Pot Pie Generic Recipe

Because of this post on our $400 a month grocery challenge,  people have started to ask me about finances in general as a larger than average family. We've just started this particular challenge, but I've been assessing our finances, evaluating cost vs. benefits and writing about Frugal Living for years. Here are the articles that I've actually posted in this blog.

For a general overview of my frugal philosophy, read this.

If you think you're already as frugal enough, see if you've tried these ideas from Ms. Cheap.

If you think there is no such thing as too frugal, you better read this one.

If making freezer meals sounds like a nice idea, but you aren't sure how to do it in a practical way, try this idea.

One of my best ideas is a Price List. If you don't know what I mean, read this article. This list is 2 years old and it's time for me to post an updated one, I suppose, but this will give you an idea of what it looks like and how it works.

If you want to know what we are eating tonight...

It's Chicken Pot Pie again (and ham pot pie too. This is one of our common meal ideas. Here is a breakdown of how I calculate the cost of this meal:
This is a meal that can be made in a variety of ways, which is probably why I like it so much.
It requires a meat, some veggies, a gravy of sorts and some dough.
My amounts are based on making two casseroles (8x8 each) and baking them at the same time. This usually feeds us one dinner and one lunch the next day.

Meat: 2 lbs. ($2-3) per lb - in this case, I used one lb of chicken and a lb of leftover ham I had in the freezer from Easter.

Veggies: 32 oz bag of frozen or about 4 cans of various kinds. I paid $1.89 for 32oz of frozen. It is cheaper to buy these as separates rather than buying a "veggie mix" but we use enough volume that I can do it this way.

Gravy: straight flour and water works okay, but I like to use cream of mushroom soup to add flavor. $1 per can.

Dough: Pie crust, or refrigerator biscuits, etc. I used Kroger biscuits that I got for 49cents each (1.5 cans per casserole.)

Directions: cook meat, then mix together in large bowl everything except the dough
Pour mix into casserole dish - I put half into each pan. In tonight's case, I actually poured in the mix, then added the meats since I was making two different kinds.
Top with dough
Bake 350 for 30 minutes

COST: $9.50 (for two meals)
If you use this dish as a way to use up leftovers, it gets even cheaper

The actual cost of batch baking waffles

As we work on our grocery budget,  I wanted to explain how I calculate our costs. For this recipe, I started out with the hypothesis that waffles could be an economical food item, especially when batch baked and frozen. Here is how our experiment went. (Someone please let me know if my math is wrong)

Betty Crocker recipe X4  from this cookbook.

Items used and cost (bulk items can be purchased cheaper, but I used the regular Kroger prices as a baseline for this experiment, figuring most people could get these items at these prices at most any time.)

8 eggs: $2.99 for 30 = 10c per egg = $.80

8 cups flour:  $1.99 for 5 lbs = approx. 3.33 cups per lb. according to this chef . giving me a cost of 12c per cup = $.84

7 cups milk: $2.99 per gal. = (1 gal. = 16 cups) = 18.6c per cup = $1.31

2 cups veg. oil: $2.99 for 48oz. = 6cups = 49c per cup = $.98

4 Tbsp sugar: $2.99 for 5lb = using the Domino sugar conversion chart, I get 1lb = 2 cups, so 5lbs =10cups; 1cup = 16Tbsp, so 5lb = 10cups = 160 Tbsp. giving me a cost of 2c per Tbsp. so $.08

16 tsp. baking powder: 79c for 10oz. (My 10oz. container says it contains 59 tsps.) = about 1.3c per tsp. = $.21

1 tsp. salt: $1 for 26oz. I used the conversion table at this site  which says 1oz of table salt = 4.98 tsp. (I used 5tsp per oz for easier calculations) 26oz = 130 tsp., so about 8/10 of a cent per tsp. rounded up to 1c for this recipe.

When I add up all of the ingredients in my 4X recipe, I get a total cost of $4.23. This made 44 waffles for an approx. cost of 10cents per waffle. This frugal mom  has Eggo waffles (which are smaller and less filling than the ones we just made) listed as a "deal" at $3.89 for 8, so approx. 49c per waffle. 

Time is always a factor. We spent about 2 hours making these. Twenty minutes was spent preparing and mixing the batter and we cooked four at a time in about 5 minutes. During this time, while the waffle iron did the work, I looked up prices and calculated our costs, took some pictures, helped kids with their schoolwork, nursed the baby and wrote this blog. We ate them for lunch and we will freeze the rest.

Now, waffles don't make a complete meal, so additional costs might include, butter, syrup, fruit, scrambled eggs, sausage, etc. We ate 11 of the waffles that we made, so $1.10 for the meal, plus butter and syrup and half of a $1 cantaloupe that I cut into bite size squares, so another $.50. I estimate this lunch cost us about $2; but would cost more if we added in a protein. But, we don't need protein with every meal, and we will have meat with our dinner.

The Lowest Possible Grocery Budget

Can we feed a family of 9 on $400 a month? That is the question I’m trying to answer, and it just leads to more questions. I tend to get a little obsessed over things that people tell me are “impossible” or “can’t be done”.  I want to be able to answer the question, “why not?”

Why can’t I feed my family of 9 with a $400 a month budget?

If $400 is too low, then what is the bottom? What is the lowest amount of money that we can spend?

I think of it as a challenge, sort of a puzzle. I like puzzles.

So, before we go any farther in the debate about whether or not it can be done, I need some parameters, sort of like rules for a game.

1. Nutrition. There won't be any meal plans that include "an $8 bag of shrimp today and we'll fast tomorrow." The government is in the middle of changing the guidelines for what constitutes healthy eating, due to come out in 2015. And, I know people have their own opinions about what's good for you or not good for you, but that's an argument for another day, and I need a standard now. So, we'll be trying to follow the general guidelines provided by Health.gov in 2010.  We'll also be using Choosemyplate.gov as the standard for serving sizes.

2. Inventory. Food already in my freezer or pantry doesn't count against me. I'll be using what I have on hand and purchasing items as necessary to go with my on-hand inventory. I won't be adding in the cost of items I already have into my monthly budget. Because, I'm not trying to see if I can do it for one month, I'm trying to see how low we can go on a sustainable budget. So, we'll be looking at the actual grocery receipts, but mostly working on meal plans, eating habits and recipes that save money over the long haul and can be done consistently.

For example, we currently have a membership to Sam's Club. If I buy items there, I won't be calculating the membership cost into my grocery budget because it's already spent. However, if I choose to renew the membership or join somewhere else, then I will calculate that future cost into the budget.

3. Coupons. I will be using the normal cost of items usually. I will not be considering coupon use into the budget equations unless it can be repeated on a regular basis, as with toothpaste. Seasonal sales will be considered as this can be planned into the schedule and repeated as often as the sale cycle comes around.

4. Food/Non-food. We are aiming for a monthly budget of $400. This amount breaks down into a goal of $10 per day for a total of $300-310; $2 per day for toiletries ($60 per month); and $30-40 per month for non-food kitchen supplies, like Ziploc bags, aluminum foil, etc.

5. Humans. My children help me cook, so measuring varies and waste is an issue for us. But, part of this process is to teach my daughters to be economists in their homes and teach my sons some money lessons too. So, who are these 9 people in the experiment? One adult male, one adult female (nursing an infant), two teenage girls (15&17), two preteen boys (10&12), two kindergartners (6&4).

I invite you to join me in this challenge. Not just to see if you can make it on $400, but to see 

HOW LOW YOU CAN GO!!

Send me your meal plans, daily budget busters, tricks of the frugal, and favorite budget saving recipes. 

Running myself to death

I thought this was supposed to be getting easier. It's a like a war going on between my body and my mind. It starts out before I even get out of bed.
M: You need to go run
B: no
M: You must
B: no
M: Move
B: no
M: Get up!
B: no
Then, my mind tries to shame my body into running.
M: Remember those Honey BBQ wings you ate last night? And, that cheeseburger? That is why you have to run. If you don't run, you will be fat and lazy.
Apparently, my body has heard this too many times...
B: Yeah. So?
M: Oh, I give up.
Then, suddenly, my arm throws off the blanket and my body says, Okay, let's go
M: Coffee first?
B: Nope
And, the next thing I know, I'm standing on the sidewalk in front of my house with my running shoes on.
M: Okay, we're doing it. This is good. Love the music. Love the app 
After the first run segment, my body is complaining about the hurt, my lungs are burning because I can't breathe, I think I'm going to throw up blood...
B: This sucks
M: Suck it up, buttercup
I get to the second corner (about 1/4 mile into this 1.5 mile trek) and a man pulls up to the stop sign in his pick up truck. He is cuddling a poodle as he drives. He looks like the guy from Silence of the Lambs, and he yells, "Run faster. You're going to be late." Then, I start to think about my friend who offered this motivation: "Pretend zombies are chasing you."
I imagine Buffalo Bill getting out of his truck and chasing me, and I realize that I would not be able to outrun him, and it's a good thing that my fight or flight instinct is usually fight. I'm thinking about all these things as the voice in my app keeps telling me "Begin walking now." and later "Begin running now"
B: My calves are burning. My shins hurt.
M: We still have a mile to go.
Voice on the app: Begin walking now
Body and Mind: Thank God
This continues until I hear the voice say: Begin cool down
M: Ugh. I'm not even going to make it the same distance as the last time I ran. I'm supposed to be increasing my distance, not decreasing it. 
To my body: You suck!
I turn on my phone and push repeat on my favorite song that just played.
M: I might as well enjoy these last few minutes as I face my failure...
I can see the line where I ended my run on the previous day.
Voice on the app: One minute to go
M: One minute? I can reach that corner in one minute 
Finally, my body complies and I run like I've never run before... chasing down that imaginary line. I pass it and run another ten feet, when the voice says End workout

I walk the rest of the way home and my husband says, "Every time you run, you look younger."
I laugh and say, "Really? Every time I run, I feel days closer to death."

Learning to shop without the Seminary clothing co-op

I talked about re-learning good, frugal grocery shopping habits in a previous post, so now I'll talk a bit about shopping for clothes; specifically kids clothes. I've been the same size for about 17 years, so I don't really buy new clothes for myself. I have gotten some great items at the co-op, and updated my closet. But, prior to Seminary, my wardrobe didn't change much.

My kids are a completely different story. They either grow out of or destroy clothing at a fairly rapid rate, and we are constantly replacing items. I used to have the best prices memorized. Ten to twenty-five cents per item was awesome and $1 per bag sales were usually my favorites, because I'm an excellent packer and I can fit A LOT of stuff in a bag. Saturday mornings always began with yard sales...

But, the clothing co-op had my shopping eye jaded pretty quickly. Even at ten cents, I was quick to exclaim "How can I waste this dime when I can probably find something just as good at the co-op?!?"
Now, as we prepare to leave the Seminary, I am struggling to find my treasure hunting, yard sale scrounging personality... I just keep thinking about how much I am going to miss the clothing co-op. When I go "shopping" anywhere else, I have to keep reminding myself that
"THIS STUFF ISN'T FREE!"
It's so easy to forget, and I find myself filling my cart with whatever random thing strikes my fancy, and then backtracking to look at the prices. Yikes! This has me terrified. I have forgotten how to shop... and when I say "shop", I mean get things my family needs for next to nothing.

So, as I'm thinking about this, here are a few of my old habits that I need to re-establish.

1. Yard sales, obviously. But, here's what I look for: 

• High quality brands - I love OshGosh, Old Navy, and Levis. 
• Bulk buying options - like $1 per bag
• Up-sizes - I try to buy the next few sizes up for each child, so that we never have to panic over a growth spurt.
• Good Condition - It's not worth 10cents if it's already all used up; and yes, you have to watch out for sales where people think it's okay to sell stained items.
• Shoes - we always need shoes. I think feet are the fastest growing body part, although I have no scientific proof.

2. Thrift stores. I look for the same types of items, but usually I stock up over time from my yard sale hunts and use thrift stores to fill in sizes that I don't have much of. 

I sort all of the clothes by size and store in bins or boxes. The cheapest way is to recycle and label cardboard boxes, but as my family grows, I am seriously considering investing in some clear, easy open, lidded containers, so that I can see what's in them without opening every container. Because, time is a valuable asset too.

Each container has boy or girl clothes of one size, and when my kids NEED an item, these bins are where we shop. I started doing this when my oldest was born and prior to Seminary, I only HAD to buy item (at retail price) in 12 years, and that was because my oldest boy grew three shoe sizes overnight, in January (no yard sales and he couldn't go barefoot), and I had only stocked for two up-sizes that winter. 

It was a great system. Since Seminary, the availability of new items whenever we need them has become a crutch, and I have not kept up with my clothing storage and organization system. 

My first task after we move? Hitting up the yard sale circuit in my new neighborhood. We will grab a map and spend our weekends learning about our new community as we explore yard sales and learn how to shop the resale market again.

Learning how to shop without the Seminary food co-op

I wear my frugality like a badge of honor. When people say, "You're the cheapest person I know," I swell up with pride. Or when someone calls me "Tight with money," I consider it a compliment of the highest order. But, lately, I've lost my frugal touch.

I blame my frugal ineptitude on our time at Seminary. Having no income means having no budget. Then, there is the overwhelming support of congregations and individuals that has allowed us to have things I wouldn't have purchased otherwise. (Gift cards are a joy to spend, while cash is not).

Because of the generous donations to the food and clothing banks at the Seminary, along with generous gifts to us directly, we have only had to purchase a few clothing items for our children, and thus I've forgotten how to shop for kids clothes. My food and household budget are jaded because so many of these items have been provided for us.

As we near the end of our years at Seminary, I am forced to ponder our budget for next year. Of course, I have no idea where we will live, what shopping will be like or what my husband's salary will be; but, I do know that as the economist of this household, I don't want any of it to go to waste. So, now is the time for me to relearn how to shop, study the retail and resale market of items we will need and polish up my old tricks of the trade.

Here are a few of those old tricks.

1. Throw together meals: In the United States, we waste, as in throw away, 40-50% of our food.. I have learned over much trial and error to mix and match items in a wok with some oil and seasoning, or in a crock-pot to make a new meal. Some people say, "Oh, my kids won't eat leftovers." But, when you are working on a strict budget, I say, "My kids will eat leftovers or my kids won't eat."
Another way to use up leftovers is as snacks. When there is just a small amount of something, one child can have it for a snack.
Or, if you have several leftovers that don't seem to go together in one new dish, you can have a special day of leftover buffet. Set out all the various things from your refrigerator in a sort of buffet style presentation and let the kids make their own plates. This makes for a great, fun lunch. For example, today, two children are thrilled to get egg salad sandwiches, while the others are happily eating Tator Tot Casserole.
This is an area that I have been a little lax in over the past few years; but, now is the time for me to get back into my old habits.

Our goal for next year is to get our food budget down to $10 per day. That will require no waste and carefully planned meals.

2. Batch cooking & freezing. Some people like to do freezer meals, but they are mostly a replacement of the freezer meals that can be purchased at the grocer; like lasagna. My family doesn't really eat foods like that, so the amount of work that would be involved in making up a bunch of recipes that I don't normally use and don't know if my family will like doesn't seem like the best use of my time. Plus, I don't like buying a bunch of ingredients just to make these recipes. Instead, I batch cook more like this. Buying potatoes in bulk is a waste if I don't use them up, but her method allows all of the potatoes to be processed and frozen and it replaces the purchase of frozen potatoes, like tots, and fries.

I also like the way she cooks up bulk hamburger. My plan is to purchase a case (about 80 lbs) of meat from Sam's Club and cook it up 10 lbs at a time in my 20 qt stock pot. Another good option that we may or may not have available to us next year is to buy meat directly from a local farmer. It is not always the least expensive, but is usually a very high quality meat for your dollar.

We will also batch cook waffles in a four-square waffle maker. The ingredients for waffles; like flour and sugar are generally inexpensive and easy to buy and store in bulk. A huge batch of these size waffles can be made all at once, cooled and frozen for later. They fit nicely into a toaster (like Eggo's) and make a great, quick, convenient breakfast or snack on the go. My kids will even eat these cold right out of the refrigerator, but you can add fruit, butter, syrup or other toppings as well.

I am planning to try doing something similar with a pancake mix, but I haven't found a recipe that freezes well and is easy to heat up (I like the McDonald's ones, but am still working on replicating them.) If someone can send me a link for that, I would be very grateful. (I could eat those McGriddles all day long - see what gift cards do to me?)

This is longer than I'd planned, so I'll talk shopping for clothes in another post

Oh, The Places Milk Will Go

As a writer, well, you know, at least as someone who keeps calling herself a "writer"; like when I say offhand that I'm going to try to get some "work" done and someone says, "oh, what kind of work do you do?" and I answer "I'm a freelance writer" - since I keep telling people that, I thought I might as well get out some of that old paper and put something together. So, as I wade through this box of old habits, I thought I'd share a few, starting with this one.

Oh, The Places Milk Will Go

I had heard this could happen, but I didn't believe.

I didn't think it was possible until it happened to me.

I was eating my lunch of pizza and yogurt, with milk to drink and pie for dessert.

I saved some of my milk to go with my pie, and listened to jokes from my friend Levi.

We laugh a lot because his jokes are the best.

Our lunch table is always the loudest.

But, laughter is not always a good thing. I was about to learn

a lesson in laughing and eating in turn.

You can't do both at the same time if you want your food to go down the right side.

I was swallowing my milk right at the punch line

when my laugh and my milk came out side by side.

I was quick to close my mouth so I wouldn't spit my milk all over the place where my friends sit.

That wasn't enough to keep it all in.

Out through my nose came a milky white sprayin'.

Now, that was so funny I thought I would burst, but, when I laughed, I just made it worse.

Along came this girl who heard all about it.

She said, "You aint seen nothin' yet!"

I quit laughing when I saw what she had done.

I bet my eyes were the size of the sun.

When she sucked her milk up her nose through a straw...

and pushed it out her eyeballs...

I knew I'd seen it all.

Ask the Author: Which one are you?

Readers fall in love with characters, and they love to hate others. Sometimes readers wish they could be a character, and they often wonder aloud, to the author, "Which one are you?"

If I'm honest, I'll tell you that I'm everyone and no one. I have to become each of them in order to write them... but their stories are their own, not mine. This is fiction, my own story is much too dull a tale.

Some characters have qualities I wish I had; they are prettier or smarter than me; often they are stronger than me - Emily is able to exact revenge on an abuse where I could not. In some ways, I become stronger because of them.

Other times, they are who I hope I'll never become. Their faith is weaker than my own; I think they would not be so distressed by their circumstances or desperate to change them if they trusted God. If I can learn what drives Claire to take her own life, perhaps I hope this understanding will help me avoid the same fate.

I am a part of every character I write, and they are all a part of me; but, I am none of them.