Kansas City Grocery Deals Wednesday June 30

By on

These are the good deals that I plan to take advantage of this week.  A lot of people ask if we eat much fresh produce.  You’ll see quite a bit of fresh fruit in the list below:

Price Chopper

80% lean ground beef family pack $1.54 per pound

Whole Seedless Watermelon $2.94

Mangoes 2/$1

Breyers Ice Cream 48 oz $1.94 (I love this brand, but Hy-vee has a better deal on their house brand.)

Hy-Vee–Thursday and Friday only

Red Seedless Grapes $.95 per pound

Hy-Vee Hamburger or hotdog buns 77 cents each ( I will buy whole wheat buns from the bread outlet, but this is a decent price for someone who prefers white.)

Banquet frozen meals 10 for $7 (not my normal purchase, but good for emergency lunch for DH.)

Kandy Cantaloup 99cents each

Sweet corn $2.99 a dozen

Bar S Jumbo Franks $.59 each limit 2

Hy-Vee cottage cheese 69 cents for 12 oz (perfect size for my Slow Cooked lasagna recipe.)

Save A Lot

Fresh peaches, plums and nectarines 89 cents per pound

Bananas 33 cents per pound

Malt-o meal mini spooners or frosted flakes 50 cents a bag (great for snack mix or dessert recipes.)

Aldi

Honeydew 99 cents each

Strawberries 99 cents per pound

blueberries 99 cents per pint

cantaloupe 99 cents each

What readers are saying about Slow and Savory: 31 natural recipes for your slow cooker.

By on

This came through on the Grocery Shrink yahoo group:   Hi everyone, Just want to share that Angela’s New cook book
Slow and Savory Suppers 
Has a lot of great meals, I just tried the Spinach Chicken Alfredo and we loved it, My husband had seconds and wants it on the menu again, the children finished every bit on their plates. I loved the fact that I was not in the kitchen all afternoon, and actually had time to sew up some napkins for our table.
Andrea Lewis

I am also enjoying Angela’s slow cooker cookbook. Right now I have her chalupas cooking. Last week I made the lasagna. I figured I’d start at the beginning and work my way through! I LOVE that the chalupa recipe uses dry beans but requires no soaking! Soaking beans intimidates me.

-Suki

Angela, 
    The Chili was Fantastic…….My husband doesn’t like to eat
beans…..let alone a pot full of “Chili” ( there is only 2 of us).

He loved it and I encourage families that don’t really eat this sort of
thing, to try it.!!!!!!!

-Lisa

The lace is here

By on

I was so happy to receive a soft little package yesterday in the mail from www.lace-mart.com I stitched it  up in the quiet of the evening and now have this:

I like the look of the skirt on the washer.  It just makes me happy and feels right to have my maidservant all dressed up, but the elastic in the casing isn’t working out.  It stretches and sags down.  Any ideas to attach it better?

Setee Update

By on

I found out my little upholstered bench isn’t a bench but a Queen Anne Setee; all the better!  I just got back from the store with paint stripper, aquatic vinyl, double welt cording, dark walnut stain, and upholstery thread.  I already have a leather needle, a stapler, glue gun, and misc. padding and foam.  I’m hoping to borrow my mother and to pick my friend Vicki’s brain, who is a professional upholsterer.

My mother helped me move the bench in the bay window to check out the look and it is a perfect size lengthwise but too short.  I’m on the lookout for some ball feet to put under the legs and raise it just right.  I’m so excited!  The Nester has a post about a Queen Anne Chair she gave a makeover to.  It’s worth a read.  It’s so pretty! And gave me the boost I needed to stop dreaming and start doing.

I’m in tear-out stage now and taking lots of pictures and notes so I’ll know how to put it back together.  I started on the front, and soon found out that with all the tufting, I’d have to do the back first.

Lots of Options

By on

The children and I have been practicing our behavior in public around here.  We practice at home first, talk about it in the car and then try it out where people can see us.  I don’t know about the kids, but I’m controlling myself a lot better :). 

Anyway, it’s a great excuse to hit garage sales, the flea market, and the fabric shop…

I found a gorgeous white table cloth at the flea market this week for just $3!  I bought it home and tried it out in the ring clips for my laundry room curtain.

It’s a nice option, though I think I prefer the canvas.  I’m considering using this table cloth as the top of a duvet cover for one of my daughter’s beds.  Now to only find a second white table cloth similar in size for the other bed.  They wouldn’t have to match perfectly. 

I decided against hand crocheting wide trim for the canvas curtain.  I started it and soon realized the time commitment just to get a working pattern like I wanted.    Just the thought was stressing me out.  No need for that!  And I found this fantastic site that carries yards and yards of Venice lace for far below retail cost. 

I settled on this 7.5 inch piece with just the amount of drip that I was hoping for: 
I bought a second narrower piece for a little secret project I’ll tell you about later.

Coming Clean

By on

I caved, I bought paper plates. I did it awhile ago and have always meant to tell you…

The worse part is the first box of paper plates were stuck together. So we used 2 at a time thinking it was only 1 and went through them quickly. (After I found out my first thought was all that wasted money.  Sad, I know.)  The second box is better and should last us a month. I decided the $8 for 420 plates from Coscto was worth the sanity.   Because even with the paper plates, after a little cooking, I have this:

And the task of dealing with that with such a stubby faucet and a bathtub with the shower stuck on permanently was enough for me.  It feels so silly after seeing the missionary pictures from the Phillipines on Sunday.   I have it so much better even in my construction mess.

On the bright side, paper plates are kind of useful.  Cut them in half for a dustpan.  I lost my funnel in a packing box somewhere and a paper plate came in handy for refilling my salt shaker :).

A few Garage Sale Signs

By on

The children and I went garage saling last Wednesday and snapped a few pictures of some signs.  I want to show you how simple it can be to have a winning sale.  And how complicated it can be to mess it up :).

I could see this sign from several blocks away and knew which lane to be in to make the correct turn.  I didn’t have to scan through a bunch of  information. All of the signs for this sale, looked like this so it was easy for me to find the location.

Still a simple sign, but the outline on the arrow makes it even easier to see.  The balloons caught my eye and every sign for this sale also matched down to the color of the balloons. I knew when I found it!

Now look at this sign.  It is full of information too small and illegible to read even up close!  When I got out of the car to take a photo, I saw that the arrows point both directions.  Depending on which direction you are driving, you would turn down the wrong street.  When we finally found the sale, there were no prices on anything.  We found several things we would have liked to buy, but there was no person sitting at the sale.  Even though we shopped for a while and weren’t very quiet about it, no one ever came out.  We left.  A week later the sign is still there rotting in the rain.  It doesn’t have to be this hard.

Here are some tips for having a winning sale that I sent to my newsletter a few weeks ago.  I think they are worth printing again:

1.  Invite a friend or 2 to join you.  The more stuff you have the more people will stop.  It’s also handy to have someone to take turns watching the sale for bathroom breaks, childcare breaks, and meal preparations.

2.  The #1 garage sale day of the week is Wednesday.  The #2 day is Saturday.  If you can’t be open 4 days (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) then pick at least one of the big days to be open.

3.  Get as many tables and clothing racks as possible.  In a pinch you can lay a door over 2 saw horses to use as a table.  You can make an inexpensive rack from PVC pipe.  Borrow tables from family, friends, neighbors or your church.

4.  Take the time to clean your items.  A little bit of elbow grease will insure you get a better price.  Dirty items have a good chance of staying put no matter how cheaply they are priced.

5.  Do price every item, or have a flat rate for certain things that are clearly labeled.  “All clothes $.50” for example.  “Make offer” sales frustrate the buyer because they have to stop and ask about every item and are embarrassed to offend you by offering too low.  Most people walk away from a sale like this.

Tip:  Cut squares off masking tape rolls and stick them to cookie sheets to make price tags.

6.  If more than one person is in the sale, use a 2 initial code for each person and then keep a spiral notebook with a page for each person in the sale.  Masking tape tabs on the pages will help you flip to the page quickly.  Leave the first few pages in the notebook blank for writing daily totals, and when the sale isn’t busy you can transfer each person’s earnings to their page.

7.    Try to organize your sale as well as possible.  Put housewares together, office supplies together, group clothing by size and season.  We had limited time to do this before the sale opened, but I walked around moving items as things sold until the sale was well organized.  Every time a sold item made an empty spot, I shifted items to fill the spot.  This spread things out so each item could be seen and kept our sale looking huge even though more than half the original items were gone.

Tip:  Move especially appealing items, like a beautiful dress or a super cute swim suit, to a front spot that can be seen from the road.  Keep tools and other “man” type items in prominent places too.  Men can be some of your biggest customers but most will only shop a few minutes.

8.  If the weather is sunny, pull tables and items into the driveway.  The more stuff that can be seen from the road the more likely people will stop instead of driving by slowly and moving on.

9.  If you a person driving by slowly, wave a friendly hello.  They feel noticed and are more likely to stop and look around now that they realize they’ve been seen.

10.  Signs are very important!  The simpler and easier to be seen the better.  High contrast black writing on white signs is perfect.  “Write Yard Sale” or “Garage sale” with a large black arrow in huge thick letters.  Cover it with plastic to protect from the elements.  Be sure you have a sign at every turn and periodically check through the day to make sure your signs are still there.  Good manners require that you remove signs at the end of the day and put them out again when the sale reopens.

Tip:  Don’t forget the sign in the yard.  You don’t want anyone to think that you are moving or just cleaning out the garage J.

11.  Advertising your sale on Craigslist is free, easy to do, and will bring extra traffic.  Especially do this if you have large or specialty items.  Posting photos of your key items and setup will help encourage people to make the trip.

12.  For safety, wear your money in a fanny pack, and start the sale with plenty of ones and quarters to make change.  Periodically take large amounts of money into the house in a safe place.  If someone robs you, calmly hand over the pouch.  It will only be a part of your earnings from the sale.

13.  Don’t price items too high.  Good jeans with no holes are worth $1 or $2.  Most kid’s clothes move best at $.50 an item.  If you have a lot of name brand great quality items, you should try to sell them at a consignment store like Children’s Orchard first.  Pricing things right will earn you a great reputation and get people coming back year after year. On the other hand a friend of ours in the sale had a lot of new looking purses priced at $.25 each.  I could have easily gotten a dollar each for them.  When in doubt, get a second opinion from a garage sale buddy.  If several people look at the item and put it back you can bet the price is too high.  It’s fine to walk around and mark your items down while the sale is going.

Tip:  I love buying clothes at garage sales.  When we can’t wear them anymore I sell them for the same price I paid for them and use the money to buy at garage sales again.  Contrast that with buying clothes new and then selling them at a garage sale taking the money and buying new again.  The loss is substantial.

I see having a garage sale as a ministry.  We could just take our items to a thrift store where they will bump the price up 6-10 times the garage sale value.  (The proceeds usually go to a worthy cause.)   Or we can offer our items at low prices for a few days and give people a chance to really save while we recoup some money to help our families.  After the sale take what’s left to the thrift store and donate to help them raise funds for their worthy cause.  It’s a win-win situation.

A question I’m often asked is:  Do you save items from a garage sale for a future sale?  I used to and often the items did sell at a later date.   Recently I’ve felt the joy of decluttering!  The thought of taking any of those things back home was terrible.  It felt really good to donate them to a worthy cause.

Laundry Room Door Curtain

By on

Isn’t it fun when frugal, functional, and beautiful all align?

Before

Our laundry closet used to have a bi-fold door on it. It was dated looking and dangerously easy to pull out of it’s track. When the door was open, I couldn’t get to my cupboards. And it was a pain to open and close every time I wanted to switch my laundry. We talked about custom making some glassed French doors to fit the opening, but it was going to be expensive and time consuming.

During

Finding inspiration in Home and Harmony’s sink curtain I bought a 6 foot by 9 foot painting drop cloth at Home Depot for $10. Later at Lowe’s, I grabbed a set of 14–1/2 inch diameter ring clips for $5, a 1/2 inch diamter metal conduit pipe for $1.32, and 2 screw in hooks for $1.18 each.

Although I can sew, I decided not too. I just folded over the top of the tarp until the curtain was the length I wanted. Then cheered DH on while he screwed in the hooks, and snapped it all together. The screws are super deep–3 inches into the studs, and the conduit is really strong. I think the kids could do chin ups on the bar and not pull it down.  The best part is how easy it slides!

I’d like to put some lace trim on the flap. It’s just pinned on right now. I have perfect gorgeous, dripping, Valencia lace in my scrap bag, but it’s too short a piece.

I could copy the look affordably with Irish Crochet. But I would have to design my own pattern and then stitch it myself and I’m wondering if it’s worth it? I also have this piece of lace in my scrap bag, that is long enough.

I was really hoping for some serious dripping lace, but this is already made and ready to go. What do you think? Custom Irish crochet? Or already made but not as awesome?

It only matters when the light is on behind the curtain. The ready made lace isn’t heavy enough to combat the back lighting.

But how often will I keep the room backlit when I’m not in there?

I love how the curtain color harmonizes with my new light fixture.

If you were to use the ready made lace, would you trim off the web background or leave it on for character?

A Kitchen Bench

By on

I found a new to me blog that I’m crazy about.    It’s called Home and Harmony and it’s about a mother with 6 children, who homeschools and decorates and sings :). Click on her family photo to go there:

She is what I would like to be someday. 
She posted photos about her dining room (and brand new pictures of her laundry room which you have to go see.)

I have a lot of people to sit in a tiny area and when I saw her photo, I fell in love with her bench.  You see it has a soft back that can be pushed up against the window and no one will feel the lumps from the window sill.  And since it is a bench, you can squish several little bodies on it.

I told my mom all about it and showed her pictures and spent the afternoon with her searching the internet for such a thing, but found nothing.  My mom kept my 3 oldest children last night for a sleepover and took them garage saling this morning.  She called me from a garage sale and said they had a bench there for $5 that fit my measurements, but she wasn’t sure if I would want it.  It was $5 so I told her to buy it.

She said, “Are you sure?  I don’t know if you’ll like it.”  For $5 I’ll risk it.  This is what she brought me:

I love it!

Try a recipe from the new book

By on

These sandwiches are so delicious it will taste like someone slaved all day, but they are so easy you are going to love it!  Beef roasts are on sale for $1.99 a lb this week and go for less occasionally.  So whether you grab one fresh or dig one out of your freezer, put these on the menu. You can click on the page from the book to see a larger view.