Works For Me Wednesday

I began clipping coupons at the beginning of this year, and bit off way more than I could chew. I decided that in order to get the best deals at the grocery stores and CVS that I needed to clip every coupon. Well, between doing that and searching the weekly ads for deals, it would take up 3 – 4 hours of my Sunday afternoons. Since I work full time outside the home, my days off are very precious to me. Needless to say, I suffered burnout very soon into this process and gave up. Not to mention, I found out I was pregnant and began suffering severe morning sickness all day! But now I have devised a system that works for me. I have put together a notebook with month dividers and sheet protectors. I clip the coupons that I will use immediately, then slip the insert into a sheet protector behind the corresponding month. This also helps when I browsing money saving blogs like moneysavingmom.com. Most of these blogs tell you which insert the coupon you need was in. Now I do not have to dig through a big pile of coupons, I can just flip to the week I need, pull out the insert, and clip the coupon!! My coupon notebook works for me! What works for you? Head on over to Rocks In My Dryer to see other great ideas!

Feeding The Freezer

In an effort to try and save more money on food, I have been reading several blogs and articles recently. I am learning a lot of good tips, but one that I am really liking is freezer cooking. I watch many times and we dump leftovers out of the fridge because we are not very good at eating them. So, I’ve decided to try a new twist on cooking. When I make a dish that would normally give us a good amount of leftovers, I am going to split the dish in half and freeze part of it. I know this may not be a new concept to everyone, but I really like it. Sunday night we ate baked ziti. Normally, I would have made a 9 x 13 pan, but I split it between 2 8 x 8 pans. We had plenty to eat for dinner (and for me to bring for lunch 2 days) and I wrapped the aluminum pan up tightly and stuck it in our deep freezer. We were blessed to be given a large deep freezer, so I am excited to be utilizing it a little more. I should be able to freeze three meals this week from my menu plan, which will cut the next grocery bill dramatically! I also think this is a wonderful idea for me to use closer to December when our baby is due. I’m sure our church and family will provide some meals in the beginning, but that will end at some point, and it will be nice to have a fully stocked freezer to choose from! I found a wonderful article here at organizedhome.com that gives some great tips for once a month cooking. The once a month cooking is a future goal, but I believe I will start out small first so I do not get overwhelmed. There are also some places in larger cities that are actually set up for you to come in and create your own meals to freeze. I have some friends who have done this as a girls night, and I think it is a wonderful way to utilize your time! Not only do you get to spend some quality time with friends, but you are stocking your freezer with some wonderful meals! I am definitely going to try this one at some point. But, in the mean time, I will be feeding my freezer one meal at a time!

Frugal Followup

After my ambitious post on Friday to be more frugal, I thought I would start following up on how I was doing. I did plan out our menus for the week. I also went grocery shopping with some coupons in hand to try and get a lower price. I did spend more than I wanted to, but I had to buy lunch stuff for my husband who started back teaching today and likes to keep sandwich stuff at the school for his lunches. I also purchased some small storage containers to portion out some fresh fruit and veggies and leftovers for me to take to work. I have been eating out way too much for lunch, and that tends to put a dent in the budget as well. It was nice this morning to just open the fridge and have everything portioned out and ready for me to just grab and go! It took some extra time yesterday to get it ready, but I’m prepared for the entire week and have no excuse to not take my own food from home! I did look into purchasing a drying rack for my clothes, but didn’t. It looked way too small to handle a full load of clothes out of the washer. So, I started looking at clotheslines. I really do not want a big permanent contraption in my yard, so I’m still looking for the best option in that area. As Dave Ramsey says, “Baby Steps”! We will get there, and I’ll keep updating along the way!!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Cheesy noodles and chicken bake with veggies
Tuesday: Ravioli Lasagna
Wednesday: Potato soup in bread bowls
Thursday: BBQ chicken with veggies
Friday: Chicken Pot Pie
Saturday: Bean soup with corn muffins

I will work on getting some recipes posted to go along with some of my meals. I tried to make this an easier menu this week to keep me motivated to eat at home every night! Considering I still spent more than I wanted to on groceries, I definitely do not want to spend more money eating out!

Check out more menus at orgjunkie.com!

Super Savings Saturday

I do not have any good deals on food to post about this week; however, I did score some major deals on some clothes for my sweet little girl who is due in December. There is a big consignment sale going on in our town this week, so I hit it up on Saturday. I got one red sweater and one Christmas onsie that she can where during the holidays. I also got a pair of maternity pants and capris. My total at the consignment sale was $18. Today, I hit up JC Penny because I was told they were having a good sale. I also had a coupon for 15% off my entire purchase. I was able to get 7 summer outfits for next year for $17.57! One of the outfits alone was regularly prices at $17. I was very excited to get some clothes for my baby and me at a great discount!

To see what others are saving, check out Money Saving Mom.

Recipe Swap

The Grocery Cart Challenge is hosting a frugal recipe swap today, and I thought I would contribute my recipe for Chicken Crescent Rolls. By using store brand crescent rolls and cream of chicken soup, these are relatively inexpensive to put together because you only need one piece of chicken. I actually got this recipe from a roommate of mine in college. We used to make these a lot at our house, and I am still a huge fan of them! Click here for the recipe (complete with pictures and directions). Head over to the Grocery Cart Challenge for more frugal recipe ideas!

An Organized Christmas

I know it is July, but since it is the 25th and we are 5 months away from Christmas, I wanted to share a great website I have come across! It is called Organized Christmas and it is wonderful!! Since my little girl is due on December 5th, I am having to be super-organized and prepared this year for Christmas. This website is going to help me get there! It has detailed lists that you can print and wonderful ideas for getting ahead and not being stressed out over the holidays. (My kind of site!) I hope that it can help others out there to have a stress-free holiday this year! I am going to be printing my lists and adding them to my notebook this weekend to get a jumpstart on planning!

Frugal Friday

In one of my recent menu plan posts, I mentioned that I am expecting my first child. The pregnancy is going well except for occasional sickness and aches and pains, so I have been very blessed! The thing I have recently started being concerned about, is what to do after the baby arrives. Should I stay home, work part time, or continue working my full time job and pay for daycare? My dream is to stay home, but the reality is that we may need a little more income to be able to eat and make the mortgage payment! I'm not opposed to working, I just want to do what is best for our family. I've been brainstorming some ideas on ways to cut back so that I could at least go part time (considering daycare would take half of my full time paycheck) and work somewhere with an onsite daycare. So, here are some of my frugal ideas:

• Run the dryer less (I'm going to look into buying a collapsable drying rack or some type of clothsline that isn't permanent)


• Be diligent about planning menus (We have been eating out more since I have a harder time cooking when I'm nauseous, but if I would plan and have easy meals on hand, I could do a better job of eating at home)


• Clip coupons (I started this, but it is almost a second job to search the sale papers and coupons to come up with good deals. I am going to try to dedicate more time to doing this to save us money on groceries)


• Utilize CVS (I started this as well, but lost interest when I was really sick)


• Stockpile (I am making a list of what I use regularly (laundry detergent, dishwashing liquid, etc.) and am going to try to have a 6 month supply on hand when the baby arrives. I'm hoping this will help cut down on some grocery spending at the beginning, and give me time to find good deals on the brands I use)

Any other frugal ideas would be greatly appreciated! I'm hoping to start using these ideas next week to try and get in the habit before December!! Head over to Biblical Womanhood for more Frugal Friday ideas!