Beyond Thrifty with Thrive Life

Over on Life as Mom today, she is talking about saving money on food.  She mentioned the USDA site that outlines the US Average cost of food.  I followed the link and was quite amused to find out that my family of four, if Thrifty (the lowest plan), we should be spending $632 per month on food.  As I shared that "fact" on Facebook, I realized that one of the reasons I DON'T spend that much money on food is because of Thrive Foods!  Here are a few ways that Thrive Life helps to keep my food expenses low:

1.  Fewer last minute runs to the grocery store
I keep a home store of the foods my family eats the most so that if I "run out" in the kitchen, I can turn to our home store instead of running to the grocery store for that 1 ingredient which usually turns into more.  One of my favorite examples is only having 1/2 jar of spaghetti sauce in the refrigerator when I need a full jar.  I simply mix up a little more using Thrive Tomato Powder, combine with what's in the fridge and voila - dinner!  My favorite recipe is this homemade tomato sauce recipe from Healthy Family Cookin'.  With Thrive Instant Milk, I don't even have to rush out for milk - my daughters love it's great taste!

2.  Less Waste
In the past, I'd buy certain foods and not use it all before it went bad.  Most of those have now been replaced by their equivalent Thrive Food in freeze dried version.  My favorite examples are mushrooms and celery.  No one likes fresh celery in our family but several recipes call for it.  If I bought celery for the recipe, the rest of the bunch would go bad.  Now I just keep a pantry can of Thrive FD Celery handy and scoop out just the amount I need.

3.  More homemade foods
Freeze dried foods are so quick and easy to use, they are a healthy convenience food.  Because of how easy they are to use, I make more and more of our meals from scratch.  Those basic ingredients I need are much less expensive than their convenience food equivalents at the grocery store.  Not even to mention that the food is healthier and often more delicious.   I'll mention Thrive FD Mushrooms here as another great example - pre-washed and pre-sliced, it just takes moments to get sliced mushrooms into a recipe.  Same with potatoes, strawberries, red peppers, green peppers, green onions, and many other fruits, vegetables, and even meats.

4.  Few "Oh no! It's time for dinner!" fast food runs
By stocking a variety of freeze dried foods, including meats, I can quickly throw together a last minute dinner.  One night I went from thought to dinner on the table in 15 minutes because I had Thrive Freeze dried Ground Beef.  Thrive freeze dried meats are pre-cooked and simply need to be rehydrated to use.  I rehydrated it in hot water and added some taco seasoning.   While the meat was heating, I chopped up a tomato and shredded some lettuce.  I can also quickly rehydrate some Thrive FD Chopped Chicken along with celery, onion and even some Red Grapes, add mayo and Thrive Chef's Choice Seasoning Blend for a delicious chicken salad.  With the Thrive Foods as an option, there are few times that I just throw my hands in the air and declare we're going out to eat.

Back to that USDA "Thrifty" Plan, my family's grocery budget is well under that $632 amount, and that INCLUDES my month Thrive budget to build up our home store.  That home store serves us on a regular basis but it is also growing so that it is there to serve us in an emergency.  It's there for our family when winter storms keep us holed up at home for days on end, not able to venture out to the store.  It's there if job loss or medical situations decrease our available funds.  And because all it takes is a little water to rehydrate, it's there during power outages when we don't want to open the fridge or freezer.

Take the opportunity today to start saving money by building your home store with Thrive Life freeze dried and dehydrated foods!  February 2014 is a great month to get started quickly with exclusive packages on sale with free shipping!