Seasonal Fun: Summer and Autumn

Summer:

Find a swimming hole that your family can visit free of charge.

Go on picnics whenever you can.

Take advantage of the playground.

The park is a great place to play Frisbee, tag or baseball.

When it is too hot to move, read a good book.

 

Autumn:

Rake the leaves and jump in the pile.

Make a scarecrow from old clothes.

Take a walk and photograph the foliage for a scrapbook or a photo arrangement.

Bake pumpkin seeds.

 

 

 

Leftover Turkey Nachos

Another great use for leftover turkey and other ingredients. It can be found on the Frugal Recipes blog by clicking on the link below. Great for using up Thanksgiving leftovers.

 

http://frugalrecipes.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/leftover-turkey-nachos/

 

Shannon

Ways to Earn Extra Money

By Shannon Buck – Copyright December 2006

I know what it is like to be a little short on bill money sometimes. I have had my electricity cut off a few times myself, when my children were little. It can be embarrassing, and it will cost you more in the long run. I have learned to sign up for payment plans whenever I can.

There are many ways to earn extra money. One year I worked the holiday season at Toys R Us. I really enjoyed it. It helped me to afford to pay the bills for a couple of months, and I was even able to buy Christmas presents for everyone.

My father used to pay me $20.00 a week to clean his bedroom and bathroom once each week. The first time I cleaned for him, it took me a few hours (he was not one for cleaning!), but each week afterwards it took me little time. I would say about 1/2 an hour, plus the time to do his laundry.

You could offer to do yardwork for people during the warmer months, and snowplow or shovel during the winter. You could also offer to do simple maintenance for people.

Running errands for people could bring in some extra cash, plus the cost of gas. If you ran your errands at the same time, then you wouldn’t even be using much extra gas.

For those who wish to stay home, you can do other things. You can babysit, but I only suggest this if you truly like children. It can be very demanding. Some children are not easy to handle, and rarely will the family you are babysitting for have the same morals and values that you do. However, childcare can also be very rewarding, and a lot of fun.

If a neighbor is away a lot, they may need a pet sitter. All you do is make sure the pet is fed, walked, and/or has a clean litter box. Love the pet, and you may be asked to watch after the pet on a regular basis. I do this for one of my neighbors and make $10.00 – $20.00 a week, depending on how much my neighbor is away from his home.

You may also be able to secure a job housesitting if a neighbor travels a lot. This would be checking to make sure that no one breaks in, making sure the place is locked up, watering plants, making sure the pipes do not freeze… Whatever the owner needs. This does not take much of your time at all.

I used to type letters and such for my father. It was worth it to work for an hour or two for another $10.00 – $20.00 every so often.

If you enjoy the task, you could do peoples taxes. This will help you to pay off those holiday bills, pay the current bills, and maybe even stock your pantry.

There are a lot of different opportunities to earn extra money. Honestly, most of the opportunities that I have had were not ones that I seeking. I just new people who needed the services.

What types of this are you able to do that could be a source of income for you? Make a list, stick it on your refrigerator, and look for opportunities to put your list into action.

Quick Financial Tips

• My phone bill is $8.00 a month. I took everything off it except the maintenance plan. I get a discount because I received HEAP a couple of times.
• Using coupons can mean a lot of savings, but sometimes you will save more by purchasing a different brand or a generic/store brand. Make sure you always check.
  
• Heat rises, so turn the heat down upstairs. You may also want to experiment with turning the heat down one degree each night to see what you are comfortable with.
• You may find that you are comfortable at a temperature of 63* at night, but need it a bit warmer during the day. I always turn my heat down when I will be gone for awhile.

The $100.00 Holiday Gift Challenge

Katy, over at The Non-Consumer Advocate, is issuing a challenge for everyone. Do you think that you can acquire everyone’s holiday gifts for $100.00 or less.

With the economy the way that it is, I believe that we will be trying to get as far below that as we can – in our household.

Please visit her site at http://thenonconsumeradvocate.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/the-100-holiday-gift-challenge/ for more information.

Shannon

Leftover Turkey and Corn

http://frugalrecipes.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/leftover-turkey-and-corn/

The link leads to my Frugal Recipes site, where I am now posting my Thanksgiving leftovers recipes.

Shannon

New Pages to the Blog

You will notice, upon inspection, that their are two new pages for this blog. They have been transferred here from the main site, and deal with programs and websites of help to people. Places like The Salvation Army, specific thrift shops, etc.

Maine has one page, because this is where I live. The other is nation wide.

Please, check them out and see if anything would be helpful to you.

Also, feel free to post about places in your area.

Shannon

Seasonal Fun: Spring and Winter

(From the site)

Spring Fun  

Walking ~ A free activity that is good for the whole family. Nature walks are great at this time of the year. You can watch everything come to life around you.

Go to the playground with the children.

Sit outside and watch the night sky.

Sit outside and tell each other the shapes in the clouds.

Talk about the changes that you are noticing outside. What signs of spring can you see.

Winter Fun

Sledding ~ We can do this free in the next town.

Ice Skating ~ We can do this free at the playground.

Have an ice skating party. Serve hot cocoa and brownies.

Have a sledding party. Serve hot cocoa and cookies.

Cook on the BBQ once a month during the winter months.

Have a snowball fight.

Make snow angels.

Take a ride and see the holiday displays. Do this during the day, then go back at night to see what they displays look like all lit up.

Have indoor picnics.

Have a regular game night.

Have a regular movie night.

Having Fun, and Still Moving Information

I am still working on moving information from the website to here, so I will be getting them posted soon. I want to be able to close the website before I have to pay on it again, so I hope to have all of the information posted here soon.

The site is where the information below came from. Out of season, I know.

Shannon

***

• Take the children to the playground. Play with them, take some photos, and have a picnic.  I still love to swing!

• A day at the beach with friends: Swim, play frisbee, look for frogs, take photographs, have a picnic, relax and talk.

• I used to travel the back roads with friends. There are plenty of places to pitch a tent. One time we were by a stream. Another time we ended up at a gentlemen’s camp. We didn’t go in, but pitched our tents. We didn’t bother anything. We barbequed, swam, and canoed. It was a lot of fun.
  

  
  

  We all just hung out and relaxed.
  

  
  

  We left the place as nice as we found it.
  

Winter Prep: 2008 (Done so far)

Right now, I am working on the pantry. Zowie got most of the trailer banked today, and I have had my appointment with fuel assistance. The heat tape has been plugged in. I will be doing more during the upcoming week. Who knew that it was going to get so cold, so soon. We usually do most of our winter prep stuff in November.

I have also cleaned up the yard, harvested everything from the garden, and continued to feed the compost for use next spring. And I have loaded the beds with quilts, fleece blankets and comforters.

Zowie has vacuumed out all of the heat vents.

TTasks to try to complete during the upcoming week:

• Close up all of the windows.
• Put screens in shed.
• Put plastic on the windows.
• Caulk the tub.
• Call to have the furnace cleaned.
• Fill a couple of small holes in the wall, left for me by the previous owners.
• Figure a way to stop the draft from the area behind the tub. Also, left from the previous owner. My stepfather did put up a wall to block the siight of the pipes for the tub and shower, but now there is an air leak that I have to attend to.

Hopefully I will have time to accomplish this stuff.

Shannon