Frugal Living NW

Helping you live well on a budget in the Pacific Northwest.

Welcome to Frugal Living NW!

I'm Angela Davis, a PNW native, mom of lots of kids, and I love saving money. I'm here to help you live well on a budget by making every penny count. You'll find deals at your local stores, ways to save online, recipes, and frugal living tips and inspiration.

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Homemaking Your Way: Angela on toys + a challenge

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I'm such a procrastinator. This post is three weeks late and the only reason it's going up today is because I'm having my quarterly meeting with the Frugal Living NW contributors tonight and I don't want Emily to think I'm a total slacker. And honestly, dealing with toys and miscellaneous kid clutter is so difficult for me. I really want a home that contains only items that are beautiful and useful. I don't like clutter, but for some strange reason, it's still here. I clean out a room only to find it's exploded two days later. Seriously, where did all this stuff come from? Emily's wonderfully inspiring post on managing toy clutter got me thinking Keep Reading

National & local summer reading programs for kids

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Summer vacation is right around the corner and it’s a great time to start planning different activities for your kids. Summer reading programs hosted by local public libraries and businesses are a fantastic way to encourage your children to read (or be read to) and earn prizes for doing it! Jen from Thrifty NW Mom, Karrie from Happy Money Saver and I have teamed up to bring you the most comprehensive list of summer reading programs in the Pacific Northwest. In this post, I have listed national summer reading programs as well as local programs in Western Oregon and SW Washington. Head to Thrifty NW Mom for a list of Puget Sound programs and Happy Keep Reading

Groupon: $20 to Old Navy for $10

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My, oh, my. We were all just waiting for this deal to come around. Groupon is offering $20 to Old Navy for just $10. You may purchase your Groupon from any Groupon city and redeem it at any Old Navy store: Chattanooga, Tennessee (8:59 pm Pacific) Portland, Maine (8:59 pm Pacific) Savannah, Georgia (8:59 pm Pacific) Fort Wayne, Indiana (8:59 pm Pacific) Fayetteville, North Carolina (8:59 pm Pacific) Rochester, New York (8:59 pm Pacific) Kalamazoo, Michigan (8:59 pm Pacific) Lexington, Kentucky (8:59 pm Pacific) Ocala, Florida (8:59 pm Pacific) Albuquerque, New Mexico (10:59 pm Pacific) Ogden, Utah (10:59 pm Pacific) Reno, Keep Reading

Homemaking Your Way: Angela on laundry

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This is the seventh installment in our series, Homemaking Your Way. Catch up on the first six here. About a year ago it finally dawned on me that I was running a small business from home (this blog) and that I am really unable to "do everything" that a typical homemaker does during the day. I just don't have the time, the energy nor the desire to be any sort of "super woman." I took a cue from some very successful bloggers and decided that it was really okay to farm out some of the daily tasks that I wasn't completing on a regular basis. The one thing that I was consistently failing to carry to completion was the laundry. Right off the bat Keep Reading

Staycation (and vacation!) ideas from all over the United States!

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Yesterday Emily posted on tons of frugal things to do in and around the Portland area as a part of the nationwide Year of the Staycation series. Today we are pleased to bring you links to Year of the Staycation posts from around the United States. Each post is organized by geographical region. Be sure to check out your summer travel destination as well as your local area for fun and frugal ways to make the most of your vacation! Frugal Vacation Tips Vacation or Stay-cation: Eating without Busting the Budget - Eat at Home Pacific San Diego, California - Life As Mom Yosemite National Park, California - Handbook of Nature Study Seattle, Keep Reading

Homemaking Your Way: Angela on clothing

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This is the fifth installment in our series, Homemaking Your Way. Catch up on the first four here. Clothing. Ugh. Emily did such a great job explaining her "system" for clothes, I really don't think I can add anything super helpful to the discussion (hence the five day late post...). But I'll give it a try. KIDS CLOTHES Here's the deal. The Davises have long been our friends and family's personal Goodwill. We get hand-me-downs like crazy, or at least we used to. When my daughter (my first) was about 2.5 years old, I saw a children's clothing consignment event advertised on Craigslist and I thought I would quickly go through Audrey's clothes Keep Reading

Homemaking Your Way: Angela’s homemaking philosophy

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Be sure to read the introduction to our current series, Homemaking Your Way here. Let's start with one painfully honest statement: I don't like homemaking. I am not really good at it. It does not make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I don't get goosebumps when I smell a pumpkin-scented candle or see a pot of stew warming on the store. I don't have the "urge" to nest. I don't feel connected to nature when I touch dirt. These truths seem to make me a less-than-ideal candidate for writing a homemaking series. But here's the thing -- I know that I'm not alone. I know that many of you would rather be doing something else, anything else, than cooking Keep Reading

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