This week we are sharing a story from The Budget Saving Mom! My parents raised me to be a frugal person. When I was a teenager, they gave me categorized envelopes with money in them for my clothes, gas etc., and once that money was gone, that was it. So, from an early age I learned to live on a budget. Fast forward a few years, and I was in college with a newborn daughter making about $4,000 a year after rent. During this phase of my life, I learned to live VERY frugally on everything from electricity, gas, clothes and groceries. I did clothing swaps for clothes or filled up paper bags with clothes for $2 at Good Will during bag sales. I winterized my house I was renting inexpensively to reduce my electrical bill. I was very careful with every penny I made. For more budget saving tips that I have used, click here.
Once I graduated, my husband and I both had great jobs with great pay. We still lived on a budget, but I let some of my frugal habits slip. We started eating out more, buying more expensive things, etc. We still were living relatively frugally and paying cash for everything, but we were not as frugal as we once were. We had more children, and I really wanted to stay home with them, so I began cutting my hours back at work. At first I cut back to 20 hours a week, and then 4 hours a week until I eventually quit. I love staying at home with my children. It is my favorite thing to do, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else. Our frugal lifestyle enables me to be with my children.
Part of the reason that I am able to stay home with my children is that I am able to save more money that I was able to earn as a nurse. So, it is actually cheaper for me to stay home. How is that possible? First, when I worked, I was too tired to cook and we ate out many nights of the week. I had time to do some couponing, but not a lot of couponing. Many nights my husband would just do the shopping for me without any coupons. Also, I was not able to garden or raise chickens and eggs.
Now that I stay at home with my children, I can live the frugal lifestyle I love. Where I live I am able to grow organic food for my family about nine months out of the year. This is a huge help to our grocery budget. During the summer I can feed our family on almost nothing. I spend about $20-$25 a week on average for food for our family of five. This is because our garden is so abundant in the summer months and the chickens are laying plenty of eggs.
I am very passionate about saving money and being a good steward of what God has blessed us with. I also feel that it is important to give back to others. I have loved to hear about the creative ideas that my readers have had to give to others.
I am not perfect. There are weeks when I am too busy to shop at all. I actually have gone for 3-4 weeks and not shopped a single deal. However, I am able to do this because through couponing, gardening and hard work, I have been able to build up a stockpile for my family. I do think it is important to maintain a balance in life so that you don’t get too burned out. However, saving money is just a way of life for us, that I basically consider my hobby and fun.
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