Save Money Monday

This saving money tip is so easy. Anyone can do it!

Drink Water.

That's right, Drink Water!! By drinking water with 2 meals and snacks each day we save an average of $11.50 each week. This doesn't even include the money saved on doctor visits and dental fillings that are prevented by our extra water consumption.

Money Saved Example
Before water diet:
Milk~ 3 gallons a week, $10.50
Apple Juice~ $4
Sweet Tea~ $2, making it 3-4 times each week.
Soda~ $0 (We don't buy soda. We get our soda fix at Nana's house on the week-ends)  ;)
Total: $16.50

After water diet:
Milk~ 1 gallon a week, $3.50
Coconut/almond milk~ 1/2 gallon a week, $1
Apple Juice~ $0 (I only buy %100 juice when it's free with coupons)
Sweet Tea~ $.50, making it once per week
Soda~ $0
Total: $5.00

Savings: $11.50

I know drinking water can be especially unpleasant for some children. My kids would like to drink soda with every meal. They would probably put it in cereal if they had their way. Thankfully, they have not thrown any fits or even complained much about our water drinking habits.
Do you have any tips for getting kids to drink more water?

Basic Green Smoothie Recipe

1 cup coconut milk
1 cup spinach
(I don't know how to properly measure spinach. I just crammed it in a 1 cup measuring cup.)
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 frozen banana
2 Tbsp. honey

Begin by adding the coconut milk and spinach in the blender. Blend these together until smooth. Add in remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Add more coconut milk or a little water if your smoothie is too thick. All ingredients can be adjusted to suit your taste.
Enjoy!


You might also like to try this Kale Smoothie Recipe.

This post is linked to:

Save Money Monday

I'm going to *try* to do a series on saving money. I can't promise I will have a new Save Money Monday post every week, but I'll try. :)

One of the ways we save A LOT of money is by using coupons. Some people think if you use coupons on groceries you are eating hamburger helper and frozen dinners, but you can eat a healthy food and use coupons. Did you hear that? You can use coupons and eat healthy! One way to do this is to use coupons for your personal care items. I bought 9 toothbrushes, 6 packs of floss, and two sticks of deodarent at Kroger (pictured below) and they were FREE after coupons. This frees up money for you to spend on items where coupons are not available, usually fresh produce. Occasionally there are coupons available for natural food items. See the chips in the picture? They are all natural, from the healthy food section at Kroger and they were FREE after coupons. I used this opportunity to stock up on chips. I bought 6 bags. I'm not saying chips are healthy, but these are a better choice than Doritos. The whole wheat and veggie pasta was also FREE after coupons. I only bought 6 because I still have a good stock in my pantry from the last sale. I paid $2.25 total for the 3 almond milks and 1 coconut milk after coupons. The Mom's Best Cereal was $.24 each after coupons. If you stock up on items when they are well below retail price you will rarely have to pay full price again. If you'd like to start using coupons, go to moneysavingmom.com and click on 'store deals' to find out the best deals at your local grocery store each week.

My total for these groceries was just over $19 and about $6 of that was sales tax!

This post is link to:

How does your garden grow? Week 5 update

I am excited to see little tomatoes on all the tomato plants!

Here is my little helper and the herb garden. The big plant is sage. The parsley, basil, and cilantro are all coming up, but are still quite small.

We decided to make use of some extra space around the raised beds so my wonderful hubby tilled up this spot and one behind the beds. We planted pie pumpkins and watermelons on the side and popcorn on the back.

We have a bit of lemon balm growing at the base of a tree. I don't know what to do with it. Can someone give me some suggested uses for it?

Here's a look at how the whole garden is growing.

This post is linked to Smockity Frocks Frugal Gardening 101.

Donna Young's Homeschool Resource

Have you been to DonnaYoung.org? She has an abundance of resources for the homeschooling family.
You can find everything from printable planners to handwriting worksheets. I would recommend bookmarking her site.

About DonnaYoung.org

Donna Young started this web site in 1998. She was teaching her children at home, had bought a new internet capable computer, and decided to put her homeschool and household files online. Aside from a few donated files, Donna makes all the content for donnayoung.org using several programs such as drawing programs and word processors. Most of all, this website is a place on the internet from where you may print homeschool planners, household planners, calendars, handwriting lessons, printable worksheets or papers for several subjects. DonnaYoung.org has grown over the years and continues to grow. Meanwhile, Donna's children have graduated from home school and life goes on.

Easy Beef & Bean Burritos

I found this recipe on Money Saving Mom back when she was doing a series on freezer cooking. It's so easy and everyone loves it. Enjoy!


Easy Beef & Bean Burritos
2 lb. ground beef, we use venison
2 cans refried beans
1 can enchilada sauce ( 1 1/3 cups)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup dried onion or freshly minced
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 cups shredded cheese, mexican or cheddar
20 flour tortillas, burrito size

Brown meat, drain off fat. Add in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20ish minutes. Spoon meat and bean mixture into tortilla and roll up. Top with sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese.
Ta Da! Done.
Wasn't that easy?

If you have a lot of leftovers, try freezing your rolled up burritos. Wrap a couple of burritos in a paper towel and then wrap in foil. Freeze. When you need a quick lunch just pull them out of the freezer, remove the foil and microwave for 1 minute.
Ta Da!
Easy lunch!

free fun

The kids have always wanted to play with one of these. Daddy was kind enough to let them pack up their bikes and go test their speed today. They tried running, but it couldn't detect them.