I use to dress the girls in matching clothes all the time.  When our third daughter came along, I realized that she was wearing the same outfit for years.  So, I stopped.  Now, they are matchy once a year.  Easter.

Easter shopping with a piddly budget and four kids to dress is impossible tough. 

I found a dress that came in all the sizes I needed (hooray!) and I quickly realized that it didn't work for the budget (good grief!).  I was so tempted to buy them anyway.  I was tired.  I didn't like any of the other dresses.  All the dresses were in a similar price range - sale and clearance racks alike. 

Then I remembered my FPU lesson, "That's not good enough."  Back on the rack those dresses went.  Much to the dismay of my children.  (They were tired of shopping too.) 

I started making my way to the entrance of the store with my little herd of kids (shoulders bent in "Easter shopping with a piddly budget" defeat) when I saw the clearance rack!  The clearance rack that dressed my kids under budget and cuter than the "over budget" outfits!  Gotta love it! 

My frugal tip for today, "That's not good enough."  There is always a better deal. 

For more Frugal Friday, visit Life As Mom.

Eating out is expensive.  Avoiding the restaurant is the obvious way to save. 

Occasionally, we enjoy a dinner out.  One of the easiest ways to save at the restaurant is to drink water.  With a family of six this is usually a $7 or $8 savings.

Sometimes our kids are less than enthusiastic.  Tea and Soda are rather tempting.  So to help them be enthused and save us money, we now offer to reward them with a quarter if they cheerfully order water.  We still save and I love that they are enthusiastic. (Three kids = three quarters.  The lil' guy is still too small to know the difference.) 

I absolutely have no problem demanding they drink water.  If I insist, they'll comply.  But $0.75 is a smidgen reward.  They know that ordering water saves the family money and they reap an instant benefit. 

We are gonna drink the water anyway, lol.  We've just found a way to make it more fun! 

For more Frugal Friday, visit Life as Mom.

I love, love, love this cake recipe!  The original recipe is delightful but I changed it around a little bit to accommodate my pantry.

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups applesauce applebutter
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped apples
  
  Cream butter with sugar. Add eggs, applesauce and water and beat well. Add dry ingredients and incorporate well. Add chopped apples to batter.  Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until it tests done.

The original recipe called for applesauce instead of applebutter.  I have several jars of applebutter that I purchased from a local church.  I also love the texture of chopped apples in cakes. So, I decided to throw some in there.  Beyond your typical staples (butter, sugar, flour), this cake costs around $1.00 to make.  See the original recipe for a breakdown of cost.

The Full Table has become one of my favorite cooking blogs. 

For more Frugal Friday, visit Life As Mom.

Always looking for new and exciting ways to reduce the grocery costs and spice up the menu plan!  Pretty tall order, huh? 

A great resource I've found is CheapCooking.com.  I especially enjoy the Chronicles of a Curious Cook Blog.  Lots of great tips, notes, and recipes. 

A great place to start saving or just get new ideas!  Don't y'all need a little inspiration sometimes? 

For more Works for Me Wednesday visit We Are THAT Family.

Miserly Mom's - Frugal Recipes 

(Links to Page 1, click on "more recipes" for pages 2 and 3)

Over 200 recipes!  Tasty.  Frugal.  Includes the approximate cost per serving. 

Loved this Recipe:

1 package flour tortillas

Sugar/Cinnamon Mixture for coating.

Oil

Heat oil (1/4 to 1/2 inch deep) in fry pan.  Put 1 tortilla in for about 5-10 seconds. Turn with tongs and do the other side. After it is turned it will "puff" up.  Remove from pan with tongs and put in a container with the cinnamon/sugar mixture--put the lid on the container & shake to "coat" with the mixture.

These cost approximately 20 cents to make at home (10-12 cents for the tortilla, another 8-10 cents for topping & oil to fry them in).  At fairs & such these cost at least $3.00 & up! Other toppings such as powdered sugar (plain or flavored) or cocoa could be used instead of the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Need some new ideas for menu planning?  Shew, I did.

For more tips visit Biblical Womanhood's Frugal Friday!

I use AVG Free Antivirus.  

AVG Free provides basic antivirus and antispyware protection for Windows and is available to download for free.

Downloaded my AVG Free one year ago.  I  AVG Free.

More Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood.

This dough can be used as play dough or to make sculptures, jewelry, picture frames, magnets, plates, coasters, or anything else you can imagine! 

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1tbs. vegetable oil

1/2 cup water

Food coloring can be added to the dough to make it more fun.  You can also add "good smellies" like fragrance oils or spices.

Store your dough in a plastic container or bag. 

To turn your soft creations into permanent creations simply cook on very low heat (about 200 degrees) for six hours or until they are hard throughout.  Objects need to be mostly flat so they can bake thoroughly.  Bake objects on a cookie sheet with a layer of wax paper underneath.  After the objects have been baked they can be painted with acrylic paint or leftover house paint.  If you are serious about permanence, you should spray objects with a clear coat of varnish or plasti-coat.

Find more info about the history of salt dough and inspiration for using salt dough here and here.

Have fun!

For more Frugal Friday go to Biblical Womanhood!

1.  For later:

A week after Valentine's Day (last year), I came upon boxes of character Valentine's discounted 90%.  I snatched up seven boxes.  Two boxes for each of the big girls and one box for the little guy.  I figured if I bought up several, the kids would have options in case their preferences changed.  My cost?  90 cents!

2.  For now:

Candy Cane Cards.  Grab up the last of the discounted candy cane's and make these very frugal Valentines.

Read tons of frugal tips at Biblical Womanhood.

Have I mentioned that I love Frugal Friday?  I do.  I've learned so much at Biblical Womanhood's Frugal Friday's! 

This is a quick and yummy recipe.  I'm always looking for something new to change up our homeschool lunches, frugally.  And once again, I got this from the Duggar's new book.

The ingredients:

one slice of bread, pizza/spaghetti sauce, cheese (cheddar and mozzarella), pepperoni or any other pizza toppings you like.

Assemble your pizzas:

Place in oven at 450 degrees for five to ten minutes.

Variations include using flour tortillas or bagels instead of slices of bread. 

My kids (bigs and littles) enjoyed assembling their own pizzas.  

Hope you enjoy!

I tweaked the original Homemade Baby Wipes Recipe just a smidge.  Instead of 1 T of rubbing alcohol, I reduced it to 1/2 T of rubbing alcohol.  I prefer them with the added baby wash.  I also switched from Bounty to Viva paper towels on Laura's (thanks for commenting, I can't find your site) recommendation.  I price checked the brand name baby oil and baby wash but you can save even more with the generic.  I am using a 50 sheet roll of papertowels.  So, I used half the liquid ingredients. 

Johnson and Johnson Baby Oil at $3.50 for 20 ounce bottle.  Used 1 T.

Johnson and Johnson Baby Wash at $3.75 for 15 ounce bottle.  Used 1/2 T.

Rubbing Alcohol at $1.29 for 16 ounce bottle.  Used 1/4 T. 

Viva paper towels at $1.21 per roll.  (I bought the eight pack to get the extra savings.)  Used 1/2 roll. 

Divide, multiply, and add.  It comes out to $0.77 for 50 wipes.  

Go to Biblical Womanhood for more Frugal Tips.