Oct 9, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Salvaged, Save $ |
Back on day 103, my friend across the street called asking for some ideas about painting her kids bathroom. I’m sure Diane is thinking… *note to self*, don’t ask Jody a decorating question unless you want to remodel your entire house. The bathroom...
Oct 4, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
Today is my oldest son’s birthday. We had a barbecue for him last night with some of our close friends. It was great! So you might be curious, wanting to know what was different about his birthday with the shopping challenge. Here they are. Gifts. I gave him...
Oct 3, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Read the fine print |
Is charitable marketing good? I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately, as it’s a huge and fast-growing trend. It works, but is it ethical and trustworthy? As David Frey wrote on frugalmarketing.com, “Many savvy small businesses are affiliating...
Sep 23, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
I went to the store yesterday… for my son. My oldest lost his Gameboy charger and has been begging me for the past few days to take him to Game Stop so he could buy a new one. He knew he would have to pay for it with his own money. He looked around the store...
Sep 7, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Save $ |
Insomnia. I don’t like it, but when I get it, I deal with it. Sometimes that means watching TV at 2:00 am. Infomercials. Are you really awake and seeing this or is this some crazy dream? Maybe I’m still asleep, becasue there’s no way that could...
Sep 6, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Salvaged |
So my friend Diane calls yesterday and says, “I thought about painting the kids bathroom with black and white stripes. I painted over wallpaper, what do you think?” What I think is that’s a great opportunity to brainstorm great ideas and use...
Aug 30, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
I saw a friend yesterday doing a random act of kindness. He was giving something away that he didn’t need anymore, and giving it to someone that could use it. She kept insisting that she needed to pay him, and he was insisting that she doesn’t need to....
Jul 31, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
We went to see Despicable Me the other night and loved it. My kids and I try to get one good line from every movie, and then we pretty much wear it out. Our line from this movie is “light bulb”. When Gru has an idea, he tilts his head, and with a...
Jul 19, 2010 | Abandoned places, Ideas, No retail shopping |
This is a photo story from an abandoned house I visited yesterday. Yes, sadly, trash society includes houses. I do love to take photos in abandoned houses, as all of them have an untold story. It’s like reading a suspenseful book, but being right there in it....
Jul 18, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Recycle
Doing this challenge, my kids seem to have more money too. Just yesterday, Cole paid Joe to clean his room. You know, if his room gets clean and that’s how he wants to spend his money, I’m good with it. Here’s what I found in Joe’s clean...
Jul 9, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Read the fine print, Recycle, Save $, Thrift store |
Just when you think you’ve seen it all… My friend E got an amazing espresso machine for Christmas last year. It takes little pods (they call them capsules), similar to the Keurig machines. E needed to stop at the retail store to buy some more pods. Now...
Jun 30, 2010 | Ideas, Recycle, Salvaged, Save $ |
problem: $0 I want to use the video feature on my DSLR, but when it’s bright and I’m outside, I can’t see the screen on the back of the camera in order to change my manual focus. possible solution: $375 I can buy a Zacuto Z-find attachment for my...
Jun 16, 2010 | Dumpster diving, Ideas, No retail shopping, Recycle |
On day 14 of the challenge, I blogged about a recycling program I set up at our church building. I have received some emails about my “free recycling program”, challenging me with the question, “Is it ethical?” Let me start by saying these people have some very...
Jun 9, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping
Not much to report for the last two days, as I’ve had to work. I went grocery shopping and I did have to buy the propane refill for my grill. Yep, nothing too exciting. I would love to share a Facebook post I had on my wall this morning though. Thanks...
Jun 6, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
Still no desire to shop… although it has only been 11 days. The nice thing about this is that I have a little bit more money in my account than I usually do. Not a lot, but a noticeable amount. The boys were invited to a birthday party and we had to buy a...
Jun 5, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
I decided to grill out tonight and was wondering if I was going to need a new propane tank. Since that is energy to cook with, and they sell the tank refills at the grocery store, I have decided this will be okay. I did ponder the fact that it’s not a necessity,...
Jun 3, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping
I put the “community” plan into action yesterday. I borrowed a small hand shovel from my neighbor instead of buying one. Now I can plan my Asian Jasmine (which I bought almost two weeks ago) and clean up my yard. I do plan to buy a few vegetable plants...
May 29, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Save $ |
I had some questions posted on my blog from my friends about the details of the challenge. I’m going to attempt to answer them, although I’m not sure I’ve thought of everything, you know, like the batteries. (day 2) The plan: The plan is to not buy anything new,...
May 29, 2010 | Ideas, Save $ |
Do you love potato chips? What do you do with the crumb in the bottom of the bag? Instead of throwing them away, save them in a container to use as an alternative to bread crumbs in your next recipe. I use them for a much more tasty and creative meatloaf. :) And...
May 28, 2010 | Ideas, Save $
Squeeze your rolls of toilet paper to make the cardboard insert flat. This will keep people from using too much and keep your kids from rolling it out all over the place.
May 27, 2010 | Ideas, Save $
Giving a gift? Instead of wrapping paper, why not use a green bag? It’s $1 and can be reused over and over again. The average gift wrap/bag cost about $3. If you give 20 gifts a year, you will save $40 and save more of the planet.
Oct 19, 2008 | Ideas, Save $ |
Anyone that knows me well, knows that I cannot live without my latte machine. It’s a Pasquini machine, basically a smaller version of the ones in the trendy coffee shops. This is a pricey machine, but after doing a cost analysis on how much I was spending at...
