Financial Freedom Step 1 – The Family Finance

The first step, as suggested by Dave Ramsey’s book, is to record the monthly financial ins and outs. We are going to calling this, Maintaining the Family Finance. To do this, I have a worksheet that I have been using for the last six years. Prior to reading the book, I only kept track of the main expenses and their monthly due dates. Many of my monthly memberships that were automatically deducted from my credit card such as Audible, the kids’ after school activities, etc were not recorded. Instead, I calculated a monthly estimate of my credit card statement balance and kept account of only that. After reading the importance of knowing exactly where every penny is spent, I added in those expenses to my spreadsheet.

So here’s how to do it:Continue reading “Financial Freedom Step 1 – The Family Finance”

Frugal Friday

As part of our journey to becoming debt free, one of the things our family has implemented is a fairly strict grocery budget (among other budgets). Unlike utilities and mortgage, the grocery budget is something that I feel we have much more control of. We are in charge of the meals we cook, the ingredients we pick, the stores we choose to shop at, and whether or not to coupons, store discounts or take advantage of the promotions that are being offered.Continue reading “Frugal Friday”

Eid ul-Adha Party Activities for kids

A dear friend organized a beautiful get together to celebrate Eid ul-Adha. Every participating family contributed to the success of the party. Our responsibility was…kids activities. My favorite!

All three of my older kids helped in putting together all the activities. We chose to arrange a couple games for kids and one game for the adults (so they can get in on the fun). Here’s what we decided …Continue reading “Eid ul-Adha Party Activities for kids”

Our butterfly garden

Earlier this year we began our adventures in the world of home gardening. There’s just something serene about planting, watering and then eventually watching the fruits of your labor grow (literally!). One of our plans for our home garden was to design and beautify our front yard.

After a few months of trial and error with different plants, potting mixes and tools, we decided it was finally time to tackle our front yard. The vision for the front yard was always to build a beautiful butterfly garden which would attract these gorgeous creatures and fill our entryway with amazing fragrance.

So, just like every other newbie gardener, I loaded up my 4 kids and drove down to to the only nursery I knew of.

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Cheque please …

Last weekend, my kids requested, “can we do something fun like go out for breakfast or dinner.” That’s not really fun in books, but somehow it is for them. Being on a budget, my answer would normally be “No.” This request, however, was a little different. Before I could say no or explain that the money would be better spent on something else, my daughter volunteered to “pay for it”.

I don’t think she thought it through because immediately following the words, “I’ll pay for it” came the question “how much does it cost?” By the time she had enough time to process her thoughts or try to take back the request, I had a light bulb moment! THIS COULD BE A GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCE. So, we went out to breakfast.Continue reading “Cheque please …”

Getting the job done, TOGETHER

When sticking the kids in front of a TV or handing them a device isn’t an option, you learn to entertain your kids and get things done. So when I had to put together a drawer chest for the girls room, we decided to do it together when my son and husband were out running errands. Here’s how I included the girls and accomplished the task TOGETHER…Continue reading “Getting the job done, TOGETHER”

Journey to being debt-free

After 10 years of living on credit cards, it was finally time to break free.

When my husband and I got married 10 years ago, we were both students initially living with his parents. As newly weds, we loved going out to eat, going to the movies and traveling. By the time my husband graduated, we were already on our way to becoming parents. Our expenses grew a lot faster than our income and we become dependent on our credit cards.

We used our credit cards for everything from groceries to paying bills. Rent was the only thing where cash was required so we saved our cash to make the rent and used the remainder of our monthly income to pay down our credit card. I was still in school and used student loans to fund my education.

Between my husband’s student loans, my student loans, groceries, rent and utilities, we had little or no money left at the end of the month. You would think we would realize the hole we were digging for ourselves. But no!Continue reading “Journey to being debt-free”

5 pillars of Islam lesson – part 1

As part of our Islamic school Fiqh class, we are learning the 5 pillars of Islam. Understanding the pillars of Islam is one of our first and most important lesson in our homeschool. To allow the children to form a solid foundation, it is important to introduce the pillars slowly, one at a time, giving them the opportunity to fully understand each pillar before moving on to the next. We also wanted to use as many senses as possible for each pillar in order for the children to grasp the best understanding. Thus, this lesson will be divided intoz 5 parts. The first part, introduces the children to the concept of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), which is the foundation of Islam.
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Storing Surah Flash cards

After trying many different ways of safely storing the surah flashcards while still allowing it to be easily accessible to the kids, I finally found a way that works. Below I will share with you the best way I have found to store these flashcards.The flashcards are kept in a 4×6 photo and craft box on the bookshelf next to the mini tafseer books. These photo boxes are the perfect size for the flashcards. Each surah is stored separately in the individual boxes that come with this set. Keep one of the individual boxes available to use as the “Work In Progress” box. This will be where the children can keep the flashcards they have already memorized so it can be separate from those they have yet to memorize.

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Surah Al-Fatiha Flashcards

Recently my 8 year old daughter pointed out that when I ask her to focus on her Salaat, she is unable to due to the fact that she doesn’t understand the meaning of what she is reciting. So, together as a family, we decided to take a step towards fixing this problem. Since Surah Fatiha is the most frequently recited part of Salaat, we decided it would be best to start there.
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