What's for Supper Wednesday - The Double Play

The Double Play 

I have learned the most effective, fantastic, fruitful method for buying a cart load of necessities for practically nothing, which is right in my budget! It is a two part process in which both parts must be followed. Otherwise, the results may be less than desirable. Have I peeked your attention yet? Fantastic!

Part one is this. Pray. No really, you must pray with a heart full of faith that the Lord will provide for you and your family. In return, promise to give Him all of the glory! There really is only so much that I can do. I need Him to carry me the rest of the way.

Part two involves shopping. There is a section in most grocery stores where the products that are about to expire, or that have been discontinued, are drastically reduced in price. In my favorite store, these treasure chests of shelves are just behind the cash registers. There are also markdowns in the refrigerated and butcher’s sections.

I quietly say a prayer as we walk into the grocery store, asking God to show me what it is that my family needs. Wants would be nice, but needs would be better. I scan through the produce section finding organic lettuce for less than a dollar and 5 beautiful orange bell peppers for the price of just one. We have had a shortage of fresh veggies since it is the middle of winter, so these specials were just that: special. We round up toward the meat cases where I find a whole chicken for just 56 cents per pound! Wow, that is way below my $2 per pound max. Then we head over to the dairy section. Each time we cart past it, my boys ask when they will ever get to have yummy yogurt again. Well, boys, today is that day! There were 2 tubs of vanilla yogurt marked down to just 50 cents each! I quietly thanked Him for this wonderful gift. Perhaps I should have shouted, “Praise God!”, but worry about scaring the dairy man. We found pints of milk for just 25 cents. The oldest boy got to use his new math skills to tell me how much it would be for 1 gallon of the discounted milk. After a little figuring, he informed me that it was just $2 per gallon. He approved of this discount after seeing that a gallon was marked $3.75!
This was all before we had even reached the dry goods section. I wound up filling my cart with groceries that we did in fact need for $35.

I share all of this, not to brag on myself and my shopping abilities. I share so that you can see that when we depend on His understanding instead of our own, then we will be able to see how he can bend the universe in order to take care of his sheep!

What's for Dinner Wednesday - Angel Food Ministries

I have found a way for people with tight budgets to get higher quality food, and for those with more expensive tastes to get an awesome deal! I can get steak at hamburger prices. How do I do it? Angel Food Ministries puts together an assortment of foods that should feed a family of 4 for a week. They offer a different menu every month for only $30. 
Now, I have a different way of looking at things, as you may have noticed. I also tend to be a tad skeptical when it comes to claiming to get a good deal. Every month I go through the menu with “Liz Prices” in my head. I compare what I would pay, not what retail is. For instance, I don’t spend more than $2 per pound on meat, nor on fresh fruits and veggies. I understand that steaks are $5 a pound. That’s why I don’t buy them! If the total is the same or less than what I would pay, we get it. It may not save me any money, but it affords me some variety as well as quality in our meals. Here is how I would score this box:


Here is the March Menu.

($4)  2 lbs. Chopped Beef Steaks with Dijon Mustard (4 x 8 oz.)
($2)  1 lb. Bacon Wrapped Turkey Breast Filet Mignon (4 X 4 oz.)
($2)  1 lb. Boneless Center Cut Pork Chops (4 x 4 oz.)
($3)  2 lb. Macaroni & Beef Dinner Entrée
($4)  2.5 lb. IQF Split Chicken Breasts
($2)  1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
($1)  1 12" Supreme Pizza
($1)  1 lb. Frozen Peas & Carrots
($1)  1 lb. Frozen Whole Kernel Corn
($2)  2 lb. Fresh Apples
($2)  2 lb. Heat and Serve Broccoli & Cheese Soup
($3)  24 oz. Natural Cut French Fries
($1)  6.5 oz. Stroganoff Skillet Meal
($1)  1 lb. Rice
($1)   Dozen Eggs
($1)   Dessert
This gives me a Liz Price of $30
I would love to see what a great deal the folks with more expensive taste would get, but I'll be honest, I don't have a clue as to how much these items retail!  I'll leave that research to you.  If you'd like to read more about this ministry go to http://www.angelfoodministries.com/ Deadline to order with cash or check is March 17th to order online at http://www.questcommunitychurch.org/ deadline is 18th. Distribution date will be March 27th at 830 at Quest!
One last thing, this is not a hand out or restiricted to low income families.  This is available to anyone from the homeless up to tycoons.  No discrimination here!
Liz Price = Quality!
Please let me know what sort of savings you get from this box.  I would love to know!

What’s for Dinner Wednesday - Utilize the markdowns!

Unfortunately I can’t tell you what is in the sale papers for this week. Mine were absent from my usual Tuesday mail bundle. Perhaps it was the preplanned three day weekend that turned into four due to snow. Whatever the reason, I have no fabulous deals to point out to you. I can, however, tell you about a few things that were on our menu.

Most grocery stores have an area for meat that is nearing it’s expiration date. This is where I find some of my most wonderful treasures! Because I am feeding a fair sized family, I don’t have to worry about not using all of it before it goes bad. Also, because I make up my menu on shopping day, I don’t worry about forgetting about my find. This past week I found a one pound package of smoked Cajun sausage for 99 cents! Woo Hoo! Meat for less than a dollar a pound! Yes, sir, I’ll take all 4. Three of them found their way into my freezer. I also found a 12 ounce package of sliced bacon for 99 cents. While it wasn’t quite as cheep as the sausage, it’s still below the $2 per pound limit that I have set for myself.

The bacon was used for my sweetie’s Valentine’s Day breakfast. There was even enough left for a little kitchen experiment of my own. I mixed up a batch of cornbread, then mixed in a little of the bacon grease and bacon bits that I’d just fried up. I dropped spoons of my batter into my nice black, greasy cast iron skillet. Oh yum! They turned out fantastic! A pan of cornbread is super cheep to make. The portion of bacon was probably only about 10 cents worth. Less than $1 to get my boys up and moving just from the smell wafting into their bedrooms makes me a happy momma.

The sausage went toward a slow cooker dinner. Those are my favorite kind. The best part is that there are only 4 ingredients: a bag of black beans, a bag of frozen corn, a package of sausage, chopped tomatoes or salsa. I used the salsa because that’s what I had on hand. I cooked up a pot of rice to be served in the bottom of our bowls just to bulk it up a little.

1 lb dried beans = about $1
1 lb frozen corn = about $1
    Or 2 cans
1 lb sausage = clearance $1
1 can chopped tomatoes = about $.75
    Or homemade salsa = pennies
A cup or two of rice = around $.25

Liz Price = less than $4.00 for supper for 6 people. That’s tough to beat.

Tuesday Tips - Command Station

Many studies have been done on how much a housewife would make if all of her duties were hired out. It seems like the total pay rate for a mother/housewife is somewhere around $150,000.00 a year! I use this only to point out that we have many very important responsibilities that if left undone would cause our harmonious homes to be come crazy chaos. With so much responsibility that ranges from fix lunch to prepare the taxes it is easy to loose track of what we are to accomplish next.

You see, it’s not that I forget a lot, it’s just that I can’t remember it all at once. I have tried to use everything I could imagine to tame the wilderness including a PDA, several paper calendars, a programmable calendar on my desktop, spiral notebooks scattered around my home, and sticky notes everywhere.

Finally, I found my solution. Instead of having information spread out all over my life, I needed to have it all in one constant area where I could coordinate and contain the chaos. I have a three-ring binder open on my counter top in an area that, due to poor building planning, is unusable otherwise. The two exposed sheets of notebook paper contain most of the information that I need for my week. It has my weekly menu, the important events for the week, a shopping list, and list of things I need to accomplish for the week. If I’m feeling particularly motivated I’ll even have the projected high and low temperatures penciled in.

I’ll check over it a few times a day, which is no bother since it is already open and accessible. By the end of the week I feel less ed and frazzled. My tasks were able to be worked on at my pace without being forgotten or past due. My menu was coordinated with our activities which prevented planning a 2 hour preparation for supper on an evening following an afternoon spent at the park. On the day with errands, I can planned for sandwiches which could be taken with us since we were running behind on time. This is usually the case, because somehow no one can ever find his or her shoes when it is time to leave.

My day seems just a little smoother when I utilize my external brain.

What's for Dinner Wednesday

“Why are we supposed to buy stuff for people on Valentine’s Day?” This is the question that my 7 year old asked yesterday. It broke my heart, but just for a second. This was the perfect opportunity to plant a seed of what love should be and to pull up the weed that tells us that you can buy another’s affection. Luckily, the Lord has granted many of us mothers the gift to respond to these important questions with instantaneous wisdom. I told him that Valentine’s Day was not about buying things for others, but showing others that you love them and how important they are to you. We can do other things to show people that we love them.


This got me pondering what I would do for my sweetie. Our finances simply don’t afford extravagant gifts and over the top expenses. Besides, those gestures would most likely cause him to worry about the state of our finances, not feel appreciated and loved. I decided that cooking his favorite meals would do the job.

He loves biscuits with tomato gravy, something that this city girl had never heard of until I married my country husband. Luckily I had looked over the new sale papers for this coming week. IGA has my vote for the best sales this week.

Sale                                    Biscuits
Flour, 5 lb bag $1.99        3 cups self-rising flour = 30 cents
Oil, quart $1.99                1/3 cup oil =17 cents
Milk, gallon $2.99            1 cup milk = 19 cents
                                       Tomatoes put up from the garden = time

His special breakfast only costs our family 66 cents, but I’ll need to get up extra early to get everything done before he leaves for work.

My husband also loves fried pork chops, but rarely gets them. It makes a big mess, I wind up cooking while everyone else is eating, they don’t keep very long in the refrigerator. I could go on, but I won’t. The point is that it’s something that I don’t care to do, but I would do it for him. That’s how we can show love. Selfless acts. This is what is taught in the gospel over and over.

Sale                                   Supper
Pork chops $.99/lb             2 pounds of chops = $1.98
                                          Flour for breading = about 10 cents
Potatoes, 8lb $1.59            4 lb for mashing = 80 cents
                                          frozen green beans = $1.25
                                         Garlic toast, half loaf of bread = 30 cents
                                          stick of margarine = 20 cents

This dinner will cost us just $3.53, but is worth so much more! Add cookies made by our boys and the monetary value goes up to $4.11, and it’s value becomes priceless!

I hope that this shows you that we don’t have to go out and “buy stuff for people” on Valentine’s Day. (And gives you some ideas for your menu this week.)

What’s for Dinner? Wednesday

I have learned recently that making a menu for the week’s meals is a very smart investment of my time.

Could you believe that menu-making could save money? Bizarre but true! Food only lasts so long before it goes bad. And since I tend to buy “good deals” in bulk, it would be very easy for it to go bad before I remembered to use it. On Wednesdays, when all of the new sales for the week have started, I do my grocery shopping as well as my menu planning. “Good grief! What am I going to do with 30 pounds of potatoes?” (Yes, this has happened.) I’ll schedule a morning or two for hash browns, a lunch with oven fries, a supper with mashed potatoes, and maybe one with scalloped potatoes. Potato salad would be nice with lunch as well. Those little spuds don’t stand a chance of sprouting in my pantry!

The dividends of this investment are also paid in the form of sanity. My menu is in a three-ring binder on my kitchen cabinet. When the children are tempted to ask one of the most irritating questions known to mother, they are directed to the notebook. “You are more than welcomed to look,” is a much nicer reply than, “I don’t know! I’m busy, why does it matter?” This is one fewer conversation in which to test my patience. It leaves more patience for other events throughout my day. I sure could use a little extra when it comes time for potty training and grading schoolwork!

The third return on this investment of time is even more time! The two hours before supper are hectic. The children are finishing up schoolwork. The toddler is waking up from her nap and wants lots of attention. The kitchen needs straightening….again! My husband has come home. This chaos is not the best environment for trying to figure out what everyone would rather have for supper. (Never do they actually agree on any food.) I could spend 30 minutes trying to decide what to fix. Spending this 30 minutes on Wednesday saves me at least 30 minutes at suppertime each night, not to mention the time saved at breakfast and lunch. If I were to translate this into price tags, because as we know time costs us, using a menu would only spend 1/7th of the planning time that it would take without one. Liz Price: 86% off !