Are You A Compulsive Shopper?

So many people have gotten themselves into serious financial trouble because of their addiction to shopping. They will max out credit cards for shoes in every color of the rainbow with matching handbags.

Those of us who live frugal lifestyles often scoff at these shopping fanatics. Yet, being a frugal person is not without its risks, too. Sometimes frugal shoppers get so excited about their bargain hunting, they spend money they don't need to spend on things they don't really need just because it's a "great deal." It's very easy for a frugal person to get caught up in the concept of "spending to save." You spend money stocking up on a "great buy" because it will save you money in the long run. You end up with little cash in your pocket and a hall closet overrun with shampoo and deodorant because you get nervous you may run out before the next big sale.

Shopaholics Anonymous has some great resources to help you determine if you are taking your shopping habits too far. The website can help you identify if you have a problem, along with some potential solutions. Some signs that you may be a compulsive shopper are shopping when you are angry, scared or upset, feeling guilty or ashamed after a shopping trip/hiding purchases, using credit cards to buy things because you don't have the cash, thinking about money incessantly, or buying things simply because they are a good deal. Some people buy things to fill an emotional void; others get caught up in the "thrill of the hunt." There are many reasons why people develop this type of addiction.

You can take this quiz to see if you are a compulsive shopper. Be sure to seek professional help if you feel shopping is an addiction for you. Compulsive Shopping affects approximately 6 percent of the population.

The bottom line is to make sure that you are buying things for the right reasons. You must decide if you really need something before making a purchase. Sometimes this means waiting a day or two or longer to determine your motivation for buying the item. Sometimes this means recognizing that you have enough stuff.

Overcoming a shopping addiction is something you must do in order to get out of debt and live a better life. But as you learn to live a more frugal lifestyle, don't let yourself obsess over your savings. You need to have balance in your life. It's not healthy to take things to extremes.

Free Style Chicken Biscuit or Sandwich at McDonalds

McDonald's will be giving away the new Southern Style Chicken Biscuit or the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich with the purchase of a beverage on Thursday, May 15.

McDonald's is using the question "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" to launch the advertising campaign for their new additions to the breakfast and lunch menus. The website, which outlines the May 15th deal, allows you to settle the debate with a "dance off" between chicken and egg, that you can personalize with photos of friends and family. So even if you don't want to try the new menu items, you can still be entertained for free.

Check Out This Great "Family" Deal!

And to think of all the money I spent on my twins and my toddler! I should have just waited for the sale. :-) LOL.

This just goes to show that you should be sure to do your research... and just because it's a sale doesn't mean it's a good deal. You have to think of the upkeep! (Unless you're into that unconditional love thing... then of course, there's no bargaining!)

All joking aside, I wish all of the Moms reading this a very Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy those babies because they grow up so fast!

Review: Dining on a Dime Cook Book

I don't know if I can even call this a review, because I can't be impartial. I LOVE this book.

"Dining on a Dime Cook Book" by Tawra Kellam and Jill Cooper teaches you how to eat better and spend less. Their book explains how to shop smarter and cook simpler meals.

The 478-page book is loaded with frugal recipes for feeding your family. It also includes recipes for homemade cleaners, health and beauty items (like lip balm), kids activities (like tub crayons), and gift ideas.

What I love the most about Dining on a Dime, is that there are loads of money and time saving tips at the beginning of each chapter. These authors are real people with real families, and they understand that people don't have a lot of time.

I was afraid when I bought this book, it would be a rehash of a lot of the tips on frugal cooking that I've read and recipes on 70 ways to make beans. But that wasn't the case at all. The book inspired me to try a few new things - such as cutting back on the amount of meat in my recipes. I typically buy family packs of 6 pounds of ground beef. I then re-package them and freeze them in individual one-pound packages. If I packaged them by 3/4 of a pound instead of 1 pound, I could get two extra meals out of a family pack of ground beef. Over the course of a year, that could save a lot of money. It would also be good for my family's health.

The recipes are yummy: Hawaiian Chicken Wings, Stacked Enchiladas, French Onion Soup, and more. Many of the recipes include additional tips, such has adding a tablespoon of sugar to a recipe that is too spicy for your taste.

I highly recommend this book and think it would make a great gift for a new bride or even an accomplished frugalite. The recipes are simple and inexpensive to make and the information is extremely useful.

Counting Calories

Sometimes when I think about living a frugal lifestyle, I'm struck by its similarities to dieting. Both require extreme self-discipline. Both require attention to detail. Both are difficult.

I'm currently on a quest to get more exercise. My current goal is to do some form of exercise 30 minutes a day, three times a week. I plan to extend that time as I get more in shape. Eventually I will be attacking my less than stellar diet. But for now, I am working on fitness. One of the biggest things I've learned about being debt-free (except for my house) is that it is best to set specific, realistic goals. If I can have some success at the smaller goals, I can build momentum to attack the larger ones.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a dork. I like numbers. I like statistics. So I like Calories Per Hour. This FREE website has calculators that will tell you how many calories you burned doing a particular activity (30 minutes of computer typing burns 51 calories - WOO HOO!).

Calories Per Hour also has calculators to help you figure out how many calories your consuming and how long it will take you to reach your weight loss goal. I like that I can see exactly how my activity is adding up to help me reach my goals.

This healthy and frugal lifestyle stuff seems simple enough. To lose weight, simply expend more calories than you consume. To have personal financial success, you must earn more than you spend. These two things are similar and they both require major self-discipline. The key to success is to keep your eyes on the end result. Never lose site of the goals.

If this were easy, we'd all be rich and skinny. Time to go lace up my sneakers.

Learning to Sell on eBay

I've been an eBay customer for year, but I've never sold anything. I've wanted to learn how to sell things on eBay for a long time, but didn't really know how to begin. In fact, my husband even got me the book, "eBay Business All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies" by Marsha Collier as a gift about two years ago.

The book is very comprehensive... but instead of instilling confidence in me, it intimidated me. So I procrastinated. Then my friend Marta started selling stuff, and encouraged me to try it. Still didn't do it.

I finally put "Learn to sell on eBay" on my list of monthly goals for April. And wouldn't ya know it? My local community college listed a continuing ed course entitled "Buying and Selling Online" in an advertisement the very same day.

I decided to sign up for the 6-hour course. While I didn't learn anything I couldn't figure out on my own, I'm still glad I took the class. First of all, it gave me the nudge I needed. Our homework was to actually list an item for auction. And it was a much-needed mom's night out for a few weeks. I finished the class feeling much more confident and inspired to use eBay to clear out my clutter.

The item I listed in class didn't sell. But I re-listed it and it sold the second time. I didn't break any sales records, but it was still good to know I cleared at least one thing out of my cabinets.

I plan to list more things - particularly some baby stuff - when I get more time. It's all part of my plan to reduce the amount of clutter in my house and raise a little spending cash.

My eBay experience taught me a valuable lesson: Be willing to try new things. They may not be as difficult as you thought they would be.

Stamp Out Hunger

Editor's Note: The following post is written by frugal friend and guest blogger Susan.

I have always been a frugal gal but things have gotten a little out of hand lately. Between this Northern Cheapskate and Freebies4Mom I have been racking up coupons and free items like I never have before! I have used coupons to purchase things I normally don’t use under the guise of “Oh, I’ll try it now that it’s free or almost free." I also can’t seem to get away from that Mid-Western voice in my head that says “It’s free! It’s un-American to turn it down!”

The end result is that I have all sorts of stuff I am not going to use AND I am short on cabinet space. What’s a frugal-ite to do?

The answer came in the mail today. I got a postcard from my postal carrier about their Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Details can be found at http://www.helpstampouthunger.com/.

The short story is that if you put non-perishable things in a plastic bag in your mailbox on Saturday May 10th, your postal carrier will take it away for you and donate it to a local food pantry! They only ask that it not be expired (of course) and not be in glass (Messy trucks are bad for the Monday delivery). The web site also says that most, but not all, post offices participate and if you want to check to see if yours is call 1-800-ASK-USPS.

I know our local food banks take personal care items in addition to food so I am putting in my tube of Aquafresh along with my 3 boxes of Chocolate Honey Bunches of Oats.

Does this make up for the cost of stamps going up the next day? NO! But I now won’t feel so bad on my next trip to the store with a fist full of coupons for things I normally don’t buy. And hey, I didn’t waste any gas going to the food pantry.

Editor's Note: Susan's idea for all your extra freebies is a very good one! I know that my local food bank really appreciates the personal care items because it is difficult and expensive for them to obtain them. Food banks and shelters are a great place to donate items you've gotten for free or almost free - such as toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and deodorant. Don't forget to donate those extra free samples you get in the mail and unopened hotel shampoos and soaps.

ECFE and Recipes for Kid Stuff

My sons and I attend Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) classes once a week during the school year. My boys have a great time, and I really enjoy "parent time" as well. ECFE classes are definitely worth every penny. I've learned so much and made new friends. My sons are learning things, making friends and having fun.

One of the things I've learned from ECFE is how to look at things with new eyes. So many times people get caught up in the thinking that all things fun must come from a toy store. I've learned to see new life in paper plates, coffee cans, and empty milk cartons.

I've also learned about new resources in the community - such as the Children's Fair we went to a couple of weekends ago. My kids had a GREAT time at the carnival and they got loads of wonderful goodies - books, sunglasses, beach balls, toys... we'll definitely go back next year.

Probably one of the most helpful things ECFE has taught me is how to keep my kids entertained on rainy days when there's nothing to do and not a lot of money. The staff has happily shared with me their recipes and ideas for art projects.

I thought I would share a couple of the recipes they gave me. (Keep in mind: these are the recipes they use for their classes, so they do produce large quantities. If you don't have a lot of kids, you may want to reduce the recipes.)

Homemade Play Dough
3 cups flour
1-1/2 cups salt
1/4 cup oil
3 cups water
3 tbs Cream of Tartar
food coloring/Kool Aid

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. Heat water to boil, food coloring and oil. Carefully pour boiling water into dry ingredients, stir. As mixture becomes cool enough to touch, mix with hands. Turn out onto counter and continue kneading until all ingredients have been mixed through. Store in an air-tight baggie. Will keep for quite awhile. When play dough starts to crumble, make a new batch.

Bubble Solution
1/3 dish soap or baby shampoo
1-1/4 cup water
drop of food coloring (optional)
2 tsp of sugar

Combine ingredients and pour into an unbreakable bottle. To blow bubbles, experiment using plastic straws, pipe cleaners formed into loops, strawberry baskets from the grocery store, slotted spoons or any other items you can think of.

Check Out Grocery Gathering for Savings

BeCentsAble has been developing a great new feature called "The Grocery Gathering."

Grocery Gathering matches sale prices with printable coupons and coupons from the Sunday inserts to help you get the best deals. The site is FREE and has listings for dozens of stores. It's updated every Monday and Thursday. The best part about it is that the site is interactive, so if there's a deal you found, you can easily share it with others. It's slowing turning into a great little money-saving community. Their mission is to be a one-stop shop for grocery savings.

Visit Grocery Gathering this week and tell them what you think and participate on the site for a chance to win a $100 and many other prizes.

$10 off Enfamil A.R. LIPIL Coupon

UPDATED: The coupon has been claimed and will be shipped out just as soon as Dave e-mails me his address. Thanks for the response!

The other day when I was at Target, the cash register spit out a really good coupon with my receipt.... but unfortunately it's for a product I don't use!

So, I thought I would pass it on to one of you!

The coupon is for $10 off a 24-oz. Enfamil A.R. LIPIL powder infant formula. It expires 6/30/2008.

Remember, you can combine Target coupons with a manufacturer coupon, so if you have some of those formula checks from Enfamil's Family Beginnings Program, you'll be able to buy the formula for super cheap.

The first person to e-mail me will get the coupon. I'll update this post when it has been claimed.