4 Sweet Sisters

Today is Frugal Friday! I would love to put the button from Biblical Womanhood on but,I have NO clue of how! I have accomplished uploading pictures. Yipee! So today I thought I would share one of my very favorite things(although I'm not so sure of the economy of it). Homemade Vanilla.Yum... I'm a baker,so this was right up my ally about 10 years ago when I saw it at the State Fair!Actually my bottle is from that far back! So here we go... You will need 1 or 2 long neck bottles. 2 vaniila beans for each bottle. With a sharp knife slice beans open to expose the seeds and place in bottle. Pour in either Vodka or Bourbon Whiskey to cover beans.(We prefer the Bourbon.) Let stand for about a month in cool, dark place. Then it's ready to use. After you use about 1/3 to 1/2 a bottle you'll need to refill with the alcohol of choice. Let it stand for a couple of weeks. That's why I've gone to using 2 bottles so I always have it on hand. I don't use in recipes that

Well today is Frugal Friday! Something that we do that is inexpensive and fun is to load all the girls in the van (more fun since they can now do the loading!) and head to Sonic for BOGO on drinks! It's everyday from 2pm till 4pm. The girls get slushes and we get enormous ice teas! I really like their ice! (I know that sounds weird) Then we head to our destination: park, beach, garden. We usually just drink water, no soda etc. And we kicked the slurpee habit about 10 years ago, so this is a nice treat! Also we only do this once a month or so. When we were on vacation in TN it got to be almost a daily side trip! Yikes! Gotta L.O.V.E. that ICE! Our youngest calls it PHONICS.Dad when do we get to go to PHONICS?

So I seem to have time to jabber today. Usually every 2 weeks I do grocery shopping because that's how our paydays fall. Here's how I do it (on my good weeks!): 1. Take note pad and head down to deep freeze to take inventory. This past school year I started cooking all my dinners every 2 weeks. It's really worked out well for me. I usually have meals leftover and have some to share. It's been nice to take little gifts of banana bread or cinnamon rolls to friends who invite us over for lunch or a play date! Then with dinners that didn't get used I add them into my next plan to add more variety. 2. Make a list with 14 meals on it from previous meal plans and I try to add something new every 2 weeks. 3. Create my shopping list. I keep a pretty notepad by the phone were I usually have somethings started on a list. applesauce, lemon flavor, etc. 4. We are pretty much all whole foods at our house so coupons are not a huge part of my plan.My bi-weekly money is split into 3

I've wanted to write this for so long... Thanks to everyone who have bold enough to write about their own financial sucess' and failures! Thank you Crystal at MSM! First let me say thank you to everyone who has kept our family in prayer. Things are getting better in Younde(?), Cameroon, Africa. They did have a hairy weekend.My cousin sent word to my Auntie that there hadn't been any more riots, but that the military is out in full force with m-16's. We haven't heard about the orphanage. The embassy still requests that ex- pats stay in their homes. Gas went over $5 this past week. The city survives on the taxi! Financially it was an overwhelming month........I've had a hard time trusting that the Lord would provide. I will say that we did not tithe regularly in the past year in a 1/2. We've always tithed. Even before we were married and on our own. The major reason was that we had $400 in doctors payments monthly for that time and we had come out of a situati