As I may have already mentioned here, I’m moving to a new condo in a week. One of the issues I’ve been facing is furnishing the new place. I have more room so I need some new things. Also, my current furniture is mostly hand me downs that I got from my parents when I was much younger. It’s old and falling apart, and I’d like to buy a few new things. The challenge I’m facing is doing that while still maintaining some kind of budget.

Right from the start I knew there were a few big ticket items that I was going to have to buy and that I probably wasn’t going to find cheaply. One set of items was a washer and a dryer. The other was a sofa. These are items I hope to use for years and years, so I didn’t want to skimp. I also knew that I wanted something that wasn’t used. For some things that wouldn’t make a difference, but for these items it did, at least to me. Since I knew I was going to have to spend some money, my plan was to figure out how I could spend the least money and still get what I want. Here’s how I did that.

The first thing I did was search online. I looked at various furniture and appliance stores in the area and compared prices. I also asked around. I asked friends and co-workers where they’d bought their furniture and appliances and whether or not they thought they’d gotten a good deal. I also did some research on makes and models, so I had a pretty good idea of what brands were good and what were not.

Once I’d gathered my information, I window shopped a bit. Then, after that, I made my decision as to where I wanted to go. I chose Sears for the washer and dryer and Art Van for the sofa. Both had been recommended by several people and seemed to have good prices, according to my research.

At Sears I let the salesman know up front that I was on a budget. I didn’t tell him how much but I let him know I was looking for a good basic washer and dryer and that, as I was single, the appliances wouldn’t be getting extremely heavy use. I also asked about sales and closeouts. It turned out they had a washer and dryer set on closeout because both appliances had a small ding in the casing. It was barely noticeable, but that small ding saved me about $150 on each appliance. Because the appliances were on closeout, I was able to buy a nicer washer and dryer than I had expected, while paying the cost of a lower end model. Score one for me.

At Art Van, I headed directly for the Clearance Center. I knew, if there were bargains to be found, that’s where they’d be. Again I told the salesperson up front that I was on a budget and let him know that I was only looking for a sofa. I also let him know that I was only interested in Clearance items, which saved me being dragged through the whole store. We looked through the Clearance section, and I came upon a leather sofa that was originally almost $2,000. It had a small scratch and had been marked down to slightly over $600. Score another one for me.

If you’re looking to get the most value for your money there are a few things you should do. One is to always ask about discontinued models, closeouts and scratch and dents. Finding an item in one of those categories could save you a lot of money. You should also be on the lookout for hidden fees or the add on items that salespeople try to sell you. Just because they offer a special warranty or cleaning option doesn’t mean you have to buy it. If you don’t feel that you need it, or don’t see the value, just decline. Finally, do your research. Ask around and see who others in your community trust. Go online and compare prices. That way, when you do make your purchase, you’ll be armed with the knowledge you need to get the best deal.

With the help of our readers, I am putting together a list of some of your favorite cleaning tips. Is baking soda one of your favorites or maybe vinegar? Maybe just a good vacuuming makes your house look fresh and clean. Maybe it’s a homemade air sanitizer. Whatever your favorite cleaning tip is, we would love to hear it.

To enter our giveaway: please enter your favorite cleaning tip in the comments section below. One entry per person. The contest will end at midnight on August 22, 2008. Winner will be announced Saturday morning, August 23, 2008.

What do you win: Dana at Old Red Barn Co. was happy to provide these handmade, all natural bath and body care essentials. Their handmade sugar scrubs and goat milk soaps are made with all natural vegetable oils and they smell absolutely wonderful. I’m so glad I got a chance to see some of their products and would highly recommend them.

If you would like more information about their products, please visit Old Red Barn Co.

Good luck and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave us a comment.

Is your house perfectly clean? Is your car spotless? Do you always look like you just stepped out of the pages of a magazine? Do your kids always behave like model citizens in every situation?

Of course not. And that is ok.

So often we get depressed and frustrated because we want everything to be “perfect” even though we know that it is physically impossible. When we accept the fact that the house does not have to be perfect and neither do we and our children we can look around and find satisfaction in what we have accomplished. There might still be some work to be done but we can see the progress we’re making and we can appreciate the fact that our efforts are making a difference.

I use my crock pot a lot.  Not just because it’s quick and easy but because the meat just comes out nice and tender.  Pepperoncini beef sandwiches is one of the favorites in our household.

• 3-5 lbs Rump Roast
• 1 jar of Pepperoncini Peppers (Remove stems)
• Vienna Buns
• Butter

Put rump roast in crock pot.  Add pepperoncini peppers.  Pour a little juice over roast.  My husband doesn’t like it very spicy.  If your family is the same, then just add half a jar of peppers and little bit of the pepperoncini juice.  Just enough to cover the bottom and about the same amount of water.  Cook on low for about 8 hours or until meat is done and easy to shred.  Shred meat.

Prepare vienna buns.  I like to spread a little butter on each side of the buns and put in the oven for a bit. Just long enough to melt butter and so buns are warm and soft.

Put meat in buns and there you have a quick and easy meal for your family. 

Enjoy!

We’re welcoming one of my little sisters, the Muse from Musings, Chocolate and Tea, to our writing team. She is a college student and will be contributing a couple of times a month (more as her study schedule allows). We appreciate the new perspective!

We all know that the most frugal way to have lunch away from home is to pack it, but that’s not always possible.Sometimes the alarm doesn’t go off and you have to be out the door in 5 minutes.Or maybe the dog is throwing up and must be cared for. Could be you’ll be on the run all day, and whatever you pack in with your books would be smashed beyond recognition by lunch time (this one is me). But food is very important for sustaining productive, non-grumpy life, so what do you do? Do you go to fast food and buy unhealthy, fattening, mass produced food (can you tell I don’tl ike fast food)? Do you go to a sit down restaurant and get better food but pay twice as much? Do you stop at the gas station and buy a hot dog? I have found a better option - the grocery store.

Seriously, I have found that the best place to get a good meal on a budget is frequently the nearest grocery store. Many have a small deli section with freshly prepared sandwiches and small salads. These usually cost about the same as a fast food burger, but are filled with fresh veggies instead of grease.

For a side dish, head on over to the produce section. There you’ll find all sorts of fresh fruit: peaches, apples, plums, oranges, and more. I can get a nice juicy nectarine for a fraction of the price of an order of fries. There are also baby carrots, precut broccoli florets, and fresh tomatoes.

You’ll find more varieties of beverage than the standard fast food joint too. The dairy case almost always contains a selection of single serving bottles of plain, strawberry, and chocolate milks. I’ve even seen banana and vanilla on occasion. Sometimes there are also yogurt drinks – these could serve as small meals in themselves. Small bottles of orange juice are also available for a reasonable price. Other juices can usually be found, but are likely to cost 3 times as much. Chilled soda and energy drinks are usually available in either small refrigerators near the register or vending machines outside.

If the grocery store you land in lacks a deli, there are still myriad possibilities. For example you could buy the smallest bag of rolls available and a pack of pre-sliced cheese. Bread and cheese is delicious, but there is usually a fair variety of small packs of deli meats too if you want more. Crackers and a healthy dip are also a simple choice. The produce section frequently has bagged salad kits; these are usually a bit large for one person, but are quite tasty.

I have learned to keep a small knife and a box of plastic silverware on hand (usually in my glovebox). This creates even more possibilities. I don’t have to stick with pre-sliced cheeses. If I’m buying bread and cheese, I can cut my tomato into slices and add them to my sandwich. I also buy yogurt sometimes and could get those cottage cheese and fruit things they have.

I can go to the grocery store and spend the same or less than I would at a fast food joint, but I get more food and less queasiness after eating it. It has also, in my experience, frequently been faster.

When most people think of the benefits of healthy eating, they think about the obvious ones. Healthy eating helps you lose weight. It can, in some cases, slow or reverse the effects of aging. Healthy eating can help you avoid sickness and, in some cases, can help detoxify your system. There are clearly a lot of benefits to maintaining a healthy diet, but one category of benefits that people often miss is this: healthy eating can help keep your bank account healthy too.

At first glance it doesn’t really seem like there’s any connection between healthy eating and a healthy bank balance, but the two are connected in more ways than you think. Although buying fresh produce and healthy foods may cost a bit more at the grocery, it will certainly help you save in other areas. Here are just a few ways that healthy eating can help you save money.

Healthy eating helps you maintain a healthy weight - Overweight people have far more instances of health problems than those who maintain a controlled weight. People who weight is within the recommended range for their height and age have less instances of bone and joint problems and less instances of hypertension and diabetes. Less health problems means less trips to the doctor.

Healthy eating helps you control health issues - If you do have health issues like hypertension, high cholesterol or diabetes, healthy eating can help you control or, in some cases, erase these problems. Using diet to manage these health issues means you won’t have to pay for pills or doctor visits.

Healthy eating can help you save on health insurance - Many health insurance companies now issue lower premiums to customers who maintain a healthy weight, eat right and exercise. Being able to take advantage of these lower premiums could save you hundreds of dollars a year.

Healthy eating is often cheaper than buying processed food - Produce and other healthy foods may, at first glance, seem more expensive, but they’re really not. A ten pound bag of potatoes will last a lot longer than a box of instant mashed potatoes. Fresh vegetables will be more flavorful than their frozen counterparts, and probably have less additives. Most cities and towns also have Farmer’s Markets, where fresh vegetables can be purchased directly from the growers, at prices that are cheaper than those in the stores.

Of course the biggest benefit of healthy eating is that it will help you be more healthy and have less medical issues. For those people who want to enjoy their money, and their lives, that may be the biggest benefit of all.

This picture shows what we’ve already picked up for my middle little sister. Total value here is around $130 dollars, total spent is around $35 plus $25 of spend it or loose it money in an HSA.

Here’s the breakdown:

All the first aid supplies - I had an HSA at my last job. It was one of the kind where you had to use all the funds by January 31st of the next year or you lost the funds. Because I had a baby in 2007 we had been very careful to save our HSA money and not use it in case we needed it for the birth of the baby. As things worked out I was double insured when Lil Sugar was born and ended up owing less than $200. This left us with around $1000 in our HSA that had to be used. As I got to a couple of days before my deadline I still had a couple hundred dollars in the account because my husband had been unable to make his eye doctor appointment so I went shopping at CVS and Walgreens and put first-aid supplies together for all three of my sisters with part of the money. They are all starving college students so this is a practical gift. It is also over and above what we would normally do. Since we wouldn’t let them reimburse us for these things we decided to make them our contribution to their Christmas stockings because for our family the Christmas stockings are just as fun as opening presents on Christmas Eve! We normally end up with overstuffed stockings that we’ve gone a little overboard on and I normally spend around $10 on my contribution to my sister’s stockings. Also I realized it after I put the camera away but for her stocking we also have a miniture frame that is a dog collar, this sister loves dogs and has one of her own so the picture frame is my personal touch for her stocking. I looked for deals and coupons and saved some on the first aid supplies but not as much as I could have if I’d spent a few more weeks gathering them. I’m not really sure what the original value on the first aid stuff comes to but I ended spending around $25 of that HSA money and then the miniature picture frame was originally $6 and I paid $1.50 for it.

The skirt was originally $38 and that is when I first saw it - when they were full price. I knew it was something she would love so I watched and eventually it went on sale and then on clearance and was marked down to $21.99 and then one day all the clearance items were 1/2 price so I was able to pick it up for $11.

The shirt came from a thrift store - it is a Merona, and is a style that this sister would really like and it is charcoal gray which will match the skirt perfect and not be another black shirt. I would guess that at a store it’s original price would be between $20 and $30. The shirt is in perfect, like new condition and was marked $3.19 at the thrift store, I bought it on 1/2 price day for $1.60

The picture frame is a Gund frame featuring bears and it says “My Sister, My Friend”. This sister loves and collects bears too - so I try to always find a bear something to give her. I found this frame at Tuesday Morning, original retail on it was $18.99 and I bought it for $5.

The last thing is the butcher block cutting board. I found it at Home Depot (of all places…) original price was $45 and I was able to pick this up for $15. All of my sisters are wanting to start collecting things they will need when they move out and this particular sister is already living away from home during the school year and really enjoys cooking so this is the perfect gift for her.

Item by Item - here’s how it comes out:

1. Dog Picture Frame Value $6, Cost $1.50
2. Plaid Skirt Value $38, Cost $11
3. Merona Shirt Value $20, Cost $1.60
4. Bear Picture Frame Value $19, Cost $5
5. Cutting Board Value $45, Cost $15

• Total Value $128
• Total Cost $34.10
• First Aid Supplies Cost $25 of Spend it or Loose It Money & save me $8.50 of what I would have spent on stocking stuffers.

Remember this is for her birthday which is in Mid-December and for Christmas.

For her birthday she’ll get the bear picture frame and the outfit, for Christmas she’ll get the cutting board and since I’m way below my “budgeted” amount for her gifts - which if you’ll remember from my first post on this subject is $40 a holiday I’ll splurge a bit and find her a knife to go with the cutting board at Christmas, even though I’m already way above my “budgeted” value for her gifts. I expect that I’ll be able to find a nice all purpose knife on sale at Kohl’s or Tuesday Morning for around $10. That’s the nice thing about shopping this way - you can do more than you would normally do and still spend less.

Also just for reference - my oldest little sister, who reads this blog so I won’t be putting a breakdown of her Christmas and Birthday presents here is also almost taken care of - her Christmas present has a value of around $25 and I paid $5 for it, brand new in the box at a garage sale. I’m still trying to decide what I’ll do to go with it. Also her birthday presents have a combined value of close to $80 and I’ve spent less than $15 and I’m done with her birthday. I still have to decide what to do for her “personal touch” in her stocking this year but she’s easy - I have lots of ideas for that!

My baby sister is a lot pickier and a lot harder to buy for, but I’ve got a start on her as well. Her stocking is done because she is lactose intolerant so while I was buying first aid stuff I picked up a box of lactaid for her because she uses it a lot and it gets expensive so I bought her the biggest box I could find. It isn’t “neat” but will be very appreciated. She also has a skirt like the one I’ve got for this sister it’s just in a different color scheme. I haven’t decided yet what to do for her Christmas but I have a few ideas, and she has lots of suggestions!

Next week I’ll talk about buying for kids early in response to a question I was asked last week. It is harder, but it can be done and I’ll try to explain my methods for you.

So, what do you think? Would buying for the adults in your life like this work for you?

At its most basic saving is about not spending money. After all, if you don’t spend money you still have it and can put it away and save it until you do find something which you want to buy. If you save your money regularly and are wise about your spending, you can get a lot more for your money than you might otherwise have gotten. This is particularly true if you analyze every purchase from the perspective of return on investment (ROI).

For those who don’t know, ROI is simply the measurement of what you get back for the money you spend. Sometimes ROI is pretty straightforward. I have five dollars. I buy five apples. I now have five snacks which will satisfy my hunger. In those cases the decision to buy or not to buy is pretty simple. If I’m hungry and I like apples, I buy apples. If I’m not hungry or I like bananas better than apples, I make a different choice.

Other times calculating ROI can be a little more difficult. Let me give you an example. I pay about a hundred ad twenty dollars a month for cable television, high speed Internet and phone service. At first glance that sounds like a lot. I am going to try to reduce that amount by following the advice Jody gave in her post on how to save on cable, but we’ll leave that for another time and another post.

Although the amount might seem like a lot, when I look at the return on my investment, it really isn’t such a bad deal. Prior to bundling my phone in with my cable and Internet, I was paying about $50 dollars a month for a service I didn’t use all that much. Buying the phone as part of a package through the cable company reduced my monthly cost, and got me a host of free features, like voice mail, that were not available through my other plan.

Next let’s talk about television. It’s true I don’t watch a lot of television, but there are some programs I do enjoy. Cable allows me to see programs I couldn’t get on my local stations. I can also tape exercise shows, eliminating the need for exercise videos. Cooking shows introduce me to new healthy recipes. I reduce my video rental because I can catch movies on television. So having cable, even if I watch it very little, does help me save money on other things.

Finally, we have the Internet. This is where the investment really pays off. I write for this blog you’re reading right now. I have two other blogs of my own. I also am an partner in the Small Business Forum. There are other projects in the works as well. Having high speed Internet allows me to work on all these online projects without wasting time, and allows me to make the connections that bring these sorts of projects into being. Thanks to the Internet, my earning prospects are no longer limited to my physical location. I am now working to make money in a variety of places online, and my earning potential has risen dramatically.

When you examine your purchases and spending with an eye toward ROI you may make different decisions about how and why you will spend your money. The trick is to look at all aspects of what you get for your money, not just the ones that are visible at first glance. If you can do that, you’ll be able to make a wise choice and get the most benefit from the money you spend.

I love shopping Walgreens and CVS and they both normally run great sales each week. However, there are weeks that there isn’t much on my list. Not because they aren’t good deals but because I’m not going to buy something I know I won’t use just because it’s on sale. Even if it is just $1.00. Sure I can give those items away but those dollars add up. If it is something that ends up being free I will go ahead and purchase and give to someone I know will use it.

Energizer batteries - My hunter needs these for his trail cam.
On sale: $ 2.99
Coupon: $ 1.00
I purchased $16 worth of batteries.
Purchase $15 of batteries and get $5.00 extra bucks back.

Skin Effects
Price: $6.99
Get $5.00 extra care bucks back.

CVS Makeup remover: $ 4.49 (not on sale - I’m so ashamed.)

I had $3.00 in coupons.
$2.00 CVS online coupon from Southern Savers.
$10 in extra bucks from the week before.

My total price came to $14.03 out of pocket.
Extra care bucks received back: $14.00 - (2) $5.00 extra bucks and a $4 off purchase of $20 or more.

You can also visit Money Saving Mom for some other great ways to save.

If any of you are confused with ways to save or have questions in general, please feel free to leave a comment here and I will post a reply.  You can also email me at jody (at) afrugalhousewife (dot) com.

Have a wonderful day!

I hardly ever get 8 hours of sleep a night - I know I need to and I try to but something always comes up that keeps me up all night - usually it’s that I didn’t get enough work done through the day so once Lil Sugar goes to sleep for the night I have to finish up a whole bunch of work. This past week was really bad - 3 hours Monday night, 6 hours Tuesday night, 3 hours Wednesday night, 3 hours Thursday night and I’m writing this on Friday night while I wait for the dryer to finish so that I can switch the laundry and we can have clean clothes in the morning so I’ll probably get 6 or 7 hours tonight. That simply isn’t enough sleep and I can tell that I’m overtired - I’m grumpier, I’m not thinking as clearly and anytime I quit moving I just about fall asleep.

Hubby and I talked about it Thursday and from now on the deal is that I can work as late as I need to one night a week. The goal is to eventually not work late at night at all but for now if we can cut it back to one night a week we’ll be making progress! And, I will be calmer, more at peace and more in control of my emotions - that means I’ll have a firmer grasp on my sanity! I’m not sure how this new plan is going to work yet - but something has to change for me so I’m going to do my best to make it work.

What about you? How much sleep do you need and are you getting enough sleep?