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2017 Goals

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Setting goals is extremely helpful for me.  I have anxiety if I don’t have a plan set in stone, and by writing down exactly what I’d like for us to accomplish makes me feel better.  Last year I didn’t set goals, but I did in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015.

-Pay $8,000 down on the principal of our home.  We’re still in the same house we bought almost 10 years ago. That is crazy! I never thought we would be here that long.  I’m glad because my sister and her family now live next door! I can’t see us moving in the near future, although you never know.  We’re slowly chipping away at the mortgage, and that feels good!

-Save money for college education/the future for kid(s).  I would love to help provide funds for a college education for our child(ren) and will do the best we can with saving now.  I also figure by the time our kid(s) start college, we’ll have the mortgage paid off hopefully and will be debt free so that we can cash flow many things!

-Save $500 a month for retirement.  Right now, we are contributing to Mr. Money’s 401k with his employer, and we also are contributing to our Roth IRAs with Vanguard as we are able. I’d like to make sure we’re on track for retirement (especially since I am a stay at home mom!).  I think $500 a month sounds like a good number for us.  We will see if we can swing it!

-Don’t eat out unless it’s planned and budgeted for.  This is something we always struggle with.  Our whole family enjoys dining out, and we view it as a source of entertainment and pleasure.  With me staying at home, often my days are long and sometimes lacking adult interaction and just getting out of the house is awesome sometimes.  Also, not having to cook is wonderful as well.  We have started going to a house church and one thing our group does is gather for a weekly dinner.  It’s so nice to bring a side dish and dine with our friends!  This definitely helps.

-Become/stay debt free.  With our daughter’s recent hospital stays, I’m unsure of exactly how much we are going to owe, which makes me so nervous.  I hope it’s not a ridiculous amount.  I can’t lie, I’ve been worrying about it but not much I can do at this point. I am very thankful that she is feeling better and nothing more serious is wrong.

Go on a nice vacation somewhere.  In 2016 we weren’t able to take a vacation anywhere since Mr. Money switched jobs.  His work has been short staffed and he deals with a lot of crap being an executive chef.  I’m hoping that we will be able to take early vacation versus waiting until the end of the year and then he loses his vacation like he did in 2016.  It wouldn’t have been so terrible if he would have gotten paid for it, but he didn’t.

What are your goals for 2017?

 

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Elderberry Syrup Recipe

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elderberry

During the winter, my family takes elderberry syrup along with other supplements to boost our immune systems. Elderberries have been known to shorten the duration of illness, and it’s a berry so it’s generally considered safe for pretty much anyone including pregnant and nursing women. I personally have taken it while pregnant and nursing.  I really enjoy making and taking the elderberry syrup. If you don’t want to make your own elderberry syrup, you can buy it here.

Elderberries (sambucus nigra) grow in the wild, and you can harvest them yourself and make the syrup if you would like.  Some of the benefits of elderberries are: cold ad flu relief, blood sugar stabilizer, natural diuretic, good for allergies, and high in antioxidants.  They are also high in vitamins A, B6 and C, which helps them boost the immune system.

I purchase my organic elderberries in bulk from Amazon. They’ve always been great quality and I like buying in bulk so I don’t have to worry about running out when I want to make it.  Sometimes I also make elderberry tea by steeping 2 teaspoons of elderberries in 10 ounces of boiling water.  I add in some raw honey and it is delicious!  Here’s how you can make your own elderberry syrup:

Ingredients

  • 4 cups of filtered water
  • 3/4 cup dried elderberries
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves
  • sprinkle of nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 Tablespoon dried ginger
  • raw organic honey to taste (we purchase from Costco)
  1. Add 4 cups of filtered water to a medium sized pot and sprinkle in elderberries, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger.
  2. Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. I let mine barely bubble and check it every ten minutes.  It smells so good while it is cooking!  When it looks like the liquid has been reduced and is a little thicker than it was, turn the heat off and remove it from the burner.
  3. Let the mixture sit for awhile to cool down. After this has happened, I take my potato masher and squish the berries to release the liquid.  When done squishing berries, strain through a metal strainer into a glass container.  At this point, you can discard your elderberries.
  4. When the liquid is just warm, add honey to taste. We add between 1/2-3/4 cup of honey.  Stir to combine!

We take 1 tsp for kids and 2 tsp for adults daily as a preventative.  When illness strikes, take that dosage every two to three hours until symptoms disappear.  I actually use the elderberry syrup added to my daughter’s cod liver oil since she prefers the flavor.  She takes it with no problem and actually reminds me to give it to her if I forget!

Make sure to consume elderberry syrup within a month or so.  I have seen it mold when not consumed quickly enough, and that is why I don’t make more than one recipe at a time.  I shake mine well before dosing to the family members. The last illness we had lasted about 2 days for us, and didn’t seem to be as bad as other peoples’ symptoms and I attributed that to the elderberry syrup!

What do you do in the winter to boost your immune system?

 

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Don’t Use Homemade Laundry Detergent.

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Years ago, I hopped on the homemade laundry detergent train.  I thought it was cheaper, more natural, and worked just as well as commercial laundry detergent.  I used it in my high efficiency front loading washing machine for years until we had Penny and then I decided to try a different laundry detergent on our […]

LuLaRoe Cassie Skirt Giveaway!

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Do you love LuLaRoe? I have a size medium Cassie skirt (not the print pictured in the photo!) that I’m giving away to a lucky reader! I don’t sell LuLaRoe but wanted to share some love. To enter, please leave a comment telling me something nice you have done for someone lately. Please share on […]

Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps

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Dave Ramsey is quite the financial guru, and one of his biggest beliefs is his “baby steps” program- the steps he believes will lead you to financial freedom.  I like Dave Ramsey, and I believe he’s got some great ideas to help people become debt free and lead a financially stable life.  Here are the […]

How to Fix Appliances Yourself and Save Tons of Money

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The other day, our dryer quit working how it’s supposed to.  We have an LG dryer that we bought to go with our washing machine when we bought our house ten years ago.  It has a special sensor that can tell when the clothes are dry, and I love it! There is no guessing and […]

The Dark Side of Decluttering No One Wants to Discuss

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I have been a fan of simple living/minimalism for many years.  I have worked hard to declutter our home and keep it as clutter free as possible even after adding to our family.  Over the past few years, I’ve tried many different methods in decluttering and simplifying our house.  One of my favorite methods is […]

Mr. Money Lost His Job

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88 Days ago, Mr. Money accepted a new position after he was contacted by a company numerous times offering him an Executive Chef position. He had turned down the company twice before he decided that he was going to seriously consider working for them. He had an interview where they talked with him, he performed […]

October State of the Finances

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Everything here has been a whirlwind lately since Mr. Money lost his job a couple months ago.  We’ve been trying to keep our heads above water, and I feel like we’ve been doing a pretty good job doing that so far.  One of the hardest things for me is when I have a million transactions […]

Being a Stay at Home Mom When You “Shouldn’t”

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Many times over the past almost six years that I’ve been a stay at home mom, I’ve been riddled with guilt over our decision. Thoughts float around in my head: “Should I go back to work?”, “Will we be able to save enough for retirement without me financially contributing at this moment?”, “I really wish we […]

2017 Goals Recap

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For many years now, I’ve set financial goals at the beginning of every year.  Here are 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015. Last year, we set goals for 2017 and today I’m going to see just how well we did.  2017 was extremely hard as Mr. Money lost his job at the end of July.  […]

What Using a Credit Card only for Three Months Taught Me

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A few months ago, I mentioned that I was going to try using only our credit card for expenses to see how that would work for us.  We have a rewards credit card where we get cash back on certain purchases (4% on gas, 3% on movies, 2% on restaurants and groceries, and up to […]

When Frugality Becomes Necessity

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When Mr. Money lost his job last year, we went into survival mode.  Obviously, finances were incredibly tight as we figured out what our income was going to be and how we were going to work things out.  Mr. Money has been studying software development for over a year now, and actually was accepted to […]

How Much Does a Dental Implant Cost?

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“How much does a dental implant cost?” is not a question I ever wanted to know the answer for.  However, last fall we found out first hand just how expensive a dental implant is. Mr. Money had a tooth that had become painful and he made a trip to our general dentist for an exam. […]

Should you Pay your Mortgage Off Early?

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If you own a house, chances are you’ve considered making extra principal mortgage payments in an effort to pay your house off faster.  However, there are some pros and cons to paying a mortgage off early. I was always under the impression that when we were in a financial position to prepay pay the mortgage […]

Gratitude is Everything

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The past year and a half have been pretty rough for us. My husband lost his job last summer,  started a new job about five months later, and started classes to pursue a new career field. Sometimes I get disappointed thinking about all the things we can’t do right now, what we can’t afford, and […]

When Your Labs are “Normal” but you Aren’t

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A few months ago, I visited my primary care physician begging her to run blood work on me to test various functions: thyroid, my blood sugar (A1C), and anything else she thought could be causing the symptoms I was experiencing. I felt awful every day; like I was seriously dying. I was waking up in […]

Heal Adrenal Fatigue and Thyroid Naturally

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A few months ago, I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue (HPA Axis Dysfunction) and hypothyroidism. Since I started Natural Desiccated Thyroid in addition to various supplements, I have seen improvement. However, the healing road is a journey and I’m learning that every day. There are some days I feel amazing, and some days I feel […]

2019 Goals

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In past years, I’ve set financial and life goals for our family. Here are 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2017. Apparently last year I just didn’t feel like doing it. Ha! This year, I’m going to try to set realistic and attainable goals. Those are the best ones! Here are some things I […]

Ally Bank Review

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My husband and I had been loyal ING customers for years when Capital One bought them out. I didn’t want to make any rash decisions although I wasn’t the biggest fan of Capital One due to issues with our Capital One credit cards. I figured we would give them a try, and we did. However, […]
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