Meal Plan!

I sure hope some of you are motivated by these meals posts and have started planning your meals, every time you do it, it gets easier and faster! Meal planning is so convenient and with busy summer days coming, it is always nice to have your meals planned ahead of time! Now for my faithful followers you may notice some of these meals are repeated from last week, we ended up going out for supper a couple of time, which we hadn't expected, so we just roll over those meal ideas to the next week, we already have the groceries for these meals, so win win!

If you would like any recipes feel free to message me! 

Here is the Meal Plan for the next two weeks!

Hopefully some of you have started meal planning and discovering how much easier it truly makes your life, I don't know what I would do without it! So here we have my meal plan for the next couple weeks, make your grocery list, head to the store and that is half the battle right there! You can do this, and you will thank yourself for it too! Here it is:

 Week 1

6 meals

Spaghetti with garlic bread

steak and corn on the cob, scalloped potatoes

bbq'd cheese burgers, raw veggies and dip

lasagna and salad

turkey pot pie

leftovers

Week 2

6 meals

Rice and black bean Burrito's

Cheesy Taco pasta

potato and ham soup

ONE POT CHILI MAC AND CHEESE

Left overs

Chicken ranch taco's

if you have any questions or need any recipes don't be scared to ask, happy meal planning folks! 

Meal planning made simple!

You asked and you shall receive! Every two weeks I will post how I meal plan, 2 weeks worth of meals every other week. I only meal plan supper, breakfast and lunch are usually pretty simple to whip up on short notice, so supper is the only meal I bother to plan. So here it goes, first things first, get some flyers and shop those sales, once you have figured out what is on sale, then you choose what your recipes around that.

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Now that you have figured out what is on sale, choose your recipes, grab your favorite recipe books, there are great recipes on www.pinterest.com or on www.facebook.com and then use all your family favorite meals that bounce around in your head. When ever I see a great meal I would like to try I save it. Next time you are doing your meal plan you will have a list of new recipes to try!

Now I go to my calendar and figure out how many days we will be home each week, sometimes we are going out for dinner, sometimes we are away etc, so count how many meals you really need.

This time I need 7 meals one week and 5 meals another week, so in total I need 12 meals, time to search my brain and recipes to find 12 meals. So here is my Meal Plan. The red meals are the ones we have already ate, the black ones are ones we still have to eat. I choose meals and add them to my list, i do 2 weeks at a time, so                       what you are seeing is week 1 & 2 are the past 2 weeks,                                    and week 3 & 4 are the next two weeks:

I prefer to do it this way instead of using a calendar I find this much easier cause then I am not committed to a certain meal on a certain day, you don't want to BBQ one day, that's cool, pick another meal, you get the picture. So now you have all these beautiful meals picked out, I often leave room for leftovers, cause we love leftovers and we cook big meals, so chances are you will be able to get away with one day of left overs :)  Easter Dinner with the family is supposed to be on there twice, we are having two dinners here this year.

Now that you have chosen your recipes, take a look at each recipe and see if you have the ingredients on hand, if you don't add it to your grocery list. Go through each recipe until you know you have everything either in your house or on your list. So, now the hard part is over, you have your Meal Plan and your grocery list. GO SHOPPING! I love to shop, I go once every 2 weeks and I get everything I need for those 2 weeks, I rarely have to make a random trip to the store for items, when we get snowed in, and lets face it we are in Canada, it happens often enough, I know for a fact I always have 2 weeks worth of meals in my fridge/freezer. It gives me a great sense of security when the snow starts flying.

So now you have your Meal Plan and all the groceries you need to execute it! Turns out when it comes to cooking, deciding what you are going to eat is half the battle, I have been meal planning for over a year and I would never go back, this makes life so much easier! 

So here we go, you wake up in the morning one of the first things I do is check my Meal Plan to see if I need to take anything out of the freezer, I have many meals to choose from, I choose the one that sounds best for that day, and I pull the ingredients out of the freezer if need be. When it is time to prepare supper everything is defrosted and ready to go, this makes our life so much easier! Meal Planning has also helped us eat better, there are no more last minute trips to the store to grab anything quick, everything is planned out so there is no need for that. You must try it, you won't regret it! And there you have it Meal Planning, made simple!  If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me! 

Happy Meal Planning! 

Springtime Bucket List!

It is finally feeling like Spring around here, it sure took it's time this year and here is hoping it is here to stay! So this means it is time to make our Spring Bucket list, every season we make these, we don't always accomplish everything on our list, but we sure try, the list is a great idea, it keeps you on track for Spring and helps you remember what you wanted to accomplish this season. Whenever we have a day with nothing to do, that is when I go to the list and see what we can accomplish! Here is our list for Spring 2014, have fun making your list and get everything checked off of your list too! 

Here's hoping you all have a wonderful Spring, Enjoy!! 

How we renovated our Kitchen for 50$ out of our own pocket 350$ total!!!

This post is all about our new kitchen! We were on a very limited budget, but we sure got a lot of bang for our buck! It all started with the old kitchen, I loved the red when I did it, but it was dark and it went with the Coke Cola theme we had which neither my hubby nor I were really into anymore. So we needed a change, I had wanted to change it for a while, but we never had the extra $$ but on March 4^th I decided I wasn't going to let no money stop me and that I would just figure it out. So we started by taking our Kitchen Coke Cola collection to the Antiques store near by, we sold out entire collection and we got 300$ my hubby and I were both shocked and thought we would be lucky to get 100$ so 300$ was my new goal for my reno, sadly we went over by 50$ so we did have to invest some of our own money, but it was totally worth it, as you can see....Here are the before pictures, red, pine, dark, I hesitated to paint the pine, but it was worn out and had served it's time, so time for an uplift!!

 When painting pine good paint is a must, our reno would have cost much less with cheaper paint, but paint is one place you do not want to cheap out!! Our reno took one month give or take a few days off for appointments and to save our sanity lol! I am extremely grateful it is over. I don't want to see paint for a very long time! And now for the after pictures!

What a difference, it is so nice to see my vision come to life, in all the rooms in the house but this one in particular this was the hardest room we have done yet, we put our blood, sweat and tears into this one. So here is the break down:

-Everything got painted, ceilings walls trim doors, everything

-Our appliances stayed the same, but we plan to save our $$$ and get “new to us” ones soon

-At this time we couldn't afford new counter tops so these are covered in Contact paper Granite, which is supposed to last up to one year given no one cuts on it or puts hot pots on it, so far it is holding up great!

-All of the ornaments were either purchased or made by hand to save money, all the creative ideas are copied off of www.pinterest.com it is an amazing site with tons of useful tips and information.

-We opened up the top of the cupboards and put in big baskets which are filled with extra kitchen supplies (fondue pot, foil pans, cake pans) things we don't need everyday.

-We added new Hardware on all the cupboards and drawers

-We added a bead board backs plash, which adds so much, I love it!

My husband and I did this all ourselves with the help of pinterest and youtube videos we taught ourselves everything we needed to know, so now what you have all been waiting for, the break down of the budget.

White Paint – we bought Beauti~tone Designer paint, pearl Cabinet and furniture paint in white, this painted all the trim, walls, cupboards, shelves, ceiling, everything you see that is white, the paint was regular 49.99$ per can, since we needed 4 cans I asked my local Home Hardware for a deal and they gave it to me for 42$ per can savings of 32$ Love's it! White paint total 168$

Wall Paint – Scuba Green by Benjamin Moore, I brought the chip to my local Home Hardware and they made me the perfect color. We used the same color on the bead board for the back splash. In total this paint cost us 20$

Miscellaneous: TSP 5$, sand paper 5$, caulk 5$, paintbrushes 5$, paint roller 5$, Baskets 35$, decor 20$ (some of the decor I already had around the house), spray paint 10$, totals 90$

Bead Board, we bough 4 sheets of bead board 32 inches by 4 feet, and we have some leftover they are 10$ per sheet and once they are painted they are sealed and ready for water :) Love that feature! so since we have some left over our total was 35$

Counter tops, as I said earlier this is in fact Cont-tact paper, we applied this using a credit card and it worked great! When using this product you want to make sure you pay more and get the real Cont-Tact paper in granite, there are a couple colors to choose from, anything else might be too thin, this was 5.97$ per roll and I used 3 rolls and did all the counters! My counter top upgrade came to a total of 18$ 

The Hardware, this one was a tough one, hardware is so expensive and what we had was so out dated not even a coat of paint could save them, so we opted to make our own by bending our own spoons to use as hardware, they are so cute! We have 42 handles counting the drawers, and with our small budget nothing was working, till we found this spoon idea on pinterest, we did all our hardware all 42 handles for 11$!!! Love it! As for the hinges we spray painted the ones we had and they turned out great!

Totals 342$!! Reno'ing on a dime doesn't come easy it takes a lot of time and research, but if you have more time than money like me, you can totally make it work, I think for 350$ we got a great kitchen!! 

Decorating a Bedroom on a budget of 200$ or less - Part 2

So here we go, round two of decorating a room for under 200$ This is our room, Mine and my husbands, this was the last room we decorated, which of course should have been the first room done because we spend so much time there, but none the less it is finished and beautiful! But the day we moved in, not so beautiful, nasty really, this was our room:

Yuck! So glad that is long gone!

So when my parents owned this house they tore down the wall between my room and the playroom and made a massive bedroom, it worked for them, but not for us, the room was too big, it was hard to decorate, it was a waste of space and we needed the other room for storage.

So we put a wall back up! 

Now to our current room and the cost of decorating it, here you see our bed, my husband had this bed when we moved in together, the bedding we bought in the city I forget were it was, I think Zellers, it was 30$ for the bed set on sale, regular 75$, plus we bought microfibre summer sheets for 30$ on sale from 50$ and wonderfully fuzzy winter sheets for 30$ on sale from 75$ we were pretty excited! Okay I was pretty excited!  The stars you see above our bed were a garage sale find for 1$. On my husbands bedside table/floating shelf, you see, the wheat that was free from a ditch, I dried it out and I love it! The vase was won at an online auction, 1$, his frame was a birthday gift, the bedside tables them selves are actually floating shelves, my budget for bedside tables was 15$ each and when I went shopping I couldn't find anything in my budget, so bought these floating shelves for 9.99$! I love coming in under budget! My bedside table has a candle holder, a book and one of the center pieces from our wedding, all given to me :)

I made the "curtains" or whatever you would call that, window poof lol, out of 2 extra pillow cases that came with our bedding, free! The wall tattoo was 10$ from those parties people have lol. I love this accent wall, I picked the room colors after we got our bedding so it would match perfectly, I love matching! 

 Here you see a shelf which our DVD's are on, bought online at auction for 5$, our 32 inch tv was free from the same kind stranger that gave us Kenzie's bed, our Dvd player had been kicking around forever, the shelf that the tv is on was made out of my parents old water bed, FREE! The Dresser is my Memere's (Great Grandmother) dresser from way back in the day, a nice coat of paint and it has a new home in our room! everything on our dresser was gifts, from our wedding and my birthday other than the baskets, I bought those filled with bath goodies at the Boxing Day sales regular 42$ on for 6$ plus we had all the bath goodies to use as gifts too! The baskets are filled with our rice bags that I made.

 here we see two full length mirrors, my husband had both of these in his apartment, we painted the frames and the work wonderfully in here, everyroom needs a little black don't forget. The cowboy hats are beer hats, free with a case of beer, I just took the tags off lol! This dresser Joe's Grandpa bought him at a garage sale, we also painted this one to match and it works great!

 sometimes the wood stove heat doesn't make it all the way to the bedrooms like I would like, I hate being cold when I am sleeping! We had been using a little electric heater, but I had just told hubby wouldn't it be nice to have a little fire place in here, and lo and behold our friend/neighbor had posted one for sale online, she then turned around and gave it to us for FREE! We use it everynight and love the heat it gives, love it!

 I just wanted to show a picture of our bedside carpets, they are from IKEA they were 10$, they are fake sheep skin and I love it, it is so super soft and makes me happy everytime I wiggle my toes on it! lol!

So that is our bedroom, time to total up the costs! 

Bedding 80$

Bedside tables 20$

Garage sale/online auction finds 7$
Wall tattoo 10$
Baskets 6$
Carpets 20$
Paint room and accessories 40$
Totals 193$
I hope this post helps you see how you can do you room on a smaller budget, get out to garage sales, make use of online buy and sell type sites, there are so many great deals to be found, but remember, don't buy something just because it is on sale, or cheap etc, don't take something just cause it's free, you have to have a use for it or you are wasting your time or money. Good Luck!

How to decorate a bedroom on a small budget!

I see all these, post or TV shows about decorating on a budget, but realistically 10,000$ is not a budget for a bedroom, that is a budget for a car LOL! Now for some of you lucky enough, 10,000$ may very well be your budget, but until that day comes for the rest of us, I figured I would share my tips and tricks on decorating bedrooms for 200$ per room or less, so here we go! We will start with our daughters room. When we moved into our house, it was a MESS! This is what her room looked like the day we moved in,

For those of you who don't know, my husband and I bought our home from my parents, this is the house where my sister & I grew up in as kids, our parents then rented it out and then we purchased it. It was very sad to see our old child hood home so mistreated, but hubby & I new we could make it right again, it would just take, time, patience, and money! A lot of the rooms in our house had to wait a long time to be "made over" because we paid for everything in cash, but that's ok, sometimes waiting gives you time to find better deals and it certainly makes you appreciate it more! So when we found out we were pregnant we got to work painting,

this color is called So So Sweet by beauti~tone

So now on to present day, this is our daughters room now, and now I will explain what cost what. In my opinion she has a beautiful little girls bedroom, I would have been more than happy to have such a cute little girls room, she is 4 years old now and she loves her room so much, so here we go,

The theme in her room is mostly Disney Princess, but there are a lot of other things tied in there too, her bedroom door is decorated with a Disney Princess 3D poster that we bought at Dollar store for 1$

 This is the back of her door, Winnie the pooh wall art was a second hand gift from family, Jets banner, dollar store, Pooh picture bought used online for around 1$, 25 cent hook for dollar store to hang her house coat and monkey growth chart a gift from her God Mother!

 Here we see a few farm animals on the wall, these were also from the dollar store, we bought these when she was new born and they were a great investment and we used them to help teach her her animals, next a pretty Princess mirror, birthday gift, an awesome kitchen set that she loves and uses everyday, a second hand gift  from her cousins. We bought her some food and dishes to go inside.

 Now we see her Curtains, these were expensive (to me, i am thrifty lol) so when asked what she would like for her birthday we suggested these, a perfect gift from her God Mother, her "Mckenzie" letters were from Micheals, we got these for 50 cents each, her blind was again on the expensive side for me, but I wanted her to have a black out blind so it would be dark enough to nap in the afternoons. Her pink wall canvas was made by her, her tub filled stuffies was 10$, the stuffies are souvenirs and gifts, the tinkerbell wall tattoo was a gift and so were the letter's on her tub of stuffies, here you also see half of her huge closet which has Disney Princess wall stickers on it, also from a dollar store

 

 this is the greatest deal of all, her double bed, box spring and frame was FREE from a kind stranger! And on the wall here you see more little night time dollarama stickies, a clock given to her for her birthday along with the piggy bank on her bedside table, the little table was free from her Grandma and just needed a little paint, her comforter and pillow cases were only 19$!!! I loved that deal, we just used sheets we already had for her bedding, the bed set including the sheet was almost 100$ ( so glad we didn't cave and get the expensive one)

her beautiful Winnie the Pooh cross stitch art I won for her at a Chinese auction! the giraffe growth chart was another dollar store find and so was the light switch plate!

 and finally her new to us dresser, we recently bought this dresser for 20$ added 10$ worth of paint and voila! I love it, it is so perfect! her frame was a gift, the round night light was a garage sale find, the rectangle night light is a second hand gift from her cousin, the little shelf you see was a garage sale find with a little paint slapped on! Her Mickey ears are her souvenir from Disney on Ice, TV is borrowed from her Grandma who currently doesn't need it and DVD player we had extra kicking around the house!

So here is the total for you
Paint 60$ for all the walls and accessories
Dresser 20$
Dollar Store finds 15$
Garage sale finds, night light and shelf 2$
Bed Set 19$
Toy box 10$
Black out Blind 20$
Food and dishes for in the kitchen 5$
Totals 151$

A room like this does not happen over night, it takes time to do things the thrifty way lol! It takes time to find good deals and certainly patience! But in the end it is worth it, cause now you have a beautiful room, that you can actually afford and you don't have that knot in your stomach every time you look in the room cause you know you charged it to a credit card or paid more than you should have. Here's hoping this will help motivate you all to finish that room you have left unfinished cause you couldn't afford to, I plan to post all the bedrooms in our home step by step like this shortly :) Happy decorating!!