There's gold in that there driveway

Today is Wednesday and Wednesday is Sale Flyer day - a day that makes Janie very, very happy.

Do you voraciously pore over the sale flyers like I do? you don't? well you should be...

Grocery store, marketing agents, manufacturers, packagers are all in a big game against us to make us spend more. Actually they just want to make a profit... but I digress.

I listened to an excellent podcast last night about how more and more these days they are altering packaging in items to make you pay the same price or even more for LESS... And the main tip that was given was "shop the loss leaders - its one of the best ways to never pay retail for groceries" and when you shop the loss leaders buy enough so you don't have to buy again until it goes on sale.

Combine loss leaders with coupons and you are doing even better.

so my tips for grocery sale flyers are:

Loss leaders are generally only on the front page of the ad. I have started saving my time by generally skipping the middles pages. The back pages are generally produce but since I do bountiful baskets now that's no biggie.

I DO NOT go around to multiple stores. If there is a MAJOR deal at one particular store or its BOGO or for a brand only they carry I will maybe make an extra trip.

But... for the most part I price match at Walmart.

tips for price matching:

Supplies you will need:

flyers, big marker, and your coupons and price book (I record in my price book the lowest price I have ever seen an item sell for)

separate the stores you shop from and recycle the unnecessary stuff

this week I got flyers for:

Kroger

CVS

Albertsons

Brookshires

Sprouts

Tom Thumb

(and I check Big Lots and Aldi's online)

Now to prep them for price matching I go through and circle what are good deals, then circle the date of the flyer and write on the front what the deals are.

as I shop I make a pile of the flyers I will need at checkout.

the cashier will want to check the dates of the flyer

tips at checkout:

cashier profile (younger and preferably male) A teenage boy doesn't get as irritated about sale flyer price matching. White haired old ladies who themselves have been price matching for years get annoyed like Alex Trebek does when you don't know the answer right away.

If I am price matching a long list of items I do warn those getting in line behind me

I put the items that need to be price matched in in the back of all of my other groceries and I have my flyers folded neatly and ready to go.

I keep track of how many of each item I am purchasing, Especially if I am buying A LOT.

It goes like this I tell the cashier "I am buying 12 frozen pizzas, price matched at .79 cents each, here is the flyer, I circled it and the date"

Then watch your grocery prices drop... its lovely.

other tips:

KEEP YOUR FLYERS WITH YOU ALL THE TIME. Put them in your car. I can't tell you how many times something I didn't intend on purchasing all of sudden was needed when I didn't have the flyers. Or if you have to run in and get something last minute, stock up on the sale again. Some popular price match items sell out fast and often.

and now for the fine print :

Walmart will not match BOGO products, Buy one item get a different item free, or percentage off sales. They also don’t honor double or triple coupon ads, or any ad that is misprinted.

to be perfectly honest I hadn't remembered that before and they did price match 2/5.00 cereal, I just said those cereals are 2.50 each.. oops I may have cheated.

they have also matched store "coupons" for me that were in the sale flyer and they have been lenient on the "limit" so if the store ad limits 2, walmart generally honors the price match for more

and I have substituted items when they were sold out, but this warranted a manager coming over.

REMEMBER to be careful about thinking all deals in the flyers are deals. THEY ARE NOT, some are plain ol regular prices which can be double the price they were last week. Some things in the flyer are just "for sale" not "on sale" - so beware.

I am working on sharing my price book with you all... stay tuned.

Everyday food storage did an excellent video on this subject HERE

Want someone to do the flyer work for you?

go to Deals to Meals and they will do the flyer work and tell you where the best deals are.

Don't get flyers? call the newspaper and ask.

Making a quick trip somewhere - grab the flyer at the front door, and check it out - you may be walking by a deal all the time.

Kale Chips

I love that bountiful baskets inspires me to try new things because I would have skipped over buying some of the fruits and veggies that they offer. With our kale we made KALE CHIPS!!

Cut the kale leaves off the stem, and tear into smaller pieces, wash and dry well.

I wash and then layer in paper towels and roll it up to dry thoroughly (I also do this with lettuce)

Toss with EVOO and vinegar (I used balsamic) of your choice - 1 tablespoon of each per head of kale

toss till all is coated

layer on baking sheet and roast in oven set at 300 for this is the tricky part - recipes says 30 minutes reviews on allrecipes said as little as 5, mine when about 25 minutes.

season with salt and eat.

you can't tell from the picture but they are very crispy and yummy.

official recipe HERE

How to cook rice the wrist wrinkle way

Sometimes its the basics that get you stuck.

My mom who I love dearly only ever cooked rice in a bag, you know the kind you fish out with a fork and drain over the sink?

I am sure she probably made rice other ways but I didn't pay attention. I know she can make a mean gumbo so she must do rice well too. anyway...

Bulk rice from a sack.. I messed it up bad when I tried to cook it... until I worked at a chinese take out place in college and I watched the lady there do it, and got instructions in very broken english. I was never allowed to make it there but I finally mastered it in my own home!

(Did you know suhsi apprentices can be trained up to 7 years on just how to make sticky rice?)

This could be a potentially contreversial topic because I assume most people have developed their way to cook rice by now - but for those of you afraid of it and are fishing bags of rice out of the water this is for you...

How I cook rice in a rice cooker without a single measuring cup or reading any directions on packages:

I use a rice cooker from the 1970's - I had a brand spanking new one that was a wedding gift but it was small and my family out grew it - so I traded mine for my Aunt's chime-o-matic... and it chimes so sweetly...

current prices and technology vary but I can attest to the fact that it doesn't have to be fancy to work, just ask my chime-o-matic

I do both white and brown rice in my rice cooker, and I include both rices in my food storage. Brown rice is healthier, white stores better and some recipes need one or the other to taste right.

I get my brown rice on sale at the bread store and in bulk from Sprouts

for this I am making brown rice:

Any amount of rice will work with my method, but after time I have found that a little over one knuckle is perfect for our family - this is A LOT of rice - I'd guess 8 cups cooked

Its just about the max capacity for my cooker

now for the water, I rinse brown rice, but I do not rinse white rice (you wash away all the fortified vitamins if you rinse white rice)

Now for my big trick: Bend your wrist - if you have enough meat on your bones there will be two main wrinkles

WRINKLE #1 is the line you fill to for white rice (above photo) and..

WRINKLE #2 is the line you fill to for brown rice (photo below):

this works no matter how much rice you want to make because its a ratio thing.

now put it in the chime-o-matic and wait for the ding...

rice cookers are pretty forgiving and if you are not sure lean towards more water than not enough, it will turn off when the water is cooked off ..

done... just toss with a fork and you are done, use a wooden spoon if you are worried about scratching your rice cooker.

DO NOT leave rice in cooker too long - it becomes a dry stuck mess. But for what does stick do not struggle fill with hot water and dish soap and let soak overnight, stick in the dishwasher the next day.

To fry rice cook the night before or morning of and let chill in fridge

RICE ideas:

add to scrambled eggs to stretch the meal

Fried rice

rice and a can of soup or leftover soup

Rice + one veggie is a meal

and of course:

RICE AND BEANS - the staple of a frugal diet :)

PS you can steam veggies in a rice cooker too!

Pancake Syrup in pictures

cast of characters: sugar, water, maple flavoring, and vanilla (optional)

directions on back of maple flavoring

4 cups sugar to 2 cups water

bring to boil, boil for one minute (or more - if your syrup granulates once cool you need to boil longer)

1 tsp. maple flavoring

dash of vanilla

stir well

and enjoy

yumm.

Milk gone bad?

got some sour milk? Don't throw it out - USE IT!!

Use it in all kinds of baking - how many times do you "make" sour milk or buttermilk - the old vinegar/lemon juice in fresh milk trick?

When your milk starts to go - just bake something and don't let it go to waste.

Remember in general expiration dates are not - "CAN'T EAT ANYMORE" dates.

expiration dates are for quality purposes not safety purposes.

Eggs last a LONG time in the fridge - Other countries don't even refrigerate their eggs, they are room temp on the aisle with bread.

One study claims that a 1/4 of all food purchased in the US is thrown out. Reduce that percentage in your house:

• Don't be confined by your menu-planning.
• cook based on what you have on hand that needs to be used first.
• remember it won't kill you to overlook the expiration date once in a while.
• a 'sell-by' date is NOT an expiration date.

Excellent article on the subject - The Joy and Wisdom of eating past the expiration date.

M-Line

We took a late night trip to ride the Dallas Trolley. It was tons of fun and FREE... well they do like donations so we did do that.

Up 75 to the Lemmon Hall exit and you are at the Uptown Station and the spinning platform for the trolley. They let us stand on the platform while the trolley got turned around!

We hopped on and made some new friends

rode all around town...

Then we got back and explored the underground DART station

Yes we made an adventure of other people's everyday commute - Silly I know, but we had tons of fun!