7 days in our home forever and ever in my heart

We have had little man in our home for 7 days and lets just say I never thought I could fall in love with a little one so fast! It was hard to let him go today!  Such a precious baby boy.  Today has been hard but I am so glad that I had the opportunity to be his foster momma.

happiness is fresh cut green grass

There are so many little things in life that make me happy and I think it is important to remember those little things.  Life can get crazy and stressful and it helps to find the little things that make you happy.

happiness is fresh cut green grass

I can't wait for the summer BBQ's we will hopefully be having this year!

learning to budget part 2

This is part 2 of how I budget.  As I talked about here I am new to budgeting and I wanted to find a simple way to keep track of my budget or I knew I would not keep up with it. So I got this little accordion file from the dollar spot at target to keep my receipts.  I also keep a pencil and a small calculator so that everything I need is right there.

I keep the budget sheet I created in my planner/wallet so that I always have it with me and I know where I am at with the budget for that month.  It keeps me from spending more that I have already allocated.  

So I will collect my receipts and every few days (depending on how often I go to the store) I will record my receipts under the correct categories. I then keep a running total so that I know how much I have left. After the receipts have been recorded I keep them in the accordion file for a few months until I am sure I no longer need them.

So this may seem very simple but I think that it is a great way to start so that I don't get too overwhelmed!

learning to budget part 1

My husband and I have always pretty closely watched how much we spend but have never truly had a budget for groceries, household, or miscellaneous purchases.  So since we are getting ready for some changes with our income coming soon we decided it was time to buckle down!
 We decided to start pretty simple and it has been working well for a couple of months.  Now, we are still working on the numbers to see what we really need and what falls under what category.  It's all a work in progress for sure.

 I truly believe you have to start somewhere so here we go.  This is what worked for me.

I made this sheet and I keep it in my planner that I also use as a wallet. This way I always know how much I have left.  At the beginning I allocate how much money for my personal budget and how much I have for the Grocery/Household.  In the other category I will list if I have a goal for saving some of my personal budget for something big or if there are extra purchases (birthday gifts) that I need remember.

Part 2 coming soon!

diy book crate

  So we have been foster parents for a couple of years now but we are getting ready to change the ages that we can take in so we have been redoing the "kid room".

 I have seen some very cute crate bookshelves on pinterest with about 4 or 5 crates painted and stacked and its so adorable but I had 2 problems with that. First of all I didn't have the room and second buying that many crates was out of my budget.... So here is what I decided to do.

I got this crate with a coupon from Michaels craft store.  I sanded all the rough spots (or at least I thought I did) and then wiped it down with a white cloth to get all the dust off.

Then I bought a little  8 oz jar of white paint and started with my first coat.  I soon learned that using a cheap paint brush was not working well I was getting paint everywhere so I switched to a foam brush and that worked much better!

Two coats later it was finished! The foam brush worked really great getting in between all those slats.

Watching hulu made it a little more fun. :)

Here is the finished project! It hold some of my collection of children's books.  As my collection grows maybe I can add more crates.  I love children's books and love to look at thrift stores for gently loved books.

So there it is! My fun quick Saturday project!  Thanks for stopping by :)