Now that it’s just us two Empty-nesters going on vacation, we eat out a little more frequently than we did when we had a family of four, but we still have strategies we use to keep food costs down. If you’re planning a trip this summer I trust these tips will help you, too.
*Before you go, bake up a loaf (or two) of banana bread or something similar, and have it for breakfast each morning with fresh fruit.
*Take your own coffee and cream with you if you’re staying at a place that has a coffee maker in the room. This will save a bundle!
*Take snack bars with you for mid-morning or afternoon hunger pains.
*Check the local grocery store for ice cream deals to avoid spending a fortune at an ice cream stand. We got a pint of Mayfield ice cream for $1 at Kroger this week and it served us several desserts! How fun would it be for a family (even the size of the Duggers’s!) to each get to chose their own pint?! We have the blessing of having a freezer at our condo, but if you don’t have access to one, you could buy cones and serve up scoops at a very low cost!
*Our strategy at meals is to split an entree. There is ALWAYS more than enough food for one person. This is also helpful for the waistline! Eating your main meal at lunch is also cheaper.
*I would advise moms to fill their bag with special little treats the kids might not get on a normal day at home. Pull out a juice bag when the afternoon (or the wait at that great restaurant) is getting a little too long for your child. An individual bag of Goldfish crackers to go with it might just save your sanity on what you had hoped would be the “perfect day.” Be prepared before you go!
*Check websites for ice cream places and restaurants before you go. Many establishments run specials. Starbucks has BOGO frappes this week from 3-5. Baskin Robbins was also doing a BOGO deal. It never hurts to check!
*Pick up a free coupon book for the area – you find them at tourist areas and rest stops. They often have valuable savings on food or attractions, like putt-putt.
I hope these little ideas refresh your wallet, and your time away!
What do you do to save money on food expenses while on vacation?
I’m excited to have a guest on the blog today! This post is written by my friend and Nova Scotia traveling companion, Kellie Price. I was eager to hear what the Lord taught her on our trip. Her insight is thought-provoking with a great visual to remind us of an important truth!
Denise has graciously invited me to share with you some of what I learned as a result of our trip to Nova Scotia. This trip was such a blessing to me in so many ways! One blog post is not enough to tell you everything that I learned, so I will share one visual that God used to teach me a lesson… “muck”.
No picture can adequately describe how thick the muck was!
As you may have already heard Denise mention, we added a new word to our vocabulary while in Nova Scotia… “mucky”. I can say that I have never really seen anything quite like the muck that resulted from the melting snow that they were experiencing in Nova Scotia. The dirt roads leading in to the camp were challenging to travel on at times and some of the cars even got stuck in the muck at camp. Denise and I walked through the muck every time we left our chalet to head to the main building. We were prepared by bringing boots…but you know by now where the boots were! So, we pulled up our skirts and trudged through the muck!
Doesn’t Denise look so cute in her red galoshes that one of the sweet ladies let her borrow??? She’s quick to point out that she did not teach in them 😉
So, why am I telling you about the muck? It’s just thick, sloshy mud, right? Well, yes…but there was a lesson to be learned from walking through the muck. (We learned a lot of lessons on this trip…and are thankful for each and every one!) Getting from Point A to Point B was challenging. You had to be very careful of each step, always strategically looking for the best place to step next. You could become so focused on watching your feet and the area immediately surrounding you that you weren’t really watching where you were ultimately headed. If you weren’t careful, you would look up and realize that you had put yourself right in the middle of a big, mucky mess with nowhere to go. The danger of looking only at your feet and the muck around you was that you couldn’t see the bigger picture of where you were ultimately headed and the best path from here to there.
Trudging through the muck one step at a time
Isn’t that just exactly how life is sometimes??? We get so focused on our current circumstances and what is going on at that exact moment that we can lose sight of the bigger picture. We should be focused on Christ and allowing Him to lead us…showing us what the “next right step” is. Why? Because He already has a path laid out for us and He sees the bigger picture! He knows what we are currently facing and where we are headed. He knows what plans He has for our life and how He is using each circumstance that we face to prepare us for what lies ahead. When we take our eyes off of Him, we become so focused on our current circumstances that we can get ourselves into a big, mucky mess where we can’t even see the next right step.
Another discovery was that when you were walking with someone, it was wise to follow in their footsteps and work together to find the best route from Point A to Point B. Denise and I learned to work together to find the best path. One of us may have been looking down finding the next right step, but the other one was looking further ahead warning of what to look out for while following in her footsteps. How wonderful it is that in life God gives us friends and family to accompany us on our journeys! I have been blessed to be surrounded with friends and family who are walking on this journey of life with me. Denise is one of those friends! God has used her to help me along my journey by praying for me, mentoring me and sharing what she has learned along the way. Do you know what else she does? She cares enough to tell me when she sees me headed for (or already in the middle of) a big, mucky mess. She helps me to keep my focus on Christ and not my circumstances. She reminds me that, when I can’t see beyond my circumstances, God sees the bigger picture and He has a plan for my life. Sometimes these things are hard to do, but she is a true friend…and a true friend will always point you toward Christ!
Denise leading the way
How about you? Do you ever find yourself focusing on your circumstances instead of Christ and find yourself in a mucky mess? I do! But I’m thankful that I have a Savior who is much bigger than the mucky messes I find myself in…and I’m thankful that He has also surrounded me with friends and family who will point me back to Him! Do you have a friend who helps you to avoid the mucky messes in life by constantly pointing you toward Christ? Are you that kind of friend to others?
I Chronicles 16:11 says… “Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.”
If we are consistently seeking him, we will avoid those mucky messes that life can bring! But…even when we do find ourselves in the muck, God can use those circumstances to teach us and cause us to grow. For this reason, we can be thankful…even for the muck!
So, let’s focus on Christ so we can take the next right step…and care enough to help point each other toward Christ along the way!
As I mentioned yesterday, my husband and I are on vacation this week. It’s our normal routine to rest at the beach in early May.
Oh, how we’ve needed this time! Things have stayed extremely busy and our mind and bodies were weary. But already we are feeling refreshed and renewed!
Here are a few pictures from the last six days…
Edisto Island
Can you see the alligator?Beautiful Charleston
Sunrise at the Beach
Thanks for stopping in for a peek! How’s your week going?
Denise
My husband and I are vacationing at the beach this week (excuse me while I shout!) and I found myself doing what scores of other beach vacationers do – comb the shores for The Perfect Shell – or two, or fifty!
While I was filling my bag, I got to thinking about what makes shell collecting so irresistible.
1. Each shell is unique.
2. Each shell is beautiful with its shape, size and color.
3. Each shell has a special need to fill for decorating or crafting (can’t wait to show you the ideas I have for mine!).
For me to compare one shell to another would be injustice. They each have their own design and come from the hand of a Divine Creator. Are there any that are perfect? I don’t think so.
Maybe we like shelling because it reminds us a bit of how the Lord created us! We are each unique, we look different from one another, and each of us has a place to fill that only we could occupy. If we are tempted to compare ourselves with someone else we fail to see God’s perfect design.
Recently at the ladies’ retreat at The Wilds the speaker said,
“The result of comparison will always end up with a sinful result; if we come up short, we fail to see God’s hand, if we come out ahead, we deal with pride.”
So stop comparing yourself to someone else or expecting perfection in your looks, abilities or accomplishments. Pick up the shell you found on your latest trip to the beach and remind yourself of your uniqueness!
Ground Beef was an easy choice for dinner one night last week, but the question was – “How do I use it?” I could have gone with tacos or Sloppy Joe’s, but I wanted something a little more unique. Then the word, “Empanada” came to mind. I did a quick search on the internet and I used this recipe, which I tweaked a little for my own preferences and according to what I already had on hand.
What is an Empanada? It’s a hand-held meat pie. You can add veggies as you like, but the meat also contains spices to give it flavor and depth. A purchased pie crust would work fine, but I like making crusts, so I made my own early in the day and refrigerated them until it was time to roll them out.
A great thing about this recipe is that you can make up the Emapanada, then pop them into the freezer until you need them! This would make a really fast supper! Pop it into the oven to bake and make a salad while they’re cooking and Voila! Dinner is ready!
Here’s how they’re made:
Click on pictures to enlarge.
Beef Empanadas
1 package of pre-made pie crust (2 rolls)
1 Tablespoon of oil
1 pound of hamburger
1/4 cup diced onions
1/2 medium diced bell pepper, any color
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon chili pepper
1 cup Mexican blended cheese
1 egg
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375*
Combine bell pepper, onion, garlic and oil and saute 3 minutes over medium heat.
Add hamburger, cumin and chili pepper to the pan and cook until meat is cooked through.
Set pan aside and let cool.
While meat mixture is cooling, roll out pie crust.
Using a bowl or large circle cutter, cut out 6″ round discs from pie crust. You should be able to get 3 from each crust making 6 total with a 7th created out of the leftover dough rolled out. I have a round cutter/crimper from Pampered Chef that I used.
Place 2 – 3 Tablespoons of mixture in the center of each pie disc.
Top with cheese.
Fold over and seal edges with a fork.
Place Empanadas on a cookie sheet.
Beat egg and brush on to tops of each Empanada.
Bake in oven for 15 – 20 minutes.
If you were going to freeze these, stop at #10 and wrap in freezer wrap. When it’s time to bake them, you could place a frozen Empanada on the baking sheet, brush with the egg, then bake until done (which may take a little longer than the normal 15-20 minutes).
Have you ever had or made these before? I hope you’ll try this recipe!
