Welcome to Keeper of the Home!
We’re so glad you’re here!
I’m Ann Timm.
If you are a woman like me, you want the people you care about to live happy, healthy lives.
But let’s face it—living a naturally healthy life is not easy these days.
Does This Sound Familiar?
I know it can be tough to get reliable information you can trust about healthy living, especially when we are all busy women living life every day with family and friends.
We have so little time, it seems, yet we know nothing is more important than the health of those we love.
On top of it all, healthy living can cost a lot if you don’t have time to find the deals and learn the tricks to keep costs down..
All of it can leave you feeling frustrated, as if you’re letting your family down, as if you can never do enough for those you love.
And, let’s be real shall we—it can leave you feeling alone.
I Know How You Feel
I am a busy mother of six–almost all teens now!–and I’ve been part of the Keeper of the Home community for quite a while.
I’m here because of my own passion for healthy living and because of the great work of our founder Stephanie Langford. After 8 years and almost 20 million visitors, Keeper of the Home continues to be one of the leading destinations on the Internet for practical help with naturally healthy living.
Our digital library is filled with thousands of articles, thousands of recipes, and tens of thousands of solutions you can use on a wide range of topics—all designed to make it easier for you and those you love to enjoy a naturally healthy life.
I now lead a team of contributing writers, each of whom has felt the pressures you feel, who continue to produce valuable posts and resources you can use as part of the Keeper of the Home community.
It All Starts with My Family
I’m a Christ follower, praying daily for the eyes of Jesus to see others with the love and understanding only He can give.
I am deeply in love with and devoted to my husband. As a busy mom with several teens, I am always working on patience and clarity!
I’m passionate about my DIY bullet proof coffee (though my husband might use the word addicted) and I’m a coconut oil fanatic even while I’m juggling rural farm life, sports schedules, blended family dynamics, and working from home.
Every morning I wake in awe of my hubby, feeling blessed to walk this life with him. He is a serial entrepreneur and business executive with a passion for helping men lead their families and he has just started sharing our intentional parenting practices.
I recognize the need for moms to share and encourage each other. It is amazing how often I find that women feel alone in rearing kids, being a wife, or just taking the next step on their quest for healthy living and happy homemaking.
I want to make sure that women are getting what they need to make good decisions and to feel good about making those decisions.
That’s why Keeper of the Home exists, because we believe everyone deserves a happy, healthy home.
We’ll send you our latest resource to help you on your naturally healthy living journey when you join the Keeper of the Home community now!
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Wondering what we talk about here at Keeper of the Home? I’d love to tell you.
Real Food
I haven’t always eaten real food. In fact, for much of my life, I ate foods that were decidedly not “real” in any way, shape or form. Growing up on a pretty conventional, standard diet of processed, convenience and refined foods, I had a lot of work to do as an adult.
There are many sites that take a heavier handed approach to teaching you about what it means to eat wholesome, nutrient-dense, life-giving foods, and one of our goals is to avoid that approach.
Instead, we want to offer up the information, along with a heaping dose of grace and real life and celebrating even the small changes, the little victories. Food should be enjoyable and not a difficult or stressful thing. We all need to eat, right?
If you’re interested in making the switch to real food in your family, but not sure where to start, we have a great beginner’s guide to eating better. It includes topics like:
As well as a few other in-depth posts on relevant issues for eating well:
Or find some tasty whole food recipes that we’ve shared. Here are some of our most popular ones:
Or some kitchen DIY tutorials:
And we couldn’t not talk about the real foods I actually buy, and how I would feed my family if we were on a super tight budget:
- The Nitty-Gritty on the Real Food I Buy and Where I Buy It – Part 1 and Part 2
- What I Would Feed My Family on a Monthly Budget of $250 (written a couple years ago – so prices have changed a little, but the concepts remain the same)
We look at ways to make healthier choices in other areas of home management, such as cleaning.
Living in such a toxic world, it’s crucial that we make every effort to keep those toxins out of the places we spend the most time in, and using all-natural cleaning products is one simple way to do that! Sign up for our free email list and you’ll receive a free copy of our ebook Clean & Simple, with 12 recipes using only 7 natural, non-toxic ingredients!
If you’re looking for more information about natural cleaning around KOTH, we’ve got you covered in this area as well with posts like:
DIY Beauty? We’ve got that, too.
Many of us here at KOTH enjoy making our own beauty and skincare projects. No, we don’t make absolutely everything, but it is empowering to be able to make many of the products that we would have previously had to buy.
It’s frugal, easier than you think, and you’ll love the comfort of using products with pure and safe ingredients!
Though I’m not opposed to doctors or standard medical care at times (because sometimes it’s necessary and I’m grateful for it), I also believe that quite often, gentler natural remedies work just as well or better, sparing us from the negative side effects of pharmaceuticals.
One aspect of regaining my own health was learning to support and build up my body with herbs, nutrients, exercise and other lifestyle changes, rather than just popping a pill.
As moms who love to research but aren’t certified medical practitioners of any kind, we aren’t qualified to tell you what to do… but, we do love to share what we’re learning, what’s worked for us, and hope that it inspires you to keep researching, learning and seeing what works for your own family.
Take a look at the books we’ve written
What’s holding you back from making the switch over to natural, healthier living? Feeling overwhelmed?
A compilation of practical, relevant and easy-to-implement “baby steps” designed to take you on a one-year journey. We lay it all out, step by step, to take the overwhelm and hard work out of it.
Are you spending too much on groceries? Would you like to maximize your current budget so that you can afford more wholesome, nutritious foods for your family?
A primer for families who want to learn how to save an average of 20-30% on their food budget, while at the same time serving better quality and more nutritionally dense foods.
What if you could learn to meal plan in a way that helped you to eat better, while saving you money, time and stress?
You can… for the price of one boxed convenience meal or a fraction of the cost of one night of eating out.
Or check out one of our series of posts:
Traditional Foods (raw milk, old-fashioned fats, meat, fish, fermented foods– the things that have kept people healthy throughout history!)
Gardening 101 (for Beginners)
GAPS Diet
Organization in the Real Food Kitchen
A Month of Routines (a collection of various routines and thoughts on bringing more order to the home– for mealtimes, when Mom’s feeling worn out, in the kitchen, etc.)
8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered Home (a free PDF guide to help you declutter your home, little by little)
10+ Natural Cold Remedies {Plus Free Printable}
7-Day Real Food Menu Plan {20-Minute Meals Version Plus Free Printable Grocery List}
Homemade One-Size Cloth Diaper Pattern and Wipes Recipe
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Yesterday I began by sharing about where I buy our meat, fish, eggs, dairy and fats. Today I’ll continue on, sharing the particulars of what I buy where.
The goal isn’t to tell you that you should buy your foods just as I do, but rather to give you a detailed, inside look at how it works for one family, and to help inspire you as you seek out affordable sources of real food for your own family!
Organic Grains and Flours
At this point, I am buying these exclusively from Azure Standard. I buy the whole grains (like Kamut or rye berries, rather than flour) in 25 lb bags, because these are cheap, easy to store and I want the nutritional benefits of freshly ground flour. You can’t beat buying whole grains in bulk!
In this kind of bulk, the price becomes very affordable. I pay just under $20 for 25 lbs of Kamut, under $12 for 25 lbs of rye berries, and $18.50 for 25 lbs rolled oats (all organic). I also purchase my barley, steel cut oats, quinoa, popcorn, millet, etc. from Azure, but usually in 5 lb bags (except for the oats). The only other grain that I buy is brown rice, which I get from Costco. It’s 2.2 kg which is about 5 lbs, for $9.
We are also using almond flour and coconut flour to do some grain-free baking. I have bought the Bob’s Red Mill almond flour in a case of 4 packages from Amazon (use Subscribe & Save for 15% off). Another option that is slightly cheaper is the 5 lb bag fromHoneyville Food Products. You can often find coupon codes if you search online, or get them sent to you if you sign up for their emails and their shipping is only $4.49 in the US. For coconut flour, Tropical Traditions sells a great product and it’s most economical to buy two 2.2 lb bags at once, and try to do it on a Monday when they have a coupon code or free shipping available. Other than that, Azure Standard or Amazon both sell the Bob’s Red Mill brand by the case for a reasonable price.
Vegetables and Fruits
I have been faithfully shopping at the same produce market, 2 EE’s, for 6 years. In season, they grow as much of their own organic or unsprayed produce as possible, and they try to bring in a lot of local as well. They also sell by the case, which is particularly cost-effective for preserving season. Shopping according to what’s seasonal, on-sale and discounted definitely helps me to stretch my produce dollars as far as they can do.
We do have a Farmer’s Market near us, which opened 2 years ago, I believe. I go there occasionally, but it’s still quite small and usually between my favorite market and my own garden, I don’t really have a need to. In the late spring, summer and fall, my vegetable garden provides us with the majority of what we need. Want to learn more about growing your own food? Make sure you read the Gardening 101 series!
I should mention that during the cooler months, we don’t buy a lot of fresh fruit. We do tend to buy organic apples (which are mostly from local areas and stored for the winter), some citrus in winter (which is when it’s seasonal), and bananas (which I try to only buy when I find them discounted), but that’s about it.
Other than that, we buy tons of fresh fruit in the summer, while it’s local, seasonal and inexpensive. We enjoy plenty of it fresh, and then I preserve like a mad woman from July-September, churning out strawberry jam, apple jelly, canned pears and peaches, canned applesauce, sweet and sour plums, mincemeat, and frozen blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and peaches.
For me, these items are best purchased in bulk through a natural food co-op. I use one called Azure Standard. I buy spices and herbs in 1 lb bags from Oregon Spice Company, and I find them quite fresh and they carry many that are organic as well.
My nuts and seeds are mostly from my co-op as well, in 5 lb bags because they’re cheaper that way. I store the more volatile ones (like walnuts and sesame seeds) in the fridge or freezer for freshness. The other place that I will buy nuts is Costco, because I find theirs to be quite fresh and the price per lb breakdown is about the same as Azure, generally. I buy most of my unsulphured dried fruits from Azure as well (mostly dates and raisins and occasionally apricots, because I make my own apple and banana chips and fruit leathers), and these are also cheapest in 5 lbs bags. If stored well, they last just fine for a couple months.
Other Grocery Items
I have one local store that I shop in, Extra Foods (or Superstore, it’s sister store). They put out 15% off $100 coupons at the beginning of each month, so I try to take advantage of these and stock up on my toilet paper, canned or frozen fish, teas or condiments or rice pasta from the organic aisle, some organic produce and a few other basics. I also use coupons when possible(yes, there are sometimes coupons for decent foods, just not many), as well as the coupons that we get for buying our gas from the Extra Food’s gas station. We also get free grocery dollars for using our business credit card that is connected to this grocery chain as well. It all adds up, and helps to save more room for the rest of the real food we buy from other sources!
Lastly, I shop at Costco about once every two months. Fresh salmon, canned tomato paste, organic corn chips, brown rice, organic butter, frozen organic corn and peas and green beans, almonds or walnuts, etc. On some items, their prices are worthwhile and they are slowly carrying more “real food” options.
And This Was The Condensed Version
Think these posts were long? You should see my book, Real Food on a Real Budget: How to Eat Healthy for Less! 280 pages of straight talk on how I find great deals on real foods and keep my budget low, without compromising on what I feed my growing family.
Available in both eBook and paperback formats, it’s sort of like sitting down at my kitchen table and picking my brain about the best ways to save money on healthy, wholesome foods and all the little tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years of working with a tight budget.
I would love to hear any other specific grocery or budget questions that you have for me.
Better yet, I would love to hear from YOU, with some of the specifics of what you buy where and how you find find great deals on real foods!
Original article and pictures take keeperofthehome.org site
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