Author: Tammy

Anybody Want to Save Money at the Grocery Store?

Happy Monday, my dear Bloggity friends!  I’m excited to pop in here on my blog today to share a couple neat things with you.  As some of you know, I’m an avid book reader.  I’ve always got a book or two or five going all the time, seriously!  So, when my new friend, Kate Megill asked if any of us would like to read her book and then offer it as a giveaway, I was interested.  Once I found out what the book was about – I was all in.  I mean seriously, who doesn’t want to know how to cut their food budget these days?  Especially how they seem to keep creeping up and up, right?



When I saw the title of her book:  Cut It Out! How I Feed My Family of 10 for $500 a Month Without Coupons, well – I was really curious!  I may not have a family of 10 (although, true story…I did want nine children!), but I have always tried to be a frugal shopper.  Yet, I began to wonder – what could Kate teach me since we are now a household of two!  I’m not a huge fan of coupon cutting, so this was definitely up my alley.


After reading the book, I was excited that I still could learn a few tricks!  I was able to ask her a few more questions that the book brought to my mind, and I have included the interview with Kate below.  Plus, I did speak of a giveaway – so read to the end!

Tickled Pink:  What was your biggest challenge getting into this plan? 
Kate:  Actually, the biggest challenge was coming up with the 2 week menus. I really don’t like coming up with menus. I started keeping copies of the menus that I made each week until I had a stock of about 7 2-week menus. Then one day I sat down with my children and BEGGED them to help me create another 3 menus.
Then I had to go through the menus and mix up cheaper meals with more expensive ones so that I could afford those 2 weeks of meals.
TP:  You said you only use toilet paper as the only paper – what about kleenex?
K:  Good question! We generally use TP for our facial tissue needs. My family almost never gets sick. On the off-winter that we do get bad colds, I’ll bite the bullet and buy whatever facial tissue is on sale, generally spending less than $7 for 4 boxes.
TP:   Did you invest in a freezer to be able to keep a “frozen pantry” or do you just use your refrigerator one?
K:  When I first started, I used the freezer compartment of our fridge. I’d put everything into ziploc bags (that I washed and reused), freeze them flat and stack in labeled boxes is the little freezer. 
After awhile, when a friend and I spent a year making Once A Month  Cooking meals, another gal from our church gave us her chest freezer. It  has been a real help but not something that I necessarily would have sprung for on my own. 
TP:  Do you ever find that your list gets outdated really quickly because of the food costs constantly changing?
K:  Generally no. My Price Book really needs major updating once a year. There really is a regular ebb and flow to the sales at the stores, and I follow the sales. 
A couple of  years ago when the gas prices (and because of it, the food prices) started to skyrocket, I had to update my Price Book weekly. It meant I had to do a little more creative meal shifting. And I had to scour the sale flyers more carefully. But the gas prices evened out and the grocery prices began to drop and better sales came up. Also, Aldis added a whole new stock of foods that they carried and that helped significantly.
TP:  Do you make all things from scratch (pancake/waffle batter, maple syrup, bread, etc.)
K:  When I had a working wheat grinder, I made all my own bread. I could get grain from local farmers for very inexpensive and it was very cost effective. Now, I make bread infrequently because the whole wheat in the store is more expensive and slightly rancid,  having been ground months before. 
I make my own waffle batter, it is a very inexpensive recipe that I use. I do a combination of my own pancake batter and sometimes using Krusteze – which is quite inexpensive to use. 
I often make my own pancake syrup but if I can find a great sale, I’ll buy it instead.

TP:  Do you find that this has become so second nature, that you can’t imagine ever NOT shopping this way?!

K:  Absolutely! I pretty much carry my Price Book in my head and my menus are on my computer and I simply open them in order (the shopping list is already on my menu and I go through my pantry/fridge/freezer and cross of what I have) and double check the estimated cost of groceries to see if I have to swap out any meals. It takes me about 20 minutes a week to pull my menu together and finalize the shopping list.

 TP:  What do you want the readers to know about you most?

K:  That I am NOT a Super Mom. I am NOT an organized person (by nature) and that I tend to be on the lazy side.  I look for the fastest, easiest and least difficult way to do something and to keep it going. If I can do this, anyone can do it! 

Now, about that giveaway!!

Kate has graciously offered five of her eBooks for FREE for my readers!  For FREE!  So – here goes ladies, leave a comment below of why you could use this book to help you cut your grocery expenses by midnight on 7/29!  I will draw 5 names on July 30th.

If you miss the drawing, she will be having a special “Launch Party” where she will be giving you the opportunity to snag her eBook on sale!  From 7/30 to 8/3, her eBook will be $1.99 (the normal price is $3.99).  You can purchase the book through her her website!

Kate Megill has been feeding her family of 10 on a shoe-string for 27 years. Her children range from 10 to 25 years, and 6 of them are still at home. She and her college-professor husband have homeschooled all of them, and are enjoying watching the older ones leave the nest.
Kate is a follower of Jesus Christ. She has been mentoring women for over 30 years, both in person and on the CHFWeb (Christian Homeschooling Fellowship) online community.
Kate’s go-to meal is pasta with any of a variety of sauces she keeps on hand. Her favorite grocery store stock-up deals are 25-cent canned beans and veggies, and fresh sweet corn in the summertime.
Kate has also contributed to the e-book Apartment Gardening: A Practical Guide to Growing Vegetables in Small Places. She blogs at Teaching What Is Good following the Titus 2 model of older women teaching younger women.
You can find Kate on Twitter @teachwhatisgood and on Facebook /teachingwhatisgood and on Pinterest (although I’m just getting the hang of it) as /mrsp31wannabe. 





Check it out, friends!  I hope you take her up on her giveaway drawing!


…and that’s all I have to say about that!


Tammy

SURPRISE!

Have you ever had a plan to surprise someone? If so, isn’t it fun?  


I did this to my friend, Kimberly Rae, who was in Ohio this last week from her home in the Carolinas.  We both attended the Writer/Speaker Conference, She Speaks, last July.  We met through the She Facebooks private group and hit it off.  You’ve actually met her here on my blog before right here!  


When I found out she was going to be within 1-1/2 hours from my house, I told her we need to try to get together.  She agreed! We were to meet up on Wednesday for lunch, but it didn’t work out after all.  So, I made other plans…without her knowing what I was up to!! Hehehe!


Besides visiting family, she was giving a presentation at the local library about her three books regarding Human Trafficking, the newest one out this year!  I couldn’t make that, but – I found out that she would be doing a book signing at a coffee shop on Saturday morning!  Score!


All week long, I looked forward to meeting up with her.  Hubby decided to go along with me.  We left a little later than we wanted to, but we figured we could “make up time” on the turnpike.  Except for one (or many) things…orange barrels!  Yep, it’s summer in Ohio, which means orange barrel season – everywhere! Road work took up many miles, and of course we found a true law-abiding citizen!  C’mon lady – I gotta friend to catch!


I kept playing with my iPhone maps app that updates your miles and estimated time.  I would update, then panic as we seemed to be losing time.  Yikes!


We finally got off the turnpike.  The book signing was between 9-11, it was now 11:04.  I just kept hoping that she was so busy signing books that she would still be there.


As we came into the old downtown area, which is really nice, we spied the coffee shop on the corner.  My hubby saw that the light was turning red and said, “I’ll stop and you can jump out and go over to the coffee shop, then I will go find a place to park and join you.”


Well, my brain in panic mode hears, “There’s the coffee shop, jump out and run over before she leaves.”  I’m sure that’s what he meant, really.


As the car was slowing down, I literally opened the door, put my foot out toward the ground and realized – SHOOT – we’re moving, minor problem.  I waited for it to be moving “slower” and made my dash!


I came in, and saw that she was still there talking with someone.  There was an empty chair beside her, so I walked over and sat down.  Since we have never met in person, and my profile picture is old, she had no idea who was sitting beside her.  She turned and asked me if I wanted my hand painted with Henna?  I said, “No, do you know who I am?”  She shakes her head no, with a smile.  I said, “well I have pink on and I usually am known for being Tickled Pink.”


Now she knows!  She then exclaims, “Oh, you came!  I didn’t know you were coming!”


We had a lot of fun catching up.  My hubby and I got to meet her family and she then invited us to go up the street to a pizza place and have lunch with everyone.  It was such a blast!  And it was so much fun pulling off a big surprise!

Here we are underneath the poster for her event!
Have you ever pulled off a surprise for someone?  Whether it was a big event or just a surprise visit – I’d love to hear your story.

‘Cause – ya know…everybody can use a surprise to make them smile!

…and that’s all I have to say about that!

Tammy


I’m Back!

Well hello there, bloggity friends!  Do you remember me?  It’s been way too long that I have been here with ya’ll!  The couple months have been quite a whirlwind, to say the least.  When I realized how long it has been that I haven’t been here “chatting” with you, I was sad.  So, I’ve decided to kick it into gear and get back into the saddle so to speak.  (Literally, so to speak – because me and horses don’t do well!)

I do want to thank all of you who sent us prayers and well wishes through April and May when my hubby’s father took a turn downward in his health and then passed away on May 15th.  It was a sad time of course, but my hubby is at great peace knowing that his dad is out of pain and discomfort and resting with Jesus in Heaven.  I shared all of your kind words with him and he was touched.  From our family to you, thank you, thank you!

Though I have been gone from here a tad too long, as is usual for me I have been laughing myself through that absence!  You that have followed along with me for a while know that I can always find something to laugh about even when it seems there is nothing to laugh at.

For instance, here’s just one example of a laughingly good time had through a most sad time.  I decided to make a photo board to have at the graveside service since we did not do calling hours for my father-in-law.  I told my husband that he needed to come help me.  His comment was, “No, you’re the one into the scrapbook stuff, you do it.”

To which I replied, “Nope, it’s your dad and I want you to pick out the pictures.”  However, what I was up to is that I knew going through the pictures would be so good for him and I wanted him to have the choice in the photos that would be on the board.  Well, in no time we were sitting downstairs with photos all over the table and digging through more and more!  We were laughing and remembering some really funny times with his dad.  My hubby always says he doesn’t have a good memory, but those photos sure helped prove him a little wrong.  Quickly, he was able to recall some pretty hilarious stories about his dad or things  his dad has said.  We were laughing.  And laughing hard!

Are you a photo taker?  Do you find that having those photos help to bring back memories for you as well?  What do you do with your photos – hang them up, scrapbook them, put in boxes?

It’s good to be back here with you.  In case you thought that I’ve flew the coup, I haven’t.  I’ve been here, laughing my way through life and collecting some more stories to share with you to cause YOU to become “Tickled Pink” right along with me!

…and that’s all I have to say about that!

But wait…one more thing – what have all of you been up to lately, besides cooking in this heat?  Please share, you know I love hearing from you!

Tammy