• Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches Done Cheaper
    Cooking,  Savings

    Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches Done Cheaper

    My husband fell in love with these hot ham and cheese sandwiches at a friends party several years ago.  I looked the recipe up on line and we tried a few different versions until we found the one he liked best.  To view the recipe I use, click here.  I have made them several times since then but don’t make them often because they are so expensive.  They decided to have sandwiches and desserts at church after the singing on Sunday night.  I decided I wanted to do something besides buy bread and lunch meat.  I thought of these but really didn’t need to spend that much money this week. …

  • Skillet Onion Potatoes
    Cooking

    Skillet Onion Potatoes

    I love potatoes.  I love them fried, stewed, roasted, baked, mashed, and almost any way imaginable.  If I had to pick one item to eat for the rest of my life, it would have to be potatoes.  I cook some kind of potatoes for almost every meal.  The potatoes are as important to me as the main dish, sometimes they are the main dish.  I am fine with a loaded baked potato for a meal, but my husband thinks he needs  at least 4-5 different items for each meal.  I was craving my roasted onion potatoes the other day but didn’t want to wait the hour it would take to…

  • Prom Time Why is it so Crazy These Days?
    Life and Family,  Savings

    Prom Time – Why is it so Crazy These Days?

    Why is Prom so crazy these days?  It just gets worse every year.  I remember when I went to Prom.  We had our prom in our cafeteria at school.  We decorated it, ate supper there and then danced and had fun until it was over.  There was a photographer at the prom, we all lined up and took our pictures in front of the themed background.  Everyone’s pictures were basically the same.  The main cost for prom was either your dress or tuxedo.  There were no limos, no fancy dinners, no professional photographers, we even painted our own nails, applied our own makeup and fixed our own hair. Now it…

  • Cooking

    Quick and Easy Tamale Casserole

    I like quick and easy recipes because I am not good about meal planning and if I make a plan, we will end up having to go somewhere instead or I get caught up working and don’t have time to do what I had planned.  I came up with this recipe one night when I needed something to take to a church potluck that I forgot about.  I looked through my cabinets for ideas and decided to try making a tamale casserole.  I use canned tamales which of course aren’t as good as the real homemade ones, but work in a pinch.  My family love this and it is an…

  • Cooking

    Sweet Rice

    I don’t know if this is true or not, but I remember having sweet rice every Sunday morning growing up.  This is the only kind of rice my mom cooked.  It was good, but by the time I left home, I never wanted rice for breakfast.  We spent a lot of time with my parents when we were first married and the boys were young, so we still had rice quite often.  As the boys got older and more involved in sports and other things, we spent less whole weekends with them.  We still eat Sunday lunch there most weeks unless something else is going on or someone is sick. …

  • Cooking

    Too Many Baked Potatoes?

    Have you ever cooked too many baked potatoes?  I had a couple large ones left over when my husband and son didn’t come home for supper one night.  This is why planning meals ahead of time doesn’t work well for our family.  I never know who is going to be home for supper each night.  I hate wasting food, so I put them in the fridge after they cooled.  The next morning I peeled them and cut them up into chunks about 1/2” square.  I fried up a 1 pound roll of sausage, six slices and the rest scrambled.  I pulled out the slices and added some oil, the potato…

  • Whats the Deal With Aldi?
    Savings

    What’s the Deal at Aldi?

    We didn’t have an Aldi locally until a couple of years ago.  There was one an hour away and I had heard that people made special trips up there to buy groceries.  I even went and looked around once when I was in that town for work.  I wasn’t impressed because I didn’t recognize anything, I remember thinking it is just a lot of ‘off-brand’ stuff and I didn’t get a basket because I didn’t know they were outside.  So I wasn’t excited when I heard we were getting one.  I didn’t go to the grand opening or even visit there the first month or so.  I am really not…

  • I am Frugal
    Savings

    Not Cheap, Just Frugal

    I do not consider myself cheap, but I am frugal.  I combine store sales, paper or online coupons and money back apps to save as much money as I can on items we use regularly.  I stock up on items that we use a lot when there good sales, but things go on sale somewhat regularly so you really don’t have to buy too much at one time.  I have limited storage space so I try to only buy enough to last us until the next sale comes along. It takes good organization to not only store these extra items, but to be able to find them when we need…