Search Results for: blog a little food prep can save a lot

Low Cost Ways to Party

We are planning to have a birthday party for my youngest son at our house in less than a month. We are in the middle of some chaos at the house (nothing new), so we have our work cut out for us to get everything ready. If money was no option, we might just hire things out, but as it is, we are opting for low-cost or no-cost ways to get it all done. Here are the ideas I am batting around today, as we start to make our plans. Cleaning in Pieces In the last few weeks, we have … Continue reading →

5 Frugal Practices That May Be Costing You Money

Sometimes even the best intentions to save money fail. Are you losing money while trying to be frugal? Here are five frugal practices that may be costing you money. • Stockpiling Do you still have cans of vegetables from 2001? Have the breadcrumbs gone stale? Stockpiling is a great way to save money and to be prepared for rising prices, but when you have half a pantry full of expired food then stockpiling is costing you money. To solve this problem, don’t give up on the stockpiling, just get a little more organized. Rotate your pantry items and keep track … Continue reading →

5 Things to Make From Scratch to Save Money

Homemade is usually best, especially when it comes to saving money. Here are five things you can make from scratch to save money. They include homemade cleaners, food prepared from scratch, baby items and more. Pizza Pizza dough is quick and easy when you make it in a bread machine. Even with loads of toppings, two large (restaurant large, not supermarket large) thin-crust pizzas will cost you around $4. For a little more money, you can buy prepared dough, but of course making your pizza completely from scratch means a lower cost as well as a lack of preservatives and … Continue reading →

Not Wasting Food Today

During the holidays, our food waste was a little high. We shopped a lot, cooked a lot and packed the refrigerator with all sorts of ingredients and good things to eat. The environment was just right for food waste, since we hardly knew what we had. Having another person in our home didn’t help, either, since we all tending to save things for each other to the point where some items went bad (a crying shame in the case of the over-the-top chocolate bread). Since one of my New Year Resolutions is to find an extra $5,000 toward my mortgage … Continue reading →

Party Like It’s 1999

Throw a fabulous New Year’s Eve party blow out for same cost you might have paid 13 years ago. If you want to leave your old budget back in 2012 and have a fresh start in 2013, don’t blow it first thing on an expensive New Year’s Eve bash. Instead, party like a millionaire  even if you are still wearing the 90s grunge look. Recycle Christmas Decorations Most Christmas or Chanukah decorations that are in silver or gold will work well for a New Year’s Eve bash. Work with the decorations that you already have, such as placing silver ball … Continue reading →

The Easy Way to Cook from Scratch

Cooking from scratch is a great way to reduce your overall food bill. Eating out can cost three or four times as much as cooking at home, on average. Faced with the reality of the savings, why don’t we all cook more and eat out less? Well, one of the main reasons is that the idea of cooking every meal at home when our lives are so busy can seem daunting. Guess what, though? Eating at home can actually be less time consuming than going out in many cases. Plus, if you follow the following advice, you will see that … Continue reading →

Four Alternatives to the Grocery Store

Just fifteen or twenty years ago it would have been unusual to buy your groceries from anywhere other than your typical neighborhood grocery store. Things have definitely changed since then and the average consumer has a whole range of opportunities to shop for food. Gone on are the days when the supermarket was practically the only place most people went to get their groceries. According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans are only shopping for groceries at supermarkets 51 percent of the time. So where are they going for grocery purchases, and will those places save them money? 1. Big … Continue reading →

When You Are Prepared, You Don’t Panic

On Tuesday evening there was a loud pop and a few sparks at the end of our driveway. At the same time, our power went out in the house. It looks like the temperamental transformer blew, and it left five homes, including ours, in the dark. Although this was very inconvenient, we didn’t have to panic. We had a cell phone, which we used to call the power company, plenty of bottled water in case we got thirsty (without power, we lose function of the well pump), additional water to flush toilets, lots of snacks and easy to eat food … Continue reading →

Easter Cupcake Decorating Ideas

What could be cuter than an entire basket full of yummy easter cupcakes? Mix up a batch of cupcakes from your favorite recipe, try the basic cupcake recipe below or even use a boxed mix. Then go crazy with one or more of the following Easter Cupcake decorating ideas. Basic Vanilla Cupcake Recipe Makes 24 cupcakes Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1-1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 large pinch of salt 10 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) 1-1/3 cup milk 2 cups white sugar 5 eggs 2 teaspoon vanilla extract Directions: Preheat an oven to … Continue reading →

Dried Beans for Frugal Living

Incorporating dried beans into your family’s diet can save you quite a bit of money. You can use the dried beans to make nutritious meatless meals or to add valuable and inexpensive protein to many traditional dishes. At just pennies per serving, using dried beans makes a lot of sense. I used to be intimidated by dried beans. I wasn’t exactly sure how to prepare them or how to use them, but using dried beans is pretty easy. While most modern recipes call for canned beans, you can substitute your own cooked dried beans in any recipe. Just keep in … Continue reading →