New Year, Frugal Reflections...

Well, it's a new year and I noticed that my writing here has slacked off as much as my couponing has in real life. I suppose that would be a damning admittance for some, but I'm all right with not being perfect. I can live with not being THE premier frugal living blogger on the internet. Why, you ask? Well, firstly, like the rest of you, I have other pulls for my time. I would love to write 24 hours a day 7 days a week and fill my blog with amazing, never before seen, unique ways to get ample use out of each and every penny, I really would, but I have a family to feed, a house to clean, and other obligations. In short, I'm just like the rest of you.

I didn't give up the idea of frugal living, for one, I can't, it's necessary for our life and it's something that I have always done. It's my lifestyle. I didn't stop couponing altogether, I just became lax on getting my coupons and clipping them, organizing them, and being diligent about bringing my binder when I shopped. That doesn't mean that I didn't still use them to score excellent deals on holiday gifts, it just means that sometimes I set foot inside a store without a coupon. A few of you may be clutching your pearls in shock, the rest of you are nodding in agreement because you've been there.

I am toying with the idea of reformatting this blog a bit. There are hundreds of sites where you can find out which coupons are coming this weekend. Legions of places to find match ups before you shop. I know, I look at them too. I will still include these things from time to time, and I will happily link you to the sites I use and love. I would like to see myself doing more local explorations and finding ways for families and members of this community to enrich their lives without spending a fortune doing so. I also intend to do a series of simple ways to get back into the swing of things. I had a period of time where my life became to overwhelming for me to do much more than simply survive and it is hard to get the rhythm of anything back on track, let alone frugal living.

In short, I am getting back into saddle here. I have some ideas and plans and am always open to suggestions from my readership! I enjoy writing, couponing, and finding cheap ways to enrich my life, sharing it with readers is a special bonus. Stay tuned!

Kent Community Time Bank Community Potluck this Friday!

What is on your "If I had" list? If you had more money, you would eat out more? You would repair that nagging issue with your home or car? If you had more time, your lawn would be mowed, you'd send something in for your child's bake sale? I have these moments, many of them, as I struggle to live frugally. There have been times when I simply have lacked the equipment or the manpower to accomplish a task despite being capable of completing it and there are times when paying for a job to be done is either overwhelming or completely out of my budget.

Back in the autumn, I heard through some source or another about an organization called the Kent Community Time Bank. I started exploring what I could find of it online and was amazed to find a network of people who exchanged their talents with others without the use of money. What a novel idea! People exchanging services with others of their community. It took me some time to get myself to an orientation meeting but at that meeting I was delighted to learn just how diverse our local time bank is and how quickly it is growing!

The membership of the KCTB seems to include members from all areas in our community, students, parents, retirees, professors, even businesses and organizations. I have been told, that at the point of this blog post, there are 315 members from Kent and the surrounding area who have shared over 10,000 hours of services, skills, and talents! The Kent Community Time Bank is among the top fifteen Time Banks in the world!

As a work at home mom, the time bank gives me an additional benefit of meeting people in my community that I might not normally encounter in my daily life. It also gives me a way to use my talents, skills, and resources to help others. It is not intrusive and I am not obligated to attend anything nor offer services if it is inconvenient for me. It is simple to access with both an active Facebook page and a main website that also houses the database off offers and requests. It's exciting to be part of an organization that is not just a bank, or a service exchange but also a community and a social movement! I find that I can not stop talking about the KCTB to friends and neighbors!

Super Mulch Brigade! (Photo courtesy of Sheri Wild)

In the short time I have been a member of the KCTB, I have seen evidence of  members coming together to help lay mulch for another member (so many came that it only took them 45 minutes!), heard of members going to help another clean up storm damage, as well as many smaller scale activities such as clearing out a shed, editing a paper, and the loan of a pasta maker that resulted in homemade pierogies! There seems to be no limit to what can be accomplished within the Time Bank.

Actual food from a KCTB potluck! (Photo courtesy of Denise Creque Tupa)

This Friday, May 4, 2012, the Kent Community Time Bank is celebrating it's 2nd anniversary at a potluck dinner at The United Church of Christ in Kent, 1400 East Main St. Kent, 44240. The potluck will start at 6:30pm and you do NOT need to be a member of the KCTB to attend! The event is family friendly and there will be musical entertainment! Feell free to bring an instrument for the informal jam session!

Some enticement to attend? (Photo courtesy of Denise Cruque Tupa)

The monthly potlucks are a way to get to know your fellow community members face to face and to learn about Time Banking from those who are actively involved in our Time Bank. And you will retroactively earn your first time credit for bringing a dish! This will be my first pot luck, but I have heard the food is amazing and I am very eager to meet more members of my community...and try the food!

Need I say more? (Photo Courtesy of Denise Cruque Tupa)

Once Upon a Child Stow's Fan of the Month!

If you have children and you have yet to visit Once Upon a Child in Stow, you are missing out on a lot of great bargains for your growing offspring. I blogged back in the winter about their annual bag sale but there are always good deals at Once Upon a Child.

In addition to finding great deals, you can also bring in your gently used clothing (freshly laundered), toys, and baby equipment and leave with some cash. Or new stuff, I am going to say that you will likely leave with new stuff as I find it impossible to walk in there and not find some bargain that we need to have. You do not have to make an appointment, but I have found it best to call ahead and get an idea of what seasons and sizes they are buying, it is also a good time to check if they are in need of any larger pieces you might have.  The What We Buy page is also a great reference.

They have recently started a Fan of the Month contest on their new Facebook page and Dollars and Cents has the honor of being their first fan of the month! I am super excited about this. I get a $20 Gift Certificate for the store. I plan to update everyone on just how far my $20 will go! If you haven't like Once Upon a Child's new Facebook page, you can go here and do so. Maybe one of our readers will be next month's Fan of the Month!

You can find Once Upon a Child at 4272 Kent Rd Suite 10, Stow, OH 44224, it is in the same plaza as Giant Eagle and Target. Store hours are Mon - Fri: 10:00 am - 8:00 pm, Sat: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm, and
Sun: 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm. The phone number is 330-688-7176. You can also find out a wealth of information by clicking one of the links above!

Don't forget to like the Facebook page!

Happy Bargain Hunting!

Decluttering your Facebook Feed.

I've been spending my morning hiding posts by other bloggers. Not because I dislike other bloggers, but because I find that some bloggers spam incessantly and it has come to a point where the posts of my family and friends get lost in the sea of repetitive couponing posts.

How did it get this way? Well, it seems like every coupon, frugal living, mommy, and whatever else blog has a giveaway going on; in order to enter yourself in those giveaways, you have to like a large number of Facebook pages, mostly of frugal bloggers but occasionally odd pages slip in there too. This is a good way for blogs to build Facebook likes, but I wonder if the number of likes actually corresponds to more page hits or better yet, more readers. I would like to know that my posts are being read more than I would enjoy seeing my 'like' totals rise.

The problem with adding all of these pages is that when each one posts something, it comes into your feed. And there are a significant number of blogs who spam several posts at a time or the same post over and over during the day. Neither of these practices are adding to my Facebook experience nor are they giving me any incentive to visit the blog. It also seems to me that the blogs who tend to utilize such practices also do little in the way of writing, they simply copy paste ads and links. While that is helpful for a lot of people, I prefer to read as well. I like learning tips from my fellow frugal bloggers, I enjoy hearing opinions. I suppose what I am saying is that as much as I like deals, I prefer blogs with substance.

Short of opting out of blog giveaways altogether, I have only come up with two ways of combating the never ending feed, either hiding all posts by offending blogs or creating a separate facebook account simply for couponing stuff. The problem with a separate facebook page is that you have to keep switching back and forth and I guess I am just too lazy to do that. Instead, I have opted to hide posts. I choose the posts I hide by annoyance factor, I suppose. I keep all local bloggers in my feed as well as any bloggers who have liked my page, the former I do because I wish to support my local community and the latter because it is polite and I have found those who liked my page to be worth the read. At the end of the day, I still feel like there are enough blogs in my feed that I am not going to miss a deal and yet I can still find the posts of my family and friends.

I'm curious as to how others deal with this issue and wonder if it follows through to other social networking sites. I don't have a personal twitter, so all of my twitter activity is blog related, no issues there. I haven't done a lot with google+ but I assume the circles feature is helpful there.

Frugal and homemade remedies for springtime pests!

The weather warmed up and suddenly we started seeing tiny little ants, mostly in our bathroom. We had this issue in our other home, so I was well prepared for this invasion and stopping it. I make my own homemade ant killer, which also works somewhat for fruit flies.


My ant killer is as follows, you will want to keep it out of reach of children and pets, though my cats never seem to care much about it. I've heard you can place the ant bait into plastic containers and poke holes in the top for the ants, I intend to try this. 


Ant Bait
1 cup sugar 
1 cup water
1/2 cup Borax


Heat in a pan until everything is dissolved, then you take a cotton ball and soak it in the liquid, put the cotton balls in places where you see ants. I used to place them on muffin papers because once the cotton balls dry, they will stick. For the first day or two, ants will SWARM the cotton balls. After that they will be gone. They take the bait back to the colony and it kills those who eat it. 

• Another trick that works for ants is to put cut cucumbers or cucumber peels in the area where you find the ants. It somehow deters the ants or kills them, however it can attract fruit flies. 
• To kill fruit flies you can make a trap which is oddly fascinating to children.
• You simply pour an inch or two of dish soap into a cup and cover it with an inch or two of apple cider vinegar. The vinegar attracts the fruit flies and when they land on it, the soap wicks them down and kills them. 
• Pots of Basil around your house are supposed to deter house flies. 

• Mint growing outside of your home deters mice. (Which may actually work because the mint attracts cats!)
• Diatomaceous Earth: (can also use inside the home) Nice, non-toxic pesticide that is pet & child friendly. Probably the most effective naturally occurring protective powder, this is a great option if their nest is underneath a deck or patio and sidewalk blocks. Sprinkle this in the cracks that the ants will have to crawl up through. Diatomaceous Earth is easily picked up by the hairy bodies of most insects, whereupon it scratches through their protective wax layers and they also absorb some of this material. The result being that the insects lose water rapidly, dry up and die. Further protection is provided by the powder’s property of repelling many insects. In houses it can be used effectively to prevent the entry of certain insects such as earwigs, ants, and cockroaches, and to control these and others that are present in cupboards containing food, carpets, basements, attics, window ledges, pet areas (for fleas), etc. In all of these examples it is important to place a small amount of the powder in corners, cracks, crevices and other areas where insects might hide. Source: Ecological Agriculture Projects, McGill University