Saving Families Money Since 2007
Who wants to win a free HP Chromebook?!?! I’m giving one away this week!
To enter, simply join our new Facebook Group. Then click here and leave a comment on this Facebook post telling me why you want to win!
This giveaway will be open through November 7, 2018.
Want to save money on toilet paper? Here are five tips for you:
If you have a Costco membership, your Costco offers good every day prices on toilet paper. The Kirkland brand of toilet paper should be around $15.99 for 30 rolls — which comes out to $0.01 per square foot.
Walgreens, Kroger, CVS, Target, and more stores often have great sales on toilet paper. You can pair those sales with printable coupons to make it an even better deal.
We often post great deals on toilet paper available on Amazon. These usually last for only a day or two, so you’ll want to jump on them when you see them posted here. (By the way, if you want to save more, sign up for Swagbucks and earn free Amazon gift cards.)
While I know some people are very picky about toilet paper, if you can base your choice of which toilet paper to buy on the price rather than on the brand, you’re going to save a lot of money.
This is a simple tip that works with pretty much everything. Learn to use less and you’ll save money!
Yes, some people do actually save money by using cloth toilet paper… but personally, I might be frugal, but I’m not that frugal. But more power to you if you are! 😉
Dillons
2 pkg Keebler Club Crackers – $1.50 each, used $1/2 Checkout 51 rebate – $1 each after rebate
1 box Frosted Flakes – $1.50
1 bag Simple Truth Potatoes – Marked down to $0.99
1 Lunchable – $1 (A super special treat for my son!)
1 pkg Chicken Drumsticks – $4.38
5 Luna Bars – Marked down to $0.25 each (Only 3 made it in the picture because 2 of them had already been eaten!)
1 Green Leaf Lettuce – $1.29
1 Pineapple – $0.99
1 bag M&M’s – $2.99
Total: $16.39
Aldi
2 Crisp Rice Cereal – $1.49 each
2 Half & Half – $1.79 each
1 dozen Eggs – $1.58
1 Vegetable Oil – $1.85
3 Cream of Mushroom/Chicken Soup – $0.49 each
1 Salt – $0.49
1 5 lb pkg Potatoes – $2.39
1 bag Frozen Veggies – $0.99
1 bag Frozen Broccoli – $1.19
1 bag Frozen Peas – $0.79
2 pkg Strawberrieis – $2.19 each
1 pkg Green Peppers – $1.99
1 pint Grape Tomatoes – $1.79
1 bag Chocolate Chips – $1.89
1 pkg Green Grapes – $1.94
1 pkg Blackberries – $1.19
1 Sour Cream – $0.99
1 lb Oven Roasted Turkey Breast – $3.99
2 Cucumbers – $0.89 each
3 cans Green Beans – $0.49 each
1 gallon Milk – $1.88
1 lb Ground Beef – $3.39
1 pkg Summer Sausage – $3.79
1 loaf Bread – $1.49
1 pkg English Muffins – $0.99
2 lbs Butter – $2.55 each
1 pkg Shredded Cheddar Cheese – $3.39
Total: $57.75
Total for both stores: $74.14
Cereal, Toasted English Muffins
Turkey Sandwiches, Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Cheese/Crackers/Fruit, Tossed Salad, Leftovers
Baked Chicken Drumsticks, Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Peas, Pumpkin Bread (leftover from last week)
Snacky Dinner (Summer Sausage, Cheese, Crackers, Veggies, Brownies)
Poor Man’s Steak, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans
Pancakes, Eggs, Fruit
Chicken Enchiladas, Rice, Tossed Salad
Meat Potato Quiche, Biscuits, Steamed Broccoli
Cheese Pizza, Breadsticks, Fruit Salad
Do you struggle to find white space in your life? Do you feel like you’re always running behind or just barely surviving? Do you wish you could find a way to slow down and savor life more?
In this week’s episode of The Crystal Paine Show, we’re going to talk about how you can invest 10 minutes a day to give you less stress and better health. Sound too good to be true? Well then listen in! 🙂
I also share about a book that made my Top 10 list for 2018, a recipe I have been eating every single day, and how I stopped trying to stuff my brilliantly creative, sometimes-messy daughter into a neat and orderly box and how it changed both of our lives for the better.
A Special Freebie For You
Bonnie is offering two free resources to my followers that you can download: 10 Practical Ways to Create Spiritual Rest (a book excerpt) + 33 simple ideas to enjoy rest from Finding Spiritual Whitespace and 28 Rest Ideas — a beautiful, hand-lettered calligraphy printable. Download them here for free.
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In This Episode:
[00:26] – I talk about a movie that Jesse and I recently went and saw as a middle-of-the-day date (one of the perks of being self-employed!).
[04:27] – This week, what’s saving my life is actually a recipe for banana bread… you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out just why that is! 🙂
[05:44] – My book pick this week is one I read a number of months ago, but it is totally making it to my Top 10 Books Read list for 2018!
[07:50] – This week’s guest, Bonnie Gray, shares some practical ways women can carve out more rest and white space in their lives — in just 10 minutes or less each day!
[16:15] – Bonnie shares how she and her husband have started creating white space for each other, which has strengthened their relationship.
[17:51] – What is Bonnie reading right now? She talks about 4 different books — and how reading has helped her have more white space in her life.
[19:24] – Have you ever tried setting your phone to “do not disturb” mode? Bonnie shares how she uses this feature on her phone.
[21:12] – In today’s Q&A segment, I answer a question on the best way to raise and nurture a child who is very different from you.
Links and Resources Mentioned in the Show:
- Unbroken: Path to Redemption
- Unbroken
- Louis Zamperini
- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
- Our Favorite Banana Bread
- Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero
- Finding Spiritual Whitespace by Bonnie Gray
- Whispers of Rest by Bonnie Gray
- Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado
- Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
- Reading People by Anne Bogel
- CrystalPaine.com
- MoneySavingMom.com
- YourBloggingMentor.com
- My Instagram account (I’d love for you to follow me there! I usually hop on at least a few times per day and share behind-the-scenes photos and videos, my grocery store hauls, funny stories, or just anything I’m pondering or would like your advice or feedback on!)
- Have feedback on the show or suggestions for future episodes or topics? Send me an email: [email protected]
How to Listen to The Crystal Paine Show
The podcast is available on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can listen online through the direct player we’ll include in the show notes of each episode. OR, a much easier way to listen is by subscribing to the podcast through a free podcast app on your phone. (Find instructions for how to subscribe to a podcast here.)
Ready to dive in and listen? Hit the player above or search for “The Crystal Paine Show” on your favorite podcast app.
Sponsor Spotlight
Today’s episode is sponsored by Twigby — a company dedicated to providing fantastic phone service at great prices. As I mentioned in the podcast, if you are looking for a great deal on a phone for your teen (or yourself!), I’d highly recommend checking out what Twigby has to offer.
Unlike traditional cell phone companies, they give you the ability to create your own custom, prepaid plan — without a contract or an unnecessary activation fee.
You don’t have to mess with going to a store and picking out a phone plan. You just go to their site, pick your phone plan and either switch your current phone over or get a new phone, and they get it all set up for you.
My favorite part about their service (in addition to their great prices!) is that they offer plan flexibility with the ability to change plans or phones at any time for free. You’re not locked into an expensive contract that has activation and termination fees.
They also offer Free Overage Protection, so you can rest easy in knowing that you will never be charged for overages without your go-ahead! You have complete control.
Special offer! Want to save 25% off your first 6 months of Twigby? Click here.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission — at no additional cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!
Welcome to my weekly Book-ish post where I share what I’ve been reading and watching recently. If you missed it, you can see my Reading Goals for 2018 and 44 Books I Plan to Read This Year.
(Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and we will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking through our links. Read our disclosure policy here.)
Jesse and I picked The Crown back up again — we had kind of dropped it because life happened and the only time we’d had to watch shows we’ve been watching This is Us or shows with the kids.
We’re nearing the end of Season 1 and still enjoying it as much as we did when we were first watching it. Have you watched The Crown? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
Note: We’ve heard that there’s an episode in Season 2 that is not family-friendly. We’re watching the show ahead of time to see if we feel like it’s something our girls can watch with us.
I listened to I’m Still Here on audiobook through Libby. I found that this book stirred up all sorts of things in me… and I don’t really have the right words to express so much of — and I’m still doing a lot of processing.
Jesse and I had a lot of conversations on race and bias as a result of this book. It made me think and ponder and examine my heart and I so appreciated that.
However, to be really honest, I came away from the book feeling frustrated because I felt like she told story after story of racial injustice but then I felt like she didn’t give me — as a white woman who has very admittedly grown up with so much privilege — really any practical suggestions or ways that I can better bridge the divide or help to heal the deep wounds of racial injustice.
I want to do the best I can to raise my children with eyes and ears and a heart to see and love ALL people and I want that so much for myself, too. But she only gave example after example of what not to do — which I really appreciated. But I ended the book feeling like, “Well then what should I do?”
I’d love to hear if you have suggestions for books that might help answer that question for me. It’s something I’ve been pondering a lot — especially as my kids get older and have friends from many different races and cultures.
What have you been reading or watching recently? Leave a comment and let us know!
Think you don’t really need an email newsletter as an online business owner? I was right there with you for a long time. An email newsletter just felt like one more thing in a very long line of must-do’s on my online business task list.
I didn’t see the importance of sending out an email newsletter and my excuse was kind of lame: It would take time and I wanted to spend that time writing blog posts and focusing on building my Facebook engagement (which was at an all time high then).
That plan worked really well… until Facebook changed their algorithms and stopped showing my posts to hundreds of thousands of people.
Guess what that meant? Since I hadn’t taken the time to focus on building an email newsletter, I had no way to contact all of those people and connect with them outside of social media.
I went from my posts being shown to hundreds of thousands of people, to them only being shown to a few thousand people. And because I hadn’t set up an email list and was relying on social media instead, my business and traffic took a big hit.
As a result of this, I learned a big lesson the hard way: Don’t trust your business growth to a site that you don’t own (i.e. Facebook).
Ever since this happened, I’ve not only worked hard to build my own strong email lists, but I’ve become a big advocate for building an email list and sending a regular email newsletter. I’m sure you’re not surprised!
Here are four reasons why I think you need to invest the time to build, grow, and nurture an email list:
1. An email newsletter gives you access to prime real estate — people’s inboxes.
Getting into people’s inbox is prime real estate. When marketing my own products, I know that the #1 most effective tool for selling them is through emails. We’ve tested this time and again, and social media and blog posts just don’t hold a candle to email.
I’m a fan of social media and think we should use it wisely and strategically. We still invest a lot of time into Facebook and we still manage to see pretty decent click-throughs and conversions from Facebook. But we never, ever see the kind of engagement from Facebook that we see when we send out an email newsletter.
2. An email newsletter gives you the ability to contact people directly — whenever you want to.
When I decide I want to send out an email newsletter, I don’t have to try to bypass and trick the elaborate algorithms into getting my email to land in someone’s inbox. I just write the email and send it.
While there are some spam blockers that will block it and not every single email will always land into every single person’s main inbox, a much higher percentage of people are always going to see my emails than will ever see something I post on Facebook. Plus, I never have to worry about whether a social media platform is going to be around or remain free of charge for the long haul.
3. An email newsletter allows you to build a personal and long-lasting relationship with people.
Not only will people typically pay much more attention to email in their inbox than they will to something that will possibly show up in their feed on Facebook, but when you get someone’s email address, you have the ability to choose what you send to them — and what they’ll actually see.
You don’t have to wait for them to check your blog or log into social media. You don’t have to hope that what you posted will maybe end up showing up in their feed.
Instead, you’ll know that there’s a good chance they’ll actually get your email — which gives you the opportunity to build a personal relationship with someone through the emails you send.
If people know that what you send them is going to bring value to their life, they are going to be more apt to open up and read your emails. And there’s a good chance that they are going to begin to trust you and your recommendations.
And when people trust you, you have one of the most valuable assets you can ever obtain as a business owner.
4. An email newsletter gives you the ability to tailor emails to best serve each individual person on your list.
Many email programs now offer really advanced options — including the ability to tailor emails to serve each individual person on your email list.
For instance, if you sign up for the Your Blogging Mentor email list, I’ll send you a welcome email and also ask you to let me know where you are in your blogging journey (i.e. are you a beginning blogger, an advanced blogger, or someone who is just considering blogging?)
Depending upon which option you click, we will “tag” your email address in a way that lets us know how we can serve you best. And then we tailor the emails we send to you based upon this.
If we know that you are an advanced blogger, we’re not going to send you emails about getting started as a blogger, because those will just clog up your inbox and do nothing to help you. Instead, we want to send you posts and emails and articles that will help you grow as an advanced blogger.
There’s so much you can do when it comes to getting all sophisticated with email lists. It’s pretty amazing! (However, if this sort of talk sounds overwhelming and intimidating, don’t worry! You can also choose to keep it very simple.)
If you are a blogger or an online business owner and you don’t have an email list set up yet, here are some of the companies I recommend checking out:
Constant Contact recently emailed us and asked if they could offer a special offer for you all. They are offering you the opportunity to try out their service for 60 days for free. Best of all, there is NO credit card required if you are in the US or Canada!
This is a great way to get started and get an email list set up — without spending any money out of pocket! All you have to do is go to their site, type in your email address, and you can get started setting up your email list!
Constant Contact offers US-based phone and chat support, segmentation of your list, and all the features that any blogger or small business owner would need o run a successful email marketing campaign!
My favorite part about their service is that they have beautiful email templates you can use to customize your newsletter that make it look professional — even if you know nothing about designing email templates!
Go here to try out Constant Contact completely free for 60 days — no credit or debit card information required!
A couple of days ago, I invited you to join me and Courtney at Click it Up a Notch for a free photography class. Did you see my post?
I didn’t want you to miss out on this opportunity. Courtney is going to be teaching us how to take fantastic holiday photos while being present in the moment. Plus, she’ll have time at the end to answer your questions live.
Courtney is the force behind Click it Up a Notch which was named by the Huffington Post as one of the Top 5 Blogs for Momtographers. She helps over 40,000 photographers each week learn how to capture their life, beautifully.
She and I teamed up for another online class in January and you all loved it so much that she asked me if she could teach another class for my readers. I learned so much at her first class that I was thrilled to say yes! I think you are going to love what she shares!
So, join us on Tuesday, October 30th, 2018, at 2 p.m. CT/3 p.m. EST for this class.
In this class, you’ll learn:
P.S. If you can’t make it live, there will be a replay!
Welcome to my weekly Slow Day post, inspired by Monica from The Homespun Heart. My Word for 2018 is Slow and, in the spirit of that word, I’m taking one day each week (Wednesday) off — I’ll be unplugged and offline and plan to move at a slower pace, take time to do things that refresh me, and just really focus on being present and savoring the moment.
Each week, I’ll be sharing a photographic peek into my Slow Day. Enjoy a little peek into our lives!
(Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and we will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking through our links. Read our disclosure policy here.)
My Slow Day morning started out with helping the kids get their breakfast and get out the door.
We loved these Sourdough Pancakes and ended up eating them for dinner, snack, and breakfast!
I worked out and cleaned up the house a little and then got ready to leave to go to Discipleship Group. I had been asked to speak for the large group session this morning and I spoke about Esther and Grace in Your Story. (I wrote a little more about what I shared about here.)
After Discipleship Group, Jesse and I went out on a lunch date to Gray’s — one of our favorite places. (Jesse’s family had given me a gift card to there for my birthday.)
The Roasted Brussels at Grays are amazing…
As was my salad…
And the Banana Pudding. (Did I mention that I love this restaurant?!)
Jesse and I headed to my travel health appointment to get things taken care of for our November trip to India (yes, I don’t think I’ve told you all but Jesse and I are headed to India with some really good friends of ours next week — long story, but we’re super excited about it! We’re also going to Rome for a day and a half on the way there!)
We then went to vote because we’ll be out of country on Election Day. I was so happy to see so many people at the polls for early voting!
Yay for ability and freedom to exercise our right to vote!
We then picked the kids up from school and spent the rest of the day hanging out together. It was such a good day!
I’m currently challenging myself to stick with a $70 grocery budget for our family of five. This includes almost all of our breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners + most household products (toiletries, laundry soap, etc.).
For live updates, be sure to follow my Instagram Stories. See all posts on my $70 Grocery Budget here.
Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and we will be compensated if you click through and sign up. Read our disclosure policy here.
We got back from Kansas late, late Sunday night. Well, actually it was early Monday morning because our flights got delayed for a total of 9 hours.
Unlike the last 3 weeks where I was traveling each weekend, this week, we were home all week and didn’t travel this weekend — which was nice! After three weeks of back to back travel, it was nice to have a week at home where we ate dinner at home together and got to just hang out together in the evenings!
A friend of mine — who is a sourdough expert — gave me some sourdough starter and I’m having fun learning how to feed it an use it.
I was happy with how the sourdough pancakes turned out, but the sourdough bread didn’t quite turn out how I had envisioned it — though it wasn’t terrible. I’m excited to keep experimenting!
I was excited to earn extra points from Fetch Rewards this week for buying Oscar Mayer, Suave, and Pepperidge Farm. Have you signed up for Fetch Rewards yet? If not, I highly recommend it. It’s such an easy way to earn cashback every week just for scanning your grocery receipts! Read more on how to sign up here.
Total spent: $69.46
Cashback Earned This Week: 258 points + 149 points from Fetch Rewards for scanning my receipts + $0.10 for scanning my receipt on iBotta
Note: When you see the meals below, please remember this: I buy ahead often. Which means that when I find a great deal on something I know we’ll use, I buy as much as I can afford in our budget to have on hand.
This means that you aren’t going to see all of the groceries my shopping trip that I used to make all of the meals we ate. And it also means we didn’t use all of these groceries up this week — because some of them will be saved for later weeks!
Please also remember that I’m putting this out there and it’s not a perfectly balanced menu. This is just really what we ate — and I hope that it encourages you to see the real-ness and lack of perfection here. ?
Breakfasts:
Lunches:
Snacks:
Dinners:
1 64-oz carton Unsweetened Almond Milk – $1.89
1 64-oz carton Orange Juice – $1.69
1 32-oz carton Half and Half – $1.59
1 5-lb bag All-Purpose Flour – $1.15
2 bags Frozen Riced Cauliflower – $3.78
1 16-oz pkg Sliced Deli Ham – $2.99
1 14-oz bag Milled Flax Seed – $1.79
1 jar Extra Virgin Olive Oil – $2.69
2 cartons Organic Chicken Broth – $1.90
1 box Honey Nuts Oats – $1.15
1 box Cinnamon Crunch Squares – $1.09
1-lb Ground Sausage – $1.89
1 can Baking Powder – $0.99
1 jar Onion Powder – $0.99
2 dozen Eggs – $2.24
1 32-oz carton Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt – $3.29
1 24-oz carton Lowfat Cottage Cheese – $1.59
2 16-oz bags Shredded Cheddar Cheese – $4.30
1 can Whipped Topping – $2.65
1 bag Marshmallows – $0.89
2 boxes Pure and Simple Bars – $7.98
1 jar Salsa – $0.99
2 pkgs (about 5lbs) Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs – $3.78
1 pkg Zucchini – $1.45
1 pkg Romaine Hearts – $1.79
1 3-ct pkg Fresh Garlic – $0.79
2 3-ct pkgs Multi-Colored Peppers – $2.98
2 1-lb pkgs Fresh Asparagus – $2.78
2 pkgs Baby Carrots – $1.58
1 large tub Organic Spring Mix – $3.99
1 head Cauliflower – $1.79
1 16-oz bag Mini Cucumbers – $1.69
1 pkg Broccoli Crowns – $1.29
1 3-lb bag Pink Lady Apples – $2.69
1 3-lb bag Gala Apples – $1.69
1 bag Red Grapes (2.89lbs @ $0.79/lb) – $2.28
1 pkg Hamburger Buns – $0.65
2 loaves Sandwich Bread – $1.70
1 bag Gluten-Free Pretzels – $1.75
Total: $90.18
My husband got his first deer of the season this past week – I didn’t get a picture of all the meat before it made it to the freezer, but it was around 50lbs (and yes, the deer in SC aren’t as big as they are in other places in the country). Yay for free meat! 🙂
Weekly Menu Plan
Breakfasts
Everyone is responsible for making/cleaning up their own breakfasts. Choices include:
Cereal, Oatmeal, Fruit, Yogurt, Veggie Omelets, Rhubarb Muffins, Boiled/Fried/Scrambled Eggs
Lunches
Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Grapes, Carrots x 2
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, Cucumbers, Apples x 2
Colored Pepper Strips with Dip, Pretzels, Cheese Sticks, Apples
Leftovers x 2
Dinners
Oven Baked Chicken and Rice, Easy Italian Breadsticks, Tossed Salad, Garlic Parmesan Roasted Broccoli, Ultimate Double Chocolate Brownies (I’m making enough of this meal to take it to a friend who is recovering from surgery)
Venison Burgers, Oven Roasted Seasoned Potato Wedges, Steamed Asparagus
Taste of Home Casserole (recipe from Trim Healthy Table Cookbook), Steamed Buttered Carrots, Easy Whole Wheat Bread
Easy Pizza Casserole (recipe from Trim Healthy Table Cookbook), Tossed Salad
Campout (for the guys in our family – dinner provided; the rest of us will do something simple like takeout with giftcards or Grilled Cheese Sandwiches)
Italian Chicken, Make-Ahead Butterhorns (from the freezer), Roasted Cauliflower, Perfect Baked Potatoes
Leftovers
Looking for a delicious and easy pumpkin recipe that you can whip up in no time at all? Try these pumpkin pancakes. They have just the right hint of pumpkin and spices without it being too much!
We made these pancakes as Breakfast for Dinner… and we also enjoy them for snack and for breakfast!
You can slather them with butter and syrup or just eat them warmed with a little butter.
Oh and I tried freezing them and they freeze really well!
1. In a large bowl, mix milk, pumpkin, egg, oil, and vinegar.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients into a separate bowl.
3. Stir dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture just until combined.
4. Cook on a lightly oiled or buttered griddle.
5. Serve warm with butter and real maple syrup!
Make sure to share and save it on your favorite platform below!
Mornings just got so much easier with this FREE list of 50+ Easy & Cheap Breakfast Ideas for Busy Weekday Mornings!
Do you dream of photographing the holidays without living behind your camera? Do you wish you could have amazing holiday photos of your kids but you feel like you just aren’t good at taking photos?
If so, keep reading, I’ve got the solution for you.
It can feel like we have to pick up our camera and capture every single moment during these memorable times of year.
Yes, you want to photograph this time but it is more important to be present during this time. And you don’t want to enjoy the holidays by living behind your camera.
Don’t let the stress of the holidays keep you from slowing down, being intentional, and photographing precious memories. I’ve got some help for you — and it’s FREE!
I’ve teamed up with Courtney of Click it Up a Notch for a free online class called How to Take Photos of the Holidays You Will Treasure.
Courtney is the force behind Click it Up a Notch which was named by the Huffington Post as one of the Top 5 Blogs for Momtographers. She helps over 40,000 photographers each week learn how to capture their life, beautifully.
She and I teamed up for another online class in January and you all loved it so much that she asked me if she could teach another class for my readers. I learned so much at her first class that I was thrilled to say yes! I think you are going to love what she shares!
So, join us on Tuesday, October 30th, 2018, at 2 p.m. CT/3 p.m. EST for this class.
In this class, you’ll learn:
I was honored to be interviewed for a piece recently on Marcus.com on creative budgeting. Here’s a snippet:
Crystal Paine and her husband, Jesse, were on a tight budget when they got married. They were committed to living debt free, even though Jesse was in law school. To make sure they never spent beyond their modest means, they began using the “cash envelopes” budgeting system.
Here’s how it works:
At the start of every month, after setting aside funds for rent and utilities, Jesse would withdraw all of their spending money for the month. At home, they would use envelopes to sort the pile of cash into categories: groceries, eating out, gas, gifts and so on. Once an envelope was empty, they resolved to not spend any more on that category for the rest of the month. They also reserved a special envelope of cash for themselves to spend as they wished.
Paine credits the envelope system for not only helping them survive the lean years but also teaching them to communicate and cooperate on a budget.
“Working together to spend the money in those shared envelopes — well, it helped us learn to talk about priorities,” she said.
It may seem counterintuitive, but Paine considers the limits imposed by the envelope system liberating.
“We don’t have to worry, ‘If we spend this money on eating out, are we going to be able to buy groceries next week?’” she said. “Because it’s all divvied up at the beginning of the month.”
Guest post from Keri of Families & Finance:
If your kid are anything like my kids, they eat ALL THE TIME!
It’s no secret that young children eat about every two hours. If you are in the throes of motherhood, you have probably wondered how in the world they can fit all of that food into such tiny bodies. I sure have!
I have also wondered how I can get away from spending all of my time in the kitchen slicing apples, doling out PB&J’s, and cleaning up the inevitable mess. I really didn’t want to pay for ready-made snacks and meals as they aren’t healthy or budget-friendly!
There had to be a way to streamline the process without shelling out more money.
I’m all about practical shortcuts, so I put my thinking cap on. After a bit of trial and error, I figured out a no-stress way to create toddler sized freezer meals! It’s so simple that you might just cry happy tears.
My “secret” is to use silicone muffin liners.
When silicone muffin liners first came out, they were all the rage, weren’t they? I saw them everywhere! People were making homemade chocolate cups, and using them as lunch box dividers. I thought “Well, I’d better get myself a set of those and see if they are all they’re cracked up to be.” It turns out, they are.
The idea came to me after I saw someone freezing soup in muffin tins. I thought it would be pretty difficult to remove the soup without a liner. Suddenly, I realized that although soup might not be a great thing to put into a silicone liner, other leftovers would work great!
That night, I took the few leftovers from our meal and dumped them into a muffin liner. I stuck it into the freezer in a snack-sized Ziploc bag. The next day, I fed my two-year-old his very first homemade freezer meal. It was a miracle!
I have been doing this ever since and it is a complete lifesaver!
Right before I had my third baby, I made a few dishes to turn into muffin cup meals so that I could feed my boys without having to cook. I can’t imagine what I would have done without them!
However, my favorite thing about this is that it can be done without any extra meal prep. My youngest two would be hard pushed to finish two muffin cups each. This doesn’t add up to much food at all!
Whenever we have a little bit of a recipe left after dinner, it goes right into the freezer. If I’m running low on mini freezer meals, I usually steal a couple of muffin liners before everyone eats. Nobody is the wiser, and it saves me a lot of work.
This has relieved me from dishes and cooking so many times!
Make sure to label the snack bags. It won’t take long before you have a variety of meals to choose from. If your toddler is anything like mine, he will want a say in what he eats for lunch, and everything starts looking the same pretty quickly.
When you are ready to feed your kids, just pop a muffin cup into a dish and heat it up in the microwave. The muffin cups take about thirty seconds each to defrost. Then, stir them up and they are the perfect temperature for little ones. If your kiddo is a bit older, zap it for another fifteen seconds or so.
This idea is incredibly simple and it can be applied to almost any leftovers. I have frozen mac and cheese, casserole, and breakfast bowls to name a few. The sky is the limit!
It’s amazing how much of a difference this one simple trick has made in our lives. Give this mom-hack a shot if you are looking to save money, time, and energy while feeding your kids!
Keri is a mother of three, Financial Planner, and founder of the blog, Families & Finance. She helps struggling stay-at-home-moms relieve the stress of money through frugal living, personal finance, and entrepreneurship so that they can find fulfillment in their everyday lives.
