Clams with Rouge Sauce on the Cheap

One of my favorite dishes when eating out is linguine with clams in a rouge sauce. Cost at restaurant = ~$10 per serving.  Here is my own hack (thanks to Sue for giving me the push to begin my hack life ;) )

Clams with Rouge Sauce

• 1  16 oz box linguine (I usually can get this for $0.25 a box at Meijer and stock pile it)
  
• 1  jar Ragu spaghetti sauce (bought for 3/$5 + had 3 $0.50 coupons, so $1.17/jar)
  
• 3  cans Snow's chopped clams (bought at Rite Aid $0.99/ea + had 3 $1.00/2 coupons, so $0.49/can)
  
• 1  12 oz can Carnation Evaporated Milk (bought at Meijer $0.99/can + had coupon for $1/2, so $0.49/can)
• 2 T cornstarch mixed with just enough water to make it the consistency of maple syrup

In sauce pan, mix together last 4 ingredients cook until heated through and sauce has thickened.  About 10 minutes.  Served my family of 4, plus had 1 portion leftover. Your mileage may vary. Total Cost = $3.38. Cost per serving = $0.68. 

My girls who normally HATE spaghetti sauce gobbled it up and told me it was awesome. As soon as I picked myself off the floor, I entered this post.  ; )

Happy Hacking,

Colleen

New Service at Meijer.com - Printable Coupons

I found a new feature on the Meijer.com website - Printable coupons (Meijer Mealbox) redeemable only at Meijer. I used some coupons on my trip last week without any problems. But, better yet, I read a post on Bargain Briana's blog (Nov. 9, 2008) that says the Meijer Mealbox coupons can be stacked with Manufacturer's Coupons. Yahoo!  I can see a lot more freebies coming from Meijer... Also, check out Bargain Briana's Meijer's 101 lesson.

Do You Pantry-Shop?

One of the best ways to save money is to buy things on sale, but buying on sale is maximized if you pantry-shop. Stocking a pantry from nothing requires diligence and some work, but ultimately, it is worth the effort in the long-run.

I organized my pantry today with the help of our 6 y/o son; the organization was beneficial to me because it showed me what we have and what I still need to stock up on before the winter months fully set in.

By this time, you might be thinking, "Must be nice... I don't have a pantry!" I encourage you to think outside the box and realize that if you have some space, you have a pantry, even if it's not a full cupboard. In our last house, I didn't have a pantry, but I had shelves in one half of our coat closet, and those shelves served as pantry shelves because the closet was close to the kitchen. A little weird to put coats in the space where grocery items were, but it accomplished my goal.

The Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) encourage pantry-stocking for their members and are pros at thinking outside the box for food storage. You don't have to be Mormon to use their ideas; if you have space under a bed, you've got space to stack boxes of canned vegetables. Pantries don't have to be enclosed cabinets or closets. If you've got the ability to build shelves, fantastic. If you can't build shelves but have a small bit of cash to put in to the project, IKEA has inexpensive, sturdy shelving units that are easy to put together. No space in your kitchen? Think basement, laundry room, or even garage. Canned goods (un-dented, of course) are designed to have an indefinite shelf life and don't care if they're stored next to the boots in the mudroom or next to TP in the bathroom cabinet. If the "under the bed idea" makes you realize that your beds are too low for this trick, fashion some bed-risers from small wood blocks, or buy a set at Bed, Bath, & Beyond (with a 20% off coupon, of course!) and maximize your space. Depending on how big your pantry is, it might be a shelf, a section of a shelf, or even stashed away under your sink.

So once you have a pantry idea in mind, how to go about stocking it? Think about the things you use regularly in your meal preparation and presentation. We use a lot of canned tomatoes, canned vegetables (beans, corn, & peas), and we eat a lot of beans in stews, soups, and chili. I buy these things when they're on sale in quantities of 6-12, depending on how well-stocked my pantry is at any given time. This provides what I need to make meals for my family and keeps me from having to buy it when I need it, invariably when it wouldn't be on sale and would be full-price.

I also have a section of the pantry for convenience foods that store well (boxed macaroni & cheese, for example) and another section for baking goods (cake mixes, powdered sugar, etc.). There's a section for spices (bought in bulk at Whole Foods or at Costco) and another for cleaning supplies. But you can see how this would vary by family and cooking habits. Make a list and watch for sales. Put a little extra grocery money towards the pantry-building or stocking, and then when you're stocked, you can save the money that you're not spending on full-priced items.

Once you have your pantry stocked, don't forget to rotate your stock. Put the things that were the first-purchased at the front, so you'll not forget about a can of spinach that was purchased 5 years prior, instead eating the cans of spinach that were purchased 5 weeks prior.

There's a part me that smiles when I think of my pantry -- what I have stashed away and don't have to buy when I start holiday baking & cooking. And as things go on sale during that timeframe, I'll stock the pantry for future needs as well. It's a cycle, but one that works well for frugally-minded people everywhere. :)

Happy stocking!

~Sue

Saving Money on Chicken

We eat a fair amount of chicken over here. It's generally inexpensive, a good source of protein, and is tasty. I generally look for recipes that make it easy to stretch our grocery dollars, chicken included. But today when I saw the price of frozen drumsticks vs. frozen chicken breasts, I realized that it was worth a little extra time and the dollars-saved to think "outside the box."

I buy whole chickens semi-regularly -- that is to say, when they're on sale. I roast them and then feed my family three meals from the same chicken. (Before you think I restrict their food-intake, they leave the table satisfied and content.) But for other meals, I've been in the habit of buying individually frozen chicken breasts and using those, even for stir-fry dishes or things where I don't *have* to use white meat chicken.

The price of 4lbs of chicken breast was $8 at our local store; the price of 4lbs of drumsticks was $3. Quick math says that it's a big savings, especially if I don't mind doing the extra work to make the drumsticks in to usable meat. Which I didn't -- right now, I have more time than money. ;)

I came home and placed the entire bag of drumsticks on a metal baking tray and seasoned them a bit. I baked them at 350F until done (about an 1.5 hours or so). I let them cool and then ignored the plaintively mewing cat at my feet while I stripped the meat from the bones. Was it slippery? A bit. But my hands wash pretty easily. Was it time-consuming? Yeah. But like I said, I have more time than money, so it works out for me. What I ended up with was 3 bags of chicken suitable for stir-fried rice, a stew, or some other dish where the flavour of the meal will permeate the meat for about $1 per meal. Out of 4lbs of drumsticks, there was a lot of water & bone, but what came from it was worthwhile; there are bags of frozen chicken meat, ready-to-use and fuss-free the next time I need them.

I'll still buy the frozen chicken breasts for dishes that we enjoy and can't use a substitute. But for other meals, this chicken-hack works out pretty well. It's worth the time because of the monetary-savings, but also because I've done the labour for future meal-prep. :)

Happy cooking!

~Sue

Dishwasher Soap Hack

Sometimes, saving money means going back to basics more than it means shopping sales and using coupons. This particular life-hack is one of those examples.

If you have a dishwasher that washes dishes for you (and I don't mean a spouse or kid in your household, either!), you need soap for that dishwasher. You can't use liquid dish soap in it, because the foam and bubbles are too much and make a mess as they spill out of the closed machine on to the floor. Don't ask me how I know this, I just do. ;)

Even with coupons and sales, dishwasher soap is expensive, so if you're trying to tighten the belt and still get the job done, how do you work around that?

You go back to basics and figure out how to make it yourself. You'll spend $10 or so on the ingredients, but you'll get far more for your $10 than you would if you simply bought boxes (or bottles) of dishwashing soap.

Here's the hack recipe:

1 part borax
1 part baking soda (NOT washing soda)
1 part powdered dish detergent (I use Cascade)
3 kool-aid packets, any flavour

I generally make this up in a double-batch and do 2 cups of each ingredient, which also takes takes 6 pkts of kool-aid. Mix it up in a metal or glass bowl and store it in a container of your choice. The kool-aid adds citric acid to the mix, and if you're in an area with hard water, that's necessary to help condition the water and leave your dishes cleaner than otherwise.

I fill up the spot in the dishwasher with the mixture and everything comes sparkly clean. I'm still on the same $10 purchase with my stuff -- and so far, I've made 3 batches with it and have enough to make another 2 batches. Far better than using straight dishwashing detergent, and it gets the job done with less expense and only a small amount of effort to mix it up.

~Sue

Easy Cheesy Vegetable Soup

If you want your family to eat more vegetables (willingly!) and enjoy good, hearty soups in the fall and winter, this one is for you. It's my own concoction, adapted from Leanne Ely's Saving Dinner. This recipe is suitable for a crockpot or stove-top.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, cored & broadly chunked
3 medium carrots, peeled & chunked
3 stalks of celery, washed & chunked
4 c. chicken broth (water + bouillon cubes work well)
1 t. thyme, crushed
~~~~~~~~
8 oz. shredded cheese
2 c. milk, divided
1 jar Ragu Double Cheese pasta sauce

Put the first set of ingredients in a stock pot (6 qt) or large crockpot and cover. If using crockpot, cook on low for at least 8 hours or high for 4 hours. If using stovetop method, allow the ingredients to boil and then reduce to low until the vegetables are soft and easily broken with a rubber spatula or knife.

Once the vegetables are soft enough (as indicated above), turn the heat to low and use a stick blender to puree the contents of the pot. If you don't have a stick blender, strain the vegetables and a small amount of the broth to a blender and whirl on purée until smooth.

Once the contents are smooth and there are no more chunks and/or strings from the celery chunks, add cheese (anything except mozarella or swiss) to the pot, stirring to melt. Combine 1 cup of milk and 1 jar of Ragu Double Cheese Pasta Sauce in as well. The pasta sauce will be thick and you'll use another cup of milk in the jar, swishing it around to get the rest of it out and in the pot of soup. Combine well.

Season with salt & pepper to taste and serve up with salad and crusty bread. It's a hearty, filling soup that your family will rave about! :)

Bon appetite!

~Sue

Sticky Prices

Everything has gone up in price these days; as the fuel-price rises, so does the cost of getting the things we buy to market. And retailers aren't going to foot the bill for that all by themselves; they raise the prices on the things we buy so they don't feel the pinch as much.

But what happens when the price of fuel drops, as it's done recently? We rejoice a little bit each time we go and fill up our cars and it costs less, but how about the prices for the things around us?

I just read this morning that UPS is introducing a 5.4% surcharge to cover their fuel bills and residential-delivery differential, starting January 1, 2009. Wait a minute. The price of shipping via UPS already went up when diesel fuel jacked up to over $4.00 per gallon! And now the price is coming down, so why the surcharge?

That's a sticky price. Grocery stores are full of them, too. Groceries tend to see the slowest price-increase when fuel costs go up (so much of it sits in local warehouses and doesn't make a large difference in the profit margin of a store), but once the prices do climb, they're up there for a while. When fuel prices decrease, the increased prices at the grocery store are the slowest to drop, as well.

So how to combat this? Short of growing all your own produce, home-canning, and avoiding the grocery store, I can't come up with any significant way. But that's also why I shop sales WITH coupons. Something at a good price gets procured in large quantities and stored in my pantry, but "good price" to me means "on sale, purchased with a doubled-coupon." So I hang on to coupons and purchase when the price drops.

No one knows what the future holds in terms of fuel prices and the economy. Chances are good that it will be hard for some time to come. But if you can plan ahead and build a decent pantry for lean times, you'll make it through with a little more grace and aplomb than otherwise.

And you'll survive the "sticky prices" that are everywhere.

~Sue

Half & Half Hack

Do you like the taste of half & half in your coffee or tea? Do you hate the price of the stuff? We do and we do over here.

My husband & I consume a full pot of java every morning and our choice of addition is half & half. For a while, I could find it cheap(er) in small containers at Kroger, but as the cost of fuel went up, so did the "sticky prices" of groceries (more on that in another post). And our precious half & half went to the ridiculous point.

Then I began buying it in bigger containers at Costco -- making the run there every 4 weeks or so. And then those prices went up.

So as they say on our son's favourite Disney show ("My Friends Tigger & Pooh"), "Think, think, think."

A few weeks ago, I was at Costco and noticed the price of heavy whipping cream was less than half & half when compared ounce-for-ounce. Half & half is merely whole milk with heavy cream added, so could I make half & half for us cheaper than buying it ready-made? Hmmm. I bought a single container of heavy whipping cream and figured it was worth a try.

In order to successfully complete this "life hack," you need to have a container for combining milk & heavy cream that can be closed and shaken when you're ready for it. Happily, our milk is delivered in glass bottles with plastic lids, so I generally have a clean glass bottle hanging around. :)

Pour equal amounts of milk & heavy cream in to the container and shake. Half & half that comes from the store has been homogenized (a process whereby high-pressured air is shot through the product to break up milkfat molecules and make it smooth), and the stuff you're making won't be. However, I've discovered that as I shake, I'm getting a fresher-tasting half & half in my coffee and a head of foam on my cup that makes me feel like I'm drinking an expensive cuppa coffee from a gourmet coffee shop. ;)

If you've got the inclination and the willingness to hack something yourself, let us know. This little hack saves us about $1 per container of half & half and is entirely worth it.

~Sue