I didn't realize Canadagirl was not hosting a Tightwad Tuesday today, but I'll go ahead with what I had planned to share anyway.

Did you know that today is EARTH DAY?  What does that have to do with saving money you ask?  It's simple ... recycle and reuse!

It's amazing at the countless ways you can cut co$t$ by using things around your home in different ways.

** Tuna cans - These can become a biscuit cutter, a small cat food bowl, or an outdoor bird feeder.

** Glass jars from mayo, jelly, etc. - These are great for storing dried herbs, dried beans, popcorn, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, etc.  They are also great for catching butterflies, grasshoppers, and a variety of other outdoor creatures so you can study them (be sure to poke holes in the lids!).

** Small plastic containers like sour cream and yogurt containers - These can be used to scoop cat or dog food at meal time, holding water or paint for little artists, storing leftovers, etc.

** Half-gallon milk cartons - Turn these into outdoor bird feeders or fill them with soil and use them for starting seeds indoors.

** Toothbrushes - Use these for pretreating laundry stains or as an alternative paintbrush.

These are just a few ideas ... I bet you can think of many, many more! 

Join Mary for Tightwad Tuesday!

One thing I do to help keep our electric bill down is hang as much laundry as possible to dry rather than use the dryer.  We can have an outdoor clothesline where we live, but we have chosen not to for a couple of reasons ... pollen and fires (wildfires are not uncommon throughout the year plus we have a neighbor that is burn happy - I don't need clothes full of smoke).  I know some people may live in a deed restricted community (homeowner's association) with rules that prohibit any type of outdoor clothesline or even hanging things to dry out on a porch or deck area (been there, done that, don't care to live in one again).  I have a garment rack that I hang clothing on to dry inside the house plus I utilize our showers by hanging items there (we have shower doors so I slide one open and use that space).  The only things I put in the dryer are bedding, towels, and hubby's work uniforms.  It has made a tremendous difference in our electric bills over the years plus it cuts down on wear and tear on clothing.

One of the handiest things I've done for years is to carry a calculator in my purse at all times.  It's great for keeping a running total of items I'm purchasing when paying with cash (or whatever method of payment you choose).  It's also helpful at places like Sam's where one price tag might state the price per ounce and a similar item might state the price per unit - a calculator on hand can easily help you determine  which is the better deal per ounce.

Visit Mary to participate or view more Tightwad Tuesday entries.

It's time for another edition of Tightwad Tuesday with Canadagirl!

Grocery prices are escalating so keeping costs down is harder than ever.  One way I save money is by substituting items whenever possible.  Some examples ... when making mashed potatoes I use some of the water the potatoes were boiled in in place of the milk (organic milk just went up another 30 cents per half gallon a couple of weeks ago), when making homemade mac and cheese I use organic sharp Cheddar cheese instead of organic mild Cheddar (the sharp packs a more powerful taste punch so I can get away with using just 4oz. of it vs. 8oz. of mild), and when baking I use organic ground flaxseed meal instead of eggs (it can also be used to replace some of the fat in recipes - check out the substitution formulas here).  There is no taste difference when making these simple subsitutions - just money savings! 

Join in the Tightwad Tuesday fun with Canadagirl!

Junk mail ... no matter how many times you try to unsubscribe yourself, it keeps showing up in your mailbox!  We use all the blank areas from junk mail that we can (and open up the return envelopes at the seams to use those as well).  Some of the uses for junk mail.......

* Games - Hangman, Tic Tac Toe, etc. are popular games at my house.

* Lists - Grocery shopping lists, library book lists (lists of things to search for or to check out), to-do lists, etc.

* Recipes - I enjoy checking out cookbooks and magazines from the library.  I jot down recipes on slips of junk mail and give them a trial run before putting them on something permanent to add to my "homemade" cookbook.

* Scratch paper - We use junk mail for additional room to work out math problems, etc.

* Art projects - Tear it, punched shapes, drawing, doodling, coloring/scribbling for the little ones, etc.

Visit Canadagirl to find more Tightwad Tuesday blog entries!

With costs of everything ever-rising and the current poor state of the economy, we're having to watch every penny carefully in our one-income household.  My oldest loves "collections" ... here are a few things he collects that are on the inexpensive side.......

* Postcards - This is a new one for us.  I got this started in hopes it would come in handy with our 50 states study we'll be doing this coming school year.  I did a search for homeschool postcard exchange groups at Yahoo Groups, but there is also a new postcard exchange group over at The Homeschool Lounge.

* Pressed Pennies - Pressed penny machine locations for the USA and countries around the world can be found here.

* Postage stamps - Did you know you can find just about any subject you want to study or are interested in on a stamp?  It should be no surprise that my oldest collects stamps that feature tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs, etc., but he also collects stamps pertaining to space, rocks/minerals/gemstones, Olympics, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, socked on the nose. Christmas, dinosaurs, and so many more I couldn't even begin to name them all.  It's easy to get started - just save the stamps that come on mail into your own home and ask friends and family to save theirs as well.  Some tips to get you started can be found here.  It's also fun to attend stamp shows.  A listing of shows can be found here (although I don't think this is a true complete listing). 

* Coins - Coin shows can also be quite interesting.  A listing can be found here. 

* Rocks/minerals/gemstones - Small, inexpensive pieces can generally be found in museum gift shops or other specialty stores.

Visit Canadagirl for more Tightwad Tuesday entries!

My Tightwad Tuesday tip this week is to use less when you can.  What do I mean exactly?  Well, experiment with your recipes and see what ingredients you can use less of without affecting the finished product. 

For example, I have found that in the cornbread recipes I make I can use 1 T. less melted butter than the recipes call for.  That may not seem like much of a savings, but it adds up over time.  I can generally get 1lb. of organic butter for $3.50 (on sale and with a coupon).  (I stock up during sales and keep the butter in the freezer.)  Since we don't pay sales tax on grocery items in Florida, that comes out to roughly 88 cents per stick or 11 cents per tablespoon - so, 11 cents saved every time I make cornbread. 

Another example is the shrimp patties I make.  The recipe calls for 1lb. of shrimp, but I have found that 12oz. works just as well with no taste difference.  If shrimp costs $4.99/lb. for example, that's roughly 31 cents per oz.  Using 4oz. less than the recipe calls for results in a savings of $1.24 when making this dish.

Give it a try and watch those pennies add up! 

Join the Tightwad Tuesday fun!  Visit Canadagirl for details and a list of participants.

A handy website for our family the last few years has been Local Harvest.  Gardening in this part of FL is difficult at best.  Between the soil, heat, and various other factors, it can prove to be a monumental task.  We do enjoy trying our hand at growing a few things, but most of the time we have little success.  Local Harvest allowed us to find a few organic farms nearby where we can purchase locally grown fruits, veggies, grass-fed meats, and so on.  Local Harvest offers listings for farms (conventional, naturally grown, and organic), CSA's, farmer's markets, apiaries, etc.  It's not only a great resource to help your family spend less $ for the food you eat while supporting local growers, but many of the farms listed also offer tours (field trip!).  We visited one such organic farm on a trip to Georgia and had a great time on the tour talking with one of the owners.

You can also sign up to receive an email from Local Harvest each week.  This email will give you information as to any listings within a specific mile radius (that you specify) that have been added or updated/changed within the past week.

A special thanks goes to Mary for hosting Tightwad Tuesday!

My Tightwad Tuesday tip is to set aside a specific  amount of money every paycheck (or every other paycheck, as I personally do) toward clothing and shoe expenses.  I do this as part of our freedom account.  Our state usually offers a week of tax free back to school shopping each year when clothing, shoes, etc. that cost $50 or less per item are tax free.  Most stores run good sales during this time which adds to the savings.  It's always nice to be able to buy what we need for our growing boys outright (in other words, we can pay for it then and there - no charge cards!).  However, it's great to have this as a "running account" of sorts throughout the entire year.  You never know when you will happen upon a good sale.  For example, I had to run an errand that took me to Toys R Us this past Sunday.  I had no idea that they were offering an additional 50% off clearance clothing and shoes in the Babies R Us section of the store.  I was able to pick up a couple of pairs of shoes (Reebok and Skechers), a pair of pants, and a couple of shirts that ds2 will be able to use in the future for a fantastic price.  Reg. price for everything would have been $70 - I paid $24.  That may still seem like a lot to some, but it's not much more than most of the thrift stores around here would have charged (yes, they can be pricey here) for used items.

Happy Tightwad Tuesday!

We went on a family outing this past Saturday and I convinced hubby to let ds1 and me stop by a thrift store on the way.  Look what we found .......

Regular visitors to my blog know that ds1 is crazy about big cats (this child has big cats on the brain all day long!) and dreams of working with these awesome creatures when he "grows up."  We found the two puzzles in the middle first, then I spotted the Robert Lyn Nelson puzzle at top.  I had to get it as a surprise for hubby.  Some of you know that hubby and I lived on Maui before moving to Florida.  Robert Lyn Nelson is an amazing artist and was actually one of hubby's customers while we lived there.  I thought the puzzle would be a fun family treat, but would also have extra special meaning to hubby and me. 

We then moved on to the books and found The Tiger Rising (which ds1 has wanted for some time) and Spotting the Leopard.  Talk about a thrilled boy ... I definitely had one on my hands!  It was definitely a blessing of being in the right place at the right time.  All these treasures resulted in $2.50 spent. 

We stopped by a garage sale yesterday morning and found these treasures.......

Two hardcover books - A Charlie Brown Christmas and Once Upon a Christmas

4 red and gold placemats

4 green and gold placemats

Grand total - $.45

Ds1 is a huge Peanuts fan so he is especially thrilled with a new book to add to his collection.

I love to go to yard sales and thrift stores, but have been going less and less.  I went this morning to purchase a tag for one of our vehicles and on the way home spotted a sign for a yard sale nearby.  I figured since our school morning was already messed up that we may as well take a peek to see if we could find any treasures.  Look what we got.......

The three big cat heads are wall hangings made by Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company.  My big cat fanatic, ds1, spotted them before I could even get parked.  By the time I got his door open, his eyes were as big as saucers and were rivaling the stars on twinkling.  I knew I had to get them for his bedroom, provided they weren't priced too outrageously. 

Some clothing items for my ds2.  The red pants are from The Children's Place and still have the price tag.  Overall, I spent $12 for everything.  The asking price for the three big cat wall hangings was $12 so I think I did okay - I have one very happy ds1!

I'm just finishing up Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life  by Barbara Kingsolver (fantastic read, by the way!).  It has the rusty wheels in my clogged brain spinning again, working to figure out what my family can do to make smarter choices again.

To start, ds1 and I are attempting to garden again.  Our growing seasons are fall, winter, and spring here.  We've been blessed to get a good many bakery buckets for free and have been using those for our current modest gardening efforts.  Obviously the more of our own food that we grow, the better (not to mention it's educational and fun to boot!).  I'm about to have to put a stop to the free bakery bucket flow, however.  The bakery has been extremely generous in just giving us the buckets (most around here reuse the buckets for other purposes so it took a while for us to locate a source), but they don't rinse/wash them out for us.  Some that come our way aren't too bad to clean up, yet others are a complete mess.  The buckets are only available on Mondays and dh picks them up on his way home from work.  With him rolling in about 6pm or so, ds1 and I are off in a mad rush to get them cleaned out and washed before the mosquitos start attacking and darkness sets in.  With daylight saving time coming to an end at the beginning of November, I'm going to have to put a stop to the flow of free buckets after two more Mondays.  I'm not going to subject ds1 and myself to being dive bombed by the mosquitos while cleaning up the buckets in the dark.  They are far too messy to bring in the house and clean out in our bathtub (and with dh working in the plumbing industry, he'd never allow it anyway).  Hopefully we can set up something with this particular bakery to start getting the buckets again in the spring when daylight saving time begins again.

My next search has been for local organic farms, or at least those that use organic practices but aren't necessarily certified due to the high cost.  Farms are far and few between around here.  I've read before that "local" is considered anything within 100 miles.  To me, that just seems like an enormous distance to be "local."  Think about it - if I located a farm 100 miles away and make a trip there, that's a 200 mile roundtrip for me.  With gas prices so high, that's just not doable on our overly tight budget right now.  Plus, when you factor in the limited availability most of the farms I've found have, it's really not worth it.   One farm we've done business with for a few years.  They, however, are moving away from growing their own fruits and veggies and instead are buying from a source across the state (who buys from other parts of the country) and having them trucked in.  There's nothing "local" about the process.  One of the farm owners has ventured into other environmental efforts that he feels passionate about and the farm has been put on the backburner.  They do offer grassfed organic beef though (from their farm) so that's been a plus for us.  They also have a little store of sorts that has been beneficial to us, carrying some items that we cannot get at our local health food store and beating the health food store's price on other items.  We are also hoping to do some bulk buying through the farm.  The second farm I located is also certified organic, but we've never been able to catch it open (it's near the previous farm I mentioned so we just stop by both when we're in the area).  I was able to finally get in touch with one of the owners this week and it turns out that the farm caters mostly to "local clubs" in the city and whatever is left over is available to the public (and not much is left over, if anything).  Their advertisement certainly doesn't come across as such, so this was a huge disappointment for us.  The third farm we've done business with a bit during the last year.  They use organic methods, but are certified naturally grown (a less expensive certification than organic).  We had hoped to do a good deal of buying from them over the coming months, but I'm not quite sure what's going on with this farm either.  They advertised being open mid-October, but one of the owners this week stated it would be mid-December (maybe) before they are open and even then there is going to be little available (they sell to stores in a nearby city).  All this has put a big dent in my hopes and plans. 

I'm also trying to make better choices when I shop stores now.  A bogof sale started yesterday at the store we mainly shop.  The boys and I made a quick trip (at dh's urging) and I'm glad we did.  The store was packed with others doing the same thing - stocking up on the bargains.  The store does not issue any rain checks on bogof sales so whatever you are fortunate enough to find in the store is as good as it gets.  We came home with ...

* 30lbs. of a variety of Bionaturae pastas (semolina spaghetti, fusilli, and chiocciole and whole wheat spaghetti and fusilli)

* 8 Crofter's jellies and fruit spreads (grape, strawberry, raspberry)

* 14 bags Cascadian Farm spud puppies (tater tots)

* Late July  products - 8 boxes saltines, 4 boxes classic rich, and 4 boxes bite size cheddar cheese

* 12 Stonyfield 6oz. yogurts (not our usual brand, but the 2 that have been consumed thusfar got a thumbs up)

Sure, I could make my own pasta, jelly, saltines, and yogurt, but you know what ... those aren't areas I'm ready to venture into right now.  The cheese crackers, however, I will be making myself (or some version thereof).  The classic rich we use for one particular recipe that dh makes so buying cheap is probably the wisest thing to do budgetwise for us.  Tater tots ... hmmmmmmm.  Can you make those homemade?  I'm sure there's some sort of process (and honestly I haven't searched online to try to find anything), but just thinking about it seems like it might be a tedious process and not something I have the time to venture into right now either.

So, just a bit of rambling from me today thinking everything through and trying to figure out the best way to make the dollars stretch while trying to be kind to the environment at the same time.

I'm pleased to say that we've had some money-saving blessings happen over the past week.

Last week I mentioned that my dh had taken a few extra on-call days for a co-worker that wasn't feeling well and this was allowing dh to drive his work vehicle to work and home, thus saving us money on gas for dh's personal vehicle.  Dh extended the time he took his co-worker's on-call through the weekend and then was allowed to bring his work truck home again Monday because he'd been working on getting it set up for maximum working efficiency (tool and parts storage and such).  That gave us four extra days of dh not driving his personal vehicle. 

Last night we had to get dog food and blessedly found that not only did the store have the brand we use on sale for $3 off per bag, but the bags had an extra 10% in them (so a 40lb. bag had 44lbs. instead).  Hooray!  On top of that, one of the employees that is always good about giving dh sample bags of food (same food we feed our dogs anyway) was on duty and gave us 24 individual servings for free.  That doesn't stretch far between three dogs that eat twice a day, but every bit makes our dollars go further. 

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