Saving Money on Groceries

It’s the first week of the month and most of us are busy planning out our monthly household budgets. If there is one thing families almost always overspend on, that would be food. While my father taught me that good food has no price tag, we all should learn to be smart and learn to budget our groceries.

Take a look at these basic tips about saving money on groceries.

1. Shop for basics first. The bulk of your grocery budget should go for basic foods that form the staple of your diet. Milk, bread, eggs, produce and a basic protein source such as beans or meat. These items can usually be found around the perimeter of the store.

2. Next, you want to stock up on filling foods, such as pasta and rice. You can purchase whole grain pasta and brown rice for a healthy diet.

3. For the bulk of the remainder of your grocery list, buy generic foods whenever you can. Today’s generic foods are tasty and of high quality.

4. Avoid the sweets and processed foods as much as possible. Not only are they not as healthy, but they are also very expensive. Make your own sweets to control the cost.

5. Use coupons only on items that you would purchase anyway, and for the least processed foods. Coupons can make you overspend if you aren’t careful.

6. Reduce the number of times you go shopping. This can help you avoid extra purchases and find creative ways to use what you already have.

7. Create a grocery budget and stick to it. Better yet, challenge yourself to beat it by a little bit each trip.

Here are some ideas and ways to cut items from your grocery bill that will lower your costs without drastically changing your lifestyle.

Paper towels

Purchase reusable handiwipes, absorbent dishtowels or thin washclothes (check the dollar stores) to use in place of paper towels for everything from drying hands and wiping little faces, to cleaning spills from the counter and scrubbing the floor. To clean windows and mirrors use newspaper or the thin washcloths. Running one extra load of laundry (for the towels and cloths) every two or three weeks is worth the savings in my book.

Expensive cleaners

Baking soda, vinegar and bleach are inexpensive and clean very well. They each go a long way to keeping your home clean. In fact, as soon as I started to spray a solution of vinegar and water in my shower I noticed that I didn’t have to scrub it as often. The vinegar kept the mold away.

Convenience foods

Did you know that there are only two extra ingredients to add to flour to get a baking mix? Flour is much cheaper than those boxed mixes, and there isn’t much of a convenience to be gained. Plus you can avoid all of the extra preservatives that come with the mixes.

Likewise, anything that is in a kit or frozen can be recreated at home with fresh ingredients. Have you noticed the serving size of some of these foods lately? I could feed a family of five with double helpings on what it would cost to purchase just two or three of those frozen meals.

SOURCE

I’m a Fork

You Are a Fork
You are truthful, direct, and straight forward.
People find your honesty to be a bit piercing at times.

You are driven and wildly ambitious.
You know what you want, and you take the most direct path to getting it.

What Utensil Are You?
The First Rule of Blogthings Is: You Don’t Talk About Blogthings

How To Get Safe Drinking Water Everywhere.

don’t even remember when that last time I drank straight from the faucet. It has been years since safe drinking water meant needing to buy distilled water at a water station and not just getting it from your own home’s faucet. Boiling water is not even advisable ever since government health laboratories confirmed that water from faucets on most homes in the city have very high levels of E.Coli.

I don’t think that we are alone. In most developed countries around Asia, safe drinking water NEEDS to be bought, so tourists visiting need to be extra careful when ordering in restaurants (even with ice cubes).

I read upon this great find – a Portable Water Filter Straw (the AquaSafe Straw) is a solution when travelling to places. Imagine it as a portable filtration system set to rival those machines at water distilling station. It is a straw that has a microfiltration capillary membrane with a filtration size of 0.2 microns inside. This means that the smallest bacteria cannot even pass through it.  The outer case of the straw is made of sturdy PES (Polyethersulfone).

The straw is designed for people as young as the age of three, so this is perfect for travelling with kids. I would use this even if I ordered mineral or distilled water, just to be on the safe side.

You don’t want to ruin your trip with stomach problems due to diarrhea do you?
This is a perfect solution.

5 for Wednesday

button by you.

1. Do you like garlic in food?
Oh yes, my dad always said that a food’s flavor is really on the garlic or how you make siga :D

2. Do you have any favorite food brands you always look for?
I love Chips Ahoy :D

3. What food or foods seem to give your gas the worst?
Ack, none.

4. Would you like for menu items at restaurants to list calorie counts?
NO! I wont enjoy food that way.

5. If you were lost in the woods of your area, what plants would you know to use as food?
I dont even know how to cook, I would die! WAAAH!

Probiotic Revolution

Did you know that your digestive tract contains more than 400 types of “friendly” bacteria? These little guys, commonly referred to as probiotics (which means “pro-life”), help reduce the growth of harmful bacteria and promote a healthy digestive system. That’s right! Probiotics are live bacteria with clinically-documented health benefits.

Health Benefits
It appears that when the digestive system is kept healthy, other body systems greatly benefit as well. Probiotics may:

* Protect against infection
* Enhance and boost the immune system
* Promote and improve digestive health
* Alleviate diarrhea caused by antibiotic treatments
* Promote urinary and genital health
* Assist in the management of inflammation
* Help alleviate symptoms of lactose intolerance
* Improve some types of eczema in infants and children
* Reduce cholesterol levels
* Decrease the risk of certain cancers

It is important to note that each type of friendly bacteria has a specific health benefit to the body. With over 400 different types of probiotics identified, researchers are just starting to uncover the health roles and benefits of each.

Food Sources
Currently, foods that contain probiotics are primarily dairy products and dairy beverages, including:

* Yogurt
* Drinkable and squeezable yogurts
* Fluid milk with added probiotics
* Fermented milk such as sweet acidophilus milk
* Kefir

Through fermentation, probiotics enhance the flavor and texture of these particular dairy products. Dairy foods actually buffer your stomach acid and bile, thereby protecting the probiotics from the stomach acid so that they can reach the intestines.

Top 10 Energy Boosters

These are food that pack the punch!

Get ready to dump that coffee down the drain. You’re about to be introduced to a group of tasty, healthier energy sources that won’t give you the jitters, make you cranky, or cost $4.75 a cup.

You’re body’s preferred energy source is carbohydrates. But the key is eating the right kinds of carbs, ones that will give you that much-needed energy without sending your energy levels crashing.

The solution? Keep your carb levels on an even keel to avoid those sugary spikes. Since your blood sugar drops four hours after eating, it means eating more frequent, smaller meals. It means concentrating on low-fat, high-fiber foods and complex carbs – these are broken down slowly and steadily, giving you regular energy throughout the day.

Our 10 Favorite Energy Foods

1. Whole wheat pasta
2. Oatmeal
3. Fruit smoothies made with low-fat yogurt
4. Peanut butter
5. Dried fruit (apricots, cranberries, raisins, figs)
6. Yams
7. Beans
8. Apples
9. Carrots
10. Chickpeas

Also:

* Eat breakfast! This is absolutely the #1 “eating for energy” strategy. It gets your metabolism off to a strong start and makes nighttime snacking a thing of the past. (Coffee is not breakfast.)
* Avoid grease (burgers and fries) and high-fat dairy foods (pizza, ice cream, cheese) and choose lower-fat versions instead.
* Focus on whole grains, which are good sources of vitamin B, aiding the metabolic production of energy.
* Don’t forget iron, an energy-boosting mineral.

Journey To Wellness

The past few weeks have been hard on me. Life was stressful, my schedule so hectic that I felt a lot of things going with my body. I began feeling sick all the time, my eyes hurt a lot, I was feeling lethargic and my headaches were a lot worse than before. I think stress, unhealthy habits and zero physical activity (exercise) has taken a toll on my body.

I am just 28 years old but deep down my body was pushing 40. I knew I had to do something – immediately.

The first thing I did was make an effort to switch and change my sleeping habits. I always slept late and slept for only three to four hours a day. Now, I go to bed when the kids do and wake up earlier, more refreshed and my brain functions more sharply.

The next thing I did was modify our meal menu for a week. We all needed a healthy diet – more veggies, less pork. I also included fish as part of our viand for two days a week. I am still dealing with portion control as I cannot seem to part away with rice but at least I have taken a step towards including more health foods to our diet.

I also banished soda – specifically Coke Zero – from our house. I allow it during weekends but my kids never drink it anymore. They are not as hyper and go to bed easier.

What are healthy foods? They are foods which are high in fiber, protein, minerals and vitamins that help our body function more. Most foods in fastfood restaurants are just high in calories, refined sugar, and cholesterol so we need to be more conscious of our food intake.

Make sure you get a little bit of these in your diet. They are considered to be the 29 healthiest foods:

apricots, avocados, raspberries, cantaloupe, cranberry juice, tomato, raisins, figs, lemons/limes, onions, artichokes, ginger, broccoli, spinach, bok choy (chinese cabbage), squash, watercress and arugula, garlic, quinoa, wheat germ, lentils, peanuts, pinto beans, skim milk, yogurt, shell fish, salmon, crab

Notice they are all fruits, vegetables and fish?