What's that smell?

I love my dog.


But sometimes she stinks.

And sometimes bathing her just switches the stinks from smelly dog to perfumy dog. So after finishing the bottle of major-dog-product-brand lavender-smelling dog shampoo, I went on-line to find a homemade version. All of the ingredients were inexpensive and I happened to have them all on hand (we use glycerin to make bubbles in the summer). I just mixed them up and poured them into an empty ketchup bottle. Easy peasy.

And how does she smell?
Clean. Just clean.

Homemade Dog Shampoo
(recipe courtesy of Care2Com)

1 cup mild dish soap
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup glycerin
1 qt. water

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a large bottle. Shake before using.

Have you heard about Alice?

No, this is not gossip, it's great stuff!

I never thought I'd be so excited about toilet paper and shampoo, but Alice.com has made me giddy. No more forgetting which brand of deodorant my husband prefers. No more coupon clipping. No more schlepping the kids to Wal*Mart. All I do is log in, find my preferred products or search for the best coupon offer, place them in my on-line cart, and wait for my friendly UPS man to drop my big blue box on my doorstep. No tax. No shipping. No hassle. And Money Saving Mom even has the best deals listed for me. Alice is my new best friend.

If you're interested in getting to know my friend Alice, simply click on button on the right sidebar and you'll get $10 off your first order. Then your kids can think you're nuts, too!

Click and Save

Cannon Press is having a bottom dollar sale this week. Two of our favorite books are going for a song: Trial and Triumph: Stories From Church History for $1, and Future Men for $2. They have lots of other goodies as well. Click on over and take a peek.

History at Ancient Prices

I know the beginning of the next school year is over six months away, but boy, am I glad I started thinking about it early! I was looking for Diana Waring’s History Alive on homeschool classifieds and decided to check the resale prices against buying it new from her site. Low and behold, she has a marvelous clearance sale going on! The History Alive products will now be published by Answers in Genesis so her self-published sets for Ancient Civilizations and Romans, Reformers, and Revolutionaries are now on sale for a fraction of the original cost. If you are going to be homeschooling anywhere near these eras, or even if you just like to listen to interesting history stories, check out Diana Waring’s recession-buster sales.

Tax Season

Well it's time again to pay my Uncle Sam and this year I'm getting it all ready for free. Our good ol' uncle has set up a site for finding free do-it-yourself on-line tax preparation and filing at Free File for anyone whose adjusted gross income is less than $56,000. I've always purchased Turbo Tax and used their e-filing option so I chose Turbo Tax Freedom Edition from the Free File list. It is available to anyone whose adjusted gross income is less than $30,000, or is on active military duty, or qualifies for Earned Income Credit. The interactive site sets you up with an account so you can safely come and go without losing your information and operates pretty much like the Turbo Tax Deluxe product. Depending on where you live, even your state filing may be free, and if not, Turbo Tax will file it for less than $10. I was very impressed.

If you prepare your own taxes, make less than $56K, and want to save about 60-bucks, check out Free File. It was definitely worth my time!

Inspiration

Looking for ideas for your handmade Christmas? Check out Sew Mama Sew's 2nd Annual Handmade Holidays.



The folks at Sew Mama Sew have put together a wonderful assortment of tutorials--yes, there's no need to buy a pattern--for everyone on your list, from the baby to the babysitter. Many of their ideas require little previous crafting experience. This is another one of my favorite crafty sites.

Do-overs

I'm in love with refashioning! What's not to love when thrifty meets crafty and rendezvous in the wardrobe? I found Wardrobe Refashion a while back and have been mulling over lots of ideas, but after a play-date with my seamstress friend Arla I finally got the guts to put a couple under the needle.

Here's what I came up with:

This is all that's left of a corduroy jumper I bought at the thrift hoping I could alter it. (My camera corrupted the "before" picture I took of the whole thing. bummer.)

The shoulders proved to difficult to try to petite, so I cannibalized it to make elastic waist church pants for L.B. I created the pattern by minimizing instructions for adult pajama pants I found in Sew What? Fleece. Great series, by the way, if you're into sewing without patterns.

Sissy is really hard on jeans and I was going to cut the bottoms off her latest victim and add a ruffle to make capris.

Arla suggested I make a skirt instead. I had done this before for myself and followed the same instructions found here. But, of course, I couldn't stop with a simple skirt; I went cowgirl princess! I left the bottom of the denim rather ragged, added some eyelet lace I bought on final clearance when our Walmart closed, and sewed on some cotton flowers I used on the curtains in her nursery. The added length should give her at least a year of wear since the jeans were still a bit large in the waist.

I'm going to try a couple more "safe" projects for myself and then I want to try some of the wilder stuff over at Wardrobe Refashion. Not sure I want to take their pledge, but who knows? I'm feeling some eccentricity coming on...

On the cheap

Get out a bowl and a spoon! Jewel (and I'm assuming other Albertson's stores) has Malt-O-Meal cereal on sale 4/$5 this week and four 1-dollar coupons can be obtained here and here, making the cereal only $.25 per bag. Yowzers!


I found other links for Malt-O-Meal Cereals at pinching your pennies if you want to try this deal multiple times.

And if you're heading over there between Thursday and Saturday, pick up eggs for $.99 (limit 4) and Grands! Biscuits on sale for $.88 (limit 4). There were coupons for $.30/2 in a recent newspaper insert, making them $.73 each. Not bad for canned biscuits.

Trimming the Fat

With the continuing increase in the price of groceries and gasoline, I'm getting rather concerned that our income isn't going to sustain our current budget's outflow. I don't think that we need to increase our standard of living--we've intentionally chosen our frugal lifestyle so that I can stay home with the kids and my husband can serve the Lord full-time with a nonprofit para-church organization--but I do think we're going to have to re-evaluate our current spending.

For the past seven or eight months I've been getting two Sunday newspapers for the coupons, scouring the ads, and utilizing helpful websites like Money Saving Mom to find the best deals. While I've saved quite a bit on groceries and gotten many of our toiletries for free, I've traveled thither and yon to collect it all. Now that gas is hovering at $4 per gallon, I'm starting to wonder if I'd do better to do most of my shopping at Aldi and limit myself to the closest drugstore.

I am humbly reminded with every paycheck that God sustains us through the generosity of His people, and that He is truly good to us. Now I want to make sure that I am honoring Him with my spending in the leaner times, using what we have to do my best for my family to be generous with others, and not grumbling and complaining about it.

So how do you do it?

All that sort of rot

As part of my attempt to grow a crop of produce this year I needed a compost bin in which to create my own soil enhancing dirt. It thought I wanted one something like these folks

but the cost of material came close to buying a fancy pre-made bin. So a couple weekends ago my doting husband took on the challenge of fashioning one out of some of the scrap wood lying around our little homestead--the previous owners left us a lot of stuff we've yet to pay the garbage man to take away. He measured and sawed and hammered, and that's when things went bad. About 1/3 of the way through the project his pointer finger got between the wood and the hammer. Bless him, only a few of those nasty expletives sneaked out in front of the neighborhood children! Boy, can he swing a hammer: both the nail side and the pad side of the finger were burst open. What a mess.

Needless to say, he was not ready to start up the project again and I didn't want to wait for the finger to heal, so I traded my desire for the bin that would tell the neighbors, "This girl's serious about dirt," for instant gratification. Besides, I'm told, any container will do. So, thanks to these folks, this is what we've got:

We bought a 32 gallon trash can at the local farm store for about $10. My husband fitted his drill with a very large bit and cut numerous holes on the bottom and sides of the container. So far we've added some leaves, shredded paper, coffee grounds, egg shells, and fruit and veggie scraps. Turning it is pretty easy with a pitch fork. Maybe someday I'll get my fancy bins, but for now we'll make due. And who knows, I might decide I like Rubbermaid better.

We all scream for ice cream

Don't miss 31-cent Scoop Night at Baskin Robinns this Wednesday, April 30, from 5:00 to 10:00, in honor of America's firefighters. Click here to find a store near you.

Oh, Happy Day!

This just in...

I received the following email in response to a question I asked about growth hormones in Prairie Farms milk:

Effective February 1, 2008 Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc. only purchases milk from dairy farms where the farmer has signed an affidavit stating that he/she does not use rBST on their farm.

Gary D. Lee
V.P. Procurement
Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc
217-854-2547

Go here to get Prairie Farms coupons.

Spiritual Gifts

CHARITY--noun (dictionary.com)

1. generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless.
2. something given to a person or persons in need; alms.

I've never thought of my family as poor, ill, or helpless, nor in need of alms, and yet today I found myself granted a rather unusual gift.

Let me start by saying that I love my neighborhood market. Its shelves are brimming with imported food with exotic names and the produce, meat, and deli items are always wonderful and affordable. And yet it is the one place that my frugality is always under suspicion. I feel more like a criminal than a home economist as every week the cashiers, huddled in little groups, scrutinize my coupons while speaking about them in a low foreign tongue. Then the cashier whose lane I happen to be in comes back to her booth and grills me about the product or the coupon or has some reason why she will not accept my carefully clipped manufacturer's coupon.

I've been hanging on to three $1-off bagged salad coupons that I found on health and wellness site a month or so ago, and when I saw a stack of these bags on the reduced produce cart marked down to a dollar, I grabbed three. Free salad! Yippee! Then after picking up some other produce and a couple bags of tortillas, I headed off to the milk cooler and saw, to my amazement, a sign in front of the gallons of 2% that said $1.29. Wow! My lucky day! While grabbing a couple gallons I noticed that the sign was advertising 1% milk. No problem. Put back the 2%, pick up the 1%.

I got to the check out, concerned that the milk wouldn't really ring up at $1.29. It didn't. A kind customer in the next check out line informed me that the sign was actually for the 1% half-gallons. At precisely the same time, the cashier informed me that she wouldn't take my salad coupons. So I asked her to take off the milk (I'd go back and get the half-gallons because 2 were cheaper than 1 gallon) and told her that I didn't want the salads. "But they're on clearance," she said. "I know," I said. I then paid my $19 grocery bill and headed back to pick up the milk.

Four half-gallons of 1% milk later, I was back at the check out line when the cashier handed me a bag containing the three salads in question, saying, "the lady behind you told me to give these to you." Attached was a paid receipt. Huh?

Sadly, my first reaction was one of prideful horror. I thought, "we're not rich, but my husband has a good job!" "We choose frugality!" "I didn't want those soon-to-expire salad if I couldn't use my coupons!" But by the time I had sheepishly paid for my milk and slunk toward the door, I realized that sometimes God gives us good gifts even when we don't need or ask for them. And sometimes He uses the charity of strangers to humble us.

CHARITY-- noun (Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language)

1. In a general sense, love, benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.

2. In a more particular sense, love, kindness, affection, tenderness, springing from natural relations.

So, blond lady, whoever you are, thanks. Thanks for the salads, but more so for the disposition of your heart that inclined you to do me good. May God bless you bountifully, and may I learn from you.

"The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself." Proverbs 11:25

Frugal Friday

In a helpful article called Managing God's Money, Randy Alcorn points out a misconception many people have about saving:

Saving is setting aside money for a future purpose; it stays in our wallet or in the bank. It can be used for other purposes, including our needs or the needs of others. Money that's spent leaves our hands and is no longer at our disposal. If we buy an $80 sweater on sale for $30, we've spent $30. If we think we've just saved $50, we simply don't understand the concept of saving. If we keep "saving" like that, we'll soon be broke!

With that in mind, and inspired by Chris's year off from shopping I offer you my 5 easy ways we saved $100 last year:

1. I cut everyone's hair but mine. (You're now saying, I thought that family looked funny!) A few years back I ordered the book Cutting Your Family's Hair and purchased scissors, clippers, and a cape. It has truly saved us a bundle.

2. Another "mane" savings is that I am willing to go gray. Hair color is expensive, and it's even more expensive to have it professionally done. Besides, isn't gray hair a crown of splendor?

3. We ditched the TV. There is no local television reception in our area and when we moved here six years ago we decided we weren't going to spend the money for cable. We haven't missed a thing.

4. We love our local library. It's a treasure trove for movies, books, magazines, and audios all for the bargain price of local taxes.

5. Redbox. Quite a few people have mentioned this one lately, but the video vending machine has been great for family nights and date nights. If you do pay for them, it's only $1 per night, but they've actually sent us more free codes than we've had time to use.

Those are my five. What are yours? Be sure to stop over at Biblical Womanhood and see what others have to say.

Just another day at the CVS

For those of you who haven't yet tried bargain shopping at the drug stores, here's another trip's bounty laid out to try to convince you that it's both worth the effort and quite fun!

I did fairly well at the CVS this week. I bought:

1 Garnier Fructis Hair Gel
2 bottles of Palmolive Dish Detergent
4 Reese's Whipp Candy Bars
1 Simply Asia dry soup
2 bars of Johnson's Buddies Soap
4 Rubbermaid Take Along 2 Packs
3 Colgate Toothbrushes
2 tubes of Colgate Toothpaste
1 box of Excedrin Sinus
1 tube of Neosporin Lip Treatment


With store sales, manufacturer's coupons, CVS coupons, and ECBs I paid a whopping $0.38 out of pocket and got $16 in ECBs back to spend on my next trip. Not too shabby.

The only thing that wasn't a great deal was the Neosporin Lip Treatment that I needed for my son's desperately chapped lips. And of course I realized when I got home that I had two additional $1.50 CVS coupons for the toothpaste that I didn't use. Oh, well! It no longer ruins my day. (I guess the fact that it did once is pretty sad.) Also Money Saving Mom pointed me to a free bag offer from Colgate to top it all off.

So far this coupon shopping is making my husband very happy!

Lookie, Lookie!

Christmas has come early this year. Look what Sani had delivered to my house yesterday--

For those of you who are saying "so what?" this is a genuine hardwood library truck that retails for $265 at Gaylords. A homeschoolers dream!

Years ago when my dad worked for a major accounting firm he salvaged it from their trash where it ended up on account of a bum wheel bracket. He fixed it for my mom and she's used it in their church library. Mom recently resigned her post as church librarian and brought me the treasure, knowing I'd value both the truck and the fact that it was a trash pick.

Thanks Mom and Dad! Now to fill it with books!

Cerealpaloza

If you need cereal, this is the week to get it.

Safeway (Vons, Dominicks, Tom Thumb, Pavilions, Carrs, or whatever they call it in your neighborhood) is running a three day sale starting today on Kellogg's cereal. You need the 4 boxes for $6 coupon from their circular, and then use four $1 coupons from recent inserts to get them for $0.50 a box. Be sure to ask the folks at the service desk which varieties qualify before you hit the cereal aisle. I lucked out when my cashier finally gave up trying to figure it out and simply gave me the deal on the boxes in my cart.

Albertsons ( Jewel, Acme Markets, etc.) has two grand sales going. If you buy 4 General Mills cereals that are currently on sale for $2.50 per box, the are instantly reduced to $1.50 each. Use 2 of the $1 off 2 boxes coupons from recent inserts and get them for $1 a box. This is another one to check your receipt on. One of the boxes I picked up didn't ring up on sale and it ruined the whole deal. If I hadn't caught it, it would have cost me over $5. There are some specific General Mills coupons on coupons.com , and there were blinkies for $0.75 off 2 boxes of Cheerios in the aisle at my store.

Albertsons also has a deal on Chex. If you buy 3 boxes, you get them for $5. I bought 6 boxes, used 2 internet coupons from here for $1.10 off 2 boxes and another $1 off 2 boxes from a recent insert to get them for $1.13 each. Pretty good for Chex!

Cheapskate

Yes, I am unashamedly tagging on the title "cheapskate" to my honorable badge of "housewife". I've been an Aldi shopper for the last 8 years or so and found that to be cheap enough until I started reading the accounts of truly frugal women who shop the big stores with big coupons and win. I've started voraciously clipping coupons and sorting them in a plastic bin. I've even called my neighbors to mooch unwanted Sunday inserts. Crystal at Money Saving Mom is my respected frugal home economist guru of the day. She is able to do all of her grocery and household needs shopping for $35 per week. She does have two young children and I have three bigger-tummied ones, but if I could get it down to $50 I'd be impressed with myself! What remains to be seen is whether this will make my ever patient husband rise up and call me blessed or if it will drive him completely bonkers. More on that to come...