TIP FOR THE DAY FLUFF UP TIRED PILLOWS

Tip for the day... Fluff up tired pillows.. to freshen up your pillows, throw them into your dryer with a fabric softener sheet and two white towels. Run on air fluff cycle for half an hour. Out they come fresher.

Thanks for stopping by for your tip for the day.. Grace

THRIFTY THURSDAY IDEA .... Catch A Movie Matinee

Thrifty Thursday Idea.....

You want to see the latest movie ... instead of going to the movies at night, go in the afternoon when it is cheaper.

If you are a senior citizen like we are, check out the senior rate.

And do not buy your movie tickets on line if there is a service charge. Just get to the movie early enough to buy your ticket.

We rarely go to the movies but went to see " The Kings Speech " with one of our grand daughters a few weeks ago.

Lunch first at a Chinese restaurant then off to an afternoon Matinee. No over price movie food needed. We had a great lunch for about the same money as a large popcorn and 3 large sodas. Movie was great and I am glad that grand daughter suggested it.

Thanks for stopping by... lets keep saving together and please always remember

Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money.. Grace

TIP FOR THE DAY PAPERS TO TOSS IN THE TRASH / RECYCLE BIN

Papers can over flow our homes. For all of us it is important to keep some control over the paper coming into our lives.
Here are some ideas for the papers to toss with out a thought

Articles or brochures you have not needed in years.
Old grocery receipt ( except if needed for a rebate.. clip to rebate till you get the qualifiers off the product and then get into the mail as soon as possible.. I have two rebates waiting for me to finish up and mail off )
As you get the junk mail and advertisers open over the grocery can and toss right away
expired coupons ( my grocery store honors them up to 2 to 3 months but there are only certain coupons I will use at the store .. the rest I toss once they are expired since drug stores, target and Walmart will not take expired coupons)
Once an insurance policy has expired .. shred or toss in the garbage
I keep a file folder in my file cabinet for warranties and instructions for kitchen products like toaster, coffee pot etc. Once a year I go through that file and toss out these items if I no longer have the product.
Newspapers a week is enough to hold on to these .. I toss out last Sunday's paper as I bring in the new Sunday paper.
Old magazines.. if there are articles you still want to read tear out that article and put into file folder to read later.

Lets take control of this paper problem even if it is only for 15 minutes a day. Set the time and clean out something like your coupon binder/folder.

Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together.. Grace

TIP FOR THE DAY DEALING WITH PAPER

Today's tip for the day deals with one of my bad habits.. keeping unnecessary paper.. scraps of paper.

Last night I received a phone call for an old friend.. she wants to get together and visit some day over lunch with another old friend. I have not seen these ladies in over ten years.

I asked for their phone numbers and put it on a sticky paper which then gets lost on my desk among the other pieces of paper.

The better idea would be to grab my personal planner and write the information there right away.

Turn a spiral notebook, personal planner or calendar into your center for notes, phone numbers Instead I write it on a scrap of paper then need to put in the planner.

Now I need to clean up some of this paper and start to practice my tip.

Thanks for stopping by.. Lets keep saving together.. Grace

Beef Roast Stew / Soup Using Left Overs To Save Money

This has been such a sad week as we watch the devesation that has happened in Japan this week. My thoughts and prayers have been with this lovely country and people all week. Lets keep them in our prayers .. it is going to be a difficult period for them.

Not only did we have a wonderful Roast Beef last week that we cooked in my crock pot , but tonight I combined the left overs along with a few other ingredients for a wonderful dinner.

Part soup part stew and unbelievable flavor.

I had planned to save the potatoes for another dinner but as I put the roast beef in the pot and the left over carrots the potatoes just had to be added.

Along with the above we added

1 cup of water

1 can of beef broth

1 can of diced tomatoes .. these were flavored with garlic .. a store brand at half the price of the name brand tomatoes.

I then took a can of mushroom soup and put into a bowl. I then added four large spoons of broth to the soup and combined to thin out the soup. This then was added to the pot of soup/stew.

1/2 cup of quick cooking barley

and a few handfuls of mixed vegetables were added.

Pepper, Lawry salt and a little more garlic to taste and simmered for another 1/2 hour.

Dinner was fantastic .. only thing missing was some garlic bread. We have enough left over for another dinner and maybe a lunch.

I will be sharing this at the following blogs this week..

Potluck Sunday

Monday Mania

Homemaker Monday

Delicious Dishes

Made By You Monday

Hunk Of Meat

Mouthwatering Monday

Hearth And Soul

Menu Plan Monday

Tuesday At The Table

Whats On The Menu Wednesday

Tuesday Night Supper Club

Tasty Tuesday

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Full Plate Thursday

Tip Day Thursday

Frugal Food Thursday

Fat Camp Friday

GCC Recipe Swap

Whats Cooking Thursday

Stop over to see what others are cooking as I add new links all through the week

Thanks for stopping by.. Lets keep saving together.. Grace

Thrift Store and Estate Sale Hunting Making Extra Income

Recently I posted about needing to work more to make extra income. We went out three or four times last week to thrift stores and a couple of estate sales. Today we managed to make it to a church bookstore. There prices are reasonable more so than even some of the thrift stores in the area. One problem with them is they are open by volunteers so you can not always count on the store being open.

Tonight I posted about my finds Thrift store hunting . Stop over to read my post and then there are links to others who love to hunt for treasures. Great group of fun thrift store hunters can be found.

Have you been out thrift store/estate sale hunting lately? Thanks for stopping by... Grace

Saved Quarter Challenge # 10 .. Lowering Health Insurance Premiums

Saved Quarter Challenge Week #10 Sold a couple of items On Ebay this week. Not much so profit is small.
The one thing we did do a couple weeks ago is apply for cheaper health insurance for me. Negative part is our deductable will increase to $4,000 from $1,000.
I am pleased to let you know that I was accepted and our monthly premium will be $360 less. The plan is to bank all or most of that amount to build up the $4,000 deductible.
So while we did not add anything to savings this week that will change next month. No I just have to stay healthy for a year or more. I was in the hospital in Ocober for 11 days so think I should be good for awhile.

What are you doing to reduce your monthly expenses? Are you doing anything to increase your income?
To read how I did other weeks you can go here.
I will be sharing this over at Saved Quarter Challenge .. take a look to see how others are doing.
Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together and please always remember
Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money.. Grace

Menu Plan Monday 3/14/11

I did not make the beef barley soup last week so it is moved to this week. I am wanting to make this week easy for us. We have family to be with on Wednesday night and Sunday after noon so those will be easy left over meals. This is my plan for the week

Beef Barley soup ( will post recipe later)

Chicken and left over potatoes from last weeks pot roast with left over carrots

Left over soup with bread or a sandwich

Hamburger hot dish perfect comfort food and vegetable

Tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches using 2 kinds of cheese

Left over hot dish it is so yummy

Simple Supper .. what is ever left over or baked potatoes or both

I will be posting this over at Monday Menu Plan.. check out what others are cooking and come back to see my recipe for Beef Barley Soup

Thanks for stopping over .. Lets keep saving together... Grace

TIP FOR THE DAY ~ CLEANING MICROWAVE

Tip for the day cleaning your microwave easy. No matter how I try to protect my microwave by covering foods with paper towels it still gets dirty.

I recently read this tip.. and am trying it as I type. Wet paper towel and place in microwave and cook it for 4 minutes. Once done set timer for 2 minutes to allow paper towel to cool down. Once two minutes has elapsed wipe down inside of microwave.

Okay first time did not work very good but I soaked the paper towel real good the second time , rang it out and tried again. Time is up and this time paper towel was still damp and did help to clean it.

Microwave shut it self off .. think it is mad at me and wants to cool off. Hope that is all it is. I think it did this before at least I think it did. I really only use to reheat or defrost something. We do not use it to cook.

thanks for stopping by .. lets keep saving together ..Grace