I feed our family of 8 for about half of what the Official 2008 USDA Food Plan’s ‘Thrifty Plan’ calls for.   Only in my dreams could I spend what they list as their liberal plan.
This includes Parker’s totally organic blenderized diet, and all cleaning, paper, etc. products.
I’m able to accomplish this through a variety of strategies:
- combining sales and coupons
- buying in bulk and building a food storage
- gardening
- utilizing local co-ops
- cooking from scratch
- not serving meat at all meals
- storing long term dehydrated and freeze dried foods
Most don’t think past powered milk when it comes to dehydrated foods. The choices of both dehydrated and freeze dried foods are not only impressive, but many grocery stores, including Costco are now carrying these items.
My Mom brought me over a 25 pound bag of dehydrated hash browns the other day. 25 pounds of dehydrated hash browns come in a VERY large bag. Holy smokes.
Total cost for 25 pounds of dehydrated hash browns?
$28.00
If you are looking at things from a strictly healthy point of view, making hash browns from scratch would win. We actually grow potatoes each season. Alas, we aren’t able to produce enough potatoes to last the year. And even purchasing $28.00 worth of spuds wouldn’t provide us with hash browns for the same length of time as a 25 pound bag of dehydrated hash browns.
One great aspect of dehydrated foods is their shelf life. Kept in the bag, these hash browns have a 10 year storage life. Kept in a food storage bucket they can last up to 20.
I can sock away $100.00 worth of dehydrated food that a few years down the road could very well cost twice that much.
Dehydrated foods are quick and easy to use. These hash browns can be used in soups, casseroles, fried like fresh hash browns, etc.
And they taste no different than purchasing hash browns straight out of your grocer’s freezer.
I covered the dehydrated potatoes with hot water.
I left them alone for 30 minutes.
Next step was to drain off the excess water and then pop those puppies into a pan with a little bit of olive oil and butter and cook as usual. I topped off the finished product with a little bit of shredded cheese.
My family loved, loved, loved them. I risked my life trying to get this picture before my family inhaled the rest of the pan.
But, hey. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you guys.
ps: For those of you who are local I can ask my Mom where she picked these up from. Just shoot me an email.
The easiest way to cut your food budget is to quit eating meat. Being a veg is good for your body, good for the planet and good for animals. I can’t find a downside (but then, I never liked meat much).
Thanks for stopping by and saying hi–nice to “meet” you!
I’m a big time couponer to try to get things for as cheaply as possible–it feels good when you walk out of a store with $80 of household needs and only pay $4.50.
I need to be better about using dehydrated stuff and the using the cannery…that would save a lot of money in the long run too.
Those hash browns look GREAT. I would love to know where she bought that huge bag. What you do with a budget is really quite amazing. I, too, am really trying to keep the food budget down. Coupons and sales and baking from scratch all help, as well as actually using the food that’s in the food storage.
Well it’s not much but the two woman I work with receive very little in the way of food stamps. So I shop the sales and cook in bulk. Much easier to stretch a meal for two into a meal for four instad of your size family, but hey it helps them. I freeze the extra for another day. Sometimes the portions are a little smaller but I think we eat to much at a sitting anyway.
i am so glad to read this post becuz i have been stocking an emergency food pantry but was hesitant to try dehydrated- thank you!!!!
Tami,
I try and stock a wide variety…..freeze dried, deydrated, canned, home canned, etc.
You never know what particular disaster you may have to face and having a total food storage that needed water in order to eat it, wouldn’t be a good idea, iykwim.
But when included in a emergency storage dehydrated and freeze dried can be very valuable!
I’ve been working on my dehydrated soups. This next week we’re going to try a few since it’ll be snowing and there’s nothing better than hot soup on a stormy night. I was wondering… have you ever made your own tortillas? My hubby and kids love them so I thought i’d give it a shot to cut down on those costs. Love you!!!
Annie,
I haven’t ever made tortillas before. Hmmm. You given me an idea…….. 😀
I have a food saver (cheap from walmart) that I’ve used a lot for long term freezer storage and was thinking I’d make tortillas then freeze them. I have store bought ones in the freezer. I need to restock food storage and think more long term. We also have a family of 8 and the amounts on the “thrifty plan” seem astronomical to me! The only way someone could spend the “liberal” amount is to buy expensive meats and all processed foods. I can’t fathom feeding that to my family!
As soon as Kaden comes home I’m coming up for a bit to help. I need to come by and we can talk gardens, food storage, coupons. I need to expand to cut down.
Love you!
Twitter: kadiera
Feb 23, 10
Another benefit to freeze-dried foods: I’m hearing reports that many kids with oral aversions who manage crunchy things can (& will) eat freeze dried versions of things they’d never eat otherwise. Just feed them the dehydrated pieces as if they were cheerios