Easy and Frugal Breakfast Ideas
We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And that children that eat breakfast do better in school than those who don’t.
However, we also all know that it isn’t always easy to find time to prepare that all-important meal or to convince our children to eat it!
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Utility Savings – Your Frugal Fridge!
Now that it’s summer, most of us start thinking about keeping our electric bill in bounds!
One way to do that is to keep your refrigerator and freezer, if you have one, running efficiently.
Be sure to vacuum the condenser coils on your refrigerator at least once a year. You may have to pull your appliance out from the wall to do this, but when the coils are dusty, it keeps the fridge from cooling efficiently.
Frugal Outdoor Cooking Tips
Firing up the grill is a great way to cook in the summer! Here are a few grilling tips and a couple of recipes, too.
For great grilled burgers, form the patty gently. Smashing the meat forces out moisture.
Sear both sides of the burger on both sides, then move the burger and cook with indirect heat till done.
Use a meat thermometer to gauge when the meat is done. Ground beef should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees.
Making School Lunches the Frugal Way
It seems that school starts earlier every year. So it’s time to start thinking about what to put in those school lunches every morning.
My children always wanted to bring their own lunches because they didn’t really like what was offered in the school lunchroom. But it was sometimes a little difficult to make their lunches nutritious and tasty and also to put a little variety in their lunchboxes without spending a small fortune.
Frugal and Easy Thanksgiving Recipes
Here it is – that time of year when everyone’s thoughts turn to food! I’m thankful that at our house, we have plenty of food, but sometimes I am not so grateful that I am the one who usually gets to cook it!
So I am always on the lookout for simple, tasty recipes that are also easy on the budget. Here are a few of my family’s favorites:
The Money Jar Trap
Hundreds of thousands of people place their extra change into a jar or bank every night when they return home thinking that they are saving money. In reality, the dynamics of saving coins has changed over the last 10 years so that by placing your extra coins in a jar, you may actually be losing money. This is the new money jar trap.
The money jar has been a classic way for people to save money for generations. The concept was easy. After coming home for the day, you simply empty out your pockets and put the coins into a jar. When the jar was full, you take it to your local bank, have the coins counted and place the money into your savings account. While this sounds simple enough, the savings generated in the coin jar may not be worth their face value depending on how you redeem the coins.
Mr. Cheapie’s Frugal Budget Tips
So you feel like a hamster spinning your wheel? The faster you run, the faster the wheel spins. Just when you get a raise, you notice the price of hamster wheels jumps!
Mr. Cheapie is here with his super-charged budget-cutting tips.
Should You Invest In Savings Or Payoff Your Debts?
I have faced this financial question 8 years ago and recently I have friends asked me this same question. I think I should write it up so that it may help some of you that having the same situation.
The decision whether to invest your monthly excess cash into savings account or paying off your debt is a tough one.
There are few factors you need to consider before you make the decision and I listed them down here to help you make an informed decision.
Cut The Take Out
A long hard day at work. You get home and need dinner. Nothing in the fridge, nothing in the cupboard. Take-out again. The wallet just won’t comply much longer.
Re-wind.
A long hard day at work (sorry can’t help with that one). You get home and mmmm, what is that aroma? Dinner! Smells delicious, your mouth is watering.
Decorating on a Shoestring Budget
Right now one of the most popular shows on television is, “Trading Spaces”. If you haven’t gotten an opportunity to watch this show, the object of the game is to decorate one room in someone else’s house with a budget of a $1,000. The decorator’s truly struggle to accomplish this so you know it is hard when even they, trained professionals, are having problems creating the room of the homeowner’s dreams.
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