The Grocery Shrink Blog

We're Moving The Blog!

We are so excited to announce our brand new website over at www.groceryshrink.com.  All aspects of the Grocery Shrink are integrated at the new site including the blog, a forum where you can talk to other frugal thinkers, and our store.  My new blog posts will be over at the new site and I can't wait to welcome you there.  Please be sure to change your bookmark and RSS subscriptions so you don't miss a thing.  No content is lost since my fantastic web designer was able to transfer it all over to the new site including all your lovely comments.  See you there:  www.groceryshrink.com

Saving Money with Menu Planning Basics

Menu planning keeps me out of trouble.  It guides my shopping, makes sure I use up what's on hand, and thinks for me when I'm too stressed to think. And saves a bunch of money by keeping us out of restaurants and minimizes grocery store runs.   Here's a basic step by step guide to menu planning.

1.  Print off a blank calendar for the month you are working on.  You can download June 2010 through May 2011 Calendars here and just print the one you need:  Download June 10 May 11 Menu Sheets

2.  Go peek in your fridge, freezer, and pantry shelves.  What do you already have to prepare meals from.  Plan the first few meals from only pantry ingredients so if you can't go to the store right away you can still follow your plan.

2.  Gather your grocery sales flyers and see what's on sale.  Use what you know about regular prices and sale prices to discern a good deal.  Just because it's in the ad, doesn't make it a bargain!  The best deals are usually on the front and back cover.  On notebook paper, write down the name of the store and the item that you are interested in.  You can menu plan with these items, or plan to purchase and store them for later use.

3.  Write commitments in small letters at the bottom of the day square that will affect your ability to cook.  Plan a slow cooker meal or other simple dish for that night.

4.  Grab your favorite recipe books and cooking magazines for inspiration.  Fill in main dishes on your menu plan as you think of them.  Try to vary your recipes.  For example don't plan lasagna and spaghetti right next to each other.  Make like recipes at least a week apart.  Try not to plan a pasta dish for every day of the week.  Give yourself a variety.

5.  Make sure each meal has a protein, starch, and 2-3 vegetables or fruit.  The side dishes can be as simple as a tossed salad, warmed up bag of frozen peas, or a carton of cottage cheese.

6.  As you meal plan, if you think of an ingredient necessary to a planned dish that isn't on hand, write it on the back of your menu.

7.  When you're finished stick your menu to your fridge and check it every morning and evening so you can remember to take out items to thaw or to put a dish in the slow cooker in the morning.

Progress on the Kitchen Floor

 

Darren was up until 2 in the morning this morning making progress on the floor.  I kind of like the look of the black underlayment with the white stripes minus the sheetrock footprints.  I wonder how it would hold up with polyurethane?  I guess it doesn't matter since we already bought the hardwood.

Since neither of us have ever done anything like this, He used Youtube extensively for learning and also called an experienced friend many times.

He finally took a deep breath and started nailing.

I love it!  We decided we'd better tile the laundry closet instead of put wood in there.  I'm terrible about letting appliances leak everywhere.   Tomorrow I will paint this half of the room to match.  I can't wait to see it with all the green gone.

 

Hand Sanitizer for Ink and Paint Stain Removal

I made this rag quilt for my oldest son's toddler bed, and was sad to find a huge blue marker stain on it several years ago.  I tried hairspray on the stain, which only seemed to spread the blue around and not remove any large quantity of it. 

It has been in my stain removal bucket for years and I finally decided to throw it out.  My mom stopped me and suggested I try hand sanitizer.

Hand sanitizer is mostly alchohol, like hairspray, which is it's stain removing ingredient.  Unlike hairspray hand sanitizer is a gel and stays in the stained area to deeply penetrate and remove.  Since I had left the stain so long and probably washed and dried it, it didn't come out completely, but it is enough improved that it will work for an outdoor blanket.

The bonus:  while I was working on the quilt all the paint stains on my hands came off, grin.

Just in case you thought I had it all together...

I'm always surprised when someone thinks I have it all together.  I know how it happens.  I only post the stuff that turns out right.  I realized it, because I was struggling today and yesterday to think of something to post.  All of my recent projects have gone all wrong.  I usually don't think anyone is interested in reading about how messy my bedroom is right now, or that sometimes my kids don't eat breakfast until 9:45 in the morning.

I have aspirations to be better and I really try to be. Here are some photos of things that turned out wrong this week.  Hopefully it will help in some way.  We are all human and have things that go less than stellar, but I'm working to be the kind of person that is willing to pound out the ugly nails and try again.

I got a new 2" finish nail gun.  And found out it's not just a point and shoot tool, sigh.  It looks so easy on youtube. Now my mdf is a mess and full of holes, but it's nothing a little caulk, sandpaper, and paint can't fix--I hope.  On the bright side, I learned an easy way to pound out finish nails:  Grip the trip with plyers on the underside and pound on the plyers with a hammer.  When enough of the head has popped through, grab it with the plyers and pull.  I think I pulled 14 nails or so before calling DH for help to work the gun right. 

This is  a corner of my daughter's bedroom.   I tried laying a white paper floor right on the particle board subfloor like I had done with brown paper and wood stain successfully in the bathrooms.  Unfortunately the oils from the particle board seeped into the white paper and made an ugly mess.  So, I primed over everything with Kilz and then layed a second layer.  Double yuck!  The stains still came through and now the "texture" from the wrinkled paper is more enhanced looking like a really bad plaster job.  I have peeled off all the paper layers and now need to start again with a new idea.  Hopefully it will work and I can tell you about it in a few days.

I have pictures of my bedroom, but I'm not strong enough to post them yet.  You really don't want to see it anyway...believe me.

 

 

We will not forget (Lots of Pictures)

 

The Vietnam Memorial

 
 
 My Husband's Uncle Gregg gave his life in Vietnam and left behind a loving family and fiance.

 
 

  
To all American Veterans and their loved ones:

My Family and I Thank You

 And Salute You
  

We will not forget your sacrifice and vow to spend our freedom wisely.

Your fight has not been in vain.

Rose Lamp Knock-Off

Theirs--$198:

Mine--$35.00

Materials:

112 silk rose blossoms--$32 half off at Hobby Lobby (These were on 8 bushes)

1 lamp shade--$3 at Old Time Pottery (It was marked down from $15 for being dirty.  I washed it in about 3 minutes.)

Hot glue, Old Lamp and white spray paint from stash

Note:  This is a good sized lamp. Total height on finished lamp is 30 inches plus the finial.  The lamp came with a shade, but I soon figured out that it was too huge and would cost close to the $100 to cover it with roses.  That's why I purchased a new smaller shade.  The new shade is still large--top diameter is 6 inches, bottom diameter is 13 inches with a height of 12 inches.  A smaller lamp and shade would be even less expensive to do.

Here you can see the original lamp shade and the new one beside it. Besides the large size,  I didn't care for the scallop design with the roses on it and ended up cutting them off to use on the new lamp.

I tried to sell the old lamp in several garage sales and no one seemed interested.  It belonged to my grandmother and I really liked it, so I couldn't bring myself to send it to the thrift store as long as my mom would keep it in her garage :).  When I saw the PBK picture I knew this lamp would be adorable fixed up that way.

I used paper towels and painters tape to keep the cord, lightbulb plug and hand turning thingy free of paint. And then sprayed it with 3 very light coats of satin white spray paint to make it this:

 

Here's a few step by step directions: 

1.  After you get your lamp base the way you want it, pull the rose blossoms off the stems.

 

2.  Then use scissors to snip off the poky thing on the bottom.

3.  Then apply hot glue in a small circle around the base of the rose and stick it to the lamp.  I found it looked better to work in a ring instead of vertical rows.  I started at the top but can see a benefit from starting at the bottom.  Hold the rose in place for a few seconds until the glue sets up. 

 

Here are some answers for some questions you might have:

Q.  Will the hot glue melt a plastic shade? 

A.  Nope, my shade was plastic and it worked great.  I couldn't remove a rose from the shade without cutting it though.

Q.  Can I use low temperature glue?

A.  No, the heat from your lightbulb could reactivate the glue and make the roses fall off.

Q.  Are roses less expensive at Dollar Tree?

A.  Yes and No.  The roses at Dollar Tree are $1 a bunch, but there are only 7 roses on them instead of 14 roses per bush at Hobby Lobby for ($4 half price)  The DT roses are also a lot smaller so you will need a lot more.  It will end up costing about the same but imho the Hobby Lobby roses were a lot prettier.

Q.  Do the roses block light from coming through the shade?

A.  Yes.  The roses block some of the light coming through the shade, but it is still gorgeous day and night.  The evening light is the perfect bedside "read a book before falling to sleep" kind of light.  We are going to place ours on the corner table between the two heads of the storage daybeds we are building for the girls' shared room.  Here's a evening light photo without flash so you can get a feeling for it.

 Now I have the old lamp shade that I've ruined.  I wonder if I can take all the plastic off of it and make something like this?

 

Thanks for reading.  I'd love it if you left a comment.

 

I have a new ceiling fan!

I was at the hardware store while an electrician worked in my kitchen.  I saw the fan, thought about 5 minutes and bought it.  The electrician installed it before he went home.  At $88 the fan wasn't a steal, but it had a remote, was pretty, and less expensive than other's of the same type. My mom came over to see it a few days later and declared it was the very fan that went on sale that day for $20 cheaper.  How did she know that?  I didn't believe it and looked it up online to prove her wrong.  She was right.  For a few minutes I had a pity party, then called up the store.  I found out that with a receipt they would happily refund the difference, and they did!

Before:

 

Now:

 
 

It blends into the room a whole lot better and doesn't leave spots in your eyes if you accidentially look at it.  Even though ceiling fans aren't my favorite look, it sure has come in handy as the spring temperatures heat up.
 

Thrifted Skirt to Summer Nightgown Refashion

I found this pale green and white striped knit skirt at our thrift store for $1.49.  The fabric is very soft with no pills.  It is a straight style, with few seams, in a large size. That translates to yardage :). 

My daughter Heidi is growing so fast that her summer nightgowns from last year were too small. I welcomed a break from remodeling projects and took a few measurements, transferred them to this schematic and drafted a pattern.

I wish I had a video elf so I could show you how easy it is to draft a knit pattern like this.  Perhaps another day?  The front and back pieces are identical.  I simply drew a fold line on a large piece of newsprint.  Then took 1/4 of the girth measurements and the exact length measurements and transferred them to the paper, connecting the side seams, neck and arm hole curves with a French ruler.  I added 3/8 inch seam allowance.  Her nightgown doesn't need extra ease because the knit fabric gives her room to move.

To prepare the skirt for recutting, I cut off the waistband and the center back seam.

I placed the nightgown front on the fold to cut out and found that my skirt was too full to fit.  No problem, I redrew it just slim enough to fit and folded over the excess.

 
 

Since the back of the original skirt had a seam with a kick slit, I had to add a seam to the back of my nightgown.  I just cut it out with a 3/8 inch seam down the back and serged it together. Knit has a tendancy to stretch out of shape.  To help, I lengthened the stictch and steam pressed to help it shrink back.  The first time the item is washed and dried it usually recovers it's shape.

 To construct, I sewed the side seams.  Then turned under the arm holes 3/8 of an inch and hemmed with a cute tricot stitch.

Then I cut 26" of 1/4" width elastic.  This was 6" for each neckline plus 8" for each shoulder strap.  I cut several 1 inch wide strips of knit from the scraps and stitched them together quilt binding style.  Then I used my longest straight stitch to sew the elastic down the middle of the wrong side of the strip stretching the elastic as I went.  When I came to the end of the elastic, I cut off the excess knit strip.

Then I stitched the elastic strip in a circle and pinned it to my front and back neckline, centering everything.  This created a finished neck edge and the shoulder straps.  I stitched on top of the previous stitching on the necklines and left the shoulder straps free.  What a cute ruffle!

 
 

To finish the nightgown, I used the same tricot stitch to hem the bottom, but this time I stretched the fabric as I went.  This made a nice ruffly hem with a scallop.  An alternative to the scallop hem is to add the same ruffle as around the neck.

 
 Cute, Comfy, and Cost effective.  What more could a girl ask for?

 

Don't forget to leave a comment; it makes me so happy :).  
 

Fancy Pillow Tutorials

I'm going to build a couple of storage Day Beds from the plans at www.Knock-offwood.com here: http://www.knock-offwood.com/2009/12/plan-stratton-daybed-as-request-by-you.html With the layout like this for the girl's room:

As part of our plan we would like to craft some fantastic pillows for the daytime.  We found some just right at Pier one Imports for a mere $39 each . . . what?  They looked time consuming but possible to make ourselves.  Here are some tutorials we plan to try:

 

http://www.blog.sugarlotus.com/2010/01/throw-pillow-tutorial.html

and

 

http://floralshowers.com/sewing/ruffle-pillow-tutorial/

 

I love these!!!!!

http://americanfeltandcraft.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/bed-of-roses-sweet-little-rose-accent-pillows/