Redecorating the Living Room

Well, we finally did it.  After years of nagging discussion, Mike and I finally got around to redecorating the living room.  We've been in this house 19 years with the same white walls, the same bland window treatments, the same entertainment center and the same furniture (albeit with a slip cover re-do a number of years ago).

I'm going to let you in on a secret, my husband hates change.  The running joke is that what makes our marriage so successful is getting a new wife would require A LOT of change.  When he looks at something that is horribly outdated he really just doesn't see how bad it looks, until he sees how wonderful it can look!  I love how every time I twist his arm convince him to redecorate he admits how great it looks.  Of course he then adds (tongue in cheek) "I don't know why you didn't ask me to do this sooner?"

Here is what we had to work with.

The view of the living room from the dining area

Sorry - I forgot to take the "before" picture before Mike started.  This at least gives you the general idea of what our entertainment center wall looked like.

Don't you love the white on white? I did intend to put up a valance when I bought them.  19 years ago.

As you can see we had a lot to do.  I also wanted to keep our budget down.  The good news - we spent $415 to accomplish this transformation!

Here is where we spent our money:

• Window treatments - $175
• Paint - $65
• Art work - $145
• Cushions - $30 for zippers (the material was purchased four years ago with Christmas & birthday money)

Here's the after pictures.

View from the dining area

New TV & stand replacing the rather large pine entertainment center 

New window treatments

Window Treatments

     If you look closely you may notice that the window treatments are the same as in our kitchen.  Since our living room and kitchen/dining room open up into each other I carried the same color palette through both rooms.  I fell in love with these curtains a number of years ago but put off buying them for the living room because of cost.  

     Murphy's law - when I went to Lowe's to pick them up they were gone.  Discontinued.  No longer available.  Have you ever seen a grown woman throw herself on the floor and howl?  Fortunately the patrons at Lowe's didn't get to witness that either although I was pretty close.  Do you know what stopped me?  I spied the bargain bin with them marked down to........$5 a piece.  While it took me trips to two different Lowe's I was able to find all the pieces I needed for $25.  

     For the blinds I used Levelor Wooden Blinds that are custom cut in the store.  MUCH cheaper than special order and they'll cut them while you wait.

Paint

     When it came to picking out the paint color, the experts recommend using using varying shades of the same color for rooms that flow together.  The wall that the TV sits on is connected to the red wall in the kitchen so we decided to carry the red all the way through.  I also took the other kitchen paint to the store and asked for the same thing only half color.  Guess what, you can't tell the difference!  We should have just used our existing paint and saved ourselves some money!  That's ok, it's painted and that's all that matters.

     While there was no financial cost for the actual painting,  the physical and psychological costs were astronomical.  At least once an hour I heard "Have I told you how much I despise painting?"  to which I would answer "Why didn't you tell me before?  I would have NEVER asked you to paint if I would have realized how much you disliked it."  There is also a little matter of a sore wrist (requiring the appropriate amount of sympathy), however since he broke his bench pressing record today he no longer gets to complain about the sore wrist.

Cushions

     When we first moved into our house we bought This End Up furniture.  It's served us well and we still like it.  The downside is even though I've requested multiple samples I haven't been able to find cushions they make that I like.  Plus it would cost about $1,000 for us to buy the new cushions through them.

     A few years ago I decided that I would make slip covers for our cushions instead.  For about $300 I bought enough material for 10 cushions.  You'll notice that the floral cushions are the same in the before and after picture but I did actually re-make them.  The before cushions were made 2-3 years ago and were faded so I made the  new ones.

     Since the material was bought a long time ago with Christmas money I didn't include it in our cost.  I did however break down and buy new zippers.  My original thought was to reuse the old zippers and write about frugal ways to decorate.  My tip - buy new zippers.  You'll save yourself a lot of headaches!

Art

     Gordman's is where we buy most of our prints.  Did you notice the two floral prints?  They both had minor scratches on them.  When we got to the checkout I pointed them out and received an extra 20% off.  Mike took a red Sharpie to them when we got home, you would never know they were damaged!  The picture above the TV is my absolute favorite!  I'm going to keep my eye out for matching smaller prints and potentially swap them out for the poppies down the road.

TV and Stand

     I did not include the TV in the cost of the redecorating because that was something we would have bought whether we redecorated or not.  Last year our TV broke, we didn't have the money to buy the TV we wanted.  Our solution was to buy a new TV that would work in our bedroom (we needed a new TV there as well) and use it in the living room until we could afford the TV we wanted.  

     We didn't have quite enough money saved up to get the exact set-up that we wanted so we compromised a little bit.  We bought the TV and stand that we wanted but didn't buy the Blu-Ray player or a new receiver for the surround sound.  We'll continue to save the money and pick those up at a later date.

General redecorating tips

• Focus on what's important to you - The blinds were a "must" in my decorating plan.  The cushions were pretty worn and would have had to be replaced sooner or later, the paint was something I wanted but not required and the TV wasn't a necessity at all.  When working with a limited budget I would recommend prioritizing your wants/needs and then working down the list.
• Reuse what you can - you'll notice that I didn't change my lamps, shelves, vases, etc.  I still like them and they still fit in with my decor.  By not replacing the knickknacks I saved myself quite a bit of money
• Re-purpose items from different rooms - see the candle on the coffee table?  That was actually in a different room but wasn't working that great.  I've moved it to the living room and like it MUCH better.

Since we finished the room I've decided that the front door sticks out like a sore thumb.  Guess what's next on the list?

You might also like:

Keeping the Living Room Semi-Company Ready
Keeping the Kitchen Semi-Company Ready

Remodeling the Kitchen

Spending the Afternoon at Cabela's

I told you earlier this week that we were on vacation this week.  I also mentioned that in addition to my crazy to-do list we were going to make time for fun.

Earlier this year we had our mega vacation, taking the kids on a Caribbean cruise.  That vacation pretty much emptied our vacation budget so for this week of vacation we wanted to do fun things without spending a lot of money.  Today our frugal vacation fun included a road trip to Cabela's.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did end up spending more money than I meant to (I couldn't resist the candles!) but if you're looking for a great way to spend a few hours without it costing a lot of money (as long as you have more willpower than me!) then Cabela's is the way to go.

Here are some of the fun things to do at the store that doesn't cost any money (unless stated):

Explore the fish of the Great Lakes.  This is just a small portion of the aquarium.  The aquarium is on both sides of the walk way and wraps around the room.  The fish are amazing, even though the thought of those things swimming in the lake with us is a little creepy

Hunt the beasts of the Serengeti.   These are all real animals preserved and displayed.  I thought it would be fun to put Mike in an explorer hat with a hunting rifle but he wouldn't do it.  Maybe next time.

This is a wall of different types of sheep, bears, moose, etc.  The wall is two stories and contains a wide variety of different animals.  The light in the store was a bit bright so my picture of the full wall didn't turn out well.

Get attacked by a bear.  Don't worry - he was a toy bear so I wasn't in any real danger.

Learn all about the different species in your area.  Here's Mike posing by the deer display.  Who knew there were that many different species of deer! 

Having a contest in the shooting gallery.  For only $.50 a game you can spend quite a bit of time without spending a lot of money.  I can hold my own but of course Mike beat me at every game.  Since he practices for work I think he has an unfair advantage! 

Here's a picture of my big splurge.  This is a ginger peach candle that just smells divine!  I honestly didn't need another candle but I just couldn't pass this one up.

No visit to Cabela's is complete without stopping by the Cabela's Fudge Shop.  They are incredibly generous with their samples and have a wide array of fudges to choose from.  Plus, you want to talk about customer service?  The lady behind the counter told me that if I gave them 24 hour notice they would make up any of the fudge that was on their menu without any order minimum.  

Not pictured was our stop at their cafeteria where you can try wild game meat like elk & bison.  We always enjoy eating here except today was a little bit of a disappointment.  Cabela's - if you're listening you need to step up your game a little bit in the cafeteria department, it seems to have gone down hill a bit.

If you're really big into firearms there's also a gun library you can explore.  I thought the store officials might get a little hinky about me taking pictures of their guns!

So - if you're looking for something to do without spending a lot of money and you have a Cabela's fairly close by I would recommend a visit.  Oh yeah, the kids might enjoy it too :)

Wasn't Mike a great sport?  I have to say I'm pretty lucky to have a guy who is willing to pose for pictures in the middle of the store just so I can write a post.  I guess he's a keeper!

Frugal Gardening

Spring is in the air!

 

Who has spring fever? I can certainly say that I do! For me, spring fever comes with the desire to get out in the garden and start getting my hands dirty. Due to time constraints, I don’t do vegetable gardens but I do have flower beds coming out of my ears! Every year I seem to add a little bit more.

 

Flower gardening can be a very expensive hobby if you let it. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law actually take bus trips around the state buying different flowers for their beds. In the past my mother has spent hundreds of dollars at a time buying flowers. If I’m going to be honest, I do get a little crazy with my annuals as well.

 

Gardening doesn’t have to be expensive, especially if you are doing perennial gardening. There may be a few of you non-gardeners scratching your heads so let me back up a little bit. Annuals need to be planted every year (which is where the majority of my flower budget goes) while perennials come back year after year. Quite often, perennials will multiple in a way that in some cases leave you pulling your hair out!

 

That’s where flower gardening doesn’t have to cost you a lot of money. I’ll share a secret with you; no gardener wants to waste flowers. When it comes time to split our flowers we’re sometimes begging people to take them. I’m jumping up and down for joy this year because I have two people that want to take my ferns. Last year I couldn’t pay anyone to take them.

 

How can you start/maintain a garden with minimal investment?

 

1. Befriend a gardener. I’m going to venture a guess that there are very few gardeners out there who aren’t delighted to share some of their flowers. Personally, I’ve rarely come across a stingy gardener. However, there are a couple of rules.

• You can’t be overly picky. Remember, you aren’t going to a store buying what you need so don’t be offended if the gardener doesn’t want to split something. Not all plants split well, it may not be big enough to split or it may just be one of their favorite plants and they don’t want to share. If you don’t want what they are offering just say so.
• Don’t expect the gardener to do it when it’s convenient for you. I love sharing plants but only when it’s convenient for me. If I’m splitting this weekend, that’s when I’m splitting. If it doesn’t work out for you then don’t take them. Ok – I’m not always that tough but you get the picture
• Offer a small thank you gesture. Most of us don’t want money, but a home baked treat or a $5 gift certificate to Starbucks is always appreciated.

2.  Let everyone know you’re looking for flowers. I got a call one day from a friend who had a friend who had a friend that bought a house with beautiful flower beds that they didn’t want. They were calling people to come dig them out and take them home. I ended up with some fun flowers that I would have never bought on my own.

 

3. Ask for gift certificates. I have a $50 gift certificate for a local nursery that I got for Christmas. That will certainly help out when I go to plant my annuals this year. Letting the people who buy you presents know that you want money for a garden can help offset your investment.

 

4. Take advantage of garden club memberships. One of our local nurseries offers gift certificates when you spend X amount of dollars. Every little bit helps!

 

5. Get a buddy. Sometimes you just want to break down and buy some plants. My mom and I will sometimes go shopping; pick out a couple large plants that we like and split the cost as well as the plant. We each end up with the flowers we want but at half the price.

 

6. Buy off season. I always check out the clearance bins at the end of summer. Some of the flowers look pretty scraggly but if they are cheap enough I’ll take a chance. Most of them come back the following year.

 

7. Pay it forward. I’ve built most of my flower beds with help from other gardeners so I like to be generous and help others. I’ve been pleasantly surprised when I make a general offer (I’ll sometimes tack a note up on the board) for some of my plants to have other gardeners offer different plants back to me.

 

I hope these tips are helpful as you plan your spring plantings.  I'd love to hear your ideas for frugal gardening.  Feel free to leave a comment or link back to your gardening post. 

I’ll be posting this at We are THAT Family and Life as Mom

 

How the Internet Saves Us Money

I'm sure some of you don't even really remember when there was no Internet.  Back in the day (when we walked uphill to school both ways in snow.......), unless you were super handy, a repairman was always called when an appliance went out.  Now, instead of calling a repairman, we head straight for the Internet.

This morning my husband woke me up with the news that our dryer was not heating.  When I managed to finally pull myself from bed and confirmed for myself it wasn't heating (what can I say, I'm from the Show Me State) I headed to the Internet to try and find a solution.  The number one response that came back was a blocked vent from to much lint.  Since we just bought new towels (and they were throwing off A LOT of lint) this seemed like a possible problem.  Before I left for work I checked the exhaust but didn't see a blockage.

When my husband came home I told him the potential solution, he checked and didn't think that was the problem either.  Back to the Internet for solution number two - reset the thermometer.  After following the step by step directions to re-set the thermometer we were back in business - we had heat!

Even though we aren't incredibly handy appliance repair people, by checking the Internet for simple fixes we potentially saved ourselves hundreds of dollars.  Typically the service call alone costs $75 and they may have advised replacing the whole thermostat unit, that seemed to be the usual solution according to the Internet.

Besides that fact that we saved ourselves a lot of money and actually had fun solving the problem together, the best part was how easy it was to get to the dryer since I've been re-organizing.  If you check out the before picture in my organizing the laundry room/storage area, you can see that it would have been a chore just to get a spot cleared where we could actually fix the dryer.  By having the basement organized it literally took us minutes and was relatively stress free and I was easily able to lay my hands on my toolkit.  Because the linen closet was organized I was able to immediately find the flashlight also.  Isn't organization a wonderful thing!

Do you have an Internet saving money story?  Feel free to share it in the comments or link back to your blog.

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom and We are THAT Family
You might also like:

September Financial Check Up
Saving for Christmas
Taming the Laundry Beast

Frugal Friday - Christmas Shopping

As I've shared with you, my plan for this year is to try and get my Christmas shopping done before our Christmas Club is released.  This will enable me to use the Christmas funds I've saved for our vacation and keep my eyes open for killer sales since I'm shopping so early.

This week's purchase wasn't exactly a frugal buy but since it falls into my frugal Christmas shopping plan I thought I'd share it.  Kristen at We are THAT Family had posted about some new products that were available at the Mercy House store.  I faithfully followed her journey to Africa earlier this summer and loved the beaded necklaces that the girls were making in one of the pictures she posted.  I have to share that I have a soft spot in my heart for young, single, pregnant girls so when I saw her post go up that those products were available I headed right over there to purchase one of them.

For $20 (plus a couple of bucks shipping and handling) I got a really cool necklace, handmade by young women in Africa.  If that necklace was in a retail shop here it would cost more than $20 so I thought it was a pretty good deal.  My plan is to give this necklace to my sister-in-law for Christmas,  but I don't know that I can honestly do that since I really want it for myself :)  I'm thinking about heading over there next paycheck and buying a couple more for my daughter and nieces for Christmas (and maybe one for myself).  Hopefully she'll still have some in stock!

That's four presents down, I don't even want to think about how many more I have to go!

Are you planning on doing your shopping early or are you going to wait until after Thanksgiving?

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom

You might also like:

Preparing for Christmas
Saving Money Eating Out
Time Management - Preparing for the Week

My First Christmas Present of the Year

If you've been following my financials goals you will know that this past year was the first time that I established a Christmas Club.  Even though Christmas comes at the same time every year, previous years have found my Chrismas shopping done in one of two ways:

• An organized fashion where I started in the summer buying as much as I can, finishing in December with our third paycheck or my bonus (haven't gotten a December bonus in a number of years).  There was usually quite a bit of stressing about how to afford Christmas.
• A disorganized fashion where I started in December using our third paycheck for Christmas, there was typically A LOT of stress about how to afford Christmas.

 Unfortunately both ways resulted most of the time in the credit card being pulled out to finish up.  Last year was the first year that I didn't stress quite as much and didn't have to use the credit card but I still felt there had to be a better way.  Hence, the Christmas Club goal this year.

In addition to the club, I've been planning other ways to find Christmas money (you can read more about that here).  I'm happy to say that I bought my first present this week and it didn't cost me a dime!


As I've gotten older I try to make my gifts more meaningful.  I'm not saying I never give the plastic 'it' toy but I do try to be more thoughtful in my gift choices and give either practical gifts, experience gifts or lifetime gifts.  By lifetime gifts I mean gifts that the kids can carry with them into adulthood.

On a trip to Washington D.C. a number of years ago I stumbled across the White House ornament and fell in love.  My mother and grandmother always included special ornaments in our presents and I loved the idea of creating a whole series for my daughter.  Over the years I've included my nieces in the annual ornament collection.  Here is this year's White House Ornament ($17.95- no S&H, Click here to be taken to the website.  This is not an affiliate link)
























Now for the good stuff.  I ended up getting my three ornaments for free by using my credit card points.  Note If you are not in position (or have the will power) to pay your card off in full please don't try to use credit card points, they aren't worth it.  I use the Chase points, what I like about Chase is that you can buy the item in question with your credit card and pay that specific item with your points.  As soon as the item shows up in your statement (I pay my statement at minimum twice a month) you can go into your rewards and transfer points directly to that purchase.  This is what I did with the ornaments making them free.  Yeah!

I'm expecting to be able to get a couple more items for free using my Chase points.  I'm hoping to make my next purchase with Swagbucks but I'm still almost 1,000 points short, I need to get on those surveys!  I'm actually trying to get the majority of my shopping done before the release of my Christmas Club funds so that I can set that money aside for our super cool trip we are planning in Q1 2012.

I'll keep you updated on my shopping progress.  How about you, have you started your shopping yet?

I'll be linking this up over at Life as Mom and We are THAT Family

You might also like:

What do you Want out of Your Job?
Preparing for Christmas
Financial Check Up - July
Rock Star Mom Moment

Freezing Tomatoes

I absolutely love tomatoes.  My favorite way to eat a tomato is to pick it from the vine, wash it and eat it like an apple.  Nothing says summer like a fresh tomato.  During the winter months (when there are no fresh tomatoes) we eat a lot of tomato based sauces.  Spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti, chili - do I need to go on?

Typically the only sauce I don't like to make from scratch is my spaghetti sauce (no one does it like Paul Newman!) so tomatoes are a staple for my freezer.  Luckily for me that I usually have friends, neighbors or coworkers who have way to many tomatoes than they know what to do with so the cost of my tomatoes is usually plants from my flower bed or some other bartering payment.

The first year I froze my tomatoes I spent hours blanching and pureeing only to discover that my tomato sauce was pretty runny.  The next year I threw them in the freezer, after washing and drying, skin and all!  Just to clarify, I actually put them into a Ziploc bag and THEN threw them in the freezer.  Didn't want you guys to think I was scrapping tomatoes from the inside of my freezer!  When it came time to need my tomatoes I would take them from the freezer, let them sit on the counter for a few minutes and then peel the skin right off.  At this point the tomatoes are so soft that just mashing them usually does the trick.  If I need them more pureed I can stick them in the food processor at that point.

This is my cheap, easy way to have fresh tomato sauce all winter long.  How do you freeze your tomatoes?

Saving Money Eating Out

We like to eat out - a lot.  Unfortunately our eating out isn't necessarily at cheap places.  Even though I budget for eating out I also like to save money.  Here are a few things that I do to save money while eating out.

Answer Surveys
Quite a few restaurants offer surveys with a free item as their thank you.  Take advantage of these surveys, if nothing else going out for the free appetizer or desert and drinks would be a nice date night.

Check for Frequent Buyer Cards
Our absolute favorite place to eat is Outback.  Not only do they offer the surveys (and we get Aussie Fries every time we go) but they also have a rewards card.  I input the code at the bottom of our receipt and watch the points grow.  Right now I have enough points for a $10 gift card and an appetizer or desert.  Our other favorite place to go (it's a local establishment) has a similar deal but they gave us a card to present every time we pay.  I've gotten free house wine, free desert, free appetizer and $'s off.  Don't be afraid to ask your favorite restaurant if they have a program.

Eat During Happy Hour
If you like to have an occasional drink, make sure you go out during the week at Happy Hour.  The Outback by us has their Sangria's (my all time favorite drink is Outback's Strawberry Sangria) on double bubble during the week.  Can anyone say date night?  Free appetizer and 2 for 1 drinks.

Check Out Sites like Groupon
There are a plethora of sites that offer discounted gift certificates so look around.  We're all familiar with Groupon, but some cities have sites that are unique to their area.  One of our local radio stations every Friday offer a 50% off gift certificate at a certain restaurant.  Take advantage of it but make sure you read the fine print.  When I went to use one of my Groupons at Papa Murphy's they wouldn't let me use it with the Internet sale price I ordered with.  Didn't save me as much as it should have.  I won't be buying Papa Murphy's Groupons any more

Use Points for Gift Cards
Sites like Swagbucks as well as most credit cards let you redeem restaurant gift certificates with your points.  Go for it, is there anything sweeter than a free meal?  Just make sure that you aren't using a credit card to gain points and then have to pay interest.  You would have been better paying for your meal.

Ask for Gift Cards
Every year my mom gives my husband a $50 gift card to Outback for Christmas.  It's one of my favorite presents because I know that we'll use it.  I always ask for gift cards to restaurants for Christmas (note:  most restaurants offer specials during Christmas allowing you to get more for your money)

Coupons
Many places offer coupons in weekly circulars or in publications like the Entertainment Book.  Look for them and take advantage of them.

Update - Living so Abundantly shared a website that lists coupons available at different restaurants.  Surviving the Stores has quite a listing of available coupons.  Thanks Living so Abundantly!

What do you do to save money eating out?

I'm linking this up over at Life as Mom.

You might also like:
Freezing My Own Strawberries
Saving Money on Communications
Buying Clothes Off Season

Strawberry Picking - Again!

Sunday afternoon we went strawberry picking for the second time and ended up with three more flats of strawberries.  Here is our days take.  For full disclosure - mine is the one on the right that doesn't have straw or green berries it :)

The cutting of the first two flats went fairly quickly but the last flat was a little painful.  I sent a container of them home with the friend who helped us pick them and I offered a container to our neighbors.  She wanted to know if I was a glutton for punishment to go pick another three flats.  Unfortunately she declined my offer because they received some in their CSA box.

What do I do with all these strawberries?  I cut them up, sugar them and freeze them for strawberry shortcake.  My shortcake is one of my families favorite deserts and very simple to make.  Here's the recipe that I use

How I Save Money - Communications

When I look over I look over our bills our two highest 'non-essentials' are our electronic communications.  I'm including cell phone and cable in that category.  As I've looked for ways to bring our expenses down I've explored options on bringing those two bills down.  I'm happy to say that I've had some success with that.

Cable - I know the easiest thing would be to get rid of it, but that is not an option in our house.  The first thing that I did was go over my bill very carefully and look for items that I could get rid of.  After checking out my bill I went online to see what they were offering new customers, this gave me a gauge as to what I would probably be able to get them to do for me.  I then called our cable company, explained that I was looking for ways to lower my bill and ask what they could do for me.  After some negotiating (and mentioning that I knew what new customers were getting) I was able to bring my bill down by about $25 and lock the price in for two years.  Just remember, it's cheaper to keep an existing customer than to gain a new customer so ask for the retention department if you get a rep that won't help you.

Cell Phone - There are so many plans out there that this can get a little confusing.  The first thing that I would do if you are looking for a new plan or trying to bring down your existing plan is to see if you or your spouses employer has an agreement for a reduced rate from the cell phone company.  My company has an agreement with Verizon while my husband's has an agreement with US Cellular (our phone carrier).  We stumbled upon this discount by accident but we are now getting a 20% discount off our bill.  Of course now my husband is wanting to add a smart phone to his account with my money we're saving - I'm going to stall him on that one.

I would recommend when you are looking for a plan is that you don't let a sales person talk you into something you don't need.  The plans can be very confusing and I find that in store the pressure can be pretty great.  I would recommend calling the different places first and get an idea of what they have to offer, it's easier to hang up on someone than to be face to face.  I have seen a few people get pushed into plans they didn't need because of sales people. 

I would also see if you could share the family plan.  For our plan it's $10 for each additional line (base plan) and we can have a total of 5 lines.  We've recently added my mother-in-law to our plan since she only wanted the phone for emergencies and didn't want the expense of her own plan.  This isn't saving us any money but it is saving her some money. 

How do you save money on cable and cell phones?

Other posts you may enjoy

Coloring my own hair
Buying clothes off season

How I Save Money - Grocery Shopping

Let me start this post by saying that my grocery budget is pretty large, I have a 20 year old son and a weight lifting husband who eats A LOT.  I don't have time to coupon or run from store to store.  This post is mostly geared to those who are looking to save what they can without a lot of effort.

Now that I've got my disclaimer out of the way, I do have a few ways that I save money on my grocery bill.

• Find the lowest priced store possible and stick to it.  I know this seems like a no-brainer but I'm surprised by the number of people I know who willing pay a lot more for their groceries.  Years ago (I was a newly wed, my oldest is now 20) I was spending $125 - $150 at the grocery store.  That was sheer madness and I needed to find a way to trim that budget.  They were opening a new grocery store a few cities over that I heard was super cheap.  We tried it out and saved $50 - $75 per shopping trip.  I periodically take my receipt to stores in my city but am appalled at the price difference.  I would even go so far as to say shop at that store even if you don't like it.  The store I go to is huge and a lot of people don't like it for it's size.  I'm OK with it's size since I'm saving so much money!
• Determine what you want to eat.  I'm not a huge menu maker but I do jot down several meals I'd like to make and buy the ingredients for them.  If you walk into the grocery store without any ideas for dinner you are in trouble.
• Make a list and stick to it.  This gets to be a little bit of a struggle since my husband likes to grocery shop with me and likes to throw things in the cart.  When money was very tight and we had no wiggle room I would tell him how much we had to spend and told him if we went over it at the check out we'd have to put something back - that worked (I still use that every so often if he's going crazy with impulse buys).  Unless it's a phenomenal sale that I don't even buy things that I find on sale.
• Take advantage of coupons offered by your store.  One of the ways that my grocery store keeps costs down is that they don't have store cards and they only accept checks, cash or debit cards - no credit cards.  They do however tape coupons to the shelves.  I definitely take advantage of that and will generally have 3-5 coupons to use at check-out, even if I didn't bring any with me.
• Take advantage of easy to find coupons.  I don't cut or chase coupons but I do go online and check out Swagbucks for any available coupons while I'm making out my list.  Doesn't take much time and I can usually save a couple of bucks.

Do any of you have ideas to save money without extreme couponing?

How I Save Money - Very Little Dry Cleaning

I wear a couple of outfits a week that are dry clean only.  I really hate dry cleaning clothes for several reasons:

• Time - who has time to drop your clothes off at the dry cleaners & then remember to pick them up
• Money - Do you realize how expensive dry cleaning is?
• Wear & tear on the clothes - My personal opinion is that dry cleaning is really rough on your clothes.
• Chemicals - Who wants all those chemicals on their clothing and skin?

To ease the need for dry cleaning (I do still dry clean the outfits at the end of the season) I do the following:

• Wear something underneath the outfits.  I always wear a shirt with sleeves underneath the jacket and some kind of nylons or Spanx underneath my pants.  The extra layers keep perspiration from getting on the clothes.
• Be careful not to spill anything on the clothing.
• Dryel - This also falls under the category of "Things I Love".  I think this is a fantastic product that I use to freshen up my dry clean only clothes on a monthly basis.
• Hang up your clothes immediately after taking them off. This will allow the clothing to stay wrinkle free and fresh
• Don't spray perfume or hair products on the clothes.  My personal opinion is that all that 'stuff' doesn't do the fibers in the clothing any favors.  Plus if you have different scents you like to use they can get all mingled together.

I can't really tell you how much I save a year but I would guess it's over $100 between the dry cleaning savings as well as getting more use out of the clothes.

How I Save Money - Coloring My Own Hair

Pretty scary, coloring your own hair, isn't it?  I've been doing it for so long now that it doesn't bother me at all.  Before I go any further, I should tell you that I do spend quite a bit of money (~$50) for a haircut.  The problem was that if I added a color and highlights in with that I was spending about $110.  Since I need to color more often than I need to cut I decided to go longer in between cuts (I get my hair cut about every 10 - 12 weeks) and color my own hair as often as I need to.  Since I color my hair approximately every 4-6 weeks I estimate that this saves me about $500 per year.  I actually get a lot of compliments on my hair color (thanks L'oreal) so I must be pretty good at doing it.

When I first started coloring my hair I used a non-permanent that would wash out gradually after 30 washes.  This type of color tends to be fairly inexpensive (~$6/box) and fairly risk free.  This allowed me to test different shades and decide on the one that I liked best.  Since it washed out eventually I didn't get to upset if I choose poorly.  Once I decided the shade that I liked I switched to the same shade in a permanent color.  About a year or so ago I decided to try my hand at a color/highlight combination that L'oreal sells for about $13/box.  I was a little nervous about the highlights at first but have found that it's super easy.  The highlights are subtle enough (as long as you don't leave it on to long) that even if you mess up a little it's not really noticeable.

How do you save money on your cuts and colors?