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10 Ways Organization Saves Money

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Ways Organization Saves Money

Thank you to the garage storage and organization experts over at garagesolutionsminneapolis.com for writing this guest post! 

We all know that there is more than one way to save money. From meal planning and couponing to going DIY or getting thrifty, we can save money in so many different ways. One way that can save you a lot of money that often goes overlooked is getting your home and garage organized. A disorganized home or garage can be like losing change from a hole in your pocket. Here are 10 ways being organized can save you money. [Read more…]

Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity ReStore in New Brighton

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Did you know there’s a place in the Twin Cities where you can buy new and gently used home improvement products and building materials for 50-75% off retail prices?

I had heard of the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity ReStore in New Brighton some time ago, but decided to visit a week ago with my kids to see what it was all about.

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I visited on a Saturday, then contacted their staff to find out more. Steve Houle, a sales associate, graciously allowed me to visit on Monday when they’re normally closed (and are busy cleaning up after their busy Saturday!). He and their manager,  Pete O’Keefe, gave me some great information and allowed me to take some pictures.

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[Read more…]

Spring Cleaning Guide for the Twin Cities

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This is a list of Twin Cities area resources to help you get rid of yard waste, papers, clothing and any other type of household items you no longer need. This list will be added to and updated as needed.

CLEAN UP YOUR YARD


springYARD WASTE COLLECTION SITES

Each county offers free yard waste collection sites or assistance for its residents. At these sites you can often pick up free compost for your garden (while it lasts). They may also offer junk collection days where you drop off items like tires or electronics and even hazardous waste for a discount. Check out your local county website for locations and times:

SHRED YOUR PAPERS


Upcoming Free Paper Shredding Events: [Read more…]

Discounted Home Radon Test Kits for Minnesota Residents

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Get a radon test kit for your home for only $7.95 w/free shipping via the MN Dept of Health website (if you live in MN).

That’s 53% off & includes the lab test. This is a GREAT deal because most test kits in stores are more expensive and do not include test results.

houseI just ordered a short term test kit for our home after hearing a lot in the news about high radon levels in homes across Minnesota.

I found out about this deal from our handyman at Mac & Hammer (check his ad on my site for a 10% discount on your first project!) If you don’t live in MN, check your state’s dept. of health website.

Click here for the radon test kit.

Comfort for Those of Us with Underwater Mortgages

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It’s not hard to wind up with underwater mortgages. When you have an underwater mortgage, it can feel like you’re sinking because you find yourself in a position where you owe more than you could currently sell your home for.

How Underwater Mortgages Happen

My husband and I bought our first and current house in 2007. My husband had just returned from a year of military service in Iraq, then I got pregnant (like, right away), and we knew we were going to soon outgrow our 2-bedroom apartment. Plus, we were anxious to have our OWN place in a quiet neighborhood, where we would no longer have to listen to our apartment neighbors yelling at each other and blasting their music at 1 in the morning. (We didn’t pick the best apartment complex to live in.)

underwater mortgageThe house we bought was the 3rd house we looked at (lucky number 3, right?). It was a gem compared to the first two, and had pretty much everything we wanted, so thinking that home prices were likely to just get higher, we jumped on it. Everything went smoothly, and a few months later, our daughter Heidi was born.

However, little did we know…

We bought our house at the right time for us, but the WRONG time for the housing market.

Shortly after we bought our house, the housing market crashed, and house prices began to fall. Fortunately, interest rates went down so we refinanced a couple years later to save money over the 30-year term of the loan.

But now – 6 years later – we still owe about the same amount we bought our house for in 2007. And now its taxable value is $50,000 LESS. So we – like millions of others – are “underwater” with our mortgage. We owe more than our house is worth. [Read more…]

All parents should read this. For every child’s safety.

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I have a link involving child safety that I recommend that all who care for children should read – parents, grandparents, babysitters, daycare teachers, etc. It could save the life of your child and help you to appreciate even more every moment you have with them.

What does this have to do with Child Safety?

I received an email last week from my kids’ daycare director with this link to a touching (and heart-wrenching) blog post, written by a mother whose 3-year-old daughter died from a dresser falling on her. I recommend you do all you can to get through it, because it will make you a wiser, smarter, and better child caregiver. I realize we all think “This won’t happen to me!”, but I’m certain that Meghan’s mother thought the same thing at some point.

I read the post, now what?

Then “like” her Facebook page called “Meghan’s Hope,” which she created to help educate everyone on the everyday dangers that children face, so we all can make this a safer world for our little ones.

meghan's hope child safety

Since the end of December, the “Meghan’s Hope” Facebook page has gone from about 1000 likes to now over 10,000 and counting. Her blog post has received over 800,000 visits.

Follow-up

Note: Since the writing of this post, “Meghan’s Hope” has surpassed 27,000 likes. Her mother continues to fight for legislation and awareness around child safety in all avenues of life. Although the blog is no longer updated, the post still exists to help fight this battle for child safety and show the dangers of what is out there. Please don’t ignore this cry for hope.

Saving money is important, but saving children’s lives is essential, and we can only do that by keeping them safe. 

Treasure your little ones every moment!

Link to Blog Post “Be with me. Just for today.”

Link to Facebook page “Meghan’s Hope”

Feel free to share any Child Safety tips you have below.

Mom-approved: 9-cube organizers on sale at Target this week (1/22-28)

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Mom-approved & recommended: 9-cube organizers to get your kids’ toys (or anything in your home) under control!

For months I had been meaning to get the toy-takeover of our home under control. With only clear storage bins that held about 25% of their massive assortment of plastic mayhem, it was NOT happening. So…the toys continued to spread out across every last bare surface of our home – the corners of the living room floor, the middle of the hallway, the counters in the kitchen, and even the top shelf of the fridge (seriously!!!).

I had been aware of those 9-cube organizers made by Circo and Closetmaid for quite some time, having seen them at others’ houses and at the kids’ daycare. They come in various colors like white, pink, blue and expresso (ahhh…coffee…). So a few weeks ago, I finally decided that’s what we needed, and started to watch the Target ads for them to go on sale (while enjoying some coffee…).

The ones made by ClosetMaid went on sale at Target this week (see pg. 13 of their ad), so right away after church on Sunday I stopped by and picked up one in a light wood design (called “Alder” – $39.99 down from $51.99) and a few solid color fabric drawers ($5.99 each). Then I fell in love with some of the fabric drawers made by Circo – the ones with the cute kid patterns and animal faces – and despite their not being on sale, I bought 3 for $9.99 each (the frog, the monkey, and the flower). Okay…that part wasn’t so frugal of me…BUT it was the…

BEST THING I’VE EVER DONE TO GET OUR HOUSE UNDER CONTROL!

You have to put together the organizer yourself…which I did myself in about an hour with a screwdriver and a hammer. (My hubby was willing to at a later time – but I was feeling ambitious to try to do it for myself plus he had enough stuff to do…)

The only thing I don’t like is that the instructions say you HAVE to bolt the organizer to the wall. I understand why – it can be a bit wobbly and you don’t want it to fall forward on one of your kids or something. I would prefer a way to keep it securely upright without doing something permanent to the wall.

But overall I recommend these great organizers. I’ve heard from other moms that they love them as well. And you can fit A LOT of toys in them. If you’re going to get one, get one now at Target. If you decide to wait, I know they go on sale there from time to time. Otherwise, on amazon.com, they’re $59.99 with free shipping. Great, mom-recommended buy!

To Flat Screen TV and back – to Old Reliable Tube TV

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TV

 

Our 26″ flat screen Sylvania TV died on Black Friday at about 1pm.

We had only had it for four and a half years. To me, that’s not very long. But I suppose that in today’s world of “planned obsolescence” and the fact that there’s always being something better to upgrade to, it probably was.

Darn! That thing cost us over $500 in 2007!

It wasn’t in our Christmas budget – or budget at all – to be replacing a TV that day, despite the great deals everywhere. My hubby, dad and I went out shopping a little bit that afternoon to see what they had, but as we expected, by then all the best deals were sold out.

I did some research and decided that if we would get a new TV, it would make the most sense to get something better and longer-lasting (we wouldn’t want to go through this in less than 5 years again!). I figured a 40″ LED TV would be ideal. But that would be at least $500, and we would need a new TV stand as well…

Since we didn’t have $500 for this, and weren’t going to put one on our credit card, or tap into emergency savings for it (I SUPPOSE this didn’t count as an emergency, right?), we took my 10-year-old, college-graduation-present 20-inch tube TV out of the bedroom and hooked it up in the living room (where we have basic digital cable). Then for the bedroom I bought a 13-inch color tube TV I found on craigslist for $10 (the seller was REALLY nice and threw in some accessories for cheap).

Problem solved.

Except that it was supposed to be a temporary solution until we got a new TV, and now, a month later, no new TV.

HOWEVER…Interestingly, with the smaller, simpler TV now in the living room, I’ve noticed Heidi, our 3-year-old, not asking to watch her cartoons as much. Since that day, she has played with her toys and her 1-year-old brother more.

Woohoo! Okay – yeah – now with all the new Christmas toys, she’s got reason to be more toy-occupied, but seriously! The TV has definitely been on much less…hmmm…

Our lives have actually adjusted fine to this “downgrade” in technology in our home. We still enjoy watching shows, news and movies on my old TV (which keeps going and going!). So honestly, we’re not in any hurry to get the bigger, better deal…and here’s what I’ve learned from this experience:

1) Flat screen TVs do not last that long. Five years is actually pretty good. It’s quite a bummer. Yet tube TVs seem to last longer. Therefore…

2) Used tube TVs are available EVERYWHERE! Craigslist had tons of them when I looked…old ones, huge ones, free working ones. If they weren’t free they were pretty cheap.

3) Life can be just fine without a flat screen TV. I never thought we’d ever be without one yet here we are, but hey, at least we’re NOT $500 poorer!

Do it YOURSELF and SAVE MONEY! Unclog a slow sink drain yourself!

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Recently in our house we had a clogged bathroom sink that drained VERY slowly. It had developed over months (not a good idea to ignore it this long). Finally something HAD to be done.

What We Did About It

We bought one of those Turbo Snakes – they’re those As Seen on TV plumbing snake things and are now in just about every store for around $10 for a 2-pack. We tried it at home and it did what it was supposed to do – it pulled out a big nasty clog (not for the squeamish – my husband handled this part as I’m pregnant and couldn’t handle the sight or smell).

After the Turbo Snake cleared all the clog it could, the sink still drained slowly. In fact, it was WORSE. The sink would fill up halfway after running the water less than 5 seconds.

How Much We Saved

A week went by and I called a plumber just to find out what they’d charge. He said $135 to snake the drain. HUH? I said that seemed really high to unclog a slow sink drain and that I’d call other plumbers for their rates.

I didn’t call around – instead I looked up “how to clear a slow sink drain” online. I found good tips and tried them – I poured lots of hot (boiling) water down the sink. Then I plunged the drain with a sink plunger. THAT WORKED! A whole bunch of black stuff came out – junk that the turbo snake couldn’t get out. So I kept plunging it until it all came out. After this the drain was completely clear.

More Tips to Unclog a Slow Sink Drain

We had purchased a hair clog removing chemical to pour down the drain so just to be sure, I poured that down the drain and let it work overnight, and poured more hot, boiling water down in the morning. For days now the drain has been working perfectly.

Lesson learned – DO IT YOURSELF! Only call an expert if you’ve tried everything you can yourself and have had no success. Besides saving money (possibly a lot like we did!),  you’ll get a nice boost of PRIDE in having been self-sufficient.

By the way – we had purchased a hand auger (plumber’s snake) for around $10, plus a sink drain wrench for a couple bucks, both at Menards, just in case…thankfully we didn’t need them but would have used them to clear a deeper clog if present…still, WAY cheaper than hiring a plumber!

Read about a great DIY product here.