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!
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 🙂
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’ve been thinking a lot about gift-giving lately — and I want to know how YOU feel about giving and receiving gently used gifts. The holidays are right around the corner and used gifts are a great way to cut costs while still giving great gifts to everyone on your list.
I’m sharing my experiences with both giving AND receiving used gifts, but I’d love to know what you think too!
I’ve been cooking a lot these past few months and have always found a reason NOT to clean our stove-top — either I didn’t have time, or I was just going to make another mess, or… you get the idea.
And while our current stove-top isn’t anything close to my “dream stove/oven”, it’s what we have for now. So even though it’s a huge pain to clean, I’m stuck with it!
Last week, I finally decided to bite the bullet and clean my filthy dirty stove!
source: It’s officially the middle of August which means the start of a new school year is just a week or two away {I even know of a few schools who have started already!} And even though I’m not quite to the back-to-school stage of life yet, {we’re still dealing with little baby clothes} I’ve worked …
Read More about Clothes Clutter: Organizing Kids Clothes
The following is written by Jakob Barry of Networx.com: Pictures of Andrea’s shed at her old house. Quality yard tools are necessary for getting the most out of the garden so doing whatever possible to extend their lives is essential. Proper storage is a good start but when considering what tools go through during regular usage, …
Read More about Preserve Yard Tools by Keeping Them Clean
I was SO excited to participate in Apartment Guide’s “Smart Storage Solutions: Control the Clutter” Blogger Challenge over the past month, because it gave me another excuses to design and organize the smallest space in our house — the nursery closet! Not that I really needed a ton of motivation {it was really fun!} but it was definitely …
Read More about Our Nursery Closet Reveal!
Summer is in full swing, and depending on where you live, it might just be too hot to venture outside during the middle of the day. We’ve had several hot, humid, summer days already and the weather forecast shows several more to come over the next few weeks. So I’m taking advantage of my time …
Read More about My Summer Organizing Projects
source: Last week I talked about how to buy successfully on Craigslist and how to sell successfully on Craigslist. Both buying and selling on Craigslist are great ways to save money and make money… But they also take TIME! Buying on Craigslist usually takes a lot more time and patience than simply ordering something from Amazon.com …
Read More about Craigslist 101: Do You Have the Time?
Earlier this week, I posted a bunch of tips to help you BUY successfully on Craigslist… so if you’re looking to find a great deal, head on over there! However today, I’ll be talking about how to SELL successfully on Craigslist. source: Over the past 3 years, I have made thousands of dollars by selling …
Read More about Craigslist 101: How to Sell Successfully
source: If you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know that I have a mini infatuation with Craigslist… it’s like the hugest on-line garage sale and I just LOVE it! I’ve found so many great deals and steals, and I’ve sold THOUSANDS of dollars worth of “stuff” over the last 3 years… …
Read More about Craigslist 101: How to Buy Successfully
This past week, while all my birthday giveaways were stealing the show; Dave and I were busy working on our house renovations. We crossed a TON of things off our to-do list and I can honestly say that we seem to be rounding the final corner and headed for home!!! I can not wait for …
Read More about Our New Closet!!
It’s no secret that I LOVE organizing containers. If I weren’t so frugal, I would probably buy stacks and stacks of extra storage containers because I just love them that much! While I have an appreciation for nearly all organizing containers, I most definitely have certain “go-to” containers for different purposes around our house. And after years of …
Read More about My Favorite Organizing Containers
source: Have you ever left for a vacation and spent the entire drive/flight worrying that you forgot to pack something? Have you ever been at work or at the store and worried if you remembered to lock the door, turn off the coffee pot, shut the garage door, turn off the lights, etc. etc. Have …
Read More about Worrying – It’s All Mental Clutter
Once June rolls around, my mind immediately starts thinking about canning and preserving all the many fruits and vegetables that will soon be available across West Michigan. My stockpile is running pretty low {the picture above is from last summer} so I’ll most likely be doing a good amount of canning this summer and fall — …
Read More about Getting Ready for the Canning Season
source: Ever since I announced our “big news” a few weeks ago, I’ve been overwhelmed {in a good way} with comments, emails, facebook messages, tweets, snail mail, and even in-person advice as to what I should do, what I shouldn’t do, what I’ll definitely need, books to read, etc. etc. And for the most part, …
Read More about Having a Baby on a Budget
It’s the last week of May — which means school is ALMOST finished and summer break is ALMOST here. And that means you will be in charge of entertaining, occupying, and cleaning up after your children every. single. day. for the rest of the summer! You can do it! I have a bunch of really …
Read More about Clutter Control and Summer Vacation
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