Friday Find - We Wilsons - Resuable bag tutorial

This week's Friday Find is an amazing craft from Laura at we wilsons. The reusable snack bags are not ony adorable, personal, and good for the earth they're frugal too. Quite frankly the best of all worlds.

Make up a few of these and the next time you reach for a plastic bag grab one of your snack bags instead. You'll be saving more plastic from entering landfills and saving yourself money as well. Plus they are just so darn cute.

I hope to make my own set soon, they would work perfectly for my lunches, and if I can find some "manly" prints I'll make some up for Matt as well. I'm sure he'd love to take them camping. You could even make them with a zipper as one commenter suggested.

Stop by we wilsons via this link for a step by step tutorial and a pdf to download. You'll be making your own snack bags by snack time.

But Laura doesn't spend all day making and talking about reusable snack bags she has tons of great stuff at we wilsons - stuff you'll want to see. While you're there make sure to look at her:

- Airplane bag I HAVE to make one of these
- A giraffe stuffed animal Anyone who's read one of my comments knows how I feel about the humble giraffe

You can also find Laura's great work at her etsy.com shop - wilsons

Unit Pricing: Bigger isn’t always better

I’ve talked about unit pricing a couple of times at OnOurWayOnline but last week Matt and I had a great real life experience I wanted to share.

I was at Meijer buying some rice for an upcoming craft project when faced with a choice. Buy one - 36 oz bag of rice for $2.09 or two – 16oz bags for $ .98 each. My first reaction was to grab the big bag and be done with it but something made me stop.

Once I ran the numbers it was painfully obvious the two smaller bags were cheaper.

32 oz - $2.09
(2) 16 oz @ $.98 = $1.98

$.11 cents cheaper to be exact.

I’m getting the same amount of rice but paying eleven cents more to have a single bag. It’s ridiculous, but we as consumers fall for it all the time and Meijer knows this. Why else would they charge more for a larger bag?

Now you might be saying, Megan, you’re crazy it’s only eleven cents what’s the big deal? But it is a bid deal. If you don’t want that eleven cents feel free to send it my way along with any extra money your spending on a bigger box of cereal, oranges, coffee, anything. Maybe it will be more than eleven cents next time. At any amount it is going to add up over time and you’ll never even know it.

Now stop giving your money away and make sure to unit shop the next time you’re at the store.

Have you noticed any odd pricing parodies where you shop? What other goods is this common for?

Free Waffle Maker from Swagbucks!

This is our new waffle maker, isn’t it nice? At this point you’re probably wondering why I’m taking and admiring photos of a waffle maker huh?

The answer will become clear when I tell you that I spent nothing, nada, zero and zilch of my own money on buying this waffle maker. Now you’re looking at that picture a little different huh? Of course at this point you’re asking yourself how right? Swagbucks my friends, Swagbucks. I can not say enough good things about this site! Seriously if you haven’t signed up yet you should… right now. Even if you don’t use my referral link (although you should) please go sign up for this program.

All I did to get my waffle maker was search the net and they paid me in amazon gift cards. I plan to batch bake up some waffles to freeze so not only did Swagbucks get me a FREE waffle maker it’s helping me save even more on food.

You can go HERE to read my full post about Swagbucks or the short version below.

Step One: Sign up for Swagbucks
- What’s Swagbucks you ask?? Swagbucks is an internet search engine that pays you for searching the internet through their site.

Step Two: Use their site every time you search the internet
You can even download a browser tool bar and search directly from that. Their search engine is powered by Google and Ask.

Step Three: Cash in your Swagbucks for a free $5 Amazon gift card (it takes 45)

It’s that simple
So why aren’t you on Swagbucks yet?

Or if you’re already a member what have you traded in your bucks for lately?

Cat Chair Blanket Craft

About five years ago I received a huge bag of blue yarn from a friend (you can’t pass up free yarn no matter how much you dislike the color). I’m still trying to use up all the yarn but I swear there will be none left by the end of 2009.

I used a few yards of it last week by crocheting two quick and simple double stitch blankets for our new chairs. The cats love to sleep on the backs of the new chairs, but I was not loving all the hair they left behind. I figured making a simple blanket to lay over the top would solve the problem. So far both cats seem to be liking them, in fact I suspect they lay on them and laugh at the dog, chanting things like "she loves us more". He's tried to jump up and get a good nap in on one as well but so far he hasn't mastered balancing when the chairs rock. It's rather funny for us to watch while much more terrifying for him I suppose.

I’m also liking how little the solution affected our pocketbook. Buying two additional throw blankets just for the cats to nap on would have cost much more than I wanted to spend. This option was free, the best kind of solution.

FREE sub from Quiznos!

Stop by Money Saving Mom to learn how you can get a FREE sub from Quiznos!

Everyone can print a coupon and they're giving away a million free subs. I've already printed a coupon for Matt and myself. Someone's getting subs this week.

Stockpiling: friend or foe

I want to kick off a new blog feature for Mondays: Myth Monday. A time to analyze all those saving money, energy, and time myths we run into every day.

This week’s myth: Stockpiling
It seems like everyone has an opinion on whether stockpiling is a saver's friend or foe. Those who oppose stockpiling say it’s a waste of time, space, and money. I think it depends on how you do it. I once saw a show where an entire bathroom was dedicated to containing stockpiling items and could no longer be used for a bathroom. This is where stockpiling becomes a bad thing I agree.

Yet, when you stockpile in moderation it can save time and money. Here’s a real life example straight from our stockpile. This last week I’ve been sick, it started out as a sore throat and has developed into a stuffy nose requiring lots of Kleenex.

In the past when this happened we’d make a special trip to the store to buy Kleenex. Wasting not only the gas and time but also purchasing the product not on sale (gasp). So in reality it seems that NOT stockpiling can be a waste of time and money. This week when I’m sick and need more tissue I’ll walk upstairs and grab a box. Since we bought them on super discount (almost free) and I’m not driving to buy them we’re saving time, money, and gas. Stockpiling really does pay off.

Has your stockpile saved you time or money recently? Do you have a great blog post on how you maximize your stockpiling skills? Feel free to share in the comments section, I’d love to hear.

Another great book sale!

Went to another book sale today and found some great finds.
Including two on my "must read" list - The Separate Peace and How to Retire early and live well with less than a million dollars.

I also picked up three old children books (far right) that I plan to do a little decorating with. I love the look of old used books.

In total we purchased 76 books and paid $6 for an average of 8 cents per book plus all the craft books which I didn't include in my calculations. We love books and buying in bulk allows us to maximize our dollar to its fullest.