tips and tricks for living a frugal AND healthy lifestyle
THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTANT CONSTRUCTION!!!
Watch for falling and fading links!
If you notice any broken links please email solta@hotmail.com and I will be on top of it shortly.
Do you see a cursor trail? Does it work? I may have missed some code copying from the old page. Let me know and include what browser you are using. solta@hotmail.com
Also, I created a freebie list for the site so feel free to join and post any freebies you have found online.
If you have been following the FLFF site you may recognize this style from several years ago. It is a "primitive" look but I think it is easier to navigate for some people w/o the frames.
I left the table up and am adding more pages to it all the time. Please scroll down for a lot of fun links!
How was your holiday? I bought very few presents for the kids . One main present and stockings. My oldest got a Fur Real Friends Cuddle Chimp which she has been wanting for a long time! I had looked everywhere for that thing. That is one of the perils of not shopping soon enough. I looked online but the only Fur Reals available were not the same type, at brick & mortar stores, all over, but still couldn't find it. We ended up going to Toys R Us and the only Fur Real Friends toys they had were the cats (tigers? I think). We ended up in the kid's kitchen stuff area. Think easybake ovens and pint sized mops and brooms. dh just happened to look up and there they were WAAAY above our heads on one of the storage shelves.
Luckily they were the color my daughter liked.
My youngest received a karaoke machine that you hook up to the tv. It comes with 6 discs and not one, but TWO microphones. She liked "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by Nancy Sinatra and funnily enough she received a pair of silver cowgirl boots from a relative so she sings it "in costume".
We ended up not giving the adults presents at MIL's this year. At least that was what agreed on but we bought her a box of chocolate covered cherries when we saw them 2/1.00. It is kind of a tradition to give certain people those so we picked up a couple.
I planned to make food but we ended up not having time. We had sickies again this year (and pneumonia last month and into Dec.) My youngest came down with croup and ended up missing her classroom party. Her teacher sent cookies home for her w/ my older daughter.
I am still in the market for new recipes though so post some on the message boards. Speaking of message boards, you guys need to post they are seriously looking sad. C'mon lets get this party started! Click on the message board link on the table below..scroll way down to the minty green box.
In a perfect world Frugal Living for Families would be ad free but we do have many expenses like our daughter's surgery, still owe a little bit on that and from when she had seizures..still. It is a little disenheartening and I would like the whole healthcare system to make a change! Plus my hospitalization/surgeries last year and ongoing health/heart stuff, what a pain! (but I found a product that seems to help a lot, Emergen-C) Even extreme frugalness will not change the expenses. I do many points program/rewards programs to pay for the more expensive things like birthday gifts for family and meals out and have a few store gift cards from these programs for emergencies. If you sign up I get a credit (a few extra points) through some of these programs.
Make a donation to the Frugal Living for Families Site.
Your donations go to various bills (including extremely hefty medical/surgery ones, one thing we can't seem to pare down in our budget), maintaining computers, student loans, and living expenses. Less time and effort spent on getting those expenses paid (instead of calling and being put on hold two hours only to be rerouted back to the original number when trying to figure out a payment plan for certain bills, you may have been-there-done-that) means this site can be updated more often.
Rewards Programs:
Not enough money for groceries? Eating the same old beans and rice for breakfast lunch and dinner? Shopping at the grocery store with change from your piggybank or coins found in parking lots? (been there-done that, didn't have enough money to buy the t-shirt ;)) Want a Free Lunch? Yes, you too can earn points for gift cards to use at various stores and restaurants.,
Click on the banner below to sign up for Mypoints. Mypoints is a place where you can earn points to redeem for gift certificates (my last two were from Target and Walmart) and all kinds of stuff.
Points can also be redeemed for charity, including Red Cross. I think it is important for our children to learn about giving. My kids like to put change in the Salvation Army pots! You can earn in a short time at Mypoints and Red Cross donations start at only 200 points.
The Hip Mama Survival Guide : Advice from the Trenches on Pregnancy, Childbirth, Cool Names, Clueless Doctors, Potty Training and Toddler Avengers
by Ariel Gore
Synopsis:
"The Gen-X Dr. Spock" and the founder of "Hip Mama: The Parenting 'Zine" gives readers advice from the trenches on pregnancy, childbirth, cool names, clueless doctors, potty training, domestic mayhem, right-wing losers, the evil patriarchy, nervous breakdowns, and way more. Line drawings
