Monday Q&A | Frugality for 8, Husbands and Ice Cream, and Recipe Organization
Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
I have three small children (ages 5, 4 and 2) and am expecting triplets sometime in the next 6 weeks or so.
We are finding ourselves using more and more convenience items at this time, specifically paper plates (we don't have a dishwasher and I can't easily reach past my belly to the sink to wash dishes-- so sad!) I foresee paper plate usage continuing into the future after the babies are born. I justify this by reasoning that it is more important for us to eat actual meals as a family at this point and we recycle lots. I know that you have said "you don't have to make yogurt" (and I've been buying it of late!), but can you also delve into what (if any) conveniences you see as "worth it"?
Finally, as a soon-to-be mom of 6 (yikes!), I must ask you if there are any frugality pointers that are especially germane as one's family gets larger.
-Kristin
Whoa! Hats off to you, girl! You will really have a houseful of small people.
I think that you're on the right track in thinking about this, because I'd have said that probably the most effective money-saving thing you can do right now is to eat at home. Almost anything you can do to make that happen is going to be less expensive than eating out (eat simpler meals, buy more convenience foods than you usually do, etc.)
It's hard for me to say specifically what you should do/not to, but I'd suggest that you look at what other frugal things you do that get you the most bang for your buck...things that require a small-ish time investment for a big savings. For instance, planning a menu will help prevent eating out, and that will save you a ton. On the other hand, line-drying laundry does save money, but not a ton, so feel no guilt over throwing your clothes in the dryer!
Let the little stuff go at this stage of your life.
As far as large family tips go, I feel really unqualified to speak to that since I have four kids and none are multiples!
But since you asked here are a few thoughts.
- Keep the focus on relationships, not things.
- Buy quality when you're purchasing something all six kids will use.
- Remember that children can be quite happy without all the must-haves our society expects us to give them.
- Let it be known in your community that you love hand-me-downs!
- Don't feel like you've got to have your kids in lots of extra-curricular activities. Family time and free time are really important for kids, not to mention your sanity and financial well-being.
I've been wondering...does Mr. FG ever buy groceries when you aren't getting what he wants? For example, if I decide I want to cut back on the expenses, and skip buying ice cream for a while, or special breads, or whatever, my DH just goes to the store and brings it home.
I never notice those kinds of expenses in your grocery budget, Kristen. Does your husband never bring home "goodies" that he wishes you had, or do you always provide all the goodies, ice cream, etc. he wants? Or maybe it is from a different part of your budget and doesn't really count towards groceries or your $100 goal?
-B.
Fortunately for me, Mr. FG is quite good about this. He doesn't tend to go to the grocery store unless I ask him to, and when he does go, he sticks to the list almost all of the time.
He does sometimes do things like stopping for coffee, or getting takeout with friends at work, but since those expenses aren't sending us into financial ruin, I don't really worry about them. And I do try to compromise some with him by buying a few non-frugal items that he really prefers to have (like not-from-concentrate orange juice with breakfast).
I don't know your situation, of course, but from what you wrote, it sounds like maybe the cutting back on expenses thing is mostly your idea and not his, and I'd hazard a guess that he might feel like you're forcing this on him. So, maybe he's feeling deprived and/or stubborn.
If that's the case (and I'm totally willing to accept that I've read this wrong!), then I'd sit down and have a talk with him about financial goals and see if you can come to a meeting of the minds over what the grocery budget should be (maybe he can give up some goodies and you can agree to buying them at least some of the time). If you're both in agreement, that'll go a long way!
There is a dirty pile of papers on my kitchen counter. Yes, I will admit it's mostly because that messy stack is comprised of all the recipe printouts, notes and sheets that I have been collecting for years. It is time for me to organize my recipes but filing them seems so last decade. Do you have a way to organize your recipes? Do you use a software, stash them in files, or re-write them in a notebook? If you use a software, do you have any recommendations?
-Diana
Well, my non-cookbook recipes are in two different places. I have some on notecards in a little recipe box, and then the rest are in a standard ring-binder, which has sections for things like Chicken, Beef, Pasta, Bread, and so on.
A lot of the recipes I try are printable on the internet, so I just print them out onto standard paper and file them in the binder. If I come across one that's not printable, I just type it up in Word, print it out, and add it to the binder.
If you don't want to go to the work of typing up a bunch of recipes, another option would be to buy some 8.5x11 inch clear plastic envelopes made for binders. You could get one for each section of your notebook, and that would be the place for the newspaper-clipping type of recipes.
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Readers, do you have any helpful advice to add to mine? I know there are some of you out there with much larger families than my own, and probably some of you have multiples too.
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Today's 365 post: Sunday Night Dinner
I highlight and copy recipes that won't print out and then minimize. I then paste to Word and print them. My computer will ask if I want to save and I do so the recipe is also saved to the computer. I have a copy for my binder and it is on my computer if I lose it. Hope this helps.
Reader Kristin-
I hope your oldest ones are trained to help with some of the chores! My 3 year old dusts and mops floors for me, as well as helps me gather laundry. While I know that the quality of the work isn't what I would do, (I still have to dust where he misses and can't reach, and the edges of the floor still leave something to be desired) every little bit helps. He uses his Norwex kids mop so I just get the pad wet for him and rinse it when he is done. He is great at hanging diapers up to dry. Is your oldest capable of washing simple dishes? Or at least helping you dry? My son helping me allows me to focus on other things. I have a 6 week old now, so prioritizing my time is key.
On the lines of a new baby, I also recommend cloth diapering. I was hesitant, but tried it with my 2nd child, and I love it! I use the Flip system, which is middle of the road price wise, but there are cheaper options too. I figure I will break even with just 1 child, but there would be definite savings with 3. Time wise, I don't have to stuff diapers, but it's easy enough that visitors can figure it out and help out.
Cook ahead. I cook meals and freeze them. Then you would have just one batch of dishes- maybe your partner could help wash them?
And all of Kristin's ideas are great. She's always so practical and gives great advice!
Diana-
I use a photo album with the pockets. Recipes on 4x6 cards slide right in, and any instructions for kitchen appliances also get tucked in. (you didn't mention this, but I know I have problems with not being able to find them when I need them, lol). I am a messy cook, so a bonus is that any spills wipe right off the plastic covering.
I have second Megan's advice of having your children help with chores. Although I don't have children myself, I once boarded a family with 8 kids and number 9 was on the way. (Totally amazing that they opened their home to me, but such a good experience!) I learned so much from watching this family, and one thing that totally impressed me was the way everyone pitched in, even the two-year old! Everyone had age-appropriate chores. The two-year old was responsible to help clean up toys in the playroom and to put the clean silverware away from the dishwasher. The silverware was kept in a drawer that was just her height, so this was a very doable chore for her. I was so impressed that they were training a good work ethic from such a young age, but I also noticed that the two-year old was super happy to be involved and she really felt like she was important because she had responsibilities like everyone else!
I am in the process of moving mine from a note book, to a 3 ring binder, I am using the clear plastice page protectors (help keep them clean) and I either print them out from a web site, or if they mine, I type them up in word and print them out. Sometimes if I take them out of a magazine, i will just stick the whole pg from it into the binder.....
This is how I have my recipes organized. I try to limit the notebook to my favorite recipes. All of them are stored on my computer as well as text files.
Binder + page protector user also. I use tabs to organize by category, such as Chinese, b'fast, chicken. My page protectors came with a sheet of contruction paper in each, so I tape the recipe to the construction paper.
I started doing this with the tired and true recipes - much easier to find and the page protector keeps them clean.
I do the binder and page protector method as well. Every few months I go through and take out what no longer appeals to me or what I feel I will not try. That helps clear the clutter.
WOW! 6 kids all under 6. Wow! Makes me feel lazy with only one.
Recipes. I actually started my blog just to record my recipes so that I didn't have a million pieces of papers around. You can start one for free and have it as a private blog. Each time you make something, type it in and then discard the piece of paper. Maybe have "new recipe night" each week until the pile goes down? I also am now using Pinterest more and more and avoiding clipping anything paper out.
I'm typing up all my recipes. It helps that some are on the internet and I can just cut and paste. Next step is printing a book at Lulu.com. I was planning to give a copy to a friend too. I have so many recipe books where I only use one recipe. Now I can have a book where I love them all!
I also started a blog to record recipes and links to stop wasting so much paper and ink! Pinterest is fantastic too as it allows you to see the pictures.... My kids are really good about staying off the computer when mom's cooking as I am running back and forth a little more than if it was printed... just burning a few extra calories for those tasting bites!
Diana - I, like Megan, use a photo album for my printed/handwritten recipes. For those that are printed on regular 8.5x11 sheets of paper, I just fold them so that I can see the title when it's in the clear photo sheet. I am also guilty of bringing my laptop into the kitchen and reading recipes from it while I cook, but I know that this could end up in a potentially ruined laptop... I am just careful to set the laptop up somewhere where it's unlikely to have anything spilled on it. This way I can also play music on Pandora while I cook, which brightens my mood and I didn't have to use any paper to print the recipe!
I keep my loose recipes in a binder for the most part. I have a few in a recipe box, but most of those were my mother's and I just hold onto them because they are in her handwriting. Everything else goes in a binder. If it's from the internet I just print it out and punch holes in it. If it's not something printable I cut and paste into a word document and then print that. I sometimes cut recipes out of magazines and just glue them onto notebook paper - a lot more frugal than those plastic sheets.
I would also like to second (third?) the use of page protectors and a 3 ring binder. I'm a messy cook and this helps me keep my recipes clean. Plus I like to remove the page I am using so I don't have the whole binder taking up valuable counter space (I have a really small kitchen).
For recipes that are online I use Pinterest to organize them. It is now so much easier to find the recipe I'm looking for. For ones that are printed, I use a three ring binder with plastic sleeves. I mostly use recipes from the computer, though.
Ditto here. 99% of the time, I'm using pinterest to hunt down recipes. I have a smart phone and pull up the recipe on pinterest whilst I'm cooking. Couldn't be happier, since I'm not wasting paper and my phone wipes off easily should I get flour or something on it 🙂
It would be even BETTER if I had an iPad...but my DH won't let me have it for only a glorified cookbook 😉
(I use my ipad as a glorified netflix watcher.)
I use my iPhone as a glorified grocery list. A $35/month...grocery list.
I like to email recipes to myself. I copy and paste the text of the recipe and the URL into my email and put the name of the recipe as the subject.
To make it easy to keep my inbox clean, I make sure to always label the ingredients list as 'Ingredients' and then I set an email filter/rule that sends any email from myself with the word 'Ingredients' in it to my Recipe Box folder.
Even if you don't have 6 kids under age 6 (wow) it's good to put frugality practices through a time vs. money analysis. What is your minimum wage? That is, how much do you need to earn per hour for any frugal practice to be worthwhile? Crystal over at Money Saving Mom had a post about how her minimum wage is $20/hour (http://moneysavingmom.com/2010/09/why-i-dont-make-homemade-tortillas.html). So yeah, line-drying clothes doesn't cut it. With 6 small kids, eating at home makes sense just because it would be such a pain to bring them anywhere!
I just want to caution those of you who never print your recipes offline, and instead just organize them on Pinterest. I had a few websites that I use to find recipes. One of the sites I used a LOT was Nestle's Very Best Baking, user-submitted recipes. There were several recipes we began to really enjoy. One day, I went to go get one of the recipes from the website and discovered they had redesigned the website and gotten rid of the user-submitted recipes. I no longer have access to several recipes that we really liked. Had I printed them out and filed them, I would still be able to make them for my family without having to try and guess the ingredients. When you find a recipe on a blog or other website, just remember that the person/company that posted it can take it down at any time. I am not saying print every recipe you find online, but if you find one that you and your family REALLY like, be sure to save it to your computer and/or print it out.
I had this experience with Gail's Recipe Swap. Many, many websites are archived at the Internet Archive (http://web.archive.org/) but GRS isn't.
To piggy-back on Danielle's comment, because I am nervous of blog recipes and such that I've gathered perhaps one day disappearing, when I find a recipe, I email it to myself (I rarely print anything these days). I copy and paste the recipe text and maybe a picture in to the email, and I'll also include the link to the source. I use gmail and use labels to organize the types of recipes (chicken, pasta, dessert, soup, etc.). I also have a label for "tried & liked" so that I can quickly see the recipes that I know I like already, and those I don't. With labels you can put more than one label on an email so I may have "chicken" and "tried & liked", etc. Because gmail keeps emails with the same subject together as a "conversation", I'll also sometimes write a "reply" email to my original recipe email (to myself) when I've made some adjustments and I want to record if it worked or didn't (sort of like making notes in the margins). It's not a perfect system, but it's working for now.
My advice to soon-to-be mom of 6---ask for lots of help and accept lots of help from everyone and anyone! Do not feel like you should be able to do it all on your (or your and your husband's) own, b/c that is just crazy--especially when there are tons of people who would love to come hold babies, read stories, do house cleaning, or even change diapers! When my cousin and his wife had triplets, I know that they were so appreciative of others helping out--and they didn't even have 3 other little ones to look after! Just keep praying for strength and patience!
I know you mean well, but "anyone?" just doesn't sound safe... Speaking mother of 3 kiddos... I would definetly be picky... Just sticking my nose in, no hurt intended. But when a mother gets tired and faint, pulling anyone in, can be very dangerous (speaking out of self experience). GB
Diana,
I have been using Cook'n 10 to manage my recipes. I absolutely LOVE it!! For those of you who are looking for a software option for recipe management I HIGHLY recommend it! You can save your recipes, make menu plans, even get the nutritional value per serving of your recipes. It has a way to rate your recipes, and there are a number of ways you can set it up to show you which recipes you've tried and which ones are still waiting for you to tackle. It is available for both PC and Mac. I can't say enough good things about it! It's really helped me get my recipes organized!
For the Kristen who wrote in with the 6 kids, have you considered making your own laundry detergent? My neighbor uses the Duggar family recipe and swears by it. You can find the recipe online and there's a video tutorial on YouTube too. With all of the children the Duggars have I would imagine its gentle enough for babies too. 🙂
I will definetly try this soon, I didn't know it was safe for babies! WOW! COOL!
From what I gather on the web, the Fels Naptha bar soap in the recipe is pretty gentle. There were a few anecdotes of use for kids with eczema. My husband pointed out that if I did it I would need to be careful with the borax part of the recipe. I might just leave it out to be honest...
I read somewhere that you can use Ivory Soap instead of the Fels Naptha. My youngest and I both have eczema. I have had less skin trouble with the homemade than with any other laundry soap.
I make a version with washing soda, borax and bar soap. Takes 5-7 min work per batch and SAVES me literally NINETY PERCENT of the cost of detergent. (Yes, I'm shouting.)
For recipes I have a file box with manilla file folders for different catagories, (desserts, breads, chicken, etc.) When I print out a recipe or rip it out of a magazine, I just throw it in a folder. When I try one, it either goes in the trash or to the front of the file.
My advice for B-
I had the exact same issue with my husband. He often went out for energy drinks or coffee from convenience stores, treats and beer from grocery stores. He's never had to wait for something he wants, so he just went out and bought it despite my frustration about it. Finally, I sat down and showed him how much his "small" purchases added up to every month along with out other financial responsibilities. After that, he got it a bit more. He started taking more food to work. He now makes his own coffee. If all else fails, he'll do without. He still has the occasional lazy days where he ends up having to pay for food at work, but on the whole, his purchasing has decreased significantly. Good luck!
Bless your heart! Triplets! I have six kids, two stepdaughters, and two sets of twins. I'm not as frugal as Kristen, but I try to be as frugal as I can. When mine were all little, paper plates were one of my indulgences. I'm afraid they still are. I home school so all my kids are at home and I simply do not want to do that many dishes every day! Ha. We eat on "real" plates for dinner and use real dishes for everything else. In fact when my twins were little I color coded them so they all had dishes/sippie-cups in their colors. They knew which one was theirs and used it for the day. Even at 2yrs my boys knew which cup was theirs and they didn't drink from anyone else's. It cut down on a lot of dishes! I STILL use different color cups for my kids and they are all teens and above. When they were babies I used disposable diapers. I breast fed my babies, and did everything else frugally, so I justified it that way. When you have more than one diaper to change (at one point I had 4 diapers to change!) disposable is a luxury that you've earned! 😉 I also had babies with sensitive skin, so a disposable was better for them. Remember with 6 little ones you'll be staying home more (= saving gas) eating at home (= saves a ton!) etc... All these things will save you money and keep you frugal. So don't worry over the paper plates. Mom's sanity is worth more than saving in those areas.
Totally off subj: Enjoy all those babies while they are little, and write down everything! With 6 kids you won't believe how much you'll forget. I'm so grateful I kept a journal. Example, my one child's third word was book. He's an avid reader to this day! I would have NEVER remembered that if I hadn't wrote it down.
Aw that was beautiful!
I have attached a lot of my go to recipies on the inside of my cupboard doors.
Freezing is a great idea. If you can squeeze in the time and/or money, I would make doubles or triples of things your family loves and freeze them. Plan your recipes for this coming week and if you have the money, buy triple ingredients and make 3. Eat one on the night you planned and freeze the others for later when friends stop bringing stuff. Also if friends bring you a large amount (friends if you have a person you are cooking for give them 2 of anything that can freeze), freeze the extra. Or if you get 2 things delivered the same day. Freeze whichever one seems most freezable. And if your friends ask what they can do, don't be afraid to give them one of your recipes and ask them to make it for you. If friends or family come to help with the babies, hand them a recipe and ask them to make it if the babies fall asleep (and you should be napping if they do!). Or ask them to grocery shop for you and pay them back with a recipe your family loves. (Maybe they'll get the hint?)
Tips I learned about having someone shop for you: be specific. This helps you get what you want and makes the shopper's job easier. For example:
- shaving gel, any brand or size
- Cherry Dr Pepper, 21 liter bottle
- 2 whole chicken, cut into parts;
If you trust your shopper with your cash, give zir more than enough to buy the whole list. Much easier for zir to hand you the change, then to try to make change from what happens to get in your wallet.
William, it makes me happy that you use inclusive pronouns 🙂
Thank you. I do wish English had a good genderless pronoun. "Zir" isn't a word (yet?) and "it" is considered rude when applied to a person.
Wow. I didn't know Cherry Dr Pepper came in 21 liter bottles. Just Kidding!!!!
I remember seeing some lady make 2 or 3 pots of soup on a weekend and then freezing them and using them for the week, Also you can go for frugal, instead of using everything you eat with paperplates, try coffee filters, or very thin cheap napkins (like at some restaurants they use) for crackers etc, or just plain place it on the table (clean of course! haha) I also use color coded cups for the whole day and I have only 2 big kids! Even that helps with dishes! If you have a WIC program in your area, you may qualify for free formula and baby food, etc. I was even given a phone call for emergency diapers... Please becareful in whom you except into your home, may they be close friends and family, GBU in all that is ahead, don't lose hope or strength know that they will grow-up soon enough and you will be strapping a backpack on thier shoulders before you know it!
RE: organizing recipes -
I made a Word document that lists all the names of the recipes in all of the books I have (in alphabetical order) as well as the ingredients that go into each one. This takes a long time to do, but after you have done it, it is extremely helpful. Once you have a decent amount of recipes compiled you can just slowly add to it over time. I just use the "Find" function in Word to search for an ingredient that I want to use up and find all the recipes I have that feature it. Once I cook a recipe I write down underneath that listing the date on which I made it. That way I can use up ingredients that are sitting in my fridge and avoid always eating the same meals by trying to use recipes that I haven't done in a while.
I was thinking of doing this - you've inspired me to get going!
Wow, you will have a blast with the trips and the littles! Couple of things to know:
Milk freezes well. If you have the space, freeze lots, then take a carton out overnight on the counter .
There's nothing wrong with sandwiches for dinner. Fact is - a sandwich, baby carrots, milk and applesauce is a LOT healthier meal than much of the boxed, processed stuff. You or a helper can make a bunch, freeze individually, then take out a couple of hours before dinner. This way, if the babies are crying, you can still have a wholesome, frugal, kid friendly meal for your littles virtually in seconds. Peanut butter, chicken, roast beef and cheese sandwiches freeze well.
(The following assumes you like the foods specified, no allergies, etc.) A giant crockpot and a large programmable rice cooker[1] will let you do a lot of "set and forget" cooking. I expect you're familiar with what a crockpot can do; if you're not, Simply Being Mum can steer you right. Since rice cookers are less common I'll go into a bit more detail.
There are two types of rice cookers: ones that are glorified hot plates (you have to be there to turn them off, and only simmer rice), and ones that can be programmed. I'm recommending the latter.
I have an older version of this:
http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-581603/Zojirushi-Fuzzy-Rice-Cooker-and-Warmer
At its most simple you can put in rice and water, and tell the machine to have the rice ready at, say, 6 pm. Mine has settings for white rice, brown rice, sushi rice, porridge (rice cereal for three babies coming right up!), soup, and steaming; and when the rice is cooked it automatically goes into keep warm mode. I tested the keep warm mode - the temp is above the food danger range (ie, above 140F).
I make meals in it all the time. For example: put in rice, water, chicken pieces, and salsa and push start. In an hour you have arroz con pollo. Or a packet of yellow rice, canned shrimp, canned clams, and chopped peppers. In 30 min you have paella. You can get fancier by starting cooking on the stovetop then finishing in the rice cooker, or by adding things as cooking progresses.
I also recommend Beth Hensperber's "The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook" for learning how to get the most of out your rice cooker. It's stood the test of time: I've been using it for about 8 years.
Other ideas:
Create a meal structure: Kristen has an excellent lunch plan (leftovers, bread-based meals, and smoothies). For dinners something like:
Sunday Roast
Monday Hash (from roast leftovers)
Tuesday Pasta
Wednesday Soup
Thursday Pork
Friday Delivery
Saturday Pasta
Another idea is to decide for yourself if you'd rather have fewer clothes to deal with and do more laundry; or more clothes to deal with and less laundry?
A large outdoor tablecloth makes a great dropcloth for messy kids projects.
Consider using disposable tablecloths for the dinner table. After dinner have family remove the non-disposables, then wrap up the tablecloth and disposables - combining clearing the table and wiping the table. (It's quite ungreen and I haven't tried it, but the idea seems sound.)
Rice is inexpensive, easy to cook, and adapts to many cuisines.
Home cooked beans are much, much cheaper than canned and - to my mind - tastier. They can be made in a crockpot or pressure cooker. Lentils and split peas cook more quickly and don't need to be presoaked.
Finally - shopping delivery. Even if you want to pick your produce yourself, you can have diapers, canned peaches, and soap delivered. The thought of loading 6 kids - not to mention 3 of the babies - in the car makes my head spin. So I expect it's better to avoid it. MoneySavingMom.com has a weekly listing of the best deals on Amazon.
Good luck! (I think you're going to need it.)
I have a suggestion for recipe organization. It does require an investment, but so far it is GREAT.
I have cookbooks, index cards and internet printouts. I wanted to organize them into some way that I could also make family members cook books for Christmas, or other holidays, of treasured family recipes.
I found this software called Cook'n. It can capture internet recipes and incorporate them right into a "family cook book" on the software. You can make menu's, shopping lists, etc. from this software. So far I absolutely love it and don't know how I survived without it. I paid full price on line ($89), however, if you have a Sam's Club membership I have seen it there since then for $50. I think well worth the investment.
I have a recipe binder and love it. Its great because I can put print outs, recipes from magazines, and also those written by hand on loose leaf. If the recipe is too small or was previously written on a little card, then I will glue a few pieces to an 8.5 by 11 and stick it in the binder. The great thing with this is that if there is a recipe that doesn't turn out good or that you don't use, then you can just toss out. Also, if you have a few different notebooks of recipes lying around, typing them out and printing them for the binder works great because your recipes are all in one place. You can organize them with dividers for brunch, desserts, soup, etc. and you can use plastic covers if you have a tendency to spill over your recipe book!
To mom-to-be-of-6 - Do you have someone as your "point person" (usually a neighbor, close friend, or someone from your faith community's mom group) for organizing delivered meals, people who want to come over to your house to help out after the kids come, etc.? If not, find someone NOW! If you're part of a faith community, let everyone in the parish know (if they don't already), and ask your faith leader about getting some help in those first few weeks. Contact your insurance company to find out if they cover a home health care aid - not necessarily someone to do medically-related stuff, but things like laundry, cleaning, light housework, etc. Schedule a (green) cleaning service in the next 2 weeks or so to come in and do a good deep clean before the triplets arrive, and if you can afford it, schedule them to come back when the kids are about 3 months old!
Recipes - I'm pretty computer-savvy, but I always print out recipes when I'm planning them into my menu. Things that look interesting go on Pinterest, but if I'm actually cooking that dish, it gets printed to hardcopy. That way, if we like it, I don't have to worry about it getting swallowed in the internet black hole. I keep printed recipes in a basic folder leftover from my college days - left side is savory dishes, right side is sweet dishes. I cull the recipes every couple of months, and tab the ones I use frequently with those scotch tape colored tabs so they're easy to find. So far, it works for me! The folder fits neatly between my two favorite cookbooks.
Oh, and a few years ago I made a " Family Cookbook" for my family for Christmas. I included favorites from my family of origin, plus some new recipes I'd found or developed since moving out on my own and getting married. It was a huge hit, since my siblings also lived on their own and wanted copies of things like my mom's stuffing recipe, my dad's noodle recipe, and some favorites from our childhood like "Favorite Hotdish". It's a great way to get rid of some of those loose recipes or tattered 3x5 cards, and Kinko's or a similar print place can print and spiral bind them for $10 or so per cookbook.
As for the woman dealing with her husband purchasing what he wants outside of her shopping trips - what about just allocating him a certain portion of the grocery budget or mandating that "extras" come out of his personal spending money? I sometimes use my personal spending money (we budget $20/month for each of us adults and $10/month for my 3-year-old) to buy really good ice cream or a candy treat. I label it with my name at home so DH doesn't eat it, and he does the same with his high-end chocolate treats (man loves his chocolate!). It doesn't break our grocery budget, and makes us both pay a little more attention to what we're getting at the grocery store.
I use the binder to keep recipes too and it has extra pockets and clear binder sleeves and the whole thing zips up. Next I'm going to laminate some go-to meals that I can use and it's sturdy and durable (my friend does this and will take the real pages from favorite cookbooks & laminates them). Another tool I use, not for recipes but for storytime songs & storytime outlines, it actually is a recipe card organizes from Real Simple and it folds out like a deck of cards and is colored coordinated then stays together with a fastener & elastic band. I really love it and I organize it by the season & it has about 100 cards.
Thank you for all the great suggestions on how to deal with my "dirty pile". I kid you not--the collection of papers and magazine pages is 6 inches tall and 15 years in the making. With all your comments, I am encouraged to get my favorite and well tested recipes organized. I like the idea of creating a cookbook for my family to enjoy...so I'll be looking into that. I am going to start by sorting my pile and getting rid of those recipes I don't cook or want anymore. Thank you again!
Like everyone else, I go the 3-ring binder route for recipes that I end up printing out (but no page protectors, because I'm lazy/cheap 🙂 ) I also use Evernote to organize recipes I've saved on my computer... I usually do this first and then only print them out if I actually plan to make them in the immediate future. Works like a dream and you can tag each recipe with "appetizers" or "comfort food" or "Asian" or whatever the heck you want!
Kristin, mom-of-6
I have three recommendations for you:
Item one- Buy compost-able plates and keep them in a bin in your back yard. This way you don't have anything to feel guilty about!
Item two-Check out once a month cooking. You can make a large large percentage of your food in advance and just pop it out of the freezer the day before you need it.
Item three- consider finding a mothers helper, at least in the beginning. I spent 4 years working with a family of 4. The mother just gave birth to her daughter and the family just went through a divorce. The children were 0-2-4-6 when I came into their lives and I stayed with them for years. I was the one who oversaw the children, helped clean up, and had the extra energy to play kick ball in the back yard while their mom got a shower or checked her email or had a moments peace.
I whole heartedly agree with you that eating at home is frugal, and much more intimate and "connecting" than anything else. A sandwich at home usually is not only healthier, but tastes better most restaurant food eaten "just to eat". That's what I'm all about.
And a great shout out to Kristin and her upcoming "big" event! Wow! May God give you strength, grace, patience, and lots of friends!
I am loving all of these ideas for Kristin...I'm about to have #4 and these suggestions are all wonderful...I cannot imagine having SIX!
I especially appreciate the notion that you don't have to have the kids in a lot of outside activities...it's hard enough with 3...we only do one extra-curricular thing for each right now and then have my two older kids in an enrichment class for home schoolers once a week (which is a nice break for me) and believe me, that is enough. I have friends who have their kids in two or three different activities/sports and they're always asking, "Do you have the kids signed up for this or that?" like it's an expectation. I don't think people consider that with a large family, those activities can be very expensive, and it's just too much for them.
Congratulations in advance to you on expecting triplets, Kristin, and good luck! I think all of these helpful ideas are going to be a big help!
After almost 20 years of collecting and printing recipes, I've got a quite unmanageable folder as well, and need to someday organize those better. But for the past 2-3 years, I've been getting a lot of recipes online and I just bookmark the recipe (or save as a favorite, same idea) in a recipes folder. Then I subdivide that into the ones we've already tried and liked so I can find it again. I'm not a high-tech person at all, don't have an ipad or iphone or anything, but I do love bringing my laptop into the kitchen to look up a recipe now. It's much more organized.
I'll always have my favorites written out on paper and recipe cards, some are from my mom and even my grandma, but the new method is working great for everything that comes in from now on.
I have been using Mealfire.com to store my recipes. Many sites you can pin the recipe with a bookmarklet right into the site without copying and pasting and others like from many blogs you can copy and paste. It is a free site and has a calendar to do the meal plan on. I've been slowly adding my older recipes here also so its easier to do the meal plan. It also allows you to do a grocery list of the ingredients needed. You just mark off all the ones you have in stock already.