Here's an easy crock-pot tropical pork recipe in case you decide to purchase a pork loin in bulk and slice it up.
4 pork chops
juice from a can of canned fruit
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
Slap all of the ingredients into your crockpot and cook on high 3-4 hours or low 5-6 hours. The meat should fall apart when you touch it with a spoon. Shred the meat into little chunks with a spoon. You can either serve it all over cooked rice or thicken the mixture on the stove by bringing it to a boil and adding water with a little corn starch thoroughly mixed in. Then serve on hamburger buns as a tropical pork sandwich mix.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Saving Money on Groceries: Buy in Bulk
Buying in bulk can be a big savings.
How many of you run to the store in a hurry after work and think: "Yum, chicken (or pork, or tacos) sounds good tonight?"
I almost never do this. I won’t say never, but almost never suffices.
And when I do, it’s because I haven’t been diligent with my shopping.
I know I'm weird, but this week's Safeway ad made my week.
Why?
Because I was out of pork and a little mad at myself that I'd let this happen.
You see, I almost never just randomly purchase something at the store. Every buy is made with deliberate decision.
Case in point: the pork chops. Now pork chops aren’t a staple at our house. We have them oh, twice a month, maybe, but I still don’t like paying full price. We do eat ham and other pork products, but there are less expensive meats that fit regularly into our diet.
Back to the after work shopping trip: Have you ever stopped to really look at the price of those items you stuffed into the cart for that “I’m ravenous and in a hurry and THIS sounds really good” dinner?
I already posted about how food prices fluctuate at the store every week. Meat is no different.
In my pork scenario, I could have spent $10 for six or so ½ inch sliced pork chops if I’d run into the store and decided I HAD to have pork one day. But with careful planning, I won’t have to.
Every month or two, Safeway puts whole pork loins on sale for $1.99/pound. Yes, a whole pork loin is about 7-8 pounds of meat. No, it doesn’t look like that pre-sliced, convenient package of pork chops you’re accustomed to purchasing.
But yes, this is the same meat. Pork chops come from pork loin. And when you purchase those chops pre-sliced, essentially you are paying the store butcher to open a packaged pork loin, spend five minutes cutting it and then jacking up the price you pay by at least 50 percent.
If you have a freezer and are able to work for five minutes you could save yourself a ton of money.
And that is why the Safeway flyer made me happy this week! I WANTED pork, was mad at myself for not having any in the freezer and being pregnant, was actually tempted to go purchase some. Right now!
And with that price, I did!
I purchased a $15 7.5 pound loin, came home and sliced that little puppy into 30 chops. That’s right--30 chops---grouped them into 7 labeled and dated ziplock freezer bags, pressed out the air and PRESTO!, I had that evening’s meal and six others.
Those chops will be good in the freezer for oh, 6-8 months. Realistically, this amount is about three months’ worth of this meat for our family.
And now, when I WANT pork, I have it. At the lowest possible cost. This makes me happy.
Cost comparison:
Pork loin sliced and bagged for the freezer:
Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 30 chops
Cost: $1.99 a pound or $15 or .50 each
Cost of pre-sliced pork that same week: $1.47 per chop
Total savings on 30 chops, or three months’ worth of pork: $29.10
Total savings per year: $116.40
How many of you run to the store in a hurry after work and think: "Yum, chicken (or pork, or tacos) sounds good tonight?"
I almost never do this. I won’t say never, but almost never suffices.
And when I do, it’s because I haven’t been diligent with my shopping.
I know I'm weird, but this week's Safeway ad made my week.
Why?
Because I was out of pork and a little mad at myself that I'd let this happen.
You see, I almost never just randomly purchase something at the store. Every buy is made with deliberate decision.
Case in point: the pork chops. Now pork chops aren’t a staple at our house. We have them oh, twice a month, maybe, but I still don’t like paying full price. We do eat ham and other pork products, but there are less expensive meats that fit regularly into our diet.
Back to the after work shopping trip: Have you ever stopped to really look at the price of those items you stuffed into the cart for that “I’m ravenous and in a hurry and THIS sounds really good” dinner?
I already posted about how food prices fluctuate at the store every week. Meat is no different.
In my pork scenario, I could have spent $10 for six or so ½ inch sliced pork chops if I’d run into the store and decided I HAD to have pork one day. But with careful planning, I won’t have to.
Every month or two, Safeway puts whole pork loins on sale for $1.99/pound. Yes, a whole pork loin is about 7-8 pounds of meat. No, it doesn’t look like that pre-sliced, convenient package of pork chops you’re accustomed to purchasing.
But yes, this is the same meat. Pork chops come from pork loin. And when you purchase those chops pre-sliced, essentially you are paying the store butcher to open a packaged pork loin, spend five minutes cutting it and then jacking up the price you pay by at least 50 percent.
If you have a freezer and are able to work for five minutes you could save yourself a ton of money.
And that is why the Safeway flyer made me happy this week! I WANTED pork, was mad at myself for not having any in the freezer and being pregnant, was actually tempted to go purchase some. Right now!
And with that price, I did!
I purchased a $15 7.5 pound loin, came home and sliced that little puppy into 30 chops. That’s right--30 chops---grouped them into 7 labeled and dated ziplock freezer bags, pressed out the air and PRESTO!, I had that evening’s meal and six others.
Those chops will be good in the freezer for oh, 6-8 months. Realistically, this amount is about three months’ worth of this meat for our family.
And now, when I WANT pork, I have it. At the lowest possible cost. This makes me happy.
Cost comparison:
Pork loin sliced and bagged for the freezer:
Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 30 chops
Cost: $1.99 a pound or $15 or .50 each
Cost of pre-sliced pork that same week: $1.47 per chop
Total savings on 30 chops, or three months’ worth of pork: $29.10
Total savings per year: $116.40
Monday, October 18, 2010
Saving money on groceries
Saving money on groceries...
Part one of many!
Every time I post something on Facebook about saving money at the grocery store, it seems many ask how I do it. Hence this blog, thanks to a suggestion from my friend, Laura.
The first thing you should know about grocery dollars is this: the farmers who work hard making your food, be they conventional or organic farmers, get only a teensy fraction of the money you spend at the grocery store.
I know this because my parents are farmers. I am closely tied to the agriculture industry. The grocery business, the middle man, is a multi-billion dollar industry. I do not feel bad saving my money.
Our family of soon-to-be five spends as close to $300 a month for food and toiletries as I can possibly manage. Some months, I admit, I fail. But, after two years of working on this, I can honestly say each month gets us better at success rather than failure.
I confess my dear friend KaShan is my inspiration. That girl is just plain creative. She motivates me to be a better woman, a better housewife and a better manager.
Two years ago, when the recession hit, she and I began frank discussions about how to better handle our finances.
We became web site experts. We learned there is an entire culture of bloggers devoted to saving money on just about everything. It was a huge learning curve for us.
One of the things we learned is that grocery stores are sly. The other thing we learned right off the bat is that this kind of thing takes commitment. But even with a small commitment you can see reductions in your household expenses.
With a larger commitment, the sky is the limit!
Really, I could (and have) spend less if I worked harder at it. But some things I won't compromise and I feel, for me, this total is a balance between frugality and being wife/mom/working woman. Again, that's just me. If you do something different and it works for you, that's fabulous.
Money-management experts will tell you that you should know where your dollars are going. So, at the beginning to be fair to myself, for six months I tracked EVERY grocery receipt I had.
In the beginning, at the end of each month I felt bloated with shock. How could we be spending more than $500 a month on groceries and toiletries?
I decided to begin to shave that down in mini-steps. Could we reduce that by $50? $100? $200?
Now I track my grocery spending dollars as a force of habit. It keeps me honest with myself.
There are many, many steps I follow to shave our food budget. But I think I will break these steps into a few different posts so that no one ends up falling asleep reading this.
A bit about me...
I have a part-time job working from home. There are days, believe me, where I might accomplish more if I found a babysitter and went in to the office. Certainly my house would be a lot cleaner if the kids were making messes elsewhere...ahem.
My motivations for not doing so are a different post entirely. Suffice it to say, it's a decision my husband and I have made. It works for us, but it might not work for you. To each his or her own, I say.
I digress. Back to the money-saving scheme.
Lesson #1
Learn your grocery store’s sale cycles and stock up when prices hit rock bottom.
I do not spend my days running from store to store to find the best deals. I can't! There are two grocery stores in my home town. The nearest Costco is an hour away, and that is a totally different post.
What I have learned is that even with only two grocery choices what you pay for an item really and truly depends on the week and the cost. Let's take something arbitrary--such as cream cheese. In a six-12 week cycle, eight ounces of cream cheese can cost you anywhere from less than a dollar to nearly three and back again. Seriously! The stores bank on you impulse buying and being ignorant of these cycles.
Consider grocery shopping a treasure hunt; the store is a pirate trying to steal money from your pockets as you shop. If this is the case a store's weekly brochure is your key to unlocking the mystery of beating the pirates at their own game.
The first way to save money on your groceries is the purchase your item at its lowest total cost.
Each grocery store has a weekly sale cycle. Some (such as Safeway), run from Wednesday-Tuesday.
Others, such as Fred Meyer, run Sunday-Saturday. Know these cycles and plan your shopping trips accordingly.
The price of every item in the store changes weekly. And the store's loss-leaders are normally on the front and back cover of the ad. Many times, the middle section of the ad is just that, ads!
What's a loss-leader? It's the items the store is willing to take a loss on in order to draw you to the store and purchase (wait for it) the items they advertised in the middle of their flyer at what they say are "sale" prices, but are really not!
Now, I will admit, many store coupons are found in the middle of these flyers too. The trick is to learn (read: memorize or write down) the lowest price your favorite store will sell something at. Remember, for the items my family uses this took me the better part of two years.
Let's see an example:
Let's say that our eight ounces of cream cheese may be priced at $1 on Saturday at Fred Meyer but on Sunday it could be $2.79.
If an item is a staple in your house and has a long shelf life, stock up on it when it's on sale!
For example, my husband's favorite deodorant was on sale for .79 this week at Fred Meyer. Call me a hoarder, but I bought a year's worth of it!
This will keep me from purchasing it every month (or so) at $3.29! If you do the math, that's $9.48 for a year's supply of deodorant versus $39.48. That's a savings of $30 this year on deodorant alone! On the exact same deodorant!!!!!
If I happened to have a few coupons (which I didn't) it could have been even cheaper.
If I apply this theory to 10 household items or 20, think of the savings!
Just be certain to either mentally or physically check off the item on a list of things you don't have to buy for a long time.
Part one of many!
Every time I post something on Facebook about saving money at the grocery store, it seems many ask how I do it. Hence this blog, thanks to a suggestion from my friend, Laura.
The first thing you should know about grocery dollars is this: the farmers who work hard making your food, be they conventional or organic farmers, get only a teensy fraction of the money you spend at the grocery store.
I know this because my parents are farmers. I am closely tied to the agriculture industry. The grocery business, the middle man, is a multi-billion dollar industry. I do not feel bad saving my money.
Our family of soon-to-be five spends as close to $300 a month for food and toiletries as I can possibly manage. Some months, I admit, I fail. But, after two years of working on this, I can honestly say each month gets us better at success rather than failure.
I confess my dear friend KaShan is my inspiration. That girl is just plain creative. She motivates me to be a better woman, a better housewife and a better manager.
Two years ago, when the recession hit, she and I began frank discussions about how to better handle our finances.
We became web site experts. We learned there is an entire culture of bloggers devoted to saving money on just about everything. It was a huge learning curve for us.
One of the things we learned is that grocery stores are sly. The other thing we learned right off the bat is that this kind of thing takes commitment. But even with a small commitment you can see reductions in your household expenses.
With a larger commitment, the sky is the limit!
Really, I could (and have) spend less if I worked harder at it. But some things I won't compromise and I feel, for me, this total is a balance between frugality and being wife/mom/working woman. Again, that's just me. If you do something different and it works for you, that's fabulous.
Money-management experts will tell you that you should know where your dollars are going. So, at the beginning to be fair to myself, for six months I tracked EVERY grocery receipt I had.
In the beginning, at the end of each month I felt bloated with shock. How could we be spending more than $500 a month on groceries and toiletries?
I decided to begin to shave that down in mini-steps. Could we reduce that by $50? $100? $200?
Now I track my grocery spending dollars as a force of habit. It keeps me honest with myself.
There are many, many steps I follow to shave our food budget. But I think I will break these steps into a few different posts so that no one ends up falling asleep reading this.
A bit about me...
I have a part-time job working from home. There are days, believe me, where I might accomplish more if I found a babysitter and went in to the office. Certainly my house would be a lot cleaner if the kids were making messes elsewhere...ahem.
My motivations for not doing so are a different post entirely. Suffice it to say, it's a decision my husband and I have made. It works for us, but it might not work for you. To each his or her own, I say.
I digress. Back to the money-saving scheme.
Lesson #1
Learn your grocery store’s sale cycles and stock up when prices hit rock bottom.
I do not spend my days running from store to store to find the best deals. I can't! There are two grocery stores in my home town. The nearest Costco is an hour away, and that is a totally different post.
What I have learned is that even with only two grocery choices what you pay for an item really and truly depends on the week and the cost. Let's take something arbitrary--such as cream cheese. In a six-12 week cycle, eight ounces of cream cheese can cost you anywhere from less than a dollar to nearly three and back again. Seriously! The stores bank on you impulse buying and being ignorant of these cycles.
Consider grocery shopping a treasure hunt; the store is a pirate trying to steal money from your pockets as you shop. If this is the case a store's weekly brochure is your key to unlocking the mystery of beating the pirates at their own game.
The first way to save money on your groceries is the purchase your item at its lowest total cost.
Each grocery store has a weekly sale cycle. Some (such as Safeway), run from Wednesday-Tuesday.
Others, such as Fred Meyer, run Sunday-Saturday. Know these cycles and plan your shopping trips accordingly.
The price of every item in the store changes weekly. And the store's loss-leaders are normally on the front and back cover of the ad. Many times, the middle section of the ad is just that, ads!
What's a loss-leader? It's the items the store is willing to take a loss on in order to draw you to the store and purchase (wait for it) the items they advertised in the middle of their flyer at what they say are "sale" prices, but are really not!
Now, I will admit, many store coupons are found in the middle of these flyers too. The trick is to learn (read: memorize or write down) the lowest price your favorite store will sell something at. Remember, for the items my family uses this took me the better part of two years.
Let's see an example:
Let's say that our eight ounces of cream cheese may be priced at $1 on Saturday at Fred Meyer but on Sunday it could be $2.79.
If an item is a staple in your house and has a long shelf life, stock up on it when it's on sale!
For example, my husband's favorite deodorant was on sale for .79 this week at Fred Meyer. Call me a hoarder, but I bought a year's worth of it!
This will keep me from purchasing it every month (or so) at $3.29! If you do the math, that's $9.48 for a year's supply of deodorant versus $39.48. That's a savings of $30 this year on deodorant alone! On the exact same deodorant!!!!!
If I happened to have a few coupons (which I didn't) it could have been even cheaper.
If I apply this theory to 10 household items or 20, think of the savings!
Just be certain to either mentally or physically check off the item on a list of things you don't have to buy for a long time.
Monday, October 11, 2010
October, 2010
For me, fall is a time for reflective thought. I have been deliberating creating a small place for my brain's ramblings for quite some time. Now seems right. We are a simple family living in a simple household and trying to get by day-to-day just like everyone else.
Join us on our journey of normalcy.
Without further ado, welcome to the Diary of the Palace of Porter.
For me, fall is a time for reflective thought. I have been deliberating creating a small place for my brain's ramblings for quite some time. Now seems right. We are a simple family living in a simple household and trying to get by day-to-day just like everyone else.
Join us on our journey of normalcy.
Without further ado, welcome to the Diary of the Palace of Porter.
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