This topic is very near and dear to me for numerous different reasons. It all actually started when I started taking a closer look at our grocery budget and seeing where I could trim. From there I realized that basically everything that I relied on the grocery store for (which was everything), I could make at home. Yes, you can make almost anything at home. That does not necessarily mean that it is economical to do so, but with a little bit of time, research, and maybe some added umph–you can make anything.

This newfound discovery got my wheels really turning. Why was I buying all these things from the store and giving someone that I didn’t even know the authority to play in my food, or add whatever they wanted to into my cleaners. Granted, these companies are regulated by the government, but that just wasn’t and isn’t enough for me. Especially when you take into account how many food recalls we have had and also knowing that certain ingredients have a potential for causing cancer.

I would have to say that yes, making my own has definitely saved us money! For a lot of the recipes that I post and for all of my menu plans, I try to post the cost breakdown so you can see that making food from scratch is easy, frugal and delish. Doing the cost breakdown has really gotten me to see just how much money it has saved us.

Currently the only other thing that I make from scratch, other than food items, is my laundry soap and fabric softener. I cannot even begin to tell you how much this has saved us. There are no additives, and no perfumes in the laundry detergent. The fabric softener, because I use conditioner, does have perfumes and such–but I’ve been using diluted vinegar with added essential oil with success. This method does not have the perfumes/additives. I do not make any other cleaners right now, because I still have a big stock of the commercial things from couponing. But, isopropyl alcohol and vinegar (not together) should be your best friend.

Of course there are other things, like curtains, clothing, toys, gifts, etc that you can make at home. All of which, in my opinion, fall right along the same lines.

Doing these things has granted me great amounts of freedom. I hardly rely on the grocery store for anything. I have the base ingredients at any given time to make almost anything you can dream up. That in conjunction with couponing, I rarely need anything other than basics, which grants me the freedom and reliance from the grocery store. Not being there so much saves me money on impulse buys, which is helping me find financial freedom. We’re all human!

And on top of all of that, yes, I can notice a difference in our health. I feel better, and I have slimmed down a bit. Although, I’m on a mad mission to lose more!

Let me add here, that I was never one to be any form of domestic. No way, no how. Didn’t want any part of it whatsoever. Money was made to be spent, and the stores were created for you to spend it. Thankfully my views have changed! I still have very little patience and desire fast results. I say all this so that you know that “making your own” isn’t always time consuming (which is what I always thought). Sure, the first time you do it, it may take a while, but once you get it down, it will be second nature. Kind of like tying your shoes. When you first learn, it takes about 12 days to tie both shoes. Now, I’ll bet that you can tie them in your sleep with your hands tied behind your back.

I’m no domestic powerhouse, or professional homemaker, but I strongly encourage you to attempt to make your own “something”. If you are already making something, make more “somethings”, venture out and see how many things you really can make. It’s a great feeling knowing that my family depends on my hands, and not someone elses.

If you have any questions about where to start, how to begin, or anything at all–I’m more than happy to help!

Now is the time for you to share. Please remember to link to your post and not your homepage. And please keep it on topic–I don’t like deleting links!

What is your take on Making at Home vs. Store Bought?

1. Changing Reflection

Have you purchased your copy of the Home Management Binder yet? It's not too late!

Thank you for supporting our February Sponsors!

Don't Feel Guilty About Dessert! Eat a Smart Sweet! Check out the 80+page Ebook from Kitchen Stewardship.

{Mountain Rose Herbs}--Organic Spices, Herbs, Teas and Essential Oils {Plus MORE!!}

Visit the Clever Housewife for Saving and Stretching a Buck.
Making Your Own vs. Store Bought is a post from: Getting Freedom From Debt

One pair of women’s garden gloves as well as a carrot seeds, Roma tomato seeds, and burpless cucumber seeds. Maybe this will give you the incentive to get started on your very own garden! The winner will be chosen at random from all the entries on Mr. Linky.

• Link to your post, not your homepage.
• Please be sure to include a link back here so that all your readers can get in on the other tips as well.
• Stay true to the theme of the week so that readers get quality content.
• Tell everyone you know so we can make it a success and can all profit from it.
• Have fun!

Have you purchased your copy of the Home Management Binder yet? It's not too late!

Thank you for supporting our February Sponsors!

Don't Feel Guilty About Dessert! Eat a Smart Sweet! Check out the 80+page Ebook from Kitchen Stewardship.

{Mountain Rose Herbs}--Organic Spices, Herbs, Teas and Essential Oils {Plus MORE!!}

Visit the Clever Housewife for Saving and Stretching a Buck.
Finding Freedom Friday is a post from: Getting Freedom From Debt

It’s February which means it is time to do my financial check up from the month of January. I don’t know what it is, but the months just seem to disappear, where are they going?

January was a great month for us! I am absolutely astounded at what we were able to accomplish. I do not know how we were able to do these things, I just know that God has truly blessed us!

I set a lot of goals for 2009, that included more than just our finances. I will include an update on the rest of my goals later this week.

Here are the financial goals that we set for 2009:

• A total of $4000 (including EF) in savings for health expenses, and vehicle/home maintence. Currently, we just have shortly over our $1000 emergeny fund (EF), but we hope to be able to finish this with our income taxes.

• Bump up our contribution to our Christmas Club account. As of 2/16, this was accomplished! This will be such a relief when the end of the year comes.
• Pay $17500 towards our debt. I know we can do this, but it sounded overwhelming to my husband, so I put it in perspective of a monthly payment to him. We had a lot of makeup to do from our December fiasco, so my “mini goal” for January’s debt payment was $1050. I am overjoyed to say that we were able to pay $1315.57! This leaves us with just one debt payment (we have successfully paid off our lawn mower purchase) which is a GREAT feeling. This puts us ahead for February. My February “mini goal” is $1150, so I now only need to accomplish $884.43 to remain on track. A great feeling it is to come into this month ahead!
• Continue Couponing. I am, but I’m not. I’ve definitely slowed down a lot, but that is because my stockpile is already pretty big. And, there really hasn’t been all that great of deals around for me to put all the effort into it.

To see how others are doing for their Financial Goals, visit Money Saving Mom.

How are you doing on your Financial Goals?

Have you purchased your copy of the Home Management Binder yet? It's not too late!

Thank you for supporting our February Sponsors!

Don't Feel Guilty About Dessert! Eat a Smart Sweet! Check out the 80+page Ebook from Kitchen Stewardship.

{Mountain Rose Herbs}--Organic Spices, Herbs, Teas and Essential Oils {Plus MORE!!}

Visit the Clever Housewife for Saving and Stretching a Buck.
Financial Update is a post from: Getting Freedom From Debt

In the last few months, Walgreen’s has become one of my favorite stores! I get all of my toiletries and makeup there versus Wal-Mart. These days, if I set foot in Wal-Mart it is only for a few grocery items that are cheaper there, or for a birthday card or underwear!

It has taken me a bit to get the “Walgreen’s Game” down, and as always, I’m sure there is still more to learn. But…..I thought that I would share some tips that I have picked up along the way.

1. For starters, as soon as you walk in the door there will be a small display that contains the weekly sales flyer, and the Easy Saver Book (ES). The ES Book is essential to your savings. Here’s why: It contains a load of coupons in the front referred to as an ESQ (Easy Saver Coupon). These do not have to be cut out, the cashier just needs to scan them. Generally, those items will go on sale at some point during the month. As we all know, a sale and a coupon makes for a great deal! As of April 2009, Walgreen’s has discontined their Easy Saver Rebate Program. They are “developing new loyalty programs that we expect will bring even more interesting incentives and rewards”. I haven’t actually been in Walgreen’s since December of 2008, so I’m not exactly sure what these new programs entail.

   Also, because these coupons are specific to Walgreen’s they can be stacked with a Manufacturer Coupon (MQ)! This makes for great savings!

2. Also in this book are the rebates for the month. There will be a few FAR (free after rebate) items, as well as buy x get $x back.

   The book changes monthly, usually on the last weekend of the month.

3. The rebates are incredibly easy to claim. All you have to do is save your receipt, go to walgreens.com and register. Then go here and Claim your Rebates. You will see a list of the valid rebates for the month. Check the ones you are eligible for and submit it. It will ask for your receipt number, which can be found at the top. Once you’ve entered in your reciept information, save it so you can return later. DO NOT claim your rebates until the end of the month, or when you know you will not be buying anymore rebate items. Walgreen’s only allows you to claim rebates once in a rebate period.

   Don’t forget to request your rebate payment on a gift card so that you can get a 10% bonus! What a great incentive!

   Just a note: Some rebates allow you to get more than one, you will have to double check the wording. On these rebates, it will only let you check the box once, but it still picks up your multiple purchases. For example, in the month of October you were able to get up to 6 ($1) rebates for Shout. And you bought 3 one week, and 3 the next. The first week, you would check the box and enter in your receipt number..it would automatically pick up the other 2 you bought. Next week the box will still be checked, go ahead and enter in your receipt and it will pick the other 3 up as well.

4. Another source of Walgreen’s Coupons would be the ad. Again, these do not have to be ct out, the cashier just needs to scan them. These work a little differently than a MQ. For example: This week there is a coupon for Dawn Dish Soap .99. When the cashier scans the coupon it will subtract $x from the original price to make the soap total .99. But, you must hand them the ad to scan in order to get this price.
5. Walgreen’s also offers Register Rewards (RR). These are fantastic! They are basically a coupon that prints out after you have paid, and they are good on your next purchase.
   For example: A couple weeks back they had a $5 RR printing when you bought a St. Ives cleanser for $4.99. Free is GOOD! In addition to getting the RR, you CAN use coupons on these items as well…making for even greater savings! On this particular deal, I used a $2 coupon, so I paid $2.99 for the cleanser, and got $5 RR in return. Not too shabby!

   A word of caution with RR….you cannot roll a RR from one deal, back onto the same deal and receive the 2nd RR. So, on the St. Ives deal, if I were to go back and buy another St.Ives Cleanser and use my $5 RR from earlier to pay, I would not recieve my 2nd RR. But, if I wanted to use my $5 RR to pay for some Pepsi that generates a $2 RR…that is fine. As long as they are not from the same mother company.

   If your RR does not print, make sure that you talk to a manger. Take an ad with you so that you have in hand exactly what you are talking about. Do not let them tell you you cannot use coupons on a RR deal. You can, and a lot of times, in their ad, next to a RR deal it will have an icon that says “Look in your Sunday paper for addt’l savings”. If you cannot get it resovled, you can always call the Catalina Company and they will straighten it out for you.

6. In my (limited) expirience I have found it to be easier to hand the cashier coupons in a certain order. MQ, ESQ, In ad coupon, RR.

7. Another “rule” to the game is Walgreen’s will not allow you to have more coupons than you have items. However, ESQ, and in ad coupons do not count towards your total coupons. Just MQ and RR. So, if you were to buy 5 items, all 5 having coupons, you would not be able to pay with a RR. You would have to get a filler.

   A filler is generally something less than a dollar. Good fillers would be a travel pack of kleenex, a candy bar, pencil, pack of gum…you get the point.

I think that I’ve pretty well covered the basis. If I’ve forgotten something, let me know! And if you have any questions…feel free to ask!

Happy Shopping!

Have you purchased your copy of the Home Management Binder yet? It's not too late!

Thank you for supporting our February Sponsors!

Don't Feel Guilty About Dessert! Eat a Smart Sweet! Check out the 80+page Ebook from Kitchen Stewardship.

{Mountain Rose Herbs}--Organic Spices, Herbs, Teas and Essential Oils {Plus MORE!!}

Visit the Clever Housewife for Saving and Stretching a Buck.
Playing Walgreen’s is a post from: Getting Freedom From Debt

I’m not a pro, by any means. I still consider myself a newbie…there is so much information and tricks to the trade that I have left to learn.

The last few weeks I have had a lot of questions regarding getting started couponing and my grocery budget. I must say that when I first started couponing, it took me a lot of time. But, I think that was partially my fault. I was making it more complicated than what it was…and I went all or nothing, if that makes sense.

If I were to make one suggestion to anyone who wanted to start couponing it would be to start slow. Try not to get overwhelmed, and don’t feel as if you have to go after every deal. There will always be a deal to be had. As a matter of fact, there are sales cycles that alot of the companies go by. I’m not fully in tune with them, I haven’t gotten that advanced in my process. But, I have noticed just in the last few months cycles from my local grocery store and even Walgreens.

Also, pick up your local Sunday paper. Some papers have better coupons than others, you will just have to figure that out on your own by your area. I thought I would never get anywhere….never thought I would build up a coupon stash with just a Sunday paper, and boy was I ever wrong!! I have TONS of coupons. For the most part, I only buy one copy of the local Sunday paper, unless there is a HOT coupon(s) and then I will buy 2. I have only bought 3 on one or two occasssions.

This is the Novemeber issue of All You, to see what coupons are in it go here.

Also, Wal-Mart carries a magazine called All You. Not only is it a good read, but it has a decent amount of coupons in it as well. Double Duty!! Currently it is going for $2.24 (they just raised the price! Agh!), but, it is worth it!

Once you have started accumulating your coupons, you will need some way to orgainize them. I prefer the binder method, but there are multiple ways of orgainizing them. The binder method is a binder with the baseball card inserts to “file” your coupons. This way you see them at a glance. I organize the pages basically the same way as the aisles in a grocery store. Like items together.

This is what it looks like on the inside. The coupons on the left are what I need to file…I’m so behind!! On the right is a pencil case that we got from the bank, it hold all my RR, paper clipped by expiration. Also, rebate receipts that I haven’t entered in yet.

Here is a view of the baseball card holders in use. Most of my coupons do not have to be folded, just slipped in.

When I first started out, I would just take the whole thing in the store with me. I still do that sometimes, but not all. Then, when I am in an aisle, I can flip through my pages in the binder and see if I have coupon for an item. Also, when I am flipping through the sales flyers for the local grocery store, I look through my binder as well. If I find a good deal with a coupon, I get an envelope and put the coupons inside. On the front I write the name of the store AND the deal. I do this for a couple of reasons. 1) on my shopping day, I have multilpe stores to go to generally, and this way I know what I am getting in each store 2) I have my coupons organized already, no need for the binder (unless there is an awesome clearance deal!). This also helps me with my budget planning since I use cash. I explained that a little here.

I hope that helped answer some lingering questions. If you have any more just let me know, and I will do my best to answer them. At a later date, I will do a post on Walgreens shopping. It is a post all on its own!

Have you purchased your copy of the Home Management Binder yet? It's not too late!

Thank you for supporting our February Sponsors!

Don't Feel Guilty About Dessert! Eat a Smart Sweet! Check out the 80+page Ebook from Kitchen Stewardship.

{Mountain Rose Herbs}--Organic Spices, Herbs, Teas and Essential Oils {Plus MORE!!}

Visit the Clever Housewife for Saving and Stretching a Buck.
Couponing Tips is a post from: Getting Freedom From Debt