How to make Home made Beef Jerky

                Here is something the whole family will like to eat. Beef Jerky!  This is another way you can save a lot of money.  Homemade beef jerky is easy to make. Like I said in previous Blog Posts I use my dehydrator at least 3 to 4 days a week. This time of the year I am canning, freezing, and dehydrating non-stop.  It is time to stock up on canned, frozen and dehydrated food for the winter months. Beef jerky in the store can be over 8 dollars a pound, that’s way too expensive for me. In this Blog, I will show you step by step how I make homemade beef jerky and the recipe I use for the sauce. I take two 2 pounds of roasts and I am lucky if the beef jerky makes it two days before my family devours it.

Step 1: I like to take a frozen beef roast because it is easier to cut into thin slices this way. Take a good sharp knife and cut thin slices. Trim of as much fat as possible. Trying to cut a roast when it is not frozen will make it harder to get thin slices. Any type of roast will do fine. I have used an arm roast or a tip roast when I make my beef jerky.

Step 2: Next place your thin slices of meat in a zip locked bag or a bowl with a tight seal. I use a bowl with a tight lid so I can shake it up easier with my sauce.  But a ziplock bag will work just fine also.

Step 3: The sauce recipe I use is: 

Two 2# Roasts thinly sliced and fat cut off

¾ cup Worcestershire sauce                          ½ teaspoon garlic salt or regular salt

¾ cup Soy sauce                                               ½ teaspoon pepper or more if you like it really hot

¾ cup ketchup                                                  1 Tablespoon Liquid smoke

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and pour over your meat in a bag or bowl and seal. Next shake the sauce around and over your meat. Let the meat soak for at least 2 hours shaking the sauce around and over the meat every 15 to 30 minutes.

Step 4: Place your soaked meat on your trays and do not overlap them. Make sure you have a tray on bottom, that can soak up the excess juices. I like to use one of my fruit roll-up trays for this purpose.  Set your temperature for meat according to your dehydrators directions.  Depending on how done you want your beef jerky it can take up to 4 to 6 hour to dehydrate.  About half way through I like to flip all my meat and switch the bottom tray around with the top trays. This helps the meat cook more evenly.

Step 5:  Take the beef jerky off the trays and place in an air- tight bag or a bowl with a tight cover. This should keep for over a week if you can keep the family out of it that long. My beef jerky barely makes it past two days and it is all gone.

Making my own beef jerky is fun and easy, plus it saves me a lot of money.  I know what goes into my beef jerky, so it is much healthier and taste much better than store beef jerky. Have fun making your own beef jerky from Suzie Homemaker.

How to Buy Cheap Clothes and Shoes

                When I was growing up with two older sisters and a younger brother, money was tight. I was taught from a very young age to save and to look for bargains wherever you could find them. Since I had the two older sisters I received a lot of handed down clothes, some I could not wait to grow into. Every summer I could not wait for the rummage and yard sales to begin. This is where you can find new to slightly used clothes at the fraction of the cost. For all the new moms out there, this is where you can save a lot of money on baby clothes. The only time my babies received new clothes was from the relatives. My children were brought up on rummage and yard sale clothes. Since I had two girls this was double the savings because everything was handed down to the second child. Another great place to look for adult and kids clothes is thrift shops and your local Good Will store.

            If you do not want to do the thrift shops or rummage sales try this out. Go to your favorite stores at the end of the season and shop the clearance sales. What I like to do is watch for certain items and wait until almost all of my size is gone then I buy. Some stores keep lowering the price until they are almost all gone this is when you get your best deals. Just be patient and watch then buy those items at a very low price. Another great way to save is to watch for stores to have their 80% to 90% off sales and they give you a store coupon which gives you and extra discount. I have walked out of stores with more than 10 items for under 50 dollars. I buy next year’s clothes at the end of the seasons and save a bundle of money.

            Buying shoes is a little harder but not impossible. End of season is another good time to buy but also watch for sales. Again be patient, some stores keep lowering their prices just to reduce stock. Buy when you think the price will not go any lower. Watch for some shoe stores to have buy one pair get the second pair half off. This is where you can sometimes even use sale items and still get the second pair at half price. My last two pairs of shoes cost me under 20 dollars. I have even bought tennis shoes recently for $3 dollars a pair so I bought two pairs right away so when the first pair wears out I have another pair available.

            To this day, I have never bought anything unless it was on clearance or 80 to 90% off. To pay full price for something is a waste of money. I pride myself on getting the best deal I can possibly get. This is like a game to me to see how much I can save on kids to adult clothes and also shoes. Be a smart shopper and save money in the process. Check out more saving ideas from Suzie Home Maker coming soon.

Suzie Homemaker

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Hi, I’m Suzie Homemaker, welcome to my blog on tips to help you simplify your life and to save money in the process. I will be writing on how to do things on, canning ideas and recipes that work for me and you and how to make homemade laundry soap shampoo, conditioners and more.

                At the age of 51 I decided to start a blog.  My family has decided to downsize and cut costs, so I’ve found ways to make this possible and have fun in the process.

                As a young girl I was taught how to do canning of different fruits and vegetables and more. I love to cook, sew and garden. People say I’m a bargain hunter and this is very true. Here are some things I would like to teach you on how to save money in a fun way without sacrificing luxury.