Some of you may remember the snowman dishes I posted about. I bought the whole set for five bucks at a flea market. We used them for the first time over Christmas week and I wanted to share some pictures.
This post is part of Thrifty Thursday and Tablescape Thursday.
Tags: flea markets, frugal shopping, holiday fun, Money Saving Tips, reduce reuse recycle, save money, saving money, simplify the holidayThis book isn’t for the gourmet chef who enjoys cooking with expensive and unique ingredients – it’s for the rest of us. *LOL*
Save money with once a month cooking and frugal recipes
Have you ever spent money on fast food because it was quick and easy?
Do you have your local pizza delivery place on speed dial?
If so, then you will be thrilled by how much money you save when you start cooking once a month. Your freezer full of meals saves you money by eliminating the need for fast and easy solutions. You won’t be tempted to buy the expensive pre-packaged food at the grocery store. Instead, you’ll be preparing nutritious meals at a fraction of the cost.
Perhaps you’ve heard of once a month cooking and would like to try it, but you don’t know how to begin. Frugal Mom’s Guide to Once a Month Cooking, written by Candace Anderson, will show you how.
Enjoy once a month cooking with easy step-by-step instructions
Candace has put together an easy 5-step plan to once a month cooking that will set you off on the right foot, and hold your hand through the entire process. The 5-step plan uses forms that she created to help you plan, and keep you on track. The forms that she included in this book will be your road map for your cooking session. It will organize your cooking day, your grocery shopping, and give you a plan for cooking.
Here are some customer comments about her book:
“The Beef Fajita marinade was very simple to prepare and took about 5 minutes” – Judy
“We will definitely do the Mexican Beef Casserole again – it was easy to prepare as well as put together for dinner. We all enjoyed it – there wasn’t enough leftover to have for lunch the next day. I would say that tells how much we all liked it!” -Cindy
“The Stuffed Burger Pockets were very easy to put together. They were tasty and easy. -Julie
“The Crock Pot Beef was great! Very easy recipe to follow and the whole house smelled great. My kids ate every bite.” -Keri
“We had this Sweet & Sour Chicken and it was yummy – everyone love it! I do have to say that I had never made sweet & sour sauce from scratch before and this is delicious, quick, and easy!” -Lisa
Once a month cooking support
Not only will you have a large variety of delicious meals to prepare for your family, you’ll also have an online community where you can turn to for help. Candace, and others just like you, will be walking right beside you, every step of the way.
~ Complete step-by-step instructions for giving you a freezer full of meals.
~ Over 70 family-friendly recipes tested by Frugal Moms.
~ The ability to save money with once a month cooking.
~ A simplified life that gives you more time to enjoy the things you love.
~ Once a month cooking forms that will organize your cooking sessions.
~ An online community to support you on your new journey.
~ Instant delivery! Since this is an ebook, you won’t have to wait for it to arrive in the mail.
BONUS: With your purchase of Frugal Mom’s Guide to Once a Month Cooking, you’ll also receive Bulk Cooking for the Freezer: Ground Beef. Save time and money with this detailed guide to bulk cooking 20+ meals with ground beef. This eBook has illustrated plans that include step-by-step instructions to guide you through the entire preparation process. The ground beef plan includes 14 different ground beef recipes for your freezer along with recipes to make your own seasonings. Bulk Cooking plans include both printed grocery list and Shopping List software (windows) grocery list file.
Tags: cooking once a month, easy recipe, food budget, freezing food, Frugal, frugal books, frugal meals, frugal recipes, frugal shopping, grocery bill, grocery budget, grocery shopping, make it yourself, make your own, menu planning, Money Saving Tips, once a month cooking, save money, saving money, simple cooking, spending money, tips for saving money, ways of saving money, ways to save moneyWritten by Carol, one of our readers:
We’d all like to save money each month, but how to go about it is another story. Start by making a budget; that scary, imposing, restrictive plan that keeps you in line. Only it doesn’t have to be that way, a budget is really only putting down on paper your priorities and recognizing you absolutely cannot spend more than you make in any given time period. It also, contrary to popular belief, doesn’t have to come together in one sitting, start the first month with just writing down general categories and amounts. Over time you can refine and fill it out more completely. It took us three months to get a good handle on our budget, each month getting more and more detailed, even today we are constantly adjusting the numbers.
Once you know where you money is going it is now time to start trimming the fat. If you look at your monthly expenses, looking to saving $500 it will seem overwhelming and impossible. But what if instead you looked at shaving a few dollars off each item? As we began looking at our budget we decided to go through and renegotiate each item we could. After knocking out the cable and downgrade our cellphone plan – saving $65, reviewing our car insurance and changing our coverage – $25 less and changing our restaurant habits to only twice a week. This all totaled approximately $125 a month in savings. Besides the mortgage payment, food and general merchandise are our biggest expenditures.
Even with the constant coupon clipping and avoiding the pricier groceries stores we couldn’t make the budget numbers and the real world numbers agree. That’s where web surfing finally began to payoff. There are plenty of websites out there that can multiply you efforts. The blogs that track specific stores rewards programs, letting you know what items are free or worth the most rewards points/bucks, will give you an edge. Lots of promotional programs let you trade your name and email address for free samples and /or coupons.
Also look to farmer’s markets and co-ops, we spend $17 every two weeks for $50 worth of fresh fruits and vegetables. Little by little we have shaved almost $200 off our monthly grocery bill.
Due to the fact that we didn’t start our marriage with the financial acumen that we now possess there is a tidy sum sitting on credit card balances. This can be a dangerous lever, waiting to dump us over the edge at a moments notice. We headed it off by finding a low APR, zero interest on balance transfer offer and moved everything we could onto that card. Then we proceeded to cut up our physical cards except for one emergency card and have begun applying the snow ball methodology. The snow ball theory has you paying off the lowest balance card while making minimum monthly payments on the others, as you pay off a card you roll what you had been paying on it into you payment on the next one. With this consolidation we erased about $50 a month in additional interest fees.
Lastly, we began looking at efficiency around the house and in our travel habits. By lowering the thermostat by 3 degrees and running only full loads in the dryer, we cut $15 off the electric bill. Using public transportation and walking for quick trips to the nearby store translated into more than half a tank of gas saved every two weeks; which at today’s price means $50 a month left in our pockets. Together we have identified our spending priorities, changed our spending habits and challenged ourselves to find fun and rewarding ways to save a little bit in each category on our budget. This has tallied up to savings of almost $400 a month, which comes in handy when saving for the next rain day.
Tags: budget, coupon clipping, debit and credit, free samples, grocery bill, Money Saving Tips, monthly expenses, save money, Save Money With Coupons, ways to save money
Food is the second highest expenditure in most people’s lives, yet they don’t pay attention to it. Pay yourself by using the information inside of 5 Meals for $5. This cook book is not only filled with delicious and plentiful recipes, it is filled with the information on how you can get the same prices and lower than the recipes listed!
You don’t need to change what you eat, just the way you shop! And you don’t need to rely on Spam or unhealthy meals to live in today’s debt ridden economy. It’s not all about coupons and Jaci will show you how!
If you think you might starve because of portion size, think again! If you’re single, freeze the leftovers and save or cut down the recipes and eat a fresh meal every day and using Jaci’s Buddy Shopping System.
5 Meals for $5 also has a weights and measures chart, free date night ideas, measure conversion tables, Jaci Rae’s “The Plan” on how to get out of debt and much more!
One recipe example:
Pot Roast
Cost per person $0.97
Total cost five people $4.87
2 lbs chuck roast ($1.92)
(my store just had a sale for $0.69 a lbs. A lot less than listed here!)
1 lb. potatoes, diced ($0.40)
4 carrots, chopped ($0.10)
1 onion, chopped ($0.30)
1 beef bouillon ($0.16)
1 garlic clove, minced ($0.01)
Salt and pepper to taste ($0.02)
Iceberg Lettuce and Cucumber Salad ($1.45) (recipe listed in book)
Basic Vinegar and Oil Salad Dressing ($0.42) (recipe listed in book)
1 lemon, sliced in 5 wedges ($0.09)
Saute chuck roast in a dash of oil until both sides all dark brown (about 2 minutes on each side on high). Combine all other ingredients into a large stew pot or crock-pot. Once meat is browned, put into pot with other veggies and spices and cook on low for 2-3 hours or until Meat is tender and fully cooked. Make salad and serve with chilled water and lemon wedge.
Tags: frugal meals, frugal shopping, how to get out of debt, Money Saving Tips, save money, tips for saving money, ways of saving money, ways to save moneyGuest post by Lorraine:
For me, organization is the key to saving money with coupons. I work on finding and organizing coupons just once a week, and generally save $5 or $10 a week from my shopping bill. I search for online sites that offer coupons for the items I usually buy, and register and bookmark the pages for easy return. Some sites allow you to load coupons to a store card electronically. Others allow or require you to print the coupons.
Next, I check the local advertisements, and once I know what products are being offered for a good price, I pull out any coupons that can be used on my next shopping trip. I also use some higher-denomination coupons to try out a new but higher-priced item, or to occasionally splurge a bit on a special item. Since an expired coupon is a useless coupon, I keep the printed versions in a small tabbed file container, about the size of a recipe file box. Each coupon is stored according to its expiration month, so I never encounter problems at the checkout counter.
When I am in the store aisles browsing merchandise, I compare prices associated with the coupon-item I’m thinking of buying. If there is another acceptable brand that would be less than the discounted item, I put the coupon away for later use. It is important to check whether a coupon discount will really get you the best deal. Sometimes there are other offers that beat the coupon you have – a different size that is even less expensive, or an in-house sale price that cannot be combined with coupons, for example. By using coupons to look for the best deals, I also learn to shop with discrimination. It pushes me to check the price-per-unit of a grocery item, and to consider no-names or generics.
Coupon use also helps me to plan out my shopping, rather than pick up items from memory (or impulse) as I go down the aisles. I am sure that focusing on coupons, and the list of items I intend to buy, has saved me even more than just the coupons alone. Remember to toss out expired coupons, and to share higher denomination coupons with friends who may want them. You can find coupon sharing clubs on the internet, at church, work, or through you network of friends. Everyone enjoys getting a good deal, and if all else fails, I’ll leave an unexpired coupon (for something I have decided not to buy) right next to the product on a store shelf. Who knows, the next person to come along may be looking for that exact item and use the coupon themselves!
Tags: Money Saving Tips, save money, Save Money With Coupons, saving money
