Meal planning- saves money & reduces stress

Do you meal plan? Would you like to?

I've found that planning meals not only helps save money but it also helps alleviate some stress.

Recently a friend of mine shared this site with me that I've found to be FABULOUS and have only used once so far since learning about it.

Thank you Lyndsey at Super NoVa Saver for sharing Food on the Table with me. It has helped tremendously already.

When I signed up I used a code, FEBFREE, not sure if it is still live but enter it when you sign up, because if it is, you'll get it for FREE and won't be limited to 3 meals a week.

One of the great things about the site is that you get to choose what kinds of foods you want recipes for. You can choose what type of meat you want or if you prefer recipes without meat that's available too. You get to select what type of dishes you like best.

You also get to choose if you want gluten free recipes, vegetarian, low carb, low fat or low sodium. Now you don't have to always have those, you can choose if you want those type of recipes always, some times or no restrictions on them. How great is that?!

You select your top 3 stores that you shop at and it will find the sales for that store for the items on your list. Oh that's another thing, it will get your grocery list together for you AND include the recipe that you can have printed and put into a binder for safe keeping for the future.

Of course if you decide that you don't really like it, you can always throw it out and not use it again.

I went to Walmart after printing out my grocery list and recipes so that I could keep my recipes organized and easily accessible for when I'm in a rush to figure out what's for dinner. I got a 1" binder, 5 subject divider sheets and a 3-hole hole punch for under $12.00.

I have my recipes separated by the following: beef, chicken, other, turkey and a blank one at the moment. You can obviously sort yours how you'd like. I'm thinking of changing my "other" one to appetizers and filling in the blank with desserts as I sit here and type this.

Since I printed enough recipes to last for 2 weeks worth of dinners, I had the grocery list for such too. It was a LOT of chicken as that's what our family eats the most. I decided it was best to separate it into ziplocs to freeze. I wrote the name of the recipe and the amount of chicken needed on the ziploc, then rinsed the chicken and placed the amount needed in the coordinating ziploc.


Here is my binder I purchased. I took a regular white piece of card stock as I had it on hand, wrote on it to label it for me and slid it in there.

Here is a photo to show the dividing tabs and recipes in the binder

Just an example of one of the recipes I chose to make for my family.

Quick snap shot of SOME of the meat I purchased on my grocery shopping trip. I hope you can see the names of the recipes and then to the side how much chicken and specified if it was breasts or thighs.

Photography Package Cost

Where do you normally go to get professional photos taken? How much is a typical photo shoot?

What would you pay for the following:
1.5hrs of shooting time
Up to 5 people
10 black and white images
75 images on a cd

I normally go to a family friend. I've known Christina of Wilson Family Photography since I was in kindergarten.

I go to Christina not only because she isn't pushy but because she's professional and affordable.

She currently has 3 photo packages. Her packages are as follows; $25, $50 and $75. She does events as well, however, they're cost is is per occasion as each occasion is different.

Remember the last question I asked? The one about what you would pay for 1.5hrs of shooting time, up to 5 people, 10 black and white images and 75 images on a cd??

I ask this because I received an email from Living Social that was offering the package for the low discounted price of $65. Which is a FANTASTIC deal, I agree. However, I was BLOWN AWAY at what the original price is normally without the coupon.

Would you think it was $150? $250? $350? $450?

If you guessed $450 you're right! Seriously?! That in my opinion is totally outrageous. It isn't like it is a wedding, baptismal or anything of that nature. There is NO way I would pay that for photos. Not even if I had $100,000.00

Tone, tighten and firm; Informational video

That's right, this video was done by a teammate of mine (Thank you Sarah) to not only help those that are wondering HOW to wrap but that are also wondering HOW the wrap works.

It is about 20 minutes because it shares GREAT information on how the wrap works and also because Sarah takes the time to tell you about some of the areas you can wrap and how to apply it, along with putting a wrap on herself. Yes, that's right, YOU CAN WRAP ALONE!

You do not have to have someone there to help you. You can do it in the comfort of your own home, all alone if you prefer.

Don't forget that we have more all natural products than just the wrap. We have a skin care line and supplements as well as the body contouring products.

All of our products can be found at my site, along with pricing and an ingredients list in case you have any form of an allergy, medical concern or even sensitive skin.
https://wrapandlose2011.myitworks.com/UltimateMakeover

Take a look and let me know what you think!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp02wx1Kdc&context=C3639ccfADOEgsToPDskL8tS6f6KoJengCsbVgrycX&noredirect=1

Magic Eraser

Have you ever heard of them? Have you ever witnessed one being used or used one yourself?

I've heard of them over the years and I have to be honest. I really didn't believe that they were all that great. I mean really, how could an "eraser" remove ink marks, crayons, markers etc from the floor? cupboard? walls?

Couldn't you just use a regular eraser from a pencil if that was the case?

Well, I ended up getting one the other day as my almost 2 year old got a hold of a crayon and went to town... the light switch, the wall, the laundry room doors and more were striped with blue crayon. Oh and lets not forget the cupboard door that was attacked with a pencil.

I was AMAZED at how WELL and EASILY it worked.

I started on the cupboard with the pencil. It came right off. My husband made a comment about how impressed he was as I didn't even get it wet. I looked at him all puzzled. Apparently he knew more about them than I did, as he knew you were meant to get it wet and I didn't. HAHA I read the box AFTER he mentioned it and sure enough it said to wet it down.

I didn't... not even when I went to remove the crayon from the light switch, wall or the laundry room door. I mean, why do that if it is working as it was?!

I took some photos of the crayon as I didn't think to take photos until after the pencil was totally removed. Unfortunately, they are cell phone photos so they aren't the greatest, but I used what I had.

By the way, if you're wondering, I got 4 of them for less than $4.00 at Walmart in the cleaning product aisle.

Here are the BEFORE photos and the AFTER photos

laundry room door, before

laundry room door, after

wall, before

 wall, after