31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero Challenge

So I took the challenge this month from Living Well Spending Less' Ruth for their 31 day no spend challenge.  

She explained at the beginning that this would look different for every family.  For us we already had some things on the agenda that would mean we are spending money.  For example I know that we are entertaining and hosting family from out of state this month.  We went apple picking this month.  And I know we are going to run out of toilet paper before the end of the month.  All things we know we will be spending money on and have budgeted for so we are prepared.  

For us what this means is that when we are out and about we will not get the extras: the starbucks, the costco icecream, the dollar section at Target's toys, the anything else I can think of.  Also, we have a huge amount of food in our home so we will be eating from that and figuring out meals rather than going out to eat or running to the store for more food.  By the way, typing running to the store while we have this huge amount of food at home seems weird but that is exactly what happens.  Lame, I tell ya,lame.  

So on day 3, which was a few days ago she challenged us to come up with meals.  Due to my monthly grocery shopping I have lots to chose from.  And I still have over $100 in my grocery budget left for the month.  Meaning that if I can feed my family from what I already have rather than continuing to buy more then I can pocket that $100 plus for other things.  Hello start on Christmas shopping!  

While I have never joined a no spend "challenge" or anything formal before we have done these no spend times on our own before.  I usually do them when the kids have been driving me nuts about toys.  

I cannot stand when they beg and beg and beg for something, you buy it, and then they care so little about it by the time you get home from the store that they forget it in the car.  Or when they HAVE to have something or will apparently explode or something and then lose it and have no idea what you are even talking about when you ask what they did with it.  These are all true stories, folks. Sad but true.  

So I've put no spending into place when I want them to realize what they have.  And it shockingly works!  Are you bored?  Let's go over to this art area where we have a million and one art and craft supplies and you can find yourself something to do.  You have nothing to play with?  Why don't you play with the 57 Imaginext sets you have that you haven't touched for 4 months. 

And before you know it, they aren't bored, I've drilled into them an important lesson, and I feel like we are saving money by not buying things that we don't even need anyway. 

So there you have it.  I'm not spending any money this month.  How about you?  Would you like to take the challenge as well?  You can head over to her blog and read all about it for yourself. It's amazing and organized and you can even get emails daily from her on what to do.

If you decide to hop on the no spend express, please let me know!  I'd love to know who else I am doing this with and we can all offer one another encouragement along the way!  And in case you want to get caught up on what she has spoken of you can check all of the previous days and challenges out here.  

Fernwood from A Child's Viewpoint

I spoke last week about how changing my perspective on our things that are cluttering our home is helping me to keep things tidier around here.  You can read more about that here.  

Well apparently I'm on some kind of "rose colored glasses" or "the eye of the beholder" kick because I am really trying to look at things from others' perspectives.  Neat how God works on your heart and it kind of takes over all aspects of your life, right?  

Anyway, we went to Fernwood (are you surprised? My kids BEG to go there) with my Mother-in-Law.  Anyway, I should have taken my phone for pictures but it was dead.  Dead, doorknob territory, dead.  And my camera battery had crawled in the same cemetary plot with the phone and they both were dead. 

I should have been really mad and frustrated with myself because that's what I do, but I wasn't.  I sought out the genius of it all and came up with having the kids take their point and shoots that their Grandma gave them for Christmas.  They LOVE taking pictures so it was fun to have them taking pictures around Fernwood of what they see and what they think is neat.  

So without further adieu here is a view of Fernwood and our day from about 48 inches up...

You've got to always love goofy looking selfies, right?  

Oh geesh, kids these days and their selfies.  

One of the reasons I love seeing kid pictures is because they see things from a perspective that is so ofter overlooked.  For example, this plant you walk under when you leave the main building.  I don't think I've ever paid much attention to it but it was a focal point for Emma.  Kids are pretty fascinating, aren't they? 

I think with the kids being city kids they would be content just looking in the wetlands section to find bugs or frogs and then leaving.  Seriously, I cannot be the only mom whose kids love to spend time in this part can I?  

Sisters are the only ones who catch their brothers being "eaten" by elephants, right?  So silly! 

I have to tell you that my goofy, fashion plate of a daughter got down in a photographer pose and started clicking her point-and-shoot away saying "this piece is really speaking to me".  She cracks me up.  Love her and this photo! 

I'll end you with this piece because it kind of spoke to me on a mothering level.  

Emma took this when we went on the river trail and then were headed back towards the nature center.  At least what we hoped was towards that way.  No one ever said I would win any awards when it came to following a map.  

I thought the little waterfalls were neat but in her tween way she seemed like "how lame mom" so we moved on.  But this photo of one of the mini waterfalls tells me that she was listening and watching too.  And she thought it was neat too.  

Ha!  So I guess the point is that even if they act like they're too cool for school and they don't want to be out in nature, they really do and they are seeing and noticing and getting it.  Everything works out the way it's supposed to, right? 

I hope you enjoyed this little perspective (ha! get it because she's short!?) of fernwood.  It's so fun seeing things from your kiddos angle and viewpoints.  

And if you are looking for a Christmas gift for a kiddos might I suggest a Fernwood Membership?  Or maybe a camera?  Or maybe both!  

A Peek into June's Monthly Shopping

So this past weekend we went grocery shopping.  But not just any grocery shopping...monthly grocery shopping.  

If you want you can read all about my Monthly Shopping Trips to salvage and discount stores to see where exactly I go and how and why I do it.  

As always, while driving to the first store we go to (which is about half an hour away) I am frantically finishing my grocery list and trying to remember if we needed vanilla or if we were good on that. 

I always remember though to stop in the midst of the craziness and the whining from the backseat for donuts, and pray for God's favor.  

After all, staying home is tough on the fiscal side of our household and groceries make up a big chunk of where our money goes.  

God doesn't let us down.  I am not surprised and yet every time He blows me away. 

I thought I would show you just a teeny bit of the deals that we scored this time around. 

I just can't believe the deals we got!  I know the photo shows some but let me expand a bit:

Orange Juice for 39 Cents!  The children love orange juice but I am a stickler that they can only have one glass a day.  Despite the vitamins it contains when you factor in the sugar content verses the fiber it lacks when the actual fruit is taken away, it's better to go for straight, whole fruits than just their juices.  Anyway, we go through about a carton and a half a week so we bought 6 of them for a total of $2.34!  How amazing is it that we bought enough orange juice to last us an entire month for less than the cost of one carton at a super market?  And in case you are wondering, these are not past their expiration date.  There's nothing wrong with them.  We have a deep freezer so we kept one out and froze the rest.  Amazing deal! 

Fage yogurt for $4 a case!  That's 12 cups of yogurt for $4.00.  These yogurts are about $1.29 at the stores near us so we saved $11.48 on something that would have cost us $15.48 at the store.  We stocked up and bought 3 cases of yogurt.  Again, we keep out a carton of yogurt and the rest goes into the deep freezer.  We were lucky to find that they were vanilla so it's a neutral flavor that can have preserves or fruit mixed in so we don't get bored.  Nick takes a yogurt to work every day and the kids love it so we go through a lot of this stuff.  Score!

Organic Buttermilk for 50 cents each!  Such an amazing deal :)  If I don't have buttermilk I usually do the 'ole teaspoon of vinegar to cup of milk trick to make buttermilk but in truth this buttermilk is so much creamier and yummier than my janked up version.  

Sargento cheeses for 50 cents each.  These go for about $3 at the store and they are so yummy!  We like to keep some little cheeses on hand so when we need a date-ish type thing to do we can break out some crackers and cheese after the kiddos go to bed and watch a movie. 

So those are just some of my finds.  As you can see, when all of the things I buy are discounted this deeply, it's no wonder we save so much money!  

Happy Shopping! 

• January 2015
  • Jan 5, 2015 January Christmas Prep: Advent Ahead of Time Jan 5, 2015
• December 2014
  • Dec 22, 2014 Welcome! Dec 22, 2014
  • Dec 15, 2014 Letting It Go: Re-prioritizing to Enjoy the Gift of Christmas Dec 15, 2014
  • Dec 11, 2014 Stay tuned :) Dec 11, 2014
  • Dec 3, 2014 Oh, Christmas Tree! Dec 3, 2014
• November 2014
  • Nov 24, 2014 What I Wore Mondays: Church Potluck Edition Nov 24, 2014
  • Nov 22, 2014 Dear Mama, Babies Don't Keep Nov 22, 2014
  • Nov 22, 2014 Thankful For My Babies Nov 22, 2014
  • Nov 21, 2014 Taylor Swift Told Me to Just Shake It Off! Nov 21, 2014
  • Nov 14, 2014 A Rough Day and Remembering God's Blessings Nov 14, 2014
  • Nov 12, 2014 I'm Lindsay and I'm an Usborne Books Consultant! Nov 12, 2014
  • Nov 10, 2014 What I Wore Mondays: Cozy Cardigan Edition Nov 10, 2014
  • Nov 8, 2014 Kicking Satan to the Curb After Moms' Night Out Nov 8, 2014
• September 2014
  • Sep 7, 2014 The Nina and the Pinta! Sep 7, 2014
  • Sep 4, 2014 September's Monthly Meal Plan Sep 4, 2014
• August 2014
  • Aug 30, 2014 My Monthly Grocery Shopping Trip Aug 30, 2014
  • Aug 25, 2014 Bass Masters Aug 25, 2014
  • Aug 25, 2014 Here Kitty, Kitty Aug 25, 2014
  • Aug 18, 2014 Snickerdoodles Aug 18, 2014
  • Aug 7, 2014 hello there Aug 7, 2014
• July 2014
  • Jul 7, 2014 MIA Jul 7, 2014
• May 2014
  • May 11, 2014 A Beautiful Mother's Day! May 11, 2014

Thankful For My Babies

What a rollercoaster of a year this has been!  

As we roll into the week of thanks, I find myself particulary thankful for these precious children of mine.  

So blessed God chose me to be their Momma!

As we go through life doing this super, crazy busy life, I am thankful for the opportunities God has afforded us...that I can stay home, that I have such an amazing husband, and such a great family network surrounding us.  It's just amazing.

Not sure how much I will be on here this week with Thanksgiving preparations under way.  So in case you don't see much of me I hope you have an amazing holiday with your family and stay safe!

Count your blessings, name them one, by one, count your blessings...

Menu Planning Meets Monthly Shopping

If you've read my blog for any length of time I am sure that you have heard me prattle on and on about how we work on a monthly grocery shopping system.  I love it.  LOVE it!  We've done this for years now but now that God has blessed us with a deep freezer I am loving it even more.  

The gist of it is that we live in a city surrounded by Amish land so once a month we drive around to smaller country shops run by cute amish families and stock up on groceries...some are salvage stores, some are local butcher shops, some are dented can type places.  There I can fill my fridge and freezer with some real beauties of bargains!  Seriously, we pray before (as) we go...that God will bless us with what we need.  That God will provide for us (and our budget!) through these trips.  And he always does.  But buying in bulk sometimes eludes me from meal planning.  I generally find myself buying general types of ingredients and then later on trying to piece together what I have to make meals.  It seems to work super, fabulously well the first part of the month but leaves me with large gaps of missing ingredients for recipes the last part of the month.  

Anyway...

The farthest away place we go takes about 45 minutes on the interstate, so it does take some time and gas, but if you are getting a lot like we do then it is definitely worth the trip.  Here are some of my all time favorite finds: 

5 pounds of Starbucks whole bean coffee for $14.97

King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat flour, 5 pounds, for $1.99

Fage case of 12 blueberry yogurts for $1.99

32 ounces of Chobani vanilla yogurt for $0.50 

And the list goes on and on!  

Well anyway, I love my bargains but my problem has been the difference that falls between shopping at these places and my meal plans.  For example, I've made a menu plan with something like clam chowder, but when I get to my said bargain stores, I can't find any of the ingredients I need.  So then I buy some of the ingredients, get home and discover though that I don't have

all

of the ingredients...so I am forced to shop our local grocery store where I pay two to three times more than I should on ingredients, thus cutting into my savings.  

So this week, rather than be daring and inventive with my meal planning, I decided to stick with meals containing ingredients I already have on hand or what I know, know, know is at our discount stores.  This way I will be able to plan good food ahead of time so I can be on top of my menus and save lots of money.  

To get ideas for meals I asked my dear friends on facebook, am perusing pinterest, and am going through the stack of magazines I have on hand.  I am going through to plan what I am going to serve for the entire month...breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day of the month.  With only 28 days in February I figure this is a good month to start my new system :)  

Wish me luck as I tackle menu planning.  And I'd love to know if any of you have any pointers for planning meals or maybe some of you have some amazing recipes to share :)  

Look for my next post as I list what I am planning on making :)  

Making a List, Checking It Twice

This year I am making a list.  And I'm going to check it twice.  Maybe the song isn't talking about making a list of things to buy but a list of things to do.  At least that's what my list is about.

Anyone else ever feel like this about Christmas?  :)

Can a woman get an amen?

Last year I tried to be more organized. I shopped all year 'round and really felt like I had a leg up...until it got a little too close to Christmas and I realized that I had let my ego of being ahead get the best of me and I found myself way behind way too late to fix it.  Basically I shot myself in the foot by convincing myself that a year worth of shopping meant that I was done.

But I was far from it.

So I took the feelings that I had from last year and used them to kind of troubleshoot my faults to be prepared for this year.  Here are things that always catch me up and the solutions I've come up with so I don't have these things hanging over my head:

Christmas cards

I always put these off, have lots of cute cards, and then am struggling at the last minute to get them out in the mail amidst all of the other tasks going on.

SOLUTION:

I'm already addressing them to get in the mail the day before Thanksgiving. I can wipe my hands of them and sit back and relax.

My 2015 Alternate Solution: I already have a day on the calendar when I know I will have a solid two and a half hour time slot that this kiddos will be gone.  I am using this date as my deadline to have my Christmas cards ordered and here, my address labels and stamps in order, and the hot cocoa ingredients in the house.  I have big plans of sitting down with christmas music on, a mug of hot chocolate next to me, and I can gleefully write them out and be done with them.  Hallelujah!

Decorating

Every year I have the best intentions.  I am going to make amazing displays around the house, people will ooh and aah and it will look and feel amazing.  But it never happens.  I always have Nick bring down our decorations and then 5 bins end up sitting in a corner, just waiting to be unloaded up until the very last minute.  This year I'm not doing it.  Not gonna do it, I tell ya.

SOLUTION:

While we are sticklers (read that as my husband is) about not decorating until after Thanksgiving, I was able to have him bring all of the bins out of the attic.  I am going through them the days before Thanksgiving: weeding out what the kids are too old for (training dishes, board books), and paring down the bins we need to decorate with by getting out things I know we will not be using and putting those things together.  I tend to get really nostalgic once that tree's up so sitting in my craft room doing this really helps me to think

don't need, need, don't need, don't need.  

Trust me folks, this works :)

My 2015 Alternate Solution: I have made bins as I go through things that say clearly on the outside "Christmas Memories" and Nick knows those are things that do not need to come down, just things I want to keep.  That has helped a lot. And this year I am finally going to start decorating (just a smidge) the week of Thanksgiving with the hopes that it will lend us more time to simply enjoy our home and the decorations following the tree being decorated. 

Christmas Shopping

I've always been okay about shopping Christmas early, but early was November,

maybe

October.  I always ended up thinking I had bought more than I really had and ended up going on massive shopping sprees at the end.

SOLUTION:

I have taken a clue from my favorite person, my Aunt Jan, and have shopped all year.  I've made a detailed list of what I've gotten for whom, including how much I've spent along the way to make sure I don't overspend.

My 2015 Alternate Solution: I still don't have all of my shopping done.  A couple of weeks ago Nick and I dragged out all of the gifts that I have already bought and made a list of who they are for.  He then gave me a budget (or helped me rather, he's not a dictator, thankfully) of how much to spend on each person we have left to buy for.  This is proving to be quite helpful as when I am out shopping and see something, if it is within the budgeted allowance I can just scoop it up.  

Christmas Budget

I always tried to save money but with the massive shopping trips I took I was ruining my budget at the finish line.

SOLUTION:

To be honest I don't have an overall Christmas budget.  I try to buy items as cheaply as possible  (with coupons, clearance, sales, etc) and it always seems to work out.  An example is for one child I bought 13 items and spent $42.00.  The retail value of those items was about $184.00 so I saved a lot of money!   $42.00 is within the range of what I am willing to spend so I am okay with that.  I keep an eye on my spending throughout the year so I am aware of what I've spent.  What I do budget for is the month of December: Christmas tree, dinners, cookie making, stamps, gas going to extra places: it all adds up...we set an amount to stick to with all of those categories.

My 2015 Alternate Solution: This is still true, I don't shop year round with the thought, "I only want to spend $15 on John..." but I do shop and try to get things as cheaply as possible.  Then when we pull everything out and make a list of what we have and what we still need to finish up we make a budgeted list for each person and add all of those totals together to make sure it is reasonable.  Obviously if our total equals $600 and we only have $450 then each person is going to need tweaked a bit.  Also we make the budget based on what I have spent on each person.  If I've already gotten that person some more expensive things but don't have enough then we make a smaller amount available to get them just a few basic things. 

Gift Wrapping

Am I the only person who hates the whole "staying up late wrapping gifts until the break of dawn on Christmas Eve" thing? Of course not!  This year I've decided no way, no how am I doing that again.  My problem being that the place I wrap presents is also known as our homeschool classroom which makes it a little tricky to get things wrapped, and then not touched by inquiring little hands :)

SOLUTION:

Gifts are going to be wrapped ahead of time and then taken to any houses they are going to that are not mine.  We exchange gifts at my grandma's and so any gifts that go there are going there immediately.  That way there's less to keep track of here.  Once those are out of the way I will start wrapping the gifts that stay here but aren't for our kids.  Those we have room for in our classroom while still doing school.  After we start our Christmas vacation the kiddos won't be in the classroom and I'll be able to wrap the kids gifts without them spying them :)  Whatever works for you, the point is make a number and wrap that number of gifts per day...5 is my number.  5 gifts a day gang :)

My 2015 Alternate Solution: I love feeling joy in wrapping gifts:  having time to spend a little longer making a bow or being able to attach a small gift or candy to the outside of the package.  But with having to wrap ALL the gifts at once all of those ideas quickly get tossed out the window.  So I'm reinterating the idea of wrapping a few gifts a day.  If you started December 1st, wrapped four gifts a day and went through Christmas Eve, you would have enough time to wrap 96 gifts and I'm guessing not many people even have that many to wrap. 

Taking/Making Food

I love cooking but when I am asked at the last minute to bring a dish or appetizer, I freak.  When I freak I spend way too much on stuff I know no idea how to make and get so nervous.

SOLUTION:

I've thought of what people usually ask me to bring and what I am comfortable taking to places.  I usually make appetizers or desserts. So in November I found a sale and stocked up on crackers and cream cheese for making cheese balls and dips.  I also stocked up on cocoa powder and add-ins for brownies and cakes like peanut butter, nuts, toffee pieces.  With these things on hand I'll be able to whip up something relatively quickly without the fuss of running out to buy ingredients.

My 2015 Alternate Solution: I have narrowed this down even further to one appetizer I am known for making (my chipped beef dip) and a dessert I love making (pie).  I make sure I have the ingredients for those two things on hand. At.all.times. And then if I need to/want to make something else I still have other ingredients but I pretty much always know what I'm going to bring.

So I hope this helps you all with those delightful Christmas tasks that can become insurmountable Christmas chores.  I came up with this list for myself when I noticed that Christmas was starting to feel more daunting than darling.  And I don't want that.  This year, with these items checked twice and under control, mistletoe will be the only thing hanging over my head!

What are your tips for a smooth sailing Christmas?  Post them in the comments for us all to enjoy! 

DIY: Valentine's Day Wreath

Every year I loathe the day Nick tells me that I have to take down the tree. 

I really wish I could be one of those crazy cat lady people who keep it up all year. 

That's not weird, right?

But alas Cal's Birthday is the 7th of January and we like to have a party and so I have to get all of the Christmas items cleaned up before people come.

This year in an effort to not cry everysingle.day after the tree is gone, I've decided to decorate for Valentine's Day early.  Usually Valentine's decorations consist of me throwing stuff up about a week before the day. 

But not this year my friends, not this year! 

But alas I found, I had no wreath!  How can one not have a Valentine's Day wreath? So I decided to make one!!!  (Impressed aren't you???) Here it is friends:

What do you think?  Cute? 

 I started with these items.  I am considering this a free craft because I didn't go out and buy anything for it...but of course I had to of bought them at some time, right? I bought the wreath form a huge long while back, but then could never figure out what to do with it. 

<Update> You do not need to have one of these forms!  You can fashion a wire hanger into a circle, cut out a circle from an ice-cream bucket, anything.  Get creative!

The yarn I bought from Goodwill when Emma had a kitty cat party and we hung yarn from the ceiling...I got a trash bag of yarn for $2.00.  Not bad for yarn I never really had a use for...until now!

 So I wrapped the yarn around the hoop thing (was that some type of pioneer game?  No?)  for what felt like a kajillion nights of tv.  until the darn thing was done. 

By the way, I know you're loving my pjs...cooking utensils on pajama pants are hot, let me tell ya. 

 Then I simply free-styled some felt hearts and hot glued those puppies on.  Just felt pieces I had left over from other projects. 

I hung it with some sweet lace that Nick's Aunt gave us.  I love when people bring me huge boxes of remnants and say "here"  LOVE that...it's like a treasure!

So voila!  Look around and see what you can create today!  Has anyone made any fun (and maybe cheap) crafts for Heart Day??? 

My Buys: Carter's Clearance

Yesterday we went to the Outlet Mall near our house.

We all went and it was so much fun.  It was pretty cold but it was sunny and beautiful outside.  On the way Emma was telling us that while there we should look for pajamas "Because seriously guys, everytime I put p.j.s on I wake up and am an inch taller.  So we need new pajamas."  She's so silly!  And while she may be exagerating a teensy-eensy bit, she was right, she's growing right out of all of her clothes!

Starting last weekend, I had been getting emails regarding sales going on at different stores there.

One of them was Carters. 

We scored some amazing deals!  If you have a Carters near you I encourage you to go.  Run!  Hurry. 

Here's what I got, in order of the pictures:

Blue half zip sweatshirt/track jacket for Cal: $3.19 on sale from $30.00

Shirt for Emma (I thought this would be super cute for her gym class!): $3.19 on sale from 18.00!

2 piece purple pajamas for Emma: $3.19 on sale from $32.00

3 piece pink pajamas for Emma: $3.19 on sale from $34.00 (that's a 91% savings, y'all!)

3 piece space pajamas for Calvin:$3.19 on sale from $34.00!

I should tell you that I do not usually find anything at Carters.  For the quality a lot of time their clothes are just too expensive for me.   I usually prefer to shop at Gymboree, Hartstrings, Hanna Andersson.  But I always look. 

Yesterday I saw this super cute red tulle skirt for Valentine's Day!  It was some crazy price like 38.00 or something.  Wha???  I just can't fork over that much money for something she'll wear once, maybe twice.  Yoinkers.  But like I said, I always look.

So I guess if you are on here looking for a little snippet of advice, it would be to not disregard stores for deals.  I mean, honestly, it has been probably 2 years since I've found a deal at Carter's, but I look every time I go there.  Nick thinks this is a huge waste of time, usually...but not yesterday!  And really he doesn't hem and haw too much, he knows what I am doing and trusts me to hurry it up if I'm not finding anything. 

And if you will need Christmas pajamas for this Christmas, they had oodles on sale!!!  I had my eye on some super cute ones but they didn't have any matching ones in the sizes we will need.  Oh well! 

So super happy with what I found.  The Lord always provides!

Happy Shopping!!! :)

The Nutcracker

Since Emma is only two we didn't know if she would be ready for the ballet. We decided to chance it and try it. She loved it! She was very still until almost the end when she decided that she was a ballerina too! I could tell she was getting restless so I asked her if she wanted to go. No she said. But when I said do you want to go get ice cream she jumped up and yelled "Bye Daddy!" Apparently she thought Nick was going to stay for the ballet's finale while we wined and dined on icecream! All together it was a wonderful day and I could ourselves blessed that we can take her to things like this...I know this is just one thing that is lending itself towards cultivating our little girl into a cultured, polite little lady.

Here we are at the ballet

Here we are at the icecream shop...they have a playground!