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  • Learning to Live Without and Save Money

    Learning to Live Without and Save Money

    This is a sponsored post; compensation was received. All thoughts are my own

    Sometimes I look at my life, and I wonder, how do I do it? How have we continued to make it despite the constant struggle for employment that will cover the cost of living? I’ve been reflecting on that as we begin a new adventure in a city that is literally close to everything you could ever want. The answer for us has been simple

    Live Without.

    You can live without all the luxuries in life, and still live a full and wonderful life.

    You Don’t NEED things. You can live without, and still survive. People do it all the time around the world. There are of course a few basics every human should have – food, clothes, shelter. After that, though, the rest is just to add comfort and adventure to our life. The great news is, you can find comfort and adventure without spending a fortune. In fact, you can get those things while saving money at the same time!

    So I’m here today to tell you how you can save money, and learn to live without, while still enjoying life.

    Skip the Treats.
    This is probably the biggest for us. When it comes to our grocery budget I’m tight. Very tight! People are always asking me how I manage to feed us with our limited budget, and most of the time I honestly don’t even know. One thing though is we skip the desserts and treats. Periodically we indulge, but they are not common in our home. If we have treats, it’s most likely homemade from scratch, like my apple pie burritos.

    Free Entertainment.
    One thing I love to do is find free entertainment. When you’re living on a budget, memberships to gyms, museums.and zoos just aren’t going to happen. So instead, we walk around our local farmers market, take in some free concerts in the park, and get out in nature. Mostly, though, we enjoy hanging out in the backyard, finding new bugs, and swinging on the tree swing.

    A backyard provides free entertainment when you live on a budget

    Money saving apps.
    Then there are the apps. I love Checkout51 and Ibotta the most. The key to using these apps is not to let it sucker you into buying extra things just to get the money back. Just like coupons, I only use them if it’s something I’m already buying. So I may not have high returns, but every little bit adds up.

    Giving Assistant.
    A new favorite discovery of mine, is Giving Assistant. After living in North Dakota I finally caved to buying more things online out of necessity. With Giving Assistant, I can do my online shopping through places like Amazon (my personal fave!); get cash back, AND donate to charity! You can choose how much of the cash back you get and how much goes to charity.
    Now besides shopping my favorite site, I noticed they also have a deal with Thred Up. I’ve never personally used ThredUp, but I know it’s a way to save money on clothes. What makes that better, oh just getting cash back by shopping through Giving Assistant.

    Giving Assistant helps you stay on budget with coupons, and gives back to charities of your choice.

     

    What have you learned to live without? How do you save money?
  • Adjusting after a move #MyGoodLife

    Adjusting after a move #MyGoodLife

    This shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

    Well we’re in North Dakota, the house is still covered with boxes, full and empty, but the kids have been in school for almost 2 weeks now. I was worried about how they would adjust to this move since we’ve moved more times than any normal family does, and as some people like to ask – no we’re not in the military. 
    When the kids were old enough to start school, I thought for sure we’d settle down, and never move again, but of course that was not in the cards. So here we are. Things have settled down some, but it was crazy for awhile there! Moving is just hard. Physically and emotionally draining. We left behind a lot of friends and family, and tears were shed. So naturally I was worried about the kids adjusting. 
    When our first Friday night rolled around, the kids asked for pizza like we normally do. How could I forget?! Up until the move, we made every Friday night our pizza and a movie night (come on, right, I mean I’ve talked about it on here a lot!). I blame it on my own stress, and not knowing what day it was for a solid two weeks. 
    Anyways, I turned to Mark and said “We HAVE to have pizza tonight!” Sure it meant I didn’t have to cook something, but mostly it meant keeping something the same for our whole family. Perhaps this would bring my stress levels down, and help the kids adjust to their new school?

    While the older Princesses were at school Friday morning, I took Princess R and Little Prince to Walmart (thank heavens our new town has a Walmart!!) to pick up our Friday night Pizza.

    I let Princess R help me pick out our family favorites. She got a cheese and a pepperoni, while I decided to be a bit more adventurous and try Tombstone’s limited edition chicken fiesta and beef ranchero. Before leaving the store, we thought we might need a good dessert as well. So we grabbed some of Edy’s Outshine Fruit Bars. 

    If you can’t tell, she was totally excited about getting to pick all the flavors without sisters barging in with their opinions – we picked up grape, mixed berry, and Coconut Water with Banana. Once we got everyone home and settled in for the weekend, we had to pick our movie. I was tossing out choices like Planes, Cinderella, or Brave? 

    Nope, my kids chose Lord of the Rings. I don’t know where these gals came from, because they have never had interest in this series before. They must have been feeling adventurous themselves.  Of course the movie is so long, they all fell asleep before we made it to dessert. So I tucked the Fruit bars to the back of the freezer for another special occasion – 

    Walking home from school of course! I did this once before at their old school, and it really helped brighten the day before getting home and checking off homework. The kids were thrilled when they saw the box attempting to hide in the back of the stroller. Of course I don’t care that they’re eating Popsicles because these are made with real honest 
    I’d say the kids, and to be honest all of us have adjusted to this move quite well. It’s still hard being so far from family that was so close, but it’s not bad. The kids already have friends, and they have a pretty first rate school to attend. 
    If you are planning a big change in your life, I suggest finding something that you currently do, and make a commitment now to keep it a habit throughout the change. One constant can make the difference when everything else may seem like chaos. 

    This is #MyGoodLife 
    What’s yours?