In an average month I shop for groceries at 6 different stores, depending on where the sales are. Regular stops for me are: Costco (warehouse store), WinCo (a discount grocery store in the Pacific NW), Wal-Mart, Pauls (locally owned grocery store with great meat prices), and sometimes a dollar store or an ethnic...
Read more »

There’s a great article in The Oregonian this week about frugal shopping. Very fun to unexpectedly see a mention of my book at the end of the piece. Speaking of my book, thanks to all of you (54 people so far!) who’ve weighed in and posted a review on amazon. ...
Read more »

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...
Read more »

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,...
Read more »

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...
Read more »

…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?
Read more »

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...
Read more »

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...
Read more »

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...
Read more »

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...
Read more »