Money Saving Mom®

Guest post from Jacqueline Smith

In a perfect world, eating lots of produce would be easy, economical, and fun for the whole family. But let’s face it: we all struggle with eating fresh fruits and vegetables for one reason or another.

The good news is, the more organized we are, the more we save on produce. Here are five tips to help you save money on produce:

1. Start your meal plan before you shop…but don’t limit yourself to it.

Meal planning is an essential part of making sure that you use up all of your produce, but you don’t want to handcuff yourself to buying just what’s on your meal plan as you shop.

The solution? Complete about 50% of your week’s meal plan before you head out the door. Once you have a chance to see what’s on sale and what looks freshest at your supermarket, buy those items, too, and finish up your meal plan when you get home.

2. Buy in-season produce. Skip the (expensive) rest.

We all know not to buy watermelon in February, but what about the fruits that are available year-round like apples (or vegetables made available year-round like sweet potatoes)? You may not notice because it inches up slowly, but the price of apples can go up as much as 50 cents per pound when they’re out of season.

The solution? Skip apples in the spring and summer. Buy berries and melons and other spring/summer fruits instead. Before you know it, fall will swing around again, and apples will come back down in price. This interactive map from Epicurious can help you know what’s in season in your region.

3. Involve the whole family.

Make sure you keep your grocery list and meal-planning sheets somewhere in the house where the whole family can see them. Encourage everyone to add to the lists whenever they have a request or meal idea. This ensures that you’ll buy produce your family will be excited to eat.

4. Have a worst-case scenario soup and smoothie plan.

Some weeks, we all just get so busy that much of the produce we buy doesn’t get eaten by the end of the week.

The solution? Simply keep some soup stock on hand and make a soup with all of the leftover veggies from the week. Likewise, throw overripe fruit in your blender and make smoothies either with ice or frozen bananas. No wasted produce = no wasted money!

5. Celebrate your team work.

In order to keep your family eating lots of produce over the long run, take time at the the dinner table to celebrate how you all worked together to eat the most perishable food before it spoiled. A little praise goes a long way!

How do you save money on produce? 

Jacqueline Smith loves to help families save big on produce using simple tools that simply work. You can read more about her at JacquelineSmith.com.

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Guest post from Anita

On Sunday night, I opened my chest freezer and found a new Eat from the Pantry Challenge unexpectedly waiting for me this week. In other words, all the food had thawed out, and everything had to be thrown away except one loaf of bread, one package of hot dogs, and the kids’ Freezies.

Instead of feeling sick to my stomach for all that wasted food (and money!), I decided right away to be grateful for this situation. The first and obvious thankful part was that an already-thawed freezer is super easy to clean!

But after a few more days of reflection, here’s what I have decided:

1. I realized what I truly valued in my freezer.

Some of the food I was a little upset to lose like the roasts, Ham and Cheese Pockets, and Brown Bag Burritos. But there were a few items in there that I really didn’t mind throwing away. I’m going to use this to more carefully inform my grocery shopping choices, especially when it comes to sales and “stocking up.”

2. I realized how much food we had accumulated.

I was grateful that I hadn’t yet divided up and frozen the 10lbs of chicken I had just purchased. But once I also took a few minutes to inventory the dry goods in the pantry, I came up with a list of 10 meals without having to purchase a single thing!

While I will still try to purchase a little extra over the coming weeks to rebuild our freezer supply — especially meat — I think I’m going to buy less at a time. This should help cut our grocery budget down even more.

3. I realized (again) how much of my security was wrapped up in having extra food on hand.

This is a thought that’s been developing for me over the past few months, and something that is probably rooted in an economically-challenged childhood in a single-parent home. I feel more secure when I have a full freezer and pantry. But knowing that’s why I sometimes buy more than I need, allows me to stop and choose not to do it. There’s freedom in truth.

4. I realized how grateful I am for my Emergency Fund!

Once we determined that the freezer was just unplugged instead of broken, I was glad that we wouldn’t need to replace it. However, I also realized that if we had needed to do so, or really needed to purchase extra food for this week, we could have used part of our small emergency fund to do so.

A few years ago, a kaput appliance would have meant using a whole paycheck and playing catch-up with our regular bills for months.

5. I realized how much progress we’ve made in the last couple years!

The fact that I had food in the freezer, hadn’t paid full price for any of it, know how I’m going to replace it, can eat this week in the meantime, and have an Emergency Fund in case the situation had been worse, are all significant benchmarks to me of how much I have learned and developed new financial habits over the last four years.

While I know there’s still work to do, I’m grateful for this “test” and the encouragement of seeing just how far I have come already.

In a couple weeks, I’m going down to part-time work so I can spend more time teaching my children at home. While we’ll be saving some money on childcare, I still need to trim my household budget a little more to make our new arrangement work. Thanks to my freezer incident, I know exactly how I can do just that!

Anita works full-time {soon to be part-time} and homeschools her kindergartner in the evenings after the toddler goes to bed. She and her husband are rebuilding their credit and relearning financial habits after a bankruptcy, loss of a small business, and unemployment.

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Guest post from Tiffany of Don’t Waste the Crumbs

I grew up thinking that every family had to have two cars. Even if the family lived in a big city, with ample public transportation, and both spouses worked from home – two cars were still necessary.

And even when we slashed our budget by 50%, we still kept two cars.

It wasn’t until my husband and I moved into our townhouse that we realized that having a second car wasn’t really a “need” for us. Between finding parking spaces, maintaining an older vehicle and switching two car seats back and forth, we often found it easier to just use the family sedan.

Not wanting to intrude on my responsibilities on managing the house and raising our kids (which often times require a vehicle), my husband had the idea of carpooling with a co-worker (who is also a good friend) for rides to and from work. When surf season had passed and regular exercise was becoming not-so-regular, my husband suggested riding his bike for the 8-mile commute.

After a few weeks with a new primary mode of transportation (his bicycle) and a back-up in place (his co-worker), it became apparent that we officially had no need for a second car. We listed the car for sale and sold it for asking price.

Since we’d just finished paying off all our debt over the last two years, we certainly did not want to back-track financially and take on debt if the need for a second car ever arose in the future. So we decided to start setting aside money into a car fund in case we decided to buy a second car in the future.

We took the money we’d earned from selling the second car and used it to set up our second car fund. The second major deposit into the car fund was the profit from a garage sale: $500!

Next came cash birthday gifts sent from various family members. Christmas came and we decided to put what we budgeted for gifts towards each other directly into the car fund instead. Our car fund was building – very slowly – but we were enjoying the thrill of watching the balance steadily go up.

One night my husband and I started “dreaming” about the next car. We weren’t in a rush to purchase, and certainly not in a need, but we enjoyed talking about someday walking into a dealership and paying for a car with cash. And then it hit us – we had gotten pretty good at saving and this goal was not unattainable. At that moment, we devised a plan to save aggressively so that we would be able to buy our “someday” new-to-us-car in one year.

Here are the basics of our plan:

• We researched the year, make and model of the car we were eyeing and came up with a ballpark number of how much it would cost us to buy it in cash – including tax, title and license.
• We estimated how much a monthly payment would be for that car – in addition to gas, insurance and maintenance – and put that amount into the car fund each month.
• I was offered to take on additional classes at my part-time teaching job. I took advantage of this offer and all the extra income was put into the car fund.
• We applied our “Christmas gift plan” to every holiday – Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, anniversary – all of this gift money went into the car fund.
• Realizing that our stockpile was plentiful, I stopped using coupons and started shopping from our closets instead. I even started to blog weekly about our grocery budget for additional (and public) accountability.
• We had another garage sale and it was even more profitable than the first one. After treating ourselves to Chipotle (a reward for meeting a smaller goal), we deposited the profits into the car fund.

As the one-year mark approached, our schedules started to shift and the need for a second vehicle had become inevitable. We checked the balance of our car fund and were surprised to see that we had indeed reached our goal!

My husband found a four-year old model of the car we wanted with just under 17,000 miles – it was practically a brand-new car. We went to the dealership, inspected the car and made a cash offer and they accepted.

Today’s we’re proud owners of a 2008 Honda CR-V EX. It was paid for by methods that aren’t new or earth-shattering, but they are proof that hard work and dedication do pay off… and that paying cash for a car really is as sweet as we dreamed it to be.

Tiffany is an in-house day care teacher, private chef, housekeeper, teacher, laundry service, chauffeur and dedicated CEO of her house. She aims to be a good steward of all He has given, so she tries to do more {and do it better} with less. She’s making baby-sized strides and would be honored if you joined her for the ride via her blog, Don’t Waste the Crumbs!

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Testimony from Megan

In April 2011, we were blessed with our second child — a little boy named Whit. He was precious and perfectly formed. But there was an unexpected complication… Whit was born with brain damage.

We soon found out his reality: he does not walk, talk, eat, roll over, reach, laugh, or purposefully do anything. He came home with an array of equipment, a curious big sister, and nervous parents!

It didn’t take us long to realize we had to figure out our “new normal.” We were thankful we had two precious children, my husband had a job, and I had a home to run, but the special needs world can be difficult to navigate and we found the two commodities we often lacked were time and money!

Through trial and error, we have learned a few tips for saving some of each:

1. Take One Day At A Time

The nature of our life is unpredictable. Whit gets sick often and quickly! No two days are ever alike.

My desire for some semblance of normalcy, however, is still there. After trying many different schedules, it finally dawned on me! We live day-to-day, so that’s how we should plan!

Every morning, my daughter and I sit together to make “our list.” She enjoys the freedom to add some of her favorite things, too! Things get accomplished, daily life is streamlined, and everyone seems more content.

2. Simplify

Things are boring around here — aside from the kids! Meals are simple. We have downsized to one car. Outings consist of the library or a walk outside. Whit’s tragic situation has given us some perspective: not only is simplicity okay, we love it!

3. Give Yourself Some Grace

I can’t remember the last time I scrubbed baseboards… I have no idea when it was! And I am completely okay with that!

I have learned to let go of some things in order to hold my family closer. Sure, we hit the basics (no one wants to live in a dirty house!), but have I vacuumed under the couch cushions lately? Not a chance! And sometimes, that’s okay!

4. When In Doubt, Bring Food

We go to appointments… All. The. Time. It is worth it to spend the money on groceries our family enjoys versus paying much more for a single meal in a drive-thru. We have saved so much just by having a picnic in the car!

5. Bring Those Siblings

Our daughter often accompanies us to appointments for Whit. We save money on a sitter, but I firmly believe this is opening her eyes to a world often unseen by other children. Yes, it saves money, but the lesson in compassion is worth more.

6. Why Spend If You Can Borrow?

Our town is relatively small, but there is a wealth of organizations that have loaned us equipment. It’s often second-hand, but always serves it’s purpose. Before you spend all that money, just ask someone! The worst they can do is say no.

Megan is a lover of Jesus, Bret, and her precious babies! She’s living her dream as a stay-at-home wife and mother. Since having Whit, her desire is to encourage families as they journey through the world of special needs.

Guest post from Michelle of The Willing Cook

As I’ve said before, coming up with something original and satisfying for lunch while still remaining food allergy-safe is not always an easy task.

The most common lunch menu in our home is leftovers. It is nice, though, to have other lunch options for those times when leftovers is not an option or you’re tired of the same ol’ thing.

I have come up with a recipe today that I hope will fit that bill for you. My intention in making this dish was for a quick and tasty lunch, but we ended up having it for dinner as well. So, whether you make up a batch to eat for lunch for a few days or have it as a lunch leftover from dinner, it is sure to satisfy.

An added bonus for many of you out there is that while this recipe is safe for food allergy sufferers, it’s also great for everyone else as well. So, give it a try and enjoy!

Would you like more allergy-friendly brown bag lunch ideas? You can find more ideas at The Willing Cook by clicking on Lunch Ideas for School/Work.

Michelle is blessed to stay home with her three children (ages 10, 7, and 4), while her husband works to provide. When she’s not experimenting with allergy-friendly meals, she’s blogging about it at The Willing Cook. Through the Willing Cook, her hope is that you gain peace of mind in your kitchen (and your pocket book) and are able to serve those you love who suffer with food allergies.