Finished another one-month run to stores. Have spent $306.60 so far. Picked up some plums and avocados from the “sell real quick” bin at a grocery store and put them where we’ll use them quickly. Still have to order some stuff on line. May need to raise monthly food amount to $400, but that will be a fraction of what we were spending just a year ago. I don’t think we’ll get it down any more until we can grow more of our food.
Finally received the companion books to John Jeavons “How To Grow More Vegetables….” today: “One Circle: How to Grow a Complete Diet in Less Than 1000 Square Feet” and “Test Your Soil With Plants!” These have long been out of print, and I wish the authors would make them available as PDFs. They were very hard to find.
“One Circle” is an academic work, but it does have information on the most efficient vegetables to grow for calories and nutrition when you have very little land. For example, the most “area efficient” crops for protein production are potatoes, turnips, onions and collards, and after that grains and beans. I found that really surprising. Guess what I’ll be growing. In addition to the tomatoes, of course 🙂
Of course, “area efficient” crops for calories is a bit different. I have to read more closely, but that might include potatoes, which is why the Andeans and the Irish probably focused so much on them.
Tonight, will be putting up a budget for the month divided into “absolutely essential” items, “possibly and absolutely optional” items, “debts”, and “taxes” (we’re self-employed, enough said…). This is intended to help us think carefully about each item, possibly eliminate the optionals, and more motivation to pay down the debts. Of course, less income would mean lower taxes, but that may not be an option.