just some thoughts

Although it would seem like I completely know what I'm doing and that I've probably been doing this for a long time - I haven't. I just got to a point where I needed to do SOMETHING about our finances. I hate the talks of my husband getting a second job (especially since I'm the stay at home mom and he already works 24 hour shifts every other day) just for a couple hundred dollars every month to pay off bills and splurge a bit. We seemed to have fallen into the habit of saving some money and spending it somewhere else. As soon as we pay off a bill/debt, we do something crazy like upgrading out satellite plan or go buy new cell phones or something crazy like that. Although we are doing a lot better, we still have a long way to go before we're in a really "comfortable" stage of life.

I just had to reorganize and reprioritize where we are in life right now. We've really spoiled ourselves and we're left struggling to pay for it all. I've been reading a story on a blog I stumbled upon (here and here and more on the series here). It's completely inspiring. Granted, it will be a while before we can get out of this apartment life and have a yard to be able to have animals and/or a garden. There's a lot of cool frugal ways to live that just aren't possible for us right now due to being in an apartment and unsure of where we will be living in the next few years. The series did get me thinking about what I can do. We use cell phones. Although we're a bit spoiled with our phones (he has an mp3 player phone and mine is the original iphone) I can't see us forking out more money right now for "cheap" or "free" phones because we'd still be stuck with these expensive phones we can't use. However, after looking at our thousands of rollover minutes, I'm pretty sure we'd be safe downgrading our plan to fewer minutes. Our satellite plan - well, we carry the biggest satellite plan possible and have every single movie channel. Considering the tv is 90% on cartoons when it is on, we could definitely change our satellite plan. Since we have the cell phones, we could cut out our landline that we don't even have a phone hooked up to right now. The only reason we have it was for emergency if we couldn't pay our cell phones one month or something crazy like that. Though I know we could afford our cell phones if we didn't have that extra expense. duh! We could turn the a/c off once in a while and use our fans when we're all in the same room, and especially when we're not even home. Bottom line is that we haven't exactly been living like we're in a single income budget. Just changing those things alone will help us cut out the talk of getting a second job. Seems so obvious doesn't it? The more I learned about how to get good deals on things and cutting the cost of our groceries, it all seemed pretty obvious to me too. I just don't know why we never payed attention to this earlier. Sometimes I think this is just the way it is. But it doesn't have to be!

Getting into "deal finding" has become quite a hobby and a lifesaver. It's a bit time consuming but worth every minute. The money I've been saving is almost like having a second job! Seeing the savings had me thinking that there are probably a lot of other people out there like us who struggle with the rising gas prices and whatnot and just assume it is what it is. It's totally not! There's so much information out there that I've been studying and learning about saving money that actually helps and isn't a struggle to do. It just made sense to me to start this blog so that others can really understand that things aren't always what they seem. This isn't the kind of information that should be kept to oneself. Granted, there are people out there who will learn the secrets of getting out of debt and even saving money and will still refuse to do it. For those who are willing to make the change though, this blog is for you! The first thing I'd suggest is just to reevaluate your lifestyle. Read about others who don't live like the Jones' and realize it can be done. Be inspired and go with it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't spoil yourself once in a while, but make sure if it's a long term thing that you can afford it long term (like your phone or satellite bill).

Even if you're not living a lifestyle of struggle, you still shouldn't ever have to spend more than you need to. If you have the ability to get your groceries for less than what you usually pay, why not do it? That's like filling up your empty gas tank at the gas station with the most expensive gas. I'll blog once in a while about secrets of saving money and everything I'm learning about it. Blogging this also allows me the opportunity of meeting other frugal families who can share their secrets with me as they read about my own. Our ways of living are not those of everyone else and that's the most important thing to keep in mind. But I'm putting the information out there and it's up to you to take it or leave it.