The Cereal Crunch

I'm trying a little experiment. I'm not going to buy any more cereal. At least for awhile to see how or if this experiment will work.

Here's my reasoning behind this experiment as to why I'm not going to buy cereal anymore.

1. My kids eat cereal like it's going out of style.
2. Cereal is expensive.
3. My kids don't even eat it for breakfast.
4. They eat it mostly as a snack.
5. Even though I try to get cereal that isn't high in sugar, I still will buy that kind. And I don't think any kind of cereal is that good for you anyway.
6. We will go through at least 2 boxes of cereal a week.
7. We go through 2 or more gallons of milk a week.
8. I want them to drink milk, but when they are just pouring it in the cereal, they don't even end up drinking all the milk, and it's just a waste of milk.
9. Milk is expensive and not using it for cereal will cut down on the consumption and cost of milk.
10. I think there is better snack choices for them, and maybe if there is no cereal they will choose something that is better for them.

So that's most of my reasons for not buying cereal. I'm just sick of buying it and going through so much milk all the time. I need to cut costs somewhere and thought this might help. Not sure if my kids are too happy about it. But I'm going to give it at least another week and see how it goes.

Any thoughts? Do you think this sound like a good idea?

New Frames are in at Zenni Optical

Zenni Optical is a great website, that anyone looking for eyeglasses can benefit from. You may have heard some positive news about them from Fox News TV and from the consumer advocate show The Clark Howard Show. 

Zenni Optical sells stylish prescription glasses for as little as $8.00. You will find a huge selection of frames, with everything from single vision lens, sunsensor lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens, and the progressive lens. 

Their secret to their low prices is that they sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the consumer, with no middleman and virtually no advertising budget. Which equals a good thing for the consumer, great quality frames for a fraction of the price. 

And now a new selection of frames are in. Zenni Optical has a whole new selection of frames to choose from. So if you've visited them before, check back because now there's a new selection. And if you haven't checked them out yet then head on over to their website to get a look at all their great frames.

I was just looking at the frames and below is a picture of one that really caught my eye. My husband wears glasses, I think he'd look great in these.

Five Tips To Save Money on Your Groceries

Here's some things I thought of while I was grocery shopping the other day. Some quick and easy tips to help you save money on your grocery bill (which I'm sure we could all use with the prices of everything going up.)

1.Don't go grocery shopping when your hungry. This might sound silly and maybe even obvious, but it's true. If you go when you're hungry you will be more tempted to buy more food. And you also may buy more junk food, which is unhealthy for one thing, and also tends to be more expensive.


2. Shop at the same store. If you do your shopping at the same store every week you will be more likely to purchase only the things you need, and you will also know their prices. I stick with my favorite supermarket, which for me where I live is Market Basket.I feel if you know the layout of a store you will buy your regular items and won't be as tempted to buy whatever is handy, in a store you don't know, because you can't find what you want.(Make sense?) Which could end up costing you more.


3. Go shopping once a week. I talked about this in a previous post Grocery Shopping. Read more about it there.

4. Make a list. I find that if I make a list or even just mentally plan out ahead, what I'm going to buy, I spend less. If you organize and prepare your shopping list you will more likely stick to it, and spend less because you won't buy things you really don't need, or the more expensive things in the store.

5. Buy generic brands. Maybe you don't agree, but I find the generic brands on many things tastes the same.To me milk is milk, and if I can save money on the store brand, I will. Also sometimes the store brand tastes better than the commercial brand. An example is my sister was visiting recently and loved the french fries I made. She asked what kind they were because she hasn't been able to find a kind she likes, I said Market Basket! (Big plug for Market Basket -lol)

Those are just a few tips I thought of while shopping the other day. Do you have any tips to save money grocery shopping? Let me know, I'd love to get some more ideas!

My Family'sTrip to Disney World (Part I)

(***As I started to write this I realized that I have a lot to say on this subject, so I decided to break this up into at least two posts. Continue reading for Part I***)

My family's trip to Disney World was great! We had so much fun. The weather was perfect (at least for me) 80-85 degrees everyday! I loved it! Summer is my favorite month, and it was like Summer down in Orlando everyday! I could totally live down there! I love the weather. When we got home we found out it was raining the week we were gone and in the 40's! I was glad I missed that.

Enough about the weather. Like I said in my previous post (I Got a Loan, Now what am I Going to do) we stayed at Disney's Pop Century Resort. Which was quite nice. The kids loved all the funky decor they have around the hotel. It was actually a lot bigger than I had expected. We stayed in the "90's," with a big cell phone stairway (we walked up to get to our room), floppy disk, and walkman surrounding us. Cool! Before I left I thought there was only 1 pool. But there was at least 3 or more pools, throughout the hotel. So we had a "computer" pool very close to our room. And it wasn't ever that crowded. My daughter, especially loved the pool. And would even be swimming at 9 o'clock at night!

The Pop Century Resort also had a very nice fast food type restaurant and gift shop area. So you could get some of your meals there and even some souvenirs. As I mentioned before included in my package was the "Disney Meal Plan." If you are going to Disney World I highly recommend purchasing this. I know this saved us a lot of money, and I'm not lying when I say that I think it saved us maybe up to $1,000.00 of our own money in food costs.

How it works is as part of your package you can purchase the Meal Plan. I think it cost me around 740 dollars. Then when you get to Disney World they give you what they call "Your key to the World." You use that as your ticket for entrance in the Parks and for your Meal Plan. With the plan we had you get one meal (per person) a day at what they call a "Quick Service" restaurant, one meal a day at a "Sit Down" restaurant, and one snack a day. And you can use them in any combination throughout your stay.

Before I left I was worried about if this would be enough food for everyone. But believe me it is! The quick service places serve everything from Chicken Salads to Burgers. And The sit down places are everything from Italian Restaurants to Buffets. You can really get a lot to eat especially at the "All you can eat" Buffets! Probably too much! You also get non-alcoholic drinks included and desserts. (And what we would do is desserts that we didn't finish like packaged cookies or brownies, we would save for later and the kids could eat them as snacks later) And you get snack a day too extra (that you can purchase at your hotel or at various vendors through out the parks) anything from big soft pretzels to ice cream!

One thing I was wrong about before I left I thought "tips" were included. They are not at the "Sit Down" places. On your "key to the world" though you can add your credit card info. and then any extra charges (like tips) you make can be added on. Even with paying our own tips we still saved a lot of money with the meal plan, because the food down there is fairly expensive a quick service meal for four (if you pay with your own money) will cost you at least $40.00 and sit down meals cost at least $100.00-$150.00! So by my calculations I feel we saved at least $1000.00 with the meal plan!

Also another thing about the restaurants, for the "sit down" places a lot of them require reservations. Before I left I did make reservations at the Contemporary Hotel for the Mickey and Friends Character Breakfast.(See pictures taken from that breakfast Here) Because I heard it's quite popular. So if you want reservations, especially for any "character meals" you can make reservations up to 120 days in advance! So if you are super organized you can make all your reservations before you even get to Disney World! If not when you get there you can call a 1-800 number they give you to make your reservations. There are over 100 restaurants to choose from in the meal plan!

So thats a few tips and information about my fantastic trip to Disney World, for now. Stay tuned for Part II about my trip!

Below is a few more pictures (my husband took with our new Canon DVD Camcorder, that also takes stills)

I Got a Loan, Now What Am I Going To Do?

That's right, I'm going to Disney World! I am so excited. We are leaving tomorrow, April 27th.This will actually be my fourth trip there. But it will be my kids first. They are very excited.

We are staying at The Pop Century Resort. Which is one of the hotels right in Disney World. And looks cool, with fads from the 20th Century. Like they have a display of a giant "Big Wheel" and a giant"Yo-Yo," things like that. I chose that one because it looks like fun for the kids, and it is actually one of the least expensive hotels they have there. It doesn't matter to me where we stay, because you're not in the room much anyway, just to sleep - lol! I tried to get everything as cheaply as possible.

One other thing that I think will save us money is I purchased the food plan they have. This is something fairly new (they didn't offer this last time I went.) But what it is, is you get one meal in like a take out place a day, one meal in a sit down type place a day, and one snack a day. For everyone! And Tips and Gratuities, are included. I think I paid a little over $700.00 for the meal plan, for four people. That sounds like a lot, but believe me that is a good deal. Last time I went with just two of us, we spent I think at least $1000.00 on food. So I think this food plan is worth it, especially not having to pay the tips and gratuities, that should save us a lot of money.

But after we get back it will be back to being frugal, because I'll practically be broke after this - lol! I'm some what worried about the money we are spending on this trip, but I love Disney World and want my kids to get at least one chance to go there, while they're at a good age to really enjoy it! My husband says don't worry, let's just enjoy it! So that's what I'm going to try to do! I'll worry later!

So I'll be gone for a week. Don't miss me too much! While I'm gone I was supposed to have my friend RV David, do some guest blogging for me. But that's still somewhat of a mystery, since I haven't heard from him in awhile. So check back later this week and see if he shows up. If not I'll "see" you all when I get back! And I'll tell you all about my trip, with some tips on going to Disney, and more ways I tried to "do it cheaper." Bye for now!

Make Your Own Pizza

My kids love pizza, but it is so expensive to get from a pizza place. And the frozen kind isn't that great. So lately I've been making my own. Or somewhat my own. I've been using Mama Mary's crust.

You can buy them in either the large 12" pizza crust, or the 7" pizza crust. We have been liking the 7" ones, because it's like everyone gets their own individual pizza.

They're very easy to make too. Just add pizza sauce, shredded cheese, and whatever else you want for toppings. We've just been making cheese, and pepperoni pizzas. (See Pictures at top.) But you could add anything you like to it: mushrooms, peppers, onions, etc.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, then put pizzas directly on rack in oven, lower temp. to 425, and cook for 10 minutes! It's that easy.

It's also a fun activity to do with the kids. They love to make the pizzas and take part in cooking a meal. And Mom actually doesn't have to do much!

There are other pizza crusts out there too, but I've just found that these Mama Marys ones are very good. And at a reasonable price (a 3 pack of the 7" crusts are only $2.50) You could also make your own pizza crust. Here's a website I found that has all different kinds of pizza crusts to make from scratch: Easy Pizza Crusts.com. Maybe I'll try some when I get more time.

But making your own either from already made crusts, or from scratch, is definitely better than the frozen kind, cheaper than delivery and more fun for the kids!

Freeze Your Bananas

One thing I recently learned was you can freeze bananas. If you have bananas that are ripe, and you don't have time to use them right away, you can freeze them. There has been times when I have had bananas that get to ripe for eating, but you just don't have the time to make banana bread or something else with them. So you end up throwing the bananas away.

But now I found out that you can freeze the bananas, so you can use them later on when you have the time and energy, to make something. You can freeze them in different ways. One is to peel the banana, mash it up and freeze in a freezer bag. Another way is to peel the banana and just freeze it whole in the freezer bag. Or you can even just throw the whole banana, peel and all, right in the freezer, as is.

Then some time down the road when you feel up to making something, you can just grab your frozen bananas and add them to your ingredients. Its a win win situation. Because many times I have had to throw out the bananas, and many times when I am making banana bread I have wished I had a nice ripe banana to add to it! So freeze your bananas!

Get More Use Out of Your Kitchen Sponge

When your kitchen sponge starts to get old and a little grungy, don't throw them out right away! You can get a lot more use out of it if you do one of two things.

One way to clean a kitchen sponge is to wash it in the dishwasher. Just place the sponge in the top rack of your dishwasher, before you do a load of dishes. Wash sponge in a regular cycle with the dishes, and when you take it out the sponge is clean again, and almost like new.

Another way to clean your sponge is to heat in the microwave. I've been using this method myself for a little while. Just place the sponge on a microwave safe plate, put in microwave for about 30 seconds. Keep an eye on it while your doing it, just to make sure your not heating it to long, and everything is ok. But after about only 30 seconds in the microwave, the sponge is like new again, and heating it kills some of the germs that might be on it. Heating it in the microwave is also great for getting out any odors on the sponge.

Try one of these methods and you can get a little more use out of your kitchen sponge!

The Spaghetti Stain Versus the Plastic Container

A great tip I heard the other day has to do with "Pam" (or any other cooking spray) and plastic ware.

You know how, when you put spaghetti, or anything with sauce in it, into a plastic container and then the sauce stains it? It's virtually impossible to get the stain out. So you end up having to throw out the plastic container.

Well a way to avoid that is to spray some "Pam", or other cooking spray, in the plastic before you put the food in it. This will prevent the stain from adhering to the plastic, and save you time from trying to scrub out the stain, and save you money too, because you won't have to throw out all those containers and buy new ones.

I tried this last time I had spaghetti, and it really works!

Buying Kids Clothes on eBay

You always hear about people selling on eBay, but you don't hear much about buying on eBay. I tried to sell a few things, I had some luck, but to me it seemed like a lot of effort without much profit.

But I have had some luck on buying on eBay. One thing I have bought is clothes for my kids. After doing a little research, I have gotten some really good deals.

I go to the clothing category, click say girls clothes. One piece of advice is go 1 to 2 sizes above their size. The clothes seem to run a little small. Then if I'm looking for say sweaters, I check that and I sort by Price + Shipping lowest first. Then I like to look for more then one piece of clothing sold together.

If you see something you like place a bid on it, enter a maximum bid, but don't go to high. One of the things you have to watch out for is getting in a "bidding war" with someone. You'll end up paying more then you intended. I learned sometimes you have to let some of the items go, if it goes higher then you had wanted. Also make sure you check the sellers feedback.

But for example my daughter takes dance classes, and I won 5 dance outfits for only 1 dollar. I also got about 5 pairs of pajamas for my son for 99 cents. Even with shipping charges they were both deals. Another note is I've bought mostly "used" clothes (that's how you can get such great deals), but all have been in good to practically like new condition.

So if you want to save money on kids clothes, check out eBay for some great deals!

(*above is picture of 2 sweaters I won for my daughter for only $1.79)

Kids Birthday Parties

Today is my daughter's 8th birthday. Happy Birthday!

Kids birthday's can be a funny thing. Every year I say I'm not going to spend a lot of money on her birthday, but every year I spend more then I originally intended.

For a couple of her birthday's we took her to a Disney Ice Show, instead of a party, but between the the cost of the tickets , souvenirs, snacks and drinks, and still buying her other presents it ended up costing a lot.

One year we took about 8 kids to the arcade, which was pretty expensive. Last year I had the great idea to basically bribe her into not having a kids party, by giving her $100.00 to buy what ever she wanted. And she still got other presents. That probably didn't save me anything except the headache of a kids party. Which might have been worth it after all.

This year she wanted two friends to the movies and a sleepover. Which was also expensive because it was at a place in the city I live call Chunky's. It's kind of cool, they serve you burgers or whatever right while your watching the movie. But it is also pretty expensive. Plus of course she still got a bunch of presents from Mom & Dad.

So I don't really know what the answer is to saving money on kids birthdays. Except, every year I vow I'm not going to spend as much as I end up doing. And every year I'm just glad when it's over. Happy Birthday!

Grocery Shopping

Grant - Eco-friendly Reusable Grocery Bag by JP Monkey - _MG_9712.catalog, originally uploaded by sean dreilinger.

One way to save money is to only go grocery shopping once a week. This is something I just recently incorporated myself.

I remember seeing on Oprah not to long ago, a show where they put some families on a budget. One of the things they did was to bring them to the grocery store and have them buy enough groceries for at least a week. The point was the less you go, the less you will spend.

Seems obvious right? But until recently I was to lazy to think to far ahead when I went to the store. I was going up to 3 times a week. But now I plan out a week of groceries and I am saving money! I figure I'm saving between 50 to 60 dollars a week now.

One of the reasons is I'm not buying as much snacks and junk food. Instead of running out every other day, because my daughter ran out of cookies, she can have whatever else is left in the cabinets. For example my kids like oatmeal, when there's no cookies or other junk left, they'll eat oatmeal for a snack. Which is also better for them anyway!

Washing Your Shower Curtain Liner

A great tip I read recently in Martha Stewart Living Magazine was to wash your shower curtain liner in the washing machine.



You know how your shower curtain liner gets all grungy and mildew on it after awhile? Well don't throw them away! Put the liner in washing machine, add some detergent, a little bleach and wash in hot water. Don't put in dryer. Just hang back up, and it's as good as new.



It should be able to withstand a few washings. I tried it and it really works! I know shower curtain liners don't cost that much to begin with but why not get a few more uses out of it?

How to save money on pet products

Here is a picture of my cat. Her name is Buttercup. She'll be 5 years old next month.




As you can see, she's pretty lazy. Especially in the winter. So far it's been a pretty cold and snowy winter here in New Hampshire. She has barely been out of the house in the past couple of months.


Here's the first picture I took of her the other day.





She was running away from me! I just wanted to take a couple of pictures of her, and at first she was running around crazy. Every time I tried to get a picture she took off like a shot. She probably thought I wanted to give her some kind of medication or something. She's weary of me because usually I do have to give her medication.

This past summer she had a terrible case of fleas! Let's just say I was not a happy camper. A few times I bought flea medication from either the pet store, or from a website that was kind of expensive. Until it dawned on me that I should check on Ebay for it. At first I purchased Front Line Plus. Which I personally don't think worked to great. Because she still had fleas (but at least I got it for a good price, about half off of what I paid through another website). Then I tried Advantage, which I think might of finally gotten rid of the fleas. And I paid only about $26.00 for it on Ebay, for a 6 month supply. So check out Ebay if your looking for flea medication for cats or dogs.

She also had ear mites recently. I got medication really cheap for that at Target. So my money saving tip for today, especially with spring around the corner, ( I hope spring is around the corner!) look around to get the best price on Pet medication. The pet stores aren't always the cheapest places to get them.




This year I'm going to hopefully prevent her from getting any fleas! Now I have to clip her claws. Heeere Kiiiitty Kiiiity!

Coupon Cabin

TGIF everybody! If your looking for coupons check out Coupon Cabin.

They have printable coupons for some of your favorite stores, and restaurants.

I just saw one on there for TGI Fridays! Yum!

Fun Things To Do In The Winter

Here's some ideas for fun things to do in winter with little or no money. If you have kids and are sick of sitting in the house all winter, but don't have a lot of money, here's some fun things to do to get out of the house without really spending any money:


Go sledding! If you live where there's a lot of snow (like here in NH) take the kids sledding! My kids love it. It's fun, gets them outdoors and it's free!

Go for a walk in the woods! Get your boots on, warm coat, hats and mittens and take a hike! Enjoy nature in wintertime! Who knows what interesting things you'll see. Once again it's fun, good exercise, and free!

Go snowshoeing! Depending if you have snow shoes. It will cost you to buy them, obviously, but we happened to get them from Grammy for Christmas. But once you own them it's a fun thing to do with the kids. The kids love trekking through the snow in fields, hiking trails or wherever you want! Some places with hiking trails even rent snow shoes for a small fee. Check in your area!

And if it's just to cold or the weather doesn't permit getting out for the day. Think of fun things to do inside. One thing my kids like doing is "Dinner and a Movie." As a special treat, if we've been stuck inside all day, we'll pop in a DVD and instead of the usual meal at the dinner table, they get to eat in front of the TV while watching a movie! It doesn't sound like much, but the kids think it's fun!

The important thing is to not let winter (or money) stop you from having fun with your family!

I JUST SAVED ALOT ON MY CAR INSURANCE!!!

The other day my auto insurance payment was due. I paid it online, and after thought why I'm I blindly paying this much for car insurance with out checking out Geico. I've seen the commercial a million times and finally decided to check it out for myself. I got on their website and started a quote. It was easy! I just filled out the info as stated, taking about 5-10 minutes. And next thing you know they gave me a quote. That ended up being almost $400.00 cheaper a year then my other insurance!

I thought about it over night and decided, yeah I will switch to Geico! The next day I got back on my saved quote and bought it all online! It was very easy! They did call me with a few questions but after talking to them briefly they said "Welcome to Geico."

So if you think you're paying to much for your insurance, look around and get different quotes. It's worth it!

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