Buying In Bulk

My favorite blogger at Heavenly Homemakers did a recent post on how she buys everything in bulk. So, I was inspired to write about my recent habits of buying things in bulk. Now, she has 4 kids and I have like half a kid (2 1/2 years old), so here's my bulk buying on a small scale. It really does save a lot of money and is a huge convenience to not have to add broccoli to the grocery list every week because I have 3 huge bags in my freezer. We were also very blessed with a free stand up freezer from Steve's parents a few months ago. 

The key is to determine what you really use a lot of. And, don't go into Sam's club and just do your grocery shopping, you have to determine what you really use a lot. I do like a monthly Sam's club run and then buy weekly or bi-weekly grocery run for fresh foods. I have also bought some things online and at farms. Here's a list of what I've bought in bulk over the past year and where I got it from.

Diapers- For the first 18 months with Elijah we mostly used cloth diapers. When he started eating solids and going to day care it got too hard and we switched to disposables, but we saved a lot of money by using cloth for even a little while and now we don't have to spend anything on baby #2. But, for disposables we bought big boxes from Sam's Club of the store brand.
Laundry Detergent- I buy this online. I bought a box with 4 large containers. I don't know how much this saved, but I like not buying it from the store. What I bought is eco-friendly and it's hard to find that at the store.
Meat - I've started buying as much meat as I can directly from farms. It is more expensive this way, but healthier and yummier. In January we bought 20 pounds of grass-fed ground beef from a farm in North Carolina. As of today we have 8 ponds left. They were having a sale for $5/pound which is great for that kind of meat.  I also buy chickens and eggs from a local farm. Eggs actually don't go bad for a very long time so I bought 3 dozen like a month ago and I still have 1 dozen left.
Rice- most stores sell big bags of rice, we got ours from Walmart
Cheese- I buy the really big bags from Walmart or Sam's and freeze usually half. Yes, you can freeze cheese.
Toilet Paper and Paper Towels- this is an obvious one for me. they are things you will Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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ways need.
Berries- Steve likes to make smoothies and Elijah will eat blueberries as a snack. We buy the big frozen bags from Sam's.
Broccoli- frozen broccoli from Sam's comes in a big bag with like 4 small bags in it. We use frozen broccoli a lot.
Tomatoes- This year I planted 10 tomato plants with the goal of canning homemade salsa and spaghetti sauce. But, until I get a good crop I buy from Sam's the cases of canned diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. From these basics I can make salsa and pizza sauce and spaghetti sauce. I hope my tomato crop works out but those pesky horn worms are trying to take over. Me and my scissors are hunting those pests down and now I'm hopeful for those green little buds. (I also planted 5 green pepper plants because we eat those a lot on pizzas and fajitas. I'm hoping to freeze a lot of peppers.)

Well, those are the main things. My big ole freezer has room for more, so I'll keep investing. Have you seen that show Extreme Couponing? I definitely don't have that kind of stock pile and that's not my goal, but I do like the convenience of having what I need on hand and the money savings. I buy healthy food in bulk because it often is cheaper in bulk, that couponing strategy is great, but it always seems like its mostly junk food.

Adoption is hard

When we first decided to adopt we heard "the process is hard", but hey you never think it's going to be hard for you, right? I tend to be kind of a pessimist sometimes, so I did expect it to be hard and it has been harder than I thought it would be. We hoped to already have a baby in our arms 18 months after starting this journey and the truth is it'll probably be about 4-6 more months. We often feel that people think we're crazy. And yes, we've already experienced racism.

Guess what, it's hard for our baby too. He has lost his first family and I know that is a huge loss, even for a little baby. I know he will forever wonder about them and want to know them. Right now, he lives in an orphanage where we hope his needs are met, but we all know babies need families. A baby's needs are best met in a family; that's why we're adopting. Because babies need families. I pray every day for my baby- that he gets hugs when he cries, that he gets fed when he's hungry, that he has someone who will love him while I can't and most of all that he will come home to me soon.

A lot of joy is in our future for sure! We cannot wait to hold our baby and bring him into our family. We will love him just like we love Elijah. We know there will be more challenges in our future (bonding and attachment, racism, sibling rivalry, etc) I know those challenges lie ahead and they are probably going to be harder than I think they'll be.

So, why is it worth it? To ask that question is basically like asking "Why adopt?" Why? Here's my answer. Because babies need homes. Because we want another child in our family. I believe God hears the cries and knows the pain of orphans. I think he answers those cries by sending people to adopt. I don't think I need to have another baby while there are millions of orphans in the world. Though maybe we'll have another biological child, right now we're called to adopt. We're people who do something about what we think is right. When God calls us, you better believe we're going to say yes. God never said it would be easy, but we're answering his call. That's why it's worth it.

Guess what? You could do it too. It won't be easy, but it's worth it.