Find $1000 by the Holidays

Again Kiplinger has sent me another great read I just had to share with you all!!!

“Find $1,000 by the Holidays” gives 6 simple ideas to trim some minor expenses and wind up with up with an extra $1,000 in your savings count.


The tips include:



1. Adjust your tax withholding.

2. Take fewer trips to the grocery store. Making bigger shopping trips less often will cut down on your impulse buys.

3. Kick a habit. Little routines can add up to big bucks.

4. Eat out one less time per month.

5. Put on a sweater. dropping your thermostat just two degrees and donning a sweater will save you $30 a month

6. Examine your phone and cable use. Do you really need all those cable channels?





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From My Google Reader...

Homemaker Barbi has put together an amazing Get Ready for Winter checklist. Seems redundant to do one of my own!!! I'm just going to go over hers & see what I need to Tackle for tomorrows Tackle it Tuesday!!!

This week I will be doing:


1. Pack away summer clothes.

2. Box up summer shoes and sandals.

3. Unpack winter outer wear. We already had to get out the box of hats & gloves for last weeks football game, brrrr!

4. Unpack and wash winter inner wear, such as wool socks, flannel pajamas, sweaters, and robes.

5. Donate adults’ and kids’ old coats, snow pants and boots that are too small to a local shelter or Goodwill. - We will have a coat collection at the Prince's school. I'll just be ready early!

6. Switch to heavyweight pajamas.

I am also ready for my CLR Tackle Now I just need to decide what to clean first!

For the Kids! 2 Fall Leaf Projects for kids.


Don't forget to enter my giveaway You have until October 24th 9PM!






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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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Frugal Fire Safety

There is no such thing... I don't think the rules of frugality can be applied to health and safety issues. Actually if you are truly frugal than you value what is most important, so maybe over the top fire safety is frugal...

We have multiple floors, so we have multiple smoke detectors. By multiple I mean we have 3 on the first floor, 2 in the basement, at least 3 on the second floor & one in the attic. We also have 2 CO (carbon monoxide) detectors, although we have one that could be moved. We have 2 fire extinguishers, one between the laundry room and the stove the other upstairs in our bedroom. We will be replacing these this fall with bigger ones, they are also a little on the old side. I'm not sure how often you are supposed to replace them, but we've had them for 5 years, so I'm saying it's time to at least get a couple more!

We intend to add at least 2 more detectors to our array of protection as well. They will be the "Photoelectric" type. We will put one on each "living" floor. After watching a TV comparison that showed the photoelectric sensors detected a problem faster than the older model smoke detectors, we decided to add some. Faster is better, it means we have more time to get to safety.

We have just reviewed our fire escape plan with the children, we will do a drill sometime soon. Hubby just changed all of the batteries in the detectors. This is early for us, usually I schedule it for when we change the clocks for daylight savings time.

Am I paranoid, a little; overly cautious, you bet!!! Our community has had several fires in the last 6 months. We've taken a look at our house & our ability to react to the different causes of these fires. Our house was built in 1867, so it has it's own unique issues to think about as well. However, we have 2 modes of exit from the second floor, one directly outside, the other through our kitchen. The first floor has two doors outside. We have a meeting place that should be far enough away from the house to be safe and out of the way of where emergency personnel might need to be.

I have been slacking in the emergency kit department, time to get off my behind & get those up to date.

We started thinking about these things the same time we started preparing the furnace for it's first run. Of course having a fatal fire locally where the two victims were very close in age to my kids pushed us to be overly cautious, and added some extra steps to our overall plan.



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Halloween to Thanksgiving Ideas

Fall is here! Time to start thinking about Halloween & Thanksgiving, for me that also includes 2 weddings, several anniversaries & birthdays, hunting season and more FOOTBALL!!!

So when I open my email & find a bunch of great tips sitting there just waiting to be passed along I just have to share!


~The start of the upcoming holiday season is upon us with Halloween right around the corner! Between family dinners, parties, costumes, and more, things can really add up! With Americans looking to save money anywhere we can these days- we've got some budget saving decorating ideas (and kid-friendly crafts) that will transition you from Halloween through Thanksgiving. Lisa Kothari, a nationally known party planner, offers up some fabulous ideas for your readers. Below are just some of her ideas; please let me know if you・d like more. Thanks!



Cookie Cutters: The simple pumpkin cookie cutter you chose to create marvelous pumpkin invitations and decorations for your spooky Halloween party can be used at Thanksgiving time to make pumpkin sugar cookies, pumpkin bread, brownies, etc. Pumpkins are as festive at Halloween as they are at Thanksgiving.



Tablecloth: Use an orange tablecloth for your Halloween party table, and then trim it up using brown ribbon and scalloped scissors to create a formal tablecloth for Thanksgiving.



The bales of hay and Indian corn you purchased to make your yard, front porch, door, and even serve as a table centerpiece can all be used during Thanksgiving as well. The items will keep fresh throughout the entire autumn season. You can also use the corn husks to create dolls and puppets for more Thanksgiving decorations or plain fun!



Mini pumpkins and gourds look as festive for Halloween as they will for Thanksgiving. Have the kids draw faces on the small pumpkins, and turkeys on to the gourds.



Any leftover orange balloons can be blown up for Thanksgiving and the kids can either draw with brown magic markers or use other craft materials to create turkey balloons.



Have the kids roll up large orange napkins that you may have used for your Halloween party and create napkin rings using white and black construction paper rings (the Pilgrim colors, of course!)



Did you bob for apples at your Halloween party? Use these apples or some new ones to create Apple Candlestick Holders. Core out the center of the apple to fit a candle snuggly. Older children can carve out patterns on the skin of the apple, or just keep them plain red.



About Lisa Kothari: Kothari is the president and founder of Peppers and Pollywogs, a web-based company that is ・All About Kids・ Parties.・ During the past ten years, Lisa has organized hundreds of creative and unique kids・ parties in Washington, DC, New York City, and Seattle. She believes that no matter the budget or the amount of time a parent has, a great kids・ party can always be planned. Her passion is helping parents achieve this with minimal time and effort. Kothari recently released her book, Dear Peppers and Pollywogs・What Parents Want to Know About Planning Their Kids・ Parties, a must-have manual for all parents. Be sure and visit Peppers and Pollywogs for party tips, advice, and current theme trends.






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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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Give your tech stuff ears

Extend your Wi-Fi for free give it ears...

I had to check this out, mostly because I think it's hilarious, but because we have a lot of house in between computers. I wonder if there is a similar technique to boost my cordless phone signal. I have a 5.8, you'd think I could walk into the laundry room and not lose signal, but alas...


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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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