Recent Frugal Efforts

I printed a page with shapes and colored them in for a makeshift shape and color poster for my son's wall.

I bought two kindle books that I've been wanting for a long time with the free digital credits I got from Amazon.

I took the survey on the Fred Meyer receipt for fuel points.

We went to the library and brought home a stack of books and DVDs for the little one. He immediately spent an hour stacking and sorting them all. I already requested more books for next week.

I reviewed items I got for free or at discounted prices from AMZ Review Trader. It's a website where sellers approve your request to review their products on Amazon. Some things I've gotten are a compost bin, toys, LED light bulbs, watercolor pencils, and more. They have food, clothes, etc. items are always added because sellers are always looking for honest reviews. Tip: I choose slow shipping for these items so I get a $1 digital credit to use to buy ebooks or shows on Amazon Prime.

I went on a job interview, and I'm applying to several jobs that pay more. They say if you want a raise you need to get a new job. (so true...)

I checked out some ebooks for free from my library's website.

My son got a play kitchen for Christmas, but some of the hardware was stripped. I emailed the company directly, and they sent me replacement hardware for free. What great service. My son was thrilled with his kitchen and plays with it everyday.

Moments of Pause #1

I took this when outside with my toddler recently. The ground was wet after a steady rainfall. Little flowers were starting to pop out of the soft ground. The air smelled clean and fresh. He pointed gleefully at the little flowers when he first laid eye on them.

How often do you just go outside and look at the ground?

March Goals and Beyond.

It's a new month! I took some time to "brain dump" some ideas on where I want to take this blog, and if I wanted to continue. The consensus: Yes! I want to take this blog and make it my home, my creative outlet. I want to take my readers on my journey to simple living, financial freedom, and a healthy-ish lifestyle.

It's easy to get lost in the busyness of life and lose sight of what is important. So I wrote out a list of topics I want to cover, and the list keeps growing. Some of the things you can soon look forward to:

• Frugal efforts. I enjoy sharing the ways I try to save money. I also spend a lot of time on the internet reading ideas from other people. I'd love to do it weekly and have readers comfortable enough to share their ideas too.
• Frugal fails. I'm not perfect. I think it's important to show that sometimes things do go wrong. It's okay to laugh and to learn from mistakes.
• Meal planning. It's still a struggle. I think part of the issue is that I haven't found a system that works for me. 
• Decluttering efforts. I wish I could say my home is completely minimized down to essentials, but it's not. I'm a full time working mom of a toddler and a full time college student so I have to take it slow or it won't get done at all. I'll post my small decluttering wins.
• Money saving tips. I love reading personal finance blogs and forums. I love saving money. I want to share some of the best tips I stumble across with you.
• Streamlining. I want to make my family's lives and my life as simple and easy as possible to manage...and live, so I'll share tips that work for me.
• Minimal celebrations. It would be exhausting to go all Pinterest for every birthday, holiday, and special occasion. So I'd like to share some special ways to celebrate without spending a lot of time and focusing on stuff. I'd rather have memories than stuff, you know?
• Simple living tips. This goes along with streamlining, but I'd like to share some tips that will help slow down your life so you can spend your time doing what you want to do.
• Low cost stress relief. I'll share ways to relieve stress that are free or low cost. And fun.
• Moments of pause. I'll share pictures I've taken as I go about life. It's important to slow down and really see and admire the world around you.

I look forward to an inspirational year of blogging and a slower lifestyle. Thank you for reading!

What are your goals for March?