Where have I been? In debt, that’s where… but seriously i have just been soaking up this last little bit of nice weather with my family, the snow could arrive any day now, and in my house snow is the worst 4 letter word.
How do you guys stay active and sane in the winter months?? and what about veggies? the farmers markets are packed up for the winter but I still want fresh, crisp veggies and fruits.
HELP this MOMMY IN DEBT
I would imagine these are all common knowledge by now, but I just wanted to share my favorite places for getting coupons.
http://www.save.ca, http://www.brandsaver.ca and http://www.websaver.ca all offer printable and mailed coupons!
Wal-Mart has a free in-store magazine called “Live Better” which offers recipes and coupons
and of course, weekly coupon inserts. I love the $2 off Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce.. It often goes on sale for $2 making it FREE. It is also seriously the best sauce!
What am I missing, where do you get your Canadian Coupons?!?!
I live in a really small town, and I am able to take advantage of alot of free activities for my kids and I to do. I wanted to share some of them so that if you weren’t aware, maybe you could check out some places local to you and take advantage as well.
First is The Ontario Early Years Center. This place is really great, they even have an emergency baby needs depot if you are in need of diapers, formula. Thankfully, I have never needed to use that but what a wonderful resource. They also have daily “Stay & Plays” where you and your kids can come and… play. Our local OEYC has rooms upon rooms full of toys, books, puzzles.. even an arts and crafts room! At 10:30 each day they have “circle time” followed by snack time. Circle Time is filled with songs and stories. OEYC also has activities you can register for (all free) like baby sing language, breastfeeding support classes and so many more. Its also a great resource for parents who have questions on anything from breastfeeding, sleeping and starting solids. Be sure to check out their website for more information.
Next up is the library, not only do they ahve free movies and books but ours has a Storytime every week, with a story, a snack, a quick movie (Usually “Ruby & Max”) and a craft. My oldest (2.5) is still kind of young (The library is so exciting for him, he just wants to explore) but we have been a couple times on rainy days and it has bee fun. Our library also has a jam packed summer. They have crafts (Usually for a small fee of $5, but storytime crafts are free) and weekly movies (This weeks was Frozen) Again, my kids are young and can’t quite take advantage but I look forward to it one day!
Parks- Most towns these days are stepping up their game in the park department. Many towns now have splash pads! (Sadly, ours doesn’t but I am hoping one day!)
Local Activities- In the summer our town is filled with fun, outdoor activities at the town docks and main streets… Festivals and music, face painting and games.Be sure to check out your towns website as well as facebook pages.
Is there any activities in your town you love to take part in and ARE FREE? Please share in the comments!!!
I love to cook. As a broke mom of two, I especailly love cheap and quick recipes.
I certainly cannot take credit for this recipe. Lets thank Lord Pinterest for that, http://www.toptenlook.com/2013/09/baked-ravioli.html , but it is just so easy I wanted to share.
Frozen ravioli of your choice (We like cheese)
Ragu/your favorite pasta sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Thats it. Put a layer of sauce on the bottom of your pan, then the ravioli, then more sauce and cheese. If your feeling adventures you can add spinach to the sauce as well as ricotta cheese into the mix. Yumm.
350 for a half hour, or until cheese has melted to your liking.
Its not rocket science, people.
Serve with salad and/or garlic bread.
If you make it, let me know what you think!!!
XO,
Mommy in debt.
That’s right. Im a mommy, and Im in debt.
I read alot of blogs about getting in debt but they usually start off with “Pay yourself first” & “Put aside $100 a month for your emergency fund” The emergency will be no groceries if I do that.
See, I think there are different kinds of poor and different kinds of debt. There are people with alot of debt who just don’t know where to start, who to pay first… Then. My kind of poor. Living paycheck to paycheck. I am not in what you would consider alot of debt, I just can’t pay it off unless we don’t eat, or pay the mortgage.
I’m also Canadian, and most of the blogs I’ve found are from the States. So, I can’t double stack coupons (Oh, the horror) but I do have free health care. Holla!
I want to be able to take my kids on vacations and give them memories they will remember for a lifetime. I also want to document it as I make my way from red to black. With that being said, I dont plan on using my name or my kids names. I feel like in order to be the real deal and lay it all out on the line I need some sort of anonymity. So, if you are looking for pictures of cute kids and stories about my day to day life this isn’t the blog for you (but boy, are my kids cute!). Full disclosure, this isn’t even the kind of blog I would read, I like to be able to put faces to names so if you do want to stick around, imagine I look like Natalie Portman or Kristen Bell. I have no problem with that.
So, here it is.
I am currently on maternity leave (Which means one of my two children are under the age of one. In Canada, along with free health care we are allowed one year of maternity leave while being paid 55% of our wages.) My husband works full time. Together we make under $50,000 a year. We both have credit card debt, “own” our house ($1,200 a month) one car payment ($350 a month) and a monthly loan payment ($200 a month. I recently upped the payment to an even $200 from the previous $134 and change. I figure this will atleast help eliminate that debt quicker)phone bills, internet bills and the like. Two children, no pets. We are slowly trying to work our way to being debt free and would love any help and advice you can give. Like I previous said, we basically live paycheck to paycheck. We do have RESPs set up for the kids, but thats it in the savings department. (For non-Canadians, that is a Registered Education Savings Plan, or a college fund)
So, there you have it. This blog will be a hodge podge of me complaining about debt, trying to break free from debt and share easy and cheap (yet still healthy) meal ideas and DIY projects. I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully we can learn from and help eachother.
XO,
Mommy in debt.
mommyindebt 