by BlondieWrites on March 15, 2010
Frugal Tips to Shrink Your Grocery Bill

Frugal Tips to Shrink Your Grocery Bill (Plus Recipes!) offers helpful money saving tips that will cut your grocery bill. Who doesn’t want to and need to save money in these hard financial times? Find out how to save money on groceries with this frugal tips ebook. Also included are some delicious frugal recipes.

Popularity: 1% [?]

by BlondieWrites on March 14, 2010
Freezer Cooking Made Simple
Where to Buy:
http://www.frugalology.com/freezercooking
Also Available:
Crockpot Cooking Made Simple
Meal Planning Made Simple
The Hillbilly Housewife Recipe Collection
About Freezier Cooking Made Simple
Description: This ebook is filled with all the information necessary to learn how to freeze foods and make those dollars stretch. With information such as how to get started, what items you need, what foods freeze well and foods that don’t quite cut it when it comes to freezing, this eBook tells it all. Worksheets, printable labels and even a few quick and easy recipes are included to get you started with healthier meals when living on a tighter budget.
Review: As a mother, wife and just all around caretaker of my home I needed to find something that would take less time and save me money in the kitchen. I went looking for ideas and found many that seemed to be the answer. Most of them I found to be more time consuming than anything. Then, I came upon this ebook.
Freezing foods makes sense in all aspects. It’s amazing how in just one afternoon you can have a freezer full of healthy foods to feed your family for a month. This ebook will show you how. It’s easy to understand, has all the facts you need to know and will give you the answers to any questions you may have.
Freezer Cooking Made Simple is set up so that even the newly married can find what she needs. It explains why freezing foods can save you money and time. It talks about what you need in the way of equipment, how to shop for foods and how to cook these foods.
There is a section that explains how to safely store your freezer meals including labels to help you remember exactly what you have and how to reheat it. Susanne has included a printable shopping list along with a worksheet to help plan your meals on a weekly and monthly basis. Best of all, there are even a few recipes added to get you started.
If you’re looking for a way to save money and time in the kitchen, I strongly urge you to take a look at Freezer Cooking Made Simple. Once you read through it, put it into motion immediately. You will see that this is a very simple and easy way to make those hours in the kitchen count. Shopping, cooking and freezing foods aren’t as hard as many of us believe. Give it a chance and you will find the answer you’ve been looking for all along.
Article written by Susanne Myers of HillbillyHousewife.com
Popularity: 1% [?]

by BlondieWrites on February 24, 2010
There are a lot of things to think about when there’s a baby on the way. You’ve got to come up with the perfect name for your little bundle of joy. You have to line up childcare when it’s time to go back to work, or make plans to stay home with the baby. There are clothes, diapers and supplies to buy. And there’s a nursery to decorate.
Decorating the nursery is a favorite part of new baby preparations for many parents. Until it’s done, you just don’t feel like you’re ready to welcome your child into the world. So many moms- and dads-to-be go all out, buying expensive designer cribs, bedding and décor. But if you’re on a tight budget, that’s money that could be better spent on more practical things.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t decorate your baby’s room in style, though. It just means you’ll need to go about it a little differently. Here are some tips.
* If there’s a certain motif you want to use in the nursery, create a baby registry and make sure that your shower organizer lets invitees know where you’re registered. That way guests will be likely to purchase the items you’ve selected in that motif. But keep in mind that if you choose a lot of expensive items, you might not get them, because your guests may be on a budget too.
* Don’t get your heart set on doing everything in a certain motif. If you don’t get all of the things you want at your shower, you might have to go with something else. If you get some of the items you wanted, however, perhaps you can buy the rest in a color that co-ordinates with them.
* Make some of the items for the nursery yourself. You could buy some fabric featuring the characters you want to feature in the nursery and make all sorts of things out of it. Curtains and blankets are easy if you have a sewing machine. You could also make decoupage wall hangings by cutting the characters out of the fabric and using Mod Podge to adhere them to a piece of wood, then top with another coat of it. And framed pages from children’s books or calendars also make lovely wall art.
* Visit consignment shops, flea markets and yard sales. You can often find great deals on gently used nursery items at these places.
* Go to outlet stores, or shop from the outlet section of your favorite online baby store. There are spectacular deals on new items to be found here. Some might have minor flaws, but in many cases they’ve simply been discontinued by the manufacturer.
Decorating your nursery on the cheap doesn’t mean it won’t be beautiful. With a little creativity, you can make it look just as wonderful as it would if you had spared no expense. And best of all, you’ll have more money to spend on diapers, formula, and those adorable baby clothes!
Popularity: 1% [?]

by BlondieWrites on January 30, 2010
by BlondieWrites on January 30, 2010
by BlondieWrites on January 19, 2010
Free Printable Grocery Coupons
Why wait for the Sunday paper? Print free coupons anytime! Free printable coupons save money at the grocery store.

Popularity: 3% [?]

by BlondieWrites on January 14, 2010
Tighwad Group, Come Join!
I’ve recently been granted to take over the Tightwad group, a long time Yahoo tightwad living group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tightwad
The group’s owner had disappeared long ago, leaving the group to spammers posting yucky stuff. I have deleted a lot of messages and hopefully got rid of all the nasty ones.
We are wanting to jump start the group again, bring it back to life, to what it was intended for… tightwad tips, frugal living, budgeting, freebies, and coupons. So I am asking my readers here to join up and share their freebies, tightwad tips, frugal recipes, coupons, etc. Basically any and everything that pertains to tightwad living.
The group posts are moderated to keep the icky spam out.
So come on and join and spread the word to your friends!
Tightwad
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tightwad
Popularity: 2% [?]

by BlondieWrites on December 2, 2009
When you’re on a tight budget, going to the grocery store might bring about a sense of impending doom. Feeding yourself and your family can be quite expensive. But there are many ways to save money. Here are some tips that anyone can use to slash their food bill.
* Plan your meals for the week before you go to the grocery store. If you go in with no idea of what you will be eating, it’s hard to buy the right amount and types of food. You will either come out of the store with too much or not enough. Buying too much food means you’ll spend more than you should have, while not buying enough will make more trips to the store necessary. So write down what you will prepare for each meal, and make your list from that.
* Add snacks to your list. Make sure they are things that your family will actually eat, and realistically figure up how much of them you will need. If you fail to do this, you could end up buying a lot of unnecessary junk food.
* Stick to what’s on your list. This is a rule with few exceptions. If you get to the store and see a great unadvertised sale on something that you use frequently, go ahead and stock up. Otherwise, buy only what you’ve written down. If you’ve properly planned your weekly menu and based your list on it, you won’t need anything else. (On a related note, always eat before you go to the store. If you’re hungry, you’re more likely to buy things you don’t need.)
* Cook in bulk, and use the leftovers to make different dishes. For example, if you roast a chicken, you could use what’s left after dinner is over to make soup, chicken and rice, or some other dish. Alternatively, you could cook meals in large batches and freeze them in individual portions to eat later. Either of these techniques will yield several meals at a low cost.
* Combine coupons with sales to get items you will use at very low prices. When you get your hands on a valuable coupon, scour the papers to see if any local store has the item on sale. As long as it has a long shelf life, it doesn’t matter if you’ll use it right away or not.
Simply shopping smarter can save you lots of money on food each week. So don’t go in the store with no list and no idea what you actually need. Plan ahead, and keep your budget in mind. By following these simple guidelines, you can spend your money on the right things and avoid ending up with a cart full of expensive junk.
Popularity: 3% [?]

by BlondieWrites on November 2, 2009
When it comes to saving money, the most important thing we can do is change our spending habits. We often buy things we don’t need, and that can throw our budgets off track. By reigning in our spending, we can have more money to pay down debts, buy the things we really need, and put some in savings.
But even when you’re buying the bare minimum, there are still ways you can save money. You can look for sales on the things you need. In some cases, you can buy second hand. And you can often find coupons that will save you money.
When we think of coupons, we often think of saving money on groceries. And there are lots of grocery coupons to be found. But you can also find coupons for health and beauty items, clothes, electronics and much more. Here are some tips for finding coupons that will save you lots of money.
* Check the Sunday paper. Most newspapers include an insert full of coupons in their publications every Sunday. These are usually for groceries, but you may also find coupons for other things you need around the house, and occasionally even for clothes and other items.
* Look in the magazines you read. It’s rare that magazines have coupons in them that save you enough money to negate the cost of the magazine itself, so don’t go buying up a bunch of magazines you won’t read just for the coupons. But if you enjoy a magazine anyway, pick up a copy or order a subscription. Look carefully for coupons soon after you get it so that you don’t miss the expiry date.
* Visit coupon printing websites. Sites such as Coupons.com and SmartSource.com offer coupons that you can print straight from your computer. You just choose the ones you will use and click the “Print” button. You may have to install some software that controls the number of coupons you can print, but this rarely takes more than a few seconds. Make sure that your printer is on and has paper and ink in it before you try to print, because you may not get another chance.
* Visit the websites of manufacturers and your favorite stores. They often feature coupons that you can print and use offline.
* When shopping online, seek out coupon codes. Sometimes they are placed prominently on the merchant’s website. If not, there are lots of websites that post coupon codes for various merchants. A Google search for the merchant’s name plus the words “coupon codes” should point you in the right direction.
There are plenty of coupons to be found if you just know where to look. Check out these coupons sources before you shop, and you could save quite a bit of money. And if you’re lucky enough to find a sale on an item you’ve got a coupon for, you could save even more!
Popularity: 1% [?]

by BlondieWrites on November 2, 2009
Travel has a reputation for being expensive. And it certainly can be if you feel it necessary to go first-class all the way. But it’s also possible to travel on a budget. You just have to be vigilant about finding the best prices on everything.
Here are some tips that will allow you to travel without spending a small fortune.
* Find the best deals on flights, hotels and car rentals. Sites like LastMinute.com and Travelocity.com are great for finding deals on these travel essentials. But it’s also a good idea to check with individual airlines and hotels, too. Sometimes they offer deals that you won’t find on such sites.
* Consider traveling by train. It’s less expensive than flying, and you’ll experience fewer security delays. The biggest disadvantage is that it will take you longer to get where you’re going.
* When traveling to a foreign country, do some research on exchange rates. Your best bet is usually to withdraw money from your bank account at an ATM, but different ATMs offer different exchange rates. You’ll also pay some fees to the bank that owns the ATM, and probably your bank as well. Try to find out how much these fees are in advance so you’ll be prepared.
* Consider a traveler’s cheque card. These cards are not linked to your bank account and will be replaced if they are lost or stolen. You’ll have to pay an issuance fee, but withdrawal fees are often lower than those charged by banks.
* Avoid eating in restaurants for every meal. Most hotels include a breakfast of some sort with a room rental, so you can take advantage of that in the morning. If you can get a room with a kitchen, you can cook your own lunch and dinner. Or you could take along some bread and sandwich meat and pack picnic lunches.
* Take vacations in the off-season. If you’re going to a theme park with a small child, for example, plan your trip for the spring or fall. If you check with the ticket office, you’ll often find that admission is discounted. And the school-aged children will be in school, so it will also be much less crowded.
* Consider vacation packages. Travel agencies offer packages that include travel, accommodations, car rental, admission to popular attractions and more for one low price. Some packages even come with gift certificates to restaurants and shops, so you can eat and get souvenirs at no additional charge.
If you’re on a tight budget, travel might seem out of reach. But if you are willing to spend some time finding the best deals, you might be surprised at what you can afford.
Popularity: 1% [?]
