Saving Money on Coffee

I have been reading around the web and coffee is such a large, fancy expense for many people. So many different ways to make it and so many different ways we like it. I have quite a bit of experience with coffee and a few years ago I set out to lower our coffee bill. My husband and I spent over $300 a year on good coffee and the supplies. Far too much money for an avowed frugalite.

Here is what I did:

1. Lower the cost of coffee but not the quality. We drink good coffee. No Maxwell House for us! If it comes in a can, I don’t want it. Instead I found a great coffee company that offers great deals. They are not top quality but they are good. Community Coffee is a house hold name in Louisiana. Right not I get 20 ounces of ground coffee for $5 a pound and free shipping with a 10 lbs order (or I did last time I ordered). Everything is vacuum packed so it will keep in your pantry.
2. One way to save money on the coffee is to reuse the grounds. What I have done in the past is to add ½ as many grounds into the filter and brew more coffee. This also saves on filters since you reuse the filters. My husband swore he could tell the difference and told me not to do that for his coffee but, well, let’s just say I was a bit sneaky with this one!
3. Filters – buy them at a warehouse club. I get 300 cone shaped filters for $6. Or you can buy regular filters and fold them into cone shape for even less. Get 1000, or something huge like that, at the warehouse club (big ones are the #4 sized cone filter) and fold them. Or, I just read something about buying a men’s tube sock and using it only as a filter. I don’t know how to do this exactly. Or buy a reusable (non-sock) filter.
4. Stuff to put in the coffee can be avoided by drinking it black. I love regular half and half in the coffee so I buy it at the warehouse club saving about $ .30 to $ .50 a quart.
5. Coffee makers can be bought for a few dollars at garage sales. I see them all the time. Be sure to ask if you can test them out by brewing a cup of hot water. If you ever see a coffee maker that is a duplicate of the one you have, buy it! How many times did I break the pot and then find out it was over $20 to replace just the pot??? If you have the space buy it and store it for when the coffee maker dies or you break the pot.

Two years ago I found out that I have acid reflux and now I drink tea almost every day. At 2 cents a tea bag, this saved quite a bit of money. But I love and miss coffee. I hope you can enjoy your coffee and save some money.

Am I Saving Money by… ?

Last week my daughter and foster son graduated high school. The graduation was at 6 p.m. and finished about 7:30. We had a choice to make about dinner. During the summer months my husband does not work very much. We always need to be especially careful with our money and going out to dinner is usually not an option. However, we also had a coupon to Lowe’s that was about to expire. Our dilemma was about what to order for dinner at Lowe’s (not really!) Our real dilemma was about which thing we had time for. Dinner at home and a trip to Lowe’s OR dinner out and a trip to Lowe’s.

The coupon was for $25 off a purchase of $250 or more. I still have a gift card with about $250 on it and I wanted to use it to buy a light fixture for the dining room and paint for the kitchen. In order to use the coupon, we had to use it Friday night since I was leaving to go visit my mother on Saturday. The only way we could use the coupon was to buy dinner out and rush to Lowe’s after we ate. So, we would spend $25 on dinner to save $25 on the light fixture and paint. No savings would be had.

I realized that it was a tie and decided to skip Lowe’s after the graduation. We had planned to have a very nice, quick, cheap dinner at home and save $250. However, at the end of the graduation we were so hungry that we went off to the Indian Cook House and had a wonderful dinner ($41 including tip) and now I REALLY wish we went to Lowe’s and some stupid fast food place instead. We would have spent far less than we did at the Indian Cook House. (Although I have to say I hate fast food and LOVE the Indian Cook House!)

Moral of the story, well there are several:

1. Always eat before you go out somewhere to save yourself the cost of a meal. At the very least, bring a snack and drink in the car.

2. Don’t wait until the last minute to use a coupon since events may make it impossible to use.

3. Think about if your are really going to be saving money when you use a coupon. It may not save you much, if any, money in the long run.

4. The Indian Cook House is a delicious place to go for dinner.

Fruit and Berry Picking Season Began

I am late! Oh no! I pull up the Walnut Springs Farm web site and see that it is not only strawberry picking season but cherry and raspberry season as well. I need to get out there and pick!

I love picking fruit (except strawberries where I always end up sitting in the mud after 40 minutes of picking.) I pick it on Saturday and then make it into jam on Sunday. Although I end up spending the weekend working hard, I have lovely jars of jam to show for my work. Last year, with our move, I only ended up raspberry picking. The jam was gone by October. This year, I hope will be different.
So, here are the interesting links to local farms:

Walnut Springs Farm is great. We almost bought a house near there. They have raspberries, cherries, strawberries and blueberries. Check back often for picking information.

Milburn Orchards is very famous for its apples but it also grows and sells peaches, cherries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, nectarines, plums, pumpkins and gourds. I know you can pick most of the fruits. Cherry picking begins June 10th. Sign up to get their emailed newsletter so you know what is being picked and when.

Colora Orchards grow only apples and peaches but there are 19 varieties of peaches and 10 varieties of apples.

Spring Valley Farm is also in Conowingo and opened for this season just today. They have blueberries, peaches, sour cherries and blackberries. Go to Ripe Report on the left to read what is available.

Redman Farms is in Chestertown. I don’t know much about it. Here is the link to the Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Chestertown-MD/REDMAN-FARMS/325757919559?v=wall&ref=search&ajaxpipe=1&__a=27
They have pick your own strawberries. They sell many vegetables at the local farmers’ markets.

Does anyone know of other pick your own farms that are local to the Cecil area?