Today’s guest post comes to us courtesy Darcy of Tales From the Nursery!

Before getting pregnant I never worried so much about money. Money would be tight and I wasn’t the most responsible with it, but I didn’t have a child dependent on me. Quickly my husband and I started to take a closer look at our finances and work on them. No longer were we going to fly by the seat of our pants, spending willy nilly.

No, it was time to become financially mature. We had to get more frugal. Since that change, I have found saving to be fun! I can’t even begin to describe the feeling I get when I score a great find!

One thing I did was join my local Freecycle group (go to the main page and look for your area). It’s a great way to give away unused and unwanted items to those who could use them – and it’s all FREE! If you don’t end up liking what you got, or you only like some of the clothes, that’s okay. “Take what you want, Freecycle the rest” meaning you relist it. No selling of Freecycle goods.

Not only is it a frugal resource, it’s a green one too since a lot of the things listed would otherwise end up in a landfill.

I wasn’t sure if I’d receive many baby items, but I have been blessed with several finds: a stash of cloth diapers (still had some life left in them!), a diaper sprayer, baby clothes, and my latest gem – a free exersaucer!

Just when I needed it too!

Don’t worry, I give too. We’ve given away a chair, diaper coupons, formula samples, diapers (when I switched to cloth I still had a bunch of disposables), and baby clothes.

Are you a Freecycle member? What kinds of goodies have you discovered?
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About this guest post blogger: Darcy is a part-time work-at-home mother of one entertaining baby girl. She’s been blogging on and off for several years. While the genre and topics may change, her passion has not. Her current passion is writing about parenting, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and family-friendly products at Tales From the Nursery.

Today’s guest post comes to us courtesy long-time SCG reader and guest poster, Faylee of HassiesKitchenTable.com!

About Faylee:

Faylee James is a Life Coach/Writer/Speaker from Northeast Tennessee, who has an above average interest in people, cooking and living life with a smile.

I have been a fan of the food saving reusable green bags for some time. The cost of a package of these reusable bags has come down dramatically over the last year. Last month I found a package of 10 bags for only $1.00 at one of my local dollar stores. I was sure they would not work as well as the ones I had paid 10 times more for but I gave in to my curiosity and bought a box anyway. To my surprise they worked just as well and brought happiness to my frugal mind because they have paid for themselves many times.

They came in two sizes, which has been handy for different vegetables. I not only use them for food items I place in the refrigerator but for the ones I keep on my counter, too.

The main things to remember when using them, is to keep your food as dry as possible. Do not wash anything until you are ready to use it, unless you are willing to allow it to dry completely before placing them in one of the bags. You will also need to place a clean paper towel in the bottom of the bag in case the food sweats. Even a small amount of condensation can defeat the purpose of using the bags.

When storing your food in the bags, you do not need to close them tightly as the food items still needs to breathe a little bit. When placing produce in a bag I’m leaving on my counter top, I simply fold down of the top. If I need to keep it from opening completely I turn the produce so the fold is held in place by the produce. When using them for items you are placing in your refrigerator, you will still want a soft closing. You might twist the bag a little or use a loose twist tie to close it.

When your bag is empty, you will want to clean it with a damp cloth, then turn it inside out to completely dry before using it again. Unless they are damaged you can reuse them over and over. When not in use, you can fold them and put away until at such time you need them again.

I have no idea of how much I have saved with using them, not only in food spoilage but in my food budget. I do know, I no longer reach for a green pepper only to find a messy mush. Now I find a fresh firm pepper, waiting to be in tonight’s dinner salad.

I can assure you, you will love using them and they will pay for themselves over and over again.

I invite you to visit me at http://www.HassiesKitchenTable.com for more recipes, tips and ideas on living better for less.

About The Author:

Alise is a wife and mother of four living in WV. She love knitting, crochet, music, reading & zombies. She is afraid of killer robots. You can read her writing at Big Mama’s Blog, and can connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Our whole family is comprised of avid readers. (Well, I’m guessing about the animals. But the dogs have been known to literally devour a book or two and the cats like to climb in my lap when I’m reading, so I assume that they’re on board with the whole reading thing as well.) And if you read, you know that a book habit can be expensive. And if you’re a family of six, you know that a book habit for six people can be really, stinkin’ expensive.

Which is why I was thrilled a couple of years ago to discover PaperBackSwap.com. A friend referred me there and I was sure that it had to be a total scam. I send my already read books to someone else and I get a credit and that credit is good for any book? Definitely too good to be true.

Incredibly, it is absolutely true! I have exchanged hundreds of books at the site and nearly all have gone without a hitch. There are guidelines that should be followed (no writing or highlighting in books that aren’t textbooks, no liquid damage of any kind, no broken spines), but provided your book is in pretty good condition, you can trade it for something that you haven’t read. Media mail is relatively inexpensive, so each transaction costs you about $3, which is far below retail and often even sale prices for most books. When you join and post your first 10 books, you even receive 2 credits for free! And they have handy printable mailers that you can use to send out your books right from your home.

I originally joined so that I could get rid of some old books and make more space, but honestly, I’ve ended up bringing in many more to replace them! But honestly, it’s absolutely wonderful. Most of the people on the site are incredibly nice and my transactions have primarily been really positive. And don’t let the name fool you — you can swap both paperback and hardbound books. I have received gorgeous, like-new copies of the entire Harry Potter series in hard cover for my family from this site!

I do encourage you to check out the forums there. They have games where you can trade books without using credits (usually themed games with a specific genre in mind, but sometimes books on different topics or even something silly like a title with a specific set of words in it) and the “book bazaar” where people sometimes run deals where you can get more than one book for a credit. I have picked up a lot of children’s books that way (and unloaded a lot of books that my kids no longer read). I love that I’ve been able to put presents together for birthdays and Christmas using used books.

There are other book swapping sites out there, but I have found none to be as well organized or as helpful as PaperBackSwap.com. If you enjoy reading, this site can save you hundreds of dollars in books! If you happen to join, let them know that BigMama sent you!

About The Author:

Mrs Green runs Little Green Blog, which covers green technology, gentle parenting and eco friendly living.

One of my passions is living as lightly as I can on the earth. This doesn’t mean a life of deprivation or ‘going without’ some of the modern comforts and conveniences of 21st century life; neither does it mean having an unlimited budget for hybrid cars or big solar panels.

Living a green lifestyle can be very creative and *very* frugal as these tips will show you. Every one of these tips will cost you precisely nothing!

1- Love your leftovers

Instead of calling food leftovers, view it as ingredients. Left over cooked vegetables can be made into soup, while fruit that is past its best can be whizzed into smoothies. Putting old food into landfill produces methane; a potent greenhouse gas and you’ll get better value for money if you use up every last scrap.

2- Cooking from scratch

If you cook from scratch you know exactly what you are eating and can eat for a fraction of the cost. You’ll save heaps of money and be healthier too. Why not batch cook to save energy and freeze ‘convenience food’ for a later date?

3- Turn it off!

If you can see the red dot on your appliances, you’ve left them on standby. Ok, so it might be a few cents of electricity you are saving, but how many gadgets do you leave on standby and for how long? Do the math and you’ll see you can make quite a saving by turning things off at the socket.

4- Close the curtains

Once dusk comes it’s time to close the curtains; by doing this tiny step you’ll be keeping heat inside your home for free. If you line your curtains with old blankets you’ll conserve even more heat.

5- Reuse instead of dispose

Is there one disposable product you buy which you could swap for a reusable option? Kitchen towel is a great example – grab a pile of unworn t-shirts, cut them up into rags and you’ll save yourself money and trees throughout the year!

6- Green clean

Do you really need a separate product to clean the floor, another one to wipe the kitchen surfaces and yet another to shine the sink? By using white vinegar and baking soda you can successfully do most cleaning jobs in your home – it’s safer for you, better for the environment and cheaper too.

About The Author:

Faylee James is a Life Coach from Northeast Tennessee, who has an above average interest in people, cooking and living life to the best of her ability. She enjoys sharing her ideas and tips on savings with others. You can find more of her thoughts at www.HassiesKitchenTable.com or read her articles at http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Faylee_James.

We all have our favorite ways of finding small saving in our budgets, reusing or redoing things is one of mine.

I save the inner packaging liner from cereal boxes. I’ve used them as substitutes for plastic bags on occasion, but one of my favorite uses, is for pounding chicken cutlets. These bags are sturdy enough that I don’t break through the bag, and all the raw chicken juices are contained instead of being spread through the kitchen. When I’m done I just roll them up and throw them away, leaving counters or cutting boards to clean up.

As I live alone, I also divide my meats into personal servings, then I store those portions in my freezer. Each meat serving is wrapped, labeled, then placed into a waxed insert for extra protection against freezer burn, until I need it. A clothes pin can be used as a way of keeping the inserts closed. I use one for beef, one for chicken and another one for pork. That way I do not have to look through all the meat trying to find the chicken I need for a dinner recipe.

I use them for keeping my socks, undies and jewelry together when packing for a trip. I also, take a couple of different size empty ones in my suit case when traveling, in the likelihood I get something wet and do not want it up against my clean clothes. I simply place it in the waxed insert, fold down the top, holding the top in place with a piece of tape or a large rubber band.

I set a cereal box insert near my sink to place wet garbage into before placing it into my garbage can. It keeps flies and small animals from trying to get into the container.

The inserts can also be used as a means of transporting your leftover food items to your compost pile.

I save all sizes of these inserts and have come up with many ways to reuse them. They are durable, can be washed out and used several times before you have to discard them. Once you get into the habit of saving and using these inserts it will be hard to do without them.

Would you like to be a guest writer here on Super Coupon Girl? I will be heading home to England for a visit on 01-11-11, and I’d love to have a few guest articles to run while I’m en route. I will be bringing my laptop and will continue to blog and check email as usual while I’m away, but it would be nice to have a few guest posts to run while I’m catching my flight and recovering from jet lag. If you’d like to submit a post:

Writer’s Guidelines:

• Articles can be on any frugal topic.
• There is no minimum word count.
• To submit your post, send an email to supercoupongirl@gmail.com with your name, your website/blog URL (if applicable), the article, and a short bio. If you have photos to go with your piece, feel free to attach those also.
• Deadline for submissions is January 5th.

Today’s guest post comes to us courtesy Jennifer Burg of TheSuburbanMom!

Fall means a lot of things to a lot of people, but to kids October means only one thing: Costumes and CANDY! Little ones across the U.S. are dreaming of the day when they can run door to door dressed as their favorite character begging for candy and eating more candy in one night than mom allows all year long. But someone has to provide all of that “free candy” kids get, and if you are like the rest of us you want to participate in the merry-making without breaking the bank. Here are some tips to keep your candy shopping dollars to a minimum while still providing a spooktacular evening of fun for neighborhood kids.

1. Get over brand names – Who cares what kind of candy you give out, kids don’t. Sugar is Sugar! Of course, chocolate is always a popular treat, but it tends to be the more costly candy so go for the cheap stuff. If you grab a handful and toss it in the bag, the kids won’t care. Sure there’s always that candy no kid will eat, but we always send that candy with my hubby to his office and sure enough someone eats it by day’s end. So someone eats it!
2. What’s the real cost? – Of course we all want to buy our candy on sale, but don’t fall victim to a “fake” sale. Just because it is on sale doesn’t mean it is the best price. Grab your cell, pull up the calculator app and do the math. The bottom line is price per piece of candy – not per bag or pound. You aren’t serving candy by the bag or pound, you serve it per piece and if you want to make the little kids giddy and keep the big kids from any “tricks” you want to be able to give each kids more than one piece. So calculate accordingly.
3. Get the Freebies! – As October progresses, businesses will start offering bags of free candy with purchase. (For example from 10/3 – 10/9 Kmart offered a free bag of candy with a $40 costume purchase.) Like “fake” sales, don’t buy stuff just for the free candy or you are wasting money, but, for example, if you were going to get a costume form Kmart for $40+… get the candy!
4. Shop online – My daughter’s favorite lollipops are Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops, so this is what we will be passing out this year. We buy them on Amazon in a 5 pound bag, which is about 300 lollipops! Right now they are $26.92 (although this price fluxuates regularly, I have gotten them for as low as $13!). You can also save 20% on Yummy Earth with the coupon code SEPYUMMY, and it ships free with Amazon Prime or Amazon Mom.
5. Coupon Matchups – With Halloween in the air coupons for candy are everywhere you turn. While one coupon might not be enough off to make you buy, matching a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon and a store sale can get you candy for pennies on the dollar. So hold on to those coupons and look to pair them up for better deals. Just remember the per piece rule to make sure you are really getting a deal.

Happy candy shopping and Happy Halloween to all!

I’m a SAHM, I’m a WAHM, I’m a WOHM. I’m thrifty, I’m green, I’m toy-picking-up machine. I’m a woman, I’m a wife, I’m a Modern Momma. I am The Suburban Mom.  Jennifer Burg is TheSuburbanMom, and she invites you to visit TheSuburbanMom for product reviews, giveaways, deals, DIY projects and much more. Join the conversation at www.TheSuburbanMom.com.

While I head out of town today for the WordCamp Conference, enjoy this guest post on keeping a frugal home, courtesy of my pal Bobbie from One Scrappy Mom!

About Bobbie:

Bobbie is the owner and author of OneScrappyMom. She is the mother of one daughter, Mariah, one son, Alex, and wife to Travis. She is a mommy blogger and love all things involving her family. In her spare time she enjoys photography, digital scrapbooking and social networking.

Keeping a Frugal Home In Today’s Economy

I’ve always had a pretty good mindset when it came to being frugal. I’ve been a girl on a budget since I got my first job years ago. Now as a wife and stay at home mother of two children I am always looking at ways to improve the family budget while not compromising the family fun and lifestyle. I’ve always been able to keep my children busy and having fun while keeping the cost affordable. You can too! Here’s a few ways that you can make this work for your family:

Public Libraries: Public libraries have a lot to offer. It’s more then renting a book. They often have story time, puppet shows and other activities for children. They usually have at least 2-3 days a week with activities that are family oriented and best of all free. Not only do they have these activities, but they also offer free rentals of books, magazines and media. You can rent movies for free at the library. True, they might not be the new releases, but a family movie or a Disney movie is a great choice for a family movie night!

Local Parks: Many local parks offer activities for the children. Here in the summer months they have free lunch in the park which are all run by park attendees. It’s a safe place for the children and they can play with other children as well as run off their energy. We also have a parade put on by the parks every year. The children from the park decorate the float that runs in the parades for many to see. My children LOVE seeing their art on the floats that are part of a celebration! This is all FREE! Many of the local parks here also have small kiddie pools or splash pads the kids can play on. They can get wet and enjoy the water on the hot days! Dry off on the playground, do some more fun things and cool off in the water.

Local Attractions: Many of the local attractions offer a discount to residents of the community. They may even offer a discount on a family pass. These are often great things to do when you add them in with something special like lunch in the park. These attractions are much cheaper then a vacation that can be stressful on the wallet. Make these attractions into activities. Play “I Spy” or take a “bingo” type card with. The attraction may be the same, but you can spice up the visits with different activities. Also be sure to get a schedule for your attractions! Here we have a small zoo. They have MANY activities through the year, like the “Zoo Boo” which is trick or treating with the animals and the “Birthday Bonanza” in which they celebrate the birthday of some of the animals and you get to have cake with the animals! These are all exciting for little ones and as they grow older the experience changes meaning each time they go.

Recycle: Not everything that comes into your home can be recycled, but there are SO many things that can, you would amaze yourself with the possibilities! Milk jugs are good for so many things!! You can cut them with scissors and have just the bottoms. These can be used to store small toys like legos and bathroom needs like rubber bands and other things. If you are going to use them for storage, grab some old stained shirts or sheets, let the children cut them {adult supervision please}, glue them and decorate them. These little containers are also cute as candy dishes and so much more. You can also use them as a craft idea for so many more projects! Make masks for play, use them to grow seeds and observe them daily, make piggy banks, or Easter baskets, the possibilities are endless!! Our other favorite thing to recycle is cardboard. We make castles with a few boxes and some toilet paper rolls. The kids can paint them, color them, decorate them. It takes them some time to complete the projects that can be done inside on a rainy day or out on the porch on a sunny day!

Now that I have shared some of my fun and frugal family tips with you, please tell me, what are some things you do for fun that are free or wallet friendly? What are some crafts that your children and family enjoy?

Today’s guest article comes to us courtesy of Kellene Bishop of Preparedness Pro. If you’re curious about adding freeze-dried foods to your stockpile, then you might be interested to read Kellene’s perspective on the subject!

About Kellene:

Kellene Bishop is the Director of Training for Preparedness Pro and a Personal Emergency Preparedness Consultant. In the spirit of ultimate emergency preparedness, she is also the owner of Women of Caliber and specializes in training women physical and firearm self-defense skills.

As an experienced professional writer, Kellene is the author of Preparedness Pro’s daily updated blog, Preparedness Pro as well as Women of Caliber. She also writes passionately on matters of the U.S. Constitution and our great nation.

Click here to read Kellene’s full bio!

Freeze-Dried Frugality

If you’re new to the Preparedness Pro site, allow me to remind you why I firmly believe that freeze-dried produce foods are ideal for everyday as well as for long-term menu planning—they are nutritious (sometimes even more so than the fresh produce you purchase); they are less expensive than fresh produce; they have a longer shelf-life than fresh, canned, or dehydrated produce; they are super clean (they have to be in order for the freeze-drying process to be accomplished properly); and they are so incredibly convenient—no cutting, dicing, slicing or cleaning necessary. Having said all of this though, I feel that it’s important that you pay special attention to that fact that I’m an advocate of freeze-dried ingredients, NOT the whole entrée. I’m also not a fan of folks being turned on to a particular freeze-dried company and spending their money with them, hook line and sinker. Not every company is good at everything they produce. Some companies are exactly the same in what they offer. A lot of companies, for example, purchase their product from the exact same producer in Oregon—the only difference is pricing. Also, there are a lot of products that freeze-dried manufacturers offer that are typically better off being purchased at your local warehouse or through coupon usage at your grocery store.

First of all, let’s start out with the primary issue of relying heavily on freeze-dried entrées. Freeze-dried entrées are not all that they are cracked up to be. For starters, they are weary on the wallet. It’s a LOT less expensive for me to create a “beef stroganoff” from a cluster of ingredients in my pantry than it is for me to purchase a sufficient amount of the same entrée from a freeze-dried entrée manufacturer.

Secondly, when you have a freeze-dried “taco soup” entrée, that’s all you’ve got. You’re stuck in that particular pigeon hole. Whereas if you had freeze-dried taco TVP, freeze-dried kidney beans, taco seasoning, and other such ingredients, you’ve got a whole lot more options. I beg people not to take the reality of appetite fatigue too lightly. A very large, global church recently shipped several tons of green beans to a needy community in S. Africa. The citizens went crazy with delight when the shipment first arrived. However, over 50% of the delivery load still sits there today, amidst hungry families, because they are sick and tired of green beans. Variety is critical. So please don’t stock up on 52 packages of a particular meal with the intent of providing that same meal for a year. Most family households should have about 50 different dishes/meals in their repertoire, not to mention the “I don’t feel like cooking” dishes such as the occasional quickie meal. Such a repertoire will ensure that you and your family do not get “sick” of a particular food. Remember, mealtime needs to provide comfort, not stress. Good dishes that get switched up are important for this very reason.

Speaking of freeze-dried meals…that’s another reason why they aren’t a great idea, they inhibit you from becoming more independent in being able to create, in the true sense of the word. The key is being able to adapt to a variety of circumstances with your existing ingredients. Being able to take 4 or 5 ingredients to create an enjoyable meal easily will give you a lot more confidence and possibilities to provide quality meals for you and those you care about. It may sound old-fashioned, but I think too many people have lost their most basic necessary skills nowadays. We just don’t teach them to our children anymore. All too infrequently does a family sit down and eat together, let alone learn how to prepare a meal together. And yet if there’s ever an occasion in which we don’t have access to the microwave or our regular stove top and oven, we will need to know a lot more than the skills necessary to just heating things up.

I personally believe that the freeze-dried meals are better for camping and backpacking scenarios rather than your everyday independence pantry. Sure they take up less space, but they fill up less space in your tummy too. *grin* Even more important to my snob palate is the taste of the freeze-dried meals. I think there are a great number of them that taste pretty darn good, but the number of calories are usually too low to sustain you, and the texture of the food is often compromised. I do much better ensuring the necessary amount of calories, nutrition, and texture using my freeze-dried ingredients as ingredients—not meals. The other day I was testing a freeze-dried meal from a well-known manufacturer. The taste was fine, but I had to cook it much longer than the instructions required to get all of the pasta done properly, and by that time, much of the pasta was shredded and unappealing. I ate it anyway—no sense wasting it. But it just wasn’t as beautiful and satisfying as what I would have made in the same amount of time, providing all of the ingredients myself, at a fraction of the cost.

Another downside to freeze-dried meals is that different types of foods will last different periods of time. Pasta doesn’t last anywhere near as long as powdered tomato powder or beef flavored vegetable protein, for example. And yet when I purchase a beef stroganoff meal, I’m counting on the entire meal to last until I need to use it. Also, some foods coming in contact with other foods cause their breakdown sooner as well. Pasta mixed in with something acidic or sugary substance such as powdered tomato will cause it to go bad sooner, whereas if I stored the pasta by itself in a tight container and the tomato powder separately, you’ll have a much longer shelf-life on both of them.

I’ve seen several quality freeze-dried food manufacturers sell items such as sugar, rice, corn starch, and spaghetti with their other products. I would warn you all in purchasing such items from these kinds of companies as I’ve never found any staple products such as these so amazingly priced that I just had to purchase them. Falling into that snare usually only occurs if one is out of touch with the price of these staple items. I can always do a much better job purchasing frugally through a combination of sales and coupons at the grocery stores. Some think that the price is worthwhile due to the #10 can that many of the goods are packed in. While there certainly isn’t a problem with these items being stored in a #10 can, in fact, it’s a great way to go, I certainly wouldn’t go to greater expense to obtain them this way—especially not when I can obtain most of the staple items for FREE with coupons. When I am able to purchase such items, I simply store them collectively in their original packaging in a 4-gallon square bucket with appropriate preservation material such as diatomaceous earth, bay leaves, or an oxygen absorber.

In closing, I just want to encourage you to select your freeze-dried ingredients wisely. Be sure that you are aware of how much reconstituted food the product will yield. Be knowledgeable of the shelf-life. I personally like to price products by the ounces of yield, not the price of the can. I’ve even found one food manufacturer that illegally put the GROSS weight of the product in the container, not the net yield of the product the can contained. Some manufacturers will not even provide a food yield of their product claiming that it will divulge “confidential freeze-drying process” by doing so. Um…that’s sooo not ok with me. Still some companies, such as the highly advertised Daily Bread, won’t even provide you with the ability to compare product shape, ounces, prices, etc. The only way you can get their product information is to permit a salesperson into your home and purchase packages rather than specifically what you want. I’ve heard from many folks that the Daily Bread product tastes quite good.While I can appreciate that their products taste good, don’t try to spin me and tell me that you can only afford the prices you offer by requiring people to purchase packages when you’re advertising during the prime time Glenn Beck Show! I’d rather skip the Glenn Beck advertisement, skip the salesperson’s commission and employment taxes and benefits, be able to peruse your abundant information on the internet, NOT take time out of my day to meet with a salesperson two weeks after I’ve contacted the company, and have more money to buy more of that which feeds my family, thank you.

Well, that’s my spin on freeze-dried entrées, folks. Take it or leave it, but I hope for your enjoyment, comfort, peace of mind, and ease that you take it.

This article was originally published on Preparedness Pro on April 14th, 2010.