Natural living + Gluten free Eating in the Mess of Motherhood
10 benefits of the Instant Pot (and why it’s better than a Crock-Pot slow cooker). This is an honest look at the pros and cons of the Instant Pot from a devoted slow-cook user who converted to an Instant Pot because it’s THAT awesome! I have personally found the Instant Pot has a lot more advantages than disadvantages. My goal is to help you decide if the switch is good for you, too.
…Save money and clean your home better with these 3 easy tips. If you want to make steps toward living a nontoxic, natural, and less (or zero) waste lifestyle, this post will help you get started.
(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, but you will not be charged a penny extra! And mama, I never recommend products I don’t love or believe in. I so appreciate your support)
Have you ever misplaced money somewhere only to very excitedly find it later?
When I was a kid, I hid $50 from my birthday in a trophy cup. And then completely forgot about it until I was cleaning out my room for college.
It felt like the best day ever!
Well, I’m not giving you $50 in a trophy cup, but I AM going to share tips on how you can save over $50 a month on household cleaning supplies.
You can put it in a trophy if you want.
Let’s go.
I hope you knew I was going to say this.
Why should you make your own homemade household cleaners?
Making your own cleaning products is very budget-friendly. Using homemade cleaning products saves you a ton of money because the ingredients you purchase are CHEAP!
All you need to clean your entire home is…
Check out how to make antibacterial-boss Thieves oil for less than $12 a bottle
This is the list of the household cleaning products I make and no longer purchase:
Here are a few ways buying in bulk works for us with saving money on household products:
I get our baking soda and salt from the bulk section at my local store and just keep them in big containers at home. It’s at least 40 cents cheaper per pound, which adds up quickly into dollars in your pocket (I’d personally rather buy a coffee with that extra money).
Purchasing white vinegar and vodka in the biggest jugs possible will give you the best bang for your buck, too. If you buy the small containers verses the largest ones, it’ll cost you. I learned the hard way.
Side note: You should see the looks I get when I’m 8 months pregnant and buying large amounts of vodka. I need a shirt that says “I disinfect my house with vodka and I have germy children.”
Buying your paper products in bulk will also usually save you a chunk of change. We purchase our toilet paper from either Costco or Amazon, depending on who has the best price.
Which can cause a problem if you don’t have a lot of extra storage space! We’ve chosen to live in a smaller home that doesn’t have a TON of extra room, so we have to get a bit creative with WHERE we store all the extra toilet paper. Here are some ideas from experience:
Talking about paper products, this brings me to my next tip…
Now, I have not crossed over to using cloth or rags instead of toilet paper. I’m just not there. But here are things we don’t normally have in our home anymore on purpose:
I’ve replaced all of these with a cloth version.
Update:
Grove has the best deals on natural cleaning supplies, like my favorite kitchen scrubber and walnut sponges
You can get a sustainable living kit free when you spend $20
Which includes:• Grove Recycled Trash Bags
• Grove Glass Soap Dispenser
• Grove Gel Hand Soap
• Grove Walnut Scrubber Sponges
• Grove Flour Sack Towel
For you parents out there, we save on diapers by cloth-diapering part time. I didn’t add this to the above list since we haven’t fully replaced disposable diapers. We use cloth diapers during the day and disposables at night or when travelling. All of our kiddos have developed diaper rash if we use cloth diapers at night, and/or they leak through.
But even part-time cloth-diapering reduces our paper product usage, saving us money and lowering our waste.
Note: If you’re going to have a baby, asking for cloth diapers on your registry is a great idea! It’s what we did and I think it is the best “keeps on giving” gift we got.
I also recommend doing research on the EWG website to see how your household cleaners rank.
Learn how to eat gluten free on a budget! I share the ways we save money (as a family of 6) while eating a healthy gluten free diet. These simple tips will keep you on budget while eating healthy and gluten-free meals.
(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, but you will not be charged a penny extra! And mama, I never recommend products I don’t love or believe in. I so appreciate your support)
I’ll never forget that moment. I’m sure my eyeballs were popping an inch out of my head as I stared in disbelief at the grocery checkout.
The lady at the register stared blankly back at me, clearly unconcerned or unaware of my inner panic-attack.
My eyes frantically looked at the bottom of the receipt. Yep. I didn’t misunderstand her.
$261.96
This was almost the entirety of my monthly budget at the time, and those groceries would not make it through two weeks, let alone a month.
Gluten-free foods can be exorbitant. They can break the bank and they can sabotage your healthy, gluten free, change-your-life goals.
Since that wake up call 8 years ago, we have learned how to save over $600 a month on grocery and household items.
Our monthly budget is now $450 for our family of 6. But that doesn’t just include food. That includes everything for household supplies.
Beauty products, cleaning supplies, toilet paper.
And we do it on one income.
Being a stay at home mom is important to our family. My husband has a good job (that we’re very thankful for), but it is not a two-person income by any means. We have had to learn to steward the money we have wisely. It has meant sacrificing certain luxuries and giving up unimportant extras to keep me home.
But it has also meant getting smart about what foods we buy, what foods we make, and how to get the most bang out of our buck.
This post will give you some applicable ways to keep your grocery budget low each month so that you are able to provide the things that are important for your family.
Some of the most expensive things to buy are gluten free breads. Cakes, sandwich bread, bagels, rolls. All of these will cost double, if not quadruple what regular store-bought breads cost.
A very small loaf of gluten-free bread from almost anywhere will cost you at least $5.99. I can make a bigger, better tasting loaf, with healthier ingredients, for about $1.50.
Buying gluten free biscuits, pancakes, bagels, rolls, etc will suck up too much of your grocery budget. If you don’t want to eliminate them from your diet (I know I don’t!), start making them from scratch.
Tip: When making quick bread recipes, all you have to do is replace regular flour with a gluten free flour blend.
Here are some of my favorite bread recipes:
If you’re going to be making gluten free meals from scratch, it becomes pretty important to have the right tools.
I do tend to take a minimalist approach to things, so I pair down my appliances to just a few that really make my life easier and are worth the investment and the space in my small kitchen.
I keep all of these items on hand for various recipes:
Find a store that carries bulk gluten-free flours. I use a local Winco, but many Krogers also have a well-priced bulk section.
My absolute favorite place to stock up on gluten free pantry foods (including flours) is Azure Standard. They are high quality and you can pick up orders locally once a month.
You can check out their site to see if there’s a drop off location near you. If not, you can become a site drop off location. Just pull together a couple friends to create the order minimum.
If your grocery store doesn’t carry something that you need, ask them to carry it! Get a couple friends to also request it, too. I’ve seen, first hand, that this can get things into your store. Be the change, man!
Your dietary needs are not an inconvenience. They want to sell you stuff! Asking your grocery stores to carry gluten-free items so you can shop there benefits both of you. So don’t be afraid! Start a conversation. They may even be willing to order some items in especially for you.
NOTE: I know that those of you who deal with legitimate celiac may not be able to purchase from a bulk section for safety reasons, but there are still ways to buy in bulk from other retailers that are cheaper than grocery stores.
If you don’t have a local bulk section or you have celiac and aren’t able to purchase in bulk, here are my favorite online places to order through:
When eating gluten free on a budget, you can naturally lower the costs of gluten-free foods by avoiding a large quantity of processed foods—and by processed I mean store-bought crackers, cookies, chips, etc.
It’s easy to buy gluten-free crackers these days, but they cost A LOT more than regular crackers, and really aren’t the healthiest option anyway, right?
Snacks and bread items are the biggest gluten-free foods that are easy to purchase, but can take up a good portion of your budget!
Note: Even when splurging on processed foods, know that the majority of tortilla chips and potato chips are already a gluten-free food and don’t need to be bought “special” gluten-free.
Related post: Check out best tips to keep veggies fresh as long as possible.
Going into the month without a solid menu plan is like lighting a $20 bill on fire every week. Without a plan, we tend to make impulse buys instead of hunting for the best deals. And it adds up.
And that means…
Related Post: Meal Planner: A How-To Guide to Always Know What’s for Dinner (with a FREE printable)
I wish someone had told me this when I first started eating gluten-free (maybe while holding my face so I’d really hear them):
Eat more foods that are naturally gluten-free!
Because there are a lot of naturally gluten-free foods. And I’m not just talking vegetables and fruits.
Things like…
When meal planning, incorporate more meals that utilize starches that are from potato, rice, corn, and beans (like many Asian and Mexican dishes) .
When you make meals that originally don’t have gluten in them, then you don’t have to substitute it with a more expensive gluten-free option.
NOTE: Soy sauce is actually made up of 60-80% wheat. Tamari is pure soy sauce, and is made fully out of soy. Read those labels (and buy tamari)! The price difference is worth it here.
When you eat this way, though, you don’t miss the gluten because it’s normally not there to begin with.
Here are a couple tips to help you find the best priced gluten free foods in your area
Coupons should not drive your menu plan. Your menu plan should drive what items you buy. Stocking up on items you know your family loves and will use will save you more money than buying something with a coupon that you don’t like (or don’t know how to use) and will throw away.
This could be connected to almost every tip I’ve mentioned. Stores that have these sections are generally very over-priced and usually contain foods that aren’t the healthiest option, anyway.
Look outside of this aisle for snacks and items that are naturally gluten-free (or again, make your own!). Like I already mentioned, you can make most of these items yourself, OR you can find them in regular aisles because they’re naturally gluten free (like corn tortillas, tortilla chips, or potato chips).
I’m not for NEVER buying these foods. When I’m sick or when I’ve just had a baby, my husband will often splurge on some of those convenient items to bless me.
Those are great times for the convenience.
I also love to grab a box of pre-made cookies (these are my-all time favorite) for a road trip. Maybe even some pretzels . These items are great for treats, but buying them regularly will make for an expensive gluten-free diet.
Frugal ways to clean your home
Feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments below. I love talking food—especially gluten-free food!
Want to know how to buy healthy food on a budget? Let’s look at the top 8 tips you can use today to lower your grocery bill while buying more fresh produce wisely. I’ll give you tips on how to buy organic food on a budget, too, because that stuff can get crazy expensive! You really can save money without couponing! Keep reading to learn how.
Are you looking to trim your grocery and household budget? Even though I’ve learned quite a bit about trimming things up with our budget, I am always wanting to hear MORE ways to save money! We can really learn from one another. So even if you’re pretty savvy with your wallet, I’m hoping some of these tips will help you out.
In this series, I’ll be sharing some of the ways that we have learned to save over $600 a month on groceries and hosuehold items, keeping our monthly budget for a family of 6 under $450.
That includes everything. Food, toilet paper, beauty products, cleaning supplies, etc.
It was a choice that was important to me and my husband for our family, so we make it work.
I hope that this blog series gives you some applicable ways to keep your budget lower each month so that you are able to provide the things that are important for your family.
(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, but you will not be charged a penny extra! And mama, I never recommend products I don’t love or believe in)
I wrote a whole blog post on how I save money by meal planning. This is especially vital to save money on produce because if you don’t have a plan for every ounce of produce, it will rot.
Gross. And true.
Which always feels like throwing perfectly good money in the garbage.
Who does that?
I try not to, usually.
Meal planning for a couple weeks at a time has proven to be the most effective method for me. I plan four weeks at a time, which helps since most produce items will only last a couple weeks to a month at the most anyway, so I can get the whole plan laid out in front of me.
Since I wrote a detailed post already, I will only hit some main points here.
One of the biggest ways I save with produce is knowing the main ingredients in the meals I’ve planned, and seeing what other meals use those same ingredients.
I keep a meal list that just has the top three ingredients that will definitely spoil if not used quickly (or frozen before going bad). That way when I write down a meal that sounds really good, I can scan my list of meals, find ones that use that same ingredient, and plan that meal within a day or so of the other meal so that I’m getting the most use out of my produce!
If you have a meal plan, it’s easy to browse at it at the beginning of the week and make note of which produce items you’ll need, and how much. Then just buy what you need and know it will keep before you use it.
Which brings me to the next point…
This is huge! To save on produce, you need to keep produce crisp and fresh.
Again, wasted produce is wasted money.
Properly storing things makes a ginormous difference in the life expectancy of that produce and allows you to enjoy what you’ve purchased.
For various produce, I use mason jars, glass containers (like these), or reused yogurt/sour cream containers to store them.
If you want a cheat sheet on how to store the main vegetables we keep in our home on a regular basis, jump over to this post. There are lots of tips and tricks so that it takes some guessing out of the crap-shoot that is produce.
This is really almost too simple of a “tip.” But this absolutely did change things for me when it came to saving money on produce.
When I shop weekly for produce, I actually save a lot more money on my grocery bill.
The reason is straight forward:
You only buy what you need for the week, so you waste less produce.
I used to have a bad habit of just hoping my produce would last for a couple weeks so that I could use it in “that one meal that’s coming up.”
Especially if I found something on sale that I knew I needed in, say…three weeks.
Yeah, no.
Unless it’s something I KNOW can last that long, I have stopped buying it too far in advance.
Scheduling a weekly trip helps me remember that I’ll be back at the right time for the right item, and then I’m not tricked by a low price.
Most grocery stores have an area with discounted produce items on it. It is definitely worth walking by and taking a peek to see if something you need, like, tomorrow, is on clearance. Sometimes you can find great clearance items! But don’t buy those clearance mushrooms if they’re not on your menu plan for another week.
Extra tip for the eco-friendly shopper: I bought 4 packs (they come in packs of three, so I got 12) of mesh laundry bags from the dollar store to use as produce bags. So cheap and easy to wash when needed!
How to save money on organic food? Buy organic produce wisely.
Here’s what I mean by that:
Not every produce item needs to be organic, unless that’s what your own convictions are (totally respect that). But some produce items are less harmful when they’re not organic because they’re not heavily sprayed, and thus aren’t worth spending extra money on.
Each year the different plant diseases and pest problems play a role in how much non-organic farms are spraying pesticides. It’s a good idea to check out the EWG’s guide every year to see what they recommend splurging on organic for. You can find that by clicking here
Organic is something I really do love to buy, since pesticides can cause nerve damage and myriad of other health problems, but if the price difference is huge on items that aren’t as critical to be organic (like bananas), I save money on my grocery bill by getting the cheaper option.
Everyone feels differently on this topic, but I choose to use moderation in the arena of organic. I’d rather eat a butt-load of regular vegetables than a tiny amount of organic vegetables. But again, I buy as much organic as I can.
We recently moved and left behind our raised garden beds and apple tree, but that was a great way to save some money on produce!
We had pretty good success growing our own kale, zucchini, lettuce, arugula, and snap peas. It didn’t save us a TON of money because our garden beds were small, but it was something.
And I loved knowing exactly how they were cared for and what was sprayed on them (aka, nothing).
We are massively blessed to have a great, local farm stand! They almost always have organic apples for under 99 cents a lb. And they give you a 10 cent per lb discount if you buy more than 20 lbs at a time. This is a great option for us because I can buy a box of apples and make organic apple sauce, organic dried apple chips, organic apple butter, organic apple pie, etc etc, AND have apples for snacks and straight up eating.
Best.
Ever.
So when trying to save money on produce, check out your local stands! Ask if they offer any discounts if you buy in bulk.
Also, buying local is a great way to, obviously, support your own community. Win win.
Not to mention, it’s POSSIBLE that local produce is not sprayed as heavily as the larger corporations. This isn’t ALWAYS true, but most local farmers don’t need to over-spray. Some may actually BE organic, but just haven’t gone through the certification process.
On top of that, most local produce is going to be more nutrient dense because it is generally fresher than large corporation produce that’s shipped from out of state or country.
The best way to get the full scoop on produce at ANY store is to ask a lot of questions. If you see a curbside stand, it’s worth stopping by and chatting to find out their growing practices and build some relationships.
It can be easy to just stick to shopping at one or two stores as a mama. Stopping by multiple places gets to be a giant inconvenience. And is it just me, or does it get more and more like wrangling a circus with each kid you have?
With four littles, going grocery shopping can feel like a full-on production.
It’s amazing what just becomes normal with motherhood. I totally expect the chaos, the exercise, the buckles, the never-ending-questions involved in a grocery shopping endeavor.
BUT…
It’s really hard to know if something is a good price when you aren’t paying attention to the pricing at all the other stores.
Ok, not ALL, but It’s good to know the prices at a good handful of places.
Write down a list of produce items you keep in your house, and at least 4 different prices from various stores in columns next to it. When at least 4 items are cheaper at a different store, it’s worth it to make a trip.
For me, I shop at about four stores (and a farm stand) regularly.
Because prices do fluctuate depending on season, it’s a good idea to buy produce that is IN season, which generally means less expensive.
Sure, asparagus is delicious, but when a small bundle costs more than 6 zucchinis, I’m going to be having zucchini instead.
Pay attention when prices on something start to go up, and look for other options that work well in place of it. Or if you’re needing a specific vegetable for a meal, make a note that that meal may need to be less frequent until that vegetable is in season again.
To save money on produce, find some consistently less expensive produce items and fill your meal plan with them!
It’s great to splurge on some variations every so often, but that will eat up a lot of your budget quickly, so do so with a bit of caution (and a plan! Meal plan. See tip #1 ;)).
Here’s some produce that is usually a less expensive option on a consistent basis:
Some produce items to buy sparingly might be:
Grab and go options like apples tend to be eaten quickly verses a mango (unless you know a trick to peeling mangos quickly…). Also, I’m more apt to grab a carrot verses a handful of asparagus. Just saying.
This saves money simply because the produce is more likely to be eaten as a snack before it goes bad. Win.
What are your money saving tips? What are your favorite vegetables and fruits to incorporate into your meals?
