Where The Wild Things Are book

I remember when I first got the book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I was 7 years old and I’d ordered the book through the Scholastic Monthly book newsletter that my teacher would hand out every month. I took one look at the cover of the book, with that monster sitting on the shore and just knew I wanted to know more about that monster.

The book Sendak wrote and illustrated in 1963 had only 10 sentences but it stuck with me clearly for 33 years and I know it’s stuck with many of us over the years. When I heard that Spike Jonze was bringing Max and the Wild Things to the big screen I was excited to see what the film would be like. This afternoon I found out.

Where the Wild Things Are movie

I loved the movie. I’d see it again in heartbeat. But… now that I’ve seen it I would not even consider taking young kids to see it at the theatre. I will explain why but if you don’t want any spoilers than you might want to stop reading now.

Still with me? Great… here we go…

The movie begins with young Max at home. We see a friendless boy who is lonely, feels neglected by his older sister and his divorced mother. He is by turns lonely, sad, angry and then destructive and even violent as he acts out. Max (played by Max Records) brings out a range of negative emotions through his actions as he destroys a gift for his sister, jumps all over his sister’s bed with snow covered boots, bites his mother and then runs away.

Once he reaches the land Where the Wild Things Are we see loneliness, jealousy, violence, threatening behaviour, friendship, companionship, love, anger (SCARY SCARY ANGER), feelings of betrayal, disillusionment, sadness, loss.

The movie is beautiful. It’s wonderful in every way. The creatures are everything I imagined they’d be and so much more. But it’s an emotional rollercoaster with some very scary moments that I just don’t think would sit well with most  young children – at least not without some conversation about what was happening as things go along.

Personally, I’d not take kids younger than 8 or 10 to see it at the theatre. There are long stretches of the movie that would be boring for young kids and other points which are SCARY monster scenes and a lot of emotional turmoil. Without the ability to pause the movie after a scene and discuss why Max or the monsters are acting out and the underlying emotions I think there will be a lot of frightened children exiting the theatre before the movie concludes.

Where the Wild Things Are is more a movie about a child but not really for a child. I’d possibly consider buying the DVD (when it comes out) to view with younger kids, where you can control and pause the movie if you need to and discuss why Max (or the monsters) are feeling sad, lonely and especially why they feel angry and violent.

Where the Wild Things Are was truly a breathtaking film and it really brought Max and the Wild Things to life in a really realistic way but it’s not what I’d consider a kids film at all. My heart is still racing and I’m emotionally exhausted. We all have the Wild Things in us somewhere.

A few days ago I announced a Back-to-School Giveaway and Lunchboxbuilder.com – I played around with the Lunchbox Builder this morning and thought I’d share my results.

Once I created my Lunchbox I printed it out.

Print out the Lunchbox

I carefully cut it out …

Carefully cut out the Lunchbox

… and glued the edges to make the lunchbox.

Tada! The Lunchbox!

How cute is this?

There are several different Lunchbox styles, even a pirate’s treasure chest, and you and your kids can have fun customizing it with stickers, etc. then print out, cut out and put it together. While you’re on LunchboxBuilder.com make sure you add your lunchbox creation to their gallery – you’ll have a chance to win a great Back-to-School gift package there (just like the one I’m giving away here) and after that make sure you print out your free coupons from Mott’s, Pepperidge Farms Goldfish and Smuckers.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Frugal Family Life Newsletter for your chance to win …

…and head over to my first post about the contest for more chances to win.

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Back-to-School time has always been a big yearly milestone around my house. When I was kid I couldn’t wait to go get my school supplies. Coloured pencils, cute erasers, crayons. Crisp new notebooks and colourful binders. A new lunchbox. My favourite lunchbox ever was my Wonder Woman lunchbox with matching thermos.

Over the years even when I wasn’t in school myself and I didn’t have school aged kids I still saw September as a new start to my year. Summer was over and it was time to set new goals for the year.

I was so excited when I learned that Motts, Smuckers, and Pepperidge Farms Gold Fish have launched the Lunchbox Builder, a fun tool, where users can design their own lunchbox, add it to the gallery of lunchboxes, and view and rate other people’s lunchboxes. You can even print out and make your “lunchbox” to decorate your room!
Users who design a lunchbox are entered to win a lunch-inspired prize pack worth $150!

Walmart, Smucker’s, Motts and Pepridgefarm Gold Fish, have given me the opportunity to give away the same $150 lunch-inspired prize pack to one lucky Frugal Family Life Blog reader!

The prize pack includes an iPod Shuffle, an insulated lunchbox, an assorted pack of Sharpie pens, Crayola colored Pencils, a Smuckers Uncrustables sandwich container, a Logitech Optical Mouse, a Smuckers belt pack, combination lock, a Motts Reusable Shopping Bag, a squeezable Smuckers strawberry, scented pencils, a Walmart Gift Card, and a pedometer.

How to Enter:

You must be a Frugal Family Life/Frugalous Newsletter subscriber (enter your Name and Email below) and you must comment on this post telling me what you or your kids look forward to most about Back-to-School shopping.

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Tweet about this giveaway and leave an additional comment linking to your tweet (how to link directly to a tweet).

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Write a blog post on your own blog about this giveaway and leave an additional comment linking to your post.

Extra Entry (worth 1 entry): Link to this giveaway on Facebook and leave an additional comment linking to your Facebook post.

Contest ends August 28, 2009 at 11:59pm est.

Contest is open to residents of Canada and the USA.

This has been in the works for a while now but we finally have it up – Fridge Foragers.

Over on Fridge Foragers we’ll be talking about quick, easy, healthy family meals including breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks that the whole family will love.

We’re all busy and often meal time gets pushed aside while we try to bounce from work and school to hockey practice, swim lessons, book club and gym and back home again.
Fridge Foragers will have lots of recipes, ideas, how to’s and more as we try to rescue meal times from the drive thru. Come check it out.

On June 1, 2009 the city of Toronto passed a law meaning that all stores (including restaurants) must charge a minimum of 5 cents for each plastic bag that customers take. The idea it to reduce the amount of plastic bags going into our waste. I’m sure more and more communities will begin this practice and I know many large retailers are now charging for bags even without the by-law.

Mountain of Plastic Bags

I’ve gathered up a bunch of links for free shopping bag patterns located around the web. There are patterns for sewing, knitting, crocheting and there’s even a macrame pattern.  I hope some of these patterns inspire you to make your own bags. I’d love to see them!

• Two crochet tote bag patterns using old plastic shopping bags – how much greener can you get? I’m sure these would be super durable too!
• Very simple shopping bag made from a T-shirt – this one is super simple. As long as you can sew in a straight(ish) line you’ll be fine. You don’t even need a sewing machine. You can hand sew this one!
• Knit Mesh Tote Bag – this is a relatively simple knitting pattern without too many complicated twists and turns.
• Shopping Bag Made from a Pillowcase – again only very basic sewing skills needed for this one.
• Wallet-sized Fold Up Shopping Bag – this one’s a little more complex and you’ll need intermediate sewing skills but I love how it folds up so neatly
• Crocheted Shopping Tote – a pattern for a shopping bag with pocket – intermediate crochet skills required.
• Knit Shopping Bag – this pattern is for the intermediate knitter among us
• Macrame Shopping Bag – Yes! Macrame!

Nothing seems to strike fear into the hearts of most of us these days quite like the fear of food poisoning and food born bacteria does. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that every year about 76 million people in the United States become ill from harmful bacteria in food; of these, about 5,000 die. Bacteria grows rapidly on meat and fish – beef, lamb, chicken, pork, salmon, etc. – at room temperature so all meats, poultry and fish must be stored in the fridge or freezer.

raw meat

Keep raw meat away from other foods as it’s very easy to cross contaminate. I’ve seen it recommended to use separate cutting boards at all times. One for raw meat that is never used for any other foods and one for fruits, vegetables, etc. It’s also very important to disinfect any surface or object that the raw meat has touched.

A simple, inexpensive and non-toxic method is to spray surfaces with vinegar, then with hydrogen peroxide. No rinsing is necessary. Produce and meats can also be sprayed in this manner to disinfect. Here’s some more information on the use of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to disinfect both foods and surfaces. (Note: do not use this method on counters or surfaces made of calcium-based stone such as limestone, marble or calcite as the vinegar may etch or dissolve the stone. Use soap and water instead.)

All meats should be cooked thoroughly and it’s recommended that you use a meat thermometer to be sure that meats are properly cooked. Here’s a guide for safe temperatures:

USDA Recommended Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures

• Steaks & Roasts – 145 °F
• Fish – 145 °F
• Pork – 160 °F
• Ground Beef – 160 °F
• Egg Dishes – 160 °F
• Chicken Breasts – 165 °F
• Whole Poultry – 165 °F

Once food is cooked it should be consumed at once or packaged into a container and stored in the refrigerator. Remember to wash your hands frequently before, during and after handling raw meats and wash all cooking utensils, pans, dishes immediately in hot soapy water after use. Follow up with another spray of the vinegar and then the hydrogen peroxide to kill up to 10 times more bacteria than just soap and water alone.

One of the easiest ways to live a little more frugally and a little greener at the same time is to stop using paper towels and start using washable cloths instead. Knit or crochet cloths are easy to make and are a great replacement for those paper towels. They’re absorbant, durable, washable, soft enough to wipe or clean even the most delicate surfaces yet the fabric texture has great scrubbing abilities.

They can be used as dishcloths, facecloths, washcloths, and cleaning rags and can be tossed in the wash.  They’re a great way to use up those little odds and ends of yarn leftover from other projects too.

Dishclothes Galore!

Whether you are an experienced knitter or crocheter or someone who has never attempted to knit or crochet before the patterns below are simple and quick to make up and the clothes will last for years. I do recommend though you pick different colours for different uses if you’re planning to make both dishcloths or scrubbing clothes as well as facecloths.

• Simple Knit Washcloth (knit pattern)
• Bubble Scrubber Washcloth (knit pattern)
• Round Washcloth (knit pattern)
• Meshie Washcloth (crochet pattern)
• Peas and Carrots Washcloth (knit pattern) – this would be an adorable hostess gift or part of a gift basket for a bridal shower.
• Another Round Dishcloth (crochet pattern)
• Popcorn Stitch Dishcloth (crochet pattern)
• Crochet Dishcloth (crochet pattern) – this one has great step by step photos.
• Star Washcloth (knit pattern)

If you’ve never knit or crocheted before here are a couple of tutorials. Washcloths are a great way to learn to knit or crochet as the patterns are pretty simple and even if the first few don’t turn out perfect – they’ll still be great scrubbing rags.

• How to Knit – the Basics (video tutorial)
• How to Knit (step by step with illustrations)
• How to Crochet (video tutorial)
• How to Crochet (step by step with illustrations)

When I was a kid I spent countless rainy afternoons and snowy evenings playing cards with my Grandfather. We’d play Go Fish and Crazy 8s usually. Over time we changed the rules so much for Crazy 8s that we called it Double Crazy 8s and had special rules for nearly every card in the deck!

I’d talk about how my day went, the crush I had on the boy who sat near me in school, and he’d tall me tall tales of adventure while we played. Some of my best memories are of Grampie Normie and I and out our hours of card playing.

Playing Cards

It seems these days with the technology and the media we often feel that such simple games aren’t nearly as valuable as the newest, loudest video game or trendy activity. But there’s something so homey and comforting about a deck of cards, the edges soft and frayed with use that just can’t be replaced with a game controller. Especially on those rainy summer days when everyone’s bored and needs a change of pace.

Here’s a list of card game instructions from around the web. Most households already have a deck or two of cards and they can always be found for a dollar or two at the local dollar store. Frugal Fun for the whole family.

• All Fives (2 or 3 players)
• Crazy Eights (2 or more players)
• War (2 or more players but works best with 2) – this was a favourite of mine!
• Go Fish (can be played with 2 but best with 3 or more)
• Gin Rummy (2 or more players)
• A huge list of card games of all kinds
• 52 Pick-up (I used to get so annoyed with my older brother would pull this on me)

Deal me in!

This is post #3 in the Frugal Food: Freezer series. Be sure to check out post #1 “Frugal Food: Foods You Can’t Freeze” and post #2 “Frugal Foods: How to Package Food for the Freezer“.

While storing food longer than the times listed in the guide below won’t affect food safety it will affect taste, nutrients and texture of the foods so it’s recommended that you label all foods in your freezer with the name of the item and the date it was placed into the freezer.

I personally prefer and upright style freezer as it’s easier to organize and find things and there’s less chance that items will get buried at the bottom of the freezer never to been seen for years. Remember, it’s not frugal to freeze food if you leave it in there so long that’s inedible!

A quick and dirty (ha!) post on oven cleaning. Why? Because I’ve been avoiding cleaning mine for the last week and I decided writing about it was a great way to procrastinate yet feel like I’m being productive at the same time

Frugal, green and easy oven cleaning recipe: Mix 2 tablespoons liquid dish detergent, 2 teaspoons borax into 4 cups warm water. Apply the mixture to the inside of the oven – cover walls, ceiling, back, etc. Let sit for 30 minutes then scrub with a scrubbing brush or plastic scouring pad and a paste of baking soda and water. Sponge clean with damp sponge  to remove residue.

All little patience and elbow grease is all it takes!

(Note: while borax is a natural substance it is considered a poison if ingested. Please read this to ensure you use borax safely.)

This is post #2 in the Frugal Food: Freezer series. Be sure to check out post #1 “Frugal Food: Foods You Can’t Freeze“.

Wrapping and packaging foods for the freezer can seem intimidating at the beginning. Should you use butcher paper? Zippered freezer bags, or plastic storage containers? Which packaging should I use for which foods? How much food can I freeze at once?

First a few quick freezing tips:

• Make sure the freezer is set at 0F or -18C or lower.
• If you plan to freeze a lot of food at the same time turn the thermometre of the freezer to it’s coldest setting for the day before.
• Don’t try to freeze to much at once. Try to freeze no more than 3lbs (1.5kg) of food per cubic-foot capacity of your freezer within a 24 hour period.
• Freeze in usable quantities. If you have a household of 2 people it doesn’t make sense to freeze a container with enough to feed 8 people. Think about how you’ll use things before you freeze them and package accordingly.
• Make sure you use only vaporproof/moistureproof packaging that is designed for use in the freezer. Packaging should be able to withstand freezing and thawing without breaking or cracking. If you choose glass containers make sure they are freezer-proof.
• Square container take up less space and stack better than round containers.

There are two types of packaging for freezing foods: rigid (best for foods like soups, stews, casseroles, etc.) and flexible (best for firmer foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, etc.). Either type should be vaporproof, leakproof, durable and able to withstand freezing temperatures.

Packaging meat & fish for the freezer: While you can freeze meat and fish in their grocery store wrappings for short term freezing (up to 1 month) meat and fish are best wrapped in butcher paper to freeze. I probably should take a bunch of photos of the process of wrapping meat but I’m not one to reinvent the wheel if I don’t have to LOL. Here’s a great tutorial on wrapping meat for the freezer with nice illustrations.

Next we’ll talk about how long foods can be kept in the freezer before they start losing flavour, nutritional value and texture.

For the last few months there’s been one item on my “To Do” list that keeps getting ignored: Update the Bio. I have to say, I absolutely hate writing bios, profiles for networking sites, etc. It’s definitely overdue and things have changed a lot over the last 12 months since I wrote this bio and started this blog. (Actually – it wasn’t even this blog – it started as Frugalous.com and later I moved it all here to Frugal Family Life.)

I sold my house last August with the plan that my teenage son and I would move into a 2 bedroom apartment. My teen daughter was planning to rent a house with 3 other girls as she headed into her second year of college in a city about 90 minutes away. They say even the best laid plans go astray. The week I was moving into the 2 bedroom apartment my lovely Girlchild informed me that she’d decided to change schools and change direction and would now be living at home with me after all. Oops! Now I have myself and 2 teens in a 2 bedroom apartment. A small 2 bedroom apartment. With a year’s lease signed. I could have cried. Truly.

I happened to mention the situation to my landlord who told me that a 3 bedroom was coming up available in 2 months time and I could move to that if I wanted to. We took a quick tour of it and it was nearly double the size of the 2 bedroom I was living in and it even had a walk-in closet and a 2 piece ensuite bathroom in the master bedroom. And it was less than $100 more than what I was now paying. Joy! Even more so when I learned that it was one of only four 3 bedroom apartments in the entire building and they pretty much never came available. Phew. That problem was solved.

Right around the time I was moving out of the house I learned that John Chow was running a contest to win a free ticket to Blog World Expo in September, 2008. I’d been thinking that I really should attend Blog World but I didn’t really know anyone going and I’m a huge introvert (no really!) and I’d pretty much convinced myself that I shouldn’t go. Then I entered John’s contest figuring if I won the ticket I’d commit to going and if I didn’t then I’d maybe consider it the following year. I won! I never win anything but I won the ticket. Even better, one of my best friends, Chaz French, who’d been my biggest supporter through all of my changes decided to attend Blog World with me. I think he figured even with a free ticket I’d either talk myself out of going or go so deep into wallflower-mode once I was there that I’d never go to any of the parties.

Merlene Paynter and Chaz French at Blog World Expo 2008

Blog World Expo 2008 changed everything. My first night there at a party thrown by TechSet I got to meet in person literally dozens of my blogger and social media heroes. I’d been on Twitter for about 18 months at that point and had been active in other online communities so quite a few of my heroes actually knew who I was as well and the ones who didn’t were still gracious and friendly and made me feel like I was part of things. The rest of my time at Blog World Expo was amazing and I met so many wonderful people. I came home with stars in my eyes and fire in my belly. I knew I’d made the right decision. I was sure that focusing on making money online was the right path for me.

Chris Brogan, Merlene Paynter and Jason Falls at Blog World Expo 2008

A few days later I was contacted by one of the bloggers I’d met at a party who suggested I’d be a good fit to be part of the Walmart Elevenmoms. We’d had a great conversation at Blog World about social media, technology, and well life, the universe and everything. I hadn’t heard of the Elevenmoms at that point at all. My circle of contacts tended to be more in the “social media” circle not in the “mommyblogger” circle but a few weeks later I was officially one of the Walmart Elevenmoms (and their only Canadian member).

Right around the same time yet another person I’d met at Blog World contacted me and invited me to attend Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas. I’d had a hunch that blogging was not going to be a full time income earner and I was really interested in affiliate marketing. I was thrilled by the offer to attend Affiliate Summit West and so off I went. I met some amazing people there. Most of them weren’t bloggers. Most of them weren’t active in twitter and other social media communities as I was. I really didn’t know or know of a soul there but the people I met were friendly, helpful and I learned a lot while I was there. The same week I was in Vegas for Affiliate Summit West both CES and Wordcamp Las Vegas were on so I had brief stops at each of those events too and again, met some great people and learned a lot. I celebrated my 40th birthday while in Vegas in January, surrounded by new friends and happiness. It was the best birthday I’ve ever had.

Merlene's 40th birthday in Las Vegas.

Right around this time a couple of things dawned on me. First of all, no matter how shy or introverted I feel on the inside, if I pretend I’m comfortable and outgoing and try to talk to people it works. I actually forget that I’m shy, wallflower girl and become this entirely other Merlene. Each conference, event or party I go to it just gets easier and easier to socialize. Second, I learned that while meeting people online in social networks and communities is great (and it really does make meeting those people in person easier) it really is the face to face contact and socializing that makes things happen. I’ve truly been overwhelmed by opportunities both professionally and personally since I started attending the events and conferences.

It’s been an amazing year. I’ve been long-winded in the telling of it but it’s only scratching the surface of what this year has been like. There have been a lot of changes and even last year when I set this all in motion I really had no idea that my life would be like this today. My list of people to thank for their support, friendship, advice, encouragement and humour over the last year is long. I try to say thank you to each of them every so often. Sometimes even the smallest gestures on one person’s part can make a huge difference on another’s.

Oh and the Frugal Living stuff? I’m still hanging in there without a “day job” a year later. I definitely made some foolish money mistakes over the past year (more on that in another post) and I’ve splurged a few times on unnecessary things (and more on that too) but all in all my daily living expenses are low and after a year of complete change in lifestyle and routine the kids and I are finally settling into a sensible (well sensible to us at any rate) pattern of money management.

At the end of the day, or rather the year, I’m still debt-free and I’m making all of my income from online projects or at least projects that started with people I met online and in person over the past year. If I were Mary Tyler Moore I’d be throwing my beret toward the sky right now.

Merlene Paynter and Randy Matheson at SpinTO Party

Over the next few weeks Frugal Family Life will be doing a series on using your freezer to store food and save money.

I figured I’d start with a post on what not to freeze. For many years I was pretty much afraid to freeze anything that wasn’t actually bought in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store because I wasn’t sure what was safe to freeze and what wasn’t.

Over the years I’ve learned that there’s really not much you can’t freeze and I can honestly say that my upright freezer is the best investment I’ve ever made. It’s paid for itself several times over in savings over the years enabling me to take advantage of sales, freeze fresh produce (some that I’d grown myself) and allowed me to batch cook meals that could be reheated quickly on busy nights. I’d give up a lot before I’d give up my freezer!

So here’s a list of what you can’t freeze and why.

• Cooked egg whites – they become rubbery and just unappealing. (Good news though. Uncooked egg whites freeze well!)
• Mayonnaise – it separates when it thaws.
• Sour Cream – it separates and becomes watery. (You can still use it if it’s well stirred into a recipe though. It won’t hurt you.)
• Potatoes – they go dark and can be mushy. (I have seen mashed potato and scalloped potato recipes turn out fine after freezing though. Again – it’s not that it’s unsafe, more that it’s unappetizing.)
• Crisp fruits and vegetables such as melon, tomato, lettuce, cucumber, etc. – they get really soggy and limp and not appetizing at all.

That’s it. Not all foods freeze and thaw with great results but pretty much anything you can think of can be frozen. Now it’s just a matter of defrosting your freezer, taking out the shrunken ice cubes and the freezer burned fish your Uncle Todd caught on that fishing trip 4 summers ago and start using that freezer to save money and plan great meals!

Next we’ll talk about how to wrap foods to keep them safe from freezer burn and odors.

Fresh strawberry and peach trifle.

This has been a favourite in my household for years. A great dessert for Canada Day, July 4th or other summer celebrations.

4 peaches, halved, pitted, cut into 1/2-inch pieces or thinly sliced
2 1-pint baskets strawberries, halved or quartered (if large)
2 1/2-pint baskets raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups custard

48 purchased sponge-cake-type ladyfingers
1 cup cream sherry
3 cups chilled whipping cream
Additional whole strawberries (optional)

Mix first 5 ingredients in large bowl and toss to blend; let stand 10 minutes. Beat chilled cream in another large bowl until stiff peaks form.

Arrange 16 ladyfingers in 10- to 12-cup glass bowl or trifle dish to cover bottom. Using a pastry brush, generously brush ladyfingers with sherry. Top with 2 cups fruit mixture, then 1 cup custard. Repeat layering 2 more times with ladyfingers, sherry, fruit mixture and custard. Top with 3 cups whipped cream. Garnish with whole strawberries, raspberries and peach slices.

Mascarpone cheese or vanilla pudding may be substituted for custard.

Happy Earth Day! I’ve gathered together some great coupons and freebies from around the web. Some are valid today only, others are offered for several days. Enjoy!

In Canada:

• Free cup of Starbucks coffee when you bring in a reusable mug today. You’ll also save 10 cents per cup on future purchases wheneverr you bring your own mug!
• Banana Republic has a coupon for 30% off your entire purchase which is valid April 24 – 26 only.
• VIA Rail is offering 50% off regular adult fare until April 26th to celebrate Earth Day.
• Roots Canada is offering 25% off until April 23.

In USA:

• Walgreen’s is offering a free eco-bag and some discounts today only.
• Deal Seeking Mom tells how to get 10 great coupons for organic items.
• Deal Seeking Mom also has coupon for free candles at Target
• Spring Toys Safe Green Toys Giveaway today at Babiesgottahaveit.com

We all know by now that using reusable shopping bags instead of plastic bags reduces environmental waste signifcantly. Here in Canada, President’s Choice, a line of products offered by many grocery stores operated by Loblaws, has some great green options to replace your shopping bags.

My favourite, the PC Green Bin, is a plastic bin that fits easily into shopping carts, has sturdy handles, and holds the equivelent of 3 to 5 plastic bags worth of groceries. It’s super easy to load from cart to car to house and the bins are inexpensive to buy at around $4.99 each.

As part of it’s efforts to promote the use of reusable bins, Loblaws grocery stores in Canada are offering  a coupon for a free PC Green bin with a purchase of $60 or more from April 22 to April 30. Please see coupon for details of which grocery chains are particpating.

This week Fortino’s grocery stores in Ontario have been offering the President’s Choice reusable shopping bags for half price. Made with 85% post-consumer recycled plastic, our revolutionary shopping bag is twice the size of a standard plastic grocery bag and strong enough to withstand 50 trips to the store (about 1 full year).

With weekly use of just one bag, each person can divert approximately 100 plastic bags from ending up in landfill sites each year.

New from President’s Choice is their new PC Green cart. With the same capacity as three standard plastic grocery bags, this handy shopping bag on wheels does more than just carry a lot of groceries; it actually helps you do your part to protect the environment. The material used to make the fabric for this the bag comes from 100 % post-consumer recycled plastic.

By using this bag on wheels on a weekly basis, you will need approximately 300 fewer plastic bags per year – that’s less clutter in your cupboard and less plastic for you to throw out. The PC Green Cart will be available in stores beginning May 11, 2009 and is just one of the new Green shopping options that will be available on May 11th from President’s Choice.

For more information about these items and others offered by the President’s Choice brand in Canada take a look at the President’s Choice Green Insider’s Report.

And don’t forget to get your coupon for a FREE President’s Choice Green bin!

And you’ll want to enter to win the Earth Day Gift Package I’m giving away.  Contest is open until April 29, 2009 and anyone living in Canada and the United States is eligible (subject to contest rules). Good luck!

Tomorrow is Earth Day but that doesn’t mean you can’t observe Earth Day every day and Frugal Family Life and Walmart ElevenMoms have an Earth Day Gift Package to help get  one of you started on the right foot. Worth an estimated $130 retail the package includes a selection of Clorox “Green Works” cleaning supplies, White Cloud “Green Earth” paper products, and Tide Coldwater laundry liquid, a Brita water filtration pitcher and a Bissell Little Green carpet and upholstery cleaner.

The Green Works cleanering products are 99% plant and mineral based but can take on tough cleaning jobs with ease, they smell great, and are less harmful to the environment.

Tide Coldwater laundry liquid was designed to allow you to get all of your laundry clean without wasting energy using hot water. Depending on what statics you look at 70 to 90% of the energy used to wash a load of laundry is spent on heating the water. By washing everything in cold water you save energy and save money.

The White Cloud “Green Earth” toilet paper and paper towels are made from 100% recycled fibre but feels soft and cushiony like regular premuim paper products do. In the words of my teenage son “finally you got toilet paper that doesn’t feel like sandpaper!”

The Brita pitcher is something we’ve used in my home for years. Instead of buying cases of bottled water we use the Brita water filtration pitcher to filter tap water for drinking water. This saves us money (we estimate over $200 in yearly savings over buying bottled water) and it means a lot fewer plastic bottles that need to be recycled or worse, that would end up in a landfill.

Used with a portable stainless steel reusable drinking bottle (we have several sized from 500ml to 1 litre) we always have fresh filtered water on hand to drink at home or to take with us. The pitcher itself is dishwasher safe (top rack) and fits easily into the refrigerator without taking up a lot of space.

Last and certainly not least is the Bissell Little Green carpet and upholstery cleaner. The Bissell Little Green is made with PVC free tanks and hose, parts manufactured from 100% post consumer recycled materials  and the carton contains a minimum of 75% recycled materials. The cleaning formulas contain no heavy metals or optical brighteners and are phosphate and dye free.

Part of living Earth Day every day is taking care of the things you own so they’ll last longer. Using a product like Bissell’s Little Green to clean spots and spills from carpets, rugs and upholstery is a great way to do that. We’ve used older versions of the Bissell carpet and upholstery cleaners over the years and consider them a must in any home that has pets, children or clumsy people like me who are constanty spilling coffee!

So now to the good part – the giveaway! One lucky Frugal Family Life reader will get a chance to win this Earth Day Gift Package. The contest is open to residents of Canada and the United States and you have until April 29th to enter. The rules are simple:

1. You must be subscribed to the Frugal Family Life newsletter with a valid email address. The sign up form is on the top right of this page.
2. You must follow me, @merlene, on Twitter.com
3. Tweet the following on twitter: Win an Earth Day Gift Package – Including Bissell Little Green carpet/upholstery cleaner & much more http://bit.ly/NAhWm #11momsgreen
4. You must comment on this post with a way you live Earth Day every day. Please make sure to let me know your twitter name and the name you signed up for the newsletter with so I can validate your entry. That’s it! Good luck!

This giveaway is sponsored by Walmart and the various manufacterers listed above and is subject to Frugal Family Life’s disclosure and giveaway policy. Some of the other ElevenMoms are running Earth Day giveaways too. Check out each of their blogs for more chances to win!

Update: The contest is now closed. The winner will be selected through Random.org and will be notified by email. Winner will be announced on May 1, 2009.

About 6 weeks ago Walmart gave me the opportunity to buy and review a smart phone. I was to consider the buying experience through Walmart as well as the phone itself. I will admit, I tend to be a bit anti-Apple and I wasn’t exactly keen to get an iPhone but through my local Walmart Canada stores my smart phone options were limited to the Apple iPhone, the Nokia N95 or the Blackberry Pearl 8120. I was under contract with Rogers (with over a year left) so I knew going in that my phone upgrade would require me to sign on for another 2 or 3 years.

After looking over the features of each phone online I went to the Walmart Canada store located in Ancaster, Ontario. I had my 19 year old daughter along with me as we looked at the phones on display. This store didn’t have a Nokia N95 in stock so now my choice was between the Blackberry Pearl 8120 and the iPhone 3G. The sales rep in the electronics area was friendly and seemed knowledgeable – explaining a bit about each phone’s features as well as what sort of fees I would incur with each. Canada is notorious for pricey data rates.

While I was learning more and more toward the iPhone (after all… it has so many apps!), my daughter was getting quite excited about the Blackberry Pearl. I loved the slim, sleek lines of the iPhone and she loved the qwerty keyboard on the Blackberry. And somehow… she managed to talk me into buy both. iPhone for myself and Blackberry for her.

Not exactly the frugal choice. In addition to the cost of each phone we had to buy data plans to add to our regular cellphone plans which worked out to an extra $25 for the iPhone and an extra $35 for the Blackberry. Ugh.

We’ve had our phones for 6 weeks now and we both are happy with our choices. My daughter does a lot of text messaging so the qwerty keypad is ideal for her. I’ve found the iPhone’s built in camera to be easy to use and I find I’m taking more photos with it than my digital camera these days. More and more I don’t even bother to bring a camera but rely on the iPhone. It’s simple, no zoom or options, but it works well and it’s easy to send photos in an email, text message, or to create photo stories using apps like Whrrl.

In fact it’s not just my camera that it’s replaced.

• It’s replaced my alarm clock and watch. It has a great built in alarm clock and you can set multiple alarms.
• It’s replaced my daytimer. It’s calendar feature syncs easily with Google Calendar so my calendar is always with me.
• It’s replaced my mp3 player. I have the 8gb iPhone but it has lots of room for mp3s and it has iTunes built in making it easy to sync podcasts, audio books and mp3 music.
• It’s replaced my pocket address book. It syncs with my Gmail contact list and is easy to search with.

I’ve only started to look beyond the apps it comes with but I think I’ll be finding that the iPhone will replace more and more tools and gadgets for me. So while it’s a bit pricier than other options (especially with the Canadian data rates), it’s already saved me time and hassle – and cleared a bunch of things out of my purse and off my desk.

The verdict? Love it!

With a little time and/or elbow grease and a few items found in your kitchen you can clean most metals without using harsh, toxic and pricey metal polishes:

1. For Brass – soak brass in equal parts warm water and milk.
2. For Copper – cut a lemon in half, sprinkle with salt and rub over copper.
3. For Pewter – rub with wet cabbage leaves.
4. For Silver – soak silver pieces in an aluminum foil pan filled with water with 2-3 tablespoons cream of tartar sprinkled into it. Let soak for an hour or until pieces are tarnish free.
5. For Gold – gently rub a paste made of 1 teaspoon liquid castile soap and 1 tablespoon of baking soda over the pieces to be cleaned. Rinse well.
6. For Aluminum – place 1 cup of canned or fresh tomato slices and 2 cups of water into a pot making sure to cover aluminum pieces.  Simmer for 30 minutes, rinse with cool water and dry.

Coffee Love

I love coffee. I mean I LOVE coffee. Really. Beginning my freshman year of high school I have been a die-hard fan and total addict to the Goddess of Caffeine.

The smell.

The warmth in your hand as you clutch the cup.

The rich, strong flavour of a cup of strong black coffee. Mmm….

And yet…

I know that it’s not the best thing for me. Oh sure there are reports and studies that say caffeine is good for you. And there are studies and reports that say caffeine is bad for you. Either way, it’s time to break the chains of addiction once and for all.

I’ve become, over the years, a slave to addiction. I got to the point where I was making my coffee really strong, drinking it black, an average of two full pots per day. I was using coffee (and have been for 20 years) as a substitute for food, water, nutrition. It was nothing for me to be awake for the first 10-12 hours of my day existing on nothing but cup after cup of strong black coffee. I’d eat my first (and often only) meal of the day at supper time with the kids. My body has been in a constant state of famine as a result and I don’t eat much and when I do it’s not usually anything healthy.

Oh and you don’t want to be the man, woman, child or cat that stood between me and my and coffee. Trust me on that. Hell hath no fury like a woman who’s not had her coffee! Except…

Well, I’m the one coming between me and my beloved coffee. Once and for all.

So how does a twenty year, two pot a day, “jet fuel” strong coffee addict let go? Slowly. Carefully. And with a plan.

I can’t do the “cut out a cup a day” sort of thing. When you drink 2 pots a day you never really pay attention to how many cups you drink… just whether your cup is empty or full.  So here you have it…

Merlene’s Caffeine Addiction Solution:

1. Start gradually cutting back your “allowed” hours for caffeine. Today maybe say.. No caffeine after 8pm. Tomorrow will be … No caffeine after 7pm. And so on. Get it so that you stop your caffeine intake one hour earlier each day until you are within 2 hours of your usual first cup of coffee. Once you’ve reached your quitting hour switch to water for the rest of the day. Every time you have an urge to pour yourself a coffee (or a Coke or whatever caffeine beverage is your downfall) replace it with a glass of water.
2. Now you can take note of how many cups of coffee you have your first hour or two of the day. At this point you are going to cut back half a cup a day.  Until you reach the half cup per day point.
3. If you’re anything like me… that “cup” you’re drinking from is HUGE. Now you’re going to move to a smaller cup. And half a cup of that.
4. The next day you should finally just quit once and for all. If you think you need one more day  fine… but you’re at 1/4 cup today. That’s 1/4 of the small cup, kiddo… not the huge mug you’ve been used to.
5. That’s it. You’re done with daily coffee. With daily caffeine.

Once you’ve been caffeine free for a week or two you can start having it again in very limited quantities. Consider it a reward. Have a cappuccino with friends on the weekend once in a while. Have an espresso and biscotti after Sunday brunch. Just don’t’ fall back into those old habits of daily caffeine. Keep substituting water for you daily caffeine and you’ll be healthier and happier in the long run.

And don’t ever suggest I switch to decaf. I might have to stab you in the throat with a stir stick. Just kidding. Sorta.
(Up until last week I was averaging a can of ground coffee or a pound of coffee beans per week. This is also a frugal post – I’m going to save at least $20/month on coffee and filters!)

Water

Earth Day is April 22 and I’ll be featuring some ideas on how to live a more frugal, more environmentally friendly life. Sometimes it’s the small actions that can make the biggest difference.

• Turn if off. Is your TV turned off? Guess again. Even when turned off most electronics use power. To save energy (and money!) unplug electronics when not in use or plug into a power bar and turn the bar off.
• Adust the temperature on your thermostat. Adjusting the temperature just 4 degrees will save you money and reduce wasted energy. Adjust as you leave the house for the day or better yet install a programmable thermostat to adjust the temperature automatically based on the time of day.
• Recycle aluminum cans. Recycling cans only uses 5% of the energy needed to manufacture an aluminum can from scratch!
• Wash clothing with cold water. About 90% of the energy used to wash clothes goes to heating the water. Look for laundry detergents designed for cold water washes.
• Hang your clothes to dry. For those of you, like me, who can’t hang laundry on a line to dry (I live in an apartment building) you can still use drying racks or hang clothes on hangers on the shower rod. I take most of our clothing out of the washer, hang on hangers and hang them on the shower rod and the clothes are dry within hours. Just be careful not to overcrowd them. Works like a charm
• Say No! to bottled water. Invest $30 and buy a Brita filter water pitcher. Not only will you save money on bottled water purchases but you’ll stop hundreds of plastic bottles from hitting landfills and reduce the energy used recycling plastic – not to mention the toxis released.

These are just a few of the quick and easy small ways we can reduce our environmental impact while saving some money along the way. Makes cents to me.

What small actions have you taken to be a little greener?

The folks over at Jones Soda recently gave us the opportunity to try several of their 24c Multi-Vitamin Water from Jones Soda flavours along with similar flavours of the popular Vitamin Water beverage to see which we preferred.

Neither of my two teenagers nor I had every tried either the 24c beverages or the Vitamin Water before so we were excited at the opportunity to try them. The first thing that we noticed was that both the 24c and the Vitamin Water had very bland plain looking labels. Nothing exactly eye-catching here. We were all a bit disappointed about the look of the product labels – being a Jones Soda beverage, we expected 24c to have unique and funky labels like their sodas have.

We decided that the kids would try the beverages in a “blind taste test” format where they didn’t know which cup held the 24c and which held the Vitamin Water. My 19 year old daughter, having watched many episodes of Wine Library TV over the year, suggested we do a “sniffy sniff” and discuss the colour before tasting. In all five flavours it was agreed that 24c had a more appealing colour and scent and an overall better “presentation” than Vitamin Water.

Next came the taste test. We had five flavours to compare which we did over 5 days. Overall we all preferred the taste of the 24c over the taste of the Vitamin Water. The 24c just seemed to have more overall flavour than the Vitamin Water. My daughter wasn’t a fan of either of the 24c Cranberry Apple or the Vitamin Water Defense but she loved the 24c Tropical Citrus and 24c Berry Pomegranate. My son and I both liked the 24c Tropical Citrus and 24c Mandarin Orange best.

The flavours compared were:

• 24C Tropical Citrus VS Vitamin Water Energy
• 24C Peach Mango VS Vitamin Water Endurance
• 24C Cranberry Apple VS Vitamin Water Defense
• 24C Berry Pomegranate VS Vitamin Water XXX
• 24C Mandarin Orange VS Vitamin Water Cranberry Grapefruit

Was the flavour alone enough to make me choose 24c over Vitamin Water? I just don’t know.  Yes, we did prefer the 24c flavours when tasted side by side but it wasn’t a huge difference. What about the vitamin and health factor? How does 24c stack up against Vitamin Water? Turns out that 24c hits it out the park on this point.

How much Vitamin Water does it take to equal one bottle of Jones 24c?

It would take 10 bottles of Vitamin Water to equal one bottle of 24c.  Jones 24c also contains Vitamin A, E, B2, and Folic Acid which cannot be found in Vitamin Water.

And if that wasn’t enough reason to reach for 24c? Jones Soda  has teamed up with Vitamin Angels with a goal to help 1,000,000 children from going blind this year. Vitamin Angels is a non-profit organization that provides vital nutrition in the form of supplements to developing countries, communities and individuals in need.

When I buy beverages for my kids (and myself!) from now on I’ll be looking for 24c Multi-Vitamin Water from Jones Soda More vitamins. More value. Vitamin Angels. Makes cents to me

I’m pretty excited. This will be my first trip to SXSW interactive after watching the twitter stream jealously the last two years. I’ve been reading assorted posts and guides on how to make the most out of my week in Austin. I’ve been trying to maintain a flexible schedule while still making plans to meet with friends, colleagues and sponsors. I think I will need more hours in a day to just meet everyone in person that I want to meet. It truly will be like my twitter stream is coming to life. I’ll finally get to meet, in person, all of the amazing friends I’ve gotten to know over the past two years on twitter.

I realize that many people are used to only seeing the quarter face avatar I use all over the web and don’t really know what I look like so I’ve posted some recent photos of myself here.

I should tell you that I’m really shy about approaching people I don’t know (even if I know you online) so I can sometimes come across as cold or snobbish. The exact opposite is true and I’m delighted to meet people, I’m just really shy about it. So please, if you see me, come and say hello. You truly will make my day if you do. I’m really friendly and chatty once the ice is broken, I’m just not good at being the icebreaker

Great news!
You have a chance to win a $100 Wal-Mart gift card courtesy of Wal-Mart and ElevenMoms!

All you need to do is sign up for the Frugalous monthly newsletter below and post a comment telling me about your favourite Holiday tradition.

You have until 11:59pm EST on December 20th, 2008 to enter.
Winner will be notified by email and will have 24 hours to reply.
Good luck!

The holiday season is in full swing, money’s tight but you want to get together with your friends and family. After all that’s what the holidays are all about – good times with the people you love. I’ve come up with a list of ideas for parties and get togethers that won’t break the bank.

1. Tree trimming party – gather your friends and family around to help you decorate your tree. Serve hot apple cider and cookies and make sure you load up a bunch of great Christmas Carols on your stereo.
2. Sledding or skating party – invite the gang to meet you at your favourite sledding hill or ice skating pond for a couple of hours of fun. Have a snowball fight, make snow angels, remember how much fun snow can be.
3. Tree-cutting party – instead of buying your tree from a tree lot this year head out to the country to a Christmas tree farm and cut your own. Pack thermoses of hot chocolate and sandwiches and have a winter picnic while you’re out. This is especially fun if you have several families rounded up to go.
4. Board game night – invite a group of friends over to play some of those old favourites like Monopoly, Scattergories or Rumoli. A tray of cookies or sandwiches within easy reach and you’re all set.
5. Have a neighbourhood potluck – assign each household a course: appetizer, salad, soup, side dish, main dish, dessert.
6. Craft night – for those of you who love to craft and are trying to make last minute holiday gifts, get together with your like-minded friends to share few hours of crafting while you catch up with your friends.
7. Cookie exchange – gather up a bunch of friends, assign each a type of cookie (you don’t want everyone to make Snickerdoodles do you…. hmmm… or do you?), everyone makes enough of one type of cookie to swap with the others. This is a great frugal practise. Instead of buying ingredients for several types of cookies you only buy ingredients for lots of one.
8. Food exchange party- Why limit yourself to just cookies? Why not gather with friends and batch cook cabbage rolls, lasagana, stew, chili and other freezable make-aheads.

Feel free to add any of your own frugal yet fabulous holiday entertaining ideas in the comments below!

One of the best parts about being one of Wal-Mart’s ElevenMoms is the opportunity to give great prizes away to my readers and subscribers.

Nickelodeon has teamed up with the Elevenmoms and Wal-Mart to offer you a chance to win a $500 Wal-Mart gift card just in time for the holidays. I’m sure you can think of lots of ways to use that card and entering is simple. Just follow the steps below for your chance to win and then head on over to the ElevenMoms website for more chances to win.

How to enter:

1. Follow me on Twitter.
2. Sign up for the Frugalous Monthly Newsletter (sign up is on this page).
3. Post a comment below with ONE money saving tip for the Holidays, your twitter user name, and the email address you used to sign up for the newsletter.

This contest ends at 11:59pm EST on December 14, 2008.
Please note that you must complete all 3 steps to win! Good luck!
Winner will be notified by email on December 15, 2008 and will have 24 hours to reply.

EDIT: a reminder folks – you need to comment with 1. your money saving holiday tip AND 2. your twitter user name used to follow me AND 3. the email you used to sign up for the monthly newsletter. If you do not have all THREE of these in your comment you will not be eligible to win!

The holiday season is the time of year when even the most frugalous of the frugal have difficulty sticking to budgets. Here are 8 ways to to stick to a frugal holiday gift budget without losing your marbles:

1. Always shop with a list of names, spending limit, and ideas. Stick to your list and don’t be dazzled into impulse spending by store displays.
2. Stick to your budget. If you’ve budgeted $25 for Cousin Joe and you can’t find a sweater under $30, move over to accessories and maybe grab him some gloves. If you go even $5 off your budget per person it will add up quickly!
3. If you shop early in the season and discover later that an item you bought has been discounted, take it back to the store. As long as you have the receipt, chances are they’ll refund you the difference.
4. Buy gift cards for the hard to shop for people in your life. Teens, grandparents, and even cranky uncles can always find a way to use the gift card in their favourite stores.
5. If your budget is really tight this year, give a homemade gift like cookies or a gift of your time, such as volunteering to babysit or mow an elderly neighbour’s lawn.
6. A family photo album or your family history on dvd is a great and invaluable present for a elderly, housebound or out of town relative
7. For large or extended families put everyone’s name in a hate and have each family member draw a name and buy a gift for that one person.
8. Limit your gift list. If you prefer not to exchange gifts with a friend, neighbour, or co-worker this year, just say so. It’s very likely that she’s trying to pare down her Christmas list too!

Today is day two of Frugal Upstate’s Thanksgiving Mini Series and today’s topic is desserts.

This simple cake is the most requested recipe I’ve ever made. Family and friends rave about it and it’s not only simple to make but frugal as well. Even people who don’t like carrot cake love this moist, luscious cake.

Chocolate Carrot Cake

2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of salad oil*
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/4 cup of cocoa
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
zest of 1 orange
4 eggs
2 cups of  shredded carrots
1 cup flaked or shredded coconut
1/2 cup crushed walnuts (optional)

*I usually substitute 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce in place of the oil. It significantly reduces the fat but keeps the cake moist.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour Bundt pan. In large bowl, mix 10 ingredients at low speed until well blended, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Increase speed to high, beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl. Add in carrots, coconut, and walnuts. Spoon batter into pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes; remove cake from pan. Cool completely.

The cake can be made up to 2 days ahead. Wrap well with cling wrap to keep it moist. It can also be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Drizzle Icing

1/2 cup sifted icing sugar
1 tsp orange juice
1/4 tsp vanilla

In a small bowl sugar, juice, and vanilla. Stir in enough additional juice to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle icing from the back of the spoon onto the cake and allow to run down the sides.

You can garnish the cake with a sprinkle of icing sugar on top, or well drained mandarin orange slices.

My friend Jenn over at Frugal Upstate is doing a week long mini-series “Thanksgiving – the Frugal Mini-Series” and while I’m Canadian and my Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago I decided to add a favourite fall soup for today’s topic of Thanksgiving side dishes. Be sure to visit Frugal Upstate every day this week to find more great Thanksgiving recipes, ideas for decorating and more.

This is a gorgeous beet soup. Full of colour and flavour.

It can be made up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated or up to a month ahead and frozen to be reheated in a Crock-Pot or on stove before serving.

6-8 large beets (1.5 lb), peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 yellow flesh potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 onion, chopped fine
2 celery stalks, chopped fine
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp curry powder
6 cups vegetable or chicken stock
salt & pepper
1/4 cup sour cream

In a large, heavy saucepan heat oil over medium heat. Cook beets, potato, onion, celery, and curry for 8-10 minutes, stirring often, until onion is soft and translucent.

Add stock, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Transfer to a food processor or blender and process until smooth. You might find it easier to work in small batches rather than all at once, returning puree to a clean saucepan.

For a velvety smooth soup you could then take an extra step and pass the puree through a fine mesh strainer but it’s not required.

At this point the soup can be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.

To serve, reheat on stove until hot throughout or in a Crock-Pot for 1-2 hrs on low, ladle into soup bowls, top with a spoonful of sour cream.

Makes 8 servings and can easily be doubled.

Ice skating on Boston’s Frog Pond

Originally uploaded by Paul Keleher

Growing up in rural Nova Scotia, Canada I learned to skate almost as early as I learned to walk. Skating was a daily activity on local ponds, lakes and the arena in town.

Each year the parents at our school would organize a “used skate exchange” day. Everyone brought in last year’s skates, which were now too small, and found skates just the right size.

Volunteers coordinated tables by size so it was easy to find where to drop off your old skates and find your “new” skates.

At the same time there would usually be a bake sale, hot chocolate or cider to buy and at times even a craft sale.

Not only was it a great way to get new skates without having to buy new it was a great way to raise funds for school projects.

These days we’re often too quick to throw out the old and buy new. This year why not organize a skate exchange instead? This could work great for schools, community centers, churches, etc.

What are you waiting for?

If you’re anything like me you’ve likely started, or perhaps even finished, shopping for the holidays. One of things I dislike most is being faced with a mountain of gifts to wrap all at once. It takes any pleasure from wrapping and decorating package when you’ve a dozen or more to do at once.

When my kids were young I began wrapping the gifts as I bought them and stacking them on a closet shelf.  No ribbons, gift tags or other decoration. I’d just wrap at that point. In soft pencil on or near the tape I’d put a small symbol to represent which person it was meant for. Squiggle, circle, star, square, etc. Just something easy to let you know who each gift is for when the time comes to put them out.

A week or so before Christmas, once the tree was up and decorated, I’d take down the stack of gifts and decorate with ribbon and gift tags to place under the tree which only took a few minutes.

I found my kids were less likely to snoop through the gifts if they didn’t know who they were for and the ribbons were less likely to get squashed plus it took the stress out of gift wrapping.

Sometimes it’s just as important to be frugal with your time as it is with your money. Any little tricks that preserve your sanity during the holiday season counts as frugal in my book!

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One of my favourite lunches is the often overlooked egg salad sandwich. Both of my kids have always loved egg salad and I try to keep things interesting by changing it around. Depending on where you live a dozen large eggs can be bought for anywhere from $1 to $4 which makes the humble egg salad sandwich well within our frugal budget.

Depending on how you like your egg texture (chunky or fine) you can either smash the eggs by hand with a fork, by grating on a box grater, or by pulsing 2-3 times in your food processor. I usually cook up 12 to 18 large eggs and mix up a large bowl of egg salad to keep on hand in the fridge for lunches and snacks.

To keep things interesting you can make your egg salad sandwich on multigrain bread, bagel, bun, english muffin, stuffed inside a pita pocket, wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla, wrapped in a large lettuce leaf, or even stuff the egg salad into a hollowed out tomato or sweet pepper half.
I make my sandwiches with lettuce and often a thin slice of tomato or cucumber or a slice of cheese.

My basic egg salad has eggs, mayo, a dash of dijon mustard, finely diced celery and finely sliced green onion with a dash of pepper.

Variations:
1. Curried egg salad – instead of dijon mustard I use a pinch or two of packaged curry powder – you can omit the celery and green onion or leave in for extra flavour 2. Carrot egg salad – I replace the celery and green onion with grated carrot and a few sunflower seeds. Omit the mustard or replace with a sweet honey mustard.
3. Cucumber egg salad – I replace the celery and green onion with finely diced cucumber and replace the mustard with a dash or two of ranch dressing.
4. Pesto egg salad – replace the mustard with a teaspoon of pesto sauce. Omit the celery and green onion.
5. Dilled egg salad – replace the mustard, celery and green onion with diced dill pickle or dill pickle relish.
6. Relish egg salad – replace the mustard, celery and green onion with your favourite relish – try a sweet corn relish or onion relish.
7. Hummus egg salad – replace the mayo and mustard with hummus
8. Olive egg salad – replace the celery and green onion with finely diced green olives
9.  Bacon and egg salad – replace celery with some crumbled bacon or bacon bits. Omit mustard.
10.  Cheesy egg salad – replace mustard and green onion with the shredded cheese of your choice: swiss, cheddar, asiago, etc.
11. Ham and egg salad – replace celery with finely diced cooked ham
12. Sundried tomato and egg salad – replace mustard, celery and green onion with finely diced sundried tomato
The variations on egg salad are virtually endless. What are some of your favourites?

Poverty.
It’s a word we tend to ignore all too often unless it’s affecting us directly.
It’s a word we tend to feel applies to people in third world countries and not to our own.

Poverty.
Even when we do think about it we feel helpless to do anything and so we turn away. Maybe we feel that we’re barely (or maybe not quite) making ends meet ourselves so how could be possibly contribute.

Maybe we donate a can of creamed corn that’s been collecting dust at the back of the cupboard during food drives and feel that we’ve done our part.

Poverty.
Maybe stop and think for a moment just what that would be like. And then maybe think about what you could do, even when you cannot afford to donate money, to help.

Think globally, act locally. You’ve heard the expression but what can you do?

• Donate your used furniture. Often people who’ve been in shelters are starting from scratch with nothing. What might be thought of as a too old, too faded sofa to you could make all the difference to a family trying to get themselves back on their feet. In the Toronto area you can donate your used furniture to Furniture Bank
• Donate winter coats. In the fall and winter many area dry cleaners will accept your donation of a winter coat which they will clean and pass on to one of the many charitable organizations in the area. All sizes from infant to XXL adult are needed and appreciated. Call area dry cleaners to find out if they participate.
• Donate clothing, toys, household items. Contact local women’s shelters about donations of woman’s and children’s clothing, toys, household items, etc. Often the families who arrive at a women’s shelter have nothing but the clothing on their backs.

Volunteer. Mentor. Organize a drive. Help build a home.

You DO have the power to help. Take action today to make a better tomorrow.

We often pull our hair out trying to think of the perfect gift for hard to buy for relatives such as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.

This year instead of a sweater vest for Uncle Harry that looks just like the sweater vests you bought him the last three years or a gift basket of fancy teas for Grandma Kate who only likes orange pekoe why don’t you give the gift of time.

Make up a coupon book on the computer (or even better by hand) offering to drive Aunt Millie who’s vision isn’t that good to do her shopping each week. Or how about one for Pops who could use a chess partner on Sunday afternoons. Take cousin Mabel out to a movie once a month I’m sure she’d appreciate it much more than another picture frame.

Time is the one gift you can always give freely and will be more appreciated than a hot cocoa sampler box every time.

Clogged toilets. Ugh. You flush. The water rises to the top of the bowl (and possibly over). You get out the plunger. Plunge. Plunge. Still clogged. You’re grossed out and frustrated. You reach for the Drain-o or other chemical solution. Plunge. Plunge. Plunge. You consider buying an auger, a toilet snake. Still very much grossed out.

I have the joy of living with a teenaged son who clogs my toilet on a regular (every 2-4 weeks) basis. I’ve been there wayyyy more times than I’d care to count. Nothing worse than a clogged toilet.

Finally I discovered a quick, easy and frugal way to fix the toilet.

Liquid dish soap.

Seriously.

Pour about a tablespoon of liquid dish soap into the clogged toilet and leave it for 10 to 15 minutes. Come back and plunge and usually within 2 or 3 plunges everything goes down the drain easily again.

I’ve used this tip 5 times in the past 2 months and it’s worked like a charm each and every time.

5. Pizza – I’m not talking about ordering pizza once or even twice. I’ve ordered in pizza four times over the last two weeks for the kids and I for dinner.

4. Giving Kids Lunch Money – For the past month I’ve probably given the kids each money to buy lunch 4 out of 5 days a week. Two teens with big appetitites.

3. Late Fees – Over the past two months I’ve not been organized, have missed deadlines, due dates, etc. and have had to pay several late fees as a result

2. Not Planning My Shopping Lists – Last week WalMart Canada had their annual Anniversary sale. It’s a huge event and often items I use throughout the year such as toothpaste, laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc. are 50% or more off their regular price. It’s also a great time to do some gift shopping as they have many items throughout the store at seriously reduced prices. I knew the sale was last week but I neglected to make a list of the items I wanted. When I did arrive at the store I could only remember a few and came home with few of the items I’d wanted. I also left the shopping to the last day of the sale due to procrastination so had no time to return. I literally could have saved several hundred dollars stocking up on items I use regularly and on gift and household purchases had I been organized.

1. Not Sending in Rebates – Over the last two months I’ve purchased several items that had mail-in rebates and never “got around” to spending the 3 minutes required to fill out a form and send it in. Now the offers have expired and I have lost over $125 in rebates due to procrastination.

The frustrating thing about the above money wasters is that each and every one of them could easily have been prevented had I been more organized or had procrastinated less. They’re the easy holes in the budget to fix. They’re also the most common areas money writers tell you to save money on.

When we’re stressed or busy or lazy it’s easy to fall back into bad spending habits. We make excuses (“I’m moving again!”) and try to justify it (“I’m moving again!”) to ourselves but deep down we know we’ve fallen off the path.

I just deleted the pizza guy’s phone number from my cell phone. Boy, I’m going to miss him.

Here we go again! The past year all I seem to be doing is moving. Either painting and staging my house to sell, dealing with an endless string of open houses and viewings, dealing with disappoints as offers fall through and finally closing on the house. Purging, donating, selling, packing. Apartment hunting for weeks. I finally found rented a nice 2 bedroom apartment not far from the house for my teenage son and I to live in and then two weeks before the big move my daughter, who’d been living away for college the past year, announced she wasn’t going back to that college and was staying home with me. Suddenly, in the middle of the move and surrounding chaos I have not one but two teenagers planning to live with me. Not only did this mean an extra person to live with but all of her furniture and belongings too. Talk about throwing a wrench into the plan. Fortunately, at the exact moment I needed it, a 3 bedroom apartment with a second bathroom came up available – a rarity in this neighbourhood. I grabbed it and now have a lease on not one but two apartments. Oh goody. The landlord is understanding and will allow me to break my lease on the 2 bedroom if and when we can find another renter. Until there’s another renter for it I’m stuck with 2 rent payments. Not exactly the frugal dream here. So back we are with viewings and staging and packing. Meanwhile, I got the keys to the new apartment a few days ago and walked in to realize it has not been decorated (or possibly cleaned) since the mid 1980s. The landlord is willing to have the carpets cleaned (not replaced) and has told me I can go ahead and paint if I want to but it’s not the building management’s policy to paint it themselves unless it’s in bad conditon. I think we may have differing ideas about bad condition but at least I do have the option to paint in the colours I want to which is a plus. If I’m going to make this apartment home for myself and my kids for the next several years at least I’m not limited to “apartment beige” for colour. After nearly a year of packing, living out of boxes, being in a virtual limbo we’re within  a week or two of finally being able to unpack and get settled. Now… let the painting begin! Over the next few weeks I’ll share photos and videos as we paint, decorate, and get moved.  We’ve a wild ride ahead – did I mention the living room is currently a bold mustard yellow with dusty rose vertical blinds and green wall to wall carpet?

Or that the two bathrooms are painted Pepto-Bismal pink? Including ceilings?

Stay tuned. Lots of photos and videos of the before, during and after as we tackle each room.

Part of the issue with the downsizing is that I’m moving from a house with a large custom kitchen with more than ample storage into a tiny galley style kitchen. When I first looked around I was shocked by how small it was. The oven, for example, is only 24″ wide. That’s the outside. The inside is only 16″ x 17″. None of my roasters, baking sheets, or even muffin pans will fit inside!

The apartment kitchen doesn’t host much cupboard space either so I’ve spent the past 6 weeks trying to use up what’s in my pantry and my large upright freezer here at the house in preparation for this move. I’ve been a little too successful though.

Last night when I stopped packing long enough to think about making dinner for the family I found the following: 1 lb frozen raw shrimp, 1 onion, 2 tired and depressed looking carrots, 1 wrinkly and wise looking green pepper, 1 can of jellied cranberry, 1 can of large pitted green olives, about 1 cup of wild rice, a small jar of anchovies, 3 cans of evaporated milk, half a loaf of bread and just about every kind of condiment you can imagine. I was exhausted, mind numb from packing and organizing and I stared at this motley little group of foodstuffs in utter confusion.

Finally the boychild decided he could brave the rain and walk to the local grocery store. He returned with some whole wheat tortillas and announced that shrimp fajitas sounded like a great idea for dinner. And so it was. It was also a great breakfast – I just ate the leftovers with my coffee.

Wonder what sort of wonder we’ll whip up for today’s dinner?

As I’ve likely mentioned a number of times I’m moving from my house of approximately 2200 sq ft of living space (plus garage, garden shed, patios) to an 800 sq ft apartment. Needless to say I’ve had to get rid of a lot of things.

I started out listing the main items to sell (furniture, tvs, sewing machine, lawnmower, etc.) with a description and my asking price and I emailed it to everyone on my local contact list and ask them to forward it on to anyone they thought might be interested. I’ve sold all but 2 items this way so far so I haven’t had to post items on my local buy/sell group or craigslist. Amazing what you can do when you have a network, even a small one!

We’re now down to less than a week until the movers arrive and I’m getting things ready for a yard sale. I made a decision that nothing that I’d want more than $20 would be in the yard sale but would be offered up to my email network and it’s worked great.

Whatever doesn’t sell in Saturday’s yard sale will be donated to a local charity so the goal of the yard sale for me is to get rid of things I can’t take with me and I’m pricing things accordingly. About 85% of the items I’m selling will be priced at 25 cents. A few items priced at one dollar. Only 5 or 6 items will be priced over one dollar.  Remember… at this point the goal is to get rid of this stuff, not to make a big profit. The more that goes in the sale means the less I have to cart over to the donation centre saving me both time and gas money in the long run.

Next strategy is to do an “early bird” friends and family pre-sale on Friday evening. I’ve told all of my neighbours, friends, people in my local network about the pre-sale and told them to feel free to bring a friend. Hoping to have at least a quarter of the stuff gone before I even open the garage door for the official sale on Saturday.

Fingers crossed I get rid of all or most of the stuff in the sale. Every little bit counts.

It’s been a crazy few weeks (months, years) but I’ve finally sold the house and am in the middle of moving – less than a week to go.

It’s the start (finally!) of my new life. New place to live, new people in my life, new focus.

The new focus is why I’d love to attend Blog World Expo. I’ve sold my house and am using part of the money from that to start my business. The money will give me time (12 to 18 months) to launch a number of niche blogs (including this one), write some info/ebook type products to sell and hopefully I’ll be making enough income in that 12 to 18 month time frame to pay my living expenses.

Going to Blog World Expo will enable me to learn from the folks who are already writing amazing blogs. I’ve looked over the schedule of sessions and I almost wish I could clone myself 2 or 3 times so that I could attend each and every session. I know that what I could learn from the sessions and just from meeting other bloggers in person would more than justify the cost of a return flight from Toronto. It would be an investment in my future.

I know most of those who are earning full time blog income discourage the whole “just throw yourself in and go for it” and suggest you start blogging part time but I figure with all of the other changes in my life it’s time to just do it. I know it’s not going to be easy but I’m looking forward to throwing myself full time into the blogging lifestyle and Blog World Expo would simply ignite my passion and drive even further.

John Chow, one of my blogging heroes, is offering an opportunity to win one of two free passes to Blog World Expo in September and I’m so excited. I’ve entered (this is the entry) to win one of the passes and I’d be there in a heartbeat should I win. Wish me luck!

John, if you read this and decide I should receive one of the passes you can contact me at merlene@merlenepaynter.com. Did I mention my fingers are crossed?  (Toes too. Even my eyes are crossed although that’s starting to give me a headache.)  The cost of flight, hotel, etc. would be more than worth if for this event.

I’ve had my cellphone, a Motorola v360, for two years now. It’s been a great phone with clear sound, great range and it’s durable enough that no matter how many times it falls out of my pocket or gets knocked off the table it still works like a charm.

But it’s scratched. It’s not new and fresh and shiny. It doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that a Blackberry or an iPhone has. After yesterday’s launch of the new 3G iPhone and all the online talk about the Apple Apps Store my phone has lost yet more of it’s charm and it’s tempting to consider buying a new phone.

My cell phone is my only telephone. I canceled my land line phone about a year ago and haven’t missed it. So the little voice in my head starts…

Little voice: Merlene… you’ve saved SO much money by canceling your land line. You can afford to get a new shiny cell phone.

Merlene: No. I don’t need a new phone.

Little voice: Oh but you’ve been doing without so many things lately, you really deserve to reward yourself. Get a new phone.

Merlene: NO. I don’t need a new phone.

Little voice: But all of the cool kids are buying new phones!

Merlene: I guess I’m just not cool then, huh?

Little voice: Just think! You could twitter, web surf, email, do everything with a new phone!

Merlene: How often am I away from a computer long enough for that to matter to me?

Little voice: the 3G has GPS!

Merlene: I always know where I am. Now if only it could tell me where IT was when I misplaced it we’d have something.

Little voice: It has all kinds of new apps and features!

Merlene: There are a bunch of apps and features on my phone now. I use the Make a Call feature, the Answer a Call feature, and the Alarm feature. That’s it.

Little voice: But everyone wants one!

Merlene: I guess I don’t have to worry about anyone stealing my old banged up v360.

Little voice: But it’s cool! It’s new! It’s shiny!

Merlene: You’ve tried that shiny bit before. I didn’t bite.

Little voice: But…

Merlene: I’ve got to let you go now, I’ve got another call coming in… Oh look! It’s the voice of reason… just in the nick of time!

photo credit: usedtobelost

On August 1st I get the keys to my apartment. That gives me a couple of weeks to sort, purge, pack up the house. To add to the fun, my 18 year old daughter is moving into a townhouse near her college 90 minutes away, after spending last year in a furnished dorm, so she needs to get her things packed and moved too.

I’ve already sent dozens of boxes of books and household items as well as a dozen or so garbage bags filled with clothes, shoes, table & bed linens to a location donation centre yet I still seem to be over run with items that need to be dealt with.

I’m considering a yard sale but it’s giving me the shivers just thinking of it. My past experiences as a yard sale saleswoman haven’t been overly successful. Right now the idea of spending several hours (days?!?!) gathering items to sell, pricing them, dusting them, setting them up for display and then spending a day waiting around for people to come buy things and carry them off – *shudder*. I’ve just never made much money from it and all in all I find it a waste of time and energy.

Nothing against yard sales. I’ve got to many over the years and have found some great bargains. But as the seller it’s no picnic.

I’m considering doing an “online” yard sale of sorts instead. For the time it would take me to sort, dust, price and display items for a traditional yard sale, plus the time involved actually operating a yard sale all day or worse, all weekend – I could sort, price, photograph and write a short description of each item and post it for sale on Craigslist, Kijiji, or even local buy and sell groups.

On the other hand, a yard sale gets it over with on a specific date. Selling on Craigslist or Kijiji could drag this out for days or even weeks longer. With a yard sale I can say to myself – at 2pm if these items aren’t sold I will donate them to the local charity – and take them there immediately and be done with it.

Maybe I should just flip a coin?

Image details: Pie in Face served by picapp.com

Every once in a while I stop and think about my perception of value and it always amazes me. For example, I’ll be at the grocery store shopping with one of the kids and they’ll ask for a dessert. Pie is one of the favourites in my household so usually the kids want to buy a pumpkin or apple pie to bring home for dessert. I’ll look at the price tag of 4.99 or 5.99 and I’ll hesitate to buy it. It’s pricey I say to myself. We don’t need it I’ll say to myself. Some days I’ll buy the pie anyway. More often than not I’ll tell the kids that the pie really isn’t a necessary part of the budget and I’ll move on.

Another day I might be at a restaurant for dinner and who can resist the gorgeous pictures of desserts on the dessert menu? Oh! Pecan pie! I haven’t had that in ages. I’ll order a piece of pie for dessert. For 5.99. I’ll eat it, enjoy it, and not think twice about the price.

But when I think about it later (and there’s no pie in sight!) I’ll realize that while I hesitated over an entire pie for 5.99, which I perceived as poor value for my money, I readily ordered an 8th of a pie in a restaurant for 5.99 without thinking twice. Was the pie from the grocery store inferior to the pie served in the restaurant? No. In fact, likely were made at the same bakery. So why was the store bought pie inferior? Was the service of having someone deliver the pie to my table worth a markup of 8 times the price over buying it in the store? No. I really can’t figure it out. Logic fails me here.

How do your perceptions affect your choices?

Just  a quick note to tell you all that the Festival of Frugality chose Frugal Dilemma – Should I Buy a New Bed for the 133 Festival of Frugality.

There are some great posts in this week’s Festival of Frugality and in past editions. Go on over and take a look. Always great stuff over there.

Free cat?

Originally uploaded by qousqous

A friend of mine recently added a new cat to her family. Let’s call her Joan for this little story.

Jack had been a half-grown homeless cat that hung around her neighbourhood all winter looking for handouts from kind hearted souls. Joan and her kids started feeding him on the front porch whenever he came around. They tried to convince Joan’s husband that they should adopt Jack. Clearly he had no place else to go. Her husband protested that they already have 2 adult indoor cats and adding a half grown outdoor cat wasn’t fair to the older cats. He was firm on his decision.

Several weeks later, Joan’s daughter was volunteering at the animal shelter and there was Jack. She called Joan begging to let her adopt him. Being that Jack is an all black cat, how was she sure he was the same cat? He was picked up on her very street, the daughter replied.

So there is begins. The “free” cat from a few weeks before is now a cat in the shelter. Adoption cost $125. But it didn’t end there. The other two cats are declawed and Joan and her husband have just had new carpets installed and purchased new furniture and decided that Jack must be declawed too. Another $300.

The “free” cat has now cost $425 (approximately) before he’s even come through the door. But it hasn’t ended there. He’s a young, frisky half grown cat. He has a lot of energy and needs a lot fuel. Their pet food bill has effectively doubled. The other two cats are not happy with sharing litterbox facilities and now there are two litter boxes which has upped the sanitary costs. I’m sure the price-tag attached to this “free” pet is going to continue to climb over the next dozen years or so.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love pets. I am a pet owner (two cats) myself. What I’m pointing out here is that “free” rarely is. If you’re prepared for the expense involved in pet ownership they can be wonderful members of your family and I highly recommend it but I also want to caution that “free” always comes with a price. In this case the price of adopting the “free” cat at the shelter (which included neutering and microchipping).

Forgotten television

Originally uploaded by autowitch

I’ve finally done it. I’ve managed to convince my 13 year old son that we don’t need cable tv.

Over the past year I’ve been trying to reduce spending in a variety of areas and one of the first to get cut was the cable bill. This time last year we had an “all the bells and whistles” type cable package which included $19.95/month to rent a digital receiver that included a pvr. My cable bill was over $150/month and that was just for television!

I rarely watch tv and will often go weeks without ever turning it on. My 18 year old daughter is the same. My son however just loves to have the tv on, at all hours, half the time he’s doing something else (on the computer for example) with the tv providing background noise.

Slowly I’ve started cutting back. First to go was the digital receiver with pvr, saving me $19.95 plus tax each month. A month or two later I cancelled the movie networks saving an additional $17.95 plus tax. Another month or two after that I reduced the digital package from all channels to a few select channels. Then a couple of months ago I reduced the package to basic analog cable. It was the move from basic cable to no cable that was going to be the tough sell.

I tried to convince him that the shows he does enjoy watching can usually be found online (and legally) through the network websites, etc. He didn’t seem convinced. Finally I figured out the right bargaining chip. In exchange for no cable at all (a total saving of $150/month plus taxes over last year) I had to upgrade our internet from standard to ultra which increased my internet bill by $20/month. The ultra high speed he argued would allow him to watch tv episodes online without waiting for downloads.

Now that we’ve cut the cable I’ve decided to eliminate the television sets as well. They tvs we have are all large, heavy and take up a lot of room. The tvs are not making the move to the apartment with us. My daughter is taking them both with her to the townhouse she’s living in for college so she and her friends can use them. Instead I’m picking up new 22 inch LCD monitors for the computers. He can hook up the xbox to the LCD when he wants to use it and it’s a huge space saver to have only LCD monitors rather than monitors plus tv. Win Win!

My family ran a fast food (as in just about everything deep fried) restaurant when I was a kid. Every weekend my job was to wash the big windows all around the restaurant. This is an inexpensive, easy and best of all, environmentally friendly recipe for shining windows:

Add 1/2 cup ammonia or white vinegar to one gallon of water. Wash windows with a sponge or white cotton cloth then wipe dry with crumpled newspaper (the daily newspaper, not newsprint) and your windows will be sparkling clean and streak free.

Consumerism. Our generation is based on blatant consumerism. Even with terms like recession and economic downturn being bandied about – we’re still spending money hand over fist. Well most of us are. The few of us who are trying to live below our means are often pressured by society, peers, even family members to spend, spend, spend!

My upcoming move has me trying to decide what I will have room to bring along. My kitchen in particular is at issue. I currently have a good sized kitchen. More than enough counter space, lots of cupboards and big roomy drawers that house a large variety of pots, pans, utensils, and small appliances. And if I were to run out of space in the kitchen there’s lots of space in the cold cellar and garage to store more stuff. The apartment has a tiny galley style kitchen with very little counter space or storage. I’m dreading the thought of going through my small appliances and deciding which I can bring with me and which I’ll have to sell or donate. The kitchen is the one room that is giving me the horrors when it comes to “rightsizing” my life.

After lamenting this fact in a brief moment of self-pity the other day a good friend replied that we should cross the border and go shopping at all the outlet malls in western New York next week. Great sales on everything I could want for my kitchen she says. A day later while lamenting the fact that I’ll have so little kitchen storage my sister suggested I come spend a day shopping in Toronto with her. She knows all sorts of great little places to pick up dishes, cookware, crockery, etc. really cheap she says.

I’m a little boggled. Everyone knows that my funds are severely limited these days as I start my business. Everyone knows I’m moving into an apartment that is 1/3 the size of my house and my goal right now is to get rid of things I own not to add to the pile of clutter!

I’ve been having real difficulty keeping myself to the frugal straight and narrow recently, as I’ve mentioned with my bed dilemma (I’ve decided to go the most frugal route… I’m using the antique sleigh bed which means I only have to buy a double mattress now) and now I’m considering buying a new freezer.

This is an improvement though. At one point not too long ago I had decided that it would be best if I sold all of my furniture in the house and just bought all new furniture for the apartment. New everything: new dining room set, new sectional for the livingroom, a wall unit/entertainment centre, new drapes, rugs, lamps, new bedroom sets for both myself and my son, and so on. I’ve managed to talk myself out of most of that but it sure is hard.

Especially when friends, family, peers tell me all about the cool new things they just bought this week.

And they all wonder why I never answer the phone.

One of the challenges of moving from a house to an apartment is room size. The master bedroom in my house is large enough to accommodate my king size bed and other furniture. The bedroom I will have at the apartment is much smaller and my king size bed will not fit.

My neighbour has offered to buy the king size bed and I’m happy with this but now I have the question of a new bed. Here are my options:

1. Buy a new queen size bed frame & mattress set that I really love – price will be around $3000
2. Buy a new queen size bed frame & mattress set that will do for now but not really 100% my taste from Ikea or similar store – price will be around $1500
3. Use an antique mahogany sleigh bed I’ve had since I was a child (and is currently not in use) and buying a double size mattress set that will fit it – price will be around $1000 (or less) for mattress set

I could talk myself into going with option #1 pretty easily. I’ve found a unique queen size bed that I really love and I could tell myself it’s an investment piece that will last me many years. I could also tell myself that the money my neighbour is paying for the king size bed will help pay for the bed. Then I could tell myself that, since I’m not really buying any new furnishings I really can afford this one little splurge. And finally I could tell myself that part of my new life without my husband I deserve the luxury of this new bed.

With option #2 things are a bit trickier. I don’t really love any of the beds in this price range. While having a queen sized bed would be nice when compared to the double bed in option #3 at the same time it seems a bigger waste of money to buy a less expensive bed that I don’t really love than to buy the more expensive one in option #1. I think option #2 can safely be eliminated now.

Option #3 is the most frugal option in the long run. It’s both frugal with my money and it’s frugal with my available space. The bed itself is an absolutely gorgeous mahogany sleighbed that’s around 200 years old. It’s a piece of furniture that has been in storage for a few years which really is a shame. The craftsmanship and beauty of it cannot be found in today’s modern furniture. However, it’s only a double size not a queen. The move from a king size bed to a double size bed is going to take some getting used to. And while it’s clearly smaller than a queen, the bed frame itself has a headboard nearly 5 ft tall and a foot board about 3 ft tall which creates a lot of visual clutter for me. My personal taste and style runs to contemporary in style and the heavy ornate feel of this antique is not in keeping with the rest of my furnishings.

Some quick info on sizes:

• A Standard King size – 76 inches wide
• A Standard Queen size – 60 inches wide
• A Standard Double (also called Full) size – 54 inches wide

I’m stuck between options 1 and 3 now. I really don’t know what I should do. The frugal angel on my shoulder is telling me to go with option #3 but the devil shopper on my other shoulder is telling me to splurge just this once on option #1.

Update: I’ve decided to not just talk the frugal talk but to walk the frugal walk this time. I’m going with option #3. I’m going to use the antique sleigh bed which only requires me to purchase a full size mattress. The most frugal (and sensible) option.

You thought I’d cave in and go with option #1, didn’t you? Yeah, me too.

Update #2: This post was featured on edition #133 of the Festival of Frugality. Check it out. Lots of great frugal features there.

Teapots

Originally uploaded by pigpogm

Part of the decision to move to a much smaller home – in my case moving from a house I’ve owned for 12 years to a rental apartment – is the understanding that a smaller place means less room for stuff.

You understand this on a logical level but perhaps not on an emotional level until it comes time to start deciding what moves with you and what must be disposed of by selling, donating, etc.

This is particularly hard if you have a collection. I know people with collections of crystal figurines, clocks, lighters, ashtrays, salt and pepper shakers, baseball caps…

I’m not a particularly sentimental sort and I’m not big into collections. Ok. I did collect books (several thousand hardcovers) for years. And perhaps I had a brief lapse and collected Beanie Babies a while back but generally… I’ve never been much of a collector.

However…
19 years ago on my honeymoon I had bought a lovely handmade pottery teapot from a local artisan. I’m not a tea drinker and I’m not sure what struck me about the teapot but I had to have it. I parted with $75 for this teapot and was happy to do so. It had pride of place on a shelf in my kitchen.

And then…
My mother got the notion that I wanted to collect teapots. First it was a Christmas gift of a teapot that looked like a hound dog wearing a Scottish style tam. Then on my birthday a teapot shaped like a rooster. Both of these got displayed along side the original art pottery piece in my kitchen.

And then…
My mother-in-law and my sister-in-law got the notion that i was collecting teapots. Over the next several years I was gifted with teapots for Christmas, birthday, Mother’s Day, anniversaries – any gift giving occasion and soon I was overrun with teapots.

And I still don’t like tea.

I began to comment how I didn’t like tea and I was a coffee drinker. No one got the hint. By now the shelves in the kitchen were bowing under the weight of all of these teapots and having run out of room to display them there they’d begun creeping onto the bookshelves and tables in my living room.

Being young and not wishing to appear ungrateful – after all it’s the thought that counts, right? – I continued to silently resent the teapots. By this point I had clowns, more dogs, cats, an elephant, several elaborate teapots that looked like an old fashioned sewing machine, an old potbelly stove, and a chess board. I swear I was having nightmares about teapots forcing me to drink tea after a while. At last count there were over 50 teapots in my teapot collection.

And I still don’t like tea.

I can’t even imagine if I had to deal with all of these pots today. Fortunately, a few years ago I finally worked up the courage to put a halt to the teapots and no longer have any – other than my original artsy teapot.

The problem with a collection is it often overruns your space and becomes a weight on you. When the last teapot was gone I felt a sense of lightness and freedom. I hadn’t realized how much the burden of all of these possessions – the dusting and the space they take up – had become until they were gone.

And I still don’t like tea. I’m addicted to coffee. But please, for the love of all that’s good and right in the world, don’t buy me any more coffee mugs. With my luck it’ll just turn into another collection.

For most of my life I’ve been under the impression that owning a home was always the best option financially. Dozens of personal finance books seem to say the same thing and I bought into it. Hook, line and sinker.

My family has spent the last dozen years or so scrimping to pay the mortgage, property tax, insurance, maintenance, utility bills, lawn and landscaping expenses. We bought appliances, lawn mower, hedge trimmer, snow shovels, wheel barrows. We planted annuals, perennials, sod, shrubs, trees and hanging baskets. Lawn fertilizers. Grass seed. Squirrel baffles for the chimney. Bird-proof vent covers. Christmas lights. Animal proof garbage cans. Multifunction sprinklers.

None of which we had to buy when we rented during the first few years while our children were young. Over the past dozen years of home ownership we’ve spent so much money on the “joy” of maintaining a home that I’m almost ill at the thought. All of the vacations we couldn’t afford. All of the investments and opportunities that we had to walk away from because we had every cent tied up in a house. It’s a nice house. I like it a lot but now a part of me resents it too. It’s cost us a lot of money over the years. It’s appreciated considerably in value over the 12 years but the hidden costs offset that considerably.

Once I got my head around the idea that I didn’t have to own a house – a lovely sense of freedom hit me. I can rent a nice apartment, in a nice area for less than half my combined mortgage, tax, and insurance payments each month. My utilities are included in my rent so I don’t have to worry about how a hot summer or a cold winter will affect my bills.

I have the freedom to know that I’m living worry free. If the toilet backs up or the roof leaks I don’t have to worry about it. I just pick up a phone. I don’t have grass to cut, weeds to pull, snow to shovel.

Not only is renting going to be considerably less expensive financially – it’s going to free up a significant amount of my time.

I plan to live on a fairly tight budget but this time it’s by choice not necessity. Now I can invest extra money in mutual funds and other investments. If I held onto the house as an “investment” I’d rarely if ever have any extra money. Usually when I did have a little extra it would when the furnace would die on a cold night or the electrical panel would act wonky and off went that extra money in the pocket of the repairman.

Yes, once I really started thinking about renting vs. owning, I’m shocked I bought into the hype for so long. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks renting makes sense over owning.

A quick breakdown of the costs of renting versus owning for me:
Rent = $768 per month – includes utilities
Own = $1620 per month – includes mortgage payment, insurance, property taxes – does not include monthly utilities which run approximately $200/month

My cost of living is reduced by more than $1000/month – freeing up that money to be invested in high interest savings, stock market, bonds or mutual funds – any of which, if chosen wisely, will result in a higher rate of return than my house would have over the coming years.

And the reduction in stress and worry is really invaluable.

I’m Merlene Paynter. I’m 39 years old. I’m the mother of two teenagers. I’m changing my life.

Frugalous is a combination experiment and journal as I change just about every part of my life. I’ve left my marriage of 19 years. I’m starting my own business. I’m selling my house and moving to an apartment. I’m conquering my fears and learning to drive a car. I’m going to live a debt-free and frugal lifestyle while I save and invest to make some of my dreams come true over the next 5 years.

None of these changes will be easy. There have been tears and will be more to come. There have been doubts and will be again as I move through these changes.

What I do hope is to offer you some practical advice on how to have a frugal but fabulous life. A lot of the debt reduction and frugal websites and books tell you all of the things you should do to save money. A lot of it seems to be recycled and rephrased and repackaged but there’s not a lot of new information. I’m really hoping I don’t fall into the habit of repeating the same old stories. I’m also hoping that if I do you’ll forgive me. I think we all know by now that if we save the $5 on the price of a latte we’ll be rich. That’s how it works, right?