Ounce of Prevention

I love my Hubby.  He is brilliant.
He tinkers about the house, fixing things, putting in gadgets.
I never really paid much attention or thought it did that much
HOWEVER...he put this thinga- ma- bob in the drip pan under the washer, which is upstairs
BEEP BEEP BEEP, I was running around the house looking for the smoke alarm going off
it was the Thinga-ma-bob...the washer overflowed and water was in the pan.
We saved hundreds if not more in repairs because of the prevention.
Thanks Hubby.

Frugal VS Cheap

Frugal TO ME means, getting the best value for your money, or for the least amount of money.  I don't mind waiting, researching, saving up, then spending money on a good quality purchase that will last a much longer time.

Clothes go in and out of style so very fast, so I shop clearance or consignment or thrift shop.
I don't have the latest and greatest in my Kitchen or where ever...if I have something that will already do the job.  I just recently received my very first Kitchenaid mixer.  Before that I used my grandmothers 30+ yr old Oster standmixer.  It still works a little, I tried to get it fixed, but Oster stopped making the parts.

My laptop died last week.  It had a slow and painful death.  It actually died on the table (On the kitchen table)months before.  But my husband operated on it and revived it, at least for a little while.  That time allowed me to back up info, and be prepared the for inevitable.

Since we don't live outside our means, we could purchase one right away.  For others, the time it was limping along, would give people the ability to save up for a new one.

I guess my point is, live frugally, and you will have the means to buy good quality items that will last a long long time.

Watermelon Popsicles

I had 1/4 of a watermelon left over.  I looked great but wasn't that sweet.  I knew it could easily go to waste.
Summer vacation is here, so popsicles are the perfect cool you off type of snack.

 I cut up the watermelon

Put it in the food processor, with some honey

 

Process and strained

And now we have summer on a stick

Hidden Money - My 2 cents

OK, so the money wasn't "hidden", it was forgotten.  That is sad to just forget money.
We found money in the cars, of course, and the junk drawer in the kitchen, but also in my sewing box, a pencil cup, desk drawers, on top of the dryer...

 In the sewing box

From all over the house

Starting to count the money

Total:  $89.23

Hidden Money

No literally, hidden money.

I was flipping through the channels and came across a new show called Million Dollar Neighborhood.  I won't get into the whole show, but one of the tasks these people had to do was find hidden money.  First they found their net worth, then rechecked old tax returns, and also...the one I am getting at here, is they collected all the loose change in the house.  Out of the cars, drawers, jewelry boxes, anywhere.
Amazing how much money is just sitting in your house.

I will take this challenge and hopefully in a couple days I will have a total for you.
Now on the show, they included the kids' piggy banks.  I will not be doing that.  It is my son's money and I will be teaching him about banking later this summer.

How much money did you find?

Free Summer Activities

My son is done school on Monday.  Since I am a SAHM, I need to keep spending in check.  Here is a list of free or thrifty things we can do:
Playground
Picnic
Water balloon fight
At home science day (make a geode, density, cornstarch and water)
Geocaching
Library
Regal theater has free movies
Home Depot and Michaels have free workshops
Phila Art Museum (Free on some Sundays)
tour a local factory
cook/bake
Swim at his PopPop's house (visit grandpa and free swimming)
Visit a local farm, CSA, Pick Your Own
Lots of reading programs that offer free prizes or money( B&N, TD Bank, Chuck E Cheese, library)

And that is just off the top of my head. 
Enjoy your summer

T shirts

My son's class had a 3 legged race today, so I went to my rag bin, cut up an old t-shirt.  Material to tie the legs together.  Here is what else I can do with t-shirts:

Rags/swiffer 

 

Grocery bags

 

Ornaments 

 

Pillows

 

Quilt
 

First Post, first steps

My goal is to become more frugal.  I want to be able to stay home with my family.  In order to do that I need to save money and time where ever I can.  I want to document my journey, get advice from those like minded, and hopefully learn something along the way. 
Today I start my blog to show what I have done, what I can do, and what I hope to do.  I hope that everyday I can find some way to make it myself, reuse and not to spend as much money.