From the Frugal Blonde . . . Cleaning up at Bath and Body Works

My mom (for whom this blog is named) is a great-bargain hunter, but at Bath and Body Works she is definitely the queen! Because of our large family of Bath and Body Works users, she always gets multiple coupons in the mail, and she gets deals all year and stockpiles for gifts. I was particularly impressed with her latest run -- see below:

She started out with two coupons for a free signature items with a $10 purchase. These 4 oz. hand creams (reg. $12 on sale for $5) qualified. In addition, the store is changing the packaging (and raising the price), so that the new hand creams are $10 for only 2.5 oz.

So Mom made two transactions (in order to use both coupons) of buying two of the old hand creams and getting one free. Thus she ended up with 6 hand creams for $20. The original price for these in the old packaging would have been $72! And the price for the same number of ounces in the new packaging would be $96!

Now for me this wouldn't have been such a saving, since I don't buy more expensive than drugstore products anyway. But since my mom already uses these creams, as well as saving them for gifts, she saved over $50! Way to go, Frugal Blonde!

Menu Planning: First Course

As promised, I am going to briefly lay out the menu planning I am in the process of doing for the first two weeks of February. I will probably do my bi-monthly Wegmans shopping trip on Tuesday of next week.

One of the most important things I have learned about menu planning is to start with what you have, instead of just coming up with a menu out of thin air. I think most of us tend to have a lot of food in our pantries; you might be surprised at how little you have to buy!

So right now I have several packs of boneless chicken in the freezer (I buy the club packs when they're on sale and freeze in one pound servings). My generous friend also gave us some beef roasts from her in-law's cattle, so I need to figure out how to cook those.

I know I have some stir-fry vegetables in the freezer that I didn't get to this week, so chicken stir-fry will probably be one of our meals. Also, these chuck and rump roasts are pretty big, so I should plan 1-2 dinners of roast and side dishes, plus a different dish to use the rest of the meat, like fajitas or steak sandwiches.

I will need a lot of lunch food, but we're pretty good on breakfast items. I have a lot of instant oatmeal and cereal that I got really cheap, and we of course have English muffins.

From what I have in my pantry and freezer, I move onto what's on sale. I saw that ground beef is $1.99 at Wegmans this week, and their sales usually last more than one week. Even though we have the beef roasts, I may get some ground beef for chili. I plan to bring a meal to a mom with a new baby in the next couple of weeks, and a big pot of chili is so easy to make for that.

I also see that Wegmans has 8 oz. block cheese on sale for $1.99, which is a price that I can rarely get any more. I am thinking that means plenty of grilled cheese and cheese and crackers for lunches. Also, we normally have meatless Fridays, so it might be a good week to make homemade mac and cheese.

With these ideas in mind, my next step will be to look at the calendar and tentatively plug in meals for each day, taking into account any special activities we have on particular days. More on that in the next post!

Homemade English Muffins!

I'm hosting a playgroup this morning, and I like to provide a snack. However, yesterday I noticed that I was down to one egg, so that nixed my usual standbys of muffins or banana bread. Thinking of breakfast foods that might not use eggs, I decided to try making English muffins!

It never used to occur to me to try making something like English muffins. I mean, Thomas makes English muffins, just like Dunkin makes doughnuts, right? But in the pursuit of saving money, I started making bagels with my bread machine, and they are surprisingly easy and really good. So English muffins was my next experiment. See below for how it worked . . .

I used this recipe, after a short google search. It was quick to mix up, and the dough turned out really nice and soft, but not sticky.

That's my two-year-old's hand punching down the dough. :-D The dough rose once in the bowl for about 30 minutes and then once after the muffins were cut out.






These two pictures are before and after the cut out muffins rose. At first I thought I had cut them too thin, but they really puffed up once they were on the griddle.

There you go! They really look like English muffins, don't they!

I split one open to make sure they were done and tasted it. The texture seemed really good, but it tasted a little bland. That's when I realized I had never added the salt! Lol! Oh well, these things keep me humble. I think they'll still be really good when spread with (salted) butter and jam. I definitely plan to make these again.

Small Successes

I was writing up another post this morning, but I am tired and didn't feel inspired until I read this post on a blog I enjoy called Faith and Family Live.

Lately I've been feeling like my to-do list is overwhelming, so it's good to remind myself of my small successes.

So three small successes from the past few weeks relating to the frugal life are the following:

1) I cut out most of my huge stack of coupon inserts. (I had gotten three papers the week that there were five coupon inserts, so my backlog was huge.) I still have a couple of inserts to go, but I got a lot done.

2) I potty-trained my daughter. This is actually pretty huge! Huge money saving on diapers - 'nuff said!

3) I went sledding with my daughter and our good friends. Sometimes I feel like I'm always working on my to-do list, but in the end, having fun with my daughter is what is really important. That is why I am home with her - to spend time together.

So never mind that I have mountains of laundry to do and overdue thank you notes to write and that I haven't put away all our Christmas decorations or totaled up our receipts for the past two months. I guess I'm not so behind after all. :-)

*Update*

After writing this post, I felt so good that I was inspired to sit down and finish all those thank you notes. So make that 4 small successes!

Meal Planning

My sister commented that she would have like more practical advice in my post about planning, so I thought I would collect some resources on meal planning to share.

For an overview of meal planning, Money Saving Mom had a good guest post last week. I liked this post because it broke down the planning into simple steps. I am still working on a good system for meal planning, but I have noticed that it gets easier and quicker the more you do it. Yesterday, Money Saving Mom also pointed out a free printable menu planner from Mom Advice, which you can check out here.

One of the commenters on the post suggested using menus4moms. This is a site that sends you a week's worth of menus and shopping lists each week for a small monthly fee. This might be a really good option if you're short on time. You would probably recoup the cost of the monthly fee just by confining your shopping list to your planned meals. Also, Real Simple has a review of six similar sites here.

For more inspiration, OrgJunkie has a bloggy event called Menu Planning Mondays. Check it out on Mondays for dozens of blogs with their menus posted for the week.

To find recipes for your planned menus, my favorite site right now is AllRecipes. The best feature on this site is the "ingredients" search option. You can type in the ingredients that you have on hand (or what's on sale that week) and the site will find recipes that use them. You can also put in ingredients to exclude, which really helps narrow down the recipes.

Other good sites for simple, frugal meals are Taste of Home and BettyCrocker. I like both of these sites because they have mostly simple meals using ordinary ingredients. When I want to get a little fancier, I always turn to the Food Network! Also, two blogs I have just started to check out are A Year of Crockpotting and Five Dollar Dinners. Never underestimate the crock pot for easy, delicious dinners. It's a really great option if you work and are out of the house all day too.

I hope these resources are helpful. I was thinking that I might do a couple more posts this week and the beginning of next week going through my menu planning for the next two weeks. (I plan two weeks at a time, since we only have one car and I need to minimize shopping trips.) Like I said, I am still getting in my groove on the menu planning, but it might actually help me to lay it out in steps for you.

Photos from www.freefoto.com.

Tuesday Tip

I am starting a new feature called the "Tuesday Tip." Each Tuesday, I plan to post a quick, "painless" moneysaving tip that can be easily implemented in your life. I hope you enjoy, and if you have any ideas for future tips please let me know!

Without further ado, then, today's tip:

Use your scrap paper. I print a ton of internet coupons, and most of them print only one to a page. I save the other two-thirds of the paper and put it in my daughter's drawing box to color on. If you don't have a toddler that likes coloring, you can also cut the paper into squares and use for quick notes and lists.

If I print something that uses a full page but that I don't plan to save, like MapQuest directions, I often save it to run back through the printer on the other side.

You might not save hundreds of dollars doing this, but if you buy one fewer package of printer paper or a couple fewer coloring pads per year, that's $5 or $10 dollars in your pocket! :-D

Target Trip

I can't resist sharing my other Saturday shopping trip, which was after I had already posted about the Shoppers trip. But I was even more excited by these Target deals!

I've been holding on to nine $2 off coupons for these new Kashi cereal bars, waiting until they went on a good enough sale. Finally I saw them down to $2.75 at my Super Target, so I got each box for $.75! It especially makes me happy because these are all natural and healthy, so I like to give them to my daughter.

If you're interested in getting some of these coupons, there is still one available online here. (You can print it twice.) The others were mailed to me by VocalPoint, which is 100% worth joining if you like coupons! It is a Proctor and Gamble site -- basically they send you really great coupons for new products and there is a site where you can give feedback on the products.

Also, the whole grain poptarts had $1 off peelie coupons on the boxes, so I got those for $.89 each. The Johnson's Buddies soaps are priced at $.99, and I got them for free with a $3 off 3 Johnson's products from a recent newspaper insert.

So I paid $7.11 including tax for all these items!

Update on the Squirrels!

Well, I am happy to report that we are officially squirrel-free! Overall, I would say that in the end Michael was right, and I am happy that we only paid $175.

However, the day did end up being a little more complex than we expected. First of all, there was some mixup with our pest control company, and they thought the date was next Saturday. However, since Michael's dad was already over, Michael asked if they could possibly fit it in anyway, and they agreed to come in the late afternoon. They told Michael that he and his dad could patch the hole first, and then they would treat the attic afterwards.

What none of them anticipated was that a squirrel was still in there! So Michael ended up having to remove the board over the hole so they could chase the squirrel out. So basically, he had to redo the work that he and his dad had already done, but the pest control guy held the ladder for him and it wasn't too big a deal.

Michael did point out that after chasing the squirrel out, the guys were there for only about fifteen minutes, so it was a pretty easy $175 for them! It sure made us glad that we weren't paying $300 or $600 for fifteen minutes.

Thanks to Michael's creative thinking, I think we came out of this one pretty frugally. :-D

Photo from www.freefoto.com.

Frugal Principle #5: Creativity

The last frugal principle that I want to discuss is creativity. This is really one of the most necessary and also the most fun and rewarding parts of being frugal. The frugal life involves a lot of figuring out ways to get or make what you need cheaply, or better yet, making do with what you have. I always find that I am amazed at what a little thinking outside of the box can do for me!

Over the past few years, I have definitely learned a lot of creative ways to get what I need for less. For instance, when my older daughter was four months old, I was convinced she needed an exersaucer, so we went to Target and spent $50 on one! Now that I am a (slightly!) more experienced mom, I know so many resources that I could have used to get one for less. These include online coupons, Craig's List, secondhand stores, children's consignment sales, freecycle, or even borrowing one from a friend.

Now, if I had gotten one from these alternative sources, the toy might have not been new or quite as nice, but within months my daughter was cruising anyway and didn't want to be confined in it! Plus, to me a large plastic toy is a good item to get used -- just rub with a little of my favorite Clorox Anywhere spray.

As regards making do with what I have, one of the areas in which I often need to be creative is meal preparation. We have only one car, which my husband usually takes to work, so I am not able to run to the store for a missing ingredient for dinner. Not surprisingly, I have become the queen of the substitution! If I can't think of anything to substitute, I often leave an ingredient out, usually with no ill effect to the recipe. (Just don't try this with baking powder or something!)

This Christmas I also tried to work with what I had to decorate for the holiday. It was our first Christmas in our house and I really wanted to make it special, but we didn't have the money to buy a lot of decorations. These pictures show our mantelpiece decorated almost exclusively with items I found around the house or got for free (the branches). The only items I bought were the mini wire Christmas trees and the balls in the jar, all of which I got at the dollar store. The finished display wasn't fancy, but I think it looked festive.

I think that using your money and possessions creatively is so empowering. Not to sound trite, but you really discover that the most important resources you have are within yourself!

Shoppers Triple Coupons

I went to Shoppers Triple Coupons event this morning and snagged some really good deals. Now that I've been to a number of triple coupon events at both Shoppers and Harris Teeter I have a good idea of what will be a good deal and what won't. I don't generally like Shoppers, but it's practically across the street from my house, so it's worth a trip for a good deal.

I got everything pictured here for $15.98. The original total was $40.02.

My best deals were these:

- Wacky Mac - $1.39 - 3 x $.50 q - free!

- Fiber One Toaster Pastries - $2.19 - 3 x $.75 q - free!

- No Yolks noodles - $1.89 - 3 x $.50q - $.39

- Muir Glen Organic diced tomatoes - $2.39 - 3 x $.75 q - $.14

I did get a couple of items just because we needed them, so that reduced my savings a bit. Also, I think at least one of my coupons didn't triple. It might have been the Shoppers catalina coupon I had for the organic baby food. If I had noticed, I would have contested that, since it was a manufacturer's coupon. However, I had both my girls with me and didn't notice, so I'm trying not to worry about it. :-)

However, I would recommend paying as much attention as possible when doing deals like this. You never know what errors the computer might make.

PS - The last installment of my "5 Principles of a Frugal Life" series will appear by Monday. I just got busy the end of this week and I wanted to spend enough time on the last principle.

Squirrels in the Attic . . .

We have squirrels in our attic. They've been in there since before we moved in this past March. (Our house was a foreclosure and empty when we bought it, so who knows how long they've been there!) They are getting in through a triangular- shaped opening near the roof.

Now, one of the things that we spend money on and don't do ourselves is that we have a contract with a pest-control service. (Like I said, our house was empty when we bought it . . . .) Our exterminators told us that we really need to get the squirrels out, because they can carry disgusting bugs. Originally, they offered to get the squirrels out, mend the roof, and treat for bugs for over $600. However, in the few weeks we took to discuss it they came back and lowered their price to around $300! Although we weren't trying to get them to lower the price, it does show the value of renegotiating.

However, since my husband is pretty much as much a frugal zealot as I am, he wanted to fix the hole himself, with the help of his dad. The exterminators agreed to just treat and de-nest for $175, and they're coming tomorrow morning.

However, they told us that Michael needs to fix the hole right after they do this, even posting a "look-out" to make sure no squirrels come back in before the hole is patched! Yikes! We're under attack from squirrels! I'm just a bit worried about how this whole thing is going to work out . . . .

So, was barricading out the squirrels ourselves a smart money saving move or a false economy? I'm sure hoping for the first, but check back tomorrow or next week to hear the story!

Photo from http://www.freefoto.com/.

Frugal Principle #4: Time

Related to the concept of planning is the concept of time. It always amazes me how much the old adage is true, "time is money"! I've often found that time can be substituted for money and vice versa in many different instances. Whether to use your money or your time is a personal choice based on what is more important to you in a specific instance.

For instance, for the past six months I have been trying to substantially reduce our grocery bill. One of the main strategies that I've using to save money is to make a lot more of our food from scratch: everything from sandwich bread to waffles to snack mixes. Sometimes I feel like I spend all my time cooking, but it is worth it to me at this point in my life. Since I am a SAHM, I have the time do this, and it is a good activity to do with my daughter. If I were a working mom, my time at home might be more important than the money spent, and I might have more money to spend on prepared products. It's all about trade-offs.

Other ways that we've chosen to use our time instead of our money include: cutting our own grass, having a small garden, cutting my husband's hair, taking the longer way instead of the toll road (usually), and performing simple car maintenance. In some of these instances I'd much rather spend the time; for example, I really enjoy gardening. In other instances, I really wouldn't mind spending the money instead, but I make the sacrifice since we're trying to save everything we can right now. (e.g. When we have more money, I am buying the pre-washed bagged salad. I hate washing lettuce!)

I don't have much time this morning, but I hope that I've gotten you thinking about where you'd like to save time and where you'd like to save money!

Photo from www.freefoto.com

Free Budget Spreadsheet

Coincidentally, MoneySavingMom had a post today about getting a free budget spreadsheet here. I signed up for it (they email it to you), and it seems pretty basic and straightforward. But it might be easier than putting it together yourself!

Frugal Principle #3: Planning

Now we're getting down to the practical, nitty-gritty side of being frugal! I think that if there's one thing I've learned about saving money it is that there is no substitute for planning. Planning gives you control and knowledge of what you're going to spend. Without it, it is so easy to waste money!

The most fundamental element of planning a frugal lifestyle is making a budget. I may be slightly weird, but I love budgets! (Of course, I am the same person whose two-year-old daughter plays "organizing.") But seriously, there is something so satisfying about discovering where your money is going and then committing to whatever changes to those amounts you decide to make. So far from being limiting, I think a budget gives you freedom and control over an aspect of your life that may have felt out of control.

I am no expert at making a budget, but I know that there are many tools out there to help. There are various online subscription sites (and probably some free ones too). I've also heard good things about using money management software, such as Quicken or Microsoft Money. Personally, I just use a blank book and a computer spreadsheet.

Planning for a frugal lifestyle also goes way beyond just making a budget; it can save you money in many other areas. Meal planning is a big one that comes to mind. Just deciding ahead of time what your family is going to eat for the next week can save you tons of money, both at the grocery store and at restaurants that you might have patronized.

Planning and doing research before making a large purchase can also definitely save money. It is so easy now to do internet research on any product, from a vacuum to a TV, before buying it. I like to use comparison shopping sites such as http://www.nextag.com/ to compare prices.

There are definitely more ways that planning makes a frugal life easier and saves money. I'd love to hear ideas on more!

Photo from www.freefoto.com

Sorry . . .

If you clicked on the link below and it didn't work. It should work now. :-D

Worth Reading: Article on Supermarket Marketing Strategies

I just read a pretty eye-opening article from http://www.realsimple.com/ on how the geography of grocery stores is designed to make the shopper spend more money. I have heard some of this information before but not all of it. Check it out here.

Frugal Principle #2: Sacrifice

The second principle of a frugal life on which I have been reflecting is sacrifice. There's no getting around it: to start saving money you are somehow, somewhere, going to have give something up. This is the difficult part of living a frugal lifestyle, depriving yourself and sticking with it. At first glance, sacrifice seems purely negative, but I can think of two important positive aspects to it.

One of Merriam-Webster's definitions of the word "sacrifice," is the following: "a destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else." So sacrifice is not pointlessly depriving yourself of something, but rather letting go of something less important in order to gain something more important (as I wrote about yesterday).

Another unexpected positive side to sacrifice is that I have often found that I actually don't miss the thing that I gave up nearly as much as I thought I would. Sometimes the alternative solution is actually better! For instance, a few months ago I started making homemade bread in a bread machine purely to save money. However, I found that it is super easy to make and my family loves it. Plus, the homemade bread is probably healthier, and I can control the ingredients that go into it. Now we wouldn't go back to store bought bread anyway!

In the end, as Henry Ward Beecher wrote, "It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich."

Photo from freefoto.com.

Frugal Principle #1: Purpose

I believe that the first principle that has to be behind any attempt to live a more frugal lifestyle is a sense of purpose. The frugal person has to know why and for what he is saving money. Otherwise, he risks becoming like Ebeneezer Scrooge, a "tightfisted old hand at the grindstone," who nevertheless lived in a shabby apartment and ate gruel. One might say he was "frugal," yet he never used his savings for the good of himself or anyone else.

With a sense of purpose, however, the frugal person is not simply a miser hoarding money. Rather, he is someone who has knows what is truly important to him and is willing to sacrifice other less important goods toward achieving his goal. So I believe that the very first step for anyone who plans to start living more frugally is to ask himself, "Why do I want to
save money? What are my goals?"

These goals could be anything and will be different for everyone. They could be as small as saving up for a new coat or a night out or as large as saving for a house. They could include paying off debt, building a family emergency fund, saving for a vacation, amassing a college fund, or even giving more to charity. The important thing is that the goals be compelling enough that the person is willing to give up other things to achieve them. (I wrote a little more about spending your money on what satisfies here.)

It's important also to be able to clearly state and visualize one's goals, or else they will not have the ability to motivate one. For instance, right now my family's financial focus is on amassing an emergency fund. Our purchase of our first home last spring really drained our savings, and we're trying to build them back up. While this may not seem like the most exciting goal ever, when I think about the peace of mind it will afford when we have three months of living expenses in the bank, it does motivate me. Or when I reflect that the days of our ten year old car are probably numbered and dream of a minivan in our future, it's not so hard to drive past Starbucks.

As I said in my previous post, frugality is all about choices. With a true sense of purpose in your life, saving money becomes not so much a burden as a set of exciting steps toward realizing your dreams.

5 Principles of a Frugal Lifestyle

This week I plan to post a series on "5 Principles of a Frugal Lifestyle." Of course, these are just five principles according to me, but I hope that they might get you thinking and maybe coming up with some of your own. I guess it's my background in philosophy that won't let me get away with starting a frugal blog without delving into first causes! I hope you enjoy!

Amazing Target and Rite Aid Deals!

I have several deals that I just have to share today for Super Savings Saturday. The Target Christmas clearance is technically from last week, but it was so good that I have to show it off!

First off, my 90% off Target Christmas clearance! I paid $10 for all the items in this picture, which is less than the original price of either the baby outfit or the t-shirt alone!

I have observed that some stores reduce seasonal items to as much as 90%, so I refused to buy anything after Christmas at less than 75% off. Of course, the selection is limited by that time, but there is so much merchandise for Christmas that it was easy to find something cute or useful

Then from this week, I have the 2 packs of Huggies diapers and 2 packs of Huggies wipes, for which I will have paid $3.81 altogether, after rebate! (This deal is still good through Saturday too!) Thanks to Dana at Frugal in Virginia for this amazing deal!

Also, thanks to Frugal in Virgina, I rushed to Target this evening to check out 75% off toys! I didn't think much of most of the 75% off selection, but I did pick up the following, which I think is pretty amazing.

This Cherry Blossom Market place was $60, and I got it for $14.95! With two little girls, I know that this will be a great future birthday or Christmas gift!

Just as a disclaimer, I don't usually spend this much money on random items, but these Christmas clearance items were such good deals. I hope they will save me money come this December!

PS - Next week (Monday through Friday) I am starting a series of posts on "5 Principles of a Frugal Lifestyle." I hope you'll join me!

Shop around - and be open-minded - you might be surprised!

My sister, who works a high-powered job for which she has to dress very formally, decided today to finally check out the dry cleaner in the basement of her office building. Since this dry cleaner is an office perk, she had been sure that it would be much more expensive then her usual place. However, she was excited to discover that actually the office dry cleaner is significantly less expensive, not to mention incredibly convenient!

This really got me thinking how important is to shop around and try new venues for shopping and services. You never know what you might find -- sometimes the exact opposite of your expectations, as my sister did!

The same thing happened to me when I first shopped at Wegmans, my favorite grocery store ever. I had heard about how nice it was and all the gourmet products they carried, so I planned to limit myself to a few special items, certain that all their prices would be above average. However, I eventually discovered, to my surprise and delight, that Wegmans actually has the lowest overall grocery prices in my area. I now shop there twice a month, although it is 25 minutes from my house. (You'll definitely hear more about my Wegmans obsession if you read this blog.)

Your expectations can work the other way too. Another grocery store in my area is very no-frills inside, so I assumed it had bargain prices. Upon research, however, I discovered that most of the prices really weren't that much better than other stores, and some items were more expensive.

I also think of when I first started shopping at the dollar store. I had always assumed that these were junk shops, but I have been pleasantly surprised to find the fun and useful items that can be purchased there. Dollar store shopping is worth a post of its own!

Anyway, it is definitely worth being open-minded about trying new stores and service providers. Savings can appear in many different places!

Free Suave Product!

Check out

www.moneysavingmom.com

to find out how to get your free Suave product today only!

Great Article

I love this columnist in the Washington Post, Michelle Singletary. Her personal finance column always advocates self-discipline and common sense, and she is very anti-debt. I thought that this recent column was a particularly thought-provoking look at American buying habits. It really made me question myself as a "consumer."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR2009010300058.html

Why Spend Your Money on What Does Not Satisfy?

I heard this quotation from Isaiah at church on Sunday, and I have been pondering it since. I can think of two levels of meaning for this verse, both of which relate to the topic of this blog.

The first level, of course, is the truth that money can never truly satisfy us. It can give us temporary satisfaction, but it will always leave us wanting something else. It can never give us the true happiness that, for instance, relationships with loved ones or with God can.

I think that is actually a very freeing thought when you're trying to live a frugal lifestyle. If you have to give something up for the sake of saving money it is very comforting to realize, "you know, that really wouldn't have made me truly happy anyway."

The second sense of this verse relates to on what you choose to spend your money. While money can't truly fulfill us, some uses of money certainly satisfy us more than others. In this sense, I think it's worthwhile to think, "Why waste my money on something I don't really care about when I could save it for something I really want?" For instance, why spend your money on weeknight fast food because you didn't plan dinner when you'd get much more enjoyment out of a special night out with your spouse at a fancy restaurant? Or why spend your money on clothing impulse buys that don't match anything in your closet when you really need a new winter coat?

Frugality is all about choices. What is satisfying to you?

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to my blog! I envision this blog as a place to share encouragement and tips on living a frugal lifestyle. I am certainly no expert, but I do enjoy saving money and trying to live creatively on less. I plan to include content on budgeting, money management, bargain shopping, feeding your family for less, simplifying your life, making extra money, saving money on baby and kid products, and many other topics. Your thoughts and comments are welcome!