FREE FLIP FLOPS!

Need new flip flops? Then log onto the website for Red Cross, click on blood drives in your area and go get your own pair!

In all seriousness this is a wonderful way to give back to your community that cost nothing. In fact, my work place does two blood drives a year and we actually give blood on company time, get free pizza and usually some kind of goodie too! I enjoy seeing people I haven't seen in awhile and the morale of the group is usually through the roof. Everybody is super supportive, and we are especially supportive of the first time donors!

Like I said, go get some free flip flops, visit with a few friends or make some new ones.

Check it out at the Red Cross in your area!

Frugal and Fabulous Style - Hairstyle

One of the things we do in our family to reduce expenses is to visit a nearby hairstyling academy for haircuts. You can walk in anytime, no appointment needed. Just this past week my 16 year old had the full treatment, shampoo, cut, blow dry and style for the grand total of $ 15.00. That same treatment in a regular salon would have easily cost $ 60.00. We saved 75% and my daughter was treated to a great new style by a young and hip student.



Just remember to do your homework ahead of time if you plan to try a new hairstyle. Print out pictures or tear out magazine pages. The director of the academy checks each students work and touches up (teaches) the student hairstylist as they work on your hair. The students have already passed certain stages of their education to progress to actually working on a live subject. No one in our family has ever had a bad experience. Ever!



Here in North Carolina we have Mitchell's Styling Academy. Click here for locations.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza - YUM!

I was inspired to build this pizza by a friend and co-worker that made a Chicken Cordon Blue pizza the previous week. This was easy to do from pantry staples, and as I was making the pizza for my family I realized most of the items were free after using coupons. Even better.

What you need for the crust:

Flour, yeast, warm water and sugar

Simply follow the dough instructions on your yeast package, I did :-)

For extra convenience just use Pillsbury pizza dough in the tube.

For the topping:

your favorite alfredo sauce

precooked chicken ( I used canned, it was free )

bacon bits (free)

mozzarella cheese

Simply layer as listed, bake at 425 degrees until it is bubbly and golden.

We heated up leftover alfredo sauce and dipped our slices for extra yummyness!

Enjoy.

You can check this recipe and others out at Tasty Tuesday over at BeautyandBedlam.

Click here

Harris Teeter- SUPER DOUBLE COUPONS

One of the best ways to save money is to maximize the value of your coupons by doubling or tripling at point of purchase. Harris Teeter allows you to use up to 20 coupons a day and doubles coupons that have a value up to 1.98. Awesome. Try it!

Crepes

Crepes-Yummy!!!

My daughter's French class made these and of course we had to try them at home too! So easy and so very good. Very few ingredients.

1 cup flour

pinch of salt

1 1/4 cups of milk

2 eggs

2 Tbsp. melted butter

Combine ingredients. Refrigerate 1 hour. Mix well. Preheat non-stick pan over medium heat. Using a single Tbsp pour batter into pan and swirl. It will only take about 15-20 seconds for this thin layer to completely cook. Repeat, stacking them in a plate as you go.

What you see in the picture is four crepes with Nutella and thinly sliced bananas tucked inside. The topping is whipped topping, sliced banana, and little chocolate drizzle.

Yummy!

Tasty Tuesday

Fab Frugal Fun - Visit your State Park

This Sunday afternoon we took a fifteen minute drive to our local state park. We were grandly rewarded for our short trek. We hiked, we took pictures, we waded in the water, and we made plans for future visits! My daughter picked the trails, one of which landed us squarely on the beach as you see in our pictures above.

As you can see the views were great. On this particular day several families were out on the beach with coolers and picnic baskets. Lots of laughter, food and fun were being had all around us. This particular state park doesn't charge an entrance fee either. It has several picnic areas, camping areas, swimming areas, and an education center. They generally host events 2 to 4 times during the weekend. Usually a morning and an afternoon program that starts in the education center and ends with a hike.

I have a feeling we may be back soon to swim and if I am lucky talk my mom into providing us some fried chicken and potato salad for a picnic. Wish me luck :-)

Look for a park in your area here.

Fun Stuff - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

So-o-o-o our library is hosting several activities this week. One of the activities is the showing of the movie, "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs." The movie is based on the classic children's book. The kids will get to see the movie, get a fun movie related activity book and some treats.

One of the treats is this big platter of spaghetti and meatballs I just finished making or really baking. It is really a platter full of cupcakes with vanilla icing, strawberry jam and the meatballs are Ferrero Rocher chocolate. YUM! I was lucky enough to run across this idea in Woman's Day magazine well before the movie was ever released and this was the perfect excuse to try it out. It was super easy.

You will need the following items:

1. 
   
   Cake mix of your choice


2. 
   
   Two containers of vanilla icing


3. 
   
   One jar of strawberry jam


4. 
   
   One package of Ferrero Rocher


5. 
   
   One zip lock bag or use piping bag if you own one

Follow package directions to bake cupcakes. Open one container of icing and smooth over cupcakes. Place cupcakes on a platter. Open second container of icing and place in Ziploc bag. Snip corner of bag and go crazy piping strings over the platter full of cupcakes. You want it to look like a mound of real pasta so have fun. Next you will slightly warm strawberry jam in microwave, remove the lid please. Place a small amount in a bowl, drizzle the remaining jam over the platter of cupcakes to look like marinara sauce. Take the Ferrero Rocher, unwrap and coat in the jam you had set aside. Place the coated Ferrero Rocher on top of the cupcakes to resemble meatballs. It looks fantastic, taste yummy and kids of all ages will get a kick out of it.

This idea could work well for a classroom party paired with a book reading. It would also work well for a child's birthday party. It is also a simple baking activity for the beginning baker. With summer approaching it would make a neat theme for a sleepover too!

Enjoy!

Check this out over at Beauty and Bedlam. Click here.

Cheesecake - Food Processor Style

So what is a girl to do when her mom hands her a pound of cream cheese that is getting ready to expire? Then you go to the grocery store and there store brand cream cheese is marked down to 50 cents per half pound. Well if the girl is me, you spend a dollar so you can pick up another pound of cream cheese and you run home and drag out the food processor!!!

This is the simplest recipe ever, and you only have to clean up the food processor. That's right, only one thing to clean up. Well, the pan the cheesecake is cooked in will need cleaning but that is much more fun to clean up :-)

Crust

16 graham crackers

6 Tbsp. butter or margarine softened

1/2 cup sugar

Drop graham crackers into food processor and pulse until crackers are finely crushed. Add sugar and cubed softened margarine and pulse again 6-8 times. Dump into 9 or 10" spring form pan, pat and press firmly into pan.

Filling

4 - 8 oz. packages of cream cheese

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 whole large eggs

1 Tbsp. vanilla

Cube softened cream cheese and drop into food processor with sugar. Pulse until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla and mix completely. Pour mixture into spring form pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Leave cheesecake in oven with door cracked and oven off for another 30 minutes.

Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight. THEN EAT.

You may notice a little nibble missing from the end of my slice :-)

Also, don't be afraid to substitute ingredients. For example we were short on graham crackers so I substituted animal crackers for about half the mixture. Worked beautifully.

PS- Total price for this lovely cheesecake? Less than $ 4.00. I may make a second and freeze individual slices for those late night cravings. Yum!

Fab Frugal Fun - Movie Night

So it's Saturday evening and my family is doing the movie thing on the cheap. We picked up the critically acclaimed movie "Avatar" from our local library. Another quick stop at the local Dollar tree store provided the necessary movie snacks, popcorn and soda. For some reason no movie is complete without the popcorn at my house.

We don't have to worry about where to sit, we already have the best seats in the house. We don't have to worry about missing any scenes while running to the bathroom, we just pause the DVD player as needed. We can also watch the movie as many times as we want because the library DVDs check out for 7 days at a time. Of course we aren't that greedy, we will return the DVD on Monday to continue the circulation.

So a night at the movie theater would have cost us $ 30.oo just for tickets and another $ 20.00 just for one bucket of popcorn and 4 soda's. Since we went the frugal route we only spent $ 1.oo on a 3 pack of microwave popcorn and a $ 1.00 for 3 liter soda. Only $ 2.oo!! Now that's a real frugal deal for a family of four.

Harris Teeter Triple Coupons!

Taking advantage of Harris Teeter's Triple Coupons days is just one of the ways I have reduced the cost of our weekly grocery bill. We currently spend $ 300.00 a month for four people. That amount also includes our paper products and cleaning products. That is 3 meals a day for all of us with the one exception being hubby who gets one free meal a day at work. We also go out for lunch after church on Sundays.

We have a variety of fresh fruits, meats and vegetables. The key is shopping smart and learning some kitchen basics! So get your coupons out and start clipping.

Free Stuff - Magazines

One of the first things to go from the budget when I was transitioning from full-time work to my part-time job was magazine purchases and subscriptions. I am an avid reader of all things. Magazines, books, papers, blogs, you name it! Most anything with the written word intrigues me. Lucky for me, while picking out some library books one day, think "Tightwad Gazette", I discovered our local library has a free magazine swap table. Awesome! I couldn't believe it!

Here is the way it works: patrons are allowed to drop off magazines and books for donation anytime the library is open. The books are sorted for cataloging or for the annual book sale to raise money for the library. The magazines address labels are removed and placed on a free swap table. Patrons can pick out whatever they want to take home. Returning or reciprocating is encouraged but not mandatory.

I was really surprised how many brand new magazines, ones that were still selling on newstands, were showing up on the free table. It is a great way to save money and it is a superb way to reduce waste going into our land fills. If your local library doesn't have something like this, just stop by and talk to staff. They may just start a table! Good luck!

Thrifty Threads

Up above you see my six year old posing for a quick picture just before heading off to church Sunday morning. I thought this might be a perfect introduction on how I have reduced our clothing budget substantially since my job change.

My mother and I, along with a few of my frugal friends, almost exclusively build our wardrobes from thrifting. We tend to shop our Salvation Army the most frequently, but there are several others we visit too. Even on vacation we tend to take at least a few hours to check out the thrift stores in the area. When we visited Orlando, we couldn't believe the size of their Salvation Army. It was like walking onto a football field of savings. The lesson there was to leave a little room in the suitcase when leaving on vacation. :-)

The dress she is wearing was purchased last year for $ 1.99. The little white shirt with the peter pan collar has been worn two years under jumpers and as a school uniform shirt. It was only $ 1.00. The pink bow was less than a dollar and the shoes were a gift. The dress and shirt are both boutique brands that would easily put this ensemble over $50.00 if purchased in a retail store. I spent less than $ 4.00, that is a 90% savings!! She by far is the easiest to purchase clothing for, especially special occasion clothing. I have a heirloom quality dress I will share with you later when we get chance to do some beach pics.

Please consider checking out the Salvation Army in your area. It might take a visit or two to get the hang of it, but in the long run you can acquire some quality clothing and keep more of your hard earned money in your own pocket. To find a Salvation Army in your area click here.

Swiss Cake Roll Trifle

This is a beautiful thing!! At least my family thinks so.....

This is adapted from a magazine recipe I ran across in 2007. It is a quick and inexpensive recipe. My girls love making and devouring this trifle.

This is what you will need:

A package of swiss cake rolls

2 3/4 cup of milk

2 small packages of your favorite chocolate pudding

container of whipped topping

Slice each cake roll into 8 slices. Line the bottom and sides of your bowl or trifle dish with the slices. Mix together pudding mix and milk. Pour pudding into trifle dish. Cover pudding layer with whipped topping. Garnish with any remaining cake slices and chocolate that may have fell off your cake rolls when slicing.  

Refrigerate 2-4 hours then dig in :-)

All the ingredients for this can be picked up at my local Dollartree for $ 4.00. Inexpensive and pretty enough to serve to company.

Check our more recipes on Tasty Tuesday at Beauty and Bedlam. Click Here.

Simple Pleasures

Flowers are one of those very simple pleasures in life. This beautiful single rose was retrieved from the ugliest, scrappiest looking rose bush on our property. Every year it yields only 2 to 3 gorgeous blooms. It is such a simple thing that makes me smile just walking by. It reminds me of my Dad and how he used to randomly bring my Mom fresh flowers handpicked by him. It reminds me of how he also handpicked me a beautiful bouquet of lavender roses and brought them to me at the hospital when I had my first baby. So much cooler than the ones you'd buy from a florist. It also makes me giggle because one year he picked the very first bloom from a plant in my current yard and took it to my Mom, thinking that no one would notice. Unbeknownst to him, I had noticed that morning and taken a picture of it. When I came home from work that day, it was gone. Knowing my family, I figured it could have only been one man's handiwork. After calling Mom, my suspicions were confirmed.

Just this afternoon my family spent a little time planting all kinds of flower seeds on our back patio. I can hardly wait to see the flurry of color and blooms. I can hardly wait to hear my youngest beg to start picking the blooms. It will brighten our days and create memories. All from a simple packet of seeds. No doubt about it they will brighten your life up, make you smile or at the very least perfume a room.

Fab Frugal Fun - Free National Park Week

National parks are a gift to the public. We regularly visit a State Park near our home to hike, picnic and attend educational programs. Parks provide great opportunities to learn and experience new things for free or next to free. I was glad to hear about this week and will planning my families next weekend around it!

Click here to find a park near you.

Fab Frugal Fun

One of the things you learn when cutting back is lots of ways to have fun for no cost or low cost. This past weekend we capitalized on two nearby functions. The first one was a Music and Arts celebration we stumbled upon while walking along our town's waterfront boardwalk. My oldest daughter was at a friend's house for a sleepover so I took my youngest to the library, then for a stroll on the waterfront. She loves checking out the water, waves, people and boats. So, starting on Saturday morning here is what we did:

• We stopped in the library for two books and two movies. Membership is free and so were the movies. Zero dollars spent.
• After the library visit we headed over to the waterfront for a stroll down the boardwalk and then headed back down Main street. While walking we were treated to live musical performances. In addition, we also visited with a few artist and saw some of their works displayed too! No money was spent, we enjoyed lots of fresh air and exercise, plus we made some new friends along the way.
• The next day after church my hubby wanted to hit a few balls at the driving range so we girls, including my mother, headed to a nearby Governor's Palace that was hosting a free garden weekend. We visited the gardens, took lots of photos, played lawn bowling the "Colonial" way, and listened to music on the front lawn of a beautiful historic home. Hubby's driving range cost was $ 2.00. Our cost was zero dollars again :-)
• Lastly, feeling a little warm from our garden exploration, we stopped in at the local "Sonic" for frozen fruit slushies. Yum! It was happy hour so all drinks were half price and Mom treated. Zero dollars for us, and she only spent $ 3.51 for four slushies.

All in all, we did a variety of things for under $ 6.00, maybe $ 10.00 if you consider gas used on Sunday and were very entertained. We enjoyed books, movies, music, art, architecture, landscaping, exercise, and quality family time.

My point is, check out your local resources. Your local Chamber of Commerce's website, the bulletin board at your library, your local cable channel, and newspaper are great resources for finding out what's happening near you.

Tuna Pasta Salad! Perfect for Spring and Summer, light on the Wallet.

Tuna Pasta Salad

• 
  
  1/2 box of 16 oz macaroni (or 8 oz of some kind of pasta)


• 
  
  1 can of tuna, drain it and flake it


• 
  1 large carrot, peel and grate it


• 
  1/4 cup of chopped onion


• 
  3/4 cup mayo


• 
  1/4 cup milk


• 
  
  
  1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice



• 1 tablespoon of your favorite seasoning, we used "No Salt" but lemon pepper would also be a great option too
  
• 
  
  1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper


• Cook the pasta and drain. In a large bowl combine pasta, tuna, carrot, and onion. Then combine the mayo, milk, lemon juice or vinegar, seasoning, salt and pepper in a seperate container. Whisk together until smooth. Pour over the pasta mixture and mix everything together. Cover it and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Then, enjoy

This is one of those go t0 recipes that make the best of items you have in the pantry. We adjusted a recipe located in an old "Taste of Home" magazine picked up from the free table at our local Library.

Feel free to substitute or add in your favorite veggies. I would have loved some roasted red pepper and green onions but I only had regular yellow onion on hand that day and my daughter is adverse to bell peppers. This is very cost effective, especially if you are someone who uses coupons. We hardly ever pay for pasta with all the coupons available for super double day or triple coupon day at our local Harris Teeter. I always stock up on tuna when it is on sale because we are big fans and it is a quick item to create subs and salads.

We pack this salad for lunch alot during warmer weather. Please adapt for your taste and family. Enjoy!

This post is a part of Tasty Tuesday over at Beauty and Bedlam! Click here to go there.

Packing Lunch Bento Style

As I mentioned in an earlier post one of the things I did to reduce spending was to start packing lunch for myself and my two daughters. My hubby is very fortunate and his job allows him one meal a day for free! Yay!

Below I will show you an example of lunch packed for a 6 year old and a 15 year old. My 6 year old has been using the same one dollar Disney princess container for two years and the 15 year old is using a piece I picked up from Salvation Army for a quarter.

If you have been in a lunch room lately you will notice alot of wasted food going uneaten in lunch boxes or even worse, going directly into a garbage pail. So taking a standard sandwich container divided into four sections works perfectly for Faith. We have a mini heart-shaped peanut butter sandwich in one corner, classic goldfish crackers in the upper right corner, fresh strawberries and carrot sticks in the remaining corners. A pretty balanced lunch that gives her variety without her feeling stuffed.

Now let's take a look at Nicole's lunch that day, which happened to mirror mine too. Her container is divided to hold a typical sandwich on the right and a side item on the left. What we ended up with was an Asian chicken salad on the right, with crispy romaine lettuce, radish and vegan chicken strips on top. On the left she has a mini chocolate chip muffin, a few dried kiwi slices, a little cheese and some crunchy topping for her salad. Her dressing was on the side to insure she didn't end up with Asian kiwi slices :-) after a journey in her backpack. All of the food also came from previous meals. Again, a nicely balanced meal.

My family loves Asian style food and our packing technique is somewhat "Bento" style. Something my teenager ran across during her many hours on the web. I could personally spend hours just looking at the images of true "Bento" lunches. Our packing technique is very simple and could be done by anyone with items in your own home. I estimate packing our three lunches saves us ten dollars a day and can be packed quickly while cleaning up after dinner. My daughters tell me they get tons of jealous tablemates at lunchtime.

Making the Transition- Part 3

As I transitioned out of my old design job and into my new clerking job with the library it was necessary to make some changes in my families spending habits. This is some of the things we did right away.

• cut out my commuter coffee


• packed lunch for myself and my daughters


• limited our family restaurant trips to once a week


• eliminated all dry cleaning (even my husband is ironing now)


• eliminated magazine subscriptions or renewals


• eliminated book purchases (love books like others love chocolate)


• gradually switched our lighting from standard to CFL bulbs


• switched from paper towels/napkins to cloth

Things we already practiced even before my job transition:

• we had a small patio garden with veggies and flowers


• we had installed a clothesline to cut down on dryer usage


• thrift shopped regularly

Fortunately, growing up on a farm, I was already a little inclined to thrift anyway. Designers are obviously creative and I have always enjoyed fixing things up, finding new uses for old things, etc. I already shopped yard sales, thrift stores, and clearance sales regularly. With my new low, low income I just made sure I pretty much only shopped thrift.

This transition took place over an almost 6 month period and my family didn't go in shock and neither did I. As time passed we have refined and trimmed here and there. In future post I plan on sharing with you some tips and photos of how we make it all work.

Making the Transition- Part 2

So as previously mentioned, I began the hunt for a part-time job while working my full-time job. It began simply by thinking about what I enjoyed doing when I had free time. That led me to look for positions in two distinctly different fields, health clubs and libraries. In my twenties and thirties I was a certified aerobic instructor and loved it. I was in no shape to teach but I figured with my previous connections I might just score a position at the front desk or customer service. Additionally I was born and raised a book geek. My parents both read to me growing up and we always attended summer reading programs at our local library. I kept a stack of books by my bed just for vacation......It had gotten to the point that I didn't have time to read otherwise.

As luck would have it, after filling out a few applications, I landed a part-time position with a local library working 12-18 hours per week within a few weeks of looking. Even though I had no experience my customer service skills and passion for books were easily recognized. To make sure the job was a fit I worked both jobs for several months. Transitioning out of my full-time job slowly and reducing my design client base while increasing my hours at the library. I was lucky because the library job was only 9 blocks from home and I started out working evenings to train.

My employer of 18 years hated to see me go but understood the my reasons. I finished my design jobs and worked with another designer to take over the ones that I couldn't over several months. Still reducing my hours but working with the library simultaneously. So I guess you could say it got a little more busy and complicated before it got a lot better.

Soon, I would have more time to spend with my family. I would also have more time to spend with my mom. She obviously was dealing with her own transition from wife to widow. From business partner to sole proprietor of a large farm. The the man who had just left us all so quickly, so unexpectedly had proposed to my mom when she was only four and he only six. That another, very special story for another day.........

For my next post I will talk to you about other transitions my family made during the time period.

Making the Transition- Part 1

As promised I will share my story about the transition from full-time career to a part-time job I love.




Clarity struck for both my husband and I once my dad had passed. Time with family became much more precious. Prior to his passing my father and I had many long talks about my cutting back on work. He and my mother both worried I was burning the candle at both ends. They knew my desire to cut back and encouraged me to do so.


One of the main reasons for his encouragement was that my second daughter, Faith, was born with two heart defects and had chronic ear infections. She rarely slept through the night. Sometimes waking 3-5 times a night, and yes she was a breastfed baby. I usually was away from the house working until 6:00 p.m.or 7:00 p.m. in the evening. Once home, it was cook supper, get baths, finish up homework, the usual family routine with my husband and kids. After kids went to bed I was on the computer until 12:00 a.m., sometimes 1:00 a.m. in the morning designing, prepping bids then up again at 6:00 am to start over. You do the math. Not a lot of sleep. In addition, my husband was diagnosed with a sleep disorder during this period. So it was up to me.....I would often sleep upright on pillows in the den with her to help with the ear pressure and so my other daughter could sleep without disturbance.



So with my fathers past words of encouragement echoing in my mind I started looking for a local, part-time position in a field that would be interesting, fulfilling and at least cover the cost of groceries.

To be continued.........

Hello!

Hello blog world :-) This is something I have considered doing for a long time. Today I have decided to just do it! Delve into blogging that is....


My name is Anne. I am wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, part-time city employee and now a new blogger. My reason for blogging is simple. Three years ago I took a huge leap and changed careers after 20 years in the design industry. Yep! I went from a crazy 50-60 hour a week job, with a 25 mile commute one way to a 20 hour a week job with a 9 block commute! It allows me to take my kids to and from school and extracurricular activities, spend unhurried evenings at home with my family, prepare 90 percent of our food, garden, read. I have real quality time with the people I love the most.


In all honesty my husband and I had danced around the decision of part-time versus full-time work since the moment we found out I was pregnant with our daughter. It wasn't until the day my father died quickly and unexpectedly from cardiac arrest that either one of us had the guts to just do it! From that moment on our lives were changed swiftly and irrevocably. The wheels were set in motion and I found myself looking for a part-time job and giving notice at my design job within a few weeks of my father's passing.


In future post I plan to tell you more about how I went about making the transition and hope that it may help someone else make the leap to a simpler lifestyle.