I used to make boxes and boxes of pumpkin bread mix during the holiday season when I was living in Ohio. In fact, it was my Christmas cookie swap contribution for several years.

But I have noticed it is WAY more difficult to find that flavor in Monroe.

There’s a Pillsbury bread mix coupon in circulation this week. I’m setting the coupons aside. I’ve got walnuts and cranberries in my pantry to spice up the mix even though it’s good all by itself.

I specifically looked for pumpkin bread when I was grocery shopping tonight. All I found was a couple of banana breads.

Where are you all hiding the pumpkin bread?

Families have always moved in and out of this part of the city for a variety of reasons. But during the past year, there has been a lot more moving out than moving in.

It’s a bit rattling for my husband and I to realize that one more neighbor is in the process of moving. It’s a family that we’ve been friendly enough with to suspect the reason is based on finances, but not friendly enough to ask details that are none of our business.

My instinctive response to the increased home vacancies in my zip code is to make it obvious to anyone who lives in the neighborhood or is just passing by that: Someone still lives HERE!

How do I show that there is still a family here, and not the shadows of foreclosure?

• I’ve taken to keeping some kind of seasonal decoration on the front porch. We’ve long had Christmas and patriotic decor displayed during the appropriate seasons, but I’m adding a few more items to the mix.
• We check the front door frequently for packages, newspapers, etc. (We are often entering the home via the back door).
• The trash bins go out to the curb, and back in their storage area, at the designated times of the week.
• We try to keep the outdoor leaf piles, snow, cobwebs, grass and weeds under control.
• The lights are turned off and on as we move from room to room (I tend to frequently wander about the house as I work on projects and chores).
• My car is sometimes parked in front of the house, instead of in the garage. I’m doing this for convenience sake when I’m in and out during the day, but it does give a message that this car belongs to this house.

What are you doing to give the message in your neighborhood that “Someone still lives here!”?

So feel free to consider this tip as coming from a biased source.

But it’s also fact.

If you get only the Sunday edition of your local or regional newspaper, and newspaper circulation numbers across the country prove that many people do that, then you are missing the sales fliers that the advertisers deliberately schedule for other days.

Did you see the Toys R Us ad that was in the Friday newspaper? I didn’t blog about it because I didn’t have time – we had a family gathering last night. But the sale was only good last night and until 1 p.m. today.

Some of the Monroe, Mich., drugstore and grocery fliers also are distributed in my newspaper on Saturdays and Mondays – rather than in the big stack on Sundays.

The advertisers request their ads run on specific days for a variety of reasons. The newspapers accommodate the schedules as best as possible for their market. (Some newspapers have recently dropped publication days or delivery days, some newspapers don’t have their own Sunday editions, and my newspaper has long observed four holidays during the year when there is no print edition).

Now we are coming up on the Christmas shopping season and you’ll want to be able to reference those sales fliers as you make your holiday purchases decisions.

What can you do about that?

Get a home delivery subscription to a 7-day (or whatever is a full week for your local newspaper) as soon as possible. And then every day, you want to take a quick glance at the newspaper headlines and sales flier packets, even if you have to wait until later to read the content in detail.

Like I said, take this tip with a grain of salt if you want. A large part of any newspaper employee’s paycheck is based on paid subscription / newsstand circulation numbers — and the print advertising purchases that are based on those statistics. I don’t get extra money for page views on this blog.

Yes, you can look up the store sites on the web, and I do from time to time. But it takes a horrendous amount of time to look up every store you might shop at.

Yes, you can sign up for e-mail alerts, and I do have a few coming to my mailbox. But honestly, I’m looking for e-mails from my friends and family when I have the email on. (Delete, delete, delete. …)

And while I do post sales and deals on this blog, that is not my primary purpose for existing. In fact, I held off doing that for several months because I wanted my readers to be thinking about other ways to stretch their money. I was also annoyed at seeing how many web site forum members and bloggers post retail sales without saying which city or region that promotion is good for, or who “leak” unverified information.

But it’s a pretty quick task to pull apart a local newspaper’s ad sections and see what the sales of the day are in your community.

And when you have that newspaper arriving to your home on a daily basis, maybe you’ll notice the money-saving tips and public service announcements that reporters and columnists have been listing all along in the news, feature and community / neighbor sections.

Where do you think I get the local PSAs from that I post on this blog?

You don’t have to wait for my link button to show up on the feature list on monroenews.com. I do rotate off and on because there are times when The Monroe Evening News needs to put other buttons on that spot. I’m posting information and links on this blog almost every day, whether you see my link or not on the newspaper site.

Bookmark me or facebook fan me if you don’t want to miss anything.

That means they’re picking up a Sunday newspaper on single-copy sales during the weeks they have heard via word of mouth that there are good coupons in the newspaper inserts that week.

I know some of you live in communities where the local content in the  newspaper has eroded so much that the publication is not worth getting. Some of you live in communities that no longer have a daily newspaper.

And I do have a vested interest in the newspaper business because that’s where my paycheck really comes from. While this blog is currently getting an average 1,000 page views a day — we’re not seeing a whole lot of income from the ads.

But if you are looking at your daily newspaper as just a coupon provider, you are missing out on all the money-saving ideas and tips that show up in the news sections.

You may have noticed that Monroe on a Budget is not a “typical” frugal living blog. I’m very, very local with my content and links, for example.  And I include a lot of public service announcements that other bloggers do not typically pick up on: free health clinics, food pantry dates, special events or discounts for unemployed people, and the local business and information expos.

Where and how did I get those PSAs?

I get the vast majority of the PSAs via my work as a reporter for The Monroe Evening News. Either those event notices are crossing my desk because the sponsors have asked me to get them in the newspaper; or I’ve seen a notice or headline that another reporter worked on.

If you live in another city, I can pretty much guarantee your newspaper staff, radio station staff and TV station staff is receiving similar notices. Traditional media is still a very popular way for event organizers, foundations, non-profit committees and businesses to get information out to the local public. There are other publicity and marketing tactics that can be used such as social media networking or stuffing school kids’ backpacks with information fliers, but those alternatives are most effective in partnership with a local print or broadcast media presence.

Are you looking for, and taking in, that information?

Or do you assume that if it’s not a coupon, or the lead headline of the day, then the information is of no use to you?

Feel free to chime in on the comment section below, chat with me on Twitter or send me an e-mail.

If you are one of my new readers, hello!

The MEN has done a lot of marketing both on line and in print for this blog during the past couple of years. I’ve made several public appearances this spring. I’ve even been featured on a Toledo TV station and by a well-known national financial blog.

But based on conversations I had recently with a local person whom I thought would have certainly been aware of the budget blog, there are still a lot of area residents who don’t know this site exists or what information is is here. So if you live in or near Monroe County, Mich., and find the information I have posted here useful – please pass on the bookmark and links to your local friends, colleagues, co-workers and relatives.

The concept for this blog is “living in Monroe, Mich., on a budget.”

When MEN set up a blog site in late 2006, both employees and community members were invited to contribute. I did some thinking about what topics I could write about on a regular basis, and made a pitch for what I called “Monroe on a Budget.” About two hours after I met with the managing editor to explain the concept in January 2007, the I.T. staff had my site  installed and I have been feeding the blog ever since.

This is not your typical frugal living blog. Most of the well-known personal finance and frugal living bloggers work their sites as a hobby or as a freelance business. Monroe on a Budget is written by a newspaper reporter and sponsored by a newspaper. That means you will see a lot more economic / financial headlines and public service announcements on my blog than the typical blogger picks up on. And in keeping with standard journalism practices, I don’t do pay-per-links or paid product reviews.

I also aim this blog specifically for the residents of Monroe County, Mich. If there’s a money-saving idea that is getting a lot of buzz on the Internet – but it won’t work in Monroe – I’m not going to recommend it. If that idea will work in Monroe, I’ll tell you when, where and how and give you the links.

Now, what are my credentials for writing about such things?

I’ve got a lot of experience with living on a budget – growing up in a family of seven children, seeking out scholarships and student loans for my college education, almost four years of single / divorced parenting, coping with my current husband’s downsizing / layoff from his former radio job in 2002, …

The current scenario is this:

• I am still working at a newspaper with more than 20 years in the business, but that’s not something to take for granted. If you live in Michigan, you know that it is a bragging point that the MEN is still printing and delivering seven days a week. I left another newspaper company and came to Monroe a couple of years ahead of a huge downsizing that is still rippling into layoff notices across the country.
• My husband now works at an auto supplier, but that has not been steady pay. He has been off and on unemployment quite a bit this year. He does not get “supplemental pay” when he is off work, just the unemployment benefits.
• My daughter will be a junior this fall in college. She and I spend a lot of time researching and filling out paperwork for any financial aid, grants and scholarships that she is eligible for. She also works part-time during the school year. This summer, she is working at an unpaid professional internship in Washington, D.C. That situation was possible because she can live with my aunt and uncle this summer, while various relatives have been helping her out with expenses such as tuition credits.

Bottom line: I’m looking for every way possible to stretch my family’s finances, and I know many of you are doing that too. I also have friends who have been laid off or their spouses have been laid off, who can’t sell or refinance a home, who can’t find temporary work during their profession’s off-season, who are trying to land “that next job.”

This blog is for all of us in southeast Michigan – and our neighbors in northwest Ohio – who need ideas on how to get by on tight finances during a horrible economic situation.

If you have any headlines, deals, tips or links to share that would be of interest or relevant to my readers, feel free to e-mail me at paula@monroenews.com or add the information as a comment at an appropriate post.

Here is the appropriate response when you are approached by someone who is asking for money, “Sorry, no.” And then walk or drive away. (See eHow’s How to deal with an aggressive panhandler.)

Everybody has a story. The beggar who approached me in the St. Mary’s Park parking lot Sunday morning wanted breakfast. I told her about the God Works! dinners that are free to the public in the city of Monroe. She knew about the dinners, but she wanted something to eat for breakfast.

When she asked again for “spare change to buy a doughnut,” I said, “sorry, no.”

Now here’s the picture: I had just parked a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt in the parking lot and was walking toward church. I was wearing dress clothes of black pants, black shoes and short-sleeved brown top. This woman thought I had money, or at least more money than she did, and that I was a potential source of cash.

So I said, “My husband has been unemployed since May 1.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. And she moved on.

Now, while I have been approached by beggars before, 7:25 a.m. Sunday in St. Mary’s Park seemed a bit unusual. I am sure there’s a reason she was taking her appeal to the early morning St. Mary’s Church attendees.

However, had she asked one of the church staff for groceries, there was a basket of food pantry donations right inside the church lobby.

So what did you think she really wanted the money for?

About 12 hours later, my husband and I had arrived back home in Monroe from an Sunday visit with family in Ohio. We pulled up to the TA Truck Stop / BP gas station on N. Dixie Hwy. to buy gas. We buy gas at that truck stop all the time, but have never had this happen to us:

As I was standing at the gas pump, a woman approached and asked for “spare change” because she had run out of gas. She looked like she had just woken up and was wearing pajama pants and a T-shirt.

“Sorry, no,” was my response. The only items I had in my hand were the gas card and my keys. My husband was sitting in the car, and my purse was in the car.

Gas was $2.69 a gallon yesterday. How much gas do you think “spare change” would get her? Furthermore, I didn’t see any stranded vehicle parked in the parking lot.

What do you think she wanted that money for?

We took off as quick as possible, but I noticed in the meantime she had convinced a couple in another vehicle to dig into their wallet.

Now, before you start fussing about “that stranded motorist could be you,” I do have a story to tell from my college days about being stranded on a highway in 1985 when a motorcycle broke down during a road trip. The logistical problems that my boyfriend and I ran into while trying to get home that day would have been resolved a lot faster with access to today’s cell phones and MasterCard/Visa branded debit cards.

And today, in Monroe, Mich., there also are alternatives to begging in order to get emergency needs met. That’s why I have no sympathy for the panhandlers who have been seen with signs at the corner of Mall Rd. and Telegraph Rd., and at the southbound exit ramp from I-75 at N. Dixie Hwy.

If you are in need of help with a bill, shelter, housing or groceries, call the 211 hotline. A human resources specialist affiliated with the United Way will direct you to the appropriate agencies and services to contact. They’ll tell you about things like the God Works dinners held every night in Monroe and once or twice a week in some of the nearby cities.

You’ll also find a big regional list of assistance agencies at Julie’s List. Yes, Julie’s List is an Internet referral service. But there are public access terminals at the local libraries, where anyone who can’t afford a computer of their own can look up her information.

What you want to do, as a family on a budget, is make your household funds last as long as possible so you don’t end up in a worst-case scenario. That needs to be your goal whether your income comes from a steady job with overtime pay, a welfare card, or somewhere in between. That’s the purpose of the Monroe on a Budget blog: to explain practical steps on how families in Monroe County, Mich., can stretch their funds.

But a large part of the cause for panhandling is on the people who respond to unverified appeals for help.

Quit listening to the stories on the street, and direct your funds to the agencies and programs that already exist to help homeless and needy people with shelter, groceries and medical care. Or if you are so moved, start a new non-profit initiative to help with unmet needs.

If a panhandler can’t acquire cash by begging, they’ll leave that neighborhood.

I would like to say they’ll stop doing it completely, but apparently there’s always someone somewhere who will give up some spare change.

If you want an idea of how other communities have been handling this situation, The Center for Problem Oriented Policing has a detailed report on Panhandling.

(Update: the MonroeTalkers have started a discussion thread on this topic.)

Updated: I did shut off comments to this thread because the comments went way beyond discussion into nastiness. But The Sept. 13, 2009 bulletin from my parish has this note from the pastor:

Recently a woman has been outside of church soliciting financial help. This individual is well known to the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society. We all want to help those in need, and we should. The most effective way you can help any individual who approaches you in this way is to refer them to our St. Vincent de Paul Society. Please do not attempt to help by giving out cash to individuals outside of church or agreeing to provide rides for them in your car. Of course, it is not a good idea to provide a ride to anyone you do not know well. Anyone who needs help can contact our parish office 734-241-1644. It is possible that a person in this situation may be trying to take advantage of the generous good will of others. I ask that – instead of providing individual help to someone outside of church, that you support our parish St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Reminder: if you see a panhandler and say “it could be me,” then think about the places and organizations you would seek help from when you are out of cash - and financially support those agencies and services.

The sign reads:

Due to the economy, we’ve laid off gloom, doom and bad news. That means when you walk in here, you’ll only find people who are upbeat about our country, about business, about people, about life! So stop in any time. You’ll find Optimism, Faith and Good News working full time! America Rocks! Monroe Rocks!

It’s a clever pitch in a city where the residents are struggling with layoffs, early retirement buyouts, upside down mortgages, foreclosures, pay cuts, sunken investments and slow business cycles.

I understand the sentiment. I really do. I get tired of the financial headlines too.

But then, there’s reality.

And my family is right in the middle of it. My husband, who works at an auto supplier, has been unemployed for six weeks now. We have no idea when he will return to work.

A lot of families in Monroe, Mich., are in our situation.

So go ahead and smile at the slogan in the storefront windows. Talk about fun topics such as baseball or your garden when you’re at the lunch counter, or coffee shop, or book store, or the sports bar, or the library or the parks. We all need a break from the daily headaches from time to time.

But you have someone who is unemployed in your household, the sooner you accept the situation that your family does not have as much money as before, the longer that money will last.

You can’t talk your way out of that reality.

There were eight students. Em from Mom Moments, one of my Internet neighbors in the BlogsMonroe network, was among those in my class.

The grocery shopping presentation plus a bonus discussion on coupon organizing techniques filled up most of our 2-hour slot, although we did take a 10-minute break.

If you’ve seen my grocery shopping presentation or watched it on line, you know that I go way beyond using coupons at the grocery store. Yes I love coupons and I’ve been shopping that way since my college days. But there are other tricks you can use – with or without coupons.

Tonight I’m teaming up with Candy of Deal With It, Simply! to do a program in Rossford Public Library in the Toledo area. Our presentation starts at 6:30 p.m. Rossford is about a half-hour drive from Monroe, and Michigan people are certainly welcome to attend. Just call ahead to the library at (419) 666-0924 to let them know how many people to expect.

Our theme tonight is frugal living, with grocery expenses being one of the talking points. The examples we give will be aimed at those who live in, or shop in, Toledo.

If you’d like the budget blogger to speak at your meeting or event in the Monroe County, Mich., area, contact me by e-mail or at (734) 240-5745. These presentations are one of the ways to get money-saving tips and ideas out to as many area families as possible during a nasty recession.

If you can’t remember my blog address when you’re telling someone about my site, tell them go to monroenews.com and then click on the Monroe on a Budget link.