Saving Families Money Since 2007
Three of the most popular posts on my blog are the 10 Chore Ideas for Toddlers, 15 Chore Ideas for 4-Year-Olds, and 20 Chore Ideas for 7-Year-Olds.
So I asked Jeff from FiveJs.com to put together a free Chore Ideas for Kids printable for those who might want to print the ideas out for inspiration. You can download and print it here.
Nothing If Not Intentional shows you how to make personalized pictures books for babies.
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
I loved this post from Christa on Six Ways to Make Laundry Fun.
How do you make laundry more fun? You can see one way we’ve made laundry fun here.
Here is a unique deal that I have only seen a few times before! Order a one-year subscription to Hobby Farm Home Magazine for only $7.50 when you use coupon code MONEYSAVING at checkout. This magazine gets excellent reviews on Amazon and this is the lowest price that I have seen on this magazine.
About Hobby Farm Home Magazine: Hobby Farm Home celebrates traditional farm life with modern flair. Articles include cooking with home-grown produce and farm-raised meat, the decor of the farmhouse, reviving farm traditions, and the handmade creation of objects-bringing the farm indoors.
This offer expires tonight 09/03/13 11:59 PM EST.
Are you looking for other magazine titles? You can use coupon code MONEYSAVING to save 20% off of most titles at DiscountMags!
(Note: The link in this post is my referral link. Read my disclosure policy here.)
As I mentioned in my menu post, there were a lot of unexpected things that cropped up last week, so some of my goals had to get bumped to the back burner.
I also decided that I’m going to hold off on doing the ChaLean program in favor of just running. I’ve gotten into a good groove with running and I want to stick with it for now.
Last week’s goals:
Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1.
Read 3 chapters of The Borrowers and
3 chapters of The Tanglewoods’ Secret to the children.Finish reading The Queen’s Smuggler with Kathrynne.Read 3 chapters of Caddie Woodlawn with Kaitlynn.Read a few picture books with Silas.
2. Write a love note to Jesse.3. Go on a date with Jesse.
Personal Goals
4. Work on memorizing & reviewing Romans 1:1-23.
5. Continue with the ChaLean Extreme Program.
Run 10 miles.6. Read Loving the Way Jesus Loves,
First: What It Takes to Win by Rich Froning, Leaving Yesterday, and Love Works.Homemaking Goals
7. Work for 30 minutes on my embroidery project.
8. Try two new recipes.
Business Goals
9. Work on updating 10 more posts for Pinterest.10. Write at least 3 posts for the 52 Ways to Save $100 a Year series. {I only got two posts written, but that progress, eh?}
This week’s goals:
Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1.
2. Write a love note to Jesse.
Personal Goals
3. Work on memorizing & reviewing Romans 1:1-23.
4. Run 12 miles.
5. Read Loving the Way Jesus Loves, Leaving Yesterday, and Love Works.
Homemaking Goals
6. Work for 30 minutes on my embroidery project.
7. Try two new recipes.
Business Goals
8. Work on updating 10 more posts for Pinterest.
9. Put together outlines for two new upcoming talks.
10. Write two posts for the 52 Ways to Save $100 a Year series.
How did you do on last week’s goals? What are your goals for this week? I’d love to have you share your progress on last week’s goals and your goals for this coming week in the comments. Of, if you’ve blogged about it, leave your direct link below. Let’s cheer each other on to live purposeful and productive lives!
You can download a free customizable weekly goal-planning sheet here.
Well, last week ended up having some extra responsibilities and some pretty major and unavoidable interruptions… so I finally decided to throw in the towel on my freezer cooking plans. That’s life sometimes, isn’t it?! But I’m going to try again this week — and hopefully it will actually happen! 🙂
Jesse and I are traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week for some business meetings, so other than freezer cooking, I’m keeping everything else simple this week:
Breakfasts
Breakfast Cookies, Oatmeal, Cereal, Eggs, and/or Fruit
Lunches
Mac & cheese, fruit
Snack-y lunch {veggies, cheese, yogurt, fruit, crackers, etc.}
PB&J, carrot sticks, apples
Cheese quesadillas, carrot sticks
Leftovers x 3Snacks
Fruit/veggies
Popcorn
Boiled eggs
Breakfast CookiesFreezer Cooking in an Hour (I’ll share more how this goes later on this week!)
Healthy Choco-Cherry Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
To Die For Blueberry Muffins
Breakfast Cookies (different recipe than I tried before — just because I wanted to compare it!)
World’s Easiest Crockpot Refried Beans
Dinners
5 Star Cheeseburger Casserole (from the freezer), steamed veggies, fruit
Breakfast for dinner: Pancakes, fruit, scrambled eggs
Quesadillas, fruit, veggies
Bean & Cheese Burritos, fruit, steamed veggies
Dinner with friends (I’m bringing a fruit salad.)
Dinner with extended family x 2
Dinner out
What’s on your menu this week? Tell us in the comments or leave a link to your menu plan post.
Do you often go thrift shopping with kids in tow? These are some great tips, if so!
{Looking for more practical advice on thrift store shopping? Read this post for some great thrifting tips!}
Guest post from Trina of TrinaHolden.com
It’s that time of year again — time to take stock of our closets and plan a shopping trip to bring our family’s wardrobes into the the cooler months. The best place to do this is frugally is at the thrift store!
But what to do with the kids?
Take them along! I’ll be the first to admit that thrifting with kids is not a walk in the park. But as a homeschooling mom of a 2, 4, and 6-year-old, I’ve had to embrace the challenge of bringing my kids with me on our shopping trips.
If you find yourself in a similar place, with the desire to clothe your family frugally, here are my tips for thrifting with kids in tow:
The quest to find a good deal can feel as epic as Lewis and Clarke looking for the Pacific ocean. Go ahead and carry the theme by putting ample thought into provisions for your journey. My kids enjoy the thrift store the most when they’re munching dried fruit, each from their own little plastic baggy.
Any kind of snack that won’t end up staining the clothes you’re trying to buy works great for happy distraction on the journey. Think cheese sticks, raisins, crackers, and nuts. Also, water bottles and sippy cups. And don’t forget wipers for little hands that might have been crawling around under the clothing racks just before being handed a snack.
If snack time isn’t a normal part of your daily routine — all the better! It will be one more highlight in their day, causing them to ask you when they get to go thrift shopping again!
It’s tempting to look at a giant thrift store as a one-stop-shop for all your wardrobe and houseware needs, because that’s often what it offers: from curtains to furniture, shoes to pots and pans, you can find it all!
But that doesn’t mean you should.
For the sake of you and your kid’s endurance, you will probably need to narrow the focus of your trip to one section of the store, or even one child’s clothing needs at a time. If this means you have to go back weekly until you’ve covered all the bases, that’s better than a 3-hour marathon, and dreading the idea of ever going thrifting again.
More important than coupons, an organized list, or well-packed diaper bag, you will need your patience, mamma. Don’t head out unprepared for the fact you will have plenty of opportunities to grow in patience and unconditional love for your children. That’s why, in my list of thrifting tips in my book, I encourage you to “Pray — out loud!” as you embark.
Just as any challenge in parenting, God will use this to work beauty in you, if you let it. Keep in mind that our ultimate goal has nothing to do with a few cheap outfits, and everything to do with hearts — ours and our children’s.
One of the most challenging aspects of taking our kids with us to the thrift store, or any public place, is that people see when they misbehave. But seriously, mamma — is this such a terrible thing? Is the goal of your visit to the thrift store to have the best behaved children in sight? If it is, you’re putting way too big a burden on yourself.
On my last thrifting trip, I lost track of the amount of times I had to remind my 6 and 4-year-old to stay in the same aisle with me. If I had added shame at their poor behavior to the challenges I was facing on that particular day, it would have been a horrific experience indeed. Instead, I prayed for patience, hoping that if anyone was watching (and they weren’t, really), they might be impacted by a mother’s gentle demeanor under duress, not simply impressed by children so perfectly behaved they appeared to be drugged.
When we got home, it was definitely time to have a little talk about how we should obey mommy when we’re out and about, but that afternoon at the thrift store, I just had to let my pride go and embrace the fact that kids will be kids. The practically-new Bravado Nursing Bra I scored for $1.50 was totally worth any embarrassment I might have suffered at the hands of my babies. 😉
This post is an excerpt from Trina’s book, “Embracing Beauty: Practical Style for Every Shape and Season of Motherhood”, available in all electronic formats and paperback. Check it out for more tips on thrifting, defining your personal style, and finding beauty in the busy season of motherhood.
Trina is a homeschooling mom of 3 who regularly schedules field trips to the thrift store to clothe her family frugally. You can find her wearing purple most days, jotting down words that beg to be written in between cooking, cleaning and laughter-filled phone conversations with friends. She blogs about true beauty, deep community, and real food at TrinaHolden.com.
July and August were good months, albeit full. A few highlights:
Needless to say, summer wasn’t calm and quiet. In fact, I think we may have only had one day the entire summer that we stayed home all day! But it was a good change of pace and we made lots of memories.
However, I’m so thankful that we’re now back into our usual routine again… I just love the quiet at-home days. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m an introvert who doesn’t like much spontaneity? (Well, I take that back, I do like spontaneity provided it is carefully planned! ;))
At any rate, I was thinking I probably didn’t accomplish anything much on my goals list with all the running around we did. But I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I did make some good progress on a number of different goals. And that I’m on track to complete almost all my goals for this year. Yay!
Here’s my list of 25 Goals for 2013 and an update on how I did in July & August:
Personal Goals
Read through the Bible in a year using this plan. {I’m on track with this so far.}
Run in at least one 5K race.
Complete the Couch to 10K program.
Memorize Romans 1 and 2 with Jesse. {I’ve made some really great progress on this in the past two months — yay!}
Wake up by 6 a.m. and exercise, shower, and dress by 8 a.m. every day. {I’ve done a lot better at this the past two months — it helps that I had to be out the door for swimming lessons pretty early in the morning!}
Read 150 books/ebooks {See my list of 48 books I’m for sure planning to read here — I’ve read 85 books/ebooks so far in 2013, so I’m on a good track to hit my goal!}Marriage Goals
Read 3 marriage books.
Finish reading through the Psalms together as a couple.
Have overnight stay (sans children) at least every other month. {Done in August.}
Go on at least one date per month. {Done in August.}Mothering Goals
Continue memorizing together from the Grace and Truth memory book.
Ice-skating lessons for all three children during the first quarter of 2013.
Swimming lessons for all three children during the summer.{We signed the kids up and they start next week.}
Finish at least 37 read-aloud books. {We’ve finished 30 books so far this year, so we’re on a good track here.}Ministry/Friendships/Extended Family Goals
Weekly accountability meetings with a friend. {This has been SO helpful!}
Get together with friends for a playdate or lunch at least once a month. {Done multiple times in July & August.}
Continue being involved in our local church, couple’s group, and blogging accountability group. {Ongoing}
Continue with weekly get-togethers with both sides of our extended family. {Ongoing.}Financial Goals
Use a portion of the proceeds from my next book project to fund a well project.
Fund our Child Survival Program for 2013.{Done — yay!}
Buy a new bedroom set.
Invest in another rental property.Business/Blogging Goals
Release two new ebooks.
Attend one speaking conference.{I attended the She Speaks Intensive in January.}
Finish and submit the manuscript for my next book.
If so, tell us how you’re doing in the comments or leave a link to your blog post update below. Let’s encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!
Guest post from Ann of Modern Mrs Darcy
Last year, our household income nearly doubled overnight — that will happen if you pivot from ministry to tech, as my husband did.
We are both born savers and committed to living frugally. We caught up some long-deferred expenses (hello, retirement accounts) but didn’t start dropping cash on big-bucks purchases simply because we could.
However, we did make a new budget.
Now that we’re firmly settled into it, we’ve taken some time to reflect on what’s changed over the past year — and what hasn’t.
These changes are real, but my husband and I agree that the biggest change isn’t a line item on the budget: it’s our attitude.
Our budget worked before, thanks to foundational decisions we made a long time ago (small mortgage, old cars, modest lifestyle). But we didn’t have much margin for error. Now that things aren’t so tight, I’ve relaxed about the small stuff. I review receipts but I don’t scrutinize them. I don’t freak out when my husband makes a few impulse buys at Target.
To borrow Dave Ramsey’s terminology, we didn’t have an expense problem before, we had an income problem. Interestingly, now that our income is up, we’re just as committed to living frugally than we were before — perhaps even more so. We’re inspired by our rapid savings progress, and excited about what we’re able to give.
It’s definitely nice to not have an income problem at the moment, but I’m grateful for the many lessons we learned because of leaner times. Three of these stand out: to focus on the progress I’m making even when I feel stuck, that living frugally is worth it, and that even when I can’t change my circumstances, I can change my attitude.
Anne Bogel loves strong coffee, long books, and big ideas. She’s putting a timely spin on timeless women’s issues at her blog Modern Mrs Darcy. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, or with her nose in a new favorite book.
Melanie from Rev emailed me this week and said:
At Rev.com, we are growing fast and looking for dozens of work-from-home transcriptionists. Rev’s mission is to build an excellent online place for freelancers to work. If you have strong English skills and want a fulfilling work-from-home job, learn more and apply here.
Here’s how it works:
- You transcribe English language audio and video from home
- You choose your projects and work as much or as little as you want
- You set your own schedule and can work flexible hours
Here’s what we do:
- We pay $0.40 – $0.65 USD per audio minute. Average earnings are currently $241/month, with some earning over $1,000/month.
- We pay you every Monday via PayPal. You have to have a working PayPal account to get paid (no exceptions).
- We provide a website to find, claim, and submit jobs. We continually add tools and features to help you earn more money.
For more work-at-home ideas, be sure to check out my series on 31 Ways to Earn Extra Cash.
Creatively Cheap emailed me a link her post on how Costco saves their family $2,000 per year. Wow!
Here’s a snippet:
Before we started shopping at Costco, our grocery bill was around $130 a week for a family of four. That is my husband and I, a four year old, and a baby. We had a $520 monthly grocery bill. And that was way to much for me. We decided to give wholesale shopping at Costco a shot in hopes of saving us a little money each month.
Our first trip went ok, but it wasn’t as good as I hoped. We spent $500 on what we planned on lasting the entire month. Okay, so we saved $20…Not really that great! To our surprise, the meat we bought to last the whole month, lasted two months! And we had other items last a lot longer than we planned, like peanut butter, frozen fruit and veggies, and butter.
The next trip I had a new plan: Don’t buy everything we needed. Some things are cheaper elsewhere and we really didn’t need everything we bought last time.
The second trip we only spent $280 (I planned on only $160, but my husband put some extra stuff in the buggy!). And we got the necessities to last an entire month. I plan on spending about $15 a week (or less if I can) at a near buy grocery store to get things like milk and fresh fruit and veggies (stuff that’s hard to buy in bulk). So, if you add that up, we will spend $340 this month on food. We will save $180! And honestly, I think we can get out of Costco for less than $280, so next month my goal is to save at least $200.
You do have to pay a membership fee to shop at Costco or Sam’s Club, but ours was only $55 for an entire year. If we save $180 a month on groceries, that adds up to a total of $2,160 that we would save for a whole year! The $55 seems worth it!
Read the whole post with all sorts of great tips and price comparisons here.
I was very interested to read this article because we’re supposed to be getting a Costco in our city in the not-too-distant future.
Erin emailed in the following tip:
My husband and I are both teachers for a public school district, and in our state (Minnesota), Verizon gives state employees a discount on our cell phone bill (12%, I believe), just for bringing in a pay stub one time. As you can imagine, this has saved us a lot of money in the past three years!
If you’ve never tried asking your cell phone company (or any other utility company) if they give discounts to certain types of employees or union members, you might consider giving it a try… Who knows? You might save big! -Erin
Guest post by Jill Jarvis who blogs at BigKidSmallCity.com
When our son was 4 years old, we decided to start a Garbage Can Curbside Service where Joe could his neighbors trashcans out and back in on trash day for 25¢ per can.
The business was started in lieu of an allowance, as a way to teach Joe about money but also to avoid a situation where he felt entitled to it. The work was easy enough for a 4-year-old, but just hard enough to create learning opportunities.
Over the last 1.5 years, Joe has learned a lot of valuable life lessons! Four of the lessons are:
Joe was excited to start this service, to help the neighbors and earn money for Legos. But there have been many weeks when Joe has not wanted to do his work.
However, he learned that his neighbors would be stuck with stinky trash cans if he did not show up, so he went to work anyway. He may grumble about it some weeks, but he always gets it done.
Joe gets to make all the decisions related to the Garbage Can Service. He gets to decide on expanding the business or quitting it. He also gets to spend the money.
When the decisions are bad, like he spends all the money on candy and cannot afford a special toy, he learns. When the decisions are good, he also learns. He then understands what good and bad decisions feel like and is able to self-correct as he goes.
By making his own money, Joe is somewhat financially independent and is able to make some purchases on his own. Joe buys Legos but also chooses to donate money to US Soldiers through the USO.
Also, by making his own business related decisions, with guidance from his parents, Joe has become more confident in his decision making ability. I’m hoping this 2nd skill will prove useful on the playground, in middle school and beyond.
As soon as he started collecting money, Joe began to understand what money is worth. He quickly learned that there are 4 quarters in a dollar and that it takes 6 quarters to buy an ice cream and 200 quarters for a fancy Lego set.
Joe has also learned that if he is saving up for something, he must do his job a set number of weeks before he will have the money. So, if he wants a simple Lego set, he will need to work less than if he wants the deluxe set.
Joe has also learned about loans. We have been out when Joe really wanted to make a purchase, but did not have his quarter jar. He has had to decide if he would take money from his parents, and then pay it back, or wait to buy his treasure. It turns out that he thought loans were just free money. When he discovered he had to pay the money back, he opted to wait.
As his parents, my husband and I have had to put in effort to help supervise Joe in rolling out trash cans each week, but these four life lessons are well worth the minimal time and energy.
And the best part about starting the Garbage Can Business is that the lessons have been automatic. We have not had to stage discussion; we just do the weekly work.
Jill is an engineer for a telecommunications company and a mom to the Jarvis family. She likes the first job but loves the second. Jill and the kids explore Houston and blog about the adventures, along with lunch box ideas and Joe the Garbage Man stories, at BigKidSmallCity.com.
Silas is studying the letter “S” in his My Father’s World Kindergarten curriculum this week. Since I’m a big fan of hands-on learning, we’re having fun practicing making the letter in different forms.
Yesterday, we made “Salt Letters”. Otherwise known as: dumping salt on a baking sheet and drawing in it. 🙂
Silas thought it was the best! The salt feels interesting on your fingers and it’s fun to draw in. Kathrynne had to try it out, too!
They got so engaged in drawing in the salt that I ended up reading some of the read alouds while they were drawing names, letters, and pictures in salt.
Looking for more fun letter ideas? Check out my post on Pudding Finger Paint or Pancake Letters and Numbers.
Every week in 2013, I’ll be sharing a different way you can save $100 this year. If you do all of these things, you’ll be able to save over $5,000 this year alone! Many of these things will likely be things you’re already doing, but hopefully all of you will pick up at least a few new ideas or some inspiration from this series.
One way we stretch our dollars is by buying deals from daily deal sites. They can be a way to get amazing deals on restaurants, local attractions, family fun, local stores, and more!
Here are three things to keep in mind when shopping through daily deal sites:
I don’t care how good the deal is, if you can’t afford it, it’s not a good deal for you. Daily deal sites only save you money when you actually buy deals that are for things you will use and have room in your budget for.
For instance, if you allot a $50 monthly budget for eating out/family fun, you can stretch those dollars much further by buying Groupons or AmazonLocal vouchers for restaurants, bowling, and local attractions. But you still have to stick with the $50 budget.
No cheating is allowed just because it’s a “great deal.” Otherwise, you’ve defeated the purpose and it’s not saving you money but encouraging you to spend more money.
How to Save $100+ Per Year
If you want to guarantee that you save $100 per year by using daily deal sites, cut your current eating out and entertainment budget by $10 per month for the next year and try to make the lower budget stretch with vouchers from deal sites. Unless you live in small town or you are really particular about what types of restaurants you’ll eat at or things you like to do as a family, I bet you can make the reduced budget work just fine!
Always, always, always read the fineprint carefully before purchasing a voucher. Check the details on whether there’s a purchase minimum. Be sure that the voucher is good at your local store. And double-check that you’ll actually use the voucher before it expires.
One good thing about Groupon is that they have amazing customer service and money-back guarantees. So if you do end up accidentally buying something that isn’t what you thought it was, you can usually get your money back. But I still recommend reading the fineprint with a fine-toothed comb and then taking a little time to think through the purchase and make sure it’s a good use of your money.
Once you’ve determined that the voucher is, indeed, a good deal for you, be sure to purchase it through Rakuten. If you’re unfamiliar with Rakuten, basically it’s a site that rewards you with a small percentage of cashback on your online purchases. All you have to do is sign up for an account and then go to Rakuten.com, search for the online store you’re planning to purchase from, and click through to the site to make your purchase.
You’ll usually receive anywhere from 3% to 8% cashback on each purchase. It might not seem like much, but I think it’s worth earning a few dollars in cash back for taking an extra 30 seconds to click through to Rakuten.
Each quarter, Rakuten will send you a check for your accumulated cashback amount earned over the past quarter. It’s always a fun little bonus — and it’s FREE money that you’re earning for making a purchase you were already planning to make!
My Top 4 Favorite Daily Deal Sites
(Note: The links in this post are my referral links. Read my disclosure policy here.)
