Tips to save you time AND money!

Anybody that knows me knows I'm frugal. I say you're right. I don't like spending money on things I don't have to and if I can buy something on sale or clearance, I'm all about it! I hardly buy anything full price. Most of Madison's clothes come from consignment sales. I do buy her shoes and all but a couple of toys new.

While working in the kitchen I realized I do a few things that save me time and money that may be helpful to a few of you!

Tired of spilling food all over the place when trying to pour it into a zipper bag? Just stick the bag down in a big cup and fold the top over the sides of the cup. Voila.

I needed to marinate some chicken tenderloins for supper the other night. I put my marinade down in the bag and an entire pack of tenderloins fit on top of it without spilling out of the cup. No chicken juice on the counter or the top of the bag!

Want dry beans for supper but don't want to go through the hassle(or have the time) of soaking them for hours and hours and then cooking them for another 2?!

After picking out the pebbles and rinsing them under cold water, for every 1 lb of beans, add 6 cups of water to a crock pot.  Cook on HIGH 4-6 hours. Mine were done around 5 hours so just watch them. I added a beef boullion cube to the water. This was the first time I'd done this and they turned out pretty good!

Buy a batch of green onions every week? Cut off the roots and stick them in a container with water. They will grow new green part(the part you eat). This picture was taken when I put them in water and the next day about 1/4" of green had already grown and I needed to add water. It's now been a week and the green part is now about 4" long! I have done this before and did it twice before throwing them away. I'm not sure if you can do this over and over all the time but it's worth doing it a few times!

Now that you have a constant supply of green onions, chop them up and put them in an old drink bottle and stick them in the freezer. As you need them, just pour them out. They thaw instantly and you aren't wasting any of them! :)

Same thing with herbs. I bought parsley only to forget to use it in the recipe that I was supposed to. Oops. I didn't want to throw it away so I blanched it(dip in boiling water until it turns bright green-15-20secs. This step retains the color and flavor), let it cool then chop it and lay on a baking sheet. Freeze. I froze mine overnight. Then put the frozen pieces in a zipper bag. You can also freeze fresh(non-blanched) herbs by putting the herb in a blender with just enough water to make a paste. Pour the paste in ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen, pop the cubes into a freezer bag. When a recipe calls for it, just pop the cube into the dish.

I will try to continue to do this as I think of things. What are some tricks you have?

Reuse and recycle

I am all about reusing or recycling just about whatever I can. We keep recycle bins for paper and glass/aluminum under our sink in the kitchen.

I also reuse paper when I print something. If it's something like a grocery list or menu for the week, after I'm done with it, I just put it back in the printer to print on the back of it. I bought 2 cases of paper a few years ago when I ran across a super deal where I got them both for roughly $5 after rebates. I've only used one case which is 8 packs of paper.  Most of my printing is recipes, grocery lists, menus, coupons or something that's not important. Coupon manufacturers don't care if something is on the back of your printed coupon, as long as the coupon is legible. Just make sure no personal info is on the back of it.

See that blank space above? I cut my coupon out and then cut the white part in half, so now I have 2 nice size pieces of scrap paper. See all the paper below? No need to buy notepads!

I reuse grocery bags for our cat litter findings and small trash can bags. We keep a container by the litterbox and if it's full and I have more bags, I take them to the library when I go once a week. They are always in need of bags for people who don't bring their own, and not many people do. I have a cloth bag to use for M's books that we check out.

Diaper boxes are the perfect size and shape to use in closets for organizing items. I have a few in Madison's bathroom closet to hold extra sheets.

I clean any good jar with lid and keep a box in the guest bathroom. As I've said before, I like making my own seasonings when I can. Instead of buying new containers, I just reuse glass ones that applesauce, salsa or pasta sauce come in. I also use them for Q-tips, cotton balls or other small items. They also make good containers for soup or salad for lunch. Did you know you can put dressing in the bottom of a container, then layer your veggies then lettuce on the top(not touching the dressing) and you won't need a dressing container? Just make sure the veggies are touching the dressing and the lettuce is not, that way your lettuce stays crisp and not soggy!

What do you recycle or reuse?

DIY fajita seasoning

As said before, I'm all about making things myself if I can. I decided to make fajitas this week so I knew I wanted to make my own seasoning versus buying the sodium filled packets. Found a recipe and made it. It's full of so much more flavor! Here's the recipe. I guarantee you already have these spices!

3 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. sugar
2-1/2 tsp. crushed chicken bouillon cube
1-1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. cumin

Mix it all together and put in a container. 1/4 cup of spices is the same as 1 packet you buy. Add more or less 

Things for Madison

I went to a local consignment sale last night for Consignor night since I put some of her things for sale in there. When I dropped of her things, I was scouting out the big toys and had my eye on a play kitchen for her! I got there early and got in line and made a b-line to the kitchen! Score! There were 2 exactly alike but $14 difference between them. Of course I grabbed the cheaper one :) I also found a booster seat(not pictured) for Alan's mom when she watches Madison, 6 sleepers, 4 shirts, 4 pants and 3 pair of shoes all for $56! I am so excited at my scores and plan on going back for half off day on Sunday. I've also made $9 at the sale(after the $8 fee was taken out) so hopefully that number will keep going up and I can break even! We plan on giving her the kitchen for her 1st Birthday here in a couple of weeks(!!!!) If you don't shop consignor sales and you have kids, you are crazy :) I got name brand clothes and shoes(Old Navy, K Swiss, Carters) for next to nothing!

On a side note, every one that was invited should hopefully have their invite by now. Isn't she the cutest thing? Here's the picture from her invite. Love.that.girl.

Shopping trip total:

Well I picked the absolute worst week to blog about my saving money because this week we spent more than we had planned. One problem was that Alan went with me. I wasn't feeling 100% today so I'm glad he did, so he could do all the work, but every aisle he was saying "Oh, we're out of this" or "I need this".. I told him before going in that we were strictly sticking to our list and we failed miserably. I also forgot to add breakfast bars, gum, beer and gatorade to our list so that was an extra $18 I didn't have down in my total and I under calculated the price for fruit, since ALDI was closed today for Memorial Day. We stopped by Big Lots on the way and their clearance rack was empty. We did get 2 things of juice and a loaf of bread for $5.20 total. That saved us about $2.

The total for Big Lots and Publix this week was $85.57 but we saved $32.57 with coupons and store sales. That included a bottle of All laundry detergent, a bottle of Mens One A Day vitamins, a bottle each of Suave shampoo and conditioner, 12 rolls of Angel Soft paper, Sunlight dish soap, 4 bananas, container of strawberries and 5 apples, 3 bags of veggies, 5 lbs red potatoes, 2 boxes of Raisin Bran cereal, 1 box of Nature Valley breakfast bars, 1 box of Lance crackers, 6 bottles of Gatorade, 6 pack of Coors Light beer, box of Margaritaville frozen shrimp, 2 bottles of Kraft salad dressing, 2 bottles Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, 1 bottle Lawry's marinade, 1 container LLoyds BBQ Pork, a 3 pack of 5 React gum, 2 Clif bars, hamburger buns, Luigis Italian Ice 6 pack, gallon of bleach, 2 bottles of Ocean Spray juice, 1 loaf of bread and a gallon of milk.

That's more than I like to spend but we got a ton of stuff too. And most of those items are not weekly items for us and we are still right on target for our monthly grocery budget. This list also sounds like a bunch of junk, but it will give us 4 meals(I didn't like 1 of them) with sides. I will try to post some of my better weeks on here. Even if you use one .50 coupon, you're doing better than a lot of people out there!

Not so Extreme Couponing...

My friend, Holly over at When Two Became Four reminded me that I have never blogged about my money saving experiences while grocery shopping when she blogged about her experiences last week. I am no Extreme Couponer and actually, I rarely watch that show cause it stresses me out. Anybody that knows me knows that hoarding gives me panic attacks! I don't see buying 150 boxes of cereal if you have 460 at home already, unless you are giving it to a charity, which I have only seen a couple of people on that show say they do. I do not go and buy 10 papers like some people do. We suscribe to the paper and I print coupons online. That's what works for me at this time, so that's what I do.

I also use E-mealz to plan my meals. I pay $15 every 3 months and they plan a menu(meat and sides or a soup or an easy/crockpot meal) with grocery list, based on sales. All I do is print it out, put my coupons with it and go! Sometimes I will replace the sides if I have lots of frozen vegetables on hand or if I don't like what they have as a side. I always have frozen veggies or rice or potatoes on hand so it's not that hard for me to find something to replace it with. Sometimes there are meals that I just don't want to fix, so I will use something out of our freezer or I will buy a pizza or we'll go out that night. For $5/month, you can't beat it. I am not a person that likes to have the same menu every week and I love trying new things so this is the best option for me and we have really been pleased with 95% of the things I've fixed, and I've used this plan for probably 2 years.

To make my couponing easier, I have 2 coupon organizers. One for FOOD items and one for NON-FOOD items. I sit down once a week, with my grocery list from E-mealz. I go to I Heart Publix is a blog I follow that matches up the weekly sales ad with all of the coupons that are available to match. Publix is my store of choice because they double coupons, the store is clean, the employees are all so very helpful, they always load my groceries onto the conveyor belt and always ask twice if I want help out with my groceries. Alan went with me one time and we were buying milk that was on sale and the shelf was empty so I asked the guy loading yogurt if they had any and he went to the back and got some. Alan said "They actually stop what they're doing to go to the back for you?" and I said "That's one of the many reasons I shop here!"

So anyway, I retype my grocery list in a spreadsheet so I can add in what coupons I have and what I expect to pay and at the bottom it totals up my whole grocery list. Over-organized? Sure, but at least I know about what I should be paying when I check out. The E-mealz list is already a spreadsheet with room to write but I like having the total and everything being really neat. I will first retype my E-mealz list, taking out any replacements that I have made and adding in everyday things I need. I also have that list broken down into categories like "Frozen, Dairy, Meat, Health Care/Groceries" to help me not wander around the store 20 times. In the middle is a spot for me to type what coupons I have. I will put (2).40, $1, 2/$2 or whatever. However many coupons I have, I will type that exact thing so when I am shopping and pulling coupons out, I make sure I have the right amount. The right column is "Expect to pay". I will take the amount of the item, minus the coupons I have and subtract it. So if it's a $2 item and I have a $1 coupon, I will put $1 in the "Expect to Pay" column. Then at the very bottom, I have the total of the whole list. After I retype my list, I will go to IheartPublix.com and go through their list. If that item is at it's best price, they will put a check mark by the item. So even if I may not need more Cole's Garlic Bread, if I have a coupon for it, I'm going to stock up on it while it's at the best price. I will go through the entire list, adding stockpile items and matching up my coupons with my E-mealz menu and print it out! I put all the coupons I'm going to use in an envelope and I'm off to the store! I also carry another empty envelope with me to transfer coupons over. I also carry my coupon organizers with me in case I see something that wasn't in the ad or something that was on clearance or if I just plain forgot to add it to my list. As I put items in the buggy, I will pull the coupons from my "Publix" envelope and put in my "Using" envelope so I don't keep thumbing through the same coupons. It sounds all complicated but it's actually really easy! I've seen people at Publix with baseball card binders in their buggies flipping through. I don't want to be in the store that long and I don't want to drag a 10 pound binder with me either. Like I said before, this is what works for me. And what may work for me, may not work for anyone else.

Still awake? :) With all that said, Publix is having a great sale this week so I'm going to share some of my grocery list with ya'll. Anything with a * is a stockpile item.

*Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce-BOGO $2.35-coupon for $1/2 = $1.35 for 2 bottles or .68 each.
Kelloggs Raisin Bran- BOGO $4.29-coupon for $1/2 = $3.29 for 2 or $1.65 each
*Lawry's Marinade- BOGO $3.15- coupon for .50 = 1 bottle for .58
Luigi's Italian Ice - BOGO $3.19- coupon for .50 = 1 box for .59
All Laundry Detergent - BOGO $5.99 - coupon for $1 = $1.99 a bottle
Lance Cracker creations - 2/$4 - coupon for $1 = $1 a box
*Sunlight Dishwashing liquid - 10/$10 - coupon for .25 = .50 a bottle

I will post my totals tomorrow evening after shopping. I am expecting to pay under $65 for my menu for the week plus a lot of filler items(toilet paper, makeup, shampoo/conditioner, vitamins, etc). I had to guess on prices for a lot of those items since none are on sale at Publix this week. That's pretty high for a typical week but it seems like we ran out of a lot of our basic things! I usually spend $35-$50. I try to usually stop by Big Lots to see what's on their clearance rack. I racked up for our beach trip, finding 4 pack Gatorade for $1.35 and lots of crackers and snacks for $1 each. I also try to stop by ALDI for our fruits and veggies since they are a lot cheaper most of the time. I will also take in my grocery list and compare prices. If I can get an item at ALDI or Big Lots for cheaper than I can at Publix with a coupon, I will buy it at that place instead and mark it off my list.

Sorry this turned out so long but it was long overdue. Lots of people ask me how I spend so less on groceries and some people even giggle when I say I coupon or say that I'm cheap... I say, why pay full price for something if you can save money? The most important thing for me is not taking Alan shopping. He tends to impulse shop and that's the worse. When I go, I stick to my list. It also sounds like I spend hours getting my list together and 3 hours shopping. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to get my list and coupons together. I typically spend 30 minutes or so in Publix. About 15 minutes in Big Lots and 15 minutes in ALDI so I'm back home within the hour. I hope this helps someone who is looking to coupon or motivates you to coupon sometimes. I am no where near as good as some people but I do what I can without spending 2 hours putting my coupons together and going to 3 different grocery stores. If you have any advice, please share! I'm always open to suggestions!