Money-Saving (and maybe musical) Monday

This is a post about beans.

Yes, really. Beans.

The musical fruit.

(Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.)

I'm a fan of beans. Most beans are a high quality protein, are full of antioxidants, and are loaded with fiber. I could tout all the nutritional benefits of beans or you could read more about them here. (Or perhaps my friend, Tiffani--akaGooglemeister, could do a little research for us. Sorry that's sort of an inside joke, but I could not resist).

Anyway, back to beans and money-saving Monday...

Last spring I did a series of posts about my meal planning system, and I shared my time-saving tip about pre-cooking all my meat. My friend Diane commented on that post and told me that she did the same thing with beans. She buys dried beans, cooks up a big pot, and freezes them.

I never knew you could freeze beans. Did you?

I've been doing this for several months now and let me tell you it is not only easy but it is SO MUCH CHEAPER than buying cans of beans!

Here's the math:

For my most recent two-week meal plan, I needed 7 cans of beans--four black, two pinto, and one kidney.

The cheapest (Walmart, generic) can of beans is $.72.

$.72/can x 7 cans = $5.04

A one pound bag of dried black beans is $1.12 and equals FIVE cans of beans. That comes out to roughly $.22/can. A savings $.50/can.

I bought three (1lb) bags of dried beans last time I shopped. (For some reason, pinto beans are cheaper than kidney and black beans.) I spent about $3.20 for the equivalent of 15 cans of beans, saving me about $7.50 (for 15 cans).

Sure, that may not seem like a lot of saved money. And for some of you, the time you'd have to spend cooking a pot of beans is worth the extra cost of buying them canned. For me, it's a no brainer. I like saving money (even small amounts add up) and I have the time to cook up a pot every couple of weeks.

I generally pick a morning that I'm going to be at home, and soak my beans the night before (the instructions are on the packaging). In the morning, I just put a pot on and let them simmer away. For some reason, it always takes longer than the directions claim. I wonder if it's because I live at a high altitude? Next, I drain, rinse, cool and then package them in freezer bags, and freeze until needed. I've added frozen beans to the crock pot (for chili) and they turn out just fine, but usually I thaw them along with my meat.

1 1/2 cups of beans = 1 can

I've been buying my dried beans at Walmart, but I just noticed that my natural foods store sells organic beans in bulk. They come in a larger quantity (2lbs instead of 1lb) but the price per pound ends up being cheaper (for organic!) so I'll be buying those the rest of the winter.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my newest money-saving strategy. Thank you, Diane!

Here are some of my favorite bean recipes...

Black and Red Bean/Polenta Bake

Pork and Black Bean Chili (this is CarpoolQueen's recipe, and it's oh-so good!)

Santa Fe Enchiladas

Pinto Beans with Bacon, Tomatoes, and Cilantro

Alison's Chili

Believe it or not, I'm not original in dedicating an entire post to beans. I recently found this blog (love it!) and she wrote about beans twice last week. I want to try some of her recipes soon!

Got a favorite bean recipe? Please share!!!

I'll try anything once...

For the last year or so, I've come across blogger after blogger who has made homemade laundry detergent. Honestly, my first (and second and third...and fiftieth) thought has always been, "Ummmmmm, NO. I really like my Tide, thankyouverymuch."

A few weeks ago I read Chickadee's post about it and at the end she linked to a woman who crunched the numbers and figured out that it cost a penny per load. The tightwad in me read that and was convinced enough to give it a try. I mixed some up this weekend (haven't used it yet though) and I must confess that I'm a little tentative. 

John is even more tentative. 

When I told him what I was doing, he gave me a weird look. I asked him if he thought I was crazy, and he said, "Yeah, a little." 

Great. This could be interesting.

I suppose if we despise the concoction, then I can just pitch it and use the borax to make homemade silly putty, and the washing powder to soak things before our next tie-dye project. Stay tuned.

Speaking of making things from scratch...

I tried making hummus this weekend. It was DELICIOUS! I got the recipe from my friend, Tim, who got it from the Naked Chef cookbook. Seriously, it was as good if not better than the kind I buy at my health food store or Whole Foods. So much cheaper too and SO stinkin' easy. The hardest part was finding tahini paste at the store. 

Look out you guys. 

Next thing you know, I'll be making homemade cream of chemical mushroom or chicken soup! (Actually, I've been meaning to try this. Have any of you done this before?)

And homemade cake mixes. 

And homemade cheese crackers. Like Goldfish or CheezIts.

I'll try anything once. Well, almost anything. ;)

Mumble Jumble

It's Thursday night and I'm writing this to auto-post on Friday morning because I've been trying to unplug on Fridays during Lent. I also sorta remember telling Kellie that I would "go dark" with her during Holy Week, which is next week. Yikes!

I just finished up my massive two-week grocery shopping list. I don't mind the menu planning part of it, but the list-making is intense and the shopping even more brutal. I was watching the news last night (because we had a massive blizzard blow through and my kids got all excited about a possible snow day) and there was a local blogger being interviewed about her couponing blog. I spent some time there tonight and was delighted that she took about 95% of the work out of my list making. She's already figured out the weekly grocery deals and basically all I had to do was make a list for each store and pull the coupons she mentioned. If you live in the Colorado Springs area check out this fantastic blog! 

Like my earrings? I've been wearing them this week because it has been snowy. 

(Pretty soon ya'll are going to be as sick of me and my whining about the snow as I am of seeing it.)

I love snow. I just don't love it in March and April and May. We haven't had much snow this year and we really, really need the moisture but I'd much prefer rain over the frozen precipitation. Another blizzard is heading our way Saturday and the meteorologist said our area could see 8-18 inches. Loverly. The one thing that I do like about spring snow is that once the storm passes it usually melts pretty quickly.

I really don't intend for this to become a weather blog but I like to document stuff like spring blizzards because this is after all a web log, and one day we might not live in Colorado and might think that April snow is amusing.

Moving on.

Have I mentioned that I'm the coordinator for a very big volunteer project at my kids' school? Yep, I am. I was almost finished with this same project by this time last year, but sadly, I'm just getting going this time around. Not so fun. This project is the source of my stress and busy-ness these days. I know it will all get done, but I'm not convinced it will be a stress-free month. 

It does, however, make my decision to unplug next week a little easier. I may schedule some posts but if I do I will probably disable comments like I did last time I took a break so I can keep my email box empty when I return. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet.

The blog world has been abuzz lately about this conference, A Woman Inspired. My friend, Trish, is giving away a conference ticket. The conference starts next Monday and you don't even have to leave your house to attend--it's an online conference! If you're interested in winning a ticket, go here to enter Trish's giveaway! (Hurry...giveaway ends on Sunday!) Two of my favorite bloggers, Lisa and Natalie, are scheduled to speak! 

Well, this wasn't as wordy as I thought it would be. Or was it?

Happy Weekend to you all!

No-Spend Challenge: Week Four/Final Thoughts

I intended to post this WAY before now, but I suppose it is better late than never. Here's my spending break down for the final week of my January No-Spend Challenge.

Saturday (Jan 24):

-0-

Sunday (Jan 25):

-0- Well, I spent $0, but John spent $6 seeing a movie with friends. Some of you keep trying to persuade me that what he spends doesn't count, but I think it is important to mention this because I tried every single day of this week to go see a movie myself and couldn't find a showing that got me home before school let out. (I really want to see Revolutionary Road and Slumdog Millionaire.)

Monday (January 26):

$44 for my hair cut ($36 + 20%ish tip). That may seem extravagant to some, but I gladly pay it because Rachel is amazing. My experience has been that you get what you pay for.

$45 for dry cleaning. John has an awesome suede shirt that he bought at a second-hand store. It was the first time he had it cleaned, and I just about choked when the lady told me that my bill was $45. That's about 15 times MORE than he paid for the shirt in the first place. OH my gosh. I so didn't see that one coming.

Tuesday (January 27):

-0- I stayed home all day, and had a friend over for coffee. I was so thankful that John was able to fix our garage door without having to pay the repairman! 

Wednesday (January 28):

$6 ish to mail a book to Lisa. This is an instance where time was money. I ran into the post office and the line was twelve people deep. I didn't have time to wait in line to send the book by MediaMail. (Y'all DO know about MediaMail, right? Books/cds only can be mailed at a deeply discounted rate.) I was in a hurry to pick the kids up, so I used the self-service kiosk and mailed it from there. MediaMail isn't an option at the kiosk, I think because there is no way they can keep tabs on honesty.

Thursday (January 29):

$16 on birthday gift for one of Abbey's best friends. Yeah, I totally intended to make that tooth-fairy pillow, but time got away from me and I caved. Have you guys heard of PixOs? Super fun! 

Friday (January 30):

-0- Stayed home and unplugged all day. Our heater started acting up...as in we couldn't get it to turn ON...but John finagled something and it got it working again.

Saturday (January 31):

$90 for DATE NIGHT!!! ($90 between PF Changs, babysitter, and a pizza for the kids).

By now, you know that I can justify just about anything, right? John and I were invited to a birthday party for one of our good friends and he suggested we get a sitter and go have dinner first. (Okay, twist my arm). With the exception of one evening meal out at Chick-Fil-A, we had eaten dinner at home the entire month of January, so yeah, I think dinner out was totally justified! 

Alright...here are some of my observations:

1. I am addicted to hot, caffeinated beverages from a certain (sometimes obnoxious) chain. I had gift cards to get me through the month, but I was VERY glad when February 1 rolled around and I was able to splurge again. That money can add up quickly though...I've tried limiting myself to one a week. 

2. I say all the time that we don't eat fast food very often. With the exception of PF Changs, every meal we ate out in January was FAST FOOD. Gross. And, for what we spent at Chick-Fil-A, McDonald's, and Carl's Jr, we could have had a very nice family meal at a restaurant we all enjoy much more.

3. Eating fast food was the result of not thinking/planning ahead. We grabbed McDonald's for the kids when we were out running errands over the noon hour. We ate at Chick-Fil-A for dinner on the snowy night that we were in Co Springs over the dinner hour. John got the kids a hamburger the night I hosted Bunco because I shooed them out of the house and didn't want to mess up the kitchen making dinner. Normally, I'm a plan ahead kind of girl...but a couple of those instances could have better anticipated. I'm not super hard on myself about this stuff...but in light of #2, it makes the fast food purchases seem like such a waste.

4. I cook at home...a LOT. And that saves us mucho money.

5. I struggle with impulse buying. Remember the shoes and the bird and the candle I bought while I was on a quest for a lamp? Uh-huh. Still no lamp but I have lots of other bargains to show for my money.

6. I spend -0- money when I stay at home. Good thing I love to stay home. Another thing that helps me not spend money is to avoid looking at the sale ads. For awhile now, I've been tossing the ones in the Sunday paper before I read them because they tempt me with their oh-so-fab bargains? Remember the $4 scrapbook frame from Michaels? Clearly I didn't toss 'em that week. 

7. My blog friends can help me justify anything. Don't believe me? Go back and read the comments on Week One, Week Two, and Week Three in this series.

8. My heart wasn't really in this challenge. I've said over and over that I'm not a legalist, but when I did cave and spend money, I didn't feel too much remorse. I think the situation would have looked a lot different if we were in dire straits and I really couldn't spend.

9. I definitely spent lots LESS money than in December! 

10. I wanted to be aware of thoughtless purchases, and I think I was. Though sometimes my thought process before buying involved lots of justifying. ;)

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I have to tell you that on the second day of February, we woke up to a FREEZING house. John's quick-fix from the previous week didn't last and we ended up spending a pretty penny getting our furnace repaired. That same morning, my van wouldn't start. I wanted to cry (and curse) because February arrived with a hefty price tag. Just made me thankful that we saved some money during the previous month. *smile*

No Spend Challenge: Week Three

I did pretty good this week with my spending. Challenging myself to spend no money outside of groceries, gas, and household items is harder than I thought it would be, but it's been great in that I've become aware of places I spend money without really thinking twice.

Here's my weekly breakdown:

Saturday:

-0- We stayed home all day.

Sunday:
-0- Like I said last week, between church and home it's easy to not spend money.


Monday:
Our kids were out of school for MLK day, so we headed to the Springs for some errands and lunch with friends at Chick-Fil-A. Spent $12.97 on lunch. The four of us shared two meals.

We also went to Michael's... $6.44

My very talented friend and summit sister, Chele, made a 12x12 digital scrapbook print of our Pikes Peak ascent. It's been hanging on the side of my refrigerator for the last four months and I keep meaning to buy a frame for it. 

I priced them at Michael's last fall and they were $10. I knew I could use a 40% off coupon and get it for $6, but I never seemed to have my coupon with me when I needed it. At Christmas, they had the frames on sale for $5, but I wasn't in town. Last week they were on sale for $4...and I couldn't resist the bargain. Doesn't it look GREAT in this frame??? I love it!

I let the girls pick up some Hannah Montana stuff from the clearance bins. The dollar stuff was half-price so they each got a dry erase board and a set of mechanical pencils for $1. It was a cheap thrill for them, and that dry erase board kept them busy for the rest of the afternoon!

I also spent .75 at Best Buy. Will used a gift certificate to buy a Wii game and I covered his overage.

Tuesday:
-0- Probably because I was at home all day!

Wednesday:
-0- I was at home almost all morning, but met my friend at the tea house that afternoon. I had a gift card from Christmas, and lucky for me, I still have a balance!

Thursday:

$1.07  I picked Will up from school and took him by McDonald's for a soda. The day before had been a hard one for him/us so it was a small act of restoration.

Friday:

-0- I'm not counting the $261 grocery shopping trip, but I saved $36.35 in coupons! Woohoo!

So, I think I had a better week. I stayed home almost every day though and honestly, that will drastically cut your spending. I'm such a homebody! 

Like I said at the beginning of this challenge, I'm not a legalist. I'm not beating myself up for spending money. I'm primarily using this challenge to identify areas of thoughtless spending.

One more week to go. 

This week might be a bit more spendy. I came home from picking kids up yesterday afternoon and couldn't get our garage door open. Looks like we're going to have to call the repairman. AND, I JUST made an appointment to get my hair cut next week. I tried to make it until February, I really did, but it needs some serious attention.

No Spend Challenge: Week Two

I wish I had posted this yesterday instead of today because things were going really well until then.

Here's the day by day breakdown.

Saturday:
-0- Well, not exactly true, but I only bought groceries and groceries don't count. Plus, I did really well at sticking to my list and using coupons.

Sunday:

-0- It's easy to not spend money at church and at home. (smile)

Monday:

-0- Snow day! Stayed home all day in our pjs! (Bliss)

Tuesday:

$1.85 Mailed a package to a friend in Arkansas. (Steph, I'm mailing yours in February b/c it's going to cost more than $1.85.)

Wednesday:

-0- I was going to meet Jamie for coffee at Starbucks (still have a gift card balance!) but we ended up having coffee at her house instead. 

See? I'm doing so good. $1.85 

(Isn't there some verse about pride going before a fall?)(grin)

Thursday:

$25 John and I met our pastor for lunch--our treat--at Qdoba. We're trying to get connected at our new church and we've been trying to get together with him for awhile. It worked out we could all meet on this day and lunch was the best option. He's a great guy. He answered all of our questions, got to know us a little more, and I left feeling very encouraged and excited about this leg of our faith journey.

Friday:

$5 for Bunco. We play for money, and we each throw $5 into the pot. I tied for most wins last night and we decided to split the prize so I walked away with my original $5 plus $5 more. Nice. 

I was feeling all smug at one point yesterday thinking that I was doing really well with my spending. 

In the middle of Bunco I realized that I forgot all about two big things. John took the kids out for dinner...and to the movies last night. I didn't ask him for a total, but it was probably at least $40. Granted I needed them out of the house for a few hours, but I didn't think about the extra expense.

So...not as great a week as I'd hoped...but still not too bad. This challenge is proving to be challenging indeed!

Frugal Friday: Going Paperless

My friend, Joanne, mentioned that she's going to begin Frugal Friday posts. I love that idea. In fact, I just read what she posted today about shopping from the pantry.

I have a frugal tip to share today too. 

I haven't bought paper towels in years. I also try not to buy paper plates (that's harder), and if I had enough cloth napkins (something I'm hoping to make more of soon), I'd go totally paperless. Well, except for toilet paper.

I save money by not buying those things constantly and do our environment a huge favor as well. 

Think about it. What do you use paper towels for that you can't use a dishtowel or rag for instead? And paper plates? It just takes a little more effort to wash a real one. 

I'm also excited to check in with my an update on my  no-spend challenge this week. I did much better. I'll post that tomorrow because I'm sending the laptop to work again with John. My kids have a half day of school (3.5 day weekend!!!) and I have a big list to tackle before they get home! 

Already feeling better...

I feel like I'm back on track after my no-spending flop this week.

I went grocery shopping today, and I did really well!

I spent $256 for two weeks worth of groceries, household items, and food for Bunco! I thought that was pretty darn good. Of course, I'll have to go back next week for fruit, veggies, milk and bread (and coffee...totally forgot to buy that today) but I still think I'll come in at less than $300 for this two-week period.

And that makes me happy! (Makes John happy too!)

I've decided that I'm going to start posting my 2-week meal plans on my recipe blog. In fact, I posted the meals I shopped for today just a little while ago. You can check my menu plan out here.

OH YEAH, I saved $28.89 in coupons! I was jazzed about that.

So many people tell me that they just don't think it's worth it to clip coupons, but let me show you that yes, it IS worth it. 

This is just a sampling of things I bought today.

Toilet paper, laundry detergent (I love Tide), Cascade, a razor for John, and body wash for Will.

I added up the regular price of these five items from my register receipt. Total: $43.66 (Ugh...not good for five items.)

Then, I added up the sale price of these items. This is the price I would have paid had I not had coupons. Total: $30.40 (better)

Next, I added up the price I paid with my coupons. I had

1.50/off Tide

1.00/off Cascade

4.00/off Fusion razor

Free body wash with purchase of Fusion razor (cost was 3.99)

.50/off Charmin

Total: $19.41

$19.41 is good, but Proctor and Gamble had a promo deal going on that if you spent $25 on participating products at this store, you got an additional $5 off at the register.

SO, my total for these 5 products (before tax) was $14.41 

That ends up being less than $3 per product.  

I'd say it pays to clip coupons wouldn't you???

I also got *free* deodorant today and paid $2.02 for a tube of mascara by combining sales and coupons.

The money I saved today made me feel a little better about the money I wasted last week!

PS--I wrote an entire post about couponing last spring. You can read it here.

No-Spend Challenge: Week One

Ugh...this is embarrassing.

I didn't do so well you guys.

I posted that challenge on January 2, so let me give you the day-by-day spending breakdown.

January 2:

-0-

January 3:

$11.76 at McDonald's. See, a day into this and I'm spending when the goal is to be NOT spending. Ugh. We took a huge load of recycling to the drop off center and still had some more things to do in town before heading home. It was lunchtime and we didn't plan ahead well so we bought the kids lunch. The parents ate when we got home.

January 4:

-0-

January 5:

$14 on haircut for Will. I'm tempted not to count that since he needed one and I couldn't wait 3 more weeks for February to roll around, but I didn't exclude haircuts, so it counts.

Also went to Walmart and got groceries, but only bought what was on my list.

January 6:

-0- (Thanks, John for re-gifting that Starbucks card that AK gave you! You're THE best!)

January 7:

$8.00 I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at home cleaning/organizing/purging. I tackled the girls' room on this day and decided that they needed a new lamp to match their new decor. Hmmmm...that no-spend thing wasn't going to make this easy. I decided to check out the home furnishing consignment store that opened last fall and see if they had anything suitable. They didn't. In fact, I thought their stuff was way over-priced. 

So, on the way back home, I stopped at my favorite consignment store to check their small inventory of home furnishings. No lamp, but I did find a pair of brand new black mules, and this cute little iron bird. The shoes were on sale for $14 and the bird was on the 80% off rack marked down to $1.80.  Yeah, that adds up to more than $8, but I had a credit from some stuff I sold last fall and my grand total was $8.

You might be rolling your eyes and thinking that I can justify almost anything (and yes, I probably can), but John gave me some money after Christmas to buy some new black shoes. My old ones were in really bad shape. I was going to wait until I found a great sale, but I doubt I would have found any (brand new!) for $8. I love them and I'm not going to feel guilt about this purchase!

January 8:

$9 I've been motivated all week to get things clean and orderly around our house. John's parents gave us a new rug for Christmas (love it!) and once we got it down, I realized that pattern in the rug was competing with my red fireplace wall as the focal point of the room. I decided to keep the rug and ditch the red wall. I've never liked the red much anyway. Lucky for me, I had 3/4 gallon of paint in the basement (matches my wall color) and enough Kilz left from my last project to not have to buy those items. I spent $9 on paint roller and edger refills, tray liners, and a plastic drop cloth. Not too bad. And yes, I could have waited until February, but you know what? I had time and motivation to do it now. I might not have either of those next month!

January 9:

Oh dear. A spendy day.

I don't have a total, but I went to Co Springs to buy a birthday gift for Will's friend--a gift card to BestBuy. Also ran in Bed, Bath, and Beyond to check out their lamps. Didn't find anything, but bought a Yankee candle (Christmas Cookie) marked down to $7.49. I had a 20% off coupon so I got it for $6. Totally got sucked into that deal.

(I need a minute to tell you about Bed, Bath, and Beyond. If there's one close to you, get on their mailing list and they will send you 20% coupons all the time. Seriously, it seems like I get one a week. They will let you use expired coupons (so don't toss them), and if you forget your coupon, you can bring it back with your register receipt and they will adjust the price. You can also use the coupon on sale items. Obviously, I'm a big fan of that store!)

We also went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. I ordered for myself and the kids and walked away while John paid because I didn't want to know how much we spent.  I could tell you that Sarah finally had the sleepover that we've been putting off since her birthday in JULY and that we wanted to make it special for her and that her friend lives super close to Chik-Fil-A and that the snow was terrible and it took us forever to drive the few miles to pick her friend up and we were all starving. But that would totally sound like I was trying to justify things...and the bottom line is that I caved. I spent money. Willingly.

Here's to a MUCH better week this week. I'm tightening my belt and am determined to do BETTER.

How did you guys do?

Updated to add: Overall, I realize that I wasn't as motivated to not spend as I'd hoped. All the things I bought weren't necessary or needed (except maybe the haircut and shoes). I willfully chose to buy them. Other purchases (lunch/dinner) could have been avoided by better planning. Sure, some of those purchases were bargains, but where was my resolve to THINK before spending? Again, I'm determined to do better this week. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

And, hey, I don't know how to make that image above into a cute little button Holly made that image above into a button for me, and you're certainly welcome to steal it and use it on your blog if you want. See if you can copy and paste it from here, if not email me and I'll send you the code. Thank you, Holly!!!

My January Challenge

I don't know about you, but our family spends SO much money in December. Sure, there are many expenses we plan and budget for, but it's the little things that really add up and leave me feeling like we just bleed money during the month. Twenty dollars here or forty dollars there adds up so quickly. Being out of town for two weeks in December (two weeks!) also seems to have exaggerated some of our spending.

With that in mind, I'm challenging myself to spend nothing outside of groceries, gas, and household items for the month of January. 

(Just typing that out makes me a little nervous.)

John and I talked about it this morning and he's on board.  

Honestly, we're not big spenders anyway.  We rarely eat out.  We don't buy "stuff" we don't need.  We don't have every techno-gadget that comes out (or very many at all for that matter), and our closets contain wardrobe basics.  We try very hard to live within our means, BUT...I still think we could do better.  

I'm not quite sure what this no-spend month will look like for me/us.  

I think more than anything, I just want to think twice before adding things to my buggy (same thing as a cart for all you non-Southerners) or before handing over my debit card for purchases.  I want to ask myself if I really, really need something or if maybe I can get creative and use something I already have instead. 

There are some challenges that already come to mind.  I know a couple of my kids' friends have birthdays this month.  I'm hosting Bunco and need to come up with a hostess gift.  But I'm already thinking creatively, and that's a good thing!

The thing I anticipate being the hardest?  I'm a slightly addicted huge fan of Starbucks and our local teahouse, making at least one trip a week.  Maybe January will find me having a friend over for coffee/tea instead, or coming home and making a cup for pennies, or possibly using up my stash of gift cards that I've been saving.  

Could be an interesting month.

I realize that I'll probably have to give myself some grace in this, and that's okay.  I'm not much of a legalist anyway.  I really view this as more of a challenge to get me to change my thinking patterns than anything. 

So...anyone wanna play along with me and try to curb your spending this month?  Or anyone wanna volunteer to ask me how I'm doing from time to time?