When it is time to buy your kids’ books, clothes, toys and other essential items, where do you go first? Think about some of the things that you buy for your family regularly. Could you get those things at Goodwill?
How to Get Sunday School Lessons for Free
As a Sunday School teacher, finding lessons is starting to become harder and harder. After ten years of purchasing lesson plans, Bible story pictures, and other Sunday school curriculum, I finally realized that I just couldn’t afford to pay the prices that keep going up any longer. If you’ve taught Sunday School at all, then you probably know what I mean. Sunday […]
Budgeting for Frills on a Family Road Trip
All this talk of ice cream brings us to our third area – frills. If you have your plan for a budgeted family road trip in place and your food lined out, frills might attack your budget in the form of souvenirs or the new DVD purchase in a truck stop display that grabs your […]
Save Money on Food During a Family Road Trip
Picking up snacks and drinks at typical gas stops during your family road trip is what those convenient marts are counting on. However, you can still stay on budget and enjoy your trip with just a bit of extra planning. Here are my best tips for overcoming budget pitfalls in the area of food costs. […]
Planning Ahead to Save Money on a Family Road Trip
Here are some ideas to help you save money during your travel on the highways and byways.
Stretch Chicken to Save Money
Roasting a whole chicken is easy to do and it provides the foundation for four meals for four people: an amazing bargain! When I was young, at least once a week we’d sit down to dinner and one of us kids would exclaim, “Awe, Mom! Chicken again?” Mom cooked a lot of chicken, I […]
Tips to Decorate a Nursery on the Cheap
So, a baby is on the way? Whether it is your first, tenth, or any number in between, babies can be expensive. This is especially true when you have gotten rid of everything remotely baby in the name of “I am finished having kids!” to find out just a couple months later that you […]
Five Ways to Go Green in 2013
Solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and riding a bike to work instead of driving are all pretty dramatic lifestyle changes for “going green.” Here are five simple ways to Go Green in 2013 that do not cost much extra money or time. If you are doing a few of these, maybe this is the time to […]
How Do You Save Seeds from Beans for Planting or Eating?
When you are growing an heirloom variety of beans (cow peas, or snap beans it doesn’t matter) it is easy to save the seeds from year to year. These are purple-hulled peas which are called that because of the bright purple-colored hulls they produce. You can eat these fresh as “green beans” or let […]
Creating a Backyard Getaway #SummerWithSears
My backyard is not the typical backyard of most suburbanites, I know. My backyard is productive. Active. Full of life in every sense of the word. It is my oasis away from an overly technical job at the computer. A backyard oasis must, for me, reconnect me with the earth in a hugely tangible way. Animals are […]