We are often asked,
“How exactly do you afford all those kids?”
I thought it would be helpful to begin to share a few of the many,
many ways we work hard to live not only simply,
but frugally and live in good health.
Of course, first off,
we pray daily that God will multiply His provisions…
we actually have a list of things we pray regarding
His bountiful provisions
and He certainly has honored our many prayers!
Boy do we have some crazy stories about that!
Let’s start with food….the grocery store around the corner
{literally} from our house
knows us well.
Several cashiers think our kids are pretty sweet
and if I happen to be in there without them,
they often ask where they are.
This grocery store has discounts on
several things and we are always on the look out
for those!
Like this morning, I ran to the store in the wee hours
before Graham goes to work so he was able to be home with Ruby
in case she were to have a seizure.
While there I noticed one little bunch of bananas in the markdown
section. I asked the produce lady if she happened to
have a “mark down” bag for the little bunch since they were in
the place where mark down bananas go.
She commented that she hadn’t had a chance to pick
through the bananas to mark down anymore but
asked if I wanted more?
I told her I would love more!
She asked me how many more?
I told her as many as she had!
This grocery store happens to mark down the bananas
to $.29/pound –
even the Organic are marked down to that…
{$.40/pound savings!}
I whizzed through the store snagging the
toilet paper we needed and a few other
things and came back to where she had now
placed
SEVEN
bags of marked down bananas for me!
I guess you could say we go bananas over bananas!
Mark down bananas are our
usual breakfast each morning!
In those seven bags there were
68 bananas.
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So here’s one way we save money and eat fresh –
Everyone can eat as many bananas as
they want –
and each person gets one measured dollop of peanut butter
or almond butter.
The total of the bananas: $7.66
The cost of the nut butter works out to somewhere around $1.50 each day.
That would make breakfast for not much more than
$3.00/day total for most of us.
The 68 bananas will last us a few days…
so far, it’s mid-afternoon and we have eaten 20 of the bananas.
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As far as breakfast goes…
Our simple Place Called Simplicity loves that
it’s sooooo simple!
It’s nutritious!
It tastes yummy!
It’s fresh!
It’s full of vitamins!
Clean up is a breeze!
Bananas are filling too!
Since we started just having bananas for breakfast,
no one is saying, “I’m hungry”.
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Most times we head to the grocery store we
check for the markdown bananas and scoop up
all we can.
For a rare treat we make my own made-up recipe of
Gluten Free banana bread…
and we occasionally make banana smoothies as well –
they do not go to waste!
No doubt our large family has definitely gone bananas.
Of course if we start hanging out of trees,
you’ll know why.
We eat a lot of bananas too….with almond butter! Good idea to measure out a dollop…I tend to each too much of it otherwise. It must be hard to feed so many in a healthy lifestyle…..BUT your kids show that we are what we eat. They look so healthy! I hope DW won't come home to you all hanging from the backyard trees 🙂
That's awesome! I have two tips for you…
First- if you don't already, go check out this great blog. http://theprudenthomemakerblog.blogspot.com/ She feeds her large family on like a dollar a day or something amazing like that. Not per person but per day. Plus her garden photos are so inspiring.
Second- I have a favorite {gluten free to boot} cookie that is great for breakfast or desert. Mix two cups oats, two tbls pb, two super ripe bananas together. You can also add a few raisins or choc chips if you have them. Then scoop into mounds and bake at 350 for about 15 mins. No sugar added and doesn't use much nut butter. But totally gives you that sweet cookie satisfaction or fills your belly if you have two for breakfast.
KK
I would love more of these kinds of posts! Include lunches and dinners too!!
Specific examples help me wrap my mind around how you make it work. So, thanks for sharing. Also, the previous post's widow/judge passage is a favorite of mine; thanks for the reminder. 🙂 Prayer and fasting is more necessary in our lives than I used to recognize. Thanks for including me.
You are blessed to have kids that can all be agreeable about eating the same thing for breakfast day after day. We would have a mutiny on our hands at our house! My kids do like bananas, but they also love cereal and that would be so hard for them to give up! I enjoyed this post and would love to hear more about how you budget and organize. My biggest issue at the moment is all the socks and missing mates!
Hi Dannette
I'm not a mom to many yet (just one sweet little boy) but I pray that God would grant me the privilege one day and am always on the lookout for helpful tips for when that day comes. I read once about a large family that put each child's socks in a separate laundry bag (you know, the mesh delicates bag that you can get at Walmart or even the dollar store) to wash them, that way when it was time to put them away there was no endless searching to figure out whose socks were whose… I thought that was such a great, simple, time-saving idea I banked it in my memory for the future and thought I'd share in case it helps you out.
too funny. Glad you got a good deal! Today we were shopping for a tv for my mom, who lives in a nursing home and on limited amount of money. Found what we wanted on sale, last one…display, manager said he'd give us 20% as well which made the tv $135! Sweet! Now we just need to get it to her, hopefully tomorrow! Have a great weekend, and don't go pulling too much monkey-shines over it all! Tee hee! Hugs!
You should also try putting mushed bananas in oatmeal. Oats are super cheap and healthy and the banana makes it more voluminous and sweet enough that you don't need any extra sugar. Add a dollop of yogurt and maybe some raisins or blueberries or such and you have an amazing breakfast.