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Shared Sep 24, 2018 comment

How to Listen to Books for Free

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 24, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Interested in how to get free audiobooks? I listen to ALL my audiobooks for FREE — and I have for years now! Read this post to learn how!

Psst! Interested in the best audiobooks to listen to? Check out this list of my top 7 favorites!

It’s no secret that I absolutely love books. And I try to invest at least a little bit of time every single day reading.

But on really full days, fitting in reading time can be a challenge. Which is why I’m so grateful for audiobooks! They are the perfect solution to making reading a priority — even if you aren’t able to physically sit down and read a book.

However, if you buy audiobooks online, they are often quite expensive — typically more than you’d pay for the paperback or hardback copy. Which is why I’m a fan of finding ways to listen to audiobooks for FREE instead.

Stop paying: How to get Free Audiobooks

When I first started listening to audiobooks back in 2016, I did extensive research on the best paid audiobook options.

And while services like Audible offer an extensive selection of audiobooks, a great interface, and the ability to own your books…I just can’t bring myself to pay over $12-$15 per month for ONE audiobook!

Because here’s a secret I’m going to let you in on — you can most likely listen to audiobooks for FREE from your local library!

How to Listen to Books for Free

Originally, the audiobook apps that libraries used were not very user-friendly and pretty clunky to use. But now that most libraries use the Libby app, I’ve fallen in love with listening to audiobooks from the library!

There are so many different audiobooks to choose from on it and they are all at my favorite price point: FREE! In fact, I’ve figured out that by using the Libby app, I’m probably saving about $100-$150 per month!

Audiobooks For Free: How the Libby App works

Download the Libby app and connect it to your local library card.
Search through the app for a book or audiobook you want to check out (you can search by genre, title, author, book format, availability, and more).
Once you find a book you want to “check out”, you either place a hold on it (if it’s not available) or choose to borrow it.
After borrowing a book, you get to keep it in your account for 14 days. After that, it automatically is loaned back to the library for another patron to be able to check out.

One drawback: Many of the popular books have quite a long waiting list, so you might have to wait a bit to get your turn to listen to the audiobook. Also, if you don’t finish listening within 14 days, you won’t be able to pick back up where you left off until you wait on the waiting list again. However, there are many great books that don’t have a long waiting list — or any waiting list at all!

But to have access to hundreds of thousands of audiobooks for FREE is pretty downright amazing. And I love the fact that I don’t have to worry about paying late fines, because a book just expires on the app once your checkout time is up.

Plus, you never even have to make it to the library to check out or return books. You can request and download and “return” books all right from your phone in your living room!

A few tips on How to Listen to Books for Free

These are just a few tips I’ve found to be personally helpful when listening to audiobooks…

I try to pick audiobooks that are no more than 8-9 hours in length because that’s a manageable length for me to get through before the audiobook needs to be “returned” to the library.
I always listen to the books on 1.25 speed — you can’t tell a difference. And it means that it speeds it up just a little bit.
Be sure to listen to a sample ahead of time. Some of the narrators are amazing and some are just annoying to me. I can’t spend 8 hours listening to a voice that annoys me.
I’ve found that certain genres are best for listening to. I especially love great biographies and fiction. I’ve found that non-fiction isn’t as enjoyable or beneficial to listen to. I prefer to read those since I’m more of a visual learner and want to make sure I catch every word and have the ability to underline/highlight. Try different genres and figure out which you prefer!

Finding time to listen to Audiobooks for Free

The great thing about audiobooks is that you can often listen to them while your hands are busy or you’re getting something else done!

Here are some pockets of time I use to listen to audiobooks each day:

While I’m getting ready in the morning — hair, makeup, cleaning up our room & bathroom.
When I’m working in the kitchen — washing dishes, cooking, etc.
When I’m driving without the kids — heading out on an errand, to school drop-off, etc.

For me, this adds up to about 30-60 minutes of audiobook listening time per day! And I can easily get through one book in 10-12 days this way!

More resources on Where to Listen to Free Audiobooks

If you don’t have access to the Libby app through your local library, here are a few other options:

Larger State Library — If your library is small and doesn’t offer free audiobook apps, consider checking into other larger libraries in your state. You may be able to get a free library card to another library in your state or area that does offer audiobooks. Or, they may offer a paid library membership to out-of-area residents. If you go through a lot of audiobooks, it may be a much less expensive option to buy a membership than to pay to download individual audiobooks from other sites.

Librivox — This site offers thousands of public domain audiobooks — for free. The audiobooks are read by volunteers so the quality isn’t always as professional as what you can download from the library. However, they are free for anyone to listen to on their computer, iPod or other mobile device, or to burn onto a CD. (Note: One of my readers mentioned in the comments that many of the classics have multiple versions available read by different readers, so try a few different versions to find the reader you like best!)

LoyalBooks — This is another HUGE directory of free audiobooks and ebooks. This site used to be called BooksShouldBeFree. It offers a wide variety of public domain audiobooks.

YouTube — Believe it or not, YouTube offers a number of free audiobooks. Some of these are illegally recorded, others are not. To find an audiobook on YouTube, search for the name of the book + audiobook to see if it pulls it up. There are a different YouTube channels that offer free audiobooks, too, such as Greatest Audiobooks and AudiobooksFree.

Open Culture — This site offers a listing of 700 different audiobooks you can download free. Most of the links are to iTunes downloads or MP3 downloads.

Free Classic Audiobooks — This site offers free audiobook downloads in mp3 and in m4b audiobook format for iTunes and the iPod. It’s a pretty old site, but it looks like they update it with new audiobooks fairly regularly.

Learn Out Loud — This site has a Free Audiobook section where they offer 3,000 different audiobooks for free. There are quite a few good selections to choose from. They list free audiobooks from across the web plus some you can download directly through LearnOutLoud.com.

Podcasts — One of my readers recommended the Sparkle Stories and StoryNory podcasts. They offer free audiobooks for kids.

Do you listen to free audiobooks? If so, when you do you find time to listen to them? What are some of your favorites? I’d love to know!

Shared Sep 23, 2018 comment

TopGolf, baseball, homework, and snacks

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 23, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I’m loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I’ve collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! ?

I wrote a post on How We Afford Snacks on a Tight Grocery Budget.

Silas pitched his first inning of a baseball game and did a great job!

His new school is really stretching him academically but in a way that motivates him, not frustrates him (well, most days!) I’ve been so proud to watch him really put his head down and work so hard on his projects and papers and homework and to see the sense of accomplishment he gets from working hard on something and completing it well.

We celebrated Jesse’s and Brian’s (our friend) birthday by going to TopGolf with friends. I’m not skilled at all when it comes to golf, but we still had a great time together!

I love watching this boy play his heart out on the ball field.

From My Heart…

They started fighting one night last week during the before dinner prayer.

One child began praying and the other child cut in upset that they weren’t getting to pray and said heatedly, “It’s MY turn to pray tonight!” And then started their own prayer.

You guys. This is life sometimes. I have visions of these heartwarming family dinners together — and then we can’t even make it through the before dinner prayer without arguing and fighting.

And of all the things to fight about… they are fighting about who gets to pray!!!

But despite the rough start to dinner, we ended up having great conversations around the table and had fun picking a new show to watch together after dinner (we’re trying out Monk — have you seen it?).

No day is perfect. Just like no family picture is perfect…

My parents hired a photographer to come take group photos and family photos when we were together in Breckenridge — which was an amazing idea.

Only thing is, we had a really full week that week and had packed at the last minute and hadn’t really had time to think through what we were going to wear for pictures to coordinate with everyone else.

So it was a bit of a mad, scramble, dash to pull off pictures! What you don’t know is that I’m hiding my shoe strap that is broken. (I forgot it had broken until I put them on minutes before pictures!) We had to run to Walmart at the last minute to find a shirt for one child who forgot to pack something for the pictures. And the girls borrowed my scarves the morning of the pictures because they didn’t like their outfits.

Despite the mishaps, there is beauty. And that is really how I’ve been trying to live my life… looking past the discouragements, the daily frustrations, the mishaps and miscommunications and mistakes… and looking for the beauty.

Because there is beauty and goodness around us, if we will be stop to take notice of it. And the more we look for it, the more we will see it in the middle of our imperfect and messy lives.

2018 Goals Update

Personal Goals

1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.

**Progress: 58 books read so far this year

2. Read through the entire Bible.

**Progress: I’m using the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!

3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.

**Progress: 36 notes written so far this year

4. Run 500 miles.

**Progress: 358 miles run so far

Marriage Goal

~~5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.~~Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.

Family Goals

6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.

**Progress: We’ve finished three books so far.

~~7. Take the kids to South Africa.~~ We took this trip in July. What a memorable experience!

8. Go on a family road trip.

**Progress: We’ve been researching some options for this and are planning to make this happen over Fall Break. Stay tuned!

Financial Goals

9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.

**Progress: The workout room is DONE and the office is almost done!

10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)

Business Goals

11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.

~~12. Launch 5 new courses.~~

**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April, the Facebook Live Masterclass in May, and we launched Build Your List 101 in June!

Shared Sep 22, 2018 comment

Hurry and get this HOT deal at Kroger on Ritz Crackers — it ends tonight!

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 22, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

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.

I wasn’t planning to do the Friday-Saturday deals at Kroger because they didn’t seem like they were really all that stellar. However, then I saw this hot tip on KrogerKrazy.com about a catalina that was printing when you bought 3 boxes of Family Size Nabisco Ritz Crackers.

So I popped into Kroger today to see if it would work — and it DID! This deal is only good through tonight, but I wanted to share it in case you have a chance to run to Kroger before the day is over with!

Here’s how to get this deal:

Buy 3 boxes of Nabisco Ritz Crackers at $1.99 each (be sure to download the coupon to your card from the Kroger app or Kroger site)
Spend $5.97 + tax out of pocket
Get a $3 catalina back — good for $3 off your next shopping trip!
That’s like paying $0.99 + tax per family-sized box of Ritz crackers!

I also picked up a few other deals at Kroger…

Saturday Kroger Shopping Trip

3 Family-Sized Boxes of Nabisco Ritz Crackers — $1.99 with the Kroger Digital Coupon
2 boxes of Raisinets — marked down to $0.19 each
Naked Juice — on closeout for $1.79, used $2/1 coupon — they deducted it down to $1.79 = FREE after coupon
4 jars of Yoplait Oui Yogurt — marked down to $2.39 total
Bananas — marked down to $0.39/lb. = $1.88 total
Total with tax: $12.46, Got a $3 catalina back

What I’ve Spent So Far This Week

My grocery week runs from Saturday to Friday. However, I had $11.85 leftover from this past week, so I’m subtracting it from this week’s total.

Total I’ve Spent So Far This Week: $1.09

Total Left to Spend: $68.91

Cashback Earned This Week: 25 points from Fetch Rewards for scanning a receipt

A Few Recipes We Love Using Ritz Crackers:

It’s not a healthful recipe at all, but this Ritzy Chicken casserole is one our family has loved for years. I’m guessing it’s going to be on our menu a few times in the next few weeks!
Also, these would be great to use in one of our family’s favorite recipes to make for Christmas: Ritz Cracker Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies (we just melt chocolate chips or white chocolate chips to dip them in instead of blending the different chocolates that the recipe calls for).

What are some of YOUR favorite ways to use Ritz crackers?

Shared Sep 22, 2018 comment

Brigette’s $73 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan for 6

Published: by Brigette on September 22, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Aldi

1 gallon Whole Milk – $1.36

2 64-oz cartons Orange Juice – $3.38

1 32-oz carton Half and Half – $1.59

1 16-oz carton Heavy Whipping Cream – $1.85

1 1-lb pkg Butter Quarters – $1.99

1 4-lb bag Sugar – $0.99

1 48-oz bag Frozen Chicken Breasts – $5.39

1 3-lb bag Frozen Ground Beef Patties – $8.89

1 16-oz pkg Deli Ham Meat – $2.99

1 pkg Turkey Bacon – $1.89

1 loaf Honey Wheat Bread – $0.85

1 box Pumpkin Toasty O’s Cereal – $1.99

1 16-oz bag Shredded Mozzarella Cheese – $2.49

2 16-oz bags Shredded Cheddar Cheese – $4.30

2 bags Gluten Free Pretzels – $3.50

1 pkg Rice Cakes – $1.15

1 tub Cookies and Cream Ice Cream (this got loaded into the freezer immediately instead of put on the table for the picture) – $1.75

1 jar Hot Fudge Syrup – $1.99

1 large Pumpkin – $3.79

1 pkg Romaine Hearts – $1.99

1 Cauliflower – $1.79

1 16-oz bag Mini Cucumbers – $1.69

1 bag Mini Sweet Peppers – $2.29

2 bags Baby Carrots – $1.58

1 2-lb bag Peaches – $1.50

3 dozen Eggs – $3.33

1 5-lb bag Jasmine Rice – $3.85

1 bag Chopped Pecans – $2.99

Total: $73.14

Grocery Total for the Week: $73.14

Weekly Menu Plan

We ended up with a LOT of leftover fresh produce from the past couple of weeks, so we’ll be working on using that up this week.

Breakfasts

Everyone is responsible for making/cleaning up their own breakfast. Choices include:

Cereal, Oatmeal, Fruit, Boiled/Fried/Scrambled Eggs, Veggie Omelets

Birthday Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls, Bacon, Boiled Eggs

Lunches

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Fruit, Carrots

Rice Cakes with Peanut Butter, Cheese Sticks, Carrots, Apples

Ham Sandwiches, Oranges, Cucumbers

Pretzels with Peanut Butter, Peaches/Apples Mini Peppers x 2

Leftovers x 2

Dinners

Pakistani Kima (recipe from “More With Less” cookbook), Tossed Salad, Fruit

Hamburgers on the Grill with Homemade Buns, Baked Potato Wedges, Applesauce, Roasted Cauliflower

Taco Salad (We use ground venison instead of ground beef), Spanish Rice

Baked Chicken Breast, Creamy Milk Rice, Make-Ahead Butterhorns, Roasted Zucchini

Shepherd’s Pie, Make-Ahead Butterhorns, Ice Cream Cake (Birthday Dinner)

BBQ Meatballs, Twice Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Biscuits

Leftovers

Shared Sep 21, 2018 comment

I found whole milk marked down to $1.99!!

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 21, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

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.

Look what I found at Kroger today?? Whole milk marked down to $1.99!! I haven’t seen whole milk marked down in a long time and it’s the only kind of milk we usually buy.

(I know some of you only pay $2 per gallon all the time, but here in this area, I never see milk that cheap unless it’s marked down.)

I also picked up this FREE Hormel Compleats meal which one of my kids was SO excited about. These kinds of meals always look super unappetizing to me… but my kids apparently disagree! 🙂

(Psst! If you have a Kroger or Kroger affiliate, go grab your coupon for a FREE Hormel Compleats Meal.)

Friday Kroger Shopping Trip

Kroger Instant Oatmeal — $1.49, used $0.40/1 coupon Kroger sent me in the mail = $1.09 after coupon
Takis — $1.49 when you buy 5 participating items
2 packages Keebler cookies — $1.49 each, used $1/2 coupon Kroger sent me in the mail = $0.99 each after the coupon
Gillette Shave Gel — $0.99 when you buy 5 participating items
Nature’s Own Bread — $1.99 when you buy 5 participating items
1 yogurt — marked down to $0.29
3 caramel apples — marked down to $0.25 each
2 Yoplait Oui yogurts — marked down to $0.79 each
Brown Rice — $0.89
Hormel Compleats Meal — FREE with Free Friday Digital coupon
1 bag of potatoes — marked down to $0.99
1 bag of 4 apples — marked down to $0.99
Kroger milk — marked down to $1.99
4 tubs of Oscar Mayer turkey — on closeout for $2.09 each
Total with tax: $24.94

What I’ve Spent So Far This Week

Total I’ve Spend So Far This Week: $58.15

Total Left to Spend: $11.85

Cashback Earned This Week: 170 points from Fetch Rewards for buying Oscar Mayer + scanning another receipt + $0.25 back from Ibotta for scanning a receipt

How much do you spend for a gallon of milk and where do you live? I’d love to hear!

WANT TO SAVE $100 FAST?!Join the FREE 14-Day Savings Challenge!

Click here to sign up!

Shared Sep 20, 2018 comment

Cheap Easy Snacks on a Budget

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 20, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Looking for easy ways to stock your pantry with cheap snacks for kids? These are my best tips!

One thing I’ve promised the kids over the past few years is that any time we cut our grocery budget back, I would still find ways to buy treats and some of their favorite foods for them. So I’m always on the lookout for markdowns and deals on items that they especially love or that I know will make them excited.

These items aren’t necessarily the best deals ever, but if I can afford to purchase treats for them in our budget, then I’m all about that. Also, it becomes easier to have wiggle room in your grocery budget the more you stock up and buy multiples of items when they are at their lowest price.

How to FIND the Cheapest Snacks

Here are some of my tips for being able to afford snacks if you’re on a tight grocery budget:

Follow KrogerKrazy.com. So many of the great deals I find at Kroger are thanks to tips from KrogerKrazy.com. I can’t recommend this site enough! It’s fantastic if you have a Kroger or Kroger affiliate. I may check it something like 3-5 times per day. Yup. I’m THAT weird girl who gets so jazzed about new deals! By the way, the Friday-Saturday/weekend sales recently have had a LOT of great deals on snack foods.
Find a local blogger. Don’t have a Kroger? Search for the name of you local store and “deals” or “coupon blogger” to see if there’s a similar site where a blogger is covering the deals at your local store. (There are so many IHeartPublix.com, TotallyTarget.com, and many more! If you know of a great blogger doing a really great job of covering deals exclusively at one store, please leave a comment and let us know!)
Look for markdowns and closeouts. As you know, I always walk around the perimeter of the store looking for markdowns. If I have extra time, I’ll quickly walk through the aisles looking for the white closeout stickers at Kroger. Other stores like BigLots, have clearance carts that sometimes have really great deals on snack foods. Check at your local stores to see what they offer in the way of clearance and markdowns. I know that Target often has great markdowns on snack foods, too. (Tip: Check out my post on How to Find Great Markdowns at Kroger.)

Buying Cheap Snacks on a Budget:

Stock up when you find a great deal. This is one of those tips that I assume every knows, but when I talk to so many people most people are not stocking up when there’s a great sale. If you know it’s something that your kids love and it’s on a great deal and you can afford it in your budget, get as many as you can! That way, you won’t have to pay full-price for snacks OR you won’t have to tell your kids that there just aren’t any snacks because you didn’t have wiggle room in your budget. I try to buy ahead at least $5-$8 worth of snack type foods each week and then we always have a good selection to choose from.
Set up a stash that the kids can’t get into. Okay, so some of you might think I’m a crazy mom to do this, but I actually have a high shelf in our pantry that is known as “Mom’s Secret Stash.” It’s not really that secret since all the kids know about it, but it’s snack foods that I’ve bought extras of that they aren’t allowed to get into until I get it down. The reason is: if I leave the snack foods easily accessible, my kids go through them at alarming rates. So instead, I will put one or two bags or packages of something in the pantry that they can get into and the rest are saved for the following week (or for whenever we are running low on snacks in the other shelves of the pantry). It’s weird, but by doing this, the kids pace themselves and the snacks last much, much longer.

While packaged snacks can be fun and my kids love them, they also love homemade snack foods, too. Here are some options that are favorites around here:

8 Homemade Cheap Easy Snacks

Hard-Boiled Eggs
Veggies
Fruit
Homemade Yogurt in the Crockpot
Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets
Popcorn
Homemade Crockpot Pear or Applesauce Sauce
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies

8 Freezer-Friendly Cheap Snack Ideas

When you have a free day or a laid-back weekend, use some of that time to make meals and parts of meals to stick in your freezer. Things like homemade popsicles, homemade gogurts, homemade cookie dough, homemade muffins, and homemade smoothie kits are great to have on hand.

Best Cheap Snacks (Even More Ideas!)

Read this post on 20+ Frugal Snack Ideas submitted by readers.
Be sure to check out this Facebook post for a plethora of additional ideas and tips!
You can Save Over $100 Per Year Making Your Own Snacks. (Read for additional tips and recipe ideas!)
Check out these 10 Healthy and Cheap Vegan Snacks for Kids for some more recipes!
This list of 8 Delicious & Healthy Freezer-Friendly Snack Ideas includes some of our all-time faves!
These Grain-Free Chocolate Cashew Cookies Made With Black Beans are delicious and packed with protein!
We’re HUGE fans of muffins in our home. Check out my Top 7 Favorite Freezer-Friendly Muffin Recipes!

Cheap Snack Ideas from our Readers:

Thanks to many of you for leaving comments and/or submitting your favorite frugal snack ideas!

Yogurt and granola
Smoothies with frozen fruit
Cereal
Chips and salsa
Frozen grapes
Produce from your own garden
Celery or apples with peanut butter and raisins
PB & J sandwiches
Toast or bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter

What tips and advice do you have for saving money on snacks? I’d love to hear!

Shared Sep 19, 2018 comment

5 Creative Ideas to Lower the Cost of Expensive School Trips

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 19, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Karen of Lightly Frayed:

Statistics show it currently costs a quarter of a million dollars to raise a child in North America… sometimes it feels like half of that goes towards school-related expenses!

“Mom – I need $34 for a field trip next week.”

“Can you give me money for…a new agenda…pizza day…school pictures…and a yearbook?”

And the list goes on.

Everyday items can certainly add up, but one of the largest school expenses is class trips.

A few years ago, one of our boys had an opportunity to go on a three-day school trip a few hours away… for $350! We wrestled with whether we would send him, knowing it was a big-ticket item and would set a precedent for future trips for his three younger brothers.

Ultimately, we decided to pass on this trip since our youth group offered a similar outdoor experience at a fraction of the cost.

Of course, it’s not easy to tell your middle-schooler he won’t be able to go on a school trip with their friends… but after talking with another school mom who also felt the trip was too expensive, a possible alternative emerged.

Together, we organized “Camp Left Behind” for our two grade six boys. While the rest of their class was on the school trip, we did affordable and memorable activities with our boys at home.

The boys enjoyed our ‘homemade’ camp, because they could still miss school and spend time together. They even embraced the quirkiness of our camp name.

Camp Left Behind included:

a full day at a gym and pool, using my friend’s guest passes
an afternoon of trampolining
lunch out at the restaurant of their choice
1-on-1 basketball competitions
movie nights at each other’s houses
memories captured in many photos

Since Money Saving Mom readers are a resourceful group, I’d love to share 5 more ideas we’ve used to lower the cost of expensive school trips.

1. Discuss Openly as a Family

We follow Crystal’s suggestion to not use “We can’t afford that” as a default response to our children.

Rather, we talk about weighing out how we spend our money, and we encourage our kids to be part of deciding how important the trip is to them.

A few times, our boys have decided to miss one trip in favor of doing a different one later in the year. This reinforces decision-making rather than focusing on a lack of resources.

2. Be Honest

Families in our school have homes ranging from one-bedroom apartments to luxurious dwellings. What is easily affordable for one family can be prohibitive to another.

The school needs feedback from families of all budgets.

One teacher appreciated my feedback that a $700 trip could be a financial strain for many.

Ask if a reduced rate might be available or inquire if group fundraising would be an option.

3. Be Prepared for Unexpected Blessings

One time, my son explained to his teacher that he would not be able to attend the planned class trip. His teacher called me later that week to offer my son a full scholarship for the trip!!!

She said she nominated him for his quiet, consistent leadership, and explained other teachers were thrilled for him to receive the allotted funds.

Not only could he attend the trip, but he learned that character can be noticed and valued.

4. Ask Your People

Do you have any grandparents who would be able to contribute? They might just be thrilled to help their grandkids have a unique experience like a trip.

Children can learn how to write a letter explaining the details of the trip, and politely ask for any contributions.

My mother-in-law told me they chuckled when our third son asked them if they would consider “investing in him”, then proceeded to talk only about the great food he would eat in Quebec.

They teased him that they expected interest back on their investment.

5. Be Creative

Since our family has committed to only pay cash for things, we often use out-of-the-box strategies to raise funds.

We sell items we no longer use at yard sales. Our boys have mowed lawns or done weeding for neighbors. One of our children sold his Lego sets online to fund his particular adventure. Another son buys vintage items at thrift stores and sells them at a significant profit.

Our children have been proud to pay for a percentage of their school trips; viewing this as an accomplishment, and a necessary part of being part of a larger family.

While it is difficult to say ‘no’ to our children, living within our means is an important life skill to weave into our family culture.

With a little brainstorming and flexibility, it IS possible to turn apparent roadblocks into life lessons sprinkled with adventures.

You simply can’t put a price on that!

Karen Gauvreau, would squeeze her four-baby-body into a cheerleader’s uniform for you to know someone is rooting for you as a Mom – cartwheeling for your victories and offering a pep talk when you feel pummelled. If you laugh in the process, even better! When she’s not saving money on school trips, she’s writing at LightlyFrayed.com.

top photo source

Shared Sep 18, 2018 comment

Gretchen’s $64 Weekly Grocery Shopping Trip and Menu Plan

Published: by Gretchen on September 18, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Dillons

1 Kroger Cottage Cheese – $1.25

1 Kroger Sour Cream – $1.25, used $0.50/1 e-coupon – $0.75 after coupon

3 pkg Kroger Shredded Cheese – $1.88 each, used $0.85/3 e-coupon – $1.59 each after coupon

4.16 lbs Bananas – $2.04

1 Green Leaf Lettuce – $1.29

1 bag Marked Down Produce – $0.99

1 Pineapple – $0.99

Total after coupons: $12.08

Aldi

2 pkg Fruit Squeezies – $1.49 each

1 Half & Half – $1.79

1 bag Navel Oranges – $1.99

1 can Baked Beans – $1.39

1 Ranch Dressing – $1.29

1 bag Chocolate Chips – $1.89

1 bag Frozen Chicken Tenderloins – $5.79

1 jar Spaghetti Sauce – $1.39

1 gallon Milk – $1.79

2 pkg Frozen Veggies – $0.79 each

1 pkg Ground Beef – $6.33

3 pkg Strawberries – $0.99 each

1 loaf Bread – $1.49

1 pkg Old Fashioned Oats – $2.39

1 lb Oven Roasted Turkey Meat – $3.99

1 lb Frozen Ground Beef – $3.39

4 cans Green Beans – $0.49 each

1 pkg Roma Tomatoes – $0.99

1 lb Butter – $2.56

1 Honey – $2.99

2 Cucumbers – $0.59 each

1 pkg English Muffins – $0.79

Total: $52.91

Total for both stores: $64.99

Menu Plan for This Week

Breakfasts

Cereal, Toasted English Muffins, Fruit, Eggs

Lunches

Cheese/Crackers, Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Tossed Salads, Turkey Sandwiches, Fruit/Veggies, Leftovers

Dinners

Mac & Cheese, Fruit

Date night (My in-laws are watching the kids and they will feed them!)

Grilled Minute Steaks (from my mom), Homemade Rolls, Steamed Peas

Lasagna Casserole, Tossed Salad, Banana Bread

Barbecue Meatballs, Twice Baked Potatoes, Green Beans (I’m bringing dinner for all the adults in our Lifegroup.)

French Toast, Eggs, Oranges

Italian Chicken, Pumpkin Pecan Muffins, Steamed Corn

Shared Sep 16, 2018 comment

Costco, Tough Mudders, Crockpots, and Camping

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 16, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I’m loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I’ve collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! ?

I posted asking you all about whether you thought I should get a Costco membership and MAN, you all delivered! There were 100+ comments on the original posts + so many other comments I got on social media and emails you all sent in! Part of me just wants to try shopping at Costco for a few months, but the other part of me thinks that many of you are very right: I won’t be able to beat the prices I currently get.

Also, I found out that you can buy seaweed at Kroger (I had no idea since I’ve never purchased it before!) and you can usually get it for less than a $1 per package by pairing coupons with sales. I also heard that it’s even less expensive at Asian grocery stores. So I guess that 10 packages of seaweed for $8.99 at Costco wasn’t such an amazing deal after all!

I am so enjoying getting on Facebook Live at 6:50 a.m. in the mornings to share what I’m cooking for dinner.

Plus, having dinner all made before our day starts makes the afternoons and evenings so much calmer! I’d love to have you join me live tomorrow morning, if you’re up at 6:50 a.m. CST!

I got this new book in the mail from my friend, Jennifer Dukes Lee. AND I got to interview her on my soon-to-be-released podcast! It officially launches next week and I am crazy excited about it and have been having so much fun learning a brand-new skillset! (Sign up here if you want to get to hear the very first episode before anyone else does!)

Jennifer sent me a copy of her book and these beautiful cards that made me smile! 🙂

On Friday, we left for a weekend camping trip with our Community Group. I brought my Instant Pot for the first time to use for dinner — and it worked like a charm!

Psst! Looking for some of my newbie camping advice? Check out my post from our last camping trip on How We Prepared for Our Very First Camping Trip.

After we got camp all set up and ate dinner, we began with a reading and prayer from our pastor.

(Kaitlynn took some amazing pictures of the lights.)

He was the only boy on the camping trip, but he did great at holding his own and having fun with all the girls!

One of the families brought their dog — and the kids enjoyed playing with him! (Not sure why Silas had one shoe on and one is missing! Who knows?!)

They made a bunch of mud creations with the clay in the lake. The girls then painted them and sold them to the parents. I thought it was quite creative entrepreneurship!

A good ‘ole fashioned game of “chicken”.

We rented a camper trailer this time around in order to try to help us sleep better, make the set up and tear down quicker (since we had the Tough Mudder on Sunday), and help our outdoor allergies not be so awful from camping like they were last time we went tent camping.

Well, it was the best thing ever! We rented it from an RV share site and got it for a day and a half for less than the price of a hotel room. And we absolutely loved it! I’ll probably be writing a complete post on our experience because so many people asked me to do so after I shared about it on Instagram Stories.

By the way, it only took us a few hours to get all packed up and out the door this time — as opposed to 10 hours last time. It helped tremendously that we already had most of the supplies in tubs and I had put together the Master Camping List last time around.

(You can read my post on the Master List of Things You Should Take Camping here.)

The four families who came (one family from our Community Group couldn’t make it, sadly!), all were each in charge of their own breakfasts and lunches, but we had Communal Dinners and everyone pitched in and brought stuff.

We did hot dogs and brats the first night (I brought all of the ones I’d gotten from various Kroger deals and markdowns the last two months — I had them in the freezer and it was plenty to feed all 20 of us!) and then we did a Taco/Fajita night the second night. This worked so well and made it so that no one had to do a lot of work.

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early for the Tough Mudder. It was our third time to participate in a Tough Mudder (see details on our first Tough Mudder here — look how tiny our kids were then!!)

I had been looking forward to the Tough Mudder so much because we had convinced some of our best friends to do it with us. It had been SO hot on Saturday, so we were worried it was going to be too hot today. But it was perfect. Warm, but cloudy and the perfect temperature.

We loved getting to hang out, walk 10 miles together, push and encourage each other on the obstacles, and challenge ourselves outside our comfort zones.

(We didn’t get any pictures on the actual course, but one of the volunteers at the finish line offered to take these pictures at the finish line and text them to us!)

I ended up only skipping one of the 23 obstacles this time — which I was super excited about since I had always bypassed three obstacles in the past. I wasn’t able to complete two of the obstacles that I tried out (both requiring upper arm strength — something I really need to improve in!), but the fact that I didn’t chicken out and went for it and tried it encouraged me.

Plus, the entire Mudder as a whole just felt so much easier and fun than the two we had done in the past. I think that the more you do hard things, the less scary and daunting they become!

If you ever get a chance to do a Tough Mudder, I highly, highly recommend it.

By the way, the tickets are expensive, but you can sometimes find them discounted on Groupon (that’s where we got ours) or you can get in free or highly discounted if you volunteer at the event the day before.

2018 Goals Update

Personal Goals

1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.

**Progress: 58 books read so far this year

2. Read through the entire Bible.

**Progress: I’m using the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!

3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.

**Progress: 34 notes written so far this year

4. Run 500 miles.

**Progress: 348 miles run so far

Marriage Goal

~~5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.~~Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.

Family Goals

6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.

**Progress: We’ve finished three books so far.

~~7. Take the kids to South Africa.~~ We took this trip in July. What a memorable experience!

8. Go on a family road trip.

**Progress: We’ve been researching some options for this and are planning to make this happen over Fall Break. Stay tuned!

Financial Goals

9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.

**Progress: The workout room is DONE and the office is almost done!

10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)

Business Goals

11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.

~~12. Launch 5 new courses.~~

**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April, the Facebook Live Masterclass in May, and we launched Build Your List 101 in June!

Shared Sep 15, 2018 comment

A movie, an online class, and an Aldi trip

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 15, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

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!

I started the day attending chapel at Silas and Kaitlynn’s school.

I love getting to sit with them and spend a little time in their world on Wednesdays.

And then I headed to Discipleship Group.

We kicked off our Lesson 1 meeting by talking about stories and how each of us have a story — and how in light of the Gospel, we can see Creation, the Fall, Redemption and Restoration in our stories.

In our small group time, we each had to draw a picture of a little screenshot of where we’re at in life right now and share that with our group (how we’re feeling right where we’re at in life). This brought such honest discussion and we had really heartfelt conversations as a result.

After Discipleship Group, Jesse and I went to a movie together. (Middle of the day dates are the BEST!)

We saw Mission Impossible: Fallout — which we both enjoyed, though it made me want to go back and watch the rest of the Mission Impossible movies.

After I helped the kids with homework, I laid down and read a little bit and then took a power nap.

And then it was time for dinner and to prep for my online blogging class that I was teaching. (Brian on my team came over to help run the class and get everything set up for it!)

{By the way, I wanted to teach this class during a middle of the week evening, but the only free night that worked to do it was Wednesday. Even though it’s my off day, I made an exception and did it. And I actually really enjoyed doing it on a Wednesday since I felt like I came to the class so fresh and ready to teach after being offline all day!}

We sometimes get creative in how we set things up! This time, we used a huge stack of my coloring books to hold my computer! 🙂

When I was finished, Jesse was on his way home from picking the girls up from church.

(By the way, Jesse and Silas went to Aldi for me while I was doing the class. He said that they split up and both took half the list. Silas told me how it compared prices and made sure to get the store brand not the name brand and the best deal on everything. While it’s pretty simple an easy to do this at Aldi, it made my mama heart so happy to hear him doing this all on his own! I feel like I have accomplished a big life goal that he knows how to grocery shop on a budget and find the best deals!)

Kaitlynn finished up some homework while I worked in the kitchen.

And Silas made a bedtime snack of macaroni and cheese. (That boy loves his mac & cheese!)

Then, we all hung out and talked for awhile and then the kids went to bed and I worked on prepping for podcast interviews the next day. And then it was time to bed for me, too!

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Shared Sep 15, 2018 comment

Brigette’s $62 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan

Published: by Brigette on September 15, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Aldi

1 gallon Whole Milk – $1.36

1 16-oz carton Heavy Whipping Cream – $1.55

2 64-oz cartons Orange Juice – $3.38

1 10-lb bag Russet Potatoes – $3.89

1 bag Frozen Mixed Veggies – $0.75

2 16-oz bags Shredded Cheddar Cheese – $4.30

2 1-lb boxes Butter – $3.98

2 cans Condensed Tomato Soup – $0.90

2 cans Diced Tomatoes – $0.70

1 32-oz carton Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt – $3.29

1 pkg Fresh Zucchini – $1.49

2 pkgs Strawberries – $2.18

1 3-ct pkg Multi-Colored Peppers – $1.49

1 pkg Broccoli Crowns – $1.29

1 bag Green Grapes (2.94lbs @ $0.79/lb) – $2.32

2 heads Cauliflower – $3.58

1 pkg Romaine Hearts – $1.99

1 bag Fresh Green Beans – $1.39

2 bags Baby Carrots – $1.58

1 pkg Baby Lettuce – $1.89

1 bag Radishes – $0.49

1 16-oz bag Mini Cucumbers – $1.69

1 6-ct pkg Blueberry Applesauce Cups (sugarless) – $1.39

1 box Rice Squares – $1.79

1 bag Gluten Free Pretzels – $1.75

1 box Cheddar Crackers – $1.49

1 pkg Rice Cakes – $1.15

1 pkg Cream Cheese – $0.65

2 dozen Eggs – $2.26

1 pkg Hotdog Buns – $0.65

2 pkgs Kaiser Buns – $1.99 (I bought these because there was no sandwich bread left in the store…or at any store in the entire city. Sandwich bread is a hurricane staple in the South, y’all! :))

Total: $58.60

Harris Teeter

10 cans Green Beans – $2.90

1 Eggland’s Best Eggs – $2.00, used $0.55/1 Eggland’s Best Eggs – 9-9-18 RMN (exp. 12/09/18) (doubled) – $0.90 after coupon

1 jar Simply Ragu – $1.25, used $0.75/1 Ragu Simply Pasta Sauce – 8-26-18 SS; Includes 24 oz Only (exp. 09/23/18) (doubled) – FREE after coupon

Total: $3.80

Free Produce from a Friend’s Garden

More Freebies (and that’s a second bucket of Okra!)

Grocery Total for the Week: $62.40

Weekly Menu Plan

Breakfasts

Everyone is responsible for making/cleaning up their own breakfasts. Choices include:

Cereal, Oatmeal, Fruit, Yogurt, Boiled/Fried/Scrambled Eggs, Veggie Omelets, Smoothies

Lunches

Turkey Meat/Lettuce/Tomatoes on Kasier Rolls, Grapes, Carrots x 2

Pretzels/Cheddar Crackers, Strawberries, Cucumbers, Cheese Sticks

Build-Your-Own-Salad Bar (Chopped Romaine, Cut Up Veggies and Fruit, Nuts, Shredded Cheese, Craisins, Hard Boiled Eggs, Dressing), Kaiser Rolls

Leftovers x 3

Dinners

Eggplant Lasagna, Homemade French Bread, Tossed Salad, Green Beans

Shepherd’s Pie (recipe from a church cookbook), Steamed Broccoli, Fruit Salad

Cheesy Hamburger Potato Soup (I’ll use venison instead of ground beef), Italian Breadsticks, Fresh Veggies and Dip

Chicken Pot Pie, Steamed Cauliflower, Marinated Tomato Salad with Herbs (I grow pots of herbs on my back screened-in porch, so I always have fresh herbs to use this time of year)

Mexican Lasagna, Tossed Salad, Apples

Hotdogs (I “found” a package in the freezer that needs to be used up!), Baked Homemade French Fries, Fried Okra

Venison Roast in the Crockpot, Garlic Mashed Cauliflower, Roasted Okra, Easy Homemade Biscuits

Shared Sep 12, 2018 comment

My #1 Tip to Have Stress-Free Afternoons & Evenings

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 12, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

One of the best ways I’ve discovered to feel more organized and less frazzled in the afternoons and evenings is to have a plan for dinner and have it already made before the kids come home from school.

That way, when they come home, I can just be present with them instead of trying to fix dinner and oversee homework and help kids with projects and get ready for whatever activities we have in the evening. Plus, it also saves us money because we’re not running to the store or through the drive-thru at 5:30 p.m. at night!

I’ve found that the best way to make this happen is to either have dinner already made and just needing to be heated up or to put dinner in the crockpot in the morning. I look for quick and easy meals that only take minutes to make in the morning or can be pulled out of the freezer and heated up in the Instant Pot or Crockpot or oven.

Want to Try Prepping Your Dinners in the Morning?

I want to challenge you to try implementing this habit of having dinner prepped in the morning in your home and see how it works for you. And to help you out, I’m going to do a fun Eat at Home challenge on my blog and on Facebook Live and Instagram Stories for the next 6 days — where I’ll be prepping our dinners on live video before we head to school in the mornings (I’ll be on live around 6:50-7:10 a.m.).

I’ll likely be in my workout clothes with no makeup on and the kids will be doing last-minute prep for school. It’s going to be real and raw and unedited… and I can guarantee there will likely be some mishaps or real-life scenes that take place. But I want to bring you into our morning and our kitchen to encourage you that you don’t have to do it perfectly for it to still make a big difference!

How This Challenge Will Work

The challenge will run for 6 days — September 13-18, 2018. Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday morning around 6:50 a.m. to 7:10 a.m. CT, I’ll be on Facebook Live prepping our dinner to throw in the slow cooker for the day so that when 6 p.m. rolls around dinner is READY!

(I’m taking the weekend off since we’ll be camping with our Community Group on Saturday morning and running the Tough Mudder on Sunday morning.)

Every day, in addition to doing a Facebook Live video on my Facebook Page, I’ll be posting here on the blog what I made that day, along with a link to my video (in case you missed it).

My hope is that this will inspire you with some new recipe ideas, encourage you to not wait until the last minute to think about what you’re having for dinner, and motivate you to eat at home more (even on busy nights!) so you can save money.

I’d love for you to join me in this challenge!

I know that many of you are in the middle of getting back into rhythms and routines after summer break so I hope this Eat At Home Challenge will inspire you with simple and easy meals that you can make in the morning before your kids head out the door to school or before you head to work or before you start your day and then you won’t have to think about dinner the rest of the day!

Are you joining us for the Eat at Home Challenge? If so, leave a comment and let us know!

Shared Sep 11, 2018 comment

Would I Save Money to Shop at Costco?

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 11, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I found out recently — thanks to our friends Ryan and Melissa — that our kids LOVE seaweed (go figure!). We were having a picnic together and their family had brought tuna salad with seaweed. They offered some to our kids and they tried it and fell in love.

And then they promptly begged us to buy some. Jesse looked at Whole Foods to buy it and it was some ridiculous price per package. So Melissa offered to pick some up for us at Costco.

You guys! This entire HUGE package of 10 packages of organic seaweed (each package has 5 servings) was $8.99!!!!

Help Me Out! I Want Your Honest Opinion!

I’ve always said that a Costco membership just wasn’t worth it for our family because I could beat almost all of the prices by shopping markdowns, coupons, and deals.

But I’m wondering if now that my kids are older and we eat somewhat differently (and a lot more!) than we did five years ago, if I should re-think that stance.

So I’d love to hear some honest feedback on this from you all. Do you think a Costco membership is something I should consider? Do you feel like you can often beat the prices I pay for things by shopping at Costco? I’d love for you to give me your honest thoughts and input.

By the way, you should know that we don’t have a Costco nearby our house (I actually don’t even know where the Costco is here!), so it would mean a little out-of-the-way trip to shop there. But if you think I could spend our $70 per week more wisely by shopping at Costco, I’d love to hear. Convince me!

Shared Sep 11, 2018 comment

Mountain goats, baseball, slime, and an Escape Room!

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 11, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I’m loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I’ve collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! ?

One of the highlights of Breckenridge was getting to see mountain goats out in the wild!

My niece, Emily, came up with a creative way to carry her dolly around while we were walking around in Colorado.

We climbed up this fairly big rocky hill… and then the girls had the idea for me to take pictures of them looking like they were falling off the side of the hill.

After I took pictures of them, they wanted me to get in on the fun. And this was one of the pictures Kaitlynn took.

Only problem was, after I laid down flat on my belly on the rock to take it… I couldn’t figure out how to get back up without actually sliding down the hill.

I finally did make it back up on my feet, but it took me a good long few minutes and I was inwardly thinking the whole time, “You’re going to be the news report about the blogger who fell down the rocky hill while trying to get a photo for Instagram!”

Lesson learned: before you decide to stage some crazy photo, be sure you know how you’re actually going to get up from said crazy position. 😉

Kaitlynn was trying to get a contemplative photo of me… but I kept laughing because I felt ridiculous trying to pose for her! 😉

We came home from Breckenridge on Tuesday and the kids went back to school and normal life on Wednesday (read about our Wednesday here). On Thursday evening, Kathrynne’s school had a Meet the Teachers night.

I didn’t know what to expect as she started at this school halfway through the year so we missed all the beginning of the year stuff including this night. I guess it’s a common thing at many schools, but in case you’ve not heard of it, it’s where you get to go through a Day in the Life of you student — the bell rings and you got to their first class with their first teacher for 10 minutes and they talk about what they are teaching, expectations, and just introduce themselves.

Then the bell rings and you move to their next class with their next teacher. And so on and so forth.

We loved getting to hear from all of her teachers and getting to sit in her classrooms and get a feel for what her everyday is like there. It helps us have so much more context for her life. And if your child’s school has this, I can’t recommend it highly enough!

Silas started baseball up again on a new team this year. Jesse is an assistant coach and one of his good friends is the coach. It will be fun to get to hang out with good friends at the baseball field every week for his games!

Kaitlynn had a new friend over this week and they made, you guessed it, homemade slime. Because, of course. Kaitlynn found out that this friend hadn’t made slime successfully before, so she had to remedy that! 🙂

On My Heart…

I’m learning one of the greatest gifts to open up communication with my kids is to be a good listener.

Instead of trying to fix or preach, I’m learning to practice the art of being a quiet listener.

I often ask them, “What was the highlight of your day? What was the hardest part of your day?”

Oftentimes, questions like these will open up a trickle of frustration. Sometimes, it’s more than a trickle… more like a torrent!

Their frustration used to scare me. I’d jump to worst case scenarios: “What if the teacher senses my child isn’t enjoying their class?” “What if my child can’t hold their frustration in and it all boils out in an ugly way when others are around?”

My fear was ultimately about what others would think. Fear of how my child and my parenting would be perceived.

This fear caused me to jump all over my my kids’ frustrations & preach a mini sermons & tell them why they needed to get over it & stop having a bad attitude.

This only served to shut down the communication lines with my child and make them feel like they couldn’t share their heart with me or open up in any way.

God has been doing a work in my heart, helping me to stop parenting out of fear or for behavioral modification.

I’m learning to see the heart of my kids, to truly listen to them, to be okay with letting them air their frustrations & struggles without feeling like I have to go into fixer mode.

The unexpected result is that my kids now often come to me first with their frustrations. I don’t even have to ask!

When they open up to me, I’m learning to listen, ask questions, listen some more, ask them if there’s anything else they are feeling, empathize with them, and ask if I can pray with them or just sit with them and let them know they are loved.

If they ask for counsel or input (or I feel it’s a case when it’s necessary), I will give it — but usually in the form of asking them more questions, processing with them, & sharing what I would probably do in their situation & encouraging them to seek God & think about how He wants them to respond.

It’s a beautiful journey and I’m grateful for how God is changing my heart as a parent.

We celebrated Jesse’s birthday by going to an Escape Room and out to dinner as a family. We thought we actually weren’t going to make it out of the room this time, but we did it — with only a tiny bit of time to spare!

2018 Goals Update

Personal Goals

1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.

**Progress: 55 books read so far this year

2. Read through the entire Bible.

**Progress: I’m using the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!

3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.

**Progress: 33 notes written so far this year

4. Run 500 miles.

**Progress: 335 miles run so far

Marriage Goal

~~5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.~~Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.

Family Goals

6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.

**Progress: We’ve finished three books so far.

~~7. Take the kids to South Africa.~~ We took this trip in July. What a memorable experience!

8. Go on a family road trip.

**Progress: We’ve been researching some options for this and are planning to make this happen over Fall Break. Stay tuned!

Financial Goals

9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.

**Progress: The workout room is DONE and the office almost done!

10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)

Business Goals

11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.

~~12. Launch 5 new courses.~~

**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April, the Facebook Live Masterclass in May, and we launched Build Your List 101 in June!

Shared Sep 11, 2018 comment

Gretchen’s $52 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan

Published: by Gretchen on September 11, 2018 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Dillons Trip #1

1 Hidden Valley Ranch Dip – $0.59

1 pkg Kroger Shredded Cheese – $3.29, used $0.70/1 e-coupon – $2.59 after coupon

1 Lucky Jack Cold Brew Coffee – $3.99, used Free e-coupon – Free after coupon

2 Green Leaf Lettuce – $1.29 each

1 pkg Kroger Tortillas – $1.25, used $0.50/1 e-coupon – $0.75 after coupon

1 Mom’s Best Cereal – $1.67

1 Simple Truth Applesauce Pouches – $6.99, used $1.50/1 e-coupon – $5.49 after coupon

1 Kroger Peanut Butter – $1.79

1 pkg Kroger Flour – $1.39

2 boxes Annie’s Mac & Cheese – $1 each, used $0.50/2 e-coupon – $0.75 each after coupon

3.3 lbs Bananas – $1.62

Total after coupons: $19.97

Dillons Trip #2

I ran into a different Dillons on the way home from school drop off to see what markdowns they had and was excited to find some great deals!

1 Cantaloupe – Marked down to $0.99

1 bag Cucumbers – Marked down to $0.99

3 Chobani Flip Yogurts – Marked down to $0.49 each

2 Kroger Yogurts – Marked down to $0.19 each

4 Kroger Greek Yogurts – Marked down to $0.39 each

3 pkg Happy Tot Yogurt Pouches – Marked down to $1 each

Used $0.25/1 Ibotta cash back for any receipt

Total after cash back: $8.14

Aldi

1 pkg Frozen Chicken Breasts – $5.99

1 bag Sugar – $1.27

1 pkg Crisp Rice Cereal – $1.49

2 dozen Eggs – $0.58 each

1 loaf Bread – $1.49

1 pkg Red Grapes – $2.01

1 pkg Spinach – $1.19

1 pkg English Muffins – $0.79

1 pkg Roma Tomatoes – $1.39

1 gallon Milk – $1.79

1 pkg Baby Carrots – $0.99

3 pkg Strawberries – $0.99 each

1 pkg Blueberries – $1.59

1 Taco Seasoning Mix – $0.29

Total: $24.41

Total for all stores: $52.52

Menu Plan for This Week

Breakfasts

Cereal, Yogurt, Toast, English Muffins, Fruit

Lunches

Tossed Salads, Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Cheese & Crackers, Hard Boiled Eggs, Fruit/Veggies, Mac & Cheese, Leftovers

Dinners

Spaghetti, Sauteed Apples (Apples are leftover from last week), Toasted Hot Dog Buns (from my freezer – I’m trying to be creative in using up stuff this week!)

Shredded Ranch Chicken Soft Tacos, Fruit Salad

Venison Roast, Potatoes, Carrots, Homemade Bread

Pancakes, Eggs, Cantaloupe

Pizza (We are hosting game night and everyone is pitching in to buy pizza!)

Mac & Cheese, Spinach Salad

Out to eat (My husband is working long hours this week so I’m declaring one night my night off from cooking. 😉 )

Summer Bucket List

Summer Bucket List

FREE Summer Bucket List!!

Stop paying: How to get Free Audiobooks

How to Listen to Books for Free

Audiobooks For Free: How the Libby App works

A few tips on How to Listen to Books for Free

Finding time to listen to Audiobooks for Free

More resources on Where to Listen to Free Audiobooks

Related Links:

Do you listen to free audiobooks? If so, when you do you find time to listen to them? What are some of your favorites? I’d love to know!

From My Heart…

2018 Goals Update

Personal Goals

Marriage Goal

Family Goals

Financial Goals

Business Goals

Saturday Kroger Shopping Trip

What I’ve Spent So Far This Week

A Few Recipes We Love Using Ritz Crackers:

What are some of YOUR favorite ways to use Ritz crackers?

Aldi

Weekly Menu Plan

Breakfasts

Lunches

Dinners

Friday Kroger Shopping Trip

What I’ve Spent So Far This Week

How much do you spend for a gallon of milk and where do you live? I’d love to hear!

WANT TO SAVE $100 FAST?!Join the FREE 14-Day Savings Challenge!

How to FIND the Cheapest Snacks

Buying Cheap Snacks on a Budget:

8 Homemade Cheap Easy Snacks

8 Freezer-Friendly Cheap Snack Ideas

Best Cheap Snacks (Even More Ideas!)

Cheap Snack Ideas from our Readers:

What tips and advice do you have for saving money on snacks? I’d love to hear!

Everyday items can certainly add up, but one of the largest school expenses is class trips.

1. Discuss Openly as a Family

2. Be Honest

3. Be Prepared for Unexpected Blessings

4. Ask Your People

5. Be Creative

While it is difficult to say ‘no’ to our children, living within our means is an important life skill to weave into our family culture.

Dillons

Aldi

Menu Plan for This Week

Breakfasts

Lunches

Dinners

2018 Goals Update

Personal Goals

Marriage Goal

Family Goals

Financial Goals

Business Goals

OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!

Aldi

Harris Teeter

Weekly Menu Plan

Breakfasts

Lunches

Dinners

Want to Try Prepping Your Dinners in the Morning?

How This Challenge Will Work

Are you joining us for the Eat at Home Challenge? If so, leave a comment and let us know!

Help Me Out! I Want Your Honest Opinion!

On My Heart…

2018 Goals Update

Personal Goals

Marriage Goal

Family Goals

Financial Goals

Business Goals

Dillons Trip #1

Dillons Trip #2

Aldi

Menu Plan for This Week

Breakfasts