tips for making a meal plan that doesnt suck.

obviously, I'm a huge advocate for meal planning. it has a lot of huge benefits (saves time, money, stress and 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 all of those situations have happened here at one point or another. but to save you from meeting the same fate, here are a few helpful hints for making a meal plan that wont suck: 

account for the nights you arent eating at home. 

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. 

dont repeat meals in the same week. 

some meals i make (like curry lentils or black bean chili), 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!

if you do freezer meals, balance what you put in and take out. 

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. 

plan for a "treat" meal in every week. 

ok, i know typically the whole point 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 fast. so plan on one dinner each week being something good, even if its not the healthiest/cheapest/fastest thing there is. we typically eat really cheap and healthy, but every week i make sure we have something really nice like salmon (or in n out, if theres room in the budget...). 

balance labor intensive meals with easy ones. 

ill be honest: no matter how much i like cooking (which is more and more the older i get and more i learn to make), i do not like slaving over an elaborate meal (and the corresponding elaborate mess) every single day. so for every big, messy dinner like shepherds pie or mac and cheese, theres a meal that gets pulled directly from the freezer. 

get the whole family involved. 

even though the meal planning/grocery shopping/cooking is more or less my 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. 

plan for "leftover night" if necessary. 

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 are 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. 

keep to one "new" meal per week. 

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 awesome 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 every week has an exciting new dinner. 

keep it quick, simple, and flexible. 

contrary to what pinterest may have you believe, meal planning should not 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 supposed to make your life easier. if its not, then theres absolutely no shame in trying something else. 

when done wrong, meal planning can be a total drag (i have very 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. 

7 surprising things that have totally saved us money.

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 your family, some of the traditional "money saving tips" end up doing the exact opposite. 
it can be really frustrating, trying to figure out how to make your budget work, researching different ideas and having them not work at all. 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 not 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: 
quitting coupons. i used to be big on coupons, but theyre a lot of work for not a lot of savings, plus 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 down because i was just buying what we needed and not trying to work in the things i had coupons for. 
ditching the "normal" grocery store. 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 everything else at the regular store is marked WAYYY up to compensate for that cheap cereal. 
avoiding thrift stores/yard sales, etc. one of the most important things that took me way too long to learn is this: if you dont need a thing, 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. 
getting rid of as much as possible.  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 actually 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). 
not shopping at dollar stores. 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. 
my gluten free diet. 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. 
moving back to california. 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 way less stuff, utilities arent a million dollars, and we dont have to drive up and down a mountain to get anywhere. 
long story short, saving money isnt a one size fits all thing. just because something works for one person, does not mean it will work for you. you just might find savings in the most surprising of places. i know we have. 
have you had any surprising money saving decisions? id love to hear about them in the comments! 

6 steps to a meal plan that will ACTUALLY save you money.

***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***

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 our grocery budget in half. but then i realized that "make a meal plan and list" probably way oversimplified the process. so today I'm going to share our method for meal planning, and hopefully, youll find at least some of it useful. because seriously, this method has been a lifesaver for us. i mean really, any weeks that we dont follow this plan (due to holidays, james working out of town, illness, laziness, etc.), our bank account really hurts. 

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 majority of the advice ive read on such blogs has not been applicable/beneficial to our family and situation, im just going to come out and say it: that is a lie. 

this is by no means any kind of proven system and i can not guarantee any specific results or that it will even work for you/your family. 

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: 

1. decide (in advance) where you will be shopping and how often. look, it really doesnt 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, you first have to plan where/when you are going to buy them. this may sound silly but it will make a lot more sense in a minute when we get to steps 2 and 4. 

2. double check your schedule for the week (or two, or whatever the space between shopping trips is) so that youre only planning for the meals you need to plan. see, knowing how far apart your trips are going to be is essential, because the biggest 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 dont 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. 

3. start your plan based on what foods you already have and aim to buy as little as possible. after youve figured out where youre going, when, and how many meals your preparing for, do a thorough search of all the food you currently have. 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 by all means include those in your meal plan. do not just let them sit there taking up space. 

4. next, take a look at what's on sale. this is where its really important to know where youre going to be shopping. and while grocery sales are really there to trick you into buying extra groceries and spend more 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 really bad habit of mine for the first couple years we were married). 

5. FINALLY fill in the rest and add any extras/treats. 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 that general plan, then 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 definitely goes into the plan and on the list. just, last. and only whats absolutely needed before the next shopping trip. 

6. once your plan is finished, make a detailed list (with quantities). 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"). note the quantities (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. 

and there you have it. thats how we plan our meals to save the big bucks on groceries. this plan also 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 way beyond just saving money?). 

i know everything i just wrote is the EXACT OPPOSITE 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 never worked for us. and maybe it doesnt work for you either. thats ok, there are totally other ways of doing things and you can still save money. 

do you plan out your familys meals? whats your #1 tip? 

nine great things to do when youre broke.

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 broke. im going to be real here: its january (right when the slowest 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 work 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 not a great time to be our bank account. but thats not the point of todays post. 

my point today is, that sometimes the money situation just sucks. 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. 

since ive got lots of esperience in this department, here are a few handy suggestions of ways to make the most of the broke times:

take a long, hard look at your bank statements. 

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 exactly where your money is going and decide if youre happy with that. 

make a list of your hopes, dreams, and priorities (short term and long term).

even though it seems like an impractical or unrealistic thing to do, figuring out exactly 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 arent quite so broke anymore. 

look for expenses to drop. 

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 really want in life. 

break bad habits. 

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 also 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. 

declutter. 

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 (see my post about doing exactly that), and 3. theres nothing like confronting all the stuff you own (and spent money on) that you dont like/use to really change your perspective on spending. 

look for potential side hustles. 

obviously if moneys tight, it doesnt hurt (at all) to look into ways to make some more. maybe an actual 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. 

go outside. 

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 arent money. 

use things up.  

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. 

be thankful for what you have. 

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 those things can make things a lot easier. 

im not saying hard times have to be fun, but what i am saying is that they dont have to be all bad. 

what do you do to get through tough financial times? 

grocery shopping myths + the truth behind them.

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 definitely dont account for the fact that grocery costs/options vary widely depending on where you live (trust me, i could write a novel on the differences between buying groceries in rural arizona vs. southern california). 

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: 

myth: you have to use coupons. 

truth: coupons are actually not 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 less on groceries than ever before). 

myth: you have to keep a database of prices and memorize "price cycles" 

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). 

myth: you have to shop at a lot of stores. 

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. 

myth: you have to buy in bulk. 

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. 

myth: saving money on groceries is hard and time consuming. 

truth: absolutely not. again going back to the extreme couponers and frugal living bloggers, they make it way more complicated than it needs to be. i promise, the more you simplify your grocery shopping, the less youll spend, and the less youll want to rip your hair out. 

myth: healthy food is too expensive. 

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. 

myth: you have to have a "stockpile". 

truth: its better to just buy what you need. even though "stockpiling" food when its cheapest to last until its cheap again sounds 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. 

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. 

have you ever run into these "grocery myths"? what are your thoughts on them?

why poverty luxe?

last week i outlined what the poverty luxe lifestyle is, now today i want to talk about why 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"?

well, the short answer to that is because none of that is what we want. in fact, some of that is stuff weve tried, and frankly, it doesnt make us happy. why? (again, short answer here), is because all of those lifestyles require being obsessed with money: how much you have, how much you want to have, and how youre going to get it. 

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 bad and the life we had made for our family looked nothing 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 always out of money with nothing much to show for it. 

after that i spent a lot of time reading about personal finance: different rules, different plans, different methods, and nothing really worked for us. a lot of the information out there operates under the assumption that you make 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 any 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 any 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 despise this mindset). and dont even get me started on the kinds of stuff i found while looking for frugal living tips...

we wanted to make a better life for ourselves, both in the short term and the long term, but we also wanted to make sure that we werent saving "enjoying life" for some unknown (and not guaranteed) future time when wed have enough money to "deserve" nice things. 

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 where our money went and why we were running out every month. we cut back where we could to make room for the "luxuries" that made us 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 us happy instead of making ourselves miserable doing what other people say we should do. 

and now, im going to start sharing some of the tips and tricks so that you can learn to love living the broke life too. its possible, i promise. 

are you out there living the broke life too? what do you want to learn? 

healthy eating on a budget. (a new series)

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. 
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. 
also, i felt like if i was going to jump back into blogging, i needed 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. somebody needs to find the balance between the two. that somebody is me. 
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. 
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!
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! 

what the poverty luxe lifestyle is all about.

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: 
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. 
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 raewyn and break down exactly what this whole poverty luxe thing is all about: 
knowing where your money goes. regardless of how much (or how little) money you have, if youre not in control of it, you will always feel like theres never enough. 
not waiting for "someday" to make a life you love. unless you literally win the lottery, your dream life is not 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. 
knowing your priorities and making things happen. whatever it is that you love (a big house, great food, travel, fancy clothes), know what is important to you so that you can spend less on whats not important to you. 
not worrying what everyone else is doing. 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. 
focusing on quality over quantity. just because youre broke, doesnt mean you have to only buy junk. you can totally buy nice things, just, a lot less of them. 
thinking about the long term. 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. 
keeping things simple. saving money should not be a full time job. 
learning to be happy where you are. im not going to lie, being broke really sucks sometimes. but generally speaking, it only sucks as much as you make it suck. 
over these next few week, I'm going to be sharing all the different lessons weve learned over the years so that everyone can learn to love living the broke life. i mean, if we can do it...
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!

the poverty luxe kitchen vol. 15: how to make beans (with or without a crock pot)

fun fact: unless i absolutely cant avoid it, i never buy beans in cans. yeah, i know, im that mom. i actually wrote a pretty in-depth post about all the reasons why i do this about a year ago (you can read all about it here) but it was right around the time i was really floundering with this while blogging thing and i never got around to posting about how i go about making our homemade beans. 
which ended up being a great thing, because at the time i pretty much only made beans in my crock pot. in my opinion, this is by far the easiest method, BUT its the slowest, and it takes a little bit of advanced planning. something that i havent been so great at since ive been pregnant, in school, and parenting a toddler all at the same time. so over the last few months, ive actually learned some different methods of cooking dried beans. 
and today im going to share them all with you, right here in one post, so that you can easily decide which bean-cooking method will work best for your current bean needs without having to scour the internet for individual recipes (something ive had to do, oh, every time ive forgotten to soak the beans). so here we go, three different ways to make beans at home (that i have personally used multiple times and can totally vouch for): 
note: all of these methods are for cooking one pound of dried beans (approximately two cups, in case you buy them in bulk), and yield approximately eight cups (four cans worth) or cooked beans. 
1. in a crock pot: 
like ive already mentioned, this way is my favorite because even though the time commitment is the longest, its the most passive. also, because the crock pot regulates its own temperature, there is no possibility of anything getting burnt (maybe its just me but i often have a problem keeping a close eye on things for hours). heres how you do it: 
rinse beans and soak them overnight in a large bowl covered with AT LEAST two inches of water. 
in the morning, drain off the soaking water, rinse beans again and transfer them to the crock pot, again covering with at least two inches of water, salt (dont forget the salt at the beginning, its very important!), and any other seasonings you might want to use (obviously this will depend on the type of beans that youre making and what youll be using them for). 
set your crock pot on low and cook the beans for approximately six hours, checking occasionally to adjust seasonings and avoid over-cooking. 
drain and serve. 
2. on the stove: 
like using the crock pot, this method also requires an overnight soak, however unlike the crock pot method, its quite a bit faster and doesnt take up all our counter space. this is the method im most likely to use if i remembered to soak the beans but i didnt remember to get them in the crock pot first thing in the morning: 
rinse beans and soak them overnight in a large bowl covered with AT LEAST two inches of water. 
in the morning, drain off the soaking water, rinse beans again and transfer them to a large pot or dutch oven with a well-fitting lid, again covering with at least two inches of water. add salt and any other seasonings you may want to use. 
bring the beans to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. cook beans, stirring (and checking for flavor/done-ness) occasionally until tender (depending on the type of beans this may take up to three hours). 
drain and serve. 
3. in the oven: 
this is the method that im most likely to pull out in an emergency, (and by "emergency" i mean "i forgot to soak the beans the night before") because it doesnt require soaking. yes, you can totally make beans without soaking them overnight first. the only reason i put this method last, honestly, is because it does involve having the oven on for a long time, which i tend to try and avoid in an apartment as small as ours. however, it is still a fantastic way to cook beans: 
preheat your oven to 250 degrees. 
rinse beans and put them in a large pot or dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid and cover with at least two inches of water. add salt and any other flavorings that you desire. 
bring the pot to a boil on the stovetop, then cover and place in the oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour. stir, check for flavor and done-ness, and continue to cook until tender (another 20-30 minutes). 
drain and serve. 
so there you have THREE different ways of cooking dried beans and taking advantage of all the benefits they have over canned beans. 
do you make beans at home? whats your favorite method? 
 

6 ways weve turned our clutter into cash (without having a yard sale).

one of the things that has surprised me most with this whole de-cluttering situation is how weve been able to turn quite a bit of our old junk into actual money, especially considering that we live in an apartment on a major boulevard and having a yard sale is completely impossible for us. its not just that we were able to bring in some money that surprised me (though that was a really nice side effect of this big purge), but also just now many yard sale alternatives there are out there. which is great, because, frankly, yard sales are basically the worst thing ever. i mean, theres all the prep work and the obscenely early mornings and the haggling and the still having to take 95% of that crap down to goodwill anyway... but i digress. 
my point here is that there are tons of ways you can make money from your old junk without having a yard sale. honestly, this may have been one of the most important things ive learned through this whole process. now, i do need to put a little disclaimer here and point out that we havent exactly been raking in the dough this way, and this is by no way implying that you (or anyone) is sitting on a fortune and can solve all your financial woes by selling junk (unfortunately ive seen this attitude a few too many times on personal finance blogs), and really letting go of the junk should be a reward in and of itself. the extra money is just icing on the cake.
so how exactly can one go about doing this? well... here are a few suggestions to get started (though, i feel like i should point out that this is nowhere near an exhaustive list, and some suggestions may not be available to you locally). 
1. craigslist. this one is the most obvious, but also my least favorite. if you live in a major city (like we do) you probably have access to a pretty large and active craigslist community ready and willing to snap up whatever it is you post for sale. provided that you manage to get it in the right category at the right time on the right day of the week so that it actually gets seen. craigslist seems to be the best way to get rid of big-ticket items like furniture and appliances (this is how we were able to FINALLY get rid of the old dressers), however, theres also the downside of dealing with crazy lowball offers and flaky people. 
2. local resale groups. this is something i JUST learned about, and i REALLY wish i had known about it sooner. these local groups usually exist on facebook, and are typically a closed group for a very specific area. because the pool of people is smaller, its a little easier for people to see what youre posting for sale, and (at least in my local group) there has been a LOT less haggling and flaky buyers than on craigslist. also, i have been very surprised at the things people are willing to come pick up that wouldnt have even gotten a second look on craigslist. 
3. book off. book off is a local (southern california) chain of used bookstores, that buys your old books (and video games, dvds, etc.) for cash on the spot. obviously theyre turning the books around to sell at a profit so they payout isnt great, BUT theyll take almost any book in decent condition with a valid ISBN number. if you have a lot of books (like we did, 4 or 5 large bags at one point) to get rid of, this is a great way to make a few bucks, AND hopefully get your old books into the hands of someone who will actually use them. 
4. thredup. thredup is basically a HUGE online consignment store, meaning, theyll buy your old clothes (as long as theyre in great condition and meet their strict brand guidelines), and pay you a portion of the selling price. but unlike typical brick and mortar consignment stores, they take womens, kids, AND baby clothes and you dont have to take anything anywhere. you just order a clean out bag, and send off your goods (its completely free!). whatever they decide to sell, they pay you for, and whatever you dont, they donate. also, if you order anything through my referral link, we both get $10 to spend. just saying. 
5. half.com. if you dont live in an area with a book off store, have a lot of texbooks or bestseller-type books to get rid of, or dont mind taking a bit of extra time to get rid of your old books, selling them on half.com is super easy and can bring in a surprising amount of money. you can search your books by isbn, price your books a little lower than what theyre currently selling for, and after you ship them off, half.com will pay you (the sale price, plus a shipping fee, minus a little commission) via direct deposit. 
6. instagram. recently, when we were having a hard time getting rid of the huge mirror from our bedroom set (no one on craigslist OR the local resale group was interested), i decided to put a post up on instagram to see if any local friends or followers could use it. i figured, what could it hurt, especially since i only have about 250 facebook friends (and nobody sees anything i post because of how choosy facebook is with what they show people), and about 700 IG followers (some of which HAVE to be local, right?). so i took a couple minutes to put up a post, and it turns out my cousin (who doesnt have a facebook) wanted the mirror and picked it up a couple days later. so, long story short, even if you DONT have the time/energy for a full blown instagram shop or closet sale, instagram can totally be a valuable way to sell things quickly. 
do you have a favorite way to sell things you no longer need? let me know in the comments! 

8 tips to keep you from going broke on maternity clothes.

im going to be completely real here, i HATE maternity clothes. a strong, powerful, oddly disproportionate hate like the hate i have for morissey and wil wheaton and things that are orange-flavored. i hate having to buy special, single purpose garments for a very specific, very temporary transitional period in life that lasts approximately five months. when you add the fact that the majority of traditional maternity clothes are expensive, unflattering, uncomfortable, and inexplicably geared to the over-40 set style-wise, well, there are a whole lot of layers to that hate-cake. 

but being pregnant doesnt have to mean dropping hundreds of dollars on clothes that you hate. i mean, theres not a whole lot you can do to change whats already out there in the world of maternity clothes, it turns out there are actually quite a few things you can do to make things easier in the money department. 

and now that i have (almost) two whole pregnancies under my (currently very large) belt, i herby present to you my top eight tips for saving money on maternity clothes: 

1. re-evaluate your "normal" clothes. so the idea that youre going to need an ENTIRE new wardrobe as soon as you find out youre pregnant is a total lie, because 1. its probably going to be a while before you actually need different clothes (especially if its your first pregnancy) and 2. you probably have a LOT of regular clothes that will serve you well through pregnancy. things like: long/loose tops, sweaters, jackets, empire waist/fit and flare dresses, stretchy skirts, leggings, etc.. so before you rush out and buy anything, move all of THAT stuff to the front of your closet and see how far you can go. 

2. splurge on a belly band. these range anywhere from $15 to upwards of $60, which is an absolutely stupid price for whats basically just a circle of stretchy fabric that really isnt all that comfortable (personally i find it very itchy and constricting). but, it does have two key benefits (especially for the first half of pregnancy/postpartum): 1. it lets you wear your normal pants unbuttoned without them falling down/everyone being able to see your open pants, and 2. it fills in the gap when your shirts start getting too short (but not necessarily too small). 

3. dont get ahead of yourself. i know the idea of a single, big maternity shopping spree to outfit yourself for your entire pregnancy might sound super fun and efficient. but honestly thats a surefire way to end up wasting a TON of money on clothes that wont get worn. why? because, like most things involving babies, you really CAN NOT anticipate what youre going to need until you actually need it (or dont need it). there is literally NO way to predict how big you are going to get at what stage, how youre going to carry, or what kind of clothes you are going to want to wear/feel comfortable in once you get bigger. so when you run out of pants or shirts or underwear or whatever that fit, go get that one thing you KNOW you need, and hold off on everything else. 

4. look for non-maternity alternatives. heres the thing with anything labeled "maternity": much like anything labeled "wedding", whatever it is is going to cost about three-four times as much as its normal counterpart. but the thing is (just like with weddings) sometimes there is literally no difference. take extra-long tank tops for layering: theyre a good $20 + in the maternity section (even at cheap places like h&m), but you can get them at forever 21 for like $4. another great trick (especially for skirts and dresses) is to find a flattering cut thats loose around the belly area, and buying it in a larger than normal size. in addition to saving you tons of money, it will not have the belly-accentuating gathers and panels that maternity clothes tend to have, so you can continue to wear them postpartum without still looking pregnant (trust me on this, you do NOT want to be wearing belly-emphasizing maternity clothes after the baby is born). 

5. invest in versatile basics. as with clothing in general, youll get a LOT more mileage out of your maternity budget if you stick to higher quality, mix and match pieces in neutral colors. one really great dress or pair or pants can be dressed up or down in a variety of combinations and no one will really notice, but loud, trendy tops will only last you a few wears. also, great basics are less likely to go out of style, and a LOT more likely to be useful to save for your next pregnancy/hand down to another expecting mom. 

6. always look check the clearance sales. there is one plus side to the fact that maternity clothes tend to be horribly dated: the stuff on clearance is exactly the same as the stuff thats regular price. wherever youre shopping, whether its an an actual maternity store like motherhood or somewhere less expected like h&m or amazon, check the clearance, because there is probably something fantastic/necessary for a fraction of the price. actual real-life clearance scores so far: $6 and $12 nursing bras, a $12 bathing suit, $5 tshirts, and a very, very versatile black and white striped dress (because we all know how i love those) for $25. all because i checked the clearance. 

7. thrift/consignment stores, thredup, and your other mom friends. so far ive only talked about buying new maternity clothes. but, of course, theres also the option of not buying new maternity clothes. since theyre typically worn for such a short time, most used pieces are still in fabulous condition, and if you have the patience/free time for it (but if you dont, thredup is a wonderful online substitute) you can find deals way better than the clearance racks. also, hand me downs. if you have other friends that are new moms, pregnancy is not a time to be too proud for hand me downs. 

8. consider your postpartum needs when youre shopping. i really, really hate to break it to you, but you are probably not going straight back to your pre-pregnancy shape immediately after giving birth. youll need transitional clothes. also, if youre planning on nursing, youll need tops and dresses that will work for that too. BUT, if you carefully select your maternity purchases so that theyre also useful postpartum, then you can really stretch your clothing budget. 

so yeah, long story short, maternity clothes kind of suck. but at least they dont have to eat all your money.