Christina Leaman

Menu Planning May 15, 2012

Pantry Staples & May Menu Week 3

This is Part 4 in an ongoing series about menu planning. If you’ve missed anything, please click HERE to go to the beginning.Hey y’all! Did anyone try the Freezer Inventory this weekend? I know, exciting stuff right? 😉 It will be the first time you save money! Promise. Sorry this post is a little late. I’ve been under the weather since the weekend and it kind of kicked my butt. Feeling better now and ready to move on with our series. Thanks for being patient and I hope all the moms out there had a great Mother’s Day weekend!OK, on to the next step in our series: building a great pantry. If you remember, in my “how to” menu plan post, I mentioned that I check my pantry and cabinets for available side dishes, but I also keep my essential cooking items in there too. These items are important for me to have on…

Menu Planning May 11, 2012

Using a Freezer Inventory (Free Printable!)

This is part three in a series on menu planning. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts GO HERE. Hey y’all! It is an exciting day here at The Scrappy Housewife! Not only do you now have the opportunity to grab a new button for this little series “Menu Planning on a Budget” (see right side bar) but I’m also offering my first free printable! So exciting! If you’d share the button on your blog to help me get the word out, I would be eternally grateful. (Totally optional, of course.) Let’s get started, shall we? So far, we’ve discussed why I think menu planning is important (especially now!) for my little family, and I’ve also covered how I manage to menu plan in about an hour once a month. In my last post I shared with you that I keep a freezer inventory on my fridge to help me keep track…

Menu Planning May 9, 2012

How I Menu Plan (Part 2 in the Series)

If you missed Part One of my Menu Planning on a Budget Series GO HERE.Alright, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of this thing shall we? This is a big post. Grab a diet Dr. P and get comfy. ;)When I started menu planning a couple of years ago, I did it weekly because I thought it was too daunting to do a monthly plan. The only problem with that was that there were weekends when I would be lazy and not take the time to plan and then scramble and make it up all week. And I wasn’t really aware of what we had in the cabinet or freezer to actually make meals happen so each week I had to dig around in the freezer and my black hole of a pantry to find meal options. Basically, we ate out far too much. Less than before menu plans, but still…

Cleaning May 8, 2012

Going Paperless in the Kitchen

A few days ago, Katie from Gadanke.com posted a link to how she and her hubby Martin went paperless in their kitchen and it hit me that we’ve made some changes in our kitchen too – but we’ve yet to go paper towel-less. What a great way to cut back further on our budget! Here’s what we’ve done so far:For general cleaning, dusting and shining up glass I use these – Evercare Microfiber Cleaning Cloths. I use the thick, green ones for dusting, the yellow one for glass, the pink one for furniture polishing and I use the blue one for bathrooms. I love that they’re color coded and that they clean so thoroughly. Because of them, I no longer use paper towels to clean.Click Here for SourceNext up we have the Tekla towel from Ikea. It’s basically just a flour sack type towel but they are amazingly well made and…

Menu Planning May 7, 2012

Menu Plan on a Budget

Recently two things occurred that inspired me to create a blog series about menu planning. First, as hubby and I prepare to live on our “new” budget (now that we’ve bought a house), I’ve been scrutinizing our budget down to the tiniest detail. I’m terrified we won’t be able to afford things (we totally will, I’m just a worrier). During all that scrutinizing I realized we were spending $200 a month hitting the drive-thru. Thankfully (?) that was mostly soda runs and not eating the actual food, but still two hundred dollars? That’s nuts!Secondly, I was talking with a good friend of mine (and blogger who shall remain nameless) and she confessed she understood the drive-thru thing because she and her family eat out almost every night! Now look, I’ve been at this housewife thing for a couple of years now and I feel like I’m pretty good at saving money and…

Uncategorized May 5, 2012

Scrap Saturday: A Scrapbook for a Baby Boy

Happy National Scrapbooking Day! (It’s a holiday, did you know that?) To celebrate I thought I’d share some of my recent layouts.When our good friends Chris and Jeneane had their adorable baby boy last summer, I offered to make them a scrapbook/baby book. Something (I hoped) would be nicer than something you could buy in a store that was pre-made.Once she and baby boy got settled, she and I hit the craft stores to pick out an album, paper and embellishments she liked and I got to work.It took me forever y’all. Not because it was difficult, but because it was so intimidating! I didn’t want to screw it up. Well, I finally finished it back in March and just now got around to uploading some pictures I took of some of my favorite layouts. I thought y’all might want to see how it turned out. Here are my favorites:I mainly…

Uncategorized May 4, 2012

I want YOU!

…To share your best spaces, organizational genius, and creativity.That’s right folks, The Scrappy Housewife is now accepting reader submissions (no blog required) and guest posters!Here’s the deal: hubby and I are in the process of buying a house. Yes, really. (I’m in panic mode already.) And it is triple the size of our apartment. We close at the end of May which means an insanely short amount of time to pack and make all the necessary arrangements., so I’m kind of in over my head here. Which leads me to my first request:If you are a blogger and would like to help me out by guest posting I would be forever grateful. Projects on my end will be few and far between as I pack up our world and prepare to move to our new (project filled) home which I’ll be documenting in the coming months. I would love it then, if you…

Uncategorized May 3, 2012

Jill’s Bridal Shower

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of throwing my good friend Jill’s bridal shower. Let me tell ya – it was a labor of love. It was the first time I’d ever had to plan a party like this (at least for adults, when you’re a teacher you plan parties for kids several times a year) and add to the fact that I had to try and keep it as kosher as possible (given I’m not Jewish and don’t keep a kosher home) it was a challenge! That’s a lot of parentheses sorry. ;)Well all the hard work paid off and I was super pleased with the results! I know a few of my readers are planning weddings and so I thought I’d share the decor I put together (on the cheap).Jill’s wedding colors are navy/dark blue and silver, but trying to find navy party decor without ordering it is…

Uncategorized April 30, 2012

Reader Space: Lisa’s Kitchen

Hey, hey everyone!In case you missed it over on Facebook or Twitter – hubby and I have been pre-approved for a loan and are now on the hunt for a house! We’d appreciate all the positive thoughts and prayers you could send us as we embark on this new (and somewhat stressful) journey. We know our house is out there – we just have to find it!A couple of weeks ago I expressed my frustration with running out of things to blog about in this apartment. It’s a little crazy, but I think I’ve reached my organizing limit in this space. One of you had the brilliant idea of helping my readers with their own organizational dilemmas, and I love that thought!Luckily, a dear Facebook follower, Lisa had already asked for my help with her kitchen storage dilemma and today is her day here on the blog.Here’s her wish list: -…