I love summer holidays. Memorial Day and Labor Day are bookends to the summer and the 4th of July falls smack dab in the middle. Besides celebrating our country, the 4th of July can be a great frugal holiday. There are many free things to do for the 4th.

• City Fireworks Displays – our city has its annual fireworks at the end of a week-long carnival on the Sunday before the 4th of July. It’s a great opportunity to get together with friends. The kids run around, we bring snacks to share, and it is all free! There are usually several options for fireworks displays (depending on where you live). Often the newspaper will list the fireworks displays in the surrounding areas.

• Parades - many towns have parades to celebrate the 4th. Although we don’t have one here, I remember watching (and participating) in parades when I was a kid. It’s fun to line along the road watching all the groups marching through. My favorites were always the marching bands and the shriners.

• Cookouts with Family/Friends – we usually celebrate with family by grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats, as well as all the fixin’s. To keep costs down, organize a potluck, so everyone shares the cost of the food. Or, if you are hosting, plan your meal early and shop the sales the month prior for great deals on the food. For fun, we set up volleyball and croquet in the backyard.

• Make a cute patriotic dessert - A couple of years ago, I made this cute Uncle Sam hat cake (see photo above) to bring to a 4th of July party that we attended. It was easy to make, and really cute. Here are some other cute ideas.

• Inexpensive Kid’s Crafts – organize some crafts for the kids to do during your cookout. Here’s a great site with some inexpensive crafts for them to create.

What do you do to celebrate the 4th of July? How to you save money on your celebrations? For more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom.

Thanks to guest poster, Kathryn Katz, for these great tips on how to have a fun summer without breaking the bank!

No money, no worries you can still have fun with your family this summer. A limited amount of cash should not prevent you from spending quality time with your loved ones – be creative, there are a multitude of things to do that won’t force you to pull out your wallet. Unfortunately 68% of parents polled recently disagree and said money was the biggest obstacle to spending time with their children and partners. These ideas should change their minds and make them feel better.

Okay, let’s start off enjoying the great summer weather by visiting a local park. You can pack a picnic lunch, bring board games, a Frisbee, a pack of cards and enjoy the day. It’s simple and it costs nothing to soak up the sun or cool off in the shade. Just make sure to pack your suntan lotion and water for your outdoor trip.

If you’d rather stay inside for the day, visit the local library. They often hold free events such as reading activities and sometimes show movies. Or you can pick up some books and do the reading at home. Contact your local library and pick up their summer schedule of events.

Why not break out your creative side? Make crafts out of things that you already have in the house, or dream of a favorite place, like the beach or mountains and then you and your children could make wonderful drawings – get inspired!

If you’re in the mood for a movie then you’re in luck. Regal Entertainment Group is offering select movies for kids and showing them for free. That’s right, every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am.  Plus, AMC Theaters is offering summer movies on Tuesdays at 10 am for only $1.

When you’re not enjoying a movie how about joining a reading club? Barnes and Noble and Borders are offering free books just for reading. You can also get a free gift by joining the folks at Pottery Barn. They hold a story time event every Tuesday. Check the local stores for details and start reading.

Another resourceful method of finding free local events and programs is to scour the pages of your local newspapers, neighborhood news magazines and County website. You’d be surprised to see how many free or cheap things there are to enjoy – from outdoor plays acted in the park to festivals, concerts, art shows, recreational events, nature trails, fishing and more.

So don’t be down this summer because you’re a bit short on cash. Gather your family and have some fun. You don’t need the money; you just need a little imagination and each other.

About the Author

Kathryn Katz is a Certified Personal Finance Counselor who works for Consolidated Credit Counseling Services in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Their non-profit agency helps families through financial crisis using credit counseling, debt consolidation and financial education.

It’s hard to believe, but my oldest will be done with kindergarten in about a month. I really appreciate all the hard work that his teachers have done throughout the year, so I would like to give them each a small thank you gift. The problem is, he has teacher(s), as in 2 of them, so I have to be pretty creative in order to save my budget.

A couple of years ago for Christmas, I purchased a really cute Christmas mug and made up a hot chocolate gift pack, complete with a homemade bag for the marshmallows. I thought it was really cute…but when I made a joke about having lots of mugs, one of the other moms made a comment that when she was a teacher she had MANY mugs. So, my goal is to not only give a frugal gift…but one that does not create (too) much clutter for the teacher.

The best idea would be a gift card, since it doesn’t create any clutter, but it’s hard to save any money on gift cards and they’re not very personal. I’ve done some research to try to find a better gift, and here are some of the results:

• “Thanks for Helping Me Grow” potted plant – I thought this was a great idea, and if you could find an inexpensive outdoor plant for a deck or porch, it would be even better.
• Homemade Card with a sincere letter of thanks for all they’ve done for your child
• Bake cookies – but you might want to make sure your teacher is not on a diet or diabetic first
• Homemade laminated bookmark – it would be really cute to add a picture of your child and a note that they’ve written to their teacher.
• Teacher Survival Kit
• Create homemade note cards and envelopes for the teachers to use when they send notes
• Stock up on school supplies throughout the year when you find great sales and give a school supply kit to the teacher for the classroom
• Purchase your child’s favorite book and donate it to the teacher’s classroom library (or the school library in the teacher’s name) if they don’t already have the book
• Have all/some of the parents from the class pool together to purchase a gift card for something practical like a nearby restaurant, an office supply store, or a book store.

The Verdict – I think I’m going to create a homemade laminated bookmark with a photo of my son and also create a card where I can write a personalized note of thanks and how much I appreciate all they’ve done over the past year. I will probably have my son draw some pictures for the teachers too.  Here’s what I gave his teachers last year.

What about you? Do you have any great ideas for teacher’s gifts? Do you even give your child’s teacher a gift? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

As with Christmas, there are many factors competing for our attention at Easter.  Last year, I did a series on various ways to keep the focus on Christ at Easter.  Some highlights include:

• We make our own chocolate cross for the Easter basket.
• How We Share the Meaning of Easter with our Kids – I share some of our favorite books, videos, and music of the season.
• Make Resurrection Buns – these are a great visual illustration of the burial and resurrection of Christ, they are fun to make with your kids, and they are yummy!
• Walk Through Holy Week with Jesus – Read verses from the Bible each week leading up to Easter

Other Ideas from Readers

• Hide a few empty eggs along with those filled with candy to remind your kids that the tomb was empty
• This reader creates her own Resurrection Eggs – I get a dozen plastic Easter eggs with different items in them symbolic of a part of the Easter story and an accompanying Scripture.
• Take a “new life walk” outdoors, searching out tiny shoots, sprouting buds on trees and eggs in birds’ nests.

Easter Crafts

• Plastic Canvas Cross bookmark
• Clay Pot Jesus
• Stained Glass Cross

Additional Videos/Audio

• The Death & Resurrection of the Messiah DVD – I have not seen these, but the videos are actually filmed in Israel at the various sites related to the death, burial, and resurrection.
• The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from The Luke Reports
• Adventures in Odyssey: Bible Eyewitness 36-Episode Collector’s Set – Audiodrama on CD
• Passion Trilogy

How do you celebrate Easter?  Do you do anything special/fun to keep the focus on Christ?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

I’m going to take a short break from the Centsable Savings Plan for a couple of weeks to focus on Easter…but it will be back soon.

Each Easter, I want to keep the focus on Christ rather than all the “extras” of Easter.  Yet, I do want it to be fun for my boys, too.

So, we put together a fun little Easter basket with a little bit of candy, a book, maybe a small item if I can get a good deal….and a homemade chocolate cross (and you can tell that my then 2 year old enjoyed his cross immensely!).

Although some stores do carry chocolate Easter crosses (I think I saw them at Meijer one year), I decided to make my own so that I wouldn’t have to hunt high and low to find one.  I spent a couple of dollars on the cross mold the first year, and then I purchase the chocolate candy melts each year.

It is SO easy to make the chocolate cross.  You basically just melt the chocolate and pour it into the mold.  And you can just use your microwave to melt the chocolate if you don’t have a double boiler.  Check out my homemade chocolates tutorial for more details.

I found my chocolate cross mold on Ebay (this is the one I have, but there are lots of different ones to choose from), and you can pick up chocolate melts at JoAnns or Michaels using the 40% off coupons that they always have in the Sunday paper.

I know that Easter is still about a month away, but I wanted to give you time to order your molds without the stress of hoping they came in time for Easter.

What do you do for Easter? Do you give your kids chocolate Easter bunnies or something else? How do you reinforce the message of Christ in your home? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.  For more Easter ideas, please visit Keeping the Kingdom First.

Thank you to Lauren from Mama’s Laundry Talk for this great guest post on how she created her price book!

After my first child was born in 2005, I decided I needed to be more frugal with our money.  We were spending a shameful amount of money each month on groceries.  So I was determined to find a better, wiser way to spend our money.

Enter the Price Book.

I was first introduced to the concept of the Price Book from a frugal website I stumbled upon.  And I was immediately intrigued!  What a fabulous idea – to know the rock-bottom prices of items we typically buy.  And then buy our groceries when the prices were lowest.   Genius.

After scouring the internet and reading every post I could find on it, I formulated this method that has worked really well for me.  Here is the process I used to create my price book.

From Wal-Mart I purchased an 8.5×5.5” 3-ring binder and 2 packs of dividers.

Next, I created tabs for my major categories.  While the categories will vary for each family, I’ll list mine to get you started:

Baby Items, Baking, Beverages, Bread & Cereal, Canned Goods, Condiments, Cleaning, Dairy, Fruits & Veggies (fresh), Meat, Paper Goods, Toiletries, Household Misc.

After each shopping trip, I use my receipt to enter my data onto my form.  I have one sheet that corresponds for each type of item:  Diapers, Canned Tomatoes, Milk, Yogurt, etc.  Here’s an example:

So in my Price Book, ‘Diapers’ goes behind the ‘Baby Items’ tab.  All of the Items are listed in alphabetical order behind the tabs so I can quickly flip through to the page I need.  It takes me about 5-8 minutes to enter a receipt of a typical weekly shopping trip.

On the form, I have my own abbreviations for ‘Store.’ Wags=Walgreens, Kr=Kroger, WM=Walmart.

Under the ‘Size/Price’ column, I write the quantity or size of the item and what the listed price is.  So in my above example, the pack contained 35 diapers and the listed price was $9.99.  If I was entering cheese, the Size/Price could be 8oz./$1.50.  If the item were toilet paper, I would list it as 6 Mega Rolls/$5.99.

The ‘Unit Price’ is the price divided by the size.  In my diaper example, the cost of each diaper comes to $0.29.

Under the ‘Sale’ column, I note if the published price was a sale price or the normal non-sale price.

Tips:

• It is better to over-categorize than under-categorize.  It is easier to find the right page to enter data if your book is more detailed.
• Print out more forms than you think you’ll need.  The longer you utilize your price book, the more items you’ll want to record.  I keep a stack of blank forms in the back of my book for this reason.
• I use the front pocket on the inside cover of my binder to store my receipts until I can get them recorded.
• I record my items in pencil.  It just seems neater and I’d much rather erase than scratch something out on my beautiful new form!

I’d love to share my form with you!  My husband tweaked it to make it even more user-friendly.  So you are welcome to download the price book form to help you get started in making your own!

Simply print on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper.  Cut on the dotted line and 3-hole punch…and you’re ready to get started!

Lauren Hill is the mama behind Mama’s Laundry Talk. She loves all things laundry, including keeping track of laundry detergent prices! Lauren is proud to be a wife, mama to 3 fantastic little people and a Child of God.

Last week I shared how you can save on your groceries by matching store sales with coupons.  However, there still great ways to save even if you don’t use coupons.  Here are a few tips:

• Purchase items on Sale – check store flyers for weekly sale items and plan dinners for the week based on those sale items.  If you have time, shop the sales at a couple of grocery stores.

• Make a List – keep a store list available so that you can add items as you notice that you are running low on them.  If you give yourself enough time, you can pick up that item on a week when it’s on sale.  Also, add needed groceries for the entire week so they you only have to make one trip each week.  Making multiple trips can add up or you may make a convenience purchase will will likely cost more.

• Only Purchase Items on Your Shopping List – make sure you bring your list with you to the store and ONLY purchase those items.  Impulse buys are sure to blow your budget.

• Don’t Go Grocery Shopping When Hungry – if you are hungry, you are much more likely to make impulse purchases

• Compare Prices across Brands – Many times store brand items cost less than name brand items.  Do you think you’re going to taste the difference between tomatoes that are not a main ingredient of a recipe?

• Compare Unit Prices - Often you can choose several sizes of the same item.  Many grocery stores break down the unit prices (if not, use a calculator).  See which size has the lowest cost per unit and purchase that size.  Of course, if you only need a tsp. and you don’t see another use for the item, it doesn’t make sense to purchase a pound when the rest of it will go to waste.

• Check the Shelves Above and Below Eye Level – Often stores place the most expensive food at eye level so make sure you look everywhere on the shelf for the best deal

• Don’t Waste Food – You can get a great deal on an item, but if you end up throwing it away because it went bad, you still wasted money.

What about you?  How do you save money when you don’t feel like using coupons?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

So, you’ve created your budget. If you’re like many people, your expenses may be higher or very close to your income leaving no breathing room for savings.

The goal is to reduce your spending on the “variable” categories such as groceries, household goods, utilities, etc.  Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to share some tips on reducing spending on groceries/household goods:

Match Store Sales with Coupons

Perhaps you’ve tried using coupons in the past, but quit because you ended up spending more with the coupon than without it on a store-brand item.  Or you felt like since you had a coupon you needed to use it.  So, you ended up spending more money than before you used coupons, since you purchased more items that you didn’t really need (just because you had a coupon for it).

The key to saving money with coupons is to match the store sales with your coupons.  You want to hold your coupon until the store has reduced the price and then save even more money off that price with your coupon.  Sometimes you’ll use your coupon the week it comes in the paper, and sometimes you’ll hold it for months before you use it since store sales are cyclical.

How to Match Sales with Coupons?

• You’re in luck…there are many bloggers that work hard to provide sale and coupon matchups each week.  Each week, I list the CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and highlights of Meijer and Kroger sales with the coupon matchups listed for you (both printable coupons and newspaper insert coupons).  Plus, you can visit the Frugal Map to find bloggers from your area.
• Use a service like The Grocery Game (there’s a fee, but you can get a FREE 4 week trial) or Coupon Mom to match the sales and coupons for you.

What to expect the next couple of weeks?  I’ll give tips on creating a price book, stockpiling, coupon organization, and menu planning.

Check out the rest of the Centsable Savings Plan posts or learn more about Centsable Earnings (how to earn some extra money from home).

Although I try to show my love to my family all year round, it’s still fun to celebrate Valentine’s Day…and it doesn’t have to cost a lot.  Here are a few ideas I found for a frugal celebration:

• Make homemade chocolates – never done it before?…I created a tutorial on how to make homemade chocolates (and filling) complete with pictures.  Plus, if you get the kids involved it can be a fun craft time.

• Create an easy Valentine Coupon book using this digital freebie

• Make your own Valentine’s card (or try to find a card freebie) – My favorite part of the cards that I receive from my husband are the heartfelt notes that he writes.  So, you could just make your own card with a message inside.  Plus, you can involve your kids in making cards for each other.

• Mix-n-Match Valentine’s Cards – do you have lots of different leftover Valentine’s cards from previous years?  Assuming they are still cards your child still likes (like not Thomas for a 10 year old ), use up the various cards for their classmates.  Do their friends care (or even know) if they all get the same cards.  I also will purchase cards for the next year in the after-Valentine’s sale.

• Create a Valentine’s Theme Day – create dinner with all red foods (like spaghetti, etc) or cut up sandwiches in the shape of a heart.

What do you do for Valentine’s Day?  Do you have any inexpensive ideas or traditions?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Normally, a charitable contribution must be made during the tax year (1/1 – 12/31) in order to claim it on your taxes.  However, on January 22, President Obama signed HR 4462 into law.

Basically, taxpayers  can choose to deduct any charitable contributions made to help the earthquake victims in Haiti on their 2009 tax return rather than waiting until their 2010 return (thus getting the tax benefit of their contribution sooner).

Qualifications for 2009 Return Deduction:

• Contributions must be made between January 11, 2010 and March 1, 2010.
• Cash contributions only (other contributions can still be claimed on the 2010 return).
• Only contributions for the relief of victims in areas affected by the earthquake in Haiti on 1/12/10.
• The contribution must meet all other requirements for deducting cash contributions.

Records Required for the IRS:

• For those that made a $10 contribution via text message, a telephone bill showing the name of the donee organization, the date of the contribution, and the amount of the contribution is sufficient
• Contributions less than $250: You need a bank record such as canceled check, bank statement or credit card statement, a receipt from the organization, or a payroll deduction record
• Contributions greater than $250: You need written acknowledgement from the charitable organization or payroll deduction record

I know that most of us don’t make charitable contributions solely for the tax write off, but do you plan on deducting them in 2009 or would you rather wait until 2010?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Of course, please consult your personal tax adviser to determine when it would be most beneficial for you to take the deduction.

So, you’ve kept track of all your expenses and income for the last month…now you’re ready to create your budget.

Create Budget Categories – divide each expense into a category such as rent/mortgage, groceries, household goods/toiletries, gas, etc.  Split them up however it works for you.  Some people combine groceries and household goods into one category, since they don’t want to have to split receipts from a store like Walmart.

Don’t Forget about Fun – you don’t want to have fun at the expense of your savings, but if your income allows for it, you also want to factor in some fun money for entertainment or spending money for you and your spouse.  A budget can still be fun .

Account for Every Dollar – every dollar should have a job.  That doesn’t mean that you need to SPEND every dollar, but you need to allocate any extra money to saving for the emergency fund, retirement, college, etc rather than letting it sit in your account.  It will probably get spent if it’s not allocated.

Balance Your Budget – on paper this is the easy one…your expenses and income should equal each other.  However, sometimes it just doesn’t work that way.  Get creative and think of things that you can do to trim the variable expenses like groceries/toiletries, etc or brainstorm ways that you can make extra money.

Follow Your Budget – once you have created your budget, you need to make sure that your spending stays within the category limits.  If you overspend in a category, you need to either spend less on that category the next month or spend less in another category  to make up for it.

Periodically Adjust Your Budget – your needs will probably change over time, so make sure that you reevaluate your budget every once in awhile.  If your child becomes potty trained, you can probably lower your household goods/toiletry budget

What about you?  How do you budget?  Do you have any budgeting tips you’d like to share?

More about Budgeting:

• Track Your Expenses and Income
• Budgeting Tips

Next week, I’ll bring more about the various tools you can use to help you budget.  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Thanks to Emily @ Bloom for her excellent guest post on budgeting!

Emily Williams likes her husband, her kids, and (believe it or not) her budget.  She also likes to write and does quite a bit of it at her blog, BLOOM.  In this season of resolution making lots of people commit to live on a budget.  Today Emily’s sharing some suggestions to help you stick to that resolution.

In a recent conversation with my husband, a CPA who does financial planning for high net-worth individuals, I asked what advice he would give that, if followed, would make the biggest impact for the most people.  He said simply, “live on an effective budget.”  This advice comes partly from what he sees with his own clients, and partly from our own personal experience.  I agree; we have always been frugal and careful with money, but in the four years that we’ve been diligently living on a budget we have made more accelerated progress toward our goals than ever before.

Here are some tips to help you be more successful and effective in your budgeting:

Remember What Budgeting Is and Is Not:
Budgeting is planning in advance what to do with your money (then tracking it) instead of wondering afterward where it all went.  It’s not just expense-tracking.  It is pro-active and forward-looking.  It’s also not a kill-joy.  People who budget have fun — they just pay for it with cash instead of going into debt for it.

Get it All In:
In order to plan ahead, you’ll need accurate numbers at the outset.  Make sure you’re accounting for all your income and expenses.  Your paychecks may not be your only source – do you have any supplemental income?  Surplus from last month?  As for your expenses, you’ll need to create a system to ensure that each expense is recorded – fix the leaks in your boat.

*A word to the wise: if you’re a budgeting novice, don’t give yourself a miscellaneous category.  Break your categories down as specifically as you can in anticipation of your spending.  And give every dollar a job!

Check Back Often: Especially if you’re new to budgeting, come back to your budget often (weekly) and reconcile.  Get a pulse on your spending.  Eventually, you’ll get to the point where you’ll just sort of develop a sixth sense for your spending and you’ll be able to reconcile less frequently (monthly) and still stay on track.

Anticipate the unexpected: It’s the unexpected expenses that side-swipe the most well-intentioned budgeters.  Anticipate and accumulate for things that typically knock people off their financial feet – car repairs, health related expenses, gifts, job-loss/salary change.  Build funds through gradual savings for each of these things so you’re not scrambling and reaching for your high-interest credit card when crisis hits.

Go With The Flow: If you over spend in a few categories — don’t worry about it.  Make adjustments and start fresh next month.  Don’t get frustrated and give up.  Keep at it.  You may not get it all right the first time, but there will be a trend of improvement.  Discipline breeds discipline.  And eventually you’ll surprise yourself with how accurate you become in your financial management.

Pay Yourself First:
Make your savings allotments before your other outflows.  This is how you build those cushion funds for things like car repairs and health incidents.  This may mean a few lean months in your “restaurant” category.  This may not sound fun, but it brings peace of mind.

Save first.  Make the rest of your budget work with what’s left.  My husband often says, “I’ve never met anyone who regretted having saved so much money.”

Find a tool that works: There are many budgeting programs out there. My husband and I use YNAB and really love it.  We’ve always tried to be careful with our money, but in the four years that we’ve been using YNAB, we argue A LOT less about money, we progress towards our goals, and we don’t worry about money (and that’s not because we don’t think about it).

For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Before you can create a budget, you need to know how much you are spending (your expenses) and how much you are making (your income).

Some categories are easy to determine, such as a fixed rent/mortgage payments or an automobile loan, and some categories can vary greatly from month to month, such as your natural gas bill in the winter vs. the summer, or your grocery/dining out expenses.

For the variable categories, you need to track your expenses over a period of at least 1 month to determine how much to budget for each category going forward.  Not only do you need to keep track of items paid for by check, debit card, or credit card, but you also need to keep receipts for all cash purchases and write down how exactly your cash is spent.

Tracking expenses will help you in two ways – you’ll have a better idea of spending to create a budget, and you may be surprised when you add up all the little discretionary purchases and where your money is going.  If your income is variable, you will also need to track the amount each month.

How to Track Expenses?

• Write it Down on a Piece of Paper – one of the easiest ways to keep track of your expenses is by writing it all down on a piece of paper.
• Track expenses in a spreadsheet
• Use Free Online Software like Mint.com
• Install a Computer Program like Quicken or You Need a Budget – these programs do cost money, but if they work for helping you maintain your budget, they can worth it.

How We Do It

I currently use Microsoft Money (similar to Quicken…but no longer available) to keep track of our expenses.  I have it set up where the program downloads the transactions from the financial institutions and then I code each transaction to a category.  I can also split transactions to several categories.

Do you keep track of your expenses?  What is your method to keep track?  Is it working well to help you create/maintain a budget?

For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Thanks to guest poster, Kathryn Katz, for these great tips on regifting!  Have you ever tried regifting yourself?

In the past, holiday re-gifting might have been taboo or considered tacky. In this post-Recession era where many Americans are struggling to pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads, holiday re-gifting isn’t a social crime. If you take a moment to change your perspective, you’ll see that it can be thoughtful, practical and green when done right.

Re-gifting Dos

• Keep a Gift Log – Whenever you receive a gift that doesn’t appeal to you. Put it aside and make a note of who gave you the gift and when you received it. This list will come in handy when you’re selecting items for next year’s holiday.
• Re-gift New, Never Used Items – If you’re going to re-gift, make sure it’s something that’s never been used or opened. The packaging should look new. If the box is slightly damaged but the item inside is fine, consider putting it in a generic gift box.
• Match the Recipient – Make sure the recipient would enjoy the item before re-gifting it. Use the same level of concern for mating the gift as if you were buying it at the store. If it’s a co-worker or Secret Santa recipient, try to choose something generic.

Re-gifting Don’ts

• Don’t Know Who Gave You the Gift – If you’re not certain who gave you the gift, think twice before putting it back into circulation. You might end up re-gifting it to the person that gave it to you or someone in that social circle that remembers who gifted the item to you last year.
• Don’t Gift Damaged, Used, or Slightly Worn Items – Never re-gift an item that you’ve used or worn. Avoid re-gifting the item if the packaging appears dented, soiled, torn, opened or has other flaws that would be obvious to the recipient. If it’s at all damaged, put the item aside for the next garage sale. Don’t use it in the gift giving process.
• Randomly Select the Gift - Someone made the mistake of gifting this item to you. If you re-gift this to the wrong person, it could end up back into circulation next year. Or you could end up insulting the person. Don’t re-gift the item just because you want to get rid of it. Instead, donate it to the local toy drive, sell it on eBay or have a garage sale.

Holiday re-gifting doesn’t have to be a dirty little secret. It’s a great way to save money, and preserve the spirit of the holidays. Just put a little thought and planning behind the process. If you’re against the holiday re-gifting and want to do something useful with these unwanted gifts, consider donating them to a local shelter or charity.

About the Author:

Kathryn Katz is a working mom, Certified Personal Finance Counselor and works for Consolidated Credit Counseling Services. The non-profit credit counseling agency offers the Smart Holiday Shopping Guide to help holiday shoppers.

Photo by sued

Even though sending out Christmas cards may not be the most frugal activity, I love to receive cards from my friends and family (so I assume they like to receive them from me…and see how our boys have grown over the last year).  Plus, I have many friends that I may only communicate with through our Christmas card (although that’s changing more and more with Facebook).

Although I would love to hand write every address for my Christmas cards (and include a handwritten note), I just don’t have time to do that for the 60+ cards that I send to friends and family each year.  So several years ago, I developed a Christmas card database that I use to keep track of my Christmas card list and to print out address labels.

I thought I would share the procedure for creating your own “database” and mail merge label document.

Christmas Card Database Tutorial

• Open the Christmas Card spreadsheet.  It contains all the fields that I use for my Christmas cards.
• Click File, Download As, and choose Excel.  Now you have a copy on your computer to add all your information.
• Once you have entered all your data, save the file.
• Open a Word document
• In Word, choose Tools, Letters & Mailings, Mail Merge Wizard
• The wizard is on the right-hand column.  Choose Labels for document type and click Next
• Choose Change Document Layout and then click on Label Options.
• Choose the labels you plan to print to (the number should be on the box) and click OK
• Click Next – Select Recipients
• Click Use an Existing List and browse for your Christmas Card spreadsheet you saved from the earlier steps
• Click Next – Arrange Your Labels
• Choose More Items and add the fields that you want to print on your label such as First Name, Last Name, etc.  As you add the items, you will see them in the first label.  You can add the line breaks when you’ve added all the fields.
• Once the first label is formatted like you want, click Update all Labels and your fields will show up on all labels.
• Click Next Preview Your Labels and your recipients information should show up
• Click Next Complete the Merge.  You can choose to send the labels directly to the printer or to a new document.  I usually choose a new document since I keep it as a record of who I actually mailed to already.
• Save your document to use next year.

That’s it.  Please leave a comment if you have any questions, and I’ll reply to your comment.  You should only have to set up the database and mail merge document once and then be able to edit as needed and use each following year.  Although it creates some up-front work with entering the information, it saves lots of time in the years to follow.

Do you still send out Christmas cards?  If you do, how do you address the cards…handwritten, labels?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

Photo by nkzs

You’ve planned ahead for a centsable Thanksgiving…so you have the meal planned and the grocery deals purchased.  But, now how are you going to entertain the kids while the adults clean up from dinner, watch football, and take naps?

It doesn’t have to be too elaborate (or expensive), but with a little planning, the kids can do some fun crafts and activities to remind them of the meaning of Thanksgiving.  I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite craft & activity sites for kids Thanksgiving crafts:

• Parents – has a great list of fun crafts and decorations
• Family Fun – more Thanksgiving ideas
• Games & Stories
• Thanksgiving coloring pages

Do you have an activity that you love to do with the kids on Thanksgiving?  How do you celebrate the holiday?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom’s Frugal Friday.

Just like the retailers who immediately clear the shelves of Halloween items on 11/1 and replace them with Christmas items for sale, I sometimes have the tendency to skip over Thanksgiving in my thoughts.

There is so much to do to get ready for Christmas with shopping for gifts, baking, sending out Christmas cards, taking the “perfect” Christmas photo, creating numerous photo gifts, etc. that I start thinking about all the I have to do as soon as Halloween is over also.

But, I really want to take the time to slow down and be thankful for all the I have been blessed with as well as take the time to bless others at this time of year.  Plus, I want to instill a spirit of thankfulness in my children, too.

Here are some ideas that I like to use to keep thankfulness at the forefront:

• Thanksgiving Chain – have each child (and yourself) think of 5-10 things that they are thankful for.  Write them down on a 1×3 strip of paper and staple them together to make a chain.  Every morning go through each link to remind them of what they are thankful for.  They can add additional items to help the chain grow.
• Serve at a soup kitchen with your children - if your children are old enough, consider serving at a local soup kitchen with your child.  Not only are you helping those in need, but your child also gets to see another side life…which can help them be more thankful for their own situation.
• Donate extra food items to a food pantry or food drive – this time of year, many organizations are collecting food for those in need for both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  If you shop the deals and have a stockpile, there may be many things that you already have available to donate.
• Involve your Child in Operation Christmas Child or Toys for Tots – although this may seem like you’re skipping ahead to Christmas, many of these organizations need gifts early.  Get your child involved in picking out items and toys for another child.  Instead of looking through the toy section for themselves, they can look for others.  Or, if you’re like me, they can pick some toys from your own toy pantry (toys you’ve purchased on clearance throughout the year).

How do you focus on thankfulness this time of year (and throughout the year)?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

To help you save money, each week I show the freebies that I received that week along with a list of other freebies that you can sign up for.  However, there are some things to watch out for when you sign up for freebies.

• Consider using a separate e-mail address that you use just for signing up for freebies.  Sometimes the freebie site may not be legitimate and they may just be getting your e-mail address to sell to spammers.  I try my hardest to only post legitimate freebies, but every once in awhile a site may get through and your spam e-mail may increase.  If you use a separate e-mail address (like freebies4corrie@gmail.com), you could just check it every so often to make sure there are no legitimate e-mails coming through.

• Never sign up for a freebie that requires a credit card.  A true freebie will not require payment of any kind.  If you do need to require a credit card, it is often a free trial of a product, and then you need to remember to cancel the account.  I don’t post those kinds of “freebies” because I am not very good at remembering to cancel (so I’m assuming others  are too) and sometimes companies will continue to charge you even once you’ve canceled your account.

• If a freebie sounds too good to be true…it likely is.  Do you ever get the e-mails that tell you that you can get a $500 gift card for free?  What you may not see in tiny letters are the words, “Participation required”.  Some people are able to make money by doing those offers (Nicole’s Nickels has whole posts explaining how to do those deals), but you need to know that you are getting into a process…not just getting a freebie.

• When in doubt…do more research.  You can check a site’s IP address to make sure that the freebie site is not based in Nigeria, etc.  You can also check who has registered the Domain Name to make sure it matches.  For example, if you see a P&G freebie being offered by Joe Schmo, it’s probably not legitimate.  Or, you can search using Swagbucks to see if anyone has blogged or written about a freebie being a scam.

• If you’re nervous about spam, etc stick to the tried and true freebie sites.  I always receive my freebies from Walmart, Right @ Home (when I qualify for the monthly freebie), All You, Costco, and P&G brandSampler.  Also, if you sign up for a freebie directly from a reputable manufacturer, it’s also likely to be good.  Sometimes if you don’t receive a freebie, it’s simply because they ran out of samples and never took down the sign up form.

Do you use freebies to save money?  Do you have any other criteria that you use when you sign up for a freebie?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Over the years, I’ve heard several people talk about using once a month cooking (or freezer cooking).  Basically, you spend 1 (0r 2) days cooking meals that your family will eat over the next month.  Once the meals are assembled, you just need to place them in the freezer and your family is set for meals for an entire month.  You can save time and money by bulk cooking.

There are tons of resources for creating your month’s worth of meals:

• Frugal Mom – great summary of freezer cooking and how it works
• Mom’s Budget – many printable forms to help you get organized
• Once a Month Mom – she is the ultimate resource for planning your monthly meals.  She posts a menu for each month as well as instructions on how to do it, a shopping list, and even printable labels for your dishes.

Although I’ve heard about freezer cooking a lot…once a month cooking just isn’t for me. I don’t have the freezer space to accommodate a full month’s worth of meals, and, more importantly, I don’t want to spend an entire day cooking.

However, just because I don’t want to cook an entire month’s worth of meals at once, it doesn’t mean that I can’t double or triple my recipes when I cook and freeze the leftovers.  For example, I made pea soup this afternoon and I stuck all the leftovers in the freezer.  It will probably cover about 3 additional meals for my family.

Soups are great for cooking in bulk and freezing.  I like to make pea soup, potato soup, and chicken rice soup, plus spaghetti sauce and slow cooker beef stew and freeze the leftovers.  If I plan it correctly, I only actually have to make 1 or 2 meals a week, and the rest of the week, I can just pull meals out of the freezer and reheat them in the microwave.  I like that MUCH better than spending an entire day in the kitchen.

What about you?  Do you do bulk cooking…once a month or whenever you can double up a recipe?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Photo by domani

Since I use the coupon insert method for storing most of my coupons, I need a method to match my coupons with my grocery list.  Plus, there are so many sources for printable coupons out there.  How do match my coupons so that I can get the best deal?

• Coupon Database – I host a coupon database on my site that includes the insert coupons, as well as many printable and store coupons available.  You can search by a brand, product, coupon source, etc.
• My Personal Couponizer – I always have loose coupons that I need to file…either I printed them from online (since online coupons tend to come and go), cut them out of an insert and ended up not using it, or I received a freebie in the mail with a free coupon.  So, I’ll search my Couponizer to make sure I’m not missing a coupon there.

With all my sources, sometimes it’s difficult to determine just from the listings whether a coupon is valid for the exact item that I plan on purchasing without looking at the actual coupon.  When I’m doing my coupon matchups, sometimes I’ll pull out a coupon (if I’ve not already used it) just to make sure that the coupon requirements match the item on sale, because sometimes it’s not clear just from the listing.

How do you match your coupons with your grocery list or store sales?  Do you have a favorite online source that I don’t use?  Please share…I’d love to find the “perfect” source. For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom for a linky with more Frugal Friday posts.

Even though I’m an avid couponer, I don’t always have time to plan my shopping trips to get the best deals and cut out my coupons (although I’ll still have a grocery list).  And sometimes, I’m just plain tired of dealing with coupons.  However, my family still has a grocery budget that I need to meet.  What can I do?

• Eat from your pantry – If you’re an avid couponer, you probably have a stockpile of items on hand.  Plan your meals around the items you already have, and you won’t need to purchase much at the grocery store that week for meals.

• Only purchase items for use that week – Many of the items where I use a coupon are for my stockpile, because they are at rock-bottom prices with a sale and a coupon.  If you’re getting burned out on couponing, take a week (or a couple of weeks off from adding to your stockpile).

• Purchase store brand items – Without a coupon, store brand items are usually cheaper than the name brand items.  Most of the time, the store brand items taste similar to the national brand…especially if it’s an item that will be used in a recipe with other ingredients.

• Check your grocery store’s sale flyer - You can take a cursory glance through your sale flyer to see if any staple items are on sale that you don’t normally have coupons for anyway, like flour, sugar, eggs, meat, etc.  You can still stock-up on those items if they are your target price without coupons.

• Use eCoupons - If you don’t have time to mess with clipping coupons, you can always just load eCoupons onto your store loyalty card.  There are several eCoupon programs – Cellfire, Shortcuts, P&G eSaver, and Upromise (click here for more information about Upromise and how to add the eCoupons). The disadvantage with the ecoupons is that they don’t double, and you can only use them once (so if you have multiple identical items, you would only get a coupon for one of the items).  But, they are easy to use.

• Use Printable Coupons – You’re still using coupons, but you won’t have to mess with organizing your coupons if you print out your coupons right before you head to the grocery store.  Only print those coupons that you will use on that shopping trip, and you will save time on filing your coupons.  Some printable coupon sources include: Coupons.com and Red Plum.

What about you?  Do you always use coupons or are there times that you slack off a bit?  How do you save money if you’re not using coupons?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Photo by zbyszek80

Because of the high cost of babysitters, my husband and I rarely go out to the movies (although when we are given a chance to go…oftentimes it’s hard to find much worth watching these days).  When we do go, it’s easy to spend a lot of money with the cost of the movie tickets and any snacks/drinks that we want to eat during the movie.  However, it is possible to save money on movies:

• Go to matinees or a weeknight movies – at my local theater, tickets are $10/ person for weekend movies after 3:55 pm, $7.50 for weekend matinees, and $5.00 for weekday tickets.  So, if I’m willing to go on a weeknight, I save 50% of the cost of the ticket.

• Use Swagbucks to get free movie tickets – For 99 swagbucks, you can get a free movie ticket for these movie theaters.  The free pass can be used for any movie up to $12/ticket.  Don’t know what Swagbucks is?  Click here to find out more.

• Use your Entertainment Book for movie coupons – In my local entertainment book, I can get discounted movie tickets (for the matinee price), plus there are coupons for free drinks, etc.

• Check your local warehouse club for discount movie tickets – My local Costco also sells 5-packs of movie tickets to AMC Theatres for $39.99.  So, if I’m going to a weekend evening show, I would basically get 1 ticket free.

• Join any free loyalty clubs – For example, if you’re a member of the AMC Movie Watchers Club, you can avoid paying the online ticket fee when purchasing tickets online at MovieTickets.com. You earn points for free items, and you qualify for special promotions such as free popcorn on Wednesday nights at AMC Theatres.

• Eat before or after your see the movie to avoid purchasing snacks - Even if you don’t have the time/money to go out to eat before or after the show, you can still fill up at home before you leave.  Since it’s against most (if not all) theater policies to allow outside food and drinks, I can’t suggest that as a solution to saving on snacks.  However, if you visit a drive-in movie theater, you are often free to bring in your own snacks.

• Wait until the movie comes out on DVD and rent it, buy it, or check it out from your library – this idea’s not quite as much fun as going to the movie theater, but it’s definitely much cheaper.  If you do purchase the movie, many times retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart have the movie deeply discounted the first week of release.

Do you go to the movies?  If so, how do you save money when you go to the movies?

Photo by Bubbels

Earlier this year, I wrote about how we don’t pay for  TV service (such as cable, AT&T UVerse, or satellite)…we just use our bunny ears for free reception.

However, I can understand that cutting cable is not for everyone (we really miss ESPN and the Big 10 Network during college football season)  But, that doesn’t mean you need to overpay for your TV service.

• Compare Prices by Company – even if your community does not allow cable company competition, there are still various alternatives to cable, like AT&T UVerse or several satellite companies (like Direct TV or Dish Network).

• Analyze your Bill – do you really need all the services and channels that you’re paying for?  Is it possible you can cut the premium channels and rent movies, join Netflix, or even get movies from the library for free?  For example, if we had cable, we would likely only watch ESPN…is one channel worth cable (it would depend on the game we’re missing for my husbands answer )?

• Ask your Provider for Discounts – unless you’ve signed a contract with your TV provider, you’re free to change companies at any time.  If you hear an ad for a discount for new customers, call your company and ask for the discount.  Mention that you’re thinking about switching to another company, and they may be willing to give you the discount.  You never know unless you ask, right?  Considering it would cost the company many times more to recruit a new customer than to keep your business, they might negotiate with you.

How do you save money on your TV spending?  Do you use alternative sources on the internet such as Hulu (I’d love to learn more about that)?  Anyone know how to catch live ESPN games on the internet ?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

Update: Thanks so much to Jennifer for letting me know that I actually CAN get ESPN for free over the internet!  We use AT&T Uverse for our internet, so we can access the ESPN 360 site.  My husband will be thrilled!

Last Monday, I logged onto our checking account expecting to see my husband’s paycheck sitting there.  I noticed our mortgage had been paid, but there was no paycheck.  I called my husband to see if he knew anything about it.  He didn’t, and since we don’t normally check our account on payday, we weren’t sure if this was unusual or not (did it normally post later in the day, we had recently increased his 401(k) contribution…did that affect it, etc?).

However, after asking around at work, it was determined that my husband’s pay schedule had been changed, and we were not notified prior to it happening.  If we lived paycheck to paycheck, we would have been scrambling…our mortgage had already been paid after all with no paycheck in the account to support it.

But, thankfully, not only do we have an emergency fund in another account, but we also keep a buffer in our checking account against something like this happening.  Yes, we earn a very small percentage of interest on these buffer funds, but it protects us against overdrawing our account (and hefty overdraft fees) when something unexpected like this happens.

Do you keep a safety net in your checking account as protection?  How much do you think is enough of a safety net?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Photo by wax115

When you retire are you relying on Social Security and pensions to help you through retirement? I hope not!

There’s plenty of debate over whether Social Security will still be around when us 20- and 30-somethings retire. However, many companies no longer offer pensions to their employees anymore, so for many of us, that’s no longer an option.

So, how are we going to make it through our retirement years (and have money to hang out in that beach chair)?

Are you contributing to your (or your spouse’s) 401(k)? If not, does your company match your contributions? If they do, and you’re either not participating or not contributing up to the maximum company match, you are just throwing money away that your employer is willing to give you! Many companies will either offer a 1-to-1 match (for example, if you contribute 3% of your salary, they will also contribute 3%) or they will offer a partial match (if you contribute 4%, they will contribute 2%).

How can you increase your retirement savings?

• Try increasing your 401(k) percentage by just 1% and see what the effect on your paycheck is. Since, the money is pre-tax, it will not feel like a full 1%, since you are not paying federal, state, or local taxes on it (although you are still paying social security and medicare taxes on it).
• When you get a raise, try increasing your percentage savings. Chances are you won’t even miss it, since it’s money you weren’t getting before anyway. For example, you or your spouse gets a 3% cost of living increase. Do you really need the full 3% for your household needs? Try taking 1 or 2% of the raise and put it away in your 401(k).
• If you find that you’re getting a big tax refund each year, contribute some of your tax refund money into an IRA (and most likely claim it on that year’s tax return). Hopefully, you won’t even miss it!

Do you feel like you’re saving enough for retirement? Do you have a retirement fund (401(k), IRA, etc)? Have you thought about increasing your retirement savings? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Philippians 4:12-13 NIV

I have to admit it: sometimes I struggle with contentment.

When my husband and I purchased a house 8 years ago, we decided to make our purchase based on paying the mortgage with only my husband’s salary (since I wanted to eventually become a stay-at-home mom).

We purchased an older, smaller home in a busy area. Our intention was to live in our home for a couple of years and then move into another better house. As I shared earlier this year, we spoke with a realtor about a month ago, and we are underwater on our mortgage (through no fault of our own…it’s just our local market). It could be years before our house makes it back to even our purchase price.

Sometimes I struggle with being content with the house that I have…knowing that I’ll still likely be living here in a couple of years. I wish my house was bigger, newer, had a bigger backyard, was more in the country…

Don’t get me wrong…I am happy that:

• We have somewhere to live
• We can afford our mortgage and are not facing foreclosure like so many in our area

Instead of focusing on what others have (and I don’t), I can work my hardest to make our home work for us. Plus…even though I don’t live anywhere near the country…at least there’s a drugstore on almost every corner . I need to also focus on Christ for my contentment, not things.

What can discontentment cost financially?

Don’t people keep up with the Jones’ many times because they are discontent? They see what their neighbor has, and they lust after it. Maybe they can’t afford it, so they go in debt just to acquire it (and the Jones’ are likely in debt to afford it, too).

Or have you ever really wanted something like the newest gadget? Once you got it, you were so excited to play with it. But, a week later, it wasn’t that great anymore, and you’ve moved on the next great thing. Isn’t that why manufacturer’s are always “improving” their products and then leading us to believe that the old one won’t work for us anymore.

Will a person feel better once they have everything the Jones’ have? Would I feel more content if I had a different house? Probably not…

What about you? Do you struggle with contentment in any area? What has the discontentment cost you? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Photo by poppcorn

If you read my blog, you know that I list many “deals” for items that are free or inexpensive. However, you can go crazy trying to get all the deals all the time. So, how do you know when a “deal” is not a good deal?

• Do you need the item? If your family doesn’t use the item, do you really need to buy it even if it’s free? You’ll likely still be paying sales tax on the “free” item, and it will be taking up storage space in your house and creating clutter. One solution (if you just can’t pass up the deal) is to donate the item to charity.

• How much of a stockpile do you need? Even if your family does use the item, do you really need to stockpile a 3 years’ supply? If the item is perishable, you may end up just throwing it away, since you weren’t able to use it before the expiration date. Once you have a stockpile built up, you may need to ease up on getting the deals.

• Is this item worth the time and effort to purchase? There are many great deals at many different stores (CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, Meijer, Kroger, etc). But, is the item worth making a special trip into the store? At this point in my life (with 2 young boys), I don’t have the time to make many small trips to various stores. So, I currently shop at just CVS, Rite Aid, and Kroger or Meijer (depending on the week, but not usually both). I don’t necessarily hit CVS or Rite Aid every week…it just depends on the number of deals available that week. Most deals involve planning, cutting coupons, as well as the trip to the store.

• If you do have an OOP (out-of-pocket cost), is that cost in your current budget? Most deals are not just a one-time event, so if that item is not currently in the budget, it doesn’t make sense to spend the money to purchase it. Most likely another deal will come along when you have the cash to pay for it.

• A “good” deal may be different for everyone – Different regions of the country may have different prices – most noticeable is milk. I think milk for $0.99 is a great deal, but about $1.75/gallon is the norm in MI right now. I’ve seen others from different regions get excited about milk at a much higher price. Also, everyone has items that they love that they are willing to pay a higher price on, whereas someone else may think the item is too high of a price to buy.

How do you determine if a deal is a “good” deal? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

Photo by jrdurao

As a single-income household, we have to make choices about where to spend money. I try to use our resources wisely in areas like grocery and household spending, so that we can splurge in other areas. We like to vacation as a family…but it can take money.

Every year, we develop a vacation budget based on the trips that we plan on taking throughout the year. Since we like to camp, we usually take several summer/fall trips. We also live in snowy MI where the winter can get REALLY long, so I budget for a small trip to an indoor water park in the winter. I divide our annual budgeted amount by 12 and make a monthly transfer to our savings account.

This year, our camping plans with friends fell through, so we decided to take a trip to Cedar Point (an amusement park in OH with MANY roller coasters). It wasn’t exactly a frugal trip even though we still camped, but we had SO much fun. AND, the trip was in our budget and we paid cash for everything.

My husband is already planning next year’s trip, so I need to figure out how to budget it in our vacation fund .

What do you like to splurge on? Do you save in some areas, so that you can spend in others? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

Jamie from Suburban Saving Mama is guest posting for me today on when she and her husband hit financial rock-bottom and how they dug themselves out of it.

Way too spontaneous, frivolous with our finances, and young…what we were thinking? When my husband and I reflect on our first few years of marriage, we just stare at each other wide-eyed wondering how we got to where we are today.

Being recent college graduates, we decided it would be a good idea for us to relocate from small town Iowa to the big city of Chicago where I would attend not one, but two private graduate schools. Add to the mix having no employment lined up, combining our massive pile of credit card debt, and going from paying $200 to $800 in rent.

Our first few months of marriage in a tiny one bedroom apartment involved some rather interesting recipes, a crazy sales position, and realizing that we only had $1.00 left to our name. It was at that point that I say we hit, “financial rock-bottom”.

Using Dave Ramsey’s, “Total Money Makeover Workbook”, we were able to create a list of all our debts ranging from credit cards (four to be exact) to wedding bands. Making a visualization of our debt and placing it on the fridge helped us realize how irresponsible we had been with our finances and the changes that we needed to make.

We used what Ramsey coined, ‘the envelope system’ to budget out what we would spend each month on groceries, gas, and entertainment. The cash was withdrawn from the bank at the beginning of each month and placed in the envelopes. Once it was gone, you were out of luck.

The system seemed to be working really well for us until about six months into our marriage. It was right around Christmas when we noticed that someone had broken into our apartment and stolen our lock box which contained all our personal and financial information. With that information, they were able withdraw all the money from our account and never be caught.

Around the same time, our credit card went from being finance charge free to 20% …ugh! With the help of a relative, we were able to pay off all our credit card debt and pay them back interest free! Less than ten months later, no more credit card debt!!

Realizing that we eventually wanted to add children to our family, we started a “Baby Fund” which we added $50.00 to each month. My husband even took on an extra part-time job and we had that money direct-deposited into the savings account. When we found out that we were expecting in January of 2009, we raised our monthly contribution to $100.00 and now have over $3000.00 saved.

Looking back at where we were financially to today, there is a big difference. We could have never imagined owning $3,000.00 and now it sits in one of our savings accounts. Instead of the lists of debts on our fridge, we have the $1 bill (that used to be our only one), to remind us to honor our finances in the right way and learn how to model responsible behavior to our future children.

Jamie runs the website Suburban Saving Mama. She is has been married for two years and is expecting her first baby in September. Along with her great interest in saving money and finding the best things for her new baby, she stays busy working on her master’s degrees in Early Child Development and Social Work.

Have you ever purchased a product with a rebate and then forgotten to send the rebate in? Many people do (which is what the companies are counting on). However, here are a few tips to help make sure you get your rebates:

• Apply for the refund as soon as possible after making the purchase. It’s very easy to forget once the purchase is not fresh on your mind. Many times the expiration dates to send in the rebate go quickly.

• Apply for the rebate online, if possible. Rite Aid has a monthly Single Check rebate program where you can purchase the items at Rite Aid and then enter your receipt online. At the end of the month you can request your rebate check. It’s really easy. I also recently purchased McAfee VirusScan when it was free after rebate from Amazon. I filled out the initial paperwork online and printed out a rebate form with a barcode. It streamlined the rebate process, and I should get my check more quickly than if I had just mailed in the materials. Plus, I can check on the status online.

• Check and double-check the rebate requirements. Make sure you include all items they ask for, such as the rebate form, receipt, UPC from the product, etc.

• Make a copy of all the materials that you mail. You will want to have a record of the contact information, in case your rebate does not come. Plus, if there is a dispute, you can send them a copy of your materials. I once had a rebate denied, because they claimed I did not send the UPC, but I disputed it with a firmly worded letter and a copy of the UPC (they mailed me the check).

• Keep a log of your outstanding rebates. Some items to include on the list are the item, the rebate amount, the date you mailed it, and a target receipt date based on the date you mailed the rebate and the time frame listed on the rebate form (usually 6-8 weeks). That way, you know when a rebate does not arrive, and you can dispute it. There are also websites out there where you can enter the rebate information and keep track of your rebates like RebateTracker.

How do you keep track of your rebates? Do you have a system that works great for you? Do you purchase products just because they have a rebate? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

Photo by a kartha at stock.xchng

When we purchased our home at the end of 2001, we figured it was a starter home…we’d live in it for a couple of years and then move on to a bigger home or a home in another area. We paid about 10% down, paid closing costs on a 30 year fixed interest rate mortgage and figured we were good. Later, as the housing market rose, we refinanced at a lower interest rate (without pulling out any equity), and since the equity had increased, we were able to phase out PMI.

Fast forward to 2009. We’re still in our starter home, and we recently had an opportunity to potentially move out of state. However, because of all the news about the housing market, I wanted to talk to a realtor before we even started making any decisions. We found out that we are “underwater” on our mortgage with the potential to owe about $25,000 out of our pocket to our mortgage company, realtor, and state in taxes! Wow…I was amazed that it was that bad. We have a lower priced home to begin with, we have a “normal” 30 year fixed mortgage, we didn’t pay PMI because we “had” 80% equity in the home. Plus, we didn’t even buy at the peak of the market, either.

We live in MI, which has the highest unemployment rate and a really high foreclosure rate. About half the homes on the market in our area are bank-owned homes. They are pricing those homes really low, but unfortunately those are the homes we have to compete with.

Our experience with the realtor left me feeling that we had somehow mismanaged our finances…but did we? When I look back, I can’t say that we could have done anything better. We went for the conservative fixed-rate mortgage (even when we had friends suggesting we go for the ARM), we put a fair amount down on the house, paid PMI rather than taking out an 80/20 loan. We even purchased a lower-priced home knowing that I would be quitting my job in a couple of years when we had kids. We probably could have saved for a larger down payment on the house, but at the time we were paying off my student loans and really focused on that.

So, what does knowing we’re “underwater” teach us? A home is not always an investment. For years, people bought houses thinking they were an appreciating asset. They did not feel like the prices could go down as low as they did. We are thankful that we can pay our mortgage, we don’t HAVE to move (so we can wait for prices to appreciate to a more manageable level), and if we really did have to move, we have an emergency fund built up that would probably cover any deficit that we would owe (but wipe us out).

How to determine your own home price – The best way is to call a realtor if you’re seriously thinking about making a move in the future, but another feature to see the trend of home prices in your zip code is Zillow.com. Click on the Local Info tab, and you’ll see all kinds of information about home prices in your area.

How is the housing market where you live? Are you “underwater” on your house? If you’re thinking about moving, have you talked to a realtor to fully grasp what your situation is? Any tips for us (other than stay put)? For more frugal tips, please visit Life as Mom.

Photo by cjcj

Last night we had a 6th birthday party for my son.

Although many of his friends over the past year have had great parties at places like Chuck E. Cheese, bowling, a gynmastics center, and bounce places, I couldn’t bring myself to pay for the steep cost associated with such a party. I worried about setting a precedent for the party and then being expected to have a party like that every year (and for his brother too).

So, I wanted a frugal birthday party, but I wanted to try to avoid having it at my house again. We decided on a party at the park. With a summer birthday, you can do things like that . We decided on a Thursday evening to allow time to cool off a little (it didn’t really), and we hoped the park wouldn’t be so busy as on a Saturday.

Food – We ordered $5 Little Caesar’s pizzas, since we had the party during dinnertime. If I had the party on a Saturday, I would have had the party between 2-4 and just served cake. We also had juice packets that I had purchased on major sale a couple of months ago and bottled water (although I should have just brought our big camping water dispenser to have lots of water available).

Cake – My son doesn’t like cake (just the frosting), so I made him a WallE cookie cake…easy to make and very low cost

Entertainment – The boys played on the play structure at the park, ate pizza and cookie cake, opened presents, and threw water balloons at my husband.

Party Favors – Since WallE is apparently not very popular anymore, all the WallE stuff at the party store was on clearance. I purchased some WallE noise makers, stickers (gave each child a page of stickers), and I visited the dollar store. I splurged on WallE bubbles that I found ($1 for each child), and purchased other items with multiple items per package (dinosaurs and card games).

I think the boys (and my son) had just as much fun as if it were at a party place. I just had to do a little more work myself to pull it off .

What have you done to save money on birthday parties? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

I love summer holidays. Memorial Day and Labor Day are bookends to the summer and the 4th of July falls smack dab in the middle. Besides celebrating our country, the 4th of July can be a great frugal holiday. There are many free things to do for the 4th.

• City Fireworks Displays- our city has its annual fireworks at the end of a week-long carnival on the Sunday before the 4th of July, so we just watched them. It’s a great opportunity to get together with friends. The kids run around, we brought snacks to share, and it was all free! There are usually several options for fireworks displays (depending on where you live). Often the newspaper will list the fireworks displays in the surrounding areas.

• Parades - many towns have parades to celebrate the 4th. Although we don’t have one here, I remember watching (and participating) in parades when I was a kid. It’s fun to line along the road watching all the groups marching through. My favorites were always the marching bands and the shriners.

• Cookouts with Family/Friends – we usually celebrate with family by grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats, as well as all the fixin’s. To keep costs down, organize a potluck, so everyone shares the cost of the food. Or, if you are hosting, plan your meal early and shop the sales the month prior for great deals on the food. For fun, we set up volleyball and croquet in the backyard.

• Make a cute patriotic dessert - A couple of years ago, I made this cute Uncle Sam hat cake (see photo above) to bring to a 4th of July party that we attended. It was easy to make, and really cute. Here are some other cute ideas.

• Inexpensive Kid’s Crafts – organize some crafts for the kids to do during your cookout. Here’s a great site with some inexpensive crafts for them to create.

What do you do to celebrate the 4th of July? How to you save money on your celebrations? For more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom.

Have you signed up for the many free item coupons lately? I have…so I have several free candy bar coupons, a coupon for a free jumbo pack of beef hot dogs, and a coupon for a free Burt’s Bees lip product.

So even though the item is technically free, is it possible to make the coupon worth more than free? Yes, it is. You just have to use the coupon in conjunction with other offers such as:

• Coupon for buy $$, get $$ off your order. This week when I visited my local CVS, I scanned my CVS ECB card as I walked in. A coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase printed out. CVS was having a lot of good deals, I had several free item coupons, and I had about $12 in ECB’s to spend. So I thought I would at least see if I could make it up to the $50 with very little out of pocket (OOP). Remember, the $50 (at least at CVS) is before all coupons and ECB’s are applied to your order. I was able to make it to $50 (just barely), and I spent almost nothing out of pocket. The free item coupons helped me get there.

• Extra Care Bucks (ECB’s) Deal at CVS – If you can use your free item coupon plus earn ECB’s, you are making money that you can use to spend on other items that you need, such as milk or diapers.

• Buy 1 Get 1 (B1G1) Free Sale – If you can use your coupon with a B1G1 free sale, then you can get 2 items for free.

How do you make your free coupons stretch even further? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Photo by mrceviz

Although we ultimately decided that flying to my sister’s house was too expensive for my recent vacation, there are times when you have no choice but to fly. So, how can you save money on your flight? I’ve compiled a list of tips:

• Use a travel site like Hotwire.com to search for the best airfares. Hotwire is great, because it automatically will show you any savings for adjusting the dates of your trip or by flying through an alternative airport.

• Check the smaller, discount airlines sites directly like Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and JetBlue, because their fares are often not included in the conglomerated travel sites.

• Fly Tues – Thurs and stay Sat. overnight - these days are typically less busy for the airlines, so the fares are lower.

• Be flexible on dates – If you don’t care exactly when your vacation begins or ends, check the dates surrounding your travel date for better fares.

• Be flexible about your airport – Hotwire will check to see if you can get a better fare by travelling to a nearby airport. Of course, make sure someone is willing to pick you up, or that you are not losing any savings from additional transportation costs from the airport.

• Before you book through a site like Hotwire, make sure you shop through a cash-back site first to get money back. But, make sure that you’re not paying more in the booking fee (typically $7) than you’re getting in cash-back. Ebates and Mr. Rebates each offer 2% cash-back for Hotwire, Big Crumbs offers up to 1.8%, and Cashbaq and UPromise each offer 1% cash-back.

• If the booking fee is more than your cash-back reward, book directly through the airline’s website to avoid paying any booking fees once you’ve determined which airline offers the best fare. Avoid making a telephone reservation, because some airlines charge as much as $25 extra for calling vs. booking over the internet.

• Book early – many promotional offers require an advance purchase of at least 7 days.

• Avoid extra charges – Pack snacks to avoid paying for in-flight snacks. Limit what your bring to avoid extra bag or overweight bag charges.

• Sign up for airline Frequent Flyer programs – Although I fly very infrequently, I have enough frequent flyer miles for a free ticket (now…how can we get a babysitter for a week to go on a nice vacation?)

• Give up your seat on an overbooked flight – if you are flexible about your travel plans and are willing to give up your seat on an overbooked flight, you can often get travel vouchers worth $100′s of dollars. When you arrive at the airport, inform the agent that you are willing to give up your seat(s), so you are at the top of the list. We gave up our seats one Christmas, and earned 2 $350 travel vouchers that we used towards our trip to England. Plus, we were put up in a hotel and flew first class the next day.

How do you save money when you fly? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Photo by clix

Well, we’re back from our vacation visiting my sister and her family, so I should be back to my regular posting schedule.

However, I had a long 2-day drive each way (with a 5 and 3 year old!) to think about ways to save money on vacation this summer. I plan on writing a 3-part travel series:

• Deciding which mode of transportation to use on vacation
• Saving money when traveling by car
• Saving money on flights

As I stated earlier, I chose to drive for 4 days total with my boys to visit my sister. But, why would I make such a crazy decision? It comes down to money, basically (and I was delusional about how a 5 and 3 year old would like a car trip ). But, what factors did I take into account?

Determine the Cost of Each Mode of Transportation

• Travel by Car – I used Mapquest to determine the number of miles between destinations. Then, I divided the number of miles by the average miles per gallon that I get on my vehicle and multiplied it by the average price for a gallon of gas (or you could use AAA’s Trip Calculator). I calculated that it would cost me about $100 each way for gas, plus 2 nights in a hotel. You should also add some number in for the wear and tear on your car, but this is not very scientific.

• Travel by Plane – I checked the airline prices, and it would cost about $250 per ticket at the very least. Plus, very few of the flights (especially on the lower end) were direct flights, so I would have spent 4-5 hours in the airport and on planes herding 2 little kids through security with car seats.

• Travel by Train – I did actually look into the prices for taking Amtrak. I travelled by train many times when I lived in Belgium and Germany, plus my kids are obsessed with trains, so I thought it might be fun. Plus, we’d be able to stretch our legs during the trip rather than be confined to our seats the entire time like in the car. However, since it was such a long distance the main portion of the trip would take place overnight. The cost of a sleeping compartment on the train was about $450 alone one-way. So, it would cost about $700 each way to take the train…and we would be stranded in a major city overnight, since both the connecting trains left before the night train arrived.

• Travel by Bus – I did not look into this option, but many years ago my mom, sister, and I took a Greyhound bus from Tulsa to Winnipeg, Canada, so it’s an option for some. If I remember correctly, the bus left us in major cities in the wee hours of the morning, and I wasn’t willing to do that by myself with 2 little boys. It might work for a shorter trip, though.

I ultimately chose to drive because it was the less expensive option by far, and I wasn’t constrained by time (since I don’t work outside the home and my boys were out of school). We were there for a week, so we got to visit for longer than we were driving. I am definitely never going to drive to FL for DisneyWorld, though. We will just have to save up for plane tickets .

How do you decide how to get to your vacation destination? How do you balance money vs. time? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Today my baby turned 3 years old. He insisted on having a Curious George cake, so that’s what he got (since I aim to please).

Rather than purchase a cake at the store (which doesn’t taste as good anyway), I made his cake using a Buttercream transfer. It’s actually really simple and it can be done ahead of time and placed on the cake right before you serve it.

All you need is a picture (printed in mirror image) from a coloring book or printed from online (I found mine on PBS Kids), a piece of glass, some chocolate, some frosting, and some decorator bags/tips.

Here are some other birthday cakes I’ve made over the years and here’s a link to a post with my buttercream frosting recipe.

Additional resources for homemade birthday cakes:

• Coolest Birthday Cakes
• Wiltons’ site – thanks Sabrina

Do you make your own cakes? How do you come up with ideas to decorate them? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom (who also happens to be great at making cakes).

A couple of week’s ago, I wrote a post with some ideas for frugal teacher’s gifts. Yesterday was my 5 year old’s last day of school, so I thought I would show you what I ultimately decided to do.

I purchased a potted begonia from a local nursery for $4.25 each. They gave me a free pick to place into the pot. Then, I created a bookmark (using Shabby Princess’ FREE Vintage Florals kit) for each of his 3 teachers that stated, “Thanks for helping me Grow” with a picture of him on it. I also created a card and wrote a personal note to each teacher (with my son’s signature).

I thought they turned out really cute, and I probably spent about $15 total for all three gifts.

Do you do teacher’s gifts? What are some ideas that you have used? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

What happens when you have the perfect plan to score a free item at the store, but when you arrive at the store they are all out of stock?

There are actually several things you can do. 1) You can ask a store employee if there are any items in the back or if the item is on an endcap somewhere. 2) You can ask the cashier when the store receives their shipment each week (and when the shipment actually makes it to the shelves) and then go back to the store then, hoping that the item is now in stock. OR 3) Ask the cashier for a rain check to purchase the item at a later time.

What is a raincheck? It is a voucher which will allow you to purchase the item at the advertised price after the store has restocked it. There are several things to be aware of regarding rainchecks:

• Check the expiration date – many times the raincheck if only valid for several weeks. Plus, you want to make sure that your coupon (you are using a coupon, right?) is still valid when you redeem the raincheck. However, sometimes it works to your advantage, because additional coupons become available for the item or it gives you time to order additional coupons from Ebay or the Coupon Clippers.
• Check the quantity limits – sometimes there is a limit on the number of items you can purchase and sometimes the cashier will ask you how many you plan to purchase. I would err on the side of requesting more than you think you’ll use, just in case you get an awesome coupon to go with the raincheck.
• Grocery stores are required to give out rainchecks for advertised items that have sold out, unless the ad states “limited quantities per store or only in certain stores. No rainchecks.” Other stores are not required to give out rainchecks, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Here are some of the ins and outs of obtaining and using rainchecks at the drugstores:

• CVS – the raincheck is written and includes both the sale price and the extra buck amount. When you redeem the raincheck, the price should be adjusted to the sale price, and the extra care bucks should print based on the event code (an 8 digit number found in the ad). However, the cashier should be able to force the ECB’s to print. To be safe, I would also cut out the flyer with the information and attach it to the raincheck. Also, CVS rainchecks don’t expire.
• Walgreens – it appears that many of the raincheck policies at Walgreens stores are different for each store. Some stores will give rainchecks on items where you would earn a Register Reward and some will not. It’s best to get to know your cashier and ask him/her.
• Rite Aid – here’s a great tutorial on how to do a Rite Aid rebate and still get the SCR’s back after the SCR time period has passed.

Do you use rainchecks? Do you have any additional tips that you’ve found when you ask for/redeem rainchecks? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

Have you noticed when you purchase electronics/appliances that the salesperson always asks you if you want to purchase an extended warranty? They will usually follow it up by telling you how expensive a repair is and how much money you are saving by purchasing the extended warranty.

However, the extended warranty usually costs between 10-20% of the cost of the item you’re purchasing, and typically the repair rate for the first three years of ownership of many items is less than 10%. Retailers’ profit margins on electronics runs about 10%, but they are able to make a much larger profit on the extended warranties. Most warranties don’t cover accidental damage…you should read the fine print on what exactly is covered before you purchase the extended warranty.

Because of this, I don’t typically purchase extended warranties. Although, one source suggested possibly looking into an extended warranty for a laptop computer, since the 3-year repair rate is 33%. However, you should buy the warranty from the manufacturer rather than the retailer so you can get tech support, too.

So, what can you do to extend your warranty without purchasing an extended warranty?

• Purchase a TV or Computer at Costco – Costco will extend the warranty on TV’s and computers purchased at Costco to two years from the date of purchase (typically the manufacturer’s warranty is good for one year)
• Pay for your purchase with an American Express card – American Express will extend the warranty on an item paid for with an American Express card up to one additional year.
• Research warranties on parts – often the compressor on a refrigerator and the magnetron on the microwave are covered for 5 years, even though the rest of the appliance is only covered for a year. Recently we had the magnetron on our microwave replaced for free under warranty, since it was just within the 5 year warranty.

Do you purchase extended warranties on electronics, appliances, or computers? If not, do you have any other creative ways to extend the warranty? For more frugal ideas, visit Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

Do you have an emergency fund that you can draw against in case of an unexpected layoff or home/auto/medical expenses? If not, you should.

What is an Emergency Fund?

According to the Financial Dictionary, an emergency fund is a reserve of cash kept available to meet the costs of any unexpected financial emergencies. It is designed to provide financial back-up for unexpected expenses or for a period when you aren’t working and need income.

An emergency fund should be used only for true emergency expenses, such as an important appliance like a fridge or stove dying, an unexpected car repair, an unexpected medical expense, or a layoff. If you have a planned big expense such as braces or a new vehicle, you should save for it rather than tapping your emergency fund. Plus, if you have to use some money from your fund, your goal should be to replace it as soon as possible.

How Much Should You Keep in Your Emergency Fund?

Most experts agree that you should save 3-6 months of living expenses. The exact number depends on your family situation…whether you have only one income supporting a family, you’re single, you have dual incomes, etc.

However, it can seem daunting to save that much money. The best way to build your emergency fund is by setting small goals. For example, Dave Ramsey suggests you should create a $1,000 emergency fund before you start doing anything else. That way you at least have a small buffer against expenses while you tackle the next step – paying down debt.

However, what do you do in a time of recession? Should you pay down debt or create a larger emergency fund? It’s really up to you, but if you really think that you will be facing a layoff soon, I would try to beef up the emergency fund as much as you can. Then, if you are not laid off, you can take the extra money and apply it towards your debt in one lump sum.

Where Should you Keep your Emergency Fund?

You want to make sure that you keep your emergency fund very liquid (meaning somewhere where you can access the money quickly without a large drop in its value). So, you do not want to put your emergency fund in real estate or even in the stock market really. We keep our fund in money markets, but other people use short-term CDs. You do want to make sure that your money is earning as good a rate as possible for those types of accounts.

Do you have an emergency fund? How did you build it up? Did you use small goals? Where do you keep your money? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

There’s just a little over 2 weeks until Mother’s Day. Do you have a plan for a Mother’s Day gift already? If not, I have some great ideas for frugal, homemade Mother’s Day gifts.

• Heartfelt Card – Does mom really want/need a gift? If your mom seems to have everything, perhaps she would best love a card with a message for your heart thanking her for all she’s done for you and meant to you over the years. I bet that she would appreciate that more than any purchased gift. You don’t even need to purchase a card…just whip one up with some leftover scrapbooking supplies or design a digital card.

• Digital Photo Slideshow – Smilebox.com is a great program where you can load your pictures and create a photo slideshow with cute templates that you can burn onto a CD or e-mail. Plus, you can create cards and photo albums. The service is free for the basic products, with a small charge for some extras.

• Digital Photo Scrapbook – My mom and MIL both seem to like pictures having of their grandkids around, so I usually whip up a digital scrapbooking project and digital card that I can print out for both of them. Then, they each get a personalized book, but it’s not double the work. Better yet, there are lots of quickbooks out there where the designer has already created the page, and you just need to slip in your pictures, saving even more time (and they’re usually much cuter than any page I could design on my own). The Shabby Princess has some of my favorite quick albums, but I also like some of the albums at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Basically, you just add your pictures and then I reduce the page size to 6×6 and print 2 pages on a 8×12 sheet at Costco (only $1.49 each). For a tutorial on how to add your pictures to a quick page using Adobe Photoshop Elements, click here.

• Photo Gifts – If you don’t feel like creating your own scrapbook, Snapfish and Shutterfly both have some great Mother’s Day photo gifts that you can order. However, Shutterfly has some great digital scrapbook-type templates that you can use to create your photo book. Plus, you can save up to 20% on photo books at Shutterfly through 4/30.

• Flowering Plant – If your mom likes to have plants on her deck or porch, why not a practical gift like a flowering plant or some flowers to go into her garden.

• Chore Coupons – Do you live near your mom? If so, is there anything that you can do to help her? Could you help her with a project she’s working on? Create a coupon book with some chores that she can use her coupons on. Better yet…this is a great gift to hint to your kids for yourself .

• Free kids craft workshops at Michaels – Each day during the week before Mother’s Day, Michaels is offering a free craft workshop, where kids can create gifts for mom or gramma.

What are you planning on doing for Mother’s Day? Do you get gifts for your mom? Do your kids give you gifts? What are your favorite gifts to receive (mine are homemade)? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

Photo from Mother’s Day ’07 gift using Shabby Princess’ Wonderful Piece-of-Cake album.

Has someone in your family lost their job recently? With the unemployment rate at 8.5% in March (and with my state’s rate the highest in the nation at 12%), it’s likely that unemployment has affected someone you know.

Tia from Tia’s Saving Cents wrote a guest post for me several months ago on how she’s preparing for her own upcoming unemployment. And, as part of the most recent stimulus plan, the government is also offering a little help.

• Taxation on Unemployment Compensation – Did you know that you pay taxes on any unemployment compensation that you earn? I think many people are surprised by that, and many fail to have any taxes withheld from their payments, which sometimes causes them to owe money come tax time. However, for 2009, the first $2400 of your unemployment benefits will be excluded from taxation. So, when you file your 2009 return (in 2010), you will be able to reduce your unemployment income by $2400 (but not below $0).

• Increased Unemployment Compensation – Unemployment compensation is also being increased by $25/week and the amount of time that you can draw unemployment is being extended.

• COBRA – When you leave your employer, they must offer you and your family COBRA for your medical insurance (a continuation of your coverage). However, it is often very expensive, because you are now paying not only your portion of the premiums, but also what your employer pays, which is usually a much higher percentage than what the you, the employee, pays. For most people, the cost is just too expensive to pay during a time of unemployment. As part of the stimulus plan, the government is offering a federal subsidy of 65% of your monthly COBRA payments for 9 months as long as you were involuntarily terminated between 9/1/08 and 12/31/09. This coverage is phased out for higher income taxpayers. Your employer should notify you if you are eligible, so ask them if you are unsure about it.

• Access to free Visits to the Take Care Clinic at select Walgreens – Walgreens is offering free healthcare visits to their patients and families who have recently lost their jobs and are uninsured. For more details, click here.

Have you been affected by unemployment? If so, did you know about these changes to the law and taken advantage of them? Do you know of any other companies offering specials for the unemployed? For more frugal tips, please visit Life as Mom.

Related tax posts:

• Making Work Pay Credit
• Keep Track of Non-cash Charitable Contributions
• Flexible Spending Account

I love to go out to eat! I mean, who wouldn’t…someone else prepares the food for you and there’s no cleanup. There’s one catch, though…the cost.

Eating out can be a budget killer, especially these days when it seems like the prices on the menu just seem to be going up and up. However, there are a few things that you can do to reduce the cost when you do go out to eat:

• Use coupons: I usually check all my junk mail (like the Valpak coupons) for restaurant coupons, sometimes there are coupons included in the Red Plum inserts I get in the mail on Mondays, and if you go out to eat a lot, you could order an Entertainment Book and save well more than the cost of the book using the coupons. Plus, before you go, do a quick internet search to make sure you’re not missing any printable coupons.

• Sign up for Restaurant Loyalty Clubs – When you sign up to receive e-mails from restaurants, you will often get meal coupons when they send out their newsletter. For example, when I signed up for the Chilis club at the beginning of March, I received an e-mail for a free chips and salsa with an entree purchase. Plus, I received e-mails just this week letting me know about Easter specials they were running. Thanks, Tracy for reminding me of this one!

• Sign up Birthday Freebies – When your birthday rolls around, you’ll get inundated with e-mails for free or discounted items at restaurants. For example, my husband just had a birthday at the end of March, and we had coupons for a free ice cream at Baskin Robbins and Coldstone Creamery. Plus, he received a free burger coupon for Red Robin, free cake at Chilis, etc. To find out more about the birthday freebies, check out Free Birthday Treats or Freebies 4 Mom’s List. Thanks again Tracey for the reminder!

• Check out UPromise’s Dining Program: Did you know that you can earn up to 8% in UPromise college savings when you visit a participating restaurant and use a credit card that you have linked to your account? Plus, if you frequent McDonalds, you can make your purchases using a registered Arch card (which is reloadable) and earn 1% in college savings. Don’t know what Upromise is? Click here for more info.

• Purchase a Restaurant.com gift certificate: Click here to view participating restaurants. Right now, you can purchase a $10 gift certificate for $3 or a $25 gift certificate for $10. Make sure you check out the details before you purchase, because many restaurants require a minimum purchase over and above the gift certificate amount. But, if you were going to spend this amount anyway, it can be a good deal.

• Visit the restaurant on a day when Kids Eat Free: KidsMealDeals.com has a great searchable list of restaurants that offer specials for kids. You can search by zip code and day of the week. If you hit a restaurant on the right day of the week, you can often get a free kids meal with your adult entrees.

• Check your Receipt: Before you throw away your receipt, check it for any surveys that offer a $/$$ coupon or a free item on your next visit. For just a few minutes of your time, you can saving on your dining out expenses the next time you go out. Thanks Tia for the tip!

• Other money saving tips: Some of the obvious tips are to drink water rather than order a drink to save about $2 a person on drinks. Also, depending on the portion sizes, share an entree or have your kids share a kids meal.

How do you save money when you go out to eat? Any tips I need to add to my list? It’s pretty easy for us to reduce our eating out these days, because it’s not very relaxing to bring our boys with us . For more frugal ideas, visit Life As Mom.

 

Earlier this week, I wrote about using a 529 plan to save for your child’s college. However, there is another tool that you can use to save for their college too. It is a Roth IRA.

Most people think a Roth IRA synonymous with retirement savings. And, that is true. It is most often used to save for retirement. But, it can also be used for college savings.

How does a Roth IRA work?

Basically, if you have earned income, you can make a contribution to an IRA up to $5,000 per spouse (or your earned income, if it’s less than $5,000 per spouse). Also, the amounts you can contribute are reduced if you have income between $159,000 to $169,000 if Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) and phased out above $169,000.

The amounts that you contribute to the Roth IRA are taxable (so you can’t deduct your contribution on your taxes like you can a traditional IRA). However, the money grows inside the Roth IRA tax-free. Then, when it comes time to pay for college, you can withdraw your contributions tax-free to pay for qualified higher education expenses, and you can withdraw any earnings penalty free (but you would have to pay tax on the earnings if you pull out the money before the owner is 59 1/2 and the account is open for less than 5 years).

What are some advantages of a Roth IRA over a 529 Plan?

• If your child does not attend college, you don’t have to worry about whom to give the account to avoid the 10% withdrawal penalty. You’ll just continue to let it sit in your account for retirement.
• You have greater choice where you save your money. The 529 plans are state specific, and many of them have fairly high fees. You can choose to open a Roth IRA and pretty much any financial institution.

What are some disadvantages of a Roth IRA over a 529 Plan?

• If you use your state 529 plan, you can deduct your contributions on your state tax return.
• Distributions from a 529 plan are completely tax-free (not just the contributions like the Roth IRA).
• Distributions from a Roth IRA would be included in the base-year income for financial aid the following year, and may reduce a financial aid need-based package.
• Annual contribution limits for the 529 plan are much higher than the Roth IRA for most states.

Of course, consult your own financial planner to determine which account is better for you. Plus, I would suggest that you focus mostly on your own retirement before you worry about saving money for college. Although not the best situation, your child can get student loans, but no one will give you a retirement loan.

Which plan do you use if you are saving for your child’s college? We personally have a 529 account for each of our boys as well as a UPromise 529 account. For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.

When I’m at home and I need to call someone, I simply head to my address book or computer and look up a number. But, what if I’m away from home and don’t have the number handy?

Last summer, we were camping, and I remembered that I forgot to sign my son up for swim lessons (and if I waited until we came home the class would be full). I didn’t have an internet connection or the brochure to look up the number, so I had to call directory assistance, which put a whopping $1.49 charge on my bill.

However, there is an alternative to 411 that could have saved me a lot of money. Here are three of the services and what they offer:

• (800) FREE 411
• (800) GOOG 411
• (800) 555 TELL

How do these sites offer directory assistance for free? Many of them require you to listen to ads before they give you the number, and they don’t usually connect you, so you’ll need to have a pen and paper handy.

Have you used these free 411 sites before? Which one do you like best? For more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom.

When I was expecting my first child, it seemed like there were so many things I needed to prepare for baby (like a swing, bouncy seat, stroller, clothes, etc). We were blessed to receive many items at our baby showers, but of course there were still a few things that we had to purchase.

But, babies (and kids, too) outgrow their clothes and equipment so quickly that it really doesn’t make sense to purchase everything new. Used equipment is often almost as good as new, because they are used for such short periods of time. But, how do you find these great used deals?

There are many sources of used baby and kid things:

• Find a friend or family member with older kids who’s trying to get rid of their baby equipment
• Shop mom 2 mom sales – I don’t know if these sales are just a MI thing, but during the spring and summer there are often multiple mom 2 mom sales going on at various churches and schools. They are like a huge garage sale, but all of the items are children’s items sold by other moms. Do a Swagbucks search for mom 2 mom sales in your area to find a listing.
• Shop garage sales – To save time, I usually drive by a garage sale looking for obvious baby equipment or kids toys sitting out before I stop. Garage sales are a GREAT source of kids clothes. Often Craiglist will have garage sale listings…look for ones that mention baby or kids items.
• Look on Craigslist – To find big-ticket items like a stroller, bouncy seat, swing, etc, look on Craigslist in your area.
• Check out Ebay – When I had my second son, I was able to purchase a double stroller on Ebay for local pickup (shipping would have been outrageous). You can find almost anything listed on Ebay.
• Join Freepeats or a Freecycle group in your area – In these groups, items are listed for giveaway…you just need to pick them up.

How do you save money on baby and kids items? For more frugal ideas, visit Frugal Fridays new home at Life As Mom.

If you’re a long time reader, you may recall that my microwave broke back in November. It was the week that my husband had his ACL reconstruction surgery, so we weren’t in the position to pull the over-the-range microwave out to bring it to a repair center. Plus, I had purchased it online (for store pickup so I could earn UPromise money) about 5 years ago, and I couldn’t find the receipt. In the meantime, I just used my stove and oven to heat things up. Luckily, when it broke, I wrote a post about it, and one kind reader told me she thought it was the magnetron that was broken.

Fast forward to last week… The magnetron was covered on a 5 year warranty, so I finally called to schedule a repair person to come out and look at it (the week before it expired, no less). Before the person came, my husband and I debated as to how much we’d be willing to spend to get it fixed. The person on the phone told me that we’d have to pay $65 for the repair person to take a look at it, and if it was the magnetron, we’d have to pay the labor for replacement (but not the part). I finally pinned the person down to admitting that it would probably cost about $100 for labor.

The night before, my husband and I looked at the prices for new microwaves online. We didn’t want to spend $200 to fix our current microwave, if a new one was cheaper. But, we would have to pay the $65 regardless for the repair person to come out. How high were we willing to spend for repairs before we said it wasn’t worth it…and we’ll just buy a new one?

The cheapest new microwave was about $187 (we needed an over-the-range one), so we decided we were willing to spend up to $150 for repairs (since it would really be $187 plus the $65 service charge that we’d pay regardless). We even debated whether we should cancel our appointment the next day and just buy new. Pros…it’s new and ours had already broken once. Cons…my husband would have to pull this one out and install a new one, plus we’d be adding to the landfill with a 5 year old microwave, and at $100 for labor (if it was the magnetron), it was cheaper than new.

Moral of the story…the repair guy came out, and my kind reader was correct. It was the magnetron. Even better, he put in the entire order (parts, labor, $65 service fee) as part of the warranty claim, so our OOP is ZERO! We received the part in the mail this week, and 2 men are coming out on Saturday to install it! I looked at the claim, and the parts and labor came out to about $225 (more than a new replacement microwave!).

Have you had an experience similar to ours where things turned out better than you were expecting? For more frugal ideas, visit Frugal Friday’s new home at Life as Mom.

Did you know that you can deduct your medical expenses on your taxes (if you itemize)? However, your expenses need to be over 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, and you can only deduct those expenses over the 7.5% threshold. For many families, that 7.5% threshold is many thousands of dollars, so they are unable to deduct any of their expenses.

However, there is a plan offered by many employers called a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) that lets you use pretax dollars to pay for medical expenses. By using pretax dollars, you’re automatically saving the money you would have paid in taxes.

So How Does a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Work?

Each year, you need to estimate your expected medical expenses for the year and elect an amount to put into your FSA account. The catch is that you need to use the money during that year or you will lose it. So, you need to balance not having enough money to cover all your medical expenses vs. having too much and losing it at the end of the year. You can make your election once per year during annual enrollment, which usually happens near the end of the year (varies by company).

Some future expenses are easy to calculate. For example, you may know that both your kids will need to get their annual physical, and the copay is $15 for each. Plus, you may know that you need contacts each year, and they cost $250 a year. Add that up, and you know you’ll have at least $280 in medical expenses for the year. And that $280 can save you $42 if you’re in the 15% tax bracket (and even more for higher tax brackets).

You can use your FSA account for a wide variety of items such as over the counter medications, doctor copays, glasses/contacts, etc. Click here for a list of eligible expenses. If you look at your drugstore receipts, you will be able to see which items you purchased are eligible for your flexible spending account.

We elect money every year for our FSA, and it came in handy today. My 2 year old was crying and acting very unlike himself in our mom & tot class. I was trying to figure out what was wrong, and finally noticed that he was holding him arm funny and wasn’t using it at all. I thought perhaps he had injured it when he threw himself on the floor before class (a wonderful 2 year old tantrum). By having the FSA, I was able to save money on the $50 copay at Urgent Care.

By the way, he is fine. They think he might have popped his elbow out, but the x-ray technician probably popped it back when she took x-rays. By the time the doctor came to see us, he was fine and using him arm again with no signs of it hurting. Figures…but at least I saved my tax money on the copay (and I’m thankful he’s OK) .

Doing laundry is a fact of life in most households. Many times it is a daily chore that is necessary so our families have clean clothes to wear. The energy that is used doing laundry can add up over time to a pretty hefty bill. But, there are ways to save money even on laundry:

• Switch to a cold water wash – I wash all my darks in cold water with just my normal detergent, and the clothes come out clean. But, if you’re worried about whether regular detergent will do the trick, there are special cold water detergents. About 90% of the energy used to do laundry comes from heating the water. So, by doing 80% of your loads in cold water, you can save more than $60 per year (or $100 in higher electricity areas).

• Only do full loads of laundry – It takes about the same amount of energy to do a small load vs. a large load, so wait until you have enough laundry to fill the washing machine before you throw in a load.

• If you’re in the market for a new washing machine, consider an ENERGY STAR washing machine. The machine may be more expensive up front, but you’ll need to add the calculation for the energy savings into the cost. An ENERGY STAR qualified machine may save $550 in operating costs over the life of the machine.

• Consider hanging clothes to line-dry (or use a drying rack) rather than using your dryer.

How do you save money on laundry? For more frugal tips, visit Biblical Womanhood.