In the spirit of frugality, here are some exciting deals at some of my favorite affiliates! Do you know of any good deals happening online today or this week?? Add them in the comments!
Tropical Traditions Free shipping 813344 through today, Monday the 8th (be sure to choose one of the two free shipping options after entering the code!) Organic Raw Honey is 50% off through Thursday Bulk Herb Store
There are a ton of fun looking kits and collections to choose from at the Bulk Herb Store! A few of the current specially created kits are:
Beginners Herb Kit New Mama and Baby Kit Drink to Health Kit Tea Sample Kit Herba-Smoothie Collection Bundle of the Week
This is my favorite ebook bundle, yet! I just love all things pregnancy and baby related.
This bundle is five ebooks for $7.40, so the savings are absolutely huge! I [...]
This week in our series on Conquering Real Foods Frustrations, my fellow bloggers and I are addressing getting started with real foods and making it work in real budgets! Please be sure to visit each of their blogs for some great ideas and encouragement!
Today, I’m tackling buying real foods pantry staples on-line (including the links to the actual products I order, along with a price break-down on each item!) and later we’ll work on finding affordable real foods in your area. We’ll also be taking a look at where the money goes in a real foods budget and how to prioritize in a future post.
I confess, I was spoiled rotten when we lived in Ohio because I could shop every week at a wonderful local grocery store that carried pretty much any real foods I could possibly want. We also had a huge health food store [...]
I know that many of us have tight budgets for one reason or another, so I’ve decided to dedicate Mondays to spending less, making more and living a frugally full lifestyle! Since food is one of the huge expenses for many of us, I thought we’d start in the kitchen. I have so many fantastic resources that this will be a two post topic!
Eating From the Freezer and Pantry
In a crisis situation, eating from the freezer and pantry can be an amazing money saver! You might be surprised just how long you can go without a trip to the store, if you stick to eating what you already have. We will be doing this until we absolutely must start buying more food again. We have a deep-freeze full of pasture-raised beef and pork (we buy 1/2 or 1/4 animal at a time from local farmers!) along with some [...]
The girls and I had such a blast perfecting these! So, here’s the deal. I told you last week about my favorite herbs to grow and my guest post on Modern Alternative Mama was all about how we created our awesome raised bed herb garden. Did you look at those pictures?! That’s a whole lot of herbs to use! Even when I do find some wonderful uses for my herbs, like my herbal bath salts, there’s still all of those dried stems that were going to waste. No longer!
Here’s the perks of making my herbal fire starters: Waste not, want not, right?? These are very frugal and they leave you with a “look at this totally cool thing I made” feeling! There’s no petroleum jelly or wax or other funky chemicals that you really shouldn’t be breathing. Herbal smoke purifies the air if you’re inside– during [...]
Fun activities can be expensive… but they don’t have to be! For “Frugal February”, I have been brain-storming ideas for cheap and free family fun.
Get Outside State and National parks are a wonderful place to enjoy some family time! Depending on your location and the time of year, you could hike, camp, picnic, swim, play outdoor games, rock climb, sled, climb trees, bird watch, take pictures, fish and countless other things! Just being out in a natural environment makes everyday things more fun. Cook some hotdogs over an open fire and then go barefoot to search for frogs and toads in a shallow stream. It’s cheap and your kids will love it! Be creative! (Bonus: Many parks also have classes and group activities, sometimes free! Check at the info center.) Outdoor concerts can be found in many cities and towns. Pack a picnic and go experience something new. [...]
Not everybody has the money or space to have a stand-alone freezer, I understand. If that’s you, don’t skip this post. I’ll also be sharing great space-saving tips for those with very limited freezer space!
In our kitchen, we have a side-by-side fridge/freezer. There’s no way we could get a decent sized turkey in there for Thanksgiving, but I do love having a bunch of adjustable shelves. About a year ago we got a big ol’ freezer that is now in our basement. LOVE it! True, it can be pretty expensive up front, but it saves a ton of money in the long run. If you want to get a freezer, but can’t afford to buy new, try www.craigslist.com or www.freecycle.org to find a cheap or free one. You can also try garage sales and moving sales. It may take some time and effort, but I think it [...]
Does anybody else have ingredients in their kitchens that just never seem to get made into anything? For my Frugal February Challenge, most of what we eat will come from our freezer and pantry. I will still buy some fresh produce, a little cheese, butter and, of course, raw milk and eggs from the farm. Other than that, I’ll be cooking a ton from scratch. It may get pretty… creative around here.
My Stockpile
Here’s an idea of what I have to work with:
1/4 of a cow 1/4 of a pig a few chickens lots of frozen veggies rice, oats, nuts and tons of grain “extras” like coconut oil, organic maple syrup, herbs and spices, etc. the dairy and fresh produce mentioned above
The beef and pork are pastured animals that we purchased directly from the farmers. There are many different cuts and I do have bones from the [...]
When my hubby and I first got married our income was $900 a paycheck. Where we lived, a decent one-bedroom apartment was almost $800 a month, so nearly half of our monthly income went to rent. Utilities were expensive in that area, so most of the rest of our income went to electric, gas and water bills along with car insurance. Money was pretty tight. We budgeted carefully, accounted for every penny we spent and almost never ate out or bought anything that wasn’t a true need (i.e. food, car repairs or medicine).
Adding Up the Little Things
In the last ten years, our income has gone up quite a bit (though it went down some with the economy). We fell out of the habit of being very careful with our money. We are by no means frivolous spenders, but there are so many little ways we could save [...]
|
|
