Food Prep

It is no secret I have been trying to save money this year.  My savings projects are going well. I am right on track with my 52 week savings plan and we all know my $5 project got a nice boost.

Cooking with fresh ingredients combined with my pantry is going well. We have cut our ordering out down to once a month and eating out by 75%. When we do go out to eat we try to make it a really big deal. Keely still gets her Monday Happy Meal after aqua therapy that is her reward for working hard. Saving at the grocery store is going well. Coupons combined with Ad Match is saving me $50-$75 from my bill each trip. I have been using my slow cooker quite a bit. One of the things about the slow cooker I hate is having to cook something on the stove before adding it to the slow cooker... My solution to that is precook and freeze. The biggest offender in this pet peeve is ground beef. So now I will buy 10 pounds of ground beef and cook it in 5 pound batches. I then pour the cooked ground beef into my over the sink strainer to let it drain and cool. (this also allows me to buy ground beef with a higher fat content = cheaper and not have to worry about the extra fat getting into my food) Once it has cooled I bag it in 1 pound portions and freeze them. I can get 7 portions out of 10 pounds of ground beef.

Another way I try to save a little is to buy my chicken with the bones still in it.   I don't cook with a lot of breast meat but when I buy it that is always boneless and skinless.  I can cut them into cutlets, tenders and nuggets but deboning a breast with all those ribs... my butchering stills are not that good.  However, I do use a lot of chicken thighs.   They are purchased with the bone and skin still intact.  I get my bulk package home and debone and remove the skin.  I then wrap them individually and freeze them in a zip bag.  I can then portion out what I need when I need it. The skin and bones are then frozen to add to the pot when I make my chicken stock. (Another money saving enterprise.) 

Sometimes I wonder if all this is really saving me money.  I am not working right now, so my job is to work at ways to cut costs and save money in my household.  

Last night I used some of my chicken to make Quick Chicken Marsala.  I used Campbell's Skillet Sauces Marsala packet.  (I got a great deal with my coupons plus I hit a sale.) 

Quick Chicken Marsala

1 pound Chicken Thighs

1/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons butter

1 package Campbell's Skillet Sauces Marsala 

Dredge chicken in flour and saute in butter until chicken is browned.  Stir in sauce and heat to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes until chicken is cooked through. 

Serve with sides of your choosing.  Pasta, rice or potatoes are all nice and the Marsala sauce tastes wonderful over any of them. 

Crock and Roll

I love my crockpot, particularly on days like today.  Every Monday Keely has Aqua Therapy. It would be so easy to just order in or swing through Burger King on the way home.  I find it just as easy to toss something in the crock pot for a hot, healthy home cooked meal.  Today was a chicken day. I found a super yummy recipe on Pinterest (as I am typing that word I sing it in my head opera style).

It's Crock Pot Creamy Italian Chicken from a blog called Life as a Loft House. This is the second time I have made this recipe. My thought was to Kimify it by adding some canned or frozen mixed vegetables and serve it over a nice big hot biscuit. A sort of deconstructed chicken pot pie.  However, I had no such vegetables in my pantry or freezer. I would have known this if I had gotten to my inventory earlier in the day.

Regardless, it was still a nice hot meal waiting for us when we got home. We finished up Keely's homework while the biscuits were baking. I cut two into quarters and tossed them into the crock pot to see what would happen... dumplings(!) that is what happened.

On the menu plan for tomorrow are Tamales with pintos and cheese and green salad. Tomorrow morning I will be finishing my inventory and then running to Price Chopper to take advantage of their Can Crazy sale and pick up some canned veggies which I clearly need. Once that trip is done I will only need milk and fresh fruit from the market for the next couple of weeks.


...

Update on last night's shopping trip. Let me tell you how much I love the Ad Match policy at Walmart! I super pink sparkly love it! The ad matching combined with the coupons I had saved me a ton and got me some super deals on several items and then savings overall were great!

Here is a little sampling. Purex detergent is $2.97 for a 33 load bottle at Walmart.  Price Chopper had it on sale this week for $1.99. Walmart matched that price. I had a $1.00 off coupon so I got the detergent for $.99! I bought 4 to add to my stockpile. That was a sensible purchase... My splurge purchase was Hershey's Simple Delights. Walmart had them for $2.98, they matched the Kmart price of $2.49 coupled with my $1.50 off coupon and I only paid $.99 for a bag of chocolate! Yippee.

Money Makes the World Go Round

Another check in the wealthy column for my Healthy, Wealthy and Wise Resolution.

I stumbled upon this interesting savings plan last night and thought I would give it a go.

52 Week Money Challenge

I know it is easily achievable, in a nutshell for every week of the plan you are on that is the number of dollars you put in your savings account. This being week one, I have already put my $1 in my challenge envelope. Once I hit week 10 I will go ahead and deposit the total. (I feel sort of silly depositing $1) By the end of the year you will have saved a total of $1,378! So simple! Here is what the week by week looks like.

This is something completely independent of the $5 experiment. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be at least $2000 richer without even really trying.  Anyone want to join me? 

Along these same lines, my husband and I have discussed putting the 7 Bank Accounts Every Family Should Have plan into place. This should be a reality for us by February.  I absolutely love this idea. Once you read through the information the theory really does hold water.  The only account we would not need is an HSA (health savings account) because of the type of insurance we have and we have an MFSA (medical flexible spending account) through Matt's job.  

If your company offers MFSA take advantage of it.  It is pre-tax dollars that come out of your paycheck to be reimbursed later for health care expenses you incur throughout the year. It lessens your tax burden on the front end and pays you back for expenses you would normally have, dental co pays, vision expenses, prescriptions and medical co pays. However, be sure to not to take more than you will use because the funds do not roll over from year to year.  If you over estimate your expenses you will be out the surplus money. Use it or lose it.