Monday, April 21, 2008
To give is to receive!!!
I have been reading "The Secret" lately and was really interested when they talked about the fact that the more you give the more you receive. I have been giving a lot lately, even though you are pinching pennies doesn't mean you shouldn't give a little, you might just get a little. This was the case for me. I recently received some of those "free" address labels in the mail. Normally I would put them with my stamps and use them up, but not even think about giving to the people that sent them to me. This year I got these great address labels from ASPCA & Susan G Komen. I decided that I would donate to both of these organizations, they really stand for something very important. ASPCA was very important to me because I LOVE ANIMALS! I am a sucker for sad puppies in crates out in the cold with a free sign on them, but I know that I can not save everyone and I have to tell myself that I take really good care of my animals and that's a big step. So when I got this from the ASPCA I thought this would be a great time to donate. About 2 weeks after I donated to these to great organizations I received a $500 check from my Mom. She just received some money from my Great Aunts estate, and she wanted to share the wealth! It was so nice to get this, and on the way home from receiving this wonderful gift we had to stop for gas. We needed some water so I went in to get the cheapest bottles that there were. When I got to the check stand I saw a glass donation jar for a girl that had suffered some severe burns in a recent fire, I don't know what came over me, but I felt the need to share the wealth, and put $1 in the jar, thinking that I wished it could be more! When we got home I went to get the mail, and inside there was a check from our mortgage company for $146 overage in our escrow account! This was totally unexpected!! I truly believe that with giving I received tenfold, and it made me feel so wonderful to give, the receiving was just a BONUS!
DIY Mother's Day Gifts
Mother's Day is just around the corner, have you thought about what you are going to give that special Mother and or Mother in law in your life this year? My craft room is overflowing with things to make for my Mommy & Mommy in law! I have been cleaning jars out every time we have spaghetti so that I will have an abundance of them for jar mixes for Christmas presents, I'm sure there is a good jar recipe for a Mother's day present! I also have tons of card stock, pattern paper, and paper bags to make a cute Mother/Grandmother paper bag album! Search how to make a paper bag album on google to find how what to do. Have the kids decorate a tee shirt or Apron with your kids handprints and then sign their names underneath it! This is just a very small sample of what you can do with what you have at home, just keep your mind and eyes open! You can also google Do it yourself gifts and find tons of present ideas.
Happy crafting for that special Mom!
Happy crafting for that special Mom!
Happy Backyard Campers
Hey Campers!
We have started thinking about Memorial Day weekend and what we are going to do, We usually go off somewhere for the weekend, and with a lot of people we know it's tradition to go camping. We decided that instead of driving to our favorite campground, paying all that money in gas and such, we will just camp in the backyard Memorial weekend! We already have all the camping gear that we need, along with the table & fire pit, so pitching it in the backyard sounded like fun! We also have the comforts of home if we need it, and also if we forget anything, it's right in at our personal store to retrieve instead of stopping and buying it! If you don't have a fire pit search the web for ideas on how to make your own!
We love to have fires in our fire pit during the summer. We also love to roast hot dogs and make s'mores! We found some metal rods to roast our dogs and marshmallows on at wal-mart for $2 for a package of 8, but you can also just find sticks around the house. Make sure you put on your menu for the week all of things that you need for your hot dogs and s'mores, and also any extras like pasta or potato salad fixings, maybe some chips if they are on a super duper sale. Remember, make sure you check out your pantry and freezer FIRST! If you don't have hot dogs, but do have hamburgers or anything else to throw on the BBQ do that instead.
Stories and songs are also fun for around the fire, if you don't have any of your own go to www.utimatecampersource.com for tons of fun camp songs, stories and games!
You can even make this a fun event to invite your friends and family to! If you have a big back yard have everyone bring over their tent and camping gear, along with their food and drinks. If you want to, have a potluck! We do this every weekend with our neighbors, but in a little bit different way. We all bring a side dish or dessert to share, and our own meat for the bbq and drinks, it works out great!
So, have your own fun backyard camp out this memorial weekend, and let me know how it went!!!
We have started thinking about Memorial Day weekend and what we are going to do, We usually go off somewhere for the weekend, and with a lot of people we know it's tradition to go camping. We decided that instead of driving to our favorite campground, paying all that money in gas and such, we will just camp in the backyard Memorial weekend! We already have all the camping gear that we need, along with the table & fire pit, so pitching it in the backyard sounded like fun! We also have the comforts of home if we need it, and also if we forget anything, it's right in at our personal store to retrieve instead of stopping and buying it! If you don't have a fire pit search the web for ideas on how to make your own!
We love to have fires in our fire pit during the summer. We also love to roast hot dogs and make s'mores! We found some metal rods to roast our dogs and marshmallows on at wal-mart for $2 for a package of 8, but you can also just find sticks around the house. Make sure you put on your menu for the week all of things that you need for your hot dogs and s'mores, and also any extras like pasta or potato salad fixings, maybe some chips if they are on a super duper sale. Remember, make sure you check out your pantry and freezer FIRST! If you don't have hot dogs, but do have hamburgers or anything else to throw on the BBQ do that instead.
Stories and songs are also fun for around the fire, if you don't have any of your own go to www.utimatecampersource.com for tons of fun camp songs, stories and games!
You can even make this a fun event to invite your friends and family to! If you have a big back yard have everyone bring over their tent and camping gear, along with their food and drinks. If you want to, have a potluck! We do this every weekend with our neighbors, but in a little bit different way. We all bring a side dish or dessert to share, and our own meat for the bbq and drinks, it works out great!
So, have your own fun backyard camp out this memorial weekend, and let me know how it went!!!
Growing up frugal and having fun in the process!
I've told you about how I was brought up by a single Mom, and how she was frugal but made it fun, and seem like we were millionaires! So today I thought I would tell you a story from my childhood.
When I was around 3 1/2 years old we moved to Spokane, Washington. We moved into a row of duplexes, and found other single Mom's, and budget wise Mom's. One of those Mom's became my Mom's best friend and my babysitter! Betty was great, we would share meals at her house, most days you would see kids running back and forth with notes to "The Mom's" about who's house we were having dinner at, and who was bringing what. Of course they could have used the phone, but what fun is that, the kids would rather play messenger than have their Mom's figuring it out over the phone.
Betty also invented the "clean the house" game! All the kids in the neighborhood would congregate at her house to play the game. Betty would put different chores on pieces of paper in a big bowl, but there were also pieces that said, Watch t.v. for 15 minutes, put a puzzle piece in the puzzle, get a cookie or snack, and some other fun things. she was a genius, she had all of her kids, and most of the kids in the neighborhood cleaning her house for her! And what was great was all of us kids were having a ball too!
My Mom loved having her as a friend. Betty bought a YMCA membership and would take all of us kids down there to swim. She would tell my Mom to send me with a towel, shampoo, p.j.'s and 50 cents for ice cream at McDonalds after swimming. She said I would be clean and ready for bed when we got home. My Mom and another Mom did the carnivals, circus, fairs, and parades as Betty didn't like doing that kind of stuff because of crowds. We never went to anything like that without free tickets and such.
When it came to eating out the Mom's had it in the bag! There was a restaurant that offered kids under 12 eat free on Wednesday nights, so we took them up on it! It was fun because we felt so special because we were eating out at a restaurant, and really it was cheaper then making dinner at home! We also took advantage of 99 cent papa joe burgers at Zips, and cheap nights at Taco Time.
One summer we hit the mother load two times at two different places. One day we went to the bread outlet store and found 10 cent loaves of raisin bread, the had apparently forgot to put the corn syrup in, well it tasted just as good without it, so the Mom's cleaned them out of raisin bread and stored it in every empty freeze they could find. The next thing was a little store that had a sign up saying Cheese 5 cents! So my Mom and I went in to check it out, and there stood Betty, with a cart full of these little cheese wedges and one in her mouth! The first thing my Mom said was "Is there any left?" So needless to say that summer we went to a free day camp that the Mom's found out about, with our peanut butter sandwiches on raisin bread, along with a wedge of cheese!
These Mom's, along with my Mom, were so creative and fun that we had a ball growing up frugal. I personally am going to start thinking like "The Mom's", I remember how much fun it was and I know it will be even more fun now!
When I was around 3 1/2 years old we moved to Spokane, Washington. We moved into a row of duplexes, and found other single Mom's, and budget wise Mom's. One of those Mom's became my Mom's best friend and my babysitter! Betty was great, we would share meals at her house, most days you would see kids running back and forth with notes to "The Mom's" about who's house we were having dinner at, and who was bringing what. Of course they could have used the phone, but what fun is that, the kids would rather play messenger than have their Mom's figuring it out over the phone.
Betty also invented the "clean the house" game! All the kids in the neighborhood would congregate at her house to play the game. Betty would put different chores on pieces of paper in a big bowl, but there were also pieces that said, Watch t.v. for 15 minutes, put a puzzle piece in the puzzle, get a cookie or snack, and some other fun things. she was a genius, she had all of her kids, and most of the kids in the neighborhood cleaning her house for her! And what was great was all of us kids were having a ball too!
My Mom loved having her as a friend. Betty bought a YMCA membership and would take all of us kids down there to swim. She would tell my Mom to send me with a towel, shampoo, p.j.'s and 50 cents for ice cream at McDonalds after swimming. She said I would be clean and ready for bed when we got home. My Mom and another Mom did the carnivals, circus, fairs, and parades as Betty didn't like doing that kind of stuff because of crowds. We never went to anything like that without free tickets and such.
When it came to eating out the Mom's had it in the bag! There was a restaurant that offered kids under 12 eat free on Wednesday nights, so we took them up on it! It was fun because we felt so special because we were eating out at a restaurant, and really it was cheaper then making dinner at home! We also took advantage of 99 cent papa joe burgers at Zips, and cheap nights at Taco Time.
One summer we hit the mother load two times at two different places. One day we went to the bread outlet store and found 10 cent loaves of raisin bread, the had apparently forgot to put the corn syrup in, well it tasted just as good without it, so the Mom's cleaned them out of raisin bread and stored it in every empty freeze they could find. The next thing was a little store that had a sign up saying Cheese 5 cents! So my Mom and I went in to check it out, and there stood Betty, with a cart full of these little cheese wedges and one in her mouth! The first thing my Mom said was "Is there any left?" So needless to say that summer we went to a free day camp that the Mom's found out about, with our peanut butter sandwiches on raisin bread, along with a wedge of cheese!
These Mom's, along with my Mom, were so creative and fun that we had a ball growing up frugal. I personally am going to start thinking like "The Mom's", I remember how much fun it was and I know it will be even more fun now!
Menu, Menu, Menu!!!!!
I was so amazed when I was young and my Mom and I would go to the grocery store. What amazed me is that my Mom would stock our cart full, and get out of the store only spending $25 or less with the use of coupons, ads & a MENU!
Watching my Mom do this taught me the importance of a menu! If you do this right you will save some BIG money! I have went from feeding our family of 3 on $150 a week to $75 per week just by sticking to a menu, and I can sometimes even get under $50! This has become a fun game for me, to see how LOW I can GO!
Once a month I inventory the pantry, cupboards, big freezer, little freezer and fridge. I keep this list in a notebook, As I make my menu and use things from my inventory list I cross it off. I keep a list of my favorite recipes and the books they come out of in this notebook along with a list of our favorite meals that don't require a recipe. I then go through the ads to see what is on a super duper sale, especially ingredients that I need for my favorite recipes, and also produce. Sometimes I find things like whole chickens that are a really good deal, any thing like that or meat that I find as a good deal, I will get as much as I can of with any extra budgeted grocery funds. I also get out my coupons and match them up with what's on sale.
Once I have done my HOMEWORK, I make up my menu for a week to two weeks. I really try to make my menu up by using what I have in my inventory, and am usually successful at doing this. I then make up my grocery list, and I NEVER go to the store without it. Usually what's on my list is things like eggs, milk, bread, and any ingredients I need for the things I am going to make for the week, and also any REALLY good deals on meat and side dishes that I use a lot. Make sure that you include lunches and even breakfasts when you produce your menu, and make sure that you add a Leftovers night or even too on your weekly menu! If it doesn't work for you to set certain days of the week write down your menu in a list form where you can pick something for that day in the morning or the night before.
So try the menu game, it is so much fun, and will save you TONS of money!!! And remember, when you go to the store armed with your list, STICK TO IT! Don't let the retailers entice you with things cleverly placed on end caps and in the middle of the main isles.
Watching my Mom do this taught me the importance of a menu! If you do this right you will save some BIG money! I have went from feeding our family of 3 on $150 a week to $75 per week just by sticking to a menu, and I can sometimes even get under $50! This has become a fun game for me, to see how LOW I can GO!
Once a month I inventory the pantry, cupboards, big freezer, little freezer and fridge. I keep this list in a notebook, As I make my menu and use things from my inventory list I cross it off. I keep a list of my favorite recipes and the books they come out of in this notebook along with a list of our favorite meals that don't require a recipe. I then go through the ads to see what is on a super duper sale, especially ingredients that I need for my favorite recipes, and also produce. Sometimes I find things like whole chickens that are a really good deal, any thing like that or meat that I find as a good deal, I will get as much as I can of with any extra budgeted grocery funds. I also get out my coupons and match them up with what's on sale.
Once I have done my HOMEWORK, I make up my menu for a week to two weeks. I really try to make my menu up by using what I have in my inventory, and am usually successful at doing this. I then make up my grocery list, and I NEVER go to the store without it. Usually what's on my list is things like eggs, milk, bread, and any ingredients I need for the things I am going to make for the week, and also any REALLY good deals on meat and side dishes that I use a lot. Make sure that you include lunches and even breakfasts when you produce your menu, and make sure that you add a Leftovers night or even too on your weekly menu! If it doesn't work for you to set certain days of the week write down your menu in a list form where you can pick something for that day in the morning or the night before.
So try the menu game, it is so much fun, and will save you TONS of money!!! And remember, when you go to the store armed with your list, STICK TO IT! Don't let the retailers entice you with things cleverly placed on end caps and in the middle of the main isles.
Going to the movies
I remember when I was little, we would take our own snacks and such to the movies with us, now they say that we can't! We know the reason, it's because they want you to buy their overpriced items.
We went to the movies this afternoon, cheap time hello! We saw Nim's Island, very cute flick if you were wondering! Anyway, as we sat down I noticed 3 different families that brought their own cans of pop, and candy, the only thing they bought at the theater was a bottomless tub of popcorn for $4 that they shared and refilled several times. I was thinking to myself as I watched them, It would be nice to go back to the old days and be able to take your own snacks in. Then I thought, why not do this? I don't know about your town, but our theater staff is comprised of teenagers that would rather sit there and text on their phones, or talk to each other, they don't care if you bring your own goodies in. When you buy your snacks at the movie theater you are spending double! Candy, pop, water, popcorn and so on and end up costing you $20, does that make sense when you just paid only $5 per person to get in?
I am going to start taking my candy and pop to the movies, why not save on this indulgence so that you can maybe go to the movies a little more often?
Welcome!
Welcome to Frugal & Pampered!
I was brought up by a single Mom that was also very frugal, but the was, she made it seem like we lived in abundance! I never went without, and we always had fun!
I know that there are a lot of different websites out there liket his one, but I hope to make this site unique from the rest. As I learn new frugal and fun pampering tips I will pass them on to you! Us Mom's have to stick together in these crazy times, and I know that we can have fun doing it in a frugal way!
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