Frugal Christmas Shopping Ideas

I am so much more on it with Christmas shopping this year than I have ever been.  It started by shopping the Target and K-mart clearanced toys sales.  I definitely use blogs to alert me of good sales.  Then I remembered an idea I had read on Money Saving Mom.   Someone had written in a tip about Amazon's Trade-In Program.  It happened that I was able to get a free Iphone 4 from Sprint because I am guessing they were wanting to get rid of them because the Iphone 5 was coming out.  I did have to re-sign a 2-year contract but we were planning to do that anyway.

I was able to trade in my HTC Evo for $103 in Amazon gift cards automatically loaded to my account.  My phone was newer and in very good condition so I believe that is why I was able to do it.  Go to Amazon, search for your item and then look on the right hand side and scroll down until you see this:

It takes about a week but you may get a good deal.  I did check the box that said that they would send it back to you if they didn't find it to be in as good condition as you think it is.  Make sure you check that box otherwise they could give you a lot less money.

Don't forget Swagbucks too - I use this search engine to earn points and trade them in for Amazon gift cards as well.





Another thing to try is points from your bank.  My bank gives us points for using our debit cards.  They are ending this program at the end of the year but I was able to cash in those points for Target and Amazon gift cards.

Also, use Ebates to shop online and get cash back at different stores!  I have used them and get cash  back.  It isn't a ton of cash but every little bit helps!

Don't forget Retail Me Not!   Use it to search for store sales and coupon codes and for food too!  I once was able to get 50% off my Papa John's order so always use it when buying online or going to a store.

Use any other incentives from stores you may get.  I bought something at Kohl's and was able to get Kohl's cash plus I got $15 extra from them for signing up for alterts and for having my Kohl's charge statements e-mailed instead of mailed.  **Side note - I don't love credit cards but I do have a couple store cards to get greater discounts.  With Kohl's charge you can pay it off immediately with cash or check right after you charge it.

If you are interested, here are some of my favorite blogs to get deals from are:

Money Saving Mom
Money Saving Madness
Bargain Briana

What about you?  What are your Christmas money saving tips?

*Some of the links above are affiliate links.

Workout with the Kids for Free

I need to workout (story of my life) but I wanted to find something I would actually do that might be fun for my kids.  While I was reading a homeschooling mom's Facebook post I found some interesting ideas that other people posted.  This was one of them.  She said her kids really liked this jump rope video on Spark People.  I looked it up.  I hooked up our lap top to our TV and we all did this together this morning.  We did it without the jump rope and the kids really liked it and finished it all.

Its only 10 minutes.  I am going to try to do this at least three mornings a week before we start school.  After the video, I had them do 10 squats, 10 lunges on each leg, 10 push ups, 10 squats and holding a plank position for 10 seconds.  My 7 year old was the only one that made it through the whole thing.

I have always struggled with making exercise a habit but maybe we can start this habit with our whole family and it will carry them into adulthood.

I am going to try out some of the other 10 minute videos on Spark People and see if the kids like those too.

An added bonus - no equipment needed!

Anyone else out there have ways to workout with the kids?

Frugal tip - How to save on organic milk (or any milk)

  I read this tip from Thrifty Mom in Boise.  She buys Vitamin D milk and then halves it with water.   I was wanting a way to buy cheaper organic milk so I thought I would try this to see if the kids would notice.  I bought the organic milk.  I poured one of my gallon size glass jars half full of milk then I filled it the rest of the way with our filtered water.  I then filled up the milk jug with filtered water as well.  I shook them both and left them in the fridge.

The kids did not notice anything.  I used it on some cereal (I hate drinking milk) and I didn't notice anything.

Success!  Of course my husband went to the store and he couldn't spend the money to buy organic milk so he bought regular milk and we did the same thing.  Worked out fine.

The better question is - why haven't I been doing this for years?

An Update on My New Lunch Experiment

When I posted my menu plan this week I was going to try something new.  I decided to experiment by making all of my kid's lunches for the week on Sunday night.  My inspiration was from Life as a Mom.  I posted a picture of it to Facebook and several of my friends wanted to hear how the sandwiches were towards the end of the week, you know after they had been in the fridge for a while.

First let me tell you what I did.  I bought 12 containers.  They were 6 for $4.59 at Meijer.  I decided on two lunches.  One lunch consisted of half of a peanut butter sandwich (some of my kids like jelly and some don't so I made it easy on myself), grapes and carrot sticks.  The other lunch was a homemade lunchable with Aldi "Ritz" crackers, lunch meat, grapes and carrots.  The crackers were in the separate compartment so they would not get wet and soggy.

The verdict:
I made them on Sunday night.  As of Thursday the sandwiches were still good.  By Friday they were slightly dry but my kids did not notice and ate them anyway.  The grapes and carrots of course stayed fresh.  The crackers will still crispy and the lunchmeat was still good.

Now, first off I have small children so they don't eat a lot.  If you have bigger kids you would want a whole sandwich and maybe you might fill a plastic bag with extras like chips or something, but you could still do that on Sunday night and keep those in the cabinet.  And have your kids help you.  My daughter did the grapes for me.

I will tell you this is by far my best experiment.  Lunches were way too easy.  I only fixed drinks and had the children grab their lunches from the fridge.  Now, I do have an extra fridge in my garage so it was convenient for me.  If you only have one fridge and lots of kids this might not work as well for you but it is honestly worth clearing out a little space in your fridge for it!

I just always dreaded lunches.   Now I don't!  Another benefit that my husband pointed out is that if they don't eat all of their food we just put the lid back on and when they are hungry again we just tell them to eat the rest of their lunch.  Another bonus - when it came time to pack a lunch for my son's school day (he only goes 2 days a week), I just threw it in his lunchbox.  Yet another bonus, when we had to go somewhere I just grabbed the containers and we either ate on the go or at whatever place we were planning to be - saving money by not eating out!  I had no excuses because the lunches were already done.

Now I do think if you made your kids lunchmeat sandwiches they would get soggy pretty quickly but they  might hold out (anyone try that?).  I may try to think up other things I could put in these containers but for now, this works pretty well and I haven't had any complaints yet.

If you have any ideas as to what other easy lunches would work for me I would love to hear them!

Why I want my next house to be a small house

I talked a while back about why I love small houses.  I do like small house but for years I always thought about "my next house".  I mean yes, I have been content with what I have at this moment but my husband and I know that one day we do want some land and with that land will come a different house so I have thought about the features I want in my next house.  I used to clip pictures and save ideas.  I knew I wanted a large wrap around porch and a house with hopefully four bedrooms and a finished basement, of course.

Yet ever so slowly, my thinking is changing.  Right now we have our 1400 square foot house with three bedrooms and one and a half baths and it works.  We also have all three of our kiddos in one bedroom (the biggest room) and you know what - it works too.  They do sleep and besides the fact that if one gets up early they all do, the situation is pretty good.  

Another reason I like small houses is that I honestly don't like to clean.  It is my least favorite thing to do so cleaning a big house does not sound exciting to me.  And if you think about it - even if you live in a big house, how many rooms do you actually use?   Really, evaluate that.  For a few days, pay attention to the rooms you use most in your house.  For us, we mainly use our living room, kitchen and bedrooms (bathrooms are a given). 

The things I would like to keep in our next house are the small bedrooms.  I would love to have a play room so that way we could keep the bedrooms small.  What would be great is to have a small ranch house with a full basement for a play room and for a place to keep all of our canning.  I used to think that for my next house I wouldn't want a house any smaller than 2,000 square feet but now - I know I can survive on less.  Not only can I survive, I can enjoy it.

Of course, I still would like my wrap around porch.  Its not too much to ask is it?

How about you, what do you like (or dislike) about your house?  Would you ever downsize even if you didn't have to?

Frugal Friday - Save and Copy your Receipts!

 

 

My husband had this brilliant idea to go through all our receipts that he had saved for products that we bought.  He put the receipts with the instruction booklets and put them in a page protector in a three ring binder.  He also copied each receipt because we found that the ink on receipts starts disappearing after 6 months to a year. 

The reason we do this:

Just a few days ago our Cuisinart blender stopped working.  It was about 18 months old and we bought it at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  My husband called them and told them what happened and that it was definitely over a year old but we had the receipt.  They said bring it in and we could find a replacement for the amount we paid.

So we did it and they honored what they said.  We got a brand new blender/food processor by just bringing in our receipt.  It pays to be organized!   I have to thank my husband for this.  He did a great job.  It took him half a day to copy and organize the receipts but it saved us $100!

Learning to Like Laundry

I have said before that laundry is the bane of my existence, but I am trying to make it more pleasant and I thought I would share what I have done.

This is the before.  It is what I saw when I entered my little laundry area.  Not too enticing right?  I don’t actually have a Laundry “room” per say.  It is more of a very large closet.
I still have some more work to do such as repaint the shelves and make the curtains.  I am also on the lookout for a few bigger baskets.

The after is far better to look at than the before though.  I am just now realizing that sprucing things up and making them a little more pleasing to the eye actually makes me want to be in a room rather than shut the door on it.  I found this “laundry” subway art free online so I downloaded it and put it in a frame I had.  I also found this cute little washing board up in the cabinet when I was cleaning it out so I hung those on the walls. 
I keep my cleaning caddy up there so little hands don’t get it.  Another thing I have done to make my laundry a more pleasant experience was to invest in a new clothesline.  I had two single retractable clotheslines but they broke and they didn’t hold much clothes.  Now, I have a 5 line retractable clothes line.  Want to see it?


See – it goes from my fence to my deck post, but when not in use it just kind of blends into the fence (kind of).  And what is also great about this thing is that it easily comes off the fence in the winter and can be used in doors.  I have no idea how I will do that inside or if my husband would put up with it although he might if it lowers our utility bills.  I just really enjoy hanging out my clothes in the beautiful sunshine while my kids play close by.  It is one of the ways that I actually enjoy doing laundry.

Frugal Sewing Closet Organization

I have told you about 100 times that I live in a small house and I don't have room for a craft/sewing room so I am relegated to our hall closet.  It holds all of my supplies but I actually sew at the dining room table.  My sewing closet has been in desperate need of a makeover for a long time.  I kept looking up ways I wanted to organize it and what I wanted to buy but I finally figured out that I was just going to have to figure out how to re-organize the frugal way.  Someday I hope to maybe make it prettier but for now it is very functional.

Here is the scary before:

 

I found some inspiration from The Little Green Bean who made her own fabric bolts.  So I instead of buying the ones on Amazon I decided to reorganize our games and use the cardboard from them and from the 5 diaper boxes I had been saving to make my own.   I just cut them to about 8" x 10" or so.

 And when I was done I stacked them all in the top of my closet so I could see what fabric I had.

 

Next I had to contain the tons of ribbon I had.  A lot of them did not come on spools (mostly from my Grandma's collection) so those I put in shoe boxes and the ones that had spools I took 3 wire hangers and clipped them and slid my spools of ribbon on them.

 

Here is another picture of how everything fits:

This is the bottom section - the box is my unfished sewing projects.  The basket holds things that need to be mended.  Then there are actual bolts of big fabric in the corner.  On the shelves are my felt fabrics and the bottom shelf is batting.  I vacuum sealed my grandma's extra scrap material because there was a lot of it.  And of course my sewing machine sits at the bottom of the closet.  My quilt cutting board leans up against the side of the closet.

 As I said the shoe boxes hold extra ribbon.  The drawers hold sewing tools, notions and thread.  My patterns are in the magazine holder and the 3-ring binders (I need to get more of those).

And there you have my inexpensive sewing closet.  It did cost me about $30 to put in more shelves (thanks to my husband) but other than that I spent nothing.  I just used what I had.  I am so thankful this is done because it was getting tough to just open the door to the closet.  Now we can open and shut it without things falling out.

What have you been organizing lately?

Frugal Fitness Ideas

I am no expert on fitness.  In fact, I go in spurts.  I used to be faithful to my exercise routine BK (before kids) but since then I have struggled (yes I know it has been almost 6 years).  I have joined gyms and done other things but I have now found something that actually works and that I can stick with and it costs me $7.99 per month.  But it can cost you even less.  I am a subscriber to Netflix because we don't have cable.  Lately, I have been doing the "10 Minute Solution" DVD's.  These programs have 5 10 minute workouts.  So if you need to do a quick workout you can do one, but I usually do 3 which is 30 minutes.  There are about 6 workouts available on Netflix and I just rotate which ones I am doing. 

I love these workouts because you can customize them to what you need.  But there are other options as well.  My cousin Amee also does some frugal working out.  She does some yoga videos from You Tube. 

You can find cheaper alternatives to working out than going to a gym.  The key is to find something that is actually doable. 

The only equipment that you need with the DVD's are hand weights and a mat (but I just use a beach towel).  And you can also do these on vacation if you are at a place that has wi-fi or if you have a laptop with a DVD player.

Again, if you don't have Netlix you can borrow these from your library if they have them or you can buy them from Amazon.  Of course you can always walk/jog or run for exercise and do various other things.  I have just found these workouts to be great for me because each segment is only 10 minutes long and once you finish one you know how many more you have to do.  I haven't done very much of the Yoga because I am not a Yoga fan, but the rest are pretty good.

So what other frugal ways are there to work out that you do?

What if you can't grow a garden?

There are a lot of people that would love to grow a garden but they may not have room or they just don't know where to start or they are just way too busy.  Now, I am all for gardening.  I love gardening.  I think everyone should garden if they can.  It is so rewarding and enjoyable.

If you don't have at least a little land, gardening is not easy so I wanted to give you some alternatives so that you could get quality produce in season.  If you also wanted to lower your grocery budget it pays to buy extra when the produce is in season and preserve it in some way - whether freezing or canning.

Now, everyone knows about farmers markets.  I do love farmers markets but honestly, they are not always cheap.  Here are some ideas you might consider this year.

• Craig's List - usually in the "farm & garden" section - I found a person who sold organic tomatoes for $0.40/lb. for canning or freezing.  I bought 40 lbs. 
• Orchards - Call around to your local orchard once every few weeks and ask if they have any "seconds".   Seconds (usually referring to peaches or apples) just means the fruit is almost past its prime and is ready to be made into jam, jelly or in the case of apples, applesauce.
• Local Farmers (at farmers markets) - I know I said they were sometimes expensive but if you find a farmer there and talk to them about buying produce in bulk you can save quite a bit.  I have a farmer (two really) that I ask if I can get green beans by the bushel or half bushel.  I am able to save a lot buy buying in bulk and I am able to can the green beans (or freeze them) to have all winter long.
• Roadside Stands - there is a couple that set up a roadside stand near us and sell mainly sweet corn.  I have talked with them quite a bit and know where they grow their corn (very close to us) and if I buy over 10 dozen ears, I can get them for $2.50 per dozen.  It is easy to blanch and freeze corn.  You don't really need any special equipment to do this and if you have ever had frozen sweet corn in the middle of winter - you know it will be worth all the work!
• Driving Around - I was on my way somewhere and there was a sign up at an older couple's house that allowed you to pick your own blueberries.  They grow 27 or more blueberry bushes and allow people to pick their own for a fraction of the cost you pay at stores and blueberries freeze very well!
• Your Local Paper's Classifieds - My sister was reading the classifieds in our local paper and called me because there was an ad for free apples if you would come and pick them.  I called him and made arrangements.  I went during the day and took some friends (for safety) and it turned out it was an older gentleman who was widowed and he had several apple trees that he didn't want to get rid of but he did not use the apples so he allowed us to pick them for free if we would clean up after ourselves.  I ended up baking him a pie and taking it back to him for his generosity.  My friends and I made applesauce and apple pie filling with our apples.
• Pick Your Own - You can find local places to pick your own produce and you usually end up paying a fraction of the cost because you do all the work.  Last year, my cousin and I picked our own green beans and we paid about $0.49/lb.  We picked enough for us to can and we enjoyed the time of being together (even though it was pretty hot).
• Just ask - I haven't exactly done this myself, but my friend's husband did it for us last year (and my friend Joyce does it a lot).  He knocked on a neighbor's door and asked if we could pick apples from his tree if he wasn't going to use them.  He said yes!  So we were able to get about 3 bushels of free apples for applesauce and apple butter.

The key to all of this is buy quite a bit and preserve it as I stated above.  If you are nervous about canning - don't be!  It is enjoyable and it is not that difficult, trust me.  But honestly, you could freeze most of the above produce as well, you would just need to have enough freezer space.  And you can always ask the person if they spray their produce or if they use organic practices.  And obviously, if you are uncomfortable with what they do, then don't buy the produce from them - just keep looking!

This is a great guide to preserving your harvest if you are interested.

You don't have to have your own garden to get produce at a good price.

What about you?  What creative ways do you use to get in-season produce at a good price?

Homemade Shower Cleaner

You may already know that I only buy the original blue Dawn and I use it as my hand soap and my soap for washing dishes.  I stock up on it when it is on sale for $0.97 at the grocery store then use my coupon or I will just buy a big thing of it at Sam's.  There are a LOT of ways to use the original blue Dawn.

I also use vinegar a lot.  So when I saw a homemade shower cleaner recipe on my friend's Facebook page I knew I had to try it.


This is her recipe:


4 ounces blue Dawn dishsoap (ONLY use the original blue Dawn) 
12 ounces plain white vinegar

Mix it all up in a spray bottle. Once per week, spray your entire shower, bathtub, and fixtures with this stuff. Wait 1-2 hours then rinse. That's right - no scrubbing. Your entire shower and tub will be sparkly clean and shiny - and your grout will stay mildew free!  **I used  my Pyrex cups to measure out the ingredients.

Verdict:  Um, yes, it works!  My fixtures are brighter (I have hard water).  It is so easy to do!

Drawback:  The smell of vinegar is so strong.  I am going to try to some drops of essential oil next time to see if that will help.

DIY - Chalkboard Clipboard

Say that two times fast - chalkboard clipboard, chalkboard clipboard.  I bought several clipboards from Office Max for about $1.85.  Then I discovered chalkboard contact paper.  You could buy it from Amazon.   Although I bought mine from Discount School Supply for $5.99 but you do have to pay shipping.

I laid the clipboard onto the back of the contact paper and then I drew around it and cut it out.

Then I slowly adhered the contact paper to the clipboard.  I used my Pampered Chef scraper to get out wrinkles or bubbles.

Then I cut around the top so it would lay nicely.

I bought some chalk at Hobby Lobby but I find that my kids hands get very messy so I have purchased some chalk holders from Amazon so they don't get as messy. 

My daughter really likes this.  She has taken it in the car with us.  I keep the chalk and erasers in a plastic baggie and just clip them to the board when she is not using it.  We had a little eraser already that came with some play school stuff, but you could buy a cheap one or just use paper towels or an old towel to wipe the clipboard clean and start again!

This was a very quick and easy project and my daughter really likes it.

For more frugal tips, please visit:

Frugal Friday - Handmade Gift Ideas and a project for you to do!

Last year I made several Christmas gifts and I really enjoyed it.  This year my kids are still young enough that they enjoy handmade things.  So I am taking advantage of that for as long as I can although I don't have much to make for my older son (5 year old) so if anyone has ideas what to make him let me know. 

Last year I made some of these things. 

Here is a list of some food gifts.

Here are a few ideas for kids that I am planning on doing:


Kids knit pjs

Car Mat

Baby Doll Diapers

Foam Bath Dolls

Farm Hand Puppets

Playhouse - the ideas and the PVC Picture 

Now for what else I am doing.  I am making an Advent Jesse Tree Calendar.  I ordered the book The Advent Jesse Tree: Devotions for children and Adults to Prepare for the Coming of the Christ Child at Christmas.  I am using this book plus this tree tutorial to make our family's own calendar.  Now if you go to this tutorial it teaches you how to basically do what I am doing but mine is tailored to the Jesse Tree and its symbols.  This blogger is Mormon and her's is tailored to that, just so you know.

This is a picture of her tree.

So starting Monday I will be sharing how to make an ornament a day so that you could have this done by December 1st to start with teaching your children about the real meaning of Christmas.  I love this book because it starts at the beginning of the Bible and goes through to the birth of Christ. Of course you can teach them anyway you want, but I know my kids would like this and so this is what I am doing.

You can read more about Jesse Trees here.

If you are interested in doing this you will want to get the following supplies:

Felt - several colors including orange, gray, black, white, green, blue, pink, yellow, brown, gold.
Felt by the yard - 3/4 to 1 yard of green and white
Heat n bond light OR fabric glue - you don't have to get the Heat N Bond but it makes things a lot easier
Hook and eye closures (25 of them)

As I said to make this less overwhelming just do one ornament a day and have your kids help too!  For Monday we will be doing the earth:

And just so you know I did something wrong from the original pattern.  I put the symbols on the colored side of the ornaments when I should have put them on the white side but it doesn't really matter and since this is for my family I just went with it.


There you have some simple homemade gift ideas to get you started AND a felt calendar to work on (like you didn't have anything else to do right?).  For more frugal tips, visit Life as a Mom.