How To Beat The Heat On The Cheap

Ugh! It is so hot here right now. Well maybe not RIGHT now, since it's about 9:30pm, but during the day.  We are having a late Summer here in SoCal.  I predict it will be hot until the end of Oct, early Nov.  Late Summers suck.  They kind of mess with your head.  You expect it to be cooler and it just doesn't happen.


Unfortunately, the air conditioner in our house is too small to cool down the entire house, so when the air is on, it is working so hard that it sucks up the electricity and since the power companies here like to rape their customers, yes I just wrote that, it's the truth, the bill can run up to or beyond $300, a month.  The $300, is if you're lucky.  Anyway, needless to say, we do not run our air conditioner.  Some days it can get above 90 degrees in the house.  Insane, I know!


Here are some things we do to keep cool and just some tips that may work for you.


Keep the doors and windows closed during the day.  Make sure your home is well insulated and you don't have a draft.  Also, let as little light into your home.  This one is hard for me, because I love natural light, but leaving too many curtains open lets in heat.


If you can, open your house up at night.  If you have a two story home, open the windows upstairs.  This allows the heat to escape through the windows and the cool air from the night in.


If you have a house fan, turn it on at night.  That also lets the cool night air in.  The important thing you want to do is cool your house down as much as possible at night.  The cooler your house is the longer it will take to heat up during the day.


Buy a small room air conditioner and put it in your bedroom.  It is much cheaper to cool one room that it is to cool an entire house.  We do this and on very hot nights my son camps out in our room.


Other ways to keep cool is to wear cool loose fitting clothing. 


Carry around a spray bottle with water in it.


Take a cool bath or shower.


Make friends with someone who has a pool.


Try to use your oven and stove as little as possible.  The grill and the crock pot are good friends of mine.


Eat lots of popsicles and frozen treats.


And the most important tip I have is to make sure you, your kids, and even your pets drink lots of water.  Ice water especially helps with keeping your body temperature cool.  


Stay cool my friends!

Update On July Experiments And What's Going On In August?

Last months experiments were cleaning out my freezer and putting some money in savings.  I was able to get a lot of the freezer emptied out.  The holiday and birthdays helped out a lot.  So I am really happy with that.  Putting some money in savings did not work out like I wanted.  I wasn't able to save any money.  I'm a little disappointed, but it happens.  I'm not beating myself up over it.  I'm just more motivated to make it happen.   


I think that it is important that when you make goals and don't succeed at them, to not let it get you down.  Stay positive. Things happen.  The most important thing is that you learn from the experience and try again.  Figure out why it didn't work and change it next time. 


I don't have any "experiments" for August.  We are ten days into the month and I just figured out what I want to focus on.  This month, I'm focusing on getting my son started in school (which is next week).  We are starting virtual (online) schooling this year and I want to put a lot of my attention on that.  I also want to plan a new attack on saving money for September.  I'm not doing it this month because we have to fix our car and need money for that.  


I want to start focusing on my blog more and I have a couple of projects that I hope will turn into a small business venture for me.  At the very least, bring in some extra money.  


So, that is what is going on this month.  Do you have any goals or "experiments" for this month?

It's The First Of The Month

Today is the first of the month.  That means Experiments #1&2 are starting today.  Very excited to see these in effect.  I really hope I can save as much money as I wanted.  I also can't wait to clean out the freezer and get rid of all the food inside before it goes bad.

Experiment #2

It's almost the first of the month.  I'm getting ready to start my money saving experiment.  I'm very excited for this to start.  I know it's going to be great. I already have a new experiment in mind and I haven't even started the first one.  What am I getting myself into?  


Experiment #2, is going to be cleaning out the freezer.  For the month of July, I will be cooking all the food (or as much as I can) that is in our chest freezer.  Anything that I can cook in the microwave, crock pot, or on the grill will  be eaten.  No oven cooking because it is way too hot to turn the oven on.  


I'm thinking that this will be easy.  We have chicken, pork chops, ground beef and turkey, pot roast, steak and various TV dinners, hot pockets and pizza.  Plenty of food to feed the family for an entire month.  


I'm excited for this experiment because it will help out with the first experiment.  We're going to save a lot of money next month.

Christmas Shopping in July?

Summer is the time that most retail stores start thinking about Christmas inventory.  So a lot of stores, especially Target, is starting to clear the shelves so they can fit all the seasonal product.


This is the perfect time to look for gifts for family and friends.  Toys are especially going to be clearanced out.  Since so many new toys will be released around the holidays, stores really need to make room for all the new product.  


Summertime is the perfect time to start shopping the clearance areas in stores.  You will find some great deals and you may even get your holiday shopping done early.  Most of the time, I will have my Christmas shopping done before Black Friday.


To keep track of your gifts, make a list of all the people you need to shop for and set a budget for each person.  Find a place in your home, like the garage or a closet and put all the gifts in that one place. Make sure your gift stash is a secret place so no one knows goes snooping around.  If you make sure all the gifts are together, you won't forget and have to buy twice.  Keep a copy of your list with you and place a copy with the purchased gifts. 


On a side note, I found out yesterday, that if you don't use a bag or bring your own bag to Target, you get $0.05.  So, make sure you bring your own bags or if you only have a few items, like I did yesterday, tell them you don't need a bag.

Saving Without Coupons (Original Post 04/25/09)

Today, I have some tips on how to save at the store without coupons. I am a coupon shopper. I have been all my life. When I was younger, I use to clip coupons for my grandma and my mom and they both showed me how to shop with coupons. I use coupons for everything. At the grocery store, restaurants, clothes, shoes, make-up and services.

There are times, though that I don't have coupons, but still want a great deal on items. So here is what I do.
1. Grab those ads, go online and compare prices. Sunday Saver is a great site that has ads for almost every store that prints ads. If you are unable to get the ads from the newspaper or mail you can go here and look at them. They are all in one spot. It is also a nice green way to check the ads. No paper.
2. Check the sales racks and shelves. This is also a great way to find things that you can buy and save for gifts. I have found some really nice things, especially toys, for more than half off the retail price that I was able to give as gifts.
3. Shop at outlet type stores. I always joke that I love to "Dress for Less" at Ross. Ross is one of my favorite stores. I am able to get designer clothes (not that I am a designer label snob, I'm not, I love Walmart clothes), but I can purchase some very nice items for a fraction of the cost. These places are also a great for finding very inexpensive but nice gifts. They also have very nice household items. I usually buy my sheets at these stores. I can find very high thread count sheets for about $30. This, I am a snob about and I blame my mother in law. She introduced me to 400 and 500 thread count sheets and I won't buy anything less anymore. But, I also won't pay more than $35, a set for them either.
4. At the grocery store, browse the discounted meat. I haven't bought meat at retail price in years. If I don't use it the first few days, I put it in the freezer, so the meat is still good when I do decide to use it. I have gotten some very nice cuts of meat for half of the retail price. Also, I don't buy very much steak. Steak is a luxury in my house. I use ground beef, ground turkey or chicken for everything.
5. If there is something that you really want, but it is a little out of your price range, wait. Wait for it to go on sale or better yet clearance. This has worked to my advantage several times. I have found things that I wanted, but just couldn't bring myself to pay the full retail price, so I waited. I was able to get a few things on clearance, by doing this. Now, sometimes, this backfires and the store winds up selling out of it, but I just figure it was never meant to be.

So those are the tips that I have to save money without coupons. If you follow these tips and you have coupons, you will make out even better. So, what do you do to save money without coupons?

"Experiment" No. 1

My first "experiment" that I will be starting on July 1st will be living on a budget. A few months ago, my husband got a new job.  Before that, he was working part time.  We were living off of his part time pay, plus the pay I was receiving.  We did fine.  It was a struggle at times, but we got by.  


My husband is now making a considerable amount more a month.  Unfortunately, we have not been saving any money.  For the past few years, I have been in an "I don't care" mode and have not made a budget or really cared to save any money.  I have not always been this way.  My family has suffered some personal family losses and have been hit with some hard times.  These are things that I will comment on at a later time. I have finally decided that this is not how I want to continue to live, so I have a plan.


The plan is to live off of our previous "part time" budget.  We did it before, and so I believe this is something that we should have no problem doing again.  We have acquired no extra bills, so paying those will not be affected.  


How will I be doing this?  My husband gets paid twice a month, so every pay period, I will take out our budget of $200, a week in cash.  The cash will allow me to keep better track of my money and spending.  Everything will be paid out of this "allowance".  This includes gas and groceries.  The only thing that will be taken out of the bank account will be bills.  Everything after bills and allowance will be saved. 


Exceptions to paying out of the bank account will have to go over a strict look over, by my husband and myself.  Anything that we cannot pay with our allowance will need to be discussed. Only emergencies and extreme needs will be paid from this "saved" fund.


Using coupons, sales and eating at home will help make this "experiment" work.  I will update twice a month on how this is going.  Wish me luck!