New! Centsable Style Ebook

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Hooray!  I worked through the learning curve and my new ebook is now available.  I tried something new this time and embedded some how-to video files in it.  This ebook takes the Grocery Shrink method from the first ebook about food and shows you how to use the same principles to shrink your clothing budget, all without compromising your style. This book is vital this time of year as we switch from warm weather to cool weather clothes. Let me show you how to make that change as painless as possible.

It is 50 pages long and includes printable pages to help you plan clothing menus for every member of your family.  This ebook shows you how to eliminate waste, maximize your dollars, and keep it organized at the same time.  For a larger view of the contents click on the photo below:

Until September 22nd, this e-book is available for half price  $10  $5!

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 Please note this is a ditigal file and nothing will come in the mail.  As soon as your payment is received download instructions will be emailed to you.  Sometimes these are sent to to the spam folder by accident.  If you have any trouble, please email me and I’ll fix it for you.

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What’s Your FAT Today?

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A mountain is climbed step by step.  The most beautiful cathedral was built stone by stone. 

Our daily actions–the consistent choices, bring us to where we are today.

So what’s your FAT?

Frugal

Activity

Tally

If you want to make a difference in your budget, and reach your goals, it’s the little things you do every day that make the biggest difference.  And often those little things are overlooked and underappreciated.

I’m going to start recognizing it for you!  So write down your FAT today and post it in your comment below.  Here’s an example:

Prepared a brown bag lunch

Used cloth diapers

Used a cloth napkin

Used a homemade cleaning product

Cooked dinner from scratch

Used my Slow Cooker

Combined errends to save gas

Reused a baggie

Used the clothesline

Total:  9

When we read what other frugal activities people are doing, we are inspired, motivated and peer pressured into stepping it up.  And one of you lovely ladies will be chosen Queen of frugal activities for the day. (And NO, that won’t EVER be called the FAT queen, lol.) The Queen will be recognized in a blog post and be chosen to give more words of wisdom to the rest of us–and will get a PRIZE, tba.  So you have until Friday, to write down a FAT from one day in the comments–any day you choose this week.   FACEBOOK coments now count.  I have a lovely plug-in that will grab your facebook comments and post them right here too, yay.

I can’t wait to read about what you do that makes a difference for your family.

Technical difficulties….

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I want to check in and let you know that lack of posting doesn’t mean lack of activity :).  I finished my ebook last weekend and the file size is 1.5 Gig!  I have a lot of embedded videos in there and I’m working on shrinking everything so it can be useable.  I’m not very techy, so this involves a lot of research and study and trial and error.  But I’m hoping to have it all finished soon.

I’ve started a brand new newsletter program also and could only mail out to half the group this week while the new host is getting used to our HUGE list.  Thanks, friends, for all your support–and making it huge.  Those of you who get the new newsletter, I’d love your feedback on the content and what you’d like to see there.  I’m still working out the bugs on the template, it should get better and better every week.

Italian Eggplant Bake

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We spent the weekend farm sitting for Darren’s parents.  Two calves were born while we were there–so cute!

I’ll  admit that I came “this close” to throwing a tantrum while we were preparing to leave to go there.  I had a lot of things to do at home and I felt like I needed some time to be home without a crazy schedule.   Once we got there, the house was quiet and there were lots of places for the children to play outside.  Grant took two 4 hour naps on Saturday and let me work.  I can’t believe everything I accomlishedin just 12 hours!

I finalized the text on my latest ebook, read two hardcover books from cover to cover (Tribes:  We need you to lead us; and The Westing Game), finished my September menu, and wrote Heidi’s lesson plans for September and October. 

I also got to do my Fit Yummy Mummy interval workout on the gravel road, which I decided is just about as good as running on sand to add extra resistance and balance into a workout.  Plus the scenery was breathtaking!  I ran and ran and only saw 2 houses before it was time to turn around and head home.  Another benefit was that the country blocks are exactly 1 mile long, so I could judge my distance easier than at home.  I did 2 miles in a little over 15 minutes.

Ooh, I almost forgot, I also took Grant’s 4 month pictures.  He gets cuter every day (proud mom talking.)  I miss the newborn floppy, cuddly stage.  But there is no bad stage.  He’s getting very vocal about letting me know when he needs to potty.  Which is so helpful, since this distracted mom needs LOUD potty cues, lol.  And he laughs hilariously when I make pig snort noises–but only when he can see my face at the same time.  I also love seeing him get super excited when a toy comes his way.

I learned enough from my reads to figure out that I wish I had some computer programming courses under my belt.  Darren and I talked about sending our 9 year old son to classes so he can create Android Apps for our businesses and earn the money for his college degrees.  That boy is Smart!  He beat Darren 6 times at Stratego this weekend which is something since his daddy is a brain himself. 

Part of the fun of being on the farm is arriving without a menu plan and cooking with what we can scrounge up from the garden and create.  Bonnie had a pile of beautiful eggplants, okra, and fresh blueberries.  What a treat.  Here’s the recipe for the Italian Eggplant Bake we had for the main dish.  It was the first time any of us had tasted eggplant and we loved it!

2 eggplant (approx 1 lb each)

cooking spray

garlic powder and salt

2 lbs ground beef (you can use 1 lb or even better that yummy Turkey Italian sausage from Aldi)

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 lb mozarella cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Slice the eggplant 1/2 inch thick and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle liberally with garlic powder and salt (to taste)  Bake for 10 minutes, then flip and spritz and sprinkle the other side.  Bake for 10 minutes more. Reduce temperature to 375 degrees.

Meanwhile, brown the hamburger or turkey sausage (also liberally sprinkled with garlic powder and salt) and drain and rinse the fat.  Stir the spaghetti sauce and hamburger together.  Place a small amount of sauce in the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 dish.  Cover the bottom of the dish with eggplant slices.  Top with half the sauce mixture and half the cheese.  Repeat the layers once.  Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

Serve like lasagna–Yum!  And very low carb.

(Note:  This is how we made the dish with what was available, but I thought a little parmesean cheese in the layers would have been fantastic.)

No Sugar Added Granola

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I made a new kind of granola last week. It is sweetened only with pineapple and banannas. It could use some stevia but really isn’t bad with a few raisins. My goal was for a very crunchy, mildly sweet granola that clumped when cooked. I succeeded! Here’s the recipe:

5 cups thick cut rolled oats
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup whole almonds (roughly chopped)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup wheat germ (to encourage clumping)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum (to encourage clumping)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash salt
1 cup canned crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
2 ripe bananas (not previously frozen)
1/2 cup coconut oil

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a large bowl combine first 8 ingredients and mix well. In a blender add pineapple, bananas and soft coconut oil. (Next time I will add 1/2 teaspoon pure stevia extract or 6-8 packets stevia blend.) Mix until smooth and whipped. Pour pineapple mixture over oat mixture and stir until completely moistened.

This is how it looked just before baking.

Spread in a single layer onto two large greased cookie sheets. I fisted some of the mixture to encourage clumping.

Bake for 15 minutes, then stir and switch racks for the cookie sheets. Repeat 3 more times. For the last 15 minutes, turn the oven off and let it cool down naturally with the granola still inside. Watch for over browning the last 15 minutes. Set the pans out to cool. When completely cool, mixture will be nice and crisp.

Makes 10 cups of granola
Nutrition–per 1/3 cup: Calories: 168 Protein: 4.6 Fat: 9.8g Carbs: 25 g including 5.2 grams of fiber and only 1.7 sugar grams

Today

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We started our homeschool today and so far I’ve only lost my patience a handful of times, sigh.  A sign that I am still overwhelmed even with 2 kiddoes in school.  On the bright side, I think I will be able to teach those 2 well and the baby and 3 year old are being fairly cooperative.  Brandon is sticking to my side like glue during Dub’s lessons and I expect he will pick up quite a bit by listening in.  (Ooh, did I tell my blog friends that I am sending 2 children to private church school this year?  It was a terribly hard choice but the right one.  I’m so happy about it and it’s fodder for a new post..with darling first day of school photos.)

Today I am also working on planning for our clothing needs for fall and winter.  This is my favorite part of homemaking!  (Besides cooking–and eating, lol.)  I’m writing all of how we do frugal clothes in a brand new ebook complete with imbedded video (if all goes well) and hope to release it  the week of Labor Day.  There will be a special introductory sale the first day that  you’ll want to take advantage of.  Now…the pressure’s on for me to finish in time!

Clothing plannin is especially fun becuase we have a spring baby!  That means that the older brother clothes are the wrong season for him during the baby months (though will work fine once he is in size 24 months.)  And I get to hunt for baby bargains :). Our baby is also a pottying EC baby (EC=Elimination Communication.) Which means his clothing needs are slightly different than the average baby.  Onesies don’t work well here since we leave him diaper cover free at home, and the flaps get damp if we have a miss (potty accident.)  For summer, I just used a t-shirt and diaper with a hand knitted soaker cover when we slip out. I cut the flaps off a few onesies to extend his wardrobe, but didn’t love doing that. 

I noticed Children’s Place has some non-onesie baby shirts starting in size 6-9 months.  With the coupon code (A7E2011) good today only for 20% off plus free shipping, the shirts are only $4.80 each.  I’m not into dressing my kiddoes like punk rockers or in clothing with skulls, so the choies were limited.  I found 3 shirts that will work great and plan to sew some envelope top shirts from thermal knit (all stash) later.  But since I’ll be drafting the pattern for these…I’m happy to order a few shirts to get by until I have time.

Though I’m using cloth diapers now, I’m ready to have underwear for the babe now since it is easier with pottying.  I found this super cute pattern on etsy for underwear style training pants that come in wee babe sizes (starting at 6-9 months) and  big boy sizes too (up to 12 years).  By sewing these from stash fabrics, I’ll save $12-15 a pair!  The pattern looks fantastic–very professional and easy to understand with some great tips.  I was excited that all my boys said they’d wear underwear like that (the pattern has an optional soaker that can be left out for big boys or girls) if I used camo fabric, lol.  This is not a paid endorsement of the pattern, just a happy customer.  I’ll let you know more how I like it once I stitch a few pairs up.

Underwear Style Training Pants PDF Sewing Pattern

Anyhoo, that’s my day today.  I’m slapping myself that I haven’t put a newsletter out in 4 weeks.  I need to write those ahead since the end of the week is always so busy!

Local Deals and Time to Plan for September

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If you haven’t done it already, this is a great day to start planning your meals for September.  For tips on meal planning click here.   You can download blank 2011 calendars for meal planning here.

If you live near Kansas City, Hy-Vee has some amazing deals right now.  At the Noland and 40Hwy store, I just grabbed 2-10 lb bags of chicken quarters for $.39 a lb!  I have one entire bag in my slow cooker with garlic salt, onion powder and paprika.  When it’s cooked, I’ll debone and add BBQ sauce for yummy pulled chicken sandwiches.

I also grabbed whole chickens for $.49 each, hot dogs for $.69  a package, and turkey breast tenderloins for $1.69 a lb.  Their seedless watermelons are also on sale for $3.69 each and they are the big ones.  If you have cheerio coupons add them to their $1.88 a box sale for a really good deal.

Party Pictures

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The banner decoration.  I used this tutorial for cutting out the pieces.  It was so fast!  I did stitch and turn the triangles, leaving the top open, then sealed it all with the bias tape.  I’m hoping the banner will last awhile so took the time to finish the edges.  The letters were cut out of felt and ironed on with wonder under.  (I traced the letters backwards on wonder under.  Then ironed to a sheet of felt.  Then cut out the letters, then peeled the paper backing and ironed on to the triangles.  Since I’m not going to wash it, I didn’t take the time to stitch them on.)

Here’s the tic tac toe game Mom made from cardboard, duct tape, and stitckers. 

I made 12 red and 12 pink strawberry bean bags.  They were cut in 7″ diameter half circles.  I ran gathering stitches around the circle before folding in half and stitching up the side.  I filled them with beans too dry to cook up anymore, pulled the gathering stitches to seal the top and hot glued wool felt leaves over the hole.  These were so fast to make and the kids will be playing with them awhile. 

One relay race was to blow a matchbox car to the finish line with a party blower.  This was super hard since I bought cheap blowers that wouldn’t blow straight.  Not a game I would try again, but it was a hoot to watch the first few kids.  After awhile they got frustrated and bored waiting for their turn.

The first game was toss the strawberry in the pie pan.  There were 2 teams of 6 kiddoes and each player had 2 berries to toss. 

Strawberry Shortcake was there :). 

Even the boys had fun 🙂

Heather made a wish..Shh don’t tell.

Received lots of nice gifts.  Yay for the chance to practice writing.

Afterward we played pinata, but my camera ran out of batteriess.  I’ll have to snag some pictures from my Mom.  But until then, here’s her super cute pinata.  Notice the authentic Strawberry shape is very balloon like :).

Happy Birthday Heather!

Saving on Children’s Birthday Parties

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I’m hoping to have pictures up later this evening from Heather’s party.  (As soon as my camera is charged up enough to download.)  I was thinking that I splurged on this party because I saved stress by ordering the plates, cups, napkins, and prefilled treat bags through the mail.  I also ordered 2 dozen helium balloons for decorations which went home with the kids as party favors, but when I thought about it, I realized we saved money in many other ways:

I made the cake myself from a $.50 cake mix and marshmallow fondant.  I invested in sugar gum paste modeling tools, but purchased each item with a 40% off coupon and they will be reuseable on cakes in the future.  So instead of calling it a splurge, I’ll call in an investment since it will continue to save me money in the future. 

I invested in a wig and stockings for my super fun costume, but saved by sewing my dress and hat.  I’ll be able to wear all of it again at a Grocery Shrink promotional event in October and then plan to sell it on ebay.

My mother handmade the pinata out of newspaper, scrap red tissue paper, a balloon and homemade flour and sugar paste for a few cents.  And it was so cute!!!!

I made strawberry bean bags which we used in 4 out of 5 of the party games.  And my mom made an adorable tic tac toe toss game from red duct tape and scrap cardboard.  (She’s pretty amazing.)

I also made a Berry Happy Birthday banner from fabric so it will last for years.  And designed the lettering so the Berry was removeable to adapt the  banner  to other party themes.

We held the party from 1-3 so cake and icecream were expected treats, but a full meal wasn’t necessary.  And we had the party at home–even though the electricity was out! 

We didn’t rent any big air filled games, hire entertainers or live music.  I’m not opposed to it if future finances allow, but the girls enjoyed being together just the same and the birthday girl will still have memories to tuck away forever.

I think my favorite part of the party is when our youngest girl guest, with bright red hair and a quiet and demure personality, walked up to the pinata and cried “HiiiiiYA!” as she swung with all her might.  Brandon still comments occasionally, “HiiiiYa.  That was a good one.”