100 Ways We Save Money - Part 7

I am slowly working my way through a series on 100 ways we save money. It has made me more aware of all the little things we do each day that add up to big savings and I hope it gives y'all some ideas. You can read about part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6 by clicking the links.

#36 - I can our own food. When we get great deals on produce, I preserve it to use all year.

#37 - We don't eat a lot of meat. Meat is more of a side dish for us. I have heard so many reports about how Americans eat too much meat and that the actual portion size is about the size of my fist - or 4 oz. When we do eat meat, I will usually only cook 1 lb at a time for 6 people. Keep in mind I have small kids though.

#38 - We pay many of our bills online. I save about $3 a month in postage by doing this - or $36 a year, which is a tank of gas in my husbands car. Well worth it.

#39 - We keep our monthly bills to a minimum. We have combined where we can to reduce the number of bills, but we also don't sign up for lots of bills. Many people consider things like Netflix a given today, but you don't have to sign up for those services. The less money we have committed to someone else each month means more money in our savings account.

#40 - When I run the washing machine or the dishwasher I run full loads. When my husband thinks it is full I can get many more items in. They use the same amount of water, energry and detergents, so I get the most bang for my buck and pack them full.

*This post is linked to Life As Mom's Frugal Fridays.

Bargain Meal of the Week

Every Thursday I post a bargain meal of the week for $5 Dinners. I use the Giant Eagle ad for NE Ohio. There are some good baking sales going on this week, as the stores gear up for Thanksgiving. But for the meal, we will take advantage of Giant Eagle's low chicken prices. Chicken leg quarters are $.79 a pound, making for a very frugal dinner.

2 lbs chicken leg quarters $1.58
1 lb potatoes $.60
1 lb fresh green beans $1.49
salt & paprika $.10
butter & milk for mashed potatoes $.25
tablespoon of oil $.10

For the chicken legs, sprinkle salt and paprika on them (to taste) and sear in hot oil on the stove. Once the outsides are nice and brown, transfer them to the oven to finish cooking. While this is cooking make your mashed potatoes and green beans. Dinner should be ready in about 30 minutes for a total of $4.12. Yum!

Have you thought about Christmas yet?

I have. I have thought and thought and thought about it. But have I done anything about it yet? Not really. I have a small handful of gifts bought, but I would say 80% of what I have to do is still left to do. Fortunately we save money all year to pay for Christmas. No credit cards for us. No bills to worry about in January. I hate worrying about bills.

I was supposed to hit some stores this week and see if I could come up with some ideas, maybe actually buy some gifts. But I have been home bound with sick kids, so I have just been doing more thinking. Fortunately I talked to my mom and she has finished buying for my kids. And she got 2 of them things we were planning on getting them. Which is fine, but now I have to think of something else LOL, which isn't fine, because I had a hard time coming up with the other ideas.

I am a planner by nature, so thinking things through really helps, but I am ready to take action and I can't right now. I NEED to get out of this house. But that won't happen until at least tomorrow, so I am going to take advantage of a sick kid one more time. Luke doesn't normally sit still for long enough to snuggle, but boy is he being sweet today. He is feeling a bit better and I thought the fever was gone. But it came back after lunch and he just wants to lay around. Now is my chance! Of course I will probably get sick, but they grow up so fast and I don't want to miss it. I can think some more while I snuggle.

How is everyone else doing on their holiday shopping?

Is pureeing my own pumpkin worth it?

I have had many people say that it isn't worth it to puree my own pumpkins each year. Yes it can be time consuming, but I think it is worth it. Here is how it went this afternoon.

I got the pumpkin in the oven around 10:30. I pulled it out at 11:30 to let cool. After lunch, around 12:45 I started scooping out the puree. I processed 12 cups of puree. While I had already made a mess of my kitchen, I figured I would make some pumpkin bread while I was at it. When I finished making 2 loaves of bread, 24 mini-muffins for snack and 6 full muffins for the freezer, and had gotten the other 10 cups of puree in the freezer it was 2:00. Combine that with the 20 minutes I spent in hands on time roasting the pumpkin seeds on Friday and for about 2 hours worth of work I have a lot of good foods. 12 cups puree and 2 cups seeds.

Now to buy those same products from the store would cost me $10 or more, as the seeds can be pricey. Then I would have all that packaging to dispose of. We buy a pumpkin or 2 each year regardless of whether I process it. The 12 cups of puree and 2 cups of seeds are just a bonus from 1 medium size pumpkin. I can make homemade muffins, breads, rolls, etc all year from the pumpkins I puree myself. (I have lots left from last year, so I am only processing 1 pumpkin this year.) I am not dependent on the grocery store or the manufacturing plant for this product. That makes me very happy. Yes it can be time consuming to do things yourself, but the satisfaction once done is much greater than how I feel when I come home with something bought at the store.

Grocery round up Nov 2

Between my husband and I, we hit 3 stores this week. There is a discount grocery store in the town he works. I noticed they had Pomegranates (from the US) on sale 2 for $3. An early treat and boost of antioxidants - just what we need right now.
Friday I hit Acme. I got a red bell pepper, 3 yams, 3 lbs of apples, milk, 2 Goldfish (b1g1), soy sauce, eggs and milk. The total was $12.38
At my main store, I took advantage of some great deals, and didn't take advantage of some great deals. I had to get rain checks for the 25 oz boxes of cereal that were 3 for $10 as well as the B1G1 Honeysuckle turkey tenderloins I was after. That ended up keeping my total pretty low and it allowed me to get some items that weren't essential this week, but would have been come next week, like bread and hotdog buns. I also got some OJ, not on sale, but needed to help the kids get better and stay hydrated.

I have to bring soccer snack next week for Luke's team and luckily the capri suns and teddy grahams were on sale and I had coupons. $4 to bring a snack of individually wrapped and prepared stuff for a soccer team is pretty good in my opinion.

I got apples, grapes, tomatoes, bread, hot dog buns, 2 large boxes of Triscuits, 5 lb flour $1, 2 capri suns, 12 pack of teddy grahams, stuffing, 2 margarines, milk, 2 6 packs yogurt and 2 4 packs yogurt with granola - each $.50, and OJ. Total spent here was $28.31. My total for this week is $43.69, $6.31 under budget. This will be saved to purchase the items I got rainchecks for.

For more grocery round ups, check out Grocery Cart Challenge.

Winter can come now - and leave as quickly as possible

The leaves are mostly raked.
The garlic is planted.
The wood is chopped.
We got our last hike in of the year. Winter can start now. I just hope it is a quick one. I am already ready for spring. To help us deal with cold weather and illness (hello Swine Flu) I have a menu of comfort foods planned.

Monday - homemade chicken noodle soup with focaccia bread

Tuesday - leftovers

Wednesday - pizza, carrots, applesauce

Thursday - meatloaf, crash potatoes and green beans

Friday - spaghetti, corn on the cob

Saturday - some sort of chicken

The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

As most people know we are trying to save as much money as we can right now and avoiding all unnecessary purchases. Well, I need a new pan. I have a large (12 inch) saute pan that has high sides and a lid. I use the pan every single day, sometimes several times a day. Well the bottom is peeling horribly and every time I use it, I feel as if I am feeding my family part of this pan. I had thought maybe I would ask for one for Christmas, but didn't really want to wait that long.

Last week, I searched on the Kohl's website for a pan and found a perfect one that I came so close to buying. I had it in my shopping cart and everything. The total was almost $70 - and that was after the sale. But I didn't get it.

Every morning, the neighbor boy comes over to my house for about 30 minutes and then gets on the bus with my kids. I am watching him for free. Last night the family invited us over for a Halloween party. When we got there they gave me a gift card to Kohl's as a thank you for watching their son. Can you guess how much the gift card is for? $70 God is so good.

*this post is linked to Gratituesday's at Heavenly Homemakers.

This kid cracks me up!

Luke comes up with the craziest things and is always making me laugh. Not only that he seems to always be laughing at something himself. So yesterday when he got off the bus and told me he wanted to show me something I wasn't surprised. I am surprised that I am still laughing about it today.

Let me set the stage. Luke crosses his arms, tries to look very serious, taps his right toe and says in his deepest rapper voice

"Yo, yo
my name is Joe.
I stubbed my toe
on a Cheerio.
Peace (as he throws his hands into the air with the peace sign)."

I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff, but he cracks me up every time and that is definitely a Finer Thing! Sorry about the poor picture quality, I had to whip the camera out as fast as I could to catch him in the act.