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The good thing about being frugal is that you get to save money on things that are unimportant so you don’t feel bad about spending on the things that matter. I know you don’t need a fancy meal to show your significant other you love them. But, you know what?  It sure is a nice gesture. Today  I have some tips  so you don’t break the bank when you treat your loved one to a fancy dinner.

Tips for dining out

Pay Less:  You don’t have to pay full price for your dinner out.  At Restaurant.com you can get gift certificates to restaurants for less.  During promotions, you can get them for as low as 10% of the face value of the certificate.  You can find a list of restaurants near you here.

Avoid the crowds: Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday this year which means chances are pretty good most restaurants will be booked.  My advice is to take your sweetie out on an off day like Sunday or even for an earlier meal such as a very early dinner or late lunch.  This way not only are you avoiding the crowds but also premium prices due to high demand.

Fixed price is a good thing:  To simplify service and attract customers a lot of restaurants offer a  fixed menu for a discounted price.  Getting a full meal course this way is always cheaper than ordering a la carte.

Don’t go all out: instead of each selecting a full course dinner, sample  together dishes from the menu.  For example when we go out my husband and I usually order one appetizer, one salad and two entrees.  We share the appetizer and the salad and each get an entry.  That way we sample dishes without us ending over stuffed and our wallets empty.

BYOB: When we lived in Pennsylvania, BYOB restaurants were very common because getting a license to serve alcohol is very expensive in that state.  Bringing your own wine is  a great way to really have it all.  You can find nice bottles of wine regularly for around $10-$15.  Even after the corking fee, you are likely to pay less than the cost of two glasses of wine from the restaurant menu.  Always make sure to call in advance to see if your restaurant does BYOB and what the cost is.

Tips for eating in

This is probably the best way to have a fancy meal for less.  By cooking your own fancy meal you can afford a nice steak and lobster meal for a fraction of what it would be at a restaurant.

Go for quality: If you are going to take the time to do this at home make it worthwhile.  Get quality ingredients that will deliver great results at the dinner table.  Save by buying on sale.

Keep it simple: Even if you are a pro at cooking, keeping the menu simple will help you enjoy more of the evening instead of spending the time laboring over complicated dishes.

Don’t forget to set the mood:  The food is just a bonus, after all it is about spending time with your loved one.  Don’ forget to set a nice ambiance: candle light, set the table, etc.

Whatever you decide to do this Valentine’s Day for your special someone, don’t forget that what you are celebrating is love.  That’s nothing to skimp on.

Image source: hfabulous.

Storage bags, chances are you have them at home and lots of them. They are very useful, help contain messes and make putting things away easy. We could go through lots of them fast and be wasteful but we don’t have to, we can reuse them.

To reuse them even if not to hold foods, I suggest you wash them first. To wash them well you need to turn the bag completely inside out (make sure the corners are completely out) and wash with warm and soapy water. I use a baby bottle dryer to dry storage bags but you could also use a pencil holder with some pens to hold your bags up to dry.

If you are thinking of reusing your storage bags for food storage keep this in mind: never re-use bags that have kept raw or even cooked meat or eggs in them. The risk for salmonella contamination is too high. If you would like to avoid this risk altogether there are many ways you can give a storage bag a second life. Here are some ideas:

1. Use as a pastry bag
2. Use as a travel toiletry bag. The TSA has made using storage bags to carry toiletries a requirement now.
3. Keep toy parts together
4. Keep puzzle pieces together
5. Keep electronics parts and manuals together.
6. Keep in your gym/pool bag to carry wet items
7. Make a travel fun kit for your kids to keep them entertained: put small toys, crayons, small pieces of paper.
8. Keep in your diaper bag to hold stinky diapers

By reusing storage bags not only are you saving money but you are also being less wasteful of your resources. Being frugal is not only about saving our resources but also about being resourceful with what we already have.

Check out other frugal living tips @ Biblical Womanhood

Earlier this week I visited my local Kmart to pick up some Nutripals bars for my 3 year old. they are a new item there and are on special sale for 2.99. I was very happy to pay this price, as the cheapest I usually find them is $3.94 at Walmart. The next day I opened up one of them to give to my son only to notice that this bar was noticeably smaller than what I remembered. I still had an old box so I compared and the old bar weighed 1.41 ounces while the new bar only weighs 0.78 of an ounce. That’s almost half the size and their price didn’t drop as much.

Unfortunately, this is just another telling tale of the times. Almost every food company is turning to smaller sizes in order to control prices while keeping their customers happy. This CNN article that appeared Wednesday has specific examples of food packages dropping in size. This Food trade magazine has even more examples.

However, this article shows that people do not want to see smaller packages but are willing to pay more since larger sizes translate into cheaper unit costs. As a customer I feel deceived that food companies are trying to “slip this one” by me. I am afraid that in the end in an effort to maintain sales manufacturers may be creating ill-will.

What can you do to cope with shrinking package sizes?

• Keep a price book: besides being an important tool for tracking sales and figuring out your stock up points, a price book can help you calculate unit prices to make sure you are still getting a good deal.
• Be aware: be on the lookout for products that are promoting a “new look” or “streamlined/better” packaging. A new look could mean less product.
• Take advantage of the situation: expect to find older packages on clearance at stores. Manufacturers and store owners want to see old packaging out of their stores before the new packaging hits the shelves. Stock up on the items that you can.

As a consumer what do you think works better for you? a smaller package or higher prices? What do you think you are more receptive to?

For more frugal ideas head to Crystal’s Blog.

Before picture: soaking in vinegar

Vinegar is one of those topics every frugal blogger has talked about at least once. I didn’t want to break protocol.

Besides using vinegar to clean my bathrooms I love to use vinegar to clean my pots. Before I found out about vinegar’s other uses I would spend a lot of time scrubbing greasy grime off cookie sheets or pans. Now I let these items soak in vinegar for a few hours (depending on grime level) before I scrub. Vinegar cuts through this grease and makes wiping it off a breeze.

For more than a thousand uses for plain old white vinegar check this site.

After picture (Vinegar doesn’t return shine lost with everyday wear, sorry, but it’s clean)

For more frugal tips check Crystal’s Blog.

Last year was my first year gardening and I loved every minute of it. I was very lucky that I had a very bountiful harvest. However, almost every time a vegetable was ready to be harvested I was overwhelmed by the amount that I had available and how little time I had to consume these vegetables. I was lucky to have friends and neighbors more than willing to share in my surplus but I also wanted to have some of that surplus available at a later date. So I decided to preserve some of my harvest.

My first resource for learning how to can was “Ball Blue Book of Preserving.” It really is the authority on the different forms of food preservation. I highly suggest that if you are looking into preserving food you look into this resource. Borrow it for free from your library and if you decide you need your own copy, you can find it for around $6 at Walmart. After looking through it, I decided that a mix of canning and the use of a vacuum sealer was going to be what would work for me.

These are some of the things that are needed for canning: Jars, lids and rings, tongs, a canner (boiling water or pressure cooker type). But where to get all of this for very little investment?

1. The first two resources for these items should be garage sales and thrift shops. I was very lucky to have been able to find almost all of my jars at garage sales in my areas. They were even cheaper than at the thrift shop. I also was able to find all of the tools I needed this way.
2. Another resource should be friends and family. You may have an aunt, or a friend’s aunt who has decided to stop canning and has her stuff gathering dust in the basement. So pass the word along.
3. Let’s also not forget Freecycle or Craigslist. Unfortunately, this is the time that a lot of people are looking for these items as well, so you may find some competition for the same goods. But patience and persistence may pay off for you.

In the end all I bought new were the lids and the hot water bath pot, and you may not even need this one if you don’t use the big jars. A big pot where you can submerge the jars and boil them while covered in water is really all you need.

I would suggest that if you are thinking of canning vegetables you start small. Canning takes a lot of work. Last year I canned tons of pickled vegetables, salsa, tomato sauce, apple sauce, peach and apple butter and green pepper jelly. As you can see a lot of things. A lot of it was for Christmas presents but it took a lot of my time. This year I am scaling back, I have one more baby to take care of and I know my limits. So I will only be doing peach butter to give out as presents and tomato sauce for household use. The point still is to use the surplus from the garden and I know I will have a lot of tomatoes that I will turn into sauce. However, the rest of the vegetables I intent to blanch and vacuum seal. I did this with peppers and Brussels sprouts last year and they kept very well.

Food preservation is a great way to prolong the benefits growing your own vegetables provides. But don’t think that if you don’t have a vegetable garden, canning or other food preservation doesn’t apply to you. There are other ways to obtain free or cheap vegetables: surplus from friends’ gardens, pick your own fruit places, or even at the farmers market. Many sellers are willing to cut down on their prices towards the end of the day, always be willing to give haggling a try.

Check out Crystal’s blog for more frugal ideas.

Summer is officially almost here. With it comes lots of grilling and in our home this means lots of corn on the cob. Fresh corn is usually cheap and therefore we always end up buying more than we can eat. It also seems that everyone can

It seems that every time we order Chinese take out we get more white rice than we can eat. I hate to throw it out and often freeze it to use later when I make broccoli quiche. Other times I use it to make fried rice.

This is a very quick an easy way to put together this meal in a snap. You will need

About 2 cups of cooked rice
1/2 bag frozen mixed veggies
2 eggs
2 tbs of oil (sesame oil makes it very aromatic)
low sodium soy sauce

I first put the vegetables to cook in the microwave, until tender not too soft. Meanwhile, in a wok I heat up one tbsp of oil and scramble the two eggs. When the eggs are done I put them aside in a plate. Then in the same wok I add the second tablespoon of oil and the cooked rice and cooked vegetables. I stir fry this for maybe 4-5 minutes. Then I add the scrambled eggs and add about 5 dashes of soy sauce. How many dashes of soy sauce you add will depend on how salty you want to make the rice. I have found five dashes work for me. Toss everything around, make sure it is all heated through and serve.

If you want to make this into a meal you can cook cubed chicken and add to the mix. To cook chicken, in a wok I add one tbsp of oil, one clove of garlic minced, red pepper flakes and some grated ginger and let infuse for two minutes over medium high flame. Then add the cubed chicken and cook. You may want to add maybe one or two tablespoons of Hoisin sauce, or Teriyaki (if that’s what you have) to give the chicken some extra Asian flavor. Once it is cooked set aside and add to the rice before you serve it.

Approx cost: Free rice, 25 cents for two eggs, half bag of frozen veggies for 25 cents, the rest is from the pantry, for a total cost of $0.50 for fried rice for four. If you add chicken consider adding 2/3 lbs chicken breast @1.99/lb approx.

For more frugal ideas check out Crystal’s blog.

I love checking our mail everyday. On most days I get an envelope from a coupon trade I may have done that week. Every time I open an envelope and find coupons in it, is like found money to me. When I first started using coupons I was very excited about saving money. However, there was something missing. I felt I could do more if I was able to get my hands on more coupons. If you haven’t looked into trading coupons, these are some of the benefits you can reap, so you can take your savings to the next level:

• You benefit from economies of scale: we all know it is always best to use a coupon when the item is on sale. But what do you do when you only have one or two of those coupons and this is a good you purchase frequently? You have missed the opportunity to stockpile these item for a cheap price. Trading coupons will help you get a hold of more coupons so you can build a stockpile of those items you use often.
• Trading coupons allows you target your savings: There are two ways trading coupons helps you target your savings. First, if you live in a small town like I do, chances are your insert coupons are not as good as the ones from a large metro area. I get shafted from a lot of good coupons. Trading coupons has allowed me to be able to get my hands on some of those coupons. Second, manufacturers customize coupon savings by region. One region may get a different coupon value from another. If for example you have a store that doubles coupons up to $0.50, but your inserts had a coupon $1 off two items, this coupon has trumped your opportunity to maximize your savings because you can’t double this coupon. But, you may be able to find a $0.50 off one item coupon if you trade with someone who lives in the area that got that coupon value. The same holds too if you live in an area where coupons are not doubled, in that case you want to get your hands in the coupon with the higher value off one item.
• Trading increases your coupon pool: If you have been using coupons for a while you know that inserts coupons are only a subset of all coupons out there, a very small one actually. Trading allows you to obtain tearpad, magazine, booklet and blinkies coupons that may not be available in your area.

But what are some of the cons about trading coupons:

• Time and effort spent: This will depend on how much trading you do. I suggest you start small and focusing on only getting the coupons that are useful to you. If you want to move to the next level then you will start trading some of the coupons you find in your area with someone in another area. This takes more time because it involves more communication and negotiation.
• Costs involved: if you are trading coupons for coupons then your costs will be the envelope and the stamp. Add $$ to that if you are trading for a handling fee.
• Chance of being involved in a bad trade: unfortunately there are dishonest people out there, who will promise to send you something for what you have offered to send them. In reality they don’t send it on time or never send anything and in turn they have profited from the trade.

I am sure there are many places to trade coupons, and maybe someone can share other resources. I have been using the trading forums at Hotcouponworld and the reason I like it is because the moderators are very good at policing the trades. You can provide feedback and file a bad trade form. Not just anyone can start trading there, you have to have a certain amount of posts before you are approved for trading. Here is the link to their FAQs.

So go ahead, take the leap and take your coupon savings to another level!

Check out more frugal ideas in Crystal’s Blog.

During my last shopping trip at Walmart I decided to check the meat displays, to confirm something I read in June’s edition of Consumer Reports. The magazine warns readers to be careful to read the labels of any chicken meat they purchase.

Did you know that some chicken processing companies inject the chicken they process with up to 15% of chicken broth? They do this so that the cooked meat ends up juicy and tender. With meat so expensive, can you imagine only getting 85% of its value?

This particular brand I found at Walmart that day, Perdue’s Pilgrim Pride, stated right on the front of the bag that it had up to 15% in broth added to the meat. The bag was priced at $8, so that’s $1.20 people are paying for water instead of meat. So beware, read those labels in the packages of meat you buy.

For more Frugal ideas check Crystal’s blog.