Eat from your pantry week 3

Verdict: We are very, very bored with rice...and running low on a bunch of basic staples. And sad due to the lack of munchies. So, when my MIL showed up with said munchies and staples at the beginning of week 3, I was SO not going to say no just to be loyal to Eat from Your Pantry. Just sayin'.

Monday: Didn't cook...MIL took DH out. I think I had cheese and crackers. (No, she is not sadistic; I had to stay home for my Bible class. ;) )
Tuesday: Beef tips over rice*/mixed veggies
Wednesday: Hearty Black Bean Chili**/bread
Thursday: DH worked...we scrounged
Friday: Repeat of Thursday
Saturday: Repeat of Thursday and Friday.
Sunday: Steak (from MIL), salad (MIL), and rice-a-roni

*Stew meat with water and marinade that I stuck in the crockpot all day. I added gravy mix, some flour, and some water to thicken it.
**I didn't use tomatoes and only used half of the tomato sauce. We are not big tomato fans.

Frugality does NOT equal boring

One of my fears when beginning this Eat from Your Pantry kick was that our food would get boring fast. I had stocked up on a lot of staples, but all of our "fun" food went fast.

And, yes, it's true that we may never want to eat rice and beans again after this kick is over...

...but I actually have found that it has challenged me to find new recipes and push me extensively in the kitchen. Since we've started buying the boxes from Angelfood ministries, I've suddenly had some extra things that I don't usually have, so it's inspired me to change things up a bit...and the same thing has happened with my excursions to our bent and dent store.

Lately, I've been eyeing the odd ingredient that I don't know what to make with and hitting up my trusty internet sites and cookbooks and coming up with some great new recipes. The other night, I was paging through my soup cookbook for something to use the cans of black beans I had found and happened upon a great, unusual soup recipe with hamburger, chicken, and black beans. The ingredients were pretty basic, so I tried it out...and it was a huge it.

I'm trying at least one new recipe a week. It's been great!

Eat from your Pantry Week 2

Last week's meal plan was nothing too spectacular, thanks to J's work schedule, a full day of church events, and my mom's birthday.

Sunday: steak, carrots, ranch style beans
Monday: Mom's birthday (dinner at my grandmother's house)
Tuesday: J worked...leftovers for us
Wednesday: J worked...leftovers
Thursday: Artichoke chicken (I left out the mushrooms and substituted oregano for rosemary)
Friday: Chicken nuggets and fries
Saturday: J worked...church events for me

I did go to the store on Saturday and spent around $15....bringing my total for the month to around $45. I picked up milk, cheese, eggs, and a few basic necessities. Things are definitely getting low around here, so I'm learning to skimp. The oil/spray bottle thing is still working for Pam, I'm rationing my foil (using ziploc baggies/tupperware for most things), and our paper towel usage is waaayyy down thanks to cloth napkins/rags. I also have learned that, if I steep my tea much longer, that 3 teabags works just as well as 4. Tea is our primary drink right now, so I try to keep a pitcher in the refrigerator as much as possible.

We still have quite a bit of meat from the meat bundle and, while there isn't much variety of snacks, etc, we're doing fine. Next weekend, we get a new Angelfood ministries box, so that will help stretch things a bit. :)

Between...

...a massive job hunt, a new temporary job, a looming thesis defense, no internet at home, and a houseful of company...

...it's no wonder Mere Frugality has been quiet, eh?

I'll try to get back on schedule soon.

AFTER the thesis defense.

Use it up...

...wear it out, make it do, or do without!

This should be the mantra of Eat from Your Pantry Challenge.

During week one, I ran out of Pam and Glad Wrap...two beloved kitchen staples. I also realized that we were plowing through paper towels like there was no tomorrow. So...I had to put a major halt on that while coping with the loss of Pam and Glad Wrap. Because...those really don't count as necessities..and they would eat up my slim budget.

So. The first thing I tackled was the paper towels. I went through my husband's shirts and found an undershirt that had seen one too many workdays and promptly made a nice pile of rags. Now, when I reach for a paper towel, I ask myself if I really need a paper towel. Usually...I don't. I also rummaged around and found the pretty decent stack of cloth napkins I had been given and broke them out for dinner. There's only two of us, so it doesn't add much to the laundry at all. I also started saving my weekly newspaper and using it to clean my windows/mirrors.

The steps are simple, but they have slowed our paper towel usage down considerably. I think those are a few habits I'll keep past the month of January. :)

As far as Pam, I found out in my Family Feasts book that, if you put olive oil in a spray bottle, you can grease your pans with it. I didn't have olive oil, but I figured vegetable oil would work as well...so I scrounged around for a spray bottle, filled it up with oil, and voila. I usually smear it around with a paper towel (yes, I deem this a *necessary* use because I don't want to wash oil out of cloth...ick) to help distribute it, but it works fine. I don't know if this is a habit I will keep, but it works for now.

Glad Wrap was considerably more difficult. I despise cling wrap, even if it is cheaper. So, I've been hoarding my foil, and I've been trying to use all of my plastic containers with lids, sandwich baggies, and ziplocs on things I would regularly use Glad Wrap for...and it hasn't been much of a problem at all. Score!

Cutting costs at the grocery store part 3

What you buy…and, yes, this is the other half of the battle.

Cut out pre-made junk food

Don’t panic. I didn’t say cut out all sugar, eliminate junk food, or go on a diet. While that may be ideal for your health, I’m certainly not doing it, and I’m not going to suggest you do it either. What I am suggesting is that you stop buying powdered doughnuts, pre-made cakes, Little Debbies, packaged cookies, etc. These things (yes, even the generic versions) can raise your grocery bill faster than you can blink…and they add absolutely no nutritional value. In fact, in addition to all the fat and sugar your pouring in your body, you’re adding lots of nasty preservatives to your body. Instead, use that extra time you saved by limiting your grocery shopping trips to make a weekly batch of cookies, a cake, homemade cinnamon rolls, or whatever your little heart desires. It doesn’t take that much time, it’s much cheaper, and it tastes waaaayyyyy better. Also, if you’re on a health kick, you can adjust the recipes to help with the caloric content. Or, you can do what I usually do, and that is to add even more things to add to the caloric content. Did I mention my sweet tooth was the size of Texas?

Buy store brand of basics

J and I both have a list of things that we will not buy store brand. He must have Heinz Ketchup and Hidden Valley Ranch. I will not allow generic pop of any kind into the house. Etc. That said, for basics, I have no problem buying store brand. A few months ago, I listened to a radio program where they read a list of the best things to buy store brand. Essentially, the moral was this: the FDA monitors things. If it’s flour, it’s going to be the same flour, whether its store brand or not. The same goes for spices, veggies, basic baking supplies, etc. It when you start mixing things (dressing, etc), that the taste begins to change.

Stock up on sales

If pasta is on sale for $.50, I’m going to stretch my budget somehow, someway, to buy enough that I won’t need to buy some for a long time…etc. After awhile, your pantry gets stocked up enough that you are constantly buying basic staples…and you can either cut your budget or splurge a bit more.

Cut back on convenience foods

I like convenience foods. However, cutting back on some (and using sales/coupons for the rest) can really impact your budget…and it is so much better for you. (Yes. I’m on an anti-preservative kick. Humor me.) This is an area where I’m still working. This coming summer, I hope to try canning and make our own jelly/apple butter. I’ve started making our own bread. I also want to try and make spaghetti sauce in bulk and freezing it.

That said, I will probably never make my cakes from scratch because, so far, every.single.one has turned out dry. If someone has an awesome cake-from-scratch recipe that can rival Betty Crocker, please share it with me. Until then, I will continue to buy them in bulk from my Markdown Market stores and on sale.

Bread update

It turns out that we do eat quite a bit more homemade bread than we do store-bought bread. We are now on our third loaf, which I rescued from the freezer this weekend. It thawed beautifully.

So, I'm not thinking the four loaves will last a month...but 2-3 weeks isn't bad either. :)

Cutting costs at the grocery store part 2

As I mentioned in the last post, it’s very important to limit your trips to the grocery store. This cuts down on the number of impulse buys you might make, gas costs, and time wasting. Here are some other ways to make the actual grocery shopping process more frugal.

Have a budget

....and stick with it. Do not, do not, do not go over it. If you need to carry cash and leave your debit card at home to accomplish it, do it. You’ll be less likely to throw in that extra candy bar if you know it will tip your total. Remember, you know what you need, and you’ve looked at the sales. I usually slightly overestimate the prices in case I don’t know a certain price…and, since we don’t have sales tax, that’s usually enough.

Don’t forget the list

I list an estimate for each item when I make my list. As I walk down the aisles, I check the list and keep a running tally in my head. It is also helpful to organize your list according to department, but I haven’t quite gotten to that point yet. This means I’m still often inefficiently backtracking because I forgot…again…that the foil is at the back of the store.

Shop at odd times

I prefer to shop on weekdays or late at night. Nothing makes me rush through shopping and make unwise choices like a crazy, crowded store.

Be aware while shopping

While I do stay focused on my list, I do let my eyes wander while I’m looking for items to see if I notice anything else that might be helpful in the future. I pick things up, examine recipes on the back, price compare, etc, and make mental notes that will help. This does not mean to buy these things on impulse…though I’m still working on that. ;) I also use this time to price check to see if there are cheaper brands or if buying a larger size is actually more economical.

Cutting costs at the grocery store pt. 1

For the first year of our marriage, my attempts at grocery shopping, meal planning, and meal preparation were frustrating at best. I’d come home, exhausted, and I wouldn’t know what to cook. I had no plan, and, more often than not, we’d either run and grab something at the grocery store or, worse yet, fast food. I’d always get frustrated, too, because we always, always ran out of dinner supplies before the next pay period. The last few days were always very lean, and we usually were without milk, bread, etc. Every time I’d try to meal plan, I’d get frustrated because everything seemed so expensive, and my attempts at couponing/watching the sales weren’t working.

Finally, after a year, I began to make a serious, concentrated effort towards cutting our costs. And it worked. I officially cut our budget in half. And then in half again. Granted, the second half was extremely uncomfortable, and it’s not our ideal budget. But my process still works...regardless of the budget I have to work with. One of the most powerful things I’ve learned is that half of the battle is fought outside the grocery store…and that’s what this post is about.

Limit your trips to the grocery store
I go grocery shopping once every two weeks. I actually schedule it in my planner, and I make sure I have enough time to go to multiple grocery stores…if I need to. The only time I go to the store other than that is if there is a phenomenal sale where I can get something we need for almost free…and I can do it en route to another errand. Otherwise—no, no, no. Multiple trips to the grocery store cost more money and time…and I don’t have much of either.

Meal Plan
I have a little household notebook. In the “meals” section, I have a master list of all of the meals we eat (and, yes, it’s a bit on the short side). The next page has a list of all the recipes I want to try w/the page numbers for the recipe books. Then, after that, I have my meal planning section. Every two weeks, I pull out that book, and, in correlation with the sale ads (more on that later), I plan our meals for the next two weeks. I date it, and I can flip back to see what we’ve had previously so it’s not too repetitive.

Make a list

This seems obvious…but a list is the key to careful spending in the grocery store. I make my grocery list in correlation with my meal plan. The first thing I do is list all of our basic needs for the week—including toiletries—and their corresponding prices. I then total those prices, subtract them from my budget for the week, and then use that total to help me meal plan. I have a pretty good idea of what meals are expensive and which ones are more economical, so I balance those out. I then list everything we will need for all of those meals on the grocery list with the corresponding prices.

Be aware of sales/coupons

I cheat on this. I have a lovely website that goes through all of the sales and matches them with coupons…and tells me what is or isn’t a good deal. I don’t ever actually look at the ads myself except to clip a coupon. I always check out this website before I do my meal planning/grocery list brainstorming…which is why I usually do it on Thursdays (after the weekly ads come out). I also go back and check after I do my final list to see if any of the needed things are on sale. Finally, I split my list up according to store. Wal-mart is my default store, but I usually make a stop at Safeway, since they have better sales. If Albertson’s is having an exceptional sale, I’ll go there, and I’ll also make a run to Markdown Market once a month or so.

Eat from your pantry week one

Sunday afternoon: steak, carrots, and ranch style beans
Sunday evening: chicken nuggets and french fries

Monday: White chicken chili
Tuesday: Turkey cheddar casserole/broccoli/garlic bread (made from homemade bread)
Wednesday: J worked, so we both just scrounged
Thursday: Pancakes/bacon
Friday: Cheesy mac and beef/ranch style beans
Saturday: To be determined. :P

For breakfast, I mixed up a batch of muffins last Sunday and stored them in baggies in the pantry, and we've been eating either the dreaded leftovers or PB&J for lunch. The lack of convenience foods is a little annoying, but I think that this is a good challenge for us. ;) I will definitely need to pick up milk/eggs/cheese next week, though.

White chicken chili

One of the things that you hear all the time when it comes to stretching your grocery budget is to reduce the amount of meat you eat. I'd be fine with that, but my husband would not. While he never complains, he admits that meatless meals simply don't fill him up. An hour or so after dinner, he's pacing and staring in the cupboards. It's just his body type.

I have found, however, that I can help with this by adding more beans to our diet. I rarely ate them before we got married, but I'm always on the lookout for recipes using beans now. They're healthy and satisfying. One recipe that we both love is white chicken chili. I usually add another can of white beans, use a can of green chilis instead of the peppers, and use white peper instead of the regular pepper. It's super easy, very hearty, and fantastic for leftovers...and a crockpot recipe to boot.

Enjoy. :)

Vinegar

I'll be the first to admit I have a bit of an unhealthy attachment to name brand cleaning supplies. To me, there's nothing that smells "clean" like Pine-Sol. And, considering the fact that I buy maybe one bottle of it a year, I figure it's not hurting my budget any.

However, if you have a penchant for multiple types of cleaning supplies...all name brand...it can rack up quite a bill at the grocery counter. One thing that I've found that works very well as a substitute in a variety of situations is vinegar.

Up until now, I've mainly just used vinegar to clean out of my microwave (just microwave a mixture of it and water for a minute or two to get the icky microwave smell out), but yesterday I discovered a new purpose. Our carpet in our home is pretty old, and, when we moved in, it wasn't steam-cleaned. Over the past few months, random spots have showed up...and, of course, we have a new puppy. Enough said. So, I went on a deep cleaning rampage yesterday, and liberally sprinkled a mixture of water/vinegar over any spots in the carpet. I left it for a few minutes, used a wet/dry vac to soak it up, and the spots were gone! There were a few of the weird unknown spots that are still lightly there, but I was pretty pleased with the results of the vinegar/water combo. And, yes, my living room did smell like vinegar for a few minutes, but my Scentsy candle took it out quite quickly.

So, out of curiosity, I did some more research on this cleaning tool and found this fantastic list of different things you can use vinegar for. Check it out! Vinegar can be purchased quite easily, and, after this list, is a vital component of a thrifty pantry. :)

The post in which I tackle bread....

After I post a few meal plans, any reader will quickly see that I love carbs. Which means I love bread. And, while I don't usually have a problem buying store brands, I absolutely despise buying store brand bread. I've always loved the idea of homemade bread, but, considering that fact that I had to schedule shopping trips to just buy bread last semester, homemade bread seemed unrealistic. And, since our budget has been super tight, we've just had to deal with icky, limp, thin store bread.

Anyway.

Since I am currently practically job-less--and, yes. I am climbing the walls--and have an astonishing stockpile of flour thanks to pre-Christmas sales, I decided to try out this bread recipe today....and was very surprised and pleased with the process.

I realized that homemade bread might not be out of reach even when I go back to full-time work (soon, please, soon....) for a couple of reasons.

1) It really doesn't take that much time. Yes, the rising process takes several hours, but it only takes 20 minutes or so to whip up a batch...and then maybe another 10 minutes total of punching-down, moving the dough, etc. It's very easy to prepare this as you are working through a typical afternoon of housecleaning. I mixed it up...did some laundry...cleaned the bathrooms...punched it down...mopped...divided it up...etc.

2) The recipe makes four loaves. We usually only consume 2-3 loaves a month. We might consume more of this since it is homemade, but I'm not sure. I'm going to try freezing two of the loaves and seeing how they do. If our eating patterns remain the same and the loaves freeze/thaw well...and they make decent sandwiches...then I can knock out a month's worth of bread in an afternoon.

The best part? Considering that I scored 10 lb of flour for $1.08 a few weeks ago, it probably cost me about .75 to make all four loaves (the yeast being the most expensive part). $.75 for a month's worth of bread? I can definitely deal...especially with that kind of taste!

Bye-bye store bread....

Eat from your pantry challenge...

...is ON!

We get paid every two weeks, so this was the first "shopping" trip of the challenge. My goal was to only spend $20 for the next two weeks...until I realized we needed about $15 in toiletries/cleaning supplies. So, I ended up at $27 in order to pick up the basics that I plan to pick up every two weeks: eggs, margarine, milk, cheese, and a few odds and ends for this month (cheese soup and cheese sauce). And, yes. We like cheese in this house. ;) Everything else will be straight from the pantry!

Here we go....

Meal plans for 12-26 to 1-1

Yes, yes...I know it's backwards. I know that everyone posts their meal plans the week before. But I'm not going to for several reasons.

1) While I always plan in advance, I usually always modify as I go along. With J's work schedule and our church schedule, life is a bit unpredictable around here.

2) As obscure as our blog is, I really don't want the web knowing that I'm not cooking dinner on "Tuesday" or whenever because my husband is working all night or because we're going to be out of town. Call me paranoid...but..yeah.

Anyway, last week's menu:

Sunday afternoon: steak, baked potatoes w/cheese, and mac and cheese. Why, yes...we DO love carbs.
Sunday evening: Chicken nuggets and french fries
Monday: J worked...so I had pulled pork from the freezer w/ a baked potato and cheese
Tuesday: pork chops over rice and glazed carrots
Wednesday: I was sick...so it was McDonald's Dollar Menu
Thursday: Spaghetti (sauce pulled from the freezer)
Friday: hamburgers w/french fries
Saturday: J is on a hiking trip, so I don't think I'll cook...but we'll see.