Cream Cheese Mints

Shout out to my mother in law for giving me this recipe. We had these at our wedding and they were AMAZING.

1 8 oz. package cream cheese
1 (2 lb.) package powdered sugar
paste coloring and flavorings


  Sift the powdered sugar.  Add cream cheese and mix with your hands until it's smooth.  Add flavoring (about 2 tsp. per full batch) and mix.  Add desired color and mix. Pinch off a small ball of mint dough, roll it in sugar, push it into the mold and then flip or push it out of the mold onto wax paper.

 

4 things marriage is not

      Eric and I have been married almost 10 months... So that means we can give marriage advice now, right? well, probably not. However, as I start of my wedding series I wanted to make sure that my readers knew that the relationship is more important than the party. So let's dive in.

1. Marriage is not a Status Symbol

Dear women, you are not in competition with all other women and getting married is not the prize. Marriage is a blessing, an achievement and I'm happy for you, but graduating is a blessing and an achievement. So is paying off student loans, buying a house, getting a dream job, going on a mission trip, learning a new skill...

The point is marry someone you love not because you're [insert age you want to be married by] or because your friends are all getting married. If you know a singleton please stop saying "so when are you going to get married?" (Also, if you know someone who's married without kids stop asking when they're going to have kids. Patience is a virtue, yo.)

You won't be better than anyone else because you're married. You should be better than your previous self, but talking about your marriage should come from a place of joy not a place of pride.

2. Marriage is not a Burden

Don't get me wrong, Marriage is hard. Just living with someone is hard. However, it should be like a good kind of hard that's worth it at the end of the day like playing your favorite sport. Star-crossed lovers is a crock of trash and if every single day is a battle, or you have physical or emotional scars from your partner they might not be marriage material.

The other side of this is your life is not over when you get married you can still travel, you can write, you can have a career. If you dream all of these things, they are realistic things for you, and your partner is standing in the way basically "because I said so" you might want to evaluate the relationship. Marriage is a different thing to each person so staying at home, having kids and baking pies isn't necessarily you life after marriage.

3. Marriage is not a Fix-All

One of the two best pieces of advice I've ever received is "the day after your wedding is the exact same as the day before your wedding" getting married fixes nothing. If your partner was a crazy spender, they will be after your wedding. It doesn't really change the relationship or either partner.

4. Your Marriage is not For Anyone but You and Your Partner

There will be something in the wedding or in your relationship that people will give you "advice" on. Do whatever you think is best. For us, a lot of people were shocked/upset about our last name. Some dealt with it healthily and some didn't. Everyone got over it. Had Eric or I gotten caught up in everyone else's emotions I might have been stuck with a name that I didn't like forever. With your relationship's big decisions (and hopefully most of them are bigger than your last name) you and your partner have to do what's right for you. No one else is living your life.

Tip for smooth legs

    For those of who have used my sugar scrub there's a simple trick for awesomely smooth legs. 

      First. wash and shave your legs like you normally would. Though this is going to scrub away a lot of dead skin so you might want to use a cheaper disposable for this if possible.

      Next use the scrub, which is 2 cups sugar and 1/2 a cup of olive oil, on your legs and scrub thoroughly then rinse off your legs and shave again. The second shave will pull away the dead skin pulled up by the scrub.

       After you're done with your bath put a lotion of your choice on for some extra hydration and softness.

Homemade Shampoo

Another way that I save money is by making my own shampoo. Not only does it save you money you know exactly what is going into what you're washing your hair.

You need:
1 gallon of water

1/2 cup of baking soda

1/4 castile soap

3 tsp of Xantham Gum

A bottle for foaming soap or a spray bottle

First, boil the water and add baking soda.

Turn off the heat after you've added the baking soda and let the water cool off.
Then add the Xantham Gum.

 It will foam up a bit when you add the Xantham Gum.

Then pour some into your foaming soap bottle/spray bottle and pour the rest into a clean milk jug.

Grilled Cheese--Awesome Style.

Eric and I had Grilled cheese and it was AMAZING.  Seriously. The best.


For those of you scoffing and saying "are you really giving me a recipe for grilled cheese?" yes. yes, I am. Deal with it and pin it.



So the secret ingredient is powdered sugar. yep, powdered sugar. We also put shredded cheese on the outside, but we might skip that next time.

Groceries for 1 month= $150

         Recently I posted on Facebook that I had bought a month's worth of groceries (including toiletries) for less than $150. Cutting down our food bill was an important next step for Eric and I to become debt free as we had gotten on a budget, cut down on overspending on things we didn't need and cut down on our utilities bill. After we posted our successes, a lot of people asked us how we did it, so here's what we did.

Part One: Some Disclaimers

There are multiple factors outside of our process of grocery shopping that contribute to our ability to keep our grocery bill pretty low. We don't really subscribe to any current food trends. We aren't paleo and we don't eat organic or gluten-free. We're okay with eating canned or frozen vegetables. We also eat out once or twice a month. We also are only feeding two people, two adult people. However, I follow a lot of mommy bloggers that use the same system and it saves them loads. 

Part Two: Meal Planning

This is the second most important part to us saving so much on our groceries. We planned out all of the dinners we were going to have for a whole month. It took about 45 minutes and most of that was searching when we had events going on for the month. I made a theme for most nights, Meatless Mondays, Leftover Night on Wednesdays, and New Recipe Night on Thursdays. Without having theme nights it can seems like a daunting and overwhelming task to plan 30 or 31 days of meals. Make sure you inventory what you already have so you have meals that make you have to buy less at the store.

Part Three: Couponing

Be skeptical all you want but coupons were a key part of getting our grocery bill down to $150 for the month. You want to match up what you buy with a place that has coupons for those items. For example if you buy a lot of produce, a Super Target might be a good choice because they have plenty of coupons on the cartwheel app for fresh produce and some coupons on their website as well. I honestly spend only an hour or two tops on couponing. Before you gasp that per month you judgey judgertons! per month! I follow coupon blogs. Check out coupons.com (which is what is featured in my coupons tab) SmartSource.com, Redplum.com and Target.com. I also have a Walgreen's app and get a weekly e-mail from CVS.

Part Four: Drugstores/Petco

This $150 also included toiletries. I'll wait while you clean your spit take off of your computer screen... Ok? done? cool. Oftentimes, you can get toiletries for free or for excitingly cheap. Walgreen's and CVS are equally awesome at this. Sometimes you get instant coupons and sometimes you get cash back for a future purchase. Toothpaste is pretty much always free between either CVS or Walgreen's. Walgreen's has an app where you can load manufacturer's coupons on to your balance rewards card and of course you can always use newspaper and printed coupons there in addition to sales and coupons in their ads.

Another phenomenon that is exciting is that Petco basically gives away pet food to their pals rewards members. You get coupons in the mail and in your inbox but sometimes you can look to coupon blogs to find better coupons. A lot of times the coupons are "Free ___" not Buy one Get one free. just free. For Funsies. Because there's cat and dog people who pay $25 for a bag of dog food because they don't coupon so Petco can stay afloat just fine. One caveat: you will never have a 0 balance at Petco because they make you pay the sales tax on everything but we paid $1.23 for a $22 7 lb bag of cat food, so I'm not really complaining. 

Part Five: Less Dining Out

Yep. The unfun part. Stop dining out. or at least limit it. For Eric and I even eating at a fast food place can mean dropping $20 on food. Just find copycat recipes and pretend you're eating at that place you love. If it's the getting home and making food part then make a bunch of meals ahead of time and heat and eat. (obviously easier said than done, but I'm assuming there's some goal that is worth the work otherwise you wouldn't be looking at this blog)

Part Six: Freeze Stuff

For those of you who are wondering about veggies, dairy, bread and fruit. I freeze most dairy products (it really works and is ok) I also freeze bread. Some people get veggies and fruit from CSAs or they eat canned or frozen varieties of produce. Eric and I do the latter. Choose what you want.

Recipe Monday:Ranch Bean Dip

    Starting some new things for the blog! First off, I am now an Amazon affiliate, so when I review a book or post a new (non-food) recipe, you can buy what you need by clicking the link right in my article and support the blog you have come to know and love! Second, I'm posting 3 times a week (and actually doing it for those of you who noticed that I fell off of my new year's resolution wagon) Mondays will be recipe Mondays and then I will do two other posts each week. I will be reviewing some books and post some projects I'm working on. Let's see how it goes!


For this "Recipe Monday"

Ranch Bean Dip

1 (16 ounce) can refried beans

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 package of Ranch Dressing Mix

1 cup sour cream

In a small pan, mix all of the ingredients and stir until the cheese is melted and the dip is well blended. Enjoy!