Category: Frugal Living Tips

Environmentalists make a big deal out of sustainability. As thrifty moms, though, we don’t always have the cash to live sustainably. For this reason, a reverse osmosis water filter sounds like something many of us don’t have the money to buy right now.

But is the cost really all that high? That is to say, do the benefits make up for the price?

As it turns out, they do. Find out why below.

1. It Uses Less Energy Than Other Systems

If you’re not currently filtering your water, there is a good reason to. Using a filter is like housekeeping for your water.

If you’re already using a filter, it’s likely not as energy efficient as reverse osmosis filters. Systems such as the well-known Filter Pure Everpure systems, for example, do a great job of saving energy while purifying your water.

And saving energy means saving money, which is something we all want.

2. Your Water Will Be Free of Contaminants

You and your family deserve to drink clean water. Without a filter, your household could be doing just the opposite.

From lead to other metals and particles, your unfiltered water is brimming with unpleasant chemicals. As some of you may know, high levels of lead can be particularly damaging, especially to children. Reverse osmosis filters help remove these nasties from your water and limit your family’s exposure to them.

3. You’ll Save Money

As stated above, reverse osmosis water filters save energy, and that means that they save your family some money. These filters can also save your family money in another meaningful way.

Take a look around your kitchen right now. Do you see any bottles of water sitting around? If so, purchasing a reverse osmosis filter could you save the trouble of buying those bottles of water.

As an added bonus, not buying bottled water would definitely help cut down on plastic waste, which means that your thriftiness would be a boon to the planet in this case.

4. Your Water (and Food) Will Taste Better

Those of you who are coffee fanatics or home chefs will be happy to hear that having a filter in your home will make just about everything you prepare with water from your faucet taste better. Whenever you cook pasta or make tea, the water you use contributes to the flavor of the finished product.

And if you’re using fresh, filtered water, you’ll notice a slight difference in the flavor.

5. They Play Well With Water Softners

Hard water is the enemy of most good hair days. The buildup that it can cause is a headache, so some invest in water softeners.

Of course, softened water doesn’t taste all that great to some people. Fortunately, you can pair a water softener with a water purifier and get the benefits of having both soft water and purified water.

This means that you get to keep your good hair days and have delicious water.

Osmosis Water Filters Are Good Investments

Osmosis water filters are pretty good investments, all things considered. They help save money, remove contaminants from your water, and remove any gross flavors from your water as well.

As usual, thrifty mommas, don’t be afraid to chime in below. What are your experiences with reverse osmosis water filters?

When you travel with kids, you could be setting yourself in for a stressful time. 6% of parents in one survey confessed to returning home early from a family holiday because it was just too much for them.

A road trip with kids should be simple right? Wrong. They’re tired, they’re fidgety, they start fighting in the back – we love our kids, but sometimes they can be little terrors!

Here’s how to keep your sanity on a long-haul road trip.

1. Distract Them with a Map

When you travel with kids, give them a map and let them trace a finger along to your destination.

This can help to keep them occupied, as well as manage their expectations of when you might arrive.

Plus, they might learn the names of a few states or cities – parents can live in the hope we’re providing a bit of education for the little ones!

2. Plan Regular Breaks

On a long drive, there’s no doubt all that pent up energy in the back seat is going to cause a fuss sooner or later. And you’ll need the bathroom.

Scope out gas stations along your route before you leave, and plan where to stop.

Find places where you can park up a while and head to a nearby play area. Let them run around until they’re tired – and hopefully, they’ll be a bit quieter when you continue driving.

While you’re pulled into a gas station, you might be interested to know about how to get free gas and keep the cost of your trip low. You might also want to check for coupons to grab free or discounted food.

If exercise doesn’t work, how about trying to teach them a ‘calm breathing routine‘? Turn it into a game if you must.

Anything that stops them asking “Are we there yet?” one more time.

3. Bring Some Entertainment and Food

Bring books or audio books along for the drive. If you have an iPad, consider giving them that to play with if they’re old enough. Or even DVDs if you’re lucky enough to have televisions in your car seats.

If you have more than one child, handing them a travel set of a game like checkers, with a magnetic board and pieces can work wonders to keep them quiet for a few hours. So long as it doesn’t cause a fight.

Snacks can help to keep them quiet too – but don’t overdo it on the sugar. The last thing you want is a five-year-old at the height of a sugar high in the car with you.

If it’s a long journey, don’t forget to bring a packed lunch for the family – or make use of those gas station stops to refuel yourselves too.

Travel with Kids – Are You Still Sane?

Hopefully, these tips help you to survive your road trip with your mental health completely intact.

We hope your trip goes well – and if you want to save some money while you’re out of town, be sure to check out these hot deals – you never know when your luck will be in!

If you haven’t jumped on the headphones-at-work trend yet, it’s time to embrace it. Music offers tons of mental benefits—all of which can boost your productivity and lower your stress.

Music has already found its way into the professional world. According to a 1994 study, music helped surgeons perform faster and more accurately on the job.

Music can boost your job performance, too. Keep reading for the reasons why you should be listening to music at work.

Why You Need to Listen to Music at Work

Music Helps Cancel out Distractions

If you work in a noisy environment, music can save you from losing focus after every little distraction. This can be especially helpful for office workers who share space in a manufacturing facility. Imagine listening to the dulcet tones of your favorite artist instead of the noises coming from the box crusher.

As an added bonus, wearing headphones can signal to an overly talkative coworker that you need to devote your full attention to the task at hand. It’s a polite way of saying that you’d love to hear about their weekend—as soon as you’re done with this report.

Listening to Music at Work Can Help You Get Through Tedious Tasks

If you’re facing a day filled with the same repetitive task, it’s time to pop in the ear buds and get to work. Music gives your brain something new to focus on.

It’s the best way to avoid boredom while you finish your work. You might find you finish your work faster, too.

Tunes Can Soothe Your Stress

Most workplaces are rife with stress, but music is a powerful stress-reduction tool.

One 2005 study looked at how listening to music at work affected the moods of 56 Canadian software developers. They found that this group reported more positive feelings the longer they listened to music while working. The more access they had to music, the less stress or sadness seemed to bring them down.

Listening to music can actually calm your anxiety at work. It may actually increase your feelings of happiness, too.

Music Can Help You Do a Better Job

That same study found something else, too. Once the study participants felt happier, they worked harder, faster, and produced higher-quality work than they did during quiet periods.

Listening to music can help you get through the mental blocks that might otherwise trip you up during your day.

New Music Can Give Your Brain a Burst of Creativity

Getting yourself out of your comfort zone can do wonders for your creativity. If you’re up against a deadline at work and you can’t seem to brainstorm a new idea, try listening to some fresh tunes you haven’t heard before.

Trying out a new auditory experience can shake you out of your funk and get you thinking differently.

Consider branching out to a streaming website like Telling Beatzz. As a bonus, if you’re sourcing audio for a video you’re working on, Telling Beatzz has you covered.

Keep up with the Latest Productivity Tips

At Thrifty Momma Ramblings, we cover the latest tips and tricks for every aspect of your life. We offer advice on everything—including how to manage your time while you’re working from home—and we post deals and giveaways for your must-have office items. We’re your one-stop shop for all things productivity.

Healthy kids are happy kids.

We all want our children to grow up into happy, healthy adults, and that means making sure they eat a balanced diet and understand the value of good nutrition.

However, making sure they eat good foods at home can be difficult. When they’re out of the house, we’re looking at a nearly impossible feat. Life would be easier if children has access to healthy vending machines.

At school for example.

Kids spend a large portion of their day out of the home, in a place packed offering vending machines filled with sugary snacks. It is natural that they will pick a candy bar over an apple.

How can we combat this and ensure our children continue to eat healthy at school?

Healthy Vending Machines Offer a Great Snack Substitute

There is nothing wrong with vending machines, and there is nothing wrong with a little candy now and then. The problem is the lack of options and the over abundance of unhealthy snacks.

If schools were to offer healthy vending machines containing fruit, nuts, and healthy snacks, they would be offering the children in their care a balanced and healthy lifestyle on school grounds.

It would also be in the interest of the school to give children healthy options which will keep the students energized and ready to learn.

There are many choices when it comes to such machines, and healthyyou vending reviews can help you choose the best products to recommend to your child’s school.

The Benefit of Natural Suger over Refined

Sure, both fruits and candy bars are full of sugars, so what’s the difference,?

Well, the core difference is that fruit is natural sugar, while candy bars are made from refined sugar, and all manner of other ingredients too.

Fruits contain natural sugar and other nutrients, but also fiber, which slows the break down of the fruit sugars and prevents the blood sugar spike that can be seen from eating candy.

Nutritious vending machines can serve as a great educational point for children, to learn about the different types of sugars and how our body processes them.

Educators are Responsible For Helping Raise Your Children

At the end of the day, you entrust your children into the care of school officials, because, they, as educators are the best people to help teach your kids about the world, and how to thrive in it.

Why shouldn’t educational institutions shoulder the responsibility to ensuring children stay healthy while on school grounds?

The two go hand in hand, and the responsibility is on both parents and educators to make sure the children in our care are given the best possible options for them.

Healthy Eating is a Privilege Not to be Ignored

It can be easy to forget that access to healthy foods is a privilege. There are a lot of people in the world who do not have such luxury. We need to teach our children that eating healthy is something they should be thankful for.

Being able to eat a balanced and nutritious diet is (sadly) not a right.

As adults, it is our duty to do everything we can to give our children healthy alternatives.

We are not individuals in this battle. We can work together to make healthy vending machines a school staple.

Just take a look around our site to see how many ways there are for you to get more involved. If you want more information on anything, you can always reach out to me.

The gift of nice weather means it’s time to take out those cute little sandals and let our beautiful feet have their moment to shine. But if you suffer from cracked or overworked feet, you might feel inclined to hide them away from the world.

Extra humidity can be potentially good for dried out skin, but somehow our feet never want to soak up that extra moisture. They hold us up for hours on end every day, take us over to our favorite ice cream shops but still, they are often unappreciated.

So it’s up to us to give them the good treatment they deserve!

Read on to learn more about how to do it!

1. Let Them Breathe

It’s a little-known fact that our feet actually sweat when cooped up in our socks and our shoes. An overly long build up of not taking care of this extra layer of unneeded moisture can lead to diseases such as athlete’s foot.

After a long day at work or after a session of exercise, make sure to take the time to let your feet out and dry off from the activity of the day. Simply taking off your shoes to air out should do the trick!

2. Wear Proper Fitting Shoes

Those of us who are thrifty-minded can sometimes decide to stick with an old pair of shoes because who wants to go out and buy new ones when these old ones are perfectly functional?

However, if your shoes are too old, too small or even too big, it’s best to change them out. Poor fitting shoes can cause blisters and other sores that will hurt. They’ll also leave behind marks on your feet you just don’t want.

Always choose good fitting shoes. You don’t want your footwear to keep you from having beautiful feet!

3. Give Them a Good Soak

Not only can this be a relaxing ritual after a long day’s work, but it’s great for the health of your feet, too! There are a bunch of different varieties you can try, such as simple hot water and essential oils or a special Listerine foot bath!

All you have to do is soak your feet for about 10 to 15 minutes or so, but try not to go too long. If your feet are starting to get all pruney, it’s best to take them out and give them a rest.

The great thing is that this goes along perfectly with our next tip!

4. Scrub

The best time to scrub your feet is after a good soak. They’ll be softer than normal which leads to getting the most out of the scrub.

Use a pumice stone while they are still damp and you’ll have beautiful feet in no time! Make sure to go with the grain of your foot, not against. This will ensure you don’t end up damaging your feet in the process!

5. Always Moisturize

Your feet need a stronger cream than other parts of your body due to the thicker skin. A good tip is to use coconut oil or creams with Vitamin E!

Massage your feet with your chosen moisturizer and relax for an hour or two to really let it work into your skin before rinsing it off. Or, if you prefer, you could choose to let it stay on overnight. Just put on some socks to protect your furniture from getting moisturizer everywhere!

Beautiful Feet Are Just a Step Away!

With these steps in place, you’ll have perfect feet to show off your new pair of sandals on that special weekend getaway you’ve been planning! Go out there are show them to the world!

Have more great tips? We’d love to hear them! Let us know in a comment below!