Paxton loves the toddler water play area

One of the gifts our family received for Christmas was a membership to our local children’s museum. This was one of our favorite gifts and is a gift that will keep on giving all throughout 2012!

Gifts of experience provide an opportunity to make family memories, spend quality time together and learn! And, for those who live minimally, there’s no clutter that comes along with the gift of experience.

Playing in one of the music rooms

We’ll definitely be requesting more gifts of experience when asked what we want for Christmas and we’ll probably be giving the boys experiences for their birthdays instead of gifts!

What gifts of experience have you received? 

Welcome to Frugal and Simple, Money Saving Mom readers!!

I’m Rachel, a wife stay-at-home mom to two boys, Paxton who’s 21 months and Weston who is 3 weeks old! I blog about various aspects of living a simple and debt free life!

Some topics covered include:

• Living Green
• Organizing
• Cloth Diapering
• Finances
• Raising Kids on a Budget
• Gardening
• Living Minimally

Thanks for visiting Frugal and Simple!!

Living a ‘green’ life is often portrayed as being more expensive than mainstream living. The reality is that being ‘green’ often is quite frugal and can save you a lot of money!

Here are some small steps towards living green that can save money:

• Recycle :: The more you recycle, the fewer trash bags you use! We only use 3 or 4 bags a month and buy trash bags once a year or less! Of course, if you live in an area where you’re charged by bag of trash or pay for weekly trash service, the more you recycle means the less trash you produce and the less you have to pay to get rid of it!
• Compost :: Once again, this helps save a little on trash bags for us! We compost our food scraps which produces rich compost for gardening. Another benefit, our trash rarely smells so we only take a trip to the dump every month or two!
• Cloth Napkins :: Never buy paper napkins again! We’ve been using cloth napkins throughout our entire marriage. We were given a few, bought a pretty set of 6 at a yardsale for $.50 and I’ve made several! We’ve spent less than $3 -4 on napkins. They just go in the wash with our clothes and they’re so small they don’t make a huge impact on laundry.
• Replace Paper Towels :: We haven’t purchased paper towels in 3 or 4 years. Instead we use kitchen towels and dish cloths for typical kitchen uses and use rags made from my husband’s old white t-shirts for messes and tasks like disinfecting countertops, cleaning the bathroom, wiping up spills from the floor and so on. We store the used rags in a small trash can in a closet and wash about once a month.
• Programmable Thermostat :: You can set the temperature to automatically lower at night as well as when you’re out of the home, saving electricity {and money} without putting much effort into it!
• Conserve Electricity :: Turn off lights when you leave a room, turn off electronics that are not being used, unplug kitchen appliances when they’re not in use and unplug electronics when you go out of town or if you rarely use them.
• Shop at Thrift Stores :: Not only do you typically spend less when you shop at a thrift store but you are also ‘recycling’ and giving an item a new use!
• Combine Errands :: With a little planning and organization, combine all of your errands so you don’t have to run to town multiple times in a week. Also, if you’re tempted to spend when you are running errands, only going once should cut down on temptations and save you money!

What green steps are you taking? Are these steps saving you money?

While organizing the nursery closet before Weston’s birth, I emptied out a small diaper box and decided to challenge myself to fill it up with clutter throughout the day!

While putting away clean dishes, I took a few extra minutes and went through the cabinets and drawers finding cookie cutters, baby spoons {we don’t need 10}, skewers and a creamer that’s never been used.

There were a few toys that Paxton never plays with that were added in and a shirt he doesn’t wear from the boys’ room.

I quickly went through my closet and dresser and I found a sweater, 2 shirts and a skirt that I don’t love and haven’t worn often.

And there were other odds and ends found throughout the house like a water bottle, a lanyard and some yarn.

I really didn’t put much time or effort into ‘de-cluttering’ but another box of stuff is leaving our home!

Living clutter free involves small steps. Start with one box, it won’t take much effort to fill up but you’ll feel great once you see that stuff leave your home!

During the summer of 2008, I found Crystal Paine’s blog, Money Saving Mom. We were already living frugally since we had just gotten out of college but, like most college graduates, expected our standard of living to increase upon graduation. Thanks in part to Money Saving Mom, we were inspired to continue living on basically the same budget we had in college and start saving money for a house downpayment! Over the years that I’ve been a Money Saving Mom reader, I’ve been inspired by Crystal {she and her husband paid cash for their first home!}

I was excited to hear the news that she was writing a book and even more excited when the book came in the mail for me to review! I immediately started reading The Money Saving Mom’s Budget and finished it within a day.

This book is full of all kinds of practical information for getting your life in order. It begins with a chapter about goal setting which I found to be very inspiring. We already set financial goals for each year but haven’t really put much thought into long term goals. She poses the question, “where do I want to be financially five years from now?” This question prompted thinking more long term in regards to our finances.

The second chapter is devoted to clearing out clutter and streamlining your life. Practical strategies for getting rid of physical clutter as well as commitment clutter are mentioned. She poses questions to ask about your clutter such as “do I use this item regularly?” and “is this item taking up space I don’t have?”

As the title implies, budgeting is covered. The book outlines baby steps to take towards budgeting. She suggests during the first month  establish a grocery budget, the second month use bare-bones budget which covers basic necessities and by the third month you’ve worked your way up to a full-fledged budget. Taking these baby steps is a great way to not get overwhelmed with budgeting and give up!

One chapter is titled “Twenty-Five Ways to Lower Your Grocery Bill Without Clipping Coupons.” This chapter is full of money saving grocery tips such as have a meatless night once a week, stick with simple meals that use inexpensive ingredients and don’t throw out your leftovers. Just applying one or two of these suggestions could cut quite a bit from your grocery budget.

The final chapter is “Embrace Today” and Crystal writes about contentment, which I believe is a key to living a frugal life! You have the power to choose contentment, “a cheerful attitude can go a long way in less than ideal situations; you can either complain about the thorns or you can savor the roses that bloom in their midst.”  Ways to cultivate contentment are listed, including create a gratitude list, choose to stop comparing yourself to other people and choose to be  a giver.

There are helpful worksheets in the back covering financial goals, priorities lists, time budgets and budget sheets.

This really is a book that anyone  can benefit from. If you’re just starting out on a journey to get your finances in order, this book is full of valuable information that will help you! And even if you’ve been living a frugal and debt free life, there are things you can learn from saving on your grocery bill, being inspired to set lofty goals and focusing on contentment.

Pre-order The Money Saving Mom’s Budget.  The release date is January 10, 2012.

Disclosure: I received this book to review.  All opinions expressed are my own.