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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Timesavers in the Kitchen for a Stress-Free Morning

Do your mornings flow as well as you wish they would? I think the responsibilities in the kitchen can be the greatest stressor in trying to get everyone out the door on time and without chaos. I am not a morning person, so I work ahead to ensure my mornings require as little mental function and physical activity as possible.

First, I always ensure that I start the week with the basics: bread, milk, veggies, lunch meat, peanut butter, and of course, coffee and creamer. There's nothing worse for a sleepy morning than realizing you don't have an essential part of a meal.

Each week, usually a Sunday night, I wash and slice all the veggies for the coming week. I recently wrote a post about how prepping veggies ahead is a great time-saver. While I am working on the veggies, I put some eggs on to boil. The boiled eggs are great for extra snacks or on salads through the week. If we want tuna or egg salad, the eggs are ready and waiting.

When all the veggies are prepped, I divvy some of them into bags for lunches, leaving the rest for extra snacks and meal ingredients. I also divvy up the chips or pretzels and cookies into smaller bags for lunches. Not buying the prepackaged individual sizes of veggies, chips, and cookies saves us money and I am still enjoying convenience-size bags by spending just a few extra minutes in the kitchen once a week. When the bags are finished, the only thing left for lunch assembly is sandwiches and any extras a growing boy might need to supplement his lunch.

Each night, I fix the sandwiches for the next day and plan breakfast. Then, I set out the children's vitamins and allergy meds in little sauce-size cups. These are set on the table with the napkin and fork or spoon depending on what will be served for breakfast. Most critical to my morning, I prepare the coffee pot and set the automatic timer.

Ideally, the only thing left each morning is to assemble the lunches that I have already prepared and fix the pre-planned breakfast. This gives me the time to deal with any issues the children forgot to tell me about (because it always happens despite our best efforts) and to chat with them before they leave.

How do you make your mornings in the kitchen stress-free?

This post is linked to:
Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes
Talk about Tuesday at The Lazy Organizer
I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic

Labels: food, plan ahead, time-savers, tips

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Tuesday, March 31, 2009 6 Comments

Friday, March 27, 2009

Questions to Consider Before the Lay-Off, Part 2

What will you do if your family loses it's income? Check out my article: Questions to Consider Before the Lay-Off, Part 2 at Happy to be at Home.

Labels: plan ahead, writing on other sites

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Friday, March 27, 2009 0 Comments

Monday, March 23, 2009

Is Your Family Ready for a Financial Emergency?

To help evaluate if your family is ready, check out my article: Questions to Consider Before the Lay-Off at Happy to be at Home.

Labels: plan ahead, writing on other sites

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Monday, March 23, 2009 0 Comments

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Easiest Ever Avocado Salad

Being from Kentucky, I am not well-versed in anything avocado. But, thanks to my family in Texas, I'm learning to love them and I even have a clue now how to prepare them.

I recently learned that Spring is avocado season, so you will soon start to see lower prices. When you find these green gems on sale, pick up a few extra. This week Blossoming Skillet had a great post that taught me that you can freeze avocados. Who knew? I didn't and I'm certainly going to try it.

This embarrassingly easy recipe came from my grandpa in Texas, whom I think is one of the best cooks ever.

Easiest Ever Avocado Salad

Coarsely dice 2 avocados and 3 small tomatoes and place in serving bowl. (I've used Roma and they work well because Roma's have less liquid than some of the other varieties.) Then, coat the diced duo with Italian dressing. You will have to eyeball the amount, but you will not want to use too much. Just enough to coat.

It's THAT easy. My kids like to eat avocado salad with tortilla chips, as they would guacamole, but it's also great served by itself. The salad is extremely versatile so you can vary the quantity of fruits used based on the size of your family and personal preferences.

If you want to check out more recipes, be sure to visit Kitchen Tip Tuesday hosted this week at The Finer Things and Share My Recipe Sunday at Organize with Sandy, and Favorite Ingredients Friday at Overwhelmed With Joy!

If you like what you have read, be sure to check out my main page.

Labels: plan ahead, recipes

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Sunday, March 08, 2009 4 Comments

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Necessary Items for an Unexpected Sick Child Day

Tonight as the evening wound down, I realized I may have a sick child tomorrow. You are probably just as familiar with that dreaded in-between phase as I am. You know the one, where you wonder if sleep will produce a happy child ready to face the day with only a couple of sniffles or rather a child who has succumbed to the most popular virus at school.

Tonight is one of those nights, but I feel relieved that regardless of what the morning brings, I am ready. I have the basic items needed for a sick day, or at least the first several hours until my guy gets off work in the evening and can stop by the store.

The items I always have on hand for sick days are:

A good thermometer - In my opinion, this is not the item to chance to generic brands found at the $1 type stores. An investment in a quality thermometer will last years.

Chicken soup - I like to watch for the sales that usually run in the Fall and I will then combine the sale with coupons. I can stock up for the winter/ flu season very inexpensively.

Applesauce - I do not see many coupons for applesauce, so we usually buy the Wal-Mart brand. My family likes it and it seems to be a fair price.

Cans of ginger ale or Sierra Mist - We generally keep cans on hand because the cans allow us to only open what we need, rather than an entire 2-liter, thereby keeping a supply on hand for the next illness .

Saltines or oyster crackers - I love the idea of oyster crackers because when my children are too sick to do much moving around, I can bring a bowl of oyster crackers to them on the couch and there will be alot less crumbs than with saltines.

Medicine for stuffy nose - Several times throughout the year, stores will run a Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) Sale on the store brand medicines and this is when I stock up on the ones I'm certain we will use.

Pain reliever/fever reducer medicine - see above

If you have these items on hand, you will not have major problems from children waking up sick unexpectedly. Being prepared and purchasing the items with frugality in mind, works for me.

Do you do anything differently to prepare for sick children? I'd love to hear what works for your family.

You will find more tips at Works for Me Wednesday hosted by We Are THAT Family.

Labels: plan ahead, tips, Works for Me Wednesday

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Tuesday, March 03, 2009 6 Comments

Thursday, February 26, 2009

How to Save a Bundle at the Grocery Store

My favorite grocery tip of all time is, "Buy when it is cheap and not when you need it." I save more money at the grocery store with this tip alone. Let me explain what I mean and how it works. For years, I restocked our pantry at Walmart with generics and carefully planned our menus to make the best use of the food I purchased. I price-matched and even brought a few coupons to use on our favorite foods.

While it was a good attempt, I had it all wrong! Now, I scour the sale ads while comparing them to my coupon collection, looking for where they match. If the matching items are inexpensive and something we will use, I buy several and plan our menu around them. A few months ago, I stocked up on some Lawry's Marinade when I got it free at Meijer. They had it on sale for $1 and I had a 50 cent off coupon that doubled. There ya go, free food. I bought a few bottles, knowing the expiration date was quite a while out. This last grilling season, I bought several bottles of mustard for pennies by combining the sales and coupons. I was able to buy enough to last until this grilling season and it probably cost me less than a dollar for all of it. Had I waited until I needed the mustard, I would have paid over a dollar each time.

Though the savings aren't as great for fresh food as packaged food, you can still get good deals. Each time I am at Kroger, I check their sale and markdown meat (a frugal use for that Lawry's Marinade) and that's usually the only meat I purchase, unless I get a special request. I rarely go into the store planning on what meat I will buy, unless it was in the sale ad. Recently, Kroger had a pound of lean ground turkey on sale for 99 cents, so I bought several and double wrapped them for freezer storage. If I had bought the ground turkey when I needed it, rather than when it was cheap, I would have paid an extra $2.xx per pound.

By combining sales and coupons, buying sale and markdown meat, and watching for in-season produce, I have saved our family a bundle. With a little creativity, our meals are formed from these bargains and the remaining food we need to round out the menu or the pantry is very minimal. While this route may take a little extra time as opposed to one-stop shopping, it works for our family and the money saved has been worth the time spent, in my opinion.

Friday's Frugal Tip of the Day: Buy when the item is cheap, not just when you need it. (BTW, this can be applied to more than just food.)

For more frugal tips visit Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood and you can learn more grocery savings tips at Cents to Get Debt-Free.

Labels: coupons, Friday's Frugal Tip of the Day, frugality, plan ahead

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Thursday, February 26, 2009 6 Comments

Need kids clothes on the cheap?

I was in Kohls the other day and found they have much of their clearance at 80% and 90% off. I picked up a pair of velour Chaps pants for my daughter, regular $34.99 for $3.40. I also found a zippered cardigan for her, regular $32 for $3.20.

If you need some clothes for your family, (think next year) then 80-90% off is a good time to be shopping. Have fun!

Labels: clothing, deals, plan ahead

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Thursday, February 26, 2009 3 Comments

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Plan Ahead for Some Frugal Summer Fun

Believe it or not, summer is just around the corner. Now is the time to start saving plastic bowls from butter, yogurt, whipped topping and anything else that you can envision as a fun outdoor tool or toy.

I'm sure your children can find many uses for the plastic dishes, but some ideas are the sand box, at the beach, for mud pies, and chalk paint. OK, so chalk paint might be new to you. My daughter created it and has played with it the last two summers. Watch for a post from her later this spring detailing her creation.

Just stash a small box somewhere out of the way to collect these bowls and old plastic containers. Your children will love it!

Labels: frugality, fun with the kids, plan ahead

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Tuesday, February 24, 2009 2 Comments

Frugal and Time Saving Cornbread

By its nature, cornbread is one of the most frugal dishes you can make. The trick however, is finding a recipe that your family enjoys. While all families are different, my family thinks it is a treat when I make the following recipe. It is a lighter, cake-like cornbread.

Corn Bread

1 cup corn meal

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

Mix together and pour into a greased pan. 8x8 or 9x9 usually works well, but a larger pan will suffice. If you use the larger pan, the cornbread will be much flatter. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until bread is done in the middle and golden on top.

Now for the time saver, when you are making your batch, dish out extra dry ingredients and put into zippered bags. By adding all the dry ingredients now, you will save time later by having it partially assembled. Next time you are wanting to serve cornbread, just pull out a bag, add the wet ingredients and bake. Be sure to jot down the quantities of the wet ingredients and baking instructions on the outside of the bag.

This cornbread would be delicious with Calico Beans.

For more kitchen tips, check out Tammy's Recipes.

Labels: food, frugality, plan ahead, recipes

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Tuesday, February 24, 2009 3 Comments

Friday, February 13, 2009

Smart clothing purchases for children

One of the best things we can do in our frugal homes is to make wise purchases. (Watch for an exciting product review section coming soon!) We can do this by planning ahead when we are shopping.

When my son was a baby, I loved buying the baseball blue sleepers and the construction themed outfits. When I found out I was expecting my daughter, my blue buying days were over, for a while. I left the fun, boyish outfits for the grandparents. Instead, I began purchasing green, white and yellow onesies and sleepers that the new baby, regardless of gender, could grow into after my son was finished with them.

Now that they are older, I still do this to a degree. Some items do not lend well to this idea but others are perfect. Turtlenecks (which you are buying on clearance for next year, right?), some shorts and some t-shirts are purchased gender neutral. Unless the bargain is too amazing, snow pants and snow boots are never purchased gender specific.

Friday's Frugal Tip of the Day - Think ahead in purchasing items for your oldest child and make sure the gender neutral base pieces are in neutral colors. This gets the longest possible life out of a piece.

When these pieces have been outgrown and assuming they are still in good shape, take them to your local consignment shop for resale. Some clothing items keep giving and giving!

Stop over and read how to shop for free.

You can read more tips at Frugal Friday hosted by Biblical Womanhood.

Labels: clothing, Friday's Frugal Tip of the Day, frugality, plan ahead

# posted by Heather@justdoingmybest @ Friday, February 13, 2009 2 Comments

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