SwagBucks!

Have you heard about this? You search online, you win points and you can redeem those points for things like gift cards, video games, even airline miles!

It's simple, you sign up and download their toolbar. In no time, you're searching the internet and earning points. Their search engine is powered by Google btw.

I have been using SwagBucks for a couple of months now and have racked up about 94 points. With those 94 points, I could get a ton of stuff, including MP3 downloads, gift cards, video games, books, etc but I'm saving up my points for the end of the year. I'm going to try to see if I can pay for most of my Christmas presents with SwagBucks. Wouldn't that be cool? To have a FREE Christmas?

There are other ways you can earn points on SwagBucks:

• You can send in your old cell phones, MP3 players, video games or consoles and earn more points. I just found a bunch of video games from Jeff's old PS1 that I'm going to send in to get more points.
  
• You can also get points when you shop online. There are partner sites like Hot Topic, Walmart, Lane Bryant and many others. For every $5.00 you spend, you get one SwagBuck.
  
• You can also get your friends to sign up. When your friends earn SwagBucks you do to!

So yes, if you sign up I will earn some SwagBucks. But the main bonus to you, would be to earn your own SwagBucks and invite your friends to earn SwagBucks. How great will you feel when you can get yourself something nice FOR FREE all for searching and shopping online!

If you are interested in signing up for SwagBucks just click on the image above and get yourself signed up!

Another Great Recycling Project

Recycling, re-purposing. Whatever you call it, this project is super easy and quick.

Not to long ago I purchased a copy of Amanda Soule's "The Creative Family." In it, she describes the idea of re-purposing clothing. Her book details how to take an adult shirt and turn it into a pair of kidlet pants. This idea of clothing re-purposing intrigued me so I started to google it and I found a ton of information. But the best one was a tutorial on how to turn a man's t-shirt into yoga pants.

I filed this tutorial on my to do list and forgot about it for a while until I was in Goodwill the other day. It was military discount day, 15% off so I figured that if I could find a plain black shirt in decent condition, I would give it a go. I found a shirt and checked out for all of $.90, went home washed the shirt and started to cut it up. Really from start to finish this project took me about 45 minutes. The extra 15 minutes were for seam ripping and restitching when I sewed a seam on the wrong side.

This is a must try! It comes together quickly and easily. And once you're done no one is going to know that your new yoga pants used to be a man's t-shirt!

I would take a picture but I'm kinda wearing the pants now and I need to shave my legs. You're welcome for the visual. :)

Fabu Chicken and Noodles

Thanks to an apple, a hard boiled egg, two Excedrin and a bowl of Chicken and Noodles, I'm feeling much better. No more nausea and no more dizzy spells. No the Chicken and Noodle recipe is not magic by any means, but it is quick, easy, cheap and delicious. Just the thing I needed after two days of being under the weather.

Kristi's Chicken and Noodles less than $1.25 for lunch for 3 people

1 C small pasta shape (I used macaroni but any small shape would work), about $0.30
1 C frozen mixed veggies, about $0.30
1/2 C diced chicken, about $0.25

Sauce *:

1 C water, negligible
1 pkt or cube no sodium chicken bouillon, $0.16
1/2 tsp onion powder, negligible
1/2 tsp garlic powder, negligible
1/2 tsp thyme, negligible
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning, negligible
3/4 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt **, negligible
2 Tbsp flour, negligible


Cook your pasta according to package directions. While the pasta is cooking whisk the sauce ingredients together until everything is well incorporated and there are no lumps. Set aside.

In the last minute of cooking, add your frozen mixed veggies and bring back to a boil.

Drain the pasta and veggies and add your chicken and sauce. Cook on high heat until the sauce has thickened and the chicken is heated through.

Serve and enjoy!

*If you are not like my family and have no issues with dairy then you can double the recipe and use a can of undiluted cream of something soup instead of making the sauce.

**We don't usually consume a whole lot of salt so if this isn't salty enough for you please feel free to add more.

Nummy Nummy Choctat Take

That's all Kaitlynn said as she plowed her way through this oh so good cake! Sorry there is no picture. I could take a picture of the empty bowl...

But this cake is fabulous and a must try!

I decided to try a recipe from "Not Your Mothers Slow Cooker Cookbook". There are some really great recipes in this book but none I have tried is as good as this. Could be that it was chocolate cake? You can't really go wrong with chocolate cake. But this isn't just any chocolate cake. It makes this pudding sauce at the bottom and wow...I have no words! Run out and get yourself a 1.5 qt slow cooker and make this...NOW!

Hot Fudge Spoon Cake

Cake:
3/4C all purpose flour
1/4C baking cocoa powder
2/3C sugar
1 1/2tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2C milk
2 Tbsp butter (melted)
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
1/4C baking cocoa powder
1/4C granulated sugar
1/4C firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2C boiling water

1. Grease the slow cooker
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and add the milk, melted butter, canola oil, and vanilla, stir in the liquid ingredients until well blended. Batter will be thick. Spread evenly into slow cooker
3. To make the topping, combine all the ingredients in another bowl (I washed out the original bowl and just used that. I hate having a lot of dishes to wash) and whisk until smooth. Gently pour the batter in the cooker; DO NOT STIR. Cover and cook on high until puffed and the top layer is set about 2hrs to 2 hrs 15 minutes.
4. Turn off the slow cooker and let stand 30 minutes before serving. (I did not do this. I served it as soon as it was done and it was GOOD!).

ENJOY!! I know you will. This is the BEST cake ever! It makes this well...hot fudge sauce at the bottom of the slow cooker. Oh man so good!

As for cost this is a very frugal dessert. I bought several containers of baking cocoa when they were on sale at the commissary for $1.00. Yep and they were the dark chocolate variety too. My favorite. The flour I purchase at King Soopers for $1.99. It's the cheapest in town even compared to Walmart and the Commissary. So pretty much for pennies you can have a great dessert! The original recipe called for 1/4C of melted butter but I substituted half for canola oil because I'm running low on butter. You could use all canola oil and save yourself even more money.

Gluten Free/Dairy Free variation: Replace the flour with GF flour. Replace the butter and canola oil with coconut oil and replace the milk with your choice of milk replacement. We prefer vanilla rice milk.

Soup! Soup!

Wow! Two posts in one day. Crazy right! LOL!

Well I thought I would let you in on another fabulous recipe that I'm trying today for the first time... Pasta Fagioli Soup. With one kid sick today and another looking like shes about to get sick and a husband who is trying to lose weight, what the heck do you make for dinner? Soup!

Can I just say, I love soup! There is nothing more comforting on a cold day or when your not feeling well than a hearty bowl of soup. I grew up eating mostly Progresso soup out of the can. Now nothing against soup out of a can but it just doesn't stretch that far. To feed a family of four you need a couple of cans of soup at least. When you make your own soup, you can have leftovers for days that just keep tasting better and better everyday. Though I don't think that this soup, like my Chicken Tortilla Soup will last very long. It smells great and I so can't wait to taste it.

You know me, I never make a recipe without making some alterations first. I used what I had on hand. Improvisation can be a fantastic thing!

Here is my version of Pasta Fagioli Soup! (Total Cost: about $3.00)

3/4 C browned ground beef (this is more ground beef from my stash that I mentioned the other day), $0.59
1/4 medium onion chopped, negligible
3 cloves of garlic chopped, negligible
1/2 C carrots chopped, probably about $0.10 (I bought a 2lb bag on sale for $1.00)
1 15oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes (sniff sniff, my last can!), $0.98
1 15oz can white kidney beans or cannelini beans, $0.50 purchased on sale
3 pkts beef bouillon(Sodium Free Herbox variety), $0.48
3 C water, negligible
2 C homemade marinara sauce, FREE!!! (How can this be free? Well I factored the cost into a dinner from another night. And this is what was leftover. Nice huh!)
1/2 T Texas Pete, negligible (I purchased a Costco sized bottle at the commissary for about $1.50)
1/2 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt, negligible
1/4 tsp pepper, negligible
1/4 C dry pasta (I used Barilla Picollini Penne), $0.13 (purchased on sale for $1.00/box. 1/4 C is about 1/8 of a box)

Add your browned ground beef to the crockpot.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and garlic. Add it to the crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans (didn't rinse my beans...bad Kristi!), and add them. Add the whole can of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef bouillon and water. Add the salt, pepper, and Texas Pete. Stir to combine.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Cover and cook for another hour on low, or until the pasta is tender. It will swell quite a bit.

Serve with a bit of parmesan cheese if you have it.

I'm going to serve this tonight with some homemade yeast rolls. Yum!

Warning: Do not try the yeast roll recipe. You will find yourself addicted to it. It makes a ton of rolls and can be used in many ways. I used it to make pizza dough the other day. Do not make rolls and eat them with strawberry jam and butter. Do not make them into bread sticks and brush with melted butter and garlic powder. Do not use as hamburger buns. I beg you! These are not good with your morning coffee.

ENJOY!

I Love Me Some Tater Tot Casserole

...but I don't like how it tears up my gut or how bad it is for you. So I came up with my own version of classic tater tot casserole that is a little bit better for my digestive system and a little healthier to boot.

Traditional tater tot casserole has condensed cream of mushroom soup and evaporated milk. Now, I love milk based products they just don't love me. I'm lactose intolerant. That on top of Jeff trying to lose weight right now, I decided to give the traditional recipe a spin. I used ground turkey instead of ground beef, made a gravy for the sauce and added some frozen mixed veggies. And guess what...it was SO YUMMY! I have to say I think I may actually like it better than traditional tater tot casserole and its much cheaper too and easier on the salt content. Have you seen what those jars of condensed cream of mushroom soup cost? I usually buy the "Healthy Request" variety. Which is always much more expensive than the regular salt and fat laden version.

So I'll save you the suspense and give you the recipe...

Kristi's Tater Tot Casserole Total Cost: under $4.50 with the cheese, under $4.00 without

1 lb lean ground turkey (I used the 93% lean stuff), $1.98
1/2 a medium onion chopped, nominal (I just bought a 5lb bag of onions for $1.00!!!)
2 cloves garlic chopped, nominal
6 tbsp flour, nominal
2 pkts Sodium Free Chicken Bouillon (I use Herbox), $0.32
1 1/2 C Water, nominal
1 lb potato tots, $1.00 (I bought a 2 lb bag for $2.00 at the commissary)
2 C frozen mixed veggies, $0.50 (this is about half a bag of mixed veggies)
1/2 C shredded 2% cheese (optional), $0.37
Your choice of seasonings, I used Lawry's Seasoned Salt, Garlic Pepper, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Thyme and Parsley Flake. I don't measure so don't ask how much I used., nominal

Preheat your oven to 425F

Add a tbsp of olive oil to a skillet and heat on medium. Add your onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Add your ground turkey breast and seasonings and crumble while you cook it.

Once the turkey is almost done, add your flour and chicken bouillon. Cook for a couple of minutes to cook your flour.

Add your frozen mixed veggies and water. Cook until sauce thickens.

Once the sauce thickens add it to your 9x13 baking dish.

Place your potato tots on top of the turkey mixture. Make sure the potato tots are in a single layer.

Place in the preheated oven and cook for 20 minutes. At the end of 20 minutes take out the casserole, sprinkle with cheese and put it back into the oven for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Let the casserole cool for about 10 minutes prior to serving.

ENJOY!

Note: If you are gluten free/soy free/dairy free, then this recipe can of course be made with gluten free all purpose flour and chicken stock and would be fabulous over brown rice. After you are done cooking the turkey mixture on the stove top, then just take that "turkey gravy" and serve it over brown rice. YUM!

Yummy Turkey Patty Goodness

Right now, Jeff is trying to lose weight so he can get back into the military. This gives me a huge challenge. How do I prepare dinners that the entire family will eat that are healthy AND will help Jeff with his weight loss goal AND stick to my diminutive budget?

I have been surfing the web in search of recipes that will be healthy and fit into my budget. One of my favorite bloggers, Donna at Mom's Frugal, always incorporates these Turkey Patties into her weekly menu plan. I had some lean turkey in the fridge that I got at Walmart for $1.98/lb and I had all the other ingredients in either my pantry or fridge, so I figured I'd give them a whirl. I have to say, it was really yummy and easy and frugal and healthy. The turkey patties tasted like little meatloaves. The girls ate them up and Jeff did too. I served them with roasted potatoes and green beans. The girls also got some strawberries to go with their dinner. Organic strawberries are on sale this week at King Soopers for $1.97/lb.

Here is my version of her recipe. She just gives a list of ingredients and no real directions so I'm making it a little more user friendly. You're welcome. :)


1 lb lean ground turkey
1 egg
1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 medium onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
3/4 cup of quick oats
1 1/2 t dijon mustard
1 t garlic pepper
1 t seasoned salt
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t thyme
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional, I used 2% milk sharp cheddar cheese about 1 T per patty)

Add the chopped onion, bell pepper and minced garlic to a pan with 1/2 T olive oil and saute until soft and onions are translucent. Set aside and let cool.

To a measuring bowl add the cooled vegetable mixture, ground turkey, egg, oats, mustard, and seasonings and mix until combined.

Heat 1 T olive oil in a pan over medium heat.

Using an ice cream scoop, measure out the turkey mixture, roll into balls and flatten into patties. Add to the preheated pan and cook about 5-7 minutes per side. Remove the cooked patties to a plate, add some shredded cheddar cheese to the top and tent with foil to allow the heat from the patties to melt the cheese.

Makes 8 patties.

I hope that you enjoy these as much as I did!

Sorry for the lack of pictures lately. My camera is out of batteries.

Beef, It's What's for Dinner

I have been busy busy busy the last couple of weeks. My boss was away and I was dealing with a lot at work. But now I'm back and ready to start blogging again. I know, it's been a while.

But I realized something the other day. I was posting recipe after recipe during the holidays but I haven't really posted any budget friendly meals lately. So here is one I pulled off of one of my favorite blogs, A Year of Crockpotting.

I wanted to try her Cowboy Stew recipe. It intrigued me. Jeff and I were just talking about his love of those canned Ranch Beans. Apparently he likes those. He told me that he didn't like beans but he will eat those. And now that he's on a diet, beans are a great thing because they provide a lot of fiber and protein. Things that he needs to help him lose weight.

This stew also has canned potatoes in it. Now canned potatoes scare me. I don't know why. There is just something so wrong about potatoes out of a can. But I bought them. They were weird. They look like tiny pock marked chicken eggs. But the recipe says that if you use regular potatoes, you know the type you actually have to peal, then they will disintegrate into the soup. So I'll try 'um. We'll see how they turn out. I made a few adjustments to the recipe she used so here is my version, you can click the link above to see the actual recipe.

Cowboy Stew

1 cup browned hamburger/$0.79(I bought hamburger on sale a while back, browned it up and put it in storage bags and popped it into the freezer, great for quick dinners)
2 cloves chopped garlic/negligible
1/4 onion diced/negligible (I bought a 3 lb bag of onions for $1.00 I think there were 8 onions in there, so the calculation would hurt my head. :) )
1 15 oz can tomato sauce/ $0.50
1 can corn, drained/ $0.33 (purchased on sale during the holidays. I loaded up on corn then and this was my last can)
2 cans whole baby potatoes, drained/ $0.64 a piece
1 can tomatoes with green chilies/ $0.78
1 can Ranch Style beans/ $0.74
1 cup water/negligible
1 tsp garlic pepper/negligible
sliced jalapenos (optional)

The Directions.

This makes a lot. Make sure that your crockpot is at least 5qts.

Add your browned ground beef, onions and garlic to the crock pot.

Open all of you cans, and dump them into the crockpot. Drain the corn and the potatoes (I cut the potatoes in half because I don't like big chunks of things), but add the rest of the can liquid to the crockpot.

Add the cup of water and garlic pepper. Stir to combine all the ingredients

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or on high for 4-5. Soup and stew tastes better the longer you cook it, so opt for the longer cooking time if you can.

Garnish with sliced jalapeno peppers, if desired.

Total cost of the cowboy stew to feed a family of four with leftovers? $4.42, lets round it to $5.00 for the other "negligible" ingredients. If you want to save a little more money, cut out the ground beef. The beans provide enough protein that you really don't need the beef. But be warned, Ranch Style Beans are not vegetarian. The can says that they do contain animal fat.

You know figuring out how much a meal costs is a new hobby of mine. The other day I made breakfast and figured out the entire breakfast cost me about a dollar (for me and the girls). We had eggs ($0.33 for 4 eggs), those biscuits from the can ($0.25) and some sliced apple ($0.25). Yes I was bored. There is only so much that you really think about when you are scrambling eggs. :)

It doesn't cost a whole lot to eat well and provide for a family of 4. I tell people my budget per week on groceries and people faint. They don't understand how we can survive on $60.00 a week. But I know people who do it for less. The writer of the Frugal Living section on About.com budgets $40.00 a week for her family of four and they eat mostly organic. To me that's crazy! I could not stock up on sales if I only had $40.00 a week to go on. But then again she could live in a warmer climate and is able to grow veggies year round. That would definitely cut back on my food budget if I was able to grow my own veggies year round.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update:

I have to say that I was really impressed with how this turned out. The potatoes stayed nice and firm and weren't as scary as I thought. If I had used regular potatoes they would have turned to mush, I'm sure of that. I wonder if I took potatoes and soaked them in water overnight, if I could use that in this and it would give the same effect? Hmmm...need to experiment.

Anyways it was really good. This is a must try. I'm actually really glad that I didn't use the additional can of tomatoes as suggested in the original recipe. I think it would have been too saucy for me. Stews and chili's to me need to be thick and hearty and not soupy.

The jalapenos added at the end were a must and took the dish to a whole new level. It was honestly a little blah for me without the jalapenos. Kylie and Kaitlynn both ate 95% of their dinner so that tells you how well it was received at our house. I did end up serving this with some brown rice. Jeff ate two servings even with the brown rice so again, a testament to how well it did in our house. He did have to add a little salt to his dish though. But that's my husband. He likes his food a bit saltier than the rest of us.

Dinner on the Cheap

I love saving money. I love getting bargains. But I didn't save much money this weekend. But I did get a lot of bargains.

On Friday I got a generous loan from my Dad. He not only sent us enough money to pay our mortgage but some extra as well. So I went grocery shopping! We were running a little low on supplies. My fridge was pretty bare and Albertsons was having a fabulous sale, so I went and made the most of it! I spent almost $100.00 at Albertsons alone but I got some great deals! And let me say that we are stocked for a very long time.

So tonight we are having "Dinner on the Cheap".

A pretty nice dinner I must say. However only one thing on the menu was actually bought at the Albertsons sale. The rest of my dinner came from my Commissary shopping spree today. The Commissary had pork steaks for $0.97/lb, so I bought a tray. 4 huge pork steaks (they filled my 11X15 pan) for $3.57. Then Au Gratin potatoes I also got at the Commissary for $1.50 for the family sized box. And Finally broccoli I bought on sale at Albertsons last week. I think it was $0.88/lb.

So in all under $6.00 for dinner for 4 people. If I had made rice to go with it instead of the Au Gratin Potatoes, it would have been a lot cheaper but I'm not feeling like rice today. The last time we went out to a restaurant (Thank God we had a gift card), it was over $35.00 for 4 people. Crazy! Even a fast food meal for 4 would cost around $20.00. That's why I don't go to restaurants very often.


** Please note I was going to take a picture of my delicious and inexpensive dinner but I didn't have time to. Once it was cooked, I fed the girls and the hubby, ate my portion and ran off to prayer meeting at church. When I got home some chunky person who shall remain nameless told me that HE, "Put the rest of the food away...Put it away in my belly!" So alas, no picture of my gorgeous, yummy, cheap dinner. :)

How Much Do You Really Have to Spend to Have a Great Birthday?

My littlest turned two today. Oh how does time fly. But even before Jeff was laided off, I wanted to see if I could take the handmade challenge and go totally mommy made for her birthday. Her birthday budget just like Kylies was $40.00 and I was WELL under budget going all handmade and I ended up making her a TON of things. Just take a look.



One of the dress sets purchased at a store would have cost me $20.00 just by itself. But I was able to make all this for under $20.00! Yep you heard me under $20.00. It just took a lot of time and patience and research and she had a very blessed birthday if I do say so myself. :)

Her sister even got in on the act and made her a coloring book.



Unfortunately, Jeff is not crafty. But he enjoyed watching me make the presents. Oh and making fun of me everytime I screamed when I pricked my finger. He throughly enjoyed that.

Doesn't the birthday girl look happy? And thats the most important thing right?



Happy Birthday My Love! I hope that you felt spoiled and adored on your 2nd birthday!

The Best Christmas Present...

Christmas morning, Kaitlynn didn't know what to make of it. She stood in front of it totally confused. What was it? Is it for me? What do I do with it? Well right after she was done opening her presents, she found out exactly what it was! She took off and disappeared into this wondrous present for an hour and a half and didn't come out. She absolutely LOVES it! She just doesn't like sharing it.

Christmas morning, Kylie blows through the baby gate that I set up and peaks into the living room (just to make sure that there are presents under the tree) then bounces down the hall into my room and whispers in my ear, "Mommy, I got a Rose Petal Cottage for Christmas". This was responded too by me with "Kylie, you knocked over the baby gate? Go back to your room and wait for Mommy and Daddy to get up."

She waited with baited anticipation. She wanted to play with that cottage. She has seen it on Jon and Kate plus 8 and she really really REALLY wanted one. Well because she decided to make some bad decisions that morning (apart from blowing through the baby gate), she didn't get to play with it until after nap time. But when she finally got in there, we lost her for about an hour as well.

This has been the hit of all the Christmas presents. Forget the Bob books, the tea set, the barbies or the babies. Forget about all that stuff (well Kaitlynn does love her baby) and you still have two very happy little girls because of this AWESOME playhouse and one very generous Grandpa.

My Dad sent a check for the girls for Christmas. So I went out and did some bargain shopping. I found this Rose Petal Cottage on Craigslist for $75. I got the cottage and the stove (which is standard when you buy it new). But I also got the sink, the nursery, play food, a baby doll, a wicker basket for the food and a blanket for the baby doll. I got a SCREAMING deal on this thing and I have to say that it's the best present. This thing is so big that I can fit inside. Jeff even said how cool this thing was when we were setting it up at 3am. It is AWESOME! I cannot say that enough. I just throw them in there and they happily play until one of them takes the others plate or pan or something and then one of them needs a time out. Everyone needs a Rose Petal Cottage! It's entertainment for girls of all ages. :)

More Food Saving Ideas

In the spirit of my last post, I thought I would share this great blog called $5.00 Dinners.

Not only does she have some great money saving advice but she also includes recipes for creating great meals that are $5.00 total to create or less.

I haven't personally tried any of her recipes but I enjoy reading her blog.

What Does it Cost to Eat in America?

Okay so I have some extra time on my hands today. I decided not to go to church this morning after one look at the unploughed roads here in Fountain. Jeff actually drove to Safeway earlier because he was in desperate need of nicotine. Crazy person. He said that the roads are really bad and told me to stay home. I wasn't going to argue. Anyways I digress...

Yesterday, I ran across this website after watching an Internet broadcast of Fox and Friends. Its called One Dollar Diet Project. These two teachers decided to try an experiment. They wanted to see if the could eat for $1.00 a day per person for an entire month. Sounds crazy right. They blogged about their experiences. He lost weight (15lbs), they both were cranky, tired and irritable but they did it for an entire month. Why? Because people all over the world live on $1.00 of food a day. They were talking about how much food they wasted on a daily basis and wanted to see if they could live off of one dollar a day. So they tried it for a whole month and they were thankful when that month ended. So that got me thinking. How much do I spend in a month just on groceries.

Well, as I said before, my budget is $60.00 a week. Sometimes I spend a little more sometimes I spend a little less but it usually evens out to $60.00 a week. If you break that down per person, you come out with $15.00 per person, per week which is about $2.14 per day. Not too bad right? Granted two of the people in the house are tiny but they still eat A LOT. Just for breakfast today, Kylie ate 1 egg, a biscuit, a glass of homemade chocolate milk (milk, 1/2 tbsp baking cocoa and 1 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar) and about a half a can of fruit salad. Kaitlynn also had an egg, fruit salad and a biscuit. So they maybe tiny but they are not little eaters.

For $2.14 a day, we have plenty of fruits and veggies. Granted the veggies are mostly the frozen variety and the fruit mostly the canned. We have snacks, hot breakfasts, desserts. We have meat which is mostly cheaper cuts but its still meat. We eat really well for $2.14 a day per person. Most of that money is funneled into dinner. Breakfasts and lunches cost a lot less. We are not malnourished and no one here is losing any weight (yet, check back with me when the national body challenge starts next month).

A typical day for us looks something like this...

Breakfast

Either oatmeal in some form (baked or cooked with flax and cranberries, if its cooked instead of baked I usually throw some canned pumpkin in there) or eggs (we like green eggs: spinach, eggs and garlic pulsed in a food processor and then scrambled in the pan) and toast both served with some kind of fruit.

Lunch

Its a smattering of different things but always includes some kind of fruit: either apples, oranges or something from the can; and a veggie: carrot sticks, frozen peas and carrots or corn. The main dish varies from sandwiches (PB & J for Kylie, Sunbutter and Jelly for Kaitlynn who is allergic to peanuts), to chicken nuggets, leftovers from dinner the night before, soup (if I serve soup, I don't usually include a veggie side)

Dinner

Also a variety of things. I get bored easily with food so I try to vary the kinds of foods I make. I posted about the soup I made the other night. On Kylie's birthday (this past Thursday), I made spaghetti. We had this with warm pears (29oz canned pears in their syrup throw into a 425 degree oven with a little cinnamon sprinkled on top) and my quick greens recipe (I used frozen green beans this time. Green beans cooked in chicken broth with garlic, 2 pieces of chopped fried bacon, garlic powder, onion powder, and garlic pepper. YUM!) The price of this dinner?

Spaghetti
Sauce: $1.00 (purchased on sale)
Noodles: $.88 (purchased in bulk at Sam's Club)
1/2 lb ground beef: $1.50
1/2 chopped onion: $.02 (a 3 lb bag bought on sale for $1.00 6 onions in the bag)
1 tsp minced garlic: $.02 (1 jar of minced garlic bought for $1.00, 48 tsp in a jar)

Pears
29oz can of pears: $1.00 (purchased on sale last week)
Cinnamon: ? (I really couldn't tell you how much cinnamon I used so I can't really determine a price but I just sprinkled a little on top and the jar of cinnamon cost me about $1.25 at Walmart)

Green Beans
16oz frozen Green Beans: $1.00 (purchased on sale)
1 tsp minced garlic: $.02
1 can chicken broth: $.39
2 pieces of bacon: $0.16 (purchased on sale for $1.77, 21 pieces in a packages)
Spices: again, I don't know the quantities I used so I can't tell you exactly how much they cost.

Total price for dinner approximately: $5.99 or $1.50 per person, a lot less if you include that we had a lot of leftovers. It probably ended up factoring to more like $.75 a person just because we had 1/2 of everything leftover after we were done eating. We had enough food leftover for the girls to have it again for dinner on Friday and for Jeff to take the majority of it to work with him for lunch the next day.


So okay, typical long winded Kristi. My point is that $1.00 a day in our economic climate is extreme. Most people around the world live on $1.00 a day because they grow or gather their own foods, raise their own animals for meat or hunt for it. So meat costs them nothing to very little and the same goes for vegetables and fruits. It takes time and not much money but you are subject to low food supplies during times of extreme weather. I think in a truer $1.00 a day experiment, they should have grown some of their own foods. They would have been able to eat well while maintaining their budget. It would be interesting if they did this again but planned on starting a garden in spring. I wonder what their food intake would look like then.

Eating Well on a VERY Tight Budget

You know yesterday I had the realization that I have been eating like total and utter crap lately. My tummy is bulging, I'm tired, I'm short of breath and I look pregnant (fortunately for me, when I gain weight its all in my tummy area).

So I started to think about how I could start eating better but still maintain my budget. Jeff certainly won't eat well. He doesn't like "rabbit" food. And with a $60.00 a week budget for 4 people, I have to buy the cheap cuts of everything to make the money stretch.

Well tonight, I made a great soup. I mean a GREAT soup. Totally from scratch. And it is good for me too! Chicken Tortilla soup. Well a variation of it using what I had on hand. I haven't gone grocery shopping since the Sunday after Thanksgiving so I'm trying to make whatever we have stretch until I get a chance to go again.

Also, I wanted to have some tortilla with the soup but I used the last of my tortillas Saturday to make the girls some chimichangas for lunch. So I made some. Yep, made some from scratch. To top it all off, I have some "baked" oatmeal going in the crock pot for tomorrow morning. If I have breakfast on hand, then I won't be tempted to stop at Burger King and take advantage of their dollar breakfast menu tomorrow.

I don't know why I'm so proud. Many people make their meals from scratch everyday. Its just not done so much in the Western world I guess. We can go to the store and buy soup in a can and tortillas in a plastic bag. But there is just something satisfying about making something yourself from scratch.

Now I'm tired. But its a good tired. I cleaned my kitchen, made a great dinner and I still have some oomph left to make a pumpkin pie tonight and some rice krispies treats. Jeff needs snacks for work or he will buy some.

Oh and sorry for the pic. I'm no Pioneer Woman when it comes to picture taking.

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Oh my. I just had to update. I just put away the "baked" oatmeal and of course I had to taste it to make sure that it wasn't poisoned. :) It was SOOOO yummy! This recipe is a MUST TRY! Its so easy and its definitely something that you can eat on the go in the car. When you break it into portions some of it crumbles and you can use that over yogurt. Oh my. Its so good! I know that tomorrow morning my girls are just going to love it.

Its easier for me to just feed them in the car when we drive up to drop Jeff off at work. It makes my morning less harried.

Oh and this recipe is cheap cheap cheap. I already had everything I needed in the fridge or pantry. Yep, I keep flax meal on hand. You mix it all in the crock pot and then forget about it for 4 hours. Mine took 4 hours though the recipe says 3-5. I would recommend though letting it cool completely before you break it off into portions so it stays together more and doesn't crumble as much.. I was to excited to wait. It would have been a good idea to put the entire crock insert into the fridge and just break it into portions tomorrow morning. But I was impatient. Oh well, it still tastes yummy.

Black Friday Reflections

Okay so do you see a theme happening here? I'm reflecting today

Okay so before I start this, lets get a couple of things out of the way...

Yes, I am a bargain shopping fiend and I start planning my Black Friday shopping on the Monday of that week (that's when the Walmart sales ad comes out)

Yes, I am the crazy lady who is at Walmart at 430am stocking my cart before the sale technically starts.

Yes, I am a type A personality and I made an extensive excel spreadsheet with stores, prices, who it's from and who the presents are for. See my example below. Yes, I am THAT crazy.

Yes, I am the person who stands in the long line outside of Target waiting for them to open.

Yep, that's me. Okay I feel so much better now that I got that off my chest. Now, I can truly start reflecting on my shopping frenzy today.

I love Black Friday. Black Friday is not a day for browsing and people in the stores that are browsing during the sales just get on my nerves. But that's me. Black Friday shopping is truly a sport and not to be undertaken if you aren't serious about finding the bargains and ready to stand in long lines. I stood in line for an hour and a half today at Toys R Us. Crazy? Yep. But it's Black Friday and I was prepared to stand in line.

But, today was the craziest Black Friday I have ever seen. Walmart this morning was true insanity. I have never seen that many people there that early. I usually get there at 430 in the morning. Yep, the only day of the year that I can get up that early. The last 5 Black Fridays, when I got there at 430 in the morning there really weren't too many people there. I can usually park fairly close to the door. Today, the parking lot was packed! I had to park pretty far away from the door. It was insane. As I drove to Walmart, there were just a few cars on the road. Typical for early morning. There weren't too many lights on other than street lights but when I pulled into the parking lot at Walmart, it was aglow with headlights. When I walked into the store, there were already people in line waiting to check out. I was in total shock.

One lady I spoke with attributed the mass of people to more people living in the Fountain area. To be honest, there aren't that many more people living in Fountain this year than there were last year. But, I think that its a testament to the hard hit economy. People who wouldn't normally dream of being out that early on Black Friday packed the stores. I can't tell you how many times I heard people say today that this was their first Black Friday experience and they couldn't believe how crowded it was. There were displays in Walmart that were totally decimated because of the throngs of people who descended upon them. The $4.00 PJ section was completely torn apart.

To be honest, the sales weren't that different than what they offered last year. But yet people were there in droves this morning. Before the sun was up, some folks (like myself) had already been shopping for hours. People are trying to make their dollar stretch much further this year. Websites about budget minded shopping and dinners, money saving tips, etc are extremely popular this year as people try to weather this financial storm. Most are trying to change their mindsets about spending and become more budget conscious. But this is the time of year when credit card balances start to rise.

As, I had a lot of time to think today while I stood in line for one and half hours at Toys R Us. My mind drifted a lot (because I hadn't had my coffee yet) about how people were paying for all their bargain treasures. People who were buying 3 HDTVs, 4 Digital photo frames and 5 iPods were definitely not paying cash for their items. But were they charging up their credit cards to pay for all the luxuries? I didn't see anyone pay for their items today with cash. Not that there weren't those that did (I did! I did!) but I didn't see any. In Toys R Us, I saw a lot of people that kept adding to their shopping carts as the line for the registers snaked through the store. Were people really just spending without care today? I don't know. Just cause I'm anal retentive about my shopping list doesn't mean everyone else is. What I do know is that I came in well under my budget for Christmas presents and I got a lot of stuff.

I save all year long so that I have money to spend for Christmas. Something I started doing when Kylie was a baby. Her birthday is December 11th and it's hard to get doubly hit at the end of the year. So I save. Cash allows me to have a limited budget. If I felt free to just spend and spend on a credit card, my house would be more overrun with stuff than it is right now. On top of the money I saved. My Dad and Gramma also sent money for the girls. So I divided everything equally between everyone and I am happy to say that both Kylie and Kaitlynn will have some really nice things to open on Christmas morning. Today I probably spent a total of $400. That is presents for Kylie's birthday and Christmas presents for Kylie, Kaitlynn and Jeff and stocking stuffers for those 3 as well. So not too shabby I think. I even wrapped Jeff's presents already. I had to. He will try to find them if I didn't. I figured the best way to keep them a surprise until Christmas was to wrap them.

Normally, I will spend everything I have saved for the holidays but this year I was savvy and really controlled myself. I had to remind myself that my kids don't need every new thing. I tried to stick to things that I know they will love and play with. Last year I just got them things to get them things. So they would have something to open. I didn't want to do that this year. I know that they will be happy with everything I got them and I'm not just wondering if they will like it or not.

I think that in a way, the financial crunch is a good thing. Yes, it sucks to have to scale back a lot but in a way, I think our culture was too "me minded". We were too stuck into thinking that we need the latest coolest thing. We don't. I think the economic upheaval is helping people to realize that they need to think about what they truly need and not just what they want. But, I also think that no matter what, Christmas for some will always be a spending spree no matter what the economy looks like.

Okay so please forgive me if I rambled. I know that I did. I'm tired. I have been up since 4 after all and I was up practically all night. Kaitlynn had a rough night last night. Shes a kid, it happens. But why it had to happen on Black Friday? I'll never know I'm sure. Crazy lady is going to bed now. ;)

Saving Money.

So today in church, Dr Mike continued his finance series.

It got me really thinking about where we can scale back in our finances.

Right now with things being so tight, I don't think there is a way that we can scale back any more than we already have. But what have I done to scale back? Well its not much different than what we had been doing before.

"Buy used and save the difference"

I just love a bargain and when my girls are in need of something or I am in need of something, I have no problem getting something used. Goodwill is my favorite store for this kind of stuff. But lately, I have been finding the quality of the things I find, not as good as it was just a couple of months ago. I did recently buy myself a pair of shoes at Goodwill though. I told myself I would never buy a pair of used shoes. Feet just gross me out! But, you know what? The shoes I bought were only $1.99 and they were comfy and in great condition. You can't beat that right?

Craigslist and rummage sales are my other passion. My dad recently sent a check for the girls for Christmas and I found a screaming deal on a "Rose Petal Cottage". If you know what this thing is, you know that its EXPENSIVE! Well I got a slammin' deal on this thing. It looks brand new and the lady I bought it from threw in the stove, nursery set and extra play food, a baby doll and a baby blanket all for $75!!! Awesome right? If you priced this thing out new, you couldn't purchase just the cottage for that. The cottage itself is $90.00 plus the nursery set is $40... you get the idea. I saved a boat load on it! I love to save money!

Coupons, Coupons, Coupons. Sales, Sales, Sales.

I had gotten out of couponing for a while because you usually only find coupons for brand name items. I find it cheaper most of the time to just buy the store brand. However, when you combine a coupon with a sale, you get a very happy Kristi.

I love to shop the sales. I try not to pay full price for anything and with a strict weekly grocery budget of $60, I really have to make my money stretch as far as possible. I will go through the weekly sale fliers and make my list and calculate exactly how much I think it's going to cost me. I will also spend time on my calculator at the store to make sure that I am staying within my budget.

So how do I manage to only spend $60.00 a week? Well not only do I utilize the sales but I pay attention to what is on sale. I find that one week there will be a screaming deal on meat and I'll stock up for as much as my $60.00 can handle. Then the next week, maybe there will be screaming deals on produce and canned goods. Again, I will stock up.

I cook almost everyday now. When I don't cook we are usually getting the sale "meal" that week. Safeway usually will have a $5.00 special on Fridays. I'll pick up the $5.00 main dish and combine that with what I have in my pantry and fridge. To me that $5.00 is worth a cooking break for me. Even if I manage to "cook big" (aka a lot of food) my hungry husband will usually polish off whatever I make. There are normally no leftovers so leftover nights are just not options for us.

I have also learned to get really creative with dinner. Some of our favorite budget dinners are Tater Tot Casserole, Chili Topped Baked Potatoes, Chicken Adobo, Baked Pork Chops, Korean BBQ Chicken and Filipino Menudo. YUM! Easy budget friendly and delicious.

Driving Less

So even though gas prices are plummeting as fast as the stock market, we are still in the mindset of not traveling too much. We are paying half as much now as we were when gas prices were high but, there are other areas of our finances that the extra money could go to. So we still don't driving around all over the place, we just go where we need to and try to plan on doing errands along the way. Plus, when two working people share one car, its really easy not to go "gallivanting" all over the place as my Gramma would say.

Plus there are so many other ways we are scaling back.

We go to the beauty school to get haircuts. The other day Jeff, Kylie and I all got haircuts and shampoos for $25.00. You cant beat that. Most places just to do my hair it would cost $25.00.

Making my own cleaning products and scaling back on the rest. I love making my own cleaning products. I can't stand the artificial smell so making my own cleaner for literally pennies is great! I have been using that Arm and Hammer Essentials recently but that's because I got a FULL SIZED sample at Walmart last month. I love it but once it's gone back to making my own cleaners I go. I also just came across a recipe for laundry detergent that I am itching to try once the laundry detergent that I currently have runs out.

Cloth Diapers! I love my cloth diapers. I just washed a load today. Unlike some of my friends, my main motivation behind cloth diapering was not to save the environment. I mean that's a huge bonus, but I like not having to buy diapers every month. I like not having to budget for that. Its great! Plus even though I bought pretty much all of my diapers new, its still going to save me hundreds of dollars over the long haul. I am completely stocked with diapers until Kaitlynn is potty trained. Plus the colors are so pretty. I love my FuzziBunz!

Yes, we still have luxuries like cable but, we don't ever go out. We don't go out to see movies, we don't buy DVDs anymore. I feel like we but back everywhere else, that we deserve to have a little luxury in our lives like cable. That's what I think, and I'm sticking to it.

What I do find is that its really easy for me to stay on track with budget, but not so much for Jeff. He admitted to me the other day that he doesn't really pay attention to how much hes spending and that's a huge no no when it comes to trying to stay on budget. I'm the type of person where I'm adding up in my head how much I spent and how much is left in my budget. Jeff is very free with his money and that's why he ends up putting us in the red. He says hes going to work on that. I pray that he does.