Make your own apple butter!

I just found out how to make your own tasty apple butter (when you don’t have the space or time to whip out a gigantic kettle over an open fire)

You need:
4.5 lbs apples

4 cups of sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

Quarter the apples and peel (or don’t if you like the peels). Put the apples into your crockpot, cover with the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt and carefully stir to coat. Cover and cook on high until hot, then low for the day (7-10 hours). After cooking all day, put small amounts into your food processor and pulse until the apple butter is smooth. Can if desired.

Traveling cheap – food

My son and I are heading to West Virginia to visit my family today. It can be easy to spend a fortune when traveling between gas and food and tourist traps but one easy way to save money is to simply pack your own food. Packing your own snacks, drinks, and meals.

This all depends on what your family likes to eat. For us it is pretty simple. He likes peanut butter and jelly – quite possibly the easiest food to pack and travel with. For snacks he likes peanut butter on crackers – sometimes we bring honey in a squeeze bottle too. Apples, oranges, bananas, dried fruit, even a can of tuna (with a handcrank can opener) are all also great frugal (and healthy) travel choices.

Whether you eat it while driving or if you actually stop and have a picnic lunch is up to you. We love a picnic lunch at a rest area because it gives us a great opportunity to stop and stretch our legs.
Be creative! Depending on the length of your trip, this can save you quite a bit of money. Our travel time is usually no more than 12 hours, but think about the saving there. Most fast food meals are $5 each or more and snacks at rest areas can run as much as $1 each. If my son and I eat 2 meals and a snack on the road, this is a $22 savings just for being prepared!