Blessings From Home

Frugal Friday

Well, now that I'm a homeschooling mom, I decided to devote this Frugal Friday to free or inexpensive homeschool resources I have found on the web.

TLS Books - a great place for free worksheets for your preschooler through fifth grade

Old Fashioned Education - a complete curriculum all for free, this is the main resource we will be using

SF Reading  - a free online grammer and handwriting workbook

Life. On a Budget - a blog with lots of great info on free resources for homeschoolers

Enchanted Learning -this is a great website that does require a membership fee, but $20 for a whole year with all the resources they have is well worth it.

The Homeschool Mom -I haven't got to check this website out completely, but what I've found so far has looked very interesting. She has several free unit studies. One note: It appears you have to scroll all the way down to see all the info.

And that's about all I've found....so far. If you have another resource you'd like to share I'd love to see it. My husband and I will be homeschooling on a slim to none budget. So I'm looking for all the freebies and cheapies I can get. Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks to Andrea over at Meek and Quiet Spirit. She gave me two more really great resources. And here they are...

Brightly Beaming Resources

Donna Young

And I also found a few more...

ABC Teach

The math work sheet site

Starfall

Blessings,

Sara

Frugal Friday~Late Edition

I got caught up in the caring of my youngins' yesterday and wasn't able to make it back on here for my frugal Friday post. So here it goes....

I don't know how many of you ladies are able to go to the grocery store, however often you go, without a list or a menu of what you'll be making, but something I've learned through the years is I can't. For the first, oh, 3-4 years of my marriage, I would go to the store without so much as a thought of what I was actually going to get there. Yes, I knew I'd need some milk, maybe some  bread, ya know the basic stuff, but without a list, I'd usually forget at least one thing we really needed...not to mention, what were we going to eat every day. I would just head into the store, grab a shopping cart and start grabbing things that I thought we might eat and things I thought we would probably need. Now what happened with doing it this way is that I would...

1. Get one thing I thought we would eat for dinner, and then go home and have nothing else to make it. Ya know, hamburger helper and no hamburger, or 2. I would buy something I thought we needed only to come home and find we had 12 of the same thing, or 3. I would only get a few things to eat for the week and then ended up having to go to the store at least another 1-2 times during the week.

And I'm sure you all know what ended up happening...I spent way too much money. If I didn't have what I needed, I would end up going to the store again or worse, I would just go through a drive through and spend way too much for dinner.

So one day, I sat down and decided to write down every meal we would be having including things I would have to pack for lunches for hubby and myself, then I would get out all my cookbooks, write up some meals and make the shopping list to go with it and VOILA, I didn't have to guess what we'd be eating for the week. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? I mean, duh! I remember going to the store that week, only once mind you, and spending literally half of what I was spending without  a menu and a list. Can you imagine my elation?

So now that I've been menu planning for 4 years or so, I've gotten to be a pro at it. I'm even able to plan for 2 weeks or more sometimes.  So here's what I do now...

I go to my kitchen and take inventory of what I have. I also look at the previous week's menu to see if there is anything we didn't eat. I think about what is coming up in the next week or 2 weeks that I need to plan around...a birthday, company coming, etc, then I start filling in the blanks. My menu is pretty basic...

Sunday-

Breakfast-

Lunch-

Dinner-

Snack-

I can usually fill everything in without a cookbook, knowing what my family likes to eat, what they're tired of eating, etc. I do try to look for at least one new recipe to use every week.

I know everyone does something different to plan meals in their home, but this is what I've found that works for us. I will say that our menu doesn't always go as planned, just because I have meatloaf on Sunday doesn't mean we'll always eat that. I know on Sunday we have church, so I usually plan a bigger meal, and if I know we'll be busy, I'll do as much prep work as I can. Well, I guess that's about all I've got for today. I know most of you ladies are pros at planning meals for your family, I just wanted to share what has worked for us. Some great sites you can go to for more ideas on meal planning are....

The Family Homestead

Hillbilly Housewife-Menu Planning

Hillbilly Housewife-Blank Menu Form

$45 Dollar Menu and Shopping List

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Sara

Frugal Friday

I know I said last week that I would share some tips I've found about saving in the kitchen, but I've decided to save that for another week, instead I'm going to share with you what I've found for saving money on birthdays. My niece's birthday was yesterday, my son's birthday is tomorrow, and my birthday is next week. Plus we have several birthdays next month as well. So I am definately looking for ways to save in this area.

A Few Things I've Learned:

1. The main thing I've learned about birthdays is you don't have to buy the best or most expensive toy or gift to make somebodies birthday special.

2.  I've learned that you shouldn't buy a gift for someone unless you know that they need it. (I'm not against buying kids toys, but for instance, my niece has got too many toys, and my SIL asked me not to get her any toys, but she did need clothes. So I picked out an outfit and also got her a new book and color book.)

3. Always keep a list of birthdays you need to buy for, and keep your eyes out for items on sale that might fit what you're looking for. 

4. Also on your list keep gift ideas, clothing/shoe sizes, etc.

5. When it comes to birthday parties that my kids are invited to, my favorite place to check out is the dollar tree. I take 5 dollars and get them a bag full of goodies. Color books, crayons, and anything else we think they might enjoy.

6. One of the main things you can do to make birthdays special is to just make that day special for that person. For instance, for my son's birthday, I've asked him to plan the menu for tomorrow. I also have a special birthday plate that I let my kids eat off of on their special day. (It's a larger, very colorful dinner plate.) I try to decorate their room up without waking them...usually just placing streamers and balloons everywhere and a big Happy Birthday sign. They get to help make their own birthday cake. We play some favorite games. And ofcourse the family gathers around to make the day extra special. Usually anything I know that I can do to make that person feel special, I find a way to do it as inexpensive as I can.

7. I love making gift baskets, so I always keep my eye out for baskets on sale or you can get some of the smaller ones at dollar tree. You can also find lots of stuff to fill it with, like candles and other goodies. I like to make food gift baskets. Sometimes with a jar of homemade jelly, some homemade bread, and some yummy flavored tea.

8. I actually have an extra closet, that I call my gift closet where I keep extra gifts that I find throughout the year, and sometimes just for those surprise occasions where you need a gift but don't have time to run out and buy one, but you could just keep a rubbermaid type tub for that kind of thing.  

Now, to be honest, I used to be the kind of person who would go out and look for the biggest, best present, or else have several presents for whoever's birthday it was, but I've learned that my friends, family, and children have enjoyed their birthdays a lot more since I've taken the time to make it special for them by more than just spending lots of money on them, and that's what really matters.

Some great links I've found are....

Counting The Cost ~ This site has a lot of great resources for just about everything!

Life. On a Budget ~This is a great blog where you can find tons of ideas.

The Dollar Stretcher

Well, I hope you enjoyed this week's Frugal Friday. Maybe next week, I'll get back to saving in the kitchen. Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings,

Sara

Frugal Friday

Today, I wanted to share some things about what I've learned about homemade household cleaners.

1. They're CHEAP!

2. They're easy to make, and much better for the environment.

3. They're CHEAP!

4. The supplies to make them are readily available.

5. And did I mention, they're CHEAP!

The list of supplies needed is actually quite short and you can generally make any cleaner you might need from these few supplies. For anything from window cleaner to antibacterial wash to just a general cleaner. Some of the basic supplies I keep on hand are...

White distilled vinegar

apple cider vinegar

ammonia

baking soda

rubbing alcohol

borax

Those are the main ones that I keep on hand. I also like to keep different essential oils to make my cleaner smell good. Now for the recipes, the best place on the web I have found is at  Crystals Family Homestead. Crystal has always got a wealth of information to share and I'm so thankful for her website. A few other recipes I've found along the way are...

For polishing wood floors and wooden furniture...

Mix 1 cup of olive oil with 1/2 cup of lemon juice. Keep it in a sealed container.

You can find that and more cleaning recipes over at Candy's blog-Keeping the Home. She has also got a lot of great info for keeping the home and other information.

I am so in awe of how much money I have saved just by taking the few extra minutes it takes to prepare these cleaners myself. I can honestly say that between making my own laundry products and also my own cleaning supplies, I have probably saved around somewhere between 100 and 200 dollars in a year's time. To me that is amazing!  I hope you enjoyed reading today's Frugal Friday. Next week, I'll share a few tips I've found on saving in the kitchen, starting with menu planning. Have a great day!

Blessings,

Sara

Frugal Friday

Since we are going through a bit of financial distress, I'm thinking of making Friday a day that I not only share with you what I am doing to be frugal, but also things that I find along the way in my efforts to be more frugal. This week, I am going to talk about ways I save on laundry.

1. I make my own laundry detergent. Something I know, most of you do. I am amazed at how much we have saved just by doing this. I follow Crystal's recipe here...Homemade Laundry Soap...and living here in Oklahoma, I believe that the products cost a bit less than what Crystal has listed. For instance, I can get a bar of Fels Naptha at the local grocery store for 99 cents, and she gets it for $1.12. So I guess it depends on where you live. So using Crystal's figures, she spends about 71 cents for 2 gallons, and that amount lasts us about 2-3 months, versus a gallon of arm and hammer, what we usually buy for at least $3-4, and it doesn't last us a month. Major savings!

2. I also make our fabric softener. I found this recipe somewhere on the web, and for the life of me can't remember where, but it works great.

You need:

1 gallon container (I used a clean milk jug)

1 cup baking soda

8 cups water

6 cups of white distilled vinegar

10-15 drops of essential oil(optional)

~Put baking soda in container

~Add 1 cup of warm water and swish around to dissolve baking soda a bit.

~SLOWLY add 6 cups of white distilled vinegar.

~Add 7 more cups of water and essential oil and swish around, venting often.

~Vent.

~Use 1 cup per load.

This really helps to get all the soap out of my clothes and the baking soda has really helped keep my whites whiter and the cloth diapers cleaner. I think my clothes have never smelled better and I get to choose whatever smell I want.

3.And last but not least, I make my own stain remover. This is a recipe I got from my mom, who got it from her mom. It has been known to get tar out of the carpet in our van before, and does wonderful with everyday stains in clothes.

You need:

Spray bottle

1 capful of whatever detergent you use. I use 1/2 cup of my homemade detergent.

1 cup of ammonia

1 cup of white distilled vinegar

Put it all in your bottle and shake before use each time. If I have a really stubborn stain, I will put whatever clothing it is in my dishpan, and put this solution in with some water and let it soak overnight. Sometimes I add a little baking soda too.

Well, there you have it. My frugal laundry tips. These are things I have been doing for about a year now, and I really love it. Especially all the money I'm saving. Next Friday, I'll talk about homemade cleaners that I have come to use and love. Hope you enjoyed!