Northern Cheapskate: November 2007

Thursday, November 29, 2007

The fur's flying

My little Cairn Terrier had grown quite hairy, and so, yesterday, with the help of my mom, I gave her a haircut.

I have no training in dog grooming whatsoever. But my Molly Dog was very patient with me, and she looks decent with her new 'do.

I saved myself $30 and the hassle of taking her to the groomer. Not bad for about 45 minutes of work.

P.S. Next time I'll pick a short-haired dog that never needs grooming. Hee hee!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

I love the bread store!!

My community has a Sara Lee bread outlet. They sell day-old or about-to-be day-old bread items, spices, snacks, etc. They have GREAT prices. On Tuesdays, you can take an additional 10% off your total, and on Saturdays they give you double stamps (they have a frequent buyer reward program).

I have a huge chest freezer (you have to when you live in the country), and so I just throw it all in the freezer until I am ready to use it.

Last week I got 12 loaves of Sara Lee bread and two packages of hamburger buns for $10. 80. If I had made the same purchase at a grocery store, it would have cost me $40 or more.

I love the bread store!!!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Coupon mania

About the time we moved to our new house was when I first read Mary Hunt's "Live Your Life for Half the Price." The biggest piece of information I gathered from that book was about grocery shopping. Hunt suggests stocking your pantry by watching for sale items. Buy enough items to last until the next sale. This way you won't run out of something and be forced to run to the store and pay full price. You can "shop" from your well-stocked pantry.

The trick is to watch the sales and match them with coupons to get the best deal. Of course, stocking your pantry does take a little up-front money, but once you've got a good stash, you can go a long time without going to the store (a real benefit when you live in the northwoods like me!)

There is a GREAT website called Couponmom.com. You have to register, but it's totally free. Once you're registered you can see what coupons to use at what stores to get the best deal. Stephanie Nelson has bargain information for stores like Target, Wal-Mart, and Walgreens, as well as grocery stores all over the country. Her mission is to help you save money, and hopefully, you will use your new bargain hunting skills to help cut out hunger by donating some of those finds to your local charity.

Bottom line: With a little research, you can find ways to get items for free or next to free.

A financial wake-up call

A couple of weeks ago my hubby and I met with a financial advisor to find out if we were on track for retirement. He gave us an exercise to do that involved us figuring out a budget. It's been awhile since we've had a written budget. What a wake-up call!! The exercise showed us that we were spending just slightly more than we made each month.... in essence, we were slowly bleeding our savings to death. And the thing is, we weren't even spending extravagantly or anything. This was just everyday living expenses. If I was even going to consider staying home with the kids, I had to make some changes.

Here are some things we did to make our monthly cash flow a little better:

Raised our car insurance deductibles to $1,000. This will save us approximately $20/month.

Stopped paying an extra $100/month on our mortgage. I was sad to stop this, but I know that when we have a little more money we can start that again.

Changed our allowances on our W-2 forms so that we wouldn't get such a big tax return. This put an extra $78 in our pockets each month.

So... we should have a little more breathing room now. If you've never taken a good close look at your finances, I recommend it. The results may surprise you and force you do some creative thinking.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Useful Blogs and Websites

The following is a list of useful blogs and websites that I either subscribe to or read on a regular basis. The sites are listed in alphabetical order under each category. I hope that you'll take the time to check out these valuable resources:

The Latest Deals and Steals (the Forums):

The Deal-Finders (Sites that find the best freebies, coupons, and deals)

Frugal Reading to Inspire You

Sites to help you make (or win) some extra money:

And of course, I must admit to a little shameless nepotism with these blogs:

*MinnesotaBrown*
Rudstrom Family Blog
RealGoodBlog
KAXE Blogs
Shel Belle Scraps
(Note: this list was last updated 7/03/09)

Happy Saving!

About the Northern Cheapskate

Who am I?

I'm a stay-at-home mom of three boys ages three and under (a three-year-old and one-year-old twins.) I love finding deals, using coupons, and saving money. I believe in personal responsibility and debt-free living.

What do I write about?

I write about coupons, freebies, money-saving tips, living a frugal lifestyle... basically, I write about anything that has to do with you and your money.

Where are you?

I live in the woods of northern Minnesota. The photos in my blog header were taken in my backyard. (How cool is that!?)

When do you find the time to blog?
I try to squeeze in blog writing early in the morning and later in the evening... when the stars are aligned just right, sometimes my kids let me sneak a post or two in during the afternoon! Blogging has become a hobby of mine, and of course, there's always time to find ways to save money!

Why do you keep this blog?

I started this blog to keep my brain from turning to mommy mush when I became a stay-at-home mom. I keep writing because it is important to me to help others live the life they want by living frugally. I love sharing deals with you and hearing exciting ways you are making a difference in your personal finances.

Favorite/Most Popular Posts
For those of you who may be new to Northern Cheapskate, please check out some of my favorite/most popular posts:

My Personal Finance Tipping Point

Why a Recession is Good for Us

How I Became a Stay-at-Home Mom

Don't Let Target Deny Your Coupons

Saving Money On Food

How I Shop: A Tutorial For Saving On The Basics

Reflections on Making My Own Baby Food

Northern Cheapskate has also been featured in several news articles and stories, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune, KARE 11 TV, Duluth News Tribune and KAXE 91.7 FM. Read more about the free publicity I've gotten in these posts:

Free Publicity

Northern Cheapskate in the News

Shameless Self-Promotion: Northern Cheapskate Featured in Duluth News Tribune

Coupon Quest, one of my husband's columns from the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

I've also won five blog awards. Read about them here and here.

Help spread the word about Northern Cheapskate! Tell a friend, or grab the code and post this badge on your blog.

I value your comments and encourage you to contact me with tips, coupons, freebies, and article ideas.

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You can also listen to Northern Cheapskate on KAXE 91.7 FM radio on Monday mornings at 6:50 a.m. KAXE is a community public radio station that also does live audio-streaming on the internet here.

Thanks for reading!

Black Friday savings

Well, all three children "slept in" until 7 a.m. on Friday. Woo hoo! I ended up saving a lot of money on Black Friday because by the time I got to the local Wal-mart, almost everything on my list was gone. This is a good thing, because the things on my list were not necessities. I did score a few good deals, and we were able to get several strings of LED Christmas lights at Lowes. My hubby is a Christmas lighting junkie, and I'll be thrilled to save on my power bill. Even better- my electric company is offering rebates on your power bill with the switch to LED Christmas lights.

Bringing all three kids is also a good way to save money. They don't have much patience for browsing!

A baby experiment

Well, thanks to a GREAT coupon code from Want Not for $20 off a purchase at BabyCenter.com, I decided to make the great leap into making my own baby food. I bought 8 sets of baby food storage containers. We'll see how it goes!

I was interested in making my own baby food with my first child, but never had the time because I was working full-time (it was all I could do to feed myself and my husband!). I think that it will be much more worth the effort now that I have twins and I'm home all the time. My rough (very rough) calculations show that I could save as much as 50 percent on baby food. What really got me motivated to try this was that I saw that I could buy a POUND of sweet potatoes for the same price as ONE LITTLE JAR of prepared baby food.

I'll keep you posted on the great experiment.

Happy Thanksgiving... again!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I've been busy visiting with family and friends (something I am so thankful for!) so I haven't gotten a chance to post. We're celebrating Thanksgiving with my parents later today, so I'm extra thankful for another day that I don't have to cook!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Frugal Philosophy

I have always been a saver. Ever since I was a little kid, I would squirrel away money for things. But after college and a house purchase, it got harder to do things without debt.

Debt REALLY bothers me... I mean, I HATE IT. I can't stand owing anybody anything. It's painful for me. I have NEVER carried a balance on my credit cards - that's how much I hate debt.

About six years ago (the first time I ever had a car payment and my husband still had student loans), I started reading. I read the "Tightwad Gazette" books, anything by Mary Hunt and Suze Orman. I read "Miserly Moms" even though I was years away from getting pregnant. The books inspired me. They showed me that you could have a very good life and not have debt looming over you. I learned that we could be in charge of our own money.

So we began to live off Hubby's income and put my income toward all of our debts. In just over one year, we paid off $19,000 in debt and remodeled our kitchen. And then Hubby realized how much he hated his job. So he quit his full-time job and went back to grad school. He managed to snag a graduate assistantship that took care of tuition costs AND came with free health insurance. He finished his master's degree in just over one year and had a full-time job shortly after that. It was a GREAT career move for him.

We decided to build a house. We had our first child. And then we bought a new car. And then I got pregnant with twins. A giant mortgage, a car payment, and more mouths to feed, and we were very stressed out. So we went back to the living on one income way of life. We paid off our car and saved up for a minivan. And then I was put on bed rest. After the twins were born, I made arrangements to take a one year's leave of absence to take care of the kids. At this point, I'm not sure I want to go back to work. The best part is that I KNOW we can live on one income. We've done it twice before. I also know that it is going to take a lot of work.

If we can do this, anyone can. My advice to everyone is that if you are in debt, get out of it. Do whatever you have to do. There are so many free resources at the library and on the web to get you started. And if you are not in debt - STAY that way! We don't live a grand lifestyle (no fancy house or exotic vacations), but we live a happy one.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Disclaimer, Disclosure and Privacy Polices

This policy is valid from November 20, 2007 and was last modified on June 10, 2009.

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact Christina at northerncheapskate@yahoo.com.

Disclaimer
I am not a financial advisor. I am simply a stay-at-home mom interested in saving money and living a frugal lifestyle. While I enjoy giving my opinions and sharing deals with you, please remember that you are ultimately responsible for making your own, educated decisions when it comes to your personal finances.

This blog contains links to other websites. All external links contain content which is not endorsed or controlled by this blog. All information that you submit on other websites is done so at your own risk. I encourage you to read the "Privacy Policy" of each website you visit before submitting any information to these websites. I can not make any guarantees that you will receive any of the free samples that you request, because all free sample offers are made by other entities.

Links to other websites may change or may no longer be valid. It is nearly impossible for me to keep up with all of the changes. If you should find a broken link or misinformation, please e-mail me and I will do my best to make a correction.

Disclosure Policy
This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content or advertising space will be identified as paid or sponsored content. Some links to freebies, coupons, or products are affiliate links. These affiliate links, which may not always be clearly identified, help support my work as a blogger. You are always welcome to go directly to the source page instead of using my affiliate links.

The owners of this blog are sometimes compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though we receive compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely our own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Privacy Policy
At Northern Cheapskate, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important.

We will respect the information that you submit to us in order to enter the giveaways that we host or when you subscribe to Northern Cheapskate. This blog does not knowingly collect information from minors, only from adults ages 18 and above. We will never give or sell your email address to anyone. This blog is hosted by Blogger, a service of Google, and if you have any questions about the privacy of information you submit to Google you need to read Google's Privacy Policy.

Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use and visit Northern Cheapskate and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

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Deleting cookies does not mean you are permanently opted out of any advertising program. Unless you have settings that disallow cookies, the next time you visit a site running the advertisements, a new cookie will be added.

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Welcome! Whew!

Welcome to my money-saving blog!

I've been keeping a journal about my experiences with saving money and debt reduction for two years now.... but now that I'm sharing my thoughts with all of you, there's a lot more pressure! Whew!

I started my journal because I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, but wasn't sure how to go about it. The journal allowed me to vent my frustrations and celebrate a few successes while I was still working. I'm currently on maternity leave and would like to continue to stay home with my three sons after my leave is up. In order to do that, I essentially have to figure out how to justify us losing almost half of our income. It's been four months, now, and I've learned a lot about myself and about my budget.

So, I hope you enjoy the posts. Please let me know what you think.