The Simple Life

Part of achieving simplicity is counting your blessings and being content with what you have. Making a list of what you are grateful for truly puts life into perspective.

Every Thanksgiving I make a thankful list. By doing this I feel so much gratitude for what I have and I realize the most important things in life aren’t money or things. Below are twenty of the things which I am grateful for, and this is just the beginning.

• God
• Family
• Friends
• Health
• Youth
• Education
• Freedom
• Food on the table and in the cupboards
• Warm clothes
• Shelter
• Running water
• Hot showers
• Sight
• Hearing
• Running car
• Technology
• Beautiful world
• Husband’s employment
• Savings
• Opportunity to stay at home and raise my child

Happy Thanksgiving

I am with friends and family today, and hope you are too. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I will be back tomorrow.

Stocking Up CVS Trip

I have recently discovered the bargain of CVS. They have a program called ECBs where you pay for an item up front and then a coupon (ECB) will print out that you can use as cash on your next transaction. They had some good deals this week so I dropped by twice today (it’s less than 1 mile from my house) on my errands to take advantage of the savings!

I’m not as good as other CVSers, but you can combine coupons with their deals too and really save. Also, I don’t believe in buying something free just because I can, it has to be something we will use.

CVS will also have great deals going on and Thursday through Saturday offer a lot of things free after ECBS. Go here for more Black Friday details.

1st Trip
Complete Contact Solution 12 oz $8.99
Tax $0.42

Paid with $3.00 CVS ECBs from previous trip

Total out of pocket:
$6.41
ECBS earned $8.99

2nd Trip
Viva 8 pk paper towels $7.49
Dial 3 pk soap $1.99
Tax: $.03

Total $9.51

Paid with $8.99 CVS ECBs

Total out of pocket:
$.052
ECBS earned: $3.00

Overall I spent $6.93 and earned $3.00 ECBs.

$5.32 Kroger Trip

I went to Krogers today to pick up some sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving and decided to snag some of the great deals going on this week. Here are some of the bargains I got. These deals expire today.

To help you follow my paper trail, whenever I used a clipped coupon I put the date of the paper. My Krogers store will double any manufactures coupon up to $0.50

I also get some of my coupons from Cellfire and Shortcuts, where you can load coupons onto your Krogers card. These coupons won’t double but you can combine them with manufacturers coupons.

Here is my shopping trip:

2 4 pk Cottonelles $.99/ea
-.50/Cellfire
-.50/Shortcuts
-.50/.25 manufacturers coupon (11/16) doubled
=$0.24/ea or $0.48
Sweet Potatoes $1.76/6 lbs
Bananas $0.57 (my son ate 2 bananas before I took the picture)
8 oz Kroger cheese $1.67
-$0.45 Shortcuts
=$1.22
Betty Crocker Frosting $1.67
-$0.50 coupon (11/16) doubled
=$0.67
4 boxed green giant vegetables $1.00/ea
-2 ($0.50/two coupons) doubled (10/5 and 11/16)
-3($.50/2 coupons) shortcuts
=.125/ea or $.50/4
Tax=$0.12

Total = $5.32

Note: I had a $.50/off Betty Crocker Shortcuts coupon that didn’t go through. But I got such a great deal on everything else that I wasn’t too sad. If it had gone through my total would have been $4.82!

Planning Your Meals Saves Time and Money

One of the biggest grocery budget busters is going to the store without a plan. We’ve all gone to the store to “buy a gallon of milk” and then are shocked when the total comes to $15 or more because we got a few extras. The little unexpected things that end up in your cart can seriously blow your budget!

One way to avoid overspending at the store is to plan out your meals and write down a list of items needed. Having a shopping list designed around your week’s menu saves time, money, and additional trips to the grocery store.

Here are some tips for making weekly menus work for you.

Start simple
Plan out a simple menu for one week’s worth of main dishes for dinners. Include any plans to dine out or eat leftovers.

Put in on the calendar
Once you have a week’s worth of dinner planned, put the plan on your family calendar. That way you can quickly glance at what’s for dinner and know if you need to make any special preparations like taking something out of the freezer.

Slowly add more menus
As you become more comfortable with planning out dinners and putting them on the calendar, slowly add side dishes in your planning. Then add lunch and breakfast plans and finally snacks. The more specific you make your menus the better prepared you will be at the store.

Plan around sales
The best way to slash your grocery budget is to buy things when they’re on sale and plan your meals around them. For example, if I find that lettuce and tomatoes are on sale, I’ll plan meals that use them for the week such as tacos, salads and so forth. This works best with perishable items as you should aim to slowly build up a supply of staples to have on hand and replenish when they go on sale.

Be flexible and do what works for you
The best plan will only work if you make it simple. If you do most of your grocery shopping every two weeks like me, plan a menu for two weeks or even one month. If one day you don’t feel like spaghetti, switch the menu with tomorrow’s dish since you should have all the items needed from your weekly shopping trip.

The most important thing is to have a plan and then stick with it. As you do this you will see your grocery bills decrease and free up more money to pay down debt or add to savings.

Weekly Menu: Black Bean Chili

One of the greatest ways that I save money is by planning out weekly dinner menus. Here is our dinner menu for this week. I’ll admit that I’m working on making our breakfast and lunch menus more organized.

Dinners:
Monday: Black Bean Chili* with sour cream and cheese, cornbread muffins
Tuesday: Dinner out for Anniversary
Wednesday: Baked Potatoes with leftover chili, steamed veggies
Thursday: Thanksgiving with family, we’re bringing rolls and sweet potatoes
Friday: Barbeque Chicken Pizza, fruit
Saturday: Fajitas
Sunday: Chicken Enchiladas, side veggies, biscuits

*Black Bean Chili ($3.70/8 servings or $0.46/serving)
1/2 lb ground beef, cooked (can increase to 1 lb)
1 1/3 cup dry black beans, soaked and drained
2 8-oz cans tomato sauce
2 15-oz cans tomatoes
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 t. lime juice (can substitute lemon juice)
1/2 t. ground cumin
4 t. chili powder (or to taste)
1 onion, diced
2 t. Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
2 cup water
6 T chopped cilantro (opt)

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Stir, cover and cook on high for 2 hrs them low for 8.

*Note: Can garnish with cheese and sour cream which would bring cost up to $4.25-$4.50/8 servings or $0.53-$0.56/serving.

Homemade Baby Wipes

One day I would like to try using cloth diapers and baby wipes to save money. But since we live in an apartment without washer/dryer hookups–and have to pay for every load we wash–cloth diapers wouldn’t be economical at the moment. So until we move into an apartment with hookups I’ve had to find other ways to save on diapers and wipes.

One of the easiest ways I’ve found to cut diapering costs is to make your own baby wipes. I got sick of paying $7.00-$8.00 for wipes every month on top of what we paid for diapers. So I gave making our own wipes a try and have enjoyed the savings!

Below is the recipe for homemade baby wipes and the cost savings of homemade wipes compared to Wal-mart Generic Unscented wipes.

Recipe for Homemade Baby Wipes

Items needed:
1 durable paper towel roll
1 1/2-2 cups water
1 Tablespoon baby shampoo
1/2 Tablespoon baby or mineral oil
Round wipes container

Directions:
Cut the paper towel roll in two pieces that resemble toilet paper rolls. Pull the inner core out of both small rolls. Put one roll in the round container and the other away for future use. Mix the 2 cups water, shampoo and oil in separate container. Pour mixture over towels. Let sit 5-10 minutes. Pull out center sheet from roll to use.

Cost:

Wal-Mart generic wipes
480 Wal-Mart generic wipes=$7.50

Homemade Wipes:
1/2 Scott Paper Towels Roll 60 sheets= $0.27 (8 rolls/$4.29 on sale)
1/2 T Mineral Oil=$0.03 ($1.52/16 oz)
1 T Baby Wash=$0.04 ($1.18/15 oz)

Total cost for homemade wipes =$0.34
$0.34/60 sheets=$0.006/wipe

480 Wal-Mart baby wipes=$7.50
480 homemade baby wipes=$2.72
Savings=64%

As you can see there are substantial savings in investing a little extra time and making your own baby wipes. Of course the savings will depend on the prices of items in your area, but even if you can’t find the ingredients on sale you’ll still save at least 40%-70% by making your own wipes instead of buying generic.

The Simple Life

Today is part two of my series on “stuffitis”. Last week I talked about the perils of “stuffitis” and this week I will offer suggestions on how to conquer it.

Let me first put in a disclaimer that I am probably as organized/disorganized as the next person. But I have read many books on becoming more organized and I am starting to implement some habits to create a simpler home environment. My home this week was a lot more organized than last week, and that is how I measure my progress.

I get most of my inspiration from The Fly Lady. She has a list of 31 baby steps to begin decluttering your life. She stressed the power of simple habits to maintain a simple, uncluttered home and life. If you want to learn more you can also sign up for her mailing list here.

Here are 3 important things to consider when you begin to declutter your life

1) Remember that it took you months and years to accumulate your clutter, so it will take some time to organize and eliminate it. Don’t try to do too much at once or you’ll get discouraged and give up. Start with one simple area or room.

As I tackled my decluttering this week I realized I could only do a couple of areas without feeling burnout. My decluttering wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated because we’ve moved within the last year and got rid of a lot of stuff, but I still didn’t accomplish all that I wanted. My towels and kitchen cupboards are now organized but there are a few other areas to declutter in the next few weeks.

2) Challenge yourself to donate or toss as much as you can. Be harsh when deciding if you really need certain items and if you’ve really used them. Like I said last week, when we were without many of our items we really didn’t miss them.

3) Once it’s clean keep it that way. This was my major project of the week. Last Friday I spent a few hours completely cleaning the apartment with the goal to keep all of our living areas clean and clutter free. This meant unloading the dishwasher first thing in the morning, putting clothes straight into the laundry basket and picking up my son’s toys during nap.

This has been a challenge (and our bedrooms didn’t quite keep up with the rest of the house) but it has been well worth it. I have found I have more time to spend with my family and I feel less stressed knowing that the chores are done and my life is a little simpler.

Baking

Since the computer was in the shop this week I got a lot of things done around the house. One of the major projects that I tackled was baking. Our family saves a lot of money by baking items from scratch, and it’s often healthier too!

A lot of times if I’m making muffins, pancakes or waffles I’ll double the recipe, cook it all up and freeze the extra for later. Then future breakfasts and snacks are a snap. Here are some of the items I made this week, in addition to our lunches and dinner.

Monday:
Homemade Granola

Tuesday:
Banana muffins
Corn bread muffins

Wednesday:
Hashbrowns
Tortillas

Thursday:
Breakfast burritos (with the homemade tortillas)
Chicken Nuggets

Our weekly menu: Homemade Hamburger Helper

I am a little late posting our dinner menu for the week but here goes. Since I’m just starting out this blog, I’ll keep it simple and just put the main dishes.

Monday: Sausage Stew
Tuesday: Homemade Hamburger Helper*
Wednesday: Turkey Log
Thursday: Stroganoff
Friday: Pepperoni Pizza
Saturday: Spaghetti
Sunday: Tim’s cooking (probably chicken/rice dish)

As a note, our son is allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts so many of our dishes don’t have dairy in them or the recipes are modified. In addition, I cook with more fat since he isn’t getting the essential fat he needs from milk and I’ve stopped breast feeding.

*Homemade Hamburger Helper:
1/2 lb hamburger
2 cans (8 oz) tomato sauce
2 cans (8 oz) water
2 cups noodles
1 Tb Taco Seasoning
1/2-1 cup cheddar cheese

Cook and drain meat. Add all other ingredients but the cheese to the pan. Cover. Simmer on low 15 minutes or until the pasta is soft. Mix in cheese.

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