Since we decided for me to stay at home, we've had to make a lot of changes with our budget as I'm sure many of you have that have chosen or had to move to one income. As we enter into the adoption process, I have examined multiple ways to cut back to save us even more money. Thank you Pinterest! You make it so easy for us to find ideas! So this post is dedicated to documenting what changes we have made to our lifestyle for me to be at home with my babies and to bring baby #3 home! I hope you enjoy and maybe even become inspired! You may do a lot of these things already, and if you have other ideas along these lines, please feel free to post your ideas! I would love to hear how you changed your lifestyle to better your home environment and save some pennies!
1. Cut out convience foods- first of all the more convienent probably means the worse it is for you. This was probably the first way we cut down our budget. While I was teaching, convenient was name of the game because let's face it, if you have taught you know that life gets hectic at many different times of the year. And yes it means more work to make this change, but I think my hubs would agree, our food is much tastier and better for us!
2. Consignment, consignment, consignment - I buy most of our girls clothing from consignment and have found it very rewarding to take extra good care of their clothes in order to sale all clothing at consignment sales.
3. YaY for Yard Sales! This is also falls under the simplifying category. I get really sick of the excess that is so common these days so selling things we don't need or use is a great way to cut back on the junk. This was a new experience however, because I grew up in the boonies...not many yard sales happen 13 miles out of town. I find it a lot of fun to organize, put on, and to shop at others though!
4. No to Name brands! If you haven't discovered Aldi yet, please try it! You will fall in love! Don't be a name brand snob, your wallet will thank you!
5. Bye Bye Cable - okay this kind of hurts still because I LOVE HGTV. When Ryan still worked at the Fire Department, I missed him like crazy on shift nights, but I made the nights a little better after Zoey went to bed by watching House Hunters, and all the other fun shows that came on as well as the occasional sappy Hallmark Movie on the Hallmark Channel. This decision has made a huge difference in monthly bills though and Netflix is a great option to catch up some TV favs.
6. Car cut backs - we have traded a couple of times to get an older vehicle with more miles
7. DIY - So just today I made a new batch of homemade body wash and y'all . . . it smells sooo good! I will put the link on here for an awesome blog where I get a lot of DIY cleaning supplies, laundry recipes, and skin care products. It's amazing when you do the math how much you can save!
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com
8. Gardening - okay so we are hopefully going to be able to till our garden tomorrow. I'm hoping to channel some green thumbness from my dear Papaw because he has gardened for I'm sure his whole life and still does at the ripe age of 87. I will be calling him tomorrow for tips! This is our first attempt at our own garden, praying for a good harvest!
The list goes on ... I'm sure I'm forgetting things...we have made the obvious cut backs like not traveling as much as we would like, not going to the movies and waiting for movies to come out on RedBox, not eating out as much, not going and doing like we used too. We take advantage of free stuff! Whether it be a free family fun activity around town or thinking of thrifty ways to have a date night.
The bottom line is, we are happy, yes it has been tough some months, but God is faithful. He has gone before us, we trust in His guidance, and we know that putting our trust in Him will always bring peace and comfort that we can't buy, invest, or create on our own.
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