Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Dinner From The Pantry and Freezer Pantry Challenge Continues



Tonight it is cold outside, at least cold for Texas. We may even get frost. Now I am wondering why I left San Diego. Family is the reason and a good reason I guess. I am getting to know my great granddaughter and 2 great grandsons. Well worth the cold cloudy weather.

Tonight I wanted comfort. Not to much comfort since I am desiring to lose weight this year.

So tonight was a Hamburger Hot Dish. That is what we call it in Minnesota. Different parts of the country would call it a casserole. This would be a church supper staple along with a jello salad.

So it was Hamburger with a jar of Ragu and 1 can of diced tomatoes added. Seasoned with a little salt, pepper and onion and garlic. Hubby added some velvetta cheese cubes. I mixed up a package of corn bread and opened up some peas and dinner was ready in 60 minutes.

Best of all there is more than one more meal left over.

How is your pantry challenge going.
I love looking for ways to saving money on my groceries and eating out. Hope that I can be helping you as I help my household

Thanks For Stopping By ... Lets Keep Saving Together .. Grace

Thrift Shopping Is An Adventure




staskym shared with me that she uses this internet site http://www.thethriftshopper.com/

I have had this site on my favorites list and used it when we lived in California and even used it when we were traveling in our motor home.
I search the thrift stores mainly to find items to sell on my ebay site http://stores.ebay.com/TurnAbout01 and on amazon and abe.

This is one way we suppliment our income since our retirement income does not cover all our basic needs.

This is one of my favorite finds recently. Hubby said why are you buying those pictures. I told him I loved them and if they don't sell we can turn our bedroom in " French Romance". He just rolls his eyes at me. The one thing we do not really need is Art work. Well I am happy to say I listed them and sold them for a nice profit.

Thift stores are a great place to change the decor of your home, find an outfit almost new and of course books and movies.

Why buy new when you can find used in wonderful shape. Of course there are things I will never buy used. But there are so many items I buy at a thrift store, garage sale or estate sale.

I love looking for ways to saving money on my groceries and eating out. Hope that I can be helping you as I help my household



Thanks For Stopping By... Lets Keep Saving Together... Grace

Sunday, January 3, 2010

More on Refunding and Rebates Do You Do Rebates ?

Recently I was talking about the importance of rebates and refunds. Here is a link I read from different rebaters, quick reading and a couple of ideas. I never thought to look for rebates on eBay. Need to be carefull there and not pay to much. I also see one person had a total for the year. How much spent , how much received.
I think this is a great idea to see how I am doing rather than just have a running list of what I have sent and what I have received so far in rebates. I think that walgreen and CVS bucks go in a different catagory since you are not necessary getting all your money back.

http://www.weusecoupons.com/upload/rebates/42083-ready-save-more-money-2010-start-rebating.html

Do you do any refunding/ rebates? Would love to hear your ideas on the subject.


I love looking for ways to saving money on my groceries and eating out. Hope that I can be helping you as I help my household.




Thanks For Stopping By... Lets Keep Saving Together ... Grace

Saturday, January 2, 2010

First Week of Eating From The Pantry Challenge


Week 1 of Eating From the Pantry Challenge.
Well the month started out yesterday. We had a nice quiet New Years eve at home. My precious husband made us Beef Stroganoff and we decided to change the apartment arrangement.
Our lives are busy with helping family with their business plus we buy items to resell on eBay. Mainly books but if something catches our eye it is added to the collection at home.
The last few months we have been working out of the living room, making desks out of card tables so we can work on the Internet and still watch our TV shows.
The living room got more and more messy.
I had the brilliant idea of putting our office in our bedroom since we have a cable hook up their and switch our bed room to the smaller bedroom.
So we worked most of New Years day moving furniture, vacuuming and confusing the poor cat. But we are on our way to making everything more comfortable and neater.
Time to go back to the posting of the first week of the challenge.
Since we made Stroganoff the last day of the year and our great home made soup the end of last week we have had left overs the 1st and the 2nd .
Remainder of the week menus will be
Meat Loaf and bake potatoes
Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Hamburger Stew and Mashed potatoes
Ham and scalloped Potatoes casserole

I will post at end of week any money we have spent on grocery items and any money eating out
Both are in different budget categories. I have decided to keep the money for groceries in one checking account and the money for eating out in another checking account so I can track better. We also put the money for gas for one week in the car. This way we can get a better feel for cost of gas and whether we need to increase this amount.

My goal for the month is the cut each food item in half if possible. My main challenge is I have very little meat in the freezer.

Thanks For Stopping By... Lets Keep Saving Together... Grace