Beating Broke

Celebrate a Frugal Valentine’s Day with Kids

February 1, 2016 By MelissaB 2 Comments

Valentine’s Day is typically an adult holiday, but kids like to get in on the action by exchanging Valentine’s Day cards and candy with friends. As their parent, you can also make Valentine’s Day a special holiday for kids. Best of all, having a fun, memorable Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to cost a lot with these strategies.

Make Valentine’s Day Food

There is so much fun you could have with this one! For a sophisticated experience, you could melt chocolate and let your kids enjoy chocolate fondue. Even better if you have the melting pot and metal skewers. They’ll have fun dipping soft bread and fruits in the chocolate.

Another option is to make Valentine’s Day food. One year, the kids and I made a heart-shaped cake. Other ideas might be making heart-shaped pancakes or cookies. Be creative, and with the help of Pinterest, you won’t be lacking for ideas.

Make Valentine’s Day Decorations

A few days before Valentine’s Day, prepare your house. Cut out hearts from construction paper and string them together to make garland. Drape them around your mantle, your windows, or your door way.

Another simple idea is to get gel clings at the 99 Cent Store or the discount section of Target and decorate the windows with those. Or, take pink, white, and red pieces of tissue paper and cut them out in heart shapes to tape to your window.

Pamper Your Girls

If you have younger girls, they’ll love getting a spa-like experience from mom. Paint their toenails and their fingernails. Do their hair in a pretty, elaborate style. Go all out. They’ll definitely remember the day.

Watch a Movie Together

There are plenty of cute Valentine’s Day shows for kids. Take the time to watch one together. Some fun selections could be Lady and the Tramp, Beauty and the Beast, Shrek, Enchanted, WALL-E, Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, or The Princess Bride.

Have a Fancy Dinner Together at Home

Too often we’re busy, so meals simply become whatever we can throw together quickly. For Valentine’s Day, take the time to make something your kids love but don’t get very often. I used to love lasagna, but my mom thought it was too much work and would only make it for my birthday. I would have been thrilled to get it for Valentine’s Day. Get your kids’ input for a meal that they would love to have you prepare. What better way to show your love for them?

Give Them a Little Goody Basket

You don’t have to go overboard with the sweets on Valentine’s Day, but give them a little goody bag of their favorite treats, like candy hearts, and Hershey’s kisses. Even more fun, turn the search for the goody bag into a scavenger hunt complete with clues.

Make Valentine’s Day Crafts Together

Pinterest to the rescue again! Some fun ideas include making Valentine’s Day book-markers. Simply get a paint sample strip in shades of red or pink and cut out a heart in each color. Add a string at the top, and voila, you have a book marker.

Another cute idea is making a heart-shaped bird feeder to hang in the tree.

With a little creativity, you can design a Valentine’s Day your children will love. Even better, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune!

What are your favorite ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your kids?

Even More Ways to Save on Groceries

January 4, 2016 By MelissaB 5 Comments

Besides your mortgage, your grocery bill may be your next largest expense. Of course, you usually can’t alter your mortgage payment, but with some planning and strategizing, you can alter the amount you spend at the grocery store and save on groceries.

A few months ago, I wrote about the techniques we’re using to keep our grocery bill low for our family of 5 (spending approximately $500 to $600 per month even with food intolerances to gluten, dairy, and corn). We’ve learned a few more strategies to lower our grocery bill that I thought I’d share with you, especially since it seems like the price of grocery is on the rise again.

Stop by the grocery store whenever you’re driving by. I know the “experts” say to go in the grocery store as little as possible. Many of them recommend shopping just every two weeks or once a month. However, if you’re a disciplined shopper, I recommend stopping by the store every time you drive by. Why? I only buy eggs on clearance for .99 a dozen. I also buy organic chicken when it is close to its sell by date and marked down by 50% or more. If I stop by the store whenever I drive by (every couple of days, usually), I have a better chance of finding these deals. If nothing is on clearance, I simply leave empty-handed. I don’t buy eggs or meat if they’re not on sale, or ideally, on clearance.

Don’t just take sandwiches for lunch. My husband packs his lunch every day. However, he never packs a sandwich. Instead, whenever I see clearance chicken fajita meat, sausage, or other meats, I buy those. He cooks something up on Sunday, like three sausages I found on clearance, and then he brings some every day along with a grain, veggies, and a fruit or two. His flexibility and willingness to move beyond sandwiches and my bargain shopping skills mean he saves a lot when packing his lunch.

Consider having a separate meat budget. I just learned about this technique, and I plan to start utilizing it. Say you have $500 a month for groceries. The idea is that you set aside a certain amount, maybe $50 or $100 a month, solely for meat. The rest you spend on your other groceries. If you’re able to save up $500 or $600 in the meat fund, you might buy a ¼ side of beef, which you’ll likely get at a much cheaper price than at the grocery store. Then, you eat that meat and start saving again for your next bulk purchase of meat. Eventually, you’ll have a deep freezer full of healthy, lower cost meat direct from the farmer.

Slowly buy in bulk. I have consciously started buying in bulk to lower our grocery costs. I’ve had to do this slowly because we don’t have a lot of wiggle room in the budget. Gluten free oats cost $2 a pound, and that’s when they’re on sale! Instead, I bought a 50 pound bag of gluten free oats for $61. That is $1.22 a pound, which is cheaper than I could ever buy them at the store. Then, I bought a 25 pound bag of pinto beans for $12.50, or .50 a pound, which is again cheaper than the rock bottom price I can get at the store. Just remember when buying in bulk not to buy items you really don’t want to use or won’t be able to finish before they get stale.

What are your favorite techniques to lower your grocery bill?

Some Years, No New Debt Is Reason To Celebrate

December 14, 2015 By MelissaB 4 Comments

When you’re in debt, it’s easy to be hard on yourself.

You shouldn’t have let yourself go into so much debt.

You weren’t smart with your money.

You’re not paying off the debt fast enough.

On and on we berate ourselves.

It’s even easier to do this at the end of the year when you feel financial pressure to buy gifts for not only family members, but associates, hired help, etc.

In addition, if you’re anything like me, you may have set some lofty goals last January that you could not achieve.

Our Lofty Goals

Last January, I could see nothing but clear horizons. I set some ambitious financial goals (for our financial situation).

I wanted to put at least $3,000 in our emergency fund.
I wanted to save $1,000 for a family vacation.
I wanted to save $3,000 for a new-to-us car.

Guess how many of those financial goals I accomplished? None!

Guess how many I partially accomplished? None!

Sometimes Finances Are Just about Survival

What I could not see that fine January morning when I set my goals was that we were on the precipice of a financial cliff.

Within just a few weeks of setting the goals, we experienced a number of financial difficulties.

My husband had to get a root canal and a crown at the cost of almost $600.
I had to see a periodontist and several dentists for a cyst on my gum that finally resulted in a root canal in April and a corrected filling. The cost of all the treatment was approximately $700.
Our daughter had to have several fillings filled and then later had to have a tooth pulled. $300. (This was a special year for dentistry; I promise, our teeth aren’t as bad as this year makes it sound!)
Our car needed a $1,500 repair.
Our car needed new tires. $700.
My son needed braces. We saved and paid the first $900 out of pocket. In a few months, we’ll need to come up with another $900, and then we’ll be on a payment plan with zero interest for the rest.
Our 18 year old A/C unit was leaking Freon, causing one electric bill to be $150 more than normal, and we also paid $200 to have it serviced for a grand total of $350.

In short, this year was a financial disaster as far as paying off debt went. This year was all about financial survival mode.

And that’s okay. Some years you can’t be gazelle intense or even pay any extra on your debt because you’re too busy just surviving.

Even though the year didn’t go the way we had planned, at all, it wasn’t a complete wash financially.

The good news is that we learned more creative ways to stretch our money even further. We’ll continue to implement those strategies this upcoming year.

The even better news is that we didn’t acquire any new debt.

Sometimes, treading water is the best you can do. Overall, for this year, I’m happy with that.

If you’re paying off debt, did you make the progress you wanted to this year, or did you have a year like ours?