Quick Lunch Wraps

It's cold here in Montana (surprise, surprise), so we've been doing more hot meals, even for breakfast and lunch. Last week, Josh and I made up a batch of wraps to keep in the freezer. We've been using this recipe for about 7 years now. We go through periods where we eat these for lunch every single day for months at a time. They're tasty, and reasonably healthy and very easy to "grab and go"

Quick Lunch Wraps
2 cups uncooked rice
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans black beans
2 cans kidney beans
1 pound cheese (we use monterrey jack or pepper jack), shredded
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can ro-tel tomatoes (or 1 can petite diced tomatoes and one small can diced chiles)
tortillas (the number depends on the size you get, around 40-50 soft taco size, more if they're fajita sized, less if they're burrito size)

1. Cook the rice according to directions
2. Dump all of the beans into a colander and rinse
3. Pour corn and ro-tel on top of beans (do not rinse)
4. In a LARGE pot or bowl, mix rice, bean mixture and cheese
5. Fill tortillas and wrap each one in plastic wrap, then put in gallon ziplocs and freeze
6. To eat, unwrap and heat on reduced power in the microwave for about 2 minutes if frozen. If you are taking these to work, take them out of the freezer in the morning and take them with you. They'll thaw by lunchtime and just need a quick zap in the microwave to be warm.

**You can use any combination of beans you want, add more chiles if you like your food spicy
**Sometimes when we're craving this, but I don't want to roll all those tortillas, I'll use this as a veggie enchilada stuffing instead. Just layer with corn tortillas, enchilada sauce and more cheese casserole style. I usually get two or three 8x8 pans that freeze well and can be warmed in the oven at 350 for a quick dinner.

Sweet Potatoey Goodness

Today, I made my children stand in the kitchen and re-learn the words to Santa Claus is Coming to Town as a discipline tactic. Okay, it wasn't actually today because I wrote this post a few days ago and scheduled it to show up now (I so love that feature). But nonetheless, I totally went for exploiting the love/fear of a jolly fat man rather than supervising one more stinkin' time out. Speaking of which...large man dressed as a magical elf that lands a small herd of reindeer on your roof, sneaks into your locked up house while you're sleeping and eats your food...and that's after he spends all year watching your every move, whether you're sleeping or awake. A bit creepy, no?

And while I was threatening small children with nothing but lumps of coal (against my own "never make a threat you're not willing to follow through on" philosophy), I was also holding a baby, washing dishes, and making sweet potato pancakes (more on those later). Because women, and moms especially, totally rock at multi-tasking. And whatever inborn skill you already have gets kicked up to the next level when you're pregnant with a second baby....that first time you puke while also holding back a small child that wants to know, "whatcha doing momma? Will you come play with me? But WHY do I need to go away? I want to stay with yoooouuuuuuuuuuu!" It's all preparation for the morning you find yourself nursing a baby while simultaneously wiping someone else's tiny rear end and wondering why you didn't wait just a little bit longer for the next baby.

But PANCAKES! We're here for the pancakes! We somehow decided it was a pancakes and scrambled eggs for dinner night. I still had a pan of sweet potatoes in the fridge though. We had eaten them two nights in a row and I didn't want to eat more, but I didn't want to waste them either. So I searched for a sweet potato pancake recipe. I found this one on All Recipes and then, of course, tweaked it.

So, first things first, I had already made the sweet potatoes a few days ago: I peeled and diced the sweet potatoes, steamed them, then mashed and added an embarrassing amount of brown sugar (enough to make the color darker), topped with marshmallows and baked until the marshmallows browned. These were the sweet potatoes I was using in the pancakes. I still measured out 3/4 pound, as the recipe calls for.

And then I looked at the recipe and thought someone was smoking crack if they were making pancakes without vanilla, so I added in a healthy teaspoon (or maybe tablespoon...it's one of those ingredients I never measure) of good vanilla (none of that imitation stuff). Then I saw nutmeg on the ingredient list and thought it was equally insane to have nutmeg in such a recipe with no cinnamon or allspice alongside it. So I added both of those in (again, I didn't measure. Just sprinkle some in until it smells good. If you're having a crisis of confidence, go with 1/2 tsp of each). Other than that and using freshly ground nutmeg, I followed the recipe. These pancakes were a HUGE hit here. I put a little butter on top and dusted them with powdered sugar because I inherited a giant sweet tooth, but really, they don't need any topping at all. Definitely don't need syrup. They're sweet enough on their own and taste like Thanksgiving. This will be our standard meal the day after we have sweet potatoes from now on.

All The Colors

I have a slight addiction to crayons. Okay, it might go beyond that...I bought crayons and coloring books for myself right on up through college (now I pretend they're for the kids) and I might get a little giddy when packs of crayons go on sale for $0.25. I've been known to buy an entire case of crayons some years. Yes, yearS and therein lies the problem. I was a little lax for a while about letting the girls get into the crayon stash, so there were A LOT of partially used crayons lying around. As I was setting up our homeschool room here, I decided they only needed one big school supply box of crayons and what didn't fit in the box, would have to go (not counting my not-yet-opened stash, of course).

So, Sierra and I sat down and picked out all the broken crayons and the really well used crayons and then just grabbed out a few more so the box would close. We peeled all the paper off these crayons and put them in baggies to save for crayon reincarnation (turns out crayons are slightly Buddhist, who'd have thunk it?). None of the ideas I list here are my own, they're widely talked about in various places on the internet and I can't even link to something specific, because I read a lot of pages and then just gave it a whirl.

First, we did window hangings like we made when I was a kid. I haven't found our crayon sharpener yet, so I just used the small side of a cheese grater to shave the crayons. A crayon sharpener would work a lot better if you have one. The shavings are put between two pieces of wax paper: Then newspaper is put on top (to protect the iron). Set the iron on low and briefly iron over everything, checking frequently to see if the shavings are melted yet. Once everything is melted and cooled, cut it into a shape you like. Cut a frame from two pieces of construction paper and glue them on both sides of the wax paper.
Hang in the window to enjoy! Sierra decided she'd rather use less shavings next time so it's not so dark looking in the middle.

The other project we did today was making new crayons. Broken up pieces of crayon (may be easier to do this with a knife) are put in a muffin tin. Bake at 250 until they are all melted (it takes a little while, but do not leave the oven!!), then carefully take out of oven (careful not to swirl your colors together) and let cool completely. Voila, new, multi-colored crayons. I should have put more crayon pieces in each muffin tin.

I have plans to make candles as well, but can't find wicks here in town. We'll be heading up to the "big city" of Missoula on Saturday for an appointment and I'm assuming I'll be able to get wicks then and try out the candles this weekend. I'll post about it when I do!

A few small tips: I'm a crayola loyalist, other brands just aren't the same. I've read other brands may not work as well for some of these projects, but definitely don't mix brands in one project because they may have different melting points. I've also read washable crayons are more brittle when they're melted and cooled, so they don't work well either.

Long Term Goal Planning

I have really vacillated in the past about long term goals. My first instinct is to say that my long term goal is to own enough land and be capable of producing and preserving food well enough to provide (and barter) for most of our needs. On the other hand, I don't want to be tied to that piece of land. When my children are grown and having their own kids, I want to be able to go to them for extended periods of time if the need arises. This seems like a real conundrum to me. You can't have something like a dairy cow or goat unless you are there to milk every single day.

Then I went grocery shopping yesterday. It was a little bit eerie. The produce section had many many bins (at least 1/3) that were completely empty. The produce that was there was not really great quality. There were signs posted everywhere about weather patterns affecting supply. Despite the rest of the shelves being stocked, it pretty much freaked me out. It solidified my idea of continuing to improve garden skills and settling long term in a place where we can have extensive vegetable gardens and fruit trees. Because the thing is, if food should suddenly be in short supply, it will be too late to start from scratch. Providing for yourself is something you have to learn about ahead of time and practice on a regular basis, even if some people think you're nuts for doing so.

I've realized that where some people might feel secure with things like retirement savings, my sense of security is very much tied into having a reliable source of shelter and food/water.

P.S. More quilt updates coming later today, we've made A LOT of progress, I just haven't taken pictures yet

Q is for Quilt

This is my great-granny (holding Sierra almost 5 years ago). She lived to be 100 years old, which means she was an adult with children during the Depression. That fact alone meant we heard plenty of interesting stories from Granny. Once a person lives through a time when things we consider as basic as food and shelter are not guaranteed, it seems they always appreciate things just a little bit more. They really take that "waste not, want not" phrase to heart. As such, Granny's quilts served a purpose and that purpose was not to hang in a gallery somewhere. I like looking at pretty quilts, I'm just not interested in spending the time and resources to make one. I'll keep my eye out for pretty fabric scraps on sale and take my friends up on offers to go through their scrap bins, but I just can't bring myself to pay $16/yd (or more!) for fabric...it feels like I'm betraying my granny. Several years ago, I was very generously gifted a great sewing machine by my mother-in-law and ever since then, I have been saving my fabric scraps. Anything bigger than a 2"x2" square has gone in a bin for a future quilt. Since I am starting to think about packing up, plus we are moving to a much colder climate, I decided it was time to get those out and get to quilting. Turns out I have enough scraps for two (maybe even three, but I'm not that ambitious) quilts. I found two patterns I'm following, but they are the epitomy of a scrap quilt--all sorts of different fabrics. Sierra is helping me by picking out the two pieces of fabric she wants next to each other and just generally looking over my shoulder and asking "why do you do that?" ten million times.

So the first order of business was cut out 2,392 pieces of fabric. I learned the hard way that quilting is much easier if I cut all the fabric first and sort it into baggies, so I can just grab what I need when I'm sewing instead of stopping to iron and cut first, or searching for a square I need. Then last night, we sewed the first 226 seams. Speed piecing is a wonderful thing...I was sewing 452 rectangles together in groups of two, so you sew one, then feed the next in right after it without cutting the thread. Saves time and saves thread. Sierra also though it was very cool to stretch out the string of squares before we cut them apart. It went all the way from one end of the house to the other!

Here's a picture of about 1/4 of my scraps from the scraps (everything I couldn't get a 1.5"x2.5" rectangle out of).

Easy Bake Mixes

Like I mentioned earlier, Sierra bought herself an Easy Bake Oven this week. Judging by my own childhood experience, I was pretty sure that'd be a reasonable investment for her and she'd have a lot of fun with it. I couldn't in good conscience let her spend a ton of money on mixes though. I spent a little time searching for mix recipes and we have tried a few out now.

First up was a plain white cake mix. This was easy for me to whip up and makes 10 mixes that she just has to add water to when she's ready to bake. We made a few changes to the recipe: It takes more like 5-6tsp of water to make up the batter and take note that one baggie of mix makes TWO cakes. We also found we had to bake for about 14 minutes.

To go along with this, we made a batch of white frosting mixes. Also easy for me to mix up and she just needs to add water to them. The only change I made on this one is I added a little powdered icing coloring so she could have pink frosting (the color will look darker once the water is added, so it's okay if the color is pale when you make up the mixes).

Food Storage

While we're on this low grocery bill kick, I thought I'd post a link to 2 blogs I've been finding interesting. The most useful is Everyday Food Storage If you peruse the site, there is a lot of really helpful information, like what you can do with powdered milk. The other is Food Storage Made Easy, which is a great primer on food storage for those who have never thought about it before. They give you baby steps to follow and build up your supply as well as tips on how to use it.

I instinctively store food. I'm not sure why, but I've always been a penny-pincher, my whole life. When you insist on using coupons and only paying sale price, you naturally build up food storage. My storage is far from perfect and the meal planning may not be too pretty, but I'm confident that if it became necessary, I could feed my family for at least several weeks just from what we have on hand. If you think food storage is just for "survivalist nuts", think again. Know anyone who unexpectedly lost a job? I know a couple of families that were living on one income and got laid off with no notice. Food storage is just as much about financial preparation as it is about disaster preparation. Economic Crisis is one of the "Reasons for Food Storage" given on the Food Storage Made Easy site and it's just as good a reason as any to make sure you're "saving for a rainy day" (that doesn't apply to just money, ya know)

Financial Dilemma

I have a dilemma on my hands. First a quick note about my budgeting system....in "real life" we have one checking account and one savings account that are used to pay all the bills. In "financial planning life" we follow a system very similar to the one outlined in America's Cheapest Family, which means I have a 3 ring binder with a piece of paper for each category. There are about 30 categories---groceries, doctor, dentist, school tuition, clothes, prescriptions, etc.....

So, after paying that $1600 dentist bill for Sierra, we had a big fat negative number on the "dentist" sheet that we've been whittling away at. To help that along a little bit, I moved $75 of October's grocery money into the dentist category. I've done a little grocery shopping and I currently have $16 left for the month (we only spend $150/month anyway). Here's where the dilemma comes in--there are some really fabulous deals this week and I can't decide whether to take advantage of them or uphold the budget. If I go shopping, this is what I'd get:

From Kroger:
5 pounds of cheese $10 (requires $10 add'l purchase)
5 pounds of ground beef $6.45
yogurt (usually about $2, so two packs would get my min. purchase, but I have several $1 off coupons)
TOTAL: $18.45

From HEB:
25 pounds of flour $5 (requires $10 add'l purchase, but I'm not sure I've ever seen it this cheap)
5 bags of single serving raisins $5 (we send these to school, one bag lasts 2 weeks and this is also as cheap as I've seen them)
Sun Crystals sugar $1.99 (to go towards min. purchase, I have a $2 off coupon)
Tuna Salad pouch $1 (have a $0.75 off coupon)
5# bag of apples $1.99
Bounty paper towels $1 (to go towards min. purchase, I have $0.25 off coupon)
TOTAL: $13.99

Which would give me a negative $16.44 on my budget sheet. I can't decide what to do. I really really don't want a negative number there, but we're not talking ice cream--these are staples at really good prices. Thoughts?

Popcorn

I'm still battling the strep throat (the meds knocked out the fever, headache and swollen glands, but left the sore throat and a foul mood), and Josh is doing a soccer game tonight, so I need to keep the kids calm and out of my hair for the evening. My solution? A Movie and Popcorn! And then it occurred to me that I've never posted about popcorn.

We were gifted a gallon of popcorn kernels a little while back, but we have no popcorn popper. A quick internet search turned up the best stove top popping recipe I've ever seen. Check it out. The premise is that by heating the oil, adding kernels, then turning off the heat for a short period of time, you bring all the kernels up to a similar temperature. When you return the pot to heat, you get all of the kernels popped at the same time, without burning any. It's just as easy (and better than) microwave popcorn, healthier than theater popcorn and a cheap, filling snack all in one!

My kids are currently parked in front of the TV watching one of our movies, with the lights off, their own paper bag of popcorn and their own box of apple juice. They think they're in the movie theater, this sick momma gets more time to rest and it cost about 75 cents total.

Cheap food

I mentioned earlier about having to go to Kroger. Normally, I shop at HEB, but when Kroger runs their mega event, I sit down and stage a plan of attack. TennZen wrote out a post detailing what happens earlier this week. The short story, Kroger's mega events ($5 off when you buy 10 items) are fabulous ways to get name brand foods for cheap or free. Are they always the healthiest? Of course not, but we're a typical "gotta have convenience foods sometimes" family. So here's what you do....

• Sit down with the sales paper and your coupon book
• For each thing included in the mega event that your family will use, look for a coupon (even if it seems expensive)
• Add up how much it will cost you.....usually the sales paper lists the "price if you buy 10", so you can just use the number shown. Remember that Kroger doubles and triples coupons, so those 30 and 35 cent coupons will give you steep discounts. Also remember that Kroger will let you "stack" coupons--the rules get a little tricky there, but the manufacturer coupons you get in the paper can be used along with some internet coupons.
  
• Some things end up being free or 10 cents, so check prices on anything you might use
• Remember that you can mix and match your items, you don't have to buy 10 of the same item
• Make your list (I do this buy just putting my coupons in one spot, I don't buy anything I don't have a coupon for) and be sure it's a multiple of 10. If you have 19 items, you may be able to find something for 50 cents that's included in the sale(this week it was Quakes rice snacks, which the girls love)
• Marvel at the shelf price versus what you paid. Kroger tends to be more expensive, but this saves me money over the usual HEB prices too.
  

Yesterday, I bought $60 worth of groceries (Kroger price) and paid $19. Not the best I've done, but a great way to start re-stocking after a long vacation.

We also planted our fall garden today. We are a little late on some things. Around here, tomatoes and such should be planted first of August, but technically they say you're okay through August. Lately, it has stayed warm through Christmas, with just a few light frost nights, so we decided to try anyway and I will start putting together row covers this week so we can easily cover the plants when needed. After the horrible drought we dealt with this year, we also moved toward a less self-sufficient watering method...we installed drip irrigation lines several weeks ago. So, today we planted:
36 tomato plants (roma)
24 broccoli plants
6 cabbage plants
3'x15' bed of beets
about 3'x12' bed of beans (kentucky wonder)
about 3'x12' bed of corn

The seed is all older stuff, so we sowed it densely and are hoping some of it comes up well. We've never ever done well with corn, but we had this on hand that we received as a gift, so we just sort of threw it out there. In a week or two, we will be planting carrot and onion seed.

Living well on (much) less

A video of an interview with Annette and Steve Economides happened to pop up on CNN this evening. I LOVED this family's book, America's Cheapest Family. We have been living frugally since we got married and this was the first resource I'd read in a long time that really had new ideas applicable to us. The end of each chapter has three ways to implement the techniques in that chapter---something for the family just starting to tighten their belt on down to the family already squeezing every dime. I'm convinced the way they lay out a budget is the absolute best way to set up a reasonable money management system and avoid surprise expenses. The best part is that unlike all those news stories about how a family manages to save a little money on 100K/year, these are real life techniques for real life salaries--30K/yr puts you in good shape if you follow a few principles. The book's at the local library and it's WELL worth reading.

Syrup!

I became aware today of a building debate about mercury being present in some High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Now, I'm not a fan of HFCS. The main reason is that for a period of several months I attempted to eliminate all corn from my diet. Have you ever thought about that? Next time you go shopping, check out the labels---just about every processed food you buy has corn in it. At the time, this was greatly frustrating. Then, I read Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and started to educate myself about US agricultural policies, and how they affect our farming. At that point I started to get mad. Then, the Corn Refiner's Association (there's an unbiased source for ya) started this whole campaign to let us all know that HFCS is actually GOOD for us. To me (and a lot of my friends) the whole campaign is creepy, but I'm sure they'll use a large budget to repeat the message enough times so it starts to sink in and people start believing it. Marketing 101.

This all ties into a frugal topic that came up today. We ended up making some pancakes, but were out of high fructose corn syrup....errrr--I mean, pancake syrup. Actually having a forest of maple trees nearby would be the most natural food choice, but since that's not gonna happen, I made pancake syrup from water, brown sugar and butter. It was really easy:

Mix:
2/3 cup water
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp butter

Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Let cool, serve warm.

This made about a cup. I put the left-over in a half-pint jar and put it in the fridge. I'm assuming I'll be able to heat it later and use it again. I'm thinking it'd be nice to make up a batch and can it. It seems doable, along the lines of jam or fruit in heavy syrup, but I can't find anything definitive about the safety of it, if it'll stay as a syrup, or what processing time should be used. If anyone knows, let me know!

While I'm on the topic of farming practices, there was an interesting article in this issue of Mother Earth News about The Hidden Link Between Factory Farms and Human Illness. On page 5 of the web article, they even mention a study that links a "multi-state outbreak of urinary tract infections among women in 1999 and 2000 to contamination with a single strain of drug-resistant E. coli found in cows".

Laundry Detergent, Re-Visited

For Christmas, we received some homemade powdered laundry detergent from Josh's brother. It was lemongrass scented and wonderful to use. It was less messy than the homemade liquid detergent I posted about last April. We ran out of it, so I wanted to figure out how to make my own. I talked to my brother-in-law, did some google searches, and came up with a recipe that is a mish mash of what I found.

Ingredients:
1/3 bar laundry soap (fels naptha or zote seem to work best)
1.5c Washing Soda (not baking soda)
1.5c Borax

Directions:
Grate soap and mix everything. Use 1-2 tbsp for a load of laundry. About 1/2 tbsp for a load of cloth diapers.

When grating the soap, you want it really fine (your final product should look a lot like store bought soap). There are a couple of options here. My brother-in-law grated it by hand, let it dry out on a cookie sheet, then crumbled it up. I cut the soap into chunks, ran it through the food processor until it was pretty fine, then added half the washing soda to the food processor and ran it a little longer. Dumped the whole works into an old margarine container and mixed. I have a really good, kitchen aid food processor, so keep that in mind when deciding whether to do this or not. I didn't have any trouble cleaning out my food processor, but I've read the suggestion to do it by hand instead of putting all that soap in the dishwasher. Another option, my brother-in-law added oxiclean (about 1/4-1/2c for this size recipe). I'm pretty sure this helps with the kiddo's stained clothes, but I didn't have any, so I didn't add it. A handy measuring device is an old medicine cup--check out the markings, many of them have a 1 or 2 tbsp line.

A note on the financial aspect of homemade laundry detergent. I have a picture of my ingredients back in that post I made last April. Today I finally grated up the last 1/3 of that original bar of soap, and I still have enough borax and washing soda to do at least one more recipe of detergent. For somewhere around $7 or $8, I've had about a year's worth of laundry detergent (by the time I use up today's batch). That's at a rate of about one load of laundry a day (I know, I know, that's NOT especially frugal of me, but I have two small children, one in cloth diapers).

And while I'm on this topic, I'll update about my Homemade Dishwasher Detergent as well. I don't like it. We used it for several months, but it didn't really get the dishes clean. I found I was doing a lot more pre-washing and I figured the cost of having the water running and using liquid dish soap was eating away the savings of not buying commercial dishwasher detergent. So, I went back to buying (generic) cascade. If you know of a homemade option besides the washing soda/borax mix, let me know!

Sisters

I'll make a confession...I was very relieved we ended up having two girls. Should I at some point in life somehow end up with a boy ('cause we think we're done having kids, but life has a way of jumping out and yelling "surprise!!!!!" when you least expect it), I would take a couple of weeks to digest the news and come around to being happy about it. What I really wanted though, were girls. Sisters that could giggle and laugh and gossip and share life lessons together. In striving for a simpler life, we decided back when I was pregnant that the girls can share a room. If they ask to be separated at some point, we'll discuss that, but we have no intention of bringing it up. Then I got a great deal on a double bed and decided they could just share the same bed. It was a bit of selfish idea---I know when I was a pre-teen, I would have loved to have had a sister right there to make me feel a little safer when I woke up in the night and it was dark and I was scared. Sierra has been very excited about this idea and we've been waiting for Sedona to get big enough. Lately, Sedona's been having nightmares (I assume, she wakes up screaming, won't calm down, all that fun stuff), so we decided to make the switch. It is super cute to see your 4 year old and 18 month old snuggled up together. Even after they "went their separate ways", we were left with this:



Sedona slept much better last night, and in the morning, Sierra got them cereal and they played instead of getting us. I think this is going to be a very very good thing.

The weather is NUTS. It is currently 77 degrees. In January. It is so very tempting to move forward with spring gardening tasks, but last March it was snowing, so who knows what's in store.

Three local grocery stores had great sales this week. So, I totally blew the budget. Well, not really. We budget $150/month for groceries. If we go over one month, we spend less the next. We've been known to not shop for 5 or 6 weeks straight to balance everything out because if nothing else, I'm all about staying on budget. So, with three stores having items we use at "stock up prices", I just had to take advantage. The final tally:

Honey Nut Chex (3 boxes at 50 cents each) $1.50
Pineapple (3 small cans at 50 cents each) $1.50
Pasta (7 pounds at $1 each) $7
Cornstarch $0.50
Tomato Soup (3 cans at 50 cents each) $1.50
Diced tomatoes (6 cans at 50 cents each) $3
Powerade (10 bottles at 50 cents each) $5
Brown Sugar $1.19
Canned Veggies (6 cans at 3/$1) $2
Apple juice (2 gallons at $3/gallon) $6
2L soda (4 at 50 cents each) $2
Cornmeal, 5# $1.76
Pretzels, 15 oz (3 bags at $1 each) $3
Bananas (6.75 pounds at 44 cents a pound) $2.97
White chocolate chips (4 bags at 25 cents each) $1
Bacon $2.50
Yogurt (2 qts at $1.79 each) $3.58
Pasta Sauce (2 cans at 89 cents each) $1.78
Tomato Sauce, 8 oz (7 cans at 7/$1) $1
Wheat Thins (5 boxes at $1.89 each) $9.45
Cream Cheese (5 packs at 99 cents each) $4.95
Goldfish Crackers (10 packs at 99 cents each) $9.90
Ghiradelli brownie mix (2 boxes at $1.49 each) $2.98
Rotel (8 cans at 37 cents each) $2.96
12 pack coca cola (3 at $2.33 each) $7

Tax (8.25% on convenience items): 0.75
Total: 100 items (ha! didn't plan that!) for $86.77

I admit, there are plenty of convenience items and a few treats here. I'm frugal, not crazy. Surely every mom has those days where they just need to throw a bag of goldfish at the kids so they can have two minutes to go to the bathroom uninterrupted. The only item I overpaid for was the cream cheese. $1 is usually as cheap as it gets around here, until I got to the next store and saw it was on (unadvertised) sale for 80 cents...grrr.

A mish mash

A mish mash of topics today...

First, in garden news. We are about to get some cold (for us) temperatures. We expect to be below freezing for 6-10 hours tonight, which is pretty unusual around here. We have 125 strawberry plants in the ground that are doing extremely well and we decided that even though they'd probably make it through a few hours of freeze, we'd rather play it safe, so they just got a nice thick blanket of leaves. Hopefully they'll all pull through just fine and even if they give us a modest amount of berries this summer, we'll be looking at a 30-60 pound harvest.

In frugal meal planning: we had spaghetti for dinner tonight. I cooked a pound of pasta, opened a can of sauce (yes, the cheap stuff...it actually does really well in taste tests. Not necessarily first, but close enough once you factor in cost), threw in some meatballs (made in bulk and stored in the freezer), and put some bread sticks in the oven (also made in bulk and frozen). Something like $3 worth of ingredients. The leftover spaghetti will be bagged up and thrown in the fridge. Tomorrow for lunch, the girls and I will be eating spaghetti tossed with melted cheese. Tomorrow for dinner, the leftover pasta sauce will be used to make homemade pizza. The moral of the story: plan for your leftovers. If you don't like eating leftovers (and I don't), plan out a way to turn the food into a suitably different meal for the next day. Whenever you throw food away, do a quick calculation in your head and imagine that food is cash that you're just pitching in the trash. If you find you're consistently tossing old food, start cooking or buying less. For instance, don't trash bananas and apples, turn them into bread; and buy less next time.

Yummy recipe of the day:
Hot chocolate
Mix: 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa and 1/2 cup water. Stir over medium heat until sugar and cocoa dissolved. Add two cans evaporated milk and 1 cup water. Continue heating until it's to the temperature you want.

This recipe makes enough for 3 big cups. A scaled down 1 cup version is 2 tbsp sugar, cocoa and water mixed with 3/4 cup evaporated milk and 1/4 cup water. This is a super rich, creamy hot cocoa. Regular milk will work (4 cups of milk at the end, no water), but evaporated milk is really what gives it its creaminess.

Debt

When a lot of people talk about reducing their debt, they mean their credit card debt. And, by all means, that should go! Since we carry no credit card debt and no car loans, when I talk about reducing my debt, I mean paying off my house. I REALLY want the house paid off. Think about how much your monthly mortgage is. What else could you do with that money? Does the current state of the economy worry you? How much more secure would you feel if you knew the roof over your head belonged to you and not the mortgage company? While not entirely common, did you know there are plenty of instances that give your mortgage company the right to call the full balance of your loan due immediately? Unfortunately, if you're like me, the huge sum of money involved in a mortgage is completely demoralizing. What's the point in throwing an extra $1,000 at a loan 100 times (or more) that size?

Well, I have an assignment for you. Look up an online mortgage calculator. There are lots of them out there. Find one that allows you to calculate the difference in your overall payment if you pay an extra amount each month. You want something that will tell you both the change in time to payoff and total interest paid. Our loan is a standard 30 year loan---no adjustable rates, no pre-payment penalties. We have the ability to write a an extra check to the mortgage company and specify the money go towards the loan balance. We just bought the house a year and a half ago. As an example, if we start paying an extra $100 each month, we will pay off the loan 8 YEARS early and save over $38,000 in interest. If we start paying an extra $200 each month, we will pay off the loan 12 YEARS early and save over $56,000 in interest. This happens because a very large portion of each monthly payment goes towards interest. Each month that you pay, slightly more goes towards principle, but it's many, many, many years before you get to the point where the majority of your payment is used to pay down the principle. It's really quite similar to only making minimum payments on a large credit card debt. When you're paying interest on a large sum of money, bring the principle down just a little bit makes a big difference in how much you pay over the life of the loan. You may be thinking, "whoopty doo, I won't be living here in 22 years anyway". Fair enough, but the more you pay down your principle, the bigger check you'll get when you sell (and you'll use that check to put down 20% or more on the next house....right?!?).

So, $100 a month. That's a pretty reasonable starting point. Maybe you make a resolution of paying an extra $100/month this year and next year you bump that up to $150. $100 a month is doable, the trick is "finding the pennies in the couch", the little things add up quickly. Some places a typical American family might find that money:
1. Groceries--I know LOTS of families that could save $100 on groceries alone...cut coupons and learn to use them correctly, learn to stock up during sales and stop paying full price for anything, eat one or two less meat based meals each week, learn the unit prices in your area and buy in bulk when it's cheaper.
2. Eating Out--If you're grabbing lunch on the go everyday, start packing a lunch. If you typically spend $7/day on lunch, just bringing a bag lunch twice a week saves you $56/month
3. Stop the cable madness--Cable is a luxury, not a necessity. If you don't want to give it up completely, how about cutting back to the next cheapest package?
4. Movie Rentals--you might be surprised how many good movies your library has available...for free. I was shocked to find how extensive my local library's DVD section is. We're not talking documentaries and history channel type stuff (though they have that too)---there's lots of good ol' fluff there when we need a relaxing night
5. Change the thermostat--bump the temperature up 2 degrees in the summer and down 2 degrees in the winter. Put the money you save on your electric bill towards your mortgage
6. Cell phones--same as the cable. I'll count talk service as a necessity (if you don't have a land line), but the rest is luxury. Do you NEED to be able to text and send pictures? Especially if you have computer/email access at home, is the extra money you spend on this each month really worth it? If you do have the latest and greatest cell service, do you need a land line as well?
7. Gym Memberships--do you use it? If so, good for you. If not, why are you paying?
8. Coffee Shops--I know, everyone picks on the coffee, but really, if you spend $4 on coffee every weekday, that's nearly $100/month right there. Buy a good thermos, make your own. Even if cold caffeine is your addiction, $1 for a bottle of coke from the vending machine is costing you just over $20/month. Cut either one by half and you have a decent amount of money to put toward your goal

There are lots of ways to save money--cloth diapers, breastfeeding, home gardens, walking/biking, etc, etc, etc... If these ideas don't work for you, I'm sure something in your budget can be shaved down. And yes, this is easier if you have an honest to goodness budget you're working from. Otherwise, that extra $10 you saved on one thing just gets spent on something else. I highly recommend the budget technique outlined in the book America's Cheapest Family if you're new to budgeting. Make yourself an "extra principle payments" category in your budget and start shifting your extra leftover money there. You'd be surprised how quickly $5 here and $10 there adds up. If you don't already have a mortgage, use the same technique to save up a good down payment and be responsible about doing your research and choosing a mortgage that won't get you into trouble.

Day 2!

I must admit, it's nice to start the day with a clean kitchen. Today's list took me an hour and a half too, but that's mostly because one of my "extras" today was to clean off the baker's rack....another thing where I was NOT starting with a clean slate. Everything else took about an hour (well, aside from folding the laundry, because it's still in the dryer).

On the frugal meals front, we're having homemade tamales tonight. No way I can break that down by price because they're super cheap, but really labor intensive. There's not really a fair way to price it out. If you do decide to make tamales, wait until right before Christmas, when you can usually buy your ingredients in bulk and on sale (if you're somewhere with a sizable Hispanic population, anyway), then make LOTS. If you're gonna take the time to do it, might as well get at least 5-10 dozen out of the deal.

Garden-wise, our weather is screwy as ever. Went from 80's to 40's overnight. lovely. Sometime this week, hoping to start lettuce seeds indoors. The idea is to put several small pots in the sunniest windows (we have old windows with no coatings, I suspect newer windows that block UV would cause problems for plants?). Then I'll start lettuce seeds every week until the pots are full. Once the leaves grow up, I'll have the plants right here in the kitchen as a reminder to put a salad with dinner---healthy and budget stretching!

One day down, 364 to go...

There's a bunch of anecdotal stuff out there about it taking 30 days to form a new habit, but I don't buy it (at least not for me). I'm gonna set the more realistic goal of one year. If I can push myself to do something for one year, perhaps it will be "programmed in" at that point. Today was the first day of my cleaning checklist plan. As I prepared for this (cleaning up things that were WAY beyond needing cleaning, so I didn't have such a daunting task the first day), I quickly realized that I was going to have to make an effort to "schedule" this into my day. My solution? A new rule for myself: the computer does not get turned on until the cleaning checklist is finished. I dutifully got up this morning and completed my daily and "extras" checklists in about an hour and a half. Not bad at all! You have to keep in mind that daily chores include cleaning the kitchen counters and sweeping (things where I was definitely NOT starting with a clean slate). I suspect it will take me less time tomorrow now that I have less to clean. Sierra was even excited to help me...when I started sweeping, she got out the dustpan and asked to help. And I've found it's much more satisfying to clean each dish/knife/cutting board as I use it when there is no other mess around. Here's to clean houses (or at the very least, clean kitchens) in an hour or less a day!

On the meal planning front, tonight's dinner will be red beans and rice:
1 cup dried kidney beans $0.40
1/3 pound sausage $0.75 (Josh's mom bought this while she was here, not sure how much it cost, so I'm guessing)
1/3 onion $0.10
3 cloves garlic $0.05
3 1/3 cup water free
dash of cayenne $0.01
several dashes chili powder $0.03
4 cups cooked rice $0.80 (I'm using organic brown rice I have leftover from making baby food, regular white rice would be cheaper)

Total: $2.14

Will also be making bread again today. I like to triple my recipe and get 5 loaves (from regular sized loaf pans, like you'd use for banana bread):
6 cups water free
2 cups sugar $0.21 (stock up when on sale for $1/4 pound bag)
4 1/2 tbsp yeast $0.32 (purchased in 1 pound packs)
4 1/2 tsp salt $0.05
3/4 c vegetable oil $0.27 (purchased in 1.25 gallon jugs)
16 cups flour $1.28 (includes flour for kneading, stock up when on sale for $1.50/5 pound bag)
2 tbsp butter $.12 (to brush tops so crust is softer, stocked up at $1.89/pound)

Total: $2.25---$0.45 per loaf

Another year, another budget

Last night, we had spaghetti and meatballs and there was sauce leftover, so tonight it was time for pizza. For the fun of it, I decided to see how much it cost. Here's the run-down:
1 cup of water (pretty much free)
2.5 tsp yeast $0.06 (purchased in a one pound pack)
1 tsp salt $0.01 (purchased in bulk)
2 tbsp olive oil $0.21 (purchased in 2 liter containers)
3 cups flour $0.24 (stocked up at $1.50/5 #)
¼ can spaghetti sauce $0.23 (used leftovers from pasta dinner last night)
1 tsp garlic powder $0.04 (estimated, not sure how many tsp in a 10 ounce bottle)
½ pound mozzarella cheese $2.25

Total: $3.04

I'm thinking you can't really beat $.75 a person for dinner. Plus, homemade crust tastes SOOOO much better than the greasy, commercial version. If you happen to have a dairy cow in the back (don't laugh, it's a long term goal) or be on WIC and don't have to pay for the cheese, it's only $0.79 total and you definitely can't beat that.

Maybe someone can refresh my memory, because I really don't remember this happening before last winter, but we are definitely back in that "Falltering" pattern where the temps fluctuate wildly from 30/40 to 70/80 and back again (all within the same week). This does horrible things for my cold weather plants...specifically the brussels sprouts, which I love, but I really think I'm not even gonna plant next year because this is looking like it'll be year 2 of NO crop from them. The winter of 2006/2007 they grew perfectly fine (and I think it was consistently cool). It's very frustrating. You have to make the best of any situation though, so we spent some time outside today on garden tasks. Josh was assembling new garden beds (more info over at his new blog, Saw Daddy Saw), and I picked blooms off strawberry plants (yes, doing that AGAIN, in JANUARY), weeded and watered. Also started this year's garden journal today!

Christmas on a Budget

It is finally safe to post all the things I made for Christmas this year!!!! I'm already looking for ideas for next year and determined to get an early start this time around!! I should say that handmade stuff can get expensive, so you still need to be aware of your materials costs if you're making things. I'm not sure I've ever paid full price for a fabric and I'm a big fan of the JoAnn remnants cart. I keep all my scraps and old clothes and they come in handy with smaller projects. Be creative with your materials and you can do quite a bit "on the cheap". I haven't yet separated out Christmas specifically, but we managed to stick to our gift budget for 2008---we spent just under $600 for the year (that includes birthdays, mother's day, father's day, teacher gifts, etc...). On to the list!!

1. Rag Quilt. This was Sierra's present. It's quick and easy to do. This was actually Josh's first big sewing project--as long as I was around to answer questions, he was able to do this by himself while I worked on something else
2. Tea Wallet. These were super quick to make and are a neat little addition to a "wellness pack". She also has direction to make it a credit card holder.
3. Hot/Cold Packs
4. Chicken Scratch Book Marks--I put a layer of felt in mine to give it some stiffness, because that's what I had around. If you happen to have a scrap of timtex, peltex or flexifirm, you could stuff that in after sewing.
5. Fabric Doll Houses I ended up making 4 of these this year and helped friends with 2 more. They really aren't complicated even though they look like it at first! This was a great use for leftover quilt batting and fleece scraps I had.
6. Felt Cat Toys for the cat lovers on your list
7. Playing Card Books I would've loved these to pass notes on when I was in middle school. I used wood glue b/c I didn't have any E6000, and I used the super thin, flexible vinyl (sold with Halloween costume fabrics)for my binding
8. Zippered Make Up or Pencil Case easier than it looks. I made one that was okay, but I wasn't thrilled with, so I cut the zipper out of it (the only part that cost more than a few cents) and made another...the second was super quick and came out wonderfully.
9. Fabric ball great small gift or stocking stuffer for toddlers. Really quick to make.
10. Marshmallow Shooters A blow gun that will shoot mini-marshmallows 50 feet. For about $10, we got a 10 foot piece of PVC, all the connection joints and a big bag of mini-marshmallows....enough for 5 shooters and ammo.
11. Car care bucket Okay, nothing to make here, but a good, reasonably cheap gift, nonetheless.
12. Real Fudge A little bit of a learned skill, but sooo worth it
13. Easy Truffles I know just what a teacher needs after handling my precocious child all morning...a big dose of chocolate
14. Felt Food--I don't have a link for this one, but the idea is trace a CD onto felt, cut out two of them and sew together, flip right side out, stuff, hand sew the inner circle...instant donut. Decorate with "sprinkles" (embroidery floss or beads) before sewing if desired. Use different colors felt for an icing effect
15. Quilted hot pads--also no link. Find a fabric you like and a scrap of terry cloth. Cut to same size squares. Also cut out some batting (I used 4 layers of cotton quilt batting) the same size. Sew across the squares for a quilted affect and bind (there is a good tutorial on binding with mitered corners on About.com)

There were some purchased gifts as well as a couple of quilts thrown in there too. If you are looking for ideas, Check out the Sew Mama Sew blog. They have been doing a "handmade holidays" series every November where they link to several tutorials each day. If you look on the right hand side of their page, you can click on the tag links for Handmade Holidays and Handmade Holidays 2008...LOTS of ideas. The TennZen blog also has some neat holiday on a budget ideas listed under their Holiday tag (not all homemade, so there are some ideas for you non-crafty folks too!).

A few pictures of things I remembered to take pictures of: