I did it -- I bought beef

I've been going back and forth in my mind for almost 2 weeks on this issue. 80% lean ground beef patties are on sale at Cash & Carry for $2.68/lb in a 10-lb case. $2.68 a pound is the lowest I've seen any type of beef in a long while. I thought myself lucky to buy some near-expiry ground beef for $3.89/lb a couple of months ago. So, when I saw Cash & Carry's sale flyer, I was very, very torn. Good price, but it would put us over budget for the month.

We still have 1 whole turkey and 2 hams in the freezer, but that's it for meat, here. I have been longing for beef for a while now. This has been the longest stretch we've ever gone with such limited beef in our diet.

So I thought, and I thought, and I thought.

The pros -- Cash & Carry sale prices are often the very best price on a fairly basic food item that I ever find, as in their 50-lb sacks of beans, #10 cans of tomato products, and 25 to 50-lb sacks of grains. For the near future, $2.68/lb could be the lowest I will see beef for several more months. Cash & Carry's sale prices cycle about every 5-6 months. So this may also be the only sale price this low for summer cooking with beef. Other food items, on sale at Cash & Carry, I can often find elsewhere, for near the sale price. But I don't think that would be the case with beef, right now.

The cons -- going over budget and spending such a large share of the budget on one food item. I would also need to ration out my use of the case of beef, so we didn't blow through it in a month or two. I would want this beef to last the whole summer.

This has been one purchase that I really did think through. And after a lot of consideration, I did buy a 10-lb case of beef patties.

Cash & Carry sells their beef patties in sizes labeled 2/1, 3/1, 4/1, 5/1 and 6/1. This means that there are 2 patties per pound, 3 patties per pound, and on. I chose the 5 patties per pound. Each patty is 3.2 ounces, about right for a single serving of beef, if no other good source of protein is available at the meal. However, I can also just use 3 patties (9.6 ounces total), in a family meal of spaghetti sauce, with the addition of a small amount of cheese served on the pasta. The 5/1 case has 50 patties, all together.

My plan is to limit our use of these patties to 12 per month. That will give us either 2 dinners of burgers on buns, plus one less-beef meal, or 1 dinner of burgers on buns per month, plus 2-3 dinners of less-beef meals. With this plan, the beef should last through the summer. And maybe by fall or winter, we'll see some lowering beef prices.

Maybe it's okay that we went over our budget to cover this beef purchase. It's not like it was a frivolous item. And you'll see in my end of month post that I didn't buy much of anything in the way of luxury foods. We stuck to basic items. so, for all of the months that I've gone over budget, I actually feel better about this purchase putting us over, than any previous month.

Simple, stir-fried radish greens

This is end-of-the-month cooking, that's for sure.

Last week, on my facebook page, I mentioned planting radish seeds with the intent of using the leaves for cooking. Radishes come up quickly, and yield nutrient-dense leafy greens about as fast as any other vegetable. And they can do so in the cool early spring weather, right when I have little else in the garden to harvest for vegetables. Well, eating radish greens came as a surprise to one reader. So, I thought I'd show you a simple way to use radish greens.

Radish greens have a sharp taste, like mustard greens, turnip greens, or kale. So I like them best, blended with a milder vegetable, like cabbage, and sometimes onions.

Start with a skillet with about a tablespoon of fat. Obviously, for me, bacon fat or ham fat is preferred, but oil, and/or turkey fat or chicken fat also have been used successfully in my kitchen (I did this batch in turkey fat/vegetable oil blend, simply because I'm trying to use up the turkey fat).

Heat the skillet over Medium. Saute about 1/4 of an onion, sliced thin, until translucent (the onion is optional, in this batch I left it out, but it does add a sweetness to the dish).

Add about 2-3 cups shredded cabbage (this is a great way to use the outer layers on a new head of cabbage -- trim away any damaged parts, and thin-slice the rest). Saute until some leaves are beginning to brown on the edges.

Meanwhile, cut the leafy green portion of the radish leaves (from about 8-10 radishes) away from the tough stalks.

Fine chop the radish leaves (compost the stems -- don't even save them for your soup stock pot, would give a bitter taste to stock, yuk!).

Add to the cabbage/onions, and stir in. Add some garlic (1 clove, or 1/2 teaspoon garlic granules), and 1 tablespoon soy sauce. Saute, just until the radish greens look vibrant green, but barely cooked. Serve.

Radish greens can also be added to broth-based soups, cream 'O green soups, quiche fillings and garden lasagna fillings (mixed with the cottage cheese/ricotta/mashed tofu).

Very basic, end of the month cooking this week in our kitchen!

End of the month and running out of milk

We are in the last week of the month, and the budget is depleted, with just about 1 quart of dairy milk left.

I decided to make my own rice milk, once again. I'm using the rice milk for any cooking and baking requiring milk, and in a half and half blend for drinking or pouring over oatmeal. This seems to be working well, and will get me through, until I once again find milk on markdown, or the new month's budget begins.

So far, rice milk has worked very successfully in biscuits, quiche, French toast, and bread pudding. And as for drinking, the family seems fine with this blend, knowing that it's temporary.

As I'm using this homemade rice milk in savory as well as sweet dishes, I've left out the vanilla and cut back on the sugar. I've been making 1 quart of rice milk (using a quick version of this recipe -- soaking overnight, and only straining once) every 3 days for the last week. It's working for us, and getting us to the next month. with just 1 quart of dairy milk left. (I have managed to "stretch" 1 final gallon of milk for over a week now. I usually go through 2 gallons per week.)

I still may buy 1 gallon, if I feel I have to. I hate paying the regular price on milk! And, if I have a choice, there's beef on sale this week, and I'd really rather buy beef than milk, if I have to choose. We do have plenty of cheese, and a quart of whole milk yogurt in the fridge, so no one is suffering from lack of dairy, here.

The really great news, for me, in this situation, is I've been cutting my own soy milk half and half, with this rice milk, and I like it better! With the soy milk, I get Vit. D and calcium fortification (I could always take supplements, but this is handy for me, to just drink my vitamins/minerals). With homemade rice milk, those "extras" aren't there. But maybe a compromise on half soy/half rice milk would work for me, in the future, save some money and give me a product that I enjoy more.

How about you? Do you "sweat it" when you're about out of milk for a few days? Could you go a week without milk for yourself or your kids? Do you think I'm doing something neglectful by not buying more dairy milk this week? Just curious about your thoughts on this.

Making Old Bay Seasoning (and why I love keeping whole spices in the cupboard)

Last Friday, I made a large pot of bean and ham soup for dinner. I knew I wanted to make biscuits as a side to go with the soup. And I had a hankering for Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

In looking at recipes for cheddar bay biscuits, I discovered that I needed Old Bay seasoning. (Well, duh, cheddar BAY biscuits, old BAY seasoning.)

Old Bay Seasoning would be one of those spice blends that I wouldn't use particularly much, as I don't cook much seafood. So, while I've always liked their colorful canisters in the supermarket, I've never actually bought any OBS.

But, I was sure I had most of the ingredients to make some sort of version of OBS, and could conjure up something along the lines of the famed Red Lobster biscuits.

Next I looked up a recipe for Old Bay Seasoning, and lo and behold, I had some form of every single ingredient listed. Now how often does that happen?!

So, I made a tiny batch of OBS in my spice grinder (coffee grinder, repurposed), and used some to top my biscuits. Yum, they were good! I'll be making these biscuits a few times in the near future.

Now, the Old Bay brand of Old Bay Seasoning is made from 18 different herbs and spices. The recipe that I used only had 8 different herbs and spices. But my homemade version was very tasty. And making just a small amount, is about right for my use.


There's not much to making this spice blend. You measure the ingredients into your coffee/spice grinder, and whirr to a powder. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 years, for best flavor.

Here's what I used:

the equivalent of 2 bay leaves (I fished out a bunch of bay leaf pieces from my pickling spice blend)
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns (I've been meaning to use those up)
just over an 1/8 teaspoon of whole cardamom seeds
1/8 teaspoon ground mustard
1 or 2 whole cloves (I used 2 very small whole cloves)
3/8 teaspoon paprika
just over 1/16 teaspoon ground mace

This made a little over 1 tablespoon of Old Bay Seasoning. A recipe of Cheddar Bay biscuits only uses 1/4 teaspoon of OBS, so it looks like I've got enough to make several batches of those tasty biscuits.

About whole spices as opposed to ground spices

Whole spices can be more economical, in the long run. In particular, if you don't use that spice very often. Whole spices retain more of their essence for a longer period of time, than ground. Up to twice as long.

If I don't think I'll use a spice very often, I try to buy what I'll need, but often end up with extra. It could be a year or more until I need that spice again.

The other issue I've encountered with pre-ground spices is some of them can become cake-y (due to absorbing moisture -- my ground cloves became cake-y to the point I had to throw them out).

Ground spices are recommended to be used within a couple of years. Whereas, whole spices can retain flavor for up to 5 or 6 years, depending on variety (cloves, cinnamon and pepper can last a very long time, if whole). Yet they taste, so "fresh" when you finally grind them.

A good example for myself is my whole nutmegs. I bought these about 5 years ago, and "shave" off a tiny amount for recipes, as I need. They taste as good today, as they did when I bought them. So, for spices I don't use often, whole spices have better keeping quality. And I can often find them in the bulk, scoop-your-own section and just buy a tiny baggie of what I need.

Grinding whole spices can be done in a small food processor, a coffee grinder or with mortar and pestle. If I'm just crushing some celery seed to add to a tomato sauce or soup, I'll use the mortar and pestle. For larger amounts of spice, or if I want a finer grind, then I use the coffee grinder. I don't wash this out, but use a pastry brush to sweep out the grinder after each use. (If I'm going to be grinding something like granulated sugar into superfine, then I'll wipe the grinder out, and maybe grind a tablespoon of corn meal first, just to clean it out.)

I do opt for convenience with the spices that I use frequently, such as ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground mustard, ground cumin, curry powder and chili powder. I buy these ground spices in the large canisters from Cash & Carry, at a price that beats buying whole spices, in some cases. (Whole cinnamon sticks can be pricey, if I just want to grind them up to use ground.)

So, my spice cupboard contains a mix of whole and ground spices. I do love that I keep as many varieties in whole form as I do. I am often pleasantly surprised that I have just about every spice called for in recipes.

Happy Memorial Day!

What are your plans for today?

We're heading out to the beach for a breakfast, "out". (Can't get any more "out" than outdoors!) We're packing apples, yogurt and homemade donuts (the kind made with canned biscuit dough). We have several thermoses, so everyone is on their own to provide their beverage of choice (coffee, tea, cocoa, milk).

If we can get out of the house early enough, the beach will be pretty much deserted. It's beautiful, there, in the early hours of the day.

Just a fun way to spend time together as a family.

Have a wonderful day!

I thought I'd show you what our local Fred Meyer carries in spices in the ethnic section

A couple of weeks ago we talked a bit about ethnic sections of grocery stores and ethnic markets. I told you about the cellophane packages of spices and herbs available, at a substantially lower price than small containers of spices and herbs in the baking section of the grocery store.

I had my camera in my purse this week, and when I was at Fred Meyer, I took a couple of photos of what I'm talking about. The spices/herbs are priced between 59cents and about $1.29 per packet, depending on variety. The bay leaves are 59cents for a nice pile of leaves. The whole cloves are 59 cents for a good handful, maybe 1/2 cup (2nd to the left below). The whole cinnamon sticks are $1.18 for about 3 or 4 good-sized sticks (longer than I often see) in a bag (just about the amount that someone might want for making spiced beverages during the fall or winter holidays). There are sesame seeds, ground chiles, and whole and ground spices.

It really is a matter of comparing unit pricing, between these cellophane bags and the bulk spice section. Some items are a much better price per pound in the cellophane packages, others not. But all of these blow the spices in the baking aisle clear out of the water! And if you don't even have a store with a bulk, scoop-your-own, spice section, then an ethnic section or ethnic market could be your most economical way to buy some of your herbs and spices. (Dollar Tree carries some herbs, at a great price, too.)


Also, in the ethnic shopping vein, earlier this week I tried out a new-to-me ethnic market on the advice of a friend (Imran's on 99). This is an Indian, Middle Eastern and Mexican market (per their sign). My friend likes this store for both it's cheap produce and some packaged ethnic items that she uses from time to time. Those packaged items are super pricey in the regular grocery store, but a dollar less at the ethnic market.

I passed Imran's the other day and thought to myself that I had to stop there soon. They had a sign out on the street edge for apples at 39cents/lb. I am needing produce at a super-duper cheap price this week and next, to get us through to June. So I thought this would work well for us. I bought about a dozen Red Delicious apples (39cents/lb -- earlier in the month I stopped at my other favorite produce stand and paid 50cents/lb, thinking that was a good price), and 1 large head of green cabbage for 49cents/lb. Grand total for a bag of produce, $3.92.

To give you a local comparison, at Fred Meyer, a store most would agree is one of the low-cost supermarkets in the area, Red Delicious apples were 79cents/lb, and green cabbage was 79cents/lb this week.

Imran's had navel oranges for 49cents/lb, limes at 10 for $1, and grapefruit at 5 for $1. I still have some oranges and lemons left, so passed on the citrus.

The clientele is a mix of folks. There were the retired people who were driving older cars, and likely on a small budget. There were also a few mothers with children in tow, carrying on conversations in their own native language (not English as a first language). There was a young woman who runs a food truck in the area, bargaining for a better price on a bag of red onions. And then there was me, a middle-aged women in yoga pants, with my green, reusable shopping bag.

When I patronize these small businesses, I do a couple of things. I always use cash, even if they will take credit. I know they struggle to make a profit, as a small business, with low prices being their big draw. And I always bring a reusable shopping bag. Again, if there's any way I can help them stay in business, it benefits us both.

While I was in Imran's, the check-out line was a little long at first, so I decided to look around. I can do better, price-wise, on dried beans at the wholesaler, but their price on couscous was pretty good, as was the price on bulgur wheat.

They also had cellophane packets of herbs and spices in a rack. In addition to the herbs and spices, they had small bags of nuts and seeds, and some tea bags in these cellophane bags. Among the nuts were some pepita seeds (99cents for a couple of ounces), which I think would look nice topping pumpkin muffins in the fall months. (I think Starbucks tops their Pumpkin Loaf with pepita seeds.) I'll remember the pepitas, come fall.

They also had a bakery case of small baked goods, priced well. My two daughters used to love the Mexican market near their high school, for the sweet pastries in the bakery case, priced around 25 to 50 cents each. And Imran's carried the exact brand of corn tortillas that I bought earlier this month, for 18 cents less than I paid at the wholesaler. So, I'll keep that in mind for the future, as well.

I'll be going back to Imran's throughout the summer. It looks like a great place to buy some fresh produce at a bargain price. I'm hoping that they'll have watermelon at a great price in another month.

What do you do when you're up at 2 AM?

I know I shouldn't be doing this. I should be trying to sleep. And I do try for a while. But, the other night, up from 2 AM to about 4 AM, I just could not sleep!

I considered going outside and planting more in the garden, but my fear of encountering a coyote in the dark stopped that thought in its tracks. I considered sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor. After all, this would be a good time to insure no one set foot on a still-wet and very clean floor. But that just sounded like it would take too much energy at 3 AM (and might wake other members of the household, who would then come get a midnight snack, and there goes that opportunity to keep the floor from being walked upon just after mopping).

So, what do I do in the wee hours of the morning, while I wait for the time to have a cup of coffee? The other night, I was online, shopping for shampoo! And I bet some of you do that sort of thing, too!!

I keep a list of items to look for in the near future, when I'm out shopping. This list sits on the table next to my computer. I grabbed it, and began my midnight rendezvous with the online merchants.

While the rest of the family is content to use whatever is cheap, for shampoo, I use a color protecting shampoo. It's a particular brand that came highly rated for maintaining color treatments, which prolongs the time between colorings, saving me both time and money.

So, I shopped and shopped, and kept finding better and better deals. Found the shampoo I've been using at ULTA, near us, at a pretty good price. But a few minutes later, I stumbled upon a deal for the same product at JC Penney. Their salon carries the brand I wanted, cheaper than other stores in the area, and they have a coupon going on through this weekend (for an extra 10% off), that I could print out to take with me to the mall.

But wait, it gets better. I had all the time in the world (that's how it feels at 3 AM, right?), so I began reading more and more reviews about various products, and came upon a recommendation for a drugstore brand of shampoo, in the budget category! (Budget category -- that's calling my name!!) I thought, well this is worth a try.

In all of my late night shopping, I had come across a couple of coupons at drugstore.com for Proctor and Gamble hair products. Wonderful! I could buy an amount that would last me about 1 year (I really do use shampoo in the "size of a dime" amount when shampooing my hair). And it would cost 1/5th of what I paid one year ago, for a pricier brand.

So, while on drugstore.com, I wanted to take advantage of a couple of coupons, so I found the hair color that I've been using and added 4 boxes of that (an 8-month supply, which means I won't have to be looking for a deal on my color for a while). This then gave me 2 more coupons to use in this purchase. Using the coupons on the hair color, yielded a savings of about $1 per box over Target's sale price (and Target has pretty good sale prices on hair color).

And wanting the free shipping, I began to look around at other categories of beauty and health care. I take a particular supplement that I believe is helping me battle my present fatigue. Locally, at Super Supplements, I pay about $25 for a bottle of that supplement. By using yet another drugstore.com coupon (on supplements), and combining with a current sale on this brand, I paid $17.99 for this health care need (savings of $8 over what I was prepared to spend later this week). And I got my free shipping.

For items that were already on my shopping list for the near future, I was prepared to spend about $65. With my middle of the night shopping, I spent $40. I didn't buy anything that I wasn't already planning on buying. So the savings is "real" savings. And I about completed finding all of the items from my little list.

A savings of about $25, in exchange for 1  1/2 hours of my precious sleep. I'm not totally convinced this was such a good plan. If I wake up again tonight, I think I'll just go get a snack and go back to sleep.


One suggestion about middle of the night shopping -- just hold everything in a "cart" until the morning. You really will sleep on it. Then, in the morning, you can be sure of what was going on in your mind in the wee hours. No purchases that sounded good at the time!

Now tell me, what do you do in the middle of the night when you just can't sleep?

(p.s. I am currently working on finding new places to buy "my regulars", and save some money. This week, I picked up 8 tubes of toothpaste, at a savings of $2.24 over what I usually spend. Every last bit of savings means that our income stretches a little further towards our goals -- currently saving for a new furnace.)

Blogging issues

So, over the past week, I've put many, many hours into trying to solve my feed issues with this blog. This is time that I could have put towards active frugality and/or sleep. There appears to be some sort of error in my feed delivery, which I am unable to correct. So, I'm stuck. I don't have any more time to devote to solving this issue. And my personal knowledge of all of this is limited.

I'm just going to leave this as it is. If you want to continue visiting my blog, that's great. I can tell you about when my blog will post most weekdays. But your feed reader will likely not update with my blog, indefinitely. As far as I can tell, the email delivery still works.

Email is delivered between 5 and 6 AM Pacific time. I publish my posts by about 4:30 AM Pacific time.

If in the future I have a burst of energy or a person willing to help me on this issue, then maybe my feed delivery issues can be resolved.

We're all very busy people, myself included. It doesn't make sense for me to strip away time that could be spent in my volunteer capacity, taking care of a home and family, and paid employment, to try and fix whatever is wrong with the feed delivery for this blog. For the time being, I will continue to post about the various ways that I maximize our modest income.

I understand that without feed delivery, my readership will continue to dwindle. Sometimes, I just have to wonder, is this God's way of pushing me in another direction? It could very well be. Until I have His answer, I'll keep posting. Until tomorrow,
God bless.

Baking bread from scratch DOES take a lot of time

Baking from scratch isn't feasible, time-wise, on a daily basis. I do have other things to attend to! But that doesn't mean that my family need go hungry, or skip out on grains, ever.

When I just don't have time/energy to bake bread, rolls, or other items to go with meals, I simply switch out the bread that I might have made,with a starchy food that takes less time and energy. A potato takes only minutes to "bake" in the microwave, compared to the an hour or more to bake muffins, rolls or bread to go with a meal. A pot of rice requires minutes of hands-on time. No toast for breakfast? Oatmeal-for-a-crowd can be made in the microwave in minutes.

A family can still exercise frugality in meal preparation, without daily baking, just by choosing other, low-cost, but time friendly, starchy foods, such as oats, rice and potatoes. When I know I will be in a time crunch for a week, then I save any homemade bread I have for to-go or on-the-run meals. Then at dinners, and other meals at home, we eat those quick or easy grains and starches. And to keep rice, potatoes or oats from being ho-hum and boring, I think about these starchy alternatives as I would the desired bread product. If my plan had been to make French bread pizza for dinner, but I’m out of French bread or buns of any kind, then I might make pizza rice, topping plain rice with all of the usual pizza toppings. Or, if I had hoped to have toast for breakfast, I also know that oatmeal with my favorite toast toppings of peanut butter and jam is quite delicious. And if I had wanted to serve toasted cheese sandwiches with a bowl of soup, but all out of bread, well then, a microwaved potato, topped with cheddar is also yummy.

I remember growing up, it seemed like a crisis if we were out of bread. Someone in the house would be sent out to the grocery store to pick up a loaf, because what would we eat if we didn't have bread?! The same thing with milk. If we were out of milk, well what on earth would we eat for breakfast the next day?! And I know that my childhood household was not alone in this type of thinking. This is common. Whoever plans the meals/does the shopping realizes that the house is out of some common food item, and makes that last-minute rush out to the store.

Well, at least with bread products, this family has found many solutions to the all out of bread problem.  And yes, I am enjoying a bowl of yummy oatmeal, topped with jam and peanut butter, this morning for my breakfast!

How I bought our new supply of bath tissue (and saved $26.89!)

Okay, so I mentioned at the end of my last post on ship to store shopping that I would be stocking up on bath tissue in the same way that I stocked up on baking soda.

I spent several days looking into the various places that I could buy bath tissue, including our local Cash and Carry, Dollar Tree, and a couple of office supply stores. Yes, online office supply stores.

Why would an office supply store carry bath tissue? Well, offices usually have bathroom facilities, right? And they have to keep some items (bath tissue, hand soap, paper towels) available for use in those office bathrooms, right? And a business would most likely shop in bulk, as I do, right? Well then. . .

Staples' website has a very long list of bath tissue to scroll through. I found a product similar to what I've been buying for many years, at Albertson's (a store-brand version of Scott's 1000). Although our family manages with a very inexpensive bath tissue, you should know that Staples' website carries Quilted Northern, Charmin, Angel Soft, Seventh Generation, Kleenex Cottonelle, and Scotts, in addition to the institutional brands that businesses/restaurants often buy, such as Brighton (the brand that I bought this time) and Tork.

It may be worth taking a look at their website, if you have a Staples in your area. If you use the ship to store option, you will save on shipping charges. You will have to drive to the store location that you choose to pick up your order.  If it's not inconvenient to make that drive, and Staples carries a brand that you would try, for less than your grocery store, then this might work for you, too.

About my purchase and my savings -- as I said, our usual brand is the Albertson's house brand of Scott's 1000. I buy it in the 20-roll package, for $14.99, on sale. I went online to Staples website, and bought Brighton 1000, in a case of 96 rolls. The individual sheets of Brighton are slightly bigger than the Albertson's brand. The list price at Staples was $51.79, or the equivalent of $10.79 for 20 rolls.

But wait, my price gets better. I put the case into my cart and looked around at other deals on their site. While I was doing this, the site put a special offer into my cart, good for 20 minutes. I knew I was ready to make this purchase, so I took the extra discount, an additional $6.73 off of my purchase, if I acted then. So, I did, of course.

My final price on the bath tissue was $45.06, or $9.38 for every 20 rolls (plus sales tax). I saved over $5.00 per 20-roll package, on our new supply of bath tissue, or $26.89 total, on the 96 rolls.

I could have had my order shipped to my home address, but instead chose to bypass the shipping charges, and have it shipped to my nearby Staples storefront, free of shipping charges. The online stores which offer this free ship to store option are hoping to just get you in the door and look around and buy more stuff while there. And probably many shoppers do just this. But, if you're like me and can walk in, pick up what you're after, and walk out, then there's no "spending-risk" choosing ship to store.

I do admit, I've never tried this brand, that I'm aware of. So, this was a roll of the dice on the purchase. But the way that I look at it is this. If we absolutely don't like this brand of bath tissue, then I never have to buy it again. My new supply will last us about 9 months. The very worst case scenario is we have to live with this for 9 months, then I am free to choose another brand. The very best case scenario is this product was satisfactory for us, and we saved money to put towards our financial goals. Either way, we saved a chunk of cash with this purchase.

It's hard to know how to compare the dollar value one brand of bath tissue to another. The sheet sizes are all over the place. And with two-ply, one-ply, you can't really compare the linear amount. And even when you think you have all things in consideration being even, the manufacturers can use a thinner tissue sheet for their rolls, giving the impression on the label that you are getting more mileage than you will, in practice. The bottom line, financially, is how how long will a dollar's worth (or $10 worth) of bath tissue last your family with the various brands.

My best method of calculating which bath tissue is the best deal is to actually time our use of bath tissue. I mark on a package when I open it. Then, when we finish that package (or fraction of that package, if I'm making a calculation based on a very large package, and don't want to wait that long), I calculate as follows: price of bath tissue divided by weeks of use we received. I can easily compare 1 brand to the next, based on our use to dollar ratio. It does mean that I will need to try a couple of brands/styles to reach my conclusion on which will be the better value for our family. Every time I've run this calculation on bath tissue, I've come up with 1000 sheet, single-ply as the most cost-effective bath tissue for our family, when sticking with a store house-brand, or now, with an institutional/restaurant supply brand.

All of this very lengthy post, just to say, look around at other possible places to buy your bath tissue. You may be pleasantly surprised where you find a great deal. And in case you're wondering, the case I bought was quite large in size, and didn't fit in my trunk! I had a dream about this very thing the night before, and found myself wide awake for an hour, strategizing how I would get this home. My default plan would be to open the case in the parking lot and unload into the trunk, roll by roll. (As it turned out, the case fit into the back seat of my small sedan, so no problem there.)

Making fruity granola: so simple, but oh, so delicious!!

While we love our cinnamon, maple, pumpkin, etc granola, we also really enjoy fruity granolas. They're so easy to make. In fact, it's even simpler and less hands-on time involved, than some of the hearty, autumnal granolas. You bake the granola for 15 minutes, then can walk away for the remainder of the drying time.

This time of year, I'm culling through my homemade jellies and jams. We're right up against the time of year that I begin making jelly and jam, so I'm needing to use up last year's supply.

To make a batch of fruity granola, you'll need:

• 2/3 to 3/4 cup of any flavor of jelly or jam (this is a great way to use up that too-runny jam made last summer! I like granola to be less sweet, so I use the lesser amount.)
• 1-2 tablespoons honey (optional, but makes the granola sweeter, if that's what your family prefers)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 cups of oats
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional -- if I'm using the orange zest, then I skip the almond extract. The extract just boosts the flavor a bit.)
• 1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)
• 1 to 2 handfuls of dried fruit, about 1 cup (I've been using dried cranberries)

• a large jelly roll pan or large baking sheet with raised edges
• bit of butter for buttering the baking sheet

Melt jam or jelly in a large glass bowl in the microwave, for about 30-45 seconds. Mix in additional ingredients, except the dried fruit (those go in later, so they don't scorch). Toss well until oats are all coated.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter a jelly roll pan. Spread the coated oats in the prepared pan, leaving more of the oats towards the edges and corners than in the center of the pan.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn off oven, stir oats, and leave the pan in oven, with the door closed, for 1 & 1/2  to  2 hours. The granola will continue to dry out as the oven cools. After a couple of hours, remove from the oven and stir in dried fruit. Allow to finish cooling in the pan on a rack.

The granola that I made when my step-mom was visiting was a combination of red currant jelly and blackberry syrup, with dried cranberries added at the end. She was "wowed!" to say the least, and raved over how delicious the granola was.

I've also been using up some too-runny plum jam, which is nice as it uses that jam, but also the bits of fruit are nice in the granola.

We typically serve our homemade fruity granola with our plain yogurt mixed with blackberry syrup. It's quite delicious and very suiting to the warming weather of spring.


The other day, I made the granola even more frugally. I had a whole chicken in the oven roasting at 325 degrees F in the late afternoon. I popped a pan of fruity granola into the oven just as I pulled the chicken out, so there was no preheating involved. And the granola did it's drying time while we ate dinner and cleaned up the kitchen for the evening.

Rhubarb sticky buns

These are soooo delicious!

I made these very yummy rhubarb sticky buns the other day. And seeing as it IS rhubarb season, I thought I'd share this recipe with you. If you have rhubarb in your garden, and you like sticky buns, I urge you to give these a try!

For the dough, while you can use a biscuit dough, I like these with a yeast dough. Use any yeast dough that you would normally use to make a pan of a dozen cinnamon rolls (a recipe that uses about 2 cups of flour). I made these with some of my refrigerator roll dough.

You will need:

yeast dough enough for 1 dozen rolls (or biscuit dough, see notes at the bottom)

filling:
3 cups finely chopped, fresh rhubarb
scant 1 cup of sugar *
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

syrup:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/8 cup boiling water
1  1/2 tablespoons butter

• Butter a 9 X 12-inch baking dish.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough to a large rectangle, about 12 inches long and 9 inches wide.
• Toss the finely chopped rhubarb with cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle evenly over surface of rectangle of dough, leaving an unfilled inch along one of the long edges of dough. Roll up tightly, jelly roll-style. Pinch the seam closed.
• Cut into 1-inch slices and place in prepared baking dish. Allow to rise until doubled in  bulk.
• Meanwhile, make syrup. Stir together boiling water and sugar. Add butter. Allow to cool while rolls rise.
• When dough is about doubled, heat oven to 350 F degrees. Pour syrup over rolls. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until rolls are golden on top.

*to reduce sugar in filling, you can add about 1/8 teaspoon baking soda to the fruit, and cut the sugar to about 2/3 cup. The baking soda will reduce some of the acidity in the rhubarb.

If you can keep your family from eating all of these, they do freeze well. I usually make a double-batch and freeze half.

Notes about dough

If you'd like to make these with a Basic Biscuit Dough:

Prepare your rhubarb filling and syrup before making the dough.

Make a dough of 2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon baking powder, with 1/2 cup butter or margarine cut in to flour mixture. Stir together with 3/4 cup milk. Gently roll out on a floured surface, into a rectangle of about 9 X 12 inches. Then fill and cut as above.

Instead of allowing to rise, right after placing biscuit-style rolls into buttered baking dish, pour the syrup over all, and bake at 350 F for about 35-40 minutes.


For a Basic Yeast Dough yielding 1 dozen sweet rolls:

1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups of flour, all-purpose or half all-purpose, half whole wheat

In a large mixing bowl pour water and sprinkle with yeast.

Stir in salt and sugar.

Mix in 1 cup of flour and the butter. Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time. In the last cup, the dough will become stiff. Knead right in the bowl, for about 4-6 minutes. Allow to sit for about 40 minutes.

Prepare your baking sheet/pan.

Punch down dough. Turn onto a floured surface. Turn and punch about 20 times. Dough is ready to roll out.

___________________________________________________________

Rolling in dough

Once every couple of weeks, I use a stand-mixer for making the dough for our sandwich and toast bread. The hook and bowl have to be washed by hand. So, while it's out and in use, I like to get it good and dirty with lots of dough.

Last Friday, I used the mixer to make whole wheat dough for 4 loaves of sandwich bread.

Then when that bread dough was out of the mixer, I started a batch of multi-purpose French bread dough, which can also be used for pizza crust and focaccia, in addition to laves of French bread. I make enough of this dough at one time for 4 loaves/uses of dough. I ball these up and place on a sheet of oiled plastic wrap, and freeze in a large zippered plastic bag.

And finally, I used the mixer for a batch of refrigerator, rich roll dough. This dough stays "good" for about 4 days in the fridge. Saturday morning, I used a portion for homemade donuts. Saturday evening I made crescent rolls to go with our dinner. Then on Monday, I took out the last of the refrigerator dough and made rhubarb sticky buns to have with breakfast on Tuesday (and yes, also for a snack for myself on Monday afternoon!)

Thirst-quenchers

We had a mini-heat wave, here, over the weekend, with temperatures soaring into the high 70s! Okay, not exactly blistering, but warm enough to want plenty of chilled beverages.

Saturday morning, I made 3 pitchers of cold drinks for our family. One, a fruity punch, made with the last of the blackberry pancake syrup, some red currant drink syrup, water and about 1 cup of flat lemon-lime soda, leftover from the March birthday of my two daughters.

The second beverage was a black tea and lemon iced tea, made from Dollar Tree black tea and bottled lemon juice. I didn't sweeten it, but left that up to each drinker, which was a good choice, as neither of my daughters wanted it sweetened.

And the third beverage was the one which surprised me with it's popularity in our family. I made a tomato juice, using canned tomato paste, onion powder, crushed celery seed, lemon juice, water, sugar and salt. I made a little over a quart and by mid-afternoon we were down to 1 cup of that juice. As it turns out, all three of my kids (and myself) loved it. So, this is definitely a beverage to continue making this season. A good way to get a veggie serving in each day, with minimal added sugar. And it only costs me about 30 cents per quart to make (with the price I paid for my ingredients), not too bad.

Gone are the days of those vibrantly-colored pitchers of Kool-aid in our fridge!

What are your family's favorite warm-weather beverages? Have you found that as your kids grew up they preferred less sugary drinks, and/or opted for more nutrient-dense beverages?

_________________________________________________________

Does it look like something's missing, here?

Maybe not to you, but I can see that there are no paper baking cups on this batch of muffins. This is not earth-shaking, frugal living, by any means. But over the last 15 years, I had become accustomed to using paper baking cups with muffins and cupcakes. I thought I was saving a whole lot of time by using them.

Well, I ran out of plain white, everyday baking cups a month ago, and don't want to use up my "special" holiday baking cups. Until I can bring myself to buy some more "everyday" baking cups, I'll be buttering the muffin tins.

But do you know what I was thinking about? There's a generation of young people who don't know that a muffin tin can simply be buttered. Kids and young adults who have mostly seen muffins in grocery stores and bakeries, always wrapped in a paper baking cup. Isn't that funny to think? Meanwhile, many of our mothers always buttered muffin tins. So many things have changed in just our lifespans.

So, you know I wouldn't just leave this post as is, don't you? That I would simply HAVE TO figure if there was any significant cost savings to buttering my muffin tins. LOL!

Okay, so a dozen paper baking cups are around 13 cents (Dollar Tree, 100 ct., $1.10 including tax). I use less than 1/2 tablespoon of butter to grease a 12-cup muffin tin. 1/2 tablespoon of butter costs me about 2 & 1/2 cents cents (at the price per pound I most recently bought butter, $1.69/lb). So I do save 11 cents per 12-cup muffin pan, by buttering the tin.

Now all of this, whether or not it's cheaper to butter your tin or use paper baking cups, is highly dependent on 2 things -- the price of butter and the price of paper baking cups. If the price of paper came way down, but the price of butter skyrocketed, the outcome of my calculations would change.


But wait . . .  here's another possibility. I can buy baking cups in a super duper large quantity (about 10,000 which would be a 20-year supply even for me), for just over $50. Of all of my searching for cheap paper baking cups, this is the absolute cheapest that I found. A dozen of these bulk-purchased baking cups would cost about 6 cents. Even at this price, I still save almost 4 cents per dozen, by buttering my muffin tins.

But how about the work saved by using baking cups? It took me under 5 minutes to butter the entire tin. I was waiting for the oven to preheat in this time, anyway. So, not really an issue. How about sticking to the pan? My muffins don't generally stick to the pan. Higher sugar recipes will leave a sticky crumb residue, but the muffins still pull out of the pan.

So, will I continue buttering the tins? Well, despite all of this, there is this thing I call "mental time". It's not real time, but perceived time. My mind wants to believe that paper baking cups are SO much more convenient. I can read the facts that I just typed, but it's hard to convince my mind. I know myself. At some point, I will buy more baking cups. But I'll be looking for a great deal on them.

In the meantime, at 2 dozen muffins per week, I am saving at least 12 cents, maybe 22 cents per week. Okay, not a grand savings, but over a year, that does add up to a whopping $6.24 to $11.44 by buttering my muffin pans. I won't be getting rich by buttering my muffin tins, but I could go out to lunch on those savings. What I have figured is this -- my "stock-up wildly" price on baking cups is about 25 cents per 100 count. Could happen.

Do you do anything to save money that only saves pennies, but you do it anyway?

________________________________________________________________

One of the things we've missed . . .

has been juice.

We're not terribly picky about which kind of juice. I love orange, pineapple and tomato, myself.

One of my daughters, in particular, loves tomato juice.

Well, remember all of those canned whole tomatoes that I've been oven roasting? There's all of that liquid from the cans leftover.

My tomato juice-loving daughter has been enjoying this "juice", as juice. And she's right! It is delicious. A pinch of onion powder and a bit of salt, and it's unbelievably good! If I had some celery salt in the house, I imagine a bit of that plus onion powder would be very tasty.

While this tomato juice is not exactly free, it is a by-product of making oven-roasted tomatoes. And even at the price of the large can of whole tomatoes, our juice is still a bargain compared to the 46 ounce cans of canned tomato juice selling for around $2.50 or so per can at the supermarket.

"Ship to store" shopping

In addition to checking the brick-and-mortar versions on our local stores, I also check each store's websites, for specific items for which I'm looking for a deal.

Sometimes, a web version of a store carries inventory not found in the brick-and-mortar. And sometimes, the website offers the exact same merchandise, but at a lower price.

My local Dollar Tree is the spot where I've been getting my baking soda for the last couple of years. It has been 59 cents for a 16 oz. box. The next best price I have found in our area is Walmart, in a large bag, for 62 cents per pound.

A little over a week ago, I was in Dollar Tree, and horrors!! the baking soda had been marked up to 79 cents per box.

I slid on home, went online to the Dollar Tree website, and found it had not been marked up online, yet. It was still listed at 59 cents per box. So, I ordered a case of 24 boxes., for 59 cents per box.


With Dollar Tree, there's a handling fee if you split up a case. But if you buy the whole case, there's no handling charge. In addition, you have your choice on shipping. You can have it shipped to your home, for a shipping charge. Or, you can have it shipped to your local store, for you to pick up, with no shipping charge.

So, I obtained the pre-mark up price, and saved on shipping charges.

I saved $4.80 by making my purchase this way. That's like buying 18 boxes, at the new price and getting 6 boxes for free. If 24 boxes of baking soda sounds like a whole lot to you, keep in mind that I use baking soda/vinegar in place of all of my baking powder in recipes, and I use baking soda as my scouring powder in sinks, tubs and showers. I'll also be experimenting with making my own dishwasher detergent this year, so that will use more baking soda.

When ordering food products, you do want to keep general expiration dates in mind. I looked up, in advance of my order, the approximate shelf life of baking soda. I suspected that I would have 2 or more years on the case. And I was correct. The case is stamped "best by 04  06  2018". And from what I've read about storage of baking soda, it can maintain its potency long past the best-by date, if stored properly. So, I'm in the clear with regards to shelf life.

I completely understand that ordering large cases of products is not for everyone. I get that.

Not all "ship to store" purchases need to be in large quantities. Sometimes a store carries a specific item that you want, online, only. For instance, my daughter was needing a special pencil for an art class. It was available online, through an office supply website, but not in their brick-and-mortar store. We've ordered food items through Cash & Carry that weren't part of their regular inventory, but they could have it delivered to their storefront.

The procedure is usually as follows:

• you place your order online and prepay
• the item is usually non-returnable, unless damaged or not delivered in the time-frame you were quoted
• there's a time-frame for delivery to your designated store (you choose the store location)
• you receive several emails, so check spam and junk folders
• you print out an emailed order receipt and bring it with ID to the store's customer service department 
• you sign for your purchase, but are not charged at this time (you have prepaid this order)
• they give you a pick-up window of about a week. If you miss your "window" the order may be canceled.

It's that simple! Just another shopping option for finding the best prices on your needed items.

**I'll be making another "ship to store" purchase in the next month. I've found bath tissue at a great price through a website for an office supply store. I'll give you more details when I make that purchase. (I want to make sure everything goes smoothly with that transaction before recommending this store/website).

______________________________________________________________

Did you do anything special for Cinco de Mayo?

Our Cinco de Mayo dinner on a budget

The dinner menu was chips and salsa, shredded turkey tacos, refried black beans, and carrot sticks. Nothing fancy, I'll freely admit, but festive nonetheless.

I used store-purchased corn tortillas to make both the tortilla chips and the taco shells. Corn tortillas keep for a long time in the fridge, so I buy the most economical package at the Cash & Carry (72-ct, for $2.18, that works out to 36 cents per dozen tortillas).

To make the chips:
I oil-fried wedges of the tortillas in a shallow skillet, until crisp, turning once, then drained on a paper bag. A pinch of salt is optional, and that's about it!

A word about frying oil and corn tortillas. The oil picks up the corn tortilla taste and this flavor goes very well in the rest of the Mexican dinner. I fry the tortilla chips first, then use some of that oil in the refried beans and the turkey taco filling. It's quite delicious.

To make the salsa:
This is budget, food processor salsa. I used canned, whole tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped fresh onions, garlic powder, lemon juice, lime juice and/or vinegar, chili powder, red pepper flakes, cumin, dried oregano, salt and frozen hot peppers. I run all of this through the food processor till desired texture. I allow the salsa to sit for an hour, for the flavor to develop.

The taco filling was made from frozen, cooked white-meat turkey (from our most recent roasted, whole turkey), simmered with onions, chili powder, salt, and garlic powder. (I also add some of the tomato liquid from the canned tomatoes to the taco filling -- mentioning this now, as I don't add the tomato juice to the refried beans.) I fill the corn tortilla, fold over and oil-fry in the same pan in which I previously made the chips. Top with cheese and salsa and we're good to go! (*tip* corn tortillas can be a bit dry and crack when folding. I zap them in the microwave for 7 seconds each, to make them pliable, just before filling with meat, and folding into tacos.)

Refried beans are well, refried beans. I had some cooked black beans in the freezer (pinto beans would seem more authentic). I simmered these beans similarly to the turkey taco filling, in onions, oil, spices and water. I also add some of the black olive juice from the can, for a bit of flavor. When the onions and beans were quite soft, I used a potato masher on all. Top with shredded cheddar-jack cheese and some sliced olives. Yum!


Yesterday was another one of those super busy days. So, I didn't have time to put much together. No banners, decor or other festive atmosphere. The best I could do was Youtube some Mariachi music on autoplay, and get out my colorful Portuguese pottery.

How about you? How do you throw together a festive dinner on little time and on even littler budget?

_______________________________________________________

April 2015 Grocery Spending Journal

For the month of April, I have $155.23 for groceries. I'll continue to work extra hard at controlling my spending.

April 1. Eggs, lots of eggs. A comment was left anonymously on one of my posts that eggs were on sale for 99 cents/dozen at Target. One daughter was needing mascara, and I buy ELF cosmetics for some items (a deal -- $1 for mascara, and $1 for under-eye concealer for myself). So, off to Target (and Kohl's next door to use my $10 off coupon for new socks for daughters, another real deal, 6 pairs of Gold Toe socks regularly $14, on sale for $12, used my $10 off coupon and spent $2.19 including tax, that's less than 40 cents/ pair).

Okay back to groceries, I bought 17 dozen eggs, to go with my 3 dozen eggs from last week. I now have 20 dozen eggs in the house! I'll start the freezing process later today. I plan on freezing at least 8 dozen. Total spent on eggs, $16.83

April 1. Walgreen's to use my coupon for cream cheese (99cents -- 8-oz, limit 3), also buy 1 bag of jelly beans for 67 cents. spent $3.64

April 2. Walgreen's for cream cheese, 99 cents each, limit 3 with coupon. Bought 3. Also found 7 packages of marked down ham luncheon meat to add to the freezer, at 99 cents for 9-oz packages. Total spent $9.90

April 3. Once more by Walgreen's. Buy 3 packages cream cheese, 99 cents each, 2 dozen eggs, 99 cents each, and 3 more bags of jelly beans (to use later in the year), 3/$2. spent $6.95

April 3. Country Farms produce stand. 1 10-lb bag of small oranges (great size for lunches), $3.99 (40cents/lb),  1 bag of marked down bell peppers (2 green, 3 yellow) for $1.29, 1 bundle of celery (about 2 lbs, 89 cents), 5 red delicious apples (50 cents/lb), 3 small avocados, 25 cents each, and just over a lb of asparagus at $1.99/lb.  Most of what I bought fell under the 50 cents/lb price limit I've got going right now, with exception to the asparagus (for a holiday meal), and the avocados and peppers, I'm not sure, as they're usually sold per piece, anyway, but got good deals, nonetheless. Spent $10.24

April 3. Cash & Carry wholesaler, for 50-lbs white flour ($13.38), 50-lbs granulated sugar ($21.37), 29 oz cans of coffee ($5.98) and decaf ($7.95), 1-gallon jar of mayonnaise ($4.95), will be decanted a pint at a time, 5-lb bag of shredded cheddar-jack cheese (this was mostly cheddar, by looking at the bag, will be good for mac and cheese and cheese sauces -- $9.98), and 5-lb bag of carrots ($2.09). Spent $65.70

Spent to date -- $113.26

We are well-stocked right now. The only items that I'm REALLY wanting to buy are dried lentils and/or dried pinto beans. I'm going to have to resist spending, unless I find fabulous deals.

April 5. Stopped by Albertson's to buy a container of vanilla bean ice cream for Easter dinner (because what would pie be without a scoop of ice cream on top?!) spent $3.49. Month-to-date spent
$116.75

April 9. Cash & Carry wholesaler for 50-lbs whole wheat flour ($12.99), 5-lb bag shredded cheddar ($9.98) and 50-lb bag of potatoes (grade #2, $5.95). Spent $28.92 for a total of $145.67

April 9. Fred Meyer, found 1% milk on markdown for $1.49/gallon (bought 4, enough to get through the month), also 24 oz containers of cottage cheese for 99 cents (bought 3). I can use the cottage cheese in the filling for lasagna. I use about 16 oz per pan of lasagna, so each pan will cost 66 cents for the cottage cheese part of the lasagna. Enough cottage cheese for 4 pans of lasagna. What I don't use in the next few weeks will freeze for future cooking. Spent $8.93, for a month to date total of $154.60.

So, it's April 13, and I'm checking in here. I'm down to enough soy milk for one more cup of tea. I like milk in some flavors of tea but not all, and never in coffee. So, I'm drinking the fruitier flavors of tea this week, as I take these black with a bit of sugar. Sometimes, I use a plain dollar store tea bag with a spoonful of cherry preserves or a tablespoon or two of red currant drink syrup. Either one makes a good cup of tea for me. Otherwise, we're doing okay for the week without going grocery shopping. I still have greens in the garden, a 3-lb block of frozen spinach, some cabbage, carrots, onions, shallots, potatoes, oranges and an avocado. Plus the canned veggies (pumpkin, and various tomato products), and lots of frozen fruits from last summer. I'll need produce next week, which will put me over our limit. But not by a whole lot.

There's nothing on sale this week that I can't live without. That's a good feeling. I should be able to get this budget back in line by the end of next month. No holiday meal to plan for. No major sales expected. And we're fairly well stocked with the basics.

April 14. Dollar Tree. buy 1 quart of soy milk. spent $1

April 14. Fred Meyer, find 16 oz boxes of whole, small mushrooms, marked down to $1.89 each. I buy 2. Spend $3.78.

April 19, find 1 gallon skim milk marked down to $1.50. spent $1.50

Total spent for the month, $160.88

April 23. My step-mom is visiting and I wanted to make lasagna for one night. I'd actually thought about making the pasta by hand. I've made fettuccine on many occasions, so thought lasagna would be pretty simple. But I just ran out of time. So Dollar Tree for 1 box of lasagna noodles, spent $1. Will have to make homemade lasagna another time.

Total spent for the month, $161.88

April 24. Cash & Carry has some spices on sale through the weekend. I don't want to miss the opportunity to pick these up. Large canister ground mustard powder ($2.37), Large canister chili powder ($3.25), large canister cinnamon sticks ($1.88), large canister whole cloves ($4.12), large canister ground cumin ($3.46). spent $15.08

April 30. Cinco de Mayo sales on spices at Cash and Carry, cellophane bags of dried peppers (99 cents), ground paprika ($2.78), and garlic granules ($2.48). Spent $6.25


Done for the month of April. Total spent for the month -- $183.21, over my allotted amount by $27.98. That amount will be deducted from May's grocery budget, giving me $147.02 for May.

Cinco de Mayo: saving money by buying spices in ethnic markets or sections of your grocery store

We all know about shopping the bulk spice department of local markets, right? You can buy your spices for a fraction of the price of those small vials in the baking section of your local supermarket, if you scoop out what you need from bulk containers. You can also buy large canisters from warehouse clubs and restaurant supplies. These are a tremendous deal, as well.

I have another favorite place to buy some of my spices. And this is very time applicable, right now, with Cinco de Mayo just around the corner.

Cellophane pouches of herbs and spices are about $1 or $2 cheaper than even the large-size, (10-14 ounce) commercial canisters sold at warehouse clubs.

Some of my favorite spices are available, sold in pouches, not containers, in the Hispanic section of stores (wholesalers as well as grocery stores), AND in local Hispanic markets, AND online at sites like Amazon.com.

When we're driving around our own towns, we often don't notice the variety of ethnic markets lining the sides of highways and major streets. But take a look. You don't need to live in an "ethnic" section of town to have ethnic markets nearby. In our area, we have Hispanic and Korean markets. These stores are much smaller than traditional grocery stores, so often just go unnoticed.

But also, your own grocery store has a section with foods and ingredients from other cuisines. In the Hispanic section, you'll often find these pouches of certain spices. Dried peppers, cayenne pepper, garlic granules, cumin, oregano, cinnamon, etc.

Can I tell you a little secret? One of these brands, El Guapo, is owned by McCormick. That's right, McCormick & Co stands behind the El Guapo brand.

El Guapo has an extensive line of individual herbs and spices as well as spice blends, from spearmint leaves, oregano, cumin and cinnamon sticks to curry powder, chili powder, and Menudo spice mix (Menudo is a soup, but this mix is also excellent for making carne asada). All of these are sold in cellophane pouches, for a dollar or two cheaper per pound, than even the warehouse store 10 to 16 ounce canisters (which are a great deal in themselves).

Storing these spices at home for maximum freshness

You need your own canister, once you get these home. But a canning jar works, so does an olive jar (those tall slim jars). In a pinch, I've transferred contents to freezer bags.

When I've thought the pouches looked too big to use in about a year, I simply repackaged some, to store in the freezer. I've found that herbs and spices don't often go "bad" in a year or two, as much as they lose their potency. I buy spices in 16-oz containers and bags from our wholesaler. I repackage 2/3 for the freezer, and pour the other 1/3 into a canister for the kitchen. My spices have kept their potency for a few years at a time, this way.

But local Hispanic markets, your grocery store and Amazon also carry El Guapo (and other ethnic brands) in smaller household sizes that you may be accustomed to, like just a couple of ounces per item.

What do I buy in El Guapo packets? Well, this week, Cash & Carry has their selection of El Guapo on sale, for Cinco de Mayo. Yesterday, I picked up paprika, garlic granules and dried peppers (my enchilada sauce recipe starts with dried peppers). My price for these items, on sale, was about half the price of the commercial-size canisters of the same ingredients, also sold at Cash & Carry.

Anyway, if you happen to be in the area of an Hispanic market, stop in and take a look at their spice offerings. Or, when at your local grocery store, wander down the ethnic cuisine aisle, and see what herbs and spices they carry in cellophane pouches. (Know your price per pound on various herbs and spices, and compare.)

Especially this weekend, with Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday, this is a good time to check your local grocery store (could be running a sale on Mexi ingredients).

_______________________________________________________________