Contentment is a choice

Love this post by Money Saving Mom.

Cash4Books

Today, I stumbled upon a great site that is helpful for a little extra cash if you have a lot of books laying around. You can enter in an ISBN, and they will tell you if they will buy it and for how much. They pay shipping, and they will either ship you labels (if you don't have a printer) or you can print the label at home. You ship them the books, they look over them, and then they either send you a check or deposit the $ in your PayPal account.

I did quickly find out that they aren't really interested in most novels, unless they are brand new. My new copy of Eat, Pray, Love only garnered about $.88...and I swiftly denied that one. No thanks. I would like to get my $15 worth of reading first.

However, a bunch of old textbooks and classics that were lying around brought us in close to $60. Not bad for something that was just taking up space anyway. :D

The website is www.cash4books.net.

Discount grocery stores

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a little goldmine in our town in a little non-descript little building called "Markdown Market." I had heard about discount grocery stores that buy out overstocked and damaged goods, but I didn't think we had one. Well...we do. It's tiny. But it's awesome.

If you have one in your city, I highly, highly recommend checking it out. Ours is tiny, but it's a fantastic resource for basic pantry items. The inventory varies, but I can always count on it for cereal, rice, granola bars, and basic pantry staples (spices, flour, sugar, cake mixes, etc). And it's a bit like a treasure hunt because you never know what cool thing they just got in on a cool shipment. Last time, I snagged two bottles of my favorite name-brand laundry detergent for $2.99/bottle (usually $4.99-5.99 at Wal-mart). Today, I found ranch style beans (a rare find) for about $.45/can. It's a great way to stock up your pantry, and, for us, a neat way to experiment (I just bought a new marinade today to see if we'll like it) and indulge (hello $1 box of poptarts...).

You do have to be careful at these stores. I usually set a specific limit that I won't go over. Just because it's a good deal doesn't mean that it's okay to go over your budget. I look carefully for things that save us money and also help bulk up our pantry (like the $.50 bags of rice or HUGE containers of chicken bouillon.)

I'm pretty pleased with my haul today. I got enough breakfast stuff to last us for the month of January (cereal, oatmeal, poptarts, muffin mixes), some bouillon, different kinds of beans, quite a bit of rice, gravy mixes, some brownie and cake mixes, and much more. This will definitely help my "eat from the pantry " push next month.

Sundays

"Sundays?" you say. "What on earth does that have to do with frugality?" you might ask.

A lot. Especially if you're Apostolic. And especially if you're us on Sundays.

I'll be brutally honest. If we have the money in our budget, we are so going out to eat on Sundays. And, no matter how careful I am with our money, no matter how much more frugal I get, we will always go out to eat on Sundays if we have money in our budget.

In fact, this is the one area that I've been known to let slide...and we've often gone out to eat on Sundays even when we didn't have money in the budget. And that's no bueno. And why we're here.

Why you ask? Well, frankly, Sundays are exhausting around here. By the time we've made it through two rocking services, two separate choir practices, musicians' practice, Sunday school, etc etc, I do.not.want.to.cook. I love, love, love Sundays. They are awesome. But they are exhausting. Our few hours between services are precious...and sometimes non-existent. And the last thing I want to do is cook and clean up. So, if we can eat out...we do. My attitude is shared by many, and it's usually a great time of fellowship.

But that doesn't always work financially. So. My current challenge is to find ways to minimize cooking on days when eating out is not in the budget.

Sometimes, I mix up a shepherd's pie the night before so all I have to do is pop it in the oven when we get home. Or we have a meat of some sort that J can grill while I throw together some easy sides. Or tacos...which take about 10 minutes flat. They still require cooking and clean-up, but, thankfully, it's minimal.

Regardless of what we do, planning ahead is key.

Family Feasts

One rule that we have in our house is that Christmas and birthday $ is considered off-limits, budget-wise. We each spend our individual money at our own discretion; joint gifts are spent on fun stuff. Our budget is currently so tight that cutting fun stuff goes without question...which means we are really, really cheesed at Christmas and our birthdays.

That said, I did buy this with some of my Christmas $ this year:I've been following this author's blog -- Owlhaven -- for awhile now; in fact, the cheddar turkey casserole I posted a couple days back came from a link from her blog. I love her practical frugality, and I'm excited to see what I learn from her book. The title is a bit misleading; the $75 is meant for a family of four. It's not really the figure I'm concerned about, but the tips and recipes. :D

Angel Food Ministries

If your food budget is very, very tight...check out Angel Food Ministries. Every month, you can choose from a variety of boxes to suit your family's needs, and you end up paying roughly half of what you would pay in a regular grocery store. The main box (the Bread of Life box) is intended to feed a family of four for a week, and it only costs $31. It's an excellent deal, and the food is of good quality and relatively healthy.

Check it out!

Holiday leftovers?

If you're looking for something to do with all of that leftover turkey, check out this recipe.

Since there are only two of us, I halved the recipe...and put everything in one 8x8 dish. It was deep, but it fit okay. I also eliminated the peas/carrots/bacon. Next time, I think I will make two pans and freeze one, though, because it was a major hit. There are no leftovers, thanks to DH's snack after church....

It's easy, it uses leftovers, and it's super cheap to make. It's a winner in my book!

The dilemma of leftovers

Leftovers.

Ideally, these are a frugal person's friend, right? Meh...not so much, I've found.

When we first got married, I would try a new recipe, and, since every recipe is usually geared toward at least families of four, we would have tons of leftovers. I would dutifully pack them in the fridge...and then, a couple weeks later, just as dutifully toss them. The waste was crazy! As tired as I was of trying to figure out what to fix for dinner every night, neither of us was really fond of leftovers. And, even when I said leftovers would be the main course, we always seemed to favor Taco Bell...

So, over the past year or so, I've worked on solving the leftover dilemma. My solution is multi-faceted:

Be realistic about leftovers.
I usually put leftovers in the refrigerator once. If they get eaten, they get moved to my invisible "leftover" list. This list is very, very small and includes taco meat and pizza.

Use the freezer.
Some things freeze well. Some things don't. I fully admit that this takes some trial and error. Do your research. I always freeze my spaghetti sauce. One jar is always two meals for us. I serve dinner and scoop the rest into a ziploc baggie. Easy peasy.

Halve the recipe.
If it doesn't freeze well...you can't eat all of it...and you don't touch the leftovers, split that sucker in half. Instead of making a casserole in a 9x13 dish, halve the ingredients and put it in an 8x8 dish. For two people, that is a great size. Usually, when I buy garlic bread, I split it in half and only bake half. I put the rest in the freezer for next time.

Be creative.
I found out that leftover roast makes great beef and noodles. I'll often warm up leftover veggies and bread from one meal and serve it at the next. Leftover turkey and ham also go a looong way in this house.

Meal planning

This is one of the biggest ways I have learned to save both time and money this year....not to mention sanity! Every two weeks, I sit down with the sales, my little meal planning book, and my planner...and I plan my grocery shopping list and meals for the next couple of weeks. First, I check out the sales and see if there's anything spectacularly on sale that will influence my meal planning. I add those items and basic necessities to my shopping list. Then, I look at my master dinner list, the remaining $ left in my grocery budget for the week, and then I juggle, juggle, juggle away. :)

When I'm done (and lots of scribbles made to my lists), I have a complete grocery list for multiple stores and a meal plan for the next two weeks. I usually write down my meals in my meal planning book and then transfer them to my planner. That way, I can choose meals that best fit our schedule...but I also have a record of what I have made for the past few weeks.

Eat from your pantry

I may not be posting too much over the next couple of weeks, but, starting January 1, I will be posting about our own version of Eat From Your Pantry.

I will be posting weekly menus, recipes, and deals that I have found with my very small budget. I have allowed myself between $35-50 for the month for a few basic necessities. We'll make do for the rest. :)

Our freezer and pantry are unusually well-stocked thanks to a Christmas gift of a meat bundle and some excellent Christmas sales, so, while it'll be a challenge, it shouldn't be too horrible. :) I think we'll learn a lot about creativity and gratitude during January. ;)

Welcome!

Welcome to my newest brainchild: Mere Frugality. Obviously, the title is a word play off of one of my favorite authors...and, even, more obviously, the blog is about frugality. Yup. I thrive on the obvious. :)

Ever since the start of our marriage, I have sought to find ways to fine-tune our budget and learn to best handle the few resources we have. Life circumstances have forced us to be frugal far beyond our comfort zone, and it has been my goal the past few months to learn how to cut corners the best way possible. Due to some personal circumstances, our already tight budget just took a 75% cut. Yup. It's gonna hurt.

However, I won't dwell on that. The point is that there are parts of frugality that are, actually, kind of fun. What I've learned during tough times will hopefully actually help us when we get on our feet enough to start tackling our debt and our dreams.

So...here we go. This blog is mostly for me, but anyone is welcome to follow along and get some ideas.