Oh, how I love summertime...

...but I am NOT a fan of summertime colds.  August starts heavy allergy season for me.  I was fighting the sinus headaches already when things kicked in full force.  It took me a full day to figure out that it was a cold on top of the allergies.  So, I am just functioning with Tylenol, Zyrtec and this.  So, I apologize for the delay on the next post in the Stretching the Food Dollars series.  I had the next one done, but somehow managed to delete it. [sigh]  I blame the extra ten pounds of snot gumming up the works in my brain.  That and the antihistamines - they will make one quite loopy.  I will have the new one posted first thing in the morning, I promise!

Stretching the Food Dollars: Eating Out

It is inevitable, even with a commitment to cooking, you will eat out. We rarely go out as a family because it can easily run us over $50. Even fast food is around $35-$40 for all of us. My oldest two children eat adult meals so , for us, we basically are feeding 4 adults and 4 children. Our best bang for the buck is a local oriental place were we can get three quart sized entrees and a quart of soup for about $25 and it feeds us all.

When we do eat out, here are some of my ways to stretch our dollars:

• Coupons: I watch for local coupons on places we like and keep them in a handy file. Nothing complicated here. Look for them in the paper and in the junk mail. In the past when we ate out more frequently, we have invested in an Entertainment Book.
  
  

• Kids Eat Free: Often restaurants will have a day of the week where kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entree. Kids Meal Deals is a site where you can search for restaurants in your area. Restaurant rules may vary, but this can save a ton.
  
  

• Groupons: Many cities now offer groupon deals. What is a Groupon? It is a daily deal on something local. It could be a spa treatment, or a restaurant gift certificate. Usually they are around half off. If they sell enough of them, the deal goes through. You print out your voucher and use it to make your purchase. I have got a $25 meal voucher to a local restaurant we love for only $10. Sign up to get daily e-mails or "like" them on Facebook to see what they are offering in your area.

• Drink Water: I know - not real exciting. With non-alcoholic beverage prices sometimes passing the $2 mark, you can save a ton of money by drinking water which is FREE. For our family that would be $16 shaved off of our bill. As a bonus, you will be saving calories and be healthier, too. Train your children to order water at a meal. We tell the kids before we ever enter a restaurant that if a drink is not included in the price of a meal they will drink water. That is what they are accustomed to at home anyway.

• Split Meals: Most restaurant portions are enormous! Plan to share a meal with someone. Say something to your waitress and make sure that this is not a problem. Some restaurants will charge you extra to share a meal or are not willing to split it for you and will just bring an extra plate so you can do it yourself. However, we have been places that are very nice about splitting a meal for us and even adding some of the extra sides to both plates. Not only will you save money by doing this, but you will have a healthier sized meal portion.

• Buffets: We have found that buffets are often cost effective for us. Usually the younger children eat for free or for a very reduced rate. One place charges 10 cents per year of age. The added benefit with small children is there is no long wait time for food and everyone can usually find something they really like.

Eating out can be a special treat that doesn't have to destroy your budget if done with a bit of planning and care.

Stretching the Food Dollars: Finding Food Bargains

Good morning friends! This has been a great week for bargains at the store. Not on food, but on school supplies. Even the homeschooling moms are out buying supplies now because this is when stores sell a few items dirt cheap to get you in the door to buy the stuff on the rest of your school supply list. I was probably the customer they hate. I bought the bargains and left, feeling a bit sorry for all those moms with their long required school supply lists. I manged to get a big stack of spiral notebooks and pronged folders for $0.15 each, composition notebooks and Crayola crayons for a quarter. Hopefully, I bought enough to last us through the school year.

But, I am getting sidetracked about what I came here to talk about, stretching your food dollars and finding bargains on food. There are lots more places to shop than grocery stores.

So where can you find bargains on food?

• Clearance Aisle: I never leave a grocery store without checking out the clearance or reduced for quick sale areas. Some stores have one that is just for produce, or one specifically for bakery goods, as well as an are for general grocery items. Make sure you find them all. When I find a good deal, I snatch it up. The key is checking to make sure the condition of the item is still good and buying only things that you will really use.
  
  I have gotten baked treats 60% off, red, yellow and orange peppers for only 20 cents each that were still beautiful. One day I found jalapeños for literally pennies each. I bought a bunch, chopped them up fine and put them in ziplocks. I didn't fill the bags too full and pressed them very flat and put them in the freezer. Now whenever I want to give a dish a little kick, I can go into the freezer, break off a hunk of chopped jalapeños and add them in. I have even found big bags of expensive sushi rice half price. I bought several and all ready for our family sushi making that I mentioned the other day.
  
  

• Scratch and Dent Store: Check your local area to see if you have one of these stores. Here, I find, you really need to know your prices, though. Some things are all beat up and the price is no better than the regular store. I have also found things like Starbucks coffee for $3 a pound which is a steal. Just know your prices and check expiration dates.
  
  

• Aldi: I have found that Aldi has the best prices around for canned goods, pasta, and many other pantry staples and you don't have to wait for a sale. Check and see if you have one in your area. I go there every few months to stock my pantry. I buy pretty much all of my canned fruit, canned vegetables, cream soups, noodles, spaghetti, cereal, and tomato sauce. I don't, however buy their spaghetti sauce. That is one of the few things of theirs that I do not like. It is easy shopping because because I just go in and buy a flat (12 or 24 cans) of everything we use. It is, however, heavy shopping. Its nice to have another pair of hands to help, especially when it is time to unload at home because my extra pantry is in the basement. It is very nice to have my own little “store” at home stocked with these items. I don't have to worry about them on my regular grocery trips.
  
  

• Warehouse Store: If you like buying in larger quantities, a warehouse store like Sam's Club is great. It helps to know your prices because not everything is cheaper than the grocery, just bigger. Because of the size of our family, I like buying big containers of things. I buy most of my paper products there as well as fresh fruit, frozen vegetables, baking staples, and dairy. I find on the fruit, especially, that it may not be a whole lot cheaper than the grocery store, but the quality is consistently better. I am not sure how they pull that off, but it is uncommon that I get a bag of bland mealy apples, or package of sour grapes. Actually, out of all the bags of fruit that I have purchased from them (which is A LOT) I think there have been only one or two times that I have been disappointed. Be warned, though, your bill at one of these stores will be high even if it is just for a few items because of the bigger sizes. I rarely, if ever, get out of there for under $100. Still, I am getting good prices.
  
  

• Food Auction: I discovered a few months ago that every couple of weeks at the local auction house, there is a food auction. They sell a whole variety of things. There are canned goods, boxed convenience foods, candy, snack foods, drinks, toiletries, cleaning products, frozen meat and more. Depending on who is there and what their interests are, I have gotten some amazing deals. I have found that many who attend are mostly interested in junk food and convenience foods and don't really bid on the basic cooking staples. I have gotten whole cases of evaporated milk for a quarter a can (they go in the store for over a buck), 20# of potatoes for $1.50, boxes of granola bars for 85 cents, and a 15# ham for $8.00. Some of my best deals are at the end when they throw a bunch of odds and ends into a box. I have gotten a box like that for as low as a quarter! You should check your local auction place and see if they ever do this. Expect to spend an entire afternoon there, but it is a fun adventure bidding and trying to get some good deals. It kind of makes saving money a sport!
  
  

• Angel Food Ministries: This is a program that began local in a town that was suffering economically after several local factories closed down. A couple of pastors began distributing food. Soon, more local churches got involved and eventually it spread throughout the whole United States. Through Angel Food Ministries, anyone can purchase a box of food designed to feed a family of four for about a week for $30. It will include a variety of frozen foods, pantry items, and fresh produce. The boxes are distributed through local churches once a month. We started purchasing Angel Food last year. Since we have 8 in our family, we buy two boxes. We get a lot of food for $60! The quality has been good and this is a great supplement to our groceries. This month there was meatloaf, lasagna, mashed potatoes, a whole chicken, ground beef, cheese-stuffed hamburgers, eggs, milk, cabbage, cinnamon rolls, carrots, cereal, and probably more that I am forgetting. Click the link above and see if you have this in your area. We have many local churches that distribute this in our area.

• Outlets: Check to see if you have any food outlet stores in your area. I know we have a couple of bakery outlets where you can get loaves of bread and buns for a very good price. I have friends who go there every couple of months, stock up on bread and freeze it. I personally have not done this because my hubby doesn't care for bread that has been frozen and I bake my own most of the time.

• Off the beaten path: I am always on the look out for off the beaten path places that I can find a good food deal. These are the type of places you hear about through word of mouth and it takes time to discover them. I'll give you some examples of places that I have found.
  There is a local meat processing place that marks things down well once they hit a certain age. It is only a couple of miles from home and I will regularly stop to check for deals.
  I live in Indiana Amish country and there are some great deals to be found at Amish stores. Not only can you buy an authentic bonnet, they have great deals on spices and other items that they buy in bulk and repackage in smaller quantities. There is a huge Amish store about an hour north of us that my parents periodically trek up to. They have tons of items like this. Many of them are hard to find things like dehydrated vegetables and real tapioca for great prices.
  Farmers markets and farm stands are good, too, in the summer. We have several in the area. Even if the prices don't beat the grocery stores, the quality is usually far better and you have the added benefit of supporting your local farmers which is a good thing.

• Garden: This may not be for everyone because is does require some time and effort. But for the price of a packet of seeds, you can have bushels of vegetables. When you grow your own, you control what gets put on them, too.

So, start thinking outside the box when it comes to finding bargains on food. Hopefully, I got your wheels turning and you are ready to find those great deals.

Stretching the Food Dollars: Coupons

Yesterday, I talked about learning to cook from scratch as my #1 way to stretch my food dollars. So, hopefully I have convinced you all to cook now. However, you can still spend a ton at the grocery if you are not careful. One way to cut that is expense it to use coupons. Using coupons effectively to save a lot is a bit of a game. The goal of the game is to “play” your coupon when the item is on sale at it lowest. Sometimes this even gets you the item for free or just pennies. It is a bit time consuming as you need to search out the coupons, know your local stores' coupon and price matching policies (which regularly change) and scour each store's weekly sales flyer. Then you compile a list and coupon envelope for each store you plan to go to. To learn how to do this in more detail, Google "how to use coupons." There are many helpful sites. Many want you to buy their system or subscribe to their service that tells you what coupons to use where and when. One of these is The Grocery Game. They watch the sale cycles and give you a list of items that are on sale and which exact coupons to us on them. I did subscribe to this for about 6 months. I followed it diligently and got some great bargains. It was well worth the price to subscribe to the service. Another site that has much of the same information for free is the Deal Seeking Mom blog.

For me, I have found that coupons save me the most money on toiletries and beauty products. As far as food, coupons save the most on convenience foods which, even with coupons, usually cost more than cooking from scratch. There are rarely coupons for pantry staples. Clipping and sorting coupons and tracking store sales takes tons of time. It can save you quite a bit, but I feel like I save just as much or more money cooking from scratch and just skipping the convenience foods. I think cooking from scratch takes less time, too, than couponing. It is good to try, though, and see for yourself if the coupons are worth your effort for your family. You may find that you can save a huge chunk of money on the things you buy. Even though I don't do this on a weekly basis anymore, I still periodically coupon and deal hunt at CVS and Walgreens to stock up on toiletries. The savings are too good to pass up.

Tomorrow, I will discuss some of the places I have found to get food at a bargain price.

Stretching the Food Dollars: Cooking

This week, I am talking about how to stretch our food dollars. Everyone has to eat, but how we go about doing that can have a huge impact on your budget. I think most of us would love make our money go further. So, let's just jump right in.
My #1 way to stretch my food dollar is to....

Cook!
I have a confession to make. During the first decade of my marriage, I was pretty lazy in the area of cooking. I did cook regularly, but because we lived in town less than 2 minutes away from a plethora of yummy restaurants, it was very tempting to get lazy about cooking. Often, I would find myself at dinnertime with no meal planned, nothing thawed, and no ambition to cook. And, I sheepishly admit, I knew that if I just told my husband that I could whip up some creamed tuna over toast, he would run to grab some take out. That being said, my husband and I look back on those years, remembering how good our income was and how low our expenses were and wonder where all the money went. Our income isn't really any higher now than it was back then when we were living on two good paychecks. However our mortgage payment is about five times higher and our number of mouths to feed has quadrupled. So what did we do with that cash? I think much of it went to frivolous eating out.

Cooking is a skill that will reward you financially for the rest of your life. Do what it takes to acquire that skill. Find a good cook who will mentor you, read books, watch cooking shows, take classes, and practice. Do whatever it takes to learn how to cook decently. It will be worth every penny you spend and every minute you invest. You will have to eat for the rest of your life. You can pay someone else to prepare your food by eating out or purchasing convenience heat-and-eat foods at the store or you can cook for yourself from scratch and learn the creative joy of making a meal and save yourself a ton of money, too.

There are lots of good resources available to learn to cook from scratch. A couple of books that I would recommend are How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart and Miserly Meals: Healthy, Tasty Recipes Under 75¢ per Serving. Both are good because they are not so much about the specific recipes and ingredients, but the techniques. If you know how to make a basic white sauce, you can do a multitude of things with it. Knowing the techniques is important for freeing yourself from recipes. That is key in utilizing what you have in your pantry, saving trips to the grocery store and ultimately saving money. Also, a search on the subject of "Low Budget Cookery" on my local library's website yielded 91 titles. There are a lot of free resources out there!

Make cooking fun. Think of a meal that you love and crave. Maybe it is something from your favorite restaurant or a memorable dish your grandma used to make. Do a little research and figure out how to make it yourself. Search the internet. AllRecipes is my personal favorite, but there are many great recipe sites.

This past weekend, we got fresh cabbage in our Angel Food box (We'll talk more about that later). My husband saw it and instantly got a craving for cabbage rolls. Although I have eaten them and loved them, I had never made them before. I found a well reviewed recipe and decided to go for it. When I had a bit of trouble forming the rolls, I called my mother-in-law for tips because I knew she had made them before. I also found a step by step video on You Tube that showed me the technique. It did take a bit of time, but they were absolutely delicious. When I do them again, they will be much easier and faster to make.

Something we love is sushi. There is a local place that makes wonderful sushi, but we just can't afford to go out to eat there. So, we found a recipe for the sushi rice, watched some videos online to learn the rolling technique and now we make our own. It has become a fun family project and we can make it just the way we like it and in abundant quantities. Simple maki rolls are actually quite inexpensive to make. If you would have told me that I would be making sushi 5 years ago, I would have laughed at you, but now that we have done it on several occasions, it doesn't intimidate me at all.

So my point is practice. Just get in your kitchen and do it. You will never regret learning to cook the foods you and your family love. It can become a joy to you and it is a tremendous way to stretch your food dollar.

Stretching the Food Dollars

Stretching my food dollars is a constant area of concern for me. With a good-sized, growing family, our budget is considerably tight. Unfortunately, most of our expenses are set in place without much play. Our mortgage is a constant and our utilities do not vary by much from month to month. One area of our budget where I find that I have the most control over is food. Obviously, 8 people in a household require quite a bit of food. But how you feed those 8 mouths can make a huge difference on the budget. If we consistently dined on steak and lobster tail, my bills would be ridiculously high and we would probably be homeless right now because of that. It is my duty as the manager of my household to figure out how to make our food dollar stretch as far as it can. Over the next few days, I will be discussing some of my tricks.

Just one of the (many) reasons why we homeschool...

Struggles

"There is nothing--no circumstance, no trouble, no testing--that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret--for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is!--That is the rest of victory!" Alan Redpath, Victorious Christian Living

Struggles. Life is full of them. I can list my share and I am sure that every single person reading this can list even more of their own. It is the human condition of life here on this earth. We struggle; we have hardships. Others may have lives who look really great from the outside, but no one's life is without difficulty. I think the test of a person's character is how they react in the midst of bad times.

One of my ongoing struggles is in the area of finances (or the lack of them to be exact). No matter how hard I try to cut expenses, we always seem to be right on the edge of making it. This has been the situation for several years and it just seems to be getting worse. What is the phrase - squeezing blood from a turnip? That's what I constantly feel like I am trying to do when I take our income and try to stretch it everywhere it needs to go.

We have drastically cut our expenses. It is rare that we eat out. I don't even buy convenience food from the grocery because of the expense. Instead we cook from scratch. New, store-bought clothes don't even exist in our house unless they were a gift. Rummage sales and thrift stores are the norm. My husband may take the older kids to a movie once a year. We may go out on a date to a restaurant 2 or 3 times in an entire year. Our family vacations consist of an overnight 1 or 2 times a year. We don't buy hardly anything beyond the necessities. I even feel extravagant when I buy homeschool curriculum.

I long for a day when I can just relax a little bit with our spending. My hubby and I were discussing this hardship last night. I was trying to remember this quote from above here. It made me realize that these struggles have taught me so much. It has forced me into realizing that many of our so called needs are merely wants. I find it a comfort to know that God is ultimately in control of our difficult circumstances - to know that He had to give approval for them. Trials are what cause us to grow spiritually. I cannot deny that doing without has grown me. As painful as this is, I wouldn't trade the experience. But I would be lying if I didn't admit that I regularly tell God that in my opinion I have learned enough already. [wink] Hubby brought up that perhaps God has in mind to give us monetary blessings in the future to use for His glory and He needs us to learn frugality and better money management. That is a nice thought; I hope he is right. On the other hand I fear that God desires to teach us much more and we are going to have to sacrifice much more as a result. I wonder how much more we can eliminate from our budget before it means a drastic life change. I question how well I could handle it if it came to giving up my home. That would be heartbreaking.

So, I continue to put my reliance each day on God to provide. He may not do things my way, but He has never let us down and has often come through in unexpected ways. I seek His wisdom and guidance to do everything I can to be a good steward of all that He has given me. I "refuse to get panicky" as the quote above says. Instead I trust in the goodness of the God I serve.

To market, to market, to buy A LOT

"She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar." Proverbs 31:14

One mom, one 95 degree day, 4 children and 4 full shopping carts equals what? A full pantry and a very tired me. Oh, I forgot to mention the horrendous thunderstorm that broke loose just as I was leaving Sam's club with 2 of my full shopping carts along with a 3 year old who thought she had to go potty for the 3rd time just since we had been there and a tired 1 year old with a leaky diaper. Good times good times.

I know what you are thinking. "Why in the world...?" Well, my older two girls have started doing some painting and cleaning for us at our apartments and they were busy with that. I had no babysitters at home, so I had to take the younger 4 with me.

We were way overdue for an Aldi's run. I find that I get my best deals on canned goods there. Their selection isn't huge, but there are most of the basics. I buy flats of canned green beans, peaches, various other fruits, tomato sauce, cream soups, etc. Yesterday, they even had a mexican brand of tomatoes with chili peppers (similar to Rotel) for only 55 cents a can. We also stocked up on cereal, granola bars along with a few other misc. items. The nice thing about going to Aldi's with the kids is that I actually have help. When I do it alone, I have only one cart and it is tough fitting everything in it. I had Patrick push a second cart and and was able to use one just for flats of canned goods and the second for all the other stuff. Way easier. We loaded up our van with our two cart loads and moved on.

We were also long overdue for a Sam's Club run. As our family size has grown and we go through larger quantities of things, I am discovering that buying in bulk really works well for us and is more economical. The day before, I made a list and placed a Click-n-Pull order. If you don't know what that is, it is a service they provide for business members. You order online and they gather it all for you. You just show up, pay and take it home. The only downside to it is that not everything in the store is available online, so I always end up with a short list of things that I need to walk through the store to pick up. The click-n-pull does still save time.

My darling 3 year old, Rachel, must have a bladder the size of a pea. I made her go to the bathroom before we left. We used the bathroom at Office Depot, one of our first stops before grocery shopping, and hit the bathroom as soon as we got to Sam's. I think my big mistake was bribing them with lunch at Sam's for good behavior. You can't eat out much cheaper. You can get a hot dog combo for $1.70 which includes a big hot dog and a BIG soda. Did I say big soda? I meant BIG. Obviously, this was not a good thing for Rachel. Of course, she waits until we are at the very back of the store, the opposite end from the bathrooms, to start doing her desparate potty dance. You know the one, right? You bounce around holding your bottom yelling (so everyone around can hear) "I have to go potty!" over and over. Fearing an embarrassing puddle on the floor, I relent and stop my shopping to drag everyone back to the front of the store to the bathroom. The older two say they could try to go so I send the three in by themselves while I stand outside with the full cart and baby. After about what seems like 20 minutes of squeals and giggles coming from inside, they finally emerge. We return to the other end of the store and finish up. This is when I notice that the blazing hot sun has disappeared and it looks like rain. As I am standing in line to check out and claim my click-n-pull, the heavens burst forth and we hear torrential rain coming down along with lots of thunder and lightning. I am envisioning wet kids, wet groceries, and wet me. My order was brought up in two carts which meant that I now had three carts. As I am consolidating it into just two, my son accidentally spills my entire full cup of iced tea on the floor. So, I sheepishly have to tell someone so it can get cleaned up. [sigh]

I decided that there was no way that I was dragging four kids and two carts out into a thunderstorm. So, I place my older two in charge of guarding the carts by the door and grab the baby and 3 year old and go to the van to pull it up under the covered loading area. This is when I discover that Baby Samuel's diaper has reached capacity and he is soaking wet. Ick! This is the second time his diaper has leaked on me in one day. Thankfully, this time it was only wet! I pull up and start the task of trying to quickly load two more cart-fulls of groceries into my already full van. Cars are lining up behind us waiting. This is when Rachel begins her encore of the desperate potty dance. I think, "You have got to be kidding me! I am not taking you a third time to the bathroom here. Not now." We finish loading, pull out of the way and I change Samuel. Rachel is screaming and holding her bottom. Luckily, I still have one pull-up in the van and put it on her. We drive home listening to her cry "potty" all the way.

Thankfully, when I got home, Barry and the girls were there so I had lots of help unloading which was wonderful. Rachel did, by the way, make it home to the bathroom without an accident. I am so happy that we are fully stocked up and won't need to do that again for a long time - at least a week [wink].

Yes, I'm still around

I have really failed lately when it comes to this blog. Time - there just never seems to be enough of it!

Here's a quick up date about what is going on in our lives right now.

My daughter Elizabeth and I both participated in a photography contest called Photos of Faith. She and I both got ribbons in our divisions which was very exciting. This photo here is Elizabeth's called "Steadfast Resolve" which got 1st place in the youth division. The judges even said that they thought is was the strongest image in the whole show and probably would have gotten 1st place even in the adult division. Cool, huh!

Speaking of Elizabeth, she is officially a licensed driver. We are all very excited for her. I have to admit that my heart is just in my throat watching her drive off by herself. I know that she is in God's hands, though. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

Both of my older two girls have started a new business venture doing some painting and cleaning for us at our apartments. This gives them some real work experience and a bit of cash in their pockets. In addition to this they are feverishly working on their 4-H projects which will be fine arts and crafts. The fair is just a few short weeks away.

Patrick and Abi just finished up two weeks of swimming lessons which they loved. Rachel, being only 3 years old, was too young to participate. She was devastated and has thrown her share of temper tantrums to prove it. We are going through a rather difficult phase with her right now. She definitely has a temper and is NOT afraid to use it. Her screaming outbursts are a regular occurrence in our home even though she gets disciplined for every single one of them. She just can't seem to control them. I am praying that with diligence on our part to always take action when they occur and maturity on her part, she can get a grip on her fiery emotions.

My littlest guy, Samuel, is already 17 months old. As can be expected for his age, he is a busy little man. I have had to put a lock on my tupperware cabinet for our sanity because I couldn't take cleaning up the mess after he had gone through it like a tornado one more time. He adores his older siblings and tries to follow them everywhere. His second favorite activity right now is emptying drawers. Fun!

Samuel has his first official haircut this morning so it is time to cut this short so I can feed the troops their breakfast before we go.