Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to be wise about your budget by making a new frugal choice.  I talk a lot here at Kitchen Stewardship about being a good steward of your health and your environment, along with being as frugal as possible.  Being a good steward of your budget means to know how much money you have, and don’t dare spend more than that, preferably less so that you can save for later.  It’s as simple as that…

Impact Ratings:

Level of Commitment: Baby Steps…Leap of faith?

As much as I’d love to shed the chains of money entirely, the fact is that one can’t really live in the world without it.  Whenever I have a bunch of bookkeeping to do or decisions to make about investments, I always gripe, “I hate money!”  Then I revise to, “I like having money just fine, I just don’t like dealing with it.”

For many families who choose to allow the mother to stay at home with the children, there are financial sacrifices to be made. Part of that mother’s vocation, then, to support her children having a SAHM, is to watch the budget and make everything in life as frugal as possible.

I imagine that no matter where you go in the country (world?), the food budget is the place you could easily spend the most, sometimes on accident, and also the category that allows you to save the most.  Therefore any housewife or SAHM who needs to trim the budget a bit might start by analyzing the food budget.

Stephanie Langford at Keeper of the Home has been working hard for 6 years to nail down her food budget by shaving 20-30% off of her costs, and she shares all of her tips and tricks in her new full-length ebook, Real Food on a Real Budget.  Check out my full review for a chance to win a copy for yourself.

Frugal Kitchen Options

Personally, I used to use coupons to help our family’s food budget, and while I mourn their loss, I do have many other cost-saving features in the kitchen (and a few other places around the home). Try to choose a new one for your kitchen and your budget saving this week:

1. Use dry beans
2. Make homemade yogurt
3. Check out the reduced produce section at your local grocery store, and if there isn’t one, send the sample letter at this post to the produce manager to request a win-win situation.
4. Buy “seconds” at the Farmer’s Market.
5. Find a bread outlet store.
6. Make your own bread, either with free yeast or the no-knead version.
7. Use 3/4 lb. of ground beef in a casserole, chili, or pasta recipe that calls for a pound.  It’s like saving 25% off, and I bet you won’t miss it!
8. Buy a whole chicken.  Shred some for casseroles and soups, and be sure to make homemade chicken stock out of the bones.
9. Wear makeup less often.  Skip a day’s shower. Don’t throw clothing in the hamper until they’re actually dirty. (3 lazy Katie tips!)
10. Do only full loads of laundry, and skip the dryer sheets.  (Soapnuts and many other natural laundry options don’t need them anyway.)
11. Shop second hand for quality kitchen ware.
12. Make beans and rice side dishes.
13. Stretch your real maple syrup.
14. Make a side bread or cracker from scratch.
15. Eat less.  Don’t go for seconds, and lunch the next day is magically there in the form of leftovers.

Remember, kitchen stewards…just choose one.  Baby steps!

Should Bloggers Sell Things?

Speaking of money, I feel like I’ve been asking you to spend a lot of it lately by recommending so many products.  It’s a touchy subject for me, because while I want you to be frugal and hold onto your Benjamins, there are only three ways I can make an income through my work here: (1) ads, which I hate to totally inundate you with, (2) my own ebooks, and (3) affiliates, which is when you buy something through a link here and I earn a certain percentage.

I’m trying to stay balanced, believe me, and make sure I’m much more “writer,” “cook,” “mad scientist,” and “wild advice giver” than “salesperson.”  If I”m overdoing the latter, do let me know.  That’s not what I’m all about here at Kitchen Stewardship.  Unless you’d like to buy something…

Just kidding.

That’s why I’m pleased to announce that Jenny of Nourished Kitchen is sharing the love and offering scholarships to her excellent but rather pricey eCourse, How to Cook Real Food.  I’ll keep you apprised of where the scholarship competitions are being hosted in that little box above the post, so if there’s nothing there, they are over.

That said, there are a bunch of real food bloggers working with Jenny as affiliates, including yours truly.  If you’ve decided $10/course is a great deal and you want to learn from the master, whomever you click through from will receive the commission (hint, hint, wink, wink).

Tomorrow Claire at Saving Money Plan will share her perspective on getting or staying out of debt, the final installment of the Spring Cleaning Carnival!

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I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for a free email subscription or grab my reader feed. You can also follow me on Twitter, get KS for Kindle, or see my Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

At least I won’t sell you stuff without telling you I’m doing it.  You can see my full disclosure statement here.

Photos from stuartpilbrow, AMagill, and Chiot’s Run.