SingleMomFinances

Frugal Blogs

2010-02-25T06:25:00.000-08:00

I love frugal blogs.
I love getting a peek into someone else's home, and seeing how they live, what they save money on, and what they consider most important.
What can I say, I'm such a voyeur.
And I love pics.
(Really need a camera of my own.....but in debt so not just yet.)
Part of it may be I'm in a city on the East Coast, and it seems so many frugal blogs are written by frugal mommy bloggers way on the other side of country, or at least the other side of the Mason Dixie line.
Here are more frugal blogs that make me smile:
An Oregon Cottage. Pictures and recipes and frugal living, oh my :)
Ten Things Farm. Same as the above, with some basic homesteading thrown in.
Diary of a Stay At Home Mom and Full Bellies, Happy Kids are written by a military wife, and although I live a very different lifestyle, her sweet writing and delicious recipes always make me wonder about the road not taken.
Domestic Witch I want her as my Ya-Ya.
Work calls.

CC debt: $22,666.

Frugal Idea

2010-02-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

Ever have an epiphany that makes you wonder what you were thinking?
One of my children with special needs self stimulates in the form of rocking, banging, and bouncing.
This wreaks havoc on walls, floors, other people, but mostly on mattresses.
On nights when it's really bad (he rocks and bangs in his sleep) I end up putting him in my bed because it's on a different floor than his siblings, and I take the couch.
The Linda Blair rocking and banging leads to broken box springs, and even replacing his single and my queen with cheap mattresses every quarter or so is incredibly expensive, but I had tried pretty much everything, and nothing worked for long.

And then it hit me.....
Why not put the frames away, and just put everything, his mattress and box spring and mine, directly on the floor?

Duh frugal moment!

And that's really good because yesterday was a not so frugal day.......
It was mostly recurring bills, such as health insurance, car insurance, cell and home phone service, but a child's doctor's appointment turned into getting him take-out and a trip to Wal-mart, which anyone with children knows is a recipe for disaster.
$176.
Plus $20 for the take-out.
Ouch.
That was mainly groceries, but also ended up being a stock up trip for cold meds, dental care, and way too many convenience foods.
And without coupons, double ouch.
And my laptop power cord, of course the laptop with all my work stuff on it, just broke.
Ugh.

CC Debt: $22975.

Frugal Mommy Blogs

2010-02-23T05:43:00.000-08:00

One of the first blogs I read each morning (I work at home and after getting the children off to school, I need coffee while waiting for inspiration to hit ;) ) is The Frugal Girl
It's a well written, friendly, charming eco-friendly personal finance blog about how to be a better home economist, written by a very approachable personal finance blogger Kristen.

One of the things I adore is her step by step (with pictures! Yay Kristen) tutorials on how to make frugal foods from scratch. Everything is here, from how to make easy to hard (for me, anyway) bread, pizza, all the basics that a mother should know, but (again, me) somehow never learned.
The Frugal Girl has inspired me to try my hands at many recipes I used to buy (next up, cheese bread, ) and even if you only read her Wednesday baking posts, it's well worth adding this gem of a blog to your personal finance favorites.

Another great frugal baking blog is Tammy's Recipes. Another frugal stay at home mom, Tammy juggles four littles (one a newborn) while frugally running her household. Another step by step cooking blogger, every one of Tammy's recipes has turned out really well, and her cheesecake is to die for!

Eat At Home is another frugal cooking inspiration blogger, with printable menus, recipes, and grocery lists. Updated daily, Tiffany's recipes are really easy to tweak, and very kid friendly. And pictures galore.

Three big frugal mommy bloggers are Money Saving Mom , Life As Mom, and The Krazy Coupon Lady. With these three, you'll get all the weekly coupon deals, printable coupons round ups, interspersed with financial goals.

The Coupon Mom is another popular frugal mommy blogger, and while I just picked up her book, I haven't followed this frugal mommy blogger enough to give an opinion.

Work calls. :)

Getting out of debt

2010-02-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

After being inspired for quite some time by other personal finance bloggers, I started a blog to keep me accountable for my own disastrous financial state, and to make some concrete goals.
I own my own home, with a relatively small mortgage balance, but we need a bigger home.
The numbers are as follows:
$23,500 on two credit cards with rates that just shot up to 19.99% and 22.99%.
$8290 car loan at 7%.
After that, there are student loans, but these three are what need to go, in that order.
To be consumer debt free in two years, I need a snowball of $1542. a month, which is what I am aiming for.
To be consumer debt free in one year, I need a snowball of $2837.
Debt Free Day (D-day) is 2/14/12.
Deep breath.