As I continue to research various ways to try eliminating the grocery store, I stumbled across a post by someone where they accused the writer of not being a good American in their effort to reduce their expenditures. Unfortunately, I did not save the post; I would like to ask that person how does spending money make someone a good American? We consider ourselves to be good Americans - maybe more inline with early 1900's conservative America as opposed to 2014 liberal America, but still good consuming Americans.
While I am working at eliminating the grocery store, I am realistic in that I do need to purchase certain basics, like flour, sugar, salt, coffee, and spices, to name a few. The goal is to spend $100 or less each month opposed to the $1,000 per month we have historically spent. So, instead of paying $1.99 for a one pound canister of oatmeal, I will pay $20.00 for a 50-pound bag. Instead of paying $30 for sugar (5-10 pound bags at $6.00 per bag), I can buy a 50-pound bag of sugar for $25.00. Buying in bulk will obviously save us some money and support the local Amish community instead of some larger corporate giant.
If consumerism is the measuring stick for determining whether or not someone is a good American, rest assured, we will still be spending the money - just on other things. For example, out of the $12,000 annual grocery expenditure, I am hoping to spend only $1,000 this year. That is a savings of 90%. Of the $11,000 remaining, we might be able to replace my husband's car, for cash. A car that has over 250,000 miles on it. Or we might be able to replace my two-door coupe with a family sized van. We are also attempting to restore our home, which has been flipped several times over the years. It takes money to renovate bathrooms and kitchens. A fair amount of money. So yes, we will still be consuming, at least until the house is finished.
We have an extensive garden and are planting a small orchard. That means buying fencing, seeds, and trees. Rather than spending money on groceries, that we eat once and are done with, we are investing in future food supplies. It is important to know our history. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most people were self-sustaining, living debt-free, paying cash or bartering for things that they could not produce for themselves.
Did you know that debt was practically a foreign concept? In fact, home mortgages did not come about until after the second World War. We have made an effort to remain debt free as much as possible; hence, the need to reallocate expenditures. We do not want to go into debt to renovate our kitchen. We do not want to go into debt to renovate our bathrooms. We even went so far as to negotiate a land contract when we purchased our home; we pay less interest than the bank would have charged and are supporting another person directly instead of a corporation.
Finally, I just want to say that if being a good American means high consumerism, high debt, low savings, and a dependence on currency, then we need to redefine what being a good American is all about. After all, our nation was founded on Christian values - a system promoting contentment instead of consumerism, no debt opposed to indebtedness, and being a good steward of what we have already been blessed with.
Be blessed.
I agree with you. We buy most groceries when they are on sale and then we stock up. We're also big fans of Aldi stores and surplus/dented stores. I do shop the Amish and Mennonite bulk food stores in our area, too. With just 2 of us here now, we don't need as much food as we did when all 6 children were still at home, but it still pays to shop smart. When the kids were still at home, we not only had a big garden, we had several dairy goats for our own milk, raised a steer for meat, and had poultry for meat & eggs. We no longer raise our own meat and the chickens aren't laying any more (maybe the ducks will do so when it warms up again, tho) and no more goats so we buy our milk now, but we still have a garden and have an orchard, too. I doubt that our diet is as healthy as yours, but it works for us and we don't spend much. We're working on paying off debt and hoping to avoid any more. We do have a house payment, car payments, and student loans to repay, but NO credit cards! My big challenge is what to do about health insurance. Still praying about that one and checking out all of our options.
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