Getting Rich Slowly

I have been following a blog for a few weeks now that I am in love with. It is called Getting Rich Slowly and it offers sound advice in simple words that we can all understand. The owner of the blog really does his research and helps many people to get out of debt and to save for their futures. I have made a couple of adjustments in my life and am seeing even more ways of saving money and protecting our finances for our retirements.

I keep all of the blogs that I follow in my Google Reader account and each day I look to see which of my blogs have updated since I last looked. Getting Rich Slowly is one of the blogs that I look forward to visiting daily.

If you have a debt problem, are just married and need to begin your savings for your retirement this is the blog for you. If you are a procrastinator and find yourself in your 50s and without as much saved as you had thought he may be able to offer you some advice too. Give him a try and let me know what you think.

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/

Egg Mockmuffin

Have I mentioned a few times before that my sister, Donna and I love to shop together? Well a few weeks ago she was going out of town to a kitchen store that was having a big sale. I knew that they were having a buy two get free sale on their Baker’s Secret pans so she called me while there to describe what was available.

Now imagine me on a ghost hunting/geocaching adventure in a rural part of West Virginia with Libby and trying to decide which pans that I wanted her to pick up for me. I had her get 9 pans in all for me. Since then I have been looking for ways to use the pans in a recipe for the blog. When I found this next recipe I knew that this pan was perfect for it. Isn’t this a beautiful pan? What? You don’t get excited about cookware? I can’t imagine not getting excited over a bundt shaped muffin pan.

I had decided a few weeks ago that I needed to find a way to prepare my own breakfasts to take to work with me. This would put me in control of what I am eating and also save me money. Each morning at work I was getting sausage and eggs and spending $2.31 for my breakfast in the hospital cafeteria. By making this recipe I have enough food for six days and it only cost me about $3.00. That is a savings of $10.86 per week or $564.72 a year. I can think of other things to do with $564.72 a year. Can’t you?

When I took these from the oven they looked so pretty that I had to take a picture before removing them from the pan. I then individually wrapped each one and put them all in a large container and put them in the freezer. I pack my lunch the night before work and stick my lunchbox in the refrigerator. I had my first one yesterday morning at work and people immediately came up to me asking for the recipe because it smelled so good while I was reheating it in the microwave.

The orginal recipe came from the site below and due to copyright laws I will not copy and paste it here since I did use the recipe exactly as written. Enjoy.

http://www.lowcarb.ca/recipes/breakfast102.html

I highly recommend surfing the net and looking for low carb recipes.  You will find many out there to make just about anything your heart desires.

 

My Foyer Wall Quote

I have been wanting a quote for my foyer wall for some time now. A couple of weeks ago I found one at Target that I was very pleased with. The one that I had wanted was quoted at over $200 and this one was only $16 so the frugal person in me chose this one from Target.  Everyone that enters loves it.

My Pantry

This past week I saw another lady’s blog and she showed how she stacks her containers of flours and sugars. I had already bought the containers for many of my flours but since becoming a Diabetic I now cook with so many different healthier options that I needed more containers. Seeing her blog inspired me to go ahead and buy the containers but to stack them her way instead of mine. It made my pantry so much more organized. What do you think?

 

To see her stacked pantry look here. http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-dream-pantryalmost.html

This past week was a very good week as far as stockpiling goes. I used the Grocery Game to help me with my grocery list and was able to save 88.5% off of my grocery bill. This was a new high for me. I can usually save about 70%.

With Krogers offering Rotel tomatoes on sale and the manufacturers offering $5 off for every 10 cans I was able to get 30 cans of Rotel tomatoes and actually made a profit from the deal. I was able to do the same thing with the Hormel Chili, of which I bought 40 cans. Take a look at my pantry now. I bought the Franks Red Hot Sauce for 49cents per bottle.

What isn’t shown are the five tubes of Crest Pro Health Toothpaste that I also got for free.  I love saving money and get a real feeling of satisfaction knowing that my family won’t do without and that we are prepared in case there is a shortage of money for the month. I feel very blessed that both my husband and I have good jobs and that we really don’t have to worry about buying food at this time but that does not mean that I am going to be frivolous either. We love to travel and this allows us the opportunity to do that more. It also allows me the funds to do the remodeling that we have been doing.

If you are interested in seeing how I save money on groceries please click here for a full explanation of how the Grocery Game works.

http://grace2882.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/my-secret-to-saving-money-at-the-grocery-store/

 

Stockpiling

I shared a few months ago how I stockpile groceries and use coupons to get them at rock bottom prices. You can see that post here.

http://grace2882.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/my-secret-to-saving-money-at-the-grocery-store/

I had shared pictures of what my pantry looked like and those pictures were taken shortly before being diagnosed with Diabetes. So many people tell me that they eat healthy and can not save money by stockpiling and using coupons because they do not eat processed foods.

Well I had to remove most of the items from my pantry and restock it with items that were low carb and healthy that I could eat. You will still see some items that are not low carb because those are items that my husband or family members love.

By using the Grocery Game I was able to save more than 70% on my grocery and health and beauty items. This first picture shows the utensils left over from my many parties, showers and weddings. I love to entertain and have friends and family over. Whether it be for crafts, dinner or to watch a movie. You will also see the Lawry marinades (20 cents each) that I use to create low carb meats on the grill and the foil (50 cents each)  that I use on my grill to save time.

 

This next picture shows my stockpile of French’s Onions and papertowels. I bought the papertowels for $1 a package. I have enough papertowels to last me a year and I did it for $3.

Now that I am making so many of my meals from scratch to control my carbs I have found that I am using different items that require containers to store them in. Here you will see my healthy baking supplies. I use White Wheat Flours, Almond Flours, Soy Flours, and quite a bit of Vital Wheat Gluten. I still have to keep sugar on hand for my husband and family members too.

My husband still wants some form of potato for each meal so I bought the Betty Crocker potatoes for only 20 cents per box. This gives him a variety to choose from and keeps potatoes from going bad now that he is the only one eating them. I also use a lot of stocks and broths in my low carb recipes and was able to get the large containers of Swanson products for only 47 cents each.

This next picture you will see more of the Swanson stockpile as well as my low carb pasta and part of my soup stockpile. I use quite a bit of Cream of Chicken Soup and Cheddar Cheese Soup so when I could get them for 30 cents a can I jumped on it.

This next picture shows my Lipton Dry Onion Soup stockpile. I use this in my meat recipes mixed with some of the Cream of Chicken Soup and it makes a very nice gravy sauce that even my husband loves.

I just wanted to share that you can save money and eat healthy. I have now lost 67 pounds eating low carb meals and have kept my Diabetes levels at a very low number of usually under 100 without medications. This is quite an accomplishment. Eating healthy does not need to cost you an arm and a leg. The Grocery Game can show you how to do it. They let you know when certain cuts of meat are at their lowest price and you can stock up at that time. I shop at Krogers and they also send me coupons monthly to get money off on my meat as well. The system works but you do need to give about an hour a week to it.

If you decide to join please give me as a reference. My email address is Grace2882@aol.com. To join the site go to the following link. https://www.thegrocerygame.com/index.cfm

To order coupons online use the following links:

http://www.thecouponmaster.com/index.php

http://www.thecouponclippers.com/coupons/home.php

If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I love to discuss how to save money.

My Secret to Saving Money at the Grocery Store

For over a year now I have been saving approximately 70% each week at the grocery store by using an online service called The Grocery Game. A friend told me about how she has a family of five and spends less than $60 per week. She homeschools her three children and is a stay at home mom so she is preparing three meals a day every day. Her husband also takes his lunch to work. They have a dog, one baby on formula and two babies in diapers. Until she actually showed me how to do it I was not a believer.

Each week the web site lists all of the items that are on sale for the stores that I choose to be on my list.  They keep track of which items are on sale for your store, what coupons are available and what that store generally has that item for at the lowest price. If your list has the item in black it is on sale but it is not the bottom price for that item. If you need to get that item only get one. If the item is blue you need to stock up on this item because that is the rock bottom price. If the item is in green it is free and you really need to stock up on this item.

For this what I do is calculate how many of that item do I generally use in a three month period. Usually each item goes on sale for the rock bottom price every three months. So if my husband usually eats two boxes of a certain kind of cereal per week I would need 24 boxes of the cereal. Considering that I never pay more than 80 cents for a box of cereal it is within my budget and I would be smart to stockpile this item. Instead of spending $88.56 for 24 boxes of cereal I only spent $19.20.

I had to convert the guest room closet in my home into a pantry to hold all of the items that I am stockpiling.  The cost of using this site depends on how many stores you choose to have on your list. I have two on my list and pay $15 every 2 months. If I get three people to join I get 2 months free. I have only actually paid twice in over a year because once my friends see my pantry they always want to know how to save so much money.

If you decide to join please give me as a reference. My email address is Grace2882@aol.com. To join the site go to the following link. https://www.thegrocerygame.com/index.cfm

To order coupons online use the following links:

http://www.thecouponmaster.com/index.php

http://www.thecouponclippers.com/coupons/home.php

If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I love to discuss how to save money.