Rural Living

Rural Living

Do you have any great ideas for young couples who have children and don't live in the city? Everything we need is at least a 10-minute drive away? How do we keep from spending all our time getting the things that we need to live?
Sheryl B.

Planning is Key

As for rural living, planning is key. When I lived in South Texas, it was 35 miles to the nearest "civilization," and another 10 miles to the nearest military base. Traffic was light, but I hated spending all that time just getting there!

I made a list, and stocked the pantry with our needs for two weeks (our complete needs) to avoid those little "oops" trips between paydays. If an "oops" came up, we either made do without it or substituted something else. I made a note on the grocery shopping list to get twice as many of that particular item to avoid more "oopses" in the future. When I got good at the two-week cycle, I extended it out to a one-month cycle.

You also need to plan your route. I made sure I didn't backtrack or zigzag my way through shopping stops. I made a list of where I had to go, looked at a map, and planned a route that took me in a large circle with the furthest stop distance being the middle of my "circle" route. Everything on one side of the road got put on one direction of the route, and everything on the other side got put on the homebound side of the trip.

As a result of all this planning, I had a well-stocked (perhaps even overstocked) pantry, and used little gas to get all the shopping done. It took time, however, due to the distances between stops, and the fact that Corpus Christi is very spread out. Nevertheless, I took the truck, made the stops, and got it all done once.

Some may even say to add meal planning to this scheme, but I have never planned a meal that far in advance in my life. I cannot fathom making menus ahead. I bought whatever was truly on sale (sometimes whether we needed it or not), I bought what we needed, and I used a sensible route to get them all.

If you divide your meats and frozen veggies before adding them to your freezer, you really don't have to plan a meal way ahead. You can do it the night before, or even that morning. If you pre-cook your rice, barley, and/or beans, you can have a complete meal that only needs thawing and re-heating.
FW

Carpool with Neighbors

To reduce trips, this is what helps us:

1. Keep a geographical list in your purse or car that is sectioned by North, South, East, West, and Central parts of town, include malls if that works. Put your errands and shopping needs on that list so you do not do any backtracking.

2. Keep a central house calendar so that each Sunday you can look ahead and know where you will need to be for what appointments. Add these to your geographical list above.

3. Ask the children at the beginning of each week what they will need for school supplies for projects, etc. Ask your husband too.

4. Make up a weekly or monthly menu and keep your pantry stocked with at least a week's worth of meals that do not require a trip to the grocery store. Milk can be frozen. Take some out of the top first.

5. Carpool errand trips with a neighbor. Go together. Also, ask a neighbor if you can get them anything while you are out. They will return the favor and save you a trip sometime.

6. Know what times of the day that the roads are the least busy and shop during those times. Take advantage of 24 hour stores. Write down times that the bank, post office, etc. are open.

7. Make a daily errands list. Try to consolidate errands to the same part of town. Try to not go out every day of the week.

8. Carpool with other people for the children and their activities. Choose their lessons according to how easy or far it is to get there. Believe me, this really, really helps.

9. Give each trip and yourself 5-10 minutes of "tangle time." This is the time it takes to get your purse straps untangled, your stockings pulled up, hair brushed, find a parking spot, wait for the rain to stop, wait for a traffic snarl to clear, wait for the children who are late getting out of lessons, etc. Tangle time allows us to keep to our schedules so we can get all our errands done.

10. For home repairs, get two of what you need and keep the receipt. If it breaks while you are installing it or it is the wrong size, then you have saved a trip that day. Chances are you are going back to that store sometime. Put what you don't use in a box with the receipt and put that box in the car.

11. Use a cell phone to call home to hubby, children, sitter, etc. We don't have one and it would save time.

    
    

Find Local Sources

We also live "out in the boondocks" and we love it. We have 140 acres. There are only seven houses on our road. The nearest store is about seven minutes away and it's a family-owned convenience store. To save money, we buy our milk from a local farmer, our produce from the local auction barn (10 minutes away) or from the Amish (also 10 minutes away). Whenever we go shopping, we buy enough to last a month. Then, if we need something like bread, we go to the convenience store. The beauty of rural living is that there are no shopping centers around, you can see the stars and you can hear yourself think without the noise of traffic. Our nearest shopping center is 20 minutes away. Do I mind? Never! And I hope and pray that it stays like this at least until I die, and I'm only 55.
A

Make It an Adventure!

A ten minute drive is a blessing! We drive 15-30 to get to any place for shopping. Of course, the obvious solution is to combine trips. Make sure you never just run out for one thing. Plan your trip so that you can get bread at the day old bread store, pick up the sales at the grocery store, and stop at the bank and the post office on the way (or wherever your errands take you).

I enjoy my errands because I take a child or two with me and it gives me the opportunity to catch up on what's going on in their life, or I pop a book-on-tape in the cassette player in the car and the trip goes by way too fast. Some of my favorite times with my kids have been in the car when you can talk with less distractions. I even think of topics ahead of time, especially if they are the one word answering type of teenagers. Make it an adventure, not a chore!
Kathy

Learn to Substitute

1. Stock up on your most used items and keep a running "almost out of" list for the times you do have to go to town.
   
   

2. Learn to substitute. Dry or evaporated milk are not easily tasted in a recipe, and tomato paste mixed with water can substitute for tomato sauce. There are whole websites devoted to substitutions.

3. Get to know your neighbors. Some of them are in the same fix and you can borrow or even ask when they will be at the store. My neighbors and I know each other's normal weekly schedules and have learned to depend on each other.

Living 20 minutes from the closest grocery store with four children, a husband, and disabled in-laws for 12 years has taught me that these three suggestions are truly lifesavers at times!
Lauren in Louisiana

Grow and Make What You Can

How well I know Sheryl's problem! I grew up in a city, but we moved to my husband's hometown when our first son was 2. I was so used to the city conveniences. I about went into shock when I tried to grocery shop on a Sunday evening and found the grocer was closed!

After 5+ years living rurally, I am loving it. It does take some adjustment. The following tips are good frugal tips that will work for anyone, but are especially good for rural life. All of these can help you avoid trips to the store.

1. Grow what you can. Start a small garden and grow veggies. When you're low on food or gifts, use your garden!

2. Make what you can. Make your own canned foods, crafts for gifts, etc.

3. Make do when you can. It is tempting to run out to the store the second you realize you are out of Mayo. Instead, ask yourself if you have other options. Can you make a different meal? Use mustard only on a sandwich? The same applies to larger issues. My DH has been using a paperclip to zip his jacket for two years now. After he used it to "make do" for a week or so, he decided he didn't need a new jacket.

4. Plan. Keep a running list of what you need next time you go to the store. Make it a rule that if something was not on the list, you won't make a special trip later. Also, make a master grocery/household list. Check every item against what you have on hand before going shopping. This should help you catch those items you are about to run out of. Keep on hand extra TP, sugar, and whatever else you use a lot.

   Really use your family calendar. Look ahead to see what events are coming up to avoid last-minute gift shopping, and to know what days you'll need quick meals.

5. Combine trips. You'll use less gas and spend less time in the car if you combine trips. I like to take one day of the week to buy groceries, go to the pharmacy, do my banking, get gas, and run other errands. This is usually on Saturday, since I work full time. This is also the one day I get drive-thru food. But even just stopping at the bank on the way to lunch instead of making a special trip is helpful.

6. Use the phone and the Internet. Do banking and bill paying online. Call in prescription refills so all you have to do is pick them up. Shop online. Call ahead to be sure that "special something" is in stock before running to the store.

With time, you'll find that you don't need those city conveniences. There are a lot of bonuses to rural living, so dig in and enjoy it!
Maria

Make a Day of It!

We live pretty far from anywhere. This is how I keep from feeling like I am running all over all the time. I plan one day a week to do errands. I use the Internet to look at the weekly flyers of the major grocery stores or have my husband stop on his way home from work, just to run in and get the flyers. Then, I plan my shopping list the day before. Right now at McDonalds, happy meals are 99 cents on Wednesdays. So unless someone has an appointment that must be kept on another day, we go to McDonalds for lunch, and the kids (1 and 3 years) spend some time playing on the playground. Another option for this is a picnic lunch. I bring a cooler with two-liter bottles of water frozen into ice to keep freezer items and meat cool from earlier shopping trips.

Our library system has their catalog online, and from my home computer, I can request a big stack of books and have it waiting for me. If the kids aren't tired, we usually spend some time browsing in the children's area.

I make sure to stock up on necessary items so there are no last minute trips to the store, and in a pinch, I can have my husband pick something up on his way home from work. Doing this, instead of making 3 or 4 not-so-quick trips into town, I can get it all done at once, and have a fun outing.
GS

Use Your Freezer

I raised my kids in a rural area and only shopped "in town" twice a month. We did have a local mom & pop store where I bought filler items, but I tried to keep that to the absolute minimum. I mixed regular milk with powdered milk and water (1/2 of each) and made 2 gallons of milk out of one. My kids never knew the difference and it's just as nutritious. I got a group of women together once a week. While our kids played, we visited and baked bread. At the end of the day, everyone had homemade bread to take home and the kids had a great time. I bought a huge deep freezer and kept it filled, so that we rarely ran out of anything. It held all my garden produce! We did go to a local library once a week six miles away, as it was a savings in entertainment. We never had cable. When you feel the impulse to jump in the car and shop, try looking in your own cupboards first and making do or changing the menu to suit what you have. Needless to say, we were a one-income family and I was a stay-at-home mom. Sometimes economizing means a richer, more creative and fulfilling life!
Carrie

Do you have a time or money saving idea that wasn't included in this article? Please send it to tips @stretcher.com. We get the best ideas from our readers!

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