With the Right Motivation

Yesterday, I began my list of our family's sacrifices in order for me to become a stay-at-home mother. We certainly tackled every area we could to make it happen despite the societal norms for families in our situation. Here are a few more things we drastically changed and sacrificed in order to keep me home:

• Groceries. The main premise for beginning my blog was to show friends and family how I slashed our grocery budget by more than half. I still take pride in how little we spend on groceries and am always looking for ways to cut more. Groceries became my main project when one day my husband was doing the finances for the month and we realized that we only had $90.00 to feed all four of us for the entire month. I made it work, without sacrificing nutrition, and realized that it is possible to eat right and help out our finances.
• Heating. Our house has old, drafty windows and is horribly insulated. The first heating bill of the winter hurt us pretty badly. I was home all day with my son and we obviously could not freeze so we sacrificed the house through the day. We purchased a space heater for my son's room and we would spend the entire day in his room at a comfortable 70 degrees while the rest of the house stayed down around 60 (sometimes lower if the weather was really bad). He was young enough that he loved every second of it and I was proud for every minute we could keep the furnace off. At night, my husband and I piled on the layers to stay warm in our room and kept my son's space heater going to keep him comfortable. Unorthodox, yes, but it saved us hundreds of dollars until we could afford alternatives.
• Pet costs. At the time I left my job, we had two cats and one dog. We have since added a second dog to our mix. We love our pets dearly and did not want them to suffer for our tight financial situation so I took to researching pet foods, vaccinations, and products to help save us a ton. We implemented a bunch of new strategies from switching food and cat litter, introducing cloth diapers instead of piddle pads, and changing up their vaccinations. They remained healthy while we saved a bundle.

As you can see, my staying home was our top priority and we were willing to do as much as possible to make that work. Obviously not everyone can stay home with their children full-time, so rather than looking at the many areas we were deprived and pitying myself, I constantly remain grateful for having the opportunity to be with my children.

As our financial situation improved through our extreme frugality, we never take for granted the items we return to our lives. We currently have satellite television, internet, and a second (used) car but our clothes continue to come from second-hand stores, our grocery budget is always being hacked away, and the pets continue to live happily on their lower cost food and alternative vaccination schedules. As for our heating costs, they are slowly improving as we continue our renovations and we are no longer trapped in one room for the entire day.

So if you are a person who genuinely wants to improve your finances for any reason, I encourage you to think outside of the norm, weigh your options and consider cutting some extreme costs. It is amazing what you can sacrifice if you have the proper motivation.