Here are the goals we have so far. They may sound really lofty but we have the whole year to progressively work toward them.
1) Start making all of our own bread again.
2) Grow our garden again this year but learn to can at least two vegetables out of it.
3) Decrease our average water usage by 5%.
4) Barter at least one time this year (I'm sort of thinking of trying to barter homemade bread for farm fresh eggs from someone).
5) Do two humanitarian aid projects this year with the children.
6) Double the amount we are paying monthly to local humanitarian aid by the end of the year.
7) Switch from non-durable goods to durable ones (as many as I can). For example - stop buying paper napkins and make some out of used fabric.
8) Learn to make more of our cleaning supplies.
9) We want to cut the grocery budget but we haven't yet come up with a $ amount. May have to get back to you on that one.
10) This one is sort of a repeat - but in general, we want to learn to make a lot more of what we are currently buying at the store. For example, salsa, spaghetti sauce, bread, tortillas, cleaners, etc.
11) Bryan is considering taking on some mowing jobs this mowing season and we would use all of the money he earned to pay off the truck (that's our only debt besides the house).
12) I am considering selling my homemade bread one day a week over the summer and using the money to purchase a deep freezer for us and stock it.
So, those are things we've come up with that we want to work on. We tried to make the goals as specific as we can but some are still a little open-ended. We really think if we just keep working a little at a time we can make a huge difference over a year's time. Wish us luck! The journey should be interesting!
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2 comments :
You and I have some of the same goals.
I have always wanted to make my own bread (and not use a bread machine), but haven’t worked up the nerve to try it yet. I also want to make our own cleaning supplies and stop using paper towels. My husband doesn’t think going without paper towels will work, because we use them for everything, but I really want to try. We have a lot of dish towels that we can use and honestly, I would rather use those instead.
We have cut our grocery bill some, but there is still room for improvement. We make our own spice rubs and taco seasoning, but haven’t tried making spaghetti sauce, salsa, bbq sauce, etc. We already have a deep freezer and it came in handy when I made all of Alex’s baby food.
I really enjoy reading your blog. I’m hoping to take some of your ideas and recipes you share and use them for my family.
My mom has a ton of those cloth napkins from some where- I think she sent some to the church closet. Anyway- we got a ton of them and have been using them like crazy around the house. I was amazed at how much it cut down on the napkins and paper towels we were throwing away! Plus Mea feel fancy eating with cloth napkins.
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