Yup, after two years and nine months I have finally decided to get my own site. You can now read all my blogs at www.beautyfromchaos.com Make sure to add my new site to your google reader!!

This blogger site will be used for my payu2blog assignments, so there will still be activity, but my actual blog will continue at Beauty From Chaos.

I woke up at 4am this morning and for some reason my first thought was “oh, I haven’t done a Frugal Friday post yet. oh well, I’ll do it later since it’s only Thursday.” Then it hit me, no… today IS Friday!!! So then began the hour and a half long struggle of me trying to fall back asleep knowing I didn’t have even the slightest idea of what to do for a post.

My mind was running, my brain was ticking. I couldn’t think of anything.

Everything that I came up with ended with either “I already blogged about that” or “everyone already knows about that.”

Then I came up with six simple things I do that combined together actually save a lot of money for us.

At this point I tried to fall asleep. I figured “ok, I have my idea, I can sleep now.” I was wrong. I had to get out of bed and find a piece of paper and a pen to write my ideas on before I fell back asleep.

Here they are:

1. Avoid Walmart. Actually, make that avoid all stores. I like Walmart and Kmart and Target. The list of stores I like could keep going since I really like to shop. However when we go into Walmart or Super Target because we need a gallon of milk, we come out with three bags full of stuff that we didn’t need. Lately when we need milk or bread we’ve been going to the grocery store instead of a store that carries other things. It’s kept a lot of dollars in our pocket and out of the cash registers. Believe it or not, milk is actually a couple cents cheaper at Food Lion and gas stations than it is at Walmart.
2. Keep the Change. If you have a Bank of America in your area you’re probably familiar with that saying. When we moved here we switched to them and signed up for their keep the change program. What happens is every time you use your debit card Bank of America rounds it up to the next dollar putting all the change into your savings account. We have been here for 2 months and if we wouldn’t have spent any of that we would have over $50 in there by now. Just from change. If you use cash make sure you put all your pennies (nickels dimes and quarters too) in a jar or something at the end of the day. You’ll be surprised at how fast change adds up
3. Share. This one is my favorite I think. Not only does it save money it helps out other people and keeps the amount of boxes being stored to a minimum. If you have something that you’re not using right now, let someone who needs it borrow it! Right now I have 2 boxes of maternity clothes at my sister-in-laws house. I also have one box of size 2 clothes at Beth’s for her daughter. And when my sister-in-law has her baby, half my baby stuff will be gone too! It’s great. Make sure you only share with people you trust if you want it back though. The great thing is other people will share with you! (Beth is sending the box back full of clothes for Lexi!!)
4. Recycle/Reuse. I’m not talking about bags, newspapers or aluminum. I’m talking about everything. Clothes especially. If you have a pair of jeans that has a hole in the knee, cut them off into shorts. If the whole is higher you can make all sorts of things out of old pants including aprons, purses, and skirts. If the straps on your tank top are too long resulting in a VERY immodest shirt, use your handy dandy sewing machine (or needle and thread) to make them shorter. If you’ve out grown it completely, give it to someone else.
5. Make it yourself. It’s so easy to go out and buy things isn’t it? I’ve realized lately just how easy it is to make things that other people are selling. Laundry detergent, as an example is very over priced in the store and it’s very easy to make following a recipe. The other thing I’ve noticed lately that is way over priced is girls hair bows. I found some I loved at a site and they were between $6-$8 for one!! That’s a bit high for a frugal homemaker like me.
6. Avoid Disposables. I could write a whole blog here, but I think Beth is going to take care of that for me. I’ll keep it simple. Many things that you think you need can be replaced by reusable stuff. We have not had paper towels or napkins in our house for almost a year. (We have one roll of paper towels hidden for when I want to clean glass, I haven’t found a rag that works good yet). I’ve discovered that rags and “cloth napkins” can replace these very easily and cheaply! Plastic baggies are another thing that we don’t keep in the house too often, I have a jumbo roll of plastic wrap that I use in their place. Plastic wrap is a lot cheaper. When we do use plastic bags I wash them out and reuse them. The next two things wont affect you if you are male, they might even embarrass you so I apologize if you’re a male reader. Disposable nursing pads can be replaced with cloth ones, or lilypadz. I found this product after I stopped needing nursing pads, so I haven’t tried it yet. Maybe with #2. Another product I found but haven’t gotten yet is the Diva Cup. This can replace all the tampons and pads you have to buy- that would save a lot of money.

Just a side note, we do use disposable Toilet paper, I’m not that desperate to save money yet.

These six steps together have saved us a lot of money in the past and will continue to do so in the future. As I read more Frugal Friday posts I’ll probably find more solutions to saving money too.

Ashley and I were talking this morning about debt and choices we made “when we were young”. We are both in the process of paying off debt and trying to save money (although I think she has a head start on my husband and me).

I wish I could go back in time and tell my 18 year old self a couple things about debt and money. I realize now that I had no clue that there were consequences for the way I spent money. Unfortunately it takes a lot longer to fix what you’ve messed up when it comes to the financial aspect of life.

I remember applying for a credit card shortly after I turned 18. I thought it would really help me build good credit. I had plans for using it and paying it off each month, just to “build” my credit. I was always told that some credit is better than no credit. I think that is a lie Credit card companies make up to get young people into debt.

I did good for awhile, since my father had died the summer before my senior year I was receiving social security checks each month, I was also working a part time, very low paying job. I had plenty of money coming in. I saved absolutely none of it.

A while after I stopped getting the social security checks I started to enjoy having the Credit card. I am very glad that my credit card had a $400 limit. I think it helped me a lot.

The credit card was just strike one on my list of mistakes. The not saving money was strike two.
I did pretty good until I got married. My husband had made some bad choices before we got married and had a high loan from college (he got no financial aid, I was lucky enough to get a lot of financial aid and ended up with only a small school loan).

From then on our money choices went down hill. We figured his credit was already messed up so it didn’t matter. We didn’t understand the consequences of not paying doctor bills. We didn’t understand that every time we chose to go out to eat, or go to the movies instead of put the money towards debt we were just digging ourselves deeper into the hole of debt.

For a long time we both worked, we had way more money than needed to pay our bills, yet we didn’t make any effort to pay the ones that didn’t send us monthly statements.

When our daughter was born we knew the best thing for her would be if I was at home taking care of her. We didn’t want a stranger raising our daughter, we didn’t even want someone we knew raising our daughter. So we went down to one income.

It’s now, now that we barely have enough money to pay our bills, that we realize how bad our debt situation is. We have credit agencies calling us daily about doctor bills. We couldn’t get a loan or credit card right now if it was a life or death situation. Of course, now, now that we are in this situation we realize the consequences of buying everything you want. We realize the importance of paying your bills. We realize life is NOT all fun and games.

You know what the worst part about us spending all that money was? We have nothing to show for it. We didn’t buy a house, we didn’t go on vacation, we didn’t buy furniture. Nope, we spent it on eating out, movies, CD’s, other useless things.

That is why if I could go back in time, I would tell my self to remember that there are consequences.

Today I did it.
I was scared.
I tried it anyway.
The washer stopped.
I opened it.
I reluctantly pulled the first piece of laundry out.
I sniffed.
Hmm, it didn’t smell like Vinegar.
Something must be wrong.
I pulled out another piece of laundry.
I sniffed.
This one didn’t smell like vinegar either!!!
Each piece of laundry I pulled out I smelled.
None of them smell like vinegar.
I’m impressed. I should have known Beth wouldn’t lead me astray. I had to question it though, I mean 3/4ths a downy ball full of vinegar has a lot of smell. I have no clue how none of it stuck to my laundry.
Homemade laundry detergent, Vinegar fabric softener and line drying. The combination certainly makes doing laundry a lot cheaper!

I do have one complaint though. I had one towel in the load and it is hard as a rock. I don’t think I could ever use that to dry off with. Next time I’m gonna try putting my towels and wash cloths in the dryer to see if it makes them usable. If not, I will have to reserve fabric softener for my whites. Does anyone else have hard towels, or am I the only one?

My husband and I have been wanting to whiten our teeth for years now. Ever since we saw the first whitening strip on a store shelf. However, with our limited budget we were unable to purchase the whitening kits. I thought we were destined to have yellow teeth forever.
Then I saw it. The cheapest (free for us) way to whiten your teeth that actually works. here’s how you do it.

1. get baking soda
2. get peroxide (normal 3%)
3. mix the two with a q-tip until it’s like paste
4. use the q-tip to apply the paste to your teeth.
5. wait as long as you can, (no more than 20 minutes, I wait 10, my husband waits 5)
6. Make sure you don’t swallow the mixture
7. Spit, then use your tooth brush and any remaining paste to brush.
8. Rinse (i often brush with a normal toothpaste after this because I can’t stand the taste left in my mouth.)
9. then stare at your teeth, admire their whiteness!

Sure, it’s not as convenient as other tooth whitening products, but it’s a lot cheaper and it works for me!

After reading Joanna’s blog about spider print bedding I had a thought of my own. Why don’t they have animal print bedding that looks like red ants? Have you ever noticed the multi colors of red ants? Probably not because most people either stomp on, or move away from a red ant when they see it.
Our front “yard” is really our driveway/parking spot. It’s mostly sand and gravel, and it is completely full of ants.
Often when we sit in our car we count the ants on the windshield, one time we counted 9.
That is how I learned to admire the coloring of red ants. Sure, I’d much rather curl up under a blanket that looks like a butterfly, but red ants are pretty.

I think I like cooking. I haven’t decided. Sometimes it’s great and sometimes I hate the chore.
The days that I hate it I blame it on my ever so picky husband. I’m serious, he’s picky (I still love him though). The majority of our meals consist of meat and potatoes or pasta. Veggies are made for Lexi and I, the only “veggie” Eugene will eat is corn.
The days I like cooking are days that I am actually able to find a recipe for something exciting that my husband will actually eat. I had one of those days the other day. I made homemade scalloped potatoes with kielbasa in it. It was pretty good if I might say so myself.
Another thing that helps me like cooking is fun cookware. I really like my square stone baker that I got from Pampered chef. Another Pampered Chef thing I can’t live without is my veggie peeler- it rocks and it’s pretty cheap. I stumbled upon some berndes cookware the other day. I bet a nice set of that would make me like cooking. I’m sure they are worth every penny.
My mom used to cook some of the best food, all from scratch of course, none of the boxed food ever came in our house. I wish I had paid more attention while she was cooking, I bet I would like cooking more now if I had. I’d atleast be able to cook some more food!

I haven’t done a post about my darling Lexi in a long time, so I chose today to fill you in on her.
She is still just crawling, she wants to figure out how to pull up, she tries but she always chickens out. She can crawl really fast though, and if you hold her fingers she’ll walk everywhere. Her favorite thing to get into is still the electronics and I can’t really blame her. We keep her toys right next to the entertainment center (which has the game systems and dvd and vcr right there at her head level when she’s crawling.) What child wouldn’t be tempted to play with it?
A few weeks ago she learned that the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen open and this has been another favorite to get into. I am blessed though, she stays in the room I am in, she is very much a people person. I’m lucky because my mom watches her granddaughter Scout who, despite being 4 months younger than Lexi, can climb up and pull up and stand and get into all sorts of things. Scout will also leave the room you’re in to find more stuff to get into. So I have been blessed.
Lexi still has just two teeth, there is one trying to come through on the top, but it’s been unsuccessful so far.
We got her a turtle sandbox at a yard sale on Saturday and she is loving it. I have to watch her close though because she really likes to try to eat the sand.
Friday night we went to the fair to watch a demolition derby as a family. It was the first one I have been to (that I remember, my mom might say different). It rained a bit before it started but it was still really cool. (Yes I know we’re rednecks). Eugene took Lexi down the big slide, which was a great disappointment because the rain and taken away all the slickness and he ended up having to pull himself down. We also let Lexi play the “pick a duck” game. She of course got a duck with an “S” on it meaning she got a small toy (i think there is only one M and one L duck in the whole pool).
When we leaned her over the toy bin she picked a stuff snake. A Snake! not a girly bear or anything cute, an ugly stuffed snake. Did I mention that her favorite toy in the car is a tractor? Our insurance guy gave her a stress releaser tractor that she absolutely loves. She lights up when you give it to her. I think I have a tomboy in the making. Not that I am upset by that. I was a big tomboy myself growing up.
Well, Lexi has woken up from her nap, so my time to blog is over for now. Time to bathe the baby.

I started CVS shopping back in May (I think that was the month). They had lots of good deals where the products you bought were free because they give you Extra Care Bucks(ECB) back after you buy them. It was a great month to start because it was easy to stock up on ECB’s. I’m still pretty new to the pharmacy shopping to save money, Crystal and Beth are much better than I am at figuring out how to use their coupons and make the best out of their trips.
Yesterday was the 5th time I did really good with my CVS bucks, unfortunately I’ve never posted any of my adventures to share with you. I did post one about my trip to Walgreen’s, but I’ve accumulated so much more than what is in that picture.
To date I have spent around $20 at CVS and about $46 at Walgreen’s. That $20 I spent at CVS in May, which got me about $19 ECB’s, since then through my shopping I have managed to build up to now having $24 ECB’s. It’s a little confusing at first, but with the use of sales, coupons and ECB’s you can actually make money at CVS.
Here is a picture of my purchases from CVS last night.
The Adidas deodorants were $3.29, (3×3.29= 9.87) I had 2 $1.00 off coupons, bringing the total for Adidas down to $7.87. This month you get $3 ECB’s when you purchase Adidas deodorant, which means I got $9 back. I made $1.13 on that deodorant.
The Speed stick was $3.99, (3.99×2=7.89) I had a $1.00 of 2 coupon, bringing the total for Speed Stick down to $6.89. This week you get $3 when you purchase Men’s Speed Stick (only the kind in the picture). So I got $6 back. I spent .89c on 2 things of deodorant.
The Colgate this month is on sale for $2.99. I got 3 tubes (because as I will tell you later I have a plethora of toothpaste). (3x 2.99= 8.97). I had 2 coupons for Colgate toothpaste, one was for .50c off one tube, the other was for .75c off 2. bringing my total for the Colgate down to $7.72. This month the you get $2.99 ECB for the Colgate toothpaste (it’s free up to 5 tubes). I got $8.97 back in ECB’s. I made $1.25.
The lotion was on sale for $2.99 and I had a $1 off coupon. So it was only $1.99. I didn’t get any ECB back on this.
My total before tax and coupons was $29.81, after coupons $25.56. I used my $22.96 ECB I had from sopping before and ended up paying only $2.60 out of pocket (I only paid .50c tax on all this too). I could have saved more money because I had a $4 off when you spend $20 at CVS coupon and I forgot to use it.
I got back $23.97 in ECB.
I know this is all confusing, but just ask me, Crystal or Beth if you have questions. Crystal has a lot of information on her blog that could help you too.
Now on to Walgreen’s. I showed you one of my Walgreen’s trips earlier in this post, I did a lot better on that trip but that is because they had better deals. Here are my purchases from Walgreen’s.

The FortiFense is on sale for $5, plus you get $5 register rewards (RR’s) to use on your next purchase. I made two transactions with this, buying the Fortifense first of course.
There was a coupon in the Walgreen’s sales ad for 3/$2 for the Eclipse gum, and the Airwick was on sale for $7.99. I had a $4 off coupon from one of Sunday’s papers for this Airwick mini, and Walgreen’s has a $3 Mail in rebate (MIR) on it this month. So the total out of pocket for Walgreen’s was $5.34 for the first transaction and $1.66 for the second. Plus I have $3 coming back to me from the MIR.
Two nights ago I went to Walgreen’s and purchased the following
The Pantene was $4.99, the Rimmel foundation was $8.99 and the Aquafresh toothbrush was $3.99. My total was 19.18 after tax. All of these are free after MIR.
Like I said Earlier, to date I have spent a total of $46 at Walgreen’s, but I have $23.06 coming back to me on a gift card.
With Walgreen’s MIR you have 2 options, you can either get the MIR by check, or you can get it on a gift card. If you chose the gift card option you get an extra 10% back.
I also want to say that with a coupon in Walgreen’s Weekly sales ad you can get an ink cartridge refill for free on Wednesday this week.
Walgreen’s often has good deals, obviously this month it didn’t compare to the deals I got at CVS. They key is to spend time preparing, and use coupons!
Rite Aid/Eckards also has some good deals. I was planning on going there last night to get some things that will be free after MIR but it was closed by the time I got there. I have gotten some good deals there including face wash, mouthwash and toothpaste. This week I plan to purchase Imodium and Mylanta which are both free after MIR. They also have Colgate toothpaste free after MIR. Speedstick deodorant is on sale for .99c (and I have coupons).
Over all I don’t think that spending $43 is bad considering with that $43 I have purchased 1 box of FortiFense, 3 packs of gum, 4 packs of tic tacs, 1 air freshener, 2 bottles of dish soap, 2 bottles of lotion, 7 shampoos/conditioner, 7 sticks of deodorant, 3 body wash, 1 bottle of hand soap, 1 thing of astringent, 42 pads, 5 bottles of mouthwash, 1 can of shaving cream, 11 tubes of toothpaste, 4 packs of razors, 7 toothbrushes, and 1 jar of foundation. All name brand!
My husband thought I should figure out how much all of that would have cost without ECB’s or coupons and put it on here for you. This is just an educated guess using my last two shopping trips as examples… My educated guess is around $289. How is that for savings?
Check out your local CVS and Walgreen’s and Rite Aid to see what kind of deals you can find!

Phones. cell phones, cordless phones, old rotary phones, touch tone phone, pay phone, car phone and now the iphone…
There are too many phones to choose from.
Eugene and I have had cell phones since August of 2002. We signed a 2 year contract with Verizon and have kept renewing it every time it runs out.
The only time we have had a home phone was the brief period of time when my mom lived with us and she wanted one. I think that lasted maybe 6 months.
At first it it was awesome to have cell phones. The luxury of being able to call whoever, whenever wherever you were was great. Driving down the road and want to know better directions? Call someone with the internet and ask them to look some up for you. Out at the store and can’t remember what the good CVS deals are? Call Beth, she knows. (Yes I’ve done that).
I’ve always loved my cell phone. There’s only one problem, well maybe 2.
Minutes. I’m terrible at watching my minutes. I go over regularly. I used to have 400, then that plan moved up to 450. I went over so many times we had to just switch me to 950 minutes. Yes, I have 950 day time minutes and I still go over.
I didn’t used to be this bad. When I was working I didn’t use my cell phone very often so I stayed in my plan most of the time. Once Lexi was born and I was at home all the time my phone became a good friend.
The second problem is the battery, that’s not as a big deal but like a cordless phone battery you have to charge it a lot.
When we switched my minutes from 450 to 950 it extended my 2 year contract to February. Eugene’s ends in December. We were debating about what to do. We’ve been tossing around the idea of getting a home phone possibly with unlimited long distance and local calls and getting rid of my cell phone. That way I can call whoever I want whenever I want with no minute restrictions! The down side is that we will soon be having a second vehicle which means it will be possible for me to be on the road alone with Lexi. I don’t like the thought of driving around unless I have a phone in case of emergencies.
I think we finally devised a plan that will help us with all the people we call. We will get a home phone, with just a basic local calling plan. Then I will get a Cingular (A&T) pay as you go cell phone .The people I talk to the most are April (my sister in law), Beth, my mom and my sister Bethany.
April has a home phone with unlimited long distance, so she will be able to call me on my home phone with no additional charge to either of us and we will be able to talk all day if we wanted.
Beth has a Cingular cell phone, so we’d be able to talk from cell phone to cell phone without using minutes. Therefore it will be free to both of us.
My mom and Bethany have Verizon, Since we will be keeping Eugene’s cell phone with Verizon they will be able to call me on his phone using mobile to mobile minutes which equals FREE. If they need to get a hold of me during the day we all have the internet and can email or IM.
So I think we cheated the system. Of course we still have to wait until February to start this, unless I convince my husband to take my phone for 2 months, then we can start in December.