Being Frugal In the Kitchen-20 Ideas

1. Eat less meat. Look for more “filler” foods-Beans.
2. Meat specials. For these specials, check the meat area for meat that is about to pass the “sell by” date. The meat is still good, but you must freeze it immediately if you cook it within a day or so.
3. Cut Coupons. Out of the newspaper or use the online coupon sites
4. Use Loyalty cards at grocery stores.
5. Buy generic at the grocery store.
6. Buy in bulk. Make sure buying the bulk amount makes sense for your family or else you’ll end up paying more. For instance buying an over-sized pizza that you have you discard because it won’t fit into your refrigerator is a waste.
7. Make a list when you go shopping and stick to it. This is the one single thing you can do and it produces great money saving results.
8. Commit to going to the grocery store only once or twice a week. More visits promote tempted spending.
9. Buy at the bread outlet store. Good for breads and pastries
10. Cook your own meals.
11. Make meals that leave you leftovers, like soups and casseroles.
12. Make your own bottled water by buying a water filter. This is also environmentally friendly.
13. Grow your own vegetables. I’ve done this for years. It’s fun too.
14. Collect vegetable scraps in a bag in the freezer. As soon as it’s full, make a soup out of them.
15. Eat cereal more often. It’s healthy and inexpensive. We have cereal once/week for dinner.
16. Bring your lunch to school or work instead of buying it.
17. Buy 2 liter bottles instead of cans. It’s much cheaper per unit price.
18. Quit Drinking Pop/Soda
19. Make dinners in a crock-pot to save on energy
20. Avoid using the oven during the summer.

Raising Frugal Kids

When I had to come home to my son who is a ten year old and explain to him that Mommy lost her job, which was very difficult. I wasn’t sure if he even knew what I was talking about. I’ve always discussed “the job”, “my job” to him and how it pays me to work. Then I turn around and pay for “things”, such as food, clothes, home, school, games, movies, eating out, and everything in between. I just didn’t know if that information went into his brain. And if it did, then was it processed into something that made since for him.

So now was my time to find out how much of that information I told him was actually there, in his brain. So I told him. I told him that for a while buying extra things are going to stop. I told him that I’d be shopping at Wal-Mart and Aldi’s instead of the other more expensive grocery stores. I told him that we are going to watch the electricity and water. I told him that I’d go back to cutting coupons. I told him that we would have to watch every dollar we spend and to save what we can, so I can make it on the unemployment checks that I was going to receive. I told him that it wasn’t forever just until I got another job. Tears came to my eyes as I told him these things because I have always been able to provide the extras for my son and I felt like I was going disappointing him by telling him these things.  His words to me after I spoke to him were “I’m going to pack my lunch for school to help out”. He was buying hot lunches at school. I couldn’t have been prouder of my son at that very moment.  I knew those talks were going to pay off. I think I’ve done something right.

So I read this article in USAWEEKEND a couple of weeks ago.  It’s titled ParentSmart Raising Frugal Kids: A Timely Lesson. It has some really good advise for parents. I’ve used all of these suggestions for raising my son.

Here’s that article below:

ParentSmart by Claire Green

Raising frugal kids: A timely lesson

Raising a child to think frugally is a lot easier today than it was a year ago. To learn how, we turned to financial expert Susan Beacham, of Money Savvy Generation (msgen.com), which helps parents teach their children how to be smart about money. Her advice:

Teach the basics. By the fourth grade, kids should know how to identify coins and paper money; what they can do with money, including saving, buying and giving to charity; and what a budget is.

Discuss your own budget. Meals are a great time to discuss how your family spends its money — on food, housing, transportation, vacations, etc. Discuss different ways to save, such as with piggy banks and savings accounts.

Teach everyone to be thrifty. Set a month-by-month goal to rein in spending. Skipping a daily latte, packing lunch or cutting back on online music purchases can make a difference.

Make learning fun. Give your youngest lights-out duty at bedtime to teach about saving on electric bills. Early readers can help clip grocery coupons from the circulars. And teens can search for sales and coupons online.

Claire Green is the president of Parents’ Choice Foundation, a non-profit guide to quality children’s media and toys. For more information, go to parents-choice.org.

28 Ways to Save Money on Utilities

1. After baking in the oven, leave the oven door cracked to heat the house.
2. Use a toaster oven or a crock-pot to cook instead of cooking in the oven. It uses less energy.
3. Close the heater vents in rooms you aren’t using.
4. Close the doors to rooms you aren’t using.
5. Consider downgrading cable options or getting rid of cable all together.
6. Ceiling fans can keep a room cool in the summer and warm in the winter. There is a switch to rotate the cool air up or bring the warm air down.
7. Use fans to keep cool. Fans are less costly to use than the air conditioner.
8. Eventually replace appliances with appliances that have Energy Star approval.
9. Use a clothesline to dry clothes.
10. Use your bath towel more than once before washing it.
11. Eventually switch to CFL bulbs. Find them on sale and stockpile them.
12. Get rid of your cell phone.
13. Get rid of your Internet connection at home. Use the Internet at school or the library.
14. Insulate your home to the proper levels.
15. If you water your lawn, time the sprinklers so you don’t overuse the water.
16. If you have a cell phone think about getting rig of your landline.
17. Use weather striping to keep the cold out.
18. Put in your storm windows in the winter.
19. Keep your freezer full. An empty freezer requires more energy to keep cold.
20. Quit watering your lawn.
21. Shorten your showers.
22. Set the thermostat at 68 degrees in the winter and 78 degrees in the summer. Use a programmable thermostat to set the levels for different times of the day.
23. Use heavy drapes over your windows. In the summer it keeps the warmth out and in the winter it keeps the warmth in.
24. Turn off the water while you brush your teeth
25. Turn off the lights when not using a room.
26. Turn off your appliances when not using them.
27. Use coffee cup that can be washed instead of Styrofoam.
28. Unplug small appliances when they are not in use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28 Money Saving Ideas-Car and Gasoline

1. Walk or ride your bike as much as you can.
2. Limit city driving.
3. Stay home as often as possible.
4. Run errands once a week and use the most efficient route.
5. Carpool with co-workers.
6. Take the bus (public Transportation)
7. Plan your route and combine your errands to save fuel and time.
8. Avoid heavy traffic. You’ll save on gas by not idling as much.
9. Change your own motor oil.
10. Keep the front wheels in proper alignment.
11. Rotate your tires regularly. Rotating tires slows down tire wear.
12. Keep your tires inflated at the correct pressure.
13. Keep up on your car’s maintenance.
14. Use gasbuddy.com to find the lowest price on gas.
15. Use the right grade fuel for your car
16. Fill up when your tank is half empty.
17. Avoid unnecessary stopping and braking.
18.  Don’t accelerate to red lights and stop signs.
19. Observe speed limits. You’ll save money on gas and avoid costly speeding tickets.
20. Try to get by with one car if you have two.
21. Drive your car until it’s old. Most cars can run up to 200,000 miles.
22. Shop around for insurance.
23. Pay your auto insurance premiums annually instead of every six months. You’ll get a lower rate.
24. Buy a used car. New car values drop as soon as you drive it off the lot.
25. Use your air conditioner only when absolutely necessary.
26. Don’t warm your car up by letting it idle.
27. Use cruise control on highways
28. Make it a challenge to see how far you can go on a tank of gas.

With Help from:

 

 

www.moolanomy.com

www.beingfrugal.net

8 Tips to Saving Money While Dining-Out

Dining out can be so expensive. I believe most people have cut out dining-out quite a bit. However it doesn’t have to make a huge dent in your wallet. Here are some tips for dining out and cutting the cost.

 

1. Let’s start off with this: limit how many times you and the family eat out if you haven’t does some already. Cut how many times you do eat out in half if not more. Try to limit yourself to once per week. Just think of the major savings right there.
2. Share your meal. The portion sizes for adults are huge why not order an entrée for two. This would work really well if your family does not like leftovers.
3. Order an appetizer for your meal. It costs less than a dinner.
4. Don’t order drinks. Order water instead.
5. Kids eat for less.  I’ve seen some restaurants where kids eat free- Other restaurants kids eat really cheap. Make sure you are going to these restaurants if you have children.
6. Lunch has cheaper prices. So if you can make the dining out experience in the daytime, do it.
7. Pick up dessert on your way back home or have dessert waiting for you when you get home.
8. Make sure you bring home the left-overs
   

FareCompare-Compare Air Flights and Get Vacation Deals

Fare Compare has the tools to find the right flight at the right price. This saves you time so you don’t have to keep going to several different sites and re-entering information.

They also have great information on Vacation Deals

• “Last Minute Beach Vacations”
• “Cheap Flight Of the Day…”
• “United Airlines Drops Airfare to Tampa and Orlando”
• And More

16 Free (and as close as to free as you can get) Activities for You and Your Family

1. Library-It’s not the library it used to be with the card catalog and the Dew Decimal system. They still have books and magazines. There are also computers with internet connection, and DVDs to rent. Go check it out.
2. Visit the Metro Parks (City Parks)
3. Bake Something: Cake, Bread, Cookies, Pie. Try a new recipe.
4. Have Culture night. Make a meal surrounding another culture.
5. Go Fishing. Get out your fishing pole; go buy bait and head to the river, stream, lake, reservoir or ocean. This is a great way to relax.
6. Visit a farm-the one’s with cows, chickens, horses and pigs. Most of us do not live on farms so go find a farm out in the country that is fully functioning and gives tours.
7. Rent a movie
8. Buy a puzzle and make a weekend out of putting it together.
9. Have a picnic. Whether it’s in your own back yard or you take it to the park, you enjoy that time out.
10. Outdoor Theater
11. Game Night. It’s like the commercial tells you pick one day of the week and make it game night. Actually this is really fun. We have game night when we were kids. Now my son and I have game night.
12. Take a hike-literally get out of the house. State Parks have a multitude of hiking paths if one is nearby.
13. Go Fly a Kite-Again literally go fly a kite.
14. Dance Dance Dance! Turn up the music and dance. Everyone likes to do this. Your can be a silly as you want and no one laughs AT you: They laugh WITH you.
15. Make up a Scavenger Hunt.
16. Go to the beach. If you are lucky enough to have a beach go and get sand in your pants. I do not have a beach near me. Lake Erie is the closest beach, being 2 ½ hours away. (Actually I could make this a cheap day trip in the summer-just thinking)

11 Money Savings Ideas for Spring

1. Turn down the heat or simply turn off your heat. The house will stay warm during the day even if it’s 50 degrees. Turn it on when it gets cold or at night.
2. Start Grilling Out. Clean it and start using it. Great energy saver.
3. Ride a bike. If you live close to a store or your work ride your bike.
4. Wash your own car. There are a couple of ways to do this. If you can get your kids (or do it yourself) wash the car in your driveway. Or take your car through the automated car wash. It’s fairly inexpensive.
5. Bathe your own pets. Pickup some pet shampoo wash them yourself in the back yard. I have even seen the Car Wash have “pet washing” areas.
6. Use a clothes line to dry clothes. You’ll save on your energy bill.
7. Grow your own vegetables and herbs. I have been planting my own garden for 15 years. I live in the suburbs so it’s a small area. I plant what my family likes to eat. So each year I end up with tomatoes and peppers. Try something different each year. Herbs can be planted in containers and kept outside nearby your kitchen.
8. Buy next year’s clothes for your kids now. Winter clothes are probably at least 80% off. Buy a size or two larger than what your kids are wearing now and store away for next year
9. Stop at yard sales. Make a list of the items you need and would look for at a yard sale. Kids clothes, tools, electronics, home décor, kitchen items and antiques are great to find at yard sales.
10. Brown Bag your lunch. At least once a week pack your lunch for work-Big money saver. Also consider eating it outside. It’s a big stress reliever to be able to walk away from your desk. It’s even better if you walk away from your office to a nice shady spot under a tree on a sunny day. Now that’s a stress saver!
11. Quit smoking. I’m talking to the smokers. I am an ex-smoker (recent- within the year). I know you know how much money you would save. So there’s that-I said it. No preaching.

It’s Finally Spring

It’s spring!!!! The season of new life is here- so unlike the past autumn and winter, which was horrible. I can’t even remember if the skies were gloomy or how much snow and ice we had compared to last year. My mind was somewhere else. I am a single mother and I lost my job. Questions and worries consumed me at first. I haven’t really been “Off” from work since I was 16 years old. I had a great job. I worked in a nice part of downtown. The area’s trendy-though I don’t consider myself trendy. But it was nice to be in a clean and well-kept environment. Any way, I had just started with the company, Advertising, in Feb 08. They laid me off (a couple of other people too) in Nov 08- right before the holidays.

Since then I’ve been looking for work. A couple of jobs have come up that I have had interviews. But each of those positions is going unfilled because of the hiring freezes within the companies.

I have always been really great at rubbing two pennies together; being a penny pinch: a penny saved is a penny earned type person. I probably have taken my frugality to a little extreme in some cases. I’m always looking out for the savings I can get. I know how much grocery items costs at each store. If I see something I like,  I will research it  and research it until I find the lowest price. I do fix things myself if I need to, before calling in an expert. I also “know” people who can get jobs done cheaper.

So here I am. No job and a knack for saving money and keeping it. I currently live off of the unemployment benefits I receive. My sister finds it amazing that I can work within the budgeted amount, which are only the unemployment payments. I don’t receive any other support. Some how I make it happen. It’s really hard because I do have things I like to spend money on- like eating out restaurants. How about buying clothes? I’m a clothes hog. I shop at discount stores. You would be surprised that I do shop at thrift stores as well. It’s like finding treasure. But now when I shop at the thrift store, it’s for one or two items not forty.

So I am excited about spring.

I do have plans to start my own business, so there is a ray of hope.

But in the meantime I still must live by a strict budget and have excellent self-discipline.