Category Archives: Saving Money

Why did the Chicken Cross the Road?

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To avoid our house!

Now to answer the other question that I heard several times. Below is the inventory of the items that we made from our 120# of chicken. I have linked most to recipe that I used. A lot of these are total new to us so  my plan is to come back and make a quick comment regarding how we liked it. Then the next time we try this I will have a starting place as to what to fix and what to replace. I am a little disappointed as I did not have enough chicken to complete 2 of the meals I wanted to try so next time these may replace what is don’t like.

 

This makes a total of 47  meals. My thought is that in reality this will be 50 meals or more including leftovers at least one night.   I will add another post with the details of how long it took to actually prepare these meals and how I complete the task on a very busy Saturday for us.

Do you have an easy freezer chicken recipe to share?

How We Re-stock

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For the past several months, I have been on a mission to clean out our freezers. I can finally say that I did succeed. So now what?  This month’s grocery budget or should I save overspending will show just how much we can spend in a month.  But more about that later.

The first stop we made to re-stock the freezers was a local meat market. We ended up spending around $200 but purchased what I am planning on being enough meat when combined with our chicken order that we will pick up this Saturday to last approximately six month. We purchased chicken wings for our super bowl party in January, several packs of steaks, a couple of London broils, flank steak for use in some fried rice meals, cube steak and  a pork tenderloin which Matt split into 4 separate roast before freezing.  I did purchase 20# of ground beef which I divided up and froze most of the following out of:
2 meatloaves (this are uncooked but can be easily thawed)
2 Cheeseburger pies. (We have eaten one of these this week)
7 meal packs of Salisbury steaks. ( Matt will combined with frozen mashed potatoes for a really quick but hearty meal).
8 packs of already browned ground beef.
4 meals of stuffing for green peppers. We enjoyed one of these for Amanda’s birthday and a second is a left over meal. The other 2 packs are in the freezer.

Next stop was at Costco where not only did we purchase food to re-supply us but also we need to purchase several vitamins and medicines that I have not been able to coupon for in a long time.  We also had to renew our membership which only ended up costing me $14 so I will continue because that works out to around $1.25 a month and just the convenience of buying in bulk is well worth that cost!

Finally we headed out to Target to grab an awesome deal on Starbucks coffee and to gather some additional items we need to make meals out of our chicken.

In addition to cooking above I have also added a Baked Ziti to the freezer and will be placing some Taco soup in tomorrow as well.

I did take a look at our overall grocery budget for the year. Including all the additional spending this month, our monthly average is $650 which is less than last year. My plan is to make a couple of small trips over the next several months but I would imagine that by the end of the year our spending will be at less than $600 a month!

The plan is to let you in on how we end up processing 120# of chicken on Sunday or Monday after it is completed.

 

 

Savings!

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A list of the things we have done or are currently doing to save money :

  1. No heat or air for the past month! The goal is another month or 6 weeks.  The last several days have seen highs in the upper 80s but with low 60s or 50s at night, we have survived with ceiling fans.  I can’t wait to see how much this has effected our power bill.
  2. By switching our cell phone bill to  my name, we increased our discount by 2% and for some reason they applied the discount differently as well. As a result, our total cell phone bill is over $50 less starting in October!
  3. Matt has been researching our cable tv and its charges. We were both really surprised to find $10 charge  for on demand items that we have been paying for over a year that simply we don’t use. In addition, we are planning on dropping our cable tv entirely in the month of November, when our contract is up.  We should see this reduce our monthly bills by $100 a month. We know that the first 2 months will be sent on obtaining boxes but still $100 a month is HUGE!
  4. Matt cut his own hair yesterday. The current decision is that some things are just better left to the pros. Hair cuts being one of them!
  5. We are continuing to clean out our freezers. A major shopping trip is planned for next weekend but we are continuing to eat what we have. A good example is today, for lunch everyone chose a left over for lunch. At dinner, I used left over taco meat and made a taco bake which basically was a free meal!
  6. By combining discounts, I was able to purchase a new comforter set for our bed for less than half of the advertised price including shipping and tax. I will definitely be posting pictures of that after it arrives.
  7. I was able to purchase 3 Diet Cokes and 2 bottles of dish detergent at CVS today for $0.34 and left with $2.50 in ECB. I started with NONE!  I did use a rain check
  8.  As I was cleaning at work last week, I found a huge stack of papers that have been sitting in the same place for 9 months.  My first thought was to toss them but then I realized wait they have only been printed on one side. So I brought the stack home, cut off the corners with the staples and not have an entire pack of paper to use for printing and the kids art work. I honestly have not bought paper in over two years. We print a lot but keep a scrap paper bin at church and then recycle all we get here. This saves us a bunch on paper. I do have some “clean” paper for use for official things but have found that no one care what the back of my coupons or list say and the kids are so used to coloring on paper that they use at least 10 sheets a day for art!

So it is important to see savings as a marathon not a sprint!

September No-Low Spend Challenge Update 3

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1.Emergency Fund at $1000 by the end of the month. I did receive a refund on Haley’s tuition so I was able to place $500 in the fund. I still need to find another $500 but this is a start.

2. Grocery spending at $200 or less not including our Zaycon Food chicken order. This week was expensive for groceries. I did place our chicken order and will be picking up 120# of chicken in a October. This week I have made two stops at the grocery store, one at Aldi and another at Food Lion. I am over my $200. Currently I sit at $226 for the month.

As you can tell, I most likely will not be able to met either of my goals for the month. However, I am glad I accepted the challenge as it has made me hyper aware of spending and has actually keep my grocery shopping well under budget as well. I will only do a find update since I am already fallen from the wagon so to speak.

 

What Does Our Stockpile Look Like?

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Over the past several months, we have been cleaning out our freezers and pantries. However during the last three weeks, two of the stores in the area have been running some really good deals so I chose to start to stock pile again.  I am always looking for what other people consider a stock pile and how they do it so I thought I would share about ours. Here is a breakdown of some of the items we have on hand:

  • 10 tubes of unopened toothpaste. I was able to grab 4 tubes for free this past week!  I will not be purchasing any more, but free is free no matter how many you have.
  • 20 plus bottles of Shampoo and Conditioner. I did purchase 3 bottles of Kid’s shampoo this past week. This is definitely an item, I will not be buying anytime soon. In fact, I will not even be looking for any deals on these until I am down to 5 bottles or less.
  • 15 un-open bars of soap. Lily has very sensitive skin so I try to stock up when even one of the few brands she uses is on sale. I was able to purchase 3 bar packs at Harris Teeter for $0.35 this week.
  • 6 bottles each of Ketchup and mustard. These were actually purchased in January when I was able to find them for $0.50 or less.
  • 4 5# bags of sugar. I remember purchasing these at less than $1.50 a bag, they are in Ziploc bags so they should last a good long time.
  • 40 can of vegetables. I purchased these at Food Lion two weeks ago for $0.25 a can. I prefer the frozen veggies but these are awesome to have on hand.
  • 10 cans of soup.  Tomato soup is one of the few items that I am brand loyal to, so when I find coupons that make it less than $.50 a can, I buy. But I also have another 10 cans of cooking soups as well.
  • 10 cases of soda, I take usually 1 a week to work. These were all purchased in May and June when I was able to get for around $0.08 a can or less than $2.00 per 12 pack. I also use my coke points to add to this any time I can.
  • 12 2 L Diet Cokes. I have been enjoying these that I purchased at $0.88 in August but I know that I will soon need to add to this.
  • Our meal list is currently at 14 dinners. After these are used up, I will be stocking back up the freezers. First with a 120# order of chicken from Zaycon and then with a trip to the local meat butcher/market.

Lastly our veggie freezer is almost full, I have been slowly adding diced/stewed tomatoes this summer. Otherwise I have several packages of plums from last year. I also have an abidance of frozen zucchini and squash from 2 years ago.  I did add to the freezer with frozen broccoli and corn purchased again on the brand sale at Food Lion. I know that Food Lion usually has the brand sale in January so I purchased what I thought would last till then.

Can anyone give me an idea what their stock pile looks like?

 

 

August in Review

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Financial goals:  August was an expensive month for us with Auto expenses, College and our Vacation. However we are ending the month about the same as July $1000 behind our set budget. The month of September should be better as we are expecting payment for a website, a partial refund of tuition and I have some extra work available this month as well.

  • Pay off Lawn mower by March 2014, so no interest is charged. Payment of $100 made, almost a triple payment
  • Pay off all outstanding debt except the mortgage by June– No new debt incurred! This is a major accomplishment considering the extra expenses of the month.
  • Emergency fund to $2000–   This will receive the biggest push this month as I hope to re-establish and get it to around $1000, because of Auto repairs it is currently at $100
  • Maintain a budget using a form of the envelope system – Still working well! It has really allowed  me to track expenses this month. It worked on vacation as well!!!!!!!!!!
  • Groceries: Spend $600 or less a month   Awesome month in this area, we spent around $200 including  food for the beach!  We are currently only $20 over for the year. We have spent some time cleaning out one of our freezers and making meal plans. The goal for August is to spend less than $200 except for an order of Zaycon chicken that we should receive in October. If we are able to meet this goal, the extra will be placed in Emergency Fund to beef it up!
  • Gas- Including our gas for vacation we spent $550 in addition we spent another $150 on auto repair and service. The Goal is $400 a month, so we did met this goal if you eliminate vacation and repair. I hope to keep this expense low in the next month due to the need for tags, inspection and renewal of our AAA all come this month. My goal will be to use any funds not need to cover these additional expenses as my auto fund is empty!

Blogging:  Goal: 15 per month This is the 15th blog posting of the month, for the second month in a row.

Devotions: Goal is 5 a week   Goal Met! I am really enjoying my morning time.

Weight: Goal to exercise 3x a week and to be down to 150 by December by losing around 4 # a month.. To be honest, I have not even address this goal this month. I have not gained the 10# I lost but there has been no progress. Repeat from last month…..

On paper, August appears to be a successful month, we really enjoyed our vacation so that makes it even better.

The anticipation is that September will be a better month financially for us in the terms of income.

God’s Timing

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“As for God, his way is perfect:
The Lord’s word is flawless;
he shields all who take refuge in him.”  Psalm 18:30 (NIV)

I often need reminders of God’s provision and faithfulness. This weekend was a needed and very obvious reminder !  We decided to purchase a new to us minivan in late May. The intention was that we would sell our current minivan for the same price as the one we purchased. We immediately placed ads on Craig’s list in addition to several other free sites. Initially we had several “lookers” but nothing serious. So six weeks later,   Matt decides to update the ad to get some more attention. On Wednesday, my car refused to crank and we knew the starter had to be replaced. I was not at all concerned because I just simply drove the red van to work while my car sat in the driveway. Matt was able to get the starter replaced on Saturday morning! The new ad on Craig’s list was already getting a couple of follow-up phone calls but not even a looker yet.  Today, Sunday, we have someone drive down from Greensboro and purchase the red minivan.  Not only does this allow us to pay down our overall debt but also makes it possible for us to afford Haley’s fall tuition without a hardship on our normal budget. I realized just last Thursday that I had not be saving enough to cover the tuition that is due in August. God already had a plan and I am so thankful that I can enjoy it.
God’s timing is perfect, he knew we would need the van last week but more importantly, I need a reminder that we are in his will and he will provide as we need not as we want.

Saturday Shopping 6/29/2013

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Kendall requested a trip to Build a Bear for her birthday this year, so today we headed to Winston-Salem to celebrate all of her favorite things. An added benefit for me was that I could get some shopping and awesome saving in as well. Matt used 2 emptied Starbucks coffee bags for 2 free coffees. I had $10 Bear Bucks for Build A Bear and we ended up hitting Bath and Body Works to grab some hand sanitizer as well. However these were not the highlights of the trip saving wise.

I knew that today was $1 Flip Flops at Old Navy, however the other in store sales combined with a $10 off $40 that was given to be at the cash register made a good deal on flip-flops into an awesome trip for clothing. We purchased 4 shirts for Matt, Matt a pair of shorts, 3 shirts for me, 3 pair of Flip flops for me, both the little girls got 2 pair of flip-flops and Zach got 3 pair, one for this year and two for next.  The total cost for 18 items $55 or 56% savings.

One of the last stops of the day was Harris Teeter. I knew they were running a Super Doubles promotions this week. I spent around 2 hours last night preparing a list. We chose to return to the “new to us” Harris Teeter. My only disappointment was that they did not carry “Suddenly Salad” but their customer service makes up for that in full. We purchased all items that we use on a regular basis including Kool-Aid Jammers for $1 a box. In total I spent $31 and saved $81 or 73%!

Stretching Your Dollar and Ground Beef

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I wanted to share today how we have managed to stretch our ground beef over the past several days.  These are simple and fast, but because my family  really does not like left overs this is a way to stretch the ground beef.

Start with 3-4 pounds of ground beef and simply brown.
Tacos are first, add the seasoning and water. Enjoy!
Sloppy joes are next add one can of rotel and enough ketchup to make the remaining meat look “soupy”. Let this mixture simmer for about 30 minutes or so. Add bread and cheese.
The remaining mixture can be used in several different ways; chili(or sloppy joe) cheese fries, hot dog chili, spaghetti sauce.

We actually have practiced this for the past couple of days. We have actively been raising money for Haley’s summer youth trip to the National Youth Conference. Our first meal was pintos, I brought home leftovers and made refried beans. The next meal was a “Mexican Meal” we used the refried beans and add Taco meat. I definitely over purchased the meat, so we frozen the remaining 10 or so pounds. This past Sunday was our “Soup and Sandwich” Meal. I used the above recipe to change the taco meat into sloppy joes. Because the meat had been frozen one time, the remaining meat was sent home with several families. Matt has enjoyed several meal of Sloppy Joes but the kids really did not like this idea so the other idea became part of the plan. Tonight Matt was able to use up the remaining meat mixture in a baked spaghetti which was really good!

 

 

Day of Cooking 4/13/2013

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One of the things that I have not done in over a year is spend a day preparing food that then is easy to heat up and serve as meals. I have done this several times a year in the past. With our focus this month on reducing all expenses, I decided to spend my day in the kitchen. I purchased a total of 12# of ground beef from Costco on Thursday and Matt had picked up an order of Chicken from Zaycon Foods on Tuesday so I knew we probably had everything I need to cook most of these items. I spent a total of 8 hours in the kitchen today including clean up time and I took several breaks. I was able to assemble 15 different meals. I have a list of these meals along with all the different other meats we have on the fridge. We will mostly like have one or two a week and then wait a week before having the same item again. I find it much easier to prepare a larger quantity at once. I first heard of freezer cooking several years ago, most of the recipes I use are from 30 day Gourmet, I have not purchased any of their books but printed out a ton of recipes from their site.   Here is a list of what we have, most have recipes with them.

1 pack of cooked ground beef this will be great for chili or another dish
2 meals of Chicken Fried Rice this is Haley favorite meal of all time.
2 Cheeseburger Pies
4 Packs of Salisbury Patties
4 packs of Taco Rice – one of these is actually to take with us to the Beach in August. It was a favorite last year.
2 meatloaf This is a recipe from my mother, I will place at the end if you are interested. I have taken one of Matt’s sisters idea (cheese) and add to make it even better!
1 Baked Ziti For our lunch tomorrow

We had one of the meatloaf for dinner tonight along with Pineapple casserole and Paula Deen Mac and Cheese

I plan to finish the night by making a Baked Oatmeal that I will set for the oven to bake first thing in the morning!

I started by making a huge batch of Rice since I planned to make several items that called for it. I also browned up 6 lbs of ground beef at once and spread between several dishes. I like to clean up as I go. So I was able to use my Kitchen Aid mixer for several things after a quick clean. I will say that it made especially the Salisbury patties much easier. Currently I am just under $200 left in the grocery budget for the month. I have a list of 35 main meal items on the fridge so maybe I can keep our budget way down and transfer the money to other needs!

Do you have any good recipes to share along these lines if so leave a comment!

Meatloaf
1 ½ Lb ground Beef
¾ cup Bread crumbs
1 T prepared Mustard
2 T Ketchup
1 cup Milk
1 sm onion 1 cup Cheddar Cheese
Blend onion and milk in blender. Mix together all above. Place half in loaf pan. Cover with layer of Cheddar Cheese. Place remaining meat mixture on top be sure to round the ends so that the cheese is sealed. Top with the following, after mixing together
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups Ketchup
1 ¼ tsp prepared mustard
¼ tsp nutmeg