Archive for May, 2009

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Free Summer Activities: What to do this summer

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Summer is finally here. Our final day of school for the year was Friday. Now that summer has arrived, with it comes the age old question “what can we do now mom”? Luckily, there are a number of ways to spend the summer, and most of them are inexpensive or free.  We will be participating in our library’s summer reading program as well, but here are a few of my other favorites. If you know of any, pleae post yours as well. I would love to know what else is out there.

Check out Regal Entertainment Group’s Free Family Film Festival. Each Tuesday and Wednesday at 10AM during the festival, select G & PG movies are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Seating is limited to theatre capacity. See if your state is participating, and get the movie schedule at Regal.

Visit Bass Pro Shops Family Summer Camp May 30th through July 5th, Saturdays and Sundays from Noon to Six for free crafts, free s’mores,  laser shooting gallery, casting pond, and shooting range. Check the Bass Pro Shops site to see if your store is participating.

Two free games of bowling (shoe rental required) all summer long at participating locations. Check here to find a location near you.

Free Kids Workshop at The Home Depot. This is actually available all year on the first Saturday of every month from 9AM to Noon at all Home Depot stores. 

Kids earn a free book with Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program. After your child reads eight books, and completes the Summer Reading Journal, they will receive a coupon for a free book (eligible books will be listed on the coupon).

Half Price Books Summer Reading Program available June 1st through July 31st provides kids 12 and under a $3 Half Price Books shopping card for each week they read at least 15 minutes per day. Find a Half Price Books location near you.

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Meals For Less Than $5.00: Meatloaf, Rice and Broccoli

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

img_2865Our family had not spent a full evening together for several days due to all of the activities we’ve participated in so we decided to cook at home last Friday night. I made this meatloaf from ground turkey and added some white rice and some frozen broccoli to go along with it. Our three year old son feasted on the broccoli and didn’t touch anything else. The rice is from our opportunistic purchase in the spring and I got both the Honeysuckle White ground turkey and the Green Giant frozen broccoli on sale. Ground turkey is good alternative to beef. It is tasty and much less costly to buy in the leanest form. I use the 93/7 package in tube form. 

1 lb Honeysuckle White ground turkey ($1.83) on sale

1 package Green Giant frozen broccoli ($1.31) on sale

1 cup white rice ($0.25)

1 teaspoon Goya Adobo con Pimento ($0.05)

1/2 yellow onion, diced fine ($0.15)

1 egg ($0.10)

1/2 cup ketchup ($0.25)

1/4 cup yellow mustard ($0.15)

2 tablespoons brown sugar ($0.15)

1 cup plain breadcrumbs ($0.40)

TOTAL: $4.64

RECIPE: Mix 1 teaspoon of Goya Adobo (garlic powder is fine plus a little salt and pepper), breadcrumbs, egg, ground turkey, and onion in a mixing bowl and mix thorough with your hands. Form the mix in a loaf on a pan or in a loaf cooking dish. Mix your ketchup, mustard and brown sugar in a separate bowl with a spoon. Cover the loaf with this mixture. Cook 1 cup of white rice on stove top with 2 cups of water, covered on low. Cook the meatloaf for approximately 1 hour on 375 degrees.

NOTES: We buy most of our groceries either on sale or private label products (read: generic). Although we get our eggs fresh from my mother’s chickens, I use the price of a regular dozen eggs at ALDI for the price basis. We love ground turkey because it has a good flavor and low fat.  Goya Adobo is a Spanish brand of all purpose seasoning that we learned about from some friends. It is a lot like garlic salt but also contains turmeric and oregano. It is a great seasoning in traditional American food and is cheap to keep around. This one seasoning has garlic powder, salt, oregano, turmeric, cumin, and pepper. It is a cook’s friend! You could substitute seasoning salt or garlic powder.

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Weekend Project: Learning How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

 

A big Ghiradelli on top!

A big Ghiradelli on top!

Walnuts and Chocolate Chips!

Walnuts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband and I have been searching for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe for a while. The one on the back of the chocolate chip bag just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t make cookies that are up to the standards we place on our food. The cookies we’ve made with that recipe are usually hard. The first piece of the puzzle was an NPR story my husband heard about how the original Toll House recipe did not likely include bleached flour. The mills back in those days made what we would now consider unbleached flour. The lady on NPR had done a lot of research and she figured that the flour was one of the problems with the chocolate chip cookies these days. We also subscribe to Cooks Illustrated. In their May/June edition, Charles Kelsey wrote an article titled the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. We made the recipe. We agree.

The recipe is fantastic and we followed it closely. We used all the same ingredients right down to the Ghiradelli Bittersweet chocolate chips. The cookies were slightly crunchy on the outside and nice and chewy on the inside. This is probably due to the recipe calling for the butter to be cooked prior to mixing and also the use of more brown sugar than white sugar. This magazine may be available at your local library. Their website does have recipes and videos, but you must subscribe. Go get it for free at your library and get this recipe!

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Find Potential Hidden Income

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

coins

If your budget is stretched as far as it will go, it may be time to find some hidden income. With people losing their jobs, receiving a cut in pay, or a cut in hours, it may be time to think about where to find potential hidden money. 

Rent an extra room – If you have an extra room, basement, or attic that is suitable to live in, it may net you some much needed extra income. Figure out your best potential roommate, and lay down the ground rules from the beginning to have a successful roommate relationship that doesn’t go sour. Check with your family and friends to find out if anyone is in need of renting a room. I probably wouldn’t rent to a complete stranger at all, due to safety reasons.

Sell your old stuff on Ebay or Amazon - Often times I have items around the house that are nearly new or in excellent condition that might provide some extra cash. Check around and you may find a DVD, book, or CD that you haven’t watched, read, or listened to in ages and might bring in a few extra dollars. 

Have a talent or skill – Do you have a talent or skill where you can get paid to do the work? Perhaps you are a great cook or bake really well and can cater someone’s party or bake homemade cookies, cupcakes, or cake.    

Clean house  - This doesn’t take any special talent, but does require the willingness to get down and dirty and clean someone elses house. While it isn’t hard, and may not always be the most enjoyable, when times are tough and the money is tight, anything will help. 

Sell your garden – Don’t sell the garden itself of course, but the produce you reap from the garden. Is your tomato crop going crazy or are the squash and zucchini coming out of your ears. We grow a good amount of herbs and these can be incredibly expensive at the grocery store. Find out who the cooks are in your family and see if they would be interested in purchasing your harvest instead. Pass the word on to family and friends that you have produce or herbs available for sale.

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Book Review: Storey's Basic Country Skills

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

storeys

I was first made aware of Storey’s Basic Country Skills, A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance by my brother. It has the appearance of a college textbook it is so thick, but after quickly glancing through the book I found it an easy read and an absolute must have for our kitchen library.

I forget how useful this book is when attempting to do something I’m not quite familiar with. It is full of detail and information, and gives me the support I need to start or complete a project. Because I live in the city and have a small yard, I rely mainly on Part Two and Three of this book. I do like Part One of the book though because it deals so much about home ownership that can be applied to a city dwelling as well. The book is divided into four parts for easy navigation. It is centered around the idea of not just living frugally, but living with the environment.

Part One deals with “Your Place in the Country”. While this part of the book focuses a lot of attention on places of residence that would normally be found on acreage in the country, many of the concepts can be applied to city dwelling as well. It gives an introduction to the basics on buying a home, construction of outdoor spaces, home heating, electricity, and basic home improvements. I found that many of the concepts would apply to any place of residence, weather you reside in the country or the city. 

Part Two focuses on “Your Garden, Yard, and Orchard”. While city dwellers aren’t able to do have a garden or orchard on a large scale, the same ideas and concepts can be achieved on a smaller scale. The book gives great information on gardening vegetables, and herbs. I liked the fact that it provides detailed information regarding many types of herbs and vegetables and find myself referring to this book because it is so complete. This part of the book also focuses on flower gardens, water, and rock gardens. It has great tips on improving your soil, managing garden pests, attracting birds and butterflies, and general lawn care.

Part Three addresses “Country Cooking & Stocking Up”. This part of the book deals with all things concerning cooking, preserving, and stocking up. I liked the detailed information the authors provide on preserving your harvest from the garden and creating jams and jellies.

Part Four concludes with “Your Barn, Stable, & Fields”. Deals with the upkeep and care of all things farm related. Although I don’t have a farm, I did like the chapter on small scale farming. It was interesting to see the profit potential a small scale farm could have.

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Coupon Power: How To Win at Coupons

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

newcoupons

Ever notice that when you walk into a grocery store with a big stack of coupons, you always get the feeling you’re going to get a hard time from the cashier? I get that feeling every time. I can look at a line of cashiers and tell immediately who is going to give me a hard time. I suppose they somehow feel that you’re getting too good of a deal – “getting over” on them. If you have ever been in line and had a fast talking cashier tell you that your coupons are invalid or that you simply misunderstood how the coupon works, join the club! My advice is to know the coupons inside and out before you leave for the store, particularly if the coupons are conditional and require multiple purchases. There are other strategies but generally the best one is to be detailed, polite, and street smart.

Here are tips to get the cashier on your side or to win at using coupons:

  • Immediately strike up a conversation with the cashier. Don’t be skeptical about personal relationships, particularly if you are a regular customer.
  • Put your “free” items at the back of the conveyor belt so that the cashier doesn’t have to look these up – the cashiers appreciate this. Tell them you did it as well.
  • Keep track of the type of cashier that you work with the best. I recommend going through the high school kid’s line. The high school kids don’t care a lot about your coupons. Other than young kids, there is no profile of age, gender or race that is the best. It has to do with your personality. It’s worth standing in a longer line if you know there is a cooperative cashier who you’ve worked with before.
  • Put your coupons in order so that the bar codes face the same way. Cashiers appreciate this.
  • Know your coupons! Know how they work. Know your store’s coupon policy. If the cashier encounters any problem, their tendency is to try to bamboozle you into not using them. Make sure they know you’re going to stand there until it’s done right. In other words, have a winning mentality.
  • Do not raise your voice. Don’t start a war with a cashier. If there is a problem, make sure they know you’ll wait patiently until a manager comes to solve the problem. This is another good strategy.  
  • If all else fails, ask that the item be removed from your grocery order. I have found that the prospect of the cashier having to replace an item or multiple items on the shelf inspires a new attitude regarding my coupons and “working it out.” No employee, particularly at local stores, wants to explain to management why a customer is buying less or why a customer is unhappy. 
  • Remember that you are a regular customer and your business is valued by the store management. You are important and have power. This is particularly true if you aren’t just coming in for coupon items and you’ve got a basket full of other stuff. The store gets reimbursed for your coupons! 

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Meals for less than $10.00: Salmon, Rice & Mixed Vegetables

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

img_2863

This was another nice meal for four since my son demanded to eat a banana. We used ALDI’s frozen salmon, some white rice with some of our frozen mirepoix, and about 1/2 a bag of the frozen mixed vegetables I got on sale. To jazz up the salmon, I reached for my little canister of Old Bay Blackened seasoning. For those who are not from the south, “blackened” seasoning is a cajun type seasoning that is used mostly on fish or chicken. It contains a number of herbs and of course some cayenne pepper. All of the various Old Bay seasonings use celery seed or celery salt along with red pepper. The salmon was baked and the Old Bay is all I used on it. The oven is a good place to cook the salmon to avoid using a lot of oils in a skillet. I season the rice a little with some salt and pepper and garlic powder. This is a very simple meal. The salmon is Aldi’s private label brand and from the freezer section. It doesn’t even have to be thawed prior to baking. White rice is a very inexpensive thing to add to a meal for a small portion of starch. Frozen vegetables are always a great choice for a fresh tasting side dish.

4 frozen Aldi private label salmon filets ($4.76) 

1/2 cup white rice ($0.10)

1/2 bag store brand mixed vegetables ($0.66)

2 tablespoons Old Bay Blackened seasoning ($0.40)

1 teaspoon garlic powder ($0.10)

1/2 cup frozen mirepoix (mix of diced onions, carrots, celery) ($0.20)

1 teaspoon kosher salt ($0.05)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper ($0.05)

TOTAL: $6.32

Recipe: Bake the salmon in the oven on 400 degrees according to the instructions on the package. Boil 1 cup of water with the mirepoix and season with salt and pepper and garlic powder, cook rice covered on low after bringing to a boil. Heat mixed vegetables in pan with a small amount of water. I do not season the vegetables since it seems that the kids like to eat them with the rice or the fish.

NOTES: I do not use sales tax because many states do not charge it on food or groceries. This meal fed two adults and 12 year old twin girls. All prices are estimated for fractional use. Almost everything we buy is private label branded. Sometimes the prices fluctuate because my latest purchase is at a lower or higher price. We cook approximately 25-30 dinner or lunch meals at home per month. I have to keep things interesting and that is why I experiment with new seasonings or uncommon ingredients.

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Weekend Project: Building an Herb Garden

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

 

Raised bed herb garden - built with repurposed bricks

Raised bed herb garden - built with re-purposed bricks

When we first moved into our new home in suburban Oklahoma City last fall, we decided that we did not like the builder grade landscaping and set out to do something a little better. With the design skills and help of my sister in law, we took up the old bricks and placed some new green metal borders in front of our flowerbeds. That left us with some red landscaping bricks. We decided that we wanted to make a small herb garden in our backyard so that we could have fresh herbs all summer long. If you’ve been to the grocery store’s produce section lately, you noticed that the fresh herbs are priced into the stratosphere. 

Approximately an eighth of a cup of fresh basil runs $3.00-$4.00. A batch of homemade Pesto requires two full cups. That would be very expensive to do if buying all the ingredients from the store. We’ve always grown a few pots of herbs, but they do better in the ground. This project is something we’ve talked about for years and there is no better time than now to build our own garden.

Rosemary

Rosemary

First, we went over to the home store and bought a bunch of bags of plain topsoil. We arranged the bricks in a rectangular shape and then filled it up with our topsoil. Herbs do not like soil to be too rich. The book I read about planting herbs recommends that fertilizer not be used if a rich soil is used. Most of these herbs thrive in plain sandy loam or river bottom type soil. Since my husband’s free time has been taken up by music and traveling this spring, we dropped the ball on growing our own herbs from seeds. As a result, we decided that we’d buy some herb plants that would be almost ready to produce – three basil, two thyme, two oregano, and two rosemary plants. The basil each had multiple plants in them so that gave us 6 plants. 

Having vegetables or herbs growing in your backyard or on your patio is not only a matter of saving some money but also a matter of your quality of life. Life is about doing things and learning. I really enjoy going out and clipping some basil and rosemary to make an Italian sauce during the summer. Thyme is a wonderful seasoning for vegetables. Rosemary is great on pork tenderloin. It’s wonderful to dry your own thyme for chicken noodle soup in the fall.  The scent of these plants, the flavors, and the oils that come from fresh herbs are so much stronger than store bought fresh herbs and there is no comparison between your own dried herbs and the store’s. Our kids will be taught a lesson in watching us cultivate our own herbs. They will also enjoy the fresh scent and appreciate the thrift in their later years. 

NOTES: We will also be growing tomatoes, green peppers, Anaheim chiles, Habanero chiles, Jalapeno chiles, and Scotch Bonnet chiles this summer. Photos and posts will be forthcoming.


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How a Price Book Can Save You Money

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

I’ve worked on my Price Book over the past week entering my grocery data into the Open Office spreadsheet. It’s a respectable amount of data and over time should help me better identify where I need to make changes if any are needed, as I’m sure they will be. As I continue to make purchases or a price changes, the data will continue to grow. I want to be able to see some historical data so some items may be listed twice but with different values. I may also have an item listed twice due to a price difference for two stores. I have one store that doubles one like coupon per transaction in my area up to $1.00, and while I think that many of the items are overpriced at this grocery store, a doubled coupon will sometimes beat the price of another store.

I have a few items listed that don’t include pricing information yet. For these entries I either can’t locate a receipt for the item or haven’t purchased it in quite some time and can’t remember the pricing information. I still want to include it in the price book because it is something that I will purchase in the future. Having the incomplete entries on my price sheet for things that I already buy will allow me to fill in the price while grocery shopping.

The price book comes in handy when an item is available in different sizes. I can quickly compare the unit price instead of relying on the price of the item to determine which is the better price. An example is an entry for shredded cheese purchased at Aldi in a 12 oz. package and Kraft Cheddar Cheese purchased at Buy4Less in an 8 oz. package. The unit price for Kraft Cheddar Cheese is $.19 and the unit price for shredded cheese at Aldi is $.25.  While not a huge difference in unit price, it is a difference of $.48 for 8oz. Here’s where the price book helps stretch my budget. At the $.19 unit price I would pay $5.92 for four 8oz packages of cheese, but at the $.25 unit price I would pay $8.00 for that same amount of cheese. The $.19 unit price clearly wins out, but not breaking it down by unit price would make it difficult to determine the savings.

My price sheet is now in the front of my coupon binder, and over time I think it will allow me to reduce my grocery budget, or at least identify items that don’t vary in price. Instead of putting it into a plastic sleeve I’ve left it accessible so that I can write any notes that I need to. Check here for more on What is a Price Book.

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Your Public Library: A Valuable Resource

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Most people are not aware that their public library is a source of saving money. This morning we made a trip to the library for a couple of DVD’s. The library not only has books to check out, free of charge, they also have DVDs and VHS tapes that are available to check out. The CDs available at our city’s library system are extensive. There is plenty of pop, rock, jazz, soundtracks, country, folk, and just about anything else you would want. You’ll find free copies of all the latest books at the library too. Why buy? Your tax dollars are paying for your local public libraries.

The public library is loaded with reference materials that you’d never suspect they’d have as well. My husband has used the public library to look at Value Line, which is an expensive investor publication that rates stocks, mutual funds, and bonds objectively based on a lot of criteria. This is information that would cost a lot of money if you were to subscribe to it yourself. At this time, a subscription to the same Value Line found in our public library would cost $199.00 annually. This is a professional investor research publication that my husband used to figure out whether the mutual funds in his 401(k) plan were any good or not.

Our favorite spot at the library is the children’s area where there are computers, games, puzzles, and of course tons of books. Today we found a couple of Caillou videos to watch.  Caillou is my son’s favorite cartoon and it only comes on once a day on the digital channel for PBS. My twin daughters have participated in the summer reading program each year for the past 5 years. Their reading skills may not be significantly developed through the program but it has kept them sharp through the summer.  

Summary:

  • Summer Reading Programs (K-12 in most states)
  • Extensive Reference Materials
  • Business Resources (Business databases, Investing resources, online subscriptions to reference materials)
  • Planned Activities for Children
  • Interlibrary Loans
  • Large Music Selections
  • DVD and VHS
  • Free Internet Use and Printing (for a small fee)
  • Magazine and Newspaper Collections
  • Library book sales

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