Big Lots Finds: cheap prices on spices 75% off other store prices and even Amazon

 

Hello, penny pincher poster here, and I'm excited to share super cheap prices on spices that retail for 1/4 of the regular prices. That's 75% off normal store prices and even retail giant Walmart and Amazon! Some of the spices are on par with other stores but there are sine that I can never get without paying an arm and a leg. The store is Big Lots and the spices are celery salt, turmeric,  (how DO you pronounce it??) star anise and ginger. 

If you do a lot of world cooking, like me, you need a comprehensive spice collection. Prices on spices are one of the biggest variables in cooking ingredients. I cook many Indian and middle eastern dishes which require cumin, Indian cooking notably features ginger and turmeric as well. I've checked bulk prices at Amazon, the dollar spice section at Dollar Tree and Walmart. Dollar Tree doesn't carry celery salt and Walmart only has super-expensive name brand. 

So I was delighted to find all three in the bigger containers at Big Lots for $1. The celery salt is an especially good #BigLotsfind deal. I stock up because we literally use celery salt in almost everything. Oh and if you're wondering why it tastes familiar, celery salt plus powdered garlic are the flavors of the classic Spice Islands Beau Monde seasoning. Sometimes it's made with celery seed also. So buying celery salt at #BigLotsFinds gets you the coveted taste of Beau Monde too! Buy One Get One Free, yay! 

Cheap, Leftover Use-Up, One-Pot Meals

Busy parents need easy prep meals that don't require multiple steps or that dirty a sink full of pans. Here are simple recipes for quick, nutritious meals. These can be made while helping a child with spelling words or nursing a baby. These recipes use up leftovers and use ingredients on hand plus have enough for a second night. If you line baking dishes with heavy foil, you can freeze food, remove pre-wrapped in foil and store. Read on Super Easy, Inexpensive, Kid-friendly Leftover Use-Up, One-Pot Meals

Affordable Father's Day Gifts Dads Will Love All Price Ranges

Father's Day shopping is tricky if you don't know what dad wants. And some dads don't like you spending money on them. And holiday gift-giving can get expensive. So you'll want the most bang for your shopping buck. Here are top 20 affordable Father's Day gifts in different price ranges--starting at free. My husband enjoys these and your dad will love them too!  Affordable Father's Day Gifts at All Price Ranges That Dad Will Love

Free Printable Wedding Planners, Online Bridal Organizers, Checklists, Expense Summaries

My husband and I paid for our own wedding. We paid everything off, including the honeymoon, beforehand so we incurred no debt. The total wedding and reception tab cost less than $1,800. Granted this was 1987, but we could do it again now. How? By doing many things ourselves, including wedding planning. Brides and grooms planning your own wedding, here are free printable wedding planners to help. Print organizers, gift registry trackers, checklists, guides, schedules, calendars, budget tools and expense sheets to manage your big day.  Free Printable Wedding Planners, Online Organizers, Checklists, Expense Sheets

Lose Weight, Save Money With These A-Z Fat-Burner Food Swaps

I've lost nearly all the 100 pounds I gained taking the antidepressant Paxil. I've shaved 11 BMI points and eight clothing sizes. I didn't use invasive methods like surgery. I cut calories, controlled portions and made healthier food swaps like those in Men's Health "Eat This, Not That." I follow weight loss gurus like Dr. Oz and amend my diet as I learn more. Sometimes, advice is contradictory. So I experiment. If it works, I keep doing it. Here's an A-Z guide to food switches that helped me reduce. Simplifying my eating has cut grocery expenses too! I Lost 98 Pounds With These A-Z Fat-Burner Food Swaps

Free Printable Easter Cards for Children to Color

Easter comes very late in 2014. It's been a long, cold winter for many of us. Parents are your children getting restless? Do you need some new, fresh activities to get them through till Easter? Here are color-your-own Easter cards to make and share. I've listed websites to print free secular (non religious) Easter cards for kids in any public setting. Save money and print cards.Free Printable Easter Cards

2 Die 4 and To Diet for French Toast to use up Stale Bread

 I adore French Toast. Literally, I kiss its arm like Gomez did Morticia and murmur "Caro Mio..." Okay, that's weird. Anyway, French toast or Eggy Bread as it's called in Great Britain, is a great way to use up stale bread. Here are two Eggy Bread recipes, a 2 Die 4 and To Diet for Eggy Bread

2 Die 4 and 2 Diet 4 kind (since poor Mar is dieting).

Work At Home Parent Multitasking---Save Time and Money with Craft Table

Remember, my penny pincher pals, saving money is earning too. That's why I feel for you online work at home parents who have small children. I can't speak to the online part as we didn't have computers when mine were young. But the WAHM juggling, I get. I homeschooled four children in a tiny home. I can identify with that feeling of being constantly torn between children and work, school and work. Here are some ideas to help Work At Home Parent Multitasking---Magic Multipurpose Table

Leftover Use Up Diet Bread Pudding

 Last week I made breakfast egg casserole from leftover bread. I had stale savory breads: rye and onion bagels, so I couldn't make my bread pudding. Then, my naughty family forgot to eat up the industrial-strength bag of English muffins I bought. So I made Light and Hearty Bread Pudding (daughter loved it so much she ate it for breakfast). And I used up some leftover homemade bread I'd made with other leftovers--carrots, raisins, pumpkin seeds. Super healthy and how's THAT for penny-pinching? Leftover Use Up Diet Bread Pudding My Whole Family Loved

Baked Bean Soup with Holiday Leftovers

 Are your holiday leftovers glaring at you, saying "eat us!" Are the sweet potatoes threatening to go sour? Are you fed up and out of recipe ideas? Well before those leftovers go bad, stage a refrigerator coup and take the other food hostage, here's a healthy, lowfat, high protein recipe to use them up. Baked Bean Soup
   Baked Bean Soup with Holiday Leftovers and Veggies Galore

Cancel PMI Private Mortgage Insurance ASAP

We took out our first mortgage in 2001. Along with principal, interest, taxes and insurance, there's an added fee for first time mortgage borrowers and those who can't afford 20 percent down-- PMI--Private Mortgage Insurance. It's a fee you pay to guarantee that you will pay your mortgage. After collecting that extra $25 a month from us, for a few years we would have proved that we would pay and the PMI would be removed. Or so we were told. Read on  Expensive Lessons Learned on PMI Private Mortgage Insurance

Free Printable Advent Calendars

 Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas. December 1, 2013.
During Advent we focus on prayer, fasting and almsgiving in preparation for the Feast of Christmas. Many people use an Advent calendar to countdown to Christmas. Here are free printable advent calendars. Advent calendars feature little windows that are numbered. Children open one window each day before Christmas. Some advent calendars have a Bible verse that follows the Christmas story of Jesus's birth in Bethlehem.  Free Printable Advent Calendar Countdown to Christmas Crafts

Meals on a Shoestring, Think Outside the Box

I just read a post by a recent college grad living simply. Our eldest son lives and goes to school in Detroit and echoes that need for inexpensive meals. We've always tried to keep to a minimalist lifestyle. Here are ways to eat cheap,

* Go vegetarian, preferably vegan. Savings galore in money and health.

* Skip packaged foods. Boycott corporate buy-buy mentality. Live and eat simply. Read moreCollege Student Meals on a Shoestring, Think Outside the Package

Domestic Goddess Tips--Multitasking Recipes, Cooking Shortcuts

I am a Domestic Goddess--kingdom: cheap meal-time management. Being a busy mom, I have to budget time and energy as well as money. I make 2-for-1 meals, doing the
bulk of preparation on Sunday when I have the most time. Here's a meal-planner.

Sunday--Chicken dinner. I roast a jumbo chicken, cook 2# rice, 1 # pasta, 3# ground beef, 5# potatoes and 3# pre-cut veggies (broccoli and cauliflower crowns, carrots). I pare and bake butternut squash. I make five cups of my mirepoix--two large green peppers, one big onion, 8 ounces mushrooms, 4 large carrots, one stalk celery. Serve chicken, potatoes, veggies. Package and refrigerate leftovers and extra food.   Domestic Goddess Tips--Multitasking Recipes, Cooking Shortcuts 

Tightwad Mama Saves Money Back to School Shopping

Back to School--how merchandisers and retailers love those three words. And how they love to upsell. Long lists of school supplies your kids supposedly can't live without. And I'll admit, I love BTS shopping. What's not to love about $.25 crayons and scissors? But tightwad mama is also a teacher. She knows kids don't need half the stuff stores pad the list with. Here's a different kind of BTS shopping guide--one that saves you money. Tightwad Mama Saves Money Back to School Shopping

How Tightwad Mama Get Bargains

We raised and four kids in an 800-square-foot mobile home. We were solvent and debt-free on one income while I homeschooled the children. I know all about pinching pennies. Here are tightwad mama's tips to stretch your family activity dollar. Use these ideas year-round. We did! We still do! This is us with the youngest at Silver Lake State Park on our most recent budget vacay.

* Make money multitask. Pay with the payment form that saves most and earns best rewards: store credit cards, debit card. Save points for better rewards.

* Get admission deals. Use buy-one-get-one-free deals from vendors like Daily Deal Superstore. Save on concert, museum, amusement park, restaurants and vacation tickets. Look for events offering free kid admission with paid parents. Contact event websites for deals. I got half-price student opera tickets from the box office. An air fair distributed free tickets to school kids. They send me tickets to distribute to our home school group. Read more at Cheap Summer Family Fun Ideas from Tightwad Mama

How To Earn Money in a Recessed Economy

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says unemployment is going down. Politicians assure us jobs are being created. As a by-product of a recessed Michigan economy, I don't see the glowing economic recovery of which my governor speaks. I think it's precipitous to say we're in any kind of recovery. Sure if you call part-time, minimum-wage, no benefit jobs "employment."

Unemployment is down because more people, like me, have dropped out of the system. I never did qualify for it, as a part-time instructor and then homeschool SAHM. But even many of those who did qualify have run out. Some have quit looking for work, and others, like me have resorted to off the radar work, like freelancing. Don't get me wrong. I still pay self-employment taxes and heavily. What I mean is, I've ceased job hunting to pursue at-home online jobs like this--blogging and writing for news agencies and content companies. I've often been asked how I make money when I don't "work." Here are my strategies.

* I think outside my self-imposed boundaries. Instead of limiting my job-hunting possibilities, I apply for every job that I'm qualified for.
* I generate multiple streams of income. As a freelancer, I maintain blogs that earn ad revenue. I search out content companies and apply to write for different categories based on my interests and abilities. I get people to read my content. Here's more How To Earn Money in Michigan's 11.2 Percent Unemployment

Print Free Kids Valentines

Kids love to exchange valentines on Valentine's Day. Valentines are going up in price just like everything else. How about a green, creative, money saving option? Free printable valentines for school exchanges? Here are many to choose from--funny, romantic, cute, cartoon--many styles! Mostly free with your printer!  Free Printable Valentines for Kids

Protein, Meat Food Swaps to Cut Calories

I started dieting 18 months ago. I wanted to lose weight and develop healthier eating. Initially I ate a vegan-vegetarian diet. Since then, I've tweaked my protein intake to include healthier meats and protein sources. Using these food switches, I've cut out roughly 1,000 calories a day. I've also saved roughly $8-10 a week per person per week on groceries. Those savings apply to homecooked meals. Money savings are higher when meat-based restaurant meals. Protein Swaps for Weight Loss

Trim Costs on Kids' Christmas Presents

I like the holidays. Really I do. But honestly, Christmas expenses dim some of the joy. Shopping for four kids, my holiday spending can quickly get out of hand. And when I overspend, this Mommy Santa grows less jolly with each incoming bill. Debt-ridden is no way to start the new year. Here are penny-pinching tips to keep kids' Christmas present costs under control.  Read more