Saving Money Every Time You Wash Clothes (Giveaway Post)

I have a family of four.

This means that laundry is never-ending in this house.

Actually, doing the laundry is not a big deal for me. 

It's certainly not a chore that I dread.

I don't mind sorting, washing or drying the clothes.

For some reason...

it's the putting the clothes away that I hate.

I've been known to have to put clothes back into the dryer, to get all the wrinkles out

because I've let it sit folded in the laundry basket too long.

{oh the shame}

I do like to save money when I wash clothes.

All the things that you need to get the laundry done, can get pricey!

Laundry soap, bleach, dryer sheets, stain remover...it all adds up!

While I haven't gotten to the point of making my own laundry soap

I have given up dryer sheets all together.

After reading about the chemicals in dryer sheets

and how they can remove the flame retardant stuff they put on children's bed clothes?

No, thank you!

I was recently sent a box of Woolzies Dryer Balls to try out.

Have you heard about these?

Wool balls you throw into your dryer - they work just like a dryer sheet

only without any of the chemicals!

Woolzies also help you save money by reducing your drying time 

by up to 25%!

We have a newer dryer, that some how can sense when the clothes in dry and turns off
the clothes dry super fast

so every time I'm using the Woolzies, I'm saving money!

Love it!

And they are good for up to 1,000 washes!!!! 

If you do one load a day....that's over TWO AND A HALF YEARS!

Here's a little more info from the Woolzies website...

WOOLZIES®, The All Natural Dryer Ball Set. This set of six handmade pure wool dryer balls are special in several ways. They deliver the same benefits for laundry as conventional fabric softeners WITHOUT all the nasty chemicals. They save everyone a lot of money by eliminating the need to continuously spend on fabric softener liquid and sheets. They cut down on the time it takes to dry a typical load by at least 25% thereby saving everyone even more money and cutting down on fossil fuel usage. Finally, being as that they are handmade in the democratic republic of Nepal, they provide a steady source of income to the desperately needy women of that developing nation.

So smile when you purchase a set of WOOLZIES®, because you know you're helping to make the world a more pleasant place for yourself, your family and future generations!

The best part is that they are letting me give one lucky reader a set of Woolzies Dryer Balls of their very own!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was given a package of Woolzies in exchange for a review. I was not paid for this post and all opinions are 100% mine. Thanks and Good Luck!

Tools for Sticking to a Budget While on Vacation

Vacations can be complete budget busters!

When we go on vacation, like we did last week

we have set aside a certain amount of money just for the vacation.

I've found some strategies to help us stick to our budget and I thought I'd share them with you today.

1. Write a budget long before the trip

Decide how much you can afford to spend.

AFFORD.

Not put on the credit card.

How much can you afford to spend. 

Cash Money.

Vacations don't have to be expensive to be fun. 

Our week-long vacation cost $500.

Yep!

You can us a plan sheet of paper to write your budget, or use this handy Vacation Budget sheet from Living Well Spending Less. 

Make sure and keep this list with you ALWAYS while you are on vacation.

Cash...use cash on your trip...much easier to keep track of your spending with cash. 

2. Locations

Vacations don't have to be tropical or Disney World or across the ocean to be fun. 

Ask friends and neighbors about great local attractions...or google "Visit ___(your state name)____" and you'll most likely be able to order a free visitors guide to your state of choice. 

Our recent vacation was only 3 hours away...which meant we saved by not having air fare and it took less then a full tank of gas to get us there.

3. Where to Stay

Personally, we enjoy camping. We bought a small pop-up camper a few years ago (for less then $2,000) and love using it. Camp sites...in the Midwest...are usually under $35 a night. 

If camping isn't your thing, you can save a ton by not staying in a fancy resort or the "it" hotel. Check out campgrounds to see if they have cabins for rent.

How about motels? They may not be really pretty to look at from the outside...but as long as they're clean, I don't care. When I'm on vacation, I don't spend much time in my hotel room anyways!

4. What to Do While Your There

Google the city you're visiting. Check out their online visitors center.

Look up and price out attractions that you're family would enjoy.

Narrow down the attractions based on your budget. 

For most vacations, one or two attractions a day is enough for the kids. 

Don't do something if it'll bust the budget! 

5. Time to Eat

The major benefit of camping is making your own meals. You can do something easy like hamburgers or hot dogs or go all out. We ate dinner at our campsite all but one night. For a family of four in a resort town, that easily saved us $150+! 

For lunches, we packed picnics most days. A couple loafs of bread, lunch meat and cheese, chips and fruit and we were ready. (Don't forget ice packs to keep it all cold!) Then each day, we would find a new spot to eat our lunch...a nice park, the beach, where ever. That probably saved us another $120. 

I also pack snacks for the kids. We did go out for snacks twice and it was a great treat!
A great tip for eating out is to find out where to locals eat! It's usually much cheaper then the main tourist places.

6. Keep Track

Like I said before...bring cash. It's so easy to over spend it you're using your bank card. 

We always just keep our budget tracker sheet on a clipboard in the car.

Spend $20 in ice cream?

Cross it off the budget!

It really made it all stress-free for me.

What are your tips for sticking to a budget while on vacation?

We rarely travel by plane, so I'd love some tips for saving there!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I'm linking up to these amazing bloggers!
HOH, Five Days Five Ways, Tidy Mom, Frugal Fit Family, Truly Lovely, Sincerely Paula, Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Living Well Spending Less, The Thriftiness Miss, Live Laugh Rowe, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Crafty Scrappy Happy

You Fix-It......Re-String Your Lawnmower

I had no idea that I had super human strength.

But apparently I do.

I went to start the mower this morning and yanked the string right out.

I about fell on my butt too.

I had to take a quick look around to make sure none of the neighbors were outside.

Laughing and pointing would have happened for sure.

I texted the hubby at work and told him what happen.

Thinking for sure that we'd have to go get a new mower.

"No." he said.

"I can just re-string it."

Me: "You know how to do stuff like that?"

Chris" Uh....I think so."

Me: "Should I call Joey and ask him?" (Joey is our very handy neighbor.)

Chris" "No! I can do that."

Me: "Okay....!"

Love my hubby dearly...but I don't think of him as being the most handy guy.

I obviously don't give him the credit he deserves.

(yes....that's what I said....are you reading this dear???)

Because to my surprise......he fixed the mower!

And I took pictures to make a little tutorial out of it.

In case this happens to you!

Enjoy!

First, unscrew the top of the mower. Ours had three screws holding the top down.

Not sure of the technical name for any of this. But, next your going to un-screw the spinny-looking thing. There were two screws on either side of it. 

You SHOULD disconnect the spark plug when taking your mower apart, just to make sure it doesn't accidentally start. 

This is Chris pointing where the new string will go. 

Here's the hole inside the spinny-thing where your string will come out of. You'll have to spin the inside of it, to make the holes line up. 

Menu Planning

I wrote last week about how to save $20 a week off your grocery bill. One of the tips was to make a menu plan, so I wanted to share this week some tips of making a menu plan that you'll be able to stick to.

1. Keep it simple. 

To cook does not mean gourmet meals. You need to plan a menu based on your cooking skills. Pour over cookbooks and find things that interest you. If you're a beginner cook, try one meal this week that's out of your comfort zone.

Here are a couple of easy dinners from Moms Who Think. I also love AllRecipes.com and Taste of Home for easy meals. If you're wanting to step out of your zone, try Food Network for some great ideas.

2. Work around your schedule.

For us, we have football practice on Tuesday nights, and Chris has school on Monday and Wednesday. So, on those days - supper is easy. Usually something that can be thrown in the crockpot or a great freezer meal.  Don't expect yourself to make homemade fried chicken on a night that you only have 20 minutes for dinner!

3. Work within your budget.

Want to eat filet mignon...but only have a cube steak budget? Then eat cube steak!!! I know it's fun to eat fancy every once in awhile - but if you're trying to save money, stick within the budget....for now. Or, instead of treating yourself every week - how about just once a month?

4. Keep in mind what you already have and what's on sale.

Like I said in my last post, write down what's in your pantry. For example, right now I have the following items in my pantry:

Spaghetti sauce

Canned black beans

Hashbrowns

Canned Soup

Canned Kidney Beans

A couple bags of frozen veggies

Taco Shells

Canned Tomatoes

Pasta

On sale this week:

Hamburger

Chicken

 Rice

Potatoes

Here's what my menu plan would look like:

Spaghetti with Sauce w. Hamburger / Garlic Bread / Veggie

Chili (Canned Beans, Hamburger and Canned Tomatoes) / Cornbread

Soup / Grilled Cheese

Hamburgers / French Fries (made from potatoes)

Chicken Taco's / Rice / Veggie

Grilled Chicken / Baked Potatoes / Veggie

Leftover Chili mixed with leftover Rice / Veggie

Using what I already had, I was able to put together a weeks worth of meals! And, really I didn't cook at all!

5. Ask your family for ideas. 

If you want your kids and your hubby to eat what you're serving...ask them what they want. Kids (and husbands) and much more likely to eat whats on the table if they feel like they helped get it there. Of course, for my kids - they would want mac and cheese every night of the week. But I do try to let them have the "fun food" a few times a month.

Next week, I'm going to talk about how to get the most of out what you already have! 

Please share your tips and thoughts on Menu Planning! Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Save $80 A Month on Your Grocery Bill - Without Coupons!

What would you do with an extra $80 a month?

 If you could save $80 each month through the year, that would equal up to $960!

For us, that's just under what we spend each year on Christmas gifts! 

It's easy to save $80 a month, just by cutting out $20 in spending each week on your grocery bill. 

A good friend of mine, Donna, her family was spending over $600 a month on groceries for their family of four. I showed her some easy steps to save more, eat healthier and without using coupons!

Here are my tips:

1. Write out a menu each week. This is key in saving money. If you don't have a written plan, then you'll let your stomach and your kids dictate what food goes into your cart. I'll talk more next week about how to start small in menu planning.

2. Look at what you already have. One of Donna's issues was she had no idea what was in her pantry. For example, she'd buy a can of soup - not knowing that there were four cans already in her pantry. Before you go grocery shopping, take a notepad and a pen and write down everything in your pantry, cupboards, refrigerator and freezer. Put together meals from what you already have. 

3. Shop the sales. Is chicken on sale this week? Buy enough the last a couple of meals. Canned soup on sale? Write it into your menu plan. I don't mean that you have to travel to six stores grabbing all of their best deals - but for this week just pick one store and make a menu plan based on their sale items.

4. Shop at Aldi's. Shopping at your local Aldi's can save you big. If you've never been to one, go check it out. Our local Aldi stores are clean and have friendly cashiers and a wide range of products! Just keep in mind that you'll need to bring a quarter for your own cart, your own bags (unless you want to pay for them) and an open mind. You won't find many name brand products, but they do offer this great guarentee (and we've loved everything we've bought there.) Click here to find a store near you. 

5. Shop with cash and keep track of what you're spending. It's a whole lot harder to over-spend if you have cash in your hand. I like to keep a running total in my head as a shop...of course, if I bring the kids with me - I usually also bring a calculator. If you're normal weekly shopping budget is $150, only bring $130 to the store with you....and stick with it. 

6. Cook. I know it's easy to whip out that box of Boxed Helper and throw it on the table. But, I really don't like serving my family things that I cannot pronounce. Cooking doesn't have to mean gourmet meals. Cooking can be spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and green beans. You could make that meal for about the same cost of that Boxed Helper. 

For Donna and her family, she's told me that they've been able to drop their grocery budget by almost $200 a month - just by using the tips above!! I love this! 

Donna is also cooking alot more. She's having a few issues with getting her kids to try new foods, but you have to just keep trying. I love my grandma's saying that "Kids won't starve. What they don't eat at this meal, they'll make up for at the next." I refuse to be a short order cook at my house, so the kids have to at least try everything on their plate.

I hope these tips are helpful to you too! What other money saving tips to you use when it comes to saving money at the grocery store, without using coupons? 

Saving Money on Roadtrips

This past weekend - the family took a trip down to Kansas City to spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge. 

It's a water park.

A huge waterpark. 

We've been there once before when Ashton was about 4 - and we all thought it was great.

At Great Wolf Lodge, your water park passes are included in the price of your room and we ended up getting an awesome deal (because I signed up for their newsletter) for their Wolf Den Suite for $233 (with taxes) - it's normally $260 to $360 depending on what night of the week you go.

Anyways...so the whole place is fun. 

Kids swim, they have crafts, they get to go to a story time in their PJs.

They loved it.

(Check out later this week for some trip pictures!)

BTW, here's a picture of what our room looked like: 

(The kids fell in LOVE with this room - now they want bunkbeds for home!)

.....

The problem with us going on any type of road trip, is that we end up spending a small fortune on food.

Stop for a drink here. 

Kids are hungry. 

I wanna snack.

Anyone that has kids knows exactly what I mean. 

But, for this trip - other then the cost of our room - we budgeted only $120 for gas and any other misc items that come up. 

(Our room cost is covered by a gift card that we got for Christmas...we had a little over $65 left on it, which covered our dinner cost.)

Anyways. so only having $130 to spend is not a lot considering how much gas costs. 

(Around $3.30 a gallon here.)

Here's how I broke down the budget:

Gas: $90

Souvenirs: $10

Misc Activity: $20

Extra: $10

That was easy..right?

My plan was to spend no money out of pocket for food.

So, I packed a bag full of food to bring with us: 

First, we needed some breakfast food for our morning....

The kids always just eat cereal, so I packed up enough for two large bowls. Then some chocolate cheerios for me. Chris isn't much a breakfast eater, so he'll have coffee and the pecan rolls. The pecan roll-ups I found for only $0.25. The Silk shelf stable milk is perfect for road trips - we had a fridge in our room, so we could keep it cold. 

Next is all of our lunch supplies. Fruit punches, Lunchables and pretzels for the kids. 

(I got the Lunchables on sale for a $1.00 each - kids love them, can't beat that!)

I made some PB&Js for Chris and I to eat and brought tortilla chips for me and another bag of pretzels for him. We ate all of this on the way there...instead of stopping at some fast food joint and spending an easy $25 on burgers and fries. 

Plenty of water! This is essential for us! We were able to keep the bottles cold and just refilled them with tap water as needed. 

Finally...our room snacks. This is our stash for those late night cravings that we all seem to get while we're on vacations. Other then the cherry pie, it's all pretty healthy stuff. 

(P.S. Zone Bars - especially the peanut butter ones are the best thing in the entire world!)

And, since I am seriously the most forgetful person on the face of this planet...

this was my list to NOT forget our sandwiches and other items I stored in the freezer. 

Ahhh....Chick-fil-a.

That was almost more exciting for me then Great Wolf Lodge. 

A few months back, Chick-fil-a was having blog giveaways for their kids meals all over the place. 

I ended up winning two different giveaways.

So I got six coupons for free kids meals. 

(Each coupon was for a free chicken nuggets, fries and a drink.)

We have a Chick-fil-a in town.

But it's downtown...all the way on the other side of town and you have to park and walk for blocks to get there, so I never go. 

And I miss it dearly.

(Side note: If you've never ate Chick-fil-a, you are missing out BIG TIME!)

Anyway...I looked up and less then 5 minutes from Great Wolf Lodge -

there was a Chick-fil-a!!!!

I was so, so, SO excited to be able to eat there!

The plan was for the kids to each eat a kids meal, and for Chris and I have to have two of them. It ended that Chris and I couldn't resist and ended up getting ourselves a chicken sandwich, so we will still have two free coupons left over. 

That was a little over $6 for the sandwiches, it was SO worth it!

If you added it all up....that was 

1 breakfast

2 lunches

1 dinner

plus snacks

for 4 people....for practically nothing. 

I love it when I can do that. 

Next week, I'm going to show you how to save money while camping! 

Have a great week!

What are your tips for saving money on road trips? 

I'm linking up to:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Mad in Crafts, Keeping It Simple, Craft O Matic, It's So Very Cheri, Singing Three Little Birds, Destination: Craft, Serendipity and Spice, Homemaker on a Dime, Flour Me With Love, CRAFT, Sew Can Do, Sweet Anne, Brassy Apple, Lines Across, DIY Home Sweet Home, A Stroll Through Life, Sugar Bee Crafts, New Nostalgia, Coastal Charm