A Mouse In My Kitchen » guest post

Prepare for a baby without breaking the bank

Markell — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Hey! In effort to help you guys save money, I have complied a few guest posts. I’ve been doing one a week, on Mondays. Since this is the last Monday in March, this will be the last guest post on finances for a little while. I am still always interested in guest posts, so if you have something you think other people would like to share, send it my way!

This post is by Chantal from blog.simplybabyfurniture.com. She has some awesome ideas on how to prepare for a baby without using all of your savings.

Here is what Chantal has to say:

I’m just like any other frugal mommy out there. I base my family meals around what’s on special at the grocery store and I always return my movie rentals on time to avoid late fees. I am totally addicted to Groupon family specials, the Food Network, sudoku and DIY projects. Honestly, I just don’t have the time or capacity to waste my money on manicures, martinis or designer purses.

With my husband, 2 year old and 8 month old daughters, I have inadvertently elected myself as Chief of Finances. When you have an active family of four, expenses spread like wildfire and you have to constantly find creative ways to get what you need under a strict budget. Thinking back to when I was pregnant with my first child, I wish I knew what I know now on how to financially prepare for a baby. It’s so easy to buy every baby product in sight, especially when it’s your first.

The biggest expense for me would have to be preparing the nursery when I was in my 3^rd trimester. My husband and I bought everything imaginable with the ‘just-in-case’ mindset, which is fine if you are filthy rich, but we certainly were not! After my daughter was born, we took inventory of all our baby items and about half of the products we had weren’t even used. In fact, we had to return and exchange a ton of items because we ended up not using them. After my second child, we implemented a much different and smarter approach in getting just what we needed.

From parent to parent, let me share with you what I would have done differently to help you save lots of money before the baby arrives:

§ The Earlier, The Better: Don’t wait till your 3^rd trimester to prepare your nursery. Start as soon as you can and get the larger pieces, like the baby furniture, first. It is easier on your budget if you can space out the higher-priced items like the baby crib and changing table/dresser. We had limited space and I wish I would have chosen a mini baby crib. It’s slightly smaller than a standard-size baby crib, less expensive, and easy to move around the nursery.

§ A Smart Baby Shower List: Ask for items you will need, like baby bedding, high-chair, car seat, bath and diaper changing necessities, baby backpack, pacifiers, receiving blankets, bibs, wash cloths, nursery décor, etc. You can have friends and family split the cost for higher-priced items, and you can find better deals if you are registered at multiple places. For clothing and diapers, I would recommend accepting gift cards so you can pick them out yourself. You won’t know the size of the baby until that special day comes, so best to get some newborn clothes and diapers, and wait till baby is born to get what you want with the gift cards. Shop online to get good deals and save yourself the trouble of returning/exchanging tons of stuff. Also, I would suggest having an early baby shower so you can go through all your goodies and organize your nursery.

§ DIY Décor: Being frugal doesn’t mean you can’t welcome home your baby to a beautiful nursery. I am a sucker for DIY ideas, so hear are some fun ideas to help spruce up your nursery without spending the big bucks:

o Tissue Pom Poms: You may have seen them all over Pinterest, but they are super easy to make and look really cool.

o Paper Lanterns: There are great paper lanterns kits that you can easily put together, but I like to get blank ones and personalize them with watercolor or acrylic paints, studs, etc.

o Yarn/String Balls: Very fun and modern way to add ceiling décor to the nursery. Take a balloon and cover with elmer’s glue. Wrap with fancy yarn or string and let dry for 1-2 days. Pop balloon with needle and voila!

o Lid Art: Take a box lid, like from a shoe box, and paint a couple coats of any color of your choice (darker colors will mask designs better). Your box lid is now like a paint canvas and will not need a frame. Paint whatever you like, such as baby initials or baby name.

o Poster Art: Get a thin frame and get a poster that fits your nursery theme.

o Children Art: If you have older children, have them draw or paint something to welcome the baby or fit your theme.

o Old Children’s Books: Frame an old children’s book that could be falling apart. You can preserve it and will add a vintage style look to the nursery.

o Family Photos Hanging Mobile: Print a whole bunch of wallet size photos of the family. Get 2 sticks or hangers, cross them, fasten 3-5 long strands of fishing line, and thread your family photos on it (black and white is nice).

So there you have it. Some golden nuggets to help you prepare for you empowering journey to parenthood. There are so many things the baby books don’t tell you when you’re about to start a family. Being budget-conscious from the beginning is a smart way to prepare for your growing family and for the unexpected.

Author Bio

Hi! My name is Chantal Maddocks and I’m a blogger and full-time mommy. With my beautiful family of four, I am always looking for new and creative ways to save money. My husband, 2 year old and 8 month old daughters, are my world, and if there are ways to make my life easier so I can be with them, I am all ears! I invite you to visit my blog at blog.simplybabyfurniture.comfor helpful pregnancy, parenting and nursery design tips. Happy Blogging!

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Guest Post: More Ways To Saves Money

Markell — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Another Monday of our March Money Challenge, which means I have a guest post for you guys all about how one family saves money. Like I’ve said before, I love learning how other people manage their money. There are so many different tips and tricks, and not everything works for everyone. This post is written by Jessie of www.thenilaughed.com. She is super funny, but also covers some important topics, like fetal alcohol syndrome and adoption. If you get a chance, check out her blog!

Here is a picture of her beautiful family.
Look at all those boys!

Jessie has been through a lot. A while ago, her entire house BURNED DOWN. I can’t even imagine what that would be like. She now is a mother of 6 and has lots of tricks for you to help make ends meet just a little bit better. She also only uses cash, so her tips are really good for this month’s challenge.

Here is what Jessie has to say:
I am so excited to have the opportunity to be a guest blogger! If someone would have asked me 10 years ago if I could write a post about money matters I would have laughed at them! The only concern I had about money was that I had enough. It’s amazing how marriage and 6 kids can change you. Now managing money is something I think about daily! I’ve become very creative in the ways I save and spend our money. Here are a few of the ways I try to stretch our dollars the furthest!

Meal Planning

I make a monthly menu and plan all of our meals in advance. This helps us save in a couple of different ways. First it put an end to us eating out. Seriously with 8 of us eating out costs a fortune! Now if all of the meals are planned in advance I don’t have the excuse of “I don’t know what to make for dinner.” Also by planning our meals ahead I can shop the deals and stock up on items in advance to save us money!

Price Matching

I price match almost all of our groceries. What I do is take my monthly menu and make a spreadsheet/grocery list with all the items I will need for each month. Then I go thru the ads for all of our local stores and find the lowest prices. Once I have a list of the lowest prices I head to Wal-Mart and do all my shopping there since they will match any lower prices. Now I even teach classes on how to price match at our local community college and add the teaching money to our savings. I also provide detailed instructions on how to price match on my blog http://www.thenilaughed.com/ and provide readers with a list of the weekly deals. Price matching may seem like a lot of work but it saves me hundreds of dollars a month. I now have our grocery budget down to about $400 a month.

Get printable grocery coupons

No credit cards

We said goodbye to credit cards long ago. If we don’t have cash to make a purchase it just doesn’t happen. I refuse to be owned by credit card companies!

Rent

I lost my house to a fire right before I met my now husband. I could have rebuilt or bought another home. But I choose to stay in a small rental that I don’t love because it is cheap! I put up with the bad paint job and chipped kitchen counters because I prefer to live debt free. I also appreciate that we are in a small space (1200 sq feet). Small spaces mean less stuff! Having a limited amount of space means we don’t buy stuff we don’t need! Someday we will buy a home again but until then I’m willing to pay a small amount of rent while we finish paying off our debts and stock piling our savings.

Say No

I’ve learned to tell myself no and most importantly how to tell my kids no! We don’t need to own every new kid’s movie that comes out and they don’t need name brand clothes. I buy what we need and nothing more. Since I’ve been through losing everything in a fire I have a clear understanding of how little material things matter. In the days after the fire when we had NOTHING I was so grateful for the smallest things. I try to fill our home only with things we need or love!

These are some of the things that work for our family. I don’t know if they will work for you but it’s worth a shot. Until the money trees start growing in our yards we have to get creative and make our money work for us! Tell me about how you save money!

About the Author

Jessie Voiers is a mom , a wife, and a blogger at www.thenilaughed.com. She is passionate about saving money, finding great deals, and living a life filled with laughter.

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Day 5 of cash-only diet and a guest post

Markell — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:25:00 +0000

Well, I made it through the weekend with out using any plastic (from my wallet that is). I have to say that it’s hard. I am so used to whipping out those cards whenever I reach the front of the lines without really thinking much about how much I’m spending. It is really nice to not have that “I spent too much” guilty feeling at the end of the day. Of course, it helps that I didn’t leave the house Saturday and I don’t ever spend money on Sunday (except for paying tithing). It’s amazing how much temptation goes away when you take yourself away from the temptation… (I’m sensing a blog post about that…)

So, because I can only talk about me not spending money for so long, I have asked a friend to put in her two cents about the whole money thing. Felica is a really good friend I had in high school. I recently wrote a post for her blog, Always, Felica, which you can check out here. She talks all about our friendship and then I wrote a little about how I got through my second pregnancy while also taking care of a brand new baby. I won’t go into much detail about it, you can read it for yourself!

One thing I love about money is all the different ways that people can manage it. There are so many different points of view and strategies on how to spend it/not spend it/save it/what have you. I thought it would be neat to try and get a few of these different points of view and add them to this list of money related blog posts for the month. I love all view points. For instance, I am a strong proponent of the stay-at-home-mom gig, but I know that not everyone feels that same way. I also believe that plastic (in card form) is evil, but I’ll still be your friend if you use it now and again (because I might be guilty of that at times, too!) Anyway, the point is that I love to hear different ideas and feelings about money. I don’t know if there is any other object that can elicit so much emotion from people. That being said, if you wish to write a blog post for this theme, please let me know! I’ll review it and let you know if I think it would be a good fit for the 30 day cash only challenge. And as you will see from this post, it doesn’t have to be strictly about only using cash. I just want to hear what you think!

So, here is what Felica thinks!

i am so stoked to be featured on mrs corpus’ blog today. she is a long time friend, you can read about our sisterhood here. i would be even more stoked if i were a little more versed on the subject.

we are chattin about cash.

money

budgets (yuck that’s the word i hate)

i had a pretty young start at this “money management” business as i moved out when i was 17. but i will admit, it is all luck. the confusion tornado that surrounds finances makes me cringe; as well as the echoing statement that it “destroys most marriages”. that’s comforting. so here is my take on money, an obviously uneducated but totally feeling based take.

first, always talk openly about where and how you spend. this can be scary because men could live off of pizza pockets and an Xbox live membership. but you can’t be afraid to tell him about that facial you r e a l l y needed or that girls lunch that saved a distraught friend. he will understand, after all that’s why you married him right?

second. try to set some sort of budget (ugh. that word again, lets call it a money plan). that way even if you come close you feel accomplished. and you will learn the importance of the little things (nights out, new shirts). once upon a time my sugar daddy and i attempted a little money plan called the spending diet. we lasted about as long as our real diets do but you can read about the simple and rad concept here.

third. work. this one i strongly believe in; i truly believe that there is someway that everyone can make a little cash to pad the family account. staying at home and caring for your kids is amazing + from what i hear ALL that it is cracked up to be, but if you need, you are w o m a n. you are strong, smart and guess what; you have some marketable skill that can earn you that croissant from the local cafe (chocolate ones are best)

if you are really trying to crack down there are tons of amazing resources that can teach you all about the world of money. here is one of my favorites, good luck everyone!

For more about the cash-only challenge, click here!

Make sure you follow A Mouse In My Kitchen so you don’t miss anything!

I’m looking for more guest posts on this topic, so if you’d like to be featured on my blog, contact me!

felica is the creator of alwaysfelica.com. a blog about nothing + everything all at the same time and food, yes sweet sweet food. check out her journey from seriously confused and single to more than happily married here.

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Always Felica & a guest post

Markell — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 03:56:00 +0000

In high school, I was really good friends with a girl named Felica (pronounced fa-lee-sha). She even lived with me for awhile. Super good friends. We had lots of fun times. We were on the yearbook staff together, developed pictures all the time, played volleyball together, even “started” a photography business that we named FAME Photography (FAME stood for Felica, Ashley, Markell Enterprises… I think.. I’m not sure about the E). Ashley was another girl we were good friends with. We had lots of good times. Anyway, we did everything together. Now, in our not so old age, we have both entered the blogging world. She has a blog at alwaysfelica.com. Her posts are fun insights into her mind. I really enjoy reading them and you probably would to.

And, today, I was featured as a guest author on her blog. I wrote a post about how I got through my second pregnancy while simultaneously taking care of my brand new baby. You can read about that here. She also talks a little about our friendship, and has some awesome pictures that we took in high school. I dug through all my old pictures and couldn’t find any, so I copied one of hers for this blog.

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How We Live On Less Than $15,000/year

Markell — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:22:00 +0000

Big News today. I was featured on another blog as a guest author. I’m pretty excited about this. I wrote a story about how my family has lived on less than $15,000/year (and that’s stretching it). Check it out over at Third Stop on the Right.

Awesome, right?

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