Frugality

The OTHER “F” Word

Not the most popular topic, I know.

However – while I try to watch my food budget, I am just a newbie compared to the veteran coupon-stackers that are on staff. [I’ve seen you with your coupons & grocery store inserts, planning how you will stack coupons and your shopping route!] There are a few tricks, or sites, up my sleeve that I use which I thought I’d share. If you know of others, please post them!

Our Frugal Journey
http://www.ourfrugaljourney.com/

This blog, maintained by Amy Dunn, who is a former newspaper journalist turned stay-at-home parent who has learned by trial and error how to feed a family of five, run an efficient household, save for three college educations and a comfortable retirement, and still manage to have fun, on a single paycheck. [Whew!]

She often gives the “heads up” for triple coupons at Harris Teeter and mentions other NC-related saving sites.

SavvyDollar.org : North Carolina’s Source for Savings
http://forums.savvydollar.org/

This site is organized into forums where members can post. You do not need to register with the site in order to read the posts. Here is a sampling of the forums: Grocery Store Deals, Drug Store Deals, Big-Box Store Deals, Online Deals, "Baby Stuff" Deals, Miscellaneous deals and coupons for North Carolina, Freebies and Samples – plus others.

And for those who have their own “red cart romance” going on, there are several Target-related sites:

Attention Target Shoppers
http://attentiontargetshoppers.blogspot.com/
Ginger also lists her favorite coupon-related blogs so you can use her blog as a resource.

Slave to Target
http://slavetotarget.blogspot.com/

I promise you, I did not make that up! This blogger has the hots for the bullseye and she is not shy about it. She also lists other Target-related blogs.

I use Google Reader to subscribe to the blogs so I know when there are new posts and if the topic is of interest to me.

As many of you know, I love the yard sale/consignment shop/thrift stores route for when I need stuff. Goodwill created an online shopping site that is structured similar to eBay: http://www.shopgoodwill.com/ . Or just go visit the Goodwill locations near you. Craigslist is a great source for planning your yard sale route.

Iron Man, a.k.a. Nathan, salutes all of you frugalites!

And now, for some words of wisdom from my Dad :

Money is only worth the joy it brings.
If you don’t have a place for it, don’t bring it home!

Happy Hunting –
Carolyn

Rocky Mountain High

If you arent singing John Denver now, you must travel the 2000 miles to Colorado at some point in your life. In early May I traveled back to Colorado for a girls week of tromping around the state hiking, drinking microbrews, and realxing over rocky mountain views that make you contemplate life. We traversed the state from Boulder to Durango. If you dont know your geography, start east of the Rockies, drive 7+ hours southwesterly, over 5 mountain passes (aka the lower point to cross a mountain range), including the continental divide (did i mention it was snowing & the ski area was open over that pass?), and you end up in the southwest part of Colorado, near the 4 corners (can you name the 4 states? yea... I was a Geography Major in college) We stayed in Pagosa Springs (top photo)about an hour east of Durango (where I use to live) at a sweet condo with full kitchen ... and our own hot tub! We hiked around the San Juan Mts (2nd photo) quite a bit and my now east coast butt managed to keep up at 8,000+ elevation. A couple visits in Durango (3rd photo) was a treat to see the kayakers & rafters coming down the Animas River (Full name is the Rio de las Animas Perdidas or "River of the Lost Souls" - hmm, that pretty much sums up Durango), hiking Animas Mt and the River trail, getting stuck in traffic because of the annoying-when-you-live-there-

but-cool-for-visitors Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, and eating green chile at Gazpachos. Back in Boulder we did the Boulder things: yoga, eating health food, Pearl St Mall, and dog walks on several of the hundreds of Boulder Country trails. Jealous yet? I have more photos :>