What's Working Wednesday: Salvage Grocery Stores

What's Working Wednesday is my weekly post to showcase something that is working for me or my family at the moment. It may not work for us forever and it may or may not work for you.

It's been a long time since I've done a What's Working Wednesday and I want to get back in the habit. I started looking at my life and wondering: "Is anything working in my life right now??" It was a bit depressing coming to the realization that, um, not much is working well in all the transition of our lives right now. I did come up with one thing though: salvage grocery stores!

Salvage Grocery stores are stores that sell close date, damaged, and overstock food items, often at a discount. I've only recently become familiar with the term but I've shopped at them before and they've definitely helped our grocery budget. When I lived in NY I would often shop at Glenwood Foods in Seneca Falls and Buda's in Syracuse and I would consider both of them  salvage grocery stores to an extent. I even vaguely remember shopping at a bent and dent store in Chattanooga occasionally though I couldn't tell you where it was. Ollies and Big Lots have food sections that might qualify as well.

Since moving to the Metroplex I have found a winner. My friend who lived in Dallas did a lot of her grocery shopping at the Grocery Clearance Center. I went once or twice while we were staying out there and, hoping for one closer to home in Fort Worth, a quick google search took me to Town Talk and on first visit I was in love.

Every visit to Town Talk, or any salvage grocery, is like a treasure hunt. You never know what you are going to find. I've never personally shopped for my own groceries overseas but every visit to a salvage grocery reminds me of stories I've heard from friends who have lived overseas and their excitement over finding Hershey bars or brownie mix on the shelves in their local grocery stores. When found they quickly purchase all they can and set something special aside for an upcoming birthday, squirrel some away and share some with expat friends. For example, on one visit to Town Talk we saw CliffBars for $5 a case. There was a man there in a shirt and tie that cleared the shelf of them, filling his cart because they were a flavor that he really liked. I don't think that I've seen Cliffbars there since.

Salvage grocery stores are also a great places to shop if want to buy specialty foods cheap or if you are on a special diet. I have found lots of gluten free and organic groceries for WAY less than at traditional grocery stores. There are also often international foods and mixes available for cheaper than at your normal Asian market.

Here are a couple of pictures of items I picked up on a recent visit to Town Talk:

A case of 12 8oz mango Noosa yogurts for $2 and 1/2 gallons of 2% organic  cream on top milk for 50 cents each (both were delicious and splurges I could not afford at traditional grocery stores where 1 of those yogurts goes for over $2)

Terra Sweet Potato chips 3/$1, Garden of Eaten Blue Chips 99 cents, Popchips 2/$1

New to the concept of salvage grocery stores? Do a google search to see if there is one in your area or check out this site.

 Find one to check out? Here are a few tips for shopping at a salvage grocery store:

1. Check dates

Decide how comfortable you are with pasta a month past it's expiration date or a case of yogurt that will expire tomorrow. In my experience both of them will be used up before they go bad in my house but you may have a different opinion on that. I once found some Pace Salsa Verde for a great price, it expired the next month so I bought a couple of them, then bought a couple more on a later visit. I finally stopped buying them because they got discolored and they were so far out of date but the store still had them on their shelves 3.5 years later when we moved - yuck!

2. Know your prices

Most things are cheaper but I have found that some things are actually priced more expensively at salvage groceries than at traditional grocery stores.  

3. Don't be married to one brand.

Last time we went there we were hoping to get noosa yogurt but, sadly, there was none. What we did find was Stoneyfield Organic and Chobani yogurts for 99 cents each for 32oz. We're big fans of yogurt around here so we were thankful.

4. Try new things

Because of the cheap prices I am not afraid to try things that I would never pay full price for at a grocery store. I may never buy them again but at least we've tried them once.

5. Treat each visit like an adventure or a treasure hunt

Pretend you're grocery shopping in a foreign land. You never know what you are going to find. If you see something you like buy it because it might not be there next time. Don't get super disappointed if something that you were really hoping would be there isn't. It might be the next time. 

Five Minute Friday: In Between

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We have spent a lot of our life in between. Time in between engagement and marriage, in between the births of each of our children. In between living in one location and setting up a new life in new locations.

Right now we are in between having preschoolers and having teenagers. I love this stage of parenting... everyone is independant, can come up with their own creative things to keep them occupied but they haven't started the busy schedule that is being a teen in this country.

We are also on our LAST WEEKEND of our time in between medical school and residency. Yes, Glenn started orientation a little over 2 weeks ago but he doesn't start on the floors until Monday (6:45am in surgery if you are curious, not as early as I thought he might have to be there for his first day in surgery, maybe they're starting off early). I have loved this in between time. We have made so many fun family memories. We have had so much time with Glenn. It has been great. Sure we didn't get as much school work done as we maybe should have but we had time and experiences together that were priceless - worth much more than "school."

I'm thankful for our in between times. They haven't always been easy but God teaches us a lot in our times of transition. Each stage in our lives has been part of our training for what God has next for us. His schooling isn't always easy but He is always good.

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Linking up with Gypsy Mama's Five Minute Friday. Join me?

Third Time's the Charm?

On Friday night Caleb asked me, "Mom, what is that quote about third time something?" I told him "Third time's the charm." I know that he was thinking back to that day when we were homeless and living with Brian and Kristina when someone walked into their house while we were out front and took a bunch of stuff and that night, Glenn's birthday morning actually, just before we left Rochester when someone came in to our house while we were sleeping and, walking right past Abigail who wasn't feeling well and slept downstairs that night, took our laptop and Glenn's watch.

The quote may apply to us getting into medical school but I am not really sure that it applies to being robbed from. Friday night we decided to take Rahab with us to the concert on the green because friendly dogs were welcome and we wanted to try to socialize her a bit more. (Side note: I suppose I should blog Rahab's story but that will have to come another day.) When we got home we noticed that some lights were on that we hadn't left on and that sick feeling came. "Oh no, someone was in our house. I wonder how they got in, what they did in there, what all they took." Glenn saw that the back doors were both open (we had deadbolted both of them before leaving) and went immediately to our bedroom and saw that his Macbook Pro that he has just put away before we left since we never leave computers out when we go to sleep or go out anymore after robbery #2 was gone. There was also a pile of other things on our bed that they either decided weren't worth taking or were scared out of the house before they could grab them. We discovered that who ever it was came through a window that they busted the lock on and pushed the frame in.

Oh, yuck. I immediately called 911 and they told me that they'd send an officer over. Glenn texted one of his new intern friends that we had spent the evening at the park with and he and his wife came over to check on us and comfort us. That was nice. It's nice to have friends.

It feels so yucky to have your house broken into. It feels so yucky to have stuff taken from you but it wasn't the first time. That night Glenn posted this to his facebook which pretty much summed up how we were feeling:

"Somethings get easier the more often we go through them and we unfortunately discovered that having our house broken into and being stolen from is one of those things. It still feels like the violation that is and it still hurts. I think that I hurt a little less this time than last time. Though it does bring back painful flashbacks of the other times is also reminds us of God's amazing grace and provision in our lives and that as discussed last night with one of my fellow interns, it is hard to go from God will only bring/allow good into my life to God allows what is best for me and allows that into my life to what is in my life is what is best according to God (it was a more eloquent and deep conversation than this but I'm tired and still a little shocked). God is good and God's grace is sufficient for me (also so thankful for my fellow intern who came and checked on us with his wife. Friends are nice to have. Thanks God for friends.)

Whenever we go through trials we get together and make a list of things we can thank God for in the trial. This time I'm thankful:
* It wasn't the previous night when I was home alone with the kids and Glenn was at his retreat.
* many other things that could have been stolen weren't (maybe they aren't worth much to a thief but they are worth a lot to us)
* Rahab adopted us and she will, Lord willing, be a deterrent in future incidents and we don't have to go looking for a dog
 * We are all safe
* our memories of this past year can't be stolen even though most photographic evidence of it was stolen with the computer. (If a picture is worth a thousand words I better start writing about this past year quickly with all the pictures we lost - that's a lot of thousand words!)
* God is in control and He is good.
* faith filled words from my kids that night including: "God is always near even when you get robbed," "God is good (spoken through tears)" and "we always have Someone to be there with us."
* peace and comfort from the Comforter and God's Word.

I'm not sure what we are supposed to be learning in this third time. Here are a few possibilities:
* I need to back up my photos at least once a month so it's not as likely to ever lose 14 months of photos ever again. Oh it hurts to think about all the pictures from these crazy months of ours that we lost.
* I need to have an eternal perspective on things. The verse we are supposed to memorize this week in my Anything GMG online Bible study is 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 "For our LIGHT and MOMENTARY TROUBLES are achieving for us an ETERNAL GLORY that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen since what is seen is TEMPORARY but what is unseen is ETERNAL." A pretty timely verse, I think. In 100 years I'm not going to miss that laptop or those pictures at all. The only eternal things are the souls of people and the Word of God. I need to focus on those things.
* It has helped to change my perspective on the dog God gave us. Everyone else has been in love with her from day one but I have had a harder time adjusting to having a dog. She is a blessing and fun and I'm thankful for her even though she's mischievous and more work for me.
* God is preparing us for something. We got to hear a missionary speak the day before our break in and in her talk she mentioned being robbed from while on the mission field. I guess we just get to practice having that violated feeling here in the US before we get to experience it elsewhere. I can't think of any missionary friends of mine that haven't been stolen from.

My anxiety has been pretty bad this week. I've been scared to stay home but I've also been scared to leave the house. It's hard when I was initially really hoping we could just stay here all 4 years but I'm not sure if we are safe here. We've made additional precautions for safety and more are in the works and we aren't packing up right now by any means. God has been a great comfort to me this week bringing great songs and scriptures to mind to help me. He is good and does good.

I re-read most of chapter 2 "Content with Circumstances" in Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow out loud the other day. A few quotes jumped out at us:

"Our thought life - not our circumstances - determines whether we are content." 

"Paul instructs us to practice 'these things [in Phil.4].' What things?
* choosing to give our anxieties to God
* choosing to pray specifically
* choosing to be thankful
* choosing to dwell on the positive.
We are to practice substituting prayer for worry, the positive for the negative - and the God of peace will be with us! For the second time in this passage we see that the peace of God follows a choice to obey."

"My prayer has often been, 'God don't let my pain be wasted. Use it to conform me to Your image. Use it to teach me how to be content.'"

During our mystery months I read a book called Sifted: God's Scandalous Response to Satan's Outrageous Demand that I'd picked up for free on my Kindle app. Reading it really made me reconsider my view of trials and my view of God in my trials. Sitting down to try to finish up this blog post God reminded me of it and I thought I'd post a few things that I'd highlighted in it.

"Jesus doesn't reassure Peter that He will not allow this terrible thing to happen-instead, He tells him that He has prayed that his "faith may not fail" and "when you have turned back, [that you would] strengthen your brothers.' This 'sifting' is going to happen, it's going to happen with Jesus' permission, and it's going to happen for a reason." 

I'm reminded that when we decided to live here we were, at the end, deciding between 2 different places. We felt less safe at the other place so we decided to move here. God told us that neither place was right or wrong but that which ever one we chose there would be blessings and trials, there would just be different blessings and trials at each one... I guess this is one of the trials at this house. I guess I am grateful: God revealed to me that there would be trials, just as He told Peter of Satan's demand to sift him. He tells the truth. I can trust Him.

"All of the people and books and music and films you and I love the most are encrusted, like priceless jewels, with pain. Name something that captures your heart that was not formed by pain. It's ironic, of course, that pain repels us more fundamentally than anything else in life but it produces things that are magnetic to us. Why do we live in fear of pain while, at the same time, we find ourselves drawn to its 'produce' in the people and stories of our lives? And why does all great art, and why do all truly great people, seem positively marinated in pain?" 

hmmm... definitely something to think about. I don't like being "marinated in pain" but I do like the end result.

"God is unfailingly kind but only sporadically nice. That's true because the nature of His kindness is radically different from its popular shallow translations. Kindness isn't measured by the act but by its effect. It's hard to diagnose an action as "kind" except in retrospect, when you examine what it has produced in you."  

His perspective is totally different than mine.

"Faith never knows where it is being led but it loves and knows the One who is leading." ~ Oswald Chambers

"Sifting helps us to say good-bye to the inexplicable and unpredictable god of the nursery and say hello to the ferocious, tender, playful, and shrewd Lover that He really is - one glimpse of Him this way, and we are ruined for every other lesser god."

"we wrestle with despair expressly because control has been taken from us."  

OUCH, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. Oh yes, I like control too much. 

"Sifting alone has the power to reduce us to childlikeness, because it brutally wrests control from us and reminds us who is Lord. When control is a distant memory, only then do we understand the lordship of Jesus." "Children who are convinced their parents are strong, caring, and unconditionally for them spend very little time considering their fears."  

Oh, God, give me a childlike faith in You!

I think that I need to re-read that book again. Maybe even read it aloud as a family. We are in another season of sifting. Sifting is "the violent process of separating the useful from the unnecesary - the crushing and sorting of something whole for the purpose of isolating its nourishing core from the trappings that guard it."

"Sifting. Beat. Separate. Reveal."

Oh Lord, third time's the charm? May what is left from Your kind sifting be something that is nourishing to those I come in contact with. Use it for Your glory. I know that further sifting is needed in my heart. I know that, most likely, this is not the last time stuff will be taken from us. Please be at work in my heart that I will trust You more. You are good. You are strong. You are caring. You are unconditionally for me. I love You.

God Provided a Fridge for us

And here's a post about the fridge God provided for us in early May before we left on our most recent road adventure:

When we moved into the house we are renting we knew we were responsible for heating and air conditioning (still not sure what we are doing for either of those yet) and providing our own fridge.

Since we moved in we've been living out of a cooler and ice we've made in the chest freezer that we got from Glenn's grandparents back when Hannah was a baby.

We've been hounding craigslist and local used and new appliance stores for fridges. We ruled out buying new because we bought a new washer in Lowville and it got damaged in our move and doesn't really work right anymore. Also, the cheapest new fridge we could find was about $500 for a really small, basic fridge.

Glenn wanted to buy a fridge newer than 2002 because that is when energy star started and all fridges got more efficient after that time.

We've gone to see more fridges than I'd like to count. Most if the used appliance places were asking $200 & up for their fridges plus $40+ for delivery. Most of them were older than 2002. The cheaper ones were less than 18 cu ft.

Sunday we went to a warehouse full of used appliances and talked with a guy about buying a fridge from him for $250 plus delivery. It was an ok fridge, nothing flashy but it was 2005, supposedly, and about 20 cu ft.

While we were in the parking lot a guy from Craigslist called back about his 5 year old 24 or 26 cu ft fridge. We arranged to go see it after the kids program at church finished up. He had it posted on Craigslist for $200 but he really just wanted it out of his garage because his wife had upgraded their kitchen to stainless steel and told us "I'll let you have it for $75 if you'll just get it out of here."

So, yesterday, we took the seats out of the van, rented an appliance dolly from uhaul, and went picked up our $75 gift from God fridge.

Bonus features of the fridge:
- filtered water dispenser inside the fridge (Glenn really didn't want a through the door dispenser but had always liked the inside the fridge dispenser idea and this fridge has it. I think it's the only one we've looked at that did.)
- the plastic drawers and bins and glass shelves are easy to remove and rearrange
- there's an ice maker. This wasn't a priority for us and I'm not sure if we'll use it but it'll be nice to have if we're having a party.
- it's pretty big. I wanted at least 18 cu ft and God gave us 24 or 26.

Thanks, God, for a new to us fridge for $75. You are so generous!

Five Minute Friday: Friend

Glenn's grandpa complained to me recently that I haven't posted in a long time so I looked at my computer and discovered 2 posts that I wrote but neglected to publish from sometime in the past... here is one.

from 4/26/13

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I'm new here. Being new here is kind of lonely. I have a friend here. I met her back in November at the GMHC. She doesn't live in Fort Worth. She lives in Dallas. She and her family have let us crash at her house for most of this month while we have been looking for a place to live in Fort Worth. She's moving. To India. In early June.

I am so grateful for Melissa and Cristo and their generous hospitality. I'm thankful for my first friends in the DFW area. I hope that we can go to visit them in India sometime during our second year of residency when they are at their hospital and done with language school and I'm glad that we will still be here when they come back for their first furlough. I hope that we can imitate them in many of their choices that they made through residency and beyond. Their faith and the example of their faithfulness to following God's call on their lives is a great challenge and encouragement to us.

So, I'm moving into a house in Fort Worth on Tuesday. Lord willing we will make friends. I have 

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Our Homeless Time is Coming to an End, Lord Willing

Yesterday we faxed our personal info for background checks to a man who owns a house in Fort Worth that we saw a "For Rent" sign in front of when we were driving through a neighborhood looking at a couple of houses to rent or buy. A couple of hours later we got a call from him telling us that people say nice things about us. We had called him to inquire about the house on the Saturday before last after the marriage conference because it's very close to the church the conference was at and we had driven past it again. He gave me the run down: 2500 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, new gas stove, wood flooring, new carpet, no central a/c or heat. Our connection was bad so I had a hard time hearing all he had to say. I asked him how much he was asking for it. He asked, "How many people would be living there?" I told him my husband, myself and our 4 kids. He told me $1200. I told him, "Thank you very much. I'll talk to my husband." and hung up. $1200 was way more than we were hoping to spend on housing. I put the place out of my mind as we continued to look for places online and we spent a morning seeing houses with a realtor. Some of them had more promise than others. A lot of them needed a lot of work.

Wednesday afternoon after spending the morning looking at houses he called us again and this time Glenn talked to him. He sounded interested in us. Why? I don't know. He asked Glenn what we were looking at paying a month and said that what he really wanted was someone that was going to pay rent on the first of the month and take care of the house. We are those kind of people. He said that he wanted us to see it and that he could possibly go down on the rent.

I could go on and on about the agony of the last 2 weeks as we have prayed and cried and discussed our options. Looking for a house when you are homeless is kind of like shopping when you're hungry. You're tempted to just throw anything in the cart and run home so you can eat and it takes conscious effort to make rational, responsible, healthy choices that are right for your family.
- Rent or buy?
- Which house should we buy?
- How much money will we have to put into the house and what will we do with it at the end of residency if we do buy?
- Is it worth it to buy after all the closing costs at both ends?
- Which place should we rent?
- Are we being bad stewards of the money God has entrusted to us if we buy this place or rent that place?
- Should we move to this place that has opportunities to live among refugees but is pretty scary or that place that is safer and closer to the hospital?
- Will people come to our house if we live in that part of town or that far away?
- Will Glenn be able to handle that long of a commute on those crazy interstates after his long shifts?
- What purpose has God brought us to Fort Worth for?
These and so many other discussions filled our waking hours as we sought the Lord and wanted to make a decision that would please Him.

We decided, because time is of the essence and because of all of the unknowns that come with home ownership, to look into some rentals. We checked out 3 places on Saturday and another one on Sunday. One was too far away, two were too yucky and scary and weird. We liked the looks of the one close to the marriage conference church. On talking with the landlord we worked out a plan to pay $1000 a month for the first 2 years. It is unheard of for a home of that size to rent for that little and after lots more praying, weighing of options, and discussions and visiting the church for services on Sunday we've decided to rent it.

It's really been a struggle to buy or not to buy, especially after staying in this beautiful home owned by our friends who bought it, not looking nearly this beautiful, at the beginning of his residency. We had originally planned on buying (like we planned on buying in medical school but many of you remember how that went down back when we were homeless at the beginning of med school) for reasons like: it'd be our own place, we could do with it and with the lawn what we wanted, we would be able to stay there throughout residency without someone else telling us we have to move, Glenn could do wood working and other tinkering in our hypothetical garage, etc.

Why I'm glad we're renting:
- We don't have to worry about fixing the roof or the bathroom or upgrading the flooring or the bathroom or the kitchen. It isn't ours.
- We don't have to sell it at the end of residency, just give a move out date.
- If the area or the house truly doesn't work out (we truly hope that it does but... if not...) we can move.
- The idea of living there beyond our 4 years of residency is not even something I'd consider at this point... I'll only be too glad to write that last rent check and move on to the next place God has for us. If we bought a house I might be more tempted to stay and it might be harder to answer God's call.
- If we have extra money we won't have to struggle with should we throw it at our student loans that are at 6.8% or do something to fix the house or put more towards the principle of our mortgage so we'll have more equity when we sell. We can start to pay down our loans earlier.

Why I'm glad we're renting this house:
- It's less than 2 miles, 5 minutes, from the hospital.
- 4 bedrooms means we have a place to do school or to host friends or prospective residents or incoming residents looking for a place to live or any other people who might need a place to stay to bless people as we've been blessed so much over the years.
- more than one toilet will be such a wonderful thing with 6 people!
- there's washer and dryer hook ups so I can use my washer.
- It's walking distance to a church, a park that has a playground and mile markers imprinted in it's sidewalks, and a just opened this past weekend grocery store (I got so spoiled walking to Tops in Lowville for groceries. This was on my "dream but probably won't get it" list, knowing that we wanted to live in the city and that grocery store are usually in the suburbs but God gave it to me. If you haven't noticed, I think He likes to bless me. We went to it's grand opening event on Saturday and got some free samples and Abigail won a free cake on a cake walk.)
- There's a covered patio area out back that we can enjoy.
- I feel safe in the neighborhood (whether I should feel safe there or not is yet to be seen)
- There's enough space inside and parking outside for us to have people over and to host a medical missions fellowship that we feel God calling us to start in Fort Worth.
- there's a just opened in the past month free/ low cost clinic started by a church just down the street that Glenn may get to volunteer at.
- no central air in Texas means we get to prepare physically for possible life in hot places overseas where A/C isn't an option (Don't worry people who may come and visit us... We're planning on buying a couple of window units so you don't have to be so uncomfortable when you're here.)

What it all comes down to is it's God's house and we're grateful for the opportunity to use it for a season and we long to use it for Him!

We have decided to move in May 1 so we can get our stuff moved in and maybe be a bit settled in the first few days of May before we drive back to NY for graduation and then to WY for family reunion stuff since we won't be back to Fort Worth until June 5, about a week before orientation starts. I didn't like the idea of paying rent for almost a month of being gone but we decided it would make life easier. After making that decision we found out Glenn's getting paid something for orientation (we didn't think he was and it turns out it's enough to cover that month of rent after tithing) so, once again, God provided.

We are so grateful for all the people who have loved and supported us, prayed for us, given us places to sleep, fed us, etc during these crazy mystery months. I can say with full assurance - God has been faithful. Praise His name.

So, Lord willing, today we are signing a lease on a house that we get to move into next week. Yay.

Five Minute Friday: Here

We're here. In Texas. Finally. Or already. I'm really not sure.

We aren't in Fort Worth. We're in Dallas. Fort Worth still feels like a place you visit. It doesn't feel like a place you live. We haven't even visited any interesting things in Fort Worth yet besides the botanical gardens (which are pretty neat. We visited them with our friends from Dallas in whose house we are currently staying back in November when we came for the interview.), a couple of churches this past Sunday and several neighborhoods and a couple of apartment complexes.

All of our stuff is in Texas now, stuffed into a storage unit but, though our stuff is here and we are here, it is not home yet. It will be. Each new place does eventually feel like home. We will one day
(hopefully soon!) find a place to live.

For now we're here. We're grateful for friends we met at the GMHC in November that have been so gracious and generous and hospitable to let us stay in their home first with and now without them. We're grateful that God has called us here, scary as that is. We're excited to see what He's going to do.

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