$3 Christmas Stocking

This year I decided I wanted a different look with our Christmas stockings but I didn't want to spend a lot of money.  Buying 5 really cute stockings can get expensive and I would rather spend that money on something important like a new purse from TJ Maxx.  In all honesty, our family had decided to donate as much as possible this Christmas season so every time I saw the dollar signs associated with new stockings I saw all of the dollar signs that needed to be going to our Giving Fund.

I had seen a lot of really cute ideas on Pinterest but by the time I began to think about stockings I had run out of energy and motivation to start yet another Christmas project!  I kicked it into Cheap Mama gear and decided to do it cheap and ready made.

The stockings this year cost a little less than $3 a piece which means I saved a tremendous amount of money and if I feel like changing them again next year I won't feel guilty about my constantly changing tastes.

Stocking: $1 from Dollar Tree
Wooden glitter letter: $1 from Michael's
Giraffe ribbon: $3 for about 5 feet

Happy 2012 Cheap Mamas!

The $8 Organizational Tool

Just recently I saw an incredible idea on Pinterest to use a pocket shoe organizer for school & art supplies.  I just about broke the speed limit zooming away to Wal-Mart as fast as I could to utilize this great idea for my homeschool room/playroom.  I had been gathering pails and buckets for all of my organizational needs in our homeschool room but I was slowly running out of shelf space.  All of those markers, glue sticks and pipe cleaners can sure take up a lot of space!  I didn't know how much a pocket shore organizer cost but it looked like a great idea for my homeschool room.

I found them on the laundry and closet organization aisle at Wal-Mart for $7.47.  Awesome!

I then raced back home to install my new organization tool.  That is, after a quick stop at Sonic for a diet coke of course.  I hung the pocket organizer (the hooks are included) on the inside of the playroom closet door and now instead of being overcome with buckets and baskets and pails oh my, all of our supplies are located in one place.  I even have room for more!

Once I implemented this idea in the playroom I knew that there would be other great uses for these pocket shoe organizers.  One place I have found them to be of use is in my husband's closet.

Although we each have our own closet, neither one is very spacious and as a result I have to be extremely efficient in my attempts to organize our closets.  Georgia Boy wears a tie every day to work so he needed to be able to get to his ties easily.  I used a pocket shoe organizer on his closet door to organize both his ties and belts.  Now, instead of hanging randomly all over his closet they are conveniently located in the pocket shoe organizer.

I have used these shoe organizers in places where I don't mind seeing the hooks on the other side of the door.  However, if you don't like seeing the loops hanging over the door you could always use nails in the door provided that the door is strong enough and the nail is the appropriate size needed for the amount of weight that the organizer will be holding.

Other organizational uses for these shoe organizers would be for cleaning products inside a closet or laundry room door or in the bathroom under the sink.  To put it under a kitchen or bathroom sink you  simply cut it to fit and either hang it on the door using the hooks provided or tack a few nails to hold it inside the cabinet.

I'm sure I'll find some other uses for these pocket shoe organizers soon and when I do, I'll update it with any more ideas I have.  In the meantime, please share any uses for these organizers that you've found in your own home!

Happy Organizing Cheap Mamas!

A Little Bench and Chalk Paint

For some time I had been wanting a little bench to go in front of my fireplace.  A little seat that beckoned  me to come sit and warm myself by the fire.  I had seen a few in some of my favorite catalogs but of course, being the Cheap Mama that I am, knew that I would never pay full retail price.

So I just kept my eye out when I would go consignment shopping knowing that one day I would find one that fit my budget.

And one day, I did.

Hello, the 1980's called and they would like their fabric back.

I am only kidding.  I'm sure one day my children will look at pictures from their childhood and ask me why I painted everything white and made it look old.

I wanted to make this bench look really worn, not perfect at all.  I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White and then did a coat of clear wax and dark wax which I rubbed into the wood in a circular motion with an old undershirt.  I recovered the seat in some scrap fabric that I had leftover from a previous project.

Every time I do another project with Annie Sloan's products I learn something new.  What I learned this time is that working on a piece with round legs can be tricky.  Because the legs weren't a flat surface I had to go slowly to make sure that the worn look didn't look too uniform and that it didn't get too heavy in places and not heavy enough in other places.  I also learned that to get this look it worked better to apply the dark wax in a side-to-side motion and then rub the wax into the paint in a circular motion instead of in the same direction in which I had applied the wax.  If I did that, then I ended up essentially wiping off the wax and erasing the effect I was going for.  By waxing in one direction and rubbing in a different direction, I got the old patina look that I wanted.

Did anyone else think of Karate Kid with all that talk about wax on, wax off?  No, just me?

Tell me what you think of my little bench project and leave any tips you've learned with Annie Sloan products.

Happy Waxing, Cheap Mamas!  (Not brow or bikini waxing.  That's another post for another time.)

Fall Scents For Less

One of my favorite things about fall is all of the wonderful scented candles that come with the season.  I love all of the warm and cozy scents like gingerbread, pumpkin, vanilla and others but I don't like paying a lot to enjoy those scents.

In my pre-Cheap Mama days I used to plop down a lot of money for candles and scented oils to make my home smell great but when you're on a budget those expensive candles just aren't on the priority list.

This is why I was pleasantly surprised to find that the line of Better Homes & Gardens fall candles at Wal-Mart not only has a line of great scents but the quality is also there as well.  These candles and accessories fill my house with warm fall scents just as good as the expensive ones did.

The candles are priced just under $5 and there are also bricks of scented wax cubes that can be used in a tea-candle diffuser priced at $2 each.

$2 gets you 6 cubes that you break off and use one at a time.  The great part is that they aren't a one-time use.  I have used the missing cube for several uses.  The wax will re-melt with each use and I keep using it until I think that the scent is waning.

Below is a candle and a cube in a diffuser which I purchased eons ago from Bath & Body Works.  I added some small pumpkins and pine cones from my yard for a fall arrangement.

All of these can be found in the seasonal aisles at Wal-Mart so they probably won't be around forever.  So if fall candles are in your budget, get them while the gettin's good as they say!

Here's to enjoying the scents of fall, Cheap Mamas!

Antique Tool Caddy Turned Desk Accessory

This week Donna of Funky Junk Interiors presented her readers with a challenge.  The challenge was to choose an object in our home and to think outside the box.  To find a different way to use that item instead of the original purpose for which it was intended.

When she issued this challenge I had just finished claiming our back-door-desk-junk-holder into my own official desk and was having fun adding items to make the space mine all mine.

I also had an antique tool caddy that I had snatched up at the Habitat store which I had intended to use for floral arrangements.

Isn't it so cute?  When I bought it I had imagined all sorts of floral arrangements for each season.  However, every time I tried to find a place for it in my kitchen or living room I could never find the right spot.  It was either too small or too big for every space I tried.  Thus, it was left sad and lonely in the laundry room while I tried to find another use for it.

Enter the Funky Junk challenge.

As I carried the tool caddy around my house I had an epiphany.  (Or I may have had the epiphany while I was lying in bed at night thinking about my house projects instead of sleeping, which I tend to often do.)  What if I used it for my desk to store pens, sticky note pads, and other Cheap Mama desk items?

And a desk organizer was born!  I love it here.  (I'm actually sitting at the desk right now typing this post).  It brings my style in a small way to my desk and actually serves a useful purpose instead of merely a decorative one.

If you, like me, are interested in turning trash to treasure, blogging, home decorating and spending time with a great lady please visit Donna at Funky Junk Interiors.

How to Potty Train Without Pull-Ups

I have nothing against Pull-Ups or anyone who uses them.  I use the brand name here as a general term for all training diapers because it is the one with which we are all most familiar.

When it came time for me to potty train Superman he was 3 years old and not showing the slightest interest in the subject.  I had been waiting for him to show interest - like the books tell you to do - but he was as content as a pig in mud to keep pooping in a diaper.  However, this Cheap Mama was sick and tired of changing those diapers and so I determined that the month he turned 3 years old we would begin potty training.

See, completely adorable with his bubble beard but absolutely no interest in the potty.

I also knew that after changing about a zillion diapers over three years I didn't want to spend the next year changing poopy Pull-Ups.  I decided to go old school and potty train cold turkey.  No diapers.  No Pull-Ups.  Just a boy and a toilet.  I wanted to do it to save both money and time in the potty training process.

I began by scouring the internet to see what tips I could find on the subject and came across a website that I used with complete success.  It's called the 3 Day Potty Training method and it's the brainchild of a woman named Lora Jensen.  I have absolutely no affiliations with Ms. Jensen other than the fact that I used her method and would highly recommend it to anyone beginning to potty train.  It is very positive for the children, encouraging for the mothers and offers online help.  I realize that there are probably other methods out there that work well also.  The bottom line (get it - bottom line?) is you don't have to spend a year using Pull-Ups while trying to potty train your child.

Now as a disclaimer, we did have the normal setbacks associated with potty training such as little accidents here and there and an occasional poopy pair of underwear, but I can tell you that we never once had to use a training diaper.  I may have had to replace some of those poopy pairs of underwear but the savings of never having to buy a single pack of Pull-Ups greatly outweighed any extra money I had to spend on underwear.  One word on buying underwear - don't get sucked into buying your kids the expensive character underwear unless you're using them as a prize in the potty training process!

Hopefully this will help you become a potty training Cheap Mama and save on your bottom line too.  Sorry, had to get that pun in there just one more time!

Good luck Cheap Mamas!

Great OPI Nail Polish Knock-Off

Warning:  I am not a hand model.  Or a manicurist.  You'll see why below!

As fall rolls around I begin to pull out some of my favorite dark nail polish colors.  One of those favorites is the OPI color You Don't Know Jacques.  It is a wonderful matte greige and I wear it practically throughout both the fall and winter seasons.  I didn't know what 'greige' was until I read a fashion magazine and discovered that this was the new moniker given to this gray/beige color.  I love it because it goes with almost any dark color throughout the season but it doesn't make me look like I'm trying to look like a teenager.

OPI nail polishes have been one of those little happy items that I would occasionally treat myself with as a little reward for all that I do to scrimp and save.  However, even just occasionally purchasing these items was still difficult.  It just seemed a little steep to pay $8-$9 for a bottle of nail polish.

As luck would have it, though, this week I stumbled upon an exact replica of You Don't Know Jacques completely by accident with a price tag of only $2!  I was passing the time in Walgreen's while my son was in his karate class when I found the color Nirvana by Sinful Colors Professional.  I brought it home to compare and here are the results.  I painted one hand with each and you can see for yourself below - you can't tell the difference!

Now, I love my OPI colors as much as the next girl but if you're in need of a great 'greige' for fall and winter I think you'll like Nirvana.

In the bottle...

On the hand...

I told you I'm not a hand model.  Where's George Costanza when you need him?

Happy nail painting, Cheap Mamas!

Bulletin Board Bow Organizer

Having a little girl is like having an accessories explosion inside your house.  My first child was a boy and to clothe a boy you need 4 things: shirt, pants, shoes, socks.  Sometimes you don't even need the socks.

When clothing a girl the number of necessary items grows exponentially.  One of those necessary items is, of course, the BOW.  What little girl would be complete without donning a bow approximately the same size as her head?

As Sidekick grew, so did our bow collection and I knew I needed some way to keep them organized.  I had seen bow organizers in our local boutique stores but the Cheap Mama in me just couldn't quite bring myself to fork over the money for one of them.  The one day: LIGHTBULB!  I decided to use a criss-cross ribbon bulletin board that I already had as her bow organizer.

This is all about using what you have so I would never say you need to run out and buy one but if you have one lying around the house, use it!  Ours is hung inside her closet so if the one you have doesn't match the room's decor, it won't matter because no one will see it but you!

Have a blessed week Cheap Mamas!

Basket Lady

There are cat ladies, bird ladies, bag ladies and then there's me, the basket lady.  I love utilizing baskets in any room and for any purpose.  I love the organization that baskets provide while at the same time being beautiful enough to leave in plain view.  To me, bins say "put me in the closet" but baskets say "leave me out to be admired."

When I started photographing all of the baskets in my house I don't think I realized just how much I love baskets!  These are only about half of the baskets that I have throughout my house.

I used to shop for baskets at my favorite discount stores or when Hobby Lobby had them on sale but recently I discovered just how cheaply baskets can be found at consignment stores.

The Habitat Restore, Goodwill, garage sales and other consignment places are wonderful places to find cheap baskets for organization.  Some of the baskets below cost me as little as $1 or $2, some even less!

I love baskets for holding...

Magazines

Toilet tissue

Bathroom toiletries

Books for the baby

Changing table items

Homeschool Supplies

Remote controls

Games, DVDs, Wii games and controllers and toys, oh my!

For books, magazines or snacks on the playroom ottoman

More books!  I love wire baskets too!

Throw blankets in the living room 

Books in the living room

Dog toys

and shoes by the back door.

Now I'm off to spend some much needed time with Georgia Boy watching a movie.  Did I mention the movie stars Matthew McConaughey?  Not a bad way to spend a Friday night.

Happy weekend, Cheap Mamas.

Cheap Mama Coffee Tricks

I like coffee.  A lot.  And when I became One Cheap Mama I mourned the loss of my fancy, expensive coffee.  I had been used to drinking flavors of coffee with names like Buttered Pecan, French Vanilla Hazelnut and Bananas Foster and all of a sudden I was drinking...REGULAR COFFEE!  I whined and wept and tried to find ways to make my cheap coffee taste like the good stuff but I never found any great ideas until NOW!  I am so excited to share these secrets for all you fellow coffee lovers.

Just so you know that these tricks truly work within your Cheap Mama budget, I use these tricks with my Wal-Mart Great Value coffee.  A side note: The coffee cans from the GV coffee brand can be repurposed into great containers.  Cheap and chic!

Cheap Mama Coffee Trick #1 - Replace the aspartame with something better.
Just recently I went to see a Naturopathic Doctor for an undisclosed reason.  If you're thinking, "Oh, she's plum crazy" don't worry - my husband agrees with you.

Once there I discussed the fact that I have suffered from headaches for the past 15+ years and pretty much have them on a daily, continuous basis.  They asked me if I drank diet Coke.  Uh, does a bear...?  Never mind.  I answered yes, lots.  The Sonic carhops practically know me by name.  It's not like I didn't know of the bad press around aspartame.  It was just that I never realized how truly awful it was.  Or maybe I just really didn't want to have to give up my diet coke.  Either way, not until I was faced with the choice of A) Keep drinking diet coke and putting the pink stuff in my coffee and have headaches or B) Give up the crack cocaine diet coke and rid my body of the aspartame did I finally agree to stop drinking anything with aspartame.

Instead of the pink or blue or yellow packets, I now use xylitol which can be found at most health food stores or the green packets if I can't make it to the health food store that week.

Cheap Mama Coffee Trick #2 - Add cinnamon to your coffee grounds before brewing
This AMAZING idea originally comes from Vivienne Wagner whom I met on Twitter.  You can check out her post complete with pictures here.  I have been searching for an idea to make my cheap GV coffee taste like coffee-house coffee and this idea is genius!  All you do is sprinkle some cinnamon (enough for your liking) on top of the coffee grounds prior to brewing.  As it brews the cinnamon flavors the coffee and the bonus is that it turns out cinnamon has awesome health benefits to boot.  The taste created when I add cinnamon to the coffee grounds before brewing is absolutely delicious.  I now use cinnamon every time I brew a pot of coffee and I actually feel a teeny bit like my old fancy-coffee-drinking self again.

Cheap Mama Coffee Tricks #3 - Perfect iced coffee from The Pioneer Woman

Just like The Pioneer Woman I had been on the quest to make the perfect iced coffee.  I had tried brewing coffee in my coffee maker and transfering that to the refrigerator but the taste was always too weak.  Thus, I was left to either forego the iced coffee that I love so much or load up the kids to make a coffee run at three o'clock in the afternoon.  Neither option was sustainable.  Then I found PW's recipe for The Perfect Iced Coffee and now my life is complete.  I now keep a pitcher of this divine concoction in the refrigerator so that I can enjoy a delicous iced coffee any time!  Heaven.

Cheap Mama Coffee Trick #4 - Bring the used coffee grinds into the shower
After you have brewed your coffee in the coffee pot or have the extra pound of grinds from the iced coffee recipe, bring those grinds into the shower with you.  Don't worry, it's not anything kinky.  This is another great idea from Vivienne.  I think she loves coffee as much as I do.  Maybe even more.  Caffeine is the active ingredient in all of those cellulite-reducing creams and Vivienne has discovered a way to cut out the middle-man, so to speak.  She uses the grinds as a kind of coffee scrub focusing on her legs and feet.  Who knew coffee was so versatile!

However if you have small children and barely have enough time to shave your armpits in the shower, let alone exfoliate your thighs with coffee grinds, you can try

Cheap Mama Coffee Trick #5 - Use the used coffee grinds as fertilizer
Coffee grinds are a great fertilizer for acid-loving plants such as roses, hydrangeas and blueberries but it can also be used as a fertilizer on other plants because the acidity level is not so high that it can't be used on other plants in your garden.  When you're done with your pot of coffee instead of dumping the grinds in the trash, be a good little recycler and use them on your plants.


If anyone else has any great Cheap Mama coffee tricks, please leave a comment!

Happy drinking, you coffee-addicted Cheap Mamas!

My Next Painting Adventure - Chalk Paint

Any time I hear of a new paint product it always makes my heart pitter patter.  That's exactly what happened when I heard of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint.  

Chalk Paint is a paint that requires no priming(!) and comes in 16 colors perfect for creating the French look that I love.  As a bonus, Annie Sloan has also authored several books on painting techniques and French decorating.  I recently ordered her book Creating the French Look from Karla at Lady Butterbug  and could hardly wait to get it in my hot little hands.

I have a hand-me-down dresser that my husband refuses to give away or sell due to sentimental reasons. I told him we could keep it as long as I could paint it.  It is the perfect piece for me to try Chalk Paint for the first time.

Old White and Paris Grey...

...are going to transform this dresser into something fabulous.

Because Annie Sloan's products come out of Oxford, England they are a little difficult to find in the U.S. but as luck would have it I found a retail store in my area who orders and stocks the products!  I purchased a litre (fancy spelling here) each of Paris Grey and Old White.  You can see the size of the cans above.  Currently this is the only size available for Chalk Paint.  

I cannot wait to get started on my project!  Stay tuned for the finished product and blog post to follow!

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party for Superman

Just recently Superman celebrated his 5th birthday.  I guess I should call him Luke Skywalker or Han Solo or something like that since the theme was Lego Star Wars but he's stuck with Superman so he'll have to deal with it.

This time last year I was about 11 months pregnant with Sidekick so his 4th birthday party consisted of me throwing a sheet cake on the picnic table of a local park and parking my muumuu-ed butt in the shade until we could pack up and go home.  I may have taped some balloons to the picnic table but I can't remember.  I was too busy wiping sweat off my body from the sweltering Louisiana heat.  And the humidity.  Oh, the humidity.

I was smiling because I was in air conditioning.

Needless to say this year I felt I owed him a bit more effort and I was actually excited to plan a great party. As parents know, kids' interests change with the wind so when I discovered that he had stayed a Lego Star Wars fan for longer than 10 minutes I knew we had our theme.  I  then went on-line searching for supplies and ideas to help me host the best kickin' five year old party this side of the Mississippi.

This picture was made at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans just for fun.  We decided to use it on the favor table.  I laugh every time I look at it.

As soon as I began my search on-line I quickly found Aimee Austin of Aimee Austin Designs who creates custom Lego Stars birthday invitations, thank you cards and has a lot of great party ideas.  I used her printable Lego Stars Wars birthday invitation which comes as a PDF file which meant it was less expensive than paying for individual invitations for each child.  I also used some of her great party ideas.

Have fun at my party you will.

No Lego Star Wars party is complete without a light saber but I didn't want to be liable for any serious injuries.  So to create kid-friendly (read: no lawsuit) light sabers I spent $12 on 12 pool noodles in the colors of red, green and blue.  I cut the noodles in half and used black and silver electrical tape to create the look of a handle on one end of each noodle and voila!  Awesome light sabers which also turned into awesome take-home gifts for the guests.

We led the kids through a series of "Jedi Training Procedures" which included a lot of running around cones, fighting each other and various trees around the backyard and taking turns whacking any adult males who happened to be standing too closely to the training area.  Once we felt the children were sufficiently trained in all things Jedi we moved to the driveway for a little game of "Destroy The Deathstar."

My husband had drawn the Deathstar on the driveway and we let the kids take turns throwing water balloons to try and erase, or destroy, the Deathstar.  This turned out to be fun for both the kids and the adults and was a fun water activity to help cool off the kids.

Georgia Boy wasn't too jazzed about having to use the only colors of sidewalk chalk I had available - purple, yellow and white - but he did a great job anyway.

We then celebrated our victory over the Deathstar by eating some delicious cake and ice cream!
I was going to have a friend of mine who specializes in unique cakes and cupcakes make some custom Lego Star Wars cupcakes but it turned out that she would be out of town during our party weekend.  Instead I purchased a Star Wars sheet cake from Wal Mart and discovered that kids are happy as long as there is frosting involved.

On the way out each guest received a Star Wars cup with some stickers and an official certificate certifying that they had completed all necessary training to become a Jedi Knight.  Jedi Master Yoda signed each certificate so you know they're official and all.  As far as party favors, I have found that a cup can actually be a useful party favor in place of all of those throw-away toys that usually end up in the trash can anyway.

I had so much fun with this party that we're already planning next year's theme.  I'm not quite sure what the theme will be but shiver me timbers, I think pirates may be involved.

Superman at 3 years old as the world's cutest pirate.

Cheap Mama Cleaning Products

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I gave up the cleaning lady and listed how I broke down my cleaning into daily chores to make it more manageable.  What I didn't write about were the products that I actually use to clean my house.  I'm going to attempt to do that here without putting us all to sleep.  I admit, blog posts on cleaning can be as dry as sawdust so I'll do my best to keep this short and sweet.

The bottom line is the products I use to clean my house now (as opposed to BEFORE when I had a cleaning lady) are not only CHEAPER but GREENER.  As One Cheap Mama, I have to admit I'm more impressed with things that are cheap than green but all of the items that I use because of their cost savings are also better for our families and the environment.  Holla.

(If you are like some of my friends and can't bear the thought of parting with your cleaning service, you can still cut your costs by purchasing these products and asking your cleaning person to use them in place of other more expensive, harsher products.  You'll save money and be using safer products in your home.  Again, holla.)

Let's get down to the nitty gritty, shall we?



Vinegar
If you don't yet know of the wondrous things that vinegar does, check out vinegartips.com.  Vinegar will do just about everything but put your kid through college.

I have a spray bottle of equal parts vinegar & water which I use in place of other cleaners to:

• Clean kitchen countertops
• Clean bathrooms sinks
• Clean windows
• I also use vinegar as a fabric softener.  It removes all of the detergent residue and is safe to use in HE washing machines.

Baking Soda
Baking soda is another one of those wonder products that has a million uses.  I like cleaning with baking soda because while it cleans like a machine, it is sudsless which makes it easier to wipe clean.
Here are just a few of the ways I use baking soda.

• Sprinkle on my stainless steel sink and cooktop and wipe clean with wet sponge (won't scratch stainless!)
• Sprinkle on tubs and showers and clean with a sponge
• Sprinkle on carpet prior to vacuuming for a natural odor remover and refresher

Borax
Borax is another great product for cleaning and for use in the laundry room.  I use 20 Mule Team Borax which can be found in the laundry aisle.

In the laundry room, Borax can be used as a

• laundry booster 
• laundry stain remover 
• and to soften hard water

As a cleaning product, Borax can be used to

• clean toilet bowls
• clean garbage disposals and drains
• clean carpet & rug stains
• as a dishwashing booster

There are recipes on the back of every Borax box for each of these uses.  I personally use Borax to clean my toilet bowls using the instructions listed on the box.  For the hard-to-clean streaks and stains in my toilet bowl I use the toilet stone.  Never heard of it?  It's that gray, rectangle-shaped stone in the picture above.  It can be found in the cleaning aisle of most stores.  This cleaning stone will remove any toilet bowl stains from hard water, etc without any harsh cleaning products.  It requires elbow grease and an up close view of your toilet bowl but believe me, it works!


The bottom line is that it doesn't require 20 products to keep your home clean and the products that are the safest are also the least expensive.

If any of you out there have other great cheap, green cleaning tips I'd love to hear from you!  Post a comment and share your knowledge!

How I Gave Up The Cleaning Lady

When I introduced my Stay At Home Plan to Georgia Boy, one of the first expenses I said we could cut was the cleaning lady.  I promised that I would do ALL of the cleaning and keep up with it according to a timely schedule.  Pardon me while I roll around on the floor laughing at this memory.

Thanks.

After several months of using the new baby as an excuse, followed by the holidays as another excuse, I finally decided it was time to get this cleaning thing down.  I was tired of feeling guilty every time I walked by the toothpaste globs in the sink or noticed the boy writing his ABCs in the dust on the end tables.

Thus I devised a plan.  Cue the evil villain music here.

I made a list of items that needed to be done weekly, monthly, and whenever-the-heck-I-find-the-time-so-probably-never items.  I took into consideration that I would be the only person working on this cleaning list since my children are too small to help.  But believe you me, they will have broom in hand as soon as I think they are up to the task.  A great bonus is that Sidekick is still army crawling instead of walking so she is my swiffer for the hardwood floors.  Score!

I also made a list of quick cleaning jobs that I could do in the kitchen each night while cleaning up after dinner.   This would be to keep that area of the house from becoming an unholy mess as it tends to become since there are several people eating there every day three times a day.

Thus was born my evil cleaning plan.

Cleaning Schedule: 
Monday - Vacuum carpet floors
Tuesday - Dust  (This is the day I hate most, in case you were wondering)
Wednesday - Toilets, empty trash cans & *Monthly Job
Thursday - Bathroom sinks & Counters
Friday - Sweep wood floors
Saturday - Mirrors & Glass table tops
Sunday - REST!  It's in the Bible.  Seriously, you can look it up.

*Monthly Jobs are Tubs/Showers, Windows, Mopping.  These happen sometimes on schedule and sometimes not.  Dangit Jim, I'm a mother not a miracle worker.

Kitchen schedule:
Monday - Countertops
Tuesday - Wipe down cabinets
Wednesday - Cooktop/Sink
Thursday - Oven
Friday - Stainless Steel appliances
Saturday - Microwave
Sunday - REST!  See above.

After implementing this schedule I can honestly say that I've been able to keep up with the cleaning and feel good about it.  I've always felt that there is a certain pride in ownership in cleaning one's own house but I never felt like I could crack the code on how to do it successfully.  Having a schedule has helped tremendously.

Now I realize that for some people the money spent on a cleaning lady is worth every penny to them and I'm not going to argue that point.  To each his own!  When I was a working mommy I too had a cleaning lady and it was worth it to me to be able to spend those few precious hours with my kids instead of shoooing them away so I could clean the house.  But, alas, when we became a one income family I knew my days of Ms. Charlotte's cleaning services were over and it was time for me to do it on my own.  Believe me, there are days when I miss Ms. Charlotte but I've discovered that I'm pretty darn good at this myself.

Who knew?

When Scrimping Becomes Too Much

What do we do when scrimping and saving becomes too much?

Recently I had a very heart-felt discussion with a woman who is roughly twenty years older than me and someone I admire.  The subject was finances.  She shared with me that due to circumstances beyond their control, she and her husband were in debt.  These are two people who have been financially responsible their entire marriage but now find themselves in their current situation.  This dear woman told me that when they found themselves in debt, they had to make a decision.  Did they scrimp and save taking every fun thing from their lives to pay off the debt quicker?  Or did they leave themselves a few sanity-saving things like school tuition and modest family vacations which meant they would be in debt a little longer but would have spent that time enjoying each other more?  She said that the decision, though incorrect in the eyes of others, was to still do some of the things that gave them joy as a family and to chip away at their debt as best they could year by year.

As I drove home after our conversation I began to think about what my reaction might be if I were faced with a similar situation.  As of this moment we are able to manage our finances and I often mentally pat myself on the back at all that I do to stretch a dollar.  But after talking to this woman, I realized that I am one catastrophic event away from being left under piles of debt by a situation over which I had no control.

This led me to think if it happened to me, what would I do?  Would I call a family meeting where I announced there would be NO MORE family vacations, camps, restaurant meals, lattes or retail clothing purchased in our house?  Would I whittle the grocery list down to bread, bologna and milk?  Would I tell my family that every ounce of energy expended every day would be for the sole purpose of paying off the debt?  At what point would it all be too much?

As One Cheap Mama, I know the value of living frugally and I am constantly striving for ways to do it better.  But after the conversation with my friend, I'm not so sure that turning frugality into an obsession at the cost of daily joy is the best way I can spend my limited days on this earth.  As a Christian, I believe  every word in the Bible and the Bible promises that my life will be filled with struggles.  I have come to understand that finances will always be a part of that struggle.

I, of course, fantasize about how easy life would be if only I would win the lottery or discover that some dear distant great aunt had left me a vast fortune.  But the reality is that I will most likely live out the rest of my days working within the confines of a budget, struggling to be financially responsible with what God has given me.  And I don't think that's a bad thing.  I think there's a lot to be said for someone who has worked hard, lived responsibly and therefore has an honest appreciation of the blessing in their life.

Yet knowing all of this, I still wonder how I will react if I am ever placed in a similar situation to my friend.  I'm not sure the answer is cut and dry and I'm sure the answer is different for each person and family.  But the conversation has got me thinking nonetheless.  I want to make sure that my desire to live frugally doesn't overpower my desire to find joy in each day.  And if that joy comes in the form of an overpriced cup of coffee where I got to spend an hour filling my soul with the conversation of a dear friend, then maybe it was worth it.

I want to ensure that as I stretch each dollar as far as it will go, I also stretch each day enjoying as much of it as possible.

8 Cheap Mama Grocery Shopping Tips

One of the first places I knew that I could work to stretch our monthly budget was in the food department.  Because I live with a "foodie" husband and a picky stepson, I had fallen victim to always trying to cook amazing meals which required amazing ingredients and which meant an out-of-control food budget.  When it was time for me to be a Cheap Mama I let my husband know that we needed to work on the food budget.  I promised him we would not be eating beanie wienies every night but that some things were gonna CHANGE 'round here.

Now there are entire books and blogs dedicated to this topic alone so I won't attempt to cover everything here but instead I will share the most important tips I use each and every time I go to the grocery store.

1. Make a List
Studies and my own experience show that if I don't make a list before I waltz into the grocery store I will buy more than we need which means I'll spend more.

2. Make a Menu Plan
Even better than simply making a list is making a menu plan first and making the list from the planned menu.  With leftovers included, I was really surprised to discover how little I actually needed from the store each week when I plan exactly what I need for each week's menu.

3. Buy the ingredients, not the packaged meal
It's always easier to go for the pre-packaged meal whether it be a Stouffer's lasagna or meal-in-a-box but it also means I'm paying for that convenience.  To combat this, I break down what I like in those packaged meals and buy the ingredients to make it myself.  The one pre-packaged meal that I do keep around the house are frozen pizzas.  For those nights when I'm too exhausted to even think about cooking, having a frozen pizza ready to go is much less expensive than ordering one for delivery.

4. Shop the perimeter of the store
If you think about how your grocery store is set up, the perimeter of the store includes staple ingredients which are always cheaper and usually also healthier.  That's not to say I can shop exclusively outside of the aisles but it's something I keep in mind when planning meals and making my shopping list.

5. Use coupons only if you already need the item
There are also entire sites and blogs dedicated to the art of couponing so I don't mean for this to be the end authority on coupons.  However, I've been there, done that and have the binder to prove it so I do speak from experience.  If I may offer one word of caution: the coupon isn't a great deal unless you need the item already.  Purely shopping from the coupons you have instead of the items you need will ultimately mean you buy things you don't really need and spend money you didn't plan on spending.  Coupons aren't a bad thing; they just have to be used the right way.

5. Always look at the price per pound or price per ounce
This sounds elementary my dear Watson but when put into practice it takes a lot of work.  This is why I usually leave the grocery store with a headache - all of that mental math trying to find the best deal.  Not to give a shout-out to any specific store but one of the reasons I like Wal-Mart is that they do this for me.  They have the price per ounce listed on the shelf next to the price of every single item in the store.  This convenience alone is enough of an incentive for me to brave the behemoth that is Wal-Mart when grocery shopping.  This is very helpful when I'm trying to decide if the bigger size of the same item is really a better deal.  (It usually is but the price/oz will verify it.)  If I compare the prize/ounce or price/pound of items when trying to decide the better deal, I'll always win; not so when just comparing the total price of the items.

6. Give the store brand / generic brand a try
Before you gag a litle bit, let me remind you that I am married to a total foodie husband and our pantry is stocked with store brands.  The way I explained it to Georgia Boy was that we would never know if the item was as good as the brand name if we didn't give it a try.  Therefore our compromise was for me to buy the store brand when it was cheaper and if we found an item that was awful, I would promise to never buy the generic again and from then on I would pony up for the brand name.  This has only happened for one product in the 1+ year that I've been buying generic products.

7. Meatless Monday
My husband and stepson love this night.  Do you detect my sarcasm?  As much as some members of your family may not love this night, it can do wonders for your grocery budget and their health (but they don't need to know that.)  Meat is by far one of the most expensive items on the grocery list so if I can do one meal each week that doesn't include meat I can stretch my food budget even more.  Here in Louisiana, Mondays are traditionally days for red beans and rice.  My husband insists that we have to have sausage or some other meat with our red beans but I remind him that beans are protein, brown rice is healthy and a nice salad rounds out a healthy meatless meal.  Come up with your own meatless meal and watch that grocery budget streeeetch.

8. Breakfast for Dinner
As opposed to my meatless meal, this meal usually brings hoorays from everyone in my house.  This has traditionally been the fall-back menu of many a busy mom but I find if I incorporate it more regularly into our week's menu I save money too.  The great thing about this meal is that if done right, it can still be healthy and the proteins in the meal are relatively expensive such as eggs and turkey bacon.  So the next time you're trying to figure out how to make an expensive meal in a hurry treat your family to breakfast for dinner and bask in the applause.  (I'm only kidding - I've never received applause.)

Hopefully these tips will help you in stretching your grocery budget.  If you'd like more in-depth information on frugal tips, check out my Cheap Mama Handbook.

Cheap Mama Bedroom Style

It all started with a blue pillow.

Five years ago we were living in a small condo preparing to build the house we live in now.  As a lover of all things related to interior design, I was busy looking through magazines to find ideas and inspiration on how to decorate my new home.  I knew I wanted a serene feel in the master bedroom but couldn't quite put my finger on exactly how to do it.  Then I came across a pillow in Stein Mart that became the inspiration for the entire room.  It now has a prominent place on my bed and I don't think I'll ever replace it because it was the beginning of the room I now love.

I love white and I love toile and when I was trying to put together my bedroom, I struggled with a way to do this chic and cheap.  After looking at idea rooms in magazines I decided to do a white duvet and sheet set because I could do those for cheap, and spend the money on accent items.

Below is a picture of my bed.  The white duvet cover and matching shams are from Target.  I had a friend monogram them with my last initial.  I live in the south, remember?  The sheet set is from Wal-Mart (white is easy to do cheap!) but the blue toile print euro shams and bedskirt were my splurge.  They came from Pottery Barn.  I really tried to find a cheaper alternative to this print but I loved it so much that I had to have it.  Sitting front and center is my little square inspiration pillow!

I love the idea of a bench at the end of a bed.  This is a coffee table that I repurposed as a bench.  I found this great animal print fabric at my local Fabrixx outlet.  I made the bench by cutting a piece of foam to fit, covering the foam with batting and then attaching the fabric to the underside of the bench using a staple gun.  I learned from my years of watching Christopher Lowell's design show that you can do almost anything with a staple gun and hot glue!  Someday I'd like to add a nailhead trim around the perimeter but that is one of the many projects I have on my mental to-do list.

Happy decorating Cheap Mama!

I Like Wal-Mart So Sue Me

Before you judge me outright, let me explain myself.  Before I became a full-fledged Cheap Mama I used to avoid Wal-Mart like the plague.  I loathed the idea of trekking across the vast parking lot only to be met with aisle hoggers and long check out lines.  However, when I started being a vigilant price-checker and committed to find the best deal I slowly realized that Wal-Mart wasn't all that bad.  Allow me to explain what I like about Wal-Mart and then we can talk about what I don't like.  Maybe then you'll see I'm not all that crazy.

Hang with me.

Let's start with what greets me as I walk into the discount behemoth.

I appreciate that Wal-Mart has a recycle bin for their plastic bags.  If you (like me) are going to use those white plastic baggies, the least we can do is to recycle them and The Mart makes it easy to do this.  The bonus is you get to say hello to the little elderly greeter.

For those of us who are trying to stretch that grocery dollar as far as it will go, generic items are an enormous help.  Wal-Mart's store brands, Great Value and Parent's Choice, are great options for the comparable branded items.  I have used a Great Value or Parent's Choice substitute on almost every item available that I purchase and I have yet to be truly disappointed.  In all honesty, if they weren't in the tell-tale white box with blue lettering, I wouldn't recognize the difference.  In the other stores that I shop, there are store brands also but not nearly to the extent that Wal-Mart provides.  I realize this is a strategic marketing move that Wal-Mart has made to entice frugal shoppers but at least I know that I took the bait.

My favorite thing about Wal-Mart, however, is the fact that they include the price per ounce on every single one of their shelf labels.  I learned early on in my study to become a Cheap Mama that price per ounce means everything.  It's the easiest way to compare prices between two objects especially if they are of differing sizes or if you're trying to figure out if the larger size is truly the more economical choice.  In the other local stores that I shop the price is only listed for the whole item.  This means I have to pull out my phone calculator and do the math myself.  This isn't always easy with two kids in tow so I love that Wal-Mart does the work for me.  If you see me shopping and peering at the price labels, 9 times out of 10 I'm looking at the small number to the left first to see what the cheapest option is, and then checking the total cost of the item to make sure it won't bust the weekly grocery budget.

I took this picture for a previous post so forgive the picture.  The total price is in yellow but the price/ounce is included in the orange box to the left. 

Another fabulous feature of Wal-Mart is that they will match any competitor's  prices as long as you show the circular at check-out.  I don't know if they will honor the price pulled up on your smartphone so if anyone knows, please leave a comment.  I really love this feature because let's say for argument's sake that I am addicted to diet coke.  I know the best value for diet coke and this week Target happens to have it on sale for the lowest available price.  Unfortunately, I cannot enter Target without completely losing my mind and buying unneeded clothes for my children so I really don't need to go to Target this week unless I want to blow this month's budget.  Never fear!  I can take the circular with me to Wal-Mart, show the price at checkout and get the item for the Target sale price no matter what the actual price is at Wal-Mart on that given day.  It's a win-win.  I get the crack cocaine diet coke and don't lose my financial mind at Target.

The last reason I love Wal-Mart is because they carry the zip-up hoodies that I can't seem to quit.  I don't know why I love them.  I only know I do.

For those of you who have stuck with me throughout this post (you deserve a medal!) let me list quickly the reasons I don't like Wal-Mart.  Hopefully this will be enough to keep me on your good side if you're a Wal-Mart hater.

Wal-Mart will never put their meat on sale.  Ever.  However, my local grocery stores run specials on meat almost every week so I purchase those items from the local stores.

The rough parking lots mean that I will darn near give the baby Shaken Baby Syndrome on the way into the store and on my way out of the store will inevitably bounce the cases of diet coke so much that they fall off the bottom shelf of the cart leaving me to load them back on in the middle of the parking lot.  Good times, good times.

The fact that there are always 900 check-out lanes but only 3 checkers available is something I will never understand.  However, this allows me time to catch up on the gossip rags so that I never have to pay for them.

Hopefully you now understand my love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart and maybe you'll be encouraged to give The Mart another try if you've avoided it as I used to do. 

Happy shopping, Cheap Mama!

Rome Wasn't Built In A Day. Why Decorating Takes Time

I thought about naming this post "I'll Just Wait 'Til I Find It At TJMaxx" because that's the approach I've taken in decorating my house since I became a Cheap Mama.

One of my favorite things to do when I was working and blowing cash like it was a competitive sport, was to stop at a bookstore and purchase stacks of home decorating magazines.  I discovered a passion for interior design after it was too late to do anything about it, so I found my outlet in poring over beautiful spaces and looking at what made them work.  I still love to do this but now I read them at the public library while my son plays at the puzzle table.

The one thing I have learned by studying these rooms is to recognize true style.  When you understand style, you can recognize a good reproduction when you see it.  This is how I shop for my house.  I once read a quote in one of those fabulous magazines from a famous interior designer.  She said a well done room takes time.  I think in this era of done-in-a-day decorating shows we have somehow lost this truth about decorating.  Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say, and neither will be your house.  Decorating it and filling it with beautiful things will take time.  And, Cheap Mama, in this case time is on your side.

Because with time, you will be able to look for the inexpensive great finds that are part of your style.  You will be able to find those items that when placed correctly in your home, will look like a million bucks and no one will know there's a discount store sticker on the back that you never could scrape off completely.

I use these images that are catalogued in my mind from those magazines when I'm shopping places like Big Lots, TJMaxx, Ross, Tuesday Morning, etc.  It takes a shrewd eye to determine what is junk in these places and what will look great.  With the "idea rooms" in my mind I am able to be a discerning shopper and know when I've found a great deal; the item that is an excellent cheap knock-off of the real deal.

Knowing that decorating a home or room takes time and finding good reproductions takes time, I've begun exercising a lot more patience when it comes to feathering my nest.  I am sometimes tempted to give into the quick and easy purchase.  But I know if I do that, I will end up spending more money than if I had exercised a little patience and...you know, waited until I found it on sale at TJMaxx.

Happy shopping, Cheap Mama.

Here are a few of my recent Cheap Mama finds.

Mirror from *gasp* Big Lots!

Slip-covered chair from a local consignment store

Rug from Big Lots.

Sofa table from Goodwill.