Pinching Pennies

Happy Thursday!

Thursday around here is moo-lah day! James brings home the bacon! I make money too don’t worry! This isn’t a 1950’s cliché, promise! James just makes a heftier amount and it’s more stable; so we use his money for everyday things!

So my morning consists of crunching numbers before the kiddos arrive and during naptime! The money will never go as far as I hope but we are comfortable, and I am grateful for that!

Since we don’t just make oodles amount of money we need try to be practical! We are good for the most part! We don’t believe in credit cards and taking a loan out on this house was really hard, but we knew it would be worth it! We do pay extra every month, even if it’s ten buckaroos! So we are really good about not having debt and paying it off, but we aren’t the best at saving! We do get a certain amount taken out right away from our checks, but I’m talking about saving extra money for bigger and better things like a new car versus 1000 teddy bears? Just kidding about the teddy bears, or am I?! We don’t always spend money in the right places though!

Sooooo… finally getting to the point! I wanted/needed organizing supplies! So trying to save some of our hard earned money, we went to the Dollar Tree! I’m a sucker for places like that! They had the cutest things! Some things almost Target worthy!

Oh and the colors are so pretty! The greens and blues oh my! I spent a little over forty but look at all those containers! James did throw a few things in the cart too! Wal-mart doesn’t have containers that cheap in such pretty hues! Mostly just white!

So I’m busy working on trying to make new homes for all these lovely containers! I’m putting some here, some there and everywhere in between!

I’ll keep you posted on where they end up! I can’t wait to share!

xOxO

Brittany!

my dear pantry.

Hello there!

I can't believe it's March already! I can definitely tell I've caught a case of the spring fever! My cluttered cabinets and dusty nooks and crannies just aren't safe lately! 

One of my favorite things I've done lately is surgery on this huge cabinet. The location of this cabinet is in the laundry room right next to the kitchen so I knew right away what I wanted! Pantry storage! So shelves were making their way onto my please please please honey-do list! 

It's so embarrassing to look at! Nothing I put in here made sense! Kitty litter next to Kleenex and a flag? Oh and my Christmas shopping list? It might be okay if it was for next Christmas but let's be honest here, I didn't even check them all off!

Before:

I think the previous owners used it for brooms and vacuums. There were command hooks and the space just didn't make since for anything else? I didn't really like the idea of having to lift the vacuum and having no shelves for cleaning supply goodness. So I put all those goodies in the closet in the same room! It made more sense! More on that another day though!

So first I needed to assess the situation! Why is the kitty litter in the laundry room and not by the actual litter box in the bathroom? My guess was for exercise? So I put everything where it made more sense and the flag, well I put it in with the holiday decor! Lastly, I finally erased my Christmas shopping list of the chalkboard! (This is just chalkboard contact paper I used!)

Now the cabinet was empty! I had James make me some shelves, well I basically begged! I thought he would be more excited to make some sawdust! Apparently it wasn't the project he was looking for!

And with shelves comes containers to hold the yummy-goodness! I thought long and hard about this one! I could go the cheap route or I could just take a dive and get exactly what I wanted! Which would mean less money updating in the long run! I went with the Better Homes & Gardens Flip Tite set available at Wal-Mart! There are other similar containers but I liked these the best for the price especially! 

I also picked up some cereal containers so we would have the freshest cereal and reused some of the white containers I had at our apartment!

And Voila! My new pantry!

After:

The first shelf has our bread items and our Uncle Joe's popcorn he left here for when he visits? The second is more of the snack items and cereal! Third is our paper plates, plastic cups, napkins, etc. Oh and candy and bubblegum! The fourth shelf I have some baking things and baby water! And lastly beverages and taters and onions! Oh one more thing an updated shopping list! 

Now I do plan to make this cabinet prettier with some labels and paint! However, I just needed those shelves fast! I was using my serving dish cabinet for all this stuff! 

So one more before and after side by side:

I'm so happy with the after! Are you getting spring fever and reorganizing too?!

XoXo
Brittany

hello lovelies,

i'm new to this whole blogging thing! i've read oodles and oodles but never really started my own! i can't say enough about how uber-excited i really am about this! 

a little bit about me:

i'm twenty-three.
i have a wonderful boyfriend, james.
we just bought our very first house.
i am working on becoming a liscensed daycare.
which means i need quite a bit of home-improvement.
which i just happen to love!

this blog will be about everything and the kitchen sink, literally i have some ideas there!