Frugal Living Tip #13 - Menu Planning

Menu Planning

My very first tip was get organized. Menu planning requires some organization, but is a great way to help you save both money and time.

Menu planning is a great way to take advantage of what you already have on hand in addition to weekly store sales. When you have a plan for what you have on hand, you have less waste and save money.

I was surprised at how much easier my day seemed to go when I didn't have the what is for dinner question in the back of my mind all day long.

Meal planning is not intended to be something that causes you more stress so do what works for you. I generally plan for a leftover night and a dinner out once a week. Having meals or portions of meals already prepped and in my freezer also helps to make menu planning easy to do.

Here is an example of my weekly menu plan: (the dinner leftovers were planned for lunches this week)

• Sunday- Chicken Tortilla Soup (made extra and froze it for another night)
• Monday- Cheese Tortellini with peas and bacon crumbles
• Tuesday- Hawaiian Chicken (a meal from the freezer that cooks in the slow cooker) with noodles and steamed veggies
• Wednesday- Community Group - I am bringing Mac & Cheese for the kids
• Thursday- Taco Night
• Friday- Pancakes, Eggs, & Bacon with applesauce and fruit
• Saturday- Dinner Out

Do you menu plan? Please feel free to share any tips for how you plan and a favorite meal.

 

Frugal Living Tip #12 - Freezer Cooking

Freezer Cooking

I know the name may imply it, but freezer cooking does not mean that you are cooking your dinner in the freezer. What it does mean, if you are not familiar with the idea, is that you spend a little bit of extra time cooking extra and prepping items in advance and then putting them in the freezer for a future meal.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love freezer cooking. It has saved us from take-out or delivery so many times. It has also allowed me to help out others when they are sick, had a new baby, or just to bless them when they have a lot going on. My favorite thing is that I make a big mess all at once and have less to clean-up on the other nights.

There are several different ways to freezer cook. Some people like to take an entire day and make enough meals to last entire month. Personally I like to take advantage of deals when I find them and prep and freeze the items. I always have ground beef and boneless skinless chicken breast frozen in meal sized portions (for us that is about one pound). When I find these items at my stock-up price I buy about 10-15 pounds at one time. I will clean-up the chicken and cut some of it into bite size pieces and strips so that it can easily be added to a soup or stir-fry.

You can make freezer cooking work for you based on what your family eats on a regular basis. I like to put several pounds of chicken in my slow cooker with barbecue sauce then shred it, and place it in several quart sized freezer bags. This allows us to have barbecue chicken sandwiches for a quick meal on a busy night or for a Saturday lunch. You can start off slow by just browning twice as much ground beef one night and freeze half. That is what I love about freezer cooking, it allows me to take advantage of a day when I have extra time and save myself some sanity on a day when I don't have extra time.

Do you utilize freezer cooking? Please feel free to share a favorite recipe or tip.

 

I'm back for 2013

I took a bit of a hiatus the last few months.  It has been a time of refocusing for our family.  We have had several changes.  

The biggest change has probably been that after being actively involved with several different areas in our church we felt God telling us it was time for us to step away.   We listened, although questioning, and have found new friends for all of us and a new body of believers that we enjoy getting to know better and worshipping with on Sunday mornings and during the week.

We have been able to continue to build relationships with other families in our neighborhood.  We have had several get-togethers with other families of preschoolers. On Halloween we set up a Halloween Hangout for all of our neighbors in our driveway.  We had a wheel for the kids to spin for prizes, along with hot dogs, chips, and lots of sweets.  

I have also changed where I am grocery shopping.  I was becoming more and more frustrated when I shopped at MARTIN'S and was going to start shopping at Kroger when a new independent grocery store opened near us - Libbie Market at Ridgefield.  It is owned by former Ukrop's employees and a majority of the staff are former Ukrop's employees.  The prices are also fairly reasonable.

So, I have decided to revive my blog for 2013 with a different concept.  I am going to have a post everyday (or at least try to).  I hope to have a daily post about a frugal living tip.  It may be how to save money, ways to make do with what you have, or new ways to get discounts.  These may not be all new tips to you, but hopefully what seems like an everyday thing to you will really help someone else.

I look forward to sharing these tips with you and having you, my readers, share feedback about the tips and any tips that you have for saving money, time, or just your sanity.

~Ann

What we did this summer…..

We had a busy summer!  I know that for some people they don’t consider it to be over quite yet, but at our house summer is unfortunately over.  Natalie started first grade on Monday.

 

So here is a quick recap of a few of the activities that we did this summer:

Megan turned 4 in June! 

She asked for a birthday Barbie and was so excited to get one from my parents.

We went to the beach with my entire family.

 

The girls got their hair braided as a beach souvenir.

(They stayed in for a little over 2 months!)

In July I catered a wedding reception (with lots of help from great friends!) for a couple from our church.  I only have a few pictures that Steve took before the ceremony.  We were just a little busy during the reception. 

We covered a big piece of styrofoam with “pretty” lettuce and then filled it in with the veggies.  My friend Rebecca made a mini radish bouquet in the center.

Another one of our amazingly talented friends, Stephen, (not my husband), spray painted and stenciled watermelons for the centerpieces.

We had a beef tenderloin carving station and a mashed potato bar.

We also had a flavored water bar – cucumber mint, mixed berry, citrus, or plain water were the options. 

Steve & I ran in the Color Me Rad 5k.  It was a lot of fun – and yes all of the color came out.  The blue was the hardest to get off, but we looked normal after a much needed shower.

Michael turned 2 in August!

Natalie & I both participated in the $10 school supply challenge this year the school supplies went to the Henrico Education Fund.  The school supplies we gathered went to Donahoe Elementary and Henrico High School.  Natalie’s total was a shelf price of $58.47 that she got for $10!  (She was excited to pose with her purchases.)

 

 

This is a picture of my haul.  I technically won the challenge with a shelf price of $178.97 for $10, but this year prizes were randomly awarded.  It is nice to have bragging rights. :)

Steve and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary in August and were able to get away to The Homestead Resort for two nights – I snagged a LivingSocial Deal.  Steve took this picture of me when we went to the complimentary afternoon tea on Saturday.

Thanks for checking out my summer pictures!

~Ann

I am not going to share MARTIN'S deals any longer....

I have decided that I am no longer going to post weekly match-ups for MARTIN'S.  It was a decision that I have prayed about and weighed the pros and cons for the last several months. 

Steve and I have recently been evaluating how we are spending our "free time".  We have been looking at things that we are involved with and things that we do on a regular basis and asked ourselves if it something that is helping to build the body of Christ.

I realized that sharing coupon match-ups, although it was hopefully helpful to others, was not something that was the best way to spend 3-4 hours a day.  (Yes - that is on average how long it took me to sit down to look at the sales flyer, look in a coupon database for potential matches, verify the available coupons, and type everything out).

We have also decided that we need to step away from some of our responsibilities at our church and instead, work on investing and building relationships with people who we come in contact with on a regular basis.  This includes neighbors, co-workers, people who we routinely see at a restaurant that we frequent, and even the ladies who I see for my nails and hair.   We truly want to be salt and light in the world.

My plan is to keep my blog still up and running and instead of it be about coupon match-ups, be what I originally wanted it to be - a blog about the crazy life of a mom with young children.

If you are looking for a replacement for my MARTIN'S deals there are two blogs that I would encourage you to check out - Young and Frugal in Virginia or For The Mommas. 

Thanks for checking out my weekly top deals posts and sharing the deals that you found.  I have enjoyed interacting with fellow deal seekers.   I hope you will continue to visit my site and get to know me and my family better. 

~Ann

Eating “Real Food” and Using Coupons–Can you do it?

I happened to check facebook while I was sitting in the car waiting for Steve Tuesday afternoon.  It was then that I had a friend of mine (in real life) make this comment in her status update. 

“Extreme couponing only works if you eat chemical laden, processed food. No thanks.”

I tried to reply as quickly as I could -

“Not true. There are coupons for items such as frozen vegetables and fruit on a regular basis. Organic manufacturers such as Stonyfield offer coupons on their website. I also use coupons regularly for toiletry items not just for my family but to also donate items to local shelters.”

There of course was a series of comments and one of them went on to say to me,

“I would like to see you do an experiment. Couponing while eating only real food (with real being defined as fewer than 5 ingredients I can both pronounce and identify).” 

Challenge accepted!

I decided to quickly go through my pantry, fridge, and freezer and look for things that I had on hand that I bought with sale and coupons that met the criteria for “real food”.

This is a sampling of what I had on hand:

 

There are more items that could have been included in the picture.  Let’s take a look at what I pulled out.

• Almonds
• Smart Balance Peanut Butter – this is a natural peanut butter the only ingredients listed are peanuts, evaporated cane juice, natural oil blend (palm fruit & flaxseed oils), salt, molasses
• Canned Vegetables
• Corn – Golden Whole Grain Corn, Water, Salt
• Diced Tomatoes – Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Salt, Citric Acid, Calcium Chloride (the citric acid is added to the tomatoes for acidity and to prevent botulism, the calcium chloride is to maintain the firmness of the tomatoes)
• Canned Beans
• Sweetened Condensed Milk – just milk and sugar
• Canned fruit
• Sour cream
• Canola oil
• Olive Oil and Vinegar – lots of uses, but also work as a substitute for salad dressing and marinades.
• Spices, Herbs, and Extracts – I pulled out my salt, poppy seeds, and vanilla extract
• Oatmeal – just 100% whole grain oats
• Frozen vegetables – I don’t buy the ones with sauces, the only ingredient on the bag was green beans.  I actually prefer frozen vegetables to canned because they don’t have any salt added to them.
• String Cheese
• Blocks of Cheese –  I try to buy the blocks if I can find the type I want that way.  It is usually less expensive per ounce if you buy the block.  The shredded cheese also has other ingredients added to it to keep it from caking.  I also buy the white cheddar, the orange has food coloring.
• Butter
• Whole Grain Pasta
• Rice
• Whole Bean Coffee
• Tea Bags

I could have pulled out other things like flour, sugar, and other baking supplies.  By keeping these items on hand you don’t have to rely on mixes that are filled with other things.  (I do have my share of mixes in my pantry.  I keep them on hand to use in a pinch.)

I actually did not have any commercially frozen fruit in my freezer to grab.  The majority of my frozen fruit is from what we picked and stored while it was at it’s lowest price during the summer.  The same was true about applesauce.  You can buy natural applesauce with coupons.  I have gallons of of applesauce on hand because we make and can our own every fall.

I have purchased fresh fruit and produce with coupons. There is a coupon right now for $0.50/1 Dole Salad Kit (just join the salad circle).  I also got Cutie’s Clementines for less with a sale and coupon this winter. 

I also missed grabbing milk and eggs.  You can find coupons for organic milk from the manufacturers.  I just ran out of eggs or else I would have remembered to grab those – there are coupons available for Eggland’s Best the “regular ones” and the cage free eggs several times a year in the Sunday paper.

The bottom line is that you can shop with coupons for things that aren’t loaded with chemicals and preservatives and that are “real food”.  It is also possible that by purchasing these everyday pantry and fridge items on sale and with a coupon that you allow yourself enough wiggle room in your budget to buy things like organic produce or meat. 

I do want to end with this last thought.  We all have different priorities in what we buy, what we we feed our families (either at home or in a restaurant), and how we spend or save our money.  If you are going to leave a comment please be kind or else it probably won’t be published. 

Thanks for reading.  I know there are other things that are “real foods” and have coupons available that I didn’t include.  I would love to hear what other items you have in your home that would qualify. 

~Ann

No Match-ups This Week

I have decided to take a week off from my MARTIN’S Top Deals Post.

We have had a busy week and have enjoyed catching up with family and friends in addition to reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ.  This is also a busy time for us because it is Natalie’s birthday.  (My oldest daughter.)

We have been really trying to avoid adding more clutter and things to our home. I have been purging clothes and toys for the last month. In an effort to cut down on things being brought into our home we were trying to focus on spending time together, and making memories. We have season passes to Busch Gardens and were able to take the kids down to Busch Gardens Christmas Town and enjoy lunch with Santa. Here is a family picture that we were able to have taken in front of Santa’s fireplace before the kids got to talk to Santa. The kids had a great day, enjoyed the shows and loved the decorations.  We were even able to catch-up with family and friends who were also there for the day. When we got home Natalie and Megan both told us, “Thanks for a great time and a fun lunch with Santa.”

 

Check back next week for match-ups, but until then have a Happy New Year. 

~Ann

Q: What are you going to do with 8 pounds of chicken breast? A: Freezer Cooking.

That is the abridged version of a conversation with a neighbor at a neighborhood gathering last Saturday.

I decided to cook both four pound packages of chicken that I picked up last week on sale for $1.99/lb instead of freezing in one pound portions.  I pulled out both of my slow cookers and put four pounds of raw boneless skinless chicken breast in each one.  I added barbecue sauce to one of them to make a batch of chicken barbecue and I added taco seasoning, Ro-tel tomatoes, and some other ingredients to the other one to make a chicken taco or burrito filling.  They both smelled great while they were cooking!

The taco/burrito filling is in the clear dish and the bowl is what I saved out for us for dinner. The chicken barbecue is in the black dish. I placed the bags in these dishes and then filled them with cold water and ice to safely cool them down before placing them in the freezer.

I had  found some bread on the “stale bread” shelf in MARTIN’s on Tuesday and had about one and one-half loaves left.  I had recently seen this post on Money Saving Mom about making homemade uncrustables for the freezer and making croutons out of the leftover crust.  I already had the Pampered Chef gadget and thought that it would be nice to have some ready made sandwiches for Natalie’s lunch. 

I tried making the sandwiches in the center of the bread, but because I wanted to save the crust for croutons I found it easier to just cut the bread first then press them together.

I wrapped the individual sandwiches in plastic wrap and then placed them all in a gallon sized freezer bag.

Yum! Butter, olive oil, italian seasonings and bread – what could smell better?!? We had a few more croutons before the picture. I had a few “quality control inspectors” passing through the kitchen when these were finished.

I also had several onions that I received in my produce box from Dominion Harvest that I wanted to chop up and freeze.  I ended up chopping up three and a half large onions and placing them in snack size bags so they are recipe-size portions.  I later wrapped the individual bags in foil, then placed them in a large storage bag and a freezer bag to keep the entire freezer from smelling like onions.

I really don’t like to chop onions so hopefully having this many onions ready in recipe-sized portions will make fixing dinner a lot easier.

I didn’t get everything finished that day, I had to go out to a parent’s night at school.  I did finally finish the last item on my agenda when I got a chance to cut up some of the beautiful peppers that I got in my produce box from Dominion Harvest.  I still had half of a large onion so I made portion sized bags of red and green peppers with onions for stir fry or fajitas and I chopped up one bag with assorted peppers and the rest of the onion to use for chili.

Cutting peppers is another chore I don’t like to do and hopefully this will make pulling dinner together easier and faster on busy weeknights.

 

What do you have stored in your freezer?  What are some ingredients that you keep on hand for quick weeknight meals?  Do you have a favorite fix double, triple, or quadruple and freeze the leftovers recipe?  Please feel free to share. 

Happy Cooking & Freezing!

~Ann

My Little Guy is One!

We have had a busy month of August so far and it doesn’t look like it is going to slow down.  In addition to Michael turning one Steve and I will also celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary and Natalie will start Kindergarten.  (She is going to go to a private Christian School that starts the week before Labor Day.)

Here are a few pictures from Michael’s birthday party – he sure did enjoy that cupcake!

Michael and my mom – aka “Nana”

Mom, this birthday crown is not cool.  You are really cramping my style.

What is this?

Maybe I’ll try a little taste….

I am still not sure…

I think I will have another bite.

This stuff on top is really good.

I can’t pose for a picture – I am afraid my sisters will take this away from me.

“All gone” Can I have more?

That was great!

My sister and I usually don’t take great pictures - Steve finally got a decent one.

Aunt Heather, “I was saving all of that chocolate frosting for later!”

Michael had to take off his shirt because of the chocolate frosting.  He was telling me about the trauma of Aunt Heather wiping his face down. 

I learned how to do so many things this past year, I wonder what I will learn this year?

Happy First Birthday Little Man!

Blueberry Picking and “Day Old Produce”

 

A picture of all of the blueberries we picked and the “day old produce” they were selling at $0.50/lb.  We picked ~15 lbs of blueberries!

We took the kids out to Mt. Olympus Farm yesterday to go blueberry picking.  We have enjoyed apple picking and strawberry picking at other farms.  I didn’t find that either of those outside of being a fun family day was really a huge cost savings (the per pound prices were almost the same as the grocery store).  This was our first time blueberry picking and it was not only a fun family afternoon, it was almost half the price to pick my own as it was to buy them in the store!  The blueberries were $2.50/lb at Mt. Olympus(compared to $2 for 8oz at most stores this week) and I “liked” them on facebook for a code that gave me 15% off.  We realized when we got everyone out to the blueberry patch that we left the camera in the car.  Sorry, I don’t have any pictures of dirty blueberry stained faces.  Thank goodness they don’t weigh us before and after to see how many blueberries we ate while picking!

My next project – freezing most of the blueberries so that we can enjoy them all year long!

~Ann

Apple Picking – Fall 2010

Last year I decided I was going to learn how to make and can my own applesauce and apple butter.  It turned out so yummy that I decided to try it again this fall and this year make even more.  We went back to Carter’s Mountain a few weeks ago and we had a van-ful.  Of course our family has expanded since last fall, and this year my parents joined in on the fun.  It was really nice to have two extra sets of hands to help us carry the apples and keep up with the kids. 

Here are some pictures from our day of apple picking:

One of our first big outings as a family of 5!

Steve’s homemade apple-picker. Sorry about the picture quality, he took the picture with his Blackberry.

Natalie & Megan our “taste-testers”

Steve carrying Michael

The girls with Granddaddy checking out a rusted out crop sprayer (circa 1949)

Who knew worms could be so cute?

We picked Jonagold, Golden Delicious, and Braeburn apples.  We came home with a little over 100 pounds of apples!  My parents took ~10-15 pounds home.  I actually went to the store a few days later and bought ~10 pounds of Organic Gala & Fuji apples because they didn’t have any of those available for picking.  I also decided to save out some of the organics and make organic applesauce for Michael to eat in a few months when he gets to start on solids. 

Here is a picture of the apples that we had leftover after my parent’s took some home:

Here is a picture of what we made with all of the apples:

We ended up with 15 quarts of applesauce, 25 pints of applesauce, 5 pint jars of organic applesauce plus some extra that I put in a freezer bag and froze for later, 35 half-pints of apple butter plus a little extra that we put in the fridge to enjoy now, and 38 cups of apples that Steve sliced, and we sprinkled with Fruit Fresh and put in the freezer to pull out for apple crisp or apple pie in the future.  I couldn’t have accomplished all of this without Steve’s help.

I know what you are thinking - why make all of that when I could buy applesauce for about $1 a jar?  I may not have a huge financial savings when you factor in the time and effort involved in picking the apples and making all of the applesauce and apple butter.  We had a really good family day apple picking and the girls enjoyed helping some with making the applesauce.   I like the fact that I know what ingredients are in my applesauce and apple butter.  I may be a little biased, but I can’t help to think that what I made is better than anything you can buy at the store.  I may not have come out ahead financially, but the memories, the taste, and knowing that we made it ourselves – those are priceless.

My first night alone with Michael

I had to share a story about the night I had Wednesday night.  Steve and the girls went to church and I stayed home alone with Michael.  I really didn’t expect any big issues, if it was my first baby I would have been freaked out about being alone with an 8 day old baby, but with Michael being my third baby I am thankful for a few moments alone with him. 

**I am going to warn you before you continue reading this that I am going to be discussing a topic that many moms are familiar with – nursing my baby.  If you are not comfortable with this topic just skip the rest of this post.**

It was time for me to nurse Michael, which we are doing really well with.  I successfully nursed Natalie for 8 months and Megan for a year.  (You will probably laugh when you realize that part of the reason why I continued to nurse them past the minimal recommendation of 6 months was because formula is expensive and breast milk, besides being good for them, is free!)  I picked Michael up and noticed that his diaper was wet.  No big deal, I changed his diaper.  I got him positioned and was trying to get him to latch on when I felt something warm.  He had peed again and somehow it came out the side of his diaper – all over his little shirt, the nursing pillow, and me.  I was evaluating the situation and starting to take off his wet shirt when I felt something wet on the front of my shirt.  I looked and realized I was leaking on the side that I was about to nurse from.  I grabbed a nursing pad and got that taken care of.  I stripped Michael down, put a dry blanket over the wet area of the nursing pillow and we were able to get the feeding accomplished.  I went to burp Michael after I finished feeding him and he spit up a little bit – on my shoulder and it was on his face.  I cleaned the little guy up – again.  I finally got him into a clean shirt (his fourth outfit for the day) and cleaned up everything from before the feeding.  I had to laugh, it really didn’t bother me.  I found it rather comical.  I thought to myself if this had been Natalie (my first baby) I would have panicked and probably called Steve and cried on the phone to him.  I looked at this as just another day and was thankful that it was just the two of us and not the craziness of having my two “helpers” involved.

The story continues.  Right before Steve and the girls came home I thought I had things under control when I heard Michael have another blow-out.  I went to change him again and realized that he had also peed again and this time got the front of his shirt wet.  He was now on his fifth outfit for the day.  I started a load of laundry for him.  (I just did all of the laundry yesterday.) He wet the other three outfits he had on earlier today along with the sheet in his crib this morning and his play mat this afternoon. He got that wet during a diaper change, and thankfully I escaped that “shower”. 

The poor little guy didn’t last long in the fifth outfit either.  Steve picked him up shortly after they arrived home because he was a little fussy and the girls wanted to tell me about what happened at church when Steve told me that he was wet again and that the bassinet sheet was soaked.  They sheet got added to the laundry and Michael ended up in his sixth outfit for the night which thankfully he managed to stay in until the next morning.

I am sure I will have more stories and that life will get even crazier for me in the coming days, but I do want to end with another cute picture of three of the reasons why my life is crazy – in a good way. 

Baby Brother is here!!!!

I just wanted to post a quick note to share that we now have two handsome guys in our family now.  Michael Stephen – aka “baby brother” was born on Tuesday, August 10th.  He weighed in at 8lb 1oz and was 20.25 inches long.  I am doing ok.  I had to have a third c-section so my recovery is slow and not always comfortable, but I have a handsome healthy baby to show for it.  Michael is doing really well.  Steve is being a huge help and big sisters Natalie & Megan are in love with their new brother. 

I am not going to bore you right now with baby picture overload, but this is one of my favorites that Steve caught of the girls visiting us in the hospital Wednesday morning.

 

We are so blessed!