Year: 2015

Backyard Fruit: Helping Others!

Abby H.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERADriving around much of Southern California, there is one constant: Backyard fruit trees DRIPPING with unpicked fruit, and even more trees with piles of dropped and rotting fruit under the trees. That really makes me upset. WHY?

There are 16 million hungry kids in the US. I heard a statistic on the radio the other day that 1 in 4 kids in the US don’t have access to fresh fruits and veggies! If you have backyard fruit trees or gardens that are out of control with more produce that you and your family can eat, here are a few ways you can help others in need:

  • Contact your local church and see if they offer a food pantry. If so, take a box of produce from your trees/garden over to share with those in need.
  • Contact your local food bank and see if they accept home grown fruit. Some do, some do not.
  • There are several organizations across the US that will come to you, pick your fruit and donate it. Food Forward, Village Harvest are just two.
  • There are websites where you can register your trees and share your produce with others. Falling Fruit is just one.
  • Post on your local freecycle or buy nothing project group. I know around here there are many neighbors who would love to help you pick and eat your fruit.  Recently there was an older lady who had fruit trees and she couldn’t keep up with the harvesting, so she was looking for someone who could help her pick fruit. They were welcome to take as much as they could eat, as long as they picked 2 lbs of fruit for her. That sounds like a great deal to me!
  • Here is a crazy idea- Offer some to your friends and neighbors!

Saving time and money with meal planning!

Abby H.9 Comments

One way to keep on the frugal track is to meal plan.  If you’ve never meal planned before, it can seem daunting. Here are just a few tips to get started.

  1. Inventory your pantry, freezer, and fridge. I use these worksheets. I keep them in plastic sheaths taped to the fridge and inside the cupboard. That way you know what you’ve got on hand without having to dig. I update them every week.
  2. Check out your favorite grocery stores weekly circular online before you hit the market. You may find that chicken is on sale that week- in that case, plan to cook more dishes that involve chicken. To save the most amount of money, eat what is in season and what is on sale!
  3. Make a list of the types of dishes that your family already enjoys. Make a list of the ingredients for each recipe. Check off the ingredients you already have on hand.
  4. Gather up some recipes that you’ve wanted to try for a while. Make a list of the ingredients the recipes call for that you don’t have on hand. I try to add in one new recipe each week.
  5. Decide what you want to cook for dinner each night (based on what’s on sale, recipes your family likes, and maybe 1-2 recipes that you’d like to try that are new to you). I try to have one night where we eat up leftovers. I also make a green salad to go with dinner that night.
  6. Plan on having the ingredients for a few easy meals on reserve in the pantry/freezer. Sometimes your day goes south and you don’t have the time/energy to make what’s on the menu for a certain night. Having something easy to make waiting in the wings keeps you out of the drive-thru! I try to plan the extra meals around stuff that we already have in the cupboard. If you don’t have any “extra” food, plan on buying the ingredients for 1 extra meal each week for a month. It can be as simple as a can of soup and grilled cheese- No need to be gourmet every night!
  7. Write a list of all of the ingredients that you need for your weeks menu that you do not have on hand.
  8. Look online and in inserts for coupons. To save time, use a Coupon Database to locate coupons.  I like Couponmom’s Coupon Database– it’s separated by state!

It can take a few weeks to a month to get into the meal planning groove. Give yourself grace and realize that it doesn’t come easy to everyone!

Now, if that is too much work, there are websites (and companies) dedicated to helping you meal plan. eMeals is one of them- It’s not free, but it’s pretty cheap ($5/week or so). They ask you a bunch of questions about your family, diet, and where you live and they supply you with grocery lists based on your dietary needs and where you live and shop.

Recipe Tuesday: Black Beans and Brown Rice!

Abby H.

I’m going to try to publish a recipe at least once a week. Some of these may seem familiar to those who have eaten in my kitchen before. Most of these recipes are family favorites with a healthy twist.

Ingredients:

  • 1 T. butter
  • 1 T. diced garlic
  • 1 bag Birdseye Recipe Ready Mirepoix OR 1/2 cup each, chopped: white onion, celery, & carrots
  • 1 red or green bellpepper, diced
  • 1 1/2 cups brown rice
  • 4 cups water or broth (I used homemade chicken broth)
  • 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 T. Cajun Seasoning

Directions:

  1. In a large saucepan, melt butter and add garlic. Cook until fragrant (about 5 minutes)
  2. Add Mirepoix and pepper.  Cook on medium until onions are clear.
  3. Add rice and liquid, cook on medium, stirring often, for 30-35 minutes, until rice is tender.
  4. Add black beans, and cook until beans are heated.
  5. Add Cajun Seasoning and serve.

This makes 6-8 servings. It’s yummy!

*To make it vegan,use coconut oil in place of butter, and use veggie broth instead of chicken broth.

 

 

Photo credit: ronnieb from morguefile.com

Small changes can add up to big savings!

Abby H.1 Comment

chaulkboard_bkgrnd_506x575 I get asked a lot, “How can I save money besides clipping coupons, using store club cards, apps, and shopping sales?”

Well, ok. Hmmm…. How do you save money without actively saving money? It’s easier than you think, in fact, you probably already do a few of these things, or could with little effort.

Drop the daily Starbucks habit. Seriously. How easy it it to set up your coffee maker before you go to bed and flip on a switch when you crawl out of bed in the morning? It’s so incredibly easy. Like iced coffee or something a little foo foo? The extra ingredients are pretty cheap and last a while, and it takes the same amount of time in the morning to make it yourself, minus the line at the drive-thru.

Supplies you probably have on hand: Coffee/k-Cups, Coffee maker (or french press or Kuerig), creamer, milk, cream, sweetener, flavored syrups, chocolate syrup (if you like a mocha), double walled tumblers with lids and straws for cold drinks, and insulated hot beverage cups with lids for hot drinks.

Don’t know how to make your fav. coffee house recipes? Check out this article, or this one,  for some ideas on how you can do it at home. Oh, and don’t forget Pinterest.

Ditch the Drive-Thru. Again, it’s so easy to spend 10-15 minutes before bed packing your lunch and snacks (not to mention healthier) for the next day. Do it while you are setting up your coffee maker! If you aren’t a sandwich and chips fan, there are tons of yummy lunch alternatives, even if your work place doesn’t have a microwave or method for re-heating your lunch.

Just a quick googling of Adult Lunch Ideas came up with tons of yummy ideas, and Pinterest is full of them too.

And if you’ve got space in your pantry, consider making an area where you can store all your shelf stable lunch and snack components together. We have one shelf called that is the designated snack shelf. I tend to stock up when snacks that we like are cheap or free. I hide them and only put out one or two boxes at a time. That way they last longer. My two go to stores for inexpensive healthy snacks are Costco and Grocery Outlet.

Supplies you probably have on hand: An insulated lunch bag (I have two: One from Thirty-one that looks like this, and an Thermos brand one that is bigger and better for packing lunch and snacks all in one), Reusable containers to hold lunch (I like the Rubbermaid Easy Find Lid sets, they snack together and the lids nest. Not to mention that they are durable), blue ice (here is a list of great DIY hacks), an extra set of silverware, a reusable beverage container (like a water bottle, or even a reusable juice box if you like juice in your lunch). If you like salad, consider getting a salad container like this one that has a dressing container and silverware that snaps on.

Meal Plan: it’s totally easy. I promise you that meal planing is so easy, anyone can do it. Lemme break it down:

  • Inventory your pantry and freezer (You can use forms here to make it easier)
  • Make a list of dishes you can create with what you have on hand.
  • Make a list of dishes you can make with 1 or 2 additions that you don’t have on hand.
  • Put the missing ingredients on your shopping list and pick them up on your next few trips
  • Post the lists of dishes on fridge.
  • Don’t freak out when it’s time to cook, you’ve got a cheat sheet on your fridge!

You can even do some freezer/batch cooking when you have a few spare hours and you’ll have a few yummy meals at your fingertips for meals that you don’t feel like cooking. Here are a few free Kindle books from Amazon about freezer/batch cooking. I’ll be posting some batch/Freezer cooking recipes in the near future.

Eat fruit and vegetables that are in season. This sounds like a no-brainer, but it bears repeating.  Right now we are eating a lot of  of apples, citrus, and winter squashes. Eating food that is in season and inexpensive means I can get more for my buck. We also shop for our produce at 99 Cents Only first to pick up quality name brand products, then fill in with a trip to Sprouts as needed. 

A new chapter!

Abby H.

Everything in life changes, it’s true. To that end, because of all of the changes coming up in my life, I have decided to turn a new page in my blogging career.

I feel as though over the past year I have gotten away from my roots, my raison d’être. Instead of helping others on their savings journey, I was posting mindlessly about deals, sales, and products I didn’t care about and was not invested in.

Why? Well, to be honest, I was caught up in the thrill of trying to earn some money and give myself some sense of importance. I guess I needed to prove that I was more than just a “mommy blogger” (which btw- I really mislike that term, like all things that parents do- regardless of their gender- they are more than just their career or hobby), I was a serious entrepreneur. So, to do that, I was trying to monetize anyway I could.

In the end, it only ended up hurting myself and my family. I spent hours in front of the computer, posting deals and coupons for stuff I’d never buy or use, or honestly, couldn’t afford. When I really should have been playing trains with Lil’ Man, doing crafts or coloring, or spending family time bonding and having adventures doing stuff we like to do.

So what will this new blog be about? Well, for one, our family! Activities we like to do, places we like to go, recipes, crafts, and what really fuels my passion: tips and strategies to help YOU save money, live frugally, and have the type of lifestyle you want to have WITHOUT breaking the bank.

And for the most part, this blog won’t be monetized. I will be posting about my E-book, once I get it published on Amazon, but that will probably be the end of the monetization (for now). I will definitely keep up the product reviews, as long as they are relevant to my family and our life. I love sharing fun stuff!

 

So Welcome to the Hewes Family Fun Blog!