This month I received an unexpected check. It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was enough that I was able to give each of my children some cash to purchase summer clothing.
It is customary for us to head to a thrift store to so we can get the most bang for our buck, but this time, it was unanimous that we head to our closest outlet mall so they could shop for new clothing. This was a huge hit! We also saw firsthand that, when your children understand the value of a dollar, they make wise choices and appreciate each financial blessing.
The 10 Things That Saved Us The Most Money
Our family has been on the road to debt freedom for a very long time. In fact, it has been so long that I can no longer remember when it all started. But looking back over the years, I thought it could be helpful to share a list of the things that helped our family save the most money. These are ways that we continue to use to save money on a daily basis and are listed in no particular order.
1 – Berkey Water Filtration System
Purchasing this system required us to save a little each month until we could afford the model that we believed would work the best for our family. Although it cost us approximately $550, it has more than paid for itself over the years.
Continue reading “The 10 Things That Saved Us The Most Money”Frugal Christmas – Our Story
Throughout our years together, Mr. SF and I have lived a rather frugal life. But once we were blessed with children we had to learn how to make our money stretch even further.
We had all the regular bills, housing, utilities, food, transportation and on top of all of that lots of medical bills, so when it came to Christmas, I had to be creative. I wanted to make sure we focused on the true meaning of the season in a very budget friendly way.
Now that my kids are older, Christmas looks a bit different, but we still enjoy many of the ways that I wrote about in my book, Frugal Seeds Christmas Edition, 101 Ways to Celebrate the Holiday Season on a Budget.
You can buy it on Amazon or read it FREE with Kindle Unlimited.
October Pantry Stock-Up for $20 or less
This month I headed over to Meijer to see what I could find to stock up on for our family.
I would like to first mention that I have randomly chosen stores and did not seek out items on sale to purchase. Instead, I looked for foods that my family eats on a regular basis and, if it happened to be on sale, it was a bonus. I also did not use coupons on any items that I purchased. The reason I have chosen to do these monthly stock-ups this way is because I wanted to see what people could purchase without doing any planning. Life is busy, people are stressed, and having to worry about stocking up on food does not need to be another stressor. So, when I was out running errands and I (1) happened to have $20.00 in my purse and (2) I was near a grocery store and had time to run in, then I did a monthly stock-up. If you haven’t already, please check out our August and September stock up posts.
I was happy to see that Meijer was having a 10 for $10 sale, with the 11th item free on a lot of canned goods.
October’s score included the following:
2 disinfecting wipes $3.99 each – total $7.98
2 garbanzo beans $1.00 each – total $2.00
1 northern beans $1.00 each – total $1.00
6 black beans $1.00 each – total $10.00
3 peach slices $1.00 each – total $3.00
All canned goods that I purchased were part of the 10 for 10 sale, 11th one free, so I also received one of the canned goods free.
Tax was $0.56
Total for all 14 items was $19.54
Two more months left to in the $20 pantry stock-up challenge and we would love to have you join us.
Have you been able to fortify your pantry? Please take a moment to let us know what you’ve found in the comment section.
How to set up a pantry
In the last blog post, we discussed the reasons you should have a pantry. I think we made a rather compelling argument for the importance of having a “deep pantry” (food that is set back in case of an emergency), so in this post we will discuss the 11 ways to go about setting up a deep pantry for your household.
Continue reading “How to set up a pantry”You are already paying for it – use it!
What is it that, at least here in the U.S., you are already paying for and, in my opinion, is one of the most underutlilized resources for saving money?
Your local library!
I worked for a large library system for two years and now live in a small mid-western town where I use our library frequently. Even after all that experience, it still surprises me what can be found at a library. What amazes me even more is that most people don’t have any idea just how much is available at no cost, beyond any taxes you’ve already paid, of course.
By merely walking into a library, you probably wouldn’t be aware of even half the possibilities. It can take some time to truly learn what all they have through exploration, research, and talking to the library staff. To help you save time and, hopefully, some money, I wanted to share what is available to my family and neighbors at our local branch so you’ll have an idea what you may be missing.
Continue reading “You are already paying for it – use it!”Celebrating Christmas on a Budget
Budget. That is not a word that most people like to use when they discuss their holiday plans. Our society constantly shows us that the holidays are meant for excess in every single way; gifts, meals, celebrations, excursions, decorations, desserts and adult beverages just to name a few.
We have come to a point in our society that we need to step back and take a good look at why we are taking a religious holiday and turning into a circus. The holy days are such a beautiful time in the year and can be enjoyed while creating wonderful memories, even on a budget.
While raising our kids, we have always been on a budget, trying to dig ourselves out of medical debt and now our mortgage. So, over the years, I’ve needed to be creative and come up with ways to enjoy the season without breaking the bank.
I have shared many of the ways that we celebrated the Christmas season with our family in our new book, “Frugal Seeds Christmas Edition: 101 Ways to Celebrate the Holiday Season on a Budget”. It is available on Amazon in both paperback and ebook and can be read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited.
Wishing you a happy and budget friendly holiday season.
Baby Step #6 – Pay Off the House Early
In our last post, we discussed baby step #5 and mentioned how steps 4, 5 and 6 are to be worked on simultaneously. And, that it is our humble opinion, steps 4 (investing 15%) and 6 should take precedent over saving for your children’s college (step #5).
Now, on to the debate that every single personal finance blog has touched on at least once; do you pay off your home early or invest more money? Which one will be better, financially speaking, in the long run. There are a ridiculous number of variables to consider: Do you plan on staying in your home long term? What is the interest rate of your mortgage? How much is your home worth? How much principal do you have remaining to pay off? What return do you expect on your investments? How soon do you plan to retire? What do you anticipate the rate of inflation will be? It’s enough to make you dizzy.
How Much is Really Enough?
This week we continue our commentary with baby step 3, which is to save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund. We absolutely agree that you should have a fully funded emergency fund. However, if you are already dealing with extenuating circumstances, or you are a one income family, we believe six months is really the minimum you should consider having in reserve before moving on to the next step; depending on your circumstances, a year may be more appropriate. Just think about how fast this summer has flown by; Memorial Day seems like it just happened, and yet we’re only a couple of weeks away from Labor Day… that span is just over 90 days, or three months. I can’t imagine how fast it would seem if we were in the midst of a financial crisis and were eating through our emergency reserves.
To reiterate, we’re not in disagreement as to the point of this step, or its order in the process. We just think that those of us who have more going on would be well advised to take a bit more time to build a bigger cushion before moving on to ensure we are able to weather our brand of storm.
Snowball Versus Avalanche
Recently, we shared our perspective on the first baby step. As you might have guessed, we aren’t in lockstep with Dave on Step 2 either. While we agree that, after having enough saved up for an emergency, tackling debt is the next logical step, we’re not rigid adherents to the debt snowball process. If you are reading this post, it’s probably safe to assume you have heard this term numerous times but, just to be sure, the process is to pay off your debts working from the smallest balance to the largest.
First things first. If you owe the government any money, you should strongly consider taking care of this first and as soon as possible. Owing the government is not something to be taken lightly as any government — be it federal, state or local — has the power to completely alter your life, and in some cases destroy it. Clearly, this is priority one. To be clear, it may not be necessary to get such liabilities paid in full immediately (i.e. you may be able to work out a payment plan), you definitely want to never miss a payment, especially if you’ve worked out a special plan.