Frugal Hacks » Links

Frugal Links Round Up – June 6, 2011

Mother Hen — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:14:56 +0000

File this one under Home Decor - Beautiful Storage Boxes made from diaper boxes. Somebody give me some diaper boxes! Gluing fabric to boxes? I can do that. Besides, I never knew they had Elmers as an aerosol. I.must.use.that.
Apparently there is a rumor going around that candy is, like, optional. I don't know who the idiot is, but if the price of candy is too high, make it at home. Here are some copy-cat recipes for some delicious candies, most of them chocolate. I'm most tempted by the Mounds and Almond Joy copycats.
Summer is coming and the kids, they are bored. Gas up the car and run to StuffMart, stuff your cart with a bunch of factory made toys. OR... You could go in the kitchen and make some fun without having to take out a second mortgage to fill your tank and pay off the ransom at the StuffMart checkout. Here's a list of fun, simple, craft recipes. Dough, slime, crayon fun, the works.
By all means, do not buy a planner. Or anything else that requires a form. If you have a printer, or access to one, this site has you covered. Browse-All-Printables offers all their forms for free. They also have a paid option if you want it all at once as a package, but it's an easy choice. All the paid stuff is also offered for free as individual downloads. And really, the list of forms and charts is impressive.
This site is just for homeschoolers, or not. Maybe you want to homeschool your kids over the Summer so they stay sharp. You don't have to spend a penny either way. Here's a good list of free homeschooling resources.

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Frugal Links Round Up – May 30th, 2011

Mother Hen — Mon, 30 May 2011 11:40:07 +0000

I've never (until a year ago) had a separate freezer, and so I don't have much experience handling a freezer full of food to the most frugal advantage. Once-a-Month Mom has some very good info on How to Prevent Freezer Burn.
How to Make and Do has compiled a great, GO-TO list of Natural Homemade Kitchen and Bathroom Cleaners. These recipes will save you a bundle.
Ideas 4 Recipes is the coolest recipe resource for new, inexperienced cooks. All you do is enter some ingredients you have (and want to eat) into the list, hit the SEARCH button and there it is, a list of recipes you can make using what you have on hand! Nifty, nifty, nifty.
Want some cheap, homemade popcorn? You know you do. Here's the info that'll rock your movie time! You can do homemade popcorn in the micro, or do it on the stovetop, your choice. Like tasty toppings? Here ya go! These recipes are FAR cheaper than the boxed stuff you buy at the grocery, and SO much better for you.
Here's another great idea from How to Make and Do. How to Recycle Wooden Pallets. I love this concept because pallets abound. I see them everywhere. Granted you'll have to be selective, choose the good uns, pass on the nasty ones. These are some downright nice looking results that can be made for very little money. Just the hardware and the finish. My kind of project!
Do you homeschool thru the Summer? Or have kids home from school needing to keep sharp? Y'all really should come over to my ship and check out the free copywork ideas I've been crankin' out lately (and in the very near future, tomorrow and Wednesday, if I recall how I scheduled) and feel free to peruse the Homeschooling category for other free and cheap homeschool ideas.

Have a great week!

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Frugal Links Round Up – May 16, 2011

Mother Hen — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:53:24 +0000

Radical Frugality posted a handy Checklist for Saving Money on Food. At first glance it may look like all the same old advice, but I'd venture that most of us aren't being diligent about half of the items listed.
How to Make a Budget (Even if You Hate Making Budgets) Seems like Miss Britt at In Pursuit of Happiness has been reading my mind. Making a budget is not the fun part. Reaping the benefits of living on a budget is the Happiness we're all in Pursuit of. ;)
Frugal and Thriving has posted 45 Awesome Free Bag Making Tutorials - Find your favorite and never buy a purse or tote bag again. Or maybe you'd like to crochet your bags. No sense paying for crochet patterns when they're out there for free. If you don't know how to crochet you can learn here. And you can learn to sew here.
Squeeze every penny out of your grocery budget by actually using your freezer for more than ice and whole chickens. That's about all I ever kept in mine until I took a freezer course. It's not hard, just learn to wrap/contain your foods and learn what foods freeze well and there you are. Freezable Foods - yup, you can freeze all this!
College Move-Out Days: The Best Time to Dumpster-Dive? What do you think? Would you do this?

How far are you willing to go to save a buck?. Have you ever dumpster dived? Eaten road-kill? Dropped your Thanksgiving turkey on the floor and still served it to unknowing family and friends? Leave me a comment confessing the farthest "out-there" frugal thing you've ever done.

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Frugal Links Round Up – May 9, 2011

Mother Hen — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:40:43 +0000

Made By Rae has a Basic Newborn Pant pattern - Sewing for the baby can hardly get any cheaper. This pants pattern needs less than a yard of fabric. Make a bunch, add some t-shirts and baby is ready for Summer. Homemade is always cheaper.
Recycle Now - This is the most clever eco-frugal gift wrapping I've ever seen. It's one of my favorites. I could watch it over and over. So clever. I like the tote bag best. Which one is your fav?
10 DIY Dog Toys You Can Make for Pennies - Ahem, I'm in! My perfect Pomeranian puppy loves the stuffing-free toys, but the cheapest ones I've found cost nearly $10, no no no no. I need this post! I'll try most of the 10 but my favs are #4, #5 and #9.
This one seemed very frugal to me, because I NEVER pay retail for a basket, it's way more fun to make 'em at home and this one looks so cool. Clearly, basket weaving is not for everyone, but it's for me. And these aren't your ordinary homemade baskets. I love this idea.
5 Easy Steps to Becoming a Millionaire - #4 will be no surprise to anyone but the other steps might.
Homemade Pantry Staples, because (say it with me) homemade is always cheaper.

Now, lemme turn the tables on you. Do you have a favorite "frugal" site or blog that you read? Leave a link in the comments.

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New on the blogroll

kimc — Sat, 07 May 2011 23:10:30 +0000

It's been a while, but we have some new additions to the Frugal Blogroll. Click through to give them a look and see what new ideas you can pick up!

Janel Messenger - Bringing personal style to home sewing one stitch at a time. Find tips to improve your sewing skills and create beautiful, flattering garments, frugally. A former contributor for Frugal Hacks.
Ship Full O' Pirates - I blog about the kids, the chickens, the rabbits, the dogs, the cats, homeschooling, living frugally, doing laundry, shopping, crocheting, homemade anything, gardening, baking bread and cooking beans. But not necessarily in that order. A new contributor here at Frugal Hacks.
Krantcents - a personal finance themed site with articles on how to manage, control and make better decisions about money.
Southern Coupon Belle - Showing others how to Save with Style! You can enrich your family and household without sacrifice!
The Frugal Entrepreneur - The Frugal Entrepreneur provides business tips, resources, and tools for frugal small and home-based business owners.
Little People Wealth - Little People Wealth simplifies deals in order to save you money on everything! It also shows you how to diversify your income streams and manage your money wisely. Do you want to retire early, go on a vacation, pay down your debt, or another financial goal? The information I show you will allow you to have more money for the things you want simply by showing you how to spend less on the things that are not as important to you.
Budget a Wedding - Budget a Wedding will help you have a cheap wedding (while not sacrificing the things you want) so you can start your marriage out debt free. Two of my more popular posts are 7 ways to help your bridesmaids save money and 6 ways to reduce wedding cake costs.
My Money Mess - I started the blog a few months ago as a way of sharing some of the knowledge and experience I've gained on the subjects of budgeting, debt elimination and improving credit over the last 10+ years working in the debt settlement and mortgage industries.
Freebie Nut - Free stuff, free samples, recipes, coupons, giveaways, budgeting, reviews.
Saving in Saginaw - Lori and Kris bringing savings links and deal listings to the Saginaw, Michigan area.
How to Make French or Micro Braid, Headband, Bows and Twisted Hair Styles - How to hair dos! FREE ideas for MOMS, and NOW even Teens on how to do hair. Mom's have lots of ideas and step by step instructions with pictures on how to make their daughters into princesses, and Teens have a Free way to do their own hair for PROM!!!
One life, 3 kids and countless possibilities - a single mums blog on getting out of debt, and bringing up my children as frugally as possible.
One Simple Girl With A Plan - I am one simple that plans everything. I share tips, ideas, links and insights on how to simplify your life.
Koupon Krazed - Coupons, Deals, Free Samples, Coupon Matchups and Recipes

If your blog is on this list, please consider linking to a favorite Frugal Hacks post in return. Actually, I would love if anyone linked to your favorite FH post!

What is your favorite Frugal Hacks post? Why?

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Frugal Links Round Up – May 2, 2011

Mother Hen — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:45:44 +0000

Ivory Soap gives us 6 Reasons Why to DIY on Little House in the Suburbs. Read them all, but my favs are #2 and #6. Homemade is always cheaper, preach it, Ivory!
Kim at WhatDoYouSave.com is devoted to doing the math for me. How do I love that? Let me count the ways...no, wait, counting is math - my sworn enemy. Let's let Kim do the math, she's doing the math on all our frugal ideas - working out whether it really is noticeably cheaper to not flush every time, and working out just how much hanging out our laundry is saving us, thereby giving us all kinds ($$$) of incentive to continue our frugal ways!
If you're thinking of joining a gym, starting a diet, hiring a personal trainer, or need lots of reminders and motivation to get fit, don't let the price hold you back because all that and lots more is free at SparkPeople.com.
KitchenMonki.com is a meal planning site that offers to plan your meals, make your grocery list, help you use what you have on hand to create menus, come over and defrost your freezer, and lots more, all for free. OK, they don't specifically say they'll help with the defrosting. But I adore their name.
Growing your own food is guideline #6 in the book Miserly Moms. How cool is it to walk out into your backyard and come back in the house holding food!. Global Buckets.org has an interesting method that makes container gardening cheap, easy, organic and water efficient. Very interesting to me right now since I'm growing my tomatoes in containers for the first time in ... um... ever. Here's a little of what they're saying:

Benefits of the 2-bucket system:
1) 50% to 80% reduction in water usage.
2) 100% reduction in weeds...never pull a weed or use herbicides.
3) Once planted, very little attention is required.
4) Foolproof: People with very little training (like us!) can reap bountiful harvests.
5) All you need are a few square meters of space...even rooftops, industrial wastelands, etc

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Frugal Link Round Up – April 25, 2011

Mother Hen — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:02:46 +0000

Amazon Mom - This one is very exciting for me! KimC told you about it some time back, but I missed it then and maybe you did too, and it's a biggie (in my book) so I'm repeating what she said. If you have kids, or grandkids, or nieces or nephews, or know somebody who does, then you can get 3 months of AmazonPrime for free! Longer if you use it to buy baby products. You know about AmazonPrime, don't you? FREE SHIPPING on lots of items you would otherwise order and have to pay shipping. And deals galore for stuff for kiddoes. Ordinarily, AmazonPrime costs $79/yr, and you can get a 1 month free trial, but the Amazon Mom is 3 months and for each $25 you spend within a single order in the Baby store, they’ll grant you an additional month of Amazon Prime shipping benefits. Now it's not going to be free shipping on used paperbacks that list for a penny, but lots of the stuff I routinely buy qualifies for AmazonPrime's free shipping. I'm thrilled!
Copycat-Clone - I'll never go back to Led Robster again. Last time I was there I asked the waitress a question about the ingredients in one of the dishes. She confessed that NONE of the fish is prepared onsite! None. Guess what that means folks! It means that I've been paying big bucks for frozen fish that some dude in the back is popping in the m'wave (or whatever). How sad is that? Not that we go there that often, and I've known how to make those scrummylicious Cheesy Garlicky Biscuits for forever. But now, with the recipes listed on Copycat-Clone we can learn to make our restaurant favorites in the comfort of our own kitchens!
10 Ways to do Less Laundry, um, the title of the post says it all. And another goodie with the same goal, Laundry Problems Start with Clothes. I'd add towels and sheets and more towels. The main hinge-pin in the laundry game is establishing your cleanliness comfort-level and teaching it to your family, creating a system, and working that system. The under-lying frugal aspect is, of course, finding a way to do fewer loads per week.
PriceBlink is an interesting toolbar that I thought looked too good to be actually true, but it's true. I installed it on my laptop and tested it out. It's pretty cool. I won't pretend to know how it does what it does, but you'd never know it's there... until you shop for something. If you have found the best price with your first click then PriceBlink won't show up. But if you open a shopping page and there is a cheaper price for the same item somewhere else on the web that's when the PriceBlink toolbar shows up telling you about it. Pretty cool no-brainer that only shows itself when it's being useful.
The Joy and Wisdom of Eating Food Past the Expiration Date and Don't Throw That Away! Does the Five-Second Rule Have Some Validity? - a couple of articles to guide you in making the right choices concerning some potentially icky dilemmas that beg the question, "How gross does it have to be before we must toss it out?" OR "There's frugal and then there's frugal, does this cross the line?"
Let's not end on THAT note. Let's eat pizza! Remember what I said last week about home cooking always saving you money? That goes double for pizza. 50 Easy Pizzas ought to be enough for everybody, right? Well, ok, here's one more. It's my favorite recipe for Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza!

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Frugal Links Round Up – April 18, 2011

Mother Hen — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:37:25 +0000

Much of the time I spend on the web I'm looking for ways to save money, cut corners, find new recipes (home cooking ALWAYS saves you money) and I usually end up sharing these ideas and links on facebook. Now my friend KimC has offered me a much wider audience. YOU! Brace yourself for a somewhat intermittent, maybe weekly barrage of frugal links.

See? Another list making opportunity! My kind of fun!

Meatless Mondays - This is the Inception list entry. It's a list... inside of another list. This is the mother site for meatless meals. Meatless meals save you money in two ways. What I said above about home cooking ALWAYS saving you money, and meat is the spendy part of the meal. Win-win!
Love Food, Hate Waste - This site offers tons of ways to use up your left-overs, not have any more left-overs, plan your meals more efficiently, make your food last longer, and generally save you a bundle on your food bill! And it's cute. I love the apple lady.
Turn Off Your TV - This site probably can't directly save you money, but we all know that we are far more productive when the idiot box is off. Here's some info to get you started. We're on day 8 w/o it at our house, and that is only true on weekdays. Trust the voice of experience on this one, the kids adapt far quicker than the grown-ups. Just sayin'.
How to Sew a Simple Caftan. Sewing for your family doesn't have to take a lot of time or cost a lot of money. Go to StuffMart and ask the girl in the fabric dept. where the $1/yd fabric is. If she says, "the what?" just let her know that she (or more likely her dept. head) can order it, yes really! And everybody needs a caftan for lounging around in the evenings.
T-Shirt Twist - This one was a big hit with my friend KimC. Take your humdrum unfavorite t-shirt and remodel it - quick and easy - now it's your new favorite!

There ya go! Have fun! Save lots of money! I'll see you next time, but if you miss me you can find me here. Or on Twitter @MotherHenAgain.

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Weekend links and a $10 Giveaway

kimc — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 11:51:11 +0000

Good reads this week

233 Ways to Make Money - I think I counted 24 ideas that hubby and I have used to make money in the past, and several more that might be worth looking into.
Scared Broke - Scare tactics work just as well in advertising as they do in politics. In spite of our frugal intentions, we're all too ready to flip out the cash if we can be convinced that we or our families are in danger - any danger.
A Short Guide to Consumer Disobedience - Read it. Then live it.
Thrifty Fun at Home - With 10 kids and winter looming, I should probably download the free kitchen chemistry book.
2010 Dental Fee Calculator - How does your dentist compare to the national average? To local competitors?

More links from readers

20 Tips for a Successful Yardsharing Group - But are there any tips for sharing with deer?
Ian enters the world of poultry farming.

New on the Frugal Blogroll

Bargain Babe - BargainBabe.com shares strategies, coupons, and inspiration to save on everyday expenses. I launched the site almost two years ago after leaving my job as a print reporter and journalist. My goal is to help my readers save money in a way that is practical and fun.
A Few Words & Pictures - I mainly write about current affairs but have a particular interest in economy and living without or with very little money.
2 Make Ends Meet - We are a family of 5, living on one income and trying to make ends meet. I post recipes, homeschooling ideas, and encouragement for frugal living.
Ourfrugallife - My wife and I are a young couple who live in Southern California. Living frugally in one of the most expensive areas in the country is a challenge, but very possible.
The Military Brat - The Military Brat's "mission" is to be a fun place to learn ways to cut corners on your budget with coupons and deals and, ultimately, SAVE money. It's, of course, geared toward the military, but there are all kinds of goodies for EVERYONE!

The Giveaway

Really? Just one of you wanted $10? For a frugal bunch, you all are strangely uninterested in earning easy cash. ;)

Thank you, Jennifer, for the link to a post pointing out the erratic pricing in thrift stores. Like buying in bulk, shopping at thrift stores doesn't always yield the best prices. Never let your guard down!

Shall we try again? To enter to win $10, just leave a link to the best article you've come across recently. Next Saturday I'll choose my favorite link and will send $10 by Paypal to the reader who left the link.

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Weekend links, a winner and another $10 giveaway

kimc — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:19:43 +0000

Last week, I asked for your favorite frugal article and offered $10 for the best one. As I expected, there were some real treasures. Bethany suggested an old favorite of mine, the classic SNL skit Don't Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford. I also really enjoyed Heather's Selective Squeamishness. And Marci reminded me of an idea for frugal Christmas gifts that I'm going to run past my husband because it really appeals to me.

But the single article that really reached out and grabbed me was the one that has the broadest application. It's not just about saving money, though it could certainly help accomplish that goal. It's not just about living simply, though it would lead one in that direction:

Make Home a Haven Using Personal Filters reminds the reader that personal responsibility and discipline are not out of our reach, and they are not a drudgery. They really do make life better for us and for those around us. I'm very thankful to Jenny for sharing the link, and it's my pleasure to paypal her $10 as this week's winner.

Some of my favorite reads this week are below.

The best:

10 Uses for Old T-shirts - Too much fun! T-shirt yarn is my favorite, because it's quick and easy and it opens the door to so many more crafts.

More great stuff:

The Cheapest Way to Rent a Car - We own a van, but occasionally find it helpful and even frugal to rent a small car. It's always nice to know where to get the best deal.
12 Items You Should Buy at The Dollar Store - I love shopping at The Dollar Tree, but it's nearly impossible for me to leave with only what I came for. There are too many good deals to be had. Maybe I need to print and read this before I enter.
Shelf Life and Storage Process for 51 Foods - There's a heaping dose of common sense here, and plenty of useful info as well.
60 Ways to Make Life Simple Again - I agree with most of these, but I can't ignore the irony: 60 things is a lot to change or even remember.
Canned vs. Dried Beans: Which are Cheaper? - I can my own dried beans: cheap and convenient, and canning in the pressure cooker actually cooks them in less time than cooking them the old-fashioned way.
13 Frugal Home Budgeting Tips You've Probably Never Heard Of - Make a grilled cheese sandwich using an iron? Really? I've got to try this, just for the laughs if nothing else!

Giveaway:
Let's play again. What was your favorite frugally-oriented article this week? I'll paypal $10 to the commenter who leaves the best link, with the same guidelines as last week. Pump up your chance of winning by saying a few words about why you love the link you suggest.

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