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Shared Oct 6, 2014 comment

Cutting Back on Caffeine (whose idea was this anyway??)

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 6, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

So, I’m working on cutting back on caffeine this month, as part of the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge. And yikes, this is harder than I thought.

I switched to only using cream or half and half in my coffee a few months ago (I know, no sugar, people! Can you believe it??), but I do love me my coffee.

However, I’m determined to follow through with this challenge, so I’ve cut back to 1 and 3/4 cups per day instead of my usual two cups. I plan to slowly keep cutting back until I’m at 1 cup per day by the end of the month.

I’ve already decided this may not be a habit I decide to stick with. Because coffee is one of life’s little pleasures to me and something I savor every day! 🙂

How are YOU doing on cutting back on caffeine?

P.S. Pictured above was my lunch today. I “Trim Healthy Mama-fied” the Blueberry Crisp from Bread & Wine and it is SO good! I cannot believe how much I love this way of eating… I never thought that sweet-tooth, carb-loving me would survive without sugar and lots of carbs. But I’m not just surviving; I’m thriving — and it’s been five months now, so I think we might be able to officially declare it a lifestyle change??

Shared Oct 6, 2014 comment

10 Goals For This Week

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 6, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

So last week wasn’t the most productive week goal-wise, but we had out-of-town guests for two days, I had a half day of coaching with some folks who flew in from New York, and I spent hours and hours on my book manuscript. It was definitely productive, just in a different sense!

The good news? My manuscript is getting closer and closer to being done — I’m working on chapters 8-10 the next few weeks and then I’ll be sending it out to a few different people to critique, then it will be another round of edits, and then I’ll officially turn it in! Yay!

I’ve poured my heart and soul into this and I can’t wait to share it with you when it’s published. I’m also excited to be in the home stretch because it means that I’ll have more regular sleeping routines, more of a social life, get to hang out with the people I love more, and get to actually read more of other people’s books again! 🙂

Last week’s goals:

Marriage/Mothering/Homemaking Goals

1. Finish reading Teddy’s Button aloud to the kids at lunch time.

~~2. Have a movie night with Jesse.~~

~~3. Write a love note to Jesse.~~

~~4. Spend 30 minutes decluttering our house.~~

5. Work on another craft/sewing project with Kaitlynn.

Personal Goals

6. Work on reviewing and memorizing Romans 1 and Romans 2:1-2.

7. Finish reading I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t), A Proper Pursuit, and Love, Skip, Jump.

8. Run or exercise at least 5 times.

Business Goals

~~9. Work on chapters 7 and 8 of my book manuscript.~~

~~10. Work on Price Comparison project for All You magazine (I’m gathering some local prices for an upcoming feature they are doing in their magazine.)~~

This week’s goals:

Marriage/Mothering/Homemaking Goals

1. Finish reading Teddy’s Button aloud to the kids at lunch time.

2. Have a movie night with Jesse.

3. Write a love note to Jesse.

4. Write thank you notes for my birthday gifts. {Yes, I turned 33 last week. I can hardly believe it! But I’ve loved every one of my 33 years, so I’ll take it… even if it does sound old!}

5. Work on another craft/sewing project with Kaitlynn.

Personal Goals

6. Work on reviewing and memorizing Romans 1 and Romans 2:1-2.

7. Finish reading I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t), A Proper Pursuit, and Love, Skip, Jump.

8. Run or exercise at least 5 times.

Business Goals

9. Work on chapters 8 and 9 of my book manuscript.

10. Work on draft of my first article for an upcoming magazine column. {Pretty stoked about this opportunity and cannot wait to share more in a few months!}

How did you do on last week’s goals? What are your goals for this week? I’d love to have you share your progress on last week’s goals and your goals for this coming week in the comments. Of, if you’ve blogged about it, leave your direct link below. Let’s cheer each other on to live purposeful and productive lives! You can download a free customizable weekly goal-planning sheet here.

Shared Oct 6, 2014 comment

What you do think of when you hear the phrase “find your purpose”?

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 6, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

For one section in my upcoming book, I’m exploring the concept of purpose, living on purpose, and how to discover and live out your purpose.

I’d love to get your input. What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “find your purpose”? Leave a comment or shoot me an email (crystal @ moneysavingmom.com) with whatever comes to mind. There are no right or wrong answers!

Thanks so much! And remember that all comments and emails you submit may be published in my book so if you’re not comfortable with that or would prefer to remain anonymous, please let me know when submitting your comment.

Thank you SO much for your help with this book project! I am thrilled with how it’s coming together and cannot wait to share the finished product with you! It’s supposed to be out in bookstores November 2015. Yay!

Shared Oct 5, 2014 comment

How I Saved Today: Goodwill 50% off sale + my favorite way to eat oatmeal

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 5, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

My neighbor had told me the week we moved here that all Nashville-area Goodwill stores run a 50% off everything in the store the first Saturday of every month. I’ve been meaning to check it out every single month since we moved, but it finally worked out for it to happen today.

Silas had an early soccer game and Kaitlynn had ice skating at the same time, so I took Silas to his game and Jesse took Kaitlynn and Kathrynne to ice-skating. After soccer, Silas & I went over to Goodwill (it was right on our way home!) to check it out.

The store was quite crowded — and I could see why! The prices after the 50% off sale made most items less than $3, with many as low as $0.99! For the most part, almost the entire store was at garage sale prices or better.

The only downside? There was a LONG line at checkout. Even though they had multiple registers open, I guessed that you’d probably have to stand in line for at 30 minutes just to make it to checkout. So I decided that there wasn’t anything I needed enough to stand in that long of a line today. But it was fun to check it out and I hope to go back some other first Saturday of the month when I have more time and am prepared to stand in a long line! 🙂

One way we save a lot of money is by eating oatmeal. We typically eat it at least 3-4 per week. Usually for breakfast, but sometimes for lunch or a snack.

Today I had oatmeal for lunch. I cooked it my favorite way — just a little crispy on the stovetop and then added a heaping teaspoon of coconut oil and a half teaspoon of vanilla. It’s plain and simple, but it’s filling, nutritious, and inexpensive. Plus, it’s a quick and easy meal or snack to make!

How did YOU save today? I’d love to hear!

Shared Oct 4, 2014 comment

5 Ways to Save On Family Train Travel

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 4, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Kaylea

I thought about taking the train for years before I booked my first trip, but every time I did a search through a travel agent website, the trip came up costing a lot more than I wanted to spend.

Looking back, I am sure I missed out on some wonderful experiences, and could have saved a lot of money on some of my long road trips, if I’d had a better understanding of the Amtrak system.

If you’re living with a train enthusiast who’s eager to take a ride on the rails; or, if you’re looking for an alternative to driving or flying for your next family trip, these tips will help you keep more money in your wallet.

1. Plan ahead….way ahead!

My experience with train travel is that the best prices are available four to six months in advance, and the cost can double over the course of that time. Yikes!

2. Learn the routes that serve your town and your destination.

Whether you live in a major rail hub or only see a train a few days a week, trains follow set routes – certain cities, certain times. Use the Amtrak route guides to figure out what trains serve your area and your desired destinations.

If you know what routes you’re interested in, you’ll be able to more easily identify the sales and options that apply to you. You can travel to a larger hub and change trains if a point-to-point option is not available – just make sure that your luggage will be permitted on each train in your itinerary!

3. Flip the trip – focus on the journey, not the destination.

Amtrak doesn’t go everywhere, and it’s often not the cheapest way to get from point A to point B.

When planning your next family vacation, ask yourself, “Where can we go via train?” You can cross the country with lines like the Empire Builder or the California Zephyr, or take a day-trip to a point of interest. Consider going half-and-half — take the train on your way there, and then fly home.

Pursuing a train trip without first determining whether your destination is well-served by train routes could be seriously expensive!

4. Join Amtrak Guest Rewards.

This is the Amtrak equivalent of frequent flier miles, and you can accrue points with each trip. You can also earn points via Amtrak partners, like hotels, airlines, car rentals, and online merchants.

I always join the frequent guest programs when I travel, but I don’t travel often enough to accumulate very much at any given company. The option to transfer points from other frequent guest programs is useful in this case.

Scraping together what I have scattered around has helped me to build my points totals more quickly. And if you don’t end up becoming a frequent train rider, you can redeem for gift cards or give your points away to a friend.

5. Plan a SmartFare trip.

Taking advantage of sales is an obvious tip, but Amtrak’s SmartFare sales are a bit trickier to plan around.

Amtrak posts their coach SmartFares weekly, typically at a 25% discount. Sounds good, but here’s the tricky part: your trip has to take place within the next few weeks! This is a challenge for vacationers, since there’s no guarantee that a desirable destination will be on the markdown table at the time you’re planning to travel.

One way to get a handle on SmartFares is to read through the history of the specials and sales offered over the last year. If you visit a train travel resource like RailServe or Amtrak Unlimited, and scroll through the history of what’s been posted, you’ll get a sense of what might be available for you.

Since SmartFares are coach fares, this approach may be more suitable for a day trip or single overnight than a cross-country journey.

I keep a list of a few destinations for which I’m watching for SmartFares to pop up – in my case, that’s our state capital of Springfield, the water park resort area called Wisconsin Dells, and the city of Galena, a walkable historic town. Using these inexpensive fares for a short trip is a great way to get your feet wet before deciding to take a longer ride.

Traveling by train has other advantages beyond simple economics. You can focus on your family instead of watching the road. You can move around the train and hop off at longer stops to stretch your legs. And the availability of bathrooms, sightseeing cars, and a café car keeps everyone traveling comfortably.

By train is our family’s favorite way to travel, and I hope it will be an enjoyable and economical option for yours as well!

Kaylea is a Chicago writer and technologist. Together with her husband and two daughters, she has taken seven overnight train trips in the last four years. Her e-book, Family Travel by Train: Riding the Rails with Kids Five and Under, is available via the Kindle Store.

photo source

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Shared Oct 3, 2014 comment

How I Saved Today: This Week’s Amazon Order (coconut oil & oats)

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 3, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Thank you so very much for your kind, kind comments on my post yesterday on Why We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Budget. You have no idea how much you blessed and encouraged me with your graciousness and understanding.

Just, thank you. You all are the best readers ever and I’m so honored to be on this journey with you!

Many of you have asked if I’d share our grocery shopping trips again, our Amazon orders, and our weekly menu plans. Now that we’ve figured out what our grocery budget is going to be and I worked up the courage to share about it with you (!), I’m planning to get back to sharing our weekly shopping trips and menu plans as often as I’m able to. I also plan to share our almost-weekly Amazon orders.

As I’ve mentioned multiple times before, we usually make a few bulk purchases on Amazon each week using gift cards earned through Swagbucks. This week, I bought three big tubs of coconut oil and 4 bags of oats.

We eat oatmeal for breakfast at least a few times per week and we use it in baking some, too, so we’ll probably go through the oats in about two months or less.

The coconut oil will last us much longer. I’m going to guess at least six months? We’ll see!

I love being able to use my Swagbucks credit to buy quality items from Amazon when they are on a good sale. And it’s so nice to make bulk purchases of things we use often so that I don’t have to worry about replenishing my supply as often!

How did YOU save today? I’d love to hear! Tell us in the comments.

Shared Oct 3, 2014 comment

12 Goals for 2014: September’s update {and my recent struggles with goal-setting}

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 3, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Jesse and I spent time really discussing what my focuses should be for 2014 and we nailed down four areas that are my priorities for this year:

Marriage: to continue to invest time and energy to strengthen and nurture our marriage and make it one of the greatest priorities
Mothering: to continue to invest in our children with the goal of teaching them character, life skills, and raising them to be responsible adults
Myself: to make my health a priority and to invest in my personal growth as a Christian, business owner, writer, speaker, and leader
MoneySavingMom.com: to invest time into blogging — not just overseeing the business and my team, but making writing content pieces one of my top blogging priorities

Having these specific areas determined at the beginning of the year is really helping me to prioritize and giving me much clearer direction on when, where, and what to say no to this year.

September’s Update:

Can I just be really honest? I feel like I’ve struggled a lot with goal-setting this year. I think the move and many different life changes has thrown me for a loop.

I’ve grown a lot this year, I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve processed a lot. It’s been good, but it’s also meant that I haven’t made traction in many areas like I’d hoped.

I know I need to give myself grace and be okay that all of these changes have meant I’m moving at a snail’s pace or at a complete standstill in certain areas of my life. As you well know, though, my driven personality struggles a lot with the whole “give yourself grace” thing. That’s something I’m still working on. 🙂

In the mean time, here’s an update on how I’m doing (or not doing, as is the case with many of these!) on my goals this year:

Marriage Goals

1. Read 6 marriage books. (I’ve finished 4 marriage books so far.)
2. Write 50 love notes to Jesse. (I’ve written 35 love notes so far.)

Mothering Goals

3. Read 40 books aloud to the kids. (We’ve finished 9 books so far — yes I’m probably going to fall woefully short on this goal this year.)
4. Finish memorizing Romans 1 together.
5. Go through a cooking course with the kids. (I have been teaching the kids some cooking skills here and there but we’ve not done anything official yet.)

Personal Goals

6. Read through the Bible. (I’m mostly on track with this.)
7. Memorize Romans 2. (I’m working on this.)
8. Run a 5K race and go through P90X again. (I’m still hoping to make a race happen before the end of the year.)
9. Read 150 books/ebooks. (I’ve read 67 books so far this year.)

Blogging Goals

~~10. Write 150 substantive content pieces for the blog.~~
11. Write 50 DIY/Recipe posts for the blog. (I’ve written 35 DIY/Recipe posts so far.)
12. Blog about/participate in the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge (I finished September’s challenge.)

Did you set goals for 2014 yet?

If you’ve posted an update on how you’re doing on your goals for 2014, I’d love for you to share your link in the comments. Or, if you don’t have a blog, feel free to just leave a comment with an update on how you’re doing on your goals. Let’s encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!

If you’re brand-new to goal-setting, be sure to read my post on How to Change Your Life By Setting Goals.

Shared Oct 2, 2014 comment

Why We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Budget

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 2, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

It’s taken me weeks to work up the courage to write this post. But I finally decided the day had come… and I’m going to press publish on this, even if it means that some people don’t understand or are disappointed with me.

You see, for years, our family has been known by the fact that we have a really, really low grocery budget. In fact, this site started as an outgrowth of people’s interest in how we’ve kept our grocery budget so, so low.

The Lean Law School Years

I will never forget our lean law school years when we didn’t have more than $17 to $30 per week to spend on groceries, when we had to just drum up the best meals we could with what was on a great sale and what I could get for pennies with coupons, when we had many meatless meals because we couldn’t afford to purchase more than a pound or two of meat each week, when we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every single day for lunch for weeks and weeks on end.

It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t easy. But it was worth it.

Those short-term sacrifices eventually paid off into many long-term benefits. One of which was putting us in a position where we had the wiggle room to raise our grocery budget.

After my husband finished law school and our income had significantly increased, we toyed a lot with raising our grocery budget. And we did raise it a little — first to $40 per week and then, a little while later, up to $50 per week.

I Just Couldn’t Bring Myself to Spend More Than $50

I just couldn’t bring myself to spend more than $50 per week for groceries, though. {Note: The $50/week number was a little ambiguous because we do get free samples, review products, and high-value coupons from companies on a fairly regular basis because I’m a blogger. It was also a bit skewed because we buy some of our groceries with Amazon credit from Swagbucks. But for the past few years, we only spent $50 cash at the grocery store each week.}

After we moved to TN and we made the transition to Jesse being home full-time, I began noticing that $50 per week just didn’t seem to be cutting it. Not only has our family significantly changed our eating habits, but Jesse is no longer eating out each day for lunch. Plus, he is doing intense workouts three time per week and our kids are growing and have sports activities multiple times each week. Needless to say, we just seem to be going through a lot more food.

As Jesse has become a lot more interested in health and fitness, he’s also been doing a lot more of the cooking and he’s been loving trying out new and healthful recipes. He started wanting to spend more at the grocery store to purchase ingredients for different recipes he wanted to try.

Why I Was So Stubborn

In all honesty, I really didn’t want to raise our grocery budget any more. Why? Well, mostly because I felt like I owed it to you all for us to keep our grocery budget really, really low. I felt like I was being a fraud if I have a site called “MoneySavingMom.com” but didn’t also have some insanely low grocery budget.

So I kept saying “No, let’s just try to make $50 work.” I tried to get more creative. I tried to really look for bulk deals and local sales. I tried to think of new ways to stretch that money further.

It wasn’t working, but I kept being stubborn about it for a few more weeks. I didn’t want to let you all down. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. And, to be perfectly honest, I know there was a part of me that prided myself in the low, low grocery budget we’ve kept for so long.

But I finally realized how silly I was being. In the name of not letting my readers down, I was making life difficult for my husband and kids.

Family Comes First — Or Do They?

I’ve always said that my family comes first. That all blogging decisions will be made first and foremost on what is best for my family. That I won’t let the blog trump my family.

Clearly, I was forgetting this mantra. And I finally woke up and realized I just needed to let go of my arrogance and stubbornness, admit that it was time for a change, and be free from guilt over it.

While this was happening with me, Jesse had been researching different meal plans online and he came across a site called MealFit that offers meal planning specifically for people who want to eat healthfully and live a fit lifestyle. I was really reluctant to pay for this service. It seemed extravagant, costly, and nothing that was in line with my usually frugal ways.

Handing Over the Grocery Budget

At the same time, though, I could tell that Jesse really, really loved the idea. So I did something very uncharacteristic: I handed the grocery budget over to my husband and told him he could decide on what amount seemed best.

We paid for a short-term subscription to MealFit and shopped almost entirely according to their weekly grocery lists. I thought that eating according to the MealFit menu plan was going to massively increase our grocery budget, but I knew that we’d recently trimmed our budget in some other areas by at least $90, so I was willing to try it out and just see what would happen if we shopped and cooked according to the MealFit plan.

It was really hard for me for the first few weeks, but I could tell that Jesse was loving it and I enjoyed almost every single one of the MealFit recipes. They are packed with flavor and nutrition and there have only been a few duds or ones that we didn’t love.

Yes, We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Budget

After about 4 weeks of experimenting, we realized that, yes, shopping and cooking according to the MealFit menu plan did increase our budget — but not to a crazy high number like I was expecting. We’re averaging around $130 per week now for groceries for the five of us, including the cost of the MealFit subscription.

This is more than double what we were budgeting before, but it’s nowhere near the $250 or so that I’d initially pictured it might be. More importantly, my family is eating healthfully and my husband is much happier. He’s made many, many hard sacrifices over the years to allow us to stay out of debt and save aggressively and I’m so happy that he can now reap some of the fruit of that sacrifice.

So there you have it: the completely honest truth on why we raised our grocery budget. I have a feeling some readers will be disappointed and upset with me. And that’s the hardest part about me writing and putting this kind of post out there. I don’t want to disappoint people, but I also want to be authentic.

No matter what you think of me after reading this post, I hope you know how much I appreciate you being on this journey with me. My heart hurts for you if you’re in a season where you don’t have any wiggle room in your budget. Please don’t give up! I truly believe that someday soon, those short-term sacrifices will pay off in big ways.

Shared Oct 2, 2014 comment

How I Saved Today: Making Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 2, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

How did YOU save today?

I saved by making my own Pumpkin Pie Spice. I’ve been wanting to make a few different recipes recently that call for Pumpkin Pie Spice. Instead of buying it, I mixed up some of it myself with spices I already had on hand.

It was so easy to make. Here’s the recipe I used:

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Mix all spices together and store in an airtight container. I used a clean empty spice jar.

Shared Oct 2, 2014 comment

Gretchen’s $40 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 2, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

My husband is out of town for half of the week so I’m doing a simple menu based off of stuff in our pantry and refrigerator. We have quite a few random fruits and veggies in our refrigerator that I will be using up. I took this opportunity to buy a few fun snack items and stock up on cheese.

Dillons

2 Barbara’s Cereal – $2.50 each, used $1.25/1 and $1.50/1 printable – $1.12 each after coupons

1 Yoplait Go-Gurt – $2.79 (My son has been begging me to buy this for weeks now. He was beyond thrilled with this surprise!)

1 Kroger Frozen Orange Juice – $1.59

1 dozen Dillons Eggs – $0.99

Bananas – $1.06

1 Kroger Bath Tissue (12 double rolls) – Marked down to $3.99

1 Green Leaf Lettuce – $0.99

2 Sierra Mist – $1, used $1/2 printable – $0.50 each after coupon

1 gallon Milk – $2.50, used $0.25 Ibotta rebate – $2.25

1 pkg Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs – $3.46

Total with tax ($1.86): $22.48 (And I will get $0.25 back from Ibotta.)

Homeland

We recently moved to a new town and there is a Homeland store nearby. I finally got a chance this week to shop there and was excited about the good deals I got. I will definitely be shopping there more often now. 🙂

2 Horizon Mac & Cheese – $1.25 each, used $1/2 coupon from Summer Mambo Sprouts Savings Booklet (doubled) – $0.25 each after coupon

1 Stayfree Pads – $2.50, used $1/1 printable (doubled) – $0.50 after coupon

1 Pagoda Egg Rolls – $2.50, used $1/1 printable (doubled) – $0.50 after coupon

Buy 10, Get $10 off instantly:

1 Mayo – $2.99, used $0.75/1 printable – $0.49 after coupon and instant savings

9 Kraft Shredded Cheese – $1.49 each after instant savings (I will freeze most of this!)

Total with tax ($1.63): $17.93

Total for both stores: $40.41

Menu Plan for this Week

Breakfasts

Cereal, Fruit Smoothies & Eggs x 2, Toast & Juice, Oatmeal

Lunches

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Mac & Cheese/Veggies, Tossed Salad, Egg Rolls and Fruit, Leftovers

Dinners

Italian Chicken, Toasted Hamburger Buns (from the freezer), Tossed Salad, Steamed Carrots

Spaghetti, Green Beans, Tossed Salad

Tacos, Rice, Sliced Oranges/Apples

Pancakes, Eggs, Homemade Applesauce

Hamburger Vegetable Soup, Crackers/Cheese, Peaches (from my canning)

Venison Roast, 30 Minute Rolls, Steamed Broccoli

Dinner with friends

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Shared Oct 1, 2014 comment

Yes, for real, this non-crafty girl is actually CRAFTING!

Published: by Crystal Paine on October 1, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

You all know good and well that I’m not the kind of person one would consider “artsy-crafty”. I’ve always wanted to be able to sew and create, and I actually spent years of my life feeling frustrated that I couldn’t seem to sew or decorate or create like other people I knew could.

But I’ve come to accept that while I will probably never be an amazing seamstress or interior decorator, I still am an artist. My art form just happens to be putting words together into notes of encouragement, blog posts, and chapters for books. And I’m good with that.

At the same time, I also realize that I don’t want to live under the belief of “I’m not crafty” and let that hold me back from trying new things. So when the gals from Marie Madeline offered to send me the materials so Kaitlynn and I could make a few projects from Abigail’s book, Modern Prairie Sewing, I said “yes”.

When the materials and book arrived in the mail, I honestly thought, “Oh no! What have I gotten myself into?!?”

Kaitlynn was so excited about working on a sewing project with me that it gave me the courage I needed to jump in and give it my best shot. And guess what, folks? I made something. Something that looks beautiful to me and that I’m proud to share with you here.

{Listening to a new podcast I love — Brilliant Business Moms — while crafting. Excuse my very worn iPhone case. I plan to keep it until it falls apart completely! :)}

Sure, this is like the most beginner of beginner projects, but I DID IT! And I feel so fulfilled and empowered by doing so.

In fact, I went out and bought some more fabric and supplies so that I can make some of the other projects in this book and elsewhere online! Kaitlynn is absolutely thrilled that I’m interested in something she loves and I see a lot more mother-daughter projects in our future together.

Can I encourage you? Don’t live under lies and let yourself be held by beliefs that “I’m not good at this or that.” Maybe it’s not your strength. Maybe it’s not your gift. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t just give it your best shot. Because holding yourself back out of fear of failure or belief that “I can’t” is a way to miss out on many new experiences.

Stay tuned for pictures of our next sewing experiment! I already have the project picked out and am really hopeful that it’s a success, too. If it’s not, I’ll at least enjoy the process of trying something new! 🙂

Shared Sep 30, 2014 comment

How I Saved Today: A great deal on Mrs. Meyer’s products!

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 30, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

How did YOU save today?

I got my order in from ePantry! I’m so excited that I was able to take advantage of such a great deal on Mrs. Meyer’s soaps.

We LOVE Mrs. Meyer’s products and I’m always excited when I’m able to get a great deal on them! I especially love stretching the hand soaps by making homemade foaming hand soap.

I just have to say, I continue to be so impressed with ePantry. I’ve emailed with them a few times about different things and they’ve been so gracious, kind, and helpful. It makes me happy to hear reports that the rest of you are having great experiences with them, too!

Psst! Want to win a free box of Mrs. Meyer’s products? I’m giving two away over on my Instagram account. Head on over here and follow the two quick steps to enter to win.

Shared Sep 30, 2014 comment

12 Months to a Healthier You: October’s Challenge

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 30, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

For September’s 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge, we focused on clearing out clutter. I committed to spend 30 minutes to an hour every week de-cluttering at my house. Here’s an update from my last 30-minute decluttering session:

I cleaned clutter/trash/things that didn’t belong out of the car. Um, I’m sort of embarrassed to show you the sack I brought in from the car.

Yes, that whole entire thing was stuff in the car that was either trash or didn’t belong in the car. Yikes!

October’s Challenge is to cut back on caffeine. And I kind of groaned when I saw that’s what it was. Because I love my two cups of coffee each day!

But I’m going to try to slowly cut back to one cup of coffee per day just to see if it changes how I feel or my sleeping patterns or anything. And also just because I think it’s good to challenge myself to things like this on occasion (yes, you can call me crazy!)

Did you do any de-cluttering this past week? If so, how’d it go for you? Are you planning to join us for October’s challenge?

Shared Sep 29, 2014 comment

6 Lessons Learned From An All-Cash Grocery Budget

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 29, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Jennifer

It’s been just over a year since my big budgeting ah-ha moment and switching to an all-cash grocery budget. It has not been easy, and some months got pretty ugly — peanut butter and jelly for a week of lunch may appeal to kids but it’s not my favorite.

Overall switching to a cash budget has been a success and something I will continue to do for my family. I have learned some lessons, made mistakes, and even cheated and swiped the debit card on a few occasions.

Here are 6 lessons I’ve learned, and why our all-cash grocery budget is the best budgeting decision our family has made to date. Our savings account will back me up on this!

1. You can eat healthfully on a budget.

Seriously, it can happen, and actually I started buying healthier food since going on my all cash budget.

I will let you know that my family doesn’t eat organic, we love gluten, and luckily, have no food allergies. We do eat “real” food like fruits, vegetables, whole grain, and very little processed foods. I do like to cook/bake and have utilized this skill more over the past year.

My biggest secret for affording healthy foods is to buy in-season. We eat a lot of strawberries in June, apples in September, and tomatoes in July. We seem to eat our weight in corn on the cob and zucchini in the summer and hop on the pumpkin bandwagon in the fall!

I also freeze a lot of in-season foods so we can enjoy them out of season. Right now my freezer is filled with frozen strawberries and corn on the cob. I’m making room for the apples this fall.

2. A simple meal plan isn’t a bad thing.

I follow a very basic plan when planning my meals, especially dinners. We have a protein, starch, and vegetable. The protein is usually meat of some sort — chicken, ground turkey, or ground beef. I know we could save money by eating vegetarian once a week, but we like meat and as long as we can afford meat, we’ll eat it for nearly every dinner.

Our breakfasts and lunches are also pretty simple. Fortunately at this time in our lives, our mornings are pretty relaxed since my oldest has afternoon preschool. We are able to make eggs, toast, or pancakes each morning for breakfast. This is really cheap and a pretty healthy. Lunches are usually made up of leftovers or PB&J’s with fruit and crackers. I’ll admit, variety may be lacking in our lunches, but it does keep the costs down!

I know that someday, I will be able to get more adventurous in the kitchen. But in my season of life (two boys ages 3 and 5, and two more babies on the way), simple meal planning is my best friend. I don’t have the time, money, and more importantly the energy to follow a Martha Stewart recipe each night for dinner. I try for variety, but won’t allow my budget to suffer for an elaborate meal.

I also attempt to create a meal plan each week, I will admit that this gets done about 75% of the time, but when it does get done the entire week seems more organized and easy going. Since I shop primarily at Aldi, I don’t really have to base my meal plans on what’s on sale since everything seems to be on sale all the time at this store. Since starting my cash budget I take this more seriously, I know my funds are limited and every dollar counts.

3. It’s very helpful to know what my food costs.

I know what a good price for milk is, and when to stock up on ground beef. I won’t overpay for lettuce because I’m much more aware of the price of my food.

I also know how much I need left at the end of my 15-day pay cycle in order to get milk, eggs, peanut butter, and bread–the essentials to make it through those last couple of days, if need be.

In short I’m a more intelligent shopper, and am aware that just because a flashy ad claims that paying $1.99/lb for grapes is a great deal I know that is much more than I’m willing to pay, and will wait a few weeks until they are $0.79/lb.

4. It’s okay to cheat sometimes.

In the beginning I made some mistakes and fell back into bad habits.

I quickly learned that paying a few dollars on the debit card was not the end of the world. Kids will get sick and need medicine, milk will run out more quickly than expected, and not everything you need for the week will be on sale.

The important thing is I’ve learned from my mistakes, and continue to learn how to make my money stretch as far as possible while still preparing good food for my family.

5. A bare refrigerator no longer stresses me out.

In the past, if our refrigerator looked empty, I had to go to the grocery store to fill it up — even if I had run out of money in my imaginary budget. I didn’t like the thought of not having anything to eat, even though there was food to eat, just not a plethora of food that would eventually get thrown out.

Now I like that my fridge is bare, because I know that the food that is in there is food that will get eaten. Rarely does food go to waste in this house anymore, because I know the value of that half eaten salad, or can come up with something to do with the leftover vegetables from two nights ago.

I’m not afraid to mix two almost empty bottles of different flavored salad dressing together to make a new and “exciting” marinade for chicken — guess what’s for dinner tonight? I embrace the challenge of the bare refrigerator, and am saving money while tackling it!

6. It really works, and I won’t go back.

The concept is simple, pay in cash and stop shopping when you run out of money.

The reality is a little more difficult. There is a learning curve involved in making the leap from card to cash, and it can be pretty embarrassing to have to put that bag of chips back because you simply don’t have the money for them.

Grocery stores are tricky places that are strategically set up to get your money, and sometimes they win. I am happy to say, for me, most of the time they don’t.

Have you tried only using cash to buy groceries?

My name is Jennifer Willis, I’m a stay-at-home mom to two boys, Henry is 5 and Charlie is 3 and we’re excited to welcome boy/girl twins this December. My husband John and I have been married for nearly 8 years and live in Olathe, Kansas. I love to embroider, binge watch TV shows, and create train tracks and Lego houses with my boys.

photo source

Shared Sep 29, 2014 comment

10 Goals For This Week

Published: by Crystal Paine on September 29, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Gratefully, I ended up getting a LOT more sleep and down time this past week — which was a blessing! And the interesting thing is: I also was a lot more productive!

I know it probably helped that I had a somewhat quieter week project/schedule-wise, but I also think that being more rested allowed me to focus better. This inspires me to continue to make sleep and margin a priority. It truly does make a difference!

Last week’s goals:

Marriage/Mothering/Homemaking Goals

1. Read Teddy’s Button aloud to the kids at lunch time. {We’re over halfway through with this book — hoping to finish this week.}

~~2. Have a movie night with Jesse.~~

~~3. Write a love note to Jesse.~~

~~4. Spend 30 minutes decluttering our house.~~

~~5. Finish a craft/sewing project with Kaitlynn.~~

Personal Goals

~~6. Work on reviewing and memorizing Romans 1 and Romans 2:1-2.~~

7. Finish reading I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t), A Proper Pursuit, ~~Manage Your Day-to-Day~~, Love, Skip, Jump, ~~Eight Twenty Eight~~, and ~~All In~~.

~~8. Run or exercise at least 5 times.~~

Business Goals

~~9. Work on chapters 4-7 of my book manuscript.~~

~~10. Write one more post for the Time Management series.~~

This week’s goals:

Marriage/Mothering/Homemaking Goals

1. Finish reading Teddy’s Button aloud to the kids at lunch time.

2. Have a movie night with Jesse.

3. Write a love note to Jesse.

4. Spend 30 minutes decluttering our house.

5. Work on another craft/sewing project with Kaitlynn.

Personal Goals

6. Work on reviewing and memorizing Romans 1 and Romans 2:1-2.

7. Finish reading I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t), A Proper Pursuit, and Love, Skip, Jump.

8. Run or exercise at least 5 times.

Business Goals

9. Work on chapters 7 and 8 of my book manuscript.

10. Work on Price Comparison project for All You magazine (I’m gathering some local prices for an upcoming feature they are doing in their magazine.)

How did you do on last week’s goals? What are your goals for this week? I’d love to have you share your progress on last week’s goals and your goals for this coming week in the comments. Of, if you’ve blogged about it, leave your direct link below. Let’s cheer each other on to live purposeful and productive lives! You can download a free customizable weekly goal-planning sheet here.

2hr Cleaning Checklist

2hr Cleaning Checklist

FREE DOWNLOAD: 2-Hour Cleaning Checklist!

How are YOU doing on cutting back on caffeine?

How did YOU save today? I’d love to hear!

1. Plan ahead….way ahead!

2. Learn the routes that serve your town and your destination.

3. Flip the trip – focus on the journey, not the destination.

4. Join Amtrak Guest Rewards.

5. Plan a SmartFare trip.

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

How did YOU save today? I’d love to hear! Tell us in the comments.

September’s Update:

Marriage Goals

Mothering Goals

Personal Goals

Blogging Goals

Did you set goals for 2014 yet?

The Lean Law School Years

I Just Couldn’t Bring Myself to Spend More Than $50

Why I Was So Stubborn

Family Comes First — Or Do They?

Handing Over the Grocery Budget

Yes, We More Than Doubled Our Grocery Budget

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

Dillons

Homeland

Menu Plan for this Week

Breakfasts

Lunches

Dinners

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

How did YOU save today?

1. You can eat healthfully on a budget.

2. A simple meal plan isn’t a bad thing.

3. It’s very helpful to know what my food costs.

4. It’s okay to cheat sometimes.

5. A bare refrigerator no longer stresses me out.

6. It really works, and I won’t go back.

Have you tried only using cash to buy groceries?

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