Archive for Money & Finances

TOS Revives Molly Green – Saving Money!

TOS (The Old Schoolhouse Magazine) revives Molly Green Magazine / Econobusters!  Each week Molly Green is delivered to your inbox with tips, recipes and other inspiring ideas related to saving money!  Molly Green Magazine / Econobusters offers decorating tips, pet care, health and beauty care for less. Let’s not forget tips on coupon clipping and “Abundant Blessings” (large savings for large families). With a paid monthly subscription to Molly Green Magazine / Econobusters you will receive “FREE Menu-Planning E-Book and Home Work: Juggling Home, Work and School Without Losing Your Balance E-Book“.  Let Molly Green Magazine / Econobusters save you money too!!  There is also “A Minute with Molly” a free newsletter.



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Prosperity Parenting

I thought this article had some interesting points and thought it might make for some good conversation, so feel free to leave your thoughts!

Prosperity Parenting
How parents sabotage their kids’ success and how they can ‘change the story’

Guest Post By Randy Gage

Every parent wants the best for their kids. Yet millions of adults unknowingly sabotage their children’s chances for success.

I grew up poor. I was jealous of rich people and didn’t like them. So over the years I kept trying to get rich, not realizing that my subconscious mind was telling me, “Better stop doing that, or you’ll become one of the evil, mean, nasty rich people!”

The messages against wealth and prosperity are all around us, in our culture, media, and religions. But how many parents stop to think about how their own views on getting ahead influence their children’s ability to succeed?

Your core beliefs about everything related to prosperity – money, relationships, health, and spirituality – are set by the time you’re 10 years old. And no one influences those beliefs more than parents.

Millions of parents do this by conveying a negative vision of prosperity and success. If you tell yourself things like “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all,” and “I’m always a day late and a dollar short,” you will, consciously or subconsciously, convey these messages to your kids.

The truth is it’s really not that hard to change your beliefs – If you are aware of them and make that choice. Here are some tips:

  • Identify negative beliefs you may be creating in your children — Do some critical thinking about what kind of beliefs you developed in childhood about money, rich people and wealth. Honestly ask yourself, are you programming your children with thoughts such as money is bad, rich people are evil, or it’s spiritual to be poor? I call these “mind viruses.” Defeating them starts with acknowledging you have them.
  • Help kids identify anti-prosperity media messages: Did you ever stop to think about how blockbusters like Titanic and Avatar portray wealth, and how those stories can set kids up with attitudes that sabotage their future success? Talk to your kids about the subliminal messages they receive on TV, in movies and other media. Help them to become self-motivated critical thinkers.

  • Create a positive vision of prosperity: Examine how you react to families with more wealth than yours when speaking to your kids. Do you discuss them with envy or jealousy, or admiration and respect? Talk to your kids about how their thoughts about wealth can shape their future.

People have a hard time believing they are sabotaging their prosperity at age 30, 40, or 50 because of a belief that was formed when they were six, but I see it all the time. And that’s the book that gets written, unless you become aware of the plotline and decide to change the story.

Whether you and your children are on the path to poverty or prosperity is determined by the thoughts you give precedence to. Your thoughts come from the type of vision you have.

Everyone has a vision. Millions have a negative one; many more have a neutral one. It’s vital to help your children develop a positive one.

About Randy Gage: Randy helps audiences recognize and reject roadblocks to wealth and prosperity with warmth, wit and wisdom drawing from his rags-to-riches story. A former high school dropout, Randy rose from a minimum wage job and spending time in jail as a teen to become a self-made multi-millionaire who has inspired millions of people around the world. He is the author of eight books on success including Prosperity Mind and Accept Your Abundance that have been translated into more than 25 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. Learn more about Randy at his public website: http://www.RandyGage.com and on Prosperity TV: http://www.youtube.com/randygage.


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Whew! Made it Through!

Business

It was a busy four days and I only ended up working 3 of those 4 days due to my compassionate husband working the holiday craft fair for me yesterday! It was in my favor that he knew our 15 month old was really missing me too.

There was a Chicago Bears game yesterday so let’s just say the fair was not as busy as Friday or Saturday. I had as relaxing a day as I could with five children under nine (insert rolling eyes here ;-))

The business networking event and the weekend proved to be very beneficial and we met some interesting people. We are excited and grateful for the opportunities presented.

Appliance Woes Almost Fixed

We are still without an oven, at least for another week the repair man said, as he has to order the part. Hopefully it will arrive early and they can fit in an appointment earlier. How can I host a Cookie Exchange if I can’t bake cookies? I can’t, I know.

Christmas!

We are getting into the Christmas spirit around here and eager to decorate and get our tree! Just not sure how we are going to accomplish that since my mil’s car will not accommodate a tree. We took the children to cut down a live tree last year and it was such a memory making day that everyone is gung-ho to do it again this year. It was a neat family tree farm that offered fun activities for the children: candle making, wood carving, hot chocolate and more.

A Vehicle

A friend found a vehicle, we just have to decide if it is what we are looking for….beggars can’t be choosers but it is hard for us. Take on a car payment or not to take on a car payment? Buy an older car and have lots of repairs? Ugh….decisions like these are just not easy. Besides we have not even contacted our insurance to see what insurance will cost on the type of vehicle we are interested in getting. Everything costs money….

Home Life

Other than that same old same old. We cleaned the house today and did school. I worked. The girls and I are gearing up for a sewing spree hopefully starting on Friday. I have to wrap up some weekend stuff and have a couple of meetings this week before we can really get going on making some new skirts for the four girls.

Oh and if you are the praying kind, pray we find our camera. Odd request, I know but we think some little hands got a hold of it and left it in some obscure place in the house…hopefully still in tact. We need that for blogging and capturing every day moments of life so the children can look back in wonder and perhaps a little embarrassment too…..I can’t believe how many photos my oldest is embarrassed about when I was simply capturing a “moment”. Ah well, it was not my original intent to embarrass her, nor is it my intent with the rest either.


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Need to Vent About Gas Prices!

Light comes on and the car dings, ugg…..There’s nothing I dislike more than having to stop for gas!  Usually,  I just roll in – close my eyes and fill it up.  Take my little slip and get on with my day.  Today my daughter and I went out.  Thankfully I didn’t need gas, but looked at the prices.  They went up like $.17 cents in the past few days where I live.  That’s insane!  Which is what inspired me to check the history of average gas prices. I got this information off of www.thepeoplehistory.com.  By the way, this site has some cool information.  ANYWAY!  Here’s what I came up with:

1986 – $.89

1996 – $1.22

2001 – $1.46

2006 – $3.13

2007 – $3.38

2008 – $3.39

2009 – $2.73

2010 – $2.73

I had forgotten we had these insane prices a few years back. 

Whew!  That felt better.  I’m still not happy, because I know next time I visit the gas station I don’t even want to think about it! 

Cartoon Gas Station Attendant clipart


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Promo Codes, Promo Codes, Promo Codes

Being a single income family we do whatever we can to save money.  I do most of my shopping online and will never pay full price or pay shipping.  After all my items are in my online cart I go to checkout, then open another tab on my computer and search for promo codes that pertain to the store.  There are lots of websites that offer promo codes, some are good and some eh, are no so good.  Most stores will offer promo codes, Kohl’s you can use two (2) promo codes at a time!  By having two (2) browser windows open at the same time you can check which promo codes will best serve you.  Yea, it takes a few more minutes to finish your order, but it’s worth it to save a few bucks.  Better in your pocket than theirs, right?!


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Thrifty Thursdays: Some Frugal Living Tips

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Here are just a few frugal living tips:

  • Save On Your Water Bill: Save your rainwater for your garden by using a rain-barrel (or use a plastic trash can). Use the collected water for plants, flowers, vegetables and washing your car or truck.
  • Shop at garage sales, Walmart, clearance racks, and thrift stores instead of department stores for clothing and household items. You can find some good buys at outlet stores too.
  • Shop for bread and bakery items at outlet stores to save money as well.
  • Make your own birthday cakes instead of buying store bought ones.
  • Get rid of carpet stains:  Using one part white vinegar to four parts hot water, pour the mixture on a carpet stain. Take several white paper towels folding them over each other and lay them over the area, then press with a hot iron. (You will want to work on small areas at a time — at least no bigger than your paper towels.) The vinegar and heat will lift the dye out of the carpet and into the paper towel. Your paper towels will turn the color of the dye you are lifting out so you can SEE it working. Keep pouring the cleaner on the areas and change your towels when soiled. Just keep this process up until your paper towels are no longer turning color. This method works for Kool Aid & other impossible to get rid of stains.
  • Dilute It: You can dilute your dish detergent and still get the same results. This is especially helpful if you have others helping you wash the dishes, and they aren’t as thrifty-minded as yourself.
  • Draw the shades or blinds to block the thermal heat of the sun through your windows. This will help keep you cooler, so you won’t need to use your fan or air conditioner, which will save you money on your electric bill.
  • Plant shrubs and trees so that they will shade your house during summer months. Doing this will help you to not use your fans and air conditioning as much, hence saving on your electric bill.

Have fun being frugal!


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Book Review: Feeding Penny the Pig

I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

Feeding Penny Pig

Money management is an important aspect in life. It takes time to develop the discipline of being good with money. Rare is the individual who is a natural when it comes to money, especially in this over-commercialized world in which we live. As parents, it is a part of our responsibility to teach our children to manage money. How many of you learned money management in school? I know I didn’t, at least until I got to my third year in Bible school/college. They had a course based on Ron Blue’s book, Master Your Money. Well, here is a child’s book to get you started in teaching young children about money and how to be responsible with it and their chores – Feeding Penny the Pig

Feeding Penny the Pig is a whimsical children’s story. Our younger ones enjoyed it, as it is geared towards 4-8 year olds. We all thought it was a cute story to help teach small children about money, as well as chores and work. There definitely aren’t many books on the market that teach children about money management.

The author of Feeding Penny the Pig is Jeannine Fox, who is a Certified Public Accountant and a grandmother who is concerned with the future of her grandkids. She says, “Our country is paying the price now for overspending, credit abuse and other irresponsible money management. If we teach kids at a young age to save money, we can prevent these problems from happening again.”

This book is available at major bookstores and costs around $14.95. For more information about Mrs. Fox, please visit www.mimisfunhouse.com


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Thrifty Thursday – Money Saving Tip – Buying Used

Better late than never, right? In light of what I shared on Tuesday about the two greenhouses, I thought that I would just share one money saving tip that can save a huge amount of money – buying used.

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Craigslist (be very careful though, we have had some bad experiences, but we’ve also had some good ones too.)

Recently, we have been blessed to have found a freezer, a refrigerator, a nearly new dishwasher, the greenhouses and a canopy tent. We keep our eyes open to many other things as well, especially farm related. I like to see how different people price things and get a feel for what we’d like to pay for things. It pays to research. I know when I don’t, I regret it.

By purchasing used items, you can cut your cost by half or even 75% which is a significant savings. I like new looking things as much as anybody, but with a bit of elbow grease most things can come clean relatively easily.


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Introducing Faith and Family Reviews Thrifty Thursdays!

Ok, I was actually going to introduce new things tomorrow, but thought of this little post for today so here I am starting something new that I will try to keep on top of. I thought giving each day a topic might be helpful to keep me on track, plus post my reviews as time allows. If that even makes sense at 11:30pm!

Without further adieu, let me introduce you to Faith and Family Reviews Thrifty Thursdays or FFR Thrifty Thursdays!

This week someone on our homeschool loop reminded me of a ministry who helps those in need. We were told about them when my husband was laid off work, however, never found ourselves to the point of really needing to use them. Also, they seem to have changed in the way they do things in the last two years as well.

The ministry is called Angel Food Ministries. Now, I have not used their services, but another person I “know” has. She recommended them and stated that she was surprised by the quality of the food. So I thought that this might help someone out there or provide you with a way to help someone else.

Here’s exactly what she said:

Ok,

I know this has been posted before. The last time it was talked about not many of us had tried this for getting really good food and some really great prices…

I have had a chance to buy several times and can tell you from experience that the food is great and the prices are really good.

In these hard times a great way to save some money.

Here is the website for angel food ministries.

https://www.angelfoodministries.com/

You can order online or over the phone use your zip code to find a location close to you. Angel Food Ministries

Hope this helps you out.

When you go to their website you can put in your zipcode to see if there are any local distribution centers near you, then you can look at their monthly menu to see what “sales” and specials they have going on. The prices seemed very reasonable, they take food stamps for those that may be using them during these hard times.

Sample Menu:

Sample Menu:
(this month’s menu can be viewed here)

* 4 lb. IQF Leg Quarters
* 4 oz. Beef Back Ribs
* 1 lb. 80/20 Lean Ground Beef
* 2 lb. Breaded Chicken Tenders
* 1.5 lb. Bone in Pork Chops (4 x 6oz.)
* 1 lb. Ground Turkey
* 18 oz. Stuffed Manicotti (Cheese)
* 12 oz. Smoked Sausage
* Betty Crocker Seasoned Potatoes
* 7 oz. Cheeseburger Dinner
* 16 oz. Green Beans
* 16 oz. Baby Carrots
* 2 lb. Onions
* 1 lb. Pinto Beans
* 1 lb. Rice
* 7 oz. Blueberry Muffin Mix
* 10 ct. Homestyle Waffles
* Dessert Item

On the surface Angel Food Ministries reminds me of a glorified food pantry, you know? Take if for what it’s worth, but please do your own research too.

Happy Thrifty Thursday!


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