This back issue is FULL of handy tips to help you along. Making a Frugal Fresh Start is on sale NOW for only $2.50 (this price will be good until Sunday night 6/23). Have you ever seen inside one of my magazines? Take a SNEAK PEEK HERE to see some of the frugal goodness we packed into this issue!

Here’s a little more of what’s inside:

Don’t you love a good yard sale? Learn to shop yard sales like a pro! The goal of this month’s feature is to suggest ideas to use in three major areas—cleaning, organizing, and food (feeding your family). Start taking incremental steps toward lasting change . . .

Organize without Spending: You could spend a lot of money on organizational stuff—but you don’t have to!

• Don’t throw it away! What can you do with oatmeal containers? Cylinder-shaped chip containers? Cereal boxes? Coffee cans? Caps from aerosol spray cans? An unused photo album? And there’s more . . . organize!
• How are you using those plastic milk jugs?
• Great ways to upcycle those 2-liter plastic soda bottles!
• Kimberly, from Kimberly’s Cup, shows you how she repurposes glass jars for pantry storage. You may never throw out another jar!

Beyond Coupons—Seven Ways to Save Money While Eating Well: You’ll find practical suggestions to re-think ways of getting food on the table and enjoy healthy, creative meals without over-spending.

• Watch your waist, and your waste! Re-think portion control!
• Are you menu planning yet? Get a free E-Book download link that’ll make it so easy to get started!
• Practice recipe substitutions. Get this handy chart to help!
• Plan a cooking party or start a brunch club!
• Consider bartering and gleaning. You’ll want to hear what Molly has to say about it.

Over 35 pages of information & support for an incredibly low price! A small price to pay compared to the great benefits you’ll receive and the money you’ll be saving once you dig into this E-Book! Buy this E-Magazine today for ONLY $2.50!

Molly members already have this magazine in your member page! Simply click the “Molly Members” tab above, log in, and search out April 2009.

If you’re not a Molly member, check out everything you receive and sign up now on our SUBSCRIPTION PAGE!

You most likely already have these two ingredients in your pantry: olive oil and vinegar. If you’re like me, you probably also have some wood furniture (or floors) that have a few scratches of their own. I have an easy DIY fix for those scratches! Simply mix equal parts olive oil and vinegar, shake the mixture up very well and rub some lightly into the wood. You can let the mixture rest there for 12-24 hours and then go back and rub it off. You can repeat this process over and over until the scratch lessens or disappears all together! How easy (and frugal) is that?!?

Check out the following sites for more information:

THIS SITE gives you multiple tips on how to repair/fix worn out wood floors.

THIS SITE shares a bit of info on where this recipe has been used for years.

THIS SITE shares multiple tips on how you can remove stains and repair scratches/dents from hardwood floors.

DIY scratch repair works for me! Do you use DIY cleaners? What is your favorite?

Disclaimer: Please use caution/discretion and test this mixture in an inconspicuous area before applying to a large area of furniture/flooring. Econobusters is not held liable for any discoloration or “harm” that may come from using this mix of ingredients on your personal property.

Molly Green is happy to link to the following blogs and would love for you to take a peek at these sites as well!  WE ARE THAT FAMILY, HIP HOMESCHOOL MOMS,  TIME WARP WIFE, ABOVE RUBIES, ADORNED FROM ABOVE,  VICKI ARNOLD,  RAISING ARROWS, RAISING HOMEMAKERS, HOMEMAKERS CHALLENGE, and ORGANIZED 31!

Thanks to the “new economy”, more of us than ever are having to live simply. Many families are doing things they never thought they’d do – cutting coupons, getting rid of cable television, trading down cars or houses, and even living with relatives. Many of us are used to nicer lifestyles where we could afford a few indulgences or luxuries, so this step down might be a bit of a culture shock. The question is: How can we become content with a simple life?

We’re going through some of these same changes in our own family and we’ve had our own ups and downs with accepting our new economic reality, so I wanted to share some of the tips we’ve found to be helpful as we adjust to a simpler way of living.

Stay busy.

Personally, I do great at following our budget when I’m busy. When I’m bored, I tend to seek out activities that cost money such as shopping or eating out regularly. The more engaged I am with our family, though, the more content I am with a simple family dinner or an afternoon at the park.

Re-establish what’s important.

Refocusing on the things that are most important to us is a big help when we’re trying to cultivate contentment. For our family, these priorities are our worship, our time as a family, and our commitment to homeschooling. When we weigh up any leisure activities or luxuries against these three priorities, it’s pretty easy to know which to choose.

Save, don’t skimp.

This last tip may seem like a bit of a contradiction, but I think there’s a fine line to walk here. Our goal is to save money, not to skimp on necessities or occasional wants. For example, we have four children, so we have to spend a considerable amount of money on groceries. At first, I tried to pare our grocery budget down to the absolute minimum in an attempt to save as much money as possible. Guess what happened? We ended up eating out more than ever because everybody was hungry. Now I know that it’s more important to save money by buying less expensive items than to skimp on the amount of food we actually need to eat.

Choose your associates wisely.

Even if you’re sticking to the above three tips faithfully, they may not be enough to help you cope with another kind of temptation: the temptation to become jealous of the life others are living. If you’re spending time with friends and family members who regularly spend money on activities you can’t afford, it can be difficult not to feel envious of their supposed “freedom.” We try to seek out friends who are living simply as well so that we aren’t invited to do things that are outside of our budget. We also explain our financial goals to others if we know we can’t afford an activity – without feeling embarrassed or frustrated. Rather than dwelling on what others are doing, we try to search out things that we know we can do together, which counteracts any of the resentment we could feel.

Selena is a former tax accountant-turned-homeschooling mom of four. She and her husband, Jay, have committed themselves to homeschooling their children in an effort to give them the very best education possible and to strengthen their bond as a family. Selena shares her family’s homeschooling adventures every weekday at Look! We’re Learning! Readers can keep up with the family by subscribing via email or by following Look! We’re Learning! on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

It’s time for happy hearts, big smiles, and my Making Money from Home magazine! This edition of Molly’s Money-Saving Digest is full of creative ways to provide for your family’s needs while remaining within your budget! In this issue you’ll find lots of fresh inspiration and information, so don’t miss it!

This 2009 back issue is on sale only this week for $2.50. Have you ever seen inside one of my magazines? Take a SNEAK PEEK HERE to see some of the frugal goodness we packed into this issue! Over 35 pages of information & support for an incredibly low price! A small price to pay compared to the great benefits you’ll receive and the money you’ll be saving once you dig into this E-Book! Buy this E-Book today for ONLY $2.50!

Molly members already have this magazine in your member page! Simply click the “Molly Members” tab above, log in, and search out March 2009.

If you’re not a Molly member, check out everything you receive and sign up now on our SUBSCRIPTION PAGE!

Are you new to gardening? Would you like to make homemade cleaners but don’t know where to start? This 2009 back issue is FULL of handy tips to help you along. Gardening Basics and Natural Cleaners is on sale NOW for only $2.50, today is the last day to receive this back issue at this discounted price. Have you ever seen inside one of my magazines? Take a SNEAK PEEK HERE to see some of the frugal goodness we packed into this issue!

Over 35 pages of information & support for an incredibly low price! A small price to pay compared to the great benefits you’ll receive and the money you’ll be saving once you dig into this E-Book! Buy this E-Book today for ONLY $2.50!

Molly members already have this magazine in your member page! Simply click the “Molly Members” tab above, log in, and search out February 2009.

If you’re not a Molly member, check out everything you receive and sign up now on our SUBSCRIPTION PAGE!

Recently we were traveling to a convention out-of-state (many states away from home actually). I had the whole trip mostly planned out ahead of time, I even used the fuel calculator on MapQuest to help estimate how much gas might be. I figured out a “food allowance” for while we would be gone as well as planned/packed food for eating in the car (and for filling up our big cooler). I called months in advance to make a reservation at a hotel nearest the convention center before they were completely booked.

When we left for our trip and began the long journey to the convention, one of our many stops was at a wayside. I like stopping at waysides when I don’t need to purchase gas, it’s a quick way to let everyone stretch their legs, let the kids run around a bit, etc. As I was loading the kids back into the car to continue our journey I noticed some free flyers, one of them was full of hotel coupons. I grabbed one, shoved it in my bag and we continued on our journey.

That night after dinner I began looking through the flyer. I noticed that there were 3 coupons for the major city we were traveling to (where the convention was being held). The price offered on that coupon was almost 1/3 of what I was going to pay for my previous reservation! I called one of the hotels, asked if they had any open rooms and they did! Can you guess what I did? Yep, I switched reservations.

You can bet that in the future when we are traveling somewhere and we need a hotel room, I’ll be doing some research on various sites to find a good rate BEFORE we go!

Hotel coupons work for me!

Do you check rates on hotel rooms to get the best deal before traveling?

Living frugally doesn’t have to be overwhelming or hard. . . take a sneak peek into my GARDENING BASICS AND NATURAL CLEANERS magazine today! For THIS WEEK ONLY we will be offering this back issue for ONLY $2.50 (price adjustment will be reflected upon checkout)!

Make Do and Do Without

My grandmothers could both tell lots of stories from those days. If you are blessed to have a living grandmother, be sure to spend this precious time with her and ask her about her days as a young wife and mother.

You will learn so much and be so inspired. Both sets of grandparents in my family could vividly recall the Victory Gardens and raising small animals in their backyards. They all lived in the Los Angeles area, so this as accomplished on their suburban lots. My maternal grandmother used to laugh every time she told the story about the day she decided she, herself, was going to kill the chicken for dinner. She had watched my grandfather (who had been raised on a farm in Texas) expertly break the chicken’s neck in one swift movement. She figured, if he could do it, why couldn’t she? Well, she tried and tried to swing that chicken around and snap its neck, just like my grandfather, but the unfortunate hen’s neck never broke! To everyone’s horror it just got longer! They finally had to do the poor creature in with an ax.

I would highly recommend the book We Had Everything but Money, published by Reminisce Books (1992), if you want to be both inspired and humbled at the same time. One man told the story of how his neighbor cut own every tree on his lot to supply firewood for the folks in his neighborhood for the winter. Another woman recalls how her father used his savings to buy flour, spaghetti, and dry beans. He planted hundreds of tomato plants and her mother canned over 100 quarts of tomato sauce. They ate spaghetti every single day for a year! Women made quilts to sell, sold baked goods door to door (one of my daughters made good money doing this one summer), and weren’t too proud to ask others if they could glean from their fruit or nut trees. I have canned all my neighbor’s peaches in exchange for half the fruit. I always have canned peaches on my shelf even though I don’t have a peach tree!

I know our situations are not as desperate as they were back then, but many of us do live on very tight budgets. Our culture does not make it easy for a woman to stay home. Most of us have husbands who work  very hard to bring home a paycheck. Don’t we owe it to them to be as frugal as we possibly can with the money they provide? Maybe we can adapt some of the thrifty sense our grandmothers had to our lives today…

For more of this article on making something new out of something old, CLICK HERE to purchase Gardening Basics and Natural Cleaners as a single issue (this week is HALF PRICE).

Molly members already have this magazine in your member page! Simply click the “Molly Members” tab above, log in, and search out February 2009.

If you’re not a Molly member, check out everything you receive and sign up now on our SUBSCRIPTION PAGE!

Here it is, our June magazine cover for Molly the Fix-It Girl! The magazine won’t be released for 2 more days, you still have time to grab your membership for ONLY $3.85 a month.

When you become a Molly member each new magazine is AUTOMATICALLY placed into your member page on the first day of every month. You also receive the E-Book Molly Goes Camping on the very first day as my gift to you AS WELL AS all of my back issues (4+ years worth!).

CLICK HERE to sign up now!

Below are cheap and simple daily routines for keeping the bathroom clean, as well as several ways to organize using recycled containers and items you may already have on hand. Here are just a few more tips and ideas that work in my home. I’ll admit right up front that I’m a mom and writer, not a beautician; here’s what works for me.

After years of buying one skin care product after another and having all manner of tubes and jars and bottles to juggle, I now use two simple, healthy, and relatively inexpensive products. My “day moisturizer” is 99% pure aloe vera gel. (It comes in a tube.) My “night moisturizer” is coconut oil. (It comes in a jar.) Guess what—it works just as well on my face as it does on my heels and elbows. Two products, both simple and without long, unpronounceable ingredient lists, handle all my skin care needs. Oh, and I use healthy homemade soap from a friend for everything—no separate specialty facial cleanser.

My point is this: Save time, money, and space by simplifying and buying fewer products! Here’s an storage idea we’ve recently implemented for bathroom products: look for  shoe storage racks at yard sales—they can be used so many places! Another thing we’ve been doing is rolling our towels for storage instead of folding them. It really works—takes much less room in the closet, and stays neater longer.

Install inexpensive hooks at the kids’ level, so they can hang their own towels. Teaching them how to clean up after themselves and take responsibility in the early years really pays off down the road. Make it easy for them to succeed. Hanging their towels on low hooks is much easier than trying to drape them neatly over a high towel rod—and much better than leaving them in damp piles on the floor!

Keep things off the counter, or at least put them all in one basket that can be easily lifted to wipe the counter down. You’re much more likely to keep the counter clean if you don’t have to move a dozen objects first!

One last thing—the typical bathroom under sink cabinet could really benefit from an extra shelf or two. See what you have on hand. Sometimes making an extra shelf is as easy as setting a plastic container or crate on its side, so things can be stored inside and on top.

Organized bathrooms works for me! How about you? What are your tips/tricks to keeping an organized bathroom?

For more organizing tips, find my E-Book Molly Gets Organized All in One Place HERE. Better yet, get it as part of the package deal when you become a Molly member. See membership details HERE!

© Brad Calkins | Dreamstime.com

As summer approaches, many of us are dreading the upcoming electric bills. Because cooling a house requires so much energy, most of us will most likely experience an increase in our energy costs during the warmer months. Thankfully, there are ways to lower the financial burden by reducing the amount of energy we consume:

Have the HVAC unit inspected and cleaned

Because your air conditioning unit draws more power from the grid than any other single source within your home, it is important to make sure it is operating optimally. Inspections and cleanings usually entail examining ducts for leaks and cleaning the unit itself. In addition to having the unit cleaned, homeowners should also keep the air filters inside the home clean. Most filters require a monthly change. However, some filters last from three to six months.

Switch light bulbs

You should also consider swapping your traditional incandescent bulbs for the newer more energy efficient LED bulbs. These energy Star compliant light bulbs use up to 75 percent less energy and last 15 times longer than incandescent bulbs. In addition, the increase in consumer awareness of energy efficiency has prompted designers to turn to LED lighting a lot more making the switch to light emitting diode bulbs one of the kitchen and bath trends to watch this year.

Install a programmable thermostat

You probably don’t want to have your AC struggling to keep your house a frigid 65 degrees all day if you are going to be at work or out running errands. However, you also don’t want to come home to a furnace either. This is doubly true if you have kids or pets that will be in doors all day.

With programmable thermostats, you can set them to automatically adjust the temperature in your home, up or down, by remote or at predetermined time an interval which consequently, reduces the amount of energy you use to cool your home. In addition, the newer Wi-Fi enabled thermostats allow you to use your smartphone to adjust your home’s heating and cooling when tied to a cloud-based web service like EnergyHub.

Install blinds or roman shades

It is a well-known fact that a large majority of the heat entering our homes comes through the windows. In order to reduce or even eliminate this you may want to install roman shades or mini-blinds. This one simple act can greatly reduce the amount of heat entering a home thus reducing the costs of cooling your home by reducing the length of time your AC needs to be running.

Consider a fixed rate energy plan

Another way to help govern your energy costs during the summer is to consider participating in a fixed rate electricity plan. With a contract electricity plan, you lock in a certain rate per kilowatt for a stretch of time that does not fluctuate from month to month or during seasonal spikes. Some energy suppliers will even send email and text alert to their customers when they are using more power than anticipated.

In many parts of the country, the summer months result in some of the highest energy bills of the year. Many of us in some way dread the summer months for just that reason. I mean let’s be realistic, in today’s economy the choice between paying our electric bill on time and still having enough to put gas in the car for the rest of the pay period can be all too real for too many of us nowadays.

About the author:

Alex Goodwin is a writer, husband, father and aspiring novelist. When he isn’t writing for HomeDaddys or completing chores from his “honey- do” list, he’s most likely spending quality time with his wife and kids or working on his novel.