Debt! Debt! I am done with debt! No more January’s where I am $1000 short after the holidays. A survey by Magnifymoney.com did a national sample of 403 Americans and found the following. On average Americans are $986 in debt after the holidays. Gifts, holiday food, hosting parties and travel rack up the credit card…
busy mom
Menu Planning Time Savers for Busy Moms
Meal Planning Saves Money While I do not actually go to the grocery store in our family I do the menu planning and make the grocery list. Tons of marketing research and common wisdom shows that the more you plan your meals the more you save on your food budget. Check out this quick…
Easy Kid Friendly Gingerbread Houses
Easy Gingerbread houses that kids can do themselves are a great holiday party idea. This sturdy gingerbread house works for even the chunky toddler fingers–no baking required! These gingerbread houses use graham crackers right out of the box. All the fun is really in the decorating right? This lets you get to it right away…
How to Make Holiday Guests THINK you Spent All Day Cleaning
How to make holiday guests think you spent all day cleaning with out actually doing it. Here are six awesome ideas for quick holiday “tidy ups” that are simple to perform in an hour. Clean Builds on Clean For Holiday Guests We figured this out during the few short weeks before our wedding that we…
Simplest Bread Recipe Ever
The simplest bread recipe ever comes from the man section of an old stained church cook book. In fact, this simple and cheap bread was listed right after cream pies under the “Man” section of the cookbook. It calls for 2 1/4 cups of any kind of liquid, water, milk or pot liquor. I have…
Triggers: How to Exchange Your Angry Reactions for Gentle Responses
Triggers are the little things that jump under your skin and cause reactions you did not intend. An explosion of anger when you only meant to correct your child gently can send you reeling. These reactions hurt you and your beloved child. You know how the teacher will appear when the student is ready. Well,…
How Over-Scheduled Are You? A Pop Quiz
Over-scheduling seems like part of the American lifestyle. As a first year middle schooler, my 11-year-old son has packed his schedule full of activities. A typical Wednesday starts early with 6 AM homework he was too tired to finish after he got home from soccer at 7 PM the night before. Then off he goes…
5 Get It Done Housekeeping Tips (Especially If You Work From Home )
I work from home and my house is spotless. Never gonna hear that from me. My greatest desire is to hire a housekeeper like Alice from the Brady Bunch. Alice even made dinner and took care of kid issues. Realistically, a house keeper who left behind a home cooked meal once a week would be…
3 Ingredient DIY FAKE BLOOD, So Much Cheaper!
Need a little DIY fake blood for the walking dead in your house? This recipe is cheap and easy with only 3 ingredients. Your kids can make this gruesome blood for themselves. Your little zombies will have a great time making and eating it! We created this video so you can follow along and…
Mistakes to Avoid When Painting Pumpkins
We are pumpkin carvers. Painting pumpkins is a new adventure for the Joyous Family. Elijah, age 9, wanted to enter the elementary school’s storybook pumpkin contest this year. The pumpkins were displayed from Oct 15-31 too long for a carved pumpkin to serve–more on this in Painted Pumpkins Your Favorite Book. Plus the…