Meal Planning!!!?????!!!

I don't do meal planning. At least not in the sense that most people do. I don't make out a little chart every week that states what we will be having for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. I don't think it is a bad thing to do that. I wish I could do that. I think that people who are able to have that in their lives our truly blessed :o) My palette, however, will not let me do that. I have tried. Oh, I have tried many times to type out that weekly menu so pretty on my computer and then print it out and then displayed it proudly upon my fridge. Do you know what happened? No? My palette would see what was for dinner that night and so, "nope, my dear, that does not sound good to me and I don't want to experience that flavor tonight". I had to listen to it. So I would end up making something else and then my weekly menu would be all washed out. It was a sad thing but I have now learned to cope with it.


I no longer make a weekly plan. Instead I make "Le Menu". It looks something like this:

All this is is a list of all the meals I have already prepared in the freezer or I have all the stuff to make it from scratch. This way, every morning I just look at the "Le Menu" see what my palette is thinking and we decide on that night's dinner then. After I prepare the meal I simple cross it off from my list so I know it is no longer available.

I usually have lunches and breakfasts listed on there as well so I don't have to think about what we have for them either.

This idea has worked well for me and my family. If you are struggling with getting a weekly menu on the fridge give this a try and see if it works for you :o)

Happy Cooking!~Caroline

Selling Avon

Clipping coupons and shopping frugally is not the only way I save money around here. Ten years ago, right after I had Gillian, I started selling Avon. Originally it just gave me something to do. My mother-in-law bought a lot of Avon and told me that if I started selling it she would buy from me. Seemed pretty easy, so I signed up thinking that she would be my only customer and I would just get a nice discount.

Ten years later.....I never made Avon out to be a "business". My primary job in life is to be a wife and a mother and everything else is just extracurricular. All of my customers are either family or friends. People that I see on a normal basis so that I don't have to spend much time delivering my orders. I have about 5 regular customers and 5 who order occasionally. But that is all that I need to pay for the things that I order from Avon. See how that works?

I spend and average of 1 hour a month putting my orders together and getting the product in my customers' hands. That then allows me to buy all of my makeup, cleansers, lotions, and more at a cost of $0.

I am not on a sales pitch here whatsoever, folks. All I am saying is that there are many other opportunities out there to be frugal and to save your family money and they don't take a chunk of your time either. Of course, before you go signing up for anything, make sure that you and your hubby discuss it and that it would benefit your family.

Happy Frugalitarianism :o)
~Caroline

(one of my customers and she's also my sister!)

Emptying my Freezer

One thing that has been a huge blessing over the past month is the food in my freezer! After a day of unpacking boxes, putting things in drawers, taking things out of drawers and then putting them back in another drawer and so on, the last thing I want to do is cook.

Today was one of those days and tonight was one of those nights. As I was contemplated taco smell (that's what it is called in our house) I decided to scour the freezer in hopes of being able to pull something together. We ended up having Kobe beef sliders (if you don't know what Kobe beef is or what a slider is let me know and I will fill you in on the wonderfulness of them) and tater tots. taco smell would have cost us a mere $7 (I only have 2 kids and i of them eats less than a mouse and we rarely buy drinks at restaurants so that's why it would be so cheap) but what we ended up eating was so much more delicious and it cost us nothing!

Other ideas I came up with while going through the freezer:
~Breakfast-eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy (I always keep bacon and biscuits in the freezer)
~Canned soup (I stock up on canned soup when I can get the good brand for $0.50 or less) and grilled cheese (we only had 4 slices of cheese left and my freezer stash of cheese is out, so this would not have been great but would have worked)
~Oriental Salad with breaded chicken strips on top. (I usually have samples of chicken strips in my freezer from hubby's work)

So save your family from taco smell or smelling like tacos and go raid your freezer!
Happy food hunting!
~Caroline

Painting on the Cheap

Paint!?!? It can brighten a room while draining your budget :o)
Yes, I know that they say that a coat of paint is the cheapest and easiest way to add "pizazz" to a room. (Do they really say that?). But when your budget is $0 even color has to go on the back burner. So what is a girl to do? What is this girl to do, who has been dying to put some color on her walls since she moved into her first rental some 9 years ago? All I want is some color in my life people, that's it just a little cheeriness and at this point I don't care what color it is I just want COLOR! UGH! Sorry for the momentary lapse of insanity. I am back now.

For starters, I have many people offer me paint. Seriously. It has been fun. Our old neighbor (no she is not actually old, we just live in a new house now and have new neighbors so all the neighbors at our old house are now our old neighbors) offered me four different colors of paint that she had used in her girls' room. The colors were perfect. We had 2 shades of pink and 2 shades of lavender. None of the colors had a full gallon. So we had to figure out how to make it all work and get all the walls covered. Here is how we did it:
The closet (which you cannot see) was painted the darkest shade of pink. Most of the wall was painted in the other shade of pink (as you can see above). There was less than a half gallon of the darker shade of lavender and almost a whole gallon of the lighter shade. The problem was the lighter shade was really light and I wanted something darker. So I mixed the two shade together and came up with the color you see above for the ceiling and the top part of the wall! When money permits we will get a pretty white molding to put up on the line between the colors. I was so happy with the way it turned out! Painting the girls' room= $0. Thanks Raquel!!!!! You rock!!!!!

Another way we have been able to buy some color is to hit up the "oops" paints at our local "man stores" (H*ome Dep*t/ L*we's, and even w*llym*art).
I found this can of paint last summer (when we thought we were moving into a different house) and will use it to paint all of the bathroom cabinets. It's a dark grey color. Bathroom Cabinets= $6.

I needed to paint the inside of our closet with a good semi-gloss before we moved all of clothes into it. I headed off to w*llym*rt to pay full price (shocking I know) for a gallon of white semi-gloss. When I go there I noticed their section of "oops" paints and started in on them. To my surprise they had a can of almost white semi-gloss paint right there for only $6! I use the whole gallon to paint the master bedroom closet and all of the hall closets (we have 4 of them).

I had hopes to have enough of the almost white paint left to paint the laundry room but I did not. I was a bit sad but that sadness to turned to happiness when I decided I could paint it red! Finally a red room! Some GOOD color! Thank you Lord!

Off to the above mentioned place again to get me some red paint. Again, planning on paying full price. Have I told you how much I hate paying full price? I, of course, decided to devour through the "oops" paint once again knowing that they would not have my shade of red in there. Well, can I just shout, GOD IS GOOD!!!!! There was my red paint. In my perfect shade! At that moment life just could not have got any better. Well, it could have if someone would have offered to come and paint the laundry room for me right then and there for free :o) But I am a realist and life was plenty good at that moment just the way it was

Laundry room= $6. I already had all of the turquoise buckets from the old house. I am going for the Greek isle look in here. Like in Mama Mia. Oh I so do love that movie! Please, no judging here people. We are all entitled to our own opinions :o) I am going to trim the shelf with ribbon as soon as I find just what I want. So fun!

I also have another friend who has offered me a gallon of paint that she has lying around. I plan on using that one for the office. I also go and check the "oops" sections every time I am at the "man store" (this is what my kids call it) just knowing that one day I find the colors for my front room, kitchen, hallway, and bathrooms!

Happy Painting!

~Caroline

Wallym*art

You all know the place I am talking about, right? Wally*mart. Well, like many people I know who live around the same area that I do, I do not like to go to this place. It literally makes me grumpy even thinking about having to go there. But we all have to admit they have some good deals on stuff. I especially like their cheap kids clothes.
Well, I just got onto their website (it's "the store's name" dot com) and I could not believe the sale they were having. $2.00 dresses and shirts and more. And the shipping is very low. And if you decide you actually want to go to the store, they will deliver your order there for $0 shipping! I think I would rather pay $4 or $5 for shipping than go to the store :o)

(Me and my sister. She has started doing coupon deals with me and we are having so much fun!)

Frugal Tip

Did you know that you really don't need a whole dryer sheet for every load?

I cut mine in halves or in thirds (depending on the size of the load) and still get that fluffy softness while saving moola!

Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Part 4

There are many others way to be frugal other than using coupons every time you go shopping or only buying things when they are on sale or making everything from scratch because it is cheaper. Yes, those are all great ways to be frugal but I believe that true frugal living starts in your heart with being content with what you have and making the most out of what God has blessed you with.

I frequent a blog called “Like Merchant Ships”, the author, Meredith, focuses on cheerful frugality. She also posts at Frugal Hacks on Cheerful Frugality. In one post she tackles some comments that were left by her readers who were telling her that it is easy for her to be cheerful when she had so much. Her response in her own words was, “There are negative aspects to my life right now, but you won’t hear me complain about them often. Be relentless in your pursuit of cheerful frugality, and you may just be surprised at how often you feel cheerful, or how you inspire a cheerful attitude in those around you.”

I believe cheerful frugality and contentment go hand in hand. If we are content with what we have then it will be easy for us to cheerfully be frugal. We won’t care that we can’t buy a Starbucks because we are content with the coffee pot God has provided for us at home. Make sense?

Let’s take for example dinnertime. Oh this was one that I had to work on big time. You make a dinner that is not so extravagant because the pantry is bare and the funds are low. Now, do you plop dinner down on the table and apologize for it? Or do you serve dinner with a smile and thank God for what He has provided? Proverbs 15:17 says, “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fated calf with hatred.” I have so found this true when we go to my in-laws for dinner. Don’t get me wrong they are all great people but whenever we are all together there is always strife. My MIL always makes really great meals but it is so hard to enjoy the food when everyone is bickering. Now I could stay home and eat a sandwich for dinner with my family and it tastes wonderful because we are all happy. So don’t apologize for what God has provided for you. He has given you everything you have no matter how much or how little and we are to be grateful.

Hebrews 13:5 says “let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have. For He himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’.”
Truly the best way to live a frugal life is contentment. I can’t say that enough. If you are always coveting what someone else has or wanting to improve this room or that room in your house by re-decorating or buying all new furniture, when there really is nothing wrong with what you have or how the room looks then you are not being content and you will go out and spend unnecessary money. Nowhere in the Bible does it say, “Make sure you decorate your house to the nines and it is always up to date with the latest fashions”.

1Timothy 6:6-7, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” Hear that, we will carry nothing out of this world with us. So why do we need to go out and buy a bunch of stuff? We don’t. Instead we need to focus on being content with what God has given us and again, being happy about it. Cheerful frugality!

Philippians 4:11, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned that whatever state I am in, to be content.” Yes, it is easy to be content when we have a fridge full of food, a closet full of clothes, and a house all decorated. But can we be content when we only have enough crumbs to get us by, when we haven’t bought a new outfit in years, or our house is not as pretty as someone else’s?

So while we are being good stewards of our money we need to remember to be cheerful and content and know in our hearts that we are blessed by God!

I hope you have enjoyed reading these posts as much as I have enjoyed writing them. Living frugally is a road that I have been traveling all my life. It has not been an easy road (especially when it comes to the cheerful part) but it has been a road that God has walked with me on, sometimes even carried me on, and He has always blessed me on. I hope that you, too, can find contentment and blessings, cheerfully on this frugal road.

~Caroline

Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Part 3

Couponing. This is a new thing to me but it is something that I have really enjoyed learning and has saved us a lot of money. Let me start by saying that when you get into serious couponing you need to start small. Once you get the hang of it you can go big. Now serious couponers don’t just cut the coupons out of the Sunday paper and go shopping. No way, there is a fine art to this. You have to figure out where the best deals are for that week and you most importantly have to learn how to “stack” coupons. This is where couponing will make or break you and I have had times where it is has broken me because I did not “stack” my coupons right.

Now instead of trying to explain this all to you here I am going to send you over to Money Saving Mom to read her post on CVS 101. She explains everything beautifully. She also has a post on Making CVS work for you.

If you do not have a CVS near you and but have a Walgreens, then I would recommend reading her Walgreens 101 post to learn about how to coupon there.

I check with Money Saving Money Mom every week to see her scenarios on CVS deals and Walgreens deals. I also check Mommies With Cents and Centsible Shopper to see if they have any different scenarios. I will also be posting my deals every week so that those of you who live in California can see shat there is here. Oh, you can also check the Rite-Aid deals at these sites. I will have to say though, that you will not find deals like they have at CVS anywhere else!

On Monday I will wrap up our posts on my Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Talk. Have a great weekend!
~Caroline

Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Part 2

Now let's talk about frugal living.

I learned how to be frugal from my mom. She made me shop K-mart’s blue light specials when I was a kid! But I’m over that now :o) Whenever I wanted something, she would always ask “do you really need that?” Or, she would say,” how does it feel to want?”. Oh, that would just kill me as a kid. I would try to come up with some way of making it seem like I did NEED it. But it never worked. And yes, now I do that to my own kids :o)
She instilled in me that I only had to buy the things I needed. And now before I buy almost anything I have to be able to completely justify the purchase. It drives me crazy sometimes but I know in the end it does our checking account and I a lot of good.

When I go shopping at stores (not grocery stores, but all the other ones, like T*rget, W*alm*art, etc...) I only shop sales and clearance racks, but mostly just the clearance racks. And I am not talking about the 15% off racks. I only do the 50% off or more racks. When I walk into a store, no matter what store, I go straight to the clearance racks. I have learned to spot them a mile away! I don’t even look at the rest of the stuff. Why would I even want to tempt myself that way?

I also have limits on what I will spend on certain items. For instance, I will not spend more than $7 on shirts for myself. If it’s more than that than it stays on the rack. I will not spend more than $20 on pants, and this includes all my jeans that I buy at Gap (that’s the only place where they make them to fit me). Shorts and skirts will not be bought unless they are under $10. I have set these limits for myself because I know I can find clothes at these prices at the places I shop. They are not unreasonable for me or for our budget. This is just for me I know that other people can budget more for clothing or need to spend more and that is fine. Remember this is just how I do it.

OK, so this just happened to me the other day. I was at Target, surprise surprise, and I was going through the clearance racks in the girls section looking for birthday presents for my nieces. They all love clothes and I can always find great stuff at Target. Anyways, I came upon the cutest shirt that was in Gillian’s size. I knew it would look great with a pair of shorts that she has. Now let me say that Gillian is the only kid I have to buy clothes for. Emma gets all hand me downs and loves it! The problem was that the shirt was $6.50. I put it in my cart thinking I could just splurge this once because it was a cute shirt and then I tried to justify it by saying that since it was sleeveless baby doll type shirt it would keep her nice and cool during thee hot days and it’s important for her to stay cool because if she gets to hot she could have a seizure. Yeah, nice way of trying to rationalize that one! But I kept feeling that nudge to put it back. The kid really did not need a new shirt no matter how cute it was and especially at that price. So I finally put it back. And I did find 2 other great dresses for my nieces and each one was under $5!!
OK, so fast forward a week and I find myself at Target again. A different Target :o) I went to the girls clearance rack again looking for all the 4th of July clothes I knew would be 50% off. Can I just stop here and say that the after holiday sales at Target rock! I always find the greatest things. And if you wait until 6 days past the holiday the stuff goes to 75% off and eventually 90% off! Even their seasonal stuff! OK, back to my story….So I am going through the racks again and what do I spot? Yep, that same shirt and it’s in Gilly’s size again. I was dying. So I looked at the price tag and what did it say? $3.24!!! Half the price of the original marked down price! So I bought it because I knew God was blessing me for being a good steward of my money.

I always say that if God wants me to have it it will still be there when it’s cheaper :o)

I do have one little problem though, I love bargains. I mean love bargains. Finding something that is marked down 90% that will look good in my life is awesome! But this can be a bad thing, because I would buy all the stuff I liked that was marked down. You know how excited you are when you find a great deal and you’re telling everyone about it and you ‘re like I just saved $10 on this thing I bought! Well, my father in law would say, “You would have saved $10 more if you hadn’t bought it all!” Ya, I guess that is true. So Now I have trained myself to think, “Just because it is a great deal does not mean I have to buy it”. Really think about your purchase before you make it. No matter how little it cost, you still need to be able to justify the purchase as a need.

Tomorrow I will get into couponing!! So Stay tuned :o)

~Caroline

Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living Part 1

All right, let’s talk freezer cooking and frugal living. The two do go hand in hand. A great way to save money is to cook in bulk and freeze. As many of you already know, I have been freezer cooking for over 3 years now. I have also, up until recently, organized a group of 10-15 ladies every month for a Freezer Cooking Day. That was a lot of fun. But I know that it isn’t easy for all of us to get together with friends and have a big cooking day. That might not be the season of life you are in right now. And that’s OK. You can still make meals for your freezer without really taking any extra time out of your day.

One of the easiest ways to start filling you freezer is to start cooking bigger meals. If you are making lasagna, make 2. It won’t take you but 5-10 minutes longer to assemble that second one, but it will save you an hour another day! Eat one of the lasagnas that night and stick the other one in the freezer. This is truly, one of the simplest ways to fill your freezer fast. Just think if you doubled 2 meals a week, by the end of the month you would have 8 extra meals in your freezer. That means 8 nights next month that you won’t have to think about dinner!

I have learned that even freezing little portions of leftovers is a huge blessing. Even if it is just one serving, don’t toss it, or let it sit in your fridge for a week thinking someone will eat it. Freeze it! Eventually you will have enough one-portion servings to feed the whole family a fun smorgasbord one night. Or you could take the one-portion servings and stick them in your hubby’s lunch. If it is something really good than you can enjoy yourself one day for lunch while the kids eat PB&Js. Like our mothers have always said, “waste not, want not”.

And, of course, you can always do a day of cooking meals for your freezer. This works best when you find meat on sale. That way you can stock up without draining your pocket book.

I often get asked what the best way is to freeze food. My answer? Freezer bags! Freezer bags can be laid flat and you can stack them high. One of the main things you have to remember is to get as much air out of the bag as possible. I also flash freeze my bags before stacking them. To flash freeze them I just lay them flat on a hard tray and stick them in the freezer for a couple of hours. Then they are ready to be stacked and the bags won’t freeze together or freeze into some funky shape that makes it impossible to get out of the freezer.

I once saw a picture of a regular top freezer that had 24 main dishes, 12 side dishes, 10 desserts, and 10 breakfasts all neatly stacked in freezer bags. And they had room to add more! So freezer bags are definitely your best bet if you want to maximize your space.

Unfortunately there are some things that can’t be put into a freezer bag, like lasagna. Oh, that would be messy :o) So lets chat about using pans, any size or shape. There are 2 ways to do pans. First, you could use aluminum pans. They have every shape and size you can imagine at any Dollar Store. They even sell some that come with the lids. If it doesn’t have a lid than you will want to cover it tightly with plastic wrap, or my favorite, Press N Seal. And then cover it with foil tightly.

If you don’t want to go out and by aluminum pans then here is what you do. Take one of your pans, again, any size or shape that you need for what you are making, line it with saran wrap. You want the saran wrap to be over the edges quite a bit. Make the meal in the pan on top of the saran wrap and then stick in the freezer for a few hours; it needs to be pretty frozen. Once it is frozen, you can take the food out of it and wrap it all up in the plastic wrap and then foil. You have basically used your pan as mold. Now when you are ready to eat that meal take it out of the freezer, unwrap it completely and put it back in the same pan you used to mold it and let it thaw. Presto, it’s all ready to go and you didn’t have to waste all your good pans by keeping them in the freezer for weeks!

Another question I am often asked is where do I get all of my recipes. One of the best places to find recipes for your freezer is in your own cookbooks! Just about everything freezes. Seriously! If you are worried about something not freezing well just take a sample of it and stick it in the freezer and see how it does. I have tried doing this many times and have only had a few flops and I can’t even remember now what they were. So try freezing some of your family’s favorite meals. You can also find lots of recipes on line. Just type in freezer meal recipes, recipes for the freezer, etc…. Some of my favorite places for recipes are:

http://www.justslowcooking.com/index.html (all the recipes are for your crockpot and most of them can be put int the freezer before cooking)

http://www.30daygourmet.com/ (the 30 Day Gourmet is chock full of recipes. Some of them you will need a pass word to get to but most of them are free for the looking!)

http://www.recipelink.com/rcpmenus.html (I have not had the time to play around much on this site, but it looks promising!)

You can also click on any of the links on my side bar to see the freezer books that I use. I would recommend owning at least one book on freezer cooking that you can use as a guide. The one I would highly recommend is "The Freezer Cooking Manual" from 20 Day Gourmet. They have a lot of charts in this book that will help you convert your recipes into larger quantities. They also have great shopping lists and so much more!

You don’t just have to stick with main dish dinners for the freezer. You can do side dishes(like rice pilaf, mashed potatoes) desserts(cakes, ice cream pies, cookie dough), breakfasts(egg burritos, biscuits with eggs, cheese and a meat) and lunches. The possibilities are endless.

Another frequently asked question, "What is the best way to thaw your meals?". Well, the best way is to thaw them in the fridge. But I rarely do it this way because I always forget to take it out of the freezer in time :o) Most of the time (if it is in a freezer bag) I thaw in the microwave on the "thaw" setting or I put it in the sink and run cold water over it for 5-10 minutes or until it is thawed.

So that is what I have for you for a quick overview of freezing cooking. If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments. You can also browse around past posts to get a lot more info on freezer cooking.

~Caroline

New Title!

Happy Monday to you all!! We had a great time at our Church's Homeschool Encouragement Day. I was able to give my talk on Freezer Cooking and Frugal Living without throwing up :o) Yee haw!!

After my talk I had quite a few people ask me if I could post my weekly CVS deals. I also, due to limited time, did not get to give my whole talk. So I will post the rest of my talk sometime this week. I will also be posting my CVS deals every week. I am hoping to have them posted by Tuesday mornings that way you have plenty of time to go and get the deals yourself.

So due, to added more content to my blog I have added to the name. (See above) The only thing is that I don't think I really like the name. I like the filling my freezer but I don't like the way the frugal part sounds. So if there are any talented people out there, and I know there is, please give me some ideas on how I can word the title. I will be ever so grateful to you :o)

I had planned on doing my CVS shopping this morning, but my 5 year old woke up with a headache and a 101* temp! So we are home bound. I might go out tonight after hubby gets home. So come back tomorrow for my deals.

~Caroline

Pinching Pennies

We all have to do it at some time or another...pinch our pennies. It always seems that our food expenses are the easiest to cut. But, we still need to make great meals for our families while we save our pennies. So here are a couple of tricks that I use....



1)Cut down on meat.

-I think everyone knows that using less meat means saving more money.

-In almost all of the recipes I make I always use 1/2 or less of the meat that is called for.

-Cut meat up instead of leaving it whole. If I am making Chicken Cacciatore (for example), instead of using 4 whole chicken breasts , I would use 2 chicken breasts and cube them. This way you use less chicken but it still goes all the way through the sauce.

-Ground beef is an easy one to cut down on. I just make sure that when I am cooking the ground beef I get it crumbled good and small. I don't leave it in big chunks. Again, this gets it all the way through the recipe.



2)Potatoes. I love potatoes. They are inexpensive and very healthy.

-Whenever I cook potatoes I ALWAYS leave the skins on. That is where all the nutrients are. Even in mash potatoes the skins are left on.

-Potatoes are also very filling. Which is good when you are needing to feed your family for less.

-As a main dish there are many things that you can do with potatoes.....Got leftovers? (anything will work) Heat em up and put it on top of a baked potatoes. You can also top baked potatoes with chili and cheese. Broccoli, cheese, and cubed up chicken (again, cube the chicken and you don't have to use that much). The possibilities are endless.

-As a side dish you also have a zillion things to do with potatoes.
Our favorite is to cut em up and roll em in some olive oil salt and pepper. Roast em in the oven for 20 minutes at 450*. Then sprinkle bacon bits and cheese all over and place them back in the oven for 5 more minutes. Yummy!

You can also make mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, whatever!

-Leftover potatoes.

I always make extra potatoes when I am baking them. That way I can dice em up and fry em for breakfast the next day. Or make potato salad. Or just have a baked potato for lunch.

With left over mashed potatoes I always make potato pancakes. Oh, yum, I love potato pancakes.

This is just a couple of quick ways to save some money on your food bill. What are some of your favorite ways to pinch pennies in the kitchen? Let me know in the comments :o)

Happy Cooking!
~howiesgal