About Us 
I am a stay at home mom with four wonderful kids. I have been married for over 10 years to my best friend. I am head over heels in love with him. He always supports my crazy "thrifty adventures". We have a lot of fun together.
I was raised on a small dairy farm. Where I learned very young, the value of hard work and how to be thrifty in all areas of life. Growing up our meals were made from scratch. Only on special occasion would we get name brand cereal, chips, or any other fancy treats. Now that I am a Mom with my own budget, the basic foods always comes first. I too make most of our meals from scratch and take pride in feeding my family a well balanced healthy diet.
I enjoy seeing how far I can make our budget stretch, and when I take the time to match sales with coupons I am able to get all those "fun & fancy" items that would other wise be out of my budget. Being thrifty has always been a way of life for me, but it has also become a real joy.
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Ever wonder how you can make those cute square scarfs that every one is wearing? Why pay the $20 bucks for some store bought one when you can make one for under $5 bucks? Our friend over at Living Life and Loving Every Second figured out a easy way to make your own and she is sharing it with us! It’s so easy!
 Photo credit: Living Life and Loving every Second Materials Needed to make your own square scarf:
1. Iron
2. Light Fabric of your choice but make sure it is double sided
3. Heat n’ Bond hem tape
4. Scissors
5. Pom Pom Trim
6. Fabric Glue
I am not even going to do a picture tutorial on this one because it is so easy a child can do it! First you want to take the fabric lay it on a flat surface then with a yard stick measure a square 40″x 40″. After that get your iron and hem tape and hem all four sides….YOUR ALMOST DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Take your trim and fabric glue and I used my fingers to put the glue then press the trim and YOU ARE DONE.( I put trim on only two sides)
One of our readers Amber H. sent us this guest post on canning meat. She shows you how each step goes and can help you save money by getting your meat on sale, buying in bulk, and canning it to use later. Doing this can help your stockpile, save on the electric freezer bill because you wont need to put this in the freezer!
How to can meat.
Put your jars, lids and rings in the dishwasher and run them through the rinse cycle. You want them warm when you put them in your canner.
Roast beef: Trim the fat. Cut into chunks.
Put into jars. 1/2 tsp. salt for pints, 1 tsp. salt for quarts.
Rinse the top of the jar before you put the lid and ring on.
Place jars into your canner. Fill halfway up the jars with warm water.
Put the lid on your canner and seal it. Turn burner on high. When you see steam start coming out of the top of the lid put 10 minutes on the clock.
When timer goes off place your 15 lb. weight on the lid. Wait until the weight starts “rocking.” (This takes forever.) When it starts rocking process your roast 75 minutes for pint jars and 90 minutes for quart jars. When the timer goes off turn your burner off.
Wait until the pressure gauge goes down on your canning lid. Do not open your canner until this valve goes down. Take your jars out with a canning jar grabber. (Is that what they are called, it sounds funny  Enjoy your canned roast in a pinch.
Ground Beef or Ground Turkey is canned and processed the exact same way. Two differences: You must brown it before you put it into your jars and fill your jars with water. 1/2 tsp salt for pints, 1 tsp for quarts. Just dump it on the top of the beef before you put your lid on.
Chicken is canned exactly like the roast. It goes in raw and you DO NOT fill it with water. It will cook in it’s own natural juices. You can use the chicken in SO many things. Enchiladas, casseroles, quesadillas, etc.
So pretty and you will feel SO accomplished!
With Halloween coming up we want to make sure we are all save and still have fun. With this night coming up we all usually end up getting pillow cases full of candy. Here is a post that Integrated Nutrition shared with us on how to have a Healthy Halloween too!
Halloween can be a tricky holiday. The omnipresent candy, the festive parties, and the excited enthusiasm of costumed kids can make us go overboard on treating ourselves – especially since we can rationalize that the holiday comes but once a year.
Truly, Halloween is a good time to treat yourself and your kids – not just with a little extra candy, but also with family activities. Bob for apples, tell spooky stories, or have a mini pumpkin hunt!
Halloween definitely doesn’t have to be scary for your health, which is why we’ve compiled this list of tips and recipes to help you moderate the treats and avoid the tricks.
Want more? The Integrative Nutrition community will discuss more tips for a healthy Halloween on Thursday, October 20 during a free webinar. Register for Tricked by Halloween Treats? Not This Year! to reserve your spot!
Candy
The trickiest part of Halloween is keeping yourself and your kids from going nuts over all that candy. It’s in the grocery, the drugstore, and practically pouring from every nook and cranny, all shiny in neat individual wrappers. One piece seems so small, almost harmless.
Of course, it comes in a bag with 50 or 100 other tiny “harmless” pieces. Take heart, though – we have a few ways to tackle the Halloween-candy blues while still allowing a little festive indulgence.
Handing Out Candy Without Diving Into the Bowl
1. Buy a candy brand that you don’t particularly like to eat for handing out to the trick-or-treaters. Candy corn if you’re a chocolate lover, or Milky Ways if Bit O Honey is your downfall. You’ll be more likely to leave some for the trick-or-treaters.
 2. Handing out apples might lead to an egged house, but non-edible options like stickers or yo-yos can be good for treat bags, too. Maybe include an organic lollipop or even a mini Larabar for good measure.
2. Go small. If you hand out something in really small portions like Hershey’s Kisses, not only will you be giving less sugar to the neighborhood kids, but you can also enjoy a few chocolate morsels yourself without much guilt.
3. Buy better candy for only yourself. You really want to waste your candy calorie budget on a few 3 Musketeers that have been sitting on a warehouse shelf for who knows how long? Have a small stash of quality chocolate, and you’ll be less likely to break into the cheaper stuff. For extra benefit, choose dark chocolate – it’s delicious and loaded with health promoting flavonoids. May we suggest Gnosis or Nibmor?
Keeping Your Kids Safe from Sugar Shock
1. Eat a scrumptious, filling meal before you and your kids hit the pavement. Both of you will be less tempted to munch on candy while you go door-to-door.
2. Upon arriving home after trick-or-treating, let your kids pick out 5 or 6 pieces of candy to enjoy that night. Then pop their bag in the refrigerator. The candy will still be good out of the fridge, but they won’t be able to eat it as fast. Younger kids may also forget about their stash altogether – out of sight, out of mind.
2. After Halloween, ration out the candy as you see fit, OR…
3. Buy the remainder candy off them. Your kids might be happy to trade their hard-earned candy for cold cash, a new toy, or a promise of a trip to the zoo!
Even using coupons, the back to school supply lists can take a toll on your weekly grocery budget. I found a couple neat ideas on reusing items around the house for school lunch supplies and can’t wait to try them out! These look like items even a non-crafty person like myself could successfully create!
With just a few snips, you can create a set of cool, eco-friendly, reusable snack and sandwich containers from juice cartons and milk jugs. They’re food-safe, easy to rinse clean, and absolutely free, so it’s no biggie if they get tossed accidentally. Let your kids decorate the boxes with stickers and permanent markers for an even more personalized look.
1. SANDWICH BOX: Mark a clean 1-gallon milk jug as shown.
2. Cut along the lines with scissors. To make the crease lines, use a thumbtack to pierce a row of dots at 1/4-inch intervals across each side of the jug, 1 3/4 inches up from the bottom.
3. Fold the flaps at these dotted lines, then open them and fold them in the opposite direction along the lines (this will make the flaps easier for your kids to open and close). Fold up the box and add an adhesive-backed Velcro dot closure.
SNACK BOX: Use a clean juice or milk carton. Cut off the top, then cut the sides into flaps as shown. Carefully crease the flaps, then fold them down and add an adhesive-backed Velcro dot closure.
These cute bags made out of Capri Sun juice pouches are popping up everywhere. Why not make a lunch totes for your kids?! Save $ and learn how to make them here. 
I think these would also make a fantastic reusable grocery bag! This is one my friend Ginny made. {Insert shameless plug for Ginny to make me one for my birthday! }
Do you have a creative idea on how to save money be reusing an item? Please share! I love hearing new thoughts and ideas!
 Arts and crafts are a great way to keep the kids busy during the summer months. If you are looking for an inexpensive craft solution, you can use different materials found around your home such as pencils, and markers along with pipe cleaners to make a pipe cleaner duck. I found this guide on the Factory Direct Craft blog.
1. Coil a white pipe cleaner around a pencil and then slide it off to the side.
2. Fold an orange pipe cleaner in half and bend the top of the folded pipe cleaner, which will become the beak.
3. The next step is to assemble the beak. This is done by sticking the orange pipe cleaner into the white torso about two coils from the top and slide it as far down as possible
4. Create the feet by bending the orange pipe cleaner’s loose ends.
5. The last step is to make the wings with the last white pipe cleaner. After creating the wings, you should attach them to the coiled section of the body.
This project is a lot of fun and your kids will love it. You really don’t have to spend a lot of money to keep your kids occupied. There are many fun craft supplies to work with, but I’ve found that pipe cleaners provide my kids with hours of entertainment.
 Thanks to Maryhelen for sharing her thoughts on couponing and how it blesses one’s family!
Grateful Couponing
We are a household that coupons, and have been for almost two years now. Thanks to an accidental conversation with a friend that long ago, our family has been blessed by the savings coupons bring. In the first three months of 2011, I calculated our savings to be around $600.With all of the new hype about the Extreme Couponing show, I got to thinking about just what couponing means to me and why I do it. I’ve always said that it’s part job and part hobby: It helps my family and it’s fun for me to work through deals and the success at the check stand is indeed a source of a unique kind of “high”. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to stop myself from skipping out the front door of the store..lol. Just as often I look at how much is in my cart, have a moment of guilt/panic for buying so much, but then have to remind myself that I only paid a few dollars for it all. *WHEW*
As with most things, couponing is all about attitude. So many that we’re seeing on TV these days, clearing shelves and bragging about overages, aren’t the reasons that most of us coupon. There is something fun about getting paid to shop, but as I left the store this last week with five gallons of milk, four dozen eggs, eight half-gallons of orange juice, four cans of evaporated milk and five packages of my long time, MOST FAVORITE cookie that I NEVER buy because they are usually VERY expensive, and my wallet was only lightened about $8 ~ beyond the high of the great deal was a larger portion of gratitude for the gift of matching coupons with sales and what it means to our family.
It isn’t every shopping trip that coupons for milk and eggs and juice come together. One of the complaints about couponing is that so much of what can be bought for cheap isn’t “real” food. It’s snacks or just plain junk. Things that are fun for treats, but you can live on a fruit snack/granola bar/cereal diet for too long without some consequences..
This week might have been unique in some ways, but these weeks do come around. Our biggest household savings is more typically non-food items: I paid $1.53 for diapers a few weeks ago. I don’t pay for toothpaste or toothbrushes anymore. Laundry soap is never more than $1.99 and really great fabric softener is just…cheap now. I got 12 boxes of dishwasher detergent for 25-cents each a while back. This week I bought packages of 6 rolls of paper towel for $3 each. Tampons are no more than $1 a box. Ever. In fact, once they were 30-cents.
This is very normal, run-of-the-mill couponing that many find week after week. Of course not every product comes up each week, which is why we stock up when the stars align and sales and coupons match.
Those same calculations that told me we saved $600 in the year’s first three months also showed me we only spent about $87 for non-food items in that period of time. That feels amazing for our household of seven, including two teenagers and all of their “accessories”.
But what do all of these numbers mean? The first thing that has always come to mind is the smaller amount of stress I feel in making sure we have what we need. Before couponing, things like paper towel and fabric softener were luxuries we often just could afford to do without. We’d get down to the very last diaper and hope it lasted long enough to be able to get to the store. (the last few months of wearing diapers my recently potty-trained 2 1/2 year old would say, “they’re in the garage!” And she was right. Diapers aplenty right on the shelf).
With so much savings going in to these household items, paying regular price for milk isn’t a terrible thing (and we go through 6-8 gallons a week). Or fruit. Or any number of staples that don’t often have coupons put out for them.
Less stress is always a good thing and reminds me of the saying about how when mama’s happy, everyone else can be, too. So true!
I know I’m not alone in these feelings of gratitude. I know that many households are just like mine. With all of the publicity the naughtiness of the TV’s version of couponing is getting, it seems like it’s easy to group everyone with a coupon binder into that hoarding/greedy/selfish sort of category. But that is not the case. I see moms (and dads!) in the store who are just like me. With small kids in tow while the big ones are at school, just like me. Using their coupons with sale prices to get the best deals to bless their family, just like me.
Like so many other things it is the minority that gets the most attention, and often ruins something wonderful for the multitude. I hope that doesn’t become the case with couponing, but we are not ENTITLED to any price being less than the tag on the shelf says it is. Remember no manufacturer is obligated to produce a coupon and no store is required to take them. We are living in such a fortunate set of circumstances with regard to both of those things, I hope we never lose sight of how blessed we really are.
With a happily stocked pantry and refrigerator this week and a few dollars left in my wallet, I am feeling that extra measure of gratitude. It’s a feeling I hope never goes away.
A HUGE thanks to Brittaney for sharing her wisdom and amazing tips to making your Disney vacation wonderful and Thrifty! She also makes some adorable bows, so make sure you check out her site Bella Bow-Tique
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It seems like everybody, and their dog, are planning a trip to Disneyland sometime this year. YAY!! I’ve had sooo many people calling, emailing, texting me and asking me whats the easiest way to save money on a trip to Disneyland…. Well i’m NOOOO expert! In fact, i’ve never even paid for a hotel or tickets to Disneyland, BUT, i do know some fun, easy ways to save. These are also great tips for the fair, carnivals, parades, and other theme-parks.
TIP #1 : Make your own Autograph Books!
It’s been a long time since i’ve bought an autograph book at disney but if i remember right, they are around $12-$16 EACH! (OUCH!) I went to the craft warehouse and found small blank spiral notebooks on sale for $1 each. I got some of my scrapbook stickers out and voila! Cute custom autograph books! And there are plenty of pages to be able to use them for a couple trips to Disney, the fair, or anywhere else with characters!
 
 
TIP #2: DOLLAR STORE= YOUR BFF!!!
This is probably my favorite tip; Souveniers and lights are E.X.P.E.N.S.I.V.E in Disneyland, as with any theme-park! A simple little keychain character will cost around $10 (again, OUCH!) The easiest way to save money on this is by going to the Dollar store BEFORE you leave! It may sound silly, but the Dollar store has A TON of Disney character items, and each is only $1!! I was able to get the kids several items each and i will pack them with us and give one toy to each kid each day we are there. And i only spent about $12 for everything! (that’s 6 toys each!!!!)
If you are at Disney when it gets dark you will notice carts and carts that walk around selling everything imaginable that lights up! Glow sticks, necklaces, glasses, etc. A simple necklace will cost you about $6!!! BUT, the dollar store carries a pretty good variety of glow stuff! They even had light up swords and wands! The necklaces and bracelets all came in a pack of 4-6, so for $5 the kids can be a GLOWING SENSATION at Disney! Walmart is also a cheap place to look for Disney items before going.
 
TIP #3: Make your own t-shirts!
Of course, you can’t go to Disney unless you are decked out in something Disney right?! i found these cute Disney Cars and Disney Princess shirts at Jo-Ann’s, used my 50% coupon and got them for around $3 each. You can buy fabric markers and have the kids color them themselves before the big day! They can then proudly wear them and show them off!
 
Tip #4: Coin Tubes
Landen LOVES getting pressed pennies from anywhere we go! Everytime we go on vacation somewhere we always look for pressed pennies machines! Disney has a HUGE selection of them! Every character, every ride, every land, every EVERYTHING!! They even have a shop on Main Street FULL of pressed penny machines! it can get REALLY frustrating trying to dig through bags/purses to find 2 quarters and a penny for each machine. An easy way is to have the kids do chores before Disney that will earn them a quarter or two each. Then have them gather up all the pennies they can find between the couch cushions and put them in an M&M tube! Just about any grocery store sells these tubes full of mini M&M’s, buy one for each kid, enjoy M&Ms, peel off the label, have the kids decorate the tube with their name, stickers, etc and organize the coins, 2 quarters one penny, 2 quarters one penny, till it’s full! I will also attach a piece of yard to the bottles so we carry them easily! You may want to bring a sandwich baggie for all the pressed pennies!
Tip #5: Take alongs
This year we are going to attempt driving (yikes!) but, it’s only going to cost us around $600 to drive from Idaho to So. Cali and 2 nights in a hotel, instead of roughly $1500++ for airfaire. (kids ages 2+ have to buy a full price airline ticket!) So here are a few things we will be taking with us to survive the drive! (Besides your obvious books, toys and snacks)
- DVD player with new movies (library is a good idea)
- Again, hit up the dollar store for new toys, sticker books, coloring books, playdoh, white boards, stitching patterns, etc.
- WRAP toys! It may seem silly but wrapping new toys for the kids to play with will entertain them longer (just make sure you take toys out of packaging to prevent too much trash build up)
- ALUMINUM FOIL! Bring a tube or two to make aluminium foil animals/figures/hats, etc.
- Potty break? Bring a kids training toilet, it is small enough to fit in a car and instead of pulling over every hour for kids to go potty, use the portable toilet. Also, bring a thick burp rag or reusable diaper to put on the bottom of the potty so prevent splishing and splashing of toilet goods til you can dump it.
- Headphones for the kids! After listening to cartoons for a few hours, mom and dad will get SICK of it!
- Have the kids pack their own backpack with a few of their favorite toys and keep it accessable to them throughout the drive.
- Lap Desk- I bought these lap trays/desks for each of the kids to take with us in the car. Since they are both in carseats it’s hard to do anything on your lap, but these will allow them to color, play, even eat without making a big mess in my van! They make actual “car trays” online but those can be pretty spending. I found these at Hobby Lobby for $6.99 each and they’ll work perfect! They even have little cubbies to store crayons, coloring books and more in them!
Make seek and find jars, you can buy colored sand at most crafts stores and find random objects to put in the jars. Make a list of what items are in it and have contests to see who can find that item first.
 
Tip #6: FOOD, need i say more?
A typical “fast food” meal at Disneyland will cost you around $12!! Stay at a hotel that has a free breakfast buffet and FILL up before you go into the park, that will last you a while! Your not “supposed” to bring food into Disney but we’ve been able to bring in snacks for the kids without any problem. Granola bars, fruits, gold fish, fruit snacks, and refillable water bottles are a great way to save! One apple at Disneyland will cost you almost $2!!! You can also bring a cooler of food and leave it in your car to go have lunch or rent a locker outside of the entrance and go have snacks/meals, doing that for one meal will save you on average for a family of four around $50! Another idea is to bring a toaster to your hotel, you can make several different meals with just a toaster. Toast, bagel sandwiches, waffles, etc.
Tip #7: What to bring into the park
Bring your own ponchos, even if it doesn’t look like rain, bring one for each family member and your stroller just in case! You can expect to spend around $10-$15 for ONE poncho from Disneyland, but you can often find them at (guess where?!) THE DOLLAR STORE! Even if it’s raining most of the rides/attractions stay open during the rain, most people leave the park or don’t go on rides during that time so it’s perfect!
Bring your own stroller. A stroller rental from Disneyland will cost about $10/day and they are uncomfortable and offer no room for storage!
Camera, extra batteries, film (do people still use film?)
Change of clothes- Forget the “you may get wet” caution sign in front of splash mountain! Let’s face it…. YOU. WILL. GET. DRENCHED! Bring extra sunscreen and DRINK WATER! LOTS AND LOTS OF WATER!
Tip #8: Don’t forget the Beach
You can’t go to Southern Cali without making a trip to the beach! Make your list to the Dollar Store even longer by getting beach toys at there! I was able to get sand molds, beach ball, buckets, shovels from the dollar store!
Everytime we go to the beach i bring an empty, clean baby food jar and have the kids fill it with real beach sand and seashells they found, then label “Kaylee’s 1st trip to the beach” etc. It also makes for a fun Find and Seek Jar afterwards!
Tip #9: Princess at home?
If you have a little princess at home and she wants to dress up as her favorite princess DO NOT buy a costume at disneyland! The Pixie Place kiosk in the Boise mall now sells Disney princess dresses. They are not like costumes, they are light and comfortable enough to wear all day, even on rides. And they only cost $30! They are machine washable and they even make them for 1-3 year olds! In case you’ve never looked around for princess dress pricing, $30 is GREAT!
Tip #10: CityPass
If you are planning on being in so. Cali for a few days, the best way to save money is getting a CityPass. Getting a citypass gets you admission into Disneyland, DCA, Universal Studios, Sea World, and the Zoo. It’s about a 30%-40% savings to do that.
Tip #11: Parking
Parking in the parking garage is going to cost about $15/car! Killer!! One tip we usually do is park in the Downtown Disney area. You get free parking for 3 hours. You’ll have a little ways to walk, but you can walk through shops making it less boring but just move your car every 3 hours.
Tip #12: Child Swap
•Adults with kids don’t have to stand in line if the ride is only for the adult.
?Example 1: If Mom wants to ride Space Mountain but Dad and kids do not, tell the guy working the ride and show him your family. He will let Mom go in a special, shorter line.
?Example 2: Mom and Dad both want to ride Space Mountain but they have an infant who can’t. All 3 wait in line and when they get to the front, tell the staff you want to trade off. Mom rides first while Dad and baby wait; when Mom is done, Dad takes her seat and rides immediately.
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A far as hotels, i’m definately not the person to ask, but i know that staying off-site you can get a decent price hotel, especially off season. AAA, and travel agents also offer discounts.
For tickets into the park, again i’m definately not the person to ask because i’ve been over a thousand times and never paid, but getting a “park hopper” pass is definately the way to go. This will get you into Disneyland and DCA and you can go back and forth as much as you want. Also buying more than one day at disney will be cheaper. (i.e. a 5 day pass is cheapest!) And it may sound silly, but check craigslist or ebay for discounted tickets. Often times people will pay for additional days but not be able to make it. Just do your work and make sure they are legit before purchasing!
ADDITIONAL TIPS:
- Even though Disneyland closes at (let’s say) 9pm, main street shops stay open til the LAST PERSON is gone! So do all your shopping at the end of the day! Last year, my family and i were the very last people on an empty main street at 2am! It’s kinda neat to see Disney with NO ONE there!
- If you go to guest relations you can get a FREE button if you’re there for a special occation, birthdays, anniversaries, honeymoons, 1st trip to disney, newlyweds, family reunions, etc. Just go to guest relations and ask for a specific button and everyone can get one free!
- USE FASTPASS! Fast pass is a ticket that gets you a “go to the front of the line” sort of thing. You can get only one per person per every few hours. So, if you want to go to splash mountain but the line is 2 hours long, get a fast pass, go on a few less busy rides, come back any time after your ticket says and wait a MUCH shorter time!
- A Character meal is TOTALLY worth it! These cost more than your average $10/person meal but they are TOTALLY worth it! You can sit and eat really good food and have the characters come to YOUR table! No waiting in line after line in the park, you can take pictures, get autographs without even leaving your table! There are SEVERAL different character meals.
- Disney Princesses no longer walk around, so you have to look for specific area where they will be and the line is usually pretty long! So have one adult wait in line while the other takes the kids on another ride.
- Here’s a trick that the hubs and i did in WDW, i don’t think it’s “technically” allowed but it saves time! get your fast pass for just one ride and use your spouse’s ticket to get a different fast pass. You can ask the ride attendent for a stroller pass and that allows one person to get in the fast pass line. So technically you are 2 fast passes at the same time and get to go on 2 rides in just the fast pass line.
- Even though your fast pass says, “use between 2:00pm and 3:00pm” that doesn’t mean you have to go in that hour block. You can still use your fast pass anytime after 3pm.
- Go on rides during parades, or lunch/dinner time. Wait lines are SIGNIFICALLY shorter during these times!
- Have an iphone? The iphone has an app that will tell you the shortest wait line!
 Thanks to Utah Deal Diva for passing along this thrifty guest post on her money saving ideas for keeping your produce fresh longer. Nothing is worse than spending money on fresh veggies and have them go bad before you get a chance to eat them. Here is a link to the story on the freeze in Mexico. Looking for a way to cut the cost of produce? Don’t forget about Bountiful Baskets a way to get $35-$55 in produce each week for only $16.50.
Being as the price of produce may drastically increase in the next week due to the freeze in Mexico, I thought it’d be helpful to share a few tips as to how to keep produce fresh longer. By taking a couple extra steps when you bring your produce home, you can extend the life of your fresh goods by as much as a week or two! Below I’ve listed several common fruits and vegetables and ways to prolong their shelf life. If you have tips to share, please leave a comment and I’ll add them to the list!
Apples & oranges: will stay fresh in fridge for 3-4 weeks. Don’t store other produce in the same place as apples in the fridge as they give off a gas that causes other produce to ripen quickly. {Oranges don’t seem to be affected, so I store them together.}
Asparagus & celery: Wash & cut off ends. Store in a container with stalks standing upright with a little water on the bottom.
Bananas: Buy small bunches in varying stages of ripeness. Break up bunches and store on the counter in a container that allows for good air circulation. I have a wrought iron basket that works really well.
Berries: Store in fridge. Berries just don’t last very long, period, unless you opt to freeze them. However if you wash them, they spoil faster, so opt to wash just those that you’ll eat immediately. Also be sure to pick out any moldy berries immediately as they will cause others to spoil faster.
Broccoli & cauliflower: Will stay fresh in the fridge for about 10 days. If you opt to freeze, you’ll need to blanch them first which is a very easy process detailed here.
Green onions: Slice them and store them in a container with a folded up paper towel. They’ll stay fresh for about 10-12 days this way.
Lettuce & spinach: Wash & dry leaves. Store leaves in a loose but closed bag or container with a folded up paper towels. The towel absorbs the moisture and leaves stay fresh longer.
Mushrooms: Store in the fridge in a paper bag. Will stay fresh for about a week this way. {Keeping them in the container you bought them in makes them slimy within 2-3 days.}
Onions: Will stay fresh in a cool, dark place for 3-4 weeks. You can also dice them and freeze them for use beyond that time frame.
Pears: Store in fridge until ready to eat. Once they’re out on the counter, they’ll ripen within 2-3 days.
Potatoes: Open bag they came in and store in a cool, dark, dry place. I store mine in a cupboard in my garage- they keep for 5-6 weeks!
Well it seems like almost every day my kids are wanting me to tie their blankets around them so they can run around like a super here. Well here was a cute idea that One Momma Saving Money sent to us:
I posted about a Tylenol Sleep Kit (no longer available)not long ago. Well in it came a blue sleep mask. After opening the freebie, I left the sleep mask laying out. Hubby opened the package and held it up and exclaimed I have an idea! He quickly grabbed the scissors and started cutting 2 holes in the mask. Then I grabbed some thread and quickly did a stitch around the hole to stop frays. Now granted it was not the best cuts or sew job, but as you can see from below it didn’t matter! Instant Super Hero!!!
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