Thrifty Adventures

35 Ways to Reuse, Re-purpose and Recycle Dryer Sheets with Printable Download

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by Cassie on May 10, 2012

If you use dryer sheets – you can find some fun creative ways to reuse, re-purpose and recycle them.  They are quite a handy dandy little thing to have around for many purposes!  We keep a bag hanging on our laundry room door (we actually have two bags, one for the lint too for something we will share later ;) ).  So we just go through this list and find the next place to use (used or even new for those tough smelly jobs) the dryer sheets to help around the home!

So here’s a quick list for some fun and practical ways to reuse your dryer sheets:

In the laundry room:

  • Bottom of hamper to keep fresh smelling
  • Cut in half and only use a 1/2 sheet per load
  • Use once, save and then use again with another used sheet (using two used sheets per load is like using one new one)
  • Clean lint trap
  • Clean washer/dryer on the outside both a dry wipe and a wet wipe
  • Remake dryer sheets again.  Place them in a jar and once you have it filled, pour 1-2 tbsp liquid fabric softener in the jar. Give it a shake and then reuse them all again! You can do this over and over again until they tear apart.  Thanks Blessed Homemaking for this tip

In the Kitchen/Bathroom:

  • Soap scum cleaner
  • Clean chrome around house (like your sink/shower fixtures)
  • Washing dishes
  • In the bottom of garbage cans

Outdoor Use:

  • Bug repellant – don’t rub on your skin, but maybe stick in pocket instead.  Bugs don’t like the smell.
  • Clean car plastic and chrome on both the inside and outside
  • Wash windows outside on house and vehicles
  • Car deodorizer under seats/glove compartments, etc.
  • Tents and camping gear and inside sleeping bags between storage

Bedroom/Other Household Areas:

  • Lay under mattress cover before making bed
  • Filter on air registers – just place the sheet down and put the register back up and replace after it is dusty
  • Filter in plant pots – place in the bottom of plant pots before planting to help keep the “dirt in the pot”
  • Freshen up drawers (specifically clothing drawers)
  • Freshen up gym bags, stinky shoes, or other stinky spots
  • Clean and dust blinds
  • Clean electronics – great for computer and t.v screens especially
  • Laminate floor Swiffer sweeper alternative – even attach to your current system
  • Dusting
  • Miscellaneous wet or dry cleaning jobs
  • Miscellaneous scrubbing jobs
  • Use to remove pet hair on furniture
  • Rub directly on your nylons, clothes or anything that has some static
  • Quick dusting on drapes as well as a “freshener” to rid of the musty/dusty/stale smell in between the washings
  • Under couch cushions to help freshen up and keep smelling clean
  • Hide under pet areas and pet beds
  • Place under mats and rugs and replace as needed for an extra layer of freshness

Storage Area:

  • Store in luggage between uses to stop stale smell
  • In clothing or other storage containers to tone down musty stale smell
  • Freshen up musty books by placing a used dryer sheet in Ziploc with a book for a few days and it will smell better after
  • Stick in musty basement corners to keep fresh (we have also heard that it can repel rodents as they don’t like the smell, not sure but could serve double duty for this purpose if that does work!)

PLUS – Just give to kids and let the creative juices flow for crafts and fun! Pull out crayons, markers, paints, scissors, etc.! You never know what they will create!

Now the fun part is that you can download and print this list to hang in your laundry room for quick ideas on where to use that next used dryer sheet that you just pulled out of the dryer! It might also be fun to start at the top and run through the list each day you do a load and then everything will get redone/replaced every couple of months! It is a good way to rotate your cleaning and freshening routine!

 <== Download your printable list HERE.

Do you have any ideas to share?  Please leave your comments below for us all to get more ideas.  We would love to hear from you!

{ 14 comments }

Alex & Cassie

25 Ways to Save on Amusement and Theme Park Tickets

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by Cassie on May 8, 2012

theme park ticket discounts

It is that time of year when many of us are itching for a getaway or at least a nice ol’ theme park visit for a little excitement.  Trust us, we love theme parks.  In fact, in our previous “unthrifty days” we would go on a whim, drop a load of money at the gate paying full price and not think twice about the person standing in line next to us on a ride in the park bragging about their discount into the park while rolling our eyes as if we didn’t care.  Well, we didn’t care – until one day when we recognized the reality of our debt-load and how stupid it was to not get a discount (not to mention the foolishness of being there when we couldn’t even afford it). We used to think it would be too much work to try and scope out a discount.  Arguably, some discounts will be more work than others, but some are hardly any effort and certainly worth seeking out!

We still love theme parks.  But now we plan, budget and seek out those discounts.  Honestly, discounts to any theme park are a dime a dozen.  We can pretty much guarantee you a discount to any theme park if you just look in the right places.  So we’ve rounded up a list of ways to save money on those tickets!

Here are our 25 Tips on How to Save on Amusement and Theme Park Tickets

  1. Check directly on the theme park’s websites. In this day and age, if a company is offering a discount, it will most likely be found somewhere on their website!  This can be quite honestly the easiest way to get a discount and at least save something off the gate entrance price.
  2. Quickly find out about discounts by calling the customer service or the management desk.  Most representatives will be clueless and confused as to why you are asking if there is a discount somewhere, but simply calling and asking directly may save you time if you get a helpful employee!  Ask to talk to a supervisor or manager if the person you are speaking with doesn’t know of any discounts.
  3. If you are a part of any of these groups, then check on a AAA, AARP,  Sam’s Club or Costco. We have found that you can get a discount to most theme parks through one (or all) of these outlets!
  4. Check with your local banks and credit unions, even if the theme park is not local. What I mean is that we have a lot of credit unions in our area and the area we grew up in. None of them are close to Disneyland, but they offer discounts and discount packages to Disney and other Theme parks.
  5. If you are planning to stay multiple days and hit multiple attractions, then consider a multi-day pass or a multi-attraction pass. Theme parks like Universal Studios or SeaWorld have offered “Buy One day, Get One free.”  Disney’s park hopper passes are cheaper per day the more days you purchase. Also, the CityPass is a popular way to go (for visiting multiple attractions) as you save 30% right off the top going through CityPass directly.  You can actually get discounts on the CityPass itself through AAA, Costco and more! These multi-day passes can also apply to the smaller and local theme parks too!
  6. Search online or call hotels local to the theme park and see if they have a package deal. In our area, several of the surrounding hotels offer discount packages with a room to the local Lagoon theme park.  They are not widely advertised, but they are common.  If you call one of the local hotels and they do not have a discount package deal, ask them if another hotel in the area does – you can usually find one within a phone call or two.  We did this recently when we visited the Creation Museum in Kentucky.  We called a couple of hotels and one gave us a list of hotels that offers discount packages.  As it turned out, we were able to stay at a Comfort Inn for $99 a night (for our whole family of 7) and this included the room and 2 adult tickets to the museum.  Since the adult tickets were $25 each, we received $50 in tickets and a room for $49.  The regular room rate was around $85 and discounted room rate of $70, so we were happy with the savings.  We actually stayed two nights and received 4 adult tickets.  Although we only needed 2 adult and 3 kids tickets (2 of our 5 kids was free :) ) it was still cheaper to use the adult tickets for two of the kids than pay the discounted room rate and buy 2 additional kids tickets.
  7. Have a travel agent work up a deal! Contact your local travel agents and tell them that you are looking for discounts galore and see what they quote you for a price! You never know, but they might actually be able to grab bigger discounts with their insider information than you can find! If not, it gives you the basis to try and beat that price you are quoted!
  8. Check on the discount prices using your Entertainment Book. This little (BIG) book is not only filled with coupons to your local businesses, but both in the book and then access your online account as there will be many more offers online, including many theme parks!
  9. Check with local (to the theme park) restaurants/businesses, Coke Cans/Convenience Store Cups, etc. We live near Lagoon Amusement Park and many local fast food restaurants, locally distributed soda cans (e.g., the Coke cans distributed in our area) and convenience store cups will have a coupon for a discount into this local park. Even when we were down in CA, we ate at Wendy’s (using our free fries coupons) and noticed that the drink cups down there had an $8 discount to SeaWorld or San Diego Zoo. So you could potentially find these all over the local area of the theme park.
  10. Check the local physical phone book. Whether you live locally or are staying at one of the local hotels, we always see coupons in the local phone books for some discount off of the attraction tickets!
  11. Check the hotel displays. This is one of the oldest and most common ways to easily find a discount and we typically find these discounts to be the lowest offered as they are so common, but they are a discount none the less! Those displays house dozens of flyers to attractions in the area and many of them will have an attached discount or coupon.
  12. Reserve/purchase your tickets in advance online. We saw this recently on LegoLand.  They were offering weekday tickets for 40% off when ordered online and in advance for a short time!
  13. If you are local to the theme park, consider season/annual passes.  In our area, we mentioned the Lagoon Theme Park.  They sell season passes which make up the cost in just over 2 visits to the park all season! In addition, the season passes are cheaper if you buy in groups, so if you know others looking for season passes, then you can make one big group purchase and split the costs and get your additional discount! 
  14. If you are a large family, consider a family season/annual pass, even if it is for a one-time visit! This one may sound quite strange – but we saw this in action when we went to the Creation Museum earlier this year.  We went with another family that had 8 kids.  The Creation Museum offered a family annual pass no matter how many family members there were.  They literally saved a bunch of money by purchasing this pass than individual tickets. Even if they hadn’t planned a road trip back there within the year, this one visit made it worth the money!  Obviously this only works if they do offer a “family” annual/season pass.
  15. Consider going with a large group for a group discount (this could work if you are not local to the park and going on a road trip with a large group too!). Many theme parks offer discounts with a group.  A group is sometimes considered 8, 10 or 12 or more! Even if you don’t intend to “hang out together at the park” consider teaming up with others for this group discount!
  16. Check with your employer for a discount! One of Alex’s previous employers corporate offices are based out of San Diego. They offered discount tickets to the San Diego attractions, even for their employees in other offices across the country.
  17. Look for the Buy One Get One days. We have seen so many theme parks offer “buy one day get the second day free” deals for certain times or seasons.  Consider attending the park during one of these times.
  18. Find out if they offer discounts for students.  If you are a student somewhere, many theme parks will offer special discounted rates for students when you show your student id.
  19. Find out if they offer discounts for military.  Just like the students, if you are either retired or active duty military, almost all theme parks offer some sort of discount for you and your family when you show your military id.
  20. Check with your insurance. This one may be interesting, but we have noted that many insurance companies offer discounts for their clients just by being a member of a certain insurance group.  We would recommend calling your insurance agent to find out if they offer discounts for their members!
  21. Check to see if they offer discounted days with canned food donations.  Another popular discount we have seen has been with the donation of food items that they will turn around and donate to a food bank.  This is such a great idea and not only do you get your discount, but the community is helped too!
  22. Avoid Peak Season or days. You will find it more difficult to find discount tickets especially during the peak times as they know they can jack up the prices.  If you avoid a peak season or day, you will get more for your money as you will be able to do more. :)
  23. Is there a bundle package offered that will include tickets, parking and maybe food?  Many theme parks also offer an all-in-one package and they will bundle options that will ultimately give you a discount.
  24. Is there a discount option if you enter the park after a certain time of day?  Some theme parks will also offer a discount if you enter after 1pm or 4pm, etc.  We have seen these tickets discounted as much as 50%.  So if that extra 2 or 3 hours in the park is not worth double the expense, then consider this option!
  25. Ask a local or an employee. If you know locals or employees, they will have insider information or even possibly free entrance for friends because they work there – you just never know what you might find out!

One big thing to consider when seeking out a discount is: “What are the restrictions on your discount tickets?” and consider the “nickel and dime” expenses. Answering this question can save you from regret later as some discount tickets might not be all that they are cracked up to be!

  • Is there certain times only that you can enter (time of day, season, blackout dates, etc.)?
  • How much will parking cost?
  • Are there rides/attractions that are not available with this ticket?
  • Any other restrictions or considerations that you need to weigh?

With all of that in mind, we recommend taking a quick look at all 25 ideas above and select your best and biggest discount option from the list!

Are there any discounts that we may have missed?  Please leave a comment below for all to take advantage of!

{ 1 comment }

Alex & Cassie

Easy Homemade Skin Moisturizer and Soothing Cream: Great for Eczema and Other Skin Conditions

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by Cassie on April 30, 2012

easy homemade skin moisturizer and eczema cream

Are you are looking for a nice recipe for a simple, yet luxurious homemade skin moisturizer containing oatmeal for a soothing, skin softening and moisturizing cream?  Possibly one that can be used as a a great option for eczema and other skin conditions without paying the hefty price? Then check out our personal homemade recipe for our easy homemade skin moisturizer. We have a son with eczema and the creams you buy can be very pricey! So I combined many of the common components used in many eczema and other skin moisturizer creams to create this soothing skin cream.  And at least for our son, it works well for his eczema!

In addition to treating our son’s eczema, this has been an amazing treatment for our dry skin.  If we are experiencing some really dry weather causing those dry, cracking hands, we’ll lather this cream on our hands and cover with a pair of socks or gloves to soak it in all night.  It works amazingly well in our dry climate!

Here are the ingredients needed:

Now that you have your ingredients  together – let’s get started on making a super Easy Homemade Skin Moisturizer!

How to make Easy Homemade Skin Moisturizer:

  • You will first need to finely ground the oatmeal to a powder/flour consistency.  You can use a blender, food processor or a Magic Bullet type of appliance to finely ground the oats.
  • Over low heat, melt the coconut oil until it has a liquid consistency.
  • Add a few drops of Rosemary Essential Oil
  • Then mix in the oatmeal flour until well blended.
  • Mix in the olive oil until well blended.
  • Once the ingredients are mixed, pour into a small storage container or glass baby food jars, etc. Let harden for several hours.

After it hardens, simply apply to hands and skin as needed for skin softening, moisturizing, soothing and healing.  This stuff also lasts forever!

homeade skin moisturizer lotion eczema creamAs you can tell from our picture, the kids like to get the cream from the middle. :)
It has almost a Carmex lip balm consistency!

See our everyday frugal living section of our site for more tips and recipes and other do it yourself ideas!

Disclaimer: Please note this has not been tested nor advocated by a medical practitioner and is not intended to be medical advice. Yada yada…

{ 10 comments }

Alex & Cassie

Cooking Healthy Pasta: 3 Simple Tips from Our Kitchen to Yours

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by Cassie on March 26, 2012

cooking healthy pasta

We have been wanting to write up a post on cooking healthy pasta – tips and tricks that we have learned over the last year and use in our own kitchen! We are posting these tips because pasta can be a very frugal and affordable way to eat and feed a large family for less especially! Plus, there can be these awesome pasta sales and coupons for all types of pasta: regular or wheat and in a dozen different shapes.  But the question we are continuously asked is that no matter how frugal the pasta is, how can you make it into a healthy meal?

No matter the pasta stock-up supply you may have on your shelf, you can do a few simple tips to cooking a healthier meal with your cheap pasta!  This may also make it a little easier to serve those affordable pasta dishes more often!

We have learned most of these tips from The Doctor Oz show and we started implementing them immediately as they are so easy!

Tip #1: Cooking Healthy Pasta Just by Cooking Under Al Dente
Cook your pasta until right before Al Dente! Why?  Well, this is a healthier way to cook the pasta as when you cook the pasta to it’s very soft form, the sugars have been broken down for you and you get a high spike in your glucose levels.  When cooking to just under al dente, you do not experience such high glucose spikes.  This is good for anyone to consider when eating, not just diabetics!  It will also leave you fuller longer, which means not needing to eat as much (which saves money) and not having to refuel on food again so quickly.

Neither one of us are health experts, just a frugal family trying to eat as healthy as we can on our tight budget, so we will leave further explanation to the following sites:

How do we ensure cooking this way:  I boil the water first, then I dump all of the pasta into the boiling water and set the timer for 1 minute under the recommend Al Dente cooking time.  Most pasta boxes will give 2-3 recommended cooking times – we just choose the shortest and cut another minute off!

Tip #2: Dashing Cooked Pasta With Balsamic Vinegar
We love this one! We literally do this every time we cook pasta, and the kids have no idea (and they hate vinegar because they can smell it on our salads!).  This recommendation comes right from Dr. Oz.

From the Dr. Oz Show HERE:
Vinegar’s acetic acid slows down how quickly you digest and absorb glucose from starch; this helps to control hunger and makes you less likely to eat later. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to a starchy dish to stabilize your post-meal blood sugar.

As soon as we are done cooking, we throw the pasta in a bowl and toss with a few dashes of balsamic vinegar, then continue the preparation like normal! We even do this in the kid’s Annies Organic Mac and Cheese before adding the cheese sauce :) Shhhh!

Tip #3: Mixing Fresh Veggies to “Expand” the Pasta
We’ve been doing forms like this for a while, but our ideas expand as time goes on for tips on how to expand the pasta! :) We recently watched the Dr. Oz show where he had Hungry Girl on the show and she was giving ideas on how to “expand” your pastas with fresh veggies.

Hungry Girl’s Mac and Cheese made with 1/2 elbow macaroni and 1/2 cauliflower.

Again, it was something we already were doing, but the list of items we are adding is continually growing.  It is a brilliant idea to add veggies to your pasta and slip it in for the kids to eat and for the family to eat healthier without anyone really noticing the difference!  The newest veggie idea that we got from Hungry Girl was adding cauliflower to your elbow, rotini, etc. shaped pastas! FABULOUS!

After adding your “fresh veggie expanders” then just prepare like you normally would or the recipe that you were going to do originally!

So, with this in mind, here are some ideas that we have now on veggies to add to pasta to “expand” it! But we want to expand this list too, so share any ideas that you might have in the comments below.

  • Fresh Tomatoes (all types!)
  • Carrot Shreds
  • Zucchini Shreds
  • Sweet Pepper strips thinly sliced for spaghetti or in chunks for shape pasta
  • Broccoli chunks
  • Cauliflower chunks
  • Mushrooms
  • Peas
  • Corn
  • Squash
  • Spinach
  • Replacing half (or all if you have enough!) of your spaghetti with 1 spaghetti squash.
  • Fresh herbs are a nice addition too for some extra healthy spice
  • What other ideas do you have?

Our family can eat 2 boxes of spaghetti/pasta each meal, so by doing any of the above, it means 1 box and then a good serving of veggies quite easily!

Depending on the dish, we also add beans for a cheap healthy protein too! It actually works well!

We hope this post and these 3 Simple Tips to Cooking Healthy Pasta will help your family to eat a bit healthier while on a budget and incorporate that affordable pasta. You can literally do all three at each pasta meal you make.  But even if you don’t incorporate the veggies, the first two are simple and will make a big difference while not costing extra (or at least verry minimally as a cheap bottle of balsamic vinegar will go a very long way!).  Share with us any tips you have on cooking health pasta!

Also, don’t miss our Dr. Oz section to find Dr. Oz recommendations for less!

Photo Credits: LucioRestaurant.net, Cafemom.com, DoctorOz.com, StartCooking.com

{ 9 comments }

Alex & Cassie

How to Freeze Pineapple: From Cutting To Bagging

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on March 24, 2012

how to freeze pineapple

You may have seen our post earlier regarding the nearly 40 lbs. of fresh pineapple that we picked up from our produce co-op for only $24.  This came out to be 16 pineapples, which makes them $1.50 each.  Considering that pineapple is in season from March – July, this is the best time of year to grab them and stock up on it for cheaper – then freeze it so you can enjoy it for several months after the season ends.  Also, although they are in season right now, they still sell for $1.99 – $2.99 each pineapple.  You can occasionally buy them for $1.50 each in the store, but it is much nicer to pick up a whole bunch for this price and get them very fresh as well!

So, yes, we will be freezing most of this stock of pineapple for us to enjoy later!

Let’s answer some questions first about how to freeze pineapple:

  • You can freeze pineapple for up to 6 months in it’s own juice.
  • We use them for homemade ice cream, our homemade smoothies and foods like this.  We haven’t tried defrosting and eating, but we do enjoy eating it as frozen chunks too!
  • You can freeze it in slices or chunks.
  • Depending on how you plan to use it – you can freeze with or without the core.
  • We freeze with the core as we use it blended in one of the above ways we mentioned in the first bullet.  We have a Vitamix and so it is a heavy duty blender that can blend that tough core. Besides, we want the core as it is filled with extra nutrition.  (You can read about this extra “core” nutrition on the LiveStrong site HERE).
  • We do not do anything extra to the pineapple.  We just literally cut the skin off, chunk it and freeze! We also are not super picky about cutting out the brown skin that is left (as this has nutrition too!) as it requires cutting into the pineapple quite a bit or taking loads of time to pick each one out.  For this purpose, we don’t dig those brown spots out either because the will be blended into our smoothies, ice cream, etc. with the power of the Vitamix.
  • For fresh consumption, we will spend the time to pick most of the brown spots out because no one like the consistency of it when eating fresh!

Here’s How We Cut Our Pineapple!

It is actually extremely simple:

Cut the tops and bottom off.

Cut the pineapple in half down the middle (this makes it easier to shave in the next step).

Then, using your knife, shave off the skins.

Cut into thick slices.

Then cut into cubes!

How to Freeze Pineapple!

  • You can freeze them into whatever quantities you want.
  • When freezing in a bag, squeeze out as much air as you can to make them airtight (or use a vacuum sealer)
  • We froze 2 pineapples per each gallon bag.

  • When we go to use them, we will bring up one gallon bag from our deep freeze at a time – but only use the amount we need.  We rarely use an entire bag at once but rather typically use one bag of pineapple for several batches of smoothies (mixed with other items) or ice cream or other treats!
  • The final step is to label your bag or container with the amount of pineapple and the date (to keep yourself from guessing how fresh the pineapple is months from now :) ).

So when you have the opportunity to grab pineapple for less, even if you are not sure how you would use it fresh, consider grabbing it and then freezing for future use! It is a great extra way to save!

Do you have any tips on how to freeze pineapple? What was your experience

{ 11 comments }

Alex & Cassie

Can You Freeze Eggs? Yes You Can and Here’s How!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on March 19, 2012

Can you freeze eggs

Admit it.  Its been on your mind for most of the morning.  You can’t get it out of your head.  Yes, we’re talking about that all-important question – Can you freeze eggs?  You’ve come to the right place to answer this question and stop the worry and never-ending concern.  Here’s the answer…. YES! And here’s the nitty gritty on how to do it!

It is that time of year when egg prices drop and you can find some great deals on eggs.  So with that in mind and as we eat a lot of eggs in our house we love to buy them for much less and freeze them so we don’t have to buy them at the higher prices the rest of the year.  :)   So a few years ago we asked the question ourselves – “Can you freeze eggs?” when the time of year came around that eggs were so cheap that we wanted to stock up!

Eggs are considered the “poor man’s protein” and what better way to help us stick to our budget and to help us stick to healthier eating than buying them at a rock-bottom deal and freezing them so we could continue eating healthier for even less (because we’re not buying them when they are so expensive).  But don’t think that springtime is the only time you can find great deals on eggs – we always loving looking for those markdowns (see the pictures below for an example) as you can often find them year-round!

Plus, another consideration is that not only are the “cheaper egg varieties” on sale, but also some of the higher-end eggs as well.  We prefer to buy brown or cage-free eggs when we can fit them in our budget, and so when the opportunity arises, we stock-up on them! Then they are prepared to be frozen so we can have them when we need them.

SO Here’s How You Can Freeze Eggs!

What you need:

  • Eggs
  • Salt or sugar (to prevent the yolk from turning into a gel consistency when defrosting)
  • Something to measure out 1-2 cups
  • Ziploc or other container to store

It is very quick and easy to prepare eggs for the freezer and a task that our 7- and 8-year old daughters like to do (and practice egg cracking:))

We found that about 5-6 eggs is equal to one cup.  We freeze most of our eggs in this quantity as we usually use about this many at a time!

First, crack the eggs in a separate bowl and measure them out (we measure by cups).

Second, add salt to the eggs.  You will want to use around 1/2 teaspoon of salt for one cup of eggs (if freezing individually just use a dash)! Adjust the salt amount based on how many you are freezing together!

Third, gently mix the eggs so the yolks break up a bit and mix with the salt.

Fourth, pour egg mixture into your Ziploc or other container.

Fifth, label your eggs with date and quantity and then stick them in the freezer!

Here is some additional information to help you preserve your eggs for use!

  • Eggs can be frozen for up to 1-year.
  • Defrost your eggs for 1 day before use in the fridge.
  • You can use sugar instead of salt if you are using them for baking, etc.
  • You can freeze individual eggs in an ice cube tray for use of one egg at a time.
  • You can freeze the egg yolks and egg white separately if you need to.
  • When freezing just the yolks, you will still need to use the salt (or sugar) to prevent it be like gelatin when you defrost them.
  • When freezing just the whites, you do not need to add any salt or sugar – just mix very gently before freezing.
  • Eggs can last quite a while after the “best by” date and still be just fine for use and consumption without the need for freezing.  You can see our previous post on this topic of Food Expiration Dates: What They Really Mean
  • Mark your bag/container with either the number of eggs or the amount it is equal to if you plan to use them in recipes.  For example:  our bags say “1 cup” or “6 large eggs.”

So when you are in the store next and you see a super deal on your family’s favorite eggs, instead of asking “Can you freeze eggs?” now you know you can, how to do and ultimately save your family a little more money in this area!

Have your tried to freeze your own eggs before? What was your experience?

{ 16 comments }

Alex & Cassie

Easy Homemade Applesauce Recipe: Serve Warm for a Perfect Dessert, Side Dish or Even as a Baby Food

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on February 16, 2012

We wanted to share how to make Easy Homemade Applesauce.  It really is very ridiculously easy and tastes so yummy! We will make as a treat for dessert or as a side dish.  Our favorite way to serve it is warm as it’s really quite amazing this way!

Tools and Supplies Needed

Here are the ingredients needed:

  • About 6 medium sized apples (you will want around 1.5 quarts of cubed apple pieces).  I fill a 1.5 quart casserole dish with the cubed apples to measure this easily; I know I have enough apples when it is full. :) Experiment with different varieties of apples, as each type will create a different taste experience – sometimes sweeter, sometimes more tart.  But you can add any sugar or sweetener to taste if some batches are more tart than your family desires!
  • A few dashes of nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. of ground cinnamon (or less if you are not a cinnamon fan)
  • 1 tsp. of vanilla extract

You will also need a way core, cube and peel apples.  There are many tools to do this.  I have simple tools in my kitchen, and so it takes me a little longer to peel the skins by hand with a paring knife.  It really does work though…I promise! :)

To peel and core, you could use any of the following (each of these are links to see what they look like!):

  • Apple/Potato Peeler – After researching and seeing how cheap these are, we are going to purchase one of these.
  • Hand Peeler  – I have this one and it is my favorite as I have been through many peelers, but this one has lasted a while and still works wonderfully!
  • Paring Knives
  • Apple Corer

You also need the following appliances/larger kitchen items:

Now that you have your ingredients and tools together – let’s get started on making a super Easy Homemade Applesauce!

How to make easy homemade applesauce:

  • Peel, core and cube your apples until you have 1.5 quarts of apples.
  • Pour your apples into your pan on the stove.  (You can also slow cook in a crock pot for 2-3 hours until soft if preferred).
  • Sprinkle with a few dashes of nutmeg
  • Add your 1 tsp. of cinnamon (adjust to taste – we like cinnamon!).  This is where you would also add any sugar or sweetener to your mixture.  We don’t use extra sweetener.
  • Cook on the stove on medium for about 15-20 minutes until the apples are nice and soft
  • About 10 minutes into your cooking, add the 1 tsp. of vanilla extract.

  • After the apples soften, you will want to turn them into a “sauce”.  You can do this quickly by pouring into a food processor or blender and pulsing the mixture a handful of times until desired consistency is reached. You can also use a hand blender or even a potato masher.

  • Either serve warm or refrigerate to serve cold.  You can also store the leftovers (if there are any) for a day or two and serve cold!

This can also be a baby food – just follow the cooking steps above, omitting the cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and vanilla! Use a sweet-tasting apple for the natural sweetener!

Making your own applesauce is very yummy and rewarding! It can be cheaper than buying applesauce from the store.  We have gotten applesauce very cheap with coupons and sales, but it is something all seven of us like to eat, so we can’t keep enough cheap store bought applesauce in stock.

Ways to Get Apples for Less

Here are some ideas to make your easy homemade applesauce even cheaper – being able to get CHEAP apples!

  1. If you have an apple tree of your own – problem solved!
  2. If you have a neighbor who has an apple tree, ask if you can pick your own to take the mess off their hands.  Usually, we have seen residential apple trees go to such waste as the apples fall on the ground before anyone can get them and go to waste! Instead, this is a great opportunity to ask any neighbors or friends with an apple tree if you can help with the clean-up before they fall :)
  3. Pick your own at a local apple orchard – usually they charge by the bushel and it is typically a lot less than you will get in the store!
  4. Buy from a co-op or local farmer’s market.
  5. Buy apples that are beginning to turn at the local grocery store that have either already been marked down or ask if you can get a discount if you see that any are turning!  Turn them into applesauce right away!
  6. Buy it on a weekly sale at your local grocery store or price match at Walmart!
  7. Finally, you can stock-up when they are in season and can your own applesauce so that you have it throughout the year!

Don’t forget that applesauce is also a great replacement in cooking  to replace oil and in some cases even the eggs!

What recipes or ideas do you have with making applesauce or ideas on how to use your homemade applesauce in other recipes?

See our everyday frugal living section of our site for more tips and recipes and other do it yourself ideas!

Products mentioned in this post:

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Alex & Cassie

Can You Relate To This?

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on February 11, 2012

I set our baby boy down in the family room with the big kids so I could clean the kitchen.  He’s crawling now and pulling himself up! So what does he do?  He crawls over to the cabinet and pulls down a bunch of coupon inserts!

The big kids, knowing how important the coupons are,  start yelling that there is an emergency! I come running to find our little rascal rustling and ripping up coupons! You can see him there on the left having fun!

Can You Relate To This?!

{ 20 comments }

Alex & Cassie

How to Make Butter and Buttermilk the Easy Way: Good for Molds and Flavored Butters

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on February 9, 2012

We wanted to share how to make butter and buttermilk quickly and easily! Making homemade butter is rewarding because you can make some pretty and creative displays and more – or just have fun making your own butter. It also tastes so creamy and fresh! There nothing like homemade fresh butter on a warm piece of homemade bread.  It is super-comfort food :)

All you need for this recipe is whipping cream – in fact, it can’t really be called “a recipe” because it takes just one ingredient and is so simple to make!

You will also need a way to whip the whipping cream vigorously.  Here are some fun and practical ways:

  1. A glass jar with a lid and shake it vigorously for 10-30 minutes.  Our kids like to help and they pass the jar and it is a fun experiment for them too.  They do tire out, even passing between 4 of them, so one of us usually finishes it off!
  2. A Blender
  3. A food processor (our preferred method).

The process for how to make your own butter and buttermilk is around 15 minutes total.  If you are using a food processor, there is not much hands on attention required and only takes about 8-10 minutes!

How to make butter and buttermilk the easy way:

  • Pour the whipping cream in the food process and start your machine.  Let it run for about 8-10 minutes or until it looks a little yellowish and separates like this:

  • Once it gets to this state, you will want to drain the buttermilk off into a bowl

  • Then I like to run the food processor for another minute or two after pouring out the buttermilk for any final separation
  • Once it has ran for another minute, I finish it off by squeezing the butter with a spatula to allow and final buttermilk to drain off.  I squeeze several different times after folding it over between each squeeze.

  • Then simply scoop the butter out of the mixing bowl and refrigerate.  It will be very soft, but it will set to a hard set once it is refrigerated (like butter from the store – hard from the fridge or turns soft on the counter!).  We store it in a BPA-Free plastic bowl with a lid.

Also, you can use the butter in this soft state to either make a flavored butter or to mold it into shapes that you would like! We like to make butter shapes for special occasions (and sometimes just because the kids love it!).  We like using the silicone food molds as they are much easier to work with and easier to release the butter, etc.!

We are using heart shapes since it is close to Valentine’s Day ;) You can make individual shapes, or even one large shape.  As an example in this case, we could have used a large heart cookie cutter on a glass square pan and filled to the top of the cookie cutter with the soft butter and then refrigerate until hard.  Then we would have one large heart shaped butter!

You can see a whole slew of silicone molds for your butter whether large shapes or individual shapes for all seasons and occasions on Amazon HERE.  Some of these are really great prices and include free shipping too!

Finally, we love to use flavored butters on our different homemade breads. You can literally make so many numerous combinations, but here’s what we gravitate to most often:

  • Garlic Butter – mix into your soft butter to taste with garlic powder or even fresh garlic minced!
  • Herb Butter – mix into your soft butter your favorite combinations of dried or even finely minced fresh herbs
  • Chive Butter – mix fresh or dried chives into your butter
  • Honey butter – mix honey to taste into your butter
  • Fruit butters – we have also mixed jams with the butters to make a fruity combination
  • The possibilities are endless!

So, the next question is……Is it cheaper to make my own butter vs. buying it at the grocery store??

This is a GOOD question.  If you want to buy fancy butter in different shapes – then doing this yourself will most likely always save you money.  But honestly, we don’t do this often.  Most of the time we are making butter, it is because it is CHEAPER and because we will eat it no matter the pretty shape.

Here’s the criteria for making your own butter to save money:  Find out whether the whipping cream on sale?  Is the butter on sale?

With the above process, we used one pint of whipping cream.  This normally sells for around $2 each pint but you can regularly get it on sale for at least $1.50 or less.  So how much butter can you get out of one pint of whipping cream?  This pint makes around 1 cup of packed butter (or a little more). This would be equivalent to 2 sticks of butter. In addition, you also receive that nice buttermilk, which ends up being around 1 cup as well!

So the REAL answer to the question of “Is it cheaper to make my own butter?” is really going to depend on the sales each week.  If your store has an awesome butter sale, then buying the butter will probably be cheaper. If your store has a great whipping cream sale – then stock-up, make your butter and freeze it which means lots of savings for the next month or two! Also, watch for markdowns on both the regular and organic whipping creams.  We see these go on markdown quite frequently and this means even cheaper butter when you find those deals!

And the final question is…..What do you do with your homemade buttermilk?

You can google “recipes with buttermilk” and you will get tons of ideas.  We are going to reserve this for the next post to share what we have made with it, but we also want to hear some ideas from you too!

What recipes or ideas to you have that call for or use buttermilk? Also, share with us any of your own ideas for other  flavored butters you have made or molds you like to use.

{ 17 comments }

Alex & Cassie

Our Personal Gift-Giving Plan and a Merry Christmas to Your Family

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

by Cassie on December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Just like last year, we wanted to share what we are personally doing and giving this year.  We share this for a few reasons:

  1. To get to know us even more (we don’t like being just known as a computer screen ;)
  2. To see the progression that our family is making in our own financial lives to become more and more financially disciplined and challenged in being better than before, and
  3. To inspire, encourage and generate more ideas in your own families finances both in the present and in the future.

First, we have been sharing with you our story of how we got so deeply in debt and in the new year we will start sharing how we got out (which includes our successes, failures, struggles, savviness, weaknesses, strengths, ideas and hard work).   But with what we have told you so far and what we plan to tell you about in the future, one thing remains ever true in our lives…… our weakness and temptation with attempting to justify expenses, make more purchases than necessary or making non-budgeted purchases, etc.  The Christmas season is no exception to testing this temptation that grew out of our past financial woes and burdens.

Because of these temptations and our past, we require ourselves to have a strict financial plan  at the beginning of each New Year to start planning for a budgeted and sane Christmas.  We will be talking about this more in depth when the new year begins so that your family can join us and start off with a healthier financial year.  But in brief, we determine a budget and contribute to our Christmas/complete holiday season (i.e. Thanksgiving to New Year) and set a little money aside each month.

This allows two main things to take place:

  • Keeps us out of debt and prevents us from overspending and
  • Allows us to have the designated funds available even early on in the year to catch deals that will allow us to “spread” more of those designated holiday funds!

But one thing that we have learned the last few years of sticking with this budget plan is that even with a small budgeted amount of money…you can go overboard with STUFF! Especially when we are hunting for deals like crazy!

So we still have the same budget we’ve had for the last few years for the holiday season, but we had decided early in the year that we want to cut back on “stuff,” buy less items for our children and make them better quality.  We came to this realization on Christmas 2009 when it was the first full-year we stuck to our budget (remember that although we have been The Thrifty Couple for over 7 years, it has been (and still is) a learning and growing process and many different stages to grow into) and ended up with soooo much stuff!

Sure, we didn’t overspend, we didn’t go deeper into debt (it was in 2010 we paid off our debt), BUT WE OVERBOUGHT!  We realized that we were not teaching our children true financial responsibility, contentment or even the true meaning of Christmas if we only focused on “look how much stuff we got for this small budget.”  They were spoiled – we had done it in previous years and we had done it again.  They didn’t learn anything from our “smart buying and budget stretching” if it ALL ended up under the tree and in their arms. We also thought about this from the perspective of our own struggles of wanting “stuff” earlier on in our marriage and how this could possibly be setting them up for the same attitude when they are adults and preparing them to experience many of the same financial woes that we experienced because of their desire for stuff.  We wanted to change those thoughts now.

With those thoughts then, over the last couple of years we’ve had the same Christmas budget (even though we have an extra child this year ;) ) and a different plan and goal.  We will only be buying them a few items and 1-2 toys each.  We wanted to get them higher quality for a great deal and the rest of the money would be used to bless others – not for more “stuff!”

There are 3 main themes to our Christmas buying this year:

  1. Quality over Quantity,
  2. Kohls Deals and
  3. Daily Deal Sites galore!

Here’s what we ended up with for each of our Children:

We have a 6-month old boy, 3 year old girl, 5 year old boy, 7 year old girl and 8 year old girl. They all received a spinbrush and PJs on our Christmas Eve to kick off the festivities.

First, our 7 and 8 year old girl – they are practically twins, so we usually buy similar things for them!

  • The Chronicles of Narnia from Christian Book Distributors for our 8 year old – (awesome story, she started reading these books this November from the library and then we saw this deal on CBD.com and knowing that she was enjoying them and there were 4 other kids so far behind her that probably will too, we decided to get this deal.  A few days later when she had her nose stuck in one of the borrowed books, she came up to us and said “I don’t care if I only get these books for my own for Christmas so I can read them over and over again.  I would be perfectly happy and thankful! We both looked at each other and we’re so thankful we had that insight because she got them for Christmas!
  • The Little House on the Prairie Book Set for our 7-year old from CBD on the same order and similar sale as The Chronicles of Narnia (we received FREE shipping because the order was then over $35).
  • Personalized Shirts for our 7 and 8 year old made to order to match personalized skirts that they made earlier in the year from Fashion Playtes.  THIS IS A REALLY COOL AND FUN ONE! Earlier this year, we picked up a couple of Fashion Playtes.com vouchers for 50% off through the daily deal site called FamilyFinds.com.  We then went on and our two eldest daughters were able to customize and design their very own long skirts (we LOVE the Amanda Style as it is very comfortable, long, modest, and feminine – things our girls and us love!).  They are great quality and so we were excited to get these vouchers and they had fun with it.  Here’s a couple of the skirts they made:

The top skirt is really beautiful, but it is an odd color – Geranium.   We were able to get plain shirts for cheap at stores around here to match all of their other skirts in many different colors, but the top one, we could only find black that would work.  So – through the daily deal site Mamapedia, we were able to get another voucher at 50% off.  I then went into the FashionPlaytes site and designed two of these shirts that they are getting to match their beautiful skirt!

Second, for our 5-year old son

Third, for our 3-year old daughter

Fourth – the adorable, smiley and just-so-cute 6-month old boy!

Fifth – We also got these family gifts:

So in the end, we feel like we bought simpler items as well compared to past years (we still know we can become even better about both of these still!), purchased higher quality and got all of it for a steal-of-a-deal by starting in January!

With that all in mind, we had quite a bit of our small budget left to use to “bless” others. In the past years, we usually grab 3-4 Angel Tree kids requests for Christmas.  This year, we were able to grab seven kids.   In addition, we also know two single moms – one with two kids and one with one child, that we decided to also surprise them with Christmas.

This is a picture of the items we donated this year.

First, the Angel Tree items were mostly all bought for a great deal – but Angel Tree can be a bit of a challenge in the sense that you only have less than a week normally to buy gifts for the kids.  They are also specific, so if they are not sale that week, then you have to make due!

So here’s how we fared for the 7 kids from the Angel Tree:

In addition, here what we got for the Single Mom and two kids and the third child of the other single  mom.  Since this was just something we were doing by surprise and specific requests were not needed, we were able to scour our gift bins that we talk about all throughout the year to be able to provide most of the gifts.  We have talked about the value of a gift bin many times when you find a super rock bottom deal on anything from apparel, toys, household and more – we encourage you to grab it so that you have a nice gift that doesn’t wreak havoc on your budget.

For the mom

  • 2 pairs of Chaps pants (these are normally around $55 and $75 each, but…. believe or not, we were able to get them for only $1 a pair a couple of years ago! Kohls was majorly clearing inventory and they had a bunch of racks with clothing priced at only $1 each item.  We grabbed a ton of this clothing for an Ebay business we were running at the time to sell in lots.  We have since set aside our Ebay business and now giving those items to those in need.  We plan to take the rest of the clothing to church for our friends to go through and the remains will be given to the homeless and women’s shelters.
  • A pair of designer sunglasses from a Graveyard mall deal a while back.  This was a set of 12 that we have been able to use as gifts!
  • A designer watch sold at a rock bottom price from No More Rack (I think we paid around $5 for it).
  • A bracelet from ShopLately site that we were able to get for FREE on a past promotion.
  • Slippers from an online group buying site that was also FREE.
  • A nice hand bag from The Limited that was pennies on the dollar.

For the 7 year old daughter

  • One of the $5 Toys R Us Teddy Bears
  • A Barbie doll that we paid $5 for from No More Rack (and we saw it in-store for $30 later)
  • Dress-up clothes and accessories (can’t remember where – it was in our gift bin too!)
  • Pictureka Card game that we got for FREE last year around Christmas (we stocked up on these and have quite a few in the gift bin ;) )

For the 1-year old boy

For the 3-year daughter of the other single mom

As far as gifts for our extended family, we did utilize the Daily Deal sites and Amazon quite a bit and also took advantage of photo deals we could find as these are the most beloved gifts!

So that is what we did this Christmas with our designated budget.   As we are celebrating our Christmas today (kids were happy it was 1 day earlier ;) , we are enjoying our family time together today and we pray that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!

We hope you will join us in this upcoming New Year to save even more, give even more and to reform your finances to help you meet your goals for you and your family!

{ 4 comments }

Alex & Cassie

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