I was born in the 90's. Birthday parties consisted of those little jugs of juice, some store bought cake, maybe hot dogs, and a pinata. It was a few kids, each of us bringing a small toy. But now, we are in the days of pinterest. Cakes as big as my wedding cake. Overly themed table settings. A huge table full of presents. And a bouncy house. Now, I'm not hating, I'm always down for a good party, but I am not about what comes with these parties. The pressure, the price, the expectations.



When Brother Bear turned 1, I had had a pinterest board for months! His cake cost $50 because it had to be custom made. The building I rented was $100. I spent $100 at Party City for anything Toy Story (and that was with a coupon)! His gifts overflowed a table that could easily seat 8. I purchased specific goody bags and activities for the kids during the party. I literally spent months planning, hours executing, and hundreds of dollars for his 1st birthday. HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY! To top it off, we took him out to lunch and to the Children's Museum as well because, the party was clearly not enough. He had these big parties until his 5th birthday. I never got to enjoy them because I was running around before, during, and after. After I started staying home full time, I knew things would need to change.

Some of you may be seeing what I am saying, while others of you are "to each their own, let me do what I wanna do!". You're totally right, Susan. If you wanna go overboard, that's totally cool. My point is, most of us don't have money for these parties. Most of us get stressed out even thinking about throwing a birthday party. And most of us feel like we're depriving our children if we don't provide them with these types of parties.



When we started paying off debt, Brother Bear was 5 and Baby Bear was 1. I knew Baby Bear wouldn't care, but would Brother Bear? He had had 5 blow out birthday bashes. What would he do when we started simplifying his birthday? The answer, may surprise you.

Baby Bear's 2nd birthday was one of my favorites ever. We had to get creative. We set a $100 budget for his birthday. His birthday is exactly 1 month after Christmas, with Brother Bear's only 6 weeks later. This budget included lunch for the day, his cake, that day's activity, decorations, and gifts. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be!



We planned a special breakfast and dinner at home. These meals came from our regular grocery budget. We started the morning with a fun pancake breakfast, a balloon tunnel at his door when ge woke up, and gifts. We took our time and went to lunch.We took Baby Bear to Burger King for his lunch out, which both boys were absolutely thrilled with! Who knew small kids didn't want fancy lunches for their special meals? We went to a Children's Museum we had a discount for as his birthday activity. We also decorated the van to say "Honk, I'm 2 today!" And guess what? The kids had an absolute blast. If we're being honest, Papa Bear & I did too.



Then came Brother Bear's big day. Number 6. He wanted EVERYTHING Baby Bear had for his birthday. Done! He also got a new bike we scored on Black Friday a few months prior. We went to his favorite Children's Museum we had passes for (Mimi got these for us for Christmas). And he had the same fancy breakfast + dinner, and picked Burger King for lunch. And again, they had an absolute blast!

For their 3rd and 7th birthday's this year, they both chose to eat lunch out (one at Taco Bell, one at Burger King) and play games for an hour at Chuck E Cheese (we had a coupon!). We decked out the house, made the homemade cake, and they got their gifts, and as I quote "it was the best day ever!"



These past two years have truly taught me, kids don't care about a lot of things we adults think they do. As long as they feel special on their birthday, that's all they care about! They don't need huge parties, tables full of gifts, and $50 birthday cakes. They are more than happy with an hour at Chuck E Cheese, a few gifts, and a $1 box of cake mix with a toy on top!

I think once they start getting older, we may up their budget, start allowing a friend or two, maybe doing our vacation around their birthdays, or something different in the future.

Here is what I hope you take away from this, let go of the stress, the debt, and the guilt. Give them a beautiful day and a memory for life!

One of my absolute top tips for living a frugal life and paying off debt is to meal plan! "Yeah, yeah, okay, KJ. But how?" Well my darling, here is how I meal plan from start to finish, every time I grocery shop!

1. Decide When/Where to Shop

This is my number one for good reason. If you don't know where you'll be shopping and how often, you won't be able to execute the rest of the plan. Try to shop somewhere that is close, has good prices, and has what you need. As much as I love buying organic, shopping locally, and eating healthy, my budget for groceries is not Whole Foods approved. I do love Aldi for inexpensive, healthy food, but my sons have restrictive diets and I end up having to go to Walmart to grab a few things anyways, so we just shop solely at Walmart and Costco now. If we have a week where we only need a few things (like during our pantry challenge weeks), we do go to Aldi for produce and snacks.

The other part of this, is to decide how often to shop. For years, we got paid bi-weekly, so it made sense to shop bi-weekly. Now, we get paid weekly, but it was harder to maintain my budget with weekly grocery shopping. I was buying smaller quantity items and it ended up costing more overall, so I went back to what I know. I actually do a full monthly meal plan, then shop bi-weekly. It just works for me! Do what works for you!



2. Shop Your Pantry

Just as you should pay yourself every month (savings), you should also use the food you have on hand. Not only will you save money, but you will reduce food waste and avoid a cluttered pantry. Start by going through your fridge, freezer, and pantry with a notebook. Write down all the meals you can make completely with what you have on hand. Then, see what ingredients you have that can be made into a meal with supplements from the grocery store. Not the other way around! Got some pasta & sauce on hand? Add a salad or frozen veggies with some bread and BAM! Got some noodles, frozen peppers and soy sauce? BAM, stir fry. See where I'm going with this? Please don't make me say bam again.



3. Check Your Calendar/Theme Your Meal Plan

When I begin my monthly meal plan, I pull out my calendar. Any special events like birthdays or holidays this month? Date nights? 5 weeks to plan for instead of 4?  This will help you know how many days you actually have to plan for!

I like to use a theme for each day of the week. For instance, Sunday's are crock pot days. I want the least amount of work as possible Sunday, as it is our day of rest. Something I can throw in the crock pot before church and have dinner ready around 5. Saturday's are pizza and salad, complete with a movie and popcorn. You get the picture. This will help you to narrow down your recipes, see how much time you have on each day, and get a nice variety. No one wants to eat the same thing all week long.



4. Start Plugging In Pantry Meals

Once I have my calendar set up, I start plugging in the meals I have in my pantry. Pretty much every single month, the first week is full of pantry meals. You get busy, something comes up, life happens. It's nice to have a week of meals already in your cupboard, that helps cut down on your bill.



5. Shop Sales + In Season

After you've shopped your pantry, next you will need to see what is on sale. Now, if you shop at Aldi, Kroger, places that have weekly sales, this is gonna save quite a bit. If you're like us, who shops at Walmart, they don't exactly have sale, BUT if you're buying what's in season, it will be much cheaper! So, if chicken is on sale at Aldi, make the majority of your meals with chicken. Summertime? Buy berries and melons as your snacks.

Compile your list of sale items and in season items and start coming up with a list of meals to match your themes. For instance, if there is chicken on sale, for taco night we will do chicken ranch tacos. For crock pot night, chicken noodle soup. For sheet pan night, chicken and veggies, etc. Try to use as many of the sale/in season items to complete your meal plan.

Don't forget to plan your breakfasts, lunches, and snacks as well! We pretty much eat the same things each week, like cereal, eggs, PB sandwiches, snack veggies and fruit. They're inexpensive, healthy, and fairly quick to throw together!



6. Leftovers + Eating Out

Something I never included in my meal plans in the very beginning was a meal out and leftovers. Even if you're paying off debt, you should still have a few bucks in the budget each week for a meal out. Even if it's just a burger and fries once or twice a month. If you have it on the calendar, it is something to look forward to and pushes you to get to that day.

Leftovers are a stupid easy one! I usually double my recipes because its only a few pennies more. If I am making taco soup, I add in a few extra cans of beans and tomatoes and BOOM, a whole other meal. We also take them for lunches. I usually have breakfast/leftovers one night a week on my meal plans. If we have leftovers, we eat them. If not, just eat some eggs or waffles and fruit.



7. Compile Your List

Now, you have all your meals, time to make your grocery list. Remember to never go to the store hungry and stick to your list. Or, if you're like me, and obsessed with Walmart Grocery pick up, for it's easiness and avoids impulse shopping, plug that puppy in and get your groceries ordered.



8. Coupons/Reward Apps

I'm not a huge coupon user. I used to be, before things got all extreme, but now the majority of what I buy does not have coupons. However, once you have your list, be sure to check and make sure there aren't coupons or offers on what you're already buying or brands to consider. If you shop at places like Kroger, they have tons of coupons linked right to your Kroger card. They have tons of store brand coupons. Also, check Coupons.Com Sometimes, with the coupon, the name brand is cheaper than the store brand.

Be sure to check iBotta too! If you buy items that are featured, you scan, upload your receipt, and get money back. They even now have Aldi on there, as well as Walmart Grocery Pick Up! I just got $3 back on my pick up order.

Okay guys, that's all I've got for meal planning! I hope this was helpful to you! Do you meal plan? What tips do you have? Leave them in the comments below!

When it comes to paying off debt, the more money you can make, the more you can put towards it every month. For most of us, our debt is a result of a spending problem. However, we may have an income problem. Meaning, we can get our expenses extremely low and still not have enough money because of our debt. Finding a completely new job which pays more is obviously ideal, but maybe a quick side hustle would suffice. Here are my top 10 side hustles to get you out of debt! Many of these I have done myself and some I haven't qualified for, but have seen others have great success with!

1. DoorDash

This is by far my #1 because I have seen just how simple it is to be a Doordash driver and the amount of money it pays out. It is so simple and easy. You sign up, they send you your kit within a week, you log onto their Dasher app, and either start dashing or get scheduled to. I watched a few youtube videos before I started, just to get an idea of what it entailed along with some tips and I was off and dashing! How much do we make? About $17/hour. This is great to do on the weekend or evenings off. You accept an order, drive to the restaurant, pick up, drive to the person's home or business, and drop it off. Seriously simple! You can easily make an extra $200 a month just by doing a few hours a week on your day off. Even better if you and a spouse can work at the same time in separate vehicles. My husband and I are both introverts and this doesn't really bother us because its such little interaction with people. You mainly spend the most time in your car. And since I know someone will bring it up, no, it does not use a ton of gas.

 I signed up because of a Swagbucks offer, which you can find here. If you're not a swagbucks member, this will take you to sign up with my referral code. They are currently offering 15,000 swagbucks, which is $150. This can easily go towards debt, a vacation, Christmas gifts, etc on top of the money you make dashing!



2. Rev.Com

Rev is another side hustle that I have personally used. Rev is a transcription, captioning, and foreign subtitle website. I applied for captioning and was approved within a couple of days. They give you a guide to follow. You work your way up, so the higher you go, the more money you make and the more jobs you have to choose from. There are three levels, I am currently level two. This one pays out into your paypal every week. I love doing Rev in the winter when we don't have much going on and we have a lot of down time. I will say, while I love this one for the fact that I can site around pant-less, do it during nap/bedtime, etc it is a lot of work for a small amount of cash. A 10 minute video can easily take a few hours and you're only making about $5-6/hour. However, if you're a stay at home parent and want to earn a few extra bucks a week, but just can't work outside of the home, this would be something to look into. It took me about a week to jump from beginner to Revver, so its totally doable. The best thing is, you can take time off whenever or for however long and not get booted from it. You can sign up here. (I get absolutely no compensation for this one)



3. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is an online rewards site. You can get swagbucks through offers, surveys, polls, online searches, etc. I have been with swagbucks for about 6 years now. It's one of those money makers that will put out as much as you put in. What I tend to do is use it throughout the year and cash out around Christmas. I don't tend to do the surveys as much as I used to. I have the swagbucks dash button set on my browser. Anytime I shop, it pops up and I can activate an offer if its available. It also notifies me if there is a Swagbucks code live. This generally gives about 2-6 swagbucks a day if you're on your computer a lot. I use the swagbucks search engine, which randomly gives points when you're searching. As I said about Doordash, it is currently one of the discover offers, but there are a ton more on there. If you want to sign up for Hulu, ABC Mouse, and tons of other things, you will get swagbucks just for signing up. As with anything, I wouldn't go out of your way to purchase something just to get the points, but if you are already planning on buying it, why not get extra with it? If you'd like to sign up, you can use my referral link here. 



4. VIPKid

VIPKid is an online teaching job where you teach children, from around the world, English. From what I have heard, it is very much a real part-time job, with set hours. You can earn up to $22/hour. I have not personally used this one, as it requires a bachelor's degree and I have an associate's. I have heard many people who do this before/after their full time job for a few hours or stay at home parents who do it during naptime. You can get more information here.



5. UserTesting

UserTesting is a service where real people view a company's website. They complete a list of tasks and see how efficient, helpful, etc the site is. This is not one I have personally used yet, but I have put in an application. It seems to be pretty simple to use. You download the software, complete the list of tasks, and think out loud. This will tell the company things they can change about the site, glitches to correct, etc. It claims to pay out $10 per 20 minutes. I am assuming it is similar to Rev in that you pick your jobs and each pay out is different, depending on the project. I plan to do this on weekend and in the evenings when my children are in bed. To sign up, click here.



6. Etsy

Do you have a hobby or skill you could sell on Etsy? In the past, I have made vinyl shirts, custom invitations, and plan to start making homemade soap to sell. There are fees and in order to get a decent amount of orders you will have to pay for your listings to be advertised, but I made about $400 in one month. Of course, if you're just starting out, you don't want to be paying a bunch of money upfront for supplies, I mean, we are trying to pay off debt here. But, if you have a hobby or skill you enjoy, and the start up is small, you can make a decent little side income. For instance, I make homemade soap for our family. I have all the supplies already. People ask me all the time to make them soap. This way, I can make a batch, save some for us, and sell a few bars. It doesn't have to be a big production. You can add or remove listings whenever you please. To start selling on Etsy, click here.



7. Side Business

Similar to Etsy, if you have a hobby or skill you enjoy and want to turn it into a part-time business, this can bring in quite a few bucks. Landscaper, photographer, web designer, cleaning houses, in-home daycare, etc. Now, I do want to mention, you will likely need to get some business insurance, an LLC, business cards, etc. So it's not something you just wake up and decide to do one day, but if you already have the equipment and the skill, why not turn it into a little side job? I have been doing photography for about 7 years now. It started as a hobby and I eventually took different classes, upgraded equipment, etc to get to where I am today. I have an LLC and pay monthly for business insurance, as well as a website. I charge $250 for a session, which ends up being about 4 hours of work, with shooting, editing, set up, etc. If I get a session or two a month, subtract my monthly costs, I end up with a couple hundred extra dollars a month. If you have a lot of clients, you can have even more money coming in, but I have been happy just have a couple clients a month and a wedding or two a year (which I charge $1800 for). Its also a great skill for me to have, as I save so much money doing my own children's portraits each year.


8. Part-Time Job

What better way to make a few extra dollars than just getting a part-time job? Off on the weekends? Consider working at a store, restaurant, delivering pizza, etc on your days off. I used to work at a restaurant as a manager on my husband's days off. I'd work 16-20 hours a week, on 2 days. I didn't have to pay for childcare, as my husband was home. I was also able to bring food home on those days, so I saved money on meals and we felt like we were eating out. If we had plans that week, I could just take them off if needed. I brought home about $400 a month just working those two days a week and it was a nice way to get out of the house for a few hours. While being a manager was stressful at times, the job itself was pretty simple. For part-time jobs in your area, click here.


9. Babysitting/Petsitting

Not just for teenagers! There are plenty of parents out there who need a reliable babysitter for after school, weekends, special events, etc. I have done this many times for people at church, friends, family, etc. I will say, this can be a great way to bring in a few dollars, however, set clear boundaries. I agreed to watch a little boy for a local foster mom. She needed a sitter for appointments and evenings out. What was supposed to be an occasional babysitting gig, turned into a full time childcare position. She would be early to drop offs and late to pick ups, not provide adequate supplies I needed for the child, asking me every other day if I could watch him. I eventually had to tell her I could no longer keep him because it was not just an occasional thing anymore. My whole family was trapped working under her schedule. SO. Yes to watching a kiddo for an occasional night out. If you want to start an in home daycare, see #7 for how to approach that. Petsitting is another option, if you're more of a pet person than the human kind. For babysitting or petsitting jobs, try Care.Com.


10. Sell Your Plasma

Not for the faint of heart! My husband could never do this one, but it is one I have considered for awhile now. From my understanding, the plasma donation process takes about an hour and a half and you can make between $20 to $50 per donation. People easily make $300 extra a month. You need to be 18+, weigh 100 lbs+, and be in good health. While it doesn't sound like a super fun side hustle, seems like it is super simple and not very time consuming. Interested? Find more information here. 

Well, there you have it! My top 10 side hustles to get you out of debt! Which ones have you tried? Which would you be willing to try? Got any you love that I didn't include? Let me know down in the comments!

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