All In A Mom’s Day

There’s a least two different ways of interpreting what someone means by saving money: one is being frugal and spending the least amount of money possible on everything you need to purchase. The other is spending money on needs and wants but looking around to get the best deal before buying. Lately, especially at Christmas time, I was in the latter category. Now that we’re in a new year and our finances have changed a bit I’m falling more into the first category. This is a difficult transition to make. I love to shop. I love to find great deals and be able to take advantage of them. I need to retrain my thinking.

At some point last year I did become more thrifty when I was shopping for groceries. We used to just go to the grocery store and buy whatever we needed, whenever we needed it. Some trips our bill would be over $200. I started reading things on the Internet that made me realize that I always look for deals when purchasing other things and I should do this with buying food too. I read some information about stockpiling and realized that it was a good idea to stock up on items when they were on sale so that you didn’t have to pay full price the next time you run out. There’s another blog that I read all of the time. Sarah has some great frugal ideas and she has a post about stockpiling. It’s definitely worth reading. Now we try to keep our weekly shopping trips to around $100. The only catch is that I did start buying food at other places (Target, WalMart, Walgreens, etc) so it’s a little harder to keep track of since I’m not buying all of my food in one store.

I’m still working on getting organized in the house and I think that once I’m better organized I will do better with keeping track of things and using coupons. I’ve organized both of my daughters’ rooms, most of my office and my kitchen. The main places I have left are my dining room, my bedroom and my laundry room. I’m making progress so I’m happy about that. It’s nice to feel a sense of accomplishment. I also think that once I’m more organized I’ll have more time to search the Internet for good deals. I’ll try to share whatever I find here with you. So, whichever way you are looking at savings, I hope you get some good deals this week. Have a good one!

A new year brings with it the hope of new beginnings. It is a time to be able to change things that weren’t great during the last year. I don’t necessarily sit down and write out a list of resolutions but I do have in mind what I want to work on for the new year. This year the list is long so I’m trying to concentrate on one thing at a time. The first thing I need to do is getting organized. I feel like all of the other “resolutions” will be easier to work on if I’m more organized.

We moved into our home almost 2 years ago and we’re still not organized. A lot of things have happened in those 2 years (but that’s something for another post) so I feel like I have a good excuse for not getting things the way I want but now is the time to get it done. Everything else in our lives seems to have settled down and now I’m ready to get things organized.

The problem is with 2 children who are home during the day it’s difficult to get too involved in a project because someone always seems to need something. Either that, or it’s too quiet and I have to go find out what they are doing for themselves so that they don’t need something from me. One day I found them helping themselves to water from the freezer door. Apparently they weren’t thirsty though. They were filling their cups and then throwing the water on the floor. I guess they were swimming in the water too because my son was wet from head to toe. Oh well. At least it was just water and I was able to soak it up with a towel. That part I am thankful for.

I’ve been trying to work on a lot of organizing while my husband is home to help with the kids. So far I have started organizing in my daughter’s bedrooms and our office. I know they say it’s better to start in one place and finish before moving on but it’s not possible to organize in their rooms while they are sleeping. My goal for tomorrow is finishing in the office and cleaning off the kitchen counters (a never ending task). A friend of mine recently moved to town and when I went to see her new house I commented on how nice and big her kitchen is. She said she was bummed about that because it just gave them more counter space to put stuff on – I guess our household isn’t the only one where empty counters are a magnet for anything you don’t feel like putting away or don’t know where it goes, something you just took away from the kids that needs to be put where they can’t reach it, last week’s school papers, mail, etc. So, along with the office and the kitchen – I’ll be taking care of the kids, walking the dog, picking my daughter up from school, doing laundry and the list goes on. I’ll let you know how I do. Hope you have a productive day!