Our Family Archives - LaPierre Family

Posted on January 9, 2019 by katielapierre — 1 Comment

5 Things to do in 2019 to Help You Move Toward Getting OUT of Debt!!

Debt. Ick. A slave-driver.

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” Proverbs 22:7

Don’t be a slave! Choose the path less traveled!
Choose the hard path and be blessed.

Don’t buy it unless you NEED it. Seems simple right? But who really does this??? What do you NEED? Food. Clothes. Electricity. Hmmm, not another black shirt or another pair of flats or another toy your kid won’t play with.
Talk to your spouse about every purchase that isn’t food. Seems extreme right? I’m telling you, this was our biggest game changer! It all started when I came home with 5 buckets I had purchased from Wal-Mart. I walked in and my husband reminded me we had like 10 downstairs. Oops. So often we aren’t aware of what we already have… or we are convinced we “need” something when our spouse might disagree and give us a different, helpful perspective.
Keep the BIG picture in mind. There’s a bigger picture than that impulsive buy you really want. Your grandchildren for example. Did you know how you spend money impacts not only your kids but your grand kids…and possibly their kids?! Yep. Your choices never just impact you. Generations will reap what you sow. Do you want your kids and their kids to embrace debt and see it as “the only way”. No! Of course not! We don’t want our children being slaves to anyone but Christ. So live it out NOW! Choose to not be a slave to debt today and watch it change your tomorrow and your children’s children.
Remember it’s not your money. Nothing you have belongs to you if you call yourself a child of God. When you chose to be His you gave Him all of you and everything that you have. Think of that next time you go to buy another coffee that you know you could make yourself at home. (Nothing wrong with buying coffee every once in a while… but everyday?? Especially when you are in debt??)
Be a weirdo. Yep. You read that right. Be the weird one at the restaurant that gets ice water so you don’t have to contribute to the bill. Go to be with them for fellowship and save money while you’re at it. Be the one that skips out on going to the theater because your main goal right now is to get out of debt! Look for little and big ways all day to save money. You may be weird but that’s ok because debt is normal! And you don’t want normal! “Live like no one else so you can live like no one else.” -Dave Ramsey

Maybe you’re thinking: “Oh yeah! What do you know?!!” Welp. I’m a spender. A big waster. But by God’s glorious grace I married a saver. A frugal man. He has influenced me to live out the 5 points above. They don’t come naturally but I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to no longer be a slave to debt! We now own two homes with no mortgages and have no other debt of any form! We have been single income for our whole marriage and not with money-making jobs either! (Ahem, Pastor and Teacher 🙂

My heart is for you!! I want you to see the value in living debt free. The value in the long-term rather than those short-term indulgences! Here’s to a debt free life! 2019 is your year to get started!

Love, Katie

Our new home we own with no mortgage! Praise God!

Posted on December 6, 2018 by katielapierre — Leave a comment

TOP 7 GIFTS FOR KIDS Christmas List! (No batteries!)

We have a rule in our home for gifts for our kids: no batteries. It’s been tough sometimes but I feel like I have perfected our Christmas shopping with no batteries involved!

Here is what I bought THIS year for my kiddos to help keep them off screens and using their imaginations! Oh! And we have simplified toys….AGAIN. The boys are basically down to hot wheels with non-battery tracks and legos. The girls are down to dolls and legos. Both of them have their quiet time caddies that I will discuss in this post as well! Just click on the underlined words below to go to a link to find these great gift ideas!

1. Legos. Duh.

johnnylego — Johnny created his own lego golf cart for his grandfather 🙂

Come on. I mean who doesn’t buy these? I know. But still! These are a continual go-to for my boys. Pricey? Yes. Worth it? Yes. My boys like to have building competitions and my 2 year old even plays with them. It takes some training to get them to not put them in their mouths but it can be done. I often am the judge of who has the most unique lego creation!

2. LAMPLIGHTER!! Have you discovered lamplighter yet? Oh man, a new fave around here. My kids have listened to hours of these and often while using their quiet time caddies! We love Teddy’s Button the most! Right now I am reading Jack the Courageous to the kids during lunch time and they love it! I also got each of the big kids an illustrated book that I am sure they will enjoy.

3. Hot wheels. My kids love to make up tracks and play with them and trade the cars. Lots of fun for big and little kids. Be sure to buy the tracks that don’t have batteries!

4. Water paint! My littles love to paint! And water-coloring is super safe/clean and fun…and cheap 🙂

5. SCOOTERS! We enjoy these outside and INSIDE. This one is for my 2 year old 🙂

6. QUIET TIME CADDY GOODIES!! What are these all about?? I love these with all my heart…ok, that’s an exaggeration, but they have been great in our home! When it’s chaotic and I am tempted to tell the kids to watch something I say: “Grab your caddy and pick a couch!”

First you have to get containers like these. Mine are slightly bigger than these though because I have some big coloring books we like to add!

What’s Inside:
Fidget Spinners
Fidget Cubes
Colored Pencils (We have a new no pen rule in the home…sick of it being written all over except on paper!)
Coloring Books
With these cool Colored Pencil holders!!
These great journals!
Riddle Books are also fun!!

7. GAMES AND PUZZLES! It is so fun to have older kids who like to play games. Here are some of our faves:
Qwirkle
Othello
Rummikub
Chess

That’s it!! What has your shopping list looked like?? What are some of your go-to toys you like to get??

*this post contains affilate links.

Posted on April 5, 2018 by katielapierre — 6 Comments

3 Things I Do To Make The House Run More Smoothly

So many things to do. So many ways to do them. Here are three ways I do things to make our house with 6 children 10 and under run more smoothly.

1. Set a timer. I love my little black and white timer. We have a schedule that is blocked out in 30 minute increments. We set the timer at the beginning of each 30 min. time increment and the kiddos go to their name to see what they are supposed to do during that block of time. One of my biggest tips that involves the timer is what I call: “12 item pick up!” Every time the timer goes off the kids know they need to run around and pick up 12 items. This has changed recently though. I have my 3 year old only pick up 5 things and my 9 year old checks laundry (making sure no rooms have dirty laundry in them, if they do he brings it to the laundry room. He also switches the laundry over and brings clean dry laundry out to living room where I or my 7 year old sorts it and puts it in the right room). This helps in the upkeep of the house SO MUCH.

This is the timer I have. Only $5!

This is what my daily schedule looks like. Super blurry pic but just wanted to give you a glimpse:

Here is the book I used to make up this schedule. I HIGHLY recommend it!

2. Subscribe and Save. I LOVE THIS! We hardly ever run out of: paper towels, paper plates, toilet paper etc. And I get an additional 15% off of the already low price!

Here are two tips in doing subscribe and save:
1) Make sure you check them every time you get an email from amazon saying: “Review Your Monthly Subscription Delivery”. Many people ignore this and get frustrated when the toilet paper shows up at their door and they have no place to put it because they have so much toilet paper already from the last delivery.
2) Be accurate in how often you receive the item. If you really only use some item every 3 months make sure your delivery button isn’t activated for a delivery every month. Make sense?

Here are some of my subscribe and save items:

3. Jurisdictions. Major game changer. I felt like my days were consisting of arguing over who did what. So I assigned each child (except for my 1 year old) a jurisdiction that they were responsible for every day. No, I don’t have a spinny wheel to spin and get a chore. I don’t “change it up” and have them do a different one each month to make it fair. Life isn’t fair and I am sure in the future my children will have to do the same things day in and out because that’s how life is and so, they have the same jurisdiction every day.

Ricky, age 9, has the dining room every day. Johnny, age 7, has the living room every day (and because the laundry gets dumped on the couches when clean, he also sorts the laundry and puts it in the correct rooms). Rhea, age 10, has the kitchen every day. Chloe, age 3, unloads the dishwasher every day. Charis, age 5, cleans the girl’s room (including putting all the clothes away) every day. Throughout the day I will say: “Jurisdictions everyone!” There is no confusion. They all know what that means 🙂 We automatically do them after every meal and before bed.

Love, Katie

Be sure to check out my husband’s books! Both 5 stars on Amazon!

Posted on December 26, 2017 by katielapierre — Leave a comment

5 Top Tips to Get Out of Debt and Stay out of Debt

Live Under Your Means. Too many people live in a way that says: “I have a bunch of money!” For example, they make $5,000 a month but they live like they make $6,000. Continually living pay check to pay check and/or using a credit card monthly. If you make $5,000 a month you should be living like you make $4,000 (or less) so that you are able to put more money toward your debt! If you always live within your means you won’t pay off your debt because you won’t have any left over. Remember, like Dave Ramsey said, “live like no one else, so you can live like no one else.”
Enjoy The Free Things In Life. There are many things enjoyable to do that are free! Find out something that your family loves to do together that costs nothing! Not sure? Just check on-line! Or check out books like this one! (only $2.99 on kindle!) Or type into google: “free things to do in….” (and type in your city). Get your family used to the idea that you aren’t going to go to movies, or sporting events or special beauty treatments etc. Get your family excited about paying debt off! Some day you will have more money (because you won’t be throwing it at your debt) to do things but for now the excitement needs to be found in free things!
Stay Home. What’s the cheapest thing to do? Stay home! Eat at home! Play at home! Laugh at home! Every time you go somewhere you are putting more wear and tear on your vehicle. Every time you go somewhere you are going to be filling up your gas tank sooner. Every time you go somewhere you are spending money some way. Create a home where your children like to be. Do things together as a family. My husband purposefully sets aside time each night where we just sit and visit. Relationship is key! When your children feel connected to you and each other they are more likely to want to stay home. When they feel like family time revolves around a television screen they are more likely to feel connected to the television, not their family. Look for ways to connect as a family. I knew one family that made Friday night: Family Game night. Another family had Friday night be a stay in night where they made pizza and just hung out as a family. One of the main ways to make home enjoyable is to have a good relationship with your spouse! A home filled with fighting is a place no one wants to be! Look for ways to make peace not war. Remember Proverbs 15:1: “A gentle answer turns away wrath…” Make home a place people want to stay, not run away from. Home=Money Saver.
Keep The End In Mind. It’s hard living like no one else. I get it. I was there for years. We paid off our mortgage about 4 years ago. The first 7 years of our marriage we lived like “crazy people” looking for every little way to save money, but we kept the end in mind. We dreamt of what it would be like to live debt free. No more bills (aside from the obvious like water, garbage etc.). The extra money we would have in savings at all times. The feeling of never having to “stop buying groceries this month”. The feeling of knowing that we were going to put more toward retirement and be able to give more. There are just so many liberties and joys that come from being debt free that we reminded ourselves: no item or trip or meal was worth giving that future feeling up.
Put ALL Money Toward Debt. Tax return? Put it toward your debt. Christmas cash? Put it toward your debt. Birthday cash? Put it toward your debt. Earn a little extra money on the side? Put it toward your debt. When my mom died I inherited some money and put it ALL toward our mortgage. You get the point. When you get money put it toward the absolute necessities like food and put the rest toward debt.
BONUS TIP FOR WHEN YOU’RE OUT OF DEBT
When out of debt, pretend you are in debt. Ok, maybe not quite like you’re still in debt… but close! Just because we are out of debt doesn’t mean we go crazy with our money now buying whatever we want, whenever we want! Nope. We seriously consider purchases. We still talk about almost all purchases together that aren’t food. We still don’t buy new stuff. We still look continually for ways to save. Getting out of debt has freed us to spend money on things we may not have before, like my husband’s books! (Yes, it costs money to write a good book). The goal is to be debt free for life, not in and out of debt!
How about you? What are your top “get out of debt tips”?!