Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Gratituesday: 15 on the 15th, 2015

by 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Sunday was a pretty big day for our second son, Justus. He turned 15 on Feb. 15, 2015.

Even more fun? One of his very good friends from church camp shares his birthday – as in – they were born just hours apart, 15 years ago. Since we live over two hours away from this friend, the two of them have been plotting for months about how they could spend their golden birthday together. Amazingly, plans all fell into place, thanks in part to willing parent drivers from both locations. The two boys met half-way and spent the afternoon and evening hanging out.

justus and chase 1

On the home front, we celebrated by making 15 birthday cakes (just kidding) and giving him 15 gifts (just kidding). He was given a present and a cake, and his choice for meals – just like all birthdays around here. Later this week, he’ll go get his driver’s permit. Here we go again with driver training!

Have I mentioned lately how fantastic teenagers are? The older my kids get, the more I understand the verses about Mary watching Jesus grow and “treasuring these things up in her heart.” Watching my boys grow into godly manhood, surrounding themselves with godly friends, and being open to God’s leading in their lives – well, there is much to be treasured. I’m also obviously relying on many other scriptures for mama encouragement as without a doubt, raising kids in this world is very hard work. I have to daily surrender the worries and fears that threaten to take over my heart.

God is big. God knows what our kids need. God loves our kids unconditionally. God has plans for our kids that He has worked out in advance. My job is to simply trust the Father to protect my kids and to be their loving mama. Like I said, daily surrender.

I’m praising God today for the privilege of being Mom to my four incredible boys and for His constant guidance. And how about you?  What are you thankful God for this Gratituesday?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

How to Blanch and Freeze Broccoli

by 17 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

There was this one day when I saw that I could order 20 pounds of broccoli for just $12.50 and we all know how much I love good deals on good produce. Then there was that other day I picked up my order and found that 20 pounds of broccoli filled a box big enough for my 10-year old to play in. This was also the day we had four basketball games and the day I wanted to make heart-shaped pancakes for my family because they might not have known how much I loved them unless I shaped their pancakes into hearts and also because it was Valentine’s Day. I  never bite off more than I can chew.

I also never can make nicely shaped heart pancakes, which is clearly another issue to tackle another day.

So there I was, flipping a triple batch of ugly heart pancakes on the griddle, packing lunches to take to our basketball games, and staring down 36 crowns of broccoli. I love relaxing Saturday mornings.

I started a pot of water boiling on the stove, flipped the pancakes, and started to chop broccoli. I almost (happy valentine’s day) slid the prepared broccoli into the pancake batter, but stopped myself just in time, took a deep breath, and got my camera because that’s how quickly my brain moves on to the next thing. I am a blogger, after all, which means that just at that moment I realized that I should probably document the project so as to share the broccoli blanching details with you.

Matt suggested I also take a picture of the heart pancakes and I was all, seriously? No one wants to see these. So instead you get to look at my pot of boiling water which mostly looks like I’m about to set my kitchen on fire. It’s just steam though, I think.

blanch broccoli 2

How to Blanch Broccoli

Step One:  Boil water. One might wonder at the fact that it takes an entire tutorial to explain this process. Don’t worry. The exciting part is yet to come.

blanch broccoli 1

Step Two:  Wash and cut your broccoli. (Told you it would get more exciting.)

blanch broccoli 3

Step Three:  Place cut broccoli into your pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes. (This stops the aging process so your vegetables will maintain better nutritional value.)

blanch broccoli 4

Step Four:  Immediately remove broccoli from boiling water and run it under very cold water. (This stops the cooking process.)

Step Five:  Spread the cooled broccoli on a clean towel to dry. I didn’t get a picture of this. I was probably flipping ugly pancakes.
blanch broccoli 6

Label a freezer bag and fill the bag with blanched, cooled, and dried broccoli. Freeze for up to 6 months.

You can use your prepared broccoli for soups and stir fry. The work is done!

How to Blanch and Freeze Broccoli

If you have a trick for making nicely shaped heart pancakes – do tell. If you have any tasty broccoli recipes, I believe I’ve made it clear that I would benefit. And in case you’re wondering, I slept very well the night of the basketball/broccoli/ugly pancakes.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Menu Plan for the Week and My First Bountiful Basket!

by 10 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Many of you have told me about Bountiful Baskets through the years, but it wasn’t an option for me until now. Early Saturday morning, this is what I picked up:

bountiful baskets

It was so fun to get such a huge amount of good produce for such great savings. The best deal I got was 20 pounds of broccoli for just $12.50. It ended up being 36 broccoli crowns. That, my friends, is a lot of broccoli. I’ll share more about my broccoli adventures later this week. Be on the edge of your seat for this.

My actual basket order included everything from purple potatoes to asparagus to jicama to an English cucumber. Wow are we set for this week! Plus I had already purchased $80 worth of produce at the store like mixed greens, spinach, strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, mushrooms, carrots, cantaloupe, apples, and pears. (Remember, we are a family of 6 and three of our boys are teenagers, so we tear through the groceries!)

I decided to share my weekly menu just a little bit differently today to give you a better idea of how I am now (easily!) adding many more fruits and veggies to our days. Ever since I began including 1-4 fruit and veggies sides with our meals, my menu planning has become so much easier. This seems opposite to people who feel that healthy eating is time consuming. Not the way I do it – I promise! Take note that all I have to do for most of the side dishes is pull them out of the fridge and give them a wash. I also try to keep raw veggies sliced ahead of time to make them easy to throw on the table with our meals. Cooked veggies only require a quick steam before serving. Easy, easy!!

Here’s an idea of what a week’s worth of meals looks like for us:

Breakfast

1. Peanut Butter Honey Toast, Applesauce, Blueberries
2. Pumpkin Donuts (pumpkin is a bonus veggie!), Sliced Apples
3. Quick Mix Biscuits, Sausage Gravy, Pears (Justus’ bday choice)
4. Scrambled Cheesy Eggs with Spinach, Strawberries
5. Zucchini Carrot Bread, Applesauce
6. Green Machine Milkshakes (yay, avocado!), Apple Slices, Toast
7. Instant Oatmeal Packets, Blueberries, Clementines

Lunch

1. Taco Salad (mixed greens, tomatoes), Pineapple
2. Tuna Casserole, Mixed Greens or Spinach Salad, Peas, Cantaloupe
3. Pizza Soup (includes carrots and tomato sauce), Clementines, Raw Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Peppers
4. Easy Cheesy Bean Dip with Chips, Avocado, Salsa, Pineapple, Raw Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Peppers
5. Lamb-burger patties, Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes (with spinach added), Sweet Peppers, Homemade Dill Pickles, Green Beans
6. Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot with Broccoli and Cheese, Peas, Kiwi
7. Pizza Boats, Mixed Greens, Olives, Sweet Peppers, Raw Carrots and Cucumbers, Apples

Dinner

1. Lasagna (recipe in What to Do With the Cow in Your Kitchen eBook), Mixed Greens, Green Beans, Strawberries (Justus’ bday choice)
2. Ham and Egg Breakfast Bowls (with spinach), Fruit Salad (apples, strawberries, pineapple)
3. Calico Beans, Mixed Greens, Raw Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Peppers, Pineapple
4. Easy Noodle Stir Fry with Asparagus, Broccoli, Carrots, Spinach, and Yellow Squash; Cantaloupe
5. Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken Breasts, Mixed Greens, Green Beans, Honey Glazed Carrots
6. Popcorn Chicken, Sweet Potato Fries, Raw Carrots, Cucumbers, and Sweet Peppers
7. Potato Soup (carrots and onions cooked into the broth), Homemade Pickles, Olives, Mixed Greens or Spinach

Now that doesn’t seem so hard, does it? Really, the trickiest part is finding room to fit all the food into the fridge (I have two, thankfully) when I get home from the store – or in the case of this week – when I get home from picking up my co-op order. Preparing and serving it though? That’s a piece of cake cucumber.

Tell me about some of the fruits and veggies you’re serving and eating this week!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Free Scripture Encouragement Cards for Heavenly Homemaker’s Subscribers!

by 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

If you are a subscriber, you should have received the link to these free downloadable scripture encouragement cards in your inbox three days ago. If not, let me know and I’ll send you the file.

Not a subscriber? It’s free and it’s fun because not only do my posts come to your inbox each day, occasionally you get an exclusive freebie like this one. :)  Subscribe here and you, too, will be able to download these pretty encouragement cards. Once you confirm your subscription, you’ll be redirected to a page with the download links.

Free Scripture Encouragement Cards

These are some of my favorite Truths from scripture! Hope you enjoy these as a blessing to you and as a way to bless others!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Go Drink Some Water!

by 11 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

It’s beginning to be a joke around our house. It seems that this is my answer for everything.

Go Drink Some Water

When the kids say, “My stomach hurts.” I tell them to go drink some water.

When they say, “My head hurts.” I tell them to go drink some water.

When they tell me, “I’m tired.” I tell them to go drink some water.

When they begin to get grumpy with each other – I tell everyone to take a break from what they are doing and go drink some water.

When they have been running around after church and their faces are red – I tell them to go drink some water.

When they come tell me that they are bored and can’t figure out what to do – I tell them to go drink some water.

When they tell me that they are out of clean socks, can’t find their math book, or don’t like what I am fixing for dinner  – I tell them to go drink some water. Actually, I tell them to go start a load of laundry, look under the couch, and eat it anyway (socks/math/dinner). If only drinking water really did solve all of life’s problems. :)

Why is “Go drink some water!” the first thing I always tell my kids when they have a complaint? Because typically, it really does help! When we aren’t quite feeling right, need a “pick me up”, feel sluggish, or start getting edgy – a refreshing drink of water often gives us just what we need. If it doesn’t, then I know to move on to the next idea. But I have been amazed at how well this little trick works. And at the very least, I know that a drink of water certainly won’t hurt us and that often it is a great distraction from whatever it is we’re are frustrated about.

I have personally learned that if I’m not hydrated well I get head-achy, grumpy, tired, sluggish, and in general – I just don’t feel right. Getting a drink of water is an easy first thing to try, and almost always, I find that a nice drink of water is just what I’ve been needing.

I figure if I need it, and it works for me, then “Go drink some water” is the first thing that should come out of my mouth when it seems that my kids need a little something. They tell me what’s going on, and I say, “Go drink some water.” Then they say, “I knew you were going to say that.”  And I just grin, wondering when they will learn to just automatically go to the water instead of complaining to Mom first.

That’s okay though. My day may not be complete without hearing 43 complaints. At least “Go drink some water” is a no-brainer answer, right? Hmm, maybe I should shock them sometime when they complain and tell them to “Go lay down and take a nap.” I bet they’d come back with, “Nah. Shouldn’t I just go drink some water?” Yes, good idea.

Just you wait. I may get into such a habit of answering questions with “Go drink some water” that the next time you email me asking, “I can’t find your recipe for Mac and Cheese!” – I’ll reply with “Go drink some water….”

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Let’s Talk About Eating Out – I Need Your Input!

by 96 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Let's Talk About Eating Out

I’m working on a new project that I’m hoping will:

  • Save you $$ by helping you avoid falling back on take-out as frequently
  • Save you $$ by helping you avoid unnecessary trips to the grocery store
  • Save you time by helping you easily prepare tasty meals for the freezer which can be thawed and cooked with little effort
  • Save you even more time by making your dinnertime meal prep take 10 minutes or less
  • Save your energy when you’re tired at the end of the day
  • Make your family meals times a blessing

I want to equip you with everything you need, from grocery list to check-list. And of course, I’m playing with new recipe ideas that your family will love. My men happen to love this part of my job. ;)

Before I get too far into this project, I’m hoping you’ll answer these questions for me:

  • How long do you spend cooking dinner each evening?
  • How many nights per week do you “not feel like cooking?”
  • How often do you throw your hands in the air and say, “Forget it. Let’s go out.”
  • About how much money do you spend for your family to eat a meal at a restaurant?
  • What kinds of recipes would help you eat at home more instead of resorting to going out?

By the way, you’ll receive no judgement from me about your eating out habits. :)  As you know, our family eats out here and there when we’re on the road and shucks if I don’t love me a good burger and fries as a treat when we splurge like this.

But since you and I are working together to become healthier, to feed our families well, and to save money and time while doing so – I think we can all agree that eating out should be a treat, not the norm. Not to mention the deliciousness of home-cooked food. Melt-in-your-mouth goodness, that’s what it is. Thus, we will all benefit from this new project I’m working on.

Thank you in advance for helping me by answering any or all of the questions above. :)

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Watch That “No Sugar Added” Label!

by 13 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Sometimes a “No Sugar Added” label on a container of food or drink means that all that is included in the package is 100% fruit or juice.

Sometimes.

It is very important that we read the fine print and read the list of ingredients! Unfortunately, “No Sugar Added” almost always means, “We didn’t add sugar. Instead, we’ve added artificial sweeteners like Splenda, Sorbitol, or Aspertame. It could be that we added all three. Don’t worry though. We didn’t add sugar. Sugar is bad.”

Packages of fruit and juice with a “No Sugar Added” label are especially deceiving. See these Mixed Fruit Cups?

no sugar added 1

 

The “No Sugar Added” label makes you think that all that’s included in those mixed fruit cups is fruit. But read the ingredients:

no sugar added 2

Along with your fruit, these cups also contain Sorbitol, Natural Flavor, and Sucralose (which is Splenda).

Sorbitol, for the record, is a sweetener made from pulling the glucose out of fruit, which then goes through a chemical process to produce a “sugar alcohol” by adding hydroxil. (I don’t know what hydroxil is. Please add it to my fruit cup and tell me it’s healthy, because yay, “no sugar added.”)

Sucrolose (Splenda) is also made in a lab in which three chlorine molecules are added to a sucrose or sugar molecule. (Mmm, chlorine added to my food. Please pass me a fruit cup.)

By the way, why are we trying to make fruit sweeter than it already is? I do not understand this. But back to the point of this post…

Please, please, please don’t buy into the lie that artificial sweeteners are healthier for us than sugar. And please don’t be deceived by a “no sugar added” label. Our bodies don’t know what to do with artificial sweeteners and in the long (or short) term, they can make us very ill. Too much real sugar isn’t good for us either, but at least our bodies recognize it.

As always, I advocate for eating real food and for eating on purpose for the sake of nourishment.

Nourishment. Real food. It’s what our bodies crave.

Now go eat a naturally sweetened, God-made-perfect piece of fruit. Apples, pears, oranges, and bananas are “no sugar added” foods, but there’s no need for a label because they come pre-packaged and contain all they were ever meant to contain because they are delicious pieces of fruit for goodness sake. (Subjects like this often inspire me to write run-on sentences.)

It would seem as though eating well is not nearly as complicated as our culture tends to make it, wouldn’t you agree?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

How To Care For Your Silicone Baking Mat

by 15 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

A Safer Kitchen

Remember a couple weeks ago how we talked about using Silicone Baking Mats on your aluminum baking sheets to protect your food from being contaminated by aluminum? Upon seeing the pizza that I baked on my mat, several of you had this question:

Can you use a pizza cutter on the mat or wouldn’t that cut through and ruin the mat??

healthy cooking products 4

Ah yes. You are very smart. These silicone baking mats are high quality and very heavy duty. However, you do want to avoid cutting through them so you can continue using them again and again. After all, not only do these keep your food safe, they save you lots and lots of money since you can use it over and over forever.

How do these mats save you money? Well for years, I’ve been buying and using parchment paper to protect my food from my aluminum pans. I reuse my parchment paper a few times if possible, but over the years, I’ve gone through many a roll of parchment. These silicone mats are a one-time purchase, saving me from ever having to buy parchment again! I have two of the mats so I can bake two pans at once. :)

But back to caring for your silicone mat:

After I bake my food on my baking pan/mat, I simply slide the food off the mat and onto a serving tray. Then I cut the food as needed, keeping my mat out of the way so I don’t accidentally cut and ruin it. By the way, food slides very easily off these mats – another perk!

How about washing your silicone mat?

I simply give mine a good rinse with hot water or with a little bit of soapy water if needed. Then I lay it over my dish drain to dry. Easy!

I’m loving my silicone mats, both for food safety and how it saves me time in the kitchen! I appreciated that Karen left a comment last week stating the same thing:

I received my order of  two of these “Healthy Cooking Products” mats just yesterday based on your recommendation. Today I made cinnamon rolls and some cookies. These mats are wonders! Besides enabling baked goods to just slip off, these mats also produced a superior baking product. Instead of some of the good stuff seeping into the pan or parchment, it stayed on the bottom of the cinnamon rolls. Delicious! Thank you for this recommendation.

Hooray for a great way to save money and time!  And now I’m hungry for pizza. ;)

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Even the Sound of My Clicking Keyboard is Loud!!!!

by 15 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

gratituesday[2]

Figuring you’d rather read about my exciting produce purchases, my fun new recipe discoveries, and my exciting life with teenagers – I have spared you the details of my silly but very annoying physical malady of the past few weeks. But, lucky you, now I’m going to share. It’s Gratituesday, after all – and this is something I’m very thankful for. Praise God in everything, right?

Christmas day (yes 6 weeks ago), which also happened to be the day we left for a long road trip to California, my left ear plugged up. Typically when an ear plugs, you can yawn to pop it, right? Not so for me this time. Figuring it would pop any minute, and knowing my chiropractor was closed for the holiday, I did nothing but wait (and yawn a lot).

As it was, my ear remained plugged through our entire drive and visit to California. I went to my chiro immediately after returning home. He adjusted me. He did acupuncture. I went to my homeopathic doctor. I went back to my chiro. I did ear candles. I used essential oils. I went to my massage therapist. I stood on my head (not even kidding). I prayed. I prayed. I prayed. My ear remained plugged.

I had not been sick. I was not in pain. I simply couldn’t hear well in my left ear, and every time I talked I heard my own voice loudly inside my head. Argh! So annoying! I gained a new appreciation and compassion for those with hearing loss. No wonder they struggle to be in large crowds of people.

Bless my family for having to say everything twice. Matt would whisper something sweet into my left ear and I would respond with a blank stare. Poor guy. ;)

Finally I recognized that my ear issue had nothing to do with drainage or lack thereof. Took me long enough, right? Hey, I’m not one to just run to the doctor for every little thing. Typically ear issues can be treated easily and entirely by the chiropractor or with a specific ear draining massage. I wanted to exhaust all other possibilities first. So I did. Since nothing else worked, I finally went to Urgent Care.

This turned out to be an ear wax impaction. They flushed my ear out and two minutes later I was a new woman. The nurse yelled, “THERE NOW, IS THAT BETTER?” Come to think of it, she probably used her quiet inside voice. It just seemed so loud and clear to my freshly cleaned out ear. (You’re welcome that I’m not going into detail about what was flushed out. Wow and wow again.)

So yay for me (and for my family)! I can hear again! From typing on my keyboard to hearing trains go by, I am noticing all the sounds I’ve been missing the past several weeks.

Of all things, today I am thankful for conventional medical treatment and a doctor who didn’t question me or suggest that I take some sort of medicine that would only treat the symptom and not the real issue. That is, after all, why I had avoided going in the first place. Had I known 6 weeks ago that none of that would happen and that all I needed was a date with a high powered water blast through my ear….

In the meantime, my chiropractic adjustments and massage benefited my health, so nothing was lost on those appointments.

So please, leave a really loud (or really soft) comment telling me what you’re thankful for this week. I’LL BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU!!!! How great it is to be reminded of the little things (like hearing) that we take for granted.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

What is Price Matching and How Does it Work?

by 21 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

What is Price-Matching and How Does it Work

I’ve recently learned the art of “price matching.” Where has this been all my life? (Right under my nose. I just never looked into it before.)  This new practice has been saving me $10-$40 per week. That’s $40-$160 per month. That’s big savings for my family of big eaters!

What is Price Matching?

Wal-Mart offers an Ad-Matching Guarantee. This means that if another store within 50 miles is offering a specific food at a lower price (shown in their weekly ad), Wal-mart will honor that price. Read all the detailed information about their policy here.

It is important that you pay attention to the details of the grocery store ads. Price matching is only valid on items “pound for pound,” “ounce for ounce,” etc. I try to be very diligent about making sure I don’t accidentally pick up the wrong size item.

How Does Price Matching Work?

Sound complicated? It really isn’t. It took me exactly one shopping trip to work out all the kinks and learn how easy this practice is.

Before going shopping each week, I spend a few minutes looking at all relevant grocery store ads online. We have very few stores in my town, so I am thankful I can price match with the stores in our nearby cities which have 6-7 stores to price match with. I find the lowest prices from each store (mainly focusing on the produce), and make my list.

This week, my list looked something like this:

Aldi

~ Strawberries, 16 ounces, $1.29
~ Onions, 3 pound bag, 99¢
~ Red Potatoes, 5 pound bag, 99¢

Alert

~ Carrots, 2 pound bag, $1.19

Super Saver

~ Grape Tomatoes, 1 pint, 96¢
~ Blueberries, 18 ounces, $3.48 (our Walmart didn’t have this size, so I scratched that off my list)
~ Gala or Yellow Delicious Apples, 3 pound bags, $2.50 each

Wal-mart employees have been trained to quickly adjust the price of the items you are price matching. You simply tell them the price you found that was cheaper, and they ring it up at that price. Easy! I try to separate my price-match items from my other items to make it easier on the cashier.

Here is a sample conversation between the cashier and me…

Cashier:  You have such beautiful hair.
Just kidding. For some reason, the cashier never says that. Here’s the real conversation:
Me: These are my price-match items.
Cashier:  Great, we’ll start with the pears. How much?
Me:  99¢ per pound.
{Cashier rings up my pears at 99¢ per pound}  
Cashier:  Okay, now how about these onions?
Me:  99¢ for each bag

And so it goes until we work our way through all of my price match items. :)

How Much Can You Save?

Here’s an example of everything I bought and how much I saved through price-matching last week.

price matching

  • 2 bags of Yellow Onions priced at $2.98 for a 3 pound bag – I got for 99¢ each (saved 3.98)
  • 3 bags of Red Potatoes priced at $3.47 for a 5 pound bag – I got for 99¢ each (saved 7.44)
  • 1 pound containers of Strawberries priced at $1.99 – I got for $1.29 each (saved 5.60)
  • D’Anjou Pears priced at $1.67/pound – I got for 99¢/pound (saved 3.69)
  • 2 bags of Halo Clementines priced at $4.97 for a 3 pound bag – I got for $3.99 each (saved 1.96)
  • 2 bags of Carrots priced at $1.48 for a 2 pound bag – I got for $1.19 each (saved .58)
  • 2 bags of Gala Apples priced at $3.47 for a 3 pound bag – I got for $2.50 each (saved 1.94)
  • 2 bags of Golden Delicious Apples priced at $3.47 for a 3 pound bag – I got for $2.50 each (saved 1.94)
  • 2 pints of Grape Tomatoes priced at $2.98 per pint – I got for 96¢ each  (saved 4.04)

Price matching saved me $31.17 this week.  It took me about 10 minutes to sit at the computer and find the prices I wanted to match and make a list. Saving over thirty bucks in 10 minutes to feed my family real food? Yes, I think that’s very worth my time!

Watch that you don’t fall into the trap of snatching up good deals on processed foods. Those are out there too, so of course, I had to remind us all that those are just not worth the “price” we pay later. You’ll be surprised though at the great deals you can get on fruits and vegetables, meats and cheeses, often organics too!

One last note:

I try not to price-match from my hometown grocery stores. My town is small, so it doesn’t take much extra time to run into our local grocery stores to pick up the food I need. I like to support our local stores. Where price-matching really works well for me is offering me big city sale prices from bigger stores that would cost me an hour’s drive and a half tank of gas. :)

Share with us! Do you take advantage of Wal-mart’s price matching policy? How does it work for you? Have any other great tips to share about this?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want a recipe eBooklet full of my Top 10 Money Saving Recipes? Join our Heavenly Homemakers Savings Club, and we’ll send it to you for FREE! (Joining means we’ll also keep you informed of all the latest money saving groceries and homemaking items we come across. A win-win!)

Top 10 Money Saving Recipes

Sign up to join our Heavenly Homemakers Savings Club here.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!