Frugal Moms

When thinking of how you can save money, do you think of your food budget mostly? Are food prices so high that trying to find enough money for bread, milk, eggs, and butter everyday would require a small part-time job? If you have a large family, this might be the case. Everyone is trying to find ways of cutting back, especially on food purchases. I know that everyone suggests a garden, but how do you garden in limited space? What about on a small patio, or on a window sill? Believe it or not you contribute to your monthly food with even these small spaces available.

When your thinking of sustaining yourself, potatoes might be a good solution with a small amount of space. Before you laugh consider this, a space the size of four tires stacked can provide 20 to 30 pounds of food. Are you still laughing? For a single person that is 3 months worth of potatoes. For my family of 7 it is a month worth of potatoes. Potatoes can be grown in poor soil that is slightly acidic, actually they don’t grow well in any other kind of soil!

So how do you perform this miracle of potatoes from four tires? It is simple enough. You take a tire and set in on the ground or plastic sheeting. You fill the inside of the tire with dirt, mulch, straw or a combination. Remember it can’t be too fertile or the potatoes won’t grow. Place about a pound to two pounds of potato eyes in the tire. Make sure the eyes are well covered and from certified disease free potatoes. When the potato plant grows about 12 inches tall add another tire and cover the plant leaving 8 inches. Keep covering until he second tire is full and then add another tire. If you continue doing this through out the season, you should have wonderful tubers for the whole of fall and winter.

Some notes to consider, are that there are literally hundreds of varieties of potatoes. Make sure to choose the best one suited for your climate. Potatoes have more potassium than bananas, so you might stop buying bananas after your harvest for a while. Purple potatoes have the most anti-oxidate power.

When your worried about high wheat prices affecting your daily bread purchase or corn prices affecting how much your chicken will cost, I promise knowing that you have your own crop of delicious potatoes coming in a month or two will take some bitterness out of it for you. In fact, you might want to start learning how to use the humble potato today

For more information on how to grow potatoes click:http://www.thegardenhelper.com/potato.html

Do you have tons of crayons all over the floor? Do you feel like buying crayons is a waste of money because your little sweethearts love to break them and lose them. I have this trouble. With 5 children, I should probably buy stock in Crayola. The only way I have found to salvage the little buggers is to take all the very tiny pieces, the parts my two year old would probably try to swallow, and melt them down in the oven. If you place an oven on 200 F for about 5 to 10 minutes until the crayons look liquid on top in mini muffin tins, it makes a nice rainbow crayon. My kids love coloring with these just as much as a regular one color crayon. In fact they consider it a treat. But let them cool for about 6 hours before you let any children play with them. Due to the nature of crayons they stay hot a long time and the melted wax would really hurt little fingers. Always test the new rainbow crayons first.

What is the difference between buying a “toy” and an investment. When I was younger, I often regarded motorcycles as a type of toy. A thing men, predominantly, enjoyed riding off into the sunset to show off their manliness. That’s shows just how immature I was, unfortunately. Now that gas is $3.60 at most stations in the nation, I am taking a second look at this “toy”. However, my look is more at the scooters which get 60 mpg and go about 60 mph.

The scooters I have in mind cost about 1 thousand dollars and can easily be purchased with your coming tax rebate. (*hint*) The problem is, does this count as an investment or a toy? I mean, I am not the only one in my house. I do have to justify this to my husband.

We currently spend $140 dollars a week on gas in my 1978 Chevy Nova. The Chevy Nova is a big mammoth that carries six and groceries. It however, isn’t as big as some SUV’s. The car goes 140 miles a day. Drinks about a quart of oil a week. Not to mention has a personality only mom can love on wet days. None the less it’s my car, bright yellow and older than me.

140 in gas etc… a week

X 52 weeks total

——-

7280 Total a year

That’s a lot of money when my husband barely makes above 20k a year. I would wager to guess that is about a third of his annual pay. A third of his annual pay goes towards gas. I was reading online that someone said only 3.5% of a persons pay goes towards gas. I’m guessing most people don’t commute as far or they make ten times as much as my husband does. That’s a small loan payment. It could be even a mortgage payment.

By contrast what would it cost to run the scooter 140 miles a day. It would cost $41.40 a week.

42 (for the sake of argument)

X52

———

2184 Total a year

Savings?

7280

-2184

——-

5096 Total saved every single year!

I think saving twice it’s purchase price and then some every year is an investment, how about you? It won’t carry groceries, but my monster can do that once a month. Either way, you might also consider purchasing a scooter to save on gas. The government says gas should be $4 a gallon this summer.

http://www.happyscooters.com/Moped-Scooters-p-1-c-31.html

http://evosales.com/cat_scooter_moped.cfm

http://evosales.com/pd_retro_scooter.cfm

The whole reason for writing a blog on frugality is to save money. However, if inflation is so high that it is beginning to be reported on a monthly basis, it kinda destroys the whole point. What do I mean by this? Well, if all you are doing is saving money, socking it away in a bank somewhere getting may be 1% interest, your actually losing money. Your losing money because inflation is higher than 1%.

The point of saving money is to put it in a spot where it will hold value. Where it will at least keep pace with inflation. That is becoming increasingly difficult these days as inflation for food as reported by the government is around 4%. Have you tried to find a 4% return from a bank account recently? It doesn’t exist. According to www.bankrate.com not even 5 year CD’s give a 4% return. This is not a saver friendly environment.

Let’s look at non-traditional investments. I know this is for frugal moms mostly, but who says frugality is about how to cut coupons only? It’s not. It is saving money and then keeping it saved, at it’s original purchasing power, until you really need it. That is all a frugal person wants at a basic minimum right? (Or were you hoping to become a millionaire…don’t worry we all want that too)

Currently gold is providing about a 35% return in the past 12 months. That’s a lot better than an almost 3% return from a CD, but it has more risk. Unlike the CD, that 35% isn’t guaranteed next year. If your only looking for a 4% return, it might be worth the risk. Silver, which is cheaper and easier to get than Gold, currently has a rate of return around 27%. Again, if you only want to hedge against the 4% inflation the government claims, it looks worth the risk. There are tons of other things to invest your money in, like commodities, oil, or anything else. My point is, make sure you know that saving your money in a regular old bank account isn’t really saving money in the long term. So my advice is to look at investing in something a little more with a better rate of return.

Now onto more ways to save on food. There are literally hundreds of strategies. I personally take the strategy of “grow it your self” as far as possible. Then again, I have 10 acres and many hands to help. Another, lesser known strategy is to use coupons effectively. I know, I know, I said it wasn’t all about coupons and here I am telling you how to use them. Go ahead, laugh. Coupons are not the best method, but in the absence of all else they can help. These are the only conditions under which you should ever use coupons.

• The item you have a coupon for is already deeply discounted, like in the crushed can bin or clearance basket.
• The store grants double or triple coupon redemption.
• The coupon will literally make the item free.
• Buy only things you would normally buy or can be reimbursed for easily.

2 of the 4 above conditions must be met before I can bring myself to using a coupon. A while back I was shopping and noticed a coupon for a dollar on a bag of cookies. I happened to be in the cracker and cookie isle. When I checked on said cookies they were on sale for 1 dollar. I picked those cookies up and only had to pay tax on them. That is the only way you will ever truly save money on coupons. The fact that I had to pay the tax means I still spent 6 cents I hadn’t planned on spending. I immediately hit up my 10 year old for the 6 cents, since she was begging me for cookies in the first place. She happily paid it. (Yes, she earns her own money)
I know that I sound very cheap in asking my 10 year old for the 6 cents in tax, but the point remains, unless I had planned on buying those cookies, I was actually spending more than I had planned on. There for I wasn’t actually saving any money at all.

That’s another reason I hate using coupons. They are so easy to make you believe your saving money when your not. For example, I found a box of name brand cereal in the crushed bin. It was discounted down to $3.50. I happened to have a 50 cent coupon for that exact cereal. The store I was in did not do double or triple coupons. The cheapest generic cereal in that store was 3 dollars. So one would assume it is fine to get the name brand cereal. Not so! When I compared the weights, the generic cereal gave 4 ounces more cereal. That means, on an ounce by ounce basis, the name brand was still more expensive. When using coupons, you should always check to ensure you are getting the same amount as if you weren’t using a coupon for your regularly discounted items.

I have since stopped buying cold cereal upon discovering the beauty, convenience, and inexpensiveness of oatmeal, which is about $2 for the same amount of servings as the generic cold cereal. It also doesn’t need milk. I still haven’t found any coupons for oatmeal that even come close to generic prices. Which goes onto my third point about coupons. They don’t exist for the cheapest items and often fail to even level the playing field of the more expensive to the cheapest items. Which means they serve to perpetuate a perceived need. What the heck do I mean you say? They are only on luxury items most of the time, and when they aren’t, they don’t lower the price enough to make buying the name brand worth it. It is only when you find something already at generic price and size, as well as necessity level, that coupons are worth it. The only way to do that is to search the crushed bins and double or triple your coupons. (Then next month your kids will beg for the same items when they are full price, so make sure you have firm resolve.)

Well, folks that’s all I have for now. Check back often, I’ll have more tomorrow.

Trying to stay thrifty with ever increasing food prices might have you at the edge of your seat. While food inflation is the highest it has been in decades, many women today wonder what is a mother to do? All staples are on the rise to the point that in Mexico, Haiti, and Egypt their were demonstrations over food. What should you do?

Not to worry, with the following suggestions you will bring your food budget down in no time.

Focus on the Basics: Track Your Food Purchases.

You may not realize it, but that bottled water, pack of gum, and apple each day add up. All totaled you might spend as much as $60 dollars extra a month for the convenience of bottled water. A latte a day is even more expensive at most chains, adding up to almost $100 dollars a month. Keep track of these purchases for a month, so you can eliminate or cut them down later.

Eliminate The Excess

After you have tracked all of your food purchases, right down to that milky way you felt guilty about, start going through and seeing which things you can substitute. Do you really need bottled water? Can’t you just filter it before leaving for work, store it in a small take a long thermos with ice, and go? When you eat out do you need that expensive drink or will tap water suffice? Do you need to eat out? Can you bring a lunch to work? These are all questions you need to ask yourself. Keep these two steps in mind, as you will be doing them often.

If you already have stopped eating out, started bringing your lunch, and swore off bottled water, your headed in the right direction. However, there is a lot more you can do to help lower your food budget. You need to now evaluate the types of foods you purchase. Are most of them prepackaged? Do you just “heat and serve” a lot out of your microwave? If so, you might want to re-evaluate what you eat. A carton of quick oats can be purchased for around $2 and has 31 servings per container. This is a full months worth of breakfasts for only $2, which is quick and easy to serve. If you buy the individual packages, you are wasting a lot of money since it is about $3 for 12 servings. Both take only about a minute in the microwave, but one you have to flavor yourself. Is two minutes spent flavoring your oatmeal really worth $4 extra?

Do you buy frozen veggies? This is fine of course, we all need our veggies, but if you have a patio, back yard, or any dirt, you could be growing your own instead of paying for them. Besides saving money, these vegetables will be fresher and taste much better. I am certain your thinking, but I’m not a gardener! I live in an apartment! No problem, because container gardening can be done any where by anyone. You might consider it as “stress reduction” or “therapy” since gardening has been proven to be therapeutic.

There are literally hundreds of ways to save money on food. If you incorporate these methods you are certain to save some money in comparison to not incorporating these methods. If you interested in more ideas, check back often. I’m sure I’ll have more soon.