frugal — 4/18 — Beating Broke

Celebrate a Frugal Valentine’s Day with Kids

February 1, 2016 By MelissaB 2 Comments

Valentine’s Day is typically an adult holiday, but kids like to get in on the action by exchanging Valentine’s Day cards and candy with friends. As their parent, you can also make Valentine’s Day a special holiday for kids. Best of all, having a fun, memorable Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to cost a lot with these strategies.

Make Valentine’s Day Food

There is so much fun you could have with this one! For a sophisticated experience, you could melt chocolate and let your kids enjoy chocolate fondue. Even better if you have the melting pot and metal skewers. They’ll have fun dipping soft bread and fruits in the chocolate.

Another option is to make Valentine’s Day food. One year, the kids and I made a heart-shaped cake. Other ideas might be making heart-shaped pancakes or cookies. Be creative, and with the help of Pinterest, you won’t be lacking for ideas.

Make Valentine’s Day Decorations

A few days before Valentine’s Day, prepare your house. Cut out hearts from construction paper and string them together to make garland. Drape them around your mantle, your windows, or your door way.

Another simple idea is to get gel clings at the 99 Cent Store or the discount section of Target and decorate the windows with those. Or, take pink, white, and red pieces of tissue paper and cut them out in heart shapes to tape to your window.

Pamper Your Girls

If you have younger girls, they’ll love getting a spa-like experience from mom. Paint their toenails and their fingernails. Do their hair in a pretty, elaborate style. Go all out. They’ll definitely remember the day.

Watch a Movie Together

There are plenty of cute Valentine’s Day shows for kids. Take the time to watch one together. Some fun selections could be Lady and the Tramp, Beauty and the Beast, Shrek, Enchanted, WALL-E, Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, or The Princess Bride.

Have a Fancy Dinner Together at Home

Too often we’re busy, so meals simply become whatever we can throw together quickly. For Valentine’s Day, take the time to make something your kids love but don’t get very often. I used to love lasagna, but my mom thought it was too much work and would only make it for my birthday. I would have been thrilled to get it for Valentine’s Day. Get your kids’ input for a meal that they would love to have you prepare. What better way to show your love for them?

Give Them a Little Goody Basket

You don’t have to go overboard with the sweets on Valentine’s Day, but give them a little goody bag of their favorite treats, like candy hearts, and Hershey’s kisses. Even more fun, turn the search for the goody bag into a scavenger hunt complete with clues.

Make Valentine’s Day Crafts Together

Pinterest to the rescue again! Some fun ideas include making Valentine’s Day book-markers. Simply get a paint sample strip in shades of red or pink and cut out a heart in each color. Add a string at the top, and voila, you have a book marker.

Another cute idea is making a heart-shaped bird feeder to hang in the tree.

With a little creativity, you can design a Valentine’s Day your children will love. Even better, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune!

What are your favorite ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your kids?

4 Ways to Reduce Your Cell Bill

October 6, 2015 By Paul @ SavingFreak 2 Comments

The average cell phone bill is $139 a month, and according to a study completed by Validas in 2011, 80% of cell phone users are overpaying by $200 a year. My cell phone bill is $90 a month for four phones.

Now I will admit that we don’t have smart phones and it took me several years of bargaining with my cell phone company to get my bill down that low. That doesn’t mean you cannot save money on your bill right now. I am all about saving money, so here are four strategies you can use to reduce your cell bill today.

Check your plan

If you’ve had your cell phone plan for a long time, look to see what you’re paying vs. what you are getting. Most people tend to keep paying for the same cell phone plan they have had for years, but just as your life changes, so should your plan.

Check your last couple bills and see how many minutes you use, how much data you go through, and how many texts that you send each month. You could be paying for unused data or minutes. Don’t let the sales rep convince you to buy a larger plan than you need. The average smart phone user uses a little less than 2 GB of data each month, but the average person is paying for a lot more. With the availability of free Wi-Fi, most people use a lot less data than they assume.

Getting a different job, having grown kids, or hobbies that have changed can have a big impact on how much data and minutes you need. Make sure you let your cell phone plan change as the rest of your life does.

Make sure you are getting your discount

Depending on your job, you could be leaving free money on the table when you pay your cell phone bill. Tens of thousands of corporations offer discounts on their employees’ cell phone bills. Carriers provide these discounts to encourage employees to switch to their services. Corporate discounts can save you 5% – 25% every month. To see if your business is eligible for a discount, call your carrier or check your carriers’ website. If you’re a police officer, EMT, firefighter, teacher, mail carrier, or some other public service worker almost every major carrier offers discounts on your cell phone bill.

After you’ve checked to see if you business receives a corporate discount, contact your carriers’ customer service to have the discount applied. Be sure to review your cell phone bill each month to make sure you are receiving the discount, because we all know how customer service works with these guys.

Change carriers

Major carriers have started offering smaller, cheaper plans. The days of expensive unlimited data plans are in the past. Companies like Verizon and AT&T are offering affordable plans for families that won’t break your bank. For example, Verizon is now offering small, medium, and large packages to fit the needs of you and your family depending on your usage.

If you can’t find a major carrier, there are hundreds of smaller cellphone carriers that offer cheaper plans. Companies like Republic Wireless, Freedompop, and others offer excellent service at a lower cost. Some customers of these “smaller” companies are paying $30 a month of unlimited text, voice, and data. Not only do these smaller carriers save you money, but they also tend to have happier customers as opposed to the larger “traditional” carriers.

If you’re going to break your cell phone contract to go to a different provider, most companies will charge you $100-$200 for terminating the contract. Some carriers, like T-Mobile will pay to get you out of your old contract.

Bundle with others

All of the major cell phone providers offer a family plan to help save you money, but that doesn’t mean you have to be related to enjoy the savings. If you’re single or your family doesn’t need every line, find a friend or coworker that wants to split the bill with you.

Sprint offers a family plan that has unlimited text, talk, and 10 GB of data for 4 people to share for only $100 a month. If you split this with 2 or 3 people, you’ll spend $33 or $50 a month.

Verizon offers a comparable plan with unlimited talk and text, but with 12GB to share for $80 a month. Be careful of this plan, Verizon will also charge you $20 for every cell phone on the plan.

You don’t even have to break your contract to merge accounts. Just have both people show up at the store together, sign some paperwork to transfer the line and badda bing badda boom you move all the lines into one account.

If you are with any of the four major carriers there is a good chance you can use one of these methods to cut the cost of your service. If you find any other methods for cutting your bill make sure you share them with everyone by putting them in the comments

How to Manage the High Cost of Back-to-School Expenses

August 27, 2015 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Do you remember the back-to-school excitement? Your parents likely took you out shopping for new clothes and new folders, pens, pencils and other supplies. While you couldn’t wait to get out of school in June, you were equally excited (at least temporarily) to go back in August or September.

Yet, now, many parents may dread the back-to-school season because of the financial burden. Yahoo! recently reported that the average back-to-school price tag for a high school student is $1,402! That includes the cost of back-to-school supplies, musical instrument rentals, sports and field trips.

If the high cost is concerning you, especially if you have more than one school-aged child, there are plenty of ways to save.

Back to School Supplies

When it comes to back-to-school supplies, there are several cost-cutting measures you can take.

Shop the sales. Target, Walmart, Office Depot, they all offer back-to-school supply sales. Cherry pick the best deals, and you won’t have to pay much for school supplies, especially when you can get notebooks for .05 a piece!

Check out the dollar store. Your local dollar store will have school supplies at a fraction of the cost of retail. This is a great one-stop shopping place to go if you don’t have the time to cherry pick sales.

Clothes

Buying your kids new clothes for school can really eat into your budget. Try these strategies:

Take inventory first. Before you buy any clothes, take inventory. You and your child can look through her closet and see what clothes are still in good condition. You may find you have very little to buy.

Stagger your purchases. There’s no rule that says you have to buy all your child’s back-to-school clothes the week before school. Buy some jeans and long sleeve shirts before school. Then, in October or November when the weather cools, buy some sweaters. Stagger your purchases based on need and sales.

Buy second hand. Another option is to buy second hand, either through a consignment store or a place like Goodwill. You can also try joining and buying from Facebook groups selling the brands of clothes you like. You’ll save a bundle!

Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular activities are important for your children’s development, and in the high school years, participation also helps to round out their college application. Yet, extracurriculars can be expensive! The key is to find ones that your child enjoys and that you can afford.

Look for free extracurriculars. Especially when children are younger, look for things that they can do for free. When my son was young, choir was free, but after school gym cost money every month. He joined choir, and then later he also joined Art Club, in part because it was free.

Choose one extracurricular. As your kids older, choose one extracurricular activity that they excel at. Have your child focus on that one. Then, you only have one expense to pay versus three if he was on a sports team every season.

Have your child become a teacher. Has your child been taking piano since she was five years old? If she now has 10 years’ experience, she could start offering lessons to younger students to help pay for her own lessons. There’s nothing wrong with a high school student helping to pay for her activities and interests.

Combine these strategies, and you’ll find your back-to-school expenses are much more affordable.

What are your favorite strategies for saving on back-to-school items?