Tomorrow when I put gas in my car, I’ll be taking advantage of my 10 cent per gallon discount from Kroger! This is one of the best deals around if you’re shopping at Kroger anyway. In this area, if you spend $100 @ Kroger in one month, you can save 10 cents/gallon (up to 20 gallons) on gas. It’s only good for me if they have some really good sales, because any other time they’re just too high-priced for my blood.

Wally World has a decent deal too if you’re already in the store and able to put money on a gift card. If you pay for gas with their gift card you get a 3 cents discount on each gallon you purchase. Using their credit card is not a good deal, unless you pay your balance off every month. The finance charges do much more damage than that 3 cent discount does good.

There are other stations that sell the ‘cheaper’ gas, but they do not run well in my car. You have to be careful and pay attention to how your car performs when purchasing fuel at different places. If your car doesn’t run as well when you buy from a certain place, then your gas mileage is going down. You’re not saving any money that way. Also, it’s not just the ‘cheaper’ places that can have ‘bad’ gas, so buyer beware!

Friendship Cake, Chocolate Covered Pretzels

This year, money’s tight with almost everyone I know. I always make cookies and candy for family and friends, but this year I’m giving homemade gifts to everyone on my list! I thought I’d pass on some of the gift ideas I’ll be using this year:

• All year long, I buy cheap containers from the Dollar Tree and anywhere else I run onto them. Canning jars are a good choice and sometimes you can even find them at yard sales during the summer. Fill your container, tie a simple bow (ribbon, raffia, piece of fabric) around the neck and you have a charming gift for anyone.
• For baskets or boxes, cookies are a wonderful choice. A box of decorated gingerbread people make a unique gift that can be quite impressive depending on your decorating skills!
  

  White Chocolate Macademia Nut Cookies

• For smaller glass containers, pre-wrapped candies like the starlight mints or butterscotch discs are my favorite.
• For the canning jars, the RazzleDazzle recipe site has a bunch of ‘recipe in a jar’ choices. They’ve even been kind enough to make up gift tags that you can print out! I love it!
• Fresh baked breads (like banana or pumpkin) and muffins make a welcome gift, and they’re relatively inexpensive to make. Plastic wrap and some curly ribbon are all you  need for wrapping!

• 

  holiday pretzels

  Chocolate dipped pretzels and peanuts topped with colorful sprinkles usually end up as someone’s gift.

• Remember to save those Christmas cards! They can be cut with decorative scissors and used for festive gift tags.
• Tissue paper can fill up an empty spot in boxes, bags or any other container you’re filling with home baked goodies. You can usually find it at a more reasonable price at one of the dollar stores (like Dollar Tree -my favorite!)
• An inexpensive ornament or cookie cutter tied into the ribbon makes a homemade gift even more special!

Happy gift giving!

I remember when Sam’s Club opened and everyone that could get a membership rushed in to buy those huge packs of paper towels and toilet paper and save some big money! Buying in bulk became the way to save money. People just began taking it for granted that if you bought the larger size, you’d automatically be saving money.

Boy have things changed.

It’s everywhere. Not just one store. Not just the name brands. The generic and store label brands are doing it too. They’re all trying to catch us not looking. I regularly check the price tags that show the unit price simply because I just don’t think much of Wally World anymore. Well, between the electric bills and the sky high gas prices, I was really p.o.’d when I realized what they were doing. It wasn’t like the shrinking cereal boxes that you can’t help but notice. They were doing it in way a lot of people might not even notice. My Mom doesn’t check the unit price tag and she hadn’t noticed what they were doing until I pointed it out to her. That day it was pickle relish. Buying the large size would have cost 30 cents more than buying 2 smaller jars that totaled the same weight. Ugh!

I really try to watch everything now. We can’t afford to take anything for granted these days. I need that 30 cents more than Wally World does.

My kids love spaghetti! They would eat it everyday if I’d let them. The only problem with this is that one likes it with sauce and one likes it without. I’ve learned the best way to keep leftover spaghetti in the refrigerator is to place it in an airtight container with water covering the noodles. If the kids want it the next day for lunch or in the evening for supper, they can drain what they need and reheat it with spaghetti sauce or butter. It’s much more appetizing this way and I don’t end up throwing it out like I used to. This works for any type of plain pasta and it stays good for a couple of days in the refrigerator.

One of my favorite frugal tips is about how I got rid of my extremely frustrating banking issues. My finances are almost always tight and I like to keep an close eye on everything. Online banking allows me to be sure I know where my money  is going.

First: All banks are not created equal. You have to shop around to find the best deal you can.  I use two different banks,  15 minutes away from me in different directions. One closes at 4:00 every day and isn’t open on Saturday. The other is open until 5:30 and on Saturday they’re open from 7:30-1:00. Neither bank charges for the checking account, statements or online banking. I got a free order of checks and a free debit card from one. One gave me $25 in a new savings account when I opened my checking account. I love my banks.

By paying my bills online:

• I don’t pay check charges.
• I don’t bounce checks.
• I rarely buy stamps for any bills.
• I don’t have to worry about my payment being delivered on time.
• The banks that I use have real-time updates and I always know exactly what I’ve got to spend.

I really recommend online banking. I love it and it’s made a huge difference in my life. I don’t stay aggravated nearly as much as I did when I was mailing checks and balancing a checkbook.

Today turned out just like the rest of the Thursdays I’ve been having lately. Once again, I was back to H&R Block to try and get the final exam taken. Once again, things didn’t turn out like they should have. One would think that if someone was paying you for a class and all you had to do was complete one case study to make sure their work was correct before they took the exam; you’d get it done. This was the third week in a row that I’ve been up there and it still ended up the same way. I don’t know if I’ll go back or not.

Then, I go out to the car and call the lady about my college stuff. She’s out to lunch, call back later please. I go home, wait an hour and call back. She left early. She had a meeting to go to. Okay. I’ll call back tomorrow.

Whatever.

My family loves to read. For my kids, getting their first library card was a huge event. There is no better deal out there than the one offered by your local library. After years of visiting our library, I finally took the time to find out about the movie rentals they offer. For the small sum of $5 I now have the option to check out movies as well as books! We are enjoying this so much and I wish I had taken advantage of it earlier. My kids have been through every season of ‘Bones’ and I just finished season 3 of ‘24′. We can’t afford the movie theatre prices, but we’re really enjoying our DVD watching and the best part is… we have a pause button!

I’ve decided to go after an Office Assistant Diploma instead of an Associates Degree in Communications. The deciding factor turned out to be the green stuff, or the lack thereof. An Associates would have left me owing at least $6000. An Office Assistant Diploma should leave me with some Pell Grant money to help buy everything I need. So, between the money and the need to be able to do everything online, that’s where I’ve ended up. I have to call the lady on Thursday and let her know what I’ve decided.

If you use dryer sheets in the clothes dryer, try tearing them in half and using just one half per load. It’s really all you need and now the box will last you twice as long!

I pulled out my old sandwich maker a few weeks ago, cleaned it up, oiled it up, burned it off and put it to work. I have a kid who could have lived on Hot Pockets if I could have afforded to let her do it. We used up the last of the shaved ham and cheese slices in the fridge and she’s decided she could probably live on these now too. Now we have pepperoni slices and pizza sauce so we can make our own (inexpensive) Hot Pockets! Thank goodness we have all that bread in the freezer!