Life

Balance Your Budget with Organization and Once-a-Month Grocery Shopping

March 4, 2013 By Amanda Leave a Comment

Like many American families, one of our goals for the new year is to focus more of our energy on staying on our budget and paying off some of the credit cards that we’ve allowed to get away from us over the last two or three years. Since being debt-free in 5 years in our ultimate goal, we’ve got to really buckle down and make some lifestyle changes – our grocery budget is one of the first places we turned. I knew we were spending a lot of money on frivolous items, products I could make from home cheaper and healthier, and we were wasting a lot of our leftovers, so over the last two months I’ve devised a budget, purchasing plan and a printable grocery/pantry supply list that works for our family. While I’m sure I’ll continue to make slight changes or adjustments as the year progresses, I wanted to share with you what I’ve found so maybe you can adjust it to fit your family, as well.

Establish a Grocery Budget

First things first, Jon & I tracked all of our grocery spending for the month of January to give us a starting point for our grocery budget. Our monthly budget is now set at $500 a month to cover all of our food, cleaning, and paper goods…that sounds like a huge feat, even for me, but with my system of once-a-month shopping, couponing, and menu planning and by keeping my shopping list consistent, I can easily stay on budget and keep my family eating healthy all month long.

When we met for our monthly budget date in February, the budget date is something we’ve done for years now, we were able to pin down a whether our grocery budget was reasonable, but not outrageous, using the tracking we did the month before. Through our new awareness, we also discovered we were losing a lot of money through food waste and by shopping once a month, rather than weekly. If you’re anything like me, you tend to pick up at least a couple of items not on your list…these couple of items can really add up monthly if you’re shopping weekly.

Master Grocery List

I’m terrible about making grocery lists every week, and that can really cost me, so I also created a master grocery list spreadsheet in January for us to use in our grocery shopping for the month. Over the last couple of months, I’ve added items that I had forgotten and it’s been great for keeping up with our pantry…it also gives me an inside look at what we’re eating a lot of and where we could use some diversity in our diet.

Since I’ve spent so much time fine tuning our pantry list, I wanted to share it with you. You can view and save your own version of our grocery list in Google Drive or in PDF format…I hope it helps make your grocery shopping go a little more smoothly. I’ve found with a pantry full of basic items you can create a month’s full of recipes with ease.

Once A Month Shopping

Every month, on the first Friday of the month, you will find me taking the day off from client projects and tackling our grocery list. Since I only shop once a month, my grocery shopping can take as much as 5 hours to complete – and about a week to prepare for. Yes. Really. But really, it only takes me so much time because I am running a company, raising a family, and preparing to start school (again). I usually only hit up three different stores: Costco (LA & I share a membership), Walmart, & Kroger. Here’s a look at how I spend my week leading up to the big trip and how it works for me:

Monday – Print out pantry list and fill out needed items + quantity (I do this in pencil because I know I’m going to make edits as the week goes on).

Tuesday – Create monthly menu & recipes. Add items needed for recipe to grocery list.

Wednesday – Review weekly grocery store ads and add any sale items to list. (Now is a good time color code your list per store.)

Thursday – Go through coupons and cut/collect those needed for your trip. Spend this time also paring down the expired or undesired coupons.

Friday – After dropping off the kids at school, I head straight for Starbucks – I use my holiday gift cards to pay for this little excursion, so it doesn’t come out of our budget. I also try to schedule any other errands in the city for this day, so that I can be as budget friendly as possible. Then I start my trip at the store that is the farthest away and start working my way back home. By the time I’m done I’m exhausted, ready for another cup of coffee, and a nap. But alas, I’ll spend the next hour unpacking and putting away those groceries while throwing back a couple of cups of coffee.

I have to tell you…it’s a lot of work, this once a month shopping, but it’s also really nice. I’m alone in my car with my Spotify playlists for the majority of the day…and then I get to take the music with me in my ear buds in the stores. We’re also down to slip pickings when it comes to groceries by this time, so I’m just excited to have food again.

So what do you do to save time and money on groceries?

Filed Under: Family Life, Impact Finances, Life Tagged With: budget, download pantry list, family budget, grocery budget, grocery shopping, master grocery list, master pantry list

Playtime on a Dime: Encourage Learning through Play

January 30, 2013 By Amanda Leave a Comment

It’s no secret that children learn best through play and there have been countless studies done in support of this fact, these days parents everywhere are looking for new ways to pack the most educational benefits into their children’s playtime. While there is certainly a surplus of “educational” toys marketed specifically for children’s enrichment and learning, parents don’t always need to head out to the store for the latest toy when they usually have everything they need to provide endless opportunities for learning already in their home.

Sensory Play

With the recent wave of eco-conscious parenting that has flooded the nation, parents and caregivers are discovering out of the ordinary educational possibilities in every day toys; one parent who really stretches her children’s imaginations through play with household items is Catherine Moss. Catherine regularly fills large shoe boxes with bulk dried beans and small toys like alphabet fridge magnets turning these average items into sensory bean boxes where her children can dig, pour, sort, pretend and more with the beans and box contents. Every day items like these are being used by parents in a variety of ways to encourage and reinforce counting, sensory development, and spatial skills, while simple tricks, like encouraging a child to describe their choice in dress-up clothes for a pretend play, help children develop valuable social and language skills.

Reinforce Life Skills at Home

It’s natural for parents to want their children to succeed in school and in life, which is why the recent push for the mastery certain skills before Kindergarten has propelled parents across socio-economic classes to seek out new ways to help their children be ahead of their peers. Homeschooling parents like Christina Strickland have been incorporating learning into every day activities as a natural extension of their day to day life. Christina suggests that parents talk to their children and explain the processes as they go throughout the day, for example: “When you cook together, explain fractions; when you do laundry, talk about how washing machines work; and when you go for a walk, point out animal prints or how the leaves have changed.” Since children has a deep rooted desire to learn and are sponges for information, parents are learning how every day life can open up the possibility of learning, simply by doing.

Repurpose Toys

Parents are also finding new ways to repurpose some of their children’s older toys or toys that have been passed down over the years. Educational consultant and mother, Candice Lindemann likes to use her son’s old toy cars to reinforce the concept of physics and gravity with ramps and tunnels made from blocks and tubes from other games. She also suggest using animal figurines to learn about the different animal classifications, to reinforce size difference, and more. More and more, parents are finding new ways to sneak learning into playtime. Whether they’re practicing counting and currency skills with the play money that came with their parent’s monopoly game or sorting and building with their blocks, there’s no doubt children have ample sources of education and play surrounding them, not only in their “educational toys” but also in their beloved baby doll. The opportunities for learning through play are endless and parents are just beginning to truly grasp the possibilities found in their every day toys and household items.

How do you think out of the box to encourage learning through play in your home?

Filed Under: Child Education, Life, Mama Says Tagged With: frugal playtime, learning through play, out of the box learning ideas for kids, repurposing toys

Wordless Wednesday: Sometimes You Just Need a Little Silly

January 15, 2013 By Amanda Leave a Comment

Last Fall I was blessed with the ability to visit Put-In Bay waaaay up in Northern Ohio with two friends, Heather and Nikki….and to say we had fun would be an understatement. We spent the weekend just being silly and enjoying each other. I find myself missing the ability to be silly this week and those friends. Sometimes you just need a little silly.

For more inspiring photos be sure to check out:

Better in Bulk, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist,

BrainFoggles, The Centsible Life, Rachel Ferrucci, Lil Kid Things, Resourceful Mommy, ShanaMama and Zensible Mama.

Filed Under: Life

DIY Initial Hair Bow Holder

January 7, 2013 By Amanda Leave a Comment

Hair bows multiply like rabbits. They do! Ask most any mother of girls and they’ll tell you the same thing, I promise. Well, recently I decided to take back my bathroom (because ya’ll know we’ve just got the one tiny bathroom) at little by making a super simple hair bow holder to help wrangle our legion of hair accessories.

I saw this initial hair bow holder on Pinterest and decided to make my own version using just what we had on hand and since I’d purchased a wooden K at some point for one of the girls from Walmart, I didn’t have to buy a thing! I used only what I had at home and was able to create a nifty tool to keep our hair bows a bit more organized and help them last longer (those things aren’t cheap!).

Here’s What You’ll Need

Initial Block (you can pick these up for cheap at Wal-Mart)
Hot glue gun & glue sticks
Ribbon (length will depend on your needs)
Sharpies (desired colors)
White paint (for a base)
Heavy barrettes

Instructions

1) Cover your table with old newspaper or wax paper like I had to since we didn’t have any newspapers. Paint the wooden letter with two coats of white acrylic paint, allow the paint to dry between coats. (I ended up not using the green paint at all.)

2) Use your Sharpie markers (paint markers work best) to make random polka dots (Kids could do this and turn it into a family activity).

3) Use your hot glue gun to attach the pieces of ribbon you’ve cut for your hair bows.

4) Glue the heavy barrettes to the ends of your ribbon to ensure that they stay straight even when not in use.

After everything dries, just hang in the holder your bathroom or child’s bedroom and enjoy the cuteness and organization of the DIY hair bow holder.

Ta-da! What do you think? Have you made anything crafty for your home lately?

Filed Under: Family Life, Impact Living, Life Tagged With: DIY hair bow holder, DIY hairbow holder

How Do You Teach Your Child to Shop Smart? Vlog

January 4, 2013 By Amanda Leave a Comment

Last month I wrote a little about the importance to teaching financial responsibility to children and shared how we use giving an allowance to promote financial literacy in our own home. While an allowance is a great place to start, at some point we, as parents, have to teach our children how to spend their money wisely and responsibly. As parents, it has to go further than preaching to our children about how we "can’t afford" something or how they don’t need to "waste" their money. You have to teach them why it’s important and you have lead by example.

Jon and I try to model financial responsibility whenever possible and had the perfect opportunity this week to do just that when after months of discussion, Jon & I decided to replace my not-suited-for-running-a-business-on laptop with a new laptop that would meet all of our needs. Knowing this new laptop was going to be mine for a long while and would need the capabilities to run my growing business, Jon & I researched far and wide for the right laptop at the best price. Throughout the process, we included the kids in our search and discussed what we were doing and why we were being so meticulous. Modeling the type of behavior we require from them helps us back up our words when it’s time to help them be more responsible.

KG’s new favorite thing is the Skylanders Giants game that Ye Olde Santa graciously brought her and her sister for Christmas this year and while all of our original Skylanders action figures (I guess that’s what they’re called anyway) work with the new game, the Giant game figures (maybe that’s it?) and the newer Series Two characters (is this it?) have some fun extra abilities. Naturally, KG wanted to spend some of her hard earned Spend money on a new figurine…so instead of buying the first figurine we found at Walmart for $11.99, we headed home and checked online where we found the figurines for just $9.99 and they were on sale B1G1 1/2 off. Since it’s our rule to wait 48 hours before making a Want purchase, we both slept on our new found knowledge for two nights. In the end, KG bought three figurines at Target for her new game and spent less than $30 total.

Knowing the Difference Between a Want and a Need

I know you heard me mention that the purchase was a Want and I wanted to explain a little more about what that means in our house. Jon and I have made it a point to discuss the difference between a Need and a Want over the years and have also made the 48-hour rule a standard in our home. It’s rare for us to make any type of compulsive and last minute purchases these days, so we try to stress the importance of knowing the difference between the two and really being sure about any purchases.

SO TELL ME: How do you reinforce financial responsibility in your house?

This video is sponsored by Splash Creative Media on behalf of Virtual Piggy.

Filed Under: Impact Finances, Impact Living, Life Tagged With: children financial responsibility, teaching children how to spend money wisely

Fall Fun with Pumpkins – Paint Your Pumpkin Project

October 9, 2012 By Amanda Leave a Comment

As you all know, I’m not the most crafty of crafty people…but I do have two young and dare I say crafty young ladies, so this often means I have to pull out the paints and pull on dusty old craft hat. One perfect example of this happened this weekend when two pie pumpkins got a makeover with the help of my trusty side-kicks.

If you’re anything like me, you may not be a huge fan of the mess that goes along with carving a pumpkin, but if you’re anything like my small people you may not care. Every year I dread the smell, the icky-stickiness, and the pumpkin parts that I’ll inevitably find strewn around the porch (yes, call me a party pooper) – but I look forward to the girls’ smiling faces and the joy that comes from seeing their masterpieces.

That’s why this year I decided to try something different – and hope it would be just as fun – painting pumpkin faces! This super simple craft is perfect for any child that can hold a paintbrush and will add a splash of Fall fun to your home! This is an incredibly affordable craft too since I was only out the cost of the pumpkins and we used the paints we already had in our craft dresser.

Pick up a pumpkin (we chose pie pumpkins since their size was perfect for carrying) that suits your kiddo and don’t over look the marred or funny shaped ones, those often yield the most fun results!

Paint the pumpkins all over with a base color. We chose white, but you could choose black if you were going to make a zombie or any other color you want.

After they dry, I recommend outlining the facial features with a black permanent marker (apparently I was all out and had to use a ball-point, which scrapes off the paint if you’re not careful.)

Now here comes the fun part, let your kids have fun. Have them fill in the outlines with their favorite colors and add any extras now too so that everything dries at the same time.

Let dry. You’re done! Now sit them outside (or inside) and enjoy your child’s creativity all season long!

What crafts do you like to do with your kids?

Filed Under: Family Life, Impact Living, Life, Mama Says Tagged With: easy fall craft, Halloween craft, kids fall craft, painted pumpkin, preschool fall craft, pumpkin craft, pumpkins

When Children Lie….What Do You Do?

August 30, 2012 By Amanda Leave a Comment

My heart is hurting this morning. Hurts. Aches. As a parent, there is little that hurts us more than to see our children in pain…especially when it feels like you are the cause. Today one of my girls lied to me – about something small. In fact, she’s been lying to me all week…and possibly for longer.

It’s not the first time and she’s not the first one of the girls to do it, so today it just went all over me. I hate lies. I will not tolerate lying. I have said it over and over and over again (often rambling, I’m sure) – Jon & I simply will not accept anything but the truth.

I am always so shocked when they lie and they both do it …with frighteningly more frequency recently. And it does hurt. It hurts when you catch them in a lie – it feels a little like a failure on your part as the parent.

We’ve been through it all before, they both know that it is inappropriate and not at all acceptable behavior. They know they’ll get in less trouble telling the truth than if they lie. And yet, here we are, still we are dealing with these issues.

It’s not even like they’re lying about big things (yet); it’s always small things like who sprayed the water on the mirror or if they took their medicine that day. Today the girls and I had a discussion trust. If I can’t trust them to tell me the truth on the small things, how can I trust them to tell me the truth on the big things or even be away from me afterschool?

How do I get through to them? How do I nip this in the bud?

Today the daughter that lied about her inhaler will miss out on her afterschool activity. I explained that she can’t participate today due to her dishonesty and for her to be allowed to participate further she would need to show me she could be responsible and honest.

So help me, what do you do when your kiddos lie?

Filed Under: Impact Living, Life, Mama Says Tagged With: child lie, family, why do children lie

7 Simple Tips for Making Your Morning Routine Smoother

August 27, 2012 By Amanda 1 Comment

Do you know what time of the day is? Mornings. Especially around back-to-school time, when everyone is still fresh and excited for new beginnings. This is also the perfect time to start implementing a few simple steps into your life to make mornings an enjoyable time that has everyone arriving at their destinations on time and in pleasant ready to learn (or work) moods. In our home, mornings are a time of cheerful attitudes, snuggles, smiles, and family time. If your mornings are something different, it could be your routine…or lack there of…that is creating the issue.

Rise & Shine!

Here are a few of the tricks to keep our home running smoothly during the school year and year round:

Start lunch preparation right after you empty their lunch boxes in the afternoons. You can go on and pack the crackers, chips, cookies, and some fruits in their lunch boxes to save yourself valuable time in the morning. Plus if you pre-pack if the afternoons, you’ll be more likely to pack healthy items that may require a bit more preparation than the prepackaged items.
Get up earlier. This is for everyone. By just setting your family’s alarm clocks for 15 minutes earlier than their regular wake-up time, it allows everyone time time to enjoy the family’s company without feeling rushed. If you’re the parent in charge of waking the children, I also recommend waking 15 minutes earlier than your family so you can at least chug one cup of coffee and maybe get a solitary minute to yourself before the race begins.
Utilize the weekend. This one really takes up three steps; the weekends are like God’s way of giving you two days to prepare for the week. I try to spend some time each day catching up on any housework, laundry, and general house maintenance. I’ve found if we start the week with an organized and clean house, our mornings, and days in general, run smoother and are less stressful because we’re not constantly surrounded by clutter. Doing this makes it easier to to keep the home cleaned up and inviting all week.
Use the weekends for meal prep. I know you’ve probably read this before, but it’s a huge help so it bears repeating: save yourself time and money, not to mention stress, by prepping as much food as possible over the weekend to help you prepare for the coming week. You can wash, cut and store vegetables and some fruits in individual baggies, cook and freeze all of the meat for the week, slice and store cheeses, and more to help you get ready for the coming week’s meals. One of my favorite things to do over the weekend is whip up a huge batch of my family’s favorite pancakes or waffles and then freeze the leftovers (with a piece of wax paper between each pancake or waffle) for a fast and easy breakfast. I find when I take the time to to do the prep on the weekends, I save myself a lot of time while offering my family much healthier meals than a box of cereal or an Eggo waffles.
Use the weekend for style prep. I don’t know about you, but my kids have very particular styles. KG would describe hers as “street”, while KJ would simply shrug…it’s just her style…and while I don’t have to do much of it right now, there will come a time when I’ll need to scan their outfits for appropriateness. Right now, my biggest issues is their indecisiveness when it comes to what they want to wear, that’s why the girls and Jon choose their wardrobes for the week ahead on Sunday night. I feel like this is important for the girls to learn careful planning and the importance of looking ahead, that’s why it’s a good idea to remind them to think about the weather and what activities they’ll have coming up.
Use music. Preferably of the upbeat and wordless variety. I’ve found that if I play an upbeat instrumental or fast tempo nature song, the girls get dressed and ready much faster and in a much more cheerful way. Songs with words are okay too, though I really do insist on the music being upbeat and fast tempo – it’s hard to be in a cheerful and ready-to-learn mood if you don’t give your brain something to wake it up with.
Keep all other electronics off. This goes for you too, Mom & Dad. This is your time together as a family, spend it together. If you are privileged enough to do so, spend what little time you have together in the mornings talking about school, the upcoming week, their goals for the week, your goals for the week. It’s important to spend what time you have with your children engaged with them, truly giving them your attention without any distractions. The girls and I usually have between 15 & 20 minutes to spend together in the mornings after everyone is ready and it truly is the best part of my day. We’re all still so fresh from a good night’s sleep (yes, that tip should be a given…sleep is #1 most important!!) and haven’t had the stresses of the day fall on us yet, so we’re all very happy to be together.

As a morning person myself, mornings are naturally my favorite time of the day, there’s just something amazing about the smell of a new morning and new beginnings. You get to decide how your day will be and with these simple tips, your day can start smoothly and in the company of those you love.

What little tricks have you found that work to keep your homes running smoothly?

Filed Under: Impact Living, Life, Mama Says Tagged With: Back to school, make mornings to smooth in your home, mornings

DIY Home Repairs & Updates List

August 19, 2012 By Amanda 1 Comment

Feel free to “Pin” me!

Our family has been living in our first home for four years now and as with any home our homestead is in need of some fixing up (for example, the decks are hideous!!). Since Jon & I are planning to sell the house in the next 5 years and build a new one, we figure we should get started on the basic home repairs and updates that will need to be completed before we can sell. Another thing that is important to us is that we make these updates and repairs while we’re still here to enjoy and benefit from them.

So this weekend, Jon & I sat down and made a list we’ve been meaning to make for the past 3…the home repairs and updates list.ON here we’ve added everything we want to do with the house in the foreseeable future, we plan to do all of the repairs ourselves or with the help of friends. We’ll have to do them as our budget allows us since we’re also trying to pay off as much of debt as possible and save for the house. I figured since I share everything else with you guys, I might as well share this list too. And hey, who knows…maybe this will hold us even more accountable.

High Impact Mom’s Home Repair and Updates List

Clean carpets.
Replace side deck.
Replace heating and air system
Retape ducts and have them cleaned.
Clean out garage.
Insulate under house.
Replace front brick facing.
Run phone line, cable & ethernet to office.
Put lattice on bottom of back porch.
Replace office light/fan.
Replace front deck.
Replace side door.
Replace tile in side entryway.
Paint KG’s room.
Paint KJ’s room.
Paint master bedroom.
Paint living room.
Paint bathroom.
Paint office.
Replace windows.
Replace water heater with wall unit.
Create crawlspace to attic.

Wow. That’s a lot. Good thing I’m giving us some time…and in the meantime, that’s a lot of work and writing…and learning…and money. But hey, every penny that doesn’t go to fixing up the house will go to saving for the new one.

As our family completes each task, I’ll write about it and link up here so we can keep all of the links in a nice orderly fashion for those who might want to follow along.

So what about you? Do you having any home projects on the horizon?

Filed Under: Life, Mama Says Tagged With: DIY home repair, DIY home updates, home remodels, home repairs, home updates, house repairs

Mysterious Rash Plagues School & my Child

August 17, 2012 By Amanda Leave a Comment

Update: After treating the rash with Caladryl, KG’s rash looked better in 24 hours and was completely dried up by Monday. It is believed that she had poison ivy from a project in Humanities at school.

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My girl, KG, has super sensitive skin and has had three weird rashes in the last year. They’re all on her face and always spread to across her eyes and the bridge of her nose…and usually also down the right side of her neck and shoulder. Every time.

The thing is we can’t really find a cause, we’ve ruled out detergent, shampoo, carpets, fabric…you name it. Now it’s back and there are several kiddos that are affected in the school.

Here’s what she looks like this morning: