Money Saving Monday! Tip #1

Welcome everyone to my first Money Saving Monday tip!

I LOVE to spend money. It doesn't matter if it is on groceries, clothes, crafts.... Anything. But to have money to spend, I have to first save it. Which to be honest MOST of us suck at. No? Not you? Ah come - on... Be honest. OK well maybe it is just me that isn't good at saving money.

Well I have been doing as much as I can around the house to help us save some money. Most of it is little things, but every little bit helps right?

OK so here is it, Tip#1!

LABEL YOUR LEFTOVERS!

Sounds so simple, and it is! When you pull leftovers out of the fridge, your first thought is, "When did I cook this...?" If you don't know the answer to that question, chances are you put it back (in the very back in a corner) until it turns into a science experiment. 

Throwing it away = throwing away MONEY! 

Grab yourself a roll of masking tape or painters tape and a sharpie. 

Ta-Da!

Keep them near your Tupperware and when you package up your left overs, slap some tape on the lid and write the date! SIMPLE, CHEAP AND EASY! My favorite way to save money lol. The tape will even stay on your lids when running them through the dishwasher... That means you can reuse the tape! Genius!

I just write the month and day

Enjoy guys! This tip is courtesy of my grandma. So THANK YOU Grandma!

Does anyone else out there label their left overs?? If so I'd love to see your method.

Storage Drawer Facelift

I'm pretty sure there isn't a crafter out there that hasn't had Sterilite storage drawers. I think we all start our using these drawer and then move onto bigger and better things (someday I hope!)

These drawers can sure be an eye sore! I store all my crap that I don't want to look at ( or anyone else to see) in these drawers... but they are see through! Whats the point?!?

I came across this idea the other day via Pintrest and literately smacked my head and said, " DUH! Why didn't I think of that?! GENIUS!"  That night I went through all my scrap book paper that was sitting in a drawer gathering dust and made a few coordinating piles for the various set of drawers I have. I figured I should start with a small set of drawers for my first try... easier to hide if I screwed it up too bad lol.

Here is the " Before" picture. I apologize for the not so great pictures. My crafting time is after the kiddos go to bed and the lighting is NOT great. Also I'm not one to spend really any time editing my pictures. Id rather do ANYTHING else!

"Before" with our cat helping

(Notices all the different labeling and old stickers? YUCK! It looks so disorganized to be able to see everything)

I emptied out my drawers, slid my paper down the front and marked where to cut it. Super easy for these drawers because the handle is on the outside.

Next I cut out 3 pieces all the same size. Easy Peazy!

All cut and ready to go

The I put some trusty Mod Podge on the inside of the front of the drawer. I slid my paper in, making sure it was flush with the bottom, and pressed down. I found that using an old gift card worked really well to get all the air bubbles out.

It's milky because the Mod Podge is still drying

Next I put a layer of Mod Podge on the inside to protect the paper. I made sure to get it all along the edges!

The inside

Here is the drawers all done and dry! I even used my fancy new label maker (that I'm still learning to use) and made a label for what is in each drawer! Being organized makes my heart happy!

DONE!

My Labels

Have I inspired you? Or maybe you have already done this or something similar? I would love to hear about it or see pictures!

Please secure your furniture!

Kind of a serious post today. 

Not many of us think about securing our furniture to the wall, especially a low dresser, but I will be. I came across this very sad story today and it hit really close to home. Our daughter will be 3 soon and our son is starting to pull up in everything. Please read this moms story.
Have tissues ready.

I cried the entire time I was reading this. Sister Bear also gets up before I do, turns on the TV and eats her cereal. This could have been or could be us. I don't want that to happen. I don't want it to happen to anyone, that is why I am sharing her story with you.

Here is Sister Bears dresser. Its tall and top heavy.

I have the plugs in the wall outlets, child safety knobs on door knobs, and knives, chemicals and medicine out of reach. I do my best to keep my children safe. But as this mom said, $5 and 15 minutes could have saved her daughter. My husband and I found a local place that carries furniture wall straps. We went purchased them and a strap to secure our TV.

We are screwing the bracket into the wall

Once we figured out that we were doing it didn't take us much time. The straps we got had 8 in a package, enough to do 4 pieces of furniture for $6. I encourage you to please go purchase some and do this as soon as possible. $6.. that's it. Do it for you, your children, for this mother, for peace of mind.

The back of Brother Bears dresser

This is the back of our TV after we secured it to the wall

I feel so much better knowing that my furniture is secure. of course these straps are not there to replace adult supervision. But we can not watch our children 24/7, so these are there to help. 

Have you secured your furniture? Please leave a comment an let me know!

Calender Facelift

I'm excited to share this project with you! We are still establishing our home and our routine is ever changing. I really needed a way to manage and keep track of meals, doctors appointments, play dates, paydays and everything else that pops up. So I turned to Pintrest to gather up some inspiration for a family calender. I found some awesome ideas here, here and here. Unfortunately all of the calenders I was finding online were... just not what I was looking for. Too big, too expensive, not magnetic, too small, ugly etc...

After visiting a number of stores, I finally found one at Walmart for $12 I think. It was perfect! Not too big or small, magnetic, dry erase and cute! It even came with a couple double ended dry erase pens.
As soon as I got home, I immediately opened it an hung it up in the predetermined spot with the provided command hooks. Loved it! I started to fill in the calendar with all the things I needed to remember. I used it for a few weeks and was not happy with how messy it looked. The spot that is provided for you to write on gets small really quick when you need to write more then 2 things a day. So back to Pinterest I went to look for ways to organize my calendar. I didn't have much luck, so I got creative! Here is what I did.

Really cheap!

Thing you need:
Small magnets
Computer/ printer or scrapbook numbers
Scissors
Mod podge

First I measured how wide the magnets were and made a circle on Word the same size. I then made a text box inside the circle and put the number in it. I then picked out what color I wanted. I copied it and pasted 30 more times! It worked so much better then having to make each one and making sure it was the same size. :-) then I just went back into each one and changed the numbers.I also made some extras for doctors appointments and paydays - Dr. Appt., Pay Day.I printed them out!

All the date circles printed!

Next it was time to cut each and every one out! I made the out line a little thick so it would be more forgiving to mistakes ;-). Once they were all cut out, I put a bit of Mod Podge on one side of the magnets, added a number circle and Mod Podged over the whole thing. Once they dried they looked fantastic!

It is drying

Love this stuff!

Once they were all dry, I just added them to my calender! I love the look. Please excuse my handwriting and poor photo quality, I was so excited about this post.

It's Done!

I love the cork board down at the bottom and it is currently full! All the pink magnets are paydays and the blue are Dr. Appt. I wanted the colors to stand out a bit, so I could see them from across the room.

The magnets fit perfect inside the allotted date spot!

Love it!

I use this as my meal planner too

The space off to the right I use for any notes or non grocery items we need, like diapers, toilet paper etc.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and maybe I have inspired you? Please let me know if you have done something similar! Id love to see pictures!

Dollar tree pantry organization

I love the dollar tree and try to utilize it as much as possible. I got some great matching baskets from the dollar tree that worked out really well for this quick project.

Unfortunately I forgot to take before pictures of my pantry, but let me tell you it was pretty disorganized. I was always getting frustrated having to pull everything out just to find one thing that invariably ended up in the back of my pantry. So to fix my problem, off to the dollar tree I went. ( Generally my solution to disorganization lol)

Luckily I was able to find a ton of the same size basket that I really liked. I now have enough to do my pantry and my snack cupboard. I'll post more on my snack cupboard another time.

The top shelves on the bottom half of my pantry

In the first picture I just showed the top two shelves of the bottom half of my pantry. Below those two shelves I just have two boxes that hold all of my recycling, that honestly just gets thrown in there. Once a week I go through and organize all my recycling and Papa Bear takes it to work with him.

 So here are the pictures of my new organized pantry, or at least one section. I have pulled out each basket so you can see what I have in them.

potatoes

Dried beans

Top roman, taco shells and corn tortillas

Onions and red potatoes

Pasta

Rice

What have you organized using the dollar tree?

Master Grocery List!

  I love to shop, and I love lists! I have note pads and sticky notes and binders all over my house... they are EVERYWHERE! But I was realizing that when it came time to write my grocery list, it generally had the same things on it every time. The means many many lists that are the same, and I don't like to waste my paper.

  We grocery shop once a month and then I generally end up going 2 more times for one or two items I ran out of or forgot. As we run out or get low of something, I just write it down on a note pad that sticks to my refrigerator ( LOVE THEM ). 

Fridge scribble list

  I generally just quickly jot things down on this note pad, so it tends to get a bit messy and it is not at all organized. So I created a Master Grocery List. With this Master grocery list, I have everything that I buy often, split into categories. These categories are then organized by how I shop in the grocery store. I start at produce and end at frozen foods. Dosen't organizing just make you feel all fuzzy and warm inside?

Here is my Master Grocery List!

It is a bit messy because I have my list inside a page protector, in my master binder. When it comes time to go grocery shop, I pretty much do a quick inventory of everything in my cupboards, fridge and freezers (all 3). If I have the item in stock, I use a dry erase pen and put a line through it. That way when I'm done with inventory, I can scan my list and quickly see what I need. I then double check it against my fridge list to make sure I got everything.

  Sometimes I will just take my whole master binder with me to the store, and other times I will transfer just the things I need onto a piece of paper. Depends on my mood. I love this! Doing it this way helps insure I don't forget anything and have to go to the store later in the month.

  So that is my grocery list! I hope you got some good ideas. Please feel free to leave me a comment!

 Thanks for reading!

Kate