Saving Money...by making your own Stock!

In the winter I make a LOT of soups (and freeze them).  Which means I use a LOT of chicken & vegetable stock.  The Dollar Store actually sells 32 oz, chicken & beef stock (MSG free) for $1, which I have been very happy with, but this past winter I have started making my own and discovering how NOT only am I saving money--but my homemade stock is SOOOOOO much yummier!  (Even the kids devour it!)  It takes little time and energy and I make it while making another meal so time-wise it is DEFINITELY worth it...

Let's start with chicken stock and then talk about vegetable stock...

I start with either a whole 3lb rotisserie chicken (that I get on sale at Copp's for $5 every couple months).  I also use chicken thighs or any other boned chicken parts that I have bought.


Isn't he cute???

The first meal is always just enjoying straight up baked chicken--mmmm...and I am happy because I didn't do much work (just prepared the sides).

The next night, I pull off the leftover chicken and turn most of it into another dish like chicken pot pie or chicken & spinach lasagna or fajitas--or something like that.  The skin and leftover bones I toss in a pot and add water until it just covers the bones.  I then gently boil the bones for 1 hour or more. 

Leftover chicken on left, boiling bones and skin on right

After an hour or so, I strain out all those yummy juices and have my broth.  At this point you can salt it. If it is bland you can always boil longer or add some chicken bouillon (I have had to do that on one occasion--I guess that chicken just didn't have much flavor :) )  At this point you can freeze it in muffin tins and then place in a Ziploc bag or freeze it in quart jars (don't fill to the top!) until you need to use it--but I like to take it one step further....

okay seriously--this IS as good as it looks!

I like to add chopped up onion and celery and carrots and seasonings of my choice--like thyme, rosemary, parsley, salt, pepper (and even some chicken pieces).  I will then simmer it an additional 30 minutes and then freeze.  This makes and AWESOME chicken soup base!  When the kids want chicken noodle soup, I will pull it out of the freezer, warm it up on the stove and add some egg noodles! YUM! 

And if you kept track--yes, I got 3+ meals out of one $5 rotisserie chicken.  And if I use chicken thighs, it will be 3+ meals out of about $3 of chicken (buy on sale $0.98/lb or less--I like to stock up at $0.68/lb.)

Now onto vegetable stock...This is too sweet....who would have thought you could make stock from all those vegetable scraps that you compost or toss (AND you can still compost after making your stock...) Check it out!

Think about all those parts of the vegetables that you normally toss--ends of cucumbers, onion skins, pepper seeds & stems.  Start saving all those parts instead of tossing them out.  Put them in a Ziploc bag and store in the freezer until you have 2 bags--then make your own vegetable stock.  Check out this link to give you all the details.  (I have been warned not to save cabbage, zucchini and broccoli parts as that can make your stock bitter.)  Feel free to experiment by adding your own herbs as well!

http://www.ehow.com/how_4767967_vegetable-broth.html

Saving Money... by joining a CSA!

Before you say--"WHAT?!  How does joining a Co-op save me money??"  Let me explain...

Did you know that most Health Insurance Plans will reimburse you up to $200 a year for "Healthy Lifestyle Living?"   Some of these "Healthy Lifestyle Living" items include gym membership (though many have a requirement that you must go certain amount of times a month to get reimbursed), exercise and health classes, and joining an organic co-op.

Two years ago, Rob and I decided to try it out.  We joined a co-op for about $240.  For 18-20 weeks, we then received a 1/2 share of produce every week.  And this half share was more than enough for the four of us! (Note:  We have 2 small children--but we are SERIOUS veggie eaters!) AND most of my garden produce was then able to be frozen for us to eat in the winter.  To make this deal even sweeter--our health insurance reimbursed us $200.  That means we only spent $40 for 18-20 weeks of produce!  AMAZING!  (Just a warning--prices for co-ops have gone up since then and are closer to $300 for 1/2 share, but we still feel that with the amount of produce we receive and the reimbursement--it is WELL worth the cost.  There are also other options if you would like a reduced price/free--such as volunteering to work at the farm in exchange for your share.

Since then, every year we have become members of a local co-op which delivers the produce to my husband's work (it is one of the pick-up sites), weekly.  We are always excited to see what we get and we LOVE knowing our food is organic AND we are supporting local farmers AND we are spending WAY less than if I purchased the produce at the grocery store AND my garden veggies can be saved for the winter.  (Check out all those PROS!)

So put a call into your health insurance and see if they will offer you a reimbursement for your food!  And then check out the CSA's in your area.  (You will want to do this soon--as many co-ops are already filling up for this coming summer!)

Here is a link to the CSA that we use and LOVE
http://www.wholesomeharvestcsa.com/

and here is a listing of CSA's in the Madison area.  Check it out!
http://www.reapfoodgroup.org/atlas/farms/csa.htm

$20 Amazon Gift Card for $10! Today Only!

Right now you can snag a $20 Amazon Gift Card (1 per person) for $10.

You simply order the gift card and tomorrow you will receive an email with your gift card redemption code to use on Amazon. I love Amazon! There are so many day to day purchases I make on this site (including AWESOME diaper deals!)

You can purchase the gift card here
http://livingsocial.com/deals/21336-20-amazon-com-gift-card?msdc_id=47&preferred_city=47&transaction=129547186697297875633

or....if you want to get more BANG for your buck, you can do it through your SwagBucks account and earn 280 bonus Swagbucks ( 450 swagbucks get you a $5 Amazon gift card!  Check out my prior post on swagbucks to learn how you can earn free Amazon Gift Cards on Swagbucks )
http://simplegreensavings.blogspot.com/2011/01/swagbucks.html

If you order through Swagbucks, simply do the following to earn your BONUS 280 Swagbucks.

Go to http://www.swagbucks.com/ (make sure you are logged in)

Click on the middle banner when the Amazon Gift Card promotion comes up.

Pick a "Living Social Deal"  (Depending on where you live, you will have different deals listed.)

Click on the "Continue" button in the popup box.

You will taken to the Living Social Website.

Look on the right hand side of the page and you will see the Amazon Deal listed for Washington DC.  Click on it and order it. 

When you return to your SwagBucks account, you should see your 280 swagbucks credited to your account.

Woo-hoo!  Free money!  And I have some birthdays I need to shop for!  Enjoy!

Free money through Swagbucks!

Swagbucks...I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but it's fun...Since I started using Swagbucks a year ago I have earned over $100 in Amazon Gift cards--FREE--with no strings attached!!!! All I did was do my normal GOOGLE searches on their site! (And you know I don't have much time to be doing searches!

So what is Swagbucks? It's a search engine (powered by Google and Ask) that randomly rewards your searches with "swagbucks", basically points which you can save to redeem for amazon gift cards or other stuff in the swag store. (They have LOTS of Gift certificates, such as Target, JCPenney, Starbucks, etc...)  

I'm sure you do internet searches everyday anyway, why not earn something from them??That's all there really is to it--just do your normal seaches on the Swagbucks search engine instead of your normal search engine, win swagbucks and then redeem them for cash! Find out more, and sign up HERE. When you sign up using any of these links, I'll get referral points too. Then when your friends sign up using your referral link, you'll get even more swagbucks too!

To make the most of your swagbucks account, I recommend setting your homepage to Swagbucks.com OR installing the swagbucks toolbar so you have their search engine at the top of your page.
This is too awesome to pass up!  I LOVE SWAGBUCKS!  (Especially when I redeem my gift cards for diapers delivered to my doorstep!)