Meal Plan Monday

Monday: Memorial Day Picnic


Tuesday: Spaghetti with ground venison, salad, and garlic bread


Wednesday: Marinated Venison steak, sweet potato fries, and salad


Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Veggie Pizza & Salad


Breakfasts: Cold Cereal, Fresh juice, and over easy eggs
Lunches: Tuna & Crackers, Indian lentils & rice, and leftovers
Snacks: Veggies & homemade vegan ranch dip, Apples & Almonds.


So there you have it, a mixture of meat eating and vegetarian eating. What can I say, when my husband and I got married I decided to blend both of our eating styles both herbivore and carnivore, guess this is an omnivore week! For more great meal plans check out the Organizing Junkie and meal plan Monday here.

Spend Free Summer

We packed up a nice lunch to grill out for Memorial day. On our way to pick up some lighter fluid, pop and ice cream for the picnic,(Spending from our food budget of course!) We passed a crowed movie theater, overflowing restaurants and packed shopping centers. I couldn't help but thinking that would have been us had we not planned on purpose to pack a lunch to grill out at the park. I am beginning to realize that when I make plans on how to spend our time and money, we waste a whole lot less of both. My husband grilled marinated chipoltle venison steak and I had a veggie cheese burger . We rounded out the meal with some baked beans, watermelon, and some Bryer's all natural vanilla ice cream. We enjoyed the park and playground. See my little two year old above the tic tac toe game, we had so much fun. I couldn't help but really enjoy the fact we weren't spending money and we were enjoying the outdoors. So far, so good in the not spending or shopping for entertainment.

Have a peaceful and safe holiday weekend!

Spend Free Summer

Picture courtesy of News Observer

Welcome! I would like to start by telling you a little about myself. I am a young wife of only three years and let's just say homemaking and all of the trappings of being a stay at home mom has overwhelmed me.

When my husband and I got married we where both in debt and didn't have much of a clue as how to pay it off, manage our budget, and get ahead. Quite frankly, we were both overwhelmed.

We took the Financial Peace Class by Dave Ramsey, almost three years ago after our wedding date. But, like the world class procrastinator I am, I kept putting off really jumping into being financially responsible.

Just like Yo-Yo dieting, I approached my finances in the same manner. "Oh, I will get on a budget next week, just let me buy this purse today." or "I will start my budget tomorrow, but I am so tired of cooking and pizza sounds so good right now." Like the habitual dieter, I managed to put off budgeting and self control.

I found this amazing blog, called Small Notebook and was inspired by the author Rachel. Her honesty, commitment, and values really appealed to me. I was completely inspired by her concept of No Spend Month. With debt looming over our heads and the fact that we are tired of making our creditors rich, we are ready to jump start our budget by stretching No Spend Month into No Spend Summer!

So three years after FPU, I am ready to "live like no one else" as Dave Ramsey would say. That translates to our family as a spend free summer. What this means for our family is

* We will only spend money on essential things like food, rent, gas, and medical care (if needed)

* The rest of our money will go towards our debt snowball

* The spend free summer begins on Memorial Day and ends Labor Day.

So whether you are just along to read and cheer us on or you want to join us in a spend free week, month, or season, welcome!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

After reading this post, about stocking up and knowing when to stockpile and when to draw the line.
So it inspired me to post about my own experiences with stocking my pantry of food and household goods.

Here are some things that I have learned in a little over two years of being frugal minded.

• Just because it's on sale, doesn't mean I need it or it's good for me. When I first started couponing and saving money just over two years ago, I was so eager to start saving money I bought everything that had a coupon or was on sale. The result, was I stock piled junk food and our family lived off processed food, ultimately I gained twenty pounds and my husband gained 45.

• The lesson learned: Just because I had a coupon and it was free or pennies, doesn't mean that it is good for you. It is better to spend your money on sale produce, meat, fish, or healthy canned goods than eat "frugal" junk.

• When stockpiling food keep the rest of the budget in mind. For example, now that I am back to eating a vegetarian diet, I found Boca chick patties, marked down at target for a very low price. So me being an excited homemaker, thought, I will just buy all of them, all 24 of them. . I ended up spending not only all of our $60.00 food budget but going $11.00 over my budget. What was I thinking, we still needed fresh produce and other things to eat, did I really think we would live on chick patties and cold cereal until next week's budget.

• Lesson learned: Keep what you have at home in mind when stocking up. It doesn't help your family to have 100 cans of tuna and 5o boxes of saltines to be all you have in the house. Bring your calculator to the store and add up how much your are spending to keep the budget balanced.

• Lastly, Keep your cupboards clean and organized. When stockpiling you need to know what you have. It doesn't help to have things hidden by junk and "homeless" items. I have on my too do list to clean and organize my pantry. Because I had a haphazard cabinet, I forgot that I had many boxes of barrilla pasta and ended up buying more at the grocery store. Money that could have been used to stock on fresh seasonal produce went to several more boxes of an item I already had.

• Lesson learned: Keep your kitchen cupboards clean and items visible. It is better to have less stockpiled that you can see than a ton of stuff that is piled up and unable to access. Before you go shopping take stock of what you already have and plan your trip and menu around that.

What ways to you stockpile with out being cluttered, unhealthy, or overspending? Please share!

For more great tips, visit Tammy's Kitchen tip Tuesday here!

Money Check Up

Well....I must be honest. I got a bill from my husband's orthodontist yesterday and realized, I can't continue to fritter my money away, a "Starbucks here" and a "five dollar foot long there"

While I am prudent with coupons, yard sale shopping, and visiting my thrift stores. I must say that my impulse spending can often spoil my budget, (or lack there of at the moment)

My husband and I switched banks. From one that paid no interest to one that currently pays around 5.5%. Try this website to see what banks in your area can offer you a better rate. Dave Ramsey recommends it and I recommend him!

So now that everything is switched from one account to another, we need to iron out our budget details and regroup. Here are our goals:

• Use our two magnetic wipe off boards in our office to keep track of what bills are due and our debt snowball, and our budget categories.
• Instead of using envelopes, we keep our money in categories, by doing this we keep a higher checking account balance which earns us more interest and don't have cash sitting around in envelopes. When we need to make a purchase of clothes or food, we subtract the amount that is in our category. This works well for us. I got this idea from the people in this book.
• Lastly, now that the weather is nice and we live in a great city. We can walk to the store (armed with coupons of course!) and save gas money and get good exercise! I say that is definitely win win!

For more great money saving ideas visit my friend Crystal here at Money Saving Mom!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Do you like to keep dish soap handy and on the sink or kitchen counter? I do but I do not like to keep a bottle of dawn or Palmolive on my sink. No offense to those that do but, I like the look a nice soap dispenser. Not only does it look pretty and hold the dish soap but it helps me save money by not wasting.

If I were to keep the bottle of Dawn or whatever on my counter, I would liberally squirt the soap out each time I hand washed things. Now with a pump, I have enough soap for each hand wash load. With the way soaps are so concentrated these days, this works great for us.

For more great kitchen tips, visit Tammy here! Happy Tuesday!

My kitchen sink and the flower my two year old begged me to pick and keep for her in a tea cup.

Making My Home a Haven

So as you can see below, I picked all of those sloppy looking shoes and put them on my over the door shoe rack organizer in our garage.

Then I clean off the top of the fridge. Notice my basket at the top left. That is for my husband's wallet, phone, and his receipts. He needs a catch all for this stuff or it will end up on the counter tops that are already brimming with appliances. (ah...perhaps another day to organize the kitchen)
Lastly, after taking the shoes back to their home, I put up two 3m command hooks. One for my aprons and one for Libby. These are great because no hammering or making holes in the wall. Works great for us being that we are renting. I also thinned what was on the hooks on the left. Just my purse & hat, hubby's hat, and Libby's hat and Hello Kitty back pack. (I just love having a little girl, she wants to carry a purse like Mommy!)

There you have it, for more inspiring and fun ideas check out Tammy's Making Your Home a Haven Day here.