Essential Oils and the Flu

As an educator, we are notorious for pushing through sickness and continuing to teach. Why? Because it is 50x harder to prepare for a sub than to go ahead and teach while sick.

The Thursday before our school's winter break, I began to feel…off. Do you know that feeling? It's that a place where you do not feel normal yet you do not feel sick. I was most definitely in that place that Thursday. 

Uh oh. I did NOT want to be sick. We were almost to winter break! I had gone 2 weeks of avoiding the flu that was spreading through my school by using SN Shield blend. I did not want to get a sub now. As soon as I got home, I took a detox bath (45 minutes) with the following ingredients:

• Epsom salts
• baking soda
• SN Shield Blend
• SN Frankincense
• SN Melaleuca
• SN Lemon
• SN Oregano

I cannot tell you how much of each I used. 5-10 drops? I do know that I am very stingy on Frankincense because it is so expensive to replace. That night, after my bath, I started to feel myself again. Take that, sickness!!

This feeling lasted until around noon the next day. The off feeling began again despite continuously using my oils. I went home (it was a half day), took a nap, and then woke up to a VERY different body. I ached. I felt cold. Oh gosh. I have the flu.

When my husband got home, he took me to the clinic care where they confirmed that yes, indeed, I did have the flu. My husband however, used Shield like crazy and did not catch the flu from me.

In conclusion, the essential oils did a really good job of combating the flu for almost two weeks. Not too shabby given I was surrounded by sick students every single day during that time frame. Sadly, my body did eventually succumb to the flu.

However, my husband was only exposed to my flu for a few days, and he never did get sick while using the oils. This tells me that there is a limit to how well the oils will work, but it is still a fairly good limit. 

If you are interested in keeping your family from getting sick, go check out Spark Naturals here. When you check to, use the coupon code: jamesplace to receive 10% off your entire order!

Sincerely,

Mrs. James

T25

Recently, I was able to try out T25 within my own home. I was not paid for this review and these are just my opinions.

If you have not heard of T25, it is a Beachbody program designed by Shaun T (maker of Insanity) and the premise is to get into shape with just 25 minutes a day. Just 25 minutes?? Yep! That's what they claim!

The basic program comes with an Alpha and Beta cycle. I am now within week 2 of the Beta cycle and feel like I can give a good review.

I will be honest, the Alpha cycle was tough for me even when I was using the modified person to follow. It was definitely high intensity and had a lot of cardio. However, it is hard for my body to lose weight with cardio only. Without seeing much in weight loss, I seriously debated whether I wanted to continue onto the Beta cycle.

Boy, am I glad I did!

The Beta cycle has more weight lifting involved which I LOVE. Just in the 2 weeks that I have been doing Beta (and not consistently like I should) I have already noticed a difference. I cannot wait to see how the Beta cycle goes once my life has calmed down and I can be more consistent with my workouts.

Based on what I have seen in the Beta cycle without being able to consistently workout, I would highly recommend giving T25 a try.

Only I can workout using the provided schedule and finish the Beta, I will post my before and after photos to keep myself accountable.

Have any of you out there ever completed a T25?

Sincerely,

Mrs. James

Photo courtesy of Ripped Club

Cheap or Free Winter Dates

How is everyone's Christmas season going? Have you gotten all of your presents bought and wrapped already? 

Christmas season has to be one of my favorite times of the year. I love the lights, trees, and music. However, it can also be a stressful time of the year when you begin to factor in the cost of all of the "experiences" that come along in December. My goal today is to give you some ideas of things you can do with you children that won't break the bank. Are you ready? Here it is! 

1. Fresh snowfall? Go sledding; then, sip hot cocoa together by the fire. 

2. Another fun “snow date” is to build a snowman and snow-woman. 

3. Around the holidays, drive around and look at lights while playing Christmas music in the car. 

4. Decorate a tree together with Christmas music playing in the background 

5. Take family photos in front of the Christmas tree 

6. Hand out blessing bags to the needy 

7. Volunteer at a homeless shelter 

8. Make homemade presents together 

9. Donate all old toys 

10. Visit the dollar store together, and put together two shoeboxes full of goodies for Operation Christmas Child.

I hope these give you a few ideas that maybe you had not thought of yet. 

I hope you and your families have a very merry, frugal Christmas season!

Sincerely,

Mrs. James

Picture background from: http://the3amteacher.blogspot.com/

 

Our "Thing"

Everyone has a "thing." This thing is what you are willing to spend an outrageous amounts of money on despite trying to be frugal every other day of the year. For some people this is Starbucks in the morning. Others, it is spending $5k on Christmas. 

For Mr. James and myself, it is Yankee candles.

Photo courtesy of Yankee Candle

I know, I know. You can get great smelling candles from Walmart for a quarter of the price of a Yankee candle. However, we light our candles nearly every day, and no candle can compete with how long it lasts like a Yankee candle. Our autumn smells are nearly out, so it is high time to get some Christmas/winter smells.

Despite our love for Yankee candles, I still cannot stomach spending full-price for them. When we lived in Lewisville, TX, there was a Yankee candle store in our local mall. We would stock up when the had BOGO free sales. However, since moving to Fort Worth, TX, there is not a Yankee candle store near-by. The closet we can get is at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. But, I was still determined to save quite a bit on winter candles!

BBB is having a 25% off sale on their winter smells this week. I bought 1 large candle and 2 medium candles (they were out of the large in the smell I wanted). Each of these were 25% off. BBB is also giving away a small Christmas Wreath smell candle with the purchase of $30 or more valued around $10.99. I also used a 20% off a single item coupon courtesy of RetailMeNot. 

My total cost: $58.75

My savings: $34.69

Whatever your "thing" is, be sure to always attempt to save money and never pay full price. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,

Mrs. James

Mattress Deal

Up to this point in our lives, Mr. James and I have only slept on hand-me-down mattresses. They were generally hard-ish and made my back constantly hurt due to my wide hips (I am a side-sleeper). We always spent several hundred dollars to buy mattress pads to make the mattresses more comfortable, but we have desired to have a new bed for quite some time.

We agreed, once we had the cash saved up, we wanted to buy a really nice mattress that we hand-picked. With Mr. James now having a full-time job, we were finally able to do that recently.

We went to Mattress Firm several months ago, tried out the bed we really wanted, and began to save up money. When the time came and we had saved up enough, Mr. James called Sleep Experts as eel and price checked. They were almost $300 cheaper! Whhhaat?! Hello, Sleep Experts. Nice to meet you.

The worker at Sleep Experts, Chad, was very helpful and knowledgeable. He explained that Sleep Experts will have mattresses that are put on "clearance" because they have been slightly used and returned. Sleep Experts guarantees that the mattress has passed all state inspections including and bugs or stains. 

Chad showed us a BeautyRest Black mattress that we fell in LOVE with. It was basically a step-up from the one we had picked out. The price for a clearance Black would be the same price as the mattress we originally went in for. BeautyRest also has a 25-year warranty that was too good of a deal to not pass up. If something goes wrong with the bed within the first 15 years, they replace it free of charge. They then prorate the next 10 years on the cost by taking away how much will be covered by 10% per year. Score!

Once we had peace of mind that getting a clearance bed would be worth it, there was no looking back. We paid roughly $2000 for a mattress that is around $6000 at full price. We have never slept as well as we have the last few weeks. That, in and of itself, has been worth the price we paid. I will just leave you with a beautiful picture from BeautyRest's website…

How to have a Debt Free Christmas

Can you believe the end of October is almost here?! I love this time of year: the pumpkins, crisp air, changing leaves, longer nights, and of course, FOOTBALL! There truly is no magical time like the fall.

However, the fall season also means that the holiday season is just around the corner. And if your family is like mine has been the past couple of years, it also means stress about money. December rolls around and you have zero money in order to buy gifts, food, and gas for travel. So what happens? It all got put on credit cards which, subsequently, took several months into the new year to pay off. After another round of "how are going to pay for…" last year, Mr. James and I decided that we needed to tackle the Christmas beast head on from day 1. Hence, our new "Debt Free Christmas" plan began.

It is quite simple really. We opened a new savings account at the end of December 2013 that we dedicated strictly for saving up money to put toward Christmas 2014. We set up a direct draft for the end of the month every month of $50. By doing this, when December 2014 came around, ideally we would have $600 to put toward Christmas expenses. $50 x 12 = $600

I know for some families, this many not seem to be very much. However, this is directly in line with our attempt to get out of debt and live a frugal life. If you need and can put more away each month, by all means do so!! This is just where we are at currently in our life. 

Using the $600, Mr. James and I have already bought all of our Christmas presents for family and friends. What is left over, we will be using for decorations and travel. Once the money is gone, it's gone, and we will not spend any more for Christmas unless it is an emergency. It has been very freeing to know exactly where we are at and that we will not be stressed in December like we have been the past 3 years. 

Debt free is truly the best way to go!

Happy October!!

Sincerely,

Mrs. James

Finally getting some room...

Things have been crazy here at 2014 James Place. After a lot of praying and hard work, we have officially moved to the Fort Worth side of the DFW metroplex! Mr. James and I could not be more excited about this new adventure of ours. It has been a dream of ours to live near Fort Worth for many years now. We were almost scared it wasn't going to happen! But God heard our hearts and provided an opportunity in the form of Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD by getting me back into the classroom as opposed to being an educational diagnostician. 

The majority of our time this past month has been spent packing and unpacking our apartment. One of the added bonuses of the new place….we have room for an office space! We are so lucky and blessed to have this since we are working toward Mr. James owning his own business one day. One step closer!

And a BIG thanks to IKEA for providing this beautiful desk and chair for a fairly good price. If you are ever in need of some new furniture and don't want to spend big buck, always check IKEA first. Their products are dirt cheap and last fairly well considering what you pay. Go IKEA!

P.S. We most definitely have a Sharpie problem in this household.

Sincerely, 

Mrs. James