What the @&7′)*!#: Should I Call Myself? 30-Day Challenge
Jun 29

Business has been a little slow, with two major projects on temporary (I hope) hold.  Cash flow is a little tough and groceries are getting really expensive.  Since I have more time than money right now, here’s how I’m saving the latter without really changing how or what we are eating:

Baking bread

Baking bread actually takes only 20 minutes of time, including cleanup.  I mix and kneed everything in my stand mixer and raise twice.  Each loaf costs about .35 USD in materials.  The loaves are about 2/3 of the size of a store loaf, but still, store loaves are running $2.50-$3.85 for the kind of bread we buy.  We eat a lot of bread; the two of us probably go through 2 loaves a week, so this saves an average of  $22.60 per month.

Making Granola

My DH won’t eat cheap cereal - generic corn flakes or puffed rice.  So we can count on at least $4.00 for a box of cereal.  Have you noticed how small cereal boxes are getting?  Luckily, he loves my plain granola.  I buy the Quaker Oats at Costco and use molasses/honey/maple syrup/brown sugar for the sweetener.  I buy molasses, honey and maple syrup when they are on sale or a good price at Costco.  A couple of tablespoons of oil, water, cinnamon and vanilla and we are good.  The cost comes to just under .09 per 1-cup serving.  The time spent to make 3 batches (I make smaller batches because they toast easier and I only have one edged cookie sheet) is a total of an hour (lots of in-between time). I figure we are saving about 30.00 a month on cereal!

Yogurt

Yogurt is super-easy to make.  Milk is running 3.56 a gallon here, which makes about a gallon of yogurt.  A quart of yogurt (the good kind) is usually on sale for 1.99-2.50, so the savings is 5.42 a gallon.  We use lots of yogurt in smoothies and as sour cream in cooking.  We save about 10.00 a month on yogurt.

Home Made Pizza

When I make bread, I also make pizza dough, raise it once and freeze it.  It thaws pretty quick in warm water (I freeze it in a ziploc) and is better for us than store bought or delivery.  We always have ground venison or elk, and I just reduce some canned tomatoes for the sauce.  The cheese is the costliest part.  The pizza we usually get costs 11.49.  The made pizza costs about $3.75.  We usually do pizza on Fridays, so we are looking at about 32.00 in savings a month.

Fruit Stand/Farmer’s Market

We have lots of fruit stands and a weekly farmer’s market in the summer time, so I hit them to get very cheap fruit and vegetables.  Of course I’m stuck with what is in season!  We’ve have asperagus (.85/lb) for two weeks, and I also pickled a bunch.  Peas are also out (.65/lb) and cherries.  Asperagus at the grocery store during this time was 1.99/lb, there were no peas.  I figure I save about 15.00 a month shopping at the fruit stands.

Now if only the DH could be convinced to brew beer again, we’d REALLY see the savings! ;-)

Let me know in the comments how you save cash by exchanging your time for money.

written by admin