• A while back I posted a bunch of cool as beans green living iphone apps that you’ll love, like Earth 911 shown above. Most are free, and a few cost a little, but all are useful.
• Lifehacker asked their readers to share the free apps they are most thankful for last week and then rounded them all up into a nice little tips sheet. There are lots of good ones on the list – 61 Free Apps We’re Most Thankful For.
• If you’re a home owner or looking to be then Home Improvement Apps for Your Phone is a must read.
• If you like the nitty gritty of science then you need science apps. The best of the best can be found in Best iPhone Apps for Scientists.
• A nice green coupon app!
• 25 of the Best Green Web Tools, Applications and Resources
• Like Lifehacker, CNET is thanksful for some computer apps as well.
• If you’re a MAC person take heart because PCs don’t get all the glory. Read 15 Best Freeware Apps for Mac Users or Top 40 best free Mac software apps to learn more.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the apps and downloads I’m most thankful for; well, I’ve got four I love. They’re all related to blogging because of course that’s my job. And the winners…

• Thesis Theme
• And three great ones – the Sociable plugin, PXS Mail Form, and BEST of all Photoscape – I heart Photoscape so much it’s not even funny. Learn more about these blogging tools.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Don’t buy on a whim – try sticking to a list. Oddball ingredients may sound good, but if they’re fresh or have a short shelf life and you don’t end up using them in a recipe, it’s a waste.

Don’t mix produce – fruits give off ethylene which will make your veggies go bad faster. Use separate drawers for produce types.

Freeze bread, muffins, and other baked goods vs. storing them in the fridge. The fridge will keep them from spoiling, but it’ll also make them stale and dry. Keeping bread out of the freezer is ok in a large family – i.e. it’s gone in two days, but otherwise freeze the extras.

When storing leftovers, try freezing them instead of putting them in the fridge, just in case you don’t eat them right away. Also if you can, store leftovers in clear containers. You’re more likely to eat what you can see.

If you eat meat, repackage it before you store it in the freezer. Use a strong zip-lock like bag (squeeze out the air) or vacuum seal. The packaging it comes in is not great for long-term storage.

Your fridge is bad for some items, like citrus, potatoes, and squash. Keep these out of the fridge, but also out of direct sunlight.

If you don’t keep your grains in the fridge or freezer (you should) then add a few bay leaves to the top of the container. Bay leaves can help to keep bugs out of flour, cornmeal, and other grains. You may be able to taste a slight bay flavor in some baked goods, but a little bay is better than a bite o’ bugs in my opinion.

What tips do you have for grocery storage?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Freeze leftover sauce right away. Actually you can freeze leftover anything right away, but my issue is sauce, hence the mention. I make homemade spaghetti and other sauces, but once in a while, if there’s a super sale, I’ll buy. With just my son and I in the house, we’d never eat an entire jar of sauce, so into the fridge it goes, where once in a while it sits until it’s nicely fuzzy. Bad planning. I’ve taken to freezing sauce and other items to save them.

Set your fridge below 40 degrees F and never stuff it totally full. For food to stay fresh and at the right cool temperature, air needs to circulate. Now, your freezer is another story – stuff that freezer to the max to save $ on energy.

Don’t store perishables in the fridge door. Of course anything in the fridge is perishable, but dairy and eggs will go bad quicker if they’re constantly exposed to outside the fridge air and off kilter temps.

Freeze all breads. This is an iffy tip. Some families devour a loaf a bread a day. However, as noted there’s just the two of us in my house, so bread lasts a while. In a small family, you should freeze bread, muffins, tortillas, and any other bread-based item to keep it fresh until you eat it.

I’ve heard that you should store cottage cheese upside down to make it last longer. I HATE cottage cheese, so I wouldn’t know, but it’s worth a shot.

Put most produce in the fridge, even items like bananas. Bananas will turn brown in the fridge, but only the outer peel. The one item to store on the counter would be tomatoes. It won’t make them last longer, but they quickly lose their taste in the fridge.

Have a back up plan for every item you buy. If you buy an item and there’s any sort of question about your family eating it before it goes bad, then you need a back up plan, or you need to quit buying that item. My two major back up plans are soups and ice pops.  If I have leftover noodles, veggies, or tofu, it can go into a soup. Ice pops are even better, because I will seriously toss anything into a mold and freeze it up. Old fruit, left over beans, scrapings of the jam jar, that very last bit of juice, milk mixed with chocolate, yogurt that expires, and even old veggies. I freeze it and my son always eats it – there’s some sort of kid allure when it comes to frozen treats. If you’re an ice pop newbie, read: 32 Unique Homemade Popsicle Recipes & Ideas.

What tips do you have for making groceries last longer? 

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

What you can do at home:

Plan ahead: Planning for meals that focus around known sale items is a smart way to save. Everyone knows chicken usually costs less than fish, and beans cost less then either. Plan the bulk of your menus around lower cost (but healthy food items). Additionally check out cookbooks at the library for recipes that focus on these food items.

Plan menus that are closer to the earth and homemade: It’s way more expensive to plan meals around pre-packaged and pre-cooked foods. Plan for meals that center around food that’s less touched – brown rice, whole veggies, dried beans, and so on cost less than rice mixes, frozen veggies in sauce, and cooked beans. With this in mind, try to cook with a homemade slant. Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be a big old deal. A crock-pot or microwave can speed things up, even if you skip pre-packaged foods.

Make a list: People who head to the store with a list spend less. Once you’re at the store you’ll have no idea if you’re truly out of cinnamon and apple juice, or if your fuzzy memory is tricking you. Buying items you already have is a waste.

Use what you’ve got before buying more: When planning both your list and menus, start with what you have. You know that time you bought all those cans of tomato sauce on sale, the ones sitting in your cupboard? Plan a good amount of meals around those cans – sauces, soups, and so on.

Eat vegetarian: Even slashing meat from three meals a week can save oodles, and it’s sooooo much better for the earth.

What you can do at the store: 

Shop alone: Shopping with overzealous children or an impulsive spouse can wreak budget havoc.

Shop full: If you eat before shopping you’ll stick to your list and not impulse buy.

Be flexible: If you planned your meals (as noted above) you should still be flexible. If fish or fresh broccoli are on stellar sales you might buy these instead of items on your list that the store doesn’t have on a current sale. Work with your menu, but don’t be a slave.

Shop once: Frequent shopping trips encourage extra spending. Have a designated shopping day each week, or if you have a small family like mine, every two weeks. Once in a while we run out of fresh produce and have to make a mid-week trip, but overall we just shop once, and if we forget something, we deal until our next trip.

Don’t lose food: Losing track of food items you have because of poor organization is an evil budget drain.

Buy in bulk: Bulk foods are almost always a better deal than pre-packaged, and are better for the earth (less waste). If bulk foods freak you out, read – Bulk Food Storage: Flour and Other Dry Basics.

Choose one or two stores and stick with them: Shopping all over wastes time, gas, money, and energy. Choose a store close to your house that has frequently well-priced items. If you have trouble figuring out which store that is shop at four different stores for a month (one each week) – make note of basics like produce, bread, milk, and so on to see which store has the best deals. Good everyday deals will save you more than crazy random sales on juice boxes or coupon cutting will. A grocery price book can be far more elaborate, but that’s a long post for another time.

Find deals:

Visit the following sites before shopping to help combat high food prices…

• My Grocery Deals
• Organic Grocery Deals
• Red Plum
• The Grocery Game 

Learn more about saving money on groceries:

Oddly I didn’t see this post before I started this one, but Katelyn just posted a Save Money on Groceries Round Up. Talk about a coincidence.

Organic Food Costs Rise – 11 Ways to Save Money on Organic Food

Best Foods to Buy Organic – why pay for organic if you don’t need to?

What other tips do you have to save on groceries? 

[images via stock.xchang]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy