Saving Families Money Since 2007
Here are the free samples I’ve gotten over the past week:
Free sample of Peet’s Coffee
Free 8-load bottle of Method laundry detergent
Free Fiber One protein bar
Coupon for a free NIVEA lip product
What freebies have arrived in your mailbox this week?
By the way, if you want to start getting great freebies in your mailbox, just start signing up for the freebies I post every day that interest you. Within 4-6 weeks, your mailbox will start filling up with great freebies!
Guest post from Kate of Organization for the Type B
A little while ago, Crystal had a lovely post about giving your kids grace, not shame. Today I am writing to tell you that not only do you need to do this for your kids, but yourself also.
How often do you make a mistake? I make them all them time!
I have been participating in the “Early to Rise” Challenege, and the past couple mornings I have not gotten up at my goal time (in fact yesterday, I overslept a whole hour)! My first response was guilt, and I felt very down on myself. We all feel down on ourselves, whether it’s eating too much spending too much, etc.
However, instead of berating ourselves for making a bad decision, it’s time to show ourselves some grace.
1. Admit I made a mistake. I should not have ate/bought/did that — whatever it was. We all know the saying, “The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one”. So, admit it to yourself.
2. Make an action plan for next time you find yourself in this situation. Tomorrow, I will set two alarms and promise to text my friend as soon as I get up. Or, I will go to the store and stock my pantry with healthy food. Or, I will stay home instead of going to the mall and tempting myself to overspend.
3. Do it! Feeling bad and shaming yourself will do NOTHING to make a difference next time. Only you DOING it differently will.
God shows us grace everyday, and we try to show our children and other people grace. So it’s about time we give ourselves some grace, too!
Learn to laugh with yourself. When you do, you will find it makes giving others grace easier!
Kate is a full time wife and mother and part time teacher outside the home. She blogs about organization, minimalism, frugal, and green Christian living at Organization for the Type B.
Welcome to the Early to Rise Challenge! Throughout the month of March, I’m challenging myself and my readers to make the most of their mornings. So every week day morning at 9 a.m. EST, I’m posting a short Early to Rise post. I’ll share a few of my thoughts on the day’s passage from Early to Rise, tell you what time I got up that morning, and encourage you to leave a comment to tell us what time you got up and how you’re doing on the challenge.
I thought today’s reading in Early to Rise was intriguing. And I get Andy’s point, but I have to tell you that I don’t really like the word “smirk”.
Why? Because, by definition, it seems somewhat haughty and self-serving. I know that wasn’t Andy’s intent, but I just don’t like the word.
I prefer, instead, to stick with the word “smile”. A genuine smile is not only blesses yourself, but it blesses everyone you meet.
When I wake up early, spend some time in quiet, and face the day with a game plan, I’m much more excited and energized about life. As a result, I smile more. This, in turn, allows me to bless others — and then I’m blessed back and that makes me smile even more.
Today, I want to challenge you to smile more. No matter what time you got up. No matter what struggles and trials you’re experiencing. No matter what difficulties you’ve already encountered this morning.
Face your day with cheerfulness and excitement. Bless others with a genuine smile — and you’ll be blessed and energized in return!
I got up at 6:02 a.m.
What time did you get up? Leave a comment and let us know!
Join in the Chatter!
Want to blog about this challenge? If you’re blogging through this challenge with me, be sure to leave your link to your direct post for today below. Plus, if you’d like to post your daily posts to the Early to Rise Group Board on my Pinterest page, just shoot me an email (moneysavingmom @ gmail dot com) and I’ll invite you.
Want to follow along on Twitter or Instagram? Each week day morning on my Facebook Page, my Twitter account, and my Instagram account, I’ll be posting a picture of my alarm clock as public accountability. I’d love to have you do the same or join in the discussion on Twitter and Instagram. Just follow hashtag #EarlytoRise to see what others are tweeting and Instagramming about this challenge!
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At the beginning of 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.
We talked about eliminating disposable products earlier in this series, but I wanted talk more extensively about cloth diapering in a stand-alone post. Why? Because you can fairly easily save $100+ per year just by eliminating disposable diapers completely — or even just partially.
However, making the switch to cloth diapering is a big decision and not one to rush into without some thought and research. It’s a commitment of time and energy and it’s also usually a financial commitment. But it can pay off in fairly big dividends.
When Kathrynne was born, Jesse was in law school and our budget was extremely tight. I had wondered how we were going to afford diapers.
Well, we didn’t end up having to worry about it at all because shortly after Kathrynne was born, some good friends of ours called us up out of the blue and generously said they wanted to give us an entire set of Fuzzi Bunz diapers. We were overwhelmed at their kindness and enthusiastically accepted their offer.
We exclusively cloth-diapered Kathrynne and loved it… plus, we saved so much money. In fact, I don’t know how we would have ever afforded to buy disposable diapers since there were many weeks in those days when we struggled to just pay for our food and rent.
When Kaitlynn was born 2 and 1/2 years later, we planned to cloth diaper her as well. However, she was extremely allergic to every cloth diaper and diaper we tried. I was determined to make it work, but after a few months and many, many severe diaper rashes, I finally concluded that she could only use Pampers.
Gratefully, by this time, I had discovered the Drugstore Game and was able to work in Pampers purchases to my overage (that was back in the good old days when overage was a whole lot easier to come by at CVS!).
There are many, many different cloth diaper options out there. I recommend researching them all so you understand the lingo. For a basic primer, check out these two articles: Having a Baby Without Breaking the Bank: Cloth Diapering and Cloth Diapering 101.
There are many different ways to build your cloth diaper stash other than buying them brand-new yourself:
Ask for Cloth Diapers for Gifts — If you’re a first-time mom and you’re planning to cloth diaper, asking for cloth diapers as gifts for your baby showers might be an option for you.
Buy Used — Check Craigslist, garage sales, eBay, and online diaper forums for used cloth diapers. This might not be appealing to some people, but it is an option.
Make Your Own — If you’re handy with a sewing machine (unlike me!), I’ve heard it’s fairly simple to make your own cloth diapers.
Get Creative — Willing to think outside the box a little? Check out these two articles: How to Cloth Diaper for Practically Free and Start Cloth Diapering at Home for $20 (no sewing required).
How much you save by cloth-diapering will vary a great deal depending upon how many children you have, what kind of diapers you buy, how much you’d usually pay for disposable diapers (if you read this blog and print coupons, you likely pay a lot less per disposable diaper than many people do!), how much your water and electricity costs, whether you line-dry your diapers or not, and so forth.
However, regardless of your situation, I can fairly safely say that you will save at least $100 per year by using cloth diapers at least half the time. And there’s a good possibility that you’ll save significantly more than that if you cloth diaper exclusively, don’t have high electricity and water costs, and use your diapers for more than one child.
BabyWorks has some interesting statistics and stories on how much you can save by cloth diapering. You can also read some of my readers’ answers to this question. And here’s a breakdown of a number of different diaper costs from Diaper Decisions.
If you’re already cloth-diapering, it’s really simple to use cloth wipes, too. With Kathrynne, I just used baby washcloths and water. However, if you want something a little more handy, you can Make Homemade Reusable Baby Wipes.
Related: My Journey to Cloth Diapers
Have you tried cloth-diapering? If so, what tips and suggestions do you have to add to my post?
I found this quote on Dave Ramsey’s Pinterest Board and thought it was very interesting. Do you agree or disagree with it?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Jingit is a newer income-earning program that pays you to watch ads online. You can also earn money for downloading the mobile app, scanning items at Walmart, and answering a couple of questions.
How Do You Sign Up?
To sign up, just go here and follow the steps outlined. You’ll need to create an account, input your phone number, and type in the verification number they text to you.
How Do You Earn Cash?
Once you’re signed up, you can begin watching videos or doing store check-ins. You should be offered at least a few videos you can watch right away. It looks like they add a few new videos each week.
Plus, if you have a smartphone, you can download the Jingit app and get paid to scan grocery UPC codes while you’re in store.
How Do You Get Paid?
To get paid, you just register for a Jingit Visa Debit Card (costs $3 from your Jingit balance to request it) and then add cash for your online Jingit balance to the Visa card.
How Much Can You Make?
There is an earning limit of $15 per week. When you initially join, you’ll have a lower earning limit but this can be raised to $15 by inviting friends to join.
Candi commented on my post about Jingit and said:
I have tried it and found that it is really very easy to make a couple of bucks. They videos you watch are super short, so it really doesn’t take too much time. I have also done the “check in” feature which has you scan in items Walmart and answer a couple of questions and you get money instantly! Fairly simple, but I have had it not scan a couple of items. I will only scan items in store if I need to be at Walmart anyway, you are only going to make a buck or two at a time so it is in no way worth the trip to the store for that. -Candi
(Note: The link in this post is my referral link. Read my disclosure policy here.)
Welcome to the Early to Rise Challenge! Throughout the month of March, I’m challenging myself and my readers to make the most of their mornings. So every week day morning at 9 a.m. EST, I’m posting a short Early to Rise post. I’ll share a few of my thoughts on the day’s passage from Early to Rise, tell you what time I got up that morning, and encourage you to leave a comment to tell us what time you got up and how you’re doing on the challenge.
Andy talks about the lost art of quietness in today’s Early to Rise passage. Truly, this is one of the main reasons I get up early on a regular basis: because I savor that morning quiet.
It’s when I think, read, pray, plan, write, breathe, and dream. When I begin the day with quiet, the whole day feels calmer.
If you don’t have the ability to enjoy at least a few minutes of quiet in the morning, can I encourage you to find time elsewhere in the day for quiet? Maybe it’s when you’re commuting to work, or while your kids are playing outside in the backyard, or before bed.
Whenever it is, make a practice of finding white space in your day. It’s not healthy to fill up every nook and cranny of your day with to-do’s. That’s a way to suffocate, stifle, and exhaust yourself.
Breathe. Soak up the quiet. Savor the stillness. Even if it’s just for two minutes.
How are you going to make time for quiet today? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments.
I got up at 6:32 a.m. — not quite so “early to rise” as usual, but I’ve determined that regardless of what time the clock said when I got up, today is still going to be a great day. 🙂
What time did you get up? Leave a comment and let us know!
Join in the Chatter!
Want to blog about this challenge? If you’re blogging through this challenge with me, be sure to leave your link to your direct post for today below. Plus, if you’d like to post your daily posts to the Early to Rise Group Board on my Pinterest page, just shoot me an email (moneysavingmom @ gmail dot com) and I’ll invite you.
Want to follow along on Twitter or Instagram? Each week day morning on my Facebook Page, my Twitter account, and my Instagram account, I’ll be posting a picture of my alarm clock as public accountability. I’d love to have you do the same or join in the discussion on Twitter and Instagram. Just follow hashtag #EarlytoRise to see what others are tweeting and Instagramming about this challenge!
Guest post from Kate
If you tend to cook from scratch you probably have had several recipes that called for broth, and while canned broth isn’t very expensive, you can make it at home with hardly any effort for pennies!
This homemade vegetable broth recipe is very easy.
I save veggie scraps in a zip bag in the freezer. You don’t need to use new, fresh veggies for broth — old, frostbitten bits work just fine!
When I cut up an onion, I put the skin and bits I am not using into the bag. We buy a large bag of uncut carrots with the skins on, I put the tops and bottoms of the carrots into the bag too. Celery tops go straight into the bag, along with that last one or two pieces of celery that get limp before we use them. When I use garlic for sauces I put the left over bits into the bag.
Everything that goes into the bag is leftovers – totally free!
Once I have two or three gallon-size bags of veggies, I am ready to make broth.
I empty the bags of veggies into my slow cooker, add in a couple bay leaves, and fill with water. I turn the slow cooker on low for five hours and walk away.
After five hours, I can just scoop the broth out of the slow cooker and into containers.
It lasts in the fridge for a few days, or in the freezer for months!
Not only does this easily save me a couple dollars each week, it’s also quite “green” as I’m reusing veggie scraps I normally might throw out. Plus, I put the broth into a reusable container, so I am not throwing out or even recycling a package.
Win win!
We are debt-free and want to start saving for a 100% down payment for a house. Do you have any suggestions as to where the money should be held while saving? Savings account or money market? Any info would be appreciated. Thank you, Kelly
What a great goal! It can be daunting at times, but persevere and you will not regret it.
When we were saving for our house, we put every last penny we could squeeze out of our budget in a money market account. The reason we chose to use a money market account was because they do tend to pay more in interest per month than a regular savings account. Plus, you have the benefit of being able to write checks against the account when you want to take money out.
With a savings account, you need to transfer money and do not have as easy access to it. That said, if you like the idea of having an extra safeguard in place so you cannot get at your money very easily for discipline purposes, a savings account is still an okay choice. It all comes down to the reasons for doing what are doing.
Money markets traditionally pay out more in interest because they are tied to a market and carry a little more risk than a savings account. So, if the money markets change, you run the possibility of having your interest rates fluctuate.
In all my times of utilizing this tool, I have never lost money. I have only seen the rate interest is paid out increase or decrease, depending on how the economy is doing.
Jesse Paine is a licensed attorney who owns his own law firm. He’s married to Crystal and is the numbers nerd of the MoneySavingMom.com team! If you have a question you’d like him to answer in a future column, you can submit it here.
The content of this column intended for informational use only and is not to be construed as providing legal, investing, accounting, or other professional advice. Your situation is factually specific and you should accordingly seek qualified professional counsel concerning your specific legal, investing or accounting needs.
Megan emailed in recently and said:
We always look for ways to cut money — I coupon regularly and take surveys to save and earn money to be able to provide fun money for our family. We try to do most things ourselves and hate to hire since, most of the time, we can do it much cheaper (and better) than a “professional” can.
For six years, my husband and I always bought mulch in bulk and then spent several hours over several days carting it all over the yard with a wheelbarrow and making our islands look nice. Each scoop cost about $32 plus tax and we did it one truck load at a time plus we had to add in gas, time, and wear and tear on the truck.
Doing this up to 20 times in the matter of a weekend can really start to add up and zap the joy out of “doing it yourself”. We even tried having the mulch delivered for a small delivery charge, but we still had the same amount of labor involved.
Well, last spring, it was time to put new mulch out again and we were absolutely dreading it so we hired someone to do it for us. {GASP!}
We decided that it was just too much to do while trying to get my husband’s new company off and running, too. It was a very good decision.
One year later, my husband’s company is providing paychecks and health insurance to eight different employees and we are hiring the same guy to install our mulch again this year.
We have developed a relationship with this man who owns his own landscape company, and because we are repeat customers, he has given us a better price than we could probably get elsewhere. He purchases the mulch we like, brings eight scoops at a time, and has his workers install it — all for $45 a scoop.
It blows my mind that, when it comes down to it, we did all that physical manual labor just to save $8 per scoop! I know when you multiply $8 by 20 scoops, the savings does add up — but, at this season of our lives, it just isn’t worth it to us to both work for almost two days straight in order to only save $160 total.
We will gladly pay the $160 on top of the mulch price for this valuable service.
While we technically aren’t saving any money, we are choosing to pay someone a small amount of money in order to save valuable time — time that we’d rather spend with our children than mulching our yard!
CreativeGreenLiving.com shows you how to make patterned Easter Eggs with silk ties.
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.
Welcome to the Early to Rise Challenge! Throughout the month of March, I’m challenging myself and my readers to make the most of their mornings. So every week day morning at 9 a.m. EST, I’m posting a short Early to Rise post. I’ll share a few of my thoughts on the day’s passage from Early to Rise, tell you what time I got up that morning, and encourage you to leave a comment to tell us what time you got up and how you’re doing on the challenge.
You have a choice today: you can stumble through life just trying to make it through and survive the day. Or, you can live today on purpose.
Which option do you think will give you more fulfillment and productivity? Living each day with intention will give you much more energy and passion for life, not to mention that you’ll probably end up doing a lot more things that matter!
Andy mentions in today’s Early to Rise passage making out a framework for your day. I love this and it’s something that I do every single day. It’s likely the Type A in me, but I just can’t stand to live my days without some sort of plan in place. 🙂
So, either before I go to bed at night or first thing in the morning, I write out the to-do’s for the day and create a simple order for the day. I write a targeted time beside each item on the list and this helps to keep me on track. However, I don’t feel constrained to stick exactly with this time; it’s more of a ballpark figure.
The structure for most of each day is somewhat similar around here, but because my husband and I are both self-employed, there are variables and no day is exactly alike. So, instead of trying to stick with a scheduled formula of sorts for each and every day, making a fresh plan each morning has been really helpful for this season of our lives.
Do you have a plan for today? If not, take 5 minutes right now to make out a simple game plan. The little bit of time you invest in this will likely pay off in big dividends throughout the day!
Related post: My Top 3 Tips for Getting Stuff Done
I got another great night’s sleep last night! Went to bed at 9:30 p.m. and got up — without an alarm! — a little after 5:40 a.m. My phone was dead, so I had to charge it up before I could get a picture of the clock. 🙂
What time did you get up? Leave a comment and let us know!
Join in the Chatter!
Want to blog about this challenge? If you’re blogging through this challenge with me, be sure to leave your link to your direct post for today below. Plus, if you’d like to post your daily posts to the Early to Rise Group Board on my Pinterest page, just shoot me an email (moneysavingmom @ gmail dot com) and I’ll invite you.
Want to follow along on Twitter or Instagram? Each week day morning on my Facebook Page, my Twitter account, and my Instagram account, I’ll be posting a picture of my alarm clock as public accountability. I’d love to have you do the same or join in the discussion on Twitter and Instagram. Just follow hashtag #EarlytoRise to see what others are tweeting and Instagramming about this challenge!
I had a wonderful time at the Southeast Homeschool Convention last week. It was wonderful to get to meet some of you and we were so blessed by the southern hospitality there.
Last week’s goals:
Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1. Read three chapters of Vinegar Boy: Encounter Christ Through the Dramatic Story of Vinegar Boy
aloud at lunch.
Read three chapters of More About Paddington with Kathrynne, read three chapters of Anne of Green Gables with Kaitlynn, read three chapters of The Courage of Sarah Noble to Silas.
2. Write a love note to Jesse.Personal Goals
3. Memorize Romans 1:9-10.
4. Exercise five times.
5. Continue with the Early to Rise Challenge.6. Finish reading Uneclipsing the Son, A Charlotte Mason Education,
Sparkly Green Earrings, Sleep: It Does a Family Good, and The Chance.Homemaking Goals
7. Do a Freezer Cooking in an Hour session.
8. Work on embroidery project.Business Goals
9. Go to South Carolina and speak at the Southeast Homeschool Convention.10. Finish updating the recipes for our new recipe page launch.
This week’s goals:
Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1. Finish Vinegar Boy: Encounter Christ Through the Dramatic Story of Vinegar Boy
2. Write a love note to Jesse.
Personal Goals
3. Memorize Romans 1:9-10.
4. Exercise five times.
5. Continue with the Early to Rise Challenge.
6. Finish reading Uneclipsing the Son, A Charlotte Mason Education, Sleep: It Does a Family Good, and The Chance.
Homemaking Goals
7. Do a Freezer Cooking in an Hour session.
8. Work on embroidery project.
Business Goals
9. Go to Atlanta and speak at the Killer Tribes Conference.
10. Finish updating the recipes for our new recipe page launch.
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.
Breakfasts
Oatmeal, Cereal, Eggs, and/or Fruit
Lunches
Mac & cheese, fruit
Snack-y lunch
PB&J, carrot sticks, apples
Cheese quesadillas, carrot sticks
Pancakes, eggs, fruit
Leftovers x 2Snacks
Fruit/veggies
PopcornFreezer Cooking in an Hour (stay tuned on Thursday when I’ll share a play-by-play on how this goes!)
Pull Apart Oat Rolls
Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pancakes
IHOP-Knock-Off PancakesDinners
Dinner with extended family
Crockpot Fried Rice, fruit
Bean & Cheese Burritos (recipe coming later this week), fruit, veggies
Steak, Baked Oven Fries, The Frugal Girl’s French Bread, fruit, veggies
IHOP-Knock-Off Pancakes, fruit, scrambled eggs
Slow Cooker Lentil & Black Bean Soup, Pull Apart Oat Rolls, fruit
Dinner out
What’s on your menu this week? Share details and/or your link to your menu plan in the comments.
Guest post from Kathy of Kathy Hutto
In today’s market, eBooks are hot commodity. With Kindles and iPads taking the place of laptops and personal computers, you can bet that eBook sales are through the roof.
You might be surprised to learn that it isn’t hard at all to write an eBook. If you have a good idea for a book or just want to find out what is selling and then explore ideas for writing your own, this article is for you. It will walk you through a step-by-step process for creating (and then selling) your eBook.
It couldn’t be easier using the techniques listed here… and best of all, it’s possible to create your own eBook for free using the resources listed and links provided to you here.
One tool you can use to write your eBook is Microsoft Office PowerPoint. PowerPoint is super easy if you plan to add a lot of graphic elements to your book. It allows you to move around the objects and manipulate them much easier than Word does.
Here’s what you do:
One Feature that I like is under the Tab Insert. It’s the Word Art button. It allows you add a little more pizzazz to your words. This is great for the cover of your eBook.
Your PowerPoint presentation will automatically be horizontal (landscape). To change it to vertical (portrait), you will need to hit the Design tab and then Slide Orientation. You can choose landscape or portrait.
While you are working on your book, if you want to see what it’s going to look like, just hit the View tab and then Slide Show. You can click through to see the entire project and escape if you want to end the show.
Play around while on the Insert tab. You can add clip art, pictures, shapes, smart art, and charts. When you are ready to save your eBook, click Save As and PDF.
Images like photographs and clip art will be important to your eBook. Look for public domain images that are free.
My favorite site for photographs is Public Domain Pictures (I also really like the Illustrations section of this site.)
My favorite site for clip art is WP Clip Art
If you are writing a How-To eBook, you can take a screen shot of whatever you are working on.
The key to a good eBook is having a professional looking cover design. Photographs often make the best cover designs, and it’s best if you find one that is vertical. You will need to stretch it to fit the entire page.
There are many places that you might sell your eBook. Here are a few places I’ve had success selling mine.
The very simplest way to sell your eBook is through EBay! Set up an eBay account if you don’t have one already. Be sure to include in the product description that the auction is for an eBook in a PDF format. You can email the buyer the eBook file (zipped if it is large), once you receive payment.
If you want your book to reach the homeschool market, then Currclick is the way to go! You will need to create an account and send in your title for review. Once approved, you can upload other titles.
If you want to sell products that will be purchased by those with Kindles, then you can follow the very simple steps for setting up a free account and selling them here.
If you want to sell products to the teaching market (as in school teachers), then you may want to check this site out. Follow the steps for creating an account and uploading your products. The first product must be free, so choose wisely. You want it to be a good product to begin building confidence in your items, but you want your best products to earn you a profit.
If you’d like to learn more about creating and selling eBooks, be sure to download your free copy of How to Create and Sell eBooks the Simple Way.
Kathy Hutto is a Christian, wife, and homeschooling mother of two. She loves serving the Lord and has a heart for reaching families with devotions and resources that will enable them to disciple their children at home. She strives to “bloom where she’s planted” and maintains a blog where you can find family devotions, Sunday School ideas, homeschooling resources, recipes and more. She writes curricula which she sells through TeachersPayTeachers and Currclick.