Ruth Soukup's Blog, page 85

Quick & Easy No-Mess Bacon

Mmmmm….bacon.

If you’ve ever avoided making bacon because you just didn’t feel like dealing with the greasy mess left behind, this post might just change your life.  You see, my husband was the exact same way.  He loved eating bacon, but didn’t love cooking it.  It was just too much cleanup.

And then two years ago, on our big summer road trip, we stayed with some friends in Indiana. Fred, a fellow stay-at-home-dad, introduced my husband Chuck to the genius technique that we have used ever since–the technique I am sharing with you today.

Some of you may already make bacon this way–you are obviously much smarter than we are!  But for those of you who are stuck using a griddle or frying pan the way we were–take note.  This post is about to change everything.

Here is what you need:

1 lb bacon
large cookie sheet
parchment paper
 
 

Step 1: Preheat oven to 415 degrees. Cut length of parchment paper longer and wider than cookie sheet.

Step 2: Fold up edges of parchment paper; trim excess so that each edge is approximately 1″ tall.

Step 3: Layout bacon on parchment paper.

Step 4: Bake 10 minutes; check and flip bacon and then cook 3-6 minutes longer. Cook longer for crispier bacon. Cooking time will differ depending on thickness of bacon.

Step 5: Toss parchment paper, blot grease with paper towel and serve.

 Could that be any easier?  Thanks again Fred!

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Recipe: Quick & Easy No-Mess Bacon

Summary: These step by step instructions will ensure you get crispy bacon each time without all the mess.

Ingredients

1 lb bacon
large cookie sheet
parchment paper



Instructions

Preheat oven to 415 degrees. Cut length of parchment paper longer and wider than cookie sheet.
Fold up edges of parchment paper; trim excess so that each edge is approximately 1″ tall.
Layout bacon on parchment paper.
Bake 10 minutes; check and flip bacon and then cook 3-6 minutes longer. Cook longer for crispier bacon. cooking time will differ depending on thickness of bacon.
Toss parchment paper, blot grease with paper towel and serve.

Preparation time: 2-3 minutes

Cooking time: 10-15 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 16

 

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Weekend Wandering

Happy Weekend and Happy Spring!  Here in Florida we seemed to have gone straight to summer, but we are definitely enjoying the warmer temps!  I’m not sure how much longer my little garden will hold out now that it is downright HOT outside, but I’m going to try to keep it going as long as possible.  In other news, I bought a composter this week, which I am eager to get set up this weekend.  What are your plans for the first weekend of Spring?

Here is what I loved this week:

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First of all, this Baked Carrot Cake Oatmeal from A Mind Full Mom sounds like a yummy breakfast treat!

This easy homemade Hummus Recipe from Practical Stewardship is great as an appetizer or anytime snack.

These Mini Bacon Quiche from Smart Party Planning can be made ahead and only requires 4 ingredients. The perfect Easter appetizer?

This recipe for Marinated Mozzarella from Flour on My Face sounds absolutely delish!

These Seafood Stuffed Tomatoes from Confessions of an Overworked Mom look really yummy.

This Pepper Jam Burger with Caramelized Onions and Gorgonzola from Cooking With Vinyl is the perfect meal to kick off grilling season!  Yum!

Onto some yummy desserts…This Lemon Meringue Martini from Blue Crab Martini looks amazing!

This semi-homemade Cookie Berry Torte from All She Cooks looks so fancy but is actually incredibly simple.

These Edible Easter Baskets from Three Kids and a Fish would be fun to make and eat!

Moving on to DIY….This DIY Button Easter Egg Craft from A Cultivated Nest is just adorable!

These Rockin’ Peeps from Crafty Journal would be a fun & easy craft to do with the kids!

These Easter Egg-ercises from The Seasoned Mom are a fun way to get your kids moving!

 Creative Savings has 50 Easter Basket Ideas Under $5 that don’t include candy! This is such a great list.

These 5 Easter Basket Ideas for Babies from The Frugal Navy Wife are age appropriate and budget friendly.

These Frugal Easter Ideas from The Loggers Wife are all so much fun!

Financially Wise on Heels shares her Top 5 Tips for Managing Money. Tip number 2 is so important!

These 3 Budgeting Tips to Make Your Life Easier from Life’s Sweet Ride are super practical!

Finally, Short Cut Saver shares 8 Starbucks Hacks That Will Save You Money. Woot!

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What did you love this week?

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7 Secrets of Following Your Dreams (Without Going Broke)

Today I am very happy to introduce you to my friend Jeff Goins, a person I have admired for a long time.  I first heard Jeff speak about writing at blogging conference called Blissdom, back in 2012.  In that session, he challenged us to write about the thing that scared us, and it was that session that ultimately led me to share my own Amazing Grace story here on this blog.

In the years since, our paths have crossed again several times, and today I am so glad to have Jeff sharing about a topic he is incredibly passionate about–following your dreams.  His new book, the Art of Work, arrives in stores next week, but right now you can preorder it for FREE (you just pay shipping), plus get a free workbook to help you find your calling.  It is a pretty sweet deal for an amazing book!

In any case, please join me in welcoming Jeff here to LWSL!

This is a guest post from Jeff Goins of Goins, Writer

“What’s happened to you is rare,” my friend Mark told me just days before I would make one of the biggest decisions in my life — the decision to quit my job and chase my dream. “I didn’t see it coming…”

I didn’t, either. The whole thing caught me by surprise. But that’s not because it happened so quickly. Quite the opposite, in fact. Chasing my dream was a process that took years. And when I finally got to the end of the road, I realized I had been thinking about this all wrong from Day One.

After interviewing hundreds of other people who have discovered what they were meant to do, I’ve realized that we tend to believe some myths about the way we chase our dreams. And the truth is much more surprising.

Here are seven secrets to following your dream — the smart way:

1. It takes time.

We all want a quick fix in life, but the truth is that finding your dream won’t be easy. To paraphrase Chris Guillebeau, it takes 279 days to achieve overnight success. It my case, it was about twice that.

Taking the leap, as the say, looks more like building a bridge, one small brick at a time. For me, this meant late nights and early mornings for writing, finding time I could to work on building my dream. And it took me about two years before the bridge was built.

2. You can’t do it alone.

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell wrote, “No one—not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses — ever makes it alone.”

Every story of success is, in fact, a story of community. You will need to rely on friends and family, and sometimes complete strangers, to get to where you want to go. And if you don’t include others in this race you’re running, it’ll be a lonely finish line — if you get there at all.

3. You won’t “just know.”

This idea that you just know what you’re supposed to do is a myth. Most of us are unsure of what we’re really passionate about, and we need help figuring it out. The best way to do this is to pay attention to your life and learn what it can teach you from past experiences.

“Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, ”Parker Palmer wrote, “I have to listen to my life telling me who I am.”

4. You don’t have to “go big.”

Sure, you’ll have to invest time and maybe some money to get started, but the best beginnings are the smallest starts. You can always tweak as you go. I started my blog with a budget of $100, which took me months to save up for before finally pulling the trigger. That was a mindset shift for me, as I had always thought you need to “go big or go home.”

In college, I once asked a girl out by serenading her in front of half a dozen of her friends. She turned me down. I had never said more than 100 words to her before that.

The next time I played a song for a girl, it was after months of befriending her and getting to know her. That woman became my wife. Sometimes, taking your time pays off.

5. You don’t have to mortgage your life.

Yes, it will be tough, and sometimes sacrifice is essential. But be sure you don’t make the mistake of thinking your calling is just your career.

My wife reminded me of this the first time I published a book when she gave me a card that said, “It was never a question of if. It was always a matter of when.” I had spent the greater part of a year thinking my family was the enemy of my dream, that they were competing with the work that I was meant to do. And I was wrong. All along, they had been cheering me on, and I had made the mistake of keeping them on the sidelines. I made a vow to never do that again.

Your vocation, that thing you were born to do, is really your whole life. So make sure you live it, every part of it, well.

6. You will fail — a lot.

Every person I talked to who found meaningful work, and I’ve met hundreds of these people, told me that at some point they failed. Many points, in fact. It turns out that failure isn’t what prevents you from success. It’s a prerequisite.

We don’t understand this. When we heard the story of Steve Jobs getting kicked out of his own company or Michael Jordan not making the varsity basketball team in high school, we chuckle, thinking these people succeeded in spite of their failure. But that’s not true at all.

Successful people don’t succeed in spite of failure. They succeed because of it, at least those who learned from their mistakes.

7. Passion will only get you so far.

This idea that you can just “follow your bliss” isn’t quite true. Loving your work will only get you so far. You have to practice your craft, whatever it is, and earn the attention your work deserves.

As Anne Lamott shares in Bird by Bird, “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” The same is true for your dream.

As a writer, that means I have to keep my head down. Sometimes, the work is not fun, but it’s always rewarding. And what I’ve learned is that passion and inspiration don’t fuel the work. They flow from it.

For my family and me, what that looked was I didn’t quit my job as soon as I started to make some money on the side. We scrimped and saved and waited for the right opportunity to leap. And after building enough momentum and saving nearly six months of income, we decided to go for it. We built a bridge.

It wasn’t a glamorous process, and I wasn’t always passionate, but it got us to where we wanted to go.

Embracing the truths

So when you think about your dream, about that thing you were born to do, are you believing these myths? Are you thinking that passion will get you so far or you can run a bunch of charges on your credit card and it will just happen overnight?

I don’t believe that’s the way it works or even the way it should work. The beautiful thing about all this is that chasing a dream, as big as that sounds, doesn’t have to feel as huge as we make it. You can start today, right now, if you’re willing to embrace several simple truths:

You can take your time.
You can get help.
You can learn as you go.
You can start small.
You can chase your dream without sacrificing everything.
You can fail.
You can get started today.

 

Jeff Goins is a writer who lives in Nashville with his wife, son, and border collie. He runs an online business, teaches a popular online course called Tribe Writers and is the author of four books including his latest, The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do.

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Thrifty Thursday {Week 101}

Happy Thursday!  Is it just me or does it finally feel like spring is in the air?  With a quick trip to Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Wednesday, this week is literally flying by!  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to pull myself together by tomorrow, but I’m sure going to try!  How’s your week going?

Don’t forget that from now until April 14th, we are giving one scholarship per week to our spring session of Elite Blog Academy, which means you might have a chance to attend for FREE!  You can enter to win HERE. (Don’t worry–you only have to enter once to be entered into all five remaining drawings!)

Here are the most clicked links from last week:

1. Sarah Titus { How to Live on $700 a Month }
2. Pulling Curls { Our Actual Family Budget }

3. Frugal Debt Free Life { How Our Family Saves $10,000 a Year! }

4. Thrifty Little Mom {Re-styling Your Older Home Without Remodeling}

5. A Cultivated Nest {Creative Ways to Add to Your Savings Account}

6. Always Learning {Unmaterialistic and Simple Living}

7. Everybody Loves Your Money {10 Sustainable Frugality Tips}
8. Creating My Happiness {Why We’re Not Going to Disney on Ice}
9. Creative Home Keeper {3 Reasons Why You Need to Clean Out Your Closet}
10. Snail Pace Transformations {How to Maximize Carry on Luggage Space}
 
Never linked up before? Here’s how:

Scroll down, find the little blue “Add your Link” Button and click on that.
Follow the instructions on the next page – add a great image of your project and an interesting title. Make sure you link to the direct page of your budget friendly post – not the main page of your blog!
Try to visit at least a few other blogs at the party. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by!
Please link back to this post somehow. There are badges available here; a simple text link is just fine too.

Feel free to tweet about Thrifty Thursday so others can join the fun, and don’t forget to check back here Sunday morning to see which posts have been featured this week at Weekend Wandering!

If this is your first time here I also invite you to check out my blogging guide, How to Blog for Profit (Without Selling Your Soul).  It is a fantastic resource if you are interested in building your blog, getting more traffic, or learning how to monetize!  Or, if you have read the book and are still looking to take your blog to the next level, I encourage you to check out Elite Blog Academy.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cheesy Potato Casserole

 Sometimes you just want comfort food.

Cheese, potatoes, butter, sour cream….all baked together in one perfect dish.  Sure, it’s not exactly health food, but it’s not intended to be.  It’s the dish you bring to potlucks and sick friends, the one you serve at home to take the edge of an otherwise bad day.

The beauty of this mouthwatering cheesy potato casserole (sometimes also referred to as “Funeral Potatoes,”) is in its utter simplicity. It whips up in minutes, taking advantage of convenient pre-diced potatoes, and other ready-to-use ingredients.

And it’s so good.  Seriously.  Next time you’ll want to double the recipe!

Here is what you need:

3/4 cup onions
8 tablespoons butter
1 10 3/4 oz. can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 20oz. package diced potato hash browns
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
1 1/2 cups corn flakes, crushed or corn flake crumbs
 

Step 1: Chop onions; saute onions in 1 tablespoon butter until translucent; set aside. Melt remaining butter.

Step 2: In a large bowl, whisk together soup, add half of melted butter,  seasoned salt, and garlic powder.

Step 3: Mix in potatoes, onions and cheese.

Step 4: Transfer potato mixture into heat proof baking dish. Combine cornflakes and remaining melted butter and sprinkle evenly over top of casserole.

Step 5: Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until heated and bubbly.

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Recipe: Cheesy Potato Casserole

Summary: This super simple casserole is comfort food at it’s best!

Ingredients

3/4 cup onions
8 tablespoons butter
1 10 3/4 oz. can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 20oz. package diced potato hash browns
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar
1 1/2 cups corn flakes, crushed or corn flake crumbs



Instructions

Chop onions; saute onions in 1 tablespoon butter until translucent; set aside. Melt remaining butter.
In a large bowl, whisk together soup, add half of melted butter, seasoned salt, and garlic powder.
Mix in potatoes, onions and cheese.
Transfer potato mixture into heat proof baking dish. Combine cornflakes and remaining melted butter and sprinkle evenly over top of casserole.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until heated and bubbly.

Preparation time: 5-7 minutes

Cooking time: 40-45 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 10

 

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Be Brave (Secret 13 Essay Contest Finalist)

Living Well Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life shares 12 secrets for seeking—and finding—the Good Life in our day to day lives. From time management and goal-setting to managing our homes and finances, these practical and concrete strategies can help each of us discover a life rich with purpose. Even so, a life well lived is not so much about what we have as who we are, and ultimately each one of us holds the key to our own secrets. Secret 13 is the truth that YOU have uncovered as you discover your own Good Life. 

Each week for 12 weeks we will select one finalist’s essay to feature here at Living Well Spending Less. At the end of the 12 weeks, Living Well Spending Less readers will vote on their favorite #Secret13 story, and the essay with the most votes will win a 7 day cruise for 4 on the Carnival Sunshine! Today’s post is our ninth finalist in the Secret 13 Essay Contest. For more inspiring Secret 13 stories, be sure to check out our Blog Tour!

Hey Everyone!  My name is Katie and I hail from the lovely little town of Prosser, Washington.  When I say little I mean about 5,800 people little.  (Don’t be too impressed by my knowledge, I just had to Google that little fact.)  Anyhow, I married my high school sweetheart and together we have settled down on a piece property outside this version of Mayberry where we are on the adventure of raising 4 kids (ages 9, 6, 4, and 2) along with a couple dogs and cats.  My days consist primarily of homeschooling said children, cooking and cleaning and when those things are done, I enjoy a good book, some good friends, a little exercise and tending my garden.  Actually that’s not entirely true.  The cooking and cleaning are never completely done, yet I find a little time to enjoy the other things just the same.

I really had no intention of writing this essay. You see, I’m not a writer.  I’m not a “famous name” with a fancy blog, captivating pictures and beautifully engaging stories.  When all accounts are weighed I guess I’m a pretty average mom.  An average mom who grabbed Ruth’s book from my small town library, never even realizing this blog existed, in hopes of learning a few tips or tricks to make my “living well” look more like my husband’s “spending less”. Go figure; I got more than I bargained for.  I truly love books that do that – surprise me, and slap me upside the head just a little bit.

So there I was reading along at Secret #4 and, being the rule follower that I am, I accepted the challenge and spent a day or two thinking of 5 goals I’d like to accomplish this month.  I came up with four goals without much trouble, but what for #5?  After looking up your blog for the first time and reading through the Secret #13 essay that was the top post I’m not sure what came over me (moment of motherhood insanity?). I quickly scribbled down my fifth goal, “write essay”, and slammed my planner shut.  The planner I look at every day.  And it’s been haunting me ever since.  Days have been sliding off the calendar (darn you short month of February!) and I’m glad to say most of those goals for the month, in my daily line of sight, are happening! And there sits “write essay”.

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Bravery. 

In the confines of my mind and limited experiences bravery is a word reserved for members of the armed forces and, on a smaller scale, a word I’ve commonly thrown out as a life line to my children.  Scared to try the monkey bars, scared of the spider, scared to enter the church nursery, I look in the eyes of my children and with all confidence tell them “Be brave, sweetie. You got this!” And I mean it.

But when exactly do we outgrow bravery?  I guess it’s sometime after the monkey bars and learning to ride a bike because most of us seem to do that well enough.  Maybe it gets lost somewhere in the middle school years amidst social anxieties and trying to fit in, we begin to replace bravery with a cheap second; we begin a lifetime of adjusting our expectations, avoiding the hard, the different and forging armor against vulnerability, against the grit that, I’m learning, truly makes life real, honest, beautiful.

Recently I read l book by Brene Brown called Daring Greatly and it pushed my idea of bravery far beyond that of a 5 year old on the monkey bars.  It made me assess my own propensity for bravery.  You see, life doesn’t always (ever?) turn out the way we thought it was going to when we were five.  And somehow along the way, we learn to shore ourselves up to handle reality. To soften the blow, we quickly learn the tips and tricks that make the gap between reality and expectations just a bit easier to swallow. Who needs monkey bars anyway? There are plenty of other great toys at the park, right?

Look a little closer at the world around you, at the people, the relationships and you will be amazed at the gaping hole that used to be hope and bravery.  I could argue that societally we’ve made these words too grand, too outlandish, making them unrealistic and imprudent.  But I think that it’s all just more defense.  Defense against doing, not the grandiose, but the everyday hard that we simply avoid and, in doing so, completely miss the joy of a life well lived.

I see it all around me in the big things, people who are afraid to truly reach for their dreams, scratch that, people who are too scared to even talk about their dreams, because, of course, they might fail.  Or the closet alcoholic who won’t get help because then the secret would be out and they are afraid of what everyone might think of them.  At some point it became easier to live an ugly lie or continually settle for less than to join the fight for better, to face the hard head, to live authentically. But these aren’t even the decisions that surprise me.  Settling for a life of less and avoiding bravery is so commonplace we hardly notice the slow pill we swallow on a daily basis.

It takes bravery to be a good parent.  Don’t believe me? You try telling a 2 year old no, in a grocery store, and publicly endure the fit that ensues.  Be brave, mama, it’s worth it! It takes bravery to discuss the hard stuff in a marriage and bravery to stick to vows made when richer and poorer, sickness and health were rhetoric.  Be brave, sweet bride, commitment is your legacy. It takes bravery to go to the doctor, to listen to the test results when you fear they will change the world as you know.  It takes bravery to speak truth, to pursue righteousness, to make a friend, to say good bye, to take a step, however small, toward achieving your dreams. How much are we willing to leave on the table?  At what point are we willing to fully engage, to choose authenticity over façade, a wholehearted life over an empty existence of hopes to frightening to even speak of?

The courage to be Brave is found in knowing who you are and Whose you are.  It’s found in knowing what you want and what is truly best and then making the decision, daily choices, that do not trade the good for the best.  It’s bolstered by confidence and gains traction with practice, but any way you slice it, it takes effort.  It takes intention and fight because it’s not the easy way out.  It happens on purpose.

The truth is, our need for bravery never really ends, we just get really good at ignoring it and settling for a life of less.  Life is hard and to really enjoy it, to reach for our dreams and not settle for a cheap imitation, we need, no, we must choose bravery.  That is the truth I want my kids to know, and even more, that is the truth I want my kids to see.  They may not have a mama that achieves her every dream, but they will have a mama who was brave enough to try.

Looking through this lens has changed my outlook on life.  I dare you to try it.  Keep an eye out for fear hijacking your decisions and choose instead to be brave.  This is my one small step; this is my brave.  This is my Secret 13.

 

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Want to enter for a chance to win an all-expenses paid cruise for four on the Carnival Sunshine?  In 750-1200 words, please share your own Living Well Spending Less® story. It could be a challenge you faced in your own life and the lesson you learned as you overcame it, or a personal story about how something within one of the chapters of Living Well Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life personally affected or changed you.

Next, send a copy of your essay to secret13@livingwellspendingless.com. Be sure to also include your name and blog name (if you have a blog), as well as a photo of yourself and any other photos you’d like to include.  For more details about the contest and how to enter, please check out our Secret 13 Contest Page!

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How to Deep Clean Your Fridge

Our refrigerators might possibly be the most overlooked area in our home when it comes to cleaning.  Constantly in use, this essential appliance doesn’t usually get a second thought.  Whether we just don’t think about it at all, or assume that because food is kept cold or rotated through, that the fridge stays relatively clean, the truth is that cross-contamination, spills, splashes and all sorts of disgusting things I’d rather not talk about can spread throughout the fridge in this perfect storm of moisture, food, dirty hands and frequent use.

In other words, a messy fridge is a health hazard.

But that’s not the only problem.

Believe it or not, a messy fridge is also costing you money.  When our refrigerators become so full that we can no longer find anything, we are in serious danger of wasting a lot of food, from forgotten leftovers hidden behind the milk to produce that goes bad before we remember it is there, to condiments that have been expired for years still taking up space.

And it’s not just the food waste taking a bite out of your budget.  Surprisingly, your fridge can increase your energy bill by a LOT.  Peak efficiency requires plenty of air circulation, clean coils, and clean seals that are tight and working properly. You can boost the efficiency of your fridge and lower your energy costs simply by keeping things clean.

If it’s not already, your refrigerator should definitely be added to your regular cleaning list. Your weekly fridge duties should include wiping down the surfaces, disinfecting the door handle, and carefully rotating food as it gets older to prevent spoilage. Food should be properly stored in covered, clear glass containers that can be easily identified and cleaned. Wipe off lids, put a paper towel under items that are likely to drip, and pay attention to dates and ages.

Even so, at least a few times a year, you may still need to dive in and really deep clean your refrigerator. (Dum dum dum…)  And while that may sound scary, I promise it is not as bad as it seems!  With a little prep and this easy-to-follow plan, you can get it done in less than an hour.  Here is what to do:

1. Gather your supplies

Here is what you’ll need:

Old towel for floor
Bucket with baking soda and water (2 TBSP to 1 QT water)
Paper towels or rags
Multi-purpose surface spray
Butter knife or putty knife
Trash bags
Cooler
Vacuum

2. Prepare

Be sure the fuse or circuit breaker to the outlet is turned off, then unplug the fridge. This ensures your safety any time you’re using water around appliances. You may also want to be sure that you put down a towel to protect floors from any spills (especially if you have wood flooring in the kitchen).

3. Remove food

Place items in the cooler. Check dates on everything and toss anything that’s expired. Be merciless with your purging. If it’s close to the date and your family will never use an entire bottle of pickle relish that you purchased for ONE recipe six months ago—toss it out.

4. Remove shelves and drawers

Over a towel, wipe each shelf carefully with the water/baking soda solution (it absorbs odors). For stubborn crusties, use a butter knife or putty knife to gently loosen the gunk.

5. Soak

Start shelves and drawers soaking in a sink or empty Rubbermaid bin filled with more water and baking soda. This will help to really get everything clean. While they’re soaking…

6. Wash inside of fridge

Use your spray or a cloth dipped in the cleaning solution. Thoroughly wash the built-in fixtures, the bottom of the fridge, and the nooks and crannies of the door. Be sure you get in the cracks and under the shelving. Your butter knife may come in handy again here to get in some of the cracks where crumbs and food particles tend to collect.

7. Dry inside with a cloth

Make sure the inside is fully dry and clean before replacing the shelves and bins. You should wipe each bin dry with a soft cloth or paper towel.

8. Clean the door seals/gaskets

One of the grimiest areas of the fridge is the door seals. They have little folds that can collect debris, crumbs and at the very worst, grow mildew and mold. Be sure to clean them very thoroughly and dry impeccably. This will prevent mildew and keep the seal tight and working at maximum efficiency.

 

9. Vacuum the grate/kickplate and coils

Carefully pull the fridge out from the wall and vacuum the coils to remove any dust that may have collected. Carefully remove the kickplate or grate from the bottom of the fridge as well, and do the same. Some fridges (particularly if the freezer is side-by-side or on the bottom) may have a drip tray or pan. If this is the case, remove the tray and clean as you would the shelves, then replace.

10. Replace items in the fridge

Take care to secure each lid and wipe the tops and anything sticky, before putting it back in the fridge. Put items like meat and seafood on the bottom to protect any spills from spreading. I like to put a folded paper towel in the drawers and under liquids (milk, juice) to absorb condensation and keep things extra clean. Add an open box of baking soda to absorb odors.

11. Remove frozen items

Most freezers these days don’t need a defrosting, just a simple cleaning will do. Due to the perishable nature of freezer items, you must work quickly when you organize the freezer. First, remove items and store in the cooler. Check expiration dates. Anything you don’t immediately recognize and anything with ice crystals or freezer burn on the inside (I’m looking at you, half-container of ice cream)—get rid of it! Check things that are frozen in a solid mass, such as vegetables or fruit. This is an indication that they’ve been thawed and refrozen, so they should be discarded, due to food borne-illness concerns.

12. Wipe the inside of the freezer

Wipe it all out just as you did in the fridge. This is usually a much faster job, but be sure to wipe baskets and shelving carefully.

13. Discard ice

Wash ice cube trays and replace the ice with fresh water.

14. Replace items in freezer

Organize like-items together, stack boxes and keep less-perishable items like frozen vegetables in the door. Move meats and fish to the back and on the bottom.

Taking care to organize your fridge and deep clean it every season can ensure you have plenty of extra storage space. You’ll save money because you won’t be re-buying things you didn’t realize you had buried in the back of the fridge. Plus, your fridge will work more efficiently and be more cost-effective.

Most importantly, though, having a clean fridge will help keep your family healthy and safe!

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Weekend Wandering

Happy Weekend!  We are just finishing up a week of Spring Break during which we did…..nothing in particular!  My kids were so happy just to have a break from their normal schedule, and to be able to PLAY all day!  I *might* try to muster up the motivation to go to Ikea (because let’s face it–going to Ikea is an EVENT) to get a few things for our new LWSL office, but other than that, I’ve got nothing planned besides getting caught up on some reading.  What are you up to this weekend?

Speaking of good reads, if you haven’t checked out my friend Michele Cushatt’s book Undone, which came out on Monday, it is seriously a must read. You can read a sample of the book here.

But now on to the good stuff!  Here is what I loved this week:

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First of all, this Roasted Vegetable Pizza from A Mind Full Mom looks SO good!  It would make a great vegetarian option to serve on St. Patty’s Day!

These Loaded Baked Potatoes from The Little Farm Diary would also make a great meal!

This Asparagus Goat Cheese Tart from Home Made Interest could be the perfect addition to your Easter brunch menu!

Onto some yummy sweets…this Chocolate Mint Cupcake Recipe from Saving the Family Money combine my two favorite flavors!

These Chocolate Guinness Baked Donuts with Baileys Glaze from The Frugal Navy Wife sound absolutely heavenly!

This Irish Cream Soda from Wheel-n-Deal Mama would be a fun festive drink for the kids!

These semi-homemade Carrot Cake Pudding Cups from The Seasoned Mom come together in minutes and and would be a fun way to usher in Spring!

This Hint of Mint Lemonade from Mommy Maleta sounds so refreshing!

This Free St. Patrick’s Day Bag Topper Printable from Frugal Coupon Living is an easy way to make a FUN treat bag!

These Painted Jars for Spring from Meatloaf and Melodrama are a great way to up-cycle some old glass jars and add a splash of color to any room!

This DIY Spring Tulip Wreath From The Family With Love is beautiful & comes together in an afternoon!

Saving money is always in season. Earning & Saving With Sarah Fuller shares 10 Ways to Save Money This Spring. We’ve been working hard on tips 1 & 2!

Financially Wise on Heels shares 5 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Monthly Expenses. Tip number 3 can  save you some serious cash!

These 7 Ways to Save Money on Easter Baskets from Krystal’s Kitsch are easy & practical!

Finally, Shortcut Saver shares 8 Ways to Save Money & Energy During Daylight Saving Time. Number six might be pretty difficult for me!

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What did you love this week?

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How to Think Like a Millionaire

This is a guest post from Kalyn Brooke of Creative Savings

Rich people stay rich by living like they’re broke; broke people stay broke by living like they’re rich.” – Anonymous

While I’m nowhere near millionaire status, I am always inspired by the stories of ordinary people who manage to work their way into a wealthy lifestyle. Some of them are small business owners, others are company CEO’s, but the one thing they all have in common is the millionaire mindset when it comes to managing their money.

Real millionaires–the ones who have earned it through hard work and determination–don’t spend their money on unnecessary things. They drive average cars, wear average clothes, and look for deals sometimes more than the rest of us. They are rich, instead of just looking rich, and keep more of their money in the bank rather than squandering it on flashy material things that have no real value. They’re smart, intentional, and a huge example to those of us who live on a much smaller income!

But instead of being jealous or envious of their wealth, we need to adopt their mindset as our own, and learn what we can from their success. Because the reality is, if you can manage the money you have right now well, you’ll be in a much better position when you are blessed with more.

Changing the way you think is the first place to start.  Here are five ways to start thinking like a millionaire:

Have a Goal in Mind

Having a goal means you have motivation and meaning for your money. You’re not just saving because it’s the right thing to do — you’re saving for retirement, a newer car, a down payment on a house, or that trip you’ve always want to take. Millionaires have goals too, and this is what keeps them from spending frivolously on things that won’t help them get there.

I’m sure you’ve heard those horror stories of professional athletes who sign million-dollar contracts, then are somehow broke after they retire. It’s because they didn’t learn to manage their money well during their peak playing years, nor did they have a specific goal in mind for when they finished.

Think about where you want to be in 20-30 years. Do you want to be out of debt? Fund a retirement account? Pay for your children’s college education? You need to have goals so every action that you take today, is one that brings you closer to them. 

Think Before You Spend

Thinking before you spend is critical to a millionaire mindset. Of course, there are plenty of celebrity millionaires who blow their fortunes on private jets, island mansions, and excessive weddings, but the true millionaires, the ones that manage their money well, are always thinking about the implication each purchase has on their overall finances.

When considering any purchase {big or small!}, ask yourself these 3 questions:

Do I really need this?
Can I borrow this item from someone else?
Can I find it for less elsewhere?

I have gotten myself into more trouble because I swiped a credit card without thinking, when I really should have done my homework and scouted out other alternatives first. Patience is key!

Don’t Be Wasteful

Always, always, always be thinking about how you can use old items in new ways. We throw away more food, more paper, and more perfectly usable items than necessary, and while I’m not advocating at all for clutter, you should consider if the item has any repurposing value at all before you toss it.

Here are some ideas:

Pair different pieces of clothing together to make new outfits
Shop from your pantry and bring new life to leftovers
Pass along older magazines to friends who might enjoy them
Turn shipping or shoe boxes into organizing containers for storage
Recycle junk envelopes and notecards into scrap paper
Give away items you don’t use anymore to a local thrift store {just make sure everything is in good condition!}

Smart millionaires are resourceful and “make do” with what they have, because they know that saving money on these seemingly smaller items, will allow them to spend their hard-earned dollars on more important things.

Never Stop Learning

Millionaires are always learning about something new — whether it’s how to manage their wealth or increase it. I honestly believe that when you stop learning, you stop living. Life should be an education in itself.

While you don’t have to immerse yourself in the latest investment manual {that sounds incredibly boring to me too!}, you should be learning about money fairly regularly, especially if you want to be smart with it.

Some of my favorite money saving blogs are:

Ruth’s, of course!
Money Saving Mom
Our Freaking Budget
The Frugal Girl
and shameless plug, Creative Savings

If you’re looking to dive into a few books, here is what I would recommend you start with:

Living Well Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life
The Money Saving Mom’s Budget
The Smart Woman’s Guide to Planning for Retirement


Believe in Your Success

Lastly, and probably the most important point to remember, is that millionaires believe they will be successful. It can take a long time to make {and save!} the money needed to establish an emergency fund, pay off all debt, fully fund a retirement account, and invest in other valuable assets, but it’s possible — for all of us.

Be confident in your financial situation, no matter how big or small. Find those opportunities to save, and focus on spending smart. Believe you will make it, then work hard on getting there!

These 5 steps might not launch you or I into a million bucks right away, but they will help us start acting like one. Because half the battle of being frugal is thinking like you are frugal. And frugal living is a lifestyle and a mindset more than anything else.

 

Kalyn Brooke is a full-time writer and blogger at CreativeSavingsBlog.com, where she gives a fresh perspective on frugal living, and the kick-in-the-pants you need to create a budget from scratch. She lives in beautiful Southwest Florida with her news-photographer husband and the most adorable bunny you’ve ever seen. She loves making to-do-lists, reading good books, eating chocolate peanut butter ice cream, and pursuing big big dreams… all carefully planned out, of course. 

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Thrifty Thursday {Week 100}

Happy Thursday, and Happy Week 100!  Wow–what a milestone for this little weekly link party of ours!

I know you guys have already heard me mention that the spring session of Elite Blog Academy  will be opening in just a few weeks, on April 14th, but today I have some even MORE exciting news!  We are giving away SIX full scholarships to our spring class, which means you might have a chance to attend for FREE!  You can enter to win HERE. (Don’t worry–you only have to enter once to be entered into all six drawings!)

In other news, our Secret 13 Essay Contest finalist this week was Missy. You can read her journey here.  There are only 3 days left to submit your essay for a chance to win an all expenses paid cruise for four on the Carnival Sunshine, so be sure to check out all the details HERE!

Here are the most clicked links from last week:

1. A Cultivated Nest  { 10 Simple Ways to Live on Less }
2. Always Learning { Living on Rice and Beans }

3. Graceful Little Honey Bee { 8 Lessons Learned From the Great Depression }

4. Family Balance Sheet {Meet Maureen: She Paid Off $79,540 in Debt}

5. Practical Stewardship {Weekly Grocery Spending Snapshot}

6. Frugally Blonde {What to Buy in March}

7. Bootleggers Mercantile {Surviving on a $175 Grocery Budget a Month}
8. Laura Sue Shaw {How to Increase Focus and Get More Done}
9. My Stay at Home Adventures {15 Ways to Have a Financially Successful Spring}
10. A Debt Free Stress Free Life {My Debt Free Journey: We Quit Credit Cards}
 
Never linked up before? Here’s how:

Scroll down, find the little blue “Add your Link” Button and click on that.
Follow the instructions on the next page – add a great image of your project and an interesting title. Make sure you link to the direct page of your budget friendly post – not the main page of your blog!
Try to visit at least a few other blogs at the party. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by!
Please link back to this post somehow. There are badges available here; a simple text link is just fine too.

Feel free to tweet about Thrifty Thursday so others can join the fun, and don’t forget to check back here Sunday morning to see which posts have been featured this week at Weekend Wandering!

If this is your first time here I also invite you to check out my blogging guide, How to Blog for Profit (Without Selling Your Soul).  It is a fantastic resource if you are interested in building your blog, getting more traffic, or learning how to monetize!  Or, if you have read the book and are still looking to take your blog to the next level, I encourage you to check out Elite Blog Academy.

An InLinkz Link-up

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