As I continue on with my on-line adventures I have this haunting voice in my head that keeps telling me, be practical and just go get a job. I’m am really starting to worry about our finances and getting tired of the day to day struggles just to makes ends meat. As a stay-at-home mom I dedicate a lot of time to budgeting, frugal shopping and any other resource I can tap into, just to buy some time with my 2 youngest children. Putting Jackson and Madison in daycare is not an option and not because I’m opposed to day care but because their needs are far greater than what I would expect a center or in-home caregiver to provide. For years I worked a night job, opposite of my husbands schedule but as the older kids started all day school, I never got to see them. I really missed them and if you saw the pictures of my oldest daughter with the “Alice Cooper” eye liner, she missed me too. My husband tried to maintain the kids, homework and the house but it was more than he could handle. Kourtnee, my oldest ended up being the 2nd mom to Madison and Jacob’s was falling behind in class reading and math levels. Even thought we needed the money, my kids needed me more.

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For the last year and a half I have been home. I have tried different methods for making money from selling on e-bay to my current endeavors with on-line blogging. I hated e-bay, but I truly love working on-line. I love researching for articles and helping people though my own trial and error. I could honestly spend 24 hrs. a day blogging and interacting with the on-line community. But in as much as I love it, there is no guarantee that money will be made, that the kind of success you read about will be achieved or that I have educated myself enough to make any of this work. No guarantees! When you wake up each day and go to work, the paycheck is a guarantee (usually) and stability is also a guarantee with a job. I live each day of faith and hope and pray each night for success to come. To the other mom’s out there I understand and respect the struggles you face. I wish you the best of luck and hope that all your endeavors become successful!
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Okay it’s that time of the week. Pull out the paper and pencil and plan out your meals for the week. If you are trying to become a frugal mom then this is something you have to do and you will get good at it, I promise. I have finally gotten to the point where I can actually plan, shop and prepare meals for 1 whole month!! Now I can also get very lazy and get myself in trouble if I don’t plan my meals out. And that is where I am at this week. I “robbed Peter to pay Paul” for the Holidays and didn’t give my monthly food budget the love it needs. All is good though check out Cheap Family Meals menu for the week to see how I save myself.

7 days of dinner meals for less than $27.00

• Monday – Spaghetti
• Tuesday – Chicken and Rice Bake
• Wednesday – BLT Sandwiches
• Thursday – Tater Tot Casserole
• Friday – Pizza Please
• Saturday – Crockpot Lemon Chicken
• Sunday – Cheesy Broccoli Soup

Here is the complete article link: A Cheap Family Menu For Less Than $40.00

See creating meals that are affordable and nutritious isn’t hard, you just have to 1-have the desire to do it and 2- find the tools to help achieve your food budget goals. I wish I could say I’m a coupon cutting mom, but I can’t. Before I started all my online ventures I did cut coupons and I did save a lot of money, but I also spent a lot of time doing it. I just don’t have that time anymore. So instead I focus on meal plans and staying out of the grocery store. I shop once a month. For the weekly milk and bread my hubby stops after work.  We have been able to save much better this way.

I am trying to plan 2 birthday parties for this week. My son turns 8 on Friday and my daughter turns 4 on Sunday. Ya it sucks 2 days apart and 3 weeks after Christmas. We just don’t have the money to plan much and not because we overspent for Christmas but because there just isn’t much money to go around these days. Jake, my son wants a Transformer’s party with 10 of his friends from school. Madison want a Hanna Montana party with the  entire world on the invite list. I usually do a simple family party with dinner and cake but I guess this year things are going to be a bit different. Kourtnee, my oldest has agreed to host the big boy party, it’s not really my thing and for Madison’s special day we will have the family some over. So that was actually the easy part to figure out now I have to figure out how to pay for it with no money!

I found a slamming deal at Wal-Mart. They have on clearance all there Christmas gifts for 75% off. I bought Madison 4 different Hanna Montana gift sets like brush-n-comb, bath-n-body and make-up sets for less than $10.00. She’s done! We will bake the cake and have a simple spaghetti dinner for the family.

Now Jake’s Party is another thing all on it’s own. He has never had a friend party. What do I plan for 10 boys? Hubby wants to buy him a new BB gun for $30 from the bargain basement at Cabela’s, which is a good deal and a good gift as it gets the boys out of the house so mommy can work. Jake got so much for Christmas that he really doesn’t need anything so that will be it. I can’t afford to buy a theme cake so we are going to bake cupcakes with Transformer paper liner’s.

I got a great deal on candy from Wal-Green’s, all their Christmas candy was on clearance for less than a buck a bag DEAL!! So with the deal on candy we will make paper treat sacks with a Transformer sticker on the front. With card stock I already have on hand, we are making hand made invitations with a Transformers sticker on it. We have the Transformer’s movie so we will play that and Kourtnee gets to figure out the games and decorations. She is actually pretty crafty. One year she made paper party hats and decorated the house with left over Christmas ribbon and posters for the kid’s party.

If you have any suggestions or websites please help us out! We only have a few days left to get this all planned out.[ad#ad-6]