Cleaning the Lava Pit (AKA the Oven)

We all know how it goes. You bake a pie, a casserole, a cake that decides it doesn't want to stay in the pan... and they drip and drop "stuff" all over your oven floor. It smokes and stinks and eventually you forget about it. Until the next big holiday rolls around and you want to impress with your mad cookin' skillz... and sparkling clean oven. And you spend hours either running the oven's "self cleaning cycle" - which stinks to high heaven - and then more hours sweeping and wiping out the leftover residue, OR you spend hours on your hands and knees scrubbing your knuckles raw trying to scrape off the lava-rock-like substance that has become one with your oven floor.

"Here I am to save the day! Mickey Mouse is on his way!" or something like that. No, really, I want to offer you a last minute Thanksgiving Day Feast Preparation tip for keeping your oven lava-free until next year. This morning I decided it was a good time to clean our oven.

Exhibit A: My dirty oven.

Note my mistake in not covering the WHOLE floor of the oven!!

There is baked-on "goo" in the 2" open space on either side of the foil.

Also note that the majority of the "lava" is contained on the foil!

Under normal circumstances (meaning, no open cracks in the foil), I simply pull out the dirty foil, wad it up, toss it in the trash, and voila! a clean oven. Since I was in a hurry the last time I put down clean foil (obviously!) I did have to spend some time cleaning up the edges of the floor. When you're in a REAL hurry and don't put foil down at all... you end up with baked-on-for-life scars like you see in my freshly scrubbed clean oven.

Exhibit B: My clean oven.

Note the baked on stuff from a previous time with no foil.

(it looks much worse in the picture)

It's important to use foil.

Please ignore the runny-looking drips on the back wall.

There was no way I could reach them in my pregnant state.

Exhibit C: My newly foiled oven.

Nice, sparkly clean foil! Note that I've made SURE

to get it all the way to the edges of the floor and then some.

Exhibit D: My tools for the project.

Comet, a razor, a bucket of hot water and a dishrag.

That's all there is to it! The Comet is a fume-free, non-abrasive scrubbing powder so I can use it without fear of scratching the glass in the door or the enamel.

The razor blade... well, I'm sure it could do serious scratching damage, but I use it just like I do for my glass stove-top and it works wonders for removing what the dishrag can't scrub off. Seriously. I even attacked some of the old stuff again today and managed to get some more of it off.

(If you're lucky, your oven door is removable. Then you can practically climb inside the thing and scrub it with great ease. I thought ours came off, but it doesn't. All the more reason to keep the foil covering the entire bottom! Haha!)

After I do all the initial scrubbing, I do wipe it down good with clean water, and then heat it up good to get rid of any soap residue that might be left. This can emit somewhat of a faint odor, but really not much. After that, I put down the clean foil and call it a day.

*Disclaimer: There have been a handful of people that have told me that putting foil in the bottom of the oven like this will mess with the baking temperature, the way it bakes, the way the thermometer reads the oven temperature, so on and so forth. I keep using my oven like I always have, things bake like normal, and I can't tell a difference.

Grocery Trip 10/28 ... 74% Savings!!

I really couldn't believe it when this was all said and done. I knew I was potentially going to spend "a lot", but that I would also save "a lot." I just hadn't realize how much the "save a lot" part was going to be!!! Kroger has a 10-item Mega Event Sale going on this week where for every 10 participating items you buy (you can mix and match) you get $5 off your total (or $.50 off each of the 10 items). When combined with their double coupon policy (up to $.50 in my region), some pretty amazing things can happen! I don't think I could have come away with this much stuff for so little if it wasn't for two things: My mother-in-law getting coupon inserts from her friends and neighbors for me, and The Grocery Game. I tell you, if you haven't checked out TGG yet, you really should. I've yet to come across any blog that covers the sales in as much detail as TGG. I know there are other free services that are similar to TGG, but I don't care for them as well. The best thing about TGG is that what used to be the $1 four week trial is now FREE!! If you've been couponing, have a good stash of coupons on hand, and a Kroger nearby enough that it's worth it, you should really check it out this week! My favorite thing about TGG is that they list UN-advertised sales - the ones you don't see in the sale paper and wouldn't know about unless you walked up and down every aisle looking at the shelf tags. To me it is all worth the $1.25/week (after the trial period it's $10 for 8 weeks) to know this "inside information" without spending hours of my time trying to do the same thing. Anyway, enough rambling... (but if you do sign up for The Grocery Game, please let me know either in a comment or via the "Contact Me" button so I can give you my email address and get the referral, because referrals = free weeks for me :P )

Here's the loot:(7) Yukon Gold Instant Potatoes - $.37 ea. (these are for New Year's Day)
(9) 32oz. Gatorade - $.49 ea.
(2) 64oz. Welch's 100% Juice - $1.49 ea.
(1) Cornstarch - $.79
12 double rolls Quilted Northern TP - $4.49
(2) Cat Treats - FREE
(12) Carnation Evaporate Milk - FREE (I can use this in cooking or baking or whatever)
(20) Del Monte Stewed Tomatoes - $.29 ea.
(12) Campbell's Cream Soup (Chic. & Mushroom) - $.68 ea.
(1) Reynold's Parchment Paper - $1.74
(4) 32 load Snuggle Liquid Fabric Softener - FREE
(2) 18 ct. Eggs - $1.49 ea.
(4) BirdsEye Steamfresh Corn - $.49 ea.
(1) Pillsbury Simply Cookie Dough - $.74
(1) Lettuce - $1.45
(1) 5lb. Bread Flour - $2.49
(4) Chex Mix Special Dark - FREE (gave one to my MIL)
(4) Pepperidge Farms Garlic Bread - $.69 ea.
(3) 8oz. Land'O'Lakes Spreadable Butter - $.19 ea.
(5) Hall's Cough Drops - FREE
(2) 8oz. Cheese - $1.50 ea.
Sirloin Tip Roast - $4.31 ($2.49/lb)
1.45 lb. Ground Beef - $3.56
(3) Dental Floss - FREE
(1) Nestle's Mini's - $.99

Shelf Price - $223.33
OOP - $58.62
Saved - $164.71 or 74%!!!!!!!!

And here's my receipt to prove it :D This is the longest receipt I've gotten YET, and the biggest "real food" savings I've EVER had! Ok, with the exception of the TP, cough drops, cat treats and parchment paper... but STILL!
Both Daniel and I were both pretty excited about all of this! He was wonderful and helped me put everything away. My cupboard that was crammed full of summer sale things like BBQ Sauce, Salad Dressings and Condiments is now crammed full of winter sale things like canned stuff :) There's still plenty of condiments and salad dressings to last a while yet, but we've put a decent hurting on it since summer!

Buying A Meat Grinder

I am such a weirdo. I mean, how many of you have considered buying a meat grinder? Or maybe you're a weirdo just like me and you've already taken the plunge. I've thought about getting one off and on ever since I turned (even more) frugal a year or so after we got married.

Plain and simple, ground beef is ex.pen.sive. And the "good stuff" is not often marked down, and when it is it's still an arm and a leg per pound (instead of both arms and both legs). I don't mind buying the full-fat ground beef, but my prefrence is the leaner, the better I don't always want to brown and then drain the hamburger before I use it, and I think the leaner stuff makes better whatever.

I'm in the "thinking about it" mode these past couple weeks. Beef roasts seem to be the "loss leader" sale item lately, and I'm just WISHING that I had a meat grinder so I could buy some of these really nice roasts that are on sale for $1.77/lb and make some really nice lean ground beef!

I brought it up to Daniel last week when I saw Food Lion's new salepaper, and we talked about it a little, but I don't know how serious to go with this idea. I checked online and it looks like the best reviews are going to the Waring Pro MG800... and it comes with a price-tag of about 200 smackaroos. So then I have to wonder if it's worth shelling out the $$ to have good quality ground beef for less?

Here's some random figures:

if we eat 100lbs. ground chuck (full fat)/year @ $1.99/lb (on markdown) = $199.00/yr.

If we bought the meat grinder @ $189.00
+ 100lbs. lean roasts @ $1.77/lb
= $3.66/lb the first year
= $2.71/lb the second year
= $2.40/lb the third year
= $2.24/lb the fourth year
= $2.14/lb the fifth year
= $2.08/lb the sixth year
and so on and so forth

Even by the second year (and maybe even the first, I haven't looked at full price) it would be cheaper per pound than full price lean ground beef. Now, I really have no idea how much ground beef we do or would eat per year, but with our expanding family, in another year or two, it's going to start increasing.

You might wonder why I wouldn't go with a manual grinder. Well, my quick answers to that are, first off, it has to be mounted and I'm not really interested in having one of those gizmos bolted to my counter top or kitchen table. And second off, it would take some serious arm gumption to grind through multiple pounds of roast since I would buy several roasts at once to grind through... and to get a nice grind you have to do it more than once, so if I bought 10 lbs. of roast, I would end up grinding 20 lbs. Yes, we could hook a drill up to the grinder (it works great for
Squeezo's!) but then we still have the mounting issue. Even if we would mount it to a block of wood, then we need to have a surface to clamp the whole apparatus to, and neither my counter top or kitchen table would work for that. I could always do it outside on a saw-horse & plywood table, I guess...

And ground beef would only be the beginning! Think of pork roasts that go on sale for under $1.00/lb? Ground pork... homemade sausage of whatever flavor we wanted... Shucks if we wanted to get super healthy we could buy turkeys when they are on sale for $.39/lb and make turkey-burger!

Call me silly, weird, extreme-country-chick, whatever, but I'm really liking the idea of having this machine on my pantry shelf. And yes, I just measured to be sure, and it will just fit on my main appliance shelf :)

Next week I might want to buy a milk cow and butter churn.

Bigger Isn't Always Better

In my latest quest to coordinate meals for 40 people, I am making every effort to save money wherever I can and still get high-quality food. I've written out several meal plans so I know about what I'm looking for, especially the meats. Since I know what meats I want to serve, I can keep my orbs peeled for sales on them. Or, if a really fantastic sale comes up on a meat I don't have planned, I will try and swap it out if I can.

Next week (if it's a go, I still need to make sure I'm doing it - I've learned to never assume!) I have chicken breasts planned. Normally, that is not the cheapest part of the chicken to buy, but I was fairly certain that between the time I planned the meal and the day I would need to prepare it, somebody somewhere was very likely to run a decent sale on it. Sure enough, I opened the sale-papers Sunday to find them on sale for $1.78/lb.

Now, most all people that I've mass-cooked with (aside from my sisters) are all about convenience when it comes to purchasing food. If they can buy it in bulk the day before, then that is the way they will automatically go. I wonder if they ever consider that they could pay 50+% less if they pre-shopped a bit and hit the sales? I dunno. I also understand that it could depend on if you're feeding 50 or 500 - I doubt Food Lion will want to sell you a whole shipment of Chicken Breasts! But they might, who knows :)

Just to be sure, both last week when I was getting 40 lbs. of chuck roasts, and this week when I hope to buy 65 chicken breasts, I've called around to all the "big box stores" to make sure I'm getting the most bang for my buck.

This week, here are the price comparisons for Fresh, Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts:
Costco - $2.99/lb (yoweee!!!)
BJ's - $2.79/lb (Yikes!!)
Sam's Club - $1.97/lb (that's more like it)
Farmer's Foods - $1.78/lb (normally $3.79) - now THAT's what I'm talkin' 'bout!!

I also check with the local store to make sure there isn't a limit on how much I can buy. If I do end up buying from the local store, I will check with them again to make sure they have the amount I want available.

I will most likely end up buying some things from the big box stores, but if I see what I need for a good deal, I'm going to get as much as I can on sale. For instance, I also need Cream of Onion soup for next week. Guess what's on sale at Kroger this week with coupons? Campbell's Cream Soups! For a very good price. A low enough sale price that I won't run to each big box store to compare the per-can price, especially since I won't use a whole case.

I guess the punch-line to all this is that yes, the big box stores ARE cheaper than the non-sale price at the local stores. BUT, so far they can't beat the sales!!

Canning Tomatoes

Here's the canning I did (with the help of my mom for a couple hours) on Monday. She brought her two giant pots and we filled them with tomatoes! All of the tomatoes for the soup (these two pots full) are from my in-laws garden, it was about a bushel.

After she left, both pots were ready to make into soup. I took off about 2 quarts of water and poured it down the drain, then reserved another 3 quarts in case the soup was too thick. I used the blender to make the soup, it was much faster than running the tomatoes through my victorian mill (I call it the coney mill since it's cone shaped). After I'd run the tomatoes (and onions and celery) through, I added the other seasonings and the reserved juice, and ended up with the biggest pot full of soup. You can see my waterbath pot next to the soup pot... so you can tell it's a pretty big pot!And here's the tomato stuff I've canned so far this summer. The other evening I washed all the jars and got them on the pantry shelves. The dark red is plain sauce, and the oranger looking stuff is the soup. I've not canned tomato soup before (Daniel is not a big soup eater), but this is a really yummy recipe and I know we'll enjoy it this winter.

14 quarts, 5 pints of soup, and 9 quarts, 5 pints of sauce.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Yesterday I did not get everything done on my list, but I did get quite a bit done and was satisfied with that. (I knew the list was pretty long and I probably wouldn't get everything done anyway.)

I did, however, realize when I started my first load of laundry that I needed to make more soap. I used the last scoop on the first load and had to do another load yet. So, I changed my immediate plans a bit and made a batch!

A while ago, Rebbecca asked about my laundry soap, so here it is :) Gayle introduced me to the idea last fall. Buying laundry soap has always been a big thing for me. I think I never realized how much moo-lah mom must've spent on laundry detergent. And she used Tide (because of allergies), so I'm sure she nearly had to take out a loan each time she restocked. 10 kids and a husband that all wallered around in either (or all three) manure, bovines or dirt at least once a day makes for some seriously dirty clothes. There wasn't any such thing as "this is clean enough to wear again". When Daniel and I got married and I had to buy laundry soap, I couldn't believe my eyes how expensive it was. So I tried different inexpensive kinds. I found out which kinds just made bubbles and the clothes were still dirty and still smelled dirty after washing. I eventually settled on a brand that was on the low-end of the "middle class" as far as expensiveness but did the job. Then I started my frugal journey and found out that you can make it homemade!! I read enough blogs and reviews and whatnot to be fairly confident that I could make it and it would clean Daniel's dirty, sweaty, filthy clothes and I would be satisfied with the end results - for pennies!

I don't remember how much the ingredients cost, but I'm fairly certain enough to say that a batch cost less than $5. And it is so easy and quick to make. It takes just a little longer to make than it takes to boil some water. See? Easy :)

You need: Borax, Washing Soda, and Fels Naptha, Ivory or Zate bar soap. Washing Soda is different than baking soda. I have only been able to find it at Kroger. I use the Ivory soap because I have yet to find a store here locally that carries the Fels Naptha.

You also need a 2 gallon bucket with a lid. I use a 1 gallon bucket because that's the size I had on hand - but it only holds 1/2 a batch.


For 1 recipe:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap or 1 bar Ivory or Zate soap, grated

Put grated soap in saucepan. Add 6 cups water.
Heat and stir until soap melts.
Add 1/2 cup Washing Soda and 1/2 cup Borax. Stir until dissolved.

Pour 4 cups hot water into 2 gallon bucket.
Add soap mixture and stir.
Add 1 gallon + 6 cups water to bucket and stir.

Stir frequently during the first couple hours to keep it from gelling into one big blob. It should be finished gelling after 24 hours. The finished consistency has been compared to egg noodle soup. It's kinda a slimy, gloppy gel, not a solid gel.

Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry.

Other notes: The soap is a low-sudsing soap so it is ok to use in the High-E washing machines. It also leaves NO scent on the clean laundry. If you like scented laundry you can add 1/2-1 oz of essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice.

Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha Soap or 1 bar Ivory or Zate soap
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax Powder
2 gallon bucket

Grate soap and put in saucepan. Add 6 cups water and heat and stir until soap melts.
Add washing soda and borax; stir until dissolved. Remove from heat.
Pour 4 cups hot water into bucket, add soap mixture and stir.
Add 1 gallon + 6 cups water and stir. Let stand for about 24 hours to gel, stirring frequently the first few hours to keep the gel broken up.

Use 1/2 cup per load of laundry.

I'm not MIA

I know it's been several days since my last post, and that one was scheduled to boot. I'm still here! We had a big weekend and Monday was such a good and productive day for me that I never got around to writing a post... though I did read everyone else's blogs :P Yesterday was still a good day but I ran out of time again.

Last night a huuuuuge thunderstorm rolled through. Plenty of lightening and thunder, though none of it happened right over us, we could hear it! We've had a couple in the past months where it lightnings and the thunder cracks simultaneously... the kind that make you wonder if it's the rapture! Even after the bulk of the storm was well past us, every now and then we could hear thunder rumbling... and they were looooong rumbles, like a train going past. It was pretty amazing. We got some good rain out of it - my rain gauge is an ice cream bucket that is on the back steps. It accumulated probably 3-4 inches the last rain, and this morning it looks to have at least another inch in it. I should get a proper rain gauge so I know how much water my garden is getting. I'm just glad that I haven't had to water it this week, and I didn't have to cart water out to our two little trees last evening :)

After the past couple weeks of grocery shopping and going over budget, be it a little or a lot, I was getting in a funk, wondering if a) I'm expecting too much out of $25 or b) I'm letting myself get to loose in what I'm getting.

With summer here, Gatorade is quickly becoming a real need item, and it's not cheap. Sidenote: Yes, the dry powdered mix IS cheaper. However, it makes Daniel sneeze, I guess something in it bothers his allergies, so we quit using it and shell out the $$ for the ready made. While it's cheaper than soft drinks, it's still a big hunk of $ to shell out when there's only $25 to start with.

And then when we feed extra people, either by guests or taking a meal to someone, it's nigh impossible... either before or after the fact. Before if we're out of something and so I have to buy extra to go around, or after when something has been used up and I have to replenish.

We're having 2 couples from our church to dinner tomorrow, and either way I sliced or diced it, I had to buy more _____. We didn't have enough of any one kind of meat in the freezer to feed 3 hungry men and their wives. And... I like to provide a good spread when we have company :)

I was drawing a complete blank on the menu. I wanted something summery, but we didn't have enough beef or chicken to do BBQ for that many people and I wasn't in the mood for pot-pie or casserole. I was looking for something light and simple, but yet super good. I had a lightbulb moment (don't you love those?!) Monday evening and figured it all out. But I will need to buy alot of stuff to make it work. A couple months later and I would have the veggies I want out of my garden, but it certainly helps that almost all the veggies I need for my menu are on sale this week!!!

Anyway, back to the budget topic, I went to Food Lion yesterday and bought just a few things that were on sale that were on the list for this week. More than 1/2 the budget was gone and I still have plenty more that I need to get! (Including toilet paper since we're almost out - and TP is another high $ item.)

Last evening Daniel and I were sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather that included a nice breeze and I talked to him about it. Here's what we've come up with:

For just the 2 of us, we'll keep the $25 budget - but only use it for food things. Non-food stuff (toiletries, soaps, cleaners, paper stuff) will come out of a separate budget.

When we're feeding more than just the 2 of us (guests or taking someone a meal), it's fine to spend more than the $25.

Whew, that made me feel a lot better :) It's something that I've been hashing around and around and around the last several weeks. I don't spend lotsa $ on non-food, but at the same time for the past several months we've been living off our free toilet paper stash. Since free toilet paper is no more and I'm not ready to make the move to Family Cloth, we'll have to go back to actually paying money to wipe our behinds. Isn't it bizarre? You pay money for food to eat so you can stay alive and what your body doesn't use you have to pay money so you can be clean. Maybe we should just put in a johnny-house and go back to using newspaper and magazines :P We could kill two birds with one stone with our Sunday paper subscription that we only get for the coupons :P I wonder what people did back in the BC and early AD times? Leaves? Cloths? Bidets? Squatty-potties?

Uhh... I just realized that I've completely covered all topics from A-Z in this post. Sorry if it's a random jumble of subjects :P

For now I need to get a few things done and then go finish my shopping for the week.

My $.02 on Using It All

Yup, I mooched off of Phoebe and used her post title a bit :P She wrote a really great frugal post here, and I just wanted to add to it. I don't have much to say, really.

She talks about all the 101 things you can do with juice that you drain off canned fruits and veggies. She doesn't really list 101 things, but she's got a pretty good list going over there!

My addition would be "don't forget homemade bread!!" Just use them in place of the liquid called for in the recipe. Vegetable juice adds a whole new realm to the flavor, and fruit juice pumps up the sweetness a bit. If your using "heavy" syrup from canned fruit, you might even want to cut back your sugar amount a bit - or don't and just enjoy sweet bread. No, your not going to eat the bread and think "uggh, who put GREEN BEANS in this??!!". I promise, you won't taste green beans, potatoes (water from cooking potatoes), noodle water (from cooking pasta!) or your fruit cocktail. Why is it called cocktail? Wouldn't cock-tail be the tail of a rooster? Anyway.

So yeah. In addition to all those great things she listed that you can do with your juices, you can also put them in bread :) A few things to note: You just store the juices in the frige until you're ready to use them. I keep 'em until they get a "mother" - and that's only if I have way too much and can't get it used up fast enough - and then I'll toss it. Heh heh, my mom didn't hesitate to dump the stuff in mother and all. I don't. You can come eat my bread and not worry about it. I promise. All of us kids are still alive, so maybe it didn't hurt us any. I just prefer to use it BEFORE it gets a mother :P Fruit juice will also curdle your milk if you use powdered milk. It doesn't do it to "real" milk, and either way it doesn't effect the end result.

So start saving your juices and stop pouring your money down the drain :) Once you get used to the "fuller" flavor of bread made with the juice, if you make a batch without it, it will taste bland. I promise. We could always tell when Mom didn't use juice. And think of all the additonal vitametavegamins your getting!!

PS: With Easter coming up, this would be the perfect time to make a batch of white bread and use the juice from canned beets. Beautiful PINK bread. Yes, we had pink bread from time to time growing up, too. Or you can use it in wheat bread and not really notice the pink.

Disclaimer to the Ranting and Raving

After having dinner at some friend's house last night and eating very, very yummy lasagna made with bought sauce, I realized that I was probably kinda hard on some of you, and even worse, what would my friend think if she read my blog and got the impression that I thought low of her cooking methods or her grocery lifestyle?! I don't want my readers to think that I'm anti-pre-made food. You might get that idea if you read this post.

Several people that I know and are good friends have what I consider to be pre-made food as the staple in their pantry! Really and truly, it doesn't bother me in general. When it bothers me is when I hear people complaining over their high grocery bills, their deep debt, or their monster credit card balance (debt), those kind of things. It's all about knowing what you have, and living within your means. If you have enough money to buy those foil-topped packet thingies of caramel sauce to dip your apples in and still pay all your bills and meet the mortgage payment and have time to spend with your spouse and kids, well shucks why not!

So just 'cause you buy pre-made food doesn't mean I won't like you or be your friend :) My food will just taste better than yours. JUST KIDDING!!!! LOL!!!

The Way I See Things...

In response to Sally's comment on this post (which I laughed at, by the way :P ):

When I walk in your house, nope I don't look around to see what ways you should be more frugal. Well, not on purpose anyway. I don't open your frige or freezer to see if you're saving butter wrappers to grease pans with (I don't - they go in the trash. If they have enough stuck on them, I pull out a scraper and scrape them off before putting them in the trash). I don't look to see if you dump the dirt out of our vacuum bag so you can reuse it (remember those days?), or if you only have 1 bulb per light, or if you like to use lots of hot water just because. And I don't buy Tide so I won't have to hide it when you come to visit... but if I did, I probably wouldn't hide it anyway.

The things I (would) notice would be things like... if you use paper towels to wipe up a mess or wash the dishes instead of a rag or dishcloth. You exclaim over your high grocery bill and I see cake mixes, canned icing, Bertolli spaghetti sauce, Texas Toast, Kraft cheese, salad-in-a-bag, boxes of frozen breakfast thingys, or... even worse, frozen dinners, individual sized soup-cup thingies, single serving packets of whatevers. (See, I don't even know what's out there!)

I'm climbing up on my soapbox here - wait, I think I'm already on it!!!

Last night we had to make a run by WalMart to pick up a bag of Dog Food and to get some salt (I had unknowingly run plumb out of salt). Wow, the price of salt was amazing!! It was $.33 a CAN!! I don't remember seeing salt that cheap ever! I don't know of anything you can buy for $.33!! Not even a candy bar at the checkout line!! I bought 3 cans. It will probably last for a LONG time, but it was $.33 a can!! We were walking back down the "baking goods" aisle, and I was horrified to see there on the shelf little packages of "individual cake bakers" or whatever they are. A little plastic bowl with (I presume) some kind of pre-fab cake goop in it that you microwave and have an instant serving of cake. CUM-ON. It irked me even more to compare the prices: You could get 2 of these microwave cake thingies for $2.12 (that is $2.12 for TWO servings of cake!), OR you could buy a box of cake mix (if you're not frugal enough to make your own from scratch) for $2.00 - and that was Betty Crocker brand, I think. That one box of cake mix for $2 makes 24 servings. If you only need 2 servings... buy the $2 cake mix, make the cake, cut out your two servings and freeze the rest. If frozen cake turns your stomach - get a stronger stomach - or give the rest of it away. Take it to work, whatever, but you've just saved yourself some dignity and $.12.

Probably the other thing that irks me is individual servings of premade food. Frozen dinners, snacks, etc. I am newly amazed each time I'm in the grocery store at what they have come up with now to sell in single servings. It's crazy. Do people not realize that these drain the life-blood from their checking accounts?

For sure, there are some times when convenience foods are the only way to go. Last year when we went on our 10 day vacation and took all our food along to keep from buying fast food or restaurant eating, we did take SOME convenience food. I bought OJ that was already mixed up and fruit and pudding cups. But I think that was it. The chips - the big bag. The sandwich stuff - we threw the stuff from the frige into the cooler and I put mayo and mustard from the big jug into some yogurt cups. But in everyday life, you could save SO MUCH MONEY if you "made your own".

If you need caramel sauce to dip your apple in, don't buy the cute little foil-topped fancy looking packets of caramel sauce. Buy a bottle of caramel sauce and some little tiny container thingies and squirt some sauce into that. And when you're done, throw the container in the dishwasher to use next time. Shucks, if one day you decide you want peanut butter instead of caramel sauce, you just have to put peanut butter in the little container thingy instead of caramel sauce! You don't have to make a trip to the store to find little fancy foil-topped things of peanut butter.

Need pudding cups for your lunchbox? Mix up a batch of pudding, and fill your little container thingies. The extras will keep in the frige for a bit until you use them up.

Chips for snacks? Buy the big family sized bag and a box of 200 (or however many) snack baggies. Fill up several snack baggies with chips, and there ya go! I bet if you compared the big bag of chips by weight, you'd come out with more "home-made" snack packs for less money than if you bought the "case" of 8 at the store.

Need quick breakfasts? Muffins, waffles and pancakes you can all make from scratch (or box mix if you have to) and freeze. Pop the waffles and pancakes in the toaster for a few, and ta-da!

Frozen dinners for lunch? Some night drum up some extra energy, cook up a pot of stew or a pan of casserole, and divide it into containers. Freeze them. Pull them out and stick 'em in your lunchbox with an apple and a tiny container holding a few squirts of caramel goop from the bottle and you got lunch!!

Shucks... if your kids need juice boxes, buy some (cheap) cool looking drink bottles and some fruit punch mix (or some jugs of fruit juices and mix them up to make fruit drinks). Make your own. I bet they'll fast become the cool kids with the cool drink bottles with the cool fruit punch drink that their cool mom made!!

And I probably should get off my soapbox now. If I have friends out there reading this that I just made red-hot mad, sorry. Didn't mean to.

So yeah, that's only like a drop in the bucket of ways you can save money in the food department. Like a minuscule drop. But if you're into convenience foods and looking to save a little, I hope this really helped. I guess this post kinda ended on a different note from what it started out to be. Oh well :)

I wonder how many comments I'll get... And before I close this out, I'm frantically thinking through my cupboards and freezers to see if I'm sitting here typing this hypocritically... and aside from Daniel's sodas (technically we could buy 2 liters instead of the cans and it would be cheaper, but he'd end up with flat soda), I really can't think of anything. You're welcome to come visit and hold me true to my word. Unless you're some freaky stalker, then stay away!

Now THAT is Frugality!

I think I've won a "contest" maybe a time or two in my life? Not to mention that I hardly ever enter them - maybe that's why I "never" win anything.

My chiropractor has a little box in their office where you can enter the answer to their "Question of the Month" (they give you 4 answers to choose from). Several weeks ago I thought, "shucks, why not, who knows?" and guessed at the answer (I made sure to fold my paper in half to give it a better chance of being picked if I had the right answer, yada yada.).

I walked in Monday, and the girl said "Hey, we've got a surprise for you! You won the question of the month, so you get 2 free movie tickets!"

Yay!! So, that night I took Daniel on a date :) Well, kindof. He drove, and we ran 2 errands on the way. We went to see Fireproof, and wow, it's a real deal of a movie!! If you haven't already seen it, you definitely should. We'd been talking about going to see it, and Daniel was going to take me to see it when it first came out but we had something else going on so we never did. And now we did get to see it and not pay anything for it!! Woohoo! And we ate a good dinner before we went so we weren't hungry - though the salty/buttery smelling popcorn was tempting :)

I Confess, I Did It...

I swore I'd never do it.

I got a debit card. I have used it. I like using it. It is easy. It is fast. I don't have to write a check. I don't have to pull out my driver's licence and give them my phone number. People don't have to wait in line behind me. I don't have to sign anything. (and that picture is not my cards, so don't go blowing it up trying to steal the numbers -it's some picture I got off the 'net, so it's probably bogus ... I hope...)

And I'm sure you're all wondering "why", right? Here's the "why": Checks cost money. I (used to) write checks for EVERYTHING. That meant using LOTS of checks. I figured up that 1 check cost us about $.10. That's alot just for a piece of paper that I never see again, or like at WalMart, I sign in, give it to the lady, she sends it through the machine and hands it back to me, I come home and shred it. I might as well chuck a dime into the trash can each time instead. Now, I wouldn't think of doing that, and neither would you. So... I got a debit card. I thought long and hard over this... I almost prayed about it, that's how much thought I gave to it. I wanted to be super, duper, extra sure that I wasn't going to just go out and turn into some shopping freak with a massive negative amount in my checking account and the blood hounds from the bank busting through my back door to haul me off to the unknown to make me pay for my unwise actions.

And I'm pretty sure I'll be able to control myself on this. In fact, I'd say "I'm sure". I think I'm frugal and "stick to the budget" enough to know that the piece of plastic doesn't mean "free money!!"

Oh, it was SO nice to just swipe the card at WalMart when I got groceries! And I DID make sure to write it in my ledger (that was my other fear, that I'd forget to record it and end up overspending that way!). And it was so nice to swipe the card at the chiropractors... and the pharmacy... and nope, I didn't go anywhere else. I didn't have to sign anything, spend 5 minutes (at least it seems like it to the guy behind me) writing a check. Ha ha, the previous time I was in Walmart, I was writing my check, and a jerk, I mean, guy, walked up obviously in an impatient hurry. He said a few %#*%&@# and something along the lines of "he'd never get out of there if people keep writing checks!!!!". I'm sure he just needed a pack of cigs or Twinkies... Oh well.

I know this isn't the end of my check writing (when I worked at the bank there were several people that NEVER used paper checks, EVER!!)... we still get paper bills in the mail that we have to send paper checks to pay (or we could pay online... that is another thing that freaks me out). But at least my grocery store visits won't cost me an extra $.10 anymore. As for ATM's, well, I've survived this long without carrying cash, I can keep surviving!

And I'll leave you with this: I'm still a firm believer that plastic can be very, very, very, very (just read that a few times to get the gist) bad for your budget. Like VERY. If you wanna get a handle on your budget and spending, you gotta get a handle on your plastic.

Gnats, Gnats, Go Away - and never come back!!

Ever since we had peaches in the house this summer, we've had a constant supply of fruit gnats in the house as well. Sometimes more than others, especially if some new fruit (pears lately) appeared, or a dirty dish was left out for them to graze upon. I've gotten pretty good at killing them by smacking them with my hand while they're landed on the cupboard doors (or somewhere with a hard surface!), but it was obvious that they were multiplying faster than I could kill them off.

And they were getting on my nerves big time. And getting more so as time went on and they were just sticking around!!

I tried the "vinegar/soap" in a dish thing - ha, that didn't work at all. Then I heard about this, and was still a little skeptical of it, but decided I was being aggravated by them enough to try it!

Last night after killing several of them, I pulled out an empty jar, and asked Daniel if he would make a paper funnel for me (I was in the middle of canning pear-butter and trying to get supper made). He did, and we put it in the jar - then realized we had to put the vinegar in first! Duh! So we untaped the paper carefully, and put in some vinegar, and put the paper funnel back in. Within just a minute or two, we had our first victim, and by the end of the evening we had quite a few!
You just put a little vinegar (I used Apple Cider Vinegar) in the jar, then put the funnel on top. We made the hole pretty small, about the size of a pencil. Then we used masking tape to tape around the rim of the jar to prevent them from sneaking out that way since it wasn't a completely crack-free fit. Supposedly once they get in, they can't figure out how to get back out. Daniel taped the seam in the funnel in a couple places, I would recommend taping it the whole way just in case!

Now I'm trying to figure out how I can successfully kill them and not just take the jar outside and release them to come back in my house or go pester somebody else. I'm also not 100% sure that a few of them haven't escaped as I hadn't seen any gnats this morning.... then later I killed two. So I need to figure out my plan of action and get actin'.

Anyways, I'm sure that several of you have these pesky things in your house, too, so I wanted to pass along what seems to really be workin' for me!!

Ahh... the joys of a kitchen that is gnat free....

Praise God from Whom All Blessings of Free Liver Flow!!

Update: I'm using this post from previously in the week for the Friday recipe swap over at Gayle's blog. Go check her blog out for more recipes!

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Wow, Amazing, Cow-abunga... whatever you want to call it! A couple weeks ago my sister offered to give away her supply of beef liver to anyone that wanted it (she's newly diabetic, so liver doesn't fit her diet anymore). I quickly replied that I would take it if no one closer (geographically) wanted it, but I wasn't sure when I'd be able to get it.




We grew up with liver every Wednesday for a long time - I guess since we butchered our own beef and undoubtedly had a good supply of livers! It was always tough, gristly and tasted like you were chewing on a magnet (don't ask how I know what that's like). No matter how much you tried to hide it with mashed 'taters and gravy (and the onions cooked with it were "gross" to me, too), it was never very good to me as a kid. Unless by chance we happened to get "good, fat-cow" liver, then it was good, but we were all so brain-washed that liver was gross and yuck that I never liked liver until after we got married and I bought some because it was on sale and it made for cheap meat!

When I discovered that GOOD liver actually tastes GOOD (especially when cooked the proper way!), I really like to make it. But I wouldn't buy it very often just because. Thankfully, I guess no one else was as excited over "free" liver as I was, because when I went to the Valley to go to a funeral last week, Sally asked if she could bring the liver. So... Yay! We're having (FREE!) liver 'n' onions for supper tonight!!

I will finish posting this once I get it cooked, along with a picture (hopefully) and directions on how I cook it (thanks to another sister, Rachel, coming up with this fabulous method!!).

The great thing about the meal you see on this plate?

The only thing that cost $$ was the onions!

The green beans are from our garden,

the potatoes are from Daniel's sister's garden,

and the liver was given to us by Sally!!

Does God supply our needs or WHAT?

To cook/fry the liver:

Cut the liver into serving sized pieces if needed. Dredge each piece in flour.

Melt about 1 Tbsp. or so of bacon grease in a large skillet with a lid, brown the liver on both sides over med. heat. While browning, sprinkle each piece generously on each side with:

Salt, Pepper, and Steak Seasoning

Once the liver is browned, add some more bacon grease (being sure to coat the bottom of the pan so the liver doesn't stick), and add lots of thickly sliced onions (I used 2 onions for 4 pieces of liver). Put the lid on the skillet, and let cook over med/low heat until done and onions are cooked. Occasionally flip the liver so it doesn't get too done on one side or burn, and add additional bacon grease if needed to keep it from sticking.

Serve with mashed potatoes and a favorite vegetable!!

Buying Meat

If any of you have noticed, I don't usually buy raw meat with my regular grocery purchases. How do I get around this? Well, it's easy - kind of :)

I started out my new budget with a pretty well stocked meat freezer, which made it really nice on the budget!!

My grocery budget is $25 a week. Each week I spend somewhere around that - I usually try to go less than that.

I keep track of how much I spent each week, and at the end of the month I total them up. I divide the total by the number of weeks I went shopping to get my average (as long as my average is $25 or less, I know I'm "on target" with my shopping and budget).

I then multiply $25 by the number of weeks I shopped. Then I subtract the total from what my entire budget was.

Example:

Shopped 4 weeks, and spent a total of $84.52

$100 ($25 x 4 weeks) - $84.52 = $15.48

The $15.48 (or what's left in my budget at the end of each month) goes into my imaginary "meat fund". As my meat supply starts to run low, I start watching sales for really really really good deals. I try to go for around $1.50/lb on ground beef, and less than $.75/lb on poultry. Then I stock up! Occasionally (and RARELY) I will "stock up" even if I'm not specifically running low, just because the deal is rare and extremely good (like turkey for $.59/lb?? - that's only going to happen now in the fall - once a year). I will make this turkey last several months :)

Usually I only find "good enough" sales on poultry (usually whole chickens). Hamburger is usually on "sale" for $1.99/lb - which is still to expensive for me, so I try and find big family sized packs that have been marked down for quick sale. The money I spend on the meat comes out of the meat fund, and doesn't effect my weekly shopping budget. Just today I started a list of my weekly shopping totals, and how much I have left at the end of the month to put towards meat. Then I also started a list of what goes into the meat fund, and what I spend out of the meat fund.

Things like hotdogs, bacon and sandwich meat do come out of the regular grocery fund. But I don't buy hotdogs or bacon very much, and try to get sandwich meat on sale.

Currently we are fully stocked with hamburger and poultry, and I have $3.99 left in the meat fund! I will need to be extra careful the next couple weeks here in October so that I can add to the meat fund. I try to be "extra" careful each week of course, but there are "drastic" measures that can be made sometimes - called "doing without". Ha ha.

It takes some planning and a little work, but it sure beats running out and having to pay full price for meat!

Works for Me Wednesday

So I was digging in my cupboard trying to find out if I had Taco Seasoning or not, so I'd know if I needed to make some, buy some, or what. I keep all my seasoning envelopes in one place, but some had fallen over... and you know how it goes. I thought to myself that I needed to find something that I could put them in.

Then I emptied a pasta box, started to crumple it up to throw it away, and **bling**, the light-bulb came on!! It fits in my cupboard very nicely, and now I can just pull out ONE container instead of fishing around (since that shelf is above my eye-level) trying to locate the right packet out of several.

Chick-awwwnnn!

I was going to post about this last week when I "did it", but was in a hurry at the time and never got around to it.

I have made my FIRST meat purchase since June!! (you can read about my meat stash here.) My MIL took me to Costco with her, and I bought a 2-pack of whole chickens. They were $10.21 ($.79 lb, I think?), and they were pretty nice sized, too. I brought them home and stuffed them in the frige...uh, actually, Daniel stuffed them in the frige since I had to hurry up and get ready to go to a dinner, and then I cut them up later.

If you're like me, I was a bit "scared" of cutting up a whole chicken. I was sure I couldn't do it and it be "nice"... Lo and behold, way back when I bought 6 chickens for $.69/lb, I determined that pretty or no, I was going to cut up those birds and "make" my own boneless, skinless chicken breasts, my own thighs, drumsticks, etc. It really isn't hard to do! It just requires a good sharp knife and a bird or two to get the hang of where everything is and how to cut it. It might take me 5 minutes to cut up a chicken. I was going to take pictures, but once I got my hands wet and greasy and "chickeney", I didn't take time to wash and take pictures... and I wasn't sure how to take pictures with my non-existent 3rd hand while my other 2 hands were demonstrating for the camera. Check out one of your "I hardly ever look in there because it's so big and full of fancy dishes that I'll never make" cookbooks - that's where I read and looked at pictures about cutting up chickens!

With these two chickens, I DID have (or rather "take") the time to cook down the bones. Surprisingly, after cooking for several hours on low, I was able to pick off about 2 more cups worth of chicken meat! It took some very careful picking to make sure I didn't get any over-cooked-till-they're-soft bones, and there were no large pieces of meat so it took alittle time, but hey, for that kind of savings, I'll spend a little time. I figure it's enough meat to make a batch of fried rice - which makes 2 meals for us. And 1 1/2 cups of broth which I chilled, scooped the grease off the top, and then froze, either to use in recipes, or to save for my family's Christmas get together since I'm on the food planning committee.

While I know that $.79/lb isn't the BEST deal I've seen this summer, my chicken stash is starting to run low, and I wanted to get a little while I had the opportunity to hopefully tie us over till the next REALLY GREAT deal that I'm hoping some store will run really soon!

Monday's Menu and Groceries

This week I really wanted to come away from the store without spending very much at all... like, $10 kind of not very much. I especially though I could probably wing it since we're having leftovers or freezer food all but 1 night this week. Yeah... sure. Har har.

The Menu:
Mon - Leftover Pork, Leftover Green Beans and Peas, maybe potatoes
Tue - Chicken Calzones from the freezer, leftover Spaghetti Sauce
Wed - Leftover Pizza
Thur - Beef Barley Stew from freezer, Cornbread
Fri - Dinner with In-Laws
Sat - Pizza, Peach Pie and Ice Cream - company over
Sun - any leftovers or sandwiches

Groceries:
1 lb butter: $2.54 (we were totally out of butter, I had to start using margarine on toast)
Ranch Dressing: $1.22

2 OJ: $2.84
16oz LF Cottage Cheese: $1.72
24 slice American Cheese: $3.24
1 lb. block Mozz. Cheese: $3.22
2.3lb grapes: $4.55
1 doz eggs: $1.48
box Ice Cream: $2.50
Total: $23.89
under budget $1.11

I will admit that I strayed from my list today (*gasp!*). I did not have the Cottage Cheese or Grapes on my list. I even picked up a 12 pk. of Cherry Coke for DH. That went back when my total was over $25. I wish I had put the grapes back instead. I was disappointed in the grapes - the sign over the display said "$1.98". Period. That was all it said. Dummy me thought "wow, a bag of grapes for $1.98, what a deal! I will weigh a couple bags and get the heaviest one, and REALLY get a deal!!" I almost mentioned to the cashier lady that they were falsely advertised since the price was not noted as "per pound" on the display. I don't REALLY need to have grapes, just wanted some "fresh fruit" to snack on this week (and next week). The Cottage Cheese I eat on my peaches for breakfast most mornings. I don't "have" to have it, but remembered that I was out, and had wanted to get some more.

Sigh. That's what you get for making your list in a hurry, and for not STICKING the THE LIST, like I preach - oops, I mean advise others to do.

Banana Nut Muffins

Angie has been after me for a long time to share this recipe, so I guess I will finally just sit down and do it :) Besides, it's Friday Recipe Swap over at Gayle's blog, so this will be a good one to share there, too. You can see more information on this recipe and using ripe bananas here.

Banana Nut Muffins
3 ripe bananas, about 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups, mashed
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
3/4 cup butter, softened*
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk + 1 1/2 tsp vinegar (or 1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk)
3/4 cup walnut pieces

Mix and beat together all ingredients except walnuts, beating until relatively smooth (it stays a little lumpy). Stir in walnuts.

Spoon into greased or cupcake wrapper lined muffin tins. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
Makes 24 muffins.


*The butter issue... the first time I used cupcake wrappers, there was butter standing in the bottom of each muffin tin when I took them out. Since then I've made them once, and cut the butter back to 1/2 cup. They were still plenty greasy on the bottom, so I might try cutting it back some more and hope it doesn't mess up the recipe! They are VERY very VERY good muffins!! If you're a real nut fan and can afford it (ha ha), you can sprinkle the finely chopped walnut pieces on top of the muffins before you bake them for added nuttiness and crunch :)

The Dishwasher Gel trial results

If you read this post, you'll know that I was hesitant about getting "cheaper" dishwasher gel. I had been using Palmolive, and bought Great Value brand out of necessity for the budget.

I've been using it for about a week now, and quite frankly... I can't tell a difference from the Palmolive stuff that cost more! I use the same amount of the Great Value brand stuff (I eyeball it to match the dirtiness of the load) as I did the Palmolive, and the dishes get just as clean. I haven't noticed any "film" on anything lately - that sometimes gets on a scraper or a measuring cup, not on everything, and it wipes off with a towel - but I don't know if that's the refilled rinse aid or the soap.

I guess now I need to check out the price of the powdered stuff and see if I can reduce my expense even more and still maintain clean dishes! Oh, but I need to use up what I have first.