Frugal living is all about making the most with what you already have. Here are 11 tips from Penny Pinching Mama to help you get started:

1. Barter for services when possible. For example, we exchanged lawn mower repair from our neighbor for a table (garage sale find) that he was looking for.

2. Learn to fix things for yourself. These days, with the Internet making information so easily available, you can fix most things yourself. We do 95% of the repairs around our house and we aren’t that handy. We just keep looking for the information about how to do it and keep working until we get it fixed!

3. Stop eating out. I know you hear it all the time but STOP!!! The “average” family spends $300-$500 a month just eating out! Eating out truly is one of the biggest causes of debt! I am always amazed how someone can be “totally broke” and can’t pay their bills but are still able to go to the drive-thru of their favorite restaurant.

4. Study nutrition information and find out what you need to eat to have a healthy and balanced diet. Then stop eating the junk and eat healthy inexpensive meals at home. We have a lot of menu ideas here at LivingOnADime.com that can help you get started.

5. If something breaks and you don’t have the money to fix or if you are out of something and you don’t have the money to buy more, figure out a way to live without it. If the lawn mower breaks, can you borrow a friend’s lawn mower? If your washer breaks, go to the laundromat. If you break your tea kettle, use a saucepan to heat water. In most instances, you can find a way to make do or do without something until you have the cash saved up.

6. Do things for free. Go to the library, have a picnic or read a book. Kids are just as happy playing with mom and dad in the backyard as they are going to the zoo. If you can’t pay cash for the “fun stuff” you can always have fun at home.

7. Buy items used. We buy 90% of the items for ourselves used. Going to yard sales and thrift stores does not take any longer than going to a retail store but you can save 90% off the retail price!

8. Just say no…to your kids. Let kids buy their own toys and extras! Our kids pay for all their own soda, candy, treats like nail polish, their own computers and extras. You are not the Bank of Mom so just say no!

9. Find a cheaper way to do things. Go to a beauty school to get your hair colored (or don’t have your hair colored at all it isn’t something you need to survive). Go to a mechanic school to get your car fixed. Hire a kid instead of a lawn service to mow your yard (only if you can’t do it yourself for medical reasons. Paint your own house instead of hiring someone, cut the cable and the cell phone (gasp!), and have birthday parties at your house. There is almost always a cheaper way to do things so try to find the cheapest way and save some money!

10. Cut kids’ activities. Most kids are in way too many activities and they’re often expensive. I know families who pay $175 a month for gymnastics lessons but can’t pay the mortgage. There is a problem with this kind of thinking! Kids won’t die if you don’t give them all the lessons and activities you can’t afford.

11. Get it for free. When the landscapers were laying sod in our new neighborhood, I asked for the scraps and we were almost able to put in our entire backyard for free. When they were building houses, I asked for the 2×4′s that were going into the dumpster and got enough wood for our shed. When they were pouring concrete patios, I asked for the leftover concrete and they just poured our entire cement pad for our shed for free!! If friends have kids older than your kids, ask if you can have their hand me downs when they are done.

Get as much as you can for free and you can save thousands of dollars!

-Tawra

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How to Learn Homemaking Skills

Definition of Skill:

1. the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc. to do something well.
2. competent excellence in performance; expertness; dexterity
3. understanding, discernment.
4. the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readilyin execution or performance.
5. to make a difference

Many of you who have been following our site may start to get overwhelmed at this point. It happens to almost everyone when they are trying to improve themselves in any area. At times when reading a self improvement book, taking a course, or hearing a speaker I become excited and inspired. Then I run the whole gamut, which looks something like this:

First and second day jump up and put it into practice

Third day run into an obstacle

Fourth day decide it is way too hard

Fifth day give up.

Has anyone else been there and done that? Now that I am beginning to get ancient (to quote my children– I have news for them!), I have finally figured something out.

• Everything is difficult and awkward when you first try it.
• Everything has obstacles that need to be overcome in order to succeed (That’s the secret to success: overcoming obstacles).
• You will obtain more knowledge, skill and strength if you don’t give up.
• You learn to enjoy the things you do more. There is a certain joy that comes in doing things when you know how to do them well. It actually gives you pleasure. Look at your own life. Don’t the things you do really well give you the most pleasure? Tawra gardens and she is really good at it. Guess what she enjoys doing the most – gardening. You will be surprised how many things you once hated doing that you will enjoy when you start doing them well.
• You gain confidence. With each new skill you develop, your confidence starts soaring. That is why it is so important to teach children useful skills. The more they know and are good at accomplishing, the more confidence they gain. You won’t have to read them a book on how to be confident or remind them hourly that they are special and spend hours being their cheerleader. Encouraging your kids with words is fine but there is a flip side to that too.

I wrote the definition of skills down so you could make note of a few key words:

Practice - That means to train at something by repeated exercises or to form a correct habit by repetition. In other words you need to do something over and over to get good at doing it.

I always say if you want to learn to bake a pie make one every day for 14 days and at the end of that time you will know how to bake a pie. Why? Because you will have made every mistake there is in making a pie and hopefully you will have learned not to do the same thing wrong the next time. You need to do this with anything you want to learn.

There is an order to things. If you keep practicing you will become competent. You can’t become competent until you have practiced. You then gain an understanding and discernment about what you are doing so that you can effectively and readily (quickly) perform the job at hand. That is how you learn a skill. Not by sitting and hoping someone will wave a magic wand over you or deciding, “That just isn’t my thing.”

People always want me to tell them how to quickly clean their kitchens or bathrooms and give them a magic formula. I can give steps, which will help, but you will only start performing them quickly and competently after you have practiced them for a bit.

It’s just like with any job. The first week I start, I want to quit. Nothing makes sense. I am always all thumbs and constantly one step behind everyone else. But because I have incentive (I need the money), I keep at it. By week two I’m feeling more comfortable. At the end of the month I think I have figured it out. In two months I consider myself an expert and very knowledgeable in what I have to do and I do it quickly and efficiently.

I like definition #5: to make a difference. Will you have made a difference by persevering; a difference for you and your family and their lives? So many of us look at the world and think, “Oh I wish I could make a difference for those people in a far off country or change the environment,” but we don’t often have the wherewithal to make a difference in our own home and family. How could we expect to do anything on a greater scale?

The secret is to do what is right even if it is hard. You can’t gain skills in anything by taking the easy way out. You need to follow the definition: practice to become competent. You will then gain understanding and discernment so you can effectively and readily do the job and make a difference in yourself, your home and the world.

-Jill

photo by: criminalintent

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So I found this brilliant idea on Pinterest to keep track of taking your antibiotics.  Since I have to be on antibiotics for 2-6 months I think this will help me keep track of when I take them. Even though mine will be pill bottles I can just tape a paper to the side and make a chart. This will so help my “always confused from brain fog” mind remember if I took my pills!

Tawra

P.S. I realized that I posted on Facebook about the antibiotics but not on here so here’s the run down for those of you who are wondering why in the world I’m taking so many antibiotics.

I have been so sick I can hardly get off the couch for the last several years. I kept going to the doctor trying to figure out what was wrong.

I finally went to a $2,000 cash only doc (M.D) who specializes in functional medicine. After about 15 tubes of blood were taken that thankfully my insurance paid for or it would have been another $1,0000 here’s what he found out. I have:

Gluten allergy
Major insulin problems (no sugar or substitutes)
2 major bacterial infections ( 2-6 months of 3 different antibiotics)
Major yeast overgrowth (2-6 months of yeast meds.)
Low Vit. D and C
Low iron

Other than that I’m doing good! LOL No wonder I can’t get off the couch and feel mostly dead instead of semi-alive most days!

I have to go on this horrible diet (GAPS) for 1- 2 years but after that he said I should start feeling better…if I live through it!! hehehe

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From: Misty
First, let me say I LOVE your website!!!I use it EVERY DAY! Since you have inspired me to start being more frugal with my money, I search high
and low for great deals.

I recently started shopping at Garage Sales, Dollar stores, thrift stores, etc., but sometimes I think I am getting a great deal only to realize it wasn’t that good of a deal. For instance, I spent $2.25 at a thrift store on a bunch of 12 plastic clothes hangers and that day I went to a department store that had them on sale for $2.00. Seeing this made me realize I had not saved any money at all!

Does this ever happen to you? Have you ever bought something that you were sure was a great deal, only to realize it wasn’t a good deal at all?? Should I do something different?

Hi Misty – Yes, I have made mistakes like this and still do it sometimes. I try to be as careful as I can to get the lowest price on an item. If it’s at a thrift store, I try never to pay more than half the retail price if it’s in great condition.

If it’s at a yard sale I try to pay 10% retail on small items and no more than half the retail price on large items (furniture, etc.) that are in excellent condition.

If you buy something from a store and it goes on sale shortly afterward, you can take it back to the store and most stores will give you a refund for the difference as long as it’s only been a couple weeks to a month since you bought it.

What do I do for other situations, like the hanger mistake you mentioned? Well, I repeat to myself , “Let it go… let it go.”  Really, that’s exactly what I do. I just write it off and move on, knowing that the next time I need hangers they will be cheaper at the store.

Part of that is just the learning process. You will win some and lose some. Hopefully, I have more wins.

If it makes you feel any better, I just had that happen with mulch. I had gotten free mulch many times in the past from companies who cut trees and just wanted to dump the wood chips. I thought the mulch I was getting from a tree company was free, but after they had delivered it, I received a $100 bill for it. Talk about making a person sick to her stomach! I didn’t have $100 to waste on paid mulch even if I do love gardening but I just had to let it go and move on. I did ask God to cover it for me and He did! It was a mistake on my part so I didn’t feel right to have the company come and take it back. (Mike: But just as we were looking at the bill, two more trucks drove up and I explained the mistake and politely asked them not to deliver the two additional truckloads )

Don’t beat yourself up over it because it sounds like you are doing great!

      -Tawra

I have had that same thing happen to me. I have learned two important things from these experiences. The first is “practice makes perfect.” The more you do it, the more familiar you become with typical prices for various items. Second, it’s important to realize that it all works out well in the end. For all the “boo boos” I make, I still end up saving so much more in the long run going to garage sales, thrift stores and so on that the savings far outweigh the mistakes.

Here’s one thing that helps me: If I know I need something, I check out what it costs at a department store when I am there. Then I will have a better idea about what to pay at a thrift store. Of course, there are many things I can’t plan and I just have to use my experience to determine whether to take a chance on them.

Like Tawra said, you just have to move on and realize that we all make some bad choices shopping for brand new things, too, except when you’re buying new you are often losing even more money. It happens no matter where you shop.

      -Jill

One of the biggest ways to save is to anticipate what you’re going to need long before you need it, if possible. When you’re not in a hurry to have something now, you’ll have more opportunities to notice prices at other places and to get it at a better price. We especially try to do this with cars, but it applies equally to virtually everything.

Tawra starts looking for winter coats in the summer. She looks for the next larger sized shoes before the kids grow out of the old pairs. If she knows she is going to be painting a room a certain color, she starts looking for mis-mixes at the hardware store or paint that has been donated to the thrift store to see if they have the right color. If so, she can usually get it for a fourth of the price of buying it new. These are just a few examples of how planning ahead can help you save a lot!

      -Michael

For more easy and practical ways to save money and get out of debt, check out Dig out Of Debt.

photo by: awfulshot

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Here is your free copy of the Valentine’s Day on A Dime e-book from LivingOnADime.com. We hope you enjoy it!

Here’s what to do now:

1. Right click the “Download” link below and save the files to your computer.
If you are a Mac user, you may have to use “Control+Click”.

Right click here to download the free “Valentine’s Day on A Dime” e-book now!

2. Open the pdf file using the program of your choice.
(If you would like to download the free Adobe Reader, you can find it on Adobe’s web site here.)

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I just read this and just about died laughing! I hope you enjoy it too.

-Jill

A women went to see the doctor.

“How tall are you?” asked the nurse

I’m 5 feet 8 inches.” the woman answered

The nurse measured her, “No, you are 5 feet 5 inches.”

How much do you weigh? “150 pounds.” the women replied

The nurse weighed her. “No, you’re 180 pounds.”

Then the nurse took her blood pressure and said it was quite high.

Very angry the woman said “Of course it is high! I came in here tall and thin and you made me short and fat!!!!” : ) : )

photo by: xtheowl

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Several readers have asked about our church. We go to church at Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale. When we lived in Kansas, we joked around that we were the Andover, KS branch because we watched it home with mom and my brother and his family.

We’ve decided to post a teaching from Pastor Bob here each Sunday for those of you would like to enjoy it also.

If you don’t have a church home and can’t attend then you can watch their services live here.

Eastern Standard Time:

Saturdays – 6pm

Sundays – 8am, 10:15am, 12:30pm

Wednesdays – 6:30pm

If you can’t watch it live, here is a message you might like:

From Pastor Bob

“Victorious – A Study Through The Book Of Joshua Ch.3″

This is the scene when Israel finally crosses the Jordan River into the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Pastor Bob explains what is required to occupy the land of promise: eager willingness, specific obedience, genuine faith, and spiritual stick-with-ness; faithfulness that is a witness to others.

      Enjoy!

      -Jill, Tawra and Mike

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