Home Made Food Inspirations: Making Your Home Sing Monday Meme

I'm linking up with Nan at "Mom's the Word" for her "Making Your Home Sing Monday" Meme. Enjoy!

I love to make our family's meals and treats from scratch. Not only does it save us money on our tight grocery budget, but my home made goodies are just better if I do say so myself (wink).

A couple of weeks ago I made some oatmeal cookies from scratch and the recipe (sorry, I didn't save the recipe, it was off the box of the store brand oats) made like 4 dozen cookies. I sealed them up in a plastic bag and we ate on them for two weeks. They were so good!

So tonight when my daughter wanted warm milk with honey as a bedtime snack (an idea we got from the movie Ponyo...have you seen it? It's really good) and I discovered we were out of honey, I had to improvise a sweet treat. I decided to make her chocolate milk, but didn't have chocolate syrup. So I just made my own from simple items that I keep in my pantry. Basically, it's just water, cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix it all together in a pot, boil it for a couple of minutes and it's done. I store it in a mason jar in the fridge.

You can find my favorite chocolate syrup recipe here.

Image taken from: http://www.seededatthetable.com/2012/07/18/diy-homemade-chocolate-syrup/

I also found this You Tube video from candidmommy who made home made waffles and then froze them just like Eggos. I loved how she served them simply, with a side a fresh blueberries. With all the berries in season right now, I was inspired to make these too! I actually have the same exact cookbook she uses in the video.

Check it out....

I'm also going to try my hand at making liquid laundry soap from scratch tomorrow too. I've made the powdered stuff many times, but never the big 5 gallon bucket of the liquid kind. I think I'll just use the Duggar's recipe (I have their book, but you can find the recipe here). I'll let you know how I like it in a future post.

So, that's how I'm making my home sing this week, by making frugal, home made goodies for my family and my home.

Have a great week everyone!

Lots of Grocery and Drug Store Deals!

I bought a lot of fresh fruit and a few cleaning necessities (like smooth top range cleaner (expensive), but here are some of the savings highlights...
(the totals don't reflect everything listed. These are just some of the better deals).

Rite Aid

Bounty Paper Towels (6)
$.52 each (BOGO and w/coupons)

Mentos (4)
FREE (w/ coupons)

Gilette Men's Deodorant (4)
$.50 each (Coupons for BOGO and after +Up Rewards)

Finesse Shampoo (2)
$.50 each (after +Up Rewards)

Paid...$19.43
Saved...$12.42! (not including the +Up rewards!)


Kroger

Chi Chi's Tortillas (3)
$.88 (after coupons)

4 pack Activia Yogurt (1)
$.88 (after coupon)

Frozen vegetables (8)
$.88 each

Kroger canned vegetables (9)
$.50 each

Kroger canned black and kidney beans (3)
$.68 each

10 lb bag of Russet Potatoes (1 bag)
$2.92

Kroger milk (1)
$2.09

Kroger Extra Large Eggs (1)
$1.59

Kroger white bread (1)
$.88

Hormel Pepperoni (2)
$1.23 (after coupons)

Starkist Tuna (2)
$.69 each

Body Wash (w/free lotion samples attached) (2)
$2.50 each (on closeout)

Secret Deodorant (2)
FREE! (w/purchase of body wash)

Paid...$63.80
Saved...$25.46!


Meijer

Peter Pan Peanut Butter (2)
$.89 each (after coupon)

Welch's Squeezable Jelly (2)
$1.16 each (after peel off "save now" coupon)

Snack Pack Pudding (4)
$.75 each (after buy 3 get one FREE coupon)

Lysol Sprays (2)
$1.50 each (after coupon)

Hillshire Farms Deli Sliced Turkey (2)
$3.99 each (after coupons)

Gain Dish Detergent (1)
$1.50 (after coupon...BUT THIS IS GOING TO BE $.88 THIS WEEK AT CVS WITH COUPONS. LUCKILY I HAVE 2 MORE!)

Mangoes (4)
$5.00 (this was a treat).

Red Grapes (1 bunch)
$.99 a lb.

Cortland Apples (1 bag)
$3.99 (for a 3lb bag)

Paid...$39.33
Saved...$16.34!

Total Savings Today...$54.22!

Ode to Generic Handsoap

Dear $.88 bottle of generic hand soap, you have served me well!

I bought you because I had two empty bottles from Bath and Body Works that make the foamy soap and I knew that I didn't have to throw them out because I could fill them with 2 thirds water and one third soap and they would be as good as new! Thanks to you, dear generic hand soap,
I was able to refill those bottles 4 times!


You were such a good value and saved my family a lot of $$$!

Now you are gone and I have to replace you, but I just wanted you to know that you were the first and I will always remember you!

(I LOVE this money saving trick!)

I Saved Over HALF!

I just made a jaunt to Kroger to try to use up some more coupons and take advantage of the Mega Event and did pretty well I think!

I had 4 more, "Buy 4, get $1 off" of Progresso Soup, so I bought 16 (this was a mega event item).

Then, I had a coupon for "buy 3 Hunts tomatoes get $.45 off" which doubles at Kroger for $.90 off (this was also a mega event item).
.
To get the Mega Event $5 off at checkout bonus, you have to buy 10 items in one transaction.

So I threw in one more mega event item (Kraft mac n cheese) to make that transaction 20 items, to have taken $10 off!

So, after the coupons and the mega event discount, those items totaled right around $16.00 (for 16 cans of soup, 3 cans of Hunts tomatoes and one container of instant mac and cheese).

Then I had some coupons for some Kroger sale items that were not part of the mega event. They had 1/2 gallons of Turkey Hill tea buy 4 for $5.00 (which is $1.25 a piece). I had buy 2 get $1.00 off, so they ended up being $.75 a piece.

I also had some coupons for some Healthy Choice

Publish Post

and Marie Callendar dinners that were 2 for $4.00. I had a coupon for buy 2 get a $1 off, so they ended up being $1.50 a piece.

So, in all, I spent about 20 bucks and some change and saved 21 bucks and some change!

Pretty awesome.

I guess it will be soup for lunch for me for the next few weeks! ha!

I Might Be Able to Get the Couponing Thing After All!

I went to Kroger this evening and scored some serious deals! They are having a meat sale, so I stocked up. And I tried the whole matching up my coupons with the store sales. And what do you know? I scored some good deals and some FREE stuff!!! WOOHOO!

My total was $72.59 and my receipt says that with my store card and coupons, I saved $40.72! Pretty awesome!

I also unknowingly bought 10 of their mega items, which took
$5.00 off of the total.

This trip, I bought fresh vegetables like celery, onion, carrots, cucumber and lettuce. And a 5lb bag of Fugi apples for $3.99 which is about $.80 a pound.

In all, the fresh fruit and veg totaled $13.02

Now for the meat deals...

Split, Bone-In Chicken Breasts were $.99lb

Chicken Leg Quarters were $.49lb for a 10lb bag, which totaled $4.90. But you could say that I got it for FREE because of the $5.00 credit from the mega savings promotion!

Pork Loin was either $1.49lb or $1.89lb...I don't remember. But either is a good deal.

So, in all I spent $12.32 which is pretty awesome for like 15lbs of meat!

Then I bought a few things that weren't necessarily on sale so that I could make for a recipe for my MOPS breakfast tomorrow, but I bought the store brands to try to keep the costs down, which is no big deal.

But I also got some things for FREE using coupons!!! Too cool!

I had a bunch of Colgate coupons, so I thought I'd just check and see if it was on sale, and it was, 10 for $10. Which at Kroger, means it's $1.00. I had two $.50 off any Colgate toothpaste coupons which at Kroger doubles. So each coupon was worth $1.00, meaning both tubes were FREE!!!
I also needed butter and had a $.50 off coupon for Best Life spread. When I got to Kroger, Best Life was also 10 for $10, so with the coupon, it was FREE! (it's really fun to write FREE in all caps! LOL) I may even have another one in my coupon stash,
so I'm going back to get more if I do!

I also got yogurts for about $.25 a container using coupons as well as some frozen items like Toaster Strudel, Green Giant veg, Lean Cuisines and Banquet Chicken Nuggets for about $1.50 or less a piece using coupons.

SUH-WEET!

There certainly is quite a feeling of accomplishment when you can get something for free or nearly free. It makes me want to work a little harder to find the best deals.

I also dug out a binder and bought some of those baseball card sleeves and some dividers to place my coupons in so that I can get organized.

I'm on a roll folks!

Clipping Coupons...A Love/Hate Relationship

One thing I've found is that clipping coupons is totally REPOSEFUL. It's really relaxing to sit on the couch with my circulars, flip through the great coupons, take out my sharp scissors, clip away and dream of getting a great deal or something FREE with those little slips of paper!

How many times has that happened?
NEVER!

While the act of clipping the coupons is fun and relaxing, actually making them work for me is seriously stressful! I just feel lost, like I don't know where to begin. I know there are websites that do the work for you, cross referencing the store sales fliers with available coupons for the best deals. But a lot of those services charge a monthly fee. And my objective is to SAVE money, not spend it on something I could easily do myself. But it's not easy. The folks I do know personally who are super couponers spend a lot of time online and at the stores searching out the best deals. It really is a time investment if you want to learn to do this right.

But I just don't get how it all works? It seems like when I get to the store, the price of the name brand product with a coupon is still more expensive than just buying the store brand. I also think it's more expensive to buy processed prepackaged food than it is to just make certain things yourself. For example, why would I buy a jar of Ragu with a coupon that saves me a few pennies when it's just cheaper and healthier to make my own sauce with a can of store brand tomatoes, a $.30 can of tomato paste, half a green pepper, half an onion, a couple cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and spices? And it tastes better too! Although I would like to get in on getting those boxes and boxes of free pasta that everyone talks about. I can see how that works. Right now Barilla pasta is $1.00 a box at Kroger. If you had a $.50 off coupon, which Kroger doubles, then it would be free! I'm all about easy math like that. But once it gets complicated with mixing and matching and earning bucks and points etc. then I get lost. So, back to the pasta...does anybody have any Barilla coupons or know where I could find some? :)

If I had someone to sit with me and go through the fliers, help me match up the coupons and then walk me through the store to show me how to take advantage of the great deals (especially at Rite Aid), then I think I could learn how to do it. But I'm not going to pay for it!

Could any of you offer some suggestions, favorite websites, advice, ANYTHING?

Christmas Budget

So, this is the year! This is the first time we are taking Christmas shopping for our little girl seriously. Before you gasp in astonishment because we have somehow deprived her, remember, she's just two. Her first Christmas she was just 7 months old, so needless to say there wasn't much to get her besides a few little musical toys and a couple of stuffed animals. Then last year, we got her a dancing Brobee (from Yo Gabba Gabba), and 3 or 4 learning type toys. The rest of her gifts came from family. I'm just so grateful that we have such a generous family that just love to buy for her for Christmas. Not that our family has a lot of money or shower her with gifts, but when you have a large family, and everyone does a little, it adds up to a lot for each kid. But this is the first year that we've been thinking about what we are going to get her for Christmas and it's throwing me for a loop.

This year, our budget is TIGHT! We have made it clear to all the adults (who we usually buy for) that we aren't exchanging gifts with them this year and to PLEASE not buy anything for us. I'm also wondering how or what kind of budget we're going to have for the other kids in the family (7 to be exact). I want to get them all something (remember the everyone doing a little adds up to a lot thing) because I love them and don't get to give to them any other time of the year, but I just don't know what they'd like? I'm usually the really boring aunt that buys every kid a couple of books for Christmas, but who knows what I'll do this year. Whatever it is, it can't cost a lot.

So back to the budget for little G....We've been perusing the toy fliers (I'm really impressed that the big box stores have put out some nice catalog type things this year) and I've been jotting down ideas of things that I think she may like. But I'm sort of getting hung up on what to budget for her gifts. What is a general rule of thumb for buying your child Christmas presents? My first thought was $100...a nice, big, round number. But my husband was like, "Uh, no, we can't do that!" So, I threw out $50 and he said that that was more like it. So what do you think? Is $50 for your 2 year old for Christmas too little or too much. I know it's a personal decision that one has to make according to their family's needs, but I'm just wondering what some of you are doing or what you have done in the past.

I do have a little list going of things that I know she'll be happy with.


I think she would love a doctor's kit.



I also want to get her an art easel. These are pretty expensive, so I'm not sure how that will work out.


I also want to get her some dress up clothes,

some play-doh,
some bongo drums,


and some art supplies (I know...weird list).




But since the papers came out, I have fallen love with the Fur-Real walking kitty. And Target has it with their coupon for only $9.99. She loves kitty cats, so I think it could be a favorite.



And I'm seriously considering getting her her first Candyland. Walmart has it for only $5, and Toys R Us has it for $1 (with rebates...but who wants to fool with that). I know she's only two, but I think I want it more for me than her, so whatever. ha!

So, let me know. What is your budget this year? Are you feeling a pinch this Christmas? Do you buy gifts for all the kids in your family? If so, what are some of the things you get them? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Fake it Till Ya Make It (at the grocery store)

So some of you may have read my rant on how sick I am of eating crappy food and how I yearn to shop at Whole Foods, throwing caution to the wind as to the gynormous prices. But alas, it is still just a dream....the shopping at Whole Foods thing. It's just NOT in the budget. But I am determined to add more fruits and veggies to our diet and eat more healthfully. So I have a plan! To fake it til I make it!!! Which leads me to.......

Drum Roll......

ALDI!

My friends (that includes you blog friends) say that this store is amazing and CHEAP on things like produce and meat. Now, I'm a little nervous about having to take my own grocery bags and only being able to use cash, but I'm gonna tough it out! What I'm looking to do is stock up on staples and try to eat more meals at home. I've been looking at my bank statements and have noticed that fast food is EATING THROUGH (no pun intended) our budget! This has to stop. Also, it's not helping my "get healthy" goals either! But it's my own fault. I just never have enough groceries in the house to make quick meals for me and my daughter during the day. So what do I do...you can guess the rest!

So, I have to sacrifice my one stop shopping (Kroger), to try to save money and also get the things I want. So, that's where Aldi comes in. Now keep in mind, I've never been there before and I may hate it! But I'm going to give it a try and report back to you on how it went and if I saved any money!

Wish me luck!

Princess Party on a Budget...Need Your Thrifty Ideas!

If you have been reading my blog long, you might remember that last year, the party I planned for my daughter's first birthday was curtailed by terrential rains and terrible flooding, which left many people stranded for days. My inlaw's house (where we were staying that night) actually flooded as well and eventually had to be torn down. It was a crazy couple of days!

Needless to say, there WAS NO 1st birthday party. I was hoping to resalvage some of last year's cake experiment and try a princess party all over again. What tips could you give me for planning a princess party? Last year I was so focused on this cake, I didn't buy hardly any decorations or anything! LOL Which is good because I didn't need them anyway! But this year, I want to make it a really special party. Any frugal tips, links or thrifty, creative ideas from you amazing moms would be so helpful!!!

Before the night of the flood, the day before G's party, I spent many hours trying to make this cake by Wilton, so this is all I've got so far...can you give me some more ideas?

Beautiful, but ambitious huh???

But I planned, took my time and by the time I was finished, her cake really did look a lot like this (but because it wasn't fully assembled, I didn't take any pics...I wanted to wait until I had it all put together...bummer)! I bought the Wilton cake set ($18 at Walmart), baked the specified cake rounds, made home made butter cream icing, bought 100 little sugar flowers (cuz I sure wasn't making those! They cost $10...bought 100 @ 10 cents each), bought the purple sanding sugar and different colored dyes to tint the frosting. In all, I probable had about $50 in the cake ingredients and accessories, which I think is pretty reasonable for such a big, ambitious cake. If you bought this cake from a decorator, it would've cost upwards of around $300 or more! But it was a LOT of work. So, because we didn't get to use the cake because the party was obviously canceled, I just had my mother salvage as many of the little sugar flowers as she could and all the plastic pieces that I hand decorated with icing leaves, flowers and sanding sugar, and had her freeze all of them in her deep freezer, because those pieces are what took the longest to decorate! So this year, I plan on just buying the rounds already iced with white icing and then assembling the other stuff myself. I hope it all works out! I'll post pictures of the party next month and let you know how it all turned out!

In the meantime, send me your ideas!

Church Garage Sale

I went to my church's garage sale for the youth a few weeks ago (I've been procrastinating about posting the pics) and found some fun things.

Again, I loaded my pics all wacky, so everything is backward, but this is a portrait of my baby, GG in a $2.00 matted frame. It originally had a bunny scene, which was perfectly cute, but I wanted a white frame for this picture and nice, heavy, matted frames are a pretty penny. But this one was only 200 (pennies...get it?).

Isn't she precious?

See, he's cute, but GG's cuter!

A white frame on a white wall, I know, not the best choice, but this room will eventually be light purple or green...I'm always thinking ahead!

Sorry about the blurry picture, but isn't this squirrel darling?

A FREE piece of McCoy pottery! A friend was walking in with a box for the garage sale and let me look through it first. She just gave it to me! I sort of collect the stuff, and my dad REALLY collects McCoy. It'll look great in my kitchen!

Another pic of the squirrel clock thingy. I'll have to replace the clock mechanism and the hands, and paint the wooden box it's in, but I just think it's so quirky and charming! And you can't beat a buck!

Not sure where I'm going to hang it yet...I'll save that for another day.

So, all this for $3.00! I looked it up and the McCoy pottery alone is worth $10.00. Pretty cool!!!

Why Don't I Yard Sale More Often?

I found some really great stuff today at some crazy prices! Why don't I go to yard sales more often? Also, I hung my window after I changed the colors again. Those pics are at the bottom.

My sweet friend Marie recently got married and is moving to Virginia. I dropped by today to see her and to see if she was still having her "relocation" sale. She had a few things left including this beautiful antique rocker that was her grandmothers. She said that she wanted to give it to me! Can you believe that! It's a smaller scale rocker and I can just picture my little girl sitting in it reading or rocking her baby dolls. It's perfect for a small child, but for now, it's going in the guest room for mama to enjoy! I promised Marie that we'd take good care of it! What a blessing!

I bought this old lamp from her for $5.00. It has a paper shade with all these little holes punched in it. It also has a little bluebell flower design, as you can see lit up here. Isn't it pretty?

I love this little basket. I think of little red riding hood taking goodies to her grandmother when I look at it. I'm going to clean it up and probably paint it...not sure yet. But it is darling!

This dish is very tiny. I may use it to keep my coarse kosher salt in on the counter.

A couple of other cute dishes from Marie's

So everything you see here, plus the lamp I got at Marie's was all just $10. And don't forget the antique rocker she just gave to me! Pretty awesome!

Bang for a Buck!

At the next yard sale, I only had a dollar with me. A shame because they had a lot of stuff that I wanted, but I did get everything you see below for

.25 cents each! Including this large silver tray. You'll be seeing some project pics very soon!

I got two of these little milk glass plates for .25 cents a piece. I'm going to cover the gold Asian theme with some pastel paper and hang it in the baby's room by some pretty ribbon. It'll be cute.

Pics of the Window

Here is the rocking chair and the lamp together...uh-oh an open baby gate!

I absolutely hate this wall! I can never get anything to look right on it. It's very long and linear. The chaise that's part of the sectional sticks out and blocks half of it. It really needs a piece of furniture on it, but there's just no room. I really want to get rid of the sectional for a more traditional couch and 2 chairs. One day I'll post pics of the living room and explain my plans. Until then, do any of you have any suggestions for how to decorate a long wall that's otherwise pretty bare? Send me some pics, or some links of ideas you've seen! Thanks for visiting!