a very {easy to make} review game

Reviewing material is just an everyday part of our homeschool.  Phonograms, sight words, math facts, Latin/Greek roots, spelling words…all require frequent reviews of the material to achieve mastery.  However, that can get a bit boring for both the kids and the teacher.

We try to play many games in our homeschool to take the hum-drum out of the review.  If I can, I like to make it seasonally themed too. 

Since the little ones are doing a unit study on all things gingerbread (more on that soon), I searched Pinterest for some cute gingerbread games.  And boy howdy, there were some cute, cute, cute printable activities. 

The only problem for me is that they required a lot of color ink to print.  Even if you set it to “quick copy”, they would just use up a whole lot of ink.  And color ink cartridges are pricey!  Honestly, I am a bit stingy with the color ink around here. 

But I wanted to make a cute review game so I pulled out what I had around the house:  a colored file folder, markers, and index cards.  I’ve come to learn that my kids aren’t concerned whether the review game is one that will win an award for the cutest game board ever.  They just want to have fun while learning. 

Now before I show it to you, you have to promise me one thing.  Promise me that you won’t laugh at my game board.  Because while my husband is an artist and some of my kids follow in his footsteps, I am not an artist. 

Ok, since you’re not going to laugh…here is the game board that I created in about ten minutes on Sunday night.  (It was getting really late.  I told myself if I had more time, I could have made this way cuter!)

You didn’t laugh…did you? {smile}

Just a simple gingerbread man drawn on a file folder with a little path following the outline, and places to begin and end and Voila! you’ve got the easiest game to construct that makes review time fun!

We’ve had a blast this week practicing sight words and spelling words.  And not once has a child told me that the game board was not pretty enough.  Actually they’ve begged me to play it everyday! 

So while I love those cute games you will find on Pinterest (and if I discovered an endless supply of color printer ink, I would print out every single one of them), it is sometimes easier, cheaper, and still just as fun to use a few materials around the house to make a learning review game!

Stretching an $8 pork loin

Did you know that an $8 pork loin could make three meals for a family of seven?

I didn’t either until last week. 

You know how I like to shop the sales ads for meats that are on sale.  Well, I picked up a pork loin (a little over 4 pounds) for $8 dollars a few weeks ago.  I fully expected to get two meals out of this pork loin.  You can imagine my surprise when we had three meals with leftovers!

Here are the meals & recipes that we used to stretch this pork loin to feed our family:

*quick note…I forgot to take pictures.  Sorry!

Meal #1 ~ Slow Cooker Pork Loin with Veggies

• 2 pound pork loin (I cut the original pork loin in half and refrigerated the unused half.)
• potatoes (use whatever amount your family will eat)
• carrots (same as potatoes)
• celery (2 stalks)
• onion (about 1/4 – 1/2 cup)
• seasonings (I used salt, pepper, seasoned salt, onion powder, garlic powder)
• olive oil and butter
• 3/4 cup of water

Directions

• Season and brown sides of pork loin in small amount of olive oil in skillet.
• After the pork loin is brown, place it into slow cooker with about 3/4 cup of water.
• Cut potatoes, celery, carrots, and onion.  Place around pork loin in slow cooker. 
• Sprinkle seasonings across veggies.  Place a few pats of butter on top.  
• Cook on high for about 3 – 4 hours.

** The measurements are not exact because I didn’t measure anything.  Just season to taste.  Also remember, more veggies helps to stretch the meat.  For us, everyone got two slices of pork with a lot a veggies and a side of green beans.  No one (not even my teenage boys) left the table hungry. 

Meal #2 ~ Shredded Tex-Mex Pork Loin Nachos

• 2 pound pork loin
• onion - chopped
• can of diced tomatoes
• small can of green chilies
• 1 cup of water
• seasonings:  salt, chili powder, cumin
• black beans (cooked separately)
• tortilla chips

 

Directions

• Place pork loin into slow cooker. 
• Pour water, tomatoes, and chilies into slow cooker.
• Sprinkle with onion and seasonings:  1 TBSP salt, 2 TBSP of chili powder, and 1 TBSP of cumin.  (Could use taco seasonings instead)
• Cook on high for 3 – 4 hours. 
• Shred meat before serving.  (I did this in the slow cooker with a fork and knife.)
• We served ours with black beans on the side (or on top) and over tortilla chips.  Top with sour cream and cheese.  YUM!  (Would have been good with lettuce too but I was out!)

Meal #3 ~ Pork Loin Burrito Bowl

• leftover pork loin from Shredded Tex-Mex Nachos (if you have any…we had quite a bit)
• leftover black beans from previous meal
• cooked brown rice
• toppings: cheese, sour cream, salsa (could possibly add corn too or any other toppings that you like)

Directions

• Heat leftover pork and black beans while brown rice cooks
• Place cooked rice in bowl and top with pork, black beans, and toppings of choice.
• Serve with a side of fruit salad and/or green salad.

*This is just a “dressed up” leftovers meal.  However, don’t let its simplicity fool you.  It is yummy!  (Possibly one of hubby’s and my favorite meals to eat! )

Even after all of this feasting on our $8 pork loin, we still had enough left for a small serving for someone’s lunch!  I truly love it when our food stretches far but satisfies us at the same time. 

Do you have any meals that you cook that stretch a little bit a long way? 

This post linked to:

Saving money on groceries {and a menu plan}

Recently, I’ve decided to try couponing again.  Most of what we buy with coupons are beauty and home items.  Occasionally we will buy food items like yogurt, cheese, or condiments with our coupons.  We rarely buy convenience type foods because we just don’t have the budget for these items. 

Couponing has allowed us to save money on items that can be expensive and to then apply that savings to other areas – particularly for us, one area would be the feeding of five children (two of whom are older boys who eat a lot! {smile}).

Since feeding a family can get expensive, here are a few things we do to save money on groceries:

• Use grocery store sales papers and shop loss leaders.

The front page of the grocery store sales papers are the loss leaders.  Basically, the store is taking a loss on these items to pull customers in with the hopes that you will buy other items too.  When the prices are good, we will stock up on loss leaders.  We focus mainly on buying staple items, meats, and fruit. 

• Use coupons to reduce costs.

A recent trip to the store resulted in a catalina (sort of like a coupon that is money that the store gave us for meeting particular buying guidelines…and I also reduced the cost with coupons by about $10).  That catalina plus more coupons reduced a separate grocery total from $50 dollars to $35!  Not too bad!  (Visit here for some great links to blogs that will teach you how to save money with coupons.)

• Make many of your own foods from scratch.

We try to make as much from scratch as possible.  Tonight we had chicken strips, buttery herbed noodles, broccoli, and bread.  It was all homemade!  (Well, except for the pasta…I’m not there yet!)  It does take a little more time to bake bread and make food from scratch but the taste is so much better and we won’t mention the health returns from consuming less chemicals & preservatives.  Our children actually prefer homemade chicken nuggets and chicken strips…they are that good…and really not hard at all!

• Grow food in a garden.

Some people are limited by the amount of space that they have to grow food.  However, I encourage you to grow something in a few pots if you can.  A homegrown tomato is so much tastier than a store bought one.  (And cheaper) Right now our garden is giving us tomatoes, okra, and peppers so those veggies will show up in the menu more.

• Have a menu plan.

If I fail to plan, we tend to spend more.  For us, no menu plan = eating out.  Can you say “Cha-ching!”?  With a menu plan, we eat at home more therefore saving money.  {smile}

And since we are on the subject of menu plans…

Here’s our plan for the rest of the week:

(Random tip of the day:  I love all of the cool free fonts so I like to use them in random places {smile}.  Visit here to see what I’m talking about and to download some for your use.)

 

Dinners:

• Roasted chicken, sweet potatoes, fried okra
• Oven fried chicken strips, buttery herbed noodles, broccoli
• Breakfast for dinner:  pancakes, cheesy eggs, bacon
• Chicken and gravy over noodles, green beans
• Eat out - pizza

(Can you tell that we were well stocked with chicken?  Guess what has been on sale?)

Lunches: (serve with mac n cheese, chips/salsa, or popcorn and fruit/applesauce)

• Grilled or regular sandwiches
• Hot dogs
• Corn dog muffins
• Chicken quesadillas or stuffed pitas

Breakfasts: (serve with fruit)

• Granola/yogurt or oatmeal
• Eggs – fried, scrambled, cheesy, omelets
• Cheese or Peanut butter toast

 

This blog post is linked to Menu plan Monday!

Mermaids, pirates, and cupcakes {oh my}

So what do mermaids, pirates, and cupcakes all have in common?

Sunshine Girl (pictured above), of course!

This weekend we are hosting an under the sea celebration in honor of Sunshine Girl’s 6th birthday!

You can imagine how all of the party preparation is cutting into my computer time a wee bit…

but…

I wanted to share some links with you.

Are you planning a child’s birthday party?  HERE are some great pins at Pinterest.  Not planning a mermaid party?  Then you can also do a search at Pinterest and find many great ideas!

Are you planning some get togethers with friends?  HERE are some pins that I pinned when I hosted Bunco back in April.  Two ideas that I used from this Pinterest board:  limes & daisies centerpieces and fruit salsa.  Both were the great hits at Bunco!

Are you planning a party on a budget (like we are)?  Then you must click HERE for some ideas on planning on a budget.  This blog is one of the first blogs that I ever read.  The author no longer blogs but I still find myself returning to her blog because it inspires me to live well on less.

Stay tuned for pictures featuring mermaids, pirates, and cupcakes {oh my} to appear some time next week!

 

 

 

Living large on one income: using coupons ~

We are a family of seven.  That’s a little bit larger than your average family.  We also are a family of seven living on one income.  Even though I don’t have a “paying job”, I do see it as my job to stretch our income for our family as much as possible. 

Back when I was doing a Tightwad Gazette challenge, (which I plan to get back on now that life is slowing down a bit) I talked about how one of the largest areas that I could save money was in the grocery section of our budget. 

However, I’m sure you’ve noticed that food prices are on the rise due to gas prices.  It has gotten harder and harder to save money on food.  So now I’ve added saving money on non-food items such as our toiletries and household needs as well. 

And just how have I been doing that?

Well, I have been receiving the Sunday paper for about a year now and with it…many, many coupons.  And I’ve been saving them and thinking to myself:

I’m sure most of these coupons are for things I don’t use.

I don’t like to feed my family many processed foods and that’s what most coupons are for.

I don’t see how one coupon here and one coupon there will save us any money.

 

But finally, I decided to look at those coupons and see what was in there and you know what…

I did use some of those items on the coupons.

Not all of the foods were for processed junk.

And these coupons combined with weekly sales (which I all ready used) would save our family some money.

So I took the plunge.  And do you see those items in that picture above?  There are 2 liquid laundry detergents, 3 dish detergents, and four toothpastes.  I got those for a total of $ 9.32.  And considering that one of the detergents alone costs over $7.00 and we saved over $30.00 for these items, I call that a good deal!  (These were purchased at Walgreens.) 

This savings on non-food items as well as the savings from using coupons at the grocery store matched with the sales ads has been helping our family to live large on one income!  {more to come}

For some information on couponing, here are some great places to visit:

Couponing 101

Southern Savers

Coupon Mom

Money Saving Mom

There are many, many more but I’ll leave you with those to get you started! 

Eating for less challenge ~ Day 4~ and chatting about real foods ~

~Sorry that I’m a little late with posting this.  On Thursday evening when I was supposed to post, I decided to spend a little time chatting with my husband instead.  This will be the last eating for less challenge that I post because on Friday, Day 5 of the challenge, we ate out.  So I kind of blew my own challenge!  {smile}~

Meal for Day 4:

Pancakes with syrup, sausage patties, fried eggs, toast, and orange juice

Total Cost for Meal:

• pancakes  1.00
• syrup  75 cents
• orange juice  free
• sausage patties   free
• eggs  79 cents/dozen (sale) ~ used 8 eggs at 56 cents
• toast ~ 4 slices at 20 cents

total of meal:  $3.00  (actual ~ $2.51)

We love breakfast for dinner around here.  It seemed like the perfect week to have it too since we had some sausage patties and orange juice that someone had given to our family.  We have breakfast for dinner at least every other week.  This meal is very easy to keep affordable.  If we don’t have a breakfast type meat, I will usually serve some eggs to get in our protein (plus I have one child who does not care for pancakes).  Sometimes we will also have fruit smoothies as our dessert.

What about real foods on a budget?

For a while now, we have talked of transitioning our family to a more real foods diet.  Even though we have begun some steps towards a healthier diet, I find it hard to eat that way on a tight budget.  I realize that I can’t make all the changes at once.  I simply can not afford to do that right now.  Maybe one day we will (again) be able to afford that, but for now I have found that I will do the best that I can with the budget that I have.  And I pray for God to help me feed my family healthy meals on this budget.  As someone recently told me, “It’s not forever.  It’s just for now.” 

Anyway, this is a good blog post at Food Renegade on eating real foods on a budget.  (Here are more links that I found at Musings of a Housewife.)  We have begun to make a few changes to our diet so that it resembles a more traditional foods diet.   (For a good post about reasons for changing to a real foods diet, click here.  Also, here is a good post about making baby steps to better nutrition.)

Some steps we have taken on a tight budget:

• Eat healthier fats.  We use butter and olive oil.  Soon I hope to have some coconut oil for baking so that we can get rid of the vegetable oil.  Every once in a while, we use margarine but I try to avoid it if possible. 
• Reduce sugar intake and replace with healthier sweetners.  This is a hard one around here.  My kids like their kool-aid.  We do mix it with 1/2 cup sugar and some stevia.  Other than sugar and stevia, I use honey as a sweetener.  It (good honey) is a bit expensive so I use it sparingly.  I hope to pretty much eliminate white sugar around here.  Baby steps…
• Use healthier dairy products.  We began using raw milk a while back but don’t use it every week.  If I can afford it, I get it.  We try to use organic milk if not using raw milk.    (Read about healthy milk here.)
• Continue to wean my family off of white flour and replace with whole grains.  Those rolls the other night were 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white flour.  For the most part, my husband, one daughter, and I eat whole grain bread.  Everyone else prefers white bread. 

Changes that I would like to implement:

• Become a better label reader to avoid HFCS  (High Fructose Corn Syrup), trans fat, and MSG. 
• Buy meats and eggs that are grass fed and pastured.  (Very expensive to do.  I’ve still got my fingers crossed that we’ll get some venison next weekend.)
• Replace white rice & pasta with brown rice & whole grain pasta.
• Drink more water.

There are more steps that our family needs to take.  However, I feel this is a good start.  We’ll take it bit by bit, little by little until we are eating a healthy diet! 

And we will continue to do what we can to eat for less while making the transition to that healthier way of eating.

Eating for less challenge: Day 3 ~

Tonight’s Meal:

Turkey & gravy over rice, cheesy broccoli, (leftover) homemade rolls, and banana muffins (for dessert when we got home from church)

Total Estimated Cost:

Approximately $ 3. 07 or about 44 cents per person in our seven person family

So by now, you’ve figured out that I’m definitely not a gourmet cook!  I’m a pretty simple cook and my family tends to like their meals pretty simple too.  

As far as keeping it simple, this meal had to be quick and easy because it was a busy day and night for us.  On nights that I am not rushed to be somewhere, I try to cook a little extra here and there and freeze it for future meals.  Tonight’s meal was exactly that:  a combination of many different cooking ahead days. 

~ The Breakdown~

~Turkey and Gravy over rice~

• 1 pound of turkey at 39 cents a pound = 39 cents
• turkey gravy = basically free (made with turkey juices and gravy mix that came with turkey)
• 6 cups cooked rice = 50 cents

total:  89 cents

A few weeks ago, we bought a 12 pound turkey for 39 cents a pound ($4.68).  One night, we roasted the turkey and even after eating some that night, we still had quite a bit left.  The rest of the turkey went into the freezer for various meals.  Since there was quite a bit of gravy left, I decided to freeze that too.  In the above picture, the mashed potatoes went into the frig and became potato soup a few days later.  (We try to use up those leftovers.) 

Tonight, I heated the gravy and added two bags of turkey meat (which was a little more than one pound).  We ate this over rice.  It was very easy and very good.  Being this close to Thanksgiving, some might not want to eat turkey right now.  I probably wouldn’t either if our family made the traditional type turkey.  But my family does a cajun fried turkey for Thanksgiving (YUM-O!) so we haven’t messed up our turkey eating experience!  

We have been able to get many meals out of this turkey.  Actually, I have another turkey that we bought at 29 cents a pound sitting in the freezer!  I will roast it one day and freeze the meat for future meals. 

And for a few ideas on how we have used or will use that turkey:

• turkey and rice
• turkey pot pie
• turkey enchiladas
• turkey gumbo
• turkey tortilla soup
• turkey quesadillas
• turkey salad sandwiches
• turkey soft tacos

 The crockpot was busy making some turkey broth!

And the list could go on some more.  Basically, if you can make it with chicken, you can make it with turkey. 

~ Cheesy Broccoli~

• cheesy broccoli bought with coupon = 68 cents
• 1/2 bag of frozen broccoli = 50 cents

total:  $1.18

I have recently begun using coupons to help buy some of our groceries and toiletries.  (More on that later.)  One item that we bought was Green Giant Cheesy Broccoli which we got for 68 cents.  However, the box was little and would probably only feed one and a half people around here.  So I steamed 1/2 a bag of frozen broccoli, added it to the cheesy broccoli, and salted it a bit.  Voila!  Easy & cheap veggies!

~(Leftover) Rolls ~

free because they were leftover from last night’s meal

~Banana Muffins~

estimated to cost about $1.00 because I’m too lazy to compute all of the costs.  But after looking at flour, sugar, and bananas in the recipe, I think $1.00 sounds good.

total:  $1.00

A few overly ripe bananas and a late night out helped me decide to pull a premixed muffin mix from my freezer.  I added the wet ingredients to the all ready mixed dry ingredients & baked.  Easy!  Now, my family has a little sweet snack when they get home from church!

Day 3 meal total:  $ 3. 07

(now that’s what I’m talking about!)

Banana Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 3 ripe bananas
• could add in some chocolate chips but I didn’t have any

Mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.  In another bowl, beat egg, add in bananas and applesauce.  Add to flour mixture.  Stir until moistened.  (Could add chocolate chips here.)  Spoon into greased muffin tin.  (I used cupcake liners.)  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes. 

Final Thoughts on Day 3 challenge:

Seeing that $3.07 total is mighty exciting!  This meal was very tasty and it was fun to see how much we could eat for so little money.  It is possible to feed a family of seven good, filling food on a tight budget.

Previous posts on eating for less challenge:

Day 1

Day 2

 

Eating for less challenge: Day 2 ~

Tonight’s Meal:

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo with rice, collard greens, rolls, and apple crisp

Total Estimated Cost:

Approximately $8.00 or about $1.14 per person in our seven person family 

I seriously feel like I cheated on this meal.  You see, my gumbo was made from…

{ a mix }

That’s right!  This daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of Cajun French ancestors is not able to make homemade gumbo!   Honestly, I am seriously afraid of messing with anything requiring me to make a roux.  So I do the next best thing.  I buy the best gumbo mix that I’ve ever found:  Louisiana Brand! 

It is affordable at about $1.50 a mix (at Kroger) and it is yummy!  The only bad thing is that it has MSG in it.  I try to avoid MSG as much as possible but my family loves gumbo and they love this mix.  Maybe one day, I’ll venture into the making of my own gumbo.  (I know you can buy premade roux too but the one I saw was by this same company so I’m betting that it probably has MSG in it too.)

~ The Breakdown ~

~Chicken and Sausage Gumbo over rice~

• 1/2 of chicken from last night and broth from bones  $1.00
• gumbo mix   $1.50
• sausage  $1.50
• 6 cups cooked white rice  50 cents =

$ 4. 50 (plus leftovers for lunch tomorrow)

Considering that a bowl  of gumbo for one person would cost more than $4.50 in a restaurant, I think this is a good price. 

One thing I do while cooking for my family is to try to stretch food as far as possible without losing the taste.  For instance, this gumbo mix calls for 2 quarts of broth.  I actually make it with 3 quarts of broth and the taste is just as good.  My family tends to add file ( pronounced fee – lay) and hot sauce to it so no one is any wiser that it may be a bit diluted!   (I honestly don’t think it tastes any different with the extra quart of broth.)

Since I was using chicken and sausage in this meal, I decided to only use half of the chicken from last night and save the other half for another meal. 

This meal is also one where I sneak in brown rice for my white rice loving family.  However, I was short on time tonight so I went with white rice. 

 This morning, I put all of those chicken bones in a stock pot with a little onion, covered it with water, and added 2 tablespoons of vinegar.  This simmered most of the day and made our chicken broth for tonight’s meal and some went into the freezer for a future meal.  (Strain and discard bones before using.  Read about why I put vinegar into my stock here.)

~ Collard greens ~

• collard greens – free from the garden
• 2 slices of bacon -  about 36 cents
• chicken base -  a few cents

total:  40 cents

I like to have at least one vegetable at each meal.  Gumbo is a hard meal to pair a with a vegetable dish.  My mom says that they always grew up eating potato salad with their gumbo in South Louisiana.  When we eat gumbo with her, we have potato salad.  And it is good but I decided since I had collard greens in the garden, they would be a good one for tonight.  They were yum-o!

 I keep this chicken base in my frig for seasoning veggies and soups.  It was less than $4.00 at Sam’s Club.  I’ve used another brand that I got at the grocery store but it was a lot smaller and cost about $3.00 more.

~Homemade Rolls~

I really don’t have the time to figure out the cost of all of the ingredients in our rolls so I’m going to say about $1.00.  {though I think it may be less}

total:  $1.00

*I’ll have to share that recipe later because it is a good one.  Right now,  it is late and I need to get to bed so be on the lookout for that recipe.  It is the best roll recipe I’ve found.

~Apple Crisp~

• 2 pounds of apples at 79 cents a pound = $1.58
• other ingredients = a few cents

total:  $ 1. 80 ish

Meal total:  $ 8.00  (actual $7.70)

Final thoughts on Day 2 of challenge:

I have to be honest.  Today was a hard day for me money-wise.  There are some days when I don’t mind at all watching every nickel and dime but there are days that I wish that I didn’t have to do it.  I just want to be honest here.  I am not always joyfully frugal!

I know that this meal cost a little more than last night’s meal but it was a lot of food and it will be another meal tomorrow at lunch.  And I was able to put some broth in the freezer for another meal in the future!  All of that for $8.00 sounds like a pretty good deal to me. 

 

Eating for less challenge: Day 1 ~

 Tonight’s Meal:

Roasted Chicken, Oven roasted potatoes, Green Beans, Cornbread, and fresh pineapple & banana fruit salad

Total Estimated Cost:

Approximately $ 6.00 (give or take) or about 86 cents per person in our seven person family*

This meal is definitely not the most colorful meal in the world but it is a family favorite around here.  After the meal, I heard two people say, “That was really good”.   One child commented, “I am full” after he had cleaned every bit of food from his plate.  Two people went back for cornbread seconds and one went back for extra chicken – twice!  Even though we didn’t have a rainbow of colors at this meal, we did have full bellies! 

* Before I share the costs & recipes, I need to explain a bit how I calculated the cost.  Since it is about impossible for me to calculate the cost of my staple pantry items such as flour, corn meal, sugar, oil, eggs, etc., I have just simply rounded up the known costs of the main meal items to the nearest dollar.  After figuring that my flour probably cost about 10 cents a cup {I bought some on sale this past weekend.  I believe it was $1.25 a bag.}, I decided that trying to figure out the exact costs of my staple items & spices would be a bit time consuming.  I still believe without every exact nickel and dime that these prices will closely reflect how much I spent on these foods. 

~The Breakdown~

~Roasted Chicken ~

* recipe below

Chickens were on sale this weekend at Kroger for 49 cents a pound.  At another local store, they were 69 cents a pound.  Even when whole chickens are not on sale, they are still a good buy for us.  The most a chicken costs us is about $ 5 – $6.  However, at 49 cents a pound these 4 pound chickens were $1.96 each.  We cooked both chickens tonight but our family only ate one chicken.  The other chicken was deboned and the meat will be used for another meal.  The bones were also saved to make broth in the morning. 

I do realize that these chickens are not organic.  As much as I would love to feed my family organic meats, it is not in the budget right now.  Hopefully one day we will eat organic meats but for now, I just try to fill their bellies the best way that I can.

Estimated cost of one chicken:

$ 2.00  (actual: $1.96)

~Side Dishes~

Side dishes are the secret to making this meal work.  Since there will not be large amounts of chicken for everyone, the side dishes are what help to round out the meal and make the family feel satisfied. 

~Oven-roasted potatoes~

Estimated cost:

3 pounds at 60 cents a pound = $2.00  (actual: $ 1.80)

~ Green beans seasoned with bacon ~

Estimated cost:

• 2 slices of bacon at 36 cents
• 1/2 bag of frozen green beans at 63 cents
• green beans from the garden (free) =

$1.00 (actual:  99 cents)

~Cornbread ~

I did not figure the cost of the cornbread.  One, all of the ingredients came from my pantry.  Two, the cost of most of the ingredients is just mere cents so I’ve rounded the cost of the other items up in order to reflect the cost of the cornbread.   Maybe one day, I’ll find some time and compute the price.  {smile}

~ Pineapple & banana fruit salad ~

Pineapples were on sale this weekend for 94 cents each.  The banana was just a few cents. 

Estimated cost:

$1.00 (actual:  94 cents + a few)

~ The recipes~

Roasted Chicken

• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 2 tsp paprika ( I was out but I like to add for color)
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1 roasting chicken
• olive oil

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl except the onion and chicken.  Wash and dry chicken.  Place spices under the skin and push it under the skin with a wooden spoon.  (This gives a lot of flavor to the meat.)  Place leftover spices inside of the chicken and rub onto the skin.  Also, put chopped onion inside the chicken.  Place chicken breast side down into a roasting pan.  Sprinkle with olive oil and bake at 350 degrees until done.  (Usually about 2 hours, give or take.  Check to make sure that the juices run clear.)  This recipe does well in a crockpot also.

Oven roasted potatoes

This is a very simple recipe but my kids love it.  Scrub and cut potatoes.  Place into an oven safe dish.  Sprinkle with spices and stir.  (We used salt, pepper, and seasoned salt.)  Place a few pats of butter on top of the potatoes and bake in a 350 degree oven until ready.  We’ve also made these in a microwave but would stir the potatoes every five minutes until ready.

Cornbread

We like sweet cornbread in our family so this recipe has sugar.  I’m tempted to try this with honey instead of sugar one day but this recipe works so well that I’m afraid to mess up a good thing!

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup corn meal
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. cooking oil
• 1 1/2 cup milk

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl.  Pour into a baking dish.  (I love to use cast iron for cornbread but mine needs to be seasoned.)  Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.  Be careful to not overcook. 

Final Thoughts on Day 1 of eat for less challenge:

My family (including older children) was impressed when I told them the cost of the meal.  They even commented how they enjoyed this 6 dollar meal much more than a $30 dollar meal from McDonald’s.  That made my day!  My husband also thanked me for working so hard to lower the cost of our food budget.  My family blessed me tonight with their appreciation and thankfulness.  That definitely makes the extra work of sticking to a food budget worth it.  See you tomorrow night with meals for day 2. 

 

Monday Miscellaneous {saving money, a challenge, a girl & her cats, and a weigh-in}

My mind is all over the place on this rainy Monday morning, so this post is just an extension of my thoughts right now.  Of course, I’ve got to throw in a few totally random but cute pictures of my Sunshine Girl, Max, and her stuffed kitty named Gracie. 

Saving money on groceries ~

I’ve had a few questions lately asking how I save money on groceries.   The grocery budget is probably the area where our family can save the most money.  Here lately, I’ve started shopping a new way by only buying things on sale and stocking up on loss leaders and good deals.  After that, I sit and plan meals using only the items that I have on hand.  It’s a little different than what I’m used to doing {making a menu and then shopping} but it has been working for us and we are saving a little more money.  I’m still in the planning stage for this week which leads me to…

The challenge ~

This week I have challenged myself to planning meals using only the items from our pantry, freezer, current shopping trip, and our fall garden.  No trips will be allowed for that “quick” run to the store to get a little this & a little that {which leads to a little bit more money spent here & there}.  Every evening, I am going to post our evening meal including the price of the meal and recipes. 

Hopefully, it will show that a large family can eat well on a budget.  I’ve talked with some people who thought that a large family could only eat things like canned ravioli and spaghettios on a budget.  However, our family does not eat many convenience foods but filling, healthy meals.  Anyway, I thought that perhaps a challenge for myself that I would be posting on the blog would help hold me more accountable and help answer questions that I’ve been asked.

So be on the look out for my first post about our evening meals based on loss leaders and the pantry tonight!

A weigh-in ~

A facebook friend recently posted a quote that went something like this:  “We can not continue to do the same things and expect new results.”   Hence, I should not be surprised by this week’s weigh in.  I am doing nothing new.  Sure, there a little tweaks here and there such as less soda, more whole grains, less sugar, more vegetables etc.  But to truly lose weight, I am going to have to make major changes.  Sometimes I wonder if I am really serious about my health.  It’s frustrating, I tell you!  Anyway, this week’s weigh-in:

I did not lose or gain any weight. 

At least,  I didn’t gain…right?  {sigh}

 Look at those cheeks!

A girl and her cats ~

I walked by the front door the other day to see Sunshine Girl sitting on the porch petting Max while holding her new stuffed kitty cat, Gracie.  I had to go out and take a few pictures of my precious girl surrounded by her lovies and  fallen leaves.

My girl sure is growing up quickly! 

Have a blessed Monday! 

 

The Tightwad Gazette challenge ~

Lest you think that my silence means that I have abandoned my Tightwad Gazette challenge, I need to tell you that it does not.  Actually in my silence there has been a lot of tightwadery (is that a word?) going on!

After living a frugal lifestyle for many years, it is hard for me to find a lot of new ideas in The Tightwad Gazette (TTG).  Oh, I do find some but they are usually things that I all ready do or things that I wouldn’t do. 

The main thing that I get from rereading TTG is to look for ways to save money.  I realize that I need to look at things differently, think outside of the box, and see if it saves us money. 

Here are a few of the new things that we’ve done over this past month:

• Made a spending plan.

This one is such a no-brainer and yet so hard to do.  Well, making the plan is not hard but actually sticking to the plan is the hard part.

Good places to look for ideas on creating a spending plan are:

We have both of these books in our home library and they offer sound financial advice.

• Made a debt repayment plan.

A few years ago, we had reached our goal of eliminating our unsecured debt.  Then with David’s layoff and our reduced income, we created new debt for ourselves.  Trust me, we kick ourselves over this all the time.  I guess we needed to learn the same lesson, twice.  So we have worked to create a plan that would allow us to snowball our payments and gave us a debt payoff deadline.  (David created a spreadsheet on Excel that figured in interest and everything. ) Then we decided to shorten the payoff time by increasing payments on one our cards.  As much as I hate that we’ve created this debt mess again, it does help to know that there is an end in sight.  By the way, both of the books above will help you create a debt payoff plan.

• Changed the way that we shop for groceries and menu plan.

I have always made a plan, calculated the estimated cost, and then worked on the list until it met our budgeted cost.  And it often seemed like we didn’t have enough food. 

So we changed it up a bit.  Now, I use my budgeted money and shop looking for sales & buying in bulk.  Then I sit down and make a menu using what I have.  It may seem like this didn’t save us money because I actually spent the same amount.  However, it has seemed like we’ve gotten more food for our money.  Making the food stretch for two weeks because I was able to buy more saved us money because we don’t whip out the plastic to buy more food.  (See there’s those pesky credit cards again!  I really need to freeze them or cut them up!)

 ~ This is a little sneak peek at an upcoming blog post. ~

• Make do, make it yourself, or do without.

I realize that the saying doesn’t go quite like that.  However, it is helpful anyway.  If you need something, you either make do, make it for yourself, or do without. 

I often choose to make it for myself if I can.  Every year, we go to our church’s fall festival.  Usually, we wear costumes but decided not to spend the money this year.  I had some t-shirts from a project last winter and a gift card to a craft store.  So I chose to make my little ones some appliqued shirts.  I learned this from my friend, Salinda, who teaches sewing classes.  I think that they came out very cute and I only spent a little bit of money on them because I used a gift card and shirts that I had on hand.  (I had to buy little man’s shirt.)  I meant to calculate how much I spent and how much I saved but teaching pre-algebra to my 7th grader leaves me feeling like I’ve met my math quota lately.  {wink}

Little Man had a candy corn in his pocket.

And not to leave Sunshine Girl out…

• Learned a new skill. 

Aside from learning how to applique (which I learned last spring), I also taught myself to make these cute flower barettes for the girls. Ok, I’ll admit, they are not hard at all.  My two-year-old son could probably do it.  However, they cost very little money since the flowers were 50% off at the craft store and they are super incredibly cute.

According to my estimates, these cost me less than two dollars to make.  I’m serious when I say they are cute too. 

 So my tightwad days are not over.  Actually, I’m delving deeper into the tightwad ways and the book as we approach Christmas.  More on that soon…

 

A month of The Tightwad Gazette~

Last week, I mentioned that I would be reading through The Tightwad Gazette for inspiration and ideas as we try to live more frugally.  This past week, I spent my afternoons outside amidst playing children and reread the first section of The Tightwad Gazette (TG).  I had planned to find one tip to use in our home this past week.  Well, instead of that, I was inspired by other points that the author, Amy Dacyczyn, made.  Here area  few of the things that I took away with me:

• Living frugally is like losing weight, you all ready know what you need to do.  (This is so true.)
• In order to save money, you need to spend fewer dollars.  (Again, very true and yet sometimes quite a struggle.)
• Amy Dacyczyn lists three basic ways to save:
• Buy it cheaper
• Make it last longer
• Use it less

I completely agree with what she has said here.  I do know how to save money.  Honestly, we live very closely according to the three ways that she suggests to save.  Of course, she makes many suggestions as to how to save in the book too.  Some of these were things that we all ready do and some were not really feasible for us.  (So far at least…I still have much to read.)

 A garden helps save on the grocery budget

The greatest way for our family to save money right now is through our grocery budget.  We are a larger than normal family so we need more food than the average family.  I think we do an okay job with our food budget but I am always on a quest to see if I can spend less.  I honestly don’t have time to make coupons worth my time.  Some people do an awesome job with coupons but for me, they don’t make much of a difference. 

But one suggestion the author made that may work for us is a Price Book.  (To see more about price books, click the link.)    Often, I visit stores that have the best sales and a price book would help me to see if it is worth my money to buy other staple items there.   Sometimes, David and I will try to remember where we can get the cheapest milk, or eggs, etc.  A price book would help us to know that and plan our trips accordingly. 

There are other ways to save on the grocery budget but that’s a whole post in itself.

This week, we did save some money and it was not by us gleaning a new tip for the TG.  One of the biggest ways that we save money is this:

We do it ourselves.

On Monday, we had a pipe burst.  This is David under the house fixing the pipe.  (And one of his five little helpers.)  David doing this saved us a lot of money.  And we should know, two years ago, we had major plumbing work that we could not do and it costs us thousands of dollars.  No telling how much we saved with this job that David did.  Of course, if the job were too big we would have called the plumbers but I’m glad that Dave could handle it. 

I realize that I didn’t have any big tips to share from The Tightwad Gazette.  All the same, the book is very inspiring for living a frugal lifestyle. 

Next week, I hope to share some things from the Winter section especially as Christmas is approaching and that is the time of the year when it is easy to overspend and bust a budget. 

I’m over at the homeschool blog…

I am supposed to have a Tightwad Tuesday Tip posts today since it is Tuesday but it is just not ready yet.  And part of the reason for that is that I am trying to catch up on the homeschool blog.  I have been about 2 – 3 (or more weeks) behind on our weekly posts. 

So today, I am at the homeschool blog writing about our homeschool highlights, teaching with toddlers & preschoolers, and our artist study of Van Gogh. 

And the Tightwad Tuesday Tip post will be posted on Wednesday.  :)

Are you a tightwad?

I realize that most people prefer terms like “frugal” or “penny-pincher” as opposed to “tightwad”.  However, this the word that launched our journey into the world of frugal living. 

In the year 2001, I left my job as an elementary teacher and our income was cut completely in half.  The search began for resources to show us how to make the changes we needed to make in order to live on our new income so I could be at home with my children. 

That’s when I found the book, The Tightwad Gazette.  I originally read it in the library but decided that it was one that I needed to make a part of my home library.   This book has been referenced many times over the years.

Also over the years, our family has been blessed with increases of income (and increases of children :).  And as many who experience pay increases, we increased our spending and decreased our frugal ways. 

But what we didn’t foresee was a layoff due to cutbacks at my husband’s work.  We are one of those families affected by the slumping economy. 

And even though my husband is currently employed again, we have a wave of debt that can happen when you are not prepared for something like a layoff.  

In an effort to help our family make it during these tough times, I pulled my old copy of The Tightwad Gazette off of the shelf again.  After reading the foreword by the author, Amy Dacyczyn, I went from feeling sorry for myself for having to be “frugal” to being inspired and well…fired up to get to live a frugal lifestyle.

I decided to challenge myself.  For the month of October (and probably longer), I am going to reread The Tightwad Gazette and add one new frugal life change a week.  Not only that, I will be trying to learn one new skill a month that will help our family to save money.   My plan is to document and share that with you on Tuesdays on my blog. 

And look what the first section of the book is:

How’s that for good timing? 

I’d love to hear from you too!  I love to visit blogs on frugality (just don’t have time to link to them right now).  And I love to hear new tips.  I hope that as I share each week that you all will share with me too! 

 

Our Journey to Frugal Living and Back Again

Seven years ago, I was in my eighth year of teaching at an elementary school.  At the time I had two little boys and was longing to be home with them.  It truly seemed like an impossible task with me bringing home over half of the household income. 

Then September 11 happened.  I remember that day that as I stood in the hall and another teacher told me about what had happened, all I wanted to do was grab my children and run home.  That was the day that David and I decided we would make my being at home a reality.  We realized life was just too short to keep dreaming dreams and never work towards making them happen.

So in May of 2002, I left the elementary school with a trailer loaded with eight years of teaching materials (and you know how teachers can collect things :) and headed home to be just a mommy.  It was great but very scary because we were losing half of our income and we could not make our budget work on paper!  But for the first time in many years, I felt peace.  True peace that I can not explain.

I had been reading websites and books and anything that I could get my hands on that dealt with frugal living.  We made changes…BIG changes and learned to do with out.  It was a journey paved with sacrifices.  But we were living better on the money we had at this point than we were on the money we made when we had double the income.  (I hope that made sense!)  Somehow, in our times of less, we had more! 

Over the last seven years, God has blessed us… our income and our family have grown.  We have lived well on our income that has actually still not reached the level that we were at when we both worked.  We have been able to pay off debt.  But we started to lose sight of the frugal lifestyle that we were living.  We started to pick back up some of the bad habits we had let go of as we were trying to save money.

Then last year, we had the dreaded news that my husband was going to be laid off.  I’m so thankful that we had an advance notice that it was going to happen.  We were able to get some of our bills paid off and change some habits.  I wish that I could say that we had been completely wise over this past year but we were a little naive that it would be easy to find a job and we would have a cushion with the severance pay.

Today, my husband was offered a new job.  In God’s perfect timing, we were given a job right as our severance pay was about to run out.  However, this is a new journey for us as this pay is a lot less than our former income.  Once again, I am poring over websites and my copy of The Tightwad Gazette.  This time I’ve added Dave Ramsey to the list of debt free living/frugal living resources. We will once again be making big changes and turning it all over to God as we walk down a new path of frugal living.

All pictures taken at one of favorite frugal family activities – visiting the local Air Force Base and going to the air show.  Both activities are free.  The food at the air show on the other hand…not so much! 

Other books that have helped me over the years:

Miserly Moms

You Can Afford to Stay Home with Your Kids