they are 100% free! There is not even a shipping charge! Click here to get a free mousepad!  ~ This month's topics: The SHARE Program, Rebate Offers and Budgets ~ August 10, 1999 ….. I can’t believe that in two weeks my daughter will be heading to school as a Kindergartner! She is soooooo excited! We have met her teacher and seen her classroom and I truly think it’s going to be a great year. My son will attend preschool for the first time on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and so I plan to volunteer in Jenna’s class on Tuesdays, and in Ian’s class (if needed) on Thursdays. The idea of homeschooling is still ever-present in my mind, but we’ll make that decision year by year. For now, I’m content to know that she’ll be attending a very good area school and Jenna is happy to be going! Last month’s discussion about budgets let me to several bits of information I would like to share with you this month. The first is a program called SHARE. This is a program which offers groceries at a reduced price to any family who volunteers a minimum of 2 hours in their community every month. The following is some basic information about this program. I highly recommend you check out their website and look for a program near you. Not every state is listed at the website, but may be under the "jurisdiction" of another state. If you don’t see your state listed anywhere on the website, call or email a nearby state to see if there is a program in your area - there probably is! The food is nutritious and well-priced. Here is what the REGULAR package consisted of for the month of JULY: 1pkg of chicken leg quarters. 1pkg of Philly Gourmet Steak Sandwiches 1pkg of Cooked Chicken tenders 1pkg of Imitation Crab Meat w/ cocktail sauce 1pkg Slaw dressing mix 1 jar seasoned salt 1 4-pack pudding 1pkg pasta 1pkg potatoes onions peaches cabbage celery fresh corn cantaloupe peaches plums There are NO income requirements, ANYONE can participate in this! The only requirement that is stipulated is....that you volunteer at least 2 hours a month to your community. That includes your childrens school, Church, towards your neighbors, etc. To help answer your questions and to find the nearest SHARE program near you, go to WorldShare. Another good program I came across is the "Rebate Program" which is available at several nation-wide drugstores. I know for sure that Rite-Aid and Walgreen’s have these programs which change monthly. What you do is this: Go to the drugstore and ask for the In-Store Rebate Catalog. Inside this catalog, it lists all of the available rebates for that month. Many items are "free with rebate" or nearly free! Use the catalog as a shopping list, choosing those items which your family can use now or in the future. You then send in your register receipt, maybe some UPC’s and the rebate form and you will receive *one* rebate check back in 4-6 weeks! I did the Rite-Aid rebate program a few days ago and spent (with tax) just under $43. My rebate due back to me is just under $38!! You can even continue to use your coupons at these stores which may mean that, in some cases, you could actually be making a little money! I purchased some desk supplies and many personal items (shampoo, hair care, lotion, etc.) that we can either use or donate. Our family usually adopts a family at Christmas-time so I figure I can put together a "beauty basket" for the oldest female in the family (mother or oldest daughter) with many of the items I’m receiving free or nearly free. You can check out the items available in the Rebate Programs at Rite-Aid or Walgreens. UPDATE ON LAST MONTH’S DISCUSSIONS: I changed my "envelope" system that I adopted last month to better suit my desire for having less cash in the house. We opened another checking account and a savings account. My husband’s pay check is automatically deposited and can be split any way, so I’m having it split 3 ways and having different amounts placed in each account. This means that we won’t even truly see some of the money and will be covering emergency situations with the savings account. Our credit union has a lower rate for our car loan so we’ll be transferring our loan over to them and will continue to pay extra money each month in our attempt to get rid of this debt in about half the time. Shopping by using the grocery sale ads has truly made a difference in our food bill and I’m also once again enjoying cooking from scratch. I believe my husband is also enjoying the experimentation of eating new dishes! One thing we’ve really enjoyed this month is picking blueberries at a nearby blueberry farm. It is only $6.00 per gallon (a gallon of grocery blueberries would be at least $16.00), so we’re stocking up so that we can enjoy these wonderful berries all winter! We found a used freezer at a good price, so now I can freeze these wonderful berries as well as stock up on loss-leader grocery items! I read this summer that blueberries are one of the "top ten wonder foods" for our health (it helps fight heart disease), so I think I need to make it a regular item in my diet due to family history of heart disease. Since this fruit is my hubby’s favorite, he wants to look into planting some blueberry bushes in our back yard ;-) We continue to make some interior changes to our home and wallpapered the dining room in July. It looks absolutely gorgeous and we are enjoying eating in there now! My next door neighbor had some wallpaper that she was going to sell at a garage sale and I nabbed it because it was cheap and pretty! So now we have the wallpaper and border for the kids’ bath upstairs which we’ll tackle soon. The final room is our bedroom and bath and then we will be done for the year! I’m truly glad we spent the extra money this year to fix up the rooms with wallpaper. I so enjoy being inside and not having to look at off-white walls all day long! Wallpapering the interior has truly made my "workplace" more enjoyable for everybody! Since joining some wonderful email lists discussing ways to beat the "budget blues" I've discovered the following websites which contain information on how to receive discounts when purchasing items from various websites (think December holidays and upcoming birthdays!): http://www.albany.net/~tiacat/Refunding/Offer.html http://pw1.netcom.com/~designs/steals.htm http://flamingoworld.com/coupon.htm http://www.webquarry.com/~free4us/new.htm http://members.aol.com/frugally4u/deals.html http://www.1bargainworld.com/ I have not personally checked all of these sites out, but the ones I have are worth looking into, so I'm guessing the other sites are good sources of information, too! Well, I guess that’s all for now! I’ll update our story again in the coming weeks. Some books that I've read or am continuing to read are: A New Song by Jan Karon. This is the 5th book in her wonderful Mitford Series. If you've never read her books and are looking for a book that will keep you laughing, crying and totally enthralled, I recommend this series (can you tell I like Ms. Karon's books??) You can read more information about these books by clicking here! God's Abundance: 365 Days to a Simpler Life edited by Kathy Collard Miller. This book is similar to Ms. Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance but with religious content. It contains brief daily stories combined with Scripture, creative ideas, quotes and insightful tips which will guide you in your day-to-day encounters, as you learn to make all aspects of your life "a spiritual abundance of simplicity." You can click on the highlighted title to order this book from Book CloseOuts. I continue daily to try and remember to give thanks to the One who is guiding me on the path of simplicity. I say "try" because some days I make it through my day without much thought put to praying. It's a habit I'm working on developing so that it becomes a natural part of my daily routine. My 5 year old daughter is a wonderful "pray-er" and remembers to pray for all kinds of things ... I love listening to her at night! Our Lord has blessed my family immensely and we will now be able to tithe beginning in September. This was a major goal of mine when I gave my life to Christ in March and I never in my wildest dreams thought we'd be able to tithe so quickly. One decision that I made that is helping us maintain a bigger grip on the budget is to not sell books for a while. I will be sending out one more list of books this year (after Labor Day) and then taking a break as we continue to try and make headway on our loans. It's hard to know what books to buy to re-sell and so I would end up with a lot of inventory at home - all are great books, it's just that I don't need them at this particular time because my kids are so young. In addition, the gas and time away from my family was taking it's toll and my daughter even asked me when I was going to stop selling books (boy, was that a kick in the teeth!). Sooooooo ..... I did some praying and felt led to take a break once again from the book-selling. (If you'd like to be sure and receive my final sale list, email me and your name will be added to my ListBot email list.). It was a difficult decision to make as I truly enjoy helping families find the books they are looking for, but my family must come first. It's definitely "more simple" that way :-) I hope you enjoy the rest of August ... I'll be posting again soon! WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?
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