How I Got Mixed Up
With This in the First Place!
I didn’t mean to get mixed up in this whole project in the first place. In the second place I already had plenty to do. But, years ago while grocery shopping one night, I was glancing at various food packages, summing them up as to whether I felt my kids and their friends would like them. I also hoped to find some decent amount of nutritional value in each package of fast, cheap, and easy food. Suddenly, I just stopped and stood there, gazing into my cart. I had a thought come to my mind that said, “You can do better than that.” Maybe, I thought; but HOW? With a family of nine to feed, plus having company over very frequently I couldn’t imagine what I could do differently. I paid for the groceries and drove the 30-minute drive home. Bewildered, I wondered again…why should I try to do better? At the time, my husband had a wonderful job, and all seemed secure financially. Still, I felt I should make some changes.
Once at home, I cleaned out a desk drawer, then put in my one lone grocery receipt, not really knowing why. Each week for a year I faithfully added the new grocery receipts to my collection. Occasionally, I would think this was ludicrous and wondered why I was doing such a goofy thing. Then one night I couldn’t sleep. Remembering the receipts in the drawer, I decided to add them up. It wasn’t easy to face them, but I forced myself to look at my last 12 months of grocery spending habits. I was appalled and somewhat ashamed. Then and there I determined to create a better way of living for me and my family- a way to spend less money, time and effort planning, cooking, shopping, and cleaning up. I packed the receipts in a bag and pushed them to the back of the drawer.
I believe the ability to change comes easier when you realize that what you’ve been doing hasn’t worked, isn’t getting you where you want to go, and you finally become sick of the status quo. I didn’t sleep the rest of that night, but instead spent the next few early morning hours
thinking, writing, and devising a new plan. Later that same day, I began implementing the new ideas and methods. I kept at it regularly for the next year, again saving all the grocery receipts. After a while, I began noticing I was spending a lot less time cooking even though we were still eating great meals. There was much more time to spend with my family doing other activities.
After a year of trying out my new ideas, I had another sleepless night. Again, I was wide awake and wondered what to do with my time. I thought about the receipts in the desk drawer again. I really hadn’t planned what I’d do with them before, I just felt like I should save them. After totaling them up, I was sure the amount couldn’t be right because the total amount of money spent for one year seemed too small. I did the math several more times. I made sure I was not missing any receipts. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Curiosity had now gotten the better of me, so I grabbed the previous years’ bag of receipts from the back of the desk drawer and read the last year’s total. Much to my joy, I realized I had saved about $10,000 on groceries- without even using coupons! Not only that, but we had also developed about a 4-year supply of food storage for our family of nine, which came in very handy when my husband’s company laid everyone off with no warning. While we were concerned about money, at least we had great peace of mind that we had food and our family would not starve.
The first people I taught were some friends in my home. After that, I began getting invitations to teach many people. I realize that we all have so much in common. We’d like to eat healthier, but still want dessert. We want to save time and money somehow and have financial security. But many people don’t know how. My hope is that Using HOMEMADE MIXES …without Getting Mixed Up will be as great a help in your life as it has been in mine.
