Budget101.com

[lornaschinske]

NOT a skoolie thing but the more David & I save in one area, then more that can be spent on other stuff..... like the bus or the fuel tank. So if you either aren't interested or have the need to save a few $$, then please ignore this post. If you need to save a few $$ or are just frugal with a buck, then I hope you enjoy the link....

Budget101.com lots of ways to save $$ on groceries, etc. Even has a book (I downloaded it FREE from Amazon on my FREE Kindle for PC) called "The 2012 Family Guide to Groceries Under $250 a Month"

The average family of 4 in the United States spends more than $700 a month on groceries alone. In the “2012 Family Guide to Groceries Under $250 a Month" the author outlines how and where to cut grocery expenses to get spending under control while opening the consumers eyes to little known dirty manipulation tactics employed by retailers to seduce unsuspecting customers into spending sprees.

For many people struggling to maintain a budget, the cost of groceries is the only major expense in their control that can be drastically reduced without feeling a negative impact on their lifestyle. Liss explains in detail how to make simple changes that will not only pinch pennies, but help pinch Benji’s too!

The 57 pg eBook is available on Kindle (& Kindle's Free PC reader!)

I particularly like the recipe section with the "in a mug recipes", as they are not all dessert recipes. Great single serving recipes which is good for one or two folks (or times when everyone wants something different to eat). Many of the "mug" recipes are mixes which can be made up in batches, placed in ziplock or vac seal bags and stored for use later.

There is also a $50 Weekly Menus that is listed every week WITH RECIPES. (note: the 1st page is the most recent or current week and goes backwards from there). FREE Downloadable menu planners are available. Okay, I'm frugal, not that all the "FREE" scattered thru this post and many of my other posts doesn't give that away. And I'm not terribly domestically inclined. Luckily for me, recently with all the heat, we haven't felt like eating or cooking so I've been getting off easy with feeding David cold deli meat sandwiches or frozen microwave meals (the $2.50 Marie Callender ones). But once the heat breaks, that will come to an end. This will come in handy and I do need to implement it since I quite often use the excuse of "there's nothing to eat" to eat out (at $25 - including tip - per meal at a cheap but decent Chinese AYCE buffet... with boiled shrimp on the salad bar... yummy). Even as cheap as we get away with eating out, it still adds up very quickly and I know exactly how many hours I have to work to pay for that one meal out. It's a lot longer than it takes for us to eat said meal. And I am facing the unnerving task of having to fill the fuel tank with fresh diesel (and stabilizer) since we have a trip down to Carlsbad planned for our birthdays in December. David & I have birthdays that are 4 days apart so we celebrate our birthdays together on the closest weekend to one of them. Not counting fuel, I've got $100 budgeted for a 2 night stay with full hookups in Brantley Lake State Park, a trip thru the Caverns, a trip to the nearby Living Dessert Museum and a trip on the Christmas on the Pecos (Christmas lights tour... I like looking at houses all lit up but enjoy knowing that I didn't have to put up the lights, nor do I have to take them down). We would leave as soon as I got off work (8AM on a Friday) drive the 60 miles or so to Carlsbad. Back on Sunday afternoon in plenty of time to go to bed at my "old folk's bedtime" of 9PM. 3:20AM comes very early for me.

[lornaschinske]

This probably isn't new for any one but you might have forgotten...

We drink a fair amount of water. There are times that I find myself downing a whole bottle in less than 10 minutes. Staying hydrated in NM is a challenge during the summer. We tend to buy the bottled water in the uber-thin plastic bottles. A case of water from Sam's Club (Members Mark club brand) is just under $4 for a case of forty 16.9 oz/500ml bottles. I often rinse the bottles out in a mild bleach solution (1 tsp to 1 gallon cool tap water) and refill with our filtered tap water after the bottles have dried. We toss the bottles after a few uses. Yes I know you can buy reusable plastic water bottles but I lose the things all over (kinda like my reading glasses and umbrellas) and then it gets expensive to replace them. I get tired of drinking plain water. I find the little water flavour packets to be depressingly expensive. We buy Country Time Lemonade mix (yes, I know it's not "REAL" lemonade) in the 34 quart/ 5lb 2.5 oz containers. I have discovered that I can use 1 scoop (the scoop is included in the lemonade mix) of the mix per bottle of water. I do have to drink a bit out if using a fresh full bottle of water. Currently we are paying $6.98. If used exclusively for mixing into the bottles of water, that works out to 68 bottles at about 10¢ to 11¢ per bottle. To buy the little 10 count boxes at Wal-Mart (where we do our "other" shopping) it's running between 17¢ (Wal-Mart brand) to 20¢ (Country Time brand). So it's a bit of a savings on the little individual packets that flavour a single bottle of drink. Plus if you have kids that are stuck on their "favourite"Koolaid flavour, you can buy the canisters of the presweetened stuff and read the side to see how much it takes to make a "single 8 oz serving". The bottles of water are "two servings".

We have two undercounter refrigerators, one stacked on top of the other. One of these units is for beverages only. So I rinse/sanitize/refill the bottles daily and simply store them in the "beverage" refrigerator. We keep it really cold as it holds the water, sodas and wine for cooking. I've cleaned/refilled up to 20 bottles in one day. We go thru a lot of liquids!

[Redbear]

I find that Gatorade (and other sports drink) bottles are sturdier and stand up to washing and re-use better than the thin water bottles. I almost never buy Gatorade, except when I am on the road and getting dehydrated after working in the heat for many hours. (I usually have about a gallon of filtered water with me, but sometimes need the extra ingredients.)

But I do find the sports drink bottles tossed by clods on the side of the road, or in the top of trash baskets at work, athletic fields, rest stops, etc. I am not too proud to reach in and re-purpose a discarded bottle by the road or in the trash.

I buy the store brand Crystal Light clone lemonade available here for about half the price of the name brand (envelopes that make half-gallons). I also do buy the bulk powdered Gatorade mix at the supermarket, one scoop makes about 12 ounces ±.