Mothering › Health Articles › Thrifty Thursday: It's a Thrifty Tip Puppy Pile--pile on!

Thrifty Thursday: It's a Thrifty Tip Puppy Pile--pile on!

adminCynthia Mosher
By: admin and Cynthia Mosher
Posted 03/03/11 • Last updated 02/01/13 • 32 views • 7 comments

I have three tips for you today.


1. Trader Joe’s “Joe’s Dark” coffee is only $3.50 per canister, and it totally works for me. Previously, Coffee Snob Moi was enjoying the very delicious Weaver’s organic coffees for around $13/lb., but I have just shifted into turbo thrifty mode, and therefore, we’re drinking Joe’s and TRULY LIKING IT.


2. An eBay-type website just for family stuff? Yep, it’s true. Check out www.Storkbrokers.com. Sell your old stuff, get new-to-you stuff at a discount. And how green–not to be buying new whatevers when things already exist that would love to be part of your family gear pile.


3. When I make soup (already thrifty), I freeze the leftovers in my muffin tins, then pop them out and store them in a bag in the freezer. How unappealing is a 10-lb brick of frozen soup? We’ve all thrown out our weight in those. So the muffin-sized soup portions are FABU for bringing lunch to work–you can let them thaw and then heat them up on the job, or thaw them overnight, heat them on the stove, and pour into a thermos. (I have a silicone muffin pan, which is even more convenient for popping out those soup pucks with aplomb.)


C’mon–what’s #4 and 5 and 6…and 12? Share your wisdom, dear mamas and daddy-os.




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Comments (7)

BeesMilk 3/3/11 at 4:14am
We started roasting our own coffee in a (Goodwill-bought) popcorn popper! We get the green beans for around $5/lb for organic, sustainably-sourced, fair trade coffee from reputable growers (some of the not-so-reputable stuff is grown using arsenic as a pesticide and the worst stuff has ties to terrorism and drug cartels!). Delicious. Can't even drink the store bought stuff, anymore. And SO easy. I invested in a bread machine (found at WIlliams Sonoma, and also Goodwills nationwide) and bake our bread for the week. I like to bake it by hand, but I can set it at night and in the morning I wake up to fresh bread, if we're short of time. The average cost for basic sandwich bread? $0.45 per loaf. Maybe $1.00 if we use fancy flour. We make our own granola. Easiest thing, ever. 20 minutes of time, tops. Rolled oats, tossed with some vanilla extract or honey, or whatever floats your boat, sprayed with some melted butter or sunflower oil, and spread on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven until it's crunchy and golden-brown. Done! Cost for bulk granola? Between $4 and $8/lb. Homemade? $1-$2/lb. Maybe a little more if you use expensive honey, but even then, it's only a tablespoon or two.
aps 3/3/11 at 4:21am
We are also on a thrifty bender. We've been buying whole bean, organic coffee (Italian roast I believe) from Costco $13 for 5lbs vs $12 a lb for Stumptown whole beans. Also, instead of buying flavored Coffee Mate ($4 for a big jug, lasts about a week) we go to Cash and Carry and buy Torani flavored syrup for $3.25 (bonus, no HFCS or other assorted no-no's) and mix it with whole, organic milk ($5gal)...so roughly for the price of two weeks worth of Coffee Mate we can get enough milk and syrup to flavor our coffee for just shy of a month.
Melanie Mayo 3/3/11 at 4:27am
I love your tips! How do you roast the coffee in a popcorn popper, and where do you get the unroasted coffee beans?
Melanie Mayo 3/3/11 at 4:30am
Such great tips! I wonder if the Costco in Albuquerque has Stumptown beans. I will have to do some recon...and yes, I bet that homemade flavored creamer is DELISH. I love Torani almond syrup. -Candace
BeesMilk 3/3/11 at 9:04am
We get the green beans from a little local shop here in Portland. "Mr. Green Beans". We roast the beans in an air vent popcorn popper we picked up at goodwill. They've got quite the selection!
Jacquelyn 3/3/11 at 10:32am
Bryna - exactly HOW do you roast them? How long? I'm really interested in doing this - I was thinking about giving my air popper away but will re-think this if I can figure this out. Such an awesome idea! Do you just put them in the hopper and turn it on and they bounce around? Truly a wonderful concept but I have to have explicit instructions or I'll never try it for fear of failure :) :) :) Thank you so much! All the tips are great! I have 2 bread makers that I bought from yard sales - both brand new, maybe used 1 or 2 times. One also makes butter and the other makes jam. I love to make pizza crust on the dough cycle of the bread maker and then freeze balls of dough for future uses. Trader Joe's makes a great sauce for pizza.
corinneagain 3/9/11 at 5:05am
I have gotten tons of stuff from well meaning family and friends for our little girl that just don't work for us, so I consign them at a local kid's consignment store, along with toys, clothes and gear that she's grown out of, and now we have credit there so I can get things I really need and want. We buy much of our staples out of the bulk bins at our grocery store (we use reusable cloth bags and glass jars for the items), better for the environment and our wallet. I have started putting all the due dates of EVERYTHING on our calendar (both the wall and my google calendar) and we are really reducing late fees that way. No more late bills, library books, video rentals and no unused gift cards, either. It's great.
Mothering › Health Articles › Thrifty Thursday: It's a Thrifty Tip Puppy Pile--pile on!