No-Spend Month Series

Hello again, savvy savers! Can you believe this month is almost half-way done! I don’t know about you, but as difficult as no spend days are around my neck of the woods, knowing how much I have been able to save is awesome! Now onto today’s challenge!

As Summer is soon to be entering the longer, lazy, hazy dog days of summer, full of warmer-than-normal triple digit weather, afternoon showers, and the omnipresent, money-sucking power bill spikes! If your anything like me, your seasonal electric bill can be nothing short of terror! 

With this situation in mind, here are a few tips to help your “Summerize” your power bills this coming season:

1. Charge your cell phones in the car: Leaving your phone sitting on the charger overnight not only shortens your phones battery life, but costs undue amounts on your power bill, due to its phantom consumption charges; avoid theses charges by charging my phone and gadgets in the car  while I drive a few times a week! This small change can save you upwards of $10.00 a month!

2. Reduce the brightness on your HDTV: The factory settings on your HDTV are adjusted to provide the best in-store viewing experience, but home lighting often negates higher UV levels; reducing the brightness settings will slow your tv’s power usage by $3.00-$5.00 monthly. 

3. Running the fan on your A/C: Running the A/C fan to circulate the cool air already in your home, instead of turning down the thermostat, for two hours daily, will cut the cost of your monthly A/C costs by a 1/8th; this one trick helps cut my power bill by $30.00 monthly. 

4. Cook outdoors: Cooking outdoors causes you to not only use less electricity, but to not generate cook-related heat in your home, a real boon here in the deep south; also consider you will use less dishes, service wear, and utensils, too!

5. Wash clothes with cold water:  If you’re a night owl, consider washing laundry during non-peak times, from 7 pm-midnight in most area, using cold water cycles, will cut your laundries electrical usage by half!   

6. Clean your cooling system: Changing your air filters, keeping A/C return vents clear, and allowing air to circulate fully through your home will keep your A/C running efficiently this summer, and reduce service call fees.

8. Consider drying alternatives: Using a clothesline, DIY dryer balls, combine dryer loads, or time your dryer to stop can help cut your drying costs in half!

All of these steps have helped to keep my Summer power bills lower and it can for you, too!

Here’s to summer,

Good morning, savvy savers! Can you believe we are almost half-way finished with this month! So, today is going to be another organization day, but today we will be focusing on our home offices, bookshelves, craft areas, and/or home libraries. 

This is a very important challenge for me as I work from home, and so I spend an inordinate amount of time at my desk. You would think that would mean I automatically have the motivation to keep that area neat and tidy at all times.  And while generally speaking my desk is clutter-free, my drawers, rolling cabinets, and shelves are not!  My inbox/outbox too, was a mess, and my vertical files were full of unneeded papers, review guides, and coupons I hadn’t looked in several months. I firmly believe that home are our most important investments, and therefore our most important business. Keeping this space organized is essential to keeping our homes running more smoothly. 

So, for today I challenge you to join me in cleaning up these areas in our homes. 

A few tips to consider today in your home office:

• Create a container for important family and personal documents; this includes licenses, insurance forms, medical records, etc.
• Clear out your coupon binders, and make room for the extra inserts coming this Spring; be sure to donate coupons to Coups For Troops. 
• Tax files over five years in age, can be shredded and discarded.
• Be sure to recycle all paper products.
• Magazines can be donated to public schools and libraries.
• Tackle boxes make awesome crafting, beading, and thread organizers.
• Consider grouping like books together on shelves; educational, biographies, fiction, non-fiction, etc.
• Any books you would not consider either home reference editions or you would gladly re-read, place to the side, for local book swaps or library donations. 
• Re-think your office furniture; dressers, buffets, and other larger pieces can still be functional desk spaces, and will allow you to have cabinet space, too!

So, all-in-all, I’m really excited about yesterday’s progress in my craft room and office!

So, I was able to:

1. I cleared off my desk.
2. I organized my dining room bookshelves, putting like groups together, and placing non re-reads to a bin for a later book swap weekend.
3. I took the binders and manuals I previously housed in on my dining room shelves, and placed them on an upcycled shelf in my office.
4. I turned my former dining room buffet station into an office credenza to hold my craft room staples.
5. I sorted through my personal files, and established a personal box for my husband and I both, as well as created a new lock box system for credit cards, cash, gift cards, etc.
6. I cleaned out my coupon binder.

I felt completely overwhelmed when I started, and utterly victorious when I stopped! Woohoo!

I was also able to accomplish:

1. As part of my #Choose30 Daily Challenge, I woke up at 7:25, walked my fur babies, showered, & dressed to my shoes. (Thanks, Flylady!)
2. Worked on my daily Motivated Moms Planner.
3. I finished a day’s worth of clerking assignments ahead of schedule!
4. I cooked from my pantry for each meal.
5. Read my daily devotional.
6. I waked two miles.

Yesterday I saved:

• I eat at home this evening for dinner, saving our family $6.95. 
• I recycled, upcycled, and composted one bins of deluge, and saved $0.25, the cost of 1 trash bag. 
• My family drank water today, and saved $0.69, the cost of a 2-liter of soda.
• I also did not watch cable tv, and saved $3.68 by doing so.
• I lost a half day’s worth of electricity costs, and saved $3.00! 

Total amount I saved my family: $14.57

This months savings goal remaining: $344.86

Here’s to saving,

Hello again, savvy savers! I hope you all are well rested, work-minded, and in the mood for cleaning and organization this week! As so many of us are currently in the throws of Back-to-School shopping and preparations, I wanted to share with you one of my current cleaning goals, and that is to create morning and evening Cleaning Zone Chore Lists. 

For me, a cleaning schedule is basically just a daily, weekly, or monthly plan for how you will clean your house.  It can be as simple as one main task per day or as complex as a spreadsheet that accounts for every single housekeeping task that needs to be done over the course of a year.  It really is up to you, and what will work best for your family, not this week, but every week going forward; especially with fewer people at home this time of year!

If the idea of creating any sort of cleaning schedule sounds overwhelming, no worries—I promise it is not as bad as it sounds.  In fact, as you will see below, you can do it in three easy steps! The point of a schedule is to relieve guilt and to create a routine that gives you less stress; a schedule for cleaning will be a lot less overwhelming in the long run.

So, do here’s how to it:

Step 1:  Create a Master Chore List:

Before you can decide when to clean you must first know what to clean, and how often.  Create a cleaning schedule that works for your life and your schedule, you need to assess your own home and cleaning needs. 

You can start with the following master list and then customize it to fit your own home’s needs, my suggestion is:

Step 2:  Pick the Best Plan for YOU:

The next thing you need to do is figure out what sort of cleaning plan will work best for your life and your schedule. 

• Are you the kind of person who wants to do a little every day?
• Would you rather tackle it all at once so that you don’t have to think about it for the rest of the week?
•  Do you work full time or are you home during the day? 
• Do you have young children at home whose chores can be incorporated into this system?

There is no one “right way” to keep house, and so no universal cleaning schedule that will fit every household’s needs. Just sit down, take an hour, and create a system that will work best for you!

Also, I’m going to share with you my true cleaning secret, you will want to consider creating a master lists, and then smaller, daily and weekly lists, too! 

If you are like me and have a hard time functioning when your house is messy, this may be the best option for you.  I have personally found that my home runs best with a daily morning and evening zoned routine, in addition to my master list.

Each morning, Monday-Friday, before work I complete my Zone 1 Cleaning Project:

1. Make all beds in the home.
2. Empty the dishwasher.
3. Start one load of laundry.
4. Wipe down my kitchen counter tops. 
5. Wipe out my bathroom sinks and vanity tops, and clean off mirror.
6. Sweep my entryway and front porch. 
7. Start a crockpot meal, marinate foods, etc.
8. Feed my fuzzies.
9. Put load of laundry in dryer.
10. Spray and squeegee out shower stall, after morning shower. 
11. Check out your to-do list, for the day.

I will typically spend about 35-45 minutes cleaning morning, between the daily tasks, and doing 1 or 2 weekly tasks each day; these morning tasks helps to keep deep cleaning projects at a minimum in my home. This also allows me plenty of time for walking my fuzzies, take a shower, have breakfast, take my medicine/vitamins, read from my daily devotional, all before heading into the office. 

Each evening, Monday-Friday, before bed I complete my Zone 2 Cleaning Project:

1. Pack lunches and snacks.
2. Set your home up for the next day; set the coffee maker,  re-stock paper products (toilet paper, paper towels, napkin holder, wipes) in home, check briefcases and back backs for anything you might need the next day, pack gym bags, pre-harness pets for morning walks before being crated, and lay out morning outfits.
3. Clean your kitchen: Be sure to wipe down counters, load and run your dishwasher, sweep floor, lay out a clean dish towel, scrub the kitchen sink (if needed), and remove trash. 
4. Pre-treat any laundry, as needed.
5. Plan your morning meal: Plan your breakfast, and lay out utensils/settings, if needed. You can also set-up clean, sanitized pet food/water dishes, placed in the fridge for the morning meals, too. Also, lay out your medications/vitamins. 
6. Five minute pick-up: using a basket, take 5 minutes before bed, walk around your home, lightly straighten the house, and anything that is in the wrong room can be placed in your basket, to be sorted as you go from room to room, so items can be put back in their proper places! 
7. Check for piles: Sort any bills, mail, and paper piles to their proper places, daily.
8. Create a to-do list for the next day. 

I will typically spend about 35-45 minutes preparing my home each evening; I typically take my nightly melatonin and can complete all Zone 2 tasks, prep my face for the night, read a few chapters of my current book selection, in the time it takes for me to become sleepy! This also allows me plenty of time to both relax each night, and to efficiently start my next day.

So, today I am challenging you all to accomplish three tasks:

1. Create a mater household cleaning list.
2. Establish an morning cleaning ritual (Zone 1).
3. To establish an evening cleaning ritual (Zone 2).
4. Consistently use your newly created Zone Cleaning Methods for one month!

Now, while this list seems extensive, depending on the size of your home, should only take a one hour daily, and in the long run should greatly help you not only today but in the future. This week is not only about creating long-lasting cleaning solutions in your home, but establishing routines that will help you not only keep your home cleaner and safer, but to shave the time it takes you to do so, in half! 

Here’s to you,

Hello again, savvy savers! Happy Sunday! Can you believe we are a week into a No-Spending Month Challenge! 

 A full day, a new way to find to save at home! This last week, we focused the first part of the week on pantry organization, organizing food swap days, creating meals based on pantry staples, and then switched focus to alternative pantry re-stocking methods, including starting and maintaining a coupon swap, rain-check shopping, and saving money on the grocery bill, and monthly expenses for that matter, by channeling funds from utility premiums back into your overall family/personal budgets. So you could say, last week was all about food! 

This coming week I want to change course. I want to focus on our homes. I want to focus on all of the cluttered, chaotic, dirty, overlooked blemishes that hinder out overall vision of what a simple, efficient can bring into our day-to-day existences.  

This week we are going tackle the chaos that be head on.  We are going to scrub, dust,  sort, purge, evaluate, and hopefully make a profit in the process! No matter is you rent, lease, or own there is work to be done! No matter if your home is showcase worthy or disaster-adjacent, there is something can can be done to better your home this coming week! 

This week will be slow. This week will seem awful. This week will leave you feeling wonderful.  

So today I challenge you two fold. First, I challenge you to make a list of four areas in your home that need organization, cleaning, sorting, or the like. Secondly, I challenge you to prepare to clean this week. 

As well, in addition to the challenges ahead of you today, I encourage you to procure from your home the following:

• A large basket, bin, or box.
• A clipboard with paper, or notepad.
• A few pens, markers, or sharpies.
• Three empty bags, bins, or boxes large enough to hold a load of laundry or like items. 
• A handful of sponges or rags.

Nothing too dramatic today! So, be sure to have a cup of coffee or tea, take a moment to collect your thoughts, write your list, and then mosey on back here this evening to see today’s recap!

Here’s to saving,

Hello again, savvy savers! It’s a new day, and time for a new challenge! Did you know that you can request from your utility companies, your gas, water, and power companies, an itemized summary of your peak and non-peak hours and service pricing? Did you also know that you could be saving as much as 1/4 off of your bills monthly?

Well, you can! Here’s why:

Starting last Spring, my water bill went up by 20% in a month’s time! Not that it was a lot of money, but in a year’s time it would have amounted to $400.00! I set out to figure out how to reduce this amount!

 Here’s what I did:

1) I started by calling my city water department, who did not return my call.

2) I then called my city managers office, and was informed by a kind gentleman there, that water, like electricity has a variable cost, and there are peak and non-peak times of the month, season, and year when water charges are higher, so countries and cities can offset the cost of public works projects in many areas. He also said, that you can request in writing, that your city water department tell of you of current charges, pending spikes for everyone, etc.

3) When I found this out last summer, I noticed that charges were higher the last week of the month, so I implemented new water usage strategies in my home; I purchased rain barrel systems to attach to my gutters, which I now use for watering my garden the final week of the month, I also do not wash during that week, making sure all of my wash is prepped before that time, for example.

4) I also checked all of my toilets, plumbing, and water lines for any leaks or pipes that needed to be replaced; luckily they did not!

5) Just these two changes saved me $38.10 monthly!

6) What’s better? I then went on to repeat this process for all of my other services, too! I found out that every county seat in this country must provide customers that opportunity to learn what are peak and non-peak hours for consumption. I requested this from my local power co-op, and was then able to see that later in the week, from 7-12 am nightly power premiums were less in price, which allowed me to adjust my washing, drying, dish-washing, and vacuuming to this time.

7) I also found out the same schedule from my city managers office, in terms of out city water department, and adjusted watering for my garden to Sunday’s and Wednesday’s, as the water was nearly 20% less in premiums on non-peak times.

With just these two changes, I was able to save over $400.00 last year!

 So today, I challenge you to pull out your paper and e-print utility statements, check out your peak and non-peak hours, and then write your companies and request an itemized usage statement so that you too can reduce your overall gas, power, and water consumption rates in your neck of the woods! 

So today I challenge you to start the process of seeing where you can save on your utilities, too! 

Here’s to saving,

Hello again, savvy savers! Can you believe it, we are almost a week into this no spending challenge! Today I want to share with you one of my favorite ways to continue to “shop” for deals, particularly my weekend drugstore deals for my weekly scenarios, especially during my no-spend periods, and that is with rains-checks! Yes, rain-checks, a couponers great friend! 

So, why rain-checks?

Not only is requesting a rain-check, for not-currently-in stock items a handy way to save money on much needed household and pantry goods, but when you are in the midst of a no spending month, rain-checks can help you lock in deeply discounted items to use in spending weeks, too!

It’s like shopping for goods on an extended time line; you can lock-in your savings, and shop later, on your schedule!

A few general tips on rain-checks:

• Make sure that the coupons you are using on the item you need a rain check for won’t expire before the store gets the items back in stock. 
• Most stores allow you to use a rain check at a different location of the same store.
• Rain checks are not redeemable at a different store.
• You cannot get a rain check on Clearance Prices, at most stores.
• When redeeming your rain check, be courteous of the checker and let them know you will be using one–BEFORE they start to ring you up; they are going to need to manually enter in the amount.

So, here is what I do:

1) As I live in a small town, I wait until the last day of the current sale week, or in my case, the end of the week when the hottest weekly deals, freebies, and offers are sure to be sold out during no-spend months, and then go to each store and ask for rain-checks for each and every one of the offers that I will still be able to redeem later; this means your rain-check window of opportunity is generally Friday-Saturday for drugstores, Saturday afternoons for grocery store deals which sale cycles renew on Sunday’s, and Tuesday evenings for stores that have new Wednesday sale cycles.

2) I ask for offers where I will be able to later pair with a coupon; if your paired coupon will expire by the end of your no-spend month period, skip that deal!

3) I then file my rain-checks by store!

4) At the end of my no-spend challenges, I will use earned store rewards, as most will last a full month before expiration, and then will go to the stores when able, and buy goods at my convenience! 

When requesting rain-checks I keep the following guides in mind:

• Nationally, most grocery and market chains will offer rain-checks, without limit of goods.
• Grocery and market chain store rain-checks will normally have only a 30-day window to redeem rain-checks; this applies to stores such as Vowell’s Fresh Market, The Fresh Market, Publix, Kroger, and Winn-Dixie.
• Walgreens rain-checks will also have only a 30-day window to redeem rain-checks.
• Rite Aid and CVS do not have redemption windows, and their rain-checks can be tucked into your coupon binder, for use as “filler deals” as needed!
• Catalina Deals cannot be combined with rain-checks.
• Sam’s Club, Target, and Walmart do not offer rain-checks! 

So today, I challenge you to look online at your local stores sales guides and weekly fliers, compile a list, and head out to your favorite stores and “rain-check shop” for savings deals today!

Here’s to saving,