i had a surprise visitor today - rachel. she's my friend that i met at work - we were big (well, i was big. she was just beautifully pregnant.) and pregnant together. she had an errand to run on my side of town and so she stopped by on her way. she brought her sweet baby (nearly 9month old - jeez louise, where does the time go?) girl, faith, with her. [if/when i get permission to post pictures of faith, i will. you will just melt at the beauty of this little girl. she was born with THE thickest head of jet black hair that compliment her beautiful blue/green/gray eyes. oh she's precious.] so anyway, we're both extremely frugal women. it's something we laugh about and pride ourselves about. we were talking about making our babyfood and about poops and teeth and teething and drooling. mommy conversation is the best, isn't it? and she was telling me that she makes ALL of her babyfood. i thought i did, too. but i don't. i don't do fruit b/c i read that you can't make fruit babyfood b/c it won't keep. right. it won't. it won't keep for a long time. but for a short time it will. like, say, 4 days. so off to the grocery i go. well, when loralai wakes from her nap. and we'll get some fruit. pears, to be exact. for some reason we have a million apples - i over bought and forgot. so go to www.cuisinart.com and click on recipes and then baby and then whatever stage your youngin's at. it is glorious. steam veggies and fruit and blend blend blend away. what an awesome way to save money, fill the bellies with nutrious food and stock the freezer.
so - what are your frugal tips? do you recycle, do you buy food on major sale (if so, where and when?), do you cook on sunday for the whole week? what are your tips? let's all share - and then i'll post. i think together we could make a lot of sense out of the rising prices. thanks :)
4 comments:
TheGroceryGame.com is the best...it's hard to explain so just go to the website and read about it...I use it every week and save lots of money at the grocery store(s) and my hubby and I make a game out of seeing how much we can save. Good times!
We buy at Sams when we can and know if won't go bad. I (used to) plan meals a week or more in advance, so that way when you shop you are only buying what you need for those meals. if you get good at it you can use left over food (example have hamburgers one night and tacos the next... you can re-use lettuce, hamburger meat, tomatoes.. etc). i also check the weekly circulars for each grocery chain and see what they have on sale that we use and stock up :) (especially if it is drinks or things that won't go bad)
where do i start?
1.try to only buy stuff we need, not stuff we want.
2.thermostat set to between 78-80 in the summer, and 66-68 in winter, and use ceiling fans. our energy bill was consistently less that $40 until june. if it were higher we'd probably switch to time-of-use billing. (if you want details about this let me know--super easy way to save money, esp if you have an electric water heater.)
3.walmart
4.farmers' market
5.shop the grocery sales (esp meats, chicken, fish, and the chips, pretzels, cheezits etc for lunches)
6.oh yeah, take lunch to work
7.i got my hair cut this week at a hair cutting school: $9 including tip
8.also needed new jeans this week(my patching job didn't work out in real life like it did in my head): $5 gap jeans that fit perfectly from rugged warehouse
9.goodwill
10.craigslist
11.ebay
12.freecycle
13.church's annual yard sale
14.habitat re-store
15.not a morning person so breakfast usually happens on the way to work and prepackaged breakfast food isn't super cheap. sooo, i made some granola bars this week. they're mmmm, and they have to be healthier.
16.i just learned about deli meats and cheeses:often cheaper than the stuff in the meat and dairy sections, esp if you watch for sales.
17.make skirts and dresses--they're easy. (unless i can find a dress or skirt cheaper than the fabric would cost me to make it.) maybe i'll turn those old jeans into a skirt HA
ok, even though i could keep going, this is enough.
I try to bring my lunch to work as often as possible.
We rent movies from the RedBox. Can't beat $1 movie rentals!
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