The recipe for a happy life is to be organized - on my $0 budget

I love cookbooks! I will admit it, I have hundreds of them. Do I use them, not so much. Am I a gourmet chef in the kitchen, not at all! If you call opening a can of condensed soup and adding it to meat and veggies gourmet...well then maybe I am :).  So I have hundreds of cookbooks in my kitchen cabinets and what do I do when I need a recipe? Go online and print one off. So I`m left with hundreds of stray pieces of paper with all my favorite recipes on them.

Plus, when I got married, my family has a tradition at the wedding shower to send 2 or 3 blank recipe cards with the invitation. Everyone who is invited, writes down their favorite recipes and brings them with them to the wedding shower. I love this idea and have carried it on for every wedding shower I have hosted. When I had my shower, I was given a lovely recipe book with a teddy bear on it. At the time it might have been cute (not) but I loved the family recipes I received.

[Side note to anyone planning a wedding shower..this goes over really well and you get some amazing recipes. Just send 2 or 3 4x6 index cards, instructions  and when people arrive, slip them into a nice photo album. Great gift!]

So I knew I needed to organize the stray pieces of paper and keep the family recipes without having to type or rewrite everything. This is what I came up with.

I found an old photo album in our office that was destined for charity. It holds 4x6 photos and has a space for descriptions. I cut the printed recipes to fit, slide in the old recipe cards and any other stray bits. In theory I could organize the recipes by type, leaving a couple of pages empty in between so new recipes can be added, but I was far too lazy. This might be a task when I am watching TV one night.

Simple solution but it works great! So much neater.

Remember this Friday is my first link party! Please, please, please stop by and share your $0 Budget Craft and Decor ideas no matter how big or how small. If you have something to share but can't make the party, just send me a note and I can post it for you. If you have nothing to share, stop by and see how others are saving money! I hope to see everyone on Friday, April 1st.

Stephanie