the frugal millionaire

  • Home
  • About
  • Income
  • My Posts
  • Start a Profitable Blog!
  • Freebies

Easy Ways to Make Your Home More Functional

Want to create a cozy, functional home? Here are my top tips to creating a home that you love and that has purpose.

I’m brand-new to being a SAHM. I recently quit my job to stay at home with my three daughters and blog full-time. It’s been a lot of fun and a wild ride, but so far I am loving it!

Luckily, my blog really isn’t a full-time job. I started my blog 2 1/2 years ago and slowly built it up to where it’s making a relatively passive income each month. I post once a week, send a newsletter out once a week (it’s full of fun blogging tips plus a peak into my life – sign up here!) and promote older posts on social media. The rest of my time I’m at home and with my girls.

So, what exactly have I been doing with my newfound “free time?” My older girls are in preschool M-F for four hours per day. The baby is always with me, but she usually takes a two hour nap in the mornings. During this time, I blog or get my house in order. It’s been a longggg time coming, but I’m finally getting to the point where my house is exactly how I want it!

One of my huge goals has been making my home more functional. We have a relatively large house, and I didn’t want any wasted space. Here are my tips to make your home more functional.

Continue Reading

/ Filed In: Home, Life
Tagged: family, home, life

Working Moms Morning Routine: 5 Tips to Streamline Your Morning


Working moms, are you ready to streamline your mornings and stop getting to work so frazzled?! As a working mom of three, my mornings used to be so chaotic. Now, they are peaceful and productive. See my secrets here!

Being a working mom is no joke. From the moment you get up, your day is nonstop. To make your day run smoother, I firmly believe in the power of a morning routine.

I used to wake up whenever one of my children woke up (it was, and still is, always early). This started my day off on a scrambled foot. By the time I got to work, I felt like I’d run a marathon and my day was just beginning. I knew my routine as a working mom had to change.

For about a year now, I’ve been following a strict morning routine (that actually starts the night before). Below are my five top tips for streamlining your morning routine as a working mom.

Working Moms Morning Routine: Top Tips

Do as much as you can the night before

School bags get emptied out, cleaned and repacked. Lunches get made other than refrigerated items. *Time-saving tip: Make all your sandwiches on Sunday and freeze. Then throw one in each child’s lunch in the morning and the sandwich will be perfect by lunchtime.

Outfits are also selected the night before for both myself and my kids. Make it a part of your bedtime routine for the kids!

I also spend 10-15 minutes cleaning up before going to bed. This could be dishes, sweeping and mopping the floors, throwing in a load of laundry, or quickly cleaning the bathrooms. I never spend more than 15 minutes, but it’s made a world of a difference in both my mood in the morning and the overall cleanliness of my house.

Set three goals for the morning

This tip I learned from Crystal Paine’s Make Over Your Mornings course. I highly recommend her course if your morning routine is in shambles and you need a complete revamp.

Every night, write down three things you want to accomplish in the morning. You can start out with easy goals, like have coffee, fold a load of laundry and have five minutes of quiet time to check emails. Simple.

As you get in the habit of writing down and accomplishing your goals, start challenging yourself. I always give myself one thing to look forward to, such as having 10 minutes to drink coffee in peace, one thing to clean, such as tidying up the play room or sweeping the kitchen, and one thing for my side job (blogging), such as scheduling posts on Pinterest and Facebook.

Wake up before your kids

You knew this was coming, right? Truly the only way to get your mornings in order is to get up before the kids. I know, it’s hard, especially if you have early risers. My kids are up by 6:30 every single day at the latest. I make it my goal to be up by 5:30 which gives me an entire hour, though sometimes I do “sleep in” until 6.

By waking up early, I have time to enjoy my coffee, take a shower and get ready, have a quiet conversation with my husband, catch up on emails, or do some work for my blog.

By the time the kids wake up, I’m looking forward to seeing them. I can spend quality time with them rather than rushing around and yelling. My patience with them has grown tenfold simply by getting up before them.

Allow time for setbacks

Wouldn’t it be nice if mornings always went exactly to plan? Of course! But as any mom knows, that rarely happens.

I’m currently breastfeeding my six-week old baby girl. Some mornings she sleeps through our entire morning and I transfer her to her car seat and we’re good to go. Other mornings she eats on and off for a solid hour. Instead of frantically stressing out when this happens, I am able to relax because I’ve left extra time in our morning routine. I give myself about two hours in the mornings, but it really only takes about 45 minutes to accomplish all my tasks. If things go smooth, I’m able to dedicate extra time to my kids, cleaning my home, or my blog.

Give the kids a routine, too

I keep our mornings exactly the same from one day to the next. I believe this best prepares them for their day, too. They wake up and head downstairs immediately for breakfast. Breakfast is always something easy: frozen waffles, a poptart and sliced bananas, yogurt with fresh blueberries, cereal, etc. We save pancakes and eggs for the weekends in this house 🙂

Then, the kids are able to watch TV, do art or play in their rooms for about 30-45 minutes. This gives me time to get what I need to do done – whether that’s finalizing lunches, getting myself ready, or feeding the baby.

Roughly 30-45 minutes before we leave, the kids get dressed, brush teeth and I do their hair. That time always tends to fly and we are out the door before we know it!

I know mornings can seem so rushed. Trust me, I have been there. And to be honest we still have very rushed mornings with the addition of our third child.

My best advice would be to be consistent and allow yourself plenty of time. I know it’s hard to get up in the morning, but it’s worth it to start your day off on the right foot.

Are you struggling with your morning routine? Share in the comments!

/ Filed In: Careers, Home, Life
Tagged: day in the life, family, home, life, time management

Tips on Streamlining Your Life and Business

Mamas!

Do you feel overwhelmed at times? Whether you work or stay home, having kids while maintaining a house, cooking, cleaning, running errands, keeping up with school functions and more can take its toll. Add in working full-time or working for yourself, and you’ve most certainly got your hands full.

Tips on streamlining your life and your business. Looking for some ways to simplify your life, get more done and not feel so overwhelmed all the time?! Me too. As a full-time working mom to two toddlers (and a small business owner), I am sharing my tips on how to streamline both your life and your business.

I’m a working mom of two toddlers (and one on the way!). While I’m incredibly thankful that my schedule is flexible and allows me to mostly work from home, I do still put in a good 40 hours per week at the ‘ol office job. I also try my best to keep up with this blog, make sure my kids have clean laundry and get food on the table each night. If I were to be completely honest, the dinner part is my biggest struggle. We always eat, of course, but I don’t always have a plan and we sometimes have eggs, chicken nuggets, yogurt, or a combination of the aforementioned.

Eventually, I would like my blog to become my full-time business. With a baby on the way, this probably won’t happen for a few years, but I’m hopeful nonetheless. I wanted to provide anyone who might be in the same situation with some tips on how I am currently streamlining my life and my business for future (and current) success.

Continue Reading

/ Filed In: Blog, Books, Home, Life
Tagged: blog, book recommendation, life, motivation, work from home

Our New House: What We Want to Remodel

We just moved in three weeks ago, but there is already a long list of items that John and I want to update on our home. For any new readers, John is a general contractor/handyman. He owned his own handyman company here in Charlotte and he worked for himself when we lived in Phoenix as a sort of jack-of-all-trades. While I’m lucky that John can do a decent amount of updates himself, he can’t do everything and there are some areas where we’ll need to hire out (coughelecticalworkcough).

So, here’s what we’re planning on doing to our home over the next few years.

New House Remodel Checklist

Paint the entryway. This is something John will, thankfully, do on his own. The walls were a yellowy color (which you can see in the photo) and I wanted them to be a blue/grey like we had in our rental house. Yeah, the color I chose was a LOT darker and more blue than it looked in the store. Unfortunately, we purchased 5 gallons of this color and most likely won’t use any of it. We bought samples of two other colors this past weekend (both natural tans) that I hope will look good. John’s deadline for this project is the end of October (when my parent’s are visiting!). I’ll make sure to post an update once this is done.

Blue entryway…not what I had in mind

Update: We chose a color and John painted over the blue!! Yay! The entryway looks good now, but we still have a long way to go. The ceilings are super high by the front door (which you can’t see), plus we’ll need to paint the upstairs foyer because all those walls are connected.

Fresh, new entryway!

Fix the gas stove. We have a gas stove that I actually really like even though I thought I’d hate it. Unfortunately, about a week ago the electrical part blew out. John tried fixing it but just can’t get to the bottom of the problem. If you turn the stove on, gas comes out but it doesn’t light. So for now we’re using a lighter to light it when we need to cook. My dad might be able to fix this problem, but if not we will rely on Contractor Connection to hook us up with someone who can get the job done. Contractor Connection connects consumers to quality professionals for any of your home remodeling needs. Estimates are free and quality is guaranteed. You can’t beat that, especially for people like us who are new to the area.

Remodel the kitchen. This is a project that will be done within the next 2-3 years. Kitchen remodels are expensive and we need to save money before diving into this project. Luckily, I do like the layout of the kitchen, so all of the changes will be strictly cosmetic. We want to change the back splash, add granite countertops, remove the wallpaper, repaint the kitchen, and get new appliances (everything except the fridge). John can do some of the work (wallpaper, painting, and installing new appliances), but the rest we’ll have to hire out. While John technically could do it by himself, he really does not have the time with working FT and having the kids. I do not want to live in a construction zone (especially in the kitchen!) for any longer than I have to.

If you are also in need of a kitchen remodel, call Contractor Connection to get a free quote. Preferred contractors come with a 3-year workmanship warranty.

Paint every other area of the house. The paint colors in here aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re not our taste. Eventually, this whole house will be painted. The entryway is first on the list because the yellowy color was just something that I couldn’t get on board with. Everything else will be completed within two years, hopefully. Again, John will do all of the painting but it’s just a matter of finding the time.

Furnish the house. Does this count as remodeling? I’m saying “yes” simply because it could probably cost us as much as a kitchen remodel (just kidding, sort of). Our house is furnished for the most part, with the exception of three rooms: the formal living area, the bedroom attached to the master, and the screened in porch. The screened in porch is our first priority and the only reason we don’t have it furnished now is because it’s really hard to find patio furniture this time of year in Charlotte. We will probably order something online from Home Depot within the next few weeks, though. Next up will be the formal living room. I want a simple couch, a rug and a coffee table. Finally, we’re turning the room attached to the master into a media room. The homeowner before us used this room as an office, but it has a tiny tiny window, is far from the rest of the house and there’s already a room I can use as an office downstairs (plus let’s be real, I work on the couch). So, after much debacle on what to do with that room, we finally agreed on a media room. Realistically, we probably won’t furnish this for 3-5 years as it’s definitely not a priority.

Redo the flooring. The carpet is brand new – yay! And I’m a weirdo who actually likes carpet in the bedrooms. It’s cozier to me and I kind of like vacuuming. The rest of the house is light hardwoods. While I don’t mind them, I prefer dark hardwood floors. This is something John can hopefully refinish instead of replace, which would save us a ton of money.

How to Save Money on Home Improvements

Insource whatever you can. Small projects and things like painting can normally be done by yourself. There’s no need to hire someone to do something you can do on your own, especially if you’re on a budget.

Outsource when needed and do so strategically. John worked in the construction business for more than 15 years and we can both tell you that it is HARD to find good, quality work. There are many contractors out there who will take significantly longer on a project than they originally told you, or they just won’t show up one day, or they’ll end up charging you a lot more than you originally thought. It can be a mess. If you have to outsource, interview a good amount of potential candidates before deciding. Ask friends and neighbors for referrals and use trusted sites like Contractor Connection to find the right contractor for the job.

Save up money and pay in cash. Unless the project is absolutely necessary (such as flood damage, mold, a foundation issue, etc), save up for it and pay in cash. John and I are currently rebuilding our emergency fund. Once that’s complete, we will save up for our remodeling projects. Going into debt for granite counters or new furniture is never a good idea. And if you’ve been around my blog for a while, you know I’m all about enjoying life! However, that doesn’t mean financing non-necessities that really won’t add that much happiness to your life.

In your current home, what is it that you want to update?!

This post was sponsored by Contractor Connection. However, all opinions expressed are my own. Thank you for supporting the frugal millionaire blog through posts like these!

/ Filed In: Budget, Home, Life, Saving Money
Tagged: budget, home, life, new house

Here’s Why We Upsized Our House

We recently purchased a house – a big, beautiful home in an awesome neighborhood with an incredible lot. We by no means maxed out our budget, but this was at the very high end of what we wanted to spend. We’ve been here roughly two weeks now, and I can honestly say that this was a great decision for our family.

upsized our home

When we first moved to Charlotte, our goal was to downsize and simplify our lives. All the talk nowadays seems to be on downsizing and living simply. Trust me, I can get on board with that and understand why people want less bills, less stuff and less to take care of. In just our two weekends here, we’ve been swamped with errands and chores. But honestly? I like that! I still relax, but I kind of enjoy the fast-paced lifestyle of working FT, freelancing on the side, being a mom and wife, taking care of the house and more. I’m never bored, and that is a huge blessing!

Continue Reading

/ Filed In: Bills, Budget, Home, Life
Tagged: budget, financial goals, home, life, making money, motivation

Buying a House? Why You NEED to Shop Around for Your Mortgage

house2Hi everyone!

So, big news over here: WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!! Not just any house, this is our dream home. Interesting story actually – it went on the market about 5 months ago and we found it when we were driving through a neighborhood one night (it’s our favorite neighborhood) on our way home from Publix. I had John stop the car so I could get out and take a picture. I LOVED this house. I even sent the photo off to a few friends and family members saying, “Check out this house! It’s my dream home in my dream neighborhood!”

Of course, at the time, John and I were both working for ourselves. We weren’t shopping for a house as we knew it would be another good 1 1/2 years before we could get a loan. Obviously by then, the house would be sold.

Continue Reading

/ Filed In: Bills, Home
Tagged: bills, home, mortgage, moving

Is buying an expensive house ever a good idea?

expensive houseAs I’m sure most of you read, I was offered a full-time job last week (!!). In addition to my exciting news, my husband was also offered an incredible opportunity to work for the company he worked with back when we lived in Arizona. He accepted the job yesterday and we both start in a few weeks.

While there are many, many benefits to working for yourself (like my husband and I both do/did), there are also many drawbacks. One huge one for us was not being able to purchase a home right now. We want to take advantage of low interest rates plus, if I’m being honest, we are both ready to buy. There are some huge benefits to renting – our AC broke a few weeks ago that we didn’t have to pay for, and I love love LOVE this house – but when push comes to shove, we’re not working towards anything on the house-front by renting. Now that we’ve been in Charlotte close to a year, we know that this is where we want to be for the long-haul. Our kids love it here, the weather is gorgeous and I feel very at peace and happy in this environment.

In just a few short months, John and I will begin house-hunting.

Continue Reading

/ Filed In: Home
Tagged: financial goals, home

My refurbished dresser

dresserI mentioned a few months ago that I was going to start a new hobby of refurbishing furniture. Well, thanks to moving and some very cold weather, I just now got around to actually painting the dresser I bought over two months ago.

When we first moved into our new rental home, I told John I wanted to buy all of the furniture that we needed off of Craigslist and repaint it to our liking. We have all our “necessary” furniture – beds, a couch, a dining table…well, that’s about it, haha. We have no desire to spend a bunch of money on stuff that just sits there, but at the same time we want our house to look homey and be cozy and inviting. Since our dresser project went well, we’ve been looking for more furniture items to buy on Craigslist and repaint.

Continue Reading

/ Filed In: Home, Life
Tagged: decor, furniture, home

Buying versus renting: Our plans

buying versus rentingJohn and I have been discussing a lot about our plans for the future, especially when it comes to when we will purchase our own house here in North Carolina. While interest rates are low, the housing market seems to have creeped up a bit over the past year. Since John just started working for himself in September 2014, the soonest we could purchase a home would be in September 2016. But, we think we are going to wait even longer to purchase a home unless the market suddenly takes a huge dip. Buying versus renting has been a frequent subject of conversation here in our household!

Here’s why we like renting:

Continue Reading

/ Filed In: Home, Life
Tagged: family, financial goals, home

How to clean a big house // My schedule

cleanCurrently, we are living in a 3000 square foot rental home. To some that may be average, but to us this house is quite large. In fact, it’s the biggest house my husband and I have ever lived in. I was nervous moving in thinking about what it would be like to clean the house. Since we’ve lived here almost two months now, I thought it would be interesting to share my cleaning schedule. It actually hasn’t been as daunting as I thought, thank goodness.

I will preface this post by saying that I’m naturally a pretty clean person. My kitchen is always clean, laundry is never piled up and we don’t have random toys strewn throughout the house. The girls know that their toys stay in the play room or in their rooms. They bring toys downstairs, naturally, but know that they belong upstairs and they put them away when they are done. I do dishes throughout the day as needed, I wipe down the counters multiple times per day and I rotate laundry as I go. It’s really not that hard to bring the dirty clothes with me on my way downstairs and throw them in the washer. This method has prevented me from doing multiple loads at once on any given day.

My biggest tip for keeping a big house clean

Continue Reading

/ Filed In: Home, Life
Tagged: family, home, life

  • 1
  • 2
  • Previous Entries
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search my blog!

Top Posts

  • Frugal Birthday Ideas for Your Husband
  • Working Moms Morning Routine: 5 Tips to Streamline Your Morning
  • How to Start a Successful Handyman Business
  • How to Have a Great Day
  • How to Spoil Your Husband without Spending Money

Theme by 17th Avenue · Powered by WordPress & Genesis