Saving money part 2 -How you save money as a farm girl!

After last posting I was thinking of funny ways I'm learning to cut costs on the ranch and I thought that you might find them amusing...

1. Give all table scraps to the chickens and pig to cut costs on animal food.

2. get a rooster to enhance egg production.

3. Trade eggs at the farmer's market for fresh veggies and fruits

4. Plant a vegetable garden to cut down on fresh food costs.

5. Use goats to eat weeds and fertilize garden

6. Use old fish your dh caught to help your garden grow.

7. keep up a yearly mulch pile to use on your garden, so you don't have to buy it.

8. Homeschooling is cheaper than most other schools, even public schools

9. Instead of buying expensive chemicals to clean your house use what your grandma did - vinegar, dish soap and baking soda.

10. Make your own fabric softener - If you want the recipe I'll send it to you.

11. Use cloth diapers as much as possible

12. Make your own decorative pillows, curtains, and maybe kids clothing??? I'm working on it:) LOL!

OK, so this is fun to me! (even my duck pond, Doni)

Want to save some money??

I thought I'd add a few things we are trying to do to save money and some things that some of you have told me about. I know its hard right now and we are all in a pinch, so here are a few things that are helping out our budget and others that I know of!

1. I re-joined with coupon sense and I am saving about %50 on my grocery bills. (ie: Fry's last week, spent $160, saved $158.00) On average I am saving about $200 per month. I am spending $22 per month for the Sunday paper coupons and Coupon sense website membership.

2. Cut off my Direct TV programming extras. Only a few cartoons and networks- saved about $25-30 per month.

3. Planning all meals and eating out only once or twice per week - when eating out, finding the "kids eat free" places. Not ordering kid's meals when eating fast food and packing the kid's drinks from home.

4. Packing at least half of DH's lunches

5. Buying mainly second hand clothing and shoes for the kids and ourselves ( I draw the line at some items):)

6. Recycling cans, aluminum went up in value

7. Discussing all "extra" purchases with your spouse on a weekly basis. It stops the emotional and impulse spending and makes you realize what is actually important to buy. (ie: buying that extra movie at the store, if you wait a few days and bring it up at your meeting, you may not find it so important)

8. If there is anything left over that month after bills, put it in a savings account, don't look at it as extra money.

9. Unplug appliances and lamps you don't use regularly, they drain electricity even when they are not on. Use a hanging line for drying clothing, we definitely have the dry weather for it!

10. Buy used, save the difference (Dugger family motto)

For more tips on dealing with the stress of the times, read John chapter 10 and just look at the precious way our saviour cares for our every need and what He did to be sure we would be cared for for eternity.

Are you an elephant or a kangaroo?

Horton Hears A Who! is a book by Dr. Seuss, and is now a movie that is out on video and I highly recommend buying it!

The message of this story; "A person's a person no matter how small". In this story Horton, the elephant hears a voice on a small speck of dust that is attached to a clover. Without any other explanation he knows there is life on that little speck. He begins protecting it with all his might, even when the kangaroo insists that if you cannot hear it it does not exist. Horton knows that there is life and although he is ridiculed and even attacked he never gives up the fight for this little speck. Only after the speck proves that they are a little tiny town full of people, does Horton's jungle believe him. It is such a great message during a time when the first thing our president does, is overturn every chance at life the unborn had, de-valuing life before our very eyes. Making a point that, if you cannot hear it, it is of no value or use to us. Dr. Seuss had it right and through a delightful poem and now a blockbuster movie we can see clearly what many people cannot, "A person's a person no matter how small".

Speak out and be a Horton!

What Pennies should not be used for!!!

We have been learning about money the last few weeks in school. The boys are doing extra chores for 25 cents a piece and learning how to manage their money. Braxtyn has not wanted to be left out of this and has been finding loose change around the house and telling me its her chore money. (she's my daughter)... Anyways, the other night she starts screaming and I run in to find she had swallowed her penny! I have experience in this department, so I listened to her breathing and then gave her a piece of bread to eat. If the bread goes down we are ok, if not, we go to the ER. We then of course called David, our "on call emergency uncle" and made sure we had remembered everything. She was fine and soon gathering money once again. A few mornings later I found my change in the car shoved into the CD player, which thankfully came out without a problem! But then yesterday morning as I was loading kids and stuff to leave, she climbed into my seat and I thought was play driving.....Lo and behold, a spark, a scream and yes, the penny she found had been shoved in my cell phone car charger. Did you know a penny could short out your car's lighter and/or cell phone charger?? Well, yes it can. So after this week, we have banned the girl from gathering spare change. I don't know, maybe I can pay her in dollars when it's timer for her to do chores...

Snow Day!

Flagstaff was filled with snow so deep it went past my knees! It also snowed while we were there, which added to the fun. We went to Mormon Lake Lodge for hot cocoa and chili afterwards. It was a beautiful day!

We don't get to see snow too much, but I always have snow clothes on hand from second hand stores. This year the boys needed snow boots so we thought we'd buy them in Flagg. Nope! Not a single store had even a pair of rubber boots! We even had to buy our sled from a nice family who was done for the day! So poor Noah and Graham had freezing toes by the end, but relly they didn't complain too much. Well, not until they started to thaw out in the car! LOL!