Recent Frugal Efforts.

We received our tax return and put it all into savings.

I completed a survey from a Fred Meyer receipt for some fuel points.

I emailed Fred Meyer asking if they changed their recipe on some yogurt because it's been sour lately, and they mailed a $10 off coupon.

I put away the space heater and continually turn down the thermostat when my husband has it up too high.

My job search didn't go well, but I ended up getting a new position at the same company with a raise. That starts next week. Once I see what my new paycheck will be I can allocate the new funds to reach different savings goals.

I received some products free or cheap in an exchange for an honest review. Some of these are dress up things for part of my son's Christmas present, things for my coloring hobby, and a few household items that will make life in general easier to manage.

I met one of my newer neighbors, and we'll be getting grass fed beef from them in the Fall at a great price compared to stores. We'll be getting fresh eggs from them too at a good price, and we can buy just what we need so none go to waste. They even said in the Fall we could help ourselves to their orchard fruit because the trees produce too much for them. And they let my son chase after their goats and chickens. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. He even got to hold one of the chickens! I'll have to think of a way to thank them for their kindness.

The weather has been warming up. My husband put more air in the stroller tires so the little one and I can go for morning walks. Over the weekend we went down to the creek for the first time.

We're trying to be more mindful about leftovers and things in the fridge. I've been writing down our dinners on the calendar in the kitchen to aid me in my meal plan quest. We're buying less food so we can use up what we already have.

I got a refurbished Kitchen Aid mixer, and it will end up paying for itself soon enough. I'll make breads, waffles, muffins, oatmeal and raisin cookies and....I don't even know. I need to do more research on all the amazing things it can do.

My husband buys coffee every work day, and to minimize this expense he has agreed to bring coffee if he got an insulated stainless steel travel mug and a good grinder. We're in the process of this change. I'm waiting for the fancy grinder to drop in price. Until this change becomes a habit I need to remind myself to clean his mug and re-time the coffee maker so it's ready when he races out the door for work. We work different shifts so this will be fun to learn to manage.

I scored various free and cheap chocolate. I took an 18 count box of candy bars to work to share. I'll be bringing the free 5lb Hershey's bar to my new coworkers next week. Some of the other chocolate I kept for my secret mommy stash. Others I'll use for gifts. At this point my brother will receive a huge Amazon box of miscellaneous chocolate and snacks (that were free or cheap!). He'll love it.

I'm reading free Kindle books thanks to my library and Amazon slow ship credits.

I unsubscribed from a site that posted a lot of deals on Amazon. I love this site. Although I did save a lot of money I don't need that site right now. I'm stocked up on diapers, wipes, toddler snacks, soap, toys, and food stuff. I can always check it in a few months when I need more diapers. I'll be using the time I spent on this site on sites that encourage minimalism, simplicity, and good personal finance skills. (note on this "time" - it's the random moments when I'm trying to get the toddler to sleep or when I'm at work during a slow day or sometimes at night when I'm trying to unwind from a no good very bad day)


What did you do to save money recently?

May Goals

I have a good feeling. I have a handle on my current school workload. I unsubscribed my time from things that are not important to me right now. It might be the fresh air getting to me! I am learning to manage my time well. I should start small so I don't overwhelm myself, but I have a good feeling, and I want to run with it. Here are my goals for the month of May:

Cleaning/Organizing:

• Take down the toddler fort.
• Find and recycle toddler's paperwork and coupons he occasionally plays with.
• Put all toys in the right places. (I'm looking at you play food in the backpack)
• Go through both drawers of my armoire.
• Figure out a set cleaning schedule.
• Make using my planner a habit. (to do list, meal planning, bills, etc.)
• Declutter at least 100 items.
• Go through my coupon stash.

Crafting/Creating:

• Make two Mother's Day cards.
• Make two birdseed wreaths.

Blogging:

• Weekly Frugal Effort posts.
• Weekly Moment of Pause posts.
• More posts in general.

Meal Planning:

• Continue writing dinners down on the kitchen calendar.
• Eat down the pantry and freezers.

Miscellaneous:

• Order prints of son and husband to decorate my new work desk. I'll be taking the old ones home to put on the wall.
• Go outside at least once on each day off.
• Start journaling again.

What are your goals for this new month?

Recent Decluttering Efforts.

There is just so much stuff. When you look around your house and really take notice of every. single. thing. you and your family/roommates/whomever own it's just unbelievable. And it's only one household! There are millions of Americans with homes like yours. How much stuff do they have?

One of my current quests is to declutter my home. It has been a work in progress for awhile, but I have a renewed vigor to get it done. Here is a list of some things I've decluttered. Since tomorrow is a new month I'll be doing monthly declutter posts to hold myself accountable and to hopefully inspire.

So...here's my list of things that I can remember:

4 packages of papertowels

8 packages of toilet paper

2 drinking glasses

1 coffee mug

3 toddler plates

1 white board eraser

3+ dry erase markers

1 hoard of paperwork the toddler played with for awhile

5 baby books

1 coffee grinder

1 strainer

1 sippy cup

1 face wash

12 cans of 5+ year expired frosting (omg embarassing!)

1 garbage bag of 5+ year expired frozen things from the freezer (oh, the guilt!)

What have you decluttered lately?

Recent Frugal Efforts

I printed a page with shapes and colored them in for a makeshift shape and color poster for my son's wall.

I bought two kindle books that I've been wanting for a long time with the free digital credits I got from Amazon.

I took the survey on the Fred Meyer receipt for fuel points.

We went to the library and brought home a stack of books and DVDs for the little one. He immediately spent an hour stacking and sorting them all. I already requested more books for next week.

I reviewed items I got for free or at discounted prices from AMZ Review Trader. It's a website where sellers approve your request to review their products on Amazon. Some things I've gotten are a compost bin, toys, LED light bulbs, watercolor pencils, and more. They have food, clothes, etc. items are always added because sellers are always looking for honest reviews. Tip: I choose slow shipping for these items so I get a $1 digital credit to use to buy ebooks or shows on Amazon Prime.

I went on a job interview, and I'm applying to several jobs that pay more. They say if you want a raise you need to get a new job. (so true...)

I checked out some ebooks for free from my library's website.

My son got a play kitchen for Christmas, but some of the hardware was stripped. I emailed the company directly, and they sent me replacement hardware for free. What great service. My son was thrilled with his kitchen and plays with it everyday.

Moments of Pause #1

I took this when outside with my toddler recently. The ground was wet after a steady rainfall. Little flowers were starting to pop out of the soft ground. The air smelled clean and fresh. He pointed gleefully at the little flowers when he first laid eye on them.

How often do you just go outside and look at the ground?

March Goals and Beyond.

It's a new month! I took some time to "brain dump" some ideas on where I want to take this blog, and if I wanted to continue. The consensus: Yes! I want to take this blog and make it my home, my creative outlet. I want to take my readers on my journey to simple living, financial freedom, and a healthy-ish lifestyle.

It's easy to get lost in the busyness of life and lose sight of what is important. So I wrote out a list of topics I want to cover, and the list keeps growing. Some of the things you can soon look forward to:

• Frugal efforts. I enjoy sharing the ways I try to save money. I also spend a lot of time on the internet reading ideas from other people. I'd love to do it weekly and have readers comfortable enough to share their ideas too.
• Frugal fails. I'm not perfect. I think it's important to show that sometimes things do go wrong. It's okay to laugh and to learn from mistakes.
• Meal planning. It's still a struggle. I think part of the issue is that I haven't found a system that works for me. 
• Decluttering efforts. I wish I could say my home is completely minimized down to essentials, but it's not. I'm a full time working mom of a toddler and a full time college student so I have to take it slow or it won't get done at all. I'll post my small decluttering wins.
• Money saving tips. I love reading personal finance blogs and forums. I love saving money. I want to share some of the best tips I stumble across with you.
• Streamlining. I want to make my family's lives and my life as simple and easy as possible to manage...and live, so I'll share tips that work for me.
• Minimal celebrations. It would be exhausting to go all Pinterest for every birthday, holiday, and special occasion. So I'd like to share some special ways to celebrate without spending a lot of time and focusing on stuff. I'd rather have memories than stuff, you know?
• Simple living tips. This goes along with streamlining, but I'd like to share some tips that will help slow down your life so you can spend your time doing what you want to do.
• Low cost stress relief. I'll share ways to relieve stress that are free or low cost. And fun.
• Moments of pause. I'll share pictures I've taken as I go about life. It's important to slow down and really see and admire the world around you.

I look forward to an inspirational year of blogging and a slower lifestyle. Thank you for reading!

What are your goals for March?

Last Week's Frugal Efforts

I reused some wrapping paper for my husband's Valentine's Day gift. (a stack of blank playing cards for 56 reasons why I love him that I got free thanks to a Swagbucks gift card.)

I purchased a used drying rack from the Amazon warehouse so I still get the great "warranty" in case something is wrong with it. I tried it out, and it works pretty good. I'm hoping it gets easier as the weather warms up. I'm shooting for a dramatic decrease in my power bill.

We turned the thermostat down by 1 degree, which is amazing because  my husband is dead set on a certain number.

I brought my toddler's uneaten leftovers to work for lunch so it wasn't wasted.

I unplugged three landline phones and a lamp that we don't use.

I started using Bing and InstaGC more frequently so I can use those earned gift certificates for upcoming gift occasions.

My son and I made some Valentine's Day crafts using scrap paper. We made paper chains, necklaces, bracelets, and pink snowflakes. He had so much fun. :)

We were finally able to return our Comcast modem because we bought our own, which is a savings of $10 a month.

What have you done to save money recently?