Joyful Momma's Guide to Shopping & Cooking Frugally: Tasty Tips for Saving Money from the Grocery Store to the Dinner Table

by Kimberly Eddy

Learn smart shopping techniques for big savings,

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Reference, Nonfiction, Food, Finance

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2011

About the author

Hi there. My name is Kimberly Eddy, a freelance designer and author out of Mid-Michigan. I love helping fellow moms and entrepreneurs bring their projects to life through my skills and expertise through my services, my ebooks, and my website, Thoughts & Designs.

Here's a little more about me:
I am a graphic artist, specializing in developing beautiful logos for entrepreneurs. I've been creating graphic artwork and illustration for 30 years now.

I am also a serial entrepreneur, writer and productivity junkie.

I write and create from my experience helping other entrepreneurs and WAHM wannabes. My writings focus on the more practical aspects of *how* to make your side hustle a reality as well as living a productive life.

You'll find ebooks (some currently going through major updates) to help you:
:: Get more done without sacrificing what matters most to you
:: Save money relatively painlessly so you can invest in your future
:: Having a better work-life balance
:: What you need to launch your own web presence
:: Raising great kids
... and more.


{My Story: Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur }

I was born and raised just outside of Detroit, Michigan in the late 60s in a comfortably middle-class family. I was drawn to the arts at a young age but discouraged from pursuing design as a vocation until I was in college studying to be a science teacher.

I've generated side hustles since my second year of college at Northern Michigan University. After graduation, I followed my wanderlust to Europe. I backpacked across central and eastern Europe.

I settled in Austria for a season to live and work before returning to home.

After moving back home to Michigan I married my toolmaker husband and worked a few jobs in the print and design industry. We raised five now-adult children. My priorities mainly focused on hearth and home while my children were young.

I took on small freelance jobs when time permitted:

:: designing menus for small restaurants
:: creating business cards for entrepreneurs
:: developing logos for several small businesses (and one church)

Later, as my children grew, our financial situation took a nosedive in the early 2000s with a series of job losses. I branched out to creating dynamic websites for a wide variety of clients. I continued to offer logo design services, calligraphy, freelance writing, and layout design.

And I learned how to make our pennies stretch while keeping a positive attitude and working to better our situation.

I write from these experiences and the lessons learned throughout my life.

I enjoy helping potential entrepreneurs bring their projects to life affordably. I provide encouragement and inspiration to anyone hoping to start their own side hustle or get more done in their daily lives without sacrificing what matters most to them.

Look for Thoughts and Designs on Instagram (@thoughtsanddesigns), Facebook (@thoughtsdesigns), and Twitter (@thoughtsndesign).

Reviews

[Jocelyn Bailey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly common sense info for people who cook regularly, but I will try a few tips and recipes of hers. All I need now is a big family, an upright freezer, and an enormous pantry. There are SO MANY spelling and punctuation errors---but I shouldn't complain, because the book was free. :P

[Maddie Paris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unreadable. It advertises itself as a frugal living guide. Don't be fooled, the author just quotes scripture and preaches a lot.

[Neysha Stevens-Keyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

I really liked this.read as a mom to 14 children I follow many of these principles. Thanks for the great book!

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this as a free Kindle book and it was an easy read and good introduction to shopping and eating more frugally for a family. But I think it's more for a family who is new to this concept, such as maybe a spouse being recently laid off or choosing to stay home with the kids, a pay cut, or a family who is making strides to get out of debt. For someone who is already on the frugal path, this may be a bit too basic. And many tips are only applicable to very large families (my family of 4 does not need 50 # of potatoes or 20 # sacks of flour, no matter what the savings). And she is a self-proclaimed person of weak will and poor financial planning & credit skills, so for someone who is never in debt who can account for every dollar, well, it takes a large grain of salt to swallow some of her lessons since that person would never find themselves in that situation to begin with (commence the eye rolling and finger shaking). She still had some great ideas and theories that are right inline with changing a mindset to think more frugally and healthy at the same time, and it was entertaining to read about her gaggle of teenagers eating her out of house and home. Add to that a bonus of a Christian outlook (and the contrast with her and her husband's upbringings) to saving money, getting credit in order, and serving her husband faithfully, I liked this book overall.

[Brick ONeil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both give the advice of going directly to a butcher or country farm to buy directly from the butcher, cutting out the middleman grocery store and paying $.75-2.00 per pound of meat. I really do not see how realistic that is for a majority of Americans out there, especially those of us that live in the cities and small towns that do not have direct access to an independent butcher or farm, nor do we have extra freezer space to put all that meat-half a cow, according to one of the books.

Another gripe I have, is they are both heavy on high-carb, high-calorie and high-fat content, so those of us with one or more health issue, such as heart disease, diabetes, etc cannot follow their advice.

The positive, is that they both talk about using coupons for household goods, cleaning agents and so forth, and using that money towards vegetables and other foods. I understand that people do not have enough money for healthy, nutritious vegetables and low-fat meats, but to emphasize high-carb and high-fat I cannot endorse.

I also commend both ladies for their cost-cutting measures, using store cards, coupons, buying in bulk when available. Good generic advice for beginning shoppers and families.

[Francis DeBert · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to be frugal...

I loved this book because it had a lot of really good ideas that are so simple and thoughtful I wondered why I hadn't thought of some of them myself. I gave it a five star because the book did as promised and centered around grocery shopping and I have already used the laundry soap recipe and the whites are definitely whiter than they have been. The only thing I didn't like was the centering around the butcher shops. We don't have any that I know of in my area so that can be a little bit of a let down but if you focus on your local grocery store sales I think you'll end up saving too. I will be keeping this book handy for future reference.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shopping & Cooking Frugally
Starts out with the author telling us of her upbringing, getting married and his lifestyle and how he grew up during the Great Depression.
Basic tools to help you, planning meals ahead and making a list of what to get are essential.
Taking others needs into consideration along with coupons and sales are important to being able to save money.
Also sections on using the internet to get the deals along with having your own garden.
Basic bulk recipes are included to give you a start to saving time.
Different ways to cook potatoes, beans and rices also.
Resource listing at the end.

[Darlene]

First of all, I am appalled at the title of this book. How archaic! So whether this book is the greatest or not, I cannot ever give it 5 stars. Next, I am insulted for the men who are now doing the cooking and trying to keep under budget. So I will be surprised when I finally look at this book to see if it was worth downloading.

[Stephanie Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kimberly is a kindred spirit! She approaches frugality the same way I do in my book "Money: How to Be Rich Without It and How to Stretch It Using Ten Hints from the Past and the Technology of Today." Attitude is everything. Kimberly gives some great hints for saving money shopping and cooking. I recommend it.

[Lyne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only good if you have a large family...otherwise her constant buy in bulk for everything would go bad. She does say to buy in bulk based on you family size, but if you have a small family even the standard 5 Pd flour last forever. Really nothing new.

[Jenny from Ukraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could use some good advice on how to live frugally, so I picked up this book which was free on amazon. Of course, not all solutions I can use - we don't have coupons here in Ukraine, for example - still it was a very good book, inspirational and practical.

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing really new to me, but would be a good source for someone new to couponing and cooking on a budget.

[Kristina Seleshanko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a lot of ebooks on the topic of reducing grocery bills, but this one is my favorite. I find it better written than many and quite down to earth.

[Cheryl Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the dime

Lower your grocery bill now and save money. Flavorful recipes and how to make laundry soap.
Who could ask for more.