About to Run Out of Cell Minutes?

I recently lost my cell phone at an indoor playground (that's the last time I climb around in one of those...). I have never felt so disconnected to the world than I did for the 4 or so hours I was without my phone. Now, I don't have a smartphone so I'm not that "connected." But it's nice to know I can call someone if I need to.

While I was looking for a solution to get a hold of some people to find my phone, I stumbled on Google voice. Did you know that you can call any cell phone or land line in the U.S. for free using Google voice? I kept looking for a catch but wasn't able to find one. You just have to download the voice program to your computer which takes all of a few minutes. I was surprised at the quality of the calls as well. It was just like talking on my cell phone. I was able to call the indoor playground to let them know I was looking for my phone as well as my husband and my cell phone provider for assistance.

I began thinking about other uses for this service. This could definitely be used if you are coming close to using all of your cell phone minutes in a given month. It could also be used to supplement as a long distance plan instead of having one on your land line. All-in-all, this is a great feature to have at your fingertips. It could end up saving you money in the long run. Why not?

P.S.-I did indeed find my phone. A child found it in the play equipment somewhere...

Thrifty Gifts

Tis the Season for spending lots of money on gifts. This year we are doing a bunch of homemade gifts for Christmas. Located below are some links for some great gift ideas. Enjoy!

Footprint Penguins

Gifts in a Jar

Dryer Balls

Do-It-Yourself Christmas Gifts

I Heart Tiny Prints

My new favorite place to order cards is Tiny Prints. I almost always find a free greeting card promo code and I can either send it directly to the recipient (for the cost of a stamp) or send it to myself for free. I've made 3 free cards in the past month and sent them directly to recipients. You can even order cards to be sent in the future. This is great if they are offering a one day only promo code and no one's birthday, etc. is within the next week. Check out their Facebook page for promos and the lady behind Raining Hot Coupons always posts codes for the free cards. I love the fact that the cards are cute and you can personalize them with your own photos. It really is nicer than a Hallmark and cheaper too!

Saving Money on Fruits and Vegetables

Saving Money on Fruits and Vegetables

Great article on saving money on fruits and vegetables!

Don't Toss Those Seeds!

Want a fiber-ful, cheap, seasonal snack? Save your pumpkin seeds, acorn squash seeds or butternut squash seeds and cook and season them. They can stay up to 3 months in an airtight container at room temperature and even longer in the freezer! Check out some different ways to cook them here!

Sam's Club without a Membership

Did you know that you can frequent the Sam's Club Pharmacy without a Sam's Club membership? Well, you can! I did it the other day with no problems. Way more convenient since Sam's Club is closer to my house than the closest CVS or Walgreen's or Walmart.

Did you also know that you can purchase alcohol at a Sam's Club without holding a membership? It's posted outside the club (those that sell alcohol) that purchasing alcohol does not require a membership or the extra 10% non-member fee.

So get your Rx's and alcohol at Sam's! Just please don't take your meds with your alcohol purchase...

Here is my Soapbox...

I haven't really written about this in depth so I thought I'd take a moment to step up on my soapbox and do so. I don't buy disposable diapers. Both of my boys (2.5 and 5 months) use cloth diapers. I have a stash of about 35 one size pocket diapers that I can button up or down to fit both of my boys. It's great! I never have to worry about running out of diapers and I keep all the money I would have spent on disposables in my pocket.

We use BumGenius 4.0's, Go Green Pocket diapers, and I have a few Kawaii pocket diapers. I can't say enough good things about them. I can count on one hand the number of poop blowouts we've had in them. I can't even begin to count the number of blowouts we've had in disposables with my first child. Another perk, the BumGenius diapers are almost always buy 5, get one free. So I didn't pay full price for any of the ones I purchased. The resale value on diapers is pretty high too so when you are done with them, you can sell them and recoup a large amount of the purchase cost.

I purchased my diapers from Jackbenatural.com (always free shipping and you can pay via Paypal where I have my cash back, survey money, etc. deposited) and diaperjunction.com (you can also pay via Paypal and check out the discount on the left hand side of this blog). Since I use some of my cash back to pay for the diapers, I get even more of a discount since that money had already been taken out of my "pot" anyway. You could always use the Amazon gift cards you get from Swagbucks to pay for diapers too (yes, Amazon carries them as well).

So, save some money, cloth diaper! Washing them is really nothing since you are already doing laundry anyway and you save the environment as well!