Hi there, I’m Amy, a harried housewife and stay-at-home mom to three little boys who are all preschoolers. (Cue circus music.) I was born and raised in Iowa and my family currently lives in Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines.
Like so many others, I’ve been trying to tighten up our finances. Every day I’m learning how to live better with less: less stuff, a more simple life, and a little creative work for making the most out of our resources. Oddly enough, doing without often is the most freeing thing of all. I’m sharing the tricks, tips, victories and stumbles along the way with my readers. Leave a comment and share!
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Hi Amy, I saw your site on the news last nite, and since your brother in law is a Patrick Dix, I feel your a safe site. I think you have a fantasic idea, and just take your time getting the site up and running, as I’m sure your going to be flooded with emails. I for one, I use coupons on a daily basis, as I’m living on a very limited income, and I welcome any and all ideas. I wish you much luck on your site, as since your a local person, and there is a trust element, I’m just glad your in my “favorites” now.
I don’t have outlook express, only windows XP, thanks!!!!!!
Hey Judy! Thanks for your patience, I’m learning coding as I go along and hit a bit of a roadblock. I hear you on the limited resources and needing to be creative-be sure to leave your tips on topics as I get them up. Thanks for your trust too. I’m doing my best to offer readers legit, common-sense tips. Take care!
Ahhh you’re trying to email me: you can hover over that link and see what my email is. Or just copy this text: amy@housewifehacks.com
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Amy
Hi Amy,
I am a stay at home mom in Clive and found a gem of a website this past week. Looking for ideas to do with my 2 boys is hard enough work sometimes and I didn’t want to pay for a curriculum for them. This website has a great calendar of things to do with toddlers and preschoolers and it’s free! http://www.preschoolexpress.com
Hi April,
Thanks for the link! It looks like it’s full of great ideas, I’ll bookmark it and look into posting about it too. This will be super handy this winter when cabin fever sets in!
Hi April,
I wanted to share a program with you & your readers. It’s called “shareiowa”. Their website is http://www.shareiowa.org and its kind of like a food co-op. You can go to their website to find a site close to you and to view their food packages for the month. There are no income guidelines and they do accept the EBT card. The only ‘requirement’ is that you do 2 hours of volunteer work for the month that you want to purchase a food package. I have bought Thanksgiving dinner for my family of 5 for $25!! That includes a 12-14 lbs. turkey, potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing, homemade style egg noodles, & pumpkin pie! They have the same type of package for Christmas except with a ham. You have to check out the different packages & they change every month. Amy, if you’re interested in researching this further for your readers, shoot me an email with any questions or how I can help. I have more info but I’ve already wrote a book!
Wow Mary, that sounds like a great program. I’ll email you this week about getting more info. Thanks for the tip!
Hi Amy:
Just thought I would let you know of a couple of ways that I have saved over the past years. One is rebating, or turning labels and etc. into money. The other one is I belong to freebie magazines on internet to get free merchandise. I haven’t bought shampoo, toothpaste or deordant for I don’t know how many years. If you are interested in the addresses for these let me know. Thanks Inez
Definitely Inez, let us know what mags you’re using to get the freebies. I’ve been curious about rebating and I think I may try a few toy rebates that I’ve seen recently. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Amy:
This is a website that has all kinds of feebie newsletters on. http://www.Zenafreebies.com/Zena’sfriendslinks.html
The ones I use most on this list on Frebbie Jeebie’s and Zena’sfreebies.com
Hope someone can use this info.
Inez
Thanks Inez, I’ll check them out!
Hi Amy! I, too, am Amy and also a central Iowan. I heard about your link on Life 107.1 tonight and was super pumped to find your website. I’m recently addicted to $$ Saving blogs…I have about 10 or so saved to my favorites and they’ve all helped me save tons of $$ on groceries. I’ve added your site to my list as well. Anyway–I just wanted to pop in and say hi and thanks for taking time out of your (busy) life to post great savings….I especially love the Hy-vee deals you post. You can get some super great deals at Hy-vee by using coupon matching!!! Thanks much!
Amy, too, in Iowa.
Hi Amy! I’m so glad you found my blog and that the posts are helping you to save. I’m a savings blog junkie too–partly why I started writing one! Looking forward to hearing about how you save. Feel free to leave comments with ideas/discussion/questions!
hello to all! i’m a newbie and i need your expertise! Amy i heard you talking on 107.1 this morning! we are currently living on my very low income and hardly have enough for groceries after bills, plus i just started really cooking at the end of this last year. i have NO idea what goes with what and how to use what i have; i only go by the recipes. i would REALLY appreciate anyone’s help in meal planning/budgeting tips; i just get overwhelmed and don’t know how to implement all of it! just an idea for you: i have $87 to last for 2 weeks and need gas too. can anyone help??
thanks in advance!
Hi Trish and welcome! Start with my Frugal 101 series and go from there for long term help. You’ll find that the method of stockpiling items when they’re at their lowest point frees you from having to pay whatever price is available each week. You make your recipes based on what you already have on hand.
For the short term, cut out all the extras and make your recipes from what you have on hand as much as possible. Sometimes it takes getting creative but I’d say an investment of some fresh fruit, filling staples like potatoes, cottage cheese, beans, and such cost less than meat but can keep you full. Eggs are another really great emergency staple for both quick easy meals and inexpensive ones. You can throw together scrambled eggs and toast, or make a frittata or omelet with leftovers. Oatmeal is another filling and healthy meal. Buy the Quick Oats or regular oats in the big container instead of the small packets to save.
I know peanut butter sandwiches are another cheap but filling staple. We have a child with peanut allergy so this one doesn’t so much work for us and peanut butter is fairly high in fat so it’s not an every day sort of thing anyway.
Stretch meat when you can – just because a recipe calls for a pound of meat doesn’t mean you have to use that. You can use less and make up the rest with pasta, rice, or beans (beans are a great source of protein and even my little kids will eat them).
For staples like milk and fruit, I often go to Aldi to get the lowest possible price. If you catch Hy-Vee’s sale today though and have one near you (gas is expensive too!) they have half gallons of milk for $.88. They’ll let you buy 2 at a time.
Hang in there and good luck. You can do it. It may not be the most comfortable few weeks but with smart choices you can get by.