Prioritizing Homestead development for upcoming income loss

Here you put a quarter in a slot to unhook the cart & get it back when you replace the cart.

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What i do to stretch the food is when i butcher lambs i make and can alot of stew in quart jars, The veggies i use in the stew comes from my garden. Then all i do is heat it up and thicken it and dinner is served. I also can chicken and turkey meat when i butcher them, Also get several jars of great broth canned from the carcasses. Then my dogs get the bones. I am a full time off grid homesteader and you learn to waste not and repurpose what you have. I would agree with the others on a garden and chickens, chickens are easy to take care of.

See if you can find a good bent n dent grocery store.

My family of 3(soon to be 5-twins!) spends $100 every six weeks at the bent n dent. And that is an over flowing cart full. Just don't pay any attention to the "best if used by" date

Tho we do raise all our meat and have a small garden.

If you do want to do a garden I have some advice. I myself don't really like gardening much.... But I feel obligated to at least make an attempt at one every year to produce some of our own vegetables.

Things like green beans, peas, cucumbers are a PAIN you literally have to be out there picking every single day or they will get too mature. It's just too much for me since I would rather be doing something else.

So I like to plant sweet corn bc you plant then all you have to do is harvest it all at once and freeze. Winter square same reason. The only finicky thing I do plant is zuchinni and tomatos. You do have to go out there quite often to harvest but it is a lot easier than picking green beans! I buy my potatoes and onions in 50lbs bags and store them in the basement. When I can buy a 50lbs bag of potatoes for 6 bucks I just can't convince myself that it would be worth my time or be cost effective to grow my own.

Birds don't make you money if you buy feed. If you look at them for entertainment value and healthier eating for your family, you have to know that it's costing you to do that. Which might be fine. But you have to consider it.

If I were trying to save money on food, and I had poultry, it would have to be at the most half a dozen layer chickens that could be feed largely from kitchen scraps. Just enough to keep you in eggs. If you want chicken, buy it from the store when it's on sale, and there are still pretty good sales. Raising meat birds if you don't raise grain, or can't buy cheap grain, is back to healthier, but costlier, food which you might not be able to afford for the time being.

Other than that, wean your family (if they eat it now) off of the expensive junk foods that they like, but aren't good on the budget. For example, soda, potato chips, or deli meats. Very expensive for what they aren't in food value or length of time that they last. Work your family into a different way of looking at food.

There is a lot of reading on how people ate during the Great Depression that might be of help to you, too.

Good luck to your family!

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-Northern NYS

Ya gotta have a quarter to get the cart in the first place. Something I didn't know the first time I went to Aldi's and something that other potential shoppers might not know.

When i was a kid i used to round up carts to get some money . It blew my mind how may people didn't want their quarter back.

Isn't it dangerous to give a dog a poultry bone that has been cooked?

yes, it is not recommended. Very splintery.