Monthly Archive for January, 2009

Frugal Friday : A Years Worth of Menu Planning

Published
by
shopmom
on January 30, 2009
in Frugal Friday, Online Coupon Codes and Recipes
. 0 Comments

To anyone who’s talked to me in person in the past year or two has heard my pitch for Saving Dinner. Saving Dinner, the brainchild of Leanne Ely a Certified Nutritional Consultant, offers countless menu planning offers to help you get dinner on the table every night. I first heard about Saving Dinner about three years ago when I was working full time with a one year old and pregnant with another baby. Anything I could find at that time to keep us under budget and to make our lives easier, I was willing to try. Through Flylady, Leanne offered a number of her recipes for free and almost every single one of them became staples in my menu rotation. She not only provides recipes but also detailed shopping lists and tips for making preparation easier, cheaper and more healthy. In fact I made her Garlic Lime Chicken recipe last night for my family and there wasn’t even a bit of leftovers. All four of us cleaned our plates.

So you know when I read my e-mail this morning that she was offering 48 Weeks of her Frugal Menus ebook for only $19.95 (normally $29.95!) plus she was offering her 250 Money Saving Tips (worth $5.95 regularly) e-book for free along with it (Enter code ‘frugal’ when checking out). I couldn’t refuse. I ordered my own copy and it is fantastic. There are 204 pages of weekly menu plans with shopping lists and recipes! The Frugal Menu e-book is divided into four seasons, because as you probably know, one way to eat frugally is to follow the seasons. Each season is filled with both easy and incredible looking recipes.

The recipes that immediately caught my eye were:

  • Grilled Apricol Glazed Chicken
  • Cashew Chicken
  • Basil Burgers
  • Sloppy Joe Pizza
  • Easy Beef and Bean Salsa Burritos
  • Caramelized Onion, Spinach and Bacon Quiche

And then there is the Free 250 Money Saving Tips ebook too. Some of the tips you might already be familiar with but many were new to me. There were recipes for making your own prepared foods like, Stuffing Mix and Thousand Island Dressing among others. She also gives cheaper meat substitutions, for instance, did you know that if a recipes calls for veal cutlets, that you can use the much cheaper turkey cutlets instead? Did you know that on average people who pay for their groceries with a credit or debit card spend 10%-15% more on their grocery bill as opposed to those who pay cash?

Leanne is only offering this great deal until Midnight, January 30th….that’s tonight! So go ahead and order a copy today. If menu planning and making shopping lists is something you struggle with (I do!) then this will  save you an entire years worth of trouble. Or an entire lifetime. You can use these 288 recipes plus shopping lists year after year!

Go order your copy before her sale ends tonight.

Remember Lullabies

Published
by
shopmom
on January 28, 2009
in Infants/Newborns and Pregnancy
. 0 Comments

When I was pregnant with my first son, I remember having a completely panicked moment that I had forgotten the words to almost every single lullaby. In my momentarily irrational moment, I truly thought I was going to be the worst mother on the planet because I wouldn’t know how to lovingly sing her baby to sleep at night. I did a quick online search and read up on all the classic lullabies and by the time my little boy was born I had a good number of them memorized.

Now it seems like somedays I can’t get these simple songs and melodies out of my head! But if you need a refresher or a full crash course, I’ve created a page with the bulk of the classic lullabies listed here. And just as a sample, here are all the versus to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (did you know that there was more than one verse?).

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Twinkly, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are!

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

Then the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark;
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

Nursery Inspiration : Phoebe’s Room

Published
by
shopmom
on January 26, 2009
in Nursery Inspiration
. 0 Comments


As any long time readers to Wee Wonderfuls will remember, this nursery was a labor of love. All of these amazingly crafted doll quilts were made by Hillary and her crafty fans and friends to adorn little Pheobe’s walls. For any of you quilters out there, this might be just the inspiration you were looking for for your baby girl’s nursery. Check out Hillary’s archives to view more photos of this sweet room.

Frugal Friday : Easy Budgeting

Published
by
shopmom
on January 23, 2009
in Free Offers and Frugal Friday
. 1 Comment


When I was pregnant and planning on the finances of having a child and hopefully affording to become a stay at home mom, I decided that I needed to figure out where our money was going each month. I’d heard advice over the years that a great way to get a hold of your finances was to keep track of every dollar you spent for at least three months in a row. Doing that would give you a great overview of exactly how much you made and exactly where that money goes.

Knowing where your money goes each month is really eye-opening. For us, I was truly shocked at how much money we spent on groceries! We are admitted ‘foodies’, but that monthly grocery bill was a little out of hand. Once we were able to see in black and white how much we spent we were easily able to widdle down our grocery bill into a manageable sum. And now we divert that saved money into our savings account. The story held true in many of our other categories as well.

The difficult part of keeping track of our expenses was actually finding a spot to keep track of it all. At first I tried using an actual notebook, which was a great big mess and a pain to add up. Then I tried Quicken, but quickly found that was too complicated and I couldn’t layout my categories like I wanted and print them out as I wanted.

So I decided to be resourceful and I created my own Excel spreadsheet that would add, subtract and divide everything I wanted it to do.

Fast forward four years and I’m still using the same spreadsheet, with a few small updates. I don’t keep track of our expenses every month these days, because I’m familiar with our spending habits, but I do track them every two months or so to make sure we are staying in line.

If you’ve been procrastinating on keeping track of your finances or have been searching for the perfect budget spreadsheet then sign up to receive our free budget spreadsheet! Enjoy!

Oh, and if you’ve been thinking of becoming a stay at home mom read this article to see if you can afford it.

7 Easy Tips for Organizing Your Babies Closet

Published
by
shopmom
on January 21, 2009
in How-to and Infants/Newborns
. 0 Comments

One of the best kept secrets about motherhood is that keeping your children’s closet organized is a never ending task. In fact at times I feel like a professional closet organizer coming to talk at our childbirth class might have been a helpful thing. Between the changing season, changing sizes, and frequent gifts of clothes, keeping control over your babies closet is difficult. Here are 7 easy tips to help you tame the closet clutter.

1. Stock Up
Buy an ample amount of child sized hangers - you may only have a couple dozen things to hang now, but before long those extra clothes will accumulate and its best to have those extra small hangers on hand now so you don’t end up with messy piles later.

2. Donate/Hand-me-Downs
There are going to be some clothes that you’ll definitely want to save, either for a future sibling or for someone else you know. And then there will be some that you’ll be glad to donate. Make you life easier and your babies closet neater by designating two spots as the ‘Donate’ and ‘Hand me Down’ spot now. You can either use bins or shopping bags for this.

3. Plan for the Next Size Up
If you are pregnant now, I recommend buying at least 4 bins, baskets or boxes (case boxes that diapers come in are a great free option) and labeling them as ‘Newborn’, ‘0-3 Months’, ‘3-6 Months and ‘6-12 Months.’ You will be receiving many clothing gifts as well as doing some shopping yourself and this is a great way to keep them organized. It is also a great system to have in place for outgrown clothes that you may save for a future baby. As your baby grows you can relabel them as ‘2T/Summer’, ‘2T/Winter’ etc.

4. Color Code Your Hangers
Use colored tape to code your hangers. This is handy if you have more hanging space than box storage space. Red could mean ‘current size’, blue could mean ‘next size up’, green ‘two sizes up’.

5. Put Seasonal Things By the Door
If you are tight on closet space, a great space saver is to place a large decorative basket by your front door for seasonal clothing. I keep one by my door filled with scarves, jackets and hats for my little ones for winter and in the summer I swap it out with a basket full of sunhats and light jackets. This not only is convenient, but takes a lot of clutter out of your babies closet as well.

6. Corral the Socks
If you think it is hard to keep track of your socks in the dryer, wait until you have to wash a load full of micro socks. Infant socks are always going missing. If you hang a zip-up mesh lingerie bag on a hook in your babies closet for putting dirty socks in, you’ll be able to keep them all contained and won’t lose a single one.

7. Marking Sock Sizes
I have two small guys socks to keep track of and it’s easy to mix up the sizes. Its especially difficult when you have a lot of the same color socks. Try marking the toe of each size sock with a different color dot of permanent marker. Use the color of the rainbow as your guide. Red (0-6 months), Orange (6-12 months), Yellow, Green, Blue . . . you get the picture.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What has helped you to keep your babies closet organized?

Make Your Own Playdough

Published
by
shopmom
on January 18, 2009
in How-to, Recipes and handmade
. 0 Comments

playdough

You may be asking yourself, ‘Why would I ever make playdough when it’s so darn cheap to buy?’ That’s true, but it is even cheaper to make and if your toddler puts everything into his mouth like mine does, you’ll want to make sure that it is completely safe and free of chemicals and toxins. This recipe is not only a cheap way to make playdough, but its all natural, easy and keeps for about 6 months. Give it a try one of these cold, rainy winter days.

Here’s the recipe:
1/2 c. salt
1 c. flour
1 Tb. cream of tartar
1 Tb. oil
1 c. water
food coloring

Combine ingredients in a pot and heat gently while stirring. When it reaches a good playdough-like consistency take it off the stove and let it cool. At this point I divided it into fourths and kneaded in the food coloring. However you could add the food coloring in while it is in the pot and stir well. It keeps 6 months if you keep it in tupperware. Don’t refrigerate.

There’s a Baby in Your Belly

Published
by
shopmom
on January 15, 2009
in Just for Fun and Pregnancy
. 0 Comments

When you are first feeling those tiny little baby movements in your belly you would never guess that those fish like movements could turn into this. But they do. Incredible! It looks like a foot to me, what do you think?