Lately our family has been trying to penny pinch in every way we could think of. From our food shopping, to getting temporary furniture for our new little apartment and even our entertainment.
I do consider myself as a frugal person. I like to shop used and bargain hunt for everything. Even when I was younger if I got an allowance for clothing I would have to look in every store to see which one gave me more for my money, it drove my family nuts. My husband and I have a goal to buy a house in the next year and to have 0 debt and to be working toward paying off the house as soon as possible. I believe if you have a dream the only one to get you there is you, so go out there and work hard for it. One of my favorite quotes is from Dave Ramsey "Live like no one else so Later you can live like no one else". We as a society believe that its normal to have car payments, credit card debt and to buy things with money we don't have. I am guilty of this too, I have been normal like everyone else. That is changing, I want to be weird if you call it and live below my means so that I can live like no one else later.
Here are some of the things we have done to cut back and save...
* Furniture We came here with pretty much nothing its all in CO in a storage unit. and most of it we sold at a yard sale. So we wanted some furniture to sit on and put our TV up. We searched on Craigslist, in the FREE section... We found a free entertainment center, its made of solid wood and I will eventually sand and paint it. We also found a couch for $20 a nice clean one, came from a smoke and pet free home.
We got a computer desk for FREE it was a little rickety but my hubby just tightened the screws. I added picture of them at the bottom of the page. Nothing fancy but they get the job done.
*The Food budget, I think that the food budget is what is the money sucker for most people and they don't even know it.
The monthly budget it suppose to be $100 per person in your family so mine would be $400 a month which is hard but doable. We have taken that a little further my goal was to do 300 a month for our family of 4 including toiletries and diapers. I have been doing pretty good so far I divided it up for the month of August which gave me $60 a week to buy everything. I make a menu and shop for the things I need. then prep everything Saturday for the rest of that week and I have been staying on track!!
* Entertainment
I have two boys an almost 4 year old and a 2 year old so being in a little apartment can make everyone go a little crazy. So we every week try to do things that don't cost money like going to the library. Even the mall get to be in ace and get exercises, most malls have a kid play area which is where we hang out and I usually bring pb&j sandwiches. Barns and noble have story time we go to and they do a craft with the kids. There are plenty of things to do that a little to zero amount of money. I just found out today that chick fil a does build your own ice cream for kids for free.
I do consider myself as a frugal person. I like to shop used and bargain hunt for everything. Even when I was younger if I got an allowance for clothing I would have to look in every store to see which one gave me more for my money, it drove my family nuts. My husband and I have a goal to buy a house in the next year and to have 0 debt and to be working toward paying off the house as soon as possible. I believe if you have a dream the only one to get you there is you, so go out there and work hard for it. One of my favorite quotes is from Dave Ramsey "Live like no one else so Later you can live like no one else". We as a society believe that its normal to have car payments, credit card debt and to buy things with money we don't have. I am guilty of this too, I have been normal like everyone else. That is changing, I want to be weird if you call it and live below my means so that I can live like no one else later.
Here are some of the things we have done to cut back and save...
* Furniture We came here with pretty much nothing its all in CO in a storage unit. and most of it we sold at a yard sale. So we wanted some furniture to sit on and put our TV up. We searched on Craigslist, in the FREE section... We found a free entertainment center, its made of solid wood and I will eventually sand and paint it. We also found a couch for $20 a nice clean one, came from a smoke and pet free home.
We got a computer desk for FREE it was a little rickety but my hubby just tightened the screws. I added picture of them at the bottom of the page. Nothing fancy but they get the job done.
*The Food budget, I think that the food budget is what is the money sucker for most people and they don't even know it.
The monthly budget it suppose to be $100 per person in your family so mine would be $400 a month which is hard but doable. We have taken that a little further my goal was to do 300 a month for our family of 4 including toiletries and diapers. I have been doing pretty good so far I divided it up for the month of August which gave me $60 a week to buy everything. I make a menu and shop for the things I need. then prep everything Saturday for the rest of that week and I have been staying on track!!
* Entertainment
I have two boys an almost 4 year old and a 2 year old so being in a little apartment can make everyone go a little crazy. So we every week try to do things that don't cost money like going to the library. Even the mall get to be in ace and get exercises, most malls have a kid play area which is where we hang out and I usually bring pb&j sandwiches. Barns and noble have story time we go to and they do a craft with the kids. There are plenty of things to do that a little to zero amount of money. I just found out today that chick fil a does build your own ice cream for kids for free.
Excuse the mess! Entertainment center.
Free computer desk
A $20 couch Id say we did pretty good!
