Link Love: Home, Clothes, and Money

It has been a productive Saturday so far. Although there is so much more to be done! My husband and my son went to help some friends this morning, so I have had the house to myself and have been trying to get some cleaning and organizing done.

Over the last week, I’ve collected quite a few links that I hope will be helpful or interesting to you.

Clothing:
Thifty Mommy – How to Make Your Own Maternity Jeans

Keeper of the Home – Clothing Kids Without Breaking the Bank

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Money:
Gather Little by Little – Establish Your Personal Values and Goals First

The Simple Dollar – Where You Can Turn if You Lose it All

Relevant Magazine Straight Talk About Debt by Dave Ramsey, page 49

The Simple Dollar – Should You Use a Credt Card as Your Emergency Fund?

The Simple Dollar – When You Go Too Cheap

Gather Little by Little – Educate Yourself on Personal Finance and Money

Gather Little by Little – 5 Dollars Adds Up

Nicole’s Nickels – Earn from University-Sponsored Surveys/Experiments

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Home:
Being Frugal – Frugal Decorating Ideas

Frugal Dad – Should I Pay Off My Mortgage?

Keeper of the Home – A Natural Stain Remover That Really Works

Almost Frugal – Making Room for Storage

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Personal:
Simple Mom – 16 Energy Boosters That Won’t Leave You Depleted

The Simple Dollar – Some Thoughts on Building a Successful Marriage

Food on Fridays – Natural Sugar, Grains, Strange Ingredients, and more

I have been spending a lot of time on the internet researching whole grains, healthy recipes, and price comparison. Passionate Homemaking has very insightful posts about eating naturally, which has spurred me to continue to look for new things I can do to incorporate nourishing foods into our family’s diet. A particular entry Variety in Your Grains has given me much to think about in adding more grains to our meals and baking. Azure Standard features quality bulk and natural foods; I requested their catalog a week or so ago and received it yesterday. The prices seem to be good, but I don’t know what the shipping costs would be, so that may make it not worth my while to order from them.

I feel very fortunate to have several local stores that carry many varieties of bulk food items, many of which are good deals. Sucanat is sugar in its most natural form. There is a lot of information out there about using natural sugars instead of the common processed granulated white sugar. This is something I hope to change in the next week or so, to use sucanat instead of processed sugar. These articles discuss various types of sugars and help you decide what will work best for you.

The Nourishing Gourmet: A Guide to Natural Sweeteners

A Nourished Kitchen: A Guide to Natural Sweeteners and How to Use Them

Passionate Homemaking: My Favorite Natural Sweeteners

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Some other food-related links I have come across recently are:

5 Dollar Dinners – A mom who makes all her meals for $5 or less

Keeper of the Home – Artisan bread in 5 minutes is a beautiful thing

My Daily Diner – Jamie Oliver Proves It: Healthy Foods Raise Students’ Test Scores

MSN: Health & Fitness – You’re Eating…What? A guide to 7 sketchy additives that may be lurking in your food.

Whole Grains Council – The Whole Grains Council helps consumers find whole grain foods and understand their health benefits; helps manufacturers create delicious whole grain products; and helps the media write accurate, compelling stories about whole grains.

The Nourishing Gourmet – Tips for Newbies

I hope some of these posts and tips can help you find new ways to eat better.

Booking Through Thursday – Collectibles

Hardcover? Or paperback?

Illustrations? Or just text?

First editions? Or you don’t care?

Signed by the author? Or not?

I love hardcover books, and depending on the book, I will spend extra money, if I know I will read/use it often. Paperbacks are fine too, but I prefer hardcover.

Illustrations are always nice. Sometimes I have a hard time picturing things and illustrations can be very helpful.

The edition doesn’t really matter. Sure it would be nice to have 1st editions, but since I would want to read it, I would be afraid of messing up a first edition.

Who wouldn’t want an autographed copy of a book? They are nice to have, but I probably would not spend the extra money just to have an autographed copy.

Check out other responses to these questions at Booking Through Thursday.

Works for Me Wednesday – Swagbucks

I spend a lot of time online, probably too much time…Whenever I possible, I like to sign up for programs that allow me to accumulate money or points for prizes. Swagbucks is one of my recent finds. You can get points for searching at the swagbucks website, as well as promoting the site.

My goal is to earn an iPod Touch with my swagbucks. It’ll probably take a long time, unless a lot of you sign up from my link, (hint, hint), but it is something I would love to have, and I can’t justify shelling out the money for at this point – especially since my current iPod nano works just fine. Plus, I know someone who wants an mp3 player, so I would be able to give them my old iPod.

If you haven’t heard of swagbucks, check it out, it’s easy to get points, and you will be able to earn some cool prizes!

Check out more Works for Me Wednesday tips at We are THAT Family.

Tuesday’s Tip Jar – VeggieTales Radio

My son loves VeggieTales. He has quite a few VeggieTales toys and that he plays with (when he’s not playing with Legos). We have a few VeggieTales cds, which I have on our iTunes, so I can play them on our computer while me son plays in our basement. However, he’s listened to them so many times, variety is nice.

Recently, he’s been listening to Veggie Radio while he plays. There are a lot of different VeggieTales songs, and they do repeat, but it’s at least 30 minutes or more of no repeats.

If you are looking for free, clean children’s songs, give this a try.

For more tips, go to Blog Mommas.

Deals This Week: 2/22-2/28

Here are some sales and coupon information for this week:

CVS at I Heart CVS

Wal-Mart at STL Mommy

K-Mart at Moms Need to Know

Giant (PA) at Moms Need to Know

Rite-Aid at The Freebie Blogger

Walgreens at Surviving the Stores

Target at Attention Target Shoppers Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5

Menu Plan Monday

My menu plan for this week is:

Tuesday: hamloaf, salad, roasted asparagus

Wednesday: roasted chicken and gravy, salad, and steamed veggies

Thursday: spicy turkey sausage gravy over egg noodles and steamed veggies

Friday: tasty lentil tacos (Taste of Home Guilt Free Cooking, page 190) and salad

Saturday: cream of broccoli soup (Farm Family Favorites of Lancaster DHIA, #955), crusty bread, salad

Sunday: leftovers

Monday: easy beef stroganoff, steamed veggies

Free Quiznos Sub

Thanks to Freebies 4 Mom for posting information about how to get a free Quiznos sub. Go to Quiznos to sign up for your coupon.

Etnies Shoes for $20

I am on the 6pm.com email list. I do not recall how I got on the list and have never purchased from them. However, that may change this week. I just received an email about this sale:

I have never worn Etnies, but like their style. The last time I was looking for shoes, I really wanted a pair of Etnies, but did not want to spend $60+ for one pair of shoes. So $20 is a great deal!  If you are in the market for a new pair of shoes, you may want to check this sale out.

Link Love: Home and Family

Below are several articles I wanted to share with you. I hope you enjoy them and find them helpful.

Finances:
Gather Little by Little: The Friday Gathering: Cutting Back

Sisterly Savings: Money Saving Tips

Free:
Freebies 4 Mom: 6 Ways to Get Free Products

Freebies 4 Mom: Go to the Movies for Free

Cleaning:
Be Centsable: Green Cleaning Part 1: Multi-Purpose Cleaner

Be Centsable: Green Cleaning Part 2: Essential Items — Borax

Be Centsable: Green Cleaning Part 3: Dishwasher Powder

Be Centsable: Green Cleaning Part 4: Soft Scrub

Kids:
Almost Frugal: Free Online Activities for Children

Photography:
5 Minutes for Mom: Creative Camera Angles