Hello readers, the May CBC Mainstreet PEI radio column is up and ready for your listening pleasure. Check it out and let me know your thoughts.
Thanks!
Enjoy!
Frugality is being more economical and less wasteful.
Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interview. Show all posts
Spring Cleaning Shortcuts and Savings- April's CBC Radio Column
As part of an ongoing series at CBC Radio's Mainstreet PEI program, I presented my monthly column on yesterday's show. If you happened to miss it, or would like to hear it again, click here to link to the column. This month's topic was "Spring Cleaning" and vinegar wasn't mentioned once!
If you have any comments, suggestions or questions you would like to share or have discussed on the column please feel free to comment on this post, or email me at fightingtobefrugal at yahoo dot ca, or you can hop on over to the Facebook page and be part of the discussion there.
Enjoy!
Globe and Mail Article About Rising Food Prices
There was an interesting article featured in the Globe and Mail newspaper yesterday about rising food prices and how they are affecting all families. Whether you are a low, middle, or higher income household, this is something that will effect all of us. And... there were a couple of quotes from little ol' me in it!
Over the next few posts I will be sharing with you some of my ideas on strategic shopping and how to save more on your food bill. Please feel free to check out the categories to the right and see where else you can change your grocery focus. Any extra ideas you would like to share with everyone feel free to write in and let everyone know!
Enjoy your day!
Healthy Food on a Budget
When trying to be frugal with food, the first rule to follow is buy what you eat (don't buy it just because it's on sale), eat what you store (don't want to waste it) and rotate, rotate, rotate! You don't want to buy newer foods and have older foods not eaten.
When trying to put nutrition in your food there are a number of ways to do it frugally. Some of them include:
- cutting back on meat -substitute meat for beans, dried peas, chick peas and lentils, oatmeal or breadcrumbs. Use less meat in your meals. Our family uses two chicken breasts for supper and we have leftovers. Buy your meat when it's on sale and then pack it in individual portions for the freezer. Eat meatless meals. We had curried lentils with carrots and peas tonight and it was a great hit. A little on the spicy side, but very good nonetheless. Buy a 1/2 cow for your freezer for the winter from a local farmer. Can't afford/don't have room for that much? Go in with a friend or a few and divide the bounty. Buy chicken and pork from your local farmers as well.
- cut back on salt and sugars when baking and cooking -substitute honey and applesauce for sugar
- sneak vegetables in to the recipe- puree zucchini, beets, spinach
- no prepackaged foods
Ingredients needed to cook more frugally:
-lots of veggies
-less meat, or even no meat. At least one meatless meal a week will really give you savings.
-make your own mixes (cook from scratch)
-plan leftovers for lunches
-use slow-cookers -this allows you to use cheaper cuts of meat and tenderizes it as it cooks slowly and for a long time.
-no prepackaged snacks
-beans, tofu
My other ideas for frugal foods:
-have a cold room so you can buy your produce in bulk. I buy my potatoes and carrots in 50lbs bags, onions in 10lbs bags and apples in 20lbs bags. All of these I purchase at a local produce store. Everywhere has them, it's a little mom and pop establishment that has lots of local produce. The one I frequent is Mount Edward Grocery in Charlottetown.
-have a pantry room to store other items that you buy in bulk when they are on sale. I stock up on soups, flour, sugar, rice and other items that I use so they are always there.
-buy your eggs in flats instead of by the dozen
-watch the flyers for sales of your everyday products and stock up. I get some very strange looks from the cashiers when I come through with 60 orange juice, but when they are onsale for $1 off, I stock up!
-garden. That should say enough, but having your own garden cuts down on your produce prices over the summer. If you are a canner, freezer, dehydrator, it cuts down your costs throughout the year as well. Last year, I was able to can enough tomatoes to last our family for 9 months. This year, I made enough salsa to last us well over a year. We dry baking beans, peas, apple chips and onions for the year. We freeze strawberries, blackberries and blueberries to last us over the winter.
-go to upicks and orchards. Great way to save money, get outside and spend quality time with your family. Then take home your produce and put it up for the winter.
-bake your own cookies, rolls, bread, pizza dough etc. It's much healthier, tastes way better and is much cheaper. We make all of our own bread here and when I am organized enough, I grind my wheat first to have whole wheat bread. No one here likes the heals of the bread, so I dry them, food process them and toast them for our own bread crumbs.
What are your ideas to cook more frugally? We would love to hear from you. Drop us a line.
Enjoy your day!
- no prepackaged foods
Ingredients needed to cook more frugally:
-lots of veggies
-less meat, or even no meat. At least one meatless meal a week will really give you savings.
-make your own mixes (cook from scratch)
-plan leftovers for lunches
-use slow-cookers -this allows you to use cheaper cuts of meat and tenderizes it as it cooks slowly and for a long time.
-no prepackaged snacks
-beans, tofu
My other ideas for frugal foods:
-have a cold room so you can buy your produce in bulk. I buy my potatoes and carrots in 50lbs bags, onions in 10lbs bags and apples in 20lbs bags. All of these I purchase at a local produce store. Everywhere has them, it's a little mom and pop establishment that has lots of local produce. The one I frequent is Mount Edward Grocery in Charlottetown.
-have a pantry room to store other items that you buy in bulk when they are on sale. I stock up on soups, flour, sugar, rice and other items that I use so they are always there.
-buy your eggs in flats instead of by the dozen
-watch the flyers for sales of your everyday products and stock up. I get some very strange looks from the cashiers when I come through with 60 orange juice, but when they are onsale for $1 off, I stock up!
-garden. That should say enough, but having your own garden cuts down on your produce prices over the summer. If you are a canner, freezer, dehydrator, it cuts down your costs throughout the year as well. Last year, I was able to can enough tomatoes to last our family for 9 months. This year, I made enough salsa to last us well over a year. We dry baking beans, peas, apple chips and onions for the year. We freeze strawberries, blackberries and blueberries to last us over the winter.
-go to upicks and orchards. Great way to save money, get outside and spend quality time with your family. Then take home your produce and put it up for the winter.
-bake your own cookies, rolls, bread, pizza dough etc. It's much healthier, tastes way better and is much cheaper. We make all of our own bread here and when I am organized enough, I grind my wheat first to have whole wheat bread. No one here likes the heals of the bread, so I dry them, food process them and toast them for our own bread crumbs.
What are your ideas to cook more frugally? We would love to hear from you. Drop us a line.
Enjoy your day!
CBC Radio interview (behind the scenes)
A couple of weeks ago I had the wonderful privilege of being interviewed about this blog by CBC's reporter Nancy Russell. It aired yesterday morning on CBC radio 1's morning program Island Morning. I have included the interview on here for those that weren't able to listen to it.
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of hits, comments, interest and ideas that were generated from this interview. I usually have between 20-60 hits a day. I was getting so many hits, that I actually put a counter at the bottom of my blog after 40 hits or more already came on my blog. From 24 hours after the interview I had 370 hits! I was so surprised that this many people would come to look at my hobby.
In fact, I have had several new ideas come from new readers and a possible fantastic giveaway coming up from the response. I hope that everyone continues to come back to see what's going on here and to offer tips, suggestions, and ideas to help everyone out.
Well with the interview, I thought that I would give you a couple of giggles with the blunders and mishaps that were going on through my conversation with Nancy (who might I add is a wonderful person to chat with.)
I was so nervous before she arrived I had a couple of friends talk me down as I was at the point that I was going to cancel the interview due to a nauseous stomach. Thanks to some soothing conversation and a HUGE pot of camomile tea, my stomach stopped jumping around.
I was nervous about what she would ask, how many times I would say um or stumble over my words, or Heaven for bid, what Ryan and Allie would do during the interview!
Well, Ryan was Ryan and wanted to hug her as soon as she came in. They didn't fight too much and Allie went to bed rather shortly after her arrival. Ryan was full of a million questions and hanging off of my neck through parts of it. He started running around and acting crazy to show off. We don't get new visitors here much you know.
However, the funniest part was while I was making the bagels. After I opened the bagels to switch them on the racks, Ryan went off to play while we talked. All of a sudden the smoke detector started to go off. Not the one in the hallway or in either of the bedrooms that are closest to the the kitchen, but the one in the boys' room that is the farthest from the kitchen.
Ryan comes running out of the hallway and running right to the front door crying and yelling, "Emergency! Emergency! Fire! Fire!" He is headed to our safe meeting spot.
I had to stop him first and then go stop the smoke detector. I would like to state here to everyone, that in the three years that we have lived here that NOT ONCE has my smoke alarm gone off when I was baking. How embarrassing. I am so glad that it didn't make it on to the interview. Just adds to the excitement of my life.
I was so worried about how the whole thing would turn out as I didn't really think that I said anything of interest. I did try really hard to speak slowly and clearly throughout it and it was only after hearing it that I realize that I must talk really fast every other time as I sounded fast even on there. My mother assured me that it was much slower than I normally speak (wow there's an eye opener!)
Well now that it's over with, please keep coming back all of you new readers. There will be a new series starting in January, although I am still not sure of the subject area of frugality that will be addressed. If you have any ideas, dear readers, please send them on to me. I would totally appreciate it.
Enjoy your day!
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