Here is an odd collection of tips this morning which maybe some of you can use.

I went to buy eggs. I usually try to get them on sale but couldn’t find any and since I needed them I had no choice but to pay full price so I bought a cartoon of medium eggs. Sometimes we automatically always get the large (we do that with so many things) thinking those are the best but what I was using them for (baking) small or medium work better and they were cheaper.

Most recipes when they call for eggs mean small or medium ones unless otherwise stated. I have several recipes which by using a large egg it can really throw off the recipe. If you are having trouble with a recipe being extra sticky or not quite right you might change your egg size and see if that helps.

Another thing I did this morning was hang my clothes out. After writing an e-book on laundry and hanging out clothes I didn’t think I had missed anything but as I was hanging some T shirts one of them was sagging in the middle when I pinned it on the line and I re did it. You need to hang the items taunt on the line not stretched too tight but not sagging. This helps get rid of much of the wrinkling some of you have a problem with. Sometimes we tend to sag them in the middle to give us more clothesline space but don’t do this.

Odds and Ends Tips

If you lose the plug for your bathtub use a golf ball. If it happens to get dislodged it just rolls right back into place.

Rub hair conditioner on your shower curtain rod to make your shower curtain slide more smoothly.

Hope some of these ideas help make your day go more “smoothly”. : ) Have a super day everyone.

Jill

One of our readers, Carys, sent an email with a couple of ideas on not wasting food. One thing she said was on the evenings when only part of the family ends up showing up for dinner (some working late, unexpected activity etc.) to be sure and deal with the leftovers immediately. Adapt the menu for the rest of the week to incorporate things like fresh produce which you didn’t use for the meal. She also mentioned you could freeze some items and if you need to make up a soup to freeze which might spoil otherwise.

She also mentioned making out a menu and list before you go to the store so you don’t over buy and bring more food home then you need.

One thing too which you have heard me say before is don’t just write a menu and forget about it. Use it. Pay attention to your food what you have, what needs to be used etc. If you want to save it will take a little effort. You can’t just wave a magic wand over everything in your life and expect things to get fixed and straightened out. You have to work at it.

That isn’t such a bad thing either. I just finished going through a bunch of piles which had been accumulating all over my house. I have put it off and dreaded doing them. It was going to be some work but I broke down today and did them ( I have to practice what I preach.) : ) I feel so good. It is like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and the pleasure I get from looking at my clean corners it great. I also feel good about myself that I accomplished a nasty job and did it well.

So start putting a little effort into taking care of your home and today I’m talking in the area of your food. One of the main reasons we spend so much on food is because we don’t take care of and use what we buy and bring home. We wouldn’t dream of wading up dollar bills and throwing them in the trash or down the garbage disposal but we do what amounts to the same thing every time we throw out food.

Make a menu, grocery list and watch your leftovers. If you don’t know where to begin I cover it all down to the last detail even to tell you how to get motivated in my Grocery Shopping on a Budget e course.

Here are a couple of suggestions you maybe can use.

Use leftovers in school and work lunches. My kids very rarely bought a school lunch. I didn’t really have the money for it, they didn’t like them and taking their lunches gave me a way to use up my leftovers. They have some really neat small  thermos containers that you can use to send hot or cold  things in a lunch box. Use them they are worth it.

I know it isn’t cool the take a lunch when you are in middle school or high school but you know if you are really serious about saving and getting out of debt then the whole family needs to step up to the plate and help. I really think we pamper our children too much emotionally sometimes so much so we now have a generation of adults who can’t cope with anything because they have been so cushioned in every little thing. Instead of letting a few small things happen to them so we can teach them how to deal with life’s disappointments we totally protect them so when hard adult things happen they go to pieces.

Now that was some tangent to get off on. Sorry about that. I do get carried away at times. Anyway back to leftovers. One other thing which may help is instead of making 7 menus and say this is what we will have on Mon. and this we will have on Tues.,  I usually make 7 menus - 4 easy and 3 more complicated. If I have a day that looks like it is going to be extra busy, some family members unexpectedly  won’t be there etc. I then will use a simple meal from my easy list. If I am going to have more time I use one from my more complicated list.

One even simpler way to save with leftovers is to do things like only open 1-2 boxes of cereal at a time. Don’t open any more until those are used up. The same goes for chips, cookies or anything like that which could go stale.

And last Carys made the point to be sure and watch your food carefully so you either use it or preserve it (freezing).

In the same way you need to do your work properly to earn money at a job, you need to work properly to “earn” save money at home with your food. If you don’t work you don’t get a pay check. You can’t just wiggle your nose and the food takes care of it’s self you need to deal with it.

Jill

I just wanted to let you know. I used to buy lunch kits at least two a year for my kids and I have three kids in school. I got tired of buying them new kits all the time because they were falling apart. I decided to crochet them a small bag. It is a small drawstring bag. They wash and dry in the dryer and they are working wonderfully. I just wanted to pass along to you that there are many great ways to have lunch kits what are not typical lunch kits. My kids love them and so do their friends, I have even sold a bunch to friends for their kids. Thanks so much for your living on a dime newsletter. Renee

From: Ron

My wife and I are in our 40’s. We have three children in their 20’s. All three are struggling financially and constantly asking us for money.

Our two daughters are currently unemployed. We are not rich, but do have money to help them for small issues. Are we wrong to continually give them money? How do we say no without making them mad?

Thanks

The short answer is YES you are wrong to help them out. So what if you make them mad?

Really, why are you helping them out? If it’s just a temporary thing, that’s one thing, but this sounds like a common occurrence or you wouldn’t be asking. Why should your adult children be mad at you for you expecting them to take responsibility for their own bills as grown adults?

No, you do not need to be helping them so much and I would tell them you are stopping NOW!!!

Tawra

We get this question all the time and I haven’t addressed it in great detail, so I will try to do that now. I have grown children. I don’t know how many times in years past they have been unemployed or suffering financial hardship and watching them struggle has been hard.

It took a lot of courage to ask the question, “Are we wrong to continually give them money?” and, to me, half of the battle for anything is admitting there is a problem. Not everything I’m going to say next is aimed directly at you, but generally for all those people who write with similar questions. It may not all apply to your situation, but use what you can.

It is so hard being a parent and trying to know how to balance these things but the same things apply when they are adults as when they are young. What concerned me the most was when you asked how to do it without making them mad.

I think one of the worst things so many parents do no matter what the age of the kids is “wimping out” as a parent. I hear parents say all the time - “I don’t want to do this or that because my kids won’t love me”, “They’ll get mad at me”, “They won’t think I’m cool” or “I want to be their best friend.”

Children need parents who are brave, strong and powerful (in a loving sense). It makes them very insecure to have parents who aren’t like this. They think if mom and dad are going to cave under my little bit of pressure, there is no way they will stand strong and do what is best for me when I really need them to step up to the plate.

Only you can judge what is best for your children. Are they trying their best to find work? Have they been responsible in times past? Are they giving up all they can to save and make their money go farther? Are they trying to help out in different ways to show you how much they appreciate your help, maybe by cleaning your house, doing yard work or running errands for you?

Or do you find that they’re not bothering to look for a job, are not cutting back on their own personal spending and can’t believe you had the nerve to ask them to help around the house. You are the best judge. Like any good judge, though, judge with the facts and not emotions.

This is something we should do continually with our kids. If my 10 year old son was sitting every day watching TV all day and insisting I feed him bags of chocolate, you would think I was crazy if I indulged him.  Why? Because, first, he should be going to school. It’s important for his future. Second, chocolate isn’t the best diet in the world for a child. Interestingly, though, many of us do this with our 20 something children. If I tell him, no, he can’t do this anymore, he is going to be mad at me, but I still have to do it for his good and because I love him more than myself.

As kids get older, the specific things in question may be different, but the same principles apply.

Another reason why you shouldn’t worry about whether they get mad or not is because it isn’t good for you. You will lose what you are worrying about losing and that is your children’s love and respect. No one, especially children, respect and admire anyone they can manipulate and control — someone who is a pushover.

I’m not sure there is any way to say this without sounding harsh and I don’t mean it in a harsh way. If a parent gives his or her children things or money because the parent doesn’t want them to be mad or to not like them, they are just buying their children’s love. In the adult world, if it was a man and a woman it would be called having a sugar daddy.

We have got to stop using material possessions and money to try to fix emotional conditions. Possessions and emotions are two different things. Using this strategy is like putting a band aid on your big toe to fix the huge bleeding cut on your arm. You are trying to fix the wrong problem and in the wrong way.

If grown children are asking for help all the time, something else needs to be fixed and it won’t be fixed with more money. You are pouring good money on top of bad. If you had an investment and every month the bottom dropped out of it and you were asked to invest more, how long would you keep pouring good money into this bad investment? After a bit wouldn’t you think, “Maybe I need to look into this and see how to fix it?” or change it? Of course you would, which is why I applaud you for asking this question, because that is what you are doing. Don’t stop there — follow through with the solution.

Now that we’ve discussed the emotional issue, let’s get down to what we can do in a practical sense to deal with this situation.

The best way to keep the problem from happening in the first place is, when the children are young, to avoid the habit of giving in to their desires and bailing them out from their problems. Sometimes they have to learn from and deal with the consequences that their actions created. Constantly rescuing them prolongs the problem and usually makes it worse.

Clearly, there are times when the situation isn’t their fault but instead of immediately coming to their rescue, teach them and help them find a way out without simply handing them what they need on a silver platter. For example, my daughter wanted to be in a special singing and dancing group at school. We just didn’t have the money for it. It wasn’t her fault and I hated telling her she couldn’t do it, so we came up with a solution. She got a part time job to cover the expenses.

I had taught her how to come up with a solution. Instead of getting mad because I couldn’t give her what she wanted, she learned a new job skill and, years later when she and her husband faced similar but bigger problems, she knew how to work it out without running to me first thing.

20 somethings: They are a little like 3 year olds and a little like teenagers. They want to be independent but, at the same time, are always testing the waters to see how much they can get by with before mom and dad put their foot down and say enough.

Add to that a mom and dad who have been brainwashed into thinking that this generation is “special” because of “these hard economic times” and that spells trouble. Do you know that one generation after another has thought the same thing, but still has been kicked out of the nest and has survived?

Unemployment is unemployment, whether it is during the depression of the 30’s, the days after World War II when men came back from the war to find that there weren’t many jobs to be had and on and on. Each generation has had to learn to cope, although I think this generation is the first one to sit and refuse to help themselves and expect mom and dad, the government and others to do it all for them.

Instead of bailing them out, help them find a solution or, better yet, step back and let them find their own solution. They may flounder and go under a bit but believe me, in spite of what everyone thinks, the spirit of survival is still a strong motivator and even though they may be uncomfortable for a while, they will not only live, but become stronger and better people for it.

We don’t have enough faith in our kids and we don’t give them enough credit. No wonder so many don’t try to take care of themselves — If mom and dad don’t have faith in them, they can’t have faith in themselves.

One other practical thing to do is to sit down with your kids and explain you feel you are doing them a disservice by bailing them out and have decided to let them live their own lives from now on, the good, bad and ugly of it all. Pick a time when everyone is calm and not tired or unusually stressed. Have some yummy desserts or snacks and sit and talk.

If you feel better about it, you can give them a small amount (and I mean small) to give them couple weeks to find a job, place to live or whatever. Then explain that there will be no more. Whether you do this or not is something you have to decide for your own situation.

Be prepared for them to get mad, hurt and to rant and rave, but they will eventually get over it. Even if they don’t, you have to let go and realize how they react is no longer your responsibility but between them and God. Besides, if the only way you can keep your children’s love is by paying them for it, is it really love? I don’t know, but it is something to think about.

Is there a time to help adult children? Yes. I would give my children money in a heartbeat, but only because they have proven themselves worthy and responsible over the years. I have insisted they take money from me from time to time in years past and they have always been grateful and paid me back in a timely manner. On rare occasions we all need help, but we shouldn’t ask for help until we have done everything and sacrificed all we can to help ourselves first.

Jill

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve updated about how we are doing.

First the good news. We thought that the medical bills from Jack were going to be around $4,000-$5,000 but….drumroll please….. they were only $2500!!!!! Yeah! We are so excited. We are pretty sure they are all in now and that was it. Now we will have extra and we can start paying off our house.

We have $99,000 left to pay off our house and we would love to do it in 3-5 years. That may be a little optimistic but we are going to give it a shot. The even better news is our gutters were “totaled” by the insurance company after last month’s hailstorm and we got another $1200 we didn’t expect so we will be putting that on the house too.

The gutter’s work just fine and look fine but on the inside, where you can’t see, there are a bunch of “dings”. We aren’t going to pay someone to fix them and if they do need fixed we can do that easy project ourselves and save a bunch.

Then my MIL kindly paid for our gas out to Colorado and so we will be putting that $150 on the house.

We are going to start putting an extra $200 a month on the house and try to put $400 if we can on top of all the extra we get. This is something that is slow but sure and can done even on modest or low incomes.

We got the chance to take a very short notice but long trip to Colorado so we took it. I was feeling very overwhelmed with life in general as it seemed like all I was doing was nursing all day long and figured I could sit and nurse in Colorado in the cool weather as well as here.

The kids with their cousin (far right) in Estes Park.

Our trip went well and we had a good time. We went camping with my cousins for 3 days, stayed with my grandparents for 5 days and then stayed for 4 days with my in-laws in the mountains. We used to live in Estes Park so it’s our favorite place to visit.

The baby is growing fast and big, too big actually. When I took him for his 2 month check up he is already 14 pounds. The doc said “does he eat every 2-3 hours?” I said “no, every 1-2 for 30 minutes minimum! I told him every time I nurse my CFS gets really bad, I feel like I am getting weaker by the day and I was wondering if there was something wrong. My arms and legs are even going numb.

Baby Jack saying “Am I worth it mom?”

I didn’t go on any hikes at all while we were in Colorado and I am having a hard time just doing small stuff like walking into the store. I am also in pain constantly feeling like a hot knife is stabbing me in the boob almost all of the time.

The doc said that he is sucking the life out of me, literally. He said that because he is nursing so often and for so long that he is taking muscle and calcium from me which is why I am feeling so weak. He is taking all my nutrients and there is nothing left for me. He said the stabbing pain is my body trying to keep up with milk production and it’s not keeping up now.

He said that I need to eat 80 grams of protein a day and that should help. He told me to only nurse him for 20 minutes every two hours and he should be fine. He also said that I shouldn’t try and lose weight right now.

That’s not a good thing because the diabetic doc said that if I don’t get 40 lbs. off in 2 years I will probably have diabetes. My regular doc said to wait on that for now and then get it off when I wean him. He said I should stop supplementing him and just breastfeed.

Well, I tried that for two days and he is just not getting enough so I am going to do the opposite and start supplementing more and nursing less. I am compeletly worn out and would wean him totally but he nurses so well I will try and give it another month or so until we start solids. Also, if I get up and nurse him at night he goes right back to sleep but if Mike gives him a bottle he spends 1 ½ hours trying to get him back to sleep. We are trying to do the best combination for sleep that we can at this point.

He does have milk allergies and I am totally off all milk products and he only has a reaction when I eat something and don’t realize there is milk in it. We are giving him soy formula right now.

So far the kids are doing well in school. They are all going to new schools this year so we hope they will be better schools than what we had to deal with last year. After talking to several parents we found out they had the same problems we did so I hope these new schools will be better.

Well, that’s about it for now. I hope you enjoy the pictures!! Tawra

The comments will be closed on this post.

My kids have been grown and out of the nest for a very long time now but if you think the “I can’t believe they did that!” moments no longer happen think again.

I was laughing so hard I had to wait a bit to write this and collect myself. My son in law (Mike) just called and said ” How do you react when you ask your wife (Tawra) what is this burnt on gook that I can’t get off of this pan? and she just ever so casually answers “Oh, that is just carpet that is burnt on there”.

At this point my son in law and I are having a good belly laugh. How many people do you know who have gotten a burnt carpet stuck on to a pan lately?

What’s even funnier is Mike and Tawra had been out of town and hadn’t seen the blog post I did just recently about cleaning burnt pans. I know you all thought I was maybe stretching it when I said my daughter has burnt almost everything in her pans. Now you see I wasn’t.

That’s why I gave you guys those formulas. It was for those of you who with great tancity keep facing the challenge’s of the cooking each day and failing each day. I admire your resolve not to give up and someday you might actually succeed and be able to once again use normal cleaning products like scouring powder, vinegar or detergent to clean your pans. : ) My hat goes off to you who are “fighting the good fight” each day! : )

Now I know you are all wondering “How did she get burnt carpet on her pan?” She was pulling the pan out of the oven and burnt her hand, dropped the pan on to the rug in front of her stove. The pan was so hot it just melted the carpet to it.

I do most of the tips on cooking and organizing but Tawra did come up with one really good one - keep the burn medicine in a cabinet by the stove. Hummm… I wonder how she figured that one out??

In spite of what it sounds like I do sympathize with and love my daughter. I even pray daily that someone will invent a stove which doesn’t use heat especially for her and invent special foam cleaner which will instantly dissolve thick, thick burnt on gook for my son in law to use. : )

Jill

It’s not that I’m bored or I don’t have a ton of work I should be doing, that I am writing this but Tawra is bringing my new grandbaby over for me to watch for a bit. I thought about taking him for a walk but I don’t have his stroller yet and then I remembered my little red wagon. I’ll plop him, car seat and all into it and we can go for a stroll but, while I am waiting, I thought I would write my story below.

It is dedicated to those everyday things in our lives that we use over and over, that are always there for us but we tend to overlook and take for granted. (No I’m not talking about your husband. : ) : )

Me and My Little Red Wagon

I have a little red wagon. I can’t remember my life without it. When I was young I would pile my baby dolls  and stuffed animals in it and pull them to and fro. As I got older my brother would stick me in it with the handle bent back so I could steer and he would precariously push me up and down the side walk as fast as he could while I would frantically try to keep us from falling off the curb and killing ourselves.

The years went by and I traded my little red wagon in for a VW bug and much to my father’s dismay I drove it about like I did my little red wagon, still having problems staying away from the curbs. But time marched on, I married and my husband used the VW bug and I went back to my faithful red wagon.

It hauled diapers to the laundromat when I had no machine to wash them in and once again it hauled my “babies” to and fro. I would put my toddler and newborn in my little red wagon and pull them a mile through town to take my husband his lunch or to go to the post office.

My babies grew older and soon they were frantically pushing each other up and down the sidewalk in my little red wagon. It was their first driving lesson but, again, it was put aside for a VW bug (There isn’t a lot of variety in my family).

The kids grew up, left home and it was me and my little red wagon once more. It hauled topsoil, bricks, rocks and weeds, piano parts and boards. When I moved, it would haul boxes for me that were 5 times its size and weight, yet it never once gave up under the load.

Soon my little red wagon and I had come full cycle and it was once again hauling my “babies” for me. Grandbabies this time. We may look a little different– my hair is grey and he has a little rust on the sides. We are both sagging in spots and creaking all over. It has been a long and sometimes hard haul and even though we are moving slower, the sun is still shining and God has blessed us with yet one more healthy happy baby to haul to and fro. Does life get any better?

Jill (and my red flyer wagon)

Many years ago, way way back in the last millennium : ) (that sounds impressive doesn’t it?), as a young bride (that sounds depressive - am I really that old?), I read on of the best tips on cleaning and housekeeping. The woman who wrote it was an older woman and said she had been an awful housekeeper until she asked her friend who had a spotless house what her secret was.

Her secret was that she never stopped picking up. No matter where she was walking to and from in her house, she automatically picked things up to take with her and put away. It really works.

Some of you are saying, “My kids and husband just need to pick up their own stuff.” I agree that the family needs to be responsible, but the reality is that kids and husbands have their heads in the clouds when it comes to these things. There could be an elephant in the room and if you ask them, “Why didn’t you pick that up?” they would say, “I didn’t see it there.” Duhhhhh!!!!

God has given us all different gifts and seeing the things that are out of place is not one He gave to kids and husbands so, in the same way I need them to help and do things in the areas where I’m not as gifted, I need to help them in their weaker areas. : )

That doesn’t mean they are off the hook when it comes to picking up. It just means I need to do a little extra. For example, each morning, before anyone gets fed, their rooms must be picked up. Sometimes during the day or evening if things are getting out of control, we have a “pick up ” time where everyone jumps in and helps. I usually try to make a game of this. Then at night before their snack and bedtime story the family room and, once again, their rooms get picked up.

I also taught everyone to clean up the bathroom after themselves, take care of all their dirty clothes and dishes, so as you can see I am not solely responsible for all of the picking up.

The type of thing I’m talking about is picking up that stray toy in the corner, that piece of paper or throw pillow on the floor and all those small odds and ends which so often get overlooked or that everyone refuses to claim as their own.

Those are the things that aren’t worth the time to wait until the family gets home and demand to know whose it is. It seems everyone in the family is waiting for someone else to do it and then it never gets done. As the mom, you have to just do it and pick it up. It saves so many headaches.

As I walk through a room, let’s say on my way to the bathroom, I will scan the room as I go through to see if anything is out of place. If it is, I pick it up to deposit where it should go on my way to the bathroom. When I come out of the bathroom headed back, I pick up things that need to go to the other end of the house. Most of the time this takes me less then a minute. It has become such a habit that I didn’t realize how much I did it until I was over at Tawra’s the other day and started doing it at her house.

As I was walking along, I spied a marble, then a Lincoln log and grabbed those up… next, a scrap of paper. I put the paper in the trash that I passed on my way to the boys’ room, where I put the other things. I was headed that way anyway and it didn’t take me 5 seconds to scoop, grab and put away.

It is such a habit that, even when I am tired, I do it without thinking. Try doing this with one room. If the room is mostly picked up, go in, scan the room and pick up those little overlooked things and see what a difference it makes in the room. Then get into the habit of always picking up those little “out of place” things. You will be surprised at how many little things there are laying around and out of place in your house.

One word of warning: Be careful of piles. I have the bad habit of piling things at the foot or top of the stairs and planning to take them up later, but that is my weakness - not seeing the pile when I head upstairs - so try to do as I say and not as I do and keep the piles under control.

Jill, lean, mean, picking up machine

I just had to share my joy!!! Today is the first day of school and the house has stopped vibrating!!!

I know I was thinking of homeschooling this year but I have to say I think I might have spontaneously combusted if I would have had to. LOL

For all you mothers out there like me, take this moment and go sit in the tub, alone….and enjoy the silence! ☺

Tawra

I have just finished writing a future newsletter on breakfast and I realized one of the reasons we don’t often eat breakfast is time. Not only is timing things to get them done quickly important but timing things to get them all done at the same time is too. This can sometimes be a big challenge to a beginning cook, but practice makes perfect. Here are some things to help:

Here is a simple menu I will use for my example:

Sausage

Eggs, scrambled

Toast

Coffee

If time is truly tight, then get as much done ahead of time as possible. With our menu here is what I would do the night before: All of this should take not more then 5-10 minutes.

1. The coffee, and water in the pot

2. If in a roll, the sausage sliced into patties.

3. The eggs in a bowl, mixed and ready to go.

4. The bread and butter set by the toaster.

5. The pan or griddle on the stove ready for sausage and eggs and oil for cooking by pans.

6. Set table

In the morning:

1. Start coffee

2.  Put sausage patties in pans and start cooking

3. Pop toast in toaster.

4. Flip sausages and start cooking eggs

5. Butter toast, stir eggs, dish up sausages, dish up eggs.

6. Voila your done.

Of course this can vary from person to person. I’m sure some do it differently and I do it differently on some days, too. The point is to think through the order in which you do things. Start your longest cooking items or things that can be just popped into a pan and need no attention first.

Let’s say I’m making potatoes, hamburger patties, salad and green beans. The potatoes will take just a little longer than the hamburgers, so I start them first. Then I start the hamburgers and while they are cooking I place my green beans in a bowl, ready to warm. Then I make my salad.

If you find yourself running back and forth across the kitchen like a chicken with it’s head chopped off, here is a way to help control your steps. If I am making a salad, I open the fridge and take everything I need out of it at one time.

I don’t get out the lettuce, cut it, put it back and then get the tomatoes and cut them and put them back. I gather it all at once, chop it all and then put it all back. This also helps save energy with your fridge. Do this with anything you are making. Gather everything together at one time.

I also try to prepare things like salad as close to the stove as I practically can. This way, if something on the stove needs to be stirred, it is easy for me to stir it and come right back to my salad making.

Also, for something like the toast in our breakfast menu, I store my bread by my toaster and my butter in it’s butter boat by the toaster, which saves many steps.

Here’s another small time saver: When making something like mashed potatoes, you don’t need to cut the potatoes into a bunch of chunks. Cut them once lengthwise, in half or in quarters and they will cook just as fast and more even. If you normally cut each potato 6 times and you cut 5 potatoes, you make 25 extra cuts for each meal. Just think how much time you will save in a lifetime if you cut your potato once or twice.

Look for areas where you can save time. Most breakfasts for a family of 4 can be made in 15 minutes or less if you are organized.

Jill