Archive for February, 2010

Ten Tips for Tuesday: Money Saving Round One

Ten Money Saving Tips

(*Sorry to all my readers for this Tuesday’s post for being late. God says that I am a daughter to him first, and a wife to my husband second. So on Tuesday I was spending time with the hubby. Better late than never!)

1. Don’t bother spending money on store-bought spice blends that are FULL of salt and preservatives and cost an arm and a leg. Instead, take a few minutes to research spice blends and rubs online and on your next lazy afternoon throw a couple together. Store them in air-tight containers to protect the flavor of your hard work. Remember, spices should be replaced within one year so keep track of how long your blends have been around and renew them accordingly.

2. Save money by using natural products to clean with. Use products like white vinegar, baking soda, salt, lemon, and essential oils to clean your home, car, and even your work place naturally. You most likely already have these things in your cupboards anyway. Don’t waste your left over lemon from tea or cooking. Instead, dip the flesh of your juiced lemon in salt and clean the bottom of your copper pans or any other copper you have lying around. The salt is your abrasive and the acid in the lemon gets tough on all that grime and with a little scrubbing your copper will be right back to its old self! For those of your who are skeptics, know that vinegar truly will disinfect your surfaces. If you want proof, fill one spray bottle with peroxide and one with white vinegar. Go to your sink or any grim-filled area that you need to clean. Spray the area first with peroxide and watch it bubble away. Follow up with the vinegar and let it sit for a minute or two. Rinse the area well (if you want, the smell will go away either way, rinsing just speeds the process), then dry, and follow-up with the peroxide. If you’ve done a good job cleaning and you let the vinegar sit for a minute or two, your peroxide won’t fizz the second time. Read the rest of this entry »

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Come to Jesus: Best Buy

Come to Jesus

I had quite the religious experience the other day, and in of all places, Best Buy. As I grow further and further in my walk with Christ I become more and more aware of Him and His works in all areas of my life. Over the past six months, but especially the last three months, He has been speaking both LOUDLY and CLEARLY to me. While I haven’t been perfectly obedient, I’m doing my best to do what He would want me to do with our money. He is blessing us and providing for us during these difficult months while Chris was losing his job and out of work, so who am I to disobey His commands? The GOOD news is that Chris has a full-time job now that he will be starting in a couple weeks and I am working part-time, as well, to help provide for our small family.

As I said before, God is working in our lives and we are doing our best to listen to Him and be obedient to His plan. We’ve had several dilemmas where we’ve had to think about need vs. want in the last several months knowing that money was a limited resource and that we had to make the most of it. I can’t honestly say we’ve made the ‘best’ decision EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. (the ability to repent is a true blessing of grace) but I truly feel we can say we’ve never made the worst decision and we always strive to do what’s in the best interest of our current and long-term goals to be good financial stewards of our money. Yes, just like the rest of you, we have moments of weakness where we decide to eat out once in a while but we try to be reasonable about it. We also have moments where we don’t plan ahead like we know we should and pack a lunch to take with us but we do our best to eat on the cheap in those situations. The only time we’ve really splurged for the last 3 months (which is a very long time for us- we don’t have kids yet, can you tell?) was this past weekend. On Friday we celebrated an early Valentine’s with dinner out on the town, but that was only because we knew we both had jobs and new found sources of income to replenish the money we were spending. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ten Tips for Tuesday: Aloe Vera

Ten Uses for Aloe Vera

1. Substitute Aloe Vera for shaving cream if you find yourself in a pinch or if you are looking for a ‘greener’ alternative. Slap on the Aloe and let it lubricate and moisturize your skin at the same time! It can also be used as a substitute or replacement for lotion on those newly shaven legs!

2. Drink Aloe juice (find it in the health food stores) to help fight diabetes. It lowers your blood sugar and it also helps soothe and heal your digestive tract.

3. Reduce puffiness! No need to freeze spoons… keep your aloe in the fridge. Whether you’ve had a long night or watched a tear-jerker before bed, when you wake up to puffy eyes grab your aloe out of the fridge and put a small dab under each eye. Rub it in in a circular motion. The movement and the coolness of the aloe help reduce puffiness and break up fluids in the eye area. (It’s a lot cheaper than $20 eye creams.)

4. Drink Aloe juice to lower your triglycerides and cholesterol to promote a healthy heart! Read the rest of this entry »

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