Generics on Sale

Buying generic is a great way to save money on groceries, beauty supplies, and medications. Except for a few things to which I'm brand loyal, I'm happy to buy generic whenever it can save me money.

Today I was pleasantly surprised to open the sales circular to a local grocery and find they were have a sale on their generic house brand. A quick check with my price book told me that these were bargains I didn't want to pass up. Mustard, vegetable oil, dry roasted peanuts, and canned vegetables all immediately went on my grocery list.

Costco will also often include coupons for their Kirkland brand in their monthly coupon booklets.


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Where Should the Focus Be? Making Money or Saving Money?

As a Family CEO, I find that my focus alternates between making money and saving money. By that I mean that are times when I am more motivated to bring in extra income and times when I'm more motivated to preserve the income we already have.

I'm inspired daily by Meredith, whose focus is on frugality and helping her family live on one income. After all, it makes little sense to keep picking blueberries when you have a hole in your bucket. And I love the fact that the "income" produced by saving money isn't taxable. If you find a way to save a dollar, then a dollar stays in your pocket. Earning an extra dollar will leave considerably less in your pocket.

And yet I can't help but be motivated by Tricia, whose focus is paying of $72k of debt by making money online. With four small children alongside her. There are times when extra income is what needed and that girl is testament to what you can achieve when you focus. I'm also enough of a believer in the law of attraction, meditation, visualization, and prayer to wonder if the focus should be on abundance over scarcity.

So I struggle with where my focus should be. Obviously, one approach would to put some emphasis on each and that is what I've done thus far. And yet I have a nagging feeling that focus on one or the other would produce better results.

I am really interested in other thoughts on this. Please leave a comment or email and let me know where your focus is.

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Tips for Transforming Boxed Brownies into a Special Dessert

Last week my daughter and I had to attend a dance team dessert party on a busy weeknight. Needing something quick, but yummy, to take with us, I fell back on a dessert I make often: brownies.

Our family loves brownies and I often pick up sale-priced mixes to have on hand when we want something sweet. But boxed brownies can also be an option when you need a dessert to serve to party guests. Here are several things I do to turn boxed brownies into a dessert worthy of party guests.

1. Use directions for cake-like brownies. Most boxed mixes include directions for fudge-like brownies, or cake-like brownies. Cake-like directions usually include an extra egg. While there's nothing better than a fudgy brownie, cake-like brownies will cut more cleanly, which is a plus for parties.
2. Use a smaller pan. While you might be tempted to use a 9x13 to get more brownies for your buck, resist the urge. Using a smaller pan size will result in thicker brownies that you can really sink your teeth into. Use two mixes and bake two batches if you must to get the number you need. It's worth it! Most boxed mixes will give baking times for different sized pans.
   
3. Decorate with powdered sugar. This part is easy and actually kind of fun. Place some powdered sugar in a collender or sifter, and sprinkle it over the brownies. You'll love how pretty this will make them look. I usually do this while they're still in the pan, but you could do it after the next step too.
4. Transfer to a pretty plate. They say that presentation is everything. When we're making brownies for home, we eat them right out of the pan, but when I'm taking brownies to a party or serving them to guests at home, I transfer them to a pretty plate or platter. Using the cake-like directions listed above will make this step easier. And if the edges of your brownie have become too firm, cut a thin strip along the edge of the brownies to cut the edges off. In addition to making your brownies prettier, the edges make a good snack for your family!
5. Garnish. This step is optional because we're trying to simplify your life, not complicate it. But if you have something that would work well as a garnish, add that to the plate too. My favorite is strawberries. They're colorful, healthy, and taste great with the powdered sugar.
   

So, that's it. Brownies are fast, simple, and a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Plus the mixes are easy to find on sale and keep in your pantry.

This post was submitted to Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer. Be sure to visit for lots of other great tips and ideas.

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Works for Me Wednesday

Today is Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer. I submitted by Taco Bar post and Shannon, the host, has a great financial tip this week: online allowances for her kids.

I recommend you check out her post and all the other great tips that are found there each week.

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Almost as Easy As Drive-Thru: Taco Buffet

This is my third post in a series that I didn't really know I was starting. But now that I have three posts, I guess it's officially a series!

I'm constantly on the lookout for easy, economical, and healthy dinners that are "almost as easy as drive-thru." Previously I've blogged about Baked Ravioli and Grilled Hawaiian Chicken. Today's addition is a Taco Buffet.

My family has different preferences when it comes to tacos. I like taco salad, my daughter likes soft tacos, my son likes beef and refried bean burritos, and my husband likes tacos with hard shells. Does this sound like a lot of work? Actually, it's super easy.

On taco nights I brown meat, add taco seasonings, and heat up refried beans. I set out some lettuce and tomatoes. Then I just open bags and jars of cheese, tortillas, sour cream, and salsa. Everyone then put together their favorite version of tacos from this "taco buffet". It's one of the easiest meals I make.

Tacos are economical by nature, but here are some ways to make this meal even more inexpensive:

• Use generic versions of sour cream, salsa, tortillas and sour cream.
• Opt for heads of lettuce that you cut up over bags of lettuce.
• Buy meat in bulk when it's on sale or at a warehouse club and freeze dinner-sized portions.

Here are some ideas for making tacos healthier:

• Switch up the meat - Use turkey instead of ground beef or go half and half.
• Boost the nutrition - You'll get more nutrition from romaine lettuce over iceberg. And tortillas now come in a variety of multi-grain or whole wheat varieties.
  
• Lighten it up - Almost everything you use for tacos comes in low-fat or fat-free varieties: cheese, sour cream, refried beans, and tortillas.
  

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Snowflake Your Way Out of Debt

If you have been hanging around personal finance blogs for a while, you have no doubt heard of Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball method of getting out of debt. What you may not have heard of, however, is Snowflaking as a debt reduction tactic.

I first heard of Snowflaking at I've Paid for This Twice Already. And while she's written a wonderful primer on the subject, basically it boils down to taking small amounts of money (snowflakes) and applying them to your debt snowball.

Paid Twice says it best:

Many small snowflakes make a snowball, and no amount is too small for me to snowflake.

Snowflaking, it would seem, has certainly caught on. Paid Twice currently has over 136 comments and trackbacks to her primer post. It's created such interest, in fact, that there is now a Snowflake Revolution page and a Carnival of Snowflaking.

If you're currently working at paying off debt, I encourage you to take a look at Snowflaking as a means of doing that. It goes a long way toward making you feel in control and can make all those little, every day sacrifices seem more worthwhile.

Edited to add: This post has been submitted to Frugal Fridays at Biblical Womanhood Online. Visit Crystal's blog for more great frugal tips.

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This Week's Blog Carnivals

I participated in two carnivals this week: My post about selling on eBay was part of The Carnival of Snowflaking at My Daily Dollars. And The Carnival of Debt Reduction at Prime Time Money included my post about In Debt We Trust on YouTube.

There are great articles included in both carnivals so stop by for some great reading.

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From My Blogroll

For your weekend reading pleasure, here are some blog entries I've enjoyed lately:

Frugal Babe has a new baby in the house but still had time to put together this list of Budget-Friendly Ways to Save the Environment.

Lynnae and her husband persevered through job loss and paid off the Citibank card four months early.

This story will charm the socks off of you. Anita @ Debt-Free-Mom.com shares the most delightful home-based business video ever.

And I still don't know how he did it but Trent @ The Simple Dollar was able to bring The Tightwad Gazette author Amy Dacyczyn out of retirement for an interview.


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My Price Book: A Screenshot

Last week I wrote about creating a price book in my Combating the High Price of Food Series. Having recently discovered how easy it is to create screen shots, I decided to share with you what mine looks like.

As you can see, my price book is computerized. The photo to the left gives a good representation of how mine is set up. (You can click on the photo to see it in greater detail.) Here are the specifics:

I have columns for the following:

• Category: I've found that the following categories of items work pretty well for me.
• Baking
• Beef
• Beverage
• Bread
• Canned
• Cereal
• Chicken
• Condiments
• Dairy
• Deli
• Dry
  
• Frozen
• Miscellaneous
• Pets
• Pork
• Produce
• Snacks
• Turkey
• Beauty
• Cleaning
• Health
• Household
  
• Laundry
• Paper & Plastic

• Item
• Best Sale Price: Here I note the best price I have found, the date I found it, and the store. This column is so helpful to me because it lets me determine if a sale is a good one or if I can beat the price at, for instance, a warehouse club.
  
• Stores: These are the prices at the various stores where I shop. I try to always list the price per quantity or ounce or pound, so that I can compare easily.
  
• Notes: Here I can note anything that might be helpful. Usually it's a size, a brand name or a notation that it's a generic.

As I mentioned in my earlier blog posts on price books, there are probably as many styles of price books as there are people who use them. This is just what works for me. If you've got a system that works well for you, I'd love to hear about it.

Related Posts:

Combating the High Price of Food Step Four: The Price Book
The Price Book: Part 1
The Price Book: Part 2


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Top Five Reasons Why I Love Selling on eBay

The scrapbooking supplies I listed last week on eBay sold for $142.50. That's a pretty nice sum for something that has been sitting in a closet for at least three years.

Three weeks ago I sold a little-used glass deviled egg dish for $74. And several years ago I financed almost our entire Christmas by selling a collectible Christmas village that I had grown tired of.

It's been thrilling to me to be able to raise cash - in some cases significant cash - by selling my used items on eBay.

Amy Dacyczyn said in her recent interview with Trent that the internet has been the best tactic for saving money that she's run across since she quite publishing The Tightwad Gazette. She even specifically mentioned using it to sell used stuff online.

I couldn't agree with her more.

In fact, my recent experiences have inspired me the following list of the top five reasons I love selling on eBay.

1. I can list things a little at a time, on my own time. Even in my pajamas.
2. Free Priority Mail boxes are available through the post office. I even have them delivered to my home for free.
3. Tools like printing postage through PayPal and free USPS carrier pickup at my door make my job easy. I don't have a reason to even go to the post office any more!
4. Once I got the eBay basics down, it became really easy to list things. The learning curve got shorter and shorter.
5. As long as I'm selling my own possessions, and for less than I paid for them, my "income" isn't taxable.
   

Have you had good experiences selling online? What kinds of things could you add to my list?