SHOPPING

I just visited the local IGA that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I must say, I was very pleased. Some of you had voiced concerns over cleanliness issues. I am happy to report that the locally owned IGA was just as clean as any Wal.Mart. It also had a great hometown grocery feel, which I enjoyed. The store was small but had everything I would need. I still plan to only go there as a last resort, for things that I absolutely can not find anywhere else (such as most dairy items) b/c I really enjoy the shopping experience that I have had for the last month (avoiding grocery stores altogether), plus I spend so much less by not buying chips, lots of dairy, etc. Shopping at the IGA solves the dilemma of finding a locally owned grocery store but still tempts me with impulse purchases that neither I nor my family needs. I have enough trouble finding will power to avoid the samples the hubby brings home (ok, I pretty much fail completely at resisting those icecream sandwiches!).
And speaking of shopping, I had the most AMAZING shopping experience ever while in Williamsburg. I went to a grocery store that put Publix to shame, called Ukrops. It was truly amazing. I think I went three times. Mom would call me on the cell "Laurel, you HAVE to leave that store now, your baby is hungry. Walk away from the eco-friendly trash bags!!" Not only did it have the most incredible natural foods/eco-friendly section (7th generation, Tom's of Maine, Burt's Bees, Method, etc.), but when you entered the store, there was a stand of reusable shopping bags, with a sign saying that you get a $0.05 credit each time you use your own bags. Love that! They also had many, many items in bulk bins (rice, popcorn seeds, millet, oatmeal, wheat, nuts, etc.). Not only does this allow you to buy as much or as little of an item as you like, but by bringing your own bags, saves on lots of unneccessary packaging. But the best part? It was a LOCALLY OWNED STORE!! Seriously, it was incredible. I would love to open a store like that here, on a smaller scale.

*These images from flickr.com

PROVISIONS

I am just back from my trip to Williamsburg and have resumed my social experiment, as of Thursday. I will be spending a lot more money this week, due to throwing two birthday parties. I hope to make up for it in subsequent weeks and I plan to purchase everything I need at locally owned stores (IGA, party store, hubby, etc.).
While I was away, we were blessed with tons of food, which I am very excited about. The deer came back from being processed, and I have a freezer full of ground venison. Yay! My grandmother came down from TN and brought me 12 jars of green beans she put away this summer, as well as a big jar of honey from their bees, and 12 ears of frozen corn on the cob. I am so inspired by my grandparents. They work hard all summer putting up food they have grown, baking, taking honey from their beehives, picking berries, etc. I love how they eat off the land and in season. Additionally, my grandmother makes oak baskets...chopping down the tree, making the splints, weaving a basket. It is amazing! She is also an amazing quilter. I wish I had paid more attention to learning from her when I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with her.

Also, the hubby brought home more samples...8 pounds of lunch meat (we haven't had lunch meat since I started the experiment), 60 individual ice cream bars (Ben and Jerry's, Chocotacos, ice cream sandwiches, etc.), 6 bread bowls, 1 loaf of italian bread, and 25 wheat hoagies. My friend, Charlotte, brought me several red and green baby bell peppers that she had grown. Our freezers are packed to bursting, and we still have to find room for a whole other deer that The Deer Slayer has killed. I filled a grocery bag of different items from our freezer for one of my brothers, a starving college student, which he was very excited about. I am thankful for God's provision in a whole new way, now that I am becoming more aware of where our food comes from, how it is prepared, how much it costs. My new challenge of spending under $200 a month on groceries will be much easier because of these unexpected food gifts. Yet another benefit of this experiment: becoming more thankful.

"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" Phil. 4:19

MOVING

No, not me (thank goodness!). Danny Seo, author of Simply Green Parties, has put his adorable house up for sale. You can see pictures of it here.
You may remember I posted a pic of his screened porch a few weeks ago. I absolutely love his design asthetic. Very simple and sparce, yet so warm and homey. Very "vintage americana". Absolutely love it. Check out the listing to see the pics of his house. You can also find some pictures at Country Home Magazine.

*Image from flickr.com

...AND THE WINNER IS...
(this image from flickr.com)
I just held the drawing (thank you, Darcie, for your assistance) and our winner is...Lydia Sweet!! Congrats, Lydia and I hope you enjoy your present. Please email me your new address so I can ship it to you.
Thank you everyone, for reading my little blog and for all the kind words, thoughtful responses, and interesting questions I receive from you. This has become such a fun outlet for me, made even more enjoyable by your participation.

ADVICE ON GETTING YOUR MAN TO DRESS UP...BY ASHTON KUTCHER
(this image from flickr.com)
This was a fun article by Ashton Kutcher. He writes about how to use your man as an accessory...that a well dressed man is more important than your bag but less than your shoes. :)
I especially liked his advice on how to get men to wear suits. Apparently, they don't like to be told they look nice, or handsome but if you tell them they look like James Bond they won't take it off. Duly noted. With four boys in the house, this is advice I can use!

SOCIAL EXPERIMENT, WEEK FOUR WRAP UP AND FIRST MONTH REVIEW

Wow, I can't believe it has already been a full month since I challenged myself to live more simply, support our local small busines owners, and most of all, avoid large corporations (and specifically, Wal.Mart). No one was more surprised than me to find that I was spending significantly less by shopping locally, as well as eating better, feeling less stressed, and needing/wanting less. You might remember that I said my average month's spending on groceries and household items was $400, or $100 weekly. This first month of my experiment I spent a total of $233.05! That is a savings of almost $170 (about 45%) and is enough to make an extra payment on my hubby's car. Yay!
Looking back at my itemized list from each week, I see a lot of things that we don't need. Though we have almost zero junk food in our house, there have been some things (um, chocolate) that we don't need that have slipped in. Eliminating those things during the second half of the experiment will be good for our wallets and our waistlines.
I am adding a new goal for the last half of the experiment: to cut our food bill in half (spending $200 a month, or $50 a week). This will be quite the challenge, considering that I have two children in diapers. But, I plan to purchase several more cloth diapers and hope to be phasing out the disposables with my youngest (I will be posting about this soon) . I plan to spend about half of my budget on fruits and veggies.
I didn't start this experiment with the goal of saving money. In fact, I fully expected to be spending more. But, since one of the results was a dramatic decrease in our spending (and we are oh-so-close to cutting our budget in half), I thought I might as well try to get our budget under $200, by not buying things we don't need. What really amazes me is that I considered myself a pretty frugal shopper when I was spending $400 a month. I used coupons, shopped from a list, didn't often give in to my children's case of the gimmies (give me this, give me that), and tried to cook healthy foods for my family. Maybe this is like decluttering your house. You can't just go in whole hog and get rid of everything. You see things in layers and as you slowly get rid of things, the more you see that you don't need. We slowly get conditioned, I guess.
Also, I must give a little shout out to my hunka' hunka' burnin' love (otherwise known as the Deer Slayer) who has killed two deer with a BOW AND ARROW (very impressive!) in the last week and a half. My freezer will soon be stocked with more ground deer and roasts than I know what to do with! Thanks, Hon!
Here is what I purchased this week at the Discount Food store.
-Gallon of Milk
-2 Boxes of chicken broth
-1 bottle organic dressing
-1 box of microwave popcorn*
-1 can fruit cocktail
-3 small bags of animal crackers*
-2 boxes organic fruit leathers*
-2 boxes of cereal
-1 bag of pampers
-1 bag of huggies
-1 bottle of juicy juice*
-1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips
-1 box of wheat spaghetti
-1 large can of whole tomatoes
-3 boxes of Weight Watchers chocolate snack cakes*

*These are all for goody bags for a trip we are taking next week.
My mom, grandmother, the kidlets, and I will be heading out of town on a fabulous trip that I am very excited about (more on this later)! We will be gone almost a week, so to make sure the experiment is accurate, I will not be including next week but will extend the experiment by another week at the end. We do plan to cook most of our own meals and I will still be shopping carefully, but it will be hard to document my spending, so I am just going to "disqualify" the next week. :) I will resume the experiment next Thursday.

DON'T FORGET...
Image from flickr.com
You have until tomorrow night (thursday) at 8pm to be entered in the drawing! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to be entered!
Good night!

A BEAUTIFUL DAY...
I am just amazed at how incredible the weather has been this week. I am equally amazed at how much happier I am and how much more fun we have when it is nice outside! We spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon outside. My friend, Charlotte, brought her three children over. Our oldest four played in the backyard for almost four hours while she and I sat with our babies at our feet. I hung laundry, she knitted. Her baby slept curled up in a blanket, mine was fascinated by the green leaves blowing in the breeze.
We had great conversation about lots of thought provoking things. It was a wonderful morning with our friends. Here are a few pictures. I hope you are enjoying this wonderful weather and spending as much of it outdoors as possible. Fresh air and sunshine is such a mood lifter! View from the master bedroom. Aren't the white curtains framing the trees out the window so pretty? I love sitting on my bed in my room. It is so relaxing and I love looking out these windows. I try to not use my room for any work, only relaxing. I don't fold laundry, do paperwork, or anything else in my room. It is very sparse and I love it that way. Who needs pictures on the walls when you can look out the window at the woods?

Sweet little red shoes on the line.

My favorite red ballet flats. Hmmm, I seem to have a thing for red shoes. :)
I hope your day is wonderful too!

Q & A
This image from Flickr.com

There are a few questions that have been asked in the comments that I wanted to answer.

-Which produce stand are you referring to in your posts?
L and D Produce, located behind Video Warehouse

-How do you make your vanilla?
I buy fresh vanilla beans from a grower in Madegascar off Ebay. They are yummy. I draw a slit down the length of the vanilla bean, exposing the insides. I then place two vanilla beans in each bottle (you can make as many as you like at a time). Then, I pour a good quality vodka over the beans and cork the bottle. Shake the bottle gently and then place it in a dark cabinet. Shake once a week for at least six weeks, then use! You may refill the vodka as you use the extract. The beans are good for a long time.

-Are you worried about the level of cleanliness at the non-corporate places where you are shopping?
No, I am not. While I don't love that the places such as IGA or the Discount Food Store aren't sparkling clean, it doesn't bother me either. The foods that I am buying are sealed and fresh and I always check all expiration dates. While I do love a wonderful shopping experience (Fresh Market, anyone?), the benefits of shopping at these places heavily outweigh the slight ick factor. :)

-When you make popcorn, do you do it in a popper or on the stove?
Well, I did both, whichever I was in the mood for...until last week, when my $2 popper from the Junior League Attic sale finally bit the dust.

EXCITING UPDATE TO THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT

I just found out that IGA grocery stores are independantly owned! In fact, IGA stands for Independant Grocers Alliance. Who knew? And how serendipidous...there just happens to be an IGA right on the way to the discount food store! Now my dilemma of where-to-get-the-items-I-haven't-been-able-to-find-but-don't-want-to-buy-in-bulk is solved!

Just read their mission statement "The world doesn't need more supermarkets, it needs more Community Centers." At IGA we believe that a good grocery store isn't a sprawling, impersonal example of cookie cutter commerce, but a community hub owned and operated by the very people who know the area best – the citizens." Love that!

Now that I know this, I think I should be able to buy everything I need at a locally owned establishment. Very exciting! However, I think I will still try to continue the way I have been shopping and only go to IGA when absolutely neccessary b/c I think the reason I have been spending so little on groceries is b/c I am not buying cheese, yogurt, junk food, etc. So, I will only use IGA for times (like these upcoming birthday parties) when I can't get things for a specific purpose anywhere else.