Now let's get started - Cooking for $5.50 a day

So here's the essentials:

- Meal Planning

- Ad watching

- Coupons; when it's something I had originally intended on purchasing

- Freezing & storing food

- Making the most use out of leftovers

Initially, I was not sure that it's possible to work with around 5.50 a day, to feed two people 3 daily meals without those essentials. So here's what you need to do to get a little more confident: sit down and make a list of both of your favorite foods & meals.

My husband, loves chicken. And I do too, so this is a staple in our house. We buy from a large Warehouse Store chicken breasts, thighs & legs for less than a dollar a pound. That's a crazy great deal, especially since they carry natural chicken. This is where you'll see me buy most of my groceries; in big, large quantities because I do something I call 'Staple Cooking'. I went ahead & made up the term to encompass what I do. I have about 15 things I use to make a month's worth of meals that were mentioned in my Food Challenge Blog.

We both love, slow cooked home made tomato sauces that are actually cheaper to make, and have an indescribable level of complexity that is only experienced once you taste a homemade sauce. So, I buy a 5 lb can of tomatoes, nothing special done to them (the ones that are crushed, etc. tend to cost more from my experience) for about 2.20. It's crazy cheap - and I do so many things with it that I hope will influence you to try!

So once we sat down, I got a general grasp of what we both like, and from there, I can start. This is what you should do, too.

About once a month, we hit the higher end markets, to buy a big lamb leg to slow roast - and it's our treat that we financially account for through our 'fun funds' budget allowance. We know, it's costs us about 30 bucks, and that is really about 3/5ths of what we spend on food in one week, but i'm a firm believer in splurging to have fun - because you know what? Budgeting the whole way through, gives you the money & excitement of totally splurging on something you both love.

Things you're going to see here that are going to help you

- Meat reduction/reducing pricey ingredients from dishes. I do a stuffed cabbage, where I reverse how much rice & meat should be used. I do 3 cups of rice, instead of meat - and vice versa. So that automatically trims money from a dish, that ended up being far more heart healthy!

- Making big dishes at dinner to become leftovers for lunch the next day. I hardly pack my husband or myself lunches that weren't derived from dinner. For example, let's say we had Falafel's or Meatloaf the night before.. What I do is transform it for a yummy lunch that if I weren't to point it out to my husband that it was last night's dinner, he would have hardly a clue. I'll do something like Stuffed Falafel Pita Sandwiches, with Tahini, Hummus & a salad. Really yummy, and even the bread is cheap, if you'll remember from my Bread rant & rave Make your own baked goods! 

- Milk is amazing. Amazing, amazing and more amazing. From making plain & greek yogurt, to ricotta, to being used in baking, and making rice pudding creamy & delish. We'll be using it a lot, so make sure you have a place where it's decently priced for the gallon. I go for 2 gallons for 4.25 all total. (I'm telling you: WAREHOUSE STORES are amazing. Not for everything, but if you can do the simple math of pricing by oz, you are set. Email me or Twitter message & i'll give you the breakdown) Along with milk, we'll use staples like this to create a whole array of wonderful foods!

- When I say 5.50 daily - I am talking about as an average from an entire month. Weekly you'll spend anywhere from 40 - 55, and once you divide the days out of the week is once you get this average. I've seen blogs & sites where it's 5 dollars meals - but we're talking 5 DOLLAR DAYS! All meals included. It's all about smart shopping. Which is so much easier, than paying for premade foods that cost you extra time at work to pay for. And did I mention, it's not very good if you can't pronounce more than 5 things on the package!

Get your list together & locate the Warehouse Markets, Discount Stores & where the loss-leaders are (not sure what this is? weekly, stores post ads w/ specials on the front - this is where they are losing the most money, and it's the best time for you to take advantage).

See you guys soon!

- BCB

My 3 G Wedding

How we did it for 3 Grand - starting from day 1 [and you can too!]

I need to begin by explaining we did a two part Wedding; Our vows at the end of a 5k 'Mud Run' with our pastors, friends & family, and 2 weeks later had a Reception.

This is only the beginning of a whole array 
of advice I want to offer for anyone heading down the planning-a-Wedding route, because it's not an                

easy one, and even though we had a budget Wedding, it still took a lot of                 

organization, communication, and most importantly vision. Single handedly, my opinion is that even before setting a budget, pinpoint your definitely's vs. can live without's to Establish Priorities. [For us, we decided early on we want all of our family there, no if's and or buts - so this helped us set up a flow chart per say of where we'd have to place most of our money to hold the quantity of family members combined [about 150]  Budgets spiral out of monetary control when you haven't established what you can't live without on your special day. That way, when the B word comes up [B..B..BU..budget] you'll have an easy time setting maximum & minimum amounts you'll spend in each category. For example; to bring home our picnic theme, we spent an amount you might not have on having bottled, Mexican Coca Cola -> It's made with real cane sugar!

For us, we're together an active couple, and the idea to do a run with vows, came purely from a compulsive suggestion that turned reality. We went from there. I didn't necessarily have a theme so stuck in my head that I would become Bridezilla over not attaining it, but I had a general idea of what I wanted as far as colors go - something that contrasts. So once I established this, I decided an Indoor Picnic Theme [I quickly came to this decision due to the complicated dynamics of an Outdoor Picnic - Spiders, Bees, Ants OH MY!] 

Once you've established your Vision, Priorities [Of what you can't live without] and Theme, we're ready to move on. 

There's a small disclaimer here - and that is, we wouldn't have been capable of having our Wedding come together perfectly without the help of many people - who were able to get involved once we had plans established. So many people fixate on the stresses of the budget, the costs per head, oh you name it - but you need to realize family & friends usually want to be part of having your big day come together.       

                                   

Once we had our plans together, purchased a white erase board that was up at my house, where we literally had everything up – all the details, finances & gaps. With this openness with our families & close friends, they were able to come alongside us & help where we needed it. (They explained to us it was a much greater joy to be part of our Wedding Day & helping it come together, than handing up some gift knowing they could have contributed) That’s one of the most important things I’ll tell you.

Big areas we saved money

1.      Coupons. There’s major art retail stores that have majorly great discounts; some up to 40%. Stock up, and use them weekly to purchase big items. For example, at our venue we couldn’t have candles, so we purchased a ‘Unity Sand Kit’ vs. having Unity Candles. It was around 55 originally, but was knocked down to right over 20.

2.      Are invitations worth making? It’s still a debate in my mind. We got a killer deal. My husband & I hit the discount section looking for invitations we liked, and found some – that were being discontinued so there was only 1 box. So what we did was call other stores in the same branch, and voila! Found our box. Why did we go through that trouble? Because those invitations were normally about 50 dollars a box, and we got them for 10. Our total cost for invitations was right under 50; for the invitations, the envelopes we purchased to match, the embellishments and stamps. However, my poor, then fiancé, was on Invitation duty because he had more free time while completing his internship. The bad catch: it took him almost 25 hours to deal with templates, persnickety printers & what not. So you really need to do the math. Invitations start at usually around 300, so maybe you’re more template savvy & this would be an easy thing.

3.      We didn’t pay for a Wedding website, and don’t you dare either. There’s far too many free ones, only a 1 minute search on google away. I highly suggest having this. We had many issues with the invitations & people not receiving, that we had to keep a website due to all the mishaps. Plus, it’s real fun to update & so much easier than telling all your family & friends individually when things change.

4.      Our theme. Is where we saved the most money. With our vows being at a Mud Run, we almost naturally slipped into thinking ‘Picnic’ theme – and it couldn’t have been more perfect! We started hitting stores after Valentine’s Day for clearance decorations; hearts, red, white – all things along those lines made it into our baskets. This is why I really emphasize establishing a theme and/or color scheme, because you’ll then be able to

03/16/11 - Still working on! Thank you for your patience!

See you guys soon! - BCB