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Shared Jan 24, 2012 comment

Do-It-Yourself Experiment: Homemade Marshmallows

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 24, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Ever since watching Carrie’s video on making Homemade Marshmallows, I’ve wanted to give it a try myself.

And I finally did in December.

I used this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and found the step-by-step photos extremely helpful. I also found that my KitchenAid from my grandma was a huge help, too. In fact, I thought the recipe was quite easy to make, but I think it would have been a lot more time-consuming without the KitchenAid.

The end result was delicious homemade marshmallows that my whole family oohed and ahhed over.

They weren’t necessarily money-saving or time-saving to make, but I think they’d make a very fun and unique gift–especially when paired with a homemade hot cocoa mix.

Next time, I want to try making these Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows.

Up tomorrow: The long-awaited details on my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day experiment.

Shared Jan 24, 2012 comment

Behind-the-scenes details on writing a book & the lessons I learned the hard way

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 24, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I was interviewed by ShePosts recently about writing The Money Saving Mom®’s Budget.

If you’d like to get a little peek behind-the-scenes into when I wrote the book, what I learned during the process, and some of the mistakes I made, hop on over to read the interview.

Shared Jan 24, 2012 comment

How to Save Money at Whole Foods Market

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 24, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Nora of The Dollar Hollering Homemaker

If you normally shop at traditional grocery stores, you might face sticker shock if you visit Whole Foods Market. In general, prices are much more expensive, but I have discovered some tips for saving money at Whole Foods:

1. Check the Ad.

Locate the closest Whole Foods store on WholeFoods.com and see what your store specials are.

2. Pick up the “Whole Deal” coupon book.

Over the summer, they had a coupon where if you bought a rotisserie chicken, you could get a family size side for free. I also found a coupon for a free box of organic tea.

3. Sign up for the e-mail lists and subscribe to the Facebook page.

You will be notified of one-day-only sales and 3-day-only sales where you can really stock up. I’ve been able to get organic, grass-fed beef for $3.99 per lb and organic berries for $2 per lb. You can also sign up in the store deals section of MoneySavingMom.com to get the best deals at Whole Foods emailed to you each week.

4. Buy in bulk.

Whole Foods offers 10% case discounts when you buy in bulk. Case discounts can be combined with coupons for even better savings.

5. Compare prices.

Organic corn tortillas are $0.99 at Whole Foods and typically $0.20-$1.00 more expensive any place else. However, I tend to get bacon, sea salt, whole wheat, and white flour from other stores as the prices for those at Whole Foods aren’t as great.

6. Shop infrequently.

I shop at Whole Food’s every 4-6 weeks, unless there is an excellent one-day sale.

7. Remember that organic isn’t always better.

I always buy grass-fed beef, and if I’m not buying it directly from the farmer, Whole Foods is the next best choice because their beef is local.

That being said, I rarely buy produce at Whole Foods. They may have organic tomatoes, but they traveled here from Mexico and taste like cardboard. In my area, we have a great grocery store chain that carries local produce that is much more flavorful and tends to be lower on pesticides because it isn’t traveling as far.

If you don’t have a great local chain, try farmers’ markets and CSA’s. In addition to saving money, buying local means that I am supporting local farmers and businesses.

8. Stick with the basics.

Don’t spend all your money on the organic boxed/processed stuff. Generally speaking, it isn’t much healthier for you than the stuff you pick up in the regular store. If you are going to splurge on junk food, get what you really want and save your dough.

9. Save time.

To me, time is money. If I buy bread at Whole Foods, they’ll slice it for you for free. Same goes for meat: you can get it cut to order or ground for you. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of something that saves time and is free?

10. Bring your own bag.

Whole Foods gives you a discount for bringing your own reusable bag. You might as well take advantage of this!

How do you save money at Whole Foods?

Nora Duvigneaud is a twenty-something homemaker and D.C. native, residing in the Midwest. When she is not in her kitchen she loves hiking, old school mystery shows and simple living. She blogs at The Dollar Hollering Homemaker.

Shared Jan 24, 2012 comment

Do-It-Yourself: Homemade Frozen Waffles

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 24, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Whisk Together shows you how to make homemade frozen waffles .

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.

Shared Jan 24, 2012 comment

This Week’s Menu

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 24, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Freshly-made Orange Carrot Juice

I’m back to posting regular menus here again, after taking four weeks off. Here’s what we’re planning to eat this week:

Breakfasts

Cereal
Fresh Carrot/orange juice, toasted bagels
Waffles, oranges
Oatmeal
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, fruit
Raw Veggie Cereal (this sounds so intriguing that I just have to try it!)
Toasted bagels, eggs, fruit

Lunches

Tossed salad with sliced chicken
Macaroni & cheese, peas
PB&J, carrot sticks, apple slices
Refried beans with cheese, carrot sticks
Cheese quesadillas, carrot sticks, fruit
Leftovers x 2

Snacks

Chocolate Granola Bars
Healthy Chocolate Mousse
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Dinners

Steak, potatoes, broccoli, fruit
Black Bean & Taco Bake, tossed salad
Hamburgers, tater tots, steamed veggies
Cheesy Chicken & Rice Bake, tossed salad, grapefruit
Build Your Own Haystacks, fruit, brown rice
Dinner out
Dinner with extended family

Freezer Cooking

Beef and Black Bean Taco Bake
Chocolate Peanut Granola
Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

What’s on your menu this week? Share details and/or your link to your menu plan in the comments.

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

Click here to sign up!

Shared Jan 23, 2012 comment

How We Paid Cash for Our First Home

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 23, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I’m honored to be guest posting over on Get Rich Slowly today about How We Paid Cash for Our First Home. Here’s a snippet:

When my husband and I got married nine years ago, we had an audacious dream of paying cash for our first home. At that time, it was very much a far-off dream — we were just trying to survive the rigors and expenses of law school without going in debt. That alone was a seemingly gigantic feat.

But after three years of law school, my husband did graduate without debt, passed the bar, and we started planning for the future. Since we’d been renting for almost four years, my husband had a good job, and our second baby was on the way, pretty much everyone expected that buying a house would be in our immediate future.

I mean, after all, isn’t buying a house the responsible thing for a young couple to do? Well, maybe — or maybe not. We didn’t have much money in savings, and we weren’t sure how long we would be living in the town we were in, so we chose to go against conventional wisdom and continued renting.

Read the whole post.

There are lots of interesting comments in the comments section on the pros and cons of renting versus buying and mortgages versus cash that you might want to check out, as well. As I’ve mentioned many times before, remember that what worked for us won’t necessarily work for you in your own unique situation, but we hope that our story can serve as an inspiration for you to set big goals and work hard toward them.

Perseverance, persistence, and patience does pay off!

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Shared Jan 23, 2012 comment

The Power of Review

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 23, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Guest post from Lacey of Live Loved

I used to ride the New Year’s Resolution bandwagon…every single year.

The problem was, I always ended up falling off pretty quickly. I can’t tell you how many goals and resolutions I’ve made, only to forget about a month later: resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, spend less, drink less caffeine, and wash my hair more regularly.

And then, my eyes were opened to the beauty of a plan.

Thanks to Michael Hyatt’s Creating Your Personal Life Plan and Crystal’s insightful and practical posts on setting and carrying out goals, I’ve come to realize that what I needed was not more goals, or better goals, or more discipline. What I needed was a plan.

And so, I did just that. I followed the steps outlined in Hyatt’s life plan guide, and was really pleased to have a plan that covered all the areas of my life that were important to me, and that helped me to envision the future I wanted to see some day. I walked into that plan with so much excitement.

But I forgot one important thing: the importance of regular review. It’s not enough to create a well-thought out plan of action. It’s not just enough to take the time to break your goals down into bite-sized chunks like Crystal talks about so often. You have to take the time to review, to remind yourself of your plans and vision, to see how you’re doing in achieving your goals, and to prepare yourself for any hiccups your week might have.

It’s why Michael Hyatt suggests a weekly review, as well as a day or two once or twice a year to intentionally review your plan. It’s the same reason Crystal posts her weekly goals, as well as reviews the ones from the previous week.

Not sure what to do in your review time? Here are some suggestions:

Review the different parts of your plan. Is there anything you might want to tweak a little bit (5-10 minutes)

Think about your past week. How did you do in each of these areas you listed as a priority? What is your current reality? What areas of improvement do you see? (10-15 minutes)

Think about your upcoming week, noting all things you already have scheduled/planned. Do these things match up with your life plan? If they do not, what needs to change? (10-15 minutes)

Evaluate your week a little more closely, this time looking for days or times where it might be hard to carry out some of your action plans. For example, is there going to be an especially busy day where you won’t be able to make your normal work-out time? What can you do now to prepare for those trouble spots ahead (10-15 minutes)

Even if you were to use the maximum amount of time for each of these areas, you would spend less than an hour of your week reviewing your plan. But look at the results you would reap from that hour: accountability in keeping your plans, refreshment in reminding yourself what your goals are and your progress toward them, preparation for the week ahead.

I think we could all agree it would be an hour well spent.

Do you take the time to review your plans and goals on a regular basis? If so, what tips do you have for others in doing so? If not, what could you do to help yourself take this time this week?

Lacey lives in Lubbock, Texas with her husband, Kade, and sweet daughter, Selah. She regularly captures her musings on all things related to being wife, mommy, and recipient of grace at her Live Loved. There’s usually a cup of coffee involved.

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Shared Jan 23, 2012 comment

10 Goals for This Week

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 23, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I’m so encouraged to look over my Goals for 2012 and see that I’m slowly chipping away at them. Settings goals for each month and breaking those down further into goals for each week is helping tremendously. It’s amazing how just making a plan and working the plan little by little can start adding up to a lot of progress!

Here are my goals from last week:

Family/Mothering Goals

1. Finish reading The Boxcar Children aloud to the children.

~~2. Go to Florida with Kaitlynn for a FamilyLife speakers/MomLife writers.~~

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

Personal Goals

~~4. Finish reading How to Write a Book Proposal & The Now Habit.~~

~~5. Complete week 2 of the Couch to 5K program.~~

6. Finish listening to the Developing the Leader Within You audiobook.

Home Management

7. Put together two weeks of pages for my Project Life album.

8. Finish knitting the Squidge dishcloth.

Business Goals

~~9. Finish writing an article for RooMag.com.~~

~~10. Participate in Twitter chat with @TwitterBooks on Friday (we’d love to have you join us! It’s slated for 3-4 p.m. EST).~~

This week’s goals:

Family/Mothering Goals

1. Finish reading The Boxcar Children aloud to the children.

2. Take Kathrynne out on a mother-daughter date for her birthday.

3. Take the children to an indoor play area for Kathrynne’s birthday.

Personal Goals

4. Finish Loving the Little Years and finish listening to the Developing the Leader Within You audiobook.

5. Complete week 3 of the Couch to 5K program.

Home Management

6. Put together two weeks of pages for my Project Life album.

7. Finish knitting the Squidge dishcloth.

8. Make Homemade Hair Detangler.

Business Goals

9. Finish writing an article for AllYou.com.

10. Put together photos and talking points for my appearance on the 700 Club.

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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 Jan 23, 2012 comment

Saturday’s Shopping Trip

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 23, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

After taking almost six weeks off from using coupons, I’m excited to be back and at it again! I went to Dillon’s, Target, the health food store, and Bath & Body Works on Saturday and here’s what I ended up getting:

Total spent for all items shown above: $11.35

Here’s the price breakdown:

Bath & Body Works — picked up the free Chiffon lotion

Health Food Store — Bought: 4 grapefruit at $0.25 each — $1, 10 oranges at $0.20 each — $2, 5-lb. bag of organic carrots — $2.49, Organic leaf lettuce — $1.79, Rudi’s Bagel Thins — marked down to $0.99. Total with tax: $8.87

Dillon’s — Bought: 10 LUNA bars priced at $1.09 each. Used 10 $0.50/1 coupons (doubled — my mom had picked these up in some coupon booklets at the health food store). Total with tax: $1.33

Target — Bought: Fantastik — $1.97, used $1/1 coupon (no longer available) = $0.97, Reach Floss — $0.97, used $1/1 coupon (no longer available) = free. Total with tax: $1.15

I was disappointed that Target was out of almost everything I was hoping to buy–including the free KRE-O sets. Oh well! This week, I’ll try to make it there before Saturday so that I can (hopefully!) find more items in stock!

Shared Jan 21, 2012 comment

Good Reads: Plan It Don’t Panic, How to Write a Book Proposal, How Do You Kill 11 Million People?

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 21, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Plan It, Don’t Panic — This ebook on menu-planing is a fantastic resource for anyone who really wants to menu-plan but is struggling with how to do it. Written by my friend, Stephanie, it provides the tools, step-by-step help, and practical inspiration you need to successfully plan and follow menus.

Even though I’ve been menu planning for years, this ebook breathed new life into my resolve to menu plan and gave me lots of helpful suggestions and fresh advice. I found some new tips and websites to try out that I’d not heard of before and also found it very helpful to step back and examine if my current method of menu-planning is working well for our family or not.

This ebook covers menu-planning on a budget, eating from the pantry, how to create rotating menu plans, how to incorporate freezer cooking into your menu-planning to make life simpler, and how to serve your family healthful meals without spending hours in the kitchen every day.

The wide range of topics it covers includes:

Find the method of meal planning that will suit you and your family best
Tweak and perfect your meal planning style with unique tips and strategies
Make it easier to work around special/restrictive dietary needs
Become a grocery-shopping ninja and never go to the store without a genius plan in place for maximizing your money
Learn how leftovers can become your best friends in the kitchen
As well as how to store your recipes, easily find your favorites, plan for hectic times, and even what to do when you mess up…

You want to know one of my favorite parts of the ebook? She included full four weeks of meal plans at the back of the ebook. Reading through fully-laid-out menu plans that others have put together always gives me new ideas and suggestions to try at our house. I also loved all of the helpful printable forms and worksheets at the back of the ebook.

If you’re considering purchasing a copy of Plan It Don’t Panic, Stephanie is offering a 20% discount on PDF copies purchased through her site. Just use coupon code MSM20 and you’ll get 20% off, making it just $3.99. This offer is good through January 27, 2012.

A Peek Into Our Week

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 21, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Kathrynne, Kaitlynn, and Silas started ice skating lessons last week. None of them have had ice-skating lessons before and the girls have only been ice-skating once before, so it was fun to watch them go and do something new and learn lots of great character in the process (persevering even when you’ve fallen down multiple times, etc.)

Silas is still working on facing his fears :), but they all had a great time and are looking forward to their Saturday classes for the next few weeks.

Kaitlynn and I flew to Naples, Florida, for a retreat with all of the writers of MomLife. FamilyLife paid for the entire trip and put us up in an amazing resort (that’s the view from our resort balcony above!), fed us delicious food, and provided lots of time for us to enjoy the beach in between our planning meetings every day.

Kaitlynn had an blast playing at the beach! She was at the perfect age to really enjoy it!

The weather was gorgeous and the ocean views were breath-taking.

And then we came back to real-life again. 🙂 It’s always so good to be back home again, even if it’s a lot louder and messier than that resort in Naples, Florida was. I want to soak up every minute of the life that God has given me and embrace every part of it–messes and all!

Did anything exciting or interesting happen at your house this week?

Shared Jan 21, 2012 comment

Freebies In My Mailbox

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 21, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

Here are the freebies I’ve gotten over the past few weeks:

Free Woolite Dark sample

Free Seattle’s Best Coffee sample

Free Hills Bro Cappuccino sample

Free Betty Crocker Sugar cookie pouch

Free Seventh Generation Baby Wipes + coupons

Free Keebler Fudge Stick

Free Bigelow tea sample

Free Sibu Beauty samples

Free Dove sample

25 free prints from Walgreens

What freebies have arrived in your mailbox this week?

By the way, if you want to start getting great freebies in your mailbox, just start signing up for the freebies I post every day that interest you. Within 4-6 weeks, your mailbox will start filling up with great freebies!

Shared Jan 21, 2012 comment

5 Tips for Living in a Small Space {Embrace your space!}

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 21, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

The following is a guest post from Emily of Our Frugal Happy Life:

This summer, we (suddenly) downsized from a four-bedroom, one-bathroom house to a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo. We simplified everything, reexamined what we really need on a regular basis, and reorganized our home to fit us better.

However, living in a small space can be challenging at times. As I am learning to focus more on being intentional in my homemaking endeavors, I have five tips for those of you who live in smaller homes.

1. Don’t compare your home to other homes.

You will only be jealous if you want what other people have! Concentrate on what you have, not what others have. Don’t let the green envy monster get the best of you!

2. Embrace the space you do have.

Be grateful that God has given you a home! Even if you feel like you’re cramped for space, many people would give anything to have the space you have. Embrace your space — and find creative ways to use it!

3. Be creative with your space!

Use traditional spaces for non-traditional storage.

What can you store in the bathroom vanities? I store paper products and other bathroom odds and ends.
How can you maximize your closet space? We have a walk-in closet in our master bedroom and we don’t just use our closet for clothes! All of our plastic storage totes are stacked on one side of our closet and we store boxes on the top shelves.
Utilize under-the-bed plastic storage totes. These can be great space-savers!

4. Organize your space to work efficiently.

Working in a small space is so much easier if the area is organized in a way that benefits you. Here’s how I do this in our kitchen:

Keep the kitchen clutter-free. One of my nightly goals is to clear off the kitchen island.
Leave often-used appliances on the counters. This may go against what others suggest, but I find that it works so well for me. I simply don’t have the space to store all of my appliances. And I’m more inclined to use them when they are right there on my counter.
Utilize the space on top of the cabinets, if you have it. We store quite a few items on top of our cabinets.
Use the cabinet and drawer space wisely. Organize your cabinets and drawers in a way that works well for you; group like items together.

5. Keep a handle on your stockpile.

My health and beauty stockpile is stored in a few boxes in our bathroom closet. And like I’ve said before, not having a pantry is a good thing for me: my food stockpile is controlled!

What tips do you have for living in a small space? How do you “embrace your space,” no matter the size?

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Shared Jan 20, 2012 comment

Finally! The Freezer Cooking List is done!

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 20, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

So, I didn’t quite get my whole Freezer Cooking List done yesterday, but I did get the wheat ground, the chicken baked, and the Chocolate Granola Bars made. {By the way, the bars are fantastic. I will definitely be making this recipe again!}

Then, it was time to get ready for a date with my husband. And, after we came home and had our family Bible Time and put the children to bed, I crashed into bed myself. So much much for my plans of running and cooking after we got home from our date! 🙂

But I tackled the Whole Wheat Waffle recipe this morning–making some for breakfast and cooking the rest while we did our morning homeschooling.

And the kitchen, naturally, turned into somewhat of a disaster zone (it seems to be able to go from clean to this in about two minutes flat, I kid you not!).

I made the mistake of running downstairs to check something on my computer. Only to forget I was also cooking a waffle at the same time. Gratefully, I smelled a burned smell and quickly raced upstairs to rescue the waffle before it got too burned.

After lunch, the children watched a DVD for school while I participated in a Twitter chat with @TwitterBooks. So fun! Thanks to those of you who joined in!

And, then I whipped up a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins before heading to get ready for a movie night at our friends’ house tonight.

It feels so good to have some baked goods in the freezer again–even if it did take me twice as long to make them as I was planning on it taking me! Hopefully, next week’s Freezer Cooking session will be more efficient than this week’s. But if not, oh well, sometimes that’s just life with three children! 🙂

Did you get any baking or cooking done today?

Shared Jan 20, 2012 comment

4 reasons I use cash instead of credit cards

Published: by Crystal Paine on January 20, 2012 | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

I’m honored to be guest posting over at Simple Mom today on a rather controversial subject: why I use cash instead of credit cards. Here’s a snippet of my post:

We have a policy at our house: if we can’t pay cash for it, we don’t buy it. It’s a plain and simple policy, but it’s saved us a boatload of debt, fights over money, and stress about our finances.

Sure, it has meant we’ve gone without a lot of different things we wanted over the years because we didn’t have money to pay for it. But truthfully, I’ll take the peace and freedom that comes from living without credit card debt over all the bling and stuff. It’s worth more than money can buy, anyway.

Do I think credit cards are evil? Well, I wouldn’t go so far to say they are wrong or immoral, but I would say that I’d strongly encourage anyone who is currently swiping plastic on a regular basis to step back and consider a few things…

Click on over to read the whole post and be sure to leave a comment over there to be entered to win one of 10 copies of my book!

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Summer Bucket List

Summer Bucket List

FREE Summer Bucket List!!

1. Check the Ad.

2. Pick up the “Whole Deal” coupon book.

3. Sign up for the e-mail lists and subscribe to the Facebook page.

4. Buy in bulk.

5. Compare prices.

6. Shop infrequently.

7. Remember that organic isn’t always better.

8. Stick with the basics.

9. Save time.

10. Bring your own bag.

How do you save money at Whole Foods?

Breakfasts

Lunches

Snacks

Dinners

Freezer Cooking

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

Other Good Reads:

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

1. Don’t compare your home to other homes.

2. Embrace the space you do have.

3. Be creative with your space!

4. Organize your space to work efficiently.

5. Keep a handle on your stockpile.

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