Christmas is just around the corner, so I hope you’re holiday decorations are already displayed around your house. My husband and I absolutely love Christmastime, so we decorated weeks ago. In fact, we decorated the entire house (Christmas tree included) the day after Thanksgiving. Bring on the holidays!
While decorating this year, we realized that it doesn’t need to cost a lot of money to beautify your house with the sights and sounds of the season, which doesn’t include pine cones that $0.69!
Instead of spending money on decorations, my husband and I (and our dog) went out in the woods and gathered a variety of greens and pine cones of different sizes to decorate our fireplace mantel as well as other parts of our house.
Our nature-made decorations cost us nothing and made our home look beautiful and ready for the holiday season!
What’s your favorite way to save money on holiday decorations?
Trading Up Downtown Giveaway
Thanks to everyone who entered last week’s giveaway! Here’s your winner: 36!
I love nuts (ha!) but unsalted cashews are my favorite. Pistachios and almonds are a close 2nd and third!!
Congrats, Athena! Please email me at thaupert@nuval.com with your full name and mailing address to claim your prize!
If you’re a longtime reader of Trading Up Downtown, you know that I have a weird obsession with buying reduced produce at the grocery store. As soon as I walk into the grocery store, I check out the reduced produce section with the hope of finding some good deals on ‘damaged’ produce. Usually, what I find is considered imperfect, but still totally edible. Some weeks I find a lot; other weeks, not so much. It’s definately hit or miss.
A long time ago, my mom taught that fresh produce is good as new with a swift cut of the knife– just cut off the bad part! In fact, my mom and I only make her famous Apple Crisp with B Grade apples. I mean, we’re just going to cut them up, right? Might as well discard the bad parts and save a few bucks on the process!
Another one of my favorite reduced produce tricks is to buy a bunch of bruised bananas and freeze them for smoothies and Banana Soft Serve.
Buying (and using!) reduced produce is just one way that I save money in the produce department. Here are three more ways that I save:
- Pick another pepper: If a recipe calls for red, yellow, or orange peppers, I often substitute these varieties for green peppers as they are often the cheapest option in the produce department. Bell peppers taste pretty similar to me, so I swap them out to save money.
- Plan your menu around sales: Before going to the grocery store, I check out in-store sales on produce and then plan my meals around those items, which always saves me money.
- Buy in bulk. If an in-season veggie or fruit is on sale, I often buy it in bulk and use the extras in various recipes. I hate to see food go to waste, so doing this encourages me to use it up, which helps me get more nutrients in my diet.
What are you favorite ways for saving money on produce?
Scoring items on sale at the grocery store is one of my favorite things, especially when it’s a product that I love and use often. Getting these deals slims my grocery bill quite a bit, but only if those purchases don’t go to waste. If they do, I’m just wasting money!
Here are some helpful guidelines from AllYou.com to help keep items as delicious and fresh as they were on the day you bought them.
Keep your pantry items…
- Bottled salad dressing (unopened): 1 year
- Bread: 5-7 days
- Canned goods: 1 year
- Cereal (unopened): 1 year
- Jams, jellies, honey, syrup (unopened): 1 year
- Peanut butter: 6 months
- Pasta: 2 years
- White rice: 1 year
Keep your frozen food…
- Beef steaks: 6-12 months
- Bread: Up to 1 year
- Butter: 6-9 months
- Fish: 2-6 months
- Ground meat: 3-4 months
- Lunch meat: 1-2 months
- Produce: Up to 1 year
- Whole poultry: 1 year
Developed by an independent panel of nutrition and medical experts, the 