2011 Savings

Tonight I am happily putting together my new coupon book and putting away my receipts for 2011.  Yes, I do keep all of my receipts AND I keep a spreadsheet so I will know how much I am saving and how much I am spending every month.  I didn't make the spreadsheet but it is a great tool!

My total savings for 2011 is....drum roll please....... 46%!


This is how it breaks down...
   Store Price     $5,099.12
   Coupons      - $2,749.82
Out of Pocket    $2349.30

That is less than $200/month!

There are some purchases from co-ops that are not included in these figures.  I am going to try to incorporate those this year.

My goal last year was to save at least 50% but I didn't quite make it.  I would like to strive for that again this year but I think it will be much harder.  The price of food is going up and unfortunately, the value of the coupons seem to be going down.  There are many stores that have changed their coupon policies too thanks to some that abused the system. :(

Shout Out to Purex

Purex was nice enough to send me a free sample of their new Triple Action laundry detergent recently.  It came at a great time because we just happened to have our first real snow that day.  The boys spent all morning playing in the snow and building fortresses to hide behind during their snow ball fights.  If you live nearby you know that the snow only lasted until around noon so we soon had a wet, muddy mess outside!  This, of course, did not slow the boys down.  They had a great time outside until most of the snow was gone.

I had them come in through the garage and deposit all wet clothes straight into the laundry room.  You can image my horror when I found my son's brand new jeans covered in mud and grass stains!  I was not a happy Mama!  This is when I remembered the Purex that I had just received.  I went ahead and tried it on the jeans and they came out perfect!  Not a spot!  And...because it was "Free and Clear"  I did not have to worry about Blake having a allergic reaction it.

Purex is the only detergent I use but this is just another great reason to stay with them.

If you want to try it...keep an eye out.  I might just have a give-away soon!

No Stress December

I have decided to have a NO STRESS December!  Want to join me?

I have pretty much all of my Christmas shopping complete.  I have not worried and stressed over gifts this year.  I have tried to get the little things that my family has asked for but refuse to give in to the idea that we all need everything that is on our list!  I don't believe bigger is better and I don't believe that the more money I spend on someone the happier they will be! 

I have received many invitations to Christmas parties.  I have committed to only 1 of them.  I may go to more but I do not feel pressured to do so and will not be pressured into it.

I am not planning how many cookies or candies I need to make or what our Christmas meal should be.

Before you think I am a Scrooge please let me explain.  I love my family and friends!  That love is not based on presents given or received, meals cooked or not, or parties every night.  I don't want to fly through this Christmas season and never appreciate my family and friends because I am too busy with "things".  I want to take it all in and truly appreciate this season.  The best gifts will come and go but family lasts a lifetime.  Shouldn't they be treasured?

Going Sugar Free

Today is the first day of our Sugar Free lives.  We are taking this sugar free journey for several reasons but the main one is to try to weed out the cause of complications in Blake's life.  We are starting with sugar and then moving on to wheat.  Hopefully one of these will be our culprit and we can move forward.

We started our day off with homemade whole wheat pancakes.  I used a mixture of homemade applesauce and persimmon as the liquid to add sweetness to it.  I will put the recipe below.  We added a 1/2 cup of milk and coffee with sugar free creamer to finish out our meal.  If you want to keep up with the calories, the pancakes have 100 calories per pancake, coffee creamer 20 calories/Tablespoon, and 1/2 cup of milk is 75 calories.  Not a bad breakfast and it should be very filling.

Whole Wheat Apple Pancakes

1 c. Soft White Wheat Flour

2 t. Baking Powder

1/2 t. Cinnamon

1/4 t. Salt

1 Egg

1 c. Milk

1 T. Oil

1/2 c. Applesauce or 1/4 c. apple sauce and 1/4 c. persimmon pulp

Mix together all dry ingredients.  Add liquid ingredients.  The batter will be thick!  I used 1/4 c. batter per pancake and then used a knife to spread the dough on the griddle.  Cook about 1 minute per side.

I just came up with this recipe so I may still do some more tweaking to it.  If you come up with some good changes let me know. 

I still have lots of the applesauce and persimmon pulp so I'm planning on making muffins today.

Our Daily Bread

It's Monday and we are out of bread! 

This morning I got the boys started on their school work and I headed off to the kitchen to whip up some bread.  My grain of choice is Spelt but today I decided to use Hard Red.  It turned out great!  Here is the recipe:

6 c. whole wheat flour
2 T. yeast
2 c. warm water
2 T. oil
2 T. honey
2 eggs
2 t. salt

Mix 3 cups of flour and yeast in mixer bowl equipped with kneading hook.  Add hot water and mix 1 minute.  Cover bowl and let dough sponge for 10 minutes.  Add oil, honey, eggs and salt.  Turn on mixer.  Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time until dough cleans the side of the bowl.  Knead 5-6 minutes in mixer.  Lightly grease hands and divide dough in half.  Form into loaf and place in loaf pans.  Allow to rise until doubled in size.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Remove from pans immediately and allow to cool completely...no matter how good it smells!

This is the basic recipe.  I do things a little different but it's too hard to write it all down...you will just have to come to one of my bread classes to learn more!  :)

The Little Things...

It's the little things in life that make me happy!  I got so excited this afternoon as I was making dinner because I got to use some of my dried herbs for the first time.  I had the boys bring down a jar of tomato sauce that I canned this summer using the instructions given to me by my new Italian friend.  I threw the sauce in the pot and added some of my dried basil.  Nothing else was needed.  It was great!

I made Eggplant Meatballs to go along with our pasta.  I guess it would be meat-less though.  They turned out much better that I expected.  My husband was a little concerned because we ended up with a vegetarian meal but I assured him that meat would be back on the table tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow... Tomorrow is the big game.  Alabama vs LSU!  I can't wait.  It should be a great game!  The whole family is getting together to watch it.  My brother, who ended up a great cook, is making Bang Bang Shrimp. Mom is making seafood gumbo.   I bought a gallon of oysters that were picked up at the gulf yesterday.  A great game calls for great food, right?! 

Fresh Veggies

Want to know my secret for buying great, fresh produce?  KROGER! 

They have a good selection of regular and organic produce.  I scored some great deals at my local Kroger yesterday (check out the picture).  I bought bok choy, 4 red peppers, 4 orange peppers, 2 eggplants, 3 lbs of mushrooms, and 3 lbs of turnips for $7! 

Our dinner tonight was homemade Cream of Mushroom soup, sauteed bok choy and peppers, and a slice of wheat bread.  The creamy soup was perfect for this cold weather that has moved in. 

I took a little time this afternoon to julienne the remaining peppers and threw them in the freezer.  I love being able to reach in and grab a few peppers at a time to add to a recipe.  The eggplant has been diced and is resting in the fridge.  The turnips...well, they are headed to my Mom's house!

One thing I always do as I'm peeling, chopping, or coring veggies is keep a bag of scraps in the freezer.  Every time I peel an onion, the skin and ends go into the bag.  I do the same thing with carrots, celery, and peppers.  I use these to make my chicken stock.  After I cook a chicken, I add the carcass and veggie scraps to a pot of water and simmer it for several hours.  After it cools, skim everything out of it and you have a great stock!  You can freeze it or can it for later use.