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Archive for June, 2008

Croutons are a wonderful accompaniment to your home-grown salad greens this summer. And what better way to save money than to make them yourself?

This basic recipe for salad croutons is an easy and quick way to make them. Remember you can add or substitute ingredients to suit your taste. Since we are all about saving money here, I am going to follow the recipe and use the dried herbs. Fresh rosemary and/or fresh thyme would be a great addition but I don’t have any in the garden. If you have some growing on a windowsill this would be a great way to use it. Mental note: grow thyme and rosemary in my AeroGarden when I start it up again in the fall!

• 3 tablespoons olive oil | $0.48 (1 pint @ $5.11)
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder | $0.08 (1 pound @ $9.91)
• 2 tablespoons Parsley flakes | $0.34 (1 pound @ $45.20)
• 1/2 bag of bread | $0.50 (1 bag @ $0.99)
• 1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste) | $0.007 (1 pound @ $0.55)

TOTAL COST: $1.41

You just cut the crust off of the bread and then cut up the bread into pieces. I like 1 inch cubes but you could do whatever size you like. Then put the bread into a bowl along with all the other ingredients. Mix it around. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 325 for about 10 minutes until golden brown or try popping them under the broiler for about 2-3 minutes. I prefer the 325 degree method during the summer so the kitchen doesn’t get so hot!

Makes about 12 ounces of croutons.

Cost Comparison: 5 ounces of garlic croutons from Fresh Express: $1.25

Verdict: Making your own croutons saves you about 1/2 off the price of store-bought, seasoned croutons.

Note: All prices are from Safeway.com, lowest-priced item

I am really psyched about this dish if you can’t tell…The other day I mentioned the dinners I had planned for the week. Tonight’s was the Red Beans and Rice recipe from Epicurious. I had never made this dish before tonight, and in fact had only just found it on Epicurious because I had some left over dried red beans and leftover wild rice to use up.

Well, let me tell you, those 72 commenters on there were on to something! Personally I can’t believe a single recipe that uses red beans and rice could even garner that many comments, but I guess people get passionate about their food. (And here I am writing a whole post on the dish so apparently I have become one of these types!)

Anyway, this is definitely a dish you should try out if you want something cheap, delicious, and healthy all at once. The only downside is that I had to start the cooking at 2:00 with dinner scheduled at 6:00. That’s because I was using dried beans instead of canned - they take about 2.5 to 3 hours to soak and cook. The wild rice takes an hour to cook. Then you put the beans, stock, onion, garlic, and sausage together for another good 45 minutes of cooking. So it does take a long time. But you do get A LOT of food out of this. I think we’ll be eating it for days on end actually.

I’ve looked up the cost of the meal using the Safeway.com site and here’s the breakdown:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil | $0.32 (1 pint @ $5.11)
• 1 pound sausage | $1.33 (Hormel Pork Sausage)
• 1 onion | $0.67
• 4 garlic cloves | $0.20 (1 head @ $0.50)
• 3 14/5 oz cans of kidney beans | $4.50 (1 can @ $1.50)
• 1 cup chicken broth | $0.40 (49.5 oz @ $2.39)
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning | $0.14 (3.18 oz @ $2.87)
• 3 cups cooked rice | $0.26 (white long-grain rice @ $0.62/pd)

TOTAL COST: $7.82 !!!

COST PER SERVING: $1.30

Now, the recipe says that it makes 6 servings and that is what I base the “cost per serving” off of (7.82/6) BUT for our family I would say this recipe makes more like 10 servings which would make the cost per serving $0.78.

Note: all prices shown are the lowest prices that I found for those items at Safeway. If you buy fancy rice or sausage the cost will go up but I still think it would wind up being a relatively cheap meal.

Earlier I wrote a post about the financial benefits of keeping a large pantry in your house in which to store food.  So, now that the financial benefits are laid out, how do you get started with this pantry? If you are new to cooking then you may not have the faintest idea what items to stock. Even those of us who are seasoned cooks don’t always approach the stocking of our pantries in anything more than a haphazard manner.

If we approach this pantry stocking activity with a modicum of sense and organization we can save even more money by ensuring that we don’t run out of items, that we have the time to wait until things go on sale or we find a great coupon, and so on.

To begin this organization effort, the following is a list of the things I would deem important to stock up on and keep in the pantry. Of course you will only buy these things when you can get your hands on a good coupon for them or a sale price that is exceptional. But starting with a list that you can tick off as you go should lend some order to this somewhat daunting task. To that end:

Pantry Items to Keep In-Stock

• Canned tomatoes, crushed or whole
• Canned beans, any variety
• Rice
• Flour
• Dried pasta
• Sugar
• Salt
• Canned vegetables
• Cooking oils such as: olive, vegetable, canola
• Vinegars such as balsamic, white, and red
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Oatmeal
• Chicken and beef broth (and/or bouillon cubes)
• Canned fruit
• Tuna
• Peanut butter
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Cornmeal
• Brown sugar
• Yeast (in packets if you can’t refrigerate it)
• Cornstarch
• Crackers
• Barley
• Dried beans, any variety
• Peas
• Lentils
• And plenty of your favorite spices

Worried about space? Some people convert their linen closets into pantries and put the linens in boxes under their bed. Some use racks in the garage or coat-closets in the foyer. If you are well-stocked you only need one of each item out at a time, making storage of the extras in the kitchen unnecessary.

Some of the dishes that come to mind that could be made from these pantry ingredients are: spaghetti with tomato sauce, home made tortillas with rice and beans, bread, stew augmented with whatever fresh meat and vegetables you might have on hand, and oatmeal cookies!

Whenever possible I buy minimally processed canned food. For the canned vegetables, for example, I might buy no salt-added, whole green beans. I figure I can always add my own salt and oil later if I want it.  Are there any items that you keep in your well-stocked pantry that I have left out? Please share!

Ah…Feeling low. I just checked our accounts and it seems as though we’ve already spent $890 on groceries and restaurant purchases this month (we are aiming for $800/month for our family of four). We would only be at $800 if we hadn’t treated a couple of relatives to lunch a few weeks ago but considering they had driven all the way up to see our child get a high-orange belt in hapkido it would have been rude not to pay the lunch bill (plus, you always feel good when you get to treat!). Of course, I could have made a lunch at home and saved money and now I realize that’s what we should have done. But at the time I couldn’t see myself dealing with the stress of cooking that day what with the fact that I was still a bit sick with a cold/fever and was trying to spend most of the weekend writing my book.

So now I have to figure out what to do. I mean, it isn’t as if we are going to go broke or anything, it just is disheartening when you don’t meet your goal, you know?! The only thing I can do now is damage control. That means no more food purchases for the rest of the month, of course. I just went to the store yesterday and got 4 dinners worth of food and some lunch and breakfast stuff.

So I think I can stretch it out for the next 9 days. I’ll make that my new goal. The dinners I had planned are: spinach crepes (recipe here), beans and rice (recipe here), honey-lemon chicken (recipe here), and bbq lobster tails (recipe here). We also have a side of fresh green beans with almond-butter to prepare at some point.

Now, believe you me I realized that the lobster tails were going to be expensive but I didn’t know how much until I got to the store. $10 a piece, frozen! I only bought two. They aren’t a frugal item in the least but I bought them a) not knowing that we were over-budget and b) because I wanted to surprise my husband, who told me the other day that he’d never eaten lobster before.

As far as the recipes go, I have made the spinach crepes and honey-lemon chicken tons of times so they are both tried-and true favorites in my family. The beans and rice recipe will probably not get eaten by my kids but all 71 reviews for the recipe are good so I am confident that at least my husband and I will like it. We’ll see about the lobster tails!

We all tooled over to our friends house yesterday since it is summer vacation around here now and the kids are home from school for a while until they hit the camps/daycare rounds starting next week. Anyway, these particular friends have an absolutely beautiful home right on the ocean with amazing views. It helped that the sun was out and it was warm enough to eat our lunch outside. The house is not huge but amazing nonetheless (4 bedrooms and a rec room so not too shabby).

On the drive home, as we rounded the corner into our own neighborhood I couldn’t help but experience a twinge of regret that our home is not as lovely. I do like to live here, and trust me I am not complaining, but it seems to me that everyone ought to be able to live in a nice house on the ocean. What an idyllic lifestyle my children could lead under such circumstances! I thought it might be good to note, however, that even with such obvious wealth coming in, that family still shops at CostCo, TJMaxx, Target, and the other discount stores. Isn’t that something?!

At any rate, their family circumstances are much different than ours (the father is never around and he is MUCH older than we are), but we certainly aim to strive for that kind of lifestyle. I honestly would not mind spending my money on such a home - it would definitely be worth it.

We had a big neighborhood bar-b-que tonight and my contribution was a medley of vegetables. I actually was really surprised by how much of a hit they were considering they were, well, vegetables and they had to compete with everyones favorites: hamburgers and hot dogs. However, everyone raved and inquired as to how I made the tofu actually taste good (apparently others are used to it being rubbery).

The recipe is quite easy, actually, and you can make it under the broiler or on the grill! Cut up chunks of zucchini (from 4 small zucchini), and one sweet onion. Halve some button mushrooms and wash some cherry tomatoes (make sure they aren’t from one of the areas affected by the salmonella outbreak). Finally, cut up some firm tofu into 2 inch cubes.

Marinate the veggies and tofu for 1 or 2 hours in 3/4 cup of lemon juice, 3/4 cup of soy sauce, 2 minced garlic cloves, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of sesame oil. You can thread them on skewers and then put them on the grill or you can spread them out on a baking sheet and put under the broiler for 10 minutes, stirring once at the half-way point. If broiling, you might want to take the mushrooms, tomatoes, and tofu out at this point and broil the onions and zucchini for another 5 minutes if you don’t think they are done enough.

I served them in a big bowl all mixed together and people ate them with their fingers. Enjoy!

My post, Make Your Own Cereal: Bargain or Not?, was featured in the Carnival of Finance: third anniversary edition. A big thank you to Flexo for putting that together as there were a ton of articles. Definitely go check out the carnival for a good cross-section of posts about personal finance and to discover new blogs on the topic.

I also like Millionaire Mommy’s article called I Want More Money. It is one of those motivational pieces so give it a quick read! Another article featured in the carnival is called Associating with the Appear to be Rich Folks and is right down my alley with my other posts on image and wealth. There’s definitely something to the idea that the mere look of success can breed success by enabling more successful people to be drawn to you, etc. Have you ever noticed that people who are wealthy live in very clean homes? I often wonder if having a super-clean home is something they can afford or if it is something that helped them become rich in the first place (you know - having the discipline that goes with cleaning also with your job and finances). Whatever the reason, I do try to keep a clean home as I feel it does lift the spirits and that children can learn and grow and be proud of themselves in a clean environment. My 2 cents!

Additionally, I really like ConsumerismCommentary’s latest post on target date retirement funds. I agree with the idea that target date retirement funds are often too conservative. I hold my own retirement funds in 6 low-cost index funds, including a hefty proportion of emerging markets. That isn’t to say that this allocation would be right for other people, just that I don’t think people are best served by target date funds. That said, I guess a target date fund is better than plopping it all in the company stock or a money market fund.

Yesterday’s trip to the grocery store included a lot of swapping for things that were similar to what I wanted but lesser in price. This post is about sharing what those things were and how much I saved. Not that these item-swaps are anything novel to you seasoned-savers out there, but they were to me and might be of interest to those who are just getting started down this frugal-living path.

Now, given that my 3.5 year old was in tow, you have to excuse that I bought a few items that I could have saved more on or done away with altogether (ice cream, wine, expensive steaks). Even though on today’s trip my child was something of a poster-child of good behavior you never know exactly how things are going to turn out so you tend to make some hasty decisions in order to get out of there as soon as possible.

There’s nothing like a parent with a baby or toddler to add some cash to the grocery’s coffers simply due to the fact that said parent is speeding around the store at break-neck speed trying to simply get the heck out of there before: a meltdown occurs on the part of the child, child needs to go to the bathroom, baby has to eat now, or parent has a meltdown.

So anyway, here are the items that I swapped:

My usual butter ($4) for a different brand ($2.50)

My usual liquid dishwasher detergent ($8) for the same thing in powder form ($4.50)

Did not buy the Fontina cheese on my list at all due to the price ($12 for a small bit!) but then bought a $12 bottle of wine completely spontaneously. No, that one did not make sense. Mmm…now I am wishing I had bought the wine and the cheese!

My usual name-brand 5 lb. sugar ($4) for generic ($2.50)

Instead of fresh pasta ($5/9 oz.) and fresh pasta sauce ($6/7 oz.) I got dried linguine ($1.25/16 oz.) and a jar of sauce ($2/26 oz.). Now that was a big savings.

I also bought a few items specifically so that I could use up the rest of the wild rice I had left over from the wild rice casserole a week ago. Tonight we’ll eat the wild rice mixed with a saute of onions, mushrooms, and celery. The kids are so full of all the fruit that I bought (grapes, strawberries, and oranges) that I doubt they’ll need anything more than this simple rice dish to fill them up. I know I won’t need anything more considering the milkshake I snuck in while they were at my 6 year old’s karate practice. Shh!

Woohoo! We only spent $290 on groceries/restaurants so far this month and we are already half way through the month. That is $100 less than what we are aiming for at the mid month (our budget is $800/month). Here’s the budget screen-shot from our Mint account:

The numbers on the right under the column heading “100% budget over?” (which is a ridiculous name for a column, by the way) are based on our actual spending from the time at which we started tracking our spending on Mint. That’s why we are aiming for $800 a month on groceries and restaurants combined but the budget column has $1040 listed. I could change it, I think, so that the budget column reflects a budget amount that I set, but I kind of like to see how far below our previous spending we are.

The hilarious part is, of course, that our entertainment spending is at $30. Holy cow! I guess food has been our entertainment. Since we have two little kids and pretty much work and take care of them 24-7 we do nothing for entertainment other than watch an occasional movie. We have been known to splurge every other year on super-fancy vacations by ourselves (kids with grandma) so perhaps that makes up for the embarrassing entertainment budget somewhat!

You may know from a previous post that I have a square foot garden. In fact, this is the second year that I have gardened with this method. I thought it was going really well. That was until my neighbor invited me over to see hers. Wow! Major difference.

First off, she didn’t invite me over to brag or anything, it was actually because I asked her why there might be little holes appearing in my lettuce leaves. She replied that it was most likely slugs or snails and that she had just the thing for them (Slugg-o I think it was called). So I followed her to her backyard where I beheld the most spectacular raised-garden bed I have ever seen. We are talking perfect plants popped up in neat rows. We are talking plants that are about 1 foot taller than the same ones in my garden.

Humbled, I took the Slugg-o back to my miserable, crummy little garden-ette where my little lettuce plants were growing, with holes in almost all the leaves, up to about a height of 7 inches, max. Then she came over with two heads of bib lettuce, fully grown. Why? Because she had 10 heads ready to harvest, “and I couldn’t possibly eat that much” she said.

So now I have a heap of absolutely beautiful lettuce leaves drying on my kitchen counter, awaiting incorporation into tonight’s dinner salad. While I feel a bit of pang over my obviously inferior gardening skills, I at least will take comfort in the generosity of my neighbor in sharing with me. And I will eat a nice oriental salad with raspberry dressing, walnuts, and mandarin oranges. So at least there’s that.

Incidentally: here is what I learned about my garden. The number one thing it is lacking is full-sun. In my neck-of-the-woods we need all the sun we can get and I just don’t have enough where I put the box. So next year I am thinking of - gasp - putting the thing in our front yard! That is the only place that gets full-sun in my yard. It would be semi-shielded from the street given that we have a privacy berm out there.