Thankful Thursday

This week has been crazy, so today I am thankful that tomorrow is Friday.

I love Friday, because Friday is the day that I completely clean my house and do all of the laundry so that I can relax during the weekend. I don't love it because I clean, but I love it because when I am done my house is clean. Did that make sense?

I am also thankful for my husband's job because without it, I would not be able to be a stay-at-home mom. Okay, well I do work 2 days a week, but I still consider my job at home more of a job than my actual 'job'. His job has been very busy lately and he has been constantly called out every evening this week. That gets old and frustrating for both of us, especially when we are both tired. Oh well, the overtime pay will be a blessing and help us with our debt snowball.

For those of you who are not familiar with or are new Dave Ramsey fans, I will explain his 'Baby Steps' in tomorrow's blog. That's not a promise though, since my track record with blogging when I've said I will isn't just the greatest. :0) I'm off to spend some time with my hubby, unless of course he gets called out, again, for the 3rd time tonight.

Weird Wednesday - Money Saving Tip #7

Okay so today hasn't been that weird, but has anybody noticed that I am obsessed with using words that start with the same letter as the day of the week that it is as my title? Okay, so maybe it is a weird wednesday simply because I am weird. Or maybe not. :0)

Today has been a better day. I made the decision last night before I went to bed to handle myself appropriately, in a way that would be pleasing to the Lord, and I feel that I have done that. The rest is up to Him and in time I pray that I can be understood. I have still been a little bit - okay, ALOT emotional today. I have found myself ready to cry over little things. And to those of you who know me, NO I am not pregnant, even though that would seem to be a possible explanation for my emotions since I am an emotional basketcase for the first few weeks, okay well for my entire pregnancies. :)

Can't you just feel the love in that picture? No, that's not me and my hubby! But it does relate to my 7th money saving tip which is this - be a cheap date!! No, seriously! As a married couple with children, going out on dates or at least having alone time is really a vital part of a relationship. If my husband was reading this, he might die of laughter because this has been an area where I have struggled since our kids have been born. Yes, I am THAT mom who does not like to be away from my kids. However, I value and cherish my marriage and my husband enough to know that we need to have time where we can focus on our relationship and spend time with just each other. Going on dates when you're on a budget is not always practical, though. So enough of my rambling and onto my tips for saving yourself money and keeping you marriage healthy!

• Make your spouse's favorite dinner and have a candlelight dinner at your very own kitchen table. Turn off the TV, radio, or any other distractions and focus on each other. Trust me, we have done it and it is fun. Get out your prettiest tablecloth, your nicest dishes, a few candles and wah-lah! fancy dinner, for a fraction of the cost.
• Go on a picnic. Back when I was a working mom, my husband would sometimes bring me a picnic lunch on his days off. We would go to the park on my lunch break and sit by the creek and eat and talk. It was splendid, romantic, and sweet.
• Check out movies from the library or RedBox. I personally haven't used redbox yet, but the way I understand it is that it only costs $1 to rent a movie and you can have it for 24 hrs. The only thing is that you have to return it to the same location that you rented it from, which is usually a grocery store or walmart type store. (someone correct me if I'm wrong, please! ) Okay so I was wrong, you can return redbox movies to any redbox location, Thanks Alyssa! I do, however, make a weekly trip to the library. Our public library allows each card holder to check our 10 DVD's at a time and they are yours for a week. I usually pick out a few movies for the hubby and I to watch in the evenings after the kids go to bed.
• If you do go out to eat, by goodness, use a COUPON! Since I have become an avid couponer I have gotten the Sunday paper every single week. Each and every week there have been coupons for different restaurants. I have some for El Chico's, Olive Garden, Red Lobster and Taco Bueno. Okay, so Taco Bueno isn't exactly a date place, but I have a strange love for bueno that I have had to steer away from since becoming frugal because it is expensive for fast food. But, with coupons, it fits nicely back into our very small eating out budget.
• Don't waste money on things that you don't need. I will be honest, I love flowers. They are beautiful, and they make me feel all loved and girly and stuff. But they die, quickly. And they're expensive. So, my hubby and I have decided that when it's time to give gifts, we will be practical and buy each other things that we need and that we will use. Don't get me wrong, I love the Nintendo DS that he bought me for Valentine's Day 1 1/2 yrs. ago. It's pink, it's fun, and it's just plain awesome. But I rarely play it. So, my point is this...buy your spouse things they'll love, but also need and use.

Okay, so this post is long and wordy..sorry about that. It's probably because it's now 10:06 pm and my husband is still working! Argh! So tell me, my dear readers, what cheap date ideas do you have?

Terribly Tired Tuesday

Bear with me,I'm emotionally and physically exhausted and this evening has just gradually gotten more irritating. This post will have absolutely nothing to do with money saving, but instead more about family and life. I'm going to be vague because...well, because I want to, but you will get my gist. Gist? Is that the right spelling? or is it jist? Either way, you'll get my drift.

Matthew 5:43-48 says :
43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Perfect? Yikes. So basically, this passage is saying that even in my PMS filled, in-law annoyed, super exhausted state I am still supposed to be perfect? Gosh that's hard to swallow. Especially since I pretty much failed the test earlier tonight.

I love my family. Is that obvious? I hope so. They are truly my delight, my joy, and they light up my life with each of their individual personalities each and every day. With that said, I am very defensive of them. Probably overly defensive. My blood begins to boil when I feel that any of the 3 of them are being verbally attacked or put down in any way. So I snap. I go off. I am usually not terribly off base, but I do not put up with junk from anyone when it comes to protecting my kids or my husband from emotional pain. It's probably because I have been emotionally abused in the past and don't want the people that I love the most, that God has blessed me with, that I would give up my life for, to be hurt.

I pray that I will give this to God and that He will help me realize that HE will protect them from evil, and I cannot do it on my own. Using spiteful words does NOT glorify God, and that is what I strive to do each day. Glorify Him through my words, actions, and life. Period.

Lord help me to strive to be perfect like You. I know that I can never truly be perfect, but I pray that when situations arrive in the future, that I will handle them in a way that would please you.

I'm getting weepy, so I'm done. Tomorrow will be more upbeat. Prayerfully.

Savings Saturday - Walmart and United

Since my hubby had to work today and my oldest spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's, I decided to do my weekly shopping today instead of Monday. So, I loaded up my little one, coupons and lists in hand, and off we went.

First stop: Walmart

As I mentioned before, I loathe Wally World. However, when you match some of their prices with coupons, you can get a really great deal. I got several grocery items and many toiletries/cleaning supplies. I had coupons for all of it, but I made one mistake. I ventured to the children's clothing section. AHH! Just joking, I didn't do that bad. I got 2 outfits for my cute nephew who will be turning one before too long. I also got our best friend's son a birthday present since he is 5 years old today, and I bought Haleigh 2 DVD's that were clearanced for $5 a piece. She will be receiving them for either Christmas/Birthday though, so I am helping us out in the long run. Here's what I got: (minus the things I've already mentioned)

1 Pkg. Luvs size 3 Diapers $7.74-$5.00 Q = $2.24

4 Kashi Crackers $2.78 ea.-$2.00 Q= $0.78 * 4= $3.12

2 Kashi Cereal $2.98 - $2.00 Q = $0.98 * 2= $1.96

4 Johnson's Buddies $0.94 - $1.00 Q = -0.06 * 4= -$0.24 (overage! yay!)

1 Cascade Action Pacs $3.50 - $1.00 Q = $2.50

2 Head and Shoulders Trial Size Shampoo $o.97 *2= $1.94 - $3/2 Q = -$1.06 (more overage!)

2 AAA Batteries $0.97 * 2= $1.94

1 John Frieda Frizz-Ease Mousse Trial Size $0.97-$2.00 Q = -$1.03 (overage!)

1 Cascade Rinse Aid $2.47 -$2.47 Q (free)= $0

1 Pain Patch $0.97 - $1.00 =-$.03 overage

4 Bertolli Pasta Sauch $1.78-$1.00 Q =0.78 * 4= $3.12

1 Spray Bottle $0.97

Total Before Coupons: $48.46

Total After Coupons: $13.49 :0)

I actually spent more than this, but it was on things that were not grocery related and weren't part of the grocery budget. Not too shabby, I'd say.

Next Stop: United Supermarkets

So after, our ever so wonderful trip to Wal-mart that my daughter decided half way through that she needed to be carried or she was going to scream at the top of her lungs, we headed to United. I know, I'm crazy. I believe United is a Texas-only grocery chain, but I could be wrong. So, my fellow Texans, if you are not utilizing United's Discovery Aisle game this summer, you are missing out! I have gotten so many free or almost free grocery items from United this summer that I can't even begin to list them. They give you game tickets when you buy certain items that you can scratch off to try to win something and at the bottom there is an internet code that you can enter online to print a coupon. Talk about awesome!

The United trip was worse than Walmart because my darling daughter decided to throw her dry cereal container and the lid popped off, thus resulting in flying Kix everywhere. Being the nice shopper that I am, I picked them all up and proceeded on with my shopping. Thank goodness I am a relatively patient person. Here's my loot, and a rundown:

I'm not going to list all of this because, well frankly I need to fold laundry, but let me just say that I made out like a bandit! My cashier and sacker were very nice, very helpful, very patient, and very amused by my savings! They were both teenage guys, and they didn't give me attitude because I am a crazy coupon lady which I appreciate more than I can say. Using coupons has truly blessed our family and when I get looked down upon for using them it really bothers me. Anyways, I had a coupon for everything pictured except for the strawberries, cream cheese, and pudding.

Total before coupons: $52.91

Total after coupons:$27.17 :0)

SO, in both trips, my total was $40.66 which is less than our weekly $50 grocery budget. Woo Hoo! I am excited. If you have any questions, feel free to comment me. I love feedback!

I know this is lengthy, but I have to share a little conversation that my hubby and I had last night. We were sitting in bed talking and watching TV and I, of course, was clipping coupons, looking over sales ads, and making my lists for today's shopping trip. I told my husband, 'You probably think I'm a dork for doing all of this, don't you?' His response was, 'Well, yeah, kind of- but I appreciate it because it saves money and you enjoy it.' I told him 'Well, that's good because the way I see it is this: It takes me about an hour to get all of my coupons and lists together before each shopping trip. On average, I save at least $30 per trip. To me, $30 an hour is a pretty good wage for clipping coupons and making grocery lists!' He laughed, and then of course told me I was crazy!! :0) Works for me, though!

Fantastic Friday - Money Saving Tip #6

So, I officially stink as a blogger. My apologies. I have been incredibly busy for some reason and it seems like the summer is just flying by. I guess I am okay with that because I could definetely live without 95+ degree weather. I suppose that's what you get when you live in the wonderful state of Texas. (and I really am not being sarcastic when I say that)

This money-saving tip is one of my favorites. However, some might find it kinda nerdy, a little anal, and a lot weird. I find it awesome, and frugal. But that's just me, and I never said I was normal. :0) Utilize menu planning. Since I have started preparing a weekly menu, we have saved so much money on our grocery bill. I usually write out my menu on Sun. night for the coming week (M-Su) and go grocery shopping on Monday morning or afternoon. The menu form that I use personally includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack. I usually don't fill out the snack option because I'm not THAT nerdy, but I do fill in 3 meals worth per day. This doesn't mean that I cook up some huge elaborate meal, but I do have something planned. It might be cereal, poptarts, or cereal bars for breakfast and hotdogs, PB&J, or ravioli for lunch. But the point is I always have a meal planned. Not only does this save us money, but it also saves me time.

I use to hate the dreaded "what do you want for breakfast/lunch/dinner" conversations that we seemed to constantly have. We also eat out less because instead of thinking 'oh I'm so tired, I don't know what to cook, I'll just call Vern to pick something up', I know what I'm going to cook and can avoid those ever-so-tempting fast food purchases. Menu planning has definetely made my life as a SAHM/housewife much less stressful - which is wonderful.

I am very flexible with my menu, though. There are some days where I just don't really want what I had planned, so I'll look down the menu to another night's meal and just switch them. I usually plan a few time consuming meals and a few simpler meals for supper each week so that way if I've had one of those days I won't be stressed about cooking a lengthy meal. I can't find the menu planning form online that I downloaded and love, but this one is similar, so check it out.

The verse of the day at biblegateway.com is awesome again, so I thought I'd share. Psalm 119:60 says "I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands." I pray that each day I will obey the Lord without delay. In this world, it is so hard to get caught up in the things of this world and not obey what God has commanded us to do. Maybe He is trying to tell my that I need to read the Psalms, because there sure are some powerful verses in there. God is good and never ceases to reveal things to me each and every day. Be blessed! (and I promise I will try to blog more consistently)

Finally Friday - Money Saving Tip #5

Psalm 119:7 says "I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws."

Since beginning our frugal journey, I have learned very quickly that we were not completely honoring God with our finances. While we are very faithful in giving, we still were being incredibly frivolous with the financial blessings God was giving us. It has definetely been a learning process, so when I logged onto biblegateway.com to look up another scripture and Psalm 119:7 was the verse of the day I thought it was exceptionally fitting in our situation. I know that this journey is only beginning and that it will not be easy, but I also know that God is sovereign and will bless us for putting him in charge of our finances. I pray that I will do this with everything and not try to be in control.

This is a photo of my backyard. HA! In mine and my kids' dreams! My fifth money saving tip is pretty simple, but one that can save mucho dinero. Take your kids to do things that are free. (or very cheap) As a stay-at-home mom, I know that there are days where I would pay a fortune just to get out of the house. Chances are, my kids probably feel the same way. No one wants to be cooped up in a house ALL of the time. I will be the first to admit that when it is over 100 degrees outside, I would much rather sit inside of a nice air conditioned establishment that has a play structure for children. The problem with that is that most of them either charge an entry fee or are inside a restaraunt that appreciates you to purchase their food in order to play on their playground. We are blessed enough to have a play area in our mall that is great for young children. My girls love to play there, and best of all - it's FREE! The only drawback to that is that it is on the other side of town and we all know that with gas prices it's not always logical to drive across town when there is an outdoor playground within walking distance from our home. Here are a few free or very inexpensive ideas for outings with the kiddos:

• Parks
• School Playgrounds (during summer ours are available for anyone to use)
• Public Library- Our library offers story-time at different times throughout the week. While we are there, we check out books and DVD's. We use them at home instead of renting movies or ordering pay-per-view.
• Go for a walk-I usually push my youngest daughter in the stroller, and my oldest thinks it is ever-so-awesome to push her baby doll in her stroller right along next to me.
• Local Museums- Some offer a free day during the week and most are relatively inexpensive to enter, so check in your area to see what is available.
• Zoo- We love the zoo. Our city is probably not big enough to have one, but we are blessed with one anyways! We don't go there too terribly often, but we do enjoy it when we do.
• Church- Since becoming involved in our church, we have more of a social life than we ever have since becoming parents. It is amazing how God will put people in your path with similar aged kids, similar interests, and similar faiths if you just trust Him!

That pretty much summarizes what WE do as a family that is free or frugal. We do go bowling or swimming from time to time, but those are things that we do as a special treat. Go here for a few more ideas, some are less kid friendly than others but might give you mommies some ideas for fun entertainment for yourselves.

Tired Thursday, again - Money Saving Tip #4

I am officially a slacker, sorry about that. I had every intention of blogging every day this week, but it just didn't happen. I can say though, that I have been extra busy for some reason and have had a very whiney 17 mo. old on my leg for the majority of the week because apparently cutting molars is not a fun task. Who would have thought?

Does that look like a stack of bills to you? I hope so, because that's what it's supposed to be. :)

So, onto the 4th tip I have for you guys that can save some major money. This one might seem pretty obvious to some too, but it really can help alot if you've never thought of it before. First, think of all of your bills:Water, Electricity, Gas, Cable, Internet,Phone etc. Next, if you need to, get them out and check out your rate. I personally have a pretty good idea (okay, I know exactly, call me a nerd if you want) of what all of my bills are and how much I pay each month. If you don't, carefully examine your bills and see if there are areas that you could cut back. I recently called to try and lower my cell phone plan. The rep told me that I was already on the lowest plan, but if I added the smallest text msg. package for $5 per month, I would actually save myself money in the long run because I was paying by the text and charging almost $10 a month just doing a few texts. Now, I can use up to 500 texts and only pay $5 bucks, and save myself some money.

This is just an example. Most water companies or city-owned utilities are going to have a flat rate, and you pay for what you use plus whatever lovely fees they choose to charge, and if you don't like it, then you can find another source of water. In our area, our electricity is de-regulated. If you don't know what that means, google it. Just kidding. :) That means that we are able to choose who we pay for our electricity. If you are deregulated, I suggest that you go to the website www.powertochoose.org and find which electric provider can offer you the lowest rate per killowat hour and also does not charge any fees. When we did this, our electric bill dropped significantly and we were able to save alot.

Some people would also suggest cutting out cable or satellite completely, but when you are married to the man that I am, that is simply not going to be an option. I would be okay with it, but as for the hubs, yeah, not so much. I am willing to compromise though, since he has completely and totally agreed to this debt reduction plan that I just kind of out of nowhere sprung on him! Until next time, happy penny pinching!!

Savings Sunday- CVS $5 Challenge and Walmart Trip

Today I went to CVS and Walmart and made a transaction at each. Alyssa at Keeping the Kingdom First is hosting the CVS $5 Challenge. You can go to her blog for more info on that, but here is my CVS trans. for today:


1 Herbal Essences Shampoo 2.50
1 Herbal Essences Conditioner 2.50 (these were on sale for 2/$5)
1 Trial size CVS brand Hand Sanitizing Wipes 0.99
Total: 5.99



Used:
$2 off CVS skin care
$3/2 Herbal Essences coupon
Total OOP: $1.07

This doesn't earn any ECB's, but when you're out of shampoo like me, I can handle that:)


Now onto my Walmart trip. Let me just say that I am not a fan of WalMart. It is always busy, even at 8:30 pm which is when I went tonight; and taking 2 kids there is just not much fun. I have never shopped at Wally World since I began couponing, so I decided for my first time I would go after the kids were in bed, I could concentrate and find what I had on my list. Here's what I came out with:


I'm new at taking pics of my loot, so I just realized that you can't really tell what all I got. So, I suppose I'll list a quick rundown:

2 Bomb Pops @ 2.33
2 Zantac 8 ct. @ 3.98
2 Bertolli Pasta Pouches @ 1.78
2 YoPlus Yogur 4 pk. @ 2.12
2 Johnson's Buddies @ 0.94
1 Purina Dog Food @ 4.48
1 Purina Cat Food @ 3.94
2 Kashi Crackers @ 2.78
1 Just Bunches! Cereal @ 2.50
1 All You Magazine @ 1.77
1 Great Value Beef Jerky @ 5.74
Total: 46.29
Used:
2-$5 Zantac Q's
2- $1 Bomb Pop Q's
2-$4 Purina Pet Food Q's
2-$2 Kashi Q's
1-$2 Just Bunches Q
2-$1 Bertolli Q's
2-$1 Johnson's Buddies Q's
2-$1 YoPlus Yogurt Q's
Grand Total After Coupons & Tax: 14.96 Cha CHING!! a total of $31.33 in savings! yay!

I didn't have a coupon for the beef jerky, obviously since it's Great Valu brand, but my husband truly believes that beef jerky is a necessary item that he might DIE without. Anyways, thats all I've got tonight. My hubby is summoning me to watch TV with him before bed. Sorry that I slacked on the money saving tip today, but there will be more tomorrow. See you then!

Sunny Saturday - Money Saving Tip #3

Clip coupons. AND use them. I used to be one of those people who thought that there were never any good coupons and that it was pretty pointless to waste time doing such a thing. Boy, was I so incredibly wrong. Since embarking on our frugal journey, I have realized that clipping coupons can save so much money.

I used to be one of those people who would get annoyed standing behind that person in line. You know, the one who has a coupon for literally every item in their basket? Yeah, so now I am one of those people.

Couponing is not that difficult of a thing. I never said it wasn't a bit time consuming, because it is. But when you can save as much money as you can by doing it, I consider it well worth it. The way to save the big bucks is by matching coupons with your store ads. Alot of times when stores have sales on brand name items, you can also find a coupon for that item and get it for at least half off, sometimes free. I know what you're thinking though. I might not need an item that is on sale and I have a coupon for. Well, maybe not, but you might in the future. And if you're like me you'll make sure to utilize it. I'll get more into that tomorrow when we discuss my next money saving tip.

For now though, I am going to leave you with a few links to some awesome blogs about couponing. For a preview of tomorrow's coupons, go here. For an excellent blog on how to organize your coupons efficiently, go here. Let's face it, I'm fairly new at this, and these ladies are absolute pros so I have to give them the credit and let you learn from them since they're much more awesome than me!

Fun Friday - Money Saving Tip #2

It's late, and I'm tired...so bear with me if this doesn't make much sense. We went out on a date with two other couples from church tonight and had lots of fun. We went to dinner, went to a movie, and then went to one of their homes and played video games. We never ever are without our kiddos, so we felt kind of lost but it was good for us. I know it sounds like we majorly splurged, but we did use a coupon at dinner and that alone saved us $5! yay!!

Now on to my next money saving tip. Cooking from scratch. You'd be surprised how much money you spend when you buy all of those nifty, modern convenience foods. And I'm not just talking about boxed meals, I mean lots of things like tortillas, cereal bars, cookies, french toast sticks, biscuits, and many many more. I used to think that these type of things would be too time consuming to make, but once I started doing it I realized that I actually enjoyed it. I love to bake and I always have but just have never taken the time to do it since having kids.

My personal opinion is that these things are quite a bit tastier than their store-bought, boxed competitors, but maybe thats just me. :) Stay tuned!!

Tired Thursday - Money Saving Tip #1

Those of you who become my loyal readers (which I know will be millions-lol) should know that my T-Th posts will probably not happen until late in the evening. That is because I work on those days and when I come home I usually spend a little bit of quality time with the girls and straighten up/clean/start dinner. So once they are in bed, I shall blog. :)

I have been contemplating all day what I should start off writing about. I have read so many awesome blogs and have learned such a huge amount of information in a really short time from them, that I just don't know if I can ever compare. So I won't try to :0) I'll just way whatever and if something profound comes out, then so be it! For the first few weeks, I'm going to post about things that we've done to cut back on spending and ways that we have been able to save money here and there.

One of the major things that we have done is going to seem pretty obvious to most people. We've stopped eating out. Okay, stopped eating out AS much is more like it. When we added up our expenses in June for eating out, I almost passed out. It was ridiculous. Even those ever-so-tempting dollar menus add up when you frequent them as often as we did. We have set ourselves a budget of $50 a month for eating out -which might seem like alot to some- but for us it is acually pretty low. Eating out was our entertainment. We did nothing else, besides church related activities. That has been a struggle, but the hubby and I have done really well with it for about the past 3 weeks. I even resisted the temptation of Little Caesar's tonight when I was exhausted and had no motivation to cook. I did it anyways, because I know that in the end, this WILL pay off. We just have to do it.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's money saving tip, it closely relates with tip #1!!

My First Official Blog!

I have been contemplating blogging for a while now since I have a few blogs that I frequent regularly and truly enjoy reading them. I was told by my junior english teacher in HS that I have a knack for journal writing and that she loved reading my journals. Well, since the old pen and paper method is definetely out of the question with 2 kiddos, I decided to try out this method instead. Thanks, Mrs. Waggoner for the motivation!!

Things with the Buse clan are going wonderful. Life is great and we couldn't feel more blessed!

We have recently begun the journey of becoming debt free! I say that with exclamation because we, I mean, I am so excited!! Dave Ramsey is my new hero, and if you haven't heard of him or read his book The Total Money Makeover, you should check him out, yes YOU! His ideas are so practical and his plan is one that will set anyone willing to do the work to get it done up for a fantastic retirement that is filled with faith, fun, and lots of giving! Which, is one of my favorite things.

Now I know most of you are probably thinking, GOSH, how far in debt are they?!?! Well, that's none of your business! Just kidding. We are really not in that bad of shape, but borrowing money is something that we hope to completely eliminate from our lives. And no I don't mean borrowing from family or people. I mean borrowing from lenders! I know it sounds crazy, but seriously...check out Dave Ramsey. From the library, of course...since that is FREE! We have a few small medical bills, one debt in collections, 2 of my student loans, and our car payment. The way we have it planned out we should be free of these debts in 18 mos.-2 yrs. How awesome would it be to only have a mortgage?!

So, this blog is going to be my attempt to hold myself accountable and also to share some money saving tactics with you, my readers, so that you too can enjoy the rewards of being frugal! We are just beginning this, so I will be sharing lots of linky love to some fellow bloggers that have truly inspired me to become financially fit! Thanks ladies!