Home Budgets and Extreme Anxieties

I've watched the TV shows of people spending hours cutting coupons, making maps of grocery stores and searching circulars for the best deals. Who has time for that? People with stockpiles of diapers and baby formula and they don't even have a prospect of a future boyfriend. It's all quite overwhelming, gives me anxiety and, quite frankly, I don't have time for that!

In our home we have 1 giant man, me, 1 soon to be 20 year old vegetarian, my stepson who is here every other weekend and holidays (soon to be more), a 2 year old and a baby starting starting solid foods. I have a budget of $100 a month for our food and sundries. Here's how I do it!

The last Thursday of every month I sit down and write out a monthly menu. I don't scour the sales papers or go through pages and pages of coupons. To tell you the truth, most of the time there is nothing that we eat or use in our home.

I keep things simple by making big meals on Sundays and break up any left overs for meals during the rest of the month. Example: a chicken dinner will give us chicken salad for sandwiches, chicken and dumplings and possibly chicken fajitas. See, Easy!

In the monthly menu I break things down into weeks. Each day has a theme. Sunday, as noted before is a big meal. Monday is Italian night, Tuesday is Chinese and so on. This keeps me on track and adds variety to our table. From this I am able to make shopping lists ahead of time and cut down on the constant struggle to keep good food in the house.

When it comes time for my weekly shopping I inventory the beauty supplies, cleaning supplies and sundries. To keep the cost of these things down I have gone natural/ green on a lot of things.
-  cloth napkins                                       
- homemade toothpaste
- cloth diapers  
- homemade shampoo and conditioner
- homemade laundry detergent
- cloth "paper" towels
- cloth baby wipes

I will post recipes, etc in future blogs. But keep an open mind on all of these things as they are fantastic, toxin free and practical.

So that's how I do it! It takes an hour a month to stay in my small budget. In the summer I hope to get down even lower than $100 with my vegetable garden! The seeds we planted are coming along nicely so I have high hopes for this year!

Leave a comment below and let me know how you budget for your family!

This week at our house: Spring!

Happy Friday and thanks for stopping by! We hope you've had a productive and blessed week as we have rolled over int o this glorious new season.

Every week @ our house is a celebration. I choose a theme and, with my girls, we read books, make crafts, listen to songs, watch programs and sometimes go on outings related to these themes. It keeps us organized, on schedule and, most importantly, we have fun! And when you have little ones isn't that what it's all about? Sometimes we even dress up!

Our theme this week was SPRING!
We started our week by planting seeds for our vegetable garden. It's still pretty cool here in VA (it snowed a bit yesterday) so I made sure I planned ahead.

Always thinking frugally, I saved egg cartons for our Spring seed sowing. We planted 6 different veggies and the cartons were a great idea. I wrote which rows of seeds are which on the top enclosure- very clever! And I am very excited to report that we already have sprouts!
I was also surprised to that some of my mint from last year made it through the winter. Yay! We love to use that in fresh strawberries!

Moving on!
For Spring crafts we made butterflies using toilet paper rolls and construction paper. Also cute little kites that are flying high in our dining room right now.

I'm thrilled that my almost 2 year old loves books. This week we read Curious George Feeds the Animals by Margaret & HA Rey, Spring Things by Bod Raczka , and Twig the Fairy and the Mermaid Misadventure by Kathy Gfeller & Linda Clayton. We LOVE Twig. You find out more about her at www.twigthefairy.com .

The girls and I always have a great time with our themes and at times we include the whole family by decorating the house, cooking a themed dinner and go on a "trip" without leaving our home. I try to be as creative as I can and it's easy to do for little to no cost at all.
How do you have fun in your home? Make sure to leave a comment and let us know!

What is a Home?

                                                          Happy Spring everyone!

I feels like we have been waiting for this season forever. With it's days full of promise and hope of new life. The little birds are coming back and flowers are in bloom. And I can just hear the "Spring cleaning" lists being composed. Which makes me think...

                                                        What is a HOME?

Merriam- Webster defines a home as:
1a: one's place of residence : domicile b: house

2: the social unit formed by a family living together

3: a familiar or usual setting

We call our home Indigo Plantation. This is where we do life. Where we "kick it". It's the place that beckons us when we are tired and the place where we party. Our little square on the map.

This is my 3rd time being a stay- at- home mom but this time it's for real. My 2 little girls keep me busy with the work of home. It hasn't been the easiest or smoothest transition either. I try to keep our home clean, safe and fun... but I'm tired! I have been leaning towards a more natural and simple way of doing things in the last couple years. Cleaning, cooking, etc. I find myself thinking of how I've blown it every night and thanking God for another day to get it right every new morning.

But our home is just right for us. Everyone has what they need (and then some). The 5 1/2 people who dwell here have a little space of their own. And hopefully everyone feels loved, accepted and safe when they come through the door.

How do you and your family make a home? Leave a comment and let me know!


 

 

 

Welcome Home

                    The older I get the more I long for the way things were when I was younger.

When I was a kid my family spent lots of time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. In the summer we would have picnics on the back porch, I would play with my cousins in the backyard or ride bikes in the neighborhood. (No helmets, no problem.) And someone was always up for a "friendly" game of badminton.

Winter took us inside the house. Aunts, uncles, cousins everywhere. Music playing, singing and dancing. Grandpa would whistle. Grandma always hummed. She said it was because Grandpa used to tell her she had a pretty voice.

My childhood wasn't perfect, nor was I privileged. But when I was at that house, surrounded by family, it was perfect. I was safe. I knew these people and they loved me. I loved them.

Now that my Grandpa has been gone for a few years, and family is scattered here and there, I find myself longing for those moments. The feeling I would get when I would sip Grandma's sweet tea or bite into a tomato sandwich made with a tomato from Grandpa's garden.

Is it possible to create such a world today? Now that I have little ones I want them to have that feeling of love and safety. This is my attempt at doing just that. Keeping it simple, with a look back. I hope you enjoy our adventures as much as I do.

Welcome Home,
Tina