Frugal Friday: Frugal Halloween

Happy Frugal Friday!  I have found many great frugal halloween ideas on pinterest that I wanted to share... ideas for costumes, decor, and kids crafts :)  Enjoy!

                                DIY halloween costumes:

frugal mantel ideas:

frugal halloween home decor:

frugal kid crafts:

And of course... some pictures of my cute kids :)

opps forgot to put on her black tights!   

spiderman pumpkin

Frankenstein pudding

Happy Frugal Friday :)

Frugal Friday

Meal planning and grocery shopping:

I've been intrigued by a blog I recently found on pinterest.  It's about a family of 4 who spends $50 on groceries each week... she does a weekly blog about meals and what she buys at the store.  You can read more here.  I thought it would be a fun frugal friday :) 

  

This week I shopped at Kroger because they were having some good deals.  Plus I love the fact that they double all coupons $.50 and below.  This week I spent $50 and got everything pictured here, which includes the $9 I spent on k-cups so I think I did pretty good.  I almost never buy pop, but I got it for $.50 with a coupon for pepsi next and figured I could bring it to House Party or if we have guests that want something other than milk, water, or lemonade.  :)  

Some highlights of my trip were:

wolf brand chili for $.20 each with doubled coupons

rotel for $.30 each with doubled coupons

bread and hoagie rolls for $.49 each 

3 packs of organic chicken for under $3 each with coupons 

2 tubes of crest toothpaste FREE with doubled coupons

12.8 oz of multigrain cheerios for $2.50  (the 9 oz box was over $3...I think I stared at the sign in confusion for 10 minutes)

Meals:

dinners:

Monday- Matt and I made cheesy chicken spaghetti for our awesome House Party :)

Tuesday- tilapia, stuffed mushrooms, and broccoli 

Wednesday- veggies and fruit (Matt was gone for a meeting so it was just me and the kids)

Thursday- turkey, cheesy potatoes, and green beans (had 2 couples over from church) 

Friday- meatball subs and leftover cheesy potatoes

Saturday- eating at church

Sunday- Mexican chicken over tortilla chips

lunches:

pb and j sandwiches

grilled cheese sandwiches 

soup

ramen noodles

leftovers

breakfasts:

eggs and toast 

cereal and fruit

Happy Frugal Friday! :)

Frugal Friday.... frugal babies :)

A while ago, there was a pregnant flash mob to the song "Baby".  I thought it was so cute!  You can check it out here.  Anytime I would hear the song "baby" I would think of this video and one day I said to Matt, "Do you know the name of the lady who sings that song?"  To which he laughed and replied "It's a 15 year old boy named Justin Bieber."  :)

Today's frugal Friday is all about babies because they can be expensive, but they don't have to be!

Here are some frugal tips to keep costs down with babies:

1) Breastfeed!!!

(sorry Matt, Covenant Eyes won't be happy with this google search) 

For me, breastfeeding was pretty brutal in the beginning.  I gave it up with Warrick when he was only 4 weeks old, but I was able to nurse Tynnley for 10 months.  If it's hard for you as well, rest assured... it gets easier each day and you will be happy that you kept it up.  (And call a lactation consultant, they can save your sanity!)  After I stopped nursing Warrick, I was in for a rude awakening financially.  He ate 2 1/2 cans of formula each week (at $22 each!)  That was $55 added to our grocery bill each week.  It is insane how much formula costs.  And if money alone doesn't do it for you, here is what webmd says about breastfeeding:  "Breast-feeding lowers your child's risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and many types of infections and allergies. Breast milk may also help protect your child from some health problems, such as eczema, obesity, asthma, and diabetes.^1, 2

Breast-feeding has benefits for you too. You may recover from pregnancy, labor, and delivery sooner if you breast-feed. You may also lower your risk for certain health problems, such as breast cancer.^1"  

2) Use cloth diapers.

I was never this adventurous, but I can only imagine how much money I would have saved!  If there is ever a baby Robinson #3, I will try my hand at it.    

3) Make your own baby food.  

I recently read a friends blog where she made a TON of baby food for only $13.23!!!  This was taken from her blog:  

I ended up with 7 full ice cube trays (one is not pictured).  Here is what I made. 

• carrots
• carrots, sweet potato and cauliflower
• mashed potato and peas
• sweet potatoes
• apples
• pears
• banana avacado (*not pictured)

Here is the cost break down of what I spent.

2.5 lbs of sweet potatoes ($2.15)
3 lbs of carrots ($.78)
1 avocado ($1.24)
2.5 lbs of apples ($2.35)
1 russet potato ($.59)
2.27 lbs of pears ($3.34)
1 head of cauliflower (2.78)
1/4 bag of frozen peas (I already had it in the freezer)
1banana (already had on hand) 
Total = $13.23

All of that made 112 cubes of food.  That's  224 ounces.  I should have enough to last through most of October.  

You can read Kelly's entire baby food making process here.  

4) Shop consignment stores or off-season sales.  I have found amazing clothes and baby needs second hand for a fraction of the cost as new and in great shape!  And my kids spit up and stained everything they owned from birth until 5 months, so why would I spend $45 on that cute Gap sweater?

Have other frugal baby suggestions?  I'd love to hear them.  

Frugal Friday!

Frugal Friday: cut the cable!

When Warrick was 4 months old, I started working part-time.  I had been working full-time before then so we knew we'd have to do a lot of cut-backs to make it work.  One of the first things we did was cut the cable.  We had been spending around $60 per month with directv.

And we've never looked back... we love not having cable.  We would watch a lot more TV if we still had cable.  We spent $5 on a converter box and $60 on an antenna.  And we get about 26 channels.  There are a couple shows I enoy watching on TLC and abcfamily that I still watch, but I can watch them online for free.  We also have a netflix account that my brother got me for my birthday, thanks Ryan!!!  So we definitely aren't feeling "deprived" and we are saving $720 per year.

And... who needs cable when your kids provide you with plenty of entertainment??  :)

Happy Frugal Friday!!!