This weekend I’ve decided to join Money Saving Mom and Life As Mom’s freezer cooking challenge.  I’ve got lots of ingredients in my freezer and pantry.   I just need to translate those into some meals that will come together easily in the next weeks. Here’s my plan: 3 Hamburger Enchilada casseroles (Thursday) 3 dozen banana-almond muffins (Thursday) 3...
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Not sure if this is idea is a new one or an extremely obvious one, but I thought I’d share.  Awhile back I was scouring the house for a shipping envelope big enough to fit a book and came up empty. I thought about what I did have– TONS of gift bags in many different,...
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Ever wondered how much money you save when you opt for dry beans instead of canned?  Well, here’s what you need to answer that question using the prices in your area. 1 pound of dry beans will make 6-7 cups of cooked beans 1 15-oz can of beans contains a little less than 2 cups of...
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…with some media people is my mission in New York this coming week.   Should be interesting!   I’d love to hear from people who live in major cities:  how do you save money on food?
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Recently myrecipes.com featured some recipes from my cookbook.  Check them out if you’ve been wanting to preview my book.  It was really fun for me to see what the food stylists did with each dish.  They made the food look sooooo pretty–it made me wish that a food stylist lived at my house! ~~~~~~ A recent...
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Check out Good Morning America Food Editor Sarah Moulton’s Best Cookbooks of 2009 (video!) Notice a certain orange-covered book on that list?   To celebrate, I’m giving away 5 copies of  Family Feasts for $75 a Week.  To enter, comment and share a money saving tip of your own. —————— You know the drill. You walk...
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For lunch today I adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen giving mushrooms the ‘caviar’ treatment.   True confession– I’ve never had a crumb of caviar in my life.  But this recipe is exactly what I love to do in the kitchen– jazz up something simple to make it taste like much more than a few simple...
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If braids and beads are not a normal part of your life, you may just want to pass this post on by. But with 4 African American daughters, hair is a fairly large component in our life. The following braiding brainstorm is one that I am very happy with. When we do...
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I’ve been meaning for awhile to share a really simple way to make fire-starters for those of you who have a wood stove or fireplace. FRUGAL FIRE-STARTERS Materials: Egg cartons, the grey recycled-cardboard kind, NOT the foamy plastic kind Dryer lint, enough to fill the number of egg cartons you are using An old candle (you know, the ugly...
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My grocery spending for October was $845, quite a bit more than the $600 that I hoped to spend.   September’s super-frugality really depleted my stores.  I was nearly out of flour, sugar, rice, and oats. I bought 25 or 50 lb sacks of each of those things in October. I also had to stock up on...
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