Birthday's on a budget...milestone birthday

My husband hit a nice round milestone age this birthday. So I just had to celebrate him!
Usually, he is quite happy with dinner out on his birthday
and some angel food cake with chocolate frosting
his mom makes every year.
Something similar to this...

                                         

We did take him out for dinner on his day, but I didn't want this year to pass too quietly.
So I planned to small gathering with good food and good people I knew he would enjoy.

His birthday falls a few days after Christmas which always means the birthday budget is extra tight.
To help ease the financial pinch I will gift shop for him right along with Christmas gift shopping.
That way at the end of the month I don't have to worry about what to buy and how to pay.
Planning ahead helps to keep the Christmas budget in check too.
This year he made it easy on me and brought home what he wanted for his gifts.
All the more reason I wanted to do something special for him.

The first thing we did was figure out our food. He is not very adventurous with food but he does
enjoy good BBQ flavors. So we built a menu around BBQ pulled pork, BBQ chicken, BBQ meatballs.
My mother-in-law and I each decided what we wanted to bring.
Then I requested a side dish be brought from family and friends that were able to attend the party.
I have no hesitation in asking for help with food at parties with the exception of my daughters
birthday and that is usually because I have theme foods in mind.

Food is expensive and will eat up a small budget real quick. So asking for help is smart.
Most people I know are more than willing to bring something to share.
Give them enough notice and when they ask, give them something specific to bring.
Also requesting help with food at your event opens up for them to ask for help
later at their events. It it is a blessing for all involved when everyone is willing to help feed a crowd.
Going potluck style at your parties also shares the burden of making sure you have enough food.
Almost always you will end up with a table overflowing with food. No one will leave hungry!

The next item I tackled was cake pops. I first made these last May. You can read about how I learned to make these here. This happen to be my third time and I was much more prepared and enjoyed this process so much more. Maybe it was who I was making them for! I did find out that for chocolate covered pops, just use the chocolate almond bark in a double boiler. It was a very smooth texture and the process was so much easier than what I used in the past. Next time I will skip the expensive white chocolate baking pieces and see if I get the same results using white almond bark as I did with the chocolate bark. These lovelies are chocolate and lemon cake! Yum!

To top the cake pops off I created these cake toppers.
I used a vintage looking font and printed them on kraft colored paper.
I printed half that read Happy 40th and the other half read Vintage 1974.
I cut them using a 2 inch circle punch.
To add to the dressed look I inked black stamp ink around each circle.
Next I cut 2.25 inch circles from black cardstock.

To complete these I used flat toothpicks, adhesive tape and a hot glue gun.
I first add tape to the top kraft colored layer then at the bottom end of the black circle
I add a bit a hot glue. I like to use hot glue because it dries very fast.
Tacky glue would also work well.
As soon as I put down some hot glue I place the wide end of the flat toothpick over the glue
rolling it so it is covered on both sides of the pick.
Working quickly I make sure the pick is centered, then add the top circle making sure it is centered
as I lay it down. I then firmly press both layers together to complete the bond.
You may want to make a few extras in case you have an oops or two.
I like to always add a back layer of cardstock to my toppers because it adds to the overall look of the topper as well as hiding the pick.

Since the cake pops have a harder outer shell I first used a small paring knife to make a slight hole through the chocolate. Then I was able to insert the picks. If you do not do this step with cake pops you may end up breaking your picks.

The last thing I wanted to have for Dear Hubby is a banner to celebrate his milestone.
I found a pocket template here on Pinterest to use as my pattern. I use foam tape between the bottom panels and the top panels. I cut letters from my Cricut machine and strung with ribbon. It looked great over the cake table!

It was a very nice evening. And as always the cake pops were devoured!
Thank you again to my mother-in-law, family and friends for celebrating with us.
We love hanging out with you!


Toppers and banners are available in my Etsy shop
Thank you for stopping by!

Blessings!
Melissa,
the Singing Honey Bee


Linking up at: 
Huckleberry Love
The Modest Mom
Moms the Word

What I buy at Costco (small family style)

Thanks for stopping by for week 4 of Thrifting Thursday. A few years ago I learned how to coupon shop which meant I really had no need for Costco. Now, I find I do not have the time commitment needed to keep up with the coupons year round. I will however try to coupon shop a few months of the year in order to restock our health and beauty supply cupboard. Otherwise I am checking sales and shopping our discount grocery store for most of our food. I have found that shopping Costco lately has been beneficial to our family. Here is what I buy at Costco for our small family of 3.

I will say up front that Costco is at least 45 minutes from where I live. So I only make it there about every other month and when I do go I want to make it count. I will also usually go with someone else and split the gas or go when I have other errands in that area too. Also this is a partial list, I will do an updated post when I get other items next time.

First up is toilet paper. When I coupon shopped I rarely got a 12 pack for under $4. I still to this day can't figure out how someone would have gotten it for free, lol! I personally think that Costco brand toilet paper is great. It is a 30 roll pack, 425 sheets a roll, 2 ply. For a family of 3 it is a lot of tp- we will never run out, but more importantly, when mom stops buy I can offer her some which helps her budget stretch even more. I will also buy the paper towels when needed and this time I bought the kleenex. We go through a lot of tissues (allergies). Usually I will pay around a $1 a box for 86-120 count store brand somewhere. When I was at Costco this time they had them on sale for $14.99 for 10- 230 count 2 ply. It makes it only $1.50 for a more than double size box of what I usually buy. It's a great deal for us! Also this time I am trying Costco's brand of dishwashing tablets, it was $10 for 120 count. We will see if I like them?? Something else that I bought is a 500 count box of ziploc sandwhich bags ($9.49 for 500 count). We don't need 500 however my sister bought the big box of gallon size bags and we are swapping some out for the other size. This is a huge benefit of buying in bulk- split the bag or box with someone!

A couple of items I always buy here are the 60 count string cheese for $12.99 (22 cents each) and the 24 count yogurt for $9.99 (42 cents each). These are two foods my small family has no problem eating within the sale by date. Another item that I don't really think is a savings- price wise, except it saves from "going to waste". It is the individual size packs of hummus. Two of us love it! I have have not had success yet with making my own (need to keep trying), so I buy it. When I buy a regular size container of it, it ends up in the back of the fridge and eventually going to waste. Buying this pack of 16 for $6 makes them only 38 cents each and all of it always gets used. I feel the "no wasting" is a huge savings!

Fruits and veggies when bought here usually are split with someone. But this time I bought the big bag of organic baby greens ($4.29) to freeze for my smoothies and my made from scratch spinach dip.
Since I have started my own party business I have been making more cakes and frostings; I was needing some cream cheese and powdered sugar, so to save time bought what they had.

Sunshine loves to go with me to Costco because of all the samples. So I will usually allow one splurge purchase. This time we bought the Baked Fry's for $5.29. They are yummy for sure!

My total purchase was $101.32 (inc tax). That is a big chunk of our budget so I always go with a limit of only spending $80-100 each time. And most always try to pay in cash so I won't go over board.

There are other items I will purchase here, and will share in another post next time I go. Do you shop Costco? What items do you purchase there? 

More Thrifting Thursday Ideas!

So real life happened again! I had every intention in a week 4 Thrifting Thursday titled "What I buy at Costco- small family style". We left early Tuesday morning for a 45 minute drive to get these one day old fluffy cuties!

Our next stop was going to be Costco (another 10 min drive) while Dear Hubby would do another errand. We pull up at 8:30 and the parking lot is bare. At first I commented how we get to shop in a quite Costco this morning... ah man....I had no idea Costco does not open until 10 am! What's with that! LOL!
For the record I only get over to Costco about every other month or so (50 min drive) and never this early. We couldn't stay and wait because Dear Hubby had to get back (to be at work at 11) and we still needed to set up a place for our new fluffy cuties! So next week I hope to have a post for you on shopping Costco when there is only 3 of you. Until then here is where I link up my posts each week. If you go to each site there will be tons more posts of bloggers linking up their thrifty ideas, recipes, mothering tips, DIY and all kinds of fun stuff!
Living Well Spending Less Thrifty Thursday
Thrive at Home Thursday
And guess what!!!! I am so excited! On Living Well Spending Less' Thrifty Thursday look who is listed as #7 for most viewed the previous week! It was this post on saving at a discount grocery store. As I was scrolling down to link up my posts I see my pic and do a double take. Yay!!!
So head on over and check out all the wonderful ideas being shared. Enjoy!

It all started with a box (part 2)...my journey into my own home business

"Sunshines" 1st birthday cakes: baby jungle theme

2nd birthday party: Minnie Mouse theme

I am still looking for Sunshine's 3rd birthday picks: it was My Little Pony theme

4th birthday party: Princess theme 

We lost the pictures on the camera to her 5th birthday: it was Tom and Jerry theme

6th birthday party: Dolphin theme

From my post here I ended with discussing the recent conversation of "you should do this for people" It got me really thinking and praying. I have been asking the Lord for quite a while about work that I could do from home. I currently work three part time jobs outside the home and with the help of my mother-in-law, homeschool our daughter. Someday I will do a post on how that all works. Add in co-op, 4H, church ministries and all that goes in to keeping a home; my plate is full and I don't believe this is sustainable for me... for us. My heart is for being at home and homeschooling our daughter. But I also need to help contribrute to the budget area. We have become as frugal as they come and we have zero debt besides our home, but things are still tight! I have tried other work at home opportunities that I loved. But they just weren't the best fit for our family. So what else Lord, what can I do?...

In the process of praying and figuring this whole thing out I came across something I read somewhere- to write down what you love, what you are passionate about, what makes your heart soar. I wrote down several things and the funny thing is party designing/planning was not on the list. Creating was but not "party creating". In fact I was in the middle of checking some other opportunities out, when it was again said to me "you know, you should do this"... and the idea hit me. Then the name came: Singing Honey Bee Designs. My name Melissa means honey bee and creating makes my heart sing (and I love to sing too). So with my husbands blessing and lots of prayers I am going on this journey of starting my own kid's birthday party design/planning business. I hope to share with you here the in's and out's, trials and errors of starting a new home business and all the fun parties to come! I am excited, scared, nervous, and did I say excited- about all of this!

What about you? Have you or are you starting your own home business? Please share!