SAVE MONEY: Do not buy food until you HAVE to

for you no meat eaters out there just take a look at that scrumptious meal! take a look at my protein rich plate of food! love it, eh!?! ...this post is for you meat eaters too.  and this post is especially for you "cook with no recipe" lovers like myself. i don't like to cook, so i'm known to just throw it all together and eat it. this meal was put together with the items stored up in my home that were waiting and waiting to be eaten up. they are items that sit with long shelf life and a frozen bag of field peas.

can't wait to know what's on the plate? okay, i'll tell you before i encourage you to save money by EATING YOUR PANTRY AND REFRIG/FREEZER OUT.

*frozen bag of field peas from Walmart
*a box of couscous from ALDI
*can of stewed diced tomatoes from ALDI
*sweet onion sliced
*Florida avocado from WALMART
*zucchinis from ALDI. sliced straight down the middle, the tops rubbed with olive oil, salted and peppered, and baked until desired texture. i also broiled mine for a little crisp on the top.

SAVE MONEY: do not buy food until you have to AND do not let your produce go to waste. do not buy more produce until the produce in you home is eaten all gone. last week i discovered that i didn't eat up our fresh mushrooms in time for them to go bad. that had me so bummed out, like it really really did! What about those little spots on the apples? cut it out, that's what. by doing this you will keeps days ahead of yourself before you need to delve into the food budget envelope for shopping.

SAVE MONEY: EAT YOUR PANTRY AND FREEZER OUT! open up the pantry doors. look at all the cans of green beans and cans of peaches and cans of tuna fish. just eat them, eat all of those canned goods! get past the idea that none of it sounds appealing. appealing, what is that? appealing doesn't matter when you are on a budget to GET OUT of DEBT. so, let's just say if you have those three items in the panty -then go ahead and make a meal out of it.
*tuna fish sandwich, or do you have lettuce in the refrig? make a tuna salad on a bed of lettuce, have your side of green beans and peaches. voila! there's a meal!

PLAN YOUR NEXT several days' meals straight out of what's in your refrigerator, freezer, pantry, and the produce/fruit on your counter that need to be eaten. EAT it all up and see how long you can go without going into the grocery store for more food. if you are not in a store then you can't spend money, right?  

i promise you will be surprised by the next time payday comes around and it's time to budget all over again and to fill up those envelopes. Your FOOD envelope will have some left over money in it!! What to do!?! What to do!?! maybe you'll take yourselves out for a date night. FOR US it's just going to roll over into our savings envelope. Yeah, we're still on baby step #1 in the Dave Ramsey Get OUT of DEBT plan.

A Tasty idea: if you have bananas that are needing to be eaten up but you can't imagine eating them all in one day or spending time to make banana bread then make smoothies for everyone.
ONE of MY FAVORITE SMOOTHIES- ice, almond milk, peanut butter, & bananas. I also usually throw in chia seeds as well.

Happy Eating!! Happy Savings!! And Remember to EAT your produce, don't let it spoil. 

GETTING OUT OF DEBT: kick the debit card addiction and be stress free!

today! today, my friend, marks 5 whole weeks of NOT carrying my debit card anywhere with me. that means i have not swiped that card 1 time since we started a strict budget to get ourselves out of debt. YEAH! 5 whole weeks! and you know, it has felt good, so good!


i was a little scared to remove my debit card out of my purse. all the what if's flooded my brain. but, you know, after staying strict on our 'get out of debt budget' and the prayers i pray i have found freedom in not having that piece of plastic in my wallet.


when i would actually shop for groceries or get gas i would practically have a panic attack by worrying if there was enough money in the bank while swiping my debit card. stupidly i would use that dumb debit card for so many other things right after my husband would get paid (bad wife) resulting in my fear of not having enough money for those things we do need (major self produced anxiety, don't do that!) for 5 weeks i have been paying cash for all purchases and believe me when i say coming from someone who suffers anxiety- i have no anxiety when paying that grocery or gas bill simply because i have cash. side thought: my therapist would be proud. with physical cash in hand i literally know how much i can and cannot spend.


today my hubby finally went grocery shopping with me after 5 weeks of me shopping alone. you've got to believe me, the anxiety is real... my husband has shopped for the majority of our groceries for like a year+ now. so, when my husband told me that he is really proud of me after watching me shop like an expert and watching me live like no one else ('live like no one else' is a dave ramsey saying) as i whipped out my FOOD envelope of cash to pay while everyone in line stared at me i wanted to do a kart wheel, not really, but i got all giddy inside and thanked him profusely. I HAD A LONG LASTING SMILE YA'LL! that's a big ol' grand deal to hear my hubby say that about me!


that was today's grocery story with no debit card. here comes today's gas story with no debit card.


then... then... are you ready for this? i leaned over to check out the gas tank level. half way full. i tell my hubby to pull over so we can get gas. i say, "$25?" and he says, "$20 should be fine." hmmm... i tell him that i'll go pay for it. hubby looks at me strange and told me to go for it. I took $25 with me (i always keep my GAS envelope of cash in the car just in case you were wondering). hubby pumps the gas. i ask if i need to get change back from the clerk. "nope, i squeezed that last 70 cents in the gas tank," says the hubby. then... then... friends, you know what? hubby said again that he is so proud of me for the knowledge of rightly gauging how much it would take to fill the gas tank up! yay! yay! yay! he is truly impressed with me! yay! yay! yay! I've, me- not my hubby, been paying for the gasoline for 5 weeks now WITH CASH and so i should know, right, teehee!


before this, and this is bad, i would beg my husband to take the car and put gasoline in it for me. call me pathetic, i know. it is pathetic and i'm not going to rattle of any reasons why simply because they are not good enough. it does make me sad that my quirks and anxieties about these can get in my way. but... not anymore! I pray it stays this way for forever. my husband is just too good of a man not to be able to appreciate the small things like these that a loving wife can do.


with all that said, taking that addictive debit card away from me... no more "emergency" swipes at McDonald's, no more AMAZON purchases because the prices are just right, no more swipes at the addicting thrift stores that call my name while i'm driving down the road, simply no more buying anything that's not necessary or vital to our well being ANYMORE! why? because i have a budget and cash that limits my spending. ONLY CASH will stop you (well sane people anyway) from addictive spending habits. good for me because we didn't have the money to throw away like i was doing only 5 weeks ago.


I am so happy to bless my husband like this. it.is.a.big.deal
Glory to God.

the beginnings of our 2 separate adoption stories

we could have never in a million years predicted that our family would become an adoptive family much less a bi-racial family. let me tell the truth and replace the word we with the word i  -i would have never imagined that we would be an adoptive family. can you believe that prior to the adoption of our 2nd set of children whom we adopted a little less than a year ago i could easily forget that adoption already had a part in our lives until a reality check would set in? the #1 reality check that always stirs my memory is when i'm filling out medical histories at the doctor's office. however, the idea wasn't foreign for my husband not-at-all. when the process of our recent adoption was making its way to finalization i would constantly ask my husband if he thought that i could love our soon to be adopted children exactly the way i love my natural born children? sadness and fear would fill me every time i would think of such a thing. i easily knew i could be a failure at this thing called adoption. i couldn't bear the thought, no child deserves that. my husband never ever feared those same ideas of mine. my husband always replied saying to me, "YES, YOU WILL LOVE THEM THE SAME BECAUSE I LOVE OUR 1ST SON THAT WAY." bam! another reality check! our son who is now 20 years old is my son by birth, yep i lovingly carried him for 9 months and 2 days, labored him through much, much pain, and forever bear the scar from the emergency c-section he would need for his survival. my husband is not "our" oldest son's biological DNA contributor as he is for our daughter. but, he is part of the huge make-up for all things good in his life 2nd to God our Father. my husband, his dad, awaited the day to become his legal father through adoption. my husband and i have been together since "our" son was 2 years old. the adoption became final when he was age 4. concerning our family's initial union there has been absolutely positively nothing but blessings since the beginning of what i call my husband's insto-family when he married me. all who know us outside of family until they learn of our family's story prior to our recent adopted boys amazingly assumed we were an all related "blood family."


now, we are instantly known by everyone to be an adoptive family because we have been blessed to grow by 2 black boys, our sons. I still am grasping that i have 2 black children. it's not a bad thing, not at all, in fact i love it. there's much to learn about being a bi-racial family as it is so rewarding, yet some of it is sad when the comments and opinions that we get about our choice to become a bi-racial family are condemning -folks, racism is alive and well. no matter, nothing will change that motherhood is my favorite no matter the color of my children! even after almost 2 years later from when we were blessed to have our 1st foster son join our family, our "son" now," i still can't believe that i, me of all people in this world, have adopted  (remember my husband had already adopted). I'm still astonished that i have 4, yes FOUR children! i just can't believe it, i love it so much! i am super duper blessed to have all of my children. one day i will share my story about NOT wanting more children only to fall into the desire of desperately wanting more children. when i wanted more children i would never conceive again. then, get this, when i became content with the idea of my family being the 4 of us, so content to be soon entering the semi stage of empty nest syndrome because we are YOUNG. Just think of all the fun we would have from the energy of us still being young (we're not 40 yet) with the younger years of our children past by, then bam! one day my husband told me to call foster care.


Here's what I know... the picture explains it all when it comes black and white. don't you just love it when God gives you those little special nuggets of gold like the reminder He blessed me with inside this picture, read the caption below that i attached to this picture when i posted it on my facebook:

I didn't plan it, the flash card with the word "one" on it just happen to
be lying on the floor when I asked my son to hold my hand for a picture. How lovely! We are one! One family! Love knows no color and we get to be a unique part of this Truth. We are so very loved by our Father God!