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19 Non-Sandwich Lunch Box Ideas – Free Printable!

August 27, 2018 by Laura 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Sick of sandwiches? No problem. Here are 19 Non-Sandwich Lunch Box Ideas you can make and pack quickly! Most of them can be packed in jars. It’s fun and economical!

Main Dish: 

  • Mini Crustless Quiche in a Jar
  • Burrito Bowl in a Jar
  • Tuna Salad with Crackers
  • Popcorn Chicken with Ranch
  • Salad in a Jar
Sides:
  • Quick Bread in a Jar
  • Veggies With Dip in a Jar
  • Chips with Guacamole
  • Fruit Cheesecake Parfait
  • Fruit with Dips
Not so Jarring Add-Ons:
  • Flourless Brownie Muffin
  • Chewy Granola Bars
  • Coconut Fudge Bars
  • Cranberry Nut Trail Mix
  • Mudballs
  • No-Bake Chocolate Fudge BitesNo-Bake Peanut Butter Cookie Bites
  • No-Bake Snickerdoodle Bites
  • Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

Need supplies? Here’s a resource list!

Back to School Lunches in a Jar – FREE Printable!

Want to make these ideas even simpler? Download our FREE Back to School Lunches in a Jar printable for handy access! You’ll love having easy access to all these great lunch ideas and recipes. Join us here and grab your free download right away! Click here to sign up to receive your free printable or enter your email address in the form below:

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How to Host a Rockin’ Garage or Yard Sale {Plus a FREE Printable Checklist!}

June 4, 2018 by Laura Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Hoping to clear out clutter from your house this summer? Here are some fabulous tips for hosting a ROCKIN’ garage or yard sale. Get rid of unneeded items from your home and make some extra cash too! (Be sure to get your Free Printable Checklist below!)

Kudos to my friend Kim (aka Garage Sale Queen) for providing all the wisdom for this post!

1. Prepare for your Garage or Yard Sale

Purge the House and Garage to Gather Sale Items

Several weeks before your sale, do a room by room purge. Check closets, cupboards, under beds, in storage places/tubs/shelves, etc. As you work your way through each room and see each item, ask yourself:

  • Are we using this?
  • Do we need it?
  • Can we do without it?
  • Would life be simpler if this was gone?
  • Is it more important to have a few dollars or cents in my hand or to still have this thing taking up space in my house?

If you see an item and hear yourself saying, “Why do we still have this?” – put it in the garage sale pile.

Prepare Your Sale Items

  • Wipe down everything that is dusty or dirty so they will look more appealing.
  • Put jewelry and other small items in ziploc bags to keep them from getting lost and so you can put a price tag on them more easily.
  • Group items in flat boxes so people can easily see what is inside.

Price Your Sale Items

If people cannot find a price, they will often choose not to purchase. In addition, most people do not like to “make an offer.” We recommend putting a price tag on everything!

  • Price items in 25 cent increments (eliminating the need for dimes, nickels, and pennies).
  • Use brightly colored stickers and large print to mark prices on each item.
  • Be willing to negotiate your prices if someone offers you a lower price that is still reasonable.

Put an Ad in the Paper or Online

It’s often worth the investment of putting an ad in the newspaper so more people know to come to your sale! What to consider when writing your ad:

  • Highlight major items like furniture, bicycles, appliances, unique items, homeschool curriculum, antiques and name brand clothing.
  • Think about what might make your garage sale stand out. Mention specific collectibles, children’s play equipment, tools, or outdoor furniture.
  • If you are doing a multi-family sale, emphasize that. It makes people more likely to come because there will be more things to see in one location.
  • If you are doing a moving sale and “everything must go”, say that because people know that you are more motivated to get rid of things.
  • If you are selling off baby equipment, make sure you say that. New moms are always looking for great deals on baby equipment- Grandmas and child care providers, too!
  • Include the specific dates and times you will hold your sale. Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday mornings tend to be the best times for most.
  • If your address is one that is hard to find, include directions in the ad.

This guy is incredibly excited to come to your sale after reading your ad.

Free Advertising: Post your ad to your local Facebook Selling Page. Consider posting it on your personal page.

A Note About Posting Online: People may ask about the prices of things and ask you to sell them “before” the sale, sometimes at a reduced price. While this can be nice, it can also make for some difficult situations, especially if you have already put that item in your newspaper ad. If someone came to your house specifically for that item at the beginning of your sale only to find that it is already sold, it can make for some not very nice exchanges.

Prepare a Cash Box

A bag, box, or drawer works nicely for your garage sale money. In advance of the sale, be sure to fill it so as to have change on hand for customers.

  • It is best to begin with about $20 in ones, $20 in fives, $40 in tens, plus at least one roll of quarters for making change. Keep track of what you began with so you have a more accurate total of your sales at the end.
  • Try to keep it organized throughout the sale. Keep ones together in front of fives, in front of tens, etc.
  • If your bag is getting full during the sale, take some inside your house (especially the checks and larger bills) and put it in a safe place.
  • Decide ahead of time: Are you willing to take checks? If so, do you have requirements? For instance, check has to be local and include a usable telephone number.
  • Most people are not set up to take credit or debit cards, but would you accept PayPal? This new way of paying is becoming more popular at garage sales, especially with the commonality of smart phones.

Collect Needed Items:

There are several items that are nice to have on hand before and during a garage or yard sale.

  • You might need masking tape to write on, to tape up signs, to mark prices, to hold boxes together, and group items together.
  • You might need scratch paper to make signs about prices, to write down additional information, etc.
  • Sharpies, both small and large point, come in handy.
  • Consider locating a tarps or two to cover sale items overnight.
  • Measuring tape is nice to have to lend to customers interested in specific items.
  • A calculator can come in handy unless you’re great at doing math in your head.

2. Setting Up Your Garage Sale or Yard Sale

  • Borrow and set up many tables to place sale items on. Tables are better than the grass or driveway in most cases because people don’t want to bend over. Make things easier for people to see and reach and you are more likely for them to sell.
  • Group things in categories:  kitchen, bath, kids toys, clothing, bedding, tools, books, curriculum, crafts, baby equipment, etc. Arrange furniture in nice groupings, if you can. Put the same size clothing and shoes together. Put bedding sizes together and mark them clearly.
  • Have a free box. If you don’t know how to price it and you’d price it super cheap, put it in the free box and watch it leave!
  • Make LARGE LOT deals: For example, “These books are 50 cents each or 12 for $5.” “This box of toys is $5 for the box.” “Clothing is “$1 each or 12 for $10.” It is amazing what people will take to make a great deal. The more they take, the less you have to deal with at the end.
  • Set furniture close to the street so it will attract buyers to your sale.

3. Running Your Garage or Yard Sale

  • Stick with your planned start and end times.
  • Ask for help. There are often times when you need two or more people to move a table, set up something quickly, get a drink, change the baby, or cover for you while you use the restroom.
  • Be less willing to negotiate at the beginning of the sale and much more willing to negotiate toward the end of the sale. If someone wants an amazing deal (like less than half the requested price), tell them you will think about it and call them back later. Get their number and give them yours. If it doesn’t sell later, call them and work on the amazing deal.
  • If someone wants to come back later to pay for something, consider that they might not come back and you might miss out on another sale. Get a phone number and give them a timeline. “If you are not back and/or have not paid for the item before XXX time, then I will make it available to someone else.”

Obviously the people helping you move furniture will be dressed in matching red overalls.

4. Other Considerations:

  • Larger sales are more likely to draw greater numbers of people. If you can plan a neighborhood sale or a multi-family sale, more people are likely to come.
  • If your sale is a multi-family sale, in advance make a sheet that includes the names of all the people who contributed to the sale across the top. Then, add their sold item prices to the list so you can keep a running total of their sales. Or have each family’s price stickers of a different color or mark price stickers with initials.
  • If you are not going to keep the money for yourself, but are raising money for a charity or event, let people know. People can be more generous when they know that their money is going to a good cause.

5. What to Do with Garage and Yard Sale Leftovers

Not sure what to do with items that don’t sell? Here are some ideas:

  • Put it on the side of the road and offer it for free. It will likely disappear.
  • Take it to a local thrift or charity store and get your tax receipt. That is not immediate money in your hand, but it might help with your taxes later on.
  • Donate appropriate items to a local rescue mission or women’s shelter.
  • List it online using a local buy, sell, trade page or your personal page. Use Craigslist or ebay, if you are savvy.
  • Put an ad in your local newspaper. Some newspapers offer one free ad after your garage sale if you advertised with them.
  • Put a notice in your church email or communication. You never know when the right person will be listening or know someone who “was looking for that.”

Get a FREE Garage Sale Checklist Printable.

Use this handy checklist to help you have a super effective garage or yard sale!

Get this free printable when you join our Heavenly Homemaker’s Savings Club. We love sharing great freebies, deals, and money saving tips with you!

 

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Simple Ingredients for Simple Meals Printable! Gift for You!

April 5, 2018 by Laura Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

After many a request, we’ve finally created a Simple Ingredients for Simple Meals printable list for you to work with. Just when you thought it wasn’t possible, simple cooking just got even easier!

Over the past several months, many of you have requested that I create a list of all the ingredients I like to keep on hand to make real food cooking easier. It’s taken a while, but I called in for back up and had one of my assistants help create what I declare to be beautiful, practical, and of course, simple!

Simple Ingredients List to the Rescue

The timing is perfect for this fun Simple Ingredients list to become available for you. Why? Because we just kicked out our High Five Recipes eBook, which shares 111 recipes that all include 5 or fewer simple ingredients. Wondering which ingredients can be mixed and matched to make all 111 of these recipes? This list pretty much covers it! And then some.

Don’t you love how easy this printable breaks down that basics of ingredient needs? All the ingredients listed are real food, nourishing, and un-complicated. Simple, simple, simple! Yes, real food cooking is SIMPLE!!! And it tastes great. This, of course, is a must.

Obviously we’re all going to have favorite items not listed here. But this is our go-to list for all Simple Ingredient needs for Simple Meal preparation. Add to it as needed for your family!

It’s our pleasure to give you this Simple Ingredients for Simple Meals printable list as a gift.

We hope it is a huge help in simplifying your real food cooking lifestyle. Use it as a guide so that grocery shopping will be simpler, so you can save money, and so you’ll be able to have basic ingredients on hand for creating Simple Meals.

Sign up here so we can send you this wonderful freebie. (As an added bonus, we’re including several surprise freebies too. Wait till you see!)

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Master Travel Packing List

July 27, 2017 by Laura 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Every time we drive from Nebraska to California, we stop in Denver the first night to stay with friends and we stop in Vegas the next night to stay with friends. It cuts our travel costs and we get to see people we love!

Travel suitcase

It was in Vegas one year that our youngest left behind his backpack full of clothes and toiletries. We were all the way to Bakersfield before my friend discovered it and texted, “Uh-oh! I just found Malachi’s backpack in the boys’ room.” Guess who had to wear his cousin’s clothes all week? Eh, it could have been worse.

And not to throw my friend Robin under the bus, but I just saw on Facebook that she recently went on a trip and assumed her husband had thrown her bag into the trunk of their car. She made it all the way to their destination before she realized that one should never, ever assume.

Bagless, Robin headed to Walmart to get everything she needed for (wait for it) her mom’s wedding. #nobigdeal

Want a Master Travel Packing List?

Free Master Travel Packing List Printable

I’ll venture to say that this Master Travel Packing List we’ve put together for you won’t be of any help if you don’t follow through with actually putting the bag into the car with you. But at least this can help ensure that you don’t forget to pack your toothbrush.

Every time we go on a trip, I always say to myself, “Well if we’ve forgotten anything, at least there’s a Wal-Mart.” But that doesn’t work very well for items like prescriptions and eyeglasses. And also, who wants to run to Wal-Mart to buy what we already own?

So to remedy that for you today, we’ve created a Master Travel Packing List.

Obviously, some of the items you can scratch right off the list and some of the items you’ll need to fill in that are specific to your family and situation. But seeing as all year ’round many of us hit the road, we thought this would be a helpful resource to hand out.

Kudos to my friend Kim for helping put this together for all of us!

It looks like this, it’s as simple as can be, and it’s free for the taking…

Get your Master Travel Packing List

master travel packing list

Sign up to receive this freebie Master Travel Packing List here!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Free Printable Sight Word Cards (So Cute!)

June 28, 2016 by Laura 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Back in the day when I taught school (it feels like a lifetime ago) – one of my favorite parts of the day was working through a big stack of sight words cards with my 1st graders. I think it seems a little silly now that words on brightly colored cards were such a great learning tool, but it’s the simple things, right?

We made games, acted silly, did whatever we could to help those kids learn words that didn’t necessarily make sense phonetically (thank you, English language).

comesm

When I quit teaching in the classroom a few weeks before our oldest son was born (like I said, a lifetime ago), I took some of the supplies I’d bought or made myself. Among them were my sight word cards.

I had no idea then that I would homeschool my children. I just knew I loved and wanted those sight word cards.

Through the years, especially since we did decide to homeschool, I definitely got a lot of life out of those cards. I used them for all four boys as they were learning to read.

Ah, the good ol’ days of fun school games and brightly colored activities before these days of geometry and research papers took over. I’d say I miss those days, but I love this season in life just as much. But without a doubt, the books and activities aren’t nearly as cute.

I’m not even exactly sure what led me to this, but over the weekend I had a project in mind and went to find some graphics to help me complete it. Instead of finding what I needed, I found an adorable giraffe. I became smitten with the giraffe, and truly before I knew it, I started creating sight word cards.

Free Sight Word Cards

This is all good because many of you have children who are beginning readers and they need cute giraffe sight word cards. So please enjoy these fun cards to help your kids learn to make sense of the fact that s-a-i-d is pronounced sed. (There are just some facts that must be memorized. Sight word cards can help!)

Sign up here to get your free downloadable/printable sight word cards.

Signing up for this freebie will connect you to our Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone. It’s free, of course. You can unsubscribe at any time, your info will never be shared or sold, and being on this list means that you’ll be the first to know of the other fun (yes, FUN!) educational tools we’re putting together!
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Sunshine and Coconut Oil ~ A Weekend Freebie and Free Shipping at Tropical Traditions

June 12, 2015 by Laura 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I have two unrelated items to share with you this weekend. I’m squishing them into the same post to save us both time, then I’m off to check other to-do’s off my list!

First…

I love sunshine so, so much. I also love Jesus (so, so much). Which is why, when the sunshine is beaming down on my face and I am soaking in the warmth, I always think of Numbers 6:24-26.

The Lord Bless You and Keep You

When the sunshine is on my face, it’s like the Lord Himself is pouring His life into me. Ahhhh, I love it.

The brightness and cheerfulness of the graphic above made me think of that verse, so I added it in so that we can all print it off and enjoy the reminder of His promise of blessing upon us. Print as many as you like. Keep one for yourself, share some with others. May we all recognize His gracious blessings and gift of peace.

Download The Lord Bless You and Keep You Printable Here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Second…

It’s always fun to find coconut oil on sale with free shipping to go with it!

pure coconut oil

Tropical Traditions is offering free shipping through Monday, June 15 when you use the code 15615 at checkout. (Minimum $19 order)

Their Pure Coconut Oil is only $13.50 through Sunday – so take advantage of these deals together! This is an odorless, flavorless variety of oil – and it is very rich in nourishment! You can also use this oil for sunscreen (yep, just straight coconut oil).

You’ll see that their Organic Raw Honey is 50% off – a great deal and their honey is delish!

This post contains referral links.

Are you with me? Do you love the sun beaming down on your face?

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Free Printables at Heavenly Homemakers ~ Be Thankful Wreath Craft

November 21, 2013 by Laura 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

freeprintables2

Here’s a fun and simple craft you or your kids can make to decorate for Thanksgiving! Here’s what to do:

  1. Print the two downloads we have provided.
  2. Cut out the leaves.
  3. Glue or tape the leaves together in a circle. You may find it works better to affix them to a wire hanger that has been pulled into a circular shape.
  4. If you like, give your leaves personality by adding some googly eyes.
  5. Hang your Be Thankful Wreath.

In addition, your family might enjoy writing on the leaves, sharing what you are thankful for.

Printable-Wreath-prev2

These fun printables are available for free for all of our Learning Zone members. 

Why be a Learning Zone member? Because you’ll get loads of free printables that will bless your family as you learn and grow together!

Sign up to join our free Learning Zone here!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Free Printable: Caramel Apple Dip Gift Tags

September 29, 2013 by Laura 3 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

freeprintables2

What I love about so many of these free printables is that while they are cute, fun, and functional – they also encourage us to love on and serve others. Since it’s fall, and typically we can get our hands on lots of apples – I’ve been thinking that it would be fun to make Homemade Caramel Sauce, put it on a jar with a gift tag, then put it into a basket of apples to give to someone. Wouldn’t that be a fun and cute gift?

And so, I gave the idea to one of my designers, and here is what she came up with:

CaramelSauceTag-prev

I love it!

These cards can be printed on white cardstock, cut and folded over. You can write an encouraging note inside to the person you plan to deliver the basket to. The tags were created with both “Homemade Caramel Sauce” on the front, and with a blank front if you’d like to do something else with it.

Fun, cute, FREE – and a great way to bless someone. Download the gift tags below. Then get to work on some Homemade Caramel Sauce! Have fun!

Download the “Homemade Caramel Sauce” Tag here.

~~~~~~~~

Download the Blank Tag Here.

Looking for more free printables? Click here to look through what we have so far. Plus, we’d love for you to subscribe to Heavenly Homemakers so that you don’t miss our great recipes and new upcoming free printables. There are many more to come!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

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