For many of us, using a deep freezer is a key to our savings. I frequently buy meat when it is on sale and deep freeze it. I had a reader ask me how long she can keep meat her freezer. In my opinion, there are several factors that can determine how long you can keep meat frozen.
I highly recommend not freezing your meat in the store packaging. The packaging is just not designed for freezer. Investing in a decent food saver or freezer bags will help preserve your food longer. I am usually ok with buying generic brands, but freezer bags are one item I will not buy generic. Ziploc or Hefty seem to be the best options for freezer bags. If you cannot invest in a food saver, you can purchase the Ziploc bags that have a manual pump to remove air from the bags. I also suggest packing a larger quantity together, the smaller your package, the more quickly the meat will dry out.
Once you have repackaged and frozen your meat, here are some guidelines for freezing meat, assuming your meat is fresh and not cooked. It also presumes that your meat is properly packaged and sealed. This is also presuming your meat will stay frozen and under proper freezer conditions. (lots of ifs).
You should also know that you can freeze meat for a very long time (indefinite) and it still be safe, according to the USDA. These guidelines are just for optimum taste and textures, as meat dries the texture may change.
(NOTE: These are simply guidelines and you should use your best judgment when preparing frozen meat. If there are signs of freezer burn or other damage, you probably should discard the meat.)
If you would like to leave questions in the comments, I will answer them for you as well.
If you cannot view it directly on the blog, you can view it on Youtube here. Hopefully, you will find this video helpful! If you have questions, please leave them in the comments.
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I spent the day with my family in Washington, DC. It was a gorgeous day, around 75 degrees with clear skies. I enjoyed spending leisure time with my husband and son, it is something we don’t do enough. It was just a picture perfect day — us strolling leisurely through museums together. We laughed, we talked and ask what seemed to be a million questions. My son was thrilled to have our undivided attention for over 8 hours. What struck me at the end of the day, was that all of our activities were free. Strolling through the museum, checking out the Washington Monument and taking in the grandiose buildings… was all free. We spent a few dollars on lunch and that was it. Since it was such a great day, I thought I would share some of my photos.
My favorite thing by far was Julia Child’s kitchen in the Smithsonian. I was like a little kid. For those of you who don’t know, I love to cook and Julia Child was the Grand Madame of the kitchen. So this was a super neat experience.
This is the Hope Diamond. Oddly, it was much smaller than I anticipated. Yep 45 carats small. Both Evan and my husband were oddly disappointed — they envisioned this big massive rock. I told Evan to remember that this is small when he proposes to his future wife one day!
So now that you feel like you had to look at my family vacation pictures…. we can get back to regularly scheduled programming. With fall right around the corner, what things do you like to plan that are free or inexpensive for your family?
Earlier this week, I wrote about picking what deals are good for you. Keeping in line with that topic, I wanted to write a little more about what frugal means and when you can go overboard.
With all of the frugal blogs and the media focus on the economy in the last 18 months, I think some of us are starting to believe we aren’t frugal enough. That we aren’t as good as the next person when it comes to managing our money.
I have read blogs and articles that repeatedly are saying “don’t”, ” you shouldn’t”, ”I never” and so forth. Unfortunately, while I believe that we all have the intention of being helpful, I think this may end up hurting some of you. Instead of keeping up with the Jones and buying a new car, some of us are now trying to keep up with the Frugal Joneses. It has become this crazy thing of well she spent $2.00, I want to spend $1.00.
Now, not all of this is bad. I think it is great that we are becoming more conscious of our money. It is wonderful that we are trying to save our families hard earned money. There definitely could be worse things that we are trying to do.
However, I do want to give you some tips to keep you from feeling like “you aren’t doing enough”. These are some of the emails that I have received from some of you.
Saving money can be a chore. It takes work and time. The payoff can be huge – but it always doesn’t pay to save. What do I mean by this? Well, some deals just aren’t worth your time, energy and sanity.
It doesn’t always make sense to do every deal. I post a lot of things in a day, not every deal is meant for each one of you. You need to pick and choose what is a deal to you. For example, if I post free photo prints that you have to pay $3.99 shipping on – and you run outside and take 20 prints just to get your freebie, that doesn’t make sense. However, if you just had a big birthday event for your kid, it makes sense for you to save $7.00 and get your prints done.
When I first started couponing and reading money saving blogs, I tried to do EVERY SINGLE DEAL. I was like a crazy person running from CVS to Rite Aid to Target and then starting all over again. I got burned out fast. This is what happens to many newbies, they try to do everything, they get burnt out and quit. Do not do that to yourself. You have to ask, does this really pay for me to be running around to get free trial size shampoos at Target when I can wait until Sunday and get a full bottle for $.25.
If I am busy and I cannot fit in shopping a particular week, this is how I decide if a deal is worth me fitting it in:
1. Do I need it? If you are out of toilet paper and a toilet paper deal pops up, then most definitely do the deal.
2. Does the item go on sale infrequently? I may drive to CVS and Rite Aid for deals that only occasionally pop up. There are medications like Benadryl that had a great deal this summer, that I can usually only get for about 50% off. When they went to free, I was all over it. If the deal is shampoo or toothpaste, I guarantee you will find it next week.
3. Are you brand loyal and its the product you love? If you are brand loyal, your chances of finding a deal frequently might be a little less, so in this case I would do the deal.
4. Are you going to buy it anyway? If you have a birthday coming up and toys are 50% off, I would take advantage.
My life has been quite busy and I did not shop Rite Aid for two weeks in a row ! For those of you who read my posts, you know that this is unheard of for me! Bottom Line: It is okay to not do every single deal you see.
I have posted this in the past, but have had some questions recently, so here is an update to how Ebates work.
How it works is simple: the site is free to join and always free to use. You signup and you’ll find the latest coupons, deals and a specific cash back amount for each of the stores on the site, including Macys, Target, Priceline, drugstore.com, Overstock, EBay, Apple, Diapers.com, Gap, and many, many more. You just click to the store and shop like your normally do and when you buy something you earn cash back in your Ebates account.
They pay you in cash, not points or miles, and you don’t need to fill out any rebate forms. It really is that simple, the stores are competing for new customers and they pay Ebates a commission and they split that with you. They’ve paid over $60,000,000 to their members so far.
How Does Ebates Pay: Every 3 months, Ebates send you a cash back payment for purchases posted during the previous quarter based on the schedule below. But if you’ve earned less than $5.01 cash back, we’ll carry over your money to the next check. Bonus Rewards do not count toward the $5.01 minimum.
How quickly is cash back credited to my account?
Most cash back rewards are credited within 48 hours. Some stores, however, cannot confirm your purchase until the return period has elapsed and may take up to thirty days to confirm your cash back.
Pros
Large Selection of Shopping
Pays good percentages on rebates
$5.00 Sign up Bonus
Been online since 1998
Cons
Only Pays 4 times a year
Minimum Balance Required
If you have any questions about Ebates, you can leave them in the comments. Or if you have a good or bad experience with Ebates, leave it in the comments.
To sign up and get a $5.00 bonus with your first purchase, you can check out Ebates here.
I posted this the other day.. but I had some technical difficulties and had to take it down, so here it is again.
I am so excited to announce the new Ebates Frugal Living Community! I am honored to be working with the Blog Frog and Ebates to bring you a place to join together with other frugalistas! I will be working with9 other great women, Ebates & The Blog Frog to provide a place to bounce ideas around, get frugal tips, share stories and get support when you need it. I know that someda’s it is tough managing your budget or trying to plan the next move in your financial journey. TheFrugal Living Community gives you an opportunity to learn more about me, your fellow readers and other bloggers. (and you can ask me just about anything).
Here is the nice thing, you can come to For the Mommas to access the community. You simply go here and you are there! You can join right here and get started today. I just posted my financial success story here and would love to hear yours. Maybe you want to tell about your creative way you save moneyor have a question you just didn’t have an opportunity to ask before.
