Recently, I've had friends call me to ask how I do it. Do what? House, cloth, feed, and prepare for the family on a budget. Heck, I've been a Budgeteer for so long, I don't even think about all of the money-saving steps that I take. I'll post more as they come to me, but off the top of my head, here are some of the "silly" things I do: After dinner is cooked, while the oven's still warm, if I have some herbs that need drying, I'll toss them in the (not too) warm oven for the night. I use the top of the broiler pan, rather than a cookie sheet, so they get some air flow. Come morning; they're all dried and ready for storage. This saves me having to drag out the dehydrator for just a little bit of drying. Note: This works on things as hydrated as green onions (without crying you out of the house), but not very well on bell peppers. After dinner; leftovers get tossed in the freezer container for "Someday Stew". I have different containers (chicken, beef, pork) and I also toss in the vegies and potatoes (making sure to have a good variety in each container). When the container is full, we have some of the best stew (or soup) you've ever tasted (probably because of the good meat cuts used). If something's on sale, I check the regular price and spend that much on it anyway. This doubles the purchase quantity but not the purchase price and allows me to have a little extra to store away for emergencies. I store extra pasta by shape (shells, rotini, linguine, etc) for easy access and inventory so I know what I need to buy more of. I check the local Dollar Tree store on their shipment days (around here that's every Tuesday). Sometimes they get in some pretty cool stuff. Recently I picked up a case of Chex Mix bars which normally retail for $3.69/box of 6 at the grocery store. That means I paid only $24.00 for $88.56 worth of yummy snacks. Unlike the local Grocery Outlet store (that I won't go to anymore), I don't have to worry about their product dating, as everything I've gotten there is fresh. Always looking for new ideas, I'll pass along the question: How do you do it?
Cool, thanx I will do things with the grill like you do with the oven. When grilling out I will make sure I have enough food to cover the cooking surface. I'll grill 2-3 meals worth of food at a time, eat our dinner then store the rest, usually gets eaten over the next day or 2. Also, when it's time to "re-season" our cast iron, I'll put the lard on then put it on the grill after the food is off. Let it set overnight for a gradual cool down.
Do not for get thrift stores and yard sales. Yesterday at a yard sale I got 2 oxygen bottles with bags and a regulator, 2 30oz grease cartages, a small wok and 7 road flares all for $7.20.
man i live up the street from a parish dump does anyone need anything just make a want list and if i find it you pay shipping and it's yours free. i get all kinds stuff .i have been slowly picking up cases of mre's that people have been throwing out from the huricanes they are still sealed up in the boxs so hey i figure they are still good the packs are still vacumed sealed so i know they are still sealed. i'm up to about 12 or 13 cases now plus a few straglers. coleman stoves i have picked up a few of them. from now on i will pickup anything to do with survival and i will post pictures of it and like i said you guys pay shipping and you can have it.
I'm amazed at the amount of people that I've run into over the years who allow their pride to over rule saving their hard earned cash. In reference to new purchases, not shopping at second hand or thrift stores. I guess it isn't cool to save money or people think it must be a waste of time.
I'm guily of that to a degree. I always hated to get in line at the gocery store behind some woman with a fistfull of coupons. But one day last week I was in line and already had my basket unloaded when I noticed the woman ahead of me pull out a wad of coupons. It was too late to put everything back and go to another lane so I stood there waiting. She started dealing out coupons like a blackjack dealer. The cashier was deducting the amounts from her total. I was watching in amazement as the dollars were clicking off. I went home ( wife was sick, so I was doing the shopping) and told my wife we were going to start clipping coupons. I bought a sunday paper yesterday and we are going to have a clip fest before we go shopping again. And the person behind us in line can just stand there and wait.
It is not hard to save 25% on the grocery bill by shopping sales, let alone clipping coupons. We have on more than one occasion saved 50%-75% on our grocery purchases. Everybodies results may vary obviously, as not all grocers allow or print out doubler coupons. Buy stuff on sale, use a manufacturers coupons and then double it and you sometimes get stuff for almost free.
I've had them pay me to take food (cereal is a good example) home. I never used coupons (pride? ignorance?) until I was talking to a wealthy couple that I know. They use them for everything (It's our money and we're pretty interested in keeping it, was their thought process)! Hmmm... Not too hard to grasp. Once you look at each of those coupons like it is its own form of money, it gets much easier to use. For instance, just yesterday (small trip, not many coupon items), I [would have] purchased $90.07. With $33.84 worth of savings, I only spent $56.23. Cha-Ching! My money, thank you very much. Now, I use every shopping trip as a personal challenge to try and beat my previous savings.
Got another one! You know the small chip remnants as the chip bag empties? I smash 'em all into chip dust and use it as a coating additive for chicken. I smash 'em all! Corn chips, nacho type, tater chips of all flavors and brands. I keep the flavor-filled dust in a parmesan shaker in the freezer and use it when needed.
