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How to Spend Less Than $50 on Groceries a Month
Spending less than $50 on groceries a month seems like a ridiculous and daunting goal to achieve. I’m here to tell you that it CAN be done! I will break down the rules that we follow during our $50 on grocery months and help you save BIG! If you were a follower of Hello Brownlow in July 2018, you’ll remember that was our first $50 grocery challenge. Now that I am a stay at home mom (SAHM) for the first time, our budget is shrinking again. I love staying home with Little Guy and have found a new love for making everything from scratch. With a smaller budget, that urge…
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How I Coupon as a Minimalist
Couponing and Minimalism – those sound like two very mismatched lifestyles. As a former extreme couponer and a newly converted minimalist, I found that old habits die hard. I still wanted to save money by using coupons, but didn’t want the bulk of having everything stored in my house. I rejoiced when I found the middle ground! I participate in Amazon’s Affiliate Program. If you click on my links and make a purchase, I will make a small commission. For more information, please visit my “About” page. The Sacred Middle Ground We are well on our journey to living with less, but I still love to be frugal. The middle…
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The Simple Guide to Cloth Diapers
When I started to look into cloth diapers when Little Guy was just weeks old, I was severely overwhelmed by all the information coming at me. I wished there was a super simple guide to cloth diapers, but there just wasn’t. When searching the rabbit hole of Pinterest, I found a few blogs here and there but none gave me actionable steps on how to start. I participate in the Amazon Affiliates Program. If you click on my links and purchase the product, I may receive a small commission. For more information, visit my “About” page. I started to ask my fellow “crunchy mom” questions and it’s like she had…
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Preparing for Baby: How We Cut Down Our Medical Bills
Having a baby is super expensive. For us the expense wasn’t buying the things Little Guy would need, it was the enormous medical bills that came after our hospital stays. You have nine months to prepare for this. Do you have a savings game plan? There are loads of ways to save money each month. Just look at my 20 life hacks to be more frugal post! Where you put that money is a different story entirely. When we found out we were pregnant in August of last year, we immediately changed our spending habits. We went from spending $4300 a month (fixed bills/mortgage and variable expenses) to spending $3300…
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20 Life Hacks to be More Frugal Today
We could all stand to save a little money, right? Sometimes we feel like our spending is out of control and we just need a simple way to rein it back in. Frugality doesn’t mean living with nothing – it simply means that you are wisely using what you have readily available to you and consuming less. In other words – simple living. D and I started living more simply about a year ago (which you can read more about in another one of my posts) and haven’t looked back since. Our life was made much easier when we weren’t shopping or eating out all the time. We just consumed…
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Preparing for Baby: How We Put Together Our Nursery for Less than $500
Preparing for your bun in the oven sounds very expensive and daunting. It gets even more expensive when friends and family tell you that they swear by this really random, not so cost effective item. What if there was a way you could put together your entire nursery for $500 or less? When we found out that we were pregnant for the second time (and this time it had stuck), we were thrilled beyond measure! and then stressed into infinity. How were we going to pay for this? What about hospital bills? Would I keep working? What about daycare? And DIAPERS!? So many diapers! That’s probably every pregnant lady’s thought stream…
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DIY Dish Detergent Tabs
I am finally going to share with you my number one, all time favorite cleaning hack and DIY: Dish Detergent Tabs! This DIY has saved us the most money every month compared to my DIY Swiffer Duster and my “all natural” surface cleaner (although it is super cheap, I just wasn’t convinced that it was actually cleaning anything). This post contains affiliate links. By clicking on a link and purchasing a product, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you! It’s how I keep Hello Brownlow running. 2017 began our journey into using, buying, and living on less. Part of it is an environmental issue for me. The…
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Our $50 July Grocery Budget Challenge – Results!
$50 grocery budget? Sounds crazy. We did it! It was rough at times, but it was worth it.
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The July $50 Grocery Challenge – Half Way Done!
We are officially half way through our $50 grocery budget Challenge for the month of July. I must say that it has really opened our eyes to many things including how much food we waste on a regular basis and how much time we use preparing food. Our meal plan deviated slightly for the best reason: my grandparents’ garden was overflowing!! They graciously sent us home with acorn, butternut, yellow, and zucchini squashes, okra, green beans to feed an army, garlic, cucumbers, tomatoes and some peppers. We are beyond blessed to have green thumbed family that is willing to share. Every thing we knew we wouldn’t eat before it spoiled…
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The July $50 Grocery Challenge
The July $50 Grocery Challenge I am all for saving money. It’s kinda our thing. But only spending $50 on a month’s worth of groceries when we normally spend $200? You’re out of your mind! Or is it actually possible…? July is going to be a rougher month for us financially as our maternity and family leave will finally catch up with us and we’ll be missing a few paychecks. We’ve planned to strip our budget to the bare bones – required bills (mortgage, utilities, phones, internet, etc – $1400), necessities (groceries, gas, pet food, etc – $520), and day care for Little Guy ($1000). This is a no spend…
Save. Live. Be Minimal.
