Have an old filing cabinet collecting dust in your garage or basement? Design Sponge shows you how to turn it into a Filing Cabinet Planter.
(If you want more detailed instructions on how to do this, I found some here.)
Summer Bucket List
Classic View
Grid View
Making the Most of Your Ebook Purchases
Guest post by Jessica Fisher, aka FishMama at Good (Cheap) Eats and Life As Mom
Should you buy that ebook that sounds like the answer to all your problems? Ever bought an ebook that you never read once your Paypal transaction was complete? Find yourself lamenting over an ebook purchase because it wasn’t what you expected?
Just as you weigh the pros and cons of a physical book purchase, so should you consider how to make the most of the ebooks you buy.
What’s an Ebook?
Ebook is simply short for “electronic book.” They are digital documents that you download directly to your computer or other reading device, to be read at your leisure, electronically.
Ebooks are quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of the written word. They have been an easy and economical method of self-publishing for years, but are now hitting the mainstream as major book publishers offer digital versions of their hardcover books.
What are the benefits?
Ebooks are:
::Green — No tree needs give its life for you to own an ebook. The purchase is completely digital.
::Instant — Once you purchase an ebook, you should be able to download it almost instantly, quicker than you can say, “Amazon Prime.”
::Often free of tax or shipping charges.
::Inexpensive — In general they are not as expensive as the cover price of a hardcover book. Sometimes, the seller even offers them at a discount or even free.
::Often offer customizable options, or other digital features, like links to further online reading, something unavailable in a physical book.
What’s the catch?
::You won’t get any mail.
::You have to print it yourself if you want a hard copy.
::You don’t get to preview more than a few pages of the book. It’s not quite the same as perusing a book at length in a cozy armchair at Barnes & Noble.
::You don’t have a physical product to return if you don’t like it.
How can you make ebooks work for you?
1. Research carefully. If you find an ebook that you’re interested in purchasing, ask questions of the seller, peruse their table of contents, inquire of friends who’ve purchased. Ask as many questions as you need to in order to feel like it’s the right purchase for you. Determine the refund policy if you want your money back if it’s a disappointment.
2. Save locally. Unfortunately, an ebook is much easier to lose than a hard copy book. Make sure that you save the document before you close the screen.
3. Store strategically. Create a folder on your computer, specifically for storing ebooks that you are going to read.
4. Make a plan to read. The book does you no good if it sits on your hard drive unread.
What techniques do YOU use to make ebooks worth it for you?
Jessica Fisher, aka FishMama, regularly writes about parenting hacks on Life As Mom and shares delicious ways to act your wage at Good (Cheap) Eats. She has written several ebooks, including Organizing Life as MOM , and owns quite a few unread ones on her hard drive. She will read them — eventually.
Repurposing Duplos into beginning spelling/reading aids
I love this idea for re-purposing duplos into beginning spelling and reading aids. What a great idea!
Shared Jun 12, 2011
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Today’s Walmart shopping trip: My first big price-matching attempt (Super Savings Saturday)
Today’s Walmart shopping trip: My first big price-matching attempt (Super Savings Saturday)
So I’ve been price-matching bananas on occasion at Walmart, but I’ve never done any price-matching besides that. However, because so many of you suggested I try it after repeatedly being disappointed in the fruit selection available at Aldi, I finally worked up the courage to try it today.
Guess what? It was easy-peasy! And I’m wondering why I took so many years to try doing this. I’m hooked!
Here’s what I bought:
Walmart Shopping Trip
Suave Professionals — used free coupon
5 packages of strawberries — price-matched to Aldi $0.99 each price
Watermelon — price-matched to Aldi $2.99 price
Gain dish detergent — $0.97, used $1/1 coupon from the P&G Solutions coupon booklet = free
Spic & Span — $0.97 each, used $1/2 coupon from Coupons.com (no longer available) = $0.47 each
KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce — $1.42 each, used $1/1 coupons = $0.42 each after coupons
3 packages blueberries — price-matched to Aldi $1.49 each price
3 Sugar & Spice Yarn — $0.50 each (these were in a big clearance bin)
Grapes — bought two pounds and price-matched to Aldi’s price of $0.89/lb.
Just My Size tank — $5, used $5/1 May All You magazine coupon = free
Ivory Soap — $0.97, used $1/1 coupon from the May P&G insert = free
My total after coupons was $19.70.
How I Price-Matched
Walmart says you don’t need to bring in an ad, but I brought the Aldi ad with me just to make things go more smoothly — and so I didn’t have to remember all the different sale prices!
I split my order up on the belt and had the non-price-match items go through first and then handed the cashier the ad and asked her to price-match the remaining items on the belt with the prices listed on the Aldi ad.
It was a very simple process and I have no idea why it made me nervous to try this! Best of all, the produce was better and the selection was leaps better than Aldi.
THANK YOU to each of you who suggested I try this. I can’t believe it’s taken me all these years to figure out how easy this is. I’ll definitely be adding this to my arsenal of money-saving/time-saving things to do!
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 your 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 Jun 11, 2011
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Dillon’s and Health Food Store Shopping Trip (and a question about cream of tartar)
Dillon’s and Health Food Store Shopping Trip (and a question about cream of tartar)
I finally went to the health food store after weeks of not making it there. I was going to be driving right by, so I stopped in and found a few deals. I’m always excited to find marked down organic yogurt for our smoothies. Yum!
And then I stopped by Dillon’s. I meant to price-match the beef hot dogs when I was at Walmart but completely forgot even though it was on my grocery list (where is my brain these days?!) so I just stopped at Dillon’s on the way home. I also wanted to check on the price of cream of tartar since I needed to buy some to add to the Homemade Baking Mix. It was $1 less than Walmart’s price so I went ahead and got some and also picked up a few other things while I was there.
Dillon’s Shopping Trip
2 packages Hebrew National beef hot dogs — $2.50 each
Cream of Tartar — $3.79
Red-Taped Bananas — $0.29/lb = $0.56
5 Luna bars — $1.09, used 5 $0.50/1 coupons (doubled) = $0.09 each
2 containers of Blackberries — $1 each
Butter — $2.50 (This is more than I usually pay, but I didn’t want to make a special trip to Aldi for it just to save $0.50. But, this is an instance where I didn’t do a good job of buying ahead so I had to paid more than my target price for this because we’re out of butter.)
My total, after coupons, was $15.53.
Anyone Know Where to Get the Best Price on Cream of Tartar?
I’ve not purchased cream of tartar in ages, so I have no idea what a good price is on it. Does anyone know? Also, where do you get the best price on it? I was really surprised it was so expensive so I thought I’d ask here to see if anyone had a great source for it. Thanks!
Monthly Financial Check-up
Our Family’s Financial Goals for the Summer of 2010 through December 2011
1. Significantly increase our giving to needs in our community and around the world. This is an ongoing goal, so we’re keeping it uncrossed off from the list.
2. Pay cash for a replacement washer and dryer for our very used set.
3. Pay cash for a replacement for Old Blue Van.
4. Pay cash for a couch for our basement family room.
5. Pay cash for bunk beds for the girls.
6. Fully fund our IRAs.
7. Bump up our retirement savings to 10% of our income.8. Fund our children’s educational savings. Kathrynne’s is funded and we made some good headway on Kaitlynn’s this month. We hope to have both Silas and Kaitlynn’s funds done by July or August. We’ll see!
9. Double our Emergency Fund Savings (Instead of having around six month’s worth of expenses set aside, we’re planning to set aside a year’s worth of expenses.)
10. Save 40% towards our real estate investing goal.
We’d love to hear about your recent financial goals and successes! You can post about it on your blog and leave your link in the comments. Or, just share about your progress/goals in the comments. Let’s all keep each other accountable to be better stewards of our resources!
Shared Jun 9, 2011
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Freezer Cooking in an Hour: Baking Mix, Asian BBQ Chicken, Baked Oatmeal
Freezer Cooking in an Hour: Baking Mix, Asian BBQ Chicken, Baked Oatmeal
We had friends over for lunch and part of the afternoon yesterday, so by the time we got our afternoon chores and projects done, it was almost 5:30 p.m. when I finally started doing my Freezer Cooking in an Hour session.
5:30 — Open my laptop tabs to the recipes, turn on Josh Groban on iTunes and start making the Amish Baked Oatmeal. Go to melt the butter in the microwave and hear loud popping noises coming from the coils or something at the top of the microwave. Decide to forgo the microwave idea lest I catch the kitchen on fire and instead use the stovetop.
5:35 — Oatmeal is almost done and the children are already getting antsy. Give them a pre-dinner snack and hope it won’t ruin their dinner, try to remember to be calm and patient (!) and get back to work.
5:45 — Jesse calls and is on his way home from work. Must hurry so the kitchen isn’t a disaster and dinner is finished by the time he comes home. Stick the tilapia and vegetables in the oven to bake for dinner. Finish the oatmeal and start the Asian Barbecue Chicken.
5:55 — Ouch! Squeezing lime juice is not fun when you have dry, cracked hands (remind me to use lotion after washing the dishes; I always seem to forget and then pay for it later!).
6:00 — Two bags of chicken are done. The noise level in the house is rising. Must pick up the pace. Measure out the flour that I ground earlier in the day while our friends were visiting. Realize I am out of cream of tartar. Oh well. I can add it in later.
6:15 — Finally done — in less than an hour! Tidy up the kitchen quickly, pull out dinner and Jesse walks in the door — perfect timing!
The final results of my 45 minutes’ worth of work:
4 bags of Homemade Baking Mix
2 pans of Amish Baked Oatmeal
2 meal’s worth of Asian Barbecue Chicken
Homemade Baking Mix Recipe
If you’d like to transition your kitchen to more from-scratch foods, this recipe for homemade baking mix is a great place to start. It’s just as quick and easy as using Bisquick, but with better ingredients!
Doreen emailed me her baking mix recipe almost a year ago and I’ve had it in my file ever since to try.
I finally got around to making it during my Freezer Cooking In an Hour session this week.
It’s SO simple!
It was so simple to whip up and I’m excited to see how it works. I’ll be posting four different recipes using this mix in the next few weeks as I try them. In the mean time, here’s the baking mix recipe:
Baking Mix Ingredients
- 10 cups flour (I used freshly ground whole wheat, but Doreen suggested doing half white and half whole-wheat.)
- 8 Tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 1/4 cup powdered milk
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 1/4 cup sugar or turbinado
- 2 1/4 cup coconut oil or shortening
How to Make Homemade Baking Mix
1. In a very large bowl, mix all dry ingredients.
2. Cut in shortening or cold coconut oil until you have fine crumbs.
3. Store in a tightly covered container in a cool place (if you use freshly-ground flour, store in the freezer).
Use in place of Bisquick for any of your favorite recipes!
Recipe
Homemade Baking Mix
Ingredients
- 10 cups flour
- 8 Tablespoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 1/4 cup powdered milk
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 1/4 cup sugar or turbinado
- 2 1/4 cup coconut oil or shortening
Instructions
- In a very large bowl, mix all dry ingredients.
- Cut in shortening or cold coconut oil until you have fine crumbs.
- Store in a tightly covered container in a cool place (if you use freshly-ground flour, store in the freezer).
- Use in place of Bisquick for any of your favorite recipes!
Love this recipe?
Make sure to share and save it on your favorite platform below!
FREE 50+ Easy and Cheap Breakfast Ideas!!
Mornings just got so much easier with this FREE list of 50+ Easy & Cheap Breakfast Ideas for Busy Weekday Mornings!
Do-It-Yourself: Bread Machine Bagels
My one attempt at homemade bagels a few years ago flopped miserably. But Carmen from Life Blessons has inspired me to try again with her post on Homemade Bread Machine Bagels.
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.
Homemade Natural Bug Spray
OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!
Click here to download!
Shared Jun 8, 2011
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How To Make Money Blogging: 10 Ways to Build & Increase Your Readership (Part 1)
How To Make Money Blogging: 10 Ways to Build & Increase Your Readership (Part 1)
1. Produce consistent, quality content.
People visit a blog more often if they know they can count on it being updated regularly. Consistently commit to post at least three times each week and you’ll be well on your way to building your readership.
2. Make it very simple for people to subscribe.
If someone subscribes to your blog’s feed or email newsletter, they are much more likely to remember about your blog on a regular basis. Plus, they are less likely to unsubscribe once they’ve taken the effort to sign up.
Make it very obvious where and how to subscribe on your blog’s sidebar and occasionally remind your readers of the ease and benefits of subscribing (giving a little something away as a reward for subscribing doesn’t hurt, either!)
3. Comment on other blogs.
A great way to encourage people to check out your own blog is to leave interesting comments on other blogs. If people like your comment, they are very likely to click on your name and wander over to your blog.
Please do make sure your comment adds value to the discussion, though. Don’t just say “great post!” and then leave your link. Comments that sound like an infomercial for your blog or that serve no purpose other than to try and get people to click over to your blog are not something bloggers or blog readers appreciate.
Amy has some great tips on how to effectively make use of your time when commenting on other blogs.
4. Write guest posts.
Many, many blogs (including this one!) readily accept well-written, relevant guest posts and it’s one of the most effective ways to introduce your blog and your writing style to a new audience. As an added benefit, if the blog you guest post for has a lot of traffic and ranks high in search engines, having a link or two to your blog on that blog will increase your search engine rankings, too.
When submitting a guest post, make sure that it follows that blog’s guest post guidelines and carefully proof-read it before you send it (you wouldn’t believe how many guest posts submissions we receive that are riddled with glaring typos!). If it gets rejected, don’t take it personally (I’ve rejected many fabulous guest posts over the years, usually because I felt they were better suited for a different audience than mine.), submit it to another blog for consideration instead.
5. Participate in weekly memes.
Blog memes are the weekly link-up opportunities many blogs host, such as Works-For-Me Wednesday. There are thousands of different memes out there and this provides a great opportunity to get new visitors to your blog.
I recommend that you try participating in one to two different memes each week when you’re first starting out. Track your traffic after you participate to see which ones are most successful and bring the most visitors.
And just my personal opinion here: don’t link up to 25 different memes in one post. It looks tacky and I believe it waters down your post’s effectiveness.
Next week I’ll share five more ways to build and increase your readership.
If you’re a blogger, what have been your most effective methods of building your readership? Tell us in the comments.
Ask the Readers: Budget for Decorating?
Today’s question is from Rebecca:
I am wondering if and how your readers budget for decorating. Meaning, how do you work it into the budget?
I don’t mean anything extravagant. I am just wondering about simple things like candles, picture frames, new sheets, etc. Our budget is dialed in so tightly that there really isn’t any wiggle room, so I am curious as to how others pay for those “extras”. Any suggestions or ideas?
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Fun & Frugal: Summer Boredom Ideas
Make and Takes shows you how to make a Tub ‘O Fun.
The Happy Housewife has 85 fun kid-friendly activity cards to beat summer boredom.
Be sure to also check out Mandi’s article on 101 Ways to Embrace Summer.
Father’s Day Tin Can Treats
So many of you loved the Mother’s Day Tin Can Treats from Our Best Bites. Be sure to check out their post with Father’s Day Tin Can Treats. They have instructions as well as free downloadable labels you can print and use.
Q&A Tuesday: How do you find time to read?
Becky from Our Peaceful Home asked on my book review post last month:
Crystal, I am intrigued about how you manage to read so many books and still do all you do with your blog, homeschooling, etc. Do you have any tips on finding time to fit in all the reading that you do? — Becky
Great question! I learn so much through reading: it challenges me, inspires me and educates me. I wouldn’t be the person I am today were it not for the myriad of meaningful and challenging books I’ve read over the past 29 years of my life.
I especially enjoy reading “non-fluff” books. There’s nothing wrong with reading for entertainment, but if you want to improve yourself as a person, I highly encourage you to choose books that will help you get closer to your goals and shape the way you think and live your life.
Here are some ways I’ve found to find time to read:
1. Make Reading a Priority
In most every case, you can make time for what you truly want to have time for. I read this quote in Honey for a Child’s Heart yesterday and thought it was so good:
“A busy schedule is the enemy of reading. Agreeing in principle with all the benefits of books, you may at this point simply sigh and say, ‘I wish we had more time for reading.’ But the fact remains that we arrange time for what we think is truly important.”
2. Always Have a Book Handy
I keep a few books I’m working on reading through different parts of the house. That way, if I have a few minutes of extra time, I have a book handy to pick up and read.
When I’m headed out the door for an appointment, when I’ll be riding in the passenger seat instead of driving or when I’m going anywhere that there’s a potential I might have some “dead” time, I bring a book along. Sometimes, I don’t even get to crack it open. Other times, I end up having unexpected waiting time and finish the entire book!
3. Read First Thing in the Morning
In the past six months, I’ve made reading a higher priority in my life as I feel like reading good books is one of best ways I can improve as a writer and blogger. One way I’ve carved out more time for reading is by doing it first thing in the morning.
On a usual morning, I get up early, take my shower and get dressed and then I spend 20 minutes in Bible reading and prayer. As soon as I’m finished with that, instead of opening up my laptop, I set the timer for ten minutes and read from whatever book I’m currently reading through.
I can usually read at least a chapter in that 10 minutes and I’ve found it’s a great way to start my day off. Plus, if the day ends up being very full and there’s no extra time for reading at any other time of the day, at least I’ve read one chapter of a book!
4. Turn Off the TV
I know this might not be a popular opinion, but I think you’ll get a lot more out of a good book than you ever will out of the majority of television programs. If you usually spend 30 minutes watching television every day, challenge yourself to devote half of that time to reading instead.
Since I watch very little television (most weeks go by without me watching any), that may be one of the reasons I have more time to read than many people. I’d choose a good book over television any day!
5. Turn Off the Computer
There are so many amazing blogs and sites and articles to read online, but sometimes it can become noisy overload. I prefer to just follow a few blogs and read books instead. I seem to focus better and get more out of books I can hold in my hand rather than reading articles on a computer screen.
6. Listen to Audiobooks
There are many of you who don’t have the luxury of a fairly relaxed schedule like me. You work full-time, you have a gaggle of children and your days are packed from sun-up to sundown and beyond. If snatching a few minutes of reading time seems beyond comprehension, consider audiobooks instead.
You can listen in the car, while you’re folding laundry, while you’re exercising… any time your hands are busy but your mind is free. I’ve only just begun listening to audiobooks at the encouragement of my husband and I’ve truly enjoyed this extra way to fit in more “reading”.
7. Read Aloud to Your Children
If you have children, reading aloud to them is one of the greatest ways to get reading in. Sure, you don’t necessarily read aloud books to them that you’d have on your personal book list, but it’s still so enjoyable to all share a book together.
We typically read aloud for 30 minutes to an hour every week day and it’s truly one of our favorite parts of each day. The girls almost always beg for “another chapter” when I’m finished — and I usually oblige because I’m enjoying the book so much myself!
How do you find time to read (if you do!)? I’d love to hear your ideas!