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Monday, November 22, 2010

Proven Methods For Walking the Financial Tight Rope

a slow cooker Oval Crock Pot
These days, making the family budget work is an art form in itself.  Let’s be honest, times are getting hard and we are all starting to feel it.  There are times when it seems that no matter how much money you save, there is nothing left from your paycheck at the end of the month.  This mainly due to extraneous and unforeseen expenses such as medical bills.
Slashing the family budget is a daunting task where the end product is frustration.  Some have tried bundling their services, cutting back on extras such as movies and eating out, and some are beginning to see the wisdom in clipping coupons.  As much as the above mentioned can help the family budget, some of us are going a step further in our endeavors to save a buck.

7 Ways to Help a Person Save a Buck

Remove the phantom charges.  Did you know that when you leave your appliances (computer included) plugged in to the electrical socket, they still consume electricity?  You can reduce your electricity charges by 10%, simply by unplugging the kitchen appliances, tv and computer.
Buy food staples in bulk.  Learn from businesses, they save more money buying in bulk than they would buying individual products.  Use what you can and store the rest for another day. Due to the increasing food prices, it’s a postive way to buy your food staples at the most economical price.  This is a great time to start an emergency food supply.  Foods such as flour, sugar, oatmeal, and popcorn can be bought in bulk quantities at discounted prices.  Instead of paying $2.50 for a pound of sugar, you can buy 25 pounds at $13.00.
Create a rotating refrigerator – Just like rotating your stored preps every 6 months, rotate perishable food items in the refrigerator.  Foods such as produce, eggs and meat every week. If no one has eaten the fresh fruit or vegetables you bought last week, dehydrate it and store it for another time.  Each household wastes close to $600 a year on spoiled food.  Start making an effort to cut down on this.
Go Vegetarian a few nights a week.  Who said that you have to have meat with every meal?  Buying meat for every meal is expensive.  Making a few vegetarian dinners will save you money.  For instance, make a vegetarian pizza.  It’s filling and healthy.  Or make use of those beans and make a vegetarian chili!
When you do buy meat, make sure it’s on sale:  When you see deals for meat, buy them and do one of these tricks to and save it for a rainy day:
  • Freezing meat in a marinade can be enjoyed at a later time, as well as be a life saver on those days that get away from you. 
  •  On weekends, my family enjoys eating buttermilk pancakes.  I always make an extra batch and freeze them for weekday breakfasts when we are running late. 
  •  Another way of saving time is to freeze a crock pot meal.   Adding some vegetables, meat, rice or potatoes and spices and freezing it will save 20 minutes in preparation time.  Just take it out of the freezer and put into the crock pot and viola!
  • Another easy solution to free up time is to take frozen vegetables and add a cheese sauce or a herbed butter sauce and freeze it for another time.
Homemade is better tasting and cheaper.  Let’s be honest, a lot of the products we buy are to make our lives easier, but can be costly.  Find ways to make it yourself.  For instance, make your own granola mix to make for healthy snacks.  This can later be make into granola bars, cereal or yogurt toppers.  Another easy snack to make is homemade fruit leathers.  The kids love them and they are healthy.  It’s a win-win situation!
Do-it yourself . Start simplifying your finances by doing things yourself.  Mow the lawn yourself, fix the plumbing and wash the car by yourself.  There are great how-to articles, as well as helpful neighbors who would be more than willing to help you out if you need some pointers.
Go solar!  Some of us can’t afford all the solar gadgets, but that shouldn’t stop you from harnessing the power of the sun. Dry your laundry outside on lines to save money on the electricity bill. Furthermore, doing your dishes by hand will cut down on electricity used by the dish washer.
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1 comment:

  1. Winco has a deal on turkey; buy $50 worth of food and the turkey is 22 cents a pound. I bought a 19 lb turkey yesterday and cooked it from frozen according to instructions I found on the web, 6 hrs 45 minutes. Looked great, put in the fridge after it cooled and went to bed. Today I cut it up putting all scraps and bones in the stock pot with 8 quarts of water. I have already placed the turkey into 7 quart canning jars and only waiting for the broth to be ready and then I can them. I expect to use about 7 pints of broth. The jars look pretty full of meat but I have no doubt there will be lots or room for broth. With just two of us each quart represents two meals (with a vegetable and choice of starch of course). I have lots of preps and it's all good food but I can honestly say there will be nothing in my cupboard any more tempting then quart jars of turkey meat and broth. I'm going back to Winco and get another turkey. Can you really believe 22 cents a pound? My 19 lb turkey cost me $4.18!

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