Frugal Living-Check Out These Blogs...

I've been nosing around the web tonight and wanted to let you know about a few sites I visited that have noteworthy articles on frugal living.

As I've mentioned before, our daughter and son-in-love (Erin & Micah) have a great site called Frugal Living Journal. Erin recently asked me to respond to several questions and share our "story". If you have interest in my response, you can read it on their blog under Diane's Story.

A few "new-to-me" blogs have some interesting posts worth peeking at:

I enjoyed reading several posts from Maryanne at Happy helms. I especially appreciated her post on wives respecting their husbands... it was encouraging and a needed challenge for me. She also has several posts, especially this one on how to save money.

Also, Meredith at Like Merchant Ships has some inspiring posts on how she finds "deals" and general frugal living news.

Another great blog I visited is authored by Rachel at Out of The Overflow. I especially appreciate her spiritual focus and the scripture she uses in her posts. She also has two helpful posts on how to sign up for the savings programs offered at CVS & Walgreens. Search her archives for the CVS post on 1-14-07 and Walgreens Post 1-20=07.

Frugal Friday-Free Babysiting Co-Op

Like most young girls, my first "job" was to provide babysitting services for several neighborhood families. I happily received .50 cents per hour, the going rate. Now I hear of girls making $6-$10 per hour (or more)!! I scarcely understand how parents can afford to have an evening out!

Do the math: Four to five hour date: Babysitter=$40-$50, Dinner $20-$30, Movie $16, easily totaling $80-$100 for one date of dinner and a movie!!! Costs could vary depending on the activity of the evening and how frugal and creative you are. But, any way you look at it, when paying a babysitter you are shelling out a fair chunk of change for a few hours away from home and your normal responsibilities.

Here is where working together with a few trustworthy friends could save you hundreds of dollars each year in child care costs AND allow you to run errands or go on more frequent outings with your hubby!

Because we live 1,200 miles away from family, we didn't have grandparents close-by to spoil our kids every few weeks. One of the helpful things we did when the girls were young was to join a Baby Sitting Co-Op with some other ladies from our church. When I needed child care, I had an instant listing of women I knew and trusted to provide care while I was away. Here's how it worked:

All members placed their names, children's names and ages and home contact information on a list. When someone needed babysitting services, you could chose from the list of women and start calling to see who was available to watch your kids during the time you needed. You would then take your children to this friend's home and go on to your outing. I usually chose women with children the age of our kids so they could have a "Play Day". Upon returning, I would then "pay" the friend with coupons for the amount of time I was away.

The coupon system was very simple... poster board cut into "tickets", one color for a 30 minute payment and another color for one hour payment. (This was back before personal computers...now the coordinator could easily make up the coupons on the computer with the name of the Co-Op and the time value of the coupon.) The more "jobs" you accepted to babysit for other families, the more coupons you would earn. The more coupons you collected meant more free outings for you! If you ran out of coupons, you would need to do some more babysitting to reimburse your account. It is really quite simple! It's a nice break for Mom's to be able to run errands or a great way go out with hubby without breaking the bank!

Frugal Fridays is sponsored by: http://www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com/blog.htm
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Check out this site for Frugal Ideas!

I keep meaning to mention this...be sure to stop over and say "Hi" to Erin and Micah on their new blog, Frugal Living Journal, dedicated to frugal living. It's worth the visit!

Frugal Friday-Lights, Audience, Action! "Free" theater tickets!!

One of our favorite ways to celebrate the holidays and save money on quality, family oriented entertainment is to volunteer at a theater in a large town not far from us. We are privileged to have access to a high quality, Christian based theater that produces season after season of fun, thought provoking and highly rated entertainment. We began ushering about 12 - 13 years ago when our girls were just old enough to take tickets, greet people at the door, work the concession at intermission or assist people to their seats. It has been a rewarding experience on several levels; creating family memories, usually spiritually uplifting, and last-but not least-financially beneficial. My husband and I have also organized group trips to the theater for our home Bible Study group and often several of us will usher in lieu of paying the $70/per couple or so for tickets. Here's how it works: we call ahead to secure the time slot of the show we would like to see. (They usually take about 6 volunteers per show.) We arrive one hour before curtain time, discuss our position for the evening with the house manager and then work our "spot". At curtain time, we are then released to find empty seats and sit amidst the audience to enjoy the show. During intermission, a few of us serve drinks at the concession stand. We then join the other patrons to enjoy the rest of the production. At the end of the show we stand by the theater exits and thank people for coming, then proceed to clean up trash and position seats in preparation for the next performance. For our volunteer time we are reimbursed, not only with free admission to that shows performance, but we are also given vouchers to return to the theater to watch the current offering again. This covers us if the show we usher for is totally sold out and we are unable to find seats to sit and enjoy the show the evening that we are there working. (this has never happened to us) So, in effect, we are each given two opportunities to view the show in exchange for about 1 1/2 hour of volunteering. At $32-$38 per ticket...you can see what a GREAT opportunity this is for a family to attend the theater for "free" and also have tickets left over to use again or give away. The Christian theater we attend (The A.D. Players) is rated one of the BEST in the entire country and we really enjoy our involvement with them. This theater was founded in 1967 by Jeannette Clift George who "pioneered a unique style of theater committed to producing plays and programs that uphold human value, offer creativity, and promote literacy and education." You may recognize Jeannette as the lead actress (Corrie Ten Boom) in the movie "The Hiding Place". So... get out the phone book, look in the newspaper and check around where you live to see if there are any untapped opportunities yet to be discovered! If you currently have a theater or symphony your family enjoys attending, call and see how you would go about signing up for their ushering program. Your quest may bring you to an enjoyable endeavor that also becomes a favorite family tradition...especially around the holidays!!

Frugal Friday-Going, Going, Gone!!!

Thanks to Crystal @ Biblical Womanhood for hosting a list of ideas related to making those hard earned dollars stretch just a little further! Since this is a "Frugal Fridays" post, it is apropos to mention one of our favorite cost cutting activities: Friday night auction!! When we were first married, we-like so many young couples, furnished our home in what we affectionately called "Early Attic". Most of our furniture came from either garage sales or used pieces no longer needed by our parents. We were thrilled to acquire such pieces and begin incorporating them in to our "newlywed decor". Often times the item would need refinished, reglued or redone in some fashion...but hey... the price was right and we were motivated! As time went on and our family grew, we added household items or retired other pieces as needed. Several years back, as our girls began "leaving the nest" for college and needed assistance in setting up their own living arrangements we felt like it would be a good time for a decor change for us as well. Now it was our turn to pass on those familiar items that the girls grew up with and would enjoy mixing "the old with the new" in their own homes. We began re-evaluating and plotting our style change. So, from time to time when we were in the market for a piece of furniture or other household type item, we learned to check out the local auction houses first. One of the advantages of living near a "port city" is that we have a large selection of local auction houses that import a nice collection of furniture from over seas. We have been lucky enough to win the bid on one beautiful French Armoire, one French sideboard, a nice bookshelf unit, and as of last Friday night we are now the proud owners of a new, 100% wool oriental rug for our living room. We had been avoiding the auction house for the past several months as we didn't have the money saved for the next items needed on our "wish list". But last week was the week we could begin attending auction...and we hit the jackpot! We have been remodeling and the next two items from our wish list were things that could possibly be purchased at auction. The rug we won the bid on last week was there on consignment from a local oriental rug shop that is closing it's doors. We got to speak with the owner and get information on this particular rug before we bid. We won the bid within our limit, purchased it for 86% off retail price (we have spent hours shopping for rugs so we knew the value going in) and walked away happily marking one more thrifty purchase off our list! If you are in the market for household items and tired of running from garage sale to garage sale or looking in the newspaper for quality used items... try looking in the yellow pages or search the internet and see if you have any reputable auction houses nearby. It makes for a fun Friday night date and you just may land yourself a great deal!!
Suggestions:
**Know the market, shop around enough to know what is a good value and help you establish your price range.
**If you are new to auctions and bidding... plan to attend auctions for several weeks just to watch how to go about bidding. There are a few "tricks of the trade" that are helpful to know.
**When you become an informed buyer, you will know basically what "ceiling price" you are willing to pay for the desired item. Stick within your budget!! When we bought our French Amroire, we had been looking for just the right one for over a year. When we saw this particular piece, we knew this was the one!! Because another bidder also wanted the piece, it soon became a "price war". We did end up going a little over our originally desired budget, however, we also knew that we would still be getting the piece for about 1/2 of what we would have to pay in a store. Because it was exactly what we had been waiting patiently for, and we knew the value of the piece, we were willing to increase our amount enough to win the bid. On the other hand I have bid on several items over the years and let them go to another bidder because the price climbed over our limit. So, know your market and be willing to wait for that "perfect piece".

Hobby Lobby and Bed, Bath & Beyond Coupons

I am always surprised to find out how many people have not heard about coupons for these two stores, so I thought I'd post the info here.
Bed, Bath and Beyond: where we live this is a common place for girls to register for wedding gifts. They have a very nice collection of kitchen/household stuff. I have signed up for their mailing list and we regularly get 25% off and $5 off coupons in the mail. The part that most people don't realize is that they still accept coupons that have expired. (at least the stores I've been to do) I've used year old coupons there...so check with the store nearest you. It's a good place to buy nice stuff for gifts or your own home. They also accept coupons from Linens and Things (another local store). PLUS...you can use one coupon per item...so one time while shopping for wedding/shower gifts I walked in there and used six coupons at one time!!
Hobby Lobby is another great place to shop when you are in the market for a gift or household item. Sign up for their weekly email sales flyers and they send you a coupon to be used in store during that week. Often times it is for 40% off any regular priced item. This is a store that you NEVER have to pay full price in. They always are running half of the store on sale at 40%-50% off!! I LOVE to stop in an get fresh inspiration for our home.

Frugal Friday-Kettle Corn Recipe

We have finally returned from our three weeks of traveling and I'm getting back into the swing of things here at home. We had a great time with family, but it's always nice to get back to our own routines. :-) While visiting family in Ohio, we had two occasions to travel into Amish country and enjoy the area and drink in the wonderful fall surroundings. Both times we purchased a bag of Kettle Corn and quickly became hooked! Upon returning home I have experimented with a few recipes and family vote says this one is the winner! Fast, easy and MUCH cheaper than what they charge at fairs and events...enjoy!!!

Kettle Corn

3 Tablespoons corn oil
3 Tablespoons white sugar (may use brown...we liked white better)
1/2 teaspoon salt (MOL to taste)
1/2 cup unpopped corn

Place oil, sugar and salt into heavy pan** and heat almost to boiling...stirring all the while. Work fast as it doesn't take long on a high heat setting. Pour in the 1/2 cup popcorn kernels and stir constantly. Remove from heat as soon as you don't hear any more popping and pour into a large bowl. Let cool a few minutes (the sugar makes this treat very hot right off the stove). Enjoy!!

**We have a 5 quart stainless steel stove top popper with a hand turned stirring arm. (Purchased from Target - Back To Basics brand name.) We make popcorn several times a week and LOVE this popper as it turns out big fluffy consistently wonderful popcorn with very few, if any kernels left. I buy the cheapest store brand popcorn from Wal Mart .88 cents a bag and get perfect results. I know I sound like a sales pitch for this popper... but it really does make a difference. The popcorn we produce in our regular stove top pan isn't as nice as what we get using this heavy duty stainless steel popper with a thick base. Christmas is coming up...ask for one as a gift. (That's how I received this popper last year from DH :-) Be sure to get the heavy duty stainless steel version...they carry a cheaper style, but I think much of our success comes from the make-up of this heavy gauge steel.

Happy Friday!!

Last week I wrote about a fun way my sister and I stay in touch across the miles. (see post) I would love to hear some creative ideas from you on ways you enjoy connecting with special people in your own life. Come on lurkers...jump on in and give us your two cents worth! Also...still looking for ideas on favorite books to use in a ladies home Bible study. (see Wednesday's post below)

Thanks to Crystal at Biblical Womanhood for hosting an interactive way to encourage each other in the art of frugality. These are skills we all need to be reminded of from time to time! I, for one, enjoy reading all the great ideas from other homemakers. I'm submitting a fun recipe to use with the younger set (or at least the young at heart ;-) I like this recipe for it's simplicity, high success rating with kids and the wonderful smell! Forgo the store-bought Play Dough...make your own with stuff straight from your pantry!

Play Dough
1 cup flour
1 package Kool-Aid (store brand is cheaper-use any color, makes it smell good)
1 T. cream of tarter
1 T vegetable oil
1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup boiling water (may add more as needed for proper consistency)

1) Mix all dry ingredients in bowl. Add oil, then pour in boiling water and mix thoroughly.
2) Wrap in air tight container or zip lock bag and store in fridge.
3) Should last a few months

Enjoy! Blessings, Diane