Eating from the Freezer and Pantry Challenge: Week 1 {at Keeper of the Home}

I'm excited to tell you about a new challenge over at Keeper of the Home: Eating from Your Pantry & Freezer! The challenge runs from May 16-June 18, but it officially kicked off with a freezer/pantry meal plan link-up today.

You can read more about the challenge here, but the basics are that you commit to planning your meals around what is already in your pantry, freezer and refrigerator. Therefore, you use up food that may have been there for a while--and save money in the process!

Image by CWMGary 

I hope to post my pantry/freezer meal plan during the coarse of the challenge, but I will admit: I am running behind this week and have really fallen behind on meal planning in general during this pregnancy!

I am hoping this challenge helps me get back into gear. Today, I'll be doing a pantry/freezer inventory (all it takes is a pen and some paper to tally up everything you have) and making a sketch meal plan for the rest of the month. 

I hope to update this post later today with this week's meal plan. 

Something else exciting? Stephanie at Keeper of the Home is offering all of her eBooks at 25% off during the course of the sale! Use code: CHALLENGE25. Or, you can get all 3 of her eBooks bundled together for 50% off! Use code: BUNDLE50. 

Stephanie's meal planning book--Plan It, Don't Panic--and her Real Food on a Real Budget book will be especially helpful during the challenge. Healthy Homemaking is just an overall helpful book for any time. 

I own all 3 of these books (and edited Plan It, Don't Panic), and I highly, highly recommend them. (And they don't go on sale that often, so now is the time to jump on the deal! Hint: I never buy eBooks full price!)

If you want to jump in on this challenge and have a blog, go ahead and post your meal plan and head on over to today's post at Keeper of the Home to link it up with others. I can't wait to peruse all the meal plans and get some ideas for the weeks to come!

What makes me most excited about this challenge? Eating from our pantry and freezer AND getting back on board with meal planning will help me BLESS my family. The Lord has called me to serve my redheaded man and 2 (and 1/2) little redheaded girls, and this will challenge will help me do that!

Have you ever challenged yourself to eat from your pantry and freezer for a period of time?

Parenting on a Penny: How to Furnish a House on Craigslist {at Green...Your Way}

It's been QUITE a while since my last Parenting on a Penny frugal-living post! I hope you enjoy this post on how to furnish a house on a shoestring Craigslist budget! 

Image by starathena

I'm so excited and very honored to be guest posting over at Decorating...Your Way, a division of Life...Your Way today!


Here's an excerpt on today's post on how to furnish a house by using Craigslist:

Nearly three years ago, my family made a cross-continent move from a short ministry stint in Vancouver, BC, Canada to North Carolina. We arrived to our new home with six suitcases, a jogging stroller, a pack ‘n play and a diaper bag. Our new townhouse fit our family perfectly--but we didn’t have much to fit inside it. 

Since we were transitioning from a tight missionary budget to an even tighter one-income teacher salary, we knew our choices on furniture would be limited. It was either Walmart (if we could even swing that) or second-hand. 

Hop on over to Decorating...Your Way to read the rest of this post!

8 Ways to Reuse Leftover Produce (at Stacy Makes Cents)

Today, I'm excited to be posting about ways to use your leftovers over at Stacy Makes Cents!

Here's an excerpt:  

Do you ever have leftover fruits and veggies that you just don’t know what to do with?

When I first got married, I was TERRIBLE about letting leftover produce go bad.

Ahem, let me be transparent. I can be bad about letting leftover produce—or even excess produce from our lovely summer garden go bad. And I always feel so guilty. Sure, there may have not been enough leftover green beans or carrots for a side dish for an entire meal, but there must have been something I could have done with that food I let go to waste. Right?

And I’ve discovered there is! Whether it be a spoonful of leftover peas or 5 lbs. or extra carrots from your garden (I wish we had that problem!), there are lots of ways to use up all those veggies without letting them get all moldy in the bottom of the produce drawer of your refrigerator!

Read the rest of this post here.

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Homemade Disinfectant Wipes {Homemade Homemaking}

 

Every Wednesday I'll be posting on a monthly series. 

Last week, I introduced my "Healthy Homemakers" series. This week, I'm excited about the launch of "Homemade Homemaking"! 

On the 4th Wednesday of every month, I'll be posting on either a food staple or household item that we homemakers can make--from scratch! 

I spent most of the first 5 years of my marriage buying canned goods, jarred and boxed foods and cleaning supplies that can very easily be made at home. 

A few weeks ago, Emily at Live Renewed inspired me to make homemade disinfectant wipes. She wrote her post on it in September 2009. I had stumbled upon it months ago but kept putting it off, thinking making them would probably be long and complicated. 

Was I ever wrong!

Making these wipes was a PIECE OF CAKE!

I even had most of what I needed already in the house. In fact, the only thing I had to hunt down was castille soap. (If you are local, you can find it here, or anyone should be able to order it online here or find it at their local health food store.)

I've been using these for over a month now, and I must say--they are WONDERFUL. 

They don't create extra laundry because I just throw them in the wash with the other rags. I thought I might have to ring them out, but, no...they are ready right out of their container! 

I love these wipes because they:

1. Save my family money.

2. Are much healthier for my family than conventional cleaners.

3. Are great for God's creation!

Without further ado, here's June's "Homemade Homemaking" recipe for reusable disinfectant wipes: 

Supplies

• old baby wipes container (I used Huggies)
• white vinegar (found at Wal-Mart or Target)
• tea tree oil (found at a health food store, but cheapest at Wal-Mart or Target in the supplements section)
• lavender oil
• castile soap
• some of your hubby's old T-shirts
• water

  Instructions
  

• Cut up old T-shirts into squares (size doesn't matter)

• Put squares of cloth into wipes container
• Mix about a cup of water, a squirt of castille soap, 1/4 c. of vinegar, and 3-4 drops tea tree oil and 3-4 drops lavender
• Pour liquid mixture over cloth

Easy Peasy! 


Check out Emily's blog for more great natural cleaning recipes! 

Do YOU make any of your own natural cleaners? If so, please share your recipes! I'm so excited about cleaning more naturally--and more frugally! :)

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If you liked this post, you may also like my post on homemade lactation cookies. 

 I'm linking this post up with The Healthy Home Economist
NOBH

Make Your Own Monday

Preserving Strawberries

In most parts of the country, strawberry season is coming to a close, and their prices will start rising again from here until next spring. 

This year, I decided to take advantage of the low prices and preserve a few pounds for us to enjoy throughout the year. 

This is probably the simplest post you'll ever read on preserving strawberries. It really wasn't that hard!

The first thing I did was wash all the strawberries. I rinsed them well with cold water in a colander.

The next thing I did was spritz the strawberries with a produce cleaner. I got this spray at my local health food store. This step wouldn't be necessary if you buy organic strawberries, but we didn't have access to organic ones within our budget. Modern Alternative Mama uses grapefruit seed extract to wash her berries. I may try this next year! 

I then rinsed the berries off with cool water again and cut off the tops and hollowed them out. 

I then placed all the hollowed out berries on a cookie sheet, slid it in the freezer and let them sit for an hour. 

After all the berries were individually frozen, I took them out and put them in gallon-sized freezer bags. 

It was easy-peasy, and now I have smoothie-worthy berries ready in an instant!

Have you ever preserved strawberries? What is your favorite strawberry treat?

If you liked this post, check out my recipe for strawberry crisp. 

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10 ways to save on groceries without clipping coupons

Image by ckforjc

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I’m not an “extreme couponer.” 

But if I don't use many coupons, how does my family save money on groceries? 

Here are a few tips on how my family has learned to shop for real, unprocessed food on a tight budget:

• Shop at Aldi (or another discount grocery store). Aldi is an international discount store, and they carry quality food! They don’t take coupons, but their prices are so low that you don’t even need them!

• Scour the clearance racks. Yes, they exist in food stores, and they are the first places I check out. The food isn’t bad either. It’s just not the freshest of the fresh. I recently bought 14 huge organic bell peppers for $4 total! I cut them up and froze them when I got home. Just make sure you eat or freeze “clearance” foods fast.

• Make a flexible meal plan. I plan, but I modify the plan based on what I find at the store. For example, I bought a huge container of organic salad the other day marked down to $2. We had enough to have taco salads for dinner and lunches for two days. Sure, I’d love more variety, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. Salads two days in a row sure beats Hamburger Helper!

• Buy and freeze “clearance” dairy. I only feed my toddler organic milk, and I frequently find it on clearance a couple days or so before “sell date.” I buy it and freeze it – sometimes freezing smaller portions in different containers. I find it never goes bad before she can drink it all. I also buy and freeze organic yogurt when it’s on sale/clearance. At one point this winter, my husband commented that our freezer looked like the dairy section of a grocery store!

• Plant an organic garden. We had our first organic garden last summer and expanded it this year. A garden saves us lots of produce money during the warmer months, and I froze some of our “harvest” for the winter months.

• Try to use everything you have. For example, I boiled chicken breasts the other day to make enchiladas. I saved the broth to make chicken stock and used it for chicken noodle soup the next day. We had steamed broccoli a few nights ago. I chopped up the leftovers and added it to spaghetti sauce the next night. I don’t want to waste anything!

• Check stores like Big Lots and Ollie’s for dry goods. I’ve been able to find some organic options at these stores at rock-bottom prices!

• Buy bulk dry goods. Health food stores can be pricey, but buying from its bulk section can actually be quite affordable. It’s usually much cheaper than buying pre-proportioned dry goods in a bag or box.

• Drink water – it’s free. We never, ever buy soft drinks and rarely buy juice.

• Cut corners on other household supplies. Switch to cloth diapers, wipes, napkins, paper towels – any and every paper product. Use baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, tea tree and other essential oils for cleaning. There’s so many ways to cut corners and still eat relatively healthy food.

What ways does your family save money on your grocery bill?

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*This post first appeared in the May 27 issue of the Mooresville Weekly. 

I'm linking this post up with: We are THAT Family

 

Why I'm NOT an Extreme "Couponer"

I confess: I am not an extreme “couponer.”

I had aspirations of trying my hand at couponing sometime this year, but I haven’t made it too far.

It seems extreme couponing is the talk of the town these days. There’s TLC’s “Extreme Couponing,” and I even wrote a story about a former Mooresville resident has been featured on that show.

Some women literally spend hours on end scouring the newspapers and Internet for coupons. I applaud these women. It’s a creative way to help stretch a family’s budget in tough economic times. They see couponing as their full or part-time jobs.

But what works for one person doesn’t work for everybody. Each mom has to find ways to save money that works for her family – whether it’s clipping coupons, cutting hair or in my case, writing stories.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love saving money. My college roommates jokingly said “Laura Lynn” was my friend because it was the name of a local grocery store’s generic brand – and it was all I bought at the time.

But right now, my family’s money-saving strategy has more to do with cutting cable than clipping coupons.

The danger with couponing is that it can become an addiction, and people will buy stuff just because they have a coupon – not because they really need it. I don’t want to take couponing that far.

As I’ve dipped my feet into motherhood the past few years, a lot of my priorities have changed. Nutrition is one of them.

I have no doubts you can save massive amounts of money by couponing. But is it worth it if you do it at the expense of the health of your family?

Let me explain. When I first moved back to Mooresville, I was thrilled to find out that a couple of grocery stores regularly double and triple coupons. When local friends updated their

Facebook statuses with sentences like, “I just spent $2 on $200 worth of groceries at Harris Teeter,” I was more than ready to jump on the bandwagon.

I started collecting coupons and even planned my store trips by scouring prices on websites and tailoring my list to match my coupon collection.

And it worked. On paper it looked like I “saved” money, but I really just came home with a bunch of processed foods that sat in my pantry for months.

You see, it’s easy to find a plethora of coupons for pre-packaged, prepared and processed foods that contain lots of additives like high fructose corn syrup, red40 and MSG.

But coupons for whole, healthy foods – like produce and meat – are hard to find.

If I find coupons for foods my family eats, I use them. But I’ve decided not to coupon on something we normally don’t use just to get things cheaply or for free.

I recently stumbled upon SavingNaturally, a blog dedicated solely to coupons for healthier items, like yogurt or organic cereal. I receive their daily emails, which saves me time from having to scour individual sites for deals.

I also opt to shop at discount stores like Aldi, Big Lots and Ollie’s as a way to save on my grocery budget.

Household items are different altogether. Since I’ve decided that coupons for food items aren’t my cup of tea, I’ve made it a goal to at least try using more coupons for things like toothpaste and toilet paper.

My husband bought me a coupon organizer for Christmas. It’s cute, but it’s not chock full of coupons. Is it possible for me to use coupons on healthy foods and household items without taking it to the extreme?

I welcome your suggestions.

*This column first appeared in the May 12, 2011 edition of the Mooresville Weekly.

Confessions of a Cloth Diaper Convert

If someone had told me four months ago that I’d be using cloth diapers on my infant and toddler, I would’ve laughed and called them crazy.

About a month after my baby was born, I started thinking about the possibility of using cloth. But I kept pushing the idea out of my mind.

I just didn’t know if I could do it. I imagined my hands full of, well, poop every day. And my husband would never go for it anyway. That was my main excuse. I blamed him.

But our baby had a consistent diaper rash almost from birth. And like many of you, my family is crunched financially during this tough economy.

“Could cloth diapers save my family money and help heal my baby’s little booty?” I wondered.

Like many people, I was skeptical. Around New Year’s, I challenged myself to a 30-day diaper trial.

I started researching and posted some questions on natural parenting forums. The cloth diapering community came out of the woodwork to help me.

I knew that to get my husband on board, I would need to invest in modern cloth diapers. These look like disposables – but cuter – and can be snapped or velcroed on. No folding and pinning is required. And my baby hasn’t had one “blow out” diaper like she frequently did with disposables.

My first obstacle was the up-front expenses of these diapers. The most recommended brands – Bum Genius and Fuzzi Bunz – cost around $20 each. I was told I needed at least 24 diapers for my baby and 12 for my toddler.

We just couldn’t afford it. I was disappointed that we had to spend money to save money. But I was determined to, somehow, give cloth diapering a try.

My research led me to The Cloth Diaper Foundation, a nonprofit that gives diaper loans to qualifying families, based on income. The idea is that families will use the diaper stash they send for several months, while slowly purchasing your own diapers.

My family qualified for the loan, and it’s been an amazing blessing. I was so excited to receive my package of diapers in the mail and get them washed and ready to put on my girls.

I then learned of Kawaii brand diapers, which are very similar to the name brands but only half the price. I’ve been building my stash with Kawaiis with great success.

I expected I’d be reporting some funny instance of me fumbling to get the diapers on correctly, but they’re easy to use. Some people prefer the stereotypical pre-fold diapers and pins, but there are many other options available. Hybrid diapers include a disposable insert and washable cover. Fitteds fit just like a disposable but require a waterproof cover.

Pockets and all-in-ones function like disposables but are reusable. (And these are just a sampling of modern cloth options!)

Parents chose to use cloth for a variety of reasons. Some, like my family, make the switch for economic reasons or because their babies have a negative skin reaction to disposables. Others switch because cloth is better for the environment.

Some moms like how fashionable modern cloth diapers are. I didn’t think this would be a factor for me, but really, they are CUTE! I’d much rather my baby wear soft pink-flowered cloth than a plain, scratchy disposable any day.

I had the misconception that cloth would leak or not absorb as well. In my experience, they work much better than disposables. 

Honestly, the only “gross factor” of using cloth for me has been toddler poop. I started out using cloth on my baby. That was easy. 
But toddler poop? It about did me in. 


I discovered that using a squirt bottle helps knock the solids from the diaper into the toilet.

Most seasoned cloth users prefer a diaper sprayer to help with this aspect of the cleanup. A sprayer hooks to the toilet and supposedly helps eliminate the gross factor. A diaper sprayer is on my wish list!

It’s been almost two months since my trial began. I confess: I’m a cloth-diaper convert.

Here's a pic of Baby Girl in her newest diaper, the "Moo Too" print Go Green Champ from Jack Be Natural! 

Want to get start cloth diapering your little one? I found these organizations/companies/blogs very helpful!

The Cloth Diaper Foundation

The Earthy Baby

Jack Be Natural

All About Cloth Diapers

Do you use cloth diapers? What prompted you to "make the switch"?

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*The original version of this post appeared in the Feb. 25, 2011 edition of the Mooresville Weekly.