I do something every four to six weeks that saves me a ton of cash and time. I had never really thought about it before, not until yesterday that is. Yesterday we went grocery shopping. We bought several packs of bone-in chicken breasts because they were on sale. I am not a fan of dark meat, so this was a steal for us. I busily set to work prepping the chicken for later use and it dawned on me that bone-in breasts are cheaper because people shy away from the extra work in prepping them. Yet for just a little bit of time you save quite a bit, even when they aren’t on sale.

It also goes without saying that buying other types of meat in bulk saves money. We also routinely buy steaks and other beef cuts right at their expiration date when they are marked way down for quick sale. People bypass them because they don’t think they can use up all the meat in time, but you don’t have to! It is perfectly fine to freeze it for later use. What follows here is my basic meat routine when we return from a grocery trip.

-I fill my largest pot with water and bring it to a boil. While the water heats, I skin and de-bone the chicken, tossing the bones into the pot.

-I throw any vegetables that are past their peak into the pot. Celery, carrots onions and fresh herbs that aren’t so fresh anymore all add flavor to the stock. I leave this to simmer on the stove as I finish working.

-I sometimes pre-cook some chicken, usually by baking, then package it up in freezer bags for quick meals down the road. Usually I just wrap each raw chicken breast in in a double layer of cling wrap and pop it into the freezer.

-I split open all the huge packs of meat and divide them into single meal portions. In my house we use meat more as a side than a main course, so a portion of ground beef is usually only ¼ pound. I do make a few larger portions for grilling hamburgers and such.

-Double wrap the portioned meat in plastic wrap and toss in in the freezer. Even meat at its sell-by date can be safely frozen for a few months. Just rotate the stuff in the freezer so you use the oldest items first.

-I strain the vegetables and chicken bones out of the stock. I let it cool to room temperature then stick the whole pot in the fridge for about an hour. Later, I remove it and skim the hardened fat off the surface and discard.

-There are several ways to freeze chicken stock. I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen I pop out the stock cubes and store them in a heavy duty plastic bag in the freezer. I can just pull out as many cubes as I need for whatever I am cooking.

Chicken stock is an awesome addition to your freezer. Use it as a base for soups, to add richness to sauces, to boil rice in, or in any recipe that calls for bullion cubes or chicken stock. You can also save more time down the road by pre-cooking some of the meat prior to freezing it. Cook up some ground beef crumbles for tacos later in the month, or throw together some meatballs and freeze them. It just takes a couple hours worth of time to prep a month’s worth of meat, saving you money now and time throughout the month.

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At one point I had a closet full of boxes. Each time I moved these boxes were the bane of whatever friends I had bribed into helping me, as each weighed just a few pounds shy of an elephant. You got it—they were full of books! Most of us treasure books and are adverse to just tossing them out, even if we know we are never going to read them again. CDs are the same way. W may never listen to them anymore, having long ago loaded our favorite songs onto the computer and mp3 player, but yet we still keep them neatly stacked in a corner, gathering dust.

It doesn’t have to be this way! Spend a couple of hours sorting through your books, DVDs and CDs then sell them for cold, hard cash. Keep the the ones you really enjoy or regularly use, then sell the rest. It frees up space in your home, which is another benefit. Here are some ideas of where to sell them:

Half.com

Half.com is Ebay’s alter ego for all things book. But unlike Ebay, Half.com is not an auction site. You set the price and wait for a buyer. Textbooks and popular titles do best here. Ebay is another option, especially if you are selling boxed sets of DVDs or collector’s books. They aren’t really worth it if you are selling single, readily available DVDs.

Hastings

Hastings is a nationwide movie rental chain that also sells books, CDs and other sundry items. I unloaded a bunch of CDs and books here when I was first married and we were getting rid of the double titles we brought to the marriage. Hastings buys CDs, DVDs and hardcover books. Their cash payout isn’t that great, but you have the option of store credit which pays out a lot more. Since they have a range of products and many locations also have onsite coffee shops, store credit can be a very attractive option. It is also an easy option. Bring the stuff in, browse around while they determine what they will buy, then collect your cash or credit. No headaches, no hassle.

Independent Bookstores

Nearly all cities and many smaller communities have an independent bookstore nearby. Many of these bookstores also sell used books and they are always looking to increase their stock. Rules vary by store, with some wanting only hardbacks and others wanting popular fiction. Call the store before you lug your books down to find out their preferences. Most offer a choice of cash or store credit, and they give you a bit more if you choose store credit.

Music Shops

While there aren’t as many used music shops as there once were, these still exist. In my experience they are often located near university shopping districts. They buys CDs and in many cases record albums as well. Selling to these can be especially lucrative if you have a collection of alternative and independent artists to sell.

Pawn Shops

Believe it or not, pawn shops often offer the best price on large collections of DVDs and sometime CDs. Most pawn shops are independently owned, so call around to find out what they offer. There are some that offer a measly $1 a movie, and others that offer $5 a movie. I’ve found the nicer looking ones in better areas of town offer more, perhaps because they attract more shoppers that browse and pick up small items like DVDs to purchase.

BookByte

Have some old college textbooks gathering dust? Try selling them to Bookbyte.com. This is one of the most painless textbook sites out there. You go to the site, type in the ISBN off the back of the book, and they tell you right then what they’ll pay for it. If you accept the offer they pay for you to ship the book to them and pay you. We used them a lot when Andrew was still in college.

There are a few other places both online and offline that buy these items, these are just the ones I have had luck with. You may not make a million bucks, but for just a couple of hours time you get some cash in your pocket and a more organized home. Can’t beat that!

Do you recommend any place that buys used books and DVDs? Leave a comment!

Tax forms are plunking into mailboxes across the country right now. For many, tax time is one of the most dreaded times of the year. It could be because they end up owing, but my guess is it’s more because they are unorganized. I know I used to dread the run up to tax time and collecting together all my paperwork. I’d usually lose half of it—and only the good half, too. All those receipts I could have written off over the years, money down the drain…

But I am getting better. Last year when both Andrew and I moved to full-time self-employment I realized I had to be organized. While there are plenty of computer-based programs to keep things straight throughout the year, they are only as strong as their weakest link. That weak link happens to be me. I forget to update them daily. Heck, I’m lucky if I do it monthly. So last January I worked out a system that works for me. This system may not work for you. A spreadsheet, Quicken or another program may be what works for you. But any system is preferable than none. Dedicating two hours to getting your tax paperwork organized this week will save you time and money all year.

I’ll detail a few of the things I am doing to stay prepared for the tax man year around to get you started.

A pocket file. I use a coupon file that I received as a free gift from my credit union. It has 15 pockets and is about the size of a checkbook. You only need 12 pockets. I labeled one with each month and the other three work as a catch-all for stamps and such. It sits on my dresser where I empty my pockets each evening so I can file receipts in it immediately.

Receipts. Speaking of receipts, you need to save those. I’ve heard the argument that you can just look the items up on bank or credit card statements. Yeah you can, but you likely won’t. I never did and I’m a generally organized person. Save them now and you don’t have to worry about it later.

A pen. This is one of those items in the catch-all pocket of my file. I mark on the receipt as I’m filing it what I am saving it for. “B” stands for a business expense, “C” stands for charity, “H” stands for home (such as energy improvements), and so forth. Your codes may be different, of course. Just remember to use them.

Income Statements. For many of us these are our paycheck stubs, interest statements and so forth. Just slip them into the appropriate month’s pocket and you are good to go. If you are self employed, a different system is needed. I use a spreadsheet. I have a reminder set on Google calendar each month to help be remember to update it. I then print it out, paper clip check stubs or invoices to it, fold it in half and slip it in the appropriate pocket.

There are other things you may need to save each month, though generally these are the big ones. Once every three months or so I sort through the pockets and input the information into my bookkeeping program. Once tax forms start hitting my mailbox I can be ready to rock them in a half hour or less. No more stress, no more panic, and it only costs two hours of time.

How do you you keep your paperwork organized? Let me know in the comments!

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Cold cereal is the bane of my life. Like all kids, my children love the sweet stuff. Even if we buy the cut-price, store brand corn flakes for $2.29 a bag, it’s still an expensive way to start the day. These bags have 30 ounces in them. My boys get about eight breakfasts out of them. The cereal itself then costs only .06 an ounce, but that is still .29 a bowl. Add in a cup of milk and it comes to .42 a bowl. This doesn’t figure in any thing else they have, such as juice.

On the other hand, I can make up a batch of 30 pancakes in just under 20 minutes on my griddle, or 35 minutes if I am using two frying pans instead. I did some quick figuring and found out 30 pancakes costs me .58 for ALL of them, plus an inconsequential amount for energy to heat the griddle. Here’s how it breaks down:

2 cups flour (bulk purchased at Costco)- .14

¼ cup sugar (also from Costco)- .02

1 egg (18 pk from Wal-mart)- .09

1 TB baking powder (Costco)- .02

1 tsp. Salt (half a penny, rounded up)- .01

3 TB canola oil (Safeway brand)- .04

2 cups milk (Safeway)- .26

TOTAL .58

The kids usually eat two pancakes with a squirt of syrup, an egg and a cup of orange juice (from frozen). This comes to $0.23 per breakfast. My entire family of four spends less than a dollar for a reasonably well-balanced breakfast. Considering in many households pancakes are a treat, you could say we eat like kings. When I have canned preserves we often use these instead of syrup, and the cost is comparable though the taste and nutrition is better.

Freezing pancakes is simple. Mix the above ingredients then pour onto your griddle or a hot, non-stick frying pan. Cook until the top begins to dry, then flip and cook until the other side is lightly browned. Place the pancakes on a cookie sheet and let them cool to room temperature. Stick them in the freezer and set a timer for 1 hour. When it beeps, unstick the partially frozen pancakes then put back in the freezer. Once frozen solid, dump them in a freezer bag (we use old tortilla bags). Heat them up in the morning by popping them in the toaster. Just make sure to make them small enough to fit in your toaster!

Another idea for a cheap breakfasts include non-instant oatmeal. This works out to about $0.19 per serving if served with orange juice and a pat of butter. Unlike instant, non-instant takes longer to cook. Conquer this by cooking it in a crockpot overnight. Jenn at Frugal Upstate has an excellent tutorial.

One more favorite in my house is toaster tarts. These are especially good if you have kids that don’t want to give up their sugary breakfast treats. Make up a scratch two-crust pie dough recipe. This costs .29 to make. Divide the dough into two balls and roll each out to a rectangle. Cut them apart in squares roughly the size of a piece of bread. Place squares on a cook sheet and top with preserves, then dampen the edges with water, place another square on top, then crimp the edges of the two squares together with the tines of a fork. Poke a couple holes in the top with the fork to vent. Bake for 10 minutes in a 425 F oven. Let cool then place in the freezer. Place them in the toaster to heat in the morning. These are just as satisfying as Pop Tarts for a fraction of the cost. One of these made with store-bought preserves, a cup of orange and an egg comes to $0.31 a serving—still cheaper than cereal, and healthier too.

The costs of feeding a family of four each of these breakfasts for a month is:

Cereal: $57.76

Pancakes, etc: $27.60

Oatmeal,etc: $22.80

Toaster tarts, etc: $37.20

Spend two hours once a month creating a month’s worth of breakfasts, and you save between $20.56 and 34.96. That means two hours of your time is worth between $10.28 and $17.48—more than minimum wage in most places. If you end up saving $28 a month for a year on breakfast, that is an extra $336 in the bank. If you put that $28 toward your mortgage each month, assuming you borrowed $150K at 7.5%, you would save over $24,000 over the life of the loan and shave over 2.5 years from the loan. Not bad for a measly two hours, eh?

Do you have an idea for Two-Hour Tuesday? Mention it in the comments! For more frugal tips subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter!



This week we are going to focus on making some extra money with our two hours instead of saving money. Earmark the money before you set to work, otherwise it will likely get spent wastefully. Use it to pay on debts, student loans, the mortgage, save for a new car or fund retirement. Keep in mind that if you earn a certain amount from these pursuits you must claim the income. The amount is usually $600, but you should check with a tax professional.

1-Mechanical Turk is an offshoot of Amazon. They offer small jobs at a small fixed fee. While the pay isn’t huge, the jobs are usually simple. Perusing the site I saw a job for secret shopping a website that offered $4.25, one asking for feedback on a website offering $4.00, and a short questionnaire that also offered $4.00. Most of the jobs can be completed in 20 minutes or less, so adding an extra $20 to your bank account once or twice a week is a real possibility.

2-Seed.com is one of AOL’s latest offerings. You sign up for the site and are sent to a workdesk that offers assignments. These are either photographs or articles. They pay $15 and up for an accepted piece, but keep in mind they do not accept all of them. Plan on doing your best work and peruse their academy to make sure you understand the format they need you to use. They pay out once a month to Paypal or they send a check.

3-Revenue share sites include places like Ehow, Hubpages and Suite 101 to name a few. You write an article and post it on the site, then they put advertisements on the article. You make a small percentage of the ad income your articles generate. Sites like Associated Content work the same way, but they may also pay a small amount upfront, usually less than $5. It can take time to make money from these sites and reach a payout, but it is a legit way to try and build up passive income without dedicating a lot of time.

4-Textbroker is a writing bank. Clients contact them with writing work they need done and writers claim the assignments. Textbroker works as the middle-man making sure everyone gets paid ad the clients get what they want. They are fairly open to hiring inexperienced writers, ad you only do the work you want to do when you want to do it. Pay isn’t excellet, generally ranging between $2 and $7 for a short article. They pay out twice a month into Paypal.

There are many more sites out there that are legitimate ways to make money. None of them are get-rich-quick places, and some may work better for you than others. But if you are only dedicating a small two-hour block of time a week to earning extra money, the sites I listed fit the bill nicely.

Do you know of any other sites like these to make a few quick bucks? Share them in the comments!

Saving money requires an investment of time. Not hours upon hours of time. Two hours is all you really need. Which is why I came up with the two-hour rule in my household. What is the two-hour rule? I thought you would never ask.

The two-hour rule, or THR, assumes that in two hours you can get a lot done. And you can, as long as you remain focused. I’ve found it takes about an hour to really get into a task so that it flows, but after two hours my attention begins to wander and my productivity drops.

Implementing THR is simple. Most of the time scheduling just one or two THR blocks a week is sufficient. Perhaps one on Saturday and one on Sunday if you work throughout the week. But in time of financial need, a daily THR block may keep you from running up debt or even losing your home. The beauty of this rule is as long as you use it consistently it more than pays off.

Use the time blocks to either make money or save money. For example, make up lunches and stick them in the fridge or freezer for the upcoming week. You’ll save time during busy weekday mornings and money when you aren’t tempted to hit up a fast food joint on your lunch break. Or, make some money with your time block. List some books on Half.com, or work on your portfolio or resume. Just make sure to schedule a THR block regularly and to use it for something productive.

We’ll be exploring the Two Hour Rule and using THR blocks every Tuesday here at Turnip Money. THR can really add on to your bank balance while free your time for more enjoyable things. For the cost of two hours you improve your quality of life. There is no better deal than that!