Living well while spending less in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area
My kids and I were near Northtown in Coon Rapids yesterday so we shopped at the Just Between Friends Kids and Consignment Sale that was at the old Sports Authority store building. It was day 2 of the 4-day sale so definitely a lot had been sold already, but there was quite a bit left to check out.
We were greeted nicely by a volunteer, then looked around. What a huge sale! Here’s what we saw: [Read more…]
Did you know that October is Fire Prevention Month, and that October 6-12, 2013 is National Fire Prevention Week?
Many fire stations, schools and libraries around the country are hosting free events including open houses to help educate everyone about fire safety. There are many events in Minnesota – next week’s theme at my daughter’s school is fire safety, and I’ve seen local libraries invite fire men and women for story time events.
Here’s a list of all fire station events happening in Minnesota, provided by the State Fire Marshal’s website:
Click to access fire-prevention-open-house.pdf
What a great opportunity for your little ones to learn about how a fire station works, to sit in a fire truck, and meet a real firefighter!
Most of you know me as a frugal mom of 2 living in the Twin Cities because that’s what I write about here (and I love doing it!). But many of you may not be aware that I’m also a local church musician and composer of piano music and am working hard on releasing my first CD of piano compositions. That’s what I’m sharing with all of you today.
I have created a project on Kickstarter.com to help me raise funds to release my first CD, and would love for you all to check it out!
Here’s my link:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/264455620/lisa-bakers-first-full-cd-of-her-piano-composition
Kickstarter is a website where anyone with a creative project can raise funds to make their project a reality. Many people have been able to release CDs, make films, publish books and more thanks to the support they’ve received from family and friends as well as strangers who have helped them via Kickstarter.
I’m hoping to raise $2500 to cover the remaining costs of producing my CD. Anyone can help, and there are rewards for all amounts $5.00 and up including mp3s, copies of the CD and sheet music of my compositions. If I don’t raise $2500 in pledges by October 26th, I don’t get any of it, and no one pays anything (that’s how Kickstarter works), so I’m spreading the word to everyone I know and who knows me so I can make this happen!
I don’t know many of you personally, but I know many of you are busy moms, too, and can understand the challenge of balancing life and work and family and everything else, while trying to pursue your own goals and dreams. It’s taken me a long time to get here – I’ve composed music my whole life but college, work and having kids have postponed my ability to focus on getting my music out there. Now that I’m here, I’m trying to prove that even a busy, hard-working mom with little kids like myself can still achieve a big personal goal and share her passion with others.
For me, two passions of mine are frugal living and music, and I appreciate all of you who read what I share on my site. Please visit my Kickstarter page, watch my video, listen to my song samples, and share it with others. If you have a personal dream or goal, I’d love to hear about it and possibly share it here on my site.
Thanks for reading this! -Lisa
I love Caribou Coffee. I wish I could afford to go there regularly but when I do it’s such a treat. However, I’m planning to make it in this month because they’re offering their 18th annual Amy’s Blend program, a great cause for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Every year Caribou Coffee honors its original roastmaster Amy Erickson, who lost her battle with breast cancer in 1995, by supporting women and men in Caribou’s communities who are impacted by the disease through the Amy’s Blend program and collection.
Having known many women in my own life who have been impacted by breast cancer, I wanted to share this to help the fight against cancer.
I am the coupon queen of my entire family. In my purse I always carry several envelopes full of coupons for everything from groceries to eating out to gas at the gas station, and never go somewhere without checking if I have a coupon first. My husband jokes that on my tombstone it will say something like “Is there a coupon for this?” He knows I always do everything possible to save our family money. If there’s a coupon for it, I’ll find it and use it!
In celebration of National Coupon Month in September, I received a free copy of the NEW 2014 Entertainment Coupon Book for review, and because of my passion for coupons and great deals, this may be one of my favorite reviews to date!
Entertainment sells over 145 book and access memberships in the USA and Canada. I received the Entertainment 2014 Coupon Book for the Twin Cities & Twin Ports area which has hundreds of pages of coupons for everything from dining out to entertainment & sports to travel & hotels to retail stores, both local and national, and more! [Read more…]
It’s National Coffee Day on Sunday, September 29th! You can get free (or discounted) coffee at these locations in the Twin Cities and/or nationwide on the 29th:
We are celebrating National Coffee Day again at Bill’s Superette on Sept 29th. [Read more…]
My 2-year-old son LOVES cars and trucks. So much that he actually SLEEPS with his toy cars and trucks at night. And whenever I take him to a truck event where he can explore fire trucks, police cars and other vehicles, he has SO much fun! That’s why I’m planning to take him to at least one of two FREE truck events for kids this Saturday, September 28th, 2013.
One is being held in Shoreview, and one in Woodbury. Both will offer kids the opportunity to touch and explore the insides of big trucks like fire trucks and dump trucks!
Shoreview Touch-a-Truck Event
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Shoreview Community Center-LL Parking Lot
4580 Victoria Street North
Shoreview, Minnesota 55126 [Read more…]
Are your kids fans of Disney Junior like mine are? My 5-year-old Heidi LOVES Sofia the First, and my 2-year-old Thor loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
My kids are excited to see them all at Disney Junior Live: Pirate and Princess Adventure at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on October 20th, and I have a discount to share! [Read more…]
The last time I went clothes shopping was a month ago at a department store and I had to take the kids with me. I browsed while trying to pay attention to my 2-year-old running around and hiding in the clothes racks, and repeatedly asking my 5-year-old to go get him and bring him back (I’m lucky that she is so helpful!).
Then I dragged them into the dressing room as I hurriedly tried on about 10 tops. As I tried them on, of course, I had to keep telling my 2-year-old to be quiet, and to stop peeking under the dressing room divider at whoever was next to us (I was in the room on the end – why do people always go right next to someone else? It’s just like in a movie theater.). Somehow I managed to find and buy 2 tops that I liked and got out of there as fast as I could.
But clothes shopping without my kids? I can’t remember the last time that happened, as least since they were born. Most of my clothes have been purchased in busy family outings to the thrift store. I’ve been happy with my purchases, but I’ve also gotten into a rut of always shopping for the same colors (shades of blue, which are my favorite) as well as generally the same business-casual kind of styles.
So…since I first heard about Arc’s Value Village Personal Shopper service last year from several reviews including the Pioneer Press, I’ve been anxious to try it out. [Read more…]
I’ve been hearing a lot lately about clean eating and preparing staple foods from scratch. It tends to come up a lot in frugal living books because when you make more of your family’s foods yourself, you tend to eat better and spend less on groceries.
But many cookbooks focus on recipes for meals, not staples, and most recipes contain at least white flour and processed ingredients.
So when I heard about a new cookbook, Homemade Snacks & Staples, I was anxious to try it! I admit I’ve been doing a lot of cooking for convenience rather for health and cost lately, so I figured this would be good “staple” among my cookbooks to help me “clean up” my cooking.
Homemade Snacks & Staples is a 284-page cookbook written by a Wisconsin food blogger, Kimberly Aime, who emphasizes “whole foods, clean eating and local ingredients.” She also adapts recipes for food allergies because of her own dairy intolerance and her husband’s sensitivity to gluten. Her blog is called “Badger Girl Learns to Cook” and is at learntocookbadgergirl.com. [Read more…]
