Thrifty Father's Day

Father's Day is soon upon us (June 15). I approach this holiday with sadness. This will be the second Father's Day since I lost my Dad in the spring of 2007. Then almost a year to the day, my Mom passed away this spring. I miss them both and grieve a little each day when something suddenly reminds me they are gone.

I was a Daddy's girl, even as an adult. I believe he could do anything! Daddy passed along a lot of things to me, including my thrifty spirit.

Although I can't spend this holiday with him, I will definitely have a little "talk" with him!

I have 2 children and 2 grandchildren, so Father's Day is still a special day in my home! I want to emphasise that probably the most special gift you can give any dad is your TIME! My Dad loved to just sit and visit. So - spend the day with your loved one! You will be glad you did.

Along with some face time, here's a few frugal ideas that I'm sure your dad would like:

• Go through your photo albums and put together a photo collage of your Dad's family and friends
• If you have a tech savvy Dad or can swing a digital picture frame, create your collage from digital images and write them to a CD
• Dad like to read? Mine sure did! Give them a gift card or pick out a special book and sign and date it with a personal note
• Mow the lawn and let him sip lemonade!
• Wash his vehicle(s)
• Does he have a favorite meal? Prepare it and invite him to dinner
• Bake a cake and decorate it. Doesn't matter if you have cake decorating skills!

Most of all - enjoy the day and each other!

Here are some discounted sites if you want to shop on-line:
Get FREE SHIPPING this Father's Day on orders more than $25 at the Kodak Gallery!

Find 1000's of Unique Gifts for Father's Day at CafePress

Browse the best in Christian products at FamilyChristian.com.

Thrifty Entertainment

Having fun does not always have to be expensive.

If you have children, spend time planning activities with them.

Check your local newspaper for cultural and social events. Many local events are free or low cost. You can also find information about things going on in your area at CitySearch.com.

Some other ideas:

1. Go to a movie during the matinee hours.
2. Have a family game night and play board games, puzzles, or cards.
3. Learn a craft that you can share with your children such as clay, crochet, cross stitch, or woodcrafts.
4. Your local library offers more than books! Check them for videos and games.

Check out http://www.thrifty411.com/ for more on being thrifty and frugal.

Janet

Another Thrifty Living Deal!

Check out these and other holiday weekend savings!


Hope you have a safe and happy holiday weekend!
Janet

Frugal Father's Day

Check out these sites for some "Thrifty-411" approved products!

Eat Healthy on a Budget - wikiHow

How to Eat Healthy on a Budget

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

A visit to a health food store can convince anyone that eating healthy is a luxury rather than choice. To the contrary, eating healthy does not require buying the hottest new diet food or piles of exotic fruit. Nor does eating cheaply limit you to a menu of pre-packaged pastas. The exact items that make up cheap, healthy diets vary greatly by location, but the methods to creating these diets vary little. Since most of what you pay for in food is convenience, you can save money and maintain your health by investing time and planning into your diet.

Steps

1. Determine what kind of diet is healthy for you. Generally, a diverse diet that is heavily biased towards unprocessed plant products is healthy. Fortunately, grains, fruits and vegetables can be bought for low prices, if you know where and when to look. Potatoes and carrots, for instance, are very beneficial for most people to eat and are often very cheap across the continental United States. Take a close look at your food receipts and cross out any items except meat, unprocessed vegetables and eggs. These are the main foods you should be buying. Meat and dairy products should be treated as side dishes (or eliminated altogether) and prepared foods should be avoided.
   
2. Get an idea of what kinds of foods are cheap in your area. This may require a walk through your local grocery store(s) and other food vendors such as farmers' markets, bakeries, and specialty stores. For best results, take this walk with an educated mind and adventurous palate. Generally, foods that grow well and sell well in your area will be the cheapest, whether it's corn, green chiles, or apples. When in season, squash, onions, cucumbers, celery, and tomatoes can also be very cheap, especially in the midwestern United States. The more willing you are to try new foods in place of (rather than in addition to) your normal shopping list items, the more likely you are to lower the total cost of your shopping list while still eating healthy.
   
3. Eat seasonally. Harvests come in waves, showering consumers with abundance that results in cheap prices. You'll not only save money by eating what's in season, but you'll also get your hands on food that's fresh. Find local farmers' markets and strike bargains with the farmers. Many times, they'll be thrilled to sell at a discount if you buy regularly and in bulk.
   
4. Invest in food storage facilities. If you're purchasing foods that are in season and you're buying them in bulk to realize savings, then you'll need to take measures to store all that food. It's best to have a cool, dark cellar or pantry as well as a large freezer for meat and vegetables. For example, say you find a farmer with a bumper crop of corn; you can buy a year's worth of corn at a good price, freeze it, and have enough to last you for a year.
   
5. Buy the least expensive variation of any type of food. For example, kidney beans come in pre-seasoned frozen packages, in cans, and dried in bags. Usually, the cheapest form of kidney beans is dried. Establish which forms of foods are available in each store and at what prices.
   
6. Stop eating out. On those rare occasions that you do go out to eat, choose the simplest item on the menu, which is often the cheapest, too. Eat only half or one third of what is served (most restaurant portions are enormous) and take the rest home to eat later, combined with healthy side dishes.
   
7. Learn to cook from scratch. Cooking from scratch is the cheapest (and best) way to eat. Get in the habit of rolling yesterday's leftovers into today's meal. Manage your refrigerator: never let anything go bad. Eat it or use it as an ingredient in a sauce, casserole, or soup. For example, old lettuce can be chopped and put into a soup, old salsa can be added to a curry, and old milk can be turned into a quiche. (Of course, don't use anything that has actually gone sour or rancid!) Make your own pasta.
   
8. Use greater quantities of cheap food than of expensive food in cooking. Use a base of enriched or whole-grain rice, whole-wheat pasta or bread, or cooked oats to provide cheap, healthy bulk to more expensive, flavorful foods. For example, you can use less beef in some chili recipes by halving the amount of ground beef called for and adding water and instant plain oats instead. Whether or not that example sounds good to you, be original and try your own variations. Just because no one you know has thought of it before does not mean it is not a good idea.
   

Tips

• If it's in a box or in a metallic bag, don't buy it.
  
• Consider giving up dairy products. Not only are they expensive, but they are also suspected to be associated with chronic conditions and diseases. If you can get your calcium elsewhere, it'll likely benefit both your health and your wallet.
  
• Replace soda with tap water. If you prefer, you can also purchase an inexpensive water filter that will provide you with gallons of the same quality water that is found in bottles.
  
• Make your own snacks and bring them with you whenever you go out, along with a bottle of water.
  

Warnings

• In order to eat healthy on a budget, you must sacrifice convenience, which means you'll have to spend a lot more time shopping around and cooking than others do. You can't have it all!
  
  Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Eat Healthy on a Budget. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.
  

Tips to Save Money on Gas Prices

Gas prices continue to be at all time highs meaning that car travel is taking a a larger portion out of each of your paychecks.

Drive more efficiently and maintain your vehicle and get more mileage for your gas dollar.

Here's some ideas for lowering your fuel expenses.

• Slow down and drive at the speed limit. Cars use about 20% more fuel driving at 70 miles per hour than they do at 55 miles per hour.
• Empty your trunk. Every 100 pounds of unnecessary weight reduces fuel efficiency by 1%.
• Check your air filter at every oil change. Clogged air filters cause engines to work overtime which requires more fuel.
• Use a synthetic oil instead of mineral oil. This will cause your engine to run better and give you better mileage.
• Get directions. If you don't get lost, you don't waste gas driving around.
• Avoid using air conditioning whenever possible. Air conditioning reduces fuel economy by 10% to 20%. Use the air ventilation system instead.
• Don't top off. Don't bother topping off when filling your car's gas tank. Any additional gas is just going to slop around or seep out. Why waste your money paying for gas your car won't use? Stop pumping at the first indication that your tank is full when the automatic nozzle clicks off.

Check out http://www.thrifty411.com/ for more on being thrifty and frugal.