Healthy Branscoms

Take care of your heart

2012-02-24T05:00:00.005-06:00

Did you know that February is Heart Health Month? Time to take good care of your heart! Shaklee has a new and improved CoQ Heart formula that is AWESOME! I just got my Dad some because he has a history of heart bypass and I want him to be healthy! :)

New Triple Strength CoQHeart with Q-Trol delivers a powerful 100 mg of CoQ10 plus resveratrol in a bioavailable softgel. CoQ10 is vital for energy production in the heart and promotes and protects healthy arteries, while resveratrol helps relax blood vessels to promote healthy blood flow.*

CoQHeart supports energy production in the heart, and promotes and protects healthy arteries. New CoQHeart has three times more Coenzyme Q10 and Resveratrol, both of which provide potent support for optimal heart health. And you can save 10% off Member price when you place CoQHeart on Autoship. Contact me to learn more!

Do you know someone who needs some extra love to keep a healthy heart? :)

HUGE time wasters

2012-02-22T05:00:00.055-06:00

Do you find yourself wasting time or wondering where all of the hours in your day go? I hear all of the time how most people would love to have more hours in the day to get all of the things that they need done. I work a full time job on the night shift, have a successful business, 3 kids, and a husband. And I am here to tell you, it can be done! You just have to plot your time right. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. It is what you do with those 24 hours that makes all of the difference.

So, I want to tell you about some of the biggest time sucks. Things you might not even have thought about.

-Your cell phone. How often do you hear it go off and check it to see if you got a text when it is just another email, possibly spam. First of all, unsubscribe to spam emails. Complete waste of time. How much time do you spend checking your phone? I have a secret to admit. I keep mine on silent most of the time. I just have no time to check it and I call people back who call me. I try to even keep it put up when I am home so that I can focus on my family.

-Clutter! Do you have clutter throughout your home, work area, or car? You may be spending a lot of time shuffling clutter from one area to another, trying to find a simple item because it is buried. Why? Do you honestly need that clutter? Let go of it! Bag it up and get rid of it! Don't waste your time on clutter anymore.

-doing too many things at once. Make a list! Make a plan of action on what you are going to attack, accomplish and take care of first. Cross them off. Make your list reasonable and attainable. And RELAX when your list is accomplished. Don't forget to reward yourself by relaxing and doing something you enjoy.

-set your work hours. Do not bring work home and if you check your work email, only do it once. I set up specific hours that I work my business and I stick with them. I even set my timer on my microwave. That way when my work is done, I can focus on my family.

-if you are leisurely chatting on the phone, don't sit. Move! Clean something, fold laundry, whatever. We have a coaching call once a week for an hour for my business. I am NOT sitting. I am packing school lunches for the next day, folding laundry, or sweeping the kitchen floor.

-taking showers is a complete waste of time. Yep, you heard me. I listen to my training cd's while I am in the shower and I also CLEAN the shower when I am in there. HUGE time saver.

-procrastination. Figure out what it is that you are procrastinating and then tackle it full on! You will feel SO much better when that task is finished and you will most likely have more energy to tackle the rest on your list.

-TV. I gave up tv last fall and haven't watched a single tv show for MONTHS. Nothing. I am serious. I just have NO time. I love reading and I do that instead of watching tv. Occasionally I will watch movies with my family but that is it. TV serves NO purpose. I am serious! What are you really getting out of reality tv? No thank you.

-your computer. Pinterest, facebook, twitter, stupid online games. What are they doing for you? Are you REALLY relaxed when you get off of your computer and you just burned up 4 hours surfiing? You STILL have things you really need to get done and you feel guilty and overwhelmed. And I KNOW this is possible, especially with pinterest. Also, try to only keep one window open on your computer at a time. Focus on that task, shut it and move on to the next.

I stay busy and do all that I do because we want to be financially independent and debt free. Instead of watching tv and wasting time, I am using that time to run a business and make money for my family. I am sure that 10 years from now when my kids have college funds, have been taught to be wise with money, they will be glad I didn't watch tv and ran a business that left us financially independent and debt free. :)

What are some time wasters you can think of? Do you need to get on track with your family and your life?

Trading in my handcuffs for yoga pants!

2012-02-20T09:01:00.000-06:00

Okay, so here is my news. In 2 weeks I will be trading in my handcuffs for yoga pants! That is right, I am going to become a Work at Home Mom! I am so excited! For those of you who have been following me on facebook and my blog here know that it was my biggest goal!

So, I am turning in the duty boots, the BDU pants, the handcuffs and going to be blogging and working my Shaklee business. In the past year we were able to pay off over 26k in debt that were my student loans, and our vehicle. We are now in a place where I can just work from home and I am so excited. Nervous but excited! :) I was in my job field for 6 years and leaving that is foreign to me because I really loved that job. Of course nothing beats being at home with my kiddos and still making the same amount of money!!

So everyday is casual Friday! ha! Yoga pants and hair in a pony tail if I want. No more 12 hour night shifts that leave me exhausted and physically sick. No more driving to work in the snow. No more worrying about my kids when I am at work. I am just so excited!!!!! Can you tell? :) haha

So this is my vision. Me, my laptop and my kiddos. Yay!!!!! No more paying $150 a month in gas for just me to go to work. No more daycare!!! No more. I don't even know what to do. I think I am jumping out of my skin with excitement!! :) Now I am sure not everyday will be my vision. I know it will be tough some days being home full time. But that is why I am still working my business and will be able to take trips, have meetings, etc. Next month I am going on a business trip to Long beach, California! :) So those little getaways will be fun!

So, do you have any advice for me on survival? Tips of the trade! :)

Money Matters Monday: Shop your Home!

2012-02-20T05:00:00.047-06:00

Hello my Money Matters Monday savers! Are you seeing results? Are you feeling better about getting more organized about your finances?

Today we are going to talk about shopping your home! You are probably thinking, what is she talking about?

I mean use up EVERYTHING in your house before you buy more. If you had a creepy pantry grocery store in your basement, use it up! If you have 40 toothpastes in your house, use them up! If you have 7 laundry soaps, use them up!

Lets start in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Make an inventory, and menu plan and use it up! Shop here first and save your hard earned dollars.

Next go to your laundry room. Use up every tide stick, laundry booster, laundry soap, etc. AS you need more, add it to your weekly grocery list. NO special trips. Plan ahead!

Next go to where you keep your cleaning products. Use them UP! Unless they are crappy and harmful anyway, then go get rid of them and buy some Shaklee healthy home products. You will love them. They last forever too. Like months and months and months. Saves you money! Instead of having 75 different cleaners for 75 different things you can use one cleaner for nearly EVERYTHING with shaklee. Hello? Saves you money! And space!

Now go to your bathroom. Use up ALL of your make up before you buy more. Unless it goes past the expiration date. Then just throw it away. And if you have MASS amounts of make up, you should probably purge anyway. Most of it is probably all expired anyway. Do not buy ANY more unless it is gone. Why have 5 different types of mascara? You only need one at a time! Put all of your toilet paper rolls under your sinks and buy them when needed! Keep a cleaner and cleaning rags under your sinks for easy clean up and saves time! Go through your shampoos and conditioners. How many do you have? USE them up!! Do not buy any until they are all gone. AND DO NOT have a creepy pantry grocery store in your bathroom cabinet either. You do not need 75 toothpastes, 100 toothbrushes, 50 shampoos, etc. I don't care if CVS or Walgreens PAID you to take it out of their store. It is just wasteful. And time consuming. Go hug your kids and play with them. You don't need to be a creepy grocery pantry shopper!!

Now go out to your garage. Do you have 50 bottles of oil, windshield wiper fluid, or 9 screwdrivers in your truck like my husband? Take an inventory of what you have and use it up! This also goes for fertilizer, yard seed, whatever. Use it up! Get organized so you can find your screwdrivers and not buy one every time you need one. Sorry honey, I had to put that out there. You are GUILTY! :) Love you. :)

Now go to your wallet. Pull out ALL of your gift cards and send them to me. Wait, I am kidding! :) Make a list of what you have and how much is left on them. And use them up! :) Buy things you NEED! It will save you money and you can put THAT money towards your debt! I know that doesn't sound very fun. But do you know how much fun you are going to have when you are debt free?

Now go to your closet. Are you tired yet? Go through your closet and look at all 10 of your black pairs of shoes that look the same. And do not buy anymore black shoes EVER. Do you own 5 pairs of athletic shoes? Do not buy more. Wear what you have. Take all of your hangers and flip them around. As you wear things, put them back normally. Then after 5-6 months take the clothes you didn't wear that the hangers are still flipped around and donate it or sell it. It will be so much faster to get ready when your closet is not cluttered. Plus you won't be tempted to buy another cute shirt from old navy because you KNOW you still have hangers flipped around you can wear.

Stay home! Shop your house first. ONLY run errands on the day you go to the grocery store. Get gas that day, hit the library and borrow your FREE books, movies, and CD's and then go grocery shopping. Stay home and enjoy your kids! Play a game with them and cuddle with them and watch a movie from your library. Or splurge and get a red box! :)

Do you shop your home? Do you own 10 black shirts, and 15 pairs of jeans? Do you have any great ideas this week? I can't wait to see what you have to share!

Easiest and BEST homemade marinara Sauce and Homemade pasta FAIL

2012-02-15T05:00:00.027-06:00

Hi blogger friends! :) I HAVE to share this with you. You will NEVER go back to storebought over priced marinara sauce! I know I won't! Have you ever heard of the book called Clara's Kitchen? She has the cutest Youtube videos too! I just LOVE her cookbook. Here is her recipe. But seriously, buy her book or get it at your library. It is great!

Homemade Marinara Sauce

2 T. olive oil
6 oz tomato paste, homemade or canned
40 oz canned, diced tomatoes, or 5 cups fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 large unpeeled garlic
2 dried bay leaves
2 fresh basil leaves

Put the olive oil, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes in a large pot. Place over medium-high heat.
Add the clove of garlic whole, skin and all. Next add the bay leaves. When the sauce begins to boil, lower the heat to medium-low and add the fresh basil.
Simmer for about 1 hour. (If you decide to add meat to the sauce, you can cook it longer, by another 30 minutes or so.)
Before serving, remove the garlic and bay leaves. Freeze any unused sauce for future meals.

*Clara suggests leaving the whole clove of garlic intact in the sauce until the end of the cooking. This will give you all the flavor of the garlic, and it's easy to remove it before serving the sauce.*

I also tried my first attempt at makign handmade pasta. It was a big epic fail. My son called them snakes. :) I think it would help if I had a pasta machine but I don't. Thank goodness I had some back up noodles aside for a future meal this week that we could use for this. We still ate the ~~snakes~~ pasta but we ate our our noodles too. :) I am going to work on this pasta. :)

Do you make your own pasta sauce? We are on a quest to make everything from scratch as much as possible! :)

Money Matters Monday: Make Menu's

2012-02-13T05:00:00.037-06:00

Good Morning my Monday Money Savers! I hope you had a phenomenal weekend! I hope you relaxed, rested and are ready to go for the week! By now you have made a budget, made a list of your debt, purged your crap (not poop :), and now we are going to make menu's! Yay!!! I love making menu's! AND I love grocery shopping. I know, I am a freak. It dawned on me a few weeks ago as I was walking through the grocery store that I LOVE grocery shopping. I don't know if its that everything is all lined up pretty and calling out to my little OCD heart, or what I love about it but it is just great. SO great that I put WAY too much crap into my cart if I don't have a menu and a list. Then I get into trouble. We have about a $500 a month budget for groceries. That is for ALL of our meals (we pack our lunches), dog food, cleaning supplies, everything. So making menu's are so important to our family.

For the record, I said I liked grocery shopping. I NEVER said I liked carrying it in from the car. Booooooo. Sometimes I bargain with my husband. "Okay honey, will you carry it all to the kitchen and then I will put it all away?" And usually he agrees. I love that guy! My boys are big helpers too.

So, dust off your cookbooks, hit the library and pick up some more and make some menu's! They don't have to be fancy. Heck, we have breakfast for dinner once a week and we love it! We also get creative with leftovers! :) I also LOVE to look on pinterest for ideas! :)

Shop the perimeter of the grocery store and you will save a TON of money. It is so much cheaper. We also shop at Aldi's as much as we can. It is so cheap! And if you buy something and you don't like it, they will give you your money back. I did that once with some biscuits we didn't like.

Buy less options of food. You and your kids do not need 10 different types of cereals, bagels, eggs, waffles, oatmeal, toast, breakfast sandwiches, whatever. You don't NEED all of that!

Go make a menu out of everything out of your fridge, freezer, and pantry. Keep doing that until it is empty! Then only buy what you need for your weekly menu but use up what you already have first. You don't need a ginormous extreme couponing pantry! I think it is so wasteful! And most of that stuff is not healthy. Spend that time you would have spent on couponing on menu planning and then the rest of it playing with your kids! They need you more than you need a creepy pantry that looks like a grocery store in your basement!! Trust me! I know! I used to have a creepy pantry grocery store in my basement. NO more. We ate it all up and I hardly bought any groceries for months while we ate it. Now we just buy what we need and it is SO much more satisfying. I promise! Try it! It is so much less overwhelming.

We also emptied out our deep freeze. We are selling it!!! I asked my financial trainer what her opinion was of having a deep freeze. She told me, "how much did the deep freezer cost?" "How much does it cost to RUN the deep freezer?" So true! Not to mention, what if our deep freezer went out and we didn't know it and we lost hundreds of dollars in food? This has happened to people we know! Plus I know we can buy fresher and better tasting food. We only need the freezer in our kitchen.

Take food with you! Pack a few ziplocks of snacks and put them in your bag. That way if you get tempted to stop and spend money, you won't because you have snacks! :) I love protein bars, and almonds personally but whatever you like. Baggies of carrots and celery is a hit with my kids too. We always fill up our water bottles before we leave the house and throw a few snacks in Mommy's purse. :)

Shop only ONCE a week. Don't waste gas and precious TIME going to the store all of the time! Make that list and stick to it. If you forgot something, improvise and substitute! I do it all of the time! Sometimes things turn out even better when you think outside of the box and improvise.

I also have been making our own oatmeal packets. I will be posting more on that in the future! :)

What ideas do you have on menu and meal planning?

Get Creative with Leftovers!

2012-02-10T05:00:00.015-06:00

Does your family eat leftovers? I want to be nosy here. How much does your family spend at the grocery store? I want to tell you something embarrassing. We used to spend over $1,000 at the grocery store monthly. How wasteful! We began to get creative with leftovers and come up with amazing meals.

I was going to give our leftover ham bone with a TON of meat still left on it to my brother's dog after our Christmas dinner last month. My mom stopped me and said, you know you can boil that with dried beans and make a yummy ham and beans soup? I had NO idea. So that is what we did! Let me tell you how ridiculously cheap this meal was.

.50 for dried beans
.50 for a box of cornbread mix

We also used some leftover salad from the night before. Seriously, we ate a yummy meal for about $1! Even drive thru food which we are completely trying to avoid for health AND money reasons is about $20! And a sit down meal at a restraunt runs us about $45-50. I am so amazed at how wasteful we once were.

What are some of your cheap meal ideas? Do you use up leftovers?

Does Clean have a smell?

2012-02-08T05:00:00.022-06:00

Good morning! :) One of the questions I get a lot is, "what does the basic h2 smell like?" And the answer is...Nothing. Because clean shouldn't have a smell. If you are smelling strong smells while you are cleaning, that is probably additives and harmful toxins added to your already harmful cleaner to make you *think* your home is getting clean. The additives can also be very harmful as well.

I don't mind that the basic h2 doesn't have a smell to it, because it works and really that is all I care about. :) However, I thought it would be fun to mix things up a bit. So I added a few drops of lemon essential oil to my basic h2 spray bottles. And it smells amazing! :) I love that I can switch out the smells too. I can change it to lavendar, Vanilla, anything! :) And I KNOW it is not harmful for my family.

So if you are hesitant, don't be. It works, it is naturally safe and you can add any of your own smells to it! :)

Money Matters Monday: Purge!

2012-02-06T05:00:00.033-06:00

Welcome to Money Matters Monday! I hope you had an amazing weekend! :) I hope you are sticking with me! You WILL see results! Stay diligent and if you are just joining in, you can go back and read the first two posts and get started! (By the way the picture of money is money we made in one weekend selling stuff on craigslist! :) We paid our babysitter with a little bit of the money too. ha!

Today we are going to talk about purging. And I don't mean throwing up. Gross. Ewww.

I mean purging your CRAP! And no, not poop. Eww. Stop being so gross!! haha

I mean all of your things in your house that is weighing you down and making you stressed out. When you walk into your home, do you have furniture that nobody uses and you could sell, or donate? Do it! I dare you! We did. We had furniture in our den and it was NICE. I sold it. Now our den is empty. Don't be skeered. We still have a living room with furniture in it so don't worry, we aren't sitting on the floor. But I had to ask myself, WHY do we need so many couches in ONE house? Wasteful. So I sold them, made some cash and put it towards our debt. You know why? Because for me, being a stay at home Mom and being debt free is WAY more cooler than having so much stuff. Plus its less stuff that I have to clean and maintain. Win win. Honestly, our dog laid on that couch. We hardly ever did. WHY was I holding onto something that could make me money so my DOG could sleep on it. No way. Priorities, people.

So start listing your things on ebay, craigslist or have a yard sale. You should probably talk to your spouse about this before you do this. I got in a bit of a pickle with this one. I love you honey! ;) "It's all for the cause dear!" :) Remember that from the Grinch?

I have a bit of a problem. I LOVE getting rid of things. I LOVE selling things, giving things away, whatever. I love things un-cluttered and it is a constant war I am fighting with my big family in my small house. They LOVE to bring more things home and torture me. I feel SO overwhelmed when I have clutter. It consumes me, bothers me, makes me want to break out in hives, crawl under my desk and cry. Okay probably not that drastic but darn near close. I HATE it. I think clutter makes you fat too. Just sayin'. :) I speak from experience! :)

I was talking to my friend Londa one day about how I want to become debt free and become a stay at home Mom. She said, "Erin, if I could go back and do it all over again, I would sell ALL of my crap to do it." And that really stuck with me. It made me think about stupid materialistic possessions. Are they really that important? Not to me. Being at home with my kids is much more important. Being debt free is freedom.

When you have less things to maintain you have more time to spend on the important things-your family. So start selling your CRAP (not poop, no one wants your poop, fool!) and put all of your money in your envelope we talked about. Then put that money towards your debt. DO NOT go out for pizza. PAY off your debt!

Have a beast of a garage sale! Put some tables up in your garage and begin piling stuff up out there for a few months. I go through closets constantly and send my kids out to the garage with stuff. I take a good full month to purge before our yard sale.

If you don't want to have a yard sale, donate to the goodwill, salvation army, or put your items on freecycle.org. I am a bit of a craigslist addict.

But purge! Learn to live with less Crap! (not poop, but you shouldn't have too much poop. Talk to your doctor if thats a problem for you.)

Have a great week purging! Have a contest in how much money you can make purging and let me know how much you saved! We made $285 in one weekend! Email me and we can post a huge amount of all of the families combined! :)

Homemade Crayon Valentines

2012-02-04T05:00:00.022-06:00

Hey there! It's that time of year again where the stores are filled with CANDY and they want you to buy it to put with your kids valentines so that they can go home with HUGE bags of candy and torture parents. Torture, you say? Yes. Because, do you really want your kids eating that junk? Do YOU get tempted to eat that? I know I do, so I always try to come up with something fun and an alternative for valentines day. This year we decided to make heart crayons to give out with their homemade valentines. We try to make our own. :)

We peeled all of our old and broken down crayons. What else are you going to do with them, right?

Peeling them all was super time consuming but I sat and did it while I was talking with my kids and they were eating breakfast. I ran a screwdriver down the side and then peeled it easily.

I actually found this heart shaped pan on http://www.avon.com/. It is perfect for this! I won't use it for food ever, it is just our crayon pan. :) I plan on doing this as many years as I can because it was fun! :) We baked the crayons for about 15 minutes at 200 degrees, basically until they all melted. Then we let them cool on the counter for a few minutes, then stuck them in the freezer. Within 5-10 minutes we just popped them out of the pan easy. :)

So we will be attaching them to our homemade valentines. There were a few glitter crayons melted in there too and those made some of them sparkly! :) Fun! The kids loved this!

Have you ever done anything like this? What are your Valentines crafts ideas?

Dating your husband

2012-02-02T05:00:00.038-06:00

Thanks Latoya for letting me guest post! :) I love this theme! :)

Hello, my name is Erin and I blog over at healthybranscoms.com. My husband Dusty and I have been married for almost 5 years and been together for 7. Sorry for the crazy picture of us, but it is kind of just like us in a way. I took it with my phone. We have a standing date every 2 weeks to go on a date and I wanted to take a cute picture of us, but on this night we were in such a rush to get out of the house that we just kissed the kids goodbye, and out the door we went! :) But hey, the important thing is that we made it OUT the door, right? :)

I think making it a priority to date your husband is so important. You see, my husband and I didn't do this for a long time and it was hurting us. When we get to go on a date, we really look forward to it. We talk about it all week and it gives us something to look forward to.

Now there are a lot of excuses you can give, "We don't have the money," or "I can't leave my kids with anyone." Make your husband a priority! :) If you really wanted to, you could make it happen. Here are some fun and frugal ideas.

-stay at home. Put the kids to bed, get a $1.50 redbox movie, and curbside to go from Applebee's and relax. Put your laptop and cell phone up and give your husband and the movie your FULL attention.

-swap babysitting with another family. I am sure they would appreciate the swap as well.

-use coupons and strategically plan

-instead of buying each other Christmas and birthday gifts, give each other "dates." You can pre-plan these with gift cards and tuck them aside for your date nights and suprise your spouse on the actual night so it stays a surprise

-sell your junk on ebay or craigslist and use the money to go out

-have lunch dates while your kids are in school

Whatever you decide, it is so important! :) My husband and I love it. On this night we went to Applebee's with a gift card we got from my parents for Christmas. Then we went and walked around a bookstore for awhile and relaxingly browsed books without kids going in all directions. Then we went to the movies. And for us this works because by the end of the week, we are usually exhausted so sitting and watching a movie is super relaxing to us. :)

Do you date your husband? What are some of your date ideas?

Slow Cooker Cooking Day 14 Shredded BBQ Chicken

2012-01-31T05:00:00.017-06:00

I think this was my favorite recipe so far!! :)

Shredded BBQ Chicken

1 1/2 lbs skinned and boned chicken thighs

1 T. olive oil

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 T. Cider vinegar

1 T. yellow mustard

1 t. ground red pepper

1/2 t. garlic salt

6 hamburger buns

Brown chicken for 4 minutes on each side of hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, and place in a 4 quart slow cooker.

Combine ketchup and next 6 ingredients. Pour over chicken.

Cover and cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to LOW, and cook 5-6 hours. Remove chicken from sauce; shred chicken. Stir shredded chicken into sauce. Spoon mixture evenly onto buns. Makes 6 servings.

Money Matters Monday: Tackle your debt!

2012-01-30T05:00:00.050-06:00

Welcome to our second Money Matters Monday! Today we are going to talk about tackling that debt. And its ugly. And it doesn't matter if your debt is 5,000, 50,000, or more! You HAVE to get control of it or it cripples you, stresses you out and it can even destroy families. I want to set an example for my kids on how to live debt free and not be in debt. If that is the standard we set, then hopefully that will be the standard they will live by as well.

Let's get started!

Make a list of EVERY single debt that you owe. Period. ALL of it. I don't care how ugly it is, get your list. Make it. Tackle it. Let's do this! Get your pen and paper and your statements. Go. I will wait.

Okay, make a list of all of your debts, from the highest to the smallest. You can include your mortgage if you want to but I don't. Not yet. I am tacking student loans right now, because that is all we have. After those are gone, that mortgage is getting a beat down! ;) But do what you have. If you want to list your mortgage, then do it. But I suggest starting small and tackling credit cards, loans, whatever first. List them to the penny! EVERY cent counts!

Make a list of all of your sources of income down to the penny. Including mystery shopping, blog advertising, selling stuff on ebay, your regular income, whatever.

Get your handy budget that we made last week. How are you doing with that? Are you feeling the weight of stress being lifted now that you have a budget and are sticking to it?

Look at your debts. What can you consolidate, or refinance? For example, I refinances our van last year. Then I completely paid it off 6 months later. I still saved several dollars in interest. It was worth it. Saving every cent is important. If you can't respect pennies, those pennies add up to dollars and those dollars add up to hundreds of dollars. And that money you are wasting could be going to your debt dummy! (yep, called you a dummy! Thats what you GET if you are throwing away pennies!) That is why you need to know what your debt and incomes are to the penny! Don't be a dummy! :) haha

After you have established what you can refinance or consolidate, refigure your list if you need to. Some people say to pay off the highest interest first. I know usually that is the smart thing to do, but thats not what I did. For me I wanted to knock out small stuff first so I was motivated to keep going. I did pay off our vehicle first and it was 6k and I had a student loan that was 5k. I went with the vehicle because it was 4% interest and my student loan was 3% interest. THEN I paid off the 5k student loan. Next I have a 15k student loan at 6% interest. I know I probably should have tackled that big student loan first. BUT if I would have tackled it first, I wouldn't have seen results as quicker. By eliminating our vehicle and small student loan I was able to see results and be motivated to continue! :)

After I paid off our vehicle, I took that money that was going to our vehicle payment and began putting that towards the 5k student loan. After I paid off the 5k student loan, I took THAT loan payment and the "vehicle payment" and applied them to the BIG student loan. I also figured out what I was spending on wants and not needs and it was $600 a month!! So I began putting that towards the debt as well monthly. Instead of buying magazines, coffee, entertainment that was not in the budget, I put that money toward our debt.

Get a blank envelope. Begin to put extra cash you come across in there and write on the envelope the amount and where the money came from. It ALL adds up! I would sell a few items on craigslist, ebay and put that money in the envelope, and put that towards our debt as well.

Become the boss of your money! You earned it! You get to be the steward of it and where it goes. Do you know why wealthy people have money? Because they are good stewards of it! Most "real" wealthy people I know are wealthy because they SAVE it. They live well below their means and have no debt. I have a friend that makes over 150k a year. Guess what? She shops at the goodwill for her and her family and budgets and menu plans every meal. She takes amazing vacations. She can do that because she lives super frugal and is debt free! She is a good steward of her money.

Do you want to go on a vacation or fill your closet with clothes as a vacation? New clothes or vacation? Your vacation is in your closet with the tags still on them. Don't buy anymore clothes! :) Wear what you have!

How do you tackle your debt? If you disagree with me, let me know! :) I love new ideas and respect other opinions!

When you link up, please be sure to link up to ONLY your money saving posts and NOT your blog itself! Thanks!

What I am reading...

2012-01-29T05:00:00.035-06:00

Good morning! What are you reading this week? This is one of my favorite things to ask my Aunt Susan and Paula. They are big readers too and they ALWAYS have great recomendations! :) We even swap books, isn't that great? Sometimes it is no fun when you read a book and you LOVE it and you have no one to talk about it with who read it too. Plus I love getting book ideas from my blog friends too! :)

This is a great book so far! As you know, this is our year to become debt free and we are showing our kids how to be wise with money as well.

I can't remember how I stumbled upon this series of books. But I am so glad that I did. My Mom reads them too. They are great.

And this is what I am currently reading...

What are you reading? Any recommendations? I LOVE going to bookstores, finding ideas and then getting them at the library. Is that cheating? :o)

Don't forget tomorrow is Money Matters Monday! You can link up your money saving posts and get out of debt in 2012! :)

Want to look 10-15 years younger?

2012-01-27T05:00:00.078-06:00

These pictures just leave me speechless! That is my Mom and Dad and these are the before and after of my Dad. He began taking the Shaklee vivix in March of 2011. This picture on the left was taken in the spring of 2011 and the picture on the right was taken approximately 6 months later! He looks SO much younger! His skin looks amazing, his hair is growing in thicker and isn't as gray. He looks amazing!

Now let me tell you what is even MORE amazing. He has been a diabetic for probably 15 years now. He has suffered from severe neuropathy in his feet to the point where he wakes up in severe pain in the middle of the night and is unable to sleep through the night. He told me that within a few weeks of taking the vivix he has slept through the night! He said his feet feel so much better and he loves taking it. He is so grateful to get a good nights sleep and not have to be in pain or take pain medication anymore. He looks and feels great! I would say that is worth it!

This is the vivix. I currently have over half of my clients on this anti-aging tonic and they have it on autoship. You take just a teaspoon full a day and it is amazing. I have said on here before that I take the vivix to keep my migraines away. I love it. I have been migraine free for almost a year now. I will NEVER miss a day of taking this. I never want to suffer from a migraine again.

My friend Sharon has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. She takes the vivix, vitalizer, and nutriferon and has eliminated a lot of her medication that caused her to gain weight and have severe mood swings. She now still has a little bit of pain at times but not NEAR as much as she did have. She is able to sleep better, feels better about herself by not gaining any weight and actually is LOSING weight. She said she felt as if the resveratrol in the vivix jump started her metabolism. She has these three items on auto ship and has SAVED money taking these 3 items because she was able to eliminate the medications that were costing even more than these products.

So, I want to know...how do you feel? Do you suffer from migraines? Do you have diabetes? Do you want to get serious about your health this year? Email me if you are serious about getting healthy and making 2012 your year to be healthy and free from illnesses and stress on your body that are completely unneccessary.

Here is the best part...

This label is on ALL shaklee products. Which means if you try ANY Shaklee products and for some reason are NOT happy with it, you get your money back guaranteed. Now tell me, when you get your vitamins that quite possibly are NOT quality vitamins from CVS, walmart, or walgreens, do they give you your money back AFTER you take them for 30 days if you aren't happy with them? I think not. And the markup on them are really high. Did you know that a lot of them aren't even approved or regulated? Buy quality!

So give it a try! :)

Cursive writing not being taught in schools

2012-01-26T05:00:00.001-06:00

I had a surprising discussion with a family member recently. She mentioned that cursive handwriting was not being taught at her children's school. I was so surprised! How can cursive handwriting not be taught? This is so weird to me!

I was relieved when my third grade son Kameron came home and announced he now writes in cursive and loves showing me his work. NOTHING is cuter than a kid's first attempt at cursive. Its so cute!

Maybe I am just old school but I was thinking that it is SO important to be able to read and write cursive! What do you think about this?

I read a lot of articles and one of the main themes was that kids are now texting, emailing and cursive is not needed. What about their signatures? What about our history? I think if they are unable to write it, how can they read it?

To me it is just SO lazy! Another way that the media is getting its hold. I also read that the average American watches 9 hours of tv or computer time a day! UGH! We are making an effort to turn our tv off more and have more quality time with our kids.

What do you think? What is your view on cursive writing? I want to know if you disagree or agree. Should it be taught and do you think it is important?

Meet Katie from Building a House of Love

2012-01-25T05:00:00.001-06:00

Meet Katie from Building a house of love! I just love her blog! :)

How are you meeting your New Year Resolutions?

Remember this post about my New Year Resolutions?

Well…I have found something amazing to help me achieve both of them.

Shaklee

I have desperately wanted to create a healthy household and I am taking steps in the right direction. I firmly believe that changing brands is changing our lives.

I have goals and dreams for my family and I’m going to work hard to get us there! So I decided to start my business with Shaklee.

I don’t know about you but I get SUPER excited to get mail. So I was even more excited to receive my boxes of Shaklee products!

Shaklee- Creating Healthier Lives

Congratulations! It felt so good to read these encouraging messages.

After my helper (Tryp) took out all the new products he went to bed and I went around the house collecting all our old cleaners. I put them in a box and threw them out. They are gone and it feels so good. I now don’t have to worry about Tryp grabbing a Clorox wipe to clean his hands and face instead of a baby wipe. (Yes, this really happened once!)

I have learned so much about how my old products were so bad for us and I had no idea.

Do you ever hesitate cleaning because you are afraid to clean around your kids because of cleaning residues and chemicals they can breathe in while you are cleaning?
How good is a cleaner if it is also a POISON? (Have you ever thought about that? Did you know that real clean has no smell?)
Can you comfortably let your baby crawl across your floor and then put their hands in their mouth without worrying about possible toxins, carcinogens and other harmful chemicals they are placing in their mouths?
I know that now that I’ve switched to Shaklee that I don’t have to worry when Audrey does start crawling!
Shaklee products are naturally safe and proven effective.
Just Some of Shaklee's NO List:

NO Parabens
NO Triclosan
NO Phthalates
NO Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)
NO Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLES)
NO 1,4-Dioxane
NO Propylene Glycol
NO Volatile Organic Cleaning Compounds (VOCs)
NO Hydrochloric Acid
NO Ammonia
NO Sodium Hydroxide
NO Butyl Cellosolve

NO Formaldehyde
NO Bisphenol-A
NO Petroleum Distillates
NO Toluene
NO Chlorine Bleach
NO MSG
NO Dyes
NO Trans Fats
NO Artificial Sweeteners
NO Toxic Inks
NO Banned Substances

Check out Shaklee’s products! I’m confident you will love them as much as I do!

Slow Cooker Cooking Day 13 Taco Soup

2012-01-24T05:00:00.003-06:00

Hi there! It's Andrea from Maia the Bee and I'm so excited to be sharing Day 13 with you!

It's finally started snowing here in Germany and there's nothing I love more on a cold, snowy night than delicious soup! Add tortilla chips and shredded cheese…and well, that's pretty much a perfect meal!

But wait…all you have to do is toss it into a slow cooker and come back 7 hours later?? Now THAT'S a perfect meal!!

I made Slow Cooker Taco Soup and it's yummy. My husband loved it and has already requested that it be made again! It's simple to make...

I took all of the ingredients and put them into the slow cooker. Diced onion, corn, tomatoes, chili beans, and black beans first. Then I measured out 12 ounces of beer.

Yes, folks. Beer! I was totally skeptical but it turned out delicious!!

Then I mixed in a packet of taco seasoning. Stir is all up and it looks like this:

Next you add the chicken breasts and submerge them. Turn the slow cooker on Low and prepare to smell delicious soup for the next 5 hours!

After 5 hours, remove the chicken and shred it. My chicken was still not cooked through and I was a little nervous, but I shredded it and tossed it back it. It still cooks for 2 more hours - I promise there was no raw chicken in the end!

As an alternative, you could use rotisserie chicken instead. (We LOVE rotisserie chicken in this house!!) I would leave the soup to cook on Low for a few hours and then toss the shredded rotisserie chicken into the mixture just long enough to warm up. I think next time I'll use rotisserie chicken…

After it's cooked for a total of 7 hours on Low, you are ready to eat! We served up yummy bowls of it and enjoyed every bite!

Add shredded Cheddar or Mexican cheese on top and serve with tortilla chips. It's delicious!

Slow Cooker Taco Soup printable recipe can be found HERE.

Thanks, Erin, for letting me share my recipe today! Enjoy!

Money Matters Monday: Make a budget

2012-01-23T05:00:00.093-06:00

Welcome to our first day of Money Matters Monday! Every Monday we will be doing a link up party to your money saving tips. Today we are going to talk about making a budget. First I want to give you a little history. I haven't always been good stewards of our money. Not by far. I know talking about money is taboo to some people. If you don't like it, you don't have to read. :) But if you want to learn to become debt free and manage your money, then welcome aboard! Lets do this! :)

When I was first married at the age of 18, my ex-husband and I made HUGE financial mistakes. HUGE. And what is funny is that a few months ago, when we were switching off the kids we talked about how stupid we were and how much better each of us are doing with each of our family's now. He is remarried and so am I. We recalled some mistakes we made and talked about how far we have come. When we divorced I had 28k in debt that I paid off and he had debt as well. And I am not talking student loans or vehicles. I am talking credit card debt. I was 22 years old, had 2 babies, no college education, a crappy job and 28k in debt. I paid it ALL off in about 2 years. I worked 2 jobs, saved every penny. I have never had credit card debt again since I was about 24. NEVER. I have credit cards too. But I never buy something that I can't pay for that month.

Fast forward to 2012. I have student loan debt and last year we had vehicle debt. I decided I didn't want ANY debt. So I decided to eliminate it. I will admit a very sad and embarrassing fact. Up until December 2010, I had NO idea how much our bills were, how much money we made, I wasn't even sure which bank we used. I was CLUELESS! My poor husband was managing all of our money since we married when I was 25. So for almost 5 years he handled it all. I didn't even look at my pay stub. I just shredded them. I knew he was handling it all and everything was getting paid and direct deposited. In my defense for 3 of those years I was working full time, working at internships and attending school full time along with having kids and a husband. I was SO busy. When I graduated college, my husband decided to go back to school. I felt guilty having him handle everything so I offered to take over. He was skeptical at first but he showed me everything. I was so overwhelmed. It was SO stressful learning all of our bills. But we did it. And we sat down and we made lists of what we could change, what we could pay more on and so on. It was a lot of work, but everyday we are coming farther and farther. It is just amazing how far we have come in the past year. And we have done it together as a team.

So, lets talk about making a budget. You all want to know or you wouldn't have sent me emails. I want to help you! :)

Print out your bank statement, credit card statements, whatever you have. Grab two different colored highlighters. Highlight everything in YELLOW that is a NEED. These are examples of needs:
Mortgage/Rent, food, phone, Insurance, daycare, utilities, medications

Highlight in PINK items that you could have and probably SHOULD have lived without buying. These examples are:
fast food, Starbucks, Magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, cleaning/lawn services, cable/tivo, Entertainment, clothing, gifts, etc. Add these totals up and then pick your jaw up off the floor. Then STOP buying these things! :)

Make a list of all of your needs. I keep all of mine in a composition notebook and I compare them with a program we use called mint.com. I know it sounds like a lot of work but it won't be once you get it under control! It is COSTING you money not to be in control of your money!

Be sure to give yourself and your husband an allowance. I get $60 and my husband gets $80 every month. I just take less because that is all I really need. My husband works on the go all of the time and he likes to get fast food so he uses a little more. I work nights and pack all of my lunches so I don't need it for that. I spend mine on pedicures sometimes. :)

Also set up a budet for dining out. We spend $100 a month on eating out as a family. If we eliminated it completely that would not be realistic. We enjoy going out as a family so we set a realistic budget.

Make a list of bills you can break down to a cheaper way. For example, our trash company was over $90 every 3 months. We switched to a cheaper company for $60. We were paying over $1500 every year in auto insurance. We called around and got the same insurance coverage for HALF of that with a cheaper company. HUGE savings! We also had DVR, expensive cable, and we brought that down to basic cable saving us over $1200 a year! TV is just not worth that. Be patient with this step. It takes time. I worked on this for a few weeks and it was time consuming. Be patient and just continue striving to break bills down. When you start seeing results it is such a good feeling!

Watch your bank statements like a hawk! You should know where EVERY cent of your money is going at all times. If you don't, you are foolish. Let me give you an example. My first husband and I NEVER looked at our bank statements. We realized two YEARS later that AOL was taking $30 a month out of our checking account regularly. We never even HAD AOL. It STILL makes me sick and that was about 10 years ago. Disgusting. Know where every cent is going.

You can manage your budget with a lot of great programs out there. We use mint.com, but you can use quicken, whatever you want. You have to do what is comfortable for you. But know where every cent is going and track this religiously from here on out. It might make you sick at first to realize where money is bleeding out but once you get it under control, the bleeding stops.

How do you budget? Do you have any ideas? Track everything within your budget and you will start seeing results! Cut out the junk and the things you can live without.

You can follow my new page on facebook HERE and get your daily money saving tips and ideas! :) Feel free to post your own too! :)

Link up rules: Link to your Money saving post, NOT your blog. Your link must be about saving money in some way or I will have to delete you! :( Please do not use this to promote your business either. Good luck and enjoy your money saving tips! :)

Upcoming! Money Matters Monday AND a giveaway! :)

2012-01-22T15:51:00.000-06:00

Don't forget tomorrow is my first day of Money Matters Monday! :) You can link up and join in! :) Let's get rid of debt in 2012!

Now for the BEST part! I have a giveaway for you!

Cindy, has offered to host a giveaway on my blog! She is giving away a beautiful ABC apron! :)

Of course if you are anything like me and are messy when you cook and clean, you need an apron! :) She has a super cute blog and apron store! You can get recipes, ideas and aprons from her blog.

To enter this giveaway you must:
-Follow Mimi's Apron's blog HERE
-Like her Facebook page HERE
-Leave a comment telling us what your favorite meal to cook is for your family! :)

That's all! So leave your comments and we will pick a winner by January 26th at midnight! :)

Slow Cooker Cooking Day 12 Spicy Buffalo Dip

2012-01-22T05:00:00.037-06:00

Warning! This is a VERY spicy dip! :) I made it at a party that I had at my house and it was super spicy but yummy! :)

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 lb shredded chicken

1/2 cup hot sauce

1/2 t. cumin

We used celery sticks and chips with it. Yum! :) I liked that I could keep it warm during my party in my crock pot.

EASY Breakfast Casserole

2012-01-21T05:00:00.001-06:00

Good morning! This is out of rotation in our slow cooking schedule but I had to share it because it was SO good! My pictures turned out so bad but I still wanted to share because it was so easy to make and so cheap! We had company coming into town and I had to plan on making breakfast and wanted to come up with something filling and good. I found this recipe that I have had tucked away for almost 5 years and I cannot believe I haven't made it until now. This is going to become a regular at our house.

Easy Breakfast Casserole

1 can crescent rolls
1 dozen eggs
2 c. shredded cheese
1 lb. cooked breakfast meat (sausage, ham, bacon) We used ham because that is what we had on hand and ready.
Salt and Pepper to taste

Grease a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Line dish with unbaked crescent rolls. Spread cooked meat evenly over rolls. Pour beaten eggs over meat. Place cheese over layer of eggs. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until firm. Cool 10 minutes before cutting into squares and serve.

Trust me! :) Just make it! Ignore my ugly pics and just see for yourself! :)

Slow Cooker Cooking Day 11 Chili

2012-01-20T05:00:00.001-06:00

I am curious to see what you guys think about chili. I think chili in the crockpot is a no brainer. Just about everyone I know makes their chili in the crock pot. In fact up until this Slow cooker challenge, it was about the ONLY thing I knew how to cook in the crock pot. :) I am expanding my knowledge! ha!

Chili

1 lb ground beef

3/4 cup diced onion

3/4 cup diced celery

3/4 cup diced green pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 (10.75 oz) tomato puree

half a bag of kidney beans prepared ahead of time (these things are a PAIN to cook! But so much better for you)

1/2 T. chili powder

1/2 t. dried parsley

1 t. salt

3/4 t. dried basil

3/4 t. dried oregano

1/4 t. ground black pepper

1/8 t. hot sauce

Brown your ground beef and mix all of your ingredients in your crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours! :) Easiest recipe yet!

What about you? Do you have a chili recipe you recommend? Link up if you do! :) Please link to your post and not your blog. Thanks!

Slow Cooker Cooking Day 10 French Dip Sandwiches

2012-01-19T05:00:00.015-06:00

I am running out of Slow cooker recipes! I need your help! :) Does anyone want to guest post one? Let me know! :)

I will admit, we made this and then put it in the fridge and ended up eating it as leftovers and I think it was better that way. Do you ever do that? We didn't dip ours but we made kind of a Philly Cheese steak instead! :) Yum!

French Dip Sandwiches

3-4 lbs chuck roast, trimmed and cut in half
1/2 cup soy sauce (I use low sodium)
1 beef buillion cube
1 bay leaf
3-4 peppercorns crushed
1 t. rosemary
1 t. dried thyme
1 t. garlic powder
12 french sandwich rolls, split

Place the roast in the slow cooker. Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour over roast. Then add water until roast is almost covered.

Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or until very tender. Remove roast, reserving broth; shred with fork. Place shredded meat in rolls and serve with broth for dipping. Makes 12 servings.

We added some shredded colby jack cheese to ours and it was amazing! :) Even my kids loved it!

Slow Cooker Cooking Day 9 BBQ Ribs

2012-01-18T05:00:00.002-06:00

Good morning! :) Does anyone else love going out to eat and eating ribs or at Famous Daves? Our family LOVES IT! And our kids love it too. Such a fun treat. I have never made ribs before. I tell you, this slow cooker challenge has made me try new things and step out of my comfort zone! :) I love it!

I had a bit of a pity party for myself this week. I made a handful of slow cooker meals that turned out AWFUL. I felt so bad. I hate wasting ingredients. But then I realized, its all about trial and error. And sometimes I make something that doesn't turn out but it gives me an idea of how to tweak it and make it even better next time. Trial and error I guess. I can give myself and A for effort! :)

BBQ Ribs

2 cups ketchup

1 T. Dijon mustard

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 T. worcestershire sauce

1/2 t. cayenne pepper

1 1/2 T. coconut oil or whatever oil you have

4-5 lbs of ribs, fat trimmed

1 cup chopped onion

Combine the ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, worcestershire and cayenne in the 5-7 quart slow cooker. Cover and set on low while you brown the meat.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat.

Add the ribs and brown on all sides. Add the onion and saute until it begins to soften.

Transfer to the slow cooker, stir the sauce to combine. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove the meal from the slow cooker and cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 15 minutes. (Or if you are like us and are in a hurry and hungry, just eat it! :) Sim any fat from the sauce and serve with the ribs.

Serves 4-6

Do you make BBQ ribs or anything else like this? Link up and join! :)