Housewifery Tips Pt. 3

"Grocery Shopping"

This may seem silly to some of you. But I seriously love grocery shopping. It's like a sport to me. So

over the last two and a half years I feel like I have perfected my flow. And I'd love to share it with you!

So, I'll admit this to you, because I feel like relationships are best built on honesty. I am a major

"TACF" - Type A Control Freak. Or for now, let's just call it "Monica Geller". So I'm going to rate my

levels of my MG for you so that you understand I'm aware of how crazy I sound. However, I shop

every two weeks for 14 days worth of food at a time, and I can do it all in under an hour. So you tell

me whose crazy! (probably still me.)

• Shop your pantry! First things first, go look in your fridge and pantry and see what you have. You may have forgotten about that bag of garbanzo flour for chickpea pancakes you have stashed away behind your protein powder, true story. (Don't we sound so healthy?!

• Time to purge! This is probably my favorite thing to do. Every other Tuesday, the day before shopping day. I get a trash bag, and go through my fridge, I throw away all of the leftovers no one ate or the things past their expiration date. Then I slowly move everything around and take out all of my shelves and clean them! I love doing this. You would not believe how amazing it feels to open a clean fridge!

• Start your menu! I like to start mine on paper, I write out the recipes that sound good, and I know that we like. (level 1 control freak) And then I go to my pinterest board for the rest. 

• Time to organize! After I make my menu on the front of my page, I turn it over and write the ingredients that we need, (level 2) After that I organize them into sections (meat, dairy, produce, etc). Then I like to put them into my phone in the order of the way the store is set up... (Level 3!) I do this because it helps me to minimize the amount of time that I would normally spend looking at snacks and cereal, and dessert that I don't need. Or aimlessly wandering around from one side of the store to the other over and over again. 

• Task list phone app! So this app automatically comes on your iPhone, so if you have an iPhone, take advantage of this app! I put in all of my grocery list items into it, and then I just check them off as I go, and they disappear! It's amazing, and efficient!

• Don't forget snacks & lunch! So one of my big mistakes when I first started was omitting snacks, and lunches. I don't know why, but I used to always convince myself that I didn't need them, but I would inevitably be starved the next day at 10am, or 4pm, with nothing to eat!  So don't forget to include some things to munch on. Almonds & blueberries, bananas, hummus & veggies, etc.

• Have a budget! So I don't know where this rates for you, but we budget $160 every paycheck for groceries. It will typically get us 10 dinners, and 5-8 lunches, breakfast every morning for two weeks, and snacks! Yes sometimes we do go over, but in that case, we would usually just skip the eating out a couple of times, and it makes up for it just fine. 

• Price Check! Praise the Lord, Tulsa is finally catching up with the rest of the world, we have a Trader Joes! Then comes the dilemma, So many duplicates of so many things. However, I have noticed half of my things I get from Sprouts you either can't get from TJ's, or some are just cheaper (meat, canned beans, bulk nuts, frozen fruits…) Whereas I can get lots of things from TJ's for cheaper, (Ghee, salsa, packaged veggies, and fruits) about a month ago I started to put prices next to the items on my grocery list so that I could be sure! 

• Under Budget? So here's a tip if you come in under budget, it's always exciting to see that you have $20-$30 that went unspent, but don't go mentally spending it on "that one thing" from Target just yet! Go to your bank, and get out the exact amount that you have left over, even if it's $23.86, and put it in an envelope or your wallet, for those times 8-12 days into your pay period when you KNOW that you will need that one random thing from the store!--you know, that thing you send your husband to get. 

• Going bad? Juice it! Clearly not everything. Please don't juice anything weird and say that I told you to do it. I just mean, if you have any extra fruits and veggies, why not just throw them in the juicer! Cucumber, Kale, Spinach, any berries! It's so convenient and a great guilt free snack!

• Time for a pep talk! Ok, I can't tell you how many times I think to myself, "Ugh, but I just really want Chik-fil-a.." But remember, you just spent over $100 on food, and by golly, you are going to eat at home! You will never regret just going ahead and fixing something at home, but you may regret the two bean burritos that it felt more convenient to quickly grab, rather than cook. 

• Putting things away! I know you thought I was done, but this is the last one. So you know all of those random bowls, vases, jars, and serve ware you never use? Time to pull them out! I always put our fruit and veggies in open bowls, it makes them look so much more appealing! I also always cut off the lid, and front flap of my egg containers, so that they stack easily and it just makes it look nicer!

So this is my way to grocery shop, I'm sure that everyone has a different method, but this is what works for me, and I honestly enjoy it! I started doing things this way because I noticed when I put a lot of pride into the presentation of our pantry and fridge, that I actually looked forward to cooking! So hopefully this helped someone out there with their grocery shopping rut.

Enjoy!

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Let's Be Real

So, a few months back, I read a blog post by HGTV designer, Emily Henderson (Projects in My Own 

Home). And she basically committed an entire post to detailing all of the things in her house that had

yet to be done. And it was so inspiring! I mean, its so easy to see a picture of someone's house and

 think "ugh, my house will never look like that." But we all have things in our house that will never be

"done". I wish I knew why, either because they are out of sight out of mind, or because we think they

are too time consuming to bother with, whatever it is. I know everyone's homes have them.

Here are some of mine.

So, last week, we decided to switch our joined office and bedroom; which I couldn't be happier about.

However, since we never lived back here we didn't really mind the curtains that have been back here

since we moved in. Well, me trying to be proactive, I measured the windows in my kitchen, imagining

that they were probably the same length as the ones in the back room, and messaged my mom and dad

while they were in Dallas to ask if they could pick me up some Ikea blinds. So when mom and dad got

back with our new blinds, the one on the far right was 10" too small-- pretty significant difference. So

until we make the trek back out to another Ikea, this is what we're dealing with. One black curtain on

half of a curtain rod. I'm shaking my head at myself, believe me.

Please don't ask me why..I wish I knew the reason that the previous owners not only caulked, but freely

painted all over the windows and never scraped it off. IN EVERY ROOM! I've been scraping at them

little by little for months, and it has barely made a dent..Until by happy mistake, I discovered that you

can get some "goof off" from Home Depot, for less than $10, put it on a nasty old sponge and wipe off

your windows, and voila! My mom did the ones in my living room for me, and it took her 8 hours. So

basically, we have not attacked these ones yet..

Now, this you can judge me for. We laid our own vinyl flooring, (a complete mistake..for another

time) and I think we just ran out of gusto by the time it was time to finish all of the thresholds…ick

I'm pretty confident that they will get done one of these days, hopefully.

Oye, the ceiling disaster of 2015.. So about a week after closing, we attacked the interior painting, and

since the ceilings were already white, we decided to not paint them. I mean, if you don't "have" to paint

the ceilings, why would you? Well, day 2 into painting I walk into the living room and my blessed

mother is putting a "test swatch" on the ceiling………….(you're lucky you're my favorite person

mother..) Long story short, we had to paint the entire ceiling. So by the time we got to the bedroom, I

told everyone "We are not painting the ceiling! So be careful when you reach the top of the walls with

your roller." (Of course we could have just taped, but taping is for people with patience, which we are

not.) Well, about a month later when we took down the ceiling fan to replace with our new Urban

Outfitters light, we discovered a beautiful white ring around the base of where the ceiling fan had been.

We have to paint the ceiling.

So here's probably the most hated thing in our house that we haven't finished yet. When deciding on

our flooring, we really wanted a light wood floor. And every other Pergo or real wood was either too

expensive, or not the right shade of wood. So we decided that we would use vinyl! (a whole post

will be dedicated to "Our Vinyl Disaster") Terrible mistake for two reasons:

1. Vinyl is cheap.
2. They discontinued this color before we were finished.

And I am so not kidding. So that is how we got here. This is in front of our bedroom closets. It's like

looking at the middle of a cut onion. You can see all of the layers of failure.
-Cement
             -Old laminate tile
   -Tack strip
      -Ccarpet pad
-Carpet.
*sigh*

Just wait, one of these days i'll blow your socks off with the most clever way to fix this. I haven't

figured it out yet. But it's coming.

And lastly, "The Cabinet Crack Heard 'Round the World."

Did you know that if you offer to remove your old countertops, it saves you money when Home Depot

comes to install your new ones? Well, neither did I, and I'm all about saving a buck or two. So I called

in reinforcements, aka my brother. And as he was ripping off the part of the countertop that goes onto

the wall, he accidentally cracked our cabinet. And for whatever unknown reason, the unbelievably

advanced military grade adhesive they used on these countertops will NOT come off! Apparently they

did not want these removed, ever. Alas, they were hideous, so what's a girl to do?

So after many attempts to sand, dremel, chip, and otherwise curse this blasted adhesive, we've arrived

here.

(look at this pathetic attempt to cover it up, you're fooling no one, cutting board.)

Here's a fun one that greets you the second you walk in the door. Our exposed doorbell cover. It got

taken down the first week we moved in while we were painting, and has never been replaced.  

And many many more. I hope this helps to enlighten you on the realities of owning your own home.

One thing i've learned is, we are all in the same boat. It's not worth it to constantly be bombarding

people with explanations for why your home is not perfect the second they walk into every room. If

anything, it makes people feel more at home to know that our homes, and lives are not as perfect as

they seem on instagram.

What are some things in your home that are waiting to be done? Know, you are not alone!

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