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I am so excited about all the stuff I want to try making from scratch

I have recently found a couple of amazing blogs that have tons of things I want to try on them and I love that they are real ingredients not boxed or processed stuff for the most part. I want to make my own stuff from scratch as much as possible. When I look at prices it just confirms for me that it's worth it. This one makes some complicated stuff but also some stuff like hot fudge sauce and chocolate syrup from scratch http://annies-eats.com/. Can't wait to try those and the homemade taco seasoning her her page. :) I also found this one http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/ and can't wait to try some of her homemade breads and dishes like slow cooker baked beans. YUM

Now to hunt down a real recipe for homemade chili beans and angel food cake.

I also love www.pinterest.com and all the great things I get from my friends posting their finds on there! 

I hope everyone can find some new things to try and save yourself some money and cut down on the preservatives and salt that are in your diet from the processed stuff.

Cooking beans from scratch

Every time I use a can of beans I realize how much the price has gone up. Beans are a great source of healthy fat free protein. Canned beans are not only expensive but come with a lot of stuff in them I would rather do without like salt. So I decided to try cooking my own from dried beans. I dumped a couple of bags into the crockpot and added water. I turned it onto high and 4 hours later I had beans ready to go. If I had realized it was that easy I would have done it much sooner. :) I cooked 3lbs of dried beans and bagged up 11 cans worth. I spent $3.34 on the beans because I bought one little bag for $1.25 and one big bag for $2.09 and threw them both in together. Meijer recently had a can of black beans on sale for 69 cents. Eleven cans would have cost me $7.59 so for about 10 minutes worth of work they are ready to go in the freezer.  Oh and the pot didn't even have to be soaked I used a nice green scrubber and it was off in seconds. I am currently making some great northern beans and plan to try my hand at making my own chili beans as soon as I pick up some beans since I must have used the last bag of pinto beans making refried beans. Give it a try you won't regret it.

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Saving money without coupons

I know a lot of people struggle with using coupons. They don't have easy access to them or their stores don't have great coupon policies. I wanted to remind people there are still ways to save money.

My goal is to not pay full price for anything. I know that is not always possible but with a little planning ahead you can make it happen. For groceries and home products I start with the sale ads each week. I know what a good sale price is on most items and can usually tell you off the top of my head if it's a good price or not. To start doing this you can make a price book that tells you what something normally sells for and what the sale prices are. That way you have something to check to see if it's a good price or not. I go through the ads and make my grocery list from that. Rarely to I make a list based on what we need. Some times you do have to do that but around here it is rare because I do stock up on stuff when it's on sale and we don't use a lot of milk or anything like that. If I did I would be buying it from Aldi because that is the best place to buy things if you don't have a sale and a coupon.

This week I picked up bone in Chicken breast for 99 cents a pound which is my stock up price. I got 3 packs that each has 2 breasts in it. I brought them home, pulled off the skin, and threw it all into my crockpot with some water. Once they were cooked they pull apart super easy and you can discard the bones and fat. Then I separate it all into meal size servings and freeze it. So I have my chicken all ready for dinner that I got for the best price possible. Saves me both time and money. Took about 10 minutes of my time to put in the crockpot and then to pull it off the bones and bag it once it came out. Now I just  have to pull it out any time I need some. :)

I also bought a bunch of apples for 59 cents a pound and have been using them for all sorts of fun stuff. Today I made homemade applesauce in the crockpot. YUM I want to try making apple chips soon. My son loves those. Yesterday I was lucky enough to pick up a big bag of overripe pears for $2 and made them into pear sauce. That was pretty yummy too. I even froze some of the applesauce for later.

I always check the markdown shelves especially the produce one at Meijer. They often have great things that sometimes are not even bad but the rest of the package that they had been in was. So I get the good stuff at a nice reduced rate. :) Saves me a lot of money and we get fresh fruit and veggies. A lot of it I freeze for later use. Beats the price of buying the stuff that is already frozen too.

I also make my own bread with the help of a bread maker. My own pizza dough also with the help of the bread maker. Dough freezes well too so you can make it and put it in the freezer for later. Or bake the bread and freeze it for later. :) I love cooking things ahead and being about to just pull them out of the freezer when I am ready for them. Taking a little extra time or even just adding extra to whatever you are cooking can save you time on the those busy nights and you won't be tempted to get fast food if you have yummy food in the freezer ready to go.

My other favorite thing is making a huge pot of refried beans. For less than $3 I can make a huge crockpot full of them. Then I take tortillas and cheese and make up burritos and freeze them. They are then ready for my husband to just grab and go for his lunches. Another thing I do for his lunches is make extra of our dinner so he can take that as well. He is the envy of his office because his wife packs him a lunch with homemade food in it. :)

So think outside the box when it comes to saving money. Extreme couponing is making it harder and harder to use coupons so I need to do all I can to keep saving money. :)

Paying me to shop

Yes, I do some mystery shopping but that's not actually what I am talking about. I love when I can go into a store and get a lot of great stuff and have them actually give me money back for shopping. :) Staples was good to me this week.

Kroger 7-18-2011

7 boxes of Crayola Crayons on sale for 25 cents each

5 Notebooks on sale for 15 cents each

From the buy $10 get $5 off sale

3 boxes of Kleenex on sale for 99 cents each used a .50/3 coupon that doubled so 66 cents each

3 cans of Pringles on sale for 99 cents used $1/3 coupon 66 cents each

1 thing of floss and one flosser on sale for 99 and $1.49 used a $2.50 off coupon 2 cent MM

2 tubes of toothpaste on sale for 99 cents each used 2 .75/1 coupons 24 cents each

Swim mask ½ off $1.49

Goggles ½ off $2.49

Loaf of bread on markdown for $1

Loaf of French bread on markdown for 79

12 pack of coke $3.34

Not pictured ½ pound of Chicken pasta salad $3.12

Spent $19.09 Saved over $37.02 or 67% 

Walmart 7-19-11

2 Footballs to send to the orphans in the Ukraine $5.79 each

8 containers of Yogurt 58 cents each used 2 $1/4 coupons 33 cents each

2 boxes of Lipton soup $1.28 used 2 $1/1 coupons 28 cents each

4 packages of Thai spice flavored peanuts 25 cents each

2 can black beans 66 cents each

Tummy Tickler $1.97

Spent $19.09 saved $4 with coupons no idea how much the peanuts used to be

 

Aldi

Bananas 44 cents a pound

Romaine Lettuce Hearts $2.49

Instant Oatmeal $1.39

Graham Crackers $1.19 each

Strawberries 99 cents

Popcorn $1.49 for a box of 6

dozen eggs 89 cents each

Spent $14.45 I love that there is still a place I can go and get great prices and not worry about coupons. Now I always love a good sale and coupons but Aldi is awesome!

Staples

2 reams of paper $5.99 each rebate of $4.99 each

1 pack of Pentel pens $4 with $4 rebate

1 pack photo paper $9.99 with a $9.49 rebate 50 cents

2 packs of pencils 1 cent each

2 packs of index cards 1 cent each

I also used a $5 reward they sent me to pay

$22.27 spent I will get $23.47 back in rebates which means I made $1.20 shopping there today.