Penny Princess's New Budget

Looking at our budget, we recently realized that we were not doing a good job of being a penny pinching family, and we really needed to make a change.  We have started using Dave Ramsey's envelope system and paying for everything in cash. 

One big place where we've had to really pay attention is in food. We used to spend $150 a week at the grocery store for just two of us. Even then, we would also eat out several times a week. It all added up to us spending wayyyy too much money on food!

Well, now that we are working on our budget and spending, we cannot do either of those things. We budget for one, maybe two times of eating out a month because, let's be honest, things happen. And if we don't use that money in a given month, it's added to our date night find!  And our food budget: $50 a week, plus $50 extra a month to buy meat. 

We cannot afford to eat processed food on that budget, so we are eating pretty much all fresh food.  This gives us the added health benefit of eating healthier. 

I am not a couponer or super deal hunter or any of those things, so we are doing this only using regular sales and regular store prices. 

99% of our shopping is done at Aldi, which has great prices to begin with, so that helps a lot, but we also work hard to stay on budget.

We can't be the only ones in this predicent, so I will be posting all of our grocery trips and meal plans to show how others can do it too! We find most of our recipes on Pinterest, so I'll link when I can! 

I hope I can inspire some of you to cut down your grocery budget as well!

6 Months of Joy: Month 1

I can't believe it, my Little Bird turned 6 months old yesterday! That time has gone by so fast! I just wanted to sit and look at all her old pictures and remember how small she was!

I haven't been good about writing down her accomplishments or dates on pictures or anything, so I figured that now, before I forget it all, I would record my little sweetheart's life so far.  This is the new form of the baby book ;) I have so many pictures, I'm going to divide the posts up by month.   Enjoy the baby pictures!!!

10 Week Clean House: Week One

It's the first week of the Ten Week Challenge! Have you started? If not, feel free to jump on the bandwagon and get your house clean!

Ryan & I started with our first room: the Garage.

10 Week Clean House: The Details

So you've decided to take my challenge? Or maybe you just wanted to learn more.  Either way, I'm excited to share the details with you!

How It Works:

10 Week Clean House: The Challenge

Our family moved 2 months ago from Texas to Oklahoma, but looking at the state of our house, you'd think we moved last week. I could blame it on the baby, but truth be told we are just kinda lazy and used to living with boxes. It would be SOOO nice to have a clean house and feel really moved in.

Who else's house could use some attention? Maybe it's from moving or from several kids or just 20 years of stuff in the house. I'm sure so many people would love a house makeover! 

So I challenge you, join me for the next ten weeks to get your house in order. Just a small amount of time a day, for two and a half months, and you will have the house you always dreamed of, and the habits to keep it clean!

Want to learn more? Click here for the details of how it works!

My Favorite Mommy Moment

I've been a mom for a little over a year. My baby's been in my arms for four and a half months.  I've seen my share of baby smiles, giggles, and squeels of delight. Little Bird has rolled both directions and plays with all sorts of toys. I get to snuggle with her for hours a day, but none of these things compares with my favorite moment as a mom.

When my daughter was less than 18 hours old and ewe were still in the hospital, my favorite moment happened. 

It was early in the morning. Ryan had left to go to a presentation (yes, the day after Little Bird was born) and it was just the two of us in the room.  A student nurse came into the room to take her vitals (as they did a million times while we were there!). She was trying to take her temperature, but Little Bird was crying and upset. She asked if I could help by holding my little girl.  Of course! She handed little girl to me, I gave her a little hug and a kiss, and she immediately calmed down. "Awe, she already loves her mom!" 

You know how in the movie "The Ginch Who Stole Christmas" they say "and his little heart grew 2 sizes that day." That's how I feel with every smile, giggle, and excited wiggle. Well that day, in that moment, my heart grew ten sizes.

That was the moment I knew that I could do this. The moment I knew that no matter how hard it got, I loved this little girl so much that I would do anything for her. My favorite moment as a Mommy.

2 Months!

On Sunday,  my beautiful Little Bird turned 2 months old!

She is such a smart girl! She has already learned to roll over from her belly to her back.  She loves to smile and giggle and squeal in delight! She also loves to "talk", to mom, dad, grandma, and her toys. She has even begun to use consonants, and has, on accident, said "Mama"!!!

She is working on learning to sit up on her own and we think she is even beginning to experience teething.

Of course, we had to have her monthly photo session!  I never posted her 1 month photo, so here's one and two months!

The official One Month Picture

The official Two Month Picture

Runner-Up 2 Month Picture!

 I can't believe how fast she is growing! At her two month appointment today she was

Little Bird's Birth Story

One thing I loved doing while pregnant was reading pregnancy, birth, and parenting blogs.  Some things that really intrigued me were the birth stories. I don't know why. Maybe I was looking for advise on how to do it or confidence that if these women could do it, so could I.  (Yes, I was a bit scared of giving birth, I don't know how you could not be.) I just loved hearing these women's adventures and how they resulted in the birth of a beautiful new baby!

As you can imagine, I have waited months to add my own baby's birth story to the stores of various experiences with childbirth, so without further ado: Little Bird's Birth Story. (in great detail!)

Pregnancy Pictures

One thing I meant to do (but wasn't very good at) was to take pictures each week of my pregnancy.  I did take a bunch of pictures and decided to put them all together for you to see how everything progressed!

Major Changes

It has been a LONG time since I posted on here. I know, I'm a slacker! Life got so out of hand last year with the wedding, honeymoon, moving basically three times, starting a new job, and, then in June, this:

Granola Mama

I consider myself pretty modern. I'm constantly attached to my cell phone, I rely on GPS to get me anywhere new, even my grocery list is on my phone (in a really cool app where Ryan & I can both see/edit it on our respective phones!) so what is it about motherhood that has made me revert to how our grandmothers did things?

Don't get me wrong, I'm constantly searching the internet to make sure her poop is the right color or she's sleeping the right amount, I'm not trying to shield her from modern conveniences, but in some ways, our grandmas had it right, and I'd prefer to do it their way, so call me granola.

What does that actually mean, "granola
Mom"? To me, it means parenting more naturally. I know some people have used it to mean being hippie-like, like its a bad thing. I really think using the most natural methods possible for my little girl is the best choice I can make. 

So what type of things do I do? I have created a list of the things which might label me "granola" and will be writing a dedicated post, or multiple posts, about each. So for now, here is my list:

Natural Childbirth

Breastfeeding

Co-Sleeping (really bed sharing)

Baby wearing

Cloth Diapering

Baby Led Weaning (when it gets to that time) 

Attachment Parenting

Now, don't get mad and think that I'm saying this is the only way to parent and any other way is wrong. I am very aware this is one way to parent and is definitely not easy (washing poop in the washing machine every day? Yes, there's definitely an easier way); these are just our choices as to what we believe are best.

Centerpieces, Complete!

(This post was written over a year ago and I forgot to post it! I'm sorry!)

Hello blog world!!!

I'm so sorry I've been neglecting you! I promise to do my best to be a better blogger now that I'm done with student teaching! (Yes, you read that right. I am done with everything I need to do for college!!!!!! )

So, on Sunday I took the huge mess of things that I have been accumulating over last year to make my center pieces, spread it all over Ryan's table and got to work!

Flowers :)

Ok, so I know this summer I posted about flowers and was kinda super confused about what to do for them, but I have made a final decision!!! So final, that we even bought a bouquet!!! It is at my parent's house right now and it is soooooo beautiful!!!

I didn't want to use a TON of flowers because they can get really expensive, really fast, so I also found another way to decorate the reception space that will look fabulous for pretty cheap! (but I'm getting ahead of myself...)

A Honeymoon!!!

What's the most exciting part of a wedding to plan WITH your fiance? The honeymoon of course!!! But when it came to planning our honeymoon, Ryan & I didn't think we were going to be able to have a honeymoon! He has an internship next summer which will take up almost the entire summer! We managed to find ONE WEEK between the wedding and starting the internship to take a honeymoon during!!! So, we got planning!

Ryan's Ring!

Recently, we did something REALLY exciting, I bought Ryan's wedding band!!! Although I won't see the actual ring for a few weeks and then the finished product for awhile after that, I'm still excited and love looking at it (online).

We really wanted to get Ryan something unique! (My set is super unique so it had to match the uniqueness factor). Well, I saw those awesome fingerprint rings on pinterest & Ryan LOVED them!

Half way there!!!

So this post is just to say, WE ARE HALFWAY TO OUR WEDDING DAY!!!!

Now, I guess this is normally a source of excitement for people (I don't know), but they are like ahhh its only (insert low number) of weeks/months away!!! Not us...

Dress Drama - Part 2

Ok, so if you remember last time, I decided to get rid of the original dress and start over with shopping.

Last Wednesday, my mom & I went to the shop in Dallas where my sister bought her wedding dress.  We explained the WHOLE situation to them & the consultant was really understanding.  When I told her that I wanted the dress to be white (rather than Ivory), she got it in her mind that I needed lace.

Dress Drama - Part 1

So, back in January (a whole 4 days after getting engaged), I went dress shopping.  I found a dress I kinda liked and the consultant pushed and pushed and I bought it that day.  That night, after realizing what had happened, I got really stressed & started crying about it! When I thought back to it, she had pushed us not only into the dress, but also into a veil I had never seen, a headpiece I didn't even see on me, an underskirt that was the wrong style & just chose a dress size for me! Well that really upset me & I had a HUGE breakdown!

Sampling the Cake

A while back, I posted about cake ideas I had and hinted that we would be tasting a cake soon! Well, we did have our tasting (a very different experience than other people have told me about), and I'm kinda excited to share about it!

One Stressed Out Bride!

Warning: This is just a rant post to explain/get out some of my feelings. (Yes, I know, by the pattern today should be a non wedding related post, but I don't have anything else to post right now!)
I am getting married on May 25th, 2013 (yes, just over 10 months away), but I am already super stressed. Reasons why:

1. Looking at wedding sites makes me feel like I need to get everything done NOW (which I really don't, just feel like it).

2. I am trying to DIY a lot of things to save money. DIY means putting time into it. Which is alright sometimes, but I cannot make place cards until I know who is coming, and I will not know who is coming until I get RSVPs and I will not get RSVPs until I send out invites and I cannot send out invites until the proper time (6-8 weeks is the given "proper" time, but I am sending them earlier - March-ish) - see how this all created stress?

3. I've already been engaged for over 6 months!! At this point, most people are either 1. at their wedding or 2. halfway there. I, on the other hand, still have 10 months left! Maybe its stressing me out because we haven't celebrated being engaged (just jumped into wedding planning), but mom is finally planning something for later this fall (better late than never I guess).

4. I am anticipating being SUPER busy these last two semesters and don't know if I will have any wedding planning time (plus, I have another event to throw in late April/early May). Reasons why I will be super busy: Finishing off a teaching degree requires a full time commitment 3 days a week fall and 5 days a week spring semester. I have the honor of serving as President of my sorority for this next year (reason I am throwing the event).  I will continue to work this fall. AND I have to find time for projects/homework/certification exams/a relationship with my fiance. PLUS any leftover wedding things I don't finish this summer... I makes me want to take a nap just thinking about it...

So, how do you deal with your busy schedule?