Monday, June 22, 2015

Higher Prices On Food Items This Year 2015

Because of the Avian bird flu we are seeing some higher prices on eggs which will also lead to higher prices on products made with eggs.

Mayonaise
Miracle Whip
Ranch Dressing

So now is the time to quickly and quietly start stocking up on some of these items before they raise the prices on them.

I'm not sure what the shelf life on mayonaise is but I would definitely be stocking up looking for the longest shelf life date if this is a item you use often.

Of course chickens and turkeys are going to go up in price as well which is bad news for this household since we don't eat beef.  We will be stocking up and freezing as much as we can and doing more alternative meals like pork which seems to be down in price at the moment.

Another substitute which is always good to remember:

Cooking oils. You can use applesauce in place of oils for baking cakes, brownies for sure not sure about bread items I would think so.. so always make sure you have applesauce in stock too.

Anna

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Frugal Sunday Cooking

I have brats and sausage both cooking in the roaster oven with red and green bell peppers over top on a roasting rack.. I have a tray of GFS Mac and Cheese cooking in the regular oven along with a pork sirloin that I bought yesterday at Krogers on clearance for $3.38. We will shred it and add BBQ sauce for sandwiches. I will also be cooking a chicken on top of the stove for the girls here in a minute.

Anna

Friday, June 19, 2015

Today

Turned out to not be frugal but part of why I am frugal to be prepared for those times when I can't be as frugal as I want:

My dog Cocoa featured here on my profile picture.. we were playing frisbee last night and she broke a toenail completely off to the quick.  Emergency trip to the Vet as I didn't know if that was all or if she'd. broken her foot (she was holding her foot up in the air and was in pain).  Antibiotics, pain meds and a new boot for her to wear outside while the toenail heals.. $105.00 trip Ouch!

Last night in looking at my emergency supplies discovered I didn't have everything I needed:  No peroxide, very little neosporin.  So today.. Dollar Tree big bottle of Peroxide, 60 ct. pkg. of antibiotic wipes, Family Dollar Neosporin, travel pack of plastic bottles including a spray bottle to mix Peroxide and water to spray on wounds.  Gel Packs that I put in the freezer (Dollar Tree).  So got a few things that were missing in my emergency supplies.

Next week I will need to buy more baby aspirin.

So go through your supplies.. look at what is missing and address it immediately.  Emergencies aren't preplanned as was the case last night with Cocoa.  Fortunately my friend and neighbor had peroxide to borrow and I am blessed to have neighbors to depend on for those little things.. returned the favor tonight when they need half a cup of flour.

Anna


Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Harvesting Sun Flower Seeds Part I

I found this awesome video on YouTube yesterday and thought it worth sharing.  I have grown Mammouth Sunflower seeds many times over the years so easy and I need to get motivated soon to plant some on our property again this year if it ever stops raining.

I found it easier to cut as he did but use a fork tine to get the seeds out faster.  Make sure to plant extra to share with the birds and squirrels.

Anna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvjg7dvx9Kc

There were grown along my back fence line in the summer of 2008.


Cleaning Hard To Reach Outside Windows

I was watching our window cleaning service at my store a few weeks ago.. he had a handy long pole and made it look so easy to reach our floor to ceiling store windows.  I thought to myself.. Hmm I bet our hardware store has something like this" and sure enough Lowes had not only what he had but one more affordable that is working out great for the outside of my windows.  My problem is I had tried getting on a ladder but 3 sides of my house sit on land so the ladder wasn't very stable it kept sinking into the dirt and I feared tipping over.  Here is the product I bought:

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=202656-1316-15060&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3434510&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

I just bought a big bottle of window cleaner from Family Dollar for about $2.  Put it in a mop bucket with a little added water to fill the bucket and was able to make the outside of my windows shine.. Yay!  I love it.

Anna

Helpful Hint: Pesky Flies

Last year we had problems with flies in our trashcan laying maggots.. Ugh!  Flies everywhere on my porch and invading the house.  A neighbor told me this trick that works like magic.  When your trash can is empty (after trash pick up) pour household bleach all around the top part of the inside of the trash can and spray water in it again all around the top and down the insides of the trash can.  It killed the maggots instantly.  I then tipped the trash can over and emptied out the water and bleach on the driveway.  With the summer heat anything you put in the trash can that is moist and wet especially meats flies love to lay their eggs in..Yuck.  So I try each week to clean the trash can out cleaned out to avoid these pesky critters.

Anna

Tuesday~Organizing

I have had the last 4 days off from work so I spent some time at home cleaning and organizing.  I finally unearthed the surface of my kitchen table that I use mostly as my office station.  My husband has a hard time standing for very long so now he should be able to sit at the kitchen table while doing food prepping when I'm not home.

I also took 2 plastic shoe boxes and repurposed them for the chest freezer.  I labeled one "cooked hamburger" since I have been cooking lbs. of hamburger (chicken burger) and freezing for future quick meals.  I cook the burger, cool it down and put it in freezer bags that I write on with a marker the date it was cooked.  This turns in to sloppy joes, taco meat, meat for spaghetti, etc. but it was getting lost in the chest freezer.  Now it has a home.  I also took another one and unearthed 2 ham bones with meat, put those in the shoe box and wrote on the top of the box "ham bones" so they also now have a home.  I love having a second freezer but things really get lost in there.. I found a whole uncooked chicken in there yesterday I had no idea I even had.  I'll be cleaning and repurposing more of my shoe boxes over the next week to round up more "loose" meats in there and make it more tidy.  I have pepperoni, salami, bacon that I could see that needed boxes.  I also found a plastic fron loading bin like this one except yellow:

http://www.amazon.com/Akro-Mils-8212-Stacking-AkroBins-Hardware/dp/B00002NB5I/ref=lp_2422435011_1_6/185-2628249-1518326?s=storageorganization&ie=UTF8&qid=1434548369&sr=1-6

That I bought at the thrift store for some reason.. it was just hanging around in the basement.  I dusted it off, put it in my upright freezer and things that I had frozen flat like bananas, strawberries, cookie dough.. all got put in it standing upright so I was able to "corral" more things that were unorganized in the freezer.  This will help me in knowing what I have in the freezer better.

Anna

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Cheesy Chicken and Mushroom Crepe Casserole


I came across this recipe recently and while I don't make crepes myself, my stores do so looks like a good change in pace for something new to try.  Hope you enjoy.

http://12tomatoes.com/2014/11/chicken-recipe-cheesy-chicken-and-mushroom-crepe-casserole.html?utm_source=social&utm_medium=12t&utm_campaign=chicken-recipe-cheesy-chicken-and-mushroom-crepe-casserole&utm_term=20150614

Anna

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Frugal Websites & Blogs

I found this new site packed full of frugal tips so I thought I'd share it here:

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/thread/1505/tightwad-tips-frugal-living-2015

Anna

Monday, June 8, 2015

This Weeks Frugals

I continue each week to buy gift cards from Krogers mostly to get the double fuel points and build up our emergency "cash" supply in case we have a financial hardship.  Kroger cards are good for at least a year so will rotate them eventually.  Also continue while they are doing the dbl. fuel perks to buy GC's for gift giving as well.  I bought a gift card from Petco since Krogers doesn't sell them (why?) for emergency hardship so we can still feed our dogs.  My Rottweiler is allergic to corn so I have to buy her food at Petco and it's $40 a bag.  They all sneak into each others food bowls so it would not be a good idea to give different food to each dog.  So the gift cards will be saved for hard times.  Hopefully there won't be any but a medical issue can really mess up your plans in a hurry and I'll feel better knowing we won't be without some of the things we need.  While I keep a pantry and stock up there are always things you will need to buy at some point.  Krogers cards can be used for gas for the vehicles, medications for us and the dogs and of course for food.

My garden is doing wonderful and so are my cherry tree's this year though it looks like the one in the back yard is about done.  The cherry tree in the front yard is a full sized Bing Cherry tree this is the first year it has produced cherries.. Yay! but dang it most of the cherries are so high in the tree I can't reach them LOL!

I have managed to get about a half quart frozen and hope to get a few more to make jam with..will have to add other fruits but I am proud that part of it came from my garden.

I also went to the thrift store this weekend and bought more cloth dinner napkins.. thinner ones that cost 59 cents each and I will use for hankies this winter when flu season hits.  I can't stand paper napkins they tear my nose up no matter how premoistend they say they are and soft on the nose blah blah.. after a day of using them my nose is raw and sore.  I will keep adding more of these dinner napkins to my supply so that both dh and I will have a good stock up if we need them.

Anna

Friday, June 5, 2015

This Weeks Frugals

Today I went back to Dollar Tree.. I wanted to get all the cans of pears they had.  Well apparently they don't restock very often because they only had the two cans I didn't buy because the were dented since I plan to eat them right away it's not a big thing but hope they get more in.  I also bought more of those plastic envelope things that you store paperwork in, 2 in a pack for dollar versus I've been buying at Krogers 89 cents each.  The other day I took some of the purple gift wrap paper the store gave me and cut it down into neater pieces still plenty big enough for wrapping a book, a small box, socks etc. in and put them in one of those plastic folders so they are nice and tidy when we need them.  I'll do more with the new folders.

Today I also went to Petco bought the dogs food and bought a $10 gift certificate.  I plan to do this weekly so I have it put back for hard times.  I plan to buy another card at Krogers tomorrow I'm not sure if the Kroger cards are double or not will have to check but will either buy a Kroger card or maybe buy a card for my sister's birthday in October.. she likes Kohls a certain brand of jeans they carry and she likes to buy herself a top or something off their clearance racks so that will be her birthday gift.  I bought her Bob Evans for Christmas so she could buy herself a special lunch they ended up using it as a family dinner so will buy her one for the family this year instead.

 A little at a time so I won't have to buy them all at once at the holidays and if we fall on hard times I know it's taken care of.

Lunch/Dinner today:  My husband wanted a Little Caesar pizza so he had half for lunch, half for dinner.  I bought a burritto at Taco Bell.  For dinner I turned in my free Ind. pizza coupons for Donatos and then bought us each a ice cream cone from Dairy Queen.  So total we spent $11 today for lunch, dinner and dessert.  Unfrugal but worth every dime.  I bought the dogs 1 small bouncy ball from Dollar Tree for $1.00.  Cocoa and Sugar chased it around the yard for about 3 minutes before Cocoa bit it and poof all the air went out of it.. they continued to play with it even deflated.  I bought a hoola hoop for a dollar they had no interest in it at all so it'll go across the fence to the little boys next door.

Stock Up:  I bought a 3 pack of bubblegum for my food storage.  Smoking vapor cigarettes you have to be able to charge them back up.  If we have a power outage I won't be able to charge them.  They say you can in your car but only if your car is running so that really isn't a option.  So the bubblegum will be my back up plan.  I also have a bag of cigarette tobacco and tubes that are unopened from when I smoked if I got desperate I could fall back on that temporarily if I got really desperate.  I also bought a bag of flavored hard tack candy different fruity taste to put in my stock up bag.  Next plan is another bag of cough drops.. I had some in there already used some when I had a cold in January always handy to have those when you are sick and don't want to go out to get them.  I also plan to buy more of the dinner napkins.. they had some thin ones that to me werent' really sturdy enough for dinner napkins but for hankies perfect size and weight.  So I'll be going to the thrift store sometime this weekend hoping they are still there.

I also donated to charity:  While I don't have a lot of extra money I donated $5 to the shelter in NC who are helping the dog Caitlin that her owner had taped her mouth shut for 3 days with electrical tape.  The money will go to help their medical bills for helping her and other dogs.  Our local shelter Capital Area Humane Society were in need of canned cat and dog food.  I sent them a check for $5 instead of driving there about 3 miles each way and taking time out of my schedule to do it.  That way they can buy whatever brand they need the most and possibly get a discount because they are a non profit.


Anna