Frugal Friday & Verbena Custom Blends Giveaway

Today's Frugal Friday tips are going to be short and sweet because I am tired. It's been a long week of working in my yard planting flowers and veggies. Even though they are short tips they are good ones.

Let's start with gardening. Since I am working on it so diligently myself. If you have enough yard or land start a garden. Yes it is work but it's fun work and will save you money from all the fresh produce you grow yourself. It saves more money to purchase and start your own seeds than to buy the actual plants. So remember this for your garden. Also catch rain water for watering the garden. You can even use water from cooking. Like the water left from boiling spaghetti noodles and such. Your veggies will love it.

Miscellaneous tips:

Only get haircuts every 8-10 weeks, instead of every 6 weeks. Now if you think you can't go over 6 weeks you'll be surprised that just the addition of an extra two weeks is not bad. This will knock down the cost of haircuts from 9 a year to only about 6. That's quite a bit of savings for yourself.

Do your own manicures as well. I know it's not the same as having someone else do them but the savings are substantial. I have never had a professional mani or pedi. I have survived too.

Shop year round for Christmas gifts when you notice the stores having sales. Don't wait till the last few months before the holidays as prices go up. Shop thrifty sales and save yourself money.

Dumpster dive, if you’re brave and it’s legal where you are. I know several of you just turned up your noses on that one but I have done it a few times myself. I have a nice end table in my dining room which holds my purse and those items everyone throws down when coming in daily. I found it outside a neighbors house for the weekly garbage pickup. There is nothing wrong with it. The sign on yesterday post on my little wisteria vine bird house we made was from a dumpster dive. I repainted all of it including the lettering and it's cute as punch now.

Have a yard sale. The weather has been nice enough here to start all the yard and thrift sales in our area. You are not only eliminating clutter from your home but making some extra money as well. De-cluttering is working towards a more simple lifestyle and saves you time on dusting all those knick knacks you can sell. Put what you earned into a savings account or use it to splurge on a nice dinner out.

If you have items left from your yard sale get rid of them on Freecycle. Also if you need anything ask on Freecycle if someone has what your looking for. You'll be surprised at how much you can find for free. Nothing is better than free in my book. I have someone who has been saving me the five gallon buckets I am using for my garden containers.

Never spend your change. Bring it home and put it into a bank or jar and once a week stick it into your savings account. It will grow in no time and you'll never miss that change.

Enter blog giveaways. Yes, you can actually win from time to time. I am living proof. I honestly really thought I wouldn't ever win but have won many nice items I needed. I've won books, purses, a new pair of capri jeans from Lee, gift bags and even a couple of gift cards to Walmart and a restaurant. It only takes a little time and there are literally hundreds of giveaway blogs out there.

If you get a raise at work or a bonus, use it for paying off credit cards or put it into your savings acct. Don't change your way of being frugal or change your budget. Simply forget you have it. If you have automatic deposit at work, change the bonus or pay raise to automatically go into your savings. You'll never miss what you didn't have to begin with.

I know I've talked to you about various ways we are cutting back and being frugal here at our house. I wanted to let you know that coupons are working really well for me. Last week I saved over $100 on our grocery bill. It did take me quite a few hours to shop and get all my coupons together and which stores I needed to go to but for that amount of savings it was well worth it. My best purchase to date was last week. I had noticed that our local Walmart had a sale on V05 shampoo and conditioner for $1.00 a bottle. I remembered seeing a coupon (printable) online for $1.00 off each. I came back home and printed out 10 coupons. Returned back to the store and got 10 bottles completely free. I have stocked up on shampoo and conditioner now and we won't be needing any for quite some time.

Also by using our clothesline each time I do laundry it has made our electric bill go down an average of $50 a month. No one is complaining about stiff clothes now.

Something else I have been doing for a few months now is taking surveys online for cash or points and also "getting paid to read emails". I honestly thought when I started it would be some sort of hoax or gimmick. But it really works and you earn a little extra money or gift cards. I have already made about $60 for what little time it takes to do the surveys they send me. Also another sight which pays you in points for shopping through them sent me a $10 gift card to Red Lobster and a $15 gift card to FTD flowers. Next week I will be discussing how to do this more and provide everyone with the needed links for those interested in doing the same.

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Giveaway time again this week. I am so happy to say that this weeks sponsor of our Frugal Friday giveaway is Verbena Custom Blends from her Etsy store. This store has some of the most exquisite handmade all natural Soaps, Whipped Body Frostings, Whipped Yogurt Creams, Cupcake Soaps I have ever seen. Honestly they do not look like soaps but look good enough to eat.



Verbena Custom Fragrance Blends is all about customized, handmade, special bath and body luxuries. My handcrafted soaps are deeply scented, pretty to look at and good for your skin! She offers a lot of different fragrances to choose from, and can custom blend a fragrance just for you!

HER SOAPS ARE NOTHING BUT PURE NATURAL GOODNESS!!! SHE DOESN'T USE ARTIFICIAL LATHERING AGENTS IN HER SOAPS LIKE SLS OR PROPYLEN GLYCOL. ALL OF HER HANDCRAFTED SOAPS GET YOU CLEAN WITHOUT STRIPPING YOUR SKINS NATURAL OILS AND THEY HAVE A SILKY GLIDE-YOU CAN SHAVE WITH- AND A RICH CREAMY LATHER. YOUR SKIN WON'T FEEL DRY OR TIGHT, JUST PAMPERED AND MOISTURIZED!

Verbena Custom Blends is giving one lucky winner a choice of any item(s) from her store that are priced at $15.00 or less. This includes almost everything she has in her store. Very few items are priced more than $15.00 With Mother's Day being just around the corner wouldn't

your mother love to receive a special soap or whipped body frosting? Or keep it for yourself for Mother's Day and pamper yourself. Everyone deserves to be pampered.

To enter this giveaway all you have to do is go to Verbena Custom Blends Etsy store and take a look around. Come back here and leave me a comment on what you would use your $15 for. That's all you have to do to enter this wonderful natural giveaway. This counts as your first entry and must be done.

If you would like extra entries (you know you do) then choose various ways from the list below, or do all of them. The choice is yours. Leave a separate comment for each one to let me know and for it to be counted properly. The winner will be chosen by using Random number through Random.org.




1. Add Verbena Custom Blends Etsy store by choosing to fav it.
2. Leave a comment telling me who would be receiving the gift or if you would keep it yourself.
3. Follow my blog or if already following just comment you are.
4. Subscribe to my blog or if already doing so comment and tell me.
5. Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment twittering the giveaway. You must leave a comment with your twitter ID and link back. You can do this once a day as well. Just leave a separate comment each time.
6. Add this giveaway to a Mr. Linky or Stumble, Digg or Facebook and leave a comment separately for each one done. As well as a link or ID.

For an additional 5 points blog about this giveaway with a link to my blog and a link to Verbena Custom Blends store as well. Leave five separate comments for this.

If you do not have a blog then email five of your friends about the giveaway and CC me so I know you've done this. Then also leave a five separate comments that you have done so.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN EMAIL EITHER IN YOUR BLOG PROFILE OR LEAVE ME YOUR EMAIL IN YOUR COMMENTS SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU.

Giveaway winner will be chosen at 10:00 pm on April 30th and announced the following day on the blog. You will be contacted at that time and have 48 hours in which to reply back or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Good Luck Everyone.

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Till tomorrow my friends. Happy Savings,