Note & Disclaimer: Free piano lessons online are never a substitute for private lessons with a live teacher, especially if your child plans to pursue piano playing beyond the basics. They are, however, perfect for those children (and adults!) who would simply like to try the piano to see if it’s an instrument they are truly interested in playing before […]
It’s almost that time of year in my neck of the woods – strawberry season!!We have a strawberry farm a few miles from our house and I so look forward to each season’s crop. While we can get them year round in the grocery store, there’s nothing quite as sweet as a fresh from the farm strawberry.I adore strawberries! There’s […]
I admit, I don’t exercise as I should. In fact, unless walking up and down our stairs twice a day is considered adequate exercise I’m way below the bar.I know that I need to exercise for my health. I want to be around to see my kids and grandkids grow up. However, I know me well enough to know that […]
I pass three grocery stores and a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the 5 mile trip to shop my local Aldi. I’ve had people ask me why I wouldn’t just save myself the gas and time and shop at the nearest store. Here are my top 5 reasons. #1 – Less OverwhelmingExcept for a few rare occasions that they get a good deal […]
Summer fun with kids doesn’t have to be expensive. Kids are far more interested in who is with them than in what they’re doing, so the things you plan don’t have to be complicated.If you’re trying to save money this summer, but don’t want to sit around doing nothing for weeks, then I’ve got a great list of ideas to […]
This post contains referral links for your convenience. For more information, please see my disclosure page. Thanks! The final step for our meal plan is making our grocery list that we’ll take to the store with us. The Grocery List I will preface this section by saying that my method is probably redundant to most people, but it absolutely […]
Making the PlanWe now have our recipes and our master list. It’s time to plan our meals for the week.I generally plan one week of meals at a time usually the day before I intend to grocery shop. Planning any further out than one week usually spells disaster. All those once-a-month shopping people have my deepest respect. I cannot think […]
The Master List Is InvaluableOur master list is the single most important piece of my meal planning arsenal.Before I started using a master list of recipes my meal planning was disorganized and rather chaotic (read: expensive and wasteful).Remember that big recipe binder we talked about yesterday? It had some amazing recipes in it (even if they were expensive to make).But….it […]
Whether written or memorized, having the right recipes on hand will make or break your food budget. I learned a very valuable lesson when our income decreased by half… If we want to spend less money on food then we’re going to have to give up some things we love to eat in favor of things that are cheaper to […]
A meal plan literally saved us thousands. Yes, you read that correctly. Thousands! Nearly nine-thousand in fact! At the time, you absolutely could not have convinced me that having a meal plan would save us one dollar, much less nine-thousand. I was couponing, matching them with the sales, and stockpiling. In my mind, I was doing all the right things! […]