Motivate ME Monday!~Balancing Life: Part 2: Budget

I know it has been awhile since I last published a post and I am SORRY! My life has taken some crazy turns these past few months. Things have finally settled down for my family! 

Now with things finally becoming balanced, I am ready to re-energize the things in my life that I enjoy; like my blog! For me figuring out how to go from a stay at home mom to full time working mother has been very difficult. My daughter and I are still learning how to keep things balanced. Over these past few months that I've been away from my blog, I've gained a better understanding of why balance is so important. For my family having balance means that things are calmer, life runs a little smoother.

This second part of my four part series is about balancing your budget. In order to balance your budget, you first have to create one.  Educating yourself about your finances can only help your future grow.  In this part of the series I will share some tips that helped me create my budget and gain balance over my finances.

Part 2: Budget: Tips for creating a balanced budget

1. Determine your budget goals~ For me I had two budget goals. The first was to be able to save. I wanted to be able to save, in two separate accounts; short term and long term. My second budget goal is to be able to keep up. I want to stop living pay check to pay check. 

2.Figure out your income~If you don't know how much you make, you won't know how much you can spend/save.

3. Wants vs. Must Have~Categorize your expensive into wants and must haves. Must have are things like the mortgage, water bill, ects. The wants are things like the gym and Starbucks in the morning. You might have to to take a hard look and let some things go if you want to balance your budget. 

4. Re-evaluate your goal~Make sure your original goal is realistic with what you are working with. My original goal was not really realistic. I am still able to save into a short term and long term saving account, but not as much as I originally targeted for. I am not there now, but I confident that I will be in the near future.

5. Set your calendar~Every month I sit down with my budget and calendar and mark when bills are due and when I am getting paid. I find that handwriting it out on a calendar helps me remember what kind of money I have available. It has also helped me to stretch my paychecks. Stretching your paycheck can help you not to live paycheck to paycheck!

6. Individual "have to" budgets~Set your individual budgets for things like groceries, household bills,fun, etc. Once these budgets are set stick to them!

7.Bind it up~ Keeps your monthly budget and bills all in one place. This will help you keep track of everything and where your money is going.

8. Re-evaluate how you did the month before~Take a look at where all your money went. You might just find ways to save better and you will be able to track your finances. 

Since I started my budget goals I've found that my budget is becoming more balanced. I've been able to save into my short term and long term accounts. I am still working on the "keeping up" part of my goals ( my student loans are killing me). Using these tips has really helped me not feel like I am drowning. I know where my finances are and that helps relieve so much stress. Releasing stress can only help balance your life!

Check out the rest of the series!
Balancing Life: 4 Part Series that will help You balance your Life
Part 1~ Routines
Part 2~Budget
Part 3-~Meal plan (coming soon)
Part 4~Chores (coming soon)

Motivate ME Monday!~Balancing Life: 4 Part Series that will help You balance your Life

My daughter and I are currently going through a BIG change! I am going back to work. :( I love being a stay at home mom, but right now my family needs me to have a job.  With all the changes going on right now there is one main thing that is on my mind; Balance! I am stressing out about how I will balance being a working mother. 

I know that balance won't come easy and it won't come overnight. To help myself (and baby girl) I have narrowed down four areas that I need to really focus on. Routines, Budgets, Chores, and Meals. All four of these parts of our lives are going to be heavily affected. In each part of the series you will follow me through my journey. I will share tips and tricks, and what did and didn't work. With this series I hope to help you and myself achieve balance in everyday life.

Balancing Life: Part 1. Routines

Routines are HUGE for me. And the routine that I have the most difficulty with is the MORNING routine! I am NOT a morning person! So much so that I sleep trained baby girl to sleep in till 9 am! That is right ladies; my 2 year old will sleep in till 9 am! Like most jobs, mine requires me to be there in the morning. Thinking of having to be up before 9 am scared me! I knew this was going to be one of the hardest things about going back to work. 

After the first morning I realized that I would need a routine or I would never get out of the house on time. I have to be honest, I have not gotten my AM routine down. Each morning it does get better. When it came to creating my routine I found that these 10 tips made the mornings seem not as bad. Your AM routine sets the tone for the rest of your day and these 10 tips will make it easier to streamline your morning and the rest of your day.

1. Wake up first- I know that you have properly heard this one before. The first morning I had to wake up for work I didn't follow this tip. I should have! Waking up before baby girl does not only give me time to get ready, but it gives me quite time! Like I said morning are horrible and I find it helps if I don't have to wake up and be instantly bombarded. 

2.Do something small- I find that doing something small like making my bed or emptying the dishwasher gets my motor running.  Doing something small can keep you from becoming lazy in the mornings.

3. Eat Breakfast- I never eat breakfast. Never really have. I normally would wake up at 9 am and not eat until baby girl would go down for her nap at noon. That won't work for me any more. I am still trying to figure out how to work breakfast into my mornings because it is the most important meal of the day!

4. Prepare the night before- Preparing the night before helps you streamline your mornings. Make lunches right after you clean up from dinner or make a to do list for the next day.

5. Go over daily details- Each morning make sure you go over any big or usually details about that day. For example, note if your children are going on a field trip and their after school bus will be late. Going over daily details will help you prepare for later on in the day.

6. Start with your BIGGEST task- Starting with your biggest task will not only get your motor running, but will also take stress off later in the day. 

7.Breath, don't rush- If you are late, then you are late! Just accept it and move on, don't let running late ruin the rest of your morning. When you rush you might leave out big important details of the day. Don't worry, it happens to everyone!

8. Know your timeline- Create a timeline for your mornings, learn it and follow it!

9.Help your kids help you- Allow your kids to be a little more independent in the mornings. Have a morning zone area for your kids. Have their book bags, shoes, lunches, whatever they need for the day in one area. Have your children help you prep the area the night before so that they know where everything is. This streamlines both of your mornings.

10. Tell someone you LOVE them- This one is my favorite part of my routine. When someone says " I Love You" it makes them smile.  I love seeing hubby and baby girl smile. The smiles on their faces make the mornings worth it!


Routines help you so that you are not always playing catch up from the day before. But there is one thing I need to catch up with and that is Relaxation. Being a working mommy leaves me little time for some of the things I use to like to do. Everyone needs relaxation or they will eventually bust from stress.  That is why I have purposed to hubby that we create a PM relaxation routine. 

Crunch time during our routine seems to be in the beginning of the evening.  Evenings are rough; dinner, homework (we don't have that yet, but I can only imagine what that will do to our routines), bath, kids to bed, chores, prepare for the tomorrow, etc... Where does relaxation fit in?!?!?!?  The point of our relaxation routine is so that we can decompress from the day and spend healthy alone time with one another. Part of the routine is that we spend at least one hour a night doing something that we find relaxing. For example on Sunday nights I like to blog and hubby likes to watch old T.V shows.  Each night we do something different during our relaxation routine. One night that is a must on our routine is electronics free! We turn off our phones, iPad, computers, T.V. Its nice to be free of social media and noise! Our PM relaxation routine allows up to stop playing catch up!

Do you have routines? What are some things that help you with your routine?

Motivate ME Monday!~ Date Night Wine & Cheese Tasting

I don't know about you, but when date night rolls around I am super excited! Especially when we are totally kid free! Each date night is special, but our last one was a first for my Hubby. He is not into wine or cheese and it is one of my goals to find wine and cheese Hubby can enjoy with me.

Creating our wine and cheese date night was something that I've wanted to do for awhile. I wanted it to be a real tasting! Not we just us vegging out on wine and cheese on the couch. As you read along you will learn how to create your own tasting!

When planning any get together, you will want to start with your menu. When creating your wine menu you will want at least 3 different wines; white, red, dessert. I like coursing my menu starting with the lightest wine (white) and ending with sweet/heavy wine (dessert). For my tasting party I pick one wine for each course. I wanted "beginner" wines for my Hubby. I didn't want heavy, tannin wines because I knew that for someone who never drinks wines, they might turn him off.  When choosing wines its good to think about your audience. If you are hosting a party for experienced wine drinkers then be a little adventurous, don't be shy to buy something that no one will expect!

Our Wine & Cheese Tasting Menu

1st Course

White Wine~ Jenna Riesling, San Martin, CA 2012

Paired with

Uniekaas Vintage 5 yr Gouda

2nd Course

Red Wine~ Oak Ridge, Delta Ranch Pinot Noir Lodi, CA 2013

Paired with

St. Albray Bongrain

3rd Course

Dessert Wine~ Chateau Belingard, Monbazillac Late Harvest
Paired with 
Taleggio 

Once you have chosen your wines it was time to pair up the cheeses. The purpose of pairing your wine & cheese is to enhance the flavors of both. It can be difficult when looking at the Whole Foods cheese counter. That is why I reference a cheese wheel. Here is one that I like from Wine Inquire.  This easy guide, give me a great jumping off point. The cheeses are where I got adventurous! 

Now that you have your wine & cheese, its on to the tasting! When tasting the wine and then the cheese there are a few things you want your party guest to rate or judge; smell of the wine, color, first taste, lingering notes and before and after comparison with cheese. If I were hosting party for more then 2 guest, I would create little score cards. For our date night I guided Hubby through the tasting and took notes.

Our wine & cheese tasting date night went perfectly! We were able to enjoy each other's company and talk like adults! Hubby was able to branch out and try new things and so was I! The St. Albray Bongrain was a new cheese for us and we both agreed that it was NOT a cheese for us! It had a wet cow smell and kinda tasted like the smell of a wet cow. Even with the smell we both tried it. I am proud of us for that. Hubby's palate for wine & cheese grew and now he is excited to try more. The best part about this date night is that we developed something in common! He never understood why I like all the "fancy" wine & cheese, now he is hooked and can't wait for our next date night tasting!

Do you love date night as much as I do? What fun date night's ideas do you have?

Motivate ME Monday!~Spring Basket Wreath

For us the first day of spring was a bust! The weather was cold and rainy :( I was really hoping that the first day of spring would bring warm weather and a sunny day! So what better to do on a crappy day....Craft!

I made a felt Easter wreath last year. Don't worry if you missed that post just, click here! So this year I wanted something totally different. During Easter I always have a few decorated, filled baskets as decor. While shopping for something different to put in my baskets this year I envisioned this Spring Basket hanging on my door!

I bought a cheap basket from the dollar store and the embellishments at Micheal's. I put a little hot glue on the inside around the handle and the seam right before where I cut it. I also hot glued a little piece of cardboard to the back to keep the grass contained. The only downside is that the handle is not straight. But I still love it! It came out super cute! It also only took me about an hour from start to finish( I did have a bit of help from the Hubby, lol). This Spring Basket is just what my front door needed!

Do you have a BIG spring projects planned? What's your favorite spring crafting trend?

Motivate ME Monday!~ Strawberry ShortCake Cookies

 So everyone seems to be really excited for spring. I' am too, but I'am more excited for the SUMMER! I'd be happy if we skipped spring all together! There are so many great things about summer; warm weather, the beach, flip flops and strawberries! Mmmm! Strawberry season is a big deal where I live. We have the Pungo Strawberry festival and during the season you can go to any farm and pick them fresh yourself. Strawberry pick'in is one of my favorite things to do in the summer!

Did you see my behind the scene photo shoot? These pics are from that shoot! 

I've been craving summer and summer foods. I was in the kitchen last weekend trying to figure out what I could make that would help curve my summer craving. Luckily I had frozen strawberries that I picked from the summer before! The first thing that came to my mind was Strawberry Shortcake. 

I have my grandmother's recipe for Strawberry Shortcake and I thought I was going to do that at first, but then I remember this recipe that I had clipped from Epicurious. I love the classic cake, but these cookies seemed so much quicker to make! Baking is not my skill in the kitchen. I am always trying to improve. I can honestly say this is the first time I have even baked cookies and they all came out perfect and golden! I am so proud of myself. I just wish I knew what I did differently. These cookies not only came out looking delicious they are delicious! They only keep for a day or two, but they are so good with tea in the morning! And it's OK to eat cookies in the morning as long as they have fruit in them. ( and the kids don't see you..LOL) I can't wait to make these cookies this summer with my fresh picked strawberries!

Summer is coming, are you ready? Whats your favorite thing about summer?

Ingredients:

2 cups diced Strawberries

1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

1/2 cup Sugar

2 cups Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

6 tbsp unsalted cold Butter

2/3 cup Heavy Cream

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Take your strawberries and coat them with about 1 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp sugar and 1 teaspoon lemon juice.
3. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
4. Cut the butter into pieces and with your fingers rub it into the dry mixture until coarse crumbles.
5. Now stir in your cream and strawberry mixture.
6. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper and drop cookies about 2 in apart. Decorate if desired and bake for 25 mins.
7. Allow to cool on rack. Serve right away and store in an air tight container. 

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Motivate ME Monday!~ Asian Pork Meatballs

I always have homemade meatballs in my freezer. They are super easy to make and take no time at all. Meatballs in the freezer can be very handy when you wanna add a protein to a quick work night pasta and salad dinner.  I throw my meatballs in with the sauce while it is cooking to reheat them or flash them in a hot pan.

 When I make meatballs I normally make an Italian style. I like to use turkey and pork in my meatballs, but meatballs made with venison are my favorite. When I saw a recipe for Asian Chicken Meatballs in Food and Wine, I thought WOW, I wish I had some ground venison! I thought these would be even better made with venison, but I don't have any venison and it can be expensive at a butcher shop. Guess I will have to wait for deer season and my dad good shot.

Last Saturday I was bored and in the kitchen and decided to make these meatballs. I only had ground pork in my freezer, but I like to use what I have so instead of running out and buying chicken I used the pork. These were a huge hit! I had saved a few so that I could photograph them and my Hubby asked me everyday if he could eat them yet. Normally I just throw meatballs in my sauce for pasta, but the Asian flavors of these meatballs would not mix well with the Italian flavors of the sauce. I made my own mix-up of sweet and sour and Sriracha and served the meatballs with rice and Asian veggies! These were so good that my family ate them all before I could freeze any, but they are already requesting them again so I am sure that some will be in my freezer shortly!

Did you notice anything new about my photos? I've been learning  a lot about photography lately and wanted to try my hand at making a watermark for my photos! Do you watermark your photos?  How do you like mine?

Ingredients

1 lb ground Pork

1/2 cup Plain Bread Crumbs 

1/3 cup minced Scallions

3 tbsp minced Ginger

1 tbsp minced Garlic

2 Teaspoons Sesame Oil

2 Teaspoons Soy Sauce

1 egg

S & P

Directions

 1. In a large bowl mix all your ingredients.

2. Form into meatballs.

3. Bake at 450 on prepared baking sheets for 13 minutes.  Serve right away or wrap in parchment to freeze.

* For the dipping sauce I already had a jar of sweet and sour, so I add Sriracha to taste. It came out perfect! 

Have you checked out Always Savory Facebook page or Always Savory Pinterest Board? If not stop on by and give us a like and follow please and thank you!

Motivate ME Monday!~ Grammy's Freezer Pickles

My grandmother was always canning! Her basement shelves were full of veggies from her garden and sauces she canned. I remember her doing this, but in all the years of memories not one of them are of me helping her.

Looking back now I wish that I had  gotten to help my Grammy. Grammy is now 93 years old and doing great,(she lives by herself and still drives!) but gardening and canning are not something she gets to do anymore. She does still cook on some occasions! And when she cooks everyone shows up for dinner! I like helping her in the kitchen. Sometimes she can be a kitchen control freak, but she is 93 so I listen.

A few years back Grammy wrote out all of our family's favorite recipes and made copies for everyone. Each cookbook came with a personal letter in the front and these cute little smidgen,pinch,dash spoons.( I love Grammy's handwriting. So neat and perfect. They don't teach cursive like that anymore in school!)I plan on keeping the cookbook going and adding my own recipes so that I can hand it down to my daughter someday. 

This past summer I thought that I would can some fresh veggies from my local farmer's market. The only problem was I didn't have any canning supplies and I had no idea what I was doing.  So I go to Grammy's cookbook and there was nothing in there about canning veggies. I called Grammy for some advice and I shopped around for canning supplies. After realizing that canning supplies can be costly and that canning was a lot more involved I settled for this freezer pickle recipe that was in Grammy's cookbook.

I am so happy with how my freezer pickles turned out. They taste exactly how Grammy makes them. Just the right amount of sweetness and acidity. They were simple too. Canning seemed kinda intimidating, but not this recipe.  These freezer pickles are the perfect palate cleanser. They are so refreshing.  I can't wait to give a jar to a friend as a small thank you or as a welcome to the neighborhood gift. 

Yay for these pickles and yay for my 3rd Motivate ME Monday! Spring will be here soon which mean delicious fresh veggies. This summer I am definitely going to have to splurge a little on canning supplies and take my Grammy's advice!

What about you? Are you going to be canning this summer? What is your favorite thing to can?

Ingredients

3 large Cucumbers thinly sliced

2 medium Onions thinly sliced

1 Green pepper diced

2 cups sugar

1  cups White vinegar 

1 tbsp Salt

1 teaspoon Celery salt

 *This was not in Grammy's recipe, but I added 1 teaspoon of Red pepper flake to a second batch and it added a nice amount of spice.*

Directions

1. Combine the sugar, vinegar, salt and celery salt in a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Allow to cool.

2 .Pour the vinegar liquid over the cucumber, onions and pepper. Seal in bowl or tubberwear container. Place in the fridge for 24 hours.

3. Pour an equal amount into 6 small mason jars. Seal and place in the freezer. Allow to freeze.

4. When you are ready to eat, allow to thaw in the fridge!

                                                           

Oh and a little help, if you please....Stop on over to the Always Savory Facebook page and give it a like!

Motivate ME Monday!~ DeerDad: Free Printable!!

Yay! It is the second Monday of Motivate ME Monday! This means that I have stuck to my guns for two weeks in a row! I know its not a huge victory, its only been two weeks, but I love to give myself praise for the little things.( it helps keep me motivated!)

For the past week I've had so many ideas of what to do for my second post. It was hard at first to contain all my excitement, every thing I saw I wanted to make! But this project DeerDad was something that I came out of nowhere! 

While playing around on Photoshop Elements13 I created this printable for my dad. He is a huge deer hunting and I know will love this! 

After going back and forth between a few tutorials and Googling questions about Photoshop, I think it came out AWESOME! The deer graphic I had downloaded a little while back is from We Lived Happily Ever After.  I love Hannah's blog. She has so many great designs and DIYs! You have to check her out! For the camo background I googled "free camo background." So once I had one made for my dad, I realized how easy it was to create something in Photoshop Elements13 that I had to create more! 

I am proud of myself for two reasons; 1. I learned something new in Photoshop and 2. I stuck my goal of Motivate ME Monday! Oh and me learning something paid off for YOU too! A FREE PRINTABLE! I 've made six different backgrounds. Some for guys and girls! So please take your pick! Enjoy!

Click HERE to download one or all six!!

oh and a little help if you please....stop on over to the Always Savory Facebook page and give it a like!

Motivate ME Monday!~ Motivation and Inspiration to get You started!

Do you have any motivation to spare? Because lately ( for the past 7 months) I have had none! I have had zero motivation to do anything! To be honest, my life has been pretty crazy these past few months and I think all the craziness stole my motivation! I need to get out of this rut!
I don't know about you, but I hate when I don't have the motivation or inspiration to do the things I want to do. ( or need to get done) That is why I came up with Motivate ME Monday! My goal with Motivate ME Monday is to make a commitment to myself ( and my readers) to work / post on my blog every Monday. I want Motivate ME Monday to inspire me and anyone who reads it to create something fun or delicious!
So for my first Motivate ME Monday post I thought that I create a list of recipes and projects that inspire and motivate me to do the things I love.

1.

I love to cook! Food & Wine and foodgawker are two sites that make me wanna cook! I love Food  & Wine because I can learn about the different foods and food trends. Some of Food & Wine recipes can be challenging, but a challenge can motivate me!  Foodgawker is awesome because it gives you a variety of delicious recipes all on one page! If I'm not sure what I want to eat, I just look at foodgawker and I become inspired. 

2.

For Christmas last year I got a new Cannon DSLR camera and this year for Christmas I got PhotoShop Elements13! The only problem is that in the year that I have had my camera I am no closer to knowing how to get the most out of it. That is because I have had no motivation to become a better photographer. Now that I have PhotoShop and a great camera, I have no reason not to become a better photographer. I've pinned so many different articles on camera and Photoshop tips, now its time to use those pins. What I like about 31 days to a better photo, by Life with My 3 Boybarians is that it engages you to get out and use your camera, to learn about photography. Series like these motivate because you are always aiming for the next goal of the challenge. 

3.

Have you ever started a big project and then lost the drive to finish it? Well I have! This past fall, I started to savage a very large doll house for my baby girl. I had tons of ideas...." I'm gonna take the roof off and add a room"...."ohhh I could build a porch!" I got as far as sanding the outside. I want to be able to give it to my baby girl by her 2nd birthday in May. (my original plan was to have it done for her by Christmas.) I've been trying to brainstorm for this big project of mine and voila inspiration! I love how Erin, over at Lansdownelife, redid  her doll house! This was just the motivation I needed to plan out my  DIY dollhouse. Other people's projects are great ways to get inspiration and motivation.

4.

PicMonkey!! Sometimes I just need to create something and that is when I go on PicMonkey and just play around! Just being on there and creating something, gets my creative juices flowing and that leads to great ideas. My great ideas can keep me motivated from start to finish of a project. For example: in this picture I am trying to create a label for my Motivate ME Monday posts. I didn't really like this, its missing something. But just by starting to create this label it made me pumped to finish it and make it better! 

5.

I know everyone has seen these cleaning calendars, just type "cleaning calendar" into Pinterest and hundreds will come up. What I like about these is that it creates an easy schedule. Schedules can be great because it is a great way to manage your time. I know when I manage my time right and get everything done in a day that I wanted it helps me stay motivated for the next day. Staying organized and making lists can be a big push in staying motivated.

So there it is my very first Motivate ME Monday post! See you next week!

Ohh before you go here a little motivation to help you get through the week: 

When you feel like quieting think of why you started.