Menu Planning Monday & Free Menu Planner

Every Thursday, we get a big load of food from our CSA. On Saturdays, we go to the farmers market and fill in any gaps that we feel like our CSA didn't fill for the week. Then, it's time to eat!

However, if we don't plan out what we're going to do with all of our delicious produce, I know we're going to lose some of it to rot. Food from a CSA usually doesn't last as long as food from the grocery store, because it is almost always perfectly ripe when picked. So, it's important to have a plan for how we're going to use the delicious bounty of our local harvest without letting any of it go to waste.

I used to plan a menu and then go grocery shopping based on that plan. Now that we eat almost exclusively local, seasonal foods (at least during the harvest months, when the only non-local things we eat are organic canned beans and coconut milk), I have to reverse the process. Someone else picks the food I'm going to get, and I have to be creative to make it all work for us. It's been an exciting adventure trying to figure out how to do that.

Eventually what I did was to come up with a dual-function shopping and menu planning list (as you see above). It works in either way--you can fill in all your available ingredients and then make a menu plan from those, or you can write a menu plan and choose the ingredients you'll need to buy to make it. But it's all there together so you always know exactly what food you have or need, and what you're going to be eating.

I've included my list (a knockoff of the Anthropologie style "What to Eat" and "All Out Of" notepads) at the bottom of this post as a downloadable file so that you can print it out and use it too! It's been formatted to fit a full 81/2 x 11" page so you have plenty of room for writing and can store week-by-week copies in a binder if you want.

Want to see how I do it? Below the cut, I've shared this week's food supply and the menu I made out of it so you can see what I'm talking about.

How to Succeed at Homemaking Without Really Trying: Make a List

Welcome to Part 2 of How to Succeed at Homemaking Without Really Trying! For part 1, you can go here.

Today, I'm going to talk about a strategy to help you get your mind in gear. I use this for cleaning, packing, organizing, cooking, and grocery shopping, and it has saved my life. It's three short words... are you ready?

I love these things

Make a list. It doesn't have to be long, fancy, or full of detail. Just make one. Most people respond really well to the sense of accomplishment and organization that comes with a list that's neatly crossed-off for the day.

Below the cut, I've shared with you some sample lists and ideas for how to incorporate lists into your daily life. Feel like you don't have time to make lists? You'd be surprised! Sometimes all my lists for a day take only five minutes, and I can write them while I drink my morning coffee.

I used to just jot all my lists down on the backs of envelopes and receipts as I thought of things. That's fine, but it's not super organized and if your list gets lost, you might be in trouble. So now I use Google documents to organize my lists online. I work on the computer all day, so if I think of something that needs to be added to a list, I add it right when I think of it.

Fruit: How to Choose the Best

Let's keep on with our back-to-the-basics approach of the last week or two and talk about some of the simple, basic skills that everybody should learn if they want to improve the way they eat and cook. Today, the topic is going to be fruit--specifically, how to choose the best fruit from that big, appealing pile at the market.

This is a skill that you have to practice, but it definitely gets easier with time. Whether you decide to choose local, organic, or conventional is a decision I will leave up to you. This is about making sure that when you go shopping, you find the best, ripest, tastiest fruit out there.

More Food Pondering

It's been a lovely weekend. Mr. Scrimp and I just celebrated our first wedding anniversary! That's right, we've been married for a whole year, which is next to no time at all to those of you who have been married for a while, and an eternity to those of you who think marriage is terrifying.

All in all, I gotta say I'm pretty happy with the deal I got, by which I mean that Mr. Scrimp is the best and I wouldn't trade being married to him for anything in the world.

I was mulling over things I could talk about on the blog today, and then I drifted into daydreams about our lovely anniversary picnic yesterday (we went to the beach. There was grass! There was sand! There was water! There was a picnic!). So I figured I'd talk to you a bit about food, which you know is a favorite topic of mine.

How much do you spend on food each week?

Recap

Well, my blogging vacation extended quite a bit longer than I initially ancticipated. It took a little while to get back into the swing of working full-time after nearly two weeks off, but now it's the weekend, Mr. Scrimp is working tonight, I've done my grocery shopping for next week (and, I'm sad to say, finally broke my week's-groceries-for-under-$30 streak, which had been going on since late October), and put dinner on the stove.

Our trip to Columbus was flat-out amazing. We stayed with some friends of ours, but spent a great deal of time just wandering around the city. Mr. Scrimp lived there for a while after college--in fact, when we started dating (long-distance), he was in Columbus. Needles to say, I was pretty excited about seeing it for the first time after hearing about it for so long.

You can check out a play-by-play over on my Twitter page. I'd say the highlights were visiting Schmidt's Sausage Haus (where Mr. Scrimp manfully volunteered to let me take the grainy cell phone photo you see on the right, for archival purposes), the North Market, and the Book Loft. We ate a lot of delicious food, wandered through a 32-room bookstore in a huge old house, looked at all kinds of antiques (including a signed Chagall print that was just hanging with a bunch of random junk in a corner), and generally enjoyed ourselves. It was a perfect end or beginning of the year, depending on how you look at it.

But now, of course, it's January. Time to go back to the Scrimpalicious lifestyle and not go gallivanting all over Ohio, eating at restaurants and browsing high-end antique stores.

How did you celebrate the New Year?

Car and Website Link

So, I have a new favorite-ish website. That is, it would be my favorite if I were doing much shopping these days, but I'm not. Mr. Scrimp and I are doing a good job of making ends meet, but we still don't have a lot of extra money, especially because we just bought a car!

That's right, the Scrimps are now a two-car family. We were borrowing a car from my fabulous in-laws for a few months, and when the time came near to give it back we initially discussed just sharing Mr. Scrimp's car. The problem is, his work schedule is totally unpredictable, and generally involves late nights. My schedule is exactly the same all the time and involves early mornings.

We hopped on Craigslist and managed to find a 93 Plymouth Laser (google it--I had to) for $700. It didn't need any work, and although the interior is sportscar tiny and the visibility is a little weird on the driver's side sometimes, I really like it. It's easy to drive, it gets fab gas mileage, and it gets me where I need to go.

Anyway, the point is, with big expenses always looming on the horizon (and they always are), I don't do a lot of frivolous shopping, even at Christmas. We're making most of the Christmas presents we're giving to other people this year, and our shopping budget for each other was sharply limited.

And the whole point of this story is to tell you about The Bargainist, a website I found a day or two ago that I love to read just because it's a pleasure to know that someone out there can probably take advantage of it, even if I can't right now.

The Bargainist lists online coupons, sales, and other deals at retailers both online and off. For instance, did you know that right now, Aeropostale is having a 50-70% off sale on its entire online store? I sure didn't.

Check it out, my friends. How about a code that will get you 70% off your entire online order--including gift cards--at Restaurant.com? The Bargainist has it.

Snips and Sniffles

I am indeed staying home sick today. The problem with staying home sick from work is that if you're sick enough to stay home, you don't really feel up to doing all the things around the house that you ought to do.

I'm trying to decide which projects I'm going to attempt today. I've got to sort through some clothes, and if I find any appropriate t-shirts, I might try to make this re-usable shopping bag from Cut Out & Keep, which is made from a t-shirt sewn into the shape of a plastic grocery bag.

(Found via a five-page list of t-shirt mods at HideYourArms. Go read all of them.)

Score!

Sometimes I think the best type of bargain is the one you stumble across unintentionally. I was at Marc's yesterday (a local discount type grocery and odds-and-ends store, for those of you not in Ohio) and found a king size "down alternative" comforter for $19.99.

It's not the highest quality thing ever, but it's definitely warm and not an eyesore. Mr. Scrimp and I live in an old house with steam heat, and the radiators are fab except in our bedroom, where they are non-functional. This makes blanket number four to go on the pile we sleep under.

This winter, experiment with keeping your heat a little lower than you might like. It's a lot cheaper in the long run to wear a second layer, buy some house slippers, and sleep with an extra blanket than it is to burn all that energy keeping your house at 70 degrees all the time.

And remember, kids--always keep your eyes open for a good deal.

10% Reader Discount: Onyx and Silk at Etsy

Hey there, Scrimpalicious readers! Have you ever heard of furoshiki? They have a long, long tradition of use in Japan for anything from gift wrap to decor to a handy reusable shopping bag. Easy-to-use, incredibly versatile, beautiful, and, of course, eco-friendly, these would make a great accessory or gift this Christmas.
 
Etsy seller Alix with Onyx and Silk sells unique, handmade bags inspired by both furoshiki and Victorian design. I'm a particular fan of the neoshiki bag, a design based on the furoshiki that transforms into multiple types of bag depending on how you tie and arrange the fabric.

And because she's an old friend of mine, if you mention Scrimpalicious in the seller's notes on Etsy, Alix will give you a 10% discount. Go have a look!

5 Christmas Gifts For $15 or Less

It's that time of year again--when every woman's magazine in the country publishes lists of "Christmas Gifts under ____ Dollars." Usually that number is between $25-50, which I still feel is pretty high. Plus, most of those gifts are things that just wouldn't work for anyone I know.


So I decided to make my own list of gifts--for $15 or less.

Bananagrams, $14.95 - Kind of a cross between Scrabble and Boggle, this is a high-speed crossword game that's played on the tabletop instead of on a board. You can buy it online by following the link, but if you don't want to pay shipping they also sell it at Barnes & Noble and other stores.
 

Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter, $11.99 - I'm not usually a big advocate of the "As Seen on TV" line of products, but I'll give the thumbs up to anything that provides a way to grow fresh, organic produce at home year-round. From Collections Etc.

Butter Soft Acrylic Muffler, $14.95 - Scarves have come into their own in the last few years. Not only are they warm, they're a stylish and easy way to dress up an outfit, hide a slightly too-low-cut neckline, or add color to a bland clothing choice. These scarves from Wrapables come in some beautiful colors, but there are a ton of stores that carry these in every color and pattern imaginable, from five to a hundred dollars.

Scrabble Tile Pendant, $4.95 - Made from a recycled Scrabble tile decorated with an image and coated in resin. These are a beautiful piece of recycled art and can be found on Etsy in any design imaginable. I'm a fan of this one from Etsy seller wickedlymodpendants.

I Am Not a Paper Cup, $15.19 - The worst thing about travel mugs is that they're almost impossible to drink from without spilling, and they just don't have the je  ne sais quoi of the paper coffeeshop to-go mug. This mug is made of ceramic with a silicone lid. It looks like a disposable cup, but it's permanent, insulated, and dishwasher safe. Currently on sale at Target.

Groceries

We recently put a new grocery shopping strategy into practice. I sat down and planned out seven days of meals, wrote up an ingredients list, and only bought exactly what we need to make it through a week.

I think I can safely call this the single biggest change we've made to reduce our spending and food waste. I've bought groceries for less than $40 for three weeks running now. This past week, because we're shopping light on the promise of Thanksgiving leftovers, we got our week's worth of groceries for a whopping $28, and all the food we bought was fresh and unprocessed. I feel pretty good about it.

I was amazed to realize how much food we were buying that was simply extra. We ate most of it, but a fair amount was getting thrown away, because it was being bought without a real plan.

I definitely recommend giving this method a try if you don't do it already. You might be surprised.

Christmas Post the First

It's that time of year--the time of year when the weather gets cold, the lights go up at shopping centers, we eat ridiculous amounts of food, and people start spending more money than they ought to spend because they love each other, or feel guilty, or feel obligated.

I buy lots of Christmas presents strictly for the first reason. Christmas is my favorite, and I love giving gifts.

The problem is, how do you do that on a strict budget? Because Mr. Scrimp and I are on a strict budget, which runs contrary to both of our sensibilities, but what can you do? If we only shop for our respective immediate families and each other, we've got at least twelve Christmas presents to buy, and if you aren't careful that kind of shopping leads to suddenly realizing that after you paid your December rent and went wild with your remaining money, you won't make rent in January, or pay for your heat, or be able to buy groceries.

The holidays are a dangerous time for people with generous tendencies and little money. If it were only up to me with no consideration for anything else, I could spend hundreds on gifts for Mr. Scrimp without a second thought, to say nothing of siblings, nieces, and nephews. And if we shop on a strict budget, how will we find things that are nice instead of low-quality, less meaningful gifts that we're buying simply because we had to buy something and can't afford more? If we give people junk that will break or be useless almost immediately, what was the point of spending the money at all?

Here are some of the things that we are trying to do in order to allow us to give meaningful, non-junky gifts to our loved ones this year.

1. Shop early. If you have more time to look for deals, you are more likely to find them. If you shop in a panicked rush four days before Christmas, you're going to spend more money, or you're going to end up buying far less than the perfect present for someone because you can't find anything really perfect in your price range.
2. Make a list. Sure, spend some time browsing at the mall, but don't take your wallet with you. Browse for ideas, make a plan, and try to find a way to fit it into your budget. Which leads me to...
   
3. Make a budget. We are doing this by deciding how much money overall we're able to afford on Christmas gifts. We could divide that money up perfectly evenly between each person, which is what seems like the fair thing to do. But perhaps I might spend twice as much on one as on the other if I can find gifts that will be equally meaningful and pleasing to each at different prices. 
4. Buy secondhand. This may be the hardest bit on this list. I'm not saying you should buy things that are broken or damaged or otherwise in less than "like new" condition. I'm just saying that you should expand your horizons to consider "like new" rather than dismissing it out of hand. If I find a beautiful piece of clothing at a thrift store that has clearly only been worn once (if that), is in Mr. Scrimp's size, is worth $75 new, and only costs $2.50, why I should I feel guilty about giving it to him? 
5. Shop online. You are much more likely to find good deals at sites like half.com, eBay, bidz.com, or (although this is less likely) Amazon.com. Amazon actually runs an online Black Friday sale for online shoppers. Doorbuster sales in your pajamas!
6. Shop sales. Yes... do it. But only do it once you've already made your list. If you run headlong into a sale, you will almost assuredly end up buying something because it's a great deal even though it's out of your budget, because surely someone on your list will like it. That's a terrible idea. 
7. Make things. Everyone says this. I will also say it. Homemade gifts have the benefit of carrying a message that you care about someone enough to spend time making something for them that you know they will enjoy. Don't, however, fall into the easy trap of giving junk just because it's homemade junk. Come up with an idea, or search on google for inspiration, but don't let making something for someone stand in for being thoughtful about what would make them happy. A mason jar full of powdered hot cocoa mix that you made yourself is a great gift for the right person, but other people will look at it and feel like you didn't really try.

 I am working on several posts about gifts, ornaments, and decor for Christmas that you can make yourself or buy for very little. What can I say? I've already warned Mr. Scrimp that the Christmas carols are being turned on the day after Thanksgiving, and they aren't turning off again until Boxing Day.