UW Dairy Cattle Center

Today we went with my Mom's Meetup group to the UW Dairy Cattle Center. One of the gals had arranged a tour for us. (Note: If you go, park in Lot 36. Parking is the main thing that holds us back from any campus activity. We parked way the heck away which wasn't too bad of a walk, but with 3 tired kiddos, the walk back was dreadful.)

Anyway, I knew the university had a dairy and we love going to watch them make ice cream and the cookies and cream is literally the best I've ever had, but I had no idea that there was a cattle center on campus! As we were walking over the bridge Claire asked, "What's that SMELL Mom?" -Cows. The gent that did our tour was so great with our littles. We had a handful of 2-3 year olds and then Claire got to come today, too. We started in a lobby area where we slipped on some shoe covers which are meant to protect the cows more than anything. He talked to us about the different cows and buildings and gave us lots of general information before we started the tour. None of us moms came from an agricultural background so we were clueless.

We walked in to where the cows are weighed when they arrived. All of the little girls liked running on the ramp. Then we got to see the cows. The University actually has 80 cows on campus. There are 700 cows in total, but most are kept at other study locations. Tiegan LOVES cows. She was so excited and squealed a lot. He talked to us for a while in front of the cows, but I can't remember what he said. I was too busy trying to keep my children from playing in their food.

Then we went and saw where they get the food and he talked about that for a while. It was super fascinating. He told us about food and it turns out the preparation has a big effect on how much milk the cows will provide. (Grinding vs. chopping) The cows are milked twice a day, and each gives off about 10 gallons of milk per day.(80-90 POUNDS of milk.) One of the gals gives 22 gallons per day.

Then we got to walk past the cows again and into another room where some of the cows are involved in different studies. And then we got to see where and how the cows get milked. You can actually come in at 4:30 to watch the cows get milked. They have a great viewing area, and since you aren't walking around the cows you don't need booties. They get milked from 4:30-5. He talked to us about the milking process and the system that scans their chips and will tell the students how much they weigh, how much milk they'll give, and how long it will take to milk to ensure the cow isn't over or under milked. He said it takes anywhere from 5-8 minutes to milk a cow.

We were a little short on time, our guide had a meeting right away, but usually he lets kids stick their hands into a cow's stomach and talks about the anatomy and how their stomachs work. I doubt any of the girls would have done it anyway. Maybe Aoife.

At one point during the tour, I thought Claire was sucking her thumb and I told her to stop. Turns out she was plugging her nose and whined a little when she stopped. "But mom, it's kind of stinky!"

It's so cool that the University has so much for kids and is so willing to give tours and show us all of the cool things! They didn't have any baby calves at the time, but he gave out his card so we'll be checking in and will definitely be back with those little babes arrive!

Frogs and Science.

It's been an eventful week. Earlier this week we caught frogs in the backyard. Aoife spotted the little guy and I quickly scooped him up. Everyone took turns holding it and loved it. Well, everybody except Claire. Towards the end she was in tears begging me to let it go. She was scared of it. Aoife was so tender with it and almost kissed it. Tiegan only squished him in her fist twice (He survived.) And eventually we let him go despite Aoife's pleas for a pet. It was the second one we've caught in our yard!

The next day we captured two caterpillars. Claire was the first to hold those and she proudly announced that caterpillars are her favorite animal. We had one fuzzy one and one squishy green one. Having a backyard is basically the greatest thing ever.

This morning, Aoife and I did some science together. She had a really hard time when Claire went to school. One day, Aoife was downstairs talking to me about breakfast because "I hun-gee Mama". Claire was upstairs getting dressed for school and made some comment about how excited she was to go to school. Aoife clenched her fists, stomped to the bottom of the stairs and yelled, "SHUT UP CLAIRE!!" She just misses her buddy and wants to go to school so badly, too.

Luckily, Mama Loveland was on top of it. She sent the girls a few outfits earlier, School outfits for Claire and some for the other two so they weren't left out. But later on she also sent a package just for Aoife. It had an opposites puzzle/matching game and a rainbow science kit!

 I love science. I've been saving it till the weather wasn't so awesome, but I couldn't hold off anymore. We broke out the kit this morning. We made rainbow milk, some colored paper, colored bubbles, and used a pipette to make lots of different colors. The kit has a ton more experiments for us to do later. Aoife especially loved using the pipette to measure and mix. She's very mechanically minded. I don't think she cared too much about making new colors so much as getting to squeeze it.  Honestly, it was a little frustrating. I wanted to do the experiments correctly and precisely and Aoife just kept reminding me, "I do it my SEWLF!"I suppose I can just play with it after the kids are in bed one night or something. Overall it was super fun and she seemed to really enjoy it. Whenever I was away cleaning up the previous experiment and getting the tools ready for the next she was singing an experiment song she made up. I'm sure when we pick up Claire later she'll say that we did experiments without Claire. We'll still working on not bragging and being kind.

FHE Week 3.

 Last night Ross taught the lesson for FHE. He gathered up the girls' piggy banks and tithing jars and some extra coins. The two oldest girls get $2.50 for allowance each week. It's not a lot, but we wanted to teach the girls about both saving and tithing. We have a giant tub for tithing that the girls toss their $0.25 into each week and the rest they get to put in their piggy banks and spend or save on whatever they'd like. A few months ago they bought their own shoes with the allowance they had saved up. I think Claire is currently saving for a Doc McStuffins Clinic truck.

Anyway, we talked about tithing last night. The girls usually get their allowance on Saturdays, but we had forgotten yesterday, so Ross had their allowance for that week out to give to them. Ross gave it to them and asked what the first thing we did was. We've been doing it for a while, so the girls knew that right away they threw one of their quarters into the tithing bucket. Claire shouted, "We tithe it!" I asked her what that meant. Right answer, but I wanted to see if she knew the WHY behind it.

Ross talked with the girls about our church building and temples and missionaries and how tithing money goes to help with that. He laid out 10 pennies and asked the girls if they had gotten 10 pennies, how many of those would go to tithing. (We pay 10% of everything we get to tithing.) He talked with the girls about how Heavenly Father gives us everything, so we give just a little bit back to Him to say thank you. He helped them fill out their tithing slips and place their tithes in the envelope. Aoife wanted to drive to Bishop's house right away instead of waiting till next Sunday.

Then we played with Legos until bed time. Aoife had made brownies, but they girls didn't finish dinner so Ross and I ate some after they went to bed. (Mean parents, I know.) I've really enjoyed doing Family Home Evening on Sunday. It's been the perfect end to the day.

Cinnamon Roll Casserole.

I promise this ins't turning into a food blog. But today's breakfast was too good to not share. Part of our Family Sabbath Day Plan is having breakfast together. Usually Ross gets the girls up and gets them cereal or bagels or whatever while I mozzy my way to the fridge and pop open a Diet Coke. Not bashing on cereal for breakfast. I love cereal for breakfast, but I wanted our Sabbath Day breakfast to be something to look forward to. And simple. I am not a morning person. The requirement of being exciting and simple is a tall order, I know.

Hence my Crock Pot love. I love everything about my crock pot. It is Heaven sent. And I love breakfasts. Breakfast in a crock pot? GOLDEN. I woke up at 5 to get these bad boys cooking and went back to bed until a reasonable hour. I could have started them the night before and just had the pot sit on "warm" until morning, but I wanted it hot and fresh. So...5 AM. Totally worth it.

Cinnamon Roll Casserole: 

• 2 or 3 12 oz tubes of cinnamon rolls. (I made with two, but next time I would do 3)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 C. Heavy whipping cream
• 3T Maple syrup
• 2t Vanilla
• 1t Cinnamon
• 1/4t Nutmeg

NIGHT BEFORE PREP: (highly recommend, but totally okay to do before throwing everything in the pot.  Bust open the cinnamon rolls and cut into quarters. I used scissors and just snipped them. Put in a bowl. Cover and keep in fridge.

In separate bowl, mix the eggs, cream, syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cover and keep in fridge.

WHEN YOU ARE READY TO COOK: Spray your pot with cooking spray. Place just enough  cinnamon roll pieces to cover the bottom of the pot. (about half) Re-stir the egg mixture if prepped the night before. Pour liquid over the roll pieces. Use one of the icing packets to drizzle and save the other for later. Place remaining roll pieces on top.

Cook low 2 1/2-3 hours. I did mine on low for 2 and then high for the last half hour and it was awesome. I'm a texture person, so I needed to know the dough was 100% cooked. Drizzle the last packet of icing before serving.

BAM. Awesome breakfast. I used 2 roll tubes and it was plenty for our family of 5. We even had a little leftover. Next time I'd do 3 tubes so we can have more leftovers.

Model Rockets

I love Amy Poehler's Smart Girls.  It's something I stalk and just can't get enough of. Earlier last week she had posted about two girls sending a homemade ship to the edge of space. Aoife loved it and had the video on repeat.




Seriously, how cool is that?! It reminded me of making rockets with my dad when I was a kid and launching them. I decided it was time to introduce my daughters to rockets.

Shopping is crazy enjoyable with only two littles, since Claire is in school. Aoife and I ran to Hobby Lobby where I've scoped the rockets before. We picked out a kit that had the base and two rockets, grabbed a few different engines, the packing paper, and some plastic cement.

After we got Claire for school and had lunch, we set to building. I can only kind of comprehend how much excitement was packed in their small bodies. They were bursting and impatient, but we survived and built some cool rockets!

We're pretty pumped to blast these bad boys off, but we'll probably wait until tomorrow evening so Ross can join in. Hope these littles can hold out and wait till then!

Crock-pot Freezer Meals

Let me start off by saying that I am not a food blogger. I don't take pictures of my food, I don't love to cook, and my only passion for food is eating it. I used to enjoy cooking before I had children. Now every 5 seconds I hear, "Mama, I hun-gee." Granted, it's usually the sweetest "Mama" you've ever heard, but it gradually grows more and more impatient and demanding as the seconds between the statement and food in their tiny paws grow longer. 

So, I am not a food blogger. But I am pretty handy with freezer meals. My family survived off of them for probably a year after little #3 was born. With 3 kids in just barely 3 years, cooking was at the bottom of my to-do list. I love freezer meals. I spend an hour or two every couple weeks and whip these bad boys up so all I have to do it throw it in the pot, hit the time, and I'm done. Sometimes I get lazy and simply skip the freezing part and just dump everything in the pot for the day. Totally up to you. 

These are our tried and true family favorite freezer meal staples. Generally I shop at Costco for frozen chicken breasts, a couple whole chickens, and a 4 pack pork roast. Maybe some pork chops. Everything else I get from my favorite grocery store. Canned veggies I prefer to get from the organic/natural section: They just taste better in my opinion. Some of these are Whole30 since I did that for a while, some are Paleo, and some are just plain delicious. Unless otherwise noted, throw all ingredients in the bag (or pot) and call it a day. I'm all about minimal effort. 

1) Slow Cooker Carnitas: (Whole30/Paleo)

• -1 4lb pork roast 
• -2 C. Chicken broth or stalk 
• -4 Cloves garlic
• -2t. Chili powder
• -1t. Oregano
• -1/2t. Coriander
• -1t salt

Cook low for 8 hours or high for 4. Shred pork and we usually do this as a burrito salad, or tacos, or whatever your heart's content. 

2) Sweet and Sour Meatballs:

• 1 (16oz) pkg frozen fully cooked meatballs
• 1 onion - diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 (16-18oz) bottle sweet & sour sauce
• 1 cup pineapple tidbits, drained

Cook low for 4 hours or high for 2. Serve over rice. 

3)BBQ Cranberry Pork:

• Pork Roast
• 1 can cranberry sauce (We like the whole berry kind)
• 1 C. BBQ Sauce 

Cook low 6-7 hours or high for 4. We serve this with mashed potatoes with the cranberry sauce over the potatoes, too. 

4) Thai Peanut Pork: (Whole30/Paleo)

2 lb. boneless pork-chops

2 red bell peppers thinly sliced

⅓ cup soy sauce (Skip for Whole30/Paleo)

⅓ cup chunky peanut butter (Sub almond butter for Paleo/Whole30)

1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated

1 cup chicken broth 

3 tablespoons honey (Skip for Whole30)

2 cloves of garlic

½ tsp red pepper flakes

Cook low 5-6 hours. Serve with rice. Or salad. Or potatoes. You have options. (I usually make 2 of these because we like it so much.)

5) Chipotle Pork With Pineapple Coleslaw: (Whole30/Paleo) 

• pork roast, about 4 lbs
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder (more if you like it spicy!)
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 cups chicken or beef stock
• 1 teaspoon all natural liquid smoke
• Optional serving toppings: avocado slices, freshly torn cilantro, bbq sauce
• For the pineapple coleslaw:
• 4 cups coleslaw
• ½ cup mayonnaise (Paleo/Whole30 mayo)
• 1 ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups fresh pineapple
• sea salt and pepper, to taste

Cook low 8 hours or 4 hours. Prepare coleslaw. Shred pork. Serve with the coleslaw either on top or on the side. 

6) Slow Cooker Chicken: (Paleo/Whole30)

• 1 whole chicken (4-5 lbs.), rinsed and patted dry
•  2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
•  1  tsp. dried thyme
•  1 tsp. garlic powder
•  1 tsp. sea salt
•  1 tsp. paprika
•  1 tsp. ground black pepper
•  1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)

Place some quartered potatoes and baby carrots along the bottom the the pot. Add in chicken and other ingredients Cook low 6-8 hours. After, you can broil the chicken for 5-10 minutes if you like it brown and a little crisp. 

7) Taco Chili:

• 1 lb. ground beef or turkey
  1 medium onion chopped
  1 can corn drained
  1 can black beans drained
  1 can navy beans drained
  1 8 oz can tomato sauce
  2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes
  1 small can diced green chiles
  1 package taco seasoning

Cook low 4-6 hours. Break up ground meat and stir before serving. 

8) White Chicken Chili:

1 medium onion chopped

1 can chopped green chilies

2 cans white beans (drained)

2 t. cumin

2 t. chili powder

1 lb chicken 

1 t. salt

1 t. pepper

2 C. Chicken stock

Cook low 4 hours. Shred chicken and stir before serving. 

9) Honey Sesame Chicken: 

1 lb chicken

1 cup honey

2 T sesame seeds

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 t. salt

1 t. pepper

Cook low 4-5 hours. Serve over rice or as lettuce wraps.

10) Beef Stew: Paleo/Whole30)

1 large onion, diced

1 ½ lb lean stew meat

2 cups beef stock

1 ½  cups V-8 juice

⅓  cup barbeque sauce (Paleo/Whole30 BBQ Sauce) 

3 clove of garlic

1 lb carrots cut up

Cook low 8-9 hours or high 6 hours

11) Mediterranean Pork Chops: (Paleo/Whole30)

2 cups chicken broth

4 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp poultry seasoning

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried basil

6-8 thick cut pork chops

Cook low 8 hours or high for 4. Serve with Salad, potatoes, whatever your heart's content. 

12) Balsamic Chicken:

 4-6 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts

2 - 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

1 medium onion thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar 

1 tsp each: dried oregano, basil, and rosemary

1/2 tsp thyme

Cook low 8 hours or high for 4. Serve over angel hair pasta. 

13) Cilantro Lime Chicken:

1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts

Juice from 2 limes

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 (16 oz) bag frozen corn

2 minced garlic cloves

1/2 red onion, chopped

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp cumin

Cook low 8 hours or high for 4. We do this over a salad, or as tacos or burrito bowls. 

14) Creamy Chicken and Tomato Soup: (Paleo/Whole30)

8 skinless boneless chicken breast

2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning

1 tablespoon dried basil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

2 14 oz. can of coconut milk (full fat), shake before opening can to avoid separation

2 14 oz. can diced tomatoes and juice

2 cups of chicken broth

1 small can of tomato paste

1/2 jar of your favorite tomato sauce (The natural section has a great sauce that is all pureed veggies that we LOVE in this soup)

Cook low 9 hours or high for 5. Shred chicken and stir before serving. 

15) Red Beans and Rice:

1 pound red beans

7 cups water

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped or minced

2 cans chicken broth

1-1/2 pounds sausage

2 tablespoons Creole Seasoning 

Cook High 7 hours and serve over rice. 

I'm sure we have more, but these are definitely our family staples. Generally I like to whip these all together at once and be set for a good while, but when life gets crazy, I just plan and shop for the meals that week . With school and work schedules, I love being able to throw one of these bad boys in and forget about it. Enjoy!! 

Dating in Madison

We are the worst at Date Night. Our schedules are insane and family time is limited, so we just don't make it out that often. We've tried taking turns planning an at home date and an actual date, date jars, getting a babysitter and getting out the door and asking "What do you want to do?" and we end up roaming the bookstore or grocery shopping.

We're lame.

Until now.

A couple months ago I had a brilliant idea. It was around the same time as we started the Cash Envelopes.  If we were going to go on a date, we were going to do it right. Ross and I are very different people. You can tell from our Netlix profiles. But I love that we're different and I love that Ross has things that he loves and although I might not love it the same way, I want to be interested in his interests. I decided we were going to do one date a month. I'd take the odd months and he'd take the even months. But here's the catch. The person planning the date plans it 100% including babysitter and has to plan it around their own interests. What THEY want to do. We've done 3 months of this and here's how it's gone.

MONTH 1: Kate's month-
For this one I wanted something exciting and different. I booked us a room at Escape Chambers.  We got locked in a room for an hour and had an hour to solve the scenario. They had a few to choose from and I went with the one called "All In"

"It was all a setup. The dealer was in on it....the other high rollers at the table were in on it.....even the waitress played her part. They took you for everything you had. Unfortunately for them, you have a plan to take it back....with interest. You call up a few "business associates" and explain the job. They all think you're certifiably insane.....and they all want in."

So basically the situation was Ross and I got involved in an underground poker game and lost all our cash. We had to find the entrance to the underground casino and find the money and get out before the bouncer came back.

Seriously, SO FUN!! We arrived a little early and decided to get drinks and appetizers at The Vintage across the street before we headed over to get locked in a room. We had a blast. It was unlike any date we've had. Unfortunately, we didn't grab the money before the time was up but we'll definitely be going back to check out the new rooms.

MONTH 2: Ross' month-

Ross loves superheros. Especially Marvel. And board games. Originally his plan was for us to go to a game night at the local board game shop, but my work schedule didn't cooperate. Sorry, babe. Instead we went out for some grub and headed to the theatre to see Ant Man. And it was awesome. I don't have the passion for Superheros like he does, but the movie was great, the company was great, and I didn't have to plan a thing. :)

MONTH 3: Kate's month-

I splurged on this. Which isn't fair to Ross, but I've been dying for a getaway weekend. I wasn't planning on telling Ross and having it be a surprise, but I'm the worst at surprises and got so excited I told him maybe an hour after booking. We had a lovely getaway at a bed and breakfast on the East side of town, The Speckled Hen Inn.

I lined up someone to stay with the girls and we had some great quiet alone time. We started with dinner at Red Robin. Our food was taking forever and a manager came up to our table to tell us our food got lost somehow, but not to worry because they're working on it now and our meal would be on her! Free food!

I spent a lot of time picking a place and then the perfect room. And it did not disappoint. We played card games, relaxed, ate food, and just hung out together. Breakfast was phenomenal: Carmel apple scones, fresh raspberries, eggs from their chickens, grilled tomato, bacon glazed with maple syrup from their maple trees...so much food. And everything was from their garden. It was AMAZING.

Before we went home to resume normal life, we walked around some stores and grabbed lunch. It was the most relaxed we've been in a long time. Much needed getaway. I'm only sad it was one night instead of two.

Next Month will be Ross' month as well as our anniversary month. I'm excited to see what he plans, and if he knows the key to my heart, it will include food.

FHE WEEK 2.

We've never been great at having a consistent Family Home Evening (FHE). It's where we have a small gospel lesson, a treat, and an activity together. It's just a night for us to be together as a family. Our schedule is insane. I work most evenings and our time together as a family is limited. It took a while for us to find a night that worked for us. We decided on Sunday nights.

Ross taught our first FHE and I want to say it was on Family Home Evenings and why we have it and introducing the idea to the girls. We took out our Family Home Evening board and set it up, ate popsicles together, and played a matching/puzzle game.

Week 2 I was teaching the lesson. At church we've been talking about Making the Sabbath day more Holy. Our leaders have suggested making a Family and Personal Sabbath Day Plan and I decided we were going to follow counsel and do it!

Sundays at our house are a circus. Church is at 11 and my children are early risers. One naps in the morning and all 3 nap in the afternoon. I'm convinced there isn't a perfect church time. At 11, my kids are hungry and tired and cranky. We usually roll up to church with at least one kid screaming. Sacrament meeting, the most important meeting, is a blur as we try to wrangle the littles into their seats, and the drive home also has at least one kid screaming. Often I'm left why we bother to go when we're clearly a circus and I have eyes staring at me like "Why can't you control your kid?". We needed a lesson on reverence and a plan on how to make our Sabbath day what we want it to be.

I started by asking the girls what day it was. (We're pretty big on days of the week at our house.) It was Sunday and so I asked what we do on Sundays. -go to church. Then I talked about how Sunday is also called the Sabbath Day and how when we go to church we act a little differently.

Earlier I had cut out body parts from construction paper. (A head, a triangle for a dress, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, arms, and legs) I had a glue stick so we could put together our person as we talked about what each of our different body parts should do at church. We're pretty big on anything that involves scissors or glue.

We started with the head and I asked what our heads should do. (Bow our heads during prayers, think about Jesus)
Then our clothes and what our clothes should look like at church (Clean and neat)
Eyes (Watching the speakers was what my little came up with, which I liked, but I was leaning towards closed during prayers.)
Nose (Not picking our nose at church. We've had a couple offenses)
Ears (Listening to the speakers and teachers)
Mouth (My little said Smiling. But also talking quietly)
Arms (Little's response "Keep them to yourselves!" But also folded during prayers)
Legs (Walking quietly in the hallways, not running)

We glued our reverence person together and put it on the fridge so next Sunday we can look at it and remind us how to be reverent at church.

Then we grabbed a plate of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies that Claire made (Seriously, click the link and make these. A family favorite and so stupid easy.) and headed to the table to make our Sabbath Day plan. Earlier I had written out ideas, which I'm glad I did. I ended up listing off what I thought would help us have a great Sabbath, and talking about it with Ross while the girls munched and listened.

Then we played with homemade play doh that Aoife had made for us earlier. We'll have to see how next Sunday goes, but hopefully our plan will help and our reverence person can remind us how to be reverent at church!

Dave Ramsey Cash Envelopes.

This is something I'm super excited to talk about. Budgeting and money is probably my least favorite thing to discuss. When the hubbs would bring the topic up, I'd say very little and try to change the subject to anything but money. Ross made the budget while I sat there and had numbers go in one ear and out the other. I was present, but not participating. Then we go about our usual lives. Ross works, I spend, and we'd check in every few months to see how we were doing. Ross was stressed and I figured we were fine because we had adult jobs and what debt we had was "normal":  a little on a credit card, car payment, and student loans. With my free spirit attitude and small purchases here and there, I definitely wasn't sticking to the "budget" and Ross was getting stressed. I didn't like talking about money because I felt guilty. Ross brings home the bacon and I'm home with the littles during the day and do the majority of the spending. Honestly, it was putting more of a strain on our relationship than I realized.

Then Ross decided I should be in charge of the budget since I do the majority of the spending. I didn't want to disappoint, so I took the role seriously. So seriously, I remembered seeing things on Pinterest about this Dave Ramsey guy. I downloaded his book and blazed through it within a couple days. It lit a fire under my butt. I told Ross about it and had him read it too so we were on the same page and it changed our lives probably forever. We began planning to implement the Baby Steps the next month and did all of our prep work to get everything in order.

We've always had mutual funds and use those for long term saving. They pretty much saved us when we moved to Wisconsin and had literally $5 to our name. (It's rough moving with 2 kids after graduation at the end of term when the grants and loans have run dry and it's Christmas.) Baby Step 1 is having $1000 saved for the emergencies. We already had that in savings in addition to what we had in the mutual funds. We decided to pull the funds and put it toward debt. It was a little hard to see our vacation and downpayment on a house go, but it was great to get that snowball rolling. Baby Step 1: CHECK.

Baby Step 2 is to pay off all the debt except the house. This includes "Normal Debt" including student loans. We changed all of our automatic payments where we were paying an extra $100 or $20 or whatever to the minimum and put all of the extra cash toward the smallest debt. And here's where the budget and cash envelopes come in.

Our first meeting, I made sure we had treats and drinks and was determined to make it a FUN meeting. I had prepped by making all of our envelopes. I went to the craft store and found a cute Card/Envelope set that looked like the right size for cash. Then I ripped the cards apart so I could glue it on the envelope. If we were going to use envelopes, they were going to be CUTE envelopes. Then I just used a sharpie to write the category on the glued card. Ross is an Excel wizard and has always had our budget figured in there. We took our non-flexible spending categories and subtracted those from the balance first. (Things like Rent, car payment, student loans, internet, cell phones...) Then we were left with our flexible spending which became our envelopes.

BANK (for if we buy something on Amazon or whatever and we need to put cash back into the bank)
CLOTHING
ENTERTAINMENT (we kept this pretty broad. Our date budget is in here, along with family outings, and pretty much anything fun. We also put gift cards and such in here)
GAS
GENEROSITY (for those times when your friend is having a bad day and you want to do something kind for them)
GROCERY
KATE'S STASH (my own spending money)
ROSS' STASH (Ross' spending money)
TITHING (When I get tips from work in cash, 10% of that goes in this folder for church. Otherwise we leave $10 of all our income in the bank for church and pay online)
TRAVEL (so we can save for a weekend getaway or whatever we choose)

We don't have a lot of categories, mostly because our grocery and entertainment cover a lot of different things. Clothing we wanted to keep separate for if Claire grows out of her pants again or someone needs something, that way it's planned for and doesn't need to come out of another category. Some of these envelopes roll over month to month. So if we didn't use our generosity envelope one month, it gets added to for the next month. Otherwise if we have leftovers from certain envelopes, it goes to debt. We totaled up the dollar amounts needed for the envelopes and took cash out for those. We kept the automatic payment amount in the bank for those to just be taken out.

We were excited to have a plan. A plan where we told our money where to go, and once it was gone, it's gone. It took a little adjusting to using cash for everything. We had to make sure we grabbed the right envelope when we went out, but it made us more united and conscious of spending and HOW we spend our money.

We've only been using this method for a little over a month, but here's how we stack up. We came in under budget in everything. SERIOUSLY under budget. I'm talking several hundred dollars under budget. When we use cash, we are more conscious of the spending. I was more mindful while grocery shopping. We did one Costco trip at the beginning of the month to load up on meat and granola bars and other things we go through like crazy so my weekly grocery trips were significantly less. Not only did we come in under budget, but in the first month I was able to pay close to $2,000 on my credit card.  Don't ask me how, I was pretty blown away when I totaled it up.

We intended to have a mid month meeting just to check in and see how we were doing, but life got crazy and we didn't meet until we were planning for the next month. We adjusted our budget a little bit so we had more left over for debt. It was amazing to have a plan that was working and that we were headed in the right direction. Ross had the stress of the budget removed and our money meetings aren't uncomfortable for me anymore. I actually look forward to them to see how awesome we did and look at the progress. I don't feel crippled by the budget. We have money set aside for personal spending and entertainment/dates so we still have fun, it's just fun that we've PLANNED for. I'm so excited to see where this takes us!