Skip to main content

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Planning Part IV: Paying for Christmas

While scaling back can take a big chunk out of the burden of paying for Christmas, the burden won't be completely gone. We still have to buy gifts or materials to make them, and we want to do fun things around Christmas that sometimes cost money. Since I don't advocate going into credit card debt for anything short of the most dire emergencies, here are a couple suggestions on  how to pay for Christmas.  One way we have done it in the past is to set up an extra savings account at our credit union and transfer $10-$20 a paycheck into it depending on what we can afford. If things are really tight, we sometimes only move over $5. If we have a windfall (such as a bonus or tax return) we will take a portion of that money and add it to the Christmas account as well. This Christmas account pays for both gifts AND activities thorough the Christmas season. I know someone that insists that they are too poor to save even a few dollars a pay check, so they put everything they buy for ...

Homeschooling on a Budget

We finally took the plunge. For the last year and a half we have been homeschooling.  We made the decision for a combination of academic and social reasons, and I'm telling you it was so worth it to see a once struggling student be successful and have confidence again. Unfortunately, the investment of time into my children has resulted in a dearth of postings, and will likely continue to do so. But, lucky for you, I have decided to post a few of the awesome free resources we have found that have been helping us to homeschool on a budget.  They include both secular and Christian resources, so hopefully you can find something that will suit your needs. 1.   The Good and The Beautiful  language arts curriculum.  Jenny Phillips has created an amazing Christian curriculum resource available for FREE for families.  Levels 1-5 of The Good and The Beautiful's language arts curricula are free in their .pdf formats.  The links to the free digital versions ar...

Best Homemade Pizza I've Ever Had!

A few months ago I took a small class about sourdough and sourdough starters.  It was all very, very intimidating to me, but I thought I would give it a try.  Turns out, once you have a starter, it isn't so difficult after all, just a lot of planning ahead and waiting between steps. So far, I have made artisan sourdough bread, whole wheat sourdough crackers, and this AMAZINGLY delicious pizza crust.  Hubster and I both enjoyed the artisan bread, but the kids didn't care much for it the first time around.  The second time around they were a little more favorable because it was still warm, but they didn't care for it again once it cooled.  I really enjoyed the crackers, but no one else seemed to enjoy them all that much. Then I made the pizza dough from the King Arthur Flour website. OH. MY. GOODNESS.  Not only was it good, but it was the best homemade pizza dough I have EVER had.  This recipe alone was worth the upkeep of a sourdough starter. ...