Update

I'm on a new kick. I say "new" because, when faced with the possibility of actually having to go out into the workplace, I've decided to find ways to save money in our household. Funny how the threat such as, "Get yo ass to work now" from The Man has turned into, "Hey kids! Let's eat the same thing for dinner 3 times in a row, okay?" Tell this mama to go to work and she blossoms into a new woman, one willing to not eat out, as well as willing to feed her kids sandwiches for dinner. (Which, btw, I LOVE. I can get so creative and it's fairly inexpensive.)

While I love the idea of working, I love the idea of being a stay-at-home-mom more. My kids need me. My son is still homeschooled, although he's become much more of a successful independent learner lately. I can't imagine having a workload of a real job and keeping my household responsibilities up. I greatly admire women who do it all. I'm not one of those women. I can't do it all. I think we'd be a pretty raunchy household if I had to do it all, and we'd be eating dog food for dinner regularly because I can't do it all. Just can't.

As of now, I'm finding ways to cut corners. By cutting corners, I've:

• started using our Hybrid car for all travel, and our SUV stays at the airport while The Man travels
• started documenting my spending at grocery stores, Wal-Mart, gas stations, and online purchases
• started researching foods that are on sale at certain stores and learned which stores offer cheaper options for certain items
• learned how to freeze meals and how to make bigger batches of things to freeze for lunches
• cooked in bulk and with cuts of meat that are cheaper yet still healthy options
• stopped eating out (gasp!)
• quit my 3x/week Starbucks habit (even bigger gasp!!)
• started planning trips out with the kids. I plan accordingly with snacks and re-bottles of water in order to avoid stopping at Starbucks because I'm thirsty (nice excuse for a latte, huh?)
• Did I mention I've stopped eating out? Yea, I did? Well, that's a big one for us!

We've been spoiled by The Man's consulting life. In our previous life, we ate out almost everyday because the company paid for it. We got used to that life, along with free car rentals, free hotel, free flights, and really, it's hard to break those habits. We still get many perks like great hotels for free, but I want to learn to make our money last.

My goal this month is to finish saving for my dishwasher. While I could go to Sears tomorrow and put every appliance on credit, I won't. I'm upgrading our appliances one at a time and by the end of February, I will have devoted 2 months' savings to pay for a dishwasher! (About $500!) I use Bank of America's Keep the Change program and I also devote money at the end of each week to this fund. Some weeks, I put $5, some weeks I put $40. It just depends. I'm proud of myself because it's a goal. The nice thing about this is we can splurge a bit if we pay one appliance at a time.

We will be creating a television fund. With this fund, we will save for a new television for our family. We use old televisions in our house, and we want an upgrade, so we'll set aside $ for that as well. It's good to have goals, and good to set aside even small amounts for these goals. I encourage everyone to do this because, it adds up and feels great!

Goals for February

• Keep food budget at $400/month for this family of 4
• Utilize the envelope method, giving myself cash to keep for designated expenses, nothing more added to it, nothing less in it
• Make a budget that is do-able, while still allowing ourselves $ for fun
• Not being such a mad cheapskate. I need to lighten up when The Man wants three bags of beans instead of one. Even though I'm right. Always.
• Start our television fund
• Finish my dishwasher fund and get my dishwasher in early March
• Get a better handle of how to use coupons. This is a HUGE GOAL! I'm clueless.