FeedTheFam.com

June 2008 Budget Update

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!

Keeping Up With The Joneses: Gardening Edition

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.

Make Your Own Cereal: Good Deal or Not?

Does homemade cereal save you money?

If your family is like mine you eat a good amount of cereal every week. I’d say we go through about 2 boxes a week between the four of us. I think some of that might be just from pure waste, however, since my kids don’t always judge proportions correctly yet! Anyway, I thought I could save some money by making our own cereal (plus it tastes WAY better!) so . . .

I’ve run the numbers and figured out that the #1 reason to make your own cereal is to enjoy its superior yumminess as well as its superior healthfulness over store-bought. Sadly, it doesn’t wind up being much of a bargain unless you are comparing it to expensive cereal that’s not on sale.

Just in case I can save someone else the trouble of going through this cost-comparison, however, I am recording my findings here. You might also be interested in making the cereal I link to below simply for the pleasure of eating good-quality cereal that takes very little time to make.  One could argue that to compare the homemade with the cheap store-bought is unfair. In that case, you might consider it a cost-savings nevertheless. Without further ado, here are the cost differentials and break-downs:

The Cost of Store-Bought Cereal: Low = $4 for 20 servings; Medium = $10 for 20 servings

You could spend as low as $1.60 per pound on Raisin Bran at Safeway right now (2 for $4). If you buy a regularly priced cereal in the mid-range, you would spend around $4.50 (Raisin Nut Bran). Higher priced cereals go over $5 per pound.

The Cost of Homemade Cereal: $11 for 20 servings

First off, the homemade granola found here is delicious! You can adjust it any way you want to by buying different nuts to suit your taste. You can substitute cheaper ingredients as well (the nuts are expensive!). All this is to say that the $11 price-tag may be high depending on what you put in yours. I, however, priced the recipe as-is, minus the optional ingredients.

7 cups oats $2 | 1 cup wheat germ $2.50 | 1 cup wheat bran $0.30 | 1/2 cup brown sugar $0.20 | 1/2 cup vegetable oil $0.31 | 1/2 cup honey $1 | 1 tbsp. vanilla extract (imitation) $0.20 | 1 cup chopped pecans $2.50 | 1 cup chopped dates $2

Note: all prices are from Safeway.com. I priced the generic brands where possible.

 

New CNN article on Food Prices and Habits

CNN just released a new article called Ireporters End Splurges to Pay for Food on their front-page. While I am not into sensationalizing the news, I like that it brings to the forefront that many people are adjusting their habits to accomodate the new food-price reality.

I really like the bit where they summarized one Ireporter’s reaction to higher food prices:

“Impulse buys, name brands and expensive smoothie drinks are out. Simple, healthful and carefully planned meals are in.”

That really sounds altogether much better than before anyway. So food prices go up and we eat healthier? Wonderful! Hey, if food prices go up, say, 5% in a year, then will there be a commensurate decrease in our obesity rates over the same year?

There’s a lot in the article about going local and buying things from, for example, your local dairy or other local farms. There’s also a nod toward starting your own garden at home.

Festival of Frugality #129

It is great to be featured again in the 129th Festival of Frugality! This week it is hosted by Money Ning who challenges us to try a little harder this week to save some bucks. 

One of the other features in the festival is “The Unlikely Way to Save Money“ This is a great little story about the possibility of getting rid of almost all your living expenses entirely in order to finally become financially free. I really like the concept. It reminds me of a couple I read about recently who live off of a very small nest egg (I think it was around $400,000).  They spend only $400 a month total. They grow and raise their own food, don’t buy clothing, etc. Interesting! It is just refreshing to hear that there are people who do things differently from the “accepted norm.” 

Along these lines, I’ve chosen two blog articles to feature here, one from the festival of frugality and the other from a completely different type of blog altogether. I think they are both worth a read and a good think!

First up is Why You Should Focus on Spending Less Over Earning More. Shannon Christman writes here about how saving is really quite easy compared to earning more. There really are some concrete steps you can take to spend less, but there definitely aren’t fail-safe steps you can take to earning more, says Christman.

Second is The Poverty Mentality by Alan Weiss. Now, while this article focuses mainly on how a professional organization for high-power consultants ought not to advise its members on how to save a few hundred bucks for fear of loosing credibility, there is an idea here worth going over for those of us who aren’t consultants: people do want to hang out with people who project success and confidence, people who are enthusiastic, people who inspire you. Are you this type of person? This reminds me of my post on image versus frugality. If you’d like to weigh-in on this please leave a comment! (You have to click “read more” to get to the comments - I’ll have to fix this soon!)

Where to Buy Cheap Spices

It dawned on me a few weeks ago that spices are really expensive! It just happened that two of our staple spices, cumin and chili powder, needed to be replaced and I spent over $10 buying two small jars of them at the grocery store.  Since we don’t regularly buy spices I guess I just wasn’t paying much attention to how much they cost. Anyway, my new revelation led me to research some places where you can buy less expensive spices and here is what I came up with:

1. Local Asian, Indian, and Latin American markets

These small grocers stock up on the spices that are frequently used in their home countries. You can generally buy whatever quantity you want at extremely cheap prices. The fact that you can buy as much or as little of a given spice as needed is important because spices can lose their flavor over time so you don’t want to buy too much.

2. Walmart, Costco, etc.

These stores sell the cheapest spices, both in monetary terms and in quality, so watch out! A great post over at likemerchantships explains the results of one taste-test between Walmart cinnamon and more expensive gourmet cinnamon. The gist was that the Walmart cinnamon smelled and tasted much weaker than the others. This was probably due to the fact that spices can be repackaged and resold cheaply when they are past their most flavorful. This same quality caveat holds true for the super-cheap spices bought at places like Big Lots and The Dollar Store.

3. Trader Joe’s

If you have one nearby (we don’t!) this can be a good option because Trader Joe’s usually has good quality foods sold at cheaper prices than your grocery store. However, they do not have the best selection so you can’t exactly count on them having a particular item that you need for a particular recipe.

4. Buy Online

This is one of the most popular options. The following companies sell their spices on-line, frequently in small quantities, and at less expensive prices than you can get at the grocery store. They typically have better quality spices and more selection than the grocery store as well!

Penzeys

WorldSpice

HerbCo

5. Store Properly

Above all, you have to remember to store your spices in airtight containers that are kept out of the light. These two practices are crucial to maintaining the potency of your spices.

 

Saving Money on Groceries: In the News

I like to browse the Yahoo Finance columns from time to time and today I was fortunate to catch a great article by Laura Rowley called “How to Save $400 a Month on Groceries.”

In it, she runs through several websites that help consumers figure out where the best deals are on groceries. First there’s The Grocery Game, and then there’s myClipper.com. The best one, though, in my opinion is Coupon Mom, who’s motive is to give people the information they need to save money and then encourage them to donate some of their cheap groceries to charity. This last one reminds us that even if we have the means to spend a lot on food, we ought to consider paring down and then forking over the savings in order to help other people out. Combining a simplified, frugal lifestyle with helping others sounds like a great “recipe” for living!

Some of her commenters do point out that in order to save a lot of money on groceries, you do have to put in the time. One even says that it is impossible to do if you are employed full time (in their words: “not a SAHM or SAHD”). I’d like to know if anyone else is doing well with cutting coupons and staying on top of deals despite having full time employment. I work full-time, and I am writing a book, and I still am trying to save on groceries. Of course, I do not have the time to meticulously go through every Wednesday circular for adds, and I also appreciate my local store’s lack of lines at check-out despite their higher prices, so perhaps I am not the best example.

Tips to Save Money

There are a couple of good tips on how to save money over at BankRate right now. They hold a frugal tips contest every month called Frugal $ense. You can win $100 if you submit a tip and it gets the highest user rating. Last month’s winner was all about saving money by only grocery shopping once a month. She literally plans out all the meals for the month on a calendar, saving the items that take the longest to cook for the weekends. Check out her tip here.

I was sifting through the entries for this month and while I didn’t see much cost savings in the tip to line dry your clothes instead of using the dryer, I did think that the one on growing your own vegetables was great. Basically, this person is talking about taking your background garden to a whole other level by producing a surplus and canning/jarring/freezing it to make it last throughout the year. We’re talking not just veggies but also berries and fruit trees. Although fruit and vegetable prices would probably never go as high here in the continental U.S. as they are, say, in Japan where I hear it might cost about $50 to buy your own fruit and make a fruit salad with, it still would save you a lot of money to do this. It makes me remember a trip to Switzerland where I saw that most of the homes along a train route I was taking had their own little vegetable gardens. Perhaps our residential landscape will start to look like that in the future.

Menus for a Week: With Shopping List!

A Week of Cabin Cooking!

The theme for this week’s worth of dinner recipes is cabin cooking. And the cookbook with the recipes is

Okay okay, so I know this cookbook is OLD but it is time-tested and cheap! We make stuff from it on a regular basis. It came to me by way of my husband and wow does it have some good recipes in it! It contains very easy, simple, and classic American recipes. A lot of them do take some time to cook, though, so get out the crockpot or make some of these on a Saturday and freeze for the week if you aren’t home.

On The Menu
Cottage Cheese Spinach Quiche p.45 / Sweet and Sour Chicken Wings p.121
Mandarin-Cashew Salad p.77 / English Muffin Pizzas
Pot Roast Supreme p.113
Steamed Artichokes see here / Pesto Pasta
Hamburger-Wild Rice Casserole p.89 / Garlic Bread

With regard to the very first recipe, I know it sounds weird to put cottage cheese in the oven, but we just had this very recipe tonight and trust me, it  was delicious! Make 2 quiches because it does not make “6 servings” as stated in the book. More like 3!

The English Muffin Pizzas are a staple around here. Here’s how to make them: toast the English muffins, then put a dollop of spaghetti sauce on top of each, on top of that put 1 or 2 slices of cheddar cheese. If you have a toaster oven, pop them in there for about 5 minutes until hot and bubbly. If you don’t have a toaster oven then just put them in a regular oven on a cookie sheet as the cheese can melt over the sides.

For the pesto, just put one clove of garlic (peel it first), a cup of basil, and 1/2 cup of olive oil in a food chopper or blender. Boil whatever noodles you choose and top with the pesto. Add some grated Parmesan if you want.

For the garlic bread you can buy a pre-made loaf at the store or just make your own very simply with regular ‘ol sandwich bread. Toast the bread (in the oven if making a bunch), smear on some butter, sprinkle with garlic powder.

The onion powder in the shopping list is a substitute for the Lawry’s seasoned salt called for in the Cottage Cheese Spinach Quiche.

The Shopping List

Cottage cheese, large tub (2 cups)

Frozen chopped spinach, 20 oz.

Eggs, 3

Salt

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Parmesan cheese, 1 cup grated

Paprika

 

Mandarin oranges, 3 11-oz. cans

Lettuce, 2 heads

Salted cashews, 1 cup

Medium onions, 2

Oil and vinegar salad dressing

 

Wild rice, 1 cup

Ground beef, 1.5 pds.

Cream of mushroom soup, 1 10.5 oz. can

Cream of chicken soup, 1 10.5 oz. can

Canned mushrooms (fresh would be better though!), 1 can

Water chestnuts, 1 can

Beef bouillon cubes, 2

 

Beef roast, approx. 3 pds.

Flour

Carrots, 6

Potatoes, 6

Onion soup, 1 10.5 oz. can

 

Chicken wings, 20-25

Soy sauce, 1 cup

Pineapple juice, 1 cup

Sugar, 1 cup

Salad oil, ¼ cup

Ground ginger

 

Dried or fresh noodles of your choice

Fresh basil, 1 cup

Olive oil, ½ cup

Garlic, 1 clove

 

Artichokes, 2-4

English muffins

Spaghetti sauce, 1 cup

Cheddar cheese

Bread

 

How to Cook an Artichoke

Tomorrow’s post will be a week worth of dinners with a cabin cooking theme. But it will also include one delicacy-type side course - artichokes! I realized that to prep for that post I’d need to explain just how to cook a choke since it isn’t something that is in every cooks repertoire. If it isn’t in yours, you need to try this because it is such an easy delicacy to prepare! Not only that but their peak season is just ending so get them now before their prices go way up.

Don’t Be Afraid!!!

Washing

Rinse the chokes with water really well. Shake upside down to get most of the water out.

Trimming

Some people don’t trim their chokes but I do. Using a cutting board and a serrated knife, cut the top 1 inch off of the leaves. It’ll leave the top of the choke flat. Cut off the bottom inch of the stem so that the stem is flat and allows the choke to stand up.

Steaming

You will need a very large pot, especially if you have big chokes. Sometimes only two chokes will fit into my lobster pot. If I have to make more than 2 I will use 2 pots and 2 burners. Fill the pot or pots with 1 or 2 inches of water, place the chokes in it on their stems so they stand up, and bring the water to a boil. Let them simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

Checking for Doneness

With a fork in one hand and a pair of kitchen tongs in the other, stabalize one of the chokes with the fork while you attempt to pull out a leaf with the tongs. If the leaf comes out easily then the chokes are done. Keep checking back every 10 minutes. Sometimes it will only take 30 minutes, sometimes it’ll take 50 minutes.

Eating Artichokes

If you need a primer on how to eat an artichoke check out this wonderful pictorial on SimplyRecipes.com. As far as the choke dip is concerned, there can be only one natural accompaniment: melted butter! Make sure the butter you use is salted. If you buy unsalted butter as a rule, then add a sprinkle of your own salt to it. If you really feel like you need to add lemon to the butter, which a whole heck of a lot of cookbooks say to do, then please at least try them without the lemon first.