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Shared Jan 30, 2012 comment

This week’s {mostly} gluten-free menu

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 30, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Silas helping me make juice–he loves fresh juice and has been begging for me to make it every morning!

You may have noticed that we’re been experimenting with some gluten-free recipes at our house. One of our children has been experiencing some health issues and they are currently on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet for three weeks to see if it clears things up.

The rest of our family is adapting our diet somewhat, too, to make it easier for this child. It’s a new adventure and we’ll see how it goes! By the way, if you have any fantastic gluten-free recipes or websites you’d recommend, I’m all ears.

Here’s this week’s menu:

Breakfasts

Granola Bars
Fresh carrot/orange juice, scrambled eggs
Green Monster Smoothie
Chocolate Peanut Granola
Oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins
Cereal
Wheat-Free Pancakes, fruit

Lunches

Lunch at friends’ house
Macaroni & cheese, peas
PB&J on rice cakes, carrot sticks, apple slices
Refried beans, rice, carrot sticks
Soup, carrot sticks, fruit
Leftovers x 2

Snacks

Healthy Chocolate Mousse
Fruit/Veggies
Black Bean Brownies

Dinners

Steak, potatoes, broccoli, fruit
Black Bean & Taco Bake, tossed salad
Hamburgers, tater tots, steamed veggies
Frito Chili Pie, fruit, brown rice
Dinner out
Dinner with extended family x 2

Freezer Cooking

Black Bean Brownies
Wheat-Free Pancakes
Frito Chili Pie

What’s on your menu this week? Share details and/or your link to your menu plan in the comments.

Shared Jan 30, 2012 comment

The Real Debate: Cash vs. Credit Cards

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 30, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Kathryn of Bond Musings

Discipline is a noble thing. Crystal strives for it. The Proverbs 31 woman is lauded because of her discipline. Succesful people everywhere credit their success to discipline.

So when I was reading the comments on this post about saving money by switching to cash and one reader commented that the real issue was not which spending system is the most effective but was rather why we tend to lack discipline and overspend, I knew she hit the nail on the head.

Yes, discipline is what keeps us from overspending our income.

Crystal has a whole slew of ways to increase your top line/income. Here are a few ways to decrease your bottom line/spending as well.

1. Shop less frequently.

Make a menu for the week with a corresponding grocery list. Stick to that, and don’t go to the grocery store more than once or twice a week. The fewer times you walk through that store’s doors, the less likely you are to impulse buy.

2. Take a break from the deal sites.

This is a hard one, but if you are running out of money by the end of the week/month, you must stop reading about all of the great deals out there so you’re not tempted to buy something you don’t really have the money for.

3. Find a spending system that works for YOU.

Many people spend more money when they use cash because there is no accountability. Others say that they spend like crazy if they use debit or credit cards but that cash puts the brakes on their spending. Honestly evaluate your spending habits and determine where you find more accountability in spending.

4. Clean out your house.

This may seem non sequitor, but hear me out. When you go through your entire house and become intimately knowledgeable about what you have, you realize how much you don’t need.

For me, I am totally set on things like scarves and travel mugs, for which there are numerous deals this time of year. Disciplining yourself to clean out your house can save not only your sanity but also your pocketbook.

5. Make some things yourself.

Homemade cleaners and detergents cost pennies on the dollar compared to even the best deals you could find on the cleaning aisles at the store. Making bagels and English muffins at home is far easier than I thought and costs just a fraction of the store’s prices.

This homemade facewash (that works so well!) cost less than six dollars to make and will last more than a year. All of those recipes take only a few minutes (less time than it would take to run to the store for them!) and will save you money.

The bottom line of our bottom lines really does center on discipline. If you are already disciplined in your spending, I applaud you. However, if you have some room for improvement in this area (like me!), add just one of the above suggestions to your spending habits, and watch more of your money stay right where it should, in your bank account!

For me, switching to cash was a huge help, as is staying away from the deal sites when I run low on cash. For you, you may find that cleaning out your house reveals not only a source of income in the form of a garage sale but also saves you from spending money on items you already have.

Many thanks to the inspiring readers who commented on the post about switching to cash— Money Saving Mom® really does have the best and brightest readers on the Internet! Together, pursuing discipline and saving money can be easy!

Kathryn keeps her hands busy during the day as a stay-at-home mother to two precious girls. She attempts to occupy her mind as well by reading and by blogging at Bond Musings.

photo credit

Shared Jan 30, 2012 comment

10 Weekly Goals

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 30, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Last week’s goals:

Family/Mothering Goals

~~1. Finish reading The Boxcar Children aloud to the children.~~

2. Take Kathrynne out on a mother-daughter date for her birthday. {We had to move this from Saturday to today due to some unexpected things that came up.}

~~3. Take the children to an indoor play area for Kathrynne’s birthday.~~

Personal Goals

~~4. Finish Loving the Little Years and finish listening to the Developing the Leader Within You audiobook.~~

~~5. Complete week 3 of the Couch to 5K program.~~

Home Management

~~6. Put together two weeks of pages for my Project Life album.~~

7. Finish knitting the Squidge dishcloth. {I would have finished this, but I accidentally left my knitting at my family’s house on Sunday & didn’t get it until today!}

~~8. Make Homemade Hair Detangler.~~

Business Goals

9. Finish writing an article for AllYou.com.

~~10. Put together photos and talking points for my appearance on the 700 Club.~~

This week’s goals:

Family/Mothering Goals

1. Finish reading In Grandma’s Attic aloud to the children.

2. Take Kathrynne out on a mother-daughter date for her birthday. {We had to move this from Saturday to today due to some unexpected things that came up.}

3. Write a love note to Jesse.

Personal Goals

4. Finish reading Try Giving Yourself Away, Blue Like Playdough, and Against All Odds.

5. Complete week 4 of the Couch to 5K program.

Home Management

6. Finish two more weeks of pages for my Project Life album.

7. Finish knitting the Squidge dishcloth.

8. Make Homemade Rice Milk.

Business Goals

9. Finish writing an article for AllYou.com and MomLifeToday.com.

10. Fly to VA to appear on the 700 Club (this is supposed to air live on Thursday morning, for those who have asked. And yes, this is way, way out of my comfort zone, so if you happen to catch the show, you’ll have to overlook the fact that I’ll likely be shaking like a leaf!)

photo credit

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.

Shared Jan 29, 2012 comment

A Peek Into Our Week

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 29, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

My dad got free tickets for a basketball game, so we took all of the children last Saturday evening.

It was a great game–especially since our team won by an onslaught!–and we all had fun!

For Kathrynne’s birthday, I took the children to an indoor play place with inflatable slides and trampolines.

We’d been before when they’d offered a Groupon deal and Kathrynne said this was the one thing she really was hoping to do for her birthday.

They all had a blast!

Birthday cake at Grandma & Grandpa’s house–I can’t believe she seven now!

The girls are continuing to love their ice skating lessons–and they were excited to have me join them in the free skate time today.

So that’s a little peek into our week. Did anything exciting or interesting happen at your house this past week?

Shared Jan 28, 2012 comment

How to Save Money as a Working Mom

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 28, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Melanie of Only A Breath

As a busy, full-time working mom, I often see countless great ideas for saving money. However, many of these ideas can be time and labor intensive, and I need a simple plan for saving money. I simply don’t have the time necessary to research ads, clip coupons from multiple sources, or visit more than one grocery store each week.

If you are a working mom like me, don’t despair! It is possible – and even enjoyable! – to save money as a working mom. All it takes is FOCUS!

F – Form a plan!

Create a meal plan, grocery list, and organize the grocery list by store “section” to make shopping as fast as possible!
Shop alone. Grocery shopping with children can be challenging and much slower than shopping alone. Examine your schedule to see if you can shop during your lunch break or before you pick up the kids in the afternoon.
Stick with the plan! Resist the urge to add extras to the cart.

O – Online shopping

Shopping online saves me both time and money! It is very easy to compare prices online and is much faster than driving to multiple stores.
Coupon codes are readily available for most online stores. Never buy online without first “googling” for a coupon code!
Amazon Prime has been a good option for our family because it allows us to watch movies online, rent Kindle books, and have free shipping on all items.

C – Use CASH when Shopping

Using cash rather than credit cards allows you to more easily keep track of what you are spending, and track spending in your budget.
If you’ve never made a budget, set aside time to make one today!

U – Utilize a Few Key Fashion Pieces

To cut down on costs for your “work” wardrobe, examine your closet and “remix” items to create new outfits from what you already own.
When you do buy clothing, buy only a few key pieces of clothing that have multiple functions. For example:

A nice sweater or blouse can pair with dress pants for work or a nice skirt for church.

A sleeveless silk shell looks great alone in the summer, or layered under a cardigan or jacket in the fall and spring.

Dark-washed jeans in a trouser cut look dressy when paired with heels, but also look great at school functions when worn with cute flats.

S – Skip Eating Out at Lunch

Eating lunch out every day at work can be an expensive habit.
If the average lunch costs $7.50 each day, that adds up to $37.50 per week, $150 per month, or $1800 per year!
Packed lunches are inexpensive and generally healthier than fast food!

As you can see, the savings really do add up over time!

Melanie is a full-time industrial software developer and mom of two boys. She lives in the beautiful Appalachian mountains with her husband and children and writes at Only A Breath about faith, giveaways, family, budgeting, and resources and encouragement for women.

photo credit

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Shared Jan 28, 2012 comment

Super Savings Saturday: Aldi, Target, and Farm-Fresh Eggs

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 28, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

This week, I got back in the saddle a little bit when it comes to grocery shopping–and it felt good to be using coupons and shopping at more than one store again! It was nice to take a break for Christmas and the book launch, but I’ve missed it!

Here’s what we bought:

Target: Spent $14.79 — see the full price breakdown and coupon deals here.

Aldi (didn’t get a picture–sorry!): Tortillas — $0.99, Cheese blocks (8-oz) — $1.99 each, Artisan Lettuce — $1.99, Grape tomatoes — $0.89, Butter — $2.29, 2 gallons of milk — $2.88 each, Bananas — $1.35, Cauliflower — $1.69, Bag of apples — $2.99 = Total: $24.06

I also bought three dozen farm-fresh eggs from my brother for $6.

Total spent on groceries this week: $44.85

Would you like to know what the best deals and coupon match-ups are for your local stores? Be sure to check out the Store Deals section of our site where we post the best deals and coupon match-ups each week for over 100 different stores across the country. You can sign up to receive the top deals in your email inbox each week as soon as they are posted!

Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave you r link below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.

Shared Jan 27, 2012 comment

Freezer Cooking in an Hour: Beef and Black Bean Taco Bake, Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread, & Chocolate Peanut Granola

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 27, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I got a little adventuresome with my Freezer Cooking in an Hour plan for this week and chose three brand-new recipes to make. Here’s the play-by-play:

4:20 p.m. — After a busy morning and early afternoon, Silas went down for a late nap and Kathrynne and Kaitlynn turned on some Adventures in Odyssey CDs to listen to while they built with LEGOs. I took advantage of the quiet and pulled out the meat to start cooking for the Beef and Black Bean Taco Bake.

4:25 p.m. — While the beef was cooking, I turned on the Developing the Leader Within You audiobook and I put together the rest of the ingredients for the Beef and Bean Taco Bake.

4:30 p.m. — I doubled the recipe and quickly realized I had picked the wrong bowl to mix everything up in. I somehow managed to get everything mixed up in the bowl, though, and then divided the ingredients into three dishes to stick in the freezer. I keep stopping to write down quotes from the Developing the Leader Within You audiobook–it’s very good!

4:50 p.m. — The Beef & Black Bean Taco Bake is finally finished and I start whipping up the Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread recipe. My assistant comes upstairs to go over a few things before she heads home. Jesse calls and we talk about our plans for the evening and how our afternoons went.

5:00 p.m. — The audiobook is finished, so I go ahead and download February’s audiobook–The Go-Getter–and start listening to that. I quickly finish the banana bread and put it in the oven and start in on the Chocolate Peanut Granola.

5:10 p.m. — The girls are having an argument, so I go to talk to them and help them resolve their issues. As I leave their room, I hear Silas stirring in his bed. I get him up and give him a snack. And then I set out to finish the granola.

5:15 p.m. — I end up substituting some things on the granola recipe since I don’t have peanuts (I use cashews instead) or sunflower seeds (I replaced those with coconut flakes and wheat germ).

5:25 p.m. — The granola is finally finished and ready to pop into the oven. Time to clean up the kitchen! I’m so thankful that it was a calm and mishap-free freezer cooking session. Those seem to be quite a rarity around here.

As an added bonus, all three recipes turned out well! The banana bread didn’t quite look as pretty as the original recipe (maybe because I used all whole wheat flour?), but it still tasted yummy!

Did you bake or cook anything to freeze this week? I’d love to hear about it and see a link to your recipe(s), if you have one.

Shared Jan 27, 2012 comment

January’s Update: Goals for 2012

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 27, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

In early January, I shared about my Goals for 2012 and promised an update at the end of the month. I was so encouraged in going through this list to realize the progress I’d made on my goals, even though it was a whirlwind month with lots of new things and new challenges with my husband’s business and my book launch.

It’s amazing how mapping out a plan and then being intentional to chip away at it bit by bit can really start to add up to some significant progress! Here’s my goal list with updates in brackets next to each goal item that I/we made some progress on:

Personal
Read through the Bible in a year. {I’ve finished all the reading up to today–yay!}
Read through the 24 books on my 2012 booklist. {Finished both books on my January list + 1 on my February list!}
Listen to 12 audiobooks. {Working on finishing listening to January’s audiobook.}
Run in at least one 5K race. {Almost finished with week 3 of Couch to 5K program.}
Complete the Couch to 10K program.
Tackle 12 Do-It-Yourself Projects. {I made Homemade Detangler this week.}
Focus on one habit per month. {Making some headway on January’s goal. Not as much as I’d hoped, but I’m trying at least!}
Learn to use my new DSLR camera (huge surprise Christmas present from Jesse!!) & improve my photography skills.
Take at least one photo a day and put together a page every week for my Project Life album. {I almost have the first 3 weeks of January done.}
Memorize Colossians using the plan and free download here. {I’ve almost memorized the first four verses, so I’m a little behind, but I’m hoping to catch up in the next two weeks.}

Marriage
Go on the Love Like You Mean It Cruise.
Go on two Marriage Retreats (overnight trips sans children for planning, talking, goal accountability).
Have monthly date nights. {We’ve had 3 dates in January so far!}
Read four books together. {We’ve read a few pages of one book together so I guess that counts for something!}
Read at least 3 books on marriage.

Children/Homeschooling
Continue regular dates/outings with each of the children individually. {I took each of the children on individual dates in January.}
Continue Grace and Truth memory book. {The children have memorized five verses plus two verses of one hymn this month.}
Ice-skating lessons for all three children. {Started these two weeks ago.}
Swimming lessons for all three children.
Finish second grade, begin third grade with Kathrynne. {Plugging away at this!}
Finish kindergarten, begin first grade with Kaitlynn. {Plugging away at this}
Start preschool with Silas.
Go on at least one field trip every month. {We went on one field trip this month.}
Go on at least one family vacation.
Finish at least 15 read-aloud books. {We’ve almost finished two read-aloud books in January.}

Ministry/Friendships/Extended Family
Write at least two handwritten notes every month to encourage someone. {I wrote & mailed three handwritten notes this month.}
Continue being involved in our local church, homeschool group, young couple’s group, and blogging accountability group. {Ongoing}
Continue with weekly get-togethers with both sides of our extended family. {Ongoing}

Business/Blogging
Continue to take Sundays off from blogging/business work. {Ongoing}
Continue keeping strict Office Hours for the business/blogging time each day. {Working on this–making a tiny bit of progress!}
Switch to a paperless planning system. {This is going well for me, though I’ve decided I’m probably never going to be 100% paperless for all things.}
Follow my weekly blogging plan. {I didn’t do this perfectly in January, but I adhered to it pretty closely.}
Plan blog posts out at least a month in advance. {Not quite there, but I’m at least being much more intentional with my blogging this year than I’ve ever been before!}
Write and schedule blog posts at least a week in advance. {Making some headway with this, though I’m far from where I want to be!}

Financial
Continue to tithe 10% of our income. {Ongoing}
Give generously to needs in our community and around the world, as God prompts us. {Ongoing}
Pay cash for a new-to-us vehicle to replace our family’s van. {We were able to set aside a good amount toward this goal this month. Our van continues to have a number of issues, so I’m happy we decided to have this goal this year–instead of waiting a few more years.}
Finish saving for and purchase a rental property with cash. {We were able to set aside some for this in January.}

How Are You Doing on Your Goals for 2012?

If you’ve posted goals for 2012, I’d love for you to post an update on how things are going and share your link in the comments (Mr. Linky is refusing to let me add the HTML to this post for some reason!). Let’s encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!

Shared Jan 27, 2012 comment

Good Reads: Loving the Little Years

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 27, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I really enjoyed Loving the Little Years. It’s not a book with lots of practical, hands-on advice, but it’s a book the deals with the heart issues we moms face.

I didn’t agree with the author on all points (I’m not really sure that I ever do, though!) and think we have to be careful when reading parenting books because what works for one family or one child isn’t necessarily what will or should work for another family or child. That said, I was convicted, and inspired by Loving the Little Years.

It made me really step back and re-examine my own heart and how I am responding to and discipling my children on a daily basis. Sometimes, it’s easier (in the moment) to just slap band-aids and quick fixes onto behavior and attitude issues, instead of really taking the time to deal with the heart issues and struggles our children are facing.

Loving the Little Years challenges moms to really delve down to the heart of the matter. As the author says, “The state of your heart is the state of your home.”

Have you read any good books recently?

Shared Jan 27, 2012 comment

Join an online Book Club!

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 27, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Are you interested in reading through The Money Saving Mom®’s Budget with others and sharing insights, tips, struggles, and victories along the way? There are two online book clubs currently:

Amy Bayliss is hosting a live online 1o-week book club on Tuesdays at 12 EST. If you can’t attend the online live event, you can watch the recordings later. To sign up, just enter your email address at the sign up form here.

Amy’s Finer Things is hosting a book club on her blog and Facebook Page–going chapter-by-chapter through the book and giving suggested assignments and asking discussion questions. You can read her first post here. Be sure to subscribe to her blog for updates and discussion questions and follow along on her Facebook Page for more discussions and accountability.

Also, be sure to check out Amanda’s post on what she gleaned from chapter one and how she’s practically implementing it into her own life.

OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!

Click here to download!

Shared Jan 27, 2012 comment

Taking two hours to research a warranty saved me $275!

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 27, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I loved this email from Bethany:

My car was recently due for inspection. After the inspection, they told me I needed four new tires — something I hadn’t expected. I opted not to immediately get tires and do a little research first since I knew my tires didn’t have many miles on them and were less than two years old.

I found the receipt from my previous tire purchase less than two years ago and the warranty that came with the tires. The warranty stated that the tires I had purchased should last 40,000 miles with proper maintenance.

At this point it had only been 20,000 miles, so I decided to discuss this issue with the tire company. They informed me I would need to show proof of proper tire maintenance – which I had – and that they would be able to credit me back half the cost of the original tires.

This gave me a $275 credit towards a new set of tires!

Before I started following Money Saving Mom® I would have simply purchased new tires without even thinking to contact the tire company. This extra research took maybe 1-2 hours… and saved me $275. I’ll take a job where I can make $137.50 per hour any day!

So remember…

We have warranties for a reason: it is because the company believes the product will last beyond some set point and when it doesn’t the consumer has the right to recuperate any loss from the product.

Proper record keeping and proper maintenance are the key to being able to recuperate lost cost when something doesn’t hold up as it should have.

Saving money is more than coupons — there are many other ways to keep our hard-earned cash in our pockets.

Bethany is currently finishing up her MBA and was encouraged by her husband’s job loss more than two years ago (he is since re-employed) and her desire to go back to school to find ways to save money everywhere possible.

photo credit

Shared Jan 26, 2012 comment

Do-It-Yourself Experiment: Homemade Hair Detangler

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 26, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Both of my daughters have wavy hair. I love it, but it’s taken some getting used to–especially since I have pretty near straw straight hair. We’ve purchased numerous products over the years: curl spray, frizz spray, gels, and lots of detangling spray.

Because of this, I was quite excited when I saw that you could make your own homemade hair detangler with just conditioner and water. I don’t know why the thought never crossed my mind before, but I’m grateful to have stumbled upon this blog post describing how to make it.

And after reading the simple instructions, I wondered why on earth I’d ever let myself actually pay for hair detangler when I could be making my own for pennies?! It’s kind of like the light-bulb moment I had when I discovered how simple it was to make homemade foaming soap.

At any rate, now that I know how easy it is, I’ll never go back to buying hair detangler again.

Here’s how to make it:

Homemade Hair Detangler

1. Squirt a teaspoon dollop of conditioner into a spray bottle (if using a smaller spray bottle like I show above, use a half teaspoon.) This is the perfect way to make use of some of those free shampoo/conditioner samples you can often sign up for. There’s about a teaspoon or two in each packet.

2. Fill the bottle with warm water and shake vigorously for about 30 seconds until conditioner is well mixed with the water.

3. Spay on wet or dry hair to help remove tangles.

And that’s it, folks. See? I told you it was super simple!

Shared Jan 26, 2012 comment

Gluten-Free Garbanzo Bean Blondies

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 26, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

So, I saw a recipe for Garbanzo Bean Blondies on Pinterest the other day. I just happened to have all of the ingredients and found the idea so intriguing that I whipped some up after dinner last night.

My children were all confused as to why I was blending up garbanzo beans in the VitaMix. In fact, Silas (2 1/2) saw me dump them in and immediately hollered out, “Ewwww!”

But no one turned up their noses at the finished result. They were different than a typical blondie–not quite as sweet and a bit of a different texture. But they were yummy, especially for being gluten-free and fairly healthful.

Have you tried any interesting recipes recently? I’d love to hear about it!

Shared Jan 26, 2012 comment

We Paid Cash: A Freezer

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 26, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

A testimony from Christina who blogs at Youthful Homemaker

I love freezer cooking. When we were newly married, my husband was amazed at how much I used the freezer. It quickly became apparent that the freezer attached to the refrigerator was too small, so our first major purchase as a married couple was a small chest freezer.

A few years later, we still used the little chest freezer daily, but we decided to change the way we bought meat. Instead of paying a premium at the grocery store, we bought a portion of a whole cow and kept it in our freezer.

This saved us hundreds of dollars, but meant we had little to no space in the freezer for other meals. So we made the decision to buy a new, bigger freezer and began saving for it immediately.

We tightened our budget by doing several little things, but they really added up:

We used coupons: I absolutely love to coupon and actually enjoyed trying to save ourselves even more money than the usual coupon savings.

We cut out expensive foods: Energy drinks and soda can really add up, so cutting these out of our budget really helped lower our grocery budget.

We cut our restaurant budget in half: Our restaurant budget had been around $80 a month, however, we decided to cut it in half and use out Restaurant.com gift certificates I got for free from Swagbucks to eat out without spending a lot.

We cut back on utilities: Lowering our electricity bill was where we saved the most money, and was by far the easiest thing we did.

It was not always fun to not be on a tighter budget than usual, but it was not as bad as we thought. Ultimately, it was a blessing because we learned (yet again) that we can usually find fun alternatives to our less-frugal habits.

In the end, we didn’t even use the money we’d saved to buy a freezer. My husband and I are college students and I had spent a lot of time applying for scholarships and grants. During the fall semester in 2010, we were blessed to have a lot more grants and scholarships than we expected.

It was very tempting for us to spend money on luxuries because we had been living on a ‘beans and rice, rice and beans’ budget. We did end up spending some money to pamper ourselves, but we used most of the money to buy an inexpensive freezer. My husband visited some of our local scratch-and-dent stores and found a commercial-grade freezer for only a quarter of its retail value!

It was a huge blessing to have a freezer paid for with the time I spent applying for scholarships. We put the money we had originally saved by cutting some areas in our budget toward our emergency fund.

Christina Wong is a young wife who writes a blog about no-drama homemaking on a budget. She loves finding ways to save money and live as frugally as possible, while still having fun. You can read more of her adventures in homemaking on her website Youthful Homemaker.

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

Shared Jan 25, 2012 comment

Do-It-Yourself Experiment: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 25, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Hundreds of you have raved about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I bought the book months ago, read it in Spring, and have since been trying out making the bread recipes.

The concept is simple: you take a few minutes to mix up some ingredients. You don’t knead the bread and instead let it rest for at least a few hours and then you can refrigerate it for up to two weeks to have fresh Artisan Bread with less than five minutes’ worth of work at any given time.

Truthfully, I was confused over the directions when I read the book the first time. I read and re-read the first chapter to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do with the dough once I made it.

I finally came across Mandy’s video (above) on how to make artisan bread and it all became much more clear. {Yes, I’m a visual learner if there ever was one!}

The bread was extremely easy to make, just like you all have been telling me. However, the first batch was way, way too salty. I followed the directions carefully and was quite disappointed in how it turned out. {Edit: I did use table salt instead of kosher salt the first time around and I’m guessing that could have been much of the issue.}

It looked beautiful, but it tasted gross. So gross, in fact, that I threw out the baked bread and the rest of the dough. And I was rather discouraged about the whole thing. This bread was supposed to revolutionize my baking. Instead, I threw it out. Um, that’s not exactly what I was envisioning with this recipe.

But then I read online where someone suggested cutting the salt in half. I did that and it was a lot better.

(Note: I didn’t use a baking stone (I don’t have one) or the steam method on these loaves. I think that’s why they look undercooked, even though I baked them the full amount of time. I’m going to keep experimenting and am hoping I can land on the perfect amazing bread you all keep talking about!)

I have yet to dub Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day as the next best thing to sliced bread and I won’t be making it exclusively as I have a number of other bread recipes I really love, but I think the concept is fascinating, the bread is undeniably easy to make, and it’s definitely a recipe I’ll be adding to our regular bread recipes line-up.

Have you tried the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Recipe? If so, I’d love to hear what you thought of it! (And feel feel to chime in on suggestions for me on what I’m doing wrong and how I can improve! I really want to make the beautiful loaves that the book pictures!)

Coming up tomorrow: My Homemade Detangler experiment.

Summer Bucket List

Summer Bucket List

FREE Summer Bucket List!!

Breakfasts

Lunches

Snacks

Dinners

Freezer Cooking

1. Shop less frequently.

2. Take a break from the deal sites.

3. Find a spending system that works for YOU.

4. Clean out your house.

5. Make some things yourself.

F – Form a plan!

O – Online shopping

C – Use CASH when Shopping

U – Utilize a Few Key Fashion Pieces

S – Skip Eating Out at Lunch

WANT TO SAVE $100 FAST?!Join the FREE 14-Day Savings Challenge!

How Are You Doing on Your Goals for 2012?

OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!

This gave me a $275 credit towards a new set of tires!

So remember…

Homemade Hair Detangler

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