Monday Frugal Musings and The January Savings Challenge

 I am keeping up on my household frugal commitments for the month. I am seeing food rise even more. Are any of you seeing this too?

I am going to roast at least one chicken a week in the crock pot or oven but use that carcass as much as I can. We ate two meals off of it and then I saved all the bones and threw them in my old pot with some old celery that almost was ready for tossing, carrots from the holiday veggie tray and an onion and simmered for almost three hours and made three large containers of chicken stock.

More from scratch cooking has been going on in the kitchen. Here I was making my Easy Scratch Dinner Rolls. You will love these. You make them in a muffin tin so simple.

We had another celebration. One of our girls turned 16. You know you can't beat Sam's club for cakes. We were doing a black and white color theme with chevron patterned plates and napkins and low and behold they had a ready made cake that fit perfect. $17 for a half sheet is a bargain in my book and no I don't bake the birthday cakes as I am not good at cakes. Cupcakes I can manage but not a large cake. Would be embarrassing for the kid. Know what I mean?

The January Savings Challenge is ongoing. This week I am going to pull out my coupons and look for any deals. Also, we are shopping for better deals on insurance and other services. I hate this job but it is a necessary one.

January Savings Challenge - Link Up

Did you spend too much last month? Did you spend too much in 2013? I am sure most of us did. I like to take stock and get back on track in January. My HUSBAND likes me to get back on track in January. "Reign it in" is what I hear. So I do. I try and really limit spending to what is necessary.

Last year I did a No Spend January. This year I won't quite do as much as that but I will keep spending to a minimum. There are some good tips in that post if you want to check it out. I am however going to host a 16th birthday party this coming week for my daughter but she is lovely and simple and just wants food and a bonfire with smores.

What will you gain with a "no spend month" or a "low spend month?" Well lots. When you are not spending time and energy on shopping to improve your home or to buy a new outfit you are gaining time. Time to read, to clean or organize, to do a puzzle, to take a nap. Sounds good to me.

In order to encourage each other I am doing a month long link party so all of you can link up any of your money saving posts to share with all of us. I will do weekly updates and add mine. You can even link up old posts that you think would be helpful.

So for this coming week to save money we are:
1. Eating all leftovers. In fact we have ate them three nights in a row now. Taking stock of the freezer and pantry and creating meals out of items that need to be used. I hate throwing food away.
2. Eating at home except for one meal a week which will probably be date nights for hubby and I but we will do them on the cheap.
3. Put any extra money back into our savings account.
4. No shopping except for necessities.
5. Make sure all items I need to return are done and my account is credited.
6. Free entertainment with the kids. We have movie gift cards to use for when we need a treat.

So how about it? Anyone want to join me?

Thrift Store Therapy

With summer vacation from carpool (can you see me jumping up and down with joy) comes time to hit the thrift store. I headed over early. My haul was a vintage in perfect condition Christmas tablecloth, a kitschy camp bowl for the trailer, a darling glass lemonade pitcher and a bag of books for Q. You can't beat the price of books. 95 cents for five awesome condition books. My girls already want to go again on Thursday. So we will be there bright and early.

You know when I was growing up thrift stores were not as vogue as they are now but half my wardrobe came from there. My mom would wash and iron new things she brought home all the time. I always had wonderful things to choose from. I think re-using and learning the value of buying used is important for kids today to learn. Consumerism is all too important and when I feel that urge to shop and don't have the money, I can get my shop on for less than $20 at the the thrift store. Plus, we just brought home a new washer and fridge so I am on a budget of sorts. I am so glad to have the new items but spending the money is always painful but let me tell you when I turn on the new washer, I feel like a kid with a brand new toy. Now to save up for a new dishwasher. Sadly it died, the mother board fried, four days after the new fridge and washer came home. What are the odds? For now I am the dishwasher.

You can see a tour of my little trailer I am decorating here.

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What I Have Been Buying and Thoughts on a Second Refrigerator

I have been stocking up with some tax return money. It has felt so decadent to buy so much but it will be used. I am back to my normal budget for groceries this week though, so only buying what I need and what is on special.

Thought you might be interested in what I stocked up on with a little extra money. I am increasingly interested in stockpiling dried foods. I would love to go longer between shopping trips and rely more on my pantry. Things like dried veggies and such that could be used for pizzas and such.

Here is what I bought at Sam's club:
Powdered milk (I use this whenever milk is called for in recipes)
Flour
Bread Flour
Rice
Olives
Tuna (But I often find it cheaper on sale at the market and stock up then)
Nuts
Cheese (You can freeze cheese wonderfully for grating and melting later. Sliced does not freeze well.)
Dried Fruits
OTC Meds we use
Scrubber Sponges
Butter

                                                                                My eclectic and small fridge.
Also, my husband and I have been going back and forth over buying a new fridge. The one we have is very small and we have a twin in the garage which we had turned off so we were getting by with the tiny fridge in the kitchen. It is a constant source of frustration and very limiting on what I can make and freeze ahead and buy in large quantities. We thought maybe we would buy a new larger fridge and for the size we want that makes much difference, we would have to spend a minimum of $1500.
     We had unplugged the garage refrigerator because of the cost of running it in the summer but after looking at the numbers, we have decided to plug it back in and use the existing refrigerators until one goes out on us. Even if you spent an extra $30 a month to run the fridge in the garage, it would only be for the three hottest months of the year but even at that amount per month, you could run it for 50 months to spend the $1500 it would take for a new one. Obviously it does not cost that much for most of the year so we feel with this size of family and the peace of mind it gives me to be prepared with frozen meals and lots of meal options given our busy schedule, it is worth the money to run the second fridge.
     We have made a conscience decision to use our possessions as long as we can. One of the smartest, self made men I personally know, once mentioned to my FIL who wanted to buy a new smaller car, to save on gas, how much gas he could buy for the cost of a new car to replace a paid off one. That really rang home with me. We justify spending money to buy things when we often could get by and repair what we have. We maintain our cars, appliances and such to put off having to spend the money to replace them. That is money still in your account for each day you don't have to buy something new.

Frugal Doings

We have been clearing the trees of oranges. We get critters in the yard so I don't want to attract them. This weekend I will make lots of orange juice and freeze the extras.

I am trying to not drive anywhere I don't need to. Will get an oil change on the way home from dropping off the kids at school. 

Organized and cleared an extra shelf in the service porch for more pantry storage.

This is the only pantry I started out with. Pathetic. I now have food in lots of cupboards in the service porch. Moving things out and making it more for food storage.

Tuna Mac made entirely from garden and pantry. The celery and chives and eggs are from the garden. All other ingredients from the pantry.

Keeping large amounts of my cleaning supplies making my own concoctions and always making sure I am stocked up means I don't have to drive out to pick up things I am out of. $83 spent at the market this week so far but I will have to head to Target to stock up on pet foods. We are about out.

Cost of Homemade Pizza vs. Frozen

Let's examine the cost of homemade pizza. Is it cheaper to make homemade pizza?

I have been wondering if it is cheaper for me to make homemade pizzas but of course it is healthier to make pizza at home. Of course it is cheaper than delivery or take out but homemade vs. frozen. So I finally did the calculations.

There are 40 cups of flour in a ten pound bag and I use five cups to make two large pizzas each time I make them. So a ten pound bag of flour at Sam's Club is $4.76 a bag and I use about .60 worth. The cheese is around $5 each time we make it. I usually buy this at Sam's too. Toppings are a smattering of what I have or have found marked down. I grow peppers in the yard to use and sometimes it is just cheese. So we will say toppings range $2-$3. With meat and the bit of yeast and oil I use we will say $4.

My total then for two large pizzas with leftovers for lunch the next day is $9.60. Frozen pizzas from the store are smaller and it would take three to feed us. On sale the cheapest large frozen pizzas are 3.99. So three frozen would cost me $11.97. So indeed it is cheaper for me to make them at home and probably far better for us. 

      

Friday nights are often pizza night in our house as long as it is not summer. I rarely use our oven in summer.

Tomorrow I will share my pizza crust recipe.

Update 9/24/2015 Food prices have risen sharply but if you buy your supplies like flour on yearly sales cycles you will still be able to make a healthier frugal pizza at home.

Frugal Challenge - Grocery Spending Update and Living From Our Pantry

Last week I spent less than $120 for all shopping for our needs. That included pet food and paper products as well. I am keeping well under my goal. I am hoping as my stock pile grows to lower the weekly amount I spend. In fact this week I need to pick up a few things we are running out of but though the fridge looks sort of bare, we are eating well.

Tonight we had breakfast for dinner. Some sausage from the freezer and my super fluffy pancakes. We are out of milk and eggs so I will make a stop tomorrow and redeem my $7 I earned from Fresh and Easy. I picked oranges from the yard tonight to make up sliced oranges for lunches tomorrow. Free! We are actually planting a couple new fruit trees in the yard this spring to extend our free produce from the yard. I get all the compost and chicken manure I need from the chickens.

Having stocked the pantry better has allowed me to start whittling down our grocery budget. Because I make lunches everyday for the two youngest and my husband, I do like to keep a variety of snacks and drinks to put in them. To some this may seem wasteful, maybe they could drink water, but I feel we save a great deal by not buying lunches out so it is nice to have a treat of a special drink or some chips and other goodies. I keep a stash hidden so that these are not consumed at home by the kids. They tend to make more homemade snacks in the house so that I can treat them in their lunches.

Juice boxes at the lowest price I have seen were bought and stocked in the pantry. These have lasted me over a month. Try and calculate how much your family will need for say a month, then maybe three months and then six months. When you see something you use at rock bottom prices stock up big. When I saw pasta at the lowest price I have seen in years I bought enough for a year. I know they thought I was strange checking out but we eat a lot of pasta dinners with meat as a condiment and I make lots of salads which are great in lunches and homemade mac and cheese for dinners. I swear by the pantry principle.

Remember this is Super Bowl weekend. Watch for low prices on condiments and snacks they might have on special and stock up.

How to Cover Your Grey Roots Between Colorings

How to cover your grey roots between colorings is maybe the best frugal tip I have ever shared here on the blog. Not sure why I have waited so long.

Sorry for the extreme closeup of my scalp but it was hard to get a picture by myself. So you can see I have about five weeks of regrowth here. Holding out until six weeks. I am trying to go longer between colorings to save money.

Take an eye shadow that is close to your hair color. Use a small makeup brush or paint brush and dip the brush in water and then into the eye shadow. Like water paints when you were a kid. Then just paint down your part or where the grey shows. Let is dry and it will last and last until you wash it again.

Here are the results.

Amazing isn't it? I go two days and it lasts the entire time until I shampoo my hair again.

My daughter bought me this grey root cover and I love it. Goes on great and lasts until the next time you shampoo. The brush is perfect for applying the fill in powder to cover grey hair between color.

You can find the grey root touch up here. Less than $7 and has lasted me a long time.

Frugal Challenge Room By Room - Saving Money in the Laundry Room

Thought I would start off this series with a room I spend a great deal of time in. With four kids, dogs and a husband that works out doors, I have to do laundry every day of the week except Sunday and at least two to three loads a day. That is sheets, clothes, dog beds. You get my drift.

So here is how I try to save money in the laundry room. I literally am going to do a detailed list of all efforts to save in this room.

1. The light:
  -Changed the ceiling fixture to a flouresent bulb years ago. It is still going strong and costs very little to run.

2. The washer:
    - Run the washer only full. This is easy for us.
   -  I have also turned down the number of minutes recently. How few can I use to get a load of laundry clean? Instead of running it 12 minutes I am now running it 10. Clothes seem fine.This may seem like nothing but two minutes times four loads is eight minutes a day times six days a so 48 less minutes the washer is churning a week. That has to save some electricity.
   - Can you get a load clean on cold water instead of warm? Our water does not get that cold in winter so I have turned up the cold tap on the warm cycle as well. If your homemade detergent does not dissolve then you can put it in a cup of hot water for a few minutes before you pour it in the washer. This has happened to me and this is what I do.
   -I do not use fabric softener so no money spent there.

3. The Dryer:
    -Keep your buzzer on. If yours is like mine it will buzz when the dryer is done and then keep going for a few more minutes. I try to get the clothes out on the first buzz.
  - Put the next load in while the dryer is warm still. This will save money on the dryer heating up again.
  -Clean the lint trap every single load.
  -I rarely use dryer sheets but if I do need one I tear them in half. Works fine and you get twice as many dryer sheets.
  -Of course you could hang your clothes. I do have a small line out back but I do use my dryer. I just don't want to spend the time with all the loads I do hanging it out. We have a gas dryer and our gas bill is very low so this is an area I feel is worth the use of the dryer.

I make my own laundry soap and stain remover. Recipes for homemade laundry detergent and stain remover
are here and here. I will buy laundry soap if I find a really great deal. Have not bought stain remover in over a year since I started making my own. You can see the post where I buy my supplies cheaply here.

Frugal Challenge - Grocery Spending Update

I am trying ever so hard to stick to a tighter grocery budget. This means more work on my part as I am having to prepare more food from scratch. This of course is good as processed foods are not really that good for you. I still like to proving delicious snacks for lunches and quick breakfasts.

Pickled eggs are a favorite. I save old jars of juice when we eat the pickles and then boil up some eggs, peel and put in the juice for at least two days. The longer the better. Pickle juice is also a great way to add flavor and moisten pasta and potato salads. My recipes for those are here.

I never throw away a banana. Just pop in the freezer. They are ready to peel after about ten minutes on the counter. Throw them frozen in smoothies and thaw for banana bread.

Last week I spent $112 at the market and $24 at my local produce store which also sells bulk grains and marked down bread. I can tell the kids miss the quick snacks but I told them once they are gone then you make a snack, eat leftovers, etc. They are good about this. I don't buy a lot of packaged foods. We are already out of lunchmeat for the week. Leftovers, tuna sammies and wraps will be made for lunches until Friday.
I have decided to remove the pet food and OTC/Health and beauty category from my food budget. It was too hard to merge the two. I now have a separate budgeted amount for those items.

Easiest Way to Cook Dried Beans

Okay, second full week of the New Year's frugal challenge. Trying to cook more from scratch and it doesn't get more basic than dried beans. Lower in sodium than canned and much cheaper when you buy them dried.

This week I made my black bean salad. Trying to make healthier options for lunches for hubby.

Bag of dried beans was a $1.56. I can make 4 to five batches of my salad from this where two cans of black  beans is around a $1 if not on sale.

So easy to get the beans ready yourself. The night before I rinsed what I wanted to use and let them soak overnight. I then drained and rinsed again and put them in the crockpot with water cover about two inches about the beans and put on low for about 5-6 hours. My crockpot runs hot so adjust for yours. You may need to put on high.

When I felt they were done I rinsed them with cold water and made my salad. Super easy. No sodium added.

Here is the salad right before I mixed it. Doesn't it look pretty. The recipe for the black bean salad is here.

Frugal Challenge - Room By Room and my Faves from the .99 Cents Store

I have been doing some inventory in our house examining where we can save in each room as part of my frugal challenge. Making my own cleaners is one way and what to buy at the dollar stores to save money making homemade cleaners. We have had brief meetings at the kitchen table reminding the kids of ways to save around the house. So I thought I would take my money saving challenge around the house and share with you so I will be doing my Frugal Challenge Room by Room.

It will challenge me to see where I can save in greater detail in each and every room.

Also wanted to share what I think are good buys at the .99 Store. Basic cleaning supplies are a good buy there and since I am committing to making as many of my own cleaners cheaply, I stocked up.

Today, I took a few bucks and bought some things I use for basic cleaners. I bought ammonia, cleanser, scouring pads, bleach (you can't find it for .99 anywhere else around here) and some dish soap.

The ammonia and dish soap go to make my homemade laundry stain remover. It will easily last the year.

The Zote which I grate for my home made laundry soap, is .59 a piece at the .99 Store. Better price than any where else. I now use Zote to make a great all purpose cleaner and also an all purpose bleach cleaner. So cheap to make my own and costs just pennies.

I also buy rubbing alcohol that I mix with water to use as my all purpose spray cleaner. It is the best glass cleaner ever and I use it on counters as well. The recipe is here. You will see other items I use like vinegar and baking soda. Check out all of our Frugal Tips on our Frugal living page.

Frugal Challenge - Shopping the Loss Leaders

Remember the term "loss leaders?" It referred to the items grocery stores would put on their front page of sale ads to lure shoppers in knowing they would not make money on those items but the other items you would pick up while in the store. Well, I am not sure if there are any items they will loose money on but the stores all still have those bargain items to lure you in. The reason I bring this up is I am doubling down on lowering my grocery budget. Seems impossible but I want to closely track my spending and see if I can achieve this.

I used to be a big coupon shopper but have really cut back as we no longer have any stores that double coupons in our area. (Thanks Extreme Coupon shows) The value of the coupons is so much lower than before and I could not justify the rising cost of the Sunday paper so I cancelled it. I also would spend hours cutting and listing my shopping deals to find most items already bought out or out of stock and felt it was not worth my time.

So now I am going to try a new approach. In my daily travels of running the kids around I pass all the markets in our area. I will keep track online of any good deals and if it is worth a stop, I will pop in to snag the deals. Keeping to my list and not picking up extra items unless needed.

Here is what I have picked up so far this week and what I spent:
At CVS two lotions I really needed. Spent $6.85 with a prescription to get $6 back in extra care bucks (ECB) plus a $5 ECB for my last quarter shopping so I have $11 to spend next time. Good day to me.

At Albertsons they had the large packs of toilet paper and paper towels for $4.88. You can buy two a day for three days. Eight rolls of paper towels for $4.88 is a good buy in these parts when you can easily spend a dollar per roll or more.
I also bought:
Large beef roast (two meals will come out of this)
box of turkey burgers
buns
lettuce
tomatoes
3 boxes cereal
granola bars
large pack paper towels 8 rolls
large pack of toilet paper 16 double rolls
Used $1 coupon
total: $40.49 Not the best deals but worth buying

Next time I will share what I think is worth buying at the 99cents Store.
Sunny Simple Sunday will be up this afternoon.

Frugal Challenge - Cash Only Christmas

For the second year in a row, I spent only cash for all of my Christmas shopping, yet somehow this year I had a harder time covering it all and I even cut back on how much I spent. It seemed as if other things in life really hit us harder this year including all the everyday expenses plus large raises in college tuition for our second daughter. So then came Christmas, and though I am just about done, I am heading out today, early, for the last few items for stockings and some gift cards. I needed to wait until payday like I am sure so many others have.

When I was younger I would just charge everything I didn't have cash for and then cry when the bills piled in. I would over spend and buy way too much for the kids. These past years we have changed our thinking and spend much more carefully. Even though it is hard to always stretch the cash, it is so good to know I will wake up on Dec. 26th knowing I will not have Christmas to still pay for in the New Year. We have cut who we exchange with each year but the list is cut as far as I WANT to go. I still love to give gifts and if we can afford it, then I like to do it.

The kids gifts are mostly practical. No Ipads or anything fancy, Mostly new coats and clothes and of course some toys for Q. If our girls want something like a computer or expensive electronic they have to save for it. We can give them the amount of cash we would spend normally and they can add other gift money or savings to buy it themselves. This is nothing new for us but just what we have always done as we have four kids and never budgeted that much for a single gift. I think this has worked well as the kids have all of their original game boys and ipods that they have bought mostly themselves. You know the old adage, you will take better care of what you spend your own money on. Now don't get me wrong. If I could, I would love to give them these types of gifts, but like I said our budget never allowed for it so this is what we have come up with for our house.

Here is what I did that worked to help pay cash for Christmas but also improvements I need to make:
1) I bought gift cards I knew I would need throughout the year.
2) I have a gift savings account but clearly I need to budget more into it each month.
3) Purchase more gifts earlier in the year.
4) Budget more for those end of year expenses that always hit and I act like I am surprised. You know how    that goes right?

My husband and I have committed that after the holidays we are going to develop a new written budget. Together at the table hammering it out. We have some specific goals we want to meet and I don't have much faith that the gov't is going to solve our fiscal problems. I see higher taxes in our future. We want to be prepared for this as best we can. Our expenses are not going down but up, as incomes stay stagnant. Some things are changing for us, and college expenses are rising but we need to prepare for the coming changes the government is going to hand us all next year.
You can find my posts on the Thrifty Living Series here.

Frugal Challenge Update, Is This the New Normal?

How to write this post without offending anyone? Hmm. These are just my thoughts this week as a middle class mom trying to make ends meet. First off, it is not lost on me how lucky we are, so don't think I am whining because my thoughts do not stem from that but from my day to day life doing what we all are doing, trying to stretch an even thinner dollar even farther.

Everything that you need to buy is skyrocketing and it seems no one is going to do anything about it. Here in our state gas is so high that you really have to think before you drive anywhere. Now the last time gas spiked like this guess what spiked next? Food, yes already sky high food prices are bound to climb again. If it costs more to ship food the higher prices will be sure to follow.

When fuel prices adjust do the food prices and all the other goods we need go down? No they don't. So I ask is this the new normal? There is no way wages will keep up with these rising costs. Living on less has become the norm for a lot of us and I do live a life where we have enough to eat and a nice roof over our head and I know some do not. I know personally others who do not have that because of job loss and other reasons.

But I want hope in the future for my kids. I see graduates who cannot get jobs everywhere I look. How does  someone graduate top of class and find it hard to get a job? I know keeping at it is important and hopefully jobs will be found, but this is not what it looked like for me when I graduated from college. It is not what it looked like even a few short years ago.

We are facing a point I fear in our country where we may not turn these things around. I will not get political on here as that is not my format but I will say it how it is for me and for my family as we see it and live it every day. No matter who wins this next election, I ask again is this the new normal? After a while I fear we will forget more of how it was and accept a new lower standard of the American Dream. 

Frugal Challenge - A New Way of Grocery Shopping

A few years ago I needed to find ways to save on our grocery and health and beauty shopping and began in earnest on the coupon craze at the time. I did find lots of deals and managed to build a nice stockpile but now I have changed the way I shop. Coupon deals are not as good as they used to be. Stores around here no longer double and coupons are often of less value. I was finding I was working hours to prepare a list and saving only a few dollars. 

Now, with this new school year, my time is even more limited so I have to shop and be done in one or two trips a week. And that is for all of our needs from pet supplies and paper goods to food items. Here is what I do now. I will share on average what I spend and it may seem a lot to some of you but with rapidly rising food prices, I feel I am doing okay. I shop for six animals and six people in this house. I cook every day with the occasional exception. Everyone in this house eats breakfast at home and takes lunches to work and that includes my husband. Dinner is for six or more people a night depending on guests.

I try to spend less than $150 per week on food and toiletries. I do go over at times but this is my goal. This last week I spent $138.29 at the grocery store and $24.12 at the produce store.

Now, for this week, I will go over as I made a Target run for pet food and toiletries, but for six people, three meals a day, and all our pets, I feel this is a reasonable amount.

First, I no longer plan my meals around the sale paper but the mark down meat section instead.  I head there first when I shop and do my main grocery shopping each Friday. Some weeks I find loads and fill my cart and others I find very little marked down. That is why I buy as many good buys as I can on the weeks there is plenty to choose from. All the meat in the picture below was bought marked down. I bring it home and freeze or cook immediately. Meat can be the largest portion of my grocery bill, so I have to cut corners here. I fill in with meatless meals and you can find lots of our favorites here.  

If something is marked down and I think we will eat it, it goes in the cart. Last week a dozen eggs marked 50% off. I have lots of fresh eggs but older eggs are best for hard boiling. They came home and I boiled right away. They became part of a potato salad and egg salad for the next days lunches.

A small beef roast and small pork roast were cooked in the crock pot together. I shredded one for BBQ sandwiches and the other for crock pot chili verde. Cook once, eat twice. With our new busier than ever schedule, I have had to really plan and cook more meals on the weekends to prepare quickly on busy week nights. Crock pot recipes are a favorite of mine for cook ahead freezer meals.

I just wanted to show you how a good meal can me made for so much less. Everything in this meal was bought marked down. My favorite produce store has a marked down section as well and I bought a bag of corn and red potatoes for $1.50. Mushrooms needed to be used from the fridge. Steak, bought marked down, was marinated and grilled and an over sized zucchini was grilled on the barbecue. The cost of this meal was:
zucchini - free
steak - 6.49
mushrooms 1.00
corn and potatoes - 1.50
total: 8.99 or $1.50 per person

I think that was pretty darned good for such a delicious meal. I hope I have showed you how to stretch your grocery budget with minimal coupon clipping and much less running around. With the prices of gas so high, over $4 a gallon here, it can cost money to drive around trying to pick up all the bargains. I don't want to spend dollars to save cents. I will share more next time on continuing to increase my stockpile while staying on budget.

Frugal Challenge - Factors Affecting Food Prices

Do you ever feel like this economy thing is never going to turn around? I think we may be looking at sustained high prices for food maybe from here on in. You buy a box of cereal that is the same price but it is barely the size of a book. Food costs affect us all. You have to eat.

Around here we have been tying to beef up some of our food storage. We do not have a nice walk in pantry. I have to deal with the storage in a 50s house. We did add the cabinet below in our service porch for more storage. We had other items in here before and some paper goods and we moved them somewhere else. Constant editing and reorganizing to find better ways to store more. That is my song. Here you will see we have lots of snacks. I stock up when I find deals but we having been buying more items that that are quickly going up.

We all know corn prices are skyrocketing due to wide spread drought. They say this will affect 75% of the food items you buy. We have been stocking up on extra oil, flour and grain products that are basics in so many meals. We had to spend an unexpected large amount on one of our older cars this week and also have two college age girls who we wrote check after check for this month. Whew! We are on one of our self imposed spending fasts. Food and gas is all we are buying for the next two weeks. If we cut back on all other spending we can rebuild our checking account faster. So to provide meals seven days a week three times a day, for six people, it takes a lot of food. Pantry basics are vital to cooking meals economically. Breads, muffins, soups, cookies are all items that fill tummies and can be made so much more cheaply from scratch.

 I really want to beef up my supply of pastas and canned tuna and other meats. We are also learning to eat more meals without meat. I mean when an average sized beef roast is $17 who can afford that. I am finding mark down meat even harder to find as others are snagging them up as quick as it gets put out. Many are finding it hard to stretch the food budget.

Tuna Noodle Mac is a great easy filling dish that can be made from pantry staples. I will make a huge bowl and we will eat it with some cut up fruit for a quick dinner and there will be enough left for lunches the next day.

This of course is not all my food storage but just some of it. I am looking into freeze dried items like veggies to have more long term food storage and more variety on hand to create entire meals.
Besides food, I am stocking up on the basic cleaning supplies for the home made cleaners I make on my own. My Homemade Laundry Stain Remover is really a great all purpose cleaner. I used it on the kitchen floor the other day and tonight I used it in my van to deep clean all the crud off the doors and cup holders. Worked great!

So gas is rising again and food prices are rising even higher. One thing we did wrong this summer was to keep our garage fridge plugged in. With hot temps, the amount of energy to keep it cool in a hot garage did not make it worth the small supply of bargain meat I had in there. It will be cleaned out and unplugged for the rest of the summer and not ran in the summer ever again. We left it unplugged last summer and it really helped with the electricity bill but we were attempting to stockpile some meat but for about half the difference of running it, I can just buy meat on sale and keep a small supply in the house freezer. Lesson learned.
Here is a link to a post I did in the Thrifty Living Series that links to a lot of former posts I have done on stretching your grocery budget. Next on this topic is where I shop to find the best prices.

Frugal Challenge - This is a Great Time to Stock Up on Office Supplies

Back to school is the time to stock up on office supplies. Here is what to buy in August.

Back to school shopping is here. Every store has a designated area full of supplies for all the kids headed back to the classroom. Did you know that even if you don't have school aged kids this is a great time to stock up on office supplies?

Back To School Is The Best Time To Stock Up On Office Supplies:

Scotch tape - Great deals. Now is the time to stock up for all that Christmas wrapping. I found these cute colorful ones for 99 cents but they also had the multi packs priced lower than the rest of the year.

Pens and pencils - I  always buy one big back of pens that lasts me all year and I always find them for 99 cents or a dollar in the back to school section.

Glue and glue sticks - Multi packs for a dollar. I buy enough for all year.

Staplers - Lowest prices of the year.

Flash drives - You can find an 8 GB flash drive for a few dollars.

Calculators - Dirt cheap if you need a basic one for your desk. I like to keep one where I pay bills.

Computer paper - I try to buy enough for the whole year. It is discounted this time of year in the school section so stock up.

Also a lot of snack packs are priced very low this time of year. I try to buy several every time I am in the store to stash away for later.

Frugal Challenge - Clean and Organize the Refrigerator and Gain a Meal

I have one more week before school starts around here and I am trying to get the kitchen organized with some frugal tips to save money. This is the place we leave from and come home to for a meal, in shape for what is going to be one of the most hectic years I have had in a long time.

Last week, while several of the kids were away from the house, I spent a day cleaning and organizing the refrigerator. Yes, even the fridge can work better for our busy school year ahead.

Here are some things I do to keep our very small fridge in some kind of order and frugal eating tips.

Use one of your small drawers for your yogurt and pudding cups. They were always falling all over the shelves and being shoved to the back so I decided to put them all in a drawer. Now when someone wants one they are all here in one place.

Line your door shelves and drawers with paper towels. That way sticky bottoms of bottles and jars go on the towel and not the shelf and keeps things cleaner longer.

Organize like items on each shelf. Now getting my kids to keep up with this is always a challenge but why would you not put all the mustards together? Why does this not make sense to the kids?

I love baskets and use them even in the freezer. A small basket on the door holds small packages of partially used nuts and chocolate. This keeps them from landing under something bigger and me not knowing I already have pine nuts in the freezer.

Use a bigger basket on the shelf of the freezer to hold all those odd little partial packages of meats. In here was a half pack of hotdogs, two fish fillets and some Canadian bacon. This way these small things don't become lost in the freezer never to be seen again. I just pull the basket out for those odds and ends I know are in there.

One benefit of cleaning out the freezer is a dinner I didn't have to shop for this week as it was made up of older things that needed using up. Don't throw food away. It is like burning your money. Took a corned beef bought in March and cooked it in the crock pot and then sliced it for sandwiches.

And a partial package of pepperoni in my little green basket along with some pantry staples became a wonderful Italian pasta salad.

With food so expensive, and I believe getting even more so, we have to become careful stewards of the food we do buy. Make it last, use it up and eat every last drop is my motto.