Homemade Mapleline Syrup

   I grew up in Hawaii where most everything we ate, wore, or used had to be shipped in.  The cost of shipping things in contributed to the high cost of consumer goods.  One of the ways my mother tried to combat the high costs was to make as many things herself as time allowed.  This included most of our clothing and some grocery items. 

   One of the things that my mom did on a regular basis was to make homemade Mapleline syrup.  I actually prefer it to commercial brands because it has only 3 ingredients, tastes great and has no strange sounding stuff in it.  It takes me about 5 minutes of hands on time to make it and it is much cheaper than buying the premade stuff.

Mapleline Syrup:

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 teaspoons Mapleline flavoring

Combine your sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Your syrup should reduce down and become thicker.  Remove from the heat and stir in the 2 teaspoons of Mapleline flavoring. This syrup will thicken as it cools.  Use hot or store it in the refrigerator after it has cooled completely for future use.  Yields about 1 1/4 cups of syrup.

I hope you enjoy it!

Frugal Friday Wrap Up 2/11/16

    I think overall we did really well this week with the exception of my hubby not being able to work on our car after all.  We took the part back to the auto supply store and got a refund on it.  Our wonderful mechanic, who only charges for parts and for actual time worked on your vehicle fixed one of the problems but unfortunately, another even costlier problem showed itself so we are now waiting on parts for that and he will hopefully have it back up and going for me by Tuesday.  So, without further ado, let's look at the ways I saved this week:

~I bought a Elmo floor puzzle for my youngest grandson Isaiah, who is 2 years old and loves to work on them.  The puzzle was $2.99 at Value Village and was a huge hit!
~I froze some leftover Venison stew and rice for a future meal.
~Since the weather has been unseasonably warm, I was able to get out and walk with our dog Caesar more often.  Great exercise for us both!
~I worked on my points programs and cashed out at Swagbucks for $15 in Amazon.com gift cards.

~I cashed out at Pinecone Research for $10 in cash.
~I pulled some more of my favorite coffee creamer out of the freezer.  I had bought multiple containers of them while they were on sale during the holidays and froze them for future use.
~Taxes...I did them myself and went through Swagbucks link to one of the Tax places there and was able to efile for free and get 250 points which I used to cash in for more gift cards.
~We had a last minute Super Bowl party here at our house and everyone brought something to share.  :)
~There were lots of leftovers from the party; sushi, beef and broccoli, Little Smokies, grapes, and cherry cheesecake so we have been enjoying those.

~I made 2 loaves of sourdough bread and a batch of chocolate chips cookies.
~The Dollar Tree had oatmeal cream cookies and Slim Jims marked down to .25 each so I bought some for snacks for my hubby to take to work with him.
~The door to our garage from our breezeway blew open because the latch was having issues and our dog escaped.  That is NOT a good thing.  We were able to get him back pretty quickly with the help of our neighbor.  My hubby found a new doorknob/lock in package at the thrift store and changed that out.
~I found a new with tag shirt at the thrift store and a very gently used Chico's sweater there also.  The sweater retails for about $80 alone.
~I borrowed more movies and books from the library instead of buying them or paying to go to the movies at a theater.

~The hubby and I were craving Mexican food and salads so I made a huge taco salad with things we had on hand for dinner.
~Jaysn and Rachel gifted us a huge bag of tortilla chips from Costco.
~We took advantage of using our hot tub on multiple occasions and our youngest grandson really loved being able to hot tub with us while he stayed here over the weekend.
~I have been catching up on some of my favorite TV shows online.
~The mail has included free magazines, a free book I ordered for my DIL Rachel that I thought she would enjoy, free feminine products and coupons for free products.

~One of our favorite snacks is popcorn popped in a heavy pot and some butter and salt to season it.  Perfect treat on a cold night.
~We SKYPEd with our son Josh and our littlest grandson was thrilled to see his uncle's cat Peaches. :D
~Tuesday was a beautiful and unseasonably warm day.  I met Heather, Chris and the grandboys at the park that is halfway between both our towns for some play time and an impromptu picnic.
~Jeff and I had a date day last Saturday.  We went out to lunch instead of dinner (much cheaper) and then came home and watched the movie "The Martian" that we borrowed from the library and then hot tubbed.
~I trimmed my bangs that we just getting too long and heavy.

   I am simply amazed when I add it all up and see how much we have saved over the course of just one week.  When I added up the cost of what it would have been to either buy these things or purchase the service vs me making them, shopping for them on sale or doing it myself, I found I save more this week alone than I made on average substitute teaching for an entire month.

February $100 Grocery Budget Challenge Update 2/11/16

   The last update I did had me at $27.37 spent leaving me with $72.63 for the rest of the month.  On Tuesday we stopped at Rosauers and I bought 2 packages of mushrooms, some ice cream, cheese, cole slaw mix and 2 Asian chicken entrees in the frozen food section.  I spent $16.47 with tax.  That brought my total spent so far to $48.84 leaving me with $51.16 in cash for the rest of the month.

   We hosted family here for a Super Bowl party and everyone brought things to share.  We ended up with leftover rice, beef and broccoli, Little Smokies, sushi, grapes and cherry cheesecake.  We really enjoyed those leftover and only that grapes remain at this point. Jaysn and Rachel also gave us a huge Costco sized bag of tortilla chips.  I tried to pay them for it but they said not to worry about it. :)

February $100 Grocery Budget Challenge Update

   So the last time I checked in I had spent $15 of the $100 I budgeted for groceries this month.  Yesterday I spent some more.  We stopped at the Dollar Tree and they had some of their filled oatmeal cookies and their Slim Jims marked down to .25 each.  I spent $3.50 on them and some tamales.  

   Next stop was Walmart.  We have a tradition of getting doughnuts for breakfast when the grandkids stay here.  We have the youngest staying with us tonight and he got here bright and early so Grammie bought a $3.98 box of a dozen doughnuts from their bakery.  I also found boxed of cereal clearanced for $1 each so I bought 3 of them.  We were out of bagels so I bought a package of them for $1.89.  So here are how the numbers are stacking up: $15 spent previously + $12.37= $27.37.   Subtracting that amount from my $100 leaves me with $72. 63 for the rest of the month. :)

Friday Frugal Wrap Up 2/5/16

My "assistant" helping me with my big pantry organization project.


You will have to excuse the layout of this post.  Blogger is doing strange things tonight and not allowing me to do the kind of layout that I would like to.  :P  I'm also sorry that I am getting this posted so late.  It has been one of those days when my motivation to do much of anything was severely lacking.

My big project this week, and one that will save me the most money is trying to get my pantry organized.  My plan is to move all the crockpots, waffle iron, blender, etc. off the bottom shelf.  That will leave more room for me to group things in a more logical way and keep track of what we have better.  The appliances will be finding a new home in our converted hallway coat closet.  The shelves in there will be adjusted to house all the appliances along with the kitchen linens.  I am hoping that this will make life easier for all of us.

Here are some other things I did this week to save us money in the long run:

~made my hubby's favorite tuna pasta salad and bulked it up with some chopped celery

~I also made my favorite Italian veggie and pasta salad with some small cheese raviolis that needed to be used up

~we had the grandkids here with us over the weekend and we took them to McDonald's for breakfast and ordered off the value menu

~the grandkids enjoyed playing for about an hour at the McDonald's Playland

~we had a family dinner with Chris, Heather and the grandboys here on Saturday night serving pizza and pie (that I had gotten marked down and then froze them) followed by hot tubbing
~my hubby, our grandboys and I all cuddled up in our bed to watch a movie
~cut up a bunch of junk paper to make lists on
~the grandkids used scratch paper to draw on

~found multiples of things in the pantry and got them organized in bins so that I do not overbuy products

~received free samples of dog food, cat food, sleep meds and a coupon for a deep discount on wine in the mail

~signed up for a free magazine for my DIL Heather

~got 2 more free magazines in the mail this week

~made 2 loaves of sourdough bread

~used one of my crockpots to make venison burger stew since I had carrots and potatoes that needed to be used up, this was over rice

~borrowed another book and some movies from the library
~bought the grandboys 2 winter coats, a pair of pants and some shoes (they looked like they had been worn only a few times) at the thrift store and luckily for us they were marked at half off
~also found a pair of pants and a blu ray/dvd combo movie for my hubby at the thrift store and another blu ray movie at the Dollar Tree

~was able to find and buy Cinderella and Inside Out from Redbox for $5 each
~working on my point and surveys programs 
~cashed out for a $25 Walmart Gift card via Swagbucks
~found a code online for free shipping on my supplements order from Puritan's Pride and also went through Swagbucks so that I will get 6 points per dollar spent
~bought some books that I have been wanting, the hardback books were $1.99 each and the paperbacks were .50 each

~used SKYPE to talk to our son Josh in Maryland
~received some free kids toothbrushes and toothpaste in the mail
~the thermostat went out in my car so my hubby bought the parts and a repair manual and will be fixing it himself this weekend
~bought some car touch up paint to paint over where our car got hit by another car and scratched up
 ~got caught up on some of my favorite TV shows that we don't get with our DISH package by watching them online
~our youngest grandson had an accident and wet the bed so I washed the featherbed in the big deep bathtub and then my hubby set it up over some portable sawhorses to dry in the house

I'm still doing all the normal everyday stuff like keeping the heat turned down at night and using extra blankets on the bed.  I did manage to get the dog out for a walk this week so that was free exercise for both of us and it was much needed.  I know it looks like I spent a lot this week, but in the long run, these things save us and our kids money.  Be blessed!

I Love My Grandboys!

G-pa sharing a story with Isaiah and Bradley

Isaiah showing me his Lego tower he built while Bradley plays with blocks behind him

And We're Off With a Bang!

 

   Ready, Set, GO!!!!  As I shared before, I am doing a $100 Grocery Budget Challenge for the month of February.  Well, I went shopping today for a few items and thought I would update you all.  I realized that I needed to just include the food purchased and not paper products or pet food.  Those are a separate budget item. I am also not including any special treats that I buy out of my $20 "pocket money" that I get every 2 weeks when my hubby gets paid.  My pocket money is to spend on anything I want.  Most of the time that involves buying things for my hubby, the kids, the grandkids, and myself but I do occasionally use it for a treat...like I did today. ;)  I spent $9 on dumplings, egg rolls, and gyros (strange combination I know).  Those treats are now in the freezer to be enjoyed later. That left me $11 from my latest pocket money and I used that to buy 2 family friendly movies from Redbox. :)  I still had some money left from my previous pocket money and used that to pick up a few things at the thrift stores.

   So, onto how much I spent on groceries...I picked up cabbage, butternut squash, a big can of coffee, 2 bunches of bananas and a Propel drink and paid  $15.  That leaves me with $85 left for the month.   I was so tempted to stop and pick up something for dinner but wanted to save our entertainment budget money for going out on a date with the hubby, so I came home and made dinner.  We have a packed pantry, freezer and refrigerator so I made a turkey sausage, onion and red potato skillet dinner.  I have onions and potatoes that need to be used ASAP so this was a great way to use some of them. We had leftover apple pie from the weekend for dessert.  The hubby was very pleased since he is a meat and potatoes kind of man!

   On my way into town I noticed that the heater was only blowing cold air.  Over the weekend, we had noticed that the heater in the back part of the car was not working right...well today whatever it was spread to the front of the car also.  It made for a cold trip.  I came home and googled what might be causing the problem based on what it was doing and it sounds like it is our thermostat.  Luckily my hubby should be able to replace that himself, at least we are hoping so.  He'll pick up the parts and a repair manual for my car on Thursday.

   Oh, a word to those of you who are shopping for Valentine's Day presents for your loved ones...hide the bags before they can go through them.  My hubby got his 2 new DVDs that I got him (you know the kind men like, action/adventure) a bit early when he pulled them out of the bag and said "Oh cool, you got more movies".  So much for surprising him with them.