Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Do You NEED to Cut the Grocery Budget?

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Thank you all for adding suggestions and sharing your various circumstances in my last Real Food Grocery Budget post, Very Limited Income for Real Food Purchases. I think it’s great that we’re all helping each other think of new ideas for saving money on good food.

What I’d like to address now is that while I think it’s great to learn ways to cut down on food costs when you’re going through tough financial situations, I also feel like it is very important to make sure our families are getting the nutrition they need. Again, we are investing in our bodies when we spend money to eat whole, real food. Some foods we can cut back on, but there are some things we really, really need to be eating so that we can stay healthy.

That’s why I had such a hard time sharing what I’d cut back on or cut out of our diets. I have a hard time recommending that many people NEED to cut down their grocery budget. If you’re spending money on processed foods or splurging all the time on specialty items and buying food that isn’t in season or buying stuff to eat that will simply fill a hole but not offer any nourishment…then we need to talk about ways for you to cut your grocery budget.

But if you have $X amount in your grocery budget and you’re carefully spending that amount on real, whole foods that are nourishing your family…I think you should keep doing what you’re doing. Sure, let’s keep trying to find fair prices and good deals and shop wisely so as to be good stewards of what God has given us to take care of our families. But if you have the money for plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables or any of the high quality healthy foods you feel convicted about eating…buy them for your family. Don’t cut out necessary nutrition just so that you can say that you’ve lowered your grocery bill.

In addition – and I’m guessing that I probably don’t really need to be saying this to any of you but I’m going to say it anyway – before you talk about needing to cut your Real Foods Grocery Budget, please make sure you’ve cut every other un-necessary item out of your budget first. My family has always done without cable TV and expensive cell phone plans and frequent eating out and going to movies and expensive clothing and all kinds of other things I can’t think of because we don’t spend money (or rarely spend money) on them so I probably don’t know what I’m missing.  I’m NOT saying that you shouldn’t ever have or do these things. If you have cable TV, I’m fine with that and will probably even enjoy watching the Food Network with you when I come for a visit. I’m just saying that you really shouldn’t complain about not being able to “afford” real, whole food…and then turn around and fill your grocery cart with frozen pizza, soda, twinkies and chips, 24 new pairs of high heeled shoes and a big screen TV for your bathroom. Kapeesh?

My point ultimately is that we all need to be as careful as possible with how we spend our money…but I think that spending money on good, whole food for our families is wise and even necessary. It’s an investment in our health for today and for years down the road. Good food costs money…but I think we need to caution ourselves against feeling like, “ugh, healthy food is SOOOOO expensive.” Is it…really? I don’t look at it that way anymore. I look at healthy food as…healthy. And the price that comes with it?

Well…I’d rather not pay the price of eating cheap, empty food. To me…that is what is costly.
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Off and on all week I’ve said that I would share about some creative ways our family saves, earns and comes up with great sources for food. I’ve sprinkled some of that information throughout these posts, but really and truly I have a whole post devoted to sharing ways to stretch and grow your grocery budget. Other topics keep popping up this week as I’ve written this series, but I promise (probably, mostly for sure, I think) that I’ll post tomorrow about stretching the budget. And sometime soon…I’ll even post about stretching a chicken.
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What are your thoughts about the “cost” of nutrition-void food?

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Very Limited Income for Real Food Purchases

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Apparently I have declared it to be Real Food Budget Week here at Heavenly Homemakers. There’s just a lot to say about real food and money…so I just keep going with this subject. :) If you missed the other posts, be sure to read Our Real Food Grocery Budget 2011 and No Grocery Budget Comparing Allowed.

Several have asked me to offer suggestions for how to eat a Real Foods diet while cutting back on the budget because of a super low income. This is a hard question for me to answer because I feel that it is very important to invest money in good food. Very important.  If you recall, I used to be a Coupon Queen and spend only about $100/month on groceries back when we had only two kids. I’ve come a  long way since then, learning about real food and health. I now understand that food is NUTRITION for our bodies…and we need to be careful and intentional about what we feed our families. It costs money to eat well, there’s no way around it…more money than it costs to feed our families food that contains little or no nutrition. 

At one point during our family’s Healthy Eating Journey, we were making less than $29,000/year (with no benefits) for our family of six. We were still able to eat a healthy diet, because we made it a priority and because we were creative and because God is good and provides…all the time.

For some of you, $29,000 sounds like peanuts…for others,$29,000 sounds like a fortune. If you’re barely making ends meet, what are you to do?

The question has been presented to me from a reader with a very low income and a family of five:  How would you eat a whole foods diet on only $50/week?    What would you cut out? What would you keep?

First let me say that whole foods or not…it would be very hard to feed five people with $50/week and I would encourage you to find a way to supplement that budget if at all possible. In my next food budget post (because this truly is turning into a little series!), I’ll talk about food budget creativity and share how I was able to help supplement our family’s grocery budget when we needed to spend more on groceries but didn’t have the cash flow!

For now I will address, as best as I can, what I would do if I was only able spend $50/week on groceries….

Food I’d Keep:

  • Eggs – free range if possible
  • Raw Milk – though we’d likely cut back to 1- 2 gallons a week
  • Butter
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables – in season and rationed – and I’d look high and low for free sources and I’d garden like crazy
  • Venison – hunters often love to hunt but don’t always like the meat
  • Beans – I’d likely get much more creative with my bean recipes!
  • Rice
  • Potatoes
  • Wheat to grind and make my own flour

Food I’d Cut Way Back On:

  • Meat – which is tough because we LOVE meat and feel like getting good protein is very important! I’d likely focus more on buying chicken than beef, because I can stretch a chicken to last six meals if need be. Or I’d skip the ground beef and buy soup bones and oxtail so I could make rich beef broth and stews.
  • Cheese – this would have to be a special treat

Food I’d Cut Out Altogether:

  • Sweets – these would be VERY limited – birthdays and Christmas only maybe?
  • Purchased snack food – I hardly buy these anyway, but occasionally I splurge on a bag of chips or a box of Cliff Bars for a trip. 
  • Juice – again, I rarely buy juice anyway, but if I only had $50/week to spend on groceries, this would never make the list.

I know I’m not doing a great job of making these lists and there are a lot of holes. What about oil? Spices? All kinds of other things I’m leaving out? 

In my next post, I’ll address some creative ways we save, earn and come up with great sources for food. In the meantime, help me round out these lists!! What would you keep, cut back on and cut out altogether if you had about $10/person/week to spend on groceries?

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No Grocery Budget Comparing Allowed :)

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I am so glad so many of you are sharing about your grocery budgets and talking about what works for you in the area of food spending. I’m loving how we are all able to interact with each other in the comments and encourage each other as we look at sources for real, whole foods to feed our families.

One tiny concern I have and would like to address, is that sometimes I feel like we can look at what others spend on groceries for the month and either feel like a failure because “there’s no way I could keep my grocery budget that low” or feel like someone else is overspending because “wow, what in the world  is she buying with all that money each month?”

Neither kind of comparison is okay.

We’re all in different circumstances. We all live in different places. We all have different food sources. We all have different dietary needs. We all have different income levels. We all have different sized gardening spaces (or a lack thereof). We all have different sized kitchens and different storage situations. We all have a lot of laundry to do – oh wait…that has nothing to do with grocery budgets. Well, we don’t get to compare height of laundry piles either.

I was hesitant to post about our family’s grocery budget for several reasons, but mainly because I really didn’t want anyone to see what we spent on mostly organic, whole foods and feel like they weren’t doing a good enough job of keeping their costs down if they spend more than we spend each month.

And on the flip side, I occasionally receive comments or emails from people who can’t believe we actually spend $500/month on food because $500/month seems frivolous and outrageous and all of the food we eat just seems too high priced.

My intent is not to have anyone compare how much they spend each month with what our family spends or with what any family spends.  And please don’t be critical of me or of anyone if we happen to spend more than you spend on groceries. 

What I did intend is for us all to be challenged about what we spend and about what we’re eating and about where we get our food. I want us all to use this blog as a forum for sharing with each other and helping each other. I have no idea what the great food sources are in any place but my little neck of the woods, which is why it’s so fun to see you all sharing with each other and offering food source suggestions when you “meet” someone who lives close to you. THANK YOU for doing that for each other.

But please let’s nobody look at anybody’s food budget number and feel icky. (That may be one of the most poorly worded sentences I’ve ever wrote.)  (Okay, no…that one was.)

And also, my laundry pile is shrinking as we speak, but tomorrow it will be back up again and I’ll be right back where I started. What does your laundry pile look like? Oh wait…I said we WEREN’T going to compare laundry height. Never mind.

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Our Real Food Grocery Budget 2011

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I’m trying very hard to write a post about how much our Grocery Budget is for 2011 for our family of six. Many of you are curious about how much money it takes to eat the way we do (especially with four growing boys) and I’d really love to be able to share.

My problem with giving you a “We spend $X on our groceries each month” statement is that I don’t feel like any number I come up with will be accurate. I’d say we probably spend an average of about $500/month for our family’s food needs. But some months I spend $400 on meat alone…other months I don’t buy any meat at all…sometimes my Azure Standard co-op order is really huge…other months I barely buy anything.

I rarely shop at a grocery store, so I hardly ever have a store receipt to guide me on our food budget keeping. We get milk and cream from one farmer, eggs from our friend, chicken and beef from a farm, venison from hunters, lamb from a teenager raising lambs, raw honey from a local bee keeper, maple syrup once a year at the farmer’s market, bulk wheat once a year from a big bulk order a friend organizes. We get sweet corn in a huge batch once during the summer and put it up in the freezer.

And so, our grocery spending each month depends on what we need and when we need it. (We are blessed to have extra freezers and storage space to support our bulk purchases.)  If I were to buy what I need each month, then look at the budget and say, “Ooh goody…we have an extra $105 in our grocery budget that I haven’t spent yet…now I have money to splurge on extras like pizza and juice!” then I wouldn’t have enough the following month when we’re out of ground beef.

I don’t spend money just because I happen to have surplus in our monthly budget.  I spend the money I need to spend at the time I need to spend it and that’s it. Sometimes I go over budget, sometimes I’m way under…it all averages out.

Does that make any sense at all?

In addition, we tend to feed a lot of company each month. We LOVE having people over for meals and do this regularly. The money for this sometimes comes out of our “Giving” budget instead of out of our regular “Food” budget, but it’s all food so it’s hard to keep track of separately.

So…this is why I’m having a hard time sharing what our grocery budget looks like. I apologize for being complicated. I actually feel like the way we do things is simple, because we just spend the money for the food we need when we need it. It’s fun and it’s delicious and I love knowing where our food is coming from. But it doesn’t look very pretty on paper…or rather on screen.

As best as I could I broke down our food budget for each month with a rough guess of how much I spend on average for our groceries:

  • Raw Whole Milk and Cream:  3 gallons of milk at $4.00/gallon + 1 pint of cream at $3.00/pint each week =$15/week; $60/month
  • Free Range Eggs:  4 dozen a week at $2.50/dozen= $10.00/week; $40.00/month
  • Chicken, Beef, Lamb and Venison:  $150/month
  • Azure Standard order:  $150/month
  • Grocery Store/Walmart/Farmer’s Market (summertime):  $75/month
  • Bulk Wheat  $210/year = $17.50/month
  • Amazon Groceries:  Free with Swagbucks (more about this tomorrow)
  • Garden Produce:  Lots of hard work and sweat

We grow and preserve all of our tomato products, green beans and many other vegetables from our garden each year. We almost always have a chance to pick (for free) all the strawberries and raspberries and peaches and apples and pears and cherries we can get our hands on. We work very hard in the fall to can and freeze enough of these items to last us the entire year. This food is “free” but labor intensive. That’s okay, we get a big kick out of having dirty fingernails.

So, now that I’ve given you all of this information…I’d love for you to tell a little bit about what your food budget looks like if you care to share. Do you spend a certain amount on groceries each month, or do you just buy what you need as you need it? Do you feel like you should cut your grocery bill…or do you feel like you are buying high quality food at a good price?

Be sure to hop on over and read this too: No Grocery Budget Comparing Allowed

Tomorrow, I plan to address several questions I’ve received about eating Real Food on a very limited income. How can you eat a healthy diet when you barely have enough money for groceries?

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Gratituesday: Disneyland 2011

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One of the greatest highlights of our California trip…Santa brought us Disneyland!! We got a lovely deal on this visit as Matt’s brother is a Disney employee (he is SO talented!). What a HUGE blessing (and no, I’m sorry you can’t borrow my brother-in-law)!

Our family, along with Matt’s brother and our three year old nephew, spent a wonderful day at Disneyland together. (SIL and niece weren’t feeling well and couldn’t join us that day.)  :(

Right after we walked into the park, we got to meet the “real” Mickey. Hey…what happened to Malachi?

Ah, there he is…

We went on a perfect day when it wasn’t raining and the lines were short. It occurred to me when I was uploading pictures that I didn’t get very many shots of our older boys. They were off having a blast on the “big kid rides” with Matt while I took the younger two boys to some of the “less intense” rides. Picture the older boys screaming (in a manly way) through Space Mountain while the rest of us were hanging out with Peter Pan.

Don’t you love the face Elias gave me when I asked him to smile? He’ll be so proud of this picture when I display it at his wedding rehearsal someday.



Here we are enjoying some pizza, pasta and salad during lunchtime. Riding rides and hugging Goofy works up an appetite.

After Matt and the older boys got off the Indiana Jones ride, they insisted that the rest of us would love it and that we  just HAD to all go! We weren’t sure if Malachi would be tall enough to go on the ride and well…he just squeaked by. We cracked up as he walked right under it and was JUST barely tall enough when he stood up straight. I had to get a picture…

I had many favorite parts of the day, but one of my favorites was watching my three year old nephew galloping through the park with excitement for the ENTIRE 12 hours we were there. I kept waiting for him to stop being so excited or to at least get tired. Nope. He kept on galloping and being happy. I think the only time he slowed down was when we went to the “Jedi Training Academy”. When Darth Vader came onto the stage, he (my nephew, not Darth Vader) grabbed onto my leg and hid…peeking out so he wouldn’t miss anything. Is he the cutest or what?

Our Disneyland trip was everything we were hoping it would be. We made great memories for our family and are so thankful we had the opportunity to experience this together.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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Lots of Food…Nothing to Eat

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I stood in my beloved kitchen last Thursday looking around, trying to get reacquainted with this “long, lost friend” after being away for almost three weeks. There was plenty of food in my pantry and freezers…but it seemed there was nothing to eat. Ever felt that way? 

There are plenty of ingredients to be found, but unless my family is willing to chew on some grains of wheat with a side of coconut flakes for dinner this week…I’m going to need to get busy.

I’ve had a hard time deciding whether to spend several hours cooking…or several hours (days?) wading through all the emails I  have now become so much more behind on after being “on Christmas vacation“. 

Slowly but surely, I’ve been doing both. That’s why there may be a little bit of coconut oil or ketchup on your emails when I finally get back to you to answer your questions. Here’s a napkin just in case you need it.

After this week, I’m hoping my kitchen will be re-organized and functional again. The Christmas dishes will be put away until next year, the fridge will get a good scrubbing…and I’m gonna cook and bake and fill my fridge and freezer with some healthy convenience once again!

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Here’s a list of what I have in mind to make. I’ll share the results of what I actually accomplish later in the week.

I created the following video of my kitchen and pantry and posted it for you to see a couple of years ago…but I thought you might be interested in me posting it again for several reasons:

  1. Some of you are new here and probably haven’t seen my kitchen. I’d love for you to “visit” the kitchen I spend so much time in!
  2. Malachi popped in a time or two while I was recording and he makes the kitchen so much cuter. Ah, he was so little then…
  3. My kitchen was really, really clean when I shot this video. It’s not nearly that clean right now. I really need to get busy.  If I show you this video, maybe I’ll be motivated to get the kitchen that clean again.
    Feel like telling me something fun about your kitchen?
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Menu Plan for the Week

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We were blessed to be able to pick this beautiful box full of oranges from Matt’s aunt and uncle’s tree in California. Yes, we had to pack a box of oranges and an elephant on our way home. When you’re used to eating oranges that have been trucked all the way to Nebraska…a fresh orange right off a tree in California tastes like heaven! We brought them back, dirt and leaves and all. It doesn’t get much better than that! I’m letting the juice run down my chin and lovin’ every minute of it.

Matt’s grandma has a small orange tree in her yard too, so we helped ourselves. :) 
You might see oranges quite often on our menu plan this week!

Sunday, January 9
Oatmeal, pears
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, peas
Creamy mac and cheese, green beans, orange slices

Monday, January 10
Pancake and sausage muffins, applesauce
Sloppy joes, creamy orange coolers, carrot sticks with homemade ranch dip
Venison steak, hashbrowns, tossed salad

Tuesday, January 11
Scrambled eggs, orange muffins, bananas
Chicken veggie stew, homemade bread and butter
Spaghetti, tossed salad, corn

Wednesday, January 12
Breakfast pizzas, oranges
Alfredo sauce with pasta, steamed broccoli and carrots
Beefy enchilada bake, tossed salad

Thursday, January 13
Honey whole wheat bagels, apples
Chicken veggie quesadillas, fruit salad
Italian roast wraps, raw veggies with dip

Friday, January 14
Warm chocolate soother, toast
Potato soup, carrot sticks
Hamburgers on homemade buns, ranch potato wedges, peas

Saturday, January 15
Whole wheat cinnamon rolls (Elias’ birthday party)
Leftovers
Veggie soup, cornbread muffins

Now that we’re back in Nebraska…the snow is falling. Looks like we might get to have that Snow Ice Cream soon! (With oranges on the side.)

Take advantage of Say Mmm’s FREE menu planning services!

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3,800 miles, 64 hours, Foot Funk and an Elephant

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That’s how many miles we traveled during the past three weeks…3,800. 

I never mentioned that we were going on this big, long trip until after we got home because I always feel a little bit funny announcing to all the internet that our house is home alone. But now that we’re back…I get to fill you in on the details! We drove all the way to California and back and lived to tell about it. We were able to visit many in Matt’s family and see so many great friends along the way. It was just wonderful!

Here is our family with Matt’s grandma!

We loved everything about our trip, but wow is it great to be back home! That’s a very long time to be gone and 64 hours is a very long time to be in a van. 

And did I mention that one of our boys’ shoes got wet somewhere along the way, making for some strong foot funk all the way home? It is very much time to work the newspaper treatment on those shoes. If it wasn’t the only pair of shoes he had with him on the trip, and if they weren’t his new Christmas shoes, and if I weren’t very opposed to littering, and if I wasn’t afraid of them smacking the car behind us…I might have tossed the offending shoes out the window as we drove down the interstate. 

Foot funk aside, and even though we were in the van for what felt like forever and a half…it truly was a fabulous trip. (Oh, but I might advise that you not stop for bean loaded burritos when you have a van full of boys and a 12 hour trip ahead of you.)  The boys traveled wonderfully, meaning that there were only a few times I had to holler something toward the back of the van like, “If that sword touches the back of my neck one more time I will grab it and snap it in half.”

Yes, because of course, we do travel with swords. They are a Coppinger traveling necessity.

I didn’t really threaten to snap his sword in half (out loud). That would have just been mean, and no matter how many times the sword gouged me in the face while I breathed in the foot funk, I would never be that grumpy. {cough}

Matt and I listened to a couple of books on tape, which was a great way to pass the miles. I highly recommend Quiet Strength, by Tony Dungy. Even though he was an NFL coach and talks a lot about football in his book, and even though the only thing I know about football is that some big men in helmets make big piles of themselves all over football fields in an effort to get a funny shaped ball across a line…I loved this book! Tony Dungy is a Christian who lives his faith while leading a team. The book was inspiring and encouraging. 

I have to give kudos to Matt, the great van packer. When driving to California from Nebraska with six people at Christmas time, one must do some strategic van loading. There were backpacks and gifts and suitcases and food…and on the way home…there was an elephant.

It weren’t no small elephant neither.  Nor was it stuffed so that it could be squished.

Matt’s Grandpa Coppinger had traveled to Ghana, West Africa doing mission work many times during his life. Often, he brought back a beautiful, hand crafted wooden elephant. They were all different sizes and they were all beautiful. Matt was even able to travel to Ghana with his grandpa back in 1994. (Matt and I went to Ghana together in 1995…Ghana is a very special place to us.)

The last time we got to see Grandpa was Christmas of 2008. He died just a few months later. Each grandchild has been privileged to receive one of these special elephants. We were thrilled when Grandma showed us the elephant she’d picked for us to take home – one of the biggest of the bunch. We were a little bit uncertain about how we could make it fit in the van, but we figured that if Grandpa could bring a huge elephant back on an airplane from Africa, surely we could get it from California to Nebraska.

Matt packed well…and now that elephant is sitting right in our entry way.

I have more to tell you about our trip…but right now I’ve got to go finish airing out our mini van and stuffing newspapers into sneakers. Stay tuned for more tales from our California trip. 

Don’t worry…the other parts smell much better.

Did you do any traveling over the holidays?

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How to Find Legitimate Work From Home Opportunities

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This post is written by Craig Ford, writer at Money Help for Christians.

As part of your 2011 New Years resolutions, many of you are looking for legitimate ways to increase your income by working at home. For some of you, an extra few hundred dollars a month will give your budget some much needed breathing room. Others of you might want to supplement several thousand dollars a month by working from home. The extra income might be needed to help you get out of credit card debt. Regardless, this post focuses on offering specific suggestions for mothers who have decided to earn some extra income in 2011. 

But this post is not just for ordinary mothers. It is for those who want to have their cake and eat it, too (without gaining any weight). Since kids come first, you need a job that will fit around your schedule, not a job that is going to compete with your family. The jobs I’ll suggest in this post will allow you to:

  1. Work from home. 
  2. Have a flexible schedule.

Red Flags When Looking For Extra Income

  • Avoid using Google as a starting place.  Yes, of course, you will eventually need to do some research online to get information about a work opportunity, but I highly recommend starting with personal contacts and people you already trust online. A lot of people get online and type “how to make money at home” or “make money online”. The problem is that there is no Google quality police. Generally speaking, she with the most links to her website gets the top position in Google. If I have a product that is a scam, I can easily work for links or buy links and get a top ranking in Google.
  • Avoid anything that requires you to put money down or buy a ‘secret’ starter pack. Yes, many legitimate home business will require you to purchase inventory. However, if you are being forced to buy more than you want ($500 minimum start up package), or you’re not sure what you get for your money, avoid that business “opportunity”.
  • Avoid pyramid schemes.  A pyramid or multi-level marketing business is one where others make money by teaching you how to make money. There is a lot of hype around these type of businesses because in many ways the hype is the business. Many of these businesses offer little of actual value, but instead there is only a smoke screen of actual business transactions. As long as people are referring others the business makes a profit, not necessarily when they are actually selling the product.

(Laura’s Note!!  Several of you have pointed out that not all multi-level marketing businesses are schemes. You are absolutely right!! I was involved in selling Stampin’ Up! products for several years when my kids were babies and that certainly wasn’t a scheme…and it falls right into this category. Please accept my apologies for any frustration the above paragraph may have caused. The point is to avoid SCHEMES…not to avoid all businesses of  this nature.)

Tips for Finding the Right Side Business

Personally, I’m a big fan of teaching people to turn a hobby into a side business. The reason is quite simple – you’ll do a better job and feel better when you make money doing something you love. Besides, what if you figure out how to make a lot of money doing something you hate to do? That doesn’t sound like any fun, does it?

A successful business will do one of the three things:

  1. Sell a product or a service that is better than what is currently being offered.
  2. Sell a product or a service that is cheaper than what is currently being offered.
  3. Sell a product or a service that is currently not available.

A List of 15 Legitimate Work From Home Jobs

In this list you’ll notice I favor online businesses. The reason? You usually have 100% control over your schedule. If your little baby is sick you can work late after the child is in bed. Furthermore, I believe most small business growth involves a hefty component of online business. 

  1. Blogging.   You can make money blogging as long as you select the right topic and are willing to work hard. Here’s my 7,500+ word free guide on how to make money blogging.
  2. Virtual Assistant – With the explosion of web based businesses and online entrepreneurs, there is a huge market right now for qualified virtual assistants. What is a virtual assistant (VA)? A VA is a person who does secretarial type work from home. You get an email of tasks and you complete them for a boss you may never meet. You can advertise your services on either Odesk or Elance.
  3. Baking – Sell cake, cookies, or any other goodies from home.
  4. Freelance Writing – I believe this is a great time to be a writer. Many online blogs and businesses are looking for good quality content. Guess how they get that content? They pay someone to write for them. I’ve spent some time over the last few years doing some freelance writing in my field (personal finance). My first paid writing offer was for $5 per article. On average (depending on the niche), you can make $20 per article to write online. Learn more about how to make money writing.
  5. Tax Filing Business from Home – For anyone who has tax experience and the proper licensing, you can set up your own home based business and generate clients whom you will never meet in person.
  6. Selling items on eBay – This style of business has been around for a long time, but it can still be profitable if you make wise purchasing decisions. Basically, you buy items at highly discounted prices and then sell them on eBay. You can either purchase products wholesale or just stock up on inventory when your favorite store has their next 85% off clearance sale.
  7. Tutoring – If you can fit tutoring into your schedule, you might be able to spend part of an evening helping a struggling student.
  8. Teach a Skill – Do you know how to play the piano? Do you know how to do a craft? Teaching people how to do the skills you already know is a great way to earn a few extra dollars.
  9. Mystery shopping – Yes, get paid to shop. You too can learn how to be a mystery shopper.
  10. Sell eBooks – If you have an online audience, you can produce your own products and earn some extra income selling eBooks. Of course, you would first need to build up an online audience through a blog or a similar medium.
  11. Sell Photos – Amateur photographers can start selling their pictures online. All you need to do is to go to a popular site that sells photos and get an idea of what type of pictures sell well. Use the popular pictures as a standard to help direct your own freelance photography business. Check out Shutterstock.com as an example of one of many websites that allow you to sell your photos online.
  12. Social Media Consultant – You mean, get paid to use Facebook and Twitter? Exactly. In November last year, one of the largest personal finance blogs, WiseBread, was looking to hire a social media consultant. Once again, Odesk and Elance would be a good place to start advertising your services. 
  13. Web graphics and logos designing – If you are artistic, you might want to invest in a Photoshop program that will allow you to do graphic designing for blogs and websites.
  14. Learn how to do something you normally pay for. – OK, this isn’t a specific idea, but if you pay for something, don’t you think others would too? At the very least, when you learn how to do something new, you don’t have to pay for that service any more. But then you can also build up a client list and provide that service for others.
  15. Sell plasma.  You’ll never find me doing this to make an extra buck, but my mother-in-law thinks this is the best way to earn some extra cash. As for me and my household, we’ll pursue other methods to supplement our income. 

Alright, you’re officially equipped to start chasing your dreams. Find an opportunity that interests you and fits your scheduling limitations. Chase it with your full energy and passion, then go, go, go.

What other suggestions do you have that can help someone else make an extra few dollars by working from home?

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 Be sure to visit Money Help for Christians where Craig promotes a frugal, simple, debt-free, and generous lifestyle so Christians can faithfully maximize their resources by putting them at the disposal of God’s Kingdom.

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Five Simple Ways to Live a Natural Lifestyle

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What does it look like to live a “Natural Lifestyle”?

There are all kinds of different definitions for the word “natural”. Many foods are labeled “natural” in an attempt to appeal to the conscientious consumer. Corn growers pay for advertisements that say that High Fructose Corn Syrup is “natural”. Well, sure it is…in a loose sense of the word I suppose, but that doesn’t make it good for us. Shucks…arsenic is natural.

My own definition of living a “Natural Lifestyle” I suppose would be “getting back to the basics”. Whether we’re talking about food, family choices, in general taking care of ourselves…doesn’t it just sound refreshing to “get back to the basics”?

Here are five simple ways I’d like to suggest to live a more Natural Lifestyle:

1. Eat Real Food

Yes, you’re so surprised I listed this one aren’t you? Real food is best. Food in it’s natural form. Food that isn’t processed. Food that tastes so stinkin’ good you don’t know what to do with yourself!!! It’s amazing what food without chemicals tastes like!

Need a little help getting started? Here are some links to past series I’ve written about how I feed my family and about why I feel real food is best:

2. Drink Water

I already wrote about how you should drink more water and told you about some healthy alternatives to soda and other not-so-good-for-you beverages. But really…one of the simplest (and cheapest!) ways for you to adopt a more natural lifestyle is to stop filling your body with icky beverages and just drink water.

3.  Exercise

Yeah, and this advice is coming from me…the girl who doesn’t really like to exercise. Guess what though?! My husband and I have made it a point to exercise together three days a week for the past few weeks and I’m actually starting to like it! I’ve heard people say that once you start exercising regularly, you begin to crave it. I never believed them. Until now.

It’s really not as hard as you think, but exercising is just like anything else you need to be doing…YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO IT. I know, profound. The main idea is this:  Do what you can to not be sedentary.

A side benefit of exercising:  You’ll crave more water and more real foods. Yeah, somehow having a candy bar and soda after exercising feels a little silly. Water and fruit sounds much better.

4. Stay Home More

This may seem like a weird item for our Natural Lifestyle list…but it doesn’t get much simpler or more natural than this. Stay home more. You’ll save money, your vehicles will last longer…and joy of joys…you may not be so worn out all the time! I find that when I’m running from here to there and back again…I am completely exhausted AND behind on all the work I need to do at home. We don’t need THAT much outside “stuff”. When you’re home more…you’ll find you’ll be more rested and more relaxed…naturally.

5. Waste Less

The more natural your lifestyle, the less waste you’ll have. If you make your food from scratch, you’ll have a lot less packaging trash. If you serve smaller portions and make it a point to eat leftovers, you’ll throw away less food. If you don’t buy stuff you don’t need, you’ll waste a LOT less money. If you use cloth napkins and let your kids draw on used scratch paper, you’ll save a lot of trees. None of these things are hard. You just have to be a bit more intentional.

And then of course there are all kinds of other things I’d recommend as you work your way to a more Natural Lifestyle, like planting a garden, buying locally grown produce and other foods, getting good sleep and eating lots of chocolate.

Just kidding. Chocolate may be natural, but eating lots of it would be “The Simplest way to Gain Five Pounds”. That‘s another post for another day.

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Be sure to take the time to read these “Five Simple Ways” posts too! A big thanks to Toni at Happy Housewife for organizing this series!

Carrie from Springs Bargains: Simple Ways to Make Money From Your Blog
Jen from Balancing Beauty and Bedlam: 5 Simple Ways to Dress Fabulously for Less
Myra from The Casabella Project: 5 Simple Ways to Decorate on a Dime
Melissa from A Familiar Path: 5 Simple Ways to Take Better Photos
Jenny from Southern Savers: 5 Simple Ways to Start Using Coupons
Lynn from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures: 5 Simple Ways to Save Time in the Kitchen
Toni from The Happy Housewife: 5 Simple Ways to Save Money in 2011
Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie 5 Simple Ways to Organize Your Home
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!