I tried couponing.

My mother-in-law invited me to a couponing seminar.

Yeah, that was my thought too.

I went, with a smile smeared across my face.

The cheesecake and hors d'oeuvres made the trip worthwhile.

Then the seminar started, and it was actually good. A hip young woman had all kinds of info about blogs she uses to find deals, printable web coupons, online rebates, and which stores in my area do double coupons on which days (I've always been too lazy to find out).

So I decided to try couponing one time. (Don't you love it when ing is added to a noun to make a fake verb?) Instead of buying three copies of the Detroit News and two of the local paper just for the coupons, I decided that finding coupons online only would be my limit. I also had a handful in my rarely used coupon folder. Most were long expired, but a few manufacturer's coupons had no expiration date.

I spent an hour online, mostly at MoneySavingMom.com, finding deals. At the seminar I appreciate that the speaker narrowed down the list of money-saving sites to the few she likes best, and this was one of them. I tried looking for online coupons once before, but I spent tons of time online with few results and an inbox full of spam. This site does make it easier.

I then spent two hours shuttling the kids among three stores. One was out of what I wanted, so that was a complete bust. I guess the other couponers beat me to it. At Kmart, my best buy was a can of Pledge that was free after an in-store sale, plus Kmart double coupon days. On a regular day with no coupons, my total would have been $13.27. Instead it was $6.00.

At Walmart (which I abhor, but I have few choices in my rural area) I got a number of freebies or nearly free items. Did I really need these things? No.

• I had a $4 coupon for cat food, so I chose the small, $4.50 bag, making it 50 cents.
• Trial-size Wet Wipes were 97 cents, less my 75-cent coupons. I'll give these to my brother who keeps them in his truck. Total spent: 22 cents for a little goodwill.
• I got a little money back for buying two little Johnson & Johnson first aid kids for 97 cents each, less my coupons for $1 off on each. I made 6 cents (but paid 11 cents in tax, so really I paid 5 cents for them). A nickel is worth it for the number of Band-Aids we go through.
• Another freebie was six bars of Johnson & Johnson toddler soap. Each was 97 cents, and I had two coupons for $3 off three J&J items. Total spent: 17 cents in tax for six bars. We'll use these, but I don't feel great about the overpackaging as compared to what we usually buy. I'll also be storing these for more than a year.
• Baking soda was also free. It was 46 cents each and I had a coupon for $1 off of two. I actually made 8 cents on this. It will now take me two years to go through it.
• Wheat Chex was at a good price of $1.66/box. We go through a lot of this anyway. Less my $1 coupon off two, I paid $2.32 for two boxes of cereal. That's less than one box normally.

At Walmart I used a total of $13.30 in coupons. It paid for me to watch the cashier carefully and have an idea in my head what the total should be, because she initially missed one of my $3 coupons.
Was this all worth it? For me, not really. I spent three hours to save about $18, some on odd items I didn't have to have, or at least not right now. Some of the time I would have spent shopping for groceries anyway, but not the hour of online coupon time and not nearly this much time looking for oddities such as trial-size Wet Wipes in the store.
If I were younger and without children to drag from store to store (like the seminar speaker), this may be more worthwhile. If I lived in a more urban area with more store choices so I could flit from retailer to retailer scooping up only the best buys, this might be worthwhile. Staples, CVS, Kroger, Meijer and Rite Aid are apparently among the favorites of couponers and rebaters, but none exist within an hour drive of my home. If I didn't have a completly scuzzy house needing to be cleaned, if my kids were 100% caught up on their homeschool lessons, if I didn't have a pile of free-lance writing work clamoring for my time, if I didn't have volunteer work I promised to get done ... this might be worthwhile.
As a happy medium, I'll probably check one or two money-saving blogs before my regular grocery shopping trip. If I find something good, I'll print it and try to limit my time. I won't go off on wild goose chases or spend an hour looking in the wrong department for that elusive bar of free soap.

Homemade laundry detergent really works!

I just started making my own laundry detergent because it’s much cheaper, but something about it is making my laundry softer, too. Here’s the recipe I used for a dry mix:

1 bar Fels Naptha soap
1-1/4 c. 20 Mule Team Borax
1-1/4 c. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)

Grate the soap with the small holes of a grater. Stir everything together. I used an old ice cream bucket. Use 2 tablespoons (I use a scant ¼ cup measure) per load.

I was worried it wouldn’t dissolve, but it does even though I almost always use cold water (except diapers and wet sheets!). It doesn’t bubble up like commercial stuff would, but it still works.

Someone else's calculations came up with a cost of just over a penny a load.

Fifty ways to leave your debt.

We were discussing real-life money-saving tips on one of my lists. Here was my submission. OK, we're still in debt, but at least we're not adding to it.

We have been living on less lately, so here are some of the things we have been doing. Some of these we're doing to try to be more green at the same time.

1. Breastfeed Dori
2. Use cloth diapers (make own or barter for them)
3. Price shop on phone plans
4. Cut own hair
5. Make own bread (anybody know how to make hamburger buns?)
6. Bring milk from parents' dairy farm when we can (yay!)
7. Use up what's in the pantry even if it's an odd combination of foods, call the resulting meal something fun so it sounds like I did it on purpose (surprise casserole!)
8. Cheaper sources of protein: eggs, beans
9. Cloth napkins
10. Rags instead of paper towels
11. Cloth wipes with plain water
12. Simple soaps — no more fancy body washes for me, etc.
13. Consolidate trips, travel much less
14. Use the library, but keep good eye on due dates so fines don't add up
15. Use BookMooch to feed my reading habit
16. Don't see movies on the big screen, play board games instead
17. Curb urge to get out of the house and drive somewhere for entertainment by riding bikes in neighborhood or walking
18. Use up odd cuts of meat in the freezer, try new recipes
19. Obvious for this group, but I have never paid a single penny for babysitting; turn down invitations that would cost us a lot of money or force separation from the kids (use grandmas, aunts and very close friends for child care only occasionally)
20. Be proactive in setting up social things that could otherwise be costly (I knew an old friend was about to ask me to meet her somewhere for lunch at a restaurant, so I offered the idea of playing at the park with the kids instead)
21. Ask for and give away things on Freecycle
22. Not eat out at all, but have more picnics (even if just in yard) to add variety
23. Take up any offers of stuff from people's gardens, look for a recipe online if I don't know what to do with it
24. Use Internet (the one thing we haven't cut out as I rely on it pretty heavily) to help us learn how to fix things ourselves more (current problem is broken lawnmower)
25. Speak up when anything kids are involved in want to do fund-raisers and say I'm glad to help in many ways, but I don't condone selling or buying junk
26. Not set foot in a mall, throw away sale ads from newspaper so I'm not tempted to buy anything I don't need
27. I don't even stop at garage sales anymore since there would always be one 25-cent item I just had to have and it added up
28. Turn down heat
29. Take quicker showers (were given a 5-minute shower timer, I don't make it quite that short, but it keeps me hopping)
30. Use cold water for clothes washing
31. Wash clothes only when dirty rather than after every wearing out of habit
32. Hang clothes on line to dry, or in basement when raining
33. Not feel obligated to give expensive gifts for weddings, etc., justto keep up with the Joneses or just because they gave us an expensive wedding gift 12 years ago
34. Make almost all our own gifts
35. Sell stuff on eBay that we've been holding onto for who knows why
36. Take stuff to other people's garage sales when invited (esp. if someone else has already advertised it!)
37. Realize that stocking up on an item just because it's on sale doesn't make financial sense if it would have to go on credit with interest to have it now!
38. Make smaller meals (Bob's not very good about eating leftovers, so I'd rather make less or usually freeze it before it hits the table)
39. Make my own cloth mama pads (easy to do — I'll share directions if you want, even a folded up washcloth works!)
40. Keep grandmas informed of children's clothes sizes and needs (otherwise they'll just keep buying more dresses they don't need)
41. Be happy with the fact that our house is not decorated and if I want a new curtain or something make it out of fabric I have
42. Cut up other items to sew new things (a single wool sweater became legwarmers, mittens, breast pads and cloth diaper cover)
43. Admit freely that I'm broke, swallow pride so I don't end up going in on things I can't afford
44. Addy is interested in every kind of class, lesson, club or sport she ever hears of, so we choose the ones that fit into our family's goals the best and don't cost too much (soccer and tee ball instead of more costly gymnastics and dance), 4-H, etc.
45. Train my children to understand marketers and their goals. (It works.)
46. Homeschool. While I end up paying for public education with my taxes and spending money on curriculum materials for my kids, I still think that having my children at home helps them focus on what's important and not what's not (video anything, designer anything, the newest and coolest anything).
47. Try to seek out bartering opportunities (haven't done it yet and if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them): I wish I knew people who needed my sewing skills or some maple syrup in exchange for haircuts and piano lessons, for example.
48. Call our Realtor every week hoping our house sells!
49. Sell maple syrup from the family sugarbush!
50. Decide that we're not going to put anything on credit