My husband calls it Pasta ala Michelle because he had never heard of eggs in pasta until he met me. It’s a really nice, simple meal. You might be surprised how tasty it is!

BUT – I still save a lot of moneyon my groceries.

Here are my Top 12 Tips for saving on food:

1. Price-matching & stocking up on loss leaders ~ Each Wednesday, the local grocery stores put their ads in the daily paper. I read through the ads over my morning coffee and figure out what’s cheapest where. Depending on where the good deals are, I either buy them where they happen to be on sale, or I go to one grocery store and price-match from the ads. I have two options for price-matching: Walmart and a local store called Fareway. Hands down, price matching is easiest at Walmart. And since Walmart is closer to me, invariably I end up there if I price-match.

While I don’t always price-match, I do always buy whatever happens to be cheapest. Grocery store prices fluctuate from week to week and cycle all the time. Knowing what’s cheapest and stocking up when products are at their rock-bottom prices saves me a ton of cash. Here’s an example of a price matching trip I made and the savings I achieved.

2. Buying directly from farmers ~ perhaps the antithesis of price-matching is purchasing directly from farmers. And I do that too. Most notably, I buy our meat directly from the source. I’ve been buying my beef 1/4 cow at a time for the last three years and just purchased 1/2 a pig for the first time. I’m not sure what this year’s beef will cost yet (last year’s was around $500) because I haven’t gotten the bill from the farmer, but the 1/2 pork cost just over $200. My freezer’s full now and I should have almost enough meat to last an entire year with careful planning. The website Local Harvest is a very helpful resource for finding farmers in your area!

3. Menu planning ~ Planning meals around ingredients I have on hand and whatever’s cheapest at the grocery store is another way I keep my budget down. Instead of basing meals on ingredients when they are most expensive, I make sure to use only the cheaper products – that usually means eating according to what’s in season since in-season items seem to be cheaper. I post a weekly menu / freezer cooking plan each Sunday or Monday. I’m not always the best at following it to the letter, but when I can stick mostly to my menu I always save money.

4. Buying in bulk at Amish stores ~ Another way I save is buying items in bulk and keeping a stocked pantry. I love Amish bulk food stores. If you’re lucky enough to live near some, you might be surprised what you can find there. I especially love buying raw honey and baking goods like whole oats, wheat berries, and raw sugar.

I also discovered Amish Produce Auctions at the end of the season last year. I got some great deals (50 lbs of potatoes for under $15, for example) and I will definitely check them out again this year, especially if I can’t get my garden to produce well.

5. Reducing food waste ~ A while back I started tracking the cost of the food I threw out. I was surprised at how fast food waste adds up – $5 of wasted food happens pretty quickly and $5 a week adds up to $260 a year which is more than my 1/2 a pig cost!! A great way to save money at the grocery store is to buy less food by eating up everything I’ve bought! I’m still working on reducing food waste. Some weeks are better than others, but I try hard to eat all of our leftovers and reduce produce waste by making lots of smoothies.

6. Using Swag Bucks on Amazon ~ Swag bucks are another great way to reduce out of pocket expenses. If you’ve never heard of swagbucks – let me tell you, they are super cool. Quite simply, sign up for an account, download their tool bar or search engine and use it any time you would use a different search engine. Randomly, you’ll start to earn Swag bucks and when you have 450 SB, you can redeem them for a totally free $5 Amazon gift card. I’ve been using SB since 2009 and have earned $250 in Amazon gift cards. And that’s not that much. A lot of people earn a ton more. A disclaimer – I use the SB search engine to get back and forth between all of the blogs I read, but if I want to do a more academic search, I use Google. I get many more options when I search on Google, but for going back and forth between blogs or other websites, SB is great. I collect points until I have enough for a couple Amazon gift cards, and then when Amazon has a great sale on coffee or organic kid treats, I get them free! Can’t beat free!

7. Gardening ~ Growing my own is another way I save big. I’ve been gardening since 2006 and some years are better than others, but I always plant a garden and we always enjoy what grows. This year we planted an orchard, last year we planted berry bushes and aspargus, and this year I have really increased the size of my garden. I hope everything grows nicely and I get a lot of food because…

8. Preserving food from my garden ~ is another way I save. In past years I have canned tons of dill pickles, I always make grape jelly, and home canned tomatoes can’t be beat! We also freeze a lot of corn when we get a bumper crop. I’ve still got over 30 quarts of corn in my freezer from last year and as well as a bunch of shredded zucchini. Not having to buy those items at the grocery store is awesome.

9. Sticking to a price-point list ~ I’ve mentioned that grocery stores cycle their prices. At any given time in a 12 week period, you’ll notice fluctuating prices. At some point, prices are highest, and at other points, they’re lowest. To really save, you need to know when the prices are high and when they’re low. It’s very helpful to establish a price-point list so you know if you’re getting a good deal! Here’s mine – it’s changing now as I’ve actually increased my grocery budget to get better quality food, but buying food for around these prices is still my goal as often as possible.

10. Shopping in bulk from Azure Standard ~ Azure Standard just started delivering to Iowa this year and I just found them this month! I picked up my first order at the beginning of May and will be making my second order in the next week or so for delivery in June. I can’t believe the good deals I found at Azure Standard. If you’ve never heard of them, it’s like an organic co-op. They “specialize in natural, organic, earth-friendly foods and products and deliver directly to customers, buying clubs and retailers by semi truck and UPS.” The company is from Oregon and they’re expanding East. I got 25 pounds of organic carrots for just over $20 and 20 pounds of organic apples for $20 as well, and I got 50 lb bags of organic hard red wheat berries for $19!! That’s cheaper even than the Amish bulk food store I love. The quality of the Azure Standard’s food was phenomenal and our apples were gone after only one week. Boo.  I highly recommend Azure Standard if you are lucky enough to be near one of their drops. I think they’ll be a great resource for keeping my budget low and enable me to add more organic products into our diets.

11. Buying from Environmental Working Group’s Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen List ~ I probably don’t have to tell you that organic produce is expensive. One way to reduce pesticide exposure without breaking the bank is to buy a mix of organic and conventional produce. I try to follow the EWG’s Dirty Dozen List to reduce my expenses. I’m hoping they will come out with a 2012 list soon – I have a lot of questions about the old list, but I do use it as a starting point.

12. Paying with cash as much as possible ~ And finally, using cash helps me keep my budget down as well. At the beginning of each month, I go to the ATM machine and withdraw my allotted grocery budget. Keeping track of cash is a little scary, but I’m quite careful with it (except when the two year old gets a hold of my wallet…) It’s really easy for me to see how much money I have left so I know when I need to reign in my spending. For instance, I don’t have a lot of money left for the last two weeks of May, but my pantry is stocked and my garden is starting to produce so I’m pretty sure I can stick it out. When I plan my next couple of menus and grocery shopping trips, I will be extra careful about what I buy because I’m running low on cash.

When I bought groceries with my credit card it was too easy to pass the plastic and I was terrible at keeping track of my spending. I was initially very skeptical of cash, but moving to a cash system was what really helped us get our spending down, and it was not that out of control before. But we’re definitely saving more with a cash system.

And that, my friends, is how I save on groceries. What do you do that I don’t to save on your groceries?

Linking up: Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; Frugal Tuesday; Works for Me Wednesday; Healthy 2day Wednesday; Taking a Timeout Thursday; Frugal Friday;

Anyhooo, after a really super nice March, April was quite cold and nasty and I was not motivated to do much of anything. When the weather was nice, I was distracted by other things and when I was ready to go work, the weather was nasty. So my garden looked like this when I finally went out late last week to get serious about gardening:

Yes – everything that looks like grass is exactly that. I had a lot of work to do pulling all the weeds. Lucky for me, my great friend Robin was here and up for the task and even better – the ground was pretty moist so the grass came right out. I much prefer weeding after it has rained. She helped me clean out and plant 5- 8′  beds of potatoes – We planted 4 beds of All Purple and 1 bed of Yukon Gold. I tried not to work her too much for fear she will never visit me again.

While we were working, our 6 oldest collective children got busy with a nice stack of bricks my husband and I have collected from other projects. As you can see, we don’t have a nice stack of bricks any longer, but we do have an awesome boat, a chair, and a house. And the kids had a great time.

On Mother’s Day, my wonderful husband got out the tractor and cultivated my garden one more time so I could finish planting. He took care of a lot of the remaining weeds and saved my back. I planted 4 rows of Black Aztec Corn, 3 more rows of potatoes, transplanted most of the tomatoes, basil, peppers, broccoli, and brussel sprouts I started from seeds and planted a bunch of flowers.

This is the first year I have started seeds.  I was pretty happy with the tomatoes, peppers, and flowers I started, but I’m not sure my brussel sprouts and broccoli will survive. Given our warm, warm March, I would have been better off directly sowing them, I’m pretty sure. I directly sowed some kale and started a few from seeds and the directly sown kale is gorgeous – much nicer and bigger than the seeds I started. These are some of the plants in my garden:

My peas are flowering and my onions are too. I just read that the onions shouldn’t flower so I guess I’ll go ahead and dig up the ones with flowers – perfect timing as I’m almost out of onions.

After all of my work, my garden’s starting to take shape:Right now I have three rows with 5′ to 8′ foot long beds (12 beds per row). I have found that planting my seeds in raised beds of sorts helps keep weeds down and gives me clear paths to walk on. My hubs is going to make me one more row which I will likely fill with flowers and herbs. I still have a few extra empty beds in my 3 rows to plant with more tomatoes and also cabbage and eggplant. The remaining garden will be filled with cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, squashes, gourds, and pumpkins.

And finally, my friends also came out and planted a whole bunch of pie pumpkins that they didn’t have room for in their town garden. I’m pretty sure we’re going to end up with a huge pumpkin patch thanks to their 18 pumpkin plants:

Garden goals for this week:

1. Weed strawberries and transplant a few.

2. Fill up my asparagus trench.

3. Finish planting my garden.

4. Finish weeding my carrots.

5. Stake my tomatoes.

And the work will keep on stacking up from here on out – weeding, weeding, and weeding. I can’t wait to eat strawberries, peas, and fresh lettuce. And they’re getting close! We also have a bunch of blueberries on one bush and the wild black raspberries are looking very promising as well.

How’s your garden looking?

Linking up: Tuesday Garden Party;

I have a lot of food left over from her visit even though we ate like crazy, so this week’s menu shouldn’t be too hard. Here’s my plan:

Breakfasts ~

• Yogurt & berries
• Homemade granola
• German pancakes
• Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins
• Eggs & Uncured bacon – I’m eager to taste this “fresh” pork and see how it is.
• Pineapple, Kiwi, Orange & Spinach Smoothies 
• Carrot Muffins

Lunches ~

• Bean burritos – made from extra beans and homemade tortillas from extra dough
• Salad & hard boiled eggs, carrot sticks
• Sandwiches on homemade 5 grain bread

Dinners ~

• Lasagna Bake – extra from last week (I should have frozen it, but I thought we’d eat more than we did), cooked carrots,
• Fajitas – extra tortilla dough for the freezer
• Beef Burgundy (in the crock pot), Roasted Veggie Medley
• Homemade Bacon Pizza and Spicy Carrot Salad
• Beef Mushroom Barley Soup, crusty bread, salad

What are you eating this week?

Linking up: MPM

I’m enjoying a delicious glass of Mad Housewife Merlot my thoughtful husband was kind enough to give me today. Okay, maybe I’ll have two glasses…

I hope you had a delightful Mother’s Day!

From one crazy mom to the next ~ HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!

These muffins are delightful – tart and sweet at the same time, and they have a nutty crunch I love. YUM! I adapted this recipe from A Taste of Home. I suggest you double it, if you want your muffins to last!

What’s your favorite kind of muffin?

Linking up: Monday Barn Hop; Fat Tuesday; Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; Taking a Timeout Thursday; Pin It]]> http://www.simplifylivelove.com/2012/05/whole-wheat-strawberry-rhubarb-muffins.html/feed 4 http://www.simplifylivelove.com/2012/05/wordlesswednesday-may-9.html http://www.simplifylivelove.com/2012/05/wordlesswednesday-may-9.html#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 12:16:23 +0000 Michelle http://www.simplifylivelove.com/?p=4555 My little girl is growing up!

This one big change we made in our lives a little over a year ago saves us a large portion of money each month and could be considered a little radical: downgrading housing. We knew we couldn’t pay a large mortgage AND save to build a new house, so a couple of years ago we decided to put our nice, comfortable home up for sale. It finally sold last year and we moved into a little house we had owned as a rental. Compared to our old home, the new home is very different. It was in sad shape when we moved in and we have slowly been renovating it. We’ve been living in quite a lot of chaos for some time now. And since we had too many things in the old, bigger house, it’s been quite a struggle getting everything to fit in the smaller home – even though I have purged a lot. We’re learning to live with less – a great lesson – and one I still have a long way to go before I get it figured out.

But selling the old home cut our monthly housing expenses by 2/3 (66%)- and that’s mortgage only so it’s a little more when we include property taxes and insurance. That’s huge! Instead of going on a spending frenzy with our new found “riches,” we save the extra money each month – as if we were still paying as much as we were before. And that helps us save more than we ever could if we would have stayed in our previous, more expensive house. While I often wish I had a bigger, fancier, insert your choice of adjective here, home, saving money to help us reach our goal is more important right now. And have a miniscule mortgage is really nice!

Here are a couple other disclaimers about how we are able to save so much.

We have none of this:

~ Credit Card Debt - We use credit cards for our home based business (and get some nice rewards, honestly). We also have a couple personal credit cards – but don’t use them much as we try mostly to pay with cash. All of our credit cards bills are paid in full each month. We do not carry balances.

~ Student Loans – My husband and I have 5 college degrees (undergrad and grad) between the two of us. We managed to make it through all of the degree programs debt-free thanks to good scholarships, generous parents, hard work, and the military.

~ Car Payments - We drive decent vehicles with high mileage. I’d love to drive a new van, but I sure don’t want the payment and right now we’re saving money for a new home instead of a car.

You can read Part 1 of the series here. Stay tuned for Part 3 next week! I’ll jump into the specifics of how I save at the Grocery Store  and will have lots of tips in that post.

Linking up: Frugal Tuesday; Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways; WFMW;

Hopefully I can feed them well enough that they will ignore the shabby linens and towels and the living room couch that’s in desperate need of being replaced. They arrive on Thursday and I’ll be cooking up a storm in the next couple of days to make sure we can all eat well with minimal effort once they get here.

I got news today that both my 1/4 cow and my 1/2 pig are ready to be picked up at different meat lockers. The beef is as expected; the pork is 1-2 months early {Amish Paul promised a June/July  pig}. Unfortunately, the meat lockers are in different locations so in addition to cooking and cleaning the next couple of days, I also have to drive to hither and yon to retrieve my meat.

Anyhow, here’s what I’ll be cooking the next couple of days:

Breakfasts ~

• Lots of muffins – blueberry, chocolate chip, rhubarb streusel, spiced carrot muffins
• Huge bowl of fruit salad
• Homemade Monkey Bread
• German pancake
• Eggs & Toast

Lunches ~

• Salad (I have lettuce ready to pick in my garden!) & hardboiled eggs
• PB & J, veggie sticks
• Macho Nachos
• Left overs
• Grilled Cheese on Whole Wheat, Sunflower, Flax Bread

Dinners ~

• Steak fajitas, guacamole, beans (extra tortillas for the freezer)
• Baked Spaghetti x 2 (extra for the freezer)
• Buttery Zucchini & Ground Beef, haricot vert
• Brats, baked beans, fresh asparagus
• Pork chops, sauerkraut, buttery cauliflower
• Taco Soup, crusty bread

What are you eating this week?