Johnson Home of Eastern North Carolina

Clearly you need to start somewhere and that somewhere should be with buying some land. I never thought I'd move home to Hertford County but after having a baby and plenty of nieces and nephews, our views changed and "Family" became a huge part of our lives. Moving home became our obsession. When the baby was just one month old, we began exploring our "move home" options. First, we needed a reason other than family… like say, a job. After lots of research, several job applications, a few let-downs, the Good Lord answered our prayers and a job opportunity Brad had previously been rejected from became available again. He got it! We had one month to move home before he started working with DOT. For two months and our stuff in 5 different houses, we lived upstairs at my parents' house. Finally we moved into some new digs at Brad's grandmother's house. We have truly been blessed by God to have such amazing family.  Without them we wouldn't have any ...

Some Tips and Forget-Me-Nots for Along the Way Take your budget (what you know you can actually afford) and times is by 0.9. This lower amount should be your new budget. Try to stick with that number along the way as it is incredibly common to go over the budget! So when you DO go over the budget, it won't come as such a shock because you can still afford it. Plus, if you don't go over your budget then it'll be an even sweeter reward in the end. Pick paint colors, lighting, interior/exterior/cabinet doors, flooring, etc. ahead of time so when you need it, you can easily go buy it and not have to stress over all the choices. It can be overwhelming (I'm speaking from our past situation.). To add character to your new construction home, look for light fixtures at Habitat for Humanity or yard sales that you can buy and repaint. Same goes for furniture and even possibly, faucets or appliances. Think about adding Sweat Equity into your home. Do all the painting (you...

  I'm not at all sure if anyone will actually read this or even get anything from it but I feel like maybe blogging about our experience with home-building will help us through it. From what I've heard some people wouldn't wish this experience on their worst enemy. Oh, that's awesome…    We've done this once before; however, it was a custom, pick-your-plan thing. We chose the floor plan we liked, the colors we wanted, changed the layout so we had a side-entry garage and that's about it. It was quite simple. The only other thing we did was ask if we could come in on a weekend and insulate the interior walls and the garage for additional sound proofing and, for a more obvious reason, the electricity bill.    This go-round we want to be more involved. Not as in "I'll be the general contractor, you do the work" kind of involved but know what's going on and add our own bit of sweat equity along the away.   With me not working (for reasons that we...

I had to make a change. This cleaning one day a week was for the birds! I absolutely despise cleaning the bathroom. Although it is my least favorite chore, you can bet your sweet hinny that it does get done. But with us living in a home with one and a half baths that run into one another, it makes for a lot of flooring to be swept then mopped. I think I dislike that the most.  Before I had baby boy, I saw on Pinterest (go figure) that the best way to make sure your home is clean and not having to sacrifice an entire day to do it is to put aside 15-20 minutes of intense cleaning a day. So I did. I loved it! Then the baby was born. I felt I had no time (or desire) to clean. Then we moved home. Moved in with my parents. Then moved again to where we are now. Needless to say, my cleaning schedule got Gone With the Wind.  With the inspiration from a few friends on Facebook, I Pinterested a new cleaning schedule that I edited to fit me! Here it is. I put it in a plastic...

Ingredients: 2 chicken breasts or 4 tenderloins 1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar 1/3 cup of reduced sodium soy sauce 1 cup of pineapple juice (or canned pineapple fruit… see below) 1 clove of garlic OPTIONAL Just throw it all in the crockpot and turn it on 8 hours low or 4 hours high.  Instead of just pineapple juice, I buy canned pineapple rings or bits. Pour a cup (give or take) of the juice in the crockpot then add a few pieces of pineapple. These taste amazing when it's ready. One of the easiest recipes I know. Plus, it's in the CROCKPOT! Not much easier than that. Enjoy!

Grease Monkey! Raise your hand if you're guilty of draining ground beef right down the sink drain. Shame on you! Just kidding, we've all done it.  My husband is a civil engineer but he does have a concentration in environmental engineering and he has spent a fair amount of time down in man holes for work. He said you would be so grossed out by what you see down there-- what people flush and rinse down drains. I don't even want to know. I do know this: there's a reason why your town/city instruct you not to pour grease down drain. It's bad for the environment and your home's drain. So after years of trial and error, I've found the best way (for me) to drain ground beef and dispose of it… and it doesn't involve me sliding on my flops and trekking out to the edge of the field in the middle of the dark night to pour it out either. Some suggest draining in aluminum foil bowls then letting it sit overnight to congeal. I used to do that bu...

Fruit Flies Suck I cannot figure out why those tiny flying annoyances are still around in the middle of autumn but they are. I even quit buying bananas because I store mine on the counter and not in the fridge like some do. Those little flying bastards were everywhere… including on and around the baby's clean sippy cups, spoons, and pi-pis. Not cool. First I tried the banana peel in a bowl with plastic wrap covering the top, poked full of holes. That seemed to trap them but then when it came time to empty the bowl due to the rotting banana peel, I had no choice but to take it outside and "free" them.  More research led me to discover, YET AGAIN, the power of VINEGAR!! Here goes: - a plastic cup - dish detergent - vinegar (I had success with red wine and distilled) Squirt a small amount of dish soap into the cup, pour in about 1/4 cup of vinegar in the cup, then add in tap water quickly so it produces lots of bubbles. Sit the cup in a high-traffic ...

   Welp, it appears as if the Fluffy Sock works just as well as a mop as it does a sweeper! With our newly installed laminate wood floors, we can't traditionally mop which is my favorite so I either have to steam it (asking a Shark for Christmas) or Swiffer it. Since I just ran out of Swiffer mop pads last week, I decide to put the socks to the test.     It works! Super excited.     Here's what you do: Fill a sink, bucket, bowl with hot water and add your desired amount of household cleaner… OR vinegar! With vinegar, it's usually 3 parts water, 1 part vinegar. Now I'm quite the germaphobe so I either use half vinegar/half water or a household cleaner like Pine Sol. I need to buy some essential oils to add to my vinegar mixture to make it smell good. Soon, perhaps. Soak your socks (use two for multiple rooms or large rooms) Wring out one sock at a time Slide one sock onto Swiffer Have at it Replace sock when you notice it's becoming dry or ...

   Let me gwon 'head and preface this post by saying: YES, I USE DISPOSABLE BABY WIPES ! Shame, shame, shame on me. Real talk : I'm definitely NOT going to make anything reusable but perhaps I should consider a paper towel version? We shall see.   Essentially it is what it is, Swiffer is an amazing product that is recognized around the world, makes half a billion dollars every year, and has only been around since 1999. Now with the accolades outta the way, in my opinion , Swiffer products are a huge waste of money and terrible for the environment. Have I purchased these products before? Yes. Did I love them? Double Yes. Will I purchase them again? Most likely not… unless I get some awesome sort of product placement/trial deal for writing about them and they send me tons and tons of free Swiffer product for life!… Let's be honest. It ain't gonna happen. Plus, though it'd be great, it really is bad for the environment.   Disclaimer: yes, I'm all for better...

     Oh, hello old friends!… If anyone actually reads this :) I'm back to blogging. It's been way too dang long. February was my last post. Really??? No wonder my budget is shot to s4!+. It recently dawned on me that pretty much the reason we've been spending too much lately (and by "we", I mean me :/) is because I haven't been couponing, researching ways to save money, living life on the frugal side, and then blogging about it. Out of sight, out of mind. FOOOOO' Sho'! Also, we've been trying to pack and move and pack and move again since March so I really haven't had the time to think frugally. But, never fear, I'm back at it, my friends.     I opened up my dear ol' blog and saw that I began a post back in June titled "Swiffer, the equivalent of a baby wipe". It made me giggle BECAUSE the main reason I got back on here today was to blog about, GUESS! The Swiffer!!!! Those jokers are a genius idea and just plain a waste of m...

Homemade Laundry Detergent   After reading somewhere that a household can spend close to $700 a year on various cleaning products, I decided I could do better. I am a huge Gain laundry detergent girl. Got it from my Mama. I've never used anything else. Well, since we're down to one income, I'm willing to put my brand-snob aside and give this a try.    I believe in giving credit where credit is due. This is not my recipe. I got the idea from  http://www.howdoesshe.com/cheaper-and-better-diy-laundry-detergent/ . I did, however, change somethings up.  Here's how I made my first batch: 1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax 1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Fels Naptha 1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda 1 (13.2 oz) Bottle of Downy Unstoppables Optional Ingredients that I did not use: 1 (3 lb) Container of OxyClean 1 more (13.2 oz) bottle of Downy Unstoppables 2 bars...

DIY Coasters   Living on one budget makes life a little tight, especially around the holidays. I love to shop for people, wrapping their gifts, and watching them open them. I'd rather enjoy this than opening my own gifts… even though I AM appreciative of their gifts to me. This past Christmas season was a little depressing knowing I wouldn't be able to spend much money on gifts. So I had to improvise and seek out the help of Pinterest. Duh.   I kept seeing my friends post the DIY coasters. Use scrapbook paper, your own pictures, wax paper, print sayings, etc. I couldn't figure out which one would be the best and actually work as a decent coaster. Let's be honest, drinks condensate and that's precisely the reason for your glass needing one. So I didn't want to make these simple "just use scrapbook paper and mod podge and presto! You're done!" They didn't seem legit to me.   So I began experimenting and eventually came up with a great gif...

   The Junk Drawer might be the greatest or the worst drawer in your house. For me, it's the greatest. At least since I organized it. I know you're thinking why organize a junk drawer, it's suppose to be unorganized, chaotic, and crazy. I could never find what I needed that I knew was in that drawer. It wasn't until after I cut.my.finger! that I decided that drawer needed a good cleaning. Of course I went to my trusty Pinterest to see what I could find.   Here's what I found:  Take everything out of the drawer. Yes, everything. Leave only the dirt and dust. Vacuum out said dirt and dust. Use a wet cloth and disinfect the drawer (my vinegar mixture did the trick). Decide how you need to sort things. Pens/pencils, batteries, note pads, miscellaneous, etc. Save boxes such as cereal, rice, whatever (these types are easier to cut with regular scissors.) Cut the bottoms off of those boxes. Wrap boxes in pretty scrapbook paper… or wrapping paper… or anyt...

  Well, this wasn't fun! Definitely had a trial and error moment.   After researching several blogs on how to make these money-savers, I decided on the paper towel ones. Apparently I should have found the blog with pictures before attempting this. I followed the directions, so I thought.   Here's what went wrong and where I went wrong: Cut the paper towel roll the short way; not the long way. AKA cut the fat way, not the skinny way. Do not take the cardboard piece out until after the paper towels have soaked.   I wish I had taken a picture of the disaster. Sorry!   When I was ready to use a wipe, I opened the reused diaper wipes container to find a big pile of mush. Basically I wasted an entire roll of paper towels. Awesome.com   So I went back to the drawing board… or the other blogs, and found another recipe. This time I decided not to waste any more Bounty since the idea is to SAVE money and not waste it. I had my husband clean out his whit...

  Instead of adjusting our monthly budget plan like I should be, I'm procrastinating and blogging. I'm not ready for the automatic depression that is sure to come as I try to figure out where to subtract $80 a month from our already tight budget. Thanks, lawmakers, for tightening the EVER SO TIGHT ALREADY belt of the middle-working-class.   Anyway, since I've been staying home with my little man to save money on daycare costs as well as because he has been on 3 daycare waiting lists for 10 months now, I've had to go green, homemade, penny-pinched, etc. I've always been quite a bit frugal with my money but now that we are down to one income, I've had to get resourceful. I cannot take all the credit for some of these ideas as I've found them on the Internet. Who doesn't Google/Pinterest these days? These are all money-saving things that I have tried and still use to save money. No, I haven't figured out exactly how much you'll save, but use your i...

Vinegar is the new duct tape. You can use it anywhere for anything! I use vinegar to cook, clean the bathroom, disinfect, wipe down countertops, degunk the garbage disposal, etc. Not to mention, it is super cheap! Once you quit being a brand snob and train your nose/brain to think the vinegar smell is a disinfectant, it'll be one of the best money saving experiences of your life. I'll just paraphrase some things I've read about household cleaning products. Do not quote me. Google it for the "facts". Everything on the Internet is true, right? Ha! Household cleaners do not have to put what's in their products on the label, only the active ingredients and "other ingredients" which are not listed. So, who knows what those actually are. Don't get me wrong, there is always a bottle of knock-off Clorox under the sink because, let's face it, somethings just need to be Cloroxed occasionally. I actually just got that bottle out from under the s...