Let the Savings Begin!

Welcome Back! It’s time to get to work!!

First, I want to tell you a story about the Golden Gate Bridge. Did you know that workers repair and work on the Golden Gate Bridge every single day but Christmas Day? This is so the bridge stays in good repair and does not break and fall in to the ocean. Our financial lives are just like the Golden Gate Bridge. If we do not take care of our finances, we too can fall into an ocean of debt before we know it. We are going to do small and simple things to take care of our finances daily. 

To begin we will clean out our fridge! I know that sounds crazy but did you know the average family wastes 40 percent of the food they buy in a month. So, if we spend 1,000 dollars on food in a month—-more than likely we are wasting 400 dollars of it. Wow 400 dollars—-times that waste over a year, a decade—-we need to put an end to waste. By cleaning out our fridge (and if we have time our cupboards), we will know exactly what we have to use to make meals and organize our shopping list. Yes, our biggest savings will come from the grocery store. We are going to plan our meals weekly so that we can spend less and eat out less. 

We are going to incorporate two nights a week into our meal planning. One night will be leftover night—-If your family does not like leftovers—-have a pancake night—-your family will love it! The second night is soup and sandwich night. Next, every Sunday we will pull our families together for 10 quick minutes and plan our week of meals. This is so important —-our children will be more likely to eat what we have planned if they help plan it. As our kids got older, they each had a night to plan and prepare the dinner meal. I love when it is their night.

Here are some simple, yummy, inexpensive meals to make. All of these meals are under 15 dollars to make and feed a family of 6. I will continue to add recipes over the next couple of days and weeks. You can also freeze portions or use as leftovers.

Pork Chops in the Crock pot  $8.68 for a family of 6 

Fry and cook pork chops —one pork chop per family member. Make sure to use boneless pork chops

Put cooked pork chops in crockpot

Cover with 3 cans of Cream of Mushroom soup

Cook on medium heat for 4 to 6 hours—-stir every couple hours

Serve over rice and with a vegetable

Easy Lasagna  $11.69 for a family of 6 

Cook lasagna noodles

Fry one pound of hamburger—-then add 1 to 2 bottles of Garden Combination Spaghetti sauce

In a cake pan (9 1/2 by 11) make layers of the following: 

Cooked lasagna noodles

spread hamburger sauce mixture

sprinkle with parmesan cheese

sprinkle with canned mushroom bites and canned sliced olives

sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and mild cheese

spread 2 spoonfuls of cottage cheese

Repeat this 3 times to make 3 layers. 

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Serve with toss salad and garlic bread

Potato Casserole  $7.24 for a family of 6

Peel and quarter 10 potatoes

Add 2 cans of cream of Mushroom soup

Add one cup milk

Sprinkle with cubed ham  (I buy the cubed ham package back by the meat department)

Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.

Serve with rolls and a vegetable

Sweet and Sour Chicken $9.25

Cook and cut 4 chicken breasts

In a pot put the following:

4 Tbsp. cornstarch 

1 cup sugar

1 cup vinegar

1 can of Tidbits pineapple

8 Tbsp. Ketchup

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 tsp. salt

Bring to a boil. Add cooked chicken pieces. Simmer for 10 minutes

Serve over rice.

As our weeks continue in the blog I will show you how to buy what’s on sale and incorporate that in to our meals. But, for now we are taking baby steps. The savings will be huge by planning a list—-serving yummy meals and eating out less.

The more Bob and I were on our journey of becoming debt free we would buy in bulk. When a fantastic meat sale came along —-we would purchase hamburger, chicken, fish, and roasts for a year. What fantastic memories I have of our children sitting around the table helping us wrap meat in freezer paper, labelling, and putting the meat out in our freezer in the garage. We would laugh, visit, and get to know each other. What a wonderful feeling to know that we not only worked together but saved over 1,600 dollars that year from purchasing our meat on sale. Once there was an awesome sale on toilet paper —-we again purchased a year supply and saved over 347 dollars for the year. Just from those two items we saved over 1,900 dollars. Again buying products in bulk and on sale I will save for later in my blog. For now we will concentrate on saving monthly and not letting our food go to waste. By saving on our grocery bills early on—-we were able to save cash to purchase these yearly items. We did not use a credit card—-the interest would defeat the purpose of the money you would save by purchasing so much at one time. If you are trying to get points on your credit card, go ahead and use it, but make sure you pay it off before the end of the month so there is no interest.

One tip that was a BIG savings for us is that we no longer bought expensive brands. Instead of buying Tide detergent for 8.99 we bought Sun Detergent for 1.99. We bought Kroger, Western Family, and store brands as much as possible. The savings were immediate. For instance buying a container of Kroger brand cinnamon spice was 99 cents versus the McCormick brand which was $4.69. This is where you need to compare different brand prices. The food tastes the same but just a different label. The savings will rack up and you will notice a major difference. There are 3 brands that our family could not give up on and that was Farr’s ice-cream, Heinz Ketchup, and Campbell’s soup. That’s ok. It’s more important that your family eats the food than wastes it. Our goal is to save by purchasing store brands when possible, diminishing waste, and planning our meals. So, when 5 pm rolls around we are not scrambling for dinner and running to a fast food take out line. 

I always kept fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, peanut butter, cheese, and crackers on hand. Our kids loved eating these items for snacks. Again, visiting with your family and finding out what foods they like will help save you a lot of money. Always try to use what you have first. If you have half a bag of potatoes that need to be used—peel them, dice them, and fry them up as hash browns. Serve with scrambled eggs and toast. Your family will love breakfast for dinner and that meal will cost only 3 dollars and 29 cents. 

You will save more money than you ever realized by doing these simple steps. Clean out your fridge, use what you have, plan meals, incorporate leftover night & soup and sandwich night, and involve your family!!

Our financial journey has begun. Just like the Golden Gate Bridge—-taking care of and maintaining our finances will take us to places we have never imagined. Our pot of gold waits on the other side. It is so worth the work and effort. Ok my friends let’s get busy!!