Farrah's Little Place in the Blogosphere

Archive for the ‘My Journey’ Category

I’ve gone back to work full time again but that’s no reason for me to go back to spending whatever like we used to. In fact being home for nearly 2 years with the family even while my husband’s work slowed down last year taught us we needed to do the opposite. Now that I’m working, I do have more coming in  BUT I’m watching the pennies come and go and saving for another rainy day while trying to pay off some debt. I’m actually amazed we made it on practically 1/3 of what we used to make but not something we wish to do again.

As I go along my journey towards financial freedom, I thought I’d share some tips I’ve learned so far…

• Shop on non-busy days (usually M,T,W and stay away from holidays) during off peak hours
• Buy in bulk when you can (toiletries, paper towels, household goods, toilet paper, meat, etc) – BJs, Costcos, and Sams are great places for bulk buying (you may even want to buy bulk with another person and split the cost to save money)
• Eat before you shop to avoid impulse food buying
• Create a shopping list and STICK to it
• Bring your coupons, pen and calculator while you shop to stick to your planned shopping budget
• Grow your own vegetables and herbs (salad & herb gardens are great to have around and don’t take long to grow)
• Buy local for your produce items
• Shop big once a month as weekly shopping can make your grocery budget higher
• Shop around for your deals, don’t go to just one place
• After shopping peak-hours you can often find deals in the deli section (bread, chicken, side dishes)
• Give yourself time to look for the deals and shop
• Plan to spend 1 day in the month for bulk freezer cooking and plan it into your shopping list (do this with friends and split the meals & cost)
• Start looking towards the bottom of the shelves, you can often find better deals as stores want to sell what’s at eye level
• Match coupons with sales & promos
• For clothes, shop 2nd hand; you might be surprised of all the brand name items and clothing pieces you may find a just a couple of dollars

WHAT’S YOUR FRUGAL BUYING TIP?

Day 2 Challenge: Do not bicker with your spouse/partner about anything in front of the kids…no matter what.

Well I suppose I got out of another day of not REALLY having to do a challenge. After a couple of days being “snowed in” with the 3 kids and my husband, I went back into the office to work today. As much as I like the ease of working from home, I’m realizing that I actually like to be in the office most days so I can “getaway” from home for a bit to just be Farrah. So, I went to the office today, I honestly didn’t have too much interaction with my spouse today. When we did speak on the phone during the day I’d say it was fairly pleasant and neither of us felt the need to bicker with the other. And now? He’s working a side job while the kids and I get ready for bed and complete nightly tasks. By the time he does get home, they will all hopefully be asleep and still, I doubt I will have anything still to bicker about. While he awaits electrical side jobs and more work from his company, he’s been home most days relaxing and cleaning house while I’m working. What’s there really to complain about? Well…he COULD make dinner…

To link up with other’s participating in the 30 Days of Change Challenge, stop by the Parenting Challenge introduction post.

My goodness…working full time, going to school, caring for the family, reading, reviewing, and blogging is insanely time consuming! I wonder now when there’s time just for me! I’ve not blogged and read as much as I’ve wanted (though I’m trying to get it back like before instead of “cramming” on the weekends).

At work I crunch numbers all day in spreadsheets and throwing them into pretty graphs and soon helping the team with presentations for the executives. My mom told me this morning she was happy I’m using my math again! I told her I’m like a computer in thought…if I can make it automate why not? So macros, formulas and more formulas in Excel are my new best friends! LOL Finally perfecting my formulas so work will go much smoother in the long run. So when someone needs a report, I pull the data, run the macro, tweak a bit, and zip all done!

At home, things have been on the weird side…DH has been home much of this week and working evenings and has been “re-organizing” things to the point I can’t find things I need without asking him! While I like the fact that he’s reorganizing things, it frustrates me too! LOL Now I’m trying to convince him to get the dinners ready since I get home between 6:30 and 7 most evenings after work and getting the kids. We’ll see…I might have to cook on weekends to freeze so he can easily throw something into the oven before everyone gets home!

Friday he was home with the 3 year old and I thought it was HILARIOUS listening to him “spaz out” trying to run errands and clean house with her! HILARIOUS! Something he is SOOO not accustomed to. I wanted to say…”I told you so…” but of course held that in with a huge grin on my face.

Tell me…does your significant other happen to be more of the “homemaker” as mine has been recently while work picks up for him? Or did it take him some time to get accustomed to the new role? I know mine’s proud and he’s not used to being home most of the time…

Tell me this too…if you’re working full time, when do you fit the blogging, reviewing, reading time in with family, work, and maybe even school like me? There was a time when this could all easily be done but I’m wondering if aging has given me less stamina!

Yesterday I finished up my upper back tattoo and am VERY pleased with the end result. The total piece took about 7 hrs broken into 3 sessions of course. I first started with a rose on my right back shoulder to represent my oldest daughter who’s middle name is Rose; this took an hour. Then I decided that since I had a thing with 3s I’d add 2 more roses to complete my “past, present, and future”. That took another 2 hours. THEN I decided I wanted to have it all connected together so yesterday I spent 4 more hours adding in the background. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!

Here it is…

If only it truly grew on trees…

Hmmm…don’t know about you but it’s still pretty hard to get the whole 2010 date out…I keep wanting to use 2009 but then I’d be making me start all over from last year and that is DEFINITELY NOT something I wish to do. Talk about the toughest financial year this family has ever had! Now we’re slowly but surely getting back on track and I want to keep it going again. Last year was a year we learned to be humble, tried to be more frugal, and definitely was thankful to still make it through while living on 1/3 of what we were accustomed to while I was home with the kids and DH’s electrical work slowed down TREMENDOUSLY. Stress was high for all as we apparently had to be brought to our knees and slapped around a couple of times to make us realize we were acting foolish with our financial decisions in the past with our debt and not saving money as we should have.

Now I’ve been working full time again outside of the home since December 21st. Loving going into the office to get away from the home family free. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, but I love feeling independent too. I enjoy having a reason to look nicer than cotton exercise sets or jeans/t-shirts ALL the time. Not sure about you but getting dressed up a little boosts the self-esteem a bit. I no longer feel like a frumpy grumpy stay at home mom of 3 kids…I just feel better inside.

In regards to my finances I can now proudly say that…

• A portion of my paycheck is now set to auto pay into a special savings account where I am only allowed to withdraw between October and December UNLESS there is a MAJOR EMERGENCY.
• A portion of my paycheck is set to auto pay my home, vehicles, insurance (auto/medical) in a separate checking account. Once I am able I plan to make 1/2 payment extra on each so that I can stay ahead of the game a bit and go back to breaking bills up bi-monthly. Eventually I’d like to add my utilities (phones, gas, water, electricity, eventually cable again) to the auto-plan. Right now DH pays that in cash from his pay.
• The remainder of my paycheck goes to the joint checking account which will be for vehicle gas, groceries and play.

I’d like to also pay myself a portion for my own personal play money. I used to give myself 50-100 to do whatever I desired every paycheck in the past and wondering if that’s still a good amount. I think it’s important to give yourself a little reward for all the hard work you’ve done. It’s been forever it seems since I’ve spoiled myself to a spa treatment or hair cut; something I used to treat myself to at least once a month.

Getting my finances under control was something I aimed to do this year in my resolutions. I’m on the road to success and hoping things continue going.

Now I need to re-organize my time again. I’m a great multi-tasker but I need to get back into the swing of family, work, school, and me. Since I’ve been working, my home is not as organized/clean as I’d like. Today I’ve been doing laundry all day, house still needs to be vacuumed, my bathrooms are ick still, dishes are thankfully done, there are books and writing that’s still to be done…I’ve got to find that happy balance again. I once said that I felt like I did more efficiently when I was working FT, raising kids, and in school and I know it. Just need to get back into that old soccer mom mind set.

Soon you’ll find more posts as I get back into the swing of things. I’ll be sharing some tips to make life easier for me and my family and I’m sure I’ll be learning new tips from my fellow readers here as well.

So tell me…WHAT’S YOUR FINANCIAL TIP FOR ME?