photo by noonch
Ever wondered if you could live on beans and rice for a week? Head on over to my other blog to read my menu plan. I’d love to hear some of your favorite legume recipes or even your own week-long beans-and-rice menu plan!
Streamline your days and save your sanity with these simplified lists!
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
photo by noonch
Ever wondered if you could live on beans and rice for a week? Head on over to my other blog to read my menu plan. I’d love to hear some of your favorite legume recipes or even your own week-long beans-and-rice menu plan!
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
I’m going to jump up on my soapbox for a moment–something I try to shy away from doing very often around here–because I feel like it needs to be said…
As many of you know, there’s a new $3/$15 CVS coupon out. And guess what? I won’t be posting about where to get it from or encouraging you all to use it.
Why? Because in order to access the coupon you have to subscribe to the NewsDay print edition or you have to say you do.
Now, if you subscribe to the NewsDay print edition, by all means go use this coupon. But if you don’t, may I heartily encourage you to not use this coupon?
I know that there are differing views on coupon usage (believe me, you oughta see the emails I receive!) and I know we aren’t always going to agree on all the interpretations of coupon ethics, but I hope we can all agree that lying in order to access a coupon is unethical. Always.
There, I said it. Now let’s get back to the good deals!
Note: A big thanks to my friend Alyssa for speaking up first on this.
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
photo by egarc2
Guest Post by Katie from Cincinnati Cents
As parents, there is a fine line between over-indulging our children and ensuring that we spend a reasonable amount of quality family time together. It seems as though schedules become incredibly hectic with the pace of today’s world, between school, work, soccer games, piano lessons, church commitments, scout meetings, social organizations…the list could go on and on.
It is essential for families to carve out time that is separate from the hubbub of the daily routine, in order to connect (or reconnect) as a family unit. Without this time spent together, the core that binds each family together becomes fractionalized, and suddenly the members become disconnected from each other, making family unity and harmony a challenge to be overcome.
While it is easy to agree that family time is essential, it is not always so simple to find activities and events that are family-friendly (oftentimes for a multitude of ages) as well as financially feasible. It is certainly not difficult to concoct grand plans for trips to amusement parks, the beach, or a local fun zone.
However, if these ventures are beyond your budgetary means, the additional stress they cause defeat the purpose of the unity-building experience. In this weekly series, I will be focusing on simple, frugal ways to celebrate your family, thereby spending quality time together (while maintaining your sanity as well!).
As Summer has quickly slipped away, and Fall is gently unfolding, it is an ideal time to enjoy the beauty of the season with a leisurely walk as a family in the coolness of the evening. I’ve found, it is easy to engage all participating “walkers” if you add a game into the experience.
Give each child a scavenger hunt list (younger children could be paired with older siblings or parents) of various items to locate while you are enjoying the outdoors. This turns the walk into more than just exercise and family time–it becomes a nature hunt, and children will be amazed with the autumn treasures they might find. Acorns, red and orange leaves, and squirrels scurrying to procure their winter store all make fascinating finds for young children. They are often amazed by what they can find if they truly look at their surroundings.
Bingo is another easy take-along game for an evening hike. Parents can make simple bingo boards prior to the family outing, utilizing cardboard or heavy cardstock and clear contact paper. A simple 9 or 12-box grid would be ideal for younger children, whereas a larger grid (15 to 25 squares) would be more challenging for older children. Items that could be searched for would either be written in the squares, or pictures could be drawn for non-readers.
Once the boards are completed, a simple covering of clear contact paper will protect them from the elements on the journey. Each child would then be supplied with a dry erase marker and either a paper towel or a wet wipe. Whoever finds the needed objects and yells “bingo” first would win the game. The boards could then be wiped clean, and a new game could begin.
Of course, a game is not necessary for a family outing. It is oftentimes enough for families–especially those with very small children–to simply enjoy each others’ presence during the course of a long, leisurely walk. Young ones are so excited to witness nature’s beauty in its simplest form–a butterfly spreading its wings, a puppy barking from across the street, one last lazy flower poking its head out of the ground.
Regardless of the activity you choose, remember that life passes to quickly. Take time to smell those proverbial roses. Next Fall will be here in a blink of an eye, and you’ll want to look back and remember all the amazing memories you’ve created as a family over the course of the year.
Katie is a homeschooling mother of four. She blogs at Cincinnati Cents, where she shares money-saving ideas, deals, and frugal activities to enjoy as a family.
From Crystal: What are some of your favorite games to play or things to do while you’re out on a family walk?
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
photo by rick
As most of you know, we’re in the process of packing up and moving to another city–for the fourth time in less than six years. We always make it a goal to see how efficiently and inexpensively we can pull off a move so I thought I’d share a few tips we’ve found helpful for moving on a dime.
First off, we always move ourselves–with the help of kind friends and family. We prefer to do the work of packing up our stuff ourselves because it not only saves us money, but it also serves as a motivation to rid our home of unnecessary clutter. (You can read more on this here.)
Not paying for a moving service saves us quite a bit of money and since we try to keep our home pretty clutter-free in the first place and only have a small family, the job of packing things up is not too overwhelming. In fact, we’ve found we can usually do the whole thing from start to finish in less than four days.
However, doing the packing ourselves means that we have to find a source for good boxes. We’ve accomplished this in a variety of ways. The easiest way is to find a family who recently moved who has a bunch of boxes they’d love to have taken off their hands. Friends, acquaintances, FreeCycle, or CraigsList are good places to start with.
Another great option is to pick up extra produce boxes or paper ream boxes from grocery stores, Wal-Mart, or office supply stores. The only drawback to this is that you will likely need to hit these stores multiple times in order to procure enough boxes to pack up your home.
Last move, we were in a small town without a local CraigsList or FreeCycle, I was in the middle of morning sickness with baby #2, and we found out we were moving only a few weeks before we actually moved. So, after some simple research, I found 60 good-size boxes on eBay with free overnight shipping that I bought for $53. It wasn’t the best deal ever, but it was much better than the prices you’d find at moving stores and it was perfect for that current life situation.
This time around, I’m again in the middle of morning sickness with baby #3 and we don’t know of anyone who just moved with extra boxes to dispose of, so we began exploring other options. Ebay prices had dramatically increased, all the free boxes on CraigsList were snatched up within minutes of being posted, so we decided to try collecting boxes from local stores.
After two evenings spent making trips to three different stores and only 25 boxes to show for it, I landed upon someone who was selling their moving boxes on CraigsList for a good price. We were able to get over 100 boxes in many different sizes plus lots of packing materials for $35! It was just the deal we were looking for. I doubt we’ll end up using quite all of those boxes, but at least we’ll have plenty! And when we’re finished with them, I’m guessing we won’t have any trouble finding someone else on CraigsList to pass them onto. It works for me!
How have you scored moving boxes on the cheap? I’d love to hear.
Related: For those of you planning a move soon, I shared some tips for successfully moving here.
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
photo by jenn_jenn
Guest Post by Rachel from Modern Mommyhood
Some people think my family is crazy for not having TV. My husband says, "We have a TV. We can watch a snowstorm whenever we want." That’s because we don’t have any channels.
One time, we rigged up some rabbit ears and tried to get the Steelers game, but much to my husband’s dismay, it didn’t work. Not even a little bit. We live in town and our homes are too close together to get any signal that way.
We sat down, looked at each other, and knew it was probably for the best. Right now, I am a stay-at-home mom. Money is tight, so we can’t afford that bill. We have a mortgage, two student loans, and ever-increasing utility bills. It’s worth it to be at home with my one year-old daughter.
Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy plopping on the couch after the little one is in bed and zoning out to a good show. After a long day, it’s nice not to have to think about anything. But, during the day, I don’t need that kind of distraction. The way I see it, not having television has saved us money in more ways than one.
First (and most obvious), it saves us $37.99 a month. That’s how much it costs to have some channels around here. I could definitely use that money for something else: more groceries, clothes, Christmas, saving up for a new dryer…
Second, when I am not in front of the television, I am finding ways to earn money. My
communications degree has led me to several free-lance writing gigs,
and I need all the time I can get to brainstorm ideas and query local
publications.
Third, when I am not in front of the television, I am finding ways to save money. When my daughter goes down for a nap, I head right for the computer. I find great ways to save money on sites like this one and MomAdvice.com. I can also check out deals at my local supermarket’s website and fill out surveys on Lightspeed to earn a few gift cards.
Fourth, when I am not in front of the television, I am being productive. We won’t have take-out expenses because I am cooking dinner. We won’t have to hire a cleaning service because I am dusting and vacuuming each week. We won’t have to pay for disposable diapers because I am taking the time to clean the cloth diapers.
So in reality, we are saving a lot more than $37.99 a month. Besides, when I want to chill out after a long, hard day, there is always Netflix!
When Rachel doesn’t feel like being productive ;), you can find her blogging over at Modern Mommyhood.
From Crystal: Just out of curiosity, how many of the rest of you live TV-free? We are almost 99.9% TV-free–our rabbit ears pick up a few channels so if there is some rare major news event we want to watch (say a Presidental election, etc.), we’re able to catch it. Most of the time, though, our TV leads a very solitary life–only being used for educational videos and the occasional family film.
Aside from all the extra time we have, the money saved on a cable bill, and the junk we’re not bringing into our home, we’ve also found we’re less likely to covet if we’re not being bombarded with silly commercials about the latest and greatest products we "must" have.
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
photo by Shereen M
Have you noticed I was uncharacteristically absent from the blogworld for the last few days? Believe it or not, I was on an unannounced blog hiatus!
You see, I’d started feeling a bit burnt out with blogging–especially since the computer has been contributing to my morning sickness recently. So I decided, on a whim, to pull the plug for a few days.
And contrary to my usual fashion, I pulled the plug without telling anyone I was doing it. In fact, for 48 hours, I went on a complete media fast. It was just exactly what I needed right now and I feel so much better after a few days away.
Now don’t worry, I don’t envision taking another unannounced three-day vacation from the blogosphere anytime soon–I enjoy blogging too much to do that sort of thing except for on very rare occasions–but I really appreciate you all being patient with me during this rather tumultuous season in our lives.
We have four weeks until we move and likely four weeks until my nausea begins to subside and my motivation and energy starts to resurface. I hope to do as best as I can to continue blogging daily over the next month, but I would love to have some help from you all, too.
If you would be interested in writing a guest post over the next few weeks, could you email me with your proposed idea or post (moneysavingmom @ gmail.com –remove spaces)? I’d love to consider sharing it here. Having a few guest posters each week for the next little while would also help me out so that this blog continues to have fresh content and encouragement, even when I’m feeling a bit out-of sorts!
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
I’m not sure what I think about this idea, but since I always like to pass along interesting money-making ideas I come across, I thought this was worth mentioning:
ParkatmyHouse.com is an
online parking space
marketplace connecting home owners with under-utilized parking spaces
to drivers needing somewhere to park. Drivers can save significant amounts of money by parking in a
private residential space instead of a large commercial parking lot and
due to the tough economic conditions, homeowners are signing up in
their droves to make their property work harder for them. Some homes are renting out their parking spots for $400 per month!
Anyone heard of this service before? Would you rent out your "parking space" at your residence to someone through a service like this? I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Photo by Treyevan
For those of you interested in more details on our upcoming move and what an exciting answer to prayer this is for us, you’ll want to check out this post.
The only thing we’re a little sad to leave behind is CVS. Since Walgreens has been ramping it up when it comes to deals, I think I just might be okay without CVS. Maybe. At any rate, knowing that this move was a real possibility for the last little while, I’ve almost completely weaned myself off of CVS, just to make sure I could do it. And I’ve survived, just like the rest of you all who don’t have CVS learn to cope, too. 🙂
The good news is that we’ll be moving to a city with Kroger. After almost a year of living without my beloved grocery store due to its closing in the Kansas City area, I’m beyond thrilled the our new rental home is within a few blocks of a very nice Kroger store. Yay!
Besides Kroger and Walgreens, we’ll also have Target and Wal-Mart and another grocery store that offers double dollar coupons on occasion. So yes, with some minor tweaks to my shopping strategies, I think we’ll make it just fine.
I’d love to hear from those of you who don’t have a CVS store but do have a Walgreens: Do you find that the deals are good enough there to keep you fairly stocked with household/beauty products without spending much out of pocket?
(And by the way, rest assured, just because I won’t have CVS store
nearby anymore, the CVS deal postings here won’t be going anywhere. I
know that plenty of you will be helping me out to keep everyone who
does have a CVS store in the loop about things!)
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Guest Post by the gals over at Transcription Talk
As a group
of three dedicated moms with 12 children between us, we’ve made it our
mission through our daily blog,
to help other moms not only get started working at home as
transcriptionists, but also to give them the tools to improve their
skills and speed so that they can earn more. Whereas many traditional
home-based business opportunities require significant cash to start,
you can get started doing general transcription for a very minimal
investment.
In the more than three years
that each of us have been doing this, we’ve grown our incomes beyond
what we ever dreamed was possible, and we’re now able to support our
families on our incomes alone, which we’ve each had to do in the past
year due to layoffs and the downturn in the economy.
While it’s
a lot of hard work and definitely not a “get rich quick scheme,”
we feel so blessed to have this wonderful source of income that provides
us with the opportunity to stay at home with our children.
Staying home to raise your children is only one of a number of benefits
that transcription can afford. Others include:
While the benefits are many,
success in this career will require hard work and perseverance on your
part. The most common misconception that a lot of people have
about transcription is that the only skill you need is the ability to
type.
The truth is that there’s a lot more than that involved. In order to have a successful career as a transcriptionist, you need
to be able to listen, think and type at the same time. Additionally,
one of the most important skills needed is to be able to actually take
the spoken word and transcribe it in a way that fits grammar rules for
written language so that it actually makes sense to the person reading
it.
If you’re just starting to
consider doing transcription work, this may seem overwhelming to you,
and that is not our intention. However, it’s important to know
that while you can make a decent living doing this work, it is not “easy
money.” It takes a lot of hard work to develop the skills needed
to succeed, and you must be committed to developing those skills or
you will most likely give up before you reach the point where you are
happy with your earnings.
So how do you get started? If you are interested in pursuing transcription as a career, here are
a few steps to get you headed in the right direction.
Is transcription right for
you? We can’t determine that for you. But the benefits
of this work-at-home job are plentiful, and with
dedication and hard work, there’s a good chance it’s the opportunity
you’re looking for.
Shaina will be launching
her new blog, Food for My Family, where she’ll be sharing real food
for real families very soon.
You can also find Tara, mom of five, blogging at Deal Seeking
Mom, where
she shares freebies, steals and deals to help you make the most of your
budget, and Mandi, mom of three, blogging at Doodles’ Place, where
she shares crafts, recipes and other activities for making the most
of every moment.
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
My apologies on being so late in getting this posted. We just found out yesterday that it’s almost 100% sure we’re moving in 4-6 weeks. Needless to say,
my brain is running 200 miles per hour to get everything lined up for that! This will be the fourth time we’ve moved in less than six years so you’d think I’d be a pro at this by now. 🙂
At any rate, things are looking to be a bit busy here for the next little while. But we’re thrilled about it since this move is a huge answer to prayer and literally a dream come true for us. God continues to show Himself so faithful! I’ll share more details soon, in the mean time, here’s our deal for this week…
My husband did all the grocery shopping for me again this week and I was incredibly impressed at how much stuff he was able to get with the $70 budget. We were both especially excited about the Target Kashi deal.
He bought 16 boxes of various Kashi products and paid less than $14 for all of them after coupons. PLUS, he got $20 in gift cards back! He’s planning to head to Target again tonight to use those $20 in gift cards and buy some more Kashi products. This is such a great deal–especially since the waffles and granola bars come in very handy right now!
::::::::::::
How’d you do this week? Post about the deals and
bargains you were able to snag this week or other ways you saved money
on your blog (with pictures, if possible!) and then come back here and
leave your link below. **To make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post. Links
going to the homepage of your blog or any other part of your blog
besides the direct link to your Super Savings Saturday post will be deleted.**
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Inspired by OwlHaven’s 30 Days of Nothing Challenge, I wrote a little about our lean law school years and how it has positively impacted our spending habits for my Frugal Friday post.
You can check it out here along with dozens of other great words of wisdom and motivation from frugal zealots around the blogosphere.
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Just a few links of note from the blogosphere:
::Amy from MomAdvice shares a thoughtful piece on 35 Ways to Save On Your Grocery Budget. Whether you are new to penny-pinching or an experienced frugal zealot, you’ll likely find some food for thought in her information-filled article.
::Trent over at The Simple Dollar inspires us with 15 Ways to Have Cheap Fun With Your Kids Using a $1 End Roll of Paper. We loved to come up with imaginative and creative play using these rolls growing up. Speaking of which, I need to check on getting some for my own girls; I know they’d love them!
::And finally, Mary, mom of many, who blogs at OwlHaven is chronicling her September 30 Days of Nothing Challenge. If you’ve not been following along, you must run over there and check it out. I’ve especially been fascinated to see her daily menus and learn how she’s feeding her large brood on $50 per week!
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Brandi wrote:
I saw that you had a post about SheSpeaks. There is also another site that I just signed up for this week called Mom Select
where mom blogs can be matched up with advertisers. I know that the
companies will sometimes give out products or website memberships,
etc., to be used for giveaways on mom blogs. I just signed up, so
can’t attest to this personally, but I saw several blog giveaways last
week who credited Mom Select with providing the product.
Has anyone out there had experience with MomSelect? If so, I’d love to hear. I’m not familiar with this website but I signed up to see if anything might come of it!
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Remember how I said I was thinking about trying a new coupon organization system?
I was considering switching from the coupon box system I’ve used for almost ten years, to leaving my inserts whole and only clipping the coupons I’d need that week as I planned my grocery list. I was hoping this would save me effort and be more efficient. And was I ever wrong.
I took the plunge and tried it–for almost six weeks. And I think I can safely say it was a failed experiment. I found it to be more frustrating than anything.
When I clip and file the coupons in my coupon box, I have a sort of mental file in my head at all times of what coupons I have. When I didn’t clip them, I had no idea. I’d see an item in the sales flier that I guessed there might be a coupon out for, but then I didn’t know whether or not there was a coupon for it and I’d have to look online to find out or shuffle through six weeks’ worth of coupon inserts–which is not practical or efficient. Even if I knew exactly what insert it should be in, I still struggled to find the coupon.
Countless times, I was at the store and would see something on sale that I was sure I probably had a coupon for, but I didn’t have my coupons filed in my box like usual so I couldn’t take a quick look. And then I’d find myself feeling disorganized and out-of-sorts for not being able to pull out my coupon box and adeptly fish out the prized coupon.
So, yes, I tried the filing-your-inserts method and decided once and for all, it’s not for me. I’m sure it works great for some, but I found that after years of doing something a certain way when it comes to coupons, it’s pretty impossible for me to change.
I’m spending the next few days clipping and sorting and whipping my coupon box back into shape. Deals and unadvertised deals, here I come!
Published: by crystal on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
And I'll send you 1 to 2 daily emails with the best hand-picked hot deals as they become available!