Mess #1

I couldn’t take it anymore – it was taking forever to find anything in my messy drawers.  When we moved in, we had boxes everywhere and I just threw stuff in.   And for no good reason did I just dealt with it, until I had a good case of PMS and decided to organize it!!

#1 Organized

Right away I felt so much better.  And the best part?  It only took a few minutes to go through it – pitch the junk and organize the rest of it!

Mess #2

Even my husband was getting annoyed at not being able to find a spoon or thermometer…..it looked like the mess my kids leave in their playroom.  I knew I could do better than that!

Organized #2

 

Kitchen Drawer Organizer from organize.com

 - Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

Making playdough reminds me of being a kid.  I still remember that salty smell and the feeling of the warm dough when it is first made.  Recently we had a few rainy days here and had an old batch of playdough that needed to get tossed.  The boys loved “helping” make the playdough.  I think they almost liked making the playdough better than the playing with the dough part!

The recipe is easy – the kids can do everything themselves up until the part it needs to be put on the stove to cook. 

 Playdough Recipe

1 Cup Flour

1 Cup Water

1/4 Cup Salt

2 Tablespoons Cream of Tarter

1 Tablespoon Oil

Food Coloring (a few drops)

Recipe can be doubled. 

Mix all ingredients in a non-stick saucepan then place over medium heat and cook until it starts to come together in a ball.

Be patient – it takes a few minutes on until it starts to form into dough.  Just keep stirring until it forms.   Once it is all combined let cool and let the fun begin!

- Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

These are my new favorite homemade pancakes.  Cheap and easy – made at home from scratch.  So tasty – and much better than a box mix, plus healthy for you as they are made with whole wheat flour – but your family will never know the difference!   

I have been using box pancakes mixes for years.  That’s how I grew up eating pancakes and that just seemed to be the way to go.  The idea of making pancakes from scratch just seemed like to much work for Sunday brunch.  As it is I am brewing the coffee, poaching eggs, grilling the sausage…..well I just didn’t think I had time to make pancakes from scratch and still make it to church on time! 

Well this weekend I go to the pantry – ugh - I am out of my pancake mix!  Darn- toast and eggs?  No – I really wanted pancakes.  I had collected a few recipes over the years, but never tried them.  This one looked good as it is made with whole wheat and is so easy and super delicious – I may never go back to the box!

Even better – these were the extras I  had to pop in the freezer as a quick fix for during the week! 

Yummy Whole Wheat Pancakes

1 Cup Whole Wheat flour

1 Cup regular flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbs. sugar

2 Cups Milk

2 Eggs

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, combine the milk and eggs.  Gently stir egg mixture into bowl with flour until the lumps are gone.   Use non-stick spray to coat pan and cook pancakes over medium high heat. 

Thank you to my friend Dina DeMeo for this great recipe! 

- Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

Here on my blog I like to share things that I wished pepole had told me sooner.  Well this one, someone had actually told me sooner – many, many times, many people told me.    You’ve all heard it, but just in case you are like me and didn’t think it’d really happen to you…..backup your computer!

I see you grimacing – you haven’t done it either right? 

We had a BRAND NEW computer – only 5 months old and it died – dead, dead, dead.  The hard drive needed to be replaced and while I was on the phone with the nice man in India – he diagnosed the problem –“it is dead” – really?  And he asked if I had backed-up.  I cringed.  “Uh – no” I quietly muttered into the phone.  I was ashamed, embarrassed and upset that I not actually done something so easy.  Thankfully we still had our old computer which still had all of the files on it – we would just need to transfer them all over again.  I guess I figured since it was brand new we didn’t need to worry.  Our old computer was 7 years old – we never backed up – not once!  And we had been fortunate to never have lost anything.  Who knew – well I guess everyone that had warned me did!

You have many choices in this whole backing up thing.  Either with an external hard drive or an online backup system.  The point is don’t wait – don’t put it off any longer.  Backup and often! 

- Helping you achive your Domestic Success!

Not long after I got married I soon realized my family just doubled – almost tripled because Derek’s family was bigger than mine.  Then I realized wow – that’s a lot of birthday cards to do!  Well I enjoy sending cards just as I love getting them. Then I started to feel bad because I was having trouble keeping up with the birthdays – I always felt I was sending “belated” ones out.  My mother-in-law, whom I love so much, one day said “cards, cards, cards – always cards” she was right – not only family birthdays, but new baby, get well, condolences, mother’s day, father’s day, etc….  Well I was determined to not be late anymore!

Fist I took a marker and wrote down all the immediate family members’ birthdays on my kitchen calendar.  Then I made a binder with folders, and each folder has a pocket for every month.  On the outside of each pocket it had the month and lists all the birthdays of that month.  Then I went to the Dollar Store and purchased the next six months worth of b-day cards, along with some thank you’s and get well ones. 

Then when I flip the calendar for a new month I scan for any birthdays and pull the cards out of the folder and off they go!  Am I late anymore with birthday cards?  Sure – but not nearly as often as I used to be! 

- Helping  you achive your Domestic Success!

You’ve done it before – bought something that was a great price – only to find out that it was made cheaply and doesn’t work now.  If you had only bought the good quality one, you wouldn’t be replacing the cheap one!

My Grandmother was a true believer in you get what you pay for.  She always made sure to save up to get good quality cookware like the Cusinart Food Processor, which is expensive, but they last forever.  You could get one when you first get married and I bet it would last till your 25^thAnniversary.  I was so happy the Christmas when my dad bought me my Cusinart.  I use it all the time – for chopping, shredding, and pureeing.  And it even helps me save money!   How you say?  Because I do my own food shredding – and it only takes a minute.  Cheese for example when purchase pre-shredded is marked up a lot because you are paying for them to shred it for you.  I buy blocks of cheese at the wholesale club and shred it myself – so I am also saving money by buying in bulk.  Yes, some recipes say you can use a blender to puree the ingredients – but it takes twice as long and doesn’t come out in the right consistency.

My next love in the kitchen is my Kitchen Aid Mixer – yes, again expensive, but will also last a very long time.  Mine just turned 10 years old and purrs like a kitten and mixes like a pro.  Two reasons I love the mixer – you can put your ingredients in and have the freedom to walk away – continue cooking, bring dishes to the sink and it still is mixing, unlike the hand held kind that you are stuck holding.  Second are the attachments – a mixing paddle (which I use most of the time), a whipping whisk and a dough hook.   Don’t even get me started on the extra ones you can get – juicer attachment, sausage maker, and even a pasta roller!

So if you have been considering one, save up for one – in the long run you will save money.  You won’t be replacing either of these products any time soon.  My mixer 10 years ago was about $250, which is only $25 a year to own it!  See my logic!  And it will probably run about another 10-15 years!  Wow – only $10 a year by then!

I have written this post without any endorsement from these companies. 

-Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

One of the biggest financial mistakes I ever made was not getting the credit card – (because you need one to establish your credit history to improve your FICO) – but my mistake was using the card incorrectly!

Our society thinks it’s a privilege to be able to get a card with $10,000 limit and then go spend it all.  Do they have $10,000 to spend – no – so why are they spending it?  Because the credit card company allows them to  – but at such a high cost it’s not worth it.  On a smaller scale say you spent the month happily charging away, $200 here, $50 there, $100 over there…..by the end of the month you end up with $2000 and you can’t even believe it!  But say you can only afford to pay $100 a month for it….even if you cut up your credit card right then and there, here’s what will happen to you.  A $2000 credit card balance at 18.9% will cost you $421 in interest and 25 months to pay it off.  That’s over two years, and at the end of that time you won’t even remember what you were paying for!

Back to my mistake.  During my first week of college, I was all bright eyed and overjoyed to be away at school.  Unsuspectingly I walked into the courtyard and saw people giving away big bags of M&M’s!  I should have run, don’t I know better than to take candy from a stranger? 

Well they were offering credit cards to poor – unsuspecting college kids.  Why do credit card companies prey on college kids?  Because it’s easy – most students have little to no money, and love the idea of the freedom of a credit card.  The credit card company knows that many parents will help their kid out if they are having trouble paying the bill.  But FREEDOM is the last thing credit debt gives you.

So I happily filled out the paperwork and snatched up a 1 pound bag of Free M&M’s.  That was the most expensive bags of M&M’s I’ve ever bought!  A fast week later the card shows up in the mail.  At first it just sat in my wallet – untouched.

Then a friend came to me who was having car trouble and asked if I would use my new card to pay the mechanic and they would “pay me right back”.  My answer should have been “NO – why don’t you get your own card, or ask your parents” – anything other than yes!  So not only did they NOT pay me back right away, I had to chase them down for almost a year begging for my money.  Of course over the year the interest was piling up.  But the worst thing was when they finally did give me the money I made another mistake – I took the cash and spent it – when I should have paid off the bill!

So then I had debt, and it was easy to start adding more to it.  Clothes, shoes, plane tickets etc…and before you know it I had several thousand in credit card debt and as a young college student I had trouble just paying the minimum.

For almost 10 years I carried that debt around.  Always paying the minimum, but never getting rid of it, it followed me around like a bad rat.  Well, I thank God for my husband who was anti credit-card, so when we got married we made a budget to pay it off and when it was paid off  – then the Freedom came.  There is no freedom when you have credit debt looming over your head.  Do we have credit cards now – YES – it’s a must to maintain a good FICO score.  But we use them completely different. 

I use them to earn “points” and the credit cards get paid in FULL every month.  Every month.  So if we don’t have the money to pay it in full – we DON”T BUY it – we save for it.

Yes, it can be hard to be strict with yourself, but it’s worth the freedom.  Plus over time I realized all these “things” I had to buy never made me any happier.  I am much happier in a credit debt free life!

My favorite financial guru is Suze Orman and her book “Women & Money”.  I watch her weekly Saturday night program (actually DVR it and watch it while I do laundry) and follow the steps in her book.   A side note to the credit card debt – of course if you are in an emergency situation, credit cards can be a useful tool – as long as you use them wisely. 

-Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

I am pleased to announce the winner of my first blog giveaway! 

photo by D Sharon Pruitt

The Treat Yourself coupon set goes to Carie of  www.cariescoins.blogspot.com  - she has a great bargain hunting blog! 

Carie – I hope you will present these coupons to your family in order to take some time to treat yourself in the new year!  Don’t forget they have an expiration date on them – don’t let a year go by without treating yourself.  Maybe your family will be so happy to reward you with these coupons, that they will even let  you recycle them throughout the year!

My husband and I live away from our families, so we don’t have access to drop them off for the weekend for time alone.  So now we have it planned out on the calendar  – me time, family time, project time.  We were finding that we just weren’t taking good care of ourselves (me mostly).  So now once a month we have scheduled  “me time”  – we both know it’s on the calender, and we are free to do whatever we want – go to the movies, cafe, park, bookstore, mall….for the day.  We don’t give each other trouble about taking the day, as we know our own day is coming soon! 

Along with the coupon for a day to yourself the set also includes one for date night with hubby, free laundry weekend (yes, someone else in the family can do it), coffee date with friends…..you get the point.  Sometimes as a mom/wife – you are sooooo busy taking care of everyone else, you forget to take care of yourself.   In the new year remember that if you don’t take care of yourself, you CAN’T take good care of others!

-Helping you achive your Domestic Success!