So what have you done that's frugal today?

After seven days straight of working, I finally have a day off... Going to Mom's this afternoon for a yummy dinner and perhaps a dip in the pool... and maybe I can persuade DH to stop at Big Lots... Some women love the fancier shops like Nordstrom, but the store that makes my pocketbook cringe is Big Lots.
Although it doesn't cringe too much since $10 is usually the max that I spend on stuff for just me...

Frugal Thought of the Day: Even if you're mooching dinner off of mom, be nice enough to bring something over, or help her do something around the house.

So after finishing "Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom", I still think it can be very beneficial to families and to help people donate to food shelters, but I don't think it will do too much for us. We shop mainly at Aldi's which has very good prices, but I will keep my eye out for the free (or nearly free) deals at Walgreens and the occasional one at the grocery store.

And now for a short book review:
I don't feel it would be a waste of time to read the whole book since it's filled with encouraging and inspirational letters from people who use the system, but if you're not new to frugal living or coupon using, you may want to skip to Chapter Four.

Chapters Five and Eight can be either a great review for long time frugalists, or a great help for those just starting out. They talk about store strategies and secrets and where to find coupons.

Chapter Ten through the rest of the book gives you step by step instructions on how to initiate a Cut Out Hunger program, which I think everyone should be doing. And starting on page 143 there is a lesson plan for cutting out hunger for teachers.

A couple of websites that you may find interesting are:
CouponInfoNow : You can find a list of retailer's coupon policies and other interesting coupon facts.

Second Harvest : You can find out where your local food banks are, along with other information on helping food banks.

So I'm at my job at the library, checking in books, and I almost pass up, "Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom" by Stephanie Nelson... I was so in the groove of checking books in that I wasn't paying attention to what they were.

I happened to do a double take. DH and I have always had the hardest time with our food budget. We're very bad at eating out, and although I know we do well in what we save when we grocery shop, I know we can do better.

So anyway I'm starting to look through the book, and I have yet to completely check out her website, but what I've seen so far has great potential.

Nelson also has a plan to help fill up food pantries, called Cut Out Hunger... her idea is to not only assist you in getting more groceries for less, but to also be able to get food for free or really cheap that you can donate to shelters... I think this is a wonderful idea for everyone to try!
We're always looking for ways to donate/help, but if you're low on money (and time) I believe Cut Out Hunger could still be possible.

Frugal Thought of the Day: Go to Coupon Mom or go to the library and check out "Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom".

Well I did start a new blog at Xanga, but I don't put any of my frugal findings/doings on it, so I have decided to start this one up again.... I want to keep a record of our frugality for myself (and if it helps/encourages others, then that's wonderful.)

I want to start revamping an old website that I have on Yahoo regarding Frugal and Simple Living... it's very basic, with just information... I was going to read some web design books and try to make a really good site, but that just isn't my cup of tea, so I'm going to try and find a site with a template that I really like.
Any suggestions?

Last night we did some cleaning of our garden. When we moved in there were raspberry plants, onions and garlic already growing. This year the garlic and onions have taken over the raspberries, so we dug a bunch up. Hopefully the raspberries will expand more.

I had brought home some gardening books from the library (but never went through them). I need to figure out how to replant onions/garlic so we can put them where we want them to grow. And how to replant daffodils/tulips, since we have them in the middle of the garden, and if we expand the raspberries, they will be in the way.

So how what does this have to do with being frugal? Well this year we decided to grow some other vegetables... and in doing so our water bill has gone up a lot. So we decided next year we want items that take less watering (raspberries, rhubarb, garlic, onion... which we already have) and just put a few tomato plants in buckets.
As much as we enjoy fresh fruit/veggies, we don't like the upkeep and would rather buy them at a farmer's market.

Frugal Thought of the Day: Know your strengths.