Did you make a resolution this year?  If you did, how’s it working for you?  I made one, and I’m going to keep it!  I’ve got a secret - it’s the same resolution I’ve made for the last five years, and I’ve kept it every year.    

I resolved to manage my money to the very best of my ability, providing my family with the very best I can while saving for the rainy day that we all will see one day. 

I think New Year’s resolutions fail mainly because they are often HUGE changes in our lives, hard to maintain and depriving us of comfort and enjoyment.  For that reason, I have made some very subtle changes which when you combine them, make a big difference in our household bottom line.  There are some really simple things you can do to save money in 2009 without feeling deprived.

 If you’re like my family, a huge portion of your monthly expense is your utilities. You need to reduce that bill as much as possible, but still keep warm during the winter months and cool in the summer. The first thing I did was to call my power company and request an energy audit. Most companies provide this service for free, and they will send someone out to look at your power/gas consumption and make suggestions to lower your bill. Additionally, studies have shown that you can reduce your heating bill by 10% if you lower your thermostat 5 degrees at night and 10 degrees when you are not home. If heating is half of your power bill, and your bill normally runs $200 in the winter, you’ll save $10/month just making a small change in temperature.

 When you wash your clothes, use cold water. We do so much laundry that I wonder how in the world all these clothes fit in our closets. Normally I do two loads a day, and if I washed those in hot water, it would cost me about 38 cents each load. A load washed in cold water costs just 1.5 cents! So if you do the math, I’m saving 73 cents /day for 365 days a year, and that’s $266! See how small changes can add up?

 When you’re cooking, turn your oven off about 15 minutes before the baking time is up. The residual heat in the oven will finish baking your food, and you’ll be saving money.

 When you leave the house for an extended period of time (2 days or more), turn your thermostat to the lowest possible setting. Don’t turn the unit off; the low setting will keep your pipes from freezing. Also turn off your water heater. When you return, it will only take an hour or so to heat the water back up.

 If you have ceiling fans in your home, turn the switch on the base so that the blades push the warm air down on you rather than pulling it up.

We all love to make New Year’s resolutions, but keeping them is a different story altogether!  This year, it’s time to get excited about saving some money for your family, and keep your New Year’s resolution!

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Tags: Cooking, Energy, Frugal Living, Resolutions, Saving Money, Utilities
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Looking our best is important however, tough economic times have put a pinch on some of the extras that some can afford. I know for myself that paying $150 (cut, color, and tip) to get my hair done every 2 months is an expense I have to consider cutting out of my budget. So this time around when my gray hairs were showing a bit too much I decided that I needed to find a way to still get myself dolled up without spending a small fortune. Here are my top 10 tips for saving money and still looking good.

1. Find a local beauty school: By the time a cosmetology student is allowed to work on live customers they have received extensive training already and are not “experimenting” on you. Rest assured that you will come out with a great cut and color. The students are just fine tuning their processes on you. You can save 50% or more by going to a beauty school. Beauty schools are not just for hair care, you can get a manicure, pedicure, and waxing done here as well. Ask the instructor or someone at the front desk if tips are permitted, and if so don’t forget to tip.

Find a local beauty school at one of the following links:

• CosmetologySchools.com
• BeautySchoolsDirectory.com
• FindABeautySchool.com
• Or just check your local Yellow Pages

2. Do it yourself: If you are comfortable with it there are many color at home options available in retail stores that will give you just about any choice for hair color. From all over color to highlights you can do it all in the comfort of your own home for $7.00 to $20.00 depending on the brand (of course less if you find a sale and combine it with a coupon, I recently picked up a highlighting kit for $2.00 after coupon/sale and gave my tween some highlights..she was thrilled!). There are also acrylic nails kits, that with some practice you can give yourself a professional looking manicure at a fraction of the price. Don’t forget at home waxing kits too for those that are brave! Don’t forget the hair cut, while for women cutting their own hair can be a bit difficult but trimming your bangs can easily be done at home by yourself or with the help from a friend. Additionally investing $20-$30 in a good set of electric clippers you can easily give the men and boys in your life a nice look. I personally clip my husbands hair and my two boys and save about $30 a month by doing it myself.

3. Find a different salon: If your hairstyle is pretty simple and does not require that much in the way of layers, razoring, or multiple shades of highlights you may want to consider going to a cheaper salon. Salons like Fantastic Sam’s, Super Cuts, and Great Clips can offer you a discount on your hair-do with a savings of as much as 50% or more.

4. Save On Maintenance: Did you know that most salons will trim your bangs for free. You just call in and ask if you need an appointment, then come in and the trim takes less that 5 min. Do you need a all over trim to keep you looking good between hair cuts, then use a discount salon for trims.

5. Do without: Some budgets are just not going to budge and you may need to decide that you just can no longer afford to maintain your beauty regimen as you would like to. But that does not mean that you need to look like a ragamuffin, instead think hard about what you can cut back on or out of the budget altogether. Go to the salon less. Instead of getting a cut and color every 6-8 week, see if you can stretch your time between appointments an extra week or two. Go “Au-natural”, get rid of the acrylics and learn to give your self a manicure at home. A bottle of nail polish and a nail file is much more inexpensive than a professional manicure. Same goes for a pedicure. Invest in a foot bath and some implements found in your local drug or discount store and give yourself a pedicure. I have convinced my husband that he gives great pedicures. Even if the paint on my toes is not perfect, I just enjoy the free foot massage.

Looking nice is important but you can still look great without breaking the bank!

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Tags: Beauty, Beauty School, Frugal Living, Hair Cut, HCW, Health and Beauty, Hotcouponworld, Manicure, Money Saving Tips, Salon
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Any way you slice or dice it, there are lots of ways to turn your leftovers into culinary delights. You’ll save you money in the long run by finding creative ways to cut the waste in your kitchen! Take a look at these five items:

Bread: In my mind, bread is anything made out of flour. The heels of loaf bread can be easily used to make croutons, be toasted for French onion soup, or in our house, we simply spread the peanut butter on the heel side and flip the softer bread side out so the sandwich looks like a sandwich. There are five of us and hamburger and hotdog buns come eight to a package. Use the leftover buns for garlic bread to serve with another night’s meal. One package then covers two nights worth of meals and the buns don’t go moldy in the breadbox.

Meat: You’ve got a half a steak left over from dinner; by itself, it won’t make a meal. If you’re like my family, half a steak is tossed in a ziplock bag and gets lost in the back of the fridge. Instead, chop it up and use it in a steak and egg omelet for breakfast or as a soup/stew starter for another night’s dinner. Or put it in a plastic container, top it with frozen mixed veggies and freeze for a lunch you can reheat at work.

Vegetables: You cooked a pot of green beans that didn’t get finished at dinner. Don’t toss them. Either put freeze in a Ziploc, or keep a big Rubbermaid container in the freezer for veggie orphans. When the container has enough assorted vegetables, make a veggie and rice soup, or use the vegetables for stir-fry.

Milk: Not enough left for a glass in the bottom of the jug? Don’t pour it down the sink. Put it in a zip-seal bag and freeze it for sauces and cream soups. When you’re ready to use it, melt it right in your pan from a frozen state—no need to thaw.

Eggs: Even if you don’t use all your eggs before the expiration date, they stay fresh for quite a while. Crack them in groups of three, scramble and freeze in a plastic bag to use later. Most cake and brownie recipes require three eggs so you can thaw the eggs in the plastic bag under cold running water in a matter of minutes. Or, thaw and scramble for breakfast.

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Tags: Cooking, Frugal Living, Left Overs, Leftovers, Meals
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Go Back to School:  If you’re in a job where you’re unsure just how secure your position might be, or if you’re not making enough money to keep afloat, now might be a seriously good time to head back to school. Professions to think about are ones that are in high demand with high wages.  Nurses, pharmacy tech, and health-care fields take center stage as more people continue to age and need health services.  Whatever you choose to study, do a little research on emerging fields like alternative energy and water desalination and you may just find a new career with security.
 
Spec a Garden Plot in Your Yard:  Food prices are only going to continue to climb.  Spend this winter reading up on how to plant and grow food your climate area.  Then once you grow it, be smart about preserving it.
 
Learn to Barter:  Got a skill?  Swap it out.  If you can cook, clean, knit, give massages, fix pipes, or you’re handy in some tangible way, you might be a part of a growing group of people who’d rather chop firewood in exchange for dental care.  You’ll keep needed cash in your pocket, but you’ll also get some vital services you need.
 
Consolidate Households:  It’s a little more of an Eastern philosophy, the notion of living in consolidated households.  But if you’ve got space in your house, it might be worthwhile consolidating your household with a sibling, parent, or friend in order to split expenses and bank some money.  Or do a room/board swap with someone in exchange for babysitting, or other household services like housekeeping or gardening - services you might be paying cash for right anyway.
 
Invest:  As crazy as it sounds, there is something to the notion that investing over time, slowly and steadily, wins the race.  Investing doesn’t have to be the crazy excess that we’ve seen in New York and what precipitated where we are now as a country.  Sound investment tools still exist. And even if all you do is utilize a pre-tax account and keep the money the cash part of the fund until you’re ready to dip your toe back in the water, you’re still capturing the tax savings.  If you were invested and lost a chunk of change this past week, buying additional investments at today’s lower prices will help you dollar-cost average over the long haul. 
 
Being strategic about how you navigate through the coming months will be an integral part of your family’s financial health.  And of course, keep on couponing and stockpiling, which gives you a huge leg up over many people right now when the average US grocery bill is about $800 a month!

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Tags: Barter, College, Economy, Finance, Garden, Invest, Investing, Money, Money Saving Tips, School
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If you planted a garden this past spring, you probably got to enjoy juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce, and crunchy cucumbers.  In an expensive summer of high food prices your garden probably saved you more than a few dollars. And with all the food recalls we keep hearing about, knowing your food came out of your own garden probably gave you a little peace of mind.

But if you got a late crop and have more produce than you can possibly eat before it spoils, there are some things you can do to preserve your hard work and enjoy the bounty from your garden well into the winter.

Check out this site from Oregon State University, it’s one of the best resources online for food preservation on the web.  You can even get support from their hotline through October at 800-354-7319. This site has facts to guide you through freezing, drying, canning, smoking, and pickling the fresh goods from your garden.  Another good site you can check out is PreserveFood.com.

Stretch the produce by mashing tomatoes to freeze for sauces; drying and bottling herbs for cooking; cutting up or pureeing squash for soup; or grating zucchini and freezing for breads and muffins.

You don’t have to be Martha Stewart to get the knack of preserving food.  And with a few must-have tools like a food dehydrator, some zip-seal bags, and a roll of freezer paper, you’ll capture the maximum value from your garden and save money this winter.

Get cookin’ with these easy recipes:

Layered Vegetable Pie

Spinach Salad Dressing

Easy Garden Bake (Bisquick Heart Healthy Recipie

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Tags: Cooking, Cooking & Kitchen Tips, Frugal Living, Produce, Recipie, Vegetable
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If you’re a mom, you’re probably reading this and enjoying a few moments of peace now that the kids are back in school.  Mine have been back for two weeks now and even with all the craziness of getting their lunches sacked and checking off the homework, it’s like heaven knowing they are safely ensconced back in the classroom.   That’s why it’s so hard to believe that it’s time to go back-to-school shopping….again!  No, I’m not crazy, but my best suggestion for saving money this week is to get you back in the store to shop for next year’s school supplies.  Here’s why….

The supply lists for the next grade up are still easily accessible.  If  you’re child just started 3rd grade, go back into the school and get the 4th grade list.  You’ll find in the next week all the things your student needs on that list are at least 50%-75% off.  A backpack at stores like Target and Kmart can be had for $5-$8 versus the $25 you just spent.  This time last year, I bought six lunchboxes for $2 each.  Safeway had lunchboxes marked at 75% off last night.

Office supply stores had less than stellar sales this fall which means they are sitting on extras of common supplies needed for all grade levels.  One word of advice as you shop next year’s list….don’t buy glue sticks ahead – they’ll be dried out before next fall!  Your average savings if you shop now for next year will be $50-$70 per student.  Think of all the great ways you can spend that money instead next summer!

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Tags: Office Depot, School, School Supplies, Shopping, Stockpile, Stockpiling
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If you feel like there’s a little nip in the air and fall breezes are stirring, you wouldn’t be alone. It’s getting downright chilly in my neck of the woods. But my favorite thing about fall isn’t the turning leaves…it’s the crazy sales at the grocery store where the top name brands don’t hold anything back.  If you have the room to stock up, now’s the time.

Leading off with September is the General Mills family of brands. Watch for 10 for $10 type sales. With the higher ingredient costs, many brands are willing to spend money on marketing to continue developing brand awareness, particularly as consumers are being driven to generics by the media as a cost-saving strategy at the store.

In the next two weeks, watch for the Quaker family of brands to be on sale.  Not only does this include oatmeal and chewy granola bars, but Quaker also owns Aunt Jemima pancake mixes and syrups.  This sale has already hit my area and these items are 10 for $15.  But with coupons from last Sunday’s newspapers and high value “peelie” coupons you might find in-store on the boxes, you can score these items for .50 cents each.  I bought 70 assorted boxes of breakfast bars, oatmeal and granola bars for $40 yesterday morning.  And with long shelf lives, that will keep us in oatmeal long after the price has jumped back up to $4.29 a box. It’s an even better deal on the pancake fixings, for which there are rarely coupons on the Aunt Jemima brand.  At $1.50 a box versus $4 or more, this is a great deal for stocking up.

The last of my favorite fall deals is the Campbell’s family of brands which include Prego, all the soup lines, and Gold Fish crackers to name a few.  Hints of soup sales are already happening – 10 cans of tomato and chicken noodle could be found last week for .50 cents a can - a teaser of the sales to come.  And this is the month that Campbell’s makes their coupons the most available.  There were coupons in last week’s paper and watch for more as we get closer to October.  Soups have a long shelf life, so buy what you can for the year while the prices are at their best.  It’s why I love fall – the real fall harvest isn’t in the garden….it’s in the pantry aisles at the grocery stores!

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Tags: Aunt Jemima, Breakfast Bars, Campbell's, Cereal, Coupon, Coupons, Gold Fish, Groceries, Grocery, Grocery Shopping, Oatmeal, Pancake Mix, Pepperidge Farm, Prego, Quaker, Sales Cycles, Soup, Stockpile, Syrup
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This is my favorite shopping season. I actually put aside money the rest of the year so that I’ll have extra to spend during the next few weeks. The reason? I know that last year’s clothes are marked down to their final clearance to make room for new fall fashions. I also know that loss leader school supplies are being offered now. And outdoor summer items—like patio furniture, plastic margarita stemware and barbecue tools—are now on sale for 60 percent off the regular price.

There’s a sales cycle for every month and every season. Members at Hotcouponworld.com have been tracking them for years. We know that January is the best time to stock up on cheap oatmeal; new skis are better bought in March; and October is one of the best months to buy a new car. Timing is everything: Knowing when to buy can yield incredible savings if you can hold off on your purchases and buy when the item is “in season.”

You can read more here to learn about sales cycles so you never miss a deal!

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Tags: Coupon, Groceries, Grocery, Grocery Shopping, Loss Leader, Sales, Sales Cycles, Stockpile
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If your favorite way to enjoy summer is grilling on the BBQ, don’t fret! You’re not relegated to endless nights of hamburgers and hot dogs because meat prices have gone crazy. In fact, there are all kinds of great deals out there to keep your grocery budget in line while enjoying gourmet delights on the grill.

Shop Early: Most stores have a policy about moving meat products quickly. Many butchers will immediately mark down yesterday’s meat before they start packaging for the day. The savings can be as high as 50 percent off the last marked price. If the meat was already on sale, the daily markdown savings can be as high as 75 percent off full retail!

Shop Late: Those morning markdowns are great, but most butchers would love to sell everything before going home at night. If there’s lots of meat in the case, I will routinely ask for a discount for taking large quantities home where I’ll further cut and wrap it myself. This is particularly true for bulk ground beef, which I’ve picked up for under 99 cents per pound as a reward for wiping out the entire case.

Buy bulk: Most meat departments have a cut/wrap free policy. If you buy the whole pork shoulder or rib roast rack, the store will cut it into the size and cut type you’d like. The savings can be as high as 40 to 60 percent higher than buying the smaller pack of the same item. Pre-marinate and freeze in zip-seal bags for later use.

Use a coupon: If your area stores offer coupons for $5 or $10 off a specific purchase amount, use them for buying meat, spending only up to the value required on the coupon. This gives you an additional 10 to 20 percent off your purchase.

Keep freezer supplies and a good knife on hand: You’d be amazed what you can do with a London broil on sale for $1.99 per pound. A four-pound piece can be easily turned into stir fry or fajita strips and stretch across five meals. Pork rib chops for $1.49 per pound can be braised, stuffed or sauced for a quick dinner. And beef ribs for 79 cents per pound can be served up with coleslaw, corn and watermelon for the perfect summer meal outside. And of course, there’s nothing wrong with the occasional burger or dog!

Any way you grill it, summer is a great time to cook outside, but it doesn’t have to bust your grocery budget.

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Tags: Barbeque, BBQ, Bulk Shopping, Grilling, Shopping Tips, Summer, Summer Grilling
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