kitchen

Recent Kitchen Glow-up on a Budget!

Abby H.

We didn’t end up doing a staycation this summer. Between Summer School and the overall unbearable heat that the southwest has been experiencing, I haven’t really wanted to drag two kids that are sensitive to heat out to “have fun”.

Because of that, I’ve decided to make some small cosmetic changes and upgrades to the kitchen- and the bedrooms too. This post is just covering the kitchen.

Our overhead fluorescent kitchen lights are starting to out. The ballasts are old, and while I’m saving up to have the kitchen lights redone, I needed a little something more. I landed on magnetic, rechargeable under the cabinet lights. I looked online all over, read reviews, and decided to give Temu a try.

I’m sure that you’ve seen advertisements all over for Temu. It’s similar to Ali Express and Amazon combined. Smaller international companies sell their goods on Temu. Shipping is pretty quick, usually less than 2 weeks.

I also picked up a few other things for the kitchen that I had on my “need in the kitchen sometime”. This included:

Plastic Garbage Bag Clips– These keep the trash bag from sliding into the can. If you got kids, these are perfect.

Aluminum Foil Square Stove Burner Covers  I usually buy them on Amazon, but this price and quantity were much better.

 

Dishwasher Magnet Clean Dirty Sign– We had a flippable magnet for years, but it was really hard to get off. This sliding magnet is much easier.

Refrigerator shelf liners– I love these and have wanted some for years. I finally bit the bullet and both sets for the freezer and fridge.

After falling down the rabbit hole of Temu, I switched over to a few other sites- JCP, Target, and Amazon for the other things I needed.

My kitchen canister set was janky. It was at least 11 years old. I got it for Xmas when the biggest kid was a baby. Several of the lids were cracked, and the remaining lids were not able to be cleaned properly.

I did a lot of research online, I looked at 4 or 5 sites, read reviews, and watched videos. I didn’t want glass ones again, and I wanted snap-on lids. So much easier to clean, and easier to stack.  Based on my kitchen size and how much I needed to store, I opted for the 14-piece Airtight Food Storage Containers with Snap-On Lids.

I switched over all of the canisters, and I also poured some other frequently used foods into canisters to be stored on the shelf where I keep our coffee and protein shakes supplies.

The remaining containers I used to store rice, pasta, and some other misc. snacks in the pantry. These all fit really well in our pantry, and yes, it’s all still organized like I did here.

I also bought new kitchen rugs to replace the older ones, and a couple packs of kitchen towels in white (they are easier to keep clean).

While I was doing all of this, I was cleaning out the cupboards and got rid of broken, chipped dishes, unwanted mugs, and extra kitchen stuff. I also ordered new dishes, but they haven’t arrived yet.  Once the new dishes arrive, the remaining old Rachel Ray/Albertsons dishes from the mid-2010’s will be donated.

Now I’m sure y’all are thinking, “How did she pay for all of this??” I worked my “hustles” and saved up Amazon Gift cards by doing surveys (I post opportunities weekly), used my cashback apps, cashed out as soon as I was able to with all of them, and stashed the money in my savings account. All in, I ended up paying $18.51 out of pocket, and that was for the kitchen towels that I bought at Ross.

It’s not new cabinets and new flooring (Cabinets were painted and flooring was replaced last year as part of our water loss), but it’s the little things that make our homes more comfortable!

How I’m Saving Time and Money in 2023 and Beyond!

Abby H.

I’m posting a lot less these days because I now have a full-time job outside the house, and y’all- I’m freaking exhausted at the end of the day. weekends are spent doing family stuff (mostly playing with legos and drawing), and doing kid activities like martial arts and girl scouts.

I wanted to share with you some ways you can save money, score freebies, and even earn some money each month without running all over town, spending hours of time doing little penny surveys, or scanning your entire grocery order to earn points for junk (looking at you Neilson panel).

This is how I’ve been doing it for years, and now that I have even less time, I’m leaning on these more.

Automate

  •  Use the calendar in your phone to remind you of appointments, neighborhood free food distributions, sales, and even coupon events: I seriously put the Bath and Body Works coupon dates in my calendar so I remembered to use them.
  • I bought a subscription to  Yasukochi Family Farms CSA boxes. This way my fresh fruit and veggies are delivered to my door each week.
  • Set up auto-shipments for most needed household items. Vitamins/supplements, specialized food, and even pet food. There are all sorts of companies that offer this service including Amazon, Chewy, and Vitacost are just a few.
  • I order from Dream Dinners once or twice a quarter. Now that they have lower minimum orders, I can grab a few favorites and try a new meal with greater ease. I order online, and pickup is so easy- I drive up and they deliver to my car!

Organize

  • I reorganized the kitchen over Winter Break. I have printables available for free. If you are interested, please drop me an email and I can send them to you. They print in color or black and white.
  • I meal plan weekly. I may not have time to post them on the blog each week, but I’ll still have pics up on Instagram each week- it helps keep me accountable. I spend about an hour on Monday evenings meal prepping fruit and veggies that come in our weekly CSA box.
  • For more organization tips that work in our home, check out my post about managing a household with neurodivergencies here.

Disconnect

  • This one is hard, but I am trying to consume only meaningful media. Don’t be afraid to disconnect from Social Media Platforms, people, or advertising that does not serve you or your life. Unfollow people and brands, delete or pause apps as you see fit. Engage with media in a manner that serves you and fulfills you. Do what feeds your soul and makes you a better person.
  • Unsubscribe from emails that don’t serve you. It will make your inbox smaller and you won’t miss information and freebies that you actually want. In my case, it’s freebies from Social Nature, PinchMe, and research study invitations.
  • In the same vein, I am trying to consume less physical media, specifically, mail and advertisements. If I don’t see sales, I won’t be tempted to shop. Junk mail and sale fliers go directly into the recycling can next to our group mailbox.

Saving Money

This is the big one, the reason you wanted to read this post. All of the above will help you save money, but here are a few specific ways that I use to save money on top of all of the above.

  • Use the notes section on my phone to keep a running list of our stockpiles: Toiletries, laundry soap, canned goods, and paper products.
  • Use the notes section of my phone to keep a running grocery list for the week. As we run low on items, I add them to my list. Right now I shop at three stores: Food4less, Grocery Outlet, and Dollar Tree (for specific items that are cheaper there). Unless I have coupons or freebie offers for other stores-usually from Social Nature, I stick to those three. At this point with inflation, we eat meat once or twice a week.
  • Use money saving/rebate apps. My list is here, and it’s pretty up-to-date. Fetch, Ibotta, and Shopkick are my go-to apps, and they yield me the biggest payouts.

 

Kitchen Reorganization on a Budget!

Abby H.

We’re at the point in kitchen renovation where we need to put the kitchen back together. I was tired of eating out of the myriad boxes in my living room.

Being on a budget, I looked for simple and easy ways to make our kitchen work better for us. Our pantry is long (about 1 meter) and narrow. It’s such a pain. So much of it is inaccessible.

I cleaned out a bunch of the clutter as I unpacked the boxes. My mom gifted me these cool white baskets (which you can find on Amazon here).  She previously used them to store fabric. I put my label maker to good use and labeled the white baskets with the following categories:

  • Soup
  • Sauces
  • Baking Goods
  • Rice and Noodles
  • Oils and Fats
  • Canned Tomatoes
  • Canned Goods
  • Soup
  • Snack Box
  • Snacks (I use this for the overflow of snacks)

I also reorganized the spice cabinet, and I’ll be moving some of the bulk spices to these glass jars from the plastic bags they came in probably later this week.

Moving on to all of the drawers in my kitchen. Yeah. Nine Drawers of various sizes. I lined them with Contact Paper from Dollar Tree– which BTW, is so much cheaper than Amazon or the big box hardware stores. I also lined the cabinets that hold our dishes. I did not line the pantry shelves- They are really long and narrow and I can’t reach all the way to the back.

To contain all of the STUFF in each drawer, I picked up some of these skinny drawer organizers, and the drawer organizers in the picture, which are wider and medium-sized.

The Silverware has a drawer caddy (not shown in the photo, but it goes in the empty drawer), but the rest of the drawers were just a disaster. Now the cooking utensils will be corraled, the batteries rolling around the junk drawer will be contained, and all of the yummy drink powders and drink concentrates (like Mio) are corraled.

So for less than $50, I was able to reorganize the kitchen and spruce it up a bit.

After the kitchen is done and the water heater is installed, we’re having a cleaning service coming to do a post-construction clean up. There is drywall dust all over my freaking kitchen and living room. It’s so gross.

Dollar Tree Helps you Get Organized!

Abby H.

I usually start my new year off with some cleaning, organizing, and purging. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this post detailing my January decluttering challenge.  In addition to clearing out clutter, I’ve needed to pick up some new storage bins to help corral the bottles of cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink.

Dollar Tree to the Rescue!

Depending on your needs and esthetic, Dollar Tree has something for everyone.

I got these blue and white totes for under the kitchen sink. One for trash bags, one for cleaning supplies, and one for sponges, brushes, etc.

I also have cleaned out the front bathroom under the sink area and re-organized it. I have plastic totes like these under the bathroom sink (sans lids- but the lids are in the cupboard) that hold:

  • First Aid Kit (We have a fairly large and extensive first aid kit)
  • Period Supplies
  • Shampoo/Conditioner
  • Bodywash/Scrub/Shaving Supplies

If you have some organizing to do, I recommend that you stop into your local Dollar Tree and check out their storage possibilities.