Make from Scratch: Grandma’s Biscuits

by Briana Carter on February 4, 2010

This is a guest post from Sarah, who blogs at The Frontier Kitchen. Sarah loves to experiment in the kitchen to create delicious recipes and shares them on her blog. You will be delighted to know that many of the recipes are very frugal!

I’m delighted that Briana asked me to do a guest post on here! It’s always so fun to see what deals Briana finds for her readers.

First off, I wanted to share with y’all some simple tips to follow for saving money at the grocery store.

• Use coupons. If you’ve been a frequent reader of Briana’s I’m sure you’re probably rolling your beautiful eyes and saying “duh!” because she is so great at encouraging people to use coupons with her posts. Need convincing? When I use grocery coupons, I typically save 50% – 80% on my grocery bill!

• Shop Weekly Sales. Chances are your life is a busy one. If so, you might find yourself without the time to clip coupons for a week or two, you can still save tons of money at the grocery store just by buying the fruits, vegetables, breads and meats that are on sale. Then, plan out your dinners for the week using the sale items for the bulk of your meals.

• Never overpay for meat. Grocery stores generally have better prices on meat than superstore chains like SuperTarget and Walmart. Wondering what a good price on meat is?

Boneless skinless chicken breast: $1.99/lb. or less.
Bone-in chicken: $0.99/lb. or less.
Beef Roasts: $2.99/lb. or less. I generally pay $1.99/lb. for mine but I do live in an area flowing with cattle so prices in your area may be higher.
Ground Beef: $1.99/lb. or less.
Fresh Fish: 4.99/lb. or less.
Steaks: 5.99/lb. or less.

All of these meats freeze beautifully so you can buy in bulk and freeze whatever you won’t use within 3 days.

Another one of the best ways to save money on meals is by making food from scratch. Now, I know quite a few of you are probably thinking to yourself “But I’m busy and don’t have time to make things from scratch!” I hear you, I really do.

What if I was to give you a recipe that was not only simple but also only took about 5 minutes longer to make fresh with quality ingredients instead of buying it pre-packaged  and loaded with ingredients created in a lab? Well, get ready, because this biscuit recipe will be restaurant quality, easy, money saving AND ready in 15-20 minutes. Once you try these biscuits, you’ll never go back to the pop-can variety again.

{Grandma’s Biscuits}

Makes 10-12 biscuits

• 2 c. flour ($0.20) Bought flour on sale for $1
• 2 tbsp. sugar (0.05)
• 1 tsp. salt (0.01)
• 4 tsp. baking powder (approx. $0.05)
• ½ tsp. cream of tartar (approx. $0.05)
• ½ c. cold butter ($0.25) Used a coupon when butter was on sale for 1.99, bringing the price down to just $0.99!
• 1 c. cold milk ($0.15)

Stir together dry ingredients. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in milk and stir quickly to combine.

On a well floured surface, knead the dough by folding it in half, pressing it out slightly and repeating those two steps until the dough holds together, about 2-3 kneading repetitions. I usually sprinkle 1/8 c. flour onto the counter, place the dough down and then sprinkle another 1/8 c. flour on top before kneading.

Press out until ½” thick, cut into 2” rounds using a cookie cutter or even a drinking glass. Place on an oiled baking sheet, close together for softer sides and about 2” apart for crispier sides.

Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom.

Total Cost: $0.76 for 12 biscuits! You would easily pay 3 – 4 times as much for just 8 biscuits in a can!

Bargain Briana here: I think I could probably handle these biscuits, even with my time schedule! What about you? Do you cook from scratch instead of buying prepackaged to save money?

Guest Post: Financial Snapshot from Budgets are Sexy

by Briana Carter on April 17, 2009

Today’s Guest Post is by my favorite incognito blogger going by the alias “J. Money” at Budgets are Sexy. Be sure to download his Budget template to get started.

“Financial Snapshots” are all the new rage!

Haha….okay, so I kinda made that up. But if this were true I guarantee our economy wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with! If you don’t know where your money’s coming and going, then I’m sorry to say you’re in a sad state of affairs.

But guess what – you can change that right RIGHT NOW. Yup, it doesn’t matter if you’re 13, 36, or 50. The second you start tracking this stuff your life gets a lot more stress-free, and not just financially :) So what, exactly, is this “Financial Snapshot”? Well, according to the Dictionary of J. it’s the following:

Financial Snapshot [fi-nan-shuhl snap-shot] noun: A place that lists all of your debt, all of your savings, your net worth, and most importantly your budget – all in one spot!

In fact, I’ve even got my own financial snapshot! Recently updated and everything. And you’re more than welcome to download & tweak whatever you want – I created a blank template for anyone to use :) I prefer using Excel and Google Docs for accessibility, but ANYTHING will work as long as it gets you to stay on top of it. A lot of people like using software like Quicken or online sites like Mint or Yodlee, but even an old fashioned pencil and paper would work (remember those?). Once you get going, you really only need to visit it a couple times a month, that’s it!

Now, for the sake of keeping this short and not completely boring you to death, I’ve jotted down just a few easy steps to get you started. You might even have half of this stuff saved already! But whether you continue reading or not, just remember the main point here – To have a clear understanding of your financial situation. That’s it! Once you’ve gotten a firm grasp on that, it’s all downhill baby :) Okay, so let’s get started:

1. Get Your Mind Right. Let’s face it, if you’re not in the mood to talk finance and get budgety, it’s just not gonna happen. We’re all human, and if we don’t wanna do something we usually don’t do it. Unfortunately organizing your finances is usually one of them. But if you set aside little bits of time, and update it all when the mood is right, you’ll find it goes much much smoother.

2. Start With The Easy & Quick Stuff. If you take a look at the snapshot, you’ll see there’s room for all sorts of numbers to fill out (don’t worry, once you do it the first time it gets MUCH quicker). The easiest to start with in my opinion is your credit card balances and income. You can easily get this by logging into all of your accounts and copying & pasting these numbers over.

3. Tackle Your “Net Worth”. Your net worth is basically all of your assets minus all of your liabilities. So things like savings, 401(k)s, Roth IRA’s, stocks, bonds, they all get recorded in the assets department. Then we got things like credit card debt, loans, etc that all go under the liability section. Gather it all up and record the info. in the right spots to find out your net worth’s number! And remember, there are no right or wrong answers here – just the facts. The more you’re honest with yourself and the more you stick with it, the better you’re gonna feel. Plus, it’ll make future decisions that much easier to handle now that you have an aerial view of your financial situation!

4. Create a Simple Budget! (my favorite part) The template’s already there, all you have to do is fill in the categories and the amounts you’re trying to allot for them. HAH! that’s “all”, right? Nah, it’s not too bad :) But if you’ve never done it before, you’re gonna have to do a little legwork first before you can come up with some good numbers.

First, go back a month or two & track where all your money went. Look at your checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, all of it. Add them all up per category (mortgage, cable, food, etc), then divide by the number of months you’ve tracked to give you a proper estimate of how much you’re spending per category each month. Now, plop these #’s into your spreadsheet and voila – you’ve got your first budget! I always advise keeping the #’s in tact for the first month (or pay period, or whatever length you want to budget for) so that you can get used to balancing it okay. Once you’re used to it, challenge yourself and start chopping away at the numbers! You’ll be amazed what you can accomplish once you have a game plan in action.

So that’s it my friends – the “Financial Snapshot” as your boy J. Money sees it. With everything in life, it’ll take some nourishing and revising to get a good formula going. But if you stay on top of it and keep your head up, you’ll have no else where to go than up! Ya just gotta start baby…Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to start stealing some of these coupons around here and start saving some money ;)

J. Money writes for Budgets are Sexy – A laid back finance blog of a guy just trying to spice things up a bit. He also finds budgets….well…sexy! If you like what you see, hook yourself up with his RSS feed.

Effective Coupon Use

by Briana Carter on December 21, 2008

Check out my guest post, Effective Coupon Use, over at $5 Dinners. While, you are at it, browse around on this terrific site – tons of great $5 dinner ideas!

Don’t miss out on any deals: Subscribe to my free newsletter via email or RSS.

Life Before Store Bought Cleaners

by Briana Carter on October 23, 2008

Today’s Guest post is by Courtney at HomeMakerHero. I’ve had this blog on my blogroll since I discovered it. Her blog is a wealth of information. She has Thoughtful Tuesday, Wellness Wednesday, To Do Thursday (Lots of crafts, DIY, organization, etc.), Family Friday, and Sanctuary Saturday…plus money saving deals all week long. (She is my HERO!!!). She was kind enough to do a guest post for me this week while I’m away from my computer. Environmental friendly and inexpensive is this possible? Courtney tells us how….

One of the best marketing ideas to date was to take something people were doing for years, mass produce it, put a fancy label on it, and sell it. This started in the 1950s with automatic dishwasher powders, liquid laundry, hand dishwashing, and all purpose cleaning products, fabric softeners, and detergent with oxygen bleach. By the 1960s pre-wash soil and stain removers as well as laundry powders with enzymes and enzyme presoaks were hitting the grocery shelves. In the 1970s, liquid hand soaps, fabric softeners (sheets and wash-cycle added), and multifunctional products (for example, detergent with fabric softener) were available. The 1980s gave us detergents for cooler water washing, automatic dishwasher liquids, and concentrated laundry products. By the 1990s we had all forgotten our old ways of homemade cleaners and were out buying ultra (super concentrated) powder and liquid detergents, ultra fabric softeners, automatic dishwasher gels, and laundry and cleaning product refills. Currently chemists are working on more “environmentally friendly” products and even more concentrated liquid soaps. Believe it or not, there was life before store bought household cleaners.

Store bought cleaners are fantastic for those who feel the toxic chemicals used in these products will get the job done. Maybe you even have a coupon for it and feel it’s a better deal when you can get it for free. But is it really better for your home? My point is that there is a more natural way of cleaning your house. It’s been around for years but has been lost in the shuffle of store bought cleaners. It cost less. It is more environmentally friendly. It won’t make the air in your house smell toxic. It cuts down on waste. And it’s easy to get the results you need if you understand the ingredients in cleaners and what they do.

Borax, vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and Murphy’s Oil are just a few of the basic ingredients you can use to get the job done. Borax is a naturally occurring mineral composed of sodium, boron, oxygen and water that is great for cleaning. You can use it as a laundry booster or pre-soak, and you can even scrub your tub and toilet with it. Stranger yet, you can even use it to preserve flowers. Vinegar is a staple ingredient in our home. It sure smells bad but vinegar can be used on many solid surfaces. Wipe down counters with a vinegar solution, get rid of hard water build up, clean drains, wipe floors – vinegar even dissuades ants from your counter tops. Keep lots of it around because you can also cook with it! Baking soda cleans, deodorizes refrigerators and carpets, and provides an abrasive for cooked-on pans. It can also be made into a paste to get rid of counter top stains. Lemon juice can be used in place of vinegar and can also add a fresh clean scent to your cleaning products while also adding a bit of natural anti-bacterial strength. Murphy’s Oil Soap is a natural biodegradable cleaning product that’s free of bleach, ammonia, or other harsh detergents. It’s great on wood floors, furniture, no-wax floors, tile, paint and laminate.

Want to get started? Try this homemade all-purpose cleaner: 2 tbsp Borax, ¼ cup lemon juice, and 2 cups of water. Dissolve the Borax in the lemon juice and water. Put into a spray bottle and use like you would a conventional all-purpose spray. It’s all that easy.

You can find all kinds of homemade cleaner recipes on the internet (I’ve been doing a series every Thursday on my own website, Homemaker Hero – search for “homemade cleaner”) and even at the bookstore – anything from laundry, air freshener, household cleaner and even homemade engine cleaner! Important: Don’t mix homemade cleaning products with conventional cleaners. Keep these and all cleaning products away from children. Keep large batches of cleaning products in tightly sealed containers or reusable spray bottles.

If you like this, be sure to subscribe to her feed or visit HomeMakerHero and let her know!