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Use these frugal family Christmas traditions as ideas to embrace the Christmas season without breaking your budget!

Shared Dec 13, 2014 comment

7 Frugal Family Holiday Traditions

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 13, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Sara:

Christmas Tradition Ideas on a Budget

Being on a budget can be especially discouraging during the holidays. It’s easy to look at what we “can’t afford” or what we “don’t have”, that we lose sight of the beauty of the things and people around us…the lifelong memories we can create with little or no money.

Here are 7 of our family’s favorite frugal Holiday Traditions.

Frugal Holiday Traditions at Home

1. Decorating Christmas Cookies

My husband and I started this tradition when we were first married 10 years ago, and have carried it on with our two children. We start with a simple sugar cookie recipe, cut out shapes using Christmas cookie cutters, and decorate with whatever we have on hand (like sprinkles, chocolate chips, or even marshmallows).

It’s an inexpensive way to get into the holiday mood, (most baking supplies go on sale this time of year), and we look forward to kicking off the Christmas season with some goodies to share with friends and neighbors.

2. Making Homemade Ornaments

I do a homemade ornament with my kids each year to hang on our tree. It’s been as simple as tracing their handprint onto construction paper, cutting it out and sticking a pipe cleaner through it — but it’s a beautiful reminder to cherish the moments since each progressing ornament shows how quickly they’ve grown from year to year!

Christmas Traditions Out & About

3. Looking at Christmas Lights

Our town has many beautiful light displays, and on several evenings before Christmas, we like to take a few sugar cookies, maybe put some apple cider into respective sippy cups, and drive around looking at all the lights while blasting our favorite Christmas music CD.

4. “Adopting” Someone

Helping someone out during the holidays doesn’t have to cost money, but we always try to find a way to bless at least one family during the Christmas season.

Whether it’s giving them some of the gift cards we’ve collected through Swagbucks so they are able to buy a gift for their children, babysitting for a single mom so she can get some shopping done, visiting a nursing home and bringing handmade cards and a listening ear, or inviting someone who has no family over for Christmas dinner, you don’t have to spend a lot to bless someone else.

A small gesture to you may mean to world to someone else.

5. The Sounds of the Season

My two-year-old was born deaf, and last year received cochlear implant surgery that gave him the incredible gift of sound. Our newest tradition (but one of the most meaningful) is listening for specific “sounds of the season” wherever we go (bells, carolers, wrapping paper, even the timer on the oven I use when baking), which our son is now able to hear.

“Junior can hear _____!” we’ll exclaim when we hear a new sound, as a reminder that the best gifts in life have nothing to do with packages and bows.

Holiday Traditions for Christmas Eve / Morning

6. Christmas Eve Pajamas

Following a tradition dating back three generations in my family, our kids get to open one gift on Christmas Eve, and it’s always a pair of pajamas and a book.

I try to find clearance items throughout the year, so the pajamas may have cost less than $5 and the book may have been from the dollar store, but it’s still one of our favorite traditions.

7. Christmas Morning Communion

It’s a simple act, but before opening any stockings or presents, our family takes communion using some toast and apple cider as a reminder that Christmas isn’t about the WHAT, it’s about the WHO, and His perfect gift to us.

These are a few of our family’s favorite frugal family traditions — I’d love to hear about some of your in the comments!

photo source

Shared Dec 12, 2014 comment

I told you I’ve been neglecting deep cleaning & here’s proof (Clean Your House for Christmas: Day 5)

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 12, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Thank you so much for joining me this week for the Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge. It made such a big difference in our home and it inspired me to continue cleaning out other neglected areas in our home in the coming days and weeks.

Today was the first day all week that I’ve finally felt almost completely 100% again — which was such a blessing after days of being sick and then just feeling really tired as a result of being sick. I’m so grateful to be on the mend and back to full steam again!

Silas made scrambled eggs for breakfast — and needed almost zero help from me to make them! I still turn the burner on for him and oversee him carefully, but it’s exciting to see him really picking up on cooking skills this year.

I started the She Reads Truth 1 & 2nd Peter Study today… I can already tell I’m going to benefit greatly from it! Taking time to be quiet and spend time studying God’s Word, reading from a good book, and counting my blessings is such a great start to my day!

I love that this girl has really started to love reading! I keep catching her with her nose stuck in books this week!

While I was working on finishing up my morning cleaning, Silas asked if he could help clean all the windows. He spent an HOUR working on cleaning all the windows on the first floor! I was quite impressed!

The rest of the morning was spent on homeschooling. Right before lunch, I finally had a chance to get in a quick run on the treadmill. And then Jesse got home and made lunch while I hopped in the shower and got dressed and ready.

I came downstairs and we ate lunch and read aloud together. Then Jesse took over homeschooling and I headed out to spend a few hours working at the shared office space we have a membership to. I was grateful to finally feel up to getting out of the house today… while I love being home, I find that I’m much more productive when I leave for the afternoon and working at the office space. Plus, it was just good to get out of the house after being home almost all day every day for the past week because I just haven’t felt well.

When I got home, I tackled the bathroom cupboards. I’m kind of embarrassed to show you this one… because you see that duffle bag stuffed in the cupboard?

That’s a duffle bag we packed for a trip we went on in AUGUST.

Um, yeah.

I wasn’t kidding when I told you I’ve neglected deep cleaning…

It feels SO good to f-i-n-a-l-l-y have that bag unpacked and put away. And to have that bathroom cupboard cleaned out and organized.

Bathroom cupboard #2: Before

And after. Much better.

While I didn’t get all the deep cleaning done that I’d hoped to this week, I tackled a LOT of projects and areas that have been very neglected these past six months of my life and it feels so good to open drawers and closets and cupboards and see such neat and organized spaces again.

Now I’m determined to work on keeping them that way!

~~Leave a Comment & You Could Win This Stack of Books!~~

In my cleaning today, I found some more books that I’d love to pass on to a good home, most all that are ones I’ve loved and just want to share with someone who could be encouraged by them! Plus, I threw in a copy of both my audiobook, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, and a copy of my new Choose Gratitude Blessings Journal that’s now out of stock in our store (I have a few copies left!), and a copy of my first book, The Money Saving Mom’s Budget.

Who wants to win them? To win, just leave a comment on this post and I’ll choose one winner tomorrow evening and will mail them to you so you’ll have them in time for Christmas. Some of these books are great condition and might even work as gifts for people on your Christmas list!

The winner of yesterday’s stack of books is Jennifer (jjsbarrilleaux@) — I sent you an email tonight to ask for your address.

The winner of this stack of books from today’s giveaway is Kaitlin (literarymademoiselle@) — I sent you an email requesting your address. Congrats!

Shared Dec 12, 2014 comment

Brigette’s $43 Grocery Shopping Trip and Weekly Menu Plan for 6

Published: by Brigette on December 12, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Aldi

2 9-oz bags Spinach (@$0.99/each) – $1.98

1 3-ct package Romaine Hearts – $1.99

2 Avocados (@$0.59/each) – $1.18

2 16-oz bags Baby Carrots (@$0.69/each) – $1.38

1 3-ct package Green Peppers – $1.19

1 Cucumber – $0.39

Total: $8.11

Harris Teeter

10 8-oz bags Shredded Cheese (B2G3 Free) – $13.00

2 18-ct cartons Eggs (@$1.77/each) – $3.54, receive $0.50 back from Checkout 51 – $3.04 after rebate

2 13-oz packages Land O’ Frost Simply Delicious Lunchmeat – (B1G1) – $5.49, used 2 $0.75/1 printable (doubled) – $2.49/2 after coupons

2 boxes Bigelow Tea (B1G1) – $2.99, used 2 $0.55/1 printable (doubled) – $0.79/2 after coupons

1 package Mariani Craisins – $1.69, used $0.50/1 Mariani Dried Fruit Snack, exp. 1/31/15 (SS 11/23/14) – $0.69 after coupon

used $15 Walgreens Register Rewards (leftover from Black Friday Walgreens deals)

Total after Rebate: $5.01

Azure Standard

(a friend from church coordinates group orders from Azure Standard, and I have been able to get some great deals from this online store)

20lbs “In Season” Organic Apples – $14.00

Total with Tax: $15.14

Flower Foods Bakery

(My husband came home with all of the following – the man has definitely learned how to score a great deal! You should have seen how proud he was of himself. 🙂 And yes, most of this is white and processed, but it went straight to our freezer, and will be interspersed with homemade whole-grain baked goods.)

19 packages of Bread (including Regular and Cinnamon Raisin Bagels, Bagel Thins, English Muffins, Hot Dog Buns and Sandwich Bread) – $6.30

Total: $6.30

Sams

(a friend picked this up for me – a fantastic price for coconut flour!)

5lbs of Organic Coconut Flour – $8.98

Total: $8.98

Weekly Total: $43.64

Weekly Menu Plan

Breakfasts

Oatmeal and Fruit (we have bananas, pears, cranberries and blueberries in the freezer right now, so the children love picking a different fruit each morning to stir into their oatmeal); Eggs and Toasted Bagels, Cereal, Buckwheat Pancakes, Homemade Yogurt and Granola

Lunches

Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches, Apples, Green Pepper Slices

Baked Potatoes with Cheese and Broccoli

Tuna Sandwiches, Cucumbers, Apples

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Apples, Carrot Sticks

Scrambled Eggs and Spinach, Buttered Brown Rice

Leftovers x 2

Dinners

Cheesy Hashbrown Potatoes with Ham (someone gave us a ham at Thanksgiving, and we have lots of leftover in the freezer), Green Beans, Toasted Bagels

Christmas Banquet Dinner at our Church

Homemade Cheese Pizza, Tossed Salad, Carrot Sticks

Egg McMuffin Sandwiches (Fried Egg, Cheese, and Lunchmeat on English Muffins), Spinach Salad, Steamed Broccoli

Baked Spaghetti, French Bread, Green Beans with Parmesan Cheese

Baked Chicken Nuggets (using homemade bread crumbs), Roasted Cauliflower, Freezer Biscuits

Leftovers

Snacks

Apples, Popcorn, Smoothies, Granola

Shared Dec 12, 2014 comment

Reader Tip: Save Your Budget with Family Gifts

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 12, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Kalyn Brooke emailed in the following tip:

I love buying gifts and receive so much joy out of choosing the perfect present for that special someone. But year after year, it can be really hard on the finances to buy for each individual — especially when your income doesn’t grow at the same rate as your list.

My solution = Family Gifts.

Buying for a family as opposed to each person person not only cuts down on the amount of gifts you need to purchase, it also means you don’t have to spend as much. For example: If you spend $20 per person for a family of 5, that’s $100. But if you buy a really nice family gift for only $50, you’ve cut your costs in half!

Here are a couple ideas for frugal family gifts:

1. Gift baskets are great family gifts to give, because you can easily create one for any budget. Not sure what to put in your basket? Here are a bunch of creative ideas!

2. Another option is to buy just one gift the whole family can enjoy. Consider what sort of activities each family normally does together, then buy them a gift that complements their interests — board games, outdoor activities, DVD’s, etc.

3. Collaborating with others and go in on a bigger gift. Send your parents on a bed-and-breakfast adventure, buy a theme park pass for the whole family to enjoy, treat your grandparents to an expensive dinner reservation, or pitch in to buy a playground for the kids.

Next time you’re out shopping for Christmas gifts, think about family gifts rather the individuals gifts. You’ll significantly cut costs, and make the season a lot simpler. I’d say that’s a win-win!

Looking for more frugal gift ideas? Check out Kalyn’s Free Frugal Gift Guide!

photo source

Shared Dec 12, 2014 comment

Clean Your House for Christmas (Day 5)

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 12, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Join Me For the Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge

Welcome to the last day of the 5-Day Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge. Otherwise known as: Crystal really needs to deep clean her house and she needs the public accountability to get it done. Ahem. 🙂

{Thank you for humoring me. If your house is in great shape, please just skip over these posts. I may be the only one who has kind of let my housework and decluttering slide a bit the past few months.}

It’s been SUCH a great week — you all are such great accountability for me! Thank you for tagging along with me in this challenge.

Today I was planning to focus on the main living areas of the house, but those are really clean and clutter-free, so I’m going to finish the rest of the bathroom drawers/cupboards/underneath the sink today.

Here’s my plan for this morning (feel free to follow it somewhat, if you find it helpful… or you can get a laugh out of how detailed I am!):

This Morning’s Plan

1. Read my Bible, eat breakfast, and start laundry.

2. Exercise, shower, get dressed to my shoes. (Thanks, Flylady!)

3. Morning chores with the kids.

4. Get the kids started on their schoolwork. Kindergarten with Silas.

6. Switch the laundry.

7. Finish cleaning the bathrooms:

Surface clean.

Go through the rest of the cupboards, drawers, and closet.

8. Read aloud with the kids.

9. Celebrate a productive morning, er day… because it probably won’t all get done by noon!

So, that’s my morning plan. I’m hopeful to have it all done before dinner time today. I’ll take pictures and will post an update later today to let you know how it goes.

Want To Join Me?

Are you joining me? If so, what room(s) are you planning to tackle today and what’s your morning plan? Let us know in the comments. If you are blogging about it, I’ll have a link-up that you can link your post to in my post later today.

photo credit

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Shared Dec 11, 2014 comment

I think I win the Messiest Bathroom Drawer of the Year award (Clean Your House for Christmas: Day 4)

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 11, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I got up later than I’d planned this morning and felt like I was sort of chasing my tail all day long. However, because of the good routine we’re getting into and because of the hard work we’ve done to deep clean the house this week, the whole day didn’t feel derailed and I ended up getting most of the things done that I’d hoped to accomplish.

I’ve been doing a really good job of doing one load of laundry from start to finish every day this week. I’m amazed at how much this is helping our days go smoother — and how happy it makes me to know that all the laundry is done when I go to bed.

One thing that has made this to actually happen is that the kids have been folding and putting away the load of laundry every afternoon. So all I’ve had to do was start and switch the load — and then remind them to fold and put it away in the afternoon.

I may have solved my years-long battle of the laundry pile! And that is HUGE!

Kaitlynn made me breakfast this morning. She loves to serve me and is always looking for little ways to do so. Today, she presented me with a bowl of oatmeal that had chopped bananas on it. Yum!

Yesterday, she brought me a fresh cup of coffee almost first thing in the morning. It was totally her idea and it blessed me so much.

Moms of littles, I just want to encourage you: your hard work will pay off. Keep loving, teaching, and nurturing those babies of yours and someday soon, they’ll be making you breakfast, helping with laundry, and encouraging you throughout the day.

Silas practiced writing out numbers today, as well as working on learning basic clock-reading skills. He also did some Do-a-Dot letter printables.

While I was helping Silas with Kindergarten, Jesse made dinner and popped it in the crock pot. Yes, folks, I am so very blessed. Truly, I am blown away by this man that I married. And I fall more in love with him every day.

Life isn’t always all roses and rainbows and we have our struggles and arguments, but for the most part, we are just loving this lifestyle of us both working together and sharing homeschooling responsibilities, and all working together to keep our home running. I’m beyond grateful for this blog (and you all who read here) and how you help make this possible for our family.

All those years of hard work, sacrifices, and living on little have borne much more fruit than we could have dreamed. We have no idea whether this is just a season or a forever thing, but we’re seeking to embrace the here and now and loving where we’re at and how it allows us to get to spend so much time together.

After Jesse made dinner and we’d finished breakfast and morning chores, he left for a meeting and to run some errands. The rest of our morning was spent cleaning, doing morning chores, homeschooling, and reading aloud together.

When Jesse got home, I finished reading the last two chapters of our current read aloud book while he made lunch — it was bacon and eggs today. Yum!

And then he took over homeschooling and I headed out to finally run on the treadmill, take a shower, and do some blogging and business work.

Later in the afternoon, the kids came outside to help me shoot the pictures for my Apple Pie post. They LOVE to help me set up and take photos for my blog posts.

Kathrynne, especially, has really gotten into giving me ideas and suggestions for how to set things up and angles to take pictures from. When I was finished with taking pictures, she took the camera and snapped some more for me.

When I was finished with the Apple Pie photos, I quickly put on a little make up and headed out the door for a meeting in town with a few of my team members. We had our end-of-year meetings last week and are in the process of making some changes for 2015, so a few of us had to meet to put things in place to move forward with one of the action items.

I so LOVE the team of people I get to work with. Not only are each of them amazing and skilled, but more importantly, they are my friends. We share so much more than business stuff with each other and that’s what makes working together so much fun.

While I was at my manager’s office, I also got to pop in and see all of the boxes and boxes of orders being packaged up and shipped out. There have been a team of people working hard to get all orders out in a timely manner for Christmas. This is our first year to offer products, so it’s been a learning experience and we so appreciate your patience and input as we’re learning the ropes and growing in this way.

By the way, can you believe that we’re now completely SOLD OUT of all the Gratitude Journals? We have enough to send out all the orders that came in through this afternoon, but we had to pull it from our site this evening as we are almost completely out of stock and we just discovered that our publisher doesn’t have any more in stock, either!

The publisher is getting another big order printed and shipped in right now, but that’s going to take at least 6 weeks or so. In the mean time, getting your hands on a Gratitude Journal is going to be bit hard to do. We think a few Christian stores may still have some in stock, as well as possibly a few places online.

Basically, you all BLEW US AWAY with your excitement and orders. And we ended up selling 10 TIMES MORE than I expected we’d be able to sell by Christmas. I don’t know what to say other than thank you for believing in this idea of mine and being excited about it! I’m truly speechless and humbly grateful. You all mean the world to me!

I finally got around to cleaning the bathrooms tonight. Well, let me take that back: I started to clean the bathrooms and then realized that there was no way I could get to every single part of the bathrooms I wanted to and still go to bed by 11:30 p.m. tonight.

So instead, I decided to just focus most of my efforts on the bathroom drawers in the Master Bathroom drawers. Because clearly, these needed some serious help.

Yikes! I cannot believe I’m posting these publicly.

And yet another, really awful drawer.

I pulled everything out — and it was a little overwhelming!

I used a rag to wipe down the insides and then tossed some things, put some items in the shelves in the bathroom cupboard, and re-organized the rest.

I think I need to find some drawer organizers for all the little things. Still thinking on what would be best there — I welcome suggestions of drawer organizers or how you keep your bathroom drawers from looking like a Stuff Bomb exploded inside of them!

Leave a Comment & You Could Win This Stack of Books!

In my cleaning today, I found some more books that I’d love to pass on to a good home, most all that are ones I’ve loved and just want to share with someone who could be encouraged by them! Plus, I threw in a copy of both my audiobook, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, and a copy of my new Choose Gratitude Blessings Journal that’s now out of stock in our store (I have a few copies left!), and a copy of my first book, The Money Saving Mom’s Budget.

Who wants to win them? To win, just leave a comment on this post and I’ll choose one winner tomorrow evening and will mail them to you so you’ll have them in time for Christmas. Some of these books are great condition and might even work as gifts for people on your Christmas list!

Did you work on cleaning your house today? If you blogged about participating in this Clean Your House For Christmas Challenge, leave the direct link to your post below that is specifically about this challenge. Or, leave a comment telling us how your cleaning went today.
The winner of yesterday’s stack of books is Sara (sara.perrera@) — I sent you an email tonight to ask for your address.

Shared Dec 11, 2014 comment

Apple Pie A La Mode

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 11, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

If you’re looking for a delicious dessert during peak apple season (or any time of year), this Apple Pie a la mode is to die for!

This Apple Pie has been a family favorites for years!

It’s usually always part of our holiday celebrations. In fact, Thanksgiving or Christmas just wouldn’t seem right without this recipe!

It’s not too hard to make and it always gets rave reviews. If you want to dress it up even more, add a scoop of ice cream plus some caramel sauce. It’s ooey-gooey, the perfect combination of sweet and crunchy, and oh-so-delicious!

We’d never tried the Breyers caramel sauce before, so when they asked me if I’d be interested in making an apple pie and they’d send us a gift card to buy the ingredients plus some Breyers ice cream and caramel sauce to top it with, my family happily signed up for that taste test opportunity. 🙂

We thought it was delicious… really sweet, but really good.

Ingredients for Apple Pie

1 pie crust (uncooked)
6 cups thinly sliced, peeled cooking apples (about 2 1/2 pounds or 8-10 apples)
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
butter

Crumb Topping:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tablespoons butter

How to Make Apple Pie

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.

2. Prepare and roll out pie crust. Line a pie pan with it and flute edges.

3. In a large bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

4. Add sliced apples and gently toss until coated.

5. Transfer apple mixture to the pie crust.

6. Dot apples with butter. Set aside.

7. In the same large bowl, prepare crumb topping ingredients by stirring together 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup brown sugar.

8. Using a pastry blender, cut in 3 Tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

9. Sprinkle crumb topping evenly over apples in pie pan.

10. Cover edges of pie with foil and bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.

11. Remove foil and bake 20 minutes more or until fruit is tender and filling is bubbly.

12. Cool on a wire rack.

13. Top with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce!

Recipe

Apple Pie

Author Crystal Paine

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1

Ingredients

1 pie crust uncooked
6 cups apples peeled and thinly sliced
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
butter

Crumb Topping:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoons butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Prepare and roll out pie crust. Line a pie pan with it and flute edges.
In a large bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Add sliced apples and gently toss until coated.
Transfer apple mixture to the pie crust.
Dot apples with butter. Set aside.
In the same large bowl, prepare crumb topping ingredients by stirring together 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup brown sugar.
Using a pastry blender, cut in 3 Tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Sprinkle crumb topping evenly over apples in pie pan.
Cover edges of pie with foil and bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.
Remove foil and bake 20 minutes more or until fruit is tender and filling is bubbly.
Cool on a wire rack.
Top with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce!

Nutrition

Love this recipe?

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{This post was underwritten by Lunchbox and Breyers. All opinions are my own. Read my disclosure policy here.}

Shared Dec 11, 2014 comment

We Paid Cash: A Month-Long European Family Vacation

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 11, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

We paid cash!
A testimony from Jessica who blogs at Life as MOM and Good Cheap Eats

My husband and I honeymooned in France and assumed we would return every year. Then life happened. Graduate school, unemployment, a baby, a house, miscarriages, more babies, more debt, more stuff got in the way of our newlywed dreams of travel.

After we paid off all our debts, we started dreaming big dreams again — a trip to France for a month with our six children to commemorate our 20th wedding anniversary was one of them.

Folks looked at us like we were crazy!

Not only had we dared to do something big like to travel with kids, we notched up the crazy by saving up the money to do it. It took two years, but we pulled it off.

Here’s what we did to make it happen:

1. We said it out loud.

Part of the success of a goal is to be brave enough to put it out there publicly. We talked about it enough that we would have been really embarrassed if we didn’t pull it off. Sometimes, pride is a good thing.

2. We envisioned our kids.

Just like when we did the really hard work of getting out of debt years earlier, we explained our plans to our children so that they would understand why we were making cuts to our spending or doing extra things to increase our income.

3. We created a budget.

I planned a hypothetical trip and calculated all the price quotes. The total was staggering, particularly when I added extra to allow for inflation and a weak dollar.

4. My husband worked overtime.

Getting up at 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday wasn’t his favorite thing to do, but my husband did it.

5. We opened a separate bank account.

I opened a dedicated account in a different bank from where we do our regular banking. I also chose not to get an ATM card. I wanted that money liquid but as inaccessible as possible.

6. We put all other vacations on hold.

We put off other travel plans, instead banking the money for France. Staycations and family visits were a great way to do family travel while we worked toward a bigger goal.

7. We socked away all extra income.

Even though we have two incomes, we choose to live on one. Any income that came in over our regular expenses went toward the France fund.

8. We deferred lots of “extras”.

There is a lot of excess in our lives, lots of things that are fun, but that we can certainly live without. We cut back so we could divert that money toward our vacation instead.

Now that we’re home and finally unpacked, it’s been so encouraging to look back at what we pulled off and the great memories we created as a family. It was an amazing trip, one we plan to do again in 2016!

Jessica Fisher is a happy wife and a homeschooling mom of six kids under 18. She loves French cheeses, sandy beaches, good books, and Jesus. Not in that order, of course. Catch up with her on her blogs, Life as MOM and Good Cheap Eats.

Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.

Shared Dec 11, 2014 comment

Gretchen’s CVS Shopping Trip: $50+ worth of products for less than $10!

Published: by Gretchen on December 11, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

CVS Shopping Trip

Transaction #1

2 Revlon Eye Shadow – $1.79 each (40% off)
Used $2/1 CVS printable (They would only allow me to use one since they were under $2 each.)

1 Conair Curling Iron – $9.49 (Buy 1, Get $10 ECBs)

Used $6.79 ECBs from last shopping trip

Total with tax ($1.07): $5.35, Received $10 ECBs

Transaction #2

3 Huggies Diapers – $7.99 each (Spend $20, Get $5 ECBs)
Used 3 $2/1 printable
And used 2 $1/1 printable

1 CVS Toddler Wipes – $1.49

Used $5/$25 diapers/wipes CVS coupon from the in-store machine

Used $10 ECBs from Transaction #1

Total with tax ($0.77): $3.23, Received $5 ECBs

Total for both transactions before coupons, sales and ECBS: $56.27

Total with tax for both transactions after coupons, sales and ECBs: $8.58, plus $5 ECBs leftover

Shared Dec 11, 2014 comment

Reader Tip: Get Free or almost free items from L.L. Bean

Published: by MSM Team on December 11, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Nichole emailed in the following tip:

I know you have mentioned this deal in the past but it’s a great time to remind readers! I just used the $10 off promo code on the back of my LLBean Holiday 2014 catalog combined with their free shipping on any order to get a shirt for my son for free! It was normally $18.95, marked down to $8.99. They had many items including kid’s winter hats that would be free or near free with the code if you have the catalog.

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Click here to download!

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Clean Your House for Christmas: Day 4

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 11, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Join Me For the Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge

Welcome to the 5-Day Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge. Otherwise known as: Crystal really needs to deep clean her house and she needs the public accountability to get it done. Ahem. 🙂

I got up a little late this morning as I stayed up late last night finishing up some business projects that I really needed to get done but just hadn’t had the energy for because I was sick. It felt so good to finally check those off my list!

I’m a little late in getting around this morning, but because my house is clean and the laundry is mostly done already, I’m still hopeful that it’s going to be a good day!

Today, we’re cleaning the bathrooms. I’m optimistic that this will be an easier job since there aren’t as many nooks, crannies, and cupboards for stuff to be hiding.

Here’s my plan for this morning (feel free to follow it somewhat, if you find it helpful… or you can get a laugh out of how detailed I am!):

This Morning’s Plan

1. Read my Bible, eat breakfast, and start laundry.

2. Blogging work/emails.

3. Exercise, shower, get dressed to my shoes. (Thanks, Flylady!)

4. Morning chores with the kids.

5. Get the kids started on their schoolwork. Kindergarten with Silas.

6. Switch the laundry.

7. Attack the bathrooms:

Surface clean.

Go through cupboards, drawers, and closet.

8. Read aloud with the kids.

9. Celebrate a productive morning, er day… because it probably won’t all get done by noon!

So, that’s my morning plan. I’m hopeful to have it all done before dinner time today. I’ll take pictures and will post an update later today to let you know how it goes.

Want To Join Me?

Are you joining me? If so, what room(s) are you planning to tackle today and what’s your morning plan? Let us know in the comments. If you are blogging about it, I’ll have a link-up that you can link your post to in my post later today.

photo credit

Shared Dec 10, 2014 comment

Today was SUCH a good day… and I actually FINISHED my list! {Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge: Day 3}

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 10, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Today was SUCH a good day. I’m still not getting this posted early evening like I’d hoped, but that’s just life.

It was so great to wake up to a clean house, the laundry all caught up, and a day with fewer to-do’s. I really feel like we’re starting to get into a great rhythm here with our new schedule… and I’m just hoping that the momentum continues!

Also? I finally got my hair washed and fixed, a nicer outfit on, and a little make up on — which was the first time that has happened since I got sick on Saturday. Yay!

I’m still somewhat dragging and not 100% yet, but I’m improving each day and am hopeful to be back to full capacity again soon. In the mean time, I’m trying to make sure I take care of myself, get a good night’s sleep every night, and eat and drink well.

I love using the diffuser!

Today, we diffused the Harmony essential oil blend. I pick different ones each day — mostly depending upon what mood I’m in or what mood I want to help us all be in! 🙂

After I read my Bible, I came downstairs and we ate a quick breakfast and then started cleaning up the kitchen while the kids did their morning chores. Since we’d gone to bed with a really clean house, this didn’t take long at all.

And I even had time to make my bed… the second day in a row!!

I got the kids started on their morning school projects, switched the laundry, and finished a few more cleaning projects. Then, I exercised and helped Silas with his Kindergarten work.

After that, we all met in the living room and I read aloud while the kids worked on different things — Kathrynne on LEGOS, Kaitlynn on drawing/coloring, and Silas on practicing writing his letters.

A little after noon, Jesse got home and he made lunch. I ate quickly and then headed upstairs to finally get a shower.

They all left for Kathrynne’s swimming practice and I blow dried my hair and then got busy on my afternoon blogging work. Today, I had some posts to write, some emails to answer, a meeting with my executive team (we meet every Wednesday afternoon via Zoom), and then more emails and posts to draft, comments to answer, and some odds and ends of projects.

I headed down to the kitchen around 5:00 p.m. to make apple pie.

Jesse left (again) to take Kaitlynn to her ice skating practice.

Kathrynne and Silas finished up folding and putting away the laundry and then played in the backyard for awhile with the neighbor children.

Once the pie was in the oven, I called the kids back in and they got to watch a movie because their chores and school were done for the day.

I had planned to get a little more blogging work done, but I kinda got distracted online and ended up doing basically nothing for 45 minutes. Well, I mean, I visited lots of sites and found out some interesting information, but had little to show for that time. 🙂

So I decided I’d be better off getting up from the computer and starting in on the kitchen cleaning…

I cleaned up from my apple-pie baking and then cleaned out the refrigerator.

When I was finished, Jesse and Kaitlynn got home. They’d picked up Chili’s for dinner and we sat down to eat.

Then, it was back to the kitchen cleaning again!

The Lazy Susan really needed to be wiped out and it felt so good to take everything out, wipe it out, wipe the appliances off, and put them back again.

I also tackled the junk drawer in the kitchen.

Silas helped me organize the batteries in the junk drawer.

Much better!

I also cleaned out the pantry and a few more shelves and cupboards… and ended up with a box full of things to get rid of/trash. Yay for de-cluttering!

When it was all said and done, it was only 8:30 p.m. and I’d finished everything on My Morning Plan. Woot!

Leave a Comment & You Could Win This Stack of Books!

In my cleaning today, I found some more books and cookbooks to get rid of, most all that are ones I’ve loved and just want to pass onto someone who could be encouraged by them! Plus, I threw in a copy of both my book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, and a copy of my new Choose Gratitude Blessings Journal and a box of tea that I love!

Who wants to win them? To win, just leave a comment on this post and I’ll choose one winner tomorrow evening and will mail them to you so you’ll have them in time for Christmas. Some of these books are great condition and might even work as gifts for people on your Christmas list!

The winner of yesterday’s stack of books is Michelle (kmosmond@) — I sent you an email tonight to ask for your address.

Shared Dec 10, 2014 comment

Gretchen’s Walgreens Shopping Trip: Paid only $5.54 for 2 packages of diapers + more!

Published: by Gretchen on December 10, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Walgreens Shopping Trip

Transaction #1

2 Well Beginnings Baby Wipes at $1.99 – On Sale Buy One Get One Free (Buy 2, Get 2,000 Balance Rewards Points)

1 Angel Soft Big Roll Bath Tissue – $3.49
Used $0.50/1 in-ad coupon
And used $0.25/1 printable

Used $4 Register Rewards from last shopping trip

Total with tax ($0.39): $1.12, Received 2,000 points (like $2)

Transaction #2

2 Well Beginnings Diapers at $8.79 – On Sale Buy One Get One Free
Used 2 $1.50/1 printable

Redeemed 2,000 Balance Reward Points

Total with tax ($0.63): $4.42

Total for both transactions before coupons, sales, Register Rewards, and points: $27.89

Total with tax for both transactions after all coupons, sales, Register Rewards and points: $5.54

Shared Dec 10, 2014 comment

5-Day Clean Your House for Christmas: Day 3

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 10, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Join Me For the Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge

Welcome to the 5-Day Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge. Otherwise known as: Crystal really needs to deep clean her house and she needs the public accountability to get it done. Ahem. 🙂

I feel like I need to apologize in advance for today’s assignment. Because we’re going there, oh yes we are…

Today’s assignment is to clean the kitchen.

{Cue the groans and people clicking away from this post as fast as possible in and effort to try to pretend you didn’t see that. :)}

Here’s my plan for this morning (feel free to follow it somewhat, if you find it helpful… or you can get a laugh out of how detailed I am!):

This Morning’s Plan

1. Read my Bible, exercise, and shower.

2. Get dressed to my shoes. (Thanks, Flylady!)

3. Eat some breakfast, read aloud to the kids, start a load of laundry.

4. Morning chores with the kids.

5. Get the kids started on their schoolwork. Kindergarten with Silas.

6. Switch the laundry.

7. Make apple pie.

8. Attack the Kitchen:

Surface clean.

Go through cupboards & pantry. Clean out/organize.

Clean fridge & freezer.

9. Celebrate a job well done… maybe before 6:30 p.m. today?? 🙂

So, that’s my morning plan. I’m hopeful to have it all done before dinner time today — maybe even lunchtime if my morning goes perfect. Which never happens, but I can always dream that today might be the day! 🙂

I’ll take pictures and will post an update later today to let you know how it goes.

Want To Join Me?

Are you joining me? If so, what room(s) are you planning to tackle today and what’s your morning plan? Let us know in the comments. If you are blogging about it, I’ll have a link-up that you can link your post to in my post later today.

photo credit

Shared Dec 9, 2014 comment

Yup, It Took Me Way Longer Than I Planned Today (aka Clean Your House for Christmas Challenge: Day 2)

Published: by Crystal Paine on December 9, 2014 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Y’all. You can just laugh at me. Because I clearly am overly ambitious.

I guess that can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon how you look at it. 🙂

I had every intention of getting every thing on my Morning Plan done today — at least by early afternoon. And, once again, that didn’t happen.

The good news? My house is cleaner than it’s been in a long time tonight and we got a LOT done today.

The bad news? I didn’t exercise or get my hair washed today. And don’t even ask me how many days it’s been since I washed me hair. We won’t even go there.

I woke up t-i-r-e-d today. I’ve been getting a lot of sleep (like 8-10 hours most nights) for the past 4 nights as I’m trying to recover from being sick, but despite all that sleep, my body still seems to be wanting more.

So I went back to bed for another hour this morning… which meant that I started my day behind. But at least I got a great night’s sleep!

I let the kids sleep in a little while I finished up my morning blogging work and then I got busy on my Morning Plan.

I’m almost finished with Addicted to Busy. It’s not the best book I’ve read on the importance of slowing down, but I’ve found some thought-provoking nuggets in it.

It was our day for oatmeal this morning. Everyone can fix their own oatmeal themselves — except for Silas needs a little help with it — so that made breakfast really easy.

I oversaw morning chores while cleaning up the kitchen and doing some laundry and then helped Silas with his Kindergarten lessons while the girls got started on their morning school.

Jesse had two morning meetings, but he popped by for a bit between meetings to grab some breakfast and check in to see how things we’re going.

It was Kaitlynn’s day to get her hair washed. She is growing her hair out (“to her knees” she tells me — we’ll see!!) so it’s always a rather big task to wash and brush through it. If I put detangler on it, brush it, and then braid it every day, it’s not too bad. But if I skip one day, it’s not so good!

After I was finished with her hair-washing and fixing, she got back to her school and I did some more clean-up, made my bed (!), and worked on the laundry.

I made a snack for Silas and me to eat (I typically eat small meals/snacks every few hours and Silas is happy to join me… he’s usually always up for eating! I think it’s a boy thing?? ;)) and then sat down to read to the kids.

They made bracelets and other creations with loom bands while I read to them. After a morning where there had been some attitude struggles, it was so nice to see them all getting along nicely and having fun creating together.

After our reading time, Jesse got home and I went upstairs to the office to work while he did lunch, devotions, and more school with the kids.

I had a podcast interview, two phone calls, and then it was the usual emails, blogging work, answering comments, overseeing social media, scheduling posts, and so on.

Before I knew it, it was 6:00 p.m.! I headed downstairs to help pick up before dinner and then we sat down to eat (Jesse made a delicious new recipe tonight — Cincinnati Chili Dog Bowls. I love all this experimenting he has been doing in the kitchen!)

After dinner, we finished putting the laundry away while Jesse cleaned up the kitchen. And then we all got started in on the Kids’ Room. After opening their closet and a few drawers, I could tell this was going to be a job that was going to take longer than my allotted 45 minutes. Oh well, such is life!

Kathrynne got busy going through all the CDs and DVDs and organizing them while I worked on the closet and cleaned out underneath the bed.

After about an hour and a half of work, we had this whole trash bag full of items to get rid of. Can you believe it??

While it might not look that much different, knowing that I’ve gone through every nook and cranny and organized everything in this closet feels so good.

And the CDs and DVDs got picked up…

And all organized! We also created a system and rules for their use and organization — to hopefully prevent them from getting so disorganized in the future.

Leave a Comment & You Could Win This Stack of Books!

In my cleaning today, I found some more books to get rid of, most all that are ones I’ve loved and just want to pass onto someone who could be encouraged by them! Plus, I threw in a copy of both my book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, and a copy of my new Choose Gratitude Blessings Journal!

Who wants to win them? To win, just leave a comment on this post and I’ll choose one winner tomorrow evening and will mail them to you so you’ll have them in time for Christmas. Some of these books are brand-new or in like-new condition and would be great for gifts for people on your Christmas list!

The winner of yesterday’s stack of books is Kim (threekstrio@) — I sent you an email tonight to ask for your address.

Summer Bucket List

Summer Bucket List

FREE Summer Bucket List!!

Christmas Tradition Ideas on a Budget

Frugal Holiday Traditions at Home

1. Decorating Christmas Cookies

2. Making Homemade Ornaments

Christmas Traditions Out & About

3. Looking at Christmas Lights

4. “Adopting” Someone

5. The Sounds of the Season

Holiday Traditions for Christmas Eve / Morning

6. Christmas Eve Pajamas

7. Christmas Morning Communion

Leave a Comment & You Could Win This Stack of Books!

Aldi

Harris Teeter

Azure Standard

Flower Foods Bakery

Weekly Menu Plan

Breakfasts

Lunches

Dinners

Snacks

My solution = Family Gifts.

This Morning’s Plan

Want To Join Me?

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Leave a Comment & You Could Win This Stack of Books!

This Apple Pie has been a family favorites for years!

Ingredients for Apple Pie

How to Make Apple Pie

Apple Pie

Ingredients 1x2x3x

Crumb Topping:

Instructions

Nutrition

Love this recipe?

FREE One Week Menu Plan!

CVS Shopping Trip

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

This Morning’s Plan

Want To Join Me?

Leave a Comment & You Could Win This Stack of Books!

Walgreens Shopping Trip

This Morning’s Plan

Want To Join Me?

Leave a Comment & You Could Win This Stack of Books!

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Ingredients