What do all these pictures have in common?

All of their clothing was purchased from either a thrift store, consignment store, or yard sale.

Stephanie purchased the Talbot’s dress in the top picture for $5 at a local consignment store. I can only imagine what that would have cost new!

My friend Myra purchased her son’s cute romper for $1 at a yard sale!

The young man in the center of the last photo, his suit cost $8 at a local Goodwill!

Depending on what part of the country you live in, Easter clothing can be a big deal. When we lived in Cuba it meant wearing your nice Hawaiian shirt, but in Virginia people dress in Sunday best. It is hard to justify spending a lot of money on an outfit your child will probably only wear once and then outgrow.

Instead of breaking the bank visit your local thrift store or consignment shop. There are always tons of boys’ dress shirts, pants, and even suits at the thrift store, in almost perfect condition. Many people purchase brand new clothing for their children and before they can wear it more than once they outgrow it. These almost new items are either sold for pennies on the dollar at yard sales or thrift stores. Take advantage of these deep discounts and visit your local thrift store before your next “dressy” event.

Do you have a great thrift store or yard sale find? I’d love to hear how you dress your kids for less.

This post is linking to Frugal Friday.

Note: I wasn’t very clear in my post, I think everyone pays for garbage, but not everyone is charged based on how much garbage they throw away. Many places charge a flat fee instead of a per bag fee. Also the picture below is a stock photo, not my actual garbage.

Today is trash day, and twice a week we drag the cans to the curb to be picked up by the city. Many times I am reminded of Amy Dacyczyn, when she wrote about paying per trash bag in her rural Maine town. I believe the charge was $1 per bag (in 1990), and being her tightwad self, they only had one bag of garbage per month!

Now I realize for those who live in the country this is probably not uncommon, but for us city folk that is amazing. A family of eight only having enough garbage to fill one bag per month, still impresses me years after I read her book. As I took out the trash last week I started thinking about how being charged for garbage would change my behavior.

I do not consider myself a wasteful person, but how much more resourceful would I be if I was charged to throw things away? How much more resourceful would you be if you paid $5 a bag for garbage? I think I would start getting very creative with how to use things I normally throw away. What about you?

This post is linking to Frugal Friday.

Those who don’t shop at Aldi are probably not familiar with their cash system. First, carts are lined up outside the store, connected by plastic and chains. You insert a quarter in the cart and the chain unlocks a cart. If you want your quarter back, you must return the cart and reconnect the chain. If you want bags they cost extra, and you can only pay with a debit card or cash.

One thing I have noticed is that Aldi’s parking lot is free of stray carts and everyone brings their own bags into the store. Why? I believe giving up a quarter is hard for people. If it was an extra quarter on their credit card bill many people would not even notice, but people will walk across the parking lot just to get their quarter back.

That’s the power of cash. Cash is real, you can touch it, smell it, and when you use it, it’s gone forever.

People treat cash differently and Aldi has figured that out. They have convinced the majority of their customers to return the carts to the correct location using pocket change.

This post is linking to Life as Mom.

We moved into our house eight months ago and for the first time ever we have a finished basement. Since our previous homes have been fairly small we didn’t have any furniture to put in the basement except for a broken chair and a television we pulled off the curb on bulk trash day. One of our frugal family fun nights involves watching a library movie or playing the Wii, but I had no desire to watch a movie while sitting on the floor.

I really wanted to buy furniture for our basement so searched Craig’s List for used couches. I set a price limit of $250 dollars and knew I would find something quickly. At the beginning of the year my husband suggested we should look for free furniture instead of buying it used. I was more than a little disappointed. I really wanted furniture and I knew I could find it used on Craig’s List for under $250 in a few weeks. But, how can you argue with free?

Then a few weeks ago my husband found a free couch and love seat. When he went to pick it up the lady also gave him two arm chairs, a giant bean bag and a sled to my son because he was a hard worker. All for FREE.

When I walked in the basement and saw our nice, new to us furniture I was so happy I waited for free. So many times we can be tempted to satisfy our desires immediately. In this world it is a daily struggle not to get what we want when we want it. From credit cards to text messaging it isn’t often we must wait for anything.

While I am not suggesting that a person can live their entire life getting everything for free (although there are people who have tried this) I do think that when you want something it is okay to wait and see if you can acquire it for less or even free. From pulling it off the curb on bulk trash day, to finding it in the classifieds, to bartering goods and services the willingness to wait is an investment with big returns. Many times finding what you want for less involves waiting for the perfect opportunity.

My family put this idea into practice again last week. They decorated this cake as a surprise for me when I came home.

It was a Super Bowl cake, but the day after the big game it was marked down to $2.99.

The removed the Super Bowl decorations and re-decorated it as a welcome home cake for me.

Learning to wait is one of the best money saving tips I know.

Update: Ebates is offering $25 gift certificates for $3 with Restaurant.com, plus, earn 15.0% cash back on your purchases. Just log in to your ebates account to purchase. 15% isn’t much, but every little bit helps, right?

My friend Joan recently told me about the Restaurant.com site. Currently they are running a special where you can save 70% off Restaurant.com $25 gift certificate orders. Use code ENJOY and pay only $3 for a $25 gift certificate, $50 gift certificates are $6.

This is a great way to go out for significantly less than you would normally spend. Most of the restaurants are not the typical chain restaurants, but it could be a great way to try something new.

To find a restaurant in your area type in your zip code and start searching.

The coupon code ENJOY is valid until 2/21/10.

Has anyone used Restaurant.com? I know each restaurant has fine print, so make sure you are getting the BEST deal before you buy. I would love to hear your opinion if you have used the website.

I had a frugal post almost written, but since it is Valentine’s Day this weekend I thought a frugal Valentines post was in order. My “Learning to Wait” frugality post will publish next week.

My frugal tip for Valentine’s Day:

Skip it

Seriously, why fight the crowds (and the weather) for some Hallmark holiday? Save your money and celebrate Valentine’s Day in March.

But, if you must celebrate sooner rather then later here are a few frugal ideas.

Valentine’s Challenge: Avoid the Valentine’s crowds and celebrate a few days after February 14th with this fun challenge.

Eat Cheap on Valentine’s Day: These inexpensive and copycat meals can make a dinner at home go from so-so to so fun!

Chocolate: For all you chocoholics out there, check out these delectable desserts from my friend Lynn. Personally I would skip dinner and just make one of these yummy treats!

Valentine’s Coupons: Give the gift of service with these downloadable coupons. There are coupons for moms, dads, teachers, neighbors, kids and more. Print out these coupons and give them with a side of brownies to share the love!

Valentine’s Treasure Hunt: I love this idea from Beauty and Bedlam, perfect for kids who love to play hide and seek!

Creative Valentine’s Ideas: Sometimes the best gifts are the ones you make yourself. These ideas are easy, fun, and cheap!

Cheapie Date Ideas: Jessica shares some great tried and true cheap (and I’m talking FREE) date ideas. I love that some of them include serving others and getting fit!

Romantic Dinner at Home: Several recipes including one for “love potion.” Is it just me, or do the words “love potion” make you giggle just a bit?

For more frugal ideas visit Life as Mom.

There will be no Menu Plan Monday this week as I am unable to return home due to the Blizzard of 2010.

This week I had the privilege of touring Financial Peace University and meeting (including interviewing) Dave Ramsey. I cannot tell you how excited I was to have this opportunity. Dave’s books inspired our family to start living like no one else and if it wasn’t for our debt free journey I wouldn’t have started this blog.

Instead of the usual office artwork, the walls of Dave Ramsey’s studio are filled with credit card art.

I also loved the wall of inspirational quotes.

Then my friend Fish Mama was able to do a live “We’re Debt FREE!” with Dave.

We watched him work.

He spent about 8 minutes chatting and talking about finances, which is what he does best! You can find my interview with Dave on the Savvy Blogging website.

I have never considered myself to be someone who gets “star struck” but meeting the person who has had such a big influence on our family’s life was definitely awesome!

Confession time, I rarely sign up for free samples. It seems too time consuming, too annoying, and who wants all that junk mail in their in box? Then I  started wondering this weekend, maybe free samples are worth my time and effort? The only way to be sure is to track my time and the samples I receive. There is no reason to pass links on to my readers if I wouldn’t do something myself.

Since most free samples take between 4 – 6 weeks to arrive I will run this experiment until May. I have several blogs in my reader that regularly post free sample offers so I will use those sites as my resources for finding the samples. I don’t have time to scour the internet for samples, so I am depending on these bloggers to find them for me.

I have set up a specific email address for receiving these offers so my regular email doesn’t get clogged with their newsletters. If you see a free sample offer please feel free to email it to me at freesamplehousewife (at) gmail (dot) com.

I’ll update monthly with time spent vs samples received.

How about you? Do you regularly sign up for freebies? Do you think you are making a wise time investment? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Many people I talk to don’t use the envelope system because they think they will be walking around with large amount of cash, especially at places like the grocery store. Initially this was one of my concerns too. Then I figured out a way to use the envelope system while not carrying huge amounts of money while shopping.

Depending on how often you shop, divide your monthly grocery budget by the amount of trips you make to the store. Now, if you are shopping every day, this could be a challenge, for you, I suggest dividing your grocery budget by four.

My February grocery budget is $600, divided by four that gives me $150 each week for groceries. On my first trip to the store I pull out $150 from the ATM and put it in my grocery envelope. I use the $150 to pay for that shopping trip. Most likely I will have money left over and that stays in the envelope for the rest of the week. I can use the extra, if there is any, to pay for quick trips to pick up essentials if necessary.

Each week, you pull out your weekly amount right before you go to the grocery store. You spend the money right away and are not carrying around large amounts of money in your wallet. I usually only have $20 to $30 in my grocery envelope after shopping.

I use the ATM since my bank does not charge for withdrawals, but if you are charged a fee, stop by your bank and cash a check for that amount each week.

For more Frugal Fridays visit Life as Mom.

Many people purchase memberships to wholesale clubs such as Sams, Costco, or BJ’s. Last year, after much calculation we purchased a membership to Costco because they were cheaper than the Commissary on six or seven grocery staples.

Even though my membership pays for itself in grocery savings, I still don’t like paying $45 or $50 a year for the privilege of shopping at a certain store. In order to stretch my membership money I buy a membership every thirteen months instead of renewing every twelve months. The month my membership expires I buy double what I normally buy and the skip the next month. Then I basically get a month’s membership free.

For example my Costco membership expires in January. I made a large purchase this month and I will allow my membership to expire. I will not start my new membership until February or March. So each year I gain a free month.

Since most wholesale clubs charge the same price to renew or to get a new membership you save a little bit of money each year.

Save your pennies because they do add up!