Dehydrating Foods

When we were camping, I found these amazing Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms! (Take care if you don't know anything about mushrooms! Some are poisonous!) Chicken of the Woods mushrooms are very good so I put these into a few baggies and took them home. A few years ago, I bought this dehydrator at a garage sale and just now got around to trying it out. So, after eating fresh mushrooms to our hearts content, I dehydrated the rest. 

It took a lot of mushrooms to make this pint jar! However, now, all winter when I want some mushrooms to put in soups or casseroles, I can grab this jar!

Since the mushroom project was so successful, I decided to dehydrate some raspberries this year. I usually freeze all the raspberries and make jam or juice them. My husband loves raspberries so he is using these on cereal and ice cream. 

I was concerned about any moisture left in the berries and mushrooms and so I dug some moisture "soakers" out of some supplements I had and put them into the jars. I'm sure a few grains of rice would work just as well but you would want to be careful not to get them into your cereal and break a tooth! THAT wouldn't be frugal. ;)

A dehydrator is not needed for dehydrating. Some people dehydrate in the sun or in their ovens. Here is an article on dehydrating: http://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/dehydrate-food-without-dehydrator-0161531/

 Happy Savings! 

Free Slurpee at 7 Eleven Stores Today Only

http://fiftee.slurpee.com/post/147173254546/free-small-slurpee-on-711-from-11am-to-7pm-get

And according to this article: http://www.wesh.com/news/its-free-slurpee-day-but-waittheres-more/40450718

On Monday, 7/11/16, enjoy a free small Slurpee between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. But that's just the beginning.

Slurpee Week kicks off Tuesday, and that means when you buy seven of the cool drinks with the 7-Eleven app, you'll get 11 Slurpees free.

The offer is available 7/12/16 through 7/18/16 to members of the 7Rewards Program and only at participating 7-Eleven stores. Check out the app for more details.

Change Your Think into a Thunk: Frugality is a Mindset

Frugality is a mindset and something that should be practiced everyday in order to live a truly frugal lifestyle. Sometimes people practice frugality like they practice dieting. A crash diet is when you eat what you want and then suddenly realize you weigh too much and then you starve yourself in order to fit into that size 10 dress for so and so's wedding. This is not a good way to diet and it isn't a good way to practice frugality.

If you were to eat right every day and not overindulge, there would be no need for a crash diet because eating right would just be your lifestyle. So too with frugality.

I write a lot about "changing your think into a thunk" because in my thinking, the goal is to change to where frugality is part of who you are. Frugality isn't just something to do as a hobby or to save a few dollars after a big splurge at the mall. It is a lifestyle to be lived. 

Just as there are many benefits to eating right every day (and we all fall off the wagon once in a while....and must forgive ourselves). there are benefits to being frugal every single day. I don't think berating yourself is a good approach if you overindulge. The key to my way of thinking is to remind yourself of what you are gaining and not what you are losing.

What are you gaining? Less stress. More peace. Freedom from worry. Learning a new skill. More fun in the long run. A better savings account. Retirement! There are so many things you can gain. Every day small sacrifices can cause big gains in the future. So....change your think into a thunk and.....

Happy Savings! 

Finding Deals Everyday: Today I Made at Least $29/hr Tax Free!

Once a week, I go into town to do some shopping. This time of year I go on a day that there are garage sales. I stop at a number of garage sales, making sure I have cash in my pocket to spend in case I see something that I could use. 

Today I hit a number of garage sales. I got a number of items we can use. In addition, I stopped and got a haircut. I used a pre-paid card that I got last winter. Every winter, our area Great Clips has a deal that you can buy as many pre-paid haircuts as you want for $9.99 each so I buy enough for the year.

Aside from the garage sale deals and a hair cut deal, I also looked for deals at Wal-Mart when I went. No matter what store I shop at, I scan the clearance and mark down areas to see what I might find. Today I hit the jack pot on meat!! I have never seen prices this low, so I assessed how much space I had in my freezer (in my head) and bought everything I thought would fit in there. 

I bought two turkeys that were $25.77 each for $6.33 each. .48 cents a pound! These are ready to cook turkeys. They were marked down because the handles on the bags were broken. Use by or freeze date on these was all the way out to 1/18/18! 

Duck was marked down from $2.84 a pound to .50 a pound!! I bought four ducks. Use by date on these is more recent, but I am not worried as it is only a use or freeze by date. 9/24/16. 

  

Boneless Turkey Roast was $12.23 and was on sale for $2.98! I bought three of these. I knew I had to quit as space was limited.  The use by date on these was all the way out to 06/14/17. 

So all this meat would have cost me $157.87 and only cost $33.88!! 

Add to that, I checked the clearance aisle. I am not listing everything but I got 2 of these bottles of  25.4 fluid ounce shampoo for $2.00 each plus they have coupons for free styling products that I will get next time I am at the store. 

If I count only the meat I got today and nothing else....no garage sale savings or clearance savings, that is a savings of $123.99. Let's just guesstimate and say I saved $50.00 more on other items (a low estimate). That is $173.99 in one day and I spent about 6 hours out. That's $29.00 an hour tax free! I save like this on a regular basis by simply keeping my eyes out for deals.

Happy Savings!

Changing Your Think into a Thunk: Deciding to Work or Stay Home

There are many factors involved in whether to stay home with your children or work outside the home. First, there are your own personal values to consider. Is being at home with your children uppermost in your list of values? If so, it is good to consider how much it really costs you to work. It costs a surprising amount of money to work a job. Assuming you have a spouse who will bring home one income, let's consider some of the costs of working outside the home for a second income.

1. First, is the cost of child care. Child care costs are very expensive.  

The average cost of center-based daycare in the United States is $11,666 per year($972 a month), but prices range from $3,582 to $18,773 a year ($300 to $1,564 monthly), according to the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA).

 2. When you stay at home, your food costs are much lower. You won't need nearly as much convenience foods and stretching the budget is much easier. 

3. You won't have as much expense for automobile costs as you will be driving less and, if your circumstances allowed, could possibly even get buy with one less car.

4. You won't need to spend as much on clothing. Plus you will have time to shop at thrift stores vs just running in and out of stores buying what you need as fast as you can. 

5. You will pay less in taxes. This is a real cost when you consider hourly pay.

6. You will have more time for thinking of how to be more frugal in every area of your life.

7. You may find yourself feeling content with less since the friends you have will have more of the same frugal mindset than dual income couples.

8. You may be able to come up with a way to create income from home. 

Here is a stay at home calculator. (I haven't personally used this but there are many such calculators online and you can find one to fit your needs!) http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/considering-baby/financing-family/calculator/ Using this, you should be able to calculate whether you can afford to quit your job or not.

For me personally, I felt I couldn't afford to not stay home with my children. It was something I deeply wanted to do. Having done so, I learned to be very frugal. It was such that, after my children were older, (and since I wasn't paid a huge hourly wage!) that working more than 20 hours per week actually cut into what I was able to make, because after 20 hours, I wasn't able to be as frugal as before because my time was spent at the job rather than doing frugal things. 

This is a very personal decision for every couple, but I think you would be surprised at how much it actually costs you to work and that you just might be able to quit and make it much more easily than you thought!

Happy Savings!

Garage Sale Season is Here!!

Garage sale season is here! Here are some of my recent finds:

• Pair of cute, like new slippers .75

• Brand new, high quality in the box fan $5.00

•  Brand new shower curtain liner .50

•  Book on Day Trips .50

•  Cassette player (I wanted one so I could listen to some of my old cassettes) $2.00

You can't beat the prices for things at garage sales! Here are some pointers.

1. Garage sales are usually best on Fridays here, but Saturdays are good too.

2. Always keep a little cash on you for a garage sale.

3. I never look in the paper for sales, I just pull up when I see one. If you are looking for something specific like baby clothes or a dresser, it could pay to look for ads.

4. If you are going for furniture, go early.

5. Don't be scared to haggle! People will almost always take a little less if you make a respectful, decent offer.

6. If the price seems too high, if you don't really need the item yet (like the shower curtain I bought) don't buy it and hope for another. If you hit a few sales weekly, you can usually get what you are looking for at bargain prices. If someone had put $4.00 on the shower curtain, I would not have gotten it and not likely even asked for a better price.

7. I pick up jewelry I find that is silver or gold if the price is right. (If you do this, make sure you keep them in a safe place somewhere!) The ring in this photo is silver (if a piece of jewlery has 925 on it, that means it's sterling silver). I only paid .25 for this ring. I would not have paid $5.00 for it!

8. I look for items that might be good for resale on ebay. This could vary widely per person but you can really make some money doing this. When figuring profit margin, be sure to include shipping costs in your margin. You don't want to go through all that work and then make nothing because your profits were eaten up with shipping costs.

7. If an appliance, like your blender, is on it's last legs and you know you will be buying one in the next few months, start looking for a replacement now. My blender has a tiny chip in it and I know that a replacement is about $65.00. I don't like plastic for the upper piece, I like glass. I use my blender every day. I just found a replacement the other week for $2.00. I am still using the old one as of yet.

8. Have fun and buy some fun things but don't buy too much stuff or you will end up with a house stuffed to the gills.

9. Give overflow to charity.

You can save oodles and caboodles of money this way and it is great fun and feels great to save! One of the most satisfying ways to figure it is to figure out how many hours you would have had to work at your current job to pay for what you just saved. Chances are, the dollars add up very fast!

Happy Savings!

Saving Money on Laundry

1. One way to save money on laundry is to simply do less of it. Some people will wear a shirt for half a day and then wash it. Unless you are doing hot, sweaty work, there really is no need nor reason for that. Shirts can easily be worn a couple of times. Sweaters can be worn many times. Jeans can be worn usually a few more times than shirts. Towels can be hung to dry and used a few times before laundering. Not only does this save money but it also saves time. Everyone can find the level of re-use they are comfortable with. It also saves on wear and tear on clothing so clothing doesn't have to be purchased as often.

2. Clotheslines can be great money savers. I personally do not use one too often because of allergies. However, the dryer is one of the biggest energy users in the house and hanging the clothes to dry can save quite a bit. If you don't like the stiff way clothes feel after hanging, you can tumble dry for a few minutes towards the end of drying or afterwards. I also like the way ironing can be avoided with tumble drying. Make sure you don't over dry your clothes although I confess I am guilty here.

3. Only do a load when there are enough clothes to do a full load. This will save on energy expenses and time as well.

4. Use half the recommended amount for laundry detergent and tear dryer sheets in half. Some people make their own soap. I just make sure I buy my detergent on sale and steep discounts and then always tear dryer sheets in half.

5. If I had to use a laundromat, I would hand wash as many clothes at home as possible and hang dry. This might not be possible for people with families but for a single person or couple it could be done while showering easily enough.

Small changes can add up to big savings over time! Pennies turn into dollars and dollars turn into tens and tens turn into twenties and.......

Happy Savings!