Daily...

There are days and weeks, when our budget becomes more of an after-thought instead of the intended DAILY guide.

On those weeks, I am quickly able to justify "little" expenses that surely add up and before I know it, we are short on money and living on love until then of the month :)

I am not the most tech-savvy person in the world, my twin got those genes, so I started carrying a 4x6 notecared in my wallet with  my weekly and daily budget on it.

Staying accountable to this little piece of paper has helped us tremendously the past few weeks.  I'm sad to say I was letting money just FLY out of our bank account instead of me telling it where to go.

Back on track feels good, because as my momma would say:

"KNOWLEDGE IS POWER"

Hugs and happy keeping more of your money :)

Homemade Potato Chips! A family favorite!

Frugal snacks with little to no preservatives are a BIG goal of mine

Homemade potato chips have 3 ingredients:

Oil

Potatoes

Salt

1. Soak thin slices of potatoes in cold, salted water for 10 minutes

2.  Pat Dry

3.  Add to hot oil

4.  Remove when turning brown and place on paper towel to drain

5.  Salt lightly

Frugal

Yummy

Snacking

(Happy Sigh)

Whole chicken in the crock pot = Frugal meals

Yesterday I bought a 5lb whole chicken at Aldi for $5.32

It slow-cooked all night in the crock pot with water, salt and pepper and 3 garlic cloves....  

Oh my the heavenly smells in our home this morning!!!

Then I took it apart to yield almost 4 cups of chicken and 3 cups of broth!

We will be having

Chicken Fajitas

Chicken and Noodles

and 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

We MIGHT be able to squeeze another meal in there if the tall guy stays out of the chicken, 

I will have to hide it in the back of the fridge

SIMPLE

FRUGAL

MEALS

{Happy Sigh}

Frugal Summer Fun

One of our FAVORITE activities is visiting our local zoo.

We currently live in Indianapolis, about 8 minutes from our zoo, and often will run over 2 or 3 times a week to hang out even for just an hour.  (But even when we lived in South Bend, we visited the zoo often on a yearly membership)

The Indy Zoo yearly pass will set you back $136 per year, but if we annualize our visits, conservatively figuring we visit about once a week over the entire 52 weeks, it comes out to $2.62 per visit.

I love math that works out like that.

In the cooler months, we bundle up and rush from indoor exhibit to the next indoor exhibit

In the summer months, we pack swimsuits and finish our visit in the splash park.

Simple

Frugal

Summer Fun

Joy

Not even sure what is happening here, 

but

The look of joy on her face 

makes my heart so happy.

{sigh}

Eating Out(side)

While we don't eat out very often, there are times it sounds so appealing.

But I have often found, in the warmer seasons, that preparing lunch and simply taking it outside (by the garden is my favorite) and having a simple picnic is a way to feel like we've had a special lunch, outside of our kitchen.

Frugal

Simple

Happy Sigh 

Hugs and happy picnics this summer!

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Happy Summer!