What is YOUR Budget for Grocery Shopping?

Happy Thursday Everyone! I hope you have been having a much more successful week than I have.  I am sorry that I have not posted since Sunday, I have just been so overwhelmed with everything I needed to get done for the year that I have not had a chance to get everything done.  

Today I wanted to share an article that I read on one of my favorite blogs: A Bowl Full of Lemons.  How many of you are like me and really do not enjoy grocery shopping and have a hard time getting your rear out the door when you need to grocery shop? Out of all of the chores Justin and I have, this is by far my least favorite one.  Thankfully, there are things you can do to make your grocery shopping experience a little less daunting like making and sticking to a budget!

1. Create a Food Budget! 

Obvious, yes, but it’s important to start here. While the average American family spends 9-12% of its monthly income on food, the amount will vary based on your family size, ages of children, where you live, and whether or not you’re accommodating dietary restrictions. Start by looking at the receipts from the past several weeks and use them to calculate a baseline. Then try and lower it a bit over time as you’re disciplined to implement other steps. 

2. Pull out the budgeted money in cash.

It is very easy to go over budget when you use a card. Even a store gift card may not keep you in check unless it’s loaded with the exact amount you’re limited to for that shopping trip. But when you know you must have enough cash to cover your purchases when you get to the register, it forces you keep a running total as you put items in the cart. (Otherwise, it can be a little embarrassing!)

 3. Don’t carry your entire monthly grocery budget.

Take whatever you have budgeted for the month and divide it up into weeks if you shop weekly, two weeks if you shop bi-weekly, etc. Then bring only that amount and leave the rest at home. Always set aside a little margin for things you may need to pick up in the interim such as milk, bread, and eggs.

4. Shop less often.

If you are able to do this, it will cut down on the possibility of impulse purchases, simply because they’re not in your face as often. If you currently shop for groceries two or more times a week, change to once a week. If you shop once a week, try stretching it to every 10 days to two weeks.

5. Plan your menus ahead of time.

This method is another way to decrease impulse buying and also helps you strategically use the weekly grocery ads and plan your shopping trips. You can find lots of lovely printables for this, including ABFOL's Menu Planning Mini Kit. 

6. Shop at stores known for their lower everyday prices.

If it’s neither cost- nor time-effective for you to shop several different stores based on their ads, it can be helpful to frequent one that has consistently low prices. Depending on your location, this might include Aldi, Walmart, Meijer, or GFS. 

7. Use coupons.

Wait! Don’t run away! You don’t have to become an extreme couponer to implement this step, and neither does it mean you’ll be stocking up on a bunch of processed foods. Sometimes, a store will have coupons right in the ad for things you would buy anyway. And your favorite brands may share coupons if you sign up for emails or like their Facebook pages.  

8. Use Ziplist (or other grocery apps).

I appreciate Ziplist because it allows you to add recipes to your list then create a grocery list right from the recipes! So anytime you see a recipe that you like, you can add it to your list then add the groceries to your shopping car.  The best part about the app is it is essentially like having your paper checklist but it travels with you on your phone or tablet.  The best part? You can send the list to other people so they can grocery shop for you.  Isn't that cool? For a thorough review of Ziplist and its features, click here. 

9. Don’t turn up your nose at leftovers.

Once a week, have a smorgasbord dinner. Pull out the leftovers from the past four days or so along with condiments and some fresh veggies and fruit. It not only saves money but also purges the fridge. Plus it gives you a little break

10. Think outside the four walls of the grocery store.

Whether it’s growing your own produce, canning, keeping chickens for eggs, going in with another family on the purchase of a cow for beef, or purchasing in bulk and splitting it with a friend, there are many other ways to keep your grocery budget under control.

Is this article fun or what? It gives you some quick tips and ideas for how to manage and stay within a grocery budget! I love the idea and cannot wait to implement this in our household!

Question of the Day:

What budget system do you use for grocery shopping (or other household items)?

**This article does not belong to me, but belongs to ABFOL.  I have edited a few bullets to match my needs, but otherwise the concept is not my own.**

Thankful for a Lazy Sunday!

Happy Sunday Everyone! I trust that you have had a wonderful weekend so far.  Our weekend has been filled with shopping, cookie baking, family time and snow! It has been snowing since midnight on Friday night and it is just now slowing down.  I think altogether we ended up with around six inches of snow and it is beautiful!  At least I can officially sing ♫ It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas ♫!

Friday my mom and I both took the day off of work to catch up on Christmas shopping and do our annual cookie baking.  We had originally planned to bake cookies next weekend, but due to conflicts it worked out better for us to go Friday.  I am so glad too because I am almost 100% done with shopping. 

Saturday was also filled with cookie baking and family time.  Oh and snow.  Did I mention snow? I swear it did not stop snowing at all for the entire day.  Saturday I got myself up early and made my way to my sister-in-laws house to bake cookies with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew! I think by the time were were done, we ended up with over twenty dozen cookies! And we baked all of them in a matter of seven hours! Can you believe it?

 

As you can tell, I moved non-stop for two days, so today Justin and I spent time around the house catching up on some much needed chores and getting some Christmas gifts wrapped.  I love when we have "lazy" Sundays because it gives us some time together without any distractions.  I often find myself longing for a day with no plans and I am glad that we had one fall right in the middle of our busy schedule.

Question of the Day:
What is your favorite thing to do on a "lazy" Sunday?

To leave you with a smile, here is Leilah all wrapped up in a blanket.  She did it all by herself.

Blog Topic Idea Series: Part III

Happy Thursday! It's that time of month where I share some fun blog topic ideas for you to possibly use for your blog posts!

+ Do a Gift Guide.  Inspired from PB Fingers and Little Baby Garvin.  With the Holiday right around the corner, this is the perfect place to share some good ideas with your readers and possibly get some good ideas for yourself!

+ Product Review Posts.  Inspired from More Than Mommy.  Have a product that you are not 100% about but wanted to try? Chances are your readers are in the same boat as you are and your review can help them make their decision.

+ Host a "Little Known Facts" Post.  Inspired from FunFactz Blog.  This is a blog post where you can share any facts that about something that you think people may not know much about.  You could also use the post to post little known facts about yourself as a way for your readers to get to know you.

+ Have a significant other or friend host a blog post.  Readers often are curious about your life and about every part of it.  This will allow them to see a different side of you from the eyes of another person

+ If I Won the Lottery Post.  Inspired by Lone Prarie.  Take a minute to talk about what you would do if you won the lottery.  This is also a good way for readers to get to know you.

So did you find any of these ideas inspiring? If so, I'd love to hear from you!

Previous Posts:

• Part II
• Part I

Weekend Recap

Hello Everyone! I trust you had wonderful weekend! Ours was filled with all kinds of fun things and I'd like to share those with you today!

Friday:

I was inspired by one of my fellow bloggers to sign up for volunteer work in my local area and Friday night was my first opportunity to help serve my community.  For the past 20 years the City of Auburn Hills has hosted a fun tree lighting ceremony in the Downtown Area and they needed volunteers to help run the program.

During the ceremony, they had all kinds of fun events! They had a free "sleigh" ride for anyone willing to stand in line, s'mores around a fire, Santa Clause and Mrs. Clause, cookies and hot cocoa with live music and face painting for the children.  During my time serving I helped to pass out cookies and hot cocoa and helped to direct the people waiting in line for the sleigh ride.  Michigan has been seeing some chilly weather the last week, so I was actually surprised at how many people stood out in the cold to wait to see the horses, but I'm glad they did.

I love seeing the joy that children have when they see things like Christmas lights, Santa Clause and horses. It reminded  me that I need to always see the joy in the small things.

Saturday:

Saturday my girlfriends and I made our way out to see a production of The Nutcracker.  We had originally planned to go see a professional version of the ballet, but Sarah found out about local company putting it on and it was a better price and better time than we originally planned.

 Overall, the ballet was wonderful.  There were dancers of all ages and it was fun to see how much talent some of those little ones have.  I honestly think that one of them was only four years old! He was my absolute favorite because he was so tiny and just so adorable.

After the ballet, we took a few moments to grab pictures of us holding ballet poses (can you tell who was a ballerina before?) before we made our way to Bar Louie for dinner.  Of course the Michigan State v. Ohio State game was one at Bar Louie so I watched a few moments of the game! I'm not a huge football person, but anytime MSU plays and I can watch, I always watch as much as I can.  

Such a fun night out with my girls! I'm hoping we can make it a tradition for years to come!

Sunday:

We spent Sunday afternoon with Justin's family checking out The Dickens Festival in Downtown Holly.  If you live anywhere in the Holly area, I would take a few hours to check out the Dickens Festival.  They basically turn Downtown Holly into The Christmas Carol with carolers in full costume and all kinds of fun events and games for children.

After visiting the Dickens Festival, we made our way out to go cut down our Christmas Tree! This is seriously one of my most favorite traditions that Justin and I have because I have never really had real trees growing up.  Traditionally we go to a family friend's tree farm, but he did not open it up this year due to his wife being ill {if you are religious could you please say a prayer for her? She really needs them}.  We decided to try a tree farm in the Holly Area, but when we got there, the pickings were very slim and they were very expensive.

We ended up going to Candy Cane Tree Farm to see if we could find any better trees and they had such a great selection of trees!

After looking at what felt like 300 trees, we finally decided on a tree.  Because we go with Justin's family, we always get three trees: one for us, one for his parents and one for his sisters family.  It is always so fun to see how different trees are that we each get.  His parents got a shorter more round tree, his sister and their family got a tall and skinny tree and Justin and I ended up with a huge tree.  I swear it did not look that big before we cut it down, but I love it.  It's a bit crooked but it added just enough character to make the tree fun.

 The night ended with us heading to his parents house for pizza and to warm up since it was so cold outside yesterday! Such a fun weekend!

Tell me about your weekend! Anything fun or exciting happen?

Glittered JOY Letters

Happy Friday! I hope your week went well and that you have some fun things planned for the weekend! Our weekend will be filled with all kinds of festivities - including getting our Christmas Tree!

Today I wanted to share another one of the crafts from the 10 Festive Christmas Crafts that I made with you! The original idea comes from The Pinning Momma and this craft is super easy to make and does not take too much time or money.  

What You Need:

• Cardboard Letters that spell your word - in my case J,O,Y
• Gold Acrylic Paint & foam paint brush
• Mod Podge
• Double Sided Tape
• Glitter Card Stock
• Hole Punch 

To Make the Letters

1. Paint your letters with the gold paint.  I used Gold Acrylic paint and did two coats.  One coat of paint would suffice, but I found that the letters looked more radiant with two coats.

2. While your paint is drying, take time to cut your card stock into 3/4" thick strips.  3/4" is the size that I used for my stripes, but if you want your stripes to be larger or smaller, feel free to cut your card stock to match your size requirements

3. Once your stripes have been cut out, align them on each letter to your desired width and use your double sided tape to stick each strip down to the letter.

4. Use your Mod Podge to start gluing your stripes down.  I found that it worked best to get one side of the letter down (like the front) before moving to a different side.  It makes it easier because the paper will stick more soundly when you go to put a fold in it.  Note: My stripes went all the way around the letter, but they were not evenly spaced on the back.  It was very difficult to get the card stock to bend the right way

5. Once all of your strips are glued down, put a light coat of Mod Podge on top to help them stay in place.  This also gives the stripes a more glossy finish

6. For the polka dots, use your hole punch to make a bunch of circles.  I did not use my double sided tape to stick these down; rather, I used a light coat of Mod Podge to stick them down.  When adding the polka dots, do small sections at a time, otherwise your glue will dry before you can get them all on.  Once all of your polka dots are glued down, again do a light coat of Mod Podge so they do not peel off.  

7. Let your paint dry and you are all finished! They can be used as a stand alone decoration or can be easily hung with a command strip!

I hope you enjoyed this craft! If you have any questions about the process feel free to ask! For a link to the original tutorial and to other Christmas Crafts, feel free to check out my Christmas Board on Pinterest.

Happy Weekend! 

Our 2013 Advent Calendar & Linky Party

Hello there! How is your week going so far? Mother Nature cannot decide what weather we should be experiencing here and has been all over the place this past week.

My goal this week is to share some of my complete Christmas projects with you and today I wanted to share our 2013 Advent Calendar! If you can remember from my 10 Festive Tutorials Post, this was one of the projects that I wanted to try! So here is my interpretation of the Envelope Advent Calendar.  

What You Need to Make this Advent Calendar:

• Glitter Card Stock in your colors of choice
• Circle Label Stickers
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Corner Rounder
• Ruler
• Super Sticky Tape
• Paper Folding Tool
• Hole Punch 
• Ribbon

To Make Your Envelopes: 

For this calendar, I ended up making me envelops from scratch by following this tutorial.  I do not have the Envelop Punch Board system though, so I had to draw the lines and do all of the cutting by hand.  

To start, cut out 6"x 6" square pieces of paper.  Once the envelop is finished you will end up with a roughly 3.5"x 3.5" envelop.  I wanted them to be a consistent size, so I made sure to cut all of the squares in equal sizes.

Step 1: Measure 2.75" from each end of the square and draw a small dash with your pencil.  These will be used as a reference point when you go to draw your lines for the folding

Step 2: Connect the dots! Use a ruler to draw straight lines connecting the opposite dashes to each other.  When you're finished, your square should look something like the picture in square 2.

Step 3: Cut out your triangles you created when connecting your dots.  By doing this, you are creating the flaps of your envelop

Step 4 (Optional): Use your corner rounder to round the corners of your envelop.  This adds a smoother feel when the envelop is all closed up.

Once you have your envelop cut and corner rounded, take a paper folding tool and trace along the lines on your paper.  If you do not have a paper folding tool, the blunt side of a butter knife works perfectly.  Again, I used my ruler to get straight lines on my envelop.

Fold your envelop on the lines you just created and stick three of your sides down to create the envelop.

Making the Envelop Inserts:

Using your leftover card stock from the envelopes, cut rectangles out to use as your inserts.  In order to have room to hole punch the envelopes, I made my inserts 3" x 3.5" and hand wrote all of our activities on the non-glittered size of the envelopes.

You can see a few of my ideas on the cards in the picture below.  A few of our events are specifically geared to events we have planned in the month of December because we otherwise would not have time to do anything that day.  Luckily, almost all of these events are Christmas centered so they fit perfectly with the theme.

After I my cards were written out, I took time to hole punch my envelopes to get ready to string them with the ribbon.  This part was a bit strange for me because I needed to hole punch the bottom of the envelop in order for it to hang properly.  Each envelope received two holes in the bottom which I strung the ribbon through: back to front then front to back.  

After all of the envelopes were strung to the ribbon, I made the stickers myself.  Originally I wanted to buy some of the thickers like the one in the original tutorial but I could not find them anywhere and opted to do them myself.  I used PicMonkey to get the font idea then hand drew each number for each tag.  They ended up turning out pretty cute and I think I may use this font for other crafts in the future.

The last step in the process was to put the stickers on my envelopes and hang it up on the wall! If you're lucky, the stickers will hold the envelop flap shut all by themselves, but if by some chance they do not stick well (due to the glitter paper) this is where you can use your super sticky tape to hold the envelopes shut.

That is my 2013 Advent Calendar! I cannot wait to try some of the fun things on the calendar and I cannot wait to share them with you!

Do you have a fun advent calendar you'd like to share? 

Make sure to share it with us through the Linky Party! 

Our Thanksgiving Holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving... well belated Thanksgiving anyway! Our Thanksgiving Holiday was filled with time with family, delicious food and a ton of relaxing.  On Thanksgiving, we got up in the morning and got ready to head out to my in-law's house for an early Thanksgiving lunch.

Justin's mom is such a delicious cook and I look forward every.single.year to eating Thanksgiving dinner at their house.  I especially love her sweet potatoes and corn bread casserole! I'm hoping I can get a few recipes from her so that when we have Friendsgiving next year, I can make both of those delicious recipes.

Justin and I spent some time with his family watching the football game, eating delicious food and playing with our niece and nephew.  I love spending time with the little ones because they are full of joy and are always so happy to see you. 

This time I spent at least an hour play Play-Doh with my nephew.  I forgot how wonderful it is to play with Play-Doh! I even went so far to ask Justin to buy me some for my stocking.

Did you have snow on Thanksgiving this year? No? Well we did! It was crazy to wake up and see the ground covered in snow and to see the snow falling.  I love seeing snow and honestly it made me super excited for winter season.  Hopefully this year we will get more snow than we did last year! I think we had a grand total of ten inches of snow all season.  That is pretty wimpy compared to years past.

After we spent time at my in-law's house, we made our way over to my parents house to have "dinner" with my family.  Justin and I were both pretty full from eating with his family, so he did not have much to eat and I only had a few bites of everything.  I cannot pass up stuffing when I am presented with it!

After dinner, we all enjoyed desserts.  I made a batch of my edible acorns again and they were gone within ten minutes of being put out.  I count that as a huge success.  My grandma brought a delicious cake and I also brought a home made pumpkin pie.  I switched up the recipe a little bit this year and it turned out pretty good.  I think I will continue making it that way from now on {or at least until I find a different recipe to try}. 

After dinner my family played a round of Russian Rummy.  This year I opted out of the game because I was not in the mood for a game of cards, but it was fun to watch and listen to everyone laughing during the game.

While everyone played cards, I took the opportunity to play a few rounds on my mom's piano.  The have an old upright piano that I played for years {and years} as a kid and it was nice to sit down and try reading the music again.  After about twenty minutes of fooling around, I was able to get a few Christmas songs out.  I'm thinking that I will need to get my keyboard out when I have a minute and start playing again.  It is amazing how therapeutic it was to play.

After everyone left, Justin and I made our way home, but we did not get there when we expected to arrive...because we stopped at Kohl's on our way home.  Justin's mom asked for some nice sweaters for Christmas so I figured it could be a good idea to stop by Kohl's and look for a few sweaters at Black Friday prices and I'm glad we did! We ended up getting a TON of things for both his mom and for ourselves.

I have never shopped at Kohl's on Black Friday so I was shocked at how cheap so many of the items were and I was excited to get a few things to update my wardrobe and Justin's wardrobe while we were there.  Plus, I found a copy of Monopoly Deal for $2! I played this game for the first time when we went Up North over the 4th of July and I LOVE it! 

Question of the Day: 

Where is your favorite place to shop for Black Friday? What deals did you get this year?

Lions - Tigers - 10,000 - Oh My!

Hello! How is your Tuesday going? I hope it is going swell and you are having a nice day.  My day started a bit rough with one of the cats getting sick in the middle of the night (2:47am to be precise) and getting a bloody nose on my way into work; however, they day has turned out pretty nicely and should continue to do so!

This post is going to be brief because I just wanted to share some exciting news with y'all! 

RunwithJackabee has officially hit 10,000 views! I am so overjoyed and so thankful for all of you and your support as I work on this blog and share my life with you.

I have been working on my goals for the blog for 2014 and the very first goal on the list was to hit 10,000 views by June.  I never imagined that I would be hitting the goal this soon, let alone seven months earlier than I expected. 

Sooooooooooo.....

Thank you.  Thank you for following my blog, thank you for reading my posts, thank you for your feedback & thank you for stopping by! I am always grateful for anyone and everyone who takes a moment to read my blog.

Infantly Cute Boutique's Very First Craft Show!

It's Tuesday! Where in the world did the past weekend go? I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you enjoyed time with family and friends eating delicious food!

Today I wanted to share with you the very first craft show that Infantly Cute Boutique participated in! We have always done Mom2Mom sales and have been successful, but at the recommendation of several people, we decided it would be appropriate to try a craft show. 

If you have never been to a craft show, then I would totally recommend checking one out!  Plus, you can search by state for craft shows, so it will be super easy for you to find one in your area! 

The craft show we ended up going to is the State Road Elementary Arts & Crafts Show.  This show was recommended to us by another crafter we have worked with at the past two Little Beans Jeans events (both Spring and Fall).  She said this would be the perfect opportunity for us to try a craft show because it is an awesome show and the people are very friendly.  She was definitely right!

Of course, we could not go to a craft show without at least shopping around a little bit! We kept seeing people walk around with these super adorable wooden reindeer and Janelle and I kept asking over and over where they got them until we were able to locate the person and make our way over to his shop.  When we got there he had a small selection left and we made sure to grab a few for Christmas Decorations!

I ended up with two medium sized ones and three miniature ones while Janelle ended up with two large ones.  I got the aptly named "itty bitty" reindeer for my desk at work and the medium sized ones for decorations around our apartment.  Once I get them up, I will for sure share with you!

I also got a pretty wreath decoration made up of a vintage window frame and vintage ice skates.

Of course when I was trying to take pictures of everything, Leilah got all of in my business and had to sniff everything.  At one point, I wear she was going to grab an itty bitty reindeer and run off with it.  She is such a mischievous kitten and I love it.

The craft show ended up being one of the better sales that we have done.  It was so interesting to see such a different dynamic there versus the Mom2Mom sales, but I loved seeing all of the different reactions to our product.  I always enjoy watching customers take our products and mix and match them in ways that I would never have thought.  It is often the customers that give us great gift set ideas! 

The best part of this sale is 10% of every Infantly Cute Boutique sale in November is going to help raise money for treatment for a little baby boy with Leukemia.

Question of the Day:

Have you ever been to a craft show? What cool crafts have you purchased?