fall Archives - the frugal millionaire

How I Get in the Holiday Spirit

Happy Friday!!! Fall is officially here; meaning the holidays will be here before we know it! This is my absolute favorite time of the year, especially now that we are living in beautiful North Carolina. And, my girls are 3 and 2 so they are finally learning just how awesome the holidays and all the traditions that come with them are. I cannot wait to celebrate with my little family this year!

So, in light of the upcoming holidays, I thought it would be fun to back away from the freelancing/blogging/crazy-life-I-lead posts and share a more lighthearted post on how I plan to get in the holiday spirit this year.

Homemade Pumpkin Vanilla Spice Creamer

As I’m sure most of my regular readers know, I love coffee. I love it even more in the fall when I can add pumpkin cream to it. Normally, I have iced coffee with 2% milk and one sweet n’ low. I stay away from creamers except for over the holidays. Last year, I bought flavored beans and used 2% milk, but this year I have been getting into making my own coffee creamers.

If you look at the ingredient list in Coffee-Mate or International Delight, you’ll see that most of the ingredients are unrecognizable. I’m by no means the healthiest eater in the world, but I do want to at least know and understand what’s going into my body. The exception to the unheard of ingredients in coffee creamers is Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss. The ingredients are milk, cream, sugar and a natural flavoring. This is by-far my favorite creamer and is the one I used in the recipe you’re about to read. Next time, I plan on making my own base, too.

Starbucks Hacks from a Starbucks Fanatic

Fall is in the air! You guys, I’m excited. I decorated for fall right after we moved into our new house last weekend. I plan on doing a post on our house soon, but for now, just know that we love love love it and it was a great decision!

The holiday season tends to be when I stray from my normal tendency of saving every dollar we make. I don’t know what it is about fall that gets me, but I always go overboard year after year. I love to cook and bake during this time, I want my house to be decked out in all the latest holiday decor, I burn pumpkin candles like they’re going out of style, and I even resort back to my almost-daily Starbucks habit.

(Did I just lose all of my personal finance readers who actually do follow a budget?)

A little backstory on my relationship with Starbucks…