Saving money on meat

When my husband and I first got married, we had hamburger helper every night. Seriously I mean EVERY night. When I went to the store I would buy 7 boxes of the stuff and some hamburger meat for the week.

During this time I would buy one package of bulk hamburger meat a week and buy the time the weekend rolled around we had eaten everything. While this was great for a person like me who can't cook, eating that much hamburger meat was not good for our health, pocketbooks, or the environment.

To help lower our carbon footprint and make our newly made grocery budget last a little bit longer, we are now eating considerable less hamburger meat. While this has been going wonderful, I still wanted to find a way to buy the meat that we do eat in bulk to save some money.

Here's what I do: Once a month now (instead of once a week) I buy a bulk size container of hamburger meat. When I come home from the grocery store I immediately brown all the meat. Once it is drained I separate the meat into sandwich size plastic baggies. Each plastic baggie holds about a pound of meat. These then go into the freezer and when I need hamburger meat I thaw one bag and am good to go.

Saving me both time and money :)

A laugh at my expense

Today I decided to do a few loads of laundry. Normally everything other than diapers wait until Saturday, but with the chance of being snowed/iced in from work tomorrow I decided I was in a productive mood and decided to do a load of towels first. FYI.... out of all the laundry I do I love towels the most. I hate folding laundry, but absolutely LOVE folding towels.

As I was switching things from the washer to the dryer a towel hits the liquid detergent and down it goes straight into the dryer. Wouldn't you know this would be the time I had forgot to put the cap on and there is now detergent forming a giant puddle at the bottom the dryer.

It takes a good 30 minutes to mop up at least two cups of thick, slimy detergent. The entire time this is happening I am thinking that maybe the detergent has some chemical that is flammable under high temperatures and when I start the dryer again it will catch fire. Or maybe detergent is going down every nook and cranny (believe me there are more than you think inside a dryer) and is going to tear up the machine.

My husband had a good chuckle at my expense and then proceded to tell me I would not indeed burn the house down when I started the dryer. Even though, there was not a lot of comfort taken from those words because I am a person whose house burnt a total of 4 times when they were growing up. To make me feel better though he did put both fire extinguishers outside the laundry room in case we needed them :)

A change in thought

For those of you who live near me you might have heard about a wreck that happened yesterday in front of a Grocery Store that is famous for wrecks tending to happening outside. Truly this is such a horrible intersection wrecks tend to happen far to often.

I came upon the aftermath of that wreck yesterday and it has been in my thoughts all day. Thinking about what I saw yesterday I have been thinking about somethings that God had laid on my heart. Previously when I drove up on a wreck my immediate response was to pray and ask that everyone was able to walk away from the accident and thank God that we have people that are willing to rush in and help those who need it.

One day a few years back I was driving to town and I saw a wreck happen and again my response was to thank God that we lived in a county where people were able and willing to help those who need it. As I was praying God immediately told me not to be as concerned about people physically, but to be concerned that someone might not have gotten to them with the Gospel before it was to late. I had been so worried about the physically well being of those who might have been injured that I wasn't at all thinking about their spiritual well being.

We never know when something might happen. We might be the last chance someone has to hear about the gospel. Why is it that we are willing to rush to someone's aid physically when they need it, but are not as eager to rush to their side to share the gospel, especially when that is so much more important.

Saving money on baby clothes

So, I absolutely love a good deal! When I find one I get what I call a "Savings high"! You know, the feeling you get when you know you are stretching your money a little bit further and doing better to serve your family while being a good steward of the money that God gave you. That feeling :)

Well I get that feeling every time a new season rolls around. That means it's time for Consignment Sale Shopping! I was introduced to a local consignment sale a while back from a friend that I work with and it was love at first sight. All the name brand, barely used clothes at a fraction of the price. It couldn't get any better than that.

The local consignment sale that I shop at happens twice a year and I can typically get my daughter's entire winter/summer wardrobe for around $75. Considering that I typically make that much when I sale her clothes/toys there you could say I get her wardrobe for free. It doesn't get much better than that!

For more wonderful ideas visit We Are That Family for more Works for Me Wednesday.

P.S. I know it's Tuesday when I'm writing this, but I have to get up and go to work tomorrow. Sue me :)

Menu Planning January 4, 2010

After my experience at the grocery store on Saturday I knew that I needed to take what I had and put it into a menu quick so it wasn't eaten as people were looking for snacks :)

Here's what we're eating this week

Monday - Macaroni and Cheese with broccoli

Tuesday - Crock pot Chili

Wednesday - Chicken Fried Rice

Thursday - Rice with Cream of Mushroom Soup and Sausage

Friday - Spaghetti

For more menu planning take a look at Organizing Junkie's site

Saving money at the grocery store

Today I went grocery shopping. It was a disaster. Plans changed at the last minute and I didn't have time to make my menu for the week and to go with that the list for the grocery store. I know that making my menu for the week saves me money. As a matter of fact this concept alone has saved me more money than any other technique I have tried.

When I went today I decided that I would make my menu as I went. What a horrible idea! I ended up just putting things into the buggy that I know we will eat. By the end of the trip while I was still under budget I don't think the food will go as far as it would if I had planned ahead.

The best way to save money at the grocery store:

Plan your menu for the week and only buy what you need :)

Day 1

So today I (along with many others) started The Bible in 90 Days study with the ladies over at momstoolbox. I began reading thinking of how overwhelming it would be to read so much every night. I barely have time to brush my teeth, yet alone read. As I began reading though this was not the case, I became so hooked on what I was reading that the time flew by. I got to read my Bible while my daughter sat beside me reading one of her books :)

One thing stuck out to me during my reading time was Genesis 7:7

"And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood".

As I am reading this I began to think about exactly what Noah and his family were going through. More specifically I began to think about how they felt knowing that they were inside the boat while members of their family were outside. We read in Genesis 5:30 that Noah had brothers and sisters. Noah sat inside the boat knowing that he was spared from certain death that will come with the flood while his brothers and sisters were not. That had to be heartbreaking for him to go through. What would it be like to know that you were saved from death while there were members of your family who were not?

I have been saved from eternal separation from God and there are many of my friends and family who have not. Does my heart break for them the way I think that Noah's heart broke for his family?

Please God give me a heart for the lost! Let me see them through your eyes! As I go about my day help me not to look at people through worldly eyes, but help me to see them as people "outside the boat".