Thrifty Tip #4 - Saving Money During the Holidays

#4 Create Photo Gifts!  What mom, dad, grandmother or grandfather wouldn't love a great photo gift?  With all of the freebies we find, I have been stocking up all year!  Right now you can get a FREE 8x10 (in-store pick up only) at Walgreens, by using the code: MYSTERY at checkout.  Add a frame and you have a wonderfully thoughtful gift!

Thrifty Tip #3 - Saving Money During the Holidays

#3 Draw Names!  My family is large.  I have 4 siblings and currently there are 10 grandchildren.  We used to purchase gifts for each family member (8 adults and 5 or so kids at that time)  It was too much!  Now we draw names for the adults and the kids each draw a name for one of their cousins to buy for. Now we are able to focus on a more thoughtful gift and save so much more money!  If you are still purchasing gifts for everyone in your family, maybe this year would be a good time to suggest drawing names.  I bet the other adults in your family would love the idea!

Thrifty Tip #2 - Saving Money During the Holidays

#2 Make a Coupon Book for a Family Member or Friend!  Grab some construction paper, markers, pens, scissors, stapler, etc.  Think of things you can do for that special person and write it on your "coupons"!  This can be super thoughtful and won't cost you a thing, but your time!  Here are some great ideas:

• Back Rub
• Get out of Dishes Free Night
• One Night of Babysitting
• Free Car Wash
• Movie Night In
• Lawn Mowing/Yard Work
• Kisses/Hugs
• Dinner Made By You
• Sweeping/Mopping the Floor
• Walking the Dog
• Dog Sitting
• Vacuuming
• Dusting
• Laundry Duty
• Making Beds
• Grocery Shopping
• Etc., etc.

New Thrifty Tip Series! - Saving Money During the Holidays!

As the Holidays are fast approaching, I want to help my readers save some dough!  I am going to start a new Thrifty Tip Series on Ideas for Saving Money during the Holidays! I would love some help from my awesome readers!  How are you saving money on your holiday shopping?  If you haven't started, what are your plans to tackle this holiday season without breaking the bank, or worse, going into debt?


#1 My first tip is to plan ahead!  Make a list early on with who you need to purchase gifts for and then get creative on coming up with gift ideas.  Over the coming months, you will be prepared when an item is on sale and can save so much money that way!  Also, know your budget!  Split it between the family members and friends on your list and then stick to it!  I will keep posting daily on fun cheap gift ideas and other great tips on saving money, so stay tuned!

Summer Fun - Thrifty Tip Series!

Today is the last day of school for my kids.  I am a work from home mom so I will have to find ways to entertain my kiddos while still getting my work done.  I counted the days that my kids are off school and started a list of ideas to keep them entertained for those "I'm so bored" moments.  Each day I am going to post something from our summer fun list that we tried.  I will also post the cost of each activity.

We are trying to save money to build a house so we will be having a stay-cation and not going on a traditional summer vacation.  We will be taking a week off in July and will be tourists in our own city!  We also plan on doing lots of swimming at my in-laws' and our city pool. 

So please follow along with us and feel free to share your thrifty summer fun ideas as well!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#165  Gifts In A Jar:  It has been a really long time since I've done a Thrifty Tip and I thought it was about time I brought this segment back to my blog!  I love saving money and hope that I can help my lovely readers to do the same.  Since it's Christmas time and all of us are scrambling to find last minute and inexpensive gifts I thought I'd share a fun and inexpensive gift that I would love to get myself!  Gifts In a Jar!!!  There are so many great recipes that you can find out there!  I think these gift jars are so adorable and thoughtful.  If you are going to a holiday party, what better way to thank your hostess than with a gift in a jar?  You basically just layer the dry ingredients and leave her the instructions with the other ingredients to mix, like oil, water and eggs.  I'm in love with Pinterest and if you search for gifts in a jar you will come up with a great array of recipes for your jar.  The jar itself can be a recycled pickle jar, mason jar, etc.  I for one try to save pretty jars with lids for this exact reason.  If you do not have any jars, you can always buy canning jars at your local store, such as Walmart!  Please feel free to post your recipes or other thrifty gift ideas in the comments!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#164 Reuse Tissue Boxes.  There are a lot of spiffy and expensive organization products on the market these days.  I save my plastic grocery bags for waste bag liners and more.  We never throw ours away and if we have a surplus of plastic shopping bags, I recycle them at my local Walmart.  Anyhoo...  Instead of buying one of those expensive bag dispensers, why not use an empty tissue box to dispense your plastic bags?  It's FREE and a great way to reuse your trash!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#163  Use Those Freebies for Vacation Travel!  We are getting ready for a big trip this month!  The kids have no idea, but we are taking them to Disney World for 3 days and then following up with a 4 day cruise to The Bahamas!  We are flying into Orlando and we will have a lot of packing to do!  When flying you must comply with the airline requirements of bringing containers of shampoo, soap, etc. in containers that are 3 ounces or less (I believe).

Well this is perfect for all of those freebies I have received in the mail in the past few months!  I have received deodorants, shampoos, conditioners, soaps, face cleaning wipes, and more.  This saves me time and money from purchasing travel size products at the store, or putting my shampoo in those little travel size bottles.  We aren't picky about what shampoo and soap we use.  We love using whatever this mommy can pick up for FREE by combining sales and coupons.

So, if you are planning a trip this summer, stockpile all of those FREE samples for use on your trip!  Be sure to follow along with Adventures of a Thrifty Mommy!  I post all of the freebies that I sign up for as well.

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#162 Saving money on Christmas shopping: Christmas is a very expensive holiday for most! The last thing you want to do is overspend and start the new year with a huge amount of debt! Over the next several weeks I will post my thrifty tips about saving money on holiday shopping.

Tip #1: Start now by making a list of who you need to buy gifts for. If this list is rather long, why not suggest to your family members to draw names of one family member to shop for? You can buy one larger gift for less than you may have to spend on numerous smaller gifts. Now that you have a list, create a budget of what you want to spend and do your best to stick to it!

***Now that you have a list and a budget, you can be on the lookout for great gifts at great prices! If you wait until the last minute, you will likely spend more than if you plan ahead!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#161 Be on the same page with your spouse/partner. My husband and I have weathered a difficult 8 months. Travis was laid off early in January and just started a new job two weeks ago. We are thrilled that he is working now and were so happy to receive that first paycheck, but things were VERY stressful at times. Our marriage is strong, I'm glad to say. The last 8 months really tested us, but I'm happy to say that we survived and learned some lessons along the way!

Make sure that you and your spouse are both aware of your financial situation. It does no good to hide credit card debt, etc. from your spouse. If he/she doesn't know that you are struggling, how can he/she pitch in to fix the problem? It is also much better to share the burden of money problems with someone you love.

Work together to reach your goals! Try to set small and large financial goals with your spouse. If you are both working toward something as a unified force, you will get there more quickly than just working on your own. For instance, some nights I would be too tired to cook dinner and would want to resort to ordering pizza. Travis would remind me that we weren't in the position to spend our money on fast food and would help me make a quick meal at home for our family. On the other hand, sometimes I would remind him of the same thing. When you are both working toward the same goal, one can steer the other in the right direction along the way!

Now that we have made it through this difficult time, I think it has made us stronger as a couple and more aware that things can go wrong in our lives. We are going to work hard to build up an emergency fund for when life takes another unexpected turn. This way, hopefully, next time won't be so difficult on us financially.

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#160 Repurpose a hanger into a chip clip! I know I have tons of these pesky hangers lingering in my closets and I never have enough bag clips... I found this on Money Saving Mom and thought it was such an awesome idea!

Click here for photo credit.

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#159 Take advantage of tax free shopping! I live in Missouri and this weekend is "Tax Free Weekend" for the back to school shopping season. Bella and I are going to do our back to school shopping this weekend to save money on sales tax. We will be armed with our ads to get supplies for the lowest possible cost and coupons for retailers where we are planning on shopping for her back to school wardrobe. In Missouri items that are tax free are as follows:

• Clothing under $100

• School supplies under $50

• Computer software under $350

• Computers/computer equipment under $3,500

****If you are planning on purchasing a computer, this weekend would be a great time to pick it up!

Here is a list of the other states participating in the Tax Free Weekend (or week)

Alabama
Connecticut
Florida
Iowa
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
Missouri
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Washington D.C.
West Virginia

***Thanks for the list STL Mommy!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#158 Save gas by slowing it down! We all know that driving at the speed limit or lower will keep us from getting speeding tickets, therefore saving us money. But did you know this?... "Using cruise control can help you stay under the speed limit when you’re on the highway, which will pay off—aggressive driving wastes gas and lowers gas mileage by 33% on the highway and 5% around town. You can save 14 to 94 cents per gallon by driving sensibly. As a rule of thumb, expect to pay an extra 20 cents per gallon of gasoline for every 5 miles per hour you drive over 60." So slow it down! If you aren't in a big rush it could save you lots!

**I found these driving facts from All You's article Save on Road Trips.

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#157 Eat at restaurants when kids eat FREE! Too tired to cook tonight? Before you go out to eat do a little bit of online research to find what restaurants in your area allow kids to eat free that night. Some restaurants only allow kids to eat free on certain nights like a Tuesday or Wednesday. Others may ALWAYS have a "kids eat free" menu. This can save quite a bit on your bill! I found a listing of Kids Eat Free restaurants by day of the week! Click here to check it out!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#156 Thrifty Family Fun: Catching Fireflies! What better way is there to enjoy some outdoor time with your kids than to catch lightening bugs/fireflies!? I remember doing this as a child and have such great memories of staying up after dark to fill a jar of these glowing bugs! I recently tried this with my kids because I decided they were old enough. I couldn't believe it... Bella caught one before me! They loved staring at the bugs and watching them light up. We did let them go after the kids went to bed, so no bugs were harmed in the making of this thrifty tip! Bella and Sam keep talking about this and want to do it more often. The best part is that this was absolutely FREE! Remember... making fun family memories doesn't have to cost money!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#155 Check out the travel size items and match up your coupons for possible freebies. Check out your store's trial/travel size section and see what coupons you have for these items. At our local Walmart and Target most of these toothpastes, shampoos, deoderants, etc. are priced just below $1.00. Many times I can find a coupon for $1.00 off of that item and actually make a few cents! Please make sure that your coupon does not say "excludes trial sizes" before you try to use it. (This constitutes coupon fraud.)

For an example... My Walmart sells Sensodyne toothpaste for $0.97 per trial size tube and I had 3 $1.00 off "ANY" Sensodyne toothpaste coupons:

Sensodyne Toothpaste: $2.91
Manufacturer Coupons: ($3.00)
Money Maker of $0.09

These trial size toothpaste can last for a week or so!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#154 Think about how long it took you to make the money before you spend! Anytime you feel like splurging on something, think first about how many hours it took you to make that money. For instance if you make $20 an hour at your job and you want to by a purse that costs $100, divide the price by your hourly rate. $100 divided by $20 per hour means you will have to work 5 hours for that purse. Is it still worth it? Thinking about this before you buy something can help you to put your financial goals in to perspective.

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#153 Slow down your Internet service. We recently called our Internet provider and slowed down our Internet service for a reduction of $10 a month. I really haven't noticed much of a difference at all! Try slowing down your Internet if you can stand it and put a little extra cash into your pocket!

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#152 Search for Printable Coupons before you head out to the store. There are such great online sources for coupons! On your way to the grocery store, check your list against which printable coupons are available and you could save some extra cash! These sites include:

• Coupons.com
• RedPlum
• Smart Source
• Target Coupons
• Any store you shop at may have printable coupons on their website! Check your store's policy to see if you can stack store coupons with manufacturer coupons!
  

Thrifty Tip Friday!

#151 Buy soda in two liter bottles instead of cans. If you are a soda drinker like me... (I just can't seem to let go of this habit.) Purchase your favorite soda in two liter bottles instead of cans. This will save you more money per unit cost. Most of the time I can find two liter bottles on sale for $1.00. I have also noticed that when you buy 20 ounce bottles of soda at convenience store you will pay about $1.49! You are getting so much less product and paying more! Make sure you are checking your unit prices!