Living on half an income

Lots of people say they just cant afford to live on one spouse's paycheck, and I have openly disagreed that in MOST cases, that just isn't true.

This last year we have lived on HALF of my husband's pay (because of having to pay the mortgage and expenses from renters in the CA house), and still made it work, praise the Lord! 

 It has been a struggle, and it has been a lot of hard work, but it has also been possible.

If the Lord is putting it on your heart to stay home, or if you just need to tighten your budget a little bit I hope maybe some of what we have done may inspire you too.


*Homemade Laundry Detergent. We do a LOT of laundry here. Three children (who love to play outside), a husband who wears a uniform, and work out clothes and casual clothes each day, and a bonus toddler. Plus cloth dish towels instead of paper towels, and bedding etc... I do a load every single day, sometimes more. This has saved us over $100 in the last year.

*We Don't Eat Out

*We stay at home. Gas is expensive so we combine errands and stay home most of the time.

*We have just one vehicle.

*We cut our grocery bill by simplifying what we eat (but still bless others with food). I use coupons on items we buy already when I can get them free from friends or in the free paper that is delivered to military homes, or by printing them at home.

*My husband switched to old fashioned razors.  He's been really pleased with them and has saved a TON of money.

*We use Vonage for our home phone, and pay only $10 a month. (If you sign up at this link, you will get 2 months free, and give us 1 month free too). We also use Net10 for our cell and pay only $15 a month. We dont have texting/internet etc, and we only get 300 minutes, but we use it mainly for emergencies, so I have accumulated over 3500 roll over minutes!
 
*We don't have cable, but we do use Netflix.

*I stopped buying books.

*Summer Treats at a fraction of the cost

*I bless loved ones with homemade gifts.

*We buy things at thrift stores, and have been blessed by hand-me-downs, Freecycle etc.

* I ask around to find friends who have fruit trees, or gardens with excess, and offer to pick their extras. This helps supplement our grocery budget, and I freeze or can extras to last us through the year.

And when things were the roughest, the Lord has blessed me with small ways to bring in just a little money, but it was always just the amount we needed to get by.


*I earn a little money online, clicking emails, and doing surveys.

*A friend offered to pay me to cut veggies for her. She works and hates doing it, so she brought over a bunch of butternut squashes and I cut and packed them into butternut fries, ready to  be frozen or cooked.


*Friends were interested in my homemade candles. By selling extras I am able to cover the costs of my supplies to make the for my own family.I've also been able to sell other crafts (homemade cards, photos, digital design etc) as well as extra jam or baked goods.

*A neighbor asked me to tutor her daughter, and help her do her math homework a couple times a week.

*Babysitting

* I sell household items that we don't need

I'm sure there are many more ideas, but these are just at the top of my head today.
My favorite blog on saving money/Living Simply

Decorating with Flowers

I love flowers to decorate  my home.

On  Thanksgiving, I was blessed with a beautiful bouquet that we enjoyed for a week before it started to wilt. 

Instead of tossing the entire thing, I was able to just throw away the dead flowers and break the bouquet up into 3 smaller arrangements.

One stayed in the kitchen, 

one went into Abigail's room (that girl LOVES flowers even more than me!)

and the last matched my bathroom decor perfectly.

Saving Money.. The Ice Cream Truck

My children LOVE when the Ice Cream Truck comes around, but it can be so expensive at $3 plus per treat!
So I came up with an idea.
I bought a few boxes of the kinds of treats my kiddos usually choose from  the ice cream man (bomb pops, Snicker ice cream bars etc) and since I had coupons, I only spent $1-$3 each for 3 boxes of treats. 
For less than one visit to the ice cream truck, I ended up with over 24 treats! 
We keep them in our garage freezer, and I only pull them out when we hear the ice cream truck music coming down the street.
My children love that they still get treats when the Ice Cream Truck comes around, and I love not having to say no because it is too expensive!

Cooking Staples- White Rice

First I put a tablespoon of oil in my shallow heavy bottomed pan,  and heat 1 cup of white rice with oil.

Once it is nice and hot, I salt it and add 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil on high heat.

When it is boiling I put the lid on and lower the heat down as far as it will go. I set the timer for 20 minutes.

About 5 minutes before the timer goes off, I check on the rice, give it a good stir, and add water if needed.

At 20 minutes, I turn the heat off, fluff up the rice and let it sit with the lid on tightly while I finish the rest of dinner.

Saving Money On Meals

Lately the amount of money people spend on groceries has come up a lot on message boards I am on, as well as in books and blogs I read. It has become clear to me that a lot of people are struggling because they simply do not know how to spend less on their groceries. I've come to learn a big reason why people are struggling to afford food is because they do not know how to make healthy, lower cost food items, so I am hoping to  share some ideas and tips to help anyone who may be in that situation.


To start, I've compiled a list of tips:


~Meal planning is essential -- plan around the foods you can get inexpensively where you shop.

~Add bread to your meals. It is filling and if homemade it can be a healthy addition to your meal.
Sweet Dinner Rolls
Whole Wheat Bread

Dinner Rolls 
Artisan Bread

~Drink water. You do not need to drink juice, soda or even milk as part of a healthy diet. Those things unnecessarily eat  up your grocery budget.

~Eat at home. I can often get a week worths of groceries for the cost of one meal out for our family! Here are my favorite restaurant copy cat recipes.

~Pasta, rice, potatoes, and beans are inexpensive meal fillers.Here are some of my favorite meals using cheap ingredients.

~Check when your grocer marks down their meat and be there when that happens....it can save a lot! (We shop at the Commissary and it is rare to find markdowns, but it may be an option for you)

~Save leftovers and eat those for lunch the next day. Wasted food is wasted money.

~Try to buy the produce that is on sale.
Lettuce is a cheap vegetable. You can also grow your own for even cheaper! Don't buy pre-cut lettuce. It's a better deal to cut your own up into salad. I cut my lettuce with a sharp knife as soon as I get it home, and put it into a gallon sized ziplock bag. It seems to help it last a few extra days for us.

Carrots, celery and cabbage are also usually very cheap compared to other fresh vegetables.Canned tomatoes and frozen spinach are usually very cheap as well.

Apples, bananas  and at certain times of year oranges, are usually the cheapest fruit and kid favorites.

~If things are cheap locally for you (like berries here in NW Washington) buy them when they are cheap and freeze them! We get U-pick strawberries at around $1/lb and I pick and freeze and can as much as I can, last year 40 lbs! Then we can benefit from that cheap produce all year long.

Blackberries grow wild and are free! We also freeze and can those, and eat them for breakfast with a little homemade whipped cream for most of the month of August.

In October instead of carving our pumpkins, we cook and freeze those too. We use them for baked goods, desserts, added to breads, and even baked as a breakfast.

And the best advice I have received about "saving" on groceries was "Pray over your food and the entire situation. Jesus multiplied loaves and fishes!"
I pray before going into the store, that the Lord would guide me to make the best decisions and spend the money I have wisely. I have prayed that our food would "stretch to be able to share with others. The Lord has been so good to answer those prayers! Remember you can find more money saving ideas here

and this is one of my favorite blogs on saving money

Keilbasa on rice

As I have said before, kielbasa is inexpensive at our grocery store.  So this recipe is very cheap (under $5 with coupons), but surprisingly delicious! 

1 package beef kielbasa-sliced

1/4 cup diced onion

4 tablespoons butter

28 oz can diced tomatoes

small can of tomato sauce

Saute onions in butter until translucent.  Add kielbasa slices and cook thoroughly. Add sauce and diced tomatoes and let simmer about 20 minutes while you cook 2 cups of rice.

Serve over rice and add a vegetable on the side. 

Saving Money- On Books

My husband loves bookstores, but my frugal, anti-clutter nature means I am not a big fan of buying books. So when we do go to bookstores, I bring a small  notebook with me, and I make a list of all the books I think I'd like to read. When we get home I look up the titles at my library's website and place a hold on them.  This way I can read them without it costing anything at all, and when I am finished I don't have to find a place to put it!

If I do read a book I must have, I save up my Swagbucks, and order them free from Amazon. Paperback Swap has been a great blessing too!

I do the same thing with homeschool books. I search through the catalogs, and make a list of the books I think would work for us, then I find them at our library!

Don't trash your pumpkins!

This time of year pumpkins are CHEAP! We were actually blessed to receive some free from a field trip this year. 

We use them for a couple of weeks as autumn decorations in our yard, then I bring them in and wash, slice, roast and puree them. 

I put 2 cups of puree into a ziplock bag, and lay it flat to freeze. 

From 3 pumpkins, I now have 40 cups of pureed pumpkin in my freezer for this year.  Not to mention lots of delicious roasted pumpkin seeds that we have been snacking on all week. It's not hard at all, and will save us lots of money.

You can use pureed pumpkin in any of the recipes posted here, as well as MANY others. Pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin soup.. the list is endless! 

Pumpkin Syrup

I LOVE Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Steamers.

I've seen lots of copycat recipes for the lattes online,but none that I have tried have been right, maybe because I don't use coffee, the taste is more noticeably wrong. 

But this was perfect!!

Pumpkin Spice Syrup

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3 cinnamon sticks

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon pie spice

4 Tablespoons CANNED pumpkin puree

Combine in a small saucepan on high heat.Cook 5 minutes, whisking constantly.
Let cool and strain through a mesh strainer into your jar. Keep in refrigerator.

Add syrup to your coffee or steamed milk. Top with whipped cream and a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon and enjoy the delicious taste of fall!

Cheap and easy dinner

  I just kind of made this up one day, and it has become a family favorite.

It is especially yummy when camping, cooked in a dutch oven over the fire!

You just take potatoes (I use 2 per person) and chop them up. Throw them in a baking dish, and season with house seasoning and paprika. Toss with a little olive oil then add chopped {beef} keilbasa, and half a stick of butter, sliced.

Bake at 400 until potatoes are tender.

Blackberries!

I think part of being a good steward is using what the Lord provides. 

We spent our week picking extra plums from a friend's tree, and picking from the abundance of wild blackberries that grow here. 

We fill our tummies with the delicious, antioxidant filled goodness as we pick, then we bring the rest home to make jam, and freeze. We'll turn them into smoothies, cobblers, pies, and clafouti. I love knowing I have healthy food for my family that didn't cost a thing!

Eating Frugally

This national budget scare has a lot of people second guessing their spending habits, and deciding to cut back. I think that is a wise idea!

I wanted to encourage you with some inexpensive recipes and meal ideas.

Tonight for dinner we are having lentil tacos. 

I admit, I was the first to think no one here would like them, but surprisingly everyone loves them. The lentils themselves are under $1 to feed a family of 6! I add spanish rice to ours (again under $1 total) , and we get a few days of lunches out of this meal as well! Then use what you have (sour cream, cheese, guacamole, salsa, lettuce etc) to dress them up!

 Lentil Tacos

1 cup dry lentils

1 small can of tomato sauce

1/4 cup taco seasoning(or 1 packet)

Mix together and add water to cover. Boil until tender (adding water as necessary)

Rice is very cheap. It makes a great breakfast as rice pudding, or you can serve almost anything over rice. Keilbasa on rice, chili over rice, stew over rice. The possibilities are endless. Spanish rice, cilantro lime rice 

Potatoes are really cheap and actually pretty nutritious too.

We love Greek Potatoes, baked potatoes, potato soup, or even just broiling diced potatoes with Italian dressing. Or frying some diced potatoes for breakfast with another frugal, healthy favorite, eggs! Keilbasa and potatoes is another favorite here too!

Beans are also super cheap and easy to make. I cook mine in my crock pot. I try to make 1 batch a week for lunches. We recently tried a new way to dress up our bean burritos and it was really delicious too!

Here is a healthier rice and bean recipe too.

Oatmeal is a super cheap, healthy breakfast! Make it yourself and buy it in bulk (we buy 25 lbs of steel cut oats at a time!). If you use steel cut oats, soak them overnight to make cooking quicker in the morning, or just used rolled oats if you prefer. Sweeten it (we like real maple syrup or succanat, but you could use sugar or brown sugar) and then dress it up. Coconut milk, coconut oil, apple butter, jam, shredded coconut, nuts, granola, even sprinkles or chocolate chips are often found in our oatmeal! My children love a little peanut butter stirred in too. I can feed our whole family oatmeal for breakfast for under $1.

Just cooking at home saves a lot of money! It is so expensive to eat out!

Here is a previous post of mine about making restaurant inspired food at home.

And there is always homemade pizza. I can't believe how much it costs to order pizza anymore! We've been switching it up with the homemade pizza too. I've made calzones (dough pockets, stuffed with cheese and toppings, then dipped into sauce), pizza roll ups, even chili cheese pizza!


And here are some of my tips on cutting back a food budget.

Saving Money- Restaurant Food at Home

I know this time of year especially, most people are looking for ways to lower their expenses. One way is to stop eating out and make those same foods at home! You can either try and wing it, or you can Google(or better yet Swagbucks) your favorite item recipe, and  most likely 20+ recipes will pop up!

My husband likes buffalo chicken sandwiches.

They are pretty pricey at restaurants, but super easy to make at home. I buy whole wheat organic hamburger buns in bulk and keep them in my freezer. I bought a bag of frozen chicken patties. A bag big enough to feed my entire family for 2 lunches is still cheaper than just one sandwich at a restaurant. Cook the chicken in the oven, then dip it in your favorite buffalo sauce (or BBQ sauce for the family members who do not enjoy spicy foods). Top with lettuce and a little blue cheese or ranch. Seriously easy and in our family, we just saved $30 by not going out for fast food!

Grilling burgers at home is also really easy and healthier than fast food too! I love to mix mayo and ketchup and put that on my burgers :) Add whatever toppings (avocado, pickles, mushrooms etc) that you normally order when you go out.

I also loved the Vodka Pasta sauce at a pricey restaurant in our area, but not only was it super expensive to go there, it cost us a lot in gas to get there. So I learned to make it myself!

My children love the Fettuccine Alfredo from Olive Garden, but my husband and I detest that restaurant, so I found the recipe directly on their website! I can make them their special treat here at home and save tons of money doing it!

And what about Southwest Egg Rolls (I think they are from Chili's but we don't have one near by). I changed them up a bit because I am more comfortable working with tortillas than egg roll wrappers, but they are still delicious, and you could use egg rolls if you prefer!

If Starbucks is your weakness, even those can be made at home! While my Rooibos Tea Latte is a little different, it's close enough for me, and  my Caramel Apple Spice is exact! I don't drink coffee, but I have friends who have cloned those drinks to make at home as well! I was even able to make my Pumpkin Spice Steamers perfectly myself! And homemade hot chocolate tastes 100 times better than anything Starbucks serves!

 

I also love sweetened ice teas, but for just pennies I can boil a big batch of green tea, honeybush tea or even decaf Lipton tea, and add sugar or honey myself, then let it cool in the refrigerator and have a gallon of tea for cheaper than one bottle of pre-made would have cost.

There was one restaurant in our town that we went to only for their bruschetta. Once I learned to make that at home, we have never gone back! And I can even make the bread for it myself now too!

Homemade bread is entirely easy! You can go with the simplest version ever, or even something a little more fancy. And all it cost you to make was a couple cents!

Do you like Mexican food? We LOVE Mexican food, but we cant find any GOOD Mexican food this far north, so I make my own! Everything from Carne Asada, to Horchata, rice, beans, pico de gallo .. I'll be attempting tamales next. It's all possible and so much cheaper!

Some other recipes I make  that were inspired by restaurants:

The only thing I liked at Zorbas were their greek potatoes.

I loved Tacos Del Mar's fish tacos.

Homemade doughnuts are way better than Krispy Kreme, and I can make Cinnabon myself too.

Applebees chocolate lava cake

Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay biscuits

I hope this inspires you to get creative in your kitchen and realize you don't need to depend on restaurants for yummy food!