Monroe on a Budget

This post is for my readers in Monroe County, Mich.:

A workshop for high school students planning to take the ACT and Michigan Merit exams will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday Feb. 4 at the Monroe County Intermediate School District’s Professional Development Center, 1101 S. Raisinville Rd., Monroe, Mich.

This event is hosted by the Monroe County ISD and is meant to help students “prepare for testing success.” They will learn about the test format and kinds of questions to expect, and strategies for working with the writing, science and math sections.

The presenters will include Kathy Berry from the Monroe County ISD, focusing on mathematics; Jennifer Crosley from Jefferson High School, focusing on English language arts; and Jeff Bock from Dundee High School, focusing on science. Cherie Hunter, a curriculum resource consultant for the Monroe County ISD, is coordinating the preparation workshop.

The program is free of charge and will conclude at noon with a pizza lunch. A morning snack will also be provided.

Advance registration is required. To register, students should contact Rachel Krueger at 242-5799, ext. 1330, or send an e-mail to rachel.krueger@monroeisd.us, and provide the student’s name, grade, school, and phone number and/or e-mail address.

If you’ve been following the mom or craft blogs, you might have noticed a resurgence in an old school Christmas tradition of an Advent calendar that counts down the days to Christmas. There’s been some very creative designs popping up, to the point where I did a series on Advent traditions in December. Should anyone [...]

This is an encore post from April 2011, but it needed some updates. Are you running into more month than money? A typical initial response is to figure out which bills will be paid on time vs. which bills will be paid late. But late payments, regardless of which bills are affected, are not a [...]

Easy-Bake Ovens are fun. I had one, and I think my daughter had one. But it’s not much fun spending tons of money on the branded bake mixes at the toy store. My cheap fix was Jiffy Mix. I remember a day when I was probably about 12 when my brother and I took some [...]

Occasionally, Monroe on a Budget readers will ask “What day is your column in the paper?” Until now, I didn’t have a newspaper column. I told people my column was on the Internet and that I had occasional pieces in The Monroe Evening News. But starting today, Monroe on a Budget is a weekly column! [...]

My sales and deals are for the Monroe, Mich., area: Danny’s Fine Foods in Monroe has its grocery ad in today’s edition of The Monroe Evening News. The specials include T-bone steaks at $6.99 a pound, storemade sloppy joes at $3.99 a pound and Boar’s Head hard salami at $4.99 a pound.

I’ve been teaching what has become known as the Monroe on a Budget “coupon class” since March 2009 in the Monroe County / Downriver and Toledo areas. I usually give the program with the title “Grocery Shopping on a Budget, but, couponing is the catch phrase that gets attention! I can teach a class any [...]

This post is for my readers in and near Monroe, Mich.: Monroe Coupon Duo has announced its next hands-on coupon class and workshop will be at 11 a.m. Saturday Feb. 18 at Monroe Full Gospel Church, 5337 E. Albain Rd., Monroe. Those who are attending are asked to bring manufacturer coupons they don’t need to [...]

Are you looking for clever Valentine’s Day card and candy gift ideas for friends and classmates? Mud Pie Studio has assembled a compilation of 101 Valentine ideas under $5. I saw a link to the post on Pinterest!

My sales and deals are for the Monroe, Mich., area: What’s the quickest way to review as many grocery ads as possible? Get a newspaper on home delivery to see the local ads that are meant for your zip code, or do some trial and error to find the copy newsstand paper whose ad stacks [...]

When you pull apart the Sunday edition of The Monroe Evening News today, be aware that the stuffing was done in a slightly different order. I knew that would happen today with one of the grocery ads and the comics. We’re also doing some rearranging of the news sections and adding different features, so be [...]

This post is for my readers in Lambertville and Temperance, Mich.: The Bedford Goodfellows will hold a government food distribution event from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Saturday Feb. 11 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, 8330 Lewis Ave., Temperance, Mich. This event is open to Bedford Township residents who did not receive food [...]

One of the assignments I was at today for The Monroe Evening News was a program at the Monroe County Historical Museum called “The Legend of the Ledger.” I’ll have the article and photos in Sunday’s paper, but there are a few details my budget blog readers will like! The story of the ledger is [...]

My sales and deals are for the Monroe, Mich., area: Trending topics this week: picnic and party food. It’s not just Super Bowl you’ll want to shop for, plan ahead for the Daytona 500 home parties as well. Valentine’s Day gifts also are in pretty good selection this week. The following ads are in today’s [...]

I went to JCPenney today in Ann Arbor. Reason: I needed a business blazer or a similar piece of business clothing. While I didn’t like the styling of the blazer that on was on the rack, I found a light cardigan that I fell in love with and will be perfect for the business dress [...]

National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation program on Thursday had a great piece about the skyrocketing cost of weddings and how to set your spending priorities. I happened to catch most of the show, and made a note to myself to look it up and link it up. You can find the program summary [...]

We don’t have have a favorite team in the Super Bowl 2012 that will be played Feb. 5, although we usually watch at least part of the game. That being said, the Daytona 500 NASCAR race, which is Feb. 26, will get my husband’s full attention. Most of the party food chatter that is popping [...]

This post is for my readers in Monroe County, Mich., and will be in The Monroe Evening News in a couple of days: Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County, Mich., announces it is currently accepting applications for homeownership with a future project in Frenchtown Township. Those who have gross annual household income in these ranges [...]

It should be a rule that anyone who pitches a personal finance blog or coupon / bargain blog must spend at least 10 minutes actually looking over the site before sending an email pitch or making a phone call. Reason: I am getting pretty good at sniffing out people who are just embedding my email [...]

If you’ve taken one of my coupon or grocery classes, you have heard me explain why you should pay closer attention to the monthly grocery bills than the results on any one day’s receipt. The monthly grocery budget I teach is thrifty range for your family size and demographic on the U.S. Department of Agriculture [...]