Are we there yet??

• Etch-a-Setch, Doodle pads, or Magnet pads
• A cookie sheet with letter magnets from the fridge 
• Pipe cleanersor Bend-a-roos to make fun creations 
• Small chalk boards 
• Bubbles
• Water ring games
• Melissa & Doug’s Memory Gamehas several changeable versions
• Pieces of tinfoil to make crowns, necklaces, or animals
• Crayola Window Markers

- Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

Spring is here – Easter is around the corner!  I have been getting inspiration online looking for decorating tips.  Easter is such a fun holiday to decorate your table for.  Look at these cute bunny holders for the colored eggs!  I already have white plates – wouldn’t these cute baskets with chicks from Pfaltzgraff be such a cute way to decorate?

I am a pink girly girl so this holiday with the pink and pastels is right up my alley.  I don’t decorate my house with these colors or dress this way, but they are so sweet and spring like! 

If you are hosting a buffet for Easter or any other gathering check out this adorable flatwear caddy from Pfaltzgraff.  I have always been a huge fan of them – they make great quality  and reasonably priced tablewear and flatwear.

And of course now when I am shopping on line I am always sure to check with www.savings.comto make sure I get the best coupons and savings available.  I’d say that I pay full price for items only less than 10 % of the time – yes – 90 % of my shopping for clothes, food, restaurants, housewears I try to buy on sale or have a coupon.  Why pay full price when you don’t have too? 

What is your favorite Easter decorating idea?  My kids want to put Easter eggs in the tree out front…..I am not voting for that one – but if it makes them happy…..

Happy decorating everyone!

- Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

I am always so excited to share good savings tips!  I love to cook homemade dinners, but of course I also love to eat out!  When we do go out I am always looking for a deal and coupons if available.  With the economy in the state that is is there are so many restaurants with great deals and coupons.  Well with Valentines Day coming up I got to thinking about going out to eat, while I may not do that this actual Valentines’ weekend – as I hate a crowd – we will probably go out next weekend. 

Restaurant Coupons

So I started searching around for restaurant coupons and found this http://www.savings.com/c-Restaurant-coupons.html and they have links to great restaurant coupons!  Good restaurants too like Melting Pot, Cheesecake Factory and Ruby Tuesday.  Some of them require you to fill out a form or survey but then you get a great coupon!

Restaurant Reviews

Do you like honest restaurnat reviews – not just those ones that are written up in the paper by food critics?  Real honest to goodness people out in your community that have opinions on local restaurants?  Then check out Yelp! http://www.yelp.com - on my computer it magically knew what city I was in, but you can tell it to go to a particular city.  And when Charlotte popped up – then it even narrowed restaurants down by neighborhood areas!  So the next time you are dying to try out that new Thai place in town and want the real scoop on it – this is a great place to check it out before you spend your hard earned money there!

Free Online Coupons

If you are looking for tons of coupons on a variety of items - check out  http://www.savings.com - as they have access to terrific coupons.  I just started getting into the coupon thing this year, and it can be addicting once you start saving money!  There is many coupon categories to choose from housewares, clothing, kids – from stores like Target, Gap and Macy’s.  Again there is a link to the sites to fill out forms, but if you are in search of a coupon this site is a good way to narrow it down.

I am a saver by nature – not a spender.  But when I do spend – I want to spend wisely and use a coupon when ever possible!

  – Helping you achieve your Domestic Success!

Organized #2

Kitchen Drawer Organizer from organize.com

And then I’ll tackle my dream pantry project!

- 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!

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!