Budget Dial Communications Living on a Budget in a Non Budget World

Issue Date: December 15,2004
Money Saving Tips
Featured Article Recycling Christmas cards
Frugal Homemade gift idea Money Jar and The Gift of Gas
Top Conversations on the Money Saving Forums
Freebie and Contest Alerts
The Frugal Five
Pantry Challenge Recipe Tuna Tomato Skillet
Money in the News Warnings about Payday loans

Only 10 more days to Christmas!  I have my shopping all set now I just need to stay out of the stores.  Christmas is such a special time of the year and to remember why we are really celebrating the season.  I wish all of you a Happy Holiday Season. 

Money Saving Tips:  

Replace your old thermostat with a programmable model. Low-cost models sell for around $25 and can easily pay back their cost within a couple of months. Better yet, they can save you more than $1,000 over the years

Have your furnace or boiler checked yearly by a professional to make sure it's running efficiently. Not only will this save you money now by having it work at top performance, it will also save you money in the long run by extending the life of this equipment.

Check out the top 20 tips on how to reduce your heating bill at SavingAdvice.com

Share your money saving tips

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Featured Article  

Recycling Christmas Cards 

Each year when we get our Christmas cards, I love to hang them on them on doorway to remind me of friends and family throughout the world. I do hate just to take them done and throw out. It seems such a waste of the beautiful scenes and pictures. So I am trying to be recycle minded this year. Here are the things to do with used Christmas cards.

1. Reuse them for gift tags next year. You can make this as creative as you want. You can cut out simple squares or using pinking shears and ribbon to attach to your gifts.

2. I use all the pictures that family and friends send me mostly of their little ones. I always do a scrapbook page Christmas and friends. A nice way to keep that picture Christmas cards looking lovely.

3. Use a small piece of the picture - use your punches to make numerous shapes - cut out pieces to frame or make borders This is wonderful way to stretch your scrap booking dollar. .

4. Make  Christmas ornaments out of the greeting  cards. Punch a whole into the corner and put some ribbon on thru. You can laminate the cards so the ornaments can last year after year.

5. You can use some of them for Christmas postcards for the next year. Cut off the back and use the front.

6. A wonderful easy craft for the children to give as gifts is to make Christmas bookmarks. Cut a one inch wide slice from the card. You can put a punch hole and tie a small ribbon through. Or you can take some holiday colored construction paper and then glue some pictures from the Christmas cards onto the heavy duty construction paper. Makes a wonderful heartfelt gift for the book looker.

Recommend Resources for even more ideas:
FamilyFun Crafts: 500 Creative Activities for You and Your Kids

101 Easy Craft Project Ideas

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Tips for Freezing, Storing, & Baking Cookies

The Organized-Mom.com's Freezing Cookie Dough e-cookbook shows you everything you need to know get started with freezing, storing, baking, and mailing cookies. Find out how to get a head start on your Holiday Baking
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Made from the Heart

Unique ways to give some moola!

Sometimes the kids just want some money

A painted jelly jar for the college student with quarters for laundry and the vending machine. You could also use a velvet gift bag.   To keep the change from clacking around you can put in shredded paper.  Make some fake monopoly money. 

Another unique creative idea from a reader.  

The gift of "gas" . I bought a gift card from a gas station and taped it to the top of a can of  baked beans  Some people might of course find this offensive, but almost everyone has someone in their family who would get a "kick" out of this.       (Great idea for a last minute Yankee Swap gift with price of gas so high!) 

If you have a frugal made from the heart holiday gift idea, please send us an email.
 

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Top Discussions  on the Money Saving Forums

Frugal challenges  I find that almost everyday I run up against what I call a "frugal challenge." basically, it is something that tempts me to part from my money even though I really don't need it. The other day I was shopping and came across a beautiful hand crafted box for 50% off. I had it in my hands and was ready to go and pay for it

 Anyone do a change jar? I have a change jar that I save my money in for Christmas. I haven't cashed it in yet, maybe next week. Anyone else do this? How much do you have?

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Freebies

 Signup and get Free DVD's

 New Scrabble Complete - Free on CD-ROM

Free online Christmas games

Free Redken Hairstyling products

Contests

Win a free book No purchase necessary. You can win Calm my Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow

Scribbles - Children's Art Contests

 www.thebirthdaygame.com

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The Frugal Five
Trina has an amazing story about her and her husband's journey to be debt free.  We wish Ted a safe last few months in Iraq. 

What is your financial  life?
We live in Birmingham, AL. Before Ted left Feb 13, 2004, he worked FT as a  police officer making about 37K. I worked FT in upper level executive  administration making 45K. Our girls, now 9 and 7, have gone to and will always  attend our private Christian school at our church. This is something Ted even  worked extra jobs for to make sure we could send them there. In fact, he has  worked extra jobs as a cop almost all our married life (Dec 5 was our 12 yr
anniversary). Most places pay cops 15-20/hr under the table for door security, bar bouncers, etc. so it's good money.

We have a home we owe 90K on. Other debt included a car note, a Jeep note, 4  major credit cards, 4 store credit cards, a bank line of credit, a student loan, and $3500 we owed his parents.

We have  the "perfect credit" everyone works so hard to keep and maintain. Paying  minimums on time every month will do it. However, paying minimums to keep the  stuff you had no patience to save for equals years and years of debt chains. We  were sick and tired of never getting ahead and paying off one card only to go  impulse buy and start up another one.

In the summer of 2003 Ted applied to go to Iraq as a private contractor to train police officers. It was a long hard arduous application, and we prayed every
step of the way- that if it was not God's will that Ted would run into a  roadblock. We both had a peace about his going over there for a year. He  sailed through everything. There were 2 main reasons he wanted to quit his job
to do this mission. First, he was getting nowhere at his current department.  Long story short, he needed to build his resume to be able to get another  department to really look at him. He worked for the largest but lowest paying
department in our city, so to increase our income for the future, he needed to  move to another department. Second, he would make double what he made here, but
with no taxes. In one year, we would be out of debt and have some money in the bank. WOW! What a concept...savings.....hmmm. There had been $1.76 in our
savings account for over 2 years! After he had been in Iraq for 2 months, the  company revised the contract and he went from 72K a year to 125K! Also 2 months
after he left, I changed jobs. I now work PT (30 hrs a week) while the kids are  in school, and my income went down but my quality of life went up. I tried for
2 months to keep it all going, but suddenly being a single mom was taking its  toll on me and the girls. My income went from 45K to 22K. Even so, we have  worked our debt snowball very hard and as of Dec 2004, we have paid off over 60K  in debt with an income of 122K. Right at 49% of this year's income has gone to  pay off debt. I am so excited!!

2 months ago I bought a bunch of yellow ribbon magnets and the kids and I stand  on the side of the road and wave American flags and hold signs showing how much
they are, and this has brought in some extra money. I have also listed the  magnets on ebay and made some money there. My goal was to earn Christmas money so that our debt snowball does not take a hit. Some people would have too much  pride to stand on the side of the road with magnets all over their car waving  and hoping someone stops to buy one. But the kids and I have a really good
time, and I think it's teaching them some life lessons. And at this point, I  will do whatever it takes to get out of debt. My husband is in the heart of  Baghdad, in a war zone, encountering imminent danger at every turn to help get
us out of debt. THAT dear friends makes roadside selling look easy.

What is your budget buster?
What hurts your budget the most. Hmmm.... this is
a hard one. I would say since Ted has been gone, I spend way too much going  through drive thrus. Either I am too tired to cook or we are out and about and the kids are starving and I go to a drive thru. Lately I have put snacks and  bottled water in the backseat organizers that are in the car so I have a cheap fix. Before Ted left, HE was our budget buster and admits it. He is a spender  and buys without thinking.
 

What is your favorite money saving tip?
Small tip- Keep a bottle or cup in your car, and instead of stopping at a convenience store for a coke or fountain drink when you are out, take your cup  to the fountain drink station, get ice, and then most all stations have a tiny
water only button on one of the spigots- usually a little plastic tab under the  one that has Hi-C or lemonade or other non-carbonated mix. This water tastes
great because it is going through the filter on the station and who wants to  drink water from a gas station bathroom sink?! I have never had a clerk charge
me for ice and water in my own cup or bottle.
 

If you had an extra $1000 what would you do with it?
Right this minute, it would go to our last 13K of debt!

What is your best resource for frugal living?  

Dave Ramsey's principles and books The Total Money Makeover  and Financial Peace are helping us get out of debt.  The Complete Cheapskate is a good book. There are many more that I have used that have  helped but none stand out right now.

Other than that, I try to think simple. I think we all get so dazed by the power of marketing in America that we start thinking we just can't keep house,
raise kids, and live without all the "stuff" we see. Honestly- a toilet brush  that you pop off the end and flush when you are through? Come on. Wipes  presoaked with cleaner in a plastic can to clean with? Disposable baby bibs? I
think of my grandmother standing in her kitchen with the pot belly stove in the  middle and the bucket of water in the sink from the well and I watched her cook,
clean, and take care of the little ones underfoot and never miss a beat...no  hone to her ear, no TV blaring, no CD player. Her singing and all us kids
singing along and taking turns stirring or pouring or whatever. I try so hard  to create a home where we are not focused on STUFF but on family and memories.
After dinner, some of our favorite times are laying in the kitchen floor and us  all working a puzzle. Same one, for the 6th time. Stuff breaks, gets old, dirty, outgrown...but memories last forever. I believe this in itself is the heart of frugal living.

Thanks Trina for sharing all of your great tips!     Let us know if you would like to be profiled in the Frugal Five  

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Pantry Challenge Recipe 

With busy nights right before the holiday. This is a quick easy recipe and much much cheaper than tuna helper. 

Tuna and tomato sauce skillet

2 cans of 6 oz tuna
15 oz tomato sauce
1 onion diced
1 can diced tomatos 
1 box of elbow macaroni
garlic, Italian  seasonings to taste

Put the tuna with liquid, tomato sauce, onion, tomatos into skillet.
Add the cooked pasta

Simmer for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!  If you have a frugal recipe to share Frugal Recipes

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Money in the news

While it is tempting to use those instant payday loans.  In my opinion, they are not worth it and most likely you end up in a worse of a hole.

Consumer group advises against online payday loans

First North American Study on Payday loans

Internet borrowing is easy but can be hazardous to your account

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