Have A Plan

Since I really don't have all that much going on in my life (which I thank God for everyday!) and I really want to keep up with my blog (because it makes my Mom happy!) I figured I could share some ways that we save a little money. A lot of my friends have been asking me lately how I could have left my job to stay home, so bit by bit as I think of them I will share some ways in which we cut back a bit.

This is kind of a new concept for us, to have a menu plan. I coupon, so I only buy what is on sale and stock up when I have coupons for sale items. The only way to really make this work is to plan out how many nights a week I need to make dinner and what I can make with what is on sale. I scower the sale fliers that come in the mail each week and compile a list. Really it has made grocery shopping more like a game! However, I was finding that as life pops up and we end up going out on a night I was going to cook, or something else comes along I was forgetting what I already had for dinners and just buying more things to make something else the next week. SO, I bought this stick on white board at Target for $8.00 and started to keep track... we don't always eat what is written for that day but because I can just erase it and move it to another day it's easy to keep track of!! Each night that I have to cook (which is not every night due to Bible studies or Nate having class) I write down a meal idea, buy what I need and if we don't eat it I just move it to another day. That way I am not wasting or losing track of what I have already bought! When I go to the store the next week I wont have as much to buy if we didn't use a meal! We do have a big chest freezer in our basement that helps me do this because I can store a lot of frozen things and some shelving down there too to store canned items.

While I'm blogging... here is how I made the wreath hanging above my calendar.

1. Take all your old Christmas cards (not the photo cards just the card stock cards) rip off the front part where the picture is.

2. Cut out star shapes, I got two and sometimes three stars from each card.

3. Bend the star from the outer tip towards the middle, don't bend so much as pinch the tip of the star and keep pinching just a bit towards the middle on all five points of the star, this makes it "puffy"

4. Glue together, I used "Tacky" brand paper glue, but hot glue or even white school glue would work.

5. Add a ribbon and you're done! I used about twenty stars to make the wreath and saved my left over stars for gift tags next Christmas :)

Baby Reagan is doing well, moving all around in there and my back would tell you my belly is getting heavier! I have a doctor's appointment today so I will have more of an update on him. I am 33 weeks pregnant today!! Seven weeks or so and he will be in my arms!! I have enjoyed him in my belly, but I honestly don't think I will miss being pregnant. I am meeting a friend today to do some baby shopping, a fellow Marine Corps wife who is home in Maine while her husband is deployed. She is also 33 weeks pregnant!! We will look pretty silly waddling around together all day!!!