Did Valentine’s Day sneak up on you like it has for me (again)?

I did plan…a little! You saw what I did for Hubs this weekend, right?

Well, it’s Monday. So not a lot of time to plan. But there is still a way to pull a little something off.

I sat down last night and decided on a couple things I can easily do and will cost me nothing. Wanna know what I’m going to do? Well, of course you do!

Skip To My Lou had a great idea she calls Heart Attack. She just cuts out hearts and writes compliments about each of her kids, tapes them on their door so when the come out of their room in the morning they find all kinds of sweet notes of love! This project won’t cost me anything because I am overflowing with construction paper.

Effort required: minimal.

Cost: FREE!

Baker’s Royale had a cute idea for some yogurt popsicles. I’m not going to follow her recipe exactly because I don’t want to give my kids oreos.  But I have homemade yogurt that I just made last week. And I have homemade strawberry freezer jam from my picking trip this summer. Besides that I happen to have cute dixie cups and popsicle sticks. So I will follow her basic directions and make my kids a cute pink(ish) treat to enjoy at some point.

Effort required: a little

Cost: FREE

Tip Junkie has a list of links for printable Valentine’s. These are the two we chose to use to give at my kids’ Valentine’s party on Wednesday evening at church. I did plan ahead for these. They are already printed and ready to take with us on Wednesday.

Effort: They took time to cut out

Cost: FREE

We’ll be having our Teriyaki Sliders for dinner. Not very fancy, you say? Well, no. But it is one of our family favorites, and since Valentine’s Day is generally about the whole family, that seemed like a great choice. I will be making homemade coleslaw, and seasoned roasted potato wedges to go with it.

Effort: Well…it was on my OAMC menu for this month so…

Cost: I dunno. Part of my grocery budget for the month. Heh~

It’s not too late! Happy Valentine’s Day!

We aren’t big celebrators of Valentine’s Day. It’s not because we don’t love each other. We just don’t like to dump a lot of money into one day. We truly and honestly try to show our love consistently during the year.

But I figured after my post about being proactive in focusing on your marriage, I should show you what I decided to do here in the Pratt house. I’m making hubs a dry erase love note.

And because I’m all about frugality, there was no way this was going to cost me a lot of money. It cost me a grand total of…

Yes, that says $1.99. You see, I went to my local thrift store hunting for a frame. The important “must have,” though, was that it needed to have glass in it. I couldn’t find a plain frame. But it did find this:

So I emptied the piggy bank and brought it home so I could tear it apart.

I printed the love note on my printer

painted the frame and put it all together! Then all we have to do is use a dry erase marker to fill in the blank by writing on the glass. Cute, huh?

Initially, I was planning to hang this in our bedroom, but it occurred to me that there was something to be gained by allowing our kids to see us posting love notes to each other. So I hung it right in our family room.

I love this!

If you’re interested, you can find the printable over at Let’s Lasso the Moon.

So what about you? Are you doing anything special for Valentine’s Day? Or doing something to invest in your marriage? I hope so!

Related Posts:

Marriage Matters
The 10 Commandment of Marriage

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We linked this post to:

Our family’s embarking on a fun new project I thought you might kind of like.

We’re a happy little family living in suburban central Ohio. Hubs is a minister, which has led to a fairly transient life to this point. Consequently, we don’t make much money and we don’t own our home. And we’re okay with that. To us, these challenges are just that – challenges. Not roadblocks. We live in a rental, yes, but we’re determined to make the most of our space.

The sustainable simple living lifestyle has always appealed to us. It just always felt unattainable given our vocation. There are things we already do, but now we have decided: we’re gonna dive in! We’re hoping that we learn that homesteading and simple living doesn’t have to mean you cook your food over an open fire all the time, or that you have to hand wash your clothes (which makes this city girl start to hyperventilate). We’re hoping to find that it’s not that hard. We’re hoping that it will save us money. Mostly we expect that it will bring our whole family a lot of satisfaction! We don’t know where this will lead, but we’re inviting you along for the ride!

You can find us at www.thehomesteadexperiment.com

I hope you’ll pop over and say hi every once and awhile! Have a great weekend of ministry!

For many Pastor’s wives, Wednesday nights (or whatever night you have midweek services) are, quite possibly, the WORST day of the week. Especially when it comes to getting a decent dinner on the table, the kids fed, cleaned up, and being *reasonably* on time for midweek service. Unfortunately, the back up plan is to just run through the drive-thru (yuck!). So – here lies the solution to your weekly dilemma: What’s for Dinner Wednesday. This week:

Meditteranean Pasta

SUCH an easy meal! Oh my goodness. All you gotta do is boil 1 13 oz. box of the pasta of your choosing to al dente. I like ziti because I love when the fixings get trapped inside the tube. Silly? I think not.

While that’s boiling, in a BIG saucepan put all your fixings: capers, black olives, sliced roasted red peppers, sliced artichoke hearts, and 1 can of diced tomatoes with basil, oregano, and garlic (liquid and all).

Start heating them up and when the pasta is cooked, throw that into your saute pan and cook it all until the liquid is reduced (into your pasta (nom!).

When it’s ready, serve it up! I like to sprinkle a little briney, salty feta cheese on. Or you can just add some grated parmesan. Whatever is your preference. I had some toasted garlic chips that we served with it. I didn’t even have time for a salad so I didn’t bother tonight. It’s all about grace…

For many Pastor’s wives, Wednesday nights (or whatever night you have midweek services) are, quite possibly, the WORST day of the week. Especially when it comes to getting a decent dinner on the table, the kids fed, cleaned up, and being *reasonably* on time for midweek service. Unfortunately, the back up plan is to just run through the drive-thru (yuck!). So – here lies the solution to your weekly dilemma: What’s for Dinner Wednesday. This week:

Garlic Crusted Pork Tenderloin

Another simple OAMC meal here. I mixed all the marinade ingredients and froze it together with the tenderloin. As it’s been sitting out thawing, it’s been marinating too!

Put it in the baking dish, make sure marinade is covering the meat, and bake it in a 400 degree oven (or grill it if you make this in the summer!) for about 20 minutes.

I also made edamame (you know what edamame is, right?? It’s one of the healthiest legumes out there. You should try it some time. My family loves it!), and a yummy Lemon Orzo Salad from A Big Mouthful that I pinned on Pinterest. I put different ingredients in my salad, but it was really good!

We are definitely living in a “disposable” age. We expect things to be ready-made, and then we throw them out when we’re done. Unfortunately, with the evolution of all things “convenience” we no longer have the “reuse” mentality. Our grandparents were so skilled at this art form. Flour sacks were converted into dish towels and dresses for girls. Jars were reused to store food, or tools like nail and screws, or even buttons and sewing supplies.

Today’s tip is to eliminate waste. Or we can flip it the other direction and say we should (re)use everything! And I’m not just talking about recycling cans and cardboard. For instance:

Did you know disposable swimmie diapers can be reused? After using the disposable swim diapers {like Huggies Little Swimmers}, wash them in the laundry!  When they weren’t “messy and beyond help”, I washed them in the laundry, and was often able to use one package all summer long!  Just don’t put them in the dryer or they’ll become crunchy… instead, just let them air dry, and they’ll be as good as new!

Save magazines for your kids to use for crafts. They develop cutting skills, they develop cognitive skills, etc.

Stop using disposable papers goods – instead use cloth napkins, cloth cleaning rags, kitchen towels, reusable glass containers (instead of baggies), soup bowls can keep nearly anything hot not just soup. Carry leftovers or a baked potato in it.

If your kids are like mine, they don’t like eating the heels of the bread loaves. Save those! Ends of bread loaves can be cooked and ground up to make bread crumbs, or cut up and made into croutons.

Browning bananas – freeze for baking later, or puree and make a popsicle. Just don’t get freaked out by the nearly black peels. They will taste wonderful in whatever baked good or popsicle you  make!

If you find yourself with a tiny bit of vegetables left from dinner, save them! Maintain a freezer container and throw them in together. Once you have enough make yourself some vegetable soup!

Boil a leftover rotisserie chicken, chicken bones, or even a whole fresh chicken in a stock pot with some of your leftover vegetables and some seasoning. Save the water as chicken stock for soup night. If you need a good recipe to do this, Gina over at Skinny Taste has a great recipe.

That’s all I’ve got for you this week. Have you gotten any new ideas? Had an a-ha! moment? Snorted in disbelief? Did you try to trim your hair? {just remember, I’m not responsible for the result if it’s negative. If it’s good, then I absolutely take credit! }

For many Pastor’s wives, Wednesday nights (or whatever night you have midweek services) are, quite possibly, the WORST day of the week. Especially when it comes to getting a decent dinner on the table, the kids fed, cleaned up, and being *reasonably* on time for midweek service. Unfortunately, the back up plan is to just run through the drive-thru (yuck!). So – here lies the solution to your weekly dilemma: What’s for Dinner Wednesday. This week:

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese and Soup

This isn’t a new idea. I’m sure you’ve all made these at some point. Right?!? Well, it’s a cold day and some warm soup and a grilled cheese sounded just about right for us. So I made traditional (boring) grilled cheese for the kids. But I made a “grown-up” grilled cheese for myself. I am a grown-up, afterall.

Today, I put a little minced garlic, some roasted red peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, and some goat cheese on my sandwich. That’s all fixings I regularly have around the house. And personally, I think you should always have those on hand too.

It has to cook a little longer to get the goat cheese to melt, so be careful you don’t burn it!

Doesn’t that just look heavenly?? It is.

By the way, the soup is called “Friendship Soup.” It was a soup in a jar gift given to us by a friend from church. So  yummy! And a great gift idea.

Happy Wednesday! Now get yourself to church! Blessings!

This suggestion always makes people recoil in horror. Which makes me laugh out loud.

One day I sat down and figured out how much we spent on family cuts every month. $100. YIKES…every month. It made me stop breathing for just a moment when I realized that. And we just go to the “cheap” salon. Let’s break it down. 3 kids cuts costing $15 + $2 tip = $51. Mine and Hubs cuts are $20 + $5 tip  = $50. Yep. That’s $100 a month. Or $1,200 a year.

So how do I lessen the blow when it comes to haircuts? Well, you can choose to give your kids long hairstyles that don’t require cuts very often! And it’s certainly a viable solution! My oldest daughter has long hair. But she has bangs. Which grow super fast. My other daughter doesn’t do long hair well. Plus I have a son and a husband who prefer very clean cut styles.

I used to cut my hair all the time. (And it looked like it. Ha!) There was a season when I just didn’t have the extra money to pay someone to cut my hair for me so I chose to do it myself and just live with the consequences. And it didn’t look that bad. I’m kinda picky about my hair. (and those who know me well will translate that to very picky..)

We’ve now come to a new season, but we still want to save money in this area. My solution: go to the hair salon every other month. Just in case you can’t do that math that’s a savings of $600 a year! And during the other months I trim all of our hair for us.

So here’s my tip to successful home haircuts: I don’t trim bluntly across my layers, but rather trim into my layers. See how my scissors are cutting into the line of hair rather than across? This helps take off some length without royally messing up my layers.

My other tip to a home haircut are these puppies:

My personal opinion is these thinning shears are worth their weight in gold. They provide a very forgiving cut and really help take off a little weight until I can get to the salon next month. Here it is!

And actually, I haven’t been to the salon since November.

I think.

{I can’t wait to hear your responses to this one!!}

My Disclaimer: I’m not responsible if you end up with a hack job. Ok? Thanks!

Did you know you can make your own play dough, chalk, silly putty, slime, facial masks, hair detangler, fabric softener, glass cleaner, and laundry detergent?

You can. You’re welcome.

And of course,  you can make a zillion other things too. Pinterest is a treasure-trove of home helps pins. {Have I mentioned that I love Pinterest? hmmm}

I think we’ve become conditioned to believe that we have to buy everything we need. That’s not very frugal, now is it? In reality, it wasn’t that long ago we made everything we needed. We cooked from scratch. We whipped up a batter from scratch for our waffles and pancakes (Don’t shudder. You can do it!) We made our own bread (I LOVE making bread). And we sewed our own clothes, napkins, curtains, etc. (I’m working on this one. Well, maybe not the clothes part.)

So since we’re talking about making your own, I wanted to share with you my recipe to make your own laundry detergent.

It’s simple really.

½ bar of Ivory or Fels Naptha soap, shaved (a cheese grater works great)
¼ cup Borax (20 Mule Team)
¼ cup Washing Soda (Arm & Hammer-DO NOT use Baking Soda. Be sure you get the right thing.)
4 qts. of water (1 gallon; 4 cups=1 qt)

Boil your water in large pot. Stir in the soap shavings and stir until all the shavings are melted. Stir in Borax and Washing Soda until dissolved. Allow to come back to room temperature. It will become milky white as it cools. Store in a plastic container with a lid. If you don’t use it frequently, this can separate so you might need to stir it once and awhile. (But, really?!? WHO isn’t doing laundry like a mad woman, on a regular basis?!?)

I use about 1/4 cup for each laundry load.

There are a lot of recipes available online. Other liquid recipes like mine. And even some dry powder recipes.

The savings here is pretty phenomenal. If you buy one family size bottle of clothes detergent, you will most likely pay about $13.00.  The cost for these ingredients will also be around $13.00. But the difference is one of those store-bought detergents bottles will wash approximately 32 loads. While these ingredients will wash well over 100 loads. Obviously, that’s a big difference.

So what are you waiting for? Make your own!