Sunny Sunday Cleaning #2

I had every intention of cataloging my whirlwind of spring cleaning, but the whirlwind has been more of a snails crawl! The dust bunnies are winning and I see no end in sight!

My modest goal for today & tomorrow is to have ALL the surfaces cleared off & dusted. We'll see how that goes! I have a feeling that I may just be shutting the kids doors & doing a stash -n- dash Saturday afternoon.

I have already put away a ton of stuff in the laundry room, making room for all the stuff that is out & doesn't have a home yet. I also need to get the rest of the Easter stuff put back into storage. The kids just don't want to put the baskets & buckets away yet.

I have 6 days to get the house company ready, I am co-hosting a "Tastefully Simple" party Saturday night. Should be fun, even if it isn't very frugal! A night with the girls is always worthwhile.

My raised garden bed is built & now I am just waiting on my delivery of dirt. Thankfully my brother dug a big hole this week for his foundation, I should be able to steal a dump truck full! The weather is beautiful here, but I'm sure it won't last. I don't dare plant in the ground before Memorial day!

On the "Frugal" front I did not have a great week! I feel like I've spent all the money I've been avoiding spending for the year in the last few days. I can't complain too loudly though, sometimes you just have to break down & spend the money. The Prince needed new baseball spikes, like he wore a 2 1/2 last year, this year he's wearing a 6!!! The toaster kicked, my niece is having a baby so must sew a quilt (buying a little at a time, since I'm still deciding on a pattern), groceries, gasoline, blah blah blah. I did squirrel away some into the EF. That account is growing, so I must be doing something right!

We celebrated Earth Week by planting 7 trees at our local state park, where my sister works. The kids loved it & will insist on visiting there tree ALL SUMMER LONG, I'm sure! We also celebrated Volunteer Recognition Week with a big breakfast at work. We had 29 volunteers recognized in our north county area, it was an impressive turnout. If you volunteer at anything THANK YOU! Your services are truly valuable & valued, it doesn't take much to make a difference in your community. Even the smallest gesture can change someones life for the better.

Some Links from my Google Reader

How to save $100 this year and Living Below Your Means It's a link to more links, but very helpful links!!!

Decadence on a Dime, great advice on making the everyday special.

Budgeting with a Purpose - Keeping your Goals in mind

Frugal Decorating tips.

For those of us already thinking spring Square Foot Gardening Roundup. And What to do with toilet paper tubes including a transplant alternative for seedlings.

Making a little girls canopy is going in my project file for after we finish the bedroom ceiling in the Princess' bedroom. Such a cute easy project!

One of many new quilting/sewing RSS feeds I am getting is Moda Bake Shop. Yummy!

And thanks to How About Orange for posting the link to Sproost Now I know my design style & why I can NEVER find anything I like LOL! I was equal parts Mountain Lodge & Nantucket with a little Wine Country thrown in to confuse things a little more!

Good Deals & Smart Steals - Giveaway!!!

How to save money on everything!

This book gives tips on everything from installing dimmer switches to save up to 20% on your energy bills and double the life of your bulbs; to using online shopping, shopping strategies, home improvement ideas all geared to save you money.

I was given an excerpt of 10 tips to help you save on your winter heating bills.

1. Be a water heater cheater - Set your heater to 10 or 20 degrees. For every 10 degrees you could save 3 to 5%.

2. Dodge the drafts - weather stripping, caulk (my friend!), insulate electrical boxes, even draft stops.

3. Heat Smart - Programmable thermostats are worth every penny. Ours wasn't that expensive, I think $30. But the amount of money we've saved has been amazing.

4. Give yourself space - Use a space heater in the most used room of the house, turn the whole house thermostat down.

5. Dial Down - Lower the thermostat setting 2 degrees to save up to $40 on your heating bill.

6. Insulate - Wrap your hot water heater, hot water pipes, all pipes running to unheated areas. We always find ways to add insulation with every project we complete!

7. Draw the drapes - Heavy drapes can help retain heat, don't believe me just stick your hand behind one on a below 0 day... It's scary!!!

8. Plant Trees- South & West planted trees help shade your house in the summer, and let the sun warm it in winter. That's the best kind of solar use! Free.

9. Go Green - Replace heating with Energy Star rated, tankless water heaters, technology is a good thing!

10. Ask for an audit - Some gas & electric offer free audits to let you know where to make changes to save on utility bills.

These are just a small sampling of the great tips that can be found in this amazingly helpful book. Somethings may seem like common sense to us die hard frugalists, but there are a ton of haggling tips too. That is one area I tend to fail miserably at. I also love the Penny Wise Pound Foolish and the Shop Smart blurbs.



Thanks to Meryl L. Moss Media Relations, Inc. I have one copy to give away, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure I can contact you (email address, blog with contact info) by 9PM October 24th, 2008.


Good Deals & Smart Steals: How to Save Money on Everything from the editors of Good Housekeeping Magazine, Hearst Books, Sterling Publishing, ISBN 978-1-58816-690-6.


My Money Story is also giving away TWO copies of this book too!


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Frugal Tip & Frugal Mom Reviews give away!

My best Frugal Tip, right now, is plan ahead! The more organized you can be the less running around you'll have to do later! That means keep track of what's in your cupboards, have a shopping list, consolidate your trips so you use less gas and are not tempted to spend so much money! This is especially helpful if you live far away from shopping areas. We are 15 miles from most of our grocery & drug stores. I have started only shopping on days I am also working, so we don't have to make a special trip. This is also saving wear & tear on my aging but paid for vehicle! LOL!

Frugal Mom Reviews is giving away a flip ultra video camcorder as part of her involvement with the Eleven Moms campaign

Wal*Mart is looking for videos of your favorite money saving tips upload it at theYoutube contest page.

The Flip Ultra video camcorder has 2 GB of internal memory & will hold up to 60 minutes of video. The direct USB plug in feature is what I LOVE about this guy!





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Adjusting the Frugal Momma's Budget

Things are changing all over. With hurricanes effecting gas prices again I think we are all in the same boat...the dollar just does not go as far as it used to. So what is a Mom to do? Especially one who just got herself a part time out of the house job requiring at least 3 trips a week into the office. Round trip is about 30 miles so that's 1.5 gallons a trip or 4.5 gallons a week. When you are used to hardly driving, it's a challenge!


It leaves you scurrying to find ways to save money on the per gallon cost! This past week I was doing a grocery store run. I stopped at a grocery store I usually only hit once every couple months, but 1% milk was on my list & they had a 20 cents off a gallon if you bought 8 things off a list, well at least 6 of those items were on my shopping list anyways. So I got my discount & filled up. I figured I saved about $1.60. Next time I'll plan ahead & bring the gas can too. Ah for the days of 1999 when I thought $0.99 a gallon was a lot.

The cost of gas has driven everything else up, have you noticed? Of course you have, all you have to do is try to buy ANYTHING!!! It leaves us having to be creative, cutting out things we normally consider staples, also doing things like clipping coupons, buying grocery items at drugstores, maybe going to stores we never thought we would.

Of course, I have "cheap" on the brain today. Looking at the calendar I have preschool tuition and school pictures due on Monday, open house with the book fair on Wednesday, this is after paying for our football fundraiser tickets & sweatshirt order. Yikes! Could be rice & beans this week, LOL!

But on the up cheap side I decided to make pizza Friday instead of take out. I knew we'd be buying food at the football game Saturday so spending $30 on pizza and wings was just not an expense I wanted!

Anywho, our budget is going to be changing a little because of my job. I get paid every other Friday and I think my paycheck will cover our food, gas & household expenses. So as soon as I know what my deductions will be I'll be able to allocate the funds. My goal is to increase my EF funding to $50 a month instead of $25.

Frugal is Green

Help! My Money Scares Me Relax...Breathe...Listen probably the best advice out there, given the tendency to panic at the slightest detail!


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Carnival Links

Carnival of the recipes - 2 I am going to be checking out "Vermont Cheddar Ale Soup" and "Steak Panini"

Festival of Frugality at Frugal Babe- This one covers tons of aspects from your car to your college students!

Make it from Scratch - Lots of yummy recipes & a few crafts

Carnival of Personal Finance - lots on retirement, saving money, investing money, frugality, family & more.







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Monday Update and POWA

Parade of WEEKLY adventures!

We spent the entire weekend partying! Between our communities Fall Festival, football, the festival's parade and more.



Most of the kids activities were a wash due to the rainy weather, but they still had 2 party jumpers and some carnival games. We only had a small window of fun time on Saturday because of the Prince's football game, but they managed to get filthy and bounce them selves silly!

The parade on Sunday was a huge success, except for the rain again. It had fire departments, cheerleaders, football players (mine!), marching bands, Shriners, horses, even a float! There were prizes, but we didn't ever hear who won them.

I'm not sure what they are raising money for this year, but the last 2 years the committee made sizable donations to the new playground project (my hubby got the grant to get that ball rolling, so we were invested!).

Weekly Menu Plan
Breakfast for dinner, clean out the fridge night, mystery freezer stuff, spaghetti, hot dogs & burgers. No idea what order, depends on the activities!!!

POWA -
Monday

• Work
• scrape more siding at my Mom's
• laundry

Tuesday

• unload truck of lumber for MIL's wheelchair ramp
• The Princess is back to school
  
• paint at Mom's
• Clean children's bedrooms, they are gross

Wednesday

• Work
• Laundry
• Paint at Mom's
• Vacuum
• Clean Bathrooms

Thursday

• Paint at Mom's
• School for Princess
  
• Clean desks
• Vacuum couches, ewww

Friday

• Work
• School for Princess
  
• Paint at Mom's
• Shopping

Saturday

• Football Game - home

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Our last summer excursion

This is what my kiddos look like while riding a ferry across a lake!!!





The ferry has been there for 195 years, it under went renovation a few years ago. It was a neat thing to do. We were half way to the other side before we could convince them that we were moving!!! The best part, it was fun & only cost a donation. You could even go across without the car just for fun. Next year we might have to do that.

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Frugal Friday - The "I started my Part Time Job" edition

There is some debate over what "Frugal" is and isn't. I guess it's a personal choice. Some are disappointed in the number of "saving money" posts under Frugal, some are tired of the same old same old.

I view my money saving strategies as a way of being frugal with my families money. There is only so much of it, and it has to go a long way!

There are some things I do that are Frugal, Green and not cheap - CF bulbs for one! There is nothing cheap about them!

Then there are things that are cheap and not Green, probably not Frugal either - I use my dryer! It's cheap because we have subsidized electricity, I still hang a few things out when I can. Sheets are just better dried outside. But with my new energy star washer the clothes are usually barely damp when they come out so the dryer isn't working as hard or as long. I know it would be free to just hang them outside, but what is my time worth? And I don't have enough line to house my 2 loads a day!

We compost which is all of the above, at least when something goes bad before it's eaten it has a purpose, it doesn't just get tossed. We garden, which isn't very cheap at all! Well, the tomatoes that self seeded were freebies, so that helped! I am going to try saving seeds this year & maybe we won't spend so much on them next year!

Coupons - Well they aren't free, even the printables aren't! You use ink & paper, you have to buy the newspaper to get them. Unless you have someone give them to you, like I do, but then I still buy the papers so I have multiples. So I have to use them, and save more than the cost of the papers to make it worth my while. I spend $3 a week. This week I used quiet a few so the papers were more than covered! But I don't every week and they are time consuming, and you have to keep them organized, plus all that time spent planning and surfing the flyers.

I think that the biggest challenge with being Frugal is that it is not "normal," we have been fighting all summer with the kids about why we turned the TV off. While I was at work this week my hubby caved. He lowered our package, but it's still on. I can't say I'm happy. I thought we had decided not to bother, mostly because the package we have doesn't include a lot of the channels we watch regularly (Discovery Home, DIY, Encore) and to get them we'd have to double our monthly expense. So not worth it to me! But it's on & they had better like it, cuz Momma ain't happy!

Some other Frugal articles -

Ramblings of a Penny Pincher

Making a Difference while still being frugal.






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Hershey's Chocolate Syrup - MYO

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash of salt

Combine cocoa, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Add water, and mix until
smooth. Bring this mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for one minute,
being careful that it does not boil over. Remove from heat and let
cool. When cool, add vanilla extract.

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My Garden #4

I am blessed with a large yard, so our gardens are large. But I think we took on too much. I have a bumper crop of weeds and very little harvest to show for all our work. I seem to be weeding a lot, even 15 minutes a day I have become over whelmed. The weeds are alien & they are taking over! Of course I am counting the flower beds too. One of which is 90% natural so I can't fabric & mulch it. The other needed this season to gather some more organic matter, why we used the straw for mulch. I have planted some perennials there but most of it was annuals. So next season I will till in the organics, fabric and mulch it around the perennials.

I was inspired by I've Paid for this Twice Already...'s shopping bag challenge to think of a creative use for my horde. So I bought a couple bags of ceder mulch on sale (love end of season) and I'm going to edge my "natural" bed with long pieces cut from plastic shopping bags & cover it with the mulch. I think I'll hold it in place with flat rocks & just cover everything. I'll share pics when it's done. I was just going to use landscape fabric, but this way it's practically free!


Today's harvest netted 3 ears on corn & a bunch of green beans. Now that the bushes have finally started producing more than a handful at a time I am going to have to restrain myself into leaving pods to collect seeds from.



Things I am noting for next year

• Study - Newspaper, Pennies, Cardboard, and Eggs--For Growing a Better Garden: More than 400 New, Fun, and Ingenious Ideas to Keep Your Garden Growing Great All Season Long
• Sprout my difficult seeds before planting in seed starter, I had too few actually become seedlings
  
• Use Willow branches as a "rooting" hormone to take cuttings off of my lilacs, wisteria & roses and pot them.
  
• The pumpkin garden can't have other vine plants in it. I'm thinking next year we stick with corn & sunflowers along the outside.
• Cucumbers should be on a trellis
• watermelon is hard to grow
  
• I am going to use landscape fabric, or start saving my pizza boxes now (and the neighbors)
• Plant 2x as many plants as I think I need, except for tomatoes.
• Save seeds from your harvest, the pumpkins we saved last year are doing great!
• I may have our soil tested next year
• I am not going to plant perennial fruits here, but I am going to put some in at my Mom's
• The kids I babysit cannot be trusted in areas of the yard where plants are. Or animals, or toys...
• The compost bin has been neglected & needs some TLC.
  

I have orange tomatoes! Maybe some day I'll be able to pick some, even can some.









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Back to School Shopping

I know some kids are already back to school, but here they make us wait another 2 WEEKS!

My shopping is almost all done. I can't say it's done, because we still need some zip-top bags and a new backpack (think I'm pulling the K & 1st grade one back out, that was still in good shape, 2nd grade bit the dust), but the basic supplies are all here!

The best part is, I didn't spend a fortune. I picked up a few things everytime I went shopping after they started filling shelves with it. Skipping over the glossy sparkly stuff (I only had to buy for the Prince, Princess doesn't need much if anything) I managed to get everything on his list for just under $8. Not bad for all that is there! The most expensive item was the glue sticks, from a MEGA pack, so I still have a bunch at home for me and the Princess to craft with! Between the practically free stuff I picked up at Walgreens, the cheap 5 cent notebooks at Wal-Mart I was able to pick up a few extras for me (like pens).

The biggest difference between 2nd & 3rd grade - matching notebooks & folders, he's a big boy now 3 subjects ~ tear, sigh~ and they had to be the same. Otherwise everything was similar, except he needs an old sock for a dry erase board. I'm ass-uming to learn cursive writing, but I could be wrong.

I felt like I had to save as much as possible on the supplies because clothing is outrageous! My boy is a husky, that usually means big bucks & good luck finding anything in a store (ok rural here remember, I'm an hour away from any mall)... Hopefully football will slim him down enough to avoid that challenge. At least he doesn't need a closet full of new things, that would be bank breaking!

I am also pretty sure that he has a bunch of pants he can still wear. He just needs some new shirts, for some reason my kids can stain things by looking at them! Towards the end of school last year he started wearing a t-shirt EVERYDAY, it was painful. Of course he'd wear jogging pants everyday if he could too, he really is his father's son LOL!

I am trying to get his wardrobe down to a manageable inventory, but the kids has more than I do. Hopefully I can get him down to

• 7 pairs of pants (jeans & khakis)
• 5 dress - polo shirts
• 14 t-shirts (he has at least 50 so this is a biggie, lawn sales, hand-me downs, grandparents)
• 5 PJ sets - 4 of these are on the list, he has outgrown all but 1 pair of feety jammies!
• 5 pair of jogging pants
• 5 Sweat shirts
• 2 Sweaters
• 1 All season jacket - also needs to be purchased, we like the kind with zip outs, they tend to last longer. The last one he had from
  

*Just so I qualify the chunky-ness of my son, he is about 54 inches tall (4feet 6inches) and will be going in the football program at 101 pounds. He has a belly, but he's mostly just a solid little guy. The coach apparently had to weigh him twice couldn't believe it.

I have discovered that we ALL need to up our cardio a little not just him...


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Blogging the Recession

How are you doing? Faithfully clicking through those feeds? I am trying.



I am also clicking through on your adsense, just one way to make a difference!!! LOL! One penny at a time.

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Frugal Tip #15

Homemaker Barbi has a list of 50 frugal tips.

My favorite ~ ~12. Use a 30-day list. To curb impulse buys, create a 30-day list. When you want to buy something, other than a true necessity (medicine or food, for example), put it on this list, with the date you added it to the list. And make it a rule that you can’t buy anything for at least 30 days after you put it on the list. And stick to it. You’ll find that you buy a lot less with this system.~ I think I will start doing this with the kids they seem to want something new every 5 minutes...

I think the best frugal tip I have today is to have breakfast for dinner at least once a week. Eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage all are relatively cheaper than most main meal items (steak anyone!)

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10 Money Rules for Parents to Live By

10 Money Rules for Parents to Live By from Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, September 2008, is a good read!

These are good rules to live by! The best rule would be to live what you want them to. If you tell them they can't have something because you don't have the money right now, but you stop and buy a $5 coffee, it's a mixed message. Also, no one is perfect, and making mistakes is a great learning tool. Let the kids learn the value of a dollar the hard way, earn it. They'll figure out soon that if they spend their $10 on some toy, they won't have it to spend on the $50 video game!


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Rebate Program - Frugal Tip #14

Caregivers Marketplace is a site I wish I knew about when I had diapers in the house. I use it now to get cash $ back on the flushable wipes and supplements I buy.

Their purpose is clear, to help ease the financial burden of care giving. The categories cover baby & juvenile diapers, bathing & skin care, dentures, dietary supplements, digestive health, home health care, incontinence care, mobility and independence, nutrition and pain relief. The amounts of the rebates may seem low, but when you combine them with a program like CVS Extra Care Bucks, you can see how somethings would be free, or even money back.

There is no limit on the number of forms you can submit, you send in a form every time you have purchased 5 or more eligible products, & send an original receipt. The clerk will gladly (or they should) print you multiple copies of your receipt, so you can combine, items & offers.


Check out other tips at Frugal Friday.
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Frugal Energy

I am reading Flush with Energy and I am annoyed. Not at the article, but at the idea. The writer talks about how Denmark gets 20% of it's electricity from wind and the US only 1%. My annoyance comes in to play from an ongoing local battle to build wind farms.

There are companies that want to come in and put up wind turbines to increase that percentage. Only they are meeting with constant protests, obstacles & problems. The first site was no good because it might possibly disrupt some bird migration or some such nonsense. Because what the birds will be lost and not find their way around? This group of concerned citizens even had lawn signs printed to show support for their "Good Idea, Bad Location" campaign. Because of birds, aren't these birds more likely going to be injured by the SMOG and other pollution if we don't start using more renewable energy sources? This group have tied up the first company so long that a second company has stepped up to try to get it built. The second site, even more rural than the first has met with zoning issues & neighbor protests. Think country people, neighbors is really different out here!

We are doing research right now on what it will take to build our own turbine generator. It doesn't take much and we always have wind! I hope my neighbors don't complain. I'll probably be violating some zoning law.

Everyone wants to complain but the second someone tries to fix the problem, they find something new to complain about. "They" seem to want to be "Green," just don't put it in my back yard. I seriously hope that we are the only backwards county out there & these companies aren't being discouraged like this all over the US. If they are that 1% will stay 1% for a long time to come.

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Frugal Weekend Fun

Or proof that I REALLY do need a new digital camera... This balloon rally & air show was held at a local airport. It was really frugal because we only had to pay $10 to park, but everything else was free. The kids enjoyed the bouncer slide, and the petting zoo, a crazy train ride and watching the planes come in and take off. Of course the purpose is to "Sell" rides, but we really only went over for the evening activities. Balloon Glow and fireworks. My pics of the Glow didn't turn out very well, I should have borrowed my Mom's Kodak EasyShare Z1012 10.1MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom it takes excellent pictures. Especially compared to my 4.0MPs.



I also found a new affiliate network Join Pepperjam Network today! They have a bunch of different advertisers. Check it out.
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Frugal Challenges

My current frugal challenge... Sports. That's my challenge right now. We made it through baseball about $300 poorer. Yikes, figure pictures, registration, new spikes, bat, gloves, helmets, bags for carrying them, treating the team at the snack stand once, game time snacks, lice spray for the helmets in the gear bag (just to be sure). It adds up fast.

Now the Prince is playing midget football. Almost all the equipment is owned by the league, nice!!! So thankfully he can wear his baseball spikes, at least for now, I don't think they'll fit by the time he starts games. He's growing like a weed lately.

You would think in a small community there could be an old equipment exchange or something.

Anyways we just had to spend $20 on undergear for UNDER the uniform. We aren't done, he'll need a long sleeve shirt once it chills down here. Hopefully I'll be able to get that for around $10, but we'll see.

So running total for football $45, & 2 batches of peanut butter bread. Still to come snack stands, lots of travel & the pancake breakfast.

I think I am going to try to organize a pre-season equipment exchange next year. This stuff is hardly worn and they outgrow it like CRAZY! I'm sure I'll get resistance, for such a small town there seem to be a lot of snobbish people who think they are too good for that, at least that's the attitude they put forth. But how can I resist when he is this excited about all his cool uniform stuff!



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Root & Sprout

The August edition of Root & Sprout is up.

I finally got around to writing an article for the Flourish Frugally section!


You can still submit articles for the September edition
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