Cutting back on bills

(I am not receiving any compensation or sponsorship of any kind, monetary or otherwise, from any of the companies I mention in my post.)

Lately I've been really combing through our bills and spending to see what I could reasonably cut back on. Living on one income means if there is room to improve I'm going to take it. I'll share with you the things I have done or will be doing to cut back on spending.

My first change was our cell phone bill. Looking at our previous providers bill each month made me want to throw a fit. I had to reduce our 160+ dollar bill without losing the great coverage. When I met my husband he had a service that wouldn't even work in our apartment and I wasn't willing to go back to that. Well I'm happy to say that I found a fix! We switched to Straight Talk month to month service. I was skeptical at first but I had a friend who was very happy with their plan and I grilled them with all my questions. When we switched it was an up front investment because we had to buy new phones, but we were both in need of an upgrade anyway. So we bought two phones for $150 each, yikes. But now instead of paying $160+ each month we now pay $90. When you do the math it only took a little over four months for us to pay off the phones with the money we saved and start profiting from the switch.

Next I called USAA, our fabulous insurance company that I can't rave about enough, and asked if they had any discounts available to us. I was able to save $90 every six months just by making a few minor changes to our car insurance! They also told me about a discount for taking a drivers safety course that I will be following up on in the near future. Bundling is another thing that saves us money. Since
we have auto insurance, renters insurance and a couple bank accounts through them each new account gives us a discount.

Most recently I started monthly freezer cooking which I will make a separate post about later on in more detail. I was able to get more than a months worth of meals made for less than $300. Now I know that's not the best deal but the leftovers from each night usually leave enough for another dinner or a couple lunches. Also it was my first time trying it so I know that with practice I can save more money. Just this month I have not only saved about $100 dollars but also a lot of time.

I am thrilled that just with these changes I have been able to save us about $190 a month!!

Have you made any changes to your budget recently that have saved you money?

DIY Green Tree Frames

 I saw some Green Tree picture frames in Hobby Lobby once that I just fell in love with! 

~Here is one of them~ 

They were colorful, distressed and super classy. I wanted to take them home with me, but at $15+ a piece I just couldn't rationalize it on a single family income. So instead I walked over to the craft section and picked up some supplies to make some myself! I ended up making six for about the price of one! I will tell you what I got how I made them. Since I am writing this after the fact I don't have any pictures showing my process, but it is so easy I am sure you could do it without.

Supplies:

- Craft plaques you can find in the wood crafts section.

-Pictures to match the size of the plaques

- Acrylic paint or stain of your choice, I used both.

- Mod Modge, I used the Matte to cut down on the shine.

-Paint brush for paint.

-Foam brush or paint brush (for a streaky look) for mod modge.

-Sand paper, I used a sanding block.

-Picture hangers, pictured below.

I started by lightly sanding the plaques just to get any rough edges or splinters off so that I could make sure the paint looked good. Next I added a couple coats of paint. After the paint dried I used the sanding block again to give the plaque a lightly distressed look. The next step was adding the photo. I put one coat of Mod Podge on the plaque focusing on the area where I was going to put the photo. I immediately place the photo on top of the wet Mod Podge and added a top coat. I made sure to add a layer or two on top of the photo so that I covered all the edges. After it was dry I hammered the hanger into the back of the plaque. Finished!

 Now I may be biased, since I made them  myself, but I think these look just as good as the ones I saw at hobby lobby. Plus there is no glass involved so it is much sturdier.

What would you do differently? Let me know what you think in the comments below! 

 (Some photos are blurred for my husbands privacy)

Battling unproductivity - social media lost!

My first big step towards better cleanliness and organization has been a doozy. Since my son was been born a year and a half ago I have been struggling to learn how to juggle a child, a house and a husband. I made a huge step a couple weeks ago that has changed my life and freed up so much of my time to spend on more productive things. What was it? *drum roll* I deleted my Facebook. Yes, it was really hard the first day or two and I may have mistakenly replaced my Facebook addiction with another site or two for a couple days without realizing, but I have been spending my time much more wisely now.

The first two real "off the internet days" I kept myself very busy! By busy I mean I cleaned every room in our three bedroom apartment, including the dreaded master bathroom, and completed about ten loads of laundry. I was doing my best not to relapse back to my usual habit of "taking a short break" on the internet for three hours, so when I got bored I cleaned something. Even after all that I still cooked dinner, woah! At the end of those two days I was tired and sore! Let's just say I don't recommend it. So if you plan on tackling a big project, I suggest taking it one step at a time.

What I do recommend is stepping back and evaluating how you spend your time. If you are feeling like there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything, try and figure out what is taking your time each day right down to each half hour to fifteen minute increment. Think about each item you come up with and evaluate if it is truly important, meaningful or productive and decide if you will keep it. When I did that I realized that the time I was spending on Facebook wasn't going to mean anything in one, two, or twenty years. I decided I didn't want my son to remember a messy house, PB&J lunches and randomly thrown together meals just because I liked to pass my time on the internet. I didn't realize how much precious time I was wasting on the internet until I wasn't. 

Now don't get me wrong, I am not anti social media, heh, no pun intended. I think there are many women who can balance their time well enough that a short time on Facebook won't take away from their family or house, I'm am just not one of them. Maybe one day I will be able to find that balance, maybe not. But until then I know that I am spending my time more wisely than I used to.

Do you feel like you are wasting a lot of time on social media? What other things take your time away from your house or family? Have you been able to change your routines and habits to find that you had much more time than you though?

Welcome!

My name is Alicia, aka Critter. I am a God loving, self employed, stay at home wife to a handsome and hard working Knight in shining armor and mother to a lively "Dragon Warrior" toddler. I am working on improving my family's life by improving myself, our home and hopefully the world around us. I am doing this by slowly transitioning from chemical to natural and making an effort to minimize, organize and balance our home and personal lives. I am doing all this a little bit at a time and I will be sharing things that I find helpful or intriguing. I hope you enjoy!