Mommy Tips || Edition 4

Money Saving Tips

The monthly bill you can control the most is your grocery bill. One way you can save money on food is by joining a supper swab club. I spend $100-$120 a month on 12 meals, swap with the group and come home with 12 new dishes. Not only is it a huge money saver (that is $8.33-$10 per a meal for 4 people) but it also takes a lot of stress out of getting a meal on the table quick. Set guidelines and swap with people you trust and have similar eating habits. We all use
hormone free and lean meat and accommodate to certain allergies. I will be posting a tutorial on this soon, so stay tuned :)

Coupons. Coupons. Coupons. Ladies if you want to save money, take a few minutes and get yo coups! Now a days it's easy to find coupons and codes etc. There are apps you can download, websites you can go to print them off, emails you can sign up for. No reason not to use them! Sign up on mailing lists at your local grocery, most have baby clubs or something of that nature that you can sign up for to get great deals! There are tons of great websites and apps, find your fav and utilize it!

Be active with your kids in inexpensive ways. Find out what is offered in your local community. Locally we have a story time at Starbucks put on by a local church, we have reading hour/story time at 2 local libraries. We have coffee dates at "the coffee house" - aka dunkin, aka my favorite coffee place of all time. My kids are obsessed with donuts, so although we generally are pretty granola with our eating habits, I let them indulge in that is a super special treat that they love and cost less them $3 for the 3 of us. To make that even less expensive you can
sign up for dunkin donuts mailing list and get coupons and even ask for gift cards for little holidays, ie Valentines Day :) Do a little research to see what free stuff is going down in your community, something cool going down right now is our local Theater is doing free movie Saturday for kiddos every weekend during the day for the next 2 months, this usually happens during the summer too. My girls love the movies, so this completely makes their day! Be on the lookout for freebies, they are out there!

Playdates! For stay at home moms and working moms! Parks are free peeps, so meet up with other moms at a park, pack a lunch or some snacks and meet 'em up! Do this on a Saturday or a weekday, either way it's free entertainment for the money-saver in you ;)

Shop off season: I do this for everything. For clothes, gifts, decorations, pretty much everything. Yes mom, I already bought your Christmas present for next year... I'm going into my 4th year of motherhood so I've kind of got an idea of my children's growth chart, so I shop for clothes a year ahead. i.e., winter is coming to a close so I will be looking for winter clothes for the girls for next winter and I know Wyn is small for her age and Pais is big and I have a good
idea of what brands run small and large on-- something to note if you haven't before.

Turn your hobby into a part-time job! I've always been financially minded, even as a child, so this is easy for me to say... I love making stuff and selling it, coming up with business plans, etc. But if there is something you love, figure out how you can make money doing it, you know, the whole "American Dream" type thing... Example, I LOVE photography and have a huge desire to stay home with my girls, so over the past year I have been ramping up to take the leap. And
here I go, i'm leaving my job March 1st to be a full time mommy by day and full time photographer on the weekends, it is all started with turning my hobby into a money maker ;) {more to come on this subject later...}

Diapers - I swear by Pampers. They are the most comfy, the most absorbent, and the most leak-proof; they are also the most expensive. So, I put my babies in Pampers at night time and for their naps, but use good ol' Target brand during the day when I am changing them more
often. The savings add up.

Diaper Genie - If you use one, you know the refills are expensive. So, I only put poopy diapers in the diaper genie. The whole point is to trap odor, and pee-pee diapers aren't so stinky. Pee-pee diapers = regular trash / poopy diapers = diaper genie


In interest of full disclosure I sourced some of this information from some other rock your socks off mommas. Diaper tips are from Celess. Shopping off season & controlling your grocery bill are from my amazing Mother in Law :)

Mommy Tips 101 || Edition 3

Because I love to watch other moms in action and love to admire their
ways and because I'm constantly amazed at how they do it all, I'd like to take a
second to highlight this sweet Momma. Miss Michelle has worn all 3
hats -- full time working mom, part-time working mom and full time stay
at home mom. She knows the pros and cons of all 3 and has taught me
plenty of mommy tricks, not to mention she works out religiously,
she's super fit, gorgeous, a great cook and has a heart of gold AND
she's one of my besties... I'm not biased LOL!

mommy tips edition 3, brought to you by Michelle (:

1) I am all about "have it where you need it." I have wipes, diapers, lysol wipes in multiple locations...car, downstairs bathroom cabinet, and of course diaper bag/changing table. I also have toothbrushes/toothpaste upstairs and down for the kiddos. Also, kids hair brushes and gel (for those cool dude boy haircuts) upstairs & down. Lysol wipes are KEY!  While kids are taking a tub I to a quick wipe down of the bathroom, time saver :)

2) Pre pack healthy snack ziplocs/containers in her bottom fridge drawer so her kiddos can help themselves anytime to healthy snacks and not run to junk food.

3) If you leave a load of laundry in the dryer forever & everything is wrinkled, just throw a wet towel in for a touch-up dry. It acts as a steamer and knocks out the wrinkles.

4) Out to eat at dinner, ask the server to divide the kids plate in 2....fries on one plate/meat & veggies on other. That way you can serve the fries after the good stuff is gone!

5) Rise before they rise. I aim to get out of bed before my boys every morning. For my sanity and their safety. Have a cup of coffee/tea, some quite time with God and a little me time, this benefits EVERYONE!

Mommy Tips 101 || Edition 2

Well... I thought it appropriate for edition 2 to have a funny story. Because as moms, if we can't learn to laugh at all the ridiculous that happens we WILL LOSE OUR MINDS!

About 3 months after Sean was born, Jason and I planned to go out on our first date. It was the first time I wore a non-maternity dress, and I was looking pretty good (if I do say so myself). I was back to my size 4! Seriously, I was looking the best I had looked in months.  I had gotten a decent amount of sleep the night before, I didn't have bags under my eyes, I had straightened my unruly hair, I had a mani-pedi, etc. etc. You get it. Right before we left, I nursed my lovely son. He then spit up on me. Of course, I did not have time to change. We had reservations and were already almost late. Ok. Fine.
I'll deal with a little spit up on my dress (strike one). We leave, and as we are driving to the restaurant it seems a storm is brewing. No big deal. I like rain. Oh wait. I straightened my hair (for the first time in FOREVER). We get to the restaurant and I get out the car. Down-pour. Straight hair is no more (strike two). Ok, spit up on dress, hair a mess. I am going to enjoy this dinner. I am going to enjoy this dinner. A glass of red wine later, and I'm feeling good. Crab cake delicious. I order my creme brulee. Take another sip of red wine. I suddenly feel very warm. Hmm... I know one glass of wine shouldn't make me feel all warm. Oh... I know. I forgot to wear breast pads and am currently leaking through my bra (strike three). As we go to leave, my heel breaks. By the end of the night, I was laughing pretty hard. Our second date attempt was much more successful, thank God!


Lesson Learned: Things don't always go as we plan. Learn to Laugh at yourself.


Many thanks to the amazing mom who submitted this :)

Mommy Tips 101 || Edition 1

I'm starting this series because I am constantly impressed and amazed by moms. All of those other moms out there like me.  The mom's short on time, low on money and always feeling like their house is a mess. I like to pretend I'm a domestic goddess—I'm not, plain and simple I'm not. Although I love all things domestic –sewing, cooking, cleaning, organizing, working hard to make memories and traditions  etc… I'm far from having it mastered HOWEVER I love to hear how other people conquer it all! I work 3 days a week - which is somewhat new, I used to work full time with 2 little ones so I know
the struggles of being a working mom, and the craziness of getting kids up, dressed and out the door (and those occasional hiccups such as forgetting a bottle or diapers--yipes!), only to then come home and think "now what to make for dinner and how can the house possibly be this messy?". Being home 4 days a week I feel like I can also relate to the stay at home moms as well—the craziness that comes with being home with your kids all day and trying not to become unglued and the financial strains that come when you decide to take that leap and stay home.

So a little back story….

I have 2 little girls. Wyndham (2 ½) and Paisley (1). My husband and I knew that we wanted kids close together and knew it would be kind of wild for a little while.  But... we didn't exactly plan for 18 months apart, so when Wyndham was just over 9 months old and we found out I was baking a baby again we were a little shocked—but looking back now we love how it turned out and think we'll go ahead and keep them both.  And... I have no family around. Mom, Dad and all 3 sisters all live in Florida. So we know that craziness of balancing two kids pretty well! The double diaper duty, tossing diapers across the room, code brown in the tub kind of craziness!

So I have been bugging annoying polling my other mommy friends for their stories, advise and tips on how they do it. I plan to share on here lots of mommy tips, rookie mom mistakes (things that we have learned the hard way…), ways to save money, save time, and keep up on cleaning while still being a good mom! So many of these tips that my friends are sharing with me I really really wish I had asked about earlier. Seriously, MOMS NEED OTHER MOMS!! So sit back and enjoy the reads, there are some pretty hysterical stories to come as well!