Free Year's Subscription to Ready Made!

Run, do not walk, to this site and nab yourself a FREE 6-issue subscription to Ready Made magazine. It's part crafts, part home dec, part woodworking, art and sewing -- and a heck of a lot about repurposing items, making do, and redesigning. You'll be amazed at how much it broadens the possibilities of what you can do with your clothes, furnishings and home.

Both girlies have found this mag refreshing and helpful, too. Quick, hurry before all the subscriptions are gone!

Food for a Buck

Could you do it? These people lived on $1 a day for their food costs -- and quite successfully, too. (A plus: they also cut way back on their junk food eating...and lost weight.)

Junk Mail Conquered! (Or At Least Reused)

Is your junk mail piling up in a dusty corner? Try Grocery Cart Challenge's ten suggestions on what to do with junk mail, from a handy funnel (just cut a corner of the envelope) to ethnic jewelry. Kewl...

Daughter #2 just said (about her father): "He's got to let his mind just wander sometimes. It's old enough to be out by itself..."   !!!!

Secret Clinical Strength Deodorant...free!

Samples are here, courtesy of Walmart. This is great stuff, if you have trouble with this area of your life. Very effective!

Be sure to stay in the neighborhood before you leave Walmart.com. They have other samples worth requesting!

95 New Frugal Thoughts

95 collected posts on a variety of frugal subjects,  thanks to Rowdy Kitten. They range all over the place, from transportation to jobs to food to...

Take your time, and enjoy!

Great Food on A Food Stamps Budget

Three chefs and a food magazine editor were asked to fix a week's worth of meals on roughly $68 -- a basic amount for food stamp recipients. Here are their results..and they did better than you would think!

One rule they uniformly followed -- avoid processed foods.

They also used a lot of chicken, ground beef. Beans made regular appearances, as did chilies and other spice-ay stuff. (Beans and rice are a complementary protein -- and bring out the best in each other nutritionally.)

Part of me was a tad amused at all this fussing about price -- the two of us live on $40 or less a week for food. Combined. Without being on welfare. I'd add a few things that have helped me (Husband doesn't shop much):
*Check the marked down/scratch and dent bins regularly
*If possible, buy everything on sale...or with a coupon...preferably both!
*If things are really tight, a pound of meat (ham, ground beef, pork) can be used in two or three meals. (Just means less meat in your chili or soup -- substitute rice, more vegetables, or in the case of soup, a beaten egg.)
*Eggs for breakfast help keep you from being hungry later in the day. Ditto yogurt. (I can get the latter for 25 cents a cup in the marked-down dairy section at King Soopers.)
*If it's on sale, and you can't use it all now, freeze some. Milk does well with a little poured out, then the gallon frozen. Chop celery, onion and such and freeze it in the bag - you may need to dip other veggies in boiling water quickly (this is called blanching), or saute them in butter before freezing. (Mushrooms benefit from the latter.) Warning: don't buy more than you can use in 6 months or less -- freezer burn gives items like meat and ice cream a yucky taste and consistency. 
*Shop at ethnic markets. The Chinese imports grocery I go to in Denver has leafy greens for about a third of the more conventional grocery stores. A Sprouts market just opened -- another great place for insanely low sale prices on veggies and fruits.

Then again, like Peter, we'll have our own greens and sugar peas -- well, maybe not carrots. The garden goes in this weekend.

Earn Amazon Gift Cards...Fast!

This post explains a batch of things to try....I've earned five gift cards, so far, from Swagbucks, and you can, too -- just click on the 'join' button (far right) on my Swagbucks 'Swidget,' on the top right of this blog. All you do are the same searches you always do -- only Swagbucks rewards you for doing them!

And to those of you who follow my other Saving Site blog...it's starting up again, with tips, hints, coupons and specials for saving $$. Which we can all use on Tax Day!