Moving back to Blogger...

After a couple of years on my own site, I've found that there's just too much spam over there and never bothered to figure out filters. I will learn, eventually, but for now I'll be writing here. Bonus points for the fact that I can post from my phone from here!

Frugal Road Tripping...

I love me a good road trip. No, really, I do! And that's a good thing, considering I have family that I visit each week that just so happen to live 100 miles away from me. After 5 years of making this trip, and yearly longer road trips, I have picked up quite a few tips and tricks.

1. A cooler is your best friend! Rather than buy individually packaged drinks like juice boxes, water bottles, and soda cans, I prefer to pack everyone their own reusable water bottle and their own travel mug with a top. This way I can buy the larger, less expensive per serving drinks, and pour a drink for whoever wants one. Bonus points, most places will discount your cup of joe if you bring your own cup. Filling your cooler doesn't need to be expensive, either. I fill up milk jugs that have been well cleaned with water, freeze, and use that as both my ice and a drink. I bring flavor sticks, and now some of those neat little liquid concentrates to add flavor to the water. I usually pack a few snacks, including fruit and baby carrots.


2. Thermos. I know I just mentioned discounted java, but you can also bring a big thermos filled with coffee or tea. I'm the only one that drinks coffee in my house, so I don't have to worry about various levels of sweetness or milk, but you can also bring some sweetener with you. If you use liquid sweetener, try reusing a baby food jar! You can also use a thermos for cold drinks, of course!

3. Emergency kit. There's nothing quite like a roadtrip to draw "Murphy" into your life. I keep 2, one for car related, and one for "personal" related emergencies. My car emergency kit stays in the car- jumper cables, a can of fix-a-flat, a jug of water, a quart of oil, and the liquid concentrate windshield washer fluid that I use. There's also a pack of baby wipes for quick cleanups, a small tool kit, and of course, the spare tire and everything I'd need to change it!

As far as for "personal" emergencies- in my world that means stuff that I'd be tempted or required to stop if I needed them. So, I have an old purse with deodorant, "lady products", tums, pain relief meds, chapstick, sunscreen, etc.

4. Plan your stops. Let's face it, you're going to have to stop on the road! I love using my smartphone to make this easier. I use the Gas Buddy App to find the cheapest gas, and search the Google Map app to find the nearest grocery store (almost always have public bathrooms, and if you feel like you "have" to buy something you can get fresh fruit), plus in phone navigation keeps me from getting too lost and reminds me which way the highway is...

So I've been in hiding...

After a tumultuous 2010, I'm back on the blogging scene. I moved to my own site, then tragedy struck and my entire life pretty much imploded. Everything I had a year ago is pretty much gone, but I'm working on building back my life. There's so much I miss about my old life, but I have to move forward and make the best of what I have now. I'm also working on restoring certain aspects of my old life- but that's a lot more personal than I can reveal on a public blog while there's still a lot up in the air that could be affected if I post about it now. I promise, someday the whole story will come out, but for now, just know that I'm working through what I can.

I don't really have much of a plan for this blog right now, other than to try to teach people how to save money and share my experiences with ninja-shopping.

CVS Clearance and ECB burning....

I had a bunch of ECBs that were expiring, so I headed out to CVS to "burn" them. Here's what I got:

Transaction 1, Store 1: This store had a decent amount of stuff on clearance, so that's pretty much what I bought!

1 box Electrosol Power Tabs, $3.99 (reg. 5.99)
1 set pretty Bobby pins, $1.50 clearance (reg $5.99)
1 makeup bag/hair tie set, $2 clearance (reg $7.99)
1 travel sewing kit, 75¢ clearance (reg. $3.99)
1 CVS green bag tag, 99¢

Used:
$2.50 Electrosol coupon
$6 ECB

paid 78¢ oop.

Since my store didn't have what I was looking for, I headed to the next nearest store, about 3 minutes away.

Transaction #2, store 2
2 6-packs soyjoy, $12 total
used $12 ECB, paid 0 OOP, got back $12 in ECB

Transaction #3, store 2
1 Powerbar strawberry gel bite thingy, $1.50, reg 1.69
1 Dove candy bar (cuz momma needs candy!), 50¢, reg 89¢
1 pack Orbit gum, 99¢, reg 1.29
1 pack Easy Up pampers, $3, reg 11.99
2 packs gel cushions, $1 each
1 Dove men's bodywash, $5.49

Used $1.25 coupon out of today's paper,
$12 ECB

Paid 24¢ OOP, got back 5.49 in ECB

All told, I spent $1.02, saved $66.81, and still have $5.49 in ECB to play with!

Chicken Challenge wrap up

Life got in the way this week (again) as I'm trying to make room in my day-to-day life for more writing, but I'm going to recap what happened with the rest of the chicken challenge:

Day 1, made chicken and dumplings for dinner, had enough leftovers for day 2's dinner

Day 2, had chicken sandwiches for lunch, and the leftover chicken and dumplings from day 1

Day 3, made a pantry salsa "salad" to go with chicken quesadillas

Day 4, packed up 2 small bags of chicken (meal sized, about a cup of chicken apiece)
made chicken chili out of the rest of the chicken and the salsa salad. I also have a total of 8 bottles of stock (2 cups each, packaged in waterbottles so they can be poured and stay neat in the freezer door....) which is the amount I need to make a quick pan gravy.

All in all, I think 7 meals from a 6.33lb chicken is pretty good!

Day one of Chicken stretching challenge.

Day One, I'm trying something different. I saw Tyler Florence poach a whole chicken to make his chicken and dumplings, so I decided to give that a shot.

In the pot: 2 bay leaves, a few peppercorns, the scraps from onions/carrots/celery that were sitting in my freezer, some garlic, thyme, and a Tbsp of salt. Place chicken in pot, then cover with cold water and bring to gentle boil.

After the chicken was fully poached, I pulled it out of the pot and let it cool till I could handle it, and while it was cooling I strained out the broth and stuck it in the fridge. Then, I returned the pot to the stove, and then put all the bones back into the pot to get another batch of broth out of them. The broth that was already done would be for that night's dinner of chicken and dumplings, and the batch I was making was for the freezer since I use a LOT of stock!

I ended up with a large container of meat- and this will be the basis for meals for the rest of the week.

Chicken stretching challenge!

Today, I am taking a 6.33lb whole chicken, and I'm going to see just how far I can stretch it. I paid 79¢ per lb, making it exactly $5 for the whole bird. I'll be posting what I'm doing with it every day- today, I'm poaching the whole thing for chicken and dumplings. Stay tuned!

Stockpiling 101

One of the most frustrating things in getting started on a frugal journey is knowing where to start. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step- or so the saying goes- but many become frozen in place, worried that if they take that single step, it will be in the wrong direction.

Been there, done that. What I really want to stress to everyone is that even if you have missteps, you are still headed in the right direction!

Stockpiling is one of those things that can be very frustrating to start. You don't know how much to buy at that rock bottom price, or if what you think is a rock bottom price really IS a great deal.

So, let me tell you, this is not rocket science. If you have some sort of pasta-based meal every week and usually pay $2 for a box of pasta (regular retail for the type my family prefers), then buy several boxes when it goes on sale. Then, next week, when you go shopping and find that your favorite brand of sauce is on sale, you can use the money you would have spent on pasta to buy a couple more jars of the sauce.

Eventually, you will get to a point where you can skip the big shopping trip altogether and just grab milk and produce. However, one thing to keep in mind- this is not something that happens overnight. It is a journey, and there is really nothing more to it than changing the way you shop.

When I shop, I don't just have this week in mind- I have at least a 2 month view in mind. I know that in the winter months, the kids and I will eat 2 cans of soup per day for lunch, 4 days a week (and kill at least a bottle of hot sauce every other week, but that's another story!) so that means we would need 8 cans per week, or a case every 3 weeks. Two months' worth of soup means 3 cases of soup, roughly- so when that ridiculous sale rolls around, that's how much I'll buy. (of course, we're working toward getting a freezer, so I'll be making more of our own soups soon!)

By having a 2 month view, I can usually avoid paying full retail for pretty much everything. This week the focus is on canned veggies and whole chickens, but next it could be flour and beans. Building up to this point has taken us a year, but there are some shortcuts you can take. You can get a jumpstart by heading to a discount store like PriceRite, Aldi, SaveALot, etc, and purchasing your dry and canned goods there. We buy rice, cornmeal, frozen fruit, beans, lentils, and some spices and seasoning mixes at our local PriceRite.

Another thing you can do to jumpstart your stockpile is hit several stores for their loss leaders- usually on the covers of their ads. These are the "great sales" that they use to entice you to shop at their store, in the hopes that you'll grab a few non-sale items as well. When I am in "active stockup mode", I will hit 2-3 grocery stores and 3 other stores in one shopping trip, only grabbing the loss leaders and best deals.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions! I am more than willing to answer questions in the comment section or another post!

The biggest thing you can do to be frugal...

...is learn to anticipate needs. I was chatting in The Thrifty Mama Chat earlier, and the more I thought about it, that is how we live.

We stock up on sales, anticipating that future costs would be higher than what we're paying now with coupons.

We bought my little girl a winter coat in August, from a yard sale, because we knew she'd need one this year.

We stocked up on cold and flu meds when they went on sale, which kept us from paying full price when we all got the Bacon Plague (aka H1N1, but bacon plague is just sooo much more fun to say!) AND kept us from spreading our germs around to poor, unsuspecting pharmacy staff at midnight.

We bought Christmas presents all year round, scouring for deals.

Just these few, small little things have made such a huge difference in the budget. Take just one step towards a more frugal life, and then another and another. Don't get too bogged down in what others are doing, just focus on your goals.

"Goals are dreams with work clothes on" -Dave Ramsey

Using WIC efficiently and effectively!

I know that some of my readers use the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program, and this post is for you!

There have been a lot of changes recently, most noteworthy is the addition of whole wheat products and produce checks. There has also been a drastic reduction (by 50% or more) of the juice allotment, and a reduction of the milk allotment. However, the types you can buy have also changed. In the past, the options for milk were regular fresh milk in a gallon container. However, now you can get powdered, shelf stable quarts, or even canned- which is a good thing for people that may only have a tiny fridge. And with the juice, the new options are either frozen concentrate, or premixed 1/2 gallon containers.

One of the biggest problems with the new packages is the lack of stock in many stores. I went looking for a 16oz package of brown rice (can be regular or instant) but came up empty. Tortillas may or may not be carried by your store. And let's not even start with the *fun* of trying to find a 16oz loaf of whole wheat bread....

Ok, so on to using it more efficiently. Ask your local store if they honor the "Buy one get one free" sales on your WIC items. You could possibly get 2 lbs of cheese if there's a BOGO sale!

Don't eat cereal for breakfast? Then get either Chex or cornflakes or FiberOne, and use it for something else. With the Chex, you can make Chex mix. FiberOne and corn flakes make FANTASTIC breading for oven "fried" chicken.

Excess milk can be used to make yogurt or yogurt cheese.

Cheese blocks are still allowed- so you can still get the 1lb block of cheddar, mozzarella, colby, etc. instead of the standard American cheese. Shred the cheese at home, freeze on a cookie sheet, then empty into a freezer bag with a bit of cornstarch to prevent sticking. Voila, you have your own low cost shredded cheese!

Dried beans are a staple in my house, but they may not be in yours. You can get a one pound package of beans, dried peas, or lentils. There are SO many uses for these, but I'll only post a few ideas here:

Lentils can be sprouted- 1/2 cup of dried lentils becomes 2 cups of sprouts after only a few days! They also cook quickly, ready to go in about 45 minutes when simmered on the stove. They don't need to be soaked, which is a HUGE advantage. They also have the benefit of having a meat-like texture, which means you can stretch some meat dishes using lentils. A favorite in our household is shephards' pie with lentils- 1/2 lb meat and 1 cup cooked lentils are in the meat layer (and the lentils are covered in gravy, so you don't notice them!)

Dried split peas in the crockpot with a ham bone and chicken stock or water= split pea soup base. You can go "traditional", or go crazy and add curry powder for curried pea soup.

Pinto beans are a favorite around here- rinse, pick over, and soak beans overnight. Then, drain and rinse again in the morning, and stick in the crockpot with 2 inches of water above the bean level, then let cook all day. DO NOT ADD SALT UNTIL JUST BEFORE SERVING. When you add salt, the beans will stop getting softer at that point, and if you add it too soon you'll end up with hard beans.

Peanut butter is another option in the packages. You can use it in recipes for cookies, or cold peanut noodle salad.

Cloth Diapering

Yes, yes, I know. Not for everyone- but I've got a few tricks up my sleeve on this one.

First of all, we have 20 diapers for 2 children. No, that's not much, about a day and a half's supply. I only wash 16 of them at a time- one on each kid, plus a change ready to go for each kid. We don't do cloth when travelling- whether it be for a day trip or an overnighter. It can be done, we just don't do it (to save my sanity).

Diaper laundry is not nearly as daunting as it sounds. I use a wet pail, which basically means that I use a pail that once held kitty litter filled with water for the diapers waiting to be washed. I change the water a couple of times per day- but again, I only have a day or two's supply of diapers.

When it comes time to do the diaper laundry, I drain as much of the stinky water off as I can, then dump the diapers into the washer and run a full cold cycle to get any yuckies off. Then, I pull the inserts out of the diapers, and run the hottest water I can into the washer, adding a "half dose" of laundry detergent (right now I'm using Arm and Hammer free and clear laundry detergent) and then letting it agitate for a couple minutes, then stop the washer for an hour so that the diapers can soak in the water and soap mixture. Then I come back, turn the washer back on, and run the longest hot cycle with a double cold rinse. After that, I run one final cold rinse cycle- and I always double check to make sure there are no suds during this rinse. If there are, then another rinse is on tap. The key is to make sure that there is no soap residue on the diapers!

When the washing is finally done, into the dryer they go. I try (emphasis on try) to stuff the diapers when they're finally dry, but that doesn't always happen. We usually have to purchase about one package of diapers per month for the kids- both are in the same size so that's a big help!

One thing I would do differently if I could do it all again- don't buy velcro, buy a few more diapers, and buy a tub sprayer attachment immediately. The velcro means that everything sticks together, which is kind of a pain. The tub sprayer and extra diapers will be a big help when we finally get them, but that is yet another thing that is on the back burner for now.

New Ebates Reward!

Ebates.com is a cash-back site that I use when doing my online shopping. I just got a postcard in the mail from them, detailing their latest promotion!

1. Sign up for Ebates here You'll get $5 just for signing up!

2. Go to Ebates.com/bonus

3. Type in promo code EBONUS

4. Make a purchase of at least $25 by clicking through the ebates page before shopping

5. Get a % of your purchase back (for example, 10% back at Old Navy) AND $10 back for entering the promo code! This means if you spent $25 at OldNavy.com, you'll get back $12.50! Now that's a sweet deal!

On Tap for Today!

Today, I decided I would post what we're doing- since some of the things I'm doing are for future posts (as well as for our current needs!). Here's the plan for the next few hours:

Strip diapers (I'll post my method later)
Start a new batch of artesan bread (and take the pictures for the post)
Mix up some instant mocha latte mix
Ninja-ade
Work on some Christmas presents
Catch up on some of my tv shows (so far behind on some its not even funny!)

Here I go!

"Make Your Own" Series coming soon

I'm revamping this site, and hopefully I'll have my new "home" soon. In the meantime, when I'm not coding and experimenting, I've been working on a few posts that break down the cost and how-to of making your own *insert something here*. So far, I've written up a post on laundry detergent, ninja-ade, artesan bread, fancy coffee drinks, and rehydrating beans at home... now all I have to do is piece them together, take a few pictures (ok lots of pictures!) and get rolling on them. But I assure you, they are coming, along with a complete relaunch and rededication just in time for the first of the year.

New shopping Portal- ShopatHome

Want to get paid back for shopping? Join ShopatHome here and get cash back from your online shopping!

Read more about this deal over on TheThriftyMama.com and sign up for her $100 Target Gift Card Giveaway while you're there!

Old Navy- Week 37

As usual, I'm over at www.dealseekingsource.com for Old Navy Thursday. Make sure you sign up for a screenname from Webby Chat- it is free and works in any Webby Chat room!

In case this is your first time coupon hunting, here's the lowdown. Every week, go to OldNavyWeekly to search for coupons. The most popular coupons are the high value coupons- $75 off a purchase of $100 is usually gone within seconds!

Stocking up for Winter at Shaw's

This week Shaw's is running a huge Catalina sale- Spend $10, get $3 OYNO catalina.

Some highlights:

Splenda, 2/$10. The bags usually go for $10.79, use the peelie coupon on the bag and get them for $3

Kleenex, Buy 2 get 2 free- Use a Buy 3 Get 1 free from the tearpad display, pay for 1 and get 4!

Ronzoni Healthy Harvest or Smart Taste Pastas, 10/$10. Use printable coupons here and here for $1/2 coupons- making each box 50¢

These prices are all based on Presale price, and therefore you can really clean up this week! 6 Pastas= $3 OOP and $3 OYNO, so that alone is worth the trip in my eyes!

I'll be stocking pastas until I run out of coupons (long way off on that one since there's a total of 6 coupons printable, times 2 computers, so a total of 24 boxes before I break into the newspaper coupons). Free is always a stockup price at my house!

I figure 8 boxes of Kleenex will get us through the winter. And there's also a deal on Playtex gloves, so I'll get some of those for the first aid kits and for when I'm chopping up jalapenos. Splenda- I figure 4 bags or so will last me through the winter for my coffee drinks.

French Toast Casserole

This is one of our Family favorites, and I made it by request last night. Use any stale bread, or stale bagels, whatever you have on hand. I used stale cinnamon raisin bagels for last nights' batch.

5 cups stale bread chunks
5 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1.5tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup milk

Photobook Hints and Tips

I did the Kodak photobooks at CVS last year- so I'm going to save everyone the headache and give you my tips and tricks!

1. Have a theme. The examples I'm using here are mostly from one of my wedding themed albums I've made.

2. Take your theme and pick out photos for it- at home. Plan on 1-3 pictures per page of your album. You can be in and out of the store if you do this!

3. Load your pics to an empty memory card or thumb drive. You don't want to be scrolling through 1000 pictures looking for that one picture that everyone had their eyes open!



4. Use some "accent" pictures. See how I have a picture of our hands and the cake? Very cool picture, but not something that I need to see in huge detail! It is one of those little touches that make these special!

5. When you get to the store, play around with the sizing and backgrounds- there are many different ways to size the pictures, and the background options are pretty neat as well. Notice that there are 3 pages above with three pictures each- and they all have different positioning and sizing. See how I have the front page background as the same photo? That effect is probably my favorite!


If you use these tips, you'll be in and out of your store in no time flat, with a photobook that looks like you took hours to make for a very pretty penny!

BIG week at CVS!

Finally, the week I've been waiting for has arrived! A big moneymaker, school supplies blitz, and Christmas presents (yes, in July!)

First, the money maker:

Buy Tylenol Arthritis 20-24 ct at $3.99, get $3 in ECBs Limit 3.
use $2/1 coupon from the 5-17 RedPlum
use $2.50/$10 pain reliever purchase CRT

So it looks like this:
3x Tylenol Arthritis @3.99 ea- 11.97
-2.50 (CRT)
-$6 (3x $2q)
pay 3.47, get back $9 in ECB

That would mean a $5.53 MM!

School supplies: 3 Day Sale- good through Tues only!!!!!
Caliber brand 1 subject notebook, 12" rulers, glue (5oz), and Papermate pens are all 99¢ and free after ECB, Limit 2 for the Caliber, Limit 3 on the pens

Caliber 5" scissors $2.99, free after ECB, limit 2

Portfolio folders (I'm getting these because I use them for clipped recipes, organized by category) 5¢ each. Limit 10


And, finally, the Christmas presents- Photobooks are back! 6"x8", 10 page books are free after ECBs. Limit is advertised as 1, but the stores plan-o-gram originally had them at a limit of 3- so we'll find out tomorrow!)

One more noteworthy deal- 3 packs of Brita Filters are on sale for $14.99, $5 ECB back. This makes the net price $3.34 per filter. Each filter lasts for 2 months, so that's 6 months of non-pool smelling water for the Ninja household!