Giveaway Winner!

Well, I'm probably not the only one who thoroughly enjoyed reading through all the giveaway comments. I thought it was especially nice that you all took a moment to think about what you were grateful for -- what a great reminder for all of us.

Anyway, without further ado, our winner of Dave Ramsey's book is:



Conntess, who said...
I'm grateful that I can afford helping others financially. I'm grateful that I can be a SAHM for a while.

What wonderful things to be grateful for!

Email us your address at frugalwifewealthylife@gmail.com and we'll get your book sent off to you! Congratulations!!

Friday GIVEAWAY! (Merrick)

Since I usually associate months with the holiday that falls in that month, my mind has been on Thanksgiving the last few weeks. And because of Thanksgiving, my thoughts have mainly revolved around gratitude. It's a lovely thing to focus on, don't you think?

So in light of Thanksgiving, I thought it would be nice to share what I am grateful for from a financial standpoint (since that is the purpose of this blog).

Nearly a year ago, and four months before I gave birth to my little boy, I was laid off from my job. It was a tough time for all small businesses, so I completely understood that it was a necessary thing, but that didn't make the blow of losing 1/3 of our income any softer. However, little financial boosts began popping up here and there -- I sold some paintings, my neighbor started paying me to watch her baby, my husband was doing really well at work and his paychecks were bigger than ever, and the list could go on. So despite the cut in our income, our savings have continued to grow over this past year, and I am so grateful for that.

Today we're giving away a copy of Dave Ramsey's book, Financial Peace Revisited. It's a perfect book to have as we approach a new year -- what a better time to reevaluate your finances and get everything in order! To enter, tell us what you are grateful for financially, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not.

The giveaway will close next Wednesday, November 24th at midnight, and the winner will be announced the following Friday. Good luck!

And the Winners are. . . !

Just like you, I got a ton of GREAT frugal ideas from your many comments last week during our Week of Giveaways!  I enjoyed reading how clever, thoughtful and frugal you all are when it comes to gift giving.  I'm sure there will be many of us who make these ideas our very own during the coming holiday season.  


And now the moment we've all been waiting for (just a reminder that the winners were chosen randomly -- we could never have chosen a favorite comment).  


Drumroll, please. . .


The winner of last Monday's giveaway (Dave Ramsey's Personal Finance Software) is Tristen!  She answered the question, "How do you and yours keep to your budget through the highly commercialized holiday season?" Her winning comment read:  "This year we have been better during the summer at putting our extra income that really comes only in the summer into our savings so now we have money for Christmas Yay and NO credit card! We are going to sit down and write down an exact budget for it as well so we don't go spend more than we want."  Great to see you planning ahead, Tristan, and making your  money do what you want it to!


Wednesday's winner had this to say when answering the question, "Tell us what gift you received in the last year that you loved most.  "As a semi-late birthday gift, I got a baby boy! It's the gift that keeps on giving..."  Hard to top that precious gift,  Chrissie!  You've won the Dave Ramsey DVD Cash Flow Planning -- you're going to love it!


And last, but certainly not least, is our winner from Friday's question asking you to tell us about the best gift you've ever given.  Saskia won the Dave Ramsey DVD Dumping Debt with her comment, "It's something I haven't actually given yet. I came across a poem that has turned into my favorite love poem ever. It doesn't feature very romantic language but to me it speaks of love. So I wrote it on the back of a beautiful card, and I'm giving it to my boyfriend on Monday (which is his birthday).   I hope he likes it."  Look at that!  He receives your thoughtful gift and you win our giveaway, both on the same day!!


OK, you lucky girls, shoot us an email with your contact information and we'll get your gifts on their way.  Just in time for the holidays.  


Thanks to everyone who participated!

Saving During The Holidays and GIVEAWAY (Merrick)

It is very apparent from your comments on the last two posts that many of you are great at saving during the holidays! We're all very impressed!

There are several things that I do to save money on Christmas.

First, I start early. I don't shop all year long, because I just can't think THAT far in advance. But I usually start around July, making a list of things that my family has mentioned, and then I have six months to wait for those items to go on sale, get a coupon, or find something better. And then all my gifts are done (and sometimes wrapped) before December even arrives. No stress for me.

Second, because I'm a spreadsheet fanatic, I write my list of "Gifts To Give" in an Excel spreadsheet with an "estimated cost" and "actual cost" column. I write down how much I think each item will cost, and then as I buy it I write in how much it actually cost (pennies and everything). This gives me a good idea of how much my total spending for Christmas will be before I even buy anything, and lets me know if I have to cut back on something if the total comes over my set budget. Also, if an item comes in over my estimated cost, I can go through my list of other gifts to cut out anything unnecessary or scour for coupons on bigger ticket gifts so that I stay under budget on my total cost.

Third, I repeat gifts every year. Janssen talked about this yesterday and I think it's a great way to save money. Each year for Christmas I give Philip a photobook of the previous years photos. Because I know that I'm giving it to him each year, I spend all year working on it, waiting for sales, and looking for which photobook site has the best deal. I usually do mine through Shutterfly. I have also signed up for their email list so I get notifications of their sales and always order mine when they're 30% off, have free shipping, or some other good deal.

Today we're giving away Dave Ramsey's DVD: Dumping Debt . Whether you're struggling with credit card debt, trying to pay off your car or house, dealing with student loans, or have no debt and are trying to stay away from it, this DVD is for you. Leave a comment telling us about your favorite gift you've ever given, and we'll announce the winner on Monday, October 11.

Good luck!

Gift Giving for the Stressed Gift Giver (Janssen)

Some people are brilliant gift givers (my mom is definitely one of those people). I? Am not a good gift giver. In fact, both my husband and I find gift giving stressful enough that we don't exchange gifts for Christmas, birthdays or anniversaries with each other (best system ever, in my opinion). 

We do, of course, buy gifts for other family and friends. To make this easier on me, we've set up kind of gift "traditions" for various categories of people we buy for.

For instance, every year, we buy one children's book for each of our siblings' families with children (this is a total of six families). I choose one book, buy six copies, wrap them and hand them out. I have all year to find a book I like and think they'll like, I can buy them all at once, and when a particularly good deal comes along from a book retailer, I'm ready to jump on it because I know just what I'm getting those families.


My mom does this too - every year for Father's Day, she gets tickets for my dad to go to a show in Las Vegas with my little brother.

We plan to do what many of you commented on Monday that you do for Christmas with your children - something to read, something to wear, and something to play with.

These categories make my life so much easier and help me not spend a fortune and take advantage of good deals. What's not to love?

The item we're giving away today is a Dave Ramsey DVD called Cash Flow Planning (it's the nuts and bolts of budgeting). Leave a comment telling us what gift you received in the last year that you loved most (don't worry, we won't tell your mom if it wasn't the gift SHE gave you) to entered. On Monday, we'll announce all three winners.

Budgeting Software Giveaway (Carole)

With the holidays just around the corner, we thought it would be fun to have a week full of giveaways!

Today's giveaway is Dave Ramsey's Personal Finance Software, version 5.4.1  -- It appears to work exclusively on a PC, so if you win our random drawing and own a Mac, we'll choose something else for your prize.

On to the topic for the day. . .

Did you know that the average American family spends $935 on Christmas gifts each year?  Considering most families have no savings and live on the very edge of their monthly incomes, this amount typically gets charged to a credit card.  Of course, we frugal folks hate even the idea of putting nearly $1000 on a credit card at the end of each year.  What a terrible way to ring in the new year!


To help us all escape this terrible fate, please take a moment to share with everyone how you and yours keep to your budget through the highly commercialized holiday season.   Even though many of us are frugal, frugal, frugal, we are more than happy to learn a new trick or two.  In fact, it's the reason we love this blog!!

CSN Giveaway

While we all sit around waiting for my baby to arrive (you are all sitting around waiting for my baby to arrive, aren't you?), we thought it'd be fun to do another giveaway.

We're giving away a $50 gift certificate to any of the 200 online CSN stores. They sell, almost literally, everything you can possibly imagine.

Since I'll be moving to a bigger apartment soon (expect some "moving without selling your firstborn child to cover the expenses" posts soon), with a kitchen where the fridge can open all the way, I may be spending a little too much time looking at all the fun dishes that I'll actually have room to store in my new kitchen (no matter what else gets the axe, my beloved Le Creuset dishes from my great-aunt at our wedding will be making the trip back to Texas with me).

Frankly, I don't even KNOW what I would choose if I won, because there are so many options. Baby furniture might also be toward the top of the list for me. . .

If you win, you can use your $50 toward any last thing you desire and the options are many.

To enter, leave a comment telling us something you do well financially - we want to hear about your successes! We'll randomly choose a winner over the weekend and announce on Monday!

This is only open to residents of the US and Canada. This contest is sponsored by CSN stores.

June Savings Winner

You may remember that waaaaay back at the end of May, when we announced we were going to do a weekly round up of savings, we said there would be a prize for one of the people who participated all four weeks. We have another copy of Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover to give away.

And the winner is. . . . .Preethi!!!

Here were her contributions each week:

Week 1

• Bought food at the grocery store for our beach vacation instead of eating out. Because we were the last ones to leave, we ended up bringing home nearly as much in leftover supplies.
• Recalculated budget for the summer, including putting all of my summer internship salary toward student loans.
• Researched and found a great deal to replace our carpeting.
• Found my husband two all-wool suits from Macy's (he wears suits every day to work) for $60 each, marked down from an original of $450 each.
• Asked for and received a price adjustment for a purchase several days prior, saving $15. 

Week 2

• Made meal plan for two weeks and did most of grocery shopping, leaving a few produce items to be purchased next week. Stuck to list and found ways to use up extra veggies.
• Made dinner every night this week (except Monday... see next item). Made enough each night to pack both lunches for the next day.
• Used Restaurant.com gift certificate (purchased at 90% off) for a fantastic French meal for my birthday. 

Week 3

• Made dinner each night and packed lunches with leftovers. Used up produce before leaving for vacation.
• Didn't purchase a bag of cherries that would have ended up being $8.
• Used ready-to-expire birthday gift certificate for free meal.
• Piggybacked on husband's business trip. Stayed with friends for weekend days and used business stipend for lodging/travel/meals on business days.
• Stalked Southwest Rapid Rewards until a flight opened up on the way there. Continued to stalk and was ecstatic when one opened up for the way back. Canceled originally booked flight to keep in money as Southwest credit, and instead used Rapid Rewards (free) flight.
• Found rental car for $40 for two days including taxes and fees on Travelocity. Husband refrained from upgrading to a convertible even though it was only $25 more. :)
• Packed lunch for the travel day so we wouldn't need to buy stuff on the plane or in the airport.
• Had enough food that we were able to pack lunch to Disneyland. Delicious, healthy, and decidedly cheaper than buying the $8.99 veggie burger.

Week 4

•  Again, on the travel note - we chose to use our travel stipend to stay at a B&B with a really outstanding breakfast + free parking instead of a fancy schmancy hotel with no breakfast + paid parking. That way, we could use our daily stipend for other food during the day instead of using it for breakfast. Added bonus = the aforementioned really awesome breakfast.
• Contacted a company about a major customer service faux pas, and was offered $60 in credit. Awesome.
• Had several meals planned for our arrival home so we didn't have to eat out. 
• Oh, and went to Disneyland for free (!!) because friend works for Disney. 

Impressive, don't you think? 

Preethi, email us with your address and we'll get your prize in the mail! Thanks to everyone who participated!

Giveaway Winner!

Thank you for all the GREAT suggestions and kind compliments on our Giveaway post. We wish we had a book to send to everyone!

The winner is. . . .drumroll please:

Katie Rich of The Rich Life

The winning comment was chosen at random, but I can't help but think it's pretty much the most perfect coincidence ever that someone with the last name "Rich" won. Doesn't that just seem right?

Katie, please email us your address (frugalwifewealthylife at gmail dot com) and we'll get your book in the mail!


Thanks everyone for reading and commenting, and we'll have another giveaway in the near-ish future!

One Hundred Posts Giveaway

This post marks the one hundredth post on Frugal Wife = Wealthy Life and we have been thrilled with the response so far. Thank you all so much for your comments, encouragement, and great ideas.

To celebrate (since all three of us live in separate states and cannot converge to celebrate over lunch or something equally fun), we're having a giveaway.

The prize is, no doubt to your utter shock, related to finances and frugality: one hardback copy of The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. All three of us (and our spouses!) have read and been very inspired by this book and highly recommend it. If you don't end up winning, you may want to consider checking it out from your local library.

To enter, please leave a comment on this post telling us what kinds of posts or topics you'd like to see on this blog in the coming weeks and months.

After midnight on Sunday, we'll select a winner at random and announce it on Monday. Good luck!