The Rebellion Against Flourescents

This idea goes unproven, but it’s just logical. I can’t tell you how many pennies or what amount of energy is saved, I can just tell you that in my head this makes good sense even though it goes against popular culture today. I use traditional light bulbs in the winter.


Let’s back up. We know that incandescent bulbs use more electricity than their new replacements, the compact florescent. But do you know why? Both light and heat are energy produced by bulbs. Fluorescents produce very little heat, while incandescent produce a good bit of heat. We pay for that heat in the form of higher electricity bills.

This is a brilliant way to save money in the summertime. My summer manta is to reduce heat inside my home. This way the AC runs less and I save electricity on the heat producers as well as the heat remover! It really can be that simple. Cook outside, hang clothes to dry, use fluorescents, insulate windows, air dry hair; these are all ways to reduce heat inside the home.

If these are the actions that are taken to help cool the home, then reason would stand to reverse these actions in the winter. When we produce heat inside of the home, it lessens the load on the heating system. I’m pretty sure that it takes the same amount of energy to heat a space, no matter what method is used, but let your electricity do double duty! Cook inside, use the clothes dryer vented indoors, use incandescent bulbs, keep the windows insulated, and use a hair dryer.

That little bit of heat that comes from the light bulb can actually preheat your ceiling allowing the furnace heated air to stay closer to the floor (where we really want it). The savings come from the purchase of these bulbs. I’m sure that all of you have noticed that the bulbs that used to cost us about a dollar a piece on sale are considerably less expensive now. I have seen incandescent bulbs marked 2/$1 and even 3/$1. That is a big difference from the fluorescents that cost 3/$10!

So I challenge you this year to test this method our for yourself. Use a few old cheep bulbs, heat up your house, and save a little change!

Gifts, To and From

I have had the most eye opening experience and just had to share it with my frugal brothers and sisters! But, with almost all of my stories, there is a back story. This past weekend I was reminded of the book I had read about a year or so ago: The Five Love Languages. I have struggled ever since to find out what my husband’s language is. Finally, after watching a program on PBS, I realized what it is. It’s gifts! OH YEA, I finally figured it out! Oh no, it’s the hardest one for me!


My husband shows love by giving with a generous spirit. He also receives it in this way. I, as you know, am one of the biggest tightwads around. Is this some sort of cruel joke that God has played on me? Ugh, I hate spending on frivolity. A utilitarian through and through, I can find 100 other ways to spend $20 than on some token that will just be tossed aside. Well, you know what happens when the Lord puts you in a place that like? He puts a big ole mirror right up in front of you so you can see what you really look like, and I looked selfish! I’ll admit to that. Now hang on, there is a point to this story so just stay with me. I love my husband more that I love the security that I feel when our budget is balanced. He needs to know that as well. I made a commitment to show him, in a way that he can see, how much he means to me and to our family. I will go against the ingrained desire to save.

Today being Wednesday, we headed to the grocery store. I recognized the Lord for offering good healthy foods that I enjoy at a price that suits us. When I reached my favorite section of the store, the markdown section, I found a few of the most wonderful surprises. Some of my husband’s favorite foods were on that shelf. I was so happy to find such wonderful “gifts” for him. But the last thing that I pulled from the shelf is what really drove His point home. There was a box of falafel marked down. I got the boys’ attention and had them read the box. They all burst out laughing!

You see, this is their daddy’s favorite word. He uses it as a nonsense word to make the children laugh. When taking a picture, we are all instructed to say, “FALAFEL.” When asked what we will be having for the next meal, he responds by saying, “falafel.” This is how the Lord showed me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had set these things aside me to give to him. He saw that my heart had changed, and He provided the way. He showed me that when we love each other in the way that He taught us, then our actions are pleasing to Him.

The Lord obviously knows what my love language is, because he showed me by allowing me to give gifts without overspending. He also arranged is so that I would get my 10 cent discount on my gas since my gas light lit up on the way to the store. Hmm, could it be that my love language is gifts? Nah, I’m way too cheep for that!

Cooking Day

What a morning! I’ve made 3 pans of cornbread, 4 batches of muffins, a meatloaf, 2 pans of French toast, one batch of biscuits, a few pans of meringue cookies, and a mess of meat balls! I’m sure that the questions are just filling your head; the main one is “why?” . No, I’m not having a party, nor am I preparing for a cataclysmic event. This is just one of the ways that I try to save electricity.


Once a week I do all of the baking that we will need for that week. (Remember that menu? Sure comes in handy here.) I just hate heating up the entire great room just to cook a meal. So, as long as I have the oven and the kitchen heated up, I go ahead and do all of the baking that I’ll need. This saves energy by eliminating the need to preheat the oven 7 different times during the week. The cooking times can also overlap each other, meaning that the oven is on for less time on one day than the combined times of the other days. I almost always have at least 2 pans in the oven at a time.

This does make for a super busy morning in the kitchen. My boys look forward to cooking day, because they are directed outside. This is NOT the time to try to teach cooking skills. It’s just one morning a week, so it’s not in the heat of the day. The air conditioner isn’t having to run on overdrive trying to keep up with me. For most of the morning, I keep the window open.

Of course, some baked goods just don’t keep very well. Those are the foods that are schedule for the meals on baking day. French toast really wouldn’t be as good the next day, so that was our breakfast this morning. The boys love corn dog pie. So that’s what they get for lunch.

Side note: Corndog pie is one of my recipe experiments. It is just a pan of cornbread with chopped up bits of hot dog baked into it. They get to dip it in mustard just like a regular corndog. It is super cheep to make, as well as super easy!

Baking biscuits ahead of time just makes my life a little easier. My husband has been spoiled by me. He is used to having a hot breakfast to take with him to work every morning. I certainly don’t mind heating everything up first thing in the morning during the winter months. But once it gets to be air conditioner season, I heat up as little as possible. I don’t even make coffee in the summer months! He can take a few biscuits with him to his office and heat them up there. Since the bacon and cheese are already baked into the biscuit, there is no reason to fire up the oven or the stove first thing in the morning.

I’m sure that you’ll find many reasons within your own homes that baking day is beneficial, from time savings to savings on the electricity bill.

Low Energy Snack

Sugar-free gelatin is one of my favorite snacks to prepare during the hot months. When made in this way, it requires very little electricity. It is also very low in calories, making it a low-energy snack.

I have a work table on my south-facing deck. It gets super hot out there, too hot to enjoy, but perfect for cooking. I use the principles used by solar ovens to dissolve the gelatin into the hot water. I pour a cup of water into a black cooking pot, pour in the packet of flavored gelatin, and put the glass lid on top of it. So far, this is just like everyone else makes it. But instead of putting it on the stove, I set it out on my deck! The rays from the direct sun enter through the glass lid. The energy is absorbed into the black pot, heating up the water. It gets hot enough for the powder to completely dissolve! There is no need to even turn on the stovetop.

The only electricity that is needed is that which runs the refrigerator. I save the energy that boils the water on the stove as well as the air-conditioner to cool off the room when I am done.  It is super easy, and super safe, and pretty cheep. The kids could even make it without supervision.  So now you can make your own low energy snack. Somehow, porch Jell-o just doesn’t sound as good.

The Clothes Dryer

The number one frugal tip for summer time is to put your laundry out in the yard! Do I have your attention yet?
I found a fantastic site that estimates just how much we are spending on our comforts of life. http://www.electricity-usage.com/Electricity-Usage-Calculator.aspx
I checked my electricity bill from last month. We pay just under 11 cents per Kwh. I also used the preset amount for the clothes dryer. I don’t know exactly what the wattage is on mine. I don’t really keep up with things like that. So these are just good general numbers.

If you use it for an hour, which I would say is typical for a load of clothes with jeans and towels in it, then it will cost you 60 cents per load. Wow! Somehow I didn’t realize that it was this much. I wash at least 2, sometimes 3 loads of laundry everyday. This is one of the joys of having a big family. I would average this out to say that we spend $1.50 every day on the clothes dryer. In a 30 day cycle, this adds $45 to the electricity bill. Good grief! I pay $45 dollars to dry my clothes?

Now let’s keep in mind that this is only the cost of the dryer. This does not include the air conditioning costs. Um, lady, what does the air conditioner have to do with drying clothes? A lot actually. The dryer, while most of the warm air is going out the vent, a lot of the heat is being put into the air of your home. It heats up the house, which must be cooled back off using the air conditioner. Sorry, I’m not going to calculate the ambient temperature losses on my dryer and the energy to cool a set number of cubic feet a certain number of degrees over time. I’ll just remind you that the longer and harder that the AC has to work, the more you have to pay!

The clothes line has been in use for centuries. There is a reason: it works. It’s practically free. I don’t say that it’s free, because there are a few expenses beyond the initial set up. My children believe that clothespins are either disposable or indestructible. I haven’t quite figured out which. I have watched from my kitchen window as the boys have yanked on shirts, sending pins flying across the yard, while bringing in dry clothes. Of course I correct them and send them back outside to pick up each pin that they have launched, but we always seem to lose a few. After a few launchings, they break. So each spring I head back to the dollar store for yet another set of pins. By the end of summer, I’ll be down to just a few again. I’m happy to spend the $2 on clothespins instead of the $135 it would take to dry clothes inside for 3 months.

Drying clothes: $2 for clothespins vs. $135 for the electric dryer Liz price = 98.5% off! I think that we have set a new record!!!

Summer Savings Series

Well, it’s that time again. Time to pull out the window units and turn on the A/C. Our household holds off as long as we possibly can, and only turn the thermostat down low enough to ensure that I can breathe and that everyone can sleep peacefully. With the addition of air conditioning to our daily lives comes many opportunities to conserve electricity which, in turn, saves us money! That one bill can make us or break us. I can still remember the slight panic last summer when one of our bills approached the $300 mark. Eww, what a sick feeling it gave me. I can also remember the joy on the children’s faces when it was below $100. They were promised ice cream cones from McDonalds as well as time to play on their playground. Their efforts in keeping the electricity in check did not need to go unrewarded. And isn’t $5 for ice cream a small price to pay for a $50 reduction in utility costs? Of course it is.


So this shall be the topic of posts to come: How to keep the electricity bill down without cooking yourself and your family! Hmm, that’s kind of catchy. Kind of icky, but definitely interesting.

Springtime

Oh, what a wonderfully busy time of the year! We look forward with cold dark wintery eyes to the bright sunny days of Spring when we can get outside and enjoy the warm air. Unfortunately, when our schedules are so empty in the colder months, we are tempted to over commit ourselves. We tend for forget how much time and effort go into those wonderful springtime projects.


This has been the case for my Spring. I have, once again, filled my plate a little too full. That is why I have not been writing as frequently as I would have liked. Three children in baseball has been a large portion of our social calendar! I became a consultant for Pampered Chef, which need my attention. Add in a baby chick and garden and all of that free time that we had has all been accounted for.

I will try to carve out a little time during the week in order to get pen to paper, or in this case, fingers to keys before these new ideas and opportunities to be thrifty have been pushed out of my mind in order to remember who brings snacks to Thursday’s game.

Getting Caught Up

This is a tough time of the year to pinch pennies.  There is Spring Break, baseball season has started, the garden is being prepped, and it's time to start working on getting together next years homeschool curriculum.  Yowza!  For everything there is a season.  Perhaps this is the investment season.  The money that we spend now will help us durring the rest of the year.  While these may not be the weeks that our budget shrinks, we have mor opportunities to be smart with our money.  Let's see how I do in the coming months!

Cookware!

Remembering that this week's theme is "when to spend", I decided to talk about my beloved cast-iron skillets and baking stones! These things defy the laws of consumerism. In case you aren't familiar, the law that I am referring to states that once a product is paid for, it will immediately start to decompose thereby convincing you that you must go out and buy another similar product usually of a greater value. Well, I'm sure that it's not written exactly this way, but the idea is the same. That is why my mother's microwave is as old as I am, yet I can't keep one for longer than 5 years. It's that stinking law! And boy does it work!

But my rebellious cookware, oh how I love it! It grows better with age. With each use, the quality of the finish gets better. The food that I cook in it gets better as well. The iron actually leaches into the food, helping to maintain healthy blood iron levels. The skillets are practically indestructible! A friend recently had a kitchen fire. The only salvageable item? The cast iron skillet. It goes on the stove, in the oven, over a camp fire. This thing is the Superman of cookware. Its kryptonite is the microwave. It can do everything else, but no nuking. The stones, on the other hand, can go into the microwave. I have my eye and a little gem that can cook a meatloaf in the microwave in a total of 20 minutes! The stones develop that beautiful smooth surface as well. It’s ugly, but works beautifully! (I know some folks like that, too.) They go into the oven and the microwave, but don’t dare put them on the stove! So together they are like the team of Superman and the Green Lantern. Both are awesome, but with different weaknesses. But between the two of them, the job WILL get done.

Since the consumerism police know that these mighty rebels don’t follow all of the rules, they must make sure that they get as much money as possible on the front side. Cast iron and stoneware are more expensive in the initial investment, but well worth it. Just try to remember every Teflon pan that you’ve thrown away since you got your own kitchen!

Shoes!

This is an area where I have fallen into the trap!  I have 4 boys to outfit in proper foot gear.  And while that doesn't seem like such a difficult task to some, others will remember going through shoes as quickly as underwear!
Generally, we wait for shoes and sandals to get marked down.  End of season clearance is our favorite time of the year!  We would buy a pair, sometimes two, for each of the 5 children.  Even on clearance, this can add up quickly.  We can't just do this twice a year.  They need additional shoes!  The youngest boy, especially, can tear up a pair of shoes so quickly that all of this shoes are "play shoes".  He has no town shoes!  So let's just look at the quick math.  Boy #4 goes through at least 4 pair of sneekers every year, plus a pair for church that we have forbade him from wearing in the yard.  That's 5 pair at roughly $15 per pair.  He goes through $75 worth of shoes each year without being able to pass down any of them.
Then a friend showed me something that has changed the way I look at little boys' feet forever!  Good quality cowboy boots.  By the way, my kids are going through a cowboy phase.  They all want big belt buckles and goats to ride.  These beautiful, sturdy, wonderful, real leather boots cost a shocking $65!  Oh my goodness!  That is just too much to spend on children's shoes.  I don't spend that much on my shoes.  But then, I don't drag my toes across the dirt while swinging from a tree.  I don't wallow on the ground or climb trees.  So I can't really compare what they need to my dainty little ballet flats.  (if you can call a size 10 little)  But when we compare these boots to the $75 alternative, they are quite affordable.  And, hopefully, they will be able to be passed down.  The boys love them.  There are fewer shoes to keep up with.  They are weather proof, and are perfectly suitable for going into the muddy yard or gross chicken yard. 
Yes, I have learned that sometimes we must step back and look at the whole picture.  In being cheep, I was actually spending more money on lesser product.
Liz Price 13% off of a better product!

Topic of the Week - When to Spend

I've been thinking a lot this past week about when it is smarter to spend a little extra to get quality.  When we buy 5 of the cheeper items, because they keep breaking, in the amout of time that a more expensive item would have lasted, then we have not saved any money.  We've actually spent more and been more frustrated.  This week I will be exploring a few of the different ways that we can save by spending.

Frugal Fun Friday - Interactive Computer Learning

Sea World is offering a wonderful promotion.  The children under 10 receive a free ticket to the park when they stay at certain hotels in the area.  Since most of our expense would be children's tickets, this is a fantastic deal for us!  But that is not the topic of today's frugal fun.  It was getting ready for the trip that was so enjoyable!  We started doing a little research this morning on a trip that we will be taking shortly.

The Sea World site is so much fun! There is a link that took us to the learning section of the site. We were able to hear all sorts of animal sounds. This is when the fun started. We looked at the picture and guessed what sort of sound we believed the animal to make. Trust me, little boys can come up with some really interesting sounds! As we listened to the calls, the boys acted out the animals’ actions. I got to see gorillas swinging their arms, panthers snarling and scratching, chimps swinging, as well as penguins waddling.

When I had all of the animal sounds that I could stand, we ventured over to the FUN ZONE. Over here were coloring pages, jigsaw puzzles, and interactive puzzles.

There are plenty of opportunities for us to learn more about the habitats and continents that are the homes to these beautiful animals, but they don’t seem to mind learning while they are playing. I’m rather certain that this site will be up for most of the day!

What's for Supper Wednesday - The Double Play

The Double Play 

I have learned the most effective, fantastic, fruitful method for buying a cart load of necessities for practically nothing, which is right in my budget! It is a two part process in which both parts must be followed. Otherwise, the results may be less than desirable. Have I peeked your attention yet? Fantastic!

Part one is this. Pray. No really, you must pray with a heart full of faith that the Lord will provide for you and your family. In return, promise to give Him all of the glory! There really is only so much that I can do. I need Him to carry me the rest of the way.

Part two involves shopping. There is a section in most grocery stores where the products that are about to expire, or that have been discontinued, are drastically reduced in price. In my favorite store, these treasure chests of shelves are just behind the cash registers. There are also markdowns in the refrigerated and butcher’s sections.

I quietly say a prayer as we walk into the grocery store, asking God to show me what it is that my family needs. Wants would be nice, but needs would be better. I scan through the produce section finding organic lettuce for less than a dollar and 5 beautiful orange bell peppers for the price of just one. We have had a shortage of fresh veggies since it is the middle of winter, so these specials were just that: special. We round up toward the meat cases where I find a whole chicken for just 56 cents per pound! Wow, that is way below my $2 per pound max. Then we head over to the dairy section. Each time we cart past it, my boys ask when they will ever get to have yummy yogurt again. Well, boys, today is that day! There were 2 tubs of vanilla yogurt marked down to just 50 cents each! I quietly thanked Him for this wonderful gift. Perhaps I should have shouted, “Praise God!”, but worry about scaring the dairy man. We found pints of milk for just 25 cents. The oldest boy got to use his new math skills to tell me how much it would be for 1 gallon of the discounted milk. After a little figuring, he informed me that it was just $2 per gallon. He approved of this discount after seeing that a gallon was marked $3.75!
This was all before we had even reached the dry goods section. I wound up filling my cart with groceries that we did in fact need for $35.

I share all of this, not to brag on myself and my shopping abilities. I share so that you can see that when we depend on His understanding instead of our own, then we will be able to see how he can bend the universe in order to take care of his sheep!

Tuesday Tips - Healthy Compromise

One of the traps that we can fall into is buying garbage food. What I mean by that is food that is full of garbage, tastes really good, but does more harm to our bodies than good. But what’s the alternative? Healthy food is expensive! Then I have the issue of preference. My family doesn’t particularly care for stone ground wheat biscuits. They have more refined tastes. You know, refined flour, refined sugar…. Despite these little conflicts, we have reached a compromise, at least in our breakfast cereals. We have a couple of plastic tea pitchers ( Here in the deep south all pitchers are tea pitchers.) that we use to hold our mixed cereal. Here is my latest example. On my last trip to the grocery store clearance section, I found a couple of boxes of cereal that had been crushed on the corner of the box. The bag was still in tact. The quality had not been compromised. They were marked down to about 79 cents per box. Yes, I picked up both of them! They were apple cinnamon flavored O’s. These mix perfectly with the healthier Cheerios that I had in my pantry. Now in my case, I was at the right place at the right time. A friend gave me 3 boxes of Cheerios because she needed the box tops off of them. She couldn’t eat that much cereal before it went bad. But that’s just a side point.
The real point is this. The children get a cereal that is somewhat sweet and tastes good. It is also full of whole grains and is lower in sugar than the alternative. This mixture is also frugal because we were able to cut the expensive healthy cereal with a less expensive one.

Another mixture that we really enjoy is corn flakes, bran flakes, and Honey Bunches of Oats. That over-sweetened cereal is toned down by the bland corn and bran flakes that no one with any taste at all would eat by themselves. But together…..YUM!

Liz Price - Apple Cinnamon Cheerios $.40 per pitcher

Back to School - Switched on Schoolhouse

Good grief!  I have just been running to catch up to myself the past few days!  Since today is Monday/homeschool day, I'll give you just a short entry, since this entry was really just to appologize for running late.
Alpha Omega puts out a curriculum for use on the PC.  It is all on disc, so it can be reused as many times as you need.  If you have a big family like me, reusing schoolbooks is a major plus.  The fact that the program grades the students' work is just a really awesome bonus!  It is called SOS, Switched On Schoolhouse.  Each subject for each grade runs around $75.  Split that up between 5 children, and you've only spent $15 on each child.   If you order your programs in the month of April, a discount of 20% is applied.  Now if you are REALLY lucky, you can find these disks on ebay.  There tend to be more in the month of April.  I have gotten disks as low as $5!  Yes, that's $1 per child.  Every once in a while I even impress myself.

Disclosure

This is the commercial segment of the program where I let you know in what ways you can help pad my envelope system!  I have put an Amazon box at the bottom of the right margin with a search box in it.  If while using this box you choose to buy something from Amazon, they will compensate me for refering you.  I'm not asking you to go out and spend just to help me.  I am simply letting you know that if you choose to use Amazon to order something, please consider using this feature. 
I believe in honesty, so there you go.  No tricks, just treats!

Basic Thriftiness part 2 or Set Aside Your Pride

Set Aside Your Pride

My husband and I reminisce about the days when he only wore Levi’s jeans and I had a medicine chest full of Clinique lipsticks. There was a time when name brand was the only option. My, how times have changed. We were made to believe that we were paying for quality that was well worth the added expense. While this may have been true, we were also paying for status. Sometimes we just need to set aside our pride and try the generic. I’ve since traded in my $12 mascara for $4 Cover Girl that I like even better. He has gladly switched his denim of choice to Wrangler for about a third of the price of the name brand.

Foods can be the same way. I do not believe that there is much difference between brands of basics like flour, sugar, salt, beans, and rice. Saying that, I must admit that we don’t care much for the cheapest brand of coffee not canned peas. But it has nothing to do with the label on the can!

Living within our means is one of the more valuable skills that we can learn. If we have a Belk budget, then it can be reflected in what others see. If we have a Wal-Mart budget, then that also can be reflected. Unfortunately most of us would not admit to being on such a budget, let alone show it in our appearances. Hmmm, isn’t that being a little phony? We certainly wouldn’t want our friends and family to intentionally deceive us, therefore we should not seek out to deceive them. That golden rule is something else, isn’t it.

I feel that it is more valuable to be true to my situation than to blow my budget trying to impress or convince others that we have money that we do not. Just to illustrate that I value honesty over pride, I will divulge that we are a family of 7 living off of $1300 a month. This is the season that the Lord has us in right now. It is by His choice.

So go ahead, try the generic. It might just surprise you!

What's for Dinner Wednesday - Angel Food Ministries

I have found a way for people with tight budgets to get higher quality food, and for those with more expensive tastes to get an awesome deal! I can get steak at hamburger prices. How do I do it? Angel Food Ministries puts together an assortment of foods that should feed a family of 4 for a week. They offer a different menu every month for only $30. 
Now, I have a different way of looking at things, as you may have noticed. I also tend to be a tad skeptical when it comes to claiming to get a good deal. Every month I go through the menu with “Liz Prices” in my head. I compare what I would pay, not what retail is. For instance, I don’t spend more than $2 per pound on meat, nor on fresh fruits and veggies. I understand that steaks are $5 a pound. That’s why I don’t buy them! If the total is the same or less than what I would pay, we get it. It may not save me any money, but it affords me some variety as well as quality in our meals. Here is how I would score this box:


Here is the March Menu.

($4)  2 lbs. Chopped Beef Steaks with Dijon Mustard (4 x 8 oz.)
($2)  1 lb. Bacon Wrapped Turkey Breast Filet Mignon (4 X 4 oz.)
($2)  1 lb. Boneless Center Cut Pork Chops (4 x 4 oz.)
($3)  2 lb. Macaroni & Beef Dinner Entrée
($4)  2.5 lb. IQF Split Chicken Breasts
($2)  1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
($1)  1 12" Supreme Pizza
($1)  1 lb. Frozen Peas & Carrots
($1)  1 lb. Frozen Whole Kernel Corn
($2)  2 lb. Fresh Apples
($2)  2 lb. Heat and Serve Broccoli & Cheese Soup
($3)  24 oz. Natural Cut French Fries
($1)  6.5 oz. Stroganoff Skillet Meal
($1)  1 lb. Rice
($1)   Dozen Eggs
($1)   Dessert
This gives me a Liz Price of $30
I would love to see what a great deal the folks with more expensive taste would get, but I'll be honest, I don't have a clue as to how much these items retail!  I'll leave that research to you.  If you'd like to read more about this ministry go to http://www.angelfoodministries.com/ Deadline to order with cash or check is March 17th to order online at http://www.questcommunitychurch.org/ deadline is 18th. Distribution date will be March 27th at 830 at Quest!
One last thing, this is not a hand out or restiricted to low income families.  This is available to anyone from the homeless up to tycoons.  No discrimination here!
Liz Price = Quality!
Please let me know what sort of savings you get from this box.  I would love to know!

Back to School Monday - World Maths Day and Dr. Seuss's Birthday

Tuesday, March 2nd is the birthday of almost everyone’s favorite children’s author, Dr. Seuss! This is just the excuse I need to blow off a little steam. This time of the year is really tough on both teachers and students. (We’d much rather be outside than looking at the same old books.) A day filled with nonsense and silliness, as well as books and worksheets is the perfect compromise to keep us a happy homeschooling family.

• http://www.outer-limit.net/coloring/grinchpages.shtml Outer-Limit.net has 17 free printable Grinch coloring pages.
• http://www.lucylearns.com/ has over 20 free printable Dr. Seuss coloring pages and activities. Print and color the Cat in the Hat, two sneetches, over ten Grinch coloring pages, the Lorax, a truffula tree and Sam-I-Am offering his ubiquitous Green Eggs and Ham.
• Cat in the Hat Tic-Tac-Toe game. Color, cut and paste game board and cat in the hat game piece. Laminate all pieces or print on card stock for a reusable Dr. Seuss game.  http://www.seussville.com/seussentennial/pdf/threecats.pdf
• Seussentenial (http://www.seussville.com/seussentennial/participation1.html) from the Seussville website has free printable activities.

We will be having green eggs and ham for breakfast as I read my favorite book, Green Eggs & Ham, which was read to us every other night before bed.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas is probably the only book that my mother, my children, and I can all recite. And who didn’t learn to read using The Cat in the Hat? It wasn’t until about 2 years ago that I could read Fox in Socks without stumbling over the words. I am quite excited to be sharing some of my favorite stories with my children. Besides, it means that I get to relive that part of my childhood with them. Happy reading!
 
Today is World Maths Day. I’m not sure that it’s a recognized holiday. But when encouraging our kids to practice their math skills, I’ll take any sort of holiday they want to throw my way! www.worldmathsday.com allows children all over the world to practice their math facts in exchange for points. If the student scores enough points, his name, school, and country are listed on the home page to show the world that he is a genuine math nerd! In my home, this title is worn with pride. I, myself, am a self professed math nerd.

Fun Friday - Scrabble

Scrabble

My husband and I have been sucked into the world of virtual boardgames on Facebook. We take turns coming over to the computer to embarrass the other with our thought provoking words and skillful placement on the board. Of course this is all done in good fun. While we have enjoyed these games that stretch out for a week at a time, we’d like to share it with the rest of the family. Today’s trip into town will include a quick run over to Wal-Mart or Dollar General to pick up a Scrabble game. I am already looking forward to evenings around the table with the big kids with tiles and little kids with popcorn. I am really starting to understand the value of “Game Night” that I’ve heard so much about. It seems that all my boys want to do is to participate in anything with their Daddy and eat popcorn.

It’s too bad that Scrabble doesn’t put out coupons! I would be using one today! I am wondering how to save money though. Amazon has some that are discounted.  The savings should cover the shipping cost.  And I could stay out of the busiest store in our town!  Perhaps there are some partial games that will become available in the yard sale season that is coming upon us rather rapidly. An extra handful of tiles could prove to be very useful in a household where the legos are everywhere except in the lego bucket. And if any of you have partial Scrabble games, feel free to send your extra tiles my way.

Thursday Thoughts - Basic Thriftiness part 1 or Do It Your Own Self

I’ll try not to step up on any soapboxes or on too many toes while I make my point. We as a people are, in general, spoiled! We have so many conveniences that are available at our fingertips that we have forgotten that they are conveniences. We have stopped seeing that they are supposed to save time and in fact complain about how long these new versions take. Perhaps an example would help to illustrate my point. I can only imagine how excited people were when that little blue box of macaroni and cheese showed up on the grocery store shelves. The traditional dish involved boiling the pasta, making a cream sauce, then baking the whole dish for another half hour. It’s not exactly a quick side dish. Now mac’n’cheese could be made in 1 pot in about 15 minutes! Wow, that’s amazing! And it’s simple enough that older children can make it by themselves. Along comes the next generation. Stove top mac’n’cheese is just not convenient. It takes a whole 15 minutes. We want the kind that we can make without a pot and takes only a couple of minutes in the microwave.

We pay a pretty price for these new versions of classics. They are less nutritious and are full of preservatives and yuckies. Oops, stepping off of the soapbox now.

Let me get back to my original point. If we can look at conveniences with a skeptical eye, then we can learn new skills and save tons at the store. Many times I walk through the isles of the stores looking for ideas, not products. I wonder, can I make this at home? Can I do this my own self or do I need to pay someone else to do it? I can make my mac’n’cheese and my chicken noodle soup. I can bake a birthday cake and a batch of biscuits. They may not be as pretty as store bought, but my children don’t mind being my guinea pigs. I can knit up my slippers and sew up my skirts. I can build a chicken house and build a deck. We can grow veggies for supper and to put up salsa. If we are willing to spend time, we can keep from spending money. The real question to ask yourself is this, “What are you willing to do to save money? Are you willing to do the work?”

Tuesday Tips - How to Make Laundry Soap

How to Make Laundry Soap


I posted a few days ago about how much money could be saved by making your own laundry soap. So today, I will show you how simple it is to make it. Put away those thoughts of "homemade" being too complicated or too much trouble.  I have made super easy instructions. Now there are no excuses!

Step 1: Boil a quart of water, then pour it into a clean bucket or garbage can. A quart canning jar works perfectly as a measuring cup.  The purpose of this is to heat up the plastic so that the soap, in the next step, won’t immediately cool and solidify when poured into the bucket.
Step 2: Boil another quart of water with soap and powder. The soap is one grated bar of soap. Fals Naphtha is supposed to be the best soap for the job, but I’ve yet to find it! The powder is ½ cup of Borax and ½ cup washing soda. Dump it all in and let it boil until the powder is dissolved and the soap is melted.
Dump this into the bucket with the hot water. Because there will be a lot of soapy residue in the pot and I try my best to waste nothing, I boil the remaining water need for the recipe.

Step 3: Boil a quart of water to clean out the pot. I just swish it around and scrape off any bits of soap that stuck to it. Then dump it in the bucket. 

Step 4: Repeat step 3. Dump it in the bucket and mix it up. Then you let it just sit there and cool and thicken.

Really, that’s all there is to it. This will make 64 ¼ cup uses. It makes one gallong of a nice and thick laundry soap that is very easy to deal with (notice the spoon standing straight up). Just scoop and plop into the washer.

At only 1.5 cents per load, I am only spending 3 cents a day on soap. ($10.92 per year)  Compare that to the name brand stuff at 20 cents per load.  2 loads a day adds up to $145.60 in a year's time.  Heck, that's enough savings to buy a dairy goat!

Back to School Monday - borrowed info

What an weekend!  For a bunch of self proclaimed homebodies we spend quite a bit of time out and about this weekend.  It has been increasingly important to us that we get out to see our friends and family, even if only to stop for a 15 minute visit.  There is always work to do, there is always laundry and a sink of dishes.  There are always floors to sweep and papers to go through.  If we wait until we have time for these imoprtant people in our lives, then we will miss out of some of the greatest joys of this life.  Yes, all of these tasks were waiting for me when I got home, but with a renewed spirt my load didn't seem quite as heavy.
This brings me to the actual point.  Because of our increased activity this weekend, I am borrowing the listing from the Homeschool Freebie site this morning.  They look to be very interesting.  I am especially excited about today's freebie.  We are already almost a week into Lent.  It offers some wonderful ways of teaching our children about this season as wel as some fun activities. 

Well, here we are again with another great lineup of exceptional and unique homeschool and family resources for you.  Hopefully you'll find something here that will inform, delight, and even surprise you this week, which will soon become a welcome visitor in your household!


(Psstt: If so, PLEASE spread the word and tell your homeschooling friends about our site this week. This will help us continue to bring these resources to you!)


Here's the rundown:

Monday, February 22: LENTEN TREE & ACTIVITIES BOOK (PDF ebook) by Miiko Gibson


Lent, which began last Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) is the 40 days (excluding Sundays) before Easter.
For many families, Easter just happens. Don't let that occur this year. Have a meaningful Lent by doing a special activity each day of Lent. Then fill in the fruit on the Lenten Tree Chart and countdown to Easter.

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Tuesday, February 23rd:  MY PLANT (PDF ebook)


A simple nature-study project, written for younger students, about growing a plant from seed and keeping a four week observation diary of its growth. Gently written, with an example "plant diary" kept by an 8 year old boy over 100 years ago. This is a great activity to start now in anticipation of the coming springtime growing season.

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Wednesday, February 24:  GRAMMAR LAND (PDF ebook)
Back by popular demand!


"What is Grammar Land? Where is Grammar Land?  Have you ever been to Grammar Land? Wait a minute and you shall hear..." In this classic read aloud book, published way back in 1878, author Nesbitt creates an amazing fantasy land not unlike "Alice In Wonderland", where the citizens are the nine parts of speech (Mr. Proper Noun, Dr. Verb, Little Article, etc.) and all are governed by the stern but wise old Judge Grammar.  It's a fun, fascinating way to learn some of the basic grammar rules all the while carried along by the very memorable characters and a wild adventure to boot. Highly recommended!


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Thursday, February 25:  THE STORY OF WILLIAM TELL (PDF ebook)


Classic retelling of the amazing true story (or is it a legend?) of the national hero of Switzerland - mountaineer, shepherd and bowman, William Tell. Read the story of how Tell was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head by the cruel governor Gessler, and how Tell became instrumental in leading the Swiss people to freedom.


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Friday, February 26:  PETER WHEAT! (PDF comic book)
Get ready for some delightful cartoon adventures as we introduce PETER WHEAT and the folk of the wheat field, drawn by the inimitable Walt Kelly (creator of "Pogo").
> > Yes, yes, I can hear it now: Many of you are thinking "yuck.  That's not for us." Well, we know this doesn't sound all that great right now to most of you, but all I can tell you is... TRUST US ON THIS ONE.
Give it a chance - your kids will absolutely love these stories,  we guarantee it! Great read alouds or reading practice too!
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You can find each of these resources on their respective days at:
http://www.homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com
NOTE: If you ever have any trouble accessing the site with that link, try
http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com


...it works too!

Fun Friday?

We are under the weather here in my home.  It's nothing serious, just the sinus crud that makes us all miserable for a short time.  Well, for the children it is a short time.  For the grown-ups it seems to take much longer.  The children have those fast metabolisms that can repair their bodies so quickly that they scarcly even remember being ill.  They are allowed naps and rest time whenever they let me know that they are in need of it.  I, on the other hand, being the adult in charge of 4 children under 10 years of age, do not afford myself the luxury of naps and rest.  Perhaps if I did, my body would heal up much more quickly than it has this past week. 

It looks as though Family Fun Friday will be spent with school books closed, blankets piled into the living room, with movies and story books to occupy our minds while my health catches up to theirs.  I'm certain that the children will agree that it should be a fun day for them.

Thursday Thoughts - Gardening and the Sabbath Year

Gardening and the Sabbath Year


The Lord gave a long list of 613 laws for his chosen people to follow in order to please him. While we as Gentiles are not bound by these laws, they still hold much wisdom that we can use in our lives. One of these instructions is to only farm a piece of land for 6 consecutive years before allowing it to be fallow for a year. This 7th year is the Sabbath Year. Blessed are those who obey without knowledge! They obey because they fear and trust in God! Unfortunately, I’m a little more hard headed.

While learning more about gardening these past few years, I am amazed at how he has orchestrated his creation. Even atheist gardeners recommend allowing the land to rebuild itself and replenish the microorganisms in the soil. Science has proven that the Sabbath Year is a good for the dirt, but what about the people? Is it good for us? Where will we get our food?

Let me share with you what I have experienced and how that has reminded me how great God is! This past year was a terrible year for our garden. The first half of the summer was dry. It felt wonderful! The low humidity caused my spirits to stay as high as the water bill. We dumped water on the garden and made practically no progress. Then the floodgates opened. The second half of the summer was making up for the dry first half. So this is what the Farmer’s Almanac meant by a wet summer. We had just enough to eat throughout the summer. My dozens and dozens of quart mason jars remained unfilled with veggies.

This doesn’t mean that the pantry stayed empty! The wild blackberries growing on the fence line produced a bumper crop. We picked enough to make cobbler and syrup. The apple and pear trees at my husband’s parents’ house next door had more than enough fruit for both households. (There were enough to share with the children at church who were learning about the fruit of the spirit) We were invited to pick gallons of blueberries with friends of the family and with cousins. We celebrated summer with blueberry pancakes and blueberry ice cream. Another friend had so many plums on her trees that she was picking them and giving them away. We had enough to make several cobblers and jelly! There was even a cold afternoon spent picking up pounds of pecans in my aunt’s front yard this winter.

You see, this year was El Nino, a weather pattern that only occurs every 7 years. Are you wheels turning yet? The Lord has made it so that when we follow his plan, we are not disappointed with poor gardens, we rejoice with the bounty of all of the trees! We set aside that gardening year to reflect on how the Lord has taken such good care of us. Perhaps all of this extra rain that is turning my yard into Shrek’s playground could be aiding that replenishing of the soil. Perhaps it is helping everything to compost. Perhaps God can take care of us better than we can take care of ourselves.

Yes, I know that He can!

What’s for Dinner Wednesday - Utilize the markdowns!

Unfortunately I can’t tell you what is in the sale papers for this week. Mine were absent from my usual Tuesday mail bundle. Perhaps it was the preplanned three day weekend that turned into four due to snow. Whatever the reason, I have no fabulous deals to point out to you. I can, however, tell you about a few things that were on our menu.

Most grocery stores have an area for meat that is nearing it’s expiration date. This is where I find some of my most wonderful treasures! Because I am feeding a fair sized family, I don’t have to worry about not using all of it before it goes bad. Also, because I make up my menu on shopping day, I don’t worry about forgetting about my find. This past week I found a one pound package of smoked Cajun sausage for 99 cents! Woo Hoo! Meat for less than a dollar a pound! Yes, sir, I’ll take all 4. Three of them found their way into my freezer. I also found a 12 ounce package of sliced bacon for 99 cents. While it wasn’t quite as cheep as the sausage, it’s still below the $2 per pound limit that I have set for myself.

The bacon was used for my sweetie’s Valentine’s Day breakfast. There was even enough left for a little kitchen experiment of my own. I mixed up a batch of cornbread, then mixed in a little of the bacon grease and bacon bits that I’d just fried up. I dropped spoons of my batter into my nice black, greasy cast iron skillet. Oh yum! They turned out fantastic! A pan of cornbread is super cheep to make. The portion of bacon was probably only about 10 cents worth. Less than $1 to get my boys up and moving just from the smell wafting into their bedrooms makes me a happy momma.

The sausage went toward a slow cooker dinner. Those are my favorite kind. The best part is that there are only 4 ingredients: a bag of black beans, a bag of frozen corn, a package of sausage, chopped tomatoes or salsa. I used the salsa because that’s what I had on hand. I cooked up a pot of rice to be served in the bottom of our bowls just to bulk it up a little.

1 lb dried beans = about $1
1 lb frozen corn = about $1
    Or 2 cans
1 lb sausage = clearance $1
1 can chopped tomatoes = about $.75
    Or homemade salsa = pennies
A cup or two of rice = around $.25

Liz Price = less than $4.00 for supper for 6 people. That’s tough to beat.

Tuesday Tips - Command Station

Many studies have been done on how much a housewife would make if all of her duties were hired out. It seems like the total pay rate for a mother/housewife is somewhere around $150,000.00 a year! I use this only to point out that we have many very important responsibilities that if left undone would cause our harmonious homes to be come crazy chaos. With so much responsibility that ranges from fix lunch to prepare the taxes it is easy to loose track of what we are to accomplish next.

You see, it’s not that I forget a lot, it’s just that I can’t remember it all at once. I have tried to use everything I could imagine to tame the wilderness including a PDA, several paper calendars, a programmable calendar on my desktop, spiral notebooks scattered around my home, and sticky notes everywhere.

Finally, I found my solution. Instead of having information spread out all over my life, I needed to have it all in one constant area where I could coordinate and contain the chaos. I have a three-ring binder open on my counter top in an area that, due to poor building planning, is unusable otherwise. The two exposed sheets of notebook paper contain most of the information that I need for my week. It has my weekly menu, the important events for the week, a shopping list, and list of things I need to accomplish for the week. If I’m feeling particularly motivated I’ll even have the projected high and low temperatures penciled in.

I’ll check over it a few times a day, which is no bother since it is already open and accessible. By the end of the week I feel less ed and frazzled. My tasks were able to be worked on at my pace without being forgotten or past due. My menu was coordinated with our activities which prevented planning a 2 hour preparation for supper on an evening following an afternoon spent at the park. On the day with errands, I can planned for sandwiches which could be taken with us since we were running behind on time. This is usually the case, because somehow no one can ever find his or her shoes when it is time to leave.

My day seems just a little smoother when I utilize my external brain.

Back to School Monday- Learning the Alphabet

Occasionally we find a product that we love so much that we wish we had found it years earlier. I found such a product at my library. It is put out by Preschool Prep Co. This series is a mother’s dream! Without any gimmicks, bells, or whistles it teaches children everything from their colors to their alphabet and even a handful of sightwords. It seems that little ones learn best by repetition. Yes, there are a few tricks that help, but to really get things stuck in heir heads they just need to see and hear it over and over and over until it is memorized. Imagine your little boy watching his favorite show. He can recite all of the dialogue to the entire show including the theme song. You probably can, too, because you’ve watched it 3 times a week for 6 months!  Repetition! 

I picked up a DVD on the library shelf that was titled “Meet the Letters”. It looked cute.  Besides, my almost 5 year old was having a tough time with some of the letters at the end of the alphabet. On our 15 minute rides into town, he mastered those letters.  He just needed the repetition. Little did I know that my 2 year old was picking up quite a bit as well. I admit that I hoped that she would learn a letter or two, but I never expected the entire alphabet to be memorized! We followed up this DVD with others that taught vowels, shapes, numbers, and eventually sight words.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about them! They even have a website that offers things like flashcards and coloring books that correlate to the pictures in the program. http://www.preschoolprepco.com/ They aren’t expensive, but you know me. I’m always looking for ways to save. I made my own flashcards. Had I found these when my oldest was learning these symbols, I would have no problem spending the $15 for the DVDs. I think that it covers all of the material necessary for preschool and most of the material in kindergarten. Workbooks and patience can cost so much more. But since our family has probably reached it’s maximum capacity, I find that using the library is a wonderfully frugal option! Liz Price = Free!

P.S. If you do decide to buy the DVDs, ordering from Amazon.com through my links will help us. I believe in full disclosure!

Frugal Fun Friday - Snow Day!

Play in the snow!  It's free!  It's for a limited only!  It's all natural!  It's sugar free!  It's unisex!  It makes your yard look pretty! 

Thursday Thoughts - Who is Valentine anyway?

I remember reading that a bishop, Valentine, was jailed because he was marrying Christian couples in secret. The Romans had outlawed marriage. What a wonderful story! A man who followed God’s rules instead of man’s rules! What a role model for those of us who struggle with laws that are set against Christian beliefs. I had hoped to find this story and repost it here. I had hoped that this new knowledge would remind those of us who share that covenant to be grateful that we do not have such restrictions and persecutions.

Much to my dismay, I could not find such a story. In researching the origins of Valentine’s Day, I found so many differing stories that I sit here now confused by it all. One source claims that there were in fact 11 men who were all Valentines. They were celebrated throughout the year until they decided on a date in February. Another states that the fourteenth originated as a pagan holiday celebrating a fertility goddess. Several say that the holiday was fashioned after just one saint that was thrown in jail after performing miracles in the name of God during the time of Roman persecution. Wow, that does NOT make for a very romantic story!

Luckily, just as I was about to give up my search, I found it!

Saint Valentine: Holy Priest of Rome: The date of this Saint Valentine's birth is not known. Along with Saint Marius and his family, Saint Valentine assisted the martyrs during the persecution they suffered under the rule of Claudius II (also known as Claudius the Goth and Claudius the Cruel). In addition, since Rome was at the time involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns, the emperor found it difficult to recruit the male populace into joining his military leagues. Believing this to be because Roman men were adverse to leaving their loved ones or their families, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements within the City of Rome. Saint Valentine and Saint Marius, however, continued to perform wedding ceremonies in secret. When is was discovered that Saint Valentine was defying the emperor's decree, he was apprehended and dispatched by Claudius to the Prefect of Rome who, being unable to force the saint to renounce Christianity, ordered that Valentine be clubbed, stoned and then beheaded. According to tradition, while Valentine waited in prison for his execution, he corresponded with those under his care by sending letters and love notes to his parishioners. It is also believed that while incarcerated, the Bishop fell in love with a young woman who visited him during his confinement. According to some sources, this was the blind daughter (whose name may have been Julia) of Asterius, the jailer. It is said that God enabled Valentine to miraculously restore the girl's sight. Popular belief indicates that Valentine's farewell message to his love contained a closing that has now transcended time: "From Your Valentine." The saint was executed on February 14 in either 269 A.D. or 270 A.D. In 270 A.D., Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole in the saint's memory at a location once known as Porta Valentini and now called Porta del Popolo. The relic bones of this Saint Valentine, who may also have been a physician, are now housed within the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome.

(http://www.novareinna.com/festive/saintval.html)

So perhaps I left out some of the details and a few of the big things as well. But this remains my favorite story about the Saint Valentine. I hope that it allows you to view this holiday just a little differently. Will you be more willing to stand up for what you believe in? Will you be more grateful for your marriage? Will you remember what the soldiers from this country are missing everyday, especially this Sunday?