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Dinners

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AllDinner
Simple Garlic Chicken Rotini

Garlic Chicken Rotini

May 5, 2020
I just want to start by saying that this garlic...
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Easy Homemade Chicken Fried Rice

Easy Homemade Chicken Fried Rice

April 21, 2020
We were first introduced to making Chicken Fried Rice from...
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Instant Pot Shredded Beef

Instant Pot Shredded Beef

April 7, 2020
Life gets hectic with three kids in various activities.  That's...
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One Pot Chili Mac | Fast, Frugal & Filling Recipe

One Pot Chili Mac

January 7, 2020
When it comes to my clan, pasta is something that...
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This homemade chicken tortilla soup recipe is super easy to make on the stove top. Using pantry ingredients and leftover roast chicken, you can have dinner on the table in 30 minutes!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

November 12, 2019
Ever since school began this year, my days have been...
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Instant Pot Chicken Rice Soup

Instant Pot Chicken & Rice Soup

April 9, 2019
In our house, chicken and rice recipes are abundant.  There...
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How To Make Homemade Pizza Dough

How To Make Homemade Pizza Dough

April 2, 2019
Pizza is the one thing my family can eat in...
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Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs

Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs

March 12, 2019
Hard boiled eggs are an occasional staple around here.  By...
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Homemade Mac & Cheese

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

February 12, 2019
When it comes to foods, my weakness is macaroni and...
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Creamy Tomato Soup

Creamy Tomato Soup

February 5, 2019
Everyone has one person in their family that's super picky...
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Baked Rigatoni

Baked Rigatoni

December 11, 2018
Baked rigatoni is one of those dinners that's a go-to...
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Creamy Tuna Noodles

Creamy Tuna Noodles

December 4, 2018
In grad school, and even back as far as our...
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Easy Vegetable Beef Soup

Easy Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup

November 20, 2018
If you've been with me for a while, you'll know...
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Slow Cooker Chicken Corn Chowder

Slow Cooker Chicken Corn Chowder

April 16, 2018
Chicken corn chowder is something that I came across from...
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Orzo Ham Peas

Creamy Orzo with Ham & Peas

April 9, 2018
This dish was a meal I threw together one night, and...
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Lasagna Stuffed Shells

Lasagna Stuffed Shells

April 2, 2018
Have you ever had a meal that works, but you...
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Vegetable Eggs & Rice

Easy Vegetable Eggs & Rice

March 12, 2018
Ever have a meal that was a breeze to make,...
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Homemade Hamburger Helper

Homemade Hamburger Helper

March 5, 2018
Back in college, Hubs and I used to make boxed...
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Sausage Potato Soup

Sausage Potato Soup

February 19, 2018
One way we've reduced our expenses in the last few...
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Ultimate Potato Soup

Ultimate Potato Soup

February 5, 2018
Potato soup is one of our favorite fall back recipes. ...
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Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Chicken Gnocchi Soup

January 22, 2018
Before we started looking at our debt repayment scenarios, we...
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Greens Beans and Rice

Greens, Beans and Rice

January 15, 2018
More often than not, the best recipes I make come...
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Chicken Sammies

Chicken Sammies

December 18, 2017
Long ago, back when we were just a family of...
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Chicken Chili

Chicken Chili

December 11, 2017
Have you ever had those moments when you're scouring all...
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Carrot Squash Soup

Carrot Squash Soup

October 23, 2017
The start of fall marks many changes in my household. ...
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Simple Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

March 20, 2017
During the fall soccer season, we were out of the...
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Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup

Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup

March 13, 2017
Welcome back friends!  I'm sorry for sporadic posting, but if...
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Ham Potato Green Bean Soup

Ham Potato Green Bean Soup

January 30, 2017
When Hubs and I started dating, there were some meals...
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Cheddar Corn Chowder

Cheddar Corn Chowder

December 12, 2016
This cheddar corn chowder is a recipe that I've made for...
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slow cooker chicken and rice

Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice

October 18, 2016
My mother-in-law has a slow cooker chicken and rice recipe...
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roast chicken dutch oven 3

Roast Chicken in a Dutch Oven

April 19, 2016
One of my most favorite meals has to be a...
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chili

Simple & Frugal Chili

March 22, 2016
I've got something I need to get off my chest....
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chicken wild rice soup

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

January 12, 2016
It seems like the only recipes I've been writing lately...
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cheddar broccoli soup

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

December 15, 2015
Cheddar broccoli soup is one of our family favorites.  I...
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makingcentsmatter

This is what school looks like when it's a hybrid This is what school looks like when it's a hybrid model, and your house does not have unlimited space. I was standing in our kitchen when I took this picture, the kids behind me making lunch.
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Our district is carefully monitoring our local infection rates, and we are currently in a hybrid form. That means they divided the district into two groups; half are in school on Monday and Tuesday, the other half on Thursday and Friday. They are offering an all remote option, but Verizon for some reason supplies our house with speeds so slow that it would shock a tortoise. Remote was a no-go.
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This set-up has taken some trial and error to get to where we currently are. Because no matter how prepared you are and how much you've planned, once you're in the weeds, actually doing it, there is no telling how your best-laid plans will work.
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Our home is a 1800sqft one-story, open living area, 4 bedroom, 1 bathroom, ranch-style house in a very rural area. It has no home offices. No guest bedrooms. Yes, that is a desk in the corner of our dining room. 🤣
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Each kid gets their own color bin for their school work. This includes school-issued Chromebooks and other standard items they need to get work done - headphones, pencils, and so on. When we are done for the day, we clean up everything, place them neatly in these bins, and place them in cubbies (on my current left) at night while the Chromebooks charge.
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I do NOT bother to clean up at lunchtime. It would take us more time to clean up and reset everything than it takes us to eat lunch. So we only pack it all up for the day and call it done.
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During the day, I sit between my younger two and field any questions they may have, troubleshoot technical issues we all have, and be the overall bouncer when things get off-topic. My high schooler will occasionally emerge from his bedroom, which opens to the kitchen. So he is close by when he has questions.
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Please remember that with all things in life, you need to work with what's available to you. And there is no shame in that. Don't ever feel like you're not doing good enough because it's not picture perfect. Work with what you have available to you, and you'll do amazing things.
School is in session, the garden is slowing, and I School is in session, the garden is slowing, and I’ve finally realized I haven’t shared our payoff numbers for July or August. Yeah……
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Please keep in mind, we are paid monthly on the 15th, but we don’t go by a “monthly” budget. So I have to go back and look at these numbers based off their due dates in the calendar. Because our pay falls in the middle of the month, I can’t tell you what portion of our income went to debt. It’s going to vary paycheck to paycheck anyways because our priorities vary with each check. Nothing is ever the same month to month, and pay to pay.
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That said, inJuly we paid off $2,694.43.
In August we paid off $1,673.40.
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The difference here is that our priorities shifted between the two months.
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During August, we were doing more prep for whatever school would look like this year, and we had some savings goals make their way to the top of the list as well.
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Of those goals, in August we made progress!
EF Reimbursement: $146 / $1,200
Checking Buffer Reimbursement: $227 / $500
Vet Sinking Fund: $40 / $200
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Remember this is a journey, not a race. There is no point wearing yourself ragged and still making no progress. Make progress where you can, and celebrate it. Even if it’s $5.
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It’s progress, and that’s what matters!
While I wait for the canner to finish the last rou While I wait for the canner to finish the last round... I rearranged our recipe binder. It's only taken me 8 or so years. 🤣😶😭
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I miss the days when zucchini was my problem. Now it's tomatoes. I can only find so many ways to use up spaghetti sauce! So the next 50lbs or so will be chili base and unseasoned sauce.
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On top of this school is starting with a hybrid in building & online system. And I'm seriously slacking on some things I need to do. I'm not good at juggling multiple things and the balls are falling. But I keep reminding myself... be patient. This too shall pass. This is only a phase. So I pick and choose what's the most important, focus on that and go from there.
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So if you feel overwhelmed with your current phase, remember, this too shall pass. It's okay to rearrange priorities. It's okay to take a breather.
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This too shall pass.
If you didn't start finding interesting ways to ge If you didn't start finding interesting ways to get rid of the squash, can you say you even planted any?
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Good news, I'm almost caught up! Bad news, the garden has more.
Super busy here... but I wanted to share that wins Super busy here... but I wanted to share that wins can come in super small packages. I thought I'd spend $380 to clean the band instruments in this house. I ended up spending $234. So the remaining $146 can go to reimbursing what I pulled from our EF.
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No matter the win, celebrate it!
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What are some wins you have had lately?
In total we have 15lbs green beans, 10lbs cucumber In total we have 15lbs green beans, 10lbs cucumbers, 5lbs blueberries, and countless zucchini and squash with more on the way! My weekend is spoken for... and this isn't all of it. 😳
Rather than looking back through all our non-month Rather than looking back through all our non-monthly bills for the year and try to remember what I paid and when I paid it, I make a note of how much it was on our bill pay tracker. That way I can easily tally it up at the end of the year, set our sinking funds next year accordingly, and not spend more time than is necessary on this... because kids and all.⁣
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Anyone else do this? Do you have a different method of tracking these expenses?⁣
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This particular printable is in my Etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MakingCentsMatter⁣
It's also part of my budgeting workbook, also in my Etsy shop.⁣
Good news though... there's a very similar free version in my resource library as well. Links are in my profile.⁣
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#budget #budgeting #sinkingfund #savingmoney #savings  #cashbudget #cash #cashisking #frugalblogger #frugalmom #frugalliving #financialgoals #budgetprintable #personalfinancetips  #personalfinance #debtfreejourney #debtfreecommunity #debtfreeprogress #bs1 #bs2 #bs3  #makingcentsmatter #financialfreedom #debtfree
Probably an unpopular opinion here... but these tw Probably an unpopular opinion here... but these two things are NOT the same to me.⁣
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𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 paycheck to paycheck means that you're using all of your money for expenses with none left over for savings. This usually happens when you're not aware of where you are spending your money, and how much you are spending. For us, this happened in the form of those tiny expenses that can add up to even larger expenses, and then an unexpected bill comes and you have nothing left to cover it.⁣
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𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 paycheck to paycheck means that you are giving every single cent you earn a job to do that aligns with your priorities - like in sinking funds, savings, expenses, debt payments, etc - until the next paycheck. You have the money on hand to cover some unexpected expenses, and you are mindful of your spending so that you're not leaking money through small purchases.⁣
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This doesn't mean that there still aren't bad months. Murphy's Law does happen. But you are aware of the spending, aware of the priorities, and where your money needs to be allocated.⁣
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So... just because you're budgeting paycheck to paycheck doesn't mean you're living paycheck to paycheck.⁣
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June's paycheck was a doozy! I haven't looked forw June's paycheck was a doozy! I haven't looked forward to a paycheck since we first made the switch to monthly pays. It was so bad we've got a new order to things.⁣
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Good news is that if our state keeps closing things down, we should hammer this out in no time!⁣
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To see the full breakdown of how bad June's paycheck was, check out the June 15th Budget Review on our YouTube channel here https://youtu.be/gXoEo33hIYQ. Link is also in the bio.⁣
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