Beans, Glorious Beans

Now I'll be the first to admit that I don't know beans about cooking beans. I have a lot as you can see in the picture but I've had the same stash of beans for a very long time. They are sort of mystical to cook since we can get in them in a can and they are ready to use. For some this isn't rocket science. For me, it is. I haven't often tried to use dried beans. I worry about the time it takes, I worry about seasoning them well. Usually, I abandon the process and get out my trusty can opener. The problem with this is cost. Dried beans are a tiny fraction of the cost of canned. I can purchase 1 lb of beans for around $0.70 dried. That same pound of beans yields about 6 cups of cooked beans. I can buy a can of beans (around 16 oz) for around $1.00 ($0.50 if its a good sale). That is only 2 cups of cooked beans! We are talking a major savings by planning ahead a little bit. Dave Ramsey often tells his callers to live on beans and rice, rice and beans. This is why.
So, in an effort to learn how to function in the kitchen with this little mystery I am undertaking beans. I cleaned out my bean cabinet in order to attempt to get aquainted with them. I have alot more than I thought. Given how often we eat these this amount would probably last another five or six years. I'm hoping to correct that though. First, I realized that we don't ever eat pinto beans but that is what I have stored the most of. I definitly need to increase our black bean stash. They are our favorite. I also have pink beans, what the heck are these and how do you cook them? If you know please tell me.


I have these two bottles of white beans. I bought the bags at the grocery store and put them in these bottles. They have the PETE symbol which means they are safe for food storage. They also work well for water (I'll get to that later). I like white beans too, once again cannot for the life of me make them taste the way I like them.

This is a picure of my bean cabinet. I like to keep like items together. This allows them to play with their friends and for me to find them easily when I go hunting for them. This is one of those cabinets that is wasted space in my kitchen (I actually have a lot of that). It isn't wasted in my house. Every cranny is filled with #10 cans. This keeps the food in my kitchen where I will use it and it also fills space that would otherwise be infuriating.

Score!

The picture came out bad but this was a good run. Here's the breakdown:
6 4lb bags of sugar
4 frozen breakfast boxes
4 pilsbury pizza crusts
1 mini crescent roll tube
5 yellow mustard
5 assorted mustard

Total after coupons and sale: 13.32

I worked the deal in which you bought ten participating items and got $5.00 off. So I had 10 between the pilsbury and the mustard, then ten between the sugar and the breakfast boxes. The other mustard was 0.59 and I had 0.75 off mfr coupons for each one. So I had some overage for the sugar and frozen items. 25 lbs of sugar alone at Costco is more than what I paid for all of this. I stocked up on some important food storage items and hardly dinged my grocery budget. I have a couple more runs planned for this sale and I'm headed to Tom Thumb as well to get catalina coupons.

Non-food items

Non food items are something that not everyone remembers to include in their food storage. It is a wonderful additional to a home storage program because we often don't think enough about them. I know I don't. I HATE to run out of soap or shampoo. I very rarely have less than two extras in my cabinet. I think that is because I don't really allow myself a "household" portion of my grocery budget. I never have. I'm learning that having this stockpile is a good way to have that be a non thinking area. With the craziness of my life I really need things to run in certain ways without me having to think a lot about them. For instance, I don't have to think about deodarant for a while. This frees up a few braincells. Trust me, when you are studying Shakespeare you need all the brain cells you can access.

More CVS

Ok, so I'm a little obsessed. CVS is such a cool place! I have been greatly pleased at my ability to stock my cabinet in my bathroom. This is such good peace of mind. I'm trying to tighten the belt, fit in the things we need to store with the budget for the things we need now. This is a huge blessing. Plus I'm trying a few new things as well. So, for a total of .61 this is how yesterday went.

First run:

Dove lotion $6.99
Degree deodarant $3.49
Dove deodarant $3.49
Dove bar soap $2.50
Total before coupons $16.50

Coupons used: $5/$15, $2.25 manufacturers, $3/$15 beauty, $5 ECB's

Final total: $0.22 and I got $5 ECB's back

The next trip was kind of random. I've been trying to stock up on razor's but they run out of them really fast. I have to try another CVS today and see if they got some in.

2 Glade air fresheners $1.98
5 Speed Stick deodarant $1.99 each
1 kids mouthwash $2.99
2 packs plastic eggs $1.98
2 bags jelly beans $1.98
Total before coupons about $19

Coupons used: $5/$15, $3.50 manufacturers, $10 ECB's
Final: $0.39 plus $13 ECB's

So, I am good to go on Ladies and Men's deodarant for a year. I feel very good about this. I will keep an eye out but I think I'm good for now on that. I also added to my friend's birthday basket and I have the needed items for our easter egg hunt next week. This has been a great week and I'm not done yet.
I did also head over to Tom Thumb for their deal on cereal. I looked for formula everywhere I went yesterday and just wasn't feeling it. The last can of enfamil I bought was only $4.50 so I am a little spoiled. I decided to just wait for the right deal. It came. At Tom Thumb if you spent $10 you could get three boxes of cereal for $3. Plus a dozen eggs for $0.99. So, I bought my formula (generic there was $13.49) and got the cereal and eggs. Plus, it printed me a catalina for $3 off my next purchase. So my total there was $16.16 out of pocket after manufacturers and I got the $3 coupon. So I got the cereal and eggs for free. I have realized that for baby items in particular it may not be that I get an awesome deal on those things (although sometimes I do). What is cool is that I pay for those things that I have to buy and get additional items for little to no extra cost. This has enabled me to stock up on things that I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

CVS and Kroger

CVS is so great for things like birthday gifts. I have been picking up a few things here and there to make a basket for a dear friend whose birthday is coming up. By using ECB's and coupons you can add items without increasing your budget. For this transaction:
2 Scented oil candles 6.99 each
Tresseme about 6.00
Glide flossers 3.99
Total: $22
Coupons: $5 off $15 purchase, Glade buy one get one free, flossers $1 off
I had $13 in ECBs so I had to add a chapstick to be able to use them all. Total oop: $0.60
I did only generate $10 in ECBs so there was a defecit but I'm realizing that that works out. I will use those ECB's this week to generate more.

I bought a lot more at Kroger than just these two things. I saved $54 on my $120 transaction. I had $25 in manufacturers coupons. I wanted to showcase the toothpaste because this is a good example of how to make coupons work in your food storage. Colgate was on sale for $1 this week. I had $1 off of 1 for the toothpaste and $0.75 off of the toothbrushes bringing the total for these items to $.50. This was a great way to build my stash. I have a lot of toothpaste actually. But it doesn't go bad and is wonderful to have on hand. I also have a lot of toothbrushes. I feel that it is important to keep these things around. I will post a picture of my stash later. As I'm getting to full stash on these items I will begin to look for other things. One of my next goals is to stock up on deodarant and razors. By doing this I can increase my stock pile of things we use all the time as well as cut our budget.

Clothing Storage

I have gone back and forth over the years on how much clothing to store for my kids. Hand me downs are an important money saver in a big family. I have tried to always keep the best items and pass on the things I didn't like or throw away the things that were beyond salvage. When I clean out drawers as the kids grow I place all like sized items in a box and they go in the attic. I usually have no trouble keeping things straight or together. The last few weeks has brought an influx of hand me downs from neighbors and I am struggling to keep it all together. So part of my snow day yesterday was organizing and putting together correct sizes. I have two entire wardrobes for a four year old. My neighbor gave us so much stuff! I will pass on half to my friend with a two year old and keep the rest. Its all neatly put away in the boys closet for the next season. For Abby I have been boxing up Ayla's clothes as she grows out of them as well. I don't have quite as much stuff for her but a good base is always really good to have. You never know what situation you might find yourself in when they get to those stages. I haven't bought much for Abby at all. My clothing budget for all four kids rarely goes above $20 a month, if that. One of the big reasons is thrift stores. I find so much great stuff. I love to buy second hand. It is good for the environment, it reduces waste and its easy on our budget. I have found incredible deals on name brand clothes at thrift stores. Today, for instance I stopped at one of my favorite places. They had a deal, fill a paper sack with as much as you can for $10. I was able to grab a ton of church clothes for W and for my friend's two year old. I even got W a suit! I also got a couple of things for Abby to wear for summer and a few fun things for Ayla. For ten dollars I outfitted three kids (four if you count what I will give away). So I have some sizes bigger than I need, this is the beauty of preparedness!

CVS trip

I did pretty well last night and today at CVS working the deals, despite some glitches. For anyone not familiar with CVSing go to Money Saving Mom and read up. Last night I braved the snow to go out and grocery shop. We were hitting critical points with toilet paper and dishwasher soap so I decided I should stick to my Monday night run. I haven't been buying as much at Costco as I normally do because I'm trying to make the grocery stores closer to my house work better. I still have to go to Costco for a couple of things but I'm not spending as much. So, back to last night. First, I went to CVS. I bought a night creme and some face wipes and some eggs. Total before coupons: 23.50. I used a $15 ECB, a $5 off coupon and a $3 manufacturer. Total out of pocket: 0.33 Then I headed over to Kroger for their sales. Here's the rundown:

3 boxes lean pockets
2 calzones
2 peter pan peanut butter (these are a food storage item)
3 lb pears
3 lb broccoli
1 Naked smoothie (I'm feeling quite sick)
1 box gogurt
Total before coupons: $35
Total after: $20.20
Plus I have a $2 off coupon for my next purchase there.
This run was for lunches and snacks.

Next I headed to Albertsons. This shopping trip was a little disappointing. I paid almost $10 for a gallon of milk (this was the correct price because it was organic)! I didn't realize it until later and I'm really bummed. Take that out of the equation under stupid tax and I did ok. My total before coupons was about $65 and I paid $38.85 out of pocket. If you subtract the stupid tax I did ok. This is my household budget for the week. The total is only about $60. This is an improvement over my previous weeks. However, I did not buy formula, diapers or wipes. This really bumps up our bill. I have been able to work in diapers to my CVS deals for the most part but formula is a killer.

Ok, now to explain the picture above. I went to CVS this morning to pick up the razor that's on sale and some easter candy. The razor was $10 and I had a $4 coupon, then you get 6 ECBs. This was really cool. So I got the men's razor (still have to go back another time for the women's), and the candy and my total that time was $.051. Then I went to another CVS for the toothpaste and got some more candy. My total that time was $0. I was frustrated because the candy was marked $2.99 and I needed $10 worth of candy to print a $5 ECB, when I went to pay I realized the candy was only $1.50 so I didn't have enough candy to get my ECB. I'm only $2 from getting that $5 and I have more Hershey's coupons so I should be able to swing that for free. Hopefully, I can work in a few more free or almost free deals for stocking up. One of the reasons I feel like this is worth my time is because from a storage perspective I am picking up items that we use regularly (or in the case of Easter, expensively) for very little money. One of the basic principles of food storage is to buy things you don't need so you have them when you do need them. Because these items are consumable they get used up and need to be picked up regularly. Making CVSing a habit has become a way to increase my storage capability without dramatically increasing our budget. I'm going to shave my legs, why not do that for free!