Frugal Living

Make Your Own Play Food: Frugal Tip

May 9, 2012

Here is a frugal tip from reader Mandy.

So the frugal tip that I have, has to do with kids’ toys – play food to be exact.

We’ve purchased my daughter a variety of different sets of play food over the last couple of years, only to find them all the same – kind of boring.

After seeing all the great containers that come with groceries we were buying and disposing of, I thought those containers would do much better as play food items for my daughter.

Everything from YOP containers to Ziploc bag boxes. They make for exciting new play food – for free!

Do you have a frugal tip to share? Submit it here.

7 Comments Filed Under: Frugal Living Tagged With: frugal living tips

Stockpile Organizing: 3 Easy Ways to Stay Organized (New Video)

May 1, 2012

I often get asked how I organize my stockpile, so today I’m going to show you 3 things that I do to keep my stockpile organized at all times.

Bins/Baskets

The number one thing that I recommend when starting a stockpile is to use bins whenever possible.

I always recommend using bins, because they will help you to keep your smaller items contained and not falling all over your shelves.

To save money, use the bins you already have on hand. This could be a plastic bin from the dollar store that you already have, or small cardboard boxes.

Donation Station

My final tip is to have a donation station. This is just an area in your stockpile (or even another area of your home) where you keep all of the items you plan to donate.

Keep it all in one area, so that once that area is full you’ll know it’s time to take it to be donated.

Those are my tips for organizing your stockpile.

There are many ways to keep things organized, so do what works best for you. The important thing is to store your items in a way where you are able to use them before they expire.

Do you have any tips for organizing your stockpile?

2 Comments Filed Under: Frugal Living, Organization, Stockpiling Tagged With: extreme couponing canada, organizing, stockpile

The Best Things to Buy in May

May 1, 2012

As I’m sure many of you know, stores follow a yearly sales cycle, so with a few exceptions, you can usually anticipate finding the same products on sale at the same time every year.

Here’s what you can expect to find on sale in May:

Televisions

Japanese manufacturers fiscal year end is at the end of March, so you can expect discounts on older television models in April and May.

Winter Wear

Now that the weather is quickly getting warmer, many people are packing away their winter clothing – including stores.

Watch for sales on coats, hats, scarves, gloves and boots.

Patio Furniture (Older Models)

New models will be out this year, which means all of the older models that didn’t sell last year will be marked down this month, in order to make room for the newer stuff.

Cookware

Tis’ the season for weddings and graduations! Stores are trying to cash in on this season and since cookware is a popular gift, you can expect to find lots of great sales on it.

Party Supplies

Along with graduations comes graduation celebrations, so watch for sales on party supplies in May.

Disposable Plates, Cups & Cutlery

Barbecue season is upon us. Burgers, corn on the cob, steaks – all of that good stuff! Many people will be cooking on the barbecue much more often now and won’t want to be in the kitchen washing dishes.

Look for sales on disposable plates, cups, bowls and cutlery.

Mattresses

New products come out in summer, so stores are starting to slash prices right now to make room for the new products.

Bedding & Towels

The “white sale” is happening again, where stores are cutting back their prices on bedding and towels. Now would be a great time to replace any worn items.

Cleaning Supplies

Spring cleaning is in full swing and right now there are many sales on cleaning products. It might be a good time to stock up on these products if you are running low.

Vacuum Cleaners

Keeping with the spring cleaning theme here, vacuum cleaners will help you get your house clean – which means these items will be on sale, too.

Bottled Water

You will start to see bottled water on sale quite a bit this month and throughout the summer. It often goes on sale for $1 for a case of 12.

Salad Dressing

It’s time for barbecued meats, pastas and of course – salads! Expect lots of sales on salad dressing this month. Croutons too (or you could just make your own).

Ice Cream

This is just the beginning for ice cream sales. You can expect this dessert to be on sale for the next few months.

Produce to buy in May:

Bananas, Grapefruit, Grapes, Kiwi, Lemons, Mangoes, Oranges, Pineapple, Rhubarb, Tangerines.

Waiting until just the right moment to buy something is one of the best things you can do to save money. Unless you need it right away, hold off on any purchase you need to make until it is the best time to buy.

Do you wait until May to purchase any of the above items?

21 Comments Filed Under: Canada Deals, Frugal Living

25 Handmade Gifts Under $5

April 25, 2012

Desiree from the 36th Avenue shares 25 Handmade Gifts Under $5.

My favourites are the Tea Cup Lights and the Baking Kit (pictured above).

10 Comments Filed Under: Do It Yourself, Frugal Living Tagged With: frugal living tips

Why We Spent $850 on a Barbecue

April 24, 2012

We recently purchased an $850 barbecue and when I told a family member, the first thing she said to me was “that’s a lot of money – I thought you were frugal!”.

What she didn’t understand is that we were being frugal by spending that much on a barbecue.

Let me start at the beginning…

A few weeks ago, we were preparing to make dinner on the barbecue. I was greatly looking forward to grilled vegetables and chicken – this was the first time using the barbecue since last summer.

So, you can imagine my dissapointment when my husband went outside to get the food on the grill and came right back inside, saying that the barbecue was completely rusted and unuseable.

That was a sad day.

What went wrong…

The mistake that we made was a year earlier when we purchased that barbecue.

We didn’t do our research. It was late spring and we just wanted to cook outdoors. we wanted burgers and sausage and chicken – all done on the grill.

The problem was that we only had about $150 to spend. We ended up purchasing a cheap, $125 barbecue from Zellers without much thought.

The result was a barbecue that was incredibly difficult to put together, cooked unevenly, and rusted to death in a year’s time.

Starting over…

Thanks to a bonus from my husband’s work, we were able to afford a much better barbecue this time around.

However, instead of just running out and buying whatever we could find, Richard spent hours researching the best barbecues out there.

After a few trips to stores with barbecue sales, we found a few Weber barbecues to consider. Richard did more online research and found that the one we were leaning toward the most was a very good quality barbecue and the price was actually pretty decent.

So, we bought it. With taxes, we spent around $850 for our Weber barbecue. It’s certainly one of the most expensive things we’ve ever purchased, but you know what? It was worth it.

There are some things you should condiser paying full price for, and I now believe a barbecue is one of them.

Have you ever purchased an expensive, but quality item instead of an inexpensive, but poor quality item?

46 Comments Filed Under: Frugal Living

How to Simplify Your Menu Planning Routine

April 14, 2012

How do you save money on food costs in your home? Do you use coupons? Only buy sale items? Purchase items in bulk?

For our family, one of the best ways we save money on grocery items is to plan our menus. Menu planning is a simple task that can be done weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly. It will not only save you money when you go shopping, but will save you a considerable amount of time in the kitchen.

How Menu Planning Works

Menu planning is very easy, I promise. If you want to plan a weekly menu, sit down once a week and write up all of the meals that you will be making for the week coming up. If you are planning for one month, set aside some time at the end of every month to prepare for the month ahead.

Include breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks and desserts. The more detail you include in your menu plan, the easier that meal preparation will be.

Try to create your menus based on what is on sale at your local grocery stores, to save even more money.

The best way to make menu planning work for you is to simplify your menu planning routine. There’s no reason to make a fairly simple task into something complicated and time consuming.

Following are ways to make menu planning easier.

Create your plan once.

Sit down once per week/month to create your menu. It’s best if you do so at the very end of the week/month, to prepare for what’s ahead. It’s also a good idea to prepare your menu plans at the same time every week/month. I create our menu plan every Sunday night and it’s good until the following Sunday.

I also suggest setting a time limit for your menu planning. I’ve noticed that sometimes while I am planning our weekly menu, I will start looking for recipes and come across a new cooking blog that looks interesting, and the next thing you know an hour has gone by and I only have one thing written down on my menu plan.

I now set a limit of 1 hour total to plan our menu for the week. This is more than enough time (it often only takes me about 30 minutes) to get something down on paper.

Get input.

If you are planning a menu for more than just yourself, be sure to include the other person/people in your menu planning process. Ask them if there is something specific they would like to have (or would NOT like to have!) and keep those requests in mind when creating your menu plan.

Purchase ingredients ahead of time.

Once you have created your menu plan, be sure to make a note of which ingredients you will need to purchase to make that plan a success. It’s always best to use what you currently have on hand, but if you are low on food, or only need a handful of items to make your menu plan work, be sure to purchase those items before you need them.

Avoid going to the store every day or every other day to pick up one or two things. Purchase everything you need for the week/month in one shopping trip to save yourself time and money.

Have a list of “recipes to try” and “favourites” handy.

Always keep a binder or folder on your computer full of new recipe ideas that you would like to try, so that you always have inspiration when you are creating your menu plan.

Eating the same meals day in and day out can get boring after awhile, so I encourage you to try making at least one new recipe every week.

It’s also important to keep all of your favourite recipes in one spot as well, so if you are ever stumped for a meal idea, you can just add in one of your favourites.

Have theme nights.

A simple way to make menu planning easier is to have theme nights. For example:

Monday: Stew/Soup
Tuesday: Mexican
Wednesday: Italian
Thursday: Pizza
Friday: Breakfast
Saturday: Crockpot
Sunday: Leftovers or Freezer Meal (Read more about freezer cooking here.)

Theme nights are extremely helpful in simplifying your menu planning routine.

Remember that the point of menu planning is to save yourself time and money. Don’t make the process so complicated that you will dread doing it.

The more simple your menu planning routine, the more likely that you will be able to stick with it and save your family some money.

9 Comments Filed Under: Frugal Living, Simple Living Tagged With: frugal living tips

Is Costco Worth It? (Ask the Readers)

April 10, 2012

A reader, Frances, sent in this question:

I was just wondering if you thought it was worth it to get a Costco membership? Do they take coupons there? Are the deals worth the membership price?

Do you have a Costco membership? Can you answer these questions for Frances? Please share in the comments!

Have a question you’d like to ask the readers of MrsJanuary.com? Send an email.

70 Comments Filed Under: Frugal Living Tagged With: costco canada

How to Fight Frugal Fatigue

March 21, 2012

I’m sure we all experience frugal fatigue at one time or another. You know, the times when we just don’t want to be frugal anymore?! We get tired of making food from scratch every day and would rather just buy it premade. Or we just really want to blow $100 on that pair of jeans we’ve been eyeing – even though there’s not enough in the clothing budget.

If this is you right now, and you’re feeling tired of frugality, here are some ideas to help re-inspire your desire to be frugal:

Make sure your budget is realistic.

Living for today is just as important as living for tomorrow. If you’re throwing as much money as you possibly can into your savings account, it’s possible that you’re feeling fatigued because your budget is not realistic to where you’re at in life today.

Reassess your budget to make sure you’re not shorting yourself on an important aspect of life – having fun! If you’re making your child go hungry at snack time because there’s just not enough in the grocery budget, stop putting so much money away for a rainy day. After all, frugality is about using your resources wisely, not forgoing everything good in life.

Work some indulgence into your budget.

This point goes hand in hand with my last point. If you plan for it, you can spend it. If you work a daily coffee or weekly movie into your budget, by all means spend that money – and don’t feel guilty! I think it’s important to have some regular indulgences just to keep you from feeling like frugality is a burden.

Concentrate your efforts on the area where you see the most savings.

Are you currently implementing every single money saving technique out there? If so, you’re most likely setting yourself up for frugal living burn out. It really is okay to not make everything from scratch or to stop using coupons for every possible thing imaginable. It’s impossible to do it all.

Cut back to the area(s) where you see the most savings and skip the smaller money saving ideas that you don’t enjoy or take more time then they’re worth.

Remind yourself of your goals.

Are you trying to save for a down payment on a home? Or are you anxious to pay cash for your next vehicle? It definitely doesn’t hurt to remind yourself frequently about why you’re living the way you are. Sit down and take a look to see how far you’ve come with your goals. There’s nothing quite like seeing how much progress you’ve made to inspire you to keep going!

Reward yourself every time you meet a milestone.

Celebrating milestones along the way is important. If you’re trying to pay off all of your credit card debt, plan a fun family day (or something else you would enjoy) every time you pay off a credit card. Or, every time you save another $100, put $10 into a vacation fund. Knowing there is a reward each time you accomplish something, can be enough to keep you pressing forward.

What are some of the ways thatyou fight frugal fatigue ?

Taya enjoys the simple pleasures in life, deal hunting and being creative on a budget. She is also a soon to be (end of March!) stay at home mom living in beautiful British Columbia. With the help of her supportive husband Jesse, she writes daily on her website, SimplyFrugal.ca – which is dedicated to making the frugal lifestyle more simple for Canadians.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Frugal Living Tagged With: frugal living tips

7 Frugal Craft Ideas That Won’t Break the Bank

March 13, 2012

Crafting is becoming more and more popular during these penny-pinching times. Many people are realizing that you can make stunning and unique treasures from everyday items in your home, and they’re blogging about how to do it.

Here are some money-saving craft ideas for you – they don’t cost much (if anything), and could be great fun! Most of these ideas were spotted over on Pinterest.

1. Wine cork boards.

Over on Apartment Therapy, they’ve got a neat tutorial on how to make wine cork boards. Creating a cork board out of your old wine corks is a great frugal idea, and looks amazing.

2. Make paper clay.

This paper clay recipe from Dahlhart Lane uses toilet paper, glue and some other craft items to make a pretty cheap alternative to modeling clay, almost like paper mache.

It’s a totally great idea for making some cheap clay that you can use for craft projects, or just having fun with the kids.

3. Create baby leg warmers from dollar store scarves.

On Obsessively Stitching, there’s a great tutorial on how to make baby leg warmers out of inexpensive scarves from the dollar store.

Baby leg warmers are super-fashionable right now, but they’re not always cheap. Making these from dollar store scarves is a fabulous idea to make your baby fashionable, but not break the bank in doing so.

4. Create coloured tape from wrapping paper.

This tutorial on Country Living shows you how to make some really funky coloured tape out of wrapping paper and double sided mounting adhesive.

The results are quite stunning, and totally unique!

5. Paint your kitchen cabinets like a professional.

This one isn’t simple and it will take a bit of time to do it right, but the folks on Evolution of Style have created a tutorial on how to paint your kitchen cabinets.

This would bring a whole new lease of life to your kitchen, and be much cheaper than getting it done by a professional.

6. New seats on old chairs.

This idea from Martha Stewart shows you how to re-do an old chair by making a new seat out of cotton or nylon webbing.

I am imagining excellent colour combinations in the weaved strips – you really could make something beautiful with this idea.

7. Make a rag quilt.

This tutorial from Imperfect Homemaking shows you how to make a beautiful quilt from old cloth and your sewing machine.

This can be a pretty time consuming process, but has really fabulous results. The creator (Kelly) says she stitched it together in one insanely long evening, so she did very well!

There you have it, 7 fabulous ideas for crafty items for your home (that are frugal).

Have you spotted any more crafty ideas that save money?

This is a guest post from Anna, owner of Bargain Moose. Anna regularly writes about money-saving ideas, with a focus on Canadian coupon codes and online shopping deals.

5 Comments Filed Under: Do It Yourself, Frugal Living Tagged With: frugal living tips

The Best Things to Buy in March

March 1, 2012

As I’m sure many of you know, stores follow a yearly sales cycle, so with a few exceptions, you can usually anticipate finding the same products on sale at the same time every year.

Here’s what you can expect to find on sale in March:

Frozen Food

March is National Frozen Food Month, so you can expect to find many great deals on all sorts of frozen food items.

Look for pizzas, prepared meals, fruits & vegetables, meat and more.

Cleaning Supplies

Spring cleaning is on the horizon and stores are getting sales started in March for the folks that like to tackle their cleaning projects early.

Look for glass & window cleaner, furniture polish, all-purpose cleaner, Swiffer kits, cleaning wipes and more.

Paper Products

In keeping with the spring cleaning theme, paper products will be on sale quite often in March to help you clean up messes.

Look for bathroom tissue, paper towels and facial tissue to drop in price this month.

Winter Coats

Now that spring is right around the corner, stores are desperate to sell off any remaining winter wear that they have left in stock – especially winter coats, as they are often the most expensive winter clothing item.

You can expect to find sales of 50% off or more at pretty much every store that carries winter apparel, so whatever you do, don’t pay full price!

Sports Gear

With the weather starting to warm up (in some areas, anyway!), many people will be playing outdoor sports again soon, so stores will be offering discounts on these items.

Look for hockey sticks & pucks, soccer balls/basketballs/footballs, bicycles and more. You can also find sales on skis, ice skates and snowboarding gear.

Luggage

You can typically expect to find luggage on sale during or right after a major holiday. It is believed that March, May and July are the best months to find discounted luggage.

Springtime is also when people start thinking about spring and summer vacations, and will often be looking for deals on luggage. Stores know this and will cater to those customers by offering exciting sales and promotions during the warmer months.

Boats

Many deals are clearing out inventory to make room for new models, so prices will be slashed quite a bit.

If you’re looking to purchase a boat, now may be a very good time to look into buying one.

Air Conditioners

Demand is still pretty low for air conditioners in March and that means that many retailers are selling them at a discount, just to get them off of their shelves.

If you’re planning on picking one up for the summer, now is your last chance to get one on sale. They are going to jump up on price substantially next month.

Barbecues

Just like air conditioners, prices for barbecues are going to skyrocket very soon, so if you’re looking to pick one up at a hefty discount, March is your last chance to do so.

Produce on sale in March:

Bananas, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Lemons, Oranges, Peppers, Pineapple, Rhubarb, Tangerines, Beets, Cabbage, Carrots, Cucumber, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Okra, Onions, Potatoes, Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes