BEFORE heading out, ask them to pull one and have it up front.
      

4. We use Sam’s Club for quite a bit of BULK shopping. While we don’t always get the lowest price we don’t have to run all over town to find the items we want. So that saves us money, in addition to online ordering. Sam’s Click-n-Pull system is a big help, we can check off what we need, then the next day it is ready for us to pick up. No wandering up and down the isle, no impulse buying and quick check out.
   

5. Compare store prices to online, don’t forget to add in shipping. While this can be both beneficial, it needs to be weighted against the cost and impact to your community.
   

6. We plan our trips. Have a map that show your favorite stores.
   

7. Keep a cooler ready for shopping trips so you can place cold items in when you are at a different store.

8. Don’t over lap. Don’t drive around in circles.
   

9. If you use a grocery list, which you should, use it to help with your inventory. Have one master list of items you need often. For each store you shop at have a list of what isle have what.
   

10. Park on the side of the store where the Grocery department of your Mega Mart type stores is so you don’t walk from the Garden to Electronics to Grocery.
    

11. Try to keep the number of stores you shop at to 3 or less.

    1. You’ll find that you do less impulse shopping because you know where things are, you know what you want and you don’t see all the new stuff.
       

12. Don’t shop on an empty stomach.
    

13. Try to shop when the store is the least busy. Wednesdays is often one of those times. NEVER shop on Friday night or Saturday. If the lines move slow you have more opportunity to impulse shop.
    

    1. Consider shopping late night. Our Mega Mart, # 2 on our list of 3 stores, is open 24/7.
       

14. Don’t shop with every member of the family, only take the members you must not those that just want to go shopping. The more eyes at the store the more impulse shopping can happen.
    

15. Sign up for e-mail notices from your 3 Stores. This way you can plan what you need, and see it ahead of time.
    

16. Never buy a newspaper, unless you have too. Ask your neighbors if you can look at their ads or have their paper when they are through. Look at the pictures in the ads, plan what you need, use your isle list and always take a shopping list.
    

17. Shop in a way that makes the most CENTS for you and your family and the way it makes the most sense for you and your family. Don’t do anything that will cost you more money because someone said this is how to do it.
    

18. Take advice on a test drive, not a life style.

Coming up in Part II

More safe ways to make your house fresh and smell great with a little one.

Thanks,

Jeffrey

aka The Amish Phonebook Guy