THE FRUGAL TIMEKEEPER

Are you harried and busy and just haven’t the time to review ads from the local grocery stores or to clip coupons?

Walmart has been advertising a new program called “Savings Catcher”. I tried it out for the first time this weekend.

I bought groceries using some gift cards that I’d been saving for a rainy day. Food donations that I make to local charities do not come out of my monthly grocery budget but from other sources of savings.

A few weeks ago, I set up my Savings Catcher account. You do this by logging on to www.savingscatcher.walmart.com. Upon arriving home, I opened my Savings Catcher account and it asked for a “TC” code from my receipt. I entered the information and now I wait 72 hours for an email result.

What result, you ask?

Well, if the Savings Catcher program finds any item on my receipt at a lower price, Walmart will issue the difference on an e-gift card.

How is this being a frugal timekeeper?

First, I did not run from store to store shopping the lowest prices. I did have coupons for several of the items that I purchased but no time to scout grocery store websites seeking price comparisons.

Savings Catcher saved me time and gas. I may have been a little “greener” shopping this way too, by limiting my fuel consumption.

In the past, I would bring my paper grocery ad to Walmart for a price match. That now may be a thing of the past. This program will do the work for me, saving some time and money!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: You have up to 7 days to enter your receipt information into the website. There is a limit of nearly $600 that Walmart will refund in a calendar year. More details are on the website.

SLICE OF SEPTEMBER - UPDATE

Here it is, the last weekend of the month. It’s time for me to assess my month of ‘cash only’ grocery spending.

I did very well the first week, even having cash to carry forward into the next week. I was feeling like a cash cow going into the 3^rd week of the month.

Then, I met a 25 lb box of tomatoes that I couldn’t resist along with a bounty of summer squash and a half-peck of Granny Smith apples. My savings quickly evaporated that day at the farm, but I was still in good shape going into the last week of the month.

My “shopping with cash” self-imposed challenge was a success. Do I wish I had the $10 that I sliced off my September shopping? Yes. Do I need to have that $10 for grocery shopping? No.

Shopping with cash brought me back to my first lesson in food budgeting from my days as a nursing student. We were given $25 to buy groceries for the week.

It forces one to give careful thought to each transaction. Is this a “want” or a “need”?

I wrote up my grocery list each week and assigned a dollar amount to each item. Then I subtracted my coupons to get a final dollar amount of my purchases. When I reached the cashier, I had a pretty good notion of how many dollar bills were leaving my hands for the cashier’s.

What remained these last four days of the month was $8 in cash with a few items to purchase and $10 in my squirrel fund. My squirrel fund is now at $100 which I may need for the last quarter of the year.

Looking ahead to OCT and NOV, there is the potential for more month than money. With nearly 5 weeks of shopping in each month, it will require careful planning. I suspect there will be no future slicing of the budget. With cash in hand and lessons learned from these past 4 weeks, I’m ready for the next challenge!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: To make this challenge successful, I withdrew the full amount of my grocery money on the first of the month and divided the cash into four jars. Unspent cash from one week was moved to the next week’s jar. This allowed for the unexpected splurge of produce at the farm. The temptation to overspend is removed when using cash. It also reduces waste… and waist!

                                                       MY LAST $8 FOR THE MONTH

                                          

 

THE MASTER OF DISGUISE

The month of October is only a few weeks away and thoughts are turning to Halloween.

Empty stores are converted annually to selling costumes and accessories for the one day a year when the inner child comes out in many of us.

My Grand Little Helper seems to be considering his role as a super hero.

Like most little boys, he likes to play dress up, as his dad did before him. His dad’s super hero power was to be invisible. Really, he wasn’t but you have to play along.

His uncle’s super hero power was he had “power eyes”. This inner belief went on for well into his early grade school years. He would squint and stare and magical things would happen, if only in his imagination.

The Grand Little Helper is the “Blue Caped Crusader”. He dons his blue mask and his blue shirt with matching blue cape to combat crime. I suspect the criminal to be his little sister because 18 month old girls have the potential to drive their older brothers crazy.

The youngest of the Grand Little Helpers likes to be a cow. Just a little over a year, once he gets the “moo” sound going, I suspect he will believe too.

Why the topic of costumes and disguises?

Leftovers. The trick to getting the family to eat leftovers is to disguise it as something else to make them believers too.

A frugal yet simple way to disguise leftovers is to wrap them in home-made crepes. You have these ingredients in your kitchen. A cup of flour. Two eggs. One and one-half cups of milk. A pinch of salt and a tablespoon of oil. Wisk and pour 2 TBS or more into a hot, non-stick skillet. Flip when the edges brown. Cool. Repeat.

This recipe makes 12 crepes. They freeze well when layered with wax paper (or cereal liners) and stacked. These can be used as a breakfast or dinner entrée or dessert! It will take 20 minutes of your day to disguise ordinary leftovers and transform into an eloquent dish!

SOUNG THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Leftover chicken and broccoli with a white cream sauce is tasty in crepes. Drizzle sauce over the crepes and bake, covered in the oven at 350 degrees until warmed through. Serve with a salad and a crusty bread and you have a delicious meal.

 

 

A BIRD IN THE HAND

When Mother’s Little Helpers were young, they enjoyed being read too. In particular, they enjoyed Little Golden Books and such classics as “The Little Engine That Could” and “The Little Red Hen”.

Or maybe, those just happened to be the favorite story books that Old Frugal Mother kept near their beds. They were rich in lessons that frugal mother wanted her offspring to learn.

Recently, I learned the difference between a chicken and a hen.

An older female chicken is a hen; the male bird is a rooster.

The female hens are tougher birds than roosters. Tougher in taste. Not as tender, needing more time to break down the toughness.  

Conversely, chicken fryers are younger, more tender, as they are smaller in weight than the hen. They are more versatile for cooking than the older hen.

The best method for cooking the hen is covered in the oven or the crock pot because it needs time and steam to break down the toughness while keeping it moist.

I experimented with a different technique. 

After sectioning the hen into parts, making cutlets from the breast, soaked in buttermilk, hoping the buttermilk will break down the toughness of the breasts. Breaded, baked in my toaster oven with a quick browning in my frying pan. The remaining parts will go into the Crockpot and the carcass into a pot for stock.

This old hen just may make that old bird last for a week’s worth of meals!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I would rather have a hen on sale at .69/lb that I can learn to cook than to wait for something else to come along and have nothing.

 

NO CANDLES ON THE CAKE

One day, I read a quote “age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese”.  It came from Billie Burke who was Glinda, the good witch, of Wizard of Oz fame.

What does aging have to do with a frugal blog? Age matters in my frugal world.

Children eat free at some restaurants if they are 10 and under. When Mother’s Little Helpers were young, it was such a treat to eat at a restaurant where the children ate for free.

Prices on menus went up once Mother’s Little Helpers turned 10 years of age. The children’s menu was for “10 and under”. The selections must not have been too appealing as often the words “can we order off the adult menu” were heard around the table.

Each of Mother’s Little Helpers had plans made well in advance on how and when to begin celebrating their 21^st birthday. Would someone like to explain to a 21 year old that age doesn’t matter? I didn’t think so.

On the other end of the life cycle, I find age matters once again as one gets older.

Senior days! Senior discounts! Senior living! The definition of “senior” varies anywhere from 55 to 65 years and above.

My favorite age-related discount is at the grocery stores. Several where I shop offers  5% discount on a specific day of the week to a shopper 60 years of age and older. By virtue of one’s age, a discount is given to the shopper. No coupon required!

When Mother’s Little Helpers were younger, I avoided the grocery stores on Wednesdays. Now, I eagerly look forward to them.

I have begun a “to do” list for when I become a senior. And yes, being at the grocery store on Wednesday is top on my list!

SOUND THE BULGE! Today’s tip: Submit your email address to local eating establishments and you may find freebies coming to your inbox for your birthday! If you don’t want to have your inbox filled with such announcements, seek out restaurants that will provide you a free meal on your birthday by just showing your driver’s license. Bon appetite!

A FISH TALE

My Little Grand Helper has two fish. His tale first began with one fish. Then two fish.

This is beginning to sound like the Dr. Seuss story book “One Fish, Two Fish”. These are not red fish or blue fish. These are goldfish.

One Saturday afternoon, the goldfish left the Pet Palace and found a new swimming home at the Little Grand’s home. As goldfish will often do, this one did not acclimate well to his new surroundings.

His parents had to quickly develop a relatable theory as to why the new little fish was no longer in his new home.

Before he knew it, his one fish was replaced with two fish. When two fish were not enough, he asked for one more. But alas, his parents did not grant his wish.

And this is where his story ends.

Well, it's not a good fish tale unless it has that one fish that got away!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Do you need a new idea on how to use a box of macaroni and cheese? Once prepared, take leftovers and convert it to soup. The cheese-flavored pasta is cooked. Add broth and a thickening agent (cornstarch or flour) with milk for a creamy taste. Use leftovers [or not] such as broccoli or tiny meatballs to enhance both flavor and to extend the number of servings for cream of macaroni and cheese soup. Season to taste and serve!

 

FRUGAL TIMEKEEPING

Often the question is asked, how I find time to manage my coupons. Many busy working moms and dads just don’t have the time to coupon.

There are methods for coupon users to manage coupons with various apps on SMART phones. Being the frugal person that I am, I don’t own a SMART phone. Is anyone surprised?

I have a flip phone with pre-paid minutes. I truly appreciate my hand-me-down treasure from Mother’s Little Helper who upgraded many years ago. You can’t do better than free, if you ask me!

Due to its limitations, I coupon the old-fashioned way. Some may consider it time consuming. It requires a scissor and a printer or a newspaper. But it doesn’t have to be time-consuming.

I work on coupons once a week. During the week if I come across coupons [they arrive in the mail or on my newspaper or at the checkout line], I set them aside in a pile on my kitchen counter.

Next thing to do is clip, cut and sort. But when does one have “the time”?

When Mother’s Little Helpers were young, the opportunities presented themselves in carpool lines, or sitting a few minutes in the car at soccer practice. The Little Helpers have grown, there is no carpooling or sitting at soccer practices anymore.

But, I’m still a very busy mom!

No longer the chauffeur, I save my coupons for when I’m the passenger. That is my time to clip, cut, and sort coupons. My biggest pet peeve is sitting and doing nothing. As a child, my mother would tell me that if I had nothing to do, she could find something for me to do. I always declined the offer.

Using time in the car this way allows me to feel productive while not taking time away from something I ought to be doing in the house.

This method may still be too time-consuming for busy working moms and dads but you may find some other sitting  time [TV viewing] when the opportunity to multi-task comes along, allowing you to use time to your advantage and save money!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Some of my favorite coupon websites include: www.smartsource.com; www.redplum.com and www.coupons.com. If you have not had a chance to read www.couponmom.com, it’s a no cost, highly informative website. Check these out for some great savings!

 

 

A SERIAL STOCKPILER

I delight in going back home to visit family. My dad is an octogenarian and has all his wits about himself. For 87 years of age, he can rock a budget with the best of them.

His checkbook is balanced down to the penny without the use of apps. His two feet are his "mobile device" that takes him to the bank to check on his financial affairs. I mentioned earlier in a post that dad does not pay for TV. His idea of “cable” is the wire that leads from the TV to the electrical outlet for the plug.

Each time I visit, I’m drawn to his stockpile. One time, it was aluminum foil. It could be toothpaste. It could be paper towels. It could be cereal.

Yes, cereal.

I know some are not in favor of processed foods but he’s made it this far eating cold cereal from a box every morning for breakfast. He tells me twice a week, he'll eat eggs.

When I was growing up, corn flakes were his favorite. I can remember seeing coupons piled on the dining room table ready for mom’s grocery list. Then boxes and boxes of corn flakes would appear at the house. In his older years, he began stockpiling raisin bran cereal.

At the most recent visit, the count was 15 boxes of raisin bran cereal.

Dad is a cereal stockpiler. His philosophy is when the price is right and he has a coupon, he restocks his supply of cereal. It has a long shelf life, he tells me. Based on what I can see of dad, he does too. Here’s to dad’s continued good health!

SOUND THE BULGE! Today’s tip: Instead of using bread crumbs as a topping for fish or chicken or pork, try crushed cereal flakes. After dredging your protein in egg wash, dip in crushed corn flakes and bake.