Once we got back from our vacation, I began my search for new stroller because our old one was just about expired. I started paying attention to what others had while we were on vacation and the InStep brands kept rising to the top.

I found the following site very useful in my search.  Although it is simple, it provided me with the links and information I needed to purchase the product online and I got a discount.

Check out InStep Jogging Stroller if you are in the market for a stroller.  They have both single and double models.

If you do your research and carefully plan your trip you can have a wonderful trip to Disney in Orlando, FL for a very affordable price.

1. Research – This is probably the most important part of the trip.  The first step is to determine when you will be going.  My schedule is flexible so it allowed us to shop online when Disney was running specials.  We found that they were running a special and offering free dining in the month of August so we jumped on that.

2. Lodging – We always choose the economy lodging on property.  (one of the All Star Resorts).  They are very clean and comfortable rooms at a very affordable price.  A word of advice:  If you book at one of the All Star Resorts, be sure and tell them you want a preferred room.  This will cost you an additional $10 per night, but it will save you lots of walking time to/from the bus.  This last trip we had a nice surprise and got upgraded to the Luxury Old Key West resort for free!

3. Pack A Cooler – It isn’t advertised, but you can take a small cooler into the parks.  We packed a cooler each morning with water, drinks, etc.  This will save you a substancial amount of money as the drinks in the parks run around $3.00 each.  (You can save your daily snack on the meal plan for food and use a drink you pack!)

4. Glow Sticks – Each night as the sun goes down the carts are wheeled out containing glow sticks (bracelets, necklaces, etc.).  They range in price from 16.00 and up.  If you have children, they will be wanting one every night!  We found the same thing at Walmart for $1.00 per pack.  We bought up several of each kind, packed in our backpack we took in the park every day and at night, we just tore open a pack, broke the sticks and were in business.

We did serveral other things that I will be posting later that helped us save money on our Disney trip.  I will get post the full details in the next couple of days.

• Local Telephone Service
• Long Distance Telephone Service
• Cell Phones

Local Telephone Service

While local telephone service can be affordable for most of us, it can quickly get expensive if you add all of the options offered by the telephone companies.  Asking yourself a few simple questions and making very little sacrifice, you can make some significant savings and pinch pennies.

1. Common services that are added to your phone bill.  Determine if you really need all of these features.  Each one you eliminate will pinch pennies and save you on your monthly bill.

• Avoid using the directory assistance.  This service is added to your phone bill each time you use the service.  Many times the charge is overlooked because it is not an obvious charge on your bill.  Look the number up online at WhitePages.com or use your telephone book and do it the old fashion way.
• Call waiting is another service that is not really necessary.  In the typical household, how many many of your calls must be answered immediately?  Plus, most people have a cell phone.  If the call was that important, chances are that person has your cell phone number and could reach you on it in an emergency.
• Call forwarding is yet other feature that the phone company often bundles.  I had this feature on my phone and I can not remember ever using it.  You may be paying for this feature and not even realize it if you bought a bundled plan.  The same goes for 3-party conference calling and last number called service.
• Voicemail – You can drop the voicemail monthly service and buy a phone that has an answering machine included.  The price of the phone will pay for itself quickly and you can check your messages from anywhere with a traditional answering machine by simply calling your number and entering a code you set up.

2. Long Distance Telephone Service

• Long distance providers is a very competitive market.  Shopping around with the different providers for your area can lead to some really great savings.
• Long distance service through your local provider is typically much more expensive than going through one of the competitors.  While it may be tempting to take one of their “bundle plans”, avoid these because they typically have hidden costs associated with them.
• Determine how much long distance calling you do.  If you do a lot of long distance calling, you will most likely want to go with a fixed rate plan.  Some carriers offer unlimited long distance calling for a set price that is a great deal if you do a lot of long distance calling.  On the other hand, if you do not do a great deal of long distance calling, look into the pay per minute plans.  While these are more expensive than a fixed rate plan, if you do very little long distance calling they will save you money on your monthly bill.

3. Work with your telephone provider to find the least expensive plan that will work for you.

• Many phone companies have economy plans for people that are trying to cut costs.  Give them a call and see what all they have.  This is especially true if you have a cell phone that you use to make many of your local or long distance calls.
• Do away with that second like that you use for fax or Internet.  If you have DSL you don’t need a second line to receive incoming calls and be on the Internet.  If you have dial-up, several free software packages are available to day that will allow you to receive a call while on the Internet.

4. Be sure and Check Your Bill – Reviewing your monthly bill can lead to some big savings.  Many phone companies charge for services that you are not aware of and unless you look at your bill, you will be spending money on things you do not realize.

• Paper Billing – In the new age of “going green” and the price associated with mailing out paper statements, many phone companies have started charging to send you a paper copy of your statement.  Eliminate this charge by going online or giving them a call and ask for an electronic version.  If you want a paper copy, simply print out the electronic bill on your computer.
• Renting Phones – If you are renting a phone from you provider, discontinue it.  You can spend very little and have a phone that has the same features.  Don’t get sucked into the sales pitch “If you rent the phone from us, we will replace it for free should something happen to it”.  It is not worth the monthly cost when you can purchase a very nice phone for under $20.
• Unauthorized Calls – It is very common to be charged for calls you did not make.  Review your bill and if you see a call that you are being charged for incorrectly, contact your carrier and have that charge removed.
• Check to see if you are being billed for maintenance.  This typically covers repair of telephone wiring inside the house if something goes wrong.  You can cut this charge out as it rarely goes bad and if it does, phone boxes and wiring is very cheap to buy at your local hardware store.  This is something you can do yourself.

Hopefully this article has given you a few ideas on how to pinch pennies and save a little on your telephone bill each month.

A new software is out called Movie Rocket.  I bought it earlier tonight and so far I am impressed with what all they have to offer for the price.  The price of the product is a one time fee of $49.99 with no re-occuring monthly fees.  Doing some quick math, I think this product will more than pay for itself in a few months.

My plan is to download the movies to my computer and use my DVD burner to put it on a cd and then watch on my TV.  I have already downloaded two movies and followed this process… They are crystal clear and I am very pleased.

If you are like me and like to watch movies, this product is one I would recommend taking a look at.  There are several of these types of products on the market, but this is the best one I have found.  They seem to have much more of what I was looking for and their download speeds are amazing.

Check them out for yourself.  They allow you to search through their database of movies for free so you can decide if it would be a good purchase for you.

I am in the process of learning how to go green and conserve energy.  This seems to go hand in hand with frugal living and I want to live this earth better than I found it for my children.  I am quickly discovering that a sea of information is out there teaching people how to go green.

While I am sure that all of those ideas are great, many of them will not work for the penny punchers like myself.  I want to conserve energy and “go green”, but I don’t want it to break the bank either.  I will continue to post on tips and tricks I am currently using hoping it may give you some things you can do as well.

For now, I am doing the following:

1. Light Bulbs- We have all seen the new energy saving light bulbs at our local store.  It just did not make sense to me to throw away perfectly good light bulbs only to replace them with the energy efficient ones.  While I am convenienced that they do save money over time, the initial cost would take time to overcome.

My Solution – I look for the energy saving light bulbs to go on sale. When they do, I buy a couple packs of them. I do not replace the bulbs in the house that are working. I simply put them up and when one of the traditional bulbs burn out, I replace it with an energy efficient bulb.

2. Electricity-  I admit I have only taken baby steps in this area since it is such a broad topic.  I researched the things I could do that would not impact my budget and save me money at the same time.  The first area was the obvious:  Turn off lights and the TV when they are not being used.  The second thing made a noticeable savings the very next month.

The Hot Water Heater:  I had read about how the hot water heater really impacts the electricity bill, but I had not paid that much attention to it.  I decided to give it a try and all of the articles I have read were right.  The manufacturer settings for a typical hot water heater is 140 degrees, but the average household only needs it at 120.  According to recent studies, you save 5% on your total electric bill for each 10 degrees you can cut down your hot water heater.  I was surprised to find that mine was set at 150 degrees so I lowered it to 130 and I saw an immediate saving on my electric bill the very next month.

3. Plastic Bags- We recently bought 8 of the Walmart cloth bags for bagging our groceries.  I know this isn’t a money saving tactic, but it was a step in going green for a very little price.  The bags sell for $1 each and you just take them in when you buy groceries and the cashier will put them in your cloth bags verses the plastic Walmart bags.  I do know one thing that I have found one thing I really like:  It doesn’t matter how many groceries you put in the bag you don’t have to worry about it ripping open and your eggs hitting the pavement before you get them in the house.

I am working on several other things that I will post as time goes on.  I am determined to get this frugal living thing down to an art and hopefully the “going green” thing too!

Corn on cob

Frugal Cooking

Tips For Freezing Corn From the Garden

All of the girls in my house absolutely love corn on the cob from the garden.  When it is the time of the year when it is being harvested fresh from the garden we always have several ears in the fridge ready for the grill.

The problem (much like I had with the Banana Peppers) is much of it will go to waste because we can’t eat all that the garden produces.  Once again, we are stuck with buying it from the store and when it is out of season, it just doesn’t taste as good as corn fresh from the garden.

I discovered this tip from an older person who explained to me exactly how to prepare the corn, freeze it and cook it up on the grill when thawed and it tastes exactly like it came from the garden.

Preparing The Corn

1. Begin by taking the ear of corn and peeling off some of the husk and the tinsel at the top, but do not peel it all off.  You want to leave at least 2-3 layers of shuck.
2. Once you have completed step 1, you will wrap the corn (that still has partial shuck on it) in the clear plastic wrap nice and tight.
3. The final thing is wrapping it in the aluminum foil. (So you will have the partial shucked ear of corn, wrapped in clear wrapping paper, wrapped in aluminum foil)
4. Put them away in the freezer where they will be good for a very long time. I am not sure exactly how long they will keep, but I know it will at least last until corn is back in season.

Cooking The Corn That Has Been Frozen

(This is just my method.  I am sure there are many other ways to get the same result)

1. Transfer the corn to the fridge the night before or set out at room temperature the day of you want to cook it.
2. Once thawed, unfold the aluminum foil (don’t tear it off because you are going to use it later) from the corn.  Then removed the clear wrap and dispose of it.  (we usually put this in the recycled pile)
3. Peel one side of the shuck down where you can add butter, salt, pepper (Do not remove the shuck though)
4. Wrap it all back up using the aluminum foil you peeled off in step 2.
5. Put the ear of corn wrapped up on the grill.  On medium heat it takes around 15 minutes for it to cook.  I usually cook it directly on the grill, rotating it for about 10 minutes and then transfer it to the warming rack for the remainder of the time.  This gives the corn the grill marks, but does not dry it out.
6. Remove from grill, remove and recycle the aluminum foil, peel the rest of shuck and brush the remain tinsel off (there shouldn’t be much left) and eat up.

It will taste just like you plucked it from the garden.

Tips for freezing banana peppers

I really love Banana peppers.  We use them in lots of dishes to give it a little extra flavor and my parents grow a ton of them each year.  We eat them up while they are in season, but lots of them were getting thrown away because they produce at such a rapid rate.

We have learned how we can freeze the peppers and once they are thawed, they taste just like they came fresh from the garden.

Preparing / Freezing them

1. Wash the peppers good
2. Cut the top part off (where the stem is)
3. slice it down one side where you can remove all the seeds inside
4. Remove the seeds from the inside
5. put them in gallon freezer bags (Make sure they are the freezer type bags)
6. Stick them in freezer and they will keep for a very long time

When you get ready to eat them, just pick out however many you will want to prepare and let them thaw at room tempeture.  Once thawed, they will taste just like they came fresh from the garden.

Get our your coupons you have been saving from clipping the Sunday newspaper and the ones you have printed off.  If you have not registered for Clip N Go Coupons and CoolSavings.com I would go ahead and do that so you can get the special offer coupons.

After you have everything in place:  The coupons, sale paper, something to write with and something to write on.  It is time to make your grocery list for the upcoming week.  The key to saving money at the grocery store is to plan the meals for the entire next week.

Many sites recommend you have at least two nights a week where you do not have a meat.  We will usually do some kind of pasta (I will be posting some of our favorites as time goes on) for a couple nights.  Not having to buy some type of meat or chicken for every meal of the night will really add up in the grocery store.

You may not believe it, but just try it for next week’s meal.  I am a meat eater so this naturally took a little getting used to for me, but once you see how much you save and get used to having some different things it will really pay off.

I discovered that I was making a few mistakes.  First off, I was putting hot drinks in the cooler and then putting my ice on top of them.  This was causing my ice to melt at a rapid speed.  To correct this problem, I just put the drinks in the fridge a day or so in advance ( Got them in the pantry because I buy them when they are on sale) and then put the cold drinks in the cooler.

The ice - I told you we were going to get to pinching pennies.  Although it probably doesn’t amount to more than $20 a weekend by the time you factor in the gas and ice for restocking the cooler.  But.. $20 is $20.

The Trick- We save water bottles or 2 liter bottles once we have finished drinking them.  These bottles are refilled with water and put away in the freezer.  Depending on what size cooler I am carrying, I put between 1-3 two liter bottles that have been frozen in the fridge in the cooler.  Then, I just empty the ice from our ice maker in the fridge and I am good to go.

Using this method, I can keep an entire cooler of drinks cold all weekend long.  Usually the cooler still has quite a bit of ice in it when we get back home.

Obviously, it would depend on the duration of your trip, but for a weekend getaway or a day at the zoo.  This is the way to go.  It not only saves you some money, your drinks will be ice cold.