Valentine’s Day On A Dime

Of course I would love to get diamond covered jewelry and designer clothes for Valentine’s Day BUT that is not our financial reality so how do you celebrate Valentine’s Day on a budget? My husband and I have been celebrating budget friendly Valentine’s Day our whole dating relationship. We went from poor college students to poor newlyweds to poor parents and yet we have had some great Valentine’s Day. Here are some ideas on how to have a memorable Valentine’s Day with out shelling out the big bucks.

• Tell him how you feel. There are so many creative ways to tell someone how much you love them. Make a  list, write a letter, write a song, write a poem, make a card, make a scrapbook page. Tap into your creative side and find an outlet true to you and express how you feel.
• Deliver it in a creative way. Everyone loves surprises. One year my husband plastered the kitchen with papers, each stating something he loved about me. It cost next to nothing and was not fancy but I loved it!
• Take it on the road. Pack a meal from home something simple or fancy and go somewhere special. If you are lucky enough to be in a warm place go outside.
• Do something together at home. It doesn’t have to be something fabulous it’s about the time. Play a game, make something together, rent a movie (library is free).
• Bring the romance home. Cook dinner and eat by candlelight on china plates. Dance by candlelight in the living room to your wedding song. Sip wine and eat appetizers by firelight.
• Try out a new gourmet recipe but make it a dessert or appetizer that is much less expensive than a main course.
• Get takeout from a favorite restaurant and bring it home, this avoids tipping and beverage costs. Or go out for just dessert.

What are your tips for celebrating Valentine’s Day on a dime, I would love to know!

The Sum is Cheaper than The Parts

You have heard the saying the sum is greater than the parts when referring to things but did you know that this principle can be applied to meal planning in a way that will drastically effect your budgets bottom line? Let me explain. Let’s say we are cooking a chicken dish for dinner we decide on barbecue chicken, we add rice and vegetables for side dishes to round out our meal. If you use coupons and shop using the stockpile method you can do this for quite cheap your chicken most likely was $1.99/lb. the frozen vegetable side dish free and the rice and barbecue sauce both very cheap. If I were making this for my family I would have paid around $8-9 for this meal. I would not have very much for leftovers with this meal since I would have only cooked enough chicken breasts for dinner. Now what if instead I made a combination dish like Chicken Potato Pie. In this dish I would use half as much chicken, free vegetables, cheap barbecue sauce, cheap biscuit mix and cheap potatoes. Over all this dish would cost me $5-6 and would not only feed us dinner but leftovers for lunch as well. As you can see it makes much more sense economically to make combination dishes. This is a very easy way to cut your meat cost down without eliminating meat from your menu. Plus the possibilities for combination dishes are literally endless and provide more variation in your meal planning.

How We Survive Without Cable

It’s funny people are completely shocked that we do not have cable and never have. It seems like cable or dish or whatever version you have is seen as a necessity like electricity and water, but it’s not I promise. Don’t get me wrong I think cable is great there are lots of shows I would watch regularly if we had cable, but it’s a luxury in my opinion. Just because you don’t have cable does not mean you have to miss out on everything you just have to be more creative and choosy. So here are the ways we survive without cable and really I am not sure we will ever have it even if we win the lottery, there is just no need!

• We use HULU, Hulu is a free service that allows you to watch your favorite tv shows for FREE. My husband and I have a regular date night where we catch up on our favorite shows. We hook our laptop up to the tv and voila our favorite cable shows in HD for FREE. Plus Hulu is like a FREE DVR so when I miss the shows I love that are on network tv I can still watch them later.
• Frequent your library. We have a fantastic library system here in Columbus that has the new releases as soon as they are available. To rent them is FREE as long as you return them on time. We belong to not just our community library but the city library as well to give us a wide variety of access to media.
• We don’t watch that much tv. It’s amazing how much time we can waste watching tv. If there is nothing on worth watching them we don’t watch. That is the beauty of limited options. If we had cable I would be able to always find something to watch, but with network tv the show selection is not nearly as tempting.
• Netflix and Blockbuster free trials, sign up for a 2 week free trial from these companies to get current videos for FREE, just be sure to cancel within the time frame to avoid charges. If you choose to keep your subscription it is still cheaper than a monthly cable bill.
• Redbox is a cheap way to rent DVD’s they are just $1 a night an frequently offer FREE rental codes.

Not having cable has allowed us to be more choosy in our tv watching and our kids. I know exactly what my kids are watching because ti is a video I have pre-approved not a surprise on cable. My husband and I only watch when it is worthwhile making sure our time is not wasted with garbage. We don’t miss cable and with some time neither will you but you will love the new found money in your pocket.

Tips for Saving Money at the Grocery Store Successfully

If you have been coming to Thrifty & Chic Mom for awhile now you know all about my thoughts on couponing, meal planning and saving money. Today I thought I would share a recap plus a few new tips to make sure your grocery trip is successful and saves you money. Before heading out to the store you need to do some prep work:

• Sit down with your grocery store ad, Thrifty & Chic Mom, a pen and paper and make your meal plan based on sales, coupons and what you already have on hand.
• From the meal plan make your list. Be sure to think of every meal plus snacks and each person in the house. For some people it helps to actually write down whether or not a meal is needed each day for each person. Ex. Monday- Breakfast -me, DH, DD,DD Lunch – me, DD, DD ( DH will pack leftovers) snack – me ,DD,DD Dinner- me, DH, DD, DD
• Collect your coupons that you plan on using. I use junk mail envelopes to write my list on the outside and put the coupons I will be using inside. This makes it easy to access in the store.

Now head out to the store:

• It helps to not take people who will try to add things to your list. If possible go by yourself, if that isn’t possible be clear ahead of time you are sticking to the list, no extras. * Try to buy things in their natural state ( for a complete explanation go here)
• Compare per ounce prices when you are shopping but be sure the measurements are comparable this will help you get the best price. Sometimes this means buying the larger container but sometimes not.
• Make sure you are picking out the correct size and variety to maximize your coupon or get the sale price. You don’t want to get to the register to find you have the wrong item.
• At the register have your coupons ready and waiting for the cashier. Head home and be proud of yourself for saving money and stretching your dollars at the grocery store. Oh and NEVER go to the grocery store hungry!

Tips & Tricks for Cutting Your Own Hair

Cutting your own hair is risky business and only for the brave, when it comes to women’s hair that is, but men’s hair is a whole other story. I am a big believer in cutting men’’s hair at home, especially if they have short hair. Throughout high school I cut my brother’s hair and often times my services were requested by his friends. Cutting hair is quite simple, but to cut your own hair is difficult. My husband does it because he got tired of waiting for me to have time to do it. For him it involved a lot of running back and forth to the bathroom to check his progress. Phillips Norelco just came out with a new clipper called the Phillips Norelco 180 Clipper and it is meant to be used to cut your own hair. My husband couldn’t wait to try it out and see if it actually made cutting his hair easier, and it really delivered. He was done in half the time with only one final mirror check. The swivel head made it really easy to trim his whole head. He also loved the fact that it doesn’t have a million attachments, it does still do multiple lengths though. Instead of a bunch of separate attachments one attachment does multiple lengths plus it has a trimmer. The stainless steels are self sharpening and it is battery operated so their is no cord to get in your way. My favorite feature, the price it is only $34.99, we were shocked by this low price tag, our other clippers cost more and do not cut as well. Philips Norelco QC5170 180-Degree Hair Clipper is available at Target, Amazon and drugstore.com.

Cutting hair is really simple, over the years I have learned a few things and here are my tips.

• Always cute hair when it’s dry and clean, hair products can clog up the blades.
• Start on a longer setting than you want and go shorter from there. This helps eliminate clogging and mistakes you can’t fix.
• For a more tailored look go one length shorter on the sides up until the widest part of the head.
• Use the trimmer at the base of the neck and around the ears and on the sideburns.
• When using the trimmer follow the natural hairline for the best look.
• Start at the front and move the trimmer back against the lay of the hair.
• In the back start at the bottom and move the trimmer up, same for the sides.
• After you have done the whole head go over the areas one more time to get any stray hairs.
• To help collect the clippings lay a towel or blanket under the chair to catch them all making for an easy clean up.

I was given product free of charge in order to obtain my honest opinion, all opinions are my own.

Monthly Meal Planning

Meal planning is an essential part of saving money on your groceries and in my experience monthly meal planning is an excellent way to maximize your savings.Here is how I suggest planning out your weekly meals:

• check the freezer, fridge and cupboards to see what you have on hand
• check the grocery store deals to see what is on special this week
• plan your meals based on the ingredients you have on hand and those that are on sale to help you keep your cost as low as possible.

This method has worked great for me and since I shop in the stockpile method I always have plenty of food on hand to make my meal plan from Each week I need to only buy minimal fresh ingredients to have everything to make delicious meals. Monthly meal planning is a way of taking meal planning to the next level to even further maximize your savings both in dollars and in time. So how exactly do you go about planning for a whole month at a time? I have a dry erase board of the month on my fridge and each week I plan out my meals as I stated above, the difference is when I get home from the store I place any new meal items purchased on the calendar. For example if I buy a roast this week because it is on special but am not using it this week I will place it somewhere on the calendar just as roast but not as the specific meal I will us it for. This allows me to see at a glance what main ingredients I have on hand then I can fill in with our cheap filler meals and make sure we are not repeating meals in one month. I am by no means a stickler to the calendar and am constantly rotating the meals but it is really helpful to have an overview of what I have and the possible meals available to us. I love feeling so organized and on top of things with my new monthly meal planning.

Saving Big On Electronics

When it comes to saving big on electronics I have two important words Open Box. That’s right have you ever noticed the boxes in electronic stores marked open box? That is a red flag for great savings and you should always take a look. Open Box items are not broken items they are items that have been opened for numerous reasons but are in perfect working order. Since the box has been opened you get to take advantage of the savings. We have purchased numerous open box items from stores like Best Buy and Micro Center. We have an HD TV as well as a camcorder to name just a few and they have all been great. There are a few things to remember before buying an open box first ask about any specific limitations, make sure it is returnable if there are any problems. If possible ask to make sure the item works, turn it on, ect. while still in the store. Make sure you keep the receipt and packaging just in case their are problems. and you need to return it. Last but not least make sure the discount is worth it, if it is very nominal check back often they get marked down again after so many days. And of course if you have one use a coupon, unless the store does not allow it, to maximize your savings. Have you ever bought open box items? If so I would love to hear your thoughts.

Saving on Prenatal Vitamins

Prenatal vitamins are just one of the many expenses you incur during pregnancy. With my first pregnancy I paid $40 a month for vitamins, I thought I had no choice. I asked about generic versions and was informed there were no exact matches. Well with pregnancy #2 I was determined not to pay that much. So I had a chat with my pharmacist and found out the difference was DHA and Omega-3 so I went on the hunt for a supplement and I found Expecta Lipil. Expecta is a prenatal supplement made just for during pregnancy and nursing. It will run you about $10 but always has a $1.50 coupon inside the box. For me generic prenatal vitamins are $8 a month so even with buying the supplement Expecta I was getting everything my baby needed for $16.50 as opposed to $40. If you have Meijer near you they have a program for FREE prenatal vitamins. The only catch is they give what is available so if you are sensitive or need a specific brand you may not always get it. I highly recommend going the generic route plus Expecta it is cheaper and you know your baby is getting all the DHA and Omega-3 they need.

The Art of FREE festival style

Today the Columbus Arts festival began, I LOVE this festival. I love walking around looking at all the amazing pieces the artists have created. Art festivals are full of such beauty that it is a treat to just walk around and enjoy all the things to see. Of course their is great food and entertainment too but you can do a festival for FREE and have a great day. This got me thinking about all of the great festivals around. We are lucky Columbus is a very active festival community. Not only are there city festivals but local suburbs have festivals too.

This summer check out the festival schedule going on around you. Festivals are a wonderful FREE family event that everyone can enjoy and you don’t have to spend any money. Parking is almost always FREE, most have FREE admission, entertainment is FREE and so is browsing. Time it so all you need are snacks for the kids and you are set for a fun FREE outing with the family. If you are in Columbus you can go here to see all the great events going on in Columbus this summer.

The Art of the Garage Sale

Garage sales are a great way to not only find great deals but make some extra cash. As I scour my house to find treasures to sell at my garage sale I am reminded of a few pointers I have picked up as a garage sale buyer myself. Here are my thoughts on making your garage sale as successful as can be.

• Have all of your items for sale in the best possible condition. If it is dirty clean it, broken fix it, ect. Just like you don’t want someones dirty old stuff no one will want yours. Make sure it is appealing to the eye. Use the standard of would I buy it?
• Make your garage sale appealing to the eye. Display your items in an attractive way. Hang up the clothes, line a table with toys. Consider bringing out a bookshelf or nice piece of furniture to display items on. Take your cue from stores and think of how you prefer to see things displayed. Bins and baskets are discouraging and do not attract attention from the casual browser.
• Be realistic in your pricing and also be willing to barter. If the idea is to get rid of the items then be open minded and realistic when dealing with offers. Garage sales are the home of bargaining so be aware going in.
• Make your garage sale signs attractive and clear as to when and where. Also place them smartly, find corners that have lots of traffic.
• Make use of your local newspaper and great sites like Garage Sales Tracker to bring in the most people.

In this economy a garage sale is a great way to clean out your clutter and earn some extra cash and right now garage sale season is in full swing so have one yourself and be sure to check out your local garage sales for great deals.

Entertainment on a Budget Babysitting Edition

Here are a few tips on ways to save costs on babysitters.

• Swap with a friend. Make an arrangement to have one night a month for you to go out and your friend has your kids and one night a month you take your friends kids.
• Have a potluck get together with friends at each others house once a month where you bring your kids. When they are young you can put them all to sleep at one house while the adults enjoy cards, game night, dinner and/or a movie. Rotate houses each month.
• Sign up for a class together at your community center that provides free or inexpensive childcare.
• Look into a “mommies helper” typically a younger sitter who watches the kids while you are there so they cost less. You can get things done around the house or even have a quite dinner while the kids are entertained by someone else. Try bringing a “mommies helper” to an event like a free outdoor concert. They can take the kids for a walk when they get restless while you stay and listen to the music.
• Look into co-ops at churches
• Or do a home date after the kids are sleeping

Entertainment on a Budget Restaurant Edition

Here are a few ways you can enjoy restaurant food and not spend as much money.

• Check for coupons on the restaurant website and sign up for their reward or email club. You often get a coupon just for signing up, just remember sometimes it takes a few days to get the coupon.
• Buy appetizers instead of entrees these are just as filling and often cheaper
• Split a meal
• Do a dessert date
• Go out for lunch instead of dinner, lunch is cheaper prices. Or do carryout at lunch and take it home to have for dinner getting the cheaper price and cutting out drink and babysitter costs.
  
• Watch for half price appetizer and drink deals, these are often specific nights and times
• Go out on a weeknight instead of weekend to cut down your wait time which will cut down on your babysitter expense.
  

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