Homemade Vanilla Extract

I saw a recipe on Chickens in the Road for homemade vanilla extract. I made some yesterday but won’t be able to taste the results for at least 2 months. I made it exactly as she had written so be sure to check her recipe out.

Now can you imagine what it was like for me to go into a liquor store? Imagine this.  I cook with different wines but I don’t drink at all. My husband doesn’t drink at all. When people first meet me they automatically know by my personality that I am not partier. When I was getting out of my car I saw three men inside the liquor store laughing and talking. The minute that I walked through the door the men stopped talking and the store was deadly quiet. Not being familiar with items in the store I had to eventually ask where they kept the Vodka and Rum. Just my luck the vodka was on the first shelf and the rum was on the last shelf in the store.

I became very confused when it came to picking out the vodka. They had many different brands and some were very expensive and some were amazingly cheap. I decided that if I wanted my vanilla to taste like a good quality vanilla that I needed to at least go middle of the line price wise.

Next I went to the rum aisle. Oh my,  now it gets tricky. It seems EVERY region of the world have their own spin on what rum should be. Rum comes in all colors and hues of the rainbow. I had no idea which would be better for this as it only calls for a couple of Tablespoons. I decided to get Bacardi since I had seen it in a magazine before. hahaha

I had priced vanilla beans at the store and it was outrageous. They wanted $4.59 for one bean. I bought them online at Amazon for $6.29 for 16 beans. That is a huge difference. With shipping I spent $9.67. Not bad at all.

Now, I want to show you the savings that you will get from making it yourself. Over the weekend I bought a little 6 ounce bottle of Vanilla extract for almost $10.  This recipe calls for  750ml of Vodka. That comes out to 25.35 ounces of vanilla when it has cured for 2 months. It only calls for a couple Tablespoons of rum so I figure I used 20 cents worth of it.

• Vodka- $7.49
• Vanilla Beans- $7.25
• Rum- 20 cents
• Total= $

To have bought 25.35 ounces in the store I would have paid $42.25. That is a savings of $16.90. I am guessing it probably tastes better too.

This is what it looks like today. I will come back in a month and share another picture.

Save-A-Lot

Do you have a Save-A-Lot near your home? I used to shop there all the time but stopped for several years. On Saturday I dropped in just to pick up milk and was pleasantly surprised to find many changes there. I walked up and down all of the aisles to see what they had new. They are carrying more items than before and the prices are pretty fair. I still think Aldi’s produce is much much better but the fresh meat department had more of an option.

They had a deal that I was very pleased with. They had many meat items that had stickers on them that if you chose 5 packages you could get them for $19.98. If you purchased the items separately they would have cost you more than $25 so this was a deal. Since there are only 2 of us living here buying 5 packages of meat would last us 2 weeks of meals for only $19.98. I plan to take advantage of this deal often.

Do you shop at Save-A-Lot?

Romance for You and Your Budget

“Sorry, I can’t. I have a hot date tonight!”

Date night is a regular occurrence in my marriage for 2 reasons: 1. I married THE most amazing man on the planet, and 2. it is absolutely necessary in order to keep our marriage strong and healthy. Below are some ideas that can help keep romance in your life– and your budget.

1. Reconnaissance Missions- Each weekend Ben and I have been trying out 1 or 2 independent coffee shops from a list I found on a local blog. It’s a low-cost coffee date with an adventurous twist (yay for GPS). What can you discover in your neck of the woods? Historic sites or beautiful hiking trails? Independent art galleries or unique food markets? If you can’t find an established blog like I did, why not start your own and pave the way?

2. Learn Something New- I destroy my husband at most card games because I’ve been playing most of them with my mom since I was old enough to say “hit me.” To even the playing field, we spent an afternoon learning a new card game (thanks to Google) and playing from equal experience. Perhaps you both learn to kayak? Maybe try a completely foreign style of cooking that requires skills neither of you have learned before (sushi)? Learning something new together puts you on equal footing and is something that you will share with only each other. Your first kiss with each other may pale in comparison to your first couple’s table tennis championship.

3. Serve Together- Is there anything sexier than a man working in the sun with a smudge of dirt under his eye in just the right place? How about one who is doing work for someone in need? Swoon! When you serve together you feel good about yourself and you get a chance to see the truly attractive qualities in the other person. Oh yeah, and you get to do some good in the process.

4. Make Lists- Feel like you are running out of things to talk about? Designate a notebook and make lists with each other over coffee or at home in your living room. Lists can include places you would like to visit together, favorite memories together, names of future or invisible pets (or children), favorite childhood TV shows, or things you would like to accomplish in your life together. Save the notebook and flip back through it from time to time.

Lastly, notice small opportunities for romance.

 

• Ask them out in a creative way, like mailing a card to the house or leaving an old-fashioned “check yes or no” note. Sometimes Ben calls me on the phone- from the guest room in our house while I am in the kitchen- just to ask me if I’d like to go on a date.
• Set the expectations beforehand with sweet text messages or notes on the bathroom mirror leading up to the date. Make sure you get dressed up for each other sometimes. Sometimes my husband will sneak outside and ring the doorbell as if he is arriving to take me out.
• Give a thoughtful and thrifty gift. Flowers are always nice- my husband once bought 1 rose and gave me an album with 12 pictures of that rose at places that were meaningful to us (and I got the rose). Buy a bag of sunflower seeds or a bottle of Coke, whatever they are addicted to, and give it as a gift.

Spending money doesn’t guarantee romance. It really is the thought that counts. What are some other ideas for budget-friendly romance?

Why Your Grocery Bill Will Double In 2011 and What You Can Do About It

On Saturday, I watched a 45 minute video titled, “Why your grocery bill double and what you can do about it” by Marjory Wildcraft. You can watch the video at this link.

Video Link

Ms Wildcraft gave me a lot to think about and offered ways to survive without going bankrupt when food prices soar. She mentioned that each grocery store only has a 4 day supply of food if for some reason trucks were not able to bring daily supplies.  Recently in areas where large storms have occurred the store shelves were bare within a couple of days because everyone went into survival mode and hit the stores running.

Wouldn’t it be nice to plan ahead for emergencies and be prepared? She also mentioned that due to oil prices increasing that the cost of food is going to at the very least double. Shell quoted that in 2011 they expect gasoline to soar to $5 a gallon. This of course will affect food prices as well as vacation, travel and availability of items.

She mentioned that we have already seen a 26% increase in the cost of food this year. She suggest that you store what you eat. She also suggest you plant a garden and breaks down how much you need of certain items. I highly suggest watching her video. It was eye-opening for me. I hope to eventually have rain barrels on my farm to catch water from the roof of our home in order to sustain our garden and animals.

I loved the water system she had with her chicken coop that provided a way to constantly supply water to her chickens using rain water. She mentioned that 30 countries have already banned exporting food because they are experiencing a food crisis and want to sustain their own people. This number of countries doing this is expecting to increase. The United States does not have a surplus of food. It is up to us to plan ahead and grow our food and can it to sustain us throughout the year.

Here is my question for my readers. Try answering the following questions and let’s try to have a dialogue. I want to learn from you how best to provide for my family.

1. Do you garden?
2. How many are in your family?
3. How large is your garden?
4. Do you can what you grow?
5. Do you stockpile items when you can get them at good price?
6. How long do you believe your family could go if necessary without going to the store and not go hungry?
7. Do you have a cellar to store your food?
8. Do you raise your own animals to eat?

Ms Wildcraft stated that she has a free newsletter that you can subscribe to where she offers advice on how to be self-sufficient.

www.Backyardfoodproduction.com

There was so much important information on her video. I hope that if you watch it you share your opinions here.

Cancel Cable Without Losing Out Part 2

Yesterday I shared how I personally keep up with my favorite shows without a monthly cable bill. Today I’m outlining some pros and cons for switching to this lifestyle.

Cons:

• No more channel surfing or turning on a channel for continuous background noise. Instead you will choose everything you wish to watch. Your shows and movies will play in separate units, similar to watching on DVD.
• While a DVR records things to be watched as soon as it is recorded, online episodes usually take 1 day to post online and some are a week behind.
• There is a learning curve. You will have to learn how to navigate Hulu and Netflix and possibly learn to use a new device. Though I am confident this is very doable for each of you, this can be off-putting for some.

Pros:

• You will find yourself being more intentional about what you watch. Instead of getting sucked in by a continuous stream of programming on a network, you will instead find yourself watching only what you wish. That just makes me feel better about myself.
• Try out new shows, a season at a time. Netflix recommends shows and movies based on what I have enjoyed in the past. When we checked out Bones based on one of those recommendations, we were hooked. This was fine, though, because all of the previous seasons were on Netflix Instant. We are getting caught up.
• You can better monitor what your children are watching. Netflix has a large children and family section, allowing you to select exactly what they are watching. Since the shows have a definitive ending time, you as the parent can know exactly how much time your children are spending watching television.
• Viewing in this manner removes commercials, keeping your children safe from those embarrassing age-inappropriate commercials or programming.

No solution is perfect, but I’ve found in my own experience that the pros definitely outweigh the cons when it comes to excluding the monthly cable bill. I think the biggest challenge is just changing the way you think TV should work. Why not make it work for you? Here are some resources for those considering making the switch:

• Another Perspective Part 1 and Part 2: This guy also shared on his blog how he cut out the cable bill. Aside from being a really funny guy, this is a great resource for those who may still have doubts.
• Hulu: Provides an extensive online library of old and current TV shows.
• Netflix: Provides an extensive online library of movies and seasons of TV shows. Also provides a by-mail DVD rental with no late fees.
• Roku: A device that allows you to access programs like Netflix and Hulu and watch them on your TV (yes, even in HD)
• Other Devices: Apple TV, Google TV, Boxee, Xbox360, PS3, Wii. The Roku seems to be at the top of the market for this type of device, but I wanted to let you know there are other options.
• Windows Media Center Internet TV: This came with Windows 7 for us. It’s a safe and legal player on your desktop that connects to the internet. Browse and enjoy shows with limited commercial interruption, just like on Hulu. We think Hawaii Five-O just looks prettier on this player.

So what about you? Do you have any questions about this or something else I didn’t address?

Cancel Cable Without Losing Out Part 1

One way my husband and I save money is by not having cable. If you know us then this might sound crazy because we follow an embarrassing amount of weekly TV shows. We also work very long days, often being gone in the evenings when our favorite shows air. So how do we stay up to date on The Mentalist’s search for his wife’s killer or the latest shenanigans of Glee’s New Directions?

We stay current in three ways:

1. We watch streaming video on the internet (legally and safely)

We rely on our internet connection for most of our TV watching. We have a free account on Hulu.com where our list is updated weekly with the most recent episodes of our favorite shows. This is actually our favorite way to watch our shows because there are very few commercials (usually 1 30-second commercial for each standard commercial break) and we can pause and rewind the show at our own leisure. Some fight scenes on Human Target are worth rewinding and watching again.

We watch most of our content on our laptop in the living room, but if you prefer to watch on your TV you can purchase a Hulu Plus account for $7.99/ month and stream the content to your television set through one of the supporting devices. We are looking forward to when we can use Hulu Plus for the Xbox 360 (coming soon).

Outside of Hulu, many networks offer their most recent episodes of shows on their own websites, requiring you to visit them weekly so they can make more money from the traffic to their site. While this is a bit more annoying (CBS is notorious for this), the viewing experience is very similar to that on Hulu.

2. We utilize Netflix Instant Watch, streamed through Xbox 360 to TV

Our Xbox 360 connects to the internet for game play. Many people don’t realize that the Xbox 360 offers many “apps” for other internet related fun such as Facebook, Twitter, and Netflix. If you have an Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, or one of the other supporting devices,  you can easily stream Netflix to your TV.

We received a year of Netflix for Christmas, so we are currently not paying anything for our account. We have the subscription that allows for streaming Instant watch and 1 DVD in the mail at a time, which if purchased would be $9.99/ month. If you purchase a year at a time you can get a lower fee. They offer a free 1 month no commitment trial. Careful, it’s like crack-it doesn’t take much to get hooked!

Netflix has an extensive online streaming library of movies and seasons of TV shows that we can watch instantly. Though many of their most “premium” movies are currently only available by mail, we have never found ourselves without something to watch. Thanks to Netflix we discovered a new favorite show, Bones, and have been watching all of the seasons from the beginning- without commercials! We are in season 4, please no spoilers. Netflix has also said that they would like to move to having all of their content available online for Instant viewing, thus making the slow by mail option obsolete. This will be amazing.

3. We have an antennae (remember-some channels are free)

When we are home, we do enjoy watching stuff as it airs. Having an antenna also allows us to watch big events like the Super Bowl and the Oscars. We get all the basic network channels, so daytime TV that is unavailable online (i.e. Ellen) is available for normal viewing. Our TV is older, so we also require a digital converter box for our antenna to work.

Cost Savings:

My mom pays $121/month for combined cable and internet and is able to get internet alone for $40/ month. If she cancelled her cable and purchased both Netflix and Hulu Plus, her monthly fees would drop to $57.98/ month. She would save over 50% monthly. That’s a savings of $62.02 each month, or $744 each year, and that’s a lot of money! Savings like that are worth doing without the very few shows that are unavailable with an internet connection.

For her there would be an upfront cost for a device that streams to her television, (I recommend Roku but there are many devices from which to choose) but you may find you already have the capabilities in your existing gaming system.

There are other benefits to switching to this method of TV watching, but I’ll go into that more tomorrow. For now I hope this information is enough to get you thinking about doing away with your monthly cable bill.

Samantha is Joining the Blog

My daughter, Samantha is going to be hosting a few posts over the next year. She might post once a month or more depending on her hectic schedule. She is very good at finding ways to stretch a dollar and have quality time with your spouse or children. While she hasn’t given me a grandchild yet. :::sigh::: She and her husband are in the ministry and work with teenagers. They know ways to have fun without spending a fortune.

I know that she is working on a post that will appear very soon on ways to save money to work towards your goals. She will share what she and her husband do that have allowed them to live full lives and achieve their dreams. She sent me an email a few weeks ago on ways to save money with the usual monthly expenses that we all have. I can’t wait for her to put it into her own words for the blog. I hope that others share ways that they save money too.

Yesterday, Mike and I painted the master bedroom in our current home. We still need to put one more coat of paint on it but it already looks amazing. We also put up new rubbed bronze accessories in the bathroom to match the handles on the cabinets. This made a huge impact. We took down the light fixture in the bathroom and spray painted it with rubbed bronze paint. It is still drying. In a few days I will take an after pic of the bathroom and post showing the light fixture. I already know that I will love it.

I organized my gift wrapping items. I found that I had wrapping paper and gift bags shoved into every corner and closet of my home. Once I found it all and put it in a nice storage container it really surprised me how much I already had. I won’t need to buy wrapping paper or gift bags for years, and I do mean years.

I have another long container like this full of gift bags. It is amazing how many gift bags I found. I think if I had organized by gift wrapping items a long time ago I probably would have saved money as well instead of repurchasing items that I really didn’t need.

January Savings

I kept an excel sheet of how much I spent on groceries for the month of January and how much I saved. I know, I know. That is crazy. But I also have all of my books listed in an excel sheet alphabetized by author and then title. hahaha

I found that for January I didn’t do too badly. For four weeks of shopping I managed to keep my groceries at $400.48.  By using coupons and shopping at stores like Walgreens and CVS that offer rewards for money off of your next purchase I saved $138.71.  I think that is pretty good considering that I shop healthy and mainly purchase fresh meats, produce and dairy items.

This month I was able to stock up on a few items so my health and beauty cabinet is full. I can’t get anything else in there. I only have one small shelf but I was able to get 4 bottles of the free Crest Prohealth mouthwash from CVS last week. That should be enough to last me about 2 months.

Walgreens had my body wash on clearance. Turns out I apparently was the only one purchasing this scent and they are no longer going to carry it. They had it for $1.49 instead of $2.99 so I bought all six bottles that they had. I have never been able to find that scent anywhere else. I will miss this bodywash when I am out of it.

This week I will be stocking up on Dove soap at Walgreens. They have a very nice deal. CVS has a nice deal on Coke products if you use that. Mike loves Coke and last week we stocked up on several cartons at CVS when they were offering $5 reward if you spent $20. He should be set on Coke now for about 2 months. This weeks deal makes the Coke $2 a carton for a 12 pack.

I am also keeping track of how much I am spending at V&J Farms on eggs, ground beef and fresh sausage. For January I spent $45.75. It should be interesting to see how much we will save once we are on the farm raising our owns chickens and cows. I doubt that we will raise any pigs so we will still need to get our sausage from them.

How did you do on saving money for the month of January?

Hot Coupon World

This is another tip on how to save money at the grocery store or pharmacy. Who doesn’t need to save money? This week I was able to save $34.08 cents and only spent $91.70. The bulk of my purchase came from Amazon. I buy in bulk through them to get items that I know that I will never have coupons for. It was very easy. I ordered on Monday before I went to work and on Wednesday when I came home my box was sitting on my door step. I now have enough almond meal to last me 2 months and enough of my gum to last me 4 months or more. I saved more than $20 by ordering these two items through Amazon in bulk.

Another way to learn about great deals at the store and where to find coupons is through Hot Coupon World.  They are totally free and I love their easy to use forum. Other people will add the deals that they have scored that week and will share them. Go to the message board for stockpiles and check out people’s pictures of their stockpiles. It was very impressive. A few have hoarding tendencies but most of them are only feeding their family for 3 months out of their stockpiles.

As I mentioned last week we who eat healthy don’t get as many savings as everyone else but we do save if planning carefully. For example: Mike has very dry skin in the winter and goes through several bottles of the itch-defense Curel Lotion. This is the only lotion that he has gotten any relief from. This week Walgreens had it on sale for $5.99 instead of the regular $8.99. I had 2 coupons for $2 off each bottle. I also had a reward return for $3 off from my shopping trip a couple of weeks ago. I had to add some gummy bears into the cart because you can’t have more coupons than items. 

When I got to the cash register my total came to $7.24 for 2 bottles of Curel and a bag of gummy bears. Because I bought 2 bottles of Curel I received a reward return of $5 to use towards my purchase next week. The lotion was something that we needed and would have had to have bought anyway.  Without coupons and sale price,  I would have paid $19.47 for my three items.

It is a bit difficult to save money on groceries when you mainly purchase fresh meat, produce and dairy but it can be done. We all need to bath, clean our homes and many of us have pets to care for and feed. These are the items that we can save money on. Can you share what you saved this week?

Saving Money on Groceries

I have been following a blog recently that really helps me to locate great deals at the grocery store. Deal Seeking Mom has a list of hot items for the week every Sunday for many stores including the one that I shop at.  When she shows you the deal she also tells you where the coupon is that you can use for that item.  Last week she tipped me off to a great deal on Curel lotion that my husband uses so much. If you purchased 2 of them CVS was giving coupons back for $5 off your next purchase. I already had coupons for this so in the end I only paid $2 each instead of the regular $8 each.

Shortcuts.com is another place that helps me to save money. You can print coupons or have them uploaded onto your card that you use for many of the grocery stores. Krogers works beautifully with this site. I simply click which coupons I want added onto my Krogers card and when I purchase that item their cash register automatically uses my coupon to give me the savings. .

With Shortcuts.com you can easily print a list of the coupons that you have electronically uploaded to your card. Uploading the coupons saves so much with the cost of paper and ink. I prefer to do couponing this way but do use the paper ones that come in Sunday’s newspaper.

I love how easy it is to shop at Krogers. I still shop at Aldi’s for quite a bit but for my yogurt and health and beauty products I can get the best deal at Krogers. On Friday I went to both Aldi’s and Krogers. Aldi’s has a wonderful produce selection and I bought my milk, cream cheese and red and yellow peppers there. This was much cheaper than if I had bought them at Krogers. I also bought 12 cans of green beans. I plan to stock up on green beans and a few other pantry items over the next few months.

Even with shopping at 2 stores I only spent $62.09 and had enough food for more than a week.  By using coupons and purchasing items that Deal Seeking Mom had suggested I saved $15.78 at Krogers. My biggest expenses come from my low carb yogurt that I purchase each week.  Since it is a store brand item there are never coupons for them.

Krogers mails coupons about every 2-3 weeks. These are excellent coupons. Friday I got 75 cents off of my fresh cilantro that I needed for the California Turkey Burgers. They always have coupons for their fresh salad mixes, and $2 off when you buy $10 of fresh meat from their meat department. I only buy meat when I have the meat coupon and I purchase whatever meat item is on sale for that week.

Is saving money something that you all would like to see more of on the blog? I want to stockpile some food but not in a hoarding kind of way. Only items that we use and only a 3 month supply. Did you know that most items come out with new coupons every 3 months and the stores coorelate their sales to when the coupons are available. It is a win win for everyone.

 I see other people coming out of the grocery store with huge buggies full of items and only spending $10 but with eating healthy and low carb I do not get the huge buggies of food. Instead I get healthy items. Fresh produce, fresh meat, fresh dairy. You can save money and eat healthy. You just have to be a bit more organized to do it.