As you can see, the Diamond almonds were purchased at my favorite bent 'n' dent store for $0.35, or $2.48 per pound. The Kroger almonds were purchased at retail for $1.99, or $14.15 per pound. and are nearly identical. Ironically, the only difference is that the Kroger nuts expire sooner.

An $11.67/lb. savings is what can happen when you are not picky about where you shop.


Disregarding Types to Save Money

The $0.35/package nuts are pretty common when I shop at the bent 'n' dent. The only problem is that I don't have a choice in what kind or cut of nut that I get. Usually there are only one or two options.

Below is a comparison photo of $0.50 worth of pecans. The large pile is pecan chips bought from the bent 'n' dent. The small pile is pecan pieces/quarters bought at retail from Kroger.

Which pile would you rather have? I'd rather have the big pile! This holiday season, I will use my $2.48/lb. pecans for cheese balls, cookies, and candy. They will work exactly the same, if not better than the more expensive pieces purchased at retail.

​
Should You EVER Buy Nuts?

Before I discovered a local-ish (within an hour) bent 'n' dent, I almost never bought nuts. Why purchase such a luxury when the same amount of money could buy ten-fold of a more useful staple like rice?

Living a nut-free life can have many financial benefits. I love nuts just as much as the next person, but there are enough other yummy foods to choose from that I do not even miss having them around. Saving nuts for holidays, birthdays and other occasions (instead of using them on a weekly basis) will save a lot of money in the long run.

-Bethany

*Note: Part of this nut analysis was motivated by my secret plan to overthrow the diet food advertising barons that have drained so many wallets dry of grocery money. Having a nut-based diet (replacing real milk with almond milk, replacing real flour with almond flour, etc.) is so much more expensive than eating a variety of different food groups. For most people, I don't believe there is anything wrong with consuming wheat or dairy products. People who are allergic to these foods can go gluten free by simply not eating bread. Those allergic to dairy can stop drinking milk and drink water instead. No milk for cold cereal? Stop eating cold cereal for breakfast and start eating eggs. The nut-based diet should only be used for a) those who are gluten-, dairy-, AND egg-free (but apparently not allergic to nuts) or b) those who are willing and able to have a high grocery bill every month.

Even at $2.50 per pound, nuts are still more expensive than produce, grains, beans, white meat, and even some red meat and cheeses. Instead of a handful of nuts, you could buy a dozen eggs, a gallon of milk or a pound of meat. That one snack of nuts could be traded in for a week's worth of rice or two boxes of pasta. Even though I've found a "cheap" source of nuts, I still only use them on rare occasions. I would rather spend my grocery dollars on foods that stretch.

If you are still set on eating nut-based replacement foods for wheat and dairy, consider shopping at a discount store, buying expired or otherwise "imperfect" gluten free / dairy free ingredients or products to save money.

Do you use nuts? Why or why not? What is your favorite frugal tip for buying nuts?

It's deer season here in Michigan. Hubs is an on-again, off-again hunter, and I've shot exactly one deer in the last six years. "I like hunting when I get something," says Hubs. Otherwise we are not crazy about sitting in the stand waiting for the right doe or buck to come into our sights.

Today I'm going to do a little exposé of how frugal (or not) hunting really is. I'm going to use actual numbers from our actual hunting experience this year. Then at the end, I'll go over some things you can do to save even more money on hunting.


Tallying the Cost

First, we'll add up all of our financial investment into this little project.

Gun: $0.00 (Hubs borrowed my dad's shotgun)
License: $23.00 ($11.00 base license + $12 antlerless tag)
Slugs: $1.82 (2 shots at $0.91 per shot)

Total cost: $24.82


How Much We Actually Saved

Hubs and I would normally pay about $2.00/lb. for red meat (ground beef in a 20 lb. roll). This is the price I will use to calculate our savings.

Savings: $82.00 (41 pounds x $2.00)
Savings minus $24.82 = $57.18


Hourly Wage & ROI

This is where things get fun. Our return on financial investment was 130%.

To calculate the hourly wage, we must divide the savings ($57.18) by the number of hours spent hunting (3) and processing (6.5). 

$57.18 divided by 9.5 = $6.02 per hour


How to Make Hunting More Frugal

There are a few things you can do to improve your return on investment and hourly wage here.

1. Shoot two deer instead of one. While a tag must be purchased for every deer you shoot, the base license only needs to be purchased once. For every deer you shoot, the cost will go down. 

First deer: $24.82 ($0.61/lb.)
Second deer: $19.32 ($0.47/lb.)
Third deer: $13.48 ($0.33/lb.)

2. Be a better shot. Someone who shoots and kills the deer with one shot is getting a better deal than the guy who shoots all over the place and only gets one deer, or worse- doesn't bring home anything at all. Plus, shooting a deer in multiple or incorrect locations (like the butt, for example) will just make it harder to butcher and ruin good meat, to say nothing of making the deer miserable.


3. Be faster at processing. Hubs and I are not the fastest butchers ever. For every hour of processing time that is eliminated, your hourly wage goes up.

10 hours processing: $5.72 per hour
8 hours processing: $7.15 per hour
6 hours processing: $9.53 per hour

Note: Hubs pointed out to me that some people actually enjoy hours spent in the deer stand. Not every hour is equal in value. If you hunt on the weekends, for example, it might be worth $5.72 per hour when you would otherwise just be sleeping or watching TV. If you have to give up a morning of work, though, it is probably not worth the time to hunt.

Note #2: If you pay someone to do the butchering, you might as well buy your meat from the store. In our area, butchering facilities charge between $70.00 and $80.00 for a single deer. This would easily drive our cost over $2.00 per pound.


Is Hunting Worth It?

For us, it is still worth it. In November Hubs' business has started to slow down, so his time is worth less than it would be in April or September. I value my time at $4.00 per hour, so the processing was an improvement on my average hourly wage.

Lastly, venison is probably a healthier choice than run-of-the-mill ground beef from the store. That is because deer are free range and/or grass fed, although they like munching on GMO corn and other non-organic foodstuffs. The health factor alone may be enough to convince some families to hunt, regardless of savings, ROI or hourly wage involved. 


Thoughts About Killing Animals

Some of the worst feedback from Frugal Food has been about butchering. I guess not many people are willing to do it. "You would kill an animal with your own bare hands, just to save money?" Susie Homemaker looks at me with wide eyes as if I were involved in prostitution or drug dealing. She would keel over at the thought of killing an animal. But let's admit it- it's almost impossible to include red meat in a very tight budget. I have never seen red meat on sale for $0.40 per pound, ever. The skill of animal processing- whether that be something as small as a chicken or large as a cow- can provide families with good quality, affordable meat. I don't think it is anything to be scared of or freaked out at. I don't think it is anything to be ashamed of.

People who butcher animals are not weird or evil. It's not like we take delight in the process- it's just a part of producing your own food. I believe every meat eater should butcher at least once in her life, just to realize where her food actually comes from... and HOW it comes. Then if she wants to be a vegetarian, she can call it cruel.

Are you part of a hunting family? Would you consider doing it to save money?

I spent a lot of time away from home this week. It wasn't until Friday morning (I was gone after 2:30 pm) and Saturday that I actually got around to doing frugal stuff. 

1. Butchered a deer! Tuesday morning was opening day, and Hubs brought home a button buck. The first day we dressed out the deer, and then let it hang for a while. Later we were able to cut up the meet, and then I was able to can and freeze it. This took up a lot of my time this week. Later this week I'll be putting out a post on how much we saved by getting the deer.

3. Kroger deals: Kroger has free hot cocoa in the winter months. Both of us got a cup and walked around the store looking for deals. We found some "manager's special" bacon for $1.79/lb. I have also been trying to use some of their e-coupons to save money on non-perishable goods. This week I had coupons for white sugar (the cheapest brand, which I would have bought anyway!) and brown sugar (also the cheapest brand; just as cheap as the bent 'n' dent).

My last e-coupons were for whipped topping and deodorant. Unfortunately I picked the wrong size whipped topping, so the coupon didn't apply. The deodorant was Hubs' brand of choice. Usually we buy the double-packs of deodorant, but with the coupon a single stick was $0.30 cheaper. 

In the coming months, I would like to try couponing again for personal care items. I have been keeping track of how long each item lasts, so I'll be able buy enough for a year. Some of the items I'm looking for are toothpaste, dental floss, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, and toilet paper. Ideally I'll get some of these things for free, but I have been checking prices lately just to know a good deal when I see one. Even discounted products would be cheaper than buying normal price like I have been doing for the past several years. 

Some other things I bought this week were pecans, almonds and macadamia nuts ($7.57 total) for a blog post. I also found bagged brownie mix (10.25 oz) for $0.79. The cheapest brownie mix I can get at the bent 'n' dent is at least $1.00 per box. Cake mix sells for $0.75, but doesn't make as nice of brownies. If I buy an $0.79 brownie mix at Kroger and add $0.20 of bent 'n' dent nuts, it is probably cheaper than buying one of those fancy bent 'n' dent mixes for $1.50. This is probably a whole 'nother post, so I'll save it for later.
  
4. Sold 1 dozen eggs.

5. Gave my hair a trim. Home haircuts are pretty easy if you aren't picky about styles. I have always had long hair, most of the time without bangs. So all that is needed is a trim every 3-6 months. You can get real hair cutting scissors at Walmart, but some of my in-laws just use regular scissors.

6. Rendered venison fat. I rendered the fat from our deer in the crock pot. Now I have another source of free fat for soap making.

7. Made yogurt. After weeks and weeks of good intentions, I finally made a batch of yogurt. Lately I've been buying milk to make yogurt with, and then never getting around to it. The milk eventually goes sour and ends up being a waste of money. As we speak, there is about a pint of sour milk in the fridge that needs to be thrown out. Isn't that terrible? At least it's not a half-gallon.

8. Line dried two loads of laundry. On Friday we had a beautiful 70+ degree day, and I was able to line-dry all of my laundry outside. It will probably be the last time. On Saturday it started snowing and blowing. Michigan for you.

9. Canned 17 quarts of venison. I like canning meat because it's easy to use and you don't have to worry about using up freezer space or remembering to thaw it out for a meal.

10. Made a flower arrangement. Hubs knew I had a long, exhausting week, and he surprised me with cookies and a bouquet of flowers. He is the best!! I almost never buy flowers, and it is past the season for homegrown flowers, so I was excited to make an arrangement with the bouquet. 

I used the container from an arrangement he bought me last year, as well as greenery from some of my houseplants. You can read about this project here.

What were some ways you saved money last week?

Good afternoon everyone! I hope you are having a great weekend. Today I'm going to share a few tips I learned as a floral design student. These tips will help make a $10.00 or $15.00 Walmart bouquet look like it cost a lot more... just in time for Thanksgiving. :)

Supplies and Tools

First off, you'll need some flowers. You will also use floral foam for this project. Most people just re-cut their cheap flowers and pop them in a vase. This looks okay (I mean, how can flowers look bad?) but it won't look professional. Professional-looking vase arrangements are much harder to do than foam arrangements. In addition to the block of foam to fit your container, you will also need an outer decorative container AND an inner waterproof container. I am using a basket-style outer container and a clean reused cottage cheese container for the inside.

When I worked at a flower shop, I learned that customers got an $8.00 discount for bringing in their own vase or container. If you are buying a professional flower arrangement at retail, a good portion of the price has to do with the container.

Tools I used for this arrangement were sturdy floral scissors, a pocket knife, and a roll of floral tape (this is sticky green tape- not the stretchy floral tape). You can use electrical tape or even a tiny bit of duct tape to replace the green floral tape.

I also used leaf shine and "crowning glory", which is a spray-on flower preservative/shine to make my arrangement last longer. Both of those things are optional, but to make your arrangement look better.

Directions

1. Cut your block of floral foam to fit the inner container. You will need to use the water-sucking foam, and not regular styrofoam.

Drop the block of foam in a container of water. Let the water soak up naturally. This may take some time, and you will want to shove the block down underneath the water to make it go faster. However, this will leave dry spots in the middle of your foam, where the flowers will need water the most. If the block has stopped "drinking" water, you can gently turn it on its side to expose dry parts to water.

Save the little bits and pieces of foam, and put them in the water, too. After you've put the large wet block of foam in your waterproof inner container, fill the nooks and crannies with those little bits and pieces.

2. Next it is time to prepare the greenery. Greenery is the difference between a cheap bouquet of flowers and a real arrangement.

When buying houseplants, I carefully choose plants that can double as a source of greenery for floral arrangements. One of these houseplants is a "corn plant" that I bought at Walmart. Leaves of the corn plant are very similar to the aspidistera leaves used in real flower shops.

Below is a technique I learned when working at the flower shop. It commonly used in bridal bouquets or edging around arrangements, as well as providing fullness.

The other greenery I used for this project was orange branches. I started an orange tree from seed when I was a teenager. I have been waiting almost a decade for actual oranges, but all I get is greenery. Oh well- at least it's good for something!

Use the greenery to provide a "base" for your arrangement. I put six stems into my foam below. You want to provide decent coverage, but not too much because you will need places to poke the flowers in.

After adding the greenery, I sprayed it with leaf shine.

3. Add flowers. There really is no formula for doing this, especially if you are working with a cheap bouquet of flowers. Typically I like to work in groups of threes, but you can see that the bouquet came with four different colors of flowers. Sometimes the flowers come broken or the stems are too short. You just gotta deal with it!!

The bouquet flowers will need to be prepared. This could be a whole post in itself. I should have taken pictures of this step but I forgot to. :( Basically, you will want to strip the leaves 2" below the stem of the bottom-most flower on the branch. For this arrangement, I cut off the bottom three or four flowers (and their stems) from every branch to use as individual flowers for the bottom arrangement.

Always leave 2" of stem to poke into the foam. This will ensure that your flowers have water to drink.

You will want a focal point for your arrangement. My focal point is where the grasses shoot out on the right side (see below). These are artificial grasses that I saved from a store-bought arrangement.

I filled in the holes with single-flower stems, ornamental grasses, and a cute ceramic turkey (mounted on a stick).

The only way to get good at floral design is to practice often. When I was a student, I made at least one arrangement every week, and a wide variety of them. You can buy some books or DVDs to help you out, but in the end there is no recipe for a perfect arrangement. You will have to feel it out. Most of the time I think my designs look terrible because I know where every gap and stray flower and lopsided part is. However, most people will not notice these small imperfections.

4. Set the arrangement in its final decorative container.

And there you have it! A quite decent looking centerpiece for the kitchen table. You will need to replenish the water supply every few days. I use a syringe in order to avoid dumping water all over the table.

With practice (and with more tools and flowers to work with), your designs will start to look better and better. My designs aren't as nice as those from our local flower shop, but I think they are just as good as the local grocery store designs.

Additional tips:

1. Check out some library books about flower design. You can also watch free video tutorials on Youtube. More time consuming ways to learn include having a friend teach you, taking a class, or working at a flower shop (for free if you have to).

2. Invest in some supplies. Floral tape, water-soaking foam, a good pair of shears or knife, and perhaps even floral glue.

3. Use flowers and greenery that are free. Even city-dwellers can keep a houseplant around for greenery. You can also grow flowers in your garden or clip ornamental plants or tree branches around your house.

4. Dissect garage sale or purchased arrangements and salvage the supplies. Hubs buys me flowers once or twice a year, and I always save the containers and little ornamental bits to reuse. 

5. Buy discount flowers. At our local Kroger, sometimes they will discount bouquets that are starting to go limp. However, many flowers in the bouquet are still good and will last another week if they are taken care of. With a little creativity and greenery, those $5.00 flowers can look like $30.00.

6. Buy live plants when they are past their prime. Kroger and Walmart mark down orchids when there aren't many blooms left. After Christmas amaryllis bulbs go on sale, and in the spring you can find forced, potted tulip and hyacinth bulbs on sale after they have dropped their flowers. In late winter sometimes you can find houseplants on sale as well. Baby these discount plants for a year or so, and you will bring them back to life. Then next season, you will have plenty of free design material!

Til next time,
-Bethany

​ 1. Ordered gift cards on Gift Card Zen.com. I am going to try using discount gift cards for a lot of our restaurant, wedding gift and other general shopping this year. This will give me an additional 4%-30% off regular shopping that we will do anyway. My first card order was:

McDonalds- 11% off
Red Robin- 10% off
Rue 21- 35% off

I realized the power of percentages during our first tax season as a married couple. 10% may seem small, but gift cards can be used in combination with coupons and sales. In the case of clothing stores like Rue 21, I can buy clothing out of season and save that way. I have a really hard time finding used jeans for Hubs. If we can get a pair for $20.00 and take 35% off that via gift card, the total is only $13.00 per pair. That is cheaper than Walmart!

2. I redeemed an Ibotta rebate and earned their $5.00 bonus. To be honest, I just bought the cheapest thing I could in order to get the bonus. It ended up being two McCormick spice packets for $1.70 or something like that. I didn't need the spice packets, but it was still a free $3.30.

3. Kroger sale shopping- This week I redeemed their "Free Friday" coupon (small container of Greek yogurt). Of course I couldn't get out of Kroger without buying a bunch of sale stuff. I went to buy milk, but realized that it was $2.39 per gallon and I am used to $2.00 or less at Walmart (and I know that it's even cheaper at Aldi). Kroger still had their "buy 10 save $5.00" sale going on, so I got two half-gallons for $1.00 each. I used a digital coupon to save $1.00 on deodorant. The deodorant also happened to be a part of the sale, so I saved an additional $0.50 on that and got the deodorant for just $2.50. I like the fancy kind of deodorant, so that was a good deal in my book. We bought two containers of sour cream ($0.80 each) and five containers of cottage cheese ($0.80 each) to make 10 items. I also found some oranges on the reduced produce rack for $0.17 per orange.

All of that sale shopping brought me over budget this month by $2.26. There are still two weeks of November left... and lots of sales. One strategy/excuse I used for the sale shopping is that some of the cottage cheese doesn't expire until December 14th. If I put the sour cream and cottage cheese at the back of the fridge and didn't use it until next month, technically those costs could be counted for December groceries. Oh, the excuses I can come up with!!

4. Used some of our sale cottage cheese from last week to make crock pot lasagna. I had $0.37 into noodles (discount store), $0.70 into the cottage cheese (bought on sale), $0.20 into mozzarella cheese (bulk) and $0.10 into spices. Total cost: $1.37. Meat and sauce were free (venison and garden-grown tomato sauce). We had enough leftovers to make it last two meals! Hubs loves cottage cheese and lasagna, so this made him happy. I don't think lasagna would be this cheap for everyone, but it was for us.

5. Made baby gifts and card for a shower. In the summer I just buy gifts, but during the colder months I have more time for crafting, knitting, sewing, etc. In the past week I was able to knit a baby hat and embroider some onesies for a baby shower gift. The yarn was from my stash. The onesies were $1.00 each, so the gift was very frugal. The downside to homemade gifts is that they take a lot of time. In that way, homemade gifts are not "cheap" at all. However, I really enjoy making gifts when I can.

6. Sold one dozen eggs.

7. Line dried one load of laundry. We had beautiful weather last week!

8. Used a 40% off coupon at Joann's to buy a box of notecards and envelopes. After coupon, the cost for a set of 50 notecards was $6.35. I will make these into baby, wedding, thank you, birthday, and other cards. Cost is about $0.13 per notecard/envelope. One of my pet peeves is buying greeting cards. You know the recipient will just end up throwing it away, so why not spend that extra $1.00+ on the gift? With homemade cards you get the best of both worlds. It does take a little planning and some time to make the card, but I enjoy doing that kind of thing.

​For the last few garage sale seasons, I have been collecting scrapbooking stamps and other supplies to make cards with. Some other ways you can decorate cards include calligraphy, origami, or something called paper quilling. Calligraphy pens and other supplies can also be purchased with a 40% off coupon and used for years to save money on cards and other crafts. 

9. Saved 15% on a massage. Last year for Christmas we got my mom a gift certificate to my favorite spa. Every so often the spa offers 15% off discounts if you go on a certain day. By waiting until the right time, we saved $24.00 between the two of us (I got a massage, as well).

10. Used sawdust from the shop for animal bedding.

11. Made waffles in the Vitamix. Total cost for the recipe was $0.95 (not counting eggs- I count those as free). Believe it or not, 25% of the cost was baking powder. Baking powder! The good news is that the batter made enough for two Sunday meals for Hubs (I prefer eggs to waffles).

I don't want to sound like a scrooge here, but eating something like waffles every day ($1.00 per person when you include condiments like butter, peanut butter, syrup, fruit, whipped cream, etc.) really adds up. It's not necessarily the waffles that are so expensive, but the condiments. Pancakes, french toast, regular toast, or bagels are other "expensive" breakfasts that will really add up if you eat them every day instead of more simple breakfasts like yogurt, eggs, hot cereal or even fruit. I could eat my normal two fried eggs AND a piece of fresh fruit (remember my $0.17 oranges?) for less than a bagel with butter and cream cheese, or french toast with real maple syrup.

Again, I'm not saying that people should never have waffles. But if you plan MORE oatmeal and LESS waffles, it will save time and money as well as health.

So, I think that's it for today. What were some of your frugal accomplishments this week?

​-Bethany

I don't know about you, but we've been eating a lot of soup lately. I love making soup because it's warm, tasty and inexpensive. Inexpensive, that is, unless you're a cracker fanatic like I am. I could crush a whole sleeve into one bowl of soup. Seriously.

Bread bowls are a fancy, creative, filling and not-so-expensive replacement for crackers. If you can make bread, you can make bread bowls. I'll let you find your favorite recipe. Personally I like to use a no-knead bread dough because artisan bread comes out so nice and crusty.

How to Make Bread Bowls

1. Shape your bread dough as if you were going to make dinner rolls, but place them 3 inches apart so that the rolls will bake separately. This will give your bowls good, hard sides. If the rolls smoosh together while they are baking, the sides won't be sturdy enough to hold soup.

One of my first mistakes was making the bowls too big. The bowl you see in the photos is far too large. The size of a normal dinner roll should be perfect.

2. Cut the very top of the roll off, as if you were about to carve a pumpkin.

3. Dig out the insides of the bread roll (again, as if you were carving a pumpkin!).

And there you have it! A bread bowl ready to be filled with soup. Though they will work with any soup, I've found that bread bowls are more helpful to thin, watery soups that need more substance. Not only does the bread enhance the soup, but the soup soaks into the dry bread and makes it taste SO good when the soup is gone.

Some Tips:

1. You can save the bread bowl insides. These can be used for croutons or bread crumbs in recipes. You can also put them back into the soup, like crackers.

2. Because there are only two of us, I like to make a big batch of bread bowls and then freeze all but two. Then whenever we have soup, I pull out two of the bowls and we eat them little by little that way.

Til next time,
-Bethany

​ 1. Line dried one load of laundry. I am doing almost all of my line-drying indoors now. I normally do two loads per week, and one load (shirts, socks & underwear, etc.) can be dried indoors. The jeans and sweatshirts take to long to air dry, so I will air dry them for one day, then put them in the dryer for a half cycle (or a full cycle on low/air dry).

2. Sold 1 dozen eggs.

3. Made pumpkin pie in Vitamix blender. It was very easy, and the pie turned out wonderful! The pumpkin was from cleaning out the freezer, and I had an old can of sweetened condensed milk in the pantry to use up. Other ingredients were just eggs, spices, and the pie crust. It was a pretty frugal dessert, with the exception of the crust, which cost $1.10 to make from scratch with lard. I was able to freeze half of the crust, though, to use for another pie.

While I was reading the instructions, I learned that you can substitute a 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk with a 12 oz. can of evaporated milk ($0.45 at the bent 'n' dent) +3/4 cup sugar ($0.14). $0.59 is pretty cheap for sweetened condensed milk!   

4. Cut tree hay (raspberry canes) to dry for goats.

5. My sister-in-law and I helped a neighbor clean and cut up carrots to freeze (these were from her garden). It was quite the process! The carrots were dug up first and put on a plastic tarp in the garage. Then the very large chunks of dirt were rubbed off by hand. Next the carrots went in a sink of water to further loosen dirt. The last step was to put the carrots through a rinse cycle in the washer. We were able to put two five-gallon buckets in the washer at a time. After they went through the washer, we cut the carrots using a French-fry-type cutter, blanched, and then put them in freezer bags. I had never processed carrots like that before, so it was quite the education for me. Plus I got to bring some carrots home!

6. Went for two bike rides this week. For those of you who don't know, this is part of my "free gym membership". I also like picking up recycle-able cans and bottles during my rides for a little extra cash. Biking is a lot more fun if I have an incentive like the cans.

7. Made a trip to the bent 'n' dent store. I spent a total of $43.78. That's over half of our November grocery budget! Here is a breakdown of what I got:

52% Pantry/baking ($22.70): 1 boxed dinner ($1.50), curry powder (1.75 oz. for $1.25), vanilla beans ($1.25 for 2), cloves (1.62 oz. for $1.25), 3 boxes of jello mix ($0.35 ea.), cooking spray ($1.50), creamed corn (two 14.75 oz. cans @ $0.45 ea.), cream of mushroom soup (two 10.7 oz. cans @ $0.65 ea.), evaporated milk (two 12 oz. cans @ $0.45 ea.), 14 oz. cranberry sauce ($0.75), tomato paste ($0.20 for small can), herbal teas (three 20 ct. boxes @ $1.25/box), no-sugar fruit pectin (4.7 oz. @ $0.50), cake mix ($0.75), cookie mix ($0.75), cheesecake mix ($1.75), pie crust mix ($0.75), pecan chips (six 1/2 c. bags @ $0.35 ea.), chex mix seasoning & chili seasoning ($0.25 ea.)  

29% Junk food ($12.58): 1 bag Reese's (1.50), 5 energy bars ($1.00), 3 boxes cold cereal ($1.57, $1.57 and $1.79), fruit roll ups (box of six- $1.15), fruit snacks (box of 10- $1.15), chips (2 bags @ $0.75 ea.), Pringles ($0.75), ramen noodles (4 packs @ $0.15 ea.)

9% Bread ($4.00): four packages tortillas ($1.00 ea.) 

3% Prize box ($1.40): Candy (3 @ $0.30 ea., 1 @ $0.50)

7% Other ($3.10): Citronella candle ($0.50), cough syrup (4 oz. $1.75), paper plates (60 ct. $0.85)

My best bargains during this trip were vanilla beans (normally $8.00-$10.00 for 2) at $1.25, and flour tortillas (normally $2.48 per package) at $1.00 each. The tortillas were only 40% off, but they are something I do buy on a regular basis, so I saved about $6.00 on those alone.

I have never made pie crust with a mix before, but the $0.75 box will make four crusts for $0.19 per crust. If you remember, my homemade recipe cost $0.55 per crust. We will see which one tastes better.

8. Made garlic/kale soup. This was my new recipe of the week, adapted from Don't Waste the Crumbs. I used 1 cup of home-canned navy beans, 1 pint of chicken broth, 1 bay leaf, 1 cup of chopped kale from the garden, 1 TB olive oil, 2 TB butter, four garlic cloves, 1 tsp. dried oregano, and two small tomatoes. Because the kale, broth, garlic and tomatoes were free from the garden, it was pretty frugal at $0.40 for the entire recipe. We did use some homemade cheese with the soup flavor. The first bowl was really good, but the second bowl was harder for me to get down. It tasted too beany for some reason. I think this would be a good soup to repeat, but maybe with a medley of different beans/grains or some meat to add variety and calories. Hubs and I had leftover pumpkin pie to go with the soup, but if not for the pie we probably would have still been hungry.

9. Printed new planner pages. My DIY planner helps me keep track of things and plan my day.

10. Downloaded the Stitcher app to my phone. I have been trying to streamline my internet activities so they take less time. Several weeks ago I started using an RSS feed to read blogs. Another activity that was distracting and taking up time was finding podcasts to play from my computer while I did housework. Now I can just take the phone wherever I am working, and the podcasts keep on playing. I don't have to stop my work and run to the computer to find another one. I've realized that often times I get sidetracked "finding podcasts" and end up doing something completely unrelated on the internet. This sucks up a lot of valuable time, so I'm happy to have started using a phone app for my podcasts.

11. Used a TSC 10% off coupon for goat mineral and a chain for Hubs' chain saw.

12. Kroger had a sale this week. Not only were many items on sale, but if you bought in quantities of 10 for those items, you could get an additional $0.50 off per item. I was able to buy butter for $2.00/lb. (I bought 10 pounds... should last a while!), and sour cream and cottage cheese for $0.70/lb. Seventy cents for a pound of cheese is the cheapest I have found EVER. If I could use the cottage cheese to replace our use of regular $2.00/lb.+ cheese, that would be cool.

Usually we are Walmart shoppers, but Hubs has found a way to use his credit card rewards for any purchases- not just gift cards that the credit company offers. This means that I'll be able to do my shopping at other places besides Walmart. In addition, our local Walmart has stopped price matching. Bummer! Just a few months ago I wrote about why we love Walmart so much, and now I find myself excited to be shopping elsewhere. Never say never!

My problem with shopping sales is that I spend more money on things I wouldn't normally buy. For example, I spent $5.60 on cottage cheese when I normally spend $0.00 on cottage cheese. Plus, the cottage cheese expires a month from now! That means we will be eating not one, but TWO containers per week for the next month. It's only $1.40 more per week, but imagine if I would have shopped ALL of the sales at Kroger. It would be so easy to spend more than $20.00 per week in the name of sales.

Between the bent 'n' dent and Kroger shopping sprees this week, I'm left with $6.22 for the rest of November. It will be interesting to see if I can come in under budget or not! I still have a lot of food in the pantry that needs to be eaten, so it's possible.

It's that time of year again! As I was cleaning out the garden last week, I decided to make a video to show you my garden instead of just taking pictures. I also explain how I spend less time in the garden by prepping the beds six months in advance.

My raised bed gardens are pretty much on autopilot for most of the year. The row garden, which I show at one point in the video, has always been a mess because it is too much for me to take care of by myself.

I estimate that I harvested between $100.00 and $200.00 worth of food out of the raised beds, and spent less than an hour per week maintaining them. I put about $10.00 worth of plants/seeds into this year's garden, so I would consider that a good investment. Other years have been better, so next year I really want to focus on yield and growing vegetables that pay. This year I grew a few crops (onions an tomatoes) that took up space but didn't produce a lot of monetary value.

If you have access to dead leaves in the fall and grass clippings during the warmer months, this method is for you. If you have chickens or other animals to provide manure, this method is especially for you. 


Excuses People Use for Not Gardening

"You're so lucky to have all that land, and animals to provide compost. I live in an apartment/in town, so that's why I don't garden. If I had enough land like you do, I would garden."  

"That's nice that you can grow your own food, but I actually have a job. You don't work, so you have time to spend all day in the garden."

"I liked your book about eating for $10.00 per week. But it doesn't really apply to me because I don't have a garden. How am I supposed to spend that little on food if I don't have a garden?"

Some people are honest and just say they don't want to have a garden. That's great!! You don't have to have a garden to have a worthy life. If you don't want to garden, the conversation can stop right here.

I'm not being judgy by trying to get you to garden- it's just an easy way to save a lot of money on food (especially organic food, which I know a lot of my readers like). If you are trying to pinch pennies and there is any way possible for you to have a garden, I think you should at least try it. And then try it a few more ways, just to make sure you're not missing anything before you call it quits.  

The truth is that you DON'T have to have a lot of land to garden. A little yard or even a couple of flower beds (sowed in vegetables, of course) will be enough room to grow plants to save money on food. Another truth is that I don't spend that much time growing fruit and vegetables for us to eat. I've tried to explain this in my video above. And lastly, it IS impossible to eat for $10.00 per week when you aren't growing at least some of your own food. Maybe someday I will write another book about how to eat for $20.00 per week without a garden.

Ideas for City-Dwellers
One of the drawbacks of living without a yard (for example, being in an apartment) is that you can't easily have a garden. However, your town might have a "community garden" that you can be a part of and get vegetables that way. The other thing city-dwellers can do is "spin farming", which is using other people's compost and backyards to grow plants in. You do all of the work, they provide the property, and you both split the harvest. 

Thoughts On Time Management
If you don't think you have enough time to garden, evaluate all of your money-saving activities. I only save $3.00 per hour of line-drying clothes. I only save $1.00 per hour making tortillas.

If I spent 20 hours on my raised bed gardens and only harvested $100.00 worth of produce, I would still be saving $5.00 per hour.

That means my time is worth more gardening that it is line drying clothes OR making tortillas; two popular frugal activities that many people think are worth their time.
 

Changes for Next Year

Here are some things I plan on doing differently next year with my garden. 

1. Do less row gardening and more raised bed gardening. This is always a goal!

2. If I do plant a row garden, lay down plastic instead of tilling. I discovered this year that I didn't have enough mulch material to mulch between the plants (not the rows, just the plants) in my row garden. I mulched the first few rows, but when we rototilled the pathways in between, the tiller just pulled off all of my mulch. It was kind of depressing, especially because I didn't have any more mulch. This left me hopelessly weeding in fits and starts. I despise weeding!

3. If I do a row garden next year, I will at least cut it in half. I haven't done corn or carrots well in raised beds, so those two crops will need to be in rows or patches if I decide to do them next year. However, other things can be planted in the raised beds.

4. Only grow one or two tomato plants. I will let these grow up volunteer and transplant them. Like last year, my tomatoes overtook a lot of the garden and I had way too many. 

5. Work more on picking off bugs and organic pest control.

Other than those few things, I was pretty satisfied with my garden this year.

How did your garden grow? Are there some things you were very happy with, or disappointed with?