Five on Friday--Things I'm Loving Right Now
Who would have ever imagined that during the summer, when my kids were both home full time, I’d have more time to write and publish more posts than ever before? I would have assumed once school started and I have my mornings free that I’d have way more time, but the reality has been the opposite! I have 2.5 hours each morning while both kids are in school, which is pretty much just enough time to get the house cleaned up, do a grocery trip, run a load of laundry or go to my bible study or small group, but doesn’t leave a lot of extra minutes for writing. Ahh well, every season is different, isn’t it? For now I’m grateful for the time I can spend typing words on a page, even if it’s not as often as I’d hoped. Since it’s been awhile I thought I’d share 5 things I’m super excited about in life right now and perhaps some of these things might be helpful to you too :)
ONE
This past month our church offered sign ups for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class and since we’d really never done any type of financial class before we thought we’d check it out. Oh my goodness! It’s been one of the BEST things we’ve done. We are watching the online videos at home each week together and we’re three weeks in—so far it’s been so so helpful. I think sometimes you just need a new plan, or something to help get you out of some bad habits, and Ramsey’s very clear baby-step plan has been just that for us. It’s gotten us back on the same page about our goals, helped us created a very specific budget together using his app Every Dollar (which is SO easy to use and track what we’ve spent), and helped us have better conversations about our finances. One of the things they teach to help re-frame the conversation around budgeting is that a budget is permission to spend, it just helps you spend with control. That shift in thinking has been so helpful for me. I’m a natural spender and it’s really easy for me to spend money on things I probably don’t NEED and have no idea how much I’ve spent until the monthly credit card bill came in. We could always afford to pay off the bill in full every month, but in reality we weren’t spending with great thoughtfulness, which meant we weren’t putting money in savings like we wanted to be, and honestly we really didn’t have a great idea of WHERE the money was going because we never really tracked it. We got rid of our credit card, switched entirely to debit to have more accountability and easier tracking, and now thanks to the EveryDollar app whenever we spend money somewhere all we have to do is drag and drop that transaction into the category on our budget it fits into (or split a transaction between multiple categories if needed). Both of us know at any given time exactly where every single dollar we’ve spent this month has gone, exactly how much we have left in each category and can see how we’re doing. For the first time I think we both feel as if we’ve regained a sense of control over our money instead of letting it disappear and then saying “where did it go?!” The other day I ended up spending a bunch of money on random things—mouth guards for football practice, a birthday gift for a friend, special soap for my husband’s upcoming surgery, birthday gifts for 2 nieces and 1 sister, a Christmas gift for a niece, groceries for my family and gas for my car. And you know what happened? I wasn’t the least bit concerned because I know we had planned for all of these expenses. We had money set aside for each one of these and with a quick glance at my app I knew exactly how much I could spend in each area of life and stay well within our income. And that was the most freeing feeling—I absolutely got it—a budget is freedom to spend without stress. We are grateful for this opportunity from our church to learn together, make some changes, and do so in a way that feels encouraging rather than shaming.
TWO
Does anyone else have and love their Instant Pot? I got mine almost three years ago, and while I’ve always liked it, I haven’t used it quite to the extent that I’ve found myself reaching for it these days. It is official. I am obsessed and in love. With a kitchen appliance. I realized the other day I’ve used mine every single day for about 7 days straight—I’m beginning to think about giving it a permanent home on my counter rather than hauling it off my pantry shelves every day, that’s how much I’m using it. One of the things I’ve been realizing is how helpful this tool is especially when it comes to trying to cut back on grocery bills. As part of our Financial Peace University journey I’ve also been listening to Dave Ramsey’s daughter Rachel Cruze’s podcast about finances but geared towards women and moms. She covers things like grocery shopping, meal planning on a budget, clothes, vacations—how to do a lot of this for less. One idea she shared recently was using the Instant Pot to cook things like bags of dried beans (cheaper than buying individual cans) and then freezing them in 2 cup portions, or getting a whole roaster chicken each week at the grocery store, cooking it in 25 minutes in the Instant pot, and then using that meat for any chicken dishes you’re preparing that week—so much cheaper than buying packs of chicken breasts for every recipe. I found that at Aldi a roasting chicken is $.99 a pound. I can get a chicken for less than $5, bring it home, season the outside, pop it into my Instant Pot and in 30 minutes have enough meat for 2-3 meals for our family. Then I can pop the bones back into the pot with veggies, seasonings and water and make chicken broth in about 2 hours—just set the pot and walk away. Last week I got enough meat for 2 meals plus enough homemade broth to take the place of buying SIX cans of chicken broth all for $5. I’ve been cooking up bags of black beans and then freezing them in 2 cup batches and can get about 5 “cans” of beans for the price of one bag of dried beans—and with the Instant pot they cook on their own in less than an hour. We’ve been using it several nights a week to quickly cook potatoes as a very inexpensive side dish and it’s awesome for rice or quinoa in big batches (which is also easy to freeze). How about you, has anyone else found ways to use their Instant Pot that have helped them save money in the kitchen?
THREE
Everyone knows I love to read, and I’ll read almost anything unless it’s scary in which case, I have enough trouble sleeping, I don’t need something that will hinder that further! But there are very few authors I love enough to pre order books and actually buy hard copies of—I’m usually a library girl because I don’t have space to just accumulate books. However. There are a few exceptions. And Sarah Bessey is one such exception. I will pre order and own anything that woman has written because she’s just my absolute favorite. Her brand new books Miracles and Other Reasonable Things: A story of unlearning and relearning God released into the world this week and I am currently trying to plow through my books that I’m halfway through so I can carve out time to sit with her words and story. She is so smart, funny, strong and channels Molly Weasley. I will definitely share my thoughts when I get through it but if you need something to read, I promise this one won’t disappoint because Sarah just never does.
FOUR
Did anyone else love The Office? I know, that’s a stupid question because it has a cult-like following. For good reason. Well coming up next week, beginning Wednesday October 16th, Jenna Fischer (Pam) and Angela Kinsey (Angela) are launching a new podcast called Office Ladies where they will be re-watching episodes of the Office and then talking about them, sharing insider secrets, behind the scenes stuff, and their own real life friendship (they are best friends in life today and have the most amazing relationship—I got to hear their story on Laura Tremain’s podcast 10 Things to Tell You this past week and it was fantastic). If you’re a fan of the Office or these ladies, go find it and hit subscribe!
FIVE
It’s fall and has finally cooled off here (at least for now, I’ve learned enough to not get my hopes up for permanently cool weather!) which means it’s my favorite time of the year! Football, college football, soup, jeans, pumpkin flavored coffee, and time to play outside again because it’s in the 80s which means it’s downright cool here. Fall also brings about massive fires in southern California, a place full of people I love, and I woke this morning to news of many friends being evacuated. It happens often in October—the Santa Ana winds kick up (think hurricane force winds in a desert—no rain to hold down the dust) and dry dry land makes for a terribly dangerous situation when it comes to fires starting and spreading. Thinking about those we love out west today, praying for the firefighters to get a handle on these blazes that are threatening neighborhoods today.
