January's cheapmama posts

So here were my splendid thoughts from January. Actually, it's interesting to think that I felt like we were on the verge of a recession back then!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
A few cheap and easy eats
Cheap and fast mock paella. Through in whatever you've got that makes sense. I added a leftover chicken breats, used two chicken sausages that were about to expire, my son's leftover corn...and a pile of hot sauce. The only thing I needed to buy was the couscous.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_25497,00.html

Homemade mac-n-cheese. Someone gave use a bag of leftover cheese cubes at an event. What's a gal to do? This was basically free. Bad for you, but free.
http://southernfood.about.com/od/blackeyedpeas/r/bl30605l.htm

Sholayzard. This is a persian dessert. Rinse one and a half cups rice. Boil with 9 cups of water. Simmer and add a sprinkle of saffron (or tumeric if you don't have saffron) and about 3 cups of sugar. Keep simmering until it thickens. Crush and toss in whatever Christmas nuts you have left over - ideally pistacios and almonds. Sprinkle in some rosewater if you have any and like it. Serve warm or cold.

We ate all of these last week!
Posted by Eleanor at 9:52 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Success
I made the grocery challenge this week (ok - I'm not counting oj, some cheese, and sushi the husband bought this morning). Hats off and on to next week. The secret: no preprepared foods, no 100 calorie packs.
Posted by Eleanor at 3:40 PM 0 comments
Monday, January 21, 2008
What I will spend for good gift wrapping...
is shameful. We have a a great store in the neighborhood known for its $60 Skynard shirts for toddlers and it's wonderful tie dye tissue paper wrapping. Then again, wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a present at Marshalls and wrap it myself in homemade tie dye wrap - made as a a project with the little ones? Here's the "recipe"... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/briarwren/447516/.
Posted by Eleanor at 7:39 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Blew it again, sort of...and a big question...
So, I managed to eat out of the pantry and freezer for most of the week (supplemented by some great fruit and veggies from Produce Junction). We even had "bar food supper" last night - frozen french fries, frozen tex mex spring rolls, and frozen pocorn shrimp. Made a few sauces (instant buffalo is the best - add a few drops of Franks to some lowfat blue cheese dressing), opened a few beers (the kids were in bed), and we had a decent meal.

Still, I blew it. I went to Target and hit a sale on 100 calorie packs, formula, and Lean Cuisine. None of which are a bargain, even on sale...

Which brings me to my questions...

Do these people who spend $100 on groceries per week include formula, diapers, and recreational beverages?

For the purpose of this blog, I will count anything any member of our family drinks, including formula and the occasional beer...not diapers!

I've taken the leap of ordering bulk items through Amazon. They generally seem like good deals, but will eat about $25 out of my weekly food budget, plus about $25 for formula. That leaves $50 for everything else! Could it be the end of Pierre Robert and the beginning of cheap camembert???

And I only have two weeks to get it sorted out, because Cheap Mama wil have a new mission next month...
Posted by Eleanor at 8:54 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Didn't do very well...
Was it the impulse purchase of a case of Perrier for $20 (which is technically a good price for a case of Perrier) the $8 half pound of manchego? I went over my limit of $100 last week by a good $30. This week, I am buying only fresh food - nothing packaged - and living off of the packaged goods in our pantry. I'm trying to keep it to $70 so that can make up for the excesses of last week.

By the way, I printed up Organic Valley milk coupons only to find that the store was out of Organic Valley milk. Harumph. I guess it pays to make like an old lady and carry a billfold of coupons...

I spent $30 on fruit and vegetables today at Produce Junction. It bought A LOT. The challenge will be to use it all before it goes bad. Wish me luck! I'd live on mac-n-cheese if I wasn't afraid of being a bad influence...

Tempted by the 30% off sign at Borders, I almost bought the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook. After all, I need to do something with these healthy things in my fridge. I passed on it, hoping to find some of the recipes on line. Sure enough, they're out there. If they're any good, I just may buy the book.

Jessica Seinfeld recipes...
http://www.oprah.com/foodhome/food/jseinfeld/recipes/jseinfeld_recipes_main.jhtml


An RSS feed for coupons!!!
http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/partners/ci/fs_after_holiday_07.html
Posted by Eleanor at 1:48 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Efficiency vs. Cost Cutting - The Produce Truck
In my frugal twenties, I could spend an entire day grocery shopping. I would go to the Pathmark in South Philly for generic items and dry goods, Whole Foods for a few impressive items, and - MY FAVORITE - the produce truck for inexpensive fruits and veggies. For the uninitiated, produce trucks can typically be found in middle to lower income parts of the city. Not totally sure where they get the stuff and it is certainly not organic, but what it lacks in squeaky clean niceness, it makes up for in price. 5 pounds of bananas for a dollar. Two pounds of lemons for a dollar. For ten bucks, you can buy all of the produce you might be able to dream of. In Philly and the surrounding area, you can also track down great deals on produce and flowers at Produce Junction.

So, how do you find a produce truck? Short of driving around and hoping to stumble upon one, you can ask on local blog such as www.phillyblog.com. Just google your neighborhood or city and the word blog. You should get something.

Ideally, you will find one near a decent grocery so that you do not spend your day buying food. We cheap mamas are as short on time as we are on money.

So, I wonder, can surfing the net take the place of driving all over Philly to find what I want and save money? Clearly, some things, like produce, need to be bought fresh - or kind of fresh. But, how about dry goods? It turns out that you can buy many dry goods at a discount at Amazon. If you analyze what you usually buy, and determine that it's a regular purchase, you can even "subscribe" to it and saze 15%. That's on top of the bulk discount and free shipping on many items...
Posted by Eleanor at 2:09 PM 1 comments
Friday, January 4, 2008
Free Thing of the Day
Took my little guy to a fantastic free gym class at our local branch of The Little Gym. The free class also comes with $10 off the membership fee. We will sign up, so this is sadly a one time only freebie.

http://www.thelittlegym.com/gym/default.aspx?gymid=83
Posted by Eleanor at 1:38 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Really? How much do people spend?
Two weeks ago, my generous neighbor dropped a off a pile of women's magazines that he gets because his ex-wife signed him up for them. I tore into an article with the title "Cut Your Grocery Bill by 1000's!" There were a few decent ideas inside, like choosing one week per month to live off of your pantry, but the big piece of news was how much MORE we spend on groceries than your average family of four. Yes, we spend about fifty dollars more than the average American family of four - and one of us is still just on breast milk.

I don't have to reflect deeply to know why we spend so much more. My husband and I both have a thing for good cheese and bread - even our two year old refuses to eat processed cheese - and I buy organic food for the little one. Organic food is generally cheaper at Whole Foods than at Giant, but I often end up buying it at Giant so that I can get more standard fare, detergent, and cat food without making two trips. I also lack the time and the inclination to waste gas to visit two stores.

So...my challenge is to spend the same or less than the average American family of four without giving up organics for my little one. I will keep you posted over the next three weeks on my progress and any resources I discover.

Here are a few I came across today...
http://www.organicvalley.coop/coupons/index.html?gclid=CJmpu6Xz2pACFQ8aHgodP1kcPg
Great site. You can print their coupons (a generous $1) for milk and cheese up to four times. Then get your own cheap mama and a few friends to do the same and give them to you.

http://www.stonyfield.com/
Wonderful if your kid/kids are still eating Yo Baby (or if you're hooked on it b/c it's a lot better than the nasty diet stuff you're accustomed to). The problem here is that you can only print the coupons once. Again, get your cheap mama and your neighbors or whomever you can beg from easily to hook you up.

http://www.organiccoupons.org/
Mostly things you don't need, but still worth looking at...