Budgets

So I know I have been asking a lot from readers lately. Christmas questions,venting about people using the word orphan, and opinions about schooling may birthday boys...I think I have been doing a lot of thinking lately. It all started when Aaron and I started talking about baby #3. We started talking a lot about bio trying and adoption. We also have been looking at and talking about purchasing a new vehicle(I love our Sienna). Wesley was also getting our attention with his star (or lack of stars) chart. Bringing to our attention the need to wait a little longer for kindergarten. As we have been hitting all of these different cross roads there has been much conversations about choices and how are we going to choose to do things as a family. It sounds silly especially since we have been married for 7 1/2 years and have 2 kids. But I feel like we kind of have always went with what was familier. What our families did in the past and what made up our different cultures. This has always been fine especially since Aaron and I both come from wonderful families and parents who did a great job. As the boys have gotten older we see more and more that we don't fit the mold of our previous cultures and it is time to be creating our own.

What does this mean? well it means figuring out schools, vehicle purchases and even new holiday traditions. It means contemplating what our family can do that brings God the most Glory. It means relying on God to direct us in the path he wants to see us go.

Wow all that to start talking about budgets...It's funny I read back through what I wrote and it actually has nothing to do with what I am about to write about. As a matter of fact I feel like I should erase it except for the fact it would then become time I wasted writing it.

Oh I remember...I am asking a lot from my readers. Well I am going to do it again. I want your budget tips! Whether it is grocery saving ideas or coupon sights to making clothes last or how to make your dog food. I love that recently a family posted a way to make your own laundry soap. Aaron and I are going to totally do this. Once I figure out how to link a sight and I ask their permission I will connect them with this post. Genius! Plus I think they said it ends up costing about .01 per load. YOU CAN'T BEAT THAT! So send me your tips...

I felt really convicted about my spending tonight after watching some documentary on large families. One family had 15 children. The family income...just under....$40,000. Excuse me. If a family of 17 can live on that income then excuse me but Aaron and I should be with some money to save.

Now I am assuming they don't use cel phones..or do they? Any way Aaron and I have committed that once our contract is up in Feb. We are decreasing our plan Way way down. I have such a pet peve when people say they "need" a cell phone. I we are all still alive coming from a generation that didn't have cell phones at all. Not my area of weakness but believe me it is probably my only area of will power.

Internet well I am guessing they have internet and well I feel like with Aaron being a pilot and checking the wheather and filing flight plans it makes his life a whole lot easier. Do we "need" it? no. Is it a luxery we are willing to sacrifice for? Yes.

Satelight: we actually have down sized our satelight from $45 a month to $10. How did we do it? Well we called to cancel our package. When Aaron called to cancel the lady pretty much begged him to continue. He continued to say we were not interested and well when it was all said and done she offered us satelight for $10 a month for a year. He said okay. I don't blame him. Sad thing is we pretty much lost all man channels and I have all awesome channels like HGTV and TLC.

Now on to my part of the budget and the area we blow out of the water everymonth. You know the weakness I was talking about earlier. Grocery shopping, household item buying, gifts, and oh the ever famous...Justification purchases. You know the ones. You're standing on the aisle at Walmart. You have just discovered that they have Little boy Pajamas on clearance $5 instead of the regular $9 price. Then you notice that not only are they on sale but low and behold they are adorned with star wars characters and they still have one 4t left. Yes isn't this providential, I mean what are the chances of Walmart having a sale and having a 4t (insert sarcastic sigh). Does Wesley need new pajamas? No. Should the discussion stop there? Yes. He doesn't need them. It should stop there. Unfortunately it doesn't. No no my friends it is just beginning. He may not need them but he would LOVE them. Oh and if he had some new ones we could get rid of one of his old pj's. Or we could get these and have another pair because it always seems like he never has any clean. Well really folks the truth is 3 warm pj's is probably all he needs. We own a washer and dryer. Yep we do. It's just right down stairs. All I would have to do is use them. All this to say if I can ask myself does he NEED them and the answer is no the justifications shouldn't matter. Actually I should tell myself that if the justifications start it should be confirmation that I must be trying to justify a purchase that doesn't need to happen.

So anyways back to the point of this post that should not have been written 1 1/2 hours after my bed time. (I apologize for the rambling). I am putting myself on a budget. $650 a month. $300 of that is our food budget and $350 is everything else(Not actual bills). Those are Aaron's jurisdiction. This means in that I have to buy Christmas, household items, clothes, haircuts, shoes, dates, babysitters, misc. gifts, Etc. It seems like enough but I am wondering if it is going to be harder then I thought.

So send me your money saving tips. PLEASE!!!