How to fix a stuck zipper

One of the kids fall jackets wouldn't zip this morning so I went searchin online for frugal ideas on how to fix the broken zipper. Here is what I found and it worked.

If your zipper gets stuck, rub some lip balm on both sides, it's sure to work.

source

I tried it and it worked! Also a candle, a bar of soap were also mentioned.

What a easy and frugal way... much easier than replacing the zipper and cheaper than buying a new jacket.

Fast and cheap to freshen up your skin

Dr. Loretta Ciraldo, professor of dermatology at the University of Miami, says that you don't need to spend a lot of money to freshen up skin.

Here are some tips that she shared!

Photograph Your Problem Spots Take photos so you can track your progress.

Your pillow case Get a pillow case with a thread count of 400 and wash your pillow case like All and Clear that can get rid of dust mites. Also wash your pillow cases atleast twice week.
Wash your hair less The ingredients in shampoo maybe good for your hair but they are not always good for your skin. Use a clear shampoo if you need to wash your hair daily and try to pull it back so it doesn't clog your pores.

Smile more to banish lines- I love this one. Everyone one needs to smile more.

To see the whole article and video of Dr Loretta Ciraldo on Good Morning America Click here for the article from ABC.com

An expensive medical week!

I have been sort of scarce this week because my husband had kidney stones. Wednesday early morning about 3am he said I am going to the hospital. Luckily we have a hospital within a 5 minute car ride. I told him I would take him but he said no.

Between ER co-pay $100

Two Specialist Dr's $60

Prescriptions $85

An budget buster month ends the same way it started. I feel all the tightening that I did was for nothing this month because it all went to the medical stuff. Frustrating to say the least.

I also missed writing a lot this week so it effects my money coming in as well.

Luckily Husband seems to be fine. We think he passed them last night. He says that it is like the pain of labor-I told yeah right. You got these male doctors telling male patients that is it equal to the pain of child birth.

Canadians looking to save money!

Looking to save money and live in Canada! Check out GreatCanadianRebates.ca You know that tis frugal momma is always looking to save money. This looks like a great site for Canadians to shop and save online!

You can shop and get 5% back from some of your favorite online stores such as Dell Canada, Canadian Tire, The Shopping Channel and of course Ebay Canada. In fact there are 300 merchants that you can save money at.

It is easy to sign up at GreatCanadianRebates.ca and you get a great online shopping experience.

Friday freebies and coupons

I love my freebies. I will probably not have to buy shampoo for 6 months with all the samples that I am getting. Hope you enjoy these great freebies!

Free Allure / Sephora Make-up samples
FREE stuff for mommies to be pregnant ladies
Free Photoshop user magazine
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Free Slow cooker /crockpot liners from Reynolds kitchen
Free coffee sample
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Free Oily of Olay Total Effects sample
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Free Aquafresh toothpaste
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Thrifty Thursday Tips

Another Thrifty Thursday is here! If you would like to submit a frugal, money saving or thrifty tips, check out the main page for submission instructions.

Free Money shares one way to get wealthy is to have a frugal spouse!

Simplicity in Kansas wonders if saving a dollar a day is worth it?



Frugal Duchess shares her 7 yr old neighbor's energy lesson.



Get rich slowly ponders if discount magazine subscriptions are frugal.

Then Things shares some frugl lunch ideas.

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Christmas Holiday Shopping poll results

Here are the poll results on
Have you started your Holiday shopping yet?

Yes 38%
No will start in October 15%
No will start in November 38%
No will start in December 8%


It is not suprising that many frugal folks have already started their shopping. Many have a holiday gift closet that they buy bargains all year long.

Frugal Dinner planning week of Sept 24th

Happy Fall...

Sunday Steak on the grill, french fries, veggie

Mon Chili

Tues Pork chops

Wed Layered beef in crockpot (actually ground turkey)

Thurs Soup and Sandwich night

Fri Leftover layered ground beef casserole

Sat Homemade pizza

College

One day I would like to go back for my Master's degree. However with 3 kids, work and going to college classes would be difficult. Another option is online learning. More and more schools are offer higher education classes online. One such school is Capella University, an accredited online university with online degree programs in that offers graduate degree programs in business, information technology, education, human services, and psychology, and bachelor’s degree programs in business and information technology.

Over 16,000 have chosen Capella University as their online learning option. They have an online seminar to help you make the decision on whether or not graduate school is an option for you. Created by Dr. Mark Rossman, author of Negotiating Graduate School: A Guide for Graduate Students, and facilitated by Capella University 's New Learner Experience Team, our free online seminar will guide you through the entire graduate school decision process, from evaluating your own readiness to selecting and applying to an online graduate degree program.

For more information, please visit www.capella.edu or call 1-888-CAPELLA (227-3552).

Ah Hawaii

My husband and I didn't do the typical Hawaiian Honeymoon but we are planning on our 20th anniversary to take a trip there. There are some great Hawaii Vacation Rentals out there that top hotels can't meet.

Gebhart Properties owns and manages custom homes in some of the most exclusive resort locations in the Hawaiian Islands. You’ll find incomparable amenities in our outstanding Hawaii vacation homes. Luxurious and convenient features, spacious living areas, and custom furnishings.

Since we may take the kids they will be teen then, we might want to go for Kolea Villa, is a 3BR/3BA penthouse located at the Waikoloa Beach Resort. One of the finest condominiums in all of Hawaii, it sleeps 6 and offers 2,576 square feet of living space. Featuring private elevator access, gourmet kitchen, an extensive collection of Hawaiian art and outstanding views of Anaeho'omalu Bay and Kileaua, this vacation rental offers all the comforts of home in a resort setting.

If you are considering a trip to Hawaii consider staying at one of Gebhart Properties there are lots of selections.

This is a paid advertisement.

Wedding notes

We recently went to a wedding where they had these cute little mini adirondack chairs as wedding favors.

My sister is planning her wedding these days and she is trying to find vendors. Currently she is trying to find a photographer within her budget. She went to one place and it would cost more than 5k to do photos and a video of her wedding and the other extreme was was a creepy guy that had a room in his basement. Good advice I have heard is put it also in email about pricing and bring those emails to the wedding.

She is also have my 3 boys in the wedding while they may be angels she is preparing that they be wild children later on that day. Here is some advice I found for my sister that I will pass along to her.

If you're inviting kids to your celebration, you have to understand they might not make it through without getting rambunctious. That said, there are some great ways to keep them from knocking things over and making a mess. Tykes that are part of the party should get their own table -- sans centerpiece. Instead, cover the table with butcher paper and leave a box of crayons at each place setting. Rather than a five-star meal, serve a kid-friendly favorite, like mac 'n' cheese or chicken fingers, which they'll like better. If you're worried they'll go wild, set up the young ones with sitters, either on- or off-site. Get the crew an extra hotel room and show a double feature of The Lion King and Shrek, or hire a clown or magician to come in and entertain them

Information for healthcare professionals

Epocrates Introduces Free, Web-based Drug and Health Plan Formulary Product Leading Developer of Mobile Applications Provides New Online Service for Healthcare Professionals Epocrates Inc. announced today that clinicians and support staff can now access an online version of its free and trusted mobile drug and formulary guide, used by more than 500,000 healthcare professionals. Epocrates Online provides clinicians with access to critical information about more than 3,300 drugs, including dosing, pricing, potential drug interactions and Medicare Part D formulary coverage from any computer with an Internet connection.


Aspirin is one of the medicines that you can get information on now from Epocrates.com Using this great new website allows physicans and other medical staff the ability to get clinically useful and relevant information quickly and efficently rather than having to go through many medical guides. For most healthcare professionals it saves about 30 minutes a day. Healthcare professionals can quickly and easily obtain formulary status, drug coverage and alternative and generic drug options for their patients’ health plans with Epocrates Online

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When do you start your holiday shopping?

Many frugal folks start Christmas and Holiday shopping early? I will sometimes pick up a gift here or there throughout the year.

Have you started Holiday Shopping yet? Yes No will start in October No will start in November No will start in December Free polls from Pollhost.com

Accountant reveal number for 12 daily pro

12 daily pro is once again in the news. 12 daily pro has been under invegisations since February but there hasn't been alot of numbers on it lately until last week.

In his first report to the court, Lennon says gross investments in 12DailyPro were over a half billion dollars. Unfortunately, there is only a fraction of that money left in 12DailyPro accounts to refund to the vast majority of investors who lost money when the pyramid scheme fell apart last February. Lennon says theres about $5,000,000 left in an account frozen by 12DailyPros payment service StormPay. And he tells the judge he has $6,106,038.55 in accounts under his control.

If you were a victim of this ponzi scheme please contact the National Fraud Information Center at 1-800-876-7060 (also on the Web at www.fraud.org) or to complain to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

For information on what the accountant has found out check out ABC4 in Salt Lake City which has done a great job in keeping the public up to date.

How to save money with grocery coupons

Hello and Welcome!

In this week's issue Living on a Budget in a Non Budget World
Newsletter.

Money Saving Tips
Featured Article How to save money with grocery coupons
Money Blog Spotlight
Top Conversations on the Money Saving Forums
Freebie and Contest Alerts
The Frugal Five
Frugal Food Pepsi Pork Roast


Read the current issue at

http://www.budgetdial.com/news-Sept1506.htm


If you are new subscriber we keep all of our newsletters online at http://www.budgetdial.com/news.htm

Halloween Spending Poll

Our Halloween poll results are up. How much will you spend for Halloween?

under $50 57%
$51-$75 19%
$75-$100 14%
$101-$125 0%
$126-$150 0%
Over $150 10%


The frugal folks were voting. The majority of folks are spending under $50.

Frugal Halloween Guide

Frugal menu planning week of Sept 17th

Sun Steak, potatos, mushrooms and onions

Mon Garlic flavor chicken, green beans

Tues Meatloaf

Wed Hamburger,spinach (frozen) and tomato

Thurs Lean pockets soceer and cub scount night

Fri Leftovers


Sat Pizza

Have you been scammed in a work at home business?

The moms over at the Wahm bloggers network want to know.

Yes, scammed 1 time and duped a second time.

We had moved into our new house back in 1996 and I said it would be great to be able to find something I could make some extra money with. I think I saw the ad in the local classifieds.

Make Money Stuffing Envelopes! Hundreds or thousands a dollar a week. Send a $1.00 and a prepaid stamped envelope to....

I was a little naive. I wasn't on the Internet back then. I sent my envelope to the post office box. A few weeks later I receive my envelope back.

The details were...
For every envelope stuffed you earn $1 or $2 or some other amount.
They asked for an up-front fee of $29.95 or more just to make sure "you're serious" about their envelope stuffing program. They had success stories. Jeannie was a struggling single mom before you found this system. Dumb me, I sent my $29.96 and waited for my next steps. I got the scam at this point, I need to advertise and wait for others to follow the scam. No way was I going to do that.

And where I was duped...
My name must have gotten on some work at home list because in the spring of 1997 I received this yellow little booklet with a beautiful house. Are you tired of working at your job, is your boss a jerk, and the all-American dream working for yourself in your own home business. I called the 800 number and got another package of information mailed to me. They couldn't tell me the name of the company but it still sounded intriguing and I got my credit card to pay $34.95 for more details. Eventually I found it was Herbalife. That stuff was terrible and I had these high level pressure people calling me all the time to buy the product to sell or others or recruit others. I ended up buying a lot of product that was never sold and I could sell it back to company at a 50% discount I would need my upline's permission. It got nasty at that point. I eventually got back some of my money. While Herbalife is a legit company I don't like their business practice.

Check out the wahm bloggers story for more stories of avoiding scams .

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Blockbuster Movies rentals Only $9.99 unlimited rentals at your door. Cheaper than netflix.
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How much will you spend for Halloween?

Halloween spending is expected to be over 3 billion. How much do you spend for decorations, costumes, candy and parties?

How much money do you spend for Halloween? under $50 $51-$75 $75-$100 $101-$125 $126-$150 Over $150    Free polls from Pollhost.com

Free ice cream in Boston

Free ice cream at Brigham's from Tuesday, September 12th to Sunday, September 17th

http://www.boston.com/thescoop/

Hope you enjoy!

Frugal Momma

Cheap Halloween Ideas

Halloween can be an expensive holiday if you have kids, but it doesn't have to be that way. You can keep Halloween cheap from costumes to parties. Here is a collection of ideas for Halloween not to be your budget buster Frugal Halloween Guide


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In Remembrance

I am sure many of you have many memories of this sad day in history. I will never forget that Tuesday morning. The day before I found out that I was pregnant so I was giddy and excited because that is what my husband and I wanted.

I was working in downtown Boston in one of the skyscrapers. I was getting settled into my work day when my husband called me at work telling me about plane number 1. All of my co-workers are I were huddled around the radio listening. One of my co-workers husband was traveling to New York that day, luckily he was on another plane. Another co-worker's brother who worked at Canter Fitzgerald called in sick that day. My husband's company lost a number of people since they have an office there.

I remember they sent us home that day at 10:30 and I had to take the commuter train to pick up my 2 yr old son. Men and women were crying when they were on the train riding home to their loved ones. We also got sent home 2 other days that week because of some random bomb threats.



I didn't know anyone personally that died that day but several acquitances of friends and family.

God Bless and remember freedom isn't free. We have a good friend that is going to over to Iraq in a few weeks as medic. We are being a good friend to his wife and two young sons while he is away. He has been away since June.

I hear people saying we don't need this war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground
We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down
Now they say we don't realize the mess we're getting in
Before you start your preaching let me ask you this my friend

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

They took all the footage off my T.V.
Said it's too disturbing for you and me
It'll just breed anger that's what the experts say
If it was up to me I'd show it everyday
Some say this country's just out looking for a fight
Well after 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

Now I've been there with the soldiers
Who've gone away to war
And you can bet that they remember
Just what they're fightin' for

Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Some went down like heros in that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
And all the loved ones that we lost and those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry about bin Laden
Have you forgotten?


Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten?

Frugal dinner planning wk of Sept 10th

Sun Steak, potato fries and zucchini fries which were awesome~

3 Large zucchini~ washed and patted dry.
1/4 cup of olive oil
variety of spices: tsp garlic powder, tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp salt/pepper
tsp cumin, tsp oregano, chopped fresh rosemary (whatever your spice desires are)

preheat oven to 500 degrees.
take cookie sheet and rub thin coat of olive oil on surface.
In a bowl throw all of your favorite spices to combine.
take the zucchini and cut in half length wise. cut the flesh out where the seeds are. discard this flesh.
slice zucchini into shoe string style slivers. like french fries.
put zucchini in bowl with spices and gently toss without breaking shoe strings.
drizzle oil and toss to coat with spices and oil.
Lay zucchini on cookie sheet, in one layer.
bake in 500 degree temp oven for 15-18 minutes until crisp.
take out and eat like french fries.

Mon Chili

Tues Asian beef with coleslaw

Wed Leftover chili

Thurs Lean pockets (crazy cub scout and soccer night-who loves fall)

Fri Chicken thighs, mashed potatos, veggie

Sat Homemade pizza

Frugal+meal+planning budget dinner pizza chicken ground+beef ground+turkey chili

September is a budget buster month

Septemeber the beginning of the school year can always be a budget buster month.

We have to pay preschool tuition for 1/2 the school year.

Our life insurance semi annual premiums are due

We have the extra money set aside for those expenses.

Now the budget buster

New brakes on my husband's car. $500

And a potential budget buster... Our dishwasher is broken again We had it fixed in July it was a broken fuse. It looks like the same thing again, the guy came out on Friday to look and it is the fuse. He had to place an order for the fuse. I am hoping that it will be just that. Otherwise I think we will need a new dishwasher.

If I receive a $100,000...

What a dream and I would love it at this point. The gals over
Wahm bloggers network want to know.

Being the Frugal Momma that I am, my most pratical answer (and boring) would put it towards my mortgage. That would give me a lot of wiggle room in my budget.

A tad bit more exciting answer would be put it towards our house addition that we are considering in another year or two.

A 100k is hardly any money these days but I think if I receive it, I would take 30,000 and put it towards college education. $20,000 in money market account for emergency savings. $10,000 towards a great family vacation. $20,000 for a new car and $10,000 for some small home improvement stuff.

I would continue working my business since I want to make sure family stays ahead financially. If it was a million dollars, I would put the business on hold.
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Saving for college tips 529 plans

Hello and Welcome!

In this week's issue Living on a Budget in a Non Budget World
Newsletter.

Money Saving Tips
Featured Article Saving for College 529 plans
Money Blog Spotlight
Top Conversations on the Money Saving Forums
Freebie and Contest Alerts
The Frugal Five
Frugal Food Baked Apple Recipes


Read the current issue at

http://www.budgetdial.com/news-Sept0106.htm


If you are new subscriber we keep all of our newsletters online at http://www.budgetdial.com/news.htm

Getting back to basics

My husband called me one day this past week that the majority of admin staff was laid off. My husband's dept sales wasn't affected but he will have to do alot more of his own paperwork now.

Well while we have an ok emergency fund that would last us several months, the thought of my husband losing his job is one of biggest fears. Even though his job maybe safe for now, we don't know in the future.


1. Eating out has increased. I will be using my recipes again to get into the right mix. I will also buy some frozen

2. Increase the allocation directly to emergency savings by $100 a pay period. This all comes down to the little extra that we are spending here and there.

3. I need to stop slacking off and get the few new websites that I had promised to be done in July done. Plus I need to get writing here more. :)

4. Cut out the out of town October weekend trip and stay at home. Savings atleast $500.

Hopefully we won't have to deal with a layoff in the future but here are some good additionals tips if we did.
How to deal with a job layoff?

job+loss cobra mortgage layoffs credit+card living+on+a+budget frugal

Checking account poll results

The results are in for
How much do you keep in your checking account?

How much do you keep in your checking account?


Selection Votes
Under $50 19%
$50-$100 10%
$100-200 14%
$200-$500 10%
Over $500 48%

Wow the overwhelming winner was over $500. I thought more folks would keep money in savings accounts. That is what we do.

poll money checking+account saving+account frugal budget

Frugal Menu Planing week of Sept 3rd

Happy Labor Day weekend! It is a quiet weekend for us. Hanging out and watching movies since we have leftover Ernesto rain.

Here is our menu plan for the week

Sun Steak, potato, green beans

Mon Grilled chicken, side veggies

Tues Chili

Wed Lasagna

Thurs Soup and Sandwich night.... Cub scouts starts up again

Fri Leftover Lasagna

Sat Homemade pizza

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