FRUGALLY FUN FRIDAY!

YAY! The weekend is here! It has been a very hectic week at work and with the first full week of school coming to a close, I think my family could use some good ol’ fashion fun. This gave me the idea to share a few frugal fun ideas.

Let’s all go to the movies! Let’s all go to the movies!
Movies are always entertaining but even the matinee can cost a small fortune. We’ve found a few alternatives.

Public Library – One of the best kept secrets on the planet. Most public libraries have a great selection of VHS & DVDs that you can check out for several days. You can usually check these out for little to no money. To find a library close to you check out the public library link here.

RedBox - This is the best rental option in the world...at least I think so. You've probably seen them around town. Its a movie vending machine basically. For $ 1 a day you can stop by and check out a movie with no late fees. Simply pay $1 a day for each day you keep it. I think it stops at $25 (max charge) after you've kept it 25 days they stop charging you and you now own a new movie. One of the great things about this program is that you can sign up to receive text message promotional codes and receive a free movie (usually on Mondays) but some holidays they run specials for additional savings. Sign up here to get your SMS text message promo code

You can also create a movie co-op with your friends and family and swap movies to catch all the latest and greatest movies without killing the piggy bank.

There's nothing like having the family around a table with a good old fashion board game. One of my boys favorite moments was this past winter when the electricity went out and we sat in the floor and played Sorry by candle light.

Here's some great games (with links to where to get them):

Another great game that does require some electronic stimulation is Scene it! You play it along with your DVD player and test your knowledge of all those mindless hours of TV or movie watching. There's different versions so there something for everyone. Such as:

Movies, Disney, Seinfeld, Friends, Harry Potter, TV Edition, Nickelodeon, Pirates of the Caribbean, Marvel, Star Trek, Turner Classic Movies, The Simpson's, Music, The 80's, Scene It Jr., and a ton more. Its a lot of fun and lets the kids think they're still "Plugged in"

And my favorite is having a cookie decorating contest with the kids. Bake up a bunch of cookies and gather some decorating things such as frosting, sprinkles, etc. and let the kids decorate up a storm. We've done the best looking, ugliest, funniest, and most unique cookie. The winner, well, the winner gets to eat his cookie!

Whatever you get into the best part of having a frugal Friday night is getting to spend some down time with your family and friends. You really don't have to be that creative. Some of best times involved things like a lamp and a wall to create shadow puppets and even just a box that amazingly teenagers can turn into hours of interesting fun. Just remember not to compare it to the big expensive amusement parks and you'll relax and have fun.

Freebies

I'm a freebie junkie! I admit it. I'm so bad that my wonderful parents who I share a driveway with had to trim trees coming up the driveway because the UPS man said his truck was getting beat up by them with all my deliveries of the freebies. I even seem to be able to get a good dent in my Christmas Stocking stuffers with all my freebies. So I've decided to attempt to share weekly my little finds. They aren't always gold but sometimes you can really hit pay dirt.
Here's some for the day

Quaker Delights Bar
Nature Valley Bar
Free planning calendar with $20 of Nestle savings
Free Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Caddy
Free Sample Kit - Scope Outlast
Bodycology sample
FREE Downey Fabric Softener
Honey Nut Cheerios®FREE* sample and a $1 coupon
Total® Blueberry Pomegranate sample
Taster’s Choice Stick Pack Samples
Free Sample Somersault Snacks

These are a few of them for today. I noticed most of them seem food related...I gravitate toward edibles. I'm going to attempt to post a few freebies every week. Hope you enjoy and find something you can use.

Changing up a bit

I've been reading a lot this summer. Mostly really silly fiction but also some things on the Internet and have really gotten interested in Homesteading. Basically, I've been in the slow lane to homesteading without even realizing it. I started another blog a few days ago but decided that really I didn't need 2 blogs about roughly the same thing...learning to live for less or learning to live with less. So this morning...Eureka! It hit me. I'll combine them both. This blog was really just to keep me on track and let me share my victories and losses - so why not share both here. So I've moved my posts from over there to over here. Hope you all enjoy them and I don't bore you or give you the impression I've lost my mind...that I did when I had kids! ha! ha! So enjoy & let me know what you think!

Me

Everything's coming up...Sunflowers

My oldest son decided to plant a "few" sunflowers this year on the edge of the veggie garden. Well his few turned into about 10 and they grew better than the veggies.

I've noticed them growing but all of a sudden they seem HUGE! They are close to being taller than our house. I have mixed feelings about them because I love looking at them when I come home but I can't wait to pop some of those delicious sunflower seeds in my mouth!

For about 89 cents, he's got a ton of sunflowers already and they haven't all bloomed yet. With less than a $1 investment he'll be able to eat sunflower seeds for a year or more!

POPPING up a storm

Well not a real storm but a snack storm. Our family is addicted to popcorn and with 3 teenage boys those little bags can cost us a small fortune. Tonight we broke out the ol' air popper. Its a healthy and inexpensive alternative to those microwaveable bags. We picked up a Presto air popper a while back for about $20. A big bag of popcorn kernals runs about 75 to 99 cents for a pound bag. Our popper only uses 1/2 a cup and makes a huge bowl.
We like to add different toppers like butter, ranch, and cheese powders for added flavor. You don't use oil so you cut the ungood stuff out as well as extra expense. The kids get a kick out of watching it pop too.

Here's an interesting article comparing microwave verses loose kernal popcorn. HERE

A few frugal moments

Its a slow frugal news day. However, I did stop by our local Save A lot and picked up some "damaged" cans of off brand pop for 17 cents a piece. The damage consisted of...well, simply being loose from their cardboard boxes. So I got all of these for $2.38 which should last this crew for an afternoon.

My mom taught me from an early age to check out the mark down basket. Sometimes you can even find items on clearance that you can use coupons with. Most of the time things are in the baskets because the package is marked up/broken or because they just bought way too many in anticipation of a big sale that didn't go over very well. Whatever the reason don't forget to check that little section out. You can really catch a good deal.

And so it begins!

I've got a bug up my butt! The bug is that I want the best of both worlds. I love me some technology; after all, I'm a tech major. I love my modern comforts such as a/c and heat, water heaters, lights, my gas guzzling 4 wheel drive. At the same time, I've also adjusted myself to living on a farm. While its not a fully working farm its land and trees and fields and lots of space. I've enjoyed raising a few Buffs (thems chickens), I've raised a garden and canned/froze food for the winter and even dabbled in making freezer jelly. I'm finding myself wanting MORE of this. More of the homesteader ways but I don't want to lose touch with reality so to speak. I have to work. I'm the sole provider for our family, plus I'm addicted to the Internet besides I'm working on my degree and need Internet access for classes.

So my new mission in life is to figure out how to do both without going crazy, broke, or without my spoiled comforts. I've started without even realizing it by having my few chickens, raising a garden and preserving the food for winter, and of course setting up home wireless network. Yes, the last sounds like spoil but I can now take my laptop anywhere around the house to look up recipes and direction on living a simple life. Now that's funny. Homesteading as I'm learning is not easy at all. Well not at first anyway. The baby steps I've taken I did without really realizing it so they didn't seem so hard at all. Now that I'm attempting to do this with planning ahead of time, it seems quite overwhelming. But baby steps will be how it goes.

My next big project is going to be attempting to build a wind turbine to help with the electricity. I found an awesome site that actually has a "how to build your own" step by step guide. I'm going to give it a go and see how I do. Hopefully I won't 1. burn down the house and 2. be without electricity. Intitally I plan to use it to supplement our electric and not completely disconnect from the grid. But I would love to be able to eventually sell excess power to the local electric company for a supplimental income. Yes these are big dreams but I would like to at least attempt a small wind turbine to help us out on our ever increasing electric bill.

So why this blog? Well, while I've been researching different methods for different things, I've found a ton of radical homesteading sites. Some of these are a big too extreme for me at the moment so I decided to make my own and keep track of my progress. (This also keeps me accountable for my homesteading movement.) So here it goes!

Long term goal: research and build a small home wind turbine (without burning the house down)
Short term goal: get the corn picked, shucked and put up for winter. Find some black berries and learn to make jam.

Thats all I'm starting with for now. Baby steps right? Wish me luck!

Xtra Savings

I have been out of the coupon clipping, sales paper searching mode for a few months. I know shame on me. But I happened upon a great deal this past Friday at Rite-Aid. They had 68.75 Fl Oz bottles of Xtra laundry detergent as well as Nice N Fluffy on sale for $1.88 a bottle . I was able to get 4 bottles of detergent and 2 bottles of fabric softner for a little under $12!

Tight Rope walking again

We’ve hit the bottom of the financial barrel. Of course, we normally do this time of year. I always seem to go overboard trying to make summer fun and this year I really over did myself. Actually, between the have tos and the Oh my the fuel pump went out things we did pretty good considering. So with school starting in a few days my budget is gone. There is no money in the barrel. I’m using this time to get creative and challenge myself to do more with less. I was able to find whole tenderloin on sale for $1.69 a pound and some ground beef yesterday. Yippy skippy! I’ve got garden food coming in and a pantry full of the unusual. You know the stuff? The things that tend to get left behind in the pantry. You never really remember when you bought them but they’re always there. Usually they end up being Food pantry donations. I’m also going to dig up some from scratch recipes and make some snacks for after school. I know we can do this. I just get lazy and forget this is actually fun not just a survival tool. I always feel proud of myself for digging in and making due. So tonight the menu consists of fresh corn on the cob, tenderloin cubed up to be stir fried with potatoes out of the garden and possibly corn bread. Mmm! I’ll just see how it goes. I’ll post pictures later hopefully.

In the meantime, here’s a few sites I find helpful when looking for cheap ways to make the paycheck stretch time more tolerable.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/
http://www.cheapcooking.com/
http://jane4girls800dollarannualbudget.blogspot.com/