Time-Saving Tuesday

I don't know if this "Time-Saving Tuesday" will become a regular thing or not... I just wanted to share with you my tip from this weekend actually. I do hope are enjoying our blog's new features though!

On Sunday, I spent some time preparing lunches and snacks for our family so that we can grab-n-go, but still have healthy options. This is also a wonderful idea for families with kids who need lunches for school. It only takes about half an hour at the most and it saves 5-10 minutes each morning. It also saves your kitchen from getting messy each morning, while you're trying to get ready, clean up, and get out the door.



Here's What I did:
I laid the plastic bags on the clean counter. I placed a slice of bread on each bag.
I spread some of the slices with mayo, left some without, and spread a few
more with peanut butter.
Then I added turkey to the ones with mayo and without.
I added pickle slices from the whole dill pickle I had left to the non-mayo sandwiches.
(I was a little afraid that the pickle would leave the bread soggy, but I placed the slices
between the turkey and the cheese so it worked well.)
I added cheese and mustard smiley-faces like always.
I added jelly to the peanut butter sandwiches and another slice of bread.
Then, I spread mayo on the top slices and added it to the sandwiches.
I added bread to the non-mayo sandwiches as well.
Then, I placed all of the sandwiches in the bags, and labeled them with post-it notes
"No Mayo" or "No Pickles" so we don't have to examine them before we grab them each day.

I also fixed some snack bags:
I've been craving Kiwi lately, so I bought several last week when they were on sale here.
I've just been getting a little frustrated because I don't remember Kiwi being this difficult.
I'm finding it very hard to peel them and even eat them, which is quite strange to me.
Anyway, I decided to peel them and slice them all at once. I put them in plastic bags as well
so they'll be easier for me to grab and eat. All the work is done already!

I also sliced and cooked some smoked sausage. I cubed a bar of cheese, and placed these
together in bags for snacks as well.

I washed some grapes, took them off the stems, and placed them in bags for snacks too.

I also divided the pretzels we had into bags so they'll be easy to grab and take with us.

I'm searching for some little plastic condiment containers with lids so that we can have sliced apples with caramel sauce, strawberries with chocolate sauce, and celery with peanut butter. I haven't found
them yet so this will just have to wait until another week.

As you can see from the picture, I placed all the sandwiches and refrigerated snacks in
plastic shoe boxes to keep my fridge organized.You can also take a look at the two
blog posts I used as my inspiration here and here.

This was a good start for me though!
Hopefully these ideas will help you save some time too!

Do you have any time-saving tips to share? Email us at sistersandsavings@gmail.com!

Money-Saving Monday: DIY or Homemade Febreze Spray

If you'd like to save money by making your own Febreze Fabric Refresher Spray, Homemade Mamas and Fake-It Frugal will show you how! They say it's even better than the real thing,

but you'll just have to try it and see.

What we love is that Fake-It Frugal also gives you the "Fake-It Yourself Breakdown" so you can actually see about how much money you'll be saving!

Fake-It Yourself Breakdown:
Fake Febreeze ($0.15 or less for 1 oz Fabric Softener)
Total Fake-It Cost: $0.15 Each

Compare to Actual Febreeze ($5.59 Each, seriously?)
Total Fake-It Savings:  $5.44 Each*

*Let's say you purchase 1 Bottle of Febreeze per month, that's a Savings of $65.28 per year!

Do you have a money-saving tip you'd like to share? Email us at sistersandsavings@gmail.com!

Friday's Freebies

If you've been with us for any length of time, you've probably heard us mention that "Your mailbox can be your Treasure Chest". There are so many freebies & samples available all the time, it seems. Here are the freebies that we've found for you this week. Take advantage of the ones you like, skip the ones you don't. Have fun!

1. Free Weekly and Daily Planners Downloads

2. Free Customizable Planners from MoneySavingMom

3. Free Chronicles of Narnia Complete Audio Download

4. Free Products and Special Offers when you join the Grocery Savvy Panel

5. Educational Freebie: WordBuilder printable mats

6. 300 Free Instant Labels from Staples

7. Free Suave Sample Box from Wal-Mart

8.Free ebook: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life

9. For possible Free samples and coupons, join the Skinny Cow Club


10. Educational Freebie: School Supplies Preschool Pack Printables Download

11. Educational Freebie: Classical Composers Unit on George Frideric Handel

12.  Free 2012 Women's Health Calendar (will be shipped December 2011)

13. Free Thriving Family Magazine Subscription

14. Free Cranimals Sample (Organic Pet Supplement) when you email your name and mailing address to info@cranimal.com. You'll receive a confirmation email within 24 hours.

15.   Free Wholly Guacamole Goodie Bag for Military Families. So if you are a military family, grab a post card and send it to the following address: Wholly Guacamole, Marketing Department, 300 Burlington Road, Saginaw, TX 76179.

16. 80 Free Swag Bucks. New members will have 30 points added to their account automatically. Use code AUGUSTBONUS to get an additional 50 points. Swag Bucks is a great program where you earn points and get paid for things you do online anyway like online searches. I've been doing it for a while. It's very easy to do, and you can exchange your points whenever you want for prizes and gift cards!

17. Free Racheel Ray Just 6 Premium Dog Food Sample

18. Free book: No Longer a Slumdog

Happy Freebie Friday!
If you hear of a freebie not listed here... leave a comment below to link-up, or email us at sistersandsavings@gmail.com!

Our Exciting News

We've got news to share, and it's news that we're really excited about! This is something we've been researching and learning about so that we can teach more families the art of couponing!

We've had so many people from so many locations ask us if we were coming to their area any time soon to do a workshop. We've also had people say, "I hate that I missed your workshop. When is the next one?"

We will soon be offering e-courses to teach the art of couponing! We've already written one e-course, and we're in the process of writing a few others now. We're hoping for them to be available to you by September.

This is going to be so cool because you'll be able to learn how to effectively use coupons without ever leaving your house, and we'll be able to teach you how to effectively use coupons without ever leaving our houses too! We'll present you with all of the information and be able to use online resources that we haven't even been able to show you at all of our workshops and home parties. We'll also get to use audio and video as we present the information to you. You'll be able to ask questions as we go through the information as well.
It's just going to be awesome!

Our plan is to offer different classes as well. "Learn to Coupon" Workshops & Home Parties usually last about two hours because we have A LOT of information to present to you. We're considering breaking all this information into categories to teach it in small doses like "The Basics of Saving", "Drugstores 101", and "Coupon Organization".

We'd really love your input as we're in the process of creating these courses so please feel free to leave comments below or email us at sistersandsavings@gmail.com!

Also, make sure that you "like" our Sisters & Savings facebook page and "follow" our blog for e-course updates and giveaways! 

Thrifty Thursday

Well, it's Thursday again! You know what that means... today is what we at Sisters & Savings like to call "Thrifty Thursday", where we'll share with you frugal tips, thrifty ideas, and even thrift store treasure we've found. You're welcome to share yours  too. Just leave a comment below, or email us!
Here's today's "Thrifty Thursday" Tip:

Remember those Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap Dispensers we gave away at some of our
first workshops & home parties? Well this has probably been our favorite give-away,
especially the ones that look like they have a stainless steel finish.

High-value coupons were so easy to find to make these dispensers free, almost free, or even make them money-makers when these first came out. Now that we've fallen in love with them, we're realizing that the soap refills have absolutely no coupons!

A frugal and thrifty solution to this problem is to simply refill the bottles with your own soap solution. I used Dawn Dish Soap with Olay Hand Renewal in mine, but you can use any type of hand soap. You could even make your own soap to make this even more thrifty!

Just use a butter knife or coin to pry open the lid of the bottle, refill the bottle,
replace it in the dispenser, and turn it back on!
Works like a charm!

Do you have a thrifty tip you'd like to share? Email us at sistersandsaving@gmail.com!

How to Plan an Organizing System Before Starting a Project

Although this article really has nothing to do with saving money, it does have a great deal to do with effective housekeeping. I believe that if you're organized, you'll be more efficient. If everything has a home and you routinely place things back in their home, you'll spend less time looking for things and wondering where they are.

I stumbled upon this article for planning an organized space. I've done something like this before, especially with planning organization for my dorm room in college. I also did this when organizing our home office, as there were lots of things that had to be put in. It was very important that they were all able to function as well.  Most of the time I just think  through something in my head instead of actually jotting all of this down.

It's funny because I'll be sitting in my living room and instead of watching T.V., I'm considering ideas for moving furniture around and where things will go. I'll do this for a few weeks until I'm set on it, and I pretty much know exactly what I want. Then one day, Justin will come home and everything's different. It's amazing how much strength you find when you really want to do something.

I did this with our bedroom also... before I would fall asleep or when I would wake up before getting out of bed, I'd think about our room arrangement. Then one day I decided to move it all. Justin had to help me with the bed, but I put everything else on those slider things and moved it all around myself! Yep, in the past month, I've re-arranged two rooms in our house!

Happy Organizing!
-Laney

Money-Saving Monday

Each Monday, we'll offer a "Money-Saving" Tip to help you and your family. This week it's something practical that we've all heard of. We believe this Money-Saving Tip will be the basis of all your other Money-Saving Ideas.

We also want to encourage you to pray about this before you put it to action. Ask God how much you should budget for different areas in your finances. I dare ya! It may be hard to submit, but I promise it will be worth it. He sees the "big picture" of our finances, where we can only see "today's picture".

The Budget
An important money-saving tip that we'd like to share with you is a budget. It's important to give each dollar of your income a job & reduce impulsive spending.

Find your Cash Flow
Look at trends from your previous months of spending to see your cash flow in certain areas. How much have you been spending on gas? How about groceries? Add each of your bills to your budget as well as your other expenses & discretionary money. Discretionary money is the leftover money that you choose how it it spent whether it be for haircuts, retail shopping, travel, etc.

Make it Work for You
Give each dollar a job, and stick to it. Make it your goal to spend LESS than what you've budgeted. Set financial goals like buying a new vehicle and start budgeting for that car note now while your car is still running smoothly and paid-off. Imagine how awesome it would feel to pay cash for your new car once you've saved enough and be able to give your other car away and bless someone big!

Give Yourself a "Buffer" or "Cushion"
Another idea for a budget I learned at a Financial Stewardship Class is to keep the same budget, even after your income increases. Better yet, budget for only one income, and save the rest. With this, you'll have a "buffer" or "cushion" of money in your account. Build your "buffer" or "cushion" amount up to a week's worth of salary, a month's worth, two month's worth, a year, etc.

The Goal of a Budget
Your goal is to be able to pay for things on a cash basis in full and not ever owing anyone anything. You won't be in debt or behind on a payment. And when you have your "buffer" or "cushion", you'll also be able to give abundantly to your family, missionaries, and those in need. You'll be able to give offerings above your tithe and be richly blessed in return, without ever having to worry about your monthly bills & expenses. 
What an incredible feeling to really be financially free!?!

So I personally think these are all great ideas to think about when considering a budget.
To put it simply, you'll be saving money by limiting your spending in every area of your family or personal budget!

Do you have a tip for Money-Saving Monday? Let us know at sistersandsavings@gmail.com!

Friday's Freebies

If you've been with us for any length of time, you've probably heard us mention that "Your mailbox can be your Treasure Chest". There are so many freebies & samples available all the time, it seems. Here are 25 that we've found for you this week. Take advantage of the ones you like, skip the ones you don't. Have fun!

1. Free Box of Goodies for Moms & Babies from Bluum
Sign up for Bluum. Confirm your subscription through the email you'll receive. Login, and take the short survey. At the end of the survey, enter code "bluumbaby" to get a free box of goodies!

2. Free NoGii Gluten-Free Protein Bar Sample

3. Free Sample of Purina Dog Food from Wal-Mart

4. Free HomeSchool Gradebook and Record-Keeping Downloads

5. Free e-book: Raising Motivated Kids from Amazon
Note: This e-book is for Kindle, but if you don't have a Kindle, you can download Kindle for PC & read e-books on your computer.

6. Free $5 Credit to Daily Deelz

7. Free Post-Its Back to School Sample Pack

8. Free Post-Its Super Sticky Notes Sample

9. Free Activia Selects Coupon (Facebook Offer)
"Like" their facebook page, and then enter your name and email address. You'll be emailed a link to print the coupon.

10. Free Head & Shoulders Shampoo Sample

11. Free Pampers gifts to grow points:
BABYISDUEANYDAY = 5 points 
WELCOMEGTGPTS10 = 10 points 
GTGREWARDS4MOMS = 10 points 
WELCOME2PAMPERS = 50 points 
JOINNOW4REWARDS = 50 points 
2BEGINEARNING50 = 50 points 
GIFTSTOGROW4MOM = 50 points 
PAMPERS4MOMJFML = 10 points 
CONGRATS2NEWMOM = 10 points 
GTGWELCOME10PTS = 10 points 
PAMPERSGTG10PTS = 10 points 
10PTSFREECODE4U = 10 points 
CAREFORNEWBORNS = 10 points 
GTGCOUPONPOINTS = 10 points 
WELCOME2VILLAGE = 10 points 
GETSTARTEDNOW10 = 10 points

12. Free Huggies Snug & Dry Diaper Sample from Wal-Mart


13. Educational Freebie: Ocean Life Calendar Connection Cards 

14. Free Entrepreneur Magazine Subscription


15. 100 Free Black & White Business Cards from Staples (thru Aug. 6th)


16. Educational Freebie: Birthday Fun Preschool Pack Download

17. Free HomeSchool Planners Downloads

18. Free Preschool Activity E-book

19. Free John Frieda Root Awakening Sample from Wal-Mart

20. Free U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish Cookbook

21. 5 Free Sunmaid Recipe Booklets

22. Free Playtex Sport Tampons and a $1 off Q

23. Free Bausch & Lomb SofLens Daily Disposables Sample

24. Free Splenda Essentials Sample

25. 130 Free Bic Pens Given Away Every Hour Between 10AM & 8PM EST, Every Day This Month

Happy Freebie Friday!

The Blog: "Learn to Coupon with Sisters & Savings"

To our readers & guests of our "Learn to Coupon" Workshops & Home Parties:
We want you to know that we're really excited about our blog, and we're really working hard to get it going on a regular basis. Read some of answers to questions from a blogging class we're taking to see the direction our blog is heading. Feel free to offer your comments & suggestions below!

What is our blog about? What will be the main purpose of our blog?
Our blog is mostly about saving money by using coupons effectively. We offer "Learn to Coupon" workshops & home parties to teach women how to use coupons, but we'd like to be able to post daily deals, weekly ads, and more of our own tips for saving money.

We'll also use our blog to share our dreams and goals and how we are working to achieve those, especially when it comes to being financially free. We'll share our cleaning and organizing tips, as well as meal-planning and general home-making ideas.

We want this blog to be long-term, something we will continue to do for years.

Do we want to teach others with out blog? Do we want to entertain?
I thinking teaching others the art of couponing is probably the sole reason we started our blog. Ultimately we want people to learn how to be good stewards of what God has given them by spending their money and using resources wisely. Eventually, we'd love to offer E-books on the content of our blog & E-courses to teach the art of couponing as well! Entertaining is not a main goal, but we do hope to keep our readers interested enough for them to keep coming back to read more!

Will our blog be purely recreational or do we plan to make money blogging at some point in time?
We both began couponing as a necessity, but it soon became a hobby. As we were having fun doing our hobby of couponing, it also became a business. We didn't plan for that. It just happened. But why not? Why not make money for doing something we love doing? We started our blog to be able to keep ongoing relationships with guests of our "Learn to Coupon" Home Parties & Workshops. We want to offer them more resources to help them with their couponing and saving money in all aspects of life. We don't want to, in any way, charge people to view our page, but it we happen to get compensated for posting a deal that our readers are interested in, that's great. I think it would be nice to supplement our incomes by doing something we enjoy, but ultimately it's about our guests and our readers, providing them with a new tool to use.

Do we have ideas to drive traffic to our blog?
We do. We've played around with the idea of daily posts like Sunday Savings, Thrifty Thursdays, Money-Saving Mondays, or Friday's Freebies. I think our readers will be seeing more of these kinds of posts in the near future, and we hope that it will encourage them to come back to see more!

Thrifty Thursday: A Frugal Way to Organize Your Jewelry

Over the years I've struggled to find the perfect organization method for my jewelry that really works for me. Being organized is all about "having a home for everything" and making sure that you routinely put your things back in their home after you use them. To me, I find that being organized saves me time - the time it would take me to find what I lost or the time it would take me to untangle all those necklaces that I just crammed together in a box. Sometimes... that's easier said than done. It has to work for you!

While I was in high school, my grandparents gave me a jewelry organizer that hung on the wall. It was a very nice piece that had jewelry hooks, earring hooks, a bar to hold bracelets, and the ring inserts also on the inside. Then there was a hinged door that closed, and I could have collage photos. As long as we hung it on a sturdy stud in the wall, it was fantastic! It looked very similar to the one pictured below, except mine was black to match my room's decor...

Well, over those few years, my jewelry collection grew, and it was time to go to college. I knew I wouldn't be able to hang this organizer on the wall of my dorm room, and it wasn't a piece that could really be put anywhere else. I took all of my jewelry and organized them into small tackle boxes that I stacked and kept in a drawer.

     The problem was that I felt it was too much work to open the drawer, find the correct tackle box, open the tackle box, and put my jewelry back. The trend was for me to just leave the jewelry wherever... and it was very unorganized again, not to mention tangled or even lost.

      Now, that I'm out of the dorm and in a spacious home, I've found a new solution that really works. It actually would be perfect for a dorm also (if I'd only thought of it sooner), because it's frugal, easy-to-make, and it can be hung in a dorm room using Command tape or Command hooks.



So, now you can see what I do now. I'll I've done is purchased a regular ole cork board from Wal-Mart for about $10. This was the largest one they had in the office supply section, but it works perfectly for me. You could also probably find a cheaper one at a Thrift Store, making this project even more frugal.

 Then I bought some wooden tacks that were on sale for $2, making this entire project only $12 to make, which is extremely frugal compared to the jewelry armoires that I had been seeing everywhere for $60-$200!

Another nice thing about these cork boards is that you can decorate and style them however you like! They are easy to paint, either the border or the entire thing. You could paint patterns or make it an art piece. You could also hang it more beautifully, by adding a colorful ribbon to the top to hang it like a piece of art. I decided to leave mine natural for right now because it matched the natural decor of our bedroom,
but it's all up to you!

    I also needed a way to organize my earrings, chunky bracelets and necklaces, watches, rings, pins, and charms. I bought this acrylic drawer organizer at Dirt Cheap for less that $2, and it sends on a shallow shelf in the larger armoire that we have in our bedroom.

   So, now you've seen the frugal way that I organize my jewelry for under $14. I dreamed about those jewelry armoires for a while, because I was really in need of something that worked for me to keep me organized. This was a nice alternative, and I'm really glad that I thought of it.

Do you have any frugal tips?
Email us at sistersandsavings@gmail.com,
and we just might feature your tip!