these last few weeks i have been challenging myself to pick up my camera more. too often i pull out my iphone to capture a moment, knowing i will be disappointed with the quality in the long-run. 

i have been going to sleep earlier & waking up with the sun to take brief walks out to the pasture to our chicken coop & where our goats spend most of their time. i am in love with this place we now call home. i see an orchard in our backyard, pigs housed right outside the pasture & an expanded chicken barn for raising sweet layers for eggs. in fact, we purchased 50 day-old chicks this week in hopes of starting our own (small) egg business. this spring, freckled hen farm will sell a limited amount of free-range, non-gmo, happy & very well-loved eggs! at dinnertime, our conversation almost always ends with the “i can’t believe this is ours!” conversation. we are so thankful.

this weekend we are hosting a farmwarming for family to visit our new home & give well-seasoned advice on how to better keep our pond & raise our animals. i come from a long line of farmers & producers so i am excited to have them here. 

wishing you all a wonderful weekend! don’t forget to enter to win a miss money bags wallet! it ends monday!

our family has been budgeting for a little over five years now. we use our own simplified version of the dave ramsey cash system. this means we budget every little penny we spend down to our toothpaste & underwear & place each category of cash in a separate envelope. once we run out of money in our envelopes for the month, we are forced to stop spending.

 we feel a lot of freedom in budgeting this way because we can predict what our expenses will be & we allot money for those monthly costs. it is also a way for us to save up for trips & projects that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to do if we didn’t budget & save money. 

when we first started budgeting, i carried around a thick stack of white, paper envelopes with a rubber band wrapped around them. it was a hassle trying to go through all of my envelopes when paying the cashier at a shop & the envelopes had to be replaced often. once i was fed up with that system, i purchased a cheap cardboard coupon organizer. that system wasn’t my favorite either because the cardboard didn’t last all that long & the money slipped out of the sections easily. i was stumped until i came across the miss money bag wallets on sara’s blog. i connected with sarah about a year ago & soon after had a handmade cash envelope wallet of my own that i have carried around since.

sarah was generous enough to surprise me a couple of weeks ago with a new wallet sporting some new & improved features. i am over the moon for sarah’s wallets. they’re easy to use, very practical & they make the cash system actually cute. a huge upgrade from my stack of white envelopes & rubber bands. her wallets feature separate “envelopes” with an adorable little label on the front for writing each spending category. the new wallet design also has an awesome pouch with a zipper sewn in to make carrying around change easier. there are several pockets in the front for storing your debit cards, business cards & license. i also keep a little notebook in the back pocket for writing down lists of what i might need from the thrift shop or grocery store.

sarah contacted me not too long ago & asked if i would be willing to host a miss money bags giveaway for one of her wallets on my blog. i jumped at the opportunity because the truth is- her shop is one of my very favorites on etsy. i love her personal aesthetic, attention to detail & craftsmanship.

so, would you like a miss money bags wallet? we’re hosting a giveaway of either a bifold wallet or cash envelope wallet of your choice!

all you have to do is:

1. follow miss money bags on facebook or instagram @missmoneybags

2. comment below with one way you save money & your email address

i will choose a winner this upcoming monday, september 16th, at 8:00 am. 

happy day, friends!

love,

natalie

p.s. sarah is offering 20% off to natalie creates readers! simply enter the code “NATALIECREATES20” to receive your discount from her shop! yay!