Snow Day

It's a snow day here at our place. We got about 2 1/2 feet yesterday and my car has become buried. That's ok though, because I don't trust it in the snow anyway.

So I decided to go through our food. I pulled out every unopened item from the storage room and the pantry and went through it all.

I really thought we had a lot more than this, but that's everything folks! and after writing EVERYTHING down, I decided we probably have at least a three months supply of food that we could live off of. Which is reassuring to me.

As I've mentioned before, I'm LDS. My church leaders council us to have a years supply of food storage. at minimum, a three-month supply I believe. I understand for some people a years supply just isn't possible. It's really not possible for us either, as we live in a basement apartment, and don't have much storage space. But it's important for our family to follow the council of our leaders and obey.

So I wanted to know where we stood, since it's a new year, and I have resolutions for our family to have a food supply that we can live off of. I don't have a food storage of items our family won't eat, because it won't do us any good. For example: we don't eat hardly ANY beans, lentils are as close as we get, and sometimes refried beans. But pasta. . .wow, we eat that all the time! so have about 40-50 lbs of pasta right now. I don't know how long that will last us, but I think it'll take us at least 3 months to finish it off, if we ate it every day.

and now that I've written everything down, I know exactly what we have, and I can plan meals from our pantry. That will help cut down our food budget, and I can put the money somewhere else it's needed.

Happy snow day everyone! :)

Going Green in 2009!

Have you thought about going green? Maybe a little bit? I had a hard time starting, because I felt like I was dishing out a lot of money at once, which I'm completely against. So we started small here.

When our lightbulbs would burn out, I purchased the Energy Star, energy efficient bulbs. They really do last a LOT longer.

My green bags were my next step. Most places sell them now, and most places have started giving a discount when you use a reusable bag. It doesn't have to be theirs! I found most of them give you $.05 off for each bag you fill. With my two weeks of groceries, I fill between 5-7 bags. I know, it's not much, but it's something!

Consider the green reusable bags! Maybe you could make a goal to try something green for the new year.

Mine? I'm going to try making my own cleaning products, and save money that way. Let me know if you have any cheap goals for 2009!

Getting ready for Christmas

This time of year makes it hard to be a cheapskate, because it seems to coincide with 'scrooge' for some reason. But I'm not a scrooge. Not even remotely close. I actually get in arguments with Captain Jax about when I can put up Christmas decorations. He thinks I need to wait until December, and I think as soon as Christmas music is on the radio I need to decorate.

We compromised this year, and he let me put up ONE decoration. I picked my nativity.


But that's not what this post is about. I think I just wanted to show off my nativity, because I love it!

Go check out my friend Amy's post about cheap gifts for you kids. It's worth the trip over there!

Water Storage

From this . . . .

This is the thing I have the hardest time with when working towards my ultimate food storage goal of one year. Do you know how much water three people need for one year?! I don't, but I know I'm NO WHERE close to having enough. Actually, it's not convenient to have a years supply of water, no one has enough space to store it, so it's not recommended. A think a three-month's supply is what's recommended. Anyway, I don't have enough, not even close.

We don't often buy bottled juices. Usually we buy frozen concentrate and make that up. I'm kind of a juice junkie. But when they're a good deal, like during the case lot sale, they were about $1.50 a bottle. The frozen concentrate I like is about $1 a can, so it was worth it to me to buy the 2 qt bottles of apple juice.

So after I finish my juice, which only takes me like 1 day, 2 days at the most (I told you, I'm a juice junkie!) I send the bottle through the dishwasher and fill it full of water.

To this!!

Slowly but surely, I'll have my water storage!

5 ways I save money

5 Ways I Save Money:

1-Bring a list to the grocery store and STICK TO IT!!
How many times do you come home with things you don't need, and missing the thing you do need? We go grocery shopping once every two weeks. I plan our meals for those two weeks, and the things we'll need for those meals. Add the essentials (eggs, milk, cheese, bread, ice cream) also know as our every day things, and that's it. Very rarely do we walk out with extra items, and then we usually are within our budget amount as well.

2-Create a meal plan
If I have a meal plan laid out, I've bought the things for it already, this saves me extra trips to the grocery store to pick up something I need for dinner that night AND I'm not adding extra things because they sound good.

3-Use my budget
We have one. Even if I'm the only one who knows what amount is in each one. I'm in charge of the finances in our house, even though Captain Jax brings home the paycheck. I pretty much give him an allowance for two weeks, and that's all he gets for his fun stuff. If I'm close to my budget amount in a section, I don't pull from another section that may have excess (like when my CC is paid off, I don't take the amount I was putting towards that and spend on scrapbook stuff, although it's tempting) I just STOP spending in that area. It took us about 12 months of playing with the budget to get it to work for us. but it works. We even have a section in it for savings. Someday we WILL own a home, and be out of his parent's basement!

4-Buy the store brand
Unless the name brand is cheaper with my coupon or something, I buy the store brand of items. Brand loyalty does not help you save money.

5-Coupons, coupons, coupons
When matched with a sale, coupons can save you money, and sometimes MAKE you money. Yes, you heard me. When used just because you have a coupon. . .well, they aren't much good.


These are small tips, but for us, the grocery store is where most of our money goes. Find out if your local grocery store has a gas station, and if they do, how much you have to spend there to get a discount. My local Harmon's Grocery has a gas station, and when you spend $30, you get $.05cents off a gallon, spend $50, you get $.10cents off. $75, you get $.15cents off. Spend $100 and you get $.20 off a gallon of gas. And this is up to 20 gallons worth! It's worth it for me to shop there, and save money on our gas as well.

Start small, and I bet you can find all sorts of ways to save money, and be a cheapskate too!

How I organize my coupons

I've seen lots of ways to organize coupons. Most seem to be too much work for me. I'm not a hard core couponer, and I don't have the time to clip EVERY SINGLE coupon I find and file them into separate pockets, then organize by the exp date, then clean it out every week. I can't do that. But for some people it works great! this is was works for me, and it might just work for you too.

I have an accordian folder, with 13 pockets. It's not a HUGE one, because I only get one newspaper, so I'm only filing 1 set of inserts.

See? all the months that I can put all the inserts in that come in the newspaper for that month.
I take a magic marker and write the dates on the insert, near the top left corner, because that will be the spot I'll see as I'm thumbing through them.
and what I also like to do, but usually don't get around to it. . .is visit taylortownpreview.com and print of the list of coupons that are included in the inserts for the week. The wonderful thing about this webpage (besides the fact that it has this great list) is that the coupons are in alphabetical order, they have the expiration date on them, and they have how much the coupon is for. I've only found a few variations from their list, to what I get in my paper. Like my area sometimes doesn't have the $1.00 off of something, it has $.50cents off of it instead. so when I have the time, I like to print the list off, and go through mine and make sure they match. Then it's easy to see what I have, with everything being in alphabetical order. also I can cross it off when I use it, or when it expires. Then when I hear about a great deal using a coupon from, say the Smart start on 9/14 I don't have to flip through all my inserts searching for it, only to realize later that I already used it on something else earlier. I just scan down the sheet, find it, and see if it's crossed off or not.

But like I said, this method also it a bit time consuming, and with a littler baby, I don't quite have the time to do it. I'm just not a hard-core couponer! I admit it.

I also don't like carrying a HUGE coupon binder to to store with me, JUST IN CASE I find something that if I used a coupon with would be a great deal. I already have my baby, a diaper bag, and purse. That's plenty for me! I plan my deals before I go, clip the coupons and file them in this little organizer.


Nice a small eh? that's what I love about it. I have the different stores I shop at in alphabetical order, then I file the coupons for the store I plan to use them at.

ta-da! just like that! then I know what I'm looking for, and I don't get my deals mixed up.

I hope this helps you feel like you can get started with your coupons! no need to clip them all!! Visit hotcouponworld.com or pinchingyourpennies.com and THEY do all the work for you--well, they find the deals and tell you where to find the coupon. you still have to clip it and visit the store. small price to pay when you're going to save TONS of money!! and sometimes even make some back!

A perk to living in Utah

For the most part, I don't mind living in Utah. But the cost of living is V-E-R-Y high, and we honestly couldn't afford to live here, if we didn't have family to help us out. a 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in my city is around $800 a month!! that's not including any utilities. (that's also equal to one paycheck for us!)

a wonderful perk though are the local grocery stores have annual caselot sales. What's a caselot sale you ask? It's wonderful. Basically, the store puts items on sale for super cheap, but you have to buy a certain amount to get the sale price. You have to buy a case worth.

For example: a can of cream of mushroom soup usually costs about $1.25 or if it's on sale, you can get it for about a dollar. But during the caselot sale (my local caselot stores are Macey's Grocery, and Harmon's Grocery) I can buy a case of cream of mushroom soup for about $.69 a can!! This is because I'm buying a case of 24 cans that are 10.5oz (your normal size can) for $16.56.

This is a great deal! These sales are wonderful for building up a fod storage, or for even getting the items you use alot for a great price. Like pasta sauces and noodles. Both can store quite well fo a long period of time. Ad if you can get a case of them better than you can get them on sale? Well, that means it's time to STOCK UP!!

and as a side note, the wednesday deals I was planing to post as my local news channel talked about them, are not what I thought they would be. On the plus side though, I'm putting a few new recipes on Recipes of a Cheapskate, and I'm working on a post for a great way for a beginner to store their coupons.