Saving Families Money Since 2007
In addition to stopping at Walgreens, I also made a quick trip into Dillon’s and the Dollar Tree today. Here’s what I bought:
Dollar Tree — Eight different kinds of Nature’s Own breads and buns for $1 per package.
Dillon’s — Organic plain yogurt marked down to $1.59, two packages of deli ham for $1.29 each and one box of Kashi cereal for $0.99 (on sale for $2.99, used $2/1 coupon from Recyclebank.)
Kojo Designs has a great post on how to make your own tinted lip gloss. I really want to try this!
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.
Guest post by Brandy Chandler at Team Chandler
It seems in this hurried world that we rush from this activity to that, making sure our children are “well rounded” and have the opportunity to have fun and to make new friends. Even if we don’t spend money on lessons or sports, we might still find ourselves spending gas money taking them to and from the park or spending buying lunches at McDonalds while they play in the playzone.
I’m guilty! Guilty of trying too hard to provide my child with various opportunities without just giving him time to be a kid. Time to just play.
Recently, we had a “family night”. Typically, this would involve a special (yet quick) meal, movies, games and maybe a special treat. While I pride myself on keeping this way under budget, it hit me: “Family night” isn’t about a well-planned time with one another; it’s about embracing the time to do something spontaneous (yet frugal).
When I asked my 5-year-old what he wanted to do for family night, his simple answer “Play hide and seek”, “watch Wild Kratts with me”, etc. I was given a gentle reminder that sometimes what we, as parents, value as important may not be all that important at all.
It’s about that undivided time with our children doing things they want to in the moment. It’s about saying “Yes” to that 10th game of tic-tac-toe when the dishes need to be done. It’s about saying “Yes” when asked to read that favorite story again when you are ready to drift to sleep. These are the memories that will last. The memories of a mom and dad who were there for the little things.
That is priceless.
Brandy is a work from home mom of two who spends her time homeschooling her oldest child, training for half marathons, couponing and blogging about her families adventures at Team Chandler.
If you missed it, be sure to read: 5 Necessary Traits of Successful Bloggers (Part 1) and 5 Ways to Set Up Your Blog for Success (Part 2).
One of the greatest hindrances to successful blogging is trying to be someone else. You are not someone else. You will never be someone else. You are you!
You are unique and one-of-a-kind. You have amazing gifts and talents that many people don’t. You have a perspective on life that no one else in the whole wide world does, because no one else is you. Learn from other bloggers, but figure out who you are and be you.
It’s easy to become discouraged and to feel completely inadequate when you see other bloggers who seem to have more creativity, a cuter blog, a more-frequently-updated blog, more traffic, more comments, more Facebook followers and on and on it goes. You can spend so much time worrying about not measuring up that you completely lose sight of what you have to offer as a blogger.
As I used to tell a dear friend of mine who often felt incompetent as a blogger (and who has now gone on to create a wildly successful blog), “Don’t be mouse-y!” Any time spent sitting and sulking about your lack of ability or worrying about what people will think of you is time that is wasted.
Interact with your readers and respond to their comments and emails as much as you can. Ask your readers for their advice and input and listen to what they have to say. Your readers want to know that you value them. And you should, because without them, you’d have no audience to write for!
Don’t be afraid to try new things — even if they fail. Don’t always post the same things in the same way. Throw in some off-topic posts, photos or videos every now and then. Occasional surprises and unexpected posts will help keep things exciting.
Readers aren’t looking for perfectionism, they are looking for real-ness. We all make mistakes and we all have our areas we struggle with. Don’t try to pretend that you have all your ducks in an alphabetized row.
Be honest, be open and be vulnerable (when appropriate). People will connect with authenticity but they will run from hypocrisy.
This might seem to fly in the face of being real, but I’m not talking about being perfect as a person, but about being thorough and detailed as a blogger. Frequent typos and blatant grammar errors are irritating.
Sloppiness will never get you far. Always proof your posts at least twice before publishing them. Constantly seek to improve as a writer. Read books and blogs written by good writers. Critique your writing and ask others to do the same.
Please, please, please do not use massive paragraphs without paragraph breaks. This is one of the easiest ways to turn people off from reading your blog. Blog paragraphs should be no more than a few lines long so that people can read them easily on a computer screen.
Three more don’ts: Don’t center the text. Don’t use exclamation points, all caps or ellipses excessively. Don’t use multiple fonts.
Use paragraph headings or points in articles that are longer than a few paragraphs. Include graphics and/or photos on most posts. And did I mention how important it is to proof-read your posts before hitting publish? 🙂
If you share something in a public forum like your blog, you can never completely take it back. Always assume everyone in the whole world may read what you write.
Don’t use names, photos or other identifying information without thinking carefully about the potential ramifications. It’s better to be safe, than sorry.
What about you? What are your best suggestions for creating top-notch content?
Next week we’ll talk about five ways to increase your blog’s readership.
Guest post by Jennifer
In 2009 some friends and I found that we were like-minded and wanted to try new ways of saving money. We all especially enjoy using more natural products and thought we could make some of them inexpensively ourselves. So we started Frugal Club and have tried to meet most months and work on a variety of projects.
Recently one of our members was interviewed by our hometown magazine, Rochester Magazine. Now more people in our town have asked us about the club!
*Find friends who are interested in a frugal lifestyle.
* Get together and talk about what everyone is already doing to save money.
* Brainstorm ideas of what you would like to do to save money/get ideas from Money Saving Mom.
* Have someone volunteer to lead or organize each project you decide to do.
* Have people bring what they already have for the project and divide the cost of what needs to be purchased.
* Get together and try some of the projects.
* Rotate homes for hosting and bringing treats.
* After finishing a project, evaluate if the project was beneficial and if it saved money.
* Have fun!
* Made and then exchanged seasoning/mixes (taco seasoning, chai tea, popcorn seasoning, oatmeal packets).
* Traded items we didn’t need or wanted to re-gift (see this post on a Stockpile Swap Party for more ideas).
* Made personal products (facials, shampoo, deodorant, cocoa lip balm).
* Made greeting cards from scrap paper and magazines.
* Had a holiday cookie exchange.
* Shared a CSA vegetable box together.
* Made window cleaner, laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent.
* Made dish scrubbers out of onion mesh bags.
* Went to garage sales together in the summer
* Discussed freezer meals/cooking in bulk/purchased meat in bulk and split it.
* Made homemade air fresheners.
* Discussed frugal baby things (cloth diapers, cloth wipes).
* Exchanged or lent books we already own.
* Made fire starters for camping.
* Rented an aerator and did multiple yards.
* Shared packets of seeds for our gardens.
* Hauled our own trash/recycling.
* Exchanged coupons.
* Picked strawberries.
* Try our hand at home haircuts and go to a cosmetology school for inexpensive hair cuts.
* Make candles and lotions.
* Wash each others’ windows.
* Help each other with time consuming yard work (trimming bushes)
* Plant herbs.
* Make “sandwich bags” out of cloth.
* Make soap when we visit a goat farm in May.
Jenny and her friends/current Frugal Club members: Jill, Beth, Carla, Kristy & Dana all live in Rochester, MN. In our group we have five nurses and one librarian. We enjoy learning from each other and of course talking! In the last year, three babies have joined the Frugal Club so our meetings are a little different than they used to be! 🙂
Today’s question is from Heather:
I’m curious to know if anyone has done a cost comparison over time with buying batteries (using coupons, of course!) to using rechargeable batteries. We have three children and we go through a Costco-sized batch of batteries within a couple of months. I’m considering investing in rechargeable batteries but wondering if that would really save any money. Thoughts?
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
A few years ago, I attempted making liquid laundry detergent. The entire recipe bombed and I ended up throwing it out.
Ever since then, I’ve been leery of trying homemade laundry detergent again. But, after all the rave reviews many of you have emailed in, I worked up my courage to try again. And I’m so glad I did because I had a much better experience this time!
I used the recipe I found from DIY Natural. It only takes three ingredients and seemed pretty fail-proof!
Homemade Powdered Laundry Soap
- 1 bar of soap (Ivory, ZOTE, Fels-Naptha)
- 1 cup of borax
- 1 cup of washing soda
Shave or grate the bar of soap.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together. Thoroughly stir together for about five minutes.
Yields 32-64 loads, depending upon whether you use one or two Tablespoons per load. I’ll report back soon to let you know if I think this would work for our family long-term. It seems promising!
In case you missed it, here’s the list of the 12 Do-It-Yourself Projects I Plan to Try in 2011:
January: Make From-Scratch Chai Tea
February: Make Homemade Dishwashing Detergent
March: Make Homemade Hamburger Buns
April: Make Homemade Laundry Soap (I did attempt this one time before, but it was with a pre-made mix someone gave me. So I’m going to try again — this time completely from scratch!)
May: Make Appliqued Flower Tee
June: Make Homemade Hummus
July: Make Freezer Jam
August: Make Homemade Soap
September: Sew a Rag Quilt
October: Make Homemade Apple Butter
November: Make Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
December: Make Homemade Marshmallows
Have you attempted any new do-it-yourself projects recently? I’d love to hear how they went!
I have been thinking about becoming a stay-at-home mom. I have a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old. I am going to start my budget to see if we can afford to live off of one income. My parents informed me that I would not be able to contribute to an IRA since I would have no income. What other things should I take into consideration when making this decision? I know I will be saving on gas, work clothes, daycare, etc. What else am I missing? Thanks so much! -Lori
Staying home and devoting your life to nurturing and raising the next generation is a wonderful thing. That said, many who want to make the jump from working outside of the home full-time to working inside the home full-time are realistically not financially able to do so.
If you are thinking you may be able to do it, what I recommend you do is to first sit down with your husband and create a written budget based upon his income alone. You may need to cut back, eliminate or restructure some of your budget categories and expenses in order to accomplish this.
Then, continue working while you attempt to live only on your husband’s income and see if you can pay for all your necessary expenses. If not, go back through your budget and see if there are other areas you can cut or expenses you can reduce.
While you continue to work, bank everything you earn towards an Emergency Fund. This will not only provide a training session on how to make it on one income, it will also give you a good savings cushion for you to draw against if you need to once you quit working.
Now, pertaining to the IRA contributions you would supposedly miss out on, non-working spouses can still contribute to an IRA through the special spousal contribution allowance even though they do not have have an earned income. SmartMoney Magazine has a good piece explaining the contribution limits to IRAs for non-working spouses as well as the deductibility of the contributions to traditional IRAs. Here’s a snippet of the obviously-outdated article:
A nonworking spouse can make a deductible IRA contribution of up to $5,000 for 2010 ($6,000 if age 50 or older as of 12/31/10) as long as the couple files a joint return, and the working spouse has enough earned income to cover the contribution. However, the deductibility of the nonworking spouse’s contribution for 2010 is phased out for couples with adjusted gross income (AGI) between $167,000 and $177,000, provided that the working spouse is covered by a qualified retirement plan (via a job or self-employment). The working spouse’s ability to make a deductible contribution for 2010 is phased out between AGI of $89,000 and $109,000.
Contributions to ROTH IRAs are not deductible because they are made after tax; as such, you do not have to pay taxes on the back end when getting money out.
If you’ve transitioned from working outside the home to staying home full-time or part-time, I’d love to hear your story on how you did that.
Jesse Paine is a licensed attorney who owns his own law firm. He’s married to Crystal and is the numbers nerd of the MoneySavingMom.com team! If you have a question you’d like him to answer in a future column, you can submit it here.
The content of this column intended for informational use only and is not to be construed as providing legal, investing, accounting or other professional advice. Your situation is factually specific and you should accordingly seek qualified professional counsel concerning your specific legal, investing or accounting needs.
Live Renewed shows you how to make your own foaming hand soap.
This doesn’t have much to do with saving money (unless you count the money saved on buying sippy cups!), but so many of you asked how we’ve taught Silas to drink from a regular cup yesterday that, just for fun, I did a short video last night explaining how we’ve taught our children to drink from regular cups instead of sippy cups.
Amy emailed in the following testimonial which I thought many of you would enjoy reading:
I just wanted to let you know that we just had our most successful garage sale ever after reading your Ten Tips for a Successful Garage Sale post. For starters, our philosophy was different because we realized we had already gotten our use out of each item and so were not holding onto the “but this is what we paid for it new” syndrome.
After the sale, we also realized that a clean and empty garage is definitely worth our efforts to have the sale. (The garage had been full after our move back to Texas two years ago. We began to realize if all that stuff had not been used in that long, we really do not need it.) I think this sale proved a successful teaching tool for all of us in the blessings of minimalism. We all love jumping around freely in the newly-emptied garage!
How We Did It
We started the sale on Friday, so Thursday night we listed the sale on Craigslist. My husband created a public map on Google Maps, with directions to our house from the nearest major cross-roads. In the description of the Destination (our house), he posted sale hours and a long list of items we had for sale. It was the same text that was in the Craigslist post, but including the link in the post made it very easy for folks to find us.
We also posted signs like we had in the past, but most people said they heard about us and found us because of Craigslist and the map we placed in the ad. Very effective, indeed.
The second day of our sale we updated our Craigslist and Google Maps postings and stapled smaller, brightly colored signs to the original signs that said, “50% off Sat. 7:30 a.m.” Wow! That worked!
We sold most the remaining big stuff within minutes of opening the garage door. All the little stuff was sold off in steady streams until about 10:30 a.m., at which time we had our children take turns holding up a sign at our street corner saying, “90% off — many items FREE!”
People came in droves after that! We got rid of just about everything very quickly. It was all said and done by about 12:30 p.m..
Lessons Learned
We included our children the sale and let them set up a table of their own. One of our sons was originally miffed because he sold some of his things for way less than he wanted to, but he quickly learned the art of strategic marketing! So, all was good in the end.
The children also sold donuts and bottled waters. Those were a huge hit — and a big profit-maker, earning a dollar per donut or bottled water. They made a good return for their efforts, and were very happy about it. They learned effective salesmanship and how to talk with a variety of people.
Afterward, we had a long talk about rejoicing and giving thanks for the 90% God lets us keep from our earnings and we were able to give a much larger than usual tithe on Easter Sunday morning which gave us all so much joy! -Amy
Smoothies for our breakfast and reading time… Kaitlynn’s such a ham!
We have a busy week this week, so I’m keeping dinners very simple. And I’m thankful our freezer is starting to fill up which relieves me from having to cook as much!
Breakfasts
Cantaloupe Strawberry Smoothies (This was a crazy smoothie creation I came up with on the fly this morning. Everyone drank them, but they weren’t a big hit!), Hard-boiled eggs
Cereal, Pick-Me-Up Smoothies
Waffles (from the freezer), scrambled eggs, fruit
Steel Cut Oats with raw sugar and milk
Breakfast Burritos, Fruit
French Toast Casserole (from the freezer), FruitLunches
Leftovers x 3
Apple Peanut Butter sandwiches, carrot sticks
Beans & Rice with cheese, peas, fruit
Mac & Cheese, carrot sticks
Cheese Quesadillas, fruitSnacks
Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Popcorn
Fruit/VeggiesDinners
Marinated chicken, wild rice, frozen veggies, fruit
Steak on the grill, frozen veggies
Tilapia, rice, steamed broccoli, fruit salad
Barbecued meatballs, sweet potatoes, frozen veggies, fruit
Dinner at church
Dinner out
Dinner with extended familyFreezer-Cooking-In-An-Hour Plan (I’ll share pictures/details on how this goes on Thursday!)
Breakfast Burritos
Southwest Roll-Ups
Lighter Chocolate Chip Pancakes
(You thought my floors weren’t too bad? Well, take a peek at my countertops before I’ve cleaned the kitchen in the morning. They always need serious help after breakfast!)
What’s on your menu this week?
Guest post by Jenae at I Can Teach My Child.
As a family of four, we live on my husband’s income only. He is currently an Administrator in Long-Term Care, a job he absolutely loves. I consider his job a ministry to the elderly and he truly has a gift for encouraging this neglected population.
His income, however, is largely bonus-based and therefore is quite irregular depending on the center’s performance in meeting budget, accounts receivable, census, etc. My husband is a high-achiever and does great with this type of compensation, but it certainly makes budgeting quite tricky!
Here are just a few suggestions we have found helpful for budgeting on an irregular income:
Look back to the last few years and make note of overall compensation received as well as any noticeable trends (for example, a large part of my husband’s bonuses pay out in March). Divide your average income by 12 to see what you can expect your monthly income to be.
Once you have your average yearly income, make a budget based on that income and set your financial goals (i.e. paying off debt, mortgage, etc). If you are new to an irregular income, you’ll want to shave off as much excess spending as possible until you are comfortable with the new income situation.
In addition to 3-6 months of an emergency fund in an accessible savings account, I would recommend having at least one extra month’s worth of expenses in your checking account. This will help tremendously during those lean months without having to dip into your emergency fund.
Make sure you keep a close eye on all financial transactions to ensure you have enough money to pay your monthly bills (as well as to make sure you’re not overspending). Using cash is always the most reliable way to do this, but we also use Mint.com for our electronic transactions.
Every month, look over your budget and actual spending (with your spouse, if you are married). If you have received a large payout, decide what to do with that money (put it towards the mortgage, paying off debt, etc). If this month is especially lean, look for ways in which you can cut back. Monthly budget meetings are especially important for families with irregular income.
An irregular income can be especially challenging in regards to managing and budgeting money. But it doesn’t have to be stressful nor consuming. Keep an open line of communication with your family members and remember to always keep a cushion to carry you through.
Jenae is a Master-degree holding former first grade teacher turned stay-at-home Momma. She loves finding creative ways to save money, spending time with her family, and sharing fun activities on her website I Can Teach My Child.
I loved this testimonial that Sharon emailed in:
I’ve been saving between $100 to $120 every month just simply by going grocery shopping every two weeks instead of every week like I used to do. This is not taking into account the money I might have spent in gas either.
In order to shop every two weeks, I have to plan ahead a little more, thinking about any hosting or extra events I may have to cook for in the next two weeks. A few times, I have had to pick up some extras in between my regular shopping week, but I am amazed at how rare it is that I’ve needed to do so. I’ve discovered I can usually plan my menus around what my cupboards, fridge and freezer contain.
I’m finding that the less I see, the less I buy. The less I shop, the less I see.
By the way, not only has shopping every two weeks dropped by grocery bill significantly, but it’s also given me more time to spend on other projects. -Sharon