Once A Month Cooking - OAMC

So many things can be written about this. I just want to touch the basic concepts. I learned about OAMC at Life as MOM . She has been an invaluable resource for all types of ideas for cooking for the freezer. But first you may ask me, “Why would you want to eat out of the freezer all the time?” The beauty of this is I don’t. Maybe half the month. Usually on days I’m at school. Instead of buying a frozen lasagna or frozen pizza, or wondering what the kids are going to eat if Jr and I don’t feel like cooking, we have a few freezer meals to fall back on (and we’re lucky enough that Paige is old enough to really help in the cooking of them if necessary). Jr’s main complaint is, he doesn’t want all casseroles, so that is challenging for me, not just in OAMC, but everyday, because I LOVE crockpot meals and casseroles. So I have to try and mix it up some.

Favorites so far are: lasagna (of course), homemade meatballs, taco meat, browned meat for sloppy joes, shredded chicken for subs, soups, chili, bbq deer meat (can be used as a main dish or to top loaded potatoes), burritos, creamy mashed potatoes. I need to focus on building fajita kits, making some pot pies, and prepping more vegetables so they’ll be ready to added to any meal, such as: diced onion, sliced peppers, and so on. I’ve also finally ventured into baking from scratch (ever so lightly, cuz me and Ms. Crocker have known each other too long for me to just dump her!). Today Paige is going to make some banana nut muffins (she received some muffin baking cups (silicone I think) for Christmas, and nana and granny have been begging for some! The leftovers we’ll freeze for breakfast. Also, most Saturdays or Sundays it’s Thomas’ time to cook pancakes (he’s the best pancake flipper EV-ER). So if there is any leftover batter, we cook them on up and freeze them (just like Aunt Jemima). I’ve recently discovered an old blog at Life as MOM for how to do breakfast sandwiches (it was a lot of readers helping readers). So the next time I’m at Wal-Mart I’m going to get some English muffins and give it a try. I really dispise having to wake up and cook before I’m awake (don’t mind it if I’m getting paid tho, lol).
The plus side to doing all this cooking once a month. You’ll only be dirtying big pots once or twice instead of 30-31 days. Think of only cleaning the big pots once a month! For my family we also do a LOT of browned ground beef: sloppy joes, hamburger helper, sometimes spaghetti, lasagna, tater tot casserole, goulash, the list goes on for ever. So if I decide between all those meals I need 30 pounds of ground beef, when I buy it (preferrably on sale, or marked down) I just go ahead and fry it up (usually with onion, because I’m an onion freak) and then just package it as needed either just in 2 pound packs or go ahead and assemble the casserole for the freezer. The biggest issue I have is enough dishes (luckily my mom gave me all hers and that helps out a lot). Then another item, creamy mashed taters….if potatoes go on sale, I make up a huge batch of this (it has cream cheese in it so it will freeze ok) and I bought foil christmas tree pans on clearance at Wal-mart 2/25 cents…..perfect sizing for my family! I really don’t like to peel potatoes every night, but I wouldn’t mind doing 20 pounds once a month! And to mash them I just add all my seasonings, butter, and cream cheese to my Kitchen Aid mixer and let it do the work for the creamiest potatoes ever!
I’ll cover more on freezer cooking as I do it. I will definitely have recipes available. So keep your eyes peeled for them!

HURRY, CONTEST ENDS SUNDAY!!!!

The ladies over at Meal Planning Mommies have an awesome give away! They have a Pampered Chef Baker to give away to one lucky Mommy! (or Daddy I’m sure if he won). Head over there for 4 chances to enter! It’s really simple and no matter what, they’ll send you an email for some delicious meals that cost under $2!!! What a deal! Chance to win, plus FREE, cheap recipes! Contest ends today (SUNDAY) I hope everyone has time to enter!

Food Lion Trip 1-8-11

Of course they’re calling for snow and I need milk and some meat. So I talk hubby and taking me to Food Lion because he wanted to run to Mt. Pleasant and I wanted a few free items! lol

I picked up 4 Kellog’s Special K cereals (found my Buy One Get One coupons I lost yesterday, filed under the wrong letter!). When you buy 4 Special K’s you received a free gallon of Orange Juice!!! All in all 4 boxes of cereal and 1 gallon of OJ cost $3.50 plus tax. 2 Deer Park Aqua Pod waters for FREE! (on sale $1, had a $1 off coupon). 2 FREE Best Life Butters! 2 Hormel Roast Beef Entrees for $2.99 each (these are regularly $7.49each and we don‘t eat much roast beef due to price, this was 2 pounds worth). 2 Whole Chickens (I think they were about 67 cents a pound). Some 2 liter drinks (gotta have my caffeine), some candy bars (gotta have my chocolate), ice cream (for Thomas, really), a head of lettuce, 4 Swiss Miss Cocoas (75 cents each after coupon and got a free Reddi Whip to go with it). I’m quite happy, may have got another item or 2, but that’s the main thing.

Retail….$87.50 Out of Pocket (pretax)….$40.08 Savings….54.19%
ANYTIME I save over 50% on groceries alone I’m tickled pink….of course if I’d left off the liquid happy and chocolate soothing agents the percentage might have been much higher! lol

Waste Not, Want Not

Let me be the first to say I am not the best at this concept. It took me years to really and truly understand the full meaning of “Waste not, want not.” I mean, I got it as a teenager, but when you hit a point where there are a few days in every month where you wonder if you had only cooked ¼ pound less hamburger each time you used it if you would have enough for dinner that night, you then understand this meaning. I’ve been trying very hard to quit over cooking. Having been a short order and/or buffet cook most my life, this has been hard. I’m happy to announce that if there are leftovers I save them AND use them within a few days (sometimes I forget, but not near as often as it used to be). I also was one of those people who never took my lunch/dinner to work/school. Now I do about 90% of the time (there are a few days I don’t have leftovers and forget to make a sandwich, I cringe at paying $1.50 for 1 single Hot Pocket). One evening we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. We had ½ a pack of noodles left (I’m learning to cook these less too) and about a cup of sauce and 5 meatballs…..well, I could’ve made a big lunch for me one evening….but I would’ve still had more noodles left over. So instead, I took out an 8x8 foil pan and mixed it all up and froze it as a spaghetti bake, when I cook It for lunch for myself, hubby, and 3 year old I will have fed 3 instead of just myself! No waste that night!!!

I’ve been trying to find ways to save money in every aspect of life. Not just couponing, GASP! Although, that is my major source of savings, here are some other tips I have found extremely helpful. Freezer cooking (Once A Month Cooking). Making my own laundry detergent 25cents a gallon BOOYAH!). Making my own dishwashing detergent. Watering down my dish soap for the sink. Recycling. For entertainment Netflix has a deal to get movies thru your Wii for only $9.95 a month! How awesome is that? (We don’t have it yet, but it’s still awesome!!) For the cell phone, we use the straight talk phone from Wal-Mart. Unfortunately in this long road to realizing how to save I ended up with bad credit. This phone is pre-paid, no credit checks, and you can never go over on your bill! Sure you pay up front for the phone, but after that, tax and all I’m out $47 for UNLIMITED talk, UNLIMITED text, and UNLIMITED data. All that unlimited is great when you have your phone in you pocket and realize the internet got pushed on because you forgot to lock the key pad! lol, I’ve just really come to love anything prepaid and unlimited so that hit them both! I’m sure there are more but that’s a start!

Well after arranging coupons all week, I got to CVS to realize that I was missing some Internet coupons I had. Got home, and you guessed it, still on the printer! C’est la vie!
Unfortunately it was truck day and I couldn’t find a few items, but as usual the SUPER, SWEET employees wrote me out some rainchecks for later! They rock! I was able to pick up some Listerine, Kellogg’s, Glade Plug Ins, M&Ms and gum. Let’s not forget a few clearance deals too! After all is said and done, and many searches to find my receipts, here are my totals. All in all a good day, would’ve been better if I didn’t have Eliza tagging along wanting snacks, stickers, and other goodies. Also just noticed that some nail clippers rang up wrong too L , should have saved another 69 cents….that was at Kroger. Here ya go! CVS…Retail $84.10, out of pocket (pretax) $7.44, savings 91.15%. Walgreens $2.20 (wasn’t on sale but it was a cheap day planner, they didn’t have what I went in for this time). Kroger retail $26.80, out of pocket (pretax) $16.45, savings 38.62%.…Grand Total for the day. Retail $112.90, out of pocket $25.89 savings of 77.07%!!!! It’s great totals like these that keep me going back for more!

The Wonderful World of Rebates!!

I’m diving into a world I’ve barely ever ventured into. If you enjoy going to Rite Aid, they do have a wonderful rebate program. Honestly though, these same deals hit other drug stores using their own incentive programs. I am not ashamed to say that I LOVE CVS IN LAWRENCEBURG. That’s not to say I haven’t ventured in Walgreens to snag a few deals. To me, CVS’s program is just much simpler, and with everything else going on in life simplicity is key.
One reason I went to Walgreens last week…..REBATES. There happen to be a rebate available if you bought $50 in participating products you get $20 back! WOW! And this is before you use your coupons! So in reality you may only spend $25 or so and still get $20 back! That’s just awesome!!! One of the participating products was Clairol. Since my mother uses Nice ‘N Easy, she bought her some and gave me the receipts….an easy $16 towards my $50 for the rebate! Because of her help, I’m able to send one offer to her address! I came up short $16 and a VERY sweet friend helped me out with some receipts she had because she wasn’t going to need them. How awesome!

So now that I’m hooked I’m on the lookout for rebates! We’re searching cereal boxes, canned goods, anything! In my search for an online database, I found a blog (on Facebook) Couponing to Disney!!! Wow! She is dedicated! But she did have a database and some other tips I am finding quite helpful! I figure it takes me 2 extra minutes to save my receipts and send off a rebate….WHY NOT?

As far as how I’m keeping up with it all. For now, I’m putting receipts in white envelopes, one for each month. I hope to keep a database of what I send for and what I receive. I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress. If you know of a good system, or if you know of a great database of active rebates, I would love to hear about them!

Renewed Ambitions for the New Year

New Year’s Resolutions 2011

I haven’t been in the practice of making resolutions, because in my opinion they are usually broken and I feel a resolution can be made at any time or any day. Not just on a New Year!

This year FEELS different. I’m not sure why, but I have the urge to really set some goals and accomplish them! Money, as always, is TIGHT. With that being said, my focus is to keep expenses down while not feeling like I’m in poverty.
We’ve already bought most of our seeds for our MASSIVE garden (not sure, I hope it turns out ok). I plan on starting my tomatoes and peppers indoors. I have had one other garden before with LOADS of help from others. Last year, I was way too late. This year it’s all on my and my oldest to get it planted and cared for. My mom and Granny Clara have graciously volunteered to help. My mom is going to help with the canning/freezing process. Granny Clara is going to help watch little ones as needed. I have a Farmer’s Almanac and I’m ready to roll! I just hope we get it all done. We were even lucky enough to be given about 100+ jars for canning….we’ll just have to clean them up. I sure don’t mind to do some cleaning! I figured for our family we’re going to need 400+ jars for tomatoes, green beans, salsa, jelly, turnip greens, and such. I plan on keeping a track on my expenses too, so by the end of the year I hope to be able to say if this has been a money saver (I’ll definitely have to work at it, but I’m not doing much of anything else at the moment).

Meat costs. This is one of the hardest costs to trim. To start the new year I haven’t bought meat since Christmas Eve. I’m using what we have in the freezer and fresh deer that was given too us. I’m making sure that all the stuff in the freezer is properly labeled/dated/rotated. Hard work, but in the end worth it!

Toiletries. My last trip was December 30. I didn’t need any. But such good deals I couldn’t pass up! Between the $100 in groceries for my stockpile and $50 in toiletries, I’m also getting a $40 rebate! So awesome! I also have so much stocked unless I get it ABSOLUTELY free or make money I will not be buying any more for quite some time! One less expense to deal with.
So the next time you hear from me, I hope to have a freezer meal day planned, my garden dates set (weather permitting of course), and maybe some good deals from CVS under my belt!

New Year, New Ideas

Well, I did my first blogging attempt in October, 2 months ago.  And I stopped.  I was scared, and still am.  But over the past 2 months I've thought long and hard about blogging and what I wanted to blog about.  There is no set thing I'm going to write about.  I hope to share money saving tips and how I run my household o won an extremely low budget!  I hope I can be an encouragement to others.  So wish me luck!  And here is to an awesome New Year!  With great beginnings!