It is finally December. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by. It has been a year now, since I first started blogging here at Families.com in the Frugal Living Blog. A lot has happened in the world and in my own life. I continue to be in awe of anyone who practices a frugal lifestyle, and I have learned many different ways to save money. I can’t wait to learn even more. I hope that we can help each other in our efforts to save money and provide for our family.
And now, here is the Frugal Living week in review for November 26th through December 2nd. Don’t forget to check out the great guest blogs this week.
November 26th
Frugal Living Week in Review: November 19th Through November 25th
Did you have a good Thanksgiving holiday? I hope you were able to have a warm, joyful day without spending too much on the celebration. For us, we are enjoying the bounty of leftovers, including a couple of homemade turkey pot pies that I made from the dark meat of the turkey. I love getting creative and stretching out our resources.
November 27th
A Great -and Cheap- Way to Clean Carpet Stains
New carpet or any other type of flooring just isn’t in my budget right now, less than a month from Christmas. Yet, with four kids and a puppy, the carpeting seemed to be on its last breath and in major need of resuscitation as I was getting ready for last minute Thanksgiving guests.
5 Ways to Save on Christmas Cards
With the holidays approaching and even the basics of the budget, such as food and gas costing more and more, it is really important to save where ever you can. I’ll be posting a series of articles about saving money during the holidays.
Many people shy away from re-gifting after having heard horror stories of giving a gift back to the original giver. However, with care you don’t have to end up embarrassed. You can also do “partial” re-gifting.
November 28th
Frugal Festive Looks from Existing Items
There are some very simple -and frugal- ways to dress things up for the holiday season using things you already have. While it’s always tempting to buy at least a few of the latest decorations and other trinkets, keeping purchases limited is a little easier when you get creative with what you already have on hand.
Frugal Gift Ideas: Free Personalized Stationery
Pretty stationery is a wonderful gift for someone special for Christmas. It is the kind of gift that you can give almost anyone, from close friends and family to service providers that you want to thank for helping you throughout the year. Personalized stationery makes a great gift for teachers, especially. You can the pair stationery with desk accessories, such as pens, pencils, postage stamps, stickers and paper clips to fill out the gift and make it grand, or just give the stationery as it is.
Naughty and Nice Snowman Gifts
These cute little gifts are perfect for stocking stuffers or as inexpensive gifts for co-workers, friends, service workers, neighbors and kids. You can choose which you would like to make, depending on whether the person you are giving one to has been naughty or nice. The naughty gifts make great ideas for gag gifts, too.
November 29th
Extreme Makeover-Grocery Bill Edition: A New Strategy
In my last few blogs on this topic, we talked about how to analyze your grocery bill and I presented a plan to reduce the overall size of my bill. Our plan was to give our kids a certain amount of money that they had to budget and keep track of and use to buy their own breakfast cereal and snacks.
Are Your Credit Cards getting a Workout?
Instead of giving credit cards a workout, try putting them on a diet if you want to save money over the long term.
We all know about the Black Friday deals that occurred this month as desperate retailers scramble to get some of that holiday money. But are there any other bargains specific to the month that you can get right now? Of course there are. And waiting until the end of the month will mean the best prices for you.
Here is a clever little idea that I recently heard about through the grapevine. It is a way to save money whenever you shop and wherever you shop. The best part is that it is very easy to create this little gem and maintain it for as long as you would like.
Extreme (Grocery Bill) Makeover: Is Costco Worth It?
If you’ve read my other blog earlier this morning, I talked about shopping at multiple stores. This is a good strategy for us because we have a few grocery stores that we don’t have to drive to which would make us spend our savings on gas. This might also be a good strategy for you if you have grocery stores that are close to each other so that you’re not spending too much extra gas but can drive from one to another in one trip in a linear fashion. This is probably not a good strategy for you if you have to shop the sales at one store, come home, and then go to another store, or if the stores are far from each other.
November 30th
Frugal Gifts: Nice Effect without High Cost
In the same way you can save money by limiting themed elements when decorating or planning a birthday party or holiday get-together, opting instead for more plain items and just a few themed elements, you can get more bang for your buck when shopping for holiday gifts.
Simple Christmas Card Decorations
If you have not been saving Christmas cards, now is as good a time as any to start. You can also look for inexpensive boxed sets at dollar stores. I picked some up recently at two boxes for $1.00 (these are likely last year’s designs put on sale to make room for new ones, but they work).
There is no need to spend a lot or skip gift giving altogether. Here are some great ideas for gifts that are less than $10. You can give them to friends, relatives, neighbors, grand kids, co-workers, whomever you like. There is something in this list for everyone, from food gifts to toys, to the unexpected little treats that people love but never buy for themselves.