This post goes out to Libby from our Facebook Page, who wanted help cooking for one frugally.

Truth: There are lots of great books on cooking for one, but not a single one on how to grocery-shop effectively for a household of one!

It can’t be denied—cooking for one is a tricky thing.  It seems like a lot of work for only a single meal.  Dishes made, serving sizes to be determined, and usually too many leftovers.  Besides, after all that cooking, you don’t typically have someone else to wash dishes.

I spoke with DebtKid (who prefers to use this alias for privacy reasons, but you can read his story at www.debtkid.com).  We compared our single-days experiences.  We both seem to remember regular standby meals. For DebtKid, it was Hamburger Helper.  For me, frozen taquitos. We’re both pretending that we supplemented this nutritional catastrophe with fresh fruit and vegetables…

In later years, I widened my repertoire with a handy (and also) broke neighbor.  As newlyweds, we both cooked for one plus the fridge and traded ideas. Sometimes we even traded entire meals—we’d both made our dinners only to discover we were tired of them, so we simply swapped.  My husband worked shifts rarely allowing for a meal together, and her husband was deployed at the time.

Libby (and all of our single-dwelling friends), there is hope!  A key technique is to have a bit of a food routine, but not so much routine that you go trading your dinners with the neighbors.

Automate one or two meals a day if you can, leveraging some staple foods.

Here are some things to always have on-hand.

Go-to-meals

Mason jar salads.  This site has a number of clever salads made in Mason Jars. The jars keep the greens fresh—just put your dressing in first, and shake it right before serving!

Potatoes.  You can bake a whole bunch of them in the oven or a crock pot. (For crock pot, scrub the potatoes, and poke holes in them with a fork, then coat in butter or wrap in foil and place in the crock pot for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high).  Leftover baked potatoes should live in the refrigerator.  They can be topped with chili and cottage cheese, bacon and cheese, cheese and broccoli, salsa, or even this clever recipe for egg/bacon potato breakfast boats. (I’m trying this tomorrow!)

Eggs:  Fried, scrambled, poached, boiled, or baked inside a potato (as above).  You can top some canned black beans, rice and avocado with a fried egg for a quick juevos rancheros. Egg in a basket is a quick and easy dish for one (or more) simply cut a hole in a piece of bread with a glass or cookie cutter.  Grease a frying pan, and put the toast in on a medium temperature.  After a few seconds, add an egg into the hole.  And let it cook, then flip it over and cook the other side.

Chicken:  Now with a family, I seldom buy a whole prepared chicken.  We typically buy two raw ones, and roast them at once.  But in a one-or-two person household, I’d do this in an instant!  Many supermarkets offer a whole fryer chicken pre-seasoned and cooked (often available in several seasonings). Buy one per week, and split the meat between salads, main meals, and then make a stock from the bones, adding leftover vegetables, or potatoes and leeks and freeze in individual portions for later use or lunches for work.

Produce: Buy spinach instead of lettuce. It does double-duty in the fridge and freezer. If it’s in danger of spoiling—keep a big zipper bag in the freezer and add your fresh spinach to it.  For avocados, use ½, and leave the seed in the remaining half and spritz with lemon or vinegar before refrigerating to use the next day.  Buy apples and oranges in the amount that you can use.  Apples, pears, squashes, zucchini and the like all freeze well if you can’t use them all.  You can puree or shred into ice cube trays and use in baking (especially bran muffins!) Many foods can be chopped, frozen on trays, and then put into bags. (I do this during the summer with bell peppers, and use them year-round from the freezer). Fresh ginger can be kept in the freezer—just use a cheese grater and grate the amount you want into your cooking.  Cook hearty greens that freeze well.  Collards are great when boiled with ginger and garlic or bacon and brown sugar. Leftovers freeze and store well.

Meats: Don’t be afraid to ask the butcher to downsize your order.  Order 1-2 salmon steaks instead of the whole fish (or order the whole fish, have them cut it in steaks and freeze it separately—when packed properly, salmon freezes well!). You can often find pre-packaged individual steaks in the freezer section.  Canned salmon and tuna are great for sandwiches and salads, and the trusty whole-roasted chicken from the deli. Some groceries cater to smaller family sizes and pack accordingly. The Trader Joe’s near me does a great job of packing single-serving size foods. Don’t forget the seafood.  You get to do what those of us with larger families only dream of doing…. buy scallops and oysters! Maybe it’s just a Northwestern thing, but I’d need a second mortgage around here to share oysters and scallops with the whole crew. (The kids and I are getting fishing licenses this year though, so we can go crabbing and clamming).

Avoid: Beware of the packed-in-a-cardboard-box convenience foods.  They typically aren’t very healthy, and aren’t a good value.  If you really love the convenience of a hamburger-noodle casserole in a box, investigate a home-made alternative (this site offers some great home-hacked alternatives).   Avoid the takeout every-day routine. Avoid the “I can’t buy anything fresh because I can’t use it all” mindset.  Yes, you can use it.  With the right techniques for utilizing and preserving, you can use your entire purchase.

Must have

Own a toaster oven.  You can cook so many things, so much faster, and using less energy.  I still have my toaster oven from my single days. Only one button still works, but it’s just what I want when I want to whip up a midnight snack.  You can even get “single-sized” bread pans, muffin tins, and cooking pans to make little lasagna, or casserole, without getting a great big dish dirty.  It’s perfect for 1-2 servings, and easy to clean up after if you have a tiny kitchen.

Ok readers, time to chime in!  Without using a meal-in-a box, how can our single readers eat frugally, and nutritionally?

Shopping and Cooking Frugally for One is a post from: Being Frugal.net

Many of us are feeling that tightness and pressure that comes from the extra spending surge this time of year.  Holiday activities/entertainment, Christmas cards, gifts, office parties, friends of friends’ parties, and gifting expectations galore, not to mention what the children hope to find under the tree.

For many of us, this kind of annual pressure doesn’t fit our budget, but also, doesn’t fit our lifestyles. You may prefer to focus on the real meaning of Christmas, without feeling like a “party pooper” or wrecking your annual budget.

When my husband and I adopted our daughters, we knew two things—they don’t have the expectation of mountains of presents under the tree, and most importantly, they simply need us—our presence, not our cash. We do very low-key Christmas gifts. Each child gets a Christmas stocking with a few items, usually a movie, mittens, a couple of candies, hair beads, and a small toy or accessory to a toy they already have.  This reduces our stress, and prevents them from being overwhelmed.  We also make a point to spend a lot of quality time together, talking about the real meaning of the holiday season.

To control your holiday budget, try implementing some of the following ideas:

1. Manage expectations. Nobody needs piles of presents. Trust that “less is more.”  It’s more time, more relief, and much less holiday anxiety.
2. Make an effort to spend quality time. See a show (many churches offer free productions of classics like A Christmas Carol), my family especially loves to go see Langston Hughes “The Black Nativity” at a local theatre company.  (My kids say it is a lot more fun than the Nutcracker)
3. Be frank with extended family about expectations for travel, entertaining and gifts.  Suggest family gifts or a gift exchange in lieu of piles of individual presents. (More on gift exchange ideas later this week). Our parents love to shower gifts on our children, but rather than stuff, they get experiences–we have been gifted tickets to live performances, and memberships to zoos, etc, which provides a year of fun and learning, rather than batteries and “some assembly required,” and for that out-of-town family that we just can’t afford to travel to visit, they are welcome to visit us here, but plane tickets aren’t in the budget–we try to do our out-of-state traveling in lower-cost months like March and September.
4. Nix the office gift exchange and party if you can, or work to downsize it. Who really enjoys those anyhow? One company I worked for that used to throw a gigantic black-tie holiday party downtown  and changed up plans with the economic downtown. After a few years of big holiday parties, they held an office party with goofy contests (ugliest holiday sweater) and we had a “regift” exchange, rather than a regular gift. It was a big laugh—quality relaxed time with colleagues without the dozens of uncomfortable spouses or the need to hire a babysitter.
5. Make your own cards. If you haven’t tried Pinterest yet, there’s piles of great ideas for creative holiday cards.
6. Give home-made gifts, practical, or charity gifts.  (Start here for home made gift ideas.)

What does the holiday season look like at your house?  How do you hope to change your family’s approach this year or in the future?

Holiday Budget Relief is a post from: Being Frugal.net

In your day-to-day cooking, you are likely throwing away valuable flavor and nutrients every day without even realizing it.
You cut an apple, peel an onion, and cut the hard skin off of a squash before baking or boiling it, or scrubbed the brown bits out of a roasting pan.

If you’re frugal, you’re composting the vegetable scraps, or adding it to a worm bin. If you’re super-frugal, you’ve discovered this goldmine of nutrients can be used one more time before heading for the compost heap.

You can make and freeze stock made from either meat or vegetable bits and scraps and use it as a base for soups, stews and chilis, or even to add flavor and nutrients to those frugal staple potato, rice or pasta dishes.

You can also use stock instead of water to add flavor to a recipe, or instead of beer or wine to reduce cost without losing moisture.

Perhaps you’ve seen stock in the supermarket (or *gasp* perhaps you’ve even bought it?). Usually stored near the soup, you can find fish, beef, chicken, vegetable and mushroom stocks in the supermarket, with prices ranging from $0.10-$0.79 per ouncet. But why buy what you can make for nothing?

How to make soup stock:

Vegetable Stock:

The best way to make a vegetable stock is to save scraps. Peels, from onions, husks from garlic (my garlic press leaves little “skins” inside, so I always save those.) Ends of celery, extra mushrooms and any produce nearing the end of its life in the refrigerator. Shells from peas, stems and even apple cores go great in vegetable stock. (Never use spoiled/moldy produce).

If you have a few cups of vegetable bits, just cover them with water, simmer for 45 minutes, strain and freeze. However, if you’ve only got an onion skin here and a stalk of celery there, just throw it all in a big bag in the freezer until you have enough vegetable bits and time to boil it all at once. Strain and store.

Meat stock:

Bones, ends, and drippings! Use pan drippings, or bones to create a fantastic stock. The easiest way it to start with the brown bits from the bottom of a pan. First, pour off any grease/oils and then heat the pan quickly on the stove. Add a small amount of cold liquid to the hot pan (water, beer, wine, fruit juice, brandy, or even water that you cooked pasta or vegetables in), and as the liquid rapidly comes to a boil, scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or heat-safe spatula. This will free up the flavorful bits from the bottom of the pan, and allow you to use them again. As an added benefit, the pan will be much easier to clean.

If you have bones or tough meat scraps to use, add the bones and enough water to cover them, and simmer for 45 minutes (fish is the exception—heads and bones go in the water, with the gills removed, but remove as soon as the bones become opaque). Large bones such as hamhocks or entire turkey carcasses may take longer—cook covered in water until the bones come out free of meat scraps.  Strain and store. 

Storage:

To freeze, pour into plastic containers leaving some head-space (frozen liquid takes more space than solid, so if you overfill your container will break), cool completely in the refrigerator, and then freeze. Alternately, pour your stocks into muffin tins or ice cube trays and freeze, and then pop them out and into a plastic bag for storage until you are ready to use them. If you store your stocks in glass jars like I do, use only wide-mouth jars, and fill no more than 2/3 full, leaving the lid open until the liquid is fully frozen. Be warned that any attempts to rapidly freeze or thaw a glass mason jar will likely result in breakage. They are temperamental buggers.

Stocking Up the Freezer For Virtually Nothing is a post from: Being Frugal.net

I visited my pea-patch in the community garden yesterday, and found some rather disappointing results. It’s my fault, I hadn’t visited in a while, and I have been neglecting the need for soil amendments, but I did have a few things to harvest.  The problem was—with what was available to me, what could I possibly do?

Here’s my harvest.

• One very large zucchini.
• Fifteen blue lake green beans.
• Six cherry tomatoes.
• A bumper crop of green tomatoes on the vine—so I harvested some to give the vines a better chance with the rest.
• Five extremely large (read: neglected) pickling cucumbers.

So what to do?

Perhaps it was the stress of this underwhelming produce yield, but I felt compelled to mull this matter over some fried food and a beer, pub-style.

And then it hit me, I had exactly what I wanted right in my farm basket… for a perfect plate of pub food.

I sliced the woody cucumber up, and dropped it in a big bowl of iced saltwater to take the bitterness out. (It did nothing for the woody skin, but it wasn’t too bad, and I could have cut it off).

And then I whipped up a cornmeal-based batter for the green tomatoes.

If you’ve never had fried green tomatoes, you’re missing out. Typically, we think of these as a southern dish—typically creole, but food historians say it likely came with Jewish immigrants in the north and Midwest, then Pennsylvania Dutch also make a version.  A classic southern-style recipe is here, but I prefer to use bacon grease for this versus vegetable oil, the way my grandmother did.

The combination of the firmness and tartness of an unripe tomato plus the crusty crunchy friend crust is fantastic. The classic southern accompaniment is shrimp remoulade but I served mine with a salsa of hot sauce, peaches and ripe tomatoes.

Once my tomatoes were done, I had a little batter left, and the problem of a few green beans. So I battered them next.  A favorite neighborhood pub used to serve deep-fried green beans, and I think they’re on the TGI Friday’s menu too.

I’ll steam the zucchini with some sweet onions tomorrow. The cucumbers came out fine in their saltwater bath with good texture and flavor.

Fried green tomatoes and green beans plus fresh cucumbers

Yes, we ate a bunch of fried food, but it’s a rare occasion around here, and there is a satisfaction to growing your own food.

PS: Next week, I’d like to do a post on menu and meal planning. Let’s compare menus and meal planning techniques. Do you keep a list? Do you compare weekly or monthly? Before or after shopping? If you have a chance, post a picture of your master meal plan on our Facebook wall or email it to editor@beingfrugal.net. (If you belong to the “winging it” camp of meal planning–I’d love to know that too, and a strategy for keeping costs under control).

Dealing with a Disappointing Harvest is a post from: Being Frugal.net

This is a guest post from Brittany, a college student and lead writer at SavvyStudent.com

Saving money for college is a job in itself. College students should earn credit for doing it, because the task requires using the mind and it’s helpful for life after college. So to help out the universal crowd of college students who have been trying to save money since the roots of higher education, here is a list of fifty-one ways to save money for college.

That’s fifty-one ways to save yourself from going deeper into debt, and fifty-one ways you can pat yourself on the back in the future. And for some encouragement, listen to the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.”

Transportation

1. Bike it. Not only does using your bike help out your wallet, it’s a good work out for the gluteus maximus.
2. Bus it. Public transportation is one of man’s greatest inventions because it is cheaper than car insurance and history’s highest gas prices (which you won’t have to pay if you ride the bus/metro/insert other mode of public transportation here). All it takes is a small fare or your campus’s bus passes (some universities charge, others give them out for free for a limited number of hours).
3. If you own a car, turn off your air conditioning while driving to save gas.
4. Choose the shortest route from point A to point B.
5. Carpool; work on your social skills.
6. If you drive a manual, coast on the down hills.

Food/Drink

1. Dumpster dive. Some places make dumpster diving easy by, for example, putting all of their stale (but edible) items in a specially marked dumpster. Check your state’s law for further info. Here is Urban Dictionary’s definition of dumpster diving: “Actively searching through trash in commercial or residential dumpsters to find discarded but usable items; Proves fruitful at grocery stores and bakeries, where good food is often neatly thrown away when it merely approaches the sell-by date.”
2. Don’t just leave those cans and bottles from last weekend’s party on the curb to be taken away by the garbage man. Recycle them yourself and get cash from a grocery store that provides this service. This method of recycling, known as the Bottle Bill, is only in certain state’s legislation so hopefully you live in one of those 11 states.
3. Keep your receipts from grocery stores, which often hold coupons and special offers on the other side. Look up extreme couponing to get inspired.

10. Step away from the latte and say hello to good ole coffee and Americanos. If you are one of those college students who hangs out at a coffee shop so often most people aren’t sure if you are a customer or an employee, it would be wise to choose cheaper options if you are buying a drink every time you visit. All that milk one finds in a latte can’t be good for one person, even if you aren’t lactose intolerant.

11. Want to have a pizza night? Taco night with friends? Have each person bring one ingredient to contribute to the meal and it will be astronomically cheaper for the host, and that much tastier too.

12. Use the most of your punch cards at local coffee shops. Three dollars off of a drink of choice or even a free drink is that much money that you can keep in your wallet if you are consistently punching that beloved 2 by 3.5 inch piece of paper.

13. Home brew your own ______ (fill in the blank). Check out The Mad Fermentationist blog to get recipes and ideas. Who knows if home brewing is cheaper, short term, but in the long run perhaps people will be paying YOU for what you make. Think about it.

14. Brew your own coffee at home. This is cheaper, because you can buy grains in bulk, and when you put it in a travel mug you are good to go for class.

15. At the beginning of every week buy enough food to last you one week in one meal. i.e. chicken and rice for dinner the next seven days. It lacks the variety one enjoys, but we’re in college so we’re aiming for cheap and edible.

16. Buy in bulk. Use those coupons and stock up. Use your freezer.

17. Make use of your on-campus credit that goes towards food and beverages in the cafeteria and various stores and coffee bars. Use it all up before spending it elsewhere, especially if you can buy the same items there as anywhere else.

18. Go to school or community events with free food, whenever the opportunity presents itself.

19. When you are grocery shopping, don’t go to the store while you are hungry.

Clothing

20. Thrift stores, garage sales and second-hand shops are a college student’s best friend when old clothes wear out. It is a widely held belief that thrift stores are thee places to shop whether you are cheap or not, because there is such a wide range of clothing that fits anyone’s taste and it’s rare that you’ll see someone else wearing the same clothing item you’ve bought from a second-hand shop.

21. Get in touch with your crafty side. When you find clothes at a second-hand shop that are too large, alter them yourself. That x-large band t-shirt that you cannot pass up will be a size medium in no time.

22. Trade clothes with friends when your wardrobe starts looking dull. This is all perspective, and what you need is to swap a few articles of clothing and voila! That should do the trick to curing your monotonous closet.

23. One word: Self-control. Restrain from being an impulse buyer!

Books

24. Rent textbooks. This can be done through a website like Chegg or places nearby such as your university’s bookstore, library or your county’s local library.

25. Join Amazon Student and for one year get unlimited free two-day shipping on textbooks and other items. It’s free to sign up for students!

Entertainment

26. Join the online community of Couch Surfing and get connected with people from all over the world. Forming these connections will enable you to vacation for cheap with a free place to stay while receiving free tours from the locals who know the best places to go.

27. Find local festivals and events that have free admission and hang out. Walk around, people watch, B.Y.O food. Free entertainment is good entertainment.

28. Get in the know-how while reading newspaper online instead of receiving it on your doorstep. I am all for supporting publishers and the print, but if you’re trying to save, and the same information is available for free, then why spend the monthly fee?

29. Make reusable, fused paper bags to avoid paying the meager 99¢ at the grocery store. Because we’re thinking cheap and that’s 99 whole cents that could be put towards your college savings fund.

30. Instead of going out to eat, or buying something new to spice up your living space, or spending money on anything really, report to instructables.com. It is a website for all of your do-it-yourself needs, with categories of food, living, outside, play, technology and workshop. That pretty much covers everything you could ever need to spend money on (besides your tuition).

31. One more word: Groupon.

32. Use Living Social to receive coupons on entertainment, yoga classes, spa treatments, restaurants and more in your city.

33. Explore your state’s parks. Free admission and entertainment for all!

34. Rent DVDs at your local library instead of renting from Red Box or Netflix.

35. Refrain from going to new movies while they are still in theaters. Wait until they come out on DVD. (Hopefully this doesn’t completely contradict the former.)

36. Play cards. It’s another way to be entertained for free.

Tuition/Money

37. Learn how to budget in unique ways. One method is separating money from your most recent paychecks and putting it into envelopes for different expenses. Budget and know where your money is going. Dave Ramsey loves the envelope system.

38. Acquire friends with skills. These could be people who cut hair, fix cars or bikes… Need I say more? You are in no way using them, but their talents are simply a bonus to your mutually beneficial friendship. Another way of saying this: networking.

39. Work somewhere that either gives you great discounts on their food or other items. In this beautiful scenario you are simultaneously making and saving money.

40. Sell your hobby. Play music at a local café; sell your art in an open-air market. Use your talents and put a hat before you. Even a little change makes a difference, right?

41. If you live in or nearby a neighborhood, say hello to quirky jobs and employment. Go up to front doors and ask if people need their lawns mowed, gutters cleaned out, flower bushes trimmed, etc. Because who wants to clean out their own gutters?

42. If it’s not on craigslist, you don’t need it. Never buy new. Let’s say it together: “Never buy new.”

43. If you are borrowing loans from the government, steer towards subsidized loans, if you qualify for them, instead of unsubsidized loans. Subsidized loans don’t build interest until after a student graduates, as opposed to unsubsidized loans, which start building interest once the loan has been dispersed to the school.

44. Put extra money from your paychecks into a savings account instead of your checking account. When you have the urge to buy something, it will be harder to access your savings account than the three seconds it takes to hand the cashier your debit card.

Utilities/Housing

45. In the evenings, use candles. Turn off the lights and cozy up to a candle for all of your mood lighting needs, and save electricity while doing it!

46. Wash your clothes sparingly. Don’t let not washing them turn people off to you, but before you throw a pair of pants in the wash after one day’s wear, think twice.

47. As opposed to washing your clothes on campus with quarters or at a Laundromat, wash them at a friend’s house and pay them a couple dollars.

48. Hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer. Save electricity or your quarters!

49. Don’t wash your hair everyday. Save shampoo & conditioner and let your hair embrace its natural oils. This saves water and money spent on hair products.

50. Live with people. Rent and utilities become cheaper, you can share meals, and cooking is more fun when you do it with other people.

51. Use an electric kettle, which will save you time and money by turning off automatically when water reaches its boiling point. If you are a big tea drinker, the hot pot will become your best friend.

52. When you are grocery shopping, don’t go to the store while you are hungry. There will be less of an urge to buy everything that looks appealing.

And that concludes this list of ways to save money for college. From saving money on how to nourish yourself cheaply to some of the best coupons the web has to offer, I hope you will find some guidance in these suggestions. Good luck finding other ways to be cheap and thrifty without going into debt during your college years.

51 Ways to Save Money in College is a post from: Being Frugal.net

My kids have nine days of school left this year.  I estimate it will be 9.5 days before the “I’m bored” chorus begins.  Even though we school at home now, the summer transition is about the same as it was when the kids went to public school. They can’t wait for school to end, and then they can’t wait for summer to be over.

Now, at my house, when kids begin the “I’m bored chorus” it falls under the category of whining, and anyone who has the energy to whine has the energy to wash dishes or clean a bathroom. But in all honestly, if you have kids home during the summer, you want them to have an enjoyable, enriching summer vacation without breaking the bank. And you likely get bored sometimes too.

Do you have a list of cheap boredom busters around your house?  You should!  Trust me, this will save your pocketbook and your sanity in the summer.

In recent weeks, we’ve taught our oldest daughter a number of fun card games, as well as the addictive word game “bananagrams.”  She can run across the street and find the neighbor kid who will play these games for hours on end, on either a rainy or a too-hot day.

What should kids be doing in the summer?  At my house, here’s what I ask of my children. They need to make a list at the beginning of summer with some ideas for each category. Then when they come to me with the “I’m bored” song, while I’m preparing dinner, they may either choose something from the list to do, or clean the bathroom.

The master list:

1. Learn something every day.
2. Write something every day (even if it’s just your birthday wishlist).
3. Make some money (that wish-list isn’t gonna buy itself… j/k).
4. Volunteer or do something good for other people.
5. Have a project.  A ship in a bottle, a game, a giant jigsaw puzzle or the great American novel, have something to work on.
6. Play. Play a game, play outside, or use your imagination.

Granted, kids have limited power to entertain themselves constantly, and most of us want our kids expanding horizons.  My daughters are saving for our mission trip to Africa, and doing yard work and walking dogs to raise money.  They also regularly help neighbors “just because.”  Hard work is a critical value in our family, so we encourage the kids to always be “doing” something.

Here’s some keys for staying sane during the summer:

1. Have the kids complete a list of ideas for the six points above. What could they be doing to entertain themselves or enrich themselves?
2. Join the library summer reading program. Most have prizes and awards. I have my kids check out books each week, and with my oldest daughter, I check out one additional book that she wouldn’t have thought to check out—just to spread her horizons. (Cryptozoology anyone?)
3. Keep a handy list of things to do on super warm days. Nearby splash public swimming spaces, etc.
4. Follow the events calendar in the local newspaper. We are regular attendees at the local Shakespeare in the Park events (free first-rate plays!)  also watch for movies and concerts, or volunteer activities and cultural festivals. Many are free or very low cost.
5. VBS—Consider enrolling your child in a free sports camp, or Vacation Bible School with a local church (you usually don’t have to be a member). A  church near me offers a free three-day soccer camp every summer for kids ages 5-13.
6. Consider a membership someplace.  My mom gave our family a zoo membership for Christmas last year, and it’s getting a workout.  We anticipate many summer days and evenings at the zoo this year. We also have a membership to the YMCA, where we visit several times each week for swimming, or dance classes.
7. “Check out” the library’s other resources. Your local library has many resources you likely don’t even know about. In Washington State, our Pierce and King County libraries offer free and heavily-discounted museum passes to patrons—just check them out online and print them at home.
8. Share kids.  Sometimes, just adding another kid or two in the mix for the day keeps everyone entertained.  Playing in the yard with friends is exponentially more fun than playing in the yard with siblings.  Arrange play-dates with your friends to let the kids wear one another out. Besides, they’ll sleep better on those warm, sunny nights.

Final Tip: Buckets of fun:

Each of my kids has a five-gallon bucket with a lid. You can usually get these for free at your local pastry shop. The bucket is triple duty—toybox, lunch-box, beach chair.  Sometimes we just want to go have fun, but don’t really have a plan for the day.  Those days, we pack sunscreen, a change of clothes and shoes for each kids, beach balls, and picnic lunches in their beach buckets and head to the local park, beach or museum.

But what about camping?

Yes… what about camping.  I’m collecting thoughts on camping.  Based on my last couple of camping trips, well, let’s just say the jury is still out.  I am going to do a post soon on frugal camping tips though for the summer-fun season.  Please let me know if you have some frugal camping tips that we can share.

Frugal Summertime Fun is a post from: Being Frugal.net

Until two years ago, I’d never heard the term “zero-based budget.”  I have learned to dread it. In fact, I hate zero based budgeting. But we use it at our house, because it works. It works brilliantly.

Zero-based budget is basically this: Project what you have coming in for the month, and match your budgeted expenses to the income exactly. Yes, exactly. At the end of the month, your checkbook balance should be exactly what it was on the first day of the month.

We know approximately what our utility bills will be for the month—we budget for the high end of the range. Any savings (cash leftover) goes to our charity project for the year, or savings.

We budget for weekly expenses (spending money, gas, eating out, entertainment, grocery shopping, clothing, etc) and put the planned amount of money in an envelope which we spend from the entire month. We spend no more money than is in the envelope. When grocery shopping, if our bill is $152, and only $125 is in the envelope, we literally find a way to put $28 worth back on the shelf. It’s humiliating. It’s restrictive.

It has also cut our spending dramatically, and really has made the difference in getting the rest of our debt paid off on these past couple of months. It’s also putting a lot of money towards our family’s mission trip to South Sudan for next year.

The budget envelopes are also a great, visible reminder for the kids that we are spending only what is available to us to spend.

I will tell you that putting the entire month’s cash in the envelope on the first of the month is too intimidating for me. It’s hard on our cash-flow, and I worry about spending through the month evenly, so we put either 20% or 25% of our budgeted amount into the envelope each Monday, depending on if there are four or five Mondays in the month.

But I have a variable income…

Excuses, Excuses! I do too. I manage this by projecting my minimum income for the month, so I can’t spend more than that. Any additional money goes directly to a list in order of importance, 1. Ten percent to charity, 2. The balance to debt repayment, and 3. The rest to savings until we have our 3-6 months of emergency fund saved.

We learned this system in Financial Peace University, a Dave Ramsey program, which has been a great resource to our family, and a key to honing our budget and financial plan. If you’re new to learning to budget, DaveRamsey.com offers spreadsheets that you can use to learn how to budget.

Good luck!

The Zero-Based Budget, A Critical Key for Saving Cash is a post from: Being Frugal.net

Most hardcore cheapskates have a secret.  Their price book or coupon strategy or a hard-and-fast rule “never shop on Fridays, always buy gas on Tuesdays.”

I’m going to bare all, and share my arsenal of secret weapons. One on condition. Please, please share your secrets too!

Here it goes—my secret weapons to saving money.

• A spare email account: A Gmail account is great because it has a large capacity and is easy to filter, sort or search. Send all coupons, and mailing lists here. If toilet paper is on your grocery list, search for toilet paper coupons, etc. But under no condition should you actually read every item that goes into this list.  Just use search features to see if it happens to include whatever you might be looking for.
• Frugal Friends:  Make a Twitter or Facebook list and watch what your frugal friends are doing! While you are at it—follow hashtags like #frugal and #cheap and #coupon on Twitter.
• Home-made: Home-made is almost always cheaper.  I make my own laundry detergent—I found the recipe in the Duggar’s book. We do six loads of wash a week, and I can make enough soap for a year for about $4.  We used to spend $17 a month on liquid laundry detergent. You can home-make washable baby diapers, (our tot is in washable pull-ups at nighttime) soups, pastries and more. Unless you require gluten-free bread (I do) bread is one of the few exceptions I have found. Just buy bread at the store.
• Your calculator.  Our grocery total went down an average of $30 a week simply by carrying a calculator and keeping a tally as we shop.
• A pricebook:  I don’t use a pricebook  anymore while grocery shopping, as we have found one store that consistently has lower prices. I do use a pricebook for shopping for business items (paper, binder clips, toner, etc).
• Hand-me-downs: We have “too big” boxes of clothes for the kids, and “too small” boxes, and eagerly accept hand-me-downs from friends and family.
• Websites and Blogs: Blogs and Websites can be a wonderful source of ideas and encouragement when it comes to living your live even more frugally. I personally like BillShrink for monitoring the competitiveness of my wireless plan and local gas prices.
• The public library. From free printing (my library offers 30 pages of free printing per day) and Internet access, to magazines, books, movies and music, the library can save you tons of money.
• Clocks: Learn “off peak” times for utilities. Shower or run the laundry and dishwasher at the off-peak water times, make phone calls in “off peak” long distance times.
• Cash envelopes and a solid budget. We use a budget each month. We put the allotted amount of money in an envelope for each subject (grocery, gas and so on) and spend only as much as is present in the envelope—thus never going over-budget.

Now—can we “sharpen the pencil” even more by adding your suggestions? What is your favorite secret weapon for shopping?

What’s Your Frugal Secret Weapon? is a post from: Being Frugal.net

If you’re on a quest to lower your bills, take a hard look at your car insurance. Car insurance is an area that can yield monthly savings with just a few phone calls and inquiries. Many people get comfortable with their car insurance company and just continue to pay the premium year after year, without making adjustments. But it’s a good idea to evaluate your car insurance once a year to make sure you’re getting what you need at the best price.

Shop Around

Prices can vary a lot between insurance companies. When we switched insurance companies several years ago, we ended up getting better coverage at a lower price. Shopping around is as easy as making a few phone calls. Oftentimes insurance companies can give you a quote over the phone.

You should compare at least three insurance companies before making a decision. Checking out three to five companies will give you a good idea of how expensive insuring your car will be. Make your final decision based not only on price, but on the company’s reputation. It’s no good to have car insurance with a company that has a reputation for not coming through when a customer needs it.

Ask About Discounts

Insurance companies offer a wide variety of discounts, so make sure to ask if you qualify for a price break. Typical discounts include the good driver discount, a discount for multiple policies (for instance car insurance and home insurance), good student discounts, low mileage discounts, and car safety discounts.

Discounts may vary by insurance company, making step number 1, shopping around, very important. Make sure you ask about any discounts when you shop around.

Use Your Good Credit

In many states, credit score can be used to help determine insurance premiums. Even companies that don’t use credit scores to determine premiums may offer discounts for customers with good credit. Our insurance company sends us a notice each year, asking us if we want to allow them to use our credit to help lower our premium. Of course we do!

Knowing that insurance companies use credit scores makes it important to stay on top of your credit history. If you know you have bad credit, work to improve it. And it’s a good idea to review your credit report frequently. You can get a free annual copy of your credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies at www.annualcreditreport.com.

Raise Your Deductible

Car insurance premiums get lower as your deductible gets higher. If you can afford to take a deductible of $500 or even $1000, you will save money over a policy with a $250 deductible. Before raising your deductible, however, make sure you have the money in savings to cover it.

Also, if you have an old clunker car, consider dropping collision and comprehensive insurance. There’s no sense paying a monthly insurance premium on a car that isn’t worth the deductible.

If you have any doubt whether or not you’re getting the best value on your car insurance, make a few phone calls. You may find that you’re able to save a pretty penny, just by making a few adjustments!

How to Save Money on Car Insurance is a post from: Being Frugal.net

With food prices on the rise, it seems everyone is looking for a way to save money on groceries. Fortunately, by tweaking just a few of your habits, you can offset rising food prices with grocery savings. It takes a little time and effort, but saving money on groceries isn’t impossible.

Cook From Scratch

The cheapest (and healthiest) way to eat is to cook from scratch. Focus on purchasing ingredients, rather than purchasing meals. Shop the perimeter of the store to stock up on meat, dairy, produce, and grains. Most of the time, you pay for convenience. If you’re willing to put in the effort to make things from scratch, you will notice savings on your grocery bill.

Combine Sales With Coupons

Coupons have been touted as a way to save money on groceries for a long time. This is true, if you regularly buy items for which you can find coupons. But be careful. Sometimes buying a name brand item with a coupon is more expensive than buying the equivalent generic item.

To make the most effective use of coupons, combine sale prices with coupons. If a store doubles coupons, even better. Even if you can’t find food coupons you would use, you can frequently use coupons to save money on personal care items, such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, and toilet paper. And with non-perishable items, you can stock up when prices are at their lowest.

Enlist Your Friends

If you have several frugal friends, you can band together to really save money on groceries. Share coupons that you don’t use. Divide your shopping, so you each hit a different store for the loss leaders (those items that are priced below retail to get you in the store). Call each other when you see good deals.

Beyond coordinating your shopping efforts, large groups can often get big discounts. Go in together to buy a side of beef. Make a bulk order from Amazon, Azure Standard, or a food coop to get a great price, then split up the purchase. There’s savings in numbers, and with everyone hurting from high grocery bills, why not band together to save money?

Use Craigslist

I know you’re scratching your heads at this suggestion, but I have found big savings on Craigslist. One time I picked up two trash bags full of strawberry plants, and I didn’t pay anything. A woman was thinning out her strawberries, and just wanted to get rid of the extra plants, so until we moved two years ago, I ate free strawberries every year!

People with large gardens or small farms often advertise excess produce on Craigslist at great prices, so keep your eye out. You never know what you’ll find, but if you know how to freeze, can, or dehydrate produce, you can find some sweet deals!

By putting in a little effort it is possible to save money, even as grocery prices rise.

How to Save Money on Groceries is a post from: Being Frugal.net