So often, dear friends of mine have claimed that cooking is just not in their wheelhouse. Among these women are some of the fiercest, strongest, most incredible women I know. It makes me sad to know that these talented and accomplished women see themselves as “less than” in any way – especially feeling inferior as a wife and/or mom simply because they’ve put their energy into learning and practicing other skills more than they have into the skill of cooking. So… in their honor, today let me impart to you three SIMPLE tips that even the most basically skilled chefs can accomplish with confidence and will allow you to “go…
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We Failed in July. See How.
As you probably already know, we budget out all of our money (as best we can) every month before it’s even in our hands. Some (like Dave Ramsey) refer to this as a “zero-based budget.” Some call it a “goals-based budget.” Whatever you choose to call it, the gist is that you make a plan for your money before the month even starts so you can avoid that awful question of, “WHERE DID ALL OF OUR MONEY GO???” Have you ever felt that way? I KNOW we have. Well, here’s the thing. Even if you’re a “budgeting expert” you aren’t perfect, and this month, we are a great example of…
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Weekend Wins for Feeling Accomplished as a Homeschooling/Working Mom During COVID-19
In the last 8 weeks (or however long we’ve been doing this… feels more like 2934 weeks, right?), I’ve gone through the stages of “grief” just as you have (and probably still are) over the loss of what my life used to look like and how it’s changed since the Shelter-In-Place orders and new country-wide regulations and social expectations. Within those grief stages, we’ve had to do things like: reorganize our schedules, reset our expectations, rearrange the ways our home functions, apologize to the people we love for responding in less-than-perfect ways (times a million), find new ways to feel accomplished since it’s seemingly impossible to meet the old expectations of…
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What We Spend in a Month as a Family of Four
When I was still in the research phase of figuring out the best way for our family to budget, track, and actually make progress toward our financial goals (without being trust fund babies or both of us having to work around the clock), one of the topics that drew me in the most was being able to see examples of other families’ actual budgets and their actual routines/management of those budgets. Considering that, I want to share a bit of our own budget with you, but before I do, I need for you to promise me something. Promise me that you will not try to build your own budget based…
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If You “Budget” This Way, You’re Wasting Your Time
Before I started organizing our monthly budget with my current system (using The Sustainable Budget Blueprint), in order to know exactly how much we were spending in each category each month, I had to choose an impractical or unreliable tool to rely on: A. the automatic breakdown of our online banking tools (which just guess categories based on the location of the purchase) B. spending hours going back through all of our spending to try and make my own best guesses as to which category each purchase should go under. Have you ever tried to categorize a purchase from Amazon, Walmart, or Target? Without the actual receipt, GOOD LUCK. Seriously.…
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How I Failed Last Month… Yet Still Managed to Save $415.81!
That’s right. I failed. But you know what? Even though I missed my CRAZY goal of spending only $150 on groceries for the month of December (I knew it was nutso going into it, but hey… shoot for the moon so we fall among the stars, right??), I still came out WAY ahead! In October 2018, when I first started implementing this Monthly Meal Planning system for our family, I had just taken the time to figure out our ACTUAL average grocery spending… and I swear my eyes have never bulged from my head like they did when I read those numbers. We had been averaging about $1200 a month…
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The Secret to Functioning Adulthood in the Midst of Survival Mode
I came across this lovely gem of a photo thanks to Facebook’s Memories feature, and just feel like my face captures so much of early motherhood: The first thing I see in this photo (besides that pretty little squish with her signature mohawk hairdo) is my facial expression. It says, “I’m here! I showered! I may not have any makeup on, my eyebrows may be almost invisible (thank you 90’s over-plucking popularity), but my hair even looks decent. I’m with people I love, and I really am happy. However… I’m also dying a little inside because my 7 month old never lets me put her down without screaming like I’m…
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Don’t Forget These Things in Your November Budget!
It’s a new month, time for a new budget, and with that new budget plan, we need to be sure and account for a few new things. Don’t be caught off guard by any of these items. If you have already written out/planned your November budget and you did forget to add in any of these, go back today and add them in/rework your budget. Anytime you recognize a mistake in your budget, the sooner you tweak/fix that plan, the better off you will be. DO NOT PUT IT OFF. It will NOT be easier to deal with later. It will be more difficult, so if there is literally no…
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Favorite Side Dishes
There are a few side dishes that I find to be incredibly versatile – they go with almost any meal, plus they are quick to prepare and delicious to devour. Some staples that I always try to keep on-hand for side dish options at any time include: Red Potatoes (great baked or mashed, cubed and roasted, or diced as hash browns) Rice/Quinoa Packages (clean ingredients, super fast to prepare – under 2 minutes) Frozen Veggies (great to roast, toss into soups or casseroles) Canned Fruit (pineapple chunks, fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges, pears, peaches, applesauce) Lettuce/Salad Mix (It’s super fast and simple to chop up some lettuce and toss on some…
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Favorite Spice Mix
When it comes to food (for any time of the day), I almost always find myself tending toward the savory track of things. I will almost always choose Eggs Benedict over a waffle or a pancake… I’ll almost always choose savory garlic butter mashed potatoes over a marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole. Now, I understand that not everyone feels this way, and I’ve come to terms with it. I have chosen to overlook this one personality flaw in those of you who disagree with me, but I do want to at least make sure you have the right tools in your tool belt just in case you do decide to come…
