Frugal Mania

I *heart* coffee. I started drinking it last year after loving the smell, hating the taste for years. I needed the caffeine and when I discovered that sugar and milk helped it go down better, I fell in love. I still couldn’t see how anyone could drink black coffee, though. Then, my mother introduced me to Gevalia coffee which I was able to drink without any milk or sugar. I decided that I had to try some different coffees and see if I could find any that offered a better taste so that I could cut back on my sugar and dairy consumption.

While searching for coffee reviews and recommendations I read about fair trade coffee and why the store brand coffee that I was purchasing was not a great choice. I decided that no matter the cost I needed to be purchasing fair trade coffee. That took away many of the options for coffee in the grocery store.

More research turned up a Chicago based company called Intelligentsia. (I recommend Black Cat and Tres Santos, if you’re interested.) Intelly roasts their coffee daily. Why? Because about 14 days after roasting, coffee starts to lose flavor. Yep, that’s right. Those beans you find at your grocery store aren’t the most flavorful that are to be had, even if they cost you a bundle.

On the same token, ground coffee beans lose flavor very rapidly. Seriously. Like within a half hour of being ground, the flavor starts to go.

So what’s the conscientious coffee lover to do? Well, if you don’t have a lot of time, I suggest buying a fair trade, whole bean coffee from your grocery store. Starbucks, Seattle’s Best or Millstone (eh, but it’s not overly expensive). If you have a bit more money to spend, go with fresh-roasted beans from Intelligentsia.

Now, what if you don’t have a coffee grinder? Most grocery stores do have one you can use. If you would prefer to do it a few cups worth at a time, use a blender or food processor. If you don’t have one of the aforementioned, you can grind them with a hammer. Really, grinding coffee beans is not a huge undertaking.

But what about the flavor lost in the time it takes for roasted coffee beans to reach your store and then your home? Buy green beans! Check out Sweet Maria’s. Unroasted coffee beans can be purchased here for much less than roasted beans. You can find home roasting instructions here.

Buying green coffee beans, roasting and then grinding them yourself is truly a frugal option that sacrifices nothing but a little extra time.

Earthly Eating is one of my favorite blogs.

Did you happen to catch yesterday’s Oprah? The mother of six has spent her family into financial ruin. And her husband has not stepped in to help stop the madness. The family seems to be a picture perfect suburban family with a great home and money to burn. However, they have burned all of their money until none is left.

Of course, the reasons are psychological. The mother is trying desperately to fill an emptiness or whatnot. I am not here to judge as there was a time in my life when I was less frugal. (Granted, not to the financial devastation of my family.) Seeing this show served as a reminder to me that I should be thankful that it was fairly easy for my family to give up things such a big house in the ‘burbs and brand new cars so that I can stay at home with my children. My family has health insurance, two cars, and we own a with enough room for everyone to have their own space. We have plenty of food and new clothes when we need them. The blessings are endless. By embracing frugality we have been able to live comfortably.

If we had stayed in the town we were in (the town we adore and hope to move back to once I am working again!) after I quit my job we would have been in over our heads with “Keeping Up With The Jones’s”. I feel like moving away from that life, even though we had to move away from the best school system in the state, gave us perspective. We can move back and get the benefits of living in a great town without the baggage of playing the money games that people play. We are happy here with less and I think we will appreciate having more someday than we would have if we had not been forced into frugality.

I can promise this: No matter how much money I make I will never make daily visits to Starbucks (especially when I can make it at home for so much less!). Who would voluntarily waste money like that? Someone who is missing other parts of his or her self, that’s who!

Here is a great post about starting a business from home!

If you are reading this you either think you can’t afford to decorate (or redecorate) or you don’t want to waste any money when you do redecorate. Due to our busy schedule, my husband and I have owned our home for four years and not gotten together about the decorating of it until recently. For nearly four years we have lived here with the same white walls that the seller so nicely painted for us so we would have a blank palate on which to add our favorite colors and decor. Finally, at the end of the summer we started talking color!

Our oldest two sons’ rooms were the first to be done. I did each room for under $50! For my middle son’s room, his favorite color green (Lily pond green, to be exact) was painted on the walls, covering the ugly wood-colored molding at the top and creating the look of a higher ceiling. The paint is the Color Place brand from Walmart in a satin finish (easier to clean) and was $12 per gallon. I bought SpongeBob appliqués to decorate the walls for $10.00. He already had a SpongeBob comforter. I bought a set of SpongeBob sheets and because he doesn’t like to sleep under a flat sheet, I use the fitted sheet for his bed and the flat sheet was made into curtains. The sheet set cost $17.00. His room is bright and colorful and he loves it. It only cost me $39 to decorate.

My oldest son loves his Thomas and Friends comforter, so of course we went with that theme. The walls were painted Nimble Blue (or Thomas Blue as I called it immediately when I saw it). Appliqués were applied. I couldn’t find Thomas sheets, but I found Thomas fabric to match his comforter and for $12, I made two curtain panels.

My dining room will be complete with color, cushions and a table cloth. My living room needs color and throw pillows. We’ve recently rearranged it to bring new life to the room.

Decorating does not have to be expensive. A few touches and PAINT! can give your room a new look for very little money.

Read about National Kitchen and Bathroom Month.

Ground turkey, that is. Ground turkey is a staple in my home. I never use ground beef anymore. The cost of lean ground beef is more than ground turkey breast. Be sure, though, if you are choosing ground turkey for health reasons that you are buying ground turkey breast and not simply ground turkey. Ground turkey, which combines leg and thigh meat and even the high calorie skin of the turkey, is comparable in fat and calories to lean ground beef.

If you need to stretch ground turkey there are a few ways to get more out of a pound of ground. Use oatmeal or bread crumbs to stretch one pound of ground turkey into more usage. Use ground turkey in stews and chili with beans for added protein. Also, try shredding a potato into your ground turkey before cooking it.

Here are a couple of my favorite ground turkey recipes.

Meatloaf Muffins
1 lb ground turkey
1 box stuffing mix
1c water
1tsp garlic powder
3/4c barbecue sauce

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the ground turkey, stuffing mix and garlic powder together. Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray. Fill the muffin cups with the ground turkey mixture. Make a well or indention on top of each ‘muffin’ and spoon barbecue sauce over it. Bake for 30 minutes.

Turkey Chili

1lb ground turkey
1pkg chili seasoning
1 can of chili ready tomatoes
2 cans of chili beans
2 cans of kidney beans
1 small can of tomato sauce

Brown the ground turkey and place all of the ingredients into a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours.

Check out the Watch Rachael Ray blog! Here is the latest entry.

Many new parents assume that they simply cannot afford to stay at home with their children. Losing one income would mean being on a budget so tight that it simply would not even allow for necessities. Maybe that isn’t true, however. Maybe with a closer look at your budget you can find a way to avoid the cost of daycare and spend more time with your children, at least for their first few years and maybe longer.

First, think about how much daycare costs. For me, daycare would cost more than I could actually make at this point having not yet completed my degree. Other things to consider are lunches out, business attire, gas, and taxes.

If your family truly cannot do without your income, as is the case for many families, seek out a work at home job. My favorite website for work at home jobs include Wahm.com and Jobs For Stay At Home Moms. These websites are geared toward moms, of course, but dads could take advantage of the same opportunities. There are jobs for writers, home business opportunities, jobs for virtual assistants and other great home job ideas to be found on these websites.

There is always the option of keeping other children in your home. Many moms make a bit of extra money by watching an extra child or two. It’s not enough to constitute a “daycare” or keep you from spending quality time with your own children, but it can bring in a bit to help out the family budget.

Check out this post about Fall Decor from The Creative Mom Cafe.

Time is money, right? Well, not always for us frugal folks, but in some cases we’re willing to give up a little money for some convenience. Online Education is one of those conveniences that I am currently paying for.

I attended college after high school but after my second year I decided to transfer. Once I transferred I decided to work. I worked and met my husband. I met my husband and got married. Two kids later I decided to get back to school. I discovered that the college I attended had a distance learning program and I leaped at the chance to avoid time-consuming lectures and instead finish my degree from home. For me, the cost of my distance education was equivalent to the cost of daycare for my then two, now three, children.

Things to remember about distance education:

Make sure your school is accredited.
Make sure the program who are in will fulfill all requirements needed for licensure in your state.
Find out about financial aid.

Is distance education right for you?
If you are a self-motivated, you will do fine. I find that keeping an assignment calendar is essential. I map out each day what assignments I need to do and what tests I need to study for.

In the long run, distance education is a great choice for those who cannot quit their jobs to attend traditional classes. Stay at home moms can get their degree via distance education without having to pay for daycare.

While you contemplate distance education, check out the Life Tips Daily Blog. Today’s post is all about junk food.

When people want to save money, many times it is the grocery budget that is first examined for the possibility of saving money. When I stopped my full time telecommuting job I had to immediately cut back on groceries. I had one household responsibility from my paycheck and that was to buy the groceries. When I got paid, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on whatever we wanted. I loved to cook and bake and could easily spend $500-600 a month on a family of four–and number three was a toddler and number four a newborn!

Granted my grocery budget has always included all household and toiletries items as well as food, but even so my spending habits were outrageous and shamefully wasteful. My husband reviewed the budget as we transitioned from a two-income family to a one-income family. We decided that $400 per month was a good budget for us.

I knew that I’d have to make some changes in order to stick to our budget. First, I made menus for each week. I decided how many nights per week I would cook dinner. We had leftovers or sandwiches and cereal on the other nights. Next, I made a grocery list. Before my grocery budget was necessary I would only list the things that we were out of and had to buy or the ingredients for new recipes that I wanted to try. I’d wing the rest, even decided right there in the store what to have to dinner that night. I’d often make a couple of trips to the stores each week.

I decided what day I would do my shopping, made my list the night before and purchased everything for the week so that I would not have to go back into the store at all until it was time for my next weekly shopping trip.

I had never disliked generics, but was more apt to buy brand names because I wanted to or because they offered some sort of convenience that generics did not. I stopped buying brand names unless I had tried the generic and it was wasted because we didn’t like it. (Really, if your family won’t eat it, don’t buy it. That’s not frugal, it’s wishful thinking.)

I planned to cook four meals per week and at least one was a vegetarian meal. Now my husband was not on board with that at first, but when I promised him that it would only be one meal per week and reminded him of the health benefits he reluctantly gave it a try. Now he eats most vegetarian meals I make with no problem.

Instead of throwing out leftovers as I was apt to do before, I would freeze them and use them again in less than two weeks.

I began buying only the produce that was in season and though we got a little tired of oranges in the winter and strawberries in spring, it definitely saved us money.

I made as many things as I could at home (bread, desserts, snacks, baby food) which not only saved money but was healthier for us also.

Now, as a family of five (the youngest is a very hungry toddler) plus one sweet dog, I still have my budget, now $550 per month and am even trying to come in under that amount if possible. Even when I work outside of the home again in a few years we will have to budget for groceries. My three sons (all around two years apart) will be teenagers before I know it and my grocery will grow up, up, up right with them!

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Check out this fabulous food post!

. . . so can you! The “they” I’m taking about would be the mother/daughter team responsible for the website Living On A Dime. Read their personal stories of frugality in tough financial times and I’m sure you will be inspired.

The fact that I budget more for groceries every month than Jill Cooper had for all of her monthly expenses takes my breath away. How fortunate am I? And speaking of groceries . . . I admit that I have not been frugal in the past two months when doing my grocery shopping. I suppose sometimes I don’t want our dream home enough to pinch pennies. Frugality can get tiresome. If you are at the point of being bored with frugality and you want to throw caution to the wind, this post is for you*.

I think that when you get burned out from being frugal it is wise to give yourself a break. I don’t mean to go wild and run up credit card debt or buy anything extravagant. I mean that sometimes a small, not so frugal allowance is in order.

For instance, if you diligently make your morning coffee and bagel at home to save money, treat yourself to a breakfast out. If you library doesn’t have a book you really want and you can’t wait for them to get it in, buy it discounted online instead.

Give yourself an occasional break. If you can afford to, un-tighten the purse strings and spend a little more at the grocery store to prepare a favorite but not so frugal meal.

*If you have a problem with addictive spending, this post is not for you. If treating yourself is not something that you are able to do occasionally without falling off of the frugal wagon, then it is best that you stick to your frugal plan.

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Check out this Air Force wife’s blog! Today she talks about one of our frugal favorites–the potato!

Don’t go broke buying over sized bags of Halloween candy this year. Granted, if you don’t have the “good” candy the kids will not want it and it will be a waste anyway. Given that they really don’t need the sugar, why not try a goody bag mixed with popular candy (not from the dollar store. Sorry, but frugality spares quality here.) and small toys, stickers, and cool school supplies from the dollar store. (Check out this list of frugal toys and other great items for the goody bags.)

Buy a package of paper lunch bags, fill them with a little candy and toys and tie them with orange and black ribbon or yarn. Plastic sandwich or snack bags work well, too, if you have a lot of trick or treaters and need to use smaller amounts of candy and toys.

Have you gotten your Halloween costume yet? Don’t forget eBay when you are searching for you costume.

For really frugal costume ideas look to this article. There are several adorable costume ideas to be found there.

Check out this blog for Halloween craft ideas!

Are you having a Halloween party or a haunted house? If you need recipes for gross ideas, this website is your go to place!

If Halloween is not your favorite holiday or if you do not celebrate it, stay tuned because I will be bringing more frugal recipes and other frugal Autumn ideas in the coming weeks. With Thanksgiving (and hopefully some cooler weather!) coming up, there is no end to the frugal ideas for the holidays that come this time of year. Remember, fun times don’t have to cost a fortune.

Do you think that you can’t afford a new home? Is the down payment taking forever to save? Is your credit less than perfect? None of these reasons should stop you from owning a home. Keep in mind that the most frugal options for homeownership usually require a good down payment and great credit, but at the same time, throwing away money on rent isn’t very frugal either.

There are several different types of mortgages to help most anyone get the home loan he or she needs.

The first type is the usual fixed rate mortgage. Fixed rate mortgage loans can range from 10-50 years, but most people choose a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. As the name implies, fixed rate mortgages stay the same every month despite the current interest rate.

In contrast, the adjustable rate mortgage has a fluctuating interest rate. This is beneficial because monthly payments might become lower as interest rates change. It is downright scary because monthly payment might also become higher.

Two types of mortgage loans that may seem tempting but are not frugal options include the Combo/Piggy Back Loan and the Interest Only loan. Combo loans are actually a first and second mortgage–one for loan for the down payment and one loan for the remaining (usually 80%) of the cost of the home. Getting the second loan for the down payment allows home buyers to get out of paying mortgage insurance. Sounds great, right? It’s great if you can’t wait, sure. But in the long run, it costs you more than you would pay if you saved the down payment yourself and didn’t have to pay interest on it.

The interest only loan is also tricky. Interest only loans give a home buyer between 5-10 years of paying only the interest on their mortgage. This results in a lower monthly payment for those years. The problem is that the interest rate on an interest only loan is going to be a bit higher and, in reality, the monthly interest payment only is not that much less than it would be to pay both principle and interest. Definitely not a frugal choice, but again, if you can’t wait to have a home it is an option that might make home ownership affordable.

If you’ve decided to wait and save check out these tips to help better your current place.