How to save money at Ralph's

So in an effort to decorate I bought some mason jars at a local thrift store. The idea was to attach them to the light fixture hanging above our dining table. That didn't work because the opening to the jars were too big! Well I had already bought new lightbulbs at Ralph's to put in them. Since I had to return the bulbs I figured what better time to share my favorite money saving tip. At Ralph's there is always a clearance section and this is usually where I stock up on bread. But there are so many things that Ralph's puts in this area. I've asked the employees before why so many of one item end up there, especially when I have found home decor or sanitary items on clearance. They told me things usually end up on clearance just because they've ordered too much. Rarely have I found things that would expire soon. Although, they almost always have day old items from the bakery section there, yes that includes the donuts. Score! So what does the clearance section typically look like? 

There were so many people there, I didn't want to take a picture and include them and invade their space. The other shelves had batteries, bags of candy, soups, Halloween decor, and other items like serving utensils. Now that I am thinking about it, serving utensils would've been great for thanksgiving. 

Ralph's also clearances produce. They typically put a few pieces of produce, sometimes it's a variety, sometimes it's all the same. But it is always clearanced for $1. Also, sometimes items especially anything needing refrigeration, can be found in its usual spot just with a bright yellow sticker on it. 

Always check clearance first, especially right now during the holidays. It will save you time and money! 

So I returned my lightbulbs and I grabbed 4 bags of bread for under 4 dollars, I but them in my freezer and they stay just as good as the day I got them. I know that when I worked I would save things that we ended up not needing and I would just keep them. Why? "Piss poor planning", which is something my dad would say. That's why. Take the extra minute and plan ahead. If you don't need something put whatever it is back in a grocery bag with its receipt and place it in your car so you can't forget to grab it when you go to the store. 

Happy shopping and I hope you guys find my money saving tip for today useful!

Love, peace, & happiness!  

Yes, public libraries are STILL a thing! *gasp*

Ok so today I had tons planned to fill our afternoon between school pickup and making dinner. Things happen, plans change. No biggie! But I have two wild things that need to be occupied and its Wednesday, I'm running low on patience and creativity. I drive by the public library sign EVERY day! Shoot, once a week we stop to play at the park right next to the library! We have never been in. I was literally so embarrassed that so much time has passed since I've been a library card owner! 😁 So, we made a pit stop and I took my wild things into a place that I was so scared would kick my youngest and I out in a heartbeat. And yes, I have been asked to leave places because my youngest is so loud! 😁

Just getting all our wiggles out before heading in! 

I filled out the required forms for My oldest to get his own card, and one for myself. Finished just in time because the toddler was trying not to make eye contact with me as he slowly scooted away. 

There was a nice table with puzzles and busy bees to keep these guys busy as I searched for a couple cool kids books for them. 

I am so glad we made this stop and feel so silly for not taking the thirty minutes out of our day to do this sooner. 

We all picked out some cool books, and yes I even got a book for myself! Good joke, right? I have three weeks to read it though. And hope that I might get a moment to crack it open without interruption.

Public libraries are FREE!!!! Unless you don't turn your book in on time. So go, get your library card! There's so much that your library offers than just books. Computers, movies, CDs, tutoring, magazines. Plus it will create a great memory for the little ones, and what's better than flipping through pages of a book rather than an iPad or Kindle? 

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, a nasty cold took over our home and consumed any energy I had after playing billion toy pickup with my two year old all day. 😉

Love, Peace, and Happiness 😜

Daily Grind

So I realize that mostly everything I have been posting has been recipes. Changing the way you cook in the kitchen definitely makes a huge difference in your monthly budget. For me it was just about actually cooking, we went out to eat so often. Anyway, a few people have asked me if I do anything else to save money. So I have composed a small list of things I do daily to save.

*ETA* I make my coffee at home! Even in the middle of the day. You spend money on a coffee machine, so use it! I make leftover coffee into coffee cubes for iced coffee the next day.

I am sure you all notice the plastic Coffee Bean cup. This is probably the cheapest thing I do. When I go out and I forget my water bottle I just order a small water from the nearest coffee shop then I reuse the cup for my iced coffees through out the week.

1. Don't wear makeup. I have makeup and I do wear it often, but I don't wear it on a daily basis anymore. Conservation = Saving money!
2. Clean, and organize. I don't know how many times my husband and I misplaced something so we just went out and bought a new one, or took more out of the stockpile. If I would have just unpacked our bags in a timely manner I would have a billion open deodorants in my bathroom. Or if anybody needs a measuring tape we have 3!
3. Repurpose! Old receiving blankets or torn up tees? Those make great rags. <--- how many of you have watched extreme, cheapskates and thought I was going to say toilet paper? No. Not in my house.
4. Cut your sponges in half! This is seriously a no brainer!


We have a garden and even our youngest loves helping in it. He likes to drown, I mean water. Rip out the plants, I mean weeds. haha but on the real he enjoys our gardening time outside.

5. Go to the gym, or get out and take a walk. Most of the time when I spent money it was to cure my boredom.




I took the boys shelling at a state beach a half hour away from home. Definitely made for an experience I don't think any of us will forget.

6. Lets face it entertaining children can be so expensive! There are so many kid friendly business that make a killing of putting playgrounds indoors. But what is wrong with the playground outside? Rainy day? My kids love painting their own cars out of boxes and I push them around. Or balloons! Blow up some balloons for some inexpensive indoor fun that still lets the kids release that energy.

7. Pack snacks. I get being a busy mom and fast food being so convenient. One pack of sliced apples at McDonalds costs $1.00 and feeds one person. I bought apples for 0.74 a lb got 4 apples at $1.48 making that 0.37 an apple when cut up feeds two people! That saves $1.63 right there! I usually also pack cheerios in the snack bag and we each carry a water bottle every where we go. Also our snack bag gets packed every morning when I pack my oldest lunch.


I have been craving french fries for the longest. So I made my own using this awesome kitchen tool my husband bought me, and no need to leave the house to spend money when I had potatoes at home!

8. Shop your own kitchen. Meatless meals, my husband isn't crazy about them so I usually will serve meatless meals for lunch, or I mix meat with lentils. Make it stretch! Don't buy premade. Make your own biscuits and breads. Growing up we had breakfast for dinner sometimes or we had spaghetti . If you haven't had a spaghetti burrito you have not lived. Seriously so good! Or you could research cheap meals from other countries. The whole family can learn something new and most likely you will find the ingredients for these other meals MUCH cheaper. GET CREATIVE!


A few of the items for this room makeover I got by posting in the ISO section of my local yard sale page.

9. Always shop your local buy sell trade pages. If someone hasn't posted something you need, place your search in the ISO section. So many times I have sold or given things away to people when I see that they need what I have and vice versa.


I am the proud baker of my little ones cake. Yes I noticed I forgot the T but hopefully growing up my boys remember how much I tried, plus nobody complained about the homemade cake and it saved me around $12 maybe even more if I wanted a custom cake from the bakery.

10. I can not say this enough. COOK and BAKE at home. Let the kids help too, or make a date out of baking with your spouse after the little ones go to sleep.
Saving money can be so stressful, but it doesn't always have to be. Make it fun, make it a learning experience for the kids.

Just say NO to golf course breakfast burritos...

Breakfast the most important meal of the day, it kick starts your metabolism. Gives you energy to burn. Just gets you going. Now rewind two months ago my husband would argue with me that not only is breakfast the most important meal of the day, breakfast burritos are the most important meal of the day. Drove me up a wall. We live relatively the same distance give or take 2 minutes from his work to the golf course that he would buy his breakfast from. Every month when we would look through the account together it was the same discussion, about how I buy cereal and that is what I eat why is he not eating the same thing? Let me add here, my husband grew up having a hot meal nearly every morning, if they had to have cereal the sky was falling people! Hasn't changed, he still wants a hot meal and back before we had kids I would wake up at 4:30 in the morning and cook breakfast so he could be on his way to work at 5:30. Now 4:30 is the time we wake up together to drink our coffee, just the two of us, no kids. Its really the best part of my day. But I still do not make breakfast that early. If the kids heard or smelt breakfast cooking that early, I would be in for the longest day ever. No thank you, sir!
So this is what I do. I premake his breakfast burritos. This week was a short week because he had a 96 this last weekend, so I only made three days worth of breakfasts. So get your aprons on, and lets get started.

This right here is 2 potatoes, 1/8 onion, and 2 strips of bacon. Please cook the bacon first then add your produce. For one you don't want to get sick. Two, I don't care who you are, EVERYTHING, tastes better when its fried in bacon grease.

I pulled out the tortillas and realizes I didn't buy any this week. No biggie, because I had some bagels in the freezer. Thumbs up for shopping in my own kitchen.

Add the eggs! I put four eggs here.

This is what it looks like on the bagels. oooohhhh ahhhhhhh, admire it. Ok lets move on but first I forgot to take a picture of them after I put cheese on them . So imagine these with cheese. You get the picture?

Plastic wrap that bad boy.

WaaLa, 3 breakfasts ready to go in the freezer for my man to enjoy without breaking the bank.

$1.52 per breakfast bagel/burrito/ Compared to the $8 he would spend each morning. That's a win in my book.

 

I hope this helps some of you. Thank you for reading my blog guys, it always fun when I get to share my money saving tips. I am thinking about creating and sharing a template of our own personal menu that may help people get a good idea of how I am saving so much money on groceries, give me some feedback guys, I would love to hear from you.

Love, Peace, & Happiness.





You can do the can can too!

So awhile back my husband and I started a garden, nothing too big. We went to the small garden area at our exchange just before the tomatoes were about to die in there small pots and they were being sold something like $1.99 for 5 plants. Practically nothing. Well those tomato plants have grown out of control and we have been lucky to get a few great harvests of tomatoes so late in the season. I didn't want this last harvest to go to waste before our next harvest comes in so I decided to can. Canning can get kind of expensive, so I decided to check our local yard sale facebook page to see if anybody had canning jars they were willing to part with. ALWAYS check your local yard sale pages if you're wanting to save money. You never know what you will find, especially when you are a part of a military community, so many people are moving so often and have to downsize or just don't want to travel with so much to their next duty station. So I posted, "ISO canning jars", and almost immediately another spouse responded she had some and she sold them to me for $0.50 a piece. That is half the price I would pay at Wal Mart for them AND I didn't have to spend money on gas to go get them. ALWAYS be sure to sterilize your jars and lids before you start. This is important because you do not want bacteria growing in your food which could obviously make you sick.
If you want to can your own tomatoes I took a few pictures that can almost explain themselves as I went along.

Rinse the tomatoes

Bring water to a boil and place the tomatoes in that water. For riper tomatoes you could boil them for 3 minutes for the less ripe tomatoes I would say 5 minutes would have been perfect. This step is just to soften the skin. Don't walk away from this step because you don't want mushy tomatoes.

Start peeling! I like to keep a plastic bag nearby to put my scraps in it. I suppose I could have put the scraps in my compost but I didn't, I placed them in the trash. I can almost feel all the crunchy mamas glaring at me through their computer screen right now. Sorry ladies!

Now dice them up and fill up your jars. I also added water to the first line in here and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Place the jars into water and bring to a boil for about an hour. My husband and I couldn't come to an agreement on this part. He said they have to boil til there aren't anymore bubbles coming from the jar. Don't tell him I said this but he is usually right, so I went with what he said, and guess what... He was RIGHT!

Then let your jars cool, push down on the middle of the lid if it doesn't pop then that means you have done your job correctly. Pat yourself on the back, and tell yourself how freaking awesome you are!

 

The plants have practically paid for themselves with all the produce we have got from them, so in the end this project has only cost me $3.00! And I have 2 unfilled jars leftover. I'm going to give you a fair warning though canning is a process that can get addicting. So just call me a pioneer woman. ;)

Put your aprons on and get to canning you guys!

Love, peace, & happiness. 



 

 

What's for dinner?

Dinner time is like the light at the end of the tunnel for me. I love my kids I love being able to stay at home with them and watch them grow. I love being the first one they see in the morning, first one my oldest hugs after a long day at school, but lets be real dinner time is when the countdown to bedtime begins. Now to throw just a little more craziness in the mix its Thursday. So I am just digging real deep for some motivation, just one more day and a wake up and my awesome husband will be home for the weekend and I love having an adult around to talk to during the day. On top of everything I have been training for my APFT, which has me hitting the gym hard just so I can blow my personal goals out the water. Days like today it would be so much easier to give in and just order pizza for dinner. BUT NO! I am determined to save money! So what do I do? That's right get the crockpot out,  simple, no work to it. Dinner is practically making itself!
Tonight we are having Sauerkraut Pork Chops. I am not creative enough to come up with that mixture on my own I stumbled upon a ton of recipes via Pinterest. This combo originated from Germany and from what I gather is traditionally eaten on New Years to ensure good luck. Its not New Years, its actually October 15th, but who couldn't use good luck any day of the year? So this is what I have put together in the crockpot.

• 3 thick pork chops
• 1/4 of an onion
• 1 pkg of green onion dip mix used for seasoning
• 2 cups of sauerkraut
• water- to cover the bottom of the crockpot

In case you wanted a visual.

I have the crockpot set to high and I am letting it cook that way for 4-5 hours. I am going to be making mashed potatoes and serving carrots with this dish. I will update at the end of the day whether this was a hit with my picky eater or not, but just letting you guys know right now it smells delicious.
Also to all you moms out there, "let the odds be forever in your favor", it is almost the weekend.
ETA: Dinner was amazing! I really hope you guys try out this dish. Even my oldest cleared his plate! Maybe it really is good luck.

Love, peace, & happiness

You knew it was coming.. COUPONS!

Part of saving money is using coupons. I hear the same things over and over from so many people, but majority of people say, "Teach me how to coupon!!". Okay people!!!! Listen up, Im about to share any coupon wisdom I have obtained through the last couple years. Now I understand clipping coupons takes time and concentration that most people don't have, but if you have time to scan through Facebook for 30 minutes you have enough time to scan through some Sunday paper coupons. So here is a quick rundown. Focus. Retain all information below. ;)

• Where do I find coupons?
• Here's the deal, if you really want to keep costs down you can print your coupons off of coupons.com . That website is a great resource, BUT you are limited to the amount of coupons that you can print. The usual limit of coupons that can be used for one product is one coupon, but 4 identical coupons per transaction. You can not print 4 identical coupons off of most coupon websites. You can also order only the Sunday paper which is usually $0.75 each paper and you can order as many as you want. I only coupon for my family and 4 papers is plenty for us. If you want even more coupons, ask your friends and family! No shame. What's the worse they can say? No? Okay no big deal, but at least you asked.
• I have my coupons! What do I do now?
• So when I first started couponing I would sit down with a pair of scissors and snip every single coupon individually. NO! That is exhausting, and time consuming! Take apart the inserts, stack the individual but identical coupons and clip them all together. Go ahead, smack your forehead, I did too. How did I not think of that in the first place! Only clip for things that you need, but take the rest of the insert with you in your coupon binder JUST IN CASE you find something you would like on clearance and you have a coupon for it.
• Check your ads.
• You will find what stores are worth going to for you. I personally LOVE Target. What mom doesn't? They have so many gift card offers that I turn around and use to buy another set of items that also have a gift card offer. So, the gift cards just keep rolling in.
• Now get in your car and go to the store to buy what you need.
• Realize I said need? Yeah, IGNORE everything else. You are here to use the coupons you clipped for the things that you need.
• Rules I play by.
• I am not faithful to one brand. If I have a coupon for something and its on sale, I'm buying it and I am using it. There is an exception to this, I will not stray away from Folgers coffee.
• I do not spend more than $1 on each item. If you are spending more than $1 on an item you know you could find at the Dollar Tree or 99 cent only store you are wrong.
• Visually scan the clearance section first.
• What is stacking and how do I do that?
• So this is being said specifically for Target. Use your coupons in this order:
• Gift card coupon
• Cartwheel
• Mobile coupons/Target coupons
• Manufacturer coupons
• If you get confused, don't worry usually the cashiers are used to couponers and they will help you out or remind you to check your cartwheel app.

I don't think I have forgot anything, but if you have a question feel free to ask. I'm all about helping others save a buck.
Love, Peace, & Happiness