Do you ever catch yourself eying the mouth-watering choices of amazing spices at the grocery store? You know the ones....small, beautiful jar, fancy tag with flowing writing, and it typically costs more than the cut of meat you're going to put it on. I love using spices and marinades in my cooking. Luckily for me, I grabbed a few dozen bottles of marinade for free after coupon. Unfortunately, the spice blends don't tend to come down in price often.

The good news? With a dozen or so basic spices and a few pantry basics, it's possible to have a variety of amazing spice blends to choose from. Over at Eat From Your Pantry, there is a great post about seasoning blends - it's truly amazing how many different blends you can make with ingredients you probably have on hand already. Trust me - it's as easy as:

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Spice

Kansas City Style Rib Rub

Budget 101 - they have 164 different spice blend recipes!!

Taco Seasoning

Ranch Dressing Mix

Unless I stumble onto another freebie seasoning deal (which this is the right time of year for), I have plenty of resources to help me get the same flavorful punch for a lot less money. As for marinades, I haven't spent too much time learning how to make my own. In my defense, when they're plentiful and free, there is really no incentive to make my own. When the deals run out, I'll be posting marinade recipes, but until then - I'm resting on my laurels, or at least resting on a full stockpile that includes more than a dozen different marinades.

After browsing through the ads this week, I never thought I'd be relieved to see so few deals. I've been shopping every other day (bundling my trips to and from work with my shopping to save fuel), and it's getting a little tiring. My typical commute has been about 50 minutes (each way) and stopping at various stores on my home from work makes the commute feel 10 times longer. It's only 14 minles from home to job, but the traffic is moderate to heavy.
I was stunned on my way home last night to see that fuel prices jumped from $1.81 a gallon to $1.98 a gallon!!! Holy *$^&@(U()! Where did that come from? Or, more importantly, why didn't I get fuel that morning instead of waiting to fuel up on my way home? I had enough fuel to make another round trip to work, so I hoped priced might've dropped by morning, alas - no such luck. If it hasn't dropped by my return trip home tonight, I'll be somewhat less than amused.
The only good side to this downward spiralling economy has been the fuel prices. The coupon values are dwindling, the prices in the stores steadily rise, no bonuses this year (for DH & I), and now skyrocketing fuel costs. Time to do some preemptive belt tightening, hoping to ward off the worst of this latest problem.

Goals to reduce costs for consumable items:

1. Bundle all errands. If we don't have something, we learn to live without.
2. Plan to move. Lease is up in June. Rent is too $$$$, smaller = cheaper.
3. Weed out: ebay for clothes, yard sale when weather is nice for everything else
4. More eating in: try new recipes, get more excited to eat in than to eat out.
5. Drop premium channels from cable. Use our DVD colelction more.
6. Hound more vigarously, especially toiletries and gifts. I can do better on those.