Did you know it is possible to save quite a bit on groceries without ever clipping any coupons? Head on over to this week's edition of Frugal Friday to read my tips on how to do so. And then share your frugal links and tips, too!
Having a Baby Without Breaking the Bank: Prenatal Stockpiling (Guest Post)
Having a Baby Without Breaking the Bank: Prenatal Stockpiling (Guest Post)
Guest Post by Jessica Fisher from LifeasMom.com
When my first son was born, I was teaching high school full-time. Living on two incomes had allowed us to live pretty luxuriously. However, we knew that I was going to stay home for at least the first year, so we began to economize during my pregnancy to pay off my student loan and to create an emergency fund. That was a nice cushion for a time, but things were still tight living on one income.
One year has become twelve and one child has become six. I’ve been more than blessed to be home with my children. Yet, with each new addition to our family, I have felt a little squeeze of pressure. Or should I say, our budget felt the squeeze? How could we accommodate one more mouth to feed? And though the births of each child has always been surrounded by happy moments, I often became stressed by the vast amount of supplies that were needed, particularly in the early weeks. How was I going to fit diapers, wipes, and extra feminine products in the budget?
Now twelve years and five children later, we still try to economize. But I am pleased to report that with the birth of our sixth child last summer, I did not feel the squeeze. Neither did our budget. Did we have a huge income in comparison to years past? Did we win the lottery?
Quite the contrary. I simply applied what I knew about stockpiling to the purpose of preparing for a new little one. Not only did I spare us some change but I also saved time and energy in not shopping for these items in the busy hormone-induced daze after the baby arrived.
Here are my suggestions to help you ease the squeeze on your budget.
— Put out a call for coupons. Let friends and family know that you are looking to collect coupons for baby and other post-natal products. Keep your eyes open for coupon fliers in all the free stuff you receive from your doctor’s office or hospital. Keep these coupons with you at all times in an envelope in your purse or wallet. You never know when you’ll find a good deal; coupons will make a good deal great. Don’t limit yourself just to baby items. Consider the other needs a new mom has, such as feminine pads, Tucks, Advil, etc. and collect those coupons as well.
— Learn to play the Drugstore Game. I learned almost everything I know about CVS-ing from Money Saving Mom® and following along with other bloggers who report here every Saturday. Drugstores like CVS or Walgreens often feature great prices on baby and feminine products as do Walmart and Target. Choose a drugstore that is close to home and learn how their sale system works.
— Keep track of prices. In order to stockpile effectively, you need to know what a good deal is. You already know that Money Saving Mom® regularly reports on great deals. Baby Cheapskate also keeps track of diaper and formula prices each week. Check to see where the deals are so that you’ll know a good one when you see one.
— Buy low even if you don’t need it right then. This is key to creating an advance supply before your baby is born. Keep your eyes open for good sales and clearance opportunities. Last Spring I happened to find jumbo diaper packages for $2.25 each because the manufacturer was changing their packaging. I bought all that I had room in the budget for and that kept us in diapers for quite some time.
As long as you will use it in the next few months or so, it is probably worth buying multiples of an item, provided that you can pay cash for it and still meet your other household needs. If you’re going the disposable diaper route, you know you will be using them. Buy diapers, wipes, and baby toiletries at low prices and store them up.
— Protect your investment. Your stockpile is not just worth what you paid for it. It also represents time and energy spent to hunt and capture the good deals. Don’t leave it where it can be damaged. Paper products should be protected from excessive temperatures and rodents. So, be wise where you store these items. Top closet shelves and under beds and cribs are great places to keep your stock safe.
There is so much joy in welcoming that new little one–live it to its fullest, without being worried about how you’ll pay for it all. With a little clever maneuvering, you, too, can have a baby without breaking the bank.
Jessica Fisher, happy wife and joyful mom of 6, regularly writes about fun, frugality and the pursuit of a clean house at
Life as MOM. Join her on “the Road to Joyful Motherhood”–because no one wants a crabby mom.
From Crystal: We have lots of soon-to-be new mommies reading here who have asked me for specifics on diaper stockpiling. If you have some experience in this area, I’d love to have you share your thoughts on how many diapers (and in which sizes) you would recommend stockpiling ahead of time, how long you think it takes to build up a good stash, and where you find the best diaper deals. In the near future, we’ll have a counterpart post and discussion on cloth-diapering.
Ask the Readers: Health Insurance
I am wondering if you or any of your readers
have any advice about health insurance. My husband’s company does
provide our health insurance–at least, they obtain it and then put a
certain amount towards the premium each year and we pay the difference (it is an
HMO policy–optical insurance and dental insurance are not offered).
The
premium went up last year, and my husband was just informed that it may
increase again this year–by between 20-60%. We are beginning
to research alternate forms of insurance for our family. Do you have any
experience with Samaritan Ministries? We contemplated using them last year,
however, my husband was concerned (and still is) about what would happen if we
should have a major medical expense arise (such as a major surgery or cancer
diagnosis). -Wendi
We personally have private health insurance through Humana (PPO-HSA). We shopped around quite a bit to find a policy which not only had an affordable monthly rate for a family plan (we pay $347/month) but which had the kind of coverage we were wanting.
Since we have a fully-funded emergency fund, we are able to have a higher deductible which, in turn, allows our monthly rates to be lower. Currently, under our plan, we have a $5000 deductible per year and 100% coverage above that. For me, I like the assurance of knowing that were we to have a major medical expense, we would be covered.
We've seriously looked into Samaritan Ministries and other such insurance alternatives but found we felt our current insurance plan was better suited for our family's needs.
I would recommend knowing what is important to you and your family in an insurance plan, knowing what you can afford as far as a monthly payment and a deductible, and then taking some time to really shop around and see what various plans and options are out there.
I'd love to hear from the rest of you on health insurance. What do you have? What kind of rates do you pay? And do you have any suggestions or input for Wendi and her family?
Finally back from shopping
Kathrynne and I had a fun Mommy-Daughter Date shopping this morning. She loves to go shopping–especially when it's just with me. And I feel like I'm on vacation just taking one little one with me to the store. 🙂
We hit Dillons, the health food store, and Aldi. We mostly just bought the sale items and mark-downs at Dillons and then got some staple items and produce at Aldi.
Since we had the time, we stopped in at the health food store to pick up a few sale items, and was I ever glad we did! Unbeknownst to us, the health food store was having a special "Customer Appreciation Party" today and there were samples galore, freebies, and a 10% discount on everything in the store. We had quite a fun time going around to booth after booth and sampling all sorts of yummy and healthful goodies–all for free!
Here's what we ended up buying for this week:
All totaled we spent $61.45–and I'm still under our $60/week budget allotment for this month. I'm so thrilled to be stocking up our pantry and freezer in preparation for the baby all the while staying under budget. Who knows? We might just go a number of weeks after the baby comes without even so much as stepping foot in the store except for milk, produce, and eggs. We'll see!
Super Savings Saturday… my picture is coming in a little while!
Super Savings Saturday… my picture is coming in a little while!
I didn't get to the store on Friday as I'd planned. After a busy morning, I opted to stay home and rest in afternoon instead of shopping. (I seem to be opting to rest more and more these days–guess that's part of being close to the finish line with this pregnancy, eh?!).
However, I have my grocery lists planned and my coupons organized so I'll hopefully be hitting the store on Saturday and will post about my shopping trip after I do so.
But I didn't want to keep the rest of you waiting on me since I'm running slow this week. So, if you snagged some great deals and bargains this week, be sure to post about them 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.**
Celebrating a Frugal Valentine’s Day
top photo of graphic provided by Paper-Pixie
Valentine’s Day is Saturday and many of you have requested I share some ideas for celebrating this holiday without spending a lot of money. I briefly considered writing an article, but I have to tell you that we’re pretty plain Jane folks when it comes to Valentine’s Day. In fact, we don’t usually do much outside of a nice meal at home or maybe decorating some Valentine’s cookies.
However, even if I’m not bursting with creative inspiration when it comes to February 14th, the frugal blogosphere certainly is. In fact, there are more great ideas floating around out there then you could probably do in a lifetime of Valentine’s days.
Here are just a few great links I found:
Sarah at Fiddledeedee has some unique ideas and yummy recipes posted including one for chocolate fondue.
Centsable Momma walks you through making homemade chocolates.
Amy at The Finer Things in Life encourages you to celebrate big without spending big.
Thrifty Mommy gives you ten ideas of ways to save money this Valentine’s Day.
Claire from Choyster Cash suggests an inexpensive date idea and Mercedes shares tips for having a fancy dinner on a budget.
Probably my most favorite idea of all came from The Happy Housewife. She and her husband celebrate with a Valentine’s Day challenge:
First decide to
celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 19, 20, 21, or whenever, just as
long as it is after the 14th. Then decide on a set amount of
money, for example $10. Now for the challenge part, see how much candy,
or trinkets, cards, and other treats you can get for $10 or less. Most
stores have everything marked down at least 50% on February 15 and the
prices keep dropping as the days go on. Then on your Valentine’s Day,
you and your spouse can trade gifts and admire each other’s frugality.
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Do you have some great ideas, recipes, tips, or inspiration for those of us seeking to celebrate a frugal Valentine’s Day? If so, post about them on your blog and leave your link below. (Please remember to keep it family-friendly and to leave a link to your direct blog post on this subject–not your blog’s home page.)
Super Savings Saturday: Our $66 shopping trip
I was really happy with this week’s shopping trip. As you may recall, I didn’t go shopping last week, so I had quite a bit of extra grocery money to spend. But I decided to challenge myself to try to stay quite a bit below the budgeted amount I had available to spend (we budget $60 each week for groceries right now and since we only spent $10 last week plus I had some left over from January, I had quite a bit I could have spent).
I went to both Aldi and Dillons and spent a total of $66!
My best bargains were the three bags of Gala apples on sale for $1.19 each at Aldi, and free Suave lotion (priced at $0.99, used $1/1 coupon), toilet paper (priced at $0.99, used $1/1 coupon), Johnsons’ Buddies (priced at $0.99, used $1/1 coupons), and Yoplait (marked down to $0.99, used $1/1 coupon) at Dillons.
I was also very excited to get more diapers for $3.99 (used the $3/1 coupon on Kroger.com), toothpaste for $0.07 (marked down to $1.07, used $1/1 coupon), toothbrushes for $0.44 (marked down to $1.44, used $1/1 coupons), and Honey Cheerios and Multi-Grain Cheerios for $0.67/box (on sale for $1.67, used $1/1 coupons).
All in all, it was a great trip and our refrigerator is now well stocked again!
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.**
Having a Baby Without Breaking the Bank: List of essentials
Last time in this series we discussed how having a baby really doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. If you didn’t get a chance to read it yet, be sure to go here and do so. The numerous comments left on the post were incredibly insightful–you all are one great bunch of wise people!
Today I want to talk about what I see as the basic essentials one needs to have and care for a baby. Obviously, there are variety of opinions out there when it comes to “must-haves”. I’m not an expert, just a mom who has raised two young vibrant little girls without spending a lot of money to do so.
First off, we must start by asking ourselves, “What does it really take to raise a baby?” I believe our society has become so materialistic and consumer driven that we hardly know how to even think in basic terms.
Aside from lots of love and nurturing, here are the essentials I believe you truly need:
–Clothes (For starting out, I think you can get by just fine with around six onesies, six sleepers, a few pair of socks, a few hats, and 4-6 blankets.)
–Bed (unless you’re planning to co-sleep)
–Car seat
–Stroller
–Diapers/wipes (either cloth or disposable)
(And if you are unable to nurse–as I know happens on occasion, or if you are adopting, you would also need to add formula to this list.)
And that’s about it, folks. Seriously. There are other things that are nice to have, such as a swing, a sling (or ERGO), a few nicer outfits for baby to wear out of the house, a diaper bag, and so forth. But none of those things are absolute necessities.
If you have any baby showers at all or get any gifts, you can see how easily you could accumulate the few items you really need for your baby. And that’s why I recommend you don’t buy anything until after your baby showers (if you will be having any). There is no point in buying a lot of items you don’t truly need if you can’t afford them.
That said, if you are going to be buying everything yourself, here are a few of my suggestions for how to buy the necessary items very inexpensively:
There is no need to buy name-brand, brand-new clothes for your child. If they are anything like most little children, they will likely be quickly staining them or growing out of them. So you might as well get them as inexpensively as you can! If someone offers to share their hand-me-downs, willingly accept them.
Sign up for your local Freecycle.org and watch for folks who are getting rid of baby clothes and other items in your area. You can often snag sacks of baby clothing and other baby things this way–all for free!
Freepeats.org is another online baby site which allows members to trade gently used baby and maternity items for free. Sign-up is only $1 right now, so this is definitely something to consider if there is a Freepeats group in your area.
Other great options are thrift stores and garage sales, of course. Also, check and see if there are any church rummage-type sales or consignment sales in your area. These are often goldmines! And if you start looking for items at least a six months before your baby is born, you’ll likely be able to accumulate everything you need for pennies on the dollar this way.
For the record, I recommend buying your baby’s bed and car seat new, just out of safety precaution. But that doesn’t mean you need to spend an arm and a leg. Start looking at least a few months before your baby is born for deals at local stores and online deals. The majority of the time, by hitting an online sale and combining it with a coupon code plus cashback from eBates, you’ll be able to get a pretty good deal.
Also, if you are in the market for deals on new baby items, be sure that you check out BabyCheapskate and BabyGoodBuys. Both are websites dedicated to alerting you to the best baby deals and freebies out there.
Oh and before I forget, The Natural Mommy has a great two-part series up on Reducing the Cost of Birth and Babies which I highly recommend you check out here and here. You might not agree with all her conclusions (just like you probably don’t with mine!) but hopefully it will give you some more food for thought!
That about covers everything on the list of essentials except for diapers. Next week, I’ll talk about saving money by cloth diapering and or stockpiling disposable diapers.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on what you think is a list of absolute necessities for having a baby. What are your best ideas for acquiring these inexpensively?
Frugal Friday: Menu-planning
Friday is here and that means it's once again time for frugal zealots all over the blogosphere to share their thrifty tips and ideas. Go here to check it out and to read part two of my series on menu-planning.
A fun coupon box and ideas for finding more coupons
My friend, Monica, just shared about her new coupon box. Check it out here. I love how cute and practical it is! She also wrote a great post here on where to find more coupons.
For those of you who haven't seen how I organize my coupons, here's a post dissecting my coupon box. And here are some more ideas on how to accumulate a nice stash of coupons.
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Click here to sign upAsk the Readers: Saving money on tax preparation
As the end
of January nears, my husband gets in a tizzy to get our taxes done so he can plan
ahead. In the past I have bought Turbo Tax every year to do our taxes. After reading your blog for almost a year now, I got to thinking that
there must be some form of less expensive tax preparation software. I hate to
drop $50 on Turbo Tax! It’s a wonderful program, but very
pricey! We make more than $50,000/year so we don't qualify for the free programs that out there. Does anyone have a suggestion for a less-expensive solution than $50 for Turbo Tax? -Amy
Great question, Amy! Since my husband is an attorney and my dad is a CPA, we've never had to pay for tax preparation as they work together on getting our taxes filed. However, I know most people aren't in the same position as us so I'd love to hear what you all do as far as tax preparation goes. Any ideas for Amy and her husband to save money on their tax preparation?
Get Your Finances in Line in 2009: Monthly check-up (and some thoughts on why we’re saving to pay 100% cash down on our first home)
January is behind us already–wow! That means it's time for our monthly check-up to see how we're doing on our financial goals for
2009.
As you will recall, our big goal for this year is to save up enough to
pay 100% cash down on our first home. This has been a long-time dream
of ours and we've been actively working the past year towards this. In
actuality, though, we've been dreaming and working towards this even before
we got married.
You see, six years ago when we go married, my husband and I both committed to stay out of debt during law school–something
we knew would be a challenge, something which is rarely done, but something we both felt was possible, by
the grace of God.
We made it through my husband's undergrad and three
years of law school without debt–which was our first goal. And once we
had done that, we had momentum and motivation to aim for our even bigger goal of paying cash for
our first home. Because we didn't have school loans, car loans, or credit card debt, we realized that with lots and lots of hard work,
lots of scrimping and careful sticking to our budget, and lots of perseverance, paying cash in full for our first home just might be possible.
So that's our big goal for this year. A lot of people look at us like we're crazy for attempting something like this–especially when we started out with almost no savings after law school. But we're pretty used to that since people thought we were nuts for getting married before law school, having a baby during law school, and staying out of debt during law school. I guess you could say that being weird has become our modus operandi!
At any rate, we're not just shooting after this to be weird; we've run a lot of figures and spent hours calculating the numbers and we realize that in our situation, waiting and saving for a few years–if it takes that!–to buy a home debt-free will allow us to be in a much better position financially than if we were to take the money we have saved and put it as a big down-payment on a home.
It would not only likely take us at least a few years longer to pay off that home than it will take us to save up to pay cash in full for a house, we also feel like we would lose some of our momentum in the process. We're highly motivated right now; we don't want to be renting any longer than we have to and we're willing to forego a lot of extras and luxuries which we could easily afford in our budget in order to sock away a much larger amount to savings.
In addition, we're learning a lot about patience and self-discipline. What you wait for and work for, you appreciate much more. Yes, we could go buy a home next week. Yes, we could put a good down payment on it. And yes, many folks would think we were being financially-savvy for doing so. But we wouldn't have the opportunity to learn all the perseverance we're learning right now.
We also know that there is a temptation to buy more than you can really afford when taking out a mortgage. (Which is one reason our country is having the housing crisis they are having right now–but don't get me started on that!)
In the past few years, we've experienced some total and unexpected financial setbacks. When my husband graduated from law school, it appeared he had a good and secure job that he'd hold for the next few years. Things outside of our control happened and within a few months, he was without a job. Another move, another job, and another eight months later, he was again without a job. God took care of us and provided for us very well during these times, but we learned that you can't put your security in a job or a paycheck.
Very quickly, we came to be so grateful we had waited to buy a home. It's quite simple and inexpensive to get out of a rental agreement and downsize to a small apartment compared to the headache and possible financial strain which could ensue if you have a house payment you can't pay in a house you can't sell.
So even if others think we're making a mistake to wait to buy a home until we can pay cash for it, we continue to press on, persevere, and save. Not everyone is in a financial position where they can save like we are blessed to be able to do right now. We have a good income, our expenses are low, and we don't have debt. Because of this, it's a no-brainer for us to do what we're doing.
We don't expect everyone to follow in our steps nor do we think everyone in every financial situation should. However, we do hope that we can be an inspiration to many of you out there–especially to those of you who are young and just getting started in life. Just because everyone tells you you can't, doesn't mean that you can't.
Be willing to dream big, aim high, and work hard. Don't let the naysayers get you down. Keep on, press on, persevere. And you just might be surprised at what can happen! I know we've certainly been!
And now for the monthly progress report:
We started out this year at 33% of our house savings goal. As of January 31, 2009, we're at 36%!
Only 64% left to go! Yes, it might seem like a small percentage step, but we are thrilled to
be making headway like this. It still seems impossible that we might
actually make 100% of our goal amount by the end of the year, but who
knows? We'll keep working, hoping, dreaming, and saving all we can.
And we'll see what February holds!
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How did you do in January? Whether
or not you posted financial goals for 2009, please take a moment to
post about your financial successes and failures in January and, if you'd like, the areas
you hope to improve in February. Then, come back here and leave your link
below. If you don't have a blog or would rather share anonymously, feel
free to leave your update in a comment. Let's all keep each other
accountable to be better stewards of
our resources!
Menu Plan Monday: This week’s $10 menu
As I mentioned on Saturday, we skipped shopping this week aside from a quick run to the store my husband made for milk, butter, and ice cream. I was planning to stop by and pick up some fresh produce, but after thinking it through, I decided to challenge myself and see if I could plan a fairly healthful menu based upon what we already have on hand.
Here's what I came up with using what we already have on hand from previous shopping trips and the $10 shopping trip my husband made:
Breakfasts:
Banana muffins, fresh juice, milk
Strawberry smoothies, whole wheat toast
Oatmeal, apple juice
Pancakes (from the freezer), oranges
Scrambled eggs, fresh juice, banana muffins
Strawberry smoothies, pancakes (from the freezer)
French toast, oranges
Lunches:
Egg salad sandwiches, applesauce
Roast beef sandwiches, oranges
Grilled cheese sandwiches, broccoli
PB&J, applesauce
Rice and beans with cheese, veggies
Spinach brown rice and cheese casserole
Leftovers
Dinners:
Roast in the crock pot with gravy over noodles, homemade bread, green beans, grapefruit
Chicken broccoli rice casserole, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Beef Stroganoff, steamed veggies, homemade bread
Beef hot dogs, broccoli with cheese
Meat balls, brown rice, steamed veggies
Dinner out
Snacks:
Granola bars
Homemade hot cocoa (organic cocoa, milk, and a little sugar–yum!)
Bran muffins (from the freezer)
Banana muffins (from the freezer)
Breyer's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream (my current pregnancy obsession!)
Strawberry smoothies
And that's that! I was pretty excited to see how the stockpiling I've been doing over the last month or two to replenish our supply after our move and prepare for the baby is starting to pay off in allowing me to have more ingredients to work with!
For more menus this week, check out Organizing Junkie.
Super Savings Saturday: The I-skipped-shopping edition
I was planning to go to the grocery store like usual on Friday, but after our traumatic evening Wednesday night and Thursday morning, I was rather behind and tired. And in surveying our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer, I realized I had pretty much everything I needed to make it another week without shopping.
So my husband made a quick trip to buy milk, butter, and ice cream (the essentials, you know!), but other than that, I stayed home. I'll probably stop in to the store Monday or Tuesday to pick up some fresh produce but don't plan to buy anything else until my weekly shopping trip next Friday.
You know what? It was so nice to be able to skip shopping this week! I enjoy grocery shopping and snagging great bargains, but it's also nice to be able to take a week off when needed without really even missing it. That's one of the blessings of building and keeping a good stockpile of food and household supplies not to mention that skipping a shopping trip every once in a while is a great way to stretch your budget even farther!
On Monday, I'll share what our menu for almost-no-shopping week looks like. Stay tuned!
—————————
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.**
Bacon-Wrapped Apple BBQ Chicken
Creativity is a key part of making my $5 dinners every night. It would be much easier to make spaghetti or chicken and rice every night. But there’s no fun in that! A little imagination with some basic ingredients can really add some spark to your meals.
Here’s a delicious dinner I made recently for, yes, $5:
Bacon-Wrapped BBQ Chicken
serves 4
- 3-4 chicken breasts ($2.29)
- 1/2 cup BBQ sauce ($0.20)
- 1-2 apples, peeled and grated ($0.50)
- 1 lemon, juiced ($0.30)
- 6 slices bacon ($0.50)
- 2-3 sweet potatoes ($0.99)
- 1 cup chopped frozen broccoli ($0.25)
Directions:
1. In small bowl, combine BBQ sauce with grated apple and lemon juice.
2. Place chicken breasts in base of crock pot, pour BBQ/apple mixture over the chicken. Wrap 2 pieces of bacon around each chicken breast. Set to low and cook for 8 hours.
3. Slit sweet potatoes with knife or vent with fork. Bake sweet potatoes at 350 degrees for 1 hour in baking dish with 1/4 inch water. Cover with foil. Remove and let cool about 10 minutes. Peel skins off of the potato and mash. Serve with cinnamon and butter if you like.
4. Cook frozen broccoli as directed on package.
5. Serve yummy chicken breast with side of broccoli and sweet potatoes.
If you’d like a $5 Dinner meal, just like this one, delivered to your inbox every night, come on over to 5DollarDinners.com and subscribe to our email updates!