I'm on a mission to "trim the fat" in our budget here at home. I thought I was doing extremely well until I looked back at some old magazines (2005... I know...why are they still laying around?! right? Ha!!) that I had and I came across a "getting out of debt" article. I've read tons of these as I'm sure you all have. Some advice makes sense and some may not for your family. It really got me thinking of when I first got married. We got married young...I was pregnant and in college...Shad and I were both living with our parents and after the wedding moved into a mobile home...Shad did have his college degree and had moved back home about a year before we got together to take a full time job. We were starting a family on less than $20,000 a year!! Ouch!! How did we survive?? Yes, that was 14 years ago and times were different but OMG!! I have to admit I was spoiled and back then if there was no money in the checking account I broke out the credit card... if that didn't go through I applied for another one. Very foolish, I know. Now... I am a nag about where ever penny is going!! It killed me to eat at Red Lobster this past weekend. I finally gave in after being hounded to death by everyone and after we paid the bill and were in the car headed home everyone agreed with me that our "Seafood Feast" at camp is WAAAY better. More food for more people and less money!!! Although it did bring back a funny memory for Shad and I... Austin must have been about 10 months or so (he'll be 13 next month) when Shad and I went out to dinner at Red Lobster and we were enjoying the evening with our son. Austin has had seafood since he could eat solid food!! Talk about spoiled!! :) He was just gobbling up the lobster and crab legs... well so we though... Ha!! On the way home we found out that he was storing it all in the roof of his mouth! Everytime I turned around to check on him he was chewing on something... he was teething so I didn't really think much of it until I saw him moving something white around in there... the roof of his mouth was jam packed... he was laughing so hard when I found his "stash"! Remember I said we were POOR... same dinner, our credit card was declined!! Ever have that happen?! It's quite embarrassing!! Especially when that was your only means of paying for your dinner!! Shad and I sat and stared at each other for about 10 minutes. I remember thinking "Oh shit... what are we going to do?! I'm not going to do dishes!!" Let me tell you a little bit about myself back then... I did not do anybody elses dishes but my own and it was easier to buy new then it was to do laundry. I remember looking around for the closest exit trying to figure out how to get out of there. We had about $20 still in the checking account so we could swipe the debit card for part of it but that still left about $30 to come up with. It was a good thing that I didn't clean out all of my spare change in the car and my purse because we took turns going out to the car trying to scrounge up enough money to pay our bill. After about an extra 20 minutes of drinking water and eating the free biscuits we had enough to pay our bill... we left it on the table and got out of there as fast as we could... $10 cash that Shad had in his wallet and the rest in change... needless to say the waitress didn't get a tip!! We were lucky to have enough to cover the bill. We were laughing so hard that Shad had to pull over!! Ha!! We laugh just as hard to this day whenever we pass a Red Lobster!! I hope my little story helps to bring back a memory that tickles your funny bone!!
OK... so back to my point of today's post. We are a one income family like many of you are and the question gets asked almost everyday by someone out there... "How do you do it?" Well, How do I do what? It's almost always about affording Pala's adoption but this time it wasn't... this time there was no awkwardness in the question. A genuine question about raising 4 kids... the stress, the groceries, all of it. This inspired me to reach out to all of you and ask you to share ways that you save or have saved in the past to get out debt, save for retirement or just to cut back. How do you cope with the stress of the kids and hubby? I haven't posted very often because I don't feel like I have anything to write about but you know what... LIFE is worth sharing. This is a very challenging time for many and I think that by sharing our tips and struggles can help each other. My challenge for all of you reading this is to occasionally throw out there a "thrifty thought" or "tummy tickler". Who knows, it might be the encouragement someone needs to get through the next day.
Thrifty Thought for today...
What is the most inexpensive dinner you have ever made for your family? Give the approximate cost of the entire meal, how many it fed (were there leftovers?) and please share the recipe if it requires one. Title your post "Thrifty Thought Recipe"
Challenge others to get on board!! Happy blogging!!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Just a few pics of Miss PEA
Tried on one of the outfits that we bought in Kolkata. It's a little big but should fit by the time we finalize her adoption. We are hoping to get a court date some time in May. We have postplacement #2 this Thursday and then I can gather all of our documents and submit them to the courts. We are not required to have an attorney and not to mention it saves us about $1500 by doing it ourselves.
I was packing up some of Pala's clothes that are to small and remembered that I had bought this chicken costume for her last Halloween with hopes that she would be home. Ha!! I couldn't pass it on without at least trying it on her. A little small now but it would've been perfect last Halloween. It looks so ridiculous that maybe that's why God pushed our travels into November... :)
She has made this face since day 1!! Goofy as all get out and there are noises to go along with it! Ha! :)
She loves to sit in "Mr. Chair" and help mommy fold clothes. Pala does not like to share "Mr. Chair" though. My sister brought my niece over to play a couple of weeks ago and when Elly tried to sit on "Mr. Chair" Pala went bananas and shoved Elly out of it. FYI: "Mr. Chair" now has a friend. So... now we have 2. 1 blue and 1 green. :) Garage sales are awesome! I have less than $10 invested for both!
Pala actually sat and let me put beads in her hair! They were sooo cute!! I kept telling her to show everyone her beads and she would run up to whomever I was talking about and shake her head to hear the beads rattle. Adorable!!
Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!! We will not be celebrating tomorrow but instead on Tuesday. Long time friends of Shad's family lost their house to a fire while away and there will be a benefit for them on Tuesday. We felt that that would be a much better way to celebrate the holiday of "LOVE". We already know that our house is filled with an overflowing amount of love so as a family we will be sharing it with others! May God fill your hearts and bless you all!!
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