Saving Families Money Since 2007
This video was played at the graduation ceremony we attended this weekend. We laughed so hard about it that I couldn’t help but share it here!
If you haven’t seen, do yourself a favor and watch it. And if you’ve already seen it before, go ahead and watch it again.
I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to watch it without smiling — and being inspired, too! 🙂
MyMommyWorld.com shows you how to crochet a homemade coffee mug cozy.
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
We arrived home last night after a rather exhausting but oh-so-good weekend back in Kansas. While we dearly love the people there, we realized how much we already feel at home in Tennessee. It’s been amazing how quickly we’ve all adjusted and acclimated to our new life here. I know that is definitely a testament to many answers to prayer.
We’re getting back into the swing of homeschooling after taking a week off while we moved. Somehow, our kitchen table always “blows up” (see above) while we’re in the middle of our homeschool day! 🙂
One of the exciting changes moving and now working together is affording us is getting to choose our own hours and set our own schedule, instead of Jesse being tied down to court schedules, client appointments, and the daily responsibilities of running a busy law firm. This is allowing him to be a lot more involved in homeschooling and our daily life stuff — which we are loving!
We just finished the Imagination Station book #14 last week and started Brother Andrew: Behind Enemy Lines. I’m already predicting our kids are going to love that book as they ate up the first chapter. 🙂
I loved reading Brother Andrew’s autobiography years ago and am excited to introduce him to my children now!
As you know, I’m all about making do and using what you have. So today, when I discovered we were all out of milk, I improvised and used chocolate ice cream in my coffee.
It was the best alternative to milk I could come up with — and truthfully, it was really yummy. 🙂 Plus, it saved me a trip to the store. That’s a win-win. But pretty much anything that involves chocolate ice cream is, isn’t it? 😉
This Week’s Goals:
Marriage/Mothering/Homemaking Goals
1.
Start our new routine.2. Get our closet organized.
3.
Organize the pantry.4.
Write a love note to Jesse.5.
Finish reading Captured on the High Seas aloud to the kids.Personal Goals
6. Work on memorizing & reviewing Romans 1:1-29.
7.
Exercise four times.8. Finish reading Secrets of Dynamic Communication,
The Busy Homeschool Mom’s Guide to Daylight, andChasing Francis.Business Goals
9.
Finish tweaks/edits on a new project we’re working on.10.
Answer all the emails in my to answer file.(I dumped all non-urgent emails into a file while we were moving!)
Read more about my Pantry re-organization here.
This Week’s Goals:
Marriage/Mothering/Homemaking Goals
1. 
2. Get the garage organized.
3. Get the bookshelf/school area organized.
4. Write a love note to Jesse.
5. Finish embroidering quilt square for my sister’s baby quilt.
Personal Goals
6. Work on memorizing & reviewing Romans 1:1-29.
7. Exercise four times.
8. Finish reading Red Hot Monogamy, Secrets of Dynamic Communication, and Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.
Business Goals
9. Finish tweaks/edits for my talks this weekend at the Teach Them Diligently conference in DC.
10. Write one guest post for another blog.
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.
Today’s Swagbucks success story is from Kristen:
I had been reading MoneySavingMom.com for months, and with the birth of my first baby coming soon, I wanted to start eating healthier, less processed foods.
I always thought the recipes on MSM looked delicious, but I didn’t always have all of the ingredients on hand. I really wanted to make the Homemade Breakfast Cookies, as well as the Best Ever Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Bars. However, some of the ingredients (like coconut oil and coconut flakes) were things that are expensive, and I didn’t have much room in the budget for them, especially if it turned out I didn’t like the recipe.
I had been using Swagbucks mostly for Paypal gift cards, but then it dawned on me that I could get the most bang for my buck by cashing out my Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards. I could then use the Amazon gift cards to pay for the ingredients that I didn’t already have on hand.
So I got to work on earning the most that I could. In addition to doing the daily poll, NOSO, and searches every day, I started taking surveys. I started out with the surveys that were 10-15 minutes long, and would try to do a few of those a day depending on how much time I had. The surveys helped me to reach my daily goal, which really helped the Swagbucks add up more quickly.
I redeemed my Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards as soon as I’d hit the 450 points necessary for the $5 cards. Since there is a limit on those per month, it helped to cash them out gradually.
Finally I had about $90 in Amazon gift cards, which I used to buy a ton of oatmeal, almond butter, honey, chia seeds, coconut oil, coconut flakes, chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and more!
When my package arrived, I was so excited to make the Best Ever Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Bars, and let me tell you, they are delicious!! I can’t wait to make them again and again, and luckily I still have a ton of ingredients left over from my Amazon purchase.
My husband would always laugh at me for using Swagbucks, but when he saw my big Amazon box on our doorstep, even he admitted that Swagbucks is pretty awesome! That was almost as sweet as the Best Ever Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Bars!
Breakfasts
Oatmeal, Cereal, Eggs, and/or Fruit
Lunches
Mac & cheese, fruit
Snack-y lunch {veggies, cheese, yogurt, fruit, crackers, etc.}
PB&J, carrot sticks, apples
Cheese quesadillas, carrot sticks
Leftovers x 3Snacks
Fruit/veggies
Popcorn
Boiled eggsFreezer Cooking in an Hour Plan
Brown Sugar Meatloaf
Twisted Pizza Breadsticks
Pancakes
Dinners
Pancakes, Eggs, Bacon
Taco Lettuce Wraps, fruit
Spaghetti Pizza, fruit, steamed veggies
Southwest Roll-Ups, fruit, salad
Twisted Pizza Breadsticks, fruit, steamed veggies
Dinner Out
Dinner With Friends
What’s on your menu this week? Tell us in the comments or leave a link to your menu plan post.
Guest post from Emily
When a spender and a saver marry, each spouse may have their own idea on what’s an appropriate amount to put towards a budget, how quickly to pay off debt, how to allocate money once debt is paid off, among other areas.
My husband and I, both bankers, have a common goal of paying off our debt — which we are in the process of doing. I’ve come up with a few ways to keep us motivated on our way to being debt-free. Hopefully one or more of these suggestions will help you, too!
Each month, my husband and I get $100 for “fun” money. This is just the amount that works for us. I don’t feel guilty going to lunch occasionally with friends, and he’s free to save his amount to buy a fun item for his jeep.
If you are significantly behind on payments, this is not for you. However, for us, we add to our monthly fun budget, at least temporarily, each time we pay off a debt. In general we add the amount we were paying on prior debt to current debt in order to pay it off faster.
However, if, for example, we had a monthly payment of $200 that we have paid off in full, we might use $150 for other debt pay off and allocate an additional $25 each as a reward and motivation.
Both the saver and spender win!
Again, the saver and spender both win with this. We have a separate bank account for our purchase goals. I love saving for them, and my husband is proud when we’re able to purchase something with cash — like our new washer and dryer set. Neither one of us feels like we’re missing out.
As with anything, balance is key. Ultimately, it’s likely both spouses’ goals are the same, as is the case with my husband and myself.
When neither spouse feels like the other spouse’s ideas are being pushed on them, a collective effort can occur. We are so much better together.
Do you have any other tips for accommodating both a saver and a spender?
Emily Glass is the wife to Garrett and mother to Katherine, age 2, and Grant, age 6 months. She is in banking and loves to cook.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know we had a bit of a wild day yesterday. 🙂
We had planned to head back to Kansas for Jesse’s brother’s graduation and Mother’s Day. We also had planned a surprise for Jesse’s family: his sister and her husband and two boys were going to be flying in from Colorado for the graduation. We were all excited to make a quick trip back to Kansas and to get to spend time with family!
Since we had a 7 a.m. flight to catch and since we were all flying and we’re new to the Nashville airport, we wanted to leave at 4:30 a.m. in order to allow plenty of time.
I hadn’t gotten all the packing done the night before (I was still trying to catch up on laundry since we finally have a washer & dryer again!) and needed to wash my hair, so I set my alarm for 3:30 a.m. — way too early!
While getting the packing done and my hair washed, Jesse got the kids up and around, and then we were out the door and headed for the airport. When we arrived at the airport a little after 5 a.m., it was packed with people! We were glad we got there early as we ended up standing in line for quite awhile to make it through security.
While waiting to board our flight, we had fun taking pictures together. 🙂
Our 7 a.m. flight got delayed by 45 minutes, which meant we were going to miss our connecting flight (we only had a 45-minute layover). Jesse went ahead and asked if they could get us on a later connecting flight, but they told us they didn’t know if they could since all the flights were full that day. The best they could do was put us on Priority Standby for a later flight to Kansas.
Well, we hadn’t even left Nashville and we weren’t off to a great start. 🙂 But we decided to just roll with the punches, choose to call it an adventure, and find a way to make it to Kansas once we landed in Dallas.
After landing in Dallas, we double-checked to see if our connecting flight had already taken off. Yep, it had.
So the kids and I went to hang out at the play area and Jesse headed to the customer service to see what could be done. He called me awhile later with our options:
None of these were really great options, but we decided to try the OKC flight option and see if they could all five of us on the flight. If they couldn’t, we’d drive from Dallas.
We got something to eat and headed over to the gate for the OKC flight. By the time we got there, they were almost getting ready to board.
Jesse talked to the gate agents and after a lot of re-working of things, they found a way to get all five of us on the flight — not all sitting together, but all on the flight. We were so grateful for their willingness to shuffle things around to make this work for us!
We were also blessed to have very gracious people on the flight who offered to move their seats. This way, Jesse could sit with Silas, I could sit with Kaitlynn, and Kathrynne could sit nearby us.
As soon as everyone was seated, the pilot made an announcement that there had been some issues and we’d need to wait until maintenance could come check those out. By this time, we knew there was no way we’d be making it to Kansas before late afternoon, so we called to cancel our plans we had with friends and family.
We were sad that some fun things we’d had planned weren’t going to be able to happen, but at this point, we just had to focus on getting to Kansas in time for Jesse’s brother’s graduation. I was incredibly thankful that the kids were still holding up well and attitudes were remarkably good in spite of the early morning and multiple delays.
Finally, after another 45-minute wait, we were off to OKC! We arrived there without incident, rented a car, and made the three-hour drive to Kansas.
We were supposed to pick up Jesse’s sister and her family at the airport and take them to the graduation. Their flight was also delayed, so it ended up working out that they got in right before we made it in.
Jesse dropped us off, picked them up at the airport, and we were all able to make it in time to the graduation about 15 minutes before it started — and in time to get to surprise his family! It was so worth the extra efforts and we’ve had a great time with family and friends here.
And you know what? While we were tired last night from a long day, I’m so grateful that I made the choice to just roll with the punches and enjoy the ride yesterday.
My nature is not to be spontaneous but rather to always want to stick with the plan. However, I’ve really been working on having a relaxed, cheerful, live-fully-in-the-moment attitude recently.
It was encouraging to realize that the efforts to build that character in my life are paying off! When the unexpected happened and completely derailed yesterday’s plans, choosing to embrace life with joy made it an adventure rather than a very stressful experience!
“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.” – Henri Nouwen
Are you joining us for the 12 Months to a Healthier You Challenge? If so, it’s the weekend and guess what that means? It’s time for our weekly check-in to post our progress.
We’re focusing on developing the habit of getting more rest. I encourage you to set a simple and doable goal for getting more rest and to stick with it.
New to this challenge? Read more details on the plan for this year here.
My Get More Rest Goal for May
My goal for May is to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep every night.
I’m also hoping to keep up with January’s habit of exercising at least 4-5 times every week, February’s goal of eating a big salad at least six times a week, March’s goal of drinking 8 glasses of water every day, and April’s goal of eating dessert once a week.
I got 7.5 hours of sleep five nights this week. And the other two nights, I sort of had an excuse… which I’ll tell you about when I share our crazy travel day adventure post in a bit. 🙂
I hit my water goals six days, exercised five days, ate a salad five of the days, and had dessert three times. So yes, I’m not hitting all of my goals perfectly, but I’m going to celebrate the progress I’m making!
How Are YOU Doing?
Leave a comment telling us how you did on your exercise goals this past week. If you’re blogging about this challenge, leave the direct link to your blog post about the challenge below. Are you on social media? You can also share your progress on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter by using hashtag #12MonthstoaHealthierYou.
Our house in Tennessee has wood floors throughout a lot of it. And even though we’ve lived in quite a few different places over the last 11 years, we’ve never had wood floors.
So this is all new to me and I’m realizing quickly that I need to figure something out since not cleaning the floors isn’t exactly an option. 😉
I’d love your input and suggestions: what’s the best and most efficient way to clean and care for wood floors?
Thank you so very much for your help!
Making a chocolate birthday cake
Silas turned five this week!
In typical Silas fashion, he walked into our room the morning of his birthday and said, “I can’t believe I’m five years old.”
We can’t believe it, either! On the one hand, it seems like he was just a toddler a few months ago, and on the other hand, it seems like he’s twice his age.
Silas asked to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s for his birthday… And he’s been looking forward to it and earning money for it for the past few months.
{He LOVES to pay for things, so he asked if he could earn money to pay for part of the price of tokens for his party. Because he was so excited about doing it, we let him… however, we pitched in quite a bit of extra. :)}
It was my first experience at Chuck E. Cheese’s. (Can you believe I’ve never been there before?) We ended up pretty much having the whole place to ourselves! Even with coupons, it’s nowhere near a frugal outing, but birthdays and memory-making are worth the occasional budgeted splurge! 🙂
In other news, I am thrilled to have a washer and dryer again! Jesse did a lot of research on which set would be best and I’m really happy with the ones he decided to get.
I’m also beyond thrilled to have a true laundry room! Our washer and dryer hook-ups have been in many places in our various houses: in the basement, in a bathroom, off the kitchen, or in the garage entryway… But we’ve never had a true separate laundry room.
I’m envisioning all sorts of ways to organize and dress this place up to make it a little oasis. I figure that since I’ll be spending a lot of time in there, I might as well make it a welcoming haven. 🙂
We did about five loads of laundry today to get all caught up and then had a laundry folding party. With everyone helping, it went really quickly!
As I was getting Silas ready for bed tonight, I noticed something strange in his armpit. Upon further investigation, I discovered it was a tick that was attached. Ick!
It hadn’t been there for longer than 24 hours (gratefully!) and we were able to get it unattached fairly easily. But it was still an eventful hour tonight!
Growing up in the country, I’ve dealt with ticks before. But my kids had never seen one, so it turned into a science lesson about the different types of ticks, how they attach themselves to your body, what the risks are with ticks, and which ticks are the most dangerous. Now we’re all a bit paranoid! 🙂
One of the risks of renting a house without seeing it, was not knowing how the storage space would be. Since we’ve been blessed to have a basement in our last few homes, I was a little concerned about how we’d adjust to not having the luxury of a basement here in TN.
Well, when we got here and saw the house for the first time, I almost squealed when I opened up this door off the kitchen and saw this amazing PANTRY!!! I had no idea this house had a pantry, so this was an incredible bonus.
I know it might seem weird that I was so excited about a pantry, but because I spend so much time in the kitchen and like to buy in bulk, this felt almost like Christmas morning to me. (Yes, you can think I’m crazy!)
My sister and I unpacked the kitchen on moving in day and just got everything into the pantry — we didn’t worry about getting it organized since we were just on a mission to get all the boxes unpacked that weekend. But I knew that one of the first organization projects I wanted to tackle was the pantry.
Today, I had some time to head in there and organize. And it felt so good to get a sort of organized system for what I was going to store where.
Things are pretty sparse right now since we tried to eat down as much of our pantry as we could so we didn’t have as much to move. But I’m looking forward to getting it filled up — and maybe even adding a few more shelves so we can have more storage in here.
I have a question regarding book publishing. I noticed that you recently published your second book and was wondering if you could give me some advice. I have a book idea that I’d really like to get published. I’m not sure where to start, though. The web sites I’ve read so far on book publishing have overwhelmed me. -Amy
Hi, Amy!
That’s exciting that you have a book idea and I love your ambition for wanting to get your book published! I don’t want to discourage you with this post, but I also want to be honest and say that it’s really hard to get a book deal if you haven’t already established a platform online.
Publishers have limited budgets and print capabilities. Meaning, they can only print and market a set number of books each year.
There are so many bloggers and online entrepreneurs with really large followings in this day and age, publishers tend to like proof of your pre-established market before they’ll even consider your manuscript. Publishers want to know that you have at least a few thousand (or more!) people who will buy your book without any marketing efforts from the publisher.
They also need to know that there is a market for what you have to say. If you haven’t already created and built that market, it’s hard to convince them to put time and money into your project — especially when they have dozens of other manuscripts from authors who do have a pre-established market of 5,000 to 20,000 people or more.
The bad news is that if you don’t already have an online following, you need to focus on building a platform before you pursue a publishers.
The good news is that it’s never been easier to build an online platform. With social media networks and the power of viral marketing, everyone who has a unique message and a persevering spirit can build an online platform.
How to Get Started
1. Read Platform by Michael Hyatt — This book will encourage you and give you a vision for how you can build an online platform without money, experience, or even connections.
2. Read my free ebook on How to Make Money Blogging — This ebook isn’t just about making money online. I share step-by-step help for setting up a successful blog and getting people to read what you have to say.
3. Start networking. One of the best ways to learn and grow is to network with others. Find those who are ahead of you, those who are right where you’re at, and those who are just starting on their journey headed in the direction you are. Develop friendships, ask questions, share ideas and advice. Relationships with others who are in a similar position are invaluable!
4. Jump out start doing things. The best thing you can be doing to get yourself closer to getting a book deal is to just start doing things. Many people have great ideas, but they never do much with those ideas. Go experiment. Try things. Make mistakes and learn from them. And keep trying and learning!
5. Keep at it! As I wrote about recently, I think the number one reason most people fail is because they give up too soon. You are going to struggle in the process. You are going to feel insecure. You are going to question why you are doing this. You are going to fail. But success comes to those who refuse to give up.
Recommend reading: How to Write a Book Proposal and Sell Your Book Like Wildfire. I wish I had read both of these books before I wrote my first book!
Need a quick and easy recipe for a hot day? This Oreo ice cream cake is such a simple recipe and everyone loves it!
It’s the perfect recipe for a summer birthday or get-together because it doesn’t heat up the house!
Plus, you can make it several day ahead of time and store it in the freezer until you’re ready to celebrate.
It’s also a great dessert to keep on hand for unexpected guests — everyone loves it!
1. Place Oreos in a ziptop bag or in your food processor and crush them into crumbs (you might need to do this in 2 batches).
2. Reserve 1/2 cup of crushed Oreo crumbs for the topping.
3. In a medium size bowl, mix remaining Oreo crumbs and melted butter.
4. Spread Oreo mixture into a greased 9″ x 13″ pan; pressing firmly to form a crust.
5. Spoon softened ice cream onto the Oreo crust and spread evenly.
6. Drizzle chocolate syrup in a thin layer over the ice cream.
7. Spread softened whipped topping over chocolate syrup.
8. Sprinkle reserved Oreo crumbles over whipped topping.
9. Freeze for at least 4-5 hours, or overnight (for best results).
10. Remove pan from the freezer about 10-15 minutes before serving to thaw slightly.
Make sure to share and save it on your favorite platform below!
Meal time just got so much easier!
I’ve got some GREAT news for you! Many of you have been waiting for a deal on my book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. Well, guess what?!? Your deal is here!
Through Saturday, the ebook version of Say Goodbye to Survival Mode is on sale for just $2.99!!! That’s at least $11 off the lowest price we’ve ever seen on this book! And from I’ve heard, this may the only time the price goes this low.
Wondering what Say Goodbye to Survival Mode is about? Here’s a description I shared recently:
Are you exhausted and overwhelmed with life? Do you wake up feeling like you’re already behind — and you haven’t even gotten out of bed? Do you spend most of your days just trying to make through the day?
If that’s you (or someone you know!), you need to get a copy of my book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. I wrote this book because I get it. I’ve walked the road of feeling spent, worn down, and burnt out. And after burning the candle at both ends for far too long and hurting my health, marriage, and family in the process, I finally reached a breaking point.
The day I finally hit rock bottom and said, “I can’t live like this any more!” was the day I realized I didn’t have to live in such a frantic, stressed, and overloaded way. There was a road out of survival mode!
In Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, I share candidly about the struggles I faced along the way and the strategies I learned for success. This book is not a fix-your-life-overnight handbook (sorry!). Instead, I’ll take your hand, and gently guide you through a step-by-step journey so that you, too, can:
- feel healthier and more energetic by setting priorities and boundaries,
- eliminate stress with savvy management of your time, money, and home,
- get more done by setting realistic goals and embracing discipline,
- and rediscover your passions—and the confidence to pursue them!
