Posted in Frugality

We have had some yuck going around our house this week. I am hoping we are in the tail end of it. DH is getting checked out as we speak. He had it the worse. Poor guy.
We have done ALOT of thrifty shopping last could of weeks. We go to thrift stores each Friday morning and yard sales each Saturday morning. It has been working out well for us. I have found so many things for such good prices. Our needs are constantly changing so this type of weekly shopping ensures we can hopefully find the things we are in need of. Dh said it was  hard to wash the 15 passenger van and had desired a pressure washer. Guess what we found? You got it and for $20, which is great for a gas powered one! It needed a spark plug and we are good to go. I'm still hunting for a high chair with the straps on it. I have 2 high chairs currently, neither have straps. Danielle is getting to be the age she is standing up in her chair since she isn't strapped in! And I can hear the air being sucked out of the room as you mothers read that, trust me it is not my first choice either of ways to entertain myself either. It is so dangerous. When she gets antsy like that one of us has to sit next to her during the meal or snack to ensure she stays seated. So, I am still hunting and I know that I will find it. :) Here are some pictures of our finds.....
New American Standard sink. This retails for $200 at Lowe's, we found it (and needed it SO badly!!) at the Kiwanis thrift store for $20...

If you kept up with my blog you know I was searching for a carpet sweeper. I had not really wanted to pay $30 and up for one. 2 days after posting that here is what I found at Goodwill for $3.50 and it works GREAT! :)


The girls showing off the newest addition to my Publix Pilgrim collection....napkin rings! I have 4 now, only 8 more to go! LOL These were a $1 for the 4. Notice Faith in the background STILL eating on her easter bunny!

I got these baby bottle baskets for $.25 each. I had 2 and I was filling those up in the dishwasher every day and then some. With Josiah in bottles and Danielle coming out of them but in a sippy cup (which has just as many small parts) I needed some more. Now I have 4 and I *hope* that is enough!

And some various artwork I got at one yard sale. She charged me $1 and $2 EACH for these, amazing! I was needing some for the "new" dining room, so it worked out great!






Maybe I will be able to get some pictures of the things we found THIS past weekend. We did awesome in a Gated Community Large Sale where all the families in the community had their own sale, there was a TON of sales! It worked out well for us. :)
God Bless,
Michele

Posted in Frugality

I have to say my life changed this week......we got a FREE dishwasher. We could not install it in our old 1970's cabinets because their size would not accomdate them. So we installed it next to the washer in the laundry room. Which is 2 feet from the kitchen sink. So it worked out great!
My life consisted of washing bottles constantly and never being caught up on dishes with 5 kids underfoot al day. Now.....my countertops are spotless!!!!! YEA!
I love my used FREE dishwasher. And I praise the LORD for blessing me with it! :)
God Bless,
Michele

Posted in Frugality

I found a solution to a problem that has been brewing for FIVE years now. Laurie knows what I'm talking about. The dang bench. LOL I have been desiring a bench for our dining room table for as long as Faith has been on this earth. Only hitch, I didnt want to buy new. Do you know how HARD it is to find a used or curbside bench for a dining table? Well......its nearly impossible. But yesterday I was presented with ONE of them! Then when I opened my eyes, I really saw about SIX of them. I found a nice leather topped one at a thrift store. Oh how pretty it was, perfect size......perfect perfect.......until we got to the price........$100! ACK! No thanks, I can buy a new one for LESS than that. At another thrift store I combed the furniture section once again, no benchs. Just lots of coffee tables. On my way out the store I glance in the window again as I am walking away and see TWO coffee tables. Long, narrow and umm......chair height. Hmmmmm I think to myself. But I was hungry so I continue on to lunch. Last stop of the day. I see no benches. I stop however at a tall, long, narrow coffee table. Marked $30. It ok looking. But for the first time I realize something about these 1960's tables I keep seeing.......that most have a 3 sets of legs. You know ..... most have 4 but these have another set in the MIDDLE. I am assuming cause they are so long and that was the design at the time. I ponder it. Madison picks up on my pondering and sits on it. Sturdy. Faithy joins her. Still sturdy. Then *I* sit on it with all my 238 pounds (I know I know I know!) and we all sit quietly and contently on this sturdy table. Legs do not wobble. We all fit, actually room for one more. Now I say outloud......is it tall enough? Madison without direction goes to the dining room section of the thrift store, pulls a dining room chair over to the table. SAME SIZE. SOLD!  We now have a bench! The wood tone did not match anything we had, so we decided to paint it black. $2 worth of paint later........well you tell me what you think.
Before....

After it was painted....

And in it's place of honor....

Now the journey is over. I am sure I will find something else to hunt down, LOL

Posted in Frugality

I had posted to a great blogger , Tammy about how I keep my dish liquid out but attractive. So here is my solution!
It is an olive oil dispenser from Wal Mart. It cost me around $3 and not only does it dress up my dish liquid but it has a hidden feature that I LOVE. It pours very slowly. So, no pouring tons of un-needed dish liquid into the sink from little hands. Attractive, functional and cost saving. Can't beat that! ~smile~

Posted in Frugality

Danielle's food that Grandma brings us comes in that those cute little containers. Never one to throw anything away, I have been keeping them. They were perfect for seving size of strawberries for pancakes or adding to yogurt. I also used them to freeze up serving size for seasoning of sauted celery. Still.....I was swimming in them! So tonight I put them to the best use yet. SPICE containers!!! Check out my new and organized spice rack.

You have to excuse the tag that says "Otehr sesonings". Madison my now 8 yo labeled things for me one day when she was 7, LOL Above that was a tag that said "musuring cups" LOL

Anyways,I think the little containers stack nicely and are in reach better than the hundreds of bottles! So like I said, it works for me!

Posted in Frugality

Ok so life got ahold of me and prevented me from posting pics and details of our grocery system! So sorry about that. I have pics of our pantry  for you, but the lists I will have to type out. We needed to change ours, so the first set has been tossed for a need modified version which has yet to be laminated or even printed out. But you will get our idea when you see our list. ~smile~
Here is the pantry, I labeled the picture to help out....

And here is our list that we are working on as a checklist. This is my 8 yo old DD Madison's job, so that is why it sometimes says, "Ask Mom" or "Ask Dad". ~smile~

Dry Pantry Inventory
Check levels of:
Mashed Taters
Rice
Pasta
Egg Noodles
All Purpose Flour
Wheat Flour
Bread Flour
Powdered Sugar
Brown Sugar
spaghetti
Dry Milk
Dog Food
Pinky Food

8 boxes of Mac n Cheese
2 boxes of Corn Flakes
Case of sliced potatoes
Case of Tomato Sauce
Case of Tomato Paste
Case of Diced Tomatoes
8 cans of evaporated milk
Half can or more of shortening
Half can or more of oats
12 packages of Ramen
4 sleeves of crackers
Half LARGE jar of peanut butter
Two boxes of Onion Soup Mix

One container of paper plates
2 rolls of paper towels
8 rolls of toilet paper
Trash bags (check with Dad)
12 Gallon zipper bags
12 Quart zipper bags
Dishliquid
2 bars of Ivory soap

Baby Shampoo
Shampoo
Conditioner
Bandaids
Perxiode
Rubbing Alcohol
Toothpaste

Have Mom check spices

We are still working on the list, as it's not complete yet. We are trying to shop for 2 weeks at a time. Even though DH gets paid once a week, this helps me have time "off" so to speak. Here is our Cold Pantry Inventory that is also under construction too....

Fridge Inventory

4 bags of Tortillas
6 boxes of butter
1 full container of mayo
2 large containers of yogurt
4 gallons of water
1 container of whipped cream - cool whip
1 flat of eggs

Check:
ketchup
salsa
soy sauce
worchestershire sauce
steak sauce
honey


Freezer Inventory

2 boxes of Fish sticks
2 bags of:
corn
peas
green beans
brocolli
mixed veggies
Ice cream
4 bags of hashbrowns
1 large bag of fries
1 box of hamburger patties

You will notice at times it says "check levels of" or say like "One jar of mayo". This isn't our shopping list. This is merely something to help me and Madison see what we have and what we will need. For the "levels" I took a black perm. marker and marked an 'low' level on those items. If the container is there or lower she knows we need more.
We are still adding items and when it is finalized I will post it. I am sure these amounts and items won't work for everyone. Everyone has their own favorite meals and dishes. Right now we are considering making sure the ingredients to the Duggar Family Ice Cream Cake is ALWAYS on there, LOL Our family loves it and a huge dish would maybe carry us a week for dessert time. Maybe a week, LOL
Hope this can help someone other than us! ~smile~

Posted in Frugality

That is the comment I got from the young cashier tonight at Save A Lot. She was talking about how I shopped. I had to tell her, it was our first trip with the new system. But it was working nicely!
Here is our system, it depends on all the family members for it to work.

Our jobs are as follows:
Mom - List maker and driver
Dad - One who makes the money for said food, occasional driver and large stuff putter awayer! LOL
Christian - Cart pusher, loader, unloader, heavy stuff lift-er
Madison - Inventory control, cart pusher, loader and unloader
Faith - Grocery Store Goffer and baby player with-er! LOL
Danielle - Entertainment!
Josiah (in utero) - Mama's pain in the butt pinch nerve entertainment!

Seriously, here is who is charge of the new system, me and Madison. We are the cooks and shoppers, so this is mainly our project. And here is our new system....
We took a look at the meals we like to have the most often and what they take to make them. From that we made our a pantry/freezer inventory. If these items are on hand at all times then we can make any meal we want without a huge amount of menu planning. I should say it more simply, staples staples staples! As long as the staples are there then whatever meat or produce is on sale will be fine. So, I made out a list of what we need to keep on hand in order for this to work for us. I laminated that list, handed it to Madison who is my pantry person. I stored bulk items in containers and marked them to show a "low" level so she would know when that bulk item needed to be replinshened (sp?). Other single items I put how much we need on hand. She now has her list. Shopping day comes and I send her to the pantry and freezer with her laminated list & dry erase marker. She comes back and shows me what is low or out. I have the list saved on my Word pad on my computer. It is just the items and no amounts. I open up Word pad twice. One I open a "new" doucment, in the other I open up my list. Taking her laminated list, I find the item on mine that is low or out, copy it and paste in the new document and then put in an amount. Takes me all of 5 minutes to make a massive list (our first trip).

Example of things we have on our constant staple list and the amounts:
10 pounds of all purpose flour
10 pounds of wheat flour
10 pounds of bread flour (we make all our breads)
8 pounds of "mama" mixed pasta (I take 2 one pound boxes of the 4 cheapest pasta - mac or rotini) and mix it up)
4 bags of tortillas (girls like turkey roll ups for lunch)

You get the idea. Now it sounds expensive. It's not. We are simple meal eaters. And with us eating leftovers ,soups and sandwiches for only 3 for 4 months out of the year (DH is on 2nd shift at the time and its just me & the girls mostly, so no real dinners) that helps. Right now I spend before this system $100 a week on food. Tonight I did 75% of my shopping for TWO weeks and I spent $63. I hope to spend another $37 and be done.....for 2 week. Even if I spend $150.....that is still $75 a week for us. And our pantry, freezer and fridge is overflowing. Save A Lot allows us to get the cheapest prices on our staples and never have to look for a sale. If you have an Aldi's in your area, it's the same. This free's up the budget for me to get sale meat and fresh produce. Those are the 2 biggest money suckers on a grocery budget anyways. If we eat whats on sale then that saves us. We buy our bulk items such as spices and flours at a local store called funny enough, The Bulk Store. We pay a small bit more but if I need 6 pound of flour I can get it. Also its higher quality of products. For just a few cents more. We use Wal Mart & Alberston's for our leftover items or sale items.
Our system is really good for us, but keep in mind we cook from scratch. The only boxed item you will find at our house is mac n cheese, only cause the girls can make it in the microwave for their lunch while Im chasing a baby. We make our breads in the bread machine. We make our own stuffing with our homemade bread. We make up our own rice and noodle dishes, gravies and so on. Yes, it takes time but its a HUGE money saver for us. Plus almost all of our staples have more than one use. For example the corn flakes is breakfast and coating for a baked chicken tender recipe and so on.
So....there me and the kids were. Cart full of staples at Save A Lot and the 17 year old cashier is looking at our list and our items. Ask us if we were "stocking" up. I gave her a much shorter version than I gave you of our new system. This is what prompted her comment. I then follow it with, "Now I never have to worry whats for dinner! There is always something in there that can be made." and she smiles and nods. And then says, "That works out good, since you have a crap load of kids!" ROFLLLLLLLLL Doh, it was almost a lightbulb moment ......... almost.
Tomorrow afternoon or evening I will post pictures of the pantry and lists! ~smile~

Posted in Frugality

Maybe I'm nuts. But I think I am going to attempt at sewing my own flat prefold diapers. I think it would be cheaper than buying the flat prefolds for $11 for 12 at Wal Mart. I thought I would use old flannel receiving blankets. As I see them at the children's store all the time for $.25 each. The insert needs to be terry cloth for the soaker strip and the rest flannel. While researching this online I read someone got flannel material from the $1 a yard spot in Wal Mart, I will have to check to see if I can do that as well. Now to figure out how many do I need for a one month old, hmmmmm?

Posted in Frugality

We found a set of bunk beds for the girls rooms. They have been having issues with sleeping and wanted to stay in the same room, but not in the same bed. With money being VERY tight we were happy to find at a new to us Children's Consignment store the beds for $60. We talked down the price since it was missing the twin mattress. We came out of there with a VERY good deal, too good to pass up. Take a look!
The girls had those horse blankets and rugs in storage, they looked really well with the beds so we used them! ~smile~
Like I said it was missing the top bunk mattress and we had no money for it now. So we told the girls they would have to share a bed for now. My son had a sectional couch in his room instead of a bed, his choice not MINE! LOL So with this purchase I made him remove it as it was really worn out and not comfortable. And gave him the girls full size bed. He had linens as well that already fit it, so he was happy. As we made the bottom bunk up I wondered how I could save money on a twin mattress. And then it dawned on me, the cushions from the sectional!! We took the cover off the foam inserts, used a electric carving knife and cut them up to fit on the top bunk. DH is getting a piece of plywood from work today for FREE and we will actually attach the foam to that as her mattress. Since the foam was used on the couch it is very dense, so it doesn't sink in when she lays on it. I used her old flowered full size sheet and wrapped it around the foam to make it look pretty. Topped with the single feather bed from my son's sectional, she said it was like sleeping on a cloud! All from free material, AMEN! Here she is enjoying her new bed. You can tell by the side of the bed how think it is and doesn't give at all when she lays on it.
I have some batting that was given to me in hopes that someday I would make a quilt (not happening! LOL) I have been saving it for something. So when we attach the foam to the plywood today I will wrap batting around it and staple it to make the "cracks" of the foam not noticeable. I am going to take the same flowered flat sheet and use it to upholster it. She can always add a twin sheet on top of to keep her "mattress" clean. ~smile~ All I can say is FREE FREE FREE!!!! The Lord is SO good!
Faithy's bunk came with a thin futon mattress. I put the full size heather bed on top and made it more comfortable, but not too much. After fixing Madison's bed I suggested to DH we could check the 'Curbside Mall' for sofa cushions to eventually make her the same sort of mattress. He agreed that we would keep our eyes open. I am a firm believer children REQUIRE the most comfortable sleep, it helps recharge their batteries for a day filled with new things and learning. So it is so important to me that their beds be the most comfortable it can be. This is why we always look for feather beds and down comforters at yard sales and thrift stores. A good night sleep is important for a growing child. ~smile~ This morning with this in mind I was really racking my brain to figure out a way to make her bed more comfortable when it came to me! We have a full size mattress in the camper for me & DH's bed in the back. It is too firm for us and we have already discussed replacing it asap before we camp out. It will fit her bed! And she really needs it to be firm! When I mentioned to my son this morning we needed to go move that in and we would have to figure out a mattress for the camper later he suggested that we use his mattress we just gave him each time we go camping. What a great idea! He reminded me its not hard to move and then he said, "Plus it saves you the money!" Can I tell you how blessed I am to have these children??? I thank the Lord everyday for them! ~big smile~ Here is Faithy cuddling on her new comfortable bed.....
Even though her bed folds into a couch, there was no need for that. It would require too much of her and Madison to pull it up and down each day. So we just made it up as a full size bed. And I am glad we did because Faith had issues about sleeping alone until her Daddy & I showed her she got a BIG bed to herself. Oh, she is so excited! She even let us turn the light out in the room (with a nightlight on of course! ~smile~)  last night cause she proclaimed, "I have the biggest bed, cause I am a big girl now!" What a blessing that was! No more her being frightened about being 'alone'. She used the potty this morning alone as well, I could not be more proud of her! ~smile~ Funny how a small thing like new beds will bring upon a change in a child, isn't it?
Once we bought the bunk beds and we were out getting a last minute Christmas gift I come to realize that when funds were there, the girls really needed a new computer desk. Their computers are in their room and used alot. They have an iMac each. One was a gift, another we picked up at a church sale for $25 (Amazing!). They also have a big stack of educational games that were gifts. My exMIL is a school teacher, and her school upgraded a few years ago from Macs to PC's. At the time they offered the computers and software for free to the teachers. No one wanted them but my clever exMIL knew it could be of great joy to our children and snatched it all up! So it has given them many many hours of joy to be able to do all the games, reading and such. ~smile~ Anyways, the iMac tends to be bulkly as they do not have a tower. It is all built into the monitor. So I was thinking of how cramped they were sharing a desk. So cramped that a mousepad each could not fit. We had to take one mousepad and cut it half for each girl. As I wandered through Wal Mart looking for the gift I thought, there has to be a way to get them a new desk for either cheap or free. I remembered we had a Rubbermaid extremely sturdy folding banquet table that was sorely under-used. BINGO! I also remembered the top had paint and such on it, that could not be scrubbed off. When I mentioned maybe putting a vinyl tablecloth on it my son suggested we take my staple gun and just cover the top with it! Great idea! But I could not find a tablecloth that would match for any less than $13 in the linen department. I told the girls we would just leave it until we could find one that was matching to their pink theme. I thought maybe we could find some cheap fabric to make due with. So off to the fabric department we went and sure enough in the $1 a yard section was a very pretty pink print! We bought 3 yards of it, grand total $3. I mentioned to my son that maybe we could go to the bath section and find a clear shower curtain for $5. The lady cutting the fabric ask what we needed the shower curtain for and I explained I wanted to make the table wipeable as it will have computers on it, drinks and so on. She went to the marked down bin next to the cutting table and handed me a large roll of upholstery clear plastic! She said it was normally $1.97 a yard but someone had decided they didnt want it after it was cut. There was 3 yards and it was marked down to $2.75!!! So our computer desk re-do now came to a grand total of $5.75! Check it out.....
We had enough fabric leftover to cover the missing backs to their shelves. We use the bottom shelves for clothes and the top shelves for display. Here is the 2 shelves stacked on top of each other (secured to the wall) with the leftover fabric behind it....
I think overall it looks really nice. We have some cute light blue fuzzy curtains and when DH gets home he said he will take down their closet doors and we will replace them with the curtains. I think we will also buy a roller shade for their window for privacy and to keep the sun out. ~smile~ Other than that, we did for next to nothing!!!
I will post more later about my son's room and a great curbsdie find. ~smile~
Blessings!

Posted in Frugality

As many of you know Josiah sent us to the ER on Friday night. He has burrowed his way down there, sitting ready to come out. I think someone should let him know, he has about 10 more weeks of "cooking" before its time! LOL I am thankful I am not dilated or having contractions. So for now, he is staying put. :)

In our quest to live very frugal I have found some wonderful new ideas! One of them came from a wonderful Blog named Tammy's Recipes. Her suggestion was to take your old socks and cut them up as cleaning or dishcloths! I had a basket of about hundred mismatched or unwanted socks from my big guys, so I was so happy to find this! I saved the nicer ones that are thicker terry inside, just cut off the cuff part and turned it inside out. Me and the girls Use these as dusting mitts. Works really well. :)
Another area I was trying to save money on was wipes. For personal hygiene reasons me and Faith both use wipes still. I like the clean feeling and she still has issues with wiping. I also use them on the little girl we care for, Danielle who is 9 months old. Right now I was buying a case every 10 days. Which was $7! Even the nicer expensive ones did not last as long. So here is what I did instead, our house was using only white washcloths. So I went to Dollar General and spent $8 on 36 new washcloths in different colors.....two colors for each bathroom. Pink & blue for the kids bathrooms, yellow & green for me & DH's bathroom. Then I took all the white washcloths and found me 2 tall large plastic containers I had got at Wal Mart for $.97 for the 2. These are now our wipes! I folded the washcloths in quarters. Then I mixed up some warm water with baby wash and a drop of baby oil. I poured this over the wipes until they were all soaked. Popped the lid on and put each container in its own bathroom. I took an 5 gallon bucket I had that I wasn't using and put it in the bottom of my bathroom closet. I put in more of my mixture and as well as a couple teaspoons of bleach and filled it half full of water. This where the dirty wipes go. When Josiah gets here I will take out the bleach and we will put his cloth diapers in here as well. When it gets full I just have the girls pull it into the laundry room and I dump it , water and all in the washer. I wash it on very hot water with some detergent and vinegar. I don't dry the cloths as it didn't make sense to me to dry them and then put them in the wipe container to get wet! LOL So I take them from the washer and fold and start again. Since starting to use these on Danielle I notice she has no more issues of diaper rash. She will occasionally get a heat rash on her bum, but I am tending to think its cause those disposable diapers don't breath well. I am thinking of switching her to cloth while she is at my house. I think this will elimnate her heat rash as well. She has very sensitive skin.
Anyways if you do the math, using these cloth saves me about $21 a month. Or here is a better figure.....$255.50 a YEAR. Mind boggling! We are squeezing out funds to buy more white cloths as we know when Josiah gets here we will need to have aleast 3 or 4 containers on hand. I am also looking for baby wash cloths as thrift stores and yard sales, as these are nice on the babies bums as well. If I can get them cheap enough I will add these for our "travel" wipes since they will fit in our saved Huggies travel containers alot better than the bigger wipes. With Danielle right now, I just take some in a gallon zip lock baggie. I have an grocery bag or two in the diaper bag as well for dirty ones. Works really well and it isnt as bulky as those hard wipe containers.
I figure between just those 2 frugal tips I have saved us a bit under $300 over a year. Which is 1/5th of our car insurance for both trucks! I will keep searching out ways to save even more! Any ideas , websites or tips would be greatly appericated! :)