Thrifty Thursday's

Welcome to another week of Thrifty Thursday's! This week's tip is to consider how much electricity you are using and if you can change it. My husband and I are conducting a frugal experiment - go see what we are doing!

We started trying to go without lights this week and it's hard. It's especially hard because it's dark out at 6pm. If I don't get dinner started right away then I'm cooking while it's dark. We have turned on the lights a few times but we are keeping it to a minimum. I'll keep you updated and let you know how much we save!

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Thrifty Thursday's

Well I'm back with some more thrifty tips! My tip today is to get to know your local establishments. My husband is going hunting for the first time and had to get a bunch of hunting supplies. Well our local Wal-mart was lacking in certain areas (as it always is) and we had to drive almost an hour to go to Cincinnati to go to the Bass Pro shop (which Tim loves). I wouldn't mind because I like looking around too but it's kind of expensive and wastes a lot of gas and time. So the other day he was talking to people at work and he found out that there was a local hunting store! Score! It took us about 20 minutes to get there and had exactly what he wanted! I also feel better about stimulating our local economy and the small business owners than the great big corporations! So that was pretty exciting for us.

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Thrifty Thursday's

Welcome to another Thrifty Thursday! I hope everyone's week is going well! My tip today has to do with eating less which hopefully will help you spend less at the grocery store. I unfortunately eat too much and so does my husband so even when it is just the two of us, we can go through a meal made for 4 very easily. Definitely need to work on that! So my tip today is to use smaller plates. Using a smaller plate will give you the illusion of more food and sometimes that is all you need! I tried that yesterday with rice and veggies and it worked! Now if I could only do the same thing with my meatloaf I would be good to go!

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Thrifty Thursday's

So my tip today is for another magazine! I love free magazines! I used to spend entirely too much money on magazines so this really helps our budget. My fee magazine for today is from Above Rubies. This is a really amazing website to encourage Christian women. I just got my first magazine yesterday and loved it! Already done reading it! They mail them out every quarter and have articles about being a wife, mother and Christian. They have great tips sent in by readers and articles from different contributors. Reading this magazine yesterday really inspired and encouraged me and that is definitely what I need right now. So go to the Above Rubies website and go sign yourself up!

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Thrifty Thursday's

Sorry I haven't posted any tips lately! I have been trying to settle into married life....which I love! My tip for today is for a free magazine! I love magazines and they can get quite costly so this satisfies me for awhile. It is for Kraft Food and Family Magazine and they send them out quarterly. You can sign up at http://kraftfoods.com. They have tons of great recipes and tips.They also sometimes have coupons! Now I'm not big on using brand name items for my cooking but I just take their recipes and switch them to generics and life is great! They also have ideas on how to make the recipes more healthy. This issue is awesome! They have a bruschetta chicken bake and lots of comfort foods for fall! Go sign up!

Thrifty Thursday's

Hey everyone! My tip for today is to consolidate your trips to save gas. Can you believe how much gas is? We have gas stations that have it for $4.21! That is awful. We need to start changing our driving habits to make an impact. Tim does great and carpools. He only has to drive once every 3 weeks so that helps out a lot. If you are going to the grocery store, take out your money for the week at the bank or make your deposits. Also make sure that you have a grocery list and plan ahead so you do not need to make needless trips. Sometimes you may have to go out to replenish produce and milk but don't make an extra trip to get toothpaste. If you are running low stock up on a few extra. It also helps if they are on sale at that time. Also plan your trips in order. I generally try and go to the farthest place first. Some people do clockwise or counterclockwise but most of our stuff is on the main strip (US 50) or in Milan so we don't get a chance to make very many circles. Try to group your trips too. I generally go to either Milan or Aurora/Lawrenceburg and try not to go to both in one day because it's a very long trip. Planning ahead will definitely help you in your quest for saving gas money! I'd love to hear your gas saving tips as well!

Thrifty Thursday's

My money saving tip for today is one of my favorites: the library! I absolutely love our library! First of all it's air conditioned and everything is free! Our library has a lot of great movies (not the brand new movies but that's okay) and tons of books and magazines. They have high speed internet and kids programs especially during the summer. It saves a lot of money to go to the library rather than buying books you'll only read once and going to the video store. My advice: return your items on time! I forgot to return some of my stuff and had to pay $14! That's not very frugal!

Thrifty Thursday's

I've realized that my blog is sort of disorganized. I created this blog for the purpose of sharing ways to save money through my journey to becoming a stay at home mom but all I do is tell you about my days. So I want to start sharing money saving tips every Thursday. We'll see how it goes.

My first money saving tip has to do with cooking and the kitchen. The grocery store has tons of products on its shelf that helps you save time, i.e. convenience foods. What they don't tell you is how much more these convenience foods cost you compared to the time you save. Instead of buying carrot sticks, just buy carrots and slice them up. Same thing with fruit, chicken, etc. I know when you are busy, which most moms are, it helps to save a few minutes but you can make your own convenience foods. When you get home from the store, cut up all of your produce and put it in separate baggies. That way you don't have to spend the extra time cutting it up later. Separate your chicken before you put it in the freezer and then you don't waste chicken defrosting it.

What other tips do you have regarding convenience foods. I have, of course, just touched the tip of the iceburg. Share please!