Tasty Tuesday - Developing a System For Your Kitchen, Part 2

Tip of the Day: Don't pay for someone else to do what you can do yourself.

You've seen them. The 100-calorie snack packs, the single-serve Pringles, the individually wrapped Cheesecakes, the toddler-sized containers of ravioli, the mini cups of diced fruit, the pre-portioned celery and carrots sticks with a mini serving of dip.....the list goes on and on. It's ridiculous what Americans will buy when they are perfectly capable of doing the exact same things on their own for a lot less money.

I think the main problem is that Americans are gluttons. Myself included. If we open a can of peaches, we're going to eat the whole can. (Okay, maybe a healthy food wasn't a good choice. Let me start over). If we open a can of Pringles, we're going to eat more than the recommend 13 1/4 chips. Like they say....Once you pop, you can't stop!

In an attempt to curve our all-American gluttony, we have opted into a whole new line of foods: individually portioned menu items. Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with these. In fact, I think it's an excellent idea! The problem comes on the pricetag.

Example: You can buy one toddler-sized ravioli dish for about 89 cents. I'm going to estimate that there are about 8-10 pieces of ravioli in that container. -OR- You can buy a large can of ravioli for $1.29. Total number of ravioli pieces: closer to 40. Now, I don't know about you, but 10 cents seems like an awful lot of money to pay for one little piece of ravioli - especially when I know I could be buying them for about 3 cents a piece and simply pulling out 10 pieces for my toddler to eat at lunch.

By now, you're probably wondering why I'm talking about the cost of each individual piece of canned ravioli. Aren't we supposed to be talking about how to develop a system for your kitchen? Why, yes we are. And I'm getting to that. I just had to get all the preliminaries out of the way first. :)

Instead of buying all those pre-packaged individual servings for everything, just learn to do it yourself. If you have a baby around the house and you purchase baby food, I highly recommend the Gerber plastic containers. (They are worth a few extra pennies in my opinion). These baby food containers are about 2 inches x 1 inch x 1 1/2 inches and they are absolutely PERFECT for toddlers - but also for adults. If you don't have a baby in the house, simply purchase some small plastic containers (or save them if you buy something that comes in them). Yogurt containers used to work well but now I believe they are all without actual lids. Anyway, just find some small containers to store your food.

You will find that this method is more efficient for your kitchen because it keeps you organized. If you use clear containers, you're more likely to see what you have and use it. You can also pre-portion things that are not yet sold individually to grab as a snack on the way out the door (i.e. pretzels, peanuts, etc.). It's more efficient for the environment because you're using reusable containers. And obviously, it's more efficient for your wallet.

In case I have completely lost you in this whole process, I will post a picture of a few things that I have pre-portioned this week:

Since I have toddlers in the house, I try to keep easy-to-grab snacks on hand at all times. You can see that I have some cheese cubes in one (cut by yours truly), pretzel sticks in another, and that steamy-looking one is blueberries. I plan on taking all 3 of these containers for our weekly Tuesday sack lunch at the church.

The other containers are mini cheesecakes. I bought a box of cheesecake mix at Aldi yesterday for $1.29 and made 8 serving-sized containers like this. Total cost: 16 cents each! Quite a bit cheaper than those individually wrapped Cheesecakes in the grocery store, huh?

If you have kids in your home (and even if you don't), I encourage you to give this a try - especially if you are currently buying serving-sized items. See what kind of difference it makes in your time and your checkbook! :)

Money Monday - Budget, Part 6

Saving For Your Child's College Education

While many people will argue with this, I want to preface this topic with my own personal opinion: There are several successful people in the world who did not go to college. College is not an absolute necessity to having "the good life". In recent years, experience has begun to weigh more and more heavily over having a college degree in one's line of work. While it's possible that you might start out making more money with a college degree under your belt, that isn't always the case. And to be blunt: Life isn't about the money (although, sadly, our culture seems to think it is).

That being said, it is important to plan for your child's future. Even though life isn't about the money, we can't exactly live without money either. If you are in a mess of debt due to mountains of student loans, you can easily understand why sending your child out of the house with NO debt is the absolute best plan for them. (Of course, in order to keep them out of debt you need to teach them BY EXAMPLE how to manage their money wisely before they leave the house - but that's a whole different topic).

You may be wondering how much you need to save for your child's college education. I recommend using a monthly college planning form to figure this out. Once you have determined how much you need to save, you need to take a look at the options for saving for your child's college education:

ESAs (Education Savings Accounts a.k.a. the Education IRA)
This account grows tax-free when used for higher education. You can invest your money anywhere, in any fund or any mix of funds, and change it at will. It is the most flexible form of college savings plans. The ESA currently (someone please correct me if it has gone up) allows you to invest up to $2000 each year per child if your house hold income is under $200,000. If funded in a growth-stock mutual fund average 12 percent return when invested long-term, $2000/year (that's about $42/week) over an 18-year span would give you $126,000 for you child's college education!

529s
This is a state plan, but most allow you to use the money at any institution of higher learning in any state. There are several plans within this plan.
1. The "life phase" plan allows the plan administrator to control your money and move it to more conservative investments as the child ages. These perform at around 8 percent because they are very conservative.
2. The "fixed portfolio" plan set a fixed percentage of your investment in a group of mutual funds and locks you in until you need the money. You can't move the money, so if you ge tinto some stinky funds, you're stuck with them. This type may yield better returns, but it gives you less control.
3. The "flexible" plan allows you to move your investment around periodically with a certain family of funds. A family of funds is a brand name of mutual fund. You could pick from virtually any mututal fund in the American Funds Group or Vanguard or Fidelity. You are stuck in one brand, but you can choose the type of fund, the amount in each, and move it around if you want. (This one seems like the best option to me).

We originally started with ESAs for our two oldest children but, since we are still on Baby Step 2 of Dave Ramsey's plan and saving for college is Baby Step 5, we have put that on hold. We are also reconsidering where we want to invest for our children's future. What if our children decide they don't want to go to college? What if our girls want to be stay-at-home-moms? What if our children receive full scholarships to the college of their choice and would prefer to use the money we have saved for their wedding? We don't want to have to pay the fees for pulling that money for uses other than higher education, so we are considering other options, mainly mutual funds. But we have a little bit of time before we need to decide.

If you don't have very much money to set aside for your child's college savings, never fear. There are other options for them such as scholarships, grants, and *gasp* a job. We actually don't plan on paying for all of our children's college tuition. We plan on paying half and having them pay the other half. No loans. Just a job. We will teach them to save their money if they have a job in high school and go to school while working if they choose to go to college. Of all the legacies we plan on passing on to our children, we certainly do NOT plan on passing on the legacy of student loans. UGH!

By the way, I was very excited to see that, according to last week's poll, 1/4 of my readers are already debt-free! Kudos to you!

Links to other parts of this series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 7

(Many stats and information quoted on this page were taken from Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover).

Money Monday - Groceries For The Week (March 2nd-8th)

I'm starting to notice a trend. Every Monday, I post SEVERAL blogs. Pretty much every other day of the week I post ONE blog. I'm beginning to wonder if it would have been more profitable for me to have a blog solely devoted to "Money Mondays". But I will trek on with my journey to provide with "your daily dose" of various things....at least for now.

Many of you have asked me how we manage to survive on our $200/month grocery and toiletry budget, so I thought I would show you what I bought for the week.

Now, I have to add a disclaimer: There are MANY people who have a similar or even lower grocery budget than we do and they eat very healthy foods. We do not tend to be so health-conscious in our food choices. So if you're reading this and thinking "Oh, sure - you can get that kind of food on your budget, but what about what I eat?", rest assured that you can eat healthy foods for the same amount of money. You just have to be a bit more creative.

This week I shopped at Aldi and Kroger. Here is what I got:

Aldi $36

Kroger $12

This is not a normal week in our home. My husband has training in the evening this week so I am having to send him lunch and dinner. (Typically, I send him breakfast and lunch). So I do not plan on doing many "normal" meals since he will not be home to eat with the family. However, with this food, I could do 5-7 normal meals.

This week, Daniel is taking to work:

Monday - Yogurt, Chicken Sandwich on Panera Bread (FREE, courtesy of our church's connection with Panera), Homemade Cookies, Pot Pie

Tuesday - Yogurt, Salad, Tuna Salad Sandwich on Panera Bread, "From-A-Box" Cheesecake ($1.29 at Aldi, portioned by yours truly into 8 indivudual servings = 16 cents each)

Wednesday - Yogurt, Pot Pie, Salad, Pretzel Sticks, Cheesecake

Thursday - Yogurt, Baked Chicken Sandwich, Salad, Peanuts

Friday - Yogurt, Pot Pie, Salad (no dinner on Friday)

The kids are eating:

Monday - Breakfast: Pop Tarts, Peanuts Lunch: Hot Dogs, Carrot/Celery Sticks (cut into kid-sized sticks by me), Pretzel Sticks

Tuesday - Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ Yogurt Lunch: Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Blueberries, Cheese Cubes (again....cut by me)

Wednesday - Breakfast: Cold Cereal, Raisens Lunch: Ravioli

Thursday - Breakfast: Toast, Eggs, Pineapple Chunks Lunch: Fish Sticks, Green Beans

Friday - Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ Applesauce and Raisens Lunch: Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Blueberries, Green Beans

I will eat leftovers for lunch or make myself a chicken sandwich and have some fruit. I haven't decided on dinner yet, but we have all the ingredients for the following options:

Spaghetti w/ Meat Sauce, Chili, Hamburgers, Pancakes, Waffles (yes, we eat breakfast for dinner), Meatloaf, Chicken and Rice Bake, Fried Rice

So there you have it. $48 covers our family for (more than) one week!

I am starting a new poll (on the left of the screen). Tell me how much you spend per month on groceries for your family! Also, feel free to leave a comment here telling how many people are in your family.

Weekend Worship - Rest

Well, I didn't get to the homiletics that I was shooting for this past week. (See last week's blog if you don't know what I'm talking about). There were a lot of crazy things going on in our home and, although it should have been top priority, somehow it fell by the wayside.

I'm pretty much preaching to myself when I say that it is SO important to rest in order to properly worship the Lord. If we don't rest, we cannot function to our full capabilities and are not able to serve God in the ways He desires.

And on that short note, I am heading to bed....

Fitness Friday

Lately, I've been talking about how I've really gotten into exercising with a stability ball. This week I took pictures of myself doing my exercise video (which proved to be MORE exercise than just doing the video alone). I don't think I will post them though - at least not right now. :) But I still encourage you, if you find exercising to be a "boring task", to pick up a stability ball (on sale, of course) and give it a try!

Today, I want to offer a few more suggestions of things you can do for exercise that you may find more interesting than your average 2-mile jog. Here is a short list of some things I have done in the past for exercise and would like to get back into:

volleyball
basketball
jumproping
rollerblading/rollerskating
bike riding
tennis

I know it's hard to do these things in the winter, but...Alas! Spring is on its way! (At least, I sure hope it is!) If you have a YMCA membership, these are things you could do year-round. Rollerblading, jumproping, and bike riding can be done as long as the roads are dry. Tennis and volleyball can be played against a wall by yourself if you have no one to play with you. And we all know that basketball is an easy one-man sport.

If you have never tried some of these forms of exercise, give them a shot! (No pun intended). Do you have any other creative ideas for exercising that aren't boring?

Throwback Thursday - A Leap Day Tradition

Leap Day Tradition - No Man is Safe

While leap day helped official timekeepers, it also resulted in social customs turned upside down when February 29 became a "no man's land" without legal jurisdiction.

As the story goes, the tradition of women romantically pursuing men in leap years began in 5th century Ireland, when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about the fair sex having to wait for men to propose. Patrick finally relented and set February 29 aside as the day set aside allowing women the right to ask for a man's hand in marriage.

The tradition continued in Scotland, when Queen Margaret declared in 1288 that on February 29 a woman had the right to pop the question to any man she fancied. Menfolk who refused were faced with a fine in the form of a kiss, a silk dress, or a pair of gloves given to the rejected lady fair.

A similar modern American tradition, Sadie Hawkins Day, honors "the homeliest gal in the hills" created by Al Capp in the cartoon strip Li'l Abner. In the famous story line, Sadie and every other woman in town were allowed on that day to pursue and catch the most eligible bachelors in Dogpatch. Although the comic strip placed Sadie Hawkins Day in November, today it has become almost synonymous with February 29.

(Click here to read more about leap year).

Wacky Wednesday - Video Time!

It seems like so much work to download a video and then upload it just so all of you can see it. Wouldn't it just be so much easier for you to click on the link? I think so. :)

So here we go. You may have seen these before, but I get a kick out of them every time.

Today's Theme: Old People

Old Lady Hits Mercedes

What Old People Do For Fun

Tasty Tuesdays - Developing a System For Your Kitchen, Part 1

I have decided to start a series on how to develop a system to make your kitchen work for you. I have found several things in the 4 years that I have been married (2 of those being a SAHM) that have really helped simplify my life. Since my friends sometimes comment on certain things that I do, I wanted to share with you those things that have made my kitchen work for me.

Today I want to talk about prep work. I know that, as a SAHM, I should have plenty of time to get dinner started and going on any given day but I still find it difficult to get myself motivated sometimes. One thing that I have found which helps me tremendously is to get the prep work for my meals taken care of before the actual day that I need the food.

Something I have begun to do is put all of my dry ingredients (for certain food items) into a ziploc bag, thereby forming my own mix (similar to Bisquik). I write on the outside of the bag in permanent marker what ingredients are in the bag, what ingredients need to be added, and cooking/baking instructions. (I personally recommend quart-sized freezer bags. They tend to be just the right size and are much more "heavy duty" that the average zipper bag). Here is an example of a cornbread mix:

Right now, I have mixes for pancakes, waffles, cornbread, and herb batter bread. I try to keep two of each on hand. Since the bags are sturdy freezer bags and they only contain dry ingredients, I can use them over and over again. When I have some free time (haha), I will check the pantry to see how many of each we have left. If we are running low, I will fill a few bags.

This idea can also be done using a large container and mixing for several batches at a time. I tend to think that I would not mix everything well enough and would therefore end up with a lopsided loaf of bread or cornbread that tastes like it has no sugar, so I use the bag method. I also like to do it this way because I can always see exactly how many bags I have prepared. In addition to those reasons, bags stack well and are, of course, very versatile when it comes to storage space.

I have several more things that I am excited to share with you in the coming weeks. What do you do to keep your kitchen organized? Blog about it in your own blog and then leave me a comment letting me know about it. I will post a link to your blog next week when I continue this series.

Money Monday - Budget, Part 5

Last week we talked about funding a FFEF (Fully Funded Emergency Fund) with at least 3-6 months of living expenses. Today we will discuss what to do once you have established your FFEF.

Investing: USA Today reported recently that 56 percent of Americans do not systematically prepare for retirement age by investing. Consumer Federation of America found that, of pepole making less than $35,000 per year, 40 percent said the best way for them to have $500,000 at retirement age is to win the Lotto. To top that, Wealth Builder magazine's poll found 80 percent of Americans believe their standard of living will go up at retirement. Talk about living in a fantasy! You must invest now if you want to spend your golden years in dignity.

Remember, you don't have any debt but a house payment now and you have 3-6 months of living expenses in savings (which is thousands of dollars). With only one payment, you should have plenty of money to invest in your retirement.

When we get to this stage, we plan to invest 10 percent of our gross income. But keep in mind that we are young. Our family should be at this point financially within 18 months and my husband and I will both be under 25 years old. If you are older (over 30), I recommend investing 15 percent.

Why not pay off the house first? Having a paid-for house at age 75 with no retirement savings doesn't get you very far. Why not save for college first? Your children's college degrees won't feed you at retirement. And there's a good chance that Social Insecurity isn't going to cut it (or even be around, for that matter).

An excellent choice for long-term investing is mutual funds. They average a 10-12 percent return on your investment. Research your mutual funds carefully and look for a good track record of winning for more than five years. It's a good idea to vary your mutual funds also (Invest in some Growth and Income funds, some International Funds, some Aggressive Growth funds, etc.)

Always start investing where you have a match. When you company will give you free money, take it. If you don't have a match, or after you have invested through the match, you should next fund Roth IRAs. If you max out your Roth IRAs, go back to investing in 401ks, 403bs, 457s, or SEPPs (for the self-employed) until you have reached 15 percent of your gross income.

I know I said I would talk about saving for your children's college educations today, but I think I will save that for next week.

Also, as I mentioned last week, if you have not yet cast your vote in the "How Much Consumer Debt Do You Have?" poll on the left side of the screen, please do so. I would love to know how many of you are in the same boat as we are and how many of you have already become debt free!

(Much of what I said today is directly quoted from or summarized from the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey).

Links to other parts of this series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 6
Part 7

Money Monday - Free CVS Stuff!

So today I made my weekly stop at CVS. Here is what I picked up tonight for FREE:

6 boxes of Kleenex

6 mini candy bars pkgs (8 each)

3 Wonka creme eggs

1 movie-sized box of Nerds

2 boxes Nips (caramel hard candies)

1 3-pk Irish Spring soap

1 Valentine's Day gift bag (on clearance 90% off)

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Total before coupons/sales: $29

Total ECB used: $15.00

Total OOP: $0

Total ECB earned: $6

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I know...not as great of a deal as last week, but we really needed Kleenex and uh - candy. :)