Another glorious day

This morning as I got ready to leave for work I got into my car, turned the key, and heard "click, click, click". Yep, it was DEAD. Luckily for me we have a wonderful retired couple that lives across the street. I honestly don't know what we'd do without them, we are truly blessed to have them in our lives. Anyway, the husband came out and took me to work today. After work one of the mechanics that I work with brought me home and tested my battery. It was junk. So my husband, our daughter, and I loaded up into my husband's truck to drive to Walmart and buy a new battery. Thank goodness I get paid tomorrow! Boy this sure has been a hectic week!

One thing that everyone is especially interested in right now is saving money and trying to lead a more frugal lifestyle. This is obviously driven by the prices of groceries and gas skyrocketing. (Although the gas has gone down almost $0.30 in the last couple weeks.) I know that in our household we have certainly been trying not to spend unless its necessary. I've been doing things such as canning and making my own cleaners and laundry soap to help stretch our dollars.
Every little bit helps. I think that one of the biggest changes people can make is to simply eat at home more. When you go out to eat you have to pay for the food, drinks, a tip, and gas to get there. I know that we have cut back significantly. We used to go out to eat once or sometimes even more during the week. Now we go out typically once every other week, and usually we have a coupon to use and choose a place that is close to where we are going to run errands.

What frugal tips do you have that you'd like to share? It seems as most tips are simple: cut an old shirt up to use as rags, make a multi-purpose cleaner out of a little ammonia and some vinegar and water, etc.

Halloween is now 29 days away. Do you buy bags and bags of candy to pass out? Here's today's tip: Pass out something besides candy, it has been several years since we have bought candy to pass out. A bag of candy costs about $2 and only enough candy for half a dozen kids (if you pass out 2 pieces per kid). If you have 80 kids come to your house that means you need to buy approximately 14 bags of candy to have an adequate amount. 14 bags x $2 = $28 for treats. We typically spend between $5 - $15 on treats and to date have always bought our treats at Sam's Club. Last year we gave out juice boxes. Sam's Club had 40 boxes for $7, so for 80 boxes it was $14. Besides saving money by doing that you don't feel as though you need to give more than 1 treat per kid and it's not necessary a horrible, sugary treat. Other years we have given out unpopped bags of microwave popcorn, packets of hot chocolate, mini bags of pretzels, etc. Just look through the aisles to see what you can find. We have had many parents say "What a great idea!" when they see our treats. Last year when we gave out juice boxes kids thought they hit the jackpot. I could here them a half a block away yelling to their friends to make sure they hit our house to get their juice box! Other great ideas? Single serving pudding cups, jello cups, or applesauce cups. Maybe even a packet of Easy Mac. I guess I've always worried about what my daughter has eaten so I like to give things that I don't mind her eating.