Innovative decorating without spending money

Monday, October 27th, 2008

In these rough economic times, much of our extraneous spending goes out the window as we concentrate on getting food on the table, keeping the heat on, and the roof paid for.  Usually home decorating (or re-decorating!) is one of the first things to go.

 But what if you still want to revamp a room or two but you don’t have the budget?  Try the following resource: Use What You Have Decorating by Lauri Ward (her website is www.redecorate.com).  It is an excellent way to learn how to go around your house and reuse furniture from different rooms to make an entirely different look–without spending any extra cash!  For me, it gave me a different way to look at furniture–and saved us from buying items we didn’t ultimately need.

For those of you who have an eye for style and are looking for a new line of work, you can also learn how to become a “Use What You Have” design consultant.  Part of the course also teaches you “staging”, which is a technique used by real estate agents to make a home more appealing and hopefully a quicker sell.

Have a great week and happy shopping around your house!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: careers, home decorating, lauri ward
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Saving lots of time and money on software

Monday, October 20th, 2008

For those of you who have been reading for awhile, you probably have some vague recollection of my praise for top 10 honoree www.download.com.  It’s that great place to find spyware free software downloads where you can truly “try before you buy”.

 However, here’s another way to save both time and money on software for those of you using Microsoft Office that you may not know about.

 Did you ever have to write a letter, build a spreadsheet or (ack!) a database and didn’t know where to start?  That blank “new document” staring you in the face can be quite daunting.  Instead, try www.office.microsoft.com and click on their “Templates” list at the top of the page.  Here you can find a template for just about anything–from building a personal budget to tracking a kitchen remodel to spreadsheets on “activity based depreciation” and project proposals. 

The best part is that they are all free and if you already know your way a little bit around the Office software suite, there’s no need to learn a whole new program.  No building painful spreadsheets with long formulas just to find that one line is wrong. No staring at a blank page when you need to write a business letter–get a head start. That saves a HUGE amount of time and free is a very good price!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: microsoft office, software, top 10
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Tacking this winter’s energy costs

Monday, October 13th, 2008

With the economy as lousy as it is these days, the cost of heating our homes for the winter is on the forefront on a lot of people’s minds.  I touched upon locking in heating oil rates in an earlier post, but now I am getting into energy savings that you may not of heard of in regular publications.

Everyone is encouraging you to buy weather stripping to put around your doors, fluorescent light bulbs instead of the incandescent varieties, caulking around windows, insulating everything, etc.  Personally, I find the repetition of suggestions a bit exhausting.  And honestly, I know it is useful, but I hate weatherstripping.  It eventually falls apart after a couple of years and I am lousy at sticking it on straight.  So then sometimes I have to buy more because it doesn’t stick properly.

When it comes to energy efficiency, though, it’s important to be aware of some of the less-discussed “phantom air leaks” around your house. 

One of the best websites I have found with the most helpful staff is http://www.batticdoor.com/.  They have a whole selection of insulating and energy efficient products at reasonable prices for areas that you wouldn’t think of as problematic, such as attic stairs, clothes dryer vents, attic & whole house fans, and fireplaces. And many of their items are easy to install even for novice handy-ladies.

A big energy loss can be your fireplace and chimney, if you have them.  We also have a wood-burning stove left by the prior owners that is not ducted correctly; thus, we are afraid to use it.  We are finally getting around to installing a chimney cap to discourage the local wildlife, limit heat loss in the winter, and protect the opening from rain and snow. 

However, we also found out that the damper at the base of the chimney isn’t really doing its job at all.  Okay, so we kind of knew this because sometimes we’d hear raindrops in the fireplace.  But we figured the damper was stopping most of the problem. 

Turns out, not so much.  Playing detective revealed that not only were some raindrops coming down the chimney, a good amount of hot air from the house was going out during the winter.  And, from the top of the chimney, you can see the light coming from the room below! That damper is definitely not doing its job–and that $3.75/gallon heating oil is sure keeping the roof warm.

 Thus, we are going to install a chase cover in addition to the chimney cover.  You can get chase covers with or without holes (with a hole if you plan to use your chimney) so that we can add a layer of protection to the lousy damper.  Some good sites to try for both chimney caps and chase covers are http://www.chimneydepotsupply.com/ and http://www.fireplace-chimneystore.com. 

 So I am off to dealing with weatherstripping…which hopefully Nicolas won’t decide to chew on first!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: energy efficiency, heating, weatherstripping
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Kids outgrowing their shoes!

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Now that my son is walking and it is October, I have had to break down and buy him some shoes instead of letting him toddle around barefoot.  After a visit to Stride-Rite with a friend, I received a quick reminder lesson on how expensive children’s shoes can be.  $55 for a pair of basic shoes that he will outgrow in 2 months!

So after talking with some of my favorite thrifty mom friends, here’s what I learned:

 Target is a great place for kids’ shoes.  A wide variety, decent selection, and reasonable quality.  However, I must say that their girls’ shoes outnumber the boys’ selection about 3-to-1. 

If you are looking for brand name kids’ shoes at low prices, by all means try Marshalls. Marshalls (and their sister store, TJ Maxx) you probably know pretty well for their discount clothing, housewares, etc.  But if it’s been awhile since you have been in a Marshalls, go visit again.  The chain has been revamping its footwear section so that they now have it arranged according to style rather than size.  This means that they have the shoes in boxes below the style–as you would find in a regular shoe store. 

It was at Marshalls that we scored a pair of hi-top Ecco boots for my son, which set us back $17.  Much better than the $55 at Stride-Rite and a great brand as well!

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: discounts, kids, shoes
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