skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I can't stand paying for kitchen trash bags and have been trying to come up with a suitable alternative. When I ordered a coat for my son for Christmas, the envelope it arrived in was more like a large plastic bag. I was thrilled because I realized I could recycle this "envelope" and use it as a trash bag. (It takes very little to thrill me.) Ladies (and gents), we just have to be on our toes and be creative!Another way to save on kitchen trash bags is to just have less trash. My church has a dumpster in the parking lot for recycling paper. The church gets a certain amount of money for every pound of paper it collects. So I can stretch my dollars, save the environment and "give" to my church in one fell swoop!I also like to find creative ways to disguise birthday and Christmas gifts for my children. At Christmas I used a round tube like box that originally held dishwasher detergent concentrated packs. I put the gift in the box with some tissue paper for padding and wrapped it up. I've saved the box for future use. I think I may be able to make a sort of gift bag out of it if I put a handle on it and cover the box with some pretty wrapping paper. I've also saved an empty racquet ball container that I'll probably use to put a gift card and some candy in the next time one of my kids has a birthday party to go to. I am not an unusually creative person, so if I can think of these things, so can you!Oh, scroll down to my post entitled Kings and Queens of Cheap to see what a few people in my local area are doing to save some dough.
I've been away from my blog and Frugal Fridays for quite awhile, so forgive me if someone has posted something similar recently.Today's economy is going to the dogs. Well, at least our pets are feeling the pinch too. The last time we bought dry dog food, we bought a different brand because it was on sale and half the price of our dog's regular food. We usually add a spoonful of canned dog food to Otto's meal to give it some extra flavor. Lately, we've been trying some alternatives to the canned food in order to save a little money. (I know, you could argue that we don't need to give him canned food at all, but have a heart!)Our 11-year-old likes soup for lunch but never seems to finish his bowl. We just put it in the fridge and spoon some over Otto's dry food at meal time. I know this may not be the healthiest thing for a dog, but on occasion I think it's okay. My husband made a pot roast in the crock pot for our Christmas dinner. He put carrots and onions in with the meat. I can't stand carrots, and our kids don't like cooked carrots, so Ots has gotten a few of those too. This is just a small way we can stretch our dog food budget.We also have a rabbit. The litter can be expensive, especially if you want some odor control. I recently read that some people just use shredded paper for litter. My husband works from home and has a paper shredder, so I think I'm going to try this. I'll probably use have litter and half paper and gradually see how far I can go before odor becomes a problem. Plus, I'm a little concerned as to whether shredded paper is healthy for the rabbit.We received some seed catalogs in the mail this week, and my husband began plotting out this summer's garden. He has decided to grow carrots (again, not my favorite) in order to feed the rabbit.On another note.......when you visit your local Salvation Army or Goodwill stores, remember to check out their dishes & knick-knack section. Just before Christmas I found a Norman Rockwell Christmas mug for $.99 (I love Norman!) and a cute snowman cookie plate for $2.99. I was thrilled with these finds!
A few months ago, I saw that our local newspaper, The Morning Call, was asking their readers to send in their most frugal tips. They wanted to see to what lengths people go to save a few bucks (or pennies). I was going to send a tip in, but, of course, I never got around to it. Well, in my Sunday paper they posted some of the ideas they received. (Apparently, readers could go on their website and vote for their favorite frugal tip.) Some of the tips listed in the newspaper, I've actually done myself prior to reading the article.
Here is what a few of our fellow frugals are doing: saving the salt at the bottom of a pretzel bag and running it through a coffee grinder so that it fits into a salt shaker; keeping dirty paper napkins after a meal and using them to clean grease out of pans or to clean up cat vomit (by the way, this is not one that I do or plan on doing); weighing pre-packaged produce (such as carrots) because not every package weighs the same even though you're plunking down the same amount of cash for each bag; using a rolling pin to get every bit of toothpaste out of that tube; filling an empty jelly jar with milk, letting the bits of jelly dissolve in the milk for a few days, then freezing the jelly milk making homemade ice pops. Apparently, the reporters tried this last tip and said the ice pops were quite good! I think I'm going to give the last three items I listed here a try.
Although, I am almost out of salt.
Since we traveled so much this month, I have been thinking about cheap ways to entertain my kids while on the road. My boys are 13 and 10. They each have a Nintendo DS (Christmas gifts), and they both have iPods (which they purchased with their own money). I swore they would never have these things because I always felt that if reading in the car was good enough for me, it was good enough for them! Well, obviously I've caved over the years. Plus, they spent some of their own money.
Another item I've sworn I'll never have in my vehicle is a tv or dvd player. Well, my husband and I almost caved again before our trip to the Outer Banks. Fortunately, the particular portable dvd player that we were interested in was out of stock every where we checked! So our kids had to deal with a long car ride with only their Nintendos, iPods and some reading material. The poor dears!
Anyway, my youngest did get bored despite his technological luxuries. Thankfully, I had a word search book with me which entertained him for a while. We also played the alphabet game. My husband introduced us to a game that he used to play in his social studies class in middle school. One person names a city/town, and the next person has to name a city/town that begins with the last letter of the city/town that the previous person came up with. This game really makes you think!
An idea that popped into my head tonight was to take along any unfinished workbooks from the school year and have the kids do a few pages. (I'm currently doing this with my younger son in order for him to earn time playing his video games.)
One of my family's favorite electronic games is 20 Questions. I think the original one cost around $20. You can probably find one of these at a yard sale by now. Of course, you can always play this game the old fashioned way! Don't forget tic-tac-toe and hangman!
If your kids are plugged in while traveling, visit your library before leaving on your trip. They can pick up some video games and movies for free....in addition to checking out a good summer read!
There's nothing wrong with finding a baseball game being broadcast over the radio. You may not get to listen to the entire game if you're traveling away from the radio station, but it will provide entertainment for a little while.
Well, speaking of entertainment, the X-Games are on, and I don't want to miss them! (They're exciting and a good way to bond with my sons!) Please scroll down to my Wednesday's Wealth for some coupon leads. Also, I was really late with last week's Frugal Friday, so please check that out too for a coupon giveaway!
If you have teens who are battling acne, there is a $1 off coupon for any Oxy product in the September 1 issue of Woman's Day. You can also go here and get a coupon for $1.50 off Oxy products.
For a printable All Laundry Detergent $1 off coupon click here.
For all of you allergy sufferers, click here for a few different coupons from Claritin.
There is a printable coupon for Uncle Ben's Rice here. It is for $1 off two packages.
Join Red Robin's eClub and receive a free burger on your birthday! Go here if you're over 13. Kids 13 and under can get a free kid's meal on their birthday. Click here for that option.
That's it for today! Scroll down to my most recent Frugal Friday post for another coupon offer!
Posts
