We all say we want to do it. But how badly should be the question. How badly do we want to save money?

We have some friends who mew about not having a lot of money, but they continue to eat out. I don’t mean a couple of times a week. I mean at least once a day. Sometimes they eat out twice. Some of our friends brag about saving money by doing fast food…yet they then complain about the cholesterol medicine they have to purchase. Guess they don't see the correlation.

Every so often I get on a kick and try to figure out how much a meal costs us at home. For example, last night we grilled out steaks, had loaded potatoes, fresh green beans, grilled tomatoes, herb biscuits, cottage cheese, deviled eggs, and fresh fruit salad. The steaks cost us about $8. I imagine with the rest of the ingredients, we spent less than $16 total. These were decent steaks too, not shoe leather variety. Then I think back a few months ago when we went out with some friends who had to go to a steak house and I bet we spent way over $50 for a meal. Plus, our driving to that place which wasn’t in our town so that was an added expense. What a big difference in the cost of the meals!

We don’t eat steaks very often so when we do, it’s usually for an occasion. Normally we eat lots of chicken. I cook at home quite a bit because it saves us money as well as I control what we eat. We do go out and I feel we can afford to because of the other ways I save money. But, we just don't go out to go out. It's something we savor and enjoy.

Eating a healthy diet saves money as well – I took two sick days this past year. One I was sick and the other was because I had to – they were removing the braces off my teeth and you go in the morning and then back in the afternoon. I have a lot of health issues so for me to only use two sick days is nothing short of remarkable. I do think eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, little red meat, and hardly any fried food made a difference. Dear husband walks 5 days a week and since the weather has gotten better, I’ve been walking too.

During the school year I plan our menus ahead and make lots of casseroles or use the Crockpot. Yes, I’m sure I could be doing lots of fun things over the weekend besides that, but I feel committed to making meals ahead. And to be honest, I don't mind. It's kind of a challenge to figure out what I can fix without doing the same thing over and over again. For about an hour or two, I can make 3-4 meals ahead so when I get home, can pop something in the oven and we can have supper at a decent hour.

I have tried to convince some of our friends we should take turns hosting each other for meals to save money. Or we could have a potluck. We have some friends who do that with their Bible study group and besides the good company, they all save money and get to try new things. Unfortunately our other friends don’t want to do cook at home – they would rather go out and then complain about lack of funds in their daily life.

I claim to be frugal and I am to a point. I guess the definition depends on how you look at it. I will not sacrifice good nutrition for the sake of saving money. We buy lots of fruits and vegetables. Sometimes we buy fruits out of season because we need the nutrients. I figure I save money by cooking at home to more than make up for the cost. Our suppers aren’t soup and a sandwich – my husband is old school and he wants a regular sit down dinner so we have it – a meat, a starch, a vegetable or two and some fruit and of course some bread. My herb rolls are a steal and easy to make – 1 cup flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder,(or 1 cup of self rising flour if you have it), 2/3 cup milk, a tablespoon of mayonnaise, and then whatever herbs you have on hand. I change out the recipe depending on what I have. Last night’s was dill, garlic, and oregano. I’ve also put shredded cheese and garlic together and they are very similar to the ones you can get at a popular fish restaurant. Grease a muffin tin, bake at 400 until they start to brown, and you’ve got cheap, easy rolls.

So how badly do I want to save money – in the long run I do save money by cooking at home and feeling healthier. So, I guess I’ve answered my own question. How about you?

Ah, it’s Memorial Day - the unofficial kickoff to summer. People hope to fire up their grills and cook out and eat those foods they associate with summer.

If you have been watching the television ads, many show a staple of cook outs and that is baked beans. I know the grocery store ads had a well known brand on sale. And one brand even has a special grilling brand of them.

A few years ago I ran across a recipe for wonderful baked beans. It really isn’t that much cheaper to make them if you get the others on sale, but they have a better flavor and are worth the trouble. However, if the items in this list are already in your pantry, it might be more economical. I let mine bake uncovered until the sides start to caramelize and boy, are they delicious! They really aren’t a lot of work, just take a little planning, and you have homemade baked beans.

Baked Beans

½ lb of dried navy beans – picked over and soaked overnight in water to cover and then drained
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 slice of bacon, chopped
1 cup of ketchup
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large stalk of celery, chopped
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup of yellow mustard
1 teaspoon of black pepper

Drain the beans and then put in a pan with plenty of water and cook until beans are tender, for about an hour. Drain the beans, but reserve the cooking liquid.

Preheat the oven to 350.
Heat the olive oil in a pan or large ovenproof pot or Dutch oven. When oil is hot, add the bacon, onions, and celery and pepper. When onions and celery are translucent, add the ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar and stir together. Turn off heat and add beans, stirring carefully. Add the cooking liquid until the mixture is a little bit soupy – otherwise it will dry out when you bake it. You will have to basically eye ball how much liquid you will need.

Bake in the oven proof pot or Dutch oven uncovered for almost two hours or until it starts to caramelize at the sides. If it has dried out during the baking, stir in more cooking liquid to keep it moist.

If you haven’t made your own before you might think this is hard, but other than the initial chopping and cooking the onion and celery and keeping an eye on it when it is baking, it really isn’t difficult and it is flavorful. I’m sure you could experiment with different types of mustards or even onions and if you like some heat, could add cayenne pepper instead of black pepper. Anyway you try it, you can make it your own.

Besides, wouldn't it be nice to impress your friends and family and say you made it yourself?

Men have their gadgets. I’ll grant you, that’s a generalization, but many men really like gadgets. Well, I think women do too, but we call them different things and often rationalize our desire to own and collect them. I guess we feel we have to.

I am happiest if we are out and about, looking at kitchen stuff. This week we perused Kohl’s on Wednesday because my husband could have gotten the senior’s discount. So, I happily made my way to house wares to fiddle with the pots, pans, appliances and gasp…gadgets! Just for the record, we didn’t buy a thing. But, I had a frenzy of looking and comparing!

My own kitchen probably has too many gadgets. I have 4 Crockpots®. Yes, they are Rival so they are truly Crockpots®.. And they are all different sizes. I use them for different things. My largest is usually used for a pot roast with lots of vegetables and potatoes so I can make 2-3 meals. My next largest holds a whole chicken with a few vegetables, again enough for a couple of meals. The second to the smallest is great for beef stew, chicken broth, or ribs. The smallest is fabulous for meatloaf, small pieces of chicken, or vegetable broth when I have a few vegetables on hand and can’t use them for anything else. I don’t use one of the tiny ones for dips – I guess if I entertained a lot it would come in handy, but at this point, I don’t need it. Up until yesterday, I had 5 Crockpots®.. I took one away – it was a weird story, but I bought one at a garage sale and wound up being gifted with another one. I used to have one at school so my total did ring up to six at one time. I gave that one away. I figured, why not share the joy!

Up until a few months ago I owned a bread machine until it wore out. I have a coffee maker, a microwave, a tabletop grill, a food processor, a mixer, and a countertop oven. I also have a blender and bright shiny toaster. My husband gave me that toaster for Christmas a few years ago because he watched me covet it at the store. Some women like shiny jewels; I like shiny gadgets.

Now comes the rationalization…I feel I use most of these items frequently. The blender is probably the least used. The coffee maker is definitely employed the most. The counter top oven is large enough for a casserole dish so I utilize it when the days are hot and steamy so I don’t heat up the house. I operate my mixer for my bread making as well as cakes and other things that need to be mixed or kneaded. The food processor handles lots of shredding and chopping that makes my life a little easier. Why buy frozen hash browns when I can use the fresh potatoes that are in my pantry? I can then chop some onions and put them in the hash browns…yum! Plus, I like zucchini cakes…run a zucchini or two in the food processor, mix with egg and bread crumbs and sauté … well, you get the picture.

As for my herd of Crockpots®. …well, I use them. A lot. Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but I think a slow cooker is mine. Last night I made chicken broth. Quite a bit of it, in fact, so that I could cook some fresh green beans in it for supper tonight. The extra I will freeze for use down the line whether to use for soups, more green beans, and casseroles…the list goes on. I try to watch how much salt we use and my broth does not have added salt or preservatives. I put ribs in my slow cooker for tonight. It’s nice to use when the temps are hot so it doesn’t heat up the kitchen.

So, I have gadgets galore. Hopefully I won’t have to attend a meeting for my gadget addiction. If I do, maybe I’ll whip up some snacks beforehand!

It was very tempting tonight. So very tempting. After a tiring day, dear husband suggested we go out and eat because I have been tired and stressed.

I’m proud of myself. I held out and said we should eat what we already have. Earlier this week I had fixed a turkey breast in the Crockpot and we still had some turkey left. So, I broke the turkey off into pieces, and sautéed some green onions and garlic, and mixed with a little barbecue sauce, ketchup, honey, and Dijon mustard. I don't know if the turkey was really a Tom, but I'm calling it "Sloppy Toms". We had leftover green beans so I heated them up and baked some potatoes. I served all this with sliced tomatoes, homegrown radishes, and fruit salad I had made earlier this week. I figure I saved us some serious money by not going out and eating what we had.

Plus, I had some control over what we ate. The buns were whole wheat. We had lots of fruits and vegetables and turkey. So, with hindsight I’m glad I didn’t succumb to temptation. But I bet some local restaurants aren’t sharing the same feeling!

My husband is an addict. It’s often not pretty and the ramifications are serious.

Dear husband went to the doctor for his physical. The whole ball of wax. Including blood tests and the “glove.” I’m sure all men are cringing at the last part. Believe me, woman have their own trials. Anyway, I digress.

A few years ago when hubby went, his sugar was high and his cholesterol was really too high. The doctor gave him a glucose test and fortunately he wasn’t diabetic. You see my husband has an addiction and it’s a bad one. It’s ice cream. Creamy, smooth, sweet ice cream that melts on your tongue and slides down your throat making your tummy happy. And serving suggestions on sizes mean nothing to him. He usually uses a big soup bowl and piles it up and sits there enjoying himself. And, did I mention he’s thin? Besides the fact it isn’t fair he can be an eating machine and not gain weight, he thought he was safe from cholesterol and such. Well, that year he wasn’t.
As with all things, ice cream has to be eaten in moderation. So, we’ve looked for alternatives that he can enjoy in place of two gallons of the creamy goodness. Plus, he continues to walk five days a week. He always walked when he was working during his lunch time. Now that he’s retired he can walk longer and he averages around 5 miles a day. And, our dinners have been filled with lots of fruit and vegetables. I haven’t truly achieved the Mediterranean diet which is considered to be very healthy, but we are getting close. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes eating foods like fish, fruits, vegetables, beans, high-fiber grains and breads, and olive oils. Meat, cheese, and sweets are very limited. These recommended foods are rich with monounsaturated fats, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Although the price of fruits and vegetables are more expensive than many of the cheaper filler foods, I feel we are saving money by not having to spend money on medicines and more health care. Apparently the doctor’s tests agree – his cholesterol was 167 and his good cholesterol was at a good number as was his bad cholesterol. And his sugar was in the normal range. So, I feel our eating well has paid off.
As for his addiction, although it’s not illegal or immoral, he has used moderation as a guide. And I’m proud of him!

I’m always interested in saving a little moolah here and there and assume if you are at this site, you are as well.

I get ready to start my grocery list for next week and my menu for the meals. We have 7 more school days which means I still need to plan a few more casseroles. I am, however, looking forward to making some other items since I will have time to cook things that are not casseroles. Don’t get me wrong, I like casseroles, but sometimes it’s nice to have other things.

My husband has been quite a gardener when it comes to vegetables. He always has had a green thumb, but claimed he couldn’t grow vegetables. But, three years ago he tried tomatoes and was a success. Last year it was green onions, tomatoes, a few green beans, and herbs. This year he branched out to radishes and green peppers and a few more herbs. Many of these are in pots. The rest are in a very small space in our front yard because our backyard is way too shady. We laugh about the convenience of going to the front yard and pulling a few onions and radishes and getting some herbs to cook with. I guess people are growing their own food to save money. That is part of it with us – fresh vegetables and herbs are expensive. But there’s nothing like the taste of something homegrown. He’s all excited because his green beans are popping up. He has even resorted to talking to his tomato plants. I’m not real sure if they are listening because I think he’s sort of threatening them. But, if they produce like their “forefathers” did last year, we’ll be happy campers with a healthy diet. Not to mention saving some money!

Some folks get a thrill from shopping. They say the adrenalin really pumps when they look and find something to buy.

I have a similar thrill, but it happens at the public library. I love books. And I love saving money. So, the public library is simply euphoric for me because there are so many books and so little time and I'm not spending a lot of money.

The public library also holds a special place in my heart. Over 25 years ago I met this fellow on the public library bookmobile. We became friends and then eventually started dating. We will be married 20 years this June. I can certainly say I “checked” him out. But I have news for the library…I’m not returning him. I’ll return my books and magazines, but not my husband. Sorry!

Anyway, I digress. We stopped at the library tonight and I wandered around the stacks and looked at mysteries. If you read my previous blog I talked about mysteries that are also food related and how much I enjoy them. I might have found some new authors. There’s one author who has mysteries that revolve around a tea room. How cool is that?

I then perused the cookbooks and found a couple of cookbooks to browse through. Then I hit the magazines. I love glossy, current magazines. I’m too cheap to buy them so it’s a pleasure to enjoy them and return them. Plus, I feel it’s good for the environment because I’m not buying them and throwing them away. Yes, I know we can recycle them, and I do recycle the one magazine we have a subscription to, but overall, I think it’s nice that someone else can enjoy the same magazine.

So, I had quite a hunting expedition in less than 30 minutes and came home with quite a bounty. I feel I saved money because I didn’t purchase books and magazines and made use of the tax dollars the library receives to purchase materials. Wow, two proverbial birds with one stone! So I’m either a great hunter or quite the successful gatherer. It’s up to you to decide.

One thing I enjoy about Sunday is the Sunday newspaper. As much as I enjoy the computer, there's something about having newsprint in hand. An added bonus is most Sundays there are coupons included.
I have always enjoyed reading about folks who use coupons and can get a lot of groceries and products for a great deal. I’ve never gotten close, but it’s fun to dream.

But with most dreams there comes a reality. And I’ve discovered that in the Midwestern city that I inhabit, I’m limited by a few things that keep me from realizing the dream of getting so much for next to nothing. First of all, most of our stores do not accept Internet coupons. Their policies state that because people have cheated them, they won’t credit them. Bummer. Yet again a few have made it bad for the rest of us.

My husband splurges and buys the Chicago Tribune every Sunday. They also have coupons. A big discovery is that often times the Chicago paper has more coupons than our local paper and sometimes the cents off is even more. I guess that means I’m limited by my locality on how much I can save.

I have also found that most of the coupons available to me are for things I don’t buy. Double bummer. I’m not going to buy something just to save a few pennies. I do some crazy things, but even I’m not that crazy.

As frustrating as it is, I guess I should look at the bright side and take advantage of the coupons I can use. Guess it’s time for me to get out the scissors and start clipping for another week!

I must be big into confession the past couple of days. I'm a hoarder. Not a TCL Hoarding: Buried Alive hoarder, but I hoard staples in my pantry.

I want to blame it on my parents. They grew up during the depression and always felt it was necessary to have canned goods and pasta in the pantry "just in case." So, I have followed suit.

Years ago Chicago columnist Mike Royko wrote about an experience at his home. He said week after week he would go to the grocery store and buy frozen pizzas, chicken, T.V. dinners, vegetables, etc. And he and the kids ate the convenience foods and left the other stuff. Soon his freezer was full of chicken parts and the vegetables would rot. He decided he would not go back to the store until everything was used. He commented that near the end of the cycle, his kids found elsewhere to eat. He, in turn came up with some creative, if not gourmet meals.

Unfortunately I am not as strict as good old Mike. I don't like using everything up and then going to the store. I like finding things on sale and stocking up. I don't like to waste things so I do use things. But, I do find uses for food. Just this weekend I substituted Ramen noodles for egg noodles in a casserole dish for two reasons. I wanted to use the Ramen, but I also didn't have the egg noodles and wasn't going to go and buy any when I had perfectly good noodles in my pantry.

I'm that way with stuff in the fridge as well. I made a casserole called "Hillbilly Stew". I didn't have the vegetables listed in the recipe, so used what I had. It asked for a corn muffin mix for the top, but I substituted a biscuit mix. My husband gave it 8 out of 10 for taste. So, I'll share my "tweaked" recipe.

Hillbilly Stew
1 lb. ground turkey, browned
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small yellow squash, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
2-3 potatoes, cubed
2 small cloves of garlic, minced
steak sauce (optional)
1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
biscuit mix
milk
olive oil
spices of your choice
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour

Chop the vegetables about the same size. Put in a baking dish or baking sheet, and use spices of your choice. I used ground pepper, dried oregano, sage, and Turmeric. Drizzle with olive oil and roast until vegetables are nearly done. Remove from oven.

Brown ground turkey. I also added a little steak sauce when it was browning. I added the minced garlic near the end so it wouldn't burn.

Grease a baking dish. Put the meat and vegetables in the dish. Using the pan you browned the meat; make a roux of the butter and flour. Stir or whisk until it is creamy. Add a little tomato sauce to keep it from lumping. When it has become smooth, whisk in the rest of the tomato sauce until it all mixed in. Pour over the vegetables and turkey and stir.

Here's where the part of measuring goes out the window: I don't measure the biscuit mix. I put some in a bowl and add a little milk until it is smooth. I see if there is enough to go over the top of the dish. If not, I add more mix and milk. I pour on top and bake at a 350 degree oven for between 40-50 minutes covered. The last 5 minutes I take the lid or cover off so the mix browns.

I'm sure you can make this recipe your own with your own vegetables or even ground beef or chicken...check out your freezer or pantry!

For the past couple of years I have worked on fixing things ahead of time on the weekend so when I got home from work, I could just heat up the main dish and add some sides. I've tried different cook books and web sites and have found some fabulous casseroles.

I recently checked a book out of the library called "Casserole Crazy" by Emily Farris. Emily apparently lives in New York, but grew up in the Midwest. In her book she talks about how many of her NY friends wouldn't have given a casserole a second thought until she started making them and letting them come and enjoy them. She now has casserole parties where folks have to bring a casserole following a few guidelines. She said it has become very popular with her crowd and they email their recipes to each other after the event.

She also wrote about how casseroles often helped families in the 50s and 60 stretch their food dollar. That I would have to agree with as well. I can take a whole chicken (not a tiny one) and get 3-4 casseroles or dishes from it and sometimes even have chicken broth left over to freeze.

There are a few recipes I'm tempted to try in her book, but like most cook books I encounter, it isn't one I would use every recipe. But it was an interesting read nonetheless.

I guess it's time for me to push away from the computer and get my casserole dishes started!