Five Minutes to STOP Bank Fees!

Many of you moms out there might be responsible for your family's budget and monthly spending. Sometimes I will admit that I'm so busy with other activities that I do not pay the best attention to some of those hidden fees that our bank charges us. Well, I just found out about a solution to STOP those bank fees.

Check out Perk Street Financial. This is a bank that offers a FREE checking account (really, absolutely free, no matter how much money you keep in the account) and a debit card that ACTUALLY GIVES YOU CASH BACK! How can they do this? They don't have any physical branches. However, they have the largest ATM network (bigger than Bank of America or Wells Fargo!) so you'll never have problems finding ATMs for cash and again NO charges for using their ATMs.

So, take a few minutes to review last month's bank statement to see how much money you are charged in fees. Next, check out Perk Street Financial's website and see all of the perks you can receive!

The Hidden Costs of Working Moms

The objective of "Makin It Simple" is to do just that! To make life simpler through our responsibilities as wife, mother, worker, homemaker, chef, housecleaner, chief errand-runner (did I miss anything?)

It was on my heart today to share this information with you. It has been so near to my heart over the past several weeks as my husband and I have prayed and struggled with the decision of whether or not I should stay home with our son. Here are some of the thoughts that have run through my mind and God has revealed to me.

For years we believed that my income was essential for us to run our household budget. But, was it really? Some of these are obvious, but perhaps some not so obvious.

The Hidden Costs of Working Moms

1. Childcare Costs (including any type of after school care and other programs they might be participating in, like a Spanish class or computer class)
2. Cost of time to make two daily trips to and from childcare center to place of employment
3. Cost of gas and wear and tear of automobile
4. Cost of a 2nd automobile
5. Cost of clothing at place of employment (clothing and dry cleaning costs)
6. Cost of time needed to prepare daily meals for children and/or self due to being out of the home
7. Cost of lost time and money at work when you must take off with sick children
8. Two income families typically see an increase in monthly expenses for:

• Housecleaning Services
• Meal Service (increase in money spent on prepared or pre-packaged foods)
• Other 'convenience services' (Starbucks for morning breakfast / coffee, drive-up dry cleaners, healthy prepared foods, laundry drop off/ pickup, childcare transportation services, manicure/pedicure, etc.)

9. Other "Hidden" Expenses:

• Paying more hidden fees to banks, other service providers (including overdraft fees, late charges, other banking fees) due to lack of time needed to properly stay on top of monthly finances
• Less time for planning typically means more money spent on various household items (for example we have to run into the grocery store, but lack of planning means we are at the store without a plan or armed with our coupons!)

10. Emotional Expense

• Husband receives lack of attention from us because we are too exhausted from work and kids to give him any time
• Kids receive lack of attention from us as we are busy running around the kitchen preparing dinner, cleaning, etc. (I'll talk more about this later)
• We ourselves are exhausted and without the time to take care of ourselves, and that is expressed in various ways including being overweight, stress-related illness, depression, fogginess, low blood-sugar
• As wives and moms, we start to wonder what our priorities really are and end up feeling completely hopeless in the process.

I have not found a lot of information on exact numbers regarding this, though I did find a similar article to mine just now. Check it out here.

These decisions are not easy, ladies. I'm only sharing with you some things that I'm starting to tally in my mind. Many of you might be single mothers who must work to provide the only source of income for your family. Many of you married moms out there are just like me, struggling each day to balance all of our responsibilities! There are COUNTLESS resources out there that have been created to help us women through all of this.

I want us to take a different approach! I want Making It Simple to be just that. Making things simpler! Removing some of the stress, craziness and redundancy from us so we can truly do a few things well!

Take-aways:
1. Let's challenge ourselves to sit down with a pencil, paper and bank statements (or Quicken, whatever your preferred system) and honestly find out how much money your household spends each month. I might get up the guts in another post to tell you what I just realized yesterday our household was spending on food, but the number was so shocking to me that I am not even ready to reveal it! I am still thinking that Quicken must have made a mathmatical error!
2. Please post your comments here on what you've found. I want to know a) were you surprised? b) do you think there are areas that need attention?
3. Ask yourself if there are any emotional "payments" your family is making and ways you can reduce or eliminate that.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Taco Soup Recipe!

I am participating in LifeasMom's "Ultimate Recipe Swap" by adding my own recipe here for everyone to share!

TACO SOUP

1 lb. hamburger
1 onion - chopped
1 bell pepper
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 pkg frozen corn
1 can kidney beans
2 cans black beans
1 pkg dry taco seasoning mix
1 pk ranch dressing mix
1 can diced tomatoes

Brown hamburger, onion and pepper. Drain well. In large pot add all other ingredients. Heat until warm throughout. Serve with chips, sour cream and shredded cheese. Freezes well! SERVES MANY!

Easy, delicious chicken recipe!

Hello!

I made this new chicken recipe and it turned out FABULOUS! I thought I would post it here with a photo so you can see what the finished product looks like:

Easy Baked Chicken:

(1) 1 oz. package of dry onion soup mix

1 cup panko bread crumbs (any plain brand will do)

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/2 cup mayo

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F). Combine the soup mix and bread crumbs in a mixing bowl. Sit aside and line a baking sheet with foil.

Next, coat each chicken breast with mayo (or you can use something a little healthier such as an egg white and milk mixture). Then dip each chicken breast into the bread crumb mixture. Bake for about 25 minutes. DELISH!

Inaugural Blog -- Welcome!

Welcome to "makin-it-simple", a daily blog written for all of YOU hard-working wives and mommies out there living life and trying to "make-it-simple" everyday!

First for today, check out this article I ran across discussing the importance of the month of October to all those big companies out there that want our money! Apparently what your bank account looks like during the month of October will have a huge influence over your financial decisions over the upcoming months, actually through January (holiday shopping, anyone?) Check out this article from financial guru Dave Ramsey. So, ladies it's a good idea to carve out some time one evening this week to PLAN the WHO and HOW MUCH to spend on holiday gifts this year!

How many moms out there run straight from the job to pickup children, then directly to home...oh, wait, what are we going to eat for dinner? AHHH! We've all been here and done this, right? Well, I have been trying my hand and preparing freezer meals so I pull them out of the freezer the night before and there's no worrying about what we're eating tonight! I came across this great article at Money Saving Mom on freezer cooking. The recipes are DELISH and best of all less time in the kitchen means MORE time to spend with our families instead of slaving over hot stoves! It doesn't help that these are BUDGET-FRIENDLY recipes, too!

MONEY SAVING TIP OF THE DAY! This tip will take you only 15 minutes, lengthen the time (hopefully) before you need to cook again and maximize each precious dollar you make. Go get these little stickers (see photo) or make some out of tape and paper, go through everything in your refrigerator and label THE DATE IT WAS COOKED! Make a habit of doing this each time you put new items in the refrigerator and you will END your families questions over a) "what is this? or b) "is this safe for me to eat?" Come on, ladies, we owe it to our families to make sure we provide GOOD and SAFE food!

I'll post my pic up here once I've had a chance to do this with my own fridge...stay tuned! :)