Ways to Save on the Web

I recently read a magazine article that listed tons of great web sites that can save you money. I haven't had time to look at all of them yet, but I want to sometime. I decided to post them here in case anyone else could use the info (and then I can recycle the magazine but still have the web sites). I have italicized the sites I have tried and enjoyed:

• annualcreditreport.com (get a free credit report from each of the three main bureaus)
• upromise.com (earn rewards to pay for school)
• mint.com (track and manage your spending, saving, and budgeting for free)
• walletpop.com and getrichslowly.org (practical financial advice)
• lowcards.com, cardfusion.com, and cardratings.com (find low interest rate or better reward credit cards)
• comparisonshop.com (searches comparison shopping sites to help you find best price)
• Yokel.com and shoplocal.com (evaluate prices at brick-and-mortar stores in your area)
• couponcabin.com (coupons)
• retailmenot.com (promotional codes)
• priceprotectr.com (tell you how to get money back if price has fallen on item you recently bought)
• swapagift.com (buy, sell, or exchange gift cards)
• groceryguide.com (weekly specials and coupons for grocery stores near you)
• restaurant.com (discounts at local restaurants)
• kidsmealdeals.com (find local kids-eat-free deals)
• myrecipes.com and allrecipes.com (free recipes)
• theultimates.com (look up phone numbers)
• skype.com (web cam/ web phone)
• billshrink.com (analyze your cell phone usage and hunt for a cheaper plan)
• cellforcash.com (sell your old cell phones)
• techbargains.com and shopper.com (tech deals and coupon codes)
• openoffice.org and docs.google.com (free open source computer programs comprable to Microsoft Office)
• avg.com (free anti-virus software)
• safer-networking.org and lavasoft.com (free anti-spyware protection)
• zonealarm.com (free Internet firewall)
• modernfeed.com and hulu.com (free online TV shows - the same ones you watch on regular TV)
• pandora.com (free streaming music site)
• swaptree.com and swapthing.com (trade or barter for CDs/DVD and other items)
• cars.com, edmunds.com, and cartango.com (compare local prices, get info on rebates and incentives)
• pumpandsave.com (find best cash-back fuel cards)
• gasbuddy.com (find cheapest gas stations in your area)
• Erideshare.com, carpoolworld.com, and goloco.org (find a carpool)
• insurance.com (compare rates and quotes)
• happymedian.com (computes equidistant meeting spots between two locations)
• kayak.com and bookingbuddy.com (searches multiple sites to find best plane fare)
• airfarewatchdog.com (low-fare alerts)
• farecast.com (advice on when to buy tickets)
• hotels.com (htoel deals and bargains)
• Mousesavers.com (deep discounts on family vacations)

How to Use a Pumpkin

I love fall and the fun and flavors that come with it. I especially love pumpkins. Here are some ways to get the most use out of your pumpkins. First - use them as chairs for your children. My boys loved to sit on their pumpkins while they read books or played. They sat on the pumpkins for weeks before we actually used them
Second - make dinner in a pumpkin. This is a fun Halloween or fall recipe to try.

Dinner in a Pumpkin
1 small to medium pumpkin (we used a large pumpkin and just increased the cooking time)
1 small onion, chopped
1 lb ground turkey
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 (4-0z) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 (10 3/4-oz) can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 (8-oz) can sliced water chestnuts, drained

Cut off the top of the pumpkin and throughly clean out seeds and pulp. Save the seeds for later. Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet, saute onions in oil until tender. Add meat and brown. Drain fat. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, and soup. Simmer 1o minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked rice and water chestnuts. Spoon mixture into the cleaned pumpkin shell. Replace pumpkin top and place entire pumpkin on baking sheet. Bake 1 hour or until pumpkin meat is tender. Remove pumpkin lid and serve meal.

Third - roast the seeds. Even the little boys liked to snack on these.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
seeds from 1 pumpkin
1 Tbsp butter per cup of seeds
salt to taste

Wash seeds thoroughly in a colander and put on paper towels to dry. Place them in a skillet with butter and salt. Cook and stir until all seeds are well coated with butter. Bake in a shallow pan for 30-45 minutes in a 250 degree oven.

Fourth - Make pumpkin doughnuts using the cooked pumpkin flesh (puree it first). These doughnuts are easier to make and we think tastier than regular doughnuts.

Pumpkin Doughnuts
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
vegetable oil for frying

Combine the eggs and sugar. Beat until fluffy. Combine the pumpkin, buttermilk, and oil. Beat into the egg mixture. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. When well mixed, refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour. The dough will be very soft and wet. Turn the dough onto a WELL-floured sufate, roll to a thickness of 1/2-inch, and cut with a doughnut or cookie cutter into rings. Pour the vegetable oil into a heavy skillet to a depth of about 4 inches. Heat the oil until it reaches 375. Use a candy thermometer. Using a spatula, ease the doughnuts two at a time into the hot oil. When one side is golden and the doughnuts float to the surface, turn with a spatula. When golden on both sides, take the doughnuts out of oil and place on paper towels. Coat with cinnamon and sugar or powdered sugar.


Fifth - puree the rest of the cooked pumpkin and freeze to use later on. We look forward to using the rest of our pumpkin in breads, cookies, and pies!

How to Shop a Dollar Store

In our quest to live within our limited budget Ricky and I try to be as frugal as possible. We have found that shopping at the local dollar store saves us a lot of money. However, dollar stores are only great bargains if you know how to shop them. Here are the tips we've discovered for shopping dollar stores:

• Make a list before you shop: We like to keep a running list of the supplies we are running low on. That way when we head to the store we only get the items we actually need. Since everything is so cheap at a dollar store its easy to end up buying a lot more things than you need. Even at $1 a piece it can add up.
• Buy cleaning supplies: Most dollar stores offer name brand cleaning products for much cheaper than other stores. We buy window cleaner, dish soap, furniture polish, and other cleaners at the dollar store. Avoid cleaners with weird names like "LA's Totally Awesome stain remover" and things like that. Stick the names you know.
• Buy bath supplies: You can get great deals on shaving gels, bubble bath, hair brushes and combs, hair gel, toothbrushes, bath grips (so kids don't slip and fall), bath toys, etc. Dollar stores tend to carry most of these items in name brands. We buy our toothbrushes at the dollar stores and see the same brushes in the regular stores.
• Buy children's seasonal toys: You can find cheap sand pails, water toys, big rubber balls, Christmas toys, books, etc. Just make sure they are age appropriate and look sturdy enough for your child to play with.
• Buy craft supplies: Thing like felt, thread, coloring books, construction paper, finger paints, and other art and crafts supplies are cheap at dollar stores. We have used them for numerous projects.
• Be careful about buying food: Usually dollar store food isn't as fresh as buying from the grocery store. If you want to buy food, drinks, or candy just make sure to check the expiration and use-by dates. Make sure you can use the food quickly. We like to buy dollar store candy to make homemade ice-cream.
• Never buy batteries.
• Buy holiday decorations: If you want your house to look festive, but you don't have a lot of money dollar stores are the way to go. They have cute decorations for the right price. You can buy Christmas stockings, wrapping paper, garland, figurines, window clings, etc. You can also buy birthday banners, fun tablecloths, balloons and more.

Happy Shopping!

Toy Tips

It seems that my house has been taken over by toys! And its a good thing - toys are what keep the boys busy all day. Emerson and Finlay are too little to go to school, but their toys are great learning tools. Ricky and I don't have a ton of money to spend on the latest and greatest toys, but the boys haven't been deprived. Here are some tips on how to build your toy collection on a budget.

• Raid your kitchen cabinets: Some of the best toys are in your kitchen. Children love to bang on unused pots and bowls. Metal bowls make great drums. You can use plastic serving spoons for drum sticks. Give your children different size plastic or metal bowls to play with. The bowls can be used as musical instruments, places to put other toys, or even hats.

• Evaluate boxes, plastic jars, etc before throwing them away: Some of the best toys come from empty cereal boxes, cracker boxes, empty water bottles, and empty jelly jars. Plastic jars make great bath toys. Kids love to pour water out. Kids also like to carry around old cereal boxes.
• Let your kids have your old phone books: Kids love turning the pages (and sometimes tearing). It gives them practice looking at "big kid" books without ripping the pages of your favorite children's stories.
• Cut fabric pieces from old clothes and blankets before you throw them away: Teach your children about different textures by cutting squares of fabric from clothing and blankets your are discarding. Put the fabric pieces in a box your children can play with. They have fun feeling the different textures and taking the pieces out of the box and putting them back in.
• Make bean bags and/or snakes: Cut squares from old fabric. Sew three sides and part of the fourth side, fill with rice, stitch up the hole, and you have a bean bag. You can cut the arm off an old sweater to make a snake. Just sew on some eyes and a tongue, fill with rice or dried beans, and then stitch the opening closed.
• Join the Toys 'R Us birthday club: Go to the toys 'r us web site and sign your child up for the birthday club and they'll get a $3 gift certificate in the mail before their b-day. Our boys used their money to buy these fun rubber balls and a Dr. Seuss board book.

• Make your own toy "boxes": Homemade toy boxes make clean-up more fun. Just take an old box (we like the boxes Sam's Club wipes come in) and cover it with contact paper. We just used an old roll left over from a project. We have four boxes like this for the boys to keep their toys in.
  
  

• Take advantage of freebies: Kids love cheap toys. They don't expensive gadgets. Finlay got these little toys from a Toys 'r Us Easter egg hunt. Watch the news paper and neighborhood bulletins and bring your children to the fun events in the areas.
  

• When you do buy toys, but ones that have multiple uses and can grow along with the child. For example, if you buy nesting cups they can use them to build towers, hold small toys, nest inside of each other, etc. If you buy toys that are very age specific they will only last a short time. However, if you buy something like a ball or blocks the children can adjust the way they play with the toys as they grow.

Expanding Your Book Collection - On a Tight Budget

I collect three things - postcards from the places I visit, bookmarks, and books. Luckily postcards and bookmarks are very inexpensive. Unfortunately, books can be expensive. Here are some ways I have been able to add to my book collection without subtracting much from my bank account.

1. Go to library sales: Many libraries have special sales once or twice a year where you can get used books for low prices. This past weekend Ricky and I went to our library's sale and were able to get all the items seen below for a grand total of $5. We were able to pick up some nice board books for the boys, a few holiday books for them, two children's videos, and six novels for Ricky and I. Just ask your librarian if your library has any sales. In addition, sometimes local elementary schools have used book sales. Just watch the newspapers or ask parents of elementary school students if their schools have used book sales.

2. Go to garage sales. Garage sales are great because people are usually trying to get rid of clutter they don't want anymore. You can barter with them and come away with some pretty cheap books. Last year I was able to get about 20 children's books for the boys for less than a dollar. Make sure you look through the books before you buy them. If you are buying children's books make sure all the flaps, pop-ups, etc are there. Also, make sure there aren't any big stains or missing pages. For adult books just flip through the book to see if it is in good condition.

3. Shop at amazon.com or half.com: If there is a specific book you are looking for these web sites are great places to look. You can type in the title of the book you want and it will bring up price for new and used copies. I usually look at regular book stores to see the going price of the book(s) I am interested in. That way when I shop online I know if I am getting a good deal or not. Also, half.com has a section titled "paperbacks for $.99 or less". I have found brand new popular books for less than a dollar here.

4. Take books your parents and/or friends are getting rid of: If your parents are cleaning out their house or you have friends that are moving - look through the books they are getting rid of and claim any you want to have.

5. Buy thrift editions of classics: If you go into most bookstores you can find classic books for $1-$5. I think they're called Dover Thrift edition or something like that. They are brand new books. You can get such authors as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and others.

Avoid Wasting Food

If were to ask Ricky to tell you about my quirks one thing he would tell you is that I don't like to waste any food. We try to use every last bit of every food item in our house. Here are some tips that can help you maximize the use of your food. This can help you save money too.

• Take an inventory of the food you already have: If you know what food you have in your house it will be easier to go grocery shopping. You will know what you have to work with, and what ingredients to buy in order to supplement your home pantry and create delicious meals.
• Check expirations dates before you buy food: Most grocery stores aren't going to sell you food that has expired, but you can give yourself some time by finding foods with expiration dates that are far away. For example, when you choose a gallon of milk glance at all the cartons on the shelf. Generally there will be two or three groups of expirations dates, pick a carton that has the expiration date that is the farthest away. This gives you a longer time period before your milk goes bad. This is especially important if you are shopping the sales. Ricky and I like to buy cereal and crackers when they are on sale. We buy large quantities of these items. By checking the expiration dates we can buy the boxes that are good for a year.
• Plan your menues: If you have a plan, you are less likely to end up wasting food. For example, bananas and oranges and grapes all taste great, but chances are if you buy all of them some will go bad. Plan your menu and only buy the produce you know you will be able to use in a week or two (however often you grocery shop).
• Use the internet: If you have an ingredient in your fridge that is going bad go to the Kraft foods or Betty Crocker web sites. You can type the ingredient in their search box and all kinds of recipes will come up for the food you need to use. We have found lots of tasty dishes this way.
• If you aren't going to eat all of a meal in one or two settings freeze some: Most foods can be frozen. If you make a large casserole dish of food or find yourself with too many leftovers just freeze the extras in a freezer bag that has the dish name and date it was frozen on it.
• Make pizza: If you have leftover sauces (marinara, alfredo, etc) and meat or veggies you can make a pizza. Just throw the leftovers on some crust and pile on the cheese. Here are some of the yummy pizzas we have made with leftovers -Alfredo sauce with chicken and broccoli, taco meat with salsa and corn, sloppy joe meat with carrots, sweet and sour chicken with green peppers and mushrooms. The list could go on and on. If you don't want to make pizza you can make a calzone instead.
• Make a grilled-cheese sandwich: You can use leftover meats in grilled-cheese or Snackmaster sandwiches.
• Make a pot pie: If you have lots of leftover meat and/or veggies you can make a pot pie.
• Throw the left-over food into a tortilla shell: Ricky and I have found that a surprising number of leftovers taste great in a tortilla shell. We toast the tortilla shell in a frying pan and let the cheese melt (sometimes we add a little taco seasoning) while the leftovers warm in the microwave. Meat, veggies, or even pasta tastes great.
• Make a casserole: You can cook some pasta, rice, or potatoes and throw it in a casserole dish with your leftovers. Put cheese on top and bake until everything is bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown.
• Make shepherd's pie: If you potatoes or carrots that are loosing their freshness - don't toss them out, make a shepherd's pie.
• Make bread: Bananas, apples, pumpkin, carrots and other fruits and veggies make great breads.

Dinner for 200+ People for less than $400

Ricky and I were in charge of the food for our church Christmas party this year. We had never pulled off a dinner of this scale before so it was quite an adventure. I'm happy to say that the dinner (which was held last night) was a success. We were a little nervous because we didn't have a huge budget to work with (less than $2/person), but it all worked out. So just in case you ever have to cook dinner for 200+ people here's what to do:

1. Come up with a menu:

• Pick a main dish first. If you are most concerned about money, don't make meat the main dish - the dish will be cheaper if you incorporate meat but don't make it the main part. However, if you're like us and don't want to have to cook a million pans of enchiladas, lasagna, you-name-it, pick a main dish that will be easy to cook. We went with pre-cooked, spiral-cut hams. These are easy to farm out to volunteers, and since they are pre-cooked you don't have to worry about under-cooking and thus food poisoning anyone.
• Pick side-dishes that are cheap, but filling. We went with mashed potatoes, bagged salad, rolls, and green beans. All of these items are very cheap and filling. Salad is about $1/pound at Sam's Club.

2. Figure out how much food to buy, and how much everything will cost. If your estimate comes out over-budget change your menu until you find food that fits within your range. There are some great web sites that tell you how much food you will need for large numbers of people. Here are the amounts you would need to serve 200 people a ham dinner. The prices below are for Sam's Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan unless otherwise mentioned. I won't make you do the math, but we spent less than $400 on this meal, which means it was less than $2/person. You can't buy food like this that cheap at a restaurant :).

• 80 pounds of ham ($2.19/pound)
• 70 pounds of potatoes ($3.88 for 10 pounds)
• 7 containers of sour cream ($1.59 for one container at Kroger's)
• 3 large containers gravy mix (each container should have 60+ servings) (a little over $4 per mix)
• 4 large cans of green beans (I can't remember the price)
• 300 rolls ($4.07 for 32 rolls)
• 1 gallon ranch dressing ($6.87)
• 1 gallon Italian dressing ($4.88)
• 30 pounds bagged salad ($2.66 for a 3-pound bag)
• 1 whole sheet of chocolate cake with white buttercream frosting (a little over $30)
• 1 whole sheet of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (a little over $33)

3. Find people to help you cook the food. We found a few families to help us cook the food. Each family warmed a ham in their oven and made mashed potatoes. If you are serving dinner to 200 people you should be able to find some volunteers to help cook. Wait to cook the gravy until right before the meal begins. You should be able to cook it at the church or wherever you serve the dinner.

4. Put the food out to be served. We had two serving stations with food on each side. That way four people could get their food at one time. This helps you avoid long lines. We had a separate water station. We wheeled in a dessert table with the cakes and dessert plates on it after everyone had finished the main meal.

5. Enjoy the food - my favorite part!

6. Take care of any left-overs. We were surprised that we had a few left-overs. We let our cooking volunteers take home the extra ham. We also gave left-over salad and rolls to families who helped us clean-up after the party (great incentive to stick around and help). We donated the rest of the left-over food (unopened bags of salad and the rest of the cake) to a homeless sheter in the area.