Better Ideas To Control Monthly Expenses

We've become consumed by the idea that earning two incomes is the only way to maintain a family, and perhaps sometimes things actually seem to be that financially restricting. Many mothers and fathers in the workforce would like to stay at home with their kids and see all the "firsts", but think that it's just impossible to give up the extra salary.

In truth, raising a family on one income is possible, with a few sacrifices and controlling monthly expenses. Also, raising your children yourself is probably the healthiest thing you could do for your kids' environment.

Think of ways where you can cut back on monthly expenses. First of all, you won't be driving so much to go back and forth to work, so give your auto insurance company a call and let them know.

Most likely, they'll reduce your rate. What about giving up on a cell phone plan or cutting back on long distance calls? Plain old phones are cheaper and email is often free. The point is to try and find all the little things you can reasonably go without, which habits and spending behaviors you can change, and see what the total savings would add up to.

Even though you'll be staying at home, you can find a way to help bring in some extra dollars. If you're good at crafts or making things, you can probably sell your items at local craft fairs or small stores. For those who have a talent, offering courses can be a profitable way to help with family income and pay your monthly expenses.

Turning your skills into money-making possibilities is a good way to balance the loss of a full salary. The internet is full of websites that offer great ideas for these types of ventures.

Networking with other moms that have given up their jobs to stay at home can also be helpful, as they'll be your greatest resource and support when you need the help.

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Living Frugally And Reducing Costs

The Depression was a famous time in our history, and many people marvel over how individuals living during that time made do with very little at all and managed to survive while reducing costs.

Items we take for granted and throw away easily today would never have seen such a fate during the Depression. Taking the time to look at our own lives and how we live today, then comparing that to how Depression-era individuals managed to get by can provide a valuable lesson which could improve our overall lives.

The hardships of the Great Depression lasted from 1929 to the end of the 1930s, and people had to be very resourceful with what they had to survive while reducing costs. Every scrap of food possible was used in cooking, and what couldn't be used for eating ended up being used somewhere else.

Containers were emptied and scraped for every last bit and washed for storing other items. Even the cloth sacking from flour and feed became something else, often turned into clothing. Resourceful wasn't an option in those years - it was a way of surviving.

Certainly, the expectations are not to live as frugally as individuals during the Depression did. The point is to learn from how people in that time managed to get by with far less and to be introspective about how we consume far more than we need to while reducing costs.

A jar of peanut butter, for example, could be scraped out when the contents are running low, and the container itself reused for another purpose. Considering that the average debt of an individual in the United States is approximately $8,000, we must wonder if that amount could have been reduced by being more careful.

Appreciating what we have and trying to be both financially and environmentally responsible is important.

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Saving Money For Your Family Budget

The way we live these days, it seems faster and more practical to buy ice to stuff our coolers with. Buying ice is a complete waste of money and really doesn't gain anything at all.

One tip to save for your family budget, you can cool down your ice chests for barbecues and vacations by freezing milk jugs that have been emptied and filled with water. Or, you can freeze the milk itself for a sure-fire cold drink! Frozen juice in containers work just as well.

Buying books or videos at their full price is costly. Libraries offer a vast range of book titles and plenty of movies as well.

You'll save the costs of movie rental stores, saving money for your family budget, and some libraries are even faster to use for movie browsing, as you can check out titles available on their website, reserve a copy and head on over to pick it up. Self-checkout at some libraries speeds up the process even more.

Wintertime brings extra expenses and needing to keep little ones warm. You may need tips to save money for your family budget, while keeping your children warm. Being lifted in someone arms can push up a toddler's pant legs, exposing skin to the cold.

The best and cheapest remedy for this problem is to cut the toe off an old sock and use the tube as a leg warmer! Your cut sock can do double duty when the discarded toe gets turned into a dusting mitt.

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Stretching Your Dollars When You Go Grocery Shopping

Cutting coupons can seem like a real chore to most people, but the payoff of taking a few minutes each week to sit down and snip out store savings is well worth the small effort.

With the money you save and go grocery shopping wisely, you can get that new outfit you've been dying to have or you can save your money up for something really nice. You'll feel good knowing that you've managed to save plenty of money just by changing a few of your habits and all you'll have to spend is a few minutes on your new strategies.

Lots of people are becoming aware that generic doesn't mean low-quality. What generic products really are is the same as what's in that brand-name package. The product has the same ingredients, is made the same way, looks the same - and is the same!

The only difference is that brand-name manufacturers sell their products to other companies who repackage the product under their own label and offer it to consumers at a lower cost when you go grocery shopping . This is the perfect case of paying more for a name than for the actual quality of the product itself.

Lots of people avoid dollar stores for their shopping because they think the products are old or stale, but the truth is that what's inside the bottle or bag at the dollar store is probably the same product as what's in the new-look packaging on grocery shelves.

Often, when manufacturers change their packaging (but not the contents!), they'll sell the "old" product to dollar stores in bulk, which means huge savings for you. You'll buy the same product at the dollar store as you would when you go grocery shopping, but at a fraction of the price.

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Saving Money By Shopping And Cooking In Bulk

Cooking in bulk can be a great money and time saver. You can avoid the boring job of finishing work only to come home and have to start a second shift as you prepare supper. Also, cooking in bulk leaves you with more time to spend with your family, and they'll appreciate having a home-cooked meal as opposed to take-out or frozen pizza.

You can choose when to cook instead of knowing it's a daily certainty, and you can prepare plenty of meals ahead of time. Here are some great tips for cooking meals in bulk:

Starting with cooking in bulk means also trying to save on the cost of food. When preparing your menu of meals, take a look at the grocery store fliers and choose meals that use items on sale that week.

Compare prices to warehouse and club stores as well. Also, split your shopping between two stores that will offer you different sale-priced items to keep overall costs of food shopping low.

If you're not sure what recipes to choose for cooking in bulk, looking up menu plans or recipes on the internet can give you some great options. Using "bulk cooking" keywords, you can find plenty of good recipes that will help you prepare lots of meals in advance.

When you do decide your day of cooking, have something already prepared for your meal that night, as bulk cooking can be tiring - though only tiring once a week, as opposed to the annoyance of daily cooking.

Better yet, get your family involved and delegate tasks to each member, which will cut down on your time. Often, there's fun to be had in the whole gang pitching in!

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Celebrating The Resurrection And Renewal

The Christian faith is centered on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he said, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (Corinthians 15:19-20). Each year during the Easter holiday, Christians celebrate His resurrection and the promise of a new life.

St. Paul describes the resurrection appearance as such: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles." Many scholars point to Paul's account as the most verifiable and historically accurate.

There are many reasons why the resurrection matters to Christians. It is an outward sign of God's power and humankind's salvation depends upon this miraculous event, which also proves that the prophecies and teachings of Jesus Christ were true.

This confirms that Jesus will be the judge of all mankind when Judgment Day arrives. Jesus gave his directive to His disciples to go out and spread the word, to create the Church and to teach people how to live and love.

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Different Easter Traditions In Many Cultures

Many secular and spiritual Easter traditions overlap in North American culture, but most believers have no difficulty distinguishing the genuinely important traditions from those that are not.

In the same way, there are some traditions that surround the Christian Easter celebrations in different cultures that may seem odd or uncomfortably different from those practised in North America. Yet here, too, it should be possible to distinguish the important underlying spirituality from a mere unfamiliarity with different customs.

One of the most famous of the Easter traditions, or perhaps more properly considered a pre-Easter tradition, is the Carnival. This occurs in church traditions, mostly Catholic and Orthodox, which have a forty-day Lent period preceding Easter.

During this time, believers engage in fasting and abstinence to prepare for the solemnity and meaning of Easter itself. So the Carnival, taking place just prior to Lent, is the last chance to let off steam before this contemplative period. Two of the most well-known of these Carnivals are in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Some variations in Easter traditions stem from the fact that this is an autumn season in the southern hemisphere. So the Australian celebration more closely resembles the American Thanksgiving than the American Easter, accompanied by agricultural harvest shows.

Rather than using the Easter bunny symbol, since rabbits are quite destructive there, Australians use the bilby, which looks like a huge mouse with rabbit-like ears. What is important in learning about all these different traditions is that the underlying sentiment and aspirations for this festival are the same, even if the surface details vary from place to place.

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