Brittany Cooper, Author at Pennies into Pearls

October 2017 Family Budget Update – BIG Changes Coming Soon!

There are big changes coming to our family budget! We are in the middle of escrow on our first house ever! You can read more about our house hunt here.

We will be more than doubling what we pay for rent with our new mortgage payment (including taxes, PMI, and insurance). That means we need to make some changes with our budget.

The best thing is that because we have already lowered our expenses, paid off all our debt, and have been putting thousands of dollars in savings each month, the change won’t affect on our lifestyle much at all! Continue Reading →

By Brittany Cooper

November 2017 Meal Plan & Grocery Haul | Grocery Shopping on a Budget

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Pennies Into Pearls by using my links!

When you are grocery shopping on a budget, navigating the grocery world can become redundant and boring. Mindlessly walking through the aisles, buying the same boring food that you did last time.

That’s why I personally LOVE seeing what other families put on their meal plans and what products they choose when they shop at places like Costco.

This month our goals in grocery shopping on a budget were to try our best to stay away from foods that were overly processed and stick with products that contained more natural ingredients. All while sticking to our monthly grocery shopping budget of $300.

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By Brittany Cooper

September 2017 Real Life Family Budget Update

The key to keeping a budget that you can actually stick to, is to keep it evolving with your family. As much as I’m sure you would love to “set it and forget it”, that’s just not realistic. But the good news is that updating your budget is not hard at all! That’s what I am showing you in this month’s budget update!

We have some major changes coming up in relation to our family finances! As in, we hopefully will be buying a house!!! Fingers crossed! Be sure to keep up to date on our house hunt updates and to get all the details in real-time by following me on Instagram.

This new change will increase our “rent” from $1,200 a month to just around $2,800 a month. Super crazy!

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By Brittany Cooper

First Time Home Buyer Update #2 – Putting in an Offer

The first time home buyer process is no joke! At the time of recording of this house hunt update, it has been about seven months since we started looking to buy our first home.

Though the process is going slow for us (because we have high goals in a challenging market!), we are learning a lot about a bunch of different programs. In today’s first time home buyer house hunt update, I explain how a FHA 203k loan can help pay the costs of remodeling.

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By Brittany Cooper

How to Choose a Quality Mattress on a Small Budget

This post contains affiliate links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Pennies Into Pearls by using my links!

Remember when you were a kid and the biggest purchase you had to worry about was which candy bar you were going to invest your dollar in? That one decision could take you a long time! The same thing happens as adults. We can end up being stuck on deciding between different brands but the purchase price is a tad bit higher!

There are a few big purchase items that are necessities when it comes to furnishing your home. You can’t really live without a fridge, you could possibly make due without a washing machine or dishwasher, and a mattress is probably one of those items you can’t live without.

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By Brittany Cooper

A Frugal Girls Review of HelloFresh

This post is sponsored by Hello Fresh. Thank you so much for supporting Pennies Into Pearls by using my links. Xoxo!

Who wants a giant package full of healthy and delicious food delivered right to your front door?

Who doesn’t want to think about what to make for dinner?

Who is ready to have someone do all the hard work for you

Wrap all those things up into one cute white and green box and you have successfully described my experience with my first try of HelloFresh!

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By Brittany Cooper

Simple Office Makeover on a Budget – Cost Breakdown

This post is sponsored by Wagner and contains affiliate links. Thank you so much for supporting Pennies Into Pearls by using my links!

Living in a digital world full of Instagram worthy pics everywhere you turn, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when decorating your home. Especially if you don’t have a big budget to get the job done. That is exactly what I was tackling in this office makeover on a budget!

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By Brittany Cooper

August 2017 Real Life Budget Update – $2,182 Saved!

It’s that time of the month again where we vulnerably open up our bank account and share with you in our budget update everything that went in and out of our real life budget over the last 30 days.

With hubby’s schedule changing it is leaving even less time for date nights or family time where all five of us can be together at the same time. It’s things like this that have always caused speed bumps in our budget in unexpected ways.

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By Brittany Cooper

September 2017 Meal Plan & Grocery Haul – 19 Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes

When life gets busy, the last thing on your mind is what you’re cooking for dinner! 5pm very rudely sneaks up on us moms! Which is why in this month’s meal plan I have rounded up 19 quick and easy dinner recipes on a budget!

School is back in session! How do you feel about that? I’m the mom that feels completely torn, a mess of emotions!

Happy to be back to a schedule. Happy for a few less hours a day of the kids bugging each other. But man! I do miss those guys when they are away all day!

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By Brittany Cooper

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