Fabulessly Frugal Friday: Frugal Gift Idea’s
We have recently come across a Fabulous blog that we would love to share with you! We love to learn from the other amazing women out there in the blogosphere and so do they!
So this weeks Fabulously Frugal Friday is brought to you by HowDoesShe.com They are featuring Christmas gift ideas for your friends and neighbors. This one is great for couponers!
Fabulessly Frugal Friday: Save an Extra $50 a Month Week 5
It is the last week of our 50 ways to save $50 and month. I hope you have enjoyed it and incorporated some of Robert Allen’s tips.
Just think if you did each thing to save $50 a month you could potentially save $2500 a month, or $30,000 a year! That is like a teachers salary not spent!
If you missed our first week #1-10 check it out here!
Wanna catch up on week 2 #11-20?
Here is week 3 #21-30 .
Check out week 4 #31-40!
41. Don’t touch that thermostat, put on a sweater instead.
I have friends who wear wool socks, beanies and sweaters in their house during the winter. If I knew that it really saved a lot of money I would try it too. Maybe we should do an experiment this winter and find out!
42. Take a shower instead of a bath.
Another idea is to bathe your kids together, or one after the other in the same water. Does that gross you out? Sorry if it does.
43. Only run a full dishwasher.
Washing dishes by hand will save you even more. It saves you on water and electricity. I am okay with going the full dishwasher route though. I am a little too busy or lazy to wash by hand.
44. Have an energy audit done on your home – some companies do them for FREE.
You can even do one yourself! Check it out.
45. Never pay extra for car rental insurance – you’re probably already covered by your credit card or regular car insurance.
46. DON’T PLAY THE LOTTERY – the odds of getting hit by lightning are better than your chances of winning.
Buying lottery tickets not only wastes your money, but it entices you to pick up other items at convenient store prices.
47. Time to refinance your home? Keep an eye on interest rates.
1% point on your interest rate will save you about $100 a month on your mortgage for every $100,000. If you have a $200,000 mortgage 1% will save you $2.400 a year. If you have that mortgage for 10 years you will save $24,000 during that loan period. Keep it for 30 years save $72,000.
48. Pay yourself first – set aside a dollar a day.
If you put that $1 a day into a fund that earns 10% you will earn $25,000 in 20 years. If you do the same thing for 54 years you will grow 1 million dollars. We invest $10 a day and in 20 years will have $250,000. We will have our million in about 33 years. Now that is assuming we can earn an average of 10% interest. Right now we are not earning that but are buying our stocks at a discount because the market is down. We started investing almost 7 years ago so it will actually be sooner than that. The younger you are when you get in the market, the younger you will be when you accumulate your million. So start now. Robert will tell you how in his book.
49. Buy a “piggy bank” for all the spare change you keep finding in your couch.
I love to use my change for garage sales and doubles coupon shopping at Albertsons.
50. Don’t spend your next pay raise – INVEST THAT MONEY INSTEAD.
That is a great time to start investing. Your budget will not miss the money! We invest the maximum allowed in our 401K plans.
All 50 of these tips plus more great advice from Robert Allen can be yours for just $2.95! Hehe that sounds like an infomercial. But REALLY You can purchase Multiple Streams of Income: How to Generate a Lifetime of Unlimited Wealth! Second Edition at Amazon.com
Sorry the FREE book offer is no longer available.
Fabulessly Frugal Friday: Save an Extra $50 a Month Week 4
I told you about this Fabulous book by Robert G Allen, “Multiple Streams of Income.“In his book he highlights 50 Ways to Save $50 a Month. For the next few weeks on Fab Frug Friday we are going to share all 50 ways and give you our two cents about each one!
This is week 4, numbers 31-40.
If you missed our first week #1-10 check it out here!
Wanna catch up on week 2 #11-20?
Here is week 3 #21-30 .
31. Join a warehouse club.
We love Costco! I shopped there frequently before I couponed. I do not need to shop there much anymore. It is still great for furniture, electronics and gifts, but I save more on my groceries sticking to couponing and my PYP shopping list!
32. Scan those scanners and receipts, mistakes do happen.
When I shop I carefully watch the screen. There have been many times when a coupon has beeped but not actually affected my total. Sometimes you I have been double charged for items. Always pay attention and check your receipt because mistakes do happen!
33. Avoid pricey specialty stores.
34. Comparison shop “on-line.”
Perfect, I do not have to waste gas running all over town?
35. Gotta trunk? Buy in BULK.
We call this building your stockpile. When you find and item on a good price buy 3. If you find and item on a great price buy 10! You will save money in the long run if you do not have to pay full price for the item later. If you stockpile you will not have to run to the store and pay full price for a cake mix, because you will have 5 in your pantry when ever you need to bake a cake.
36. Premium gas for your car? Most run fine with out it. Check your manual to be sure.
37. Forget the words “automatic car wash”, do it yourself and get some fresh air.
It is also a great way to get a tan!
38. Use that quick-change oil and lube service on the corner instead of a full service garage.
If you have a DIY guy like I do you can just have him take care of it for even less!
39. Never pay extra for service contracts or extended warranties, the manufactures warranty is usually sufficient.
40. Cancel that premium channel you never watch, or cancel cable TV all together.
My husband always begs me to get cable when BSU football season approaches. Anyone what to have us over for the game when it is on ESPN? We really save money with out it, and we really do not need it. I grew up with it because my dad worked for the cable company and I really do not miss it much.
You can get your own FREE copy of “Multiple Streams of Income“
OR you can purchase Multiple Streams of Income: How to Generate a Lifetime of Unlimited Wealth! Second Edition at Amazon.com
Fabulessly Frugal Friday: The Library
Do you use your local Library? Libraries have soooo many great things to offer!
Movies
Before the Redbox and Netflix I relied on the library for almost all of our movie nights. It is great for old classics and children’s movies. They have travel videos, exercise videos, documentaries and more. You will not find those in the Redbox.
Books
Obviously they have books. All kinds! My favorite are the books on tape/CD. We love to listen to them on road trips. I also like to just have one in my car for driving back and forth to work and running errands.
Music
Children’s music, and popular music of all varieties are available at the Library.
Have you heard of LiLI? It
gives you access to newspapers, magazines and more online.
FREE Programs
This is one of my favorite things. There is something for everyone. They have things like all-ages story time, preschool story time, preschool art, music & movement, family game night, video game challenge, sing along story time, mad scientist lab, knitting class, baby class, puppet shows, stories in the park, computer classes, cycling classes, and teen activities.
So if you have not been to your local Library lately you should check it out.
Below are links to some of our local favorites. I love these sites because you can order all of your material from home! All of these Libraries are connected too. You can check out a book at the Nampa Library and return it to the Caldwell Branch. Also if they have a book in Eagle and you usually go to the Boise Library you can order at no cost to you and pick it up at your local branch.
Ada Community Library
Boise Public Library
Caldwell Public Library
Eagle Public Library
Garden City Public Library
Hailey Public Library
Meridian Public Library
Mountain Home Public Library
Nampa Public Library
Twin Falls Public Library
Check out the Bookmobile
What is your favorite thing about the Library?
Gardening – Saves you Money!?
One super fantastic way to save money is to grow your own garden! My father was (and still is) quite the gardener. For a long time the word “gardening” brought on shudders and memories of picking up rocks (painstaking work for a 10 year old!), pulling weeds (and running into spiders), and husking corn (hate those ear wigs!). I took for granted that fresh taste of a home grown tomato. My parents would ooo and ahh about the yummy stuff they would harvest from their garden, and in my head I would just think, “easy for you to say cuz WE did all the work!”. Of course I was sooo wrong about the work. They amaze me by how much they did with us six kids!
(my three oldest, 6 years ago, by that soon-to-be non-producing crop)
Ha ha! Last year, in our new yard, we tried to plant corn again. It didn’t grow. It didn’t get enough sun! We were getting discouraged and feeling like we’d have to completely overhaul our yard to find a sunny spot (we live on 1/2 acre with a lot of mature trees). That would take too much time and money. Neither of which we had.
THEN, last month, my friend blogged about this method of gardening called SQUARE FOOT GARDENING.
The concept of this is amazingly easy and pain free! No more shuddering! Basically you just build a 4×4 box (or 2×4, or 4×8…) that you could put right no top of your grass or any other area (you can put newspaper, cardboard, or weed barrier on top of the grass). Some people even build the boxes UP on a table so they can stand and do their gardening!
Gardening from a 4′x4′ box means you can easily maintain the space. Weeding is less overwhelming, because it’s so easy to reach in and pull them out before they get out of hand. My nightmares of walking through massive tomato plants and running into a garden spider are a thing of the past! I will no longer have to walk through my garden to weed or harvest!
So check out the website for all the details (for more detail, you can buy the book, or put it on hold at the library – yes, there is a wait list!). The cool thing about this is that it’s been around for over 20 years! It is a tried and true method that ABSOLUTELY WORKS!
As I mentioned, we have a lot of tree’s in our back yard. We did end up cutting one long needle pine tree down, then my husband went to work building the boxes (we want to do 3 4×4′s and one 4×8).
The beauty of this is, you don’t HAVE to go out and purchase brand new lumber! First my husband searched through his scrap wood pile. He found a few pieces that would work, but not enough for as many boxes as we wanted to do.
Then he found out about a place nearby called, ReStore and for a mere $11.00 he purchased all the wood that we needed! Who cares if it was used, right!? Nice!
(This is one of our boxes – BEFORE soil was added)
Then you fill the boxes with a soil mix. No more picking rocks up, no more tilling, no more digging through hard dirt. You make up this proven soil mix (1 part compost, 1 part peat moss, 1 part vermiculite), fill your box, and you’ll be able to use that same soil year after year after year.
Add a grid to your box to section it out in 16 different squares, and viola – you are ready to start planting!
What is even more fun about this system, is that you can EASILY give children a 1′x1′ square to plant and care for. Give the older ones a few more squares to be in charge of!
This is a terrific way to save money on fresh produce. Plus, NOTHING can compare to the taste of the stuff grown in your very own garden! YUMMY! It’s also a great way to teach children about responsibility, caring for living things, where food comes from, and the satisfaction that comes from starting and then finishing something!
Square foot gardening is an easy, non-intimidating, less frustrating way to garden.
Not sure what to plant? Here is a schedule put out by my local paper of when and what to plant.
Do you garden? Have you ever tried this Square Foot Gardening? Are you going to try it this year?
