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  Most of those have now been replaced by their equivalent Thrive Food in freeze dried version.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!

Hidden Costs of Food

When Heather at Healthy Family Cookin' shared her post Frugal Friday: The Hidden Costs last week on Frugal Friday, I immediately thought of Shelf Reliance.  Heather points out 3 hidden costs to things we buy: travel costs, maintenance costs and storage costs.  She applies these hidden costs to clothes, toys, vehicles and homes.  I want to apply them to food.

Travel costs - you have to travel to the grocery store to buy food from them, whether you are buying at a local store, a warehouse store, or discount store.  And don't forget the time you spend doing this.

Maintenance costs - Iwas thinking this one is primarily a cost of time for dealing with the food so that you eat it before it goes bad.  This would include putting food in freezer containers, and chopping fruits and vegetables into serving sizes.  And then I realized I have to maintain my refrigerator and freezer to maintain the foods I keep in them.

Storage costs - have you ever thought about the electricity costs to keep your food in the refrigerator or freezer?  What about the costs of the storage bags, or the plastic containers to keep them in until you're ready to prepare and eat the food?

THRIVE Foods can minimize some of these costs.

Storage - Since the storage container is part of the product, the cost of the storage container is included in the price of the food.  Because THRIVE foods are freeze dried or dehydrated, they do not need to be refrigerated or frozen to maintain their optimal shelf life (exception would be reconstituted foods, especially the dairy products).

Maintenance - THRIVE foods are rinse, chopped (if needed), and ready to use, many times even without rehydrating.  Again, THRIVE foods (except if storing after reconstituting) do not need the refrigerator or freezer so less maintenance costs there.

Travel - Although you spend money on shipping, you do not have other travel costs and the time associated with grocery shopping for THRIVE Foods.  THRIVE Foods are shipped directly to your home via FedEx so no travel costs or time involved.

Before Shelf Reliance, I had never considered adding in the cost of using my freezer to the cost of the food that I buy and store in it.  Although I had considered the costs of replacing the foods if the power went out long enough that the food went bad in my freezer.

I'm sharing this post with Frugal Friday on Life As Mom.  Check out the other frugal tips shared today!

Why I'm Okay Paying for Shipping

A friend of mine commented the other day that with my frugalness she was surprised I paid the Shelf Reliance shipping costs.  When I first started my Q (for those new to Shelf Reliance, the Q is monthly shipments of THRIVE Foods that I have chosen for my family) I was surprised I was willing to pay shipping, but I quickly had no problem with it.  Here's why...

First, how much is shipping?

Order Total                 Shipping Cost
$0-$70                         $6.99
$70.01-$130                $9.99
$130.01-$190              $12.99
$190.01-$399.99         $19.99
$400+                          5% of sale price before tax

Would I buy one item around $10 and pay $6.99?  Probably not.  But I don't.  My Q is currently $50 in product so my shipping is $6.99.  Many Shelf Reliance customers will max out their product to get the most for what they are paying in shipping.  For example, buying $65 in product with $6.99 shipping.

Fewer trips to the grocery store = less gas expenses
Because I have a Q, I am receiving monthly shipments straight to my door of Food!  Food that my family eats.  Food that I don't have to drive to the store to buy.  I do still go to the grocery store but not as often.  And there are a LOT fewer trips at the last minute for missing ingredients as my shelves stock what we eat.  I have a mini-van that in town generally gets 18 mpg.  Depending on which store(s) I'm going to, I can use 1-2 gallons of gas driving to the store each trip.  It doesn't take many trips at current gas prices to cover the shipping cost.

Add that gas prices are currently lower than they were last year but are moving back up again (hopefully I just jinxed myself to be proven wrong and gas prices go back down).  Where we live, we tend to have less expensive gas than many across the United States (yesterday it was $3.39 per gallon).  My sister-in-law lives in California and often has significantly higher gas than we do (and I did jinx myself because gasbuddy.com says she's at $3.83 per gallon today - I expected it to be $4 or more.), but the shipping to there is the same.

How far do you live from your grocery store?  My mom lives 10 miles from the closest grocery store and 20 miles from her favorite grocery store.  Her car gets better gas mileage than my van but if her THRIVE Foods save her one and a half trips per month, she's breaking even (comparing gas and shipping costs).

Convenience
I recently discovered that two of the grocery stores close to me offer pick up service.  You shop online and they gather your food for you and then you just pick it up.  Of course, they offer this for a fee.  How much?  $5.  Well for just a little bit more, I can shop online through Shelf Reliance, not worry about it going bad AND it is delivered to my door!  And FYI - it is shipped via FedEx and after the order is processed, it ships pretty quick!

Lack of comparable product locally
My friend wants Mangoes.  When we started looking at her ordering THRIVE FD mangoes, she asked if she could find something comparable locally.  But then she answered her own question and said she hadn't been able to find anything.  She was wanting it for a healthy snack and to make a strawberry mango salsa I had made a few weeks ago (oh it was yum - I'll have to make again and share here).
I buy THRIVE for snacking and meal preparation, but I also buy it for long term emergency preparedness.  That means it has to have a long shelf life.  Anything I have found locally does not have a long shelf life, unless I preserve it myself - and if I don't have time to blog for my business, do you think I have time to preserve foods?  That's a no.  Plus it's not a talent I have and doesn't give the same product as the freeze dried foods that I've fallen in love with.

If we're willing to pay shipping for other items, why not for our food?

I'm sharing this post with Frugal Friday on Life As Mom.  Check it out for more frugal tips!

My Q Order: Whole Egg Powder @ $1.02/dozen

I sat down this afternoon to work on my Q order to update the shipment to take advantage of the July specials that I want in our home store.   My order will process some time between the 6th and the 8th this month so I've got to get it figured out today.

I had previously purchased a pantry can of the Whole Egg Powder to try it out and I've now used it a couple times in my baking.  So as I looked at the specials, I wondered if I should go ahead and buy the #10 can while it's on special.  So I decided to do some number crunching.

The numbers - regularly $1.15/dozen, on sale for $1.02/dozen

Normally, I can buy the #10 can of Whole Egg Powder, as a Q Club member, for $20.69.  That can has 216 servings, which are the equivalent of 1 egg each.  That means the equivalent of a dozen eggs is $1.15 per dozen.  I am a careful shopper at the grocery store, paying attention to prices, and that's a decent price for a dozen eggs.

With the July sale price of $18.39 for the #10 can, that's $1.02 per dozen eggs!  I'll take that!  It definitely seems like prices at the grocery store are going up and that includes eggs.  So not only will this save me money immediately as I use the Whole Egg Powder for baking, 6 months from now, it will probably be saving me even more.  THRIVE Foods can be a great investment!

What will I use the Whole Egg Powder for?
I'll definitely be using the Whole Egg Powder for the majority of my baking.  At that price, it's cheaper than I can normally buy fresh eggs.  Of course, I can't use the Whole Egg Powder for my fried eggs in the morning but they'll work for making cakes, muffins, scones, bread, and even for dipping pork chops in before dipping into Italian Bread Crumbs (one of my favorite ways to eat pork chops).

Long Shelf Life
One of the reasons I buy THRIVE Foods is the long shelf life without refrigeration.  Unopened, in proper storage conditions, the Whole Egg Powder has a life of 3 years.  And once I open it, the Whole Egg Powder, in proper conditions, is good for 1 year without being refrigerated.  That means that I am guaranteeing a price of $1.02/dozen for up to the next 3 years or until I run out of the Whole Egg Powder that I'm purchasing today.  Who knows what price a dozen eggs will be next summer?

I want eggs at $1.02/dozen!
If you are in the Q Club, add the Whole Egg Powder into your July shipment to take advantage of this great sale.  If you have not already set up a Q, you can learn more about setting one up here.  Not ready for a Q but still want to stock up on eggs?  You can get this price by contacting me at imthriving@gmail.com, or by calling me at 417-886-9489.  Rather do it on your own?  You can order the Whole Egg Powder for $19.19 (+shipping & taxes) for the #10 can (and other Shelf Reliance products) through my online store.  Other sizes are also available.

This post is being shared with Frugal Friday on Life As Mom!

Financial Dreaming (Frugal Friday)

 We became debt-free (except our mortgage) a few years ago and have been working toward building up our emergency fund.  For us, this is taking longer than it did to get rid of the debt.  About a year ago, we realized (again) that we needed to make the savings a priority.  We were budgeting to save but waiting to put it in until the end of the pay period, in case there was extra to add with it.  Ha!  We never made a deposit.  We took a clue from The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach, so we changed our thinking and now have an amount automatically taken from my husband's paycheck and directly deposited into our savings.

Spring 2012, enter Shelf Reliance.  When I first became an Independent Consultant with Shelf Reliance, our goal was to make back what we invested within 6 months.  That goal quickly changed as we saw the potential for this business.  But what we were changing the goal to we didn't know.

Source: "Developing Your Why" Presentation by Holly Hardy

One of the first Shelf Reliance Conference Calls I listened to was Developing Your Why by Holly Hardy (powerpoint here, MP4 here).  This call really inspired me, not only in Shelf Reliance, but even more for our family's financial goals.  We get very tempted to buy a bigger home - with a basement.  We also really want to be able to take vacations.  In my mind, I was leaning towards saving for a new (to us) home and just staying at home for vacations.  And then I had an inspiration/revelation.

My oldest is 9 years old.  She'll be growing up and moving out in 9 years.  Seems like a long time but then again it doesn't.  When we've daydreamed about vacations we want to take, there were a lot more than 9 places we want to take our girls to.  My husband and I had an Executive Family Council on a trip to St. Louis and came up with our Financial Dreams and Goals.  Taking what I learned from Holly's presentation, we decided to dream big and set big goals.  If we don't set the goal, we definitely won't reach it!

Our goals:  a fully funded 6 month Emergency Fund; a family vacation every year (a frugal vacation of course); Hubby to further his education/career through additional certifications; a full 1 year home store (food and household supplies); being able to say Yes to fun activities that cost $; buying a house with a basement (for safety reasons since we do live in tornado country, AND for storing for all the THRIVE foods we are now purchasing); and celebrating our 20th anniversary in 2015 with a trip for the two of us (in dreaming big style we're thinking Hawaii or Scotland).

We identified key areas we wanted to save towards:  my husband's education, Christmas, Temple trips, Emergency Fund, Vacations, Family Fun, Food Storage, and House fund.  We looked at our regular household budget and made it so that the education, Temple and Christmas were coming from it because we felt these were essentials for our family.  Our focus is to live off my husband's paycheck and use mine for moving forward rather than sustaining.  So with my Shelf Reliance Commission checks, we get to fund everything else.

We prioritized the remaining areas, using Dave Ramsey's irregular income budgeting ideas.  You rank the items by importance and pay/save in that order.  We took each category and came up with a dollar amount and a realistic time frame (that was trial and error to come up with a realistic time frame).  For each potential $100 in Commission (after saving for taxes and paying tithing), we asked where should it go and wrote it down, in order.  So if my Commission is $100 in June, it goes towards this category.  If it's $200, $100 goes to A and $100 to B.  In fact, we do some to A, then to B, and then back to A.

Because we are not "gazelle intense" on ONLY the Emergency Fund, because we are also working on other goals, we are not following Dave Ramsey's Money Makeover baby steps exactly but we have adjusted them to work for our family so that all of us are on board.  And having everyone on board is key to success.

Having a dream and a plan DEFINITELY saves us money because it is keeping us from getting distracted by other ideas and spending opportunities.  Without the plan, the money would disappear before we even asked ourselves what we wanted to do with it.  Our big dreams are also inspiring us to work harder in each of our careers as well as in all areas of our spending so that we can achieve these goals.

So your task is to Dream Big and then break that dream into chewable bites, make a plan and put it into action.

If you think becoming a Shelf Reliance Independent Consultant can help you towards your goals, contact me via email, phone me at 417-886-9489 or check out more information on the website here.

While you're here, go enter our Dreaming Big Giveaway to win a Cansolidator Cupboard!


This post is being linked to Frugal Friday on LifeasMom.com.  Be sure to check out all the other great money saving ideas being shared today.