Cost of everything is going up

I've been trying to figure out exactly how much it costs us to keep our animals. We have too many goats for our family needs; four does will be in milk next year and we still have four others (although one is going to freezer camp very, very soon). It's going to be a hard decision next year on which doe(s) to sell because they are all very nice milkers, but unless I can find more buyers for the goat milk it just doesn't make sense for a family of three to have four milking does.

We also have sixteen chickens, but they usually pay their way in the summer months by the sale of their eggs and we get all the eggs we need.

The little mutt dog doesn't eat much in the way of dog food; she gets a lot of scraps. We do have three cats, but they are family so I can't even think of getting rid of them.

What I have really been debating about though is the Mule & our new rescue mini-horse. We get hay pretty cheap ($4 a bale), but they'll probably eat a bale of hay every day in the winter. That gets expensive for just "pleasure" pets. Yes, I'd eventually like to break the Mule to harness, but still, it's not really necessary as we have a tractor.

Our garden is nowhere near up to snuff, so we DO depend on a lot of store-bought canned veggies, wheat, beans, etc. So we're planning on going to the big town tomorrow & stocking up on canned / dry goods. Hopefully we'll be able to work on the garden so we're not so dependent on the store.

What I find disheartening is that a lot of us here on HT are ALREADY pinching those pennies hard & doing without, but will have to try even harder just to get by.

As others have mentioned, there are non-monetary advantages of having your own milk/eggs/meat, but at some point it may become impossible to provide those homegrown goodies when the costs far surpass the grocery store junk. This, I think, is the most disturbing and depressing part of all.

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson

Actually, the value of the dollar is falling.

'Things' are not so much more expensive. If you shop all over the world, prices of 'things' has been pretty stable the past decade.

What has happened: To get out of the bad ecconomy & get people spending money, the USA has printed more money, and is spending money that does not exist. This makes each dollar that we have worth a little less, because there are more of them available.

So it's not that feed or food are worth more. it's that your dollar bills are worth less.

--->Paul

After years of belt tightening, I have it down to a fine art. When something I want costs more than I want to pay, I quit wanting it. People(including some family members, unfortunately) always ask me, why don't you spend some your money? I do, I spend money on what I want to spend money on. I just don't want a lot. A lot of people view money as something that needs to be spent, and their idea of budgeting is to spend all the money, but prioritize. My idea about money is as long as you don't spend it, you will still have it. It
ll be there for that rainy day that you hear old people talk about, but young people don't believe in.

Walmart Survey Shows Inflation Already Here.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40135092

Coupons and sales, people! I usually pay about 80¢ for canned fruit. Sometimes much less. Name brands.

I almost always get a good price on bread. Right now I have coupons for several different brands. I get whichever one is on sale that week. Whichever whole grain one works out cheapest, with or without a coupon.

This is the time of year canned vegetables go on sale EVERYWHERE. And the coupons are abundant.

2 weeks ago, one store had Libby's veggies for 39¢. All the other stores had them for 45¢. I had STACKS of coupons for $1 off 3 Libby's vegetables. That made them from 6¢ to 12¢ a can. I got cases until I ran out of coupons.

That would be me.

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.............Not , always true ! I paid $.99 for a gallon of 2% milk at W. Mt , and $2.14 for Diet Can't Believe . But , this is a newly opened store so maybe that is a factor in some of the low prices . , fordy

Our canned veggies are double that amount.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

Here's the canned veggie sale at Target this week (I haven't checked the other stores).

Del Monte Canned Vegetables, 14.5-15.25 oz., 45¢
Manufacturer Coupon -$1/5 Del Monte Canned Fruits, Vegetables, Tomatoes, 10.5-15.25 oz, RP 9/19
(makes it 25¢ ea)

That means the veggies are 45¢

The coupons are from the 9/19 Red Plum insert* and are for $1 off 5 cans.

This works out to 25¢ by combining the sale price with the coupon.

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*Serious couponers keep the inserts dated and filed so that when making one's shopping list from the ad matchups, you know exactly where to look in the inserts for the needed coupons.

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Same here. Insane not to. When something that stores well is on sale, and there are no limits, I get a year, sometimes two years worth.

Local grocer had Libbys vegetables on sale this spring... 4/1$. Got 15 to 20 cases. I can't 'can' for that price. The lids alone cost almost that much.

Why would I buy a can of beets at regular price, when once a year, they almost give them away.

We're blessed with inexpensive food here... no unions to run prices up. I smile when folks complain about expensive this or that... their price is usually twice to three times what it costs here.

Inflation has a solution... buy what your going to need next year, now.

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

well then, ladycat, can you point me to a place to learn to use those coupons too!? that is a great deal, if you can pull stuff like that off! way to go! i'd love to do that, but we live where there is very little coupons, so how could i do that? i do get to a walmart a few times per year, i'd love to be able to save up and stock up while there, as well as my local little stores. help!?

i do make or raise much of our stuff, cuz i like the quality. but am finding i need to keep my numbers as low as possible to make it work. i have 3 milking goats now, 3 more young ones coming this spring but not sure i should/can keep them. i don't want to sell any of them, but...

6 does is waaay more than i need. that adds up to not only feed, but medicines and time involved that is unnesessary. i had plenty to "share" which paid for their feed, then still more than enough to make cheese and soap and freeze for when i dry them all up. that was with 2 FF's and one old one! i did decide to breed to boer this year tho., so i have no temptations to keep any beyond that 'tender' stage! (DH had this wild scheme to raise dairy goats, keep til first freshening then sell them--there is NO money here for that, i'd loose my shirt, plus be totally swamped in work!! so i got the boer to 'botch' that up! shhh, don't tell him!!) this will give me meat or sale-able stock to pay for the feed for the others.

i try to cut back in other ways than just food--less trips to town, re-using/re-purposing things, or simply, as another said, learn to not want it anymore.

sometimes i feel a bit scared to our future, as i get a bit older, i am not sure how we'll manage, but thankfully, God has always provided.

4 thoughts as someone who homesteads full time:

1. Cull your animals down to what you feed from your homestead. You want to put as little money into them as possible. You can cut browse for goats, collect trimmings and such. You can put rabbits on pasture. You can free range chickens and buy your necessary grains by the ton. 50 lb feed bags will always cost you through the nose comparatively.

2. Buy your food in bulk and prepare everything from scratch. I make all of our bread and baked goods using 100% organic ingredients. I get unbleached white and whole wheat organic flour for 50 cents a lb by buying in 50 lb bags. I can get 5 loaves of bread out of $2.50 worth of flour. Eggs and milk come from here and honey comes as a swap from a friend. Add a little organic oil and you have a loaf of excellent quality bread for about 60 cents a loaf.
Re-think your groceries. Eat as much from your own place as you can. Forage for wild foods. Buy in bulk and eat from your stores. I go to the grocery once a month and spend $50-$100 depending on how pricey our extras are. Make sure the animals you have are meeting your food needs and so is your garden.

3. For what you do buy at the store take advantage of Ladycat's vast wisdom on couponing. Do like Texican said and stock when things are cheap. Set the price you are willing to spend on food and then stick too it, if you can't get it for your price don't buy it and when you can stock up on it. November and December stock up on all the loss leader baking and holiday stuff. You can get butter usually for half the price right now and it freezes fine.

4. Swap! One of the biggest ways we save money here is to swap with people who grow stuff we don't. I swap bread for pork and scones for honey. We swap work for food and other stuff. The biggest mental shift in Homesteading I think is that time and labor are money. You can provide most everything you want and need for almost no money it just requires increased time and work.

Just when we think we can't cut back more we find a new way, and we sure wish we could have back the money we've wasted over the years . We watch for the marked-down organic milk and freeze it (pour some off first). We haven't paid more than $1.99 a gallon in two years. Picked up a gallon last night for $.99. We gave up almonds and walnuts except for special occasion baking (buy those at Sam's) and switched to peanuts. We buy very little that isn't on sale. I'm baking all our bread and will add yogurt back into the schedule soon. We're trying a new, expanded garden spot with fencing in place for next season. (I feel like the world's worst gardener but keep reading Jackie Clay - she is so encouraging.) Gas IS expensive (~$2.75 here) so we combine trips, which is simplified by my being a pet sitter. I drive very conservatively. We're using as little electricity as possible. We've only had a couple of nights below freezing so far, and our kerosene heater warmed the house up quickly. When the living area gets nice and warm we turn the fan for the heat pump on and circulate the warm air, setting a timer to remind us to turn it off. When it's warmer but we still need heat overnight, we use the ceramic heaters and close off the third bedroom (unless the grandbabies will be coming the next morning).

And, as someone posted, I'm trying to rebuild our income. That's our biggest problem right now.

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The three divine teachers of man: worldly calamity, bodily ailment, and unmerited enmity, and there is but through God alone a deliverance from them. Maine Farmer's Almanac

I also live where there are very few coupons, and most of the stores here are crummy. And none of the stores here double. But there are a zillion ways to get ample coupons. I have several thousand on hand at any one time.

Go to the best newbie couponing forum there is: We Use Coupons

Join that and get started by asking a million questions in the newbie section.

Just a warning, when you first start learning how, it's extremely confusing.

I'm ladycat over there. You can put me in as your referrer.

You'll love couponing once you get the hang of it. My Christmas shopping (since end of last December) has cost almost nothing- and that includes a couple thousand dollars worth of toys, games, and children's DVDs, which all averaged costing me about 10 cents on the dollar, just by stacking the deals on the sales.

I've got topics ALL over here at HT where I posted receipts for various shopping trips getting various kinds of stuff for free to almost free, and explained how I did it, here's one: A few Target deals

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I was at the grocery store today. I made a point of checking out the price of coffee. Hubby is a bear without a cup in the morning! Anyway, the Maxwell House (11 oz or so) was on sale for $1.99 a can. I bought two cans though he prefers Folgers. The same size can of Folgers was $3.79!! I'm gonna start mixing the Folgers with the Maxwell House, so he can drink it.

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~TheMartianChick~

My latest novels:
Bystander: A Tale of the End of the World as SHE Knew It!

Christmas in Bystander & Other Village Tales

Coming Soon: A Slice of Heaven

Goats don't give milk with out grain and rabbits don't make fryers with out grain., The problem with buying any thing by the ton is storage. And grain gets old, especially if you buy ground grains. After awhile animals waste old grains. In my opinion for the home raiser this is bad advise.
Maybe you could split a ton of grain with some other small raisers.

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squashnut & bassketcher

Champagne D Argent, White New Zealand & Californian Cross Rabbits

Hmmm....I guess I will have to tell them they need to stop then! I raise fryers all summer on nothing but mixed pasture and plenty of clover. Rabbits don't normally eat grain. Same with the goats, they may produce a little less but they will produce milk without grain.

And yes you could find someone to split it with.

Goats can milk with out grain, if they are on land they browse around on . Rabbits ohh heck they have all kinds of grasses and clover, and many other things to eat.

We are just a little farther north of you, no unions here, either, but our groceries are not cheap.

I pay attention to grocery prices when we travel, and groceries here are more expensive than anywhere I have checked. WE only have really one of a large chain here - except for the Mexican grocery, and Wal Mart that are both 10 miles away.

Two years ago in NYC, I did some price checking and I could buy groceries there cheaper than here - fruits and veggies were way cheaper. Of course, I just checked things I would normally buy.

I just checked in Salt Lake City, and Grand Junction, Colo. We also have a home in Central TExas, small town, under 3,000. It has one store, one of a small chain of stores - their prices are much lower than here.

It's a puzzlement.

When we get to really stocking up, which will be soon, I'm going to have to check in larger cities, maybe and make a day of buying.

Large city stores do huge volume so many times price is cheaper. Stores are closer together in city areas so less delivery costs. Cities also get the better quality products.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

I wish you'd run for congress.

during the deppresion they raised rabbit on cooked potatoes and the other weeds ect they could find. But my point is that meat and milk is produced by the animal becuase of the carbohydrates they consume.
when i saw this economy coming and i did quite a bit of research on what could be used to replace grains when to raise the rabbits. one thing I do is raise beets,carrots, turnips and parsnips extra for my rabbits.

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squashnut & bassketcher

Champagne D Argent, White New Zealand & Californian Cross Rabbits