How to Cut Expenses, Increase Income and Save Money When You Don't Have Any

I am no expert in personal finance.  I am simply sharing how I maintain our family's finances in hopes of helping others.  Have you ever argued about money or stressed about how you were going to pay your bills?  Are you living paycheck to paycheck and seem to never get ahead?  Has money torn your marriage apart or kept you from enjoying life and pursing your dreams?  Money can absolutely inject unnecessary stress into our lives, but it doesn't have to be that way!  It is possible to save and enjoy life even when you're living paycheck to paycheck and never seem to get ahead. Thankfully, my husband and I are in a good financial place, but I can't say that was always the case. When we first started dating I was a 19 year old full time collage student working at a restaurant and my husband was 24 and had just bought his first house.  After about a year of dating I moved in while I continued to work and pay my way through collage.  There we......

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20+ Printables to Help Organize Your Life

THE BEST PRINTABLES FOR ORGANIZING EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR HOME AND LIFE Did you make any resolutions for 2017?  Do you have organizing on your mind?  If getting organized and running a smoother, stress free home is part of your plan for the new year then I have just what you need.  How does 20+ free printables sound?  Everything from budget worksheets to cleaning schedules and recipe binders.  You'll find everything you need to get and stay organized! A few years ago I created a family binder and use many of these amazing printables to keep our family organized.  Everything from our budget to important numbers (doctors, dentist, babysitters, etc) and our donation tracker are all nicely organized in one convenient binder.  It only takes a few minutes to print, punch holes and put together your own family binder.  I like to use sheet protectors and fun divider tabs to help keep everything neat and pretty :)  ...

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How to Get the Industrial Farmhouse Look with Dollar Tree Storage

Inexpensive Dollar Tree storage drawers get an impressive industrial farmhouse makeover. Do you love organizing and industrial farmhouse decor?  Do you hate spending a lot of money on storage containers?  Well, you're in luck!  For this month's Dollar Store DIY , I'm sharing how I gave basic Dollar Tree storage the perfect industrial farmhouse makeover. I've done many Dollar store makeovers in the past , but these little storage drawers are by far my favorite!  They are stylish enough to sit on a desk to organize office supplies and small enough to sit in a medicine cabinet to organize cotton balls, Q-tips and other personal hygiene items.  However, you decide to use them they'll be sure to add a bit of industrial farmhouse style to your home. ...

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How to Easily Organize Holiday Gift Wrap Supplies

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  Ours started off bright and early (doesn't it always with young kids?) and was filled with lots of excitement and family time.  There really is nothing better than seeing pure joy on your kids faces as they wake up Christmas morning.  As always, the day went by way too fast and all that's left is a sea of toys. Now that the holiday's are over, it's time to clean up the mess and get organized.  Even though I'm still on a little blogging break for the holidays I wanted to share a quick and easy idea for organizing holiday wrapping supplies.  My trick to keeping everything neat is storing gift wrap supplies in a small Snapware organizer. ...

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Modern Industrial Farmhouse Office Reveal

It's been a long work in progress, but I can finally say my office is complete and CLEAN! Last week I shared my disorganized and non functional office that had more or less turned into a storage room.  It's the first space you see when you walk into our mudroom, which made for a pretty lack luster first impression.  Last weekend, I finally had enough and spent the day going through every basket, bin, drawer, bag and paper to get my office back in working order.  When I say I went through everything I mean EVERYTHING! ...

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DIY Felt and Leather Clutch

It's the second Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for another Monthly DIY Challenge! This month's challenge item was felt and I admit I was a bit stumped on what I wanted to create.   I thought about making a Christmas project, but knew I would never be able to top last year's  rustic felt Christmas trees .  I eventually got the idea to make something that could also double as a gift, after all it is gift giving season. ...

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The Truth: A REAL LIFE Home Tour

During a time of beautiful Christmas home tours and perfectly staged spaces I feel the need to share something I struggle with on a daily basis, clutter.  I may post pretty pictures on my blog, but by no means is that a representation of the rest of my home.  You see, I don't have it all together.  Actually, I am far from having it all together.  My house is a mess, I am about 5 loads of laundry behind and I can't remember the last time I changed my sheets.  It's a good day if my kids are wearing matching socks, you can see the bottom of the kitchen sink and the dog hair has been vacuumed from the floor. There are few things I make priorities for each and every day and doing laundry and cleaning dishes do not make the cut.  My kids will be bathed, fed, wearing clean clothes, their hair and teeth will be brushed and homework complete.  Everything else gets put on the back burner, which leads to a less than stellar home. Being a wife, mother of two an......

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