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?

Bookcloseouts.com (Original Post~5/22/2009)

Bookcloseouts.com is my all time favorite place to purchase books. They have great prices and deals every month. My husband and son love to read and they read so quickly. They both go through books so fast, it sometimes gets a bit expensive to keep up with their hobby.

I have been purchasing books through them for about 2 years now. I have even passed this information to my sons teachers who have since started purchasing books through Book Closeouts.

Although the books that they have are not usually the newest titles, you will be able to find some wonderful books. Book Closeouts has mostly overstock books and some that have been discountinued and the inventory changes all the time. Sign up for the email and you will be notified of new offers. 

Getting Vitamins for Cheap (Original Post~5/20/2009)

Staying healthy is not always inexpensive, but you can get vitamins and herbal supplements for a good price. Puritan's Pride is a great website that offers deals on these items. If you sign up for the newsletter, you will be notified of great deals that will save you even more money. One of their most popular deals they have is Buy 1, Get 1 Free or even better, Buy 2, Get 3 Free. So go and check it out and stock up on your vitamins.

Start Your Christmas Shopping Now

I worked retail for a lot of years and the Summer is the time of year when stores start to get rid of their inventory to make room for the holiday season.


This is especially true for toys.  I was at Target today and noticed that there were a lot of toys on clearance.  If you have some money saved for the holidays, this is the time to start using it.  You can get most of your shopping done before November if you take advantage of these markdowns.  


When you shop, make sure that you check the clearance racks and keep everyone that you are shopping for in mind.  Check the internet as well as the brick and mortar stores.  You will be surprised that there are great deals online also.


Make sure that you make a list of all the people you need to shop for, set your budget and start shopping.  I hope you find some great deals and come out below your budget.  Happy Shopping!

Ireland Vacation (Original post 5/13/2009)

Last year, my family took a vacation to Ireland. This is a vacation that I never would have dreamed we could have taken, much less afford to go on. I was lucky to find a great deal and was able to take this dream vacation. I received and email from Septre Tours and they had a great deal that I could not pass up. A couple of days ago, I receieved another email with a similar offer that I used and I wanted to share with you. The deal is $499, per person for 6 night stay in a townhouse, air and car in Ireland. This is a remarkable price and they have other offers available too.

Ireland is wonderful place to visit. I wish that we had more than a week to visit. I will definitely be visiting again. We stayed in Waterford, which is a beautiful town. Everyone there is so very friendly. I hope that you are as fortunate as I was to take advantage of this offer. If you do, let me know about your trip.

Inexpensive Entertainment (Original Post 5/4/2009)

How do I entertain the family on a budget? I think everyone has asked that question at least once. Spending quality time with the family is sometimes hard, and you don't want to spend all your hard earned money on one day trip. I have a few ideas that my family enjoys doing together, and they don't cost much.

Some free family entertainment is watching your local little league games. We are lucky enough to be within walking distance of two fields. These games are a lot of fun to watch and it is great support for our local teams. Another free idea is to take a walk or bike ride around the neighborhood. What a wonderful way to meet your neighbors and get some exercise. You can also pack a lunch and go to the park. On a nice day, this is also great exercise and a fun way to bond with the kids.

A favorite of my family is to have a family game night. We choose a game (usually Monopoly) have some snacks and just enjoy the fun, and each other. Another favorite of ours is movie night. We pick out a couple of movies, pop some popcorn and enjoy our favorite movies. You can all cook together. Make some fun of it. Pick a theme and pretend to be in a restaurant. Let the kids be the servers and the cooks. They can make a menu, take your order and serve the food.

Now, all those suggestions are things that you can do for free. Here are a few that can be low cost. Pick a local attraction in your area and visit it. Pretend to be a tourist. A lot of people live in an area and never get the chance to really explore where they live. Take a drive. I love getting in the car and taking an "adventure". We get in the car and drive. We don't have a particular destination, we just explore. Try a new restaurant. If you find some local coupons, use them. My family has found some great hidden gems, by using coupons at restaurants, that we probably wouldn't have gone to.

This last tip isn't very inexpensive up front, but throughout the year it is good to have. If you live near a museum, zoo or theme park, buy season or yearly passes. If your family has a day together, you take advantage of those passes and have an awesome family outing.

Mother's Day Gifts (Original Post 5/03/2009)

Mother's Day gifts. I always get questions on what to do for inexpensive gifts. Everyone wants to save money, but are out of ideas of what to do. These are some gift ideas for Mother's Day, but will also work other occasions.

My number one tip, is to make something. You are never too old to make your own gifts. Even if you are not very artistic, grab the crayons and paper and make your own card. As a mother, believe it or not, you never get tired of the homemade gifts. It means so much more that you took the time to create something special.

Another thing you can do is make a special meal. It could be breakfast, lunch or dinner. It doesn't matter. Let Mom have a day off from cooking without worrying about battling the crowds in a restaurant.

Plan a special day for Mom. Get her favorite movies and pop her some popcorn. Let her have a relaxing movie day. You can also treat her to a homemade spa day. Give her a mani/pedi, do her hair and make up. Just pamper her.

Some other wonderful things you can do is clean the house, wash her car, find that list of things that she needs done and do them. The most important thing is to make her feel special. She's your mom and this is her day, she deserves it.

I hope these have helped you and have sparked some ideas of your own. You don't have to spend a lot of money to make your mom feel like a queen.

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?

Review~e.l.f Cosmetics (Original Post 04/24/09)

I decided to do a review on e.l.f. cosmetics. This Christmas I had bought some things for myself and my family. I absolutely fell in love with the make-up. Now, I don't wear make-up often, so I have a hard time paying a lot of money for cosmetics that I don't wear all the time. So e.l.f. is perfect for me. If you don't know about this company, they sell their cosmetics for $1 each. They have a mineral and a studio line, that cost $3. Not too bad of prices. I have used all three lines and love them. I will do separate reviews on products later, but overall, the make-up is excellent. It is worth more than the $1 to $3 that you pay. The studio line is their professional line and these are wonderful and professional products. The brushes are awesome. The mineral line is my all time favorite. I have used Bare Minerals for years and this is up there with that. Another thing that I love about e.l.f. is that they have deals all of the time. Some are Buy 1 Get 1 Free, half off, if you spend $20, you get aRestaurant.com gift certificate, and movie tickets. So, try them out and tell me what you think.

Make Your Own Dryer Sheets

Save some money by making your own dryer sheets.


Reusable Homemade Dryer Sheets*

Flannel pieces
4 TBS liquid softener
10 TBS water

• Cut fabric sheets from old flannel pajamas or leftover flannel fabric from sewing and cut into 3″ x 5″ strips (approximately).
• Stack flannel strips in a cleaned margarine tub (large size) or plastic container (cleaned baby wipes container works well too). Mix the liquid softener and water together, then pour evenly over top of stacked flannel strips.
• Seal container and shake well.

You can use several dozen strips with this mixture. Leave sealed for 2 or 3 days, then use one flannel strip per load–squeeze out excess if necessary (it should be just damp). Keep container sealed at all times. Wash strips after use, then use again to make another batch when needed.

*Thanks Tip Nut

Making Money While Shopping (Original Post 02/04/09)

First of all, I'm sorry I haven't been here posting any good deals. There hasn't been much and I have been very busy. I have probably missed a lot. I have some cool sites to share.

The first is called Cashbaq. If you shop through them they have coupons and you can earn money while you shop. I have been signed up with them for about a month and I have almost $18.00 so far.

The second is ZogoPoints. I just signed up with them, but you can earn points for cash and gifts. A lot of people are getting great goodies from them. It is a lot like MyPoints.

If you haven't signed up for MyPoints, you should do that. I have received great rewards from them, like much needed gas cards when gas had skyrocketed. That was helpful.

Well, until next time.

Free Magazines (Original Post 01/08/09)

I hardly ever pay for magazine subscriptions. And I get a lot of magazines, but I get them all for free, or for very low prices. So, here are two magazine subscriptions you can get for free. Woman's Day and Shape. Click on the link to get a full year of each of them.

http://www.rewardsgold.com/mags/self_womday/index.htm

Enjoy! Free magazines are like ice cream for breakfast.

New Year Resolution (Original Post 01/07/09)

This year my New Year resolution is to get as much free stuff and save as much money as I can. I try to do it every year, but this year I am going to try and keep track and see how much I save at the end of the year. So, I guess I will share and take you on my journey and maybe you can save too.

So far I have saved quite a bit already. I bought a 3 year magazine subscription to All You. This is a cool magazine because it has tons of coupons in it. The magazine subscription is almost $36, a year. I got 3 years for $30.

Yesterday, we went to Steve & Barry's. They are a clothing store that filed for bankruptcy. I'm not sure if all the stores are closing, but we went to the one in Vancouver, WA and they are closing. Josh got 3 pairs of jeans and 3 shirts. I got 3 pairs of pants and 5 shirts. We paid $30 for everything.

And today, Hickory Farms has a 75% off sale. I also had a coupon code for an additional 15% off. I bought 2 sausage and cheese packages for $10 each and petite fours for $4.75. Everything including shipping was $32. The sausage was originally $40 each and the petite fours were $20.

So far I have spent $92, but saved $266. Not too bad, I must say. 

"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!