tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64217617181968419522024-03-14T02:34:26.016-07:00Poverty Luxe.Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.comBlogger366125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-55420122273599361442016-10-10T21:16:00.000-07:002016-10-10T21:53:38.175-07:00hello 27 (goodbye poverty luxe.)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">assuming you have fast enough internet that the picture loaded before the words (is slow internet still a thing?), youre probably like, "WHAT THE HELL, VICTORIA?!?!", but just in case it didnt, im going to type it right here: tonight, on the eve of my twenty seventh birthday, im ending my "career" as a blogger here on poverty luxe. i know this may come as a shock to the approximately three people that still read here, especially since my last few sporadic posts made sure to include something about "definitely wanting to continue blogging", but... for me, right now, it feels like the natural next step given whats been going on lately. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and i couldnt possibly pick a more perfect time to do it than my last night of being 26. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i started 26 at by far the lowest low that id ever seen. thankfully i didnt stay there, but obviously in order for that to happen there needed to be a considerable amount of growth and change. which there was, and im both incredibly proud and incredibly grateful for all the ways ive changed this year and all the things weve accomplished. 26 started off terrible but ive been joking for a while (mainly to myself because i dont have any friends) that 26 was the year that all my dreams came true: i bought an actual car, found (and worked) my dream job, finally got my teenage crush to pay attention to me (in real life!), and (just last month) moved into a not-terrible apartment with TWO BEDROOMS. meaning, the kids can go to sleep and james can watch tv (because we have one now) and i can do whatever i want and NOBODY IS BOTHERING ANYBODY. its amazing. life isnt perfect, and it never will be, but 26 is one of those years that was definitely full in a good way. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but ive also changed a lot. im not who i was a year ago and im DEFINITELY not who i was when i started this blog three and a half years ago: when i started this blog, i was in a really bad place, and i needed an outlet to be creative and to distract me from how miserable i was with everything that was going on in my life at the time. blogging gave me a place to pretend that i had it all together and for a while it really did help me to feel happier. but it wasnt <i>real </i>happiness so much as it was the <i>illusion </i>of happiness, and what i didnt realize (until just a couple days ago when i was wrestling with how and when i was going to write this post) was that because i spent so much time on crafting the <i>illusion </i>of happiness, i had tricked myself into thinking that i was actually <i>working </i>on making myself happier. but i wasnt. happiness (for me) doesnt come from the things i do online, whether its sharing a craft or a recipe or a listicle about minimalism, it comes from the things im actually doing in actual real life, and i can honestly say, that this year of not really blogging anymore has been one of the happiest of my entire life. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">theres also the branding issue. branding in the blogging world is a really tricky thing, and, not that i did a <i>great </i>job at branding poverty luxe, its still a pretty specific brand with a pretty specific connotation. and its a brand that im just not sure i identify with anymore. i mean, we dont have that much money than we did when i started this whole thing, but im not letting that define us and our lifestyle anymore. any time ive had an idea for new content lately ive had to <i>really </i>stretch myself to make it fit into the poverty luxe brand and by time i can make it work im over it. so i was left with two choices: i could rebrand this site, or i could start fresh somewhere new. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">which brings us to my last point: my personal/career goals have changed so much, that maintaining a lifestyle blog of crafts and recipes and listicles about minimalism just isnt a productive use of my time and energy. the older i get and the closer i get to graduating and the more i get to do my weird little jobs in the creative sphere the more i realize that my original intention of having a million babies and staying home with an etsy shop or something just isnt where my life is headed. it turns out that freelance teaching/pattern making is a way more viable path for us, given my recently discovered need to be not at home sometimes and my not so recently discovered but recently begrudgingly accepted as not ever going away expensive tastes. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">even though i really feel like my time as a blogger is over (and i genuinely do feel really good about this decision), i am definitely too much of a self absorbed insecure millennial to not maintain an internet presence (also theres that aspiring freelancer thing), so if you want to stay in touch, there are a few options for you: 1. <a href="http://instagram.com/victoriaannmeyers">instagram</a> is basically like a blog anyway that i just happen to update a lot more frequently, 2. <a href="http://twitter.com/wifeofmeyers">twitter</a> is where i say a lot of hilarious things mostly about my kids, and 3. you are always more than welcome to send me an email (wifeofmeyers@gmail.com). also, ill probably have a new, not-branded website up soon thats a bit more relevant to the direction ive been heading in, which will be announced on social media when that happens. also, because i really do genuinely enjoy writing im probably going to actually start working on that memoir i was going to write when i was 19 and then forgot about until my internet friend carrie anne tweeted about writing a memoir (why did i think i could write a memoir at 19? <i>youll see when you read the memoir</i>). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as for the content here, im probably going to stop renewing my domain name but leave the old posts up since it seems like a lot of people need help making fitted sheets (thats one of the few posts that still gets traffic). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and before i close the chapter of my life that revolved around this little blog, and move on to whats next, i just want to say thank you to the internet for being so kind and letting me do my thing here and being mostly supportive and not starting a GOMI thread about me. youre the best, internet. </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-17285557334652797092016-08-28T21:07:00.000-07:002016-08-28T21:11:26.730-07:00embroideries and epiphanies.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a few semesters ago i took a fashion illustration class from the most wonderfully insane woman who really pushed me out of my comfort zone as an artist and was unbelievably encouraging the entire semester, despite the fact that my drawings are mediocre at best. any time my drawings got wonky with messed up proportions or hideous faces (im the worst at faces. i wont draw figures with faces anymore) she would always say i was "in transition". by that she meant that in order for me to move forward with my drawing skills, things were going to get awkward and my drawings were going to get worse before they got better. i always <i>hated </i>when shed point out that my drawings were "in transition", but she was right, the transitions were necessary in order for my drawings to improve. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">long story short, this all happened about two years ago and i havent done much drawing since, but it recently hit me that what miss baizer said about drawing was true about real life too: everything is in a constant state of transition and those transitions are messy, but things do get better over time. and my response to what ms baizer said about drawings is still true in regards to real life: <b>i <i>hate </i>transitions. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">im a very black and white person, i want things to be here OR there, not somewhere in between, and, well, ive spent a lot of the past few years living in the "in between", and well, ive always hated it. i hated being engaged, i hated being pregnant, ive hated every time weve been between jobs or houses or there was any kind of unknown going on around us. i feel like most people are really into the thrill of the anticipation and i am just <i>not</i>. in all honesty, it just stresses me out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i used to think this meant that something was wrong with me and that i was a miserable unhappy person that would never be satisfied with anything in life, but then i had a major epiphany: <b>different people thrive in different environments. </b>i thrive in routine, predictability, stability, and well, thats just not the life ive had lately. <i>and thats totally ok. </i><b>its ok that these last few years have been hard for me because theyve been chock full of big transitions and i do <i>not </i>do well with transitions. </b>(that was bolded mainly for me)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and even though im not a fan of prolonged transitional phases, a lot of ours are coming to an end: mainly, i graduate next may and james should have a year or less before he journeys out of his apprenticeship. so everythings going to be ok. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i want to say i had that breakthrough a month or so ago and since then, ive been on a roll with epiphany after epiphany and since this recent outpouring of clarity is going to (probably drastically) change what happens here on the blog, i thought id take some time to let them all out at once (instead of dragging them all out or having to explain myself overtime something changes. also, yes i realize its been forever since i posted last, ill get to that later). so here we go: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1. my "public persona" and "blogging voice" are <i>so </i>not who i really am. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">im not exactly sure how it happened (and how it happened isnt really important anymore), but ive spent the past few years trying to be the kind of person i thought i was "supposed" to be, the kind of person that other people would like since i didnt have any friends. what that meant was that in an attempt to gloss over all my flaws and the serious trials i was going through, i created this laid-back, easygoing, overly cheerful persona that is just so <i>not </i>me. of course this totally backfired because since i wasnt ever really honest with anyone, i still had a hard time making friends, and it got to the point where i wasnt really sure what <i>i </i>was even actually like anymore. so now im working on <i>not </i>doing that, and while its a been a challenge, i feel like its a step in the right direction. </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2. i want to keep blogging but i <i>hate </i>what the blogging scene has become. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">all this time ive been not-blogging ive been thinking about blogging, i swear. but i havent been able to actually start typing because... well... i am just OVER the blogging "scene". im sick of this whole "brand yourself as an expert in your niche" thing (which i totally fell for and started writing posts that i totally hate because branding), and the way that blogs now are just fronts to get emails to promote webinars to sell courses that cost WAY too much money. im sorry if ive offended anyone but thats what the majority of lifestyle blogging has become, and im over here just wanting to write blog posts...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3. i HAVE to stop being so afraid of everything. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i have a <i>really </i>bad habit of not even trying things <i>just in case i might fail. </i>for example: you may or may not know that i majored in fine arts in college. i spent FOUR YEARS making art in a fairly serious manner. i have shared approximately none of it. why? because i was afraid to. i dont know exactly <i>what </i>i was afraid of but i have portfolio after portfolio of art that i never showed anyone, and because i never did i never got any feedback and because i never got any feedback i assumed i was terrible and eventually just quit making art together. well in an effort to be more "me" i bought some embroidery supplies last week to make some embroideries because i <i>freaking love doing embroidery. </i>even though i was super excited to start this project it took me DAYS to share my first piece on instagram because i was so self-consious about it (like, i was finishing up the third one and still hadnt posted the first). you know what happened after i posted it? i got a ton of really nice and encouraging comments from not just my friends, <i>but also from the person who wrote the song it was based on. </i>obviously that made my day and i had a super nerd freak out about it, but also <i>i realized how stupid it was that i never show off the things i make. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">what does this all add up to? i dont know, honestly. so far i know it means that im <i>definitely </i>ditching all the things ive been doing that just arent <i>me</i> and trying not to be afraid of failing at that. which is... a lot easier said than done...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so yeah... that was a lot of navel gazing and i applaud anyone that made it all the way down here to the bottom, i know it sucked but i really feel like i needed to get all this out of the way if i want to write any actual blog posts anytime soon. so thanks for sticking things out with my most vulnerable blog post yet!</span></div>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-29384802198536625782016-04-30T07:54:00.000-07:002016-04-30T07:54:09.364-07:00mothers day with the akola project. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we all want to treat our moms to something special for mothers day, dont we? well what if by treating <i>our </i>moms to a little gift could do big things for other moms around the world? how great would that be? pretty great, right? </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with the <a href="http://akolaproject.org/">akola project</a>, you can do exactly that. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">every piece of akola jewelry is beautifully handcrafted in uganda from local materials by women who live in rural poverty and have never been educated. akola not only employs these women, giving them the means to provide for and educate their children, but they also provide holistic education programs and vocational training to these women to empower them to become business owners and leaders in their communities. the akola project is a nonprofit whos model goes beyond merely providing aid to bring lasting, sustainable income for the over 400 women they employ both in uganda as well as dallas. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">akola jewelry not only does amazing things for the women who make it, its also beautiful, versatile, and amazing quality. akola has four different lines that feature different locally produced materials: paper, glass, metal, and horn. akola was kind enough to send me the <a href="http://akolaproject.org/collections/all-products/products/vela">vela necklace</a> in onyx, which i wear nearly every day. this necklace has a mixture of hand rolled paper beads and small metal beads, and because of its extra-long length, it is incredibly versatile: i can wear it as a long necklace (as i styled it on <a href="http://instagram.com/povertyluxe">instagram</a>), doubled as a short necklace (as ive styled it here), or wrapped several times around my wrist as a bracelet. its the perfect accessory piece for my minimal wardrobe. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if you want to gift your mom with some amazing akola jewelry (which.... um... i may have gotten for both mine and jamess moms, but... shhhh... dont tell), order quickly because their last day for guaranteed delivery in time for mothers day is this coming tuesday! and be sure to use the code MEYERS30 for 30% off your entire order!</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">one of my favorite things about akola jewelry is how with all their different collections, they really do have something for everyone. what's your favorite akola style? what are you getting your mom for mothers day? </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-15894038173405692112016-04-27T21:23:00.000-07:002016-04-27T21:23:09.068-07:00on disappearing again (hashtag sorry not sorry)<center style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">im just going to start this post address the elephant in the room: yes, i posted five days a week in january and havent been back since early february. no, i am not sorry about it at all. also, yes i did just post a post with no image or tags like some kind of blogging noob. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i just wanted to come back and say that no, i did not quit blogging, its just that theres been a lot going on here and ive been really overwhelmed so blogging hasnt been a priority. and thats ok with me. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">january was really awesome blog-wise, i got into a really good writing routine, put out posts that i was really proud of, and felt really good about how much i was able to build my brand online working around 10 hours a week. i was able to write posts ahead of time, actually think about how i was marketing them, and even started on working on what the blogging circle calls "content upgrades" (and by that i mean like, printable recipes, patterns, and checklists). BUT i need to be really real here: </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this blog doesnt make us any money. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it by all means <i>can, </i>and im absolutely working toward being a professional internet person someday that makes real money at the internet. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but were at a stage of life where i need to be bringing in an <i>actual </i>income, a real life direct-deposited every two weeks enough to pay some of the bills income. not a hypothetical potential maybe a few bucks here and there every few weeks after the affiliate commissions clear income. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i mean, weve got two little kids, jamess job just isnt all that consistent during the school year and ive still got two more semesters of school (after i finish this one). our financial situation really isnt all that <i>bad </i>(actually for us were doing pretty well right now), BUT things (especially school and the car we just bought) cost money, and me just staying home isnt working anymore. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so i got a job. a real life paycheck getting taxes paying not minimum grown up job with a commute and a title that actually uses the things i learned in college job. its only one (partial) day a week, but theres a fair amount of prep and research involved and the drive is the most RIDICULOUS la drive ever (its 17 miles but takes over an hour to get home). even though its challenging, i do really enjoy my new job. BUT the few hours a week that it takes up basically eat up any free time id have available for blogging. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and with school, a husband, two kids, our house, and myself to take care of, i just cant sustain another <i>thing. </i>i mean, maybe i <i>could. </i>if i was more energetic or more dedicated and spent all my kids nap times blogging or put on a movie every day to get some work done or something, but i really dont want to be <i>working </i>all the time. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i want to be able to relax and enjoy being a mom on the days im home and only worry about work when im getting ready for/at work or school. mainly, i dont want to burn myself out the way i have a tendency of doing, i want to still <i>like </i>blogging when im ready to go at it full force again, unlike knitting which i forced myself to still do while teaching knitting at joanns and now i hate knitting. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so long story short, blogging isnt a <i>priority </i>right now. thats not saying that im <i>done </i>blogging, i just cant pressure myself with schedules and content calendars right now. honestly im getting really tired of <i>not </i>blogging, so until things settle down enough for me to re-launch a less overwhelming content schedule (im currently thinking something like, three posts a week on a rotation of six topics...), im just going to post whatever i feel like whenever is convenient for me. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">since its been a while, whats going on with you? </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-42510553128520155662016-02-01T03:00:00.000-08:002016-02-01T03:00:06.134-08:00january happenings. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hey there, happy february! ive heard a lot of people refer to january as "the monday of months", and i cant quite argue with that. we made it through january and are very much IN 2016 (and hopefully <i>not </i>still writing 2015 on all our checks... ahem). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">anyway... as part of 2016s fresh starts, i decided to do this blogging thing a little bit differently: i printed out editorial calendars for the <i>entire year </i>and am planning posts and series <i>way </i>in advance. im also batching my work as much as i can, doing all the writing or photos or scheduling for a group of posts all at the same time. i really like doing things this way for a few reasons: 1. i can be more intentional in my post planning, keeping things seasonally appropriate and not missing out on key holidays (which ive never, really been good at before), 2. i can put together better and more cohesive post <i>series </i>by planning them out all at once, and 3. i can work ahead of myself so i can do things like finish all of januarys blog work an entire week early (just in time to have a really bad health week right when school starts, as per usual so, actually, im not ahead anymore). to be completely honest, id <i>love </i>to perfect this system to have blog posts done like a <i>month </i>(or more!) in advance so i can do better DIY projects and such. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">but theres one big downside here: working this way means theres not a <i>ton </i>of room for like, normal daily life kind of stuff. I'm sure there will be more in the future as i find the right balance here, but for now i figured ill keep up with my old "monthly update" posts as the first post of every month (as opposed to the first monday, as i was doing before). since i dont have big yearly goals to "check in" on every month, im changing the format a bit: instead of a long ramble about life lately followed by a recap of that months goal progress, im going to steal a little something from my friend carrie annes "snapshot" series, and just pop in with a quick list of whats been happening here lately. (aside from this new way ive been writing blog posts)</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so without any further ado, here are januarys happenings: </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>benedict turned 6 months old and has all kinds of new tricks! </b>he can sit up and clap and sometimes it seems like he's waving! also, we got our health insurance situation sorted out enough to <i>finally </i>take benny to the doctor. the little guy is perfectly healthy and measures at 50th percentile for weight, 80th for height, and... 99th for head size. so, yeah, no surprises there. also he got shots which resulted in one day of great naps followed by at least a week of terrible naps. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>our car situation is turning out totally ok! </b>first of all, jamess mom is letting us borrow her super fancy lexus hybrid, which is great because: 1. we were only completely without a car for like, three days, 2. i was able to find out first hand that i do <i>not </i>want to actually <i>own </i>a fancy robot car from the future (though the heated seats... im going to miss those), and 3. weve totally been able to thoroughly research what we want to do/can afford car-wise in the long term and not just jump on the first/cheapest thing available. researching cars/loans/insurance/etc. was <i>not </i>fun, <i>but </i>it was a valuable learning experience that will hopefully be over very soon. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>james worked for 4 straight weeks! </b>at any other time of the year this would just be a refreshing change, but to happen in january! what an exciting surprise! its the middle of winter, but all the bills are paid and were all stocked up on buying stuff like its the middle of summer or something!</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>im mostly getting back into my normal routines for the first time since getting pregnant! </b>having really solid routines for chores and errands and meal planning is what gives me the framework and stability to be an actually-pretty-ok mom and not just a wallowing-in-being-overwhelmed-all-the-time mom. unfortunately, i had at least a year where i just <i>could not </i>make it happen. this month, i made it happen. pretty perfectly i might add (for the first three weeks, last week i got sick though so im not going to count that because chore lists dont count when youre barfing). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>were introducing the concept of chore charts to alice with very mixed results! </b>alice is very much to the age where she needs to start helping around the house on a consistent basis. she wants to help, to do what i do. so far weve figured out that shes totally capable of doing easy chores (with supervision), and is easily motivated by checking off the boxes on her chart. the thing is shes <i>smart. </i>so shes been finding every possible loophole in every chart system we devise for her. including, <i>i am literally not making this up, </i>filling in the box where a sticker would go for doing a chore with a drawing she described as "me crying because im sad that i didnt get to watch a movie because i only got two points". yeah... i dont even know how to turn that back into a lesson about chores...</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>i kind of have a job right now and its really cool! </b>its not like, a <i>job </i>job but im helping my friend (a drama teacher) with the costumes for her schools jr high play. basically, <i>im getting paid to do crafts with materials that somebody else payed for. </i>also, this is probably the first time <i>ever </i>ive used any of my actual formal education in an employment situation. there really is a first time for everything! </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>my school schedule is really great this semester! </b>instead of going to class two or three different days every week, i only go on fridays (for most of the day) and then monday nights (but only today and four more times). so like, i actually have free time sometimes!</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>im super, super excited to do our taxes! </b>i look forward to doing our taxes every year because thats like, the one time ever i feel like im really good at adult things. we need one (possibly two) more papers to come in the mail and then were good to go. and after taxes we can go buy that car we need to buy...</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>unfortunately, we did have to say one last goodbye to our beloved disneyland goats. </b>thats pretty much our one really big bummer for last month: thanks to stupid star wars land there are no longer goats to pet at big thunder ranch because big thunder ranch is no longer a thing. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">over all, january was pretty great. exhausting, but really productive and definitely what we needed after our doozy of a december. so hello february, lets do this! (and by this i mostly mean taxes because i just really want to do taxes). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">how was your january? what are your big plans for february? </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-89637070477049517162016-01-29T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-29T03:00:03.665-08:00the poverty luxe kitchen vol. 26: leftover fried rice. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">here in the meyers house we eat a lot of white rice. partially because its cheap as heck and goes great with things like salmon, curry lentils, and cajun red beans, and partially because im asian and freaking love white rice (no, im not making this up, my dad is literally filipino). the thing with rice though is that its really hard to correctly guess how much of it were actually going to eat. since rice takes a long time to cook i always end up making extra just in case and then we end up with <i>way too much rice. </i></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and well... leftover rice is kind of a difficult thing to deal with when you dont have a microwave or rice cooker for reheating it. for a long time all our leftover rice used to languish in the back of the fridge getting drier and drier until either i cleaned out the fridge or needed the container it was in and threw it away. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">recently i remembered my mom saying that cold, leftover rice was the perfect start for making fried rice. on that particular day we happened to <i>have </i>some leftover rice, so i threw some things together to try it out, and... it was great! not only was it a quick, tasty, and reasonably healthy lunch, but it totally helped us up all kinds of bits of leftovers. once i perfected the right recipe, i made a habit of always making extra, <i>extra </i>rice so i can make this for lunch the next day. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>leftover fried rice. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(serves two)</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>heres what you need: </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 cups cold, leftover rice</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 carrot</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 rib of celery</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 of an onion</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup shredded cabbage</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2-3 cloves garlic</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 egg</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 tablespoons soy/tamari sauce</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">olive oil</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>heres what you do: </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">finely chop all of the vegetables and heat a small amount of olive oil in a very large pan. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sauté veggies in over high heat until fully cooked (approx 7-10 minutes). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">add rice and continue to cook, stirring constantly (making sure to break up any large chunks of rice) until all of the rice is hot. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">scoot the rice away from the center of the pan toward the edges, forming a "well" in the center of the pan. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">crack the egg into that well, scrambling it well and quickly stirring it into the rice and veggies as it cooks. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">continue to stir until eggs are completely cooked and toss with soy/tamari sauce. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*note: one REALLY great thing about this recipe is that its SO easy to scale up! if you have more rice, just add another egg and some more veggies and make as much as you want</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this fried rice is a super tasty way to use up leftovers that would otherwise be thrown away, whats your favorite way to repurpose leftovers? </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-63664973474782229362016-01-28T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-28T03:00:24.526-08:00tips for making a meal plan that doesnt suck. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9aP7IkqIq6uUMatuSDbODtL0YCktIL336ffG0jyUv4G92oCucViX0c4I3a9kQp4QKYFOUoC4VJgVZLGZkBLwODkx6zQElkP2Zj4XWB_lTsz7Yk1fG_4dXdHoUZyBI5n0t6FJjiXb4FG7/s1600/image-74.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9aP7IkqIq6uUMatuSDbODtL0YCktIL336ffG0jyUv4G92oCucViX0c4I3a9kQp4QKYFOUoC4VJgVZLGZkBLwODkx6zQElkP2Zj4XWB_lTsz7Yk1fG_4dXdHoUZyBI5n0t6FJjiXb4FG7/s640/image-74.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">obviously, I'm a huge advocate for meal planning. it has a lot of huge benefits (saves time, money, stress <i>and </i>encourages healthier eating habits when done right) with a minimal time investment (i do mine in about ten minutes every wednesday morning). but the big potential downside with meal planning (well, any planning, really), is that if your plan sucks... the whole week sucks. you might end up eating too much of the same thing, spending too much time in the kitchen, eating meals no one really likes, or ending up with a ton of uneaten food. be been fine-tuning our meal planning system for a few years now and i can tell you that <i>all </i>of those situations have happened here at one point or another. but to save <i>you </i>from meeting the same fate, here are a few helpful hints for making a meal plan that <i>wont </i>suck: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>account for the nights you arent eating at home. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i feel like i shouldnt have to say this, but dont make a five or seven night meal plan if you know youre only going to be eating dinner three or four nights that week. this will save you a lot of time and money and wasted groceries. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>dont repeat meals in the same week. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">some meals i make (like <a href="http://www.povertyluxe.com/2015/05/the-poverty-luxe-kitchen-vol-9-curry.html">curry lentils</a> or <a href="http://www.povertyluxe.com/2015/02/the-poverty-luxe-kitchen-vol-3-vegan.html">black bean chili</a>), are HUGE and feed us multiple times. to keep us from getting bored/sick of eating the same thing, i only serve that meal once the week i make it, freeze the rest in one-meal portions, and only pull them out once each week until they run out. added bonus: most weeks my meal plan is halfway done from freezer meals!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>if you do freezer meals, balance what you put in and take out. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">unless you have like, the worlds biggest freezer and dont mind eating food thats been frozen for three years, dont put more meals in the freezer than youre taking out on a weekly basis. this is just basic math. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>plan for a "treat" meal in every week. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ok, i know <i>typically </i>the whole <i>point </i>of meal planning is to eat healthier/save money/save time/whatever and thats great and all, but pushing too hard for any one of those things gets old <i>fast. </i>so plan on one dinner each week being something <i>good, </i>even if its not the healthiest/cheapest/fastest thing there is. we typically eat <i>really </i>cheap and healthy, but every week i make sure we have something really nice like <a href="http://www.povertyluxe.com/2015/05/the-poverty-luxe-kitchen-vol-6-pesto.html">salmon</a> (or in n out, if theres room in the budget...). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>balance labor intensive meals with easy ones. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ill be honest: no matter how much i <i>like </i>cooking (which is more and more the older i get and more i learn to make), i <i>do not </i>like slaving over an elaborate meal (and the corresponding elaborate mess) every single day. so for every big, messy dinner like <a href="http://www.povertyluxe.com/2015/06/the-poverty-luxe-kitchen-vol-12.html">shepherds pie</a> or <a href="http://www.povertyluxe.com/2015/08/the-poverty-luxe-kitchen-vol-21-gluten.html">mac and cheese</a>, theres a meal that gets pulled <i>directly </i>from the freezer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>get the whole family involved. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">even though the meal planning/grocery shopping/cooking is more or less <i>my </i>job, im only 1/3 of the people in this family that need to eat. so im always asking james and alice their thoughts on what were eating, what they like/dont like, and what sorts of new or different recipes they want to try. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>plan for "leftover night" if necessary. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">we dont end up with a lot of leftovers, and when we do, i typically eat them for lunch since im home all day. BUT if leftovers ever <i>are</i> an issue, we do what i like to call a "leftover extravaganza" and kill two birds with one stone: leftovers get used up and thats one less meal to shop/cook for. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>keep to one "new" meal per week. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a great way to drive yourself (and your family) insane and spend all your money ever on groceries is to make your entire meal plan of new recipes that youve never made before. trying new recipes is an <i>awesome </i>thing to do (saying this mainly to myself because i really need to do it more), but they can use a lot of new ingredients and dont always turn out (or maybe you/your family just dont like them). so just to play it safe i recommend sticking to a once-a-week rule with new recipes: the worst case scenario is that youll have one lame night the whole week, but the best case scenario is that <i>every week </i>has an exciting new dinner. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>keep it quick, simple, and flexible. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">contrary to what pinterest may have you believe, meal planning should <i>not </i>involve complicated calendars or spreadsheets or eight hour days in the kitchen (unless youre into those kinds of things, then i guess go for it). heck, i dont even assign specific days for the meals on my plan. meal planning is <i>supposed </i>to make your life easier. if its not, then theres absolutely no shame in trying something else. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">when done wrong, meal planning can be a total drag (i have <i>very </i>un-fond memories of a few times my mom tried to do the "month of freezer meals in one day" thing...), but by keeping a few things in mind, you can totally put together a plan that makes everyone happy. </span></div>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-76723514064034211562016-01-27T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-27T03:00:06.826-08:0010 ways to declutter in five minutes or less. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOFPdKOAHQuehzfKwtphQAQ04Pe8DgYEj6udDLUt7UjQhHSXwN8Lq5hF34w8_FdGCOL6sNWXao7zPbzAvG9Z1aSidZgiDKTTwHnwIj4UbNZgz_t8j-UUsFrxnnaaIUY8q85omRfLng7JF/s1600/image-69.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOFPdKOAHQuehzfKwtphQAQ04Pe8DgYEj6udDLUt7UjQhHSXwN8Lq5hF34w8_FdGCOL6sNWXao7zPbzAvG9Z1aSidZgiDKTTwHnwIj4UbNZgz_t8j-UUsFrxnnaaIUY8q85omRfLng7JF/s640/image-69.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one of the reasons it took us so unnecessarily long to get onto the minimalism wagon is that i thought we just didnt have the <i>time </i>to do it. i thought the only way to <i>really </i>clear out our home was to do a giant, sweeping purge of the whole hose all at once which was obviously so overwhelming and terrifying so i never bothered to do it. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">well, these days im a lot older and wiser and more experienced in the field of decluttering. and one of the most important lessons ive learned through this whole thing is that you totally <i>can </i>make a huge difference in a small amount of time (especially if youre consistent about it). in fact, small, frequent purges are probably <i>more </i>effective than big drastic ones because they make decluttering a <i>habit, </i>rather than a single event. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and it really doesnt have to take much time at all. i mean, there are tons of ways to take baby steps toward simplifying your life that take literally less than five minutes. and we all have five minutes, right? </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in five minutes you could: </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>clean off one shelf. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>clean out one drawer. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>unsubscribe from 10 email lists. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>unfollow 10 social media accounts. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>set a timer and delete files from your phone of computer. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>toss expired foods/medicines. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>fill up one box/bag of junk. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>throw out old mail. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>toss empty/unsued bath + body products. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>clean out your purse/wallet/planner. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">see, these small steps are totally fast and easy (and i made sure to include some that help combat the <a href="http://www.povertyluxe.com/2016/01/other-kinds-of-clutter-why-they-matter.html">"other" kinds of clutter</a> that are just as problematic as junk) . while they may not seem like they accomplished a whole lot at first, over time enough baby steps will start to turn into big changes. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">how do you like to do some quick decluttering? </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-17665215074061324862016-01-26T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-26T03:00:09.805-08:007 surprising things that have totally saved us money. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ok, i want to be completely honest here: my absolute #1 pet peeve with the majority of personal finance/frugality type bloggers is that they tend to make saving money into a neat little system and say that their way is the only way and as long as you do exactly what they say your money problems will disappear. well, i shouldnt have to tell you thats a huge load of bologna. there are as many different ways to save money as there are people on earth. and depending on the needs and preferences and even location of <i>your </i>family, some of the traditional "money saving tips" end up doing the exact opposite. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it can be <i>really </i>frustrating, trying to figure out how to make your budget work, researching different ideas and having them not work <i>at all. </i>i cant even tell you how many times thats happened to us. so in the interest of showing the other side of things, and maybe help encourage anyone out there who is <i>not </i>having good luck with the typical frugal living tips, heres a list of a few of the more surprising ways weve saved (a lot) of money: </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>quitting coupons. </b>i used to be <i>big </i>on coupons, but theyre a lot of work for not a lot of savings, <i>plus </i>i had to buy newspapers/paper/ink and keep all of the coupons organized... one day i lost my coupon book at sprouts and never looked back. surprisingly, our grocery spending went <i>down </i>because i was just buying what we needed and not trying to work in the things i had coupons for. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>ditching the "normal" grocery store. </b>about a year and a half ago i stopped shopping at vons and just bought groceries at sprouts. the grocery bill went down like $20 a week. i was like "wait what how is that possible because its vons that has the crazy sales", then i realized that <i>everything else </i>at the regular store is marked WAYYY up to compensate for that cheap cereal. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>avoiding thrift stores/yard sales, etc. </b>one of the most important things that took me way too long to learn is this: if you dont <i>need </i>a thing<i>, </i>no matter how cheap it is, buying it is just a waste of money. now we only go to thrift stores if were dropping stuff off or my sister calls me frantic that theres a gorgeous vintage emmaljunga pram at salvation army that i have to buy RIGHT NOW. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>getting rid of as much as possible. </b>embracing minimalism and getting rid of as much as we possibly can (which were still in the process of, apparently this never ends) taught us that we dont <i>actually </i>need about 90% of the stuff we think we do. so we buy about 90% less than we used to, saving about 90% of the money we spent on clothes and miscellaneous house stuff (mostly at thrift stores). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>not shopping at dollar stores. </b>this kind of goes along with the thrift store one, except that basically everything at dollar stores is either so crappy you just have to replace it with the more expensive version of the thing you were trying to save money on, or (in the case of food and cleaning supplies) its so small/watered down that you have to buy 10X the amount youd buy at target for like 50 cents more. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>my gluten free diet. </b>being gluten free forced us to pay more attention to what we eat and basically only eat fresh, homemade food because gf packaged food is absurdly expensive. also, we have WAY less options for eating out so we eat out WAY less than we used to. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>moving back to california. </b>southern california has a reputation for being the most expensive place on earth, and maybe it is (our one bedroom apartment costs literally twice as much as the much nicer one bedroom duplex we rented in northern arizona), BUT were in a MUCH better position financially, partly because james makes way more money here but mostly because we need <i>way </i>less stuff, utilities arent a million dollars, and we dont have to drive up and down a mountain to get anywhere. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">long story short, saving money isnt a one size fits all thing. just because something works for one person, <i>does not </i>mean it will work for <i>you. </i>you just might find savings in the most surprising of places. i know we have. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">have you had any surprising money saving decisions? id love to hear about them in the comments! </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-89462123666732299902016-01-25T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-25T03:00:22.877-08:00five ways to use essential oils without a diffuser. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">when people think about essential oils, they usually associate them with being used for aromatherapy in some kind of diffuser. and while that <i>is </i>a great way to use them (and i do love diffusing oils) diffusers can be on the pricey side and i can see where that would be a turn off to someone who wanted to try out oils without making a giant financial commitment (this is coming from a person who spent over a year interested in trying/learning about essential oils but not doing it because i could NOT fathom dropping $100+ on a diffuser to <i>try</i>). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">well i have some great news for you: <i>you totally dont need a diffuser to use essential oils. </i>in fact, diffusing is just <i>one </i>of many ways that we use them in our house. to be completely honest, diffusing is probably the <i>least </i>frequent way that we use oils (not that i dont like it its just not always convenient to set it up). so how can you incorporate essential oils into your daily life <i>without </i>buying a diffuser?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(again, in the interest of transparency: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">while i am very much </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">not </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">in the business of selling oils, i am </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">technically </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">a doterra wellness advocate and any purchases made through any links in this post would, in theory, earn me a commission. also, anything i say here is my own personal opinion/experience, has not been evaluated by the FDA, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>in the shower. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a great way to get the aromatic benefits of essential oils is to put a few drops on a washcloth and put it in the bottom of the tub while you shower, the combo of the steam and the oils is very similar to the effect youd get from running a diffuser. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>on jewelry. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>tons </i>of artisans and crafters make jewelry from materials that absorb the oils so that you can apply your favorite oils to them and enjoy them for the whole day. i have <a href="https://healmeow.com/product/lava-bar-necklace/">this necklace</a> that i wear every day with a couple drops of <a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=42">citrus bliss</a> to keep me energized and happy and i <i>love </i>it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>on your pillow/linens. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">honestly, i dont like running the diffuser at night (mainly because it has water in it and the cats knock it down and im 90% sure that had something to do with our first one breaking), so when we need help sleeping or are feeling a bit stuffy, ill put a drop or two of the oils we need directly on our pillows or sheets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>in diy skincare/cleaning products. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a lot of natural skincare and cleaning products are super expensive, and the thing that makes them special is... essential oils. you can save a <i>ton </i>of money (and have a ton of fun!) by making your own with common household ingredients and a few drops of essential oils. just spend like, two minutes on pinterest and youll have projects for <i>days. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>topically. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">many (but not all, please be careful and do your research!) essential oils can be used <i>topically </i>(that is, directly on the skin, either with or without being diluted by a plain "carrier" oil) to take advantage of their benefits. they can be used to enhance massage (like <a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=26">lavender</a> for relaxation), directly to a specific area (like <a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=2072">deep blue</a> on sore muscles), or on the bottom of your feet so you can use them without having to smell them constantly (ideal for oils like <a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=2069">oregano</a>, which is great for immunity but not that great smelling). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">as you can see, diffusing oils is only <i>one</i> of the many ways to enjoy essential oils, so dont let the cost/commitment of buying a diffuser deter you from trying out essential oils. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*though, if you are looking for a diffuser, i cant say enough good things about our <a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=1438">petal diffuser</a>, which i like MUCH more than the <a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=1145">aroma lite diffuser</a> we used for about a year before it broke (<i>apparently </i>youre supposed to clean them....), mainly because its VERY hard to knock over and our house is full of littles and cats. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">do you diffuse essential oils? what kind of diffuser do you have? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">i believe ive talked about my fondness for hollandaise sauce (<a href="http://www.povertyluxe.com/2015/06/the-poverty-luxe-kitchen-vol-10-lemon.html">yes, yes i have</a>), and let me reiterate: <i>i freaking LOVE hollandaise sauce. </i>i literally named my son benedict because of how much i love hollandaise sauce (benedict, like the eggs. i seriously dont understand how i am allowed to adult). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the thing about hollandaise sauce though is that it only uses the egg <i>yolks. </i>so what the heck do we do with all those whites? obviously we dont just throw them away (actually once upon a time we had a dog and i would feed them to the dog). what we do is we make merengue cookies. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">merengue cookies are amazing little things: theyre naturally fat and gluten free and taste like lucky charms marshmallows. also, theyre really easy to make, AND (if youre already using the yields for something else) practically free! the only caveat is that you do kind of need an electric mixer of some sort (thank you, my dear kitchenaid) <i>and </i>they take kind of a long time to bake (for cookies). but still. theyre awesome. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>merengue cookies. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(makes 1 cookie sheet full, approximately 30-35 1.5 inch cookies)</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>heres what you need: </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 egg whites, at room temperature (this is very, VERY important!)</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/4 tsp cream of tartar</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp vanilla extract</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla in a large bowl (or bowl of your stand mixer), and beat at a high speed until foamy. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">slowly ad in sugar and continue to beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">gently transfer merengue into a gallon ziplock bag and cut a small hole in one corner. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pipe small (1.5 inch in diameter) dots onto a foil lined baking sheet. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes, or until completely dry. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">let cool <i>completely </i>before removing from baking sheet.</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">store in an airtight container for up to a week. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that was easy, wasnt it? whats your favorite easy dessert to make? </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-66868981494408481022016-01-21T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-21T03:00:07.186-08:006 steps to a meal plan that will ACTUALLY save you money. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgKlfcAfsxusIrpVyVD9O1BV3S03QS6eytqncLAAt3rbwNUCtHUBgFwPv2nVc0_Y68Mp1Xd3yZ9Lqar0fdUvall8j3A5_cK4ZQI9jeADKsnhB0u9N4VcrRQamMk5HTE9WbJESP7DiG1Sk/s1600/image-15.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgKlfcAfsxusIrpVyVD9O1BV3S03QS6eytqncLAAt3rbwNUCtHUBgFwPv2nVc0_Y68Mp1Xd3yZ9Lqar0fdUvall8j3A5_cK4ZQI9jeADKsnhB0u9N4VcrRQamMk5HTE9WbJESP7DiG1Sk/s1600/image-15.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">***note: this post was originally published on 3/4/15, but since its very much relevant to the money saving series im working on right now, im going to re-post it with a few edits***</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">when it comes to groceries, the two things i mainly get asked about are meal plans and grocery lists. mainly thinks like "ok, i made the plan and the list and my grocery bill was still exactly the same!" which at first i thought was really weird, because meal planning and list making were what totally cut <i>our </i>grocery budget in half. but then i realized that "make a meal plan and list" probably <u>way</u> oversimplified the process. so today I'm going to share <i>our </i>method for meal planning, and hopefully, youll find at least some of it useful. because seriously, this method has been a <i>lifesaver</i> for us. i mean really, any weeks that we <i>dont </i>follow this plan (due to holidays, james working out of town, illness, laziness, etc.), our bank account <i>really </i>hurts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">now, i feel like this needs a big fat disclaimer because i see SO many frugal living/personal finance bloggers talk about THIER way of doing things as though its the only way or that it is guaranteed to work for everyone/produce a certain result. because the <i>majority </i>of the advice ive read on such blogs has <i>not </i>been applicable/beneficial to our family and situation, im just going to come out and say it: <i>that is a lie. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>this is by <i>no </i>means any kind of proven system and i can <i>not </i>guarantee any specific results or that it will even work for you/your family. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">however, the majority of this plan revolves around planning, efficiency, and reducing waste, which i do believe can at least help in most situations. so with all that out of the way, here we go: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1. decide (in advance) where you will be shopping and how often. </b>look, it really <i>doesnt </i>matter whether you go to three different stores once every few days or just go to costco once a month. in order for you to be able to effectively plan the groceries that youre going to buy, <i>you first have to plan where/when you are going to buy them. </i>this may sound silly but it will make a lot more sense in a minute when we get to steps 2 and 4. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2. double check your schedule for the week (or two, or whatever the space between shopping trips is) so that youre <i>only </i>planning for the meals you need to plan. </b>see, knowing how far apart your trips are going to be is essential, because the <i>biggest </i>money drain when it comes to groceries is buying more food than youre actually going to eat. looking over your calendar and accounting for the days/nights you <i>dont </i>need to cook (for example, family dinner, date night, birthday party, whatever), will keep you from buying supplies for meals that you wont even get to before its time to go shopping again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3. start your plan based on what foods you <i>already have </i>and aim to buy as little as possible. </b>after youve figured out where youre going, when, and how many meals your preparing for, <i>do a thorough search of all the food you currently have</i>. got a bag of potatoes? cans of soup? chicken in the freezer? an absurd amount of cheese? start planning meals that will use up those ingredients. and if you have freezer meals/leftovers on hand <i>by all means include those in your meal plan. do not just let them sit there taking up space. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>4. next, take a look at what's on sale. </b>this is where its <i>really </i>important to know <i>where </i>youre going to be shopping. and while grocery sales are <i>really </i>there to trick you into buying <i>extra </i>groceries and spend <i>more</i> money because youre getting a "good deal", you can use this to your advantage by choosing your meals for the week based on what meats/produce/etc. are currently on sale at the store of your choosing. are pasta and sauce super cheap? make lasagna! huge sale on fish? put that on the list! doing this has the double benefit of not just saving money, but also keeping you from eating the same foods every single week (which was a <i>really </i>bad habit of mine for the first couple years we were married). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>5. FINALLY fill in the rest and add any extras/treats. </b>ok, so lets pretend that im planning meals for the week (because thats how often i shop), and once i account for the nights we wont be home and leftovers in the freezer i have four dinners left to plan, using the foods that are on sale as inspiration. once i have <i>that </i>general plan, <i>then </i>i look over the pantry and fridge to see if were missing anything else: lunch supplies, cereal, condiments, spices, snacks, etc. you know, the kind of stuff that doesnt necessarily run out at the same time, that you dont have to buy very frequently but the meal plan cant go on without (in our house the #1 such thing would be olive oil), that stuff <i>definitely </i>goes into the plan and on the list. just, last. and only whats <i>absolutely needed </i>before the next shopping trip. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>6. once your plan is finished, make a <i>detailed </i>list (with quantities). </b>so youve made it to the end, you know where youre going, how long youre shopping for, and what youre going to buy. now write it down (all of it). be specific ("1 lb shredded cheddar" not just "cheese"). <i>note the quantities </i>(if you need three onions, then for crying out loud make sure you include that you need three onions!). the more detailed your list is, the less likely you are to forget something you needed, and the less likely you are to buy things that you dont need. trust me on this. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and there you have it. thats how we plan our meals to save the big bucks on groceries. this plan <i>also </i>has the added bonus of reducing the wasted food we generate (either from things going bad before we can get to them or stuff just sitting around), and keeping out fridge and pantry from becoming disorganized and overcrowded (did i mention that the benefits of meal planning go <i>way </i>beyond just saving money?). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">i know everything i just wrote is the <i>EXACT OPPOSITE </i>of the generally accepted "start with staples and stockpile whats cheapest now to eat later and spend all day making a month of freezer meals" philosophy for thrifty grocery shopping, but you know what? thats <i>never </i>worked for us. and maybe it doesnt work for you either. <i>thats ok, there are totally other ways of doing things and you can still save money. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">do you plan out your familys meals? whats your #1 tip? </span></div>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-84407667904565268802016-01-20T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-20T03:00:14.902-08:00nine great times to purge. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">here we are in the middle of january and the meyers family is in the middle of what i am affectionately referring to as "purge 2.0", even though we spent basically all of 2015 cleaning, organizing, and downsizing in order to simplify our life and home. if we did all that, then why are we doing it all over again? well, as im pretty sure ive mentioned before, decluttering has a way of just uncovering an entirely different mess that was lurking below the mess you just cleaned up. also, between the new baby, alices birthday, and christmas, weve kind of had a <i>little </i>extra "stuff" coming in to our apartment lately. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it seemed appropriate that with the new year, wed do a quick (but thourough) purge of the house in order to keep on top of the clutter situation. after we decided to do this, i got to thinking about how small, frequent purges are a lot faster, easier, and less emotionally draining than trying to do the whole house in one go. so i decided to come up with a handy list of <i>great </i>times to do some decluttering: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>after the holidays. </b>holidays = presents, wrappings, decorations, and just, like, <i>so much stuff. </i>we chose new years for an annual (starting this year) purge to help us get out of "holiday" mode and back into "real life mode" as quickly as possible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>after birthdays. </b>birthdays are like mini-christmases that happen at all different times of the year, and it really helps to clear out the old to make room for the new (especially when you have kids. <i>why do kids have so much stuff?)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>before having a baby. </b>not only do babies have a lot of stuff, but do you know whats <i>really </i>hard to do when you have a new baby in the house? clean. getting rid of as much as possible <i>before</i> the baby comes means youll have WAY less to clean (and more time to enjoy that new baby). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>when you move. </b>if its not worth moving, its not worth keeping is what i always say. packing and unpacking forces you to <i>see </i>everything you have and you might as well get rid of anything youre not into while youre at it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>before school starts. </b>for us, things get really busy and hectic during the school year and it really helps to start the semester with a fresh, clean house. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>after school gets out. </b>on the other hand, sometimes stuff piles up during the craziness and needs to be cleared out over break. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>after kids growth spurts. </b>before i had kids i thought they grew slow and gradually, but apparently they dont grow at all for a long time and then SUDDENLY are an entirely different size. these times are great for getting rid of not just outgrown clothes, but also outgrown, broken, or unloved toys. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>when you have unexpected free time. </b>sometimes youre just bored, and decluttering is a really great way to use that downtime productively. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>when youre stressed out. </b>maybe its just me, but there is something SO calming and therapeutic about getting rid of stuff and making clean, empty spaces in my home. as i get older i realize how much clutter totally stresses me out, so when i get stressed, i get rid of stuff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">basically, any time is a good time for some decluttering, but some times make a little more sense than others. after talking things over with james, we decided that it would be a good idea for us to do a quick purge at new years, and at each of our birthdays (which are in april, july, and october, respectively) so that we can all work together to keep clutter at bay. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">when do you like to declutter? do you do it on any kind of schedule? </span></div>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-29649957825669597672016-01-19T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-19T03:00:07.832-08:00nine great things to do when youre broke. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkN8oKRjT_qVd_3CgHnb8nchv9qxnzGz4P_Lv40Dnut52HbkmP7KVRqcU2ihNsLA9GeLcSpiQcsf54_NgfBdJonsluYHbLSxMhqsdaW8ahZVgqvqaTuSQ4VqStS-u_SetHMOQHYF5rLEY5/s1600/IMG_2482.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkN8oKRjT_qVd_3CgHnb8nchv9qxnzGz4P_Lv40Dnut52HbkmP7KVRqcU2ihNsLA9GeLcSpiQcsf54_NgfBdJonsluYHbLSxMhqsdaW8ahZVgqvqaTuSQ4VqStS-u_SetHMOQHYF5rLEY5/s640/IMG_2482.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">when i say that were broke, i dont mean it in the way that people tend to mean it (as in, that we made plenty of money but we spent it all so we cant buy some expensive thing we want), i mean that were <i>broke. </i>im going to be real here:<i> </i>its january (right when the <i>slowest </i>part of the year for jamess work starts), the spring semester is about to start (meaning, $$$ for childcare and supplies), we just came out of one of jamess <i>work </i>years at work ever (despite the fact that he makes over twice as much per hour as he did when he started), AND instead of using our tax refund to pay off our credit card and start saving for a house.... we need to shop for a new car. this is <i>not </i>a great time to be our bank account. but thats not the point of todays post. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">my point today is, that sometimes the money situation just <i>sucks. </i>it happens to the best of us (some of us more than others), and its not entirely under our control. but it doesnt have to be the end of the world. in fact, these times can be incredibly productive, and (dare i say it...) enjoyable(?), if you know how to spend them wisely. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">since ive got <i>lots </i>of esperience in this department, here are a few handy suggestions of ways to make the most of the broke times:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>take a long, hard look at your bank statements. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">its easy to lose track of your money (especially if you never use cash), and its really helpful to take the time to take a serious look at <i>exactly </i>where your money is going and decide if youre happy with that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>make a list of your hopes, dreams, and priorities (short term and long term).</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">even though it seems like an impractical or unrealistic thing to do, figuring out <i>exactly </i>the kind of life you want is a great thing to do when youre broke, so that you can start figuring out how to take steps to make that happen when you <i>arent </i>quite so broke anymore. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>look for expenses to drop. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">once you have a good idea of where youre money is going and whats really important to you, look really closely and see where you can cut back: first to help out in the short term until the money situation gets better, but also to help in the long term to free up money for the things you <i>really </i>want in life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>break bad habits. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">maybe you have some habits that arent so great. maybe you buy lunch every day because you dont want to make it ahead of time, maybe you binge on netflix to avoid doing real work, maybe you go to starbucks twice a day. and maybe these habits are <i>also </i>costing you a lot of money. using the money as a motivation to break these habits can be a great way to kick them for good. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>declutter. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">decluttering is a great thing to do when youre broke for three reasons: 1. its totally free, 2. youll probably find some stuff worth selling (<a href="http://www.povertyluxe.com/2015/06/6-ways-weve-turned-our-clutter-into.html">see my post about doing exactly that</a>), and 3. theres nothing like confronting all the stuff you own (and spent money on) that you dont like/use to <i>really </i>change your perspective on spending. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>look for potential side hustles. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">obviously if moneys tight, it doesnt hurt (at all) to look into ways to make some more. maybe an <i>actual </i>second job is out of the question (like it is for james), but it doesnt take much research (ahem, pinterest) to find hundreds of ideas to try and get to the one thats right for you. </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">go outside. </b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not only is outside 100% totally free, but spending time out in nature is a perfect way to take a break and just think about things that <i>arent </i>money. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>use things up. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">one of my favorite things to do when moneys tight is to challenge myself to see how long we can go without buying anything: using up all the leftover bits of toiletries and cleaning products that accumulate and getting creative with recipes to use up as much groceries as possible. its a fun little game and a nice double whammy of saving a little money and also clearing out a little clutter. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>be thankful for what you have. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">seriously. money problems are stupid and they suck and its so, so easy to get stuck in a mopey black hole of self-pity but really, there are so many things to be thankful for. taking a few minutes to focus on <i>those </i>things can make things a lot easier. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">im not saying hard times have to be <i>fun, </i>but what i am saying is that they dont have to be <i>all </i>bad. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">what do <i>you </i>do to get through tough financial times? </span></div>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-79523507729290759102016-01-18T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-18T03:00:13.689-08:00our top five essential oils (and how we use them). <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">i personally think essential oils are awesome, but at the same time, i can totally see why someone new to the essential oil scene would be turned off to the idea of them after meeting a few "essential oil people". mainly because it seems like people either dont use them at all OR they have 239847832648712 that they use 300 times a day and they insist that <i>everyone </i>needs <i>all </i>oils or theyll die. its intimidating for sure, and if youre on the budget-conscious side of things, well...</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so today i want to share a <i>short </i>list of our 5 most used essential oils and what we use them for. this list may seem a little different than other top essential oil lists because 1. im not trying to upsell you a big "starter kit" and 2. im going to focus on the most budget friendly and multipurpose oils in our arsenal because, frankly, thats whats going to be most useful to you if youre new to oils. also, i think its really important to give a reasonable, not-crazy perspective on essential oils. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">again, in the interest of transparency: <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">while i am very much </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">not </i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">in the business of selling oils, i am </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">technically </i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">a doterra wellness advocate and any purchases made through any links in this post would, in theory, earn me a commission. also, anything i say here is my own personal opinion/experience, has not been evaluated by the FDA, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease. </span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">so with that out of the way, what are our top five essential oils (the <i>essential </i>essential oils, if you will)?</span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><b><a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=26">lavender. </a></b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">used for: relaxation, headaches (combined with peppermint), allergies (combined with lemon and peppermint), skin healing (combined with melaleuca), and swelling. </span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><b><a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=27">lemon.</a> </b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">used for: increasing energy, mood lifting, allergies (with lavender and peppermint), cleaning up sticky stuff, and flavoring water (note: be sure to do your research about the quality of the oils you use and the safety of ingesting them). </span></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><b><a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=33">peppermint.</a> </b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">used for: headaches, focus, allergies (with lemon and lavender), relief from fevers, and breath freshening (again with the reminder to research quality and safety). </span></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><b><a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=32">oregano. </a></b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">used for antibacterial, immunity-boosting, and anti-inflammatory purposes. </span></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><b><a href="https://www.mydoterra.com/ShoppingCart/index.cfm?FuseAction=CategoryShop&CategoryID=36">melaleuca. </a></b></span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">(also known as tea tree oil) used for: skincare (especially acne!), skin healing (with lavender), cleaning, and as an antibacterial/antifungal. </span></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">if you ask 100 different essential oil people what their favorite oils are, im sure youll get 100 different answers. these five oils are the ones that </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">we </i><span style="line-height: 20px;">use the most, for the most things, and are probably the ones </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">id </i><span style="line-height: 20px;">recommend to anyone just starting out with oils. but then again, thats my opinions. </span></span></span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-77139141407342082692016-01-15T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-15T03:00:00.722-08:00the poverty luxe kitchen vol. 24: not boring oatmeal. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the one thing about living (somewhat) near the ocean is that its always <i>freezing </i>in the morning (and by freezing i mean below 60 degrees, yes, i know). doesnt matter what time of year it is or how hot its going to be later, mornings = freezing. and cold mornings are just begging for a hot breakfast. unfortunately, i am very much <i>not </i>a morning person and no matter how much i <i>want </i>a hot breakfast, im just not all that into putting that much effort into making that hot breakfast. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">thankfully theres oatmeal. oatmeal is super easy and takes like two minutes. except, oatmeal is kind of boring, and (for my bottomless pit of a stomach, anyway) not all that satisfying. so in the interest of getting the hot breakfast that i so wanted on cold mornings, i came up with a few super simple additions to make my morning oatmeal a little less boring. oh, and fast too. none of this twenty-minute oatmeal business...</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>not boring oatmeal. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">makes one serving. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>heres what you need: </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1/2 cup rolled oats</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp chia seeds</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>heres what you do: </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">combine all of the ingredients except for the brown sugar in a small pot and bring to a boil. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">reduce heat to medium/low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the oats soften and reach your desired consistency (i like mine really thick so this takes about five minutes, so if you like yours thin, they should be even faster). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">top with brown sugar (and/or any other desired toppings) and serve immediately. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and thats how you make the exact same thing ive had for breakfast every day for at least seven or eight months maybe even longer I MEAN oatmeal thats super fast and totally not boring. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">whats your go-to breakfast? do you eat the same thing every day or prefer to mix it up? </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-65239523987292289572016-01-14T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-14T03:00:09.991-08:00grocery shopping myths + the truth behind them. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">everybody eats, so everybody needs to buy groceries. it seems like it should be a super straightforward thing, but in all honesty, learning to buy groceries (without going broke and/or eating junk al the time) was one of the hardest "adult skills" i had to learn not only are there about ten million variables when it comes to grocery shipping, there are a lot of "rules" and "methods" out there that are "supposed" to help make shopping faster/easier/cheaper/whatever. the main problem with a lot of these rules/methods/whatever, is that they dont really account for the fact that not all families have the same needs/preferences, and they <i>definitely </i>dont account for the fact that grocery costs/options vary <i>widely </i>depending on where you live (trust me, i could write a novel on the differences between buying groceries in rural arizona vs. southern california). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">over the past five years, ive tried quite a few of these different "rules" and "methods" that frugal living bloggers share promising huge grocery savings and frankly... theyre chock full of lies. ok maybe not like, malicious lies, more like well-meaning myths that got passed around without really checking how factual they actually are. so before i get started with sharing tips and tricks for eating healthy on a budget, here are a few of the most common "grocery myths" and the truth behind them: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>myth: you have to use coupons. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truth: coupons are actually <i>not </i>an easy way to save money. can they be helpful? absolutely, but coupons alone will not solve your grocery budget troubles (trust me, its been over a year since i last clipped a coupon and were spending <i>less </i>on groceries than ever before). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>myth: you have to keep a database of prices and memorize "price cycles" </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truth: not really. if youve ever watched "extreme couponers" or read a lot of frugal living type blogs they talk a lot about these two things. frankly, both of these are HUGE time investments that may not be all that worth it (unless you live entirely off packaged foods). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>myth: you have to shop at a lot of stores. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truth: nope (i only shop at one!) technically, if you wanted to get the BEST possible price on EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL ITEM you ever buy, then yeah, youll need to go to a lot of stores, but will this save money in the long run? probably not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>myth: you have to buy in bulk. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truth: it depends. im going to be completely honest: there are a TON of benefits to buying things (food and otherwise) in bulk, BUT its not necessarily practical for everyone/every thing. weve gone through phases of buying a lot in bulk and not buying anything in bulk and... its kind of a wash. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>myth: saving money on groceries is hard and time consuming. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truth: absolutely not. again going back to the extreme couponers and frugal living bloggers, <i>they make it way more complicated than it needs to be. </i>i promise, the more you <i>simplify </i>your grocery shopping, the less youll spend, and the less youll want to rip your hair out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>myth: healthy food is too expensive. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truth: junk food is actually WAY more expensive. i know packaged foods have better "deals", but thats because theyre marked up so much. when you buy fresh food, youre just paying for the food, but when you buy packaged, processed food, youre paying for the ingredients, the processing, the packaging, etc., typically paying more money for less, lower quality food. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>myth: you have to have a "stockpile". </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">truth: its better to just buy what you need. even though "stockpiling" food when its cheapest to last until its cheap again <i>sounds </i>like it would save money, it really doesnt: first, you have to spend the money up front to buy the huge quantities, then you have to store all of it, then you have to make sure you actually eat it before it goes bad. its also super time consuming AND gets you stuck eating the same things over and over again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">saving money on groceries has a reputation for being a complicated code that needs to be cracked, when really, with some simple common sense, anyone can do it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">have you ever run into these "grocery myths"? what are your thoughts on them?</span></div>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-45047706081115966752016-01-13T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-13T03:00:18.159-08:00other kinds of clutter (+ why they matter)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">through my series on minimal living, I've spent most of my time talking about <i>stuff. </i>you know, the physical clutter that fills up our homes and gets in the way of what we actually want to do in life. cutting back on clutter is a <i>huge </i>part of moving toward minimalism, but as weve made our transition, we quickly realized that it wasnt just <i>stuff </i>closing up our lives. as we purged and cleaned and learned to live with less <i>stuff, </i>it became apparent that in a lot of ways, this "other" clutter was just as, if not more, harmful than the physical clutter we were working so hard to fight against. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so what exactly do i mean by "other kinds of clutter"? i mean things like: </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>digital clutter. </b>all the files, photos, emails, etc. that are filling up your computers/devices. not only do these things get in the way of you finding what you actually need, they also take up valuable memory that you <i>could </i>be using for something more productive. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>mental clutter. </b>all the mental "lists" we tend to make to try and feel more organized (things we need to buy, things we need to get done, plans we need to make, etc.), have a tendency to do the opposite and make us stressed out and frazzled. making a habit of writing them down can make a <i>huge </i>difference in the stress/anxiety department (this has been a huge one for me personally. yes, i do spend way too much money on notepads and calendars). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>media clutter. </b>this includes both media media (tv shows, news, and the like), as well as social media platforms/accounts that you follow/watch but arent getting any benefit from. im not saying that all media is bad and that you have to live in a cave, but what i am saying is that when you start cutting out the stuff that youre not <i>really </i>into, it frees up SO much time and mental energy. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>false productivity. </b>by this i mean all the little things we do to check off boxes on our to-do lists so we feel like were doing something but arent really. for example, i used to do a LOT of internet surveys (for money): almost every day id spend at least half an hour clicking on things feeling SO productive when really all i did was make a couple of dollars in gift cards. for a time this was a good way to make a little extra money, but as time went on (and life got more complicated) i realized that i was using a LOT of valuable time on... well, nothing really. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>unfinished projects. </b>this one is a double whammy: unfinished projects take up <i>physical </i>space just by existing, and also <i>mental </i>space by reminding us that theyre there and need us to finish them. when the unfinished projects start piling up, make the decision to either get rid of them or <i>actually finish them. </i>and dont start any new projects until every unfinished one has met one fate or the other. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>time sucks. </b>you know, those dumb little things you get sucked into for no apparent reason that you dont even enjoy (im not talking about recreational activities, im talking about the ones that serve <i>no </i>purpose. entertainment is a very important purpose). this might be phone games or facebook scrolling or clickbait articles or whatever, but youd be surprised at how much smoother life can go when you let them (whatever they are for you) go. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>overcommitment. </b>much like filling up your day with false productivity and time sucks keeps you from getting anything <i>really </i>important done, overcommitting yourself so that every day on your calendar is booked with <i>something </i>does the exact same thing, just on a bigger scale. i mean, theres nothing wrong with being <i>busy </i>if all that busy-ness is intentional and productive, but nothing good comes from being busy for the sake of being busy. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">taking the time to deal with the clutter in our home really opened our eyes to the other kinds of clutter in our lives, and it didnt take long for use to realize that <i>these </i>types of things had <i>exactly the same nasty side effects as the "regular" kind of clutter. </i>this may seem like a kind of negative revelation, however, just like the <i>stuff </i>in our home, as we identify and address these other sources of clutter, were seeing the same kinds of benefits to the decluttering all over again. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">what are your thoughts on these <i>other </i>kinds of clutter? how do you deal with them to simplify your life? </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-322872616701162192016-01-12T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-12T03:00:13.982-08:00why poverty luxe?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">last week i outlined <i>what </i>the poverty luxe lifestyle <i>is, </i>now today i want to talk about <i>why </i>we live poverty luxe. i mean, why dont we just dave ramsay ourselves to financial freedom? why dont we just work a million side-hustles to make more money? why dont we devote ourselves to being as frugal as humanly possible to save every penny we can? why dont we just accept that were poor and live "like poor people are supposed to"?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">well, the short answer to that is because none of that is what we want. in fact, some of that is stuff weve <i>tried, </i>and frankly, it doesnt make us happy. why? (again, short answer here), is because <i>all </i>of those lifestyles require being <i>obsessed </i>with money: how much you have, how much you want to have, and how youre going to get it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the long answer is that while weve always struggled financially, ive always had expensive taste, and james has always had expensive hobbies. to make things even more difficult, neither of us were taught good financial management skills growing up. as you can imagine, our first couple of years were <i>bad </i>and the life we had made for our family looked <i>nothing </i>like what either of us wanted. we (and by we i mostly mean i) were pretty dang miserable: no matter what we did, we were <i>always </i>out of money with nothing much to show for it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">after that i spent a <i>lot </i>of time reading about personal finance: different rules, different plans, different methods, and nothing really <i>worked </i>for us. a <i>lot </i>of the information out there operates under the assumption that you <i>make </i>plenty of money but are irresponsible with how you spend it (which is exactly the opposite of our problem), that youre trying to pay off a ton of debt (we didnt have <i>any </i>debt until this last year and only have a modest balance on one credit card because james had a bad year while i was in school), or that <i>any </i>kind of extravagance is completely off limits until you have a certain amount of money in the bank (im not even going to go in to why i <i>despise </i>this mindset). and dont even get me started on the kinds of stuff i found while looking for frugal living tips...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we wanted to make a better life for ourselves, both in the short term <i>and </i>the long term, but we also wanted to make sure that we <i>werent </i>saving "enjoying life" for some unknown (and not guaranteed) future time when wed have enough money to "deserve" nice things. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so we learned. we adapted. we applied what we could from the research i had done but disregarded the rest. we figured out what was important to us and what wasnt. we figured out exactly <i>where </i>our money went and <i>why </i>we were running out every month. we cut back where we could to make room for the "luxuries" that made <i>us </i>happy (healthy food, disneyland, nice clothes, dinners out, etc.). weve spent the past five years figuring out the balance between the money we have and the life we want, and I'm glad we did, because even though we dont have a lot, were at least taking steps to making a life that makes <i>us </i>happy instead of making ourselves miserable doing what other people say we should do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and now, im going to start sharing some of the tips and tricks so that <i>you </i>can learn to love living the broke life too. its possible, i promise. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">are you out there living the broke life too? what do you want to learn? </span></div>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-76136362594047803512016-01-11T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-11T03:00:10.035-08:00why we use essential oils. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">its been nearly two years since i started using essential oils. at first it was a thing i bought for myself as a tax refund splurge to see if i could help alice with her allergies without giving her benadryl every day and if maybe i could get a little relief from my fibromyalgia symptoms. these oils turned out to be a total game changer in the meyers house, and quickly went from being my weird experiment to something all of us use every day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">over the past two years I've gotten a lot of questions about essential oils: what they are, what they do, what we do with them, etc. I've wanted to do a series on essential oils for a long time now, but since I'm not an oil "expert" i felt like there wasnt anything i could post that hadnt already been done better somewhere else. but i still want to share, like, recipes and stuff, so before i get into that, heres a little bit of background about essential oils: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>what are essential oils? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">short answer: essential oils are the natural oils distilled from plants that are used (and have been used) for a variety of purposes ranging from fragrance to medicines. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>where do i get them? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">i get my oils from <a href="http://www.mydoterra.com/victoriameyers/#/">doterra. </a> (transparency alert: while i am very much <i>not </i>in the business of selling oils, i am <i>technically </i>a doterra wellness advocate and any purchases made through any links in this post would, in theory, earn me a commission). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>how are essential oils used? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">all kinds of ways! i think most of us associate essential oils with being used in a diffuser for aromatherapy (which we do) but there are totally other ways to use them too, including, but not limited to: topically, in DIY projects, and in cooking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>why do we use them? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">we use essential oils as a natural complement to traditional medicine, mainly to help with minor illnesses and injuries to avoid unnecessary doctor appointments and medications. (i feel like its really important to emphasize that essential oils are only <i>part </i>of how we take care of our family: we do vaccinate/go to the dr/etc., but for normal, every day complaints like heartburn/headaches/trouble sleeping, we use essential oils)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">obviously, the decision to use essential oils is a personal one, and (like all decisions involving your familys health) one that should be taken very seriously. im not here to convince you to use essential oils or sign you up to sell them (though, as i mentioned earlier, i am <i>technically </i>a doterra wellness advocate and could assist you if you so desired). i just want to share how <i>we </i>use them and figured that before we start on that a little bit of background would be appropriate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">do you use essential oils? if not, what questions do you have about them? </span></div>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-57373273117424470702016-01-08T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-08T03:00:07.639-08:00the poverty luxe kitchen vol. 23: flourless peanut butter cookies. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">every now and then theres a recipe thats just EVERYWHERE on the internet claiming to be the best thing ever. like, remember those "banana pancakes"? those had their moment right when i got my celiac diagnoses, so i tried them out and the were <i>awful</i>. i tried them again and again and eventually came to the conclusion that there is just no way to make eggs and bananas not disgusting. obviously since then I've been a little wary about internet food trends for some time, <i>especially </i>the minimal ingredient ones. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BUT then i kept seeing these "flourless peanut butter cookies" or "three ingredient cookies" on pinterest and food blogs. at first i brushed them off as something not worth trying, until, of course, i REALLY needed some cookies (breastfeeding has a habit of doing that to a lady) and we were almost out out of gluten free flour. so i gave them a shot and... <i>they were totally legit cookies. </i>like, better than the peanut butter cookies i made from a normal recipe with the the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Gluten-Free-Baking/dp/B00SHY3IAA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452145936&sr=8-1&keywords=bobs+red+mill+cup+for+cup+gluten+free+flour">gluten free flour i love</a> (yes i do buy it in five pound bags, but sprouts has it a bit cheaper than that). the first batch i made got a little burnt but i figured out that was actually because of my terrible cookie pan, so i tried again and the second batch was PERFECT. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">now were making these a lot more often than id like to admit...</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>flourless peanut butter cookies. </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(makes 12-16 cookies)</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>heres what you need: </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky, this does NOT work with "natural" type peanut butters)</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 cup sugar</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 tsp vanilla extract</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>heres what you do: </b></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">preheat oven to 350 degrees. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">blend peanut butter and sugar together until completely blended (i use my kitchenaid but a hand mixer will work also). </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">add egg and vanilla and continue to blend, scraping bowl occasionally to ensure the dough is completely mixed.</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">scoop golf-ball sized balls of dough onto a foil-lined cookie sheet, and press down with a fork to make a "criss cross" pattern. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">bake for approximately 10 minutes, until edges start to brown. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">let cookies cool <i>completely </i>before removing from cookie sheet. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so yeah, theres an internet fad recipe that totally works. like, i bring these to potlucks and not-gluten free people love them. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">have you had any luck with internet fad recipes? id love to hear your stories in the comments! </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-77248727937006582902016-01-07T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-07T03:00:23.929-08:00healthy eating on a budget. (a new series)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">continuing my theme of introducing new topics that are really just things ive been wanting to blog about all along, today im starting another new series: healthy eating on a budget. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this is a topic thats particularly near and dear to my heart, because feeding my family good food (and by good i mean healthy AND tasty) on as little as possible is kind of my deal. people complain about how much food costs and how poor people have to live on ramen noodles because they cant afford vegetables and trying to save money on groceries is just too much work im just like "hold up, absolutely none of that is true, because if it was, i wouldnt have been able to get a weeks worth of pescetarian, gluten free groceries for a family of four at sprouts with no coupons for literally $50*" (*actual real thing i did literally yesterday). if this were my little pony, id have one heck of a grocery shopping cutie mark. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">also, i felt like if i was going to jump back into blogging, i <i>needed</i> to tackle this topic. why? because theres a lot of "frugal living" advice thats just not practical, and theres a lot of "healthy living" advice thats just not affordable. <i>somebody </i>needs to find the balance between the two. <i>that somebody is me. </i></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">obviously i didnt just wake up one day go from being broke and eating junk all the time (true story) to eating super clean on practically nothing, its actually taken a lot of trial and error to get to where i am now (and im still learning!). and to hopefully save some folks out there from a lot of the frustration ive experienced in trying to get in control of our grocery spending (while still eating well, this part is just as important!) im going to start sharing (every thursday) lots of practical tips for eating healthier, saving money on groceries, saving money on healthy groceries, and not going insane while saving money on healthy groceries. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">because its totally doable. its not even hard. and im totally going to walk you through it step by step with simple, actionable tips to help you eat healthier and save money while you do it. oh, and the best part? i dont have some big complicated system that you have to do just like me in order to get results, i know this is real life and everybody has different needs and that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to healthy eating on a budget. so im going to break it down into tiny little pieces so that you can pick what works for you and just ignore what doesnt. how does that sound? are we excited? i know i am!</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">what are your questions about healthy eating on a budget? ask in the comments and ill do my best to answer in a future post! </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-62712695627802162692016-01-06T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-06T03:00:23.910-08:00why minimalism?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my series on minimalist living has probably been my most popular so far. and while that </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">probably has a lot to do with minimalism being kind of a hot topic in the blogosphere right now, i couldnt be happier about this. why? because learning to embrace a minimalist lifestyle has been a really awesome experience for us. its been challenging, for sure. but its also been rewarding. im planning on continuing my posts on minimal living on a weekly basis (like i was before my break), but since i was gone so long, i wanted to take a few minutes to back up and talk about </span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">why </i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">weve chosen to embrace minimalism: </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so why have we decided to make these changes? </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>our tiny home is not as temporary as wed originally hoped. </b>obviously nobodys <i>planning </i>on keeping all four of us in this one bedroom apartment forever, but its just not <i>practical </i>for us to move into a bigger place (which would require me bringing in a significant second income) until <i>after </i>i graduate with a degree in an employable field. which wont be happening for... (at least) three semesters. if were going to make this place work (which we need to) we need to clear it out. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>we need to let go of our past baggage. </b>james and i both came into this marriage with a LOT of baggage (both literal and figurative) that had created really unhealthy relationships with "stuff". after getting married, we moved a lot, dragging all that crap around and not dealing with it. it took us <i>way </i>too long to figure this out, but the biggest thing we can do to get rid of that baggage is to <i>literally get rid of the baggage. </i></span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>we want to make a home we love. </b>because of the past baggage and the moving a lot and the being poor, our apartment was not only disorganized and cluttered, it was cluttered with <i>my </i>stuff, with <i>jamess </i>stuff with <i>stuff other people gave us, </i>and with <i>stuff we bought super cheap because we needed it right now. </i>we had very little stuff that was <i>ours, </i>that <i>we </i>liked and <i>we </i>wanted, to the point that (up until fairly recently) i never felt like i was at <i>home </i>at any of the places we lived. and while thats not the <i>most </i>important thing in life, its something we need as a family. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>we want to actually <i>use </i>our home. </b>when our apartment was stuffed to the gills it was nearly impossible to do well, any of the things that we actually <i>like </i>doing. things like games, projects, having people over, heck, even normal CHORES were difficult before we got serious about de-cluttering (and being a stay at home mom was <i>miserable)</i>. living with less <i>stuff </i>gives us so much more space so that i can work and the kids can play and we can actually use the (small) space we have. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>we want to focus on the important things in life. </b>before we got on the minimalism train, almost every activity we did involved some kind of shopping, whether it was buying things or looking at things we wanted to buy or trying to figure out where to put all the stuff we just bought. i could go on and on about why this was bad but the worst part was it kept us from spending time doing the real important things in life, like spending time together, getting outside, going on adventures, and hanging out with our friends and family. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>we dont want to be enslaved by what we own. </b>sure, we <i>could </i>keep everything we have (and dont use), and move in to a bigger place so that we have room for all of it, but then wed both need to get more jobs to have the money to pay for that bigger place, leaving us with little to no time to spend with each other, let alone the stuff that we werent using that we got the bigger house to have room for. people have literally suggested this exact thing to us, and honestly it sounds like my own personal hell. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>we want to teach our kids good habits. </b>it took james and i 24 and 26 years (respectively) to get to the point where we were ok with getting rid of stuff (mind you, that we didnt need or use or even think about), and this was definitely <i>not </i>a good thing. so many parts of our lives would have been <i>much </i>easier if we had learned to be happy living simply. living simply ourselves (we hope) will set an example for our kids so that they <i>dont </i>grow up with the baggage that we had. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">im going to be honest, this whole minimalism thing doesnt come easily to me or james, and our slow transition has had more than its fair share of challenges. but as we move forward (and our apartment gets emptier), the positive changes were seeing in our home, our lives, and even in ourselves, have been more rewarding than weve ever imagined. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">much like my series on money, this ones still in the planning stages as well. do you have any questions youd like answered about minimal living? let me know in the comments! </span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-8587175361278327772016-01-05T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-05T03:00:12.304-08:00what the poverty luxe lifestyle is all about. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">speaking of fresh starts, this year im going to finally do something that ive always said i was going to do but never did because i was afraid: </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">im going to start writing about money. yeah, this is totally one of the main reasons i started blogging and for various reasons ive just never been able to commit to it. i mean, im not a professional, i have a different perspective on things, and people just get so weird and judgy about money. but you know what? this are totally all reasons i SHOULD be writing about money! there NEEDS to be a voice out there from a real regular person who has something to offer thats NOT the same old stuff on every other personal finance blog and whos NOT going to get all weird and judgy about things. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so yeah, i write about money now. but before i get started, I'm going to steal an idea from one of my internet bestie <a href="http://www.beawarriorqueen.com/">raewyn</a> and break down exactly what this whole poverty luxe thing is all about: </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>knowing where your money goes. </b>regardless of how much (or how little) money you have, if youre not in control of it, you will <i>always </i>feel like theres never enough. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>not waiting for "someday" to make a life you love. </b>unless you literally win the lottery, your dream life is <i>not </i>just going to materialize one day, you have to work for it. but the good news is you can probably take steps to work toward it now. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>knowing your priorities and making things happen. </b>whatever it is that you love (a big house, great food, travel, fancy clothes), know what <i>is </i>important to you so that you can spend less on whats <i>not </i>important to you. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>not worrying what everyone else is doing. </b>keeping up with the joneses (or whoever) when youre not into it is just going to drain you mentally, emotionally, and especially financially. just because other people have something doesnt mean you do too. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>focusing on quality over quantity. </b>just because youre broke, doesnt mean you have to only buy junk. you can totally buy nice things, just, a lot less of them. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>thinking about the long term. </b>sometimes youve gotta spend more now to save money later, and sometimes you need a cheap, temporary fix. its all about whats going to cost the least in the long term. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>keeping things simple. </b>saving money should <i>not </i>be a full time job. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>learning to be happy where you are. </b>im not going to lie, being broke really sucks sometimes. but generally speaking, it only sucks as much as you make it suck. </span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">over these next few week, I'm going to be sharing all the different lessons weve learned over the years so that <i>everyone </i>can learn to love living the broke life. i mean, if we can do it...</span></center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">what are your money questions? what do you want to learn about the poverty luxe lifestyle? im still planning posts, so ill be able to answer soon!</span></center>
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6421761718196841952.post-24043136940114788772016-01-04T03:00:00.000-08:002016-01-04T03:00:08.795-08:00my word for 2016: fresh. <center>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ok first things first: i was really, <i>really </i>apprehensive about coming back here after such a long absence. i was <i>convinced </i>that even if i COULD find the time and energy to come back (and get through the especially difficult post to explain why ive been gone so long) that nobody would remember me and that id just be blogging into a vacuum until i re-built my entire audience from scratch. now i would like to take a minute and say a big fat THANK YOU to everyone thats read, commented, emailed, etc., it was SO nice to come back and instantly know that <i>people are still reading here. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but i digress. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">last year was the first year that i had done the whole "choose a word to center your goals around" thing, and i have to say, i <i>really </i>liked it. even though my word ("focus") was a little vague and turned out to not mesh well with the goals i made and the year really, <i>really </i>didnt turn out the way id hoped, setting a theme for my goals was a great way to get myself excited about actually <i>doing </i>the things i said i was going to do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so, obviously, im going to do it again this year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">honestly i actually had a different word (and goals) picked out (and i was really excited about them) up until, oh.... about a week ago. but then some things happened (mainly car stupidness), and well... i needed to make some adjustments. and by adjustments i mean we needed to start ALL over and find something else more appropriate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and as i was sorting through all my blog papers half-heartedly trying to salvage my old editorial calendars and scouring craigslist for a similar replacement to my station wagon while not only dealing with all the bad things that happened over the last year but also the repercussions of how i just <i>suck </i>at life when im pregnant/have a newborn, my word for 2016 came to me: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>fresh. </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2016 is a year for fresh starts: for letting go of whats not working for us and focusing only on what is, for making our life better instead of just treading water. 2016 is a year for a fresh, positive outlook, for dropping bad habits and replacing them with good ones. 2016 is a year for really making a life we <i>enjoy </i>rather than just checking off a bunch of lists. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so what does this mean? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">well first and foremost im <i>not </i>going to make a long, itemized list of goals to feel guilty about not accomplishing. but this is what weve been working on so far: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>ive officially quit jamberry and selling handmade clothes. </b>yes, those things did <i>technically </i>make money but not very much, and definitely not enough to make up for the time they took away from my family AND being able to work towards what i <i>really </i>want to do for money. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>ive decided what i actually want to do for a career. </b>im not going to juggle a whole bunch of tiny little jobs that im really not into anymore. i want to be a pattern maker. obviously i cant just <i>go </i>be a pattern maker right now, but my priority right now is to work as much on my education as possible so that when the time comes, i can be an <i>awesome </i>pattern maker. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>were getting back on <i>all </i>kinds of wagons. </b>remember how i said i super suck at life when im pregnant? well... over the last year i <i>completely </i>lost my grip on a lot of my household responsibilities. mainly the REALLY important things like budgeting, meal planning, and cleaning the house. so our first order of business is to get back on track with our former thrifty, healthy, tidy lifestyle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>im going to be like, a legit blogger. </b>and by that i mean, i threw out all my old editorial calendars, cracked open a brand-new note book and started planning a whole YEAR of new content that im actually excited about, rather than just what i felt like i "should" be doing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>whether we like it or not, were buying a new car. </b>ok maybe not a new, new car, but this time were going to REALLY research and carefully shop for a reliable long-term family car so that we dont end up in this exact situation not even three years from now (can you tell this has happened to us before...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but most importantly:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>im not making a lengthy list of arbitrary goals to feel bad about all of the time that im not accomplishing goals. </b>because if theres one thing ive learned from setting new-year goals, its that (for me) they really get in the way of (me) enjoying life as it happens and celebrating the things we DO accomplish without comparing them to the things we didnt. (not knocking new-year goals in general, this is just how things have gone for me). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">so yeah, thats where things seem to be headed for this fresh new year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">what do you have planned this year? do you pick a "word" for the year? if so, whats yours? let me know in the comments, i love hearing what other people pick!</span><br />
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Victoria Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838316655899250479noreply@blogger.com0