Sale at Carter's Stores!

If you have a Carter's store or outlet near you, now is the time to stock up on essentials for next year! They have a TON of stuff on sale. Practically everything in the store in at least half off, with SEVERAL items being marked down 70%.

I wouldn't normally buy Carter's due to the price, but their onesies are the only kind that fit Goose. The Gerber onesies are too wide and too short. The Circo onesies are better, but still with the same problem. I love the fit of the Carter's onesies. So yesterday I grabbed a 5 pack for 12 bucks, which I think is a pretty good price!

I also got:

1. Polo Style short sleeve/shorts onepiece - $1.99
2. Fleece Footed Sleeper (for next year) - $3.99 (marked down from $20)
3. Two piece long sleeve/long pant set (for next year) - $3.99

So if you like Carter's check here to see if you have a store near you and GO. Quick before they run out of the cheap stuff.

Living on $200 for 3 weeks

For the next three weeks I have been assigned the task of managing our household expenses to the tune of $200... Apparently we have not been as frugal as we need to be as of late and we have get our credit card balance back down to zero.  Fortunately for us, not being frugal doesn't really mean much in terms of money.  My "big spender" episodes usually just include splurging on a Happy Meal and large sweet tea at the mall and then an iced coffee and muffin from the Dunks after church on Sundays!!  But, however small the amounts may be, they DO unfortunately add up.  So hubby wants me to try keeping us under $200 for the rest of month. Can I do it?? YES I CAN! Do I want to????  Noooooo.....

But I will!

Here's the plan:

1. Use what's in the pantry for meals. This is kind of hard when you eat mostly just salads. You can't really store a bunch of lettuce in the pantry. But I'm going to try for some snacks and side dishes out of my canned goods stock. Also, I have a lot of potatoes in my produce bin left over from my last shopping trip, so I'm going to make good use of those as well.

2. Make tortillas and bread from scratch for sandwiches.  One of my recent "splurges" was on a spicy chicken wrap from Chik-fil-a. Let me tell you - it was GOOD.  So I'm going to try and recreate it to replace some of those boring salad nights.  I've been Googling recipes for flat bread, but then this morning I found THIS ONE on Passionate Homemaking. So I'm going to try it!

3. No driving. I'm going to try to stay home this week.  This shouldn't be too hard because I have plenty of work to do around the house.  Plus the weather is unseasonably cool and I don't like to get out in the cool weather.  So that ought to save on gas.

4. No chocolate milk!  Sorry hubby!  We recently switched from cow's milk to soy and it is significantly more expensive.  Our favorite treat is to mix powdered Nesquik (purchased in bulk - a 48.7 oz jug is apx. $7) with Silk.  YUM.  It is so good and it helps to alleviate our cravings for "vitamin chocolate."  BUT for the next three weeks, we will forego this tasty treat and eat something else instead.

5. Use household chores as entertainment.  I am bored a lot.  But I really have no excuse because there is always something that needs to be done around our home.  This is the perfect time to tackle some major projects around our house that need doing.  And since we're not going to be driving as much - this is the perfect time to get them done.

So that's my plan! I have to keep all of our expenses (not included monthly bills like utilities and insurance) under $200.  Here's to living frugally!

Our almost frugal new couch!

YES! We finally purchased our new couch this weekend. (Old couch is getting old - cushions are supported with plywood to keep the couch from basically eating you when you sit down!) We had been waiting until tax refund time and that time is here! We selected our new couch (pictured here) a week ago, but decided to hold off. Thank goodness we did, because I found a 29% off coupon in honor of Leap Day. This made the entire purchase, including taxes, shipping and delivery, and a "fabric upgrade", $65 less than the original cost of just the couch itself. Hurray for us!

One sneaky thing to look out for if you are furniture shopping - fabric upgrades. We got a little duped on this one. The fabric we chose last week is apparently not an in-stock fabric. They have to "special make it". Funny, no one told us there would be $100 upgrade fee for this selection until AFTER they had begun processing our order. I was a little peeved about that. I almost opted to change our color selection, but we really liked the color we chose and decided it was worth the extra since we would have to live with it for who knows how many years. So if you're looking to buy a new piece of furniture, ask about the fabric cost before finalizing your selections!

Where we buy our milk.

At Wal-Mart this past weekend I saw a gallon of Maola Milk for $6.12. WHAT!? Since when is milk twice as expensive as gas? It is for this reason I wanted to do a quick post about where we buy our milk, and that place is BJ's Membership Warehouse.

When we moved three months ago, I wanted to investigate the savings to be had at members-only stores, so we headed over to BJ's. As we walked around I noticed some prices that were slightly better and others that were slight worse. But then we saw the milk price - $3.14. In our part of the country that is the cheapest milk I've seen.

I calculated the savings of purchasing our milk here for one year and it outweighed the cost of our $45.00 annual membership. So now we buy all our milk from BJ's. They have raised their prices but only to $3.31, and actually this past weekend they were down by 10 cents to $3.21.

If you have any other milk purchasing advice, please let us know in the comments!

Cute and Frugal Christmas Gifts

I have decided to make a lot of my Christmas Gifts this year. There are a ton of people that I always buy a little something for and that "little something" could range anywhere from 5-10 dollars in price. Since we are on a shoestring budget this year, I decided to make Christmas Candy Jars out of Mason Canning Jars. I have only made 6 so far, but they turned out pretty cute. The beauty of this project is two-fold. Number one is the price. Each jar cost approximately $1.50 to make. Number two is the thought behind each one. They may not have cost a lot, but they take a while to make. I really put a lot of care into them, trying to make them cute and attempting to make the bows look right. I hope the recipients of these gifts like them as much as I do!



I like them so much that I was thinking of selling them in an Etsy shop for 3 or 4 dollars a piece. I don't know, we'll see. Here are some pics:

Yard Saling Success!!!!

On Saturday Hubby, Goose, and I went yard selling for the first time in our new town. We found such amazing deals! If you can muster the strength to wake up about 2 hours before sunrise and and still have the where-with-all to fight off other buyers from your purchases on just a little sleep, then yard sales are the way to go!


We took $50 with us and spent $44. Here's what we got:

Huge box FULL of Duplo Blocks
3 brand new baby outfits
10 gently used baby outfits (like new)
10 like new kids books
2 hardcover books for me
2 Batman movies for hubby
The Lion King Movie
Pooh Bear decorations for a future play room
Light Meter (for hubby's science class)
Magnet kit (also for hubby's science class)


and the very best find:

A BRAND NEW bread machine - still taped up in its box!! YES!


This was the very best find!! Needless to say I have already made a loaf of bread (Cinniman Raisin) and it was pretty good! I am so excited to make fresh bread for us to use on sandwiches and to have for breakfast, etc. The bread machine is SO easy to use. You just poor the ingredients in and press start! 3 hours later you have bread!! So Cool!

Bread!

Hello....47 Cent Can of Cream of Mushroom...

My trip to Aldi yesterday was a success, albeit a tad stressful! Goose was hungry and I had to breastfeed him in his carrier while navigating the unfamiliar layout of my new favorite store. I was pushing the cart with one hand, holding a blanket over my chest with one hand, holding the carrier in place with one hand, and checking off my grocery list with one hand - oh wait - I only have TWO hands...! Maybe that's why I was so stressed!

Anyway, I got some good loot! There are definitely some items at Aldi that are significantly cheaper than what I normally pay. I got the majority of what was on my list and picked up a few other items just because they were SO cheap!

For $22.08 I purchased:

5 1/2 pounds of ground beef
Wheat cereal
Large box of Spaghetti
Tortillas
Salad
Coffee Creamer (French Vanilla!)
Bread
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Box of Stroganoff
Cream Cheese

Of all the items the beef was the most expensive at $10.00 (or $1.79 a lb). So that means the rest of my items only cost an average of $1.33 each. Pretty good I'd say! I was most impressed with the price on everyday ingredients that I use. The Cream of Mushroom soup being only 47 cents is a good example of this. Another example is they have boxes of Powdered Onion Soup for only 50 cents. That is a pretty huge savings considering they are over a dollar for the name brand (Lipton's).

As for the shopping experience at Aldi -MAN do they check you out fast! The Cashier was literally THROWING my groceries into the cart, I could barely get my money out fast enough! As for the "no shopping bags" concept, I was a little worried because I had forgotten my shopping bags, but I noticed no one else in the store had bags either. So I just put the items directly into my car with no bags, which I thought was just fine.

So all-in-all a great experience and I plan to do PLENTY of more shopping at Aldi. It was definitely worth the trip into town.

Over the Highway and through the traffic, To the ALDI Store I go!

Today is a great day because I am going to ALDI for the first time today! I am so excited because I see all the great deals Kacie over at SenseToSave is saving and want to join in the fun! Plus it sounds like a cool shopping experience.

I had no idea we even had ALDIs down here until I noticed my mom from HomeMakingDreams commenting on Sense to Save that her nearest ALDI was 30 minutes away. Well if my mom has an ALDI then surely I must!! (We live close to each other) I went on the website and BLAM KAZAAM (that's the sound my computer made) I have an ALDI!

A few things I love about the ALDI concept:

1) Bring your own shopping bags. This is so awesome. It takes about KAJILLION KAMILLION years for plastic bags to break down in landfills. Plus, it takes OIL to make plastic. And I am all about the U.S. not needing as much of it. So I just love the idea of reusing bags.

2) Quarter for a shopping cart. I seriously hate seeing people not put their carts back. Everytime I go to the store I see someone just push their cart into oblivion and inevitably THAT is the cart that will reappear next to my car when I come out of the store - along with a huge ding! So I love having an incentive to put carts back.

3) Generic AKA "Private Label" Brands. I like that I won't be bombarded with typical marketing when I go in. I am not a cow - I do not need to be "branded".

I'll let you know how it turns out! To find an ALDI near you click here.

Inexpensive Yard Project

Yesterday I undertook a project I had been putting off and I decided Sunday was the day! What was this amazing project you ask? I created a stone stairway!!! (Exciting I know...)

When we first purchased our lot we had two options. We could select a sloped lot or a flat lot. The choice seems clear right? Who wants a hill for a yard?? Only here's the catch. The flat lots are incredibly small and by the time you put a house on it, your back yard is almost nonexistent. Plus, those lots will eventually have houses behind them so the privacy will be nonexistent as well.

The sloped lots however have a wooded view and are larger. So you get pretty scenery and an actuall back yard - even if it is downhill! Our yard is slightly better than our neighbors though because we selected a lot that flattens towards the bottom so that Goose will have a place to play one day. Here's a pic of the pretty view from my kitchen table:

Anyway, getting back to the project, the area coming down from the steps on our deck is very steep. I can't get down the incline safely unless I hold on to the deck posts as I go. So I decided to make some steps!

This is a very cheap solution to the problem: We bought five 2'x2' stones at Lowe's Home Improvements. I think they were $1.50 each. I already had the shovel so the cost of this fix plus tax was approximately $10 or less.

Basically I shovelled and scooped and stomped until I created a dirt staircase! With each dirt step I would create a place to set in the stone so that it would be flush with the dirt, and what will eventually be grass!!

Even if you don't need a stone staircase, you can still use the stones to create walkways through flowers for an inexpensive landscaping project!

Here's the finished product:

Update - Pantry Stretch Challenge!

Well I made it!!! It's Saturday and we avoided buying major groceries until today. Thursday night we had Sloppy Joes and last night we made spaghetti. The only meal that wasn't up to par was the Sloppy Joe Meal. I had no tomato paste or sauce (or catsup!) so I tried a can of tomato soup. The effect wasn't awful, just not very good either. Anyway it all worked out and we stretched our budget and our food just a few more days. Hurray for us!

The Pantry Stretch Challenge

Last night I posted on how I try to stretch out our shopping trips by scouring the pantry and internet to come up with recipes that use ingredients I already have on deck. Our meal last night, despite a couple of substutions, was very good! (If you want to try out, please visit the link in the post.)

So, since I had a success last night, I've decided to try doing the "Pantry Stretch" each night for the rest of the week! Yikes!

Here's what we're having to night:

Old Fashioned Goulash
http://busycooks.about.com/od/groundbeefrecipes/r/goulash.htm

The ingredients include: condensed tomato soup, onions, diced tomatoes, cheese, and pasta. All of which I just so happen to have! Actually the Tomato soup I thought I'd never get rid of!! The total apx cost of this meal is $1.50 per serving (4 servings). Awesome! And the best part is, I saved money because I have stretched our pantry stock yet another day. Can I make it the whole week? Tune in to find out! :)

Tonights Cheap Meal

Occasional I forego meal planning for a week and try to only use what's in my pantry, rather than going out for a huge grocery run. To accomplish this I try to find recipes that utilize the ingredients I have on hand. Once I find a recipe that comes close, I make substitutions for the ingredients I don't have and viola! Dinner is served!

So here's what's for dinner tonight, along with approximate cost:

Easy Hamburger Casserole
(recipe located at: http://southernfood.about.com/od/hamburgcasseroles/r/bl30221o.htm)

Ingredients:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef, browned
1/2 cup chopped onion
salt and pepper
3 large potatoes, sliced
2 Carrots, shredded
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Prep:

"Brown ground beef in a skillet with chopped onions; cook until onions are tender. Drain off excess fat; transfer ground beef and onion to casserole dish. Add layer of sliced raw potatoes, sprinkle with salt and pepper; shred carrots to cover potatoes. Put soup over carrots. Bake at 350° for 40 to 50 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Sprinkle shredded cheese over top and bake for about 5 minutes longer, or until cheese is melted.This easy ground beef and potato casserole serves 4 to 6."

The only ingredients I didn't have were the carrots and I only had one potato so I only used one. I did have 80z's of frozen mixed veggies in the freezer so I used those in place of the carrots.

As for cost:
1lb ground beef: BJ's 90% lean, $2.29/lb
1/2 Onion: apx 30 cents
Salt n Peppa: negligable
Potato: $1.00 per pound, so probably about 60 cents or so...
Mixed veggies: 50 cents?
Cream of Mushroom Soup: 75cents
Cheese was probably about $1.00

So the approximate cost originally was $5.50 for this meal - BUT I stretched our last shopping trip yet another day, PLUS we never eat all of a meal. So this will be both our lunches tomorrow and maybe even the next day. Even if we only stretch it out to lunch tomorrow that's still only $1.38 per serving. Nice!

PS The best deal I have found yet on Cream of Mushroom Soup, which is in a ton of recipes that I use, is at BJ's. I buy it in bulk there for 75 Cents a can.

Saving Water for the Environment and your Pocketbook

It was recently reported on the news that if we continue our current drought conditions, our area water supply will be depleted (as in NO water) by January. In the South, a typical summer day includes sunny skies, muggy air, and afternoon thundershowers. Well this year, I can literally count the times its rained on my fingers. In fact, its been so dry that when we finally did get a thunderstorm back in July, lightning hit an apartment building in our neighborhood and it caught on fire! The building was totalled.

So, you can imagine my anger when, despite these awful conditions AND legally binding water restrictions, I see people hosing down their driveways, washing their cars, and watering their lawns DAILY. This is such a frivolous misuse of our precious resources and when January comes and we can no longer drink from the tap, bathe, or flush our toilets, perhaps these same people will feel some remorse.

In our home we are very conscious of our water consumption. It actually began as a money-saving endeavor but has spilled over into environmental protection since our drought began. Our water bill last month was $20 and I'm trying to lower it even more. Here's how we are not only cutting costs, but attempting to grant our frivolous neighbors one or two more days of water use:

1) No Grass. Sounds weird I know, but actually we live in a brand new development and our grass has not yet been "installed". Last week we received a letter from the builder informing us that it would be our responsibilty to keep our grass alive after installation by watering it every day, despite the drought conditions, and that we should get a watering permit from the town. To this we said "Nay!" and called the builder to postpone the sodding of our yard until drought conditions improve.

2) No Car Washing/Driveway Cleaning. It breaks my heart to see all that precious water draining down the sidewalk into the gutter just so someone's car will look a little more shiny. For this we are also waiting until drought conditions improve and then only occasionally to save on our water bill.

3) Shorter Showers/Baths. As a new parent I find it hard to shower anyway (haha) but when I do (which I assure you is everyday!) I try to keep it short. When I choose to take a bath, I don't fill the tub up luxuriously, I just fill it enough.

4) Ice to water plants. This may sound silly, but if we have a drink with ice in it, say from a fast food restaurant for example, we don't just chuck it in the garbage, we pour the ice around a plant. I know this probably doesn't really help that much - but it makes me feel good!

5) Toilet Flushing. Gross - I know, I know! But it literally saves gallons of water per day to just not flush the toilet unless you need to - and you'll know when its time!!

6) Laundry. This one is hard for us because we are cloth diapering and the diapers just simply HAVE to be washed, but if you can, cut back on your laundry. Don't wash clothes you've only worn for a few minutes or that you haven't gotten dirty.

7) Rain Barrel. This one is also hard for us, since we don't seem to get rain anymore but we are going to do this anyway. You can install a rain barrel under your gutter pipes and use the collected rain to water lawns or plants, or even flush toilets.

Thanks for reading!

Cheap Coffee

Aaahhh. Since Goose is still sleeping, that means I get to indulge in one of my many guilty (yet cheap!) pleasures. Coffee....Yum.

My Morning Coffee

Let me preface this by saying I am a recovering Dunkin' Donuts/Starbucks addict. Oh how I love the sweet, caffeine goodness of a Medium Iced French Vanilla with Cream and Sugar on a hot summer day. Or a Chai Tea Latte on those first cool days of Fall. mmmmmmmmm. Well since we've been down to one income I've had to forgo these wonderful, tasty, delicious treats. One good thing about it was that during my pregnancy I just could not drink coffee. I was very sick for 8 out of the 9 months and coffee just turned my stomach. So in a sense it wasn't too hard to give up, but now my old cravings have returned and it gets really difficult to drive by both "The Dunks" and Starbucks on my way to the grocery store (or anywhere for that matter!).

So I have discovered a very cheap and kinda tasty alternative - coffee at home. Not nearly as exciting, but it usually satisfies the urge. Now, I think prices are different around the country, but lets just say that a medium flavored coffee is about $3 dollars at Dunkin Donuts. Well MY coffee is only 10 cents a cup. Even if you only "indulge" once per week (that's $156 per year) at a coffee establishment, my coffee, drank every single day, will only cost you approximately $36.50 - for the whole year.

Here's how I do it: I buy my coffee supplies in bulk at BJ's Wholesale. (But I'm sure pricing is similar at Sam's Club, Costco, Etc). I purchase 360 cups worth of coffee in a single container for $10 (including tax). I purchase a 120 count package of Coffeemate Vanilla Flavor creamers at $8 (including tax) and an 800 count package of Equal Packs for the same price. So when you add it all up it comes to 7 cents per cup of coffee!!! Now most people will need to buy more creamer and coffee over the course of the year, so I rounded up to 10 cents for the approximate price. Cool huh?

Of course, it doesn't taste quite (ok NEARLY) as good as Starbucks, but it's very inexpensive and gets your caffeine fix in for the day.

Have a great Sunday!!

Frugal and the "Re"-Gift

Has anyone ever "re-gifted" an item? You know, you receive something for a gift you either don't like or already have and so you RE-gift it to someone else? I have never actually done this, but have often thought it made a lot of frugal sense. I mean, no one would ever know you had not actually purchased the gift yourself, and then you save the money you would have spent on a brand new gift and everyone wins...right? Well...

Back in April these friends of ours brought a sweet baby boy into the world. They had not been given a baby shower that I knew of, so I went out immediately to do some shopping! I looked around the children's clothing department to pick an outfit that would be the cutest, most adorable outfit in the store, and when I found that PERFECT outfit, I bought TWO! Yes, one for my baby boy (still in the oven at that point) and one for our friend's baby boy. When I got home later that evening, I tenderly packed one of the outfits away for our baby, and wrapped up the other one for their baby. I then mailed it and haven't thought of it since - until last Wednesday.

That was the day we got a package in the mail from these same friends. When I saw the package, ever-so-sweetly addressed to our new son, I ripped open the wrapping to see what cute new outfits or baby gadgets it might contain. Well, what was in there was cute all right! It was the exact outfit I had sent to them 6 months ago in April!!!!

Now, I will admit this hurt my feelings slightly. My optimistic side said maybe they had recieved two and sent me the spare. My pessimistic side said maybe I have poor taste and they just plain didn't like it. Either way, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had recieved a RE-gift. After the initial shock wore off, I found the obvious humor in the situation. I mean, it really is funny! And, luckily I have a cousin whom is also preggers with a little boy, so I figure I'll give it to her and it won't be wasted. The question is this: Is it a re-gift if you re-gift an item that was re-gifted to you if you were the one who bought it in the first place?

The moral of the story? YES, Re-gifting is a very frugal way to give presents. But just make sure you don't re-gift it to its OWN giver! That's all I'm saying! :)

I've Been ReGifted My Own Gift!!