Frugal or Cheap?

Today is Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood. I am sorry I do not have the official logo of the day, but I am not at home on my own computer. I am in Maine at my daughter's home and having a great time with the grand kids here.

We all love to save money and call ourselves frugal, but sometimes we need to be careful. Frugal and cheap are different. Saving money can be good or bad. Let me explain.

I give this as a warning from the many mistakes I made over the years gone by. Cheap can be bad. When in the name of frugality we buy cheap we may end up paying more in the end.

I no longer grab because it is cheap. I look for the items I want, price them at different places, see if I can get them, in good shape, at thrift or other lower cost means, but I try not to let go of quality. I get the best I can for what I can afford.

How many times have you found something cheap only to find it shrinks, breaks, doesn't work etc? That vacuum at the great price, and no longer picked up the dirt after a month. I had one go in 3 weeks! Great price though!

Or that darling shirt at Joe's Bargain Barn, wear it once and it no longer fits.

Shopping by "cheap" will end up costing more in the end. We can be frugal, save money, but not become cheap. Be wise in your frugality. Make choices that will not cost more in the end. Shop wise, store things wisely, and be sure your bargains are needs and quality.

For more Frugal ideas, go to Biblical Womanhood!

Organizing help wanted

It is backwards day at Rocks In My Dryer and I am going to participate. Works for me Wednesday is a day we always learn from one another. I love hearing every one's hints and hoping that maybe I would have something to offer others.

Today I am going to ask you for your help and ideas. I ma trying to organize my house and am having all kinds of troubles with it. Can anyone give me ideas for storing when there is little room. I have things so messed up because I can't find ways to organize.

• Plastic storage bags (ziploc etc) plastic wrap, waxed paper etc. are setting on my dryer for lack of a place to put them and way to store them.
• patterns (sewing) are in a box in the back room. This room also has the computers and computer stuff, books for the computer etc. Fabric, craft stuff and other things are setting all around this room as I can't figure out how to organize it.
• The closet for my husbands and my clothes is a good size. It is not huge, and is a walkin. However, it has rods for hanging on both sides and our clothes are all shoved and get wrinkled. I have summer and winter clothes, both hanging, and do not know how to organize any of it so things are not always wrinkled.

I am discouraged about my problems with getting it together. I want it all neat, all my craft things, sewing things etc available and there when I want them. I would like my drawer in the kitchen (yes, I only have one) neat instead of the spatulas, ladles etc all bunched together and I have to dig when I want something.

You can see my problem is deep. Any help you can give me would be wonderful!

Hope on over to Rocks In My Dryer for more questions and answers.

I Am Here

I arrived in NC yesterday after a very uneventful flight. Well, except for the fact that I did not know that they used Fisher Price to make their airplanes. I do not see how such small planes would fly with all those people on them!

Last year when I made this trip I was delayed all over the place. I mean how many times does a pilot fall out of the plane when he is boarding? I was stuck in the airport for about 4 hours waiting for another pilot to show up! I still have many more legs of the journey to go, so we will see how it all goes.

I am here now, enjoying my daughter, son in law and granddaughter as well as their niece who is also visiting.

I will write more as I travel!

OH Honey, Happy Anniversary!!!

What Do You Think?

This coming Tuesday will be my 3rd anniversary with Rick. He is my second husband and as much a blessing as the first was. I love him so dearly and never thought I could be this happy with a man again. He is funny and fun, you never know what to expect.

However, he has a big fault and I can't figure out why. So, I ask you, what would you think?

We have 8 kids between us, I brought 5 into the marriage and he brought 3. They are all precious and loved very much by both of us. We have three here in Texas where we live, one in NC and 4 in Maine. We have 17 grand kids and number 18 on the way in March. This is a problem for us seeing them all.

My husband solves this for the holidays by sending me away after Christmas. This year the kids all got together with him and bought my tickets, anniversary Tuesday, I leave Monday! Three years married and I have been sent away just before our anniversary every year! Not one anniversary together yet! Tell me, what would you think?

I really am excited about going and seeing them all again, really. I am not excited about all the snow and cold, as I am leaving 70-80 degree weather predicted for the next few days here. No coat, had to dig out boots and lug them along. But the kids! They make it worth it all.

I will be spending my anniversary with Jessica this year. How romantic. What do we have planned honey?

Now, regardless of what you think, I know why he sends me to see the kids, he loves me and this is the best Christmas present he can give. Now I just need to train him to wait till after the 8th or send me before so I am home for the 8th. Any ideas?

Ink Cartridges

I love to save money. My husband teases me so much about the deals that I can find.

Over Christmas he was looking for a PS2 to USB converter. He could not find anything cheaper than $30 and knew there had to be. I walked in a store, saw one for $15 and got it for him. It was the same one he could not find for less than $30!

I love freebies. I have several yahoo groups I belong to as well as some blogs that point out the freebie deals that companies have. It is so much fun going to the mail and finding a treat for my cat, some shampoo, cereal or some other thing I paid nothing for.

One thing I hate spending money on is ink cartridges. How can they charge so much for a little cartridge for a printer? I have a Canon printer and my cartridges are relatively cheap at 11 - 12 a piece. My husband has a HP printer and his will take the food budget to replace. It seems the cheaper the printer the more expensive the cartridge too.

Yesterday I found a way to get cheaper cartridges and help someone as well. An old friend of mine has been trying to raise money to be full time in the ministry. She was a missionary with her first husband until he was martyred by guerrillas in Columbia a number of years ago. She has since remarried and her and her husband want to go into a ministry reaching people who are homeless, been in jail or otherwise unwanted in society. If you would like a way to get cheap ink cartridges as well as support someone serving the Lord email Lorraine at ibsbusiness at bellsouth dot net and tell her what printer you have and she will give you a quote. Mine are only $4 each compared to 11 or 12 in the store.

For more frugal ideas check in at Biblical Womanhood.

Sites to Check Out

Today I would like to share three fun links with you. I shared one on my other site and want to share two more with you here. These links help me at times and thought they would be useful for others.

The first one I want to recommend is TipNut. I get a daily summery from them and many days it is really something useful and I save it. For instance, today had one called 11 goals to enhance your life this year. They are worth reading. Sometimes there are craft tips, money saving tips, how to do things, like fix a chair, etc. It is a cute site worth signing up for the newsletter.

Another site is a bit of fun. Want an idea for dinner? Don't have much in the house? Not sure what you can do with what you do have? Try going to CookingByNumbers.com I have never seen a more interesting way to come up with something for dinner! Say you have beef, eggs, garlic, coffee, chocolate, tomatoes and pasta plus some seasonings. Put them in the list and you will find you can make: Chocolate dream, grilled tomatoes, and a few other things. You could also make pasta with seasoned oil, tomato concassee or a number of other recipes. Just put in what you have on hand and it will give you something you can do with it. Try it! Have some fun for dinner tonight! Works for me!

New Year's Eve, New Year's Day

The day is almost over and I am finally writing what I have been doing.

Last night, the last night of the year to get in all the horrahs, I spent watching TV on the couch until I fell asleep. Lest you think that was late, I think I remember seeing 9PM, but not sure. I had a weird dream that I dropped my glasses behind the couch just before my husband woke me to go to bed.

Last night was spent in dreams and trying to get the dog to stop bothering me. Apparently she had to go out, but I was not smart enough to get up and let her out. My husband stepped in it this morning when he got up. Happy New Year honey!

I got up and went to put the dog out (at 7 AM and too late) and could not find my glasses. I looked all over, but for me I need my glasses to see my glasses, so asked help from my husband. Remember last night's dream? It was no dream, he found them behind the couch! Happy New Year!

Today I went to put away my Christmas stuff and found a mouse had been dining in the closet in the spare room. My husband had a number of boxes of old mail, junk etc in the closet. It was from before we got married and I just never got around to going through it. He likes to hang on to everything, so this means going through when he is not here. Now that the mouse was making it home, I was getting rid of.

After hours on the floor sorting I ended up with three big boxes of junk and one little box of keepers. Since the mouse found it he did not argue.

Now, it is bed time again, New year's day is about over and I am wondering, if it is starting out in doggy doo and mouse doo what is the rest of the year going to be like?