Bucks Guide to Food and Cooking

This is the fourth installment of the “Bucks Guide” series, which consists of previous posts grouped into topical guides. When I read other blogs I like I’m sure there is older content I might want to read, but usually I don’t have the time to dig through the archives. This is my attempt at making subject matter easier to find here. To that end here is:

Bucks Guide to Food and Cooking

Don’t Eat Out, Find a New Recipe

One Way to Get the Most Out of Your Chicken

10 Tips on Finding the Great Morel

Six Great Gardening Websites

Food Banks, Pantries and Soup Kitchens

Eat Out on the Cheap

Save Money by Foraging

Roadside Stands vs. Farmers Markets

How to Save Money Using a Locker

Become a Food Rescuer

Have a Mustgo Night

Save Money With a CSA

Frugal Recipes

Friendship Soup Mix

Homemade Noodles

Homemade Bread

Newman Stew

Corn Chowder

Mom’s Mac and Cheese

Chipped Beef Over Chow Mein

Hamburger Casserole

Tuna and Noodle Casserole

Baked Potato Soup

Homemade Trail Mix

Chicken Alfredo

Breakfast Pizza

Kielbasa Skillet

Broccoli Cauliflower Soup

Hobos, A Campfire Mainstay

The following sites and their descriptions appeared at other places on The Buck List:

If you are interested in foraging for edible weeds, or just enjoy a good story, take some time to visit a blog by Dr. Peter Gail, Doc Weed’s Doin’s.

Restaurant offers deeply discounted gift certificates. Use their search engine to find restaurants near you.

Check out Grocery Coupon Guide for tips and ideas about how to save money with grocery coupons.

Improve your vocabulary and help reduce hunger at Free Rice.

Use Dinner Broker to book restaurant reservations and receive discounts of up to 30% off your meal and earn points towards gift certificates.

Try free, instant, confirmed restaurant reservations from Open Table.

Ueatcheap offers to find places to eat in your area for $10 or less.

Buy and sell homemade food using Book of Cooks.

Missy Chase Lapine, is an author, former publisher, entrepreneur, and a member of Parenting Magazine’s “Mom Squad.” She has been a cooking instructor and is a speaker on the topics of food, health, and family. Oh, and she also runs
The Sneaky Chef where she offers tips, recipes and answers all reader inquiries.

Abundant Food Savings provides information on restaurant deals, online offers and coupons and MUCH more. You must register (for free) to access much of the site.

IBC “is the nation’s largest wholesale baking company” offering 41 bread and cake bakeries in the U.S. Use their search option at Bakery Outlets to find an outlet near you.

Dinner In Minutes is the website of Linda Gassenheimer, offering links to her books, columns, featured recipes and exclusive tips.

Check out My Grocery Deals, where you can search their list of retailers’ flyers and circulars for deals and print off the coupons.

Have extra produce from the garden, or are you looking for something a little different or out of season? Register for free with Veggie Trader to buy, sell or trade homegrown produce.

Check out Good Guide where you can “search or browse over 70,000 food, toys, personal care, & household products to see what’s really beneath the label.” I don’t care what they say about my Skippy Super Chunk, it’s staying in my cupboard.

Regular readers of The Buck List know I love frugal recipes and recipe sites. I came across Southern Plate recently and couldn’t stop looking around. Full of recipes “from below the Mason-Dixon line” this one is worth a visit.

If you like beef you will want to bookmark the National Beef Cook-Off site. They provide all of the winning recipes for the last 10 years. While I don’t know what Pupusas is I would like to find out!

My Kids Eat Free – With the help of their readers this site collects and lists restaurants that offer free and reduced meals for the little varmints.

The extensive foodie site Chow serves up reader boards, recipes, restaurant reviews, how to stories, videos and a blog. This is a fun one to click around on.

If you like to travel and prefer the local eateries Roadfood is the site for you. Register for free to post in the forums and write reviews of restaurants you enjoy. Also use their search engine to find restaurants along your travel route.

Have you ever come home after a busy day, opened the cupboards to figure out what to make for supper and drawn a complete blank? Enter Supercook. It’s a recipe search engine that finds recipes you can make with only the ingredients you have on hand.

Visit Gastrokid for off the beaten path family recipes. Some of these recipes brought back the gagging sounds my super finicky daughter would make when she was little and was forced to try something new. Ah, memories.

If you are interested in learning more about farms and farming visit Farmers Feed Us. They “invite you to explore this site and learn more about what we do each and every day. You can tour our farms, meet our families, and see for yourself how we grow the food that ends up on your family's table.” While there make sure to visit the recipe section.

Still Tasty is a very useful site that provides shelf life guides for food and beverages, as well as storage and safety tips. Their information is gathered from federal and state agencies, non-profit organizations, as well as food and beverage manufacturers.

Related Reading:

Bucks Guide to Finding Free Stuff

Weekly Roundup

Reminder: Don’t forget to enter the $60 gift certificate giveaway. The winner will be picked on August 31st.

ToursByLocals “connects travelers with local tour guides who are keen to share their knowledge, experience and expertise.” If you like to travel this could be a good way to get an inside tour by a local. If being a guide sounds interesting you could make some money doing that.

Dropbox allows you to not only backup and store your computer and mobile files online it will sync your files online and across your computers automatically. The free version features 2GB of storage, with pay plans up to 100GB available.

MUBI is “not just about discovering wonderful new cinema or classic masterpieces. It’s also about discussing and sharing these discoveries, which makes us like a small coffee shop.” There are plenty of big and obscure films to check out on this site.

There seems to be a growing consensus that this could be the most fiscally irresponsible government in U.S. history.

If you like to fish you are going to love this site. Take Me Fishing is packed with info on how to fish, where to go, how to go boating, conservation efforts and information as well as a community board.

Some recent personal finance posts I enjoyed reading.

This is a list of 50 financial aid posts every parent should read.

Keeping with the school theme here is a post asking if college is still worth the debt.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed. Last year I wrote this piece about my changing relationship with money.

Have a great weekend!

$60 Gift Certificate Giveaway

The Buck List is offering a $60 gift certificate to one lucky reader this month that could be applied to anything from bedroom furniture sets to shoes. Just leave a comment below along with a way for me to contact you and I will choose at random one lucky reader to win a $60 gift certificate from CSN Stores, which is also valid at any of their online stores such as AllModern, CSNLighting or Cookware. The winner will be notified when the giveaway ends on August 31st. If you win be aware there could be shipping charges and if you will be ordering from a Canadian address international fees could apply for certain products. Make sure to check that out when you are choosing your product.

Good Luck!

What's It Costing You?

The following is a guest post by Gary Foreman, the editor of The Dollar Stretcher.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Henry Ford. "Thinking is the hardest work there is. That's why so few engage in it." Old Mr. Ford was an interesting man. He made some very good decisions (produce an affordable car for the average man, use an assembly line with interchangeable parts) and some very bad ones (sticking to old designs too long). That makes him a perfect person to help us understand an economic concept called "opportunity cost."

What is opportunity cost? It's a theory that states something that we already know. Sometimes you have two or more alternatives, but you can only choose one. To put it in a more scholarly way its choosing between mutually exclusive choices.

For example, suppose you were shopping for a new car. You've narrowed it down to a minivan and SUV. Both about the same price. You have to choose between the two. You cannot have both.

After test rides you decide to choose the minivan. That's your opportunity. The ability to choose the van. The cost is the loss of the SUV.

Another way to think of it is 'instead'. If I go to a restaurant, I can choose the meatloaf instead of the fried chicken. But if I've already eaten the fried chicken, I'll be too full to try the meatloaf. So choosing one eliminates the other.

The theory of opportunity cost relates to both our time and our money. Let's consider a college student. Suppose that spending a semester in college costs $6,000 (including all fees and living expenses). But that's not the real cost. The real cost would include the $8,000 he could have earned if he were not busy in college. So the true cost is $14,000.

The same is true on a smaller scale. I can choose to clean the gutters or watch the football game. I can't do both. If I decide to watch the game the gutters will continue to be full of leaves. Making the same decision weekend after weekend could lead to damage to the house. In effect, the cost of watching the games was the repair of a leaky roof.

But, let's get back to Mr. Ford. What makes him such a prime example for opportunity costs?

The initial Model T Ford sold for about $500 (depending on model and which year it was purchased). People who bought a Model T could have spent that money in other ways (farm equipment, newly invented labor saving devices for the home like washing machines or vacuum cleaners, etc). The opportunity cost to buying the Model T was that they couldn't buy the other things.

By stressing a mass market and low prices, Ford lowered the opportunity cost of his car. People had to give up less stuff to buy one. As a result Ford sold nearly 15 million cars between 1909 and 1927!

But, Mr. Ford also made some bad choices. He stayed with the Model T too long. By staying with the Model T, Ford couldn't introduce an all new car. That was the cost of sticking with the T. It was an expensive decision. From 1920 to 1926 Chevrolet's production went up by 400%. Ford's decreased by 20%. Ford's early dominant position in the industry was lost.

What can we learn from Henry Ford's example? Mainly that we should think before we make big decisions. Often the opportunity costs aren't that apparent. Had Ford recognized what it was costing him he probably would have replaced the T earlier.

We need to do the hard work of thinking, too. The cost of that minivan might not just be the SUV that we didn't buy. It might mean that a change in income could force Mom into an evening job to make the payments. The cost of being away from her children could be very expensive (lower grades, teen pregnancy, gang involvement). Take the time to consider the different alternatives and how each option could play out in the future.

Henry was right. Thinking is hard work. But, it can also be very well paid work, too!

Related Reading:

Why Government Debt Matters to You

11 Ways to Go Frugal

Weekly Roundup

Still Tasty is a very useful site that provides shelf life guides for food and beverages, as well as storage and safety tips. Their information is gathered from federal and state agencies, non-profit organizations, as well as food and beverage manufacturers.

eFootage offers 1,000’s of hours of both contemporary and vintage stock footage. While it is a for profit site anyone can search and view their huge catalog of stock footage.

Home with the Kids can help sort through work at home scams, discusses the stay at home lifestyle, and offers discussion boards, a newsletter and many articles about working from home.

These five people explain why they took social security early.

Fare Compare is an airline ticket comparison shopping website where you can compare prices on thousands of airline flight options from over 500 airlines.

Some recent personal finance posts I enjoyed reading.

Using quotes this post puts together the Mike Tyson Guide to Financial Planning.

Here are seven ways to avoid paying full price.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed. Here are some tips on how to save money by foraging.

Our Redbox Experience

We finally made the effort to actually rent a movie from a Redbox machine. Several friends and family members have been using Redbox to rent movies for a dollar each for a while now and they would usually just shake their heads and change the subject when we said we were meaning to try it but just had not gotten around to it. So last week when my wife and I wanted to rent a new release I suggested Redbox. Our closest grocery store has one out front so we drove over there and tried it. We found one we wanted, entered the free rental code and got to the part where you swipe your credit card and…it wouldn’t take. After several more attempts we stepped out of the way to let the couple behind us try. Same result. We had a small debate about just going to the video store or trying another Redbox. The allure of a free new release was too tempting so we drove several blocks to another machine in front of a McDonalds. Everything worked the first time and we took home our free movie to watch, glad that we had decided to persevere.

I imagine this is old news to most of you but Inside Redbox is an excellent site to find codes for free rentals.

Frugal Lessons From The Past: Seymour On Work

History can provide some of the best lessons to help us figure out solutions to today’s problems.

Concerning finances, thrift, frugality and simple living there are tried and true bedrock principals that we should never forget.

This post is part of a series that focuses on some of those principals by going to source materials for inspiration.

John Seymour (1914-2004) was a soldier, miner, farm manager, fishing boat skipper, world traveler, author, radio and TV broadcaster, farmer, teacher, and protester and is known as the “Father of Self-Sufficiency.” The following is taken from one of his books “The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It.”

“I once knew an old lady who lived by herself in the Golfen Valley of England. She was one of the happiest people I have met. She described to me all the work she and her mother used to do when she was a child: washing on Monday, butter-making on Tuesday, market on Wednesday, and so on. “It all sounds like a lot of hard work,” I said to her. “Yes, but nobody ever told us then,” she said. “Told you what?” “Told us there was anything wrong with work!” Today, “work” has become a dirty word, and most people would do anything to get out of it. To say that an invention is labor-saving is the highest praise, but it never seems to occur to anyone that the work might have been enjoyable. I have plowed all day behind a good set of horses and been sad when the day came to an end!”

Related Reading:

Frugal Lessons From The Past: Soar Away From the Vise

The Do’s and Don’ts of Cell Phone Repair

This is a guest post by Jesse Herman, the editor of iFixyouri, who specializes in iPhone repair among other services

If you are tech repair savvy some of the latest online trends probably have been favorable in your efforts to save money. In the last few years the amount of documentation and overall know-how for cell phone and computer users has risen drastically. Especially with popular devices such as the iPhone the amount of DIY repair manuals, services and guides is impressive. Especially among service sites and parts stores, the information is usually detailed.

The problem is most people should not attempt a repair themselves. Often times someone will see the cost of a DIY repair and order the kit/parts without researching exactly how to do it. Because this is electronics and not a table, cabinet or some other familiar build-it-yourself product, placing a part in the wrong spot can kill the device. For example, if you use iPhone 3G glass in the iPhone 3Gs phone, it can ruin the phone.

Another big trend within the repair community is reusing old pieces and parts. Just because your phone does not work, does not mean the entire phone is junk. The parts still probably have value. If you own a smartphone and have other old phones lying around, broke or not, let the repair company know and by sending them all in you could get yourself a serious discount. Or if you are savvy enough, take the phone apart and (if they are good parts) you can sell them yourself via places like eBay.

It seems the more popular the product the more likely you will find documentation and/or services to repair them. This is something to consider before dropping hundreds or thousands of dollars on the latest gadget. Before you buy the device check to see if it or past models have forums, blogs and services that will help you when you are in need of a repair.

The last thing you want to do is throw your device away. Whether it is a phone, computer, gaming system or home appliance there is value. If you can't locate a local repair shop to take it there likely is an electronic waste (e-waste) recycling center that will.

Related Reading:

The Two Best Ways To Deal With Telemarketers

Eight Useful and Free Phone Apps

Sell Your Old Electronics on Gazelle

Sell Your Vintage Electronics to Harry Poster

Weekly Roundup

Deal Radar provides “a free, fast and convenient way to stay on top of great savings opportunities and experiences available in your city. Each day we follow, index and categorize local deals to create a simple, time-saving way to find great savings in your city.”

2000 Freebies offers links to all kinds of free stuff, including samples, software, and coupons.

Trip Advisor can give you travel advice, help you to book hotels and flights and provides 1,000’s of traveler reviews.

Currently the debt held by the public and the government totals 13.3 trillion dollars. That sounds pretty grim, until you read this article that calculates the actual fiscal gap at $202 trillion!

The mission of Blip TV is to “make independent Web shows sustainable. We provide services to more than 50,000 independently produced Web shows. More than 44,000 show creators use blip.tv every day to manage their online and offline presence.” Click around the site for some interesting, and sometimes very strange shows.

Some recent personal finance posts I enjoyed reading.

Here the author explains the philosophy of giving while living.

This post asks if you know how much your friends make.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed. This article is about how to make money with a booth.

The Frugal Getaway

Last weekend my wife and I drove up north to the little town where our daughter and son-in-law live to visit for the weekend. It turned out to be a very frugal getaway for several reasons.

• We took our own food, so there were no restaurant expenses.
  


• We took our tent and camped in their large backyard, so we avoided paying for a hotel.
  


• My son-in-law knew of an old garage full of scrap lumber that was slated to be torn down so we loaded up a weekends worth of free wood to burn in the fire pit he made for his little backyard campground.
  
  We ended up having a great time visiting, swimming, fishing, playing pool in their basement, cooking over the fire, seeing a few local sites and…saving a little money!

Frugal Recipe: Hobos, A Campfire Mainstay

This foil wrapped bundle of meat and veggies we call a hobo is one of the easiest, cheapest, and best tasting campfire meals you can make. When we go camping it is almost always on the menu. Beware: once you eat one you will be hooked for life.

Ingredients

One pound ground hamburger

Several potatoes

Onion

Celery

Any other veggies you like or have available in your garden

Your favorite seasonings (one that we have to use, besides garlic and pepper, is Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasoning)

Directions

Layer on a large sheet of aluminum foil: sliced potatoes, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, celery, and whatever else sounds good, topped with ground hamburger rolled into small balls.

Add any desired seasonings.

Then reverse the layering until you end with a top layer of sliced potatoes. Fold the foil lengthways and then fold up the ends. I always wrap them again on another sheet of the same size with the seam down, for added protection.

Set the foil packet on the grill over the fire and cook each side for around ½ an hour. The grease from the hamburger mixes with the water released from the veggies and steam cooks the contents. Remove it from the grill, cut it open and eat right out of the packet.

Mix any leftovers with eggs and cook up for breakfast the next morning.

Related Reading:

Frugal Recipe: Broccoli Cauliflower Soup

Make Money with Focus Groups

Wikipedia defines focus groups as “a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.” There are many companies that use focus groups to either improve existing products or services or to review new ideas. This is where you come in and why you might be interested: they pay you for your participation. If you are interested in exploring this money making opportunity take the time to visit the following sites.

Important: While doing your research remember that you never pay money to a focus group or to a company/site that offers to find focus groups for you. THEY pay YOU.

Find Focus Groups – They are a focus group aggregator that you can use to find focus groups by country, state, city, category, etc. They say they scour the net for legitimate focus groups while weeding out bogus and "spam" ones.

Markets Directory - Use this site to select the market you want to participate in, locate the focus group facilities in that market and find the web site of the facility.
Many sites will have a link to a questionnaire for those who want to participate.

Focus Pointe Global – They have over sixty focus group conference rooms in several locations across the United States and around the world, but they also conduct focus groups via telephone.

Related Reading:

Make and Save Money House Sitting

Save and Make Money by Curbing

Make Money Selling Plants

Weekly Roundup

The winner of The Buck List $10 Amazon gift card giveaway was Dawn C. Thanks to everyone for entering and keep a look out for future giveaways.

If you like to bike check out Bicycling. They offer everything from bike reviews to training and nutrition advice, as well as repair and maintenance tips, ride maps and news.

My ID Score is a “quick, easy, and free way to assess the risk that your identity is being misused. It can be an essential fraud detection and early-warning tool for consumers who are concerned about identity theft.” I scored a 375, which they say is low risk.

I was going to include Finder Base in this roundup as a helpful site but once I got to clicking around it became apparent it is just strange. If some of the stuff listed on there really is “lost” it’s probably best they stay that way.

This article paints some troubling social and financial scenarios and asks if Washington’s failures will lead to a second American Revolution.

Virus Total is “a service that analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines.” Upload a file and have it analyzed for free.

Some recent personal finance posts I enjoyed reading.

This post addresses how to overcome recession anxiety.

Here the author talks about purchases that he regrets.

Weekly Reminder – A reminder of a useful article you might have missed. Here are some great ideas on how to eat out on the cheap.

A Win-Win Craigslist Deal

My daughter recently came across an ad on Craigslist offering a variety of items for sale, of which she only wanted some of them. She contacted the seller and set up a time to see the stuff. After looking the items over she made an offer for just the things she wanted and the seller said she could have everything for that price because she was tired of trying to sell it and just wanted it all gone. It was stuff my daughter could use, so she took it all.

It was a win-win situation because my daughter got a great deal on what she wanted, as well as getting some bonus things, while the seller made some money clearing out all their unwanted stuff.

Six Great Ways to Save Money on a Wedding

Not too long ago our beautiful daughter was married to a fine young man we are proud to call our son-in-law. After the wedding during the reception I remember looking around the room at all of the happy guests visiting and dancing and thought, “I can’t believe we actually pulled this off.” By we I mean my wife, with her planning the thing and telling me what to do. She did such an amazing job that I asked if she would write this post and share several ways she saved money on our daughters wedding. The following is by the lovely Lady Lon.

1. Call in any and all favors. I have always been willing to help my friends out because we have the favor system. I was able to call upon a friend to run the kitchen at my daughters wedding because in turn next summer I will run the kitchen at her daughters wedding. This works of course for a wedding that isn’t being catered. I was able to contact other friends and family members and request help because of the help I have given them in the past or due to upcoming help I will be giving them. I also had someone who was willing to help as a wedding gift to the bride and groom which is an awesome barter gift.

2. Make the food yourself for the reception dinner to avoid the cost of catered food. I spent $500 for the food served during the buffet style dinner. We had 3 choices of entrées: meatballs, pulled pork and pulled beef for sandwiches, 3 salad choices, 3 veggie trays and chips. I made the meats and called upon family and friends to make the salads. I bought most of the ingredients and invited the friends and family who were making the salad over to my house to do the work. That way I could have the finished product available at my convenience to transport to the reception hall. I enlisted the help of my neighbors extra refrigerator in their basement for extra food storage. The food served equaled roughly $4.00 per head, and that even included the snacks served to the guests while waiting for the wedding party pictures to be taken.

3. Grow your own flowers and make your own bouquets. If you have enough time to plan this, it will save you a lot of money. My daughter was fortunate enough to have had a part-time job in a floral shop so we were able to use her training to make all the bouquets and boutonnières. We did not have time to grow our own; instead we went to 3 floral shops and priced the flowers we wanted. The most expensive flowers were the hydrangeas, and after pricing them we decided to exclude this flower. But on the way home we spotted a lot of hydrangea bushes in our neighborhood. Without telling me my daughter went on a walk and talked to a few neighbors and told of the cost of this particular flower and they were more than happy to allow her to harvest some of theirs. So the day before her wedding my daughter went flower cutting.

4. We asked our family and friends if anyone knew of “budding” photographers. We were fortunate to find someone who was breaking into the field and we were able to get a great reduction on the price. The photographer did a great job, and in return for the price break some of my daughter’s pictures will be on the photographer’s business website.

5. One thing we could not do without for the reception was the DJ. But due to another part-time job my daughter had had in high school working at a local bowling alley we were able to get a discount rate on the DJ she knew from there. So it pays to remember all your friends and acquaintances from the past.

6. We had an open bar at the reception. After doing the calculations we decided to get one of the kegs of beer in can quantity, so that way if the alcohol equivalent of the keg was not used we could take the cans home. This worked in our favor because we did in fact over buy, but it was not wasted due to being in cans.

Do you have ideas to save money on wedding expenses? If so, leave a comment!

Other Reading:

How to Buy a Used Car – Including the Audacious 30% Rule

Ten Ways to Save Money by Staying Home

How Do You Save Money on Eyewear and Contacts?

How Far You Go

George Washington Carver gives a great summary of what it takes to be a good human being.

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because some day in life you will have been all of these.”