frugal living Archives - Page 23 of 23

Frugal & Fabulous: Saving Money on Gift-Giving

April 22, 2010 by Aliesha

I hope that you enjoyed reading yesterday’s post about saving money on home decorating. Today I want to share some ideas for frugal and fabulous gifts!

1) Keep a stash of small gifts on hand
Sometimes you just need a little birthday, hostess, or thank-you gift, and it’s nice to have a small selection on hand. Some ideas are bath goodies (buy at Tuesday Morning, Ross, or on sale at Bath & Body Works), candles (pillar or taper; wrap with ribbon for a nice touch), a few yummy chocolates (package in a small decorative box), books (stock up on deeply discounted books at Christian bookstores and online), and stationary sets.

2) Store your gift-wrapping supplies and cards together
Rather than having to search all over the house for a pair of scissors, store your tissue paper, gift bags, ribbon, tape, scissors, and other supplies in one location for easy packaging in a hurry. Read about some gift stations here and here.

3) Keep cards on hand
Keep general birthday, thank-you, get-well, and other common occasion cards on hand so that you’ll always have one to use in a pinch. Buy in bulk from Current or snag 2/$1 cards from the dollar store. Purchase special cards (family member birthday cards, for example) months ahead of time and store in a filing box (separated by month) or a card storage notebook in your gift station. In the front of your filing box or card notebook, keep a list of birthdays and anniversaries of important people in your life.

4) Shop ahead
I have found that when I wait until the last minute to shop for a gift for someone, I end up feeling stressed and frustrated, and often I am not able to find the item that I had in mind. Start shopping before you HAVE to have their gift ready so that you can shop around to get a good deal (there I go again…) and allow yourself plenty of time to wrap and/or ship their gift if needed.

5) Pick a theme
This works in two ways. First, you can pick a theme for someone’s gift, such as purchasing a cake pan, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a spatula, a mixing bowl, and a favorite recipe for a bridal shower gift. Choosing a theme helps make your gift-giving seem less “random” and more heart-felt! Another idea is to make an Italian food gift basket (pasta, sauce, cheese grater, Italian music CD, candles, etc.) as an anniversary gift for a couple. Get creative! Theme-ing your gifts can be really fun.
Secondly, you can pick a theme for a year and have all your gifts be in that category! For example, we are giving books as birthday gifts to all of our family members this year. We shop ahead of time and purchase several books at once (to get free shipping from WTS or Amazon), and then we can mail them (we can use media mail!) to our family members if we won’t be seeing them around their birthdays.

6) Make gifts
Despite what you might think, you ARE creative enough to make gifts for people! Anything from crafts to sewing projects to handmade cards to baked goods can be given as gifts, and gifts made with love are deeply appreciated by the recipients. When giving handmade gifts, cater the gift to the person (use colors you know they’ll love, double the chocolate chips, etc.). Beautiful packaging (like boxes/bags from Garnish or Michael’s) can jazz up even the simplest of baked goods! (What cookies DON’T look better in crisp cellophane bags??) Include your recipe so they can make it again.

7) Give your time
Even if you don’t have a lot of money, you can still bless people by giving of your time. Offer to babysit their children, clean their house, wash their cars, or help them with house projects. Sometimes the gift of time is more appreciated than anything else!

How do you save money on gift-giving? Share your frugal and fabulous tips with the rest of us!

Frugal & Fabulous: Saving Money on Home Decorating

April 21, 2010 by Aliesha

I hope you enjoyed our discussion yesterday about saving money on groceries! Thank you for all your comments. I got lots of good ideas from each of you!

Today we will be talking about how to save money on home decorating. While I certainly do not have a LOT of experience in this area, since we just moved into our first home at the end of March, I would like to share with you a few tips I have learned from my mom and on my own.

1) Shop around
I know I talked about this yesterday, but it applies to home decorating as well! Be willing to shop around at many different stores in order to find good deals and things that you love. Some of my favorite places to shop for home decor are: Ross, Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, T. J. Maxx, Michael’s, Target, Wal-mart, and, of course, second-hand stores. If you are looking for something in particular (a throw pillow to match your living room, for example), you might have to look around at many places before you find one you love that is also a good deal. Be patient! I have found that I am more likely to just “happen upon” something when I’m not “hunting” for it!

2) Shop used
Don’t be afraid to buy things second-hand for your home. Shop craigslist for furniture and many other household items. Go to yardsales, shop at Goodwill or the DAV store, and visit consignment and antique stores. Again, this takes time, but you might find something that you love so much more than something you could find at a “big box” store. It’s fun filling your home with “one of a kind” items!

3) Make things yourself
My mom has always modeled this for me, and I am learning to do this as well. Some things to try are art (read about that here and here), decorative accents (like these), pillows, wreaths, and curtains. You’d also be surprised what you can do with a can of paint (try spray paint or small sample paint cans from Lowe’s). You can paint baskets, other vessels, shelves, boxes, and, of course, furniture. Don’t pass up an ugly coffee table on craigslist when you can paint it and completely transform it!

4) Find inspiration… and DIY
I posted about this once before. Browse catalogs, magazines, blogs, and your favorite stores for inspiration in home decor. You don’t need to spend tons of money to recreate it yourself! Pray for creativity so that you can stretch your family’s finances in order to make your house a home.

5) Use what you have
Re-purpose things you already have! Sometimes you might be tired of a bedspread (or chair or shelf…) in one room, but love it when you move it to another. Don’t get in a “rut” with your decorating; if you’re tired of a piece (art, whatever), try moving it to another room and see if you like it better there. I recently decorated our guest bedroom primarily with things I already had or was given.

That’s all I have for now!

How do you save money on home decorating? Let’s share ideas with one another!

Coming Thursday… Frugal & Fabulous: Saving Money on Gift-Giving

Frugal & Fabulous: Saving Money on Groceries

April 20, 2010 by Aliesha

This week I’ll be doing a mini-series titled “Frugal & Fabulous.” Each day I’ll pick a different topic to discuss and share some of my tips on being frugal in that area!

Today we’re discussing saving money on groceries. Please share your own tips in the form of comments, and feel free to link to posts on your blog about this topic as well!

My husband and I have a $40 a week grocery budget, and while I know that some families larger than ours spend less than that, we think we personally are being good stewards to keep our bill around that amount each week. The $40 includes paper products (paper towels, tp, tissues, etc.) as well as cleaners (laundry detergent, dish soap, etc.).

I’ll start out by saying: I don’t coupon. (I found that using a coupon on a brand-name product still didn’t make it cheaper than the store brand… I know… you have to wait ’til the stars align and the brand-name product is also on sale… but WOW that takes a while to learn!) Occasionally I’ll have a coupon for something we regularly buy, or I’ll hear of a great deal or coupon match-up. But for the most part, we’ve been sticking to $40 a week without coupons. How?

1) Angel Food Ministries
Each month, we purchase a signature box from AFM. The box costs $30 and contains (according to their website), $60 worth of food. It is designed to assist in feeding a family of four for a week, so we have found that we get quite a few meals out of each box! To see this month’s menu, click here. To find a host site near you, click here. Sometimes we also purchase their produce box as well. AFM is not for everyone, but it really works for our family. I have comparison-shopped at Wal-mart (where we typically did all of our shopping when we first got married), and I know I couldn’t buy what is in each box for $30, even when buying store brand and shopping sales. (Some of you coupon-moms out there could maybe beat it, though! I just find it hard to find coupons for eggs, produce, meat, etc.) So, check it out and see if this might help your family save a little money!

2) Shop around
It was nice when we first got married that we did all of our grocery shopping in one fell swoop at Wal-mart. We’d shop once a week and buy everything we needed! Now, we shop around in order to get better deals. In a week, we might pick up our AFM box, make a trip to Aldi, buy a few things at Wal-mart, and pick up a gallon of milk at the gas station (one of the cheapest places in town). We also are crazy-excited about buying local produce this summer from stands and farmer’s markets. Shopping around is not as convenient, but at this season of my life I have the time to do this. As our family grows, it might become harder to shop around, but right now, it’s how we’re saving some serious cash!

3) Freezer Cooking Day
I’m not sure how it worked out that way… but I really think my March Freezer Cooking Day ended up saving us a TON of money, in addition to saving me plenty of time in the kitchen on a daily basis! I didn’t do a freezer cooking day in April because we were in the midst of moving, and because I still had meals left from the March day! I am making plans to do a freezer cooking day in May, so stay tuned for details about that in the next couple of weeks.

4) Aldi
People I have talked to have mixed feelings about Aldi. Some hate it; some love it. We’re definitely on the “love it” end of the spectrum! There are a few idiosyncrasies about Aldi you should know before you go. You have to bring a quarter to get a shopping cart (you get it back when you turn in your cart), and you have to bring your own bags and bag your groceries yourself. We feel like these are small prices to pay for the savings we receive when we shop there! Aldi is a smaller store, with maybe five or six wide aisles. They carry their own brand of products, so you probably won’t find your favorite brand-name breakfast cereal or peanut butter. (Because we do have a few brand loyalties…aka JIF PB… we still make an occasional Wal-mart trip.) I personally have found that their dairy products, frozen foods, and produce are their best deals! It is really helpful going in, though, to have a price notebook or at least a mental notebook of what you typically pay for things so you don’t spend more than you would just because you can’t remember what something should cost. If I don’t KNOW that something (meat, etc.) is a good buy, I don’t purchase it. But I know that $1.19 for strawberries (they’re $2 at Wal-mart) is good!!

Here are a few Aldi deals we scored this week:
romaine hearts (bag of 3): $1.99
garden salad (bag): $.69
grapefruit (bag of 6): $2.49
broccoli (1 lb.): $1.69
gallon of milk: $2.39
colby/monterey jack cheese (block): $1.79
frozen lemonade: $.77
cinnamon raisin bagels: $1.39

Since we discovered Aldi, we have typically been spending about $30 on groceries a week, plus our $30 AFM box once a month, which averages out to around $40 a week.

So spill the beans… how does your family save on groceries? Do tell all!

Coming Wednesday… Frugal & Fabulous: Saving Money on Home Decorating