Time for Change

Everyone is familiar with the idea of keeping some sort of money jar to deposit all of your coins in at the end of the day. It's been a long-standing way to save-a-little. But is it really that little?

Many folks view loose change as merely a tool to help them keep from breaking the more valuable bills in their wallets. If this is the case with you, it may surprise you to know how much change you've handled. Statistically the average person has acquired $800 in spare change over the course of a year!

We experienced our first money jar windfall "by accident." Our children had received a Christmas goody package inside what turned out to be a very large football bank. Immediately, they became enamored with filling it up. Every night, they would ask us for our loose change. And every night, we gave it to them. After all, it was just change. About 5 months into their coin savings, they couldn't wait to count it. Imagine everyone's surprise when it turned out to be just over $400!

A small inconvenience of the coin jar, is what to do with the saved coins. Banks and other enterprises have figured out that they can charge you for taking your change. My bank charges a fee for counting loose coins, but there is no charge if I roll the coins myself. My local grocery store has a coin-counting machine that charges a whopping 10% of your total!

Because of this very thing, I've recently seen several articles suggesting a change from the coin jar to the dollar jar. In this scenario, you wouldn't spend any $1 bills you receive, but save them in the jar instead. That means all purchases would have to be made with coins or large bills ($5, $10, or $20 dollar bills). While the idea is to bypass the hassle and potential expense of "cashing in" your coin jar, I personally think I would be more tempted to dip into the jar when I needed a few dollars on my way out the door. While the coins are certainly legal tender, I'd be less likely to count out a quick $5.00 for gas in pennies, nickels, and dimes.

Regardless of the jar savings method you choose, it will still be worth it in the long run.A mere $2.00 a day in change, and you will have saved $730.00 in the first year. At an average of $3.00 a day, you'll have over $1000.00 at the end of the year. It's do-able for all of us.

The Bread of Life

I just love the smell of homemade bread. I also love the smiling faces of my children when they race to the kitchen for a warm slice. Treasured moments. More blessings from The Master.

I began grinding wheat and baking bread a couple of years ago. A friend of mine was hosting a "bread baking" night at her home to share the wonderful things she had learned about the health benefits of grinding her own grain for baking. I confess that as a homeschooling mom, what interested me most about the evening was the chance to socialize with other adults. I went into the evening with absolutely no intention of becoming a wheat-grinding-dough-kneading earth mother. Ahh, how God must have chuckled to Himself.

After I left, I couldn't stop thinking about it. My mind kept reciting all of the health benefits for my family. And I knew to the core that they were valid. It took a few weeks of wrestling -- half of that time with myself over the fact that I didn't have time to take on doing all of our baking from scratch. It took the rest of that time to convince my husband that spending $200 on a grain mill would not be a total waste of money.

Ultimately, we came away with a compromise of sorts. I make what I call cheater's bread. I use a bread machine. Not that I can't make bread the old fashioned way, I just find the machine to be more convenient for fitting the baking into our daily activities. (In my defense, I bought the bread machine used online). And although frugality was not an issue we thought about at that time, baking my own bread is the least expensive way to get the best possible product for my family. We reap the benefits of wholesome ingredients and no preservatives, it's more filling than store-bought bread, and it tastes wonderful!

As my idea of frugal living is to live the best possible life at the lowest possible cost, making our bread meets that standard. And the $200 grain mill? It earned it's keep the first year -- when we stopped buying 2 loaves of bread @ $4/week. My favorite supplier for grain and supplies can be found at:

www.breadbeckers.com

Our Efforts -- Multiplied

Most of us know the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with nothing more than a boy's 5 loaves and 2 fishes:

"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. ~ John 6:9-13 NIV

I believe that Jesus continues to multiply the fruits of our efforts when it's for our good and to His glory. So, do I believe He blesses our efforts of frugality and savings? Absolutely! One of the ways my family is consistently rewarded for our labor is with clipping coupons. I know it's time-consuming, and can appear on the surface to be too much of a hassle. But I have found the bounty to be more than worth it! I am routinely saving between $50 and $100 per week on my grocery shopping -- much to my husband's surprise and excitement!

I don't consider myself to be a "coupon queen," as there is still much I am learning about becoming more effective at using them. But I do want to share some incredible links that have taken me from feeling overwhelmed to confident in the worthiness of coupon clipping. If you only check out one coupon site, go to www.couponmom.com . This site is loaded with information for everyone from beginners to the relative expert. Other really good sites are : www.smartsource.com , www.coolsavings.com , and www.ppgazette.com . Enjoy!