Laundry Room Organization: Making your least favorite chore easier

Everyone has one chore that they hate doing. Mine is the laundry. First of all, there's never any sense of completion. You are never done with the laundry. You'll have dirty laundry in your house for the rest of your life. It's a bit depressing.

By following Flylady for a few years, I started feeling a lot better about doing the laundry. She made it easy, just one load a day. Put a load in when you wake up, switch it when you get home and put the load from the dryer away. Since your doing one load every day, your loads are much smaller than what your used to now, so it only takes a few minutes to put the clothes away.

Even though I've gotten used to doing laundry every day, it's still not my favorite chore. One of my tricks for doing things that I don't like is to try to make it easier. If I have a really clean, organized laundry room then every time I open the doors, I feel in control and proud of what I've accomplished. It makes doing the laundry much easier because I get that "I Rock!" feeling as a reward. I use this in other areas of my life- I always dress up and take extra care with my make up and hair when I have to do something that I hate. It makes me feel better.

This is my laundry room:

• The only thing I keep on the actual machines is a purple Flylady cloth that I use to wipe the top of the machines down every few days. It takes about 2 seconds.
• Flylady suggests putting a picture of your family in your laundry room, to remind you of why you do laundry. I haven't gotten to that point yet, but I do have a reminder sign that I only need to do one load a day. It also lists the order of loads that I do (darks, whites, towels, darks).
• I keep a small stockroom for the laundry room and the upstairs guest bathroom on the top shelf. It holds extra toilet paper, paper towels, garbage bags, an iron, Resolve stain remover, static guard spray, Dryel kit, and laundry detergent.
• I keep the laundry detergent directly over the washer so that I can just hit the button, count to 5 and release the button. I don't have to measure, or even lift bottles.
• I use a four bag laundry sorter that I bought from Target years ago. Surprisingly, they still sell it, you can find it here for $34.99.
• I stuck post it notes to the wall above each bag identifying what goes in it. Left side is whites, the two middle bags are for darks, the right side is for towels.
• I always keep a basket in the closet for lost socks, Once I've put the laundry away, any extra socks get tossed in the basket, every week or so, I'll dump out the lost sock basket and start pairing them up.
• I use the lost sock basket as an emergency landing point for clean laundry. There have been a couple of days where something unexpected happens and I don't even have the 5 minutes it takes to put the laundry away. When I'm sick, I can (or convince Jon to) just switch the laundry out and toss the clean clothes in the sock basket. When I'm better, I can put all of the laundry away at once. A few sprays of water before you hang them will take most of the wrinkles out.

$10.00 Family Christmas Tradition

One of the things that made me really uncomfortable with my personal transformation was decluttering. I felt sick to my stomach throwing so much stuff out that I had never used, or that people had given to me out of kindness. It made me think hard about gift giving. I didn't want to buy something for someone that would add to the clutter in their home and stress in their life.


My family is pretty awesome. We do Christmas every year and I broached the subject of having a frugal Christmas. A limit of $10.00 per person. There are 5 in my side of the family now, we spend $40.00 on Christmas gifts for the family and each end up with 4 presents. It was such a great experience! It made the hectic season a little less hectic, it reduced our Christmas budget by about 35% and I had a blast thinking up gift baskets for under $10.00!


I swear I don't have a competitive bone in my body, but I adored the challenge of trying to get an insanely awesome gift for under $10.00! Anything that I already owned, I could include for free. I had 3 Stila lip glosses that I hadn't used from a gift box that I had gotten. They went into Jenny and Mom's gift boxes.  I combined coupons to get a $35.00 fondue kit from bed bath and beyond for $9.99 for Jon. I took the extra set of xbox extenders that Jon didn't need (they come in a 2 pack), an xbox game that Jon didn't play anymore but that Dad hadn't played yet, and then spent $10.00 on snacks and drinks to create Dad's xbox gift box. Mom got a car care kit (as seen below) so that she has a trash can, chapstick, germ free wipes etc in her car at all times.


The best part of the tradition is that your focusing on the person, the season, and being together and you're making each others life less stressful and more fun!

Mom's $10.00 Car Care Kit Gift Basket

Of course, I would caution that this idea should be broached ONLY with people that you think would be excited about it. Some people are really into the commercial aspect of Christmas (there's nothing wrong with that! Everyone likes different things), and something like this may be disappointing or even offensive to them.

20 Gift Basket Ideas for every occasion...Thoughtful, Cheap and Awesome!

I adore gift baskets! Not only are they cost effective, they look beautiful and can be personalized to anyone. If you've been giving gift baskets for awhile, you can also add the materials to your stockroom list. You would essentially be making a gift stockroom when you see really good prices or bargains. For instance, this weekend starts the crazy back to school sales, now would be a good time to stock up on materials for the school basket. For more information on how I establish and maintain my home stockroom (or supply closet), click here.


Don't stock up unless you already have an established, working supply closet! This is kind of the advanced step and if you try to implement this first, you're going to have a lot of mismatched stuff in the back of a closet that you'll never see again until one day you decide to declutter and you throw it all out in defeat.


You can put gift baskets in anything, boxes from Costco covered in wrapping paper, shipping boxes if you plan to mail it out, organizing totes from the dollar store, baskets from Homegoods or TJ Maxx. Keep your eyes open and when you see a basket that's a great price, snap it up.


Don't give yourself free reign to purchase anything you want towards your gift closet. Either budget this in, $15.00 per month or count it into your grocery budget. We're normally below budget, so when you see a great bargain, scap it up and budget it into your groceries for the week. If you go nuts and buy every "bargain" that you see, your spending much more than you would if you just bought gifts as they came up.


This system makes it easy to budget in gifts. You're spreading the money out throughout the year so that there are no surprises. More importantly, you're saving time from having to search all over to find a gift last minute (often buying something that you wouldn't consider to be the perfect gift).


When I started giving gift baskets, I purchased an enormous roll of cellophane wrap from amazon to wrap the baskets in. I can then just tie off the tops with ribbon. The cellophane was a great investment for me and considering how much I've used it and how much I have left, I suspect that this will last til I'm 50:) You can get your very own giant roll of cellophane from Amazon for $23.00 by clicking here.


Always include a letter or a note with your basket. We have few opportunities in life to tell someone what they mean to us. About 20 times a day I look at someone or talk to someone and think about how much I adore that person's personality or how much I admire a particular trait of theirs. If we just took that rare opportunity to let them know, it would encourage them to keep being awesome.

GIFT BASKET IDEAS:

1. Travel:

• A toiletry bag of good quality.
• A set of reusable plain bottles with vinyl labels (if you have a cricut or something similar, make your own labels).
• A toothbrush and tooth paste holder (if you have basic sewing skills, you can make your own by clicking here.)
• A hairbrush for a girl, a shaving kit for a guy
• A monogrammed luggage tag.
• Bubble bath!
• Sleep mask.
• Lavender potpourri (make this yourself by clicking here)

2. Best of "Virginia" (of wherever you happen to live):

• Fill a basket with your local favorite products. For us, It's Virginia Diner Peanut selections, Dominion root beer, locally made honey, organic soap, Edwards or Smithfield hams, Route 11 potato chips, or even a dogwood tree if the recipient has a green thumb!

3. Welcome Baby!

• Fill a basket with often overlooked helpful items to get mom and dad through that first week or two. Include a 15 minute dinner "recipe" and ingredients (you can even do a pantry meal so you don't have to refrigerate). If you have the option of delivering something cold, whip up an instant freezer casserole. Try this one for Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole by clicking here. I just assembled this and it took less than 3 minutes and the ingredients cost about $7.00 (with extra chicken thighs for your family!). I should warn you, our little guy doesn't arrive for another week or two so I'm not an expert on whats useful that first week for baby. But for Mom and Dad, I'm thinking food, snacks, sleep masks (I use one to sleep when Jon wants to keep the light on, I'm thinking it will help in trying to fall asleep at 2 in the afternoon), accessories to help with breastfeeding like cooling pads, nipple pads etc (make sure Mom's breastfeeding first, you wouldn't want to hurt someone's feelings with a gift).

4. Dinner and a Movie Night:

• Find an old, amazing, but often overlooked movie. Be prepared to spend some time searching through Walmarts 5.00 movie pile. If there is a particular movie that you shared in the past, grab that one. I have tons of movie associations! Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my sister, Angus and Clueless with my Dad (he's clearly an awesome guy), The Cutting Edge and Dirty Dancing with my Mom, The Notebook with my friend Blake, (who is quite possibly the only man who loves the Notebook more than any girl), Star Wars with my friend Todd, Tin Cup and Finding Nemo with Jon, Twilight with every female friend that I have (no judging!). Pair it with a recipe and all of the non perishable ingredients for the recipe. Obviously, popcorn is a must here. If your doing a few gift baskets at a time, I buy the really fancy glass bottles of specialty root beer and separate them into gift baskets - 2 for this one, 2 for a different gift basket.

5. Pasta Night:

• Fancy imported pasta
• Fancy Pasta Sauce
• Italian Spices
• An extra that you think they could use or don't have- a quality colander, a cool apron, an Italian cookbook.
• The best spot to find the ingredients for a basket like this is "Home Goods", "T.J. Maxx", or stores like it.

6. Spa Night:

• Spafinder gift card
• Eye Mask (maybe a cooling one with gel in it?)
• lavender potpourri (again... you can make this yourself)
• Massage Oil
• Nail Clippers
• Tweezers
• The perfect nail polish shade (go for something daring - she already has a pile of reds and pinks, go for a trendy color)
• Body scrub, loofah etc.

7. Care Care Kit:

• Car Trash bin (I make mine using food storage containers with lavender scented small trash bags from Walmart lining the inside). Now that I think about it, I should do a post on that... More info to come soon.
• Lavender scented trash bags
• Hand Sanitizer
• Wet Ones (to be fair- I'm a total germaphobe, this may not be "Car Care" to anyone else.)
• Car wash soap, wax, glass cleaner, interior wipes, tire "black" spray, wheel cleaner.
• Air fresheners (skip the trees and go for something that presents a little better)
• If the recipient is the type to appreciate attention to detail, include a small accordion file and label the files for car maintenance receipts, fuel receipts, insurance and registration etc. (by "appreciates attention to detail"... I mean borderline OCD).

8. Project Gift Basket:

• This is my favorite by far. Search Pinterest and find an awesome, useful project. Print out the tutorial on high quality paper (if its small enough, get crafty and mount it on cardstock with border and embellishments). Buy all of the materials needed for the project and include them in the gift basket. This is like my dream come true. I ADORE projects, but its hard to justify the costs and the errands to gather the materials. Pinterest.com is chock full of amazing fun projects that can make the start of some pretty cool gift baskets.

9. Sickie Basket:

• Fill up a gift basket with things that are guaranteed to make someone special feel better
• Chicken Noodle Soup (Try Progressive so they can just heat and eat)
• Chocolate Bars
• Advil
• A book in their area of interest (I'd still buy it used, but people know me and wouldn't take offense to this).
• Lysol Wipes (again- I'm a germaphobe, this may not be appreciated by everyone)
• Ridiculously super soft tissues (the ones that you would never buy for yourself)
• Sore throat lollipops (found in the children's aisle, they taste so good!)
• Trashy Magazines (the ones that are highly entertaining but you actually lose brain cells as you flip through them. Like that National Enquirer)

10. Our Story Basket:

• Fill up a basket with an odd collection of things that you share with the recipient- I'll give you two examples to help:
• My Sister: Buffy the Vampire Slayer music CD (because we both love Buffy), a make up bag filled with make up (because she would have $5.00 to her name as a teenager and spend it on make up for me), travel brochures from a travel agency (because we're working on an "Around the World in a Year" project and she can cut them up and use the pictures), A bag of change (because we both have giant water bottles that we collect change in), Tropicana Casino chips or a book about playing craps (we go to the Tropicana every few months), a small piece of cardstock, trimmed and embellished, with a list of the songs that remind me of her ( I'm pretty sure "She's a wild one" was written for her), Since she uses Napster, I don't need to get her a gift card to purchase the songs.
• Jon: Super Mario Brothers video game (because we used to play that for hours and now I miss it), Legally Blonde the Musical on DVD (because our first marital fight went down because I wanted to play Call of Duty: Team Death Match and Jon wanted to watch Legally Blonde the Musical streamed from YouTube), Snyder's Honey Mustard Pretzel Pieces (we're obsessed), a note that tells him I signed up for 100 free samples to be mailed to him (Jon's favorite thing in the world is getting the mail and finding something other than bills), a (used) book on a casino table game that he doesn't know (he's perfected craps), and a small bottle of sweet tea vodka (You'll have to trust me that this was a funny story), a IOU for me to taste any mystery meal concoctions (Jon's an inventive gourmet cook, and I'm a chicken fingers kinda girl....  this one is a big deal), and an iTunes gift card with a list of songs that we share (I actually just did this as part of his birthday gift, it started with songs from when we were friends, then when we were dating, married and it ended with a nursery song).

11. Nostalgia Basket:

• This is highly personalized and not for the novice. The idea is to go out and collect items that were popular a long time ago and hard to find now. The  items should be useful and sorely missed. Things like candy and non perishable foods are great, but think beyond the obvious. For someone my age, a few good choices are hackey sacks, Rubik's cube, garbage pail kids collectible cards, etc. Jon found out that I still have The Baby Sitters Club books hidden in my room , and got me "The complete guide to the babysitters club", that was more romantic to me than any other gift I've ever gotten in my life. A few more ideas are pogo sticks, slip n slides, and cabbage patch dolls.

12. Road Trip!

• Atlas (because you never know when your iPhone will lose service)
• An Entertainment Book (filled with coupons etc for travelling)
• A backseat organizer for toys snacks etc.
• A box filled with a variety of snacks and drinks
• A small cooler to hold drinks
• A travel pillow
• A warm small blanket
• Magnetic Board Games or age appropriate distractions for kids.

13. Gardening:

• A variety of seed packets
• A carrying bucket
• A kneel board
• Gardening Gloves
• Liquid Fertilizer
• Peat moss containers to start seeds
• Garden ID Spikes to identify plants (you can make these yourself too!)
• A book on square foot gardening

14. Organizing:

• Be careful with this, only give a basket like this to someone that you know shares an interest in this or someone that you're very close to. You could hurt someones feelings if they thought you were trying to say that they were unorganized. 
• Stick to a particular project or area- Pantry, Laundry Room etc. Buy containers, make chipboard labels with ribbon attachers, include project idea pictures etc.
• I once did a fly lady gift basket (a double gift because I got to support my favorite blogger by buying her projects), that included all of my favorite products from her. 

15. School Basket:

• Mom was famous for making these when I was a kid. They were always a big hit.
• Fill a bucket or pail (or lunchbox!) with every school supply imaginable. Don't forget fun things like crayons, markers, cardboard, safety scissors, and paste. Mom would hit the sales during the back to school sales (which start this weekend by the way- check out capitallyfrugal.com for price match ups) and stock up so she could make plenty of these throughout the year. 

16. Picnic:

• Fill a picnic basket with a waterproof lined blanket (You can make your own here)
• Paper plates
• Paper bowls
• Plastic cups
• Plastic utensils
• Freezer ice packs
• Collapsible cooler
• Trimmed, embellished cardstock with picnic menu ideas and great places to go to.
• Salt and pepper shakers
• Wet Ones

17. Video Game Basket:

• Thumb extenders for xbox (you can find them here for $9.99)
• Rechargeable AA batteries and base
• Turtle beach headphones
• Microsoft xbox points gift card
• Glass bottles of root beer.
• Crunch n Munch

18. Journaling:

• High quality full sized journal
• High quality pen
• Stationary
• Wax and seal kit ( I love these! I bought mine 8 years ago on clearance from Barnes and Noble and use it all the time. You can get one from Barnes and Noble for $9.99 by clicking here)
• If they own a home, get them a designed address stamp and an ink pad (again, one of my favorite thing ever.. I'm always looking for an excuse to write someone a letter! I got mine from here for $26.50, but if you search around, you can find a better deal. That purchase was made pre-frugal.)

19. Sewing Kit:

• Fill a sewing basket with needles, patches, threads of different colors, a pin cushion, pins, a fabric marker with disappearing ink, a wire threader,  an assortment of basic buttons, and and a wrist wrap with a pin pad on it. If they have a sewing machine or they are an avid sewer... you can add some more advanced things.

20. Scrapbooking:

• You've seen the prepackaged scrapbook kits before. This is the same idea, only your going to put together the materials for your own and it will be about a million times better. Choose a theme, grab a scrapbook, colored patterned paper that compliments each other, stickers that go with the theme, etc. If they are new to scrapbooking, include a paper trimmer, a hole punch, and edger, scrapbook glue, and paper scissors.  

There are tons of other gift baskets you can make. If you have a favorite, share the wealth and let me know!

Best of Virginia Gift basket

$10.00 Car Care Kit Gift Basket ("Basket" is actually car trash can with a top)

Pasta Night Gift Basket in Shipping Box

Spa Night Gift Basket in Shipping Box

Contacting the CEO's office when you're in a pickle.

One of the most powerful consumer tricks I've learned has been how to get in touch with the CEO's office when you're having trouble with a major company. Several years ago, Mom was telling me about this trick on the phone. At the time, I couldn't imagine ever having a problem big enough to have to contact a CEO so I listened with one ear. A few months later, I was on a camping trip with my boyfriend at the time, when he ran over the wooden camp post marker tearing up the undercarriage of his 36,000 dollar truck (as a side note, if you ever find yourself as a passenger in this situation, don't laugh... Seriously, It's a bad idea).  When the boyfriend called Allstate to report it to his insurance, they informed him that he had not paid his premium's and that they couldn't cover the damage.


The boyfriend was actually a very fiscally responsible person. He paid his premium in full every 6 months, but when he moved across the state, he got preoccupied, and didn't realize that it was due. They had been sending notices to his old address.  The damage to his truck was several thousands of dollars and was not something that he could pay out of pocket. We went through several frustrating calls to customer service, each ending with us being told there was nothing that could be done no matter who we talked to. I remembered Mom's CEO talk and googled a contact number for the CEO of Allstate.


Within just a few minutes of being on the phone with the CEO's office, they showed empathy for the situation, apologized for the response we had from customer service, and offered to cover the accident if he would agree to pay the premium payment that he had missed (about $350.00). I was astounded!  Now, you and I both know that the company had no obligation to cover that accident. We were grateful that they did because it saved him several thousand dollars, but no one would have blamed them if they said they couldn't do it.


Just a few short weeks ago, I had my next opportunity to contact a CEO's office. Jon and I had been trying to close our Bank of America accounts for months. We used USAA exclusively but every time we "closed" the accounts, something would happen to reactivate them. From what we can decipher, an interest payment went through, which reopened the account. Since we didn't realize that the account was still open, I wasn't checking it. When the account reopened it became a monthly fee account, since we didn't have direct deposit linked to it. They charged the account $12.95 in monthly maintenance fees. This put the account into overdraft.  We were charged $35.00 overdraft, and $35.00 extended overdraft. This went on for several weeks and by the time I stumbled into this by accident, the account was almost $100.00 negative. I called customer service, but unfortunately due to a pregnancy hormonal rage (note to self- don't dial angry), I was ineffective at communication and customer service refused to refund the fees and close the accounts. To be fair, I wasn't being very nice and if I were customer service, I wouldn't have returned the fees either. After getting off the phone and calming down, (and feeling embarrassed about what a jerk I had been), I called back and asked if I could pay the fees by phone to put the account back to zero, then close them and be done with it. They said they couldn't take a check by phone or a debit card over the phone that I would have to drive to a branch. They changed the account back to an E-account which would prevent monthly charges until the account could be closed and cancelled my debit card so that nothing else can prevent the closure once the account was back to zero.


Once at the branch, I waited in the ATM line to take out the cash from USAA to pay the fees, then waited for 20 minutes in the drive thru teller line (I couldn't deposit into the ATM because I needed exact change- If my account was positive, they still wouldn't close it). The drive through teller told me that she couldn't take my money because I had an E-account (which we had just switched to, to prevent the monthly fee). She said that E-accounts are only for ATM use. I went back to the ATM, and waited in line again, thinking I'll deposit the money, then write a check to myself for the extra to get  the accounr back to zero. When I got to the ATM, my card was coming up as disabled, and it wouldn't accept a deposit (at which point I remembered that they cancelled my debit card to avoid any possibility of further problems). I went back to the drive thru teller to find out that they had just closed.


At this point, I was in tears (hello hormones again!), and this seemed like the tragedy to end all tragedies. I stopped the car and googled the email for the CEO's office and emailed them the above story. I was put in touch with corporate office, who reversed $70.00 worth of fees, and then found a branch close to me with late hours and personally called to explain the situation and ensure that they would accept the money from me despite the e-account status. I deposited the money and requested the account be closed. The teller said they can't close accounts at the window. The CEO's office called first thing the next morning to see how it went, they apologized again, closed the accounts for me (for real this time!), the respresentative gave me her direct cell phone number in case anything else comes up, and sent me a 25.00 target gift card.


What I've learned is that most major companies have a "super customer service center" associated with the CEO's office. From my experiences and research of other's experiences, whatever you want (within reason), you'll get if you call them. I believe strongly in being fair. I would never call the CEO's office unless I had exhausted all other options to resolve the problem.  You can find contact information for the CEO's office by googling "Contact CEO Office [company name]". Some companies may only have email or snail mail. Be very clear in what you would like to see happen, in both instances they offered me more than what I wanted. Be polite and take responsibility if you did something to cause the problem. Be honest, if your frustrated with their company or feel like this incident has hurt your working relationship, let them know this. In both instances, I explained that I regretted having to take the matter to this level but that I had exhausted all other options and felt it important that I give the opportunity to the company to respond to the situation based on such a long working relationship. Basically... sound fancy:)


If you have trouble finding the CEO contact info for a particular company, leave me a comment and I'll help you out.

LOCAL: Prince William/ Woodbridge Best Places to Save Money

If you happen to live in the Woodbridge, Virginia area, check out my list of places that save us a ton of money:

 

1. The Village Thrift Store: 13770 Smoketown Rd Woodbridge, VA 22192

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm a huge thrift store fan. There are a few rules that I follow religiously. 1. Only go to thrift stores that organize clothing by type and size. Bonus points if they also organize by color. 2. ALWAYS go to the local thrift store when your traveling in a wealthy area. Thrift Stores near Boca Raton, Florida will have much better donations than Podunck, Virginia. 3. In an entire store, there are about 2 pieces in your size at any time that are amazing. Ignore everything else. It takes time to find them. You're looking for well made, high quality clothing in designs that you adore. Things you would happily pay full price for. Rookies always make the same mistakes. They fill a bag with clothing that they like, but not love, with clothing that is just a tad too small or too large but that they love the style of, and with clothing that they don't even like but they can't believe it's so cheap! Take my advice and skip this. If you wouldn't pay $60.00 for it, put it back.

The Village Thrift Store is one of the best thrift stores I've been to. All the clothing is separated by type, size and color. It's well organized and has fitting rooms. All thrift stores are a bit dingy, but this is one of the cleanest. They have a maternity and uniform section (though a very small one - check out B-thrifty below if your looking for either of those). Prices are low, but keep in mind that the people who price in most thrift stores have no idea which brands are which. You can find a perfect condition Target dress for $9.99 and a perfect condition BCBG dress for $2.99. Honestly, that's what makes it so fun.

If you're a weird size, thrift stores like this are perfect for you. Jon is a huge muscular beast. His clothing options drive me insane. I detest big and tall stores, the clothing there makes him look like a middle aged banker. By going to the thrift store, you can go straight to his size and see selections from everywhere. It's easy to find things that fit him and that he likes.

 

2. Aldi: 13782 Smoketown Road,  Woodbridge VA 22192

Aldi is one of the best grocery shopping secrets in the world. If your lucky enough to live by one, pencil that into your shopping day, My shopping day consists of a trip to Aldi and then to Wegmans to get the things I couldn't get at Aldi. I keep it simple at Aldi, I buy staples, snacks, paper towels (I adore their paper towels!), produce and an occasional frozen product. The prices are much cheaper than the lowest price anywhere else. For instance, a few weeks ago, I picked up whole wheat hamburger rolls on sale for 29 cents. Baby carrots are 59 cents per bag. Staples like flour, sugar, canola oil, spices (most are 50 cents!), chocolate chips, potato chips etc are a huge bargain! I can shave 20-40.00 off my 120.00 weekly budget my stopping here before Wegmans and I don't even buy anything that's refrigerated or frozen (so I can take my time in Wegmans and not rush to get the food in the fridge.).

3. B Thrifty: 13412 Jefferson Davis Highway Woodbridge, VA 22191

This is another thrift store in the area. I prefer The Village Thrift Store because B Thrifty is a bit sketchy. They do have an unbelievable assortment of maternity clothes though. Everything is organized by type of clothing, and you can tell that they try to organize by size but it's not really reliable. The store itself is divided into two sections. On the right side is the general thrift store. On the left side is an open market. Think Chinatown, but less counterfeit. I would stay away from the left side and stick to the thrift store.

4. Little Ceasars Pizza: 14079 Jefferson Davis Hwy #107 Woodbridge, VA 22191

Every once in a while, when your in desperate need for pizza and want to splurge in calories but not money, visit Little Ceasars. They have a $5.00 large one topping pizza that's "Hot n Ready", meaning you don't have to phone ahead. Just walk in and grab it. They sell so many that they're fresh no matter when you go. I'm hardly a pizza expert, but it was pretty awesome!

 

5. Wegmans: 14801 Dining Way Woodbridge, VA 22191

Wegmans is one of the biggest surprises to our frugal lifestyle. It feels a bit like your grocery shopping at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Like there should be no way that this store can be frugal in any way. Wegmans is amazing! There are two main reasons that Wegmans allows us to save money over the Super Walmart. One is that they have a Wegmans brand for almost product and they meet or exceed our expectations. Not only do they create their own product lines, but they don't go for the basics. They create their own unique flavors. I've tried the Wegmans brand for everything that I routinely buy and the only thing I haven't liked better than our normal national brand is mayonnaise. I had to stick with Hellman's. They also have a guarantee for all of their products. If your not impressed, return it and get your money back.  The other reason that Wegmans excels at saving us money is their online shopping list. Once you register for the website, and you choose your store, you can search prices on any product in the store and create a shopping list that they separate by aisle for you. I create my shopping list each week, and if I'm over my budget, I can change a few menus around and adjust the shopping list until I'm below my budget.

photo courtesy of bthrifty.com