Our Frugal Journey

So what if I’m 19 days late. It’s still January, right? And I’ve got a bundle of resolutions for the not-so-new year and if I don’t blog about them, I don’t have a chance at succeeding. There’s just something about making a commitment in public before God and everybody (well, my small, but loyal, following of [...]

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With only three shopping days left in 2009, it’s time to purge the old coupon binder.
So many missed opportunities.
This is an actual photo of the coupons I removed from my binder. While some of these coupons expired in November and early December and somehow never made it into the trash, the vast majority expire 12/31/09.

Since I [...]

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For nine weeks now, I’ve been clearing out the clutter, diving into virtually every nook and cranny in the house. The vast majority of this week’s items I have either sold on craigslist or am preparing to do so. It’s always nice when you can organize your house and make a little money, too.
Here’s this week’s stuff [...]

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Instead of purging 10 things in the pursuit of simplicity this week, we purged 34.
Twenty VHS tapes and another 14 8mm tapes are headed to the trash recycling bin* after we converted all our home movies to DVD.
As I wrote about here, we were thrilled to transfer our family footage. We saved money doing it ourselves [...]

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I’ve been couponing for decades (yeah, I’m really that old) and tried just about every method of coupon organization.
I’ve used a small plastic accordion file, a black recipe box, a white envelope, several white envelopes rubber-banded together. What was I thinking?
I struggled for years with these methods, fostering a love-hate relationship with grocery shopping. But mostly [...]

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I’ve got a new favorite blog I’ve started reading and thought I would share it with you.
If you are like me, and you’ve come to believe that less is definitely more, you will love it.
Simple. Organized. Life. is written by David, a guy on a mission to downsize, simplify and declutter his life.
A few years ago, he chucked his [...]

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This week is shaping up to be extra busy, with lots of appointments, errands and a baking day on the agenda so my meals this week are extra quick and easy. While I’m going heavy on the convenience factor, I’m trying not to completely abandon balanced nutrition…..thus, the heavy doses of whole wheat breads and [...]

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Most of my bargain-shopping life, I have winged it when it came to comparing prices. I memorized certain prices and I compared prices in the weekly circulars. I would do the bulk of my shopping at the store that had the most good deals that particular week. Then I would make quick trips to cherry pick the [...]

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We live in North Carolina, where summer swim teams are a huge part of the suburban lifestyle.
It’s not for the faint of heart.
Every Tuesday, we leave the house about 4 p.m. and may not return until 9 to 10 p.m. — or later, depending on thunder delays and any number of other variables that factor [...]

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I’m feeling the need to be super organized this week so I thought I would share my menus with you. I almost always plan a week’s worth of dinners based on what I have in the pantry and freezer but (big confession here) I don’t always write them down. And if they’re not written down, they [...]

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