The Frugal Suburban Homemaker

Link to my youtube videos

2011-05-17T21:20:00.001-07:00

I've been spending way too much time over on youtube, but I've met some really wonderful people and have been enjoying learning how to make little videos.

check me out

http://www.youtube.com/user/brendahere?feature=mhee

I've been making a few Youtube video's

2011-03-04T10:21:00.000-08:00

I think the process is rather addicting

.Brenda's Channel

Excited over yogurt

2011-02-09T07:19:00.000-08:00

I guess it doesn't take much to make me happy.

I've read about making yogurt a number of times over the years. I just never got around to doing it. Recently I watched a youtube video and REALLY saw how easy it was. So I gave it a try.

I clean all the cooking utensils and jars.
I brought the milk up to 180 degrees
Cooled it down to 110
Put in two large tables spoons of live active yogurt (dannon) and lightly stirred.
I put the mixture in canning jars and put white lids on.

I tried using a cooler and a heating pad, like the video suggested but my heating pad is a newer model that has some kind of safety feature that shuts it off after so long. So I put the jars in my dehydrator to heat around 110.

I gave TWO people the taste test. While they could feel a slight difference in texture, they could not tell me which one was the store kind.

After making yogurt, I took one pint to make cream cheese. What I understand that you do is drain the whey off and allow it to age a little in the refrig.
I kept the whey that you see to put in my next batch of bread in my bread machine. No since wasting it.
I also kept out half of a cup of yogurt for my starter for next time.

The Dannon yogurt you see cost $3.29 for the quart. For $2.99 I can buy a gallon of milk and make a gallon of plain yogurt. My future has now changed. I'm not making yogurt on a regular bases.

Grandma's Old Fashion Unbleached Four

2011-02-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

I've been running the bread machine about every other day. Going through the flour too. So much so, that I've started to buy #25 bags of flour.

I've always bought "bread machine" flour similar to this

My store was all out of this, so I went with this

This flour comes from Swany White Flour Mills, Freeport MN. It's fantastic! I didn't know much about the flour except that it was milled a couple hours from home. Having been milled so close, I was hoping it would be very fresh and the nutritional loss would be small. I just have to tell you that the bread rose wonderfully and it tasted awesome. Yes it does cost a few dollars more and while my budget is important to me, the bottom line is also the quality of the product.
In writing this I looked up the company at http://www.freeportmn.org/business/swany-white-flour-mills-ltd/.
This is their blurb. I'm getting hungry just reading it.

Swany White Flour Mills, Ltd

Swany White Flour Mill is located in beautiful Freeport, Minnesota!
The Mill has been family owned and operated since 1903 and our products are still being produced with much of the original equipment.
Our store is located at our Mill and offers a wide variety of regular and organic products, as well as special orders. We now make it easier than ever to receive our products because we can ship directly to you!
Contact us at:
Phone: (320) 836-2174
Fax: (320) 836-2477

206 2nd Street SE
PO Box 214
Freeport, MN 56331
Our store hours are Monday thru Friday 8AM to 6PM and Saturday 8AM to 12PM
Stop in and visit us and see what we have to offer! Some of our products are:

Regular Bleached & Unbleached Flour
Whole Wheat Flour
Wild Rice Flour
Buckwheat Flour
Cracked Wheat Flour
Graham Flour
Wheat Bran
Wheat Germ
Steel Cut Oats
Corn Meal
Coarse Oat Bran
Nine Grain Mix
Regular & Quick Oatmeal
Cream of Rye
Farina
and our famous Swany White Buttercake Pancake & Waffle Mix!

As people become more health conscious about their food choices, organic has become very popular. Swany White also offers a wide variety of organic products:

Organic White Flour
Organic Whole Wheat Flour
Organic Brown Rice Flour
Organic Rye Flower
Organic Soy Flour Full Fat
Organic Hulled Barley
Organic Whole Soybeans
Organic Wheat Berries
Organic Golden & Brown Flax Seed
Organic Oatmeal
Organic Whole Yellow Corn

We also have Organic Bread mixes that have become very well-liked and we think you'll enjoy them as well. You can use our mixes with or without a bread machine, and they come in the following varieties:

White
Rye
Whole Wheat
Six Grain
Wild Rice

My second attempt at sprouting

2011-02-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

is going much better, even if it doesn't look like the sprouts in the store.

Here is a picture after three days

This is a picture after 5 days.

There isn't as much BULK as I expected. Of course the sprouts that I'm use to seeing are the alfa sprouts that are sold in the stores and I used a pack of garden seeds. However they do taste nice and I have enough to put on the top of the salads for tonights dinner.

I'm going to be checking around town for some different kinds of seeds. If the price is right I could see doing this more often.

Almost sprouting

2011-02-04T06:33:00.000-08:00

I was digging around my cupboards and ran across a couple things.
My stackable sprouter that I bought 15 years ago and NEVER used and
Some packages of lettuce seeds that I had bought "after" the season.

WARNING: If you decide to sprout and haven't done it before, you might want to tell your family. I set out two trays in a stack for 2 days waiting for them to grow and my dh decided they were dirty dishes and washed them. What a sweetie!

coupon shopping doesn't have to mean a long time in the store.

2011-02-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

I was passing Walgreen's last night on my way home and decided to make a quick stop even though I didn't have my coupons with me.

I walked in, grabbed the currents week flyer and the monthly book.
3 boxes of blink eye drops, one had the $4 coupn on it
3 bottles of some healthy fruit juices $2 each.
3 boxes of arnicare pain gel

Time in store 15 minutes.

End result
I used a $3.50 old ready reward and $5.59 cash (9.09)
I got back $6 in RR

My deal cost me $3.09

The amount of money I saved $63.00

My family LIKES the three bottles of fruit juice that normally sells for $2 a bottle. During this deal, I feel I got the juice for half price and all the blink and pain relief cream for free.

The juice, candy,tax is about 2.45. That means IF I had gotten milk instead, I would have had THREE gallons of milk and the other stuff for $3.50
Another thought. What if ALL the blink tear drops had coupons? and I still got three boxes? I would have a credit of another $8 AND walked out of the store with all the items.

***

I made little discovery. There are coupons in the boxes of Arnicare. Possible profit!

This is a break down. Don't read this if you get lost in the math. Sometimes its nice to think it though to understand how everything feel in place.

Round robining the deals I Paid for
1 box blink at 7.99 - $4 coupon - $3.50 ready reward from last week
Paid oop (out of pocket) 49 cents
I recieved a ready reward for $8

1 juice at $2
1 annicare 5.99
total $7.99 here's where I slightly messed up. with ready rewards the
amount must be more than the buck. If I had added milk I would have been fine,
as it was I threw in
1 piece of candy 39 cents
tax 16 cents.
Paid with the $8 reward and 54 cents oop

repeated TWice with

1 box blink at 7.99
I paid with a 6 I got from annicare
and 1.99 oop
I recieved a ready reward for $8

I bought
1 juice at $2
1 annicare 5.99
1 piece of candy 39 cents.
Paid with the $8 reward and 54 cents oop

Green Giant Glazed Honey Carrots Review

2011-01-15T23:37:00.000-08:00

This ad caught my eye today.

I considered that I had 5 of these coupons.

Quick Math
15 boxes at 1.25 each equals 18.75
Subtract Three $3 -9.00

My stores double to a dollar so I can
subtract my coupons -5.00

Which means the total out of pocket is $4.75 or
32 cents each. Yippee, I'm getting it.

So now I take a glance and the regular price of $1.85 and

have a few questions.

Looking on the back of this box I see that the serving size is 1 cup and there should be roughly 2.5 cups in the box. 74 cents a serving at full price. 13 cents with this deal.

Actually it's much better for me because I plan to feed this to daycare kids and if there is 2.5 cups this would mean FOUR to TEN servings per box. Wow, a serving of vegetables for under 4 cents.

So I open a box and this is what I see.

I removed the carrots from the bag to measure them.

Hmmm The line shows 1 Cup.

Okay this doesn't look like 2.5 cups. Lets try it another way.

1st 1/2 cup
packed

Okay now I packed these 1/2 cup portions full. I'm very comfortable saying it's "just about" or "extremely close to" FOUR half cup servings. And while thee box says "about 2.5 servings" (adult), but I suspect this might be the same information used on a wide variety of flavors, not just Honey Glazed Carrots.

I will give Green Giant full score for saying that a serving size is a cup. I looked on the internet and saw a wide variety suggested adult serving from 1/2 cup to 1 cup.

This is the food requirement through my food program.

In actual real life I will be happy to give the children the basic serving and more if they eat 3 out of 4 things on their plate. So, don't let the portion size fool you. They get plenty to eat.

The quality of this food is good. In fact I was actually surprised that I liked it. Frozen vegetables can often be soggy and lacking flavor. I'm not totally thrilled with the glaze. While my dh may like it, I prefer the natural favoring of a sweet carrot. Steamed carrots ARE sweet. I rinsed off the glaze and heated up the carrots, as I would for serving them to daycare kids.
I give Green Giant full score on the texture and the sweetness of the natural carrot with out the sauce.

Good REAL food IS a requirement, but I am also running a business.
Will I buy this at the full price of $1.85 for daycare? or even my own family? I don't think I would.
I could see spending 75 cents a box, but anything over $1 is way too much. Especially when the same store sells fresh carrots at 17 cents each.

Points also have to be given for the convenience. Personally, I'm not in favor of microwaving those little plastic packages, but opening packages and putting them in a container doesn't take much time or effort either. The task of cooking carrots is still simple.

Steamed FRESH Carrots. Often times store ads will have baby carrots on sale or given with so much bought. Those are simple because I do a quick wash and I cut them in half and toss them in the steamer for 5-10 minutes.

With full sized carrots I like to either scrub them or peel the skin off before cutting and putting them in the steamer for 5-10 minutes.

Steaming FRESH carrots are NOT that big of a deal. Using green giant I'm comparing (1 to 4 minutes in prep and 10 in steamer time) to (1 prep and 2 minutes microwave).

Time per meal is cut down even more, when steaming enough for more than just one meal. Oh that water doesn't go to waste either. I like freezing it for vegetable or chicken soup.

My conclusion:

Daycare - I LIKE being able to get lunch for the kids on the table in under 10 minutes and I don't have time to be washing and steaming fresh carrots during the time. When steamed carrots are served for daycare, they are usually left overs from last nights supper. I also like the serving size. I normally have anywhere from 4 to 8 children eating. One package will feed my group and if I have left overs I can have carrots for lunch too. If not, it's no big deal. I like that while it's frozen it still has texture and taste. Have you ever rummaged through the refrigeration looking for food and finding some very SAD looking carrots? With these being frozen, I don't have that problem.

For my family? Not as a general rule for meals. I will add a yes to have in the freezer for quick meals for one person. My daughter is a vegetarian and a teenager. At this point she doesn't have much interest in cooking. It would be nice for her to be able to either eat two portions or breaking the package in half and putting half back in the freezer.

Bottom line It goes back to PRICE. 75 cent, yes I could see getting a few boxes. $1? I'll get maybe one or two. Anything more than that? Not going to happen here.

I'm kinda interested in the measurements for the peas. Will there be 2 cups? since pea by shape pack tighter?

Walgreen deals

2011-01-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

My first deal of the new year. I hit Walgreens.
What you see here has a total of $281.60
Out of pocket I spent $55.60

I have $27 dollars in store money to use in the future.
So you could say I spent $28.60.

I have to take in consideration that I HAD HAD to buy
milk and formula. The price of milk in my regular
grocery store is $3.19 x 2 and the price of the Formula is
$24.99. So I was looking at spending $31 with out using
coupons.
Nonsense items we could do with out..
coffeemate, candy, medicine for children, pain relief pads
Things that are used in my home
Milk, formula, trash bags, vitamins, peanut butter, rasains,
soft soap, blistex, cookies.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL

2010-12-25T13:35:00.000-08:00

Christmas season is a wonderful time of the year. The snow has filled the yard, but the driveway and roads are now clear. Last night we had a nice time. We started off with a chicken-bread-potato-carrots. We followed with a family card game and going out to look at Christmas lights and saw Santa walking down the street.

   This year is kind of different. No longer do we unwrap presents from family and friends Christmas Eve.
My children, are no longer are children anymore, this day had to come. When one wants the car and the other is excited about joining the Air Force, their futures are about to begin.
   This year they needed cash for things we could not put under the tree, so with understand hearts that's what we give this year. It was time to stop buying toys and bless those around us. New traditions of family activities kept us busy this year.
   Santa still came in the morning, bringing small little gifts of joy, but there were no screams at 6, 7 or 8 AM or pounding on my door. My kids had done their own thing the night before so this year there was no rush of of opening presents, that made me rather sad.   It wasn't until noon before I saw them again.
    There's a little bit of wrapping paper and ribbon on the floor in the living room. My kids will think I'm a little strange. I'm not stressed out for them to pick it up this year. It reminds me of marbles, dolls and books of past years.
I took a picture of them sitting together near the Christmas tree, that will forever be in my heart.

Disappointing Deal Shopping trip

2010-12-15T07:53:00.000-08:00

I'm afraid I got carried away last night. I went deal shopping and thought I was being so smart. It wasn't until I got home, that reality hit.

Yes, I saved 80%.
Yes, everything I bought can be used by my family or as Christmas gifts.

So what went wrong?

Too much money out of pocket. When I added my receipts I came up with close to $40 OOP.
This puts a big damper on this months budget.
It's not that I can't rearrange things to allow for it, but for some reason it's bothering more than it has in the past. I need to think about this situation a little more.

Get yourself a shopping buddy!

2010-12-10T20:30:00.001-08:00

I SPENT 27 CENTS!

My shopping buddy and I went to Walgreen's tonight to take
advantage of some of the Christmas wrap they had on sale.

Here is a breakdown.
Diapers 7.99 x 4= $31.96
   Sale /b1g1 and 4 coupons for $1
White Wrapping Tissue 99x12=$11.88
   In Ad coupon 3 for $1, Buy 6 get 5 rewards back
Carmex $2.99 x 4= $11.96
   B1G1 Sale and $3.30 in coupons
Candy Bar 33cents, used as filler
Dulcolax tablets 8.49 x 2= $16.98
  On Sale for $2 off PLus used In store coupon $2 off each, plus Manufacture coupons worth 7.49
Tax paid $0.87
******
I used $8.50 worth of store reward "jingle dollars"
and $16.77 in cash. So I "spent " $25.27
I RECEIVED BACK $25.00 of store reward "jingle dollars"
So my Real Cost of this trip was 27 CENTS.
Total Cost of item (on sale) $ 83.53

One of the things I forgot to mention that for every order of $25, I received
$5 more "jingle" dollars. That helped me earn $15 jingle bucks. The other $10 came from buying the 12 packs of white tissue paper.

Toddler's Lunch

2010-12-08T10:30:00.001-08:00

Day care lunch for children that are two and three years old.
Estimated cost under 25 cents each.
Noodles free
Ragu Sauce 43 cents, a jar
Peas 19 cents, a bag
Breakfast sausage, $1.50 a pound
Peaches 27 cents a can
milk $2.50 a gallon

Ricks tips: How to Calibrate Your Oven

2010-12-05T21:17:00.000-08:00

I had no idea you could adjust the dial to reflect the real temperature.
This is a very good video!
Thanks Rick

I Love Surprises!

2010-12-04T15:09:00.001-08:00

YIPPEE! Last month I won a gift basket with $100 worth of beauty products (check out my you tube video) and Friday UPS stopped at the house to deliver a $250.00 gift card, from our local convenience store. By the way there are 1700 CASEY stores that advertised this sweepstakes. My guess is I entered online perhaps 5 times? I think I got some Christmas presents covered here. We have a local NFL shop, so I will have to check them out. Another possibility might be to see if I can get this gift card divided into $25 or $50 cards.

For starters, all I know is my DH might be getting a lawn chair for the lakes, with his favorite teams logo on it for Christmas.

Left outs and left overs

2010-12-04T14:40:00.001-08:00

Someone took a pint sized freezer bag out and left it on the counter.
Hmmm what should I do with a PINT of green peppers?
And what was I thinking what I bagged them that way?
While my DH and son love green peppers, they do some horrible things to my inners if I eat too much. For that reason I usually use them "on the side" for family members to add to their dish.
Since I had no plans for them, I decided to dry them. After drying I ground them up using my mortar.The dehydrator rack screens were used to filter out the bigger pieces so I could grind them again.

Dried Green Peppers

Dehydrating must be a little addicting, because once I took the peppers out I had to look through my refrigerator to see what I could dry. I found some left over steamed carrots from the other day and some celery that was on it's way out. I had just come back from the grocery store with this next weeks produce and brought home some bananas. I thought daycare kids would love to have some for a treat this next week.

A little coupon shopping for deals.

2010-11-30T10:24:00.000-08:00

Black Friday Weekend, on Saturday.

I haven't added up receipts and reward program dollars, but a quick
estimate through them shows me with about $250-300 worth for $15.

The following is a special trip. Cereal that normally ranges from
$2.49 to 3.59 went on sale for $1 a bag. I was able to use some
50 cent coupons, that doubled to $1,
20 bags of cereal.!

This was a true blessing. Except for half of a box of something my dh likes, I was all out of boxed cereal.

Pineapples

2010-11-23T09:48:00.000-08:00

I've bought 3 pineapples two times this week. Someone on the Internet mentioned that if the leaves pull off easily, than they are ready to eat. That was good to know.

My kids were messing around and yanked all the leaves off a immature one. That's why one one in this picture looks odd.

This plate has about 1 pineapple's worth of fruit. I did dry two pineapples with this batch, but there was so many fingers snitching drying pineapple, I'm sure half is gone. Dried pineapple has such a wonderful tart and yet sweet taste, it make a fantastic natural CANDY.

Sweepstakes

2010-11-23T09:10:00.000-08:00

If anyone is interested in seeing me find out what my last sweepstakes win was, here it is

Here is my 1999 Alero I won back in November of 1998.

Here is my Local store win of a freezer with food in August of 1998.

Dried Celery

2010-11-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

Just in case any one is curious. With each of my food orders, my local store gave me a FREE bag of carrots and Celery. I was experimenting with the measurements and found that 3 packages of celery equaled one gallon chopped.

1 Gallon of celery took only 3.5 sheets on the food dehydrator rack. So I cut up one more and spread it little thiner than I needed to.

FOUR packages of celery when dried, barely made one pint of dried celery. I'm thinking it would take another one to fill the jar, but I need some fresh celery for my Thanksgiving dinner, so I won't do it now.

Home made Green house

2010-11-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

I found some pictures of my friends green house that I mention over a year ago.

Wild Rice at $2.98 a pound

2010-11-20T15:22:00.001-08:00

#20 of wild rice @ 2.98 a pound
I did decide to keep with the original 20 pounds. There were a number of good coupon deals that I wanted to do that still had some out of pocket expenses.

I For every order of $30 I got a free package of celery and carrots, so these were rang up separately.

Hmm Christmas presents for my Mil always takes some thought on my part. I bet if I used my cricut machine I could make a pattern to etch something on a canning jar filled with wild rice for her. Something to think about.

2010-11-19T07:45:00.001-08:00

Most of the time I see pineapple selling for $2.95 each. I'm going to cut some for the dehydrator.

2010-11-19T07:41:00.001-08:00

I found this coupon at a convenience store. I wish I had more than than four. My food store doubles, so its free. I'm not sure if I even pay tax. It depends how the til is set up.

Minnesota Wild Rice

2010-11-16T12:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I mentioned that my family doesn't eat much white rice. For that matter they aren't use to eating brown rice either. We do however enjoy eating Wild Rice. Maybe it's a Minnesota thing, since it's grown in MN.

Wild rice has a wide variety of prices. This is what I found on the internet.

Christmas Point Brainerd 1# 6.99
Moose Lake wild rice company 1# 6.79
KCs Best Wild Rice 1# $5 for dark and $8 for light
North woods Best 1# 12.95
North Bay 1# 7.50
Real Indian Wild Rice - Chippewa Lakes Wild Rice 1# 13.99

It turns out there are a variety of factors that effect the price.

For instance the variety or type of rice, from dark paddy or the lighter "real" Indian rice.
The actual lake and the summer's weather may effect the taste and price.
How is the rice is processed. Some roast and grounded the grain in the same method that Indians have done for generations and others use machinery to do the work.

The bottom line for me is when buying rice, price point across different sellers is not equal. Given the opportunity, I would rather help support a working family. I may not buy all of my rice, because I have a budget too, but being self-employed myself I see the importance of supporting small family businesses.

The first package here is a dark paddy rice that I found at my local Hornbachers store. I've seen the price range from $5.99 to $7.99 during a year.

The second package is a similar variety and type that I found at Fleet Farm, selling for $4.99. I picked it up with plans to do a taste test to see if I should pick up more.
So what brought this to my attention? This ad I read in my Cash Wise flier.

$3 a pound? That's a savings of over 50%

I guess you know where I'm going tonight. It also looks like I will have to cook some of the new rice tonight for that taste test.

By the way I did test that second bag and if I hadn't seen this new ad, I would have bought 20 pounds at Fleet Farm. My new plan is now increase my purchase to 25 pounds. I will be spending less money AND getting more food.

From my research I've read that as long as it stored correctly it has that 10-20 year life span. It's not uncommon for people to eat rice that had been stored for 10 years in plain quart jars with a screwed on cap. My plan is to use my food saver with quarts. I think I should be good for two years.
I just measured my one pound bags of rice.

One pound equals 2 3/4 a cup, dry

One cup dry equals roughly 4 cups cooked rice.

25 pounds x 2.75 cups =68.75 portions of 4 cups a week. Just about perfect for a bit more than a year's storage.

WOW

2010-11-15T10:34:00.000-08:00

Time can really fly by fast. So many times I've taken a picture or thought of something that I should write about and I just don't "get to it". It's really a shame too, because the bonus of writing things down in a blog, it makes you really examine something and makes you FOCUS IN DEPTH more than you would as thought shoot past your mind.

I've been looking at too many YouTube videos concerning pantry preparation. I've always been interested in the subject, but these days (like Y2K) they can scare the he-be-gee-bees out of you.   I want to run out and buy 100 #'s of white rice...and we don't EAT WHITE RICE.
There seems to be a number of different approaches to stocking the pantry or being "prepared". Since I've been interested in natural foods, canning, dehydrating, making things from scratch from the late 1970's, at this point in my life I find it reasonable to go back to my old interests.

I'll be the first to say I've enjoyed the fast foods drive through, frozen meals, mixes, boxed cereals and other chemically treated foods. I've become a sugar and a caffeine junkie, because of it. I've also gain a lot of weight and am suffering from diabetes. At 51, with my "children" soon to leave home all energy I used in keeping track of teenagers can be put back into things I'm interested in. I'm not going to guilt myself out for not doing all "real" food when I had children in the house. I've had very few role models, so my extermination past reading a great deal about it, in this area was limited.. On the other hand my kids were exposed more than most of their friends. They KNOW what a hot water bath, pressure canner, dehydrator, food saver is. They've been to strawberry farms to pick berries and tasted freshly made strawberry jam on fresh bread. Okay, I'm guilty. The bread was made with the use of a bread machine.   One day I will master bread that doesn't resemble a boat anchor.

I can't see how buying a lot of proffessionally sealed food that will last 20-30 years and setting aside in a closet is going to work for me. Buying things in sized 10# seem a bit too much too. If you open those cans you need to be using them in the next year. I suppose one could open a can and than portion the food out and use a food saver to reseal them, but than I lost some of my reasons why I would buy it in the first place.

The idea of stocking up on guns, other than my dh deer hunting gun and a 22 we have, doesn't appeal to me. I would assume as long as it was stored right it will last. Okay I can see having a little extra ammo for the guns we have reasonable. As always, the price is most likely to go up and we would be saving the difference.

Peace of mind is what I'm looking for so I'm going to leave the extreme things to think about the BASIC things I can do frugally that will fit in my life style on daily bases,   While I don't want the people around me to think I'm off my rocker with "the world is going to end in 2012." However, I DO think is the time of excess spending is coming to a end. When people get to the point that they understand that they ARE in debt too much they will be doing the same thing I'm doing now. The end result can a domino effect causing lost of jobs and increase difficulty in getting certain items that we use. THAT does scare me. There WAS a point in my life where I went through days with very little to eat, because of lack of money.    My whole being screams "never again". As a part of life I totally understand why the Mormans are taught to keep a food in supply.

Coupon shopping is hung ho, no doubt about that. Besides my enjoying the hunt of a really good deal, it DOES save money. For right now I'm not going to worry about the "chemicals" in those foods that I get for 90% to 100% off.  It's a source of food and we've been eating it for years. Just because I'd prefer to eat more healthy doesn't mean in times of need I shouldn't eat it.  It's still FOOD. I can leave my definition to "need" to eat it to the moment.

Dehydrator: I need to use mine more. When fresh and frozen goes on sale I should be dehydrating them. It would be awesome to have a gallon of dried EVERYTHING. I was watching the youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/Dehydrate2store#p/u/11/DfQg0hzFihM it's inspired me to dust off mine and USE IT. Since it's November celery should be going on sale. I could really see where it would be convenient to have some dried on hand.

Canning - Is more of a seaonal thing. Living in the suburbs, sometimes I am able to get large quanity of foods to can, other times I can't.   I could however do more meat and stews in the pressure canner. Right now I do have 2 beef and 3 quarts of chicken canned.  Again being November, cranberries are in season. It would be nice to put up some juice insead of buying it in the jugs in the store.

Free Cycle and Craigs List  - I think it's a good idea to keep an eye out what going on there.   Yesterday i was able to get okayed for picking up a 1.5 bales of hay.   I've need to put some on my strawberries and rose plants.  All I have to do is go pick it up. Got to love that.

Cooking from Scratch vs. Packaged Food Mixes with Nutritionist Linda Min...

2010-11-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

2010-08-24T05:38:00.001-07:00

This is what my daycare kids found on my front door in the morning.
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2010-08-18T12:48:00.001-07:00

I planted two grape plants this year. I didn't expect any fruit this year. I'm thrilled with even a handful

2010-07-29T14:09:00.001-07:00

Yum! Fresh bread

Time sure does go by fast.

2010-07-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

I'm just enjoying the sun and my green back yard. I've been taking a number of pictures during the last few weeks, but haven't had the time to figure out how to get them off my camera and posted. I lost a few brain cells, because last month I learnt how to do this, but now I can't remember.
Maybe tomarrow.

Wind storm

2010-07-14T13:30:00.001-07:00

Oh my gosh! Look at my poor corn. Wow what a storm.

Week later... I should have taken a picture of my corn today. All the stocks are up right and looking great! I'm very relieved.

2010-06-24T16:56:00.001-07:00

This is rougly $22.50 worth of food I just bought. I paid $1.27 cents!

2010-06-23T13:46:00.001-07:00

After two weeks of rain, I think the garden is dry enough to weed.

2010-06-15T09:38:00.001-07:00

Fresh Banana Bread

Toilet paper jack POT

2010-05-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Got the load down for a smelly deal. Local store has Marcel tp on sale for 1.53 a four pack.
I just ordered 150 coupons for $2 off, (5 cents each) off the internet.
Depending how this works out I will get tp for 5 cents plus tax a four pack or I will make a PROFIT and they will pay me to take it out of the store. Looking forward to completing this deal.

Spring planting

2010-05-16T11:28:00.001-07:00

Time to plant.

2010 Spring garden

2010-05-16T11:26:00.001-07:00

Just the beginning.

Time to save, time to spend...

2010-05-16T11:25:00.001-07:00

So this was just one of those time frugal went out the window. My dd senior prom.

Raspberry plants

2010-05-16T11:17:00.001-07:00

Those darn bunnies. Time to get out the chicken wire.

stockpile

2010-05-08T16:52:00.001-07:00

My son has made his first stockpile for himself

Baby bunny

2010-04-20T19:20:00.001-07:00

My son found this little guy while cleaning out the garden. My day care kids thought he real adorable.

Ziploc deal

2010-03-23T17:58:00.001-07:00

Two of our local stores has ziplock bags (freezer and storage) on sale for 2.29 and 2.33. The deal is if you buy three, you get $2 back in store credit. In the bread Isle of one the stores are coupons for $1 off the new ziploc bag with the flt bottom. There are also $.55 coupons out there, in which our area takes them up to $1 off.

So 2.29 x 3 - $3 for coupons and get back $2 means....each box costs 62.3 cents... 62 CENTS

The buy 3 get $2 is good til 4/17.

Ziplock catalina

2010-03-23T17:55:00.001-07:00

Not only do stores have sales, but also the brand makers have sales. This is a deal you get AFTER you purchase something. Here, after every 3 boxes of ziplocks you buy the catalina machine attached to the til, will spit out $2 towards your next purchase. Many stores have no problem with your using it right away. So it's nice to break up your orders and keep rolling them with manufactor's coupons. Watch for these deals. You can actually MAKE A PROFIT. The items on sale, you use a coupon bringing it close to free and the catalina coupons pays MORE than what owed on the idem.

The Blueberry and Cherry Report

2010-03-10T11:59:00.001-08:00

Here's what I have left of the the two 17 pint lugs that I canned this last summer. One of these jars is just juice from the end of canning and another is one that unsealed and started to mold. I had to take a picture, before throwing it out.

The other day I was in the grocery store in the freezer section. I saw 16 oz sized bags of blueberries for sale just over $5.   Freezing blue berries take NO skill.  Your not even supposed to wash them. Just put them in a bag and throw them in the freezer. Hot water canning takes a little bit more time, but is simple too. Both processes are well worth the time spent at $5 a pint. I looked back at my earlier post, the blueberries were 99 cents a pint. Add roughly 35 cents for the lid and ring and round it off to $1.50 a pint.

My goal for this next summer is at least FOUR, possibly SIX lugs.

The cherries....ah the cherries.   Sorry, I can't show you any pictures. The last quart was eaten last month. I went back to my earlier post to remind myself how much I canned. Two 21 lb lugs, which lasted until early February. I foresee buying a better cherry pitter (though my DH does a wonderful job with the hand held) and doing up Four if not Six lugs of cherries too.

Pictures of My NEW Pantry

2010-03-10T10:48:00.001-08:00

Here's our first Spring project. My DH and I took a trip to Menards and picked out three sets of shelves to put in the spare bedroom off the kitchen. If you look on the left you can see the closet and on the right the freezer. We were able to take two units and connect them together, saving a much needed inch of space. The third shelving unit added two more shelves to the two you see, since the orginal only had 4 shelves. The left over pieces (6 poles) are being kept in the closet for possible future use. (I'm thinking they will get some use for my rummage sale this summer. They are very strong and would be excellent to use for hanging clothes on). Each shelving unit was just under $60, so this project cost us $180 minus $30 in rebate dollars. A little spendy, but we will get a lifetime of use out of them.

See! It didnt' take long to fill up.
Before putting the shelf up we removed a pile of grocery bags from the floor. It was a lot of fun to bring them back in and load the shelf up. It feels so good to go into that room now. I also don't have to shudder at the thought of my friends who are interested in coupons and stockpiling seeing my pantry.

Here is a picture of the bedroom's closet. It's a mess, but after doing the rest of the room my energy was gone. It will keep for another weekend. God bless bi-fold doors that close.

This shelf was another tight fit.
It does a wonderful job of holding my canning.

The only other things in the room is the 5 foot freezer (that I'm happy to say I won from a local store, years ago.) and a small end table next to a twin bed. Even though there is only about a 4x5 foot open space in the middle of the room, it's become very funcional and I love going in there.
I have a couple more things to do, and than it's on to the bathroom pantry where life gets scarey.

FAST DEAL!

2010-02-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Today's Early Trib. has a coupon for purex 32 load laundry soap, b1g1. Today was also the last day of cvs's sale buy 1 and get one for 1 cent. The limit is 6 deals or 12 bottles. Doing 4 deals (8 bottles)

I saved OVER $50! Got to love it!

Nice shooping trip at walgreens

2010-02-13T14:10:00.001-08:00

A little editiing of this post, I found some receipts and two bags of groceries my kids forgot to bring in the house, not shown here.

Walgreens: $420 worth and $105 oop , but have received $20 in store dollars to use next time.
Sunmart foods: $250 and I was able to take it down to $150.
So The week ends totals is $670 woth for $250.

I think everyone would agree that this is too much out of pocket for a weekly budget. In my defense, during the month of January I did the least amount of shopping possible. Our household was hit with the flu and the few days I did have some energy I had some dental work done.

For the rest of the month my goal will be $30 weekly for deals and $50 for basic food stuff.

coupon Filing

2010-02-13T08:45:00.001-08:00

Playing catch up with a months worth of coupons. My goal is to do some deals today. I'll let you know how it goes.
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I have a high school senior this year.

2010-01-24T13:50:00.001-08:00

Last year was my first experience with the 12th grade Senior process with my son. This year it's my daughter. From turning in yearbook pictures, signing up for the ACT test, to looking at different colleges and thinking about a senior party. It all gets very expensive, but you really don't want to skip anything either.

Like last year with my son, I gave my daughter some different options to see where she would prefer to direct Mom and Dad's dollars. The senior party won over the senior pictures. Senior pictures can cost a great deal of money. While I'm sure having a professional is worth it, when your on a budget 500-900+ is a hard thing to swallow. We made it a point this last year to take a number of pictures of my daughter when ever we were in a good setting. I have to admit some of the pictures really turned out well. From a wide selection we were able to pick which picture goes in the yearbook, given to friends, given to family. We were also able to make a 5 picture 8 by 10 collage that represents her senior year fairly well. So far the cost of pictures printed off at walgreens has the cost us roughly $40 and we are very pleased with them.

Let me set the stage.

2010-01-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

     Christmas decorations are being put away for another year. The living room furniture is removed (pushed into the kitchen) so the carpet is steamed cleaned. Your standing there admiring how BIG your living room space is. The furniture is put back, but your left with piles of odds and ends on your kitchen table, things you don't want to clutter up your now CLEAN living room.
     You go down stairs to the family room and instead of seeing the piles of projects, toys and clothes you see the possibility of more space and organization.   The symptoms are the same almost every year. . It's that urge to clean up and organize. The making of new year resolutions, proper house cleaning routines, meal planning, thoughts of de cluttering for that spring garage sale. How did I accumulate all this junk?  I take care of the bills and do the buying, so what was I thinking when I brought all this home?
     Guess what "THEY KNOW" the state of your mind. Yes, those darn sellers of JUNK know. January is the month of wonderful clearance sales. Get a head start on next years winter clothing, it's 70% off. Toys for your children are 50% off and next week will be 75% if you can hold out that long. Let's put a darn cherry on top. Storage containers are buy one, get one free. You can now sort all that stuff, by buying NEW STUFF.
     Did you know if you put up some new shelving, you will have a place to put all those boxes? When your shelves are full, the problem is easily solved by grabbing a random tub and dropping it off at the salvation army. The only basic rule is not to check to see what's inside.   Face it, if you don't know what's inside than you don't need it. More room for more organized STUFF.

Eat From the Pantry Challenge

2010-01-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

I'm joining a few other sites in a Eat from the Pantry Challenge. I had to admit my attempts will be slightly different in that I will continue to go to the store for certain things. Milk, eggs and fresh veggies are not going to be taken off my list. Formula for day care will have to be purchased too. I think it's also reasonable to continue stocking up on the very best of the loss leaders. At this time I'm looking at a budget of $75 a week, with a daily goal of using as much as possible from my freezer and pantry.

This week I priced milk. Target was 2.89. My favorite food store 3.05 and CVS $2.29. I think I've found the place to buy milk for daycare and my family. I was very surprised. I have to admit that I always figured that milk bought at a drug store would be more money, just like a convenience store. Since we drink a gallon or more a day (remember I have daycare kids too) over a week, month this could save a great deal of money.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T15:53:00.000-08:00

The New Year came in at the tail end of a Minnesota blizzard. I was so happy that I didn't have any travel plans and could stay home. My own kids being in their late teens braved the cold and found shelter at their friends homes. School vacations for teenagers is all about video games and movie marathons, with daily visits to a hill to go snowboarding and hanging at the Mall with their friends. My DH took this time to go ice fishing with his brother and a life long friend. I was left at home with a smile on my face as I hugged and waived them good bye.
Peace and Quiet. At one point I'm sure being left on my own at home will be lonesome and depressing, but at this stage of my life it's very enjoyable. I puttered around the house and didn't even pretend to be cleaning. I re-read a couple books that I consider my friends and surfed the Internet, watching a variety of YouTube videos and listening to podcast radio shows.
I took time out to use the bread machine to make bread bowls. I put a batch of bread on the dough setting. When the time went off I took the dough out and devided it into four sections.
Pressing the dough lightly I flattened it out and draped it over some metal bowls and popped in the in the oven.
I than made somethick creamy homemade soup made out of cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions, wildrice, ham, heavy cream, salt & pepper. Oh can't forget the butter...yum! There is just something so comforting and heavenly about creamy soups in a fresh bread bowls. It was so relaxing, that when I was snuggled up in my pj's and a comforter on the couch to watch TV, the family was almost not missed.

Christmas Time

2009-12-12T08:11:00.000-08:00

And the Grinch stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. .........What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. ~Dr. Seuss

With a 17 year old daughter and a 19 year old son, Christmas isn't Christmas like years past. No longer do I haunt the children's toy isles during the season. I will after the holiday for some toys on clearance suitable for my daycare, but Christmas shopping is a whole different experience this year.
For the most part dd and ds are getting only one main present this year. A little expensive, but looking at the bigger picture still acceptable. DD got (yes got already) a snowboard. We had to bring her with to pick it out. I wanted to make sure it was the right size and the one she wanted. NO, exchanges to be made after Christmas. Besides wanting one for 2-3 years and it's something "active," so to me it was reasonable for her to get it. DS, well he is in college and what he needs is cash for school books. Very boring, but what can I say? Get real man! There will be something under the tree, most likely winter clothes to have something to open I'm sure it will be a little disappointing to them, as the holiday season is different to me.
I see this as a point where new holiday traditions should be made. The possible answer is making care packages. There is a women's shelter near us. If we found out how many children and women were there. I could call and check if they already some kind of celebration, if they do these could be made with a Happy New Year theme instead. If we worked on the project Christmas Eve they could be dropped off before the end of the year. My father also lives in a retirement building. There are a number of people there who are trying to make it with just Social Security. It may be possible to ask the office how many men & women most likely REALLY need some Holiday Cheer. Just some possible options I'm looking at.

Trouble Strikes!

2009-11-29T12:05:00.000-08:00

Some times it really amazes me how things just happen within the same time period. Take for instance last Wednesday evening. Dh and Ds had made plans to drive to the cities to Dh's sister's place for Thanksgiving, coming home the next day. Dd and I are allergic to cats, so we declined the invitation to the family gathering, to have our own Thanksgiving.

While doing a few errands on Wednesday evening the van acts up and needs to be brought to a garage, to be worked on Friday. My Dh decides to rent a car, but in order to do that we needed to get to the rental place. We get in the truck just to find the truck would not start. How odd is that? two cars at once? Was something telling us he should not go? Luckily it was only the started wire that needed to be "pushed" in a little (something that will have to be fixed after the holidays) and after 15 minutes fiddling with it, it started up just fine.

It's to the point where it's almost amusing. A half a dozen other little things have been hovering around, trying to make the holiday season a little less bright. I must be getting senile or something, because years ago these things would have bothered me a great deal more. Now days my attitude is more "well now, isn't that interesting? Something else to deal with". Maybe I just needed to finish off the 2009 year with a little bit of bad luck, so the new year can come in as a breath of fresh air and a smile.

Weekend shopping

2009-11-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

Super weather this weekend and super shopping deals! Let me share one of them with you.

At target I was able to get

7 tubs diaper wipes
12 jars of gravy
4 packs of Rolaids
14 packs of batteries
21 pakages of cat food
2 Christmas/birthday toys

Full price total would be $113.86

I paid $19.45 ($3.74 was tax).

For a savings of $94.41 !

Okay, one of the first things the people who know will ask, what am I going to do with the cat food? I'm very allergic to animals. Even so I do love them. I have two choices. First I might donate the food to an animal shelter, second I may box all of it for a gag Christmas present for my step-father, who gets a kick out of my "deals and steals" as he once called them.
Diaper wipes and children's toys will be used in my daycare, the gravy & rolaids used quickly, leaving the batteries. At 50 cents a pack, it was a fair price.

The Great Mississippi

2009-11-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Thursday, my husband mentioned that he wanted to take a drive in the country on Saturday. I thought it was a wonderful idea. The weather was to be in the 50-60's and most likely one of the last "best" fall weekends, before the snow falls and stays. So Saturday morning we (my dh, dd and her friend and myself) headed to Itasca State Park, about 20 miles North of Park Rapids, Mn.
I can't really explain to you how good it felt to get out of the suburbs and go for a long drive in the country. The air was crisp and cool and yet the sun was bright and warm, making a perfect contrasts. The colors were not as bright as a full blast of fall, but they were still offered views that you just wanted to sit and take in. I took a few pictures to share with you.

Here are the girls having a wonderful time. Right behind them is a line of rocks that are the starting point of the Mississippi river. Just before this picture was taken the girls had taken off their shoes and walked across the rocks. Mind you, this is NOVEMBER and the water is VERY cold. I even had to use my camera to film it, just in case one of them fell in.

A log close to the opening of the Mississippi offers a more sure-footed crossing.

There is a old fire tower that tourists climb. It gives you an awesome panoramic view that is breathtaking

Within the main park area there are cabins that people can rent. I peeked into some of them to take a look. They look very cozy and I think they would be a blast for a group of people to rent for a long weekend. I know my mil has a great family cabin, but it would be also nice to experience some different trails and have a change in scenery.

What do we buy?

2009-11-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been thinking about what people consume and how/where they buy it or acquire it. I've lived in a variety of different social levels (felt rich, been poor) and under a variety conditions ("the bathroom is outside in that little house" to "this house has 5.5 bathrooms but only 4 bedrooms?" oh I also can't forget "if you jump the people downstairs will complain" to "it's 7 miles to town and at least 2 to the nearest neighbor, if you want to give a good scream go ahead", so thinking about this has been interesting.
When I lived in the country we grew some of our vegetables and our neighbors dropped off what they wanted to share. Money was tight, so the cheapest method was to can or freeze our food for the winters. Food stores in small towns charge more money than the ones in larger towns, because the lower populated areas can't support the volume of business of the larger stores. So we froze our apples and corn -canned our green beans, tomatoes and soups. Food was often preserved in the whole form, to allow us to decide what to make later. Pantries were filled with garden vegetables, fruit and the freezers with farm butcher meat (be it wild game or home grown).
Factory processed and convince foods seem to be more common when I lived in the suburbs and city. It offered a quick meal, at a reasonable price and while it may not be the healthiest food it was enjoyed (chemicals and all) and it took care of the responsibility of a meal. Some pantries were almost non-existent compared to the country folk. People go to the store as they run out of things or just out of habit. Increased eating out not only increased the cost more per meal, but also the amount of food tossed because it spoiled at home. Within the bigger towns I've also seen the increase in number of coupon queens. Their pantries are comparable to farm wives because they are loaded. It's just not food though. Stockpiles of cleaners, health and beauty items to paper goods, batteries to future gifts.
In talking to a few women that I consider are very frugal with their methods I heard, "Ragu spaghetti sauce? nothing beats homemade. Local veggies and fruit? too expensive, I don't buy them. Food shopping? I'd rather work at my job a couple extra hours and eat out.
I remember a woman won a cook off TV show for making turkey stuffing out of store bought waffles. She got extra points for being creative with using the food she had on hand. It won't surprise me if she was a couponer. I have a large number of Pillsbury dough products that I've been being creative with too. Just today, for the daycare kids I turned cream cheese cinnamon rolls into cinnamon sticks that I cut up and put syrup on. The cream cheese frost went on graham crackers later in the day. Okay we are getting tired of the original product and perhaps I went over board in picking up too many, but I made money that went towards the frozen green giant vegetables that I really wanted.
What I hope to do is take in all the methods I've seen and be open to more. This last year we put in two gardens (12x14 and 10x14). Next year, I'm going to add those upside down pole plants and some containers, freeing my garden up for more things. I would be the first one to say putting in my garden this last year wasn't cheap. In town gardens need a little bit more materials to build than a farm garden. Plus the fact that often on the farm often there are things laying around that you can re-use. Last year for my garden I bought new materials, though I have to admit I could have cut costs by scouting around during clean up week and found them there. Convenience won over being frugal, I had a High School graduation party to plan and I needed the garden DONE.
Yes, its true that our farmer's market can be just as expensive as the grocery store. Those farmers aren't making enough a profit as it is. They deserve to get the store prices. Like daycare, just because they bring produce in doesn't mean they are going to have a good day selling. It's a hit and miss situation. Selling produce isn't just throwing some seeds in the ground and than bringing them to market to sell. Matter, who I spoke of earlier runs a family plant and produce home business. She built a homemade green house and has a oil/wood stove furnace going most of the winter. Her "little" business can mean 12-14 hour days without any set days off. It's not just gardening either, people stop by not only for produce, but for a chat. That can mean dropping whatever you doing to talk to people. It's not unusual to a different crops stunted because of weather and insects either.
A possible answer for me is bartering. It's something I need to give a little more thought to.
There must be some farm women within 30 miles that don't get to the store much, or do the coupon deals. If I could get a list of things that they buy, I may be able to pick up things well below the 75% mark. We could do a barter where I could get home grown beef/produce at their selling price, paying with packaged products 25% off the prices posted on our area online stores.. This way they are saving 25% and my savings would depend on how well a deal I could find.
Some place their has to be a personal balance between frugal, healthy, tasty and yes convenient. Within, that I hope to find that peace of mind.

Shopping deals

2009-10-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday and Tuesday I went out coupon/food shopping with a friend of mine. We knew of a deal too good to pass up and just had to give it a try. In order for it to work out, our orders had to be at least $25. By buying specific items the til would spit out store coupons worth $14 on our next order, which of course we rolled over to the next order. That left me with the chore of gathering as close to $11 to zero the balance of each order out.

After 2.5 hours on Sunday evening and 2 hours on Tuesday evening we had our results for the deal.

6 boxes of cereal
40 bags of green giant veggies
30 boxes of green giant veggies
29 pkgs of ready to bake cookies
17 cookie mixes
64 pilsbury refrig. breads
15 warm delights
30 yogurts
8 boxes potatoes.

The grand total was $458.71 and I spent only $29.75

Bread

2009-10-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

I'm rather proud of myself. Bread making isn't a complete habit yet, but it's on its way to being one. I love the smell of bread in the house. Our toaster is wide enough to accommodate 95% of a slice of bread, so half way through the toasting process I flip the bread upside down, but that's no trouble. The only complaint has been when some cuts the bread uneven, which will happen less and less as we get practise.

Last time, I mention that I remembered my past reading saying homemade bread is cheaper. Well, I went back to do a little research on this. In my library of books I found a very well known "tightwad" author (that a a set of three books in 1995) felt that bread machines were not as thrifty as one would think.

In comparing it to making homemade bread where the ingredients would be the same, she believed the main difference would be energy consumption whereby the savings were very low, considering that the machines often don't last long enough to make of for the original cost.

Another comparison she made was buying bread at the store. Obviously, store bought bread is more expensive than 'thrifty" store's, so that is what she looked. Her ingredients were those she found on sale or purchased in bulk to reduce the price. The prices for a 1995 publishing date, were 57 cents for thrift stores and 27 and 26 cents, respectively for homemade and bread machine. She goes on to say that her family eats more homemade bread in a week, than store bought bread, making the "cost" of bread for the week higher when it's homemade. Her conclusion is, if she has the time she'll make it. Otherwise it's easier for her to buy it as a thrift store.
From here I try to take my search back to the books on my shelf. To my surprise none of my other books talked about the cost of making bread. I thought for sure I've seen this discussion in a number of places over the years. So I did an online search and found the pickings slim here too.
From the martha and tom site http://marthaandtom.com/2009/02/the-cost-of-homemade-bread/ I was VERY pleased to see a break down of bread made with Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal Mix, at $1.93 cents a loaf. I have no clue what such a loaf would cost in the store made, but most likely it is one of the higher end types.

About.com http://germanfood.about.com/od/bread/a/cost_of_bread.htm gives the estimate of $1.50, which I found more interesting after doing my calulations for my loaf.

My own ingredients have been purchased from a variety of shopping trips and I have to admit to not knowing what they cost. That being so, using one of the three main stores I usually shop at I priced out how much each of the items in my recipe costs. Mind you, these are just off the cuff, close as what I could get to the brands I've been using. With some mad math calculations this is what I ended up with.

Here is a list for a 2 lb. loaf.
1. 5 C Water
2 T Butter (sweet cream ) 1# 2.59 $.16
1 C Sifted Wheat Flour 5# 2.88 .14
3 C Sifted Bread Flour 10# 4.88 .37
3 T Dry Milk 25.6 oz $4.25 .25
2 T Sugar 10# 5.43 .05
2 t Salt 26 oz 58 cents .01 can't put less
1.5 t Bread Yeast 4 oz 5.99 .57

My total is $1.57 per 2 lb loaf using things I already have at home.

I went through again with the cheapest ingredients online I could find, with out buying in bulk or using a sale or coupon
butter blend .10, white bread flour (4 cups- no wheat) .44, dry milk .21, sugar.04, salt .01, yeast .22 for a result of $1.02.

As you can see yeast and flour seem to be the biggest expense. I read one blurb that yeast can be bought in 2 lb. blocks at the cost of .03 per loaf instead of .57. That would make a difference. Three or 4 months ago I was looking into flour mills, to do my own flour. My memory tells me wheat flour loses a great deal of vitimins in the first 48 hours after its milled. Using freshly milled flour for homemade bread not only would increase the amount of vitimins, but like the bread machine, be cheaper if you get a good deal on the mill and use it.
Getting a grain mill has entered my mind a number of times over the years. It will have to be something I may have to look back into. At that time I can do a little research on the cost of wheat berries per loaf.

Some other information I came upon, while dealing with this issue.

1. For all ingredients, it may be cheaper to buy larger quanities, but be aware of how much you will actually use or it goes to waste.
2. Store flour in air tight containers to reduce moisture and the spread of bugs. Bake with flour at room temperture.
3. Putting the flour in the freezer kills off the bugs, that are naturally in the flour you buy.
4. Keep your eyes idea open at rummage sales. Bread machines often go for $5 or $10 dollars, when it doesn't fit their owners lifestyle.
For myself...
1. It is unlikely that I will attemped homemade bread without the bread machine.
2. I don't really consider the machines cost, I already own one.
3. I am very concerned about the quality of the bread. What vitimins are lost and what chemicals are used in the process before I buy it at the store.
4. How the bread tastes is very important.
5. Homemade bread seems more filling than store bought bread.
6. We may eat more, but over all it's a healthy inexpensive snack. Much better than munching out on chips.
7. By making our own bread we are not limited in our choice of bread. We can alter the ingrediants to suit what flavor we want.

After rechecking the brands online I found generic store white bread at $1.18 and two breads at the high end at $6.99 and $7.99. Most of the better quality breads topped off at $3.99. If my (1 cup) wheat bread were in the store, my guess it would be $2.79. What I really should do is make note of the prices of bread at a speciality store we have at the mall. There product would be closer to what I'm making.

We ran out of milk. Instead of going to the food store and buying milk I drove down to Walgreen's. I have some reward bucks from a shopping trip there that I used to buy the milk. Even though this doesn't help with rolling over the bucks for more free items, this does cut down on some of my oop expenses.
I'll save the saving money buying milk discussion for some other time. I think it's something else I need to explore in my mind.

Frugal mode has set in.

2009-10-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

A number of things hit us recently that has put being "frugal" at the top of the list.

The first one was getting notices for two daycare kids. It not only makes it sad for me to see my little chicks go, but of course it lowers the income. Since than I've had a number of calls and a few interviews, but no good bites. It's a wait and see game causing me to reconsider and open my childcare up to infants again. I much prefer enrolling children that are 18 months, because than I don't have to worry about gates being on the top of my stairs of my bi-level. Sometimes I think having a gate is more dangerous, it certainly doesn't offer peace of mind. Kids like to lean on it while waiting for me to come and open it up. That scares me. I try to keep aware of what they are doing, but it's some much easier just not to have the younger kids.

The second event includes oldest son entered college this year. While my husband and I aren't not going to give him a free ride, I don't want him to work his butt off and balance college at the same time. It not that he couldn't do it, but thinking about it gives me a knot in my stomach and makes me feel like I failed promises I made to myself, about my own children's future.
So for the first year he is living in the dorm. This is his time to experience and learn a wide range of things, that will shape his future on his own terms. Next year, it will be okay for him to live at home and go to college if he wants to. In the meantime it's good for him to be away from mom and good for mom to learn to let go.

The latest event hit me the hardest. I have a couple of credit cards that I've been working down, paying double the mini um of what they've been asking and some months more. Well apparently as we've been warned in the news, they've changed the payments polices. Luckily, the the low interest rates haven't risen, but the percent of the balance being paid has gone up. So now, my mini um payment four times what was required before.

All this causes re-vamping of budget goals. If just one or two of these things hit, all that would have been needed was a little reorganization, without really effecting our day to days lives. As it was, it's time to get more serious.

This all came to a head yesterday. I haven't had a great amount of time to work exactly what is going to happen. On one hand I can reassure myself that we don't need to go with out and I "could" if i really wanted to, go out and buy anything I felt we needed (even if I had to pay for it later). It's not like we are about to lose our house or anything like that. It's more of a case of growing up and taking more control of our life's. A person gets too use to being in debt and it's just not good for peace of mind. I think that's how I'm going to consider this task. Not as something that is distasteful, but as a privilege for working towards "peace of mind" for my family.

Interesting, this reminds me of my daughter's homework paper I read last night. It was about war and peace. Not the book, but about philosophy of the two. She mentioned that peace was often given a negative spin. First you think of the free spirited hippies, laying around and getting high. Next, you have it as a relationship to goodness, truth, light and even God. and it becomes something that is unattainable. At the same time it also has a relationship to war. People go to war in the name of peace, but what they really are doing is trying to control people for their own reasons. It goes on to say real Peace is more of state of understanding, in people's minds.

So what I'm thinking is I have to understand what I am doing and could be doing to work towards building up our families "peace of mind" in this area. It seems like when I find a motivation, interest, goal in the procedure or out come of a project it's a great deal easier. While frugal savings has always interested me..I rather not spend money on certain things so I can spend MORE on other things, this is going a bit more deeper and will take more thought and energy.

So my little war (control of people in the family) is breaking some habits and changing things up and still keep it reasonable and doable. I need to think about what we do in our daily lives and decide if its that more of a leak of the family coffers or a reasonable purchase.

My first one is bread. I much prefer homemade bread, so it's a no brainer. Homemade by means of a bread machine, don't ask me bake any odd shaped bowling balls. The issue concerning this is when I cook, I like to cook in bulk and it is very annoying that its takes three hours to cook one loaf and could be eaten in 10 minutes. Still, past reading tells me the cost of homemade bread is between 30 and 75 cents, depending on what kind you make. The cheapest white bread that I will not consider buying is 1.27 in the stores. It's basically white glue, you know the kind. The next level, which I will buy has barely enough wheat in it, so they can call it wheat at $1.79 a loaf. The bread I prefer the most costs anywhere from $2.57 to over $4. So in my mind I'm comparing 5o cents to $3. That is a huge difference. My new "peace of mind" goal is to start the bread machine up at lunch time, while the daycare kids are eating their lunch. It does a couple things for me. It provides a wonderful household smell that will draw my family to have it for a healthier snack. It impresses daycare parents when they pick up their children, to have homemade baking being done. There is a wide variety of types, so I develop an interest in cooking and tasting the recipes I have. I'm already dreaming about making up a batch of Cinnamon Raisin tomorrow. I could work my way through the bread books and make a few notes in the margins, it makes the whole procedure more fun.

Fed Ex Truck Drove By...

2009-10-02T07:53:00.001-07:00

It made me rather sad, that the truck didn't stop. There was a time when I would get surprise packages weekly if not daily. They were sweepstakes wins and they really brightened up my day.
I've won coupons, toys, dvd players, grills, bikes, gift cards, a freezer full of food, furniture, basketball hoops, $500 debt cards, 4 trips including a 10 day cruise and a CAR. There was a 5-6 year span there were there was a great deal of excitement in the house. I remember one month where we won THREE weeks in a row on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
I kept a small diary of my wins, so I may have to copy some of my entries here. They were exciting days where you could feel that anything could happen. Each win had a little back ground story to it, that made it more fun.
I think it was just the stage of life I was in that made me stop. There was decrease in the number of entries I made as my kids entered the teenage years. I was very busy with many of their activities, which didn't leave much room for other things. The Internet also had an impact. When I first started sweeping most of the sweepstakes didn't have a means to enter online, you had to send a entry in the mail. This meant not only did you have to fill out the entry, but you also had to buy stamps to mail it in. When your talking about a goal of 100 entries a week, it could get expensive. Now days some sweepers enter 2-300 a day on their computers and not only do they do this for free, but they also have programs that keep track of them and they don't have to make trips to the post office. The less trouble it is to enter a sweep the more entries the promotion gets, and the less likely you will win. On the other hand, it only takes one entry to win, even if it's in a pool of 50 -60,000 other entries. I know because I have won things on one entry.
I think this is something I will have to pick up again as I gain more time for myself. It would definitely provide some spice in my life.

Daycare savings!

2009-09-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited in that I'm going to receive a $3,000 retain grant this next year for daycare. I've tried 5 or 6 years and only received it one other year. It's an AWESOME grant because I don't have to buy daycare things with it. It can go for anything I want it to go for. I'm not planning anything special with it, just to catch up on bills and help pay for the winter fuel bill, but it's a total blessing. Daycare is one of those jobs where you only get paid for the children you have. sometimes hard to get through the month. Other times your making a great deal more, but the stress and activity level is not something you can substain and do a good job.

Last Friday I also put in for our once a year county grant through resource and referral. There is a possibility of getting $1,500. Last year I applied and I got $600. I'm not complaining it came very useful in buying new supplies for my daycare. This grant has to go to the things you've requested. This year the area's are health & safety, the learning environment and the last one is education. I'm looking forward to being able to order some things. I felt like a child looking through Christmas catalogs when I picked out the items that I thought would be best for me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Coupons shopping

2009-09-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

I feel pretty good about today. A friend of mine and I had agreed to go to Target at 7 PM so I spent sometime sorting coupons and getting my act together. Some of the deals fell through and I found a few others. OOP at Target, I spent $2.90 and I SAVED $56.60. Very nice.

4 tide at 3.74 - 1.50 - 1= 1.74 each
3 baby buddies .97 - .97= Free
24 Crystal light at .68 - $1 each =profit
2 rimmel mascara at.$2.99 - $1 each
Intuition razor at 8.29 - 2-4= $2.29
24 single serving of market pantry cheese at .40 - 40= Free
Tax $1.46

Since they recently built a new Walgreen's across from Target we had to go over there and check it out. I felt I did okay there too.
First order
1 Thermaflu was a case of buy one and get your money back. I used a $1 coupon and paid a little over $2 in oop. Got rewards coupon back for $2.99
Second
1 Aussie product, $2.99 and get $2 back. I should have had a coupon but they were left on my table at home. Using my rewards from the Thermaflu, I got reward coupon for $2.00

Third
9 single airborne .99 each - 8) $1 coupons and - 1) .75 coupon
A Diet coke for me and a candy bar for my daughter.
Tax was .78
Total was $1.38 after using my $2 rewards coupon. Saving 10.75

In the end I estimate roughly OOP I spent 6.50 and saved $73.60 for the evening.
My bonus is, that I was able to go shopping with a friend and we had a good time.

Avoidance

2009-09-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

I have at least three weeks of coupons that have been stapled and cut, but not filed yet. I need to go out and buy 4-6 copies of the early Sunday paper and staple, cut and file those. If I don’t do this, I will miss the best shopping deals and waste the money and time I already invested.

For the most part I enjoy all aspects of coupons shopping. I certainly love the savings and the thrill of the hunt of a good deal. It’s a great hobby! I have to admit though sometimes it is a job. Some times I get a little burnt out and need some time off. It’s hard to face that first day back to work after a vacation, even if you do like your job.

The strangest thing is, you just know that if you sit down and start after 10 minutes you’ll be engrossed in the procedure. Just why is that?

Diapers anyone?

2009-09-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of 63 packages of diapers. I bought these last July at Walgreens. Awesome deal! The price of the diapers totally depended on the store and the clerk. Sometimes the diapers were free, some times I paid 80 cents-1.20 per pack. After a week of running around I think I spent $20 in cash out of pocket (oop). The reason why I'm blogging this is I just saw the remains after 1 year and 2 months later, very sad. I have 12 bags of diapers/pull ups left, ONLY because they are the wrong size. Warning! Do not go near my trash can.

A special day

2009-09-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

The day isn't even half over and I've already been feeling a wide variety of emotions. My son has been living in the college dorm rooms for the last two weeks and today is my daughters first day of high school as a senior.
This morning when I woke up I found the routine for the "first day of school" had changed. No radio's blasting, banging of doors, yelling back and fourth "Did you see my ____?". No chit chat between teens excited to see their friends again. My daughter only needed two things from me this morning. Lunch money and something that I will always remember as special. She reminded me to take her "first day of school" picture. This morning was my last time to have this honor and even though her brother was missing from the picture, all I could do is feel so proud of both of my kids for becoming the young adults they've become.

Okay I admit it

2009-09-01T11:03:00.001-07:00

I burnt eggs this afternoon. SIGH, I hope I didn't destroy one of my favorite cooking pans. Too often they just aren't the same when you burn something on them. Burnt eggs does not smell as bad as you think they would, but I can tell it's going to be a lingering smell that most likely will be around for a while.

Note to self: avoid having company for the next few days.

Trying to get it done

2009-09-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a very busy day. I drove over to my father's retirement home to pick him up and bring him back to the house for a visit. Maybe it was a little sneaky on my part, but I knew he would enjoy helping me in some way, so I started bringing out all the preserving I had to get caught up on.
There was some rhubarb, picked the day before. Even though it's August and I've been told I should leave some stalks on the plant for the winter, there were so many of them I had to try to get a last batch preserved. While he was cutting this in pieces, I brought out my morning picking of beans. This would be my last preserving batch of these too. If I'm lucky I will get a enough for a fresh meal here and there, but this was the last larger picking. My plan was to freeze these for daycare.
My husband was being a sweet heart and did the shucking of 6 dozen ears of corn on our deck. While shucking corn isn't a hard job, it's not one that I really like. Too often when I do it I come across those darn gross worms. Not a big deal, but they seem to do a good job of scaring me and I'm almost afraid of shucking corn for finding one. The corn was blanched, cut and stored in freezer bags for the future. Oh minus of course what we had to have for lunch. We couldn't help ourselves.
My original plan was to freeze that rhubarb, but I ended up changing my mind. I have limited amount of freezer space and a number of frozen packages of rhubarb already. So I decided to cook some up, can them using a hot water bath. I got a little carried away I guess. It ended up being a combination of rhubarb, blueberries & strawberries that I had in the freezer. I did add a little sugar, but really the strawberries brought a lot of sweetness to the sauce so I didn't have to add much. The end result became 8.5 quarts of sauce, 7 of which was hot water bathed and the other 1.5 put in the refrigerator. These will be excellent for pie or homemade cereal bars. Totally delightful on angel food cake with a little whip cream.

The rhubarb and beans came from our garden. Over the past week I've seen sweet corn selling for $5, $4, $3 and heard of it selling for $2.25 a dozen. This corn was 2.98 a dozen at a local store, that was selling local produce. Since it looked good, I bought it.

Our reward for all our work was a movie at a local discount theatre place. It's not something we do that often, but it made for a good afternoon.

Home canning

2009-08-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

This past summer I've been able to do some canning, that I haven't had a chance to do for many YEARS. The smell of the food cooking and the sound of the popping of the lids has brought back a number of memories from years past.

One of them being at a friend's home. Shaking off the snow as I came from January's cold winter, the heat from the living room's wood stove engulfed me in a warm comfortable blanket. As I took off my winter jacket and boots my nose drew me into the kitchen. There on the counter was a welcoming sight, golden brown fresh baked bread.
Before I had a chance to warm my cold fingers on the bread, my friend's Mom, (whom I've always called Matter, because she matters) sent me down to her canning room in the basement. Inside the door was a pile of potatoes, to the left a 6 to 8 feet aisle. Booth sides of the room was lined, floor to ceiling with brightly colored canning jars full of food that brought a smile to my face and a rumble to my stomache. My hand reached some of the homemade summer jam could be found third shelf over on the right and a little bit higher than eye height for me. SHHH I never told anyone before, but there were also a dozen or so jars hidden in the back of the soups on the top left shelf. These would would come out in late spring as items that have been "lost" until then. It made me feel special that Matter would share this secret with me. Her 6 children liked to raid her shelves in the middle of the night. She often told me she would find the remains of bread, crackers and spoons down there, but even though she was shaking her head in disgust, I could tell she said it in a way I got the impression she didn't really mind. Personally, I don't blame them. In the middle of January, blueberry jam is shear heaven on a slice of homemade bread. I would imagine a midnight raid with your brother/sister would produce a number of giggles that could be overheard, since her bedroom was just above the pantry. As a mother myself now, I now understand how she felt.

What started the canning was looking through the store ads and seeing blueberries on sale for 99 cents a pint. A price that is rare around here. I went to the store and bought a flat of 17 pints. basically I just washed and heated them up. I had canning jars and lids from past years, so I used them and did a hot water bath.
The next week a ad for Bing cherries came out at $1.49 a pound. I thought that was a good deal and bought a 21 lb lug. I set my teenage children to work pitting them with a hand held cherry pitter. Filled jars and added a light water to sugar syrup for another hot water bath. The following week the cherries came out at 99 cents a pound and because my husband had been opening up and "testing" last weeks cherries, he insisted we get another lug. For some reason our kids were gone when it came time to pit them, so it became my husband's job.
Almost a month later now, I can honestly say I think we should have canned triple the amount of blueberries and Bing cherries. They've been awesome to add to our diet in different ways. It will be interesting to make the date as to how far into the year they do last.

Our green beans have been coming from our garden this year. I would not say they have been the most frugal. My husband and son put up a chicken wire fence to protect my two small plots from the neighborhood rabbits. Since we bought all new material, it wasn't the cheapest procedure. The blessing is it should last a number of years and we should be able to actually get some food out of our garden instead of feeding the critters. Anyway I planted two packs of seeds, which grew 40 feet of beans. As of today I've pressure canned roughly 40 pints and 7 quarts. I have another bowl that I just pick were I'm guessing I will get another 7 quarts. I'm not sure how many beans we will use in a year. My rule of thumb is one pint a week should do the job. If I get any more beans out of the garden I will be freezing them. While I prefer canned beans, child care food program laws say I can't feed "canned" food to daycare kids. That's too bad, because I think home canned can be a great deal more healthy than anything in the store, but that's another subject.

Pantry Economics

2009-08-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

Money is a driving force in our world. It allows us to provide for the needs of our families. If we have a money set aside we feel more secure about our future. Not having money for the basic needs of your family is NOT anyones idea of fun.

There is no doubt in my mine that be prepared for events is a great deal cheaper and easier than buying as you go. Investing in a pantry not only saves money, but it also saves time and and be a convenience in our daily lives. While I don't really want to get into the "end of the world" scenario, our world is changing. There is value and a sense of security in of having a backup plan in case of emergencies. As a mom a emergency is a situation where I need to come up with an answer fast. From being able to grab a birthday present from a "gift closet", to having some extra snacks to feel unexpected guests, to loss of income, health issues, bad crop years/increased prices to evacuation because of a fire or flood. These things are a part of life. Investing some time, energy in these issue can only benefit the family.

Another area that is a concern me is long term impact of our health from eating processed foods. I have become a product of our generation. I love God father's pizza, diet coke and my favorite brands of chocolates. The end result of years indulging in convenient foods, sweets and foods that have preservatives in them are allergies, weight gain and diabetes. Daily these things impact my life. I find myself doing less and less, because of my state of mind or energy levels. From my 30's and 40's I can see the decline of my life style. If I don't get this to turn around during my 50's I may not make my 60's. I can't let that happen. Not only would I be creating issues for me, but being the person in charge of food in our house I am impacting the lives of the people around me.

I must say, we are not junk food junkies. I do serve balance meals, but I'm beginning to think the issue isn't just a balance between the food groups, but also the toxins and chemicals that are part of processing and marketing.

Why do I want to create a pantry?

Save money
To be prepared, feel secure
Increase the notional value
Decrease the processing chemicals
Decrease empty calories
Improve our health, lifestyle

I'm sure there are more reasons. As I divulge in to this more I'll have to add to the list.

Good Morning

2009-08-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my first attempt at blogging.

Why am I blogging? I'm facing a change of life and life style. After reading a few other blogs, I think this might be a fun way to review, clarify & share my thoughts, feelings and experiences.

What is this big change? A number of things; from my first child starting college and freeing up much of my time to explore things I'm interested in, to finding out I have type two diabetes.
Most of my interests deal with current family issues and hobbies, home budgeting, working out of the home, food, family, friends and travel and other misc. I hope if you've stumbled across you blog you will find it interesting enough to leave me a message.