Going Local

One thing that stands out to me from all the family vacations we took as kids are the experiences surrounding our stay at a family-run motel in Show Low, Arizona.  Now when we were kids that place was like a mecca to us. We often met up with our grandparents and cousins since it was a perfect halfway point between us. My dad quickly became friendly with the owners and so we were able to book a whole block of rooms at a price each family could afford.

Now I have to be clear when I say that the hotel was far from perfect. The toilets were old and sounded like an explosion when they were flushed and the décor was standard roadside motel complete with threadbare carpeting and watercolor paintings. But at the end of the day the six of us piled into one small room crammed with sleeping cots and suitcases and slept soundly through the night.

I was reminded of these experiences in earnest on our recent trip to Minnesota. My husband, son and I took a much needed eight-day vacations a few weeks ago to visit the twin cities. We love the city, but but stayed in the suburbs as we prefer the great outdoors to towering skyscrapers.

I had booked a “name brand” hotel online months before we left after careful research on its location and online reviews. We stayed there a total of two nights before we decided to look for a new place to rest our heads. I am not a picky person, but I had a two-year old who refused to sleep in the same room as us. The second night he stood up in his crib and asked repeatedly where we were and sang songs until he finally wore himself out. My husband and I lay chuckling in a bed only separated from his by a dinky little half wall. Bottom line: we needed two rooms.

We came across a small family-run hotel a town over and decided to call and see if they had a suite available. We were pleasantly surprised when she offered us the two-room suite and then proceeded to tell us the price – which was far less than what we were paying for one room at our other hotel. The rooms were quiet and roomy; every day we woke up and were greeted by the hotel owners (who quickly took a liking to our son) and we returned every night, exhausted, but to a freshly cleaned bed and extremely quiet and peaceful little sanctuary.

One of the biggest money-saving and vacation-saving tips I could give to families who travel is to look for these hidden gems. They often don’t make it onto the big travel sites or grace the pages of well-known travel guides. Yet there is a pride of ownership that is unmatched when you visit these family-run establishments. Beyond that, there is something to be said for supporting local businesses and families like the one we met. They work hard to provide for their families and are often much more willing to negotiate on price since each empty room costs them money.

I had initially seen the hotel when I was doing my research, but had disregarded it because it wasn’t a known hotel chain. Even though the family-run hotel was much older, it was so well maintained and cared for it far and beyond made up for the dated artwork and salmon-colored carpet. It lacked the frills of room service, but came with the sweetest built-in concierge service you could possibly ask for. It is true that locally-owned hotels are often harder to find, but the end result makes all that worth it. Try using local online phone books, or perusing ad sites if you can’t find any online. They also often sit on the outskirts of towns or in the suburbs if you are looking to stay near a big city. And don’t forget to negotiate the price on your stay and to spread the word if you enjoyed your time there!

Bountiful Baskets

This past weekend I was introduced to something both foreign and wonderful. My mother-in-law recently had a friend tell her about a wonderful national co-op known as Bountiful Baskets. Let me say, before continuing, that I am about as skeptical as one could be about deals that sound “too good to be true.” With that being said, let it also be known that I am an absolute fresh produce junkie. It is one of the main reasons couponing at chain grocery stores leaves a lot to be desired for me personally. Sure it’s great to get canned corn for $5.00 off the original purchase price but, call me crazy, I enjoy the crunch of fresh corn on the cob much more. 

Bountiful Baskets is (as I said) a co-op run solely on a volunteer basis. The volunteers negotiate with local farmers and grocery distributors to buy fruits and vegetables at a highly discounted rate which they then turn around and distribute to their “contributors”. They estimate (and pretty accurately I might add) that you end up getting about $60.00 worth of produce for a flat rate of $15.00. The only caveats are that you must sign up and charge your card online the Tuesday prior to pick up day (which is Saturday). There is a one-time fee of $3.00 and the only other thing they ask is that you help divide up food every sixth visit. 

Now I went to the pick-up location with my mother-in-law and I will admit that I was a little skeptical. I am very picky when it comes to buying fresh produce. I want my fruit and vegetables fresh and unblemished. I don’t want something that looks picked over or like it has fallen off the back of some truck. I came unprepared, hoping a small bag would be big enough to accommodate the order. Luckily my mother-in-law came with two laundry baskets – which I quickly learned was needed as every other person in line seemed to follow suit. 

For $15.00 I received a basket full of very fresh, beautiful fruits and vegetables which included: a head of romaine lettuce, a bushel of spinach, two heads of cauliflower, about five pounds of yellow potatoes, celery, six ears of corn, four nectarines, six pears, a bag of plums, a bag of grapes, a bunch of bananas, and four mangoes. Needless to say that is well over $15.00 worth of produce and will definitely more than feed my family of three until the next pick-up day. 

Because the volunteers work directly with the source the “menu” changes on a weekly basis depending on what they are able to get and what is in season. That being said I fully expected them to go with the absolute cheapest produce available (aka iceburg lettuce, russet potatoes, etc). I was pleasantly surprised to see that that was not at all the case. Anyone who has been to the grocery store lately knows that yellow potatoes are almost double the cost of russet and mangoes sell for around a dollar apiece. 

I am happy to say that I am sold on Bountiful Baskets and refreshed to see that even in a growing city like Tucson, there are still people who are willing to go out of their way to save the members of their community money.

Hatch Chile Savings

Every year during chile harvest my parents would take us through Hatch to buy fresh roasted green chile on our way home from visiting our family in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My dad would pile four burlap bags full of fresh hot roasted chile into our already packed car and we would spend the remainder of the trip (and several weeks following) bathed in that scent - and probably smelling a little like it ourselves!

We would then spend the better part of the afternoon peeling de-seeding and chopping batch after batch of chiles to make my dad’s famous green chile sauce. But it was all worth it because after all the hard labor, we would sit down to enjoy a truly amazing meal.

Perhaps one of the great things about living in the southwest is that the majority of people have an affinity for authentic Mexican food to such an extent that such post-harvest roasting now takes place right in our backyard! And so my husband, dad and I were thrilled to learn that some local Food City grocers would be having Hatch green chile roasters fresh roast chiles on the weekends!

By the pound the chile costs about $1.60. But if you buy in bulk you can get twenty-six pounds for $26.00 (and save $0.60 per pound). From this box I was able to store six gallon bags worth of chiles. Each bag makes over two quarts of chile sauce, from which I derive dozens of recipes. This week alone I have used my chile to make four meals, and I am barely one quart down! We use our sauce in scrambled eggs, enchiladas, burritos, fajitas, and all the other “usual suspects.” I thought however that I would share one of my husband’s favorite dishes. This dish is also great for entertaining as you can make huge batches at a low cost and very little effort. Yet it is so delicious your guests will think you slaved all day!

I apologize ahead of time that there are no exact measurements. I hate measuring when I cook so I usually just eyeball it!

Shredded Green Chile Chicken
Place two chicken breasts (per 5 servings) in crock pot and cover with as much chile as you can handle. Thin out sauce with about 1-2 cups chicken stock, depending on how much chile you use. If you like it hot like we do, you may not need any stock – just make sure chicken is well covered with liquid.  Place the cooker on low and cook a minimum of six hours. Shred the chicken using two forks when it is tender.

You may serve the chicken as is, or you could throw the chicken and sauce into a large saucepan, reduce liquid slightly and add a cup of sour cream and a few handfuls of shredded cheese. You can use this mixture in burritos, rolled enchiladas or enchilada casserole. It is unbelievable how delicious, inexpensive and easy this is to make!

Our First Blog

Recently my husband and I purchased a “gift certificate” from an unnamed source. It wasn’t until we paid $20.00 for a total of four $25.00 gift cards that we were able to read the dozens of restrictions placed on the gift card. These included (to name a few) not using the giftcard on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or any major holiday. Drinks were not included and you could only use one gift card at a time. We also had to purchase a minimum of $50.00 of food in order to use that one gift card. Suffice it to say, we did not get our money’s worth that date night.

My name is Bekah and my sister Kirsten and I are the “coupon sisters.” Kirsten has three kids and a fourth on the way and I have one child and another on the way. Needless to say, we are growing families and as such, are living on limited budgets. We have researched other couponing sites and never found any of them useful. We found that you either had to sign up for memberships and, by so doing, deal with countless useless junk mail and irritating spam; or you had to purchase a coupon (like I did) with multiple restrictions that ends up being almost useless.  Of course there’s always those loose-leaf mailers;  but it always seems to me that I get coupons when I don’t need them, and when I do need them none are available or they are expired.

The great thing about our website is that the coupons are available all day every day. You don’t have to sign up and get annoying e-mails from us and you don’t have to pay any money to get these deals. We are also proud to go local and support Tucson businesses that we use and recommend. We hope you enjoy browsing through our coupons and checking out our blog periodically to get coupon updates, recipes and other “saver stories” from local Tucson moms!