A New Year…..Feels Like A New Me!

After what seems like a lost year battling cancer (although it really wasn’t), I am back full time looking for ways to save our family money.    My goal is to save enough not to have to go back to work outside the home while I’m still home educating my munchkins. 

Here are the savings this week:

Wal Mart

I was just complaining to my husband and daughter about how much peanut butter costs have gone up.   On their clearance rack this week:

Peter Pan Natural Peanut Butter 1.25/jar……I bought 4.   Which made it still cheaper than buying one jar of peanut butter regular price!

Pickle Relish 1.25/large squeeze bottle.   My Timothy LOVES pickle relish.

CVS Deal

2 Old Spice Body wash on sale for 2/$7

2 Tide laundry detergent on sale for 5.94

2 Dawn Hand Care dish soap on sale for .99

Used $4 in coupons

Used $7 in reward bucks

Total savings:  $21.64

Total spending: $10.97

Then bought

2 Always infinity pads (18/pkg) on sale for $3.99

1 Bounty 6 package on sale for 5.77

coupons: $2.25

Total Savings:  8.47

Total spending: $12.60

AND GOT BACK $10 in  Extrabucks rewards

Total spending for CVS today:  $23.57

Total savings for CVS today:  $30.11

and got $10 to spend next trip.

WOOO HOOO ….felt like the girl on the Christmas Wal Mart commercial that says “I WOOOOON”.    Until next time, Michelle

 

Free Today on Amazon

Check it out here.   Shopping & Cooking Frugally…get it before it’s gone.

Ways I’ve saved money since I’ve been ill

 

• Founds lots of free books and aps that I put on my face book group:  Michelle’s big happy family books
• Stayed home a lot that saved gas money which was a necessity because we spent a lot of money going to doctor every day.
• Fruits and vegetables not on sale were picked up at Costo for a good price
• Friends have brought me milk from a healthy milk co-op
• Friends and family have brought us many meals ….almost daily since the first of January!!
• Been given eggs from my sister’s family farm and sometimes another.
• Shopped Kroger deals this week….spent nearly $75 but saved $50.
• Shopped Publix deals this week…spent $35 and saved nearly $30.

Free Reading

This looks like a great site to get classical books for your family to read for free!

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/genre/Children/all

Enjoy!!

 

Living on a tight budget

I realize today that the post I meant to go here a few days ago when to my cooking blog instead, oops.  It is titled “I’ve been laid off, let the savings begin”.  To read that post, please go here.

Let’s go save some money!

Watermelon Jungle

Our garden this year has saved us quite a bit of money in tomatoes and cucumbers.  The potatoes didn’t fare nearly as well as last year.  Our biggest, fastest growing, productive plant has been our 5 watermelon plants.  They have taken over 1/2 our back yard (probably a little less than 1/4 of an acre).  It was exciting at first to see all the watermelon plants pop up everywhere but they have only grown to cantaloupe size and no larger.  I’m thinking I should have kept the plants smaller so more energy could have gone into the melons than into the plant.  We will probably start mowing and tilling under 1/2 of the watermelon jungle in my backyard this week to see if it will encourage growth in the melons.  The tomatoes and cuc’s seem to be winding down.  I still need to dig up the sweet potatoes, onions, and carrots.  My 2nd son and I will probably begin preparing for our fall garden this week.  We are going to plant a variety of lettuces and cabbage.  Nothing to big and fancy as we are in the middle of homeschooling and our lives are maxed out!   Hope you find enjoyable ways to save money at your home.  If it’s not enjoyable, it becomes a burden.  I’d rather spend a bit more money than be miserable.  Have a wonderful week!

Back in the swing

Took some summer time off, but now I’m back in the swing of things. Didn’t save quite so much while traveling and in the midst of summer fun.  However, I didn’t spend extravagantly either…except for one meal out which I don’t want to revisit thank you very much! I’ll let you know how I’m saving in the midst of home schooling, child raising, husband supporting, house cleaning, church going, and all that life entails as I go.

I can tell you one significant way I saved this summer is to get many of my children’s school books from a second hand book store in Augusta this summer. I saved over $35 from the books I found that I needed. Also, checked prices on e-bay, amazon, Rock Solid books, and Christian Book Distributors to order the rest. Also, many of our books can be found online at librivox and gutenberg websites. You can even get some free audio books at a freeclassicaudiobooks.com. Let’s save money y’all!

Summer Savings

A lot of these ideas may be obvious but here are some ways we save when we travel.

**Eat before our trip.

**Pack water bottles.

**Pack lunches.

**When you do eat out, split a meal.  It’s always more than enough food for one person.

**Pack fruit for snacks or make oatmeal bars before you go.

These are just a few ideas.  If you have some more, please feel free to comment and I’ll add to the post.  Have a great week!!

Drug Store Savings

Today was the first day of being back on the saddle with hitting the drug stores to save $. Here’s what my adventure out looked like.   Another reminder, I didn’t just go out to shop.  I already needed to go into the office so I planned my shopping with the least amount of gas used in mind.  No point saving $ just to turn around and fill up your tank because you didn’t have a plan.

		SPENT	SAVED
EARTH FARE	butter			Note: $25 on cod liver oil for children
	2# organic ground chuck			to boost Christopher’s immune system
	4 pack bath tissue			and see if it heals his teeth per Dr Weston Price
	artic cod liver oil, strawberry			(see http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/05/how-i-healed-my-childs-cavity/)
		36.8	5.49	$5 on organic butter to make ghee
Rite Aid	motrin pm 40 ct
	1# whole, natural almonds
	John Frieda foam hair color
		2.12	25.99	(forgot to use $1 coupon
				would’ve been $1.12)
Wal Mart	returned item		$10.61
	Degree Deodorant Sport	2.32
	Degree Deodorant Sport	2.32		This doesn’t include savings just
	Strawberries	1.5		for shopping Wal Mart
	Strawberries	1.5		Where else do you get
	40 Flour Tortillas	3.68		40 tortillas for $3.68??
	Cottonelle wipes	2.22
	Bananas	1.72
		11.97	5.32
Walgreens	Trans #1
	4 reach toothbrushes	3.96
	Bayer asp	2.69
		4.63	6.65
	Trans #2
	Tone Body Wash	3.99
	Infus Conditioner	5.99
	Scunci Elastic	2
	Wylers	0.59
	Carefree Orig	0.99
		7.5	11.59
	Trans #3
	Thermacare heat wrap for back
	bonus 3rd item in box
		5.99
	Suave Bodywash	2
	Suave Bodywash	2
	Nestle Skinny Cow	0.69
		1.26	11.35
CVS	Trans #1
	Gum EZ 90 ct	2
		2.14	1.59
	Trans#2
	GE Energy Savings Lightbulb
		2.99
		0.07	5.19
		SPENT	SAVINGS
GRAND TOTALS		66.49	$83.78

Again, this was $30 higher for health supplements that I purchased and doesn’t include how much I saved by shopping Wal Mart vs. other stores.  Not including supplements it would have been over $100 of items for $36.49  However with supplements it’s $148.27 worth of items for $66.49.  Not too shabby.

Also, if the supplements do work for my toddler there is no telling how much I will have saved on his teeth.  If not, he’ll just be a healthier little fella despite his ugly front tooth.  He’s too young to have any work done and  you would think he slept with sippy ups or a bottle but he never had a bottle.  We only do water between meals and he doesn’t sleep with any beverages.  It’s a mystery.  My 8th child and the first to experience ugly front teeth, so sad.  (Not to mention the injury to my pride, lol.)

One last note, I hope!  Also by making my own Ghee, I save over $7.   Which would be a savings of at least $84.

Homemade Jello Popsicles

We made a lot of juice pops on our vacation last week.  We came home to temps almost 20 degrees higher and decided we would keep up the practice.    We didn’t have any juice here but I had jello that I had bought dirt cheap on clearance.  Here’s the recipe for homemade Jello popsicles.

• 3 oz. box of Jello
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 tbsp. sugar

1. Bring one cup of water to a boil.

2. Add in the gelatin mix, and stir until all of the sugar has dissolved.

3. Stir in one cup cold water.

4. Stir and pour into popsicle molds (paper cups work too) and freeze.

Yield: 4-6 popsicles (depending on size)