5.23.10

It was a good weekend until the humidity shot up over 80%. So here I am sitting in the A/C working on my website. What is a frugal person doing with the A/C on?! Well, sometimes you got to make a little sacrafice once in awhile for other things. I'm also watching Celebrity Appretiance on NBC, Go Bret!!

Check out all the new freebies I added to the site! I will be updating every 2-3 weeks like I did before. I am going to try some new projects/ideas this summer and I will keep you posted on how they go!

So, without further ado go live frugal!

3.14.10

Had a great day today! The sun graced us with it's presence, it has been raining almost every day non-stop for at least 5 days possibly more. And I actually turned the heat off! I know right? It has been off almost 10+ hours and the temp in here is warmer than what we normally keep it at with the heat on! I am wondering if I can go overnight without turning it on. I live in MN and there is still snow on the ground so probably not?

Went to my mom and dad's last night for dinner. She told me in January that this year she wanted to save as much money as possible and try be more frugal. So I told her I would help with ideas and give her homemade laundry detergent. I always notice things no matter where I go that could be a frugal saver but 99% of the time I zip my lips because it isn't our place to rub that off on others. It is a lifestyle we choose but others might not care to be a part of. Which is totally fine but last night I was critiqing my mom all night! One example was she throwing away tin foil that was perfecting clean and could be used again! She did have some good ideas of her own too that I might start using. She saves the glass jars from her "Classico" pasta sauce. She told me you can use them for canning which I did not know.

3.06.10

If you have any ideas you would like me to share with others just send me an email. Visit Contact Us and drop me a line. I am open to trying new things and sharing the results. A friend told me to try a can of frozen condensed orange juice in an empty dishwasher cycle, saying it would smell great in the house and cleaning the dishwasher mildew. All I have to say is WOW. It worked! Smelled great and some of those yellow streaks that I had in the dishwasher for the last couple years...GONE. All for .99 cents!

2.15.10

It's been a good month! Can't complain, we both have jobs and they seem to be going well. I've found some really neat local websites that sell $50 Restaurant gift certificates for $25 + small postage fee. If you live out of the MN area try going to google and typing in the following "half off deals (your city or state) I am sure you will find some to start with. Or try going to www.restaurants.com see if your favorite places are on there or maybe it is a place you have been wanting to try. Either way, you only end up paying 50% of your tab! Most of them allow you to purchase alcohol with the certificates!

If you live in MN check out the following:

http://halfofftwincities.com/

http://www.tcldotcomdeals.com/intro.php

http://www.chartermainstreetdeals.com/intro.php

http://www.halfoffdeals.com/ - My Favorite!!

1.31.10

I made my own version of Shepard's Pie tonight and it turned out awesome. Check out the slideshow below! For the recipe, click here.

My Own Version of Shepard's Pie

1.22.10

You ever see those letters and numbers under the bottle caps of coke products and wonder why people waste their time on those? I finally decided to get to the bottom of it and I logged onto My Coke Rewards.com and figured out what was going on. It is pretty simple and after a month, I have decided it is totally worth saving those codes!

So basically each code is worth points. A 12 pack is 10 points, 2 liter is 3 points and so on. You create an account and start entering your codes and you accumulate points. In 4 weeks I easily had over 120 points (part of it was a bonus 75 points from Coke). I was eligible to start receiving free stuff from Coke. I opted for a magazine suscription and now I am saving my points again for my next Free Reward!

http://www.mycokerewards.com/home.do

1.20.10

Time for me to get back on the frugal wagon. It took me quite awhile to curb the spending again and start to get back on track with our financial goals. I'll admit I went a little crazy with a girls weekend and shopping with my mom on a road trip but it was much needed therapy. Now that I got myself back on track I am making a couple short term goal for the next few months. One is how we are going to spend our tax return...100% is going to pay off hopefully the rest of our credit card debt and we would then be credit card debt free, something I never thought could be accomplished. The other goal is to start building a really nice savings account for other short and long term purchases. This may be the year I will need a new car, obviously I want to pay cash for it but that reality is not possible so a decent down payment is what I am aiming for.

I came across some neat and really cool frugal ideas over the last couple months so be sure to keep checking back for updates and new things to be posted almost daily!

12.14.09

I feel kind of guilty for telling people this but when you sign up for your free stuff...if it requires a phone number, give them the wrong number or a number that you know you don't answer. I have had some magazine companies call me and a telemarketer. Now I must have put my number down close to a 1000 times already on free samples but only get about 2-3 calls a week. Still it can be annoying to be bothered by money hungry people.  

If you haven't seen them yet check out my homemade laundry detergent pictures that I have posted on the main page and the Homemade Solutions page!

12.02.09

My husband and I went out to dinner for the 1st time in months. We haven't sat down for dinner at a restaurant in at least 4 months. I had a bogo (buy one get one free) coupon for a place in town. So I thought, well if I get us both dinner and walk out paying $20 or less then I would be a happy camper. Even using a bogo coupon we still went over $20, the bill was $20.72 and I left a $3 tip. So $23.72 total. I stuck with water instead of ording a soda which would have been $2.99. The hubby did get a beer which was $6.25!! Almost a meal itself. We both ordered entrees under $9 and did not go with the fries which were an extra $1.99. Geez, they try to get you every which way when eating out! So without the bogo coupon and ordering the "extras" we would have spent close to $40 so I guess you could say we saved over $16!

Oh, and my husband got a job! He started a few weeks ago. That was my secret that I didn't share back in October. I was waiting to make sure it went through before I said anything :)

11.22.09

I learned how to make my own make and freeze french fries! It was the easiest thing I have done yet and we have already made some from frozen and they turned out great. Over the past couple weeks I have gotten some good deals on potatoes from the grocery store. Cub Foods had them for .68 cents for a 5lb bag and Target had them on sale for $1.99 for a 10 lb bag! Best deal all year!

Then I thought, what I am going to do with all these potatoes? I had already made twice baked potatoes and mashed potatoes that I froze and still had a ton left yet to use! A friend suggested I try French Fries. And I did! If you have kids, this is a great idea and you can make enough to last you a year! Click here to get the full recipe!

11.07.09

I have been cooking non stop the last day and will continue in Sunday evening. I am trying to make some meals that I can freeze and eat over the next few months. With Eric working again it is so much easier to put something in the oven right away when you get home than rushing to prepare a meal. We don't make oven meals every night but at least twice a week we will do that. It saves so much time too. So far I have made the following: M&M Cookie dough (kept frozen until ready to bake), Chicken and sausage hot dish, twice baked potatoes, beef stroganoff, lasagna and chow mein casserole. Not sure what I will make tomorrow but I will update you then!

10.25.09

I have a secret! Hee hee...okay I promise to share it but not for a few weeks. But I will give you a hint, it is a good secret!

Yesterday my husband and I went bowling and enjoyed a dinner out with some friends. We haven't been out to do something like this in at least 6-8 weeks so it was a real treat to do so.

I was reading in a magazine tonight about a couple that was in financial trouble last year and they made a commitment to one another that they would not buy anything for one year. And with that they mean no clothes, no movies, no dining out, only items that counted were food and things that needed to be fixed to keep the house running and vehicles. That is a huge committment...I don't even think I could do that. But if I think about it we have already done this on a lighter level, this couple took it to the extreme and guess what, they claim to have caught up on all financial responsibilities and they have managed to pay off some debt. I guess the lesson to be learned here is when you think you might have money problems it could lie within your own spending habits. Try the "no spending" rule on a shorter term instead of long term and see how it works out for you.

10.09.09

I think today was the first day that I realized it is going to take awhile for us to recover. I don't mean financially but recover from what used to once be our normal lifestyle. My husband has been unemplyed for roughly 3 months. Today he finally had his first phone call after applying for more than 50 positions, I was pretty stoked as you can imagine! Thoughts running through my head of having pizza delivered to celebrate and buying my $8.99 bottle of champagne. The call was from Target, sounds good so far right? They wanted to set up an interview but before the appointment was made they stated right away what the position paid and my husband needed to decide if the pay rate was going to be okay otherwise there would be no interview. I will be honest here, my husband's unemployment is just under $8/hour, Target was offering $9.50/hour. The pay is obviously better than being unemployed but hard for someone who used to once almost make $16/hour at the job he was laid off from.  

Once I realized that even though the pay was still better than being unemployed, we would still have to live the same lifestyle we are right now. It would take more than several years to build up that lifestyle again and be comfortable with spending the money. I understand now why the economy isn't going to come back to what it was for many years.

10.05.09

Fall is here! I finally gave in and turned the heat on when I got home today. I had been shivering at work all day and I could not bear the thought of shivering all night! Kind of a sad day at work today as we found out that some more jobs will be centralized in Denver, CO. I think most of them are in shock mode still, as we thought lay offs were pretty much done at this point. In the last year I have noticed that these changes have been happening at the end of every quarter.

In my household things have been decent for awhile. My car is on life support. Might die, might not. :) Had some trouble with it over the weekend and not sure if I will be getting behind the driver seat soon. Kind of scared of it now! I have about 198,000 miles on it and all I wanted to do was reach 200,000 because I have never done that before and now I am scared to reach my goal!

9.07.09

It has been a wonderful weekend. Most holiday weekends consist of endless spending of money but this weekend was really good and inexpensive. We went to Lake Mille Lacs yesterday to walk the shoreline in several areas in search of beach glass. I got the idea on seeing a documentary on TV the night before. With less than $100 in our account at the begining of the weekend I assumed we would be confined to the house unable to do anything. So not true! Sunday AM we put gas in the car and packed a cooler with beverages and lunch and off we went. I have never driven around lake Mille Lacs and I truly enjoyed it. We found some beach glass and best of all we walked in the water along the shore for a full day and it was fun to do something different.

8.19.09

We quit the bowling league for this upcoming season. We had been bowling for 5 years with the same couple and this will be the first year we are not doing it. My husband was actually more in favor to quit than I was. Part of me felt we could do it but I was worried to financially commit to it. With me being on furlough, taking a pay cut and my husband not working it seemed like the right thing to do. We only budget X dollars a month for entertainment and if we bowled on a league again we would not be able to do other things such as going out to eat, going out with friends and even having that impulse buy once in awhile at the store. The league is 8 months long and it was hard to realize that was all we would be able to afford to do for enjoyment.

8.17.09

Went to the cabin this weekend with 2 other couples. It was a lot of fun. It was not an expensive weekend at all and I was worried it might be. I took the girls in town on Saturday and when we got back the boys were having fun hanging out and we ate their food! Overall it was a great weekend and I am glad our friends came and hopefully they enjoyed themselves too.

8.10.09

Don't eat food just because it is free. I feel like I have been trying to take advantage of too many free offers for my birthday meals and I am starting to feel full all the time and almost gross. Just indulge in a few favorites and leave it at that. Trust me!

8.04.09

Next week is my birthday and I have gotten about 10 e-mails from restaurants offering me a free meal, ice cream or appetizer for the next 3 weeks! Noodles is giving me a free entree! Not a buy one get one free but a free entre! Free ice cream from Cold Stone, $10 off at Tiberlodge Steakhouse no min, and more! I told my husband we are eating good this month! Bonus, my husband has the same birthday as me so we generally don't have to pay for anything!

7.29.09

My motto this week is "Life isn't fair, but it's still good." When you have an unfortanate situation, life is still good, you just have to look at it differently. I don't want to sound like one of those annoying people that are always positive but it is true, sometimes you just got to look on the bright side.

On a frugal note, last week we did something different, something we have not thought of! I did not want to turn the air conditioner on when it was humid and sticky. It can be an uncomfortable and sweaty night for sleeping! My husband was telling me a story about when he was young and his parents did not have a/c they would sleep in the basement. Ding! A light went off in my head. I went downstairs and yes it was cooler, probably about 10 degrees cooler! We pulled our mattress down there and have been sleeping in the basement during warm nights. I even woke up shivering one morning!

7.20.09

Welcome to world of rising unemployment. You are either unemployed yourself, or your spouse is or someone close to you is. Or you and your spouse are both unemployed. Chances are unemployment has hit close to home. 5 years ago you could have thrown yourself a pity party and it would have worked but now so many people are going through the same thing it is hard to talk about it and not sound selfish. On Friday my husband was laid off from his employer. I didn't bother to pick up the phone and call anyone. Instead I sat in my chair at work and started to cry.

This past year we have made so many changes in our life financially. It was what I thought every way possible to cut back on expenses and still be able to pay the bills. My question now is what more can we possibly do? I don't know the answer but I know we will somehow get through it.

7.16.09

When I was young, I had gone to church with my mom one Sunday. She was digging in her purse for a few dollars to give (I called it the upside down hat) during communion. At the time I didn't understand, we didn't have money to give and yet my mom was digging in her purse. I didn't have to say anything but she wispered to me, "When you give, you get more back in return." And that stuck with me, and she was right.

I believe in the 10/10/80 rule. Give 10%, Save 10% and spend 80%. Spending 80% does not mean going on a shopping spree or stimulating the economy. 80% can simply go to mortgae and bills. And giving 10% can be in many different ways, donating to charity, giving to good will, making meals for a friend/family, or simply helping a friend or family in hardship, even if it is donating your magazines you have been stacking forever in the corner. Put them in a box and next time you visit your family or friends give them the box. Simple gestures go a long way.

Those of you that know me, know that I have had a hearing loss since I was born. Hearing aids are not covered by insurance companies and can range from $2000 - $10,000. I have a friend that works for a hearing aid company, and I have been blessed to receive a free hearing aid of no charge from her company. This is probably one of the best things that I could have gotten from someone.

When you give, even if it is small, you will receive more in return.

7.15.09

I find it hard to spend time updating my website when the summer evenings are so nice! But tonight I am bringing you ALL the latest freebies! Please let me know if you have a freebie, tip or idea you would like to share.

7.09.09

Getting the free samples is really starting to add up. I have enough femine products to last me an entire month! I love it. I have gotten so many toothpaste samples I don't think I need to buy anymore for the rest of the year.

I do have samples of stuff that I didn't end up using or didn't need. What I did with those was start putting them in a box. When friends come over I have them dig in the box and take WHATEVER they want. I insist it needs to go and they love it!

7.08.09

Okay I am guilty. I am starting to slack on my duties here to bring you the fabulous free stuff! Cut me some slack...it's summer! I have been enjoying my nights and I try to do this when it rains or something. But I actually miss sending out my Frugal Living e-mails and getting the free stuff so I am catching up! Tonight and tomorrow I will be to bringing you the fabulous free stuff again! Stay tuned...

6.18.09

For once I am going to admit I am very bored. This is unusual for me! I always keep myself busy doing something, even if I am confined to the house for an entire weekend. I am either cleaning, organizing, cleaning out closets, cooking, scrapbooking, cleaning out the junk stuff...you name it, I am already on it.

Right now I wish I was with a friend somewhere sitting on an outside patio and having a drink. I don't usually go out much at all. I simply can't afford it so that means I don't get to visit with friends much and I am turning down a lot of invites to go out. But for once, this time I wish I had an invite to go out. Moral of this story...don't turn down all the invites! If you can't afford to go out try to invite friends to your home to sit on the patio or turn off the tube and cook a meal together.

Earlier this week my friend Melissa came over, we enjoyed a couple beers, talked about her upcoming date and made calzones together! We made them to eat that night for dinner and we made extras to freeze and eat later on. They were YUMMY!!

5.23.09

Yesterday I decided we would make it through the holiday weekend on a very strict budget. For under $50 we would need to stay entertained, enjoy ourselves but yet not spend money unless we had to. To put it simple...the $50 is spent and it is only Saturday. This is hard! We put gas in one of the vehicles ($10), I bought groceries ($28), and today we went fishing. Well, I don't have a license because my husband didn't think I would do any fishing this summer so I had to buy one ($18). Then we realized we needed gas for the boat ($38). We spent $94 already! When you think you are going to be able to enjoy a holiday weekend with little or no expenses...think again!

5.20.09

It's crazy that it is 90+ degrees in Minnesota right now! This does not happen in May and we broke a high temp record two days in a row. Some have opted to turn on the A/C. I don't think I can do that just yet...especially in May!

We have kept the blinds closed allowing very little sunlight in, ran our ceiling fans and our inside temp has been slightly under 70 degrees so far.

5.12.09

I guess it's time I updated this website! Truth is I was waiting for a rainy or cold night to come along. I am wondering if anyone has groomed their own dog before. My cocker spaniel has to be groomed almost every 3 months or 4 times a year. Generally it is around $50 bucks and if it isn't hard to groom your own pet, I might just try it! Let me know by clicking here to tell me your expierence.

5.3.09

My husband only gives himself about 20 minutes in the morning and he is out the door. He generally only eats a quick bowl of cereal or a frozen breakfast that you buy at the store and heat in the microwave. A few days ago I thought to myself, why am I buying these? My next grocery trip I picked up a dozen eggs, sausage, bacon, onion and green peppers. Today I scrambled all the eggs, added the cooked sausage, bacon, added the diced onion and green peppers and I have created a better and inexpensive breakfast for my husband and it can be frozen and heated in the microwave. Click here to get the full recipe!

4.26.09

I planted some seeds today! I did cucumber and tomatoes to start. It was very easy and only took about 10 minutes. I used an empty egg carton and left over potting soil from last fall. While cleaning out a drawer I found some popsicle sticks to label my cartons and I was set!

4.24.09

About 5 years ago I tried a veggie garden for the first time. It didn't go very well. I planted too much stuff, some things grew and spread too much and basically it was out of control. I figured it wasn't in my cards. But this Spring I am going to give it another go. I figured I must have learned a few things the first time around so why not try again but do things differently? I am going to do about half the plants and half the size of the garden. It should be more managable. I am also going to grow what I want and what I will enjoy eating. Last time I planted everything because I thought I would use it all. Totally not the case! One thing I won't grow is pumpkins. If I want one or two pumpkins I will just buy them in the fall. When I did pumpkins before I think that took over the garden and then some. I will be sure to post some pics very soon!

4.19.09

If you have a speedy rewards card you might want to cash in your points soon. This is a free card to anyone to redeem points earned on purchases. Begining May 1st, 2009 the terms are going to change making it harder to redeem points. It means that if a $50 gift card only needs 37,000 points the new terms could change to need 55,000 points. If you have a large point balance like we do you may want to head to Super America in the next 10 days to cash in.

4.14.09

I am coming home today from my mini vacation! I had a great time. My mom and I went to SW Minnesota to visit family for a few days. We stayed at a cabin on a lake that had an awesome sunset. I played Wii bowling with my 92 year old Grandma and she beat me! My Aunt has a newly built cabin so we helped her decorate with pictures and shelves.

I did splurge on a Paula Dean frying pan when we went shopping. More than I would normally spend but I have heard really good things about her cookware. I hope to add some more pieces in the future. Bye for now!