Today we have another great guest post from Faylee!

Studies have shown American families throw an average of 14% of their food budget in the trash each week. Spoilage from improper storage of food items accounts for most of it. Fourteen percent per week comes to $21.00 of an average $150.00 food budget for a family of four. When added up over a year, 52 weeks times the $21.00 equals $1092.00 of your money going to a landfill.

Just think what you could do with $1092.00 in your budget. Buy a better cut of meat, more produce or maybe even a new grill to cook that food on. I’m sure if you are like me, it would come in handy in lots of places in your budget. Below are some tips on how to save your food item, thus giving you a better lifestyle.

[1] Before freezing your meat, take it out of the store packaging. It will only remain fresh and useful in an air tight package. My favorite is the plastic wrap that forms to the shape of anything, then seals out the air. After wrapping it, I place it into a ziplock freezer bag before placing it into the freezer. The double layer will protect your meat from 99% of freezer burn. Do not forget to write on the outside what kind of meat it is and the date you placed it in the freezer.

[2] Do not store fruits and vegetables in the same refrigerator drawer. Some fruits emit a gas that speeds the ripening of other produce. If you have to use the same drawer due to space limitations, put them in separate glass or plastic containers. If you have not tried the new green bags showing up in your grocery store, think about getting you some of those. The free ones that are offered in the produce department, work nicely, too.

[3] Some produce actually last longer when kept at room temperature. Squash, tomatoes, pears and oranges are a few that improve in flavor when not in the cooler temperature of a refrigerator.

[4] Wrap your celery in aluminum foil before placing it in the refrigerator and it will last for weeks.

[5] An unlikely item that will help cut down on spoilage of your produce in the refrigerator is the inside liner of your cereal boxes. I use them and keep a few on hand at all times. I have kept lettuce in one for well over a week and it came out just as crispy on day 7 as it was on day one.

So when the box is empty, take out the liner, wipe the insides with a damp cloth or paper towel, then dry. They can be folded until you need them.

Today’s guest post comes to us from Larry, who shares his tips for saving money on your vehicle!

About Larry:

Larry Mitchell writes for Out of Debt Christian, a daily blog on finances, faith and frugality.

Your vehicle and all associated expenses are one of the biggest costs for a household. Unfortunately, it is also a necessary expense. However, there are ways you can cut costs on cars. You might be surprised to learn you can reduce the cost of a vehicle by up to 90%!

How do you reduce car costs by that much? Take a tip from entrepreneur Chris Hedgecock. He started www.carsforagrand.com, a great Web site that lists thousands of cars available for under $1,000. This may sound like it is too good to be true but it is definitely not. To prove it, he bought a vehicle himself, though his own website and proceeded to take the car cross country. He spent just $900 on the vehicle and a few hundred dollars more for thoughtful maintenance and repairs. His cross country journey was a success, and was chronicled in dozens of TV news stories as he made his way across the nation.

Before you go out and buy a cheap vehicle, though, understand that there are plenty of lemons available that will break down within days of buying it. So, it is important to understand how to avoid this while still maintaining low costs.

Start by understanding the vehicle’s complete history. You can buy a vehicle history report at www.vindetective.com for just $15 to learn any car’s odometer readings, title history, accident reports, ownership history and other useful data. This will help you determine if there may be any hidden problems making the vehicle less of a bargain and more of a burden.

With any older vehicle, you will likely need to spend a few hundred dollars on top of your initial purchase price for routine maintenance. Get the oil changed, purchase new spark plugs and make sure the vehicle is in generally good condition. This will make it last longer and be more reliable.

Do not spend a lot of money on insurance needlessly. Instead of opting for full coverage or collision, choose just the minimum requirements by law. If you get more than this, and your vehicle is in an accident, the odds are that you will have spent more on premium costs than what the car is worth.

Invest a few dollars extra each month on a roadside assistance program in case the vehicle breaks down. With any older vehicle, you will eventually get to a point where some significant repair needs to be made. If this happens, make sure you know how to determine the value of the vehicle versus the amount of repair. If the repair will exceed the value, sell it or donate it and start over.

If you heed these tips, you can have a reliable mode of transportation at very little cost. You will save a lot of money each year on vehicle costs. You may not have the newest, most stylish car on the street, but you will be saving a lot of money. In today’s economy, this is especially important.

Today’s articles come to us from Faylee, who also shared some great guest posts with us back in May!

About Faylee:

Faylee James is a Life Coach/Writer/Speaker from Northeast Tennessee, who has an above average interest in people, cooking and living life to the fullest. Her website Hassie’s Kitchen Table and blog are in honor of her mother who passed away recently. For more recipes, ideas and thoughts, visit her website or blog.

Substituting: Did you know?

What!?, there’s no eggs in the house and you have already started mixing the brownies. Mayonnaise can be used in place of the egg. You will get the same soft wonderful tasting brownie you have always had using 1/4 cup mayonnaise in place of the egg.

The same can be said for exchanging apple sauce for oil in a cake recipe. I have come to like the texture of the apple sauce so much in my cakes, I sometimes use it, even when I have oil.

If you want an exotic flavor in your next yellow cake, add 1/2 cup pumpkin pie mixture plus 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spices, instead of an egg or the oil. The pumpkin flavor and spices are an amazing surprise when biting into the cake. A cream cheese icing works well with these flavors.

Today’s articles come to us from Faylee, who also shared some great guest posts with us back in May!

About Faylee:

Faylee James is a Life Coach/Writer/Speaker from Northeast Tennessee, who has an above average interest in people, cooking and living life to the fullest. Her website Hassie’s Kitchen Table and blog are in honor of her mother who passed away recently. For more recipes, ideas and thoughts, visit her website or blog.

We have all been taught that we can revive celery by placing it in a container of cold water and let it sit in the refrigerator but did you know, you can do that to other vegetables too?

My lettuce had become wilted, but not brown on the edge of the leaves. I tore the wilted leaves from the core of the head [do not use a metal knife as it will darken the leaves] and emerged them in iced water for 10 to 15 minutes. You will want to drain the water and place the lettuce on a towel to dry before quickly placing them in a plastic bag and back in the veggie drawer of your refrigerator. You can also, stand them, with the torn ends in a glass of water in the door of the fridge for a day. The water needs to be about two to three inches deep in the glass. I was pleased to see that the wilted leaves came back to their original crispy fresh state. I have even resurrected other greens using the glass method.

Radishes, spring onions and carrots can be brought back to life for future use with this tip, also. I hate to waste food and I’m not fond of wilted lettuce leaves in salad so this was a delight to discover. Not only did I not waste the food (and money I spent on it), but I also could enjoy it longer in its revived state.

Today’s guest post comes to us from Sharon, who uses Swaptree to barter with people across the US.

About Sharon:

I host a blog, Here’s What I Found. I love to find great deals and share them with my friends and family. I am a mother of 3 small children and live in KY.

Writer’s Guidelines:

• Articles can be on any frugal topic.
• There is no minimum word count.
• To submit your post, send an email to supercoupongirl@gmail.com with your name, your website/blog URL (if applicable), the article, and a short bio. If you have photos to go with your piece, feel free to attach those also.
• Deadline for submissions is August 24th.

Today’s article is courtesy of Faylee, who shares her tips for saving money on clothes!

Faylee can be found blogging at Hassie’s Kitchen Table, a website lovingly dedicated to preserving her mother’s recipes. Don’t miss her delicious meal ideas!

[1] Resale stores and consignment shops are a great way to stretch your clothing budget.
If you have children you know they rarely ware something out before they out grow it. Shopping this kind of store helps not only you but the ones wanting to pass the clothing on. Most resale stores are run by non profit organization. So pull out your phone book or computer and check for the locations near you.

Go early in the week as the busiest drop off day is Saturday but most do not take the time to put out new merchandise until Monday or Tuesday.

[2] Taking care of the clothing you already have is helpful too. Never leave you clothing in plastic bags you get at the dry cleaners. They can get a musky order or mildew.

[3] Instead of using bleach in your wash load to whiten, use 1/2 cup of baking soda instead. It is much kinder to your fabrics, so they will last longer.

[4] If you have a favorite blouse but you have worn it so often people are beginning to take bets on when you will wear it again, change the buttons and you will have a whole new item. Use something opposite as to what was on it so everyone will notice the buttons and not that it’s last years blouse.

[5] When washing something with a zipper on it, make sure the zipper has been zipped up. Leaving them open will only encourage them to snag other clothing items in the laundry, thus making them wear out sooner.

These may sound like little things that no one would notice but these same little things will save you lots of money. Right now, we all need to save as much as possible. Not only for our future but our children and grandchildren also.

Today’s post comes to our courtesy of Faylee, who shares some of her favorite frugal tips!

Faylee can be found blogging at Hassie’s Kitchen Table, a website lovingly dedicated to preserving her mother’s recipes. Don’t miss her delicious meal ideas!

With so many people talking about the economy and asking what they can do to help themselves save money, or stretch what they have, I’m amazed that they overlook the simple things.

When we were children our parents gave us piggy banks so we could save our pennies. We sometimes forget that those pennies turned into dollar fairly often. So if you are looking at more ways to save, look at your pennies.

One way I do that is checking my kitchen cub boards. I think we all would be surprised at what we would find in most of them. Even when we think we do not have any food, most of us still have an abundance of eatable ingredients for one meal or more. So before you start to the grocery store check your pantry, write a list of what you already have and make out a couple of this week menus from what’s on hand.

Second, clean out your refrigerator. Are there produce items going to waste? Pull them out and check them to see if you can salvage anything to ad to your on hand menus. If your lettuce is starting to look a little wilted, take the head apart and soak the leaves in warm water for 3-5 minutes then cold shock them in iced water for about 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly then pat dry with a towel. If space allows, roll your lettuce up in a towel and put in a plastic bag before putting back in the vegetable drawer. The towel will keep it from remaining wet and rotting.

If you have noticed those green plastic bags that have been popping up in produce departments, start using them. While they may not be as reliable as the “as seen on TV ones”, they work quiet well. Plus they are free and you can’t beat that.

Be flexible in your planning. If you had planned to use bananas for Fridays dinner and on Wednesday you notice the bananas are turning dark and will be over ripe by Friday. Make that banana pudding now. Using is better than wasting any day of the week.

We can grow pennies into dimes and dimes into dollars. It’s a matter of keeping our eyes open to the possibilities.

Today’s post comes to us from Jason, who shares his tips for saving money by utilizing your local library!

About Jason:

Jason Fisher writes for Improve The Quality and has been practicing a simpler more frugal lifestyle for several years.

If you are fortunate enough to live in an area with a good library like we do, you have great resource you may not have completely utilized. There are a ton of great ways to use the Library that most people don’t think of.

• Kids Video’s – One of our greatest concerns when we cut our cable was kids shows. Although I hate the TV as a baby sitter is was nice to have out DVR with tons of kids shows for my daughter when she wanted one.

  Most libraries have a ton of Kids DVDs, we get a few each week and since we all know kids never get tired of the same stuff, it works out very well.

• Books on CD – Most people claim to not have enough time to read but if you are like me books on CD are a great way to redeem your commute or any time you have where you can listen, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn etc. Try a few out though, the reader makes all the difference. I have had great books destroyed by a horrible reader (some authors just shouldn’t read their own books).

• Children’s Story Time – Our library has a great little class for different age groups. They get together and sing songs read a story and meet new friends. You don’t have to pay for a kids club or other special play school.

• Meeting rooms – If you ever have to schedule a meeting but don’t want to spend money many libraries have rooms of different sized that you can reserver for little or no cost. Much less than renting a conference room in a hotel. And our library is a Wi-Fi hot spot so that helps when you are doing meeting.

• Learning Curriculum – Ever wanted to try Rosetta Stone software to see if it is really all it is cracked up to be? Our library has it, hooked on phonics or many other expensive programs. Check your local library, if they can’t get it for you odds are they can get it from another branch as most libraries work together to expand their catalogs. Again it is no extra cost to you (your taxes already paid for it)

• Home School Groups – If you are like us, interested in home schooling there are support groups that meet at the library to work together. You may just find someone who is better at algebra than you are and can help you child though a tough chapter.

• After school Homework Programs – If you don’t home school but you do work your child can get help from tutor at some libraries while giving them time to focus on their work

• Used book sales – Often times the libraries get rid of old books that do not circulate well by selling them off cheap. Our daughter has gotten a good deal of books for less than a dollar.

You never know what your Library may have in store for you until you look into it. Check it out because it is more than just some old dusty books.