by Jamie Jeffers | May 8, 2017 | Large Family Life, Parenting & Household Tips
These easy lists for moms are a must have when it comes to keeping track of it all.
My phone beeped with another text and I gave it a quick check.
With four kids playing baseball and softball (plus a preschooler along for the ride), there’s always something to add to my to do list. A last minute practice, a rained out game, concession stand duty…
This time it was a note that one of our games was rescheduled for this Thursday.
Which was good, I guess. We needed to get these games in!
But it also meant that we now had to be in four different locations at the same time. Yikes!
It’s hard to keep track of everyone’s schedule, especially once your kids are school aged. Everyone has products due, places to be, and it’s never easy to remember to schedule appointments and meetings.
Most Moms can’t keep it all together without some type of system in place.
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by Jamie Jeffers | May 5, 2017 | Ways We Saved This Week
Our school is doing Penny Wars this week. Have you ever done one? Each class brings in money of different denominations. Pennies and dollars count towards your class total. But silver coins take away from a class total. So if the class next to you has way more pennies than you, that’s ok. You can bomb them with silver coins and bring down their total!
It’s a fun way to raise money. But it really highlights the fact that small amounts of money add up quickly. That’s a lesson I hope the kids at the school remember for a long time!
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by Jamie Jeffers | May 3, 2017 | Debt
Inside: Learn why I wear these shoes whenever I can…even though I’m not a fan of this style of shoes and I HATE pink!
We were at our county fair, stinky and sweaty after a long week of showing animals. It was the last day, which is always hard. Some of our animals would go home with us. Others would be sold at auction.
Even though my son wasn’t particularly fond of this set of lambs (they’d given him a lot of trouble!), he was having a hard time letting go. He’s old enough to understand the food chain. And while our whole job was to pass a good product on to the consumer, selling animals is tough.
So even though I’m a no mom, and even though I know he needed to work through the process, I couldn’t say no when he asked if we could bring a bunny home. So after working out a deal with a 4-H rabbit shower, we needed a cage. That meant a quick trip in the pick up truck to Tractor Supply Company.
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by Jamie Jeffers | May 1, 2017 | Household Tips (Chores and more)
Do you feel like a scatterbrained homemaker? These homemaking blogs are perfect for finding the best tips that will work for your family.
All my life I dreamed of being a stay at home mom.
But when I first married my husband, he wasn’t finished with college yet. Which meant that I had to be the breadwinner for a while.
We had two baby boys just 16 months apart. All while I was working and he was doing college and a part time job.
That was one of the hardest parts of my life. Trying to juggle everything made me feel like I was failing at work, as a mother, and with our home.
And I was so blessed and excited when I was finally able to quit my job! That happened the same summer that baby #3 came along.
Except that quitting my job wasn’t exactly the magic wand I expected it to be.
Oh believe me, I loved being home with my babies. But boy was it an adjustment.
I remember sitting down at the computer and searching for help with keeping up with everything.
The first website I came across was Flylady. It changed my life!
With her baby steps, I was able to create a plan for cleaning the house and organizing our busy lives. Don’t get me wrong…I didn’t do everything the way she prescribed it.
Hey, my house is a lot different than her’s. And I bet yours is, too.
We’re moms…we tweak things until they work for us.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Apr 28, 2017 | Ways We Saved This Week
When baseball season begins, we are a busy family! Four of our children play ball. My husband is not only the coach for one of those teams, but he likes to help with another. And he’s the representative for all of the baseball teams in our town. Which is added work.
I’m not complaining. We adore baseball, and we wouldn’t devote so much time to it if it wasn’t a lot of fun and a super learning experience for our children. But it does make things like grocery shopping a bigger chore than usual.
I gave up taking kids to the grocery store when my daughter (18 months old at the time) started opening every package and actually ate a stick of butter. Yep. Aside from the gross out factor, I was a little worried about her health. But I guess it’s kind of like me serving a Paula Deen recipe at home…
At any rate, I prefer to take an evening every 2 weeks or so and make my trip. This week I decided that it was too much to add to our schedule, so I treated myself to a Clicklist order. You can read my review of Kroger Clicklist (other grocery store car delivery services are probably similar). My opinion is that not picking up impulse buys with my order equals the savings I might have found in hidden in store deals. So it evens out.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Apr 26, 2017 | Saving Money
Stop that inner dialogue that says “I can’t save money!” With a few tweaks, you’ll find it much easier to become a saver, even if you’ve never been one!
The day my 2 year old broke his arm was one of my worst days ever. Thank the Lord for good hospitals full of people who can help!
It’s the kind of thing that takes up every bit of your attention.
At a time like that, no one wants to toy with those wicked thoughts that ask, “Geez, how am I gonna pay for this bill??”
When emergencies like this hit you out of the blue, it’s easy to have that thought. “No wonder I can’t save money!”
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by Jamie Jeffers | Apr 24, 2017 | Holidays
Add your own special touch to show love for your Mama with these verses for Mothers Day cards! Loving, funny, poetry…it’s all here!
When I was in second grade, my Sunday school teacher gave each child in her class a one dollar bill. She told us that we should use that money to go to the grocery store and choose some food for the poor.
It was a lesson in helping others.
When I got home, I told my Mom about the assignment. After that, she was on a mission!
By the time we got done shopping, I had a paper bag half filled with groceries for the price of a dollar.
Granted, this was the ’80s, so my dollar stretched further than it would today. But the truth is that my Mom knew how to pinch a penny. She’s one of the most frugal people I know.
This woman raised five kids on what would be considered a meager income…but we never knew the difference. While we didn’t get the fancy shoes and trips that some of our friends had, it was really a life lesson of need versus wants.
My Mom is a pretty amazing person. She has more energy than most people my own age!
She bends over backwards to help people whenever she can. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!
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by Jamie Jeffers | Apr 21, 2017 | Ways We Saved This Week
Earlier this week, I took my 3 year old out to run errands. We decided to try a new park, which was so much fun! They have a climbing toy in the shape of a train, which my little guy just loved.
When we finally got home after a long day of running errands, I was ready for both of us to have some down time. But as I unloaded things from the van, I saw him topple head first out of the car and into our gravel driveway. Instead of relaxing, we spent a few hours in the emergency room.
Luckily, everything turned out just fine! He was happy to get a popsicle and watch some cartoons, and I was relieved when the doctor said he looked a lot worse than he actually was.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Apr 19, 2017 | Saving Money
Planning to travel soon? A vacation savings account is the perfect way to enjoy your trip without the stress of debt. Get a free printable for fun savings!
The first time I ever saw the ocean was on my honeymoon. After the stress of planning a wedding and dealing with minute details for months, that was the most relaxing vacation I’d ever had.
We enjoyed it so much that we decided then and there that we’d be coming back within 5 years.
It was kind of a stretch for two kids in their early 20s with not much in the way of job prospects. But we made it work!
Five years and two kids later, we were back, thanks to some help from our vacation savings account.
Since then, we’ve tried to take a nice vacation like this every couple of years. A trip like this is a splurge for sure, especially with a family of seven. But with some careful savings, we make it work.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Apr 14, 2017 | Ways We Saved This Week
Do you give your kids gifts for Easter? I’ve heard of some parents that decide to gift an item they were going to have to buy the kids this time of year anyway (like boots or a folding chair for ball games). Then there are the parents that want to go all out for their kids no matter what we’re celebrating.
I’ve done both. On baby’s first Easter, he was 4 months old. But I decided he needed another fun toy to kick at during floor time. (Really? What was I thinking??)
These days I recognize the beauty in simplicity. I like the idea of keeping this holiday focused on Jesus. So even though some kids need new shoes and I’d like to get the little guy some toys for his sand box, I’m resisting. Besides, who wants to start the race where you buy something for one kid and then have to even it up for the rest of them?
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I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
