In the works...

    In these past couple of weeks I have been exceedingly busy! Working around my home organizing, working with my daughters on different Thanksgiving projects, and planning and now executing a Wedding on a small budget!  I have also been doing some much needed deep cleaning and working on our home face-lift project. So all stay tuned for some exciting upcoming posts!

Kleenex Haunted House

 My daugther and I saw this idea in a magazine and decided to give it a shot! My daughter was able to collect three empty Kleenex Tissue boxes from school. We then took Aleene's Hobby glue and lots of black construction paper to make the house.  The first step is glueing the the boxes together. Next one side at a time glue the construction paper on. My daughter then decided we needed a few windows (0f course :)) and a door and a pumpkin sitting outside. Its a great project for an elementary school student but they will need adult help! A great inexpensive or FREE project for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon!

What not to buy at Target....

 Yahoo has done it again... Another of their lists! This time its of things to buy or not to buy at my FAVORITE store Target! Yahoo made some really good points so let me give you their buy and don't buy lists.

Don't Buy-
1. Furniture
2. Movies and Music
3. Exercise equipment
4. Shower curtains and some toys

Do Buy-
1. The Kindle
2. Green Cleaning Products
3. Groceries
4. Cosmetics

  I agree for the most part with the things NOT to buy at Target. Although they are a mass retail company they shouldn't be expected to be at the forefront as far as furniture and exercise equipment. As far as shower curtains and toys. It depends on the item and coupons to me. But with movies and music I think that you can find some truly great sales! Think about all of their $5 movies!
  Yahoo's list of things TO BUY are a little askew. Why a Kindle at the top of their list!? Here is my list:

1. Household cleaning items (with coupons!)
2. Clothes and Shoes- GREAT quality, great prices, and super cute clothes!!!
3. Hygiene/Cosmetics- this is with coupons also. But between coupons and sales you can SCORE BIG!!
4. Groceries- on sale and with coupons

I LOVE Target! I can go in with $10 to spend or $100 and I always feel like I got my moneys worth. I know that when I match sales and coupons for my trip I can have a HUGE amount of savings and feel even more satisfied with the money spent! Good luck Target Shoppers :)

Operation Christmas Child

This is a fantastic charity that is also known as the Shoebox Ministry. Through the organization children from 2-14 are able to get gifts and necessities at Christmas time. If you are a couponer like me then you may want to begin shopping now! You can put together 1 or 30 but each one will be a great gift for a child who otherwise couldn't or wouldn't have anything. With the school sales going on you can get GREAT buys on art supplies and even clothes... Shop the dollar store for other items and use coupons with sales for free tooth paste, toothbrushes, and bar soaps. I believe 100% that our small contributions can make a HUGE impact on an impoverished child in another country! If you need more information contact me and I would be delighted to explain more! :)



http://www.samaritanspurse.org/pdf/PackABoxwithLabels.pdf

Making a Home Schedule

   
Whether you are a stay-at-home-mom, a working parent, single, a student or a mixture of some of these like our family a schedule is a huge help! Between my hubby's ever changing work schedule, our daughters activities, school, outings, family affairs, date night, dinner and house work... It's can become so overwhelming that you feel lost! I know the feeling. Most of our days are full to the brim and now that school is back in session its gotten that much busier. I am an organization freak. I feel like if I have everything organized and planned I have a method for the madness. Here is how we are able to better plan our weeks out...

1st of all have a calender at the ready; this can be a planner, and wall calender, one on your cell phone, or even the computer. The main point is it needs to be something that you will check daily. This calender should have birthday's, anniversaries, upcoming events, and weekly occurrences (such as church, clubs, etc.).

2nd plan out your meals ahead of time. If Thursday's your daughter has a music lesson and your son has soccer you will want to have an easier meal planned ahead of time so that McDonald's doesn't become your go to. Also working a menu ahead helps with special occasions. The biggest thing for our family is the knowing! We know what we are having for the next week or week and a half which is great!! Also I am able to better make meals from our pantry and make a grocery list based on exactly what we need. We are able to save quite a bit on groceries because of planning ahead and coupon shopping. We aim to spend $70 a week on groceries at the very most! (We have anywhere from 4-7 people eating at each meal) It may sound crazy but we are frugal and make our food money stretch a lot with coupons.

3rd know schedules. School schedules, activities, work, etc. You will much more easily be able to work a reasonable Master schedule when you factor in all the smaller ones.

4th write down what areas of your home need to be cleaned and how often. In our home I clean top to bottom twice a week. With a dog and kids not to mention the adults our house needs a good cleaning at least that often. Then there are touch ups on areas throughout the week. And monthly maintenance, which includes; closet and drawer organization, base boards, taking inventory of our personal care and food items, and a donation bag to name a few.

Fifth your bill and pay days. Have a current bill schedule and work pay to add to your monthly schedules.

Now that you have all of the above mentioned items your ready to make your schedule. I use my phone to plan out my week. I have our bill due dates, pay days, and a loose schedule all planned into the calender on my phone. In addition I have our uncoming events and anything else I might need to remember. My day looks something like this during the week:

6am- Wake up and Exercise
6:45- Wake up girls and get ready
7:20- Take Adeline to school
8:15- Back home begin daily chores
              cleaning done
              laundry (Monday/Thursday)
11- Reading and Art time with Sarai
12pm- Lunch
12:30- Nap time (Blog work)
2:15- Pick up Adeline from School
3- Homework time and Snack
4- Play time
6- Dinner
7-Bath
8- Quiet time (reading)
9-Bed time for the kids (work time for me)

    Leave room for unexpected items... And don't beat yourself up if you don't get to everything everyday! Take it one day at a time and make sure to spend lots of time loving the kids :)!

Birthday Wishes

Every year we try to do small things to make our children's birthday. I LOVE the window we have at the top of the stairs (on our second story) its perfect for decorating! A little ribbon, a birthday sign and some construction paper... And you have a great thing for a little girl to wake up to on her birthday! :) Each year its different but always a suprise. It's always great to have a early birthday wish especially when she's having to get up and ready for school really early!

What do you do for your kids special day?

Fall is coming...

 I LOVE FALL! I love the leaves falling from the trees. I love the cooler weather which makes my infatuation with scarves ok. I love pumpkins and tea and soup. I love everything about fall! I am so eager to begin wearing my fall wardrobe and making more fall (cool weather) food. I CANNOT wait to decorate my house too! Call me a bit obsessed but I loev decorating the house! Most big holidays merit a big home overhaul... Every year its a bit different... Some years I go a little crazier than others but I think with my urge to decorate... Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be huge here! Which reminds me CHRISTMAS is headed our way quick! EEECK!!!

I will post pictures of the activities and decorations I do... Some with my daughters and some just me :). Hopefully for some who have lost their fall inspiration I will stir up a couple of ideas!

Her 1st day....

I'm sure our house is a lot like everyone else's the first day of school is scary! We try to make it a litte less nerve racking for our daughter by doing little things... a note in her lunch, a new outfit and lots of love and kisses! One thing that I have done in the past and have ready for this year is a sign for her as she walks down the stairs for breakfast... Also we take a picture under the sign to mark this new adeventure! It makes her feel special and excited to get to school :)

15 things that should always be free or darn close...

 I read an article on Yahoo this morning about "15 things you should never pay for". Now I agree with some of what they had to say but I have a few changes for a truly frugal person :)

1.  Exercise- Never pay a gym membership again! We have everything we need for a great wokout at home! If you have a good pair of tennis shoes then you are ready to go.
2. Tax Preparations- You truly don't need to go to all the trouble of spending a great amount of time and money on a tax prep service! We have used taxslayer.com they are great! They give step by step instructions and even better they make sure before you submit that your chances of acceptance the first time around is really high.
3. Shipping- If you make online purchases then I would suggest checking freeshipping.org for codes to your favorite sites.
4. Credit reports- As a quick FYI you should get an up to date credit repr annually, but you shouldn't have to pay for it! With annualcreditreport.com you get a report from all three agencies for free! Limited to once per year.
5. Anti-virus protecion- there are a ton of websites that offer fantastic ani-virus for free! We have Mc Afee and it works great for us... plus its free!
6. Books- with the price of a new book being SO high I encourage you to not pay it! Instead go to the library or Half Price Book Stores. You can either get greatly reduced or free books that way!
7. Budgeting- I know I have mentioned it before but Mint.com is amazing! I use it weekly or more to check our accouts next to our budget. We also are able to set up goals and know where we are on our debt freedom plan!
8. Cell phones- I don't necessarily think that getting a phone for completely free is a possibility but definitely check out your options! We were able to get a Blackberry for me and an Android phone for him two for the price of one! It was a great deal in my opinion!
9. Checking account- Why pay a bank to hold your money!? You can easily find banks that offer free checking, savings, online banking, and mobile banking too! Don't settle for a monthly fee.
10. Water- I have a hard time with drinking bottled water all the time when you can either drink tap water or buy a water filtration system for a fraction of what you would spend on bottles.
11. Pets- I know that not everyone agrees but why buy a full breed this or that when you can adopt an animal in need of a good family at the local pound?
12. Coupons- I personally think that the two dollars we spend each Sunday for our two newspapers is completely worth it considering the huge amounts of money those coupons save us! There are also other options too: smartsource.com, redplum.com, coupons.com, as well as many others and besides that there are many products that have coupons right on their website for us to print out! Savings Galore!
13. Health and Body items- with coupons and sales you should never pay more than a dollar or two for any body wash, shampoo, tooth paste etc.!
14. Activities- with a few bucks and an imagination you can do tons for cheap! Try learning about the area you live in, go to the park, the beach, the pool, but where ever you go have a great time!
15. Beauty treatments- You can mak trades with your hair dresser for cuts, ask a friend or husband to help color your locks, go to a beaty school, have a mani/pedi girls night, or even do your own... There are so many options to look good feel good and not pay a ton!

I may sound a little biased but honestly when you have a limited budget you have to learn how to stretch it to the fullest.

Couponing

I personally have found that with a little extra time and a few coupons in hand I can save my family A LOT of money every month! It isn't even a huge amount of time once you get the hang of it either!


The Basic rules are:
* Match Coupons with your stores sale prices for a truly great deal!
* Use Store Coupons in addition to manufatures coupons for an AWESOME price!
* Don't Get overwhelmed
* Shop around- A little


Here is a breakdown of the stores I frequent and what I purchase at each:
CVS- I LOVE CVS!!! I get our families hygiene products almost exclusively at CVS. Also medicines and diapers/pull-ups.
The reason CVS is such a huge savings is because of their Extra Care Bucks! For qualifying items each week you earn Easy Care Bucks or ECB these will print out at the bottom of your reciept and you can use them like cash on your next visit! The goal, however, is to keep buying items that give you ECB's so that you can roll over your current bucks! So between coupons, CVS store coupons (printed from the wonderful little machine) and ECB you can keep your OUT OF POCKET cost extremely low! We are able to spend on average 10-15 a week and save more that 75%!!!
Target- I love that Target is reasonable in general, add in the fact that you can use their online coupons and stack them with manufactures coupons means you can save a ton! Target is great for cleaning supplies, Laundry supplies, some food items (with sales and coupons) and also clothes!

Safeway- I only get things on sale. But you can get a great bargain sometimes!
Winco- The prices are lower and I LOVE that! We buy a good majority of our food at Winco and are able to spend a very small price for a basket full of food! (Our weekly food budget is $60)
99cent store- I love going and finding items here... A lot of times they have great food products, household items, Dove soaps etc. for just .99 cents!
Dollar Tree- I find things here all the time! We get tons of art projects, decorations, party decor and much more and you CAN'T beat the price!

Need a way to keep your coupons organized???

MY COUPON ORGANIZER

         I wanted to find a way to organize my coupons so that I could easily find them when was making my grocery and store shopping lists here is what I have found. This works great for my family and I am able to quickly add coupons on Sunday's from the newspaper and through out the week as I may get them as well.

 I used a plastic shoe box that we had at home and then I labeled legal sized envelopes and cut index card into strips and labeled them with the following...

Air Freshners/Candles (typically for Glade and Air wick)

Automotive (including the auto stores we go to)

Baby

Baking

Body Wash/Soap/Lotion

Bverages (juices, juice boxes, water)

Breakfast

Canned Foods

Cereal (we ALWAYS have a ton of cereal coupons so I decided it needed its own envelope)

Cleaners (household)

Condiments

Dairy
Frozen

Food Storage/Batteries (ziploc bags, aluminum foil, plastic containers, etc.)

Hygiene -dental (tooth paste, tooth brushes, mouth wash)

Hygiene- other (razors, femine care, etc.)

Laundry

Makeup

Meat

Medicine

Office Supplies

Other/Alcohol

Paper products (toilet paper, paper towels, tissues)

Pasta/ Rice

Produce

Salad Dressing/Sauce/Seasoning

Shampoo/Conditioner/Styler

Snacks

Toys/Gifts/Movies

Then a few envelopes for the most often shopped stores-

CVS

Mall

Raley's

Safeway

Target

At the back I have two envelopes for-

Activites/Entertainment

Resturants

 This system makes going through the cutting out and putting them away a snap! I also can easily go through and throw away unused/expired coupons too!

Organizing chaos....

  I personally feel that I cannot properly operate if I have a chaotic home, car, or life. I am one having everything nice and orderly. Good or bad that's me, I have been trying to get every area of our house back in order and cleaning out items that we simply don't need or use. In this I have found such a great feeling of release! In organizing and cleaning out our unused things even in a time where we are struggling God looks down and blesses us every step of the way! We have made a conscience effort as a family to donate one huge bag of items each month. We go through difficult times but we know all of our needs are always met so we need to help others meet their needs too!  We as a family are convicted to ALWAYS help others and this is one of the ways we outreach.

  I am sure that if everyone took a few days over the next few weeks to go through closets, toy boxes and drawers we could all donate A TON to help others! One persons unused items are another persons treasures, right!? So my challenge to all of you is this... Go through your things and donate so that another person can be a little closer to thriving!

I ♥ CVS!

 Ok... I have to tell you every trip to CVS and I am in completely shock at just how much I save our family! TODAY I bought:

4 pasta sauce

2 peanut butter

2 mouth wash

2 tooth paste

and a tooth brush

And you want to know how much I paid.... 7.35!!!! The total before coupons was nearly $50! I saved more than $40! Plus I made $13 ECB for my next trip!

What a great trip!

Operation Christmas Child

This is a fantastic charity that is also known as the Shoebox Ministry. Through the organization children from 2-14 are able to get gifts and necessities at Christmas time. If you are a couponer like me then you may want to begin shopping now! You can put together 1 or 30 but each one will be a great gift for a child who otherwise couldn't or wouldn't have anything.  With the school sales going on you can get GREAT buys on art supplies and even clothes... Shop the dollar store for other items and use coupons with sales for free tooth paste, toothbrushes, and bar soaps. I believe 100% that our small contributions can make a HUGE impact on an impoverished child in another country! If you need more information contact me and I would be delighted to explain more! :)
 http://www.samaritanspurse.org/pdf/PackABoxwithLabels.pdf

The Museum of Modern Art (FREE EVENT!!!)

Today we went to a FREE event in SF sponsored by Target! There were different events throughout the Country. There were actually about 6 different museums within a few blocks participating in San Francisco! Not only did we get COMPLETELY FREE entrance our older daughter also recieved a really neat bag of activities and free future admission! They also had different hands-on art projects just for kids! We had a great time admiring work from Freida, Andy Worhal and many, many others! THANKS TARGET for a great afternoon on a budget!