The Best Popcorn EVER... Cheap, Easy

I usually blog about heavier issues, but I really wanted to share with you all a light-hearted entry with a frugal recipe. A few months ago my dear doctor, the best doctor in the world, told me I needed to cut back on salt due to some blood pressure issues I have. Problem is, I love salty crunchy snacks. Love 'em! When I looked on the nutritional breakdown of the average bag of microwave popcorn, I realized that 390mg of sodium per serving (which is about 1/3 of a bag) was too much for me to take in. So I dug around online and realized that I could make my own microwave popcorn for a fraction of the sodium and price of the pre-packaged popcorn.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup popping corn
1 brown paper lunch bag

Method:
Put 1/3c popcorn into lunch bag. Fold over the end of the bag twice (with very narrow folds). Hit "Popcorn" button on the microwave (or heat at full power approximately 2 - 3 minutes). When popcorn is done, dump into a large bowl and drizzle with butter or any other kind of topping you wish.

Now I have a very low sodium tasty cheap treat. What could be better?

I have taught my kids how to make it, and now my teen daughter is famous among her friends for making the best popcorn in the world.

"If only we were rich..."

Over the course of my 22+ years of married life, my husband and I have had our share of money worries. A person can know in her mind the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25 yet still have some struggles - battles of the mind - when it comes to personal finances.

I remember one time when my children were very young when I had a huge battle of the mind over "things". I was visiting garage sales in a very nice subdivision. The best places to buy baby and toddler clothing are garage sales, as the kids tend to outgrow the clothing long before they out-wear them. One beautiful summer morning, as I was visiting the garage sales, I found myself looking at the lovely hillside homes, and feeling ashamed of where I lived. I thought, "These people have spent more on landscaping costs than we spent on our mortgage!"

Normally real estate is not something that impresses me. In my years B.C. (before children) I was a tax assessor for six years, and a real estate appraiser for a local bank for four years. I had seen nearly 300 homes per year for my job, so you can imagine that after a while, all the magic and wonder of homes is pretty much gone. Not so on this particular day. I knew in my heart the ugliness of my sin and it shocked me.

What sin? Number 10 of the Ten Commandments - You shall not covet your neighbor's house (among other things).

Covetousness is an ugly sin. Well, actually, all sin is ugly, but some sins are easier to justify than others, but that's another post. Envying what others have, whether it is their home, their job, their husband, their family, their stuff is basically saying in heart that God has not provided for you. That He has failed in providing for you. It's true, life seems to be the result of choices made, but Proverbs 16:9 and 20:24 indicate that we can plan all we want, but God directs our steps. He promises to provide all our needs, and He can only be faithful.

In shame, I confessed my sin before God. How could I accuse Him of not providing for us? My children were healthy, my marriage was wonderful, and we had never, ever gone without any basic necessity of life. In fact, God had always graciously given many extra blessings to us over the years.

Covetousness is common to mankind. I was surprised to read today in Albert Mohler's blog that many millionaires in Silicon Valley worry about not having enough. You can read the article here.

How many of us have cast stones in our hearts at "the rich"? That is envy, and I've seen it among rich and poor, however you choose to define those terms. Yet apparently the financially rich, too, worry about the future and not having enough. A telling quote from the article is below:

Another Silicon Valley millionaire admitted the reality: "Here, the top 1 percent chases the top one-tenth of 1 percent, and the top one-tenth of 1 percent chases the top one-one-hundredth of 1 percent . . . . You try not to get caught up in it, but it's hard not to."

All that does is show me that we are all one in heart. How much is enough? I know from experience that being content with what one has is a great benefit, but it does take a lot of self control to keep one's mind on things above, with gratefulness. How are you doing with that today?

Frugal Friday Tip: Free Internet Filter For Your Family

Here's my Frugal Friday Tip -

We recently joined the high speed internet revolution... yeah, I know. It's 2007.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for my dear ones to stumble upon inappropriate content. :-(

In my search for filters to keep the kiddos safe, I found this EXCELLENT free download called K-9 Web Protection. What it does is filter at the server level, and you can set the filter to block certain web pages, certain types of web pages, key words, etc. It also logs every visit to every website. I have found it to be really handy.

Another aspect I love about K9 is that I can set hours when the internet may be accessed. The rest of the time it is blocked, and only accessible with an administrator password. My computers are locked down from 10:30PM until 9AM daily. If I get "lip" from my kids, I shut down the net until their attitudes change. Maybe you don't have this with your kids, so just disregard if that's the case. I find this really handy if I can't be around to monitor usage. I can see where this would also be great if parents need to be away from home, and aren't sure if their sitters or kids' friends have the same surfing values as they do.

You can set parameters so that if someone is trying to access blocked sites repeatedly, the internet access is shut down for a set amount of time.

Personally speaking, I have blocked all of youtube, myspace, google video and facebook. I figure if the kids really want to see something they can flag me down and I'll allow the site while I watch it with 'em. I know many are fans of youtube, but I got an eyeful of really inappropriate images just by looking at the youtube main page... the previews can be very racy, to say the least. Not great for our young guys who are trying to honor God in their thought lives.

K9 has really helped keep the kids on the right track in terms of careful surfing. Nothing's perfect, but it does help a lot, and it's free and very user-friendly.

Here's the link for more information:
K 9 Free Web Protection

That's my Frugal Friday tip... can't get more frugal than free, can ya? *smile*

Kitchen Tips - Who Knew?

I found a little treasure online... Hormel Foods has a Kitchen Tips page that is LOADED with great ideas. Do you need to know how to soften rock-hard brown sugar? Or the secret to removing the core from a head of lettuce? How about finding out where the best placement is in your oven for baking cakes and cookies?

You will find all these tips and more in one handy spot. Thank you, Hormel.

Cutting Costs on Book Buying

We love books. Er, I should say, *I* love books. I have learned that a great way to cut my book costs is to try to find whatever it is I think I need at the local library first. I am a very fast reader, so to buy books is somewhat counter-intuitive. It is really silly for me to buy cook books, for instance, because I can find any recipe I want online in about 5 seconds using Google.

If I feel I must buy a book, I check my favorite online book price comparison site, AddAll. You can compare book prices using titles, authors, or ISBN numbers. It is pretty neat. I have found that Overstock.com typically beats out Amazon in prices for books, but I always check around.

If you're OK with buying used, then check eBay or Half.com. Great deals there!

If you're a homeschooler, then the best place to find great curriculum for great prices are the following:
Farm Country General Store
Rainbow Resource
Rock Solid Inc.

For magazine subscriptions, check eBay first. I have been amazed at the deals they offer on subscriptions. Just be sure to read the fine print, and buy from a seller with a 99% positive feedback. Better yet, get the magazines from the library, then you don't have to throw them away.

Ahhhhh... so many books, so few bookshelves. If you must buy books, buy smart and do your homework.

How We Cut Costs Part 3 Cars

We've been married for 21 years. Guess how many car loans we've had? Zero. Naturally, it helps to be married to a "car guy", but we committed to only buying a car for which we could pay cash before we got married and we've stuck to it. We have driven some really UGLY cars, but to us it was worth more for me to be able to stay home with the kids than to be paying a couple of car payments each month.

Our most recent purchase was actually mostly free. Some dear friends blew the engine in their very nice mini van. The van was paid-for, and the husband was planning on having it towed to the junk yard when my husband found out about it. We looked at the van - it is lovely! Our friends gave us the van for free. It had a new transmission, and the only thing wrong with it was the engine. Our neighborhood mechanic got a rebuilt engine for $3000 and put it in for us. Now we are driving a van with no payments (we had money in reserve for the engine).

If you do have car payments, and are having a hard time making ends meet, do a little math. Add up your monthly payment, plus auto insurance, and get that total. Then check the Kelley Blue Book to research the value of your car compared to what you owe on it. Is it worth selling the car? Wouldn't it be great to have that extra couple hundred dollars each month?

Buying used cars isn't as scarey as some people think. The over-riding fear is, "What if the car breaks down?" Well, if you would switch over to driving a car which is paid for, and save the difference in what you would have been paying out in car payments, you would have a nice car emergency fund without debt.

For more information check out Dave Ramsey's article, Why Buy A Used Car?

I know without a doubt that if my husband and I had two car payments, I wouldn't have been able to stay home with the kiddos as they grew up.

What are your vehicles worth to you?

How We Cut Costs Part 2 Food Finances

I like being frugal, although many women are much more frugal than I am. I just can’t convince myself that washing out baggies or separating the plies of toilet paper are worth the aggravation for the amount of money one might save.

The Dollar Stretcher has a load of great advice on how to cut your family’s monthly expenses. Not everyone will be willing to do what others do. We do spend money on things other families wouldn’t consider to be priorities, but the secret to living well within one’s means is to spend money on things that matter, after you’ve researched for the best values.

Grocery Shopping

One of our greatest expenses, with five children, is… you guessed it, groceries.

Key ways to save money grocery shopping are to:
1) Go alone.
2) Go after you’ve eaten a meal.
3) Go at a time when the store will not be crowded.
4) Shop with a list and stick to the list.

For what it’s worth, I don’t fit into the typical homeschool mom caricature in most people’s minds. I don’t bake my own bread, or sew my own clothing, or have a vegetable garden, however, I have found ways to feed my family well on very little money.

I typically grocery shop once a week. The day before I go shopping, I create a dinner menu for the upcoming week, making note of various activities and what it would make sense to prepare and eat on any given day. ( For instance, on days when my daughter has a basketball game, I plan for having something going into the crockpot in the morning, or plan on serving sub sandwiches.) Then I look in my pantry to see what things may need replenishing, or what things I may need to buy for the various meals on my menu. When I create the shopping list, I try to list items in order of aisle placement… this just makes it easier for me to stay on track.

I have found that the best place for us to buy 90% of our groceries is at Aldi. The quality of their products is fabulous, and the prices are sometimes half of what I’d pay even at Wal Mart.

Aldi has excellent grocery items, such as breakfast cereals, coffee (seriously, the bagged coffee is as good as Starbuck’s!), and spaghetti sauce. Their Tandil brand of laundry detergent cleans every bit as well as Tide, but for half the cost. Their boxed cereal is only $1.69 each, as opposed to over $3 for the name brand cereal. I get everything at Aldi except deodorant, some health supplies, and my beloved Stouffer’s Lasagne.

If you don’t have an Aldi nearby, then consider a little trick my friend Colleen taught me.

On Sunday morning, look through all the newspaper sales ads from the local grocery stores. Circle the things you plan on buying, create your shopping list, then take all the ads to your nearby Super Walmart and get everything there. Our Walmart has a price-matching policy – they will match any competitor’s price.


Fast Food Quickly Drains Your Budget

I am so glad my little town doesn’t have a fast food place. It is so easy to just hit the drive through and grab a couple happy kid meals for the little ones. If a family does this once a week for a year, then for 2 children to have 1 kid’s meal per week, it costs $312.

Many people who work outside of the home don’t realize how much money they throw down weekly on those quick lunches or lattes’. Don’t get me wrong – I love fast food, and love a great coffee drink even more. But moderation is the key. If you only buy one $5 lunch out during your work week, you’ll be spending $260 annually for what? Plan ahead and take a lunch from home. It’ll be better for your health, and better for your budget. Save that money and buy that gas grill you always wanted, or a weekend away from the kids.

How We Cut Costs Part 1

Many people have asked me how our family manages to "make it" on my husband's salary. It's not that his salary is low, but more that we have a somewhat large family and survive on only one income.

Here are a few of my tips, for anyone who thinks they might be helpful.

Shop Around

Don't just comparison shop for groceries. Comparison shop for telephone service, cable or satellite TV, all your insurance, or any major purchase. My husband calls around for car parts and tires. I search online for the best deals for things such as beauty products, clothing, books, and even lighting fixtures. You would be amazed at how much money you can save simply by shopping on eBay.

Shop Around For Insurance
Perhaps one of the biggest areas of cost savings is in insurance. I am of the opinion that everyone needs to have some life insurance. Those who have children need to be insured for an amount equal to eight to ten times their annual income, until the children are out of the home. Term insurance is the very best way to go. Shop around online, but do your homework first. A good place to start would be with Dave Ramsey's information, The Truth About Life Insurance.

Do the same process for all your insurance needs, including health, auto, and home insurance. It is worth the time and hassle. Keep your information in a notebook for easy reference, with the insurance company name, phone number, and other pertinent policy information. Look for insurance brokers in your area.

Loyalty is for real-life friends, not insurance companies. Be wise with your family's money, and shop around.

Shop Around for Cell Phone Service
Take a close look at what you're paying monthly for your cell phone, if you have one. Do you use it a lot for important things, or is it more of a convenience thing? Consider getting pre-paid cell service. I've been using a Tracfone for about 6 years, and have been very happy with the value. I will say, though, that the only time my cell phone is even on is when I am not at home. 30 minutes will last me two months... I am not a cell phone yakky person at all.

If you feel you must have a cell phone, then the next time your current plan is up for expiration, check around at what other cell plans are available to you. You will be surprised at how much money you can shave off your monthly cell bill by shopping around.

Shop Around For Beauty Products Online
Are you a Mary Kay girl? Do you like Estee Lauder or Clinique? Have you shopped on QVC or HSN for Bare Escentuals or other makeup and skincare lines? Next time you run out of product, check eBay for what you need. You will most likely be able to purchase your favorite products for about half of what you had been paying.

Shop Around For TV Service
We had Dishnetwork for many years and were very pleased with the service. Once we moved to our current location, we found that we could get local digital cable for less than Dish, and our monthly payments were put into the cooperative for future capital credits, which will be reimbursed in future years.

Compare Dishnetwork to DirecTV and your local cable. Consider how much you really watch TV, and if it is something very important to your family. Also, consider getting TiVo service. We have loved this, because we can record things then fast forward past commercials, which are often times the worst part of any given show. Don't buy a TiVo box - go directly to the TiVo website and see what they offer. Most likely you will receive the box with no up-front costs, and pay the monthly service fee.

Certain Bargains At Certain Times Of The Year

Most of you know that after Christmas many places offer their Christmas decorations, etc., for half to 75% off regular price. Now is the time to shop for next year's Christmas gifts for some of the people on your gift list. Check out this website for Christmas clearance shopping tips.

January is typically "white sale" time. Now is the time to buy your sheets, towels, and soforth. Before you buy local, check eBay for what you want.

The end of February is the time when our local department stores such as Kohl's and JC Penney have amazing clearance prices. This is the time to buy jeans and coats for next year for the kids.

The end of July is the time to pick up summer clearance clothing and goods. I wait until Kohl's and JC Penney start running their "75% off clearance prices" sales. I love to buy jewelry at this time, to save for Christmas gifts of girlfriends.

Tomorrow I'll share how I cut our food bill by about 40% by switching where I shopped.