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Shared Jan 11, 2017 comment

5 Days to a Better Grocery Budget (new series!)

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 11, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Note: I’d been planning this series for a few months, so I had to laugh when I had scheduled the first post for today and then saw that my friend, Laurie, from Passionate Penny Pincher just started her own series called The Ultimate Guide to a Better Grocery Budget. She does such a great job of sharing things and is so inspiring, so if you want some different ideas on how to cut your grocery budget, be sure to check out her series, too!

Are you wishing that you could find a way to get a better handle on your grocery budget? Welcome to a brand-new series I’m running here over the next week called 5 Days to a Better Grocery Budget. It’s been awhile since we’ve talked about grocery budgets and I thought it was high time for a refresher!

As we begin this series on setting up a better grocery budget, I want to start by giving you three important reminders:

1. There is no right way to set up a grocery budget.

I think one of the big reasons people don’t create a budget in the first place is because they are worried they will “do it wrong”.

Here’s what you need to hear loud and clear: there is no right or wrong way to set up a grocery budget. All that matters is that you set one up that works for you and then stick with it.

Yes, I know, I’m sharing such amazingly, incredible stuff here today. {Insert sarcasm.}

But seriously, if you set up a grocery budget and stick with it, you have yourself a successful grocery budget. You are a success!

So stop stressing over the how of setting up a grocery budget. Stop feeling frustrated that you don’t think you’re going to do it right. Just get up and do it and follow through with it. I know you can!

2. There is no magic number that is the “perfect grocery budget amount”.

I promise. I know that you can read other blogs — or even this blog! — and feel like you need to have a grocery budget that is lower than XX amount or you are failing at the whole grocery budgeting thing.

There is no way to fail at your grocery budget except for not having a grocery budget at all. ANY grocery budget that you set up and stick with is a successful grocery budget. And ANY amount you choose that works with your income and takes care of your family’s needs and doesn’t make you miserable is a great amount.

3. There is no grocery budget competition.

Spending less or spending more doesn’t make you less or more of a success or failure. It just makes you uniquely you.

Pick a number that works for YOUR family. For YOUR own needs. For YOUR own season of life. And don’t apologize for it or feel that you need to explain it.

Trust me, I get how easy it is to do both of those things — especially if you have a frugal blog or lots of frugal friends! But this past year, I’m really stepping into the freedom that comes from being okay with doing what’s best for our own family — even if other people don’t agree, don’t approve, or don’t get it.

So breathe a big sigh of relief. You can do this!

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how to actually start setting up a successful grocery budget!

Shared Jan 10, 2017 comment

All the details on how I made a full-time income blogging in November

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 10, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Thinking of Starting a Blog? Over the years, I’ve received many requests from folks for help on how to start a blog and how to make money blogging. That’s why I put together this comprehensive guide on How to Make Money Blogging with updated information and links.

It includes step-by-step help on how to set up your blog, get started, and make money from blogging. Go here to learn how to make money blogging and get started today!

In 2005, I discovered this thing called “blogging” and decided to try it out. I was a brand-new mom at the time, had recently quit working as a nanny, and was hopeful I could make enough on the side through online ventures to be able to replace my income and be able to stay home.

My husband was in law school and we were living on a beans and rice budget, trying to stay out of debt. We never, ever dreamed that my little blog idea would grow into what it has become.

In all honesty, when I started MoneySavingMom.com, I remember telling people that I hoped to make a side income from it. I never could have imagined that by the end of 2008, I’d be making full-time income from blogging!

And in all my wildest and craziest dreaming, I never would have envisioned that this blog would allow my husband to come home full-time, would provide the means for us to support ministries we love dearly (in the US, in the Dominican Republic, and in South Africa), and would enable us to provide incomes for our small (but amazing!) team.

How I Make a Full-Time Income from Blogging

Over the years, I’ve heard the question again and again and again: How do you actually MAKE money blogging??

People seem intrigued by the idea that our family actually makes a really good income from this blog and other related online ventures.

In these monthly posts, I want to give you a comprehensive and detailed look at our different income streams and expense streams to give you a better idea of what’s working, what’s not working, and how I actually make money blogging. I always find these posts fascinating and inspiring when I read them from other bloggers.

It helps me to learn the real nitty-gritty details of what is and isn’t working, how bloggers are diversifying their income, and what they are experimenting with.

Some bloggers share these types of posts and include specific numbers of exactly how much they make every month. I’ve opted not to do that because I feel like sometimes people can get hung up on numbers and miss the bigger picture.

Instead, I want share detailed percentages of our income and expenses — not only will this give you a very accurate picture of our earnings, but it will be something that is relatable, no matter the size of your blog or the income you make.

My hope is that these detailed reports not only help give you a better picture of how I make money blogging, but I hope they inspire you with new ideas on how you can increase your income or improve as a blogger or online entrepreneur.

Ready for the numbers? Here’s our income and expenses report for the month of November 2016:

November Income

Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links. All of the products listed below are products and services we’ve used before. If you have any questions about any of the income or expenses, you can leave a comment and we’ll do our best to reply.

All Revenue Streams

Affiliate advertising (See a detailed breakdown of all affiliates we earned income from below.) — 44%
Digital products (Sales of the Blog Coaching Program, Make Over Your Mornings, Make Over Your Evenings, and Make Over Your Year) — 33%
Banner ads (We mostly work with AdThrive for this. Erin lists more ad companies here.) — 12%
Product/Books sales — 7%
Sponsored Posts — 4 %

Affiliate Revenue Streams Detailed Breakdown

Want to know more how affiliate programs work? Be sure to check out my post on How to Make Money Blogging.

Amazon — 36%
Other (DiscountMags.com, 23 Publishing, SecureN1 Transactions, CotterWeb Enterprises, The Selling Family, Topcashback, LinkShare, Ultimate Bundles, Mr. Rebates, Photobarn, Live Your Truth, iBotta, Cents of Style, and more) — 21%
My Savings, Inc. — 9%
Dedicated Media, Inc. — 7%
SSI — 6%
ShareASale — 5%
Brilliant Business Moms (this was from a Facebook course I promoted through a webinar I did with Beth Anne) — 5%
Commission Junction — 5%
Escalate Network — 3%
Bluehost — 2%

November Expenses

Payroll expenses — 33%
Advertising and Promotion — 20%
Subcontracted services — 12%
Other (Office space rent, PayPal fees, shipping/postage fees, merchant account fees, bank service charges, utilities, travel expenses, wifi, etc.) — 10%
Web-based tools (InfusionSoft, Feedblitz, GoDaddy, Dropbox, Harvest, etc.) — 9%
Computer, hosting, Internet expenses — 7%
Partner & Affiliate Payments (Sign up for our affiliate program for our products here.) — 5%
Health insurance — 4%

Percentage of Income Versus Expenses

Once again, I was very excited to have a good revenue to expenses ratio. We’ve been working hard to diversify our income and think outside the box and it’s really been paying off!

Recent Experiments

Blog Coaching Program

In November, I launched the 4-Week Blog Coaching Program as an experiment to see if there was enough interest in me doing group blog coaching to possibly put together some products and launch a dedicated blog on this topic.

I’ve blogged for so long that sometimes it feels like I’m a Grandma Blogger instead of a Hipster Blogger and that I’m so old-fashioned about how I do things that I’m not up-and-coming enough to really teach new bloggers. 😉

But I have a passion to help other bloggers and I love to share what I’ve learned and the mistakes that I’ve made. So I just jumped out and put the 4-Week Blog Coaching opportunity out there.

My big hope was to hit 100 sign-ups in 3 days. The cost of the program was $97 and I knew that was a lot of money to ask people to pay — especially kind of on the spur-of-the-moment. But I also knew that if I was going to prove that there was a market for me to teach other bloggers about blogging, I needed to be able to find 100 people willing to pay $97 in 3 days.

Well, I was shocked and thrilled that over 300 people signed up!!! And I ended up have the best time ever doing the blog coaching and can’t wait until I can do something like it again!

ConvertKit Versus InfusionSoft — What a Wild Ride!

So, I told you all that we were switching from InfusionSoft to ConvertKit. We set everything up and starting making the switch. We decided to test it out and learn the program by running all of the Blog Coaching Program through ConvertKit — including all of the sales and the emails related to the program.

Well, we ended up running into all sorts of glitches and issues. It wasn’t with ConvertKit, but with other programs we needed to use in order to run a launch and coaching program.

A lot of people didn’t get their emails or even get on the email list. We had to manually go in and fix all sorts of things. We had issues with payment processing. And we saw some huge holes in the overall system that would cause headaches for us in big ways for future launches.

My team spent a lot of time on the phone with ConvertKit and the other programs we were using to connect everything to run a launch. Ultimately, because of all of the issues and problems and the fact that there didn’t seem to be any fixes for some of them with our set-up and how we wanted to run things for future programs, we decided to go back to the drawing board again.

As of right now, we’re moving forward with trying to clean up everything currently in InfusionSoft and learn InfusionSoft to see if possibly we can make it work for what we’re wanting to do. It’s been hours and hours and hours of effort from my team, but they are making some headway and I’m hopeful that we’ll have a good email/course download system in place in the next few months.

This Month’s Featured Question

This month’s featured question is from Catherine:

Hi, Crystal! I’m a newbie blogger. I’ve started a chart for tracking things like email signups, Facebook page likes, Instagram followers, etc., to see how they’re growing each month. When it comes to Google Analytics, what should I pay the most attention to? Pageviews or users or something else?

This is a fantastic question, Catherine! First, let’s talk about what Google Analytics is and how bloggers use it.

Google Analytics is a Google service that helps website owners track the traffic they get to their website. Using Google Analytics, you can find out how many people have visited your website, what they’ve looked out, how long they’ve stayed, and where they came from.

This is very important information because it helps you get to know your audience better, and knowing your audience is key to running a successful blog.

Here is a quick breakdown of a few of the most important metrics to look at in Google Analytics:

Pageviews — This metric shows the total number of pages that were viewed on your site. (More pageviews = higher traffic.)
Sessions — This shows the number of times visitors are actively engaged on your site. As Google Analytics puts it, “A session is a group of interactions (pageviews, purchases, etc.) that take place on your website within a given time frame.”
Users — This is the total number of visitors that have had at least one session on your site.
Bounce Rate — Your bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that stopped by, but only looked at one page before leaving your website — meaning they bounced in and out again without exploring your website further. If your bounce rate is high, it might mean that your content isn’t grabbing their attention OR that you’re marketing to the wrong target audience. TIP: Statistics show that visitors to your website will decide if they want to explore your website further in the first 6 seconds of their first visit. (Note: We actually have a high bounce rate because most of our posts are encouraging people to click off our site and go to another site to sign up for a freebie, download an ebook, or get a great deal. So for us, because that is the nature of MoneySavingMom.com, I don’t worry as much about the bounce rate.)
Average Session Duration — This shows the average length of time each user spends on your website. This is valuable in learning whether or not your visitors are engaged. (Longer sessions = more engagement.)
Pages per Session — This metric shows how many pages your users are looking at during their time on your website. (More pages = more engagement.)

We keep records of how our pageviews, sessions, and users are compared to last year and the year before. We also pay attention to where visitors are coming from so that we can make sure that what we’re doing is performing.

For instance, right now we’re working on increasing out Pinterest traffic. So we’re paying close attention to which posts are performing the best on Pinterest and then we make sure to promote those the most often on our boards, as well as promoting posts that are similar and keeping what is working in mind when planning and writing new posts!

Highly Recommended Blogging Resources

How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul by Ruth Soukup
Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook by Abby Lawson
Brilliant Pin Promotion Course by Beth Anne Schwamberger
FB Brilliance: The Ads Course for Business Builders

Want to Start Your Own Blog?

I’m here to help! Check out my comprehensive guide on How to Make Money Blogging with updated information and links. It includes step-by-step help on how to set up your blog, best practices for blogging, and all the details on how to make money from blogging.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to sign up for my FREE 5-day course on How I Make a Full-Time Income From Home. This video course will give you an inside peek into my blogging and business journey, will share lots of inspiration and hard lessons I’ve learned in the process, and will encourage you with ideas on how you can make a part-time or full-time income from home, too.

Previous Income Reports

Our Week Staying at an Extended Stay America (my completely honest review!)

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 9, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

(Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.)

Over Christmas break, our family traveled to Wichita, KS to visit both of our families. While we were there for six days, we stayed at an Extended Stay America. They had contacted us about possibly trying out one of their hotels and because we were going to be staying in Wichita anyway, we said we’d love to try staying there instead of our usual hotel.

It was our first time to stay at an Extended Stay America and we weren’t sure what the experience would be like! I wanted to share a really honest review of our thoughts on this hotel chain for those of you who might be interested in trying out this hotel chain for an upcoming vacation or some travel you have planned this year.

First off, Extended Stay America is designed for longer stays and is a really affordable option compared to most hotel chains — especially if you are planning to stay somewhere for a week or longer.

From the research I did, you’re usually going to pay around $69 to $79 per night for a regular room. However, they offer weekly, biweekly and monthly discounted rates.

Plus, they have discounts for seniors and military and government personnel. They also have a free Extended Stay Rewards Program where you can earn instant rewards + get $2500 annual savings on other brands.

The rooms are spacious and every room has a full kitchen! We loved having the ability to bring all of our own food and cook all of our meals in our room! It definitely not only allowed us to eat healthier, but it also saved us quite a bit of money.

No matter where you stay or what room you book, every single room at all locations has a fully equipped kitchen with a full-size refrigerator, stovetop, and microwave. You can request a large assortment of different types of kitchen items — we got pots, pans, dishes, utensils, and a few other items. There were a number of other appliances we could request, too.

Some locations even have ovens and/or dishwashers! Because we got a larger room, ours had both.

They also offer a FREE grab-and-go breakfast every morning. This free breakfast included: coffee, hot tea, hot chocolate, instant oatmeal, pre-packaged muffins, and an assortment of granola bars.

They also offer free in-room wi-fi and cable. I will say that the free wi-fi speed was a little on the slow side and we ended up paying $3 per day to upgrade to the much faster premium wi-fi. I thought $3 per day was incredibly reasonable and the premium wi-fi was much faster and worked on up to six devices!

The rooms aren’t fancy, but they are very adequate and we found the facilities to be clean. They also offer a small workout room that had three different pieces of fitness equipment in it.

They also have laundry facilities on-site. It cost about $5 in quarters for a load of laundry to go through the washer & dryer (including the cost of detergent). This seemed high to us, however, we haven’t used a laundry mat in ages, so I have no idea what the going prices usually are for doing laundry at laundry facilities!

I’d say one of the biggest differences between staying at a regular hotel and at an Extended Stay America is that they don’t offer daily housekeeping services — unless you want to pay an additional fee. They do offer weekly housekeeping services for stays over 8 days.

Since we were only there for 6 days, we didn’t get housekeeping services. However, we just told the kids that we were all going to be the housekeepers and they had fun trying to make the hotel beds as well as the hotel housekeepers usually do! 🙂

We did find that we needed fresh towels about 4 days in and we went to front desk and asked for them and they said we could have fresh towels or sheets any time we wanted them!

Speaking of the front desk, we found the staff at Extended Stay America to be extremely kind and accommodating. They definitely seemed like their job was to serve their customers well and they went out of their way to do that.

Overall, we were very pleased with our stay at Extended Stay America and felt it was very worth the price you would pay. We would definitely stay there again and would recommend it as a great option for budget-conscious families — especially if you are going to be staying in one location for a week or longer.

Thank you to Extended Stay America for offering us the opportunity to stay in their hotel for free in exchange for this review.

Shared Jan 8, 2017 comment

A Peek Into My Life This Week (+ how I find time to read!)

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 8, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Welcome to my weekly Sunday post where we take a break from money-related posts and I share about what I’m loving right now and give you a little peek into our life from the past week.

What I’m Reading

Last week, I read Read the Bible to Your Kids by Rachel O’Niell (she’s a blog reader and she sent me a copy of her ebook to check out!). I was so inspired by Rachel’s encouragement that you don’t have to make Bible Reading with your kids some big complicated thing. Just reading and talking about a verse or two or three every day is a great start.

I also finished A Portrait of Emily Price and The Year of Yes. I wouldn’t say either were stand-out books. A Portrait of Emily Price was a pretty slow read and I didn’t fall in love with the characters as much like I have in some of the author’s other books. I did enjoy the references in the book to Rome as I got to visit there last year!

I thought that The Year of Yes could have used a LOT of editing down and it still would have accomplished the same thing. However, that said, as this is my Year of Yes, I thought it was a good book to help kick off the year. (Note: If you do pick this book up, it’s not written at all from a Christian stand-point and is crass at times. Consider yourself warned!)

This week, I’m continuing on reading books from my bookshelf from four different categories: Candles in the Dark (an old Christian reprint), A Trip Around the Sun (a spiritually encouraging book), The Giver (a story-driven book), and Grace Not Perfection (a book on life improvement).

I’m hoping to finish both Candles in the Dark and Grace Not Perfection this week. I’ll let you know how that goes next week! {See my Reading Goals for 2017.}

How I’m Fitting in Reading Right Now

Multiple people have been asking how I find time to read. This changes with every season of life, but here’s how I’m fitting in reading right now:

I’m spending 10-15 minutes reading spiritually encouraging books in the morning — I do this in conjunction with my morning Bible reading.

Then, I’m spending 10-20 minutes in the afternoons/evenings reading a non-fiction book or story-driven book. I’m doing this during my afternoon offline time (from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.) once our afternoon chores are done and before it’s time for dinner prep. I usually have a short 10-20 minute window here while the kids are busy doing other things. It’s a nice before-dinner treat for myself!)

And then I try to find at least another time either one night or on the weekends when I can fit in another hour of reading.

Between all of this, I can easily get through an average of at least 1-2 chapters of a book every day.

When people tell me that they don’t have time to read, I disagree. I don’t think you should ever say, “I don’t have time for XX.” Instead, choose to say, “I’m not prioritizing that because I’m prioritizing XYZ instead.” Which is totally okay.

But when you change how you talk about time management, it also reminds you that how you spend your time is a choice. We can’t control all the variables of our every day life, but we do have many choices and are not just a victim of our calendar or circumstances! 🙂

For me, because reading is a priority, I choose to find pockets of time to include it as part of my routine and then have made it a habit to include that in my every day life.

What I’m Loving

My dad got us a foosball table for Christmas and we have been loving it. It’s been the source of much laughter and hooting and hollering at our house the past week as we challenge each other to games.

Silas beat me one time this week — which he was SO proud of! I’m definitely going to have to work on learning some new moves and strategic plays because all his practicing is making him harder and harder for me to beat! 🙂

We also played an epic three-night-long game of Ticket to Ride. We played it on our Apple TV and just played for 30 minutes before bed every night as a family. It was so much fun and definitely is something we’ll be doing again. It’s a great way to wind down, it’s something we can all enjoy, and it brings out all of our competitive sides in a big way. 🙂

What I’m Watching

This week, I watched YouTube videos on how to be more successful at YouTube. Because that’s one of my goals for 2017! I’ve also been following a few YouTubers. One of my favorites is Happily a Housewife.

As a family, we watched Greater for our family movie night. It was a good movie with a great and very inspirational message (thanks to the reader who recommended it), however, I thought it was kind of slow to progress in parts and I was shocked that it had the language that it did for being rated PG. I’d highly recommend that you don’t choose it for a family movie night unless you’ve watched it first as parents and feel like it would be appropriate for your kids.

https://www.facebook.com/MoneySavingMom/posts/10154454727923227

Did you see this video online? It went viral around Christmas and I’ve watched it multiple times… because the dad’s facial expressions and commentary and dry sense of humor just make me laugh! 🙂

What I’m Listening To

This week, I listened to my friend Karthi’s podcast with our executive pastor, Eric Hoffman. If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you know that I’m involved in a discipleship group at church that has been deeply impacting me as a person.

Eric is the one who created the discipleship group curriculum, so if you’ve been at all interested in what we’ve been learning, these two podcasts will give you a taste of some of what we’re diving into in our discipleship group: Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. I think it would be well worth your time to listen!

Thank you for all your music suggestions last week. You reminded me that I should start listening to Pandora while I’m working on the computer. Truth be told, I’d kind of forgotten all about Pandora since we started using Amazon Prime music on our phones.

One reader recommended the Hymnstyles station on Pandora and I’ve been enjoying the majority of the songs that it plays!

What are YOUR favorite Pandora stations? I’d love to know now that I remembered Pandora exists! 🙂

What I’m Excited About

In 2017, I made the commitment to get back to goal-setting, become a paper planner girl again, go to bed no later than 11 pm every night, and be offline from 3 pm to 8 pm every day (among a few other goals).

We’re one week in and I cannot believe how much these simple tweaks have changed the flow of our days. Our house has been so much cleaner, I’m spending a lot more time with Jesse and the kids, I’m investing more in real-life relationships, I’m making time for fun, and I still have time to get all the important business projects done + have time for some things I love (like reading!)

Honestly, I think that the key for me has been compartmentalizing my time and committing a big chunk of my day to be completely offline. I can’t wait to see how the next few months play out, but I’m so hopeful that this routine is going to be a really fantastic fit for this season of our lives!

In Case You Missed It

My Posts This Week:
My #1 Tip for Finding Frugal Friends
Why Our 3 Kids Share a Bedroom
BIG Changes Are Coming to the Blog This Year!

My YouTube Videos This Week:
2 Habits I Want to Develop in 2017
My 10 Goals for 2017
My One Word for 2017

What are you reading, loving, watching, listening to, and/or excited about? I’d love to hear!

Shared Jan 7, 2017 comment

5 Money Tips to Start Your Financial Year Off Right

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 7, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Krystal of Little Light on a Hill:

The start of a new year is a great time to learn money tips that will help us better manage our finances from the get-go. We are given a fresh start, a new beginning, an opportunity to wipe our financial slate clean, so to speak. And really, who doesn’t want to do a better job managing their money?

Every year, I sit down and have a money meeting with myself. In this little pep talk, I renew my focus for the year, highlight any areas I know I need to improve, and dream big!

I fully credit these mini-money planning sessions as the way my husband and I were able to pay off over $80,000 of debt in the past few years. They helped us stay laser focused, and provided motivation when it seemed like we were only making minimal progress.

With the dawn of a new year, it’s time to once again have my annual money meeting. If you’d like to start your financial year off right, here are 5 tips I hope will help!

1. Look back on the previous year.

What are some of the strengths and weaknesses you had in your finances?

Think about some of your good habits… and bad habits. What do you think were your strengths when it came to managing your money? How much progress did you make? Is there any area you want to improve in?

I keep a finance journal that helps me track some of these things. At the end of every year, I jot down how much money we have in checkings or savings, how much we invested for retirement, and how much debt we paid off.

2. Identify areas you’d like to improve.

I also think about the things that held us back from meeting some of our financial goals.

Did we eat out too much? Did we spend more than we budgeted on vacation? This helps me identify triggers that make us lose control of our finances very quickly. By seeing these triggers, I can enter the new year knowing what to watch out for.

For example, we spent WAY too much money eating out the past few months. Once I realized that, I recognized that it was usually on days we were out and about and I hadn’t thought about dinner until we were well on our way home. To combat this in the new year, I’m going to plan slow cooker meals on our busy days to avoid the temptation to stop for fast food on the way home.

3. Set goals for the coming year.

How much more do you want to accomplish in your finances this year?

What are some habits you need to change? Are there any resources or books you want to invest in? Where would you like to realistically end the new year, financially speaking?

I like to set 3-5 realistic goals that will also stretch me! For example, this year our financial goals are to (1) build up our savings account to cover at least 3 months of expenses, (2) invest as much as my husband’s company will match in his 401(K) retirement account, (3) start investing for our girls’ college expenses, (4) research the right IRA plan for us, and (5) pay cash for our family vacation this summer.

Maybe your goals will be to pay an extra $300 a month to debt, save $2,000 for emergencies, or start investing for retirement. Whatever is most important to you right now should be your focus! If you are passionate about it right now, it will give fuel to your fire and keep you motivated to reach those goals!

4. Track your progress and check in often.

When you sit down to pay your bills, you should have a general idea of how much money you can use to go towards your goals. Each month just start chipping away at your goals, one by one.

Then throughout the week, make sure you glance over your budget to double check that you are still on track.

Have weekly money meetings with your spouse to make sure you are both on the same page.

Write down your goals and cross them off as you meet them!

The important thing is that you know where your extra money is going and if you are using it wisely. Tracking your progress is just a way to keep you motivated by seeing how far you’ve come.

5. Keep moving forward.

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t meet your goals every month. I know that even if I don’t meet my goals, I’m still so much farther along than if I hadn’t set them at all.

Celebrate your progress, and keep moving forward. You will be so glad you did when the end of 2017 gets here, and you can look back on all of the things you accomplished!

Krystal is a teacher-turned-homeschooling-mama of two. Recently becoming debt-free herself, she is passionate about inspiring others in their debt-free journeys. You can follow along as she blogs about faith, family, and finance at Little Light on a Hill.

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Shared Jan 6, 2017 comment

My $3.86 Kroger Shopping Trip — Markdowns!

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 6, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I ran into Kroger last night after an appointment and found some great markdowns! I was especially excited about the Greek yogurt for just $0.10 each!!! I don’t think I’ve ever found it marked down so much!!

Here’s what I got:

7 Yoplait Whips (one is not shown because Kaitlynn asked if she could eat it!) — $0.29 each
1 Greek yogurt — $0.19
4 Greek yogurts — $0.10 each
2 other specialty yogurts — $0.49 each

Total with tax: $3.86

You can watch my quick video here where I talk more about what I got and how I find markdowns. (Have you subscribed to my YouTube channel yet? I’ve been posting fun, inspirational, and motivational videos every day and would love to have you join our little community on YouTube!)

What deals have YOU gotten recently? Tell us in the comments.

Shared Jan 5, 2017 comment

My #1 Tip for Finding Frugal Friends

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 5, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

It can be discouraging to be surrounded by people who are not budget conscious. You can feel weird, crazy, and little “on the outside.”

I well remember the days when Jesse was in law school and it seemed like we couldn’t go to so many different social outings because we didn’t have any money to spend. It was discouraging — and sometimes embarrassing!

We wanted to be able to make friends and hang out with people, but it felt like every invite was to some place that cost money. And in those days, we literally had to use every single dollar to put food on the table and to pay our bills.

The balance in our entertainment category of our budget was a big fat zero almost all of the time!

Occasionally, we’d save up all our extra pennies, nickels, dimes, and would cash in the few extra dollars we’d saved over six months for a $0.50 movie from Family Video + a few items off of the dollar menu! Seriously, that was about the extent of our very rare splurging in those early years of marriage.

Over time, I learned to get really creative and to think outside the box. For instance, when Jesse was in law school and some of his friends were having a party, the host asked if everyone could pay $4 each to cover the costs of the party.

We didn’t have $8 extra in our budget for both of us to attend, so I emailed the host to ask if I could bring snacks and drinks (that I’d gotten for free or almost-free with coupons using money from our grocery budget) instead. She was so gracious to say “yes” to my offer — and we had a fantastic time at the party!

You are Influenced By What You Surround Yourself With

You often are very influenced by the people you surround yourself with. If everyone you associate with is spending money pretty extravagantly and telling you that you “deserve” this, that, and the other — even if you can’t afford it — it’s going to be hard to stick with your resolve to live frugally.

On the other hand, if many of your friends are living frugally and simply, if they are content and totally “get” you when talk about buying something secondhand or saving up to pay cash for things, it will be a lot easier to keep on your slow and steady journey toward debt-freedom or achieving your other financial goals.

This is why I can’t encourage you enough to make the effort to surround yourself with friends who don’t think you’re crazy for being so frugal. And not just friends who don’t think you’re crazy, but friends who are just as frugal — or more frugal! — than you are!

The Benefits of Having Frugal Friends

It’s much more fun when you don’t go it alone. Here’s how having frugal friends will benefit your life:

1. You’ll Be Able to Swap Skills

Your frugal friends will more than likely be glad to barter skills and talents. It saves everyone money — and it saves you all a lot of frustration, too.

Your frugal friends might also be interested in having regular swap parties where you swap clothes or toys your kids no longer need or even items you got for free with coupons.

2. You’ll Learn New Skills and Money-Saving Tactics

Your frugal friends will teach you new money-saving skills and techniques you would have never thought of or tried on your own. Pretty much every frugal idea I know of is something I’ve learned from another frugal friend.

In addition, my frugal friends have challenged me to try things I probably wouldn’t have tried on my own — like making homemade soap!

3. You’ll Stay Inspired

Whenever you’re feeling burnt out on sticking with a budget, just call or email one of your frugal friends and she’ll be sure to listen and then remind you of why you’re doing what you’re doing — and that it will be worth it.

4. You’ll Have Fun

It’s a lot more fun to save money when you’re among friends who are also committed to living frugally. Plus, they’ll laugh at your crazy thrift store experiences or used car adventures.

Where To Find Frugal Friends: My #1 Tip

If you want to find frugal friends, go hang out where frugal people would hang out. Here are some ideas of where frugal people hang out:

Yard Sales
Consignment Sales
Your Local Library
Thrift Stores
Used Book Sales
Swap Meets
Frugal Websites/Message Boards
Local Facebook Yard Sale Groups
Freecycle
Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Classes

Start looking around in your area for opportunities, events, and classes that would attract frugal people and then:

Show Up — This is the most important step! Get brave and just show up! If you don’t ever take the first step, no one is likely going to just randomly show up on your doorstep wanting to be your new frugal friend!

Meet People — Talk to people at these events. Ask questions. Find out their stories. See if there is camaraderie. Don’t be discouraged if not everyone you meet becomes your fast friend. But keep putting yourself out there and showing up and asking questions and building relationships.

Volunteer — One of the best ways to really develop deeper relationships is to volunteer your time. Many consignment sales offer the opportunity to help at the sale in exchange for first dibs on the items in the sale or extra discounts. This would be a great way to get to know people better and maybe find a new frugal friend or two!

Teach a Class — Do you have a frugal skill such as cutting your grocery bill with coupons? Consider offering to teach a class at your local library or community center. This one-time class might turn into some lifelong friendships!

Invite People to Join a Frugal Friends Club — Once you start to discover some frugal people in your area, you could invite them to join a frugal friends club. Not only would this be a lot of fun, but it would be a great way to really be inspired by others and to learn new money-saving skills! For more information on starting a frugal friends club, read this post.

You just never know where you’ll find an amazing frugal friend, but if you keep your eyes open, I can almost guarantee that you’ll find some other frugal folks who live in your area!

Where would YOU go to find frugal friends? Tell us your ideas in the comments!

Shared Jan 4, 2017 comment

Why Our 3 Kids Share a Bedroom

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 4, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

A number of months ago, I mentioned online that our three kids share a bedroom. A lot of people were shocked, surprised, or even bothered by our decision to have all three of our kids in the same bedroom.

I personally was surprised at how many people said the picture made them feel so much better. Many people wrote in and told me that they had no idea that our house wasn’t huge and spacious and perfect. They said that seeing that picture helped them to realize that just because we do have a really spacious kitchen and living area, that doesn’t mean that our entire house is huge and perfect!

Let me be clear: We do have a great rental house — it does have a great kitchen, it has a wonderful backyard, it’s in a really convenient location, and our rent is very low for this area.

Compared to many places we’ve lived, this is a really nice house. But it pales in comparison to our previous house. The floor plan is not set up well for our family, it doesn’t have a basement, it’s not conducive for hosting big groups, and we’ve had leaks and termites and A/C problems and ear wigs and a host of other issues while living here.

We rented this house sight unseen because we were living in Kansas when it was available and there was no way we could make it to TN to check it out with Jesse’s work schedule. Plus, it just didn’t feel like a wise use of time or money to drive or fly out to check out a house before we signed a contract on it.

So we asked some of our TN friends if they’d go look at it for us and make sure they felt it was okay to rent. They graciously agreed to do a walk-through and sent us a video tour of it and said they thought it would be good to rent.

We talked to the landlords at length, did as much research and investigation as we could from afar, and both felt this was the house we should go with. So we signed a two-year lease on it, because that was what the landlords were offering.

It was a little crazy to pull up to the house the day we moved and see the area and neighborhood and house for the very first time knowing that we’d signed a contract to live here for two years!

Many people have suggested that we should have purchase a house here when we moved instead of renting. We only briefly considered that option, but we knew that it wasn’t a good option for us for a few different reasons.

1) Housing prices are MUCH higher here — so there was no way we could afford to pay cash for a house at the time.

2) We didn’t want to mess with having to try to sell our house + find a new house + pack up everything and move our family across the country all at the time same.

3) We didn’t know if we were even going to stay in TN long-term.

So we decided renting was our best option — and it’s been a great option for us, despite the drawbacks of the current home we’re in.

One of the biggest drawbacks is that, due to the limited bedroom space, all three kids are in one bedroom. Some people would say we are terrible parents for living in a house where they all have to share a room and don’t have a lot of their “own space”.

Honestly, even though they are 11, 9, and 7, we see so many blessings and benefits for the three of them sharing a bedroom. Here are 3 of those blessings and benefits:

1. It Helps Them Learn to Get Along With Each Other

I grew up in a family of 9 and I remember my mom always telling me that if we can learn to get along with our siblings, we could probably get along with just about anyone. We like to remind our kids that sharing a bedroom with two other people who are very different than you is a valuable life skill!

You get to learn how to be gracious when other people are “in your space”, you get to learn how to keep your area more clean, you get to learn to work together to keep the room clean, and you learn to share your space well with others.

(And honestly, most of the time, they really love being together. Last night, they were all in their room talking and laughing together for at least 30-45 minutes before they fell asleep. It’s not always like that and there is plenty of arguing that goes on, too, but I think they actually do really enjoy the closeness that sharing a room provides!)

2. It Teaches Them Contentment

When Jesse and I were first married, we lived in a basement apartment. Our budget was very tight and we did everything we could to stay out of debt. Those sacrifices are — in big part — what has allowed us to be where we are today.

But here’s the truth: Our kids were little when we made a lot of financial and personal sacrifices to get to the place where we are now. They don’t remember those days.

We want our kids to have the same opportunity we had to learn that happiness is not based upon where you live, the car you drive, or the room you have. You can be content no matter what because contentment isn’t based upon your circumstances, it’s a state of your heart.

3. It Helps to Prevent an Entitlement Mentality

We now have a lot more wiggle room in our budget than we had 10 years ago when the kids were little (or not even born yet!) They get to enjoy things we never imagined we’d be able to afford for them — like swim team and figure skating and even an international trip to South Africa. However, we don’t want them to grow up thinking that everything will be handed to them. We want them to experience short-term sacrifices for long-term benefits.

One simple way we’re teaching them this is through having them share a room right now. We don’t want them to grow up thinking that they can just get whatever they want without having to work for it, save for it, and/or make sacrifices for it.

So we’ve chosen to continue to rent a house that has less than ideal sleeping arrangements (along with a long list of other “less than ideal” things) because it is not only teaching us all good lessons, but it’s allowing us to be able to save more aggressively and give more generously.

By the end of this year, our goal is to have saved enough to pay cash for a house here in TN and we would like to buy a house that has enough space for them to each have their own room (especially since they are getting older), but in the mean time, we’re learning contentment in the house that we’re in and are choosing to be grateful for the many things about it that we love — like the wonderful neighbors, a beautiful kitchen, and a great backyard.

Our hope is that these lessons in contentment will be something our kids will carry with them for the rest of their lives — no matter where they live.

Please note: Do what is best for your family and please be careful if you are putting boys and girls in the same room. This is something we have seriously considered and it is the reason we are planning to move in the next year. We know that these types of sleeping arrangements will not work long-term — especially as our children reach pre-teen age.

However, we have strict modesty rules at our house (Such as: Never change in front of another person. Bathrooms are for changing in, not bedrooms. Always knock on a closed door. Always leave the door open when you are in the room playing with another child. Etc.) and our children have always been very respectful of each other’s privacy and respectful of our modesty rules. I think it’s important to have these types of rules and precautions in place no matter what the sleeping arrangements are at your house.

Ultimately, when it comes to sleeping arrangements, you know your own children and what would best best in your own family. As I always say, it’s so important to do what is best for your own family and your own children!

Shared Jan 2, 2017 comment

BIG changes are coming to the blog this year!

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 2, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I’ve been thinking about writing this post for weeks. I wanted to wait until I had everything settled in my mind and heart and that my team had given me the a-okay to move forward with this.

Some of you have been worried as I’ve mentioned the “big changes” that I was going to stop blogging.

Well, I’ve got some good news for you: I’m not quitting blogging. On the contrary, I’m actually starting three new blogs this year! 🙂

Yes, I promise I haven’t lost my mind. Let me explain… 🙂

When I started MoneySavingMom.com, I had every intention of having it be a side thing that I did in addition to other blogs and online things. However, I never expected that it would blow up like it did and become our family’s full-time income.

Within two years, I had shut down all of my other online things and blogs (yes, I used to have two other blogs), because MSM was requiring every single bit of time I had to give it.

That worked well for a while. I was in a season of change personally and focusing on just talking about saving money online gave me space to step back and process other beliefs and convictions that I had once held and had blogged about (those of you who read my earlier blogs know what I’m talking about!!).

I needed to be in a quiet season, where I inwardly processed instead of sharing what I was thinking through and pondering with all the folks on the internet. 🙂

But after about two years of that quiet season, I had various things I wanted to write about that weren’t related to saving money. Since MoneySavingMom.com was my only online platform, I shared some of those things here.

Over time, as I had more and more things I wanted to write on, this blog became more of a scattered, random conglomeration of my personal thoughts and passions and interests. And it strayed from the original purpose of helping people save money.

You all have been along for the wild ride. And you’ve been gracious and kind. You’ve rarely complained, but I know that it’s been confusing to some people.

I know many people have wondered: Why is a blog called MoneySavingMom.com talking about things that have nothing to do with saving money?

I was kind of confused about this, too. 😉

On the one hand, I know I can’t confine myself to just writing about money topics. I would get bored very quickly with that. But on the other hand, it’s important that I define what this blog is about — and that people know what they can expect when they come here.

However, if I re-focus this blog back to its original purpose and only share deals, freebies, and money-saving tips and advice, what on earth am I going to do with all the other topics I’m passionate about and want to write about???

These are the things I’ve been thinking through, pondering, asking people for counsel on, and praying about for many months. Actually, it was most of 2016!

I’d come up with ideas and what I thought would be a solution, but then I’d quickly realize that it just wouldn’t work longterm. So then I’d start over again.

It took many rounds of ideas and much contemplation before I finally landed on clarity. And here’s what that clarity was…

What’s Changing in 2017

1. It’s time to re-focus MoneySavingMom.com back to its original purpose.

Starting today, this blog will only be a place where I’ll be sharing things related to saving money/earning a little side income: great deals, freebies, money-saving tips, free ebooks, frugal living inspiration, money-saving recipes, ways to earn a little side income, grocery shopping trips, frugal family fun, and much more.

I plan to share at least 2-3 posts of my own here each week, plus feature a few guest posts. If you are interested in contributing a guest post, you can read our guidelines here and submit your post here.

The only non-money-saving posts will be my Sunday Peek Into My Life posts. I thought it’d be fun to include those to change things up a little and for me to have one place per week to share a little of what is inspiring me, what I’m reading, links I’ve loved, pictures from our week, etc.

I’m also bringing back the daily LIVE show on Facebook. I’ll be going live every weekday morning between 9 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. CT. On this show, it will be a place for us to hang out and talk about great deals, for me to share money-saving tips, for me to answer a few of your questions live, and to just share daily inspiration with you. It will be like having our morning coffee together every morning… except I don’t drink coffee anymore! 🙂

Want to know my favorite deals every day? Follow my Deals Only Instagram account that I personally curate and post to each day.

2. It’s also time to give myself permission to start some new blogs.

After much thought and counsel and contemplation (and making sure that I’m not biting off more than I can chew!), I’m ready to let you know that I’m launching two new blogs in 2017!!

These are blogs that are on the topics I’m most passionate about and are ones that you request I write on the most:

YourBloggingMentor.com will be a blog dedicated to inspiring and educating beginning and intermediate bloggers find their voice, increase their income, and broaden their impact.

CrystalPaine.com will be my very personal blog filled with practical advice for the everyday woman on topics of faith, family, fitness, and fashion.

Each of these blogs will just have one post per week, mostly written by me. I’m excited about the opportunity to offer specific niche blogs so that you can subscribe to the topic(s) that most interest you and don’t have to come here to wade through lots of content that isn’t related to you or helpful to you. I’m also excited to have a place where posts that I put a lot of time and effort into don’t get quickly bumped down by new deal posts.

Note: The blogs aren’t live yet, so in the mean time, while we’re working behind the scenes to get these blogs set up, if you want to get my weekly personal email newsletter, sign up here. You can also follow me on my personal Instagram account or subscribe to my channel on YouTube.

We’ll be sure to let you know just as soon as these blogs are up and running. Our goal is that they will be live by the end of March! I’m SO excited and can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Thank you, again, for being with me on this journey. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. It’s my heart’s desire and goal that by making these changes, it will allow me to serve you in a more organized, streamlined, and helpful manner!

photo credit

Shared Jan 1, 2017 comment

A Peek into My Life This Week (new feature!)

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 1, 2017 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Welcome to a brand-new feature I’ll be running here every Sunday called a A Peek Into My Life This Week.

Starting today, the rest of the content on the blog throughout the week is now going to be focused on where to find great deals, money-saving tips, and content that has a frugal focus (look for my post tomorrow where I share all the details on the big changes that are coming for me as a blogger in 2017), this weekly post will be our place to just chat and for me to share things I’m loving right now and give you a little peek into our life from the past week.

So many of you have asked for me to share these things on a regular basis and I thought this would be a fun way for me to do this every week in one place. Plus, it will be fun for me to keep track of these types of things for myself, too. 🙂