Here are 10 frugal tasks you can do this weekend. Yes, some of these projects really are on my family’s to-do list during the next couple of days!

1. Take care of your holiday décor so it lasts at least one more season. Toss out the broken pieces and non-functioning light strings. Protect spare light bulbs in a small box or bag. Label each storage box with its contents as you pack things away. Keep your favorite pieces in plastic bins to prevent someone, or something, from crushing a cardboard box and its precious contents off season.
2. Make lists and notes to prepare for next holiday season. I keep my notes in my computer under a folder named “holiday.” You could also put handwritten or printed-out notes in the first holiday box you expect to open next year. Leave notes for yourself as to what you’ve bought ahead on clearance sales (such as the Christmas card supply) and what box they will be found in. You should also put in the holiday notes whatever supplies you will need to replace (More white ribbons? More ornament hooks?).
3. Take advantage of photo lab specials while the holiday coupons and discounts are still in effect. Upload or print off all the photos you can get on the discounted price, even if you are not yet ready to scrapbook them.
4. If you are a crafter, go to the craft stores to check out the clearance prices on Christmas and winter themed scrapbook paper, ornament-making supplies and holiday fabric. I found really great deals right after Christmas last year on card-making supplies that didn’t have to be limited to Christmas use.
5. Collect your rebate forms and receipts from electronics, office supply and drugstore purchases during the past few weeks. Get those rebate requests in the mail or entered into the store’s web site this weekend. You’ll want that cash back or rebate coupon to arrive as soon as possible, especially if a family member will be on layoff in January.
6. Spend your gift cards immediately. Besides the ability to take advantage of after-Christmas deals this weekend, there has been a lot of chatter in the news media and money bloggers about retailers and shaky finances. You don’t want to take the chance that a store goes out of business before you spent your gift card. If you can’t find an item you want at the designated store, consider buying something that can be gifted or donated to another family.
7. Clean out your coupon box. A lot of grocery coupons expire Dec. 31 and you don’t want expired coupons in your collection. If your unwanted coupons are still good, contribute to the coupon exchange boxes at Dorsch Memorial Branch Library and Milan Public Library. Another option is to look up Overseas Coupon Project for rules on sending grocery coupons to military bases. Don’t panic if your coupon box temporarily looks a bit thin. There are cycles and seasons to coupons just like with other retail promotions.
8. Avoid late fees on bills by paying them on time. If you don’t use a budget program, then create a bill-paying list arranged by date. This is critical planning information for those of you who will be on layoff for the next few weeks. You want to know what bills are coming up and when they are due, and compare that list to the dates when you expect paychecks or unemployment checks to arrive.
9. Pull out your cookbooks and recipe box and look up your favorite cooking blogs and sites in search of ideas for dinners, sandwiches, treats and appetizers. If you got hit with a layoff notice, you’ll be eating at home far more often than you might be used to. But home cooking does not have to be boring. It can be just as good, if not better, than what you pick up at a cafeteria or restaurant. (Hint for the foodies: Check out Luna Pier Cook’s blog.)
10. Sort out donation or resale piles for second-hand shops such as Goodwill, Monroe Thrift Shop, Once Upon a Child, Habitat’s ReStore or a Mom2Mom sale. You’ll be saving money for another family and making room in your home for Christmas acquisitions. Get tax receipts where appropriate.

This is a lot different situation from the scheduled summer shutdowns when the family can plan ahead and maybe do some traveling. Yes, autoworkers normally do expect a week or two off at Christmas. But four to six weeks off at one time is an entirely different scenario.

For the moment, you’ve got Christmas and New Year’s holiday events to worry about. The kids will be back in school about Jan. 5. And winter weather is already aggravating out-of-town travel plans.

As the layoff drags on, you will have a lot of time to fill.

What are some low-budget things you can do with the time off?

• 1. Save on daycare bills and parent-care the kids during the next few weeks. If you don’t have young children at home, offer to babysit for another family who is working but financially struggling.
• 2. Create your household budget for 2009. You already know about the current layoff. How many other layoff weeks could you reasonably expect this year? Factor that in. Set up the budget plan based on actual payroll without overtime. You can decide how to spend overtime money if and when you get it.
• 3. Research how to save money on household expenses and start implementing those routines. If you’ve never shopped with grocery coupons, filed for drugstore rebates, put your utility bill on a budget-pay plan, now is the time to learn about those techniques. Go to my sidebar Downsized Budget: How and Where to Cut Back for ideas and links.
• 4. Create a household inventory for insurance purposes. While you are doing that, toss out, sell, recycle or donate any electronics, household goods, vehicles or other items you no longer need. You’ll be happier in whatever home you are living in if there is less clutter in the way. Save the tax receipts if you plan to list the donations as deductions.
• 5. Help the senior citizens in your family with errands and honey-do chores. It’s harder for them to get around and do errands when it is snowing. If you have no elderly ones in your family, let your friends know you are available to help their parents and grandparents.
• 6. Update your resume file so that if a job offer becomes available, your information is ready to be sent to a prospective employer. Yes, you will have to assemble a resume to collect Michigan unemployment benefits. But consider signing up for a resume or job-searching workshop at Michigan Works! or Women’s Center of Southeast Michigan to help get your presentation aligned with what today’s employers are specifically looking for.
• 7. Volunteer for a school, church, senior center or non-profit organization. This experience can result in updated resume credits while introducing you to new people. You never know when personal contacts can lead to new job opportunities.
• 8. Research the college scholarship opportunities for your high school and college students. Be aware that most scholarship application deadlines will be in February of senior year, and some have already passed. Start with searching the postings  at your high school counselor’s office and the financial aid office at your chosen colleges – most scholarships that Monroe County students actually receive will be available through those two avenues. (For more tips, go to my college financing sidebar.)
• 9. Take care of the time-consuming tasks for your hobby or DIY projects. There’s always that project you need money to accomplish, but there’s always that project you really need time to do. Now is when you can focus on the time-consuming tasks such as organizing family photos by category or decade, or taking on a painting project.
• 10. Take an on-line or community education class during your layoff. Some of the workshops could update your work skills and the local community education courses are very budget-friendly. The new schedules will be posted in January.  Check out the possibilities at Monroe County Community College’s LifeLong Learning Program, Bedford Public Schools Community Education and Monroe Public Schools Community Education.

Do you need to save money this Christmas, but still want to enjoy this time of year?

Here are 15 money saving tips for the holiday season:

• Cook or bake holiday recipes that rely on ingredients you already have or can get inexpensively. Many of the holiday treats our grandmothers were known for became popular in the days of home gardens, food rationing and high prices.
• Stock up on pantry staples such as sugar and spices through the help of grocery coupons and / or sales. Some people bake or cook only during the holiday season, and the grocery stores and food companies do market to those people.
• Keep your Internet coupon codes, coupon booklets and retail discount cards in a manila envelope, binder or office drawer. Before you go shopping for gifts, pull out that stack and see what discount possibilities you can match up to your shopping list.
• Cut back on the money you spend per person. One or two carefully chosen gifts is easier on your budget than a pile of boxes. And your gift exchange partners may agree on spending half as much this year.
• Consider “family gift” options. A new DVD, video game, theater tickets, or park / zoo / museum pass intended for the entire family cuts down on the need for and expense of individual presents.
• Watch the sales fliers closely during the holiday season. A deal that works for your shopping list may only be in effect for only a day or two. Black Friday sales are not the only example – there are many other shopping promotions that run for a very short time.
• Ask for practical things like new cake pans, mittens, luggage, a tool set or pajamas for Christmas. If you don’t get those as gifts, you’re going to spend the money anyway when those things wear out.
• Before you buy any gift wrap, bows, tags, tree lights, ornament hooks or any holiday decorations, open up all of your storage boxes and inventory everything. You may find brand new items that you picked up at a clearance sale last year, a long-forgotten centerpiece, or more spare light bulbs than you’ll need for the next five years.
• Look for new-to-you Christmas décor, dishes or attire on the second-hand market or through hand-me-downs. You can update your holiday scenery for a lot less than retail prices by checking the second-hand market first.
• If you keep a tradition of Christmas portraits, look for promotions at the photo studios that will keep the cost down. If you can’t afford the dress-up attire you normally get for such an occasion because the children are growing so fast, buy everyone a solid-colored red or green sweatshirt and have them wear the sweatshirts and jeans for the photo shoot.
• If you keep a tradition of writing a Christmas letter, print it on everyday white paper instead of purchasing expensive holiday paper.
• Use the Sunday newspaper comic pages as wrapping paper for gifts. This would be enjoyed by children and the “young at heart.”
• If you buy gift cards, consider buying them from a church or school fundraiser. Even though the cost to you is the same as if you purchased the gift card from the store, your designated charity will rely less on fundraisers that could take real money out of your pocket.
• Don’t waste your money on “gift card holders.” Just put that gift card in a pretty envelope, or use a small box or bag you already have in your gift wrapping stash.
• If you are given a gift card for Christmas, spend it right away. The gift is only worth money when you redeem the card.

The list appears on page 10 of the November edition of Thrive Magazine, which is published by Monroe Publishing Co. The print edition of Thrive was landed on my desk today, I’ll find out when the web site will be updated.

The list:

• Is your senior’s home too warm in the summer and too cold in the winter?
• Is the lawn not getting mowed nor is the sidewalk getting cleaned in inclement weather?
• Is your loved one complaining about not being able to afford medications?
• Are home repairs not getting made?
• Is there a shortage of food in the house?
• Is your senior skipping doctor’s appointments?
• Is your older adult staying home more and becoming isolated?
• Is your senior cutting out entertainment?
• Does your loved one eat out less?
• Did your senior cancel a vacation?

What should / could you do in this situation?

Start with contacting the Area Agency on Aging 1B and also with any senior center or elder care services that your family is already working with. These people are especially familiar with local resources for senior citizens and can point you in the right direction.

Some of the biggest, most popular craft and vendor shows in the Monroe area will be taking place during the next few weeks.

The craft and vendor shows in Monroe County generally feature free admission and free parking, because the sponsors make their money from table fees and concession sales. And the prices for handcrafted items from the local shows are VERY reasonable, given the cost of supplies to make those pretties.

What are some of the things you’ll find? Here are 10 things I’ve bought  for myself or as gifts at craft and vendor shows during the past few years:

1. Placemats.
2. Barbie doll clothes.
3. Hand-beaded necklace.
4. Handmade chocolates.
5. Gift tags.
6. Kitchen hot pads.
7. Fleece blanket.
8. Decorative dish towels.
9. Tote bag.
10. Silk flower arrangement.

Whether she wants to to be the next Miss America (Monroe’s Miss America 1988 Kaye Lani Rae Rafko danced as her talent) or the next music video hiphop dance star, local girls, and the occasional local boy, do spend a lot of after-school time in the dance studios.

How can you spend that half hour, hour or whatever time you have to wait for your kids while they are in class or rehearsal as productive frugal living and planning time? Here are ten ideas:

1. Read frugal living blogs and forums on your laptop computer. If your dance school doesn’t have wireless Internet, you can hang out at the nearest coffee shop, library or fast food place that does have wireless.
2. If there is no Internet service available nearby, bring a book on personal finance that you checked out from the library.
3. Clip and sort your grocery coupons. You could trade coupons with other moms while you are in the lobby.
4. Do grocery shopping while the girl is in class. There will be no whining from the kid about “I want that!” on the grocery shelf when she didn’t see what you refused to buy.
5. Ask the other moms what are some of the best bargains they’ve seen this week in the department, discount and thrift stores. Follow up on their tips when you plan your errands.
6. Network with other moms for hand-me-down and second-hand rehearsal outfits and dance shoes that might fit your kids. Return the favor and pass down your child’s too-small stuff.
7. Arrange carpools with other families who live some distance away from the dance school.
8. Plan a Mom2Mom sale as a fundraiser for your dance school or competition team. The way those multi-family sales usually work in southeast Michigan is each participating family rents a table, and the table fees go to the designated charity, school or church group. The families keep the money from whatever they sell at their tables.
9. Contribute or pick up your favorite homemaking or mom magazines from the reading shelves.
10. Knit, crochet or needlepoint a Christmas or birthday gift for someone while you are sitting in the lobby.

A snippet:

A national low-cost grocery program that has been available in Lambertville for almost two years now has a new pick-up site in Monroe.

Monroe Church of the Nazarene, 3401 S. Custer Rd., has become an affiliate of Angel Food Ministries and has started taking orders for July 26 pick-ups.

As the newspaper story reports, there are several locations in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio where orders could be placed. But for those of us who live in Monroe, it was at least a half-hour drive to any of the available delivery sites. And that’s not an appealing situation when a key reason to participate in Angel Food Ministries is to save money.

Problem solved: Monroe Church of the Nazarene is now part of the network. Yes, you will see me getting food boxes at the monthly pickup appointments in Monroe. (I previously bought my orders from an Ohio church.)

Here are 10 reasons why I like Angel Food Ministries:

• 1. Price. $30 doesn’t go as far at the grocery store. If you have no other reason to participate, money is a very good incentive. Do a cost comparison for the same products at the grocery.
• 2. Product selection. These items complement very well the food you acquire through other frugal means such as coupon queen tactics and / or a backyard garden.
• 3. This is a ministry, not a charity. There’s no reason to be embarrassed about participating in a “handout” program, and no ripple effect on any financial assistance programs you might be receiving.
• 4. Everyone is welcome. There are no income requirements, application paperwork or church membership expectations. The program was designed to assist unemployed working families. Here’s the history. And consider this: as more people participate, the more it becomes available to the neediest families.
• 5. Food stamps are welcome. I’ve never been on food stamps, but I do know that allowance can’t go far with today’s grocery prices.
• 6. Variety. There’s a different mix of products every month. Do you need ideas of what to serve for dinner with Angel Food as the starting point? Check out Hillbilly Housewife’s Angel Food Menus.
• 7. Quality. You don’t have to shop from the day-old bread shelves, the “Manager’s special” meat rack or the off-season food that shows up on a clearance shelf.
• 8. Delicious. Favorite Angel Food products in my home have included cream pies, chicken strips and meatloaf.
• 9. Community impact. This program helps ease the demand on traditional food relief efforts such as God Works! family soup kitchens and the Monroe County Food Pantry network.
• 10. Monroe, Mich., now has a delivery site! Yay!

Here’s the picture from today’s paper (This picture was taken at the Bedford delivery site):

My husband and I chose to buy a home in the city of Monroe This was in 2004, before gas prices rose to record high levels. But after having lived in a rental in this city, we knew that Monroe has a lot of daily conveniences and community services. If we moved to one of the townships, suburbs or smaller towns, it would take a lot of drive time just to do daily errands. We had no patience for that.

Last weekend, one of my sisters moved into a rental home in Ohio. She and her husband do very well with country living, and would enjoy living in a farmhouse like the one they lived in three homes ago.

But a rental home became available on the same city block where another sister lives. My sister and her husband couldn’t argue with the conveniences of living near family where cousins are about the same age and the parents can trade babysitting time. And that neighborhood is close to two grade schools, shopping, day care, church, … they can even walk to their county fairgrounds!

Here are 10 questions to consider beyond “trendy zip code” mentality when you are house-shopping:

• 1. Where do you work? If both of you work, which job is most likely to last in the long run?
• 2. Where do your children go to school? Can they walk, ride a bike, take the school bus or take public transit from your neighborhood? Or do the parents (as some do in Monroe County depending on the circumstances) have to drive students back and forth to school?
• 3. Where do you go to church? Do you attend church services once a week and on holidays, or do you make more frequent trips during the week for classes, programs and events?
• 4. Where do you shop? Do you need to live close to those stores, or can you bundle up those errands during the commute to work?
• 5. Where are your doctor and dentist offices? Even if you have relatively healthy children, you’ll be driving to quite a bit of “well baby checkups” and vaccination appointments. And healthy adults often have a routine physical, eye exam and one or two dental exams during the year.
• 6. When you go out of town, what freeway gets you to your favorite destinations? My husband and I wanted quick access to I-75 because we make frequent trips to Toledo, but those of you who travel to Ann Arbor on a regular basis would prefer living close to US-23.
• 7. Where do your relatives and friends live? If there is no difference in the commute time to work, would you want to live near those people?
• 8. Where does your family like to play or enjoy recreation? There’s a playground one block away from where my sisters live. (How cool is that when all the cousins are grade school age and younger? )Here in Monroe, the public recreation facilities include an outdoor municipal pool, skate parks, baseball diamonds, a community center and an ice rink. There also are a lot of nice walking paths.
• 9. Do you have, or want, pets? How much yard space do you need to keep the animals happy? Could you take in a smaller breed of dog or cat that would take well to a city-sized lot?
• 10. What about public transit options? Even if you drive everywhere you need to go now, is it possible that in the future you’d want to live near a city bus stop? Closer to the airport? Closer to a carpool park-and-ride lot?

1. Collect all the coupons you can through a Sunday newspaper (or two or three … yes it is possible in most of Monroe County, Mich., to get newspapers from at least two, if not three, different cities delivered to your home). If you don’t currently have a home delivery subscription, call your favorite newspaper and ask for a “new customer” special.
2. Clip and sort your coupons. (Attention time-starved moms: get the kids to do this chore.)
3. Put all the grocery and drugstore fliers for the week or month in a pile. Keep in mind that while most local fliers are in the Sunday newspapers, some have different delivery cycles. Some of the Monroe grocery ads are in the Saturday and Monday papers. And the monthly rebate books are usually issued at the stores around the first of the month.
4. Read all grocery grocery and drugstore fliers, even the stores you don’t normally shop at. You might be surprised at what is on sale across town. And this information also gives you a better idea of current price ranges.
5. Circle the deals in the grocery fliers that get your attention, or write down the details on a piece of paper.
6. Make your shopping list based around the best deals you find, either at your favorite store or at two or three stores you’ll hit as you run your errands during the week (that’s my technique.)
7. Take your weekly sales flier and monthly rebate catalogs when you shop at that specific store (You might need to double-check which products are included in a promotion.)
8. Stock up on the products that have really, really good sales.
9. When you get home from shopping, set aside any receipts that go into a rebate pile.
10. At the end of the month, file your rebate claims.

That’s it! You just saved a bunch of money!

Here are 10 things I’ve discovered one can do during a power outage at home.

1. Clean out the refrigerator and wash it out (because one rarely sees the fridge this empty).
2. Catch up on magazine reading (finding nothing very interesting).
3. Cut out grocery coupons (and sort out the hand-me-downs).
4. Babysit the sump pump when it’s working on a generator feed from the neighbor (and be amazed at the torrent of groundwater that has been pouring into the drain.)
5. Call DTE Energy yet one more time and get an estimated fix date of THURSDAY? The power browned out at 8:30 p.m. Monday! (My husband and I have now officially experienced our longest power outage since the Great Blizzard of 1978. We had only a 10-hour outage during the Big Blackout of August 2003.)
6. Eat cold Chef Boyardee ravioli out of the can. (I didn’t feel like starting up the camp stove.)
7. Open up the emergency container of water that was bought during a water emergency this winter. (Because options are pretty limited for keeping other beverages cold, we’re drinking more water than usual.)
8. Learn that the emergency pull on the garage door opener really does work (although I’ve been parking on the street since we got my car out of the garage).
9. Wake up in the morning to a cell phone alarm (my husband’s idea once we realized the backup battery in the alarm clock had long since died).
10. Go find a free wifi connection at Ellis Reference and Information Center (main branch for Monroe County Library System).