3 Great Things About “Having” to Stay Home
Okay, friends. I know everyone is tired. I know we would all love to be vacationing, hanging out with friends or back in physical classrooms. I live in the PNW so not only were we quarantined before many other states, but we are also now dealing with wildfires of epic proportions. The smoke here has kept us all in our homes for over a week. Like literally the air outside is toxic to breathe. We can’t even go outside anymore. My kids can’t shoot hoops outside, nothing.
Through all of this though, we have learned some incredibly valuable lessons. We have found some really great things about having to stay home. In case you are in the bummer stage of quarantine, or you too are stuck at home because of smoke, don’t fret. We can find good in the stress!
3 Great Things About “Having” to Stay Home
You Can Save Money
If you have struggled to save money in the past, this is your chance! It is easy to save money when you don’t go anywhere! If you are lucky enough to still be working, you can take advantage of the fact that you have less to spend money on and you can just sit back and watch your savings grow!
Spending More Quality Time Together
When you can get out and do stuff, it is pretty easy to become too busy to spend the quality time that your family needs together. It’s not that we intentionally do this, but life gets busy and we get wrapped up in work and activities and it just happens. This whole staying home thing has opened a lot of eyes into how much time we haven’t been spending together.
You can Get Projects Done
Raise your hand if you have been working on home improvement projects since the start of this whole thing? We have lived in our home for almost 10 years and finally accomplished projects that had been put on the back burner. I know that I have witnessed the same thing with my neighbors so it’s not just us! House values should be holding strong with all of these improvements.
How to Efficiently Calculate the Loan Amount You Can Borrow
How to Efficiently Calculate the Loan Amount You Can Borrow
Nowadays, taking out a loan is easy. It became an avenue for seeking additional financial assistance, whether to use the borrowed amount for business purposes, emergencies, or personal intentions. With this accessibility, everyone can take out a loan anytime they want. Provided they have a good credit standing and have the necessary requirements to be eligible for it.
But sometimes, borrowers tend to forget to calculate how much loan amount they can borrow that suits their current financial situation. Unfortunately, others go overboard with their loans and face additional financial problems instead of solving them.
To avoid this unfortunate situation, you should know how to calculate your loan amount personally. This way, you can also project how to repay it without incurring additional charges that may become a burden in the future.
Loan Payment Calculations
Let’s start by understanding what loan payment calculations are and why you should know them before taking out a loan.
Loan payment calculations are a calculation set to provide you answers whether you can afford to borrow money or not. These calculations will show you how much you need to pay for each month during your entire loan term. It can also help you identify if it’s going to be affordable for you or if it will be too expensive.
Different Loan Payment Calculations
There are two primary and widely used loan payment calculations being used by different lenders. You can encounter them in almost all loan types available in the finance market.
Interest-Only Loans
Interest-only loans are also used in mortgage loans as much as it is popular in personal loans. Interest-only loans are easy to understand. Once your lender offers an interest-only loan promo, you only need to pay the interest rate for a specific period.
Once the interest-only period ends, you need to handle either paying the remaining balance at once or start making the monthly repayments, which is expected to be higher than the interest-only payments.
Amortizing Loans
This is the most widely used loan payment calculation and method when taking out a loan. When your loan is amortized, it means your loan is spread out into a series of fixed payments. Others called it scheduled monthly repayments.
In an amortizing loan, a portion of your payment goes toward both the principal amount and the interest rate. All of these details are well stipulated in your loan agreement form once you’re approved.
How to Utilize Loan Payment Calculator
Have you ever wondered why most financial institutions offer you to use their personal loan payments calculator?
It’s because it can significantly help you determine how much loan amount you’re only capable of repaying. It can also be a determining factor if your current financial status is enough for you to take on a new loan.
Though using a loan payment calculator can help you, it is still not substantial for how much you can borrow. It can only give you a projection of how much the total cost of the specific loan amount you intended to apply to receive.
How Are Loans Calculated?
You might be asking how loans are calculated since, in the loan payment calculator, you’re only shown with the loan amount you want to borrow, the duration, and the APR.
Let’s get into the factors used to calculate your loan.
Capital Loan Amount
The capital loan amount is subjective even if you wrote a specific amount you wanted to borrow down on your application form. Your final loan amount is affected by your credit score and the capacity of your lender.
Interest Rate
Your interest rate, as well, is greatly affected by your credit score. The typical logic is, the higher the loan amount, the higher the interest rate affects the total cost. But if you have a high credit score, you will enjoy a much better interest rate offer by your lender.
Loan Duration
Loan duration is the loan term. It specifies how long you’re going to pay for your loan amount. The longer the loan duration is, the cheaper monthly repayments. The shorter the loan duration is, the higher your monthly repayment will be. Though, there’s a catch in setting your loan duration.
Other borrowers think that they have saved money when choosing an extended loan duration due to low monthly repayments. But the truth is, they are spending more. On the other hand, a shorter loan duration with high monthly repayment allows borrowers to save more. They can finish their loan term right away and save more money from paying off the interest.
Borrowers’ Insurance
Taking out borrowers’ insurance is an individual preference. A borrower can decide not to file for insurance. Hence, it will not be included in the total loan cost.
Application Fee
Application fees and other incurring fees are also additional factors in calculating your total loan cost. Other lenders charge an origination fee, processing fee, and even closing fee. So, ask your lender what the other fees you should handle to prepare your finances in advance.
Takeaway
Anyone can take out and file for a loan application, but it takes a smart and wise individual to take out a loan responsibly. Recklessly taking out a loan without considering the current financial status and resources can be a burden to your finances. It can even create further issues that will take a while to be resolved. One effective way of being responsible with your loans is calculating the money you plan to borrow and gauging if you can pay it off.
Motivate Your Kids to Do Chores with These 3 Tips
Do you want your kids to pitch in a little more around the house? I used to do everything for my kids and I understand now that it was not to their benefit. You see, I was raised by a single mother who wasn’t a good housekeeper and who never ever cooked for me. I literally remember waking up early starting in the 1st grade to make food for my younger brother and I. I didn’t want to be this mom. I wanted to be the mom who kept a beautiful home and cooked delicious meals.
I succeeded at the cooking part, but keeping your home beautiful and in tip top shape is seriously difficult when you have 3 kids and you work from home full time. I figured out long ago that my kids needed to pitch in on this. It was important for our family that we have a nice, clean home, but it was more important that we have quality time together. If all of my time was spending cleaning up after everyone, I was going to miss out on that time.
It took me a while, but I finally figured the key to motivating the kids to pitch in with the chores without paying them and without them complaining.
Motivate Your Kids to Do Chores with These 3 Tips
Make it a Family Effort
Myself, my husband and all of the kids work together to do the household chores. Once your children see their parents or guardians all working together to keep the house up it becomes more of the norm. I’m a traditional type mom and I do a majority of the cooking and cleaning, but I also don’t believe that my husband should sit down while the rest of us are working. What does that teach the kids?
Start Young
I waited until my second child was about 5 to implement everyone in the house working on housework. He took it okay without too much complaining, but I can’t say the same for my oldest who wasn’t used to it at all. She is great now and she is the first one to get housework done, but it was a process.
We pick up after ourselves
We have a rule in our house that if you have made a mess, you clean it up right then and there. You leave a plate on the table? You carry it to the kitchen. You have a wrapper from your snack? You better carry it to the trash.
Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce
Do you make homemade pizza at your home? We just started making our own during the quarantine months in the spring. I’ve had to do some trial and error recipes until we found one that we really like. It’s a mixture of a few recipes put together. Depending on how many people you are cooking for, depends on how much of the sauce you’ll want to make. I would error on more and then just fridge it until the next week!
Easy Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can of tomatoes, undrained. I love the Centro San Marzano Tomatoes-get the peeled option
1 (6 ounce) tomato paste
1 tsp fresh basil
1 tsp fresh oregano
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
Directions:
Put all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Tips for Saving Money on Kids Lunches Throughout The Week
Kids are going to be starting school soon, if they haven’t already. Have you thought about their lunches? I don’t know about you, but I get a little bit stressed out when I think about how much money I have to prepare to spend for my kids. I do have a 6 foot tall, 250 pound 13 year old though…so maybe that adds to my bill a little bit.
Anyway….a couple of years ago, I figured out some tricks to saving a significant amount of money on my kids school lunches. If you are ready to hear them, get ready and take some notes. You are going to have so much more cash in your food budget after this!
Tips for Saving Money on Kids Lunches Throughout the Week
Use Coupons
Okay, you knew that was going to be there. I use coupons for EVERYTHING. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I will say though, that my husband gets pretty tired of it. I use coupons for travel, for clothes, for household products, and of course for GROCERIES! The cool thing is this time of year there are often lots of coupons available for lunch items. Check your store’s club card, your sunday paper, coupons.com, this website, the product FB pages and websites and anywhere else you typically see coupons.
Shop Amazon
Amazon is a great place to shop for bulk items and sometimes you can score really good deals on food items. I recently bought 6 boxes of Kind Granola bars for $7! Go to
Shop the Dollar Store
Down at the dollar store, find you whatever you holla for” Okay…no more song lyrics. Seriously though, the dollar store is a great place to find food items, especially for the more snacky kind of items.
Meal Prep
Spend one day each week (Sunday for us) when you put lunches together for the week ahead. Without this kind of preparation, it’s easy to grab last minute items!
How to Make a Super Cute DIY Family Command Center on a Budget
Staying organized can be quite the task when you have a family. Kids come home with papers, invitations, permission slips and more. I get so frustrated with papers! I’ve decided we need one central location where we can see these important papers and be organized all at once. These family command centers are awesome. You can have your papers, calendars, meal planning and more all in one place and in view. If you were to buy these out right you would pay a TON, so save some money and make your own. Here’s how we made ours:
Materials:
Galvanized Steel Metal Sheet- cut to the dimensions you want.
Moulding/Trim
Picture Hanging System
Construction Adhesive
Paint
Accessories: Calendars, Magnets, Meal Schedules, Markers.
Directions:
- Outline with painters tape where you want your board. Measure and order your metal sheet. We went through Metal Supermarkets.
- Measure lengths for moulding and purchase that at a home improvement store.
- Cut corners of moulding to make a picture frame. You could do this yourself or ask Home Depot or Lowe’s to do it for you.
- Paint your moulding to the color you want- we just did a normal white. Then let dry completely.
- Attach moulding to metal sheet with the constructive adhesive.
- Use clamps or heavy objects to weigh down the moulding so it sticks completely. Follow directions of the adhesive-may require 48 hours to dry.
- Follow directions of the picture hanging system and attach on the back of your sheet metal board.
- Hang board on the wall and add nails into the moulding at the bottom if you want. We added 2 at the bottom to make it completely flat against the wall. Then you can putty and paint over the nail holes.
- Add accessories and enjoy!`
**Tips- Be super careful with the sheet metal. It is really sharp, so you’ll want to wear gloves and keep kids away. Be sure to completely cover the metal with the moulding so no sharp edges are showing.
Delicious Recipes to Use with Your Garden Zucchini!
It’s that time of year when zucchinis are growing non stop. If you have a garden you may be overwhelmed with what you can do with all of the zucchinis. Here’s a couple of our favorite recipes to use our zucchinis up. They’re perfect for gifting to neighbors or baking for an after school snack.
| Zucchini Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting 3 Eggs 1 Cup Sugar 2 Cups Zucchini, Grated 3 tsp Vanilla 1 Cup Salt Oil 3 Cups Flour 1 Cup Brown Sugar 1 tsp Salt 1 tsp Baking Soda 3 tsp Cinnamon 1/4 tsp Baking Powder 1/2 Cup Nuts, chopped (optional) |
Frosting Recipe: 6oz Package Cream Cheese, Softened 1/2 Cup Butter, Softened 1 16oz Package Powdered Sugar 2 Tsp Vanilla |
Cream together eggs and sugar. Sift dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture, blending well. Add oil to mixture. Stir in grated zucchini and vanilla. Pour batter into two loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.
For the frosting: beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Slowly add sugar; beating until well blended. Stir in vanilla. Frost on top of bread.
| Zucchini Brownies 2 Cups Flour 1 Cup Sugar 1/2 Cup Cocoa 1 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda 1 Tsp Salk 1/2 Cup Oil 2 Tsp Vanilla 2 Cups Shredded Zucchini 1/2 Cup Walnuts (optional) |
Chocolate Frosting Recipe: 1/4 Cup Butter 3 Tbsp Cocoa 3 Tbsp Evaporated Milk 4 Cups Powdered Sugar 1 Tsp Vanilla |
Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt in mixing bowl. Stir in oil, vanilla and zucchini until well blended. Add walnuts. Pour into greased 9×13 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degree for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Frost with chocolate frosting.
For the frosting: melt butter in saucepan. Add cocoa and stir until smooth. Add milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Stir until smooth. Add more milk if necessary.
Tips for Saving Money on Household Cleaning Products
Have you been down the household cleaning aisle in the store recently? I cannot help but notice how expensive all of the supplies are! If you are like me, you are probably wondering how you can save money on these supplies. It is possible!
I follow a couple of tried and true rules in order to save money on the house cleaning products that I like to use in my home.
Tips for Saving Money on Household Cleaning Products
Use Coupons
My coupon game has always been strong and while coupons aren’t as popular or common as they used to be, they are still a great way to save money! Check your Sunday paper for coupons, check our website for new online coupons, and don’t forget to check your store club coupons for additional savings.
Shop Amazon
Amazon is a tried and true place to shop for savings. We all know that! Just be sure to avoid shipping with a prime membership, and watch out for any coupons. Subscribe and Save is a great way to save money on this type of product as well.
If you do sign up for Subscribe and Save, be sure to cancel your subscription after you receive it. The prices aren’t always the same on the next shipping date, so it’s good to set a reminder for yourself.
Go to the Dollar Store
The dollar store is a great place to find GREAT deals on household cleaning products. You can’t discount it just because it’s the dollar store. You may be surprised to find stock up prices on top name items sometimes too! I have found top name brand dish soap for $0.20 per tab, and I just love the orange cleaner too. Also, if you like microfiber cloths for cleaning, the dollar store is a really great place to find them.
Products that Will Help Your Kids with Online School
Most of us are getting used to a whole new normal right now and a big part of that is school. Many of our children are dealing with learning online which is a brand new thing for us. Okay, most of us did this at the end of last school year, however things are a little more streamlined now, and it will be different than it was last year.
Let’s get into a good groove with our new normal, shall we?! If you could use a little bit of help in your preparation, here are some products that will help your kids will online school.
Products that Will Help Your Kids with Online School
Make sure your kids have a good space to work in! If you don’t have the room or the budget for a desk, a kitchen table area could work. Just make sure that it isn’t an area with a television or a bed or other space that has the potential to distract. LED Digital Countdown Timer Timers are key for kids to stay on track. They are able to look at it and see how much time they have left in their lesson. Noise cancelling headphones like these can help prevent your kiddo from being distracted by the noises that go on throughout the day. My kids have used both a laptop and a Chromebook and so far, the Chromebook seems to be coming out on top for what’s works best. HD Webcam So many zoom meetings and frankly, not all cameras are created equal. We have found it useful to use an external webcam for the zoom classes. Dry Erase White Board Keep track of due dates, upcoming appointments, etc with a dry erase board. Post it where the whole family can see it to help with accountability. Copy Paper Print out worksheets, completed work, etc. You may as well keep plenty of paper on hand to make life a little less stressful when you all of the sudden need it. Older kids can get a lot of use out of a planner like this one. It will be handy for them to keep track of their school projects.5 Must See Places Along the Oregon Coast
We recently returned from a trip on the Oregon Coast and it was absolutely breathtaking. It was the perfect destination to escape the heat and see some really beautiful places. It was the first time for our kids and they loved the kite flying, star fish, jumping in the waves and searching for seashells. Along our trip we found some awesome beaches, and not so awesome ones. So, for your next trip, check out these 5 that we would definitely go to again!
- Cape Lookout State Park. This was by far our favorite beach to explore ocean life. Biggest tip for this beach is to go at LOW tide. Once on the beach, walk to the cliffs and look at the mussels and if you’re lucky you’ll see a starfish. We saw three! There is a cove to explore and a little waterfall coming off the cliffs. It’s absolutely beautiful. The beach has the perfect sand to play for hours. Spend some time collecting seashells too.
- Yaquina Head Lighthouse. I love lighthouses, so this was a must. With Covid-19 going on, this lighthouse was closed, but we could park about a mile from it and walk to it on foot. It was worth the walk. Look above at the beautiful picture we snapped. Definitely windy so bring your hoodie, but so pretty.
- Cape Perpetua/ Thor’s Well. This is a place you can go both LOW tide and HIGH tide. Let me explain. If you want to see Thor’s Well, then you need to plan on going at HIGH tide. That will give you the best view of the water going through the hole and splashing along the cliffs. If you want to see tide pools and walk along the cliffs, then go at LOW tide. Both are fun options. While there, be sure to do a hike at Cape Perpetua.
- Mike Miller State Park. This is located in South Beach. It has an educational hike that the kids absolutely loved. It was in trees and so pretty. Along the way they had markers that you could look up on your phone and read about the science behind that forest. Definitely worth it if you’re in that area.
- Depoe Bay. If you want to see whales this is the place to be. There is a wall at Depoe Bay that you can stand by and see the whales in the ocean, you don’t even need to be on a boat! Check out the cute town and candy stores. Fun little town to visit.
How to Prepare for Halloween This Year & Still Save Money (and Your Sanity)!
I can’t believe it’s that time of year we need to start talking about Halloween! I love Halloween and look forward to it every year with my kids but I think we can agree, there’s a lot of unknown when it comes to living in the pandemic. We’re not going to let that stop us from celebrating! So we’re going to be prepared and save by planning now!
First things first we need to figure out costumes. Wither you make your kids costumes (which, go you!) or buy them, start planning NOW! There are so many ways you can save when it comes to your kids costumes. Create a swap with friends or family. Use coupons you see pop up for places like Halloween City or even Target. Shop the thrift store because people are going to be pulling out their holiday bins and going through all their old costumes. Even check the dollar store. Last year I scored some adorable headbands that came with gloves for different animals, unicorns and more! They’re a great resource for cheap ideas!
Next make a plan A as well as plan B. It’s the unknown that can sometimes cause use to loose our minds (if you’re like me). So if I make two plans I’m sure I can make it just as enjoyable as years past! Each plan is going to look a little different for each family but plan A is going to be similar to years past where as plan B is going to look more like we’re not going out trick or treating but still having fun at home. Do what will work for your family but still able to have a good time!
Make sure you have everything planned you’d like to do. If you’re big into pumpkin carving, make sure you get your pumpkins as soon as possible without letting them go bad. Or, if you love doing corn mazes, go during the week when the crowds are less busy so you can have a good time without the extra stress. We enjoy making crafts so I’ve been scrolling Pinterest to come up with ideas and gather supplies.
All these things are going to help take the stress out of the holiday and couldn’t we all use a little less stress right now? So make a plan and get moving!
Awesome Halloween Craft and Recipes to Do with the Kids Soon
This year has been weird, but the fact remains, the show must go on! As sad as it makes me, I have to admit that summer is coming to an end. On the bright side though, that means that fall is coming soon! I live in a place where we have 4 seasons and I love each and every one of those seasons. As much as I love summer, I love fall just as much.
One of my family’s favorite things about fall is Halloween!! Okay, that’s basically everyone’s favorite thing about fall, right? We love Halloween and all that goes with it, especially the fun recipes and crafts that the kids and I do together. We are already gathering ideas for this coming Halloween.
Awesome Halloween Craft and Recipes to Do with the Kids Soon
Easiest Halloween Rice Krispie Treats
We all knew that Rice Krispie Treats were going to make the list somewhere, right? They always top easy desserts, so why not make a fun Halloween treat out of them?! We made these last year and my kids had a blast making them, and eating them.
Easy Handprint Bat Craft For Halloween
Want to do a fun craft and keep a sweet keepsake of your child’s growth? This fun and simple paper craft that uses crafting supplies that you probably already have on hand!
Easy Spookley The Square Pumpkin Craft For Kids
If you have had a kid in the last 10 years or so, chances are, you know all about Spookley the Square Pumpkin. We got the book from a Scholastic Book fair when my daughter was in the 2nd grade (she is going to be a junior this year) and we have read it every single year with our younger kids. There’s even a cute movie on Disney+ now! This fun craft is perfect for all of you other Spookley lovers out there!
Popsicle Stick Monsters
I love these popsicle stick monsters because they are so easy to make for kids of all ages and they don’t require serious creative skills (this is a huge plus for me!).
6 Things to Do that Will Make Your Life Better
We can all use a little bit of improvements in our lives, am I right? We are all born with different strengths and weaknesses, talents and faults. Add to this, we all run into different luck, success and failure throughout life and I don’t know a single person who couldn’t use improvement in some part of life.
None of us are perfect, and I know that we all want to be better. If you are ready to make some changes in your life, check out these 6 things to do that will make your life better.
6 Things to Do that Will Make Your Life Better
Get More Sleep
Get more sleep. Yes, it is just as easy as that. Okay, I know it isn’t an easy thing to do, but the simple act of getting more sleep can make a significant and positive difference in your life.
Be Open to Learning
Take a class, read a book, attend a seminar. Learning is the key to continual improvement. You are never too old to learn more.
Drink more Water
Millions of us walk around every day dehydrated, simply drinking more water might just help improve your health by leaps and bounds. Better health is key to a better life.
Acknowledge Your Weaknesses
If you refuse to acknowledge your weaknesses, you are unlikely to improve upon them. Acknowledgement is the first step in improvement.
Start Journaling
Take a few minutes at the end of every night to begin journaling. Journaling helps you to take a load off of your mind at the end of each day. Journaling has been found to be highly beneficial to mental health as well, which is great for life improvement.
Acknowledge Your Dreams
Just because you are an adult DOES NOT mean that you shouldn’t still be dreaming. Dreams keep us moving forward. Dreams can be achieved, as long as you don’t forget them.
5 Credit Score Myths Worth Debunking
Although our credit scores represent an important facet of our financial well-being, it’s not always easy to know what’s true and what’s false when it comes to how they’re set.
Understanding what can help and what can hurt your score gives you more power to improve it — which, in turn, can help you get approved for lines of credit more easily and secure competitive interest rates on those loans. Maintaining a strong credit score also tends to make life easier, like making it simpler to get approved for apartments and such.
Let’s start by debunking some common credit score myths.
Checking Your Credit Brings Down Your Score
Many people avoid checking because they believe it’ll bring down the score. This is simply not true. In fact, an important part of managing credit is keeping a watchful eye on your score over time.
This myth likely originates from the true statement that hard inquiries — like when a lender checks your credit score after you apply for a loan — can put a small dent in your score. This is why it’s smart to apply for loans from different lenders within a short window of time; the multiple hard inquiries will only count as a single inquiry.
When you check your own score, it’s a soft inquiry. These will not affect your credit score or show up on your report. So, check your score periodically and take advantage of the free credit reports you’re able to download each year from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
All Debt Affects Credit in the Same Way
All debt is not created equal, nor will it affect your credit in the same way. Owing $50,000 on a mortgage is much different than owing $50,000 across a handful of credit cards. Incrementally paying back installment loans can improve your score, while maxing out lines of credit can hurt your score because it makes you appear riskier to lenders.
Always consider the type of debt rather than just the amount.
Negative Information Ruins Your Credit for 7 Years
Say you fall on hard times and miss a credit card payment or two. Is your credit report ruined for seven to 10 years? Not exactly. While your report can bear this negative information for seven to 10 years, its impact fades over that time period.
So, you don’t have to wait years to improve your score. Managing your credit responsibly in the present and taking care of outstanding debts (either by paying them in full or settling) will go a long way toward helping you build your score over the long haul.
You Can’t Get a Loan with Bad Credit
Another misconception is that it’s impossible to even get a loan with bad credit. While some lenders and loans do have credit score thresholds, others are willing to lend to borrowers with fair or even poor credit.
However, you can expect to pay more in interest to offset the risk denoted by your low credit score. Someone seeking debt consolidation with bad credit will likely see interest percentages in the twenties — think 21 percent or higher — whereas someone with excellent credit might be able to get a loan between 6 and 15 percent APR.
Loans with bad credit tend to be more expensive, but they absolutely exist.
Income Level Affects Credit Score
It’s easy to assume people who make more money automatically have better credit scores. But the truth is income doesn’t affect credit rating. Credit scores only factor in payment history, amount of debt, length of history, amount of new credit and types of debt.
Loan applications do take into account income when assessing the likelihood of you being able to fulfill the obligation, but credit scores themselves do not judge based on income.
Taking control of your credit score means being able to separate the myths from the truths.
The BEST Peanut Butter Bar Recipe- The Perfect After School Treat
Do you guys remember in elementary school when you used to get homemade peanut butter bars? I sure do! We would get a bar and a carton of milk. I would always hope to get the biggest bar out of the group. Yes, they were that good. In today’s schools they don’t get these homemade bars anymore. They are pre-packaged treats that aren’t near as good. So, I’ve decided I need to make these as an after school treat for my kiddos. I found a recipe that I love. However, I’ve changed a few things and made a different frosting to make them absolutely delicious. I always get compliments on them. So thank you Six Sisters Stuff and Aunt Cindy for your recipes, because when you pair them together you get perfection.
Peanut Butter Bar Recipe: adapted from Six Sister’s Stuff and my Aunt Cindy’s recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 1/2 cups peanut butter, divided
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar together.
- Add vanilla, eggs, and 1 cup peanut butter; stir to combine.
- Add oats, flour, baking soda and salt and mix until well combined.
- Spray a baking sheet (half sheet jelly roll pan that is approximately 17.8 x 12.8 x 1 inch) with nonstick cooking spray and spread out dough in an even layer.
- Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven.
- Drop remaining peanut butter by spoonfuls on top of warm bars and spread when peanut butter has begun to melt.
- Let cool until peanut butter has set up.
- Make frosting (recipe below) and spread on cooled bars
Frosting:
Ingredients:
- 3/4 Cup Butter
- 4 Tbsp Cocoa
- 1/3 Cup Evaporated Milk
- 3 Tbsp Karo Syrup
- 2 Tsp Vanilla
- 3 3/4 Cup Powder Sugar
Directions:
- Add Butter, Cocoa, Milk, and Karo Syrup to a pan and bring to a boil.
- Boil for 2 minutes whisking continuously.
- Remove from stove and add Vanilla and powder sugar.
- Beat with a beater until all combined.
- Spread over bars.