by Jamie Jeffers | Oct 22, 2023 | Holidays
Finding the perfect balance between showing your loved ones how much you care and not breaking the budget is just plain tough.
You want cheap Christmas gift ideas…but you don’t want them to LOOK cheap!
I’ve spent years thinking about ways to make this balance work. And in the meantime, I’ve created a bunch of lists of ideas that will make everyone on your list happy.
(Including you!)
So jump in and find the cheap Christmas gift lists that fit your life.
(more…)
by Jamie Jeffers | Oct 11, 2023 | Holidays
You finally did your Christmas shopping (gold star for you!). Now all you have to do is get it wrapped.
But that stash of wrapping paper you had last year has disappeared. And have you seen the prices of everything in the store?
Besides, who wants to pay money for something that’s destined to be destroyed and added to the trash tomorrow?
Hey, it’s not Scroog-ey to want to save money on gift wrap. Especially if you can find cheap ways to wrap gifts that still look beautiful in the end.
So let’s find some classy ways to wrap gifts when you don’t have wrapping paper on hand.
(more…)
by Jamie Jeffers | Oct 7, 2023 | Holidays
Every time a doctor walked into my room, I would say, “Hi, I’m going home tomorrow!”
Our fourth child had been born very early that morning. And while we could hardly contain our excitement over having a daughter (!), we also had three young sons at home.
And tomorrow was Christmas Eve.
The biggest day of the year, especially for the 5 and under set!
That crazy year had proven that our boys could do without a lot of the Christmas traditions we had found so important.
But the one thing they couldn’t do without was having mom and dad home to celebrate the big day.
We learned so much from having a simple Christmas that year.
And you wouldn’t believe how much you can love the season when you skip those things you always feel obligated to do.
So let’s talk about how to celebrate a Christmas you won’t regret!
(more…)
by Jamie Jeffers | Sep 18, 2023 | Parenting & Household Tips, Parenting Tips, Saving Money
Do you need a school fundraising idea? If you hate to sell things but need to raise money for your group or organization, you’ll love this simple idea!
If your children are involved in any activities at all, then one thing is for sure… you are tired of fundraising!
Just in one school quarter, we were supposed to sell cookie dough and pies for the school, candles for band, pizza and flowers for the team, and raffle tickets for church.
Let’s be honest…if you participated in every fundraiser you were supposed to do, your family would never want to see you again!
(more…)
by Jamie Jeffers | Aug 2, 2023 | Parenting & Household Tips
When you’re visiting COSI, there are some things you’ll definitely want to know before you go.
As we climbed the steps leading into the COSI Museum in Columbus, Ohio, my kids started asking questions.
“What is this place again?”
“It’s the Center of Science and Industry. Like a big science museum for kids.”
Groaning ensued.
(Yes, from the same kids that I homeschool and remind regularly that science isn’t some stuffy thing in a textbook.)
“Well, there’s a ton of stuff to play with here. I think you’ll actually enjoy it.”
…then we stayed until they closed the place down.
So yeah, I think visiting COSI was a hit with our family.
That said, there are definitely a few things I wish I had known before we went.
These are things I tried to google before our visit to COSI and couldn’t find a good answer to, so I figured I’d be the one to pass the information along to you.
(more…)
by Jamie Jeffers | Apr 22, 2023 | Parenting & Household Tips, Saving Money
Get a list of things you should cover when you talk finance for teens, plus how to start the conversation and resources to try.
It would be nice if we could just sit down with our kids one time, have a chat about money, and call it good enough.
Unfortunately, just like the rest of parenting, you have to talk about finance for teens over and over again.
A week or two ago, I had a talk with a couple of my teens about budgeting. (We have four teenagers in case you’re wondering why I would say “a couple of teens”.)
It was amazing! Just kidding. I talked, and they made jokes about memes and video games the entire time.
But whenever I said something like, “Do you even know what I said?”, they could answer me.
I know from experience that when I try to talk with my teens about something serious, there just isn’t going to be a lot of back and forth conversation.
So these days, I look for opportunities to plant seeds of ideas in their brain.
And now I know that later they might ask questions (maaaybe), or they will at least start to put some of those ideas into practice on their own.
So there’s the how to have the conversation. But what should you talk about?
(more…)
I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
