The Shopping List on a Small Budget

In a consumer environment where there are so many appealing options, sticking to a budget is never easy. I have found that, for myself, organization and planning is key for maintaining a small grocery budget.

Over the years, I've had larger budgets and smaller ones. When I had a larger budget, the leeway in spending was great enough that I didn't need to plan to the penny. I also didn't need to stick so tightly to a specific number. If I went over by a bit one month, then I tried to keep spending under by a comparable amount the next. My guess is that this is the way that most of us carry out our spending. For now, I need to plan, calculate, and negotiate.

First, I make out my list of wants for the month. That's a pretty quick job. Next, I research the prices, comparing across several stores. To do this, I log into my usual stores online and look up the prices for each item. I note each store's price and record the lowest for each item. If a low price is also a sale price, I record the expiration date on that sale, as well. If the expiration date falls before my budget month begins, then I need to decide if I will pick up that item before the month actually begins and hold it for the days of the remaining month, or let the sale go. (I'm fortunate enough that I am not shopping with cash, but instead I do have flexibility.)

The deciding factors for pre-spending the budget involve necessity and urgency. If the item is needed urgently for good health, then I'm willing to buy and use it before a month begins, for example, if I had no fats in the house (oil, butter, shortening, nuts/nut butters, meat fat). Or, if the item falls on the need-want spectrum closer to need but isn't urgent, then I will pre-spend, but hold the item until the next month begins. An example of this might be something like cheese in contrast to chocolate chips. Even if chocolate chips are at a rock-bottom low, if I have spent my month's allotment, I won't buy them until the new month's budget begins. But cheese does fulfill a nutritional area in my budget, so I am willing to pre-spend but hold off on our use.

Once I've recorded all of the prices for my list, I total the purchase amount. So far, I've not come beneath my budget in this early stage of planning. And so, the mental negotiations begin. What can we live without versus what would improve the quality of our eating for the month? An example, for several months, I decided that we could live without mayonnaise. This month, we finally have enough in the budget to afford this sandwich and salad condiment. However, this month we'll be forgoing soy sauce. In addition, I took chicken leg quarters off of my list again this month. The lowest available price for my area has risen to 60 cents per pound for bone-in meat. From the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, the percentage of thigh/leg that is meat alone averages 62%, which means that the meat-only price per pound of chicken leg quarters is about 97 cents per pound, and that is only if every morsel of meat is cleaned off of the bones. That is still a good deal for meat, but not so good that the price won't be around again, and we do have enough other meat to sustain us through the month. And, I'm now negotiating with myself over my decaf instant coffee. I am thinking that, for one month, I could put the $3.52 expense toward more produce for my family. This is a tough one for me. My husband would still have his regular coffee for the month, so I don't need to consult him on this decision. I would have some decaf instant left from April. If I limited myself to a half-cup of decaf per day, I could drink decaf tea in its place for the rest of the day. (And just so you know, I'm not so self-sacrificing that I would always give up "my thing" for the benefit of the rest of the family. The next time this scenario arises, I will ask another family to give up one of their "things," so long as it's a non-nutritive, unnecessary item.) And so the negotiations carry on over the course of about a week, as I whittle away until my list fits the dollar amount of the budget.

With a whittled-down list, I organize the items by store and begin planning the shopping dates. Although I have the month's purchases planned out before the first of the month, I hold off on some of the shopping until later in the month. This allows me to pick up a few more perishable foods, such as bananas, at a later date. In some months, special occasions and holidays dictate when I will shop and where. For example, Cinco de Mayo is before Senior Discount Day at Fred Meyer (which would be my go-to place for a small package of corn tortillas, but only if with the Senior discount), so I will need to shop at WinCo early in the month (has the best price per unit on corn tortillas, but in a larger package, using more of my budget). With a small budget, ease sometimes takes a backseat.

About unexpected sales and bargains . . .
In my ideal scenario, I would have a small amount of money leftover in the budget for the unexpected deal. I hate to have to pass up savings, but that is what needs to be done at times. I do remind myself that many (but not all) of these deals will cycle through again.

My long-range plan to accommodate unplanned bargains relies on building a stockpile of staples (bought at a low price per unit). With the staples in store, there will be some extra money available for the non-basics each month, as well as for building a little fund for those unexpected deals. I will need to deliberately divert some of the extra money toward this fund, as it is so easy to find ways to spend all of the budget each month. But I do believe that a special fund set aside for picking up bargains could be a benefit for my small budget.

I sometimes come across deals on the items that I had planned on buying, such as with the marked-down milk that I bought last month. When that occurs, I often have a contingency plan for how to spend any savings. In addition, when I buy from the bulk bins at WinCo, I try very hard to stay beneath my price limit for each item. I miss the target by a bit, going over or under, each time. Plus, WinCo gives a refund for bringing my own bags. It's only 6 cents per bag, but that little amount can offset any overages in the bulk area or allow an extra piece of fruit for the month.

The entire planning procedure requires about 5 to 6 hours of my time. I take the same care with precision that I would if this were a business enterprise. I think the common conception is that grocery planning is quickly carried out, minutes before heading out the door. Whether you plan and shop once per month or once per week, planning is a time-consuming activity. However, if  it is done well, it can reap some serious financial benefits. My forecast for the 2019 grocery savings for my household is roughly $1500 above the savings that we had previously experienced.

In case anyone is curious about what is on May's list for my family, here it is. This is the "raw" version of my list and contains notes to myself within the list. I make the list in MSWord and revise and input data as the month progresses. For May, I will squeak in about 25 cents under budget, at $125.25 to $125.30.

Grocery list May, budget- 125.52 (52 cents leftover from April)

^indicates shopping comparison onsite

strawberries for Mother’s Day <$2

C&C-soybean oil–big box, 35-lbs, First Street, stock-up item $18.98

C&C-whole wheat flour, 50-lb bag, ADM, 13.17-stock-up item

C&C-canned whole tomatoes, #10, 2.89 Simply Value

C&C-raisins, 4-lb bag, First Street, 9.37

C&C-cheese, 5 lbs First Street, medium cheddar or cheddar/jack $10.24 until 4/28, Sunday

C&C-mayonnaise, $6.77 First Street 1 gallon

C&C- carrots 25-lb bag, Kern Ridge, 8.95 thru 4/28

C&C-5-lb Fuji apples, 3.35

73.72 at C&C

FM-butter- $2.51,Simply Moovelous, Senior day, 2 lbs

FM-milk- 5 or 6 gals, 4 or 5  2%, 1 whole for yogurt, $10.75/$10.80 (5 gallons total if $2.15, 6 if $1.80 or less), Senior day

FM-orange juice- 1 large, 1.61 each, Kroger, Senior day

FM-hot dogs 3 packs, 75 cents each ($2.25), Heritage Farms, Senior day

$1 any marked-down produce bag

(Check for markdowns: eggs - less than 95 cents/doz, bananas – 39 c/lb)

$20.63, if 5 milk, 20.68 max if milk <$1.80 and get 6

WinCo- bananas 8 lbs, (or Walmart) 42 cents/lb

WinCo- apple juice WinCo 2  99 cents each

WinCo- garlic granules – $1 worth

WinCo- chocolate chips- $1 worth

WinCo- soybeans or white beans -$1 worth

WinCo- corn tortillas- $2.69 big pack , 70 or 80 ct

^WinCo-lentils- Winco if less than 98 cents/lb, get $1 worth, or Walmart 98 cents for 16-oz. bag

^WinCo-marshmallows-1 bag WinCo, or 96 cents for 10-oz bag at Walmart

$12.99 inc lentils, marshmallows

Walmart-bananas, 42 cents/lb

Walmart-eggs- 5 dozen, $4.75

Instant decaf, Walmart, $3.52? maybe not 

^Walmart -lentils- Winco if less than 98 cents/lb, get $1 worth or Walmart 98 cents for 16-oz. bag

^Walmart - marshmallows-1 bag WinCo or 96 cents for 10-oz bag at Walmart

$4.75, eggs alone, bananas above

bought--peanut butter, 4- 40-oz, $2.79 ea, Target, 11.16, stock-up item

total 125.25 to 125.35 (depending on milk)

Last Week of the Month and Our Grocery Budget is Holding Out

One week left in April and I have 52 cents in the budget remaining. That's enough to buy about 4 or 5 small bananas from Walmart or WinCo. While I can see that our supplies are reducing, we still have a lot of food items in the pantry, fridge, and freezers, with substantial amounts of meat, eggs, milk, beans, flour, oats, cabbage, carrots, and sugar. We are starting to deplete all of those nice little tidbits which enhance meals, such as nuts and olives. But that was to be expected, as we're not buying any of those sorts of items, instead sticking to the staples. Easter left us with the nice bonus of leftover ham, ham stock for bean soup, and ham fat for cooking.

Full disclosure on the budget -- I did have to "borrow" from May's budget in order to use a $10 coupon at Target and take advantage of a sale on peanut butter. However, the peanut butter that I bought is kept out of the stock that we are currently using, and won't be opened until May 1. So, that $11.17 will come out of May's budget.

I began working on May's grocery list around the second week of April. In March and April, we stocked up on ground beef, pinto beans, all-purpose flour, and onions. The stock-up items for May include the already-purchased peanut butter, 50 pounds of whole wheat flour, and 35 pounds of vegetable oil. I see lots of baking in my future! In addition to these items and my regular list of staples, I also have two special occasions to keep in mind while preparing my list for May: Cinco de Mayo and Mother's Day. If my funds are used up for the basics, I believe that I can get by with just adding corn tortillas to my list for Cinco de Mayo and a container of strawberries for Mother's Day. The remainder of the menus for those special occasions can be drawn from my basic purchases for the month and what I have at home right now.

I know that this is still early on in my stocking up, but I've still found myself a tiny bit disappointed that our pantry is not yet looking stocked. I know that will come with a few more months of buying in stock-up quantities.

Do you know what I do when I feel down about my grocery situation? I kick myself in the pants and get busy in the kitchen, preparing as many foods as I can think to provide ready-to-eat snacks and lunch items for my family. Even if it's just boiling some eggs, those boiled eggs are one more thing that my husband and kids could grab to eat. Honestly, that thought cheers me up.

This morning, I had one of those days. I was down a bit, struggling with a headache that's only partially responding to OTC painkillers (day 2 of a migraine), and worn out from the weekend. But I knew if I made myself busy in the kitchen, then that would be addressing one of my situations. So, I made a batch of rhubarb muffins, using a small baggie of pancake mix and an even smaller baggie of corn muffin mix, plus rhubarb from our garden, an egg, oil, vanilla extract, sugar, liquid from the canned yams on Sunday, and whey from homemade yogurt. After the batter was in the muffin tins, I sprinkled some leftover crumb topping from pie-baking over the weekend. I also made a batch of pinto bean and grilled onion sandwich spread, a pot of boiled eggs, and a pitcher of juice. These are just simple foods, but as my family members trickles into the house this afternoon, they will be greeted with snacks already made.

We're still making it. That's a good thing on which to focus my thoughts.

Holiday Dinners Using Just (or Almost) What I Have On Hand

Easter dinner went well. I do have to admit, though, that making everything with minimal convenience products is time-consuming. I cooked all Saturday afternoon, and then a good chunk of Sunday to put everything together. Despite this, in my current circumstances, cooking from scratch was the way to go. I was able to put together a nice meal for my family without adding extra expenses. I've included links to the various recipes that I used for yesterday's feast, as they may be of use to your frugal cooking, as well.

The Ham
I bought a spiral sliced ham on sale for $1.27/lb. Safeway also had the unsliced hams, which were selling for 99 cents per pound. In my experience, so far, the unsliced hams have a lot more fat and rind than the spiral sliced hams. It's true, the ham fat can be rendered for cooking. However, this time around, I went for more meat and greater convenience. My budget for Easter this year was much smaller than last year, so I prioritized buying a ham with the money. The ham is the only item that I bought just for Easter this year. By the way, if you have large chunks of fat from your ham, this post tells how I render the fat to use in cooking later.

Green Bean Casserole
The traditional green bean casserole calls for commercial fried onions. I make my own substitute using bread crumbs, butter, and onions. This post explains how I do this. For Easter, I used 1 can of green beans (bought on sale last fall), 1 dented can of waxed beans (paid 26 cents because the can was dented), a handful of frozen green beans (because it seemed like there was to much sauce), 1 can of cream of mushroom soup (bought on sale last fall), soy sauce, pepper, and milk, along with my homemade version of the French's fried onion topping.

Sweet Potato Casserole
I had a can of yams that were bought on sale last fall. I pureed the drained yams with eggs, spices, and some of the light syrup in which the yams were packed. I set aside the remainder of the yam's light syrup, to use in baking later. My family's favorite topping for sweet potato casserole is a praline one. However, I was out of pecans for this holiday and opted for marshmallows instead (which I had in the freezer).

Curried Pea and Peanut Slaw
The idea for this recipe came from the comments on a post back in 2014. I amended the idea slightly and created a salad which my family loves. Here's my version in this post. For the dressing, as I was out of mayonnaise, I used plain homemade yogurt as a substitute for both the mayo and vinegar, and added a pinch of salt to taste. I had chives in the garden, so used those in place of green onions. For the peanuts, I opened a can of mixed nuts and picked out a handful of peanuts. The rest of the can has been tucked away to use in a batch of caramel nutty bars on Father's Day.

French Bread
I've discussed our butter and oil situation, here. In a effort to conserve both, I opted for homemade French bread in place of the traditional dinner rolls. French bread uses hardly any oil and is more open to spreads or dipping oils other than butter. (In my family, butter is the favored spread for dinner rolls.) The post in this link has the recipe that I use for an all-purpose French bread, pizza, and calzone dough. It's a really great recipe and very easy for me to remember. For Easter dinner, I made the recipe into 3 long and skinny baguettes. For a spread for the French bread, I combined strained homemade plain yogurt (to the consistency of soft cream cheese) with very soft butter (in a 2 to 1 ratio of yogurt to butter) and chopped rosemary, garlic powder, and salt. The resulting spread was very tasty, and my crowd agreed that it was better than butter. So, there you go. Just when I think my substitutes are inferior, my family votes them superior, at least some of the time.

Watermelon Pickles
We're out of almost all pickles and olives, now, so I brought out a jar of homemade watermelon rind pickles, from a couple of years ago. the recipe that I've been using for watermelon pickles for the past 30 years is in this post.

"Bottled" Water
I used one of my salvaged sparkling cider bottles to "bottle" some tap water, which I chilled for several hours before dinner. My son and his wife also brought some sparkling beverages. I also made a large pot of tea, using tea that I had on hand. So, we were good with the drinks.

Jayne's Rhubarb Custard Pie
Since it's now rhubarb season where I live, we had a rhubarb custard pie for dessert. In fact, I made two pies, so I would have 1 to give as an Easter gift to my son and his wife. Making 2 pies isn't a whole lot of extra work for me but is a nice thing for them, as neither of them bake pies to my knowledge. If you grow rhubarb and don't have a recipe that you enjoy, the recipe for this pie comes from a good friend, and you'll find it in this post. We love the custard filling so much that I was thinking this could make a delicious rhubarb dessert, without the pie crust or crumb topping, in place of our usual rhubarb sauce. I'll let you know how it goes when I try baking the filling by itself. I use a scratch pie pastry recipe for the crust. It's reliable, easy, and freezes well. Here's a link to that recipe. The batch makes 5 crusts-worth of pastry at a time, which sounds like a lot. However, you can freeze it in single-crust portions to use later. It's good for both savory and sweet fillings, so I use this for chicken pot pie as much as for fruit pies.

In addition to the food, I used what I had for the table and buffet decor. You all saw the egg shell and violet table setting pieces. I also cut enough tulips from our garden for a pretty little bouquet for the buffet. The bonus is that we now have a nice bouquet to admire, indoors and out of the rain for the next couple of days.

I hope that you had an enjoyable weekend!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers From the Last Two Weeks

I somehow forgot to post last week's Cheap & Cheerful menus. Oops! Life gets busy, right? Getting on with it, here are menus from both this past week and the week before.

Saturday  4/6
bean soup and toast

Sunday  4/7
spinach, canned tomato, onion, and mozzarella frittata
home fries

Monday  4/8
cabbage, carrot, peas, and garlic chive fried rice, topped with eggs

Tuesday  4/9
bean burritos
cole slaw
these brownies, following the oven-baking suggestions, and frosted with cocoa icing

Wednesday 4/10
seafood casserole w/ cod, peas, pasta, frozen cream soup, onions, lemon juice, bay seasoning
sorrel pesto on French bread
steamed carrots

Thursday 4/11
vegetarian chili, using pinto beans, canned tomatoes, TVP, onions, seasonings, topped with cheese
cornmeal pancakes (quicker than baking cornbread)

Friday 4/12
burrito bowls -- leftover brown rice, leftover refried beans, taco meat from the freezer, canned corn, homemade salsa, homemade plain yogurt
Menchie's frozen yogurt freebie

Saturday 4/13
hot dogs in biscuit dough buns
oven-roasted potato wedges
green beans

Sunday  4/14
scrambled eggs and pancakes

Monday 4/15
spinach, onion, tomato, and beef meatloaf
mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy (from a packet)
sauteed cabbage and onions

Tuesday 4/16
bean burritos
cole slaw
apple wedges
German chocolate cake

Wednesday 4/17
almost-vegan chili (used beef fat to saute the onions)
garlic bread
German chocolate cake

Thursday 4/18
chicken pot pie casserole
salad
grapes
cookies
(This was a meal at our church where I provided the casserole, and salad, fruit and cookies were provided by others.)

Friday 4/19
chicken pot pie
(I cooked big for Thursday's casserole and made an extra for tonight.)



Sunday (4/7) breakfast -- overnight cinnamon rolls, yogurt, granola. Saturday afternoon I was working on the egg soap project. By evening, I was still in a project-sort-of-mindset, so I stayed up late cooking and baking. I made a batch of granola as well as the cinnamon rolls for a bit of a selection the next morning, as well as snacks to keep on hand for early in the week.

On Tuesday (4/9), I made a batch of salsa to go in the bean burritos. For the salsa, I used canned tomatoes, onion, garlic, chili powder, chipotle powder, salt, vinegar, and lemon juice, all simmered in a stainless pot for about 20 minutes. It didn't seem to matter that I didn't have jalepenos.

Wednesday (4/10) -- the sorrel pesto was inspired by a suggestion from Allie in the comments from March.  Allie had mentioned that an upscale restaurant in LA serves a sorrel pesto rice dish, so I thought, "why not?" I made my sorrel pesto with sorrel leaves, garlic, pine nuts, mozzarella cheese, salt, and oil. It was delicious spread on French bread. You may already know this, but you can use many different greens to make a pesto. Pesto based on other greens won't have the same basil flavor (obviously), but it can be delicious in its own right. Radish green pesto is a popular one and is a terrific use of the abundant leaves when buying or harvesting a bunch of radishes.

Friday (4/12) -- Menchie's is a self-serve frozen yogurt place. They have several deals going on at any time. Currently, if you sign up for their app, you can get a $5 off coupon. $5 will buy a modest-sized yogurt sundae. They're sold by the ounce, so you do need to be careful not to take too much if you want to stay beneath the $5 threshold. You can use the scale at the register to gauge your sundae as you're building it. Anyway, my daughters and husband downloaded the app for the $5 coupons while I used a birthday coupon. Menchie's offers a $5 coupon to use any time during your birthday month.

Monday (4/15) is when I began to earnestly cut back on butter and vegetable oil use in cooking. I now have both beef and chicken fat set aside to use in cooking this next week. For the chicken pot pies that I made for Thursday (4/18), I used some skin-on chicken leg quarters and boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The leg quarters have lots of fat. After simmering the chicken parts in water, I removed the meat and put the bones, skin, and most of the simmering liquid into the crockpot to draw out even more fat. Chilling the broth left a nice layer of fat to skim off of the top of the liquid and a very delicious soup stock to use in cooking. To save additional butter or oil in baking, in the comments earlier this week, Kris made a really great suggestion for treats that I need to bring to coffee hour at the end of the month. Kris suggested meringues. Meringues are very inexpensive cookies to make at home, using no fat at all. They're also easy to make, and since they don't spread, a whole batch can be baked at the same time.

Tuesday (4/16) was my birthday. My daughter bought some apples to share, so she added them to that night's dinner. I'll be honest, after not having any apples for a couple of months, those apples tasted so good. My daughters made a small cake for my birthday, as well, topping it with the traditional coconut frosting, substituting chopped almonds for the recipe's pecans.

Despite my momentary panic-stricken bouts, we're doing okay with groceries and meals. I think that we're eating pretty well. My current mantra is as follows: "I only have to manage one day and one crisis at a time. No need to worry about tomorrow's crisis, today." Everything will work out. We will have plenty of food. I just need to have faith that the answers will be provided to me. And I am so thankful that some of those answers have come from you all, here.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy Easter!

Semi-Homemade Cranberry-Apple Juice

A while back, I mentioned in the comments that I would be trying out an idea to use some of my frozen cranberries combined with commercial apple juice concentrate to make a no-sugar added cran-apple juice. This week, I tried it out and made a 64-oz pitcher.

Here's what I used:

2 cups of frozen, whole cranberries
3 cups of water
1 12-oz can of frozen apple juice concentrate
additional water to fill the pitcher

So this is what I did:

I ground up the frozen, whole cranberries in the food processor (not super fine, just what you might do if you were to make cranberry bread). Next, I simmered the ground cranberries with about 3 cups of water in a stainless saucepan for about 30 minutes.

After cooling for a bit, I poured the cranberry slurry through a sieve placed over a wide-mouth, 64-oz pitcher and strained until no more liquid would drip through. I pressed it gently, but wanted to keep most of the sediment out of the juice. Next, I added the can of apple juice concentrate and enough water to fill to about the 1 and 3/4 quart-line on the pitcher. Stirred and chilled -- that's it. It took about 5-10 minutes of hands-on time while doing other tasks in the kitchen.

The verdict? It's not as cranberry-ish as commercial drinks -- more like a cranberry-infused apple juice. My family has really enjoyed this and I'll be making it again later this month. It adds variety to our beverages, gets us to use some of the frozen cranberries from last fall, and diversifies the nutrients that we consume in juice form.

I saved the leftover cranberry mush in the freezer to add to applesauce the next time I buy or make some.

Obviously, we could have simply drunk the apple juice made up plain. However, on such a tight grocery budget which limited the variety of ingredients that I could buy, it's been important for me to keep trying new ways to prepare the same ingredients, as well as tap into some of the items that we hand on hand from before the last couple of months. Variety really does stave off feelings of deprivation. Anyway, just thought that I'd share how it went.

Discount Thrift Stores? That Almost Sounds Too Good to Be True!

94 cents plus tax

So where does a frugal woman go for shopping when she's on a super tight budget? How about a discount thrift shop? Yes, there is such a thing in my area. It's where surplus thrift store merchandise is sold at a steep discount.

I had been vaguely aware of the Goodwill outlet for a while, but I assumed it was too far or inconvenient to get to from my house. Then one of my daughters heard from a co-worker that we had one in the town to the north of us. Still thinking this was a bit far, I asked my daughter to google map it for me. It turns out that our local Goodwill outlet is even closer to our home than the regular Goodwill store.

Okay, so how does the Goodwill outlet work, you may wonder. The merchandise is primarily clothing, but they also have some small hard goods and a section full of furniture. Nothing is on racks or shelves, but it is all contained in huge, wheeled bins. Clothing is not sorted in any way, all sizes and genders mixed together. It is piled high, and you have to dig through the piles to search. There is no way a person could see it all. That may sound like a bad thing. However, it means that some "good stuff" will still be there, undiscovered. Just an example, in my own search, I came across two 100% cashmere sweaters in great condition and in my size after a bunch of people had plowed through that bin. As the bins get picked over, the employees wheel them out to the warehouse and replace them with freshly-stocked bins. There are no dressing rooms. However, they do provide a power strip for testing small electric appliances. It's a bit noisy and chaotic. However, I found the other shoppers to be very courteous.

When you've found what you want, you take it to the cash register and your items are weighed by category. There's a large white board at the registers that indicates the price per pound for the various categories of merchandise. Everything is sold by the pound; any tags are irrelevant, merely reminders of where items were previously for sale. Shoes were selling for $1.15 per pound yesterday. Clothing and linens were selling for $1.59 per pound. And small electronics were 59 cents per pound.

75 cents plus tax

So, what did we buy? I carried around a pile of clothing for a while. At the end, I sorted it all and tried on what I could. I had dressed in leggings and a slim-fitting long-sleeved knit shirt, so I could slip items on over my clothes. There were no mirrors, so my daughter used her phone to show me how I looked in the garments. (If you have a smartphone, do you do that? Use your phone as a mirror?) Anyway, after discarding about half of my pile, I settled on one dress for myself and three items for my husband. In between looking through the clothing bins, I checked out the hard goods. I came across a handheld mixer to replace our broken hand mixer. It was missing it's beaters, but it was still in working condition. I have found that for the most part, the beaters for American brand hand mixers are interchangeable from one brand to the next. I have 2 sets of beaters leftover from hand mixers that have died. And both sets fit this new-to-me mixer.

The old Goodwill price tag on the mixer said $5.99, but I paid 94 cents. The dress that I bought is a Calvin Klein. I found the exact same style listed on ebay for $29 as a previously-owned dress. I paid 75 cents for it. I have my summer dress, now, and it barely put a dent in our budget.

The prices were fantastic -- I can easily see us going back and searching the bins again. In fact, the next opportunity I get, I'm going back to find a white cardigan or jacket to throw over this dress.

Does Goodwill have an outlet in your city? To find out, check this Goodwill outlet locator page.  Happy thrifting!

Getting Ready for Easter

I've got the table mostly set. I pulled out all of the nice things that have been given or handed down to me, which normally stay tucked away in a cupboard. I still need to iron the napkins.

I've made a variety of little gifts for all of my family members. Here's how I wrapped up the egg-shaped soaps. I cut a single slot/hole from a cardboard egg tray, stuffed it with some shredded paper, placed the egg-shaped soap inside, then wrapped with clear cellophane and tied with lavender ribbon. All of the wrapping materials were scavenged from what I have: the egg tray from a 5-dozen egg box, the shredded paper from a Christmas package, the cellophane cut from a gift bag received at Christmas, and the ribbon came on packaging many years ago.

I made the chocolate bunnies and bird's nests. This year, I made both white and brown bunnies, as I purchased both white and chocolate dipping candy on clearance right after Christmas.

However, I went with all chocolate nests as I was making a whole batch at one time.

To wrap the bunnies, I had more of the Easter cellophane bags that I used last year. But to wrap the egg nests, I cut up a cellophane wrap that came on a bunch of flowers. After cutting open the cone-shaped cellophane, I wiped it off with dish soap and then rinsed in water. I allowed it to dry, then cut into squares for wrapping the nests.

The supplies for 3-oz chocolate bunnies cost me about 35 cents each, and the 1-oz chocolate and coconut nests about 15 cents each.

The molds were purchased about 15 to 20 years ago, for about $16 total. These are tin-lined copper molds that I also use as spring decor in the kitchen on the hutch where we keep our dishes. But if I factor in the cost of the molds, after 15 to 20 years of annual use, each year's cost is $1 or less. Making a minimum of 4 bunnies per year, each bunny has a mold-cost of at most 25 cents. So, even adding 25 cents to the 35 cents for chocolate, my candy bunnies cost 60 cents each, still quite a bit less than any dollar store bunny. My cost for mold-use will continue to decline with each year of use. I imagine that I will be using these same molds for special Easter treats for grandchildren, or they could be resold at a garage sale for $5 to $7 dollars each, and recoup most of my original cost.

The nest are simple to make and don't require special molds. They are made with 1 ounce of chocolate and a heaping tablespoon of coconut per nest. I melt the chocolate in the microwave, then stir in the coconut. Next, I make a bunch of nest-shaped mounds and add the jelly bean eggs. Super simple and at least half the price of similar candy nests sold in stores. Lacking the dipping chocolate, chocolate chips with a bit of Crisco shortening can be substituted.

I planted all of the tea-stained hollow eggs with violets from the front yard. As I had thought, the violets on the north side of the house were about 10 days behind the violets in the backyard. The blossoms are just beginning to open. They are now sitting in a window until Easter morning, when I'll place each at a spot of the table for individual floral decorations, using napkin rings as stands.

This morning, I'll be heading out to buy our ham. Several stores have great deals on ham this week. Tomorrow, I'll make the pie pastry. I make a 5-crust batch of pastry, then freeze in individual patties. Having the pie pastry ready to roll out simplifies pie-baking for me.

And . . . today is my birthday. What does a frugal woman do for fun on her birthday? My daughters both took today off from work and their activities, and the 3 of us are going thrift-shopping/treasure-hunting. I'll be back tomorrow!

Saving Meat Fat to Use in Cooking Later -- Would You?

It's now half way through the month, and I'm beginning to get a little concerned about some of our pantry supplies. The one 4-lb jar of peanut butter has about 1/5th of a jar left; we've gone through the vegetable oil faster this month than last; and we have 1 1/2 lbs of butter remaining (not pantry, but info indicating that we can't turn to butter to replace the vegetable oil). We'll make-do on the peanut butter, but the vegetable oil has had me worried. So, I use vegetable oil in baking breads and muffins, making granola and cookies, in stir-fries and sautes, and baking cakes. (This month has 2 birthdays.)  It looks like we have about 2 cups of vegetable oil in the jug. Vegetable oil is on my shopping list for the first of May. So, I am thinking about how to make the vegetable oil stretch.

Next weekend is Easter, and we'll have a ham. I always save ham fat for cooking use -- that should help. Tonight, I'm making meatloaf. Tell me if this is something that you would do. I'm thinking on saving the fat at the bottom of the pan from baking the meatloaf to use in cooking later this week. I've saved ham, bacon, chicken, and even turkey fat, but not ground beef fat. So, this will be new territory for me in the just-how-much-can-I-stretch-the-grocery-budget department. Besides sparing some of the vegetable oil, I'm also attracted to the idea of saving meat fat because it will keep the fat out of the landfill (and not feed the vermin there), it seems like a more responsible way to treat an animal that gave its life for my plate, and it fits my waste-not, want-not ethic. So, what do you think? Barring health reasons not to eat beef fat (and in that case, maybe shouldn't be eating beef at all), would you save fat from meatloaf to use later in cooking? BTW, I'll freeze the fat, so there's no chance of spoilage and making my family sick. A trip to the urgent care clinic would not be frugal at all!

Any input?

Making Cream of Rice Hot Breakfast Cereal From Leftover Rice

If you like Cream of Wheat hot breakfast cereal, you might also like cream of rice hot cereal. No box needed, you can make cream of rice cereal with leftover cooked rice.

I use leftover brown rice to which I have added a bit of moisture. I add a couple of tablespoons of water to 3/4 of a cup of leftover brown rice, and "steam" in the microwave for 30 seconds. I use my immersion blender (stick blender) in a tall narrow container (like a measuring cup) and puree until a cream-of-grain-cereal consistency, about 30 seconds. I reheat and flavor as desired. That's it.

Our local Walmart charges $3.48 for a 28-oz. box of Cream of Wheat that makes 24 servings, with a cost of about 15 cents per serving. It takes about 6.7 ounces of dry brown rice to make about 3  1/2 cups of cooked rice, or 1.5 ounces to make about 3/4 cup of cooked rice. I pay just under 50 cents per pound for long grain brown rice. 3/4 of a cup of cooked brown rice costs me about 5 cents for the ingredients alone.

Boxed Cream of Wheat for 15 cents per serving, or homemade cream of brown rice for 5 cents per serving. I love Cream of Wheat. So to get the same texture and consistency in my hot cereal, homemade cream of brown rice definitely works for me.

How Do Beans Stack Up to Lean Chicken for Protein and Cost?

You might find this interesting. I did this research for my own purposes, but thought I'd share.

For protein content and value, how do beans compare to lean meat, such as cooked chicken breasts?

1  1/3 cups of cooked beans contain about the same amount of protein (about 19 to 22 grams) found in 3 ounces of lean chicken, which is the portion size of chicken that I use as a standard.

1  1/3 cups of cooked beans is about the amount in 3/4 of a 15-oz can of cooked beans.

With regards to cooking dried beans at home, 1  1/3 cups of cooked beans uses .44 cup of dried beans, weighing about .22 lb (or 3 and 1/2 ounces).

In most cases, it's cheaper to cook beans from dried than to buy canned, cooked beans. (But if you're wanting to compare the cost of canned beans to lean chicken, you'll use the price of 3/4 of a can of beans.)

.22 lb of dried pinto beans costs me about 12 cents. Add about 3 cents for gas and water for cooking. So I estimate for the protein equivalent of cooked-at-home beans that is about what is contained in lean chicken, cooking pinto beans myself costs about 15 cents.

In comparison, 3 ounces of lean chicken costs me about 33 to 37 cents (when boneless, skinless chicken breasts are about $1.79 to $1.99/lb). So, cooking beans from dried will save me over half the cost of buying BSCB.

I used boneless, skinless chicken breast for my comparison as it's very lean, producing little residual fat to be factored into the equation.

When it comes to bone-in poultry, I've always roughly estimated that bones/skin comprise about 1/3 or slightly more of the weight of the chicken parts, with legs and thighs being a little bit more bone/skin-heavy than breasts. So, when I'm looking at the cost of bone-in, skin-on chicken parts, I don't quite double the price per pound to get an estimate of price per pound for the protein that we'll use. If you're looking for a more detailed analysis of the meat percentages of various chicken parts Texas Agricultural Extension Service has a very detailed report with instructions for cost comparisons, here.

Lately, my chicken purchases have been chicken leg quarters. Walmart currently has a 10-lb bag of leg quarters for about $6. If I figure the meat-only part of the leg quarter is roughly 60%, at 60 cents per pound, my protein costs about $1 per pound, or about 19 cents per 3-oz serving. Beans are still a better deal for me, but only by a few cents per serving. In addition, the leg quarters are not nearly as lean as chicken breasts, so the protein content of 3 ounces of meat-only leg quarters may not meet that of 1  1/3 cups of cooked beans.

I hope this all made sense. My head is a little off this evening. I spent the afternoon at the dentist, and my thinking may be off. Correct me if I'm wrong. Do check out the link above. It could help you determine if bone-in chicken products are a good value for you.

Returning Unopened Merchandise for a Refund

In my cleaning this week, I came across 2 bags with an item in each (purchased in February). Now it turns out that I don't need these items, after all. One product was from Michaels and the other from Target. I thought for sure that both items would be non-returnable at this point, as they were purchased 2 months ago. Well, I was wrong (this was a good time to be wrong). Per each store's websites, Michael's allows 180 days for unopened products and Target allows 90 days (with a few exceptions named on their website). Woo hoo! The total amount that I will be getting back is only about $5, but goodness -- $5 is $5. Both stores are within a block of the mall, and I have 2 birthday freebies to redeem there this coming week, so no substantial amount of gas will be used to return these products and retrieve my $5. In fact, if I want to use this outing to get my steps in, I could walk to both Target and Michael's from the mall and not expend any gas on my returns.

Before visiting each store's website, I had assumed that returns would have only a 30-day window. So glad that I checked!

In another "small-change" area, I was also cleaning out my desk drawer and came across some gift cards that I knew had partial balances left on them. I called the phone number on the card backs to get the remaining balances, and marked each card's value with a Sharpie. Four of the gift cards can be used at one restaurant chain. When combined, there's enough in the balances to pay for a nice family lunch at the end of the month, in honor of the 2 birthday people in our family. In the past, I've tended to forget that gift cards are real money. Even if the balance is very low, the money is very real. I've got my various gift cards in a stack and am making thoughtful choices in how to spend each.

In addition to plastic gift cards, I also have some egift cards. Again, I am making careful choices in how to spend each. I think it's so easy to forget about these gift cards, as there is nothing tangible as a reminder.

Anyway, I am reminding myself that all of these little bits add up.

Egg-Shaped Lavender Soap

So, since I made these for some family members, I have no one that I can show them to in person, and I think they turned out really nicely. They're egg-shaped, lavender-infused soap.

I followed directions from another website. I'll link to that site in a bit. I had some problems but was able to mitigate them, and I found I didn't need everything the site advised. I'll share all of that. But first, some background.

You all know that my budget is small right now. Easter is going to have to be pulled off with the only spending going for a ham. I have always given gifts to family members for Easter, and I don't want to stop this year. So, I am using what I have, which is not only a great thing for our budget, but it also creates less waste and gasoline usage (good for the environment). For all of these reasons, I absolutely love using what I have. I have always been motivated equally by financial savings and by wasting less. Waste just bugs me. Anyway, back to the gift.

You may or may not recall that I have done some melt-and-pour soap making in years past. A couple of years ago I posted about making bars of soap for Christmas and birthday gifts. You know how it is with crafting -- there are always leftover supplies. In thinking about gifts that I could make, I once again went to my crafting cupboard. When I came across the soap-making supplies, I was reminded of some beautiful egg-shaped soaps that I have seen in specialty shops. Oooh, I've really loved/coveted those. While I would love to have some for myself, I think I would love even more to give these to someone in my life.

With this beginning idea in mind, I set out to see how I could make my own egg-shaped soaps, using only what I have at home. And that's when I came across this post on My Repurposed Life. You have to check this out, even if you don't want to make soap. The woman's soap and packaging ideas are simply beautiful. I plan on using some of her packaging ideas for my own soaps. Anyway, I had the melt-and-pour soap base, lavender essential oil, lavender buds, blue and red soap coloring, and some plastic Easter eggs. I was all set!

Saturday afternoon, both daughters were out for a few hours, so I could work privately in the kitchen. As suggested by the website post, I used plastic Easter eggs for my molds (I made 2 molds). I drilled out a pouring hole in the non-pointed end of the egg, beginning with the smallest bit on our drill and working my way up to the largest bit we have. I ended up with a hole slightly bigger than 1/4-inch. Now that sounds tiny. However, with a very steady hand, it's possible to pour a thin stream of melted soup that has some clogging, but which is easily managed.

My first snag was I did not have a small funnel. When I tried to improvise a funnel as the post's author had, mine just clogged with the soap and made a mess. So, I went with my steady hand for pouring a thin stream. I poured from a measuring cup with my right hand while holding a bamboo skewer in my left hand to unclog the hole, as needed. Although this took some time, it all worked out. I occasionally reheated the soap in the microwave to keep it at a pouring consistency.

The other issue that I had was that every single soap-egg had some sort of air pocket that needed filling in after I removed the soap from the plastic egg. This was not too huge of a problem. I was able to spoon a little melted soap into any air pockets, flatten into place with the plastic egg, then use a paring knife to very gently trim edges, then buff with a microfiber cloth.

In addition, the plastic eggs that I used left a noticeable seam all around the soaps. For the seam, I used a very fine paring knife to trim it a bit, and then buffed with the microfiber cloth as I had with the fills.

I discovered that I didn't need any special type of duct tape, but used the duct tape that I had at home. It probably helped that the eggs that I used were the kind that tightly snapped together and were not loose. But even so, the duct tape was necessary. (I discovered that on my last egg when I got a little cocky and thought I could skip the duct tape. A mess. But I got it cleaned up, scooped up, and remelted for this last egg.) For pouring in the melted soap, I set the plastic egg-mold in a styrofoam carton that I've used for dyeing Easter eggs in past years

Something else that I think is important to the finished product -- If you look inside plastic Easter eggs, some have small protrusions inside of the egg. Others have a "Made in China" (or other country) raised marking in the egg. And still some eggs have ventilation holes. So, it was important to find eggs that were mostly smooth inside and without holes.

The eggs are not perfect, but I believe that they are beautiful for a homemade gift to a family member. This was my first experience with a 3-D mold. I'll read up and experiment some more in the future. For all other soap, I've used a shallow mold that creates a bar that has a finished side and an unfinished side. There may be some tricks to filling the entire mold without creating air pockets.

After making the little soaps, the plastic eggs went back into our collection of Easter eggs. The hole in one end won't harm the ability to be used in egg hunts in years to come.

Can you tell that I really love Easter? It's by far my favorite holiday, from the significance of the spiritual meaning of the day, to the family meal and gift-giving, it's a day that I look forward to all year. I can hardly wait to give these as gifts.

Comparing the Cost of Whole Carrots to Ready-To-Eat Baby Carrots

The price of carrots at Fred Meyer this week: whole carrots in a 5-lb bag for $3.49 or 69 cents/lb, or  cut and peeled baby carrots in a 3-lb bag also for $3.49 or $1.16/lb. Basically, if you buy the whole carrots at Fred Meyer this week, you get 2 additional pounds of carrots when compared to the baby carrots.

I buy my carrots at Smart Foodservice/Cash & Carry. When bought in 10 lb bags, whole carrots are $4.49 or 45 cents/lb. The largest bag of baby carrots at Cash & Carry is the 5-lb one, and it sells for $4.29 or 86 cents/lb. So at Cash & Carry, I pay 20 cents more to get 5 extra pounds of carrots when buying them whole/

Here's how I buy carrots -- 10 lb bags of whole carrots at Smart Food Service/Cash & Carry (a wholesaler open to the public with prices similar to club warehouses).

I enjoy the ease of baby carrots. However, the cost (at almost twice the price of whole carrots) is beyond a small budget. Granted, there is some waste when peeling and trimming the ends from whole carrots. I give a generous estimate to the waste at about 1/10th to 1/15th of the weight of a whole carrot; still not enough to justify the purchase of baby carrots for me.

So, what do I do to make whole carrots more accessible for all of our family members and without a large time investment on my part? I take about a dozen carrots at a time and peel and trim, then place them in a plastic bag in the fridge. Family members are then free to cut into sticks, chunks, slices, or eat whole. (We've all been sporting the Bugs Bunny look in recent weeks, chomping on whole carrots.) If I had small children who were not adept at using sharp knives, obviously I'd cut carrots into sticks for them.

I have to say, this is really working for me. When I see that the bag of ready-carrots is near empty, I take about 5 or so minutes to peel and trim a dozen. There are about 3 to 4 dozen carrots in a 10-lb bag. In total, I spend about 20 to 30 minutes peeling and trimming a full bag of carrots. I save about $3.70 to $3.80 per 10-lb bag of carrots when I peel and trim them myself (this includes the waste of the peels and ends). That's a savings of $3.70 to $3.80 for 30 minutes of hands-on time, or an "hourly wage" of $7.40 to $7.60.

There's an added financial bonus to making our whole carrots more user friendly -- members of our household are much more likely to grab a carrot (which is an inexpensive veggie) than some frozen peas or green beans (which are at least double the cost of carrots) for their lunches.

This concept of buying carrots in a basic and whole state, then transforming them into something more user-friendly offers substantial savings for other commonly-bought vegetables. Compare the price of whole potatoes to frozen French fries. Whole potatoes can be made into oven fries fairly easily and replace the commercially-prepared frozen French fries at a fraction of the cost. Bagged whole potatoes are currently selling for about $2 per 10-lb bag in my area. Frozen French fries sell for about $1.99/32-oz bag at Fred Meyer. Including oil, salt, and electricity for the oven, oven fries made from whole potatoes cost no more than 30 cents per pound. That's less than 1/3 the cost of the prepared potato product.

Look at the cost of bagged lettuce. An average head of Romaine lettuce weighs between 21 and 22 ounces. At Fred Meyer this week, a plain, unpackaged full head of Romaine lettuce is selling for $1.79. So, what about the waste when washing and trimming a whole head of Romaine lettuce? I would give a guess at about 1 ounce per head. (BTW, I use a good portion of the core when making salads, by slicing thin and cutting into matchsticks, as I described in this post.) So, after the loss of 1 ounce, a head of Romaine costs between $1.36 and $1.43 per pound. This week, the Kroger brand of bagged leafy Romaine lettuce is selling for $2.79 for a 10-oz bag, and the Dole brand of bagged, chopped Romaine is marked at $4.99 for a 32-oz bag. The Kroger bagged lettuce is $4.46 per pound and the Dole bagged Romaine is $2.49 per pound. The Kroger lettuce is about 3 times the cost per pound of a basic head of Romaine! While the Dole bagged Romaine, while much cheaper than the Kroger, is still almost twice the cost per pound of the basic, unprepared head of Romaine.

I do sometimes find bagged salad on markdown. However, the 10-oz bagged Kroger Romaine lettuce would need to be marked down to 85 to 89 cents to break even with the full head price, and the bagged Dole Romaine marked down to about $2.72 to $2.86 per 32-oz bag. So far, the lowest price I have ever seen short-dated Kroger 10-oz bags is 99 cents. Even after markdown, a full head of lettuce is still less expensive per pound than the bagged.

Washing a head of lettuce probably takes about 10 minutes of hands-on time. I can fill my large sink with water, peel the Romaine leaves off one at a time and add to the water, swish them all around gently, then drain well. When I wash lettuce to store in the fridge, I wrap the washed leaves in a large, but very thin, cotton dish towel, then I place the bundle in a plastic bag. Lettuce stored this way will keep in the fridge for 7 to 10 days. Pre-chopping the lettuce will shorten the storage life, so I generally leave the chopping to the last minute. It's the washing and drying that seems to take time.

There is definitely a place and time for convenience produce items. They can save money if the alternative is a restaurant or even an inexpensive take-out meal. The time-savings could be more valuable than the financial savings in some circumstances. But for my small grocery budget, I can buy more wholesome, quality foods for my family by doing the prep work myself.

Easter Table Decor: The Tea-Stained Eggshell Planted with Violets

Here's how the tea-stained eggshells look once planted. In this post from the end of March, I showed you the tea-stained hollow eggshells I was making. I used 2 ordinary tea bags in 2 cups of hot water to brew a dark stain in a 1-quart canning jar. As I used eggs, I broke the shell at the pointed end only and sort of shook the contents out. I then washed the eggshells and set to dry. When I had 2 eggshells cleaned out, I immersed them completely in the tea, for a few hours to overnight (depending on how forgetful I was). Then I'd remove the stained shells and set in an empty carton upside down to dry. In between staining eggshells (while waiting for more to stain), I kept the tea covered in the fridge. Thankfully, nobody thought to drink it. I really should label things. All my eggshells have now been stained and dried. They're just waiting for the violets.

When I was in the backyard today, I noticed that the violets were beginning to bloom. I have violets in the front yard, as well, which are in a shady spot. I'm hoping the front yard violets won't bloom for another 10 days or so. The backyard violets always beat the front yard violets in bloom time. Anyway, this is exactly how I imagined the eggs. (Now that hardly ever happens -- something turning out how I imagine.)

I carefully dug up this tiny plant, then placed it into the hollow shell, poking in a bit of soil with my little finger, as needed. After planting, I dribbled in a little water. I'll watch how this one does and then plant up the 6 that I need for our Easter table, one at each place setting. I think they'll look pretty in a rustic sort of way.

Cheap and Cheerful Suppers This Past Week (or What We Eat for $125 a Month)

Friday
seafood casserole (made with frozen cod fillets that had been camped out in my freezer for far too long, frozen peas, pasta, cream of mushroom soup, some lemon juice and herbs, all topped with cheddar cheese and garden chives)
spring green salad (made with garden watercress, baby sorrel, and baby chard, dressed with a citrus vinaigrette and topped with chopped, roasted almonds)
scratch blueberry coffee cake, using frozen blueberries bought at Dollar Tree a while ago

Saturday
refried beans and oven-baked corn tortilla chips
coleslaw
leftover blueberry cake

Sunday
chicken (from 2 leg quarters) in gravy over baked potatoes, topped with plain yogurt
steamed carrots
Oatmeal Scotchie Bars

Monday
bean burger patties, topped with mozzarella cheese
brown rice topped with marinara sauce
sauteed cabbage, onions, garlic, tomato sauce
French bread with soybean spread
Oatmeal Scotchie Bars

Tuesday
pizza sandwiches
cole slaw
cookies
(plus a plain hotdog for my husband, to boost calories in his dinner)

Wednesday
baked beans with hot dogs (no buns)
fresh-baked bread and butter
kale and onions
carrot snack cake (using this recipe and substituting 1 cup of grated carrot and a handful of raisins for the pureed pumpkin in the pumpkin-spice version, and using a combination of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in place of the allspice)

Thursday
tomato soup (made with canned tomato paste following the directions found in the comments in this post)
toasted cheese sandwiches
parfaits made with canned cherry pie filling (Dollar Tree) and homemade vanilla yogurt

Friday
hamburgers in buns
oven-roasted potato wedges
oven-roasted onions
steamed carrots
rice pudding, using the leftover brown rice from Monday's dinner


As you can see, we're still using items that we've had for a while while incorporating some of the cheaply-purchased "new" ingredients. I'm trying to serve two to three bean-based dinners, as beans are such an inexpensive source of protein and are good for cholesterol numbers. And you may have noticed, we served carrots and cabbage 3 times each this week. You gotta love those cheap veggies!

Breakfast every day has been overnight, crock-pot steel cut oats. I make a batch once every 3 days and we eat the leftovers, reheated on the other days. There is also bread for toast, plus yogurt, eggs, and some untraditional breakfast foods that household members find (my daughter had ramen this morning for breakfast). Lunches are leftovers, sandwiches using bean spread, peanut butter, and occasionally egg salad, yogurt, bananas, raisins, juice, cole slaw, carrot sticks, microwaved potatoes with cheese, and quickly made concoctions such as soup. Snacks are primarily any of the breakfast or lunch foods, plus popcorn made on the stove, cocoa (with a homemade mix), cinnamon toast, or sometimes nuts.

I am back to baking bread. I have calculated that when I bake 5 loaves at a time, each loaf costs about 50 cents (including electricity). The least expensive commercial bread I can buy is 80 cents (with my Senior discount one day per month). Last month, we went through 8 loaves of bread. At a savings of 30 cents per loaf, we're saving $2.40 each month by baking our own. My homemade loaves are denser but weigh about what the cheap loaves of bread do. The bonus -- on bread-baking day, the kitchen is a bit warmer than usual, very welcome right now as we've turned our thermostat way down for spring.

That's our humble week of meals. What's been on your menu lately?

Learning Something New

This is something that I've been doing in the evenings as I'm relaxing. I'm not spending a lot of time on it, but I can see some progress already. I'm teaching myself Spencerian Script. I'm hoping that when I add a greeting to the inside of a blank or homemade card, my penmanship will be elegant enough to make even a humble, hand-crafted card look special.

Right now, I'm working on 2 specific phrases: Happy Birthday and Happy Easter, both very apropos for the season. The beauty in this script is really in the capital letters, so I am focusing on those for now. Anyway, this is one of the many skills that you can teach yourself for absolutely free (or the cost of a tablet of paper and a pen), using the internet. I know that there are lots and lots of DIY home improvement resources online, too. There are so many things that I have discovered how to fix using the web. Later this spring, I'll be replacing the gasket for our refrigerator door. Yep, saw instructions for that online, too. But, I think I'm enjoying learning the script more than home improvement stuff. It's just more fun to me.

What fun, free skills have you taught yourself using the internet?

Some Things Just Don't Go as Planned . . . but They Can Often Be Salvaged

So, I set 2 eggs to boil this morning, then went about my daily routine. At one point, I thought I smelled a faint burning odor. I just figured someone had burnt their toast earlier and thought nothing further of it. I hopped into the shower, still not thinking anything of the odor. It was when I got out and began to dry off that I suddenly remembered the eggs in a pot of water left to come to a boil. Grabbing my robe, I ran down the hall to the kitchen. I quickly dumped some water from the tea kettle into the dry pan, then put the whole thing under cold, running water. After getting myself dressed, I came out to the kitchen to see if any parts of the eggs could be salvaged.

after peeling, the burnt side of an egg

It turns out that, yes, you can burn the daylights out of about half of an egg and still have something edible left.

after peeling, the not-so-burnt side of an egg

After peeling the eggs, and discarding any portions that looked obviously burnt, I chopped what remained and made egg salad. I lost about half of one egg and about 2/3 of the other.

what was left after peeling both eggs & removing any burnt parts

So I was able to salvage more than the equivalent of 1 whole egg.

And do you know what? It tastes good. I think the ranch-style dressing that I used to turn it into egg salad has a lot to do with that.

Fortunately, the pot is fine, maybe a little scorched but otherwise okay. It's an old, heavy-bottomed pot that we generally use for making popcorn on the stove, so I'm not sure if the scorching is from this egg-mishap or from making popcorn all of these years.

So, I've scraped burnt toast, scraped the bottoms of burnt cookies, peeled off the top of burnt casseroles, used the top 2/3 of a pot of rice that burned to the bottom of pot, and now a new one -- peeled off burnt parts on boiled eggs. You would think that I don't know how to cook! But I do know how to salvage, which, as a skill, is important for avoiding wastefulness.

Has anybody else, here, ever boiled a pot of eggs dry?
I bet that my folly made a few of you smile, and that is worth a million dollars!

Quick Depletion of the April Grocery Budget

It's only the 2nd of April and I've already spent $106.50 of my $126.87 for the month. That must sound awful, right? However, I've done most of my shopping for the month. I've been to WinCo for the bulk bin items and some bananas, Cash & Carry for some institution-sized packaged foods (including cheese!), and now this morning I took advantage of the Senior Discount Day at our Kroger affiliate (Fred Meyer) buying milk, butter, orange juice, peanut butter, hot dogs, and instant coffee. Interestingly, the instant decaf coffee is cheaper at Walmart and the instant regular coffee is less expensive at Fred Meyer. I'll make a stop at Walmart later in the month, picking up more bananas while I'm getting my other items.

We did get one big jar of peanut butter for the month. So, I don't think anyone suffered too badly, here, with not having peanut butter for 4 weeks. I am still making the bean spreads, though, mostly because the spreads give us more variety, and variety defies feelings of deprivation. The other item that my family was very happy about was the purchase of not 1 but 2 pounds of butter. I had 1 pound leftover from the last month, so now we have almost 3 whole pounds of butter. There was the risk that I would just be getting one more pound. However, I had figured that if I found milk on markdown, there would be a little extra money in the budget. Fortune was with me at Fred Meyer today. I found half-gallons of 1% milk on markdown for 89 cents each. I saved 37 cents a gallon over what I was prepared to pay at the regular price. The marked down milk combined with finding pinto beans for $1 less than I'd planned for a 25-lb bag left me with enough extra money for that second pound of butter.

I now have $20.37 remaining in the grocery budget for April. This should cover a 10-lb bag of chicken leg quarters, 5 dozen eggs, a jar of instant decaf, a canister of shortening for making pie crusts, and a couple of bunches of bananas, all from Walmart. I plan on putting off the Walmart trip as long as I can to see if maybe we don't need one or more of these items, and I can maybe put the extra money toward more eggs (if I find a great sale).

After shopping at each store, I went through my lists again and refigured the amounts of the desired items. This kept me accountable, allowed me to rethink my budget allotments, and I think will help me come as close to the budgeted amount as possible without going over. It can be a bit like a game for me. I keep the lists in Word documents and save with each new adjustment. I personally find it interesting to see how my lists morph over the course of the month. And just in case you're concerned that we're not getting enough to eat, I'm keeping a log of our dinner meals, again. I'll post that later this week. (But thank you for being concerned. I know your thoughts come from your hearts.) We are eating well! The first month was challenging, but I can see that food variety is improving.

I hope your week is going well!

How I Compare the Price Per Serving for Fresh, Dried, and Juiced Fruits

I mentioned comparing the price per serving for fresh fruit and juice last week in the comments. I had previously developed my own calculations to help me assess whether or not using juice or dried fruit would be as cost-effective per serving as some of the fresh fruit that's within my price range. So, here are my thoughts and how I've determined what will work for my small budget. This may only be entertainment for most of you. However, I've received a few emails and read a couple of comments which suggest that I am not the only one trying to make a small grocery budget work. Therefore, some of my own thoughts may help those of you who fall into this same group.

I've set a current price per pound for what I'm willing to spend on fresh fruit at about 50 cents. This low price per pound limits our choices to bananas and maybe apples or oranges. It's not enough to have the price per pound limit, but I also need to get as many servings per pound to meet a price per serving target.

So, with small bananas, there are about 3 bananas (or servings) per pound. At 42 cents/lb (what I pay at Walmart and WinCo), then each banana costs about 13 cents each. A small banana has about 90 calories.

With medium oranges averaging 4.6 ounces each, there are about 3.5 medium oranges per pound. At 50 cents/lb, each orange would cost 14 cents and contain about 62 calories.

With medium apples, there are about 3 per pound. At 50 cents per pound, each medium apple costs 16 cents, and contains about 80 calories.

Using this information, for my family's budget, I've determined that a single serving of fruit should contain between 65 and 90 calories and should cost between 13 and 17 cents.so my calorie range for a serving of fruit is about 65 to 90 calories, and my price range per serving is about 13 to 17 cents each.

This is pretty straight forward. If I find medium apples or oranges priced at or below 50 cents per pound, then my cost per serving lines up with my budget goals.

So, what about dried fruit or 100% fruit juice?

The least expensive purchased dried fruit in my area is raisins. When comparing raisins, I can't do a straight across comparison, as the water content of raisins has mostly been removed. So, I decided to base my calculations on calorie content, looking for a serving of raisins that provides about 90 calories. (That would be about 3 tablespoons.) I went with the high end of my calorie range as grapes/raisins are naturally high in sugar, and anything smaller than 3 tablespoons would be unrealistic as a serving.

16 ounces of raisins contains about 1360 calories. There are about 15  90-calorie portions of raisins in a pound. So, if raisins are priced between $1.95 and $2.55 per pound, then each 90-calorie portion falls between my price per serving range of 13 and 17 cents. In my area, my cheapest price for raisins is at Cash & Carry, with a 4-lb bag of raisins for $9.37, or $2.34 per pound, or not quite 16 cents per serving.

The other form of fruit that we're using is 100% fruit juice made from frozen concentrate. The US government uses 6 ounces of juice as a portion size. With orange juice made from concentrate, there are 82 calories in a 6-oz serving of orange juice when made according to the package directions, falling within my calorie range for a serving of fruit. One 12-oz can of orange juice concentrate makes 8 82-calorie portions. So a 12-oz can  of concentrate would have to cost between $1.04 and $1.36 to fall within my own guidelines for price. However, the 16-oz can of concentrate is often less expensive per ounce than the 12-oz can. Using my Senior Discount at Fred Meyer, I can buy the 16-oz cans of orange juice concentrate for $1.61 each (which is the equivalent of $1.20 for a 12-oz can). I get 10.66 fruit servings from the 16-oz can of concentrate, so my price per serving is about 15 cents, which is within my range.

The price per serving for 100% apple juice is also based on a 6-oz portion of juice, made up according to package direction. A 12-oz can of the frozen concentrate has about 700 calories. One 12-oz can makes about 48 ounces of fluid. In a 48-oz pitcher, there are 8  6-ounce portions of apple juice, each having 87 calories. I bought a 12-oz can of concentrate at WinCo for 99 cents, so each  87-calorie serving costs 12 cents, which is actually below my price range.

So, this is what we've found that will work within our small budget for the current few months: fresh fruit priced below 50 cents/lb and between 13 and 17 cents per piece, raisins when priced between $1.95 and $2.55 per pound, and 100% frozen fruit juice concentrate when priced between 99 cents and $1.36 for the 12-oz can, or $1.81 for the 16-oz can.

I'm not policing portion sizes or even how many servings of fruit a person consumes in a day. I figure that our bodies will consume however many calories and portions of fruit that they require.

My price per pound on fruit will have to change when melon season begins. Melons contain more water than apples or bananas, so I will use calorie content when considering the cost per serving. Our garden produces almost all of the fruit that we consume in summer, providing rhubarb (technically a vegetable but we eat it as a fruit), strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries, cranberries, apples, plums, pears, cherries, grapes, figs, and crabapples. I also buy peaches and nectarines in summer, which I know won't fall below 50 cents per pound, but hopefully our budget will allow a higher price per pound for fresh fruit, then.

I hope that this has all made sense. Basically, calories seemed like the best way to determine a price per serving of fruit that could cover fresh, juiced, and dried fruit.

The Importance of Taking Advantage of Special Deals when the Grocery Budget is Small

A lot of grocery stores are adding service features to attract busy customers. One of the more recent additions to my local Fred Meyer (a Kroger affiliate) is a pick-up service. The customer places their order online, choosing the items, registering a form of payment, loading any e-coupons, and selecting a pick-up time window. Normally, there is a service fee for this shopping option. At Fred Meyer, it's $4.95 per shopping pick-up. When the time window opens, the customer shows up in the parking lot of the store, parking in a special section of stalls, follows the instructions to phone in their arrival, then waits until the attendant brings the groceries to their car. The customer gets a moment to review the order and prices charged (ensuring that e-coupons were applied) and hand-delivers any paper coupons to the attendant. If all is well, the groceries are loaded into the car and the customer drives off.

For an introductory period, Fred Meyer is waiving the $4.95 service fee for a customer's first 3 pick-ups, and offering exclusive grocery coupons for Pick-up orders only. I had seen these coupons in the digital coupon list on Fred Meyer's site, but mostly ignored them, as I like to browse the store for the non-advertised markdowns. However, this month, I stumbled across a coupon that I couldn't pass up. It was for 4-lbs of sugar at 99 cents each, limit of 5. This is half the price that I had planned on paying using the Senior Discount, and the volume of sugar sounds like enough to stretch through 3 months of scratch cooking and baking for my household. I thought about how I could arrange my errands so that this would not be out of the way or use additional gas for the car. It sounded like it would be doable. So, I proceeded with the online order. You need to understand that I don't like trying new things, especially when any sort of technology might be involved. But I did this anyway. Unless I come across another great coupon, this may be the least expensive sugar that I buy any time in the near future.

There were several other good-sounding e-coupons on Fred Meyer's website that I could have used in this Pick-up order. Just nothing else that fit my needs for this moment. To give you an ida of what else FM is offering in these exclusive Pick-up order coupons, boneless, skinless chicken breasts @ $1.49/lb (limit 5 packages, each package about 5 lbs), 24 oz packages of individual string cheese @ $3.99 -- that's $2.66/lb for individually-wrapped string cheese (limit 5), and 32 oz. bags of frozen potato products, like tater tots, and shoestring fries, @ 99 cents (limit 5). For my budget, if there had been more room for meat purchases this month, I would have jumped on the chicken breasts. The other items just wouldn't be in my small budget. However, the sugar is a staple, something that is on my list, and at a price that won't be easily found soon. If it hadn't been for this deal, I would have bought 2 4-lb bags and had to work to make them stretch.

Another special deal that I came across involved answering a customer feedback survey. I had purchased 2 $5 gift cards to Dairy Queen, for my daughters' birthday, so they can go out for a treat together sometime this summer. On the receipt for the gift card purchase was a survey request, which would result in a coupon for a free ice cream bar upon completion. I answered the survey and now have a coupon to use for a free item in the next few weeks. At the same time that I picked up the DQ gift cards, I also bought 2 $5 gift cards to McDonalds, again so my daughters could go out together sometime for a treat. With this gift card purchase, I received not one survey request, but three survey requests on the various receipts. I answered these surveys and received coupon codes for 3 sandwich deals (buy 1 get 1 free). On such a tight budget, I'm not sure that we'll use the McDonald's coupons (since you have to spend to get the freebie), but the DQ coupon is valuable for a free treat for someone who needs a pick-me-up. This is an ice cream bar that would otherwise not be affordable.

These special deals are usually limited. When I saw the Fred Meyer Pick-up coupon, I knew that this was an introductory come-on to attract customer attention. For the time being, I am making every dollar count. In order to fulfill as many of my shopping list items as possible, I need to go a little bit out of my way to snag the deals. I'm probably not the ideal customer for Fred Meyer. I use the Senior Discount Day to buy only the items that are least expensive using the discount, compared to shopping any other place. I don't fill my cart with the rest of the items (at a higher price) from my overall shopping list. I won't be a loyal Pick-up service shopper once the special deals and introductory free service expires. Instead, I'll keep looking out for the next avenue toward deals, as I make my grocery budget stretch as much as possible.

How about you? Do your grocery stores offer pick-up service, and do they also have exclusive coupons for Pick-up customers, only?

Easter Table Decor Craft

Enough talk about grocery shopping.
I wanted to show you what I'm making for our Easter luncheon table. There will be one of these at each place of the table. This is a hollow, ordinary chicken egg, with an opening broken at the pointed end of the egg, then tea-stained with a strong tea solution using 2 plain tea bags and 2 cups of water. I immersed each entire hollow egg in the tea and left to sit for a couple of hours, doing 2 eggs at a time. The "stand" is one of my parents' napkin rings. (Egg cups would also work well as "stands" for the egg planters.) Just before Easter, I will fill the eggs with tiny plants, most likely violets, as they grow wild in our yard, and it looks like they will about be in bloom in time for Easter. Alternatively, I will find other small blossoms on stems in the yard and use the egg as a vase. 

I got the idea from this Michael's ad (see the eggs with bulb flowers). I immediately realized that I could do something like this using just what I have at home. The eggshells would have been composted, anyway. The tea bags were freebies from a hotel stay a while ago. The napkin rings were something I already owned. And the plants or blooms will be scavenged from my yard.



After Easter is over, the napkin rings will be returned to storage, the plants can be returned to the garden, and the eggshells can still be composted. I'll let you see how they turn out later in April.

Just so you know, I was able to shake the contents of the egg out of the shell, as the opening was so large. And I didn't need to poke a hole in the other end, as I did when blowing out eggs. This is definitely much less time-intensive of a spring craft than the painted and speckled eggs.