Tag Archives: birthparents counseling healing

Getting Creative with Almost-Expired Food

Using what you have in your pantry is important when food prices have risen so much. Creating meals from your pantry can reduce your weekly food budget or allow you to skip a shopping trip or two. It also prevents food waste. Sometimes you are faced with just a few strange items to use up before they expire or go bad. This is where you have to get creative. I’ll offer you some tips, as well as links to a couple of recipes that will help you create real meals from a collection of end-date food. This post is part … Continue reading →

Meals to Make from Bread

Stretch out your food budget by not letting anything go to waste. When you are faced with dinner time and there is “nothing” to prepare, take a look into your pantry. There are so many things you can make with what may be available. Today let’s take a look at bread. You can usually find bread in most people’s kitchens, and it is great for turning into meals and side dishes. This post is part of the Ideas for Cooking from Your Stockpile series. Main Meals: Try these ideas to make bread, fresh or stale, into a main meal. The … Continue reading →

Ideas for Cooking from Your Stockpile

With food prices continuing to rise, stockpile cooking is a great way to stretch out that food budget and minimize food and money waste. Whenever money is tight, you should always start with what you already have. Having a robust pantry allows you to make many different meals, but what if you find your pantry slimming down? With less bargains available, I have been seeing some shrinkage in my pantry. That is why it is so important to get creative and use up what you have. Now, when I mention cooking from your stockpile, I really mean your pantry, your … Continue reading →

The Cost of Chocolate Candy is Rising Again

Those sweet treats are going to be costing you just a bit more very soon. I know that I am paying attention to this one, since my family has a “wicked” sweet tooth for Dove dark chocolate. We stock up on the stuff when we have coupons and there are sales, but the little wrapped squares tend to go very quickly unless we conserve and dole them out carefully. After recent announcements by some chocolate candy manufacturers, we may just have to do with less or without. Mars, the maker of Dove chocolate, as well as Snickers and M&Ms has … Continue reading →

Frugal Living Week in Review: August 18th Through August 24th

Are the kids gearing up for back to school, or perhaps they are already there? Yesterday I got the final school supply list, and I went into my stockpile to gather everything up. Stockpiling really helped us, since by the time the official lists come out, the sales are pretty much over. If you want to read more about frugal school supplies, you can check here: Frugal School Supplies in July Frugal School Supplies in July 2 Frugal School Supplies in July 3 School Supplies in July 4 Meanwhile, take a look at all of the frugal articles from last … Continue reading →

Saving Money at the Shore 3

We just got back from our vacation this weekend, and we are now catching up with the regular routine. An unplanned side trip extended the vacation by a day, and so there is a lot to share with you. If you missed the first two posts in this series, you can catch up here: Saving Money at the Shore Saving Money at the Shore 2 I promised to talk about some free and low cost forms of entertainment when at the shore. While I will give you some examples of the things we did that were fun and frugal, you … Continue reading →

Saving Money at the Shore 2

You may be caught up in back to school, but it still isn’t too late to enjoy a great vacation at the shore. I know because I am there right now. We have been having all sorts of fun on a limited budget. Yesterday I talked about rentals and food, now let’s get into to some more ways to save money at the shore. Although bringing our own food has been a great way for us to save a lot of money, it is only natural that we would want a little treat now and then. Right next store to … Continue reading →

Something from Nothing

If you look hard enough, you can usually make something from nothing. Whether you have a need or a want, here are some thoughts on how you can take advantage of nothing to make something. Have you seen the children’s book, Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback? The story follows a man named Joseph and the adventures of what was once a little overcoat. Through the years, the overcoat is worn down and turned into something else, which gets worn and then turned into something else again, until there is nothing left. Then the nothing is turned into … Continue reading →

Stretching Your Makeup Savings

Beauty can be expensive. Just the other day, I was given an “invitation” for a spa event that cost $160! Whew. There are some frugal ways that we can still pamper ourselves and use makeup and other beauty products without going broke. Here are some ideas for stretching your makeup savings. Take advantage of all of the great deals that are put out by competing pharmacies. Usually if you pay attention to what is going on at CVS and Walgreens, you can get a lot of makeup products for free. Check out the Deals forums here at Families.com and get … Continue reading →

Frugal in the City

While I now live in a semi-rural part of Pennsylvania, the fact is that I am a city girl born and bread, uh bred. Many people think that is harder to be frugal in the city. They claim: In the city you can’t grow your own vegetables or can food. In the city the cost of living in higher. There is often no space to store stockpiled food or other items. You can’t hang laundry in the city. While those reasons may all be valid, there are many work around ideas to address them. For example, my mother hung every … Continue reading →