tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73536001073271319502020-11-18T21:38:14.505-05:00Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-81008111381419589142020-03-11T22:51:00.002-04:002020-03-11T22:53:28.324-04:00

I thought this was a great video to share with you all, in case you are going to possibly be without work due to the coronavirus closures and need frugal meal ideas.  This lady fed her family of 6 for a week on $30 and she shows you exactly what to buy and each and every meal of the week how to make it! Here is another video from another family of 7 that did 126 Meals for $50 - https://

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-12537126494008920402020-02-03T21:36:00.001-05:002020-02-03T21:39:33.231-05:00

We used to shop weekly, then we went to biweekly and now we do monthly grocery shopping.  We do make a trip to the local store whenever we need bananas or salad but everything else is bought once a month at Aldi and Kroger.  I made a meal plan for 4 weeks and then I go through the recipes and make a list and check it with what we have on hand.  Here is the menu for this 4-week period, which is

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-36342985120944362019-11-08T17:29:00.002-05:002020-08-26T11:26:13.037-04:00

I was using plain, cheap white envelopes for cash purchases but I was tired of them tearing and getting all bent up in my purse!  I came across these from Clever Fox and I absolutely love them!  They're waterproof, tear proof and hold their shape very well and even come with budget sheets and a zippered bag to keep them in. We just started going back to using a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-71208626603643929902019-07-05T14:57:00.002-04:002019-07-05T14:57:59.313-04:00

The Frugal Addict's White Bread 1.5 Tablespoons active dry yeast 1/4 cup raw honey 2 3/4 cups warm water 6 cups unbleached flour 1.5 Teaspoons salt 1/4 cup Canola oil In the Bosch mixer, put the yeast, water and honey and let sit for 5 minutes. Add in 3 cups of flour evenly around on top of the water mixture.  Then, add oil and salt evenly around on top of the flour. With lid on, turn

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-56282348302275281602019-07-05T14:36:00.000-04:002019-07-05T14:43:08.141-04:00

We did it for a week on $65 for groceries and it was so stressful and not fun at all, so we quickly reverted back to our $90 a week plan with a sigh of relief.  I'm still not giving up though on striving to spend less on groceries despite all the food sensitivities.  I started baking my own bread again after learning about Calcium Propionate.   They put propionate in most bread products to

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-3852137532347889112019-04-24T15:12:00.001-04:002019-04-24T15:16:40.882-04:00

Since I'm starting a $250 a month challenge for May, I decided to do a post showing how we have been feeding our family of 4 on $360 a month - $90 a week.  This is our most recent week, what we spent, purchased and what we ate.  I plan meals for Saturday through Friday, so we are actually in the middle of this week that I'm sharing.  We do stockpile as we can when there is a good sale and it all

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-25304404258843632542019-04-24T13:53:00.002-04:002019-04-24T13:53:28.953-04:00

We have been very loose with our grocery budgeting since moving to Ohio but we tightened it up last year and started saving money easily.  Now, we spend $360 a month to feed our family of 4 (no babies or toddlers - teenager and a hearty 6yr old snacker).  That is $90 a week and we eat good.  However, I heard that a lot of families, even families of 6 - are making it on $250 a month!  I'm wanting

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-59985019838431866992018-12-01T13:52:00.000-05:002018-12-15T13:53:03.823-05:00

I was playing around with some numbers on the new drafted tax forms from the IRS for this coming tax season of 2018.  It is pretty amazing how great Trump's new tax plan from last year is for families.  It is especially great for families with more than 3 kids but those with 2 kids will also find great savings. For the typical family of 4, that includes 2 children, you actually will pay NO

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-2184872477917463392018-10-12T13:54:00.000-04:002018-12-20T13:55:00.300-05:00

As a homemaker you manage your home, and I believe this includes the budgeting and researching for what is needed, such as health insurance.  I wanted to help by showing you how I evaluate which plan overall would not only save the most, but in my opinion, be well worth the "risk." Let's take 4 plans offered by a large employer.  You have the highest plan known as the PPO generally, which has

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-3241230415189298902018-09-12T13:53:00.000-04:002018-12-20T13:55:44.877-05:00

If you have listened to Dave Ramsey for any amount of time, you have heard about the 4 walls.  He recommends you take care of your 4 walls before anything else - always making sure you have your 4 walls!  What are the 4 walls? Food  Shelter Transportation Clothing I had always put food and clothing on the back burner in place of other things because those were usually the areas that we

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-43089722210933233982018-09-10T13:51:00.000-04:002018-12-20T13:55:55.297-05:00

Times are getting hard for a lot of "former" middle class families, now considered lower class, despite the economy going so well.  I've been reading it and hearing it in various places.  I'm talking about families that are living on one income already without luxuries.  Incomes aren't going up for a lot, though the prices of everything is, especially health care. I decided to do a no-frills, no

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-32646119089136162522018-07-13T13:48:00.000-04:002018-12-20T13:56:23.951-05:00

Food Budget It has been a very long time since I've shared about our food budget and meal plans.  We spend more money on food here in Ohio than we did in Washington and that isn't due to prices, that is due to my daughter eating a ton of food and my son eating almost as much!  Our current food budget is $350 a month and I would really like to get it below $300 but it works for right now. We do

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-38763809769304947882018-05-10T13:47:00.000-04:002018-12-20T13:57:00.041-05:00

We have been homeowners for 1 1/2 years now and I'm learning all the time!  Having rented since I was 17 years old (that's 19 years of renting!), I would have to say that it IS far better to have a home than rent.  You look at things differently and you treat things differently because it is YOURS.  No, it isn't necessarily "yours" until you pay the mortgage off but for this post, I will say "

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-59245432904883669082014-12-19T13:26:00.000-05:002018-12-15T13:26:23.065-05:00

In my Financial series, I talked about the importance of having insurance, especially health, but life insurance is another one of the crucial insurances to have.  A husband that doesn't provide life insurance for his family must not care for his family's future because in the event of his death, he has left them with nothing.  A Godly husband will make sure his family is taken care of in the

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-14328576449612423302014-09-12T13:32:00.000-04:002018-12-15T13:49:08.466-05:00

In Part 1 of this series I shared with you how to stay debt free and steps you need to take to ensure that you are not reliant upon credit/debt.  In this part of the series, I will share ideas and tips on how you can live within and even below your means. To live within or below your means follow these basic ideas:                 Within Your Means                                       Below

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-47165249778002375522014-09-06T13:30:00.000-04:002018-12-15T13:50:42.194-05:00

Upon the heels of my Financial Budgeting 101 series, I wanted to do a series about Living Debt-Free and give you tips and ideas on how you STAY debt free.  If you have something to share, please leave a comment to help me and others! #1 Task for Staying Debt-Free  - The first step to living debt-free is to make sure that you have an emergency fund!  If you don't do this, then you probably

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-46455738261766539002014-08-31T13:23:00.000-04:002018-12-15T13:24:17.579-05:00

I've found that a lot of people do not actually know about the various ways to afford healthcare that are available today and meet the law requirements.  I will start out with the obvious ones that most people know about and then share with you some others that are available to Christians.  I'm just going to talk about the ones that I'm personally familiar with - if you know another option that

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-3344838250189148772014-08-25T13:12:00.000-04:002018-12-15T13:14:27.576-05:00

I've had a lot of response and traffic to my budget post of a family living on $40,000 a year.  I realize that this is an area that we need more help in and though I'm not a financial expert, I sure know the way to deal with your finances is by following Biblical principles.  I hope this is a series worthy of your time and may you be able to gain insight in bettering your financial future.

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-39198018007753388972014-08-24T13:13:00.000-04:002018-12-15T13:14:10.319-05:00

I hope you all enjoyed this series on financial budgeting, here is the summary of what we talked about a few more things I wanted to share.  I'm also including a link to my Scribd account that has free printables for budget planning. I shared with you all our financial story and how we learned many lessons the hard way that brought us to where we are at today.  Thankfully, we were able to

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-13864500625544059762014-08-22T13:00:00.000-04:002018-12-15T13:02:58.386-05:00

I've showed you our family budget and now I would like to show some budget scenarios for a family of 4 to give you an idea of how all this works.  To make it easier, I'm using these annual incomes and considering that they are AFTER-tax incomes.  Generally for a family of 4, you would subtract $5,000 in taxes - factoring in state tax and the child tax credits.  That will give you a nice buffer

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-79018156422628578412014-08-21T12:58:00.000-04:002018-12-15T13:14:44.295-05:00

My husband doesn't want me to share our income or amounts of our expenses but he did say I could share our percentages.  You can read about recommended percentages in the last post I did.  Here is our budget and where our money goes: We have always given more than needed to cover anything that we may have forgotten that was given to us in gifts, food or whatever.  Sure, we probably don't

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-89258047611766077632014-08-20T12:55:00.000-04:002018-12-15T12:56:41.366-05:00

What is a budget and why do we need one?  A budget is simply a way to keep track of where your money goes.  The Google definition is: an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time.  The reason why it would be good to have a budget is simply so you can SEE or find out where your money is being spent.  You don't really know unless you see it on paper - exactly what goes where. 

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-66610161804448867232014-08-19T11:59:00.000-04:002018-12-15T12:51:58.396-05:00

 What better way to start this series than to tell you our financial story.  I will begin at the beginning of our marriage about 15 years ago when we were both working.  We had money rolling in and we were 20, we didn't budget and had no idea where that money went every month.  Once I started staying at home, we only lived on my husband's pay and it was a big shock to us to say the least! 

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-81241666368805469172014-01-22T18:40:00.003-05:002018-12-14T19:48:43.574-05:00

A good modest income in the area that I live in is around $40,000 or $20.83 hourly wage and most families make less than this.  For a typical family with children, this gives you an estimate of $35K after taxes, so you need to budget for that amount. I did figure in a state income tax since most states have it and also figured in the tax return and/or deductions/credits for children. Always

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7353600107327131950.post-26422866781394505382014-01-22T18:39:00.002-05:002014-01-22T18:39:55.166-05:00

In our area, several years ago, you could find a decent 3 bedroom for under $900 but as the years went by, the rent went way up. Now, it would literally be a miracle if you found a 3 bedroom rental for under $1100. Families with more than 2 children, have to have a 3 bedroom because the laws in our area deem it so with rentals. It is either 2 per room or if you have a boy and a girl, they each

Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0