Back in the saddle....

I've been going back and forth deciding if I really want to keep this blog going. I don't lead a very interesting life so I don't always never have any good "material" to write about. However, recently due to unforeseen circumstances we've taken a good hard look at our budget and where our money is going. This prompted me to take a look at DIY projects and things I could make myself instead of buying in the store. Examples? Laundry detergent, household cleaners, yogurt (Kenz eats a ton and it adds up quick!), christmas gifts, etc.

This blog had actually got me thinking about it before. Allison is extremely down to earth and her kids are adorable too!  It really helped me think of ways to get started and what I we could do. I love the idea of debt free living. Do I think it is realistic? Yes absolutely, however I also believe that you will "always" (like for 20-30 years) have a mortgage so that kind of negates the debt free living to me. Though we are lucky we have no credit card debt and the loans we do have are small. Neither of us has college loans or anything like that, yes losers that didn't go to college over here! We planned a lot when we decided to have a baby and had quite a bit of money set aside for an emergency fund and had both of our vehicles paid for. THEN the baby came along and we realized we needed a bigger car and.... etc, etc. We also sold our house bought a bigger (more expensive, but thank goodness for a good downpayment from our "emergency" fund, plus equity in our first home) house and the list goes on.

Moving on, I also looked meal planning(which we have successfully done before and I love it), couponing (which I don't have a good handle on yet), etc. Meal planning isn't easy for us, 99% of the time I don't start cooking until Eric has actually walked IN the door. It never seems to fail if I start cooking before he is home, he calls to say he is going to be late. Yes he works *that* kind of job. Its annoying but I've come to terms with it. So I would say at least 1-2 nights a week he is late so we keep frozen foods or boxed meals on hand for these nights, because they are quick and easy, and give us more time together as a family.  Anyway I love meal planning, I love knowing what we are cooking so we have everything on hand and not playing the game every day where we talk about what we are going to eat for an 1/2 hour before we decide and start cooking.

So what I would like to do with my blog is share these things with you, what we are doing to save money, the recipes for meals as well as cleaning supplies, my fails (because I will have many!) with trying all of these new things and how we get to where we want to be financially! Which is debt free! Isn't that what everyone wants?!

So to sum it up the things we are going to be doing and trying to do are:

• Meal planning
• Sticking to a (strict) budget
• Making our own cleaning supplies
• Making our own food we would normally buy (yogurt, possibly pasta, etc)
• Looking at where we shop - what we can buy with coupons vs whats on sale vs dollar store, etc
• Stopping the impulse buys. Me=GUILTY
• Looking at need vs want

Hope you will join us on our journey and any tips, thoughts, comments are much appreciated!!!!