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Free Eggs! – DFA Tip of the Week – 3/9/2009

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There are many ways to reduce costs in our every day lives, so to help do just that each Monday I will post a money saving “Tip of the Week”.

This weeks tip involves…getting free farm fresh eggs! If you or anyone you know has ever raised laying hen chickens, then you know how challenging it can be to keep your egg carton count on pace with your never ending egg supply.

If you employ this tip you will be a help to your local chicken farmers, promote recycling among your friends, family, & coworkers, and be very likely to get free eggs out of the deal!

In order to get free eggs from your local chicken farmers, start by doing any or all of the following:

  • save your egg cartons
  • throw an egg carton drive at work to have all your coworkers save & bring in theirs
  • when taking a walk around your neighborhood, stop by your neighbors houses and collect their cartons
  • when visiting friends & family, ask for their empties

Once you assemble a good amount of cartons call a few local chicken farmers and/or visit a local farmer’s market to propose a “carton for egg” swap!  Work with them to barter a trade of your collected cartons for some of their farm fresh eggs.  The farmer will undoubtedly be willing to work with you, and may even be interested in some type of revolving exchange for each dozen.

Don’t forget to remind everyone to bring you their cartons so you can enjoy free eggs as long as you choose!

Click here to see all our past DFA Tips of the Week.

Bone-in Chicken – DFA Tip of the Week – 1/19/2009

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There are many ways to reduce costs in our every day lives, so to help do just that each Monday I will post a money saving “Tip of the Week”.

This weeks tip involves…boneless skinless chicken breasts.

I’m not sure when they started to get popular, but I think we’ll all agree that boneless skinless chicken breast have taken over the chicken breast market & are most likely here to stay!

Thinking back as a child, I don’t remember my parents cooking with them.  Instead they bought breast on the bone.  I don’t know if this was because they were budget conscious or because that was the only way chicken was sold back then…at any rate…growing up we always ate chicken on the bone.  I tried to look up “the history of boneless skinless chicken breast” on Google but found nothing.  If you want to look it up, good luck…the search results are filled with recipes, but no history.  Not even Wikipedia had any information on the history of the boneless skinless chicken breast.

**I’ll give someone a free blog ad on Debt Free Adventure for the entire month if they can give us a decent history of this modern convenience food.**

Now on to the Tip of the Week for January 19th, 2009:

Don’t buy both boneless skinless chicken breast and canned or boxed chicken broth from the grocery store!  Save around 75% of the money these would cost and cook healthier in the process.  Simply buy chicken breast on the bone, then boil it in water with a few of your favorite spices to make your own chicken broth!

I did so today and make a big pot of chicken stew.  Instead of spending $10 – $15 on the BSCB & store bought stock I did the following:

  • Boiled the breasts on the bone, sit aside to let them cool
  • pull the meat of the bone
  • chop veggies, saute veggies
  • add everything back into my homemade chicken broth & Voila…soup on the cheap!

Not only was this meal made a lot cheaper than normal, it was also more delicious! The homemade broth was EXCELLENT!

If you use this tip, let us know about it by leaving a comment…