Saving Money and Sanity with Oprah

I LOVE Christmas music, don't you? Oprah is trying to make our holiday's a little bit brighter by giving us 8 FREE downloadable songs:

• Faith Hill "Joy to the World"
• Tony Bennett, "I'll be Home for Christmas"
• Il Divo, "O Holy Night"
• Josh Groban, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"
• Brian McKnight, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"
• Amy Grant, "O Come All Ye Faithful"
• Harry Connick Jr., "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"
• Aretha Franklin, "Silent Night"

Check out Oprah's website by tomorrow night to get your FREE songs!

Happy Savings!

Saving Sanity with the Holidays

Making Cookies with the Kids

I know, baking, now don't get scared! I will make this as painless as possible. I LOVE to bake so this is an easy one for me. My son loves to help Mommy and Daddy make cookies with our stand mixer. He pushes the top down and helps us add ingredients. It makes him feel really important. I believe that the things we do with our families around the Holiday Season should invoke memories for years to come. Traditions are also great! This idea encompasses both of those ideas! Here's what you need to do:

• Make sugar cookies (or you can even do Gingerbread if you are really brave)! You can make them from scratch or use a bag mix that you only have to add 1 or 2 ingredients to or you can even just buy the dough! Have your kids (your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or even neighbors) help you make the cookies. It can be as simple as stirring or dumping in the ingredients you measured or as complicated as actually measuring out the ingredients themselves. If you are using pre-made dough, have them help open the package or place the pre-made shapes on the pan.
• Use fun cookie cutters! My family has always made trees for Christmas. We've made bells and other shapes, but the trees were always our favorite, so all other shapes have been dropped and trees are all we make anymore. If you don't have any fun shaped cookie cutters, use a regular dinner glass to cut circles to make Christmas ornament cookies!
• Bake the cookies. While the cookies are in the oven sing Christmas Carols or read Christmas books or talk about what the holiday means to you. THIS is the important time for the day. The down time when you have the cookies in the oven or you are waiting for them to cool. THIS is where the memories are really made! Next year they may only remember that you made cookies, but this is the reason they will remember it. You are taking time from your day to make them special.
• Decorate the cookies! You can buy pre-made, colored icing, or you can make your own. Use sprinkles and candy, or anything you can think of! Let the kids get as creative as they want, use put some wax paper down on the table or counter for their workspace and clean up will be a breeze! Get creative! Nothing is off limits! Even if your kid makes the weirdest cookie you have ever seen, it's his/her cookie and they will LOVE it!
• Take pictures! You can take pictures of the kids stirring the dough or cutting the shapes or staring at the oven practically willing the cookies to bake, take pictures of them decorating the cookies and take pictures of the finished product. You can compare pictures to pictures of cookies for years to come (and this is GREAT bribery material when they are in high school).
• Have fun! Forget that you are making a mess all over the kitchen! It will be clean again, it just doesn't have to be clean now. This is a specific time that you are spending with the children in your life and neatness doesn't count!

Happy Savings!

(This is part 2 of the Saving Sanity with the Holidays series, click here to see part 1.)

Saving Sanity with the Holidays

One of my favorite things to do is to give stuff to other people. I will start buying Christmas presents for next Christmas the day after the year's Christmas. I LOVE giving away what I have to others! So I thought I'd share with you some of the things my family is planning on doing this year. This is going to be a multi-part series because this is my FAVORITE part of Christmas (well, other than the birth of Jesus, that's my most favorite)!

Angel Tree

Every year my family picks a family off the Angel Tree at our Church. I like to pick a child close to my son's age (we may have to do 2 this year!). You should think about doing this as well. If you don't know where to get a name, there are usually trees set up in the mall or other large stores for this purpose, you can even just buy a bunch of toys and put it in the Toys For Tots bins! Here's how to make the most of it:

• Take an entire evening or afternoon and dedicate it solely to the purpose of getting these gifts. Even if you are like me and you have an entire closet full of gifts you can pull out for any occasion, take time and go to buy just 1 extra special gift that you will specifically buy for this purpose. It will help you take your mind off of everything else going on in your life and help you focus your energy on someone who really needs your help.


• Go out as a family. Have dinner out. Can't afford dinner out? Take sandwiches to the food court of the mall or just get dessert out. Start the trip off having fun as a family.


• Go shopping! That is the purpose of the evening, buying things for people who need them. If you are getting a name off a tree like we do, you will likely have a wish list. Try your best to get what they want. We make sure to look at the list before we choose a name. We know that we can afford to buy someone a Wii for Christmas, but we can get clothes and toys.


• Wrap those presents! Have the kids help out, even if they can't wrap yet, they can dispense the tape or pick out the paper or ribbons!


• End the experience by making hot chocolate and talking about how much fun you had that day and how much you think the family that gets your presents will enjoy them. You can sing Christmas carols or make cookies, do whatever your family enjoys! You want this to be a memory and you can't make it a memory that will stand out for years to come if you just rush into the store, grab whatever you see first and give it away! You need to take your time and enjoy!

So, this is my first installment in the Saving Sanity with the Holidays series. I hope you can take some of the tips to heart and enjoy your family more this holiday season by helping other families out!

Happy Savings!

Saving Sanity with Working Appliances

I love the refrigerator repair man! Our fridge/freezer went out on Monday and we finally got someone to fix it today. I am so glad! We are truly blessed and spoiled with our modern convinces.

On Monday evening after we decided that it was not going to get any cooler, we loaded a plastic tub with everything we wouldn't be able to save like milk, yogurt, refrigerated biscuits and things of that nature, to give to our neighbors before it went bad. The very first neighbor I spotted and offered things to told me she had a dorm-size refrigerator in her garage she used for pop and water and offered to loan it to us! God will provide! We were able to save the majority of the food by sticking most everything we could in the garage freezer and everything else we needed in the little fridge. We lost a few things like ice cream, popsicles and condiments but that is much better than meat and chicken! We were able to have milk and yogurt all week long. My husband was grateful for the milk and my son for the yogurt.

It was a test of my creativity to find things to cook this week. You would be surprised how many things you cook that need stuff from the fridge. And then there was the need to store leftovers. We had room in the fridge for 1, maybe 2, small containers of leftovers at a time. This proved to be a problem because I usually make plenty of extras for lunches for my husband and myself. I had to try to scale down my recipes and force my husband to eat extra at dinner. (He HATED that part! :) )

I am so grateful that we now have a working refrigerator and freezer in the house. I no longer have to walk to the garage to get milk (it was safer out there- Drew likes to "cook" when he can get in the fridge). In a way, it's sad that I was upset I had to walk an extra 20 feet to get milk, but I am very grateful I no longer have the need.

Happy Savings!

Saving Money and Sanity with Vonage

We used to be a 'cell phone only' family. Then we had Drew and I started watching Blake. I had a slight problem. Our house eats cell service. I'm not joking. While in our kitchen or sitting on our couch your call will end. If I come home and forget to take my cell out of my pocket and sit on the couch all calls will go straight to voicemail. I wanted something more reliable than dropped calls and a signal that I wasn't sure of in case of an emergency.

I started pricing what a phone line would cost us. I quickly decided it was not worth it. Our parents live hours away and we found out that it would long distance for my husband to call home from work. Why? I have no idea. It's the same area code. Oddly enough, it's long distance for people less than 5 minutes away from my house to call to others who have land lines in my neighborhood, even those in the same area code and county.

So, we started looking for other options. We already had a cable modem, so I started looking around to see about VoIPs or phones that ran through the Internet. I ran into Vonage and thought we could at least give it a try and see how it worked. The most basic package has 500 minutes, free long distance, call waiting, caller ID, call forwarding and many, many more features and only costs $14.99 a month. And we got to pick whatever phone number we got. We got a number that was local to Rob's work and to all of our friends. We found a converter box on the Vonage website that was free after instant rebate and we got our first month free, so our initial investment was fairly small. We needed to do something, so we gave it a try. That was 3 years ago. We STILL have our Vonage phone and we LOVE it! It was a great investment. We have since changed out package to the unlimited minutes package ($30/month after taxes and fees).

As Drew has grown, we have seen that having unlimited long distance was a great decision. He LOVES talking to Papaw and Gamaw, Granny and Grandad and Uncle Chris on the phone. My mom has been known to stay on the phone with him for 30 minutes just listening to him play. He thinks that if someone is on the phone it's just like they are in the room with him! It's too cute! He "shows" people what toy he is playing with and everything. If he is having a bad day or we are hitting heads and getting on each other's nerves (we have the same personality, sometimes it's not a great thing) I just dial the phone and he immediately is a happy camper. Our parents love the connection with him as well. They love hearing him say new things and getting reports on how his potty training is going!

After we got our home phone, we were able to cut down our cell phone bill because we didn't need near as many minutes as we did before. That helped us pay for more than half of the new phone bill!

There are several different options now for VoIP, but I just wanted to share with you my opinion of the service we use. Even during the power outages I still received all of my phone calls because if calls can't go through they are automatically forwarded to my cell phone. If you are interested in more information about Vonage, please see their website or feel free to ask me. If you are interested to getting Vonage at your home or business (you even get to keep your own number) please let me know. If you use a current Vonage customer as a reference you get 2 months free instead of the normal 1 month.

Happy Savings!

Saving Sanity with Fireproof

There is a CHRISTIAN movie opening up this weekend! I'm so excited! Fireproof was made by the same Christians who made Facing the Giants. It stars Kirk Cameron. There is a grassroots movement for we as Christians to go and see this movie this weekend to show everyone in Hollywood that there is a large market of people who want wholesome, interesting movies. If you can't make it this weekend, please see this movie as soon as possible and take your neighbors, friends and family with you.

I don't know about you, but I want to be able to watch real movies with my children without hanging my head in shame at the antics on the screen. Here is the synopsis from the Fireproof website:

At work, inside burning buildings, Capt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighter's adage: Never leave your partner behind. At home, in the cooling embers of his marriage, he lives by his own rules.

Growing up, Catherine Holt always dreamed of marrying a loving, brave firefighter...just like her daddy. Now, after seven years of marriage, Catherine wonders when she stopped being "good enough" for her husband.

Regular arguments over jobs, finances, housework, and outside interests have readied them both to move on to something with more sparks.

As the couple prepares to enter divorce proceedings, Caleb's father challenges his son to commit to a 40-day experiment: "The Love Dare." Wondering if it's even worth the effort, Caleb agrees-for his father's sake more than for his marriage. When Caleb discovers the book's daily challenges are tied into his parents' newfound faith, his already limited interest is further dampened.

While trying to stay true to his promise, Caleb becomes frustrated time and again. He finally asks his father, "How am I supposed to show love to somebody who constantly rejects me?"

When his father explains that this is the love Christ shows to us, Caleb makes a life-changing commitment to love God. And with God's help he begins to understand what it means to truly love his wife.

But is it too late to fireproof his marriage? His job is to rescue others. Now Caleb Holt is ready to face his toughest job ever...rescuing his wife's heart.

I'm going, are you?

Saving Sanity with Electricity

Guess who's power was out for 28 hours? That's right, it was me! Oh boy, try explaining to a 3 year old that the lights are broken, the TV is broken, the toaster is broken and the list goes on and on. He was a trooper though. He did a great job and we were very proud of him. He was very excited when he came in the house and saw lights on. He was bouncing around saying "They fixed it, Mommy! They fixed it!" School was canceled today and Rob had no power at work so he stayed home. That makes it 4 days in a row he's been home (he had to take off last Friday because I was too sick to function). We had a wonderful time playing with the neighbors, grilling out and potty training by flashlight.

Did I mention we started potty training on Saturday? THAT was fun done by flashlight. Only 2 accidents so far, so he's doing much better than we anticipated. He wears "big boy underwear" during the day and pull-ups at nap-time and bedtime. He's an all or nothing kind of kid, so Rob and Drew spent about an hour in the bathroom watching a DVD, eating snacks and drinking water on Saturday until he went potty. Once he did it, he was good to go, at least so far. We'll see how he does at school. He will definitely be in pull-ups for that because of the bus ride. I don't think the transportation department would be very happy with me if he had an accident on the bus!

Well, just wanted to update you all about what was going on in our lives this weekend. Hopefully I can find some new deals to entice me to go to the store tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll be able to tear myself away from the powerful feeling I get when I flip a switch and turn on the lights. God must have thought it was pretty cool when He said "Let there be light" and I now, in some small way, feel just as pleased as He did that very first time.

Happy Savings!

Saving Sanity With Museum Passes

We went to the museum today. It was wonderful. They boys had a great time playing. Drew and Blake (my friends' little boy I babysit, he's 2) only really fought over shovels in the rock (foam rock) area which means it was a very good day. We really needed the break from our normal routine. They love all the new toys, new games and especially the new people to play with.

The Cincinnati Museum Center passes are an annual thing we have been doing in our family. They really are a great investment. Our passes go on sale the weekend before Christmas for B1G1. We found friends that want to get a membership too and we each only paid half price, just $70 for the museum and parking for an entire year! The passes reciprocate to over 150 other museums in the US, meaning when we travel we just check to see if there is a museum in the area on our list and we can take the kids for FREE!

If you live in the Cincinnati Area, check out the Museum Center here. If you live elsewhere, be sure to check out museums in your area. It's a great change of pace for the kids, and they are learning as they play!

Happy Savings!

Saving Sanity on Road Trips

As I have mentioned before, my husband and I have an (almost) 3 year old. We do not have any family in town and we have to travel at least 2 hours to get to the nearest grandparent. Drew is a very high energy child and I'm not sure he knows the meaning of the phrase "sit still". Road trips were fine until he was about 16 months old, then they became scream fests. I told Rob we needed to buy a portable DVD player. Rob felt we didn't need one, he felt that Drew needed to learn to ride in the car and use his imagination to amuse himself.

I bought a portable DVD player. I know, a wife should submit to her husband, but he was just plain wrong on this one. (He even admits this now.) We used it for every car trip to the grandparents for about a year. It was lovely. Now he can amuse himself and we don't usually use it and we never start the trip with it out.

I guess the moral of this post is if you have a high energy toddler who loves to watch Backyardagains and Blue's Clues a portable DVD player will save your sanity if you spend much time traveling. I'll have to post later how it saved our trip to California for my brother-in-laws wedding. I think I actually may have kissed that thing!

Happy Saving!