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How to Spend More Time With Your Family

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As there’s nothing more important in the world than family, it’s a wise idea to spend as much time as you can with your family. To discover a few tips that will help you spend more time with your nearest and dearest simply continue reading!

How to Spend More Time With Your Family:

Plan to enjoy a meal with your extended family at least once per month:

If you wish that you could spend more time with your extended family members such as your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews you may like the idea of setting up a family lunch or dinner every month. As while not all of your extended family members will be able to attend each meal, there will still be plenty of individuals who’ll turn up to each meal. So instead of waiting till Thanksgiving or Christmas to share a meal and to enjoy each others company, it’s well worth planning a family picnic or an easy to plan pot luck dinner.

Switch your phone off when you’re spending quality time with your family:

If you’re frequently distracted by your smart phone, when you’re spending time with your family, it’s a great idea to get into the habit of switching your phone off or putting your phone away, when you’re spending quality time with your family. As the memories which you make with your loved ones are a lot more important than responding to social media messages or scrolling through your Facebook or Instagram feeds.

As a bonus you should find that your family members will be a lot more talkative and open to having fun together if they know that they have your full attention and are not being distracted by your phone.

Find ways to be active together:

If you spend 30 minutes being active with your family members each day, you’ll get into the habit of spending quality time together on a daily basis. As an example, you may want to take your family dog to your local park for a short walk every evening or you may want to shoot basketball hoops or play catch in your backyard.

Come up with fun new family traditions:

If you come up with fun new family traditions such as board game night or movie night, you’ll find it easy to make time to spend time together as a family. As an example, if your family enjoys playing board games together or playing video games together you may want to start a new family tradition where you play games as a family every Sunday afternoon or every Friday night. When your children grow up they’ll fondly look back at all of your fun filled family traditions and may even choose to continue the traditions that you started as a family with their own children.

Wake up 30 minutes earlier:

If you make a concentrated effort to wake up 30 minutes earlier than you currently do, you’ll be able to enjoy a relaxed breakfast with your nearest and dearest instead of being rushed when it comes to enjoy breakfast with your family.

Hopefully you’ll be able to use all of the helpful hints which are listed above in order to spend a lot more quality time with your family members. As there’s nothing more important in the world than family.

Mom Budgeting Tips

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Budgeting is a whole lot more complex when you become a mom, compared to when you were single and carefree. If you’d like to discover a few tips that will help you navigate budgeting as a mom, you’ve come to the right place. Simply continue reading to discover a handy guide to budgeting which has been designed specifically for busy moms.

Mom Budgeting Tips:

Consider using cash in order to keep your spending under control:

If you currently rely on cards to pay for all of your weekly shopping and have a hard time sticking to your budget, it may be worth going on an all cash diet. Where you’ll take out all of the money which you need for the week out from an ATM machine, so that you’ll be able to keep track of exactly how much money you have left in your weekly budget.

Better yet, you may want to seperate your weekly budget into different envelopes, for different types of expenses. As example, you may want to place your food budget in one envelope and your gas money in another envelope. Which you’ll be able to keep in a folder or a large wallet.

Once you’ve spent all the money in one of your envelopes, try to wait till the next week in order to replace the money which you’ve spent. Instead of being tempted to get out your credit card and to spend money that’s not in your budget.

Purchase your family’s gifts during major sales:

Instead of waiting till the week before your husband or child’s birthday to purchase their gifts, you can save a lot of money if you think ahead and purchase your family’s gifts during major sales such as Black Friday. It’s also well worth planning to purchase all of your Christmas gifts during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Which should save you several hundred dollars, which you’l be able to put aside for a rainy day.

Make sure that you have a rainy day fund:

Instead of living from pay check to pay check which can be an extremely dangerous move, it’s a wise move to put any surplus money in your budget towards an emergency fund or a rainy day fund. That way if you find yourself stuck paying for unexpected car related bills, vet bills or medical bills, you’ll have plenty of money in your emergency fund in order to pay your unexpected bills. Without having to dig into your primary savings account.

Swap your unwanted kids clothes and toys with family friends:

If your kids have outgrown their clothes and need new clothes you may be able to swap some of your unwanted kids clothes with your friends or family members. Which is a win win situation which can help you and your friends and family members save money. As an added benefit, you’ll also be able to free up much needed room in your home as your home won’t be cluttered with items that your family no longer uses.

So if the thought of budgeting as a mom makes you feel stressed out, hopefully you’ll be able to use all the smart family budgeting tips which are listed above to your advantage.

Family Fun Activities

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If you’re looking for a list of family friendly bucket list activities to tick off this year, simply continue reading to discover a few family fun activities that your kids will remember for the rest of their lives.

Family Fun Activities:

Skiing:

While sun filled tropical vacations are a lot of fun, it’s also well worth treating your family to a snow filled ski vacation. As not only will your kids get to learn how to ski down a kid friendly beginner slope but your family will also get to take part in other winter activities such as sledding and ice skating.

Building a snow man:

Every kid needs to build a snow man or woman with their family at least once in their life. So if you live in an area where it snows or you’re interested in planning a snow filled getaway, it’s well worth building an adorable snowman with your family.

Sandcastle competiton:

No matter what time of the year it is, you can’t go wrong going for a walk at your local beach and challenging each member of your family to create the most extravagant sandcastle which they can come up with. Make sure to get creative and to show your kids how to decorate their sandcastles with pebbles, seashells and sticks.

Alternatively, you may want to challenge your kids to create sand figures of their favorite animals or cartoon characters. As an example, if your children are obsessed with Pokemon you may want to hold a competition where each family members has to create a realistic looking Pokemon sculpture. Just be sure to take photos of all of your sand sculptures to add to your family scrapbook.

Get crafty and create a family scrapbook:

Instead of posting all of your family photos onto Instagram why not print out some of your favorite family photos in order to create a family scrapbook. As your kids will love getting creative and decorating each page with glitter, ribbons, stamps, stickers and embellishments.

Go shopping at a local thrift store:

For a unique challenge why not challenge each family member to put together and purchase an entire outfit from a local thrift store on a set budget. As an example you may want to give each family member $30 to spend on their outfit. Once you get home you’ll be able to host your own fashion show, which will give each family member a chance to showcase the outfit which they styled.

Horse riding:

For a treat that your kids are unlikely to forget, it’s a great idea to surprise your kids with a family horse trek. Especially if your kids love animals or have begging you for their very own horse or pony. If your kids show a keen interest in horse riding and throughly enjoy their experience, you may want to gift them with horse riding lessons for Christmas or for their birthday.

Backyard camping:

Your kids will love camping out in your backward, swapping ghost stories and creating shadow puppets on the wall of your tent.

So if you’d love for your kids to enjoy the best childhoods possible, it’s well worth adding all of the family friendly bucket list activities listed above to your plans for the next year!

Healthy Food Tips

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Chopped vegetables for cooking or storage in plastic containers

As consuming a healthy, balanced, nutritionally packed diet is extremely important, continue reading to discover a few healthy food tips which will help you clean up your diet.

Healthy Food Tips:

Prepare healthy home made pop corn as a treat:

Instead of opening a bag of chips or crisps in order to satisfy your craving for a salty snack, it’s a great idea to get into the habit of preparing healthy home made popcorn. Just be sure to refrain from using butter to pop your kernels and to limit the amount of salt which you use on your home made popcorn. If your homemade popcorn needs a little extra seasoning try experimenting with using pepper corn on your homemade popcorn.

Swap out your plates and bowls for smaller versions:

If you find it hard to serve yourself healthy portions, the bowls and plates which you’re using may be partially to blame. As many modern day plates and bowls are far too large. You may notice that once you swap out your oversized plates and bowls for smaller versions, that you’ll be able to fill up your plates and bowls, without over eating. However as your plates and bowls will look full, psychologically you’ll feel a whole lot more satisfied than you would be if you were to eat the same sized portion, served in a larger plate or bowl.

Use small plastic containers to store healthy snacks:

To ensure that you always have healthy food options on hand if you get peckish, it’s a great idea to use small plastic containers in order to store healthy snacks. Which you’ll be able to keep in your bag and in your car’s glove box. As examples, you can never go wrong filling a small container with dried fruit such as dried nectarines and prunes or with filling a small container with home made pop corn or nuts.

Grow your own herbs in order to season healthy dishes:

One way to enjoy eating healthier, low fat meals is to start growing your own herbs. As you don’t need a large garden to grow your own herbs and you’ll be able to grow tasty herbs such as basil and coriander in your kitchen. Simply place a few herb pots on your windowsill. So that they’ll enjoy plenty of natural light. One example of a healthy meal which is made better by herbs is smoked salmon served with asparagus.

If you grow vegetables ask to swap your surplus vegetables with family members, friends and neighbors:

Instead of trying to grow a wide variety of vegetables in your garden aim to grow a few different types of vegetables such as lettuce, spinach and corn. As you’ll easily be able to swap your surplus vegetables for other vegetables such as peas, beans and potatoes, with your friends, family members and neighbors. Which will allow you to enjoy a wide variety of vegetables each year, with minimal effort.

So if you’ve been seriously considering making a few changes to your diet in order to clean up your diet and to experience a much needed boost in energy, it’s well worth testing out all of the healthy food tips listed above.

Fun Family Meals for Adventurous Families

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Instead of serving your family the same meals over and over, bring a bit of excitement to your family’s meals by trying out a few of the unique family meal ideas which are listed below.

Fun Family Meals for Adventurous Families:

Chorizo lasagne:

Instead of opting for a traditional lasagne, it’s well worth experimenting with preparing a chorizo lasagne. Especially if your kids love chorizo sausages. To cook a mouth watering chorizo lasagne that your whole family will love you’ll need dry lasagne sheets, chorizo sausages, garlic, carrots, rosemary sprigs, mince, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, basil leaves, parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Just be sure to peel your chorizo sausages before you get started as its best to use skinless chorizo sausages.

Pita pocket pizzas:

If you’re looking for a healthier alternative to cooking traditional pizzas, it’s well worth purchasing a packet of pita bread pockets which you’ll be able to use to create customized pita pocket pizzas for each member of your family. Which is great as if one of your kids loves pineapple and ham and their sibling prefers pepperoni and olives, each kid will be able to help make their very own custom pita pocket pizza! As an added bonus pita pocket pizzas are smaller in size than normal pizzas and are the ideal size for hungry children.

Fish pie:

In the cold winter months, it’s well worth preparing a hearty fish pie for your family. Even fussy eaters will love eating a hot fish pie as most kids love eating potato top pies. To create a mouth watering fish pie that your whole family will love you’ll need 1 kg of peeled potatoes, milk, butter, flour, spring onions, fish pie mix, mustard, sweet corn and cheddar cheese. If your family isn’t too keen on fish you can also substitute fish for mince.

Mashed potatoes, served with sausages and gravy:

Another hearty dish that will quickly become one of your children’s favorite dishes is mashed potatoes served with sausages and gravy. Which you can choose to serve with roasted vegetables or a healthy side salad. If one or more of your family members is vegetarian, simply swap out sausages for vegetarian sausages which are readily available at most grocery stores.

Ground turkey spaghetti:

While your kids may be used to eating traditional spaghetti which is served with meatballs, it’s well worth using ground turkey to create a more gourmet version of spaghetti, which is still family friendly.

Mouth watering turkey burgers:

If your kids discover that they love the taste of turkey, you may want to get their help creating home made turkey patties which you’ll be able use to create home made turkey burgers. Other examples of ingredients that you may want to purchase to add to your turkey burgers include pineapple, beetroot, cheddar cheese, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce and relish. Instead of serving potato chips with turkey burgers, it’s a great idea to try to pair home made sweet potato chips with your turkey burgers.

So if your kids are adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, they’ll love experimenting with some of the delicious family friendly meals which are listed above.