Brenda emailed a couple of her frugal tips that you might enjoy!
1. I totally agree with your one tip about buying the ‘good’ stuff first, and not spending loads of money rebuying crap.. I am a candle addict.. completely.. I DO spend good money on my candles, mostly because the cheap ones are just that.. cheap. They don’t burn nicely, they’re not a great scent. So quite often when I buy my ‘good’ candles I also want them to really last. I’ve bought a coffee warmer, the type that office workers will use to keep their coffee warm on their desk? Simple find at most thrift stores, because they of course take up costly desk space, and so they toss them. I place my 20 dollar candle on the warmer, and get just as nice of a scent from it, as I do when I burn it, however it will last a TON longer if you ‘warm’ it as opposed to burn it 🙂
2. To get rid of pesky fruit flies..
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup vinegar
one – two drops of dish soap
Place these in a small glass and set around your kitchen, the fruit flies will be attracted to it, dive in and drown. It will get rid of ALL fruit flies in your house.
I thought a post I found on Pinterest would interest some of you and encourage you to think creatively about the clothing you already own when it comes to creating outfits!
Get together with some coupon loving friends and trade the coupons you won't use for some you will use! Do you need baby coupon and does your friend need pet coupons? Swap them!
Check recycling bins
Pretty self explanatory, but there are tons of people out there that could care less about the coupon inserts that come in the local newspapers. I find several in the recycling box at work! 🙂
Write your favourite companies and ask for coupons
Do you have a favourite product but never find any coupons for it? Try writing/emailing the company to say how much you love their products and then ask it they have any coupons to share to help you enjoy their products more often. I recently did this with Kiju organic juice. I really wanted to try the juice, so I emailed and asked politely if they had any coupons. They sent me two coupons for free juice! Just as a note, please don't abuse the kindness of companies. Maybe request coupons once or twice a year only?
Sign up for Freebies
Many of you that already sign up for the freebies I post on Simply Frugal, probably notice that along with the samples, the manufacturers also tend to send along high value coupons. It's really a great tactic on their part as they give you a sample hoping you'll like it, then think you'll go out and buy the product with the coupon they sent you, then buy it again and again! But really, if I do actually enjoy the product, I will go out and buy it with the coupon!
So you have any other unique ways to collect coupons to share with us?
Over the weekend, on the Simply Frugal Facebook page, I was talking about trying to get dinner time under control around these parts. Between waking up at 4am on workdays, working at the golf course all day, coming home to work on Simply Frugal, and trying to be in bed by 8pm, I was having troubles with finding energy or the time to make a decent dinner! (I really do love my life despite my whining! :)) I thought a freezer cooking day would be a great start to get things under control.
I asked the wonderful readers of the Simply Frugal Facebook page for some of their favourite meals to freeze. As usual, they did not disappoint! Armed with all the suggestions, I set to making a list of meals that I could do in an afternoon. I mainly concentrated on coming up with the main course (meat dishes) as I find it easy to whip up a salad, cut up some vegetables or put on some rice to go along with the protein part of dinner.
My Mom came over to help me kicking and screaming happily, which was, I think, a large part of me feeling so successful at the end!
Gyoza (actually bought from Costco, but I divided them into three bags for appy nights)
Here’s how I made these into freezer meals:
The Chicken Satay: I (my mom) cut up chicken into 1 inch(ish) chunks. I placed a bunch of chicken into a freezer bag, then poured the sauce over top. (I also used chicken instead of pork)
Peanutty Asian Wraps: Cooked the turkey, added carrots, then added all the sauce ingredients while still cooking. Once finished cooking, I placed into a freezer bag.
Meatballs: Put all the ingredients into my Kitchenaid mixer. My Mom polled them into balls, then placed on a cookie sheet for freezing. (I’ll later put them into freezer bags)
Teriyaki chicken: Cut 3 chicken breast in half, then placed them into a freezer bag. Poured the sauce ingredients over top, omitting the corn starch
Cheesy Beef and Rice: I followed the steps in the recipe
Freezer mashed potatoes: I followed the steps in the recipe
Mesquite Chicken Pasta: For this I only added the mesquite marinade and some ground pepper to a freezer bag with cut up chicken. I’ll add the cream, bacon, pasta and other ingredients when I cook it up.
Here are some tips I discovered that made the afternoon a breeze:
Start with a clean kitchen
Start cooking the things that will be the most time consuming. For me it was the ground beef, ground turkey and brown rice. I found I was excited to get going at first then started to wear down at the end and was glad to have only chicken and sauces to cut and create.
Have a sink full of soapy water to wash dishes as you go along.
Have a helper! My Mom was an absolutely amazing asset. As I cooked, she washed dishes. As I made sauces, she cut chicken. I must add, it was great to spend the time with her and have some fun conversations!
Have enough freezer bags/freezer pans on hand. I did, so no last minute trips to the store!
Only make 1 of each meal if you’ve never tried the recipe before. You don’t want to have some meals sitting in your freezer for ever because you weren’t impressed with the first one. I doubled up on the recipes I knew we loved and would use quickly.
Label your meals with the date, the meal name, and cooking instructions.
Try to freeze your bagged meals flat. My Mom suggested I lay the bagged meals on a cookie sheet so they lay flat. Once they’re frozen, I can stack them easily so they take up less space!
Here are some pictures of all the dishes we prepared:
All the chicken meals and the Gyozas
Cheesy Beef & Rice and a package of plain ground beef to throw into sauces
Freezer mashed potatoes
Meatballs!
The ground turkey and carrots and sauce for Peanutty Asian lettuce wraps
Finally, here’s the cost break down for everything I bought:
Chicken: $16 (not on sale…expensive, included 9 chicken breasts)
Ground beef: $8 (not on sale, again expensive)
Ground turkey: $5 (not on sale)
Mesquite marinade: $3.60 (not on sale)
Cream cheese: $2.48
Sour cream: $2.19
Everything else I had on hand, so the costs for those ingredients were very minimal.
Total: under $40 for the main part of 11 meals. Not bad!
The gyozas from Costco were $6 (and something) and I didn’t include them into the total cost.
Have you ever done any freezer cooking? Have you got any tips to share? I hope this post will help out a bit. I’ve got to say this was my first time really doing some freezer cooking!
Eating gluten free on a budget can be difficult. But here are 4 useful tips to help you stay healthy and eating well on a gluten free diet.
How to Eat Gluten Free on a Budget
The following post is a guest post by Jeanine, from Faithfully Gluten Free! Make sure you check out her fabulous blog!
Whether you've been diagnosed with Celiac disease, are gluten-intolerant, or are eating a gluten-free diet for your own health benefits, you will know that it is not a cheap diet to be on. I'm going to try to list some points that helped me to eat gluten-free on a budget.
Eat real foods
Vegetables, unprocessed meats, most dairy, and rice do not contain gluten. By staying away from processed foods, which may contain gluten, try to cook a meal using ingredients in their natural state. For example, use potatoes instead of frozen hash browns.
Buy your flours in bulk
By purchasing your flours in large quantities, you will get a better price per pound than if you buy the small packages of flour.
If you are in Canada, you can save money by purchasing the large, unopened bags of gluten free flours and starches at Bulk Barn. Since the bags are still sealed, you don't have to worry about cross contamination.
To extend the shelf life, you can store the unused portion in sealed containers in the freezer or fridge. You could also team up with others that have to eat gluten free, and divide the large bags between the group, assuring that you always have fresh flours on hand.
Learn to cook & bake
When you are on a gluten-free diet, eating gluten-free is usually a life long commitment that you have to make to keep yourself feeling well. Since it is not just a phase, you might as well learn to make the best of it!
By learning how to cook and bake, you open your kitchen up to endless opportunities.
The gluten-free doughnuts, bread, granola bars and muffins that you can buy in the store may be good for convenience, but that is about it. Nothing beats home baking! With some practice, you will be able to replicate nearly all your favourite gluten-filled goodies using gluten-free flours.
You will just have to trust me on this. I have been eating and baking gluten-free for nearly 3 years now, and I am definitely not "living without".
Plan ahead
When you go out for the day, you should take a gluten-free snack along from home. Some gluten-free crackers, nuts, and dried or fresh fruit are all some ideas. Once you are out and about, you may not be able to find a suitable snack for your diet. Having something to munch on is better than going through a drive-through for French fries.
These tips, combined with all the great menu planning and grocery shopping articles provided on Simply Frugal, will help you to eat gluten free on a budget so well, that you won't feel like you're missing out.
Jeanine Friesen authors Faithfully Gluten Free, a blog dedicated to recipes for those on a gluten-free diet, because she believes no one should have to go without.
