In January, I mentioned that my word for the year was going to be “Explore”. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately over the past four months. However it’s been more internal than external.

Meaning that I’ve been exploring feelings, thoughts, and emotions more than anything else.

I’m working on changing that starting this week.

I want to focus on exploring things on the homefront as well, because I want to become a little more resourceful.

I want to make more things at home for several reasons but two of the biggest are:

Cost: By making more things at home, I will be saving us money in the long run.  We are over-hauling our budget and changing things up in regards to food purchases. I don’t have a strict or dedicated food budget but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to save us money or readjust priorities.

Control: By making things at home, I will have more control over the ingredients and what goes into the product.

There are three things that I would like to focus on for making at home.

Stock: I talked a little bit about starting to make stock at home.  In that post I mentioned that we don’t eat enough meat to keep us supplied in stock.  Then I realized that I can purchase the perfect stock goods in bulk for an inexpensive price.  I want to try doing that and see how it works out for our stock supplies.

Butter: I currently purchase grass-fed butter which isn’t cheap but isn’t crazy expensive either.  However after learning that butter can be frozen, I want to try making my own butter and freezing portions of it.  It’s cheaper to buy a quart of Snowville Cream than it is to purchase grass-fed butter every two weeks.

Beans: These are another thing that can be stored in the freezer.  I can make a huge batch of beans and freeze portions of them.  This will reduce the amount of canned beans we purchase (because we eat a lot of beans!) reducing cost and waste.  I currently buy canned beans at Whole Foods because they have unsalted and the cheapest price on beans (surprising, I know.).  I really want to be able to cut out that expense and waste.

There are so many other things I want to start making at home as well but I have to start somewhere and I want to start with reasonable tangible goals.  These three are it!

I know that a lot of you make things at home instead of buying them.  What are some of your top things you make at home?