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Kids Ain't Cheap

But They Sure Are Worth It

My Favorite Resources to Use When Cooking For My Family

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Between working full time and taking care of a family cooking can be a chore. These five resources help me simplify when cooking for my family.When you work full time and are pressed for time after work, preparing and cooking dinner can be a chore. I actually don’t mind cooking but during the week it simply comes down to something I have to do.

While it is tempting to eat fried eggs and toast every night to avoid meal planning, when you want to eat healthy this isn’t realistic. To prepare healthy meals for my family, it starts with proper meal planning. Not only does this ensure we eat well it’s a huge help to our budget. I have a few go-to resources that make my life a little more manageable and I will share them with you:

Host a Big Cook. This isn’t something I’ve done in a while but it is definitely meal prep at its finest. I borrowed the Big Cook cookbook from my local library but have considered ordering it so I can continue to share it with those in my life because I rave about it so much. Though this is initially a lot of work, you end up with many pre-planned/pre-prepped meals you simply need to grab from your freezer and usually throw in your crock-pot day of. This is something I want to do again soon.

Pinterest. Like everything, Pinterest is a great resource. I have found many inspiring recipes from browsing on Pinterest. I like being able to organize my pins based on different things; you could have Vegetarian/Chicken/Beef organized boards or more simply breakfast/lunch/dinner ideas. It’s a nice way to start organized digitally.

EmilyBites.com. This is one of my favorite websites for recipes. It’s well laid out with great visuals. I don’t love most recipe websites because I find they’re usually quite overwhelming, but Emily Bites is focused on good tasting, healthy-versions of family favorites. I’ve never made something I didn’t love. She offers ‘’extra’’ information too for each recipe like Weight Watchers points values if you follow a particular diet.

Skinnytaste.com. Another great website that is well laid out. The thing about this website is that I really like, is that she includes entire weekly meal plans you can follow along with, but if you’d rather she also has it organized by individual recipes. If you’re someone who is super organized she also offers a meal planning book you can follow along with. Finally, her pictures are great too.

The hardest part of cooking for my family, is planning what to cook for my family. By using a few of these resources taking care of the planning is much easier, even a picky three year old!

What are your favorite meal planning tools?

Why We’re Opening a Bank Account For Our 3 Year Old

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Thinking of opening a bank account for your little one? Here's why I'm opening a bank account for my three year old.Next week my husband and I are going to our bank and opening an account for our daughter who hasn’t yet turned four. While some may think at three she doesn’t really need her own bank account I argue it’s never too early.

Since she first got her own piggy bank, for her first Christmas, she’s been collecting coins wherever she can find them and placing them in her Cinderella bank. Though they’re mostly small coins, until recently I didn’t realize how many she actually had. It sits on her shelf where she drops the coins in when she finds them. Yesterday I opened it to have a look to realize she’s almost out of room! I explained that soon we will need to work together to roll the coins and take them to the bank. Though she likely only has about $10-$15 it’s something and I want her to understand the importance of saving.

More than the piggy bank, a child has their own set of expenses. For us, its ballet and soccer plus the normal kid stuff like growing in and out of clothes way too fast. Until now we’ve just been providing these things out of our account but I like the idea of her having her own account to pay for all her expenses separately. Rather than us just pay for everything when it comes up, instead we will be putting money into her account to pay for these expenses. It helps us budget better by separating her stuff from ours and is helping her learn the value of money at an early age.

I think having an allowance is important for a child. Though my three year old doesn’t yet understand that we’re essentially giving her a bi-weekly allowance, it’s exactly what we’re doing. Just like adults, there will be required ‘’bills’’ to pay from her account, in her case registration fees and uniforms, but the ‘’extra’’ will be hers. Obviously she isn’t going to walk into her dance studio at four and pay her bill, we will with the money in her account, which we’ve placed there. As she gets older though she will have more say in the account and as well expectation to open a separate strict savings account (on top of the post-secondary savings account we also contribute to).

These are lessons I never had taught to me and I wish I understood the importance of saving early and often sooner than I did. I have vague memories of the local credit union coming in to collect our change in elementary school and balance our account books in the hallway but never really understood why we did what we did. I didn’t realize the foundation it was attempting to lay.

I’m not suggesting that by opening an account at three, our daughter will go through life not making any financial mistakes, there’s no doubt in my mind she will, the difference between her and I though is that she will know the difference when it happens and be able to correct them much sooner which is exactly what I hope to accomplish.

How old were your kids when they opened a bank account?

Why I’m Making My Child Give Away Her Toys

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Before you think I'm a mean mom, hear me out. There's a good reason I'm making my child give away her toys.Christmas 2015 has been here and already gone. As much as I love decorating and savoring all that is Christmas, I want my house back in order by the 27th. I put away all the decorations and clean pretty much all day, it’s become a part of my holiday ritual.

With a young child, there is that much more to do now in terms of clean up. We now need to clean and organize her room and play area to accommodate the new gifts which she received. As much as I try to tell friends and family to please not buy/limit the gifts for her, they never listen and before I know it we’re researching contractors to do a house addition. While it’s not really that bad, we do have a finite amount of space to contain her stuff and so as objects come in, some must go out.

Living in a house with minimal storage space is both a blessing and a curse. We don’t have a garage or even an outdoor shed. Take your basic house and think about closet space, that’s basically what we have to live with. We do have a very small storage/cold/laundry room which is 40% laundry space, 40% tools/work area, 10% food storage (we have no pantry either), leaving us with about 10% additional storage. Not much. So when stuff comes in our house we really have to consider how much we want it and if we do want it, what has to go to make room.

Thankfully most of the gifts my husband and I receive are pretty practical or very small in size, so we really do only need to work on our daughter’s stuff (why must some toys be so large?).

I thought about sneaking into her room and doing a big purge, throwing it all in a big box destined for donation, but I decided it would be better to involve her instead. While I did go through her clothes, she will insist everything fits her forever, when it came to the toys, I put aside a bunch I thought she’d be ok with letting go as asked her to help me sort.

I wanted her to be involved in the process of giving her toys away. Kids build attachment to toys and I needed her to understand that I wasn’t taking her toys away to be mean, but rather have her understand that she has been very fortunate to receive so many new ones and there are children out there who have much less than she does. Especially at Christmas time, I want her to feel like she was helping someone else.

I’m the first to admit that my kid owns more stuff than I’m comfortable with but I think there can be a balance between giving and receiving. Not only is it important that she understands how fortunate she is, but by involving her in the process of giving to those in need she can learn compassion and gain a real life understanding of her situation.

How do you manage the post-holiday toy clutter?

Favorite Family Christmas Traditions, Modernized!

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The best part of Christmas is creating memories with friends and family. Here are three Christmas traditions with a modern twist for you to try.Christmas is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year. More than anything I like the traditions that come with the days leading up to Christmas because for me, it means spending quality time with those who I love the most. If you’re looking to start your own family traditions, consider one of these new traditions instead!

Old Tradition: Cookie Baking

New Tradition: Cookie and Beer Exchange

I have spent many years baking cookies and treats with my sister only to feel sick about the sheer volume of sugar flowing through my veins. We’d spend an entire day baking and divvy up our treats among our friends and family. If you’re looking for a new tradition consider a cookie and beer exchange.

Instead of baking a ton of different treats, pick your favorite cookie recipe and bake that. To accompany the cookies, pick your favorite beer, invite your friends (plus spouses) to come over where you will host an exchange. You will do up a treat bag of cookies plus one beer for every guest party attending, they will do the same and everyone will swap. You go home with bags and bags of cookies as well as many new beers to try. For best ‘’swap results’’, maintain something like a Google doc to ensure there aren’t multiples.

Old Tradition: Christmas Turkey Dinner

New Tradition: Christmas Brunch (with a light dinner).

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good turkey dinner but there’s something about staying in the kitchen all day Christmas preparing a large family meal that is depressing on Christmas day. I much prefer the idea of doing Christmas morning and then all sitting down for a large brunch instead which leaves the rest of the day to relax and be together. After a larger brunch enjoy an easy, light dinner of finger foods. Most of which can be prepared the days before.

Old Tradition: Store Bought Christmas Cards

New Tradition: Make a personalized Card

I love receiving Christmas cards. I especially love personal cards. Sending personal cards seems to be a lost art though, not that I don’t appreciate a store bought card signed with family members, I love getting personal card with photos or even just personal notes. If you look for sales early enough you can often get deals for personalized photo cards at various online outlets for quite inexpensive. I had 40 personalized cards made for less than $10.00 and they were beautiful.

Though Christmas is about traditions for many, it doesn’t mean that old traditions can’t be modernized. Instead of cramming everything into Christmas day, our family really spreads the celebrations out over three full days. This allows us to be together and really savour everything as family.

Does your family have any modern traditions??

Winter is Coming, Time to Address Your Budget!

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The cold is coming and now is a perfect time to make sure you're on track financially. Here's why you should address your winter budget.It’s hard to believe that winter has either arrived, or in the process of coming for many parts of the world. Just this week I had some pictures from our summer vacation printed and now we’re making appointments to have snow tires placed on our vehicle.

With a change of season comes a perfect time to really address your budget. It’s so easy to set your budget on auto-pilot and forget to tweak it as needed. I was reminded of that this week. Speaking of winter tires, it was something I forgot to add to our budget when I did it up months ago. Thankfully it’s not a huge amount of money so I was pretty easy to ‘’make up’’ but still an annoyance. Had I spent a little more care going over everything as I should have, it would have been a non-issue.

Creating a Winter Budget

For this reason I like to spend time every season to make sure everything is accounted for, especially the winter when, for us, bills tend to get a little higher. I know our bills will get higher because I pay attention to our spending history. Without this I have no way of making predictions but I know, for instance, that our electricity bill will increase significantly because we have electric heat and live in a cold climate. It only took one $1,100 bi-monthly electric bill, right after Christmas, to make sure I did what I could to get established on the power corporations annual ‘’budget’’ which allows us to pay a monthly bill year-round based on average annual consumption, rather than face extremely high bills in the winter and extremely low bills in the summer.

For us, winter also means Christmas and quite a few important birthdays. If I’m not careful these can easily creep up on us and we’d get stuck making some tough decisions about how to manage the un-budgeted amount which, quite honestly is never a fun situation to be in.

With kids too, seasonal things have changed. Hubby and I, traditionally, don’t do anything for Valentine’s day. But, with a kid, as I look forward into my winter months, I know we will need to budget something for it. She will have a little Valentines party at her daycare, as well want to exchange cards with her friends, though it isn’t much it’s an expected expense coming up.

Winter has a higher potential for emergencies too, while we could manage without A/C in a vehicle for example, we couldn’t easily get by without heat. While I don’t like to think about emergencies and dealing with things such as a potential accident, the probability is definitely higher in the winter which means we need to take a good look at where our emergency fund is sitting. This is something I don’t do enough and get lazy about reimbursing it when an issue does arise that we may need it.

A budget shouldn’t be something that you set and forget. It needs to be continuously addressed and as we approach the New Year, it’s a perfect time!

P.s. some readers like this article because they want a recommendation for snow tires.  I can just say that Costco should be considered as part of your shopping list.  They have really excellent customer service and although their automotive section isn’t always as well rated as their food or consumer electronics, Costco sells good quality tires and batteries.  So check them out.

5 Pinterest Inspired Christmas Crafts That Anyone Can Do!

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Looking for some cute but easy crafts to do with your kids? Here are my favorite Pinterest inspired Christmas crafts that anyone can do.Though I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest, I mostly love it. I am a very visual person so appreciate the ability to see the final product of whatever it is I’m looking for. My favorite uses of Pinterest would be recipes and crafts for kids. In my mind, Christmas is much more of a season than a single day, and for this reason we tend to do more related crafts for Christmas than any other holiday.

I’m a reformed neurotic tree-trimmer. Gone are the days of spending hours placing the lights and ribbon alone; standing back and squinting from every angle to make sure there is an even distribution of twinkling lights and perfectly placed ribbon. Now, I have a three year old who is ripping open the ornament boxes before half the tree even has lights on it.

To me a Christmas tree is about representing the family who decorates it. Our tree is a perfect mix between beautiful ornaments we’ve purchased, super special ornaments from our travels and highlights in our life such as marriage and even more important, homemade ones from our daughter. I finally get why my mom wouldn’t allow me to get rid of the ugly ones my sister and I made in school. I’m currently staring at a red Solo cup turned decorated Christmas bell and love it. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a tree loaded with ornaments made by your child.

Here are my favorite Pinterest inspired Christmas crafts that I’ve either done with my child or made myself when I was a kid.

Mason/Baby Food Jar Snow Globes

I plan on making some of these for the first year with my daughter. I remember making one for the first time when I was in elementary school and loved it so much I made my mom dump all the glass jar sauces we had in the house into plastic containers so I could have the jars and make more. With dollar stores they’re incredibly easy and cheap to make, kids will have a ton of fun with it.

Handprint Art

I love handprint/footprint/thumbprint art mostly because it’s a fun and creative way to document growth. I have done a few different things with my daughter but one of my favorites is the reindeer thumbprint ornament her daycare teacher made with her.

Pipe cleaner Candy canes

My daughter’s current favorite craft is anything with beads so this will be fun this year. My sister and I made these every year for our tree and only requires two cheap and readily available supplies.

Popsicle Stick crafts

Like the handprint crafts, there are a ton of cute and super easy craft ideas involving popsicle sticks. I’ve seen huge bags of over 500 sticks at our local dollar store, super cheap and easy.

Paper Snowflakes

Pretty self-explanatory but I love paper snowflakes. Folding paper, random cuts and opening to see what you’re left with is always fun. There are sites out there that have templates if you’re neurotic and want the perfect snowflake too. Have fun with fancy craft paper too.

Hopefully you have a little extra time away from work this holiday season to enjoy some of these fun family crafts with your kids!

Do you have any favorite crafts?

How to Enjoy Hassle Free Christmas Shopping

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I love Christmas gift giving but hate fighting crowds and feeling stressed out. Here's my strategy for hassle free Christmas shopping.I’m not much of a gift lover, except for Christmas. I love spending time thinking out a nice gift for someone and then buying it and giving it to them. I generally enjoy the whole process, picking it up, taking it home to wrap and then spending time with those I love to give it to them. The only part of the process that I don’t love sometimes, is going out to shop for it.

I hate crowds so needless to say shopping for gifts in the peak of the holiday season can be stressful. The issue is that I hate crowds, but enjoy shopping at Christmas time, when the stores are decorated and Christmas music is playing, I will never be one of those people who has their shopping done in July. There are many ways to enjoy the best of both worlds, enjoying the process of shopping during the holiday season while containing your stress levels.

Start with a List

This is absolutely the first thing that needs to be done. We’ve all done it. Head to the stores with no direction, hoping to be inspired but it doesn’t work out that well. We waste time and end up frustrated. There is no need to leave the house before having a list. Check out local sales to get inspired. I also keep a running list year round when friends and family mention something they may want or need. This is the biggest help in making things run smoothly.

Get Out Early

I know not everyone necessarily wants to spend a day off shopping but if you want to avoid the crowds go as soon as the stores open. With your list in hand, you can come up with a plan to execute it in the timeliest manner. I have both an outdoor shopping area as well as a traditional mall where I live. If I can avoid the mall and go right for the outdoor shopping district I do. Not only do I enjoy the village-style outdoor shops and how it is decorated during the holidays, it saves me time. I like being able to park in front of a single store I need rather than walking through an entire mall to get to a store. It also eliminates distraction and saves time.

Shop Local

I’m a big advocate for shopping local when you can. It’s something I’m guilty of not doing enough but it’s so important so I’m trying to do it as much as possible now. For me, local shopping includes buying my daughter’s Christmas book (a tradition) at a local independent children’s book store instead an international big chain. Also, once my list is made, I will check to see what I can buy from local vendors at our markets and shops. Not only is the one of the most personal and fun Christmas shopping experiences, its fun. It feels good to support a local entrepreneur over a big chain any day.

Christmas can be stressful if you let it. Stressing over shopping is not worth your time or energy though. Spend a little time getting organized and you’ll thank yourself!

How do you enjoy hassle free shopping?

Three Things You Can Do to Make Money for Christmas

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Coming up short on shopping money this year? Instead of reaching for the credit cards try these creative ways to make money for Christmas.Did you start this year with every intention of starting to save for Christmas in January, or start buying gifts early? It’s now November and you haven’t started and you’re stressed out? I know I’ve been there and it can be stressful. Though we’ve learned from it, and will start come January 2016, for now we have to focus on this year and what we can do to make the most of it. There is still time to come up with some creative ways to make money for Christmas plans.

Become a Local Vendor

By late fall, Christmas markets in towns of all sizes start popping up and for a small fee you can become a vendor. Sell cookies, bake pies, knit scarves, the possibilities are endless! Stay away from larger cities and concentrate on small towns for the biggest bang for your buck. The rental fee is usually much lower and there is less competition. A friend of mine decided to sell cookies this year to earn some extra income. In one evening at a small town Christmas fair he sold $600 worth of cookies. It took him two days to bake and about $40 worth of ingredients, not bad for a few hours’ worth of work!

Even though we budget for Christmas, this is something I am seriously considering doing for next year anyway for some extra money. I’m not 100% sure what I’ll be selling but it will likely be my (semi-famous) cookies!

Make Use of Online Auctions

Consider selling things you already own online either through online auction sites or online classifieds. If you have a keen eye you could also consider flipping items from garage sales and thrift stores to sell online. There is a woman in town who paid her entire way through university by hitting up local thrift stores for high end vintage clothes and re selling them online. If you have a keen eye for something, you may be able to make some good money fast through online sales.

Offer a Seasonal Service

There is a woman in town who is offering to come in and decorate your house. She used to work in a high end retailer and for a small fee will come in and decorate your house and/or tree like you see in fancy department stores. Though I personally wouldn’t necessarily pay for this service, I know many people who would. Another option may be to offer cleaning and house prepping services before Christmas. I know I like to do a good deep clean before dragging all the decorations out and would love the help.

Spending a day to come up with a creative way to earn some extra money might be a good use of time. It’s easy to get frustrated but sometimes investing a little money into some materials ends up paying you back many times over. Make sure, whatever you decided to do, you price things out and do a little research.

Have you ever done anything creative to earn extra money for Christmas?

Keeping Kids Warm this Winter Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank

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You don't have to break the bank to keep your kids warm this winter. Use these strategies to save money on kids winter gear.One thing is a certain every year, with children who are still growing, they will need new winter gear every year. It amazes me just how fast little kids sprout up actually. The snowsuit I bought last year seemed big at the beginning of the year and within the season it got too small!

Winter gear, for us and probably many families out there, is one of the most expensive kid clothing expenses we have every year. The savings we get buying cheap $5 sandals and $2 shorts in the summer are quickly spent in the colder months but this doesn’t mean there aren’t savings to be found.

Always Start with Used

I know I often say this, but the same still applies for snowsuits and boots. ‘’Shop’’ around for used. This could be either an older kid hand-me-down or shopping at a local thrift store. The first two years my kid was outfitted in winter gear we bought at a second hand store and were almost brand new. Kids grow so fast that they usually only get one winter out of the gear and my experience is that most parents will either look up unload or just donate to a local store. Last year our daughter wore a pair of quality winter boots that were also worn by two of her older cousins. The boots still had plenty of life in them and saved us a few bucks.

Put a Facebook post out there and see if you get any bites. Also join local buy and sells on Facebook to see if you find anything decent and, as always, check your local thrift stores. You don’t know what’s out there until you ask!

Buy at Year End

At the end of our daughters second winter we came into a too-hard-to-resist-sale on snow suits. They were name brand suits at a store for $10. We quickly bought a few and two years later we’re still wearing them (I have two more still to go!). I figured if, by the time winter came, they didn’t fit her and she was in between sizes, I would donate them to a thrift store or local charity. Things like snowsuits and boots take up a large inventory so stores often want to see them sell off rather than storing or shipping back (especially as style changes) so you may be surprised what is out there for sales.

You don’t need Name Brand

Winter boots can be expensive. I have been looking around for our 3.5 year old and found a few pairs, the problem is that I know they will only fit her for the one winter, and they were $50, or more, per pair. I can’t justify spending $50-$70 on a pair of boots she will wear for a few months. Instead I found a pair at Walmart. They seem to have a nice lining and super warm for half the price. Some people get so hung up on certain brands they don’t even consider large box store brands.

If you walk into a sporting goods store looking to outfit your child for the winter, you can expect to spend a few hundred dollars but there is no reason why you can’t bring in a whole outdoor winter apparel for your kid for under $100. Like anything, there are always savings to be found if you try!

How do you find savings when it comes to outfitting your growing kids for winter?

Why I Say No.

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I tell my toddler "no" more than "yes" and very rarely reward good behavior. Here's why.A few weeks ago Huffington Post shared an article about the Benefits of Saying No. Today I share my reasoning for telling my toddler ‘No’ more times than ‘Yes’, and why rewarding for good behaviour is foolish.

I bring my daughter everywhere. Unless it’s not appropriate, she comes with us most places. I have friends who plan all their errands around their spouses schedule so the ‘kids aren’t getting dragged around’ while they do things like get groceries or go to appointments. I get it, it’s usually a whole lot easier to do some tasks like grocery shop when you don’t have grabby little hands asking for everything, but to me these are important opportunities for my daughter to learn about the world around her.

Not Rewarding Good Behaviour

I don’t believe in rewarding for good behaviour when good behaviour is expected. For us, I completely expect her to behave in a situation like grocery shopping. She does it so often with us, she knows what is expected of her. If we however brought her to a meeting at a bank and had her trapped in a tiny room for three hours, acting out might be expected. See the difference? Bribes and treats might be needed in the second scenario!

Just because she knows how to behave, doesn’t mean she doesn’t try to ask for things almost every time we go out though. The difference is that when we say no, she usually doesn’t push the issue. As each outing happens, there are fewer and fewer ‘incidences’. I honestly can’t remember the last time she put up any fight about hearing the dreaded two letter word.

Thanks to advertising, today while grocery shopping my daughter ran up and grabbed a massive container or Minions tic-tacs. She didn’t even know what they were, but wanted them because they were cute and yellow. Rather than freak out when I told her no, she said ‘’ok mommy’’ and put them back.

Over the many, many trips to the grocery store and running errands with us, she had come to learn that just because she asks for something doesn’t mean she will get it and this makes our life so much easier.

Every now and then we’ll buy her a treat but it’s usually on our accord and not when she asks for it. When we’re done errands I might suggest a treat of getting a donut for her and coffee for mommy. We’ll sit in and talk for a few minutes. I know she will enjoy this time together so much more than a random treat she eats in the car.

The stuff she wants is usually pretty cheap and harmless. Rarely does she ask for something that cost more than $2-$3. That’s not that point though. I want her to grow up understanding that she won’t get everything she asks for just because she wants it. Life isn’t that fair. Though I want my kid to have the world I want her to understand balance too and I never want her to feel like she literally has everything in the world she’s ever asked for, it’s totally unrealistic and unhealthy in my mind.

We enjoy giving special treats and surprises just as much as any parent does but by learning to say No more times than Yes, I really believe that she really appreciates things a lot more.