Frugal is the New Glamorous!

My husband and I didn’t have gobs of money lying around when we were newlyweds, much less now that our family is growing.  When I got pregnant, it seemed like I spent endless nights Google-ing how to cut costs and s-t-r-e-t-c-h the paycheck a little more.  At the time Mr. Incredible was looking for work, and I was working as much as I could at a restaurant.  With a great lack of enthusiasm, we ended up moving out of the house we were renting to move in with his parents. It didn’t feel like we were frivolous with our money to begin with. But with the baby on the way – with dreams of making our new living arrangement as temporary as possible – we really had to dig deep and pull a monetary miracle out of our bums.

The first thing we decided was to cloth diaper our baby. 

Prior to researching cloth diapers (CD), the idea was foreign and ridiculous to me. Seriously, God made Pampers for a reason!  But as much of an aversion as I had to it, I kept finding myself on the cloth websites. It made sense; the diapers were modern, simple and not my grandmother’s safety pins and linen. I stayed on YouTube watching video after video of other CD moms reviewing the diapers they use, and showing off their washing routines. I couldn’t get enough of it. I suddenly realized that I, too, was on Team Cloth.

By using cloth diapers, we save about a few thousand dollars in diapers alone by the time Pirate reaches her 2^nd birthday. I promise it’s not as hard or disgusting as some would make it out to be. I don’t touch poop any more than I do when she’s in a disposable diaper. Once you get a washing routine, it comes as easily and as naturally as anything else. Pirate has 26 diapers; I can wash her diapers every 2-3 days without running out. If you’d like to know more about our cloth diapering experiences, I’d love to share that!

We DIY as much as we can!

Everybody needs laundry detergent, everybody needs toothpaste, and everybody needs things that cost more to get at the store than it does to make it at home! The money we save on these items REALLY adds up! The internet has a plethora of recipes and information for making things at home. Or, feel free to buy it from me. I have started my own home business (more about that later), and I would love to sell you some stuff!

We Coupon!

I won't go as far to say that we're Extreme Couponers, though I would love to be one someday. If manufacturers want to give us a discount and stores are going to accept them, WHY NOT us them? It does take a bit of work if you want to leave the store with a huge chunk taken off of your bill, but when money gets tight (as it does for us) it really doesn't seem like work. There are MANY blogs and YouTubers out there who can share their techniques and how-to's. I'll share more about our personal couponing experiences in coming blogs, as of right now we've taken a little break from it because I feel like I don't have an organized spot right now. But as soon as we get into our own place, I plan to coupon like a crazy person once again!

Things that work for our family won't work for everyone; if something crashes and burns it's okay, just clean up and move on. Feel free to leave me some comments!