Sproiky

So. I'm trying to build up my emergency fund to $1,000. As, well, you know, they say to. Anyway, I realized that I've got about $500 in savings bonds. And, hey, that totally counts. I was reading about converting them into electronic bonds so that I could a) keep track of what they are worth and b) if needed, electronically cash them out directly into my checking account. Which, awesome, right?

I received this e-mail from the savings bond people:

Hello, The conversion of paper bonds to the electronic form is by invitation only. If you would like an invitation, send us an e-mail from within your TreasuryDirect account requesting an invitation to convert your paper savings bonds. Making your request in this manner provides us the information we need to extend the invitation, while assuring us the account holder is making the request.

Dude. What is with this? I kind of feel like a loser e-mailing someone to ask for an invitation to something. Maybe I should a digitial photo of me looking cute? Or not.

Meal update:
We tried two new meals this weekend.

Beefy Black Beans and Rice
Adapted from the About Southern Cooking web site
1/2 lb. hamburger (.99)
garlic (?)
onion (?)
tomato sauce (.24)
1 T chili powder (?)
2 cans black beans, rinsed (1.32)
hot cooked rice (.50)

Total: $3.05, with plenty of leftovers

Brown beef with the garlic and onion. Add tomato sauce and beans. Simmer on stove while cooking rice.

Mmmm. The kids even liked this one. But I have a feeling that all the money I save serving beans and rice is rather quite expensive in the cost to my mental health when the time comes to clean up the floor after my kids who apparently confuse the word "rice" with "confetti."

Slowcooker White Chicken Chili
Adapted from a recipe from "All You" magazine
2 cans white beans, drained ($1.50)
2 c chicken broth, I made from bouillon (?)
3 chicken breasts ($2.39)
1 can diced roasted green chilis (.36)
1 T cumin (?)

Total: $4.25

Cook beans and broth in slow cooker on low 2 hours. Cook chicken with salt and pepper (I cooked in olive oil). Add to slow cooker with chilis and cumin.

Kids didn't love so much, but I thought it was great. According to E (3), it was too too "sproiky." I think that means spicy. Which it wasn't.

Dinner Update

Parmesean Crusted Chicken

2 eggs, beaten (.24)
olive oil (?)
1 c. freshly grated parmesean cheese (1.58)
1 t. garlic powder (?)
chicken breast (5.23)

Heat up olive oil in frying pan. Mix cheese with garlic powder. Dip the chicken in the egg (but don't think about that one too much because ew), and then into the cheese mixture. Fry on med-high until cooked through. If it's still sticking to the pan, it's not done yet. When done, it should be a nice light brown color and, obviously, chicken should be done all the way through. This one is a definite family favorite.

We served it with:
Leftover veggies (0)
Applesauce (.25)
Toast (.25)

The meal was a bit too beige. But yummy! And, for us, very expensive!
Total: $7.55

I also had a bit of bean failure. Not sure if it's the hard water or what but I just can't seem to soak beans/cook beans and get that to work out for me. Also, soaking beans are kind of stinky? Like, who knew? So I went back to the store and splurged on canned beans. SPLURGE. Actually, if that's a splurge, I think we're doing okay.

And to add again to my failure list, I've been using outdated baking powder. Which really explains why none of my breads have been raising (rising?) like they should. Ah. I'd like to thank FROOOOOOOGYYYYY! Wha-a-a-a-a-t? for getting those thought wheels in motion with "Froggy Bakes a Cake."

NoLoBuMo - Week 2

Grocery Shopping!

I'm starting to realize how unbelievable it is that we have not only one, but TWO locally-owned grocery stores. The store I hit last night is a chain - a chain of seven stores in the nearby counties. And that fits my criteria as "local."

I haven't been to this store much lately, but I was under the impression that it was too expensive. Let's see what I actually found out, compared to the same items I bought at Wal-Mart:

• 0.57 more for a gallon of milk (and I was able to buy more locally - as in from North Dakota rather than Illinois. Choosing the more local option may be what I end up doing, as I haven't actually found local resources for things, though help on this would be much appreciated!)
• 0.42 more for ground beef (0.39 more than the local source I found last week)
• 0.23 more for waffles
• 0.29 less for apples
• 0.59 less for grapefruit
• 0.51 more for pasta sauce
• 0.15 more for tomato soup
• 0.27 more for baked beans
• 0.49 less for diapers, maybe? I'm not sure exactly on the cost per diaper comparison, but I was pleasantly surprised to find affordable diapers. Of course, I do have cloth diapers we could also use.

Overall, I spent 21 cents more to shop at the "expensive" store versus Wal-Mart. Overall, $2.57 cheaper than the "cheap" local store.

PLUS, really, truly, you cannot underestimate the customer satisfaction derived from the child-sized shopping card that kept my little one busy and happy for an entire hour. I was very impressed.

And, if anyone is interested, here is my dinner menu this week:

• Lasagna and lettuce salad (I usually make the kids corn noodles and cheese with sauce and cottage cheese for dipping)
• Macaroni and cheese and baked beans (again, corn noodles for the kids)
• Porcupine meatballs (recipe to come, if it turns out), green beans, bread
• Ring bologna, baked beans, cream corn
• Waffles and fruit salad
• Breakfast biscuits (probably just ham/egg sandwiches for the kids)

You may notice that we often have at least two meatless meals per week, and we often have two breakfast-for-dinner meals per week, which helps to keep costs down.

Dinner Update

Confetti Beans and Rice with Chicken
This recipe comes from Success Rice, but I adapted it a bit, for economy's sake.

1 c brown rice (.20)
2 T Dijon mustard (didn't use this, SuperDad suffers from mustard phobia)
1/2 c light Caesar salad dressing (.10)
1 can black beans, rinsed (.46)
12 ounces cooked, diced chicken (2.32)
1 can Mexican-style corn, drained (.46)
4 green onions (skipped)
Spinach leaves (skipped)

Cook rice. In large bowl, combine mustard and dressing. Toss in rice, beans, chicken, corn, and green onions. Chill or serve at room temparature. Garnish with spinach leaves (Oh yes, let me spend an extra $2.00 to "garnish" the food I serve to my toddlers. Please.).

This was pretty good. The three-year-old wasn't sure, and mostly just ate the chicken and the corn, but the one-year-old fully ate two servings.

Total: $3.54

This was not, however, so easy on the diet budget. Wow.

Groceries

My budget worked out that I had $60 to buy groceries (which includes everything that we buy, other than gas) this week.

1. I went through my cupboards to see what I had, which was:

• Spaghetti sauce
• Ingredients to make bread
• Pasta and GF pasta
• Lentils
• Brown and white rice
• Cannellini beans
• Home-canned chili sauce
• Instant mashed potatoes
• Shredded cheese
• Baked beans
• Ingredients for waffles

So, I centered my menu for this week around that:

• Spaghetti and toast
• Lentil/rice chili
• Mashed potato pups
• Mac & Cheese and baked beans
• Waffles and fruit (carryover from last week)
• Breakfast sandwiches (ditto)

I spent $59.59 at the store last night. But we still need cat litter, which will put us about $5 over budget.

The budget-busters for this shopping trip were:

• Laundry detergent $4.07
• Diapers $10.99
• Baby wipes $5.19

These are things that are cheaper at Wal-Mart. Not a lot cheaper, but maybe enough that I could have bought the cat litter.

I also didn't realize that we're out of both GF waffles and GF cereal for the kiddos, so we'll have to figure something out for breakfast.

That's about it.

Dinner Update

Naked Burritos

Rice (.25)
Chicken breast w/taco seasoning (1.74)
Mixture of corn, black beans, and pinto beans (.25)
Shredded cheese (.25)

Cook, mix, and serve. Mmmm.

Total: $2.49, w/plenty of leftovers

Company

We had company for dinner last night. We trade off - one week at their house, the next at ours. Their kids are gluten AND dairy intolerant, so finding yummy meals that meet their dietary requirements and fit into our budget isn't easy!

Here's what we had last night:

Crock Pot Braised Chicken With Vegetables
To make this recipe dairy-free, we just sprayed the inside of the slow cooker with canola spray rather than brushing it with butter. It was very yummy. I'm not usually a fan of chicken thighs, but the slow cooker really worked to melt the fat away from the meat. Hmm... maybe I can put my own thighs in there?

We did increase the quantities of everything, in order to feed 4 adults and 5 children. I'm going to estimate this cost us about $5.40, plus the cost of spices that we already had in the cupboard.

We served it with:
Lettuce salad and dressings (1.00)
Watermelon (.38)
Home made regular bread w/butter(.30)
GF bread w/vegetable oil spread (1.00)

Peanut Butter Cookies
1 c peanut butter (.25)
1 c sugar (?)
1 t baking soda (?)
1 beaten egg (I actually didn't have eggs and made our guests bring me one, so free! Ha.)

Combine, spoon onto cookie sheet, bake for 15 minutes at 350. Become addicted.

Total for meal, feeding 9: $8.33

Other meals we have served:
Super Nachos
GF Cupcakes
Cheesecake

Hot dogs/Hamburgers on the grill
Chips
Raw carrots
Mandarin oranges

Ham
Potatoes
Green beans
Peaches
Brownies (both GF and regular)

Meatloaf
Baked potatoes
Green beans
Fruit cocktail
GF cupcakes
Pound cake

Spaghetti (regular and GF noodles)
Breadsticks
GF toast
Lettuce salad
Corn Raw carrots
GF cupcakes (repeating - I make a huge batch and freeze, the kids always want them)
Cake

Ham Not Fried Rice
Egg Rolls (not gluten free - if anyone has a recipe for GF egg rolls, I'd love to hear about it!)
Peaches
Frozen stir-fry veggie mix
Jello
Cheesecake brownies

End of Month Report

Month 1: Down.

July was an experiment. Could we actually live on my income (well, including SuperDad's lawn mowing money)? Could we live on a cash budget? Could we make pay extra on the credit card? And not use the credit card at all? Could we have money left in savings at the end of the month?

These goals seemed nearly impossible to meet, goals we hadn't met in months and months. To make it work, we'd have to cut our food spending nearly in half. Not buy any extras.

But, we did it! (Ouch - Dora song in my head - stop, it hurts!) And in August? We'll do it again.

Budget Update
Here it is, the tiny, terrible (as opposed to big bad) budget for July 31 - August 14
Cash balance:
$0
Savings balance:
$100 Water bill
$16 Car tags
$21 General savings
$75 Christmas fund
$300 Emergency fund (Plus ~$500 in savings bonds)

Take-home pay: $1162
$703 Mortgage
$91.00 Cable, Internet, Phone
$8.00 Car tags
$220 Food (this is $20 more than we stashed for this previously, and much needed)
$70 Gas
$10 Books/Clothes
$30 Fun $
$30 Gifts (two birthdays this pay period)

Dinner Update
Mac & Cheese, Baked beans

No secret there, we just give the kids gluten-free noodles. They never eat very many of them, so a package lasts a good long time. They do love Bush's baked beans, though we never serve them unless it's bath night. Yikes.

On Saturday, I made homemade pizza. I haven't had the best luck with gluten-free pizza crusts, but this time I used a biscuit recipe, shaped it into personal-pan sized crusts and baked ahead of time. They still tasted gluten-free, but they looked great! :)

Dinner Update

Tuna Noodle Casserole

GF macaroni (free sample from conference - the kids ate this better than any other GF pasta so far, plus it's paritally made out of bean flour, yay protein!)
Cream of whatever soup (.50)
One can of tuna in water, drained into bowl for spoiled and fat kitties (.50)
I just skipped the crackers (and the baking, actually), and it was fine

I served this with cooked green beans (.46), which no one ate because they were "rubbery and waxy." I wouldn't know because I can't eat green beans anymore after gorging myself on them the last time I was on a diet. Ditto Jell-O.

Total: $1.46

Verdict: The kids loved this. Loved. Three plates full of love. Maybe because I encouraged them to compete over who could take the biggest bite.

Long Time No Blog

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. Inside my head, it sounds mostly like this, "63 days! Only 63 days! It can't be only 63 days! I'm not ready!" Followed shortly by, "63 days? That is FOREVER. I'm already so huge and uncomfortable. How can I possibly get 63 days bigger?"

Also, we spent most of our grocery money these last two weeks on a bed. So our meals have been sparse and frugal and our cupboards are BARE. Today we finished up the last of the canned fruit (fresh fruit long gone) and the eggs and the milk. Tonight we're having macaroni and cheese with the last of the macaroni and the last of the cheese and baked beans from the last of the beans.

I get paid in two days.

At which time, I'll be thinking, "61 days! It can't be only 61 days!"

:)

Eating Gluten Free on a Budget: Rule 3

Save money in other areas.

One thing I encounter a lot is, "Well, it's not exactly life-threatening, right? So, they can have just a little bread/cake/cookie." But, having Celiac disease *is* life-threatening. Untreated Celiac disease can lead to malnutrition, failure to thrive, loss in bone density, miscarriage, hair loss, heart disease, liver problems, anemia, skin problems, and more, including lowered life expectancy. Celiac is a whole-system problem, and sometimes you don't know that there's a problem until a lot of damage has been done.

My point is that eating gluten free to treat a medical condition is more important than the budget. It's more important than cable TV or cell phones or paying down debt.

But there are ways to save money on groceries, even if you have to eat gluten free.

• Eat less meat.
• Eat more rice, potatoes, and beans. Eat eggs. Eat bananas. There is still a world of inexpensive and healthy foods available to you.
• Don't buy brand names. Crystal at www.moneysavingmom.com has excellent luck with sales and coupons, but we don't have stores that offer these kinds of things, so my best bet is to buy simple, whole foods, and stick to generics when necessary.
• Buy in bulk. Spices, yeast, rice, beans, are all available at unbelievable prices when bought in bulk.

See all the rules: http://glutenfreefrugal.blogspot.com/2007/10/my-5-basic-rules-for-eating-gluten-free.html

Falling Off the Frugal Wagon

Okay, and moving on! :)

The end of pregnancy (hey, I thought we were moving on?) is always rough for me. I'm tired. Unmotivated. Uncomfortable. And, oh yeah, I had to put on 4 shirts this morning before I found one that even remotely fit. And that's kind of a stretch - literally.

Frugality takes organziation and committment, neither of which I have right now. So, we've done some decidedly UNfrugal things lately. Like:

• Eat out. A lot. When we eat out with the kids, it mostly involves cheeseburgers, plain, with no buns. And fries. Or we'll go to Taco John's and get them the chicken that comes in the soft tacos, with no shell, covered in cheese. They like that. We've done Qdoba. We let them have hashbrowns for breakfast. As you can tell, we've WAY overdone our food budget.
• Hire a cleaning person! Is there anything more unfrugal than that? Not really. Do I care? Not at all. She's coming in at least once before the baby arrives, maybe twice, and if I can talk SuperDad into it, maybe a couple of times after too.
• Bought a tree. You know, for the baby.
• Signed D up for some classes at the community center. Because E is back in school now, and he misses her. :(
• Not done cloth diapers. According to my very informal survey, gluten in diapers shouldn't be a concern. There are other great reasons to do cloth, and we'll probably go back to it eventually. But not now.

We're dipping into the savings we built up for the baby. And I'm okay with that, because sometimes that's just how it goes.

Our gluten free eating has been anything but blog-worthy lately. Our menu this week:

• Sunday: Scrambled eggs, ham, peanut butter toast, grapes
• Monday: Nachos, corn, beans
• Tuesday: Chicken nuggets
• Wednesday: Spaghetti
• Thursday: French toast
• Friday: Macaroni and cheese and baked beans
• Saturday: Scalloped potatoes and ham

So this blog may not be very inspirational for awhile, but if you stick around long enough, I promise to show you baby pictures! :)

Dinner Update

Chili

1 lb. ground turkey, browned w/onion (1.57)
lg can of tomato juice (1.16)
1 T brown sugar (?)
chili seasoning (?)
black beans (.66)
pinto beans (.35)
leftover rice (?)
leftover corn (?)

We always serve our chili with cinnamon rolls (1.66) because that's how the local public schools served it and we're hooked. For the kids, I made GF cinnamon/sugar toast (.25) and drizzled on a little bit of the frosting from the canned cinnamon rolls that I bought.

Total: $5.65

How Expensive is Meat?

My awesome and vegetarian friend Jennifer recently asked, "So, is meat really that expensive?"

Hm. Good question.

I bought groceries last night for the week. And then I evaluated what I had bought. And here's the breakdown.

Junk
Pop and sweets and all of my 100-calorie packs of evil
$9.03

Cats
Food, litter, litter bags - Hi, most expensive category much?
$13.62

Fruit and Vegetables
Apples, pears, cataloupe, celery, raisins, mandarin oranges
$7.65

Dairy
Milk, cheese, evaporated milk, condensed milk, butter - Yikes! We might eat a little more dairy than the normal family. Cheese is an easy, gluten-free snack so we use a lot of it.
$11.92

Grains
Cereal, corn muffin mix - We use a lot a lot a lot of rice, but we didn't need to buy any this time.
$4.98

Nuts/Beans
Peanut butter and beans, basically non-meat protein sources - We're also all stocked up on lentils and quinoa, which will appear in the menu if not on the shopping list.
$3.24

Meat
Bacon, a whole chicken, sandwich meat, hot dogs, bulk sausage.
$11.93

So, there you have it. I don't know how much this exactly tells you, except that if we were vegan, we'd starve to death.

Black Bean Soup with Sausage

I got this recipe from All You magazine. Because it's all me, apparently.

2 t. olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cans black beans
1 jar salsa
1 c chicken broth
2 hot Italian sausage links (I actually used mild)
1/2 c chopped cilantro (so one of those ingredients I don't spend the money on)
salt and pepper

1. Cook onion and garlic in oil. Or, be me, and just throw dried onion and garlic powder into the crock pot. Because I'm lazy.
2. Combine onion mixture, beans (with liquid), salsa, and chicken broth in slow cooker. Stir well and cook on low for 5 hours. (5 hours? I don't really see the point. Everything so far is already "cooked.")
3. Stir sausage into bean mixture and cook 1 hour longer.
4. Cut sausage into bite size pieces (or do it before they're hot, duh?), and return to slow cooker. Stir in cilantro (or not) and season with salt and pepper.

I served this on brown rice because soup isn't really enough of a meal for us. And, like I always do when I use the rice cooker, I threw in some carrots to steam.

It looked like this:


And was yet another thing the grown-ups loved and the kids wouldn't eat.

Also, see all the unplugged appliances in the background? I'm not just messy, I'm also saving energy!

Crock Pot Mexican Pork

1 lb. pork loin ($5!)

1 jar salsa ($2.50)

1 can chopped green chilis, drained ($.75)

1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained (.95)

Total Cost: $9.20

1. Put meat into crockpot, cover with salsa and chilis.

2. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

3. Stir in beans, cover and cooke 4 more minutes.

Can serve topped with cheese. We served on top of rice.

Verdict: YUM. But expensive. There's no reason you couldn't make this with chicken breast and spend less. Actually I think like a bunch of those recipes over there on the right are pretty much that exactly. What can I say? We like what we like.

$40 Grocery Budget

It happened that we only had $40 to spend on groceries this week. I know other people who are able to pull this off every week, but this is a very tight budget for us.

Here is my dinner menu:

Chicken ranch pizza (with homemade GF and non-GF crust) - recipe to come, maybe
Hamburger rice meal
Grilled cheese sandwiches (on GF and non-GF bread) and baked beans
Taco soup (made from leftovers)
Pancakes and peaches
Mashed Potato Pups

Thanks to SuperDad's supermarketing, we only spent $36 of our $40 budget.

We bought:
Chicken (a very small amount is really needed for pizza, which is nice)
Shredded cheddar
Ground beef
GF Bread
Baked beans
Hot dogs
Fruit
Veggies
Pop
Diapers

We already had:
All-purpose flour
GF flour
Ranch dressing
Rice
Beef bouillon cubes
Bread
Cheese slices
All ingredients for taco soup
Pancakes (frozen leftovers from last time)
Instant mashed potatoes

Awww!

Sharing the love:
Thanks guys, for all the kind words yesterday! :) You rock!

I can't believe I forgot to mention the one big thing we did to turn around our financial situation. The biggest thing. And that was to start this blog. Writing about it really made me think about it more often and the awesome and supportive comments I've gotten and wonderful people I've "met" over this last year have been such an unbelievable blessing to me. So, thank you!!!

Summer reading series:
Also, I've gotta 'fess up, because you may have noticed I haven't mentioned Little House in... awhile. Farmer Boy about did me in, folks. Whew. So I'm taking an official break from my Little House summer reading series. Like, a year-long break. ;) Hoping to pick up where I left off and finally hit the South Dakota years next summer. When E will perhaps be old enough to go to the pageant (anyone else want to come???). As it is, she's never seen 9:00 because she completely loses her cool at about 7:45. Such is life.

Right now I'm reading Not Buying It - My Year Without Shopping. It's interesting reading, sociologically, but I honestly find it a little bourgeoisie. The assumption is that there aren't millions of us out here who spend every day not buying things we don't "need" (leather couches notwithstanding). Plus, I think this whole concept (a year without buying) has really evolved in wonderful ways in the years since this book was written. Take a look at Rockin' Granola (a little bit "crunchy" and a little bit rock 'n' roll), who took a pledge to stay out of the "big box stores" and instead buys everything handmade. How awesome is that? Also, her daily "Frugal Deeds (done dirt cheap)" is just too cool and I want to copy her all the time. So there.

Gluten free Core update:
On Tuesday, SuperDad made Scalloped Potatoes and Ham, which we ate with mandarin oranges. Because... I don't know. It was good though. And Core. And the kids just love that meal anyway. (Hi, sorry I didn't mention the WW working. I've been a member for a long, long time, so to translate my sitting/listening time into working/getting paid time was a pretty smooth transition for me. Plus, I'm really hoping that it will help me stay on track weight-wise.)

Last night we had Super Easy Chicken. I always love it when I can throw dinner in the crock pot right away in the morning, because it eliminates the temptation to eat out that night. We served this with green beans, which SuperDad and E really, really tried to get me to eat, but, ewww. 4 years on WW have ended any lingering affections I have towards green beans. Sorry.

The end.

Finding Money

I did it. Today I completed the necessary forms to stop my voluntary contributions to my retirement account. My company automatically puts in 6% of my salary (not OUT of my salary, they pay for it), and that's going to have to be good enough for awhile. For *now*.

I also completed everything to cut our life insurance amounts in half. Which may mean that if one of us dies soon, the other may not be able to keep the house or whatever. But whatever. Better than losing the house now. Okay, that's a tad dramatic.

We're also going to change SuperDad's student loan repayment schedule to a graduated schedule, meaning we'll pay less now and it will increase over time.

All of these moves are long-term financially stupid. I get that. But they make sense short-term. We're going to use this money to pay down our debt, in addition to whatever we can scrounge up every month, which I really doubt will be much. We're living on the edge here. (Oh the crush I used to have on Edward Furlong, no?)

So there it is.

Dinner update: Tater tot casserole. A favorite of SuperDad's. We have a recipe for gluten-free cream of whatever soup, but I didn't have the ingredients for it, so the kids got hamburger, tater tots, and green beans. (By the way, I usually make it with corn, but we ate the corn last night.)

What You Won't Find Here

I'm constantly amazed at the deals other bloggers post on their web sites. Particularly from stores like CVS and Walgreen's, I see all these photos of piles of free products brought home every week. It's incredible!

But I won't be doing that, not here, not at this blog. Partially because we don't have those stores. Partially because, even when things are free, I can't bring myself to buy things I don't need. My goal, frugally, isn't to get as much stuff as possible for as little money as possible. I don't clip coupons, because I rarely find coupons for things that we need (rice, beans, GF flours, bananas, etc.), and because I don't really agree with the process. The paper they are printed on, and the gas I'd use to drive around to the different stores, and the time and energy away from my family... it's just not worth it to me.

For me, personally, it's about deeply examining what "need" is, because I think we have lost that concept in this culture. Do I "need" disposable diapers, when I have perfectly good cloth ones? Do I "need" fancy shampoo, or should I be contented that I have the ability to buy shampoo at all? Do I "need" the pre-packaged, pre-measured, fancily-boxed gluten-free-labelled rice mixes, even if it's cheap or free, when I can buy bulk rice and bulk spices and spare our planet the packaging and the ink and the garbage?

I feel that I have a moral responsibility to live within the income with which we've been blessed. I don't want to offend anyone, but I feel that when we take more than we need (and I too, do it every single day), that we are over-consuming. And over-consumption? Is really just greed, isn't it? When we spend beyond our means (And we, at the GFF house, do it all the time!), are we really saying we deserve more than we've earned? And that just doesn't really seem right to me.

Or I could be wrong. It's been known to happen! ;)