Easy ways to save money in the kitchen

When setting budget for groceries it needs to be realistic. It's amazing what convenience items a you can do without when they are really trying to save money. Trying to live frugally and within a budget will test your creativity. But you can do it!

One of the things I used to do was to stretch our milk by mixing 1/2 a gallon of reconstituted powdered milk with 1/2 a gallon of 2% or whole milk. Some people say that the straight powdered milk & water mixture doesn't taste different, I don't buy that - to me it DOES taste different but is barely noticable (if at all) when you stretch it by mixing the powder/water mixture with an equal part of milk. I say used to because right now, at least for me, it doesn't save me enough money that it's worth the bother. A large box of powdered milk at Sam's Club is about $14. If you reconstituted the entire box you should get about 5.5 gallons (or 22 quarts). The total for me per gallon works out to about $2.55. I can buy a gallon of milk for $2.79 a gallon. Personally I can justify spending the extra $0.24 for that bit of convenience.

Some great place to save money in the kitchen is by making your own spice mixtures. You would be surprised by how much you could save and how many different mixtures you can come up with. I save my old spice containers to reuse with my mixtures. Here are a few recipes to get you started, you can mess around with the measurements to personalize them to your taste.

Taco Seasoning
6 tsp chili powder
4 1/2 tsp cumin
5 tsp paprika
3 tsp onion powder
2 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Seasoning Salt
8 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp pepper
2 Tbsp paprika
1/2 Tbsp onion powder
1/2 Tbsp garlic powder

Italian Herb Mix
2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried thyme

Most of these mixes can be made with spices you already have around the house. If I need to replenish my supply to be able and make more mixes or I need more of single ingredient spices I usually will hit our local Walgreens. They are often on sale for 2/$1 and sometimes even 3/$1 (with a coupon)!

Do you have a great tip to save money in the kitchen you'd like to share? If so leave a comment for me so that I may post it.

Back to the grindstone...

Ugh, tomorrow is Monday - back to work. Not that I hate my job, far from it. But it is SO NICE to have the freedom of the weekend. And let me tell you, this weekend I was a baking fool! I made 2 loaves of homemade bread (with yeast even) and some homemade cinnamon rolls. I am so proud of myself. It was my first time for yeast bread and the rolls. I must say, they were very DELICIOUS! I hope all of you had as productive of a weekend as me!

Today was Rally Sunday at church. Means a new year for Sunday School and the Adult Bible Class. I am lucky enough to teach the kindergardners and the first-graders. They are so cute and eager at that age.

So this weekend I also went shopping for shoes. It is so hard to find normal, non-skank looking shoes. Everything had a monstrous heel or was really bulky looking. I finally found a pair of plain black, slightly heeled, loafer style shoes. Nerdy? Maybe, but I can wear them with everything. And get this........they were on clearance for $13, regularly $40!!!! Am I a bargain shopper or what? Wow, I just had this epiphany of me being similar to June Cleaver. You know, the whole made from scratch, looking for a deal type of woman. Now if I could just find a way to talk my husband into letting me stay home..... Think of how good that could be!

Now on to the tip of the day: This weekend I was making a pasta salad to take to church. When I was getting the veggies out of the fridge I noticed some of them seemed rather limp. My solution? I filled a bowl with ice water, trimmed up the veggies and submerged them into the ice water. I returned the bowl to the fridge for about 45 minutes and voila! My veggies were no longer limp and lifeless! This works for carrots, celery, cucumbers, and potatoes.

By the way, if you have a Hy-vee grocery store near you check if they have a special ad for tomorrow. Our local Hy-vee's have milk for $2.50 a gallon that's almost a dollar cheaper. Stock up, baby! If the milk will expire before you get to it, don't fret. Open it, pour a little out to allow for expansion and stick it in the freezer. It freezes really well. Huh, look at that. 2 tips tonight, boy someone's lucky!

Signing off,
Liz