March 2017 - I Heart Frugal

Month: March 2017

How To Create a $40 Meal Plan Your Family Will Love

Plan your meals for two weeks for under $40! Your family and budget will thank you!
$40 Meal Plan Your Family Will Love

This is my third round of bi-weekly dinner meal planning! However, this time it comes with a twist! Why? A fellow frugal friend needed help. She had to find a way to feed herself and her husband for two weeks, but the kicker was she only had $35 for food. Realizing the need for low-cost meal planning, my “$40 Meal Planning Your Family Will Love” was born.

Inspired by her situation, I wondered how many others out there could use low-cost meal planning. So my challenge for this round is to keep your grocery bill around $40. Hopefully, you have some items on hand and you will spend even less, but if you do not, you will come out right around $41.

This list is a dinner meal plan so let’s see how well we can do. Be sure to read until the end and click the printable grocery list to save you time and money! My shopping for this meal plan was mostly done at Kroger.

Keep in mind, if you are saving money on your groceries, you will be able to put money away for other important areas of your budget such as an emergency fund, savings account, or retirement fund.

Cutting your food costs is one of the easiest ways to put extra money in your pocket. Not to mention, my $40 meal plan will save your sanity because you will not be rushing around your kitchen, like a crazy person, trying to throw something together when your kids are hungry. This is not a fun situation for anyone!

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Secrets to Affordable Fashion for the Frugal At Heart

Secrets to saving on fashionable clothing and building your closet to save you money.
Affordable Fashion for the Frugal at Heart

Are you into style and fashion? Do you follow the latest clothing trends?  Your personal style is an awesome form of self-expression.

Fashion and personal style have always been one of my passions. As a girl, I was intrigued when my mother wore a pretty dress or grandma applied her favorite shade of lipstick. They were always so beautiful and inspiring!

With that being said, I don’t like paying high prices for items that will quickly go out of style and sit in my closet until I decide to do a closet purge. (I don’t like paying high prices for anything for that matter.) So when shopping for more stylish items, I have my go-to stores.

I like following fashion trends and looking cute like the next lady; however, I have not always had the money to support this habit. Therefore, I had to become crafty with my shopping. Today, I’m going to share my secrets & suggestions with you. I will describe how to own a stylish wardrobe on a budget.

Suggested Reading: 75 Frugal Living Tips That are Surprisingly Easy

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How to Use Your Credit Card to Your Advantage

Learn how to use your credit card to your advantage and save money while earning points!
How to Use Credit Cards to Your Advantage

Use Your Card to Your Advantage

We all know credit cards are dangerous, yet if used correctly, they can actually be very advantageous.  There are an array of cards available that offer points, rewards, airline miles, statement credits and YES, they are all very lucrative. However, if you do not know how to use your card to your advantage, you could be digging yourself into a whirlwind of debt. It is estimated that the mean credit card debt for the average American is $5,700. (Source ValuePenguin)

With this amount so high, I’m not suggesting you use your card to go on a spending spree. (Although that would be fun!) Nonetheless, I’m offering some advice to help you build credit and earn some of the amazing rewards these plastic gems have to offer.

Let’s change that $5,700 figure around and let the cards work in our favor. If you are sick of being one of the people that pays interest on your card and gets nothing in return, keep reading…

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