COUPON SITES and Information from Stephanie Fay's Enrichment Class!

THANK YOU for a fun, informative Enrichment!  THANK YOU to all of the teachers, to Deby and Dawn for the Humanitarian Project, to Lori Wasden, and to everyone who brought munchies!  If you would like to do more work on the puppets, please contact Deby Leishman.

I'll be posting the information from one of our classes each day this week!  Today I'll post information from Stephanie's class about "Coupon Comfort" as well as the directions for the Hooded Towels!

Tomorrow I'll post the recipes from the Taster's Table!

Coupon Sites:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/

http://coupons.smartsource.com//index.aspx?Link=5S2ZUA6PWPEPO

http://www.redplum.com/SetLocation.aspx?redirect=/pages/Grocery.aspx

http://centsofsavings.blogspot.com/

http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/

These are all good recourses on good coupons and "How to" including coupons sites.

Ways to be Thrifty:

• Study a copy of “One for the Money” by Elder Ashton
• LIVE ON LESS THAN YOU MAKE! Have Self Discipline
• Create a budget
• Only have a credit card for emergencies and/or have money set aside for emergencies
• Budget together
• Budget for future expenses, i.e. Christmas fund, vacation fund, family fun account, birthdays, give yourself an allowance
• Put tax return into savings
• Invest in your retirement account (time is money)
• Pay with cash/save and then buy
• Separate needs from wants

Cutting back in the home: Painless ways of saving $100’s a year

• Shop yard sales to decorate your house, children’s clothes, etc.
• Buy for Christmas at a thrift store, or shop year round for Christmas gifts
• Cut your family’s hair
• Make your own repairs
• Get a Library card for books, children’s preschool packs, and movies for free!
• Vacations: what’s in your own “backyard”?
• Have either a cell phone or a land line
• To exercise, run, bike, or get workout videos instead of a $35/month gym membership
• Have parents/friends record your favorite shows, or rent them instead of having cable.
• Organize your own preschool with other moms in your area
• Pull back on the video games, toys for kids, etc. There is a trend in excessiveness

Date Night

• Go to Dollar movie or rent videos
• Go on free dates by trading babysitting and/or put date night into your budget
• Be creative
• Create a dating Jar full of fun things to do, i.e. taking pictures, watching the sunset, having a picnic, etc.

Car
• Own a car within your means
• Pay cash for a car, or at least pay off quickly.
• Change your own car fluids/repairs

Utilities
• Check your electricity plan, on-off track is about 7¢/minute during the day vs. 2¢ per minute at night
• Do laundry, dishwasher, showers, etc. during off peak (cheaper) hours. Usually between 10 pm and 8 am
• Lower the heat in your house in the winter (below 72º F), higher in summer (above 76º F)
• Teach the kids to turn off the lights/water
• Find a rental or home that fits within your income

Cutting back in the closet
• Use hand-me-downs for kids or buy used clothes at stores like DI or “Once Upon a Child”
• Use cloth diapers
• Invest in a sewing machine. Learn to sew and mend
• Stain remover formula: 5 cup boiling water, ¼ cup dishwasher powder, ½ cup Clorox 2 , soak stained clothes for 5 days in an open bucket. It’s like buying your own new clothes
• Shop sales! Buy one get one free and split the cost with a friend or shop the year before for seasonal clothes

Cutting back in the Kitchen
• Buy a chest freezer
• Make a big meal, freeze half = two meals
• Shop once a month for most groceries and then buy perishables once a week
• Buy bulk, shop the case lot sales
• Use and rotate food storage, refill as you use it. Buy it on sale
• Make everything from scratch (rolls, pancakes, pie, etc)
• Drink ½ powdered milk, ½ real milk—save about $40 a month for 6 member family
• Pack a lunch instead of eating out. If spent $5 a day 5 days a week, you’ll spend $1,300 a year
• Don’t throw out leftovers, eat them for lunch or freeze them
• When go out to eat share an entrée, saves money and eat healthier portions
• Butcher own meat i.e. buy bone in chicken and de-bone at home before freezing.
• Plant a garden, invest in canning supplies (as easy as jars and a big pot)
• Compare grocery stores
• Buy Generic brands
• Reduce soda consumption
• Plan a monthly menu
• Coupon Shop

Instructions for Hooded Towels

                                         

    Directions for a Hooded Towel


1. You need one bath towel and one hand towel (not a wash cloth). Get 
nice, thick, soft ones.

2. Cut the hand towel in half. Make sure if there is a design you have that in the part you cut out. (At this point you can embellish your hand towel with rick-rack, ribbon, or decorative fabric.) 

3.  Fold about a 1-2 inch "hem" on the finished edge of the towel and sew it down.  
4. Next, fold the hand towel right sides together with the sides you cut touching each other. Stitch the side you cut closed.
5. Now form a “triangle” with the hood with the seam you just sewed facing you. Sew a straight stitch about 3 inches down from the point of your triangle. Cut off the piece of the towel above the line you sewed (it will look like a small triangle). (This is the wrong side of the hood--or "inside out."  Turn it "right side in" before you sew the hood on to the towel.)

6. Fold your towel in half and put a pin in place (where the hood goes) so you know where the center is. Mark about 4" from the middle on both sides of the towel (it doesn’t have to be exact). Take that point and bring it into the middle and pin in place. Do the other side. It should look like this: Close-up view. You will be sewing through 3 layers.  From the right side, it looks like a pleat.

7. Take your hood and turn it right side out.  Match up the center of the back of the towel with the center of the back of the hood. 

8. Pin hood to the towel and sew the hood on. I usually do a straight stitch through all layers and then go back and zig zag stitch for added strength.

Voila!  My kids love using these--even the older ones!

ENRICHMENT IS TONIGHT!!!

                 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come

                     - 1 Tim. 6:19

                   

6:30-6:45 Creating a Refuge (RS Room)

6:45-7:10 “Coupon Comfort” by Stepanie Fay (RS Room)
OR
“Reaping What You Sow” by Peggy Rogers (Rm #6)


7:10-7:35 “Coupon Comfort” by Stepanie Fay (RS Room)
OR
“Taming Your Yard” by Gale Harding (Rm #5)


7:35-8:00 “Reaping What You Sow” by Peggy Rogers (Rm #6)
OR
“Taming Your Yard” by Gale Harding (Rm #5)


8:00 PROJECTS (Rooms #5 and #6)

                Sewing 101 Project: Hooded Towels 

Humanitarian Project : Puppets

Taster’s Table : Munch N’ Mingle!

*Rooms #5 and #6 are just off of the kitchen. The Room numbers are on the doors.

Sewing 101 Project : Hooded Towels for Kids
This is a terrific project, even if you're a sewing novice! Each one only takes about 10 minutes to complete! You just need to bring one bath towel and one hand towel!  (If you'd like to get all fancy, you can also bring ribbon or rick rack to embellish it.)
If you're willing to bring your sewing machine, we would appreciate it!

Humanitarian Project : Puppets
Please bring scissors with you!
Also, we have sign-ups going around in the RS Binder for materials