This Is How We Do It

When are you going back to work? Have you gone back to work yet? Are you enjoying your small break at home? These are the questions I get...often. I even got a similar question today from a fellow mom. I am not even going to go into detail about staying home and how it is far from a 'break'. People assume that I can't stay home. People assume that being a stay at home mom is not an option. I am happy to report for right now, in the present, I am staying home.

How do we do it? Well where there is a will, there is always a way. And in our case we have also had many blessings.

This Is How We Do It

No excess in our lives (usually).

We set a strict budget.

We own our cars.

We try and spend $40 on food.

I freeze extra food.

We cut cable.

I save all of our change and get gift cards.

I try to only fill my gas tank once a month.

We don't shop unless there is a NEED (usually).

We use cloth diapers - part time.

It takes a lot of planning and work to save money and not spend over our tight budget. BUT to me it's worth it. It was a goal of ours as a family for me to stay home, so it works. We also quickly realized with me working and the cost of daycare, I would be bringing in very little and I would be missing out on a lot of time with Lucy. And the fewer germs we exposed Lucy to, the better (See MCAD Momma).  It just didn't make sense for our family. So it was a choice, and we found a way.

Buy Used

Mike and I prayed and searched for cars that we could buy without having a car payment. And thankfully we were able to purchase two reliable cars within 1 year! We drive camry's and they are wonderful! Buying used not only goes for cars, but we buy most of Lucy's clothes used as well. We have wonderful friends and family that have bought clothes and diapers for us! And as Lucy gets older, I have bought a lot of her clothes used through consigning. I can probably count on one hand the number of clothes items I have purchased new for Lucy. She is growing so quickly, and honestly messes up a lot of outfits along the way!

$40 A Week On Food

When I wrote about spending $40 a week on food, I wrote a little about setting a goal under your budget so you have extra money. That is exactly what we've done. We looked at our budget, quickly realized we had no room for excess. I knew I had to make up some money somewhere. I love traveling and gift giving and date nights way too much!

Cut Cable

Cutting cable was a scary thing for me! I had routines each week of the shows I loved to watch, and a little part of me was aching thinking I wouldn't be enjoying some of my shows! But we save over a $100 a month not having cable, and we use Netflix a lot! I also quickly realized with having a baby, I don't get to watch much television anyways. And if I am really missing a particular show, I can usually get online and watch it if I NEED to. Even without cable we still get some of the basic channels. It works, and I love that I am no longer a slave to my television.

Save Your Change

One of my favorite things - Saving change! One of the coolest ideas I had heard a few months back was about the Coinstar machines in grocery stores. I had never used them before because when they convert change into dollar bills for you they usually take a portion of your money, like 9% or something. Well that just isn't right to me, so I wasn't about to use the machine. Mike hates carrying change around, and I wasn't always the best at using it. We also found that a lot of banks now charge you to take your coins...once again that just didn't seem right in our minds. SO we heard that if you go to the Coinstar machines and put your change in and choose the gift card option, instead of the quick cash, you get your full amount of money on a gift card of your choice! They don't have gift cards to every place, but they have a few great options. Mike and I usually save up our change to around $50 and then go and get a gift card to a restaurant. My next purchase will be an online gift card so I can buy some christmas gifts, all with our extra change! It somehow feels free, even though it is our extra change.

Drive Less

Filling up my car with gas once a month isn't as difficult SOME months. We walk a lot when the weather is nice. If I do drive anywhere it is usually only around town. We aren't spending as much money on gas with me staying home, because I am not driving to and from work every day. We are also lucky that most of our family and friends live relatively close.

Part Time Cloth Diaperer

In short, we use cloth diapers most of the time. I don't like using cloth diapers when I am running around for errands and things. They are too bulky in my purse (I don't use a diaper bag usually anymore). I do think cloth diapering is easy. I would recommend it. It does save us a lot of money, even doing it half of the time. We only buy disposable diapers every few months or if we are going on a vacation. Cloth diapers can be pricey up front, but we requested cloth diapers as gifts before having Lucy. Also you can get great coupons to BuyBuy Baby and slowly accumulate your own collection.

I have JUST posted about Cloth Diapering Here. 

Thanks for reading!
Sarah

$43.61

So if you are following my $40 a week, you'll notice I was over my goal AGAIN this week. I have a great excuse though. I have been looking for pumpkins, and the cheapest I had seen was $3.99 at Aldi and another grocery in Carmel. I hadn't purchased any yet but while I was at the store this week the pumpkins were on sale for $1.99!! Score! I was thrilled so even though that was not on my grocery list, I bought two!

So this week's menu looks like this:

Monday: Pizza Night with Our Small Group
Tuesday: Beef Stroganoff (My sister is having us over for a meal)
Wednesday: Chicken Parmesan
Thursday: Taco Pasta Bake
Friday: White Chicken Chili
Saturday: left overs
Sunday: Brinner (breakfast for dinner)


So not only was I almost $4 over my goal, but we aren't cooking two of the nights - oh well! I'm still under my budget, because remember $40 is my goal and for every dollar I am under my budget I get to save that money or put it towards something I want or need. And because I made a goal under my budget I can then save more!

I did buy 2 pounds of beef and my recipes this week only call for 1 pound. So I can maybe make hamburgers or meatballs on Saturday.

Brinner for dinner is one of my favorite go to meals when I am short on groceries or just in a lazy mood. I make my favorite pancakes and scrambled eggs and toast! I usually keep pre-cooked bacon in our pantry so I can pull it out on brinner nights.

The Battle

Sometimes I wish it didn't take so much thinking to continue living.

 I have never read the book, although I would love to with the title Men are Like Waffles, Women are Like Spaghetti, but that is exactly how I felt tonight; like spaghetti. Mike and I were discussing just some things going on with work and about our future and dreams and I felt like my mind was going a zillion different places. My poor husband was just silent listening to my mouth move in all directions. I think I told him 10 times that I wasn't trying to be "selfish" when I talked about future wants. I felt guilty saying some of the things I wanted. My mind was spaghetti! It was in a constant battle between what I thought God would want me to want, and what the worldly me wanted. Am I making any sense? Seriously spaghetti brain here!

So my battle is this: If I had a million dollars, no we'll say MILLIONS, what would I do with it? I was talking about getting family members out of debt, paying for friends vacations, paying for friends dinners out, buying friends and family in need the car of their dreams, buying us a car, buying us a vacation, buying only organic food and fresh produce. My brain was thinking of getting our family members close to retirement to retire, and fulfilling some of our loved one's dreams. I of course threw in some of my wants as well.

SO where was the battle you ask? Well I was frustrated with myself for wanting millions of dollars, because I don't want to be a lover of money. I was frustrated that I was even wasting time thinking about what I would do with a million dollars. I was frustrated that I am not content with all of my blessings today. I was frustrated because I don't ever want my husband to feel he doesn't provide enough. I was frustrated because if I die tomorrow I really don't want God saying Sarah you had it all wrong. God calls us to be generous no matter how little or how much we have. So while I am wasting my time thinking about the millions of dollars that may or may not be in my future, and what I would be doing with said dollars, God is calling me to give today. Even though I may not be able to buy everyone I know and love a brand new car of their dreams, I can buy them coffee. Even though I cannot afford to buy everyone's dinner every time we go out, I can invite others into my home and serve them what we eat. Even though I cannot give millions to the charity of my choice, I can show up. Even though I think my plan of saving everyone from every problem they have with this miraculous money is a pretty good plan; God has his OWN plan that is GREAT. And as much as I would selfishly want to be the provider of all things cool and BIG. God is the ONLY provider we need. And I never want to try and compete with the one who can do the impossible.

So once again, my mind was at battle. But I thank God that I can go to bed with peace knowing the Creator of all Things lovely is my provider and loves me beyond my spaghetti brain.

Custom Pantry

When Mike and I bought our house, we knew it would need some love. One comment Mike continues to make as we live in this house, is that he knew that the kitchen would be the biggest part of our house.   My love for all things cooking and having people gather around food has never  been a secret! So after ripping out countertops and cabinets and the ceiling, it has become pretty close.

In the summer of 2011 Mike and I our family, friends, and ourselves completely gutted and revamped our kitchen. Looking at magazine after magazine and websites and any picture we could find, Mike with the help of many, turned our old kitchen into my dream kitchen. I got the farm sink I always wanted and the island. We upgraded our 1980's gas stove to a nice gas stove/convection oven with a roll out lower oven (I love it!). Needless to say it took all summer, we moved in with my parents for a few months and mostly completed the kitchen. We still had a few things to finish. And all of this was being completed while I was in the early months of pregnancy!

A winter, a spring and a baby later it was summer again and we were looking around our house and our "construction" to do list. We still lacked something we always wanted, and that was a pantry. We have used an old entertainment center for storage and a pantry, but we needed something to organize cans and small items. Mike, being the amazing designer and builder that he is, came up with a plan to build me a custom pantry around our refrigerator. 

The beginning stages.

The almost finished product.

We used the existing cabinet doors on our cabinets when we painted all the cabinetry. We shifted and moved the cabinets around the kitchen and we left some of our cabinets open without doors. I need to take some pictures of them, then I can show you! Because we did this we had extra doors, and Mike used those for our pantry. He also added crown molding that he made himself! Thanks to some amazing family that had the tools we needed! 

After each construction project around our home it makes me think of Miranda Lambert's The House that Built Me song:

Mama cut out pictures of houses for years

From 'Better Homes and Garden' magazines

Plans were drawn, concrete poured

And nail by nail and board by board

Daddy gave life to mama's dream

I love that our house already has so many stories intertwined in it. Every room, every board, every door as been touched with love and often frustration with each project we have taken on. I love that we will have endless stories to tell Lucy as she grows up in this house. And if we are ever to leave this home, I know there will be many tears. This house has built a part of me and our story as a family. I know this home is nothing without the family that lives in it, but I will always treasure the memories we have and continue to have in our home. And a BIG thank you to my husband for giving life to so many of my dreams!