Redfly Creations shows you how to make gift bags out of pages from magazines.
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.
2hr Cleaning Checklist
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We Paid Cash: A Weekend Getaway
A testimony from Sylvia
My marriage has seen three promotions: the “purchase” of our first home, the birth of our first child, and the start of my small in-home pet-sitting business. Though the past four years have seen many great things, we were never able to go on a honeymoon nor have we been afforded time for just the two of us.
Between raising our daughter, my husband’s work schedule (training/deployment), my full-time college and pet-sitting schedule, and finding time for our family and friends, quality time together is pretty rare. In light of all of that, we decided to make it a priority to save money for a two-night getaway to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
After a few days of research, we came up with the figures:
- The cabin rental: approximately $600.00
- Gas: approximately $100.00
- Food, entertainment, and souvenirs: at least $200.00
Since we needed at least $900.00, we weren’t confident that we’d reach that goal in just two months. To our surprise, we were very wrong!
At the time, we were still in the process of building our emergency fund to $2,000.00 and paying off some of our debts. That said, I knew we had to get creative. My husband was deployed at the time, which meant we were receiving additional income (tax-free pay, hazardous duty pay, hostile fire pay, etc.).
So I purchased our small plastic “Travel Fund” jar from the dollar store and, together, we developed a plan of action:
- I began putting some of my husband’s deployment money in the jar = $400.00
- All of my earnings from my small pet-sitting business went into the jar = $811.91
- I sold many of the items we no longer had a use for = $510.00
- Surprisingly, I found money in various places around our house = $57.72
Alas, the goal we thought would take us forever and a day to reach, was exceeded in less than two months!
Prior to this vacation, my husband and I had never even considered kicking our debit and credit cards to the curb and dedicating three full days of our lives to a cash-only way of living because — like most people in today’s society — we relied heavily on debit and credit card usage. However, we were able to enjoy every single minute of our paid-in-cash vacation because we knew we’d be debt-free upon our return with the same amount of money in our checking account that was in there when we left!
A cash-only budget not only felt amazing but it also worked. In fact, we’re going to do it again.
We still had $731.00 left in our jar after we paid for all of our vacation expenses. We’ve decided that some of that amount will be spent paying off one of our credit cards and the remainder, plus some of the money we earn between now and then, will go towards two separate vacations to Florida to visit with our families later this year.
Sylvia lives in Georgia where her husband, Kevin, is stationed. They have one daughter, Mariah and two dogs and six cats. Sylvia attends college full-time and runs a small in-home pet sitting business called “The Wright Pet Sitter”.
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
Do-It-Yourself: Mrs. Meyer’s Liquid Hand Soap
BrownSugarToast.com shows you how to make homemade Mrs. Meyer’s Liquid Hand Soap.
Shared Jun 6, 2012
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Q&A: How do you get back on track financially when you’ve lost your momentum?
Q&A: How do you get back on track financially when you’ve lost your momentum?
I feel like I’ve gotten off track on our finances and I need input on how to get back on track. We had very little income for the beginning three months of this year, but we did really well at pinching pennies despite the financial struggles. Now that work is a little more steady for my husband, I feel like I’ve had some psychological thing going on where I feel justified spending a little more since we have a more steady income.
I am by no means going crazy, but I have splurged on this and that ($25 here for stuff we really didn’t need, $25 there for a “good deal”). I just need to bring myself back to what really makes me feel good and what I feel pleases God: Living within our means, giving back, and saving money for the future.
Do you have any encouragement or suggestions? -Leah
1. Stop Beating Yourself Up
First off, Leah, I want to encourage you to stop beating yourself up. Wallowing in the feeling of failure does nothing to move you forward.
2. Have a Heart-To-Heart Talk About Your Goals
Instead, I encourage you to sit down with your husband and have a heart-to-heart talk about your financial goals and goals for your family in general.
3. Come To a Mutual Agreement
Where do you hope to be in a year from now or five years now? Communicate about your goals, compromise when necessary, and come to mutual agreement.
4. Break Your Goals Down Into Bite-Sized Pieces
Then break your big goals down into bite-sized pieces so that you have monthly, weekly, and even daily goals to work toward together. This will give you momentum for being creative when it comes to your finances and will give you purpose for cutting costs and living frugally.
5. Make Sure You Budget for Strategic Splurging
Make sure that you include some wiggle room in your budget, if you can wing it (and it sounds like you can). Budgeting a small amount of personal spending money or blow money each month allows you to be able to enjoy little splurges here and there without feeling guilty.
6. Have Monthly Goal Accountability Meetings
Have monthly goal accountability meetings with your husband to make sure that you are staying on track and on the same page when it comes to your budget and your financial goals.
What advice and suggestions would you have for Leah?
Books We Love: The Courage of Sarah Noble
The Courage of Sarah Noble is a fascinating true story of a courageous young girl who traveled with her father in to the wilderness to build a new home for their family. During the journey and separation from her family, she learned to face her fears and “keep up her courage” as her mother had challenged her to do.
This is an inspiring story that even young children will enjoy — and it’s also perfect for readers who are just beginning to read chapter books. We’ve read it twice in the last year, and the girls have enjoyed it both times and haven’t wanted me to stop when I got to the end of each chapter.
For more book ideas, check out my series on Books We Love. For more picture book ideas, check out my list of 15 Favorite Children’s Books.
Have you read any great books (children’s books or otherwise) recently?
Frugal Gift Idea: Science Kit for Kids
Jenae from I Can Teach My Child has a post on a great gift idea — a Science Kit for Kids.
She has free printables you can use and she shows how she got everything needed for the kit for less than $20 at Walmart!
Our wonderful June Sponsors
You might recognize Angela from a guest post back in March entitled Going Vegan on a Budget. Based out of the greater Seattle area, blogger Angela Russell is committed to reporting on quality deals and having money-saving tips on her blog, The Coupon Project.
Follow her site for gardening posts,unexpected ideas for saving money, good-for-you recipes and savings, free monthly live webcasts, and an occasional dose of coupon humor.
Lauren from IAmThatLady.com wants everyone to succeed at couponing by her honest and realistic approach to shopping. Lauren and her husband, along with her three children have recently become debt-free after being in over $40,000 worth of debt.
She has a variety of Video Tutorials; from meal planning to couponing, and videos sharing how she budgeted to get out of debt. Lauren also focuses on grocery stores in New York and teaches money-saving seminars across the state of New York.
Motherhood on a Dime is a frugal living blog composed of three sections: Kids, Deals, and Living. As a former teacher turned homeschooling mom, Stacie is always on the look-out for simple activities and ideas for kids.
She recently started a new series called 101 Days of Summer Fun for Kids where she is spotlighting an easy (and frugal) activity each day for the rest of the summer. Besides activities for kids, Motherhood on a Dime is also a place to find deals, coupons, bargains, and posts on faith, food, fitness, and fun. Be sure to enter to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card during June!
Carrie at Coupon Closet shows you how to clip and organize your coupons in only a few minutes each week. Her tips and tricks will keep you ready for every deal you need to snag. Not only will you learn how to use your coupons to maximize your savings, but also how to manage the crazy world of couponing in your everyday life.
Our little shop is full of happy fabrics, practical boutique-style sewing patterns, and fun handcrafted apparel (skirts, aprons, and more). Be sure to browse our $6-a-yard section for great deals on designer fabrics.
Also, check out our brand new rosa lea dress pattern – available for pre-order now! We’d love for you to stop by and say hi on our blog… xox! the Long ladies
YouSaveHere.ca is Canada’s newest cityguide to savings. Their online directory listings represents the trusted and respected local business owners in your community and their daily deals site goes live in a month with savings on products you buy everyday.
They are committed to connecting citizens to local business owners. Stop by and check it out.
Shared Jun 6, 2012
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Reader Tip: How we saved over $150 by just looking over our insurance information
Reader Tip: How we saved over $150 by just looking over our insurance information
Jenni emailed in the following tip:
My husband recently asked me if we were going to renew our AAA roadside assistance membership. I remembered that several of your readers had mentioned looking into whether or not auto insurance would offer that, so I looked up ours online and noticed that we did have it!
I called a customer service representative just to make sure the service was the same as what AAA offered, and found out that it was actually even more comprehensive than AAA. While I was looking at my policy and talking with the representative, I noticed that the coverage also included repair to windshield damage. We had a couple of chips that needed to be repaired, and even though they had occurred awhile ago, it was still covered.
We saved $80 by not renewing our AAA membership this year, and $75 for the windshield repair, so we saved over $150 in about 15 minutes (the time it took to review our policy and make a phone call). -Jenni
Ask the Readers: How can we find a renter quickly?
Today’s question is from Martha:
When I met my husband in 2007 he owned a house and I owned a condo. With the economy going down at the time and no way to sell the condo, we decided to rent it out. For the last four months we’ve been paying two mortgages because we can’t find a renter. Our savings is draining and we’re losing hope.
Any suggestions for finding a renter quickly? We don’t want to lose the place. -Martha
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Jealousy is when…
OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!
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How We Are Saving Over $2600 Per Year By Not Eating Out
Testimony from Crystal of Serving Joyfully
The average American family eats out several times per week — which is something people tend to underestimate until they really examine the numbers.
This is embarrassing, but I’ll confess it — eating out for my family was completely out of hand. We tried to cut back, but there was always justification.
- We “needed” to eat out for our weekly date.
- We “needed” to eat out on Sundays after church.
- We “needed” to eat out Wednesday nights since there was no time to cook.
- The kids and I “needed” to eat out on Fridays after story time at the library.
The list goes on.
My husband and I live on a meager budget and are trying to get out of debt. We can’t afford all the meals out (we were spending our entire “spending money” budget, plus “borrowing” from other areas to fund it!)
So this year for Lent, we did something drastic — we stopped eating out.
While there are ways to save money when eating out, a meal out for a family of four will typically cost at least $10 for fast food, and $30 for most sit down restaurants. If you are like us, or like the typical American family, just cutting one meal out per week can save you $520-$1560 per year!
Here are some things that have helped us to significantly lower our eating out budget:
1. Plan a Menu.
If you eat out for convenience, you can easily cut out one meal out per week by planning your meals. If you have a roast cooking at home in the crock-pot, it’s easy to skip the fast food on the way home.
I make sure to plan quick meals or leftovers for busy days. Sometimes, just knowing you have a plan gives you the will you need to skip eating out.
2. Don’t Run Errands Right Around Mealtime.
When possible, I plan errands so we’ll be home for mealtimes. I keep snacks in my van so that if we get hungry while out, we can have a healthy snack rather than fast food.
3. Pack a Picnic.
If we can’t be home at mealtimes, we pack a picnic. Now, instead of eating out after story time, we enjoy a picnic at the park. This even allowed me to reach out to some of the other moms and start a weekly playgroup after story time.
4. Have Creative Date Nights.
One of our biggest problem areas was date night. Eating out became our date each week, usually at a sit-down restaurant costing $30+ after taxes and tip. Now, our dates are more creative: we’ll have a movie night at home or do something like a $5 Little Caesar’s Hot & Ready Pizza.
For the occasional splurge, we participate in rewards programs like MyPoints or Swagbucks to earn dining gift cards. By doing this, we are able to limit ourselves to spending no more than $5-$10 per week on eating out, which is within our monthly spending budget.
With these changes, we have nearly eliminated eating out from our budget, saving us around $50 per week, or $2600 in a year!
Do you eat out? If so, what are your tips and and suggestions for saving money on eating out?
Crystal Brothers is a daughter of the King, wife to a forest ranger, and full-time mommy to two rambunctious little boys. She blogs at Serving Joyfully — a blog dedicated to encouraging and equipping women to serve God and their families with a joyful spirit.
Amy takes the Cash-Only Challenge
My friend, Amy, a non-spender who is wise with her finances but pretty much has always only used her credit card, is taking the three-month Cash-Only Challenge I outlined in my book, The Money Saving Mom®’s Budget.
She posted about her observations and feelings after one month on her blog today. Whether you love or loathe credit cards, I think you’ll find her post interesting and insightful.
Have you tried a cash-only challenge? If so, I’d love to hear what you learned from the experience.
9 Ideas for Planning a Fun Summer Vacation
Playing at the beach – free
Guest post from Tiffany of Don’t Waste the Crumbs
Summer is here!
We moms tend to dread those three words since planning activities for ten straight weeks can be overwhelming and seem expensive. But don’t let a budget ruin your family fun.
Here are some suggestions to help make your budget-friendly summer a little more fun:
1. Make going to the park a challenge.
Are the kids tired of the same swings and slides? Create a list of local parks and make it a point to visit one for each week that the kids will be off. Include state parks, beaches, playgrounds, hiking trails, and skate/bike parks for the kids that are beyond swings.
Create a chart to put on the fridge with simple graphics and let them rate the park with thumbs up or thumbs down. Maybe you’ll have a new favorite park when the summer is over!
2. Pretend to be a tourist.
Use a search engine and look up the “10 best things to do” in your city. If your list is relatively short, make it a point to do or visit everything! If your list is long, ask your kids to pick one or two activities that sound interesting to them.
Kids are much more likely to have more fun when they have a choice in the matter. You can even stretch “their” event into “their day” and let the child that chose the activity choose what to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Visiting Parks in San Francisco – free
3. Do a little legwork.
Call the event locations, ask your neighbors, email your local chamber of commerce and/or visit your library to see if discounted or free tickets are available for locals. Our local library offers free passes to the aquarium on the first of every month (to locals with a valid ID).
4. Borrow season or “with a friend” passes.
If your friend’s family enjoyed an attraction so much that they bought season passes, there’s a chance your family will enjoy the attraction, too. If your kids have a good time and want to go again, see if your budget will allow the price of season passes.
Most season passes pay for themselves in less than two visits and will last beyond the summer time frame. You can also team up with another family and be their “friend” on a take-a-friend day, or “suggest” season passes to family members as a birthday gift to the kids.
Season Passes to Local Amusement Park – passes were a family Christmas gift and free admittance for kids under 3
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for discounts.
As a local, I know I can park for free if I’m willing to walk a few blocks. I also know that walking a few blocks with a car full of kids and gear can be tiring. Ask the parking attendants if locals get discounted parking, or if parking can be validated with certain establishments.
6. Set a budget for each event and have fun.
You’d be willing to splurge a little if you were truly on vacation, so loosen the reigns just a little bit. Save by packing a lunch or eating at home beforehand, but have fun with an ice cream treat afterward.
7. Mix it up for a day at home.
Take board games outside on a blanket or picnic table, spend the day “camping” in the backyard or create a scavenger hunt outside with their favorite toys. Allow the kids to get messy with chalk or finger paint. Dress them in their swimsuits and turn on the sprinkler! Go for a nature walk and create a picture list of things to “find” along the way.
Watching the airplanes take off and land – free
8. Check local movie theaters.
Local theaters often run a summer special where kids movies will play at the same time, the same day of the week. Tickets are usually inexpensive and this could be a great for rainy days, or when you need a break from the sun.
9. Send your kids to someone’s house for a day.
Team up with other moms and take turns planning a home activity each week that involves all the kids. This would give you a day off and the kids are still having fun while being supervised.
Don’t take on planning the whole summer at once. Start small by planning for one or two days each week. For example, make every Monday a park day and every Friday a field trip. Visit a new park each Monday and a new “event” each Friday and see where the fun leads you!
Tiffany is a full-time mom navigating the bumpy road of food, money and motherhood, while trying not to waste (or lose) crumbs along the way. She blogs about her experiences at Don’t Waste the Crumbs.
Shared Jun 5, 2012
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Reader Tip: Free access to an online foreign language program from the library
Reader Tip: Free access to an online foreign language program from the library
Want to learn a foreign language? Michele from Saving Money In Real Life emailed in this tip:
I recently learned that my public library has an online foreign language program that I can access for free. There are dozens of foreign languages available that I can learn!
Many public libraries across the country have the same free program. It’s called Mango Languages. If you check their website, you can find out if your local library participates. You can find out if your library participates here.
I thought your readers might enjoy this program especially those who homeschool. My son and I just discovered it last week, and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it! -Michele from Saving Money In Real Life
Have a quick money-saving tip to share? Email it in through our deal submission form and if we end up publishing it, we’ll link to your blog.
Do-It-Yourself: Invigorating Coffee Sugar Scrub
PenniesAndBlessings.com shows you how to make an invigorating coffee sugar scrub.