Dia Duit, friends :o)
Part of shop shop day almost always includes a trip to Goodwill :o) When we lived in Maryland we never went to Goodwill. I remember going into one once, it was dark and dirty and smelled awful...I never went back! After moving to Virginia there were a couple years when I still wouldn't go to one even after hearing many ladies at church talk about their deals. And then one day I went...and it was like a ray of light straight from Heaven fell on me and that store and an instant bond was made. :o) I almost NEVER go to a "real" store anymore. With careful shopping and planning in advance I am able to keep my family dressed in name brands that I could never afford to buy in the mall for less than Walmarts clearance prices. I could never begin to figure how many thousands I've saved by shopping there these 9 years I've lived in Virginia...but I know that there is no way we could have the nice things we do and the standard of living that we enjoy without it!
Today for example I bought a new Queen Vellux blanket to go on one of the girls new bed sets that they will be getting for Christmas. I just checked on Amazon.com and the average price was $55...I paid $6! I bought a new white collared Lands End tshirt (and I LOOOOVE a good white tshirt!) for $3.50.
If you haven't checked out your local Goodwill or thrift store I encourage you to look them up online or in the phone book (do people still have those?) and check them out! You wouldn't believe all the new and like new name brand things people donate!! And while you save all that money you're also helping people who can really use a little help. Our Goodwill employs many people who couldn't go and get a "normal" job due to challenges they have. Our Mission Thrift Store takes all that money made to run a homeless shelter, women's and children shelter, drug/alcohol treatment programs etc...all while telling those hurting about the Love of Christ...I can support that! I can spend my money there and feel good about it, not like shopping at the "greatest savings place" ;o)
Dia Duit!
Showing posts with label Saving Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saving Money. Show all posts
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Todays Savings
Dia Duit friends :o)
Today was shop shop day...an exhausting, long, tiresome, shop shop day. I haven't slept well the last three nights and it's catching up to me, still the family insists on eating, so I must.
Kroger once again had a Mega Event sale this week. The Mega Event sale saves you an extra $5 for each 10 participating items that are on sale. For example Bumble Bee Premium Albacore Tuna in the pouch is normally $1.85 each (who pays that?!). It was on sale this week for 99cents, an 86 cent savings immediately (getting better). But then in was also in the Mega Event sale, so for each 10 that I bought I saved another 50cent off each pouch making them only 49cents a pouch (now we're talking! :-D ). I bought 30 pouches...saving a total of $40.80 just on Tuna!!! Tuna is an excellent thing for food storage as well ;)
A new thing I learned today was Krogers pricing policy. If an item is marked on sale and rings up full price you get the first item free and any others at the sale price. Well I made out quite well with that deal today! Razors were on an endcap in the pharmacy section. I had my coupon book with me as always and realized I had two $1 coupons for them and the sale was Buy 1 Get 1 Free (B1G1). There were 10 packs, but if you looked carefully there were also a few with 2 'free' razors in each pack...always look for those things! So the first two bags of razors where $6.99 a bag. I had those two coupons. So for $4.99 I got 24 of my husbands favorite razors :o) Great right? Just wait ;) There were also fancy pink "cool" razors that my oldest will enjoy getting in her Christmas stocking. They were $7.99 normally but also on sale for B1G1. Take note here that Kroger does NOT make you buy two of something to get the sale price, you can buy just one of the item for half off. So after all the shopping we get to the registers, thankfully my young friend who comes with me on shop shop days for a girls day out knew these policies and was able to tell me. So all the razors rang up full price. It seems that someone forgot to take all the signage down. So when we politely brought it to their attention the manager took care of it right away. Ready for this? Those $7.99 "cool" pink razors were FREE! And then the $6.99 razors for my husband I had bought two of...so they gave me the first one FREE and the second one at $3.49. :-D Oh yeah, I was excited!!
There was another lesson learned though...and that is...CHECK THE PRICES WHILE THEY RING UP!!! Those razors were no longer on sale...the sale had ended the 4th...FIVE days ago!! Now you just know someone bought razors in those 5 days and ended up paying the full price when they thought they were getting them B1G1 because they didn't pay attention while they were there. As soon as the manager found out and fixed ours he immediately went and pulled down all the old signage. A tough lesson for them, but a $18.47 savings for me!
Another big savings this week was on Barilla Pasta Sauces. Normally $2.99 a jar. On sale this week for $1.99...but also part of the Mega Event...so another 50cents off of each jar as long as I kept things in multiples of ten. I bought 20 jars. We love the roasted garlic. So a total of $1.49 savings per jar equaled a total savings of $29.80.
There were lots of other savings as well...but these Mega Events are such a great time to stock up on things for your normal pantry as well as your Food Storage Pantry. $60 of the savings I had today was just multiples of that $5 bonus savings. Another important factor..you do NOT need to buy 10 of the same item, although I do many times...it's every 10 participating items, mix and match as you like. While I carry my shopping list around I have my pen and make tally marks on the top to keep track of the savings...I don't want to get up there and have 29 items and miss out on $5 savings because I didn't buy an extra 49cent pouch of tuna.
And MORE savings...can you stand all this??? Still lovin it here!! :-D Kroger has been having a Holiday Rewards program going. If you spent more than $800 in a months time you will earn a bonus of 20% off ANY shopping trip between 12/26 and 1/11/2011. So, as I scope out the sales I will get the best deals I can and then save another 20% off of that! $800 sounds like alot...but most people spend at least $200 a week at the grocery store between food, paper products, cleaning supplies, personal items, animal needs etc.
Oh...and all of this counts in the gas points as well! I recieved $324 fuel points today...combined with my other ones I can now save 40cents a gallon on a fill up in my van which I'll save till New Years when we travel to see my sister. By then I should have at least 70cents off a gallon...right when we need it! 20 gallons at 70cents off will be another $14.00 savings...all these bits add up to hundreds and thousands...over $3,000 this year alone...and I didn't start till April!
I know this is getting long, there's lots of savings to discuss and I know not everyone understands how all this works so I want to make it as clear as I can so that everyone can take advantage of the savings. :o) I want to add one more thing though which is my plan with all these savings. I budget a certain amount for food each week. Now some people would take the savings and the extra cash back and run...but not me ;) My goal is to spend as close to my budget each week and get as much food as I possibly can for that set amount. So while I'm saving hundreds a month, I'm also still spending hundreds. All this extra savings is used to stock our pantry and Food Storage pantry. I just wanted to be clear so someone who spends $200 doesn't look at my savings etc and think they could have enough food for their family and a weeks menus and stock up only spend $70 ;o)
Dia Duit my friends...Happy Savings!
Today was shop shop day...an exhausting, long, tiresome, shop shop day. I haven't slept well the last three nights and it's catching up to me, still the family insists on eating, so I must.
Kroger once again had a Mega Event sale this week. The Mega Event sale saves you an extra $5 for each 10 participating items that are on sale. For example Bumble Bee Premium Albacore Tuna in the pouch is normally $1.85 each (who pays that?!). It was on sale this week for 99cents, an 86 cent savings immediately (getting better). But then in was also in the Mega Event sale, so for each 10 that I bought I saved another 50cent off each pouch making them only 49cents a pouch (now we're talking! :-D ). I bought 30 pouches...saving a total of $40.80 just on Tuna!!! Tuna is an excellent thing for food storage as well ;)
A new thing I learned today was Krogers pricing policy. If an item is marked on sale and rings up full price you get the first item free and any others at the sale price. Well I made out quite well with that deal today! Razors were on an endcap in the pharmacy section. I had my coupon book with me as always and realized I had two $1 coupons for them and the sale was Buy 1 Get 1 Free (B1G1). There were 10 packs, but if you looked carefully there were also a few with 2 'free' razors in each pack...always look for those things! So the first two bags of razors where $6.99 a bag. I had those two coupons. So for $4.99 I got 24 of my husbands favorite razors :o) Great right? Just wait ;) There were also fancy pink "cool" razors that my oldest will enjoy getting in her Christmas stocking. They were $7.99 normally but also on sale for B1G1. Take note here that Kroger does NOT make you buy two of something to get the sale price, you can buy just one of the item for half off. So after all the shopping we get to the registers, thankfully my young friend who comes with me on shop shop days for a girls day out knew these policies and was able to tell me. So all the razors rang up full price. It seems that someone forgot to take all the signage down. So when we politely brought it to their attention the manager took care of it right away. Ready for this? Those $7.99 "cool" pink razors were FREE! And then the $6.99 razors for my husband I had bought two of...so they gave me the first one FREE and the second one at $3.49. :-D Oh yeah, I was excited!!
There was another lesson learned though...and that is...CHECK THE PRICES WHILE THEY RING UP!!! Those razors were no longer on sale...the sale had ended the 4th...FIVE days ago!! Now you just know someone bought razors in those 5 days and ended up paying the full price when they thought they were getting them B1G1 because they didn't pay attention while they were there. As soon as the manager found out and fixed ours he immediately went and pulled down all the old signage. A tough lesson for them, but a $18.47 savings for me!
Another big savings this week was on Barilla Pasta Sauces. Normally $2.99 a jar. On sale this week for $1.99...but also part of the Mega Event...so another 50cents off of each jar as long as I kept things in multiples of ten. I bought 20 jars. We love the roasted garlic. So a total of $1.49 savings per jar equaled a total savings of $29.80.
There were lots of other savings as well...but these Mega Events are such a great time to stock up on things for your normal pantry as well as your Food Storage Pantry. $60 of the savings I had today was just multiples of that $5 bonus savings. Another important factor..you do NOT need to buy 10 of the same item, although I do many times...it's every 10 participating items, mix and match as you like. While I carry my shopping list around I have my pen and make tally marks on the top to keep track of the savings...I don't want to get up there and have 29 items and miss out on $5 savings because I didn't buy an extra 49cent pouch of tuna.
And MORE savings...can you stand all this??? Still lovin it here!! :-D Kroger has been having a Holiday Rewards program going. If you spent more than $800 in a months time you will earn a bonus of 20% off ANY shopping trip between 12/26 and 1/11/2011. So, as I scope out the sales I will get the best deals I can and then save another 20% off of that! $800 sounds like alot...but most people spend at least $200 a week at the grocery store between food, paper products, cleaning supplies, personal items, animal needs etc.
Oh...and all of this counts in the gas points as well! I recieved $324 fuel points today...combined with my other ones I can now save 40cents a gallon on a fill up in my van which I'll save till New Years when we travel to see my sister. By then I should have at least 70cents off a gallon...right when we need it! 20 gallons at 70cents off will be another $14.00 savings...all these bits add up to hundreds and thousands...over $3,000 this year alone...and I didn't start till April!
I know this is getting long, there's lots of savings to discuss and I know not everyone understands how all this works so I want to make it as clear as I can so that everyone can take advantage of the savings. :o) I want to add one more thing though which is my plan with all these savings. I budget a certain amount for food each week. Now some people would take the savings and the extra cash back and run...but not me ;) My goal is to spend as close to my budget each week and get as much food as I possibly can for that set amount. So while I'm saving hundreds a month, I'm also still spending hundreds. All this extra savings is used to stock our pantry and Food Storage pantry. I just wanted to be clear so someone who spends $200 doesn't look at my savings etc and think they could have enough food for their family and a weeks menus and stock up only spend $70 ;o)
Dia Duit my friends...Happy Savings!
Monday, December 6, 2010
More Coupons!
Because I homeschool, and because I crave fellowship with other Christian women who are walking a simular road as I am, I belong to a forum online. It's a wonderful group of women and I have found some of my very best nearest and dearest friends thru there. We share lots of our lives together...and it was thru one of those sharings that a friend in PA mentioned a website where she buys her coupons.
www.lorihas3kids.com
So I went to check it out. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I've been quite happy with my first purchase and I have ordered again this past week.
She has the coupons listed by week. They are sold in sets of 20 (most of them) and are usually $1 (some of the big ticket ones I've seen for $2.50, but not many). So when you put in quantity 1, you will really be getting 20 of the same coupon. My first order I got 40 Fleishman yeast coupons that don't expire till April 2011 and 20 Sargento Cheese coupons that were save 50 cents off two packs. Kroger will of course double that so it's $1 off two packs.
This week Sargento cheese was 2/$4...subtract from that the $1 coupon for each two bags...and I paid $1.50 a bag for Sargento shredded cheese :-D We love the fancy blends they have...so I stocked up on 36 bags.
Note of warning...The Kroger register automatically stopping accepting the coupons once the first ten were used. Evidently it's a program thing. The young man had to call a CSM over to overide the other ones. She checked to make sure I had bought all 36 bags of cheese (and that I wasn't trying to use one coupon on one bag) and then ok'd the other 8 coupons. Had she not I would have had him just stop there and do a seperate order to continue my savings. But just wanted you all to know incase you run into the same thing. You may want to split up your orders between different shoppers with you, or hit several stores nearby if one is out of something you want.
The shipping with www.lorihas3kids.com is free if you go regular mail. This past order I put in on Sunday, I've already gotten an email confirmation that they have been shipped out on Monday here, and I expect them in my mailbox by Wednesday...which is perfect because Thursday is Payday and shop shop day :-D She is in FL...so depending on your location shipping times will vary.
And just a note on savings...I paid $3 for that first order of coupons. I have already saved $18 just on the Sargento cheese. Was it worth it...you betcha! :-D I'll wait till yeast goes on sale and then use my other 40 coupons there for even more savings.
Another saving tip...another way to trim a few dollars off the budget to then turn around and invest it in the Food Storage plan...I hear McDonald's in my head singing "I'm lovin it!" LOL
Dia Duit dear friends!
www.lorihas3kids.com
So I went to check it out. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I've been quite happy with my first purchase and I have ordered again this past week.
She has the coupons listed by week. They are sold in sets of 20 (most of them) and are usually $1 (some of the big ticket ones I've seen for $2.50, but not many). So when you put in quantity 1, you will really be getting 20 of the same coupon. My first order I got 40 Fleishman yeast coupons that don't expire till April 2011 and 20 Sargento Cheese coupons that were save 50 cents off two packs. Kroger will of course double that so it's $1 off two packs.
This week Sargento cheese was 2/$4...subtract from that the $1 coupon for each two bags...and I paid $1.50 a bag for Sargento shredded cheese :-D We love the fancy blends they have...so I stocked up on 36 bags.
Note of warning...The Kroger register automatically stopping accepting the coupons once the first ten were used. Evidently it's a program thing. The young man had to call a CSM over to overide the other ones. She checked to make sure I had bought all 36 bags of cheese (and that I wasn't trying to use one coupon on one bag) and then ok'd the other 8 coupons. Had she not I would have had him just stop there and do a seperate order to continue my savings. But just wanted you all to know incase you run into the same thing. You may want to split up your orders between different shoppers with you, or hit several stores nearby if one is out of something you want.
The shipping with www.lorihas3kids.com is free if you go regular mail. This past order I put in on Sunday, I've already gotten an email confirmation that they have been shipped out on Monday here, and I expect them in my mailbox by Wednesday...which is perfect because Thursday is Payday and shop shop day :-D She is in FL...so depending on your location shipping times will vary.
And just a note on savings...I paid $3 for that first order of coupons. I have already saved $18 just on the Sargento cheese. Was it worth it...you betcha! :-D I'll wait till yeast goes on sale and then use my other 40 coupons there for even more savings.
Another saving tip...another way to trim a few dollars off the budget to then turn around and invest it in the Food Storage plan...I hear McDonald's in my head singing "I'm lovin it!" LOL
Dia Duit dear friends!
Coupons Coupons Coupons!!
I am entering the world of coupons! Well not so much entering...because I have been using them...rather entering the world of mastering them, I hope ;) lol
First of all, for any that have heard me rave over The Grocery Game dot com...yes...it IS good, and it DID save me time and money....BUT....there is a new queen of my couponing world
www.couponmom.com
She has Youtube videos on her website and at Youtube itself that show you how to use her sight...how things work etc...and ...the best part?? IT'S ALL FREE!!! Oh yes...you heard me right...all of it!! All the stores...FREE! I was paying $8 every 6 weeks just for Kroger...and it was another $5 for each additional store. Had I *any* idea I would have never! Now I know better though...and I want you to all know as well!!
So last night...while reading her site and while clicking some of the links in her site to other couponing Queens...I found a post of Zhu Zhu pets and massive savings. I had NO idea what a Zhu Zhu pet was, neither did my girls (we don't get out much, but we're ok with that ;) ), but I had heard of them, and heard they were an "it" toy this year...so I read on. According to this site, with a coupon that was FREE online to print (just google ZhuZhu Pet b2g1 coupon it's thru the cvs website) and their current sale I could get Zhu Zhu pets 85% off.
I had to try it. I needed a few more stocking stuffers...and I have no problem leaving things at a register if they don't work out the way I had planned...so what did I have to lose right? I printed out two of the coupons (you will need seperate email addresses) and headed to the store. I had to go searching...there were only 9 Zhu Zhu pets left (lesson learned..GO EARLY to get the great deals!). I bought 6 of them. Each one is regularly $9.98. I bought 6 and between their B1G1 sale this week and those two coupons I got 6 Zhu Zhu pets for $10.37 including tax. Absolutely AMAZING!! :-D 85% off...of one of the "it" toys for Christmas!! At CVS!! Who would have ever thunk it?? LOL
So I'll be doing alot more couponing :) I'm debating the best way to get my coupons..I'm thinking of just getting 5 or 6 Sunday editions of the Newspaper delivered. I'm also looking at buying them online...but that is the next post ;)
Dia Duit my friends...and happy savings! If you get the Zhu Zhu pet deal let me know :-D
First of all, for any that have heard me rave over The Grocery Game dot com...yes...it IS good, and it DID save me time and money....BUT....there is a new queen of my couponing world
www.couponmom.com
She has Youtube videos on her website and at Youtube itself that show you how to use her sight...how things work etc...and ...the best part?? IT'S ALL FREE!!! Oh yes...you heard me right...all of it!! All the stores...FREE! I was paying $8 every 6 weeks just for Kroger...and it was another $5 for each additional store. Had I *any* idea I would have never! Now I know better though...and I want you to all know as well!!
So last night...while reading her site and while clicking some of the links in her site to other couponing Queens...I found a post of Zhu Zhu pets and massive savings. I had NO idea what a Zhu Zhu pet was, neither did my girls (we don't get out much, but we're ok with that ;) ), but I had heard of them, and heard they were an "it" toy this year...so I read on. According to this site, with a coupon that was FREE online to print (just google ZhuZhu Pet b2g1 coupon it's thru the cvs website) and their current sale I could get Zhu Zhu pets 85% off.
I had to try it. I needed a few more stocking stuffers...and I have no problem leaving things at a register if they don't work out the way I had planned...so what did I have to lose right? I printed out two of the coupons (you will need seperate email addresses) and headed to the store. I had to go searching...there were only 9 Zhu Zhu pets left (lesson learned..GO EARLY to get the great deals!). I bought 6 of them. Each one is regularly $9.98. I bought 6 and between their B1G1 sale this week and those two coupons I got 6 Zhu Zhu pets for $10.37 including tax. Absolutely AMAZING!! :-D 85% off...of one of the "it" toys for Christmas!! At CVS!! Who would have ever thunk it?? LOL
So I'll be doing alot more couponing :) I'm debating the best way to get my coupons..I'm thinking of just getting 5 or 6 Sunday editions of the Newspaper delivered. I'm also looking at buying them online...but that is the next post ;)
Dia Duit my friends...and happy savings! If you get the Zhu Zhu pet deal let me know :-D
Friday, August 20, 2010
More Thoughts On Saving Money
This will be more of an exhortation and encouragement than it will be practical advice...but we must challenge the way we think and the way we normally do things every now and again to be sure we have not slipped off the course we need to be taking.
The biggest hindrance I have found to saving money is peoples attitudes. Lets be real here...you could save more money if you really wanted to. I don't need to hear your excuses...trust me I have enough of my own ;o) But it is what it is...the truth.
I have known women who complained about how little money they had for this and that...but stocked up on soda and juice bags for their kids. I have known people who complain that they can't afford groceries and go and apply for food stamps...but smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and drink a case of beer a week. Seriously? They're not broke, they just have their priorities wrong.
And let me just say up front...I really don't care if you smoke, or drink, or buy soda and juice bags. I would encourage you not to smoke...it will kill you...but I smoked for a decade, I understand too. What I won't do is listen to you complain about how you have no money.
People feel entitled. I don't know why...someone lied to them I guess. And if someone else hasn't lied to them they seem to have lied to themselves. They have decided that what the "feel" about something and what they "like" somehow equals a justifiable need in their life. That's just not true!!
I cringe inwardly when I hear people say "Oh I NEED my." No they don't...almost never do they "NEED" it. They desire it, they want it, they like it, they wish they could have it...but they don't NEED it. I can hear you already too.."but I need my coffee in the morning"...no you don't. No more than I do. I drink a pot of coffee a day...but if tomorrow all coffee disappeared I wouldn't die (I can't promise anything for those around me for awhile, but that's a different story ;) ) . Coffee is not a NEED, it's just a really strong want. But the reason I cringe is because the people who really believe that...are believing a lie. A lie that says that their wants are needs. Those false needs become little false idols.
False idols and grocery shopping...when was the last time you thought of that? When was the last time you've gone thru the grocery store and thought "have I lost perspective on this item?" I can hear the voices again...I hear someone saying "but Campbell's soups are better." Yup, they may be...but is anyone going to die if you have generic soup instead of Campbell's?? No, I don't think so. But are you willing to remove that Campbell's idol and "reduce yourself" to a generic? ;o) "But I like Campbell's better!"..and my response is "SO!" If you have no money worries and you want to buy Campbell's by all means Knock Your Socks Off!! But if you need to save money you're just going to have to suck it up.
You have to be willing to do without the things the "world" tells you you need...or your kids need.
Do you know what my kids drink? Water! Imagine that...water. They get ONE very SMALL juice cup (not the supersized ones now a days) of Sunny D each morning with breakfast. This is brand new for us..I don't buy juice...it's sugar water. Sunny D was on sale for 59 cents a bottle and a single serving has 100% of their Vitamin C needs. I bought 8 bottles. That Sunny D will last a Long time by only allowing the one small serving a day. Because I have saved in so many other areas I can now do things like this and not have to worry about it.
Later that first day after the Sunny D one of the Princesses asked me if they could have more. I told her...are you ready? Brace yourself....I told her "NO". (I know, gasp!) That same Princess said "But Mama, I want Sunny D" to which I replied "too bad, you may have water." Guess what she drank...yup, water.
My girls don't have fancy snack foods. There's no chips, pretzels, candy, gummies. If they want a snack we can cut up an apple for them to share. I get two $5 bags of fruit a week. They have 5 pounds of apples and oranges in them. So $1 per pound for the fruit. If they don't want an apple or an orange...well, too bad, they can wait till the next meal. No one is starving around here.
Do you see where I'm going with this? I could go on and on, and perhaps I already have. But it amazes me to see mothers in the grocery aisles piling their carts high with junk they don't need and then cringing as they get their bill. I imagine the burden of credit they're probably under, the stress they seem to ooze. And I feel sorry for them. I wish they could see how crazy it is.
We need to change the way we think. We need to do our best to feed our families healthy food in reasonable serving sizes. But we need to keep some perspective too. Food is fuel...it is something to keep us alive. It's not much more than that. It's not just about what it tastes like and what it feels like. It's not even about what we like...everything you eat doesn't have to be something you love. To put things in perspective lets remember that thousands of people starved to death in this world...TODAY. Do you think they would eat a generic? Do you think they would care if it was something they didn't really like? If it wasn't their favorite?
Our food supply is not nearly as secure as people would like to think it is. Our world isn't as secure as we'd like to think it is. We need to realize that things may not always be the way they are now. We may not be able to run to Kroger and get whatever we want whenever we want it. We may not be able to get all the exotic and out of season goodies we've all come to just assume will be there. We may not be able to afford all the things we think we "need."
I want you to think about something...according to the USDA reports we spent just under 10% of our disposable income on food in 2007. In the 1940's and 50's it was over 20%. People in other countries spend up to 55% of their income on food. Imagine next time you go shopping if you could only had HALF of the money you do to feed your family. What would you be buying then? Can you save money now? If you had to? Can you save the money and then use it to stock a pantry...yes you can...and I hope you really consider doing that. Think as you go thru the store. Challenge your ingrained thoughts.
You can save money...but you have to be willing to think differently than you have before and differently than your friends and family. You might have people snicker at you. You WILL get crazy looks in the store when you have 60 bags of veggies, 50 boxes of noodles and 50 jars of spaghetti sauce ;o) But you WILL save money, and you WILL have a stocked pantry. But it all must start with a change in attitude and by putting things back into their proper perspective.
Dia Duit my friends. Not a light and fluffy post, but sometimes we need to be more than light and fluffy.
The biggest hindrance I have found to saving money is peoples attitudes. Lets be real here...you could save more money if you really wanted to. I don't need to hear your excuses...trust me I have enough of my own ;o) But it is what it is...the truth.
I have known women who complained about how little money they had for this and that...but stocked up on soda and juice bags for their kids. I have known people who complain that they can't afford groceries and go and apply for food stamps...but smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and drink a case of beer a week. Seriously? They're not broke, they just have their priorities wrong.
And let me just say up front...I really don't care if you smoke, or drink, or buy soda and juice bags. I would encourage you not to smoke...it will kill you...but I smoked for a decade, I understand too. What I won't do is listen to you complain about how you have no money.
People feel entitled. I don't know why...someone lied to them I guess. And if someone else hasn't lied to them they seem to have lied to themselves. They have decided that what the "feel" about something and what they "like" somehow equals a justifiable need in their life. That's just not true!!
I cringe inwardly when I hear people say "Oh I NEED my
False idols and grocery shopping...when was the last time you thought of that? When was the last time you've gone thru the grocery store and thought "have I lost perspective on this item?" I can hear the voices again...I hear someone saying "but Campbell's soups are better." Yup, they may be...but is anyone going to die if you have generic soup instead of Campbell's?? No, I don't think so. But are you willing to remove that Campbell's idol and "reduce yourself" to a generic? ;o) "But I like Campbell's better!"..and my response is "SO!" If you have no money worries and you want to buy Campbell's by all means Knock Your Socks Off!! But if you need to save money you're just going to have to suck it up.
You have to be willing to do without the things the "world" tells you you need...or your kids need.
Do you know what my kids drink? Water! Imagine that...water. They get ONE very SMALL juice cup (not the supersized ones now a days) of Sunny D each morning with breakfast. This is brand new for us..I don't buy juice...it's sugar water. Sunny D was on sale for 59 cents a bottle and a single serving has 100% of their Vitamin C needs. I bought 8 bottles. That Sunny D will last a Long time by only allowing the one small serving a day. Because I have saved in so many other areas I can now do things like this and not have to worry about it.
Later that first day after the Sunny D one of the Princesses asked me if they could have more. I told her...are you ready? Brace yourself....I told her "NO". (I know, gasp!) That same Princess said "But Mama, I want Sunny D" to which I replied "too bad, you may have water." Guess what she drank...yup, water.
My girls don't have fancy snack foods. There's no chips, pretzels, candy, gummies. If they want a snack we can cut up an apple for them to share. I get two $5 bags of fruit a week. They have 5 pounds of apples and oranges in them. So $1 per pound for the fruit. If they don't want an apple or an orange...well, too bad, they can wait till the next meal. No one is starving around here.
Do you see where I'm going with this? I could go on and on, and perhaps I already have. But it amazes me to see mothers in the grocery aisles piling their carts high with junk they don't need and then cringing as they get their bill. I imagine the burden of credit they're probably under, the stress they seem to ooze. And I feel sorry for them. I wish they could see how crazy it is.
We need to change the way we think. We need to do our best to feed our families healthy food in reasonable serving sizes. But we need to keep some perspective too. Food is fuel...it is something to keep us alive. It's not much more than that. It's not just about what it tastes like and what it feels like. It's not even about what we like...everything you eat doesn't have to be something you love. To put things in perspective lets remember that thousands of people starved to death in this world...TODAY. Do you think they would eat a generic? Do you think they would care if it was something they didn't really like? If it wasn't their favorite?
Our food supply is not nearly as secure as people would like to think it is. Our world isn't as secure as we'd like to think it is. We need to realize that things may not always be the way they are now. We may not be able to run to Kroger and get whatever we want whenever we want it. We may not be able to get all the exotic and out of season goodies we've all come to just assume will be there. We may not be able to afford all the things we think we "need."
I want you to think about something...according to the USDA reports we spent just under 10% of our disposable income on food in 2007. In the 1940's and 50's it was over 20%. People in other countries spend up to 55% of their income on food. Imagine next time you go shopping if you could only had HALF of the money you do to feed your family. What would you be buying then? Can you save money now? If you had to? Can you save the money and then use it to stock a pantry...yes you can...and I hope you really consider doing that. Think as you go thru the store. Challenge your ingrained thoughts.
You can save money...but you have to be willing to think differently than you have before and differently than your friends and family. You might have people snicker at you. You WILL get crazy looks in the store when you have 60 bags of veggies, 50 boxes of noodles and 50 jars of spaghetti sauce ;o) But you WILL save money, and you WILL have a stocked pantry. But it all must start with a change in attitude and by putting things back into their proper perspective.
Dia Duit my friends. Not a light and fluffy post, but sometimes we need to be more than light and fluffy.
Saving Money With Dehydrating
Dia Duit my friends! I'm on a roll today ;o)
First let me repeat my previous post...DO NOT waste your money on a cheap dehydrator. The money you spend on Excalibur will be well worth it!
How do I save money with Excalibur?
Well...in several ways. The biggest way is by buying things on sale and then dehydrating them for long term storage. We have a chest freezer...but there's only so much that can be fit in there. I'm also always worried about losing electricity and losing all of my food to spoilage. Another consideration is the cost of electricity and the possibility that we may not always have the current supply that we do now. Already places in the US have rolling blackouts and brownouts. As the worlds population increases along with our love of all things that suck up power it only stands to reason that rates will go up as demand goes up. Personally we have seen our budgeted monthly bill more than double in the 4 years we have lived here. Our usage has only gone up a very little bit...it's just been rate increase after rate increase, after rate increase...up to three of them in ONE year!
So how does this practically look for me?
First of all frozen veggies are cheaper than canned veggies when you work out how much actual vegetable you get. Cans are full of liquid. Even if a can of peas was 88 cent...the same bag of frozen peas for 88 cent would give me almost twice as much. So just knowing what to buy helps me save money. I love canned veggies, I'm the queen of last minute planning...but I pay for the ease of being able to pop it open and have it ready.
So Krogers frozen veggies are usually $1.39-$1.69 depending on what it is. That is for a 12 oz bag. I won't go into my tirade of them putting 12 oz in instead of the 16oz it used to be ;o) No sense fussing what I can not change. Several times a year Kroger puts their frozen veggies on sale for 88 cent a bag. That is an automatic savings of up to 81 cent a bag.
If I were a "normal" person I may buy at the most 5 bags...saving just over $4 and that's it. But I'm not normal ;o) The last time they were on sale I bought 60 bags of veggies! For a savings of...drum roll please...$48.60!!! Now we're talking!! But what on earth am I going to do with all those bags of veggies? I'm going to dehydrate them!!
The Excalibur has 9 shelves in it. I can usually get at least TEN bags of veggies in there at a time. So I only need to temporarily store 50 bags, and I do that in the chest freezer. I immediately start dehydrating things. There is nothing special you have to do...just slice the bag open, poor on the screen, spread them out in an even layer, and call it done! The only vegetable that I have found to be a bit of a pain is french style cut greenbeans...they just get so thin that they'll slide thru the screens and I lose alot of its and bits. Regular and Italian cut greenbeans work great though.
Some things that are very small to begin with get much smaller with dehydrating. I buy alot of the frozen diced onions and green peppers because they make my life easier...I would put down a gallon ziploc bag...tape down the edges with duct tape...and then dry those on the bag so that I don't lose them all when they shrink.
When the veggies are done drying I store them in recycled spaghetti sauce jars, pickle jars, apple sauce jars...if it's a glass jar with a lid I reuse it :o) Later when I have a bigger stash I'll vacuum seal more...but that will be another post.
Another way to save with Dehydrating is on fresh produce.
This week organic celery was $1 a bunch. I wish I had had more extra in my budget...I would have bought them out, but as it was I bought 6 bunches. If you were to buy that much celery and store it in your fridge it would go bad before you ate it....Not so with Dehydrating! :-D I come home and get the meat slicer down, slice up the celery in a matter of minutes...put it in Excalibur...and now I have dehydrated celery for all my cooking...already sliced and ready to go :-D How easy is that??? Oh, by the way...I saved $16.14 with just that.
Buy things when they are in season and dehydrate them so you have them once the season is over and the prices have doubled again.
Another great savings is by not wasting leftovers.
I made cabbage rolls not long ago...but I only needed the nice big outside leaves. Normally the rest of that cabbage would have gone to waste. Not anymore :-D I sliced it up on that wonderful meat slicer...blanched it for one minute...and dehydrated the rest. It is now waiting in my pantry in a ziploc bag for a soup or stew this fall when I will be able to throw it in for added goodness.
By dehydrating I can grab exactly what I need...and not more. Sometimes I don't need a whole bag of corn...now I can just grab a half cup of dehydrated corn and there's no worries and no waste.
There are many other ways to save with Dehydrating...I couldn't possibly exhaust them all here. But this gives you a start and are my biggest savers right now. I'll be back with more another day :-D
Dia Duit my friends!
First let me repeat my previous post...DO NOT waste your money on a cheap dehydrator. The money you spend on Excalibur will be well worth it!
How do I save money with Excalibur?
Well...in several ways. The biggest way is by buying things on sale and then dehydrating them for long term storage. We have a chest freezer...but there's only so much that can be fit in there. I'm also always worried about losing electricity and losing all of my food to spoilage. Another consideration is the cost of electricity and the possibility that we may not always have the current supply that we do now. Already places in the US have rolling blackouts and brownouts. As the worlds population increases along with our love of all things that suck up power it only stands to reason that rates will go up as demand goes up. Personally we have seen our budgeted monthly bill more than double in the 4 years we have lived here. Our usage has only gone up a very little bit...it's just been rate increase after rate increase, after rate increase...up to three of them in ONE year!
So how does this practically look for me?
First of all frozen veggies are cheaper than canned veggies when you work out how much actual vegetable you get. Cans are full of liquid. Even if a can of peas was 88 cent...the same bag of frozen peas for 88 cent would give me almost twice as much. So just knowing what to buy helps me save money. I love canned veggies, I'm the queen of last minute planning...but I pay for the ease of being able to pop it open and have it ready.
So Krogers frozen veggies are usually $1.39-$1.69 depending on what it is. That is for a 12 oz bag. I won't go into my tirade of them putting 12 oz in instead of the 16oz it used to be ;o) No sense fussing what I can not change. Several times a year Kroger puts their frozen veggies on sale for 88 cent a bag. That is an automatic savings of up to 81 cent a bag.
If I were a "normal" person I may buy at the most 5 bags...saving just over $4 and that's it. But I'm not normal ;o) The last time they were on sale I bought 60 bags of veggies! For a savings of...drum roll please...$48.60!!! Now we're talking!! But what on earth am I going to do with all those bags of veggies? I'm going to dehydrate them!!
The Excalibur has 9 shelves in it. I can usually get at least TEN bags of veggies in there at a time. So I only need to temporarily store 50 bags, and I do that in the chest freezer. I immediately start dehydrating things. There is nothing special you have to do...just slice the bag open, poor on the screen, spread them out in an even layer, and call it done! The only vegetable that I have found to be a bit of a pain is french style cut greenbeans...they just get so thin that they'll slide thru the screens and I lose alot of its and bits. Regular and Italian cut greenbeans work great though.
Some things that are very small to begin with get much smaller with dehydrating. I buy alot of the frozen diced onions and green peppers because they make my life easier...I would put down a gallon ziploc bag...tape down the edges with duct tape...and then dry those on the bag so that I don't lose them all when they shrink.
When the veggies are done drying I store them in recycled spaghetti sauce jars, pickle jars, apple sauce jars...if it's a glass jar with a lid I reuse it :o) Later when I have a bigger stash I'll vacuum seal more...but that will be another post.
Another way to save with Dehydrating is on fresh produce.
This week organic celery was $1 a bunch. I wish I had had more extra in my budget...I would have bought them out, but as it was I bought 6 bunches. If you were to buy that much celery and store it in your fridge it would go bad before you ate it....Not so with Dehydrating! :-D I come home and get the meat slicer down, slice up the celery in a matter of minutes...put it in Excalibur...and now I have dehydrated celery for all my cooking...already sliced and ready to go :-D How easy is that??? Oh, by the way...I saved $16.14 with just that.
Buy things when they are in season and dehydrate them so you have them once the season is over and the prices have doubled again.
Another great savings is by not wasting leftovers.
I made cabbage rolls not long ago...but I only needed the nice big outside leaves. Normally the rest of that cabbage would have gone to waste. Not anymore :-D I sliced it up on that wonderful meat slicer...blanched it for one minute...and dehydrated the rest. It is now waiting in my pantry in a ziploc bag for a soup or stew this fall when I will be able to throw it in for added goodness.
By dehydrating I can grab exactly what I need...and not more. Sometimes I don't need a whole bag of corn...now I can just grab a half cup of dehydrated corn and there's no worries and no waste.
There are many other ways to save with Dehydrating...I couldn't possibly exhaust them all here. But this gives you a start and are my biggest savers right now. I'll be back with more another day :-D
Dia Duit my friends!
You Need to Spend Money to Save Money
This goes against my grain too, but I am seeing the truth of it all the time.
There are several things that will make saving money on groceries and stocking a pantry MUCH easier. I have learned about all of these within the last year...and they have changed my life!! I am so thankful for those who first shared about them!!
The first is DEHYDRATING. Dehydrating to me was something that was done to beef jerky, and that was it. Boy was I wrong!! The best information I have found on dehydrating is at http://www.dehydrate2store.com . She has all sorts of videos, recipes etc. She made something that was unknown to me before not only understandable...but gave me the courage to try it. I've written before about my dehydrating and how to get the cheaper Excalibur Dehydrator...check my other post. But that $200 is going to save you TONS of money!! And it has a ten year warranty, how can you go wrong???
The second is a Professional Meat Slicer. When you watch the videos at Dehydrat2Store you will see her using the meat slicer. It takes the tedious job and makes it SOOOO much easier. There are things that I could never slice thin enough by hand. And there is NO way I could process as much food as I do without it. I consider it an absolute necessity along with the Excalibur...to the point that when each of our Princesses become a Queen these two things are the gifts we will be getting them. The best price I found was on HSN.com. It was $99 and came with an extra blade.
The third is a Sunday Subscription to your Newspaper for Coupons. The Sunday paper here costs $1.75 a week and it doesn't cost any extra to have it delivered...this way you can't forget to pick them up ;o)
Those three are musts...this next one is not, but if your time is limited it is WELL worth the money.
The fourth is to join http://thegrocerygame.com . I only do one store, Kroger, and it is $8 every 6 weeks. The grocery game does not have stores in all areas, so be sure to check your area. They also have a 4 week free trial. Do yourself a favor and wait until you have a months worth of coupons first. I signed right up and then watched for the first month at all the good deals I could have gotten...if I had had the coupons, which I didn't...it was frustrating. After you have a start on your coupons though The Grocery Game does the all the leg work and figuring for you. It has the sales for my area that week and matches that to the coupons that were in the paper. It also tracks the price trends at the store so I know when to use my coupon for the greatest savings. Honestly there is NO WAY I could have all that info, even if I had the ability I don't have anywhere near that much time....and hence the reason it is well worth the money.
Let me give you a quick example. I didn't need deodorant...it wasn't on my list, so I never would have thought to look for the sales and coupons to match it up. But then I go to my Grocery Game list and see that not only is deodorant is on sale for .88 (a great deal as it is) but that I have a 50 cent coupon from three weeks ago. Kroger doubles coupons up to and including 50 cent. So how much did I pay for that deodorant? NOTHING!! It was completely FREE! I do love free!! :-D I have at least six things of free deodorant stored right now.
There may be a few other things that would make it easier to save money...but these are the basics that I have invested in and have found them to be incredibly helpful and well worth the money. If you don't have the $300 for Excalibur and the meat slicer right away then start with the coupons and the grocery game. Take the money you save and set it aside for those things...I bet you have it in no time!! :-D
Dia Duit, my friends!
There are several things that will make saving money on groceries and stocking a pantry MUCH easier. I have learned about all of these within the last year...and they have changed my life!! I am so thankful for those who first shared about them!!
The first is DEHYDRATING. Dehydrating to me was something that was done to beef jerky, and that was it. Boy was I wrong!! The best information I have found on dehydrating is at http://www.dehydrate2store.com . She has all sorts of videos, recipes etc. She made something that was unknown to me before not only understandable...but gave me the courage to try it. I've written before about my dehydrating and how to get the cheaper Excalibur Dehydrator...check my other post. But that $200 is going to save you TONS of money!! And it has a ten year warranty, how can you go wrong???
The second is a Professional Meat Slicer. When you watch the videos at Dehydrat2Store you will see her using the meat slicer. It takes the tedious job and makes it SOOOO much easier. There are things that I could never slice thin enough by hand. And there is NO way I could process as much food as I do without it. I consider it an absolute necessity along with the Excalibur...to the point that when each of our Princesses become a Queen these two things are the gifts we will be getting them. The best price I found was on HSN.com. It was $99 and came with an extra blade.
The third is a Sunday Subscription to your Newspaper for Coupons. The Sunday paper here costs $1.75 a week and it doesn't cost any extra to have it delivered...this way you can't forget to pick them up ;o)
Those three are musts...this next one is not, but if your time is limited it is WELL worth the money.
The fourth is to join http://thegrocerygame.com . I only do one store, Kroger, and it is $8 every 6 weeks. The grocery game does not have stores in all areas, so be sure to check your area. They also have a 4 week free trial. Do yourself a favor and wait until you have a months worth of coupons first. I signed right up and then watched for the first month at all the good deals I could have gotten...if I had had the coupons, which I didn't...it was frustrating. After you have a start on your coupons though The Grocery Game does the all the leg work and figuring for you. It has the sales for my area that week and matches that to the coupons that were in the paper. It also tracks the price trends at the store so I know when to use my coupon for the greatest savings. Honestly there is NO WAY I could have all that info, even if I had the ability I don't have anywhere near that much time....and hence the reason it is well worth the money.
Let me give you a quick example. I didn't need deodorant...it wasn't on my list, so I never would have thought to look for the sales and coupons to match it up. But then I go to my Grocery Game list and see that not only is deodorant is on sale for .88 (a great deal as it is) but that I have a 50 cent coupon from three weeks ago. Kroger doubles coupons up to and including 50 cent. So how much did I pay for that deodorant? NOTHING!! It was completely FREE! I do love free!! :-D I have at least six things of free deodorant stored right now.
There may be a few other things that would make it easier to save money...but these are the basics that I have invested in and have found them to be incredibly helpful and well worth the money. If you don't have the $300 for Excalibur and the meat slicer right away then start with the coupons and the grocery game. Take the money you save and set it aside for those things...I bet you have it in no time!! :-D
Dia Duit, my friends!
Saving Money Makes Me Happy
I promised a post on saving money...so lets see if I can share something that may help others. :o)
First let me say I have always been cheap, frugal if you'd like. It's built into the DNA of my family...I got it from my father, who got it from his...and I suspect it goes all the way back over to Ireland lol. It has gone past the point of necessity to a point of principle. It just feels wrong to pay more for something than I need to. But it's not only something that makes me feel better...I feel it is my responsibility, to God, and to my Darling who works so hard for the dollars we have.
Many of our bills are fixed...I pay the same thing for our cell phone bill each month. Now a truly frugal person could argue that cell phones aren't a necessity...and I agree...but pain meds for surgery aren't a necessity either, they used to do it with a shot of whiskey...there are some things that there is just no need to go back to ;o) We have evolved past that point.
I can't do much about those bills, so one of the only places I can cut back is my grocery budget. For alot of years I just found ways to cut back the actual total. I don't buy junk. There are no chips in my house other than some tortia chips for Mexican soup later this week. There is no soda, cookies, crackers (other than plain saltines), gummies, candy, boxes of cereal, fruit cups, etc...it's just not an option. I have four Princesses...they know to not even ask...I don't get pestered going thru the store. I planned my meals for the week, then bought what I needed to make them. I don't make fancy meals...we don't eat steaks and shrimp. I bought from the sales if it worked with my menu.
But over the last few years prices have just gone up and up and UP. As much as I cut back on the groceries it just never seemed to get me quite as much as it had before. Ontop of that many people have had their salaries reduced. Thanks be to God that we have not had to deal with that. What we did have though is our fourth Princess. :o) So an adjustment was needed once again. It was easy the first year when she was nursing, that doesn't cost anything. She's now almost two and eats as much as her older sisters! lol I hear stories of kids who have half a sannie for lunch...NOT HERE!! lol So I started pouring over the internet searching for ways to save money.
During this same time God started speaking to me about stocking a pantry and having a large food supply on hand. As tough as things have become, I believe that our country is in for a much rougher road ahead. I don't think we're all going to be holed up in shelters etc...but I do think inflation is coming...in a BIG way. Having a stocked pantry and a large supply of stocked food is an excellent way to help hedge against Hyper Inflation. What has amazed me is that as I talk to women from all different walks of life and all over the country they are telling me the same thing!! God has been speaking to them about this same exact thing...but none of us has/had any idea how or where to start.
WWW to the rescue!! :o) As I said, I've been pouring thru the WWW in search of info. And I've found tons of it!! Not all sites are helpful, some talk about it, but never give you any actual practical advice. Others offer tips that just aren't feasible. What I hope to do is write a series of posts and split them up so that it isn't one long book, and so that we can come back to any specific areas more easily. PLEASE leave comments and share any tips you have as well!!
Dia Duit!
First let me say I have always been cheap, frugal if you'd like. It's built into the DNA of my family...I got it from my father, who got it from his...and I suspect it goes all the way back over to Ireland lol. It has gone past the point of necessity to a point of principle. It just feels wrong to pay more for something than I need to. But it's not only something that makes me feel better...I feel it is my responsibility, to God, and to my Darling who works so hard for the dollars we have.
Many of our bills are fixed...I pay the same thing for our cell phone bill each month. Now a truly frugal person could argue that cell phones aren't a necessity...and I agree...but pain meds for surgery aren't a necessity either, they used to do it with a shot of whiskey...there are some things that there is just no need to go back to ;o) We have evolved past that point.
I can't do much about those bills, so one of the only places I can cut back is my grocery budget. For alot of years I just found ways to cut back the actual total. I don't buy junk. There are no chips in my house other than some tortia chips for Mexican soup later this week. There is no soda, cookies, crackers (other than plain saltines), gummies, candy, boxes of cereal, fruit cups, etc...it's just not an option. I have four Princesses...they know to not even ask...I don't get pestered going thru the store. I planned my meals for the week, then bought what I needed to make them. I don't make fancy meals...we don't eat steaks and shrimp. I bought from the sales if it worked with my menu.
But over the last few years prices have just gone up and up and UP. As much as I cut back on the groceries it just never seemed to get me quite as much as it had before. Ontop of that many people have had their salaries reduced. Thanks be to God that we have not had to deal with that. What we did have though is our fourth Princess. :o) So an adjustment was needed once again. It was easy the first year when she was nursing, that doesn't cost anything. She's now almost two and eats as much as her older sisters! lol I hear stories of kids who have half a sannie for lunch...NOT HERE!! lol So I started pouring over the internet searching for ways to save money.
During this same time God started speaking to me about stocking a pantry and having a large food supply on hand. As tough as things have become, I believe that our country is in for a much rougher road ahead. I don't think we're all going to be holed up in shelters etc...but I do think inflation is coming...in a BIG way. Having a stocked pantry and a large supply of stocked food is an excellent way to help hedge against Hyper Inflation. What has amazed me is that as I talk to women from all different walks of life and all over the country they are telling me the same thing!! God has been speaking to them about this same exact thing...but none of us has/had any idea how or where to start.
WWW to the rescue!! :o) As I said, I've been pouring thru the WWW in search of info. And I've found tons of it!! Not all sites are helpful, some talk about it, but never give you any actual practical advice. Others offer tips that just aren't feasible. What I hope to do is write a series of posts and split them up so that it isn't one long book, and so that we can come back to any specific areas more easily. PLEASE leave comments and share any tips you have as well!!
Dia Duit!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Dehydrating- A New Old Favorite
One of my favorite new techniques that I have learned...that has just changed my life in the kitchen, and saved me a ton of money already...is Dehydrating. I started hearing a few people I know online talk about it, I did a little reading, and then someone mentioned their favorite website for dehydrating. http://www.dehydrate2store.com/ I can't say enough good things about her website and I hope you go and visit it!! (I don't get paid for my endorsements ;) They are just sites that have made my life better...and I want to share them with you!) You can also search Dehydrate2store on Youtube and find a bunch of her videos.I didn't have alot of money to start with (which is nothing new)...so I headed to Walmart and bought the one and only dehydrator they had. DO NOT DO THAT!!! It's a waste of money!! The dehydrator the woman uses in the videos is an Excalibur. They're a bit expensive...I'm not going to lie to you...but you CAN save while getting one. If you go to their website here http://http//www.excaliburdehydrator.com/3900-R-Excalibur-with-10-Year-Warranty-184-37-regular-prod.htm You will see the one that I bought. Yes it's refurbished...but it also has a TEN YEAR warrenty and is $100 cheaper!! I saved pennies for a bit and cut back on my grocery budget till I could afford it. It's one of the best purchases I ever made! The difference between this and the el cheapo at Walmart is night and day!!
I thought I'd show you what I dehydrated so far this week. Kroger has their frozen veggies on sale for 88 cents a bag...so time to stock up.
This is my meat slicer...which cuts a whole lot more than meat...more on this in another blog another day. I made chicken chow mein in the crockpot last week and needed celery. We don't eat a great deal of celery unless it's cooked into something. I bought two bunches of celery that week at the store and then sliced up what I didn't need to dehydrate. This is how I save money!!! No wasting food or having things go bad in the fridge...well not as much anyway ;o) lol.
In this picture, in the jar on the very left you will see both bunches of celery dehydrated. The small jar in front has two bags of frozen cauliflower. The jar behind that has FIVE bags of frozen peas and carrots in it. My big jar is a little empty right now...I need to get more corn dehydrated...but that is still at least three bags of it. In the jar laying down is two bags of brocolli and cauliflower mix. In the jar to the right of the corn you will see FIVE bags of french style greenbeans. On the very right is one bag of crinkle cut carrots. The ziploc bag in front is dehydrated cabbage...just waiting for soups and stews this winter. That also was a savings...I had made stuffed cabbage and that was some of the left over cabbage.
What do I do with all these weird dried up foods? Well most of them I stick in the crockpot :o) Let me show you...
This is what I start with...this is a 2 quart crockpot that I got on sale Black Friday at Walmart...I need a few more!
This is two cups of regular cut green beans. To this I add 5 cups of water. After one hour of cooking this is what it looks like...
Still a little funny looking...but after four hours on high this is what's for dinner...
Amazing isn't it??? It still excites me every time to see it come back to life! lol I have not rehydrated anything that wasn't as good as what it would have been had I made it fresh...or frozen as the case may be. I plan on doing quite a few blogs about my dehydrating adventures. There are SO many possitives to it that I can't help but share. The dehdrated foods take up sooooooo much less space. They can be stored anywhere, leaving room in my freezer for meats I buy when they're on sale. They last must longer...frozen foods last about one year...these same frozen foods that are now dehydrated can now last years!! And it doesn't cost me anything to store these for all those years!! It's a win win win win win in every way :o) Certainly one of the best things that has changed my life for the better in the kitchen!
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