It’s here!! It’s here! Yes, I’m excited. lol The July Digest is really wonderful and focuses on frugal fashion. I show you how to turn a cheap, tarnished platter into an impressive house number sign and share my thoughts on teaching our children gratitude. But my favorite part is an article on Looking Your Best from Jennifer Schmidt. Jennifer shares lots of pictures and it’s AMAZING how trendy and fashionable she manages to look for just a few dollars per outfit. You won’t believe the looks she pulls together. Since we’re in the midst of yard sale season, you’ll definitely want to read this before you head out on an AFFORDABLE shopping spree to update your wardrobe. While thrift stores are good for bargains, the really great deals most often seem to be found at yard sales.

I also found that a couple of folks have blogged on the July Digest. You can read their unbiased reviews below.

Titanium Woman

Classless and Lovin’ It

I also found these reviews for my June Digest.

Seeking His Heart

Cross Rhodes Academy

Angelheart

While my Digests have tons of tips for the newly frugal I hope they’re both a help and encouragement to the practiced penny-pincher as well. Everyone needs a bit of encouragement on occasion, right?

Hmmm… all those July fourth sales are here! I’m not participating this time around as we are still in our Thirty Days of Nothing for another week, but, I do have a quick thrifty tip for those of you who are planning to attend one of these sales to scoop up some great deals.

This tip is specifically for those of you who are planning to buy some of the deep-discounted clothing that is plentiful right now: When trying on those new items, look in the mirror, of course, but keep in mind that this is not the only way to be sure if an outfit is right for you.

The next step you should take when considering an article of clothing is to turn away from the mirror and move about the dressing room a little and do normal movements you would typically do on a day-to-day basis. Close your eyes, if you have to, in order to be sure you are not tempting yourself to believe that just because it looks cute on you, that you should spend the money for it. Rather, make sure it is something that will truly fit the use for which it is purchased. For example, if you are a stay-at-home mom and this particular item will be worn while going about your typical day of serving your family, can you move freely in it? Does it stretch when it needs to stretch and stay put when it needs to stay put?

Remember, unless you are a fashion model, the only people who are going to care about how you look are those with whom you share life on a daily basis. Whether or not your clothing feels right on your body and whether or not you are truly able to function well in them makes all the difference between a wise buy and a frivolous one.

Let’s face it, most of us are not cover models, and that is fine. What are there, five of them in the world anyway? Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating slovenliness in dress. We are princesses in the Kingdom of Christ after all, we should dress the part. However, what I am advocating is wise use of the funds at your disposal when shopping all of these bargain sales. Make sure you take the time to look away from the mirror and think to yourself, “Is this really a good fit for my lifestyle and my needs?” “Is this particular item something I can honestly use?” “What else do I have that will coordinate with it?” “Will it last for more than one season?”

Asking ourselves questions like these will prevent the loss of family funds in frivolity; and will, instead, give us the freedom to really enjoy those wisely considered items bought at a great discount because we waited for a better price.

What is your opinion of all the July sales? Are you shopping at any of them? What are your best techniques to keep from over-spending during these sales?

Actually, I have quite a few favorite recipes for those days when the thermometer is maxed out. This is one of them. It’s yummy and easy and refreshing. For more summer recipe ideas visit  Works for Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

One Bowl Easy Taco Salad

1 pound (or less) ground beef

1 head (or more) iceberg lettuce

two tomatoes, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

green onions, chopped (optional)

1 big bag corn chips (I use Aldi’s 13 ounce bag)

1 large bottle Catalina dressing

Brown meat, and drain fat. Set aside. In a large bowl combine the lettuce (torn into bite-sized pieces) tomato, pepper and green onion.  Just before serving stir in the meat (room temperature). Then crush the chips into smallish pieces. (I just smush the bag up in my hands) and dump those in too. Toss with the Catalina dressing until evenly coated. It might not need the whole bottle, just add a bit at a time to your liking.

That’s dinner . . . it’s that easy! (cheap too!)

Like this rug? I do!

Believe it or not, it could be yours! The fine folks at CSNrugs have generously offered to give away a rug to one lucky Econobusters.com reader. I chose THIS rug, thinking it will match a variety of decor. I also like the fact that it is an outdoor rug and will look great in any doorway, porch or deck. While you’re admiring the specs on this beauty, you might find another area rug you just can’t live without!

So, how do you win the area rug above? We will use a random number generator to pick a winner from the number of comments in this post. You can leave up to two comments, but they must contain the following:

1) Share what you like best about Econobusters.com or link to your favorite feature or post in your comment.

2) Share the above information on your blog, post about the giveaway, and come back and post the link to your blog post.

To be completely clear, you have the option to leave either one or two posts. Leave one, if you just want to make a comment right here on the site, expressing what you most like about Econobusters. Do that regardless! If you then choose to share that comment in a post on your own blog and let others know of the giveaway, come back and leave a link to your post (that will be comment number two).

On July 8, we will announce the lucky rug winner! The friendly folks at CSNrugs will ship the rug directly to the winner. Be sure and leave an email or some form of contact info in your comments.

Unfortunately, we will ONLY be able to approve comments that fall within the contest guidelines for this post, since the winner will be pulled based on the number of comments.

Enjoy and thank you to CSNrugs!

Note: Those affiliated with Econobusters or The Old Schoolhouse Magazine are ineligible. Sorry!

Since the temperatures are soaring quite high these days, I have been trying to do more cooking outside and use recipes that don’t involve the stove. This not only helps on my electric bill, but it also helps to keep the house cool during those “dog days” of summer.

Here are a few recipes that I have found that can help you beat the heat and keep your family “cool” and “full”!

• Have you ever tasted canteloupe soup? I hadn’t either until this past week. It is delicious! Pair it with the sandwich that is shown in the picture and you will have yourself a filling, no oven used meal.
• I love salami. I eat it quite frequently. This is the recipe that I use for Salami Roll Ups.
• You can use your crockpot and make this yummy Peachy Crockpot Chicken recipe. Here is a whole page of crockpot recipes.
• For a dessert, you can fix homemade chocolate pudding pops!
• Here is a delicious grilled recipe for Honey Grilled Pork Chops.

How do you beat the heat in the kitchen when the temperatures are blazing hot?

I cannot wait until Saturday. I love the Fourth of July. My latest newsletter that went out yesterday was all about fun that you can have on the Fourth of July. If you missed it, you can access that here.

My plans for Independence Day are simple. I am going to the lake with my family. We are going to grill out, swim, fish, have fun and then later that evening, we are going to watch the beautiful fireworks display that is always put on by the TVA.

I did find a recipe that I intend on making to take to the lake with us. Amy, over at Amy’s Finer Things, made these yummy Caramel Pretzel Sparklers. They look so festive, and anytime you mix chocolate and pretzels, you are sure to have a winner!

Since the Fourth of July is considered a vacation day, have you considered purchasing the June Digest? It is FULL of great ideas for stay at home vacations, longer trips, and one day vacations. There is even a special interview this month with the Hillbilly Housewife. You can see a sample of the June issue of Molly’s Money Saving Digest here.

Here are a couple more festive crafts that I found related to the Fourth of July. Here is a cute tutorial to make some star coasters. These star pillows look extremely adorable and would brighten up any couch, chair, or hammock for the Fourth of July.

So what are your plans for the Fourth of July? I would love to hear them!

This post is linked to Tightwad Tuesday at Beingfrugal.net.

Have you ever seen one of these?

What is this?

My family went to our local farmers market this Saturday and while there, my son found this plant. He inquired about it to the seller and she told him that it is self-propogating. Do you see all those little flower buds on the sides of the leaves? These are actually its flowers. When they fall off, they root into the surrounding soil and make new plants, no effort involved!

Flowers at the edge of the leaves

The only problem with it? My son forgot what the name of this particular species is! If you know, please tell us.

I think my entrepeneurial son has great plans for growing many of these plants and selling them at a roadside stand as an easy, low-water landscaping plant. I guess I better get ready to see these plants all over my yard! They are supposed to be extremely prolific. Perfect for a homeschooling family

We also bought our produce for the upcoming week from the fabulous selection they had available: baby squash, european variety of eggplant, red potatoes, peppers, etc. Sadly, they are completely out of all the berries we were hoping to find, but then again, we did not get there until they were about to close. One vendor told me that next week they expect to have a large variety of many different things, so we should do well then.

I really enjoy going to my local farmers market, do you? If you go, do you find the prices to be the same as, better than, or worse than your local grocer?

Just seeing the picture above is enough to make my mouth water! I love blueberries. From blueberry cobbler, blueberry ice cream, or just eating them like they are, I can’t get enough of them.

Awhile back, a reader sent me a recipe using this wonderful delicious summer treat. She has graciously given me permission to share it here with you. But not only that, at the end of this post, there is a “berry” special treat for all of my readers today!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Ingredients

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup white sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup oil

1  egg

1/3 cup milk

1 cup blueberries

Topping:

½ cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup butter, cubed

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Place oil into a 1-cup measure; add the egg and enough milk to fill up to 1 cup. Mix this with the flour mixture.

Fold in berries. Fill muffin cups ¾ full or else you won’t get a dozen. Sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To make crumb topping, mix together sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon. Mix with fork and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until done.

Thanks again Stephanie for sharing this extremely mouth-watering recipe with us!

Now for your “berry” special surprise. . . .The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has produced yet another wonderful WeE-book that they are allowing us to give away free to you right here. It goes perfect with this post as it is all about blueberries. You can access the WeE-book, Blueberries For You by clicking the link. There are some great tips, recipes, and resources in the pages of this book. You, for one, will not be disappointed!

After you have downloaded it and had a chance to look at it, be sure and leave me a comment letting me know what you think. Also, be sure and share with others that this item is free right here on the Econobusters blog. Please do not share the document itself, but you can link back to this post so that people know where to find it.

This has been one huge week of freebies all over the Internet. I have so many that I want to share with you today!

• A reader alerted us to this freebie. Glidden Paint is giving away a free quart of paint in your color choice. I checked it out for myself yesterday and it is a true freebie! I ordered one in a beautiful yellow shade that will brighten up my bathroom. Thanks Amanda for sharing this with us!
• Knowledge Quest Maps is giving away one of their newest E-Books, Globolmania: Master World Geography in Just Seven Months. You can also get a sampling of 6 of their biographies for free when you sign up for their newsletter.
• Trigger Memory System is offering a free download trial of Time Tales, plus a free Memory Trigger E-Book just for signing up for their newsletter.
• You can get a free Garden Craft E-Book from Fave Crafts. This has some really neat ideas for decorating your garden.
• If you save your own seeds from gardening, at WintersOwn.org, you can print your own seed packs to store them in. I think this is really neat and I will be sure to print mine out this Fall once my garden has finished producing.
• Help your child keep track of brushing their teeth with this adorable Thomas the Tank Engine chart.
• Get a free knife from Overland Trading Company.
• Barbie is giving away a free dvd movie, Precious Places, while supplies last.
• Sign up for Betty Crocker newsletterand you will get a free sample of Yoplait Whips.
• Free pack of sticky notes from Sandy Paper.
• Get a free Vaseline Aloe Fresh sample from Costco website. You have to be a Costco club member in order to get this sample.
• Follow Pizza Hut on twitter.com/pizzahut, or on facebook.com/pizzahut and on July 4th they will be issuing codes to their followers for FREE Stuffed Pizza Rolls, a new item on their menu that costs $5.
• Free 20 page photo book(5×7) from Shutterfly. These are nice. I use them all the time.

Well, we continued our Thirty Days of Nothing challenge last weekend and through the early part of this week by continuing to use primarily what I have on hand for meals. We had chicken and rice, grilled steaks and baked potatoes, a couple of crockpot meals where I simply threw ingredients I had into the crockpot with some seasonings that sounded good and served it with homemade bread from our supply of wheat. We also had a fantastic broccoli-cheese soup that tastes very much like the one from one of my favorite restaurants! Going without hasn’t felt too overly taxing around here at all.

We also began the process of purging the contents of our garage. That felt great! We donated a bunch of things to a local charity and it is such a joy to know that all of those things we no longer need are going to help others who do have a need. Yes, we did reserve some things for family and friends whom we knew had the need (thank you to the reader that reminded me of this!), and it was wonderful to share with them!

It’s ironic that we are living in the richest nation on earth and we still think we need so much more. In working through our “purge,” we are realizing how few things we truly need, and we are quickly lessening our load. Too many things to keep track of with no “margin” left is stressful. All those things need to be taken care of, which, in turn, only makes our “To-Do” list longer.

I think I’m on a roll now, so to speak. Every time I enter another room in my house, I think to myself, “What can I get rid of in here?”

Don’t get me wrong; I am keeping the important things in life, and memorabilia I would later regret giving away, BUT… I’m becoming more discerning with regards to what I really need verus what I keep only “just in case.” Does the item bring joy to my family? Is it truly useful to us? Does it say something about who we really are? Is it replaceable? Does it have a specific memory attached to it that I would later wish I would have kept (photos, baby items, etc., but even these can be paired down quite a bit).

For example, I went through all of the baby clothes in our big clean-out. There where a number of items I couldn’t give away because so many memories were associated with them. So, I placed only the ones I was absolutely sure I had to keep in a clear plastic bin. The rest I gave away to folks I knew would use them. The ones I kept, instead of leaving in a plastic bin for eternity, I will have made into a memory quilt. This is a quilt where each square is an article of clothing or a baby item that you want to keep. Once all of the items are sewn into a square, then they can all be adjoined to make one big quilt for display in your home. You can either make one big quilt that has items from all of your children, or you can make one for each of your children. I am doing the former.

I hope my adventures in paring down will inspire you to do some sifting of your own. You will feel freer and less encumbered by all those things you don’t need. Think of the benefits when/if you ever have to move! Much less to move = less expense, less trouble, and less time to pack or get settled! Also, just from a day-to-day perspective, your life is less cluttered and less stressful.

How are your Thirty Days of Nothing (or plans to do it) shaping up?