Thriftism

Are gas coupons worth it? YES! The number one argument I hear is that you don't really save that much for all the hassle you go through to use a coupon. That is pure laziness talking. How often do you buy gas? Whether it's once a week or once a month, those savings can really add up--Think of getting a free tank of gas every year. Or maybe hit up the dollar menu once a week since we don't eat out much while following a tight budget. Possibly it still doesn't sound like much, but those little savings (gas, groceries, survey earnings,etc) are really what keep my budget alive some months. When you're set on saving or paying off loans, a couple dollars goes a long way. Gas coupons are awesome because they are fairly easy to come by as well. Coupons really aren't that difficult to use and walking into the gas station, well that can be an excuse to move around a bit. No one gets enough walking in these days anyway. :) I've listed a few places that you can obtain...

Happy Summer! We are finally having warm, actually HOT, weather. With it being over 80 almost every day last week, it was far too hot to eat warm food. There was no way I was going to cook anything after working out in the garden for hours. Salads have proven to be my savior on sweltering days, so there may be lots of different salad recipes coming out soon. J To begin my salad adventures, I've chosen one that feeds my buffalo sauce addition. Side note: buffalo sauce can be combined with just about anything and taste even better! If you're like me you don't have a whole lot of time during the week between work and housework and still trying to do some fun things in there too. That's why I try to cook all of my food on the weekends to reduce wasting that time during the week. If there are any ingredients on my salads that need to be cooked, I do it ahead of time and freeze them or store in the refrigerator if possible. For my chicken salad-I have a ...

 Bean Burgers that Taste Like the Real Thing   <$0.30/serving With all the nice, or at least not freezing, weather we have been having lately, I start to get my summer cravings. In the winter it tends to be soup, chili, anything hot… Spring and summer veer more towards fruit, steak, salads, and one of my favorites- burgers. I absolutely love homemade hamburgers. However, these are not very cost friendly right now. The cheapest hamburger I could find was $4/lb which can easily turn your meal budget upside-down. So I started exploring for some option to get my burger fix without blowing the budget and guess what, beans are super cheap. Beans and rice seem to fit into many of my solutions, but they really work. I was able to make these burgers for less than $0.30/burger, buns and lettuce included! Anyway, these bean burgers actually taste and have consistency similar to a real burger. I won't tell you they are exactly the same, because I don't think that is...

We made quiche (or as Race calls it-egg bake) to use up some of our eggs. We got 4 dozen when they went on sale for $0.96/dozen. I wasn't too sure about how it would turn out as we basically threw in whatever we had, which wasn't too much. I did buy spinach to add to it just to get something healthy in there. I think overall it can't be too bad for me to eat and it did taste great! Here is a breakdown of the ingredients with costs. We might have put some garlic powder in and we did add hot sauce when we served it, but these costs are minimal- probably less than 1 cent.    Quiche 10 eggs 0.8 .96/dozen 16 oz Spinach 1.79 2 Onions 0.53 3.97/5lb 3 Potatoes 0.58 2.88/5lb 1/2 C Cheese 0.99 1.98/2 Cups Total 4.69 Per Serving 0.39 We mixed everything together and baked it in a 9"x13" cake pan at 350 degrees for around 40 minutes. Any pan will work and any batch size will work ( fewer egg...

Winter is coming and with that cooler weather. Fend off the cold with a warm, healthy, and cheap dish. The best part about chili is you can really make it your own. What You'll Need 1 C dry red beans 1 C dry pinto beans 1 C dry black beans 7 Tomatoes or 2-3 cans diced tomatoes (Preferably reduced salt) 2 Onions Lots of Chili Powder Garlic (Fresh or powdered) Meat (Optional) I try to avoid adding salt to anything and try to buy ingredients with the least amount of salt as well. Salt causes bloating and in general isn't great for your body. Some salt is necessary, but everything now has so much salt that anytime we can cut back on that it's good. I used all dried beans because they are ridiculously cheaper than buying canned beans and again it reduces salt intake. You also lose all those preservatives that come with the canned beans. Lots of people avoid dry beans because it can take a lot longer to cook. You can either soak them overnight or do a quick soak wh...