Cut out most of your big expenses but still need a little help? These tips can help in some creative (and some unexpected) ways.
1. Mend and/or Make your Clothes
Did you know that the world's clothing and textile industries made around $3 trillion in 2011? That's a lot of money! The average American family spends about $2,000 a year on just clothes, so if you can mend it and save yourself from buying a new blouse, that's an extra $30 you don't have to spend. If you repair more than a few articles of clothing a year, you can save even more. Making your own clothes can take a bit of practice, but there are a lot of patterns and different kinds of cloth available, and often times it's cheaper to make your own clothes than to buy them, even on sale.
2. More Money, Less Lawn
Depending on where you live, having a lawn can be extremely expensive, especially if you are the sort to obsess over every dandelion and clover that dare rear their flowery little heads. Watering, seeding, reseeding, pest control and herbicide usage to keep lawns perfectly manicured cost Americans an average of $40 billion a year. There are many ways to help reduce the cost in sweat and dollars.
Trees cast shade on both the lawn and homes, which can be beneficial especially in hot summers. Fruit trees are even better, because you can harvest from them and save on fruit or nuts that way. Planting drought-resistant grasses can also be beneficial, since they require less watering than traditional grasses. Weeds have many benefits to lawns: deep-rooted dandelions bring moisture to the surface for grasses to drink and clover affixes nitrogen to the soil and helps grass stay a rich green color. If you don't like your lawn at all, you can always put in a garden instead. Even large gardens require less water than pure lawns.
3. Consider The Necessities
This section is especially for the ladies. Feminine hygiene products have always been a nearly over-looked section of the budget, but there are ways to cope. Before industry commercialized the use of widely-available pads and tampons, there were other methods that were used and cost much less, and many have been vastly improved today and are reusable. Silicone and rubber cups are available, and you can get reusable pads and tampons, or even make your own. Patterns for making pads and tampons are widely available and are machine washable depending on the type of cloth used.
4. Craft it Up
Spending too much for party favors at the dollar stores? An hour or two of thoughtful preparation can save hundreds or more a year. There are hundreds of craft ideas and ways to spice up the party without breaking the bank. A little paper and a pair of scissors can make a plastic parade into a much more hand-crafted and earth-friendly clean-up. For winter parties, snowflakes and snowmen can be made with simple white printer paper folded properly and cut. Cocktail parties can be flamboyant with neon origami, and Hawaiian barbeques strung with cut paper flower garland. The possibilities are endless.
5. Entertainment on the Cheap
Need a break? Cut back on the stress and the budget. The price of cable has skyrocketed, but an amazing amount of television shows and news can be viewed online for free or for an inexpensive monthly fee, and can be viewed at any time with fewer advertisements. Movie night can consist of a rental and a bowl of fresh, air-popped corn. If you really want the theater experience, consider going during matinee times for half-price tickets, or even going to a drive-in. If you're an adventurous gamer, many games can be found online for cheap or in stores used for less than new price. Movies can be found this same way. If you're looking for more traditional entertainment or ways to bring the family together, try board and card games. Puzzles can offer a great deal in collaborative working rather than the competitive nature of many games. Simple games like Go Fish and Old Maid are great for younger children and can even be fun for adults. Mancala is another good one for kids because of the fun beads and simple rules, and can help them learn counting, but be sure they don't try to eat the pieces!
6. Re-use Containers
Do you buy pasta in the jar? Keep the jar! There are many containers that can be simply washed and reused over and over again, including but not limited to: jam, pasta and pickle jars, cottage cheese, yogurt and whipped cream plastic containers, as well as some others. Cans from industrial canned goods should not be reused for food, because once exposed to air, many foods can easily react with the metal.
All containers should be thoroughly washed in hot, soapy water before being used for other food items. Glass containers can be especially useful for brewing sun tea in various quantities. I usually use two tea bags in a quart jar filled nearly to the top with water and leave it in the sun for about 3-4 hours, depending on how sunny and hot the day is. The darker the tea, the less time needed to leave it in the sun. Once the tea is ready, I remove the tea bags and add sugar to taste, screw the lid back on and give it a good shake, then leave it in the refrigerator to cool. You can also use the jars to mix salad dressings, hold broth or a number of other mostly-liquid items. Containers from dairy products can be used for nearly hundreds of uses from holding leftovers to being used as bowls for eating directly out of, to hold craft items (like buttons, beads, spools and more) or even to make crafts from. Industrial cans can be used to hold mostly dry and craft items like markers, pens, feathers, and more. They can also be decorated, painted and turned into crafts themselves.
Do you have more fun and crazy ways to save some money? Feel free to share them in the comments below!
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Eating Yourself into Debt? Try These Tips!
Every single day, the United States throws away anywhere between 25%-40% of our food. No wonder so many of us are in debt! When the average person spends about $150 a week on food alone, there are a lot of reasons to reconsider how your food is used, or in some cases, abused.
Here's some tips and tricks for saving yourself some dough... literally!
1. Eat Leftovers
I know this one is kind of a no-brainer, but really! Leftovers are one of the things people throw out the most. Most of the time, the issue isn't the food itself, but the way it's prepared, but leftovers don't have to be dull or boring. Here are some ways to spice them up:
Soups and Stocks
Chicken Bones and Skins
You can use them to create chicken stock. Just toss them into a big stock pot along with celery, carrots, onions, parsley, salt and pepper, then add water enough to cover. Bring to a boil, then immediately bring it back down to a simmer for a few hours. Your house will smell of your mom's home made chicken soup. You can use this technique with any bones and skins you have on hand, but you might want to use different kinds of veggies in the stock, depending on the type of animal the bones came from.
Pot Roast
Got a pot roast laying around? Turn it into soup! Cut the roast into inch-sized cubes and toss them into a stock pot with chopped onions and a little more water than to cover. Bring it to a boil and add egg-noodles and you're good to go once they cook up. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Wilted Veggies
And what do we do with these? You guessed it! Cut out the bad parts of your old veggies and taste to make sure they're okay to go into your soup. Chop them up to size and toss them into water and boil. You can add stock or water only, or pop open a can of veggie juice to pour in. A good combination I've experimented with is tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms and onions. If you're not too confident with the mixture, don't worry, at least they weren't fresh veggies and you can always try again. Experimenting with food can be fun!
Main Courses
Chicken Enchiladas
This twist on an old favorite is simple enough to do and much less time consuming than doing it from fresh. If you have a chicken or chicken pieces from a few nights ago, some soft tortilla shells, enchilada sauce and nice Mexican cheese then you're good to go. Using your fingers or fork, shred the chicken as finely as you'd like. Put down a layer of cheese onto the tortilla in a line, then chicken, then more cheese, then roll the whole thing up and lay it into a sauced-lined baking dish. Do as many enchiladas as you'd like, then smear the tops of them with more sauce and a layer of cheese. Pop them into a hot oven until done and you've got some delicious Mexican without the price of going out.
Pulled Pork
Got a pork roast or some pork chops? Just shred them up and pop them into a crock pot for a few hours with BBQ sauce and you've got pulled pork. Can you say 'easy'?
Desserts
Fruit Pies
Is your fruit bowl drawing bugs? One of the best ways to use up a lot of fruit is to put them in a pie or cobbler. Get a pie shell ready and prepare your fruit for deliciousness. Basic ingredients for fruit pies are the shell, sugar and fruit. Mix the sugar and fruit and put them in the shell and bake for around an hour. Your house will smell great and your family will be glad the flies are gone.
Freezer Pops
A little cool goes a long way to using up those extra bits of fruit. Get out your ice pop maker or an ice cube tray. Cut your fruit small, add sugar and enough water or milk to blend it well, then pour right into the trays and freeze for a few hours. These are a great treat in the summer months.
There are literally hundreds of ways to re-use leftovers and these are just a few examples.
And now for tip number two!
2. Use Kitchen Scraps
A lot of what we throw out is in scraps as well: vegetable and fruit peels, seeds and stumps. Here are some creative ways to use those bits other than tossing them down the disposal or trash.
Banana Peels
Acne, wart removal, shoe shine, silver polish, teeth whitening and more are all things banana peels can do. Just give whatever you're using them for a rub from the inside of the banana peel and they should be good to go. They're also fantastic to toss into your compost pile or garden if you keep one, since they're naturally high in potassium.
Potato Peels
These are still edible! Mix them with a bit of oil, salt and pepper and toss them onto a baking sheet, crisp them up and they are a much more nutrient-rich version of potatoes. Plus, no preservatives! They also make a great addition to compost.
Oranges
You can zest them before you juice them and keep dry it for other recipes. Peels (with the zest intact) can be used to deter cats (they HATE citrus!) until they dry out. The dried peels can also be used in pot potpourri and smell wonderful.
Grow from Seeds
A lot of scraps include the seeds, many of which are viable and can produce food of their own. Avocados, oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines, and many many other seeds can be grown. I myself have grown 3 lemon trees from seed and look forward to growing more.
Grow from Scraps
You can use some kitchen scraps to grow more food. Pineapple, onions, potatoes, celery and some others are able to grow just from the roots or tops of the plant. With pineapples, you can just twist the top off and pull of about 2-3 layers of leaves and just set it in some soil securely. Water it and watch it grow! Green onion bottoms can be cut from the leaves (the green part) and just pop the root sections into the ground and voila! More greens for free. Celery bottoms are the same.
Egg Shells
Egg shells can be rinsed and turned into art as well as a calcium supplement for your garden. Be sure to use warm water and be sure to get out all the egg-white free of the shell before using for either of these projects.
A small note: Most vegetable scraps can also be used for compost. Using meat scraps can draw pests and contribute to the creation of microorganisms like e coli.
3. Storing Food
Finding a great deal on produce or meat can be wonderful, but figuring out how to deal with all the extra food can be daunting. The refrigerator can only fit so much, and unless you have other ways to store food or are a Tetris genius, you could be drowning in rotten veggies within a few days.
Freezing
One of the most common and simplest ways to store food is to pop it into the freezer. This is easiest to do with meats that are already packaged, but a little harder for fresh produce. For most fruit and veggies, chopping them up and putting them into freezer bags is perfect. With a little work, you could save a few dollars by finding produce on sale instead of buying them pre-frozen.
Leave it Out
There are quite a few food items that can be left out without them going sour right away. Most fruits and vegetables are like this, but many should be used quickly before they draw fruit flies. Potatoes, onions, pumpkins and most winter squashes can keep for weeks or even months just by leaving them out. Some veggies, like carrots, celery, green onions and cabbage can draw flies much sooner. Be aware of what can be left out of the refrigerator or kept inside.
Canning
Heating foods and putting them into jars is something your grandmother did, but it is still just as useful today. Creating jams, jellies, sauces and more can be a very rewarding experience as well. There are a few things to remember, however, to keep the canning process successful:
Sanitation
Keep all lids and jars sanitized. This can be done in many ways: boiling, baking, and washing. It might be best to do at least two of them, just to be safe.
Amounts
Be sure to have exactly, if not more, jars and lids as you need to can your food. If you don't then you will end up wasting at least a little more food than you'd hoped.
Process
Know what process you're using before you start. There usually is a lot of heat, measurements and timing involved in canning and being familiar with all parts of the process before you begin can help tremendously.
Dehydrating
One method of storing food is fairly ancient, but is still very viable. Dehydrating vegetables, meat and fruit is a simple and very long-term way to store food. A properly sealed jar or bag of dehydrated foods can keep for a year, if not longer. There are many different kinds of dehydrators available, and you can even try making one yourself, but when first starting out it can be helpful to have a factory-made one first, merely for consistency's sake.
4. Grow a Garden
Even having a few pots of fresh herbs on hand can save some money. Buying fresh herbs every time you cook can get very expensive quickly, but most recipes don't take much and letting the rest rot in your fridge can be annoying. Having a small herb garden can help freshen up your window sill as well. If you are new to the idea of growing food instead of flowers, it isn't too much different. There are pests to watch out for and watering to do, and just as much weeding, but at the end of the day, home-grown tomatoes taste so much better than store bought. Give it a try and save a few dollars.
Have any tips you'd like to share? Hop on down to the comments section and share them!
Here's some tips and tricks for saving yourself some dough... literally!
1. Eat Leftovers
I know this one is kind of a no-brainer, but really! Leftovers are one of the things people throw out the most. Most of the time, the issue isn't the food itself, but the way it's prepared, but leftovers don't have to be dull or boring. Here are some ways to spice them up:
Soups and Stocks
Chicken Bones and Skins
You can use them to create chicken stock. Just toss them into a big stock pot along with celery, carrots, onions, parsley, salt and pepper, then add water enough to cover. Bring to a boil, then immediately bring it back down to a simmer for a few hours. Your house will smell of your mom's home made chicken soup. You can use this technique with any bones and skins you have on hand, but you might want to use different kinds of veggies in the stock, depending on the type of animal the bones came from.
Pot Roast
Got a pot roast laying around? Turn it into soup! Cut the roast into inch-sized cubes and toss them into a stock pot with chopped onions and a little more water than to cover. Bring it to a boil and add egg-noodles and you're good to go once they cook up. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Wilted Veggies
And what do we do with these? You guessed it! Cut out the bad parts of your old veggies and taste to make sure they're okay to go into your soup. Chop them up to size and toss them into water and boil. You can add stock or water only, or pop open a can of veggie juice to pour in. A good combination I've experimented with is tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms and onions. If you're not too confident with the mixture, don't worry, at least they weren't fresh veggies and you can always try again. Experimenting with food can be fun!
Main Courses
Chicken Enchiladas
This twist on an old favorite is simple enough to do and much less time consuming than doing it from fresh. If you have a chicken or chicken pieces from a few nights ago, some soft tortilla shells, enchilada sauce and nice Mexican cheese then you're good to go. Using your fingers or fork, shred the chicken as finely as you'd like. Put down a layer of cheese onto the tortilla in a line, then chicken, then more cheese, then roll the whole thing up and lay it into a sauced-lined baking dish. Do as many enchiladas as you'd like, then smear the tops of them with more sauce and a layer of cheese. Pop them into a hot oven until done and you've got some delicious Mexican without the price of going out.
Pulled Pork
Got a pork roast or some pork chops? Just shred them up and pop them into a crock pot for a few hours with BBQ sauce and you've got pulled pork. Can you say 'easy'?
Desserts
Fruit Pies
Is your fruit bowl drawing bugs? One of the best ways to use up a lot of fruit is to put them in a pie or cobbler. Get a pie shell ready and prepare your fruit for deliciousness. Basic ingredients for fruit pies are the shell, sugar and fruit. Mix the sugar and fruit and put them in the shell and bake for around an hour. Your house will smell great and your family will be glad the flies are gone.
Freezer Pops
A little cool goes a long way to using up those extra bits of fruit. Get out your ice pop maker or an ice cube tray. Cut your fruit small, add sugar and enough water or milk to blend it well, then pour right into the trays and freeze for a few hours. These are a great treat in the summer months.
There are literally hundreds of ways to re-use leftovers and these are just a few examples.
And now for tip number two!
2. Use Kitchen Scraps
A lot of what we throw out is in scraps as well: vegetable and fruit peels, seeds and stumps. Here are some creative ways to use those bits other than tossing them down the disposal or trash.
Banana Peels
Acne, wart removal, shoe shine, silver polish, teeth whitening and more are all things banana peels can do. Just give whatever you're using them for a rub from the inside of the banana peel and they should be good to go. They're also fantastic to toss into your compost pile or garden if you keep one, since they're naturally high in potassium.
Potato Peels
These are still edible! Mix them with a bit of oil, salt and pepper and toss them onto a baking sheet, crisp them up and they are a much more nutrient-rich version of potatoes. Plus, no preservatives! They also make a great addition to compost.
Oranges
You can zest them before you juice them and keep dry it for other recipes. Peels (with the zest intact) can be used to deter cats (they HATE citrus!) until they dry out. The dried peels can also be used in pot potpourri and smell wonderful.
Grow from Seeds
A lot of scraps include the seeds, many of which are viable and can produce food of their own. Avocados, oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines, and many many other seeds can be grown. I myself have grown 3 lemon trees from seed and look forward to growing more.
Grow from Scraps
You can use some kitchen scraps to grow more food. Pineapple, onions, potatoes, celery and some others are able to grow just from the roots or tops of the plant. With pineapples, you can just twist the top off and pull of about 2-3 layers of leaves and just set it in some soil securely. Water it and watch it grow! Green onion bottoms can be cut from the leaves (the green part) and just pop the root sections into the ground and voila! More greens for free. Celery bottoms are the same.
Egg Shells
Egg shells can be rinsed and turned into art as well as a calcium supplement for your garden. Be sure to use warm water and be sure to get out all the egg-white free of the shell before using for either of these projects.
A small note: Most vegetable scraps can also be used for compost. Using meat scraps can draw pests and contribute to the creation of microorganisms like e coli.
3. Storing Food
Finding a great deal on produce or meat can be wonderful, but figuring out how to deal with all the extra food can be daunting. The refrigerator can only fit so much, and unless you have other ways to store food or are a Tetris genius, you could be drowning in rotten veggies within a few days.
Freezing
One of the most common and simplest ways to store food is to pop it into the freezer. This is easiest to do with meats that are already packaged, but a little harder for fresh produce. For most fruit and veggies, chopping them up and putting them into freezer bags is perfect. With a little work, you could save a few dollars by finding produce on sale instead of buying them pre-frozen.
Leave it Out
There are quite a few food items that can be left out without them going sour right away. Most fruits and vegetables are like this, but many should be used quickly before they draw fruit flies. Potatoes, onions, pumpkins and most winter squashes can keep for weeks or even months just by leaving them out. Some veggies, like carrots, celery, green onions and cabbage can draw flies much sooner. Be aware of what can be left out of the refrigerator or kept inside.
Canning
Heating foods and putting them into jars is something your grandmother did, but it is still just as useful today. Creating jams, jellies, sauces and more can be a very rewarding experience as well. There are a few things to remember, however, to keep the canning process successful:
Sanitation
Keep all lids and jars sanitized. This can be done in many ways: boiling, baking, and washing. It might be best to do at least two of them, just to be safe.
Amounts
Be sure to have exactly, if not more, jars and lids as you need to can your food. If you don't then you will end up wasting at least a little more food than you'd hoped.
Process
Know what process you're using before you start. There usually is a lot of heat, measurements and timing involved in canning and being familiar with all parts of the process before you begin can help tremendously.
Dehydrating
One method of storing food is fairly ancient, but is still very viable. Dehydrating vegetables, meat and fruit is a simple and very long-term way to store food. A properly sealed jar or bag of dehydrated foods can keep for a year, if not longer. There are many different kinds of dehydrators available, and you can even try making one yourself, but when first starting out it can be helpful to have a factory-made one first, merely for consistency's sake.
4. Grow a Garden
Even having a few pots of fresh herbs on hand can save some money. Buying fresh herbs every time you cook can get very expensive quickly, but most recipes don't take much and letting the rest rot in your fridge can be annoying. Having a small herb garden can help freshen up your window sill as well. If you are new to the idea of growing food instead of flowers, it isn't too much different. There are pests to watch out for and watering to do, and just as much weeding, but at the end of the day, home-grown tomatoes taste so much better than store bought. Give it a try and save a few dollars.
Have any tips you'd like to share? Hop on down to the comments section and share them!
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