Inspiration Week

I am a stay at home mother of six.  We live on my husband’s income with the help of coupons, clearance sales, garage sales, and freebies.

I use the binder system with my baseball card holders to make it easier to see what coupons I have and the value for each.  I divided my binder by the aisles in the store so that I can flip to a new section depending on the aisle I am shopping in and if I see a unadvertised sale.  I try and remind myself that the coupon is only good if I have a need for that item.  It still costs money to purchase something and if the item is something I really don’t need then it is still not a good deal for me.

We try to live with the less is more motto.  We try to look at purchases and decide if it is really a need or just a want.  I also remind myself at the stores that just because I got a really good deal and “saved” an amount of money that does not mean I have that “saved” amount of money to spend on something else. To truly save that amount means not to spend it on something else. We have a family joke of no “funny money accounting.”

I look to clearance racks, consignment stores, goodwill, and hand me downs for clothes.  We are just now getting into the teenage years of wanting certain brands.  I have recommended to the kids to ask for these special items from the grandparents  for birthday gifts if you really want them or pay for them yourself.  It has made them decide whether the “special” pair of jeans or shoes is really that special.

I try to plan out most of meals and we rarely eat out at a restaurant.  I look at our local grocery store ads for the week sales and plan accordingly.  I also try to keep our pantry stocked with quick and easy meal ideas (like our pizza pasta recipe)  so that I am not looking for the take out pizza number instead of making a 15 minute meal.
We also take advantage of our local freecycle website.  We both list items we no longer need and could be of use to others and also request certain items like extra barbie doll clothes or snowboots for one of the kids.

We garden and can or freeze most of the produce we don’t use fresh during the summer.  We also utilize a clothesline and only just recently put it in for the winter because snow was in the forecast and I didn’t want to freeze my fingers hanging out towels on the line.

One more item that saves our family money is we visit our local library’s bookmobile every week.  We have made dear friends with the librarians and enjoy all the wonderful books and videos they bring out every week and we can check out for free.  We can also request items online and they will bring out the items each week.  With six kids movies are a rare outing for us but with the free checkout of videos we can enjoy movie night at home with our own air popped popcorn (popper from freecycle) in our living room.

Donna Moore