Ten Ways to Reduce Your Daily Expenses: Part One

The year hasn't ended and most of my Google Search Engine traffic comes from the following keywords: "getting out of debt", "debt reduction", "how to reduce expenses" and "shopping with coupons". That leads me to believe that many, many people not only overspent this holiday season ...they used their credit cards. With that in mind, I decided to write a post that will help readers reduce their monthly expenses. Cutting back on daily expenses that slowly and steadily eat up your money is key to getting a grip on your finances. There is one thing that I find to be the most important thing of all to attack debt reduction. What is that key factor? Being organized.

Let's begin by looking at a few expenses that can add up to significant savings if you take action and really cut back. Remember, organization is key to debt reduction.

Plan your mornings.
1. What does this mean? Get up a little earlier and make your own coffee. There are coffee machines that can be programmedto make coffee at a certain time. All it requires from you is to add the water, coffee and a coffee filter. Even if you have to buy a coffee machine, a $20.00 coffee machine will pay itself back in less than a work week.
2. Car pool if you can. You and your friend/coworker can add considerable savings to your gas budget.
3. Don't buy the paper. Often, it can be found at your job's cafeteria or lounge. Get some coworkers involved in saving money and have a different person buy it everyday. That would mean 5 people read the paper and only pay for it once a work week!
4. Bag your lunch. That's a no brainer. You can also involve coworkers to split a lunch tab. Here's an example: a neighborhood pizzeria has a lunch special of 2 large pies for $19.99. Split that with 5 coworkers ($4.40 each) and you each get several slices and a cheaper lunch tab. Bring your own water or beverage and you're ready!

Plan Your Evenings.
5. Have quick and easy meals planned for the evenings. This eliminates that need to buy takeout. (I'll be sharing some ideas for this in another post).
6. Can you cut back on your cable package? Do you really need over 300 channels? Take a close look at the channels you watch and eliminate the rest. It can save you some money. If you realize that you don't watch any TV, scale to the bare minimum. You can also get PC TV for a considerable savings.
7. How many hours do you spend on the internet? Do you REALLY need to pay for the internet? Can you disconnect it just until you get a handle on your bills? Find hotspots in your town and visit them. Most libraries offer free wi-fi. If you don't use the internet much and really need it, don't pay for it. If you can use your job's internet connection from your personal laptop (without repercussions) do so. (Make sure it's allowed before or after work hours and that your personal information will not be available to anyone!)
8. Unplug all your appliances when they are not in use. Your microwave, cable box, stereo, and computer all use electricity even when they aren't in use. (If you can see the time on display or it has a light on even when it's idle, it's soaking up electricity!) If you don't need to have it plugged in...UNPLUG IT!
9. Get rid of all your excess. ALL the stuff you have in your home is costing you money. If you don't use it, give it away or sell it. You pay rent or a mortgage every month. That means, everything that takes up any room in your home...cost money to keep. Makes you think...huh? If it's broken and you've been waiting for months to fix it and you haven't...chances are you won't. Give it away on freecycle. People will come and pick it up. People will take broken exercise equipment, projection TVs and more. (Make sure to specify what's wrong with it, if it is broken.) It's cheaper than hauling it to the dump (They charge per weight and time means money.) It also helps the environment by keeping it out of the landfills. You can also sell broken ipods, game consoles and more online. I'll be writing a long post about all the sites I've found that pay you cash. Do you have college textbooks, children's books or novels that are collecting dust? Read about Ebookdrop.com, a site that will pay you by paypal and provide pre paid labels for shipping costs!
10. Change your entertainment habits to curb your spending. There are many free ways to spend your time. Take a free class, volunteer or go to the library. Take up jogging, running, speedwalking or cycling. You will save money and stay fit!

I hope you found these tips useful. If you dare to really be frugal, visit Stephanie at Stop the Ride and peruse through her Make It From Scratch Carnival. You will find ways to make your own detergent, automatic dish washing detergent, dolls, olive oil lamps and much more. Visit the Make It From Scratch Carnival to get some GREAT IDEAS from some great blogs!

A Must Read About Ridiculous Ways to Save Money

Jim from Blueprint to Financial Prosperity wrote a great entry called:
Ridiculous Money Saving Ideas!

I have to say I was laughing pretty hard. I started to write a comment, but it turned into a post. I decided to not take up his whole comments area and to use a permalink. Besides, I wanted to share it with all of you.

The entry was about really crazy things people do to save money. I can't believe people really admit to doing some of these things. I would want the earth to just swallow me. Of course, I remembered a couple of things people have admitted to doing.

Here are a few:
1. Using table salt instead of regular salt to MELT THE SNOW. Why? Because table salt is cheaper...DUH. The question is: "Does it really work?" Umm, NO!
2. Freezing old brown bananas. Aren't they old when they are brown?
3. Buying and using expired canned goods. Hey, that can't be healthy. They already have shelf dates that span over a year!
4. This is the worst: taking advantage of someone. A caterer I know has a neighbor that just installed a $50,000 inground pool, a fence that cost $20,000 and had her kitchen and basement remodeled for an additional $100,000. She asked my friend to cater her daughter's recital. My friend called her from the store (while she was doing her personal shopping) to see what she wanted to serve. The neighbor gave her an extensive list of foods she wanted served as well as the paper products she desired. After the party, she refused to pay. She felt that the caterer would get future bookings from her wealthy friends. This cheapskate got free food, paper products and catering. Being a tight wad at someone else's expense- NOT COOL!

Read Jim's entry and see what I'm talkng about. Care to share the worst tales of tight wad behavior you've ever experienced or heard about?

Attention Gamers of All Ages!

Are you a gamer? Are you the mother of a young gamer? If you are, BegBorrow.com will help with price the tag affiliated with gaming. Beg<>Borrow is a site for those of you that love gaming, but don't love the cost attached to the hobby!

Video games are an expensive hobby. My children own every system except for the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo DS. Out of all those gaming systems, I was lucky enough to have paid for only three systems (the rest were gifts from their father and family members). The systems I bought were the PlayStation, Game Cube and the XBOX. Yes, I paid full price when they first came out...OUCH! Most of you know, you can't just get the console. Nope. You have to pay for extra controllers, attachments and game accessories. In the case of the XBOX, you even had to pay extra for the remote control to use the DVD feature! The cost doesn't finish there. You need to buy or rent games to use the consoles..DUH. That's when the cost really starts running up!

Beg<>Borrow can help you fray the cost of gaming. How? You can trade your games there. I know what you're thinking, "I can trade my video in at BlockBuster, EBGames or FYE?!?!" My kids have done that and I don't think it's fair to get $2.00-$5.00 credit for a $50.00 game...especially when they are going to resell it for a huge profit. This is a better solution for you and your pocket. Beg<>Borrow allows it's members to put a list of the video games they want to exchange along with a wish list of games they would like!

Here's an excerpt from the site which explains it all.

At Beg<>Borrow, you input your inventory of games that you are willing to trade, along with a Wish List of games that you want to get back. You are able to prioritize your Wish List, along with your inventory - with a rating system of A to Z. Beg<>Borrow does the rest. We will search our member inventories and Wish Lists - and if we find a match - we tell you about it. If you agree to the match, a trade occurs! Pretty easy.

Titles from your "A" Inventory list will only be traded for items from your "A" Wish List - which ensures a QUALITY TRADE between you and your trading partner.

It's a win-win. I think it may even work better than ebay. Especially for young adults that are only interested in the gaming aspect and don't want to deal with ebay's hassles.

Visit the site and check it out. It will help you be a frugal gamer! (Well, as frugal as a gamer can be...)

How I Saved $1168.00 on my MiniVan Repairs

On April 30th, the transmission on my minivan died. I was looking at a hefty sum, which included repairs and a minivan rental. The following is what I did to save $1168. from the total cost.

1. I needed to increase my income. I found several new sites that pay you to blog. This will help me earn the money I need to pay for the new transmission.
2. I immediately called a mechanic for an estimate. He stated I would be looking at $1500.00-$2000. in repairs!
3. I visited Enterprise online to get a quote on the rental of a minivan for the two weeks they would be holding my minivan for repairs. It would cost me about $1400.?! The last time, the mechanics took a full month and the rentals fees were outrageous.
4. Thought of a plan B. The Little One's Dad bought a used minivan in January. He parked it in my driveway and after getting a quote for insurance decided he'd just use my van for free... Yeah well, I decided I wasn't going to pay for his insurance. (Can you blame me? I only support 7 people?!?) Insuring his minivan was cheaper than renting one. Guess what I did?! Yup, I insured and registered the minivan last Friday, May 11th. Why not? He's not going to pay for the repairs on my van, even though he grabs my keys as if he owned my minivan (and yes I complain everytime). The final cost was $232.00 for the taxes, registration and insurance! Was he upset? Nope. He didn't offer to help with any of the expenses either. I still have to do the inspection, so I made sure to request the money for it.
5. I'm going to shop around and see if I could get a better quote for the transmission. There has to be a way I can get it done cheaper.
6. Tomorrow I'm going to check out a few quick ways to raise some funds buy selling some stuff. No, it's not ebay. I'll definitely keep you posted...

A car is a necesiity when you live in the middle of nowhere. That's why I deal with the car drama and the endless money pit.

Pay $5.99 S&H and the Silver Jewelry is FREE!

The Diva loves silver jewelry. I'd love to buy her more, but funds are limited. Fortunately, I'm always on the hunt for a bargain. Hey, why pay retail when you can get products for low or no cost!

What did I find? Let's just say, The Diva was ecstatic!




SilverJewelryClub is a site that gives away silver jewelry. All you pay is a shipping and handling charge of $5.99. My favorite part is that you can use paypal! Anyway, when you visit the page, you will find four different items. Each item is displayed for 15 minutes. During that time, you may purchase the item. After 15 minutes, a new item is displayed. They sell men and womens' jewelry.

This jewelry is great to have on hand for gift giving. It's beautiful and inexpensive. I bought a ring that was valued at $69.99 and paid $5.99! I got the email today informing me the item was shipped.

When I receive the ring, I will take a picture of The Diva wearing it. It is a heart shaped amethyst on a silver band.

You might want to bookmark this entry, so that you can give a beautiful...but frugal gift!

*************************
Don't forget to subscribe to this blog to never miss an income opportunity, bargain or freebie again!

Update: April 9,2007
My sister and I received our jewelry on Friday, April 6, 2007. We are very happy with our purchases. She liked the jewelry sooo much, she ordered three more pieces on Saturday April 8, 2007! I'll be adding a picture of the ring I purchased later today...

Attention Walmart Shoppers: New "Site to Store" Program Equals More Savings!

Today was a WalMart Day. I spent most of the day there buying a futon, pillows, blinds, curtain rods and many other accessories. It was my intention to buy a dresser and armoire to match the bed I bought there the other day. Unfortunately, they didn't have any left in the store. Great. I figured I had to order it online. I came home and checked my email. (It's the OCD in me...) I was thrilled with the email I received from WalMart. See, as an affiliate of WalMart I get news delivered to my inbox.

WalMart is introducing site to store program. This is great for people like me that own a minivan. It means you get FREE SHIPPING! Since I'm a WalMart affiliate, I also get an additional savings of 12% on all my online purchases. (Here's where you can read more about thay: Affiliate Marketing 101 . Read about LinkShare.)

Here's the breakdown:

States and dates subject to change. A few stores in participating states may be activated later than others.
Available Now: Stores in northern California, eastern Texas, western Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, western Tennessee, western Illinois, northern Mississippi.

April 2007: Stores in Arizona, southern California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Colorado, Wyoming, eastern Virginia, northern North Carolina, eastern Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey.

May 2007: Stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, southern North Carolina, South Carolina, southern Tennessee, western Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky.

June 2007: Stores in southwestern Texas, southern Mississippi, Louisiana.

July 2007: Stores in Iowa, eastern Illinois, Indiana, western Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, western Ohio, northern Tennessee, North Dakota, South Dakota.

I don't know about you, but I'm ecstatic. That gives me two ways to save.
1. By being an affiliate, I save 12% on online purchases.
2. By shipping to the store, I save on shipping and handling!

It's a win-win. Now if they accepted paypal, I'd lose my mind!

10 Ways to Save Money by Recycling

There are many ways you can reuse and recycle products to stay within a budget. I love to cut corners where I can, but I have to admit there are things I won't do. As I've mentioned it before, I won't buy generic Oreo's or skimp on my coffee. Those are my few luxuries. Everybody has them, right?

Here are Ten Recycling Tips:
1. Some supermarkets give you a 2 cent or 3 cent credit for every shopping bag you reuse. Save your old paper towel tubes and stuff your shopping bags in their. It makes them easy to store in your car and grab when you just need to get a few staples!
2. Don't throw out those fabric softener sheets. Earlier this year, I read how NCN bought enough fabric softener sheets for the year! (Great job!) After you use them in the dryer, use them to dust your blinds, ceiling fans or anywhere dust collects. They're great!
3. Your old light bulbs can be recycled. How? They can be turned into Christmas Tree Ornaments.
4. You know the plastic bottles (that don't have a refund) can be cut and used as funnels! Keep one in your car in case of en emergency.
5. Save the soda caps to use with the light bulbs for the Christmas Ornaments. They can be hot glued to the other end and suspended with floral wire. Paint the soda caps gold and the light bulbs can be decoupaged or spray painted.
6. Coffee grinds are great for geraniums! I saw this years ago on a gardening show and it works. The acidity is great for their soil.
7. Plastic coffee containers are great to hold small accessories or toys! Think legos!
8. I bought the Tidy Cat litter on sale (the one that comes in the huge plastic container). I didn't throw out the container so that I could reuse it. I buy whatever is on sale and pour it in the container. The bags are usually cheaper, but the containers are better for storage purposes.
9. You can save your annuals by placing them in a closet and covering them with a brown paper bag! You're recycling your annauls and reusing brown paper bags.
10. Brown paper bags can be used to cover your child's text book and as gift wrapping paper. Think creative stamping!


I hope you enjoyed these tips. Feel free to leave your favorite way of recycling products to save money.

Related Topics
If you're interested in learning how to get paid to write articles, blog, post on forums or other work from home opportunities visit:
MAKE MONEY ONLINE ON Squidoo
Sell Your Old Ink Cartridges and/or Cell Phones!

How To Maximize Every Action to Earn or Save Money!

People ask me how I can live on such a small amount of money with so many kids. For me, it's simple. I think creatively. Every dollar I spend, earn or save is maximized. Some of these may be new to you and others may be old news. I hope you find a new useful way of maximizing your dollars.

Shopping for Groceries, Online Purchases and More:
1. Upromise is a great way to earn money from your everyday grocery purchases. You simply register your grocery store cards, credit/debit cards or shop through their site. Retailers add money to your upromise account for your everyday purchases. I registered a few grocery cards in 2003. I just checked my account and I've earned $20.00.
2. If you are making an online purchase and you are a member of sites like FusionCash, InstantProfitz, or ebates, you can earn a percentage of your purchases.
3. By joining a DVD, Book Club or CD club through a site like Useleads, you earn money to buy the things you want. Buy the latest books, CD's and DVD's for FREE or almost FREE. How? You receive a certain amount of products for one low price and they pay you to try the service. It's a win-win situation!
4. If you have a credit card with a rewards program and are disciplined about paying it off every month, you can realy profit! You can earn rewards from your credit card and money from upromise. That's doubling the value of every dollar!
5. If you are a linkshare affiliate, you earn 12% of your online purchases at Walmart. (See right side bar)
6. If you are an ebay shopper, you can try a new phone alert service through one of the sites listed above (#2) and receive up to $20.00. If you aren't an ebay user, you can receive up to $8.00 to open a new account and place a bid.
7. You can sign up for an offer at one of the coffee sites (see #2 above) and receive a free gift plus several bags of coffee for a small fee.

Internet, Phone, Cable and Other Bills
1. If you are a Cognigen agent (see right side bar), you earn a commission of every bill you pay every month that you use through them. They have all the big providers including Sunrocket, TMobile, Sprint and more. It's like paying yourself.

Dining Out
1. You can earn rewards with a rewards credit card. If you have your credit/debit card registered at Upromise (and it is a restaurant that is affiliated with them), you will earn a percentage of your bill.

Auction Sites
1. If you are a member of one of the sites listed above, you can sign up for a membership to a book club, DVD club or CD club, earn money and then sell the brand new products on auction sites for even more money. This way, you earn money for trying the service and then sell the product for even more revenue. Sites like half.com, amazon.com or ebay may be used.


Saving and Investing
1. You can earn money for opening online accounts at banks like HSBC, ING, Emigrant and even Bank of America. Look for deals and coupon codes that reward you with up to $50.00 (50 days after) for new accounts. (Read the fine print, some institutions require a direct deposit).
2. Open an account with Sharebuilder (using special coupon codes) and recieve an extra $50.00 after 60 days. (Be sure to read the fine print. They may require you to make a trade, thus reducing your intial investment).

Save Time and Money Using Your Computer
1. Online bill pay save you time and money. It may even save you from late fees. Check your bank and credit card statements for more information as to the ways you can utilize this service.
2. By using a site like WiseOrb, you can earn money for every search anyone makes from your computer. A simple action you take every time you sit at your computer!

These are just a few ways that I maximize every action and every dollar. At this moment, I have to step away. I'll make sure to return to add more to this entry.

Leftovers How To: It's All About Presentation (Part I)

People tell me it's hard to get kids to eat leftovers. My family is a little bit different. My biological children and my niece know how to make themselves something to eat, reheat or reinvent leftovers. The oldest won't eat or reheat leftovers, he wasn't raised by me... Anyway, to solve this problem I decided to use different tactics. Maybe he doesn't want to eat reheated food, but what if it doesn't look like leftovers?

This entry will give you a few ways to present "chicken" leftovers in a different way. In the future I will give you a few ways to present beef, veggies and fruits!

What You Need
1. When I go to the supermarket, I always check out the sales. I usually pick up a pack of drumsticks, thighs, or chicken breasts at the lowest possible price. I will post the receipt when I find it, I paid less than $3.00 for a 12-14 pack of drumsticks. To save money and time, you may want to buy two packages. These can be used for two or three days worth of meals, according to the size of your family and whether or not you brown bag it to work!
2. Seasonings that you and your family enjoy.

What You Do
1. Bake the drumsticks (or whatever you purchased)as you normally do.
2. Serve as usual.

The Next Day
1. Take the leftover drumsticks from the fridge and take the chicken off the bone.
2. Depending on how much is left you can either use the chicken
a. in a salad.
b. in baked dish.
c. in a soup.
3. You would just add the shredded chicken to any of the above dishes. They don't even have to know it was yesterday's chicken.

One Recipe They Enjoy
This is one of their favorite recipes. I thought I would share it.

You need:
1 package of your favorite pasta (they like penne, ziti or rigatoni)
1 18 oz jar of spaghetti sauce
8 oz of cheese (your choice)-it's cheaper if you shred it yourself!
leftover shredded chicken
a shallow baking pan
1 tbsp. of basil
1 tbsp. of oregano


1. Cook the pasta as stated on the package.
2. Mix the pasta, sauce, seasonings, cheese and chicken.
3. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

It's done! Serve with salad, garlic bread or any other sides your family enjoys! It's actually ziti with a twist. Great for those kids that don't like ground beef.

Hope you enjoyed the tips. Feel free to send me an email for any other questions, suggestions, comments or if you have a post on the same topic that you would like me to link to. Feel free to link to this post.

Bon apettit!

Related Posts
How To Use Coupons To Save $$$ on Your Grocery Bill
Leftovers How To: Vegetables (Part 2)

Frugal Shopping at the Mall

I posted a entry not too long ago that teaches how to shop at the mall and still get good prices. Since I just went to the mall, I figured I would post the receipt to show you the evidence. Now in this particular transaction I happened to have a gift card that was given to me at Christmas. Since June 13th was my birthday, I decided to redeem this gift card. The only reason I paid any money was because the girls each wanted a pair of shades (on clearance for $4.99). If I hadn't bought them, I would have paid less then two dollars for ALL the clothing.

Here's the receipt.

Now if you look at the bottom, you will see I saved over $111. My actual total for all the merchandise was $12.38. I used a $25.00 coupon that was emailed to me by the company in conjunction with a $50.00 gift card. Not bad. All I have to say is
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

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How To Shop At The Mall And Pay Less

Frugal Gardening?

The weather has been pretty good out here. The nurseries have opened for business. Lowe's, Walmart and Home Depot are all trying to sell you lots of gardening supplies. Just wanted to give you some tips on a few ways to save money....

Before you buy those expensive little disposable greenhouses (the plastic ones that have a container and a lid), let me give you a tip. Do you ever buy baked goods from your local supermarket? Do you buy cheesecake, pies or cakes? Before you throw those plastics in the recycle bin ...think again. Those plastics containers can be used exactly like those little greenhouses. I use them and can tell you, they work! Just plant your seeds the way you normally do, and then put the little containers in the plastic and cover it. It works just as well and you are recycling and re-using to save the environment.

This next tip amazed me. I always thought that it couldn't be done. One year, my ex-husband bought these deliciously sweet huge bright red tomatoes. They were from Spain. He decided to cut one up, take out the seeds and plant them in potting soil, in a plastic pie container. I never thought they would grow. Not only did they grow, I planted them outside and we had tomatoes all season! Everyone loved them, they were exquisite. We paid once for the tomatoes and got them free the rest of the season! To make your tomatoes even sweeter, put a circle of sugar around the base of each plant. I saw this on a program many years ago and it really works.

My roses are growing. Insects are already munching on their leaves. What is an inexpensive solution? Diluted dishwashing detergent does the trick! Why spend tons of money on special sprays? Go to the supermarket or dollar store, buy inexpensive dishwashing detergent for $1.00, mix with water and spray them on your rose bushes. It works.

My previous neighbor used to grow avocado plants from the pit! They were beautiful. Why pay exorbitant prices at a nursery? How did she grow them? She put two toothpicks on either side of the middle of the pit. Then she perched it in a glass of water, so that the water just touched the bottom of the pit. The rest of the pit was being held above the water by the toothpicks. Next she placed them in the dark cabinet. Once they sprouted she put them in direct sunlight. They grew beautifully. They may not give you avocados, but they make beautiful decorative plants.

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed the tips!

HAPPY GARDENING!