This Week...Beyond Money 11/10 - 11/16

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.


Gardening:
* Not much to do now. I'm already missing it desperately. We got a heavy snow fall late Sunday night, so everything is blanketed now.
* Harvested some more lettuce seed from the front-garden containers. I have about a packet's worth now. It's not saving me a lot of money, but I'm learning and hopefully over time will end up with the best lettuce seeds for my microclimate.

Cooking/Groceries:
* Didn't grocery shop at all this week. Ate from the pantry and freezer.
* Made pork stock from leftover bones and loads of veggie scraps. It's delicious and practically free.

Food Preservation:
* Dehydrated lemon peels to use in making syrup later in the winter.

Fun:
* A musician friend of ours hooked us up with discounted tickets to see the symphony. Tickets were $12 instead of $50. We were beyond thrilled. It was one of the nicest nights out I've had in a long time. I was wide-eyed and smiling the entire time.

Nature:
* We went for a hike at a local state park. It was a 5 mile hike around a lake. We off trailed a bit, so we went around 6 miles. With the autumn colors, and just enough leaf fall for great views, it was breathtaking.

Frugality:
* Avoided shopping as much as possible.
* Switched health  insurance for a savings of $50/month, plus lower costs when we use it.

Waste Reduction:
* Planned to use leftovers in other meals to avoid waste.
* Rinsed cans of salsa, tomato sauce and enchilada sauce and put in the Trash Chili container in the freezer. I almost have enough to make a batch.
* Cooked with animal fats saved from cooking other dishes and making stock.

Work:
* Trucker picked up an extra shift so we could have a little more money to put towards visiting a sick family member out of state.
* We packed our lunches instead of buying something. I drank free coffee in the break room.
* Trucker brought home english muffins and scones from his job that were expired. Absolutely delicious, even though they were day old.
* I signed up for our insurance at my new job. We were on a private plan through the marketplace. Even with our subsidy, we were spending a lot for a really bad plan (and just got a notice saying that in the new year it would go up by $30+/month). The insurance at my job is fabulous with a much lower deductible. It includes health, dental, prescription, vision, life and disability insurance for $50/month less than our old plan would cost us (for just really bad health, dental and vision insurance).

Preparation:
* Winterized the vehicles. Put blankets in the cars just in case. Also put in a couple granola bars for emergencies or just in case we forget our lunches for work. I get granola/protein bars for less than a dime at the salvage grocer so this is cheaper than anything we could buy for lunch.

Future:
* Every day on my lunch break I've been writing on my book. I am getting in the habit of writing daily. Even just writing on my lunch break every day would add up to around 60,000 words a year.

What did you do this week?

This Week...Beyond Money 11/3 - 11/9

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* Aphids got into the house! Not sure how, exactly, but one day I found one container of peppers covered in them. This was the container of plants that I was going to continue harvesting all winter. I quickly took it outside and picked all of the little peppers on it and let the frost have it and kill the aphids (hopefully). I've watched the plants indoors and they seem fine.
* The indoor planting of lettuce looks fantastic. Very small still, but beautiful. Can't wait!
* I peaked outside at the shade garden. It has been frosting most nights and has been really cold a few days. Surprisingly, the volunteer pepper and tomato plants are still alive. Two of the pepper plants even have flowers that survived last night's frost! They are both filled with tiny peppers. Another tiny volunteer plant had a 1.5 inch pepper. One of the tomato plants had produced 2 small tomatoes. I picked them all and will leave them to see if anything else grows.

Cooking/Groceries:
* Made an incredible leftovers pizza. We had a little leftover BBQ pork, but not enough for a meal of sandwiches. I spread the pizza with blue cheese dressing, then spread the BBQ pulled pork over the top, smothered the whole thing in caramelized onions, sprinkled with chopped mock pickled peppers from jalapenos from the garden, then topped with cheddar and a drizzle of BBQ sauce. Wow. Incredible.
* There is a local grocery store that is kind of expensive for most things. However, they always have really good produce sales as a way to lure you in, and occasionally have good prices on non-produce items. I do not shop here often, as it is on the other side of town, but whenever I see that there are fabulous deals, I'll make a trip and stock up. This time I got: parsley ($.50/bunch), cilantro ($.50/bunch), cabbage ($.50/lb), onions ($.50/lb), 7 lbs of bulk popcorn ($.99/lb, half the price at work), 8 lbs butter ($2.99/lb; $1 cheaper than the cheapest sale price for store brand I ever see elsewhere. My stash had gotten down to 1/2 lb so I was worried. I do not use margarine and like to make pop tarts from scratch, so butter is a necessity), 3 6oz packages of raspberries ($1.50/each, I rarely buy berries because they are so expensive, so I do indulge when I find them at a good price. They are usually $4 for the same sized container here), 1 6 oz package of blackberries ($1.50/each) and a large bunch of spinach ($1). This store sells really good ends and pieces bacon for $3/lb and is therefore cheaper than the cheapest store brand on sale. Unfortunately, there was none there this time. I still have a few packages in the freezer at home, but always try to stock up when I'm there since I don't know how soon I will return.
* I made an enchilada casserole. I had some tortillas that were crumbly and not good for using for tacos. I layered the pieces with ground beef (a small container from the freezer leftover from another meal), refried beans, a can of tomatoes (sale+coupon=$.25), and covered the whole thing with enchilada sauce and cheese.

Food Preservation:
* My homemade vinegar turned out wonderfully. I'm very excited. It smells and tastes great. Now I'm thinking about making apple wine...

Fun:
* Trucker had bought a Living Social deal for a local miniature golf course. 4 rounds of mini golf and 70 pitches in the batting cages for $12 ($30 value). We weren't able to get there right away and it closed for the season three days before we got there. The owner was there cleaning up and said that we could go ahead and play so he got out the leaf blower and cleaned the courses for us. We had a fantastic time. It was the most beautifully landscaped course I've ever seen. Afterwards, we went to a local ice cream shop for sundaes. I had a coupon in my Entertainment book for buy one get one free, so it only cost $4.50. Our entire date cost $16.50 and it was incredible!
* We went to a benefit spaghetti dinner for the local food pantry. We each donated several items for the silent auction and raffle. Trucker donated some books he had duplicates of (purchased at thrift stores for less than $1 so we could give them away when someone said they wanted to read it, for gifts, etc) and I donated a hand crocheted scarf and two sets of washcloths. We also donated some canned goods that I had gotten really cheaply from combining sales and coupons. We paid $10 each for dinner but considered it worthwhile since it benefited the food bank. We had a wonderful time with our friends and enjoyed the music. At the end of the event, they auctioned off a couple items that hadn't gotten bids. One of the items was a $50 gift certificate for a nice Italian restaurant. No one else bid so I got it for $15. This will provide two dates for us.
* Went grocery shopping with a couple friends. Short, fun and didn't cost me anything (except for the groceries I was going to buy anyway).
* Coffee and writing/studying session with a good friend at a local coffee house.

Nature:
* Every nice day we went out for a short walk through the neighborhood. Just a half hour, but we get a bit of exercise, a bit of sunlight.

Frugality:
* When I went out for coffee with my friend, I reused my coffee sleeve. It was my 10th time reusing it, so next time I get a free drink. I don't go to this coffee house often, but make sure I always have my sleeve when I do.
* When I went to a grocery store that was on the other side of town, to maximize the value of the gas used, I combined the trip with getting together for coffee with my friend that lives just down the road. We met another friend at the store. Whenever I have to go out of my way for something, I try to combine as many errands/experiences in that area as possible.

Waste Reduction:
* Planned to use leftovers and random items instead of wasting them.
* Made vinegar out of apple cores.

Work:
* Some changes at work mean my work schedule will improve in the coming week. Very grateful as some changes (to cover vacations, plus a change in management, plus complete elimination of third shift work) had meant for weird scheduling for me. It's going to be better from here.
* Trucker got some free bagels and english muffins from his job that would otherwise have been thrown away since they had expired.
* I brought apples from the orchard for my lunch each day. It's cheap and just enough to get me through the day.

Preparation:
* Bought a couple cans of canned shrimp for the stockpile. I don't eat canned meats on a regular basis, but do like tuna or canned shrimp on occasion. I found it in a clearance bin for $1/can and bought a few.

Future:
* Rough start to National Novel Writing Month. I've had trouble hitting my word count as I'm still getting used to my work schedule completely changing the way I live. (This week I've had two hours when first waking up before heading off to work and an hour after work before getting ready for bed...hard to cram everything into those time frames). That being said, on one day off I wrote 2500 words.

This Week...Beyond Money 10/27 - 11/2

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* I was able to harvest some lettuce seed from the front garden containers. I'm beyond thrilled. This lettuce was in a black container in direct sun. I planted it in spring and it didn't bolt until early autumn. That's definitely something I want in a lettuce, so I definitely wanted to save seed. I've never saved any seed before this.
* Lots of little tiny greens have germinated, but none have their true leaves yet. The first of the Ruby Red swiss chard has germinated too so there's a bit of color. I just threw in random seeds I had leftover from this growing season. I love the idea of having some mixed salads all winter long and it doesn't cost me anything since I've already bought the seed (and between Trucker and I, we always buy more seeds than we can possibly grow on our 1/5 an acre...I think he gets more excited about it than I do!)
*Speaking of, the first of our seeds for next year arrived. Trucker ordered them from individuals in this state and one state over. So far...basil, parsley, gingeng, venus fly trap and bat flowers.
* I was able to harvest a few more green tomatoes (to harvest on the shelf) and peppers from the garden. Not much, but something.

Cooking/Gardening:
* I had some crab apples leftover from making crab apple candy, so I mixed them with some Rome and Fuji apples for a grilled apple crisp.
* I made BBQ Chicken pizza on the grill. I par baked the crusts in the oven, then slid them onto the grill, topped with BBQ sauce, chicken, pickled jalapenos and cheddar cheese. Delicious!
* After 7 PM at the grocery store I work at, all breads made in the in-store bakery are half off. I bought two loaves of bread: a cinnamon swirl bread that was usually $4, marked down to $2 and an everything bread that was usually $2.50, marked down to $1.25. My employee discount took off $.20 from the cinnamon bread (now $1.80) and $.13 off the everything bread (now $1.12). I had two coupons for $1 off a loaf of bread, bringing the final cost to $.80 for the cinnamon swirl bread and $.12 for the everything bread. I bought 5 bags of organic carrots for $1/lb bag.

Food Preservation:
* Dehydrated 3 loads of apples.

Fun:
* My favorite novel as a teen was The Giver. Trucker took me to the cheap theatre for a $2 showing of the movie. I cried the whole time. I love that story. $4 and it made me so happy!
* Strolled around Half Price Books while waiting for our movie to start. I found a few Ray Bradbury (my favorite author) books I didn't have. They were half off the cover price of $.75. So excited! I got The Illustrated Man, Golden Apples of the Sun, S is for Space and The Martian Chronicles.
* We hosted a beer tasting at our house. Every time we bought beer, we saved one beer until we had a nice assortment. We had a few friends over and split each bottle among everyone. I bought chips on clearance and served with salsa. I also made a pear crisp and an apple sauce. It was cheaper than going out for drinks with friends and we had a blast.

Nature:
* We went for a long walk at a metro park near us. It was meadowland and forest. I particularly loved the diversity of the edge areas and enjoyed looking at different seed pods and dried grasses.
* I took a 6.5 mile walk through the city and parks.

Frugality:
* One day I was off and Trucker had to work. After doing some stuff around the house I walked to his job-6.5 miles away-for free coffee, free wifi and getting out of the house. Sure, I could have driven somewhere, but this just got me some exercise, saved me gas, I got free coffee, and didn't have to have the furnace/lights on at home.

Waste Reduction:
* I had some apple cores leftover from making apple crisp, so I decided to try my hand at making vinegar. I put them in a sugar water mix in a gallon jar, covered with a cloth and am going to let it ferment. After several days I tasted it. It tastes like a mild hard cider right now. It's kinda lovely. I may try making hard cider with the next batch of cores, but I'm really excited about having a gallon of apple cider vinegar.

Preparedness:
* Put up a few jars of dehydrated apples.

Future:
* I started National Novel Writing Month to write a frugal living/personal finance book. I am a little behind on my word count, but I have not had a day off yet. I'm off a couple days next week that Trucker will be working and plan to write at a coffee house the entire time he's gone. I'm very excited and enjoying the challenge.

What did you do this week?

Mock Pickled Peppers

I positively adore pickled peppers. I love them on salads, sandwiches, pizza, with eggs, with a fork straight out of the jar. I can't imagine living without them. Unfortunately, the cost of a jar of pickled peppers is ridiculous. Sometimes I manage to find a great price and stock up (like at my favorite salvage grocery store), but I can go through a whole jar in a couple days. It's sick, really.

Fortunately I've found a fantastic way to save a little money while getting my fix. I reuse the brine to make a batch of mock pickled peppers. While they are not technically pickled, they have the same flavor and are free or almost so, depending on whether the peppers come from my garden or the market.

After I polish off a jar of pickled peppers, I simply dump in some dehydrated peppers from the pantry. I always have a wide assortment of peppers dehydrated and at the ready: jalapenos, bells, Hungarian Wax (my favorite), Jimmy Nardellos, and serranos. I chose whatever type of pepper I think will go best with the flavors in the leftover brine. If a brine is super flavorful, I may use bell peppers, but I find that Hungarian Wax peppers add the perfect amount of spice. Eyeball how much brine you have, then add about 1/3 that amount in dehydrated peppers. Just dump them into the jar, close the lid, give it a good shake and leave it in the frig for a day or so. The dehydrated peppers will rehydrate and soak up all of that flavorful brine. These are delicious and almost as good as the original peppers.

If you don't have a dehydrator, fresh peppers work too. Cut them into rings or slices. Since they won't be soaking up as much fluid as the dehydrated peppers, you can cram in as many peppers as will be submerged. For these, it will take a little longer for the flavors to mingle. Allow a week at least before trying them.

If you have leftover cucumber pickles, you can add dehydrated cucumbers for the same effect (this is my favorite way to use up big, overripe cukes that are dehydrated out of sheer desperation during harvest season). Any other dehydrated vegetable you have lying around could be tossed into some reused brine.

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This Week...Beyond Money 10/20 - 10/26

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* I potted up 4 pepper plants to overwinter and plant again next year: one of the Jimmy Nardello plants, 1 serrano pepper, 2 jalapeno. These were my top performers. I did not pot up one of the unnamed hot peppers. While they were all wildly prolific, they didn't taste that great.
* I forgot to open the blinds a couple of very busy days and all of the lettuces indoors died. I replanted the container to: arugula, kale, lettuce, spinach, mustard, swiss chard and basil. As of Sunday night, they have sprouted nicely. Hopefully I don't murder this batch. I need some winter greens.
* Harvested a few dozen carrots (most of them little finger), several radishes, 4 cups of mixed salad greens and edible flowers, dozens of small peppers, some green tomatoes to allow to ripen on the counter, 1 c green beans of various types.

Cooking and Groceries:
* I redeemed my birthday coupon for a free half gallon of store-brand ice cream from my job. I got Chocolate Moose Tracks. Awesome birthday gift from my boss. LOL
* I bought a couple of pepperoni rolls from my job for $.44 each. These have pepperoni, cheese and spices are a filling lunch by themselves. I used these for a day that we would be gone from the house from 5:30 AM til 6:30 PM. $.88, plus a couple apples from the orchard makes for a $1 lunch for two. Cheap, relatively healthy and keeps us from scary fast food.
* I bought more apples (at the 300lb mark now!). My mum and sister went to an orchard I love. They had seconds for $14/bushel (so about $.31/lb). Looking at them, I have no idea why they were seconds. They are beautiful and unblemished. They are Rome's which is my favorite apple so I'm thrilled. Rome's are great for crisps, which I make like crazy during the autumn.
* I had a coupon for $1 off $5 worth of produce from the grocery. I found celery on manager's special for $.75 each (marked down from $1.80) and got three. Potatoes were $1.88 for a 10-lb bag. Two heads of lettuce were bagged together for $.99. Total for produce: $4.12. I also had a coupon for a free loaf of bread with $10 purchase.
* We went salvage grocery shopping. Got lots of great deals and stocked up to help keep winter grocery bills manageable without the garden.
* One night we had stir fry with 100% veg from the garden. I served it with rice cooked in homemade chicken stock. By cooking the rice in stock instead of water, it's more nutritious, more filling and we are perfectly content with no meat in the stir fry. Saves a lot of money.

Food Preservation:
* Dehydrated a load of apples. Dehydrated crab apples for crab apple candy (which are absolutely awesome!). All you do is quarter and core them (very labor intensive, just warning you), toss in sugar and dehydrate til chewy. Wow!

Fun:
* For my mum's birthday, we bought her canning supplies and two Butternut trees. Practical, and she'll love it.
* We had dinner with my parents, sisters and Grandpa. It was a wonderful evening.

Nature:
* I went for a run late one night (10 PM). It had rained hard all day, so the air was clean and perfect. It wasn't hot, but it wasn't cold. I  loved watching the tree branches float across the low-hanging clouds drifting by the stars. I fell absolutely in love with everything.
* One day was just absolutely perfect so we worked out in the garden just as an excuse to be out there.
* There were several evenings that were just so perfect we had to go out for walks. So lovely.

Frugality:
* I passed up "deals" that weren't really deals. I found a pack of the pretty green canning jars. It was a six pack that was missing 3 of the jars....marked down 20%...seriously? Also, there was a sale on bacon that made it $1 cheaper than I usually find it if you bought 5. However, if I bought it, I would have to drive back home across the city, before driving back past the store to go visit my parents that day. It would have saved $5 on the bacon, but cost me $5-6 in gas, plus the wasted time. Not worth it.
* Trucker needed new socks. We darn socks and mend holes while they are small as long as possible, but his current set was getting pretty old. I bought a few 10-packs of the same socks (store brand that was $3 less per pack) so that when we do laundry it's easy to match.  As they wear out beyond darning, we can throw away one sock (or get creative with it!) instead of a pair. In this way, we can stretch socks out for years.
* Trucker makes cash tips at his job, so we use that for general living expenses instead of using the card or stopping at the ATM. As he's been giving me cash, I've been squirreling it away for savings. I  had $160 saved up that I deposited this morning into our savings account.
* While we walked, twice we found piles of change. I don't know why people do that, but I'm fine with snagging it. Once we found 22 pennies; the other time we found 16 cents. Yes, picking up change isn't going to drastically change our lives, but it's still worth doing. It takes about an extra second to reach down and pick up a penny. You could do that 60 times a minute. So, hypothetically, if you picked up pennies every second of every minute for an hour, you'd make $36/hr, tax free. That's more than I make at my job, so I consider it worthwhile. The time I found the 22 pennies, it took about 5 seconds to pick up the extras. I could have done that 12 times in a minute, so my hourly rate that time was $158/hr. We save our change all year for a special weekend trip, so we are always happy when we find change.
* Used the library extensively. Checked out several books and two movies. We got a brand new branch this month right down the road from our home. It's a bare-bones branch as an experiment. If it gets used a lot, there's a chance they'll expand it in a few years, so we are trying to do our part to see that they do!
* I keep a blanket downstairs for covering up while at the computer. Since I work in a bakery, I get chilled rather easily when not directly in front of an oven. I've also gotten out the nice thick socks. In this way, we can avoid turning on the furnace.

Waste Reduction:
* Planned so as to avoid wasting any leftovers.

* We had used up as much of the hand soap (purchased during a holiday sale for $.25/bottle) as would come out of the pump. I used the rest for a bubble bath. Frugal indulgence, and I used up the last of it.
* When I dehydrated the apples, I used my apple peeler-corer-slicer gizmo (purchased for $2.50 during a half off sale at a thrift store). I was left with a lot of peels, so I dehydrated those to use in teas in winter.

Work:
* I worked overtime 1 hr this week to help out a coworker. Not a ton of money, but a little something. The extra pay is earmarked to get out of state to visit an ailing relative.
* The uniform at work changed. While we used to be able to wear nice jeans, it is now khakis or black pants. Before hitting the thrift stores to scoop up new pants, I checked some boxes in the closet and found 2 pr of black pants and 2 pr of khakis that I can now fit in (I've lost 25 pounds since I started running). No need to buy any, and I saved myself $10 (at least) on the uniform.
* Trucker got two free cinnamon rolls from his job that were a bit dry and therefore weren't able to be sold. We made a bit more icing to drizzle on them and they were delicious.
* When he closed one night, he was able to take home some things that didn't sell: 2 english muffins (that I used for two mornings' breakfast sandwiches), 2 muffins, a couple cookies and a scone. We took the desserts with us to my parents house for dinner.

Preparation:
* Heavy stockpile for the pantry from the salvage grocery store. Between the best-price store buys and the food from the garden we preserve, we never have less than a 6 month supply of food, even right before the harvest starts coming in. Granted, if we were eating exclusively from the stockpile, by month 4 it would be getting boring, and by 5 months it would be positively bland, but we wouldn't starve.

Future: (New section....anything that is getting me closer to where I want to be on my 5-, 10-, and 20-year plans)
* I went with a friend, my mother and sister to a talk on urban homesteading at a local library. It was a free event. It was given by a local urban farmer/homesteader that I'm familiar with. I've visited her beautiful property and loved it, so it was great to get to hear her talk. I got to ask a few questions to help me as I answer some questions for myself about where I want to go from here while I am still living in the city.
* I'm taking a free permaculture design course through the Regenerative Leadership Institute. It's unaccredited, but I'm taking it for the education, not for credits. I listened to one of the lessons and took notes.


What did you do this week?

Salvage Grocery Shopping...take 2

Yesterday we went to our favorite salvage grocery store since we were in town (It's 1.5 hrs away, but only 10 minutes from my family). We stocked up on a lot to make winter grocery bills more manageable, especially since we aren't sure how often we'll be able to make the trip once the roads are nasty.

 As usual, we found some fantastic deals, some things that we would never buy and others that were more costly than the regular grocery store. You have to know your prices; keeping a cost book can be extremely helpful when shopping at salvage groceries. Sometimes you'll find a hundred of a good deal and can get enough to last months. Sometimes you only find one. It's always an adventure!

One thing with salvage shopping...it's all packaged foods. There aren't produce bins, there's no local-bakery-outlet, there's no bulk meat counter. This is all packaged. There are certainly some GM ingredients in some of the items. And yes, I know that in a perfect world, I would eat no packaged foods and make everything from scratch. I would buy everything direct from the farmer and would only eat perfectly balanced meals. But this is the real world. We both work full time and have projects we work on from home. We try to spend quality time together and with family and friends. Sometimes packaged foods are eaten. Sometimes we cave to cravings. Sometimes we eat convenience foods. However, we eat as much from foraging and the garden as possible and dehydrate a few hundred pounds each year. We cook as much from scratch as we can. We make our own convenience foods in the form of cooking a giant batch of chili and freezing meal-sized portions, or cooking 5 lbs of ground beef and freezing in 1/2 lb portions for quick and easy tacos. We also are on a lower income (as are many readers) and just don't have the money to buy organic/free range/ecologically produced/chemical free/package free everything direct from the farmer. We produce as much healthy and ethical food as possible and buy as much of the same from local farmers, but we're not in a place where we can do it 100%. Shopping at salvage groceries allows a little cushion to buy bacon from our favorite farmer for $2 more a pound instead of getting the cheapest store brand on sale with no thought to how it was produced or by whom. It allows a bit extra to buy tomatoes at the market when ours don't produce well. At the end of the day, all we are ever trying to do is live the highest quality life possible given our circumstances. There is no need to feel like a failure if you cannot do everything exactly as you'd like to. Just do your best and look for creative options to give you flexibility, like shopping at salvage groceries.

This salvage grocer is our favorite for one main reason: They get the outlets from natural food stores as well as regular grocery stores. That means that sometimes we score organics for less than grocery store brand on sale. The usual shoppers tend to go for the familiar brands, meaning that the "weird hippie" brand foods are often priced lower.

So...on to the scores! I'm including the price we'd pay at the regular store with smart shopping using sales and sometimes coupons. I'm also including commentary on why we purchased certain items or whether they are a "luxury" we wouldn't have otherwise.





Honey Bunches of Oats 14.5 oz box (1).....$1.79 (We aim to never spend more than $2/box for cereal, which is an occasional sale price at the regular grocery store, but not common anymore. Trucker eats oatmeal most mornings, but does still eat some cereal)
Honey Bunches of Oats Greek Yogurt 12.5 oz box (2).....$1.49 each
Honey Kix 12 oz (2).....$1.49 each
Special K 12 oz (1).....$1.49
Cinnamon Toasters 10 oz (8).....$.33 each (whenever we find cereal priced below $.50/box we buy extra and distribute to other families)

Pace Garlic and Lime Salsa Verde 16 (2).....$.49 each (Cheapest we ever see salsa around here is $1/jar)
Roasted Green Chili Peppers 16 oz (2).....$.99 each (I adore pickled peppers, but only get them on the rare occasions when they are $1/jar or less)
Los Palmos green enchilada sauce 10 oz (1).....$.49 each (usually over $1/can at regular stores)
Herdez salsa verde 7 oz (2).....$.39 each
Rotel tomatoes and chiles 10 oz (2).....$.59 each (usually $1+/can; we use this occasionally in chili. This year we will have to buy more tomato products than usual because we were only able to put up about 20 lbs of dehydrated tomatoes this year. It was a bad tomato year here)

Bumblebee Clam Chowder 15 oz (1).....$.69 (this is a convenience food for days when I'm working all day and Trucker needs a quick meal when working on a project)
Marie Callender's Vegetable Soup 15 oz (1).....$.69


Mueller's Ridged Jumbo elbows pasta 16 oz (3).....$.69 each ($1/lb is the cheapest we ever find here)
Mueller's Ridged Ziti pasta 16 oz (1).....$.69
Barilla Multigrain spaghetti 14.5 oz (3).....$.79 each
Skinner spaghetti 16 oz (1).....$.59
Mahatma extra long grain enriched rice 3 lb (1).....$1.49
Hunt's meat pasta sauce 24 oz (1).....$.99 (like I said, we'll run out of garden tomatoes really early this year)
Barilla Pasta sauce 24 oz (1).....$.99

Peppadew Mustard 9.5 oz (2).....$.59 each (this is my favorite mustard ever)
Grey Poupon Dijon mustard 8 oz (1).....$.79
Spectrum Organic Mayo 16 oz (1).....$.49 (cheaper than store brand conventional on sale)
Heinz Hot and Spicy Ketchup 14 oz (2).....$.69 each (this is about the same price as regular on sale, but maybe will taste better, we'll see)
Del Monte canned carrots or mixed vegetables 8.25 oz cans (2)......$.39 each (we dehydrate a lot of produce, but we do tend to run low by spring)

Tazo Chocolate Chai Latte concentrate 1 qt (6).....$.79 each (I love chai, and yes I could make my own concentrate, but I haven't found the time lately...this works and keeps me from ever splurging on a chai when we go out)
Tazo Chocolate Chai Latte concentrate 1 qt (1).....$.39 (This was the only one priced this low, but I looked for more and would have put the others back if I'd found any cheaper)
Oregon Chai concentrate 1 qt (1).....$.39
Twinings Orange and Cinnamon Spice tea 20 bags (1).....$1.49 (At 7.5 cents per tea bag that is used twice, tea is one of our most frugal drinks. We especially enjoy turning on the tea kettle every evening in autumn and winter)
Bigelow Orange and Spice tea 20 bags (2).....$1.49 each
Bigelow Plantation Mint tea 20 bags (1).....$1.49
French Market Coffee+Chicory Blend 12 oz (1)....$2.49 (this is a favorite indulgence and lowers our caffeine consumption. I forage a lot of dandelion coffee to cut with our regular coffee, but it is very labor intensive and I could never produce enough for an entire year)
LavAzza Italian Coffee 8.8 oz (2).....$2.49 (this is a little higher than we usually pay for Maxwell House coffee when it goes on a fantastic sale every 4 months. We like good coffee, but cannot justify paying full price for good stuff considering how much we consume)
Life is Good coffee 11 oz (2).....$2.49 (We were visiting my grandpa and didn't want to drink all of his coffee. We talked about stopping at a gas station for nasty coffee at $1.25/mug when we used our travel mugs, but then we'd want to stop again for more before heading back home later that night. We decided to bring in one of the packages of coffee and brewed a pot while we were there. He loved it so we left the rest of the bag for him to enjoy for the next week or so. It still cost us half the cost of buying it at the gas station, it was tastier and we got to give my grandpa an indulgence he would rarely get)
Koolaid packets (11).....$.10 each (This is a rare thing....mainly as a mixer for vodka when we're feeling trashy...or if friends with kids come over....but then there's no vodka. Also, every now and then in summer I start craving a slurpee type drink, but I'm scared to death of the mold in the machine and the high fructose corn syrup and the cost. So I make a super concentrated koolaid with a bit of regular sugar and blend with ice. Costs me around $.15 for 2 servings)


Tone's Cinnamon Sticks, approximately 82 sticks per container (2).....$2.49 (I have never purchased whole cinnamon sticks because they are cost prohibitive. I'm beyond thrilled. Trucker had to talk me out of buying 20 containers....because I totally would have)

Hidden Valley Ranch dressing 12 oz (6).....$.20 (Yes, I could and sometimes do make my own salad dressing. However, I really stick to basic non-cream-based dressings, and sometimes I just want something quick and easy. Plus at this cost, I could not make it cheaper until I start making my own vinegar)
Naturally Delicious Peppercorn Parmesan dressing 16 oz (1).....$.20
Ken's Poppyseed dressing 16 oz (1).....$.20 (My parent's favorite dressing, so I like to have it when they come over)
Kraft Zesty Italian dressing 16 oz (3).....$.20 (This stuff makes an awesome marinade for chicken before grilling-my mum's trick)
Kraft Thousand Island dressing 16 oz (2).....$.20
Kraft Catalina dressing 16 oz (1).....$.20
Kraft Zesty Lime dressing 8 oz (1).....$.10

Sour Patch kids (1).....$.49 (Generally, I try to provide Trucker with lots of yummy and healthy snacks like dried apples and other fruit. At the end of the day, he's a grown man and if he wants a bit of nasty-sweet candy, I'm not going to tell him he can't. If I make it forbidden fruit, he's going to fiend it more)

Bag full of energy bars.....$3.99 (this included 30 bars, so it was 13.3 cents each. These are used mainly for hiking, but also on road trips. We keep a few in each vehicle in case of emergency or if we forget to bring lunch, we have a little something without resorting to eating out. We got 15 Go Organic! double chocolate bars, 1 Promax double fudge brownie bar, 2 Power Protein bars, and 12 Clif Shot Blocks for running)

Smart Sense Dishwasher detergent 75 oz (1).....$2.99 (we usually hand wash dishes, but I use the dishwasher when I have marathon cooking days. Frankly, I hate washing dishes and would not do big cooking days if at the end when I was already exhausted I had to wash dishes for 45 minutes. We still have a box at home, but since I rarely find it on sale, I started shopping when I opened the last box)
Arm & Hammer laundry detergent 60 loads (3).....$2.99 each (this is half the price we usually pay on sale with double coupon. I do plan to eventually start making my own, but with so much going on lately, have not had a chance to give it a go)
Grout sealer (1).....$.99 (One of the projects I am going to do this winter while I'm trapped indoors is redo all of the grout in the bathroom-showers and floor. I stockpiled materials for different projects all summer while thrifting and yard saling so that I don't have to spend the money or go out in bad weather to the store to buy supplies)
Cologne (2).....$1.99 (Trucker likes this stuff better than the dollar store brand)
Temptations cat treats 7 oz (1).....$.99 (every now and then Ray cat gets a treat...however, it is rare and she is still lean and athletic)

So, total we spent $86.30 on all of this. We shop here every 3-4 months, so this comes out to $20-25 a month and significantly lowers the costs of general shopping in between.

This Week...Beyond Money 10/13 - 10/19

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* Only getting a few little things now: a few beans, an edible flower here and there.
* The indoor peppers are giving me a nice number of peppers each week. Very exciting.

Cooking and Groceries:
* Bought some manager's special meat. Pork chops for $1.65/lb. I bought a 1.10 lb ready-to-cook meatloaf for $2.70. Yes, it's a convenience food. Yes, I also paid $2.70/lb for some bread crumbs. However, I know that we have some busy/stressful days coming up. Having this meatloaf ready to throw in the oven just may be enough to keep us from yielding to ordering a pizza or stopping at a restaurant after a long day at work. Also, 1.1 lbs is enough for dinner one night and part of lunch the next day for us, so it is a relatively affordable convenience food. I don't have issues with convenience per se, only when it interferes with taste, health and finance.
* Bought a big loaf of everything bread at work that was $2.99. My discount brought it down to $2.70. There was a coupon available for a dollar off of a store-baked loaf, so the final cost was $1.70. This made it about the price of one of those weird fluffy pre-sliced factory loaves, but tastier and there was more.
* I spent $10 at the grocery: 4 packages of tortillas at $.50 each (marked down from $2.99/pack), 2 bags of tortilla chips for $1 each (planning ahead for making taco dip soon..), a large bottle of extra virgin olive oil for $4 (clearance rack), and two small cupcakes for $.50 each (marked down from $1.19) as a surprise dessert for Trucker after he'd had a long day at work. I got 10% off everything except the olive oil with my employee discount (that was the one item that wasn't store brand).

Food Preservation:
* Dehydrated more apples.


Fun:
* Got coffee with my friend at Trucker's job. My coffee was free since I got regular coffee (per his boss) and Trucker bought her drink.
* Went to Trucker's job for a cup of (free) coffee and writing. Got me out of the house and I didn't have to turn on the heat for those hours while I was gone (as well as not needing to have lights on or my laptop sipping electricity).

Nature:
* We walked to go out with our friends one night. It was only about a mile and a half round trip, but it the weather was lovely.
* I picked wildflowers to decorate the house. Ray cat loved smelling them. She's a big fan of flowers which makes me love her even more.

Frugality:
* Paid off one of my debts. This frees up $75 a month in the budget. I will put this money towards the debt snowball. The last year was rough on us, but some good job changes (more money!) and careful spending (lower expenses) are translating into some real progress for us.

Waste Reduction:
* Composted everything that could go in there.
* More apple-core sauce.

Work:
* I found out that my new job gives a $25 grocery gift certificate for Christmas. Not a huge thing, but with careful planning I'll get a lot of groceries with it.
* My boss gave me a birthday card with a coupon for a free half gallon of store-brand ice cream. Sweet!


Preparation:
* Put a few jars of dehydrated food into storage.


What did you do this week? Any new projects to brag on or tips to share?