For the first 5+ years of our marriage, Dave and I got by on a measly $20 – $25 per week grocery budget — and it honestly wasn’t that difficult to do! However, the past 2 months have been somewhat of a rude awakening to me as our grocery bills have jumped to $40, $50 or even $60 per week!
Read why we’ve seen such a large increase in our grocery bill — and please feel free to offer your money-saving grocery tips!
I talk a lot about meal planning here at Simple Organized Living, mainly because I know first-hand how much it helps ME to simplify and organize our weekly dinner time routine and plan my weekly shopping trips.
If you don’t currently have a method for meal planning, feel free to follow our weekly menu, and make sure to check out some of my FREE meal planning resources at the bottom of this post!
One area of my life that I’ve had to work REALLY hard to get organized is our photos. There were SOOOOO many photos and I simply had no idea where to start or how to start!
So after sitting in boxes for the first 2 years of our marriage, I finally decided to bite the bullet, come up with an organizing system, and get control of all our pictures. My system isn’t perfect, but it works for us. However, I’d love to hear any tips you have for keeping your photos organized.
A couple weeks ago, I showed you my super simple curtain makeover in our master bathroom — and I recieved more comments, emails, and questions about the Shaker Peg towel hooks underneath the windowsill than I did about the curtains!
So back by popular demand, here is the mini tutorial on how to make your own Shaker Peg towel hooks.
For some reason, I’m able to slow down just a little bit more during the fall months. Maybe it’s because I know a long winter is just around the corner so I better make the best of these last few sunny days, or maybe it’s the cooler weather that I’m so thankful for after a very hot, sticky summer.
Whatever the reason, here are a few of my favorite Fall activities. I’d love to hear some of your favorites too!
I remember the first time I attended a Tastefully Simple party and tasted their beer bread. It was so delicious that I knew I had to buy some. However, I quickly realized that a $5.49 price tag might not be worth it for one loaf of bread — especially at the rate we plowed through it!
So my frugal self decided to look for a beer bread recipe that I could make myself — and I’ve never looked back since!
Recently, as I was reading through the October issue of Baby Talk Magazine, I came across and interesting article about the Top Mistakes New Parents Make. And since I’m about to be a “new parent” in just a few weeks, this article caught my attention.
However, I’d love to know what you think too — is this a good list? Did you make any of these same mistakes? Do you have anything you’d like to add to this list?
Disposable decorations are items you can find for free or relatively inexpensively in your yard, around your home, or at a local grocery store. Then, after the season or holiday is over, you can simply throw the decorations away {or compost them}.
By using mostly disposable decorations, I hardly have to store any decorations, yet I’m still able to keep our entire house “festive” all year long.
Things are going well for the Dekkers as we adjust to living with our international students, finish house projects, and prepare for our new baby’s arrives. However, as I looked back through my recent posts, I realized it had been several weeks since I gave any type of baby Dekker update — so we are definitely way over due {no pun intended!!}
Oh, and there’s a bunch of fun pictures from our maternity photo shoot at the end of the post 🙂
After a year of blogging, I decided we needed a little update. So I “flipped the switch” and launched the brand new SimpleOrganizedLiving.com with lots of new features, fun extras, and even more great tips and ideas to help you simplify and organize every aspect of your life!
Come on, check out all the fun new features!
When we were looking for a new house, one of our requirements was that it had a nice area that we could use for a home office. We wanted that area to be big enough to accommodate my work, my business, my hobbies, Dave’s school stuff, Dave’s books, and a few fun things too.
And even though it took quite a bit of renovation and knocking out an entire wall — we got exactly what we wanted!
I make some type of roast on a semi-regular basis — It’s just such an easy meal to make. You only get one pan dirty, you don’t need to chop, mix, stir, or measure anything, and you don’t need to constantly check on it. Just stick it in the oven or a slow cooker and come back a few hours later to a delicious, home-cooked meal.
If you’ve even been nervous to make a roast, let me share my super simple recipe with you!
I often get asked by family, friend, and many blog readers what my weekly schedule looks like and how I balance all my different jobs while still having time to work on house projects, fill our freezer and pantry with food, manage our house, clip coupons, and get at least 7 hours of sleep every night!
I’ve talked a little bit about my daily routine already, but here’s a little peek into my “normal” weekly routine.
Over the years, I’ve helped lots of busy moms organize their homes, offices, lives, schedules, purses, cars, closets, pantries, basements, garages, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I love working with them, I love seeing the progress we make, and I really love it when they are able to implement and tweak my suggestions to fit their own families and lives.
However, one question I’m asked over and over again is… How can we help our kids to stay organized?
Yesterday was the first day of the Fall season — which means it was the first day of my FAVORITE season!
I suppose if you don’t live in a state with cool weather and as much beautiful Fall color as Michigan, you might not understand my obsession… but, as I have mentioned before, I love everything about fall.
And even though Fall has only officially been here for 24 hours, I’ve already been doing a lot to get ready.
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