Saving Families Money Since 2007
It was so fun to get to meet a group of you all last week when I was in Texas. Thank you to those of you who made the drive to come and for all the fun stories and wise advice you shared. I left inspired, blessed, and encouraged.
And for those who didn’t get to attend, I thought you’d enjoy seeing a photo of all the lovely ladies (and babies!) who came. Truly a beautiful group–and I could have spent hours with you all!
A big thank you to Stephanie for hosting this event at her house!
Guest post from Lisa of About Proximity
In ten years of marriage, surprise bills have inevitably come up. Not only are these taxing on finances, they sometimes are very time consuming and life disrupting. A sampling of our surprises:
While working on overhauling our finances this year we realized many of these bills might have been avoided had we done better preventative maintenance. While sometimes these extra bills are unavoidable, we set a goal to have intentional preventative maintenance in our home. Here’s the calendar we follow:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Weekly
Ongoing
Lisa Van Engen is a freelance writer from Holland, MI. Her family seeks to be good stewards of the gifts God has given them. Lisa writes at About Proximity about placing yourself in the proximity of renewal.
I mentioned awhile back that we’d implemented a paid chore chart system for the girls. They have chores that they do just as being part of our family and then extra chores that they can elect to do and get paid for.
Kathrynne, being the entrepreneurial type that she is, has really gotten excited about the whole paid chore phenomenon–especially since she has her eye on some specific items at Target that she wants to buy. She often does multiple paid chores each day and keeps a running tally of how many more paid chores she needs to complete in order to earn enough to buy what’s on her wish list.
I love the real-life learning that is taking place through the paid chore chart system. The girls are learning that, if you apply yourself and work hard, you reap rewards. Conversely, if you choose to play instead of doing paid chores, you won’t earn any money and therefore won’t have any money to buy anything when we go shopping. It also significantly cuts down on whining and keeps things simple: if you don’t have money or you didn’t bring your money, you don’t get to buy anything.
While earning money in real-life isn’t always as simple as completing more chores on a chart, the girls are still learning so many valuable lessons with regards to handling money. And the neatest thing has been to see how they are working together as a team–sharing payment for chores when they help each other out and pooling their money to buy different things.
Today, the girls had earned enough to buy a small LEGO set. While we were perusing the aisles to decide which one to buy, I was so excited to find a text offer for MEGA BLOKS — if you text EASTER to TARGET you’ll get a text coupon back for 50% off any MEGA BLOKS set. So we were able to use this coupon on the Hello Kitty Playhouse Set to get it for just $17!
We also scored some amazing game deals. I rarely ever buy games, but we love to play them as a family and when we have guests over. At these prices, I couldn’t resist!
Target Shopping Trip
4 8-oz. blocks of cheese — $1.89 each, used 2 $1/2 Target coupons = $1.39 each after coupons
1 Up & Up Baby Wash — $1.52, used $1/1 Up & Up Body Wash coupon = $0.52 after coupon
1 Scrabble Simon or Yahtzee Flash — $15, Used
$5/1 Target printable coupon, stacked with $5/1 Scrabble Flash, Simon Flash, Yahtzee Flash printable = $5 after coupons (plus got free Hasbro card game with purchase)1 Candyland game — $7.79, used the
$3/1 Candyland Target Coupon, stacked with the $3/1 Printable Candyland coupon = $1.79 after coupons1 Electronic Monopoly Game — $15, Used
$5/1 Target printable coupon, stacked with $5/1 Monopoly game printable = $5 after coupons (plus got free Hasbro card game with purchase)1 Hello Kitty Mega Bloks Set — $33.24 — used text coupon (text EASTER to TARGET) to get 50% off = $16.62 after text coupon
Total with tax: $38.01 (my receipt says I saved $82.73!)
Joanna emailed in the following tip:
I used to buy those drinkable yogurts for my babies. My older daughter loved them so much and would drink all four bottles in one sitting if I’d let her. Those organic drinkable yogurts are expensive and I just couldn’t stomach spending that much on them.
My father, born in Europe, came from a family where my grandmother made just about everything from scratch. As I was complaining to my father about how expensive those drinkable yogurts were, he suggested I just make them.
I don’t know why I didn’t think about it, they are actually so easy to make. You just take any yogurt and add water, little by little, to get it to the consistency you want. I usually whisk it with a fork to get it to blend well.
It works great and my kiddos love it!
Today’s question is from Julie:
What bread machine would you recommend?
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
My friend, Angie, and I split a 25-pound bag of organic carrots from Azure Standard last week. It was only $10 for my share, so a pretty good deal for quality organic carrots.
Now the fun has just been figuring out how to use them up!
I came across this Carrot Fries recipe on Pinterest and knew I had to try it.
It was so simple to make. You just wash the carrots.
Peel and chop off the ends.
And then slice them into “fries”.
Coat with olive oil and salt and bake them on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for around 30-45 minutes, until a little browned and crispy.
Enjoy!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and peel carrots. Chop off the ends and slice into “fries”.
Put in a bowl and stir in olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Stir until well coated.
Spread onto a baking sheet and stick in the oven. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until a little browned and crispy. Enjoy!
Makes 2-3 servings.
Guest post from Nancy of Blessed Earth
A few years ago, I gave a talk on simple living, and a man in the back of the room asked, “Are you Amish or something?”
Although I arrived in a Prius, not a pony, I do believe that the Amish hold many answers to both our budgetary and planetary woes. Frugality and conservation overlap about 90 percent of the time. When we conserve resources, we also save money.
About a decade ago, motivated by a desire for a more sustainable lifestyle, my family and I moved from our doctor’s sized house to a home the size of our old garage—eventually reducing our electricity to one-tenth the national average and our fossil fuel usage by two-thirds.
We did not make all these changes at once: for most of us, going green while saving green is a gradual journey. Try doing ten percent better each year — or changing one habit each month and watch the savings add up.
1. Make your own nontoxic cleaning products. Have fun! Host a laundry detergent-making party.
Possible Savings = $100
2. Dry clothes on the line. If my teenage daughter can dry her clothes in a dorm room, you can do it, too! Do laundry in cold water. Wash clothes by hand instead of dry cleaning.
Possible Savings = $210
3. Buy second hand clothes. Nearly all the clothes I wear are hand-me-downs or from consignment shops/GoodWill. Remember to dress in layers—climate control your body, not your entire home.
Possible Savings = $250-$1000
4. Borrow and buy used. Look for toys and sports equipment from yard sales and Craigslist. Visit library book sales, share toys and sports equipment with neighbors, and post items on www.freecycle.org
Possible Savings = $150
5. Reduce your refrigerator/freezer usage. Stop refrigerator gazing; turn refrigerator to warmest setting; unplug ice maker. Save more: Unplug your second refrigerator. Keep a list on the refrigerator of things you need so you can combine trips.
Possible Savings = $160
6. Stop buying drinks. Drink filtered tap water instead of bottled water. Make your own coffee at home instead of buying carryout coffee.
Possible Savings = $310
7. Don’t buy disposables. Stop buying disposable plates, cups, and utensils.
One small church did the research and figured out they could feed four families for a year if they used real plates instead of paper. The men in the church volunteered to wash all the dishes for the first year! Save more: Invest in cloth napkins and re-usable lunch containers.
Possible Savings = $50
8. Cook from scratch. Cook meals at home instead of eating in restaurants. Start a garden, purchase food in season, and avoid convenience foods.
Possible Savings = $1050
9. Install low-flow shower-heads and reduce shower time by two minutes.
Possible Savings = $130
10. Don’t run water while shaving or brushing teeth and stop buying disposable razors.
Possible Savings = $70
11. Buy tree-free toilet paper in bulk from an office supply store.
Possible Savings = $30
12. Adjust your thermostat. Turn up your thermostat three degrees in summer and down three degrees in winter. Use programmable thermostat to adjust temperature an additional 10-15 degrees at night and when not at home.
Possible Savings = $200
13. Switch your light bulbs. Switch to CFL bulbs — 75 percent more efficient — like getting 100 mpg instead of 25 mpg! Bonus: When summer comes, the A/C won’t be fighting the heat. (Ninety percent of energy of incandescent bulbs goes toward heat rather than light.)
Possible Savings = $210
14. Reduce electronic usage. Use power strips for TV, computers, and audio. Always completely shut down lights and equipment when leaving the room.
Possible Savings = $140
15. Insert a fireplace balloon or close damper when not in use.
Possible Savings = $200
16. Share or eliminate subscriptions. Share newspaper or magazine subscriptions with a neighbor. Save even more: read news on-line and get magazines from the library.
Possible Savings = $260
17. Recycle used printer cartridges, electronics, and cell phones. Buy refilled ink cartridges, and save more.
Possible Savings = $25+
18. Insulate hot water pipes and water heater.
Possible Savings = $120
19. Caulk around windows and doors. If you can’t afford to replace windows, make heavy, lined curtains; close at night in winter and open windows on cool summer evening.
Possible Savings = $100
20. Go on a spending fast. Register with www.dmachoice.org to remove your name from mailing lists and go on a spending fast one week or month.
Possible Savings = $600
Nancy Sleeth is co-founder of the nonprofit, Blessed Earth, and author of Almost Amish: one woman’s quest for a slower, simpler, more sustainable life (Tyndale, April 2012)
When I came back from Texas last week, I found this list that Kathrynne had written out for herself to accomplish the day I was gone. She’s since started writing a list for what she needs/wants to accomplish each day (with a little help from me to make sure all her chores and homework projects make it on the list, too!).
I’ve been amazed at how motivated she’s been by having a list to check off every day. Hmm, I wouldn’t know where she gets that from! 🙂
My husband was just shaking his head when I showed Kathrynne’s list to him. I’m pretty sure he was thinking, “Oh no, not another Type A woman in this house!” 😉
If you’re short on time and energy, but you want to cut your grocery bill, take advantage of price-matching at Walmart.
Instead of running around to three different stores to get the best deals at each of those stores, just circle the best deals in the sale ads at each of those stores and take the ads to Walmart and they’ll match the price.
It’s simple and easy to do–and can save you a lot of time and money. According to Walmart’s price-matching policy, you don’t even need to bring in the competitor’s ad. However, I usually do, just in case there’s any question as to the advertised deal.
One word of caution: if you’re tempted to buy things you don’t need when you run into Walmart for groceries you might find that price-matching doesn’t save you money since you fill your cart with other things you weren’t planning to buy. If that is a weakness of yours, you might be better off just sticking with shopping at your local grocery stores.
For more information on how to price-match at Walmart, check out my video blog.
Find more Supermarket Savings Tips here.
Last night’s grocery shopping trip is a prime example of why you should always plan a grocery list before heading to the store…
Jesse stopped at Dillon’s last night to pick up a few things so we could grill out. He didn’t have a list and I hadn’t gone over the ad much, but I thought the Pace Salsa was supposed to be $0.99 per jar after the Mega Event discount, so I told him to pick up 10 jars. After he got home, I realized that they were $1.49 each after the Mega Event discount.
He misread the signs on the Vitamin Water/Tea and didn’t realize he had to buy in multiples of 10 to get the Mega Event discount, so instead of getting those for $0.50 each, he paid $1 each.
We had grocery money left for March and he’s gotten plenty of great deals through the years {and hey, he was kind enough to stop by the store!} so it really wasn’t a big deal.
{He told me to just tell you all that he screwed up on the shopping trip. But it was partially my fault for not reading the ad more carefully, so I take half the blame for the screwed up shopping trip! Instead of being frustrated, we both just decided to laugh about it–life’s too short to get frustrated over the little things, anyway!}
Here’s what he ended up buying:
2.11 lbs. bananas — $0.93
2.14 lbs. bananas — $0.95
Gold Peak Tea — $1.38 (not shown)
4 bottles of Vitamin water — $1 each (not shown)
10 jars of Pace salsa — $1.49 each
Green leaf lettuce — $1.89/head (not shown)
Hamburger Buns — $3.35
5 ears of corn — $2
Tomatoes — $3.19Total with tax: $34.97
In more positive grocery shopping news, I stopped by the health food store today and picked up some apples and pears that were $0.99 per pound. I love it when I can find beautiful fruit for $0.99/lb. or less!
Earlier this month, I posed the question, Is Your Family On Board?. Your answers were kind of a “mixed bag” but many of you responded that it was difficult to get your family members to meet your organizing expectations.
So today, I’m excited to read Andrea’s tips to get our families “on board” when it comes to keeping our homes organized.
In my own family and in my experience helping many families to get {and stay} more organized, there is usually one person in the family who is more organized than everyone else.
If that one person is you, I know how frustrating it can be to get your family on board with your cleaning and organizing standards. But it’s not impossible! Yes, it might take a decent amount of effort on your part, but the results will be worth it once you are no longer doing all the work around the house.
Here are a few things to think about as you encourage your family to “get on board”.
This might go without saying, but if you expect your family to put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher, hang their clothes in the closet, put their papers away, and clean up after themselves; you will first have to do these things yourself.
Your kids aren’t going to eat vegetables if you refuse to eat them; so why would you expect them to be neat and organized if you are a complete slob?
Before you even venture down through the rest of these steps, make sure you are willing to do everything you’re asking your family members to do… otherwise I can guarantee it won’t work!
I learned very early on that unless I ask for something to get done, it probably won’t. Even if the clothes are folded and sitting at the end of the bed, your kids might not realize that the clothes should be put away — unless you ask them to do it.
If your family members aren’t naturally clean and organized, their brains don’t constantly think “what can I do next” — so we need to ask them {and make sure to ask nicely!}
If your family members have never had to fold their clothes, clean the bathroom, or load the dishwasher, there’s a pretty good chance they won’t intuitively know how to do it. So after you ask them to do it, show them how to do it — especially if you have a specific way of doing it.
If you like the socks folded a certain way — show them. If you want the dishwasher loaded in a specific way — show them. If you want them to unload their backpacks into a specified location — show them.
And yes, you might have to show them more than once, but just keep at it! Over time, and with persistence on your part, these things will become second nature.
One of the main reasons to get your family on board is to alleviate some of your responsibilities and the need to do everything around your house, right? So once you’ve asked them to do something and showed them how to do it, then back off and let them do it!
I realize that your children might not fold the laundry as nicely as you would or clean the bathroom as thoroughly as you would, but at least they’re doing it. Once you know they are capable of doing what you ask, don’t hoover around, watching to make sure they do it perfectly.
If they do mess up a little, it’s okay to correct them after the fact, or “remind” them of how they should be doing it; however, they won’t learn unless you actually let them do it on their own.
No, I don’t think every chore has to be fun — but I do think that by making some of these organizing chores a little more fun, your family will be much more likely to participate.
If you want your children to put their dirty laundry in the clothes basket instead of on the floor, try putting the clothes basket under a basketball hoop so they can “shoot” their clothes into the hamper! Or encourage family members to keep the bathroom neat and organized by letting each person pick out a brightly colored bin to store their items in.
I’m also not above giving rewards for a job well done. Encourage your children to get rid of 25 toys by allowing them to pick one new toy or let them have a special treat or do something fun once they’ve accomplished their chores.
I know we don’t always get thanked or praised every time we clean and organize something around our house, but I’ve witnessed first hand that a simple “thank-you” goes a long way when you’re trying to get your family on board.
By implementing these simple tips, there’s a good chance that {over time} your family members will “get on board” with your organizing efforts and thus, alleviate some of your responsibilities. Yes, I realize some of you might be thinking these steps could never work — but would it hurt to at least give them a try?
At the very least, you’ll give your family a taste of what you do every day, and hopefully teach them a few new skills in the process!
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Andrea Dekker is a wife, mom, blogger, organizer, speaker, and founder of Simple Organized Living. Her goal is to motivate and encourage others to “create their best life” through simplicity and organization. |
Inspired by the recent post on DaveRamsey.com on 7 Things You Should Splurge On, I thought it’d be fun to come up with my own list that’s the opposite–namely, 7 things we don’t buy.
These are not items that we get free with coupons; these are items we just don’t buy altogether. It might not save us thousands of dollars each year to not buy these, but it definitely saves us a few hundred dollars–painlessly!
Just for fun, here’s my list of 7 things we don’t buy:
Shaving Cream
For years, I’ve only “purchased” shaving cream for myself if it was free or almost-free. I’ve found that a good lathering of soap does just as good of a job–and it’s less expensive, too.
Since making my own homemade soap, my husband has stopped using shaving cream, too. He says that my soap works great, instead!
Paper Towels
We do keep a few rolls of paper towels on hand in the basement pantry for guests, but otherwise, we don’t use paper towels. Rags work just as well–or better!–and you can just stick them in the washer when you’re finished. Or, if it was a really icky mess, you can always just toss the rag when you’re done.
Soda Pop
We’ve saved a lot of money over the years by not paying for the empty calories and sugar in soda pop. My husband still enjoys a Vanilla Coke from Sonic every now and then, but we don’t keep soda pop on hand at our house (except for the occasional 7Up or Ginger Ale we’ll buy when in the middle of sickness).
Movies
In all our years of marriage, I cannot recall a time that we’ve ever paid to purchase a movie to add to our small DVD collection. We’ve rented a lot from RedBox and Blockbuster kiosks (usually with free rental codes!) and we checked out dozens upon dozens of movies from the library, but we don’t buy movies.
In the same vein, going to a movie at a theater is usually a once a year event for our family–typically when a really high-quality movie comes out that we want to support at the box office. Considering that reduced priced movie tickets typically cost at least $6 each, we’d be spending at least $360 per year on movie tickets for our family if we went and saw a movie once a month.
Dryer Sheets/Fabric Softener
Growing up, we never used dryer sheets or fabric softener, so I’ve carried this tradition on in our home, too. Sure, we have a bit more static sometimes, but truthfully, it’s something we hardly ever notice.
Coffee Filters/K-Cups
I’m a one-big-cup-a-day girl when it comes to coffee, but we don’t purchase coffee filters or K-Cups. Instead, we use a French Press. It makes fantastic coffee, we can make the exact amount we need, and we don’t have to buy anything other than coffee to refill it!
Cable TV
We’ve never had cable TV and we’ve saved thousands of dollars over the years, as a result. There’s occasionally a time when my husband has wished he could watch a sports event or a time when we’ve wished we could watch political coverage, but overall, we’ve survived just fine without cable TV.
Now, please know that I’m not saying it’s wrong to buy any of these things. Your family might need (or want!) to purchase some of these things for one reason or another. That’s absolutely okay! Do what works for your family.
However, I thought it’d be fun to share my list to hopefully inspire you to consider if there are simple things you’re currently paying for that you could easily eliminate from your budget. Plus, I thought it’d be fun to hear what items your family doesn’t buy so that our family could be inspired to consider some other ways of simplifying in our home, too!
What 7 (or more!) items does your family not buy? I’d love to hear and be inspired!
kojo-designs.com shows you how to make a gorgeous coffee table out of reclaimed wood.
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.
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a new Busy Bag idea, but here’s a new idea I came up with today. Well, I’m not sure how “new” it is since it is really basic and uses stuff you probably already have on hand, but it definitely kept Silas occupied and having fun for awhile during our morning homeschooling time.
Of course, it also made a bit of a mess, too. But that’s kind of par for the course with my life right now. 🙂
I gave him a little tub of beads, a small baby spoon, and a muffin tin and egg carton. He had a lot of fun scooping up the beads and transferring them from the tub to the muffin tin to the egg carton.
Variations:
::You could have a child use pinchers of some sort to pick up the beads and put them in the muffin tin or egg carton.
::You could use other objects, such as rice, noodles, pom-poms, beans, or other similar objects.
::You could tape a number to the bottom of each muffin tin hole and your child could have to put the designated number of beads in each hole.
::If using colored beads or pom-poms, you could have the child sort by color.
Other Simple Toddler Activities:
Water Scooping and Pouring
Pool Noodle Stringing
Pom Pom Stuff It In
More Busy Bag Ideas
Have a product your family loves and uses often? Take a few moments to shoot an email to the manufacturer through their contact form, tell them how much you enjoy their products, and ask if they can send you any coupons they have available.
Be polite, be concise, and be sure to include your mailing address. It only takes a minute or two, it costs you nothing, and the worst thing that can happen is that the company doesn’t respond or writes back to say that they don’t offer coupons.
But more often than not, companies will send high-value coupons or even coupons for free products–all because you took the time to ask!
Have you ever written to ask a company for coupons? If so, what was the response?
Find more Supermarket Savings Tips here.