Things I Love Thursday…
I fou
nd this fun little linky post at the Diaperdiaries.com and thought I’d join in the fun!
One of the things I love is something I made!! Its a little mini album that is all about things that make me happy! I used scraps and made the entire thing from stuff I had I didn’t stick to a cohesive style, I just scrapped however I wanted for each page. ! I love to look at it and be reminded of the little blessings I have all around me! (I’m realizing more and more how important this is.)
It started out 25 things that make me happy, but I just kept thinking of more– so it ended up being 28.
Here’s some pics…
The cover!
My “hubbie” page!
A page dedicated to my love for polka-dots!!
My Oreo page! Yum!!
My favorite band– Barlow Girl!! (They are sisters, they love God, and they rock!)
My Fall page! I just stapled fake leaves leftover from a friends wedding!
I have other pages including my favorite channel-HGTV, my love for ribbon, taking walks, my friends, family, my walk with the Lord, my obsession with pretty paper, my adorable shower curtain, scrapbooking, my favorite scrapbooking author–Cathy Zielkse, and so on! It was really fun making it and its a blast to flip through every now and then. I display it on my crafting shelf with a pie plate holder thingy.
Be inspired by more Things I Love Thursday posts HERE!
WFMW– Free and Frugal Things That Just Make Me Happy!
There are a ton of free, simple, and frugal things that really help to perk me up when there’s not much to do or I am feeling like a pick-me-up. I was reflecting on what things make me happy, and I actually was surprised at how many of them don’t cost me a dime!
#1. Blasting a worship album and belting it out!
#2. Painting my toe nails pink! (I like red too, but pink just perks me up all the more!)
#3. Crossing something off my to-do list!
#4. Going for a walk with my hubbie.
#5. REALLY cleaning out a box, cupboard, or closet and purging stuff!
#6. Making a great card or scrapbook page!
#7. A great phone call to a friend or family member.
#8. Baking something sweet. (Usually followed swiftly by me eating it.)
#9. Looking through my old scrapbook albums! (Our honeymoon one is my fav!)
#10. Sending my hubbie a cute little text to tell him how awesome he is.
Ten simple things that boost my spirit without draining the wallet!
I bet you could come up with a list like this! Just getting these things down on paper, or– on the screen– really open my eyes to how much I truly have! Try it!
For more WFMW posts and tips, click HERE!
Totally Worth It Freebies For Your Listening Pleasure…
Nathan and I no longer spend money on music, cable, movies, or really any other sort of entertainment. We actually haven’t felt deprived AT ALL because of the wealth of freebies out there on line! I have gotten kind of excited about some of the goodies I’ve found recently and wanted to pass them on to you!
For your listening pleasure:
Phil Wickham: We are HUGE Phil Wickham fans! He is a worship leader that leads with such passion and joy in the Lord. He has a “sing along” freebie album at his site that we have been listening and singing along to almost non-stop! Here are some of the songs included: Come Thou Fount, How Great Thou Art, Messiah, Nothing But The Blood. There are 15 songs all together– all AWESOME! Click HERE for this great freebie! (Thanks Whit for sharing this with us!)
Pandora: This is a free online radio station that plays only stuff you like! I found this site at Christmas time and listened to sweet Christmas music pretty much 24/7! I now have a worship station, a Bethany Dillion and other similar artists station, and a Barlow Girl station! (Oh by the way, I am now listening to the new Aaron Schust, good stuff.) Its fun! Type in the name of an artist you enjoy, and they pull up what they think you’ll like. If you don’t like it, they stop playing that song! Click HERE for Pandora.
Freebies for your viewing pleasure:
Dave Ramsey: Moneysivingmom.com posted on this earlier in the week and I watched all three sessions and LOVED it! If you haven’t had a chance to see Dave in person, this is a great alternative. I liked this even more than the LIVE event because he was free to talk a lot more about Christ! There are three 30 minute sessions, oh! And bring your tissue. The last one made me get all teary at the end! Click HERE!
Fancast: I love fancast. I really do. They have all my favorite shows available for me to watch for free. Now don’t judge me, but I am kind of a Perry Mason freak. Its my mom and dad’s fault. If you’re reading this and thinking “who’s Perry Mason?” Go ask your parents… or grandparents. Fancast has a TON of old Perry Mason shows and I just love it! The also have current shows of all types and some HGTV goodies! Click HERE!
For more fun moneysaving tips, click HERE for Tightwad Tuesday!
Focus Friday and Home Management Schedule!
I realize I’m way late in posting my Focus Friday! I wanted to kind of revamp the way I’ve been making my lists to help me, as the often pooped out Prego, feel better about the way things are getting done.
I LOVE crossing stuff off my list, but some days, my feet are swollen and I’m so exhausted! Just getting dishes done is a monumental task some days!
I remembered reading a post on moneysavingmom.com about how Crystal uses a schedule to plan out when she will tackle which household task. She also uses a timer to set a limit and a goal for how long each task will take from her day. I don’t know if I could really go for a timer at this point, but I like the concept.
I realize how important diligent home management is to a frugal lifestyle. Here’s what is true in that regards in our home:
*If my kitchen is clean and my cupboards organized, I am less likely to give up and spend money eating out.
*If I take the time to properly launder our clothes, they will last longer!
*When I bake items from scratch, we save grocery money!
*When Nate and I take the time to meet and pray about our finances weekly, our communication increases, our dependence on the Lord increases, and we become more of a team when it comes to our finances.
*When my house is clean, I feel better! When I feel better, I am less likely to turn to shopping therapy to boost me!
*If I have time for making/crafting things set aside, we spend little to nothing on gifts and cards for others.
I have really enjoyed the accountability Focus Friday has brought me. I realized that maybe I should take it a step further when I got to Friday this week and realized I had a massive to-do list staring me in the face for the next week.
Here’s my list from last week and how I did:
1. Dropping off second round of consignment stuff.
I actually decided to save my stuff for the fall Just Between Friends Sale in Portland. I feel I could make more and they will most likely accept more of what I have to consign.
2. List stuff on craigslist
Nathan and I talked about it, but didn’t do it. Some of our stuff we have relisted 4-5 times. Should we just stop trying? We feel like our prices are pretty darn low! This is still yet to be determined. We’ll probably figure out what to do at our next budget meeting.
3. Returning stuff. Ugh.
I did it! Woohoo!
4. Writing back to our Compassion child. (He is amazing!)
Didn’t get to this.
5. Start writing thank yous from baby shower.
Organized my address book with the addresses, but didn’t write the thank yous yet.
So! I have a huge list for next week, and decided on making a Home Management schedule. Each day of the week, I will tackle a different area of the list. If I am too tired or worn out to tackle that area, oh well. The next day is a different area and I need to focus on that and NOT FEEL BAD THAT THE OTHER AREA GOT IGNORED. Because it will come around again in a week. Notice how I’m really working on my approach to this? 
Here’s the schedule:
Monday:
Baking Day
Tuesday:
Cleaning day: bathrooms, vacuum, sweep, dust
Wednesday:
Budget meeting and shopping
Thursday:
Crafts and projects for the home or otherwise
Friday:
Laundry
Saturday:
Ironing
Sunday:
REST!!!!
I’ll let you all know how this works for me next Friday!!
You guys HAVE to see this!
I LOVE to decorate, and I love it even more when I can do it on a very low budget! I found this blog “linky party” on this fabulous blog called The Shabby Nest. She has created a post where frugal decorators have posted links to awesome decorating ideas on the cheap! I read every single one and felt so inspired! There are TONS of amazing ideas!
Check it out HERE!
Super Savings Saturday! [The WOOHOO version!]
Woohoo!
I went to the Just Between Friends biannual consignment sale in Portland yesterday with my friend Amanda from work. She is due in about a week, so it was fun to go shopping with a fellow prego!
We weren’t sure what to expect. We walked in and were like, “whoa.” There was a lot of stuff! I was needing summer maternity clothes and a bath tub. Boy did I find what I was looking for!
Here’s what I got for $32.50!
The same exact bath tub a registered for: $8
One pair khaki Motherhood brand maternity shorts: $3
One pair denim GAP maternity shorts: $6
Old Navy white cardigan: $6
Motherhood polo shirt: $2.50
Never worn before Motherhood 3/4 sleeve blue top (which I LOVE!): $7
I was so excited to bring home these deals! I know I easily saved $100 from buying used verses new. Amanda and I stood in line for 2 hours to check out! They weren’t expecting that many people!
There is another sale in the fall I will go to for sure! I am planning on consigning there as they didn’t seem to be as nit-picky as my local consignment store (that rejected a brand new maternity shirt I’d never worn because of wear and tear. What?) But the quality of items was definitely up there.
On Sunday of the sale, they have a half off day. I think I’ll go on Sunday next time with the attitude of “I’ll get what I get!” But this year, because I needed maternity shorts so badly, I went the first day to get the best selection.
Thanks Jesus for the great deals and the great time I got with a wonderful friend!!
Revamping the budget for baby!
I have less than 3 months to go folks before little Molly arrives! Woohoo!
(Here she is!)
With that in consideration, Nathan and I had a great talk about how we should be adjusting our budget. I have been working my tushie off to stretch out a $200/month grocery budget and have found it to be extremely difficult! We are not buying junk, no more juices, desserts, pizzas, mac n cheese even– and I still can’t quite make that $200 budget! Plus, I am meal planning, list making, cooking simple meals from scratch, and coupon clipping!
We talked about the reasons why it wasn’t working.
#1 We buy a lot more produce than we did before.
#2 We now drink organic milk, eat organic eggs, and chicken.
#3 I am no longer sacrificing nutrition for price. I used to go after all those sales where you could get stuff for just pennies after coupons, but it was rarely healthy food!
#4 I am trying to incorporate diapers into our budget.
Hmm… no wonder its not working anymore! I used the $200 budget when we ate hamburger helper 1-2 times a week and never had fresh produce!
So, with that said, Nathan and I decided to extend our grocery budget to $250/month. We feel like this is the more realistic number for when Molly arrives and we will HAVE to purchase diapers regularly.
We are going to start pretending like she is already here and start buying as many diapers and wipes as we estimate we will need when she is here. At the end of May, we can take a second look at whether or not $250 is a realistic number with a baby.
Here are our daiper estimates:
We have heard that 8 diapers a day is a pretty good estimate. In that case, we will need about 230-240 diapers a month.
If you use 1-3 wipes on average per change, an average for wipes would be about 600 wipes a month.
These are the estimates we are going for! They may be high, they may be low, but the important thing for us is that we are realistically working these purchases into our budget. The benefits are two fold: We get an awesome stockpile, and we learn how to better use our funds!
If any of you moms have thoughts on our estimates, feel free to comment and clue me in!
My plan for an awesome, frugal date night!
During the Town Hall For Hope, I started to have this incredible craving for a very cold fruit drink. I thought of Jamba Juice, (pricey!) Nathan suggested Sonic as they have real fruit slushies that are cheap. (He is getting more and more frugal by the minute!)
We went to Sonic and Nathan didn’t even order anything. He offered just to eat a snack at home to save money. (Isn’t he cute?)
For a $1.83 paid for in cash, my craving was satisfied!
PLUS! It gave me a great idea for a date night! Everyday from 2-4 Sonic has 1/2 priced drinks. So, for a couple bucks, Nate and I could get drinks, cross the street to Wal-Mart, use a free code to rent a Red Box movie, and have a pretty sweet date night! Not to mention gas efficient as Sonic/Wal-Mart are right by each other and close to our commute home from work! Woohoo!
We’ll have to wait until May as our date money for this month has been spent, but I’m pumped about it!
An Honest Mistake…
That’s what we’re calling it. Last week when I was hitting up the great promo at Safeway, I noticed they had what I thought was a Red Box. I made a mental note as we had been driving a little further to go to the Redbox at our Wal-Mart. Less gas, right?
Today hubbie and I opted for a frugal date night of homemade smoothies (inspired by my friend Maureen’s tasty blueberry smoothies that her daughter later used as window paint– its a cute story really!) AND a free Red Box rental using the code. I got the code and off to Safeway we went to get our smoothie supplies and free movie.
We got our stuff for smoothies, only $6 and then went to the “Red Box” to rent. We entered the code and it wouldn’t work! Tried it again, it wouldn’t work! Well Nathan then said, this does look a little different. We gave the machine a second look and realized, it wasn’t a RED BOX! It was some other $1 rental machine that was big and red called “DVD Play.” Oops. Due to the long line behind us, we forked over our $1 laughing at our mistake and decided to keep going to Wal-Mart for our rentals.
The major bummer was that the DVD was all scratched up! We had to skip an entire scene because of how bad the lag/skipping was. We’re planning on contacting the company because that DVD was majorly scratched! (We want our $1 back! How cheap are we?)
We felt pretty silly for our mistake, thankfully it only costs us $1!
