Frugal Friday Tip #2 - Relationships

Frugal rule number #1 - There is no such thing as a stranger

When you are passionate about something, you gush over it, you dream about it and you can't help sharing it. I live to save $, big and small and I love to tell the world (sorry to all that are tired of hearing it, I'm addicted). Not to say "hey look at my great deal", but "hey, this is how you can save a $ or $$". We, Mr. and Mrs. Frugal B, are always looking to leverage our contacts, cost savings, and information to help a fellow frugaler/frugalista.

That being said, we are not shy, we are both super friendly. I am that person that will stop you in Jo-Ann Fabrics and ask you "do you know how to do X". But I am also that person that you can stop in Jo-Ann's and ask "how do you make cloth diapers". Not only will I tell you what I know but I am willing to give resources. A hoarder of knowledge (or things for that matter) I am not. By doing this I am enlarging my circle of friends, contacts, all around support system of like minded people.

This also plays out in other ways, just being plain ole, old fashion friendly and nice. Please, thank you, tipping for services, and volunteering our time. Not because we want something but because we want to give something, kindness. So many times we have been BLESSED because of our ability to give and receive KINDNESS.

Share your dreams, plans and goals with your circle. Who knows how they can aid you in your endeavours. There are so many times that friends have saved us TIME (remember the nonrenewable resource). Had we not shared our projects or path who knows what we would have ended up with.

I could list the multitude of Blessing we have received just because of our sheer kindness, and the kindness of others. It all begins with simple relationships!

I challenge you to leverage your social networking. Whether that is work, church, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blog) you will be surprised how many people want to share their kindness with you.

This or That or THAT or that

I have been coveting, all but salivating, over the pictures on some of my favorite blogs (Finding My Feet, Centsational Girl, Pioneer Woman). Now I have priced these babies for quite some time and just always felt that they were a luxury, especially since I don't really know much about camera's or taking a picture other than "point and shoot" (no pun intended). Well with my new blogging and my husbands nudge I have been seriously considering this large purchase.

As a history major research is definitely my forte, but I am light on the digital side. This means that as I researched I was having to look up the terms that others in the digital/electronical (yes that is a word) world used as everyday "you should know this terms". So this has been a very long process to get to our final decision.

Now as you can tell I am moved 90% by price. Hubby however is 100% moved by function (gadget guy). So we have been stalking Canon's and Nikon's and are finding that they are very similar to an untrained person. There are so many to choose from, many of them have the same functions and others do things I never dreamed of. So I am focusing on these items;

Cost (Got to get the biggest bang for my buck)

Handling (Ease of Use)

Stabilization (The lady at the camera store said it was important)

Shutter Speed (My babies are athletic)

I am sure that I should be looking for much more, but I got to start somewhere.

I will keep you posted with my findings.

Knowledge = Know-how

Not many of you know but I am very easily excitable, good and bad. However nothing gets me more fired up than when someone else gets going on a project and I have a tiny bit of knowledge to help them along their way. Note, knowledge has nothing to do with know how.

A fellow blogger/co worker has found a diamond in the rough, a perfect project to (American Idol) make her own. She will be recovering an upcycled chair (see it here) and I thought that this would be a perfect time for HER to try double welting (lol).

Double welting is the side by side cord covered with fabric and attached to an upholstered piece to cover staples. Now this is no easy task, see here, here, and here. I look forward to seeing her finished project and I say thank you for getting me into gear with my own DIY ventures (can you say hello organized closet)!


If you have time swing by and visit Miss Mustard Seed, she was once an upholstery DIY'er but LOOK at her now! And over at Much to do about Nothing, she has a great tutorial on this topic.

!Thanks Stacey for the post inspiration!

Monday Methods

Photo Courtesy of Foodnetwork.com

Monday, the beginning of the week, it is so very hard for me to stay on task. I feel like Mr. Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

"So much time so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it"!

My Monday's are quite often mayhem, getting the kids back on track for school, meal planning, budgeting, and of course it is the beginning of my "Great Blog Hop" (visiting my favorites and slipping in a few newbies). After my Internet break, I try to reduce my computer time on the weekend, I have a hard time focusing on one topic and find myself all over cyberland.

So this week I am going to try something new. I will be sharing a few of my favorite cooking/baking blogs as I prepare for next weeks menu (meal planning). Take some time to peruse the links below and I challenge you to try something new this week.

FrugalB Friday Tip #1 - Laundry Any One?

ARE YOU USING TOO MUCH LAUNDRY DETERGENT

From Pictures

We all have to do it from time to time, whether you dread it or welcome it, washing clothes is on every one's chore list. I am one who dreads the day someone says "mom I need socks", as I wait until the last minute to get to our laundry. I actually implemented a rule that everyone must let me know when they get to the last (sock, t-shirt, p.j.'s etc) so that I wasn't caught off guard. So this is an area that can easily get out of control for me.

That being said because of my hatred dislike this is my least visited room and I don't put much thought into the chore. BUT there is cost savings in this little ole room for all of us.Chances are you are using wayyy to much laundry detergent. With the new water efficient machines using less water and the detergents becoming more concentrated it is said that the average person is using 10 to 15 percent too much detergent. Just following the directions, recommended amount, on the bottle will save you $$$ (you can read more on this here).

But if you take it further and really understand how clothes are cleaned you can save a ton (talking $20's not $1's). Laundry detergent doesn't clean clothes. It actually breaks down the surface tension in the water so that it can dissolve water soluble dirt easier. The actual cleaning is done by the agitator and the clothing rubbing against each other. Really the more detergent you use the faster your clothes wear out and fade.

Tip ~ Learn to load your washing machine correctly and experiment with the amount of detergent that works for your machine.

January ~ Celebration of Organization

It seems that January has been dubbed "Organize IT" month. Blog after blog, article after article, chronicle, detail and show case all things organization.

A successful (self defined success of course) frugalista, (Thanks TJMaxx) has to be organized. Knowing what you have on hand so that you don't over buy. Knowing who, what, when and where a sale is, may be critical to getting the best price possible. And having a place for everything conserves our only nonrenewable resource, TIME. So to say organization is important is an understatement in my book.


Check out Better Home and Garden's, "What's your organizational personality?"
My quiz says my organizational style is "The Librarian",

• Detailed and a task manager
• Energetic
• A perfectionist, sometimes to a fault

Spend some time with Janelle over at Isabella & Max Rooms, as she organizes her hall closet. Then swing over to say hello to Carlee at Deliciously Organized, your bound to find an idea or two.

Craigslist Anyone?

I was super luckily to find this beauty on Craigslist. Like most of my Craigslist ventures I had to go off the beaten path.I went to an abandoned building, of course I was not alone,I had my loving sister with me to stave off evil doers (she is 5"2). We entered the building through a side door, the only way up was on an elevator that looked like it was out of order. My sister said we should turn around. Of course I was like, No Way, we have come too far from where we started from (Yes that is a song lyric). We took the elevator up only for the door to open into a dimly lit corridor. Again my sister said, ok now we should turn around. Of course I said wait here I will go to the the door way (about 20 steps) I see a light. I went to the door way and low and behold a 5 ft woman appears, I quickly said, I am here about the ad on Craigslist. She said yes it is back this way. I waived my sister to come on and we went to a small room where there sat the beauty below.

She was gorgeous, well to me. She was 6 ft long, she had a formica top circa 1960 and she had eight legs that screamed file cabinet, I wanted her so bad. The ad asked for $50 which I would have shelled over easily, but you must barter at all times or you could be missing a "frugal moment". I asked her if she would take $40 she said yes. Now while I was haggling with the little woman (remember she is 5 ft) my sister screams, "this ain't happening". She said this thing weighs 500 lbs. I turned around, and at 5'11, and I am pretty strong, and I too struggled to get her off the ground. Well instead of turning around heading to my van, I asked the little lady for a $10 discount because I did not think we would be able to get this thing down the stairs unscathed. She said "I can give you $10 off cuz I can't help you".

My 5'2 sister and I shuffled the console down the dimly lit hallway, into an too short elevator (I held her up on my back) and down a set of steps that had off kilter risers. In the process we bent her legs (yes nearly broke them off) and I fell more than once. But I got her, and for $30, and there was only a small chance of lose of life.

Oh yeah did I mention we were on our 1 hour lunch break :)

MISSION ~ POSSIBLE

Print by Jennifer Ramos at Madebyagirl.com ~ can be purchased here

Frugal B's mission is to help you save money in nontraditional ways. Most times people are looking to monetarily increase an IRA, a Savings Account, even increase their contributions to company matched 401K's (which is GREAT!). However it is easy to forget about small incremental changes that can affect the bottom line and do more than save, stretch, or increase your pennies. Such as, teach smart spending to your children through coupon clipping and shopping sales (yes they are watching your spending habits). Investing time in your family's health through meal planning and grocery budgeting (lots of money to save here). And lastly relationship building through goal oriented projects that will build trust and know how.

In blog land I have seen people challenge themselves to do more, give more and be more with less. Ana White gives the tools to build like a skilled carpenter (she ROCKS). Ree, The pioneer woman gives us delectable recipes (great tutorials) and is an awesome source for photography information (I can not wait to get my SLR camera). Katie, Censational girl will push you out of your builder basic box (she does white kitchens right). Younghouselove's Sherri and John encourage you to have fun with whatever you are doing (couple blogging at it's best!). And last but not least the Nester and her mistreatment's, frugal at it's best.

While these sites were not built with frugality in mind they have inspired me to "DO IT MYSELF, MY WAY", and what better way to save than educate yourself and cut out the middle man$$$$

I look forward to sharing, my tips and tricks on saving, sharing my personal journey in frugality (yes sometimes it is a struggle), and learning how to do this BLOG thingy!