Many of you will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at your house this year. It doesn’t take long to figure out that this feast can break your food budget.  Here are some tips to help you to spend less and hang on to that money for upcoming Christmas expenses. Prepare the foods yourself.  Don’t go out to the ham store and order a precooked ham or turkey.  I’ve heard of some people paying $30-40 for a precooked ham.  Yikes! Shop the pre-Thanksgiving sales.  Some stores offer tremendous weekly specials to lure you in.  Look for buy 1 get 1 free specials on vegetables, potatoes, stuffing, and frozen pies.  When the turkey and sweet potatoes hit rock bottom prices, go ahead and buy those too.  Make sure you freeze the turkey... [Read more]

Sunday I attended a baby shower and they had some really cute pacifier favors and pink confetti decorating the table.  I thought the pacifier favors were so cute (and inexpensive) that I had to share them with you.  These are made using white peppermint lifesavers, mini jelly beans, melted white chocolate, and ribbon.  Directions: Unwrap your peppermint lifesavers and set aside. Precut your ribbon and set aside. (You can use your craft store coupons to save money on ribbon.)  The ribbon should be about four inches long.  Melt the chocolate.  Put a little dab of melted chocolate in the center of some of the peppermints.  You should do this on the back side of the peppermint so that the words Life Savers does not show up on top of the... [Read more]

Triple coupons started today at Harris Teeter.  This is an exciting time for couponers.  It’s a time to stock up on free or almost free groceries.  It’s a great way to feed our families, reduce our budgets, or use the money saved for another purchase.  My coupon binder is so unorganized right now.  I haven’t clipped coupons in about a month.  This morning I spent about 30 minutes looking through coupons and clipping coupons.  Not a bad investment of time for the money saved. Here’s a look at what I got today.  I spent about $21 but saved around $53.  That’s a savings of about 70% which is right on target for my triple coupon deals. Heinz ketchup 32 oz $2.69 10/4 SS $.75 = $.44 *Smaller sizes are available... [Read more]

We’ve officially been in our new home for two months now.  We’re pretty settled and it feels like home, however, we’re still working on finding a place for everything.  Today I tweeted saying, “Putting away more stuff and organizing a little more.  Will we ever be totally unpacked?”. Finding a place for everything is definitely a challenge.  Another challenge we have faced is affording the organization supplies that we need. Here are some tips for saving. 1)  Plan out your purchases.  This month we bought closet organizers.  Next month, I’m hoping to purchase some shelving for one of the closets.  An extra $30 doesn’t hit as hard as the $150 you’d like to spend. 2)  Improvise until you... [Read more]

I can’t help but confess that I feel a bit hypocritical writing this post.  It’s because my inbox is always so filled with emails.  Right now I have over 700 emails.  Some days I think I need a secretary.  Since I can’t afford a secretary, I’ve decided I need to do some things to get a handle on all this inbox clutter.  It is time consuming and it needs to stop.  Here’s a few tips I have thought of to simplify our lives and receive less emails. 1)  Unsubscribe from unsolicited newsletters.  Somehow I am receiving several newsletters that I am certain I did not request.  Most of them have an unsubscribe button at the bottom of the newsletter.  If unsubscribing doesn’t work, then block the sender. 2) ... [Read more]