Homemade Mixes

Homemade or from scratch foods and mixes can normally be made for a fraction of the cost of the convenience foods you find at the grocery store. Not only are they cheaper, but they are better tasting and you know what ingredients are in them. Look at a cake recipe and you can easily pronounce the ingredients. Now pick up a cake mix. Can you pronounce the ingredients - let alone know exactly what they are?

There are numerous mixes listed on the web, including some of my own favorites. Although there are lots out there, you really don't need to follow a mix recipe to make your own. Pull out your favorite cake recipe. You can mix all the dry ingredients together, put them in a baggie or other air tight container, label it, and put it away for the next time you want to make a cake. Now all you need to do is pull it out, add the wet ingredients, and your finished making a scratch cake with the ease of a mix! You can do the same with pancakes, brownies, etc. Just use your imagination.

Breakfast is usually the most rushed meal during the day, especially on weekdays. According to a report on Good Morning America this morning, store purchased cereals can contain up to 50% it's weight in sugar! It's so easy to make some wonderful homemade granola that you control the sugar and the ingredients to fit your family's needs and preferences. Maybe you like the ease of instant oatmeal. Did you know that you can just put one part quick oats to two parts milk in a bowl and microwave it - and it's done about as quickly as instant. If you like the flavors, add raisins and cinnamon, brown sugar, maple syrup, dried fruits, nuts.... the sky's the limit. Save some time by measuring out and putting a serving in a baggie with the dried fruits,nuts, & flavorings of your choice (no wet ingredients). Make enough for a week, and you'll have the ease of the packets for a fraction of the cost.

Maybe you love pancakes or waffles. On the weekend, you can cook up a batch, cool them, then stack them with a sheet of waxed paper between each one. (pancake, waxed paper, pancake, waxed paper...) then put in a container and freeze. During the week, you can pull out the amount of pancakes (or waffles) you want and just warm them up in the microwave. Waffles can be warmed in the toaster. If you have problems with the pancakes sticking together, put them single layer on a cookie sheet, then freeze for an hour or so, take them out and stack with waxed paper between each one, put in a container and freeze.

Start looking at the recipes you use most. Ask yourself if you can measure out and pack some of the ingredients ahead to save you time. Just by doing this, you'll be buying less convenience foods from the store, and making more from scratch in the same amount of time, with the wonderful taste of homemade. And the best part - you're saving money to use elsewhere!!

Things Are Becoming Even More Expensive

We are cursed blessed to be living in the marcellus shale region. With that comes an increase in traffic, increased demands in housing and businesses are booming. Cost of housing has gone up to insane prices, taxes are going up, water is becoming polluted and I've heard our area being called a "wasteland". Sigh.... Wells are springing up all around us, and living in a small town, we have no recourse but to put up with everything with nothing in return. Am I complaining? Not really - just stating the cold, hard facts.

We have been considering leaving for a long time, but hubby was looking for the perfect job. He could at that time - then the economy changed and his chance of getting that job got a whole lot slimmer. We thought we'd ride things out, but now with the crazy business here of the gas - we really want out. Now, just to find a job that will allow us to leave and be able to pay for a new home and college for 2 kids.

This year is going to be the time for severe cutbacks for us. All those little luxuries that we've enjoyed for years are going.... magazine subscriptions, television, newspapers, etc. - they are all getting canceled or won't be renewed. Both kids will need a cell phone next year for college, so we are going to have to find a cell phone company and we will finally give in to buying cell service. Sadly, reception is poor to none in our area making it about impossible to drop our land-line. Hopefully that will change in 8 months. Imagine, what we save in dropping all the above items will pay for the kids cell phones. :(

Food prices have gone up considerably and so has gas. We are now over $3.20 a gallon and it still continues to go up. Sadly, there were no raises because of company cutbacks. Our garden will just have to be increased in size and now that I have an Excalibur dehydrator, we'll be able to save both time, space and money by dehydrating instead of canning. It is amazing the things one can do with dehydrated foods, and more amazing that they retain most of their nutritional value and flavor!! My goal this year is to see how many groceries we can make ourselves and how much we really NEED from the store.

Speaking of saving money, I MUST share three wonderful new challenges I have joined. Retroredux is having some really fun but frugal reading challenges that really appealed to me.
 

First is the Public Domain E-book Challenge. This challenge deals with public domain books from places like Project Gutenburg, Manybooks, etc. If you are like me, you've been there and have found that there are no descriptions of the books that are offered. This challenge has you reading and reviewing these books. You can pick the level you want to participate in (all are easily obtainable), then read and review the number of books you signed up for. What a fantastic idea!! Not only are you setting a fun goal, but helping other readers at the same time :)

The second challenge she has that I signed up for is called The Buck Stops Here Challenge. In this challenge you read books from your own personal library. The only rules are: 1. They must cost from FREE to up to ONE DOLLAR - nothing more expensive and 2. no loaned books. You MUST own these books. This also includes e-books (and we know how many cheap and free e-books are out there!)

The last challenge is called the Forgotten Treasures Challenge. In this challenge, one must read books that are at least 25 years old. Man, my budget over the last 20 years of marriage has only allowed me to purchase books from yard sales and the Goodwill, plus those that were obtained from FreeCycle, so, I have a TON of these babies sitting on my shelf!!

All of these challenges seem to go hand-in-hand with our cutbacks, so here's to living cheaper without really sacrificing anything at all! :)