More Blessings

My husband is now "officially" unemployed due to a lay-off and we are experiencing the Peace that passes understanding. I think one of the reasons that we feel such a peace at this normally stressful time is that we have really been focusing on our blessings and how thankful we are for what we have.
The list that follows declare a small portion of the blessings we have received since Joe found out about the lay-offs last November. It is kind of long but we have found that the more we focus on our blessings, the less we fell sorry for ourselves!

• This is an opportunity for Joe to find a job he really loves!
• This happened AFTER we got out of debt - thanks Dave Ramsey!
• His date of lay-off went from Jan 4 to March 31 in a span of 15 minutes.
• This can be Joe’s mid-life crisis! (He got the news the week of his 40th birthday)
• We decided to continue our giving to the church instead of lowering it when we completely renovated our budget. The next day my dad suggested looking at our 401k contribution. The amount of contribution that now goes into his paycheck instead of his 401k equals the amount we had considered lowering our tithe amount – plus some.
• That same day we received a monetary gift – enough to live by our Emergency Budget for almost 3 months.
• Someone who provides a service for us dropped the rate by $10 per month, without us asking.
• We had our 2nd straight year of All Cash Christmas!
• We have had tons of encouragement and prayers from family and friends - thank you!
• We are living on an Emergency Budget and putting money in savings every month, we have realized that we can live on SO much less than we have been!
• Found out about using an antenna instead of cable and we disconnected our land line saving us over $600 per year and we still get great channels!
• Started using Cartridge World for our printer ink cartridges saving us over $10 per cartridge.
• After we prayed for provision, Joe continued to be extended in his job for an additional 4 months.
• I got a little part time that that will, hopefully, pay for our groceries each month.
• We put in a raised-bed garden and it has provided over $200 worth of free food this summer.
• We are healthy.
  
• We were given a really cool entertainment center that looks great in the living room - AND hides the TV when it is not in use!
• We thought we had a major car issue but it turned out to be only a fluid problem.
• We have found so many ways to go and have fun for FREE!
• We were blessed to be able to spend time with all four of our parents this year.

We know that God has a plan for us and we believe part of that plan was for us to learn to live on less. It is such a great feeling to have a little money in the bank rather than a ton of debt hanging over our heads. We continue to search for more ways to save - it has become almost a game for us! Thanks for taking the time to read this, hope you have a great week and I encourage you to count your blessings!

"So What Do You Eat?"

We are vegetarian, have been for about a year and a half. We went vegetarian for health reasons, my husband dropped his cholesterol by 170 points and my children rarely get sick anymore. I will be posting another blog with details on my children's health as soon as I get copies of their medical records, but I will say it has been miraculous.

One of the questions I get asked the most, well probably tied with, "Where do you get your protein?" (the answer is "From vegetables, nuts, beans, and dairy. Plus, Americans get WAY more protein than our bodies need - that's another post!) is "What do you eat?" The answer to that is so extensive that I could not answer it completely! Think of your favorite side dishes, for instance at Thanksgiving and Christmas we eat everything except turkey and ham.

Or think of your favorite types of food. Mexican and Italian are our faves so we eat rice, beans, guacamole, veggie quesadillas, chips & dips, breakfast burritos, pasta with meatless sauces (tomato, alfredo), mac and cheese, vegetable lasagna, garlic bread. We eats LOTS of fruit and vegetables but not a lot of salads.

"Well, what about when you travel and have to get fast food?" Good question, Taco Bell will substitute beans for beef, Burger King has a veggie burger, Wendy's has salads, baked potatoes and fruit, and we love most of the sides from KFC.

One of the best things about becoming vegetarian is that we are trying really great vegetables that we have never eaten before! I will be posting soon about our adventure with spaghetti squash soon!

So, we basically eat anything and everything - except meat. Easy enough...

The Garden - Part 2

Everyone said not to plant before April 15. Did I listen? Of course not! The weather had been so beautiful so we planted our tender little seedlings early. Yes, all of those people were right, sort of. There came a few days of frosty weather causing us to tarp or otherwise cover our little plants. And yes, it was a hassle. But we are now reaping (pun intended) the benefits of planting an early garden! It amazes me that God can pack the whole plant and all of that food into a tiny little seed!

Here is our first little harvest of zucchini, parsley, basil, mint, and one little carrot - and the resulting dinner! This time we had to add store-bought squash and red bell pepper, hopefully in a few more weeks our peppers will be ready.


We have about 5-10 little zucchinis, 10 squash, 15 peppers, a couple of cucumbers, and countless tomatoes ripening out there right now and I can hardly wait to start making freezer spaghetti sauce and dill pickles!

I am also planning now for a garden to be harvested in the fall and winter. If you are considering a fall or spring garden you need to plan now, seeds will not be as readily available after the summer! Hopefully, I will post soon on what I am planning to plant. As I have never planted a fall garden it will be completely experimental!

Laundry Soap...Again

I have used my homemade, super frugal, laundry detergent since November 1 and still have about 1/4 of the bucket left! Apparently, in our household, we will only need to make it twice a year which means we are spending less than $6 PER YEAR on laundry detergent! None of us have been able to tell a difference in the cleanliness of the clothes so we are sold on this recipe!

Here it is again:

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Bar Ivory soap
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax 20 Mule Team Powder (laundry aisle at Publix next to the previous item)
A 5 gallon bucket with lid
Saucepan
Empty laundry detergent container

- Grate the bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add soapy water, washing soda and Borax. Stir until dissolved.
Fill bucket to the top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight.
-Stir it up well (it will be "gloppy") and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Even though you use a 5 gallon bucket, it makes 10 gallons because you fill the empty container half full of detergent and fill the rest of the way with water.
The washing soda and borax cost about $5 and I used only a fraction of each. Buckets are about $5 as well from Lowes and can be reused each time. I love homemaking!

The Garden

Well, we finally did it!
Our garden box has been built - thanks to Joe and Casey! We filled it with "dirt", 1 cu yd of topsoil + 1 cu yd of compost (and I even did the math to figure our how many cubic yards we needed!). Whoever said, "Hard work never hurt anyone" must not have hauled 2 yards of dirt using 5 gallon buckets from a trailer in the driveway to a garden against the back fence!
We have sectioned the garden off so that we know exactly where to plant everything and have added marigolds to help with pest control.
We will begin adding seedlings that we started inside along with some seeds either today or tomorrow, and we have the tarp ready to throw on top for the cold nights we still have awaiting us.
Plus, thanks to a new friend's blog I am hoping to talk Joe into building us a compost box to help "feed" our plants throughout the summer.
I will keep you posted as the days get longer and warmer!

Free Food!

Thanks to my friend Angel over at Faithful & Frugal for helping me learn how to shop better!
Also, thanks to Casey for taking the picture!

Here is the photo of the groceries and household items that I bought today. You should be able to double click the photo to see it enlarged. Every item on the table was bought on sale, buy one get one free (BOGO), and/or bought with a coupon (or two!).
The total price before sales, BOGO, and coupons was $220.19, about what I used to spend every other week for a very full shopping basket of groceries. My basket was every bit as full but for all of this I only paid $116.26. (Some of the items that are hard to see are as follows: 28 rolls of toilet paper, 10 boxes of frozen vegetables, 8 boxes of pasta, 6 containers of 100% apple juice, 4 jars of spaghetti sauce, 3 cartons of orange juice, 12 cans of soup, 2 bags of frozen biscuits, 2 bags of pizza rolls, and 2 small cartons of strawberries).

To me, that is $104.13 of FREE FOOD!
Happy Shopping!

CHEAP Ink Cartridges!

As part of our frugal lifestyle I tried a new business in our town, Cartridge World, and I LOVE IT! We have a printer/fax/copier at home that uses a HP 21 Black Ink Cartridge and an HP 22 Color Cartridge. I went to Cartridge World and bought a refilled black cartridge for a grand total of $9.55. They have them packaged and ready to go and they have a 100 percent money-back guarantee. I received $1.00 off by bringing them my old, empty cartridge, but you do not have to. They also told me that the color cartridges for my printer are around $13.00.
If you try them be sure to get a "punch card", after you purchase 9 cartridges the 10th one is FREE!
We have used the black cartridge for almost 2 weeks and cannot tell any difference in the quality. My cartridges normally cost between $20 & $25 dollars, but now that I am using Cartridge World we will be saving a ton of money! I can almost buy 3 black in cartridges there for the price of one new one!
Just one more way to save, and for us every penny counts!

Frugal (as in free) TV

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope that you did too!
My dear husband went a few weeks ago and bought a digital antenna for $38 from Wal-Mart. It goes outside and is mounted to our fence. It is only about 6 inches by 10 inches or so and is one solid gray piece. With that we were getting 5 channels and were fairly happy. This week we went to Sam's and used the coupon we ordered online to purchase a digital converter box so that when all stations begin broadcasting in digital our TV can receive the signals. That cost us a whopping $4 after the coupon and once installed we now get a ton of channels!
So, for a grand total of $42 we now get 20 channels, with PERFECT reception for $0 per month!
Here is our line-up:
ABC
Nashville Weather
NBC
NBC en espanol
CBS
PBS1
PBS2
FOX1
FOX2
ION
IONLife
Qubo (kids shows - Veggie Tales, 123 Penguins, etc)
Kids Worship
MY30
5 Channels of Christian Programming including JCTV Videos
CW58

We are happy to be enjoying a little bit of TV all for FREE!!!
For other frugal ideas feel free to type the word "frugal" into the box at the top left of this blog.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Ultra Frugal

As you may know my husband will be looking for a new job to begin around April so we are now trying to save as much money as absolutely possible over the next several months.
I have been "couponing" for a while now and think I am finally getting the hang of it. I only buy what is on sale, buy one get one free, and/or things I have a coupon for. It really works well to use 2 coupons when getting a buy one get one deal! So far in November I have spent $200 on $340 worth of merchandise. Yes, I have brought home $140 worth of FREE STUFF! Now, I am not the expert that my friend is, she paid $3 for $101 worth of groceries the other day!!!
Check out http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ you can get a $1 trial for 8 weeks and she tells you which coupons (and how many) to use for the different grocery store deals in your area (she also includes places like Walgreens & CVS).

We also got rid of cable TV this week. Joe bought a digital antenna thing for $40 and we now get 5 channels. I thought it would be difficult on the girls because we are in such a habit of having it on, but if there is nothing to watch they read, play with play-doh, or make up games to play. They are actually much happier without cable (but I doubt they would ever admit it!).

Prescriptions

As part of our frugal living lifestyle we have recently learned about some great deals from both Wal-Mart and Kroger regarding prescription medications.
They offer LOTS of prescription medications for $4 for a one month supply or $10 for a 3 month supply. It is a much better deal than our company's prescription plan which charges $20 for a 3 month supply. Wish I had known about it sooner! You can check out their lists on their websites.

Laundry Soap Recipe

I have used my homemade, super frugal, laundry soap in a couple of loads and cannot tell any difference between the loads washed with my store brand and my homemade. So, here is the "recipe":

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Bar Ivory soap
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax 20 Mule Team Powder (laundry aisle at Publix next to the previous item)
A 5 gallon bucket with lid
Saucepan
Empty laundry soap container

- Grate the bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add soapy water, washing soda and Borax. Stir until dissolved.
Fill bucket to the top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight.
-Stir it up well (it will be "gloppy") and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Even though you use a 5 gallon bucket, it makes 10 gallons because you fill the empty container half full of detergent and fill the rest of the way with water.
The washing soda and borax cost about $5 and I used only a fraction of each. Buckets are about $5 as well from Lowes and can be reused each time. I love homemaking!

Dave, Part 2

So, Joe and I went to hear Dave Ramsey speak last night and really enjoyed what he had to say. He talked about the "economic crisis", the media, mortgages, his faith, and Biblical principles for managing money. He was AWESOME!
One thing that really struck me was that he talked a lot about the spirit of fear and how it can cause people to react with such panic. I am praying that God will keep the spirit of fear away from me and my family and that we will make our decisions according to His will, not out of random, raw emotion.
I would HIGHLY recommend Dave Ramsey's books if you are in debt, or just want to better manage your money.
We were frugal before reading his book, and now we are choosing to be ultra-frugal!

Dave, Part 1

Tonight Joe and I are going to hear Dave Ramsey speak. We are really looking forward to it because Dave helped change our lives. My parents told us about Dave after we had incurred quite a bit of debt. I bought his book, Total Money Makeover, read it, and implemented his strategies. Within about 8 months we became COMPLETELY debt free (other than our home mortgage). It will be exciting to hear what he has to say tonight as we are facing some potentially uncertain times.
We do know that God was the main factor in getting rid of our debt because He really convicted us of the fact that living with debt goes against what He wants for our lives. We feel He uses people like Dave Ramsey to further help us down His path.
I will write again tomorrow and let you know how it went!

Laundry Soap

Homemaking:
Yesterday we made our own liquid laundry detergent!
It costs approximately $2 for 5 gallons of concentrate that eventually makes 10 gallons!
We will try it soon and let you know it works! Super frugal!
If it works well I will post the "recipe".