Archive for money-saving hacks

Frugal Miscellany and Free Gardening Books

How to use nail polish remover to remove the print from plastic containers- this is useful for using those containers for gift giving and special storage. Really neat idea! Get your kids on board and teach them about frugal living, too. Make your life and theirs easier when you share the joy! Here are 37 [...]

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, February 15th, 2013

Frugal Museum Memberships

One of our daughters wanted to use her son’s birthday money from the other grandparents to buy a family pass to go to a large museum in Chicago- we live about 3 hours or so away.  It was 100 dollars. She discovered that if she purchased a family pass to a local, and much smaller, [...]

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, September 21st, 2012

A What’s In Your Hand Chore Chart

My just turned two year old grandson is enamored of all things Noah’s Ark. Also of all things Old McDonald, and animals in general. So when I was making the yard sale rounds recently and saw this Noah’s Ark wall hanging for two dollars, I knew I had to have it for him. Kindly pretend [...]

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, September 30th, 2011

Quick Cash

Last week we talked about ways to bring in some extra money, specifically because I am looking for ideas to pass on to the members of my husband’s Dave Ramsey class. Here are some more. Have a yard sale- we have found that we make more money at a yard sale on Thursday. So we [...]

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, July 1st, 2011

Candles

Burning candles is something that makes the cooler, darker days seem brighter and warmer- but they don’t just ‘seem’ that way- they do make things  warmer.  One candle in the room adds the equivalent of one person’s body heat to the room. But where to get candles at a frugal price?  We buy most of [...]

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, November 5th, 2010

Ten Frugal Practices I Wish We’d Done from the Beginning

This list is off the top of my head. If you ask me again tomorrow, it will probably look slightly different, and the week after that I might remember something else I think is even more important. There is probably something more important that we do that I learned at my mother’s knee so I [...]

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, June 18th, 2010

Frugal Eats On Road Trips

I tried to count the number of road trips our family has taken, but I really just can’t. I have no idea. And when I talk about road trips, I am talking about trips we have taken of several days duration, sometimes weeks, and, a couple of times, road trips that lasted over a month. [...]

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, May 7th, 2010

Reader hacks

Angela shares ideas on Road Tripping With Children without breaking the bank. A bunch of blogging mommas have worked together to set up Shopping Lists that have all the sale items and coupons at most groceries, including regional chains. Check out the 4 Moms 35 Kids series, where 4 moms with large families share tricks of [...]

Posted by: kimc on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Reader hack: uses for leftover giftwrap

From Ben: Perhaps you have found storing wrapping paper for a year awkward or have just a little that you are trying to use up. I’ve repurposed wrapping numerous ways. Here are a few of my favorite wrapping paper hacks: Tablecloth: Depending upon the design, you’ve got yourself an easy clean up cover for your [...]

Posted by: kimc on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Reader hack: fluorescent bulbs

Kimberly at Frugal Playground says: Do your fluorescent bulbs actually last like they claim? Ours haven’t. We’ve used fluorescent bulbs since we’ve been married (6 years in January!) and in two different residences. We started writing the date with a sharpie on each bulb and saving the receipts with packaging. The box claimed they’d last [...]

Posted by: kimc on Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Frugal and Creative Christmas (or other) Gifts

For children- the best way to reduce your children’s expectations and cases of the ‘gimmes’ is to turn off the television, or at least the commercials, and take them to the library or the park instead of the mall or toy shop.  If they don’t know what’s out there, they can’t yirn for it (yes, [...]

Posted by: DeputyHeadmistress on Friday, December 4th, 2009

Reader hacks

Noah reminds us that that everyone, by law, is entitled to get a free copy of their credit report.  This page on his site has some helpful links for doing just that. For all the talk about being responsible with credit, a copy of your own report is invaluable in understanding it. Little House offers [...]

Posted by: kimc on Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Reader Hacks

Linda says, This is the perfect time to head out and pick pine cones and get a jump start on holiday craft projects. I spent the weekend visiting my parents and their neighbor has a big beautiful tree, she allowed us to go in her backyard and pick pine cones. I washed them up today [...]

Posted by: kimc on Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Reader hacks for 9/29

New hacks from readers like you: Andrea shares the strangest little hack she ever came up:  So, it was 95 degrees this week and the sun was beating down on my skylight (I know, I should have done something before this). Desperate times being what they are, I grabbed an accordion style baby gate, figured [...]

Posted by: kimc on Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Reader Hacks

It’s been a long time since I shared readers’ hacks, but I’m resolving to do better.  Maybe somebody has a hack to prevent procrastination? At any rate, here’s a sampling from the inbox: Noah said, Mortgages are probably one of the most overlooked areas to save. I know this because, for better or worse, I [...]

Posted by: kimc on Monday, September 14th, 2009