Another blog brought up how much food costs these days, so I thought I would do a post similar to hers in response.

Last year (2008) I spent 6,240 in the "food" category or roughly $520/month. I thought that maybe I could give myself a challenge this year (2009) and cut that amount in half, or $260/month. It seemed simple enough, but after looking at my totals, I apparently didn't do very well. I looks to be about the same both years. We buy mostly all organic items (which costs more) and my food category includes all household items, like toiletries, batteries, lightbulbs, water softener salt, etc.

I have kept all my receipts and figured it would be a January project going through all those receipts to see just how much is spent on food, how much on household and how much spent on water softener salt.

I have stockpiled more this year and had a garden so that I could can, freeze or dry some of our own food. We also cut out pop and bottled water. I have been learning and doing things like making our own bread, sauces and cooking more from scratch.

I am hoping that all my efforts in the past few years will help get my food bill down in 2010. I really would like to be very self-sufficient in this area. And, I would also like to know how much water softener salt, shampoo, toilet paper, laundry soap, etc., we are using.

Can't wait to dig into those receipts.

So yesterday morning I went and picked Strawberries. It was a beautiful morning.

I got 9 jars of strawberry jam, a one gallon bag of frozen strawberries and had a large container left over just to enjoy.

This year I planted a garden. I have corn, two kinds of potatoes, 6 different kinds of tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, carrots and pumpkins. I also have a mama deer hanging around that wants to eat my plants. It is a daily event to keep chasing her away.

Everything is growing really well, but we will see what I end up with, seeings how I have a pet deer that thinks I planted the gardens for her.

Next on my list for canning and freezing are raspberries and blueberries.