10 Things We Have Purchased To Save Us Money

A few months ago some of my favorite YouTube Vloggers did some videos on "10 Things They Purchased In Order To Save Money". I loved these videos and watching all of them. I am not a vlogger but I do have this here ole blog so I thought I would use it to play along :)

Here goes: 

1. We own 3 of these box fans and 3 other types of fans. These help keep it cooler in our house and help prolong the use of our air conditioning. Which in turn helps keep our cooling costs down

2. Several years go when our toaster died we decided to purchase a toaster oven instead. Ours fits and 8x8 pan, a small cookie sheet which came with it and a bread pan. So not only have I made toast with it but I used it often in place of our oven. This keeps our kitchen cooler in the warm months. It also saves us from heating up the big oven when it really isn't needed.

3. These are our coffee makers. One is just a regular one. The other is a fancy machine my husband found last summer at a yard sale for $10. Turns out it is an expensive machine that cost over $200 new. He loves fancy coffee so this machine has easily paid for itself by keeping him out of Starbucks. ( We are in the process of turning our " wet bar area" into the " coffee bar" instead. More on that and the new house to come)

4. I bought this big drying rack at Costco before we moved. I have used it like crazy since we have been in the new house since I don't have a clothes line here. I also own 3 other smaller racks and this hanging rack too. I love them. These help me keep from using the dryer as much which keeps our house cooler and our electric/gas bills down. 

  

5. Until about a 7 months ago my husband was commuting 3 hrs a day, 5 days a week for work. Buying our Prius was a godsend as far as savings on gas. Before we bought it we were spending our house payment in gas. It is really a nice car and we enjoy having it.

6. I didn't really purchase this item but I did ask for it as a Christmas gift from my parents. I use this Rice Cooker at least once a week, sometimes more. It ís easy to use and makes my dinner prep so easy.

7.  The Roku is one of the best and most used purchases that save us money we gave made! I actually just purchased another one for our second TV. We use this device to watch tv every single day. Plus I use it to watch the YouTube Vloggers I love too :)  Sorry the pic is not the best but hey it works :)

8. This is my sewing machine. I use it all the time. I make gifts and household items with it. It was well worth the money spent!

9. 

Our Amazon Prime membership. I hate to go shopping and this keeps me from buying other items. We get free shipping on most items. Many times we will pick the slower shipping so we can get $1 promotional credits to use for movie rentals. We also use it for some of our tv viewing that isn't found on Netflix. We definitely get our money's worth out of it.

10. 

My IPad. My husband purchased this for me as a 40th birthday present. I use this item for many many different things to save money. I research prices and the best places to purchase things. I use it to watch tv sometimes. I read blogs and other free things on it. I use it to run Perktv and Swagbucks Videos to earn gift cards. I write my own blog on it. 

 

So there you have it my 10 items :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. We went out for our anniversary dinner with a gift card we received as a thank you from our realtor. It covered our whole dinner. 

2. I got a good deal on coffee beans for my husband at Target. I received a $5 gift card for purchasing 3 bags and a $5 egift card to Starbucks with the purchase. 

3. I put the $5 Target gift card in my 2016 Christmas envelope to use for next year.

4. I used a 40% off coupon for my husband's anniversary gift. Saved me a few dollars :)

5. I made some homemade "Clorox" wipes for one of my bathrooms. Put them in a upcycled coffee container too. 

Vlogs I Love

A while ago Sharon at Midlife Mom Musings posted about some Vlogs she watches on YouTube.  I have been hooked every since.  I have several I follow,  but I have a few that are my favorites.  Most are on a debt free journey just like I am.  I enjoy watching their progress and get many helpful frugal tips from them. Sharon has posted about Debtisdum and Our Life...On a Budget so I won't repeat what she has said.  I watch both of those also and really like them.  Once in a while I will post about some others I really like.

Today it is Acting Our Wage . They are on a journey to become debt free living in California and have a small daughter.  I found the channel practical and Carrie has good advice.  Through her I learned about how to earn Shop Your Way points by using my smartphone and walking or riding my bike or using my treadmill. Go check her out :)

Car Repairs, Baby Steps And The New Year

We had an unexpected car repair come up this week to the tune of about $550.  Today I am so thankful for the emergency fund we have been working on.  Although it sucks having to use that money to pay for a car repair at least I don't feel stressed about it.  We have the cash to pay for it and I am not worried about how it will get fixed and having to put it on credit.

Our emergency fund sits at about 3 months living expenses ( a little less now).  We are planning to save 6 month worth of expenses.  I posted recently that this is a goal of mine to get finish in 2016.  I am actually hoping to complete it by June 2016 or sooner.  As I reflect on what worked this year and what didn't I realize that we really need to up our game for sinking funds.  I recently sat down and went through the calendar for the year and wrote down every single thing that comes up on the calendar that we don't really prepare well for.  A couple of examples of that would be family birthday's, car registration, holiday meals and parties etc. I am hoping by making this list I can include these things better in our monthly budgets.  Also this will allow me to plan ahead for some of these things and watch for sales where that may apply.

Does anyone else have any goals for the New Year?

Random Monday Post

I really need to get back to stricter budgeting.  We have been spending money much to loosely and honestly if we would be paying more attention we could be close to having Baby Step 3 complete.  My New Years goal is to get this step done.

Along with the lack of attention to the budget I not paid close enough attention to items that we really need to purchase and that we should have budgeted for.  One of those things are winter boots for myself and Kid #5.  This is something I am hoping to find a good deal on and be able to squeeze into Decembers budget.  We will see....

Today  I worked on our menu until our next pay day which is December 3. Now I just need to make the grocery list and do the shopping.  I really don't think we will need much.  We are going to my sisters for Thanksgiving Day.  I just need to make some potatoes and a few pies for that.  Nothing overly expensive.

This week I am trying something new at least for me with my To Do List. Instead of making a giant weekly one I am trying just a daily one. I may still end up doing a weekly and then dividing it into daily parts.  We will see how it goes.  So far so good for today anyway :)

Hope you all are having a good Monday :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I made a small batch of pancake/waffle "syrup" 

2. I research the going price for fire wood in our area. We bought a truck load. We will use this in our fire place over the winter which will hopefully help with out heating costs.

3. I had 2 stay at home days 

4. On Tuesday night we had Chili for dinner. On Thursday night I added elbow macaroni to it and it became Chili Mac. Two cheap & easy dinners. Plus there was enough for my husband to take for 2 lunches :) 

5. I set up my 3 drying racks in my craft room which is off the laundry room. I hung most of the laundry to dry. What didn't get hung was washed & dried all in one day. 

Christmas Shopping

Christmas shopping has been on my brain lately.  I personally hate shopping.  What the what?? Yes I am a woman who hates shopping. 

We have a large family so I try to plan my shopping for Christmas gifts all year long so that I can get the best bang for my buck :)  I try to keep a running list of ideas that Kids have all mentioned over the course of the year of items they would like.  I look for gifts everywhere.  I have no problem with buying used especially if it looks in brand new shape.  Luckily for me, my Kids and other family members don't care if they received a second hand item either. I also use apps on my phone to earn free gifts cards for doing different things.  I typically use these gift cards to buy Christmas gifts also.

I have done a lot of shopping online this year.  I use a cash envelope for my Christmas shopping.  I also have a envelope that I add money to when I make an online purchase using my debit card. Once a week I go place that cash back into my checking account.  Maybe not a great system for others but it has been working for me.

Anyway, how is everyone doing with their shopping?  Have you started yet or are you done?

Our Frist Holiday In Our New Home

We celebrated our first holiday this weekend in our new home.  We have been here just a few days shy of 6 months.  We hosted our Family Thanksgiving with our kids and other family members on Saturday. I have posted in the past how we do a big Thanksgiving dinner the second Saturday in November so that our grown children are then free to attend Thanksgiving at the other houses of their choosing.   We had approximately 20 people here.  Hosting that many proved to me why I bought this house.  I love having a partially open concept for the entertaining factor!  There was plenty of room to move and places for everyone to sit and eat. All in all it was a wonderful weekend and I really look forward to celebrating Christmas now with all the kids too :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

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1. I made 3 loaves of English Muffin Bread instead of buying English Muffins

2. I did some price comparison between GFS and SAMs club to see who has the better price on some items I needed. SAMs won for most of them.

3. I bought Kid # 5 a Christmas present from Target using an $10 online coupon print out I received the last time I shopped at Target. I also used my Target Redcard to receive free shipping and another 5% off. I spent less then $5 on the gift. 

4. I am slowly organizing my spare room closet. I bought two orange/ black storage tubs at Target and used a 20% off Cartwheel from the Chartwheel app on my phone to get them cheap and store my Halloween decor in. This makes it easy to know exactly which tubs this stuff is in. I plan to do the same with my Christmas decor. 

5. I needed a trash can for my 1/2 bath with a lid to keep my dog out of it. The cheapest I had seen them was about $14 and that was on clearence. I found one at Goodwill for $3.99. It just needed cleaned up and a little spray paint to be the color I wanted :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

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1. The previous owners left this Dawn foaming dish soap stuff here.  It was a half full bottle so I used it up and really liked it.  When I ran out this week I googled how to make more using my regular dish soap.  Works great!

2. In this new house we have a small front porch.  I have a Halloween wreath for the front door but wanted a Fall one to hang up after Halloween is over.  I spent about $5 to make this one.  I had most of the items.  I just bought the orange and green tulle.

3. We ate all our leftovers :)

4. We have slowly been doing house projects that will help us be more organized. Yesterday my hubby built these shelves in our guest room closet for me. We spent about $35 doing it. Money well spent though in order to be able to find our stuff :) 

5. I returned some items to Menards that we didn't end up needing. A refund is always a good frugal thing! 

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I made a meal plan and a grocery list to go along with it. This really helps keep my grocery budget low.

2. I have shopped a ton of yard sales in the last few weeks.  Kid #5 has grown over 3 inches in the last 6 months and she needed clothes.  I found her a ton for pennies on the dollar :)

3. A couple nights ago I wanted to have sub sandwiches for dinner but we didn't have the bread I like to use for it.  I used the bread maker to make some.  It stuck to the pan and kinda fell apart.  But I salvaged it anyway and Kid #5 and I managed to get a sandwich each out of it :)

4. I planned my shopping this week and hit the stores I like to go to all in a row.  Saves on gas and my time

5. We ate our leftovers and if we didn't I stuck them in the freezer for easy future meals.

Well I Should Prolly Get Back To This...

Hello Blogger World!  

I am still here!  We are moved and have been in our new town and new house for 4 months now.  Finally we are starting to feel settled.  

Kid # 5 has started her new school and has been attending for about a month now.  She seems to be adjusting well enough.  Yesterday she had a neighbor girl over that she has met and became friends with.  I consider that to be a good sign :)  We have also found her a dance studio to take classes at and a music store to take piano lessons at.  I have even manage to work those into our budget lol :)

We have managed to unpack most of our boxes and most of the things are put away.  I am still working on organizing different rooms and I would not call any one room completely done.  But hey this is a marathon not a sprint.  Slow and steady wins the race right? 

I have done lots of projects on our new house nothing major.  Just little things.  Here are a few pics of things I have done.  Also if you follow me on Instagram you might have seen these already.

I did this to my walk in closet.  There will be more to come on this....

in the same closet I added this using a over the door towel rack I didn't need anymore.  I love Pinterest for organizing ideas :)

In my hubby's closet ( yes I have a walk in closet all to myself!!!) I needed a place to store his many many hats.  Pinterest to the recuse again!  A dowel rod from the garage and some curtain clips I already had.

The first weekend we lived here and were waiting for our stuff to arrive on the semi, we painted Kid #5's room.

Her room is actually about done.  I will post photos of it soon :)  I did a few DIY projects for her room.  One was this stool I found at Goodwill for $12.99.  The fabric I already had.

The other was this necklace hanger.  I just repuposed items I already owned to make it.

We also added this shelving using items out of the garage that the previous owner left to Kid #5's closet.  This closet had basically nothing in it when we moved in.  She is lucky and has two closets in her room.

This is probably my favorite corner of my house at the moment.  I just love how all of these items came together.  All of it was items I already owned.

Anyway, I am still around and we are keeping busy.  I hope to make more of an effort to keep up this blog now.  I'll be back soon with more house updates and frugal things I am doing to make it our home.  I also will update on our debt free journey soon.  We are currently working on Baby Step 3 for you other Dave Ramsey followers.  Somehow I thought this step would be easier :/

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

Been a while since I have been here and done one of these. Maybe time to get back in the swing of things....:)

1. I had over $60 left in my two week grocery budget.

2. We ate our leftovers

3. I sold an item on our local Facebook yard sale page and made $25

4. I made Kid #3 a Halloween wreath for $1.67. I used up items I already had :)

5. We were low on snacks so I made a pan of Rice Crispy Treats. I had all the items needed in my pantry :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I search Pinterest for a way to organize my husband's hat collection. This is what I came up with and I used items we already had :) 

2. Again I used Pinterest to organize some items in my own closet. I spent $2 at Dollar General for shower curtain rings. 

3. I made $40 selling a couple of items this week

4. I made this hooded towel as part of a baby gift. These are now my go to gift for young kids and babies. Théy are frugal to make and everyone likes them :)

5. I didn't grocery shop this week and we ate our leftovers :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. We ate at home.

2. We went to the library and got our new cards for our new town. Kid # 5 checked out some movies to watch.

3. I made sure to unplug items that we were not using to save on electric

4. We went on a picnic one evening and checked out a local park. Free entertainment :)

5. I ordered a couple things using my Amazon Prime but opted of the slower shipping so that I will receive credits to use towards movies, or music or books instead. Nothing I ordered was needed right away :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I used vinegar as a rinse agent in my dishwasher 

2. I used my drying rack to dry our clothes when the sun was shining

3. When I did used the dryer I waited until night so it would not heat up the house

4. We ate our leftovers

5. I ran our dishwasher when it was full and at night. Now that there is only 3 of us left at home I can run it every other day instead of everyday :)

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

Well I am back :) It sure has been awhile since I have been here. We have been in our new house in our new city for about 3 weeks now. More on that later....

1. I bought a new larger drying rack at Costco before we moved. I have used it like crazy this week doing laundry instead of using the dryer 

2. The couple of times I have used the dryer I did so at night and dried my loads all in a row to take advantage of the dryer already being heated up. 

3. I ran our dishwasher with completely full loads and also at night with the heated dry cycle turned off

4. We have cooked on the grill and used the microwave for side dishes instead of using the oven. This has helped keep the house cooler

5. One evening earlier in the week we had a family size packet of BBQ chicken legs for dinner. We ending up with 4 legs for leftovers. A couple nights later I turned them into BBQ chicken wraps for dinner. I love taking leftovers and using them in another way. 

We Sold Our House And Bought a New One

Wow I have not posted in a while! We are stuck in limbo at the moment waiting for the school year to end and for the closing on both of our houses.

We sold our current house 9 days after it went on the market. We are slowly selling donating and generally getting rid of items we don't want any longer and won't use in the new house.

Over Spring Break we spent 3 days house hunting in our new city.  On the third day we found a house we love!

So that this is where we are now waiting in limbo to move. 

I hope to be back to regular posting in June after the move is complete!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Menu Plan March 23-27

Monday - Chicken Patty Sandwiches, Cheesy Broccoli, Hummus & Veggies

Tuesday- Baked Ravioli, Garlic Bread, Salad

Wednesday- Pork Chops, Green Beans, Rice

Thursday - Quasadillas, Refried Beans

Friday - dinner out for Kid # 3 Birthday

Saturday- Homemade Pizza

We're Moving....

I don't think I have officially shared this here on the blog....but we are moving! 

We decided in the fall of 2014 that we should relocate closer to my husbands work. For the last 2 years he has been driving 3 hours a day to go to work. Now that we will only have 1 child left at home we have decided it makes better sense for our family to move to an area closer to his work place.

Right now we are in declutter mode. We hope to have our current house listed for sale by the first week of March. So that is our big project we are working on now.

Ideally we hope to move sometime in June after the end of the school year here. 

Please think of us and hope our house sells fairly quickly and for a decent price.

I am sure I will have a ton of frugal projects and ideas to share once we are moved :)

5 Things I did That Were Frugal This Week

Seems I missed last weeks Frugal Things Friday. Let's see if I can come up with 10 things for this week :)

1. Since we are in the process of getting our house ready to sell I have been in big time decluttering mode. I have been listing many items on our local facebook pages. So far this month I have made $97

2. We used some Lowes gift cards to purchase some items needed for a few household repair projects.

3. I have used the money made from decluttering/ selling items to fund my envelopes.

4. I found a really good deal on an iPod 5 on one of our local Facebook sale sites. I bought it as a birthday gift for Kid # 5 and used money I had in my gift envelope :)

5. Other then having my hubby pick up a few odds and ends things, I haven't done any grocery shopping this pay period.

6. I have bought home free boxes from work to use for packing and decluttering. It is nice not to have to purchase those!

7. My co- worker has given me all her newspaper so that I do not have to buy bubble wrap or anything to wrap my breakables in. I do not get the newspaper delivered. 

8. We have eaten our leftovers

9. I have made $50 so far this month from my occasional babysitting job which is also used to fund our envelopes

10. I did end up stoping at Kroger this morning for some produce. Found some great deals on manager special! 

5 Frugal Thing I Did This Week

1. I made $15 in extra cash this week. I am using the extra money I make by selling our stuff to fund our cash envelopes for the year.

2. I planned my driving. I even planned my meet ups to sell items for when I was already out so as not to waste money on gas.

3. We stuck to our menu plan

4. We ate our leftovers

5. We have watched several shows on Netflix this week. We are definitely getting our money's worth out of our monthly subscription 

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I sold a scarf and made $10. I also got an order for 2 more :)

2. I have our budget worked out for February

3. I put together a new budget/ home management binder. This helps me to stay more organized and save money

4. I bought home some leftovers from work that were going to the garbage. It fed us the main course for dinner one night this week

5. We are our leftovers :)

5 Things I Did a That Were Frugal This Week

1. I made $40 extra doing some sewing work for a friend 

2. I sold 2 items on our local Facebook yard sale groups and made $10.

3. Went to Target with Kid #3 and didn't buy anything :)

4. I took the extra money I made this week and divided it up between my envelopes ( more on that soon )

5. Kid # 5 and I stuck to the menu plan even though my hubby was out of town most of the week

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This week

1. I stuck some of our leftovers which I knew would not be eaten before going bad into the freezer

2. We stuck to the dinner menu even though we had a busy week. I did move a few days around but at least we still ate at home.

3. I helped Kid # 3 research where to find all her school books the cheapest.

4. I made a pot of Stuffed Green Pepper Soup on Monday and it made 2 meals for us this week.

5. I needed to use up some corn bread and a couple buscuits. I also needed some Stove Top Stuffing for a recipe but didn't have any. I used Pinterest and made my own using the corn bread and buscuits. Kid # 5 said she liked it much better then the stuff from a box :)

2014 Goal Was Reached :)

So I posted here that we wanted to pay our car loan off by the end of 2014.  Well we totally reached that goal!  On December 31 I posted this picture to Instagram.... ( ps: if you would like to follow me on Instagram.com/searl7)

In January of 2014 we owed over $12,000 on our car.  We have now completed Baby Step # 2.

How did we do it?  We had a budget for everything. 

I used cash for my spending money and grocery/household items. I saved my change from this and cashed it in.

I menu planned.  I tried to save as much as possible on anything we bought for the house.

We cut cable and use a Roku 2, Netflix, Amazon Prime and a antenna to watch TV.

I shop Goodwill, thrift stores and yard sales for a lot of household items and clothing.

We sold things.

My hubby took on many side jobs.  He is a bass player in addition to his regular job.  He also runs sound for bands. 

We were lucky and got back about $4,000 from our income tax return in 2014 so all of that went towards the car loan. 

Anyway, if you have read my blog for any amount of time then you all know how we did it cause this is what my blog it about.  I am sure I have left out many thing we do to save money and be frugal. 

It wasn't easy.  But it is doable.  Now on to the next step.....

Thank you all for being my support system and reading my crazy frugal antics.  Don't worry they won't be stopping anytime soon :)

I plan to blog more.....so stay tuned :) 

5 Things I Did That Were Frugal This Week

1. I made a meal plan and stuck to it 

2. I bought my hubby a snow blower and  saved $50 by ordering it on Amazon instead of buying it at Lowes. I used our Amazon prime account ( which totally pays for it's self with the free shipping) and it was here the next day

3. I fancied up my $1 meal planner using items I already had

4. Kid #5 and I had 2 stay at home days this week since we had work/school cancelations.

5. We ate our leftovers even though 1 night I really wanted to go eat pizza