Posts: 418
5/31/10 2:30 P

Hi, and WELCOME to our team!

Posts: 76
5/8/10 8:45 A

I never thought about doing that thanks.

SparkPoints: (9,760)
Fitness Minutes: (2,249)
Posts: 720
5/8/10 8:41 A

Hi Jenn! Welcome to our group. You're in the right place. I am always seeking ideas on how to pinch pennies. I'm fortunate that we have a big freezer. That saves me lots of money. I buy really cheap hamburger and boil it. The fat separates from the meat. Then I refridgerate the water, remove the fat that solidifies and use the juicy water for soups.

I live in Souten California. Homes & rent are sky high but fresh produce is abundant and reasonable thankfully. I sometimes get more produce than I need so I freeze it. I put aluminum foil on a cookie sheet, lay out the cleaned cut veggies on it. Separate so the pieces don't touch and freeze for about an hour. Then I take it out of the freezer and put the individual frozen pieces in a ziplock bag.

Sometimes some tings at the store are just too cheap to pass up. Dried asian noodles or rice w/ sauce. They are 260 calories a serving so I add leftover veggies and meat to it and split it to feed my daughte and myself and voila! Its a low cal and filling meal.
Lots of members here have great ideas. Look around at past messages and see if you find any ideas.

So glad you joined us!!

current weight: 139.0

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139

Posts: 76
5/7/10 4:14 P

I have zero money. I mean zippo, zilch, nada. lol. My husband and I moved into our own place over a year ago. Within a month, we found that I was pregnant with my second child (another boy), and a week later, my husband was laid off in the great state of Michigan (for those who don't know, our unemployment rate was over 16% at one point and still isn't so great), after getting help from the government (not fun, super degrading, hate that I had to do it) we were able to get our groceries taken care of and some insurance (thank god for that or we would have been in a bad place really quick), my husband worked his butt of trying to find a job, and within a month was working two part time jobs so we could pay our bills. I was working one as well, but being pregnant in retail, my bosses eventually cut my hours back so far that I couldn't even pay for the gas to get there (I would be gone during crucial Christmas season, they needed me out so they could train another one, no hard feelings but still). Within the last three months my husband has found a steady 40 hour a week job, I stay at home with the kids to avoid the costs of daycare (omg they are super expensive) and we live on a very tight budget to get our bills paid, gas in our car, diapers purchased, lysol for the messes, and food for the four bellies in the house. It's tight, but we are making it. I just wish they had cookbooks out already that had REAL food options for people like me. I can't go out and get halibut steaks with bay leafs and hoisen sauce, covered in pimento stuffed tomatoes dripping in some kind of thick cream that cost 20 dollars and you will only use for this recipe. Ain't gonna happen. But you can only eat mac and cheese, ravioli, hamburgers and home made fries for so long before everything starts to taste the same. I would love to get some interesting recipies with few ingredients, doesn't take long to make, and the extra stuff can still be used later in the week for another recipe, instead of having to throw it out later because it's no longer good.