Dollar Tree Kitchen Utensils: How are these only a dollar?



 



Hands down the best deal of any dollar store is in Dollar Tree. Betty Crocker kitchen utensils that would please any gadget chef. They're sturdy, well made, and practically free at a dollar a pop.
Our old kitchen used to be red and yellow (which sounds garish, but was actually kind of cool). That's when I discovered these and bought the place out. Three years later, and they look as good as they did the first day I bought them.

 

 



Don't just think of these for your kitchen either. If you have a hobby or craft where these would come in handy- Soap making? Beer brewing? Candle making? This is a cheap easy way to stock up for your hobby. I even have a separate set of measuring cups to make my own cleaning solutions. Because it's a dollar and I'm just extravagant like that:)

 



These also make awesome gift baskets! You can fill a mixing bowl with 10 of the gadgets, dish towels and a cook book for a house warming, or a Christmas gift for someone you know that just got their own apartment. Need more gift basket ideas? Check out my gift basket post here.



Here's the line up:

Measuring Spoon Set
Measuring Cup Set
Spoon Rest
Kitchen Scissors
Vegetable Peeler
Vegetable Scrubber
Handheld Shredder
Pizza Cutter
Salad Tongs
Cutting Board
Dough Scraper
Can Strainer
Rubber Spatula- Large
Rubber Spatula- Angled
Pot Scrubber
Basting Brush (Silicone- My Favorite!)

How to Create a Budget: Easy, Step by Step Directions. Complete One Step a Week!

Ahhh, the Budget. The most hated, yet most important aspect to a successful financial life. A good budget runs itself. If you don't rush it's creation and start slowly until it's up and running, it won't feel restrictive or overwhelming. A good budget is also like the constitution, it's a growing, living document. If it doesn't work for you, brainstorm and change it. A good budget is also a compromise between you and your partner. You should both have a say in what your financial priorities are and your budget should reflect that. Likewise, you're both responsible when you break the budget.

If your interested in creating an easy to follow workable budget for your family, complete one of these steps every Monday evening until they are done. Once your budget is up and running, stick with Monday evenings being devoted to finances. Just set aside 45 minutes to keep everything up to date and log any discrepancies.

QUICK AND EASY STEPS TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE BUDGET

WEEK ONE:

• Grab a sheet of paper. Label the top of it "Financial Responsibilities at a Glance". On the top of the paper, list the family income. If it's not dependable income, such as overtime, don't list it. Total the dependable family income.

 

• Now write the "1st of the month" on the next line and half way down the page write "15th of the month". List every bill you have, no matter how small. Separate them by when they are due and list the name and amount due in either the pile for the 1st or the pile for the 15th. Total both lists.

 

• Now decide on a reasonable amount to set aside for groceries. If you've never tried to limit your grocery spending, aim high for now and reduce it later. The worst thing you can do is budget a hundred dollars a week, spend three hundred a week then give up. If you need a basic idea, we do 15 minute convenience meals at home and spend no more than 120.00 per week, including lunches for two adults (We could feed a small child on that same budget). You can follow our menu plans here. While I'm home now during maternity leave, I'm cooking from scratch and spending about $75.00 per week. (I use $5 Dinner Mom's Cookbook which I rented from the library and just kept renewing through my maternity leave, you can buy your own copy here or just check it out of the library). Total your groceries and your bills and subtract that total from your total dependable income. Don't panic if you don't have a lot of extra money to work with- we'll work on that next week. This week is just to write the numbers down and have an idea where we are now.

WEEK TWO:

 

• Drag out the paper from last week. Review it for the following:
 
• Review: Is there anything you can exchange? Really think outside the box here. A few ideas of what we did to exchange (over $23,000.00 worth of exchanges can be found here). Some quick examples:
• Switching our xbox live account to xbox live family plan with three extended family members and splitting the cost between us.
• Cancelling rhapsody and allowing 12 itunes songs to be purchased every month by us (6 for Jon, 6 for Rowy), we haven't purchased a song in 3 months- so I've saved $36.00 right there.
• Cancelling cable and getting hulu and amazon prime saved us a ton! You can read the specifics here.
• Create a "Plan of Action" List (Can you tell how much I love lists?) Write down calls to make, things to research etc. regarding the above. Work on this list and see if there are exchanges you can make to reduce your bills.

WEEK THREE:

 
 
• Brainstorm: What other necessary purchases are there? List them down and a realistic frequency for which they need to be purchased. Here are  few examples of our necessity list:

 

• Hair Cuts for Jon every 3 weeks - $20.00 (includes tip)

 

• Haircuts and Highlights for Rowy every 4 months - $170.00 (I actually went to red instead of blonde so I can do all over at home color and save about 300.00 per year, but Jon wanted me to go back to blonde)

 

• Oil changes every 3 months- $25.00

 

• Vehicle Inspections- $15.00 yearly (in VA)

 

• Vehicle Registration- about 60.00 annually

 

• Taxes- do you normally owe for income tax? Factor that in annually.

 

• County personal property tax- about 60.00 for us.

 

• Dr.'s appointments- we use flexible reimbursement so I don't have to factor this into the budget.

 

• Gifts- Lists every person that you buy a birthday gift or Christmas for, list any upcoming weddings, baby showers etc that you know you will be going to, list valentines day and your anniversary. Set a basic limit for each gift (if you plan ahead, you would be surprised how cheaply you can get excellent gifts).

 

• Retirement savings - If you don't already do this, this will be your first goal after creating the budget. Ordinarily, it would be smartest to pay off all debt first before you start saving since your return on your investments in unlikely to be as high as interest on debt. However, if your having trouble keeping your finances straight, then forcing yourself to contribute to a Roth IRA (mine through USAA starts at $50.00 per month minimum contribution), forces you to save. In the event of a true emergency, you can take contributions out (but not profits), and if you take every penny you have and pay off debt, there is no guarantee that you wont just run up that debt again, undoing all of your hard work.

 

• Fuel - if you need something to base this on. I commuted an hour to work each day this summer and needed 70.00 per week for fuel. While I've been home the last 3 months, I've needed 70.00 per 3 weeks for fuel.

 

• A reasonable amount for fun and entertainment money. We do $20.00 per week per person, but we have to earn it by working out, tracking our food, not drinking soda, losing weight, and completing our chores. You can read about our healthy rewards system here. It also has a free downloadable chart in case you want to try this for yourself.

 

WEEK 4:

• Determine what your costs are to run your household. Do you ever think of the costs of all the little things needed to run your home? Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, laundry detergent, deodorant, light bulbs, batteries, etc? Without being able to predict the cost of these things, a workable budget is a pipe dream. Head over here and follow the instructions to create a home stock room inventory and price list. Determine the dates that you will stock up (I go for every three months), write down the total cost and  the dates of your stock up trips.
• These are the shopping lists, amount needed (to buy in bulk from walmart.com and shipped free to the house), and purchase dates for us in 2013:
• January 1st 2013 - Trip #1
• Diapers - Parent's Choice - 1,120 diapers - $134.40
• Formula - (Just needed on this trip- He'll be on solids by next trip) - $200.00
• Baby Wipes (Parents Choice) - 42.00
• Deodorant- Hers- x2 - 3.97
• Deodorant- His- x2- 3.97
• Toilet Paper - 16.97
• Tooth Paste - 2.25
• Shampoo- 5.00
• Conditioner- 5.00
• Feminine Care- 27.00
• Hand Soap Refills- 6.00
• Paper Towels (Using 1 roll per week, we use clothes for most things) - 14.00
• Air Filters (for the heating system) - 16.00
• Laundry Detergent- 24.00
• Kitty Litter- 50.00
• D Batteries - (Replace stock after Hurricane Sandy) - 13.00
• Cat Food- 16.00
• Sandwich bags- 8.00
• Gallon Freezer Bags- 8.00
• Foil- 10.00
• Wax Paper- 10.00
• Printer Ink- 11.00 (I get them off of Amazon, from refilled cartridges).
• Total Trip #1- $617.00
• May 1st 2013 - Trip #2
• Same as Trip #1, but delete formula and D batteries.
• Total Trip #2 - 404.00
• September 1st 2013- Trip #3 and Yearly Stock Up
• Same as Trip #2, but add the following:
• Dish Detergent - 10.59
• Kitchen Trash Bags- 25.00
• Small Trash Bags- 36.00
• Claritan- 57.60
• Shaving Cream- 6.00
• Razor Cartridges- 18.96
• Total Trip #3 - 558.96
• In case you were wondering- that's 1,605.96 per year to run the house, or 133.00 per month, which boils down to 33.00 per week.
• By doing this step, you take away any variables from your budget, enabling you to stay on track. You can't forget to add cat food into your budget. Everything is automated.

WEEK FIVE:

 

• Go out and buy a 12 month calendar with giant writing blocks. Choose an 8x10 bound calendar with 1/3 of the page used per day. Here is an example: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Day-Timer-2013-Faux-Croc-Weekly-Monthly-Wirebound-Business-Planner-8-x-11-Black/21664663 for 14.00

 

• Do the following in pencil- On the 1st day of each month- list your bills (not your necessities) and the amount due. 

WEEK SIX:



•  Go through your list of necessities and start adding those amounts in on either the 1st or the 15th preceding the date the money is needed. For gifts, leave at least a month before the event. For instance, my dad's birthday is on Halloween (October 31st for my foreign readers), so I'm going to list $15.00 on September 1st to buy Dad's birthday present.

 

• Now add in your salary and earnings. For us, we have stable earnings (each of our salaries) and inconsistent earnings (the blog for me, overtime for Jon. Technically, I could work overtime as well, but I really, really hate overtime.) Go through all of your 1st's and 15th's and add in your  paychecks. When you work overtime and you know it's coming up, add that in as well. Subtract the amounts of each bill/necessity from the income.

 

•  If you don't have anything left, go back to you lists of bills and necessities and figure out how you can reduce your bills for a while. Cancelling cable is the most bang for your buck, plus it forces you to spend time together and (gasp!) talk to each other! If you need to make up money, selling things on ebay is a great option. Don't go nuts- I would sort through your clothing and grab all of the jeans that don't fit you, sell them in a lot. Lots of clothing in the same size sell particularly well. Make the listing end on Sunday evening at about 10pm (statistically the most active time for sales).

WEEK SEVEN:

 

• The leftover amount each date is your extra income. Have you and your family (heck, include the kids too) make a list of future goals that cost money. Vacations to Disney World, buying a larger house, opening a brewery, staying home to be with the kids full time, a new car, living debt free etc. Have everyone assign a cost value to them. Now think of the smaller goals- think of things like sending out Christmas cards (that costs money right? most likely it wasn't in your necessity list), adding a few throw pillows to your living room, getting a new tool for your workshop, visiting your family in Kentucky, etc. Assign a reasonable value to those things. As a family, pick your top 3 priorities. List them in order, 1 being the most important, 3 being the least. Do you see a pattern? Are the same things in the top three. Together determine the families top 3 goals and the order in which they are achieved. For instance, if your goal is to purchase a house, you may want the Disney vacation first, since it will take less time to achieve that goal. Also consider alternatives- maybe you would rather vacation somewhere less expensive so you can get the house quicker. 

 

• Next determine how strict on the budget you want to be as a family (we choose very strict, with the occasional late night pizza meltdowns). Work together to remind each other of your goals and how to stay on track. Seek other sources of income to create income for additional things that you may want- a blog, an etsy shop, reselling items on ebay for a profit, decluttering your house and selling items no longer wanted on ebay.
• At the end of each date (the 1st and the 15th), write the first initial for your goal: like H for house, then write the leftover amount. That's the amount in your "bank" for that goal. If you want to work on a few goals at a time, separate them out and distribute the amount as you please.
• MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE that you keep track of your actual bank account as well as your bill calendar. If your hubby forgets that he bought something, your bank account will reflect differently than your calendar. Every Monday, review your account online and note any discrepancies from  the budget, adjust that date accordingly.

WEEK EIGHT:

• Follow these steps to set up a financial file cabinet.

 WEEK NINE:

• On the notes page of your calendar, set up a quick account info reference sheet. Just include companies and contact info (most companies can verify you without an account number, such as your SSN or DOB). You don't want anything too risky logged in here since you want to be comfortable taking it out of the house. I use my calendar for bills, scheduling, everything.
• Consider using a thermometer. You know, those crudely drawn thermometers that people use for fundraising etc to watch their goal being met. Anything that helps you stay on track.

 

 

YOU MADE IT!

 

Enjoy your new budget and think of me in Disney World! 

 

11/17/12: This Weeks Menu Plan for 15 minute meals for under 120 dollars per week.

Sadly, after almost three months at home with baby squishy, I'm getting ready to head back to the office. I've been cooking from scratch using "5 Dollar Dinner Mom's cookbook" while I was at home. This week, we're back to 15 minute meals until we adjust to the change, then I plan to start mixing in the slow cooker.

Each Week, I sit down with my schedule book and plan out this weeks meals. Breakfasts are serve yourself from pre-made options, and snack bags for lunches are separated into snack baggies on shopping day (Sunday). I just grab 3 snack baggies for each of our lunches to toss in. We both pack our lunch every day, even being at home these last few months. I pack my lunch as well so I can grab it and go while running errands etc.  Jon took over the shopping as one of his chores (You rock Jon!), He does that on Sunday and then I can do food prep that day for the week. I share our menu for the week for those that are new to menu planning. If you have no idea what to do for the week and would like to steal some or all of our plan... I promise not to prosecute:-)

As always, I feel it's important to note that this is not the healthiest plan to follow. It's a great plan for us, because it's breaking our addiction to fast food and other unhealthy habits, and it's cut our food budget by about 50%. Slowly, we're making substitutions that will lead us to a healthy cheap meal plan. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.

This week, I went through the pantry, fridge, and freezer and listed food that I would like to use up. We're making a lot of progress in clearing that stuff out. I should note that I don't want excess food in the kitchen because it's hard to find the things that I need and things get lost. In case of emergency, we're very well prepared with extensive food stocks in the basement. We're ready for anything (except zombies).
"Recipes" for all menu items can be found here and here.

Italian Chicken Pasta Salad



MENU:

Breakfast Options for the Week:

Sausage Breakfast Burrito: I made and froze a ton of these yesterday while I made dinner. just heat for 90 seconds and enjoy!

Milk and Cereal: Self Explanatory.

Snack Options for Lunches:

Pudding cups
Slim Jim's
Peanuts
Popcorn
Granola Bars
Fruit
Carrots

Reminders:

This is complicated week. Lots of things to catch up on before I start back.
Movies with Alison on Friday at 7pm.- early dinner (5pm?) Plan easy packed lunches for me since I have at least 2 days of errands.
Use pantry inventory to plan meals this week.
"Cooking Date Night" on Saturday. (We stay on and make a fancy meal together, it's cheap, romantic and I learn a few things from my fancy cookin' husband).

Sunday:

Breakfast: Breakfast burritos

Lunch: Leftover lasagna from dinner party.

Dinner: Crispy chicken wraps stuffed with southwest salad. (We had an extra southwest salad kit from dinner the night before, we mixed it, and stuffed the tortillas with that and the crispy chicken).


Monday:

Lunch: Turkey and muenster sandwich, three snacks. (sorry for the repetition, but Jon never gets sick of this).

Dinner: Italian chicken pasta salad, pears.


Tuesday:

Lunch: Italian chicken pasta salad
            

Dinner: Hot dogs, sauerkraut, baked beans, mandarin oranges.


Wednesday:

Lunch: Turkey and muenster sandwiches.

Dinner: Chicken Parmesan (using the leftover crispy chicken tenders from Sunday- Just heat, cover in sauce and mozzarella, you can also put these in hot dog buns from Tuesday night), angel hair pasta on side, green beans.


Thursday:

Lunch:  Turkey and muenster sandwiches.

Dinner: Chicken salad sandwiches, broccoli cheese soup
*Thaw turkey for "Date Night" on Saturday)


Friday:

Lunch: Turkey and muenster sandwiches

Dinner: Tortellini with peas and cheese


Saturday:

Breakfast: French Toast with strawberry preserves

Lunch: Chicken salad sandwiches and chicken noodle soup

Dinner: Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Veggies and Gravy.

Sunday:

Breakfast: French toast with strawberry preserves

Lunch: Home made sloppy joes (recipe found here), served in leftover hot dog buns, macaroni and cheese.
Dinner: Leftover from Saturdays cooking date night.

Shopping List: (All prices are approximate based off memory- If we shop before I post, I'll include total)

Wegmans Granola Bars - $2.50
Wegmans Club Pack Turkey- $8.99
Wegmans Muenster Cheese- $2.50
2 Loaves Wegmans Giant Bread- $1.99
Slim Jims- $5.00
Wegmans Plain Potato Chips- $1.50
Wegmans Italian Dressing- $1.50
2- Wegmans Frozen Grilled Chicken Breast- $11.00 (Use coupons)
Green Pepper- $1.00
White Onion- $1.00
Baby Carrots- $1.00
Wegmans Rotini- $1.00
Black Olives- $1.00
Gallon Fat Free Milk- $2.50 (I LOVE WEGMANS! - mostly because they sell cheap milk!)
Wegmans Hot Dogs- $5.00
Wegmans Club Pack Hot Dog Buns- $2.00
Sauerkraut- 1.00
Small Mozzarella Cheese- $1.50
Campbell's Broccoli Cheese Soup- $2.00
Parm Cheese- $2.00
Tortellini -Cheese (Frozen)- $2.00
Frozen Peas- $1.00
Wegmans Steamed Veggies (any)- $2.00
Canned Pears x 3- $4.00
Wegmans Chocolate Pudding Cups- $2.00

Total: $68.00 for this weeks groceries

I was pretty much right on, it turned out to be $69.71:)

Items already at Home:

Burrito Tortillas- $1.50
Baked Beans- $2.00
Cereal- 6 boxes thanks to the Harris Teeter double coupon sale - each 80 cents:)
Crispy Chicken Tenders- $6.00
Pasta Sauce- $1.00
Angel Hair Pasta- $1.00
Chicken Noodle Soup- $1.00
Mashed Potato Mix (4 boxes -Same Harris Teeter Sale- about 1.00 per box!)
Ketchup- $3.00
Brown Sugar- $2.00

How can you prepare for a baby? One Moms detailed postpartum view and what she wished she knew on day one.

 

 

 



The answer is simple. You can't. You can't prepare for a baby. At least I couldn't. And man, did I try. The first few weeks were traumatic. Looking back now, I find that hilarious because he slept 18 hours a day. I mean really, how much can life be interrupted by something that sleeps 18 hours a day?!?

If I knew then what I know now at 9 weeks postpartum... I would have done these before the baby arrived and made my life much easier.

Financial File Cabinet: Organized and Easy to Keep Up.



When we started to get our budget straight, I realized that I was spending an inordinate amount of time on the phone. I would have to call companies to find out our interest rates, determine how to reduce charges, update info, and dispute charges (epic show down with Xbox live - I'm still bitter about it). I had been throwing out bills as they came in since I have bill pay set up through the bank. I decided to just start keeping that info to see if that would help. Boy did it ever! I run the house finances like a business, that would be impossible without keeping good records of what we're paying and when. Now when a new opportunity comes up (replacing cable with Hulu and Amazon Prime, for example) I can pull up records for our current accounts and determine whether to switch. I save HOURS on the phone, since very few companies have little wait time on the phone. It also helps me meet my goals, watching my retirement accounts grow, for example, or watching debt be paid off.


To start your own financial files, you'll need a file cabinet, file roller, or file box. Unless you're very young, you will most likely need a minimum of a file roller. I have 33 files and one of them (health insurance info) is at least 3 inches thick. The file cart I bought can be found here for $34 with free shipping from Amazon. While I would recommend it, anything similar would do. If you have some free time, you can peruse craigslist to find a free one.


Make a list of every single account you have- retirement accounts, debt, investments, water, cable, cell phones, internet, power, etc. Also add things you would like to track such as credit reports for adult family members, social security reports, transcripts etc. For each item on your list, make a  file folder. Label the folder, and on the inside front cover write the most important account information so you can see it at a glance. Write the website, your username, either your password or a password reminder (such as regular password +3469), a payment address, a payment due date, an amount due, a balance if there is one, a contact phone number and any other important information that you may need at a glance.


For example these are our files:

• Account Info - A condensed information sheet on all of our accounts at a glance. A payment calender and copy of our extended budget (a budget that extends for one-three years).
• ATT- Cell Phones
• Baby - A compilation of all the paperwork I needed for Squishy-Face. Maternity "Go Bag" Packing list, pediatrician info, medical paperwork, health insurance sheets, day care information etc.
• Born Free Northern Virginia - Blog revenue and Google Adsense pay stubs. (I doubt I need these, but it's kind of cool to track the growth of the blog).
• College- Rowy
• College- Jon - Anything needed from transcripts to correspondence.
• Credit Reports - Update every 6 months, if you score goes up within the 6 months, call credit cards and ask for an interest rate reduction based on your new credit score.
• Deferred Compensation - Quarterly Reports
• Deer Park- This account will be removed in January since we cancelled Deer Park service early this year.
• Dominion Power - I don't purge these records, I keep all of them because it helps to project what future electric payments will be. This is our most varied bill and it helps to have an average from years past.
• Flying Club- Statements and flight time.
• GMAC Mortgage - Mortgage statements and payment schedule.
• Health Insurance - I have to be honest, I can't figure out health insurance billing at all. But I plan to tackle that soon, so I keep all of these statements.
• Miscellaneous - Jon's amateur radio license, awesome Tropicana special offers, random things that I need to save, but don't know where to put.
• Homeowners Association - quarterly statements.
• Retirement - Our companies retirement information.
• Roth Ira- Investment statements, beneficiary information.
• Taxes - Federal and State income taxes for the last 5 years and personal property taxes for the last two years.
• House #1- A home that we own and use as a rental property. Rent information and receipts, work done to the home etc.
• House #2- A home that we rent until we decide where we want to officially settle down. Same as above.
• USAA - Credit Card- Statements.
• USAA- Insurance - statements and policy information (actually read that policy too- it's important!)
• USAA- Banking - Statements
• USAA- Car Loan - Statements and Pay off Schedule.

Every year, purge your financial files. I keep only one year of records (except Dominion Power), but when I purge, I retain January's statements for each year. So I'll have one statement from each year and 12 months of the most recent statements.


We created a "Red File" as well, a portable enclosed file that contains all of the most important paperwork for the family. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, socials security cards and diplomas are all held here. They can be placed in a safe for added security, but in the event of an evacuation, it would be beneficial to have quick access to those papers.


This cart is set up next to my desk and inbox and makes it remarkably easy to keep up with paper clutter. Happy organizing!