Tips for Saving Money (on a small income!)

Everyone is always looking for more ways to save a little money. In mine and hubby's stage of life, saving money on a not-so-large income has played a huge role in reaching our goals (starting a family, buying a home). So I thought I'd share a few tips we've learned about saving money and frugal living.

• Make a budget: Start off by writing down what you typically spend money on throughout the month. This will probably include: rent/mortgage, utilities/gas bills, food (groceries & eating out),  internet, T.V., gas, car insurance, phone, health insurance, and don't forget some play money. Nate and I also include tithing and fast offerings in our budget. Add up the expenses and subtract them from your income, and you will see how much you can save per month. If you don't like what you see and want to save more money, find areas that you can cut back on. Examples: eating out, shopping, do you really need 1,000 channels?  Set a limit to the spending in areas you can control and stick with it. 

• Don't buy what you can't afford: Hubby and I never purchase anything we can't afford with cash at that time, which in return = no debt. 

• Don't spend on what you don't need: use the 24 hr, week, or one month rule to prevent you from spending on things you don't need or splurging. When you think you really want to buy something, wait 24 hrs, one week, or one month before you purchase it. In most cases, you won't end up buying whatever it is you wanted, which means more money saved. 

• DIY: Since moving into our home we've wanted to make a couple updates and changes, like... painting the kitchen (which would have cost a couple thousand dollars for someone else to do it), updating the fireplace, and adding board a board and batten wall to the entryway. We've also built some furniture for our home instead of buying it (these will be shared in posts coming soon!). We have saved $4,000 just by building our own furniture... something to think about! 

• Couponing and searching good deals: No, I am not an extreme couponer but I do try to find good deals to go along with a few coupons I cut. You do have to search around a little to see if there are items on sale that you also have coupons for. For example, just last week I had two coupons for cereal, plus the kind of cereal was on a major sale, so I got 6 boxes of cereal for $6. I felt pretty proud of myself and that saved us $15 just on cereal!

These are pretty simple! Anyone can do them. Some of them may take a little extra time and effort but they are well worth it. 

What are things you do to help you save money?

Peter Pan Baby Shower

Last week I had the opportunity to host a baby shower for one of my really good friends! It was so much fun! I knew she had been planning a Peter Pan nursery for her home so a Peter Pan themed shower seemed like the perfect idea!

Although the theme for the shower is popular for children's parties, I wanted to give it a classy feel!

Early on I had an idea to make a map of Neverland out of the table cloth! The table cloth was just some brown paper from Home Depot that I already had on hand from our many projects. 

All I did was find a picture of a Neverland map online and freehanded everything the best I could, I love how it turned out! 

I also added some props of things you would see in Peter Pan like... a clock, blocks, and teddy bear. 

   

Now lets not forget about the food, look at these adorable cupcakes my cousin made with Peter Pan hats on them! 

We also added to the Peter Pan theme by hanging gold stars above the buffet table. 

And here are a couple more pictures because it was pretty... 

DIY Fireplace Mantle and Shiplap

When we first bought our house everything was DARK, DARK, DARK. The mantle, stair railings, kitchen... and with my new obsession with HGTV's Fixer Upper, I knew I wanted to make everything light! When I saw the episode of the shiplap fireplace I knew it had to be done in my house! 

Here is what our mantle looked like before we started.

First we sanded down the mantle. Then nailed up the shiplap boards onto the wall (into the studs of course). We then filled in all the nail holes with spackle and once dried, sanded the spackle down so it was a smooth surface. 

We were then ready for the primer. Before you put on the primer, make sure to clean all the surfaces very well. We used a vacuum hose and then some tack cloth to make sure we cleaned up all the excess dust. 

After the primer dried, we lightly sanded the surfaces that had been primed. Remember to clean the surfaces again after this step.

Then we went ahead and painted the boards and mantle white. We used two coats of paint on the shiplap and 3 on the mantle because it was so dark. It has made a huge difference in our home and makes the room feel so much bigger and taller!

More pics just for fun...

DIY Star Wars Halloween Costume

Are you looking for cheap and easy DIY Halloween costumes? This R2D2 costume was super easy, cheap and ADORABLE! 

What you need is:

-white baby onesie

-sharpies

-tulle (if wanting to make a skirt)

-piece of fabric or elastic for tulle skirt

-hat (I found this one at Walmart for 98 cents!)

We started off by finding a picture of R2D2 and just drawing it onto the onesie with a sharpie. Make sure you put something inside the onesie so the ink doesn't leak onto the back. 

To make the tulle skirt I just tied the tulle around a piece of fabric I already had. Then we tied the piece of fabric around baby's waist. 

Put on a hat and you've got it! 

DIY Board and Batten Wall

When we first bought our house I didn't think much about the giant blank wall in the entry way. It wasn't until the decorating began that I had no idea what to do with it! At first I thought about a bench or a giant mirror on the wall but the entry way is too small to add much that sticks out. If I just had a mirror sitting there, that probably wouldn't work well with kiddos, and we were expecting our first. Then I remembered a house that I loved while house hunting but was too pricey. It had board and batten in the entry way and I absolutely loved it! *LIGHTBULB* 

So we ran over to home depot, and got some boards cut to fit our wall. 

Then we taped the boards up on the wall where we wanted them. (This ended up changing when we decided against nail glue and went just for nailing the boards into studs.)

Getting all prepped for the paint! Instead of having batten on the wall we just decided to paint the wall. It made this project a little more budget friendly. 

Hooray, the wall was painted! 

Maybe you will notice that our baseboards look a little different. Instead of going with a whole new baseboard, we bought a strip of a quarter round piece. It added just a little bit more height to the baseboard and it created a flat piece for the boards to rest on top of. 

We filled in the nail holes and painted the boards and baseboards. Now all we need is a cute mirror and some pictures hung over the board and batten, then... TADA! 

Thanksgiving Turkey Shape Craft

This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving crafts to make! For one, it is super cute, and two, it's a great way to practice identifying shapes and/or colors! I would make this craft with my students at the beginning of November and would put them on my bulletin board with a saying "We're Shaping Up For Fall!"

What you need:

1. Different colored diamonds (feathers)
2. Orange and yellow triangles (beaks and feet)
3. Brown ovals
4. Googley eyes
5. Glue

I have templates for the shapes that you can use to print out and cut. You can find them on my teachers pay teachers store (Free) here:

The shapes are ready to print and be cut out. If you have students who can cut themselves then you can let them cut out their own! If you have students who have a harder time cutting on skinny lines, I recommend drawing over the line with a thick marker to make the line bigger, which should make it easier for them to cut out the shapes. You may have students who need the shapes previously cut out for them. I had one or two students in my class who could cut out their own shapes but the rest of the students needed them previously cut. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Baby Nursery

Photo cred: kelseyhadleyphotography

Photo cred: kelseyhadleyphotography

Photo Cred: kelseyhadleyphotography

Photo Cred: kelseyhadleyphotography

Photo Cred: kelseyhadleyphotography

Baby Hawkes is now 4 months old but this nursery is still as cute as ever! It was such a fun project to work on! 

• Crib: Emerson from Pottery Barn Kids
• Bunny and Fox pictures: Target
• Glider/Recliner: Homegoods-sidenote, I was so worried about getting a white chair for the nursery because there was so much white already, but with some experimentation with pillows and blankets it has been perfect!
• Gold Side Table: Homegoods
• Lamp: Target
• Pillows and Blanket on Chair: Homegoods
• Sheepskin Rug: Homegoods
• Sheep Crib Sheet and Changing Pad Cover: Land of Nod
• Mobile: DIY project! Tutorial here.
• Dresser: Awesome DI find and the hubby refinished it! See the before and after here.
• Quilt: DIY project! Look here for more info.
• Vase/Flowers: Michaels (everything I got from Michaels was 50% off, it was a score!)

Baby Quilt Tutorial

I love to make quilts, especially BABY quilts! So when I was expecting I went on the hunt to find the perfect one. I found this super cute quilt tutorial here. 

Picking out the fabric for this quilt was so hard for me! I knew I wanted some bluish, minty colors along with some coral and neutrals. I searched multiple stores and almost gave up on the last one but by some miracle started making connections with fabrics at the last minute!  

I have to give a lot of credit to my amazing grandma on this quilt, she pushed me to get it done just a week and half before baby H was born! She also did a lot of the hard work with cutting, pressing, etc. She let me just sit in a chair with my big belly and sew my heart out. 

Once all the blocks were made I lined everything up how I wanted it before sewing it into rows. I also ended up making a little smaller quilt than in the tutorial but I think it turned out to be the perfect size!

Once the top was ready I went ahead and freehanded the quilting-only took about an hour, it was fabulous! All that is left is the binding and it's done.

So happy with how cute it turned out! 

DIY Refinished Dresser

When looking for the dresser for the nursery I wanted something that looked a little more old fashioned. I told my awesome aunt who is the best bargain shopper I've ever met and she quickly snatched this up! This dresser was a steal and it even had a huge mirror that went above it! We had to fix a few drawers but that was easy. 

This is originally how it looked and we decided we wanted to paint it to give it a cleaner look. So we went to work with sanding... and sanding.. and a little bit more sanding... We then had to strip the rest of the paint off of it. 

BEFORE

Once the paint was stripped we were ready to go for the painting. The hubby was a champ! This was not an easy project to paint. 

The handles on the dresser were originally gold colored, but were super dirty, so I found a tutorial online of how to clean them... and it didn't work. So we went to the next best thing and spray painted all of the handles gold. They looked perfect!

AFTER

And...this is how it looked after it was all put together! TADA!

DIY Flower Nursery Mobile

When I was first designing the nursery, I looked around for all sorts of ideas. When shopping for a mobile to go over the crib everything I saw was SO expensive. With me needing to quit my job due to pregnancy complications, we were putting together this nursery on a budget! I was inspired by a picture of a mobile I saw on an Etsy shop (the mobile was over $100!!). So I decided I needed to do it myself, which I did, for $5. That's right, $5! 

I headed to the craft store, bought 5 blocks of felt, each costing 20 cents. I bought a little container of pearls and that was all I needed. I had leftover wreath material from a different project and I used fishing line I already had to string the mobile. 

I found a template for the felt flowers on Pinterest here.

Cut out the felt in the shape of the template. Once cut, start by rolling the felt from the outside in and occasionally put a dot of hot glue in there while rolling. When you get to the middle, hot glue the middle piece to the bottom of the flower. (The cutting can take a long time.. I recommend turning on netflix and going at it!) 

Once I had my flowers made I cut fishing line to the length I wanted it (you can decide that too). Then I taped the line to a hard surface so it was easier to control. I then used a needle to thread the fishing line through the center of the flowers and pearls. I would recommend tying a knot or putting a dot of glue near the center of the flower when on the proper place in the line so it doesn't slide down. 

You can design your mobile strings however you want. I didn't make my strings all the same length. Some have 4 flowers on them, some 3, some 2. Some started at the top with a pearl, some started at the top with a flower. It was fun to make it random. 

Once all my flowers and pearls were threaded I tied the strands to the wreath. Then I hung it from the ceiling using more fishing line... and TADA!

Photo Cred: kelseyhadleyphotography

YW Glow in the Dark Volleyball

In April the YW were in charge of the combined YM/YW mutual activity. We had the YW vote and the choice was glow in the dark volleyball! This was a very fun activity and pulled some of our YW out of their comfort zones, which definitely isn't a bad thing.

All you need for this activity is the church gym, volleyball net, volleyball, glow sticks, glow in the dark tape and UV lights. We bought a bunch of glow sticks and glow in the dark tape from the store and were able to borrow 3, 3-foot UV lights from members of the ward. Before the activity ask the youth to wear white, this really helps them glow in the UV light.

To set up, we put up the volleyball net and linked glow sticks along the top and bottom of the net so it was easier to see in the dark. We handed out glow sticks for all the youth to wear. We wrapped the volleyball in some glow in the dark tape to make it easier to see, plugged in the UV lights, and turned out the lights. We split up the youth into teams and began to play! We ended our activity with some rootbeer floats... mmmm.

Some things I would change would be to get as many UV lights and you possibly can. Only having 3 UV lights in the gym made it a little hard to see but it didn't stop us from playing! Also, you may want to set up some string or tape that will glow around the court so you can see when the ball goes out.

Even with changes I would make, this activity was super fun and everyone seemed to like it, even the shy ones who typically don't want to participate in activities like this. I would do this activity again in a heartbeat... and maybe add a spiritual lesson to it as well! Enjoy!

10 Simple Ways to Show Your Spouse You Love Them

I have been married to the most amazing man for 2 1/2 years, and over these 2 1/2 years Nate and I have worked to find ways to show each other that we love each other. For the last year, our lives have been pretty busy. I commute 40 minutes South to work, Nate commutes 40 minutes North to school. It makes for some pretty long days. So how do we find time to show each other that we love each other? It isn't in big fancy dates, surprise trips, or expensive gifts. It is simply in the little things. Yes, the LITTLE THINGS! Here is a list of little things I came up with that Nate and I have done/do for each other:

1) Before leaving the house, make sure to give your spouse a kiss and say "I love you."

2) Never end a phone call without saying "I love you." 

3) Make them a lunch to take to work and/or school. This is especially wonderful on those days when either of us are running late. And... if you make them a lunch you can leave little notes for them to surprise them when they open up their lunch. For example, one day I opened my lunch to this... told you the hubby was pretty awesome.

4) If they are having a rough day, do something nice for them. However, they don't have to be having a bad day in order to do something nice :). If Nate is having a rough day I like to run by the store on my way home and get him one of his favorite treats. On one particularly bad day of mine, Nate surprised me and I came home to this:

5) Leave them kind notes in places they will find them. Stick a note in their backpack where you know they will find it. My husband is an engineering major... so I would stick a note on his calculator :). If you leave for work before them, stick a note on their windshield or steering wheel.

6) If it snowed the night before, scrape off their car for them. Nate and I have both done this for each other and it is one of the best feelings when you get out to the car and find that you don't have to spend 5-10 minutes standing in the cold trying to get all that snow and ice off!

7) Make dinner! I usually get home first so I typically get dinner going, however, if you don't typically make dinner, it's always a nice surprise for your spouse who does! When Nate and I were both in school we made an effort to make dinner together and it was always fun. Making dinner was the time we could hang out before homework took over for the rest of the night. So whether you decide to help out with dinner or surprise them with dinner, your spouse will sure feel loved!

8) Send them a text letting them know you're thinking about them. I love the days when I get to lunch and have a sweet text from the hubby waiting for me. It doesn't have to be anything special, it can just be asking them how their day is going.

9) Listen. Make an effort to truly listen to your spouse. Even if it isn't something you are really interested in, pay attention and listen. Nate likes to talk to me about engineering... and usually everything he tells me goes way over my head but I do my best to listen anyway :). Today we have so many distractions: phones, ipads, computers, T.V., instagram, twitter, facebook, pinterest, etc. These are all wonderful things, but put them down when your spouse is trying to talk to you.

10) Pray for your spouse. Pray for them to be successful, pray for them to be happy, pray to know of ways that you can show your spouse you love them, and be thankful for the spouse you have.

YW Book of Mormon Cake Boss

In February I was put in charge of the YM/YW combined activity. I wanted to do something that everyone would enjoy and link it back to the gospel. As I was brainstorming for an activity I came across a blog here. Book of Mormon Cake Boss! It was super easy to plan and prepare.

First, I chose a couple stories from the Book of Mormon that the youth had to depict through decorating a cake. I picked 4 stories (you can do however many stories and whatever stories you would like). On a piece of paper, I wrote down the title of the story and where to find it in the scriptures.

Next, I bought the decorating supplies. Things we used for cake decorating were: frosting (white), m&m's, pretzels, twizzlers (pull apart ones), marshmallows, graham crackers, tootsie rolls, knives and bowls. We also took food coloring so the youth could color the frosting any way they wanted. If you or any other leaders have cake decorating supplies, make sure to bring them. The night before our mutual activity I baked two cakes 13X9 each. If we had four groups the plan was to cut them each in half to have 4 cakes, but we only needed two.

Set up was super easy. All I needed was three tables. One for each group of youth and one for the decorating supplies. Both were covered in disposable table clothes = super easy clean up!

The youth were split into two groups. I let each group pick a piece of paper with the story and where it could be found in the scriptures. The stories the youth chose were: The Tree of Life and Samuel the Lamanite. They were each provided with a Book of Mormon so they could look up the story if needed, then they were let loose on the decorating!

After both groups were done decorating their cakes, we had each group of youth tell us the scripture story they had chosen and decorated their cake based on. I was so impressed by the youth's knowledge of the scripture stories! Then a leader shared their testimony of the importance of the Book of Mormon. At the end we cut up the cakes and had those as our treat for the night. It was a great activity and I will definitely be doing it again!