Saving Families Money Since 2007
Today’s question is from Christina:
I am interested in whitening my teeth and would love to know the best ways to save on teeth whitening. I have never had professional whitening done — is it worth the cost? Also, are the home whitening kits effective? -Christina
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Today didn’t go as I’d planned, but it was a good day, nonetheless. Kathrynne was still quite sick today, so I spent a lot of time caring for her and we finally ended up taking her in to the doctor. Come to find out, she has a really bad double ear infection. Poor girl!
At any rate, we didn’t get around to doing the Bubble Painting I’d planned that we’d do today. But we still had some frugal fun — or at least lots of special time together.
We did some paint with water books (I picked these up on a Buy One, Get One Half Off special from Light of Faith at our homeschool conference), Silas got to cut his pages (using scissors is a big privilege for him now and something he can only do with Mommy around after he cut his hair a few weeks ago!), and Kaitlynn made and painted a paper basket.
We then spent a long time cuddled up on the couch together reading a big stack of books with Kathrynne. We’ve been keeping our library hopping with all the books we’ve been checking out from them recently — especially now that Kathrynne is reading so voraciously!
Did you do something fun and frugal as a family today? If you blogged about it, I’d love for you to leave a link to your blog post below. Or, you can just tell us what you did in the comments.
Note: There seems to be some confusion as to what to link up with this series. Since the purpose of this series is to encourage you to be intentional about fun in your home this summer, please only link up posts showing pictures/sharing details of fun things you did as a family today (or within the last few days). Posts that do not adhere to these guidelines will be deleted in order to make it fair for those who are putting forth a lot of effort to participate in this challenge.
If you’re a business owner or are considering starting your own business, I’d recommend reading The One-Minute Entrepreneur — or listening to the audiobook like I did. Written in a story form, it’s a quick read that’s packed with a wealth of wisdom regarding foundational principles that should guide business owners.
It’s easy to sometimes forget the big picture and what really matters in the midst of the busyness of business demands and life. This story portrays how you can find blessing in making wise decisions and how losing your focus can ruin your family, health, marriage, and business in the process.
I especially appreciated the emphasis on having your priorities in order and not neglecting your family in order to climb the corporate ladder or advance your business. This is a message that is often overlooked in business books. In addition, I appreciated the words of advice on treating your employees well, not losing sight of the big picture, being a giver, using your position of leadership for good, and leaving a legacy.
See more book recommendations I’ve posted this year here. You can also see all books I’ve read so far in 2012 here.
Have you read any good books recently?
ItsGravyBaby.com shows you how to make a homemade water wall out of recycled materials.
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.
Kathrynne woke up with a fever today. So much of my day was spent caring for her — and much of the other normal stuff just got shelved. By late afternoon, she was finally feeling a little better, so Kaitlynn and Silas and I let her rest while we stole away to the kitchen to make peanut butter playdough.
Kaitlynn and Silas had a lot of fun helping me mix up the playdough and then I gave them each a ball of dough and a few toppings on a plate plus a cookie sheet and let them just have at it. They had a lot of fun making their own creations and pictures with the playdough on the cookie sheet.
And then they had even more fun bringing it to show Kathrynne and then all eating their creations together.
The whole project was simple, very inexpensive (we just used ingredients we already had on hand!), and easy to clean up. After the Flubber mess, the fact that I didn’t have to spend quite a bit of time scrubbing goo off the walls and the kitchen table after we were finished was a bit of a welcome relief. 🙂
Mix first three ingredients together until nice dough is formed (add more powdered milk if the dough is too sticky). Let children form into shapes and decorate.
If you don’t have powdered milk, here are two other recipes I found:
Peanut Butter Playdough #2: 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of peanut butter, + 1 tablespoon of honey
Peanut Butter Playdough #3: 4 cups of peanut butter, 1 cup of light corn syrup, + 2 cups of powdered sugar
Did you do something fun and frugal as a family today? If you blogged about it, I’d love for you to leave a link to your blog post below. Or, you can just tell us what you did in the comments.
Note: There seems to be some confusion as to what to link up with this series. Since the purpose of this series is to encourage you to be intentional about fun in your home this summer, please only link up posts showing pictures/sharing details of fun things you did as a family today (or within the last few days). Posts that do not adhere to these guidelines will be deleted in order to make it fair for those who are putting forth a lot of effort to participate in this challenge.
I didn’t realize how productive my week was last week until I sat down to cross of my goals! It’s amazing how goal-setting really does inspire me to be more intentional in how I use my time!
Last week’s goals:
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Start reading The Railway Children aloud to all the children, The Missing Video (reading to Kathrynne), and Little House in the Big Woods (reading to Kaitlynn).
2. Go to a baseball game as a family.
3. Write a love note to Jesse.Personal Goals
4. Finish reading The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself
plus one fiction book.
5. Run at least five times; start weight-lifting program.
6. Listen to 2 hours of The One-Minute Entrepreneur.
7. Sleep for at least 8 hours every night.Home Management
8. Clean out my bathroom drawers.
9. Experiment with one new homemade cleaner recipe.Business Goals
10. Start new 4-week blogging series (more details coming this week!)
This week’s goals:
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Read at least a few chapters of The Railway Children aloud to all the children, read a few chapters of The Missing Video (reading to Kathrynne), and read at least two chapters of Little House in the Big Woods (reading to Kaitlynn).
2. Special outing one-on-one with Kaitlynn for her birthday.
3. Write a love note to Jesse.
4. Special family outing for Kaitlynn’s birthday.
Personal Goals
5. Finish reading The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself
6. Run at least five times for 45 minutes each; do weight-training program at least four days.
7. Listen to 2 hours of Stop Acting Rich.
8. Sleep for at least 8 hours every night.
Home Management
9. Scrub the master bedroom shower.
Business Goals
10. Continue blogging the 4 Weeks of Family Fun 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.
Prepping Brown Bag Burritos for the freezer
Breakfasts
Slow Cooker Banana Coconut Milk Oatmeal
Berry Cado Smoothie, Hard Boiled Eggs
Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Pancakes
Oatmeal
Toast, scrambled eggs, fresh juice
Cereal x 2Lunches
Green Monster Smoothies, hard boiled eggs
Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches from the freezer, veggies, apple slices
Leftovers x 2
Quesadillas, raw veggies
Snack-y lunch x 2Snacks
Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Healthful Chocolate Freezer Fudge
Popcorn
Fruit/VeggiesDinners
Leftovers
Barbecued Meatballs, Cheesy Mashed Potato Cauliflower Bake, English Muffin Bread, green salad, fruit salad
Dinner at Church Activity Night
Lasagna Casserole, French Bread, green salad, steamed broccoli, fruit
Brown Bag Burritos, green salad, steamed veggies
Dinner with extended family x 2
What’s on your menu this week? Share details and/or your link to your menu plan in the comments.
Guest post from Jenn of Hang On Baby, We’re Almost Somewhere
We used to carry debt. Mortgage, credit-card debt, car payment, student loans — we carried all those debts. I never questioned carrying debt, ironically, until we managed to work our way into being debt-free.
“Carrying” debt is aptly named. It feels like a weight, doesn’t it?
Funny how cash in your wallet never feels as heavy as debt. Here’s how debt stealthily weighed us down, and what we’re doing differently by paying cash:
Debt tells you that you don’t have enough. Enough money, enough self-discipline, enough reserves to fall back on.
When we reached the happy day without payments due on things we’d bought in the past, we rediscovered that we are a people of plenty. We have enough; we are enough. We can participate in charitable giving happily out of our “enough-ness.”
Our children, like many, squabble over who got more or which was bigger. We answer, “Have you ever found yourself going without? No. We are able to satisfy all your needs. Let’s share this snack/toy/activity thankfully.”
We’re more vocal with our kids about why we use our money the way we do. It was hard to explain why we had to send a minimum payment so we’d be able to charge more stuff.
It’s easy to say, “We’ve chosen to budget carefully so we can prepare for the future and so we can pass our blessings on to others.” Since we cleared our debt load, our son decided to collect donations for a water well, instead of presents, at his birthday party last year.
When you already owe more money than you have, sometimes it’s easier to do the convenient thing than the prudent thing. “Just grab take-out for dinner. What’s a few more dollars?”
Now, I don’t want to give our money to other people for services I can provide myself. I cook more, and find that I’m prouder of myself for planning ahead and improving the nutritive value of our meals (i.e., waaaaay fewer French fries).
Now that saving money on the grocery budget doesn’t enable us to pay a credit-card payment, I make it a point to set aside the money that we save through sales and coupons. I actually physically place that money in a separate spot.
I don’t want to see it dissipate in a cloud of fast-food bags or children’s trinkets from the store. No, if I save it, I want to be saving for something good.
We’ve set a goal to buy an original work of art that we truly love and to take a family vacation. Those purchases seemed out of reach, and maybe even undeserved, when we owed money.
In any case, coupons and weekly specials add up quickly. A memorable purchase — with cash — will help us weightlessly celebrate the debt-free life!
Jenn LeBow is a happy wife and mom of four. She’s a native Texan who’s frequently on the move due to her husband’s career, and she loves Jesus and libraries (but can’t possibly set aside the amount of money she saves by reading library books). You can follow Jenn’s train of thought at Hang On Baby, We’re Almost Somewhere.
Guest post from Tammy of SkipperClan
One year ago, we wiped out our savings when we sold our house at a loss for a military move. Since that time, we have become more disciplined about shopping smart and using coupons. I’ve gotten deals on restaurants, oil changes, and birthday gifts through tips on MoneySavingMom.com and other discount sites like Groupon.
The problem is that deal shopping is only half of the process of saving money.
Deciding how much to spend for each category is actually the first step, and one we neglected. Crystal gives great advice in her book about budgeting and this month was our first month where we did the budget, on paper, before the month began. We budgeted every month when we were first married, and we have been attempting to stick to our budget over the last year but this month things seemed to ‘click.’
This is what we’ve learned.
Whether it is email reminders about regular bills or an expense that only happens once a year, our budget is more accurate if I follow this process. Like most families, our schedule is busy. I found myself procrastinating if I thought I had to set aside the time all at once to budget for the next month.
When we tried to dramatically cut our grocery, eating out, and clothing categories all at once, we gave up quickly. I think it is similar to other healthy habits, gradual changes are easier to maintain.
If it is a day or two before the next paycheck and both cars need gas, then we might each fill the tank half way. If I am inspired by Pinterest to make Christmas gifts but I need supplies, I evaluate my current stash and make something different. Sometimes the expense is delayed just to ease cash flow, but sometimes we decide we did not really want to purchase the item at all.
There is power in being held accountable in areas we want to change, finances are no exception.
In our case, I shared with a mentor a little about our situation and asked her to pray for us. I gave her permission to ask how things are going in specific areas that we are working to improve such as increasing my income and being consistent about using our budget each month.
She might ask when we see each other in person or send me a text. I can text, call or email her when there is something specific for her to pray about concerning our goals.
How much you share with an accountability partner should be agreed upon by your spouse, if you are married. Ideally, you might find another couple who can fill this role.
If you are using a budget each month, what is one tip you would share with someone trying to get started today?
Tammy has been around the world as an Air Force spouse, is happily married to her high school sweetheart, and is navigating the teenage years with her two kids. Her goal at SkipperClan is to encourage and empower women with practical strategies for life. You can find her on Twitter as @Tammy_Skipper.
We kicked off our 4 Weeks of Frugal Family Fun series by making Homemade Flubber.
In case you’re scratching your head wondering what I’m talking about, “Flubber” originated from Disney’s 1961 film The Absent-Minded Professor (I’m not sure that I’ve even seen the movie, but I’m familiar with the storyline!).
My children were totally stoked about this project. Getting to play with slimy goop? Yes, please, bring it on!
They were highly motivated to finish their chores and to-do lists for the day in order to get make Flubber (or “icky” as Silas dubbed it!) And they all loved making it.
Our first batch flopped because we didn’t completely dissolve the glue in the water. But we still got some slimy goo from it that children thought was very cool.
The second batch actually looked like it was supposed to. And everyone had a blast playing with it.
The only problem was that 3-year-old Silas got a little “into “it and started flinging it on the wall and letting it drip all down the front of him.
So my advice to you moms is: if you decide to try this recipe, do it during naptime or when your really young ones are otherwise occupied. Or, let them play with it outside in old play clothes and then let everyone have a water fight afterward to clean themselves off. 🙂
Dissolve Borax in 1/2 cup warm water. Set bowl aside.
In another bowl, pour the entire bottle of glue into one cup warm water, add a few drops of food color, and completely mix together. Mixture should resemble a thin paste with no globs of glue still intact.
Pour Borax mixture over glue mixture. Start stirring and it should immediately begin turning into a slimy mixture.
Once it’s mixed together and resembles slime, allow your children to have fun with it — preferably outside or at the kitchen table.
Store leftover Flubber in a ziptop bag for up to two weeks.
Note: Adult supervision at all times is a must with this recipe as Borax is toxic. Check the comments for other non-toxic alternatives.
Original recipe from Whitfield’s Home in the Country.
Did you do something fun and frugal as a family today? If you blogged about it, I’d love for you to leave a link to your blog post below. Or, you can just tell us what you did in the comments.
Head on over to QueenBee Coupons to see how she creatively scored $110 in free groceries from her garage sale proceeds and chicken coop purchases.
I’ve been wanting to try making homemade window cleaner for awhile, so when I discovered we were completely out of it, I knew the day had come!
This stuff is so simple to make — and it really works. I put it to the test on our grimy, fingerprint-laden sliding glass door and it totally passed with flying colors.
Now my question is: why have I waited this long to try making my own window cleaner?? I certainly will never be able to justify paying even a $1 per bottle for Windex again when this is so easy to make, works so well, and is so inexpensive!
By the way, this does smell a little like vinegar, but I think that the essential oil helps to tone down the vinegar-y smell. If you try this recipe and you don’t think it works very well, there are two other homemade window cleaner recipes on The Family Homestead site.
Combine all ingredients in a plastic spray bottle. Shake well before using. Use like Windex on glass and mirrors.
Note: I was concerned it might only work if you used a paper towel to wipe the glass surfaces. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked well when wiped with a cloth, so I can use it without having to buy paper towels!
Recipe from How Does She.
Have you made your own window cleaner before? If so, what recipe did you use and do you think it works well?
I’ve been hinting around that I’m starting a new series/challenge here this week and it’s finally time for the “big reveal”! 🙂
We’ve done 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home and 4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer so far this year. Those challenges were great, but they required quite a bit of time and effort many days (or maybe that should be all of the days??).
I wanted to do a challenge for summer, but I wanted to keep it simple and fun. So, we’re going to focus on being intentional about family fun for the next four weeks.
I’m always on the lookout for things we can do as a family that don’t involve a lot of prep work, don’t cost a lot of money, and are a lot of fun. Based upon the emails I’m receiving, I’m not alone in this quest.
For the next four weeks (beginning June 15 through July 13), I’ll be sharing a fun and frugal activity that we do every weekday as a family. I’ll be taking pictures and sharing how-tos (like the Homemade Puffy Paint tutorial from last week).
And I’d love to have you join us by blogging about a fun activity you do as a family each week day. The activity can be as simple or as complex as you’d like to make it and it can be for any age. The only requirements are that it is inexpensive, fun, and family-friendly.
I can’t wait to be inspired by all your ideas!
I’ll be back tomorrow evening around 5 p.m. EST with a post on our frugal and fun activity for the day along with a link-up for you to share your posts, too!
If any of you are doubting whether signing up for freebies is worth it or not, take a look at what I’ve gotten in my mailbox over the last two weeks:
Tresemme Shampoo and Conditioner samples
2012 Women’s Health Calendar
BB Cream
Garnier Fructis Shampoo and Conditioner samples
Coupon for a free Oscar Mayer Selections product
Hyland’s Cough & Cold Syrup
Eye Liner and Body Wash from Trymbl.com
Goof Off! sample and coupon
Free Bottle of Old Orchard Juice coupon
Arm & Hammer Toothpaste sample
Clif Bar
Tampax Gift Bag with free samples and coupons
Want to start having fun freebies fill up your mailbox, too? Just start signing up for the freebies I post which interest you and within 4-6 weeks, you should start seeing them arrive!
We checked out A Chair for My Mother from the library last week (based upon a recommendation from Read for the Heart) and really loved this book.
It’s the simple story of a grandmother, mother, and daughter who lost everything in a house fire. They began rebuilding their lives piece by piece, dreaming of the day when they would be able to afford a nice plush chair to sit in and relax at the end of the day.
They started saving for the chair penny by penny, nickel by nickel, and quarter by quarter. Each day, they would deposit any extra coins they could scrounge up from a long day’s work into a big glass jar. Slowly ever so slowly, all of those coins added up to enough to pay cash for a beautiful new chair.
This book depicts the rewards of hard work, sacrifice, and paying cash — an almost lost art in this day and age. And it would be an excellent springboard for a discussion on many topics related to finances, work ethic, simple living, and contentment.
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?
