The Money Saving Mom's Budget {Review}

As a long time Money Saving Mom reader, I was excited to review Crystal Paine's new book.  Paine blogs daily about her money saving techniques and tricks.  Now she's compiling her favorite ideas in her book and making them accessible to the beginning budgeter.

There's a lot of pros and cons to this book.  It's a great book for the beginner.  Paine starts with the necessary principle of living within your means and knowing where your money is going.  She also addresses how to set up a bare bones budget and how to extend upon that once you become comfortable with budgeting.

However, for a long time reader of the blog, there is little to no new information shared.  It is nice to have the information in one place, but it's all information that many of us have heard before.  If you have any grasp on living the frugal lifestyle, you'll find that this is all tricks you've used before.

I would recommend this one for anyone who is looking for a place to start in the frugal lifestyle.  Paine is encouraging and offers many great beginners tips to get you started.

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author for review.  All opinions are my own.

Monday Muddle

Hey y'all,
How was your week?  Did you remember to wear green on Saturday?  I almost forgot.  Ooops!

We had a good week.  Slower than last, but still busy with three littles.  I'm realizing that as they get older, life doesn't slow down.  The busy just looks different.  But it's still chaos!

I kept Noah home from school on Friday and did a day of homeschooling.  I love having that flexibility. We had a fun day of schooling and being together.  I took the kids out for an apple cider while we worked on Math.  That was fun.  It was a crazy day as we already had several commitments that day, but it gave me a lot of confidence that it is possible to homeschool and still love my kids.

Saturday was just being together.  We had T-ball practice and then came home.  With our weeks being so crazy, we really needed that down time.  I made Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars and we munched on them while we played Yahtzee.  The kids wore down near the end of the game, but Dave and I got a good laugh out of it.

Sunday was church and meetings.  Noah went to a friend's house in the afternoon and the two younger ones got some much needed time.  I was able to get some seedlings started and ordered some photos from Costco.  All in all, a fun family weekend.

We had a really nice weekend and now we're getting ready to brave the rain again.  I feel a bit like I'm at the end of my creative rope with the kids.  Anyone have any great ideas?  I'd love to hear them.

Here's our menu for the week:

Breakfasts:
Cereal and fruit
Oatmeal and bananas
Homemade muffins
Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Cake

Lunches:
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sammies
Homemade Spaghetti O's
Veggie Wraps
Cilantro Lime Jalapeno Chicken Salad
Carrots, string cheese, and fruits

Dinners:
Monday: Tacos
Tuesday: Tomato Soup
Wednesday: Potato Soup
Thursday: Aztec Chicken
Friday: Veggie Pizza
Saturday: Hamburgers, potato salad
Sunday: Parm Encrusted Tilapia

Extras:
No Bake Nutella Cheesecakes
Hm Strawberry Ice Cream
Homemade Wheat Thins (again)

Projects I'm working on this week:
Organize photos/papers/etc for Aug-Oct photos
Finish 2 review books
Read Shepherding a Child's Heart
Patching projects
Jersey Knit Bracelets

What are your plans this week?

Lee's To Do List

Yarn Easter Eggs

Egg Pendant Light

Egg Candlesticks

Peter Cottontail Easter Party

Homemade Pretzels

St Patrick's Day

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day!  Yeah!

Not a huge deal in our house, but it's always fun to do something a little out of the ordinary.  The kids get really into it and to tell the truth, so do I.  So to help you out, here a few ideas from the past and also what we're planning for the weekend.

St. Patrick's Day information sites

Shamrock Shakes--Yummy!

Corned Beef in the Crockpot

"Gold" Coins

Irish Stew

Cabbage Salad

Irish Soda Bread

Rainbow Cupcakes

Rainbow Popsicles

Have a great weekend!

*Linked to these Parties

Shhh! We're going to Disneyland!

*Linked to these Parties