My husband is a guitar player, and a pretty good one, I might add. He loves his music! My daughter, following in his footsteps, loves all things music as well. She’s an aspiring flute player and singer, and this year she’s going to add guitar to her musical repertoire. Not quite as talented, but definitely proficient, I play the flute and sometimes sing. And though my son declares he’s ...

I’ve really been working on eating fewer processed foods lately, and one of the projects I’ve started to tackle is baking my own bread products. I’m certainly no expert yet, but I was pretty proud of my hamburger bun baking efforts last week. I’ve made whole wheat hamburger buns once before, and though they tasted good, they were really heavy. So I went in search of a better recipe ...

Yesterday the kids and I took a little field trip to our county animal shelter. We had to renew our dog’s license, and while we were there we just had to visit the dogs and cats at the shelter! There weren’t too many dogs, though we we were able to play with some baby pit bulls. I’m not a huge pit bull fan, but those puppies were sure cute! ...

Yesterday we started our second year of homeschooling . Though last year went well, we had a few technical problems that I’m hoping to avoid with a little organization this year. Our biggest problem last year was missing school supplies. You see, we’re very relaxed about where we do school. We read books on the bed in the master bedroom. We do math at the kitchen counter. Hannah likes ...

My husband and I have been living an actively frugal lifestyle for almost three years. I recently had an experience that showed me how much my thought process has been changed by frugality. We saw a television commercial for a folder-type organizing system touted as a “portable workstation”, and it looked interesting. As most commercials do, this one illustrated the various ways the system could be used, and I ...

You’ve seen the ads. Soap Savers to help you use every last sliver of soap. Pants Extenders to help your pants fit, even after you gain weight. Soda Pop Lids to keep your soda fresh, in the event you can’t drink the whole can. Green Bags to keep your produce fresh longer. The list is never ending. On the surface, these ideas seem good. After all, it’s more frugal ...

This post has been written by Mike from Green Panda Treehouse . He is a financial planner and run s several finance blogs within his online company. I must admit it right away: I’m not frugal . I actually hate to save my pennies. I do however, totally understand people who pursue their quest to live frugally and strive to cut their expenses. Most of the time, they are ...

Part of being frugal is constantly re-evaluating your bills to make sure the services you pay for are serving your needs. Up next for re-evaluation in our house is our Phone/TV/Internet service. When we moved here two years ago, we signed a contract with Qwest/DirecTV for phone and satellite television. That contract will be up in September, and we’re looking to make some changes. Where We Stand Now As ...

Over the last week I’ve kicked my cleaning and organizing into high gear, trying to get through the whole house, before I leave for BlogHer next week. This weekend I attacked the kitchen, defrosting the freezer and reorganizing every cabinet. I thought through where I wanted to place things, so I could use my kitchen as efficiently as possible. Here’s what I came up with. First, welcome to my ...

I’ve been consciously avoiding the news all summer, as I was on news overload at the beginning of June. But this week I read my local online newspaper for the first time in weeks, and I saw an article that made me sad. With the unemployment rate in our county hovering around 12% (and around 14% in the next county up), unemployment benefits are starting to run out . ...