Frugal Friday With Marsha--Vacation Week (linky party)

This has been hubby's vacation week.  We've been about as frugal about vacation as we could other than not going anywhere at all.

We headed out of town to visit my daughter and her family for a couple of nights.  We took the mattress off of our hide-a-bed and slept on their living room floor.  Jasmine slept on their couch.
We ate out once while there, and then we went bowling.  Otherwise we hung out at their house watching movies.
Oh yes, I did take along my coupon binder and I took my daughter on a coupon shopping trip.  She was less than impressed, even though she keeps telling me that I need to teach her how to coupon so they can save money too.  Her biggest thing was the amount of time it took as she watched me cut coupon inserts and put the coupons into my binder, and then the fact that we were in the store for over an hour as I walked up and down each aisle making decisions on things to buy other then the items I had on my list.    I did save 73% on my shopping trip that day.

Next vacation week is in July.  We are actually trying to save all change until then.  We are in hopes of making a trip and actually paying for a room.  Hubby wants to go to Dodge City and the casino.  Yes, I would like to do that too, however, what I really want to do is rent the cabin at Spring Lake for a couple or 3 nights.    If we could save enough, we could possibly make a full week of the vacation and do both.  


This week I am sharing 5 uses for shower caps from the 99 Cent Solutions Book:

1.  Cover your camera.   You don't want your camera to be ruined if you are out and about and the weather is bad.  Simply wrap a shower cap around the camera, leaving the open end where the lens is.  If you are having trouble seeing through the showercap on the back of the camera, you can cut a hole in the other side of the showercap, just enough to see the viewfinder.

2.  Cover your shoes.  If you are packing shoes in your suitcase and have a worry that the bottoms will get other items in  your suitcase dirty, just wrap those shoes in shower caps.

3.  Ride your bicycle a lot?  I'm sure if you do then you've parked it to go inside somewhere only to come out and find it's started to rain while you were away.  Simply cover your bike seat with a shower cap when you aren't riding it and you won't end up with a wet bottom.

4.  Keep out dust.  Cover your kitchen appliances with shower caps to keep out dust.

5.  Create a makeshift saucer.  You can use a shower cap under your plants that don't have a saucer under them to protect from drips to protect your floor or furniture.  Or, you can use the shower cap to replace the saucer.

See you next week  :)

 

Frugal Friday With Marsha (linky included)

How has your week been?   I'm still doing pretty well with my goals.  I've been able to at least put a few things in their proper places every day.  It's a nice feeling as I look around and the house is looking a little better each day.

My mom thinks that if you are poor you think you need to surround yourself with stuff to make yourself feeler richer.  I honestly don't believe that at all.  (She's justifying herself because she's a hoarder  LOL)  I know that I will feel much richer (and saner) when everything has a place and everything is in that place....and excess is gone. My saying is less is more.

I was able to make a couple of good coupon shopping trips this past week.  I averaged savings of  72%.   Here is a photo of one of the trips where I spent $20.24---had a coupon savings of $51.99 and a savings of 79%:

Lastly today I am sharing ways to use shaving cream from the 99 Cent Solutions book:
1.   Shave away the stain.  This works for fresh stains on your carpet.  Blot up as much as you can then shoot the stain with  a blob of non-gel shaving cream.  Wipe the shaving cream and the stain away with a damp sponge or cloth.

2.  Color be gone.  Spray shaving cream on crayon markings on your wall.  Scrub it off with a toothbrush or scrub brush.

3.  Stop soap scum.  Spray shaving cream onto your glass shower doors, then wipe it off with a dry cloth.  As a bonus, the thin film created will prevent the doors from fogging over too.

4.  Cut through the fog.  Occasionally clean your glasses with white foamy shave cream.  The thin film will repel water and fog.  This will work on your cars windshield too.

5.  Still with your glasses--if you accidentally spray your glasses with hairspray, just rub the lenses and frames with shave cream and wipe is all off with a clean cloth.



 

Squidoo Hopping--Destinations

This week, let's share 1 or 2 of our lenses that are destinations.  Your home town, vacation spots, special attractions, events, etc.  These lenses are always fun and educational for me to look at.  For the most part it's my only chance to see these places, attractions and events.

Please also share any squidoo related blog posts you have done this past week as well.  Thanks!!

 

WIP Wednesday--Rug and Coasters

That's about all I've worked on since the 1st of the year-----a toothbrush rug that I had started months ago.   I am getting pretty close now to getting it finished and itching to get my materials sorted to start another one.
This one is made with flannel strips.

The other thing is coasters.  I found in my stash this huge ball of yarn.  I mean huge!   My first thought was to make hot pads with matching coasters, but then I thought maybe the sparkly type yarn just wouldn't do well for hot pads.  I decided that instead I would make as many coasters as I can out of it.  I have quite the stash of plastic canvas sheets, so this should go well.  
I have one set listed in my etsy shop, but will have these listed in sets of 4, 6 and 8.
I have 8 of them made so far:

I have a load of different projects that I want to get started on as well as still quite a lot of UFO's waiting to be finished.  Nothing new here!

Yesterday was sewing club at church.  I have all of the smaller squares finished now.  If I don't start finding at least a little time each week to work on this quilt at home it's going to take me well over a year just to get the top done.

I have been blessed in the past month or so with gifts of fabric.   One gal who works at the quilt shop has given me 3 bags of fabric.  Then the quilt shop gave me all of the fabric shown in the photo below.  A man donated it to the shop--his wife has passed away and it was hers.  How nice of him, but the quilt shop doesn't work with things like this, so they thought of me.  Part of what you see in the photo will be made in to pillow cases to be given to the foster care agency.  I'm sure some will be made into quilts for church.  I have plans of making doll quilts with the tin of 2 inch squares.

What will next week bring?  For one thing, it's brings a week of vacation for my husband.  We only plan a 1 day trip this vacation.


I am linking up with the following blogs:

 

Homeschool Journal--Getting Back In The Swing of Things

We had a good day yesterday getting back in to the swing of schoolwork.  It was actually nice after taking over 2 weeks off.
We started the day with devotions from the Guideposts book.  We moved on to Kansas History reading trading cards of famous Kansans that I had picked up at the state fair this past year.  Then it was Earth Science from the text.  We will be finishing the text up, hopefully before the end of March.  From there we learned about and calculated simple interest in the Understanding Investment and the Stock Market workbook.  She did a workbook page in her Vocabulary Enhancement workbook, and we can't forget exercising with the Wii.

I am glad that we did invest the money in buying the Wii.  Jasmine is sticking with using it for exercise and enjoying it.  

I took a video this past Saturday evening when we had 4 grandchildren overnight.  They were having a blast!




Today is my monthly sewing club at church.  After the usual Bible study upstairs at church, Jasmine will come down, have lunch and then get busy on the various workbooks that remain in the van.  They remain there since we do end up out and about a lot.  This way she can keep on working.  It works for us!   Do you do anything like this as well?

I am linking up with:
 

Frugal Friday With Marsha 1/4/13

 

It's a new year---what are your goals?
Among mine is to declutter and reorganize our home.  Less is more.

I've been putting things in their proper places instead of having them laying all over the house.  I'm plan to go through boxes and drawers that haven't been touched since we move in here.  Honestly I should just throw them out instead of taking time to look through them.   I'm thinking of putting stuff by the box full up on freecycle to give away.  I am listing some things in the local facebook buy/sell/trade group in hopes of making a few $$ too.

I took a few weeks off from shopping too much with coupons and I am working now on getting back in to the saving and stocking up.  I have been able to shop twice this week.
I saved over $2000 with coupons in 2012--more than double what I saved in 2011---think I can double that again in 2013?

Today from the 99 Cent Solutions book I am sharing ways to use shampoo:

1.  Get rid of ring around the collar.  Rub a little shampoo on that ring around the collar with an old toothbrush.  Shampoos containing ammonium lauryl sulfate work best.  Let it sit for 30 minutes then launder as normal.

2.  Wash away hair spray.   Hairspray tends to get other places than just in your hair.  Use a cleaner of one gallon of warm water and a squirt of shampoo to clean your sink, walls and floor.  Rinse with a clean rag.

3.  Shampoo your silk.  Hand wash your silk in cool water and a protein-based shampoo.  The shampoo will not destroy the silk and it will actually give the silk more body and a longer life.

4.  Get rid of the fog.  Foggy windshields are annoying and dangerous.  If you have trouble with your windshield fogging up on the inside, simply wipe it clean with a rag moistened with shampoo.  It will clear the fog and clean the window at the same time.

5.  Say good-bye to sapIf you get sap on your hands, just zap it away by washing your hands with shampoo.


Now it's your turn to share your frugal/simple living posts for this week!

  

Squidoo Hopping--Top Ranked Lenses

This week I would like you to link up your top 1 or 2 ranked lenses.

I don't know what keeps a lens at the top, other than the obvious that people are actually viewing it and maybe actually buying something from it, or clicking to an outside link.

I am pretty sure that the ones at the top of my list stay there because when someone clicks to my profile to return a comment favor or the like, they just click from the top.  I, on the other hand, do the opposite when I am returning a comment favor.  I click through the pages, sometimes starting at the last page of their lenses.  If I don't, it's because I truly am interested in the info inside one of the top ranked lenses on their list.  I do always try to find a lens that is of interest to me, over just clicking to view.

As most of you know, my biggest squidoo goal is continual updating of my lenses.  I am in hopes this will help my rankings as I don't have a single lens that is in tier 2, let alone tier 1!

What do you think gets a lens into the higher tiers?

 

Homeschool Journal---December 2012 in Review

Happy New Year!

December didn't bring much schoolwork as far as textbooks and workbooks, but we stayed super busy with Christmas!

Here is our month in review in photos:

Jasmine is helping me put together Christmas sacks for the whole family.

The completed Christmas sacks are filled and ready to be handed out.

Our family Christmas gift this year, bought for ourselves is a wii.  Yes, bought mid December.  Here is Jasmine, and my grandson Allen dancing away.  She is trying to dance to at least 3 songs a day.

Jasmine portrayed Mary in the Christmas program at our church, December 16th.  Joseph was played by her boyfriend, William.
Both of them also were part of the bell choir at another church where they attend youth group.  That was lots of practice time both for our church program and for their bell songs.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the bell choir as they were in the choir loft and we couldn't see them.

Other highlights for the month that I don't have photos for include:

Dinner theater put on by their youth group.  Jasmine didn't choose to take part in the theater part as far as acting, but did help with the staging and props.   She also cooked and served the dinner.

They served a soup supper during the annual Luminary.

They are currently with their youth group right now.  They had a New Years lock in last night.

Here's to 2013 and a productive year all the way around!!

I am linking up with:




 

Frugal Friday With Marsha 12/28/12

We have almost made it to the end of 2012.  I have several goals that I would like to accomplish in 2013.  Sadly, most of them are the same goals I have every year!  Hopefully this year I can have the stick-to-itive-ness to accomplish them.

Just one goal is to simplify our life.  The clutter around us is getting worse.  Less is more as they say, and it really is.


Today I want to talk about an app for your smartphone or tablet.  It's called ibotta.  I'm really excited about this one.  As a former refunder (you know sending in for lots of refunds and rebates on items, until the rebates became about obsolete), I am excited as this is the easy way to get those refund on products now.

Ibotta gives a fairly large list of items to choose from to buy and then receive cash back on.  You can be paid by paypal, or you can choose a school to donate to.  They have other redemption choices coming soon.  

Here are just a few examples of the products that are currently on my list---Fanta, Frosted Flakes, Huggies Wipes, Neosporin, Carnation Instant Breakfast, Eggos, Robitussin, Keebler cookies, Cheez Its, the list goes on and on.

There are tasks for each product such as taking a poll, learning a fact, looking at a video, reading a recipe, sharing on facebook.  You do the tasks, which then determine how much you earn once you buy the product.

There are many participating retailers such as Target, Walmart, Walgreens, all Kroger affiliated stores and more!

Once you buy the product you take a photo of your receipt with your device, submit the receipt, then you go to your list and scan the UPC of the item(s) that you purchased in that trip.

The customer service is awesome!  You can ask any questions you want or just talk over on their facebook page.   They have a helpdesk page with videos that show you exactly what to do with every aspect of the app.

I have redeemed for $8.75 and $9 in paypal.  Both times I rec'd payment within minutes.

Here is the best deal.  When you refer someone and they sign up, you earn $1....but that's not the best part!!  The person you refer earns $5!!

Here is my link----https://ibotta.com/register?friend=kX7zkw 

Sorry to stray away from y usual Friday post, but I am truly excited and loving this earning app and I wanted to pass it along  :)

Now it's your turn to share in the linky this week. 

Squidoo Hopping--Goals for 2013

This week let's talk about our goals with squidoo for 2013.
A few years back I made myself a goal of updating or building a new lens daily.  I've not been able to ever keep up with my goal.  This year it's my sincere goal to do so!

Even on my busiest day there are small updates I can do such as adding a flag counter, making a custom bio, checking tags, adding rss feed.  The list goes on and on.  I have a written list on ways to update and there are currently 21 items on my list.

Share one or 2 of your lenses in the linky, plus any blog posts you may have done pertaining to squidoo.  I also hope you will share your squidoo goals for 2013 in the comments section.