Gardening by Remote

Gardening is an economical way of stretching one's grocery bill.  Also, it is a way of adding color to the yard at little cost if you start non-edible plants from seed.  Additionally, it stretches your exercise dollar (excuse the pun) because one doesn't have to go to the gym after lugging dirt and plants.

The Boy and I have already planted marigold and cherry tomato seeds.  (I think often of homeschooling...We would call this a science lesson.)  We will be planting lettuce later today after we return from our nature lesson.

So, last year, I asked my husband to build large gardening boxes.  We have a plethora of fauna who have helped themselves to the meager fruits of our efforts in the past.  This year, I wanted to make sure that we would actually have a decent harvest of the fruits of our labor.

Did I mention that The Boy and I will be away for a total of six weeks this summer, almost a month at one time?

This is where gardening by remote comes into play.  :-)   I've jokingly told Greg and our housemate, Mike, that they will have to send pictures of the garden so I can direct their efforts. 

Ah, willing minions. 

Kids Bowl Free All Summer Long!

I'm always on the lookout for inexpensive experiences. I stumbled across this a few days ago. Unfortunately, I can't give credit to the blogger who originally posted because my husband had to reboot the computer to install drivers for the free printer we picked up on Craigslist.

kidsbowlfree.com: Kids Bowl Free All Summer Long!

There are a few glitches for me with this program. One, it looks as though you can only sign up for one location. Since my son and I are going to be visiting with my sister, her husband, and their three kids for almost a month, I thought that this would be a good daily morning activity. However, if I sign up for it in that state, then we won't be able to bowl in our state before and after our trip. Hmm...

Also, the games are free for the kids, but not the adults. Guess I'll get more reading in this summer while they bowl.

Again, the games are free, but the shoe rentals are not. It may be more cost effective to look for a good deal on bowling shoes...
And how come blue flames are considered mens' colors, while women get the boring pink and grey?  I want these shoes...

Dry Economizing...

I abhore my dryer.  That isn't to say that I don't use it, but I do so very rarely, even in the middle of winter.  Of course, this is economical for a myriad of reasons, all of which we've seen before...

Less wear on your clothing.  All of that lint had to come from somewhere.

Less dryer sheets used.  Although, I cut mine into quarters and they work just fine.

And the big one...Electricity saved. 

I've seen various figures that tell one how to calculate savings by not running the dryer.  Honestly, I don't really care how much I save.  Not running the dryer also ties in nicely with my tendencies to be environmentally friendly.  Furthermore, if in the winter I hang the clothes on the rod on the second floor, or on a drying rack, it acts as a natural humidifier as they dry.

No, it's not pretty.  It works for me...and maybe eventually we'll replace the dryer or the broken heating element that no longer turns off the dryer...but since we don't use it often, I just set a timer when I do use the dryer.  This also means I run it less often than if I depended on the dryer to turn itself off.

Of course, I also use the clothesline outside when the weather is nice, like today.  We also travel with a drying rack if we are going to be away for more than a week.  (Most of my family members are used to my idiosyncrasies by now...or hang their clothes also.)

Now if I could only figure out to where the matches of two dozen socks disappeared...

Frugally Fun Road Trip Today!

So, DH is going to do our taxes today, and I've decided to take the boy on a frugally fun roadtrip!

Forgive the brevity, I've yanked the description which follows way below from my FB page:


We plan on going to:



Home Depot to make rain gauges


Michaels to make yarn dolls for the dollhouse



Howell Living History Farm for their Maple Sugar Program


The Garden State Discovery Museum as part of Bank of America's Museums On Us program.



Facebook: "Home Depot has the rain gauges as a free kids workshop 9-noon today for kids 5-12 (and they get a nifty apron too, and a pin). Michaels has the yarn dolls, also a free workshop, from 10am - 1pm. The maple candy is part of a maple sugaring program at Howell Living History Farm near Lambertville, $2 fee. The Garden State Discovery Museum is a free... See More admission for Bank of America members as part of their Museums on Us program (free admission to certain museums on the first weekend of the month). Get out there and do something!"



Final cost: gas, food (except for snacks and drinks, I'm not packing this time), and $2 fee...


Memories with the boy: Priceless

A&P Triple Coupons Feb 20 - 23, 2009

Triple coupons! A&P will triple coupons with face value up to and including $.99 today, Friday, February 20 through Monday, February 23, 2009. What this means: If you have a coupon which says $.75 off of any one (.75/1), it is now worth $2.25. Whoo hoo! Things to off which to take notice: most stores only accept 4 of any one coupon (meaning that if you have five of the same coupons for, oh, say, gum, only the first four will triple).

Things that are free with tripled coupon at my local A&P:

Muir Glen sauce or tomatoes
Mentos Gum

I used rainchecks that I had for a few items combined with coupons (tripled!) that also made them free:

Loreal Kids Shampoo
Rachel's Exotic Yogurt

Note that I bought 15 of the Rachel's Exotic Yogurt and received two Catalinas for $1.00 off your next order (OYNO). That was an additional bonus of which I was unaware!

Upcoming: A post on Acme's deal last week (with pictures!)

Now, to scope out the rumors I've heard about Pathmark also having triples for the same time period as A&P...

Diet Dr. Pepper Freebie Alert

I haven't posted much in the past month as I am attempting to carve out regular time for posting. That, and I'm still learning how the blogging thing works, and how I want to make it work for me, and for you, the readers.

Having said that, here's a link for a free Diet Dr. Pepper coupon!

Coupons - Past, Present, and a Few Good Sites

I've been couponing this time around since the last week of August 2008. I have been learning a lot of tips as I travel this route. But first, a bit of background.

My first serious foray with couponing was in 1999, when I had my first paper route. I also had a temp job at the time that was mostly repetitive phone work, with ample time to do what we wanted in between questions (okay, I was a telemarketer). So, as I sat and asked my same questions, keying in the response to a numbered pad, I also clipped coupons and perused the sales circulars for the week. If I saved 50% or more, I was happy. It was time-consuming, but I had the time and my own desk at which to do it. At the time, I lived with my sister, her two toddlers, another roommate, and her infant son. We all worked, sometimes up to two jobs and overtime each, and swapped the kids around, but at times I was the only source of income in our household. The coupons helped a lot.

Skip forward to 2008. As a stay-at-home mom, one of my many jobs is to be as frugal with my husband's paycheck as possible. I recycle, I've been freecycling for years, and I have a good source of hand-me-downs for the boy. I began thinking about how I could further stretch the paycheck. After poking around for a few weeks, I considered coupons again, and found several websites that I found to be helpful to us.

One site I find myself on constantly is Hot Coupon World. It's free, it's a discussion board, and it's very friendly to newbies. There are forums on grocery stores, pharmacies, retailers, rebates, and other topics related to couponing and saving money. I've told random strangers in stores about this site; I've also told cashiers if they are impressed with my coupon piles or binder. I've also met a few people from the site in person while shopping the same sales.

The Centsible Sawyer is another website I still find helpful. She invites people to post scenarios for various deals at stores such as CVS and Walgreens. This helps give me ideas for the items I may need. I may not have all of the coupons for all of the deals, but I can usually work out my own deals based on what I see here.

JANE4girls $800 Annual Budget is inspiring. Erin has been couponing for a few years and last year set a goal for, well, an $800 annual budget. Her budget includes food, health and beauty, pet food, and dining out. There are some good tips. Oh, and she made her budget last year.

Which brings me to my goal for the year 2009: My goal for 2009 is to spend no more than $50/week (or $2600/yr) on groceries, health and beauty, and the papers I purchase for coupons. This year, I am not including our cat food as they are on a prescription diet, or dining out, but I am including the budget for our annual summer party, which usually costs us about $400 (pre-couponing, of course).

We are a family of three: myself, my husband, and our preschooler son. We will be expanding to six when our niece and nephews come to visit for two months this summer. They will be twelve, eleven, and eight at the time of their visit, and they are also included in our budget.

I have noticed that since I have begun using coupons, we have cut our grocery budget considerably, and also have been able to donate food and other items to the food pantry at our church. This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and I am glad that we are finally able to do so. I have also put a personal goal of donating at least one box of cereal per week for the year 2009, in addition to anything else we may donate. The United Way in our area is having a drive for the homeless this month; I am putting together a box this week to take across the street to the neighbor who is the local collection point.

My husband is supportive, and I have sent him to the store with coupons and very specific lists. He's still learning not to pick up something else if they don't have the coupon item, but he does pretty good with it for the most part. He's happy. The stockpiling and lack of storage did concern him at first, but we eat well, the pantry is full, the freezers are full, and I'm spending half or less per month than what I did this time last year, so, I get kudos for that.

Anyhow, I really just wanted to get my 2009 goals down with a bit of background before I start blogging about deals and such.