Words of the Week Wednesday 11/12

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week.

1. $5 Dinner Mom. Erin Chase has one of the best blogs out there. She shows you how to feed a family of 4 dinner for $5 or less! The meals are really simple and taste wonderful. She also has a new cookbook out, so check that out while you are at her site.
   
2. Makeusof.com. This site is more for the techy person. The reason I love it is because there are so many links to free programs, free graphics and more. It is a great site if you are interested in anything from computers to phones to graphics and more.
   
3. Wisebread.com has a HUGE list of the top 100 personal financial blogs listed on its site. If you are interested in finding some new blogs to read check that out.
   
   
   
   
   

Words of the Week Wednesday 7/29

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week. Since I have been concentrating on eating healthier and making more meals from scratch I thought I would share some recipe blogs and sites this week. Also, cooking delicious foods at home instead of eating out saves you money.



Project: Domestic Bliss



This is an awesome blog for those who like to cook. Nikki makes wonderful food and not only shares photos of them, but also the recipe. So, you can also make these yummy foods. Recently she has made such foods as homemade tortillas for burritos, steakhouse steak, Barbecue chicken pizza, and more! Nikki is a fellow participant in the All You Grocery Challenge, so go check out her blog and start cooking!



Gourmet Finds



This site is awesome for any self-proclaimed foodie. It has awesome recipes listed and some really great pictures of food.

Tammy's Recipes



Just looking at this site makes my mouth water. The food looks so delicious. Lately her recipes have been centering around what is coming out of the garden. Since this is the first year we have had a garden, I am finding this site very useful. I was thinking about what we would do with SO many beans, but her garlic green beans sound tasty.

Words of the Week Wednesday 7/15

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week. Today I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to share the blogs of other participants in the All You Grocery Challenge. So here is a list, in no particular order:

All You Grocery Challenge blog. Here you can find TONS of tips on how to reduce your grocery costs and eat better.

• All You Grocery Challenge by Katie
• The World's Cheapest Mom
• Spiffy Spotlight
• Daisy B Deals
• Savin ItUp
  
  
• The Working Home Keeper
• All You Challenge by Likeavision
  
• Cacoupondiva
• The Freebie Mom
• Life as Mom
  
  
• The Penny Pinchin Kitchen
• Dolly Domestic
• Adventures of the Qpon QT
• Feeding us on a Budget
• I Think I Can, I Think I Can
  
  
• Bits of Whitt
• All You Grocery Challenge by tenthingsfarm
• Super Coupon Girl
• Project Domestic Bliss
• Fun with Finances 101
  
  
• Kari and James' Grocery Challenge
  
• Chronicles of a Southern Scrapper
• Frugality in Florida
• Be Home Happy
• A Welcoming Heart
  
  
• Crazy Acres
  
• Home Economics
• Grocery Challenge 09
• Growing Small
• Frugality at its Finest
  
  
• ThriftLivingMama's Blog
  
• Use it Up, Wear it Out
• Frugally Blonde
• The Frugal Country Mom
• Life From My Laptop
  
  
• Bargains 4 WAHM
  
• Coping with Frugality
• The Joys of Couponing
  

I tried to add all of the blogs/sites to my All You favorites folder, but there are quite a few comments on the blog so if I missed anyone please leave me a comment and I will add you to the list.

Words of the Week Wednesday 7/1

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week.

Many times I have trouble coming up with meals and recipes for dinners. The following sites are very helpful to me each week as I try to save money by planning my meals.

• My favorite recipe site is AllRecipes.com. I think I am on this site at least three or four times a week. The other day I was trying to find recipes for strawberries (my hubby's grandma gave us about four pounds!) and found an awesome recipe for Strawnana bread. This recipe produced an awesome banana and strawberry bread that just tastes awesome! I will have to make some more now that I have some more bananas. YUMMY!!! They also have a feature where you can enter your ingredients that you want to use and it will find recipes that have these. You can also tell it to exclude certain ingredients. It really is one of the best sites I have found for recipes.
  
• $5 Dinners is an awesome blog where Erin shares with her readers recipes for families that are healthy but do not cost a fortune. She shares her monthly meal plan at the beginning of the month (I used to do monthly, but lately have been having trouble just getting my weekly meal plan done) and proves that you can make dinner for a family of four for less than $5 a day.
• If you would like to start meal planning there are various ways to organize your meals. You can use a spreadsheet, a calendar made using word processing software (if you don't have any on your computer you can download Open Office for free), or even just a pen and paper. I also found a lot of free meal planning information at Meals Matter including shopping list, daily meal planner, and more.
  

Words of the Week Wednesday 6/24

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week. Today I will just be concentrating on some interesting articles I found.

• Looking to save money on electricity? Check out this article from My Two Dollars titled How to Get Your Monthly Electric Bill Below $25. There are several tips to help you reduce your energy consumption.
• Want to stretch your food dollars? Check out Food Tricks that Keep Your Hard Earned Money Out of the Trash from PayLess for Food. This article contains great tips to help keep your food so you don't have to throw away food and money.
  
• If you are new to the world of couponing, you will want to read this article from Common Sense with Money: Five Mistakes I Made as a Newbie Couponer. These are very good tips for any person looking at starting to coupon. It may even be helpful for those of us who have been using coupons for a while.
  
• I was also impressed by this article from Northern Cheapskate: Don't be Greedy with Freebies. It is a really great argument against being greedy when it comes to free samples.
  
• If you're having trouble keeping track of your bills and remembering to pay them, check out this article from Associate Money: Tips to Pay Your Bills On Time. Number five is the one I do. I have my bills set up to automatically be paid through my bank. All I have to do when the bills come in is check and make sure my payment will be sufficient. I also keep track of my bills using Microsoft Money and an Excel spreadsheet.

Do you have any sites or blogs you would like to suggest for Words of the Week Wednesday? Please send me an email or leave me a comment.

Words of the Week Wednesday 6/17

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week.

• TweetDeck. I really didn't know how to use Twitter much, so I really didn't like it. Since finding out about TweetDeck, I have been tweeting more because it is so easy. Plus I don't have to keep checking the site all the time. The program is open and when someone twitters a little window pops up letting me know. So, if you would like to do some more twittering, you should really go check it out. It's free and you can download it here.
• As mentioned on Sunday, I was in the local paper again. I just wanted to mention that Jenn from Greene NY was also mentioned in the additional section of the paper. She has a blog called Frugal Upstate. I found this blog sometime last year and have visited it often. She just had her blog redesigned and it looks awesome. Go visit her blog and let her know that Lisette sent ya.
  
• Are you looking for all the best sales and coupon matchups each week? Well, BeCentsAble is the site to go to. Individual bloggers post their matchups weekly for both national and local stores. I am the only blogger on there providing the matchups for Tops, but there are also matchups for Weis, Price Chopper, and Giant, along with national stores like Walmart, Walgreens, Target and more. This is a great way to learn how to shop with coupons.

Words of the Week Wednesday 6/10

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week.

• Saving Cents with Sense is a great frugality and couponing site. This blog lets you know when and where to get all those great deals. For example, she posted yesterday with the code to get a $25 gift card from restaurants.com for only $2!! She also posts the deals at the stores that week.
  
• Another great blog I have found recently is ConsumerQueen.com. This site helps you take maximize your savings using coupons, lets you know the sales and coupon matchups each week, and more. Melissa is an awesome couponer and gets tons of groceries for very little money. There is also a forum where you can talk to other members about couponing and each week she does an online radio show (Thursdays at 9 pm EST).
  
• Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls has several giveaways going on right now. Just looking quickly I saw they she had giveaways for: a $25 gift certificate to Watkins (spices), a star hoodie, patriotic cookie kit, a sterling silver necklace, a pair of Wee Sneak shoes,and a Healthy Chef 4-in-1 machine. So go over and enter.
  

Words of the Week Wednesday 6/3

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week.

• Would you like to gain better control of your money? Parents Connect is having a Recession Proofing Boot Camp this month. Each day there will be a new money challenge. Registration is free and it just started on Monday, so if you join you will only be behind 2 days! They are also having a 30 Day Potty Training Challenge for those who have a child ready for the potty.
• I'm an Organizing Junkie is an awesome blog. Every Monday she posts her meals for the week, then other bloggers link to their posts with their meal plan. It can really give you some ideas on what to make for dinner! She has challenges to help organize your house (and life) and keep it that way. Also, she is having a giveaway on her review blog. You can enter to win The Dinner Solution: software that helps you plan your meals for the month.
• Sesame Street is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. They have revamped the Sesame Street site, so if you have little ones (or if you want to reminisce), go on over and check it out.
  

Words of the Week Wednesday 5/27

It is Wednesday again and time to provide my readers with links to sites that I found interesting in the last week.

• Frugal Dad has done it again. His posts every day are just so informative and really make you think. Today's post was titled 10 Reasons Why Being in Debt Sucks. I am so happy that I subscribed to his blog.
• If you're trying to cut down on how much you spend on groceries, check out all the wonderful (and frugal) recipes at Fun Foods on a Budget. She has so many wonderful and yummy recipes on her blog. Check out the Hot Fudge Cheesecake she made on May 26... yum!!!
• BeCentsAble is having a Food Stamp Challenge that will be starting on June 2 and lasting until June 10. The challenge involves shopping with the amount that food stamp recipients usually get per person. Go over and register before June 1.
  

Words of the Week Wednesday 5/20

Every Wednesday, I highlight up to three blogs or websites that I think you will all enjoy visiting. If you have a blog or site you would like included in my Words of the Week Wednesday, leave me the link in my comments along with what you find interesting about the site or why you like it.

Here are the three sites for this week:

• I just received an email from Arm and Hammer announcing that they have $10.50 worth of printable coupons on their site. Go to the Arm and Hammer site, click on Get Coupons at the top left-hand corner, Enter your first and last name and email (I use an email address that I use only for samples and coupons). It will then take you to the page to pick which coupons you would like to print.
  
• Would you like to know what coupons are out there? Maybe you would like to be able to look up what date a certain coupon came out. Well, here is a coupon search that does just that. It even has an insert schedule, so you will know when there isn't going to be any inserts (they even use Valentine's Day as an excuse to not have coupon inserts... gggrr).
• Freebies 4 Mom is a great site with tons of coupons and freebies. She is also currently running a contest where you can win $150 office set. So check out her blog.

Words of the Week Wednesday

Every Wednesday I write about 1-3 sites I have found recently that I think you will like to go visit. Today's sites are:

1. Stouffer's is having a contest on their site. Usually I don't post contests, but I really think that it's a very interesting contest. In order to get an entry into the contest each week, you have to post a goal of how many times you want to eat at home with your family. Then at the end of the week you fill in how many times you ate at home, and that enters you in the contest each week. I think it is a wonderful that they are promoting eating at home with your family. Not only does it promote family and together time, it also saves you money. You can check out the contest at Take the Challenge -Let's Fix Dinner.
2. Have you ever made homemade bread? It is so yummy. But many homemade breads are not good as sandwich bread. Ever try putting peanut butter and jelly on regular homemade bread? Doesn't work very well. I found a delicious recipe for homemade sandwich bread. A fellow member at Frugal Village posted it on there and it is so awesome! You can find the recipe on the White Sandwich Bread thread. While you're there, browse around the rest of Frugal Village. It is a wonderful place where people share their frugal tips with each other.
   
3. Erin from $5 Dinner.com was recently featured on Raychel Ray. You can see the show segment here. Erin's blog centers around how she feeds her family for $5 per meal. She uses the stores' weekly ads and coupons to plan her meals for the week. She not only provides recipes, but also pictures of the meals when she makes them. She also just got a contract to write a cookbook! Congrats Erin!

If you have any blogs or sites (anything dealing with frugality, money or coupons), please leave it in my comments and I will look it over for possible inclusion in the next Words of the Week Wednesday.

Words of the Week Wednesday

I came across a wonderful blog recently = Frugal Dad. He is very insightful and the content is always really well written. Today he posted a collection of 122 ways to trim your budget. This is an awesome collection of different tips from readers and also from him. There are some on there that I haven't even heard of before!

I thought I would share with you the ones pertaining to food shopping and couponing and then you can go read the rest of the list yourself. You can read the rest of the list here.

Some of the tips include:

• Using two coupons when you buy something Buy One Get One Free
• Sign up with various manufacturers and stores to get coupons and special offers
• Spend about 10 minutes a week cleaning out your coupons and getting rid of ones that are expired. I usually do this on Saturday before I get a new messload of coupons on Sunday.
  
• Don't just rely on coupons from the newspaper. Other good sources include the internet and magazines.
• Don't forget that places like Family Dollar take coupons also. They usually have really good prices on cleaning products and when combined with coupon it's even better.
• Keep your coupons in your car, or better yet, your purse. This way you always have them with you if you come across a great deal.
  
• Knowing each store's coupon policy will save you a lot of headache and help make planning your shopping trip more efficient.
• Know your prices. Knowing what you usually pay on the things you buy the most, will help you know if that sale price is really a good deal or not. Just because it is on sale doesn't mean that it is a good deal. Make it a point to know what the normal price for commonly bought products is at either Walmart or Target. Using a price book (just get a small notebook) might help you find the cheapest. What I did was I kept track of everything on my receipts in a spreadsheet for a while. This told me not only how much I was spending on certain things, but also where I was getting the best prices.
  
• Use couponmom.com or afullcup.com to find out what coupons match which sales at what store.
  
• Don't buy things unless they are on sale. To be able to do this, you need to have a stockpile. When you get a good deal on things, stock up so you can last until the next time they go on sale.
  
• If your store doubles coupons up to 99 cents, you can make out pretty well with those 75 cent coupons. These become $1.50 off and can make your product cheap or even free.
  

**Hints in purple are the ones I added.

I hope you liked this list. Go check out Frugal Dad's blog for even more tips on saving bunches of money. Do you have any couponing or other frugal tips you would like to add to the list. Leave me a comment letting me know.

Words of the Week Wednesday

Today I will be just concentrating on one website, versus my usual three. This site is so awesome, that it takes up a full post to explain how awesome it is.

I found this great site on couponing the other day. Jill Cataldo is a real coupon queen. She makes me look really bad with the deals she gets. She was able to get almost $100 worth of groceries for less than $10!!! Isn't that crazy!!! I can only dream about getting that good of deals! But at least it is something to strive for.

Jill has classes in the Chicago area where she teaches super couponing I, II, and III, so if you are in the Midwest, check out her free classes. I would love to teach classes like this in my area, I just don't know if there would be enough interest in classes. Maybe I should look into that.

Jill has been featured on many news shows and in many article (look under the In The Media section in the right hand column). There's some really nice video of her getting tons of groceries for cheap!!! The website also has tons of great information about couponing and even has a forum where you can talk to other coupon users.

Go visit her at http://jillcataldo.com/

Words of the Week Wednesday (Earth Day Edition)

I have been wanting to try to make homemade laundry detergent for some time now. I was able to find borax at Walmart and Target, but could not find washing soda. I told my mother I was looking for it and she found some at Price Chopper for $2.99. So, if you have trouble finding it, try there.

I figure it will cost me about 2 cents per load! So this will be a big savings for us. Especially with a family of five, we go through a lot of laundry detergent. It is also environmentally special. I plan on making the powdered detergent. You can find several recipes here. I will let you know how it works out. Let me know if you have ever tried making your own detergent and what the result was.

In celebration of Earth Day, the Simple Mom has a list of 40 ways to go greener at home. Many of the things on the list we already do, but there are a few that I am looking at trying.

Another great blog about family and green living is Nature Mom's Blog. She talks about what her family and herself does to live a more Eco-friendly life. So, go check out her blog.