Saving Families Money Since 2007
Today’s questions is from Darice:
Does anyone hang their laundry inside during the winter? I am looking to minimize our use of the dryer this winter to cut back on our
electricity usage and would appreciate any techniques, tips or tricks you may have for drying your laundry inside without a dryer. Thanks! – Darice
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
The Pinchers & Pom-Poms from our Busy Bag Swap has been a fun way to practice fine motor skills.
The Busy Bag that came in our swap had pom-poms, colored paper clips, and tongs. You should be able to get all of these items at the dollar store, if you don’t already have them on hand. Or, you can improvise using things you have.
The object of the Busy Bag is to use the pinchers to pick up the pom-poms and paper clips. I had Kaitlynn put them in a bowl. You could have a child sort them in piles by color. Or count out a certain number of objects.
Kaitlynn also enjoyed trying to pick up the pom-poms with the paper clips.
Find more Busy Bag ideas here.
So this Aldi shopping trip wasn’t as exciting as my Dillon’s shopping trip, but I here are the details:
Artisan Lettuce — $1.99 (I’m so happy to see Aldi carrying this and I hope they continue! It makes my salad-eating habit much more affordable!)
2 cans of diced tomatoes — $0.55 each
2 bags of frozen peas — $0.99 each
2 bags of corn chips — $0.99 each
2 bags of baby carrots — $0.99 each
1 bag of tortillas — $0.99
1 bag of chocolate chips — $1.69
2 8-oz. blocks of cheese — $1.99 each
Butter — $2.79
Feta cheese — $1.99
Dried cranberries — $1.39
Milk — $2.93
Total with tax: $26.60
It’s been awhile since I’ve had a really spectacular coupon-shopping trip. So I was pretty excited about tonight’s trip! Here’s what I bought:
2 boxes of Triscuits — $2.29 each, used $2/1 printable coupons = $0.29 each
2 Yoplait yogurts — $0.70 each, used $0.30/1 printable coupons (doubled) = $0.10 each
2 Schick Quattro razor packages — $3.50 each, used 2 $5/1 Ladies’ Quattro printable coupon = free plus overage
1 Schick Hydro Men’s razor — $6.29, used $5/1 Hydro printable coupon = $1.29 after coupon
2 Schick Quattro & Men’s Schick Xtreme razor — $3.16 & $3.50 each, used $6/2 printable coupon = $0.66 total for both
1 package Skittles — used free coupon
3 DOLE products — used 3 free coupons that Coupon Pro generously mailed me a few weeks ago
2 Clif LUNA bars — $1 each, used 2 $0.50/1 coupons (doubled) = free after coupons
1 Excedrin — $3.13, used $2/1 coupon (this printed at checkout the last time my husband went shopping) = $1.13 after coupon
Beech-Nut product — used free coupon
Before coupons and sales, my total was $58.18. After coupons and sales + a $5 catalina, the store owed me $0.73. I could have added on a small filler item, but I just decided to let the store have the small overage since I’d gotten overage myself already.
Just a little peek at some of the simple things from our day today…
Read-alouds and coloring pages (we’re studying Paul Revere in history and The Nutcracker Ballet in music this week)
Making Hasty Pudding for breakfast since we’re learning the words and story behind Yankee Doodle this week. (We all thought it tasted terrible, by the way!)
My yummy salad for lunch (I’ve been making an effort to eat at least one big salad every day since I feel so much better when I do!)
A fun Busy Bag (details and more pictures on this Busy Bag coming tomorrow!)
A bowl of cereal, thanks to some samples we got in the mail from FiberPlus–a big treat around here as I rarely buy cereal anymore.
Guest post by Alice from Farewell Office
When buying my son’s school uniforms, I often lament, “Why can’t I have a uniform, too?” Working in a professional environment can strain the clothing budget, but you can be well-dressed without spending a lot of money. Here are some rules I follow:
Buying clothes at discount stores is rarely cheaper in the long term. After repeated washings, a pair of $15.00 slacks will rarely look presentable for more than one season. Instead it is more cost effective to put that $15.00 towards a pair of quality slacks that will last for many seasons.
By shopping sales (especially clearance) and using coupons, a pair of good quality slacks rarely costs much more. Also, do not disqualify garage sales and thrift stores. You would be astonished at the stylish, high-quality clothes people throw out.
Stick to neutrals and simple styles. Stay away from skinny or wide leg cuts that will be out of style long before the item wears out.
Unless you live in a climate that is below freezing or scorching 11 months out of the year, you will get more wear out of season-less fabrics such as polyester/rayon/spandex blends. Also, I rarely buy long-sleeved shirts or sweaters.
One exception is cardigans. You will get more mileage from layering your pieces. For example, you can wear a short-sleeved shirt alone in the summer and then layer it under a cardigans in the winter.
Buy a skirt and blouse instead of a dress. This will create more combination outfits, giving you the appearance of a larger wardrobe.
This allows you to cheaply change your look.
If you only wear it one season, you won’t have wasted much.
Many of them send out coupons and paired with sales, high quality items rarely cost more discount store items.
Some stores offer discounts on certain days of the week, and certain retailers offer discounts to certain professions. For example, several stores offer additional discounts to teachers.
Be kind to your salespeople and they will gladly give you inside information like, “We make markdowns on Tuesday.” You then know that, if possible, you want to shop on Wednesday morning for the best selection.
Change your clothes when you get home from work and always wash in a high quality detergent. Finally, hang dry your clothes as the dryer’s heat breaks down the fibers prematurely.
Dressing well and professionally on a budget is possible; you simply need to be a savvy and resourceful shopper.
Alice is a wife and mother, who also works full-time outside of the home. Her goal is to do all work “as unto the Lord.” Her blog Farewell, Office chronicles her journey to do all of this on a time-budget.
Oatmeal with chocolate chips and raw sugar–yum!
Breakfasts
Granola bars
Oatmeal
Hasty Pudding (we’re memorizing Yankee Doodle in school this week, so we’re making this!)
Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins (from the freezer), fried eggs
Steel Cut Oats, fruit
Morning Glory Muffins (from the freezer), scrambled eggs
Homemade Biscuits with Homemade Apple Butter, turkey sausage, scrambled eggsLunches
Macaroni & Cheese with Beef
Rice and beans, carrot sticks, apple slices
Tossed salad with feta cheese and dried cranberries
Egg salad sandwiches, carrot sticks, apples
Cheese quesadillas, grapes
Leftovers x 2Dinners
Parmesan Chicken, Twice Baked Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli
Frito Chili Pie, tossed salad, fruit salad
Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup, Soft Italian Breadsticks, apples, carrot sticks
Cheesy Beans and Rice, fruit salad
Dinner with Extended Family x 2
Dinner outFreezer Cooking Session (I’ll share more details and pictures on how this goes on Thursday.)
Chocolate Banana Bread
Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup
Soft Italian Breadsticks (recipe emailed in from reader Amy, if it turns out well, I’ll post it)
What’s on your menu this week? Share details and/or your link to your menu plan in the comments.
I’m continuing to intentionally seek to slow down and relish the simple things.
Pictures printed out from the internet and carefully colored by little hands to send to a small girl who lives far away and has very little in the way of earthly possessions.
Have you taken time from the rat-race of life to soak up and enjoy some simple things? I loved this post by Gretchen on not looking at the clock.
Well, last week I told you that I’d completely fallen off the bandwagon. This past week was much better. Not anywhere near where I’d like it to be, but sometimes I think I tend to have unrealistic expectations of myself.
I went to bed before midnight every night but Saturday night and I got up before 7 a.m. every morning but Sunday morning. That’s headway, at least.
And our homeschooling schedule went really well, we accomplished a lot fun projects and reading together, and I spent a lot more time playing with and just enjoying my children last week. That’s likely one thousand times more important than the other things that didn’t get crossed off the to-do list!
So I’m trying to just be thankful for the progress made and not be discouraged that I still have a very long way to go. Babysteps, babysteps, right? 🙂
Last week’s goals:
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Finish reading The Cabin Faced West and Sarah Witcher’s Story aloud to the children.
2. Take the children to the pumpkin patchand the corn maze (Yay for Groupons!).Personal Goals
3. Run 10 miles (total).
4. Finish reading Angel in the Rubble and A New Kind of Normal.Still working on EntreLeadership, The Rose Conspiracy, He Heard Hannah,5. Finish Rag Quilt and knitted dishcloth.
6. Go to bed by 10 p.m. every night. (If I follow through with this simple goal, my whole week should be incredibly improved!)
Home Management Goals
7. Spend 10 minutes picking up/cleaning our bedroom/bathroom every day (I’ve really been working with the children on keeping their room/bathroom cleaned and I realized that I’ve not been setting the best example for them!).8. Do one load of laundry from start to finish every day.
Business Goals
9. Shoot video for 31 Weeks to a Better Grocery Budget series.
10. Outline our workshop for the Relevant conference with my husband.
The knitted dishcloth I’m working on this week
Here are this week’s goals:
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Finish reading Paul Revere and The Imagination Station: Showdown With the Shepherd aloud to the children.
2. Take children to a soccer game.
3. Take at least 30 pictures of the children this week (I’ve been trying to train myself to take more pictures; I always seem to forget and then we miss having photos of some of our most special moments and memories!)
Personal Goals
4. Run 10 miles (total).
5. Finish reading EntreLeadership, The Rose Conspiracy, He Heard Hannah, Kisses from Katie, and In Search of Balance.
6. Finish Rag Quilt and knitted dishcloth.
7. Go to bed by 10:30 p.m. every night.
Home Management Goals
8. Follow this 15-minutes-a-day cleaning schedule (this is an experiment to see if this works any better than my current system!)
9. Do one load of laundry from start to finish every day.
Business Goals
10. Finish writing and do a run-through of our workshop the Relevant conference with my husband.
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.
As many of you know, I love scarves and think they are one of the best accessories for a minimalist wardrobe in the cooler months.
My friend, Angie, knows this and sent me this video with 25 ways to tie a scarf. I found at least 10 new scarf-tying ideas from it and thought I’d share it for those of you looking for new ways to creatively accessorize using scarves you already have!
These easy baked apple chips are an awesome healthy snack your family will love — save this recipe for the next time you find marked-down apples at the store or your local orchard!
After buying 18 pounds of apples two weeks ago and another 20 pounds this week, I was excited to see this recipe for Baked Apple Chips.
Since I don’t have an apple corer, I decided to cut the apples in half, cut out the core, and then slice them thinly.
And then I found out I didn’t have any cinnamon on hand (how did that happen?!), so I sprinkled one pan with nutmeg and cloves and left one pan unsprinkled. I stuck them in the oven at 275 degrees. After around an hour, I pulled the pans out and stirred them and then put them back in to bake for another hour.
They turned out a little on the chewy side. If you wanted them to be crispier, you could leave them to bake for another 20-30 minutes and then let them cool completely before eating or storing.
The final result was yummy apple chips that didn’t last longer than 24 hours. The whole family was impressed and enjoyed them.
I stored those that weren’t eaten right away in a ziptop bag in the refrigerator, I think these would also freeze nicely, but I didn’t get a chance to try that before they were all eaten up!
By the way, we preferred the unsprinkled chips to those with spices.
If you’d like to try them, head on over to Delighted Momma and give them a try!
(Today’s apple project was making homemade applesauce and apple butter. I’ll share pictures and more details on how that went on Monday! By the way, I cracked up that LEGOs ended up in this picture–they seem to be taking over our house!)
Many of you have asked me to share reviews of the books I read. I used to do this on a monthly basis, but I decided it might be simpler for me to start doing this on a weekly basis instead. So, each Friday, I’ll be sharing a little synopsis of the books I’ve read that week.
A New Kind of Normal by Carol Kent — After reading When I Lay My Isaac Down, I wanted to read this follow-up book. It has some overlap from When I Law My Isaac Down, but also a lot of new material and tells more of the continuing story of her son’s imprisonment.
Carol’s testimony of trust in the Lord even in the midst of very traumatic circumstances was such an encouragement to me. After reading her story and the other stories in the book, I feel like I never have anything to complain about.
I appreciated the author’s raw honesty. She doesn’t act like she has it altogether, but shares very openly about the struggles and how God has been faithful. This book would especially be a great source of comfort to those who have had very difficult life-altering situations come into their life.
Angel in the Rubble — This was an interesting read of a woman who was the last survivor to be pulled out of the rubble 24 hours after the twin towers fell. The story is riveting and I made the mistake of starting this shortly before bedtime one night and then stayed until until 11:30 p.m. reading it (I know, I know, I really should read boring books before bed so that I fall right to sleep and stick with my goal of going to bed early!).
I would recommend the book as it’s a good read and it’s always helpful to consider if we’re living our lives in a way that we would want to live if we were to die today. However, I will mention that the last few chapters felt like they were just stuck in to make the book long enough to be a book. Or, maybe I was just tired at that point? At any rate, I ended up skimming those. I checked this out from the library so hopefully your library has it, too.
The Cabin Faced West — This is the story of Ann, a pioneer girl who is struggling to be content in her new home in the wilderness. The children and I really enjoyed this read-aloud and it provided opportunities to talk about being content and how blessed we are with our modern conveniences.
Sarah Witcher’s Story — The children were mesmerized by this story, even though we’ve already read it in the The Bear Who Heard Crying.
Currently reading: EntreLeadership, He Heard Hannah, The Rose Conspiracy, and listening to Purple Cow audiobook. You can see all of the books I’ve read in 2011 so far here. Read all of my book reviews here.
Have you read any good books recently?
(Note: The Amazon.com links in this post are affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.)
A testimony from Lacey
I am Lacey, a fresh nursing graduate with about 10 cents in my pocket. Jason and I have three amazing kids: Abigaile (7), Jacob (2), and Chase (1). Throughout our years together we have suffered many setbacks–including both of us losing our jobs (our income being cut by 80%, thanks to this) and a setback with school, graduation from school, and an additional pregnancy.
Thanks to MoneySavingMom.com, I’m aiming to better our lives financially. This has meant using coupons at every turn, sticking to that wonderful grocery budget, shopping ahead (which my husband thought was crazy, until he saw it on your blog!) paying cash, and even doing without.
The concept of paying cash has always been foreign to me. It only took me a bankruptcy to realize that maybe my sanity was worth more than those material possessions. I’ve been trying to pass my new-found wisdom onto my daughter by setting her up with a savings jar so that she too can see what progress she has made towards her goal.
We recently took on a paper route to supplement our income. We set up a price per day for my daughter’s assistance and told her that paycheck is hers to do what she wants with. Plus, as an added incentive, we promised we would assist her in buying whatever she wanted. She chose to buy a 4-wheeler.
I’m proud to say that after three weeks of saving her paper route money, along with a successful yard sale, we were able to raise $500 that she could use towards the purchase of her 4-wheeler. We looked on CraigsList.com and found a 4-wheeler that looked suitable for a 7-year-old. After a trip to see it and some haggling by Jason, we were able to purchase a new to us 4-wheeler for just $200!
This experience has left not only myself but my entire family much more excited about our financial future: not only do we have a paid-for 4-wheeler, we’ve got $300 and nothing left to pay!
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
