Grocery Bag Holder

When I grocery shop I usually use my cloth shopping bags. I like them because they can hold more, they are sturdy, and I don't have to have a ton of the plastic grocery bags around my house.

On the other hand I occasionally forget to take my cloth bags or don't have them on me when I need to stop and pick something up from the grocery store on my way home from something. And having a few of those bags around the house is helpful for trash bags and other such things. But they tend to get unorganized quickly under my kitchen sink.

So I came up with a nice, compact solution.

A plastic Folders coffee container, which I turned upside down and cut a square and 4 slits in. 

Just stuff the bags in through the lid (I can stuff quite a few bags into this thing), seal, and turn upside down. It fits great under my sink!

Cold Pasta Dinner #1

For those that don't know, Phoenix gets really hot in the summer. And cooking dinner can be a challenge for a few reasons. First because using too much of the oven or stove really heats up our little apartment. Second, because most of the time is so hot that we don't really want to eat anything that's too heavy or hot.

So one of my solutions to that problem is to make a few different cold pastas for dinner. Here is the first one which I got from my lovely step-mother.

Tuna Noodle Pasta

Ingredients
3 cans tuna
1 box noodles ( I like whole wheat)
1 or 1 and 1/2 cup frozen peas
Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (I use the Miracle Whip)


First boil your noodles. Right before they are done cooking put your frozen peas into the pot.

Then drain your noodles and mix in the tuna and Miracle Whip to taste.

Done!

We like to eat it with a little Chalula on top!

This is a great recipe that makes a bunch of pasta that you can save for snacks or meals later in the week! Enjoy!

Save Money, Clean Naturally

Allow me to introduce you to two of my good friends.

That’s right, ladies and gentleman (drum roll please…..)

Baking Soda and Vinegar.

Yes, it’s true. These two simple and frugal household staples have hundreds of uses.  Which means you can use them instead of purchasing dozens of household products.  Which means you can save money. Which, in my case, makes me very happy.


Here are just a few things you can do with Baking Soda.

• Treat insect bites and burns - make a paste out of baking soda and water and apply to the affected area. The paid should lessen or disappear immediately. This also works great for canker/cold sores.
• Make your own toothpaste - combine baking soda and hydrogen peroxide or use this recipe.
• Use it to wash your hair – that’s right, it’s the "no-poo" (er, no shampoo, that is) method. Follow it up with an apple cider vinegar rinse. No, this isn’t just for hippies – it works great! Read more about no-poo here.

• Clean kitchen/bathroom surfaces – sprinkle baking soda on the surface and spray on some white vinegar. The fizzy chemical reaction will lift grime and dirt. Let it do its thing for a few minutes, then simply wipe away with a sponge or rag and voila! This works great to clean your bathtub, sink, and even the burned crusties on the bottom of the oven. I used this on my glass stove top and it removed those nasty rings of cooked-on food.

• Clean greasy pots and pans – let your pans soak in your sink with baking soda, dish detergent and water. Then, sprinkle some more baking soda on your sponge for a scratchless scouring powder.

• Remove marks from furniture or walls – I haven’t tried this yet, but it looks promising. Sprinkle some soda on a damp sponge and rub lightly. Finish by wiping with a clean damp cloth.

• Use it to boost your laundry detergent – add ½ cup soda to your washing machine to get your clothes extra clean and smelling fresh. I always do this when I wash a load of stinky towels.

• Clean your garbage disposal - deodorize and unclog your garbage disposal by pouring in 1/2 cup baking soda and 1/2 cup vinegar. Let it fizz for 5 minutes then run hot water down the disposal.

•  Deoderize the carpet - sprinkle baking soda on the carpet and let it sit as long as possible or overnight. Sweep up the larger amounts of baking soda and vacuum up the rest.

• Make your own deodorant – that’s right! Coconut oil, baking soda and cornstarch. I’ve used this recipe.

And those are just some of baking soda’s many talents. Let’s move on to vinegar, shall we?

• Use as an all-purpose cleaner – mix 2 parts water with 1 part vinegar in a spray bottle and use this to clean all your kitchen and bathroom surfaces. And I mean, all of them. Works beautifully to clean sinks, toilets, tile, bathtubs, kitchen counters, stovetops, mirrors, glass, chrome….need I go on? It even prevents mold and mildew. So go ahead and get rid of all those various cleaners stashed under the sink (good-bye, bleach!).
• “Unstick” stickers, decals, and price tags - simply saturate the corners and sides of the sticker with full-strength white vinegar and carefully scrape it off (an old credit card works well). Apply more vinegar to remaining sticky residue and let it sit for 5 minutes before wiping off. Works well to remove labels from glass jars, wine bottles, etc. for all those repurposing projects we’ve all seen on Pinterest.

• Get rid of grease stains - wipe with a cloth dampened in a solution of equal parts white vinegar and water.
• Condition your hair – an apple cider rinse works wonders on your hair and leaves it soft and silky. Mix 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar with a cup of warm water and pour it on your hair after shampooing (or, go no-poo if you’re feeling brave). Give your hair a good final rinse and you’ll be treated with soft, detangled hair. It also helps to eliminate dandruff! And in case the hubby is concerned, the vinegar smell will completely disappear once your hair dries.
• Makes cleaning your microwave easy – fill a glass bowl with ¼ cup vinegar mixed with 1 cup water and microwave for 5 minutes on high. After it cools a bit, dip a rag or sponge into the mixture and wipe away food grunge.
• Disinfect those cutting boards – wipe them down with vinegar after use. The vinegar with disinfect and kill food-bourne ickies and keep your cutting boards good as new.
• Keep hard water stains off your glasses – add about 1/4 cup vinegar to your dishwasher’s rinse cycle. This works!
• Clean stains and build-up in your coffee maker – mix 2 cups vinegar with 1 cup water and run it through your coffee maker (in the water chamber). Then, run clean water through the coffee maker for 2 cycles.
• Keep those eggs from cracking – add 2 tablespoons vinegar to the pan when hard boiling eggs to keep them from cracking and make them easier to shell.
• Boost your laundry – pour 1 cup vinegar in your washing machine’s rinse cycle and let the magic begin. The vinegar will help brighten clothes, eliminate static, soften fabrics. And, it will even clean your washing machine. BAM!
• Treat a sore throat – gargle with vinegar and water. I’ve tried this, and it works.
• Get rid of ants – pour or spray vinegar on ant infested areas or ant piles. Ants can’t stand the smell of vinegar. Much less stinky and toxic than ant spray!

There are literally hundreds of uses for vinegar. And since I know you don’t want to spend all day reading this, I’ve chosen to mention just a few that have worked for me.

You can purchase a 4lb box of baking soda for less than $3 and a gallon of distilled white vinegar for about $5.

Score!

On top of the savings, it’s good to know you’re using natural, safe products in your home (and not the toxic stuff that can almost certainly knock out a small animal). Hooray!

Homemade Baby Food

Ever look at the selection of baby food for your 8 month old?  You know - those cute little jars of orange and green mush that you find in the baby isle of your grocery store.  While I appreciate the convenience of ready-to-serve food for my youngster, I'm often disappointed in the variety of food they get to eat, not to mention the high prices.  If your kid is like my son, he LOVES to eat, so why not give him some new flavors besides carrot, squash and green bean and save yourself some cash at the same time?

Homemade baby food is your answer!  It's not hard to make, but does take a little time.  I can't take credit though.  I love the bestselling book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  She tells you what your baby can eat at what age, how to buy and prepare the food and best of all, how to store it - in an ice cube tray!  "The Cube Method" is fantastic.  Most foods can be bought fresh, steamed in the microwave, pureed in the blender and then scooped into the ice cube tray.  Freeze it overnight, then transfer it to a ziplock freezer bag.  The frozen cubes will keep on average for about 2 months.  When its time for him to eat, pop a couple cubes (or for my son, about 10 cubes!) into the microwave and defrost for a couple minutes - then walla - homemade baby food!

This has saved our family a fair amount of money.  Each little jar will run about $0.50-.80 per 3 oz. jar.  But today I picked up broccoli for $0.88/pound. So I spent about $1.50 and will make about 20 ounces of baby food.  I would have spent more like $4.50 if I had bought the jars.  

Even more than the cost-saving though, I love the different food my baby eats.  He's 10 months old and has already tried spinach, brussels sprouts, sweet potato, avacado, squash, cauliflower, black beans, green beans, peaches, plums, bananas, applesauce...all through the food cube method.   I also have high hopes that my kids will like more foods as they grow older due to trying them at a young age.  All in all, homemade baby food has plenty of benefits for frugal wives (and mothers)!

Cheaper Starbucks

There aren't many people that don't like Starbucks. Coffee and a great atmosphere can't easily be passed up. And let's face it, it's everywhere. In a five mile radius from where I live, there are at least 10 Starbucks according to Google Maps. And in fact there is one about 200 yards from my apartment. So, it becomes a great place to read my Bible and hang out with my friends.

But there is a down side to Starbucks (and to almost every coffee shop). It's expensive and we just can't afford a large coffee budget.

There are a few ways around this.

1. Get the house brew. A great option and probably my husbands favorite. Plus if you are a Starbucks Gold member (which we are) you get free refills. This option is also available in an iced version which is nice for the blazing summers here in Phoenix. I surely don't want a hot beverage when it's 108 degrees outside.

2. Get an Americano (espresso and water). One of the cheapest espresso drinks and also available iced.

But what if I want something a little more substantial? Like an iced mocha, which is my favorite. Well, a Grande Iced Mocha at Starbucks is about $4.35 + tax. Those can start to add up fairly quickly with how much I go to coffee shops through out the month.

So, I figured out a way to make my favorite drink cheaper. I just bring my own milk.

Before I head over to Starbuck, I fill a canteen with some milk from home (which I already get on sale at the grocery store for $1.57/gallon most weeks). Then I order 2 shots of espresso, on ice, with 2 pumps mocha in a Venti cup.

        

And then I add my milk.

Voila! A Venti Iced Mocha.

How much does it cost me??

$2.78

I think that's one awesome deal! Obviously, this only works for iced espresso beverages. 

But I am totally happy with that.

Grocery Savings

There are lots of ways to save money on your monthly grocery bill. Some people do coupons (even to the extreme). I tried doing that for a while. I did most of my shopping at Fry's Food, which is the local Kroger brand grocery store. At the time they were accepting competitor coupons which made some things really cheap because I could use multiple coupons on one item. It got a little crazy cutting so many coupons and trying to keep them all straight. And when Fry's stopped accepting competitor coupons, I decided I didn't want to put the time into coupons that was needed in order to get a big savings.

So, I have a new method now, which takes only about 20 minutes a week and saves me quite a bit of money. My co-frugal wife, Denise Meyer, and I go grocery shopping together on Mondays and we make two stops.

The first stop is at American Discount Foods. It's a local, Christian owned, store that sells that stuff that other grocery stores don't want anymore. Some of it is slightly damaged or about to expire. Some of it is already expired foods, but they are usually either canned foods or frozen foods that won't really go bad until the end of time. I don't buy everything there, but I see what they have and try to buy for the future. Like if they have a great deal on frozen brats, I'll buy them knowing I can plan them into next weeks meal line up. Denise and I like shopping there a lot and we enjoy supporting that store.

Our second stop is Walmart. Why Walmart? Because they ad match. So, I spend about 20 minutes looking through the weeks ads from the local grocery stores and write down the things that I want to buy. They I simply take that list with me to Walmart, and when I get to the register I just tell the cashier what I have ad matches for. If they want to confirm that price they have to have the ad and check it themselves. I love it! I get all the different deals from every grocery store at one place!

On average I spend about $40 a week on groceries for 2.5 people (we have a roommate that sometimes eats at home). It's no extreme couponing, but it works!