Discovering Self Reliance - Part 3: Realizing Your Talents

So, at church in my ward I am one of the teachers in Relief Society. I teach only once a month (the third Sunday) which means that I am teaching this coming Sunday! Can anyone guess what my lesson is? Anyone? Talents you say? Exactly right! As such, I've got talents on the brain and, in my opinion, it takes a lot of that to become Self Reliant.

When you truly can get to the point where you are self reliant, self sufficient and self sustaining, you are no longer relying on anyone else other than yourself. You meet all of your basic needs with what you have and what you can get on your own. You have an income from a job of some sort (whether self employed, or employed by someone else). But being self reliant doesn't mean your income has to be 6 figures. When you are truly self reliant, it is because you can live within your means, spending less than you are making and that will be different for everyone.

Getting to that point, especially if you make a minimal amount of money, can be very challenging. When I see the word challenge, I just see a synonym for creativity, or a reason to get creative. Whenever you see something that you need, it may cost money. You may have the money to spend, or you may not. Even if you do have the money on hand, it may be better spent in your savings account rather than on the need at hand. So you can look at your (here comes the T word) talents and see how you can meet that need while spending the least amount of money.

When you think of the word talent, you might think of the things that most often come to mind:

Singing
Dancing
Sports
Acting
Sewing
Painting
Photography
other Arts and Crafts

This list can go on and on (and it does) But you have to remember that there are other talents out there as well, things that are just as important and even more so than the list "obvious" talents listed above. These talents may not even be recognized as talents. But I can assure you that they are:

Patience
Being good with Kids
Creativity
"Looking Outside the Box"
Communication Skills
Entertaining Others (besides artistically)
Being a Good Friend
Good Listener

God has given every single one of us talents. Some may have many, others may just have 1 or 2. But they were given to us to help better ourselves and others. Our families and our personal lives can be greatly enriched when we can search for these talents and learn to exercise them and use them to enrich our lives and others.

So when it comes to being self reliant, you might wonder how your talents can help achieve that. Here is an example.
When I was growing My mother would sew things from patterns and one time she made all of us kids brand new swimming suits! that was so cool, that I wanted to learn how to sew. She tried to teach me but I just couldn't get it. Later, my Aunt tried to teach me, and I still couldn't figure it out. I got the basics of how to use the sewing machine and got pretty good at working it, but following a pattern to actually make something? Forget it, I couldn't do it to save my life. Later on, when we were expecting our first baby, I realized we were in serious need of crib sheets. We went to the store to get some, but they were so expensive that I just couldn't see spending $8 or more per sheet when we needed other things so much more. I collected a bunch of old Queen sized Flat sheets from my mother-in-law who was cleaning out her storage room and with some experimenting, and a few mistakes, I was able to successfully make half a dozen crib sheets for just the cost of thread and elastic. I spent about $3 and saved at least $40. I still can't follow a pattern for the life of me. But I can figure out simple patterns on my own.

If you have a talent for cooking, or figuring gout your own recipes you can save a lot money by not having to buy as many pre-made ingredients or frozen foods. If you are not great at cooking, you can always practice and learn that new skill.

Being good with kids can be an incredible asset. If you are a stay at home parent, and your family needs a little extra income but you really want to stay home with your kids, that talent of being great with kids could make a few extra bucks a month. You could look into getting licensed to run a day-care out of your home, or even just check the local laws and see what you can legally charge for without a license at all. you may be able to charge a small fee to just watch a couple of the neighbor kids a few times a week.

The talent of being entertained easily, or even entertaining others as well as being social (believe it or not is a skill and talent not everyone has) can come in handy when you want to save a few bucks each month. Rather than having a date night out, you can host a monthly game night with friends. Have everyone bring a snack and their favorite game, and all you have to do is play host/hostess, helping you save at least $30 a month.

Get creative in filling the needs of your family by using your talents, or learning new ones, and you'll be surprised at how far that can take you on your path to self reliance!


Discovering Self Reliance - Part 1
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 2: Living on Welfare
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 3: Realizing Your Talents
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 4: Emergencies & Really Being Ready For Them
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 5: Learning New Skills - Maintaining Your Vehicle

Smith's Shopping Trip 5/5/11 & Smith's Rewrds Golden Envelope!

Yesterday, after I came home from Smith's mega event shopping trip, I saw this in my mail! It was my very first golden envelope from Smith's Rewards program! I got a $13.00 coupon from my rewards plus a bunch of other amazing coupons! Note the .50 off coupon on the far left hand... it is for Cheese from their dairy department. That's important!!! :)


I also forgot that in Smith's ad (which I got a day late in my mail) had a few coupons in there as well, I used the Cheese coupon and the Chicken coupon that was in there.


Pairing the Smith's coupons I got as well as manufacturers' coupons I had, I only ended up spending $18.63 for all of the stuff below! (that's after the $3.00 Catalina that I got from getting 2 Pizzas)

I got $76.74 worth of stuff
I only spent $18.63
That's a 75% savings!

Not bad at all considering I have Cheese, chicken, and toilet paper in there! Here is the best part... The Cheese coupon from the ad said $3.99 for a 2 pound block of cheese, I also used that .50 off coupon I got from my golden envelope, and I printed off 2 $1/1 American Made Cheese coupons. In the end, I only ended up spending $2.74 for each brick of cheese, or just $1.37 per pound!!! I was stoked!

Rewards vs. Value

One of the "gimmicks" or promotions companies will have is to offer rewards of some kind as an incentive for customer and clients to bring their business to them.

Dentists all over are offering "Free" teeth whitening for life to new patients.
Tire companies offer vacation packages with the purchase of a full set.
Even Car dealerships offer Cruises with the purchase of a new car.
Furniture and Electronics stores frequently have days when they will offer free hot dogs or pizza and drinks to anyone who come into their store during a specified day and time.
Them Parks even have promotions to lure you into coming.

Companies do this because they know these promotions boost sales. Especially to someone who may not have purchased anything otherwise.

Almost any company worth anything will do it at least once a year, because it is a great marketing tool. If they don't do it, they loose out on business. Grocery stores do it too.

Target offers store gift cards with different promotional sales.
Wal-Mart price matches for your convenience.
Other grocery stores will offer unique items that you can't find anywhere else so you'll come in, they know you will hardly ever come in and just purchase that one thing.
Smith's gives you Rewards Points for every transaction that you can accumulate over time and earn up to $1.00 off per gallon at the gas pump up to 35 gallons.
Rite Aid has their Up Rewards and Video Values
Walgreens has Register Rewards

With all these different deals you can get, there is one thing that you need to keep in mind; does the reward equal value? Not always.

If you are in the market for a new car, take into account what you really need and how much you want what you are looking for. If you really want a brand spankin' new vehicle and are un-willing to bend on that fact alone, then by all means go to the company that offers the best vacation package that you like. If, however, all you really need is a new-to-you vehicle, a dealership with a vacation package will make you spend a lot more than you really want to pay. You can often go to used-car lots and find something GREAT! Check out your local classified ads and shop around. You can find a great price on something that will suit your needs, it will just take a little more effort on your part than just going to a dealership.

Tires often come with a Disneyland Package. If that is the case, make sure what is included in the package, what taxes you will have to pay and also consider how much more you will have to pay to go on the vacation itself; gas, food, extras or even a flight! Also, if you don't really need four new tires, this is usually not a good deal to get. Unless you are planning a Disneyland Vacation anyway, then you can crunch the numbers and see if it will save you any money in the long run. Also, make sure you know exactly which tires you need to buy to get the vacation. they are usually the really high-end high-price tires.

Target will often offer a gift card, usually between $5-$10, for the purchase of two or three boxes of Diapers. If you never use coupons, and you buy diapers all the time, this is actually a pretty good deal most of the time. However, if you are a coupon-er, you can usually pay a LOT less for diapers by waiting for a sale and stocking up then.

Wal-Mart offers their price matching because it works. You still get a great price on everything you were going to buy anyway, PLUS you can get everything in one place! So the convenience alone is worth it, but you have to be careful when you price match. Make sure you know each store's specific "house rules" when it comes to the price match policy. You usually don't need the ad with you, but some stores require you to have the ad because that specific store has had a lot of problem with price-match fraud and policy abuse in the past. Another thing to watch out for, is to make sure you are sticking to your list. If you are grocery shopping and then happen to stop by the DVD section, you can easily walk out of the store with a great price on all of your groceries as well as $75.00 worth of $5 DVDs.

Smith's, Rite Aid and Walgreens all have the same thing in common. When things are not on sale, they are usually over-priced. Some people don't care when it comes to Smith's because they figure the rewards pints more than make up for the cost. Same with Rite Aid and Walgreens. But the truth of the matter is, those rewards barely dent the end out-of-pocket cost. When these store have their sales, pay attention to their ads or better yet, go to GrocerySmart.com to see all the best deals at each store for that week. GrocerSmarts tells you if it a good deal or not so you don't have to sit there wondering if it is.

In short, when it comes to finding the best deals and saving money we can't rely on the "promotion" someone is offering alone. You need to weigh the pros and cons of each deal you find for yourself. Take the time to really think about it and crunch numbers on your own.

The only real VALUE anything thing has is what it is worth to you! So keep that in mind next time you are shopping for... anything! Trust your own instincts and just get yourself to the point where it is OK to make a mistake or two as long as you learn from it the first time.

Happy Saving!

Smith's Shopping Trip 5/4/11

How Many times have you come home from the store mad because you just spent $50.00 on 2 bags of groceries? I used to do that all the time! but not anymore...

This is a lot more than 2 bags...

10 bags of groceries!

$124.02 worth of groceries. that equals almost $12.40 per bag!

Shopping List:
2 Sour Creams
4 Chick Quattro Razors for Women
16 boxes of Pasta
6 Kraft BBQ Sauce
2 Old Spice Body Wash
2 Philadelphia Cream Cheese
8 Bottles Propel Water
2 Jars Ragu Sauce
20 Michelina's Entrees

These are my lazy day meals!!!

$124.02 before sale and coupons (what the average shopper would pay)
$35.73 is what I paid!
That's a 72% savings!

Yay, I got my coupon high for a little while! To see how you can get the same great deal, and to see what coupons to use to do it (as well as see the whole list for Smith's this week) Go here to GrocerySmarts.com. This sale is valid through May 10th.

If you need help with, or are new to GrocerySmarts, it can be overwhelming. But have no fear, I am here! (hehehehe) I can teach a Free Coupon Class for you, your family and friends and show you all exactly how to get the most out of your money.

Menu Plannin - Continued

I've had people asking to see an example of my menu list, so here it is! When I use something up, I cross it off the list. If I make something, but still have enough to last for another meal, I wont cross it off yet. That way I know I still have it available to use next time. This will happen a lot with things like apple sauce, eggs, and your fruits and veggies.

Also, I might want to choose one or two sides to go with a main dish. Sometimes I'll be lazy and not pick any at all, but it is all written down so I can see what my options are easily without having to dig through my cupboards to see what I have.

Note in the Dinner section, for a "main dish" I have listed Baked Potatoes but I've also listed Mashed Potatoes in the dinner section under "sides". I've done this because I have some instant potatoes to use up, but I don't want it for a main dish, or I just don't have enough of them to make a main dish out of. So for the night I want Mashed Potatoes, I'll make the main dish either Meat Loaf or Chicken.

Also, I only have listed four different desserts. In my family, we try to limit sweets to a minimum, especially since my husband is diabetic. So we will only have dessert once a week, sometimes not even that often. But I've listed the different options we have in the house so I can easily let Justin pick what dessert he wants the day we do have it.

Main Dish	Side(s)	Dessert
BREAKFAST
French Toast Breakfast Danish Pancakes Cold Cereal Oatmeal Toast Pop Tarts Omelets	Scrambled Eggs Sausage Bacon Bananas Apple Sauce Toast Fruit Cups
LUNCH
PB&J Sandwich Tuna Sandwich Mac & Cheese Banana Bread Bagel Pizzas Burritos Quesadillas	Raisins Cheese Sticks Salad Grapes Apple Slices Fruit Cups Carrots
DINNER
Lasagna Spaghetti & Tuna Chicken Baked Potatoes Meat Loaf Rice Casserole TV Dinners Frozen Pizza	Home-Made Rolls Crescent Rolls Salad Canned Corn Fresh Broccoli Steamed Carrots Garlic Toast Mixed Veggies Mashed Potatoes Green Beans	Mini Cakes Ice Cream Brownies Pie
SNACKS
Yogurt Apple Sauce Crackers Cheese Sticks Pepperoni Raisins Grapes Nuts Carrots Cucumbers Jerky

Also check out: Menu Planning & Planning "Alternative"

Discovering Self Reliance - Part 2: Living on Welfare

It's Tuesday again, and that means another installment in my Self Reliance series. This week, I want to talk a bit about welfare. Let me preface this topic with the fact that I am not hear to tell you not to use it nor chastise you for using it at all. I am merely going to state my side of the issue and give you some ideas and theories, you then can take it for what it is worth and please know that either way I intend no offense on either side of the issue. I understand that welfare can be and often is a very touchy and controversial subject, so I will do my very best to approach it with the utmost delicacy. That said, let's dive in, shall we?

I have heard people look down on welfare with disdain and disgust as something that should be avoided as a plague. They see welfare as the thing that will destroy this nation and as such should be completely done away with. On the other hand there are others who take total advantage of welfare programs and use them as a way to live their lifestyles they want without having to work for it. The latter group are the ones who make the prior group absolutely right! When someone takes advantage of any system, that system then becomes less useful for those that can actually benefit from it. When more people start to take advantage of that system the system that started out as a very good thing then comes in serious danger of being stopped all together.

When it comes to welfare programs; WIC, food stamps, low income housing and the list goes on and on... it is me personal belief that each and every single program was an inspired thing. Someone was inspired to start each and every welfare program because they wanted to help people. Someone saw a need and wanted to make a difference. So I think that welfare programs are a great blessing, and a wonderful tool when it is used correctly.

I truly believe that welfare programs are there to be used and that we should use them when we need them. The key word; need.
Welfare programs should be used only as a last resort. When we have exhausted all other efforts and ideas. When we cannot help ourselves and when the help of family and friends is not enough. When relying on friends and family becomes a bigger burden for our loved ones than is more burden for them than an opportunity to serve.
I also believe that welfare is a tool we have all been blessed with. a valuable tool we can use in our journey to self reliance and self sufficiency. As a tool, and not a means.

We can use welfare programs to help us become self reliant. Here is an example:
One family I know (we will avoid names for the sake of anonymity) who were living on very little each month. Even with two incomes they were barely making ends meet. They became pregnant and figured an even tighter budget to allow for them to have the baby within their means. When the baby was born, the mother had a rare case where her milk didn't contain any fat. As a result she was unable to breastfeed her newborn and the small family had to turn to using formula.
Anyone who has ever bottle fed a baby knows how much formula costs. Well, formula just wasn't an option financially, but the baby obviously had to be fed. So this small family turned to WIC to be able to feed their child.
Now, in this families situation, they easily would have qualified for food stamps as well as WIC, but they were able to still make ends meet, albeit just barely, with their meager income and WIC. They asked for just enough help to get them through. Once they no longer needed formula for the baby, they stopped using WIC and continued to be self reliant on what they had by pinching pennies where they needed to and doing the most they could while still living within their means.
In this case, WIC was a tool they used when they needed it, but it was also their goal to not need it for very long. As soon as they were able to stand on their own feet, they did!

There will always be those who go to the emergency room using medicaid to pay for their treatments while sitting in the waiting room texting on their iPhone holding their Prada bag. There will always be people who abuse the system and there will never be much we can do about that. But we can strive to be the best and most honest person we can be as an individual.
We should all strive to be self sufficient and do everything we possibly can for ourselves. But, on the other hand, we can't be the one who will look down on those that use welfare for any reason. We never know where they are coming from or what their story is, and we may never find out. Nor do we have any idea what their goals for the future are. All we can do is worry about ourselves and reach out to those who may need our help.

Discovering Self Reliance - Part 1
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 2: Living on Welfare
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 3: Realizing Your Talents
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 4: Emergencies & Really Being Ready For Them
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 5: Learning New Skills - Maintaining Your Vehicle

Menu Planning & Planning "Alternative"

I grew up the oldest of 9 children. My mom and dad got a divorce during my early teen years, and we all lived with my mother after the separation. As a result we really learned the value and importance of menu planning. We were always on a tight budget when it came to food and we learned early on how to make a dollar stretch when it came to food. We never went hungry, and with 5 brothers we still had more than enough to eat. A big part of that was how mu mother planned our meals and how she prepared them consistently. Keep in mind that we always had to make each meal fresh; freezer cooking just wasn't an option with our large family. So, we relied a lot on what we had on hand and what was on sale.

Te best way to save money on your groceries when you are using coupons or even when you aren't is to plan your menus for all three meals of the day as well as any snacks you might have. This planning helps you to have a little more self control when it comes to eating out because you never have to really think about "what's for dinner?" You have the meals planned and you know what you are going to make because you thought about it and planned for it ahead of time.
I think the most popular way to menu plan is to plan the entire meals for the week, write down a calendar schedule for that week, and then do the shopping for those menus each week. That is a great way to plan ahead and stick to a menu. Another thing you might do in addition to just planning is to plan those meals around what is on sale that week, by looking at the ads that week or by going to GrocerySmarts.com to see the sales and coupons to use.
I've never been able to stick to a menu plan like that, I'm too spontaneous in my nature to stick to a schedule so closely.
A lot of other people are too, so another way to plan your weekly meals is to make a list of 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches and 7 dinners. You then shop each week for those meals. When you've made one of the meals you cross it off your list so you know you've already used the ingredients to make that meal. This is a great way to plan but still have flexibility in your cooking schedule.

What my family and I do is a bit different still. Since we are using coupons to get the very best prices on food items and also stocking up our food storage as well, menu "planning" doesn't really work for our family very well. We still have a menu plan of sorts but it is a bit different. First of all, when we plan out meals we plan them anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks at a time. We make a list that consists of breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees, then sides for each meal as well a list of snacks and desserts. We look at our storage room (that is growing all the time) and first write down all the ingredients that we have that really need to just be used, say for example we have pasta and potatoes that are a little older that need to be used so we can either consume it before it goes bad or use it to rotate out the old to make room for new. We then write down other ingredients that we have a lot of, maybe tuna and peas. Once we have a nice list of things that need using, it may look something like this:

Pasta
Potatoes
Corn Chips
Tuna
Peas
Canned Corn

We look at that list and (this is my favorite part) I get creative. I see if there is anything I can make out of all of those ingredients. Combining as many ingredients as I can into one dish. In the example list above, I have pasta, tuna and peas. I can make a yummy tuna salad out of those three ingredients; so I'll put tuna salad down on my menu list. I'll make as many different dishes out of those that I can while also using other things I have in my storage room to complete a meal or dish. I can make baked potatoes for one meal, and I know I have chili on hand as well, so those corn chips will be great for hay stacks.

I keep my shopping list for menu planning as small as possible. Buying only the absolute needs to finish the menu I have in order use the things I already have in my house. By doing the planning around my storage I save a lot more money and also don't have to plan my shopping around what we will eat. I plan the eating around the shopping. (hopefully that makes a bit of sense)

Then when it comes time to make a meal, I simply look at my list. It's dinner time so I look at the dinner entrees, the potatoes need used sooner than the pasta, so I'll make baked potatoes. Then I look at the sides on the list and see what I feel like making with the potatoes, we'll have canned corn for the side and some rolls I'll make from scratch. I then I cross those off of my list so I know I've used it.


In addition to making these lists of dishes and meals, This works great for us because if there is a week I just don't have time to plan, I can always just go to my storage room, look at what I have, let my creative juices flow and whip up something very different, unique and tasty for dinner without having to stress about what we are going to do for dinner.

For me, this is by far the best way to plan and cook meals. We will also have one or two meals throughout the week that are designated "left-over" meals where we eat whatever leftovers are in the fridge. My mom still has a lot of people living under her roof and they get a lot of leftovers. They keep the leftovers in their fridge for one week, from Sunday till Saturday night and then eat the leftovers for dinner. Whatever isn't eaten at that point is then thrown away before it has a chance to go bad in the fridge. (with that many people in one house though, there is not ever very much to throw away afterwards) I like this system and have adopted it into our house as well.

Hopefully my ramblings made some sense and you can either take it and use it yourself or you got an idea while reading this and came up with your own system that will work for your family! I'd love to hear how you plan for your family meals. Feel free to share!

Also look at: Menu Planning - Continued