Meredith Rines

Author: Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®, a budget and financial strategist helping families pay off debt and live the life they've always wanted.

10 Fun Fall Date Ideas

Posted on September 5, 2014September 3, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Fall… it’s my favorite. I love big sweaters, boots, scarves, and the crisp autumn air. I would rather be in 60 degree weather then any other. I believe that fall is the best time to come up with some fun date ideas for couples to do. J and I always seem more adventurous in the fall than any other season. Probably because the weather doesn’t make me sweaty and sticky, plus you don’t have to have heavy, bulky coats on to enjoy your day. Fall is upon us. Happy Dance! The cool air screams get close to your husby, hold hands and walk in the sunlight. Love!

Here are some fun fall date ideas to celebrate with your spouse and enjoy the best season EVER.

1) Check out a festival. We love the Apple Butter Festival in Kimmswick, MO. Tons of vendors, ice cold beer, fried food galore and a whole day of wandering around a small town.

2) Go on a hay ride. Sometimes the best date ideas are the ones that come in groups. We love to be wit friends and nothing beats taking an afternoon out in the hay field.

3) Wander around a corn maze. Around Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas you can find some great corn mazes. I can’t wait for J and I to spend an afternoon getting lost. There are even some haunted corn mazes around, if you’re into that. I, sadly, am not into being scared out of my mind while having no idea how to escape. It’s not my thing! But I do enjoy a relaxed afternoon of figuring something out together.

4) Go check out a pumpkin patch. I loooove pumpkins and I loooove pumpkin patches. There are tons and tons of pumpkin patches and some even have little food and drink vendors setup. You can make a day out of trying to find the perfect pumpkin.

5) Carve a pumpkin. This one goes with the previous date idea, but I like to treat it as a whole separate event. In my world, carving pumpkins is a serious game and it’s not to be taken lightly. If you’re not into carving a pumpkin then you can paint one. I’ve seen some pretty ones on Pinterest and you can be really creative without all of the mess of the pumpkin guts.

6) Go apple picking. J and I went last year to a neat place right outside of St. Louis and it was a blast! We took a tractor ride out to the orchard and spent awhile picking apples straight from the trees, we got to taste the most delicious and juiciest apples ever, then we headed back to the place where they had rides, a petting zoo, a market and tasty BBQ.

7) Order take-out and head to the local park. Sometimes it’s nice to be outside and it’s even better with good food. Around town there are quite a few parks and I have the cutest picnic blanket that still has the tags on it. I’m imagining ordering the best food in town, grabbing some wine (and beer for J), then heading to the park for a late lunch.

8) Hit the walking trail with the pups. Our dogs love to be outdoors and with the cooler temperatures fast approaching, it’s a lot easier to be outside for longer. Taking them for a walk will give us a chance to talk, share stories, and just be together.

9) Attend a football game. J loves football and I actually enjoy watching it. Fall and football go hand-in-hand, so there is no better time to check out a game. We can go to the local high school game for a cheap date night or we can drive to Columbia to tailgate and watch a Mizzou game. Either way, we’d be together and having fun!

10) Light the fire pit and roast marshmallows. Spending a night at home, sitting around the fire pit with hot dogs, s’mores, and hot chocolate would be wonderful. It’s easy to get caught up in date ideas that can cost money or take you out of town, but to me the simpler the better. Spending a night at home, wrapped up in my favorite blanket, with the dogs playing in the backyard, sitting next to my husband is the best.

Do you have any fun fall date ideas to share? I would love to hear them and add to my list. Fall is my favorite and I can’t wait for the hot, humid days to be behind us for another year.

Photo by DColeman Photography

Our Newest Addition…

Posted on September 1, 2014August 31, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

J and I have expanded our family by one… a hound-mix that we named Bud. AHHH! He’s just so cute and cuddly. So Thursday morning I get a call from J telling me about a dog that had been dumped at Kroger and was wandering around the fuel pumps. He went on to say they had called the pound over an hour ago, but no one had showed up. THE POUND?!??! The pound in town is awful! Dirty, dark, and very rarely does a dog get adopted. I went running into my Dad’s office with tears in my eyes asking what I should do. J is the logical one, the sane one, the realistic one… I’m not. So for him to literally say “go get him.” I had to. Just had to. I pulled up and there he was sound asleep in the hot sun. I scooped him up with more tears in my eyes and drove straight to our vet. He was checked out, given shots, and flea treatment… now he’s home. We named him Bud Weiser. Don’t judge – J works for an AB distributor.

The other two dogs are taking their time getting used to their new brother. Tiny wants to play, but she doesn’t realize just how much bigger she is. Maggie … oh Maggie, she licks his face and wags her tail, but she needs to realize that she’s still the queen bee.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Sugar Mini Muffins

Posted on August 15, 2014August 9, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Sometimes you just have to have something sweet. I’ve been doing so good eating clean and healthy lately that I didn’t really want to blow it on a sweet bite. I found a recipe for a cinnamon sugar donut hole and thought to myself that I could easily adapt this to make it into a sweet dessert that wouldn’t blow my whole day. The wheels started turning and next thing I knew, I was in the kitchen baking away.

Here’s what you need:

1 ½ c. whole wheat flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt
¾ cup of nonfat Vanilla Greek Yogurt (plain would work, too)
2 tablespoon canola oil
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 ½ tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon almond milk
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt in a medium-sized bowl. Blend in the yogurt, oil, vanilla extract, egg, brown sugar, milk until well combined.

Grease a mini muffin pan and divide the dough equally. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Allow the muffins to cool for about 2 minutes. While they are cooling combine the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Use a pastry brush (I couldn’t find my pastry brush, so I used a BBQ brush – it worked!) to apply the butter then dip into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

That’s it. These cinnamon sugar mini muffins are super easy and super tasty. They hit the nail on the head of my sweet tooth craving. I think these would even be good for part of a breakfast. I might try that tomorrow morning!

Honey Lime Shrimp and Noodles

Posted on August 13, 2014August 9, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Honey lime shrimp and noodles. So simple, so easy and absolutely delicious!

Towards the end of the week we start running out of groceries around here. For the past few months J and I haven’t even been home for the weekend, so we haven’t needed to buy too many groceries. This past weekend we stayed in – all day Saturday, which means we had to cook for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That’s a lot of cooking in my household in only one day.

By dinnertime my cabinets were looking a bit sparse and I struggled to come up with something to cook. I had some frozen cooked shrimp and some Roman noodles… we were really running dry!

I thought about it, looked up a few recipes and then decided to create a combination of about 5 recipes. It couldn’t have turned out better! It was perfect for just the two of us!

Here’s what you need:

18-20 medium size shrimp
¼ c. canola oil
⅛ c. light soy sauce
⅛ c. honey
juice of 2 limes
1 ½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 pack Roman noodles

I used the already cooked shrimp because that’s what I had on hand.

Marinade your shrimp in the oil, soy sauce, garlic powder, honey and lime juice above for about 30 minutes in the fridge. Cook the Roman noodles per the directions, except do not add the flavor packet. Drain the water from the noodles and set aside. Heat shrimp over medium heat in a skillet until cooked through. Reserve about ¼ cup of the marinade. Add the shrimp and the reserved marinade to the noodles.

Delicious! I think this honey lime shrimp and noodles is a perfect summer dinner. Enjoy!

Dearest Tiny

Posted on August 11, 2014August 8, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Sometimes a post doesn’t need any words.

Buffalo Chicken Fries

Posted on August 7, 2014August 7, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

J has been asking for some buffalo wings for awhile now. I’m not a big wing fan, so I wanted to do something a little different. I found a recipe for some buffalo chicken fries that looked amazing then I adapted it to J’s liking, which basically means it lost some of its healthiness. Oh well. Maybe next time!

What you need:
1 cup cooked chicken, shredded or cubed
½ cup buffalo sauce
2 potatoes, cut into slices
cooking spray
½ tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Optional ingredients:
sour cream
feta cheese
chives
hot sauce

Set your oven to 450 degrees. Slice your potatoes into thin slices or wedges, place on a foil-lined baking pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Make sure the potatoes are in one layer, not overlapping one another. Spray the top with cooking spray and evenly sprinkle on the garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place in oven for 15 minutes or until they start to turn golden brown. Once the fries are done, remove from oven and turn the oven down to 350 degrees.

Place the cooked chicken into a shallow bowl with the buffalo sauce. If you want a little more heat you can add a few drops of hot sauce. I don’t like my food too spicy so I skipped the hot sauce. Stir to cover the chicken evenly with the sauce.

Cover the fries with the chicken mixture and top with cheese. Place back in the oven for about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

You can top with feta cheese, sour cream and chives, if you wish.

These buffalo chicken fries were a huge hit! My husband loves any food covered in buffalo sauce. He probably would eat buffalo-wing flavored cookies! Seriously, he would! They were super easy to prepare and took less than 30 minutes from start to finish, including cooking the chicken. I had one accident though – I let my dogs distract me while I was pulling the fries out of the oven the first time and accidentally burnt my arm with the very hot pan. So please be careful out there!

adapted from Dashing Dish

Recap of 27 To Do While 27

Posted on July 11, 2014July 1, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

My 27 year has come to an end. Now it’s time to bust out my 27 to do while 27 list and see how I measured up. Here is a list of what I accomplished… or sort of accomplished.

We got hitched!

I continued to work and build up this little blog of mine

One goal was to move to a home with a basement, which we did for about 9 months then we moved to a house without one. Oh well – I have to pick my battles.

Pay off some bills, which we have paid a few off and we still have a few more to go.

Teach Tiny a few new tricks was one goal. I am proud to say she now knows how to stay. Not a huge improvement, but she’s not as terrified as she used to be around others and that’s a huge accomplishment in my book.

Become an avid amateur photographer. I still have a lot of work to do, but I’ve held a few photoshoots for friends and family. It makes me happy to develop my skill and even more happy that people will be my models.

I am proud to say we hosted quite a few dinners with our friends. Nothing beats beautiful weather, ice-cold beer, playing washers in our backyard and someone grilling some good food.

I’ve also gotten a lot better in controlling my road rage. I have my moments, but am finally getting calmer on the road. I had a pretty bad habit of getting annoyed with people driving slow or trying to pass me in the right lane. I knew I needed to slow it down when I tried to race a sheriff on the highway who was just trying to get around me. Yeah, that happened.

I have been cooking so many different recipes and creating my own this past year. It’s been amazing the new ingredients I’ve been using and the meals I’ve been whipping up.

With all the cooking we’ve been doing, J and I haven’t felt the need to eat out as much. It saves money and we can spend more time together without a lot of people around.

I’ve slowly but surely created a blogging routine that works for me. I have a calendar planned and I work hard at sticking to it. Of course I’m willing to change things up when I have something fun or exciting to talk about.

I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to keeping my bedroom clean, but the parts of the house guests see has been kept a lot neater.

J and I took our honeymoon last month. AHHH it was ah-mazing! I mean so beautiful! We laid on a beach, drank pretty drinks and just spent time together.

12 out of 27 isn’t the best odds. I mean it’s not even 50%. A few months after turning 27 I took a hard look at my goals and realized that some weren’t even important or a priority. I am not upset about changing my goals, like…

I ended up closing my MereLynneConcepts Etsy shop (well putting it in vacation mode). I just didn’t find the work worthwhile to stress with. Now I am working on a new project and am super excited about it.

We didn’t take a drive down to the local drive-in for a date night, but there is one close to us in our new town. We may go at some point.

I failed at starting a small garden, but I like to think it’s because I didn’t even attempt… not because I was scared of my black thumb or anything.

Learn to successful do a fishtail braid… Well that was a failure because now my hair is too layered and too short.

And… there were some that I revised and added to my 28 while 28.

28 To Do While 28

Posted on July 9, 2014July 1, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Today is my birthday. I am still pinching myself in disbelief that I am 28 years old. I just can’t believe it. My life has changed so much since I turned 27, and when I say change I mean a roller coaster of ride to the better type of change.

Let’s see – J and I moved – twice…We got married…I started a new career that I am so uber excited about that I couldn’t sleep for days after talking and planning it…I live in my hometown and it’s actually not that bad. I enjoy it…I am in the process of designing and creating a new calendar…I have spent lots of time with our families and our friends…we took our honeymoon…I could go on and on.

Now that I am 28 it’s time to start contemplating what I want to accomplish this year… What is my 28 to do while 28?

Stay with my healthier lifestyle because it really does make a difference
Go to 28 concerts/shows/plays/etc.
Launch my new calendar line that I am obsessed with
Continue kicking butt to become a CFP
Get better taking and processing photos
Grow merelynne.com by 50% this year
Start an e-newsletter for my calendar and merelynne.com
Travel to…anywhere and everywhere
Help someone in need
Host a Christmas party
10 DIY projects
Girls’ weekend
Go to lake as much as possible
Mother/Daughters’ trip
Put a little blue in my hair for a short while
Stop drinking soda
Take exams for work to become licensed
Make a t-shirt quilt out of my Sorority shirts
Get involved with CrossFit…again
Redesign merelynne.com
Create a beautiful workspace at home
Do a fun Christmas photoshoot with J, me and the pups
Finally create our engagement (and now wedding) journal
Somehow manage the crazy pups so I can do a photoshoot of them
Decorate our new house
Pay down more bills
Worry and Stress less
Have the time of my life

AHHH! I cannot wait to get started on my list and to see what this next year holds for me. I’ve been pretty blessed and am counting my blessings!

Happy Birthday to My Sister

Posted on July 7, 2014June 24, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

Some people aren’t lucky enough to be born into a family that supports and loves one another like I was. I have been on such an amazing journey knowing that I am loved. I know I have a family that will stand up for me, no matter what. I remember once in junior high my Mom staging a sit-in at the principal’s office, all because I had one-too-many tardies and was going to get Saturday school. I was too young to drive and why should I be punished for the bus running late because every kid on the bus received a tardy that morning or why was I going to be in trouble because my parents were running late? My Mom didn’t see the point of Saturday school and my tear-filled face couldn’t stand the thought of being punished for something that was out of my control. So, my Mom sat, sat some more, and refused to get up. Wouldn’t you know the principal cracked first and my tardiness was excused, and I was free to sleep-in that Saturday? That’s love.

I grew up in a small(ish) town knowing that my older sister was my protector. I was one of the first kids in daycare to learn how to tie her own shoes. Mainly because my sister was tired of always having to show me. So she sat me down in our family room one afternoon and showed me how. She must have demonstrated a thousand times. For some reason she didn’t lose her patience with me and celebrated my final victory of getting the last around and through the hole. She was the one that taught me how to be cool, not be a tattle-tale because “you know what happens to tattle-tales? They end up stuffed inside a locker,” and she taught me how to let loose in college.

I’m lucky my sister stood with me on my wedding day and held my dress while I went pee like fifty times that day (at least it felt like that much). I cannot wait to celebrate her big day on a beach in Florida with her. She deserves greatness and is destined for success. Happy, happy birthday to my older sister. I can’t wait until the day that we are both in our 80’s sitting outside on a front porch yelling at those youngin’s while holding a martini in one hand.

4th of July is my favorite

Posted on July 4, 2014July 1, 2014 by Meredith Rines, MBA, CFP®

4th of July is my favorite holiday of the year.

The smell of fireworks fill the dark sky, lightening bugs flickering in the air, and the sound of crickets chirping far off in the distance. It’s a beautiful thing. What’s not to love?! I get to spend all day laying out by the pool while the Mom grills yummy food. Then the evening is filled with bright lights, crackling sounds and lots of laughter. Sounds like a pretty decent way to spend your day.

Last year J and my sister were deemed the official firework artists. They were getting all into it and not really paying attention. I mean, it was pretty dark outside and they didn’t really come prepared with flashlights. Next thing we hear is my sister tell J that there was a small fire behind his foot. He stomped out and then Dad took off to get a shovel. The entire family couldn’t stop laughing. The two pyros were about to really get the show going.

My Grandma carried the hilarious incident over to Christmas and gave them both a baseball cap with a light attached to the bill.

The 4th of July brings out the best in all of us.

My birthday and my sister’s is only a few days after the 4th. When I was little I naturally thought all the fireworks were the kickoff to my birthday celebration. It didn’t help my egotistical ways when we ate birthday cake the day BEFORE my birthday thanks to my sister’s being 2 days before mine. She had to wait a whole day and I got cake early. I had to be the favorite child, right? Right.

Okay, I know that’s not true. A girl could dream though.

What’s your favorite holiday? I’d love to know!

Share:

Share:

Share:

Honey lime shrimp and noodles. So simple, so easy and absolutely delicious!

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

Share:

4th of July is my favorite holiday of the year.

Share: