Be Authentically You

Be authentically you. 

Don't be afraid to like what you like no matter what other people like. I was into recycling and taking care of the earth when everyone I knew didn't believe in climate change. They didn't see the point in recycling and didn't view taking care of the earth as a command in the Bible as I did. This is when I was in middle school. I valued not wasting things and taking care of the animals God gave us. 

I had a lot of guy friends as a high schooler and although I had a great friendship with them, looking back, they definitely treated me more like a little sister, than an equal. Because of this, I avoided doing normal growing up things like wearing makeup, perfume, trying to look what I viewed as beautiful. I knew when I did, they would act like it was silly and I would feel awkward. I have realized since then, that I should have just done what I wanted to do. I spent my 20's and 30's learning what I liked in those areas because I always felt ridiculous when I did try to do fancier things. I have realized this was something left over from then, that I needed to shake. I was a tom boy so I didn't' always want to do those things, but when I did, I chickened out and didn't because I dreaded their reaction. Don't try to look older or be someone you are not, but if you want to wear make up, perfume, jewelry, or a dress and heals, do it! Even if you are just hanging out in your house! Or if you want to wear your hair in a messy bun, with a t-shirt and jeans, that's okay too. Be you, and people that really care about you will love you anyway. And if they see how happy you are, it will probably be contagious!

I am a Christian and don't believe what a lot of people who carry that name in my country believe. I have always based my beliefs on what I read in the Bible and what I felt like God told me. I listened to my pastor and Bible teachers in my life, but always ran it back through the Bible. 

As an adult, I push myself to listen to other people's point of view and try to make sure what I think are facts, are truly facts. I love the internet for that! We are no longer just exposed to what our friend's, family, community leaders, and local news stations think. We can look up many people's perspective and have a greater empathy and understanding for other people. 

Don't be afraid to change your position on something if you learn new information. Growing and changing is part of being human. As Christians, we believe we are flawed sinners, even after becoming a Christian, but God perfects us one issue at a time. We never reach perfection, but my point is opening your heart to be changed is part of being a Christian and being human in general.

But please be careful who you listen to, people can say anything they want. Challenge what you hear and look up the opposite position too. If only one person or even a few people think something, and the overwhelming majority of their profession thinks the opposite, you should think carefully and weigh what they have to say against any facts you can find on the issue.

Remember, your flaws are not who you are. I would have described myself as messy, late, disorganized, etc in the past. But those are skills of mine that are weak, and that are getting stronger as I work on them. Those are not who I am. If I'm honest, those are just insults placed on me when I was younger that I have had to learn to separate from my personality.

Neither are your habits. I used to have long hair, wear t-shirts & jeans, and have my hair up all the time. I didn't work out much, or wear make up. But I have cut my hair short again, started wearing dresses more, wear my hair down almost every day, and wear at least a little make up almost every day. I'm also working on working out more. I didn't change who I was, I just changed some habits. I also used to stay up late at night and sleep in late. I have been going to bed most evenings not long after my kids now and working on getting up earlier. Again, just habits I decided to change.  I could go on and on, but my point is, who you are is not based on these things. If you decide to change these things, you are not a different person. You are not going against who you are. You are just growing as a person and liking new things.

Who you are is who you are at your core, in your mind, heart, and soul. You can be kind, loving, compassionate, generous, smart, accepting, encouraging, creative, etc. THAT is who you are.

           

Road Trip Tips - Save Money on Food

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we are planning on a cross country (half) road trip later this year to visit my mom and then move her back here where we live. As I have our planning tips on my brain, I wanted to share those with ya'll in a series of Road Trip Tips posts.

Food on the road is easy and hard at the same time to me. On one hand, you continuously pass fast food restaurants while going down the highway. On the other hand, you don't have endless money and sometimes they are hard to get into if you have a U-haul truck or trailer. You can use up a substantial amount of time by driving around trying to find the right place to eat that everyone in your family likes and that you can get in and out of relatively easily. Not to mention it gets expensive quick! Don't forget my family is 4 children and two adults. Two of those children eat as much as an adult and one has a bottomless pit for a stomach! Here are some things we have tried on the road to make food easier and cheaper.

Buy a healthy mix of snacks at the grocery store the week before you leave to bring with you in the car. We put a container between the two kids in the back row of our mini van and filled it to the brim with yummy snacks. We brought things like dried fruit, healthy grains, nuts, peanut butter crackers, etc. This way our kids were still getting good nutrition and not being cranky because they were hungry. This allowed us to be more flexible about when we stopped for meals. As well as saved us a lot because snacks on the road (gas stations & fast food) are expensive! One night, we were behind on how far down the road we needed to be and actually opted to just munch on those snacks for dinner. We also let our kids have all the snacks they wanted whenever they were hungry on the trip if it wasn't almost a meal time. Of course, we also included a few junkier snacks and made sure everyone had a few snacks they liked. That help keep spirits up and kept us from wanting to splurge on chips at the gas stations.

Road Trip Tips - Planning Apps

We are planing to drive across the country to see my mom and help her move back with us later this year. The last time we went was last fall. We will be driving from Texas to North Carolina and back again. On the way there we will be driving for two days and sleeping at a hotel for one night. On the way back, we could potentially be driving for up to 4 days and spend up to 3 nights in a hotel. Did I mention we will also be driving our minivan back to Texas as well as a Uhaul truck pulling a car behind it. So we will be relying heavily on anything that makes this trip easier. Here are some of the apps (and a website) we have used to plan our trips across the country. 

First things first, fuel is a big one. It will be expensive no matter what, but one thing that helps us a lot is AAA gas cost calculator. We will use that to help us set aside enough money to afford gas, although unfortunately we know prices will go up before our trip. It's definitely more helpful closer to your trip. We do our best to stop at Sam's clubs along our route to cut gas costs where we can. When we can't, we try to stop at a Pilot or other large truck stop as gas is usually a little cheaper there. Gas Buddy is also useful if you need to get gas somewhere other than the big stations. It will help you find the cheaper option in whatever area you are in. I just found out that they have a gas trip calculator too so check that out. We've never used it but I'm sure it's very helpful as well.

First Impressions of Misfits Market

I have been buying food from Imperfect Foods off and on for 2 years now. Recently, I found out about Misfits Market and decided to give it a try. 

When I opened up the box, I noticed it was insulated with a padding that is curbside recyclable. Although non-plastic would be better, I very much appreciate that it is easily recyclable!

Under the padding was a cardboard layer with an ice block. Under that, was brown paper filler to fill up the box.

Decluttering Encouragement

I have always struggled with getting rid of things. I know my ADHD plays a role in that. I know growing up without a lot also plays a role in that. But ultimately it is something I want to get better at. I have been working my whole adult life to improve at letting things go. Here are a few things that have helped me. 

One thing that has really helped me is letting myself keep things. I know that sounds counter intuitive so let me explain. If I am pressuring myself to get rid of everything, I feel out of control and overwhelmed. So by allowing myself the grace to keep things, it makes me feel more in control and ultimately, I get rid of more. For example, getting rid of baby clothes is very hard! So I let myself just pull out the ones I didn't really like or my child didn't wear. Then I put the others away. Next time, I can part with a few more as my memory of them wearing those items fades. I have a few outfits per child that I can picture them in and my heart hurts to let them go. So I don't. I put a small box in the top of the closet just for those. I set myself a limit of one small box for all the baby clothes I'm keeping for all four children. Now, as I find more old clothes in boxes, I feel more free to donate them because I know the special ones are safe.

Declutter in waves! I never make myself go through all of something at once. It's a sure fire way to get overwhelmed and give up! So instead I just choose a few and move on. The next time, I can chose a few more. This works with anything! Baby clothes, shoes, my clothing, art supplies, school supplies, books, etc. It's easier to let something go when you know you are keeping almost all of the rest. But after several phases of this over months, you have decluttered quite a lot.

Happy 16 Years to my Best Friend! (Flower Pictures)

Today is my 16 year anniversary so I will be celebrating with my sweet husband. Marrying my best friend was the best decision I could have made! I look forward to 16 more!

I thought I'd post pictures of flowers from my garden for today! 

Coral Rose

Queen Lime Orange Zinnia (from last year)

Sunny Knock Out Rose

Coral Knock Out Rose

Multi-colored Petunia

Yumm! Garden snacks!

Summer snacking has began! Yummy strawberries and mint leaves are snacks my kids like eating straight from the garden. Now we are just waiting on cherry tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, and okra. Yes, two of my kids like okra raw! I prefer it roasted or fried. My kids like fresh cherry tomatoes so much they asked me to stop buying them from the store because they weren't as good! I love snacking on the sweet peppers myself, as do a couple of my kids. What are your favorite snacks from the garden?

Here's pictures of some of our harvest last year:

           

Small House Organizing Tip #4 - Add Shelves in Unused Spaces

One of the things I learned at the small house was to look for unused spaces to install shelving. It greatly increased our storage in a house that was very low on storage!

Our small house kitchen did not have any extra food storage. Just the regular kitchen cabinets that we needed to store dishes, pots, pans, etc. So we had to get creative! We did have french doors in the kitchen and a laundry room on the other side. Two of the doors would meet on the same wall, so that wall wasn't used for anything. As our family expanded, we decided we had to do something to create more storage in the kitchen! We decided to take the laundry room door off the door frame. It was a very small room and really didn't need a door. The kitchen door didn't need to open 180 degrees to touch that wall either. We were then able to install shelving to create a pantry. It added so much storage space! Knowing we wanted to sell the house in the next few years, we decided on easily removable shelving since we were aware it was in an odd place. Our realtor ended up telling us to leave the shelving because it added so much space! 

If you notice to the left of the shelving, we also added a wrack to hold some of my most used cookbooks as the others were stored in another room. We tried not to waste any space!

Thrift Store Shopping Trip #2

For Mother's Day, my husband took me thrift store shopping because he knows I love doing that! We went on Monday so it wasn't as crowded. We went back to the used video game store from last week and got a few Beanie Babies and a Minecraft card game.

Thrift Store Shopping Trip #1

I have gone to thrift stores MANY times over the years but I thought it would be fun to start posting on this blog some of the cool things we find. I hope this will encourage you to go and check out what's out there! Thrift store shopping can keep a lot of things out of the landfill and save you a lot of money! Not to mention it's a lot of fun to just look around at all the different things there.

My husband and I checked out some thrift stores we had never been to in a nearby town on Friday. We will definitely be back!

We started out our trip dropping off a full load of boxes at Goodwill. Then we went in to look around but didn't find anything.

Next we checked out a used book and music store. It was very cool but didn't really have anything we were looking for.

Then we went to a used video game store that had everything from Atari games forward. It also had some random things like movies, Legos, Nerf guns, and Pokemon cards. We got a baseball N64 game for my son and an extra N64 controller so all 4 kids can play Super Smash Bros together. We ended up going back and grabbing a gallon size bag of Lego Friends pieces also. Total for everything was $20! We will definitely go back there with our kids!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their families! I will be spending the day with my four sillies and video chatting with my mama! ❤

Ain't that the truth! It's a hard but very rewarding job!

Mom tip: Make Shopping With Kids Easier!

This is an older post from 4 years ago. I added a few new things but left most of the info the same. I wrote this back when I was not able to post on a regular basis so I told myself I had to save them up until I could. I am no longer doing this! I will post whenever I have an idea and am able to write it. It might be once per day, once per week, once per month, or once per year. 

Oh, mama, I know that feeling every time you think about running errands and the anxiety wells up inside you! "Will they be angels? Will they wine and complain? Will they ask for everything they see? Or worse, will they pick up everything they see? Will the site of food suddenly remind them they are STARVING? Will we have to take 10 potty breaks? Will they start playing hide and seek...or worse, TAG in the clothing section?? Do we REALLY need to buy groceries today?!"

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and for the most part they are well behaved. But they are KIDS! And with four of them, there is always someone to play with and it doesn't take long for them to wind each other up! What should be a 20 minute trip usually ends up being a 2 hour trip. And some days, I'm just not sure filling the fridge up with groceries is worth the stress! I'd much rather just make PB&J for dinner and play with my little sillies! Alas, at some point, we all must go out!

Although there are several things I've learned over the years to help the trip go more smoothly, my favorite trip is any trip that keeps the kids in the car for the most part!

My Favorite Smoothie Recipe

I have an old smoothie recipe on this blog I posted several years ago. I got it from Weelicious and it helped me learn how to make smoothies. But over the years I have come up with our own formula for smoothies. I thought it was about time to post an updated smoothie recipe!

Ingredients

Yogurt

Frozen fruit

Liquid

Spinach (frozen or fresh)

Protein Powder

Agave

Yes, I have no measurements for you. I am not that kind of cook! I usually just throw in a little of this and a little of that until I get the desired result. Try it, it's fun being a creative cook! 

Here's a little more information on each ingredient:

Yogurt: I have used greek yogurt, regular yogurt, even yogurt tubes. Just whatever you can find in your fridge is fine!

Frozen Fruit: We use mostly frozen fruit because we like the texture it creates. If you have some fresh fruit that needs to be used up, you can throw that in too but I would keep 3/4 of the fruit frozen to maintain the slushy consistency. If you only have fresh fruit, you can add ice to make it more slushy but it will still not be the same as a frozen fruit smoothie. I like to take fruit that's very ripe (but not getting eaten) and throw it in the freezer to use in smoothies later on.

Meal Planning Tip #3 - Duel Purpose Meal Planning Sheet

Traditional meal planning sheets didn't work well for me because I have never had any interest in assigning meals to every day of a week. I just needed a list of what I had bought ingredients to make that week. But then I would forget to prep ingredients ahead of time or to start early enough on a harder meal. So, I decided on a compromise. It's not really complicated, but has helped me out SO MUCH! I just took a traditional meal planning list template and changed the shopping list area to a dinner list. Super simple, but changed everything for me. Now I didn't have a list of the meals I bought ingredients for in a separate place from a list of what I'm having what day. I don't like assigning meals a week a head, but I do like assigning them for the next day or two.

Here's an example of the list I'm currently using. It's temporarily drawn out with Frixion pens on a reusable notebook. Once I get a chance, it will be drawn with permanent markers so I can wipe it clean every week as I plan out new meals.

I write all the meals I bought food for on the right side of the page. As they get assigned to days, I mark them off. If for some reason we don't end up eating a meal on the assigned day, I rewrite it on the meal list. This also allows me to easily shop from stores more than once a week and just keep adding meals to the list as we get them. I can easily erase the week and keep using the same meal list until it gets to the end. Then I erase the first items, write whatever meals I have left up there, and erase the rest of the list. It's very easy to use it as a revolving list.

           

Yes, I cut my own hair!

Today I wanted to talk about something more uncommon I do that saves us a lot of money. I cut my own hair!

I know that sounds scary and it was to me for a while too. I started out just cutting layers into the front of my hair when I couldn't explain what I was wanting well enough to beauticians. Then I got desperate when it had been two years since I had a hair cut, I didn't know of anyone who could cut my hair, and wanted to take pictures with my newest baby for Mother's day the next day. So I talked my husband into cutting my hair. He was terrified but I walked him through exactly what I wanted done. He even cut layers into the back of my hair! I cut the front layers and goodness, I got a lot of compliments on that hair cut! I will try to find pictures of that hair cut and up date this when I do. He asked me to never ask him to do that again though because he was so afraid of messing up my hair. So I have honored that request. But, walking him through it helped me see that I knew exactly what needed to be done to cut my hair how I like it. I cut it a few more times over the years but most of the time I chickened out and paid someone to cut my hair. 

That all changed 4 years ago. We were in a new house in a new city and I had waited so long to cut my hair I was sick of it! So I cut just a few inches off to get me through until I could find someone to cut my hair. I figured it didn't have to be perfectly even because I could easily pay someone to trim it later. I left plenty of room for them to cut more off if they needed too. But to my surprise, I loved it! And it was plenty even! 

Save Money Gardening

I love to garden, but if you are not careful, it can get expensive quickly. Here are some things I have done over the years to cut down on the cost.

Flower Pots

I have picked up flower pots put by the curb for trash, posted for free on the classified apps, and bought them at the store. I buy pots that are not fancy but sturdy. I like buying nursery pots if you can find them as they are very sturdy and will hold up a long time.

Seed Starting Pots

You can start seeds in big pots but the problem is that sometimes they don't all come up. I prefer to start most seeds in starter pots so I can plant extra knowing they might not all come up and then plant the strongest ones that do. I like to reuse small succulent pots for starter pots. They are the perfect size, free with purchase, and can be used over and over again.

Ruby's Rubbish

Several years ago I stumbled across a t-shirt brand called Ruby's Rubbish. I bought a shirt from them and quickly went back for more. I now have more shirts from them than I would like to publicly admit! 😆 I ask for them for pretty much every Christmas and Birthday. They have Christian, Southern, Holiday, Country, and Texas themed shirts. Here's just a sampling of my favorite shirts from them...

Save time on laundry

With four kids, we have a lot of laundry! I have tweaked our system over the years until it really runs mostly smoothly now. We will be adding another member to our household (my mom) in the next year so we will have 7 people's clothes to wash, plus food towels, sheets/towels, and whatever else ends up in the laundry room. Here's some tips I have that will hopefully help you as well!

1) Have your kids help if they are old enough. Even a little kid can pick up the clothes out of their laundry and hand them to you one by one to put in the washer. I always made sure my kids had a hamper and reminded them daily to put their clothes in the hamper. Even a two year old can throw dirty clothes in a laundry hamper. When my oldest was little, he had a hamper with a basket ball goal design which encouraged him to make a game of it.

2) If your kids are older, have them do their own laundry! Our kids have been doing their laundry since they were about 8. At that age most of them could fully understand how to do their laundry and could reach all the buttons. They had already been helping so they knew how much soap, spread out the clothes inside, etc. The only problems we ran into were not being able to easily lift and pour the big jug of soap. Our house wasn't set up where a big jug with a pump built in would fit near the washing machine. So we found a small pump bottle of method laundry detergent that they could easily hold. We refilled it with our regular laundry detergent when it got empty and it has been going strong for years! We figured out how many squirts were needed to equal the correct amount of laundry detergent and wrote that on a piece of masking tape on the bottle. Unfortunately, Method doesn't sell that bottle anymore, but I suspect a regular liquid soap bottle would do the same trick.

3) Put your family on a schedule. We used to just wash clothes whenever someone's hamper was full and were always playing catch up. So we assigned each person a day to do laundry. Monday - Thursday are kid's laundry days and my husband and I wash our clothes and any other laundry on the weekend. When my mom comes, we will probably just put her on Friday and keep rolling with our regular schedule.

Tips To Resist Spending Money You Don't Need To

I wrote this several years ago, but it still holds true. It was a good reminder for me! I just added a few more things as well before posting today. I hope this helps some of you!

1) Take extra time to get ready for the day. Fix your hair, do your makeup, paint your nails, and put on jewelry. My favorite accessory is my cowboy boots! Everything you can do to feel better about yourself will make you feel less "deprived" which will make it easier not to buy things you don't need. 

2) Keep your clothes washed. As a mom, I know we usually put everyone else first. One way that plays out in my house is that my clothes are always the last to get washed. Which means I don't really get to wear my favorite clothes that often because they are always at the bottom of the hamper. 

I hang a lot of my own clothes so they wont shrink and will look nice as long as possible. So for me, keeping my clothes clean means running a small load of my laundry a few nights a week and hanging it up in the shower so it can be dry and ready to get out of everyone's way in the morning. If I try to wash a big load of my clothes, that always ends with either wet clothes hanging off of everything in the house, or me hanging it up in batches which results in half getting stinky waiting in the laundry basket to get hung up. My point is figure out what works for you, but do find a way to keep most of your clothes clean at all times. What does this have to do with not spending extra money? I've found that if I'm wearing my "it's laundry day" clothes too often it makes me feel like I don't have any clothes I like so I want to go buy clothes I actually like. Even though in reality, I have plenty of clothes I like. They are just always dirty! So try to keep your clothes washed.

3) Take time to make your bed nicely, put your table decorations out, etc. The more you enjoy how your home looks, the more you will feel like you have plenty. It will help you resist buying home decor when you are out buying groceries at Target! Or wherever your weakness is!

What to do with all the boxes!

I wrote this post four years ago, but forgot to post it. I’ve added a few more uses that we have found over the years since then.

Recently moved? Here are 5 uses for those extra boxes!

We moved a month ago and as we unpack the boxes, our house is not getting much emptier because we still have boxes everywhere! At our previous home, we were allowed to pay for extra recycling pick up service. We had two recycling carts that were picked up every two weeks so we never had a problem with extra recyclables. However, at this new house, we are only allowed one recycling cart which is still picked up every other week. Fun fact: we can pay for as many trash carts as we want...yeah, doesn't make any sense to me either. So...now we have to be more creative with our recyclables because it just hurts too much to throw it all away! I HATE being wasteful! Anyway, if any of you also need extra ideas on what to do with all those extra boxes, keep reading!

1) This one is the easiest option! Think about how much you would have appreciated a pile of boxes for free when you were packing like mad! Thankfully, I had friends who had just moved and passed boxes on to me! Gather up any of your boxes that aren't super damaged and can still be used for someone else's move. If you know anyone moving, offer it to them! If not, take a picture and post them on your favorite neighborhood or classified site. For our area, we use Nextdoor, Offer Up, Varage Sale, and Letgo. I also use Craigslist, but I've gotten spoiled to the ease of use of the apps so I tend to post on the other sites first. Post your big stack of boxes with any extra packing supplies for free and I bet you'll have them gone in no time!

2) If you have kids, nieces, nephews, or even close friends with kids, I'm sure they would love to play pretend with some of your larger boxes! My kids were fighting over who could build a house out of which boxes. I quickly nipped the squabbling in the bud, but I love feeding their imaginations!!

Go on a Junk Run to Find Treasures

In our neighborhood, we have bulk pickup every other week. So every other week, people put out items on the curb that may or may not be working that they no longer want. On face value, you might think, "so what, it's probably all broken and worn out items that should go to the land fill." But, you would not believe how much good stuff we have found on the curb. Here is just a sampling...

Vacuum cleaners

Giant wall mirror

Lamps

Weed eater

Lawn mowers

Computers

Flower Pots

Tvs

Small outdoor tables

3 drawer units

Upright fans

Ceiling fans

Cooler/Mini fridge

Scooters (manual and battery powered)

Power wheels

Bike trailers

Bikes

Light strands

Speakers

Wireless smart phone charger

Guitars

DVD, VCR, receivers, etc.

Sports equipment

Mini Christmas trees

Storage containers

Shoe organizers

Book shelves

Storage cubbies

Chest of drawers

Desks

Office Chairs

Futon

Misc. kids toys

Over toilet bathroom organizer

Kitchen cabinets

Fishing poles

Nice metal outdoor chairs and a bench

Buy and Sell Used Clothing on Poshmark

The other day, I wrote about Kidizen, but today I'm going to tell you about the other second hand app I use for clothing. Kidizen is great for kids and they even have some stuff for moms. But, my 10, 13, & 14 year olds are all wearing adult shoes and my 14 year old is in men's clothing now. Kidizen isn't a big help for that.

We have been shopping on Poshmark for about the last year. We have bought clothes for everyone as they even have kids clothes. We have bought...

Cowboy Boots

Tennis Shoes

Steel Toe Boots

Rain Boots

Bras

Swim Suits

Work Shirts

T-shirts

Jeans

Shorts

Purses

Dresses

Skirts

Otter Box iPhone case

Small House Organizing Tip #3 - Turn a half bookshelf into a shoe rack

In our old house, we had a closet just inside our front door that needed to serve a few functions. It was tiny, but we needed to keep 6 people's shoes, jackets, gloves, and scarves. Our master closet was about double the size of this so we also didn't have room to store any shoes in there. So when I say 6 people's shoes, I mean ALL the shoes. Thankfully none of us were shoe addicts, but I definitely had more than anyone else! I thought I would share our solution in case it would help anyone else.

We had a half bookshelf left over from college days that we didn't need for anything else that just so happened to be the right size to fit in the closet. We adjusted the shelves to maximize usage and even added an extra shelf from another bookshelf we had. It worked really well for our purposes!

To keep things semi organized, we assigned a shelf to taller shoes, one for flip flops, and one for the kids. That way the kids wouldn't bury my husband's shoes where he couldn't find them or get my nicer shoes covered in dirt.

Mom Tip: High Chair = Car Seat Holder

This is an older post, no more babies in this house! My baby just turned 6 years old! Man, time flies!!

Did your sweet baby fall asleep in the car? You don't want to take her out until she wakes up, but where do you put the carrier? You don't have a good place to sit the carrier that is out of the way but still where you can keep a close eye on the baby. Try the high chair! Our infant carrier fits perfectly into our high chair. It doesn't click into place but actually fits so well inside it that it doesn't need to!

Buy and Sell Used Clothing on Kidizen

I have saved a lot of money on my kids clothes by accepting hand me downs, shopping sales, clearance, and second hand. Definitely let friends and family members, with kids a few years older than your kids, know you are happy to accept any clothes they don't want anymore. I always let my kids veto anything they don't like, except when they were really little and we were really hurting for money. Remember you don't have to buy true pajamas to be comfy while sleeping either. My kids have often slept in hand me down sports, church, and camp shirts from friends and family. They may not have had any attachment to those activities but the t-shirts were great for sleeping, painting, or even eat messy foods in! For pants they can sleep in any leggings or shorts that aren't good enough for regular wear (stained, small holes, or too short).

You can look at thrift stores or yard sales for second hand, but that takes a lot of time to fully clothe four kids. Kids specific second hand stores are much easier even if they are a little more pricey. My favorite place to shop for kids clothes in our old town was Kid to Kid. We were able to bring the few things my kids didn't wear out to sell to help offset part of the clothing budget. The kids were able to walk around and shop with very little limits which was fun for them. It was really helpful to try on all different brands and styles to see what fit them best. And they got to really pick out what fit their tastes better just shopping the clearance racks or just wearing hand me downs.

Meal Planning Tip #2 - Meal List

One thing that really helped me was creating a list of meals my family likes to eat. It's easy for me to get stuck cooking the same things over and over and forget things we used to eat. It's like we get in a rut for a little while, try some new things, and then get in a rut eating those over and over. I easily forget things we haven't made in a few weeks. Making a list of meals is a big help. 

One clarification, in our house, my kids make breakfast for themselves. I'm not a morning person and this helps me out a lot! I make sure they have plenty of healthy things to eat that they can make for themselves. Yes, this list includes cereal, but I only buy them the healthier ones. They each get a box a week and after that, they have to eat something else. So the breakfast list is just to help me make sure everything is in stock in our house. They know to eat one serving of a main dish, one fruit, one yogurt tube, and one protein (cottage cheese or sausage links) along with a glass of milk. About milk, yes there are a lot of choices listed! My kids that are growing like weeds drink whole milk, my kids who aren't growing much at the moment drink 2%, I drink soy, and one of my kids is lactose intolerant.

Here's a sample:

Breakfast: 

Cereal

Oatmeal

Grits

Cream of Wheat

Leftover French Toast, Pancakes, and Waffles

Yogurt Tubes

Sausage Links

Cottage Cheese

Milk (whole, 2%, Soy, and lactose free)

Meal Planning Tip #1 - Shop From Your Pantry First

Let me start by saying menu planning has been a big learning curve for me over the last 15 years and I by no means have this all figured out. But, I would like to share things I've learned over the years to hopefully help you as well.

I always used to get overwhelmed because the process felt like too many steps and I always got hung up on one. So I decided to just keep trying and every time I felt like I failed, look at where I got stuck, and troubleshoot that step. I have so many tips to share but I will start with this one today.

Look around your kitchen (and house?) to see what food you still have that you may have forgotten about. That random box of pasta, the few remaining potatoes, some meat in your freezer, etc. Then plan meals including those items first. Sometimes I realize I have almost everything I have for a meal and just need to buy a side item. 

Use Your Leftovers!

A great way to stretch your food budget is to use your leftovers on purpose. We've done this a lot of different ways over the years.

When my now teenage boys were toddlers, leftover bits from meals were the perfect portion size to serve them for lunch the next day. When my now 10 year old daughter was a baby, I would puree leftovers for stage 3 baby food.

If we have some pancakes, egg in a hole, waffles, or french toast left over after a breakfast for dinner meal, we'll put them in our freezer where all of our kids can reach so they can heat them up for breakfast.

We also use ingredients leftover from the previous meal in another meal. This works well if you keep things separate when you serve the food like fajita chicken and peppers or taco meat and rice. I can put the fajita chicken meat with cheese in a tortilla and make quesadillas. I can re-use plain rice in a homemade fried rice meal. I can put taco meat and cheese on tortilla chips for a yummy nacho meal. We also use leftover eggs, bacon, sausage, and tater tots to make breakfast burritos.