Frugal Lifestyle: Creating Tempting Leftovers For "Free" Meals

BY Rosey Dow

The greatest saving strategy you can have is to use every scrap of food that comes into your home. The trick is to disguise leftovers as a completely new meal. Here are some ideas for putting leftovers to good use. And while you are at it, consider the advantages of planned leftovers.

1. After each dinner, add leftover vegetables with their juices to one large freezer container. Add any leftover gravy or cooking juices as well. When the container is filled, use it as the foundation for nutritious and tasty vegetable soup...practically free.
2. Leftover mashed potatoes can be used in Shepherd's Pie, Canadian Meat Pie, or in Beef Patties.
3. Leftover gravy can be used in Shepherd's Pie or over Supper Pancakes.
4. Freeze bread heels and stale bread in a bag or freezer container. Blend the frozen bread to use it as bread crumbs or cube the bread for stuffing or bread pudding.
5. Rejuvenate leftover muffins by scooping out the center, filling the cavity with butter or jam and baking at 350° until warmed and the butter is melted. Or cover the warmed muffins with creamed eggs for a breakfast treat.
6. Use leftover oatmeal in Oatmeal Cake or Oatmeal Muffins.
7. Marinate leftover vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower, or even green beans, in Italian dressing and use them as a flavor accent for your salads.
8. Thick stews can be used as filling for pot pies. If your stew isn't thick, add a few potatoes and simmer until it thickens.
9. Add white sauce to any leftover vegetables and heat thoroughly. Add cheese, for more protein.
10. Cook twice as much broccoli, cauliflower, or spinach as you need for a meal. Set aside half the vegetables to appear again in 2 days in a casserole with cheese and crumb topping or in quiche.
11. Leftover pasta or rice can become the crust for quiche or meat pie.
12. Grind leftover ham in a food processor or meat grinder to mix with a small amount of mayonnaise and use as a sandwich spread.
13. Meatloaf is often left over but seldom used. Place ¾" thick slices of meatloaf on a broiler pan. Spread with ketchup and broil for 3-5 minutes. Top with cheese and returned to the broiler until melted.
14. Use leftover coleslaw in soups and stews. Simply place coleslaw in a colander and rinse it under a faucet, then dump the coleslaw into the soup pot.
15. Biscuits can be split, buttered, and toasted under a broiler for 2 minutes. Use these biscuits as a substitute for rice, potatoes, or cornbread in recipes such as Creamed Chicken or Curried Chicken. Or sprinkle on cinnamon sugar for a tasty breakfast.
16. Use leftover pasta or rice in casserole recipes. This would be an excellent way to save time as well.
17. Besides banana bread and other baked goods, brown bananas have many uses: banana milkshake, banana-peanut butter sandwiches, Banana French toast (add mashed banana to milk and egg dip).
18. Leftover cake can be used in many ways. Use your imagination. If you have leftover chocolate cake, make a trifle with chocolate pudding with cherry pie filling for a delicious Black Forest trifle. How about yellow cake and vanilla pudding with peach pie filling and raspberry jam for a Peach Melba flavor?
19. Sour milk should never be poured down the drain. Instead, use it to make baked goods that call for buttermilk such as pancakes, waffles, gingerbread, or cornbread.

And now I'd like to invite you to check out Penny Pinching Meals, a cookbook that will save you time and shrink your food budget with your family happy and satisfied. See the free video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXdaHLb0RAo Rosey Dow is CEO of ExpertsinFocus.com

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How to Save Money When Buying Groceries

The money that you spend on buying groceries each month is not fixed like it is in maintaining your car or everyday traveling. In order to control your spending on groceries, you will need to understand how you end up spending extra money on groceries. These are things that you probably never noticed or realized before. Let me therefore share some friendly advice by attempting to show you some strategies of the shopkeepers that make you spend more than needed.

For you, a grocery shop must be a simple place where you can shop for food and some other household goods but the fact is that it is an example of how the shopkeepers sell more to the consumers than required. It is necessary for you to understand the tactics of the shopkeepers and purchase only those items that you want to shop and avoid all the other things. This will help you to save money by not buying things that the shopkeeper wants you to buy.

Here are some steps for you to understand how a shopkeeper tries to sell you those items that he wants to sell you.

- As soon as you enter the shop, the first thing you will notice is the smell. The reason for this mouth-watering smell is the placement of the bakery near the entrance of the store. The smell is of those freshly baked products. This smell makes you feel hungry because the deserts give out an enticing smell and therefore you feel like buying them. This will make you spend more than you desire. The shopkeeper knows this and hence the placement.

To tackle this kind of a situation what you can do is, go for shopping only after you have had your meals. When you are full, it becomes easy to resist the smell of the bakery deserts and bread.

- The location of the grocery store in the shopping mall is another reason. You will notice that you have to travel a lot to reach the grocery store. On the way to the grocery store, you come across so many other stores that you can’t resist stopping there. That is why it is said that the longer you stay in the store the more will you spend. That is why you are made to walk so much to get that basic staple food which is bought by everyone. Or perhaps, the beautiful lady or the nice-looking guy you met in fashionable attire has already bought some and you want to follow suit.

To avoid this situation, you can make a list of all the items you need to buy and stick to them till you leave the store.

- Packaging of a product is another factor that attracts you. The colors they use for packing are really bright. This doesn’t mean that you have to end up buying them. You might end up buying the wrong item. If you buy them in bulk from some another place, you will save.

Use the above tips and be careful that you don’t spend more than required when you go out grocery shopping.

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The Frugal Connection

I received just last week an email from a friend who now stays in Japan for good. He got married there and excitedly broke the news on his first born. Unwittingly, I replied by telling him that he’s got to have another one soon for he’s growing older, now at 43. He got back at me with all the pick holes on how hard life is, financial woes, high cost of living, difficulties in raising children, etc. Then I remember how tightfisted he was with us. Being single for 40 years, I could not remember any generous initiative he’s made in terms of spending. Maybe we were wrong or maybe he had a different view of life – stoic like the Japanese. But other people find him miserable and stingy, and worse, selfish. He said to me once that he’s just being frugal – a defensive mechanism huh! So I thought of discussing frugality for a while. I’ll hold tight my chance to understand him next time…

Frugal living doesn’t mean being miserable, or giving up what you want. It doesn’t call penny-pinching attitude that holds down your sharing capability. It doesn’t say ignore others and suppress your needs. Frugality is basically the system of finding less expensive alternatives. Being frugal simply means to spend wisely. Don’t waste money on things that you don’t need but don’t be cheap and skimp on the things that you do need. Being frugal means that when you do have to go out and buy things, you don’t really need the best of the best most expensive things. Buy things for less, and what do you get? More money left over to buy more of what you want! Frugality doesn't have to mean living without comfort.

On the other hand, maybe you don't buy the idea of clipping discount coupons and buying clothes at rummage sales. That's okay because that never was and never will be the important part of truly frugal living. For it to be the most advantageous, frugality has to launch with the big things, and if it never gets down to the small items, you'll still be further ahead financially than most people. Here are some suggestions for you to consider.

Ways to Cut Spending

1. Consider dropping your home telephone line. Your cell phone is probably all you really need, and most likely it has free long distance. You could save $30 or more per month by dropping your "land line".
2. Cut back on trips to Starbucks or other premium coffee shops. Often called the "latte factor", spending several dollars per day on luxuries like premium coffee can really add up. For example, if you spend $4 for a cappuccino five times a week for 50 weeks out of the year (you're on vacation the other two weeks), you would spend $1,000 in a year. Try treating your trip to Starbucks as a treat instead of a habit. You'll save money and probably lose weight too!
3. Pay your mortgage payment bi-weekly instead of monthly. You'll pay less interest and pay off your mortgage faster.
4. Carry cash instead of credit cards. Psychologically it's harder to spend cash than it is to use the credit card. You'll spend less and save on interest charges.
5. Use the "envelope system" for groceries, dining out, entertainment, and other discretionary spending categories. This will help you track how much you spend in these categories as well as prioritizing your spending.
6. Raise the deductible on your homeowners and auto insurance policies. It's not wise to file claims for small losses anyway (insurance companies love to raise rates after you file a claim), so a higher deductible will save you money now and in the future.
7. Buy regular gas instead of premium. Most cars don't need premium gasoline. Also, take public transportation if it's available in your area. Take advantage of "park and ride" and carpooling options.
8. Plan your purchases to avoid impulse buying. Take a list with you to the grocery store and stick with it. Studies show that impulse buying can add $10-50 to your grocery bill ouch!
9. Go to the library instead of the bookstore. If you're an avid reader, give yourself a book budget for books that you will want to keep, and go to the library for everything else.
10. Take a vacation at home. Check out all the local sites and happenings. You'll rediscover your hometown and save on travel and hotel costs.

These are just a handful of ways you can cut spending and stretch your dollars, but if you follow these tips you'll discover you have more money at the end of each month to apply to other financial goals, such as saving for college, retirement or just for a rainy day.

Frugal Living Examples

1. Search the Sunday paper for coupons and clip them out. Make a list of things on sale that you can stock up on in order to get your average cost down. Plan and run a route of four stores in order to get everything where it is the cheapest. Total extra time spent: three hours.
2. Sit with a pen and paper and determine what you really need in your new house to be happy. List the cheapest homes that meet your criteria. Make several extra phone calls and check out several bank websites to get the interest rate down to 6.25% from the 6.75% you were expecting to pay. Total extra time spent: three hours.
3. Let's assume you save $30 on your groceries for your effort. Your frugality made you about $10 per hour. In the second example, suppose you found a suitable home for $20,000 less. Let's say you only have to borrow $120,000 at 6.25% instead of $140,000 at 6.75%. Your payment would be $169 less per month, for a total savings of $60,900 over the thirty years of the mortgage. In this case, your frugality made you about $20,000 per hour.
4. I think you can see that it is the big stuff that makes a difference in frugal living. On the other hand, sometimes the small stuff is the big stuff, especially when it is repeated over and over. This is why it makes sense to save money on groceries. They are something you buy every week. How you do it makes a difference though.
5. Suppose you don't want to clip coupons or spend time looking at sales flyers. Let's face it; if it only saves you $10 per hour of effort, you might be better off staying a few hours extra at work and skip the hassle. On the other hand, why not invest just an hour or two to figure out which store is cheapest for the things you buy? Then shop only there, and buy more of the things you use and like when they are on sale. You might still save $20 per week, with no additional investment of time. That's a $1,000 per year!
6. Have you read newsletters and magazines about saving money? They often have tips on things like how to re-use plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Is it worth the time to wash out and dry your ziplock bags? Maybe, if you like that sort of thing and you are making minimum wage. For most of us, it is better to spend the time analyzing the big and the recurring expenditures. That is the key to frugal living.

Specific Guidelines for Saving Money Successfully

Nearly all of us were taught the value of saving money when we were still young. You perhaps remember your parents or a beloved aunt or uncle advising you to put coins into a piggy bank or a portion of your Christmas and birthday money into a bank savings account. Unfortunately, for most of us those lessons were among the first to be forgotten or ignored as we grew older and, purportedly, smarter.

What happened, no one exactly knows. I presume that impulsive financial demands of adult life coupled with insidiously effective marketing caused us to forget those early, ever-so-valuable lessons. After all, inflation would only cause your savings to lose a great part of its value.

Those who yield in to the dictates of excessive consumerism often never come to their senses until retirement looms near. By then it would be too late to recover from the circumstances. But such shamble doesn't have to be your destiny. There are effective ways to start saving money seriously and these can be immediately put into work before you run out of time:

Encourage yourself that you matter at least as much as everyone else.

We never get serious about starting a savings program due to our entrenched harboring of a precariously mixed-up set of priorities. We pay all our bills first, and then see what's left at the end of the month to save. And because our month lasts longer than our money, that predominantly accepted mind-set is an intoxicating recipe for lifelong insolvency.

You work hard for your money so surely you deserve to compensate yourself first, or at the very least second depending upon your religious beliefs? By choosing to first set aside a chunk of change for yourself, you'll be sending a message out to the world. One that's bold, simple and clear: "I matter to myself. That's why I pay myself ahead of others. This puts me back in control of my financial destiny."

Comprehend the true potential of compound interest.

While financial experts suggest that we set aside 10% of our earnings, the real economic heavyweights should set loftier goals. Inspire yourself to gradually spread out your talents set so you'll be capable of earning more and more money. Concurrently, lay down a personal goal of achieving a 40% - 50% savings cum investment rate over the next ten or twelve years.

Well, that’s rather extreme and it certainly is by the criterion of today's consumerist society. This is simply your decision TODAY to simply get started. So, calm down because your resolve is more important than setting such high final savings targets.

Given sufficient time and with sheer luck (don’t forget to say your prayers), even small sums parked in low-yielding financial instruments can mature to surprising values. So, make a start. And while you're at it, don't forget the primary lesson we all absorbed in childhood: We should learn to crawl before we can walk before we can run. Learn to save before you try to invest or, scarier still, speculate.

Unleash the power of goal-setting in this vital area of life

Get serious about instituting a personal wealth building strategy, or you will end up becoming pawns in someone else's personal scheme to grow affluent... at your expense. Learn to set challenging and motivating goals/priorities to help inspire yourself to commence on your own journey to financial autonomy. That onset is nothing more complicated than ascertaining in your heart that you have great value, and it’s your uncontestable privilege to save money for yourself.

You may begin your personal savings agenda in something as secure and straightforward as a bank account or a money market fund. Concentrate more on gradually raising your personal savings rate than in reaching - or over-reaching - for yield.

Let these three straightforward tips prompt you to immediately embark on a personal savings program or to get far more earnest about the one that you already have. I wish you luck in your personal pursuit for financial freedom.

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How to Become a Little Richer

Most of us want to be in the happy state of knowing each night as we drift off to sleep that we are a little bit richer than we were when we woke up that morning। Can you relate to that desire? Of course, you can. After all, the importance of money in our interconnected world grows each day. Yet, I still believe that if you hope to live a happy, balanced life, you'll be smart enough to consider that wealth is only an instrument to be used, not a god to be worshipped.

So, if you wish to sustain balance in your life, retain a sense of deep joy, and successfully grow richer and richer over time। Focus on enhancing two personal quantities: your cash flow surplus and your net worth. Strengthening the first will automatically beef up of the second.

The way to ensure that you grow a little bit richer each day is to focus on your cash flow patterns over just one day, then over one week, later over one month, and so on. If within each time segment you always make it a point to spend less than you bring in on a net basis (after tax and other standard deductions) then you will be transforming the unutilized portion of your net earnings into a personal store of capital; and you will be acting as a capitalist in the finest sense of the word!
Possessing a growing store of capital will empower you to further load up your net worth statement with fruitful or productive assets like bank savings, money market funds, bond funds, equity funds, property funds, rental-yielding properties, dividend-yielding stocks, and the like। In essence, you will be choosing to exercise deferred gratification by giving up a portion of your capacity to consume today for the opportunity to possess far more (and to enjoy a lot more) tomorrow.

It is important to realize that a net worth statement has two parts, as does a cash flow statement. The net worth statement's twin components are assets and liabilities. In general, it is tempting to utter clichés and say that assets are good and liabilities are bad. However, that would be an excessive generalization. Let me explain:
Assets can either be appreciating or depreciating ones। Obviously, appreciating assets like growing bank deposits, investment funds, appreciating properties, and high quality stocks are good. Depreciating assets, on the other hand, lose value over time. These may include your cars, computers and mobile phones. The wise course is not to avoid owning depreciating assets but rather to ensure you have much more in appreciating assets.

Liabilities also can be good or bad. Good forms of debt might include well-structured mortgages on second or third pieces of property that you earn rental from. Bad types of liabilities most certainly include all unpaid, regularly carried over credit card debt and loans.
It is a tremendous eye-opener to understand that unpaid credit card or loan balances are dreadful liabilities for regular people like you and me to have, but are wonderful assets for the banks and lending investors!

So ask yourself if your goal in life is to sacrifice your personal long-term financial health to bolster the bottomline of some faceless financial institution, or is it to manage your money wisely to ensure you grow a little richer everyday? As Confucius said: When prosperity comes, do not use all of it.

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