Pets. No matter if it's a dog, cat, bird, fish, or lizard, most families have them. The one thing all pets have in common is that they cost money to take care of and feed, some more than others. If you're already living on a tight budget, you might not be ready for a pet. If you already have a pet and live on a tight budget, you probably already try to find ways to save money. But have you ever thought about saving money on pet expenses? It is possible! Here are my favorite ways to save on pets. … [Read more...]
Saving On Your Power Bill with a Phone Call
Our electric bill is always higher in the winter. We heat with wood but the blower for the furnace (forced hot air) is run by electricity. Considering it is Maine, the heater runs almost constantly from October-March/April. Usually my April power bill is lower than previous few months as we aren't running the furnace constantly. So imagine my surprise when it was $50 higher than I expected. That was when I started doing some research. A few years ago Maine started allowing competing … [Read more...]
Living Well on a Tight Budget
It's well known that we live on a pretty tight budget. There are lots of things we don't do or purchase because we just plain don't have the money for them. However, that doesn't mean we never get to enjoy the good things or only get to buy low-quality items. Sure, there are times when we are frustrated by the things we can't afford to do or buy. Most of the time, however, we are able to live quite well. There are many different methods of living well on a tight budget. Here are just a few of … [Read more...]
The Magical Power of Spray Paint- My Frugal Secret Weapon
We were given some child-sized plastic chairs. They sat in a shed for years and then sat in our shed for another year. Abby wasn't big enough for them last year. This year she is so I had Matt pull them out. They looked a little worse for the wear so I scrubbed them down. I even used a magic eraser. They still looked horrible grungy and dirty. I asked Abby what she thought and we decided to paint them. We decided on pink and green. Unfortunately, our store didn't have the right shade of green in … [Read more...]
Our New Savings Plan
I think most everyone can agree that it is a good to save money. Emergency funds are necessary for those unexpected situations. Then there are those big purchases that require saving ahead of time if you want to stay out of debt. You even need to keep money set aside for non-emergencies but necessary things like yearly car repairs. For us, building that savings is hard. We tend to build it in large amounts like when Matt makes bonus at work or has storm work or with things like our tax … [Read more...]