My friend Alyssa is hosting a 30-Day Giving Challenge during the month of November over on her blog, Keeping the Kingdom First. She is challenging each of us to give to someone in some fashion every day in November. This
could be large or small, simple or extravagant. Read more details here.
Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: Starting with Small Things (Part 2)
Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: Starting with Small Things (Part 2)
Last week, I left you hanging in the Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom series at the point where I’d just found out I was pregnant. Let’s pick up from there…
Those two pink lines changed my life forever. Not only because they meant I was going to be a mom, but they also were the impetus for me to become a work-at-home mom.
It’s easy to say that becoming a mom also propelled me to become a work-at-home mom, but believe me, it wasn’t anywhere easy. In fact, I had no idea just how hard it was going to be.
I was sick from week five to week twenty-one in my pregnancy. I never had to be hospitalized for dehydration, but there were days when I could barely get out of bed because I was so nauseated. I wanted to be a mom more than just about anything in the world, but I had no idea how miserable morning sickness was going to be!
Needless to say, my jobs as a mother’s helper were abruptly ended. And therefore, our income was drastically reduced as well. When I was working four days a week as a mother’s helper, we were scraping by, without that income, it seemed impossible we could ever pay all of our bills.
I remember how helpless I felt so many times during those long weeks of my early pregnancy. I knew there had to be something I could do to earn an income from our little basement apartment, but what? I wracked my brain for days and weeks on end. I prayed, I worried, I cried, and I prayed some more.
As thankful as I was to be pregnant, I couldn’t help but also wonder and fret over how we were going to eat and have a roof over our heads. And I couldn’t even begin to try and figure out how we would pay for the extra expenses of having a baby, too. How would we survive for two more years of law school?
At that point, I had no idea. But I did know one thing: God was watching over us. He had called us to step out in faith and get married, move to Topeka, KS, and God had clearly opened up the doors for Jesse to go to law school. I also knew that God had given us this precious baby and He was going to take care of us.
And you know what? He never failed us or forsook us.
Oh yes! I worried many times when it seemed there was no way we were going to be able to pay all of the basic bills for the month. But somehow, someway, every necessary bill always got paid.
God called us not only to step out in faith and trust Him, but we also knew it was our responsibility to do everything we could to be wise stewards of the gifts, time, talents, and resources He had given us.
Since the beginning of our marriage, Jesse and I spent long hours talking about and tossing around ideas of possibly starting our own business. When we found out we were expecting, we knew that it was time to act on these ideas.
But where to start? Jesse was gone long hours at school and I was stuck in bed or on the couch much of the day feeling very sick.
I decided if I were going to be sick all day, it wasn’t going to make things any worse if I tried to use that time to learn what I could about possible ways to earn money online.
So I took the laptop and dug in where I was at. I spent countless hours scouring the internet, I signed up for Yahoo! Groups on entrepreneurialism and small businesses, I emailed anyone and everyone who had any clue about anything when it came to internet businesses or running your own business, and I read stacks of books on starting a small business and online marketing from the library.
Little by little, I came up with different ideas. I began with small things–mostly things I could do straight from the couch! Here are just a few of the things I tried during those long weeks of morning sickness that produced at least some positive results:
::Half.com–I listed and sold a number of books we were no longer needing or using (especially Jesse’s old textbooks) through this website and ended up making at least $1500 over the course of a few years. I tried my hand at buying used books at the thrift store and reselling these but I never had much success with that.
If you’re interested in reselling books, I’d recommend that you start by looking around your home and finding books you no longer need or use and see what the going rate is on Half.com. I’d suggest check out Cash4Books.net, too, as they will pay you immediately whereas on Half.com, you have to wait for a buyer to purchase from you.
If Cash4Books is going to pay you somewhat similar to the going rate on Half.com, definitely go with Cash4Books as you won’t have to sit around waiting for a buyer. Instead, you’ll get the payment immediately.
There’s a great article here on reselling books which gives some more detailed advice if this is something you’re interested in. Some folks actually make a living doing this full-time. I’ve heard the market is more saturated than it used to be, but it’s still something to consider–especially if you have some decent books around your home you’d like to part with!
Online Surveys–I had no idea what I was doing when I signed up for online survey companies and I quickly found out that most of them are much more work than they are worth. However, I definitely don’t think they all should be discounted.
You can go here to see my favorite paid online survey sites!
I was encouraged to see money start trickling in from these things. It wasn’t enough to pay our bills, but it was something–and something is better than nothing, right?
As I started feeling better and I researched more ideas, I got braver and branched out to try other things. Most of these things flopped royally, but I learned a great deal in the process. I’ll tell you more about these in Part 3.
…To be continued
If you haven’t taken a chance to read through the comments on Part 1 of this series, be sure to do so here. There are dozens of great business ideas and tidbits of wisdom shared there!
Got pumpkins? Need recipes?
Amy has the motherload of pumpkin recipes collected and cooked up for you here. No matter your family's tastes or preferences, there's likely a recipe or two or ten you'd be interested in trying. Go check them out!
photo by AmyMillerPhotos
Becoming a Mystery Shopper
You’ve probably seen the signs or ads which promise that you can make hundreds of dollars every month by shopping and going out to eat. And you’ve probably though it was too good to be true.
Well, those advertisements are likely a little over-the-top and just designed to get you to sign up for some overpriced list which you can find yourself with a little searching online. But Mystery Shopping is a very legitimate source of income and in many area, the jobs are plentiful and the pay is good.
Erin recently emailed me about her experiences with Mystery Shopping:
I heard about the idea of “mystery shopping” a few years ago, when my husband was in between coming home from a tour in Afghanistan, finding a temporary job, and returning to Active Duty Military. We needed a little extra cash, and this seemed to work well with my schedule.
At that time, I only had my son, but I’ve continued to do these shops with my second child. There are some very simple shops that pay $5 and $10, all the way up to more complex shops that pay out up to $200!
I also have taken on jobs that have compensated me for meals that my family and I have eaten. I get paid very quickly and I have never had any
problems with any of the sites I’ve used. A few of them are:Mystery Shoppers Provider Association
ICCDS
Beyond Hello
Kern Scheduling
National Shopping Service
Trend SourceAgain, these are all real businesses. I have done jobs for every single one of these companies and have been paid for all of my work. -Erin
When I first began mystery shopping, I signed up for all of the legitimate mystery shopping companies I could find. I opened up a separate email account which was dedicated to mystery shopping emails and used that when I signed up. It took me hours to sign up with all of the companies and it was quite time-consuming.
If you’ll thoroughly fill out all the applications and have patience, you’ll likely begin to see quite a number of job opportunities sent to you. Many times, these jobs are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so you’ll want to check your email for job openings a few times each day and be quick to respond to any which you are interested in.
Most mystery shopping jobs pay between $7-$15 and include some sort of reimbursement as well. I have done lots of fast food shops, casual dining, high-end restaurants, gas stations, beauty supply stores, pet stores, and even a bowling alley, to name a few. I found restaurant shops to be my favorite as they usually not only reimbursed for a meal for myself and my husband, but they also usually paid at least an extra $10 for the work involved. It was very worth it to me to get a nice free dinner date with my husband plus some cash — all for about 30 minutes of extra work!
One very important caution: DO NOT PAY TO MYSTERY SHOP! Legitimate jobs or companies do not require that you pay a fee to join or be accepted as a mystery shopper. There are many scam companies out there charging fees for lists or supposed job opportunities which are nothing that you cannot find yourself by applying to the companies listed above.
A good mystery shopper is someone who is attentive to detail and thorough in everything they do. In addition, it is very important you keep accurate records and follow instructions carefully.
Mystery shopping is a lot of work–especially in the beginning when you are first learning the ropes–but it can be a fun and rewarding experience which also can help supplement your income.
If you’re looking for even more recommendations for legitimate mystery shopping companies, check out this Facebook post with great info from readers who are experienced mystery shoppers!
Have you been a mystery shopper before? If so, I’d love to hear your tips and advice for someone who is considering dipping their toes into the world of mystery shopping.
Super Savings Saturday: Dillon’s and a trip to the Bulk Foods Store
Super Savings Saturday: Dillon’s and a trip to the Bulk Foods Store
We did something different this month in our grocery budgeting. Instead of taking out $40 each week to use on groceries like we usually do, we took out a lump sum of $160 at the beginning of the month. I was surprised, but it seemed like this $160 went a lot farther than the $40 per week usually does. I'm not sure the reasoning behind that, but that's what happened!
Motivated by my success the past two months in setting aside money from our weekly grocery budget for bulk purchases, I've been working a little harder this month to see if I could set aside a larger amount. I've been amazed at how much purchasing in bulk is helping me to do this. It seems build upon itself: the more I purchase in bulk, the more it gives me wiggle room to purchase in bulk.
This month, I was able to set aside $60 from our grocery budget for bulk purchases. Some friends and I drove to a nearby town today and shopped at a bulk foods store and I was able to purchase a lot of what you see pictured above for just right under $40. I got enough spices and herbs to last me well over a year, 25 pounds of unbleached flour, raw sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, dates, coconut, and even a big bag of turbinado sugar (a more natural sugar) and carob powder.
I'm so excited to be finding creative ways to afford some healthier foods in our budget. Buying in bulk has certainly been a big asset there. I am going to be using some of these items to make a big batch of homemade granola and I'm also looking forward to experimenting with some new and more healthful recipes. I've never used carob powder or turbinado sugar before. Have you? Any can't-miss recipes you want to share?
In addition to the bulk foods store, we also made two quick trips to Dillons this week–since the sale weeks changes on Wednesdays and we wanted to get things from both sale ads. I won't list off all the deals, but you can read more about the Nature Valley Nut Clusters deal here.
I also got 3 packages of Huggies wipes free off of Amazon using my Swagbucks.
We spent a total of $72 on groceries this week and we were able to really stock up on some things which will last us much longer than a week. We still have about $35 left to spend on groceries this month and I we should have no problem staying under that next week–especially since our freezer is still well-stocked with food.
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Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.
Guest Post: Making Your Own Pumpkin Puree
Guest Post by Katie from Frugal Femina
Did you panic when you heard there might be a pumpkin shortage? My stores have plenty, but the rumors made me wonder what I would do in a pinch. At first I thought, "I can live without pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving."
Then someone posted on Twitter about making their own pie filling from a real, live pumpkin {gasp!}. So I thought I'd give it a try. You know what? It's easy to do, and your kiddos will love scooping out the seeds. Check out these tips.
Pie pumpkins are smaller than the kind you might use for carving–usually about 6-8 inches each. Walmart sells them for $0.78/lb. I got them for $3/pumpkin at a pumpkin farm. I got 5, because pumpkins are about 90% water, and I wanted to make sure I had enough.
I ended up with so much puree I had to freeze some in a plastic container. I love pumpkin, though, and will definitely put it to good use!
Here's how I turned the pumpkins from the pumpkin farm into pumpkin puree:
When I got home, I washed the pumpkin with plain water.
Next, I cut the pumpkin in half with a large, serrated knife. I'm told
you're less likely to slip and cut yourself with a serrated knife. I
would much rather eat pumpkin than go to the ER. How 'bout you?
I scooped out the seeds/strings with an ice cream scoop. You can save the seeds to roast or plant next year. We did both.
I put the pumpkin halves in a dish with a couple of inches of water. I
didn't have a deep enough dish with a lid, so I just covered them with
a dish towel and microwaved them for 30 minutes. You can cook them in
the oven, but it takes a little longer.
The skin slid right off the pumpkin once it was cooked through.
Next, I pureed it in the food processor until it was smooth. It took a
minute or two. You'll want to drain off any free-standing water.
And now you're ready to bake!
Pumpkin Cookies
Pumpkin Coconut Bread
THE Pumpkin Dessert
Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal
Pumpkin Dinner Rolls (I served these with Cinnamon Honey Spread–1/2 cup softened butter or margarine blended with 1 cup powdered sugar,
1/4 cup honey, and
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.)
Want more tips? Check out PickYourOwn.org. It's my favorite resource for all things preserving.
Katie is a pastor's wife, a stay-at-home mama of one little munchkin,
and a part-time nursing student. Her family lives in a little cabin on
a farm in Kentucky. Katie has been blogging since 2005, and she shares
fun and thrifty talk for a well-managed home at her latest project, Frugal Femina.
Worth Reading Round-up
Just a few links I’ve enjoyed this past week:
::Struggling to instill contentment in your children? The Happy Housewife has some great insight here.
::Life as Mom shares here how to cook one night and eat for three nights. Now that’s my kind of deal!
::Wish you could come up with creative ideas to waste less food? Check out the plethora of ideas here from Planet Green.
::If you’re wondering whether using coupons and shopping sales is worth the effort, check out Saving Your Cents post here on ten items you’ll likely never pay for again if you use coupons.
::Heather wrote and said:
we go through tons of yogurt in a week. We buy organic dairy, so you
can guess how expensive that can be. Instead of buying $12 (are you
cringing, yet?) of organic yogurt a week, I buy a gallon of
organic milk at about $5.97 and use it to make yogurt in my slow cooker using this recipe. It makes about 13 cups of yogurt and supplies our family with yogurt for about 2 weeks. I do have to buy a “starter” quart of
yogurt, but this lasts a long time. It is very
easy to do and I was amazed with the results.
The Frugal Homeschool: L is for Leaf
Just for fun (and because I've received many requests!), I'm going to start posting a little peek into our homeschooling here every few weeks. I hope that it is an inspiration to those of you who are homeschooling young ones or looking for educational things you can do with your little ones which are inexpensive and simple.
If you haven't done so, you can read more about our homeschooling curriculum and philosophies here.
Recently, we studied the letter "L" and our theme of the My Father's World unit was leaves. What fun we had!
The girls collected leaves and we used them for quite a few different things: we sorted from smallest to largest, we talked about big and little, and used them to practice counting.
We talked about patterns and used these lollipops to make a variety of patterns.
This is one of Kathrynne's favorite games. It's just the uppercase and lowercase alphabet printed on cards and we use it to play Alphabet Memory.
While Kathrynne and I work at the table, I have a basket of different fun things for Kaitlynn to play with that I slowly dole out one by one to keep her occupied. Here she's "reading" Caps for Sale–one of our read-alouds from the leaf unit.
She loves the Paint with Water Books–and so do I! I just give her a paint brush and a cup of water and let her go at it. Sometimes water ends up in many more places than the book, but it's much less mess than actual paint!
Next up: bubbles! Again, these make a little bit of a mess, but it's very easy to clean up and she has a blast playing with them. I picked these up at the Dollar Store and they gave the girls hours of fun!
We took the leaves that the girls had picked and made leaf rubbings.
Who says you have to wait to teach Home Ec. until high school? The girls have a real interest in cooking and baking so I've been making a point to spend time teaching them basic cooking skills. It takes extra time and effort now, but I'm hopeful it will pay off in the long-run with my girls being able to do much of the cooking and baking for our family in the not-too-distant future.
Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom: In the Beginning… (Part 1)
I am a firm believer that, with God’s blessings and lots of hard work, anyone can successfully work from home. However, I will be the first to tell you that working from home is just that–it’s work.
I’m by nature a positive person but I won’t sugar-coat the truth when
it comes to working from home: if you are not prepared to put in lots
and lots and lots of time and effort, working from home won’t work for you.
I’m sure many moms could look at me and want what I have–the
ability to make a good income while staying at home, choosing my own
hours, and taking care of my husband, home, and family first. I can
take a day off (or even a few days off!) whenever I like and
the money continues to come in at about the same rate because of the many
multiple streams of income I’ve set in place.
All this might sound really wonderful (and it is!) but what most people
often don’t add into this equation are the countless hours, days,
weeks, months, and even years I’ve spent working, learning, and experimenting to get things to the point they are at.
The effort has paid off and I’m now reaping the fruits of my labors
(though I’m still making lots of mistakes and I’m sure I’ll continue to
do so until the day I die!), but I won’t ever forget the struggles I
had to go through to getwhere I’m at or the mountains I’ve had to
climb along the way.
This series is my personal journey to Becoming a Work-at-Home Mom. I will be sharing what things have and haven’t worked for me, what I
wish someone had told me when I was first contemplating starting a
business from home, and how you, too, can become a work-at-home mom.
Let me start at the very beginning…
When my husband and I were married–over six and a half years ago–we knew we wanted to stay out of debt, live on a budget, and we wanted my primary place to be at home. I had no desire to pursue an outside-the-home career; I just wanted to be a stay-at-home wife and mother.
However, there was also this thing called money. We didn’t have a lot of it and my husband still had three and a half years of school left ahead of him. We were living on a very tight budget but we weren’t even making enough to pull that off. We knew that the only way we’d survive the next three and a half years was if we not only continued to pinch pennies, but if we also found ways to increase our income.
Before we got married, I worked an odd assortment of side jobs to produce a little income: I taught violin, babysat, tutored, and worked as a mother’s helper and a waitress. I continued on in some of these after we got married but when we moved to a new town where we knew no one so my husband could begin three years of law school, I found that my side job possibilities narrowed a great deal!
However, we prayed a lot and talked about a hundred different ideas. And then we got creative.
I advertised my experience as a mother’s helper in the local homeschool newsletter and soon was working for four different families each week. I enjoyed this work and it helped to pay the bills. We didn’t have any wiggle room at all, but by carefully squeezing every little thing we could out of every penny, not buying anything but basic necessities, and strategic grocery shopping, we were able to survive on $800-$1000 per month.
A number of months went by and one week I began noticing that I didn’t feel so well. I was tired and sick to my stomach much of the time. I went about my usual routine, but I could barely keep up with my mother’s helper jobs. I continued to feel worse and worse and we couldn’t figure out what on earth my problem was. After about a week of this, I realized that the one thing I’d not considered was the possibility I could be pregnant.
We’d wanted to have children since we were first married but we’d struggled with some infertility issues and I’d finally just given up the hope that I’d ever be a mom. However, I had some pregnancy tests stashed away and that morning I decided–on a whim!–that I’d just take one. After all, it wouldn’t hurt anything.
Imagine my total shock when I took it and looked down a few seconds later to see two pink lines! No wonder I’d felt so sick and tired!
We were ecstatic, elated, excited, and overwhelmed all at once! We were thrilled to be parents, but we realized this was going to turn our world a little upside down. Never could we have realized at the time just how much having a baby was going to change our lives forever–for the better!
To be continued next week…
Just for fun: How many of you currently work from home?
Tell us a little about what you do. (And if you have a website, be sure to leave the link in the comments section.)
Graphic designed by A Source of Joy Graphic Design
Experimenting with a Two-Week Menu Plan
I'm changing things up around here a little in order to strive for more efficiency. Not only am I experimenting with doing much of my cooking ahead, but I'm also trying my hand at planning two-week menus instead of one-week menus.
Kate, from Stolen Moments Menu Planning, asked if she could make a sample month-long menu plan for me to try out and review so I'm basing much of this two-week menu plan off of that. But I'm also adding in things I already have cooked up in the freezer and other items I have on hand which need to be used up.
I printed this Two-Week Menu Plan Template here and jotted down the full menu. However, since I don't like to be completely "boxed in" when it comes to menu plans, I wrote it in pencil! I'm going to do my best to stick with what's written here, but I'm sure there will be some adaptations as I go along.
I'm also going to be making some cookie dough and baking mixes to freeze this week. I'm finding that cooking ahead is benefiting me so much, I'm looking for other ways to maximize my efficiency in the kitchen. If my efforts turn out satisfactorily, I'll be blogging about them later on this week.
By the way, if you have any great Baking Mix recipes, I'd love to have the links or recipes. I've never done something like this before so I haven't a clue what I'm doing. But I might as well jump in and try, right?
Here's the plan:
Week 1 Breakfasts:
Sunshine Toast, apples, orange juice
Blueberry Banana Smoothies
Pumpkin Waffles, apples, orange juice
Southwest Scramble (scrambled eggs with hashbrowns, cheese, peppers, onions, and tomatoes), fruit, orange juice
Cereal x 2
Blueberry Coffee Cake, orange juice
Week 1 Lunches:
Cheese quesadillas, spinach
Homemade mac & cheese, applesauce
Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese
Egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
PB&J sandwiches, applesauce
Leftovers
Bean and Cheese Burritos
Week 1 Dinners:
Chicken Tetrazinni, homemade applesauce, peas
Dinner at Grandma's house
Ziti, homemade bread, green beans
Turkey Sausage Corn & Broccoli Bake, fruit, banana bread
Homemade Barbecue Chicken Pizza, fruit, chocolate chip cookies
Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore over noodles, fruit, homemade bread
Leftovers
Week 2 Breakfasts:
Peanut Butter Toast, fruit, orange juice
Yogurt, Fruit, and Granola Parfaits
Mini Blinis, fruit, orange juice
Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (without pecans), fruit
Cereal x 2
French Toast, fruit, orange juice
Week 2 Lunches:
PB&J, carrots
Homemade mac & cheese, peas
Egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks
Cheese quesadillas, fruit
Lunch at Grandma's house
Leftovers
Cheesy Rice and Broccoli
Week 2 Dinners:
Country Breakfast Pot Pie, fruit
Ziti, homemade bread, green beans
Chicken Tetrazinni, applesauce, carrot sticks
Hamburger Vegetable Soup, homemade bread, cheese, apples
Homemade Barbecue Chicken Pizza, fruit, chocolate chip cookies
Dinner out
Leftovers
Snacks
Apples
Carrot sticks
Homemade Bread
Homemade hot chocolate
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Apple Pie
Applesauce
Cheese and crackers
Banana Bread
Chocolate Chip Cookies
See more menus for this week over at Organizing Junkie.
Tired of Missing Deals?Join Our Hot Deals List!
Click here to sign upSuper Savings Saturday: A quiet week and my Alice.com order
I didn't go shopping this week. Not at all. In fact, aside from a quick day trip with Silas to Denver for the ShopatHome.com Blogger's Summit, I didn't leave the house much at all.
The girls had lingering coughs and congestion from their nasty flu last week and then Silas came down with a fever a few days ago. So we've stayed in, stayed put, and been taking lots of Vitamin C, trying to eat well, and getting extra sleep. And it's been nice! In fact, I realized that I need to make a concerted effort to go back to saying "no" to busyness and stay home at least a few full days per week. Life is so much more organized and calm when I do so.
We didn't go grocery shopping at all this week, but since we have a great stockpile of food built up, we just ate from our pantry and freezer (seeing as last week's Baking/Cooking Day guaranteed that we had plenty of food at the ready in our freezer!).
I didn't even so much as open up my coupon box until this evening. It stayed closed for almost ten days and it was a great feeling to just let it sit for awhile while I baked and cooked and tended to sick children.
Of course, I missed out on some deals, for sure, but it was good to take a break. I've found that giving myself a breather every now and then really helps me to keep things in balance and it also prevents coupon "burn-out" (see this article for more on that topic).
I did, however, get 24-roll pack of toilet paper and 8 bottles of shampoo in from Alice.com. They wanted me to try out their new service and gave me a small shopping credit to do just that. Most of the prices are more than what I'd usually pay, but the shampoo/conditioner were only $0.60 per bottle, which is about $0.10 more than I usually pay after a sale and coupons. The toilet paper was also just a tad bit more than I have been paying for it recently as well.
All in all, I spent $11.28 for everything pictured above. Not the greatest deal ever, but seeing as it was shipped straight to my door and shipping was free, it's a decent deal in my opinion.
If you live way out where there aren't many shopping options, I'd definitely recommend checking out Alice.com. Their "Best Deals" section is my favorite place to frequent. They often have manufacturer's coupons available which can further sweeten the deals–like the 64-oz. bottle of Snuggle I got last week for $0.40 shipped.
I'm planning to do a more extensive review of Alice.com as well as a giveaway in the near future so be looking for that if you're interested in trying this shopping service out.
And this has nothing to do with bargains, but a lot of you have been begging for pictures of Silas, so here's one from this past week that I took of him with his new teddy bear:
Can you believe he's already five months old? He is growing like a weed, starting to jabber a lot more, trying to scoot around a little, and he's very much a Mama's boy. I love him to pieces and feel so blessed to be his mother.
Stay tuned for pictures of the girls this next week when I'll be sharing a peek into our homeschool lessons recently. So many of you have been asking for more pictures and tidbits from our life, so as I have time, I'll be doing my best to share these. And I'll also be posting the first installment of the Becoming a Work-At-Home Mom series. I promise. 🙂 This past week flew by and I never had a chance to finish it, but I'm determined to sit down and get it completed in the next day or two and have it posted early next week.
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Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways?
If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link
below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you
personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order
to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in
their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content
other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to
make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your
link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.
Worth Reading Round-Up
Just a few articles I've enjoyed over the past week:
::20 Different Ways to Make Crafts Pay–for those of you who are more skilled with your hands than me, this article has some creative ideas for earning money from craft-related ventures.
::Dear People with Grown Sons: PLEASE HELP–If you have sons with voracious appetites, you'll certainly be able to understand Shannon's plea. And you'll likely find some great tips and ideas in the comments section.
::Can Buying a Grain Mill Save You Money? Laura answers this question by doing the math and sharing how her initial investment in a grain mill has saved their family $552 in four years! (By the way, if you are looking for a grain mill which is a little less expensive than what Laura has, I have the BlendTec Grain and Flour Mill and really like it.)
Guest Post: Maximize Your Freezer’s Potential and Minimize Freezer Burn
Guest Post: Maximize Your Freezer’s Potential and Minimize Freezer Burn
After I live-blogged my Baking/Cooking Day last week, there were hundreds of questions asked about methods of freezing. I’m hoping to address many of these in future posts, but while you’re waiting on that, my friend Amy from The Finer Things in Life offered to write a quick guest post on a creative way she’s discovered to maximize her freezer’s potential and minimize freezer burn. I think those of you who feel like you don’t have space or pans to pull off Cooking Ahead might just re-think that after reading her guest post!
Freezing meals ahead of time for busy days sounds like a great idea, in theory. But what about freezer space? What about pans? What about freezer burn?
A technique that my high school home economics teacher shared with us many years ago has stuck with me and served my family well when it comes to freezing meals. Here’s what works for us:
Prepare freezer meals in 8×8, 9×9, or other smaller pans. Anything that will fit in a gallon-sized freezer bag will work. Before filling it with food, line the baking dish with aluminum foil or freezer paper.
Fold the foil over the top and freeze the meal.
Once frozen enough to hold its shape, pop it out of the baking dish. Seal the meal in a freezer bag, removing as much air as possible.
When you are ready to use the frozen, there are two options: you can either remove the wrapping while the item is still frozen and place the food back into the original pan to thaw and bake. Or, you can just slip the whole thing (still wrapped in foil) in a pan and bake it making clean up a snap!
Here are just a few of the reasons I love freezing meals this way:
* The smaller pans prevent leftover burnout (If you have a large family, just pop two pans in the oven.)
* Several meals can be in the freezer while favorite baking dishes remain handy.
* There’s no need to purchase lots of expensive aluminum pans (or clean them!)
* Foil and freezer paper can often be found on sale with a coupon.
* Wrapping the meal and then sealing it in a bag prevents freezer burn.
* This method maximizes freezer space since the baking dishes aren’t stacked up.
* And, in light of yesterday’s post, it’s also worth mentioning that your freezer bags can be reused when food labeling is done on the foil or freezer paper.
Amy is a Tiny Town coach’s wife and mother of three convinced that the The Finer Things in Life offer more joy than anything money can buy.
True Frugality Considers the ROI
Frugal in Virginia's husband, Ryan, has another smashing piece up here which you'll want to go read. I found myself nodding along in agreement until I came to the sentence which said they don't reuse their Ziploc bags.
I had to stop and catch my breath for a second.
They don't reuse Ziploc bags?? Doesn't that break rule number 10454 in The Frugal Zealot's Handbook? Doesn't everyone know that you must get at least 543 uses out of a Ziploc bag before throwing it out? That's just what we frugal folks do. Anything else would be… well, it would just be unthinkable.
Jesting aside, the point of the piece was excellent: true frugality considers the ROI (return on investment of time) as the bottom line. There are thousands of ways to save a buck. But each family needs to carefully weigh how much time it is going to take to save that buck. Time is money, too.
So figure out which money-saving efforts are worth your time and stick with those. Don't feel guilted over the fact that you might not be doing all the frugal things some other family is doing. You can't do it all, so pick and choose what works for your family in the season of life you're in.
For me, it's not a big deal at all to reuse Ziploc bags. I do a lot of baking so when a freezer bag of baked goods is empty, I just dump the crumbs into the trash and stick the empty bag back into the freezer door to be at-the-ready for my next Baking Day spree. It probably takes me all of ten seconds and it means that I only buy a box of freezer bags twice a year–at the most.
But there are a lot of things I don't do. For instance, I don't use a clothesline, don't cloth diaper, and we do go out to eat once a week. Just like it seems weird to me that someone who considers themselves frugal would not also reuse their Ziploc bags, it probably seems strange to some of you that I don't hang my clothes out, use cloth diapers, or make every meal from scratch.
I've done each of those things before and might do them again in the future, but I've found they just don't work well for our family right now. And I'm okay with that. What works for one family, won't necessarily work for another family.
I love how Ryan ends his post:
Check up on yourself. Evaluate your frugal techniques. Which ones are really
worth it? If you wouldn’t accept $2 per hour as payment for your labor
from another, don’t accept it from yourself under the guise of
frugality. Valuing your time is the subtle and important difference
between being cheap and being frugal.
The frugal experience is about living better on less. If you miss the living better part, you’ve missed it entirely.
Just for fun: do you reuse your Ziploc bags? What common frugal techniques do you find to not work or be worth it to your family? Tell us about it in the comments.
Reader Tip: Join a Coupon Exchange Group
Do you have extra coupons you'd love to exchange with someone for coupons you could use? Samantha emailed me a great tip:
The coupon group that Samantha mentioned joining is here. There are coupon exchange groups on HotCouponWorld.com, AFullCup.com, as well as a variety of other places. If you've found a great place to exchange coupons, let us know in the comments section.
In addition, don't forget that you can send your expired coupons to military families. Read more about the Coupons for Troops Program here.