Super Saving Saturday 7-19-08

Today has been the BEST savings day!!!! I just can't wait to share about it!

My husband last night scoped out some ads for garage and estate sales. It was so sweet. He had it all planned out. One place in particular was a antique dealer moving to Dallas from Edmond and she was selling things from her darling store in OKC. I found some French Country items that I adore. I found a beautiful red and white chenille bedspread that is gorgeous. I am going to use the fabric to cover an ottoman that I have. An old watering can with the spout...you know the awesome, big aluminum ones. I am going to put sunflowers inside it. I found a very old blue willow plate, an awesome long wire basket that I can put my old mason jars inside and then use it as a vase for fresh flowers. Waverly toile fabric was in the bottom of this big box and I grabbed it too. There was also some chicken wire that was brand new plus two cans of Rustoleum paint in a flat black plus an apple red paint. The total for everything was 23.00! SCORE! The most expensive item was the bedspread at 10.00!

We stopped at an estate sale in our neighborhood and I found a Peterboro large Picnic basket from the 50s for 2.00!!!!!! Everything was still inside the basket. It is AWESOME! I also found a milk glass hobnail dish..that is very small with a lid. I think it was for jam. Very cute!

But the biggest find of the day....was at Goodwill. A brand new in the box, still taped down with instructions and warranty....a 2008 Cuisinart 12 Cup Coffee Maker.




Okay my fine frugal friends....I paid 5.00!!!! FIVE DOLLARS! The girl asked me if I had a discount card....I have never heard of Goodwill having one but I was about to jump out of my skin paying only 5.00 for this 100.00 coffee maker that was BRAND NEW!!!!! Thank you Jesus!!

The Lord is so good. I had a wonderful day and we did not spend over 40.00! WONDERFUL!

I hope ya'll had a great productive day too!

For more Super Saving Saturdays check out Money Saving Mom.

WFMW 7-16-08

Back to School Madness

It is that time of year when families begin thinking about back to school. It is my favorite time of the year. I remember the long, hot days of summer when my Mom would bring me the back to school issues of Teen and Seventeen magazine so I could pour over the pages of fashion and get my ideas and plans together. I loved school supply shopping and look forward to it each year.

This is the TIME to buy your school supplies. Also if you have grown children now is the time to purchase those supplies for your own office or better yet buy a bunch and donate to your church or charitable organization. Donate to a single parent that you know to help ease their struggle. How about your neighbor that has been laid off from work? There are so many wonderful things you can do with these very inexpensive supplies!

For several years my church has had a back to school drive to help those single parents and others that were struggling. This year one of our pastors has felt the call to extend it to our community. We are hoping to reach 1000 families. Check out WeNeedSchoolSupplies.com. What a fantabulous idea to help those that are in a crisis right now.

Now is the time for me to stock up my supply closet and replenish those items that we have used in the past year. This is also the year that we buy a new backpack for our daughter entering high school. We buy Janzsport backpacks and they have a lifetime warranty. Our sons are still carrying the ones from middle school. You can usually find them on sale at Kohls and other stores for under 20.00. Many times we have found them on sale for under 10.00 at TJMaxx.

These ideas all work for our family. For more ideas check out Rocks in My Dryer. Thanks for stopping by!

WFMW 7-9-08

We have four children. The oldest is in college with the three younger being 16, 15, and 14 years of age. Our sixteen year old has now become the driver of choice with his younger siblings while we are both at work. We began to notice that Seth was driving his siblings wherever and whenever they wanted without any complaint. He is that kind of kid…..thoughtful, compassionate, caring, quiet, obedient….great young man. He drives a big, old 1992 Dodge truck his grandpa gave him when he got his driver’s license. The gas tank is HUGE and well, you know how expensive gas is right now. Too expensive for all these aimless trips to 7-11 for Icees or Sonic for Route 44s!

My husband instituted a plan that has worked wonders. He has told the two non-driving teenagers if they want to continue to ask their brother to drive them to friends houses, the pool, Starbucks, etc., then they need to give their brother so much per week to help pay for gas.

This has done two things….cut down on all the silly trips across town when they could either wait for us to get off of work or wait until the weekend on errand day. Two it has taught them that while it is AWESOME their big brother can now drive there is an expense to it. Seth pays for all his gas except 40.00 per month. We provide the 40.00. He pays his own insurance and has paid six months in advance and already has the next six months saved up.

It is common for teenagers to not understand the immense outflow of cash that takes place. It seems minimal to them all the running around that goes on but when gas is nearly 4.00 a gallon lifestyles need to change.

This has worked wonders so far. For more ideas head over to Shannon’s at Rocks in My Dryer.

Happy 4th!

Time has been flying by this summer. I have not found much time to be on the computer in the evenings to post. In a house full of teenagers the computer gets a work out. The only person that used to be on the computer was our daughter and our college age son. Now our middle son has discovered Facebook and he is on the computer when our daughter is not! It has been awesome to see his friendships blossom with those in the youth group. He has always stated that he would never use a computer. He hated them. I guess you should never say never!

My posting may be a little sparse but lots have gone on in the last two or three weeks. I turned 48! Yikes! I can't believe that I am 48 and have been out of high school 30 years! I was also interviewed for an article about gray hair in our newspaper. I grayed early and it is more white than gray. I have been driving my non-drivers around the entire county for parties with church friends, movies, driver's ed, and shopping. I have also been going to bed early so I can arise and workout!

Today we are going down the street to our dear friends home for a cookout and swimming. Our middle son practically lives there because it is the home of his best friend Jacob.

The real exciting thing that has happened this summer is my husband had a change in jobs and is no longer working for a police department but for a corporation....a great corporation in their security department. So today is the FIRST 4th of July in FIVE years that we have had him with us! We are so thrilled!!!!!!!

So I promise to get back on the bandwagon iwth my writing. I have so many things to share.

I pray you each have a blessed and safe 4th! Happy Independence Day!

Frugal Friday 6-13-08

I have a a tip to share that will really help those of you that are living the frugal lifestyle before your children. Many times I wonder if my children 'get it'. We want them to understand why we are choosing to live life differently than those around us. Often I feel like our choices fall on deaf ears.

We have been huge fans and followers of Dave Ramsey. He is discussed frequently in our home. Our oldest is 20 years old. Two of our children are spendthrifts. Money just escapes through their hands. The oldest is one of those spendthrifts. Imagine my surprise when he told me he was halfway there with his emergency fund and was wondering if he could borrow my Dave Ramsey books. Uhh hello? I about fell over! He is in college and we have been trying to get him to see that he can do other things to pay for his college instead of taking out loans. We have preached and preached but then just decided to live our lives and see if they 'get it'.

My frugal tip to all you parents is to not GIVE UP! They do listen to you and more than that they watch what you do! We have been actively living this lifestyle for over seven years. More is caught than taught as my Daddy used to tell me. I would have never dreamed that our oldest would want to jump on the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. He has been the greatest naysayer about this choice of living. I am so proud of him!!

If you would like more frugal ideas check out Crystal's blog at Biblical Womanhood.

WFMW 6-11-08

Healthy LifeStyle Notebook

Okay I admit it, I am a nut for notebooks of any kind. I have always been that type of gal that had a huge love of pen and paper. I mean when I was in the second grade I was designing clothes for my Barbie using my spiral notebook. Suffice it to say that I have a lot of organizational notebooks around my home and even more spiral notebooks! I buy them by the case when the back-to-school sales begin late summer. I justify it because I have four children that attend school and they usually need a notebook for each subject. A case is much cheaper. But I do digress…

Many of you have heard that if you just write down what you eat or drink it will help you keep track of your habits and calories for any given day. I have tried this in the past and have always given up the task. I found it at times to be too cumbersome or I would just plain forget to write down what I had eaten.

Last year I had a life changing event happen in my life and I decided to keep track of what I eat and how much I exercise. It worked wonderfully…..until I quit making time to do it! I am back on track now and I am so glad. I have finally figured out that for me I need the structure. It is also invaluable when you have an appointment with your doctor.

This is what I do:
I have found using an old fashioned steno pad is the best for me.

I write down everything that goes in my mouth. I also keep track of my blood sugar, blood pressure, and weight. I also put down how many minutes I have exercised (or not) and what I did for physical activity. I keep it near me at work and it comes out of my bag once I get home.

I have found now that it is like a dear old friend that I have missed. I write down my feelings or if I am really craving something I write that down and try to evaluate why I have such strong desires to deviate from my plan.

There are several online tracking sites that one can use but I have found that actually holdking the pen in hand and putting it to paper works best for me. For more Works for Me Wednesday check out Rocks in My Dryer.

Super Savings Saturday 6-7-08

This past week has been an amazing time of savings for our family!! Let's start with last Saturday evening.

We went to Walmart first to use up some May 31st coupons. We ended up getting three boxes of free cereal, free shampoo, and used over 32.00 in coupons. Our savings at Walmart was thrilling. The grand total before coupons was over 89.00 but we paid less than 50.00! SCORE! On to CVS.

The above picture has only some of the items purchased that evening. Many others were in the fridge. We had an entire cart full of tuna, Ozarka water, deoderant marked down to .82 cents, detergent, dish soap, chex mix, makeup etc., etc. The total rang up to 79.00. I had several large ECBs that I needed to use or they would expire plus I had coupons for most of the items in our cart. After coupons and a 19.98 ECB, a 9.98 ECB, and a 2.00 ECB our grand total was 1.50! We carried all our loot out to the van and were so excited!

Wednesday night I made a quick run down the street back to Walmart. I had more expiring coupons plus I had read about the WalMart deals online. I had a mission and was in and out of there. I bought four pounds of bacon, four pounds of sausage, two Honey Bunches of Oats w/Chocolate, LiveActive cereal, Yogurt, and the only things I did not use any coupons for were four packages of hot dogs. The rest I had multiple coupons. The total before tax was 55.00. The total after my coupons was 24.00!!! The bacon cost me .50 a pound! The sausage .23 cents! I was very excited!!

My savings from those two trips was over 140.00! I had so many things in my cart that ended up being free. I had never had that experience at Walmart and was so thrilled!

Today we got up early and hit the garage sales. Our boys love to hunt. Our oldest has an awesome bow but had been looking for another type of bow. Well we came across two in awesome Cabela cases with arrows and all the gear that goes with them. One was obviously brand new and had never been used. The other was older. We are talking about archery bows that cost upwards of 500.00! The father just wanted to get rid of them. He told us the one had never even shot an arrow. His friend kept saying that it was a steal at 100.00 and that he kept telling his friend not to sell them at the garage sale. We KNEW it was a bargain. We called our son and told him what we found and that the one bow was brand new. It was priced at 100.00. He told us to buy it. The other case and bow was priced at 15.00. We took both! Later in the same neighborhood we found an awesome framed Michael Jordan poster from his very early years at Chicago. We bought it for our sixteen year old for 1.00. The day was awesome. While many may not understand the expense of the bow.....it was a HUGE bargain! If we wanted to we could turn around and sell it easy for over 300.00 but our son will be using this in the fall.

We saw so many awesome things at the garage sales but the one constant today that really caused my husband and me to laugh was everyone was selling their old televisions. It was almost hysterical. Of course we still have ours and do not own the new flat screen yet but people are not going to buy these old televisions if they don't have the converter box or digital cable. EVERY garage sale had numerous televisions for sale.

If you would like to see more super savings visit Money Saving Mom.