CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

Hello and welcome to the 6th edition of CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips.

Tip #1 Grow your own fruits and veggies
Even if you live in an apartment you can grow your favorite veggies in your kitchen, even in the middle of winter. In fact I have 2 tomato plants in my kitchen that have been growing all winter, and my first tomato is growing. (Pic on Right)

There tons of information online about vegetable gardening, to help you develop the green thumb you've always wanted.


Tip #2 Save money watering your new veggie Garden
Collecting rain water is a great way to water your garden and save money on your water bill (if you don't have a well) Also if you wash dishes by hand, you can reserve the water to water your garden. Put a bucket in the shower with you to catch excess water from your shower. After you boil pasta you can reuse the water (after it cools of course) If you think of other ways you can reuse water, please leave me a comment below.

CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

Hello and welcome to the 4th edition of CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips.

Tip #1 Cooking from scratch
By Buying your own ingredients and cooking from scratch, not only are you saving money, but it will be a healthier meal for you and your family. This is my favorite frugal cooking website
HillbillyHousewife.com there are tons of recipes, baking your own bread, tortillas, pizza crust. There are even recipes for convenience foods, make a canister of hot chocolate mix, or even a spiced tea mix. One of my favorite recipes is for Granola Cereal
I hope you enjoy this website as much as I do!

Tip #2 Frugal Gift Giving
Gift giving especially around the holidays can take a big chunk of your budget, but it doesn't have to. Try making your gifts this year such as decorating a Jar and filling it with goodies, such as hot cocoa mix or a cake mix with instructions attached. You could make a collage, or a photo album. Maybe you could bake cookies or make fudge? I know many people appreciate handmade gifts.

Tip #3 Quit Smoking Cigarettes
Have you ever sat down and calculated how much you spend on buying cigarettes a year?
These numbers are all estimates, of course cigarette prices and packs per day vary, so do the math according to your habit.
If you smoke 1 pack a day:
Per day: $3
Per week: $21
Per month: $84
Per Year: $1008
Ok lets say you smoke for 50 years....$50,400

And after you've spent $50,400 on this habit it only gets more expensive once your doctor diagnoses you with Lung Cancer or Emphezima and you have to for pay doctor visits, treatments, and medicine.

Is it really worth it?



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CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips

Welcome to this week's edition of CraftyMamaMia's Frugal Living Tips! Has anyone out there started saving money yet? Feel free to leave me a comment.

Tip#1 Buy Used Items
If you need something, check out several thrift stores, there are several sites online (such as Craigslist) where you can find used items and sometimes free items! There is another wonderful site called Freecycle, yep everything is FREE! They have sites for every area, and if there is no site for your area, you can apply to start one of your own. When Freecycle members want to get rid of things, instead of chucking it in the garbage, they put an ad on Freecycle. If someone comes along and needs that item they work out a time and place to go pick it up.
Yard sales are another good one, the earlier you start, the better deals you will find.

Tip #2 Saving water
If you have a monthly water bill you can save money by filling a 1/2 gallon recycled milk jug and putting it the tank in your toilet. Make sure it does not block anything, it may be a tight fit. Every time you or a family member flushes you will save 1/2 gallon of water. It adds up trust me! And don't worry your toilet will flush just fine. You may have to adjust the jug every once in a while though.

Tip#3 Eating out less
I know my family still struggles with this one when we are running late. Did you know the average person spends over $2000 a year eating out? Restaurants are very expensive, you can save a bunch by cooking your own food. If you don't have time to cook every day, you can spend one day a week doing food preparation, then your meals will be simple to fix during the week.

Do you have the willpower to stay away from fast food? I know you can do it!

If you do decide to eat out for a special occasion, I found some money saving tips for restaurants
I hope you have enjoyed my tips this week, check back next week for more tips on Frugal living.