Saving Families Money Since 2007
I wrote about six ways moms can contribute to their family’s finances over on The Better Mom today.
Psst! None of these ideas involve actually getting a paycheck–but they can all save you hundreds of dollars each year!
By the way, I’ll be talking more in-depth about some of these things in my Live Webcast this Thursday evening. I’d love to have you join us for lots of great discussion and Q&A.
Need some motivation to get rid of excess stuff? QueenBee Coupons shows how their family made an extra $1,000 in March — just by selling extra stuff they had on hand!
Smashed Peas and Carrots shows you how to make homemade Air Freshener.
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.
If you missed Assignment #1 of the 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home Challenge, be sure to read the details here.
Are you ready for another productive day? I know I am! Here’s Assignment #2:
Day 2 Assignment
::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}
::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea, refer to your list of weekly goals, and make a list of no more than 5-7 specific things you want to accomplish today.
::Complete your morning routine {if you don’t have a morning routine, take some time to create one today! Read my How to Develop a Routine That Works–And Stick With It series for step-by-step help.}
::Set the timer for 15 minutes and do a quick-clean of your kitchen: wash the dishes/load the dishwasher, clear off the countertops, and, if you have time, wipe down the countertops and the outside of the cupboards with wet rag or cleaning cloth.
::Clean out your refrigerator. There’s a step-by-step guide for cleaning out your refrigerator here.
::Find 7 items to get rid of today. Throw them out, stick them in a donate or garage sale box, give them to a friend who can use them, or list them on Craigslist or eBay.
Note: If you work outside the home or have a really busy week with little time for extra projects, just do the bolded project above.
At 9 p.m. EST tonight, I’ll be posting my progress and pictures, along with a link-up for you to share your progress and pictures, too. Here’s to our productivity today!
If you missed Assignment #1 for the 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home Challenge, be sure to read the details here.
So, how’d your day go? Here’s a recap of some of what I got accomplished:
I got up early, read my Bible, ran two miles, followed my morning routine, and got dressed — including makeup, hair, earrings, and even some perfume (which is something I rarely ever wear.).
No, my outfit was nothing to be too excited about, but then, I’m a pretty simple gal when it comes to clothes. In fact, what you see here is my basic standard “uniform” that I wear every day.
After our morning & afternoon homeschooling was finished and the chores were done, Silas went down for his afternoon nap, the girls went outside in the backyard to play, and I sat down to make my list of goals for the week.
{Roxaboxen was one of our read-alouds today for school. Guess what the children did during their afternoon play time? Yep, they spent it trying to build houses for themselves in the backyard!}
And then it was time to tackle my purse. Some of you may have expected that minimalist me would have a teeny-tiny purse.
Well, I actually have a clunker purse. It doubles as a tote bag and sometimes holds diapers, extra kid clothes, books, knitting stuff–or even my laptop. It just seems more practical to stick with a big bag right now since it can multi-task when needed.
But the problem with a big bag is that it can also hold more junk and unnecessary stuff. Gulp.
I pared all the stuff that was currently in there down to this and threw the rest of the stuff out or returned it to its proper place.
Much better!
And finally, I came up with seven items around our home to get rid of: three vases, some smell reducer thing that I have no idea where it even came from, two shirts that are worn out, and two books. All of the items are going into the garage sale pile except the Unshaken book which I’m passing along to reader, Cassi!
How you do on Assignment #1? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.
Breakfasts
Cereal
Baked Oatmeal
Scrambled eggs, fruit, Grain-Free Coffee Cake
Blueberry muffins, fruit, hard-boiled eggs
Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Waffles, scrambled eggs, fruit
Healthy Homemade Poptarts, hard-boiled eggs, fruit
Baked OatmealLunches
Leftovers
PB&J, carrot sticks, apples, granola bars
Snack-y lunch
Chips, refried beans, veggies, fruit
Rice & beans, carrot sticks, apples
Salmon, veggies, fruit, corn chips
LeftoversDinners
Dinner with extended family
Goulash, veggies, fruit salad, sweet potatoes
Hamburgers, corn on the cob, steamed veggies, fruit, Salt & Vinegar Broiled Potatoes
Marinated chicken, steamed veggies, fruit salad, rice, sweet potatoes
Haystacks
Dinner with extended family
Dinner outFreezer Cooking/Make Ahead Projects
Healthy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Healthy Homemade Poptarts
Sweet Potatoes
What’s on your menu this week? Share details and/or your link to your menu plan in the comments.
Last week’s goals:
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Read five chapters of Quest for Truth:Taken aloud to the children.
2. Continue our Countdown to Easter study as a family.
3. Write a love note to Jesse.4. Grow Easter Grass with children.
Personal Goals
5. Finish reading One of Us Must Be Crazy and I’m Pretty Sure It’s You and
Unshaken: Rising From the Ruins of Haiti’s Hotel Montana.
6. Complete week 8 of the Couch to 5K program.
7. Listen to at least one more hour of The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers.Home Management
8. Clean out our bathroom drawers.
Business Goals
9. Finalize the details for the live webcast next week.
10. Start working on my talks for the Midwest Homeschool Convention.
This week’s goals:
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Read five chapters of Quest for Truth:Taken aloud to the children. Finish reading Mountain Born.
2. Continue our Countdown to Easter study as a family.
3. Write a love note to Jesse.
4. Grow Easter Grass with children.
Personal Goals
5. Finish reading One of Us Must Be Crazy and I’m Pretty Sure It’s You. Start reading The Three R’s.
6. Complete weeks 8 & 9 of the Couch to 5K program.
7. Listen to at least one more hour of The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers.
Home Management
8. Follow my Spring Cleaning plan & blog about it every weekday.
Business Goals
9. Host the live webcast on Thursday.
10. Continue working on my talks for the Midwest Homeschool Convention.
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.
Spring is here and with that comes fresh resolve to get my home and life in better order. I’ve set aside the month of April to really focus on organization in my home and life. And I’d love for you to join me!
So in April, every weekday morning at 9 a.m. EST, I’ll be posting the day’s assignment and then every evening at 9 p.m. EST, I’ll be posting my progress and pictures, along with a link-up for you to share your progress and pictures, too.
Day 1 Assignment
::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}
::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and make a list of 5-10 goals for this week.
::Complete your morning routine {if you don’t have a morning routine, take some time to create one today! Read my How to Develop a Routine That Works–And Stick With It series for step-by-step help.}
::Set the timer for 15 minutes and quickly pick up the main living areas of your home.
::Clean out your purse and/or diaper bag.
::Find 7 items to get rid of today. Throw them out, stick them in a donate or garage sale box, give them to a friend who can use them, or list them on Craigslist or eBay.
Note: If you work outside the home or have a really busy week with little time for extra projects, just do the bolded project above.
How are you doing on your goals for 2012? March wasn’t the best month for me when it came to goals, but I did make some progress…
Personal
Read through the Bible in a year. {I’ve been keeping up with this faithfully.}
Read through the 24 books on my 2012 booklist. {I’ve finished all the books through March plus read quite a few other books!}
Listen to 12 audiobooks. {I’m still working on March’s audiobook–it’s a longer one and it’s taking me awhile to get through!}
Run in at least one 5K race. {Almost finished with week 8 of the Couch to 5K program.}
Complete the Couch to 10K program.
Tackle 12 Do-It-Yourself Projects. {I bought the stuff to make March’s DIY project, but after my allergic reaction, I decided to postpone the Face Wash project for another month or two!}
Focus on one habit per month. {So I totally bombed the morning routine goal in March. Can I try for a redo in April?!}
Learn to use my new DSLR camera (huge surprise Christmas present from Jesse!!) & improve my photography skills.
Take at least one photo a day and put together a page every week for my Project Life album. {I kind of fell off the bandwagon with keeping up with my album in March, but I have high hopes of getting caught up in.}
Memorize Colossians using the plan and free download here. {I’m almost caught up with this.}Marriage
Go on the Love Like You Mean It Cruise. {Done–read my recap here.}
Go on two Marriage Retreats (overnight trips sans children for planning, talking, goal accountability).
Have monthly date nights. {We had one date in March.}
Read four books together. {We didn’t read anything together in March… must try to make this more of a priority in April!}
Read at least 3 books on marriage. {Finished Rekindling the Romance in March.}Children/Homeschooling
Continue regular dates/outings with each of the children individually. {I went on at least one outing with each child individually in March.}
Continue Grace and Truth memory book. {The children memorized part of the Lord’s Prayer plus two verses of a hymn this month.}
Ice-skating lessons for all three children. {We started the second round of ice-skating classes in March.}
Swimming lessons for all three children.
Finish second grade, begin third grade with Kathrynne. {Plugging away at this!}
Finish kindergarten, begin first grade with Kaitlynn. {Plugging away at this!}
Start preschool with Silas.
Go on at least one field trip every month. {We went to the park multiple times and on some family bike rides, but didn’t actually make it on any “official” field trips.}
Go on at least one family vacation.
Finish at least 15 read-aloud books. {We’ve finished seven read-alouds so far this year.}Ministry/Friendships/Extended Family
Write at least two handwritten notes every month to encourage someone. {I wrote & mailed two handwritten notes this month.}
Continue being involved in our local church, homeschool group, young couple’s group, and blogging accountability group. {Ongoing}
Continue with weekly get-togethers with both sides of our extended family. {Ongoing}Business/Blogging
Continue to take Sundays off from blogging/business work. {Ongoing}
Continue keeping strict Office Hours for the business/blogging time each day. {Still plugging away on this!}
Switch to a paperless planning system. {This is going well for me, though I’ve decided I’m probably never going to be 100% paperless for all things.}
Follow my weekly blogging plan. {I didn’t do this perfectly in March, but I adhered to it somewhat.}
Plan blog posts out at least a month in advance. {Not quite there, but I’m at least being much more intentional with my blogging this year than I’ve ever been before!}
Write and schedule blog posts at least a week in advance. {Making some headway with this, though I’m far from where I want to be!}Financial
Continue to tithe 10% of our income. {Ongoing}
Give generously to needs in our community and around the world, as God prompts us. {Ongoing}
Pay cash for a new-to-us vehicle to replace our family’s van. {We picked out the specific vehicle we’re planning to buy and started our vehicle search in March!}
Finish saving for and purchase a rental property with cash. {We were able to set aside some for this in March.}
If you’ve posted goals for 2012, I’d love for you to post an update on how things are going and share your link in the comments. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to just leave your update as a comment. Let’s encourage one another to live lives of intention and purpose!
Guest post from Jadah of Family Sponge
My friend Linda introduced me to the term “fun money.” It seems like a funny concept, and it took me over three years to finally adopt it into my own life, but now I want to share this life-changing and simple cash system to you.
My husband and I have always had a toxic relationship with money. If we have the money, we spend it. If we don’t have the money, we spend it. Then one day, we maxed out our credit cards, and we could no longer spend money we didn’t have.
I actually used to be good with paying my full credit card balances at the end of each month. I had an excellent credit score, owned my own condo by 22 years old, and was very responsible with bills and credit card payments.
But then I had a baby and fell in love! I left my job to stay home with my daughter, our income got smaller, and our expenses increased. I mean I “had” to have a Phil and Ted’s stroller. I had to.
Even if I already had a Graco stroller and Peg Perego stroller and was a baby-wearing enthusiast who didn’t even use a stroller much. I thought I “had” to have that $400 stroller!
Fast forward three years later: my husband and I use a cash system.
We were forced to really look at our budget and enter the world of conscious spending. The funny thing is, we never had a budget, so I had to create one. We only use our debit cards for paying for gas, a few random online purchases, and our online bill pay. We use our cash system for groceries, toiletries, and “fun money.”
Here’s how the “fun money” cash system works:
Our “fun money” is for anything that is not a living or survival expense: movies, eating out at restaurants, iTunes music, clothes, tickets to a concert or game, gifts, enrichment classes, books, office expense splurges, etc.
We budgeted $200 per month per adult and $100 per child (Zoe’s fun money goes towards her classes like ballet). So that’s a total of $500 per month budgeted for “fun money” in our family. That might sound really high to you. If so, choose a number that is doable with your own budget.
We chose to distribute “fun money” bi-weekly based on my husband’s paydays since his checks from work get direct deposited into our bank account.
Since I work from home, I make a visit to the bank on payday and put our “fun money” into an envelope labeled with our names on it.
It’s nice to have this fun money to do what ever we want without having to worry about going over budget or spending money we don’t have.
Jadah Sellner is the editor of Family Sponge and a work-at-home mom who blogs about creative inspiration and balancing family life. Her passion is to build a community who strives to reach optimal levels of love, respect, and healthy living.
I didn’t do a lot of grocery shopping or couponing the first three weeks in March because I somehow ended up with three trips scheduled those first three and a half weeks. {I enjoy traveling, on occasion, and I love the opportunity to get to speak and meet some of you, but I’ve decided that three trips in three weeks is definitely not something I want to make a habit of! I much prefer quiet days at home with my family! :)}
However, I think I made up for my lack of grocery shopping and couponing this week. Here are the groceries we purchased:
My husband’s shopping trip at Dillon’s that ended up being pretty “screwed up” thanks to both of us miscalculating and misreading ads — Spent $34.97 — Read the full details and price breakdowns here.
Health food store shopping trip — 7 pounds of fruit for $0.99/lb.
Target shopping trip — Spent $38.01 (most of that wasn’t grocery money, though, since the games came out of our household envelope and the girls paid for the Hello Kitty house) — See the full details and price breakdowns here.
Dillon’s shopping trip #2 — Spent $1.26 — Read the full details and price breakdowns here.
Walmart shopping trip — Spent $1.17 — Read the full details and price breakdowns here.
Dillon’s shopping trip #2 — Spent $5.16 — Read the full details and price breakdowns here.
Aldi shopping trip — Spent $15.19 — Read the full details and price breakdowns here.
Didn’t You Waste a Lot of Time and Gas Making All Of Those Trips?
I’m sure that some of you are wondering why I made all these little shopping trips and thinking that I could have saved myself a lot of trouble, time, and gas money if I would have just gone to one store.
Well, yes, I definitely did do more shopping trips than I usually do this week. However, all of the stores were either on my way to somewhere else I was headed or they are really close to my house. I also had extra time this week since we didn’t have that much planned outside of the usual homeschooling and household life.
And finally, it was so nice to be able to just have fun shopping and getting bargains again, after taking a few weeks “off” from it. Yes, I know, I’m crazy that I consider grocery shopping a leisurely activity! 🙂
Would you like to know what the best deals and coupon match-ups are for your local stores? Be sure to check out the Store Deals section of our site where we post the best deals and coupon match-ups each week for over 100 different stores across the country. You can sign up to receive the top deals in your email inbox each week as soon as they are posted!
Did you snag any great deals or bargains this week or save money in other ways? If so, be sure to post about them on your blog and leave your link below. Please remember that this weekly round-up is to share deals you personally got and/or money you were able to save this week. In order to keep this weekly round-up focused on helping and inspiring others in their efforts to save money, links which have little-to-no content other than promoting affiliate links, etc. will be deleted. Also, to make it easy for everyone to navigate quickly through the links, your link must link directly to your Super Savings Saturday post.
I needed to head to Aldi to pick up some produce, so I swung by Dillon’s on the way there. Here’s what I got:
Dillon’s Shopping Trip
2 cans of Dole pineapple — $1 each, used $1/2 coupon = $0.50 per can after coupon
2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste — $1 each, used two $0.75/1 coupons (“doubled” to $1 off) = free after coupon
2 Snickers eggs — $0.50 each, used $1.50/2 Mars Easter candy coupon from the All You magazine = free plus overage after coupon
2 packages of Land O’ Lakes butter — $2.50 each, used 1 $0.50/2 coupon (doubled to $1 off) = $2 each after coupon
Total with tax: $5.16
And here were the great deals I scored at Aldi:
Aldi Shopping Trip
1 gallon milk — $2.77
3 packages of strawberries — $0.99 each
2 bags of sweet potatoes — $.099 each
1 bag oranges — $1.48
3 cantaloupe — $0.99 each
10-lb. bag of potatoes — $1.99
Total with tax: $15.19
