Money Saving Mom®

Guest post from Chris of Simple Family Finance

Get ready. Today, you’re in for a good old fashioned food fight! Don’t pretend like you don’t love those. Three similar items are going to face-off to determine who the winner is. We all know that price comparisons are vital to a frugal food budget, so the winner will be determined by value.

This time, we’re going to take a closer look at Biscotti. Designed to dunk, biscotti is a coffee drinker’s best friend. Milk and tea drinkers, don’t fret. Biscotti is an excellent choice with either beverage. Grape soda drinkers, leave it alone. That’s gross.

Biscotti’s natural habitat is the large glass jar at your local coffee shop’s counter, but it has been known to frequent the cookie aisle at various supermarkets as well. Many species exist, such as lemon, vanilla, and chocolate dipped, but a subtle anise flavor remains my favorite.

Enough introductions. Bring on the battle.

How much biscotti can you have for $1.50?

Wow! It isn’t even close.

The first picture shows a coffee-shop style biscotti. It was individually wrapped near the check-out counter of our local coffee shop. The actual price of this particular biscotti was $1.59, but I labeled it as only $1.50 since prices will vary based on your area and $1.50 seems like a nice round number. You’ll notice it has a little bit of chocolate on it to lure you in.

Don’t fall for it.

First of all, in my wife’s humble opinion (a chocolate fanatic), the homemade biscotti tasted better despite the lack of chocolate. Second, it’s not like you can’t dip your own biscotti in a some chocolate to satisfy your craving.

The second picture represents the store-bought variety. In this case, the Walmart that I checked had a package of Nonni’s Biscotti for $2.98. The package had 8 individually wrapped biscotti inside. Therefore, you can afford 4 of them for $1.50. Congratulations.

The final photo shows you how many homemade biscotti can be made for $1.50. Notice the difference? With the recipe detailed below, $1.50 will buy you 32 truly delicious biscotti!

In fact, the picture doesn’t really do justice to the number of cookies. There are plenty more behind that tall stack in front. It’s not as easy as it seems to stack those buggers.

And the runaway winner is…Homemade Biscotti!

If you like to drink and dunk, please try the recipe below. It’s simple, delicious, and will save you a wheel barrel full of money.

This article is part of a series called Photo Food Fights at Simple Family Finance. You can find this recipe and over 150 other deliciously frugal recipes in Chris’s book, Eating Well For Only $2 A Day! You can find the book, as well as countless other articles, tips, and recipes at Simple Family Finance. Subscribe to the free email updates and receive a coupon code for 20% off the already low price of the book!

Testimony from Amanda of There We Grow

It’s been almost six years since my husband and I started down the road to becoming debt-free… and we’ve never looked back. It was his idea originally and I have to admit, I thought he was slightly crazy and not sure it was even possible. After all, you are always going to have a car payment, right?

My husband was trying to grow his landscape business and I was working as an orthodontic assistant. I had always hoped to stay home after we started our family but had no idea how we’d do it. Now seeing what’s happened with the job and housing market, I breathe a sigh of relief almost everyday that we stuck with our plan to live debt-free.

To get our momentum going, we sold some items we owned and started stashing as much cash as we could. As we gained a little confidence, we began throwing as much money as we could towards the debts we owed and one by one paid them off.

By 2008, we were completely debt-free (except our house) and had started building a bigger emergency fund. We were able to celebrate with a paid-with-cash trip of our dreams — to Hawaii!

What an amazing feeling that was! It’s kind of hard to describe, especially to someone who doesn’t remember ever being debt-free. It’s almost like trying to explain how refreshing a glass of cool water on a hot day is to someone who’s never tasted it.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been times we’ve looked at other people’s things and wanted to spend money to buy something similar — but we didn’t allow ourselves to, even when it was tempting. We’ve determined that being in debt — particularly when you’re in debt for items that depreciate and wear out quickly — pales in comparison to the freedom we have of not being strapped down.

Becoming debt-free also allowed me to make the transition from working full-time to being a stay-at-home mom. There have also been several opportunities we’ve been able to take advantage of because of our financial flexibility — not to mention helping people in ways we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to.

For those of you working toward the debt-free life, hang in there! The rewards are so worth it!

No career, training, or previous life experience completely prepared me for the gauntlet of all tasks: motherhood! Now my days revolve around my newfound passion in life as a stay- and work-at-home mama bear to our little boys and wife to my best friend of seven years. We love to travel, grow things in our garden, and explore the outdoors but our favorite thing is being able to do it all debt-free! If you’d like to learn more about me, I’d love to have you visit my blog at There We Grow. 

Guest Post by Samantha from Urban Girl Fitness

Do you want personal trainer rewards without the steep price? Do you want gym effects without the pricey membership fee?

Don’t worry! Just because your wallet may be tight, it doesn’t means your abs can’t be either. With today’s trendiest fitness offerings, it’s easy to be deterred from working out altogether because of the dollars and cents.

Here are some fitness tips for the fit Recession-ista on a budget:

1. Climb Your Way to Fitness — For Free!

Look outside. Look down the street. Look everywhere. You will see them. Stairs are everywhere and guess what? They offer the perfect workout.

Start with a warm up with five minutes of stair climbing at an easy pace. Then pick up the pace. Add a set of 5 to 10 pound weights for the ultimate workout. Try to find a set of stairs with at least 16 steps.

Having trouble finding stairs? Often local school facilities have a plethora of steps, just enough for you to climb to your fitness goal.

Also, whenever you have the chance, skip the escalator and elevator and take the stairs instead.

2. Team Up With a Friend

Everyone needs an extra push now and then to strap those sneakers on. Most turn to a personal trainer for inspiration and a reason to hit the gym.

However, if you don’t have hundreds of dollars, just ask a friend. If you know someone else is waiting on you to hit up a fitness class or a jog around the neighborhood, you are more likely to feel inspired.

3. Look for Opportunities in Your Community

If you look closely enough, you’ll find complimentary community workout classes everywhere. For example, Lululemon frequently offers fitness classes on Saturday or Sunday mornings with their brand ambassadors.

Check your local newspaper for fitness happenings in the fitness section. You’ll probably find area businesses that offer a variety of fitness offerings. For instance, there’s a restaurant in my neighborhood that has a running group that gathers to run around a local park and socialize afterward.

4. Find Motivation Through Online Networks

In today’s world of Facebook and Twitter, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use it to your advantage in the world of fitness. There are various networks, including my favorites Map My Run and Map My Ride.

These programs allow you to track your workouts and even rate how each workout went, so you can view your progress each week. They also allow you to set a fitness goal and connect with your friends to give each other motivation.

5. Track Your Successes

Just as social media helps, there’s an app for basically anything you can dream of, especially in terms of fitness. My Fitness Pal is a great resource, since it not only allows for you to track your fitness activity. It allows you to track your caloric intake and progress to reach your ultimate goal.

The best part is it’s a free app. For those who don’t particularly care for their smart phones, try going the route of a journal and pen to track your calorie intake.

6. Take Advantage of Fitness Discounts

With resources like Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com, Schwaggle.com and more, there’s a great way to try out a variety of fitness classes and gyms at a discounted price.

7. Work Up a Sweat While Whipping Your Home into Shape

Just walking into a gym doesn’t make you fit, it takes work. Hit two birds with one stone. You can get fit just around your house and make it spic and span.

Do you know how many calories you burn while deep cleaning your home? You can burn 73 calories alone while doing laundry! Get rid of those dust bunnies for 80 calories. Mop those floors for 153 calories. Break out the Windex and wash the windows for 105 calories.

These are juts a few of my ideas to save money on fitness. What are you best money-saving ideas?

Samantha Bryant is a freelance publicist at Samantha Bryant PR. In her free time she enjoys blogging at Urban Girl Fitness, snowboarding, biking, and playing with her St. Bernard, Charlie.

photo credit