this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

This post was supposed to be showing off my latest craft project, but due to an unfortunate collision between my finger and a rotary cutter, that post is being put on hold. Instead of figuring out where to hang my new creation, I was instead figuring out where the first aid kit was. The one inside the house didn't have the size bandage I wanted, so I checked the one inside of our get away quick bag (also known as a 72 hour kit). I decided it was time to update the bag, seeing as based on the baby food I found in it, I hadn't done so since Bug was a baby.

What is a get away quick bag? It has basic supplies inside, so should we need to leave the house quickly in any sort of emergency we would have everything we needed already in one place.

What's inside ours? Food and a change of clothing for all of us* and it's packed inside a duffel bag. More specifically:

• instant oatmeal
  
• ramen noodles
  
• crackers
  
• canned fruit
  
• canned vegetables
  
• baby food 
  
• tuna
  
• dry milk 
  
• potato flakes
  
• kool-aid
  
• sugar
  
• am/fm radio
  
• comb
  
• tampons
  
• flashlight/batteries
  
• whistle
  
• change of clothing
  
• socks
  
• sweatshirt
  
• soap
  
• toilet paper
  
• toothbrushes/toothpaste
  

There is also a note inside telling us what other things we should grab, such as water, sleeping bags and our camping box (it has a propane stove and basic cooking equipment). Those things are kept in the garage near our get away quick bag.

I made a note on the calendar in August to rotate out the food. Since it had been so long since I last did this, I had to throw out a lot of the food.

*There is no change of clothing for the kids or diapers. I decided that since they grow so quickly, and I always keep spare clothes for each of them in the diaper bag, it makes more sense to just grab the diaper bag also, I always do on my way out anyway.

Part I of how many you ask? Probably a lot. My oldest is just three and frankly, I have no plan whatsoever for teaching my children about money. My youngest brother turned 16 almost a year ago and just recently got his first job...and his first checking account...and his first debit card. Suddenly he thinks he has all the money in the world, which is odd because he was always so great with his money when he was younger. What this little anecdote shows me is that you teach your children about money, but you can really only teach them so much. There is much that must be learned on their own, by experience.

A few months ago, we went with some friends to a local children's museum. Bug loved it and has been begging to go back ever since. I try to explain to him that we can't go very often because it costs a lot of money ($10 for all of us - not a whole lot, but if we went each time he has wanted to, it would be). But he's three and every other word out of his mouth is "why" and well, he just doesn't get it. So I'm trying to figure out how I can help him understand that money doesn't grow on trees (or inside plastic debit cards). It's such a simple concept, yet at the same time not simple at all.

Part II

Bug's new favorite thing to say is "Mom, we're having a great day, aren't we?". He says it with a huge grin on his face, so how can I say anything but yes? It usually comes at a time when I'm about ready to throw in the towel and I'm amazed that even though I feel that he's spent the entire day in timeout and I've been giving way more attention to his baby brother, he is able to look past that, smile, and tell me what a great day it is. I guess I need to look past some things too. Because really, when it comes down to it, everyday is a great day.

Photo from image*After

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes

The Tall One spent two year in Peru serving a mission for our church. Lomo Saltado is a staple there, it's super easy and super inexpensive. For true authenticity, purchase the cheapest meat you can find, don't use very much of it and pile so much rice on your plate that you'll never want to see another grain again.

Lomo Saltado

1 lb beef (in Spanish, lomo means loin, but really any cut of beef will do)
1 red onion, sliced
1-2 tomatoes, quartered
rice, cooked
french fries*
2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
salt, pepper, garlic powder** and cumin to taste

Brown meat in oil and then add vinegar and spices. Add onion and tomato. Cover and cook slowly until the meat is tender. Add french fries and stir a few times until they are heated through and to allow flavors to mix a bit. Serve over rice.

*We usually cut up a potato and fry our own fries in a deep fryer. You could also bake them in the oven or use frozen ones. You'll want them to be cooked thoroughly before adding them in.
**Use fresh garlic if you have it on hand.

First off, thanks to those of you who have used my referral link to join MySurvey and also to any of you who have clicked over to I've Paid Twice For This Already and used a link of my to open an ING account. I appreciate it!

This week I participated in the Festival of Frugality, hosted by Mighty Bargain Hunter with my post, House Envy. Two posts I really enjoyed were:

• The Dos and Don'ts of Buying a Cookbook at Cheap Healthy Good


• Frugality: Increasing Your Quality of Life for Less at Mrs. Micah.

I also hosted the Make It From Scratch Carnival here.

And some other fun posts from my feed reader this week:

• Habit Forming at Are You Going To Be This Way The Rest of the Time I Know You? A little tale of how being frugal has become a habit.


• What Are You Paying For? at Being Frugal. Some good points to ponder before you spend some money.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Last week our cell phone ended up in Bug's pocket. And then made its way via the pocket to the washing machine. And there it died a wet and bumpy death. Because we are on my parent's family plan (and I know absolutely nothing about cell phones besides how to use one and that you shouldn't put one in a washing machine) I called up my mom to see what we needed to do to replace it . She gave me what information I'd need to know so I could get the new phone activated into their account, but later called back with some great news. My sister-in-law recently got a new phone and would be happy to let us have her old one for the time being. Hooray!

Could we afford a new phone? Sure, but I had no desire to spend the money, so I'm more than happy to take the hand-me-down. It's not the latest and greatest, but I don't need my phone to sing me lullabies or recite the Declaration of Independence. Later this year we'll hit our two year anniversary on the plan at which point (by agreeing to extend our contract for a few years) we can pretty much get a new phone for free.

Oh, and some other happy cell phone news. In an effort to save money each month, I opted to not add on a texting plan. Recently, my mom called the cell phone company to change something and the person helping her noticed one of her phones had no text plan. She said that was correct. He then said he could probably add on 100 free texts per month to our line, which he did. Sweetness!

So far I've spent $163.21 at the grocery store this month, which is almost $2 under my new budget of $55/week. I've only spent about $5 on non-food items so far, so I'm hoping to end up quite a bit under this month, and looking at the grocery ads for next week, I think I can do it.

This week various products were on sale 5/$7 (you had to buy five to get the promotional price), I paired that up with a coupon, so I got some cereal, oatmeal and syrup (yes, more cereal) for $1.20 each. I also picked up some grapes, some of which I'll be throwing in the freezer.

And now for the tips.

I've been running low on cream of chicken soup, so I've been checking the ads for a sale. I didn't find one, but did check the price of them last week while I was at the store. And wow, they were on sale! Not quite the stock up price from last October (50 cents) But at $0.54, it was pretty darn close. I would have never known had I not just checked. It was not advertised in the weekly ad. So, tip #1 is randomly check prices on items you usually stock up on so you can take advantage of an unadvertised sale.

On my list this week was ketchup, I went straight for the massively large bottle because Bug really like ketchup. I took note of the unit price because I'm a smart shopper (or at least pretend to be) and then noticed that the next smaller size was actually a better deal. I thought that odd, since usually that's not the case, and luckily checked the smallest size just in case. Guess what? It was on sale and by far the best deal. I grabbed a few. So, tip #2 is check the unit price on all the sizes, especially if there is a sale on one of them. That said, don't buy more than you need! If you don't have a three year old who practically inhales ketchup, don't buy the big huge bottle even if it's a great deal.

Welcome to the 52nd Make It From Scratch Carnival and This Wasn't In The Plan. If this is your first visit, look around a bit, you'll find links to recent posts and my archives on the left. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing either in a feed reader or through email. If you subscribe by email, your email address will only be used to send you my new posts. Now on to the carnival.

Last Thursday marked the one year anniversary of the Make It From Scratch Carnival. It's also my first time hosting a carnival of any sort, so this carnival is all about the number one.

'One'derous Things For You to Make

Learn all about recycling crayons from Laura at Seabird Chronicles.

Summer presents “a simple how-to for making paper beads” posted at Creative Mom Cafe.

M. Molly Backes shows you how you can “Make your house smell beautiful using ingredients you already have.” at her blog, Bittersweet: M. Molly Backes.

Looking for a practical gift? Suzanne McMinn presents “A fun, easy, fast recipe for making your own vanilla extract at home!”
posted at Chickens in the Road.

joanie presents Personalized paper dolls posted at Nini Makes. She says, “make personalized paper dolls of your children, it's easy and they'll love them”.

HowToMe presents How to Have a "High-Tech" Food Fight posted at HowToMe.

Looking for a way to reuse your plastic bags? Cindy from My Recycled Bags has an idea - Dishcloths with Plastic Scrubber.

'One'derful Recipes For You to Try


Visit Sunny at Dandelions and Daydreams to find ” A yummy cookie recipe for the one you want to give all your kisses to.”

GP says “Here in the Northwest.. cold is a condition... some hot oatmeal to warm us up” find a recipe for oatmeal at Innside Montana-Your Home at the Range.

Joshua Frank presents Brewza: Because Don't ya Just Love Beer??!! posted at Brewza: Because Don't ya Just Love Beer??!!.

Take a look at The Sojourner where Erica Burgan will tell you how she turned a gallon of milk into other dairy products and saved over $6.00 in the process.

New Old-Fashioned Gal thinks that "homemade flour tortillas are the best” Visit her post The Best Mexican Food Begins at Home posted at Diary of a New Old-Fashioned Gal and learn how to make them!

Natalie presents Cream Puffs posted at Crafty Natalie.

It's the battle of the brownies! Three posts this week include brownie recipes. This is the week to host that brownie tasting party you've always wanted to have.

Kristen presents I Love You Treats posted at GreenStyleMom. She says, “a little late for Valentine's Day, but always a good treat!”

Stephanie presents Fudgy Homemade Brownies posted at Stop the Ride!.

Silvia presents Fudge Brownies posted at Po Moyemu--In My Opinion. She says, "my daughter is 11 and loves to make this recipe! She has it memorized. :) The actual recipe is linked at the bottom of this post."

'One'dering What's For Dinner Tonight?


vh presents Real Food in 10 Minutes, Work-Free posted at Funny about Money.

Jazmin presents Sausage and tomato stew posted at A Renaissance Canuck.

Kate presents Our Red House: Basil Pesto posted at Our Red House.

Kris presents Just When I Thought I Was Out: CI’s Orange-Sesame Stir-Fry Sauce posted at Cheap Healthy Good.

A salad would go great with all the recipes above, so head over to the simple nickle for Cheap Eats: Recipes for Around $1 Per Serving: Creamy Cilantro Dressing on Salad. but, “BEWARE! This is the best salad dressing you've ever had.”

Baby needs some dinner too and Kelsey from Vanilla Joy - Family Fun and Education tells about making Homemade Baby Food.

And One Other Great Post You're Sure To Love


Would you love to have a garden, but you have limited space to work with? So does Thursday Bram, who says,“I'm trying to cook from the ground up: I'm working on growing some of my own food.” Visit Growing My Own Food...In My Apartment | Wise Bread posted at Wise Bread.


That's it for this edition, next week Stop The Ride! will be hosting.

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes


It doesn't get much easier than this!

Tater Tot Casserole

1 lb ground beef
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 package frozen tater tots

Brown meat and drain. In an 8x8 pan, mix meat and soup. Place frozen tater tots on top (you probably won't use the entire package). Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

This Tuesday I will be hosting the Make It From Scratch Carnival. What is a blog carnival? It's a group of posts from a variety of blogs, but all on a similar topic, all compiled in one place. Have you blogged about something you've made from scratch? Submit your article, I'd love to include you!



This week I participated in the Carnival of Personal Finance, which was held at My Dollar Plan, with my post on how my credit card helps me budget. Here are some other posts from this carnival you might enjoy:

• Sound Money Matters shares ideas for saving money on books


• Savvy Frugality presents Of Course the Economy is Bad...It's an Election Year!

And elsewhere around the blogosphere:

• Diaper prices are on the rise, Baby Cheapskate tells you how to still get the best price you can.


• Frugality has a different definition for everyone, Frugal Hacks has a great post on this topic.


• Head over to Frugal Upstate for some great ideas on how to avoid going out to eat.


• Visit Like Merchant Ships to check out the imagination at Meredith's house.


• SAHMmy Says shares her best homemaking advice ever. Read the post to find out what it is!

Have a wonderful weekend!

It's common to keep meat and ice cream and other frozen foods in your freezer, but what else can be successfully frozen? Clever Dude shows us how to freeze peanut butter sandwiches. I don't particularly care for PB&J, but still never realized you could freeze them. And it got me thinking, what other stuff out there can be easily frozen and eaten later?

At our house, you'll often find the following non-traditional things in our freezer:

• A loaf of french bread - the recipe I use makes two loaves, and I always freeze the extra one. It's great for sandwiches (like french dip or meatball or chicken subs) or as a side for most meals.


• Burritos - whenever we have burritos for dinner, we make up extras to keep in the freezer


• Roasted green chiles - we buy a big bag when they are in season, roast them, and keep them in the freezer to use in recipes, put on hamburgers, or on our pizza


• Grated Cheese - I buy a big bag of it at Costco and keep it in the freezer, I find that the cheddar doesn't freeze together, but the mozzarella does (putting the mozzarella into several smaller bags helps to prevent this)

Right now we also have pumpkin puree and applesauce. Those aren't things I normally keep excess of, but I just happened to make a bunch of each those things this past Fall.

Freezing things is a great way to save time and money, you can stock up when sales are good or keep leftovers for more than a few days.

What's in your freezer?

Recently I ran into some great bargains at the bottom of my receipts. The first was from Albertsons, if I called in and did a quick survey, I'd receive a code good for a free loaf of french bread. Sonic was offering $1 off my next purchase to do their survey. So check the writing on the bottom of your receipt before tossing it, who knows what you might find.

I mentioned during my January wrap-up that our "extra" money will be going towards our mortgage in an effort to reach 20% equity and eliminate our monthly PMI (private mortgage insurance) payments. So that leaves us figuring out what money really is extra. For example, if we ship off this month's surplus to the mortgage company, come May (when we'll drive to a neighboring state to visit my family) we may be wishing we still had that money.

The Tall One and I looked over last year's spending and figured out how much we spent in non-regular categories (travel, gifts, auto expenses, memberships and subscriptions to name a few). And none of this, 'well we probably won't spend that much on concert tickets this year, so don't include that', because, well, we just might.  And that amount is how much we need to have on hand before we sign anything extra over to our mortgage company. This is completely separate from our emergency fund.  Fans of Mary Hunt call it a Freedom Account, I just call it another ING subaccount.

I've already started an account to save for Christmas gifts (I'll increase how much goes into it each month to account for other gift needs that will come up) and for auto expenses, so I'll open up a third one for everything else. Once that account hits a certain number, I'll feel comfortable throwing extra money at something.

Want to earn $25 for opening your own ING Savings Account?  Head over to I've Paid Twice For This Already, she's hosting some referral links for me. I earn $10 when you open an account using one of these links.

Today I took the boys to a Valentine's Day party at a lady's house that is in my MOMS Club. I had never been to her house before and I loved it. The floor plan was perfect, it was wonderfully decorated and everything seemed to have its place. It was almost enough to make me abandon all my attempts to save money and go out and buy neat things for my house, or at least get sad that spending on our house isn't really part of our current plan. Instead, I tried to focus on how I could improve my house without spending every last penny of that tax refund that should be in my bank account any day now.

I loved how everything had a place, so I thought of the areas in my house where everything doesn't have a place. That would be the computer desk. I really need to try and keep it cleared off and designate a place for everything (and not forget that the trash can is always an option). And as I was working on that tonight, I realized everything pretty much does have a place, I just rarely put it there.

Her kitchen was amazing, there was so much counter space! So, how can I create some more space? I'm going to try and move the microwave. It's currently right by the stove, and I often find myself wishing I had more space right there. So I'll move it to another spot and see if that helps.

She clearly had some kid free zones. She has twin boys (who are 18 months old) and used gates to keep them in the play areas. At first I thought maybe this was just to keep all the kids in one spot while she had company, but then I noticed a low bookshelf full of books in one of the kid-free areas. From what I know about these little boys, there's no way they'd keep them there if they were allowed to play in that room. Awhile ago, I started a rule about no toys in the living room. It works as long as I enforce it and I've become quite lax about that.

So to summarize, in lieu of buying out Target and ordering a bunch of new furniture, I'll work with what I've got - a fabulous house - and keep my computer desk organized and clean, move my microwave to create an illusion of more counter space and enforce the no toys in the living room rule so I can have a neat front room to make a great first impression to others and myself. I know these things will help me feel better about my house and curb my case of House Envy.

Photo from everystockphoto.com

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes

Chili is a fairly basic recipe, but I thought I'd share how we do it:

Chili
1/2 - 1 lb hamburger
1-2 cans beans (I like kidney, TTO prefers pinto)
1 large can (64 oz) tomato juice
onion, chopped
chili powder
salt

Brown hamburger with onion, drain. Add beans and as much juice to get the consistency you'd like (we use about half the can). Add salt and chili powder to taste.

Ack! I just noticed I had left out the sugar in the cornbread. I made the correction.

This week I participated in the Make it From Scratch Carnival hosted at Stop the Ride (also partially hosted by Harvest of Daily Life) with my post on inexpensive artwork. Be sure and check out these posts:

• Cheap Eats: Baked French Toast at The Simple Nickle


• Make Your Own Cake Mix at with all that I've been given

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so don't miss these posts:

• Nine Tactics for a Frugal Valentine's Day at the Simple Dollar


• Fun Valentine's Day Ideas at Frugal Hacks


• Tips for Perimeter Perusing at Target at Wise Bread (This is so you can great deals on Valentine things after the fact)

Have a great weekend!

My credit card helps me budget.

Yes, you read that right, I think that my credit card is helpful tool in my budgeting process, it encourages me to really keep track of what I spend, and in turn, my budget keeps my credit card spending in check.

Each month when my credit card statement arrives, I want to check each transaction to make sure it's correct. In order to do that, I need to keep track of each transaction when it happens (I enter all my receipts into Quicken). Thus, I have a very accurate picture of my spending each month. For some reason, when I spend cash, I have a much harder time keeping track of each transaction. Maybe that's because the motivation isn't there like it is when I use a credit card. The credit card usage motivates me to keep track of all my spending, which makes an accurate budget easy to set up and follow.

Each month I pay the balance in full. I have no desire to overspend simply because I'm using plastic. I don't know how I could, really, because if it's not in the budget, I won't buy it, and our budget is designed so that we spend less than we earn. Thus my budget prevents me from using a credit card to buy more than I can afford.

I know this does not work for everyone, and I'm not saying it should. For me and my husband it works, and that's all that matters.

So last month I went over by quite a bit in the world of groceries. But I started this month not frantically needed to grocery shop because all the cupboards were bare. Often, the first of the month shopping trip is a big one because I only got bare minimum at the end of the previous month in an effort to stay under budget.

But not this month.

This week I spend $34.58. I've decided to up my budget to $55 a week to compensate for non-food items (this month I think I'll need to buy dryer sheets and I always seem to need dishwasher detergent) that I include within the grocery budget. I don't operate on a weekly budget for groceries, but more of a monthly budget. Depending on the month, I make either four or five grocery trips. It's not fair to expect myself to spend the same amount of money in a five trip month that I would in a four. So essentially the $20 I didn't spend this week rolls over to next week. I don't roll over month to month though, if I know I'm going to be under, I'll either do extra stocking up or have some more money saved for that week.

This week's budget challenge at Sense to Save is all about grocery shopping. Kacie wants to know the method behind our grocery shopping madness, so I'll elaborate a bit to answer her questions.

• I go with a list. Disasterous things happen when I don't. I end up forgetting the essentials and getting too many non-essentials.


• I go where I can get a good deal. I do most of my shopping at Smith's, but will hit Albertson's to take advantage of their loss leaders (those products that are on sale for a great price) if it's something I'm interested in.


• I don't use the grocery game or anything like it. I used to get the paper and would clip coupons. Now I occasionally hit up the coupon sites (like smartsource.com) to see what they have and print anything I might be interested in.


• I plan a menu for the week and I use the store's sales fliers to do it.


• I do try and spend less than $55 a week, but it doesn't always happen. More often than not, it all evens out at the end of the month.

Kacie wants to know what we'll do this week to improve our grocery shopping. I am going to start my price book. I really think I'm okay on food prices, but it's the stuff like trash bags and laundry detergent that I don't always know if I'm getting the best price. I wrote down some prices last time I was at Costco, so I need to put them into a spreadsheet and then check prices at the grocery store next time I go.

So the good news is in January we managed to earn $394.12 more than we spent. The bad news, I'll save that for the next paragraph. $100 of that has been automatically deposited into our auto maintenance/insurance account, and $25 has been deposited into our Christmas gifts account. The rest will go into our emergency savings, which I'm trying to get up to $3000. It's almost there and when our tax refund arrives, it will be.

And the bad news, I spent $302.30 in groceries this month. $53.30 over budget. Oops. Based on all the non-food items I bought early in the month (laundry detergent, trash bags, and batteries to name a few), I knew I'd go over in this category. I've got a plan that will hopefully prevent that in the future, though.

I also have some great deals to report from this month. I intended to do a post after each grocery trip, but didn't (thinking I'd just combine it with the next one) and they've been piling up.

• Peanut Butter was on sale for $1 and I had a $1 off coupon!


• Crescent rolls were in the reduced for quick sale section an awful lot recently. I paired them with coupons a few times to get them for under $1.


• Chicken breasts were on sale for $1.57/lb. When I went, there was only a few pounds left. The girl at the meat counter suggested I ask for a rain check since had there been more, I probably would have bought more. So I got a great deal on chicken and have a rain check to get some more later.


• At Costco, I found a large package of yeast for a little under $4. It's about the same price as the jars at the grocery store, but for at least three times the amount. I use yeast probably about once a week to make pizza dough or french bread, so this is a good deal for me.


• Monkey has finally graduated to size 3 diapers. This means I can buy a big box of diapers for him. I really like the Albertson's store brand diapers, and size one and two aren't available in the large boxes. I'm saving a few cents per diaper now that I can buy in a larger quantity (even accounting for the fact that larger size diapers are more expensive)

And my favorite deal:

• Cereal! Some General Mills cereals were on sale 8/$10 (when you bought 8). I bought 16. I used some coupons which brought the cost per box to under $1 each. Good thing, since I'm almost out of the cereal I bought last time there was a great sale.

My goal for January was to sit down with The Tall One and discuss our next goal after our emergency savings is at $3000. We decided that all the extra money will go towards our mortgage so we can eliminate our PMI payments. We also have a little bit of student loan debt left, but the interest on that is so small that it makes very little sense for us to aggresively pay that off. Our money can work harder for us elsewhere. So how will we determine what is "extra money"? Stay tuned to find out.

My goal for February? Don't know yet. I will come up with one soon and let everyone know though!

I really enjoy scrapbooking. I love all the different supplies, the textures, and physically manipulating everything with my hands. I love searching through my stash to find the perfect little accent that will just finish up the page.

But paper scrapbooking is expensive, digital not as much.

I've done just enough digital scrapbooking to know I'd like it and to know that it can be cheaper. You buy a kit (though sometimes you can download free ones) and then you can reuse all the elements to your hearts content. In the world of paper scrapbooking, you can't reuse ribbon and glue. Sure there's printing costs involved with digital scrapbooking, but I'm still fairly certain it'd be a more frugal hobby.

But I like paper, I don't want to abandon it.

I've thought about just doing a little bit of both. But do I really need another hobby that involves sitting at a computer? I think not.

What to do. What to do.

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes

I apologize for being so late in getting this out. The Tall One has been making some changes to my blog layout. If you're reading this in a reader or through email, click through and check them out! Now on to the recipe:


Italian Chicken


1 lb. chicken breast
2 small (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
oregano
garlic powder
basil
mozzarella cheese


Preheat oven to 400. Mix tomato sauce and spices (to taste) in a bowl.
Line a baking dish with foil (for easy clean-up!) place chicken breasts in dish. Top with sauce and cheese. Bake, covered, for 25-35 minutes (until chicken is no longer pink inside).
You could substitute a jar of spaghetti sauce for the tomato sauce and spices.

It's been one heck of a week, and I'm very happy that the weekend is upon us. As a stay-at-home mom, my weekends don't differ all that much from the weekdays, but at least I get reinforcements when Daddy is home.

The Festival of Frugality was hosted this week at Mrs. Micah. My post on budgeting was included, and so were these great ones:

• Challenging Assumptions at Frugal Homemaker Plus: She brings up a good point about making sure that you really are getting the best deal as opposed to just thinking you are.
• Am I Being Cheap? at Poorer Than You: Another great article about where to draw the line between cheapness and frugality.
• American Girl: Not Frugal at All (or What a Smile is Worth) at Free from Broke: Sometimes you've just got to splurge, and an American Girl Doll is a good splurge (at least I'm glad my parents got me one long ago!)
  

The Carnival of Money Stories was hosted at Being Frugal. My post on maintaining a balance was included. Be sure to also check out these great entries:

• I Love Lucy Frugality at Dollar Frugal: This is such a fun read, I know I've sometimes done some strange things in order to save money.
• Not Keeping Up With the Jones Jrs. at Unclaimed Money: Her son didn't get what he originally wanted for Christmas, but he was still happy, imagine that!
  

Here are some other posts that are worth a look-see:

Save Money by Using Homemade Cleaning Products at Being Frugal
Count Your Blessings at Remodeling This Life
An Inspiring Walk Through a Furniture Store at Sense to Save