The biggest item I wanted to really watch this year was our grocery budget. Last year we spend roughly $600.00/month and I think I wanted to try to reduce this to $500.00/month for 2022. So far we are averaging $716.42/month… Yikes. I’m hoping as the year progresses the 1/4 beef purchase of $850.00 we made in January continues to average out. I’m also going to start being a bit more accountable on my blog - writing down our weekly purchases. This might be interesting to look back on later, to see how prices are changing (or not changing) where we live.
One grocery item we won’t have to worry about purchasing for a while is flour! G and I have been researching and being a bit more conscious about the foods we have been eating. We have been trying to reduce G’s cholesterol naturally thru diet and exercise after a surprising blood test at the beginning of the year. After losing his father to a heart attack last year - we didn’t want to mess around. Being conscious of what we’ve been eating has been great. I personally track everything on MyFitnessPal as a way to keep an eye on my macro’s and making me aware of what I’ve been doing good with, but also not so good with. For example: my fibre intake is not good, but I also learned I don’t consume any trans-fats! So I’m trying to adjust and find snacks, meals, etc that I can start to incorporate. I’ve lost over 5 pounds just by adjusting my diet!
Anyways: back to the flour! G and I had been researching wheat berries and how to grind our own flour. Wheat berries have amazing health benefits since they are a whole grain (literally). They are a great source a fibre, help reduce bad cholesterol and really high in protein. One great thing about living where we do is I know a lot of farmers. ;) I was talking to a coworker during coffee and he said he can give G and I a 5 gallon bucket full of Hard Red Wheat Berries grown last year! He had cleaned the seed last year but didn’t plant all of it this year. Since last year was (unfortunately) a bad drought year, this specific wheat was really high in protein (over 15% when he got it tested at the elevators). The coworker didn’t want anything for the grain; but G and I are going to throw together a thank you basket & bring him and his family a loaf of bread once we’ve mastered baking with fresh flour (it is a bit of a learning curve).
In all, he gave us a little under 40lbs of wheat berries and one nice thing if stored correctly, these will last forever. 1 cups of wheat berries makes about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of flour. If you cannot tell, I’m extremely excited about this, lol.
Although, this will save us money in the long term, I did invest in a grain mill. I purchase the NutriMill Classic on Amazon, which cost me $532.79. BIG investment, but I did pay for this out of my personal spending money - not the house funds. I figured this was a luxury kitchen gadget and I had extra spending money.
I’m hoping the grain mill will arrive next week so I can try to bake a loaf or two this month. I’ll keep this blog updated with the successes (or failures)! Enough farm talk for today :)
- M
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