I would look at the sugar, butter and fresh vegetables. I'm not sure of its purpose, but could you cut down on the amount used. I saw that you can, I remember reading that you can cut down on the amount of sugar used to can fruits by adding baking soda. Do a google search, I know the answer is out there on how to can with less sugar. Butter, (I would never recommend margarine even if it is cheaper) look closely at how it is used and see if it could be cut back even if you go from 5lbs to 4lbs it would help. Fresh vegetables, foraging is great and the kids can help. Dandelions are okay, but I prefer plantain. Its like any salad green and is everywhere there is disturbed soil. The young leaves are best. My yard could easily support a family of 6 in wild greens if need be and I don't even have to plant or work for them (except harvesting). There are even garden flowers that can be eaten like day lilies (root, bud and flower). They come back year after year with little to no effort and look good. Wild grape leaves are another great green. The leaves, even when young, are pretty big so require less work to harvest. The Greeks have been eating them for centuries. An excellent source of protein that is wild that will come available in a month is the pollen from cattails. Its easy to harvest and fun. Just put a plastic/paper bag around the top, tilt the top and tap. Something that is available right now is the seeds from maple trees. I have silver maples. As kids we called them helicopters and threw them in the air to watch them float to earth. Your kids could help you gather them. The seeds actually have a slightly sweet taste to them like maple sugar. Don't use the seeds of a Norway Maple.
Something else. Don't look at just the raw food cost but the cost to prepare. Perhaps cutting down on the fuel cost to cook would squeeze out a few more food dollars. Make a solar oven. Cost can be as low as a few dollars depending on what you have around the house to use for materials. Try to use beans that require less cooking, therefore less energy = lower electric/gas/ect bills.
Hope something here helps. Best wishes.
|