The Sweet Life On A Budget

Making small changes that have big results. On Friday’s I share 5 frugal ideas to help you maintain The Sweet Life on a Budget.   These things will have money saving ideas and/or a way to enhance your lifestyle for very little money.   Winter holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.) are just around the corner.  Our home celebrates Christmas, so these tips are the things I do to help to make a magical holiday for my family on a budget, but you can adapt them to help celebrate any holiday.   Decorate your home with time treasured decorations, or if you are limited with what you have make some or bring the outdoors in such as pine cones, evergreen branches, etc. Don’t forget the candles.  These are cheap to free items that make your home feel warm and cozy. I always enjoy music playing in my home, but this time of year we really enjoy hearing the Christmas tunes playing.  One year for Christmas, my husband made a CD of holiday music that we still use

Winterizing Your Home on a Budget Week 1 Winter has arrived and trying to keep your home warm is quite the challenge.  If you are not planning on how to heat your home efficiently then you are planning on failing at the job.   Just think about it. If you are heating your home to 70 degrees and it is 20 degrees outside then you will be heating the outside and your furnace will run non-stop resulting in higher heating bills and wear and tear on your furnace.   This series is geared towards simple things you can do to help eliminate heat from escaping and keep your heating bills in check while on a budget.   This week’s focus is on your furnace.   Get a yearly maintenance check up.  This will clean out your furnace and help to eliminate emergency services this season.  The technician should also be able Wito provide you with an estimate on how much longer you have until replacement will be needed.  Since this is an expensive bill, it will help you start saving for a ne

Poultry Stock ($.004 per 2 cup serving) Our family has moved to a clean diet which limits the amount of sugar and preservatives that are in the food we eat.   Getting Chicken, Turkey, Beef Stock without a long list of ingredients and/or ingredients that I can’t pronounce is difficult to get and if I can get it the price is very high. My parents and grandparents were experts on how to stretch the budget.  Stock is one of the go to “recipes” that helped to keep the grocery budget in line.  As you will notice, there are no amounts for each ingredients. That is because this is considered a “kitchen sink” recipe which means you open your refrigerator and freezer and add what you have left over goes in the pot and it creates a delicious recipe.   The vegetables that I list are what we commonly have in our refrigerator/freezer, but you can change it up. Note:  Chicken and Turkey bones are interchangeable in this recipe and both stocks make an excellent base for soup

On  Thanksgiving Day, I post a list of 20 things I’m thankful for.  I picked the number 20 rather randomly, so please don’t judge. These are not in order of importance.  That would make this job way too hard. I just type ’em as they pop into my head. I’m thankful for: 1- My Lord and Savior.  He walks with me daily and protects me. 2- My loving husband who a constant source of strength and love. 3- My son who shines joy and happiness daily and is very inquisitive.   4- The ability of work as much as I want. 5- My garden- This year we increase how much we were able to preserve. 6- Learning to make pickles this year. 7- Learning how to dry peppers for winter. 8- My friends who support me and help to ground me. 9- Coffee- This is truly the elixir of life. 10- Having people read my blog.  This is one of the most uplifting and special things this year. Thank You. 11- Warm House- Many people in the work do not know where they are sleeping this evening and keep them in my pra

Beautiful Ohio Sunrise Getting up early to see the beauty of the sunrise  and having a cup of coffee.  I love the view from my patio. It takes my breath away each morning. 

Thanksgiving 2018 Thanksgiving is this Week! Oh My…..It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away.   I have been working a lot of hours lately and find myself running behind, so let’s break out the to do list and get started.  The red text color indicates what is finished. Here’s my list: Menu Appetizer Antipasto Tray (Small- 1 cheeses and 1 meat) Crudite w/ dip Meal Smoked Turkey Breast Cranberry Relish Roasted Brussels Sprouts Twice Baked Potatoes Dessert Cherry Cobbler Pumpkin Roll Beverages Wine Ginger Ale Coffee/Tea Groceries Staples Grocery list included: turkey, all general pantry items (sugar, flour, etc.) and all specialty ingredients for cranberry relish and pumpkin roll Beverages: Wine, Soda Game Plan Monday- Working Tuesday- Paint B athroom Make Cranbe

First Snow of the Season Today was the first snow of the 2018-2019 Winter season.   My son had dreams of school delays or closings, but alas school started on time.   Looking at the pond behind our home.   The geese were happy to come and check out the snow and pond area.  

Making small changes that have big results. On Friday’s I share 5 frugal ideas to help you maintain The Sweet Life on a Budget.   These things will have money saving ideas and/or a way to enhance your lifestyle for very little money. Potluck Church Dinner - Our church is having an event this Friday which is a potluck (The Gospel According to Harry Potter).  We will be taking a platter of deviled eggs which is always a hit and getting to enjoy a lovely meal and fun activities with our church family and friends.   Stocking Up on Holiday Turkey- Our local grocery stores have been competing for the lowest price on Turkeys.   One store had them as low as $.37 per pound last weekend. Now if you only want the Turkey Breast then the lowest price was $.99 per pound.  Needless to say I stocked up on the maximum number allowed- 5 birds. I am planning on cooking 2 right away and processing them into lunchmeat.  Since low process turkey deli meat goes for $9.99 per pound, we