Tag Archives: frugal living

Top Ways to Cut Your Grocery Food Bill

Let us get those grocery bills chopped down for good! Think of all of the uses for that extra money! Here are my favorite ways to cut your grocery food bill. 1. Use coupons. You knew that, right? When you cut and use coupons, make sure that they are for products that you really need or want. There is no sense in using a coupon for something that won’t get used. How many exotic mustards, meal kits, weird snacks or other items do you already have in your pantry not being used? 2. Clean out the pantry. Ah, do you … Continue reading →

Free Puppets

If you have been hanging in there with me through the last few days, you know that I have been exploring some frugal gifts for the holidays. We talked about putting together a nice puppet playhouse for nothing. Now, of course, we will need some puppets to go with the puppet playhouse. There are several ways to make puppets for free using common items that you already have around the house. When you make your puppets, they will have more of an impact if you choose a theme. You can choose a fantasy fairy tale theme and make a prince, … Continue reading →

Free and Low Cost Counseling and Support

Isn’t it ironic that when you most need counseling you usually don’t have the extra means to pay for it? You might need to seek out some advice about your finances, getting a new job or even on your marriage. Whatever the case, paying $50 to $400 an hour may not be the best thing to help you. If you find yourself in need of counseling or other similar support, it may be best to first start to look around for free and low cost options. Some of these options require you to meet certain financial or residential guidelines (you … Continue reading →

Introduction to the Food Blog

If you are new to the food blog, then welcome! I have to confess that I need a little welcome as well. That is because starting today, I am new to the food blog too. If you are familiar with this blog, then I hope you will help me get to know the ropes. Voice your opinions in the comment section or through a private message. I would really love to know what you would like to see for this blog, what works, what doesn’t work, etc. While I am new to the food blog, you might have seen me … Continue reading →

Frugal Family Meal Ideas

Whether you are cooking from your pantry or just trying to knock down your food budget, it helps to have an arsenal of some great frugal family meal ideas. And while beans can certainly be part of your recipe book, it doesn’t have to be the main part. Here are my favorite ideas for frugal family meals that both the kids and your wallet will love. Kids love pasta. That is a given. So one of my favorite frugal family meals uses it, but with a twist. Everyone enjoys eating this slightly more sophisticated (notice I said slightly) and much … Continue reading →

How to Find Money

There are several ways to find money in your life. If you are open and aware, you can be the beneficiary of extra money. You may find small amounts, or you may find large amounts. Here are my favorite ways to find money. At the beginning of the year (or right now) figure out what your normal monthly bills happen to be. I’ll give you a personal example. By signing up for a budget plan, we pay a set amount for oil each month. Often, though, we never use as much oil as our “statistical average” for our home and … Continue reading →

Frugal Fall Family Decorating

Why not get everyone together to do some fun and frugal decorating for fall? You don’t have to spend $100 on pumpkins and hay bales, either! Hand print turkeys Nothing is more cute in the fall, I think, then all of those hand print turkeys. I made my first one in school (standard fare), and have since taught this craft to my kids. Basically, you trace a hand on a piece of fall colored construction paper. Make sure to have the fingers splayed out. Then, you turn that hand print into a turkey, using the thumb for the head and … Continue reading →

Frugal Holiday Parties

The Holiday season will be here soon.Are you prepared for the expense of socializing? Here are some frugal tips to get your through it all with both the holiday fun and the budget in tact. I had a nice conversation with my mother-in-law last night. We started discussing what we were going to do about the upcoming holiday season and the Thanksgiving and Christmas get-together events. No one ever really wants to host either because of the work, and well, the expense. That is understandable, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Two words have gotten me through … Continue reading →

Using Scheduled Combinations to Save

This morning was a pretty busy day. We had a lot of people in and out and a lot of phone calls to make. This is because we used a pretty sturdy strategy to save both money and time. We used combinations. What are combinations? Well, you can have combinations in many different aspects of your schedule and your tasks. You can also call this multitasking, but I like to call it combinations, because unlike typical multitasking, combinations are planned out and don’t always happen at exactly the same time. Here is an example of our morning. We scheduled several … Continue reading →

Saving on Seasonal Stuff

I admit that I complain quite a bit about how the retail stores are constantly rushing the seasons. For example, when did it make it okay to go ahead and put Christmas trees up in September? The holiday season is still months away, and I haven’t full recovered from the chaos of back to school. Heck, I still haven’t fully realized that summer is over. Do you know what I mean? I’m waiting for the eventual moment when the merchandise is pushed so far back in the year that it wraps all of the way around and becomes timely again. … Continue reading →