Saving Money

I feel like my job as a stay-at-home Mom is to work as hard as I can to save money. My husband works very hard to make money to support our family and I want it to go as far as it possibly can! I have to say that children do not really cost what people tell you they are going to... not around here at least. We don't shower her with new toys and new clothes like most families. We think that gift new toys are for birthdays and other special occasions. New clothes need to be purchased when a new season starts (or if they are outgrown or worn out for whatever reason). We have an 18 month old who can read, recognize her alphabet, is happy and healthy and is just a joy altogether... regardless of what "new" things she has. This is a big money saver for us! Another great money saver is my grocery strategy. I enjoy shopping at Aldi and seeing the money I can save there. That is not to say that every now and again I don't make a major shopping trip to Wal-Mart when we need certain things that can't be found at Aldi.

Typical 2 week trip at Wal-Mart: $130.00

Typical 2 week trip at Aldi: $90.00

It makes me very happy to save that $80.00 a month! When you save $80.00 on things like groceries you can put that money towards paying off debt! I can not wait to be "financially free"! We have a 7 year plan for our family. At the end of that 7 years we will be debt free (other than a mortgage)! What a blessing!!!

There are other small things I do to help our money stretch:
-clip coupons for name brand items that we use (baby wipes, razor blades, etc.)
-take out a certain amount of "out to eat" money and each month and once it's gone, it's gone
-watch our "joy riding" to conserve on gas
-play games and have friends over for games instead of going to a movie or something like that
-shop at Big Lots for bulk items
-make a budget and STICK TO IT
-write out all of our spending to track what type of spending we are doing (misc, necessity, grocery, etc.)

I enjoy sales, second hand shopping and any deals I can find! Saving money can be challenging, fun and rewarding! My goal is to teach my children these foundations so that they can lead a debt free life of their own someday!