Blessings in disguise....

Well hello! 
It has been quite some time since my last post and boy the things I have learned in the mean time! I have thought many times that I needed to create a new post but each time life would happen and I would forget or run out of time! I  have been continuing to work on ways to cut down on our bills and so far have been pretty successful. Some of the things I did was completely on purpose and planned and others were totally blessing in disguise, such as a broke down heating unit that had to be replaced!  As I try new ways to save money I will share them with you either way if they be epic fails or great success. Maybe my trial & errors will help you not have to make as many trials (and potential errors) as me. 

About this time last year our heating system went out. It was expected it was almost 30 years old... but it still hurt all the same. As I mentioned it was a true blessing in disguise!! We took out inside furnace out and went with an all in one heat pump which meant that the closet that used to hold the furnace is now a much needed storage closet (YAY!!). Also, with the unit now being outside the sound of the old furnace doesn't drown out the TV when it comes on, which is an added little bonus! The biggest bonus of all is that it has averaged saving us a whopping $100 a month on the electric bill!! Isn't that amazing?? I would have never expected a savings of that amount! It was to say the least a pleasant surprise! 

Secondly, we bit the bullet and turned off our satellite.... Believe it or not it was not nearly as painful as we expected it to be. My daughter, who is 8, just knew it was gonna be the end of the world. To her & our surprise we have not missed the satellite at all! We installed an outside antenna in place of where the satellite used to be & we now pic up 30 some channels. including 2 that play children's shows all day, 2 that show old shows (like Love Boat, I love Lucy, etc), and one that shows home improvement & gardening type shows. Two great bonuses are that the children are now not exposed to inappropriate so called children's shows and we are saving $90 a month!!

My next project is to make a solar heater out of recycled drink cans and scrap lumber... I will keep you updated on how it works... I hoping to at least be able to use it to heat our garage or maybe at least the dog house... ;)  if it doesn't work then I haven't really lost anything... but if it does, How awesome will that be?? 

Stay tuned on my journey to saving money and trying to go back to a simpler way of life... 

Well I have been back and forth working... not working.... and honestly both are very hard....
When I am working I feel guilty for leaving the kids and my husband when I am not working I feel guilty for my husband having to carry the whole financial burden....
I am currently laid off and have found that by taking the time to be creative and craft you can save and earn quite a bit of money...
I learned to make my own laundry detergent on Pinterest (which I love by the way) and it only cost 1 cent per load. I also make my own febreze (also from Pinterest). I have been hanging clothes on the line instead of using that energy hungry dryer and being more conservative with lights and overall energy consumption... Overall it says alot of money. Cutting a little here and a little there makes a BIG difference. But the main thing that I have learned is that even though you may not be working a public job you have to make it your "job" to be thrifty and save money. Couponing is a great way to save tons of money and even earn money but it can take as much time as going to work. But it is well worth it.  If you just starting to coupon or want to learn a great place to start is www.southernsavers.com This is a great site that does a lot of the work for you.
 I have also been selling my crafts on facebook and Etsy and have been doing pretty well with that. With everything that I currently have going on it is hard to see how I ever had the time to "work". :)
  I hope this has been helpful and would love any feedback and/or suggestions that you may have. I believe that together we can all become self sufficient again and stop depending so much on all of the commercial and industrial and processed "stuff" that we are now surrounded by.

Can a "Stay at home Mom" really make money without having to work outside the home??

This is a question I have suffered with trying to answer for years!! I have always been determined to stay at home with my kids and raise them myself. I have always been against paying someone else to raise my kids while I work and miss all of their "first" and them growing up. For some reason I have not been able thus far to find the perfect solution and feel like I have been able to help supplement the income and still be able to be a full time mom. Maybe I don't have my priorities in line. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. But I am a person that believes if you want something bad enough it was meant to be you just have to figure out how to make it happen and trust that it will happen. So far every time I think I have it figured out I always end up taking a small part time job to "make some extra money". Well this time I am gonna try a different approach. I have decided that I am going to put all of these money saving tips I have been reading about and all of these life organizing ideas into play and see how that helps.... I plan to keep all of my trial and errors and my progress posted here so that hopefully someone that is struggling with the same problems can be helped and/or inspired by posts. Please feel free to post your suggestions, advice, and support.