A while back, I reported visiting a CVS in town and finding that they had milk for 1/2 off. They had a note taped to the door of the refrigerator that said “Milk expiring within 3 days is half off”. Of course I dug through the fridge to find every gallon of milk that was expiring, and ended up freezing like 4 gallons!

A couple of days ago, I was in another CVS, and just out of curiosity I looked to see if they had any milk expiring in 3 days. They did… they had one gallon, just for me! But they didn’t have any kind of sign advertising the “deal”. So, I went up front and asked to speak to a manager. They called him up, and I told him about the other CVS’s deal, and asked him if they do the same thing. He told me, “We do, but we aren’t supposed to be advertising it.” I said, “Great!” and went to fetch my gallon. It cost me $1.99 (plus $.04 tax).

I thought I’d let you guys know about this, so that you could see if your local CVS is doing the same thing. I don’t know if it’s regional, or what, but it’s worth asking about! I’m going to keep my eye out from now on for expiring milk at CVS, and hopefully I won’t have to keep paying almost $4/gal. any more!

And if you find a lot for a good deal, remember you can always freeze it (remember to pour a little out first to make room for expansion); and you can also add a pinch of salt to make it last about a week longer. Happy hunting!! For more money saving ideas, visit Crystal for Frugal Friday.

I’d be interested to hear from those of you who have found that you can or cannot get this deal at your CVS.

I’ve been writing lately about minimizing our closets, but just because we don’t need a lot of clothing doesn’t mean we’ll never have to shop for it, and boy do I love shopping for clothes! I especially love a great deal! A while back I decided to limit myself to spending $5 or less per clothing item. That may sound hard to do, or like it would require sacrificing quality or style, but if you know where to look you can find top quality, name brand stuff for Goodwill prices! Here are my favorite places to shop, where finding clothing for under $5 is super easy!:

Kohl’s Clearance Rack- Now, I do not like credit cards, but I have to say that the only one I do have is a Kohl’s card, and I love having it! With a Kohl’s card you get special discounts and offers only good for cardholders. They always have great clearances going on, like 60-80% off, and when I use my card I often have another 15-30% off coupon that I am able to use with my Kohl’s card, not to mention the occasional free shipping code. The key is to pay the card off right away! I love shopping online when I have a free shipping code, talk about convenience, not to mention saving gas money!

Right now Kohl’s is having a great sale going on, and I have PROMO CODES to share!! Here is an example of a deal I found:

This shirt, regularly $16.00. After promo codes and free shipping my total would be only $4.36!

There are lots of other things to chose from, so go now before they are all gone!

Here are the codes for card holders:

15% off- JULYSAVE15 [Exp. 7/22]

Free Shipping- MVC7915 [Exp. 7/21]

Limited Too- Sometimes they have awesome clearance sales, stack those with coupons (and if you’re lucky a free shipping code), and you can really score some great deals! Right now they are having an extra 40% off clearance prices, plus you can use COUPON CODE: 755 [Exp. 07/21] for an extra 25% off. They are also offering $80 in TOO BUCKS (to spend on a future purchase) for every $50 you spend. I don’t see any deals that catch my eye right now, but often they have some good ones, for CUTE stuff too!

I have been fortunate in finding many adorable tops and bottoms on clearance for less than $5 shipped when using codes on clearance deals, so check back often!

The Children’s Place- I love shopping this store online when the clearance deals are good! They usually have a coupon code out, and shipping is a flat rate of $5. So, if you find a lot of stuff on sale, $5 bucks for shipping is worth it compared to the savings in time and gas!

Right now they are having a Monster Sale through the Outlet store online. For example:

This shirt is only $1.99 on sale! Add an extra 15% off to make the deal even sweeter!

Use code: FA78 for 15% off.

Find a lot of stuff on sale and the $5 shipping is so worth it!

So, do you get my point? Are you catching on? This isn’t so hard, is it?! Shopping is fun, and I especially love doing it from the comforts of home! Some other places to find great deals on clothing are:

TJ Maxx

Ross

Rugged Warehouse

Consignment Stores

Yard Sales

Goodwill

ebay (though make sure to consider the shipping charges!)

Craigslist

Freecycle

Notice I didn’t mention Walmart or K-mart. I don’t usually shop for clothing there. Sometimes you can find a good clearance deal, but what I have found is that the prices are still pretty high, the quality isn’t that good, and the style isn’t that great. Nothing against these stores, I just don’t like their clothing.

So, does anybody have any better coupon codes that they can share with us? Do you have a favorite place to shop for inexpensive clothing?? I’d love to hear how you save money on your family’s clothes!

Here’s a little tip I heard somewhere: To keep your potatoes fresh longer, just put an apple in the bag with them!

**Update:Well, that was a mean trick! Somebody lied to me! I guess you are NOT supposed to put apples with potatoes. They make potatoes go back quicker. Sorry guys! Well, at least now we know what NOT to do

For more frugal little tips, check out Crystal’s blog!

A little over a week ago, Kendra posted a recipe for homemade deodorant . Since she didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand (and I did), we decided that I should go ahead and try it out then give a review.

I have tried several natural brands from the health food stores, but they were never a raving success (according to my husband ). So, I was excited to try again to see if perhaps this would work.

Let me say that, first of all, no homemade deodorant is going to measure up with Secret, Sure or whatever top brand is out there. It just won’t. Those deodorants have chemicals that the natural D.O.’s don’t have and that’s why they work so well. If you want to say goodbye to the unwanted chemicals, then you have to make a compromise.

That being said, here is my humble review:

1. If you are used to a clean swipe in the underarm with a D.O. stick, this may be too messy for you. The “mixture” is liquid-y so you have to scoop it out with your fingers and rub it. I didn’t mind (but I’m not all that picky when it comes to things like this) and just washed my hands afterward.
2. I loved the scent of the lavender and tea tree oils! If you aren’t used to aromatherapy or essential oils, the smell may need to grow on you. Fortunately, I grew up around these because of my mom’s use of them, and have come to love the natural scents. They are by no means like the perfumy D.O. smells that we are used to.
3. The D.O. did not keep me from sweating (I didn’t completely expect it to), though, it did keep me dryer than I expected and even more so than the store-bought natural D.O.’s did. So I was pleased with the result in that department

My overall opinion? I was very pleased with it. I’m planning on using it from now on, if that means anything.

I would like to make a note, however. Everyone’s body chemistry is different. So while this worked for me, it may not be as effective for you, and you may need to play around with the measurements a little.

So, there it is!

You guys have probably been wondering why we haven’t mentioned any recent CVS trips, or posted any weekly deals. Well, you might want to sit down for this… we’ve stopped CVSing. Now, don’t freak out, it may not be forever, we’re not sure yet. But for now, we’ve both decided to take a break from it. There are several reasons why we have decided this.

As fun as it was, it was becoming a huge time consuming task which was taking away from time with our families. It takes many hours researching the best deals, gathering and sorting all of the coupons, figuring out the best scenarios, posting all of this info, and then doing the actual shopping itself, sometimes at several different stores.

Also, with gas prices as high as they are, and the closest CVS being about 15 min. away, we started considering the cost in time and gas for these “free” things, and we’ve decided it just wasn’t really the most frugal thing anymore.

Thirdly, since we are on our quest to have less and living healthier, we’ve decided to start trying to make the things that we can ourselves (deo, toothpaste, soap, shampoo…) to save money and live “greener”.

So, hope you guys understand, and don’t hate us forever! We’d love to have you join us in this new frugal endeavor, so we will be posting “make it yourself” recipes for toiletries, cleaning supplies, and whatever else we can as we find and test them. Hopefully this will be just as helpful to your budgets, as well as a healthier option. Thanks for all of your support and encouragement!! We love you guys.

I came across the cutest idea tonight on this blog! And I thought that this might go well with our new theme of minimizing and reusing/re-purposing things. If you have some old, outgrown clothes of baby’s that you just haven’t been able to let go, this may be a great solution for you:

Turn baby’s clothing into a keepsake quilt!

And if you don’t know how to sew, you can send your clothing to this company (for a pretty penny!) and they will turn them into a beautiful keepsake blanket. Here are some examples from their website of what they do:

I LOVE this idea!!! And it would make a great gift for somebody too!

Like my sister said, we are both on our journey to having less. As I’ve been reading and learning, I’m coming to realize how wasteful and overindulging our society is! We simply have so much STUFF! And it’s like we aren’t happy; we just have to keep getting more. In poorer countries some people only have two pairs of clothing, and maybe one or two bowls to eat from. And here we are, closets overflowing, cabinets toppling over with an overabundance of unnecessary items that we think we just have to have. And before long we get tired of the “old” things (though they are perfectly functional), and head out to buy new again.

I recently read a quote from a top fashion designer which has really made me re-evaluate my own role as consumer. He said,

“It is my job to make women unhappy with what they have.”

You know, that’s exactly it! Marketers are scheming, devising every plan imaginable to make us feel like what we have is inadequate, so that we go out and buy whatever they are pedaling, filling their greedy pockets. And we have been such suckers! And it’s not just the fashion industry, this goes for our vehicles, homes, appliances, home decor, and everything purchasable. How much longer will we fall for their devices, and allow them to manipulate us into feeling unhappy with what God has blessed us with? How often are we perfectly content with what we have, and then we are ambushed with a new fad or design that we just have to have and suddenly what we already posses is not good enough?

I have to admit, I am such a sucker for this! Especially watching HGTV, and home design shows where they go and remodel, or redecorate these homes and make them just gorgeous. Though the day before I was perfectly proud of the way my home looked, suddenly I’m feeling very unstylish, and like I need to go out and buy a bunch of stuff to redecorate with. What’s up with that? I know what it is, and the Lord Jesus warned us about it, it’s being covetous. I’m reminded of this verse:

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15

And so, I’ve decided to go through my home and get rid of all of the things that I don’t absolutely need. Boy, is it going to be hard! I’ve started going through my closet, and the kid’s closets, and getting rid of most of the things in there (that will be a whole other post). Next I plan on going through the cabinets and doing a thorough cleaning! Who needs 10 plates and 15 glasses for a family of 4? I know I don’t, and I’m tired of feeling like do. After the cabinets and kitchen drawers have been paired down, I’ll tackle the toys (yes again!), knick knacks (though I don’t really have that many to start with), books, toiletries, and garage items. It will take a while since most of my stuff is in storage (we’re in the process of moving). But these are my goals.

I’m also reconsidering some appliances that I’ve had on my wish list, including a bread machine. Do I really need one… I know I can do it by hand? What can I live without?

Maybe I can challenge you today to think more about your role as a brainwashed consumer, and to pray about being more content with what you have, and maybe even striving towards less. And as I journey on my road to less, I’ll be sure to share my thoughts and efforts!

In my latest quest to become less of a consumer, I’ve been searching for a good home made recipe for making deodorant. I think I’ve found a good one to try. Here it is:

Mix:

1 Tbsp. Corn Starch

1 Tbsp. Baking Soda

1 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

5-6 drops Tea Tree Oil

5-6 drops Lavender Oil

This mixture makes a paste that you rub into your skin with your fingers. Check out a great demo of this recipe HERE. I’ll have to let you know what I think about it once I try it!

Have any of you tried making your own deo? Does anyone have a recipe to share? I’d love to hear your comments!

You don’t have to have a long clothes line to be able to hang dry a lot of clothes. Here’s a lesson from the Chinese: to conserve space, they hang shirts, blouses, and dresses on clothes hangers before putting them on the line. They also clip socks and washcloths to the lower edge of other things.

If you have boxed cereal in your home, here’s a neat little tip for you:

Once the bag of cereal is empty, cut it open and use the bag as waxed paper for your freezing needs. Just don’t bake with it, I tried this as an experiment and it melted.