Frugal Party Favors -- Strawberry Grow Kits!

I have to admit, I'm feeling pretty genius about this one! My daughter had her first big friend party for her 7th birthday yesterday, and I really struggled with the idea of party favors. The party was already not budget friendly, and I just did not have the cash to do much of anything -- especially for 15 kids. That, and I especially am not a fan of party favor bags filled with candy and cheap plastic toys. Yuck.

So the story on these is that Target usually has these "grow kits" (these are strawberries) in their dollar spot from about Valentine's Day through midsummer. There are usually several varieties, which is really fun. For my daughter, I chose strawberries. My daughter's friends and the parents were very excited to go home and plant their new strawberries!

These actually come in a pretty wide variety. I've also shamrocks, forget me nots and various herbs. The variety makes these really great favors for just about any kind of party. They would even be great for a wedding, and at a $1 a pop, you pretty much can't beat the price. Have fun with this one!

A new one on me...

Remember ALL that juice I bought last week? Yup, it's GONE. Barely made it a week. Of course, the little ones are not the culprits here. It's is the big one -- the 6 foot, 200 lb one. Aside from realizing the need to hide my stash of certain items, I've also been working on a little bit of innocent trickery.

I don't know why it never occurred to me, but I recently read a tip online about diluting laundry soap IN the bottle. Now (until recently,) I've never done this (or even thought of it) because I don't have a volume consumption problem. On the other hand, my husband, along with lots of others, I'm guessing, is not so cautious. I've started noticing that after a few loads of laundry, he's killed a significant portion of a bottle of detergent. (Not a good time to notice this as my stash is running low!) Diluting doesn't absolve his usage problem, but it does at least stretch the soap a little further! Not only have I been using this technique on laundry soap, but I've been using it on bottle juices too. Of course, I always dilute juice in the girl's sippy cups, but my husband conveniently forgets EVERY TIME. Diluting in the bottle solves that problem, and guess what, he hasn't complained that HIS juice tastes watered down. I don't think he has a clue. Works for Me!

See other tips here at, Works for Me Wednesday!

Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive

Don't forget that the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is on Saturday! We participated last year, and we certainly will again! All you have to do is leave a bag of food for your postal service worker, and they will collect and deliver to a local food pantry. It's so easy! If you participate, take a picture and link it up via my comment section. I'd love to see how we're able to give!

Works For Me!

A quick and green grocery shopping tip...

I used to make the statement that I didn't have enough hands to take my own grocery bags to the grocery store. I was already balancing a baby, a 3 year old, a coupon book and a purse. That's 4 things for two hands. I realize now the error in my ways. Have you tried using one BIG reusable bag and stuffing your purse, coupons and all of your other reusable bags in to it? It works like a dream, and now I get to save $.05 a bag too! Give it a try!

Works for Me!

Oroweat Outlet

Several weeks ago friend told mentioned to me that she saw an Oroweat outlet a few miles from our office. No lie, I've tried to find an Oroweat outlet in our area before, and the closest one I managed to locate was one about 45 minutes away. I intended on making a trip out there, but I never made it. In the meantime, I've been able to get Oroweat for under $2/loaf and that was good enough for me. WAS.

It turns out that the Oroweat outlet is no less than 2 minutes from my office. It also turns out that I got all six of these items for under $6. Wow, right? I was stoked. Really stoked. I'm also told that there is a loyalty card that is very valuable. Unfortunately, they were out when I was there, so they told me to save my receipt.

As far as availability, there wasn't a tremendously huge selection of goodies. I was told they were very picked over after a busy day yesterday. They did, however, have a really good selection of basic Oroweat breads, a small amount of Boboli pizza crusts and Tia Rosa tortillas for a great price, Thomas brand bagels and a really, really good selection of Bob's Red Mill grains.

So, while I wasn't totally sold on the Wonder bread outlet, I am COMPLETELY sold on the Oroweat outlet. I will be a regular! To locate an Oroweat outlet near you, try this link - http://www.bimbobakeriesusa.com/our_brands/outlet_stores.php

Works for Me!
LifeAsMom

Freezing Milk

Two weeks ago, I was able to get 2 gallons of milk B1G1 free. We drink about a gallon of milk a week, so for us that is two weeks worth of milk. However, both gallons were set to expire before the end of this week. Whenever I find myself with an expiring bit of milk, I distribute it out in to sippy cups and freeze for a later time. They're really great to throw them in my kids' school lunch instead of an ice pack. I also use them a lot if we're going out to eat, out for the day, to run errands, etc. It saves a lot of money when you don't have to buy a drink (or two) for the kids when you're on the go. Works for me!

Make friends with the cobbler...

In the past, I've been a big fan of getting my shoes repaired. I used to take them to the mall where they could be repaired while we walked around, grabbed a quick lunch, whatever. Unfortunately, the nice cobbler shop at the mall closed about two years ago. Even more unfortunately for me, my shoes fell in to serious disrepair.

I tend to have pretty expensive taste in shoes. I am happy if I can fall in love with a good quality shoe for under $80 or so. I know, I know. Honestly though, I do NOT have a vast shoe collection. I have two pairs of dress shoes (heels and flats) and two pairs of casual shoes (tennis shoes and a dressy-ish flat.) I HATE shopping for shoes because I am just so darn picky. I would live in $1 flip flops from Old Navy if I could.

Anyway, this weekend, I HAD to find somewhere to get my shoes fixed up. I've been wearing my heels for 2 years nearly every day. I haven't had my flats as long, but they got really dinged up in the snow over the last few weeks. (As a testament to my lack of shoe wardrobe, I need boots.) They came back looking so great and guess what my grand total was --$17! The heels were more expensive as they needed new heels, but still such a steal! Far cheaper than to new pairs of "cheap" shoes.

See also Coupon Teacher and Works for me!

A fabulous cup of coffee...

I totally love a good cup of coffee. Every morning on my way to work, I pass by the dreaded Starbucks drive-thru, and I want to stop SO BAD. Alas, my pocketbook prevents it. Recently, I combined a couple of "tricks" to make a pretty cravable cup of coffee here at home. What's the trick??? Vanilla beans! It was about time I found a way to use the one I've had in pantry from two Christmas's ago. (Thanks mom for the brilliant stocking stuffer!)

So what's the trick?

I made vanilla bean whipped cream for Thanksgiving, but I had quite a bit left over. Igot the idea from my favorite baking blog, Bakeat350, to freeze it in dollops on a cookie sheet, and they froze up just fine! I stuck the remaining vanilla bean pod in a small food storage tub and added some white sugar. Voila - my own vanilla sugar! Who can argue with a cup of coffee doctored up with homemade whipped cream and vanilla sugar? Does it get any better???

I know whole vanilla beans aren't the cheapest ingredient, but I'll be able to use and add to this little tub of sugar for a very long time! I once heard Martha Stewart say she'd been using the same jar with vanilla bean pods for years! She just keeps topping it off. Works for me!

See Beingfrugal.net and WorksForMeWednesday.

"Baby's Favorite" -- delicious and easy homemade baby food

I write this coming off of a grocery purchase where I just bought baby food. This is hilarious to me considering the fact that both of my girls have maybe eaten a collective five jars of baby food in their entire lifetime. I've always thought that people would make more homemade baby food if they had any idea how easy it really is. I mean, if I can find time to make it, anyone can. I've tried many different ways -- steaming, baking, crockpot, etc. I still really like the baking method for stone fruits, squash and the steaming method for vegetables, but the recipe I have really perfected is homemade baby applesauce in a variety of flavors. (My kids really like a combination of apple pear and pumpkin the best.) My 16 month old still has this homemade applesauce puree EVERY morning with baby oatmeal. My nearly 4 year old has it several times a week for a bed time snack. I love that they love eating it so much. Even on a day where I feel like we have not eaten as nutritiously as we should, I can at least know that they've both downed a huge bowl of something homemade and super healthy.

After making this about a thousand time, I have it down to a science. Here's how you do it...

1. Fill crockpot with your favorite fruits (canned pumpkin is a great addition) and spices.



(Here I have used apples, pears and cinnamon. It honestly improves the flavor if you use a variety of different apple and pear types, but don't worry about it if you only have one variety. I aso threw in a banana that my kid didn't finish eating at the last minute. Some other things to try are just apples, apples and peaches, peaches and pears, apple and pumpkin.)

2. Let cook on low until the fruit is very tender. (Apples take the longest.)

3. Transfer to blender or food processor and puree.

4. Freeze individual servings in ice cube trays or muffin tins. (I actually find that silicone muffin wrappers are BY FAR the easiest to deal with.)


5. Transfer to food storage bag and store in freezer until ready to use.

The finished product!