Happy Sunday friends!! Last night I posted my grocery haul from last week and a dear friend of mine pointed out that I hadn't yet shared the link to my grocery list printable. I totally thought I shared this earlier in the month, but I guess I didn't. Sorry about that guys. I have two different variations of my grocery list. I made this in Picmonkey earlier in the month. They are in black and white, so they're super simple to print out at home. I like to print all my papers out at the beginning of the month. I print out enough for me to have one for each week in the month. This past month I printed out five, since I've been shopping on Monday's and they're five Mondays in January.
These grocery lists have seriously cut down my shopping time. Everything is organized into categories, which makes my shopping a breeze. I follow my different categories and only go to those sections in the store. It has helped me with impulse buying too (the worst right?)
I keep these in my Family Organization Binder until I'm ready to use them. When I make my list I put a star next to items that are on sale and I list the sale price. This helps me keep track of what things from my store flyer I am wanting to purchase.
Evening ladies and gents! I am hopping on here to share last week's grocery haul and menu plan. I went to Fry's grocery store and to Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market to get everything I needed for a full week of meals for my family of five (our fifth family member is only five months). We spent $160 at both stores. Check out the video to see what we bought and what we ate this past week. Enjoy!!
Evening friends!! Congratulations to Kassi and Jessica for winning the "Living a Beautiful Life on Less" Giveaway. Shoot me an email (blissful_and_domestic@yahoo.com), so I can get your books sent out to you :)
Evening friends!! Sunday night I sat down with my Family Organization Binder and planned out this upcoming week. Last week was crazy busy. We started some new Homeschooling curriculum, started a new co-op, and had a few church activities to attend. I felt pretty swamped, but having things planned out at the beginning of the week really helped my Mom sanity.
This upcoming week is going to be just as full, so I wanted to make sure I sat down and got a game plan ready to go. I need to know what is going on, so I can keep myself organized.
I looked at the calendar on my phone and inserted what obligations I had inputted. I then added those to my weekly planner in the binder. I also used my Homeschooling planner page (download here) to plan out our upcoming school week.
I have been trying to jot down a few extra quotes to keep me motivated during the week. I thrive on encouraging words. It really helps me to stay focused.
I also took some time to write down my menu plan and grocery list. I went shopping today and filmed the haul. I have last week's haul to share with you too. Hopefully I can knock out a few videos tonight on the editing front. Fingers crossed. ::smile:: (I got it posted here)
Check out the video below for a full view on how I'm using my binder. I'm still figuring out what works best for me, but I'm making progress and feeling on top of stuff. I consider that a mom win today :)
Morning friends!! Today I am sharing our menu plan and grocery haul for this past week. On Monday I ventured out to the grocery store, with all three kids in tow. Keagan and Libby resisted the urge to fight, so they got to come along this week.
This past week I went to Fry's Grocery Store and City Wide Produce. I spent a total of $130, with $10 of that being for a church activity this week.
Sunday night I made my menu plan and grocery list using my printables I shared last week. Everyone picked a meal for the week and I filled in the rest with stuff that needed to be used up in my fridge and freezer.
Check out the video to see my full haul and to see the deal I got on produce at City Wide Produce. I couldn't believe their prices this week!
Morning friends! Today I am sharing a little glimpse of what I carry in my diaper bag. I use my diaper bag every day. It doubles as my purse and baby bag. I cleaned it out this past week...boy did it need that! I found a card from my Mom with money in it in there. Don't you love finding lost money? It's always a sweet surprise. It was a card I had misplaced back in November. It had somehow got buried in the diaper bag. I guess that shows you how long it had been since I had cleaned it out.
I found a few other treasures and got things all cleaned out and organzied. Check out the video to see what I carry in my bag and leave your baby bag must haves below in the comments. I love getting ideas for good things to have on hand when out and about.
Hello lovelies!! This afternoon I carved out some time and filmed a video for you all on how to create your own budget using the spreadsheet method. This is a simple way to create a working budget, that you can customize for your family. Before we get into the how to of budgeting, I wanted to take a quick minute and talk about why budgets are so stinking important.
The first reason being that budgets are your game plan for the month. They let you know how much money is coming in and how much is going out. It essentially lets you know what you have to work with.
Budgets also keep you out of debt. Knowing where all your money is allocated, let's you know if you really have enough for all those purchases you plan on making.
They also help you set and achieve financial goals. Deciding as a family to save or spend your money greatly affects what goals you achieve. Communicating and making conscious choices with your money will allow you to get closer to whatever aspirations you have this year with your finances.
And lastly, budgets give you peace of mind. I may grumble to myself and feel like I am too busy to sit down and make out my monthly budget, but I grumble a lot more when I don't. Months I don't put in the effort to be accountable, leave me further from the financial goals my family has. I like knowing where our money is going and how we're making it work for us.
Now on to the actual budget creating...
To start out you need to write down what your income is for the month. Next write down all your need to pay bills... Utilities, rent, food, etc. All the necessities of life. Save any extras, like eating out, for later. We need to first make sure you have enough money for the basics.
Once you have everything written down, check to make sure your income covers all expenses. If it doesn't you need to cut the fat....Meaning stop cable, internet, shop around for insurance, etc. Cut anything you can to keep you in the black.
Now move onto the spreadsheet. Input all your expenses and income into the spreadsheet. I like using a spreadsheet because it deducts everything for you. I have included a link to a google budget template. This is the same template I use for my family. It is customizable too! Save a copy onto your google drive, so you can use it too.
Customize the fixed categories to meet your needs. Same thing with the variable expenses.
If you have money left over, after all your necessities are met, then add categories to your variable expenses and start allocating your money. This will allow you to put money aside for eating out, entertainment, etc.
Pick a day each week that you'll sit down and check on your budget. Make sure upcoming bills are paid and add a date into your spreadsheet for when things are paid.
Give yourself grace as you budget. It's a learning process, one I'm still learning myself. Take it a day at a time and know you CAN do hard things. The more you work on budgeting, the easier it will become. We're creating healthy financial habits this year and it all starts with the budget.
Watch the video for more how to tips and encouragement. We got this friends!!
Hello ladies and gents!! I feel like it's been forever. This week has just been insane and has completely thrown off my groove. We started some new Homeschooling curriculum, started a new Homeschooling co-op, and we had some church activities to plan and attend this week. My plate was feeling really full. By Wednesday evening I was running on empty. I ended up leaving the apartment in it's hot mess state (here's a visual) and I tucked myself into bed early. I ended up getting four straight hours of sleep before Miss Tallia needed to eat again. Oh my gosh it was amazing!!! I feel like a new woman.
I also had a few technical difficulties this week. The video I am sharing today is attempt #6. Six friends! Can you believe it? I was getting so frustrated with my camera. My phone was being wonky (I film on my phone) and wasn't recording the way it should. I filmed a whole 10 minute video, only to realize it wasn't filming at all ::insert pitiful sad face:: I think I've fixed the issues though and I can finally get back to my filming again. Thank goodness right!
Today I wanted to share the weekly challenge for week two of January. You can print your January goal sheet here. This week we're going to be setting some goals for 2017. We need to have a focus for what we're doing with our finances, whether it's building your savings, getting out of credit card debt, or making a big purchase like a house or car. Whatever your plans are, write them down. Put your goals in a place where you will see them. It'll keep you focused as you continue on your financial journey this year. It'll also be a fun way to check things off as you accomplish your goals.
For my family we have a few things we're working on:
1. Build back up our emergency fund
2. Build cushion for checking account
3. Set money aside for family vacation
4. Begin investing
5. Purchase a house
6. Pay off car loan
Those are our financial goals for this year. It feels good to have a focus for things we want to accomplish this year. We have some big goals, but I know we can make some huge strides this year in accomplishing them. Setting these goals re-motivates me to make do and save more.
Morning friends!! Today I wanted to take a moment and talk about how I stayed on the healthy eating track this last pregnancy. Before I found out I was preggo, I had already been focusing on healthy eating and living. I had lost forty pounds and gotten into a great habit of exercising. I started this change when I found out I had pcos back in 2015. By focusing on healthy eating and living, I took back control of my life. For so long I felt that grief and my pcos was ruling my life. A few weeks after my diagnosis, I decided to make a change. I'm so thankful I stood up for my health because less than a year later my pcos symptoms were managed and I was pregnant.
Once I became pregnant, I knew my hard work wasn't over. When I made changes to my diet and activity level, it was not a temporary fix. It was a complete life style change. This life style change needed to continue whether I was pregnant or not. I made a promise to myself and my new little bean that I would do everything in my power to have a healthy pregnancy.
With Libby, I didn't take very good care of myself. I ate tons of processed stuff, had a long, uncomfortable pregnancy. I also ended up with preeclampsia. My red head was totally worth every bit of heartburn, but I knew I could do better. After much research and finding a great midwife, I knew I could have a healthy pregnancy.
The first thing I did was brought good food into my home. As the main meal planner and shopper, I have total control over what food is brought into my home. I meal plan, prep healthy snacks, and eat treats in moderation.
I still had cravings, but I tried really hard to eat well. Was I perfect? Heck know! I still had treats and gave in to cravings, but I kept it all in moderation.
I made an effort to have a smoothie each day, drink a ton of water (I tracked it on a dry erase board), and ate a lot of protein. I also took fish oil, vitamin e, calcium and magnesium, and prenatal supplements.
I also committed to exercise as often as I could. I managed to keep up my workouts till about 30 weeks. After that my whole body hurt... Especially my hips, so most exercises were out of the question. I was pretty proud of myself for sticking with it that long. It honestly felt good to move in my pregnancy (until 30 weeks of course) I had a good amount of energy throughout and I know it was because I tried to fuel myself with good stuff.
Overall I think it was consistency that helped me. I took it a day at a time and tried to do the best I could for my baby and me.
Growing a baby is tough, exhausting, emotional work. Pregnancy is truly a glorious, messy, absolutely wonderful thing and I'm thankful I've been able to experience it. Each pregnancy matters because each sweet baby matters.
I'm continuing with my healthy eating. It's honestly become a way of life. We still have days, where junk food is had, but we make a bigger effort to eat that rainbow each day and give ourselves the best.
Today I pulled myself....Err more like dragged myself out of bed. I've been putting in some late hours on the computer at night and morning seems to come all too soon for me these days.
After I fed Tallia, I laid her down to kick and play, while I squeezed in a workout. Hubby got me Beachbody on demand for Christmas and I'm itching to start making good habits with it. I was almost done with my 25 minute workout when Miss Tallia started fussing. Without even being asked, Keagan stopped building with Legos and came to his baby sister's aid. After my workout, he then preceded to demand I take a shower and that he would take care of Tallia. It was so sweet.
He snuggled with her and played with her, while I got myself together. It was seriously so sweet.
He loves his baby sister so much and it just warms my mama heart. Often he'll just come and take her because he says she needs a hug from her big brother. If I could use emojis in blogger, I'd totally share the heart eyed one. That boy of mine is so dang sweet sometimes.
I'm so thankful God gave me him. I'm thankful that he's the big brother. He watches out for his little sisters and loves them fiercely. He's a keeper that one ::smile::
Oh and Tallia has found her toes. She can't get enough of them :)
Hi guys! Today I have my grocery haul from this past week. I have been shopping weekly, since that is what is working best with my mama sanity. It is also all that Miss Tallia will allow right now. A full on monthly shopping trip is too much for her, so I keep it simple and stick to shopping for just one week.
This week I created my meal plan on my new planning sheets, which I have linked below. I then created my grocery list using the planning sheets. It made shopping so much easier! The list is divided into categories, so when you shop you don't have to waste time going back for things you may have missed seeing on your list.
To create my meal plan I used three meals from our previous week. With the holidays we had a lot of leftovers, so not all of our meals were made. I then had Jason, Keagan, and Libby come up with three meals they wanted to eat this week and I left the last day for leftovers. I shopped my pantry first and then made my list. I also let each person pick a treat/special snack they wanted me to get. Jason chose chips, Libby chose pretzels, and Keagan chose ice cream sandwiches. I got yoplait yogurts as my treat.
All together I spent $87.63 at Fry's grocery store. I took advantage of sales and only bought what was on my list, plus a few tiny extras. I tried really hard though to stick to my list and keep those blinders on, so I didn't get distracted by the end caps and sale items.
The older kids stayed at home for this trip, so it was just the baby and I. I had forgotten my moby wrap, so she tried sitting in the cart for the first time. She was so stinkin cute! I can't believe she has gotten so big and can now sit in the cart. Crazy!
This week's menu plan is below. I filmed a video tutorial for my meatballs. You can find the recipe here. I am hoping to get the video up sometime next weekend. I also am hoping to film when I make the creamy Italian chicken. That's a good one. :)
So there's the run down for the week and what we're eating. Let me know what you guys are eating in the comments. I love getting ideas from you guys. Oh and don't forget to add the planning pages below to your binders :)
Morning friends!! I am so excited for all of you friends that have been commenting here, on my channel, and on Facebook in regards to my Family Organization Challenge. I am so stinkin excited for all the amazing things we are going to accomplish this year. To thank you guys for all your continual support and to help you get motivated to spend less and save more this year, I want to give away two copies of my book, Living a Beautiful Life on Less. I will be giving away two Kindle versions of my book. This giveaway is easy peasy friends...simply follow the steps below to enter to win :)
"See how less can be more! Learn the secrets to living a rich and fulfilling life with less money, less stuff, and a lot less stress. Popular blogger Danielle Wagasky knows how to simplify your life so you can actually enjoy the abundance all around you. From finances to green cleaning, you will discover your own blissfully simple life within the pages of this must-read book!"
Share about this giveaway on social media and tag me.
Leave me a comment for EACH thing you do. There are a total of four ways to enter to win. Each follow is an entry to win your FREE copy. This giveaway will run until midnight on January 11, 2017. I will choose a winner the following day and annouce it here and on Facebook.
Thank you for all the amazing support you offer me and for continually following my family's journey to self-reliance. You guys are the best!!
A few months ago I had a brilliant idea friends. I was making my traditional dinner rolls...you know the ones I'm talking about right? The ones I make in the bread machine..... I think I even did a video on them last year on my channel. Well I was making those rolls and I was in the process of making some Italian yumminess for dinner and then a thought came to my mind...what if I added melted butter and garlic salt to my rolls? Would they taste good? I went with my thought and added the extra goodies and guess what? They were delicious! I couldn't believe how yummy they were. I baked them in two pie pans, rather than my usual 9x13 pan. Baking them closer together in the pie pans, meant taller fluffier rolls. Oh and the butter and garlic salt addition makes them to die for. The family and I gobbled them up in no time flat....we put away a lot of rolls that night :)
I have now made these numerous times, since that night, and figured it was about time I share the tutorial with you. I filmed a video for you all, since it is Wednesday and I am trying to share recipes on Wednesday. It's my goal at least.
I have the recipe down below for you. You literally make the dough for the rolls in the bread machine and then divide the dough into balls, filling each pie pan. Before baking, top them with melted butter, garlic salt, and some parsley. Bake and then your family will be loving you like crazy. For real friends. I am not fooling ya :)
Garlic Butter Rolls
3/4 cup water
2 extra-large eggs
3 tbl butter or oil
3 tbl sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast
Extra butter (melted), garlic salt, and parsley for topping
Put all ingredients in your bread machine, according to your manufactures directions (except topping ingredients). Mine go in the exact order listed above. Select the dough setting. Mine lasts 1 hr 30 mins.
Once your dough cycle is finished, punch down dough. Let dough rest 5 minutes.
Pull apart small sections to make balls. A little bigger than a golf ball. It really depends on the size of roll you want. Just remember they will rise again. Place them in two greased pie pans. Brush each roll generously with melted butter. Next add garlic salt and parsley. Let rise for 15-20 minutes. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. I check mine often. Once they are light brown on top I pull them out and let them cool on the pan.
Evening friends!! Today I had planned to share a video on how to create that budget, but last night the baby didn't get to sleep till after 10 pm. She has been really trying hard at grabbing her feet. It is basically the only thing she's been doing lately, other than nursing of course. After her bath and nurse session, she opened her eyes and was trying to grab those feet again. I didn't have the heart to make her go to bed. I could have rocked her for 30 minutes and she would have eventually given into sleep, but instead I came out and the kids and I tidied up, watched Madagascar, and took turns admiring Miss Tallia's new trick. She's super pleased with herself :)
Since I didn't get my budgeting video filmed yet, I decided to go with a video I filmed back in November, but didn't get around to posting. A few months ago we sold our house. I mentioned it a bit on Facebook and even promised a video, but in normal Danielle fashion I am just getting around to it. It was on my list, but kept getting pushed further and further down the line.
After Miss Tallia was born and we moved to Arizona, we accrued a bit of debt. There were hospital bills, moving costs, car issues, retainers that needed to be replaced (Libby's broke two weeks after we moved), and a few other things happened. It was one of those "when it rains, it pours" kind of deals. We had wiped out our emergency fund and ended up needing to charge a bit of those unexpected expenses. With debt acquired, we started on the snowball method to attack our debt. We paid it down by a few thousand dollars, but we still had a ways to go. We decided to start looking at what assets we had to sell. We decided on our property in Henderson. We used Webuyhouses.com. We sold our house as is and we closed within 10 days. It was super fast. We sold it "as is" because it still had a lot of work to be done. We had quite a few unfinished projects and some things started to break before we left, but since we knew we were moving, we didn't fix them.
We made $20,000 from selling our home. We had enough to completely pay off all of our medical debt, start to build back up our emergency fund, pay my blog taxes, register our cars in Arizona, get ahead on our car payments, get 3 months worth of rent in the bank, and invest a bit. It was a huge blessing to us. My sisterinlaw took this picture a few days before the house sold. It made me a bit teary eyed. This was our home for almost 5 years. Sure it wasn't my dream house, but man it was a cozy place we called home. I'm thankful God led us to this little abode. I'm thankful we choose to pay cash for it because little did we know Jason would be out of work and we'd be living on very little....we needed this little place to lay our heads at night.
In the video I go into a bit more details behind the logistics of selling and how helpful my family was in the process. They were Amazing!!
Hey friends!! I am back with my second video for today. I wanted to get us all on board with the first official challenge for The Family Organization Challenge. You can print out your January goal sheet HERE. It will help you stay accountable and organized this month.
The first challenge we will be embarking on is one that is going to get us on track to start saving money from the get go. We are all coming off a spending heavy month. With Christmas shopping, parties, eating out, etc, the month of December can start to really thin out your wallet or bulk up your credit card, depending on if you paid with cash or not. With that in mind, I thought it would be great to start 2017 off with a spending freeze. I did this a few years ago and last June. Each time it was a real hit. I love the opportunity it gives me to refocus my attention back onto keeping our finances organized and in the black.
Having a whole month dedicated to spending as little as possible, also enables you to put your spending in the spotlight and get you back in the budgeting frame of mind for the new year. I think every once in a while we need a refresher, to make sure we are spending money wisely.
This challenge is one that has little rules. The only rule is to save as much as you can. Everyone will save a different amount. We all have different budgets, that are personalized for the people living them. If you can not do a complete "No Spenduary" aka "Spending Freeze" then pick one thing you want to cut back on this month. Maybe it is those coffees you get from Starbucks in the morning. Cutting out Starbucks and going for a thermos full of homemade coffee, will save you tons! If you spend $2 a day on coffee and you forgo that expense this month. You would have saved $62 over 31 days! That's amazing! Remember that every penny adds up. Money not spend, is money saved.
This first challenge will be something we participate in all month long, but this week we will really be focusing on how to make do with what we have. I always find I start to recognize my urges to shop when I do a spending freeze. Most months I don't even think about it, but when I take the time to put a hold on the shopping, I see where my weaknesses are and what I need to work on....or resist...like those dang kindle books and ebay shopping ::wink wink::
Be sure to follow me on my channel, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily inspiration. Let's start 2017 off with a bang and save some dinero :)
Morning friends!! I am so excited to start this year off with a bang. I am going to be doing a Family Organization Challenge all year long. This challenge will encompass all facets of life. Life gets busy and chaotic and can get messy...we've all been there right? Well I have noticed that when stuff happens in life, we can start to feel like we are losing our handle on everything. Adding another little munchkin to our family and moving to a brand new state has definitely thrown me for a loop. I feel like we are finally starting to get out of baby survival mode, so I am so ready to get my family organized and back on track with all of our financial and non financial goals. Over the weekend I shared a little bit about the challenge and what it will entail. Today I am sharing a bit more in detail, with another video coming later today with the first challenge.
I also have a majority of the printables ready for you to download for your very own binder. I have included the links below. The monthly binder inserts come in color and black and white. I will also be posting more binder inserts later this week, along with how I am organizing my binder, but for right now I wanted to provide you with another video to get you excited about this challenge and give you more information. I am so excited for this challenge and all the amazing things that are in-store this year.
I hope you guys will join me on this year long journey, as we get our families organized and on track with our finances.
