Frugal Accomplishments: 

1. Sold 2 dozen eggs.

2. Returned $12.30 worth of pop cans.

3. Made five pints of applesauce.

4. Harvested beans, peppers and mint.

5. Dried the mint to make tea with.

6. Used a 50% off coupon at Joanns to buy glue sticks for my hot glue gun. I saved about $4.00.

7. Finished formatting my book for print and ebook format! I ordered a proof of the physical copy just to make sure everything is okay before I have a bunch printed.

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If you remember, last week I bought a few basic groceries- milk, eggs, cabbage, onions and carrots. I still have most of the milk, cabbage, and onions left. 

Meals Last Week:

1. Breakfast for the most part was skipped by Hubs, and I had two scrambled eggs (a total of $0.28 for the two) many days last week. There may have been a day or two where Hubs had yogurt and/or granola. The granola was technically free because it is leftover from the farmers market, and the cost to produce it has been covered in those expenses.

2. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I used some apple cider that we got for my birthday to make mulled hot cider. It cost $1.00 per quart (we used one quart per day) and the spices cost about $0.25. Generally we try not to buy beverages, and that is why! During those three days we spent more on cider than dinner.

3. For Monday's lunch I made "leftover chili" with some leftovers from the freezer, plus one jar of homemade enchilada sauce ($0.10), one jar of home-canned beans ($0.35), a little bit of molasses for flavor ($0.05) and homemade chili powder seasoning (free). I served it with some sour cream and homemade cheese ($0.20). Total cost for this meal was $0.70.

4. For dinner on Monday I made pumpkin soup. I used a free pumpkin, free broth from the freezer, a bit of onion, 1/3 cup or so of sausage from the discount store, peppers from the garden and a little bit of flour for thickener, with salt and pepper for seasoning. It turned out very good. I estimate the cost for this meal around $0.56; the cost of the onion, sausage and flour.

5. On Tuesday my sister came over to visit. We had to run some errands, and I didn't have a whole lot of time to cook. I decided to make a stroganoff dish for lunch with canned venison chunk meat, seasoning and pasta from the bent 'n' dent, milk and flour. Total cost for this meal was $1.17, and it fed three people with some leftovers.

6. For dinner on Tuesday we had leftovers from lunch, scrambled eggs, and... candy. I know, that's kind of lame. But we had a church activity that night and I didn't have a  crock pot meal ready.

7. On Wednesday we had leftover chili and pumpkin soup in bread bowls ($0.11 each) that I had made. However, the bread bowls were really too big, and there wasn't that much soup left. We ended up scraping out the bottoms of our bread bowls and then spreading them with peanut butter and honey... which probably cost another $1.00. Next time I will make the bread bowls half the size. Estimated cost for this meal was $1.22.

8. Eating Out This Week: Wednesday night was date night, so we ate out; I believe the total was around $15.00. Thursday night we ate out with friends (someone else ended up covering the tab) and Saturday we had lunch at Arby's, on the way to a wedding. The Arby's meal- one sandwich and curly fries for each of us- cost about $20.00. "I could get a burger and bottomless fries at Red Robin for that amount!" I told Hubs. If you don't order off the "bargain menu", fast food can be just as expensive as a sit-down restaurant. It's kind of ridiculous! If I would have planned better, we could have eaten sack lunches. But I didn't plan better. Before we got to the wedding, we stopped at a Dollar General to buy a card for the happy couple. And we also bought something to eat before the wedding, and this happened to be... candy. I think it was about $5.00. 

9. For lunch on Thursday we had tacos. I used the rest of the chunk venison from Tuesday, along with tortillas that we already had in the pantry, salsa from the garden and homemade cheese from the week before. I had a crock pot meal planned (and cooking) for dinner, but then I remembered that we were going to eat out that night. The crock pot meal was a little overcooked by the time we got home that night, but I put it in the fridge to eat again anyway.

10. On Friday I re-warmed the crock pot meal (venison steaks, carrots, and potatoes) and we ate it for lunch. I estimate the cost of this meal was about $1.62; the cost of the potatoes and carrots. For dinner I used the leftover meat, carrots and potatoes, along with some free frozen broth and a little bit of milk ($0.12) to make soup. Hubs ate his soup out of one of the bread bowls ($0.11). Total cost for dinner was $0.23.

11. On Sunday we had lunch at my parents' house to celebrate my brother's birthday. For dinner I made scrambled eggs with salsa and peppers from the garden, along with a generous helping of homemade goat cheese. I used eggs from our chickens and ducks, which I'm counting as free because we sold enough stuff this year to pay for their winter feed. Does that make sense?

We Spend a Lot at Restaurants.

Total cost for this week's food was $48.77. If you don't count the restaurants and Saturday candy purchase, the cost for food was only $8.77. I've discovered that Hubs and I spend a lot, LOT more money when we are away from home. We really enjoy restaurant food and money is not an issue at this point, so I don't try to curb spending in this area (unless it using a coupon or something like that). I would consider eating out more of a lifestyle choice, similar to buying a fancy car or more house than you need. Restaurants are a fun way to waste extra money, if you have it.

Sometimes I feel do bad about the principle of eating out or buying things like candy or ice cream. I never did that when I was single; it goes against my frugal morals. But now that I'm sharing my life with someone else, he has just as much right to spending money as I do. He is certainly the one who makes most of it! Sometimes as wives, we try so hard to spend as little as possible in our chosen area (like groceries), and then our dumb husbands go and blow it on a bag of Doritos or candy without even blinking. For a couple with debt, this would be more of a struggle. But for me, I have to remember that marital happiness is worth more than money, and I buy a lot of "dumb" stuff too. I buy books, kitchen gadgets, plants, and animals that we don't really need. It's easy to blame the other person for spending in your chosen area of frugality, while you overspend yourself in other areas; buying too many ebooks or indulging in multi-level marketing products, for example. No, they're not really "investments"... they're a fun way to waste money just like the bag of Doritos or $10.00 Arby's meal.  
Being generally responsible with money as a couple (not carrying debt, saving a large percentage, buying less car and house than you can afford, etc.) will allow room for fun things like eating out OR buying yet another orchid. Money struggles cause power struggles, and I am happy to be free from both. Most of the time... ;)


Groceries for This Week

For this week, I bought a 1-lb. tub of sour cream and a "free" Ibotta banana. Normally I buy a brand of sour cream called "Monticello" that costs $1.28- well below the price of the other brands. This week, however, the Monticellos were not there, but I found a same sized tub of Deans sour cream for $1.16. So that was nice. I also bought a box of Little Debbies for my brother's birthday. Total cost for groceries this week was $6.83 (though $1.94 of that was technically "gifts", and $0.25 will be given back to me for the banana rebate).

Some "free" groceries I want to use this week include a summer squash, onions and potatoes that my mom gave me, leftover bread and/or granola from the farmers market, bread bowls in the freezer and more garden produce. 

Til next time, 
-Bethany

Lately I feel like I've been a little short on frugal accomplishments. I've been working a lot on my new book, The Housewife's Guide to Frugal Food- How to Eat for $10.00 per Week. Feedback has come in from beta readers, which is exciting. Right now I'm in the final stages of editing and filling in the cracks where readers requested more information or pointed out different flaws. This was really helpful, and I'm so thankful for those who offered to help!

The subtitle of my book, "How to Eat for $10.00 per Week" came last year when Hubs and I were reviewing our 2015 spending. To my surprise, I discovered that we were spending about $80.00 per month, more or less, on groceries. This year has been similar. In fact, our average monthly spending has been about $64.00; that is about $8.00 per person per week. Earlier in the year, I decided to write a little handbook for those of you who are looking for more ways to save money on groceries. After doing additional research for the book, I've learned a lot more myself, which is probably why our grocery bill has become even lower than last year.

For the month of October, I would like to show you what this kind of spending looks like, practically. I'm going to do the best I can to take pictures of different meals and include prices of each, where I got the ingredients, etc. Fall is a good time to do this, because the garden and farm animals are slowing down and I don't get to "cheat" with all of the free milk, eggs and produce. For the next six months, we will be buying milk and eggs too, most likely.

Here is a picture of what we bought for groceries this week:

Groceries This Week:

1 gallon milk- $1.69
1 head cabbage- $0.98
3 lbs. yellow onions- $1.94
2.6 lbs. bulk carrots- $1.75
1 doz. large eggs- $1.68
2 boxes ice cream- $6.00

You'll notice that the ice cream is not included in my photo. That is because my first thought was, "The ice cream doesn't count because it was for a special occasion." Then I reminded myself that it DID count, because every week there is probably a special occasion that we buy stuff for. 

Some other "groceries" I plan on using this week are fresh tomatoes from the garden, a small pumpkin I found in the backyard, a bag of apples my mom gave me, foraged greens, and meat from the freezer. I will probably use a lot of other things in the pantry too, like flour, spices, canned goods, or rice. I will try to keep track of these items as well.

​
Frugal Accomplishments This Week:

1. Collected grass clippings to use as mulch.

2. Harvested beans, peppers, tomatoes and broccoli from the garden. I froze the broccoli and peppers, we ate the beans for dinner, and I also dried some of the hot peppers to use as spices. I used the tomatoes to make seven pints of salsa. On Friday I harvested tomatoes again, but instead of canning them I sold some at the farmers market and gave the rest away. I am really sick of doing tomatoes.

3. Sold 2 dozen eggs. The chickens are really slowing down at this point, so I've started buying eggs to supplement what we are getting.

4. Earned $22.52 at the farmers market. This was my last week of market. I have a detailed post coming about all of the things I learned this year, improvements made and possible plans for next year.

5. A neighbor let me dig up some of her echinacea and also a baby Catalpa tree. I transplanted the echinacea into my garden right away. I'm still trying to decide where to put the tree. I've noticed that many of the homes in our area built in the 1860's- 1870's have Catalpa trees planted in the front yard somewhere or beside the driveway. So I kind of want to continue the tradition with our house, which was built around the turn of the century.

6. Thursday was my birthday! To celebrate, I got a free birthday pizza from our local pizzeria. Hubs and I shared it for lunch. Later in the day we went to the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, followed by a visit to one of my favorite stores; William Sonoma. I did a lot of drooling over the pretty cookware, and then we left empty-handed. That was the frugal part.

After that, we went to Goodwill. I found an old thread box to store all of my random garage sale threads for $1.00.

After shopping, we went to a fancy Italian restaurant, which wasn't frugal but it was REALLY good!!!

This week I look forward to finish up some fall harvest tasks, finishing up my book, and doing some fall cleaning/organization projects.

What did you do to be frugal this week? What is your favorite part about autumn?

Hello everyone! This week was a little short on frugal accomplishments, but I thought I'd share anyway.

1. Harvested kale, tomatoes, broccoli and green beans from the garden.

2. Made feta cheese. Normally I just make soft cheese with milk and vinegar, but I had some extra time this week and thought I'd try something different. The feta took longer to make and required more ingredients (rennet & cheese culture), but it turned out well.

3. Line dried two loads of laundry. It started raining the day I did my laundry, so I got to try out my garage sale drying rack. It worked very well for small things like socks, handkerchiefs and cloth napkins, which take a lot of time to hang out on the line with clothespins. Indoors I didn't have to worry about a breeze, so I just laid each sock over the dowel instead of having to pin it down.

4. Separated spices from a jar of mulling mix. Last spring I found a couple jars of mulling mix (whole cloves, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon bark, lemon & orange peels) for $1.50 each at a bent 'n' dent store. I saved one of the jars to use with cider this fall, but with the other jar I dumped out and separated all of the contents. Whole spices can be expensive to buy in individual jars. To get a small amount of each spice in a single jar, for less-than-bulk price, was a great deal. I don't know what I'll use the allspice, cloves or nutmeg for yet, but the bark and peels will be used for making my own tea blends.

5. Bought cardamom in bulk. Normally I would not buy cardamom, which is an expensive Indian spice. If you just go to Walmart and buy a container, it can often cost between $4.00-$5.00 an ounce. I paid $2.13/oz. for my bulk spice, and got just enough to fill up one of the glass spice containers that I had saved to reuse.

I think spices and herbs are one of the best investments to make when you are trying to cook frugally. They can make boring ingredients taste really good. Some of the best restaurants I know of do not necessarily serve expensive cuts of meat or selections of produce. They are cooking potatoes and chicken like we normal housewives are, but it tastes SO good because they know how to bring out the best in food, using spices and mixing flavors.

5. Used a coupon. Earlier in the week, Tractor Supply sent out a flyer with two coupons. I cut out the coupons and put them in my purse. On our way to church, Hubs remembered he had to get something there. "I have a coupon!" I exclaimed. So we saved 10% on purchases that would have been made anyway.

6. Froze some extra water bottles. I have been trying to think of something to do with the cheap plastic water bottles that we pick up here and there. They are not sturdy enough to use regularly, but still have some life left in them. At the same time, I was trying to clean out our freezer. I thought it would be a good idea to put some temporary items in the freezer to help it run more efficiently (a full freezer is more efficient than one that is half empty). Freezing plastic water bottles does several things. 1) It reuses the water bottle, 2) it fills up the freezer, 3) we can grab some on the way out to the car; when we are thirsty they will be melted but still cold, and 4) I can use them as ice packs in coolers.

One day this week, Hubs had an on-site job and he took one of the bottles of frozen water. He drank it with his lunch and said it was just perfect by the time he got to it.

On Sunday, we went grocery shopping before church. I brought a small cooler along, with a frozen water bottle inside. The bottle kept our yogurt and sour cream well chilled until we got home around 3:30 pm.

7. Made a sticker chart for my piano students. Every so often, I like to take some of the money I earn from teaching and reinvest it into incentives (i.e. prizes) for the students. The sticker chart will help reward them more regularly and provide motivation to practice. This will make the lessons more effective.

Goals for Next Week

It's hard to believe  that August is halfway through already. However, I have been enjoying the last several weeks, having time to do some extra cleaning, writing, helping Hubs and doing other not-necessarily-frugal things. This week I look forward to canning, more writing and perhaps making some more soap.

1. Can tomatoes.
2. Finish tanning hide.
3. Make one batch of soap.

Extreme Cooling: Refrigeration 

The refrigerator is one of the most energy-consuming appliances in the home because it runs day and night. Several months ago, I have stumbled upon an extreme way to save on electricity consumption from my refrigerator. 

One day, I thought the fridge was cycling more than normal. I hate to hear the fridge cycle; I envision money rolling away from me. I thought maybe the coils needed cleaning.  But the fridge is heavy and has pre-rollers on the bottom.  It would have to wait for my husband to get home.  It was early in the day, and it would be 8 hours before he got home and it Would. Not. Stop. Running.  I decided I would unplug it. There, it stopped.  Now what? I couldn’t just leave it unplugged.  There was food in there!

 I did have that little dorm-size fridge out in the garage I could temporarily use.

​ But how would it all fit?  I took everything out of the fridge and examined the contents on my counter.  Was there anything that did not have to be refrigerated?  How much could we eat and how quickly? I researched every item on my counter (aside from the obvious) to see if it needed to be refrigerated. Guess what?  There were many items on the list that we commonly refrigerate, but don’t have to!

 I learned that onions, potatoes, garlic, vinegar and even soy sauce do not have to be refrigerated.  Maybe you knew this, but I didn’t.  Cabbage, if whole and wrapped does not have to be refrigerated.  I was buying cabbage at the store one day and I noticed that the store just had it shelved with other non- refrigerated vegetables.  Anything that the store is not refrigerating, you not have to refrigerate. Some things do need to be refrigerated after opening, but not all.  I tried not refrigerating carrots (the kind with the tops), but they became limp real fast. Then I remembered that they were stored in the refrigerated section of the store, so back into the fridge they went. 

I got out some pretty baskets and put my non-refrigerated vegetables in them on the shelf. 

I prepared leftovers that day for lunch, and I planned a soup for supper.  I froze some leftovers* I knew would not fit and that we could not eat that day.  And finally, I got everything to fit in 4.5 cubic feet, down from my original 15 cubic feet.

Small Fridge vs. Large Fridge

Then, I plugged in my kill-a-watt and waited 24 hours to read it. The results were good. This new fridge would only cost $3.00 per month to run, saving me $9.00 a month. How long could I make this last? I still hadn’t cleaned those coils in the big fridge.

Well it’s been a least three months and guess what?  I’m still operating out of the little fridge! I think there are several reasons it works for us.  For one, we rarely have leftovers.  If so, it’s usually only a serving or two. Also, we cook from scratch most of the time.  I’m using food from my pantry and freezer to prepare most of our meals.   

What I like the best about my small fridge is I know exactly…all the time…what is in my fridge.  No lost anything.  We have very little waste.  Also, space is so precious that I use it well.  This morning I needed to move more eggs into my little fridge but they wouldn’t fit.  I had un-thawed some peaches from the freezer and had some leftovers (surprise), jars of salsa, broth and spaghetti sauce that were taking up room.  I needed to use up some food to get my eggs to fit.

Boy #3 suggested and started working on peach pancakes for breakfast.  Then, I took the ½ jar of spaghetti sauce, 1 ½ of broth, ¼ jar of salsa and dumped them into my pressure cooker.  I added one can of corn, ½ onion and 6 potatoes and it was the best soup ever.  I used ¼ of the milk for pancakes, so I took out the gallon jug and put the milk in quart jars which fit better.  Viola! My eggs now fit.

I do make more trips to the store.  I actually like to go to the store and it is close to my home.  Going more often I find more marked down produce (even organic) and sales.  And if I have to use the produce right away its fine with me. I use it or preserve it (canning, dehydrating or freezing.)  I know most people spend more money when they go to the store more often, but not me.  I’ve tracked my expenses and the opposite is true.  Shopping only once or twice a month would cost us more.

I also keep a small cooler in the kitchen for extra items, should I have them.  One rubbermaid container of ice in my cooler will keep things cool until I use them or free up space in my little fridge. Using a cooler is like camping.  Except when we camp, we buy ice.  At home we make our own little ice packs and refreeze them, or we use items from the freezer that we need to unthaw anyway, like a chicken or a couple packages of ground beef.

​I love to see my fruit and vegetables in their baskets.  It reminds me to use them and brightens my kitchen in a minimalist way.

​In the future, I would love to try is turning a small chest freezer into a refrigerator.  Some bloggers claim that they consume only $6.00 per YEAR in electricity.  You can’t buy these (yet) but there are plans online that involve inserting a thermostat in the freezer to control the temperature and adding shelves to make the food more accessible. Here are some plans I’d like to try.    

When I was a kid, I had this great-aunt who always kept food on her screened back porch in the winter.  And honestly, I thought she was weird.  Now when I look back, I get it.  I get what she was doing.  She was either storing her leftovers out where they could cool prior to putting them in the fridge, or her fridge was full and this was her off grid leftover storage.  In Michigan we have a lot of free cooling we don’t use in the winter.
So, maybe, just maybe we don’t need as big as a fridge as we think we do.  Did you know that in Europe, the average size of a fridge is just 9.7 cubic feet?

Here is a good article on the history of the American fridge and how it got so big.

And another about how your American fridge is making you fat. This one is hilarious.

Could YOU downsize your fridge?  Or could you shut it off during a cold spell? At the very least, just think about emptying it when you leave to go on vacation.  It will save you some money and give you a chance to really see what’s in there.

*Note from Bethany: Freezing leftovers, in addition to freeing up fridge space, is smart because they will be fresher when you eat them. Some people separate leftovers before freezing (vegetables go in one freezer container, meat in another, etc.) and when the container is full, they make soup or casserole with it all. Bread ends can be frozen for bread crumbs; single grapes or other fruit ends can be frozen and used for smoothies.

*****
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This is the last article in our Saving on Electricity series! I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have over the last few months. -Bethany

Hi everyone! Frugal accomplishments are a bit late this week because of an internet issue we had, but here they are nonetheless.

1. Sold 4 dozen eggs.

2. Cut curly dock as winter feed for my goats.

3. Picked up aluminum cans to recycle when Hubs and I went for a walk.

4. Picked 7 cups raspberries from the garden, plus a quart of green beans and several heads of lettuce.

5. Made lavender soap.

6. Made a price book.

7. Downloaded the free trial version of Scrivener and spent a few hours going through the free tutorial. I plan on using this software in the future to work on more books.

8. Went bent 'n' dent shopping! My mom and I spent Thursday morning at a new (for us) discount store. It was hard to not buy everything in the store, but I had set a budget amount of $50.00, and the total came in just under that.

Some things I bought at the discount store were: ramen noodles ($0.15 each), Craisins ($1.50/ 10 oz.bag), candy bars (only a couple for $0.25 each), disposable razors ($0.79 for 5-pk.), Clif bars ($2.50 for 40 bars), tortillas ($0.50 for 20pk), spaghetti ($0.79/lb), penne pasta ($0.65/lb), wheat thins ($0.75 each), shaped snack crackers (Horizon Organic's version of Teddy Grahams at $0.75 per box), chocolate cake mix ($0.75), sugar cookie mix ($1.00), instant oatmeal ($1.25 for 10 pks), quick oats ($0.75/lb), tortilla chips ($0.75), sausage ($0.65/lb), pepperoni ($4.89  for 2 lb. bag) and sliced ham ($1.39/lb.). There were a few other items I bought that may or may not be a good deal- specifically paper towels and wax/parchment paper/ tin foil. These are items I don't buy often, so I am keeping track of price per unit (square foot) in my new price book.

Most of the food items went in my "vacation" box. These are things that we hopefully won't eat unless there is an occasion where we would be buying junk food anyway... like vacation. Other things I bought were pantry staples or steeply discounted lunch meats for flavoring pizza, soups, and casseroles.

Eating Expired Food?
One thing a reader brought up about discount stores is that the food items are often expired. Looking at all of the bags and boxes I purchased, this is generally true (probably half of my purchases were past the expiration date). However, the meat, for example, had been frozen- likely before the expiration date. Other things that had expired- cake mix, instant oatmeal, junk food- are considered non-perishables for a reason. The expiration date for these items is actually a "Best By" date, meaning that the quality declines slowly after that date, but the food is still very safe to eat (items marked, "Use By [Date]" may NOT be safe to eat). I came to the conclusion that I am okay with eating a $0.07 Clif bar that is outdated. I mean, it's an unopened CLIF BAR for crying out loud, and it was practically free. I think they are still just as yummy.

Another thing I've heard is that Dollar Tree stores will simply put new expiration dates on non-perishable foods before they are put out on the shelf. So those of you who shop at the Dollar Tree for food are probably eating outdated food and don't even know it. And if you don't know it, that begs the question... why should you care? 

9. We bought a bunch of toilet paper last week, and I decided to do an experiment. When I put a new roll in the bathroom, I used a permanent marker to write the date on the inside of the toilet paper  tube. When the roll was empty, I checked the date to see how long it had been. Only 5 days!!! That is crazy for a household of two people. However, the toilet paper we bought was the thick and quilted kind, which is probably why it went so fast. I am going to do the same experiment next time we buy toilet paper (a thinner, cheaper kind, hopefully). I think reusing rags for toilet paper ("family cloth") is really gross, but if you are going through a roll of TP in less than a week, I can see where the savings would definitely add up.

I also put a date on a new tube of toothpaste, and planning on doing our other personal care items (deodorant, shampoo, conditioner) as well. This will help me predict when we will need more and how much I should buy when there is a sale.

10. Used the meat slicer I bought at a garage sale last week to make pepperoni slices from the parts and pieces of pepperoni that I bought at the discount store. I've never bought pepperoni before, so it will be nice to use on pizza and in casseroles.

Goals for This Week:

1. Make yogurt.
2. Clean out storage/craft room.
3. Weed pumpkin patch.

Til next time,
-Bethany

Making your own yogurt is a great way to stretch those food dollars. It doesn't take special tools or skills, plus it is something healthy that you can make every week. Making yogurt is as easy as stirring and boiling water. You can read my tutorial here. 

Finding The Savings
How much money is there to be saved by making yogurt? As always, it depends on how much yogurt you go through, as well as how much you pay for milk. We tend to use about two quarts of yogurt per week, and the milk is free because I get it from my goat. At Walmart, I would pay about $2.67 per quart.

($2.67 x 2 qts = $5.34) - $0.58 (cost for a small container of yogurt to use as "starter culture) = $4.76 weekly savings for Bethany

Let's say I make theoretically make yogurt 50 weeks out of the year (exclude two weeks for vacation).

$4.76 x 50 = $238.00 yearly savings for Bethany

For the People Without Goats
I know that most people don't have access to free milk, so in that case is making yogurt still economical? Let's do the math.

$0.58 starter + ($2.00/gal. divided by 2 = $1.00) = $1.58 (divided by 2 qts. = $0.79/qt.)

$2.67 (store bought qt.) - $0.79 (homemade quart) =  $1.88 potential savings for every quart.

So, depending on how much yogurt your family goes through, you could be saving:

1 quart = $1.88/wk ($94.00/yr)
2 quarts = $3.76/wk ($188.00/yr)
3 quarts = $5.64/wk ($282.00/yr)
4 quarts = $7.52/wk ($376.00/yr)
5 quarts = $9.40/wk ($470.00/yr)
6 quarts = $11.28/wk ($564.00/yr)

Hourly Wage
It takes about 15 minutes of actual hands-on work to make yogurt. As I said before, that work involves heating milk, stirring in yogurt starter, and dumping the mixture into a yogurt container to incubate. If you don't have a yogurt maker, you will have to use the "mason jars-in-a-cooler-with-hot-water" method, which may take 30 minutes.

Hourly wage with yogurt maker (2 quarts): $3.76 x 4 (15 minute increments) = $15.04
Hourly wage without yogurt maker (2 quarts): $3.76 x 2 (30 minute increments) = $7. 52

However, keep in mind that it takes just as long to heat and cool a whole gallon of milk as it does to do a half-gallon, if you are using mason jars. With this in mind:

Hourly wage without yogurt maker (4 quarts):  $7.52 x 3 (30 minute increments) = $15.04

ROI of Making Yogurt
In my case, I got my yogurt maker and milk for free, so the only "investment" is the $0.58 yogurt starter.

$5.31 worth of yogurt = 915% ROI for Bethany

For everyone else making four quarts per week without a yogurt maker:

$0.79/qt. x 4 qts = $3.16 investment
$10.68 worth of yogurt = 338% ROI

Some Side Notes: One serving of flavored yogurt from the store contains more sugar than a chocolate chip cookie. I'm not kidding! However, this is to our advantage if we use store bought yogurt as a starter culture. I find that those 18 grams of sugar spread out over two quarts of yogurt gives just enough sweetness so that I can eat my homemade yogurt without adding sugar or honey or maple syrup. This too, saves money.

Some of you may be wondering how to use up a whole gallon of yogurt every week. Some people use yogurt to soak fresh-ground flours and grains with. We eat it for breakfast with granola or in smoothies. Yogurt can also be used as a condiment or in dips and dressings. Last night I used it as a spread on Greek-style lamb sandwiches. Speaking of Greek, you can make your own Greek yogurt by using a cheesecloth to strain out the whey. Greek yogurt can be strained even longer to make a kind of "yogurt cheese", which can be used to replace cream cheese in recipes.

Lastly, the price of milk fluctuates all the time. This is important to keep track of. If milk is $3.00 per gallon, your cost to make yogurt is going to be $1.00 per quart. If you can buy yogurt for $2.00/qt., or on sale for even cheaper, it may not be worth your time to make it. At the time of this writing, I believe it is still very much worth your time. But circumstances change, so keep an eye out. I've always wondered why Amy Dacyczyn (author of The Tightwad Gazette) recommended powdered milk when it is actually cheaper to buy real milk. Recently, while reading her books, I discovered that her cost per gallon of milk in the early 1990s was $2.19-$2.59. Earlier this year- 25 years later- you could get a gallon of milk for $1.89. Crazy!!!
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Til next time,
-Bethany

Just this week, we brought home a road-kill deer. Between the tenderloins and one ham, we were able to harvest 14 lbs. of meat. For free! Even with limited freezer space, I was still able to keep it. Thanks to... our handy-dandy pressure canner. :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pressure canner. It allows me to make cheap bulk dried beans into ready-to-eat canned beans. It also allows us to keep far more meat in food storage than we would be able to, otherwise. I'm not a huge fan of pressure canning vegetables*, but that option is open as well.

Note: I didn't include the cost of canning jars, rings and lids in this analysis. I assume that if you're ready to attempt pressure canning, you've been water bath canning and already have a stockpile of jars/supplies.

Potential Savings:

Canned meat: The main cost savings with canned meat has to do with energy; you don't have to run a second freezer to store all of your stockpiled bargain/free meat. A vague (and probably too conservative) guess at energy costs for our old freezer is $6.00 per month.

Therefore, our yearly savings for canning meat = $72.00 per freezer of meat. 

A bonus of canning meat is that it comes out of the jar already cooked. This energy savings cancels out the energy cost of pressure canning.

Another bonus? If you pressure can bone-in meat (I use free chicken), your jar will have gelatin-rich broth in it, as well as the meat. This is perfect for making soup with. A lot of people mess around with either 1) making broth every week in a crockpot, or 2) making a ginormous pot once a month and freezing it in quart-size freezer bags. If you are one of these people, not only do you have a more crowded freezer, but you've also got to pay for all of those plastic bags and deal with any that bust open. If you freeze broth in glass jars, no doubt you've lost some due to breakage (caused by the expanding liquid). All this can be avoided if you making bone broth by pressure canning.

Canned beans: let's say an average can of navy beans costs $1.00 and holds two cups of cooked beans.

I buy my beans in bulk for $0.79/lb. One pound of dry beans= 2 1/3 cup. There is only 2/3 cup of dried beans in a can of store-bought beans, which means that my home-canned beans only cost about $0.23 per can. Add $0.05 per jar for a canning lid (I use mine at least twice before throwing them away), and the home canned beans cost $0.28 per can, for a cost savings of $0.72 per can.

If we used one pint jar ("can") of beans per week, the yearly savings for canned beans = $37.44. The more beans you eat, the more savings. But I'm just doing calculations for the two of us.

A beany bonus: some people cook a ton of beans in the crock pot, and then freeze them in plastic bags. In addition to using up freezer space and wasting plastic baggies, frozen beans have to be thawed before you can use them. Canned beans only have to be soaked and canned, and then they are ready to eat... forever. No freezer burn. No cooking, no freezing, no thawing, no re-washing plastic freezer bags.

Total yearly canned meat & beans savings: $109.44

Investing in a Pressure Canner & ROI
I bought our pressure canner from Walmart with some leftover wedding money. It is a Presto 16-quart aluminum pressure canner, and still costs only $69.97. As you can see, it will pay itself off in less than a year.

ROI after 1 year of use: $109.44 savings - $69.97 investment = $39.47 NET savings = 56% ROI
After 2 years: $148.91 net savings = 213% ROI
After 3 years: $258.35 = 369% ROI
After 4 years: $367.79 = 525% ROI
After 5 years: $477.23 = 682% ROI

It's hard to determine the exact ROI on this one, because it really depends how much and how long you use the pressure canner. A large family who cans for many years will save THOUSANDS of dollars by purchasing a pressure canner. But even a small family like ours will save enough in just one year to justify the cost. In my opinion, everyone should buy and learn how to use a pressure canner.

Last Words
What are you missing out on by not having or using a pressure canner? It may cause you to turn down fantastic deals because you don't have enough freezer space or can't eat a large amount of ___ before it goes bad. Pressure canning makes it possible to buy in bulk, even for a small family like ours. Instead of paying $2.00/lb. for chicken, I can pay $0.50/lb at Gordons. Health nuts can grow their own chickens. My point though, is that learning how to use a pressure canner will open up SO many more areas of saving. You will save more money on food by buying in bulk, you'll save $$ by not using disposable 2- or 3- use freezer bags, you'll save energy by not using the freezer, and you'll spend less time cooking and cleaning up after cooking. It's a win, win, win. 

We have one refrigerator/freezer combo, and one upright chest freezer to store all of the fruits & veggies that I grow, plus meats and farmers market ingredients. I use pressure canning as my "overflow" method for dealing with meats that don't fit in the freezer. Our freezer space is precious, and I really don't have the time or space to be freezing beans, broth, leftovers, crock-pot meals etc., so pressure canning is the perfect solution for those things. Unlike plastic baggies, canning jars are easy to wash and can be used for years- possibly a lifetime, if you're careful.

One of my goals in life is to save time, space, money and energy. Pressure canning does all of these things, and in some cases, produces a superior product to that which is frozen (tough meats come out of the jar tender, with no gristle). Sometimes I wonder if people would even bother freezing meat and beans if they knew how easy and cheap it was to can them.

-Bethany

*I'm not a fan of pressure canning veggies, because the high temperatures produced during pressure canning can destroy vitamins. Minerals, on the other hand, will stay intact regardless of heat (to the best of my knowledge). Therefore, I freeze any produce with high vitamin content, and can things like meat & beans. 

I feel like a 4-day supply (12 napkins) would be sufficient for one person. This would give you enough time to launder the dirty napkins before you needed to use them again. I don't factor in the cost of laundering cloth napkins because they're so small, and if you are doing a load of laundry anyway, a couple of napkins are not going to cost more. Almost nobody is going to run a separate load of only cloth napkins. 

ROI & Hourly Wage 
It took me 30 minutes to make a one-person supply of cloth napkins. If I use my napkins instead of disposables for a year, I'll save $5.46. Therefore, an hour's worth of making cloth napkins (say, if I would have made some for Hubs at the same time), would yield a $10.92 savings; that is, a $10.92 hourly wage.

If we caculate the ROI based on your time investment (because there is no monetary investment), at a generic "housewife wage" of $4.00/hr., we find the following:

$4/hr. x 1 hr. = $4.00 investment
$10.92 savings - $4.00 investment = $6.92 return (173% ROI)

In My Opinion...
Is this project worth your time? If you look at the ROI and hourly wage only, it is. However, I'm not too keen on washing and folding 42 napkins each week for a savings of $0.21. I really think there are easier ways to earn/save that much every week (for example... recycling aluminum cans!). We'll probably use the napkins I already made, but for us the savings are too insignificant to completely stop buying paper napkins. Plus, we will still buy and use paper napkins for guests/cookouts/etc. 

I think this would be a good idea for larger families, however. Because there are more people eating but still only one or two adults earning an income, larger families will need to stretch that income farther than small families. Plus, making (and folding) cloth napkins is a nice project for kids. 

Ultimately, I don't think there is anything to LOSE by making and using cloth napkins. As I sometimes tell Hubs, "Every penny counts!" The question is just whether or not there is enough pennies to gain for it to be worth the hassle.

What do you think? Are cloth napkins in your future?

-Bethany

*I realize now that it would have been faster to just surge the edges of each napkin. However, my surger was broken and I know that most ladies don't have a serger sewing machine in the spare room. Pinking shears are available at Walmart, I think for around $10. And you can use them for more than just making napkins.

Happy Monday! I hope all of you had a good weekend.

1. Cut some redbud branches from the tree in our yard. Redbud is a spring flowering ornamental tree. The buds only last a little while, but they are sure pretty! And guess what... redbud blossoms are edible!!! So you will probably see another frugal accomplishment next week, to the tune of eating redbud blossoms.

2. Sold five dozen eggs.

3. Sold one book on Amazon.

4. Line-dried several loads of laundry.

4. Went to some garage sales!!! The garage sales my mom and I went to last week were in a nicer community. They had a lot of home decorating stuff and other higher-quality home goods (like candles... won't you look at my beautiful candles!). Of course the prices were higher, as well. I didn't see anything priced at $0.10 or $0.05, like you do in some neighborhoods.

As you can see in the picture, I found a lot of like-new candles for $0.50 each. I also bought a pair of in-the-box binoculars for $5.00, a full bottle of sweet almond oil for $2.00 (that's an absolute STEAL), a vintage game that we really like, and two shadow boxes for $1.00 each. I had been wanting to buy or make some shadow boxes to display some of our travel souvenirs in, but never actually bought any. Good thing I waited! I also picked up a nice Kohls-brand sweater for myself for $0.50, some Christmas window candles that I had been looking for ($0.25 each), and some Wilton baking supplies for $0.50 each.

Garage sales are wonderful for stocking up on craft supplies. I found a bag of miscellaneous yarn for $0.50! The balls of yarn were small, but enough to make baby hats or other small items with. I like to use home-knitted items to give away as gifts. If you do the math, each usable ball of yarn cost about $0.10, which would mean that hat costs only a dime, plus a couple of hours knitting. Knitting is good to do when you are sitting in front of the TV or on a long car ride. Oftentimes I knit during the winter, or on cold rainy days. 

Lastly, I hit up all of the free boxes I could find. From depths of these boxes, I found quite a few items to put in my piano lesson "prize box", and the toy basket I keep for when little kids come over. Half-used coloring books, sticker sheets, markers, and those little punch-out valentines. Oh yes, and some fake grapes.

5. Planted my broccoli starts in a lasagna raised bed. Broccoli, green beans, sweet corn and bell peppers are going to be my main freezer vegetables this year. I used to not like broccoli, but it isn't too bad in casseroles. Plus, you know... FREE always tastes better. These starts were planted from seeds I saved two years ago. 

I used grass clippings from the first mowing of the year (yay!) to mulch the bed. This means that majority of my broccoli work is done for the summer. No more weeding, and precious little watering thanks to the mulch.

6. Planted onion sets. I finally got around to putting my onions in next to the garlic.

7. Other miscellaneous garden work: Hubs tilled up the area I'll be using for my market/fodder garden. We cleaned out the goat pen and put all of the manure in piles up by the garden to compost. I also planted another square of strawberries, mulched them with straw and also mulched the raspberries and garlic with straw. The "straw" was actually the refuse hay that my goats had scattered all over their pen instead of eating. I'm not worried about anything seeding itself in the garden, because what they didn't eat was essentially straw, with no leafy parts or seed stalks.

My New Adventure
This week we stopped by some friends of ours, and she was telling me about how she had used an email incentive and birthday freebie to get a free sandwich AND appetizer at the same restaurant for her husband's birthday (she is much better at coupons than I am). Later that day, I got to wondering if any of our local restaurants have deals like that. 

I made a spreadsheet listing every single restaurant in the surrounding communities. I had no clue that there were so many! Right now I'm in the process of scouting out any possible email incentives, coupons or birthday freebies. Most of the fast food restaurants have phone apps, but only some of these apps have coupons (the others are only for ordering food). The nicer restaurants (one so far in our local area) offered a free appetizer for being on their email list. Another restaurant had appetizers and drinks 50% off after 9:00 pm. One of my favorite Italian places has a "sub of the month", and you can get $1.00 off of that sub on a certain day of the week. All of this is impossible to remember, which is why I made a spreadsheet.

As you can imagine, there are dozens of restaurants that Hubs and I could go to on our date night. It will take at least a year to get through all of them. Instead of paying full price for the same meal at the same restaurant every week (yes, we've gotten into a rut!), with a little detective work I can strategically plan where and when to go, and what to order, based on coupons, specials and "deals of the month". Not only will it help us save a few dollars, but we'll get to try a different restaurant every week and using coupons will force us to try new foods. 

I still have some work to do, looking up websites and probably making a few phone calls. When I'm done with all of the research, I will probably share my spreadsheet in the monthly email newsletter. So don't forget to sign up!

Goals This Week:

1. Make granola for farmers market.
2. Transplant some lilac bushes.
3. Transplant spearmint and peppermint.

Last year for several weeks, I tried couponing with the help of the Krazy Coupon Lady. The website would tell me each week what the deals were. Then I would spend about 20 minutes printing out coupons, liking Facebook pages, and doing whatever else required. Then I would spend an extra 10 minutes at Walmart looking around for the thing (because it was probably something weird, like Glade scent warmers or multi-purpose cleaner or ranch dressing mix). 

After a few weeks, I quit. It just wasn't worth it! I wasn't good at collecting Red Plum adds, I didn't have a phone to download rebate apps (because there are like a HUNDRED of them!), and it took too much time to get a free product that I would never use.

Recently, Hubs gave me his old phone and I've been experimenting with rebate apps again. And guess what... it's worth my time! Using the apps only takes a couple minutes each week. I get FREE produce and save money on groceries that I actually use (unlike the ranch dressing dip, which is still sitting in my pantry). 

My 15-Minute Strategy for FREE Produce & Saving $$$
Now that those two things are out of the way, let me share my system for using Ibotta, Checkout 51 and Receipt Hog. You can download all of these programs from the app store for free.

1. Take 5 minutes per week to unlock rebates. I've found that Thursday is a good day, because both Ibotta and Checkout 51 have added new rebates by then (we shop on Sunday). 

2. Only unlock rebates that are "any brand". I typically find one usable rebate on Checkout 51, and 3-4 rebates on Ibotta. These are for things like onions, carrots, bananas, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, bread, pasta or milk. Don't bother looking for name brand rebates, because you will just end up wasting time and money.

3. Add these items to your grocery list.

4. At the grocery store, be sure to spend LESS money on each produce item than what your rebate is worth. For example, I often get $0.25 rebates for "any brand banana". One banana costs $0.20, so if I only buy one banana, it is free (and I get an extra nickel!). During my latest shopping trip, I also had $0.25 rebates for tomatoes and carrots. I bought one single tomato ($0.17) and three bulk carrots (@$0.67/lb=$0.36). So for this trip I spent $0.73 on extra produce, and will get $0.75 in rebate money.

In addition to getting free produce, I also use "any brand" rebates for things that I might buy anyway, like bread or milk. Then I always pick the cheapest brand. For example, if I have a $0.25 rebate for bread, I will buy hotdog buns that cost $0.88. Or a $0.25 rebate for milk, and I buy milk that costs $1.79 instead of $2.00 or $2.50.

5. Go home and take a picture of your receipt with your phone. Ibotta only requires you to capture the QR code at the bottom of the receipt, but Checkout 51 still makes you take an actual photo. The receipts will upload and rebates added to your total amount earned.

6. Also upload pictures of your receipts on to Receipt Hog. This is a new app that I've been experimenting with. While you can't get rich with it (my average receipt is worth $0.02-$0.05 to upload), I figure that since I have my phone and receipts out anyway, I might as well snap a few pictures. The nice thing about Receipt Hog is that it also accepts receipts from non-grocery stores like Sears or the Home Depot. Instead of "coins", for these receipts you earn "spins" on a digital slot machine. Sometimes you win coins from spins, but more often than not I don't win anything. But it's still fun. Recently I tried uploading a McDonalds receipt. It was accepted, but instead of coins or spins, I only earned a drawing in the "sweepstakes", which is actually probably worthless.

I haven't come to a conclusion whether or not the Receipt Hog app is worth my time. If I entered one $10 receipt every week, it would take me almost two years to earn a $5 Amazon gift card. However, you do get a lot of coins for signing up, some free spins, more coins for adding your email address, etc. And with the occasional coins from spin receipts or "leveling up", I'm hoping to earn a $5 gift card in less than a year. After that I will probably find a new app to use.

How to Use Rebate Apps Effectively
1. Realize that rebates are not "free money". You have to SPEND the money before you get the rebate. If I have a $0.50 rebate and buy a $0.50 apple to use the rebate, I get a free apple- NOT a free fifty cents. If you spend less than what the rebate is, you get free products, and maybe a tiny bit of free money (remember how I bought $0.73 of produce and got a $0.75 rebate?).

2. You must only buy things on your grocery list, unless your rebate makes the item absolutely FREE. If you go out of your way to purchase a $3 box of cereal because there is a $0.50 rebate, you are still spending $2.50 on a box of cereal that you never would have bought without the rebate. However, milk is something I buy every week and if Ibotta has a $0.25 rebate for it, of course I am going to use that rebate.

Hourly Wage
Using Ibotta and Checkout 31 saves us about $1.50 every month in regular purchases and gives us about $3.50 in free produce. I think this is worth doing. If I can get $5.00 of value per month with one hour of work, my hourly wage is $5.00. This qualifies as "worth my time" because it is 1) over $4.00/hr., and 2) enjoyable for me.
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Another Tool in the Kit
Like shopping at a bent 'n' dent, rebates are another small thing you can do to cut grocery costs. Saving only $5.00 per month really adds up. Over the course of a year, you could save $60! 

What are your favorite rebate apps? Do you think they are worth your time?