Hello, once again. I think the last time I wrote was back in 2011 and it's now 2013 and we have moved to Fort Benning and have had another beautiful little girl in January of this year. I'm no longer attending school, which I know I should but with two young children at home and tight on money, we can't afford to put to kids in daycare. But I do try to save my husband and I money each month. I have became an avid DIY crafter since moving. I have sewn some blankets, bibs, and burp cloths for Lahnie (the baby). I have also made some of my older girls things like bow holders, hair clips, blankets, and other random crafts. I also make my own laundry detergent and fabric softner. I tried the dishwasher detergent but I didn't think that it was doing a good enough job for me. Haha. I also cloth diaper Lahnie and breast feed as well. This is kinda my first time cloth diapering. I briefly clothed Kaleigh (middle child) when she was a baby. And I have never breast feed any of my girls. I wanted to this time just to have the experience and I didn't want to be selfish. I know that I didn't do it with my two older girls but I have my reason and if no one wants to listen or believe them, then I don't care. I can say that I am now and that's all that matter. The past is the past. That's basically about all that's happened since my last post in 2011. I mean more interesting things have occurred and I'm sure I'll go back to them, but just in a different post :)
The reason for me to start blogging again is to track myself and try to keep myself on track with trying to save us money. With only one income and bills (like everyone else) and three kids, things can get a bit pricey. But I do plan on doing all that I can do to save. I just read a very interesting and motivating blog about saving money. I mean if she can do it why can't I? It'll be hard and difficult, but I'm willing to give it a try and we may need to make some changes to fit our family, but something is better than nothing, right? And seeing that we paid the majority of our debt off with our taxes and spent quit a bit we didn't put any into savings. I'm sad that we didn't put any in savings, but everything is paid off that we wanted to and we got somethings that we needed/wanted while we had the money. But starting with March's paycheck we will be putting money into savings and trying to see how much we have at the end of the pay period to put more into savings. I hate living paycheck to paycheck, but we have to do what we have to do.
On top of putting money into savings, we went to the butchers or meat market (whatever you want to call it) and bought a large amount of meat to last us for about a month and half or so. And we will continue to do this so our grocery bill wont be so high. And I love this idea cause we did this back at Fort Hood and it lasted for some time and we also got a deep freezer so we have a place to store it besides using the fridge to store the meat. It'll also help better with meal planing with I have done and sorta stopped, but will be picking it back up to save money.
I have also made our own laundry detergent and fabric softener. I didn't think that it would work or be easy, but it was and is.This last batch of detergent and softener have lasted about 3 months or so. I don't remember when I made it but I know that I was still very prego when I did. :) I have added something to my detergent to give it an extra boost of smell. I was worried that they since they didn't smell good that they weren't clean. But I just added the purex crystals to the batch and all is good. I want to and will start to make my own fabric softeners that you can put in the dryer. I like to use the liquid and the sheets. But I found a DIY to replace the sheets (to save more money) on Pinterest. I've also made a few DIY cleaners.
Another thing that I did to help save money is that I'm cloth diapering Lahnie and breast feeding. I know that breast feed to save money is a horrible way to put instead of saying that I want to give my child the best (which I do), but with my two other girls I didn't and I regret it but it is what it is. And I decided to cloth cause it would save a ton of money in the long run and I kinda like the idea of doing it. And since Kaleigh didn't potty train the first time or two that it was going to be expensive to buy diapers for two. So, it saved in that way. But now my sweet Kaleigh is now potty trained and no more buying diapers. And a friend of mine even gave me a ton of pull-ups that both girls can use for nap (Kaleigh) and bed time (both girls).
At the end of the day, I'm doing my best to save as much as I can. I think that I'm going to start a vacation savings acct that no one will know about but me. It's easier for me to save money than my husband. But he is willing to jump on wagon with me. He just needs to be shown and needs to learn it. And that's what we will start doing. I'm also feel so accomplished by doing all this and at least trying.
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