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Grocery Freeze Tips

01.23.2017 by Marie // Leave a Comment

Last week you learned what a grocery freeze is and why you need one. You picked your date and made your inventory. Now you’re ready to dive in deeper and be successful! These grocery freeze tips will help you stretch your food to last the whole month. They will also give you small tips that will make you more successful and less-likely to give up. If you’re ready to rock your grocery freeze let’s get to the tips!

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.

These grocery freeze tips will help you stretch your food to last the whole month. Rock your grocery freeze: be more successful and less-likely to give up.

Stretch Your Food

A grocery freeze will force you to stretch you’re your food, especially meats. For example, I turned 5 lbs. of ground beef into 6 meals. I mixed up and froze meatballs and baby meatloaves which gave us 3 freezer meals. Then I browned the remaining 2 lbs. and made stuffed peppers, soup, and homemade Hamburger Helper from it. This brings us to the second tip:

Learn to DIY

Your convenient meals will be the first to go during a grocery freeze. Learning how to make your own bread, tortillas, and seasonings will be imperative for success. For example, when we didn’t have any spaghetti sauce or even tomato sauce, I made my own with jarred tomatoes that I pureed and seasoned. Little DIY’s can make all the difference.

These grocery freeze tips will help you stretch your food to last the whole month. #groceryfreeze #tips Click To Tweet

Save Freezer Meals

Make the meals that you can’t freeze earlier in the month while your excitement is still high. As the month wears on, start utilizing your freezer meals.

Substitutes

Remember to come up with creative substitutes instead of buying missing ingredients. If you run out of milk used condensed milk and water. Don’t have any bread crumbs? Smash up some crackers for your recipe.

 

These grocery freeze tips will help you stretch your food to last the whole month. Rock your grocery freeze: be more successful and less-likely to give up.

Utilize Soup

Soup is one of the best meal-stretchers around. Above when I told you that I made soup from the ground beef? That soup was made from the excess rice and ground beef mixture that the peppers were stuffed with. Instead of having leftovers we had an entire extra meal.

Let Nothing Go to Waste

Leftovers can be turned into new meals to stretch food further during the month. Dice leftover pork chops to throw into fried rice. Toss leftover spaghetti noodles with butter and vegetables for an easy pasta dinner.

Transform Produce

If you have fresh produce that is starting to wilt or go bad, transform it. You can learn to can it, add it to freezer meals, or cook it up store it in the fridge to be a side dish. You can also freeze it to add to recipes later.

 

These grocery freeze tips will help you stretch your food to last the whole month. Rock your grocery freeze: be more successful and less-likely to give up.

Temper Your Caffeine Fix

Coffee is a staple to my existence but sometimes during a grocery freeze, I run out. Crazy, I know. Since I’m not ready to give up my daily caffeine, I have found other ways to keep it coming. If you know that you do not have a lot of coffee for the month, make a half of a pot to stretch it further. You can also substitute with tea (iced or hot) that contains caffeine to get you through the month.

 

These grocery freeze tips will help you stretch your food to last the whole month. Rock your grocery freeze: be more successful and less-likely to give up.

There you have it! Now you have the grocery freeze tips you need to rock your grocery freeze. Do you have any tips that you use to stretch your groceries further? I’d love to hear about them in the comments! If you missed Why You Need a Grocery Freeze you can check it out now to rein in your grocery budget and prevent food waste.

See where I’m linking up!

Categories // Budgeting, Finances, Home, Saving Money

Why You Need a Grocery Freeze

01.16.2017 by Marie // Leave a Comment

Do you feel like your grocery budget is out of control? If you are spending hundreds each month on groceries and still having to run out weekly for ingredients then something has to change. It can be hard to get your spending on track and reign in your food budget. In the post Creating Your Future: January 2017 Goals I mentioned that this month we are doing a grocery freeze this month. It is a huge part of my finance goals because of how much money it saves my family. Keep reading to find out what it is and why you need a grocery freeze to get your budget under control.

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.

Are you ready to get your grocery budget under control and your spending back on track? Find out why you need a grocery freeze to make it happen.

What is a Grocery Freeze?

A grocery freeze is a specialized no-spend challenge. For an entire month you don’t spend one penny on food of any kind. It helps you reset your grocery budget and also prevents food waste. When I do it, I don’t spend any money at all on food. I don’t buy coffees, slip through a drive-thru, and no popping by the store for milk. If you want to adjust it, you can make exceptions for basics like milk, eggs, and bread. The perk of not allowing exceptions is that it forces you to get creative with your meals and, in some cases, learn alternative ways to prepare them.

Find out how to get your food budget under control with a grocery freeze! #budget #save Click To Tweet

Why Do You Need a Grocery Freeze?

I don’t quite know how it happens but we always end up with things in our pantry and freezer that keep getting shoved aside each month. Canned goods sit unused and vegetables in steam packs never get eaten. A grocery freeze is the way to fix that. It forces you to use up those lonely items because you simply don’t have anything else. It can also force you to eat more vegetables is you run out of meat to prepare. (I admit that in all my years of doing grocery freezes, I have only run out of meat once.)

Grocery Freeze Steps

Now that you know why you need a grocery freeze, it’s time to get started. These easy steps will walk you through the basics. It may seem intuitive but without preparation you can stumble (or give up) when you hit road blocks. I want you to be successful reigning in your grocery budget.

Step 1

Pick you month. Don’t pick a month too far away. The closer the date is the better. That will keep you from padding your pantry with extra items before the freeze.

Step 2

Start on the first of the month and create an inventory of everything in your freezer, fridge, and pantry. If you need help, I’ve got tips and a free printable for your at You Can’t Meal Plan without Knowing What You Have.

Step 3

Take a look at your list and come up with a meal plan.

Step 4

Make and freeze the meals you can in batches. If it’s not easy on you then you will be more likely to give up as the month goes on.

 

Are you ready to get your grocery budget under control and your spending back on track? Find out why you need a grocery freeze to make it happen.

Are you ready to get your grocery budget under control and your spending back on track? Now you know why you need a grocery freeze to make it happen. Clean out your inventory and stop wasting food (and money) each month. I like to do these twice a year. Doing one in January sets the tone for my grocery budget the rest of the year. A second grocery freeze during the summer resets my pantry/freezer before the new school year. Come back next week for Grocery Freeze Tips to be successful and stretch your groceries.

See where I’m linking up!

Categories // Budgeting, Finances, Home, Saving Money

5 Ways to Earn Extra Income

10.07.2016 by Marie // Leave a Comment

I have been blessed to be able to be a stay-at-home mom since 2009. I wouldn’t trade it for the world but budgets were tight in the beginning. That forced me to put creativity into overdrive to give us the quality of life that we are blessed to have. There are crazy ways to save/make money out there and I’m sharing 5 with you today. These ideas will not make you rich or substitute an income, but they might let you get that $6 Starbucks Caramel Macchiato every now and then without feeling guilty. These 5 ways to earn extra income can also help out around birthdays and holidays especially if you build them up year-round.

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission. Read the full disclosure here.

Make extra money for coffee and boot splurges (or ease the holiday financial stress) with these 5 ways to earn extra income.

MPoints (mPLUS Rewards)

This one is actually one of my favorites because I earn points for things that I do on my phone already. For instance, I check my weather app every day and that earns me 10-15 points just for doing so. Basically, you sign in on any eligible apps you are already using (or you can download new ones that earn points) and you earn points for checking the app, playing games, etcetera depending on the app. When you collect those points, you can cash them in for gift cards and items. You can also donate your points to charitable causes and enter sweepstakes, but I tend to stick with the gift cards.

EBates

I love this because I earn money on purchases that I am going to make already. The best way to make sure that you are always getting your earnings is to make sure that you install the button on your browser. It will alert you when you go to a site that offers cashback. Once you check out, you will earn a percentage of what you spend back. Then every 3 months or so, they will mail you a check for the amount you have earned. This is a super easy way to earn a little extra cash.

 

5 ways to earn extra money for coffee and boot splurges (or ease the holiday financial stress). Click To Tweet

 

Swagbucks

This one is similar to MPoints in that you earn “Swagbucks” for doing things that are redeemable for gift cards. The pros of this one are that you need fewer points to earn gift cards and you can get free points by following them on social media and answering their daily poll. The cons are that a lot of the points are earned through surveys which can take up a substantial amount of time. However, you can also earn points on purchases (although not as often as EBates), so again I recommend adding the button to your browser and it will automatically detect when this is an option.

Online Surveys

This one can make you some larger payouts; however it is also a lot more time-consuming. Surveys can last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or more, and the compensation varies depending on the company. I have done this with a few different sites but just do not have the time available to make it worth my while. I will say that Pinecone Research was one of the best ones I worked with but they also are not always taking on new applicants. Also, for some of them you will have to have certain programs (such as Java) on your computer if you do not already.

Yearly Yard Sale

This idea is actually three-fold: You make some extra cash on items you no longer use or want. You also help keep your house clean of clutter. Lastly, I always recommend donating what you don’t sell to a local church or charity organization. You help those in need and get rid of that clutter. If you’re worried that you don’t have enough stuff to sell, ask friends and family to contribute. Chances are they have stuff that they will happily give you if you cart it off for them. If they want to be in on the earnings, ask them to help you work the yard sale. Extra hands for you and they earn a little cash as well.

Make extra money for coffee and boot splurges (or ease the holiday financial stress) with these 5 ways to earn extra income.

I cannot stress enough how much I love and recommend Ebates and Mpoints. It kind of blows my mind that there are still people not utilizing it. It’s free money, guys! According to Mintel’s online report in 2015 “over two-thirds (69 percent) of US online adults shop online at least monthly…” which means every month they could be earning money. Want to know a little secret? I’ve earned money on free items with Ebates! I love taking advantage of free prints and photo gifts from places like Walgreens and Shutterfly. I have actually earned money back on those purchases that didn’t cost me a dime. If that doesn’t convince you how awesome this is nothing will. Don’t forget to organize your finances before you start earning your extra money. Double-check that your Caramel Macchiato truly is guilt-free.

See where I’m linking up!

Categories // Budgeting, Christmas, Christmas Tips, Finances, Holidays, Home, Winter Holidays

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