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Preplan meals to save money, time, and stress.

When I was broke[r], shopping meant getting in the car and going to the grocery store, filling my buggy, paying, and leaving. When someone in my house got hungry, I went to the fridge- opened it, and stared. If I didn’t get any inspiration, I’d go to the pantry, open, and stare. Same thing for the freezer. Since there was no organization, it was hard to fit cooking a meal into my schedule. Since there was no organization, in the time I had wasted on staring at what was in house, someone, usually me, had gotten more hungry and was ready for a meltdown. Typically, we’d decide to go out or order in, despite the couple of hundred dollars worth of groceries piling up. There was an insane amount of snacking going on, because no one was really sure when the next meal would come. It sounds so hard, like such a bother, to get on a meal schedule, but I can see now that it is actually easier on our budget, our stress, our waistlines, and our family to plan for meals. Even if you don’t need to scour newspaper inserts for what is on sale, just not buying the convenience foods will save money.

One way to combat this is to keep ready-made processed foods in the house, which is more expensive, and less nutritious. My toddler thinks that cereal bars are “cookies” and demands one each morning. She could eat oatmeal for pennies, a piece of toast, or something else, but instead, I’ve conditioned her to demand cookies because of my inability to plan.

When we started FPU, the first thing we cut was eating out. My parents took me to Olive Garden last weekend in celebration of my turning 29 again, and I was in heaven. What was once a mundane, unappreciated activity, was a time of enjoyment. I couldn’t quite get out of Ramsey mode, and only ordered the never-ending pasta bowl, but it was delicious. I was also sure to get refills right before we planned to leave.

Our 2nd change was to budget our groceries. And boy are we doing it cheap. In order to keep to the cash in our envelope, I have to plan before stepping out the door. I start by making menus, and then I scour newspaper inserts. Many of them I get on-line, but WalMart for some reason never has one. So, until they do, Wal-Mart is out of our shopping loop since I don’t subscribe to the regular paper, and only get the once weekly free paper that contains the inserts from a few stores. In the end, it’s a good thing, because in Wal-Mart, it is so hard for me to stick to the cash in pocket.

Today I discovered a new service on-line that I think will save me oodles of time, and will be a great resource to working-moms who might not be able to plan. It’s called mygrocerydeals.com. There is a free registration involved, but once you’re signed up, you can customize the site to your zip code. Use your account profile to remove stores in which you do not shop. Set your favorite store, and then compile your starter list. Once you’re set up, you can see what is on sale at your stores. You can browse by stores, and by category. You can add items to your list to be printed out. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but I hope it is divided into stores. With the price of gasoline, I can’t advocate driving 10 miles to get 20 cents off of bread, but I think there is the potential to save money if I add a couple of nearby stores to my shopping day.

I shop on Saturday’s because my favorite grocery store has their Take-n-Bake pizzas for 4.88 each Saturday. Also, J is home and I get to escape without the girls. Try it out and let me know what you think. Are there any online services that you swear by? It’s amazing to me how far the Web has come in just 15 years. I wrote a paper on Tim Berners-Lee last night. If you don’t know, he is the guy that invented the Web. He isn’t surprised, and promises that there is much more on the horizon. It’s thrilling to me to see what was once science fiction become commonplace.

One last tip concerning buying products on sale is that things like toilet paper go on sale in a rotation, so spend the extra dough and stock up in order to make it through the 3 month cycle.

If you don’t go buy now, go to the store with a list and STICK TO IT. I make also a “wish list”, and if I’m under my budget at check out, I treat myself.

~Manda

October 4, 2008 | Filed Under Recipes on a Budget, Saving Money, Savings | Leave a Comment 

Save Money with Coupons

I used to be considered the “Queen of Coupon Clipping”.  I was saving so much money on food and household items. It was my part time job really. My local grocery store offered double coupons at the time which made it possible for me to get things for free with my coupons. I would get free food, free tooth brushes and toothpaste.

I also bought coupons on ebay so I would have 10-20 of the same coupon. This meant I was getting 10-20 free toothbrushes. The store would only allow me to use 3 coupons at a time so I would go in often. It was great but like I said before it was like a part time job.  I had to look over the weekly and monthly sales booklet the stores offered and find out which sales went with which coupons. I didn’t have to do much coupon clipping because I bought many of my coupons on ebay already clipped.

It may be that over used my “coupon-savings power” because my store stopped offering double coupons. I was very irritated when this happend and almost stopped shopping there but then I realized that was silly. I was the one taking advantage of the system.

So my point here is that coupons can really save you money. If your store offeres double coupons and you are abe to really get incredible deals then USE THOSE COUPONS.

Here are some coupon usage tips from the “Queen”.

1. Don’t buy things you won’t eat or use even if it’s a killer deal.

2. Use your grocery story sales flyer or booklet and coupons to make your shopping list. You will save more money if you plan your meals around the sales.

3. Don’t buy too much junk food even if you are getting them almost free. You may end up with a pantry full of junk food but forget to get meals you can eat. I know this from experience. Plus junk food is bad for you.

4. Check out coupons on Ebay. You can find some great coupons that can save you tons of money. Just besure the expiration date is far enough in the future so that you have enough time to use 10-20 coupons. And don’t get bid happy and pay to much for the coupons either.

When I had my part-time coupon-savings job I would say I I was buying $30-$50 in groceries that should have cost over $100. At that time our family of four was living on about $200 a month in groceries. Coupons can save you lots of money if you have a plan.

January 3, 2007 | Filed Under Recipes on a Budget, Saving Money with Coupons | 1 Comment 

Best Bean Burritos

Pinto beans are really cheap. You can usually by a bag that will feed a family of 4 for about $1.00. If you buy in bulk it’s even cheaper. My Best Bean Burritos recipe is not exactly one I can take credit for. Many people over the years have been making beans this way. I am just here to share a good easy recipe. This recipes is also a good time saving recipe.

For this recipe you will need a crock pot.

Ingredients:

2 lb Bag of Pinto Beans -$1-$2 (there will probably be leftovers)

Salt Pork (you can usually find this where the ham and sausage is) -$2-3

1 med. onion $.50 ish

Garlic Salt (should be a staple)

Pepper (should be a staple)

Cheese (should be a staple)

Salsa (optional) $1.50-$3.00

Sour Cream (optional) $1.50-$3.00

Water (should be a staple)

Burrito size tortillas ($1.50-$3.00)

 

Cut medium onion into small pieces (or however you like your onions). Salt Pork – you can either cut the salt pork up into little pieces or  leave itWash pinto beans. Poor beans, salt pork and onions and  in your crock pot. Cover beans with twice as much water as the beans. You may need to add more water as the beans swell. Cook on low in your crock pot for 5-8 hrs. Or high for 4-6 hrs. Add garlic salt and peper to taste.  I usually just sprinkle some garlic salt and pepper with all the rest of the ingredients, but if you are doing this for the first time you might want to do it to taste.

Tortillas – heat torillas in microwave for a few seconds or heat them on a gas stove. I usually do this by placing the tortilla on the fire until soft then I flipt to the other side and heat until soft. (Becareful not to burn your house down).

At this point you should know how to do the rest. Make a burrito.

If you find all these items on sale you can feed a family of 4-6 people for around $5 plus you will probably have leftovers. This estimate doesn’t include the optional items but the burritos taste really good with out them. Not bad huh?

November 7, 2006 | Filed Under Recipes on a Budget | Leave a Comment 

Beans and Rice & Rice and Beans

For some of us it’s not easy to live on a budget. We have to change everything about our lifestyle included how we shopped for food. It’s amazing how much you can save if you just plan. When our family first started budgeting and took a stand to stop borrowing money we had to make some major changes in our grocery shopping.

We are a family of of 4 and we managed to eat on $200 a month. I am still not sure how we did it but we did. We didn’t go hungry either. I had to find recipes that didn’t cost a lot to make.

Dave Ramsey (you may be sick of me mentioning him, but your just going to have to get over it) encourages us to save money where we can. He talks about the Beans and Rice diet.  It’s not like I just decided to eat beans and rice because he said so. It so happens our family really like beans and rice. So beans and rice was one of our main items on the list. Potatoes was another. There are a lot of good recipes with potatoes. Pasta is another cheap item. I will be sharing some of my recipes in future posts.

If you have a goal and a plan you can do more than you think you can. I have found this to be true for our family. I have a goal of getting out of debt and an plan to change my family tree. I will do what it takes to make it happen. With of course a lot of prayer o ).

 

November 7, 2006 | Filed Under Recipes on a Budget | Leave a Comment 

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    To gain financial freedom you must take control of your money, plan for the future and Stop Borrowing Money!
    Two families striving to gain financial freedom share their experiences.
    Blog Author Mona Weathers (monawea)


    Co-author, Manda C.

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