Another Great Baby Toy

One of my son's favorite toys cost us pennies to make. My mother, a great seamstress, empties spools of thread pretty often. She took six empty plastic spools and thread them on a piece of yarn. She then tied a knot with the two ends. My little boy finds it easy to hold onto the yarn and shakes them to his heart content. If you don't have a seamstress in your family, go to a local fabric store and ask them if they will save you empty spools. Or, if you don't have the patience, purchase cheap spools of thread and take the thread off. You'll be amazed at how your little one enjoys this simple, cheap toy.

Extra Moisturizing Lotion

Winter is coming before we know it. If you're like me, your skin gets really dry in the winter. My grandmother came up with a concoction of good, moisturizing lotion that is cheap to make. You can get all of these at your local dollar store for $1 each. Get a jar of cheap petroleum jelly, a cheap bottle of baby lotion (you can get the white, unscented kind or the regular pink kind) and vitamin E cream. Mix it all together and put it in a container with a lid. This lotion soaks in well and makes your skin feel good. Give it a try. Make a bunch, put it in pretty containers and give as gifts.

Update Your House Door Knobs and Pulls

Lots of the newer houses on the market have nickel colored door knobs and cabinet pulls. Want to look more modern without buying everything new? Why not spray paint your knobs and pulls? Go to your local home improvement store, such as Lowe's or Home Depot, and get a good quality nickel (or whatever color) spray paint. Remove the door knobs and/or pulls and spray them outside. After you finish you'll stand amazed at how little your updates cost you.

Make Your Own Baby Wipes

Baby wipes can get pretty expensive, so why not make your own? Here are helpful instructions: Cut a roll of paper towels in half. Add 2-1/4 cups water, 2 Tablespoons baby shampoo and 1 Tablespoon baby oil together and dip the paper towels in the solution. Store in an old empty baby wipe container or a Tupperware container. This is an easy way to save a bunch of money with ingredients you have right at your house. There are weeks when we can empty a box of wipes in nothing flat. Keep an eye out when paper towels are on sale and stock up to really save. It's quite possible to make these for about 75 cents.

A Good Use for Turkey

I know it's kinda early to be talking turkey, but I've been working on cleaning out my freezer and found some turkey in there from last year. You can only have turkey so many times before you start going crazy. So, I got creative for supper one night. I got the turkey that had already been cut off the bones and cut it in small pieces. Then I added it with Queso (I used Pace's 4 Cheese Queso), fajita seasoning and garlic powder. I stirred it all together, put it in a pan and topped it with shredded cheddar cheese and baked until the cheese melted. When it came out of the oven we put it in warmed tortillas for a quick, easy and cheap supper. It's another way to use turkey that is quite tasty!

Start Your Own Gift Closet

One easy way to save money is to always be on the look out for gifts throughout the year instead of rushing as Birthdays and Christmas get closer. I'm constantly checking the sale ads and sale areas in the stores where I shop. As I find good deals on something that I know someone on my list would like, I purchase it and put it in a closet I've designated just for gifts. It's also handy to stock up on things that are universal that would make easy, quick gifts in a pinch for a thank you gift, hostess gift, etc. It's a time savings and a cost savings!

Make Your Own Gift Bags

Purchasing gift bags can get quite expensive. I tend to use gift bags for birthday presents much more often than actually wrapping a present. It just saves time! I reuse all the paper gift bags that we get, but sometimes that's not even enough. So, I started making my own bags out of fabric. I've found fabric at garage sales and in remnant bins at fabric stores and Wal-mart all for a very cheap price. I've also been known to reuse a dress or skirt that had pretty material that I no longer would wear. You can easily cut two pieces of fabric whatever size you want and sew up the sides and bottom. You can use ribbon or yarn to tie up the top when ready to use. People who get the bags have a tendency to not throw them away and reuse them much more often than regular paper gift bags, so we're helping the environment too. Do a bunch at a time and you'll have enough to get you by for a year or so.

Freeze Eggs

Eggs are yet another thing that has gone up in price lately. The other day our local grocery store had them on sale for $1 a dozen. I stocked up, but knew there was no way I could use 13 dozen eggs before they went bad. So, I needed a plan. I got out my ice cube trays with lids and proceeded to whip the eggs together with a fork so the egg yolk and white were mixed together. I then poured the mixed eggs into the ice cube trays and put in the freezer. Two ice cubes ended up equaling one large egg. I only had a few ice trays so this took a few days to wait until the cubes froze completely. When they did freeze I would pop them out by running hot water on the bottom of the ice tray. I then put the cubes into freezer bags. To use the eggs I put however many I need into a container to thaw in the refrigerator. In a time pinch, I've also put them in a coffee mug placed in a bowl of very hot water to thaw. These are best used for cakes, muffins, breads, etc. Try it ... it's a real cost savings!

How to Stretch Your Dollar by Freezing Milk

The cost of milk has gone up considerably along with everything else. Periodically, the local grocery stores will put milk on sale for about $1 or more off per gallon. When this happens I stock up and freeze it. The best way to freeze milk is to pour about a cup out of each container. This is because when the milk freezes it expands somewhat, and this will prevent it from exploding in your freezer. Then put the cap back on and put in the freezer. The safest way to thaw the milk is to let it thaw completelty in the refrigerator. I usually need it a little quicker and leave it out on the cabinet for about an hour and put it back in the refrigerator an hour and continue until it's just about thawed. Make sure you shake the milk before serving. The savings add up quick.

Make Your Own Fabric Softener

Save money by making your own fabric softener. Here's a quick recipe: Mix together 1/2 cup glycerin, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 gallon water and essential oil (such as orange). You can store in an empty store-bought fabric softener bottle for easy measuring come laundry time. Just use a capful of the mixture to a load of laundry. Also, another alternative if you're unable to find essential oil is to mix to the whole mixture with approximately 2 capfuls of regular fabric softener to give the mixture a fragrance. I was getting annoyed with the regular blue fabric softener that had a tendency to leave marks on my clothing at times. This is a thinner mixture that goes through your laundry detergent area on your washing machine easier. Try this and let me know how it works for you.

Herb Potatoes Stretch Budget

Our grocery store puts the big 10 pound bags of potatoes on sale pretty often. It's very difficult for just my husband and I to eat 10 pounds before they go bad. Well, I tried something the other day and it worked quite well. I saved a few potatoes out of the bag for us to eat later, but got to working on the others. I washed them, peeled them and then put in my french fry cutter. Then I chopped them up a little bit smaller ... almost like hash browns. I put olive oil in my big skillet and put the potatoes on there and topped with Italian Herb seasoning. They took a little while to cook through. After cooking I let them cool down and put them in freezer bags to use on a busy night for supper. The first time I used them I added them to hamburger meat and added cheese and cooked in muffin tins. Boy, those were good. The 10 pound bag of potatoes made a considerable amount of Italian Herb flavored potatoes for very cheap!

Cheap Baby Toy

It always seems like the cheapest things we have around the house are the kid's favorite toys. It's no different for babies. This idea came from my sister who has two small children. When we had a baby shower for our little boy we received several trial kits with little bottles of Johnson's baby wash, shampoo, lotion, etc. We have used up all the baby wash bottles, and I saved them with the intent on letting my son play with them. I washed them thoroughly after they were emptied. Now he likes to play with the empty bottles. Take off the lids so there's no choking hazard. Best thing is ... they didn't cost me a dime ... just a little time to clean it real good. I don't understand the excitement of an empty bottle, but it must hold some magic to it.

Get Rid of Ants in the Kitchen

This year we have had lots and lots of ants of all kinds outside. In the past couple of weeks, the annoying ants have moved inside. Instead of buying expensive ant bait, I put two jar lids of vinegar out on the cabinet. But, I went a step forward. I tracked the ants to where it looked like they were coming in and stuffed a Clorox Disinfecting Wipe in the area. That's been four days ago, and I haven't seen an ant since. I did replace the old wipe with a new one yesterday and noticed the old wipe was covered with little black ants. Yeah! I won the fight for just pennies!

Pears Dancing Before My Eyes

This is the first year that we've actually had pears from our pear tree. Other years we've had hail or strong wind. I never knew how pears could stretch and stretch. With just one 5 gallon bucket I've made 7 pints of pear preserves (some with cinnamon), 10 cups of pear baby food and 2 trays of pear leather on my Ronco dehydrator. I'm so pleased with myself on the baby food. I cooked the pears down with, of course, no sugar added and stuck them in my Magic Bullet and voila out came the perfect consistency of baby pear food. I let them cool and put them in Tupperware containers to put in the freezer since it will be a few months before little Brooks is ready to eat them. I saved us quite a bit of money and now know where our food came from.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! I will be posting frugal ideas that I have used and continue to use. I'm a work at home mom to the cutest little 4 month old little boy that just yesterday rolled over for the first time! Yeah, Brooks! I was raised to be frugal and it has stayed with me. I'm even coming up with ideas on my own. Check back to learn ways to help save you money.