Soup

My husband is not a fan of soup - but I have won him over on 3: clam chowder, goulash & zuppa tuscana

The wonderful thing about soup is that it is generally cheap to make, you can add tons of healthy ingredients, and, if you have a husband who doesn't love lots of 'chunks' of stuff in his soup - you can take an immersion blender right to the pan and buzz away until you get a smooth and even texture.

I love my immersion blender!

Grinding

I was at Sams' Club today and was looking at the prices of meat. Chuck roast was 1.98 per pound and ground beef 80/20 was 2.48 per pound. So, I am going to try something new tomorrow - I am going to dice up the chuck then grind it myself. I already have the food grinder I have just never used it for meat. I'll let you know how it goes. If it goes well, I will have saved .50 per pound and instead of a 'mystery mix' of meats for ground beef, it will be all chuck, or round or sirloin or whatever I want. You could also do it for turkey, chicken or pork. You can grind veggies with the food grinder for sauce making if you have folks in your family who want the benefits of homemade sauces, but don't like chunky vegetables. I can live with making sauces smoother so my hubby is happier. He doesn't mind veggies, he's just not into chunky sauces. What else could I use a food grinder for?



5/18 - I did the ground beef today - very easy and it looks much better than the store stuff. Took all of 10 minutes.

Plans, Planners, Planning

I love those three things. I love everything from looking at the selection of planners at my local Staples (and trust me, this could take an hour, easily), to picking out the color, opening it up and taking a whiff of the fresh paper, thinking about how I could use each and every section, etc, etc. Then I look at the price tags. My goodness. Oh my goodness. I do not want to spend $15-$50 on a planner. I can't do that, that's crazy. I have heard people say "Yes, it's expensive, but it can do this, this and this and organizes this, this and this for me." FOR me? When I see a planner get up off my desk, grab my papers, file them in itself (neatly of course), and scribble down my appointments, deadlines and inner thoughts - THEN it might be worth $15-$50. But it otherwise doesn't DO anything for me because I still have to do the work! So, of course I have a money saving solution from the same Staples store, on the same day:

1" 3 ring binder= $.60 on clearance (ugly gray, but who cares)
1 ream 92 brightness, 20lb copy paper = $3.92
1 full package HP printer ink= $35

Now that's enough materials to last probably 5 years of printer planner related stuff. Of course I'm not going to use the whole package of ink just on that, but let's say I just use 10%, that would still only be $3.50. And I'm really not going to use all 500 sheets of paper on planner stuff, but if Used say 25% (125 sheets - still a bit of a stretch), that would be a whopping $.98. So right now my total comes to $5.08. Not too shabby.

Now all I need is a good website. Well, that is the easier part. donnayoung.org has ton of planning related printables including calendars of all types free to print, just browse around for a little while and you'll see them.

The main Microsoft Office Templates site allows you to browse through tons of free printables too, some are in pretty colors, some in black and white - find something you like and looks useful.

Organized Home has nice calendar and planner printables in addition to cleaning, organizing and pretty much any checklist you can imagine.

Of course you can google what you want like "Free printable planner pages" or whatnot. In the end, if you can't find exactly what fits your needs, but have lots of ideas you can start up your good ole' Word program and make what you want tailored to your needs with columns, sections, colors, checkboxes, or whatever else you love!!

A Price Notebook (revised repost - sort of)

First of all, the original post:

If you have not done so already, you may want to keep a price notebook, or a price spreadsheet on your computer that you can print off before you go shopping. Here are the basics of this idea: keep a running record of an items price, size, store purchase and unit price so that when you are at another store, you can easily calculate whether or not it is a good deal. This is especially helpful at warehouse stores since buying in bulk is not always saving money.


Now the new part:
I was at Food Lion a couple of days ago and the quart size jar of Hellmann's was 4.79 - OMG - almost $5 for mayonnaise! MAYONNAISE! Flabbergasted doesn't even begin to describe it. Our local Wal-mart has the same jar for 3.59 - better, but still high. Yesterday I was at the Wal-Mart in E.C. with my mom (long story on how I got there), and the same jar of mayo was 2.98 and I had a .65 off coupon. Still more expensive than making it myself, but much better than buying it locally. So sad.

Locally, our Food Lion has 5oz cans of Food Lion brand tuna for .84. This is not only a price increase from .74, but they shrunk the can from 6oz to 5oz (as if no one would notice). I went to Harris Teeter a couple of weeks ago - HT brand tuna was .77for a 6oz can. I bought 10, and will probably buy 10 more each time I go. Canned tuna is a frugal family's safety net when the recipe goes bad or gets burned - hi ho it's tuna melt time! PS - the HT tuna is chunkier than the FL, which is good if like a larger flake tuna. FL tends to be mushy.


So, back to the price book. If you can, try to at least track 15 of your most commonly used items by writing down where you can buy them for the least amount of money, what that amount is, and how large the package is. I put my pricebook sheet from my excel in my coupon book so I have it when I need it. Also, if you really want to be a detective take a calculator too.

The Benefits of a Coop

I am a member of a local coop. It participates in the distribution of all natural and organic foods, health products, nutritionals and cleaning products. Generally speaking, those items are not the cheapest on the market, but they tend to be better for you, and buying them through a coop makes them a bit easier on the wallet. Of course, there are many types of coops out there, and I suggest calling your local cooperative extension office (there is usually one per county or group of counties) and asking about coops in the area. Some require a membership fee, but many do not. Most will also allow you to review the catalog for free to determine whether or not it's something you are interested in before you sign up. Remember it only costs time to ask a question and review information, and this may benefit you greatly in the end, so give it a few minutes and see what you come up with in your area.

Small Machines

I have 2 small machines in my kitchen that enable me to make the most of both my time and my food. They are the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and the Kitchen Aid Food Processor.

Things I probably would not make homemade as often if it were not for the Stand Mixer:
1)bread
2)cake
3)cookies
4)pie
5)whipped cream
6)pizza dough
7)experiment recipes

Things I probably would not make homemade as often if it were not for the Food Processor:
1)coleslaw
2)hash browns
3)pie dough
4)applesauce
5)crumb topping
6)breadcrumbs

Now, I am not saying that everyone should go out and spend $500 buying both machines, but when you get the opportunity, check them out and see if they would be helpful to you and your lifestyle and goals. If so, maybe consider it as a gift option.

Cookware

I have nonstick cookware, stoneware, glass, cast iron and silicone cookware and bakeware items. My observations are: cast iron gives the best results and the best flavor, it's just a bit heavy. Silicone gives good results, but crusts are not as crispy as I would like, and it's really floppy so you need a sled or cookie sheet to put it on before you use it in the oven. Glass is a little uneven in cooking and baking, not too bad, but a little, plus it can't take the really high heat like for breads. Stoneware is wonderful, it's just harder to clean and little heavy like the cast iron. Nonstick performs well, you just have to worry about the chemicals if you have to cook at high temperatures.

Have a few good pieces, but don't waste your money on big sets of one type. Do your research first, pick out a couple of high quality (not necesarily highest price) items and use them often.

Cookbooks

My advice - have several, but don't buy them if you don't have too (unless they are at yard sale prices or you have checked it out from the library so many times you can literally hear it calling your name every time you walk in the library)

USE YOUR LIBRARY!!!!!! This is an excellent way to 'test drive' a book before you take the plunge. Another thought is if you have checked out the book more than 3 times, AND have enjoyed using it (not just looking at the pics), consider having it on your birthday, Mother's Day, Easter, or Christmas wish list (of course you do have to let people know it's on that list for this to be effective). This way your family gets you something you love and you get something you don't have to return for a smaller (or larger) size.

Deli Meat

Problem: price, at $5.99/lb who can afford more than a couple of shavings on a sandwich.
Solution: slice your own. Bulk ham is about 1.59/lb, bulk turkey (for slicing) about 2.99/lb.

If you don't have your own meat slicer, I wouldn't go out and buy one especially for this, but if you know someone with one they would like to part with, or find one at a yard sale or thrift shop - go for it. I can thinly slice a 5lb. ham in about 6 minutes, the I separate it out into 1lb stacks and use my foodsaver to freeze it and keep the frost off.