Today has just been crazy all the way around. Temperatures have dropped and now our bodies will have to get used to the cold. Some stinking virus is going around the schools, so both my children have been home sick since the end of last week.

I also have had to pick up candy from our Girl Scout sale and distribute it to the parents. When it rains it pours here! So I definitely needed a quick and easy frugal meal for this week. I chose one that is hearty and will stick to your ribs. It is great for those cold days, and you really crave something that will warm you down to your toes!

Hearty Chili

Cost break down:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef $2.50, 1 48 ounce can tomato juice, $1.09, 1 can pinto beans $0.69, Spices $0.50

Open face Toasted Cheese Sandwiches

6 slices of cheese $1.50, 6 slices of bread $0.75, Margarine $0.50

Recipe for Open Faced Toasted Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Sliced American or Cheddar Cheese

Sliced Bread

Margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread margarine on one side of the bread and place this face down on a cookie sheet. Place a slice of cheese on top and bake on the middle rack in the oven for 6-8 minutes or cheese is bubbly.

As you can see, even when adding saltine crackers to this meal, it costs less than $10.00 for a family of four. It is a very filling meal and one of my family’s favorites.

Today I would like to talk about ways to save you money. Here are some of the basic tips and tricks that I use to save my family a lot of money. One of my best kept secrets and money stretchers is to shop at garage and yard sales. There are some tricks to this that you need to know to get the best bang for you buck. I will list these below.

1. Make a list of the things that you are looking for or need.

2. Look in local newspapers or free papers that list garage sales for sales that have the items listed that you need.

3. Mark those down and make sure you visit those first. Be early to these sales. Some people hit garage sales at 6 am to get first choice at things. I have had people knocking on my door or trying to climb over a locked gate when I had a sale at my grandmother’s house.

4. Know which items are easy to find at yard sales. This will be discussed below.

5. If you are looking for large items such as furniture or appliances, then look for moving sales. They frequently have more variety of these types of items. You will see some furniture at yard or garage sales but moving sales are a better resource for furniture items.

6. Know your neighborhoods. Garage sales in neighborhoods that are in the nicer areas of the city or town you live in are more likely to have quality clothing or good furniture or design pieces for your home. The down side to this is some of them will be asking higher prices for their merchandise. The up side to this is you can still negotiate price with them.

7. If you wait until late in the afternoon, you can usually get some really great bargains on things that have not sold at garage sales. The person holding the sale by this time wants to just get rid of the stuff and will usually give you a good price on several items if you tell them you are interested. I have had people come by late and give me a set price for quite a few pieces. It was worth it to me to get them out of my house.

8. If you are buying in bulk, like several clothing items or several household pieces, it is OK to ask for a discount from the seller. This is done all the time and is acceptable. You will not know until you try. Most of the time you will get a discount or get something else thrown in free!

9. I find many books at garage sales. They are excellent sources for cheap books. They are also good resources for anyone who is thinking about reselling books online. I never pay over 25 cents for a book and have gotten a whole box of them for $2.00. I have gotten paperbacks for 10 cents each.

10. If you have babies or small children garage sales are excellent sources for infant or toddler clothing and toys. I see lots of toys, cribs, and other baby and toddler items that are selling for less than half price of new items. This is a great way for someone to furnish their nursery if they cannot afford to buy all new things. It is also a good way to clothe little ones. I have seen lots of new baby and toddler clothing at these sales.

This is a great way to save money! I hope you enjoyed the tips and put them to use to save money for you!

Hello Everyone

I have been thinking of some things that I would like to do for my blog on a weekly basis for the winter months that my readers do not see on other blogs. I wanted to make it frugal worthy and something that I can use as well as pass it on to other frugal moms. I think I have found the solution here! I am going to post frugal meal solutions on Mondays. A full meal as well as its cost will be listed to feed a family of four. I will also include some recipes. So we can have some fun there too!  These meals will be inexpensive and nutritious!

Today’s Frugal Meal

Homemade Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Costs: Ground Beef $2.49 per pound, Spaghetti noodles $1.00 per box (use 1/2 box) Spaghetti sauce 99 cents

French Bread with Garlic Butter  $1.00 per loaf

Tossed Salad with Lo Cal Salad Dressing  Salad greens $2.00 Tomatoes $1.00 Salad dressing $1.99

The total cost of this meal is less than $10.00 and feeds a family of four easily.

This is a very basic meal but is loved by almost everyone. Kids and adults alike will eat spaghetti. Prep time for this meal is quick as well. As a work at home mom, I do not have all day to prepare meals. I know some people think since I work at home, this should not be an issue. I however, disagree. I need quick easy thinggs to make for dinner or things that I can prepare ahead of time and then reheat or freeze and then thaw and cook.

Let me know if you like this idea or if you have ideas about frugal meals that I can use here or reciepes you would like to share for my blog. I would be happy to do a guest post here.

I’m a part of a wonderful blogging community filled with great women!  We spur each other on, provide both technical and emotional support and occasionally send awards to those who we feel are deserving. One of my group has honored me by sending me an award. I really appreciate her giving me this. So I would like to thank Jen at Drawings On the Wall. She has a great blog about her life and family. You should go over there, and read a bit. You will enjoy it as much as I have!

I would like to pass this award on. I have chosen seven wonderful blogs and you should check these out too… The blogs are..

1. Smoothie’s Place

2. Mom Tidings

3. Nytro Girl

4. Teletwenties

5. World Of Mom

6. Weekly Beef

7. My Thrifty Blog

Here are the rules for the awards:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the persons you’ve nominated.

Have a great day!

Image courtesy of stockxpert.com

OK I have delved a bit further into my pact about living frugally. I have made some firm commitments to my pact. I am going to set my thermostat down to 70 degrees and leave it there. It will stay there whether anyone likes it or not. If anyone complains, we have lots of sweaters and sweatshirts here to put on. It is getting that time of year anyway. It is much easier to put on a piece of clothing than it is to take things off and try to cool off.

There will be no more clothing purchases here until Christmas unless it is a dire emergency. That does not mean a shoe emergency that my daugher deems necessary because she thinks they are just too CUTE and they match her nearly new pants! We will not be visiting any clothing stores or going to any clothing departments if I can help it until the holiday season comes around. Out of sight out of mind is a good mantra to have right now.

I am going to really work hard to bundle all my weekly trips into one trip per week. I think I can do that. With gas prices so high, I have been doing pretty well on that anyway. I think that I can do better on that. I also am going to cut out our eating out or doing take out to twice a month period. We do not eat out often but we do get take out pizza or Subway sandwiches etc. That adds up after a while. That will cut some $ out of our budget.

One more thing I am going to do is do some stockpiling. You may think this is a bit crazy but my grandmother was the queen of this. She would see say coffee on sale for a great price. She would call up the store and ask them if they had one or two cases of it. She would then send one of us to get the two cases of coffee. She then had coffee for the next several months so if prices went up she had no issues with the price changes. I am going to start taking advantage of these things when I can. I have a basement so I can do some of this.

Well that is frugal living part 2. I am sure I can come up with a few more wacky ideas for part 3 so tune back in to see if I have!  Until then live frugal and live proud!

I have been watching the news lately and all the gloom and doom they are quacking about is really making me down. I am a bit nervous about the way everything is going and want to tighten the belt a bit more just to make sure that we will not have any issues even if things become worse in the next couple of months. So I sat down and started looking for some ways to trim the fat. Heck I need to be in congress! I could teach them a thing or two I bet! Frugal living here I come!

It was really eye opening when I sat down and took a long hard look at our bills. Things such as our phone bill and all the convenience things there that could be taken off. Call waiting, call return, and some other features went bye-bye. I kept caller ID because I really do use that one to screen calls. Everything else went back to the AT&T Gods. I then started looking at my Direct TV bill. I wanted to pare that down too. I really got into some heated discussion with the family on that one, though. I had to concede that we do not go out to the movies or rent them so I can justify that one.

Other ways I have decided to try to cut down the bills are to lower my thermostat at least 2 degrees. I have read that will cut bills down several dollars a month. I also have started unplugging appliances that are not in use. I did not realize that they still pull current even if they are not on when they are plugged up. I also have made it my mission to keep lights off unless we are in the room and it is at night. I have started washing clothes in cold water only. I am also talking hubby into taking his lunch to work at least three days a week. I will cook and freeze meals for eating later. This will keep me from wanting to eat out more or get take out. I will also make cheaper meals from scratch, and not purchase more expensive prepared foods.

One good thing about all this is in addition to saving money, I have read that we will be cutting down on the carbon dioxide emissions that we are causing in the environment. I feel good that we are helping to do our part there too. So I am going to see by practicing a bit more frugal living, how much more this will have saved me at the end of the month.  Frugal living is something that I am passionate about, however I do feel that everyone gets complacent even me. I was suprised at all the things I found that we could change!

What are some things that you can come up with that you can change to save your family money? Come back here and let me know what you found that you could do and what you saved your family!

I am the epitome of the frugal shopper. I really enjoy finding bargains especially on clothing and other items that cost a lot of money. I have tried to instill that same love of the bargain in my girls. I have always put Goodwill high on my list of stores that I can always find great bargains at. I have noticed though in the last year or so that I have been finding more prices that are totally out of control there. Due to my health issues, I have not been able to shop there frequently like I had in the past so I was in shock when I stopped in today to find some things.

My daughters needed some sleeping bags to have for their Girl Scout Sleepovers. I thought we would see if we could find them there. We walked in and I immediately found a darling brand new light weight sweater that is worn over a camisole. It was marked $7.99. I gasped at the price but saw that it was one of the sale items for the day so I decided to purchase it.

My daughter spied a coat that she wanted. We walked over to the coat racks and I found a cute jacket that fit me and I was able to get it for $8.00. My daughter tried one on, however that was $25.99 on the price tag. I almost had a heart attack right there. I thought they would have to come and do CPR on me right in the aisle! When did Goodwill start having clothing merchandise that was so upscale that it was worth $25.00???

That was just a drop in the bucket, though. I started looking closely and found another coat marked $59.99. Good grief. I mean these were not upscale designer items or anything. They were not new, they had wear on them and there was nothing that warranted any where near the price that they were marked. I was totally appalled that Goodwill was trying to commit highway robbery by pricing their items at such high rates.

We then go back to find a sleeping bag. My daughter finds a cute Bratz bag and a very thin poor quality sleeping bag inside that looked more like a thick bed sheet to me and I took the price tag it was $12.99. I know it was because it had Bratz on it.

On we went and the more I saw the madder and more appalled I got. Tiny blankets which could be used for throws were marked $9.99. I had just paid $5.00 for a brand new lap throw at Big Lots down the street. What is wrong with this picture?

By this time, I was ready to leave. I will not go to Goodwill again unless I purchase sale items for that day and nothing else. There is no way you are going to get a bargain unless you take advantage of those. Frequently though at our Goodwill all the household items, shoes, etc are not placed on sale. So, you are just out of luck if you need something of that nature at a good price.

We need to boycott Goodwil ladies and let them know we are not going to pay the prices that they put on those tags just because they think they can get those prices. There is no sane reason for this.  I have seen better prices at upscale consignment stores in the area. It is just ridiculous. If Goodwill starts to see their sales go down the tubes, they will have to examine their practices and see what the problem is.  Maybe some of them will even read this blog.

Goodwill was not put into place to make someone rich. It was designed to help people with disabilities and other issues to have jobs and to help others. There is no reason for them to get greedy or overly exuberant. It will not benefit them in the end. I know that I will not be visiting them in the future, as often as I have in the past. I will take my patronage to other thrift stores who know how to sell used items for a price that allows consumers to know they are getting a bargain but allowing the store owner to make a small profit as well. This makes everyone happy!!!!